Navy Commander Allegedly Swapped Confidential Info For Prostitutes, Brazil Acknowledges Spying on U.S. Diplomats, Negative Opinions of Obamacare Are Up: P.M. Links

Credit: Joe Shlabotnik / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

• According to court documents, Navy commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz passed confidential information to a company run by a Malaysian businessman nicknamed "Fat Leonard" in exchange for prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets.
• The Brazilian government, which has complained about the NSA's behavior in the past, has acknowledged that Brazil's intelligence agency has spied on American diplomats.
• Only 35 percent of voters think that American elections are fair.
• Negative opinions of Obamacare are up, with 53 percent of likely American voters saying they view the legislation at least somewhat unfavorably.  
• Twitter has raised the price range for its IPO to between $23 and $25.
• Some 1,500 pieces of artwork confiscated by the Nazis have been found in Munich. The collection reportedly includes pieces by Matisse and Picasso.

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Comments

[Hyperion]

I hate PM links!

[William of Purple]

THEN START YOUR OWN BLOG

[Tonio]

Off-topic, but a good effort.

[Ted S.]

I'm sure they hate you too, Hyperion.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Only 35 percent of voters think that American elections are fair.

I was hoping for another 47%.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...with 53 percent of likely American voters saying they view the legislation at least somewhat unfavorably.

Oh, there it is.

[William of Purple]

Rethuglicans keep getting votes.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

This is what democracy looks like.

*Bangs on a drum*

[John]

There is some Prog show in PBS called "Democracy Now". Yet every show seems to be all about top men doing what is best for us and need for various unpopular prog policies to be adopted.

[Zeb]

Well, you have to fix all that false consciousness and make everyone equal (whatever that means) before you can have real democracy. Though under that interpretation, I guess they'd need to call it "Democracy Eventually".

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Democracy Never

[lap83]

Democracy?? Now?!?

[GILMORE]

Democracy Now I believe is Amy Goodman's radio show given TV air time. But I could be wrong. Yes, you are right there seems to be little interest in 'democracy' as much as Leftist Totalitarianism but I suspect this is news to no one.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Some 1,500 pieces of artwork confiscated by the Nazis have been found in Munich. The collection reportedly includes pieces by Matisse and Picasso.

You know who else liked to confiscate art?

[William of Purple]

Rene Artois?

[Tonio]

The Soviets?

[Tonio]

Although IIRC, they would send their thugs to destroy the artwork displayed in unauthorized art shows in public parks.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

That person to stole the Mona Lisa?

[Doktor Kapitalism]

*who stole the Mona Lisa

[Fist of Etiquette]

George Lucas.

[Live Free or Diet]

Art Who?

[INFORG]

Neal Caffrey?

[Rich]

Shepard Fairey?

[Tonio]

The Science is Settled - Wired shills for soda bans, because the make perfect scientific sense. Comments predictably derptastic:

Cartigan
Let me let you all in on a little secret - companies employ people whose specific and only job is to psychologically manipulate you into doing what they want and make you think it is your idea. You know the super size at McDonalds? Invented by McDonalds to charge slightly more for a larger drink because PEOPLE WOULD NOT GO BACK TO BUY A SECOND DRINK. Hey, isn't that what Bloomberg is said putting a limit on drink sizes would do? Personal choice my foot. People are so stupid as to be not only incapable of recognizing that they are being manipulated or even that there are people whose JOB is to MANIPULATE YOU FOR MONETARY GAIN but are so stupid as to think that people trying to counteract that maniuplation FOR YOUR BENEFIT are infringing on their "personal choice"
You people make me want to institute an intelligence test for voting.

[trshmnstr]

People are so stupid as to be not only incapable of recognizing that they are being manipulated or even that there are people whose JOB is to MANIPULATE YOU FOR MONETARY GAIN but are so stupid as to think that people trying to counteract that maniuplation FOR YOUR BENEFIT are infringing on their "personal choice"

I yearn for the days of yore when we would lock people like this in "rehabilitation retreats" with padded walls and doctors with happy pills.

[Tonio]

No. While clearly unhinged it's too easy for the state and the medical establishment to abuse involuntary commitment.

[pmains]

OK. Maybe that was extreme. How about firing squads?

[trshmnstr]

Note to self, less subtle on the irony.

[Tonio]

Sorry, bro, should have gotten that.

[PapayaSF]

Thank heavens we can be saved from such people by politicians, who never manipulate anyone for their own gain!

[Pro Libertate]

MUST. . .BUY. . .LARGER. . .SIZE. Odd that I do not. Maybe the foil liner I had implanted in my skull is responsible?

[Zeb]

Somehow I have managed to go my entire life without supersizing anything. And as far as I know I don't even have any tinfoil implants.

[Pro Libertate]

As far as you know, that is true. It is also true, as far as you know, that there is not a nonprofit foundation dedicated to implanting foil in the heads of all people.

[Bobarian]

Because they made you forget.

[Warty]

These are the people who call themselves "the skeptic community".

[Brett L]

I, too, am skeptical that they belong to homo sapiens.

[gaijin]

You people make me want to institute an intelligence test for voting.

People who say such things never seem to contemplate that they might not pass such a test.

[Anomalous]

Derp will do that to a person.

[MP]

PEOPLE WOULD NOT GO BACK TO BUY A SECOND DRINK

Umm...Free Refills, anyone? The ONLY reason to super-size your drink is to get it to go.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Obviously this person lives in some uncivilized part of the world where free soft drink refills are not customary.

[Corning]

People are so stupid as to be not only incapable of recognizing that they are being manipulated

Funny how I am able to go to McDonalds and never get a super-size drink.

Also wasn't it 7/11 that popularized the super-size drink?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Twitter has raised the price range for its IPO to between $23 and $25.

It can never rise above 140.

[Auric Demonocles]

Just hit it with a bus and it'll split.

[Spoonman.]

Asexual reproduction works like that too? Will the wonders of public transit never cease?

[Tonio]

Where did that bus...babies thing come from?

[Auric Demonocles]

Tony. I'll see if I can dig up the glorious link for you.

[Auric Demonocles]

Update: Am I the only one who puts what I want to search into the "Sign me up" email box every single time?

[Generic Stranger]

No; I've done it a few times to. It's very poorly placed.

[jesse.in.mb]

I usually put "site:reason.com [search terms]" in the google search box instead of searching through reason's search box.

[jesse.in.mb]

I wasn't there for this exchange, but is this what you guys are talking about?

I added a custom date range to narrow down the results.

[Auric Demonocles]

Thanks for trying, but no. That reference to getting hit by a bus is not nearly stupid enough. Again, a regular was describing how he removed maternity coverage from his insurance to get the cost down and Tony's entire response was "What if you get hit by a bus?"

This was probably last Tuesday, maybe Wednesday.

[Auric Demonocles]

That was the correct post, but the wrong comment. Here it is, in all its stupid glory: http://reason.com/blog/2013/10.....nt_4101537

Though I must say that if he thinks women get pregnant when the guy gets hit by a bus, I understand why he is so against the idea of "breeders".

[jesse.in.mb]

Oh, that's lower on the same page:

Andrew S.|10.31.13 @ 3:30PM

Back shortly after my wife and I were married, I was in graduate school and she worked a job without health benefits. So we were on the individual insurance market. Because we had no plans to have a baby at the time, and were using multiple forms of birth control (THAT WE *GASP* PAID FOR), we decided to save a good deal of cash and take maternity coverage out of the plan we bought for her (I went uninsured). The cost for the health coverage without maternity was 50% less than the cost with. Did we not know what we were doing? Should we have been forced to buy coverage we didn't want or need? If so, why?

Tony|10.31.13 @ 3:38PM

What if you were hit by a bus?

I'm assuming he was more concerned about the overall paired down coverage than the specifics of lacking maternity, but it's definitely a funny exchange.

[Tonio]

"Tony"? Ouch.

[Auric Demonocles]

I can't find it. We'll have to appeal to the benevolent masses around to dig it up.

The case was that someone was describing how they elected not to get maternity coverage so they could save money when they knew they ( a couple) weren't going to be using it. They still had catastrophic insurance, but they removed maternity coverage only to save money. Tony's response was "And what if you got hit by a bus?"

[Corning]

In other news a gay man was struck by a bus today. An onlooker was quoted as saying "I sure hope his insurance covers maternity"

[Enough About Palin]

"prostitutes and Lady Gaga"

Redundancy, how does it work?

[Being Waterboarded]

Damn you!

[Zeb]

We're all whores.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

According to court documents, Navy commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz passed confidential information to a company run by a Malaysian businessman nicknamed "Fat Leonard" in exchange for prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets.

A Navy commander couldn't afford whores or concert tickets?

[John]

Maybe they were really high end whores.

[hamilton]

They certainly weren't high end concert tickets.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Ba DUM pish!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I blame the Sequester. Won't someone think of the Naval officers on shore leave?

[Brett L]

I'm guessing the whores were bait to pick up 15 year old boys at the Lady Gaga concert for him.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets.

Why am I not surprised that a Navy officer would do crazy stuff to get some Gaga tickets?

[GILMORE]

According to court documents, Navy commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz passed confidential information to a company run by a Malaysian businessman nicknamed "Fat Leonard" in exchange for prostitutes and Lady Gaga tickets

BEST MOVIE PLOT EVER.

No Way Out meets The Informant meets To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything

[PapayaSF]

And his name is so multicultural. Polish-Malaysian-American?

[Eduard van Haalen]

He hangs around on street corners offering to pay passers-by for sex?

...is the kind of so-called joke a racist would make about a Polish-Asian.

[William of Purple]

rock-paper-scissors robot 'wins' every time

[kinnath]

robot cheats every time.

[Auric Demonocles]

I wonder if you could trick it by changing your throw partway through.

[Rich]

Technically, the robot cheats because it reacts extremely quickly

That's OK. Give it a cabinet position.

[Fist of Etiquette]

HUMANOID... I HAVE THROWN A FOURTH OPTION: PLASMA CANNON... I WIN...

HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?

[GILMORE]

+1 WOPR

[Brett L]

Richie Incognito really is a thuggish bastard, and was always a dirty player. I hope he gets run out of the NFL AND sued into bankruptcy.

[Hyperion]

PM links are discriminatory. They discriminate against everyone who has to commute home from work, against people who would prefer late nite links, and against anyone who wants the first post and is not FOE.

Let's just rename PM links to 'The racist, gay bashing, war on wiminz, hate the children, killers of mother gaia, Koch brothers and FOE loving links'.

[William of Purple]

AM links discriminate against people not in the Eastern time zone or those who sleep in

[Fist of Etiquette]

If I'm reading you correctly, you're looking for a third Links post somewhere midday.

[Enough About Palin]

Lunch Links ?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lunch of course being at 12:00PM Eastern Time.

[GILMORE]

+1 Biggie Smalls

[Doktor Kapitalism]

So right about breakfast-time for those on the west coast?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The ones who can roll out of bed at that time.

[alittlesense]

Luncheon Links...little greasy sausages

[Zeb]

No. No such people exist.

[Tonio]

Those who sleep in what?

[jesse.in.mb]

A tauntaun, clearly.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

For some reason if I refresh the page at 1:30 it takes 30-40 seconds for the PM Links to show up, giving Fist the edge he needs.

[Hyperion]

That's what you get for being on the left coast. You do realize that Reason is here on the east coast, right? It's like 3000 miles! Do you think the intertoobs are magic or something? It takes time for the little hamsters in the intertoobs to pass off your post to get to the next hamster, and then by the time they've carried that message 3000 miles, their little legs are tired. And then you have the cruelty to press refresh again!? Unbelievable how out of touch you west coast elitists are.

[BakedPenguin]

It's your fault for being in the Pacific time zone, like Episiarch and all the other deviants.

[Fist of Etiquette]

There ain't no time zone like Eastern Time Zone. Represent.

[Anomalous]

EST in da house!

[GILMORE]

+1 Zombie Biggie Smalls

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Goddamn tremendous series of tubes!

[Tonio]

OK, Hyper, go easy on the tissues, because we're going to need them on Wednesday morning.

[Hyperion]

Why? Oh, you mean for when Sarvis doesn't break 1% and the GOP still blames the team red loss on him?

[Fist of Etiquette]

You seemed to do alright for yourself today.

[Being Waterboarded]

Can I change my handle to "Fat Leonard"?

[Tonio]

Yes.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

It wouldn't be like being waterboarded every time I saw it.

[William of Purple]

No, you must.

[Brett L]

You're hotter in a group. Without regard to your relative attractiveness within the group.

[Auric Demonocles]

Social skills are sexy.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Is this why they always do a montage on those dating site ads?

[gaijin]

So this explains the appeal of group sex?

[Medical Physics Guy]

Like a huge group of girls?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRMmHbHxBY0

[Doktor Kapitalism]

"Kepler Space Telescope finds Earth-size, potentially habitable planets are common"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[Rich]

"Zorg Space Telescope finds Klatroo-size, potentially habitable planets are common"

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Cosmic census finds 1 in 5 sun-like stars should have Earth-like planets

Astronomers reported Monday that there could be as many as 40 billion habitable Earth-size planets in the galaxy, based on a new analysis of data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft.

One of every five sun-like stars in the galaxy has a planet the size of Earth circling it in the Goldilocks zone ? not too hot, not too cold ? where surface temperatures should be compatible with liquid water, according to a herculean three-year calculation based on data from the Kepler spacecraft by Erik Petigura, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Petigura's analysis represents a major step toward the main goal of the Kepler mission, which was to measure what fraction of sun-like stars in the galaxy have Earth-size planets. Sometimes called eta-Earth, it is an important factor in the so-called Drake equation used to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations in the universe. Mr. Petigura's paper, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, puts another smiley face on a cosmos that has gotten increasingly friendly and fecund-looking over the last 20 years.

Wouldn't it be funny if we turn out to be the most intelligent and advanced life in the universe?

[John]

The scary thought is that there is some kind of tech barrier that once broken causes races to kill themselves off. Thus, we are alone because no intelligent species lives long enough to develop interstellar space travel.

[Brett L]

Stars are far apart. Internet porn is right here.

[Auric Demonocles]

I feel that space colonization should be one of humanity's highest priorities.

[John]

Me too. Instead we spend our wealth on welfare, bank bailouts and windmills. If Obama had blown a few trillion on a trip to Mars or a moon base, I wouldn't have been happy but we would at least have something to show for it.

[NoVAHockey]

only if the right people where on that first trip.

[Brett L]

only if the right people where on that first trip.

Hot redheads with penchants for group sex and less attractive men?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Telephone sanitizers.

[Zeb]

Not on the first trip. Send the politicians and lawyers first.

[Auric Demonocles]

...

Go on.

[Auric Demonocles]

Unsurprisingly I don't want it done by the government, but I agree that it would have been less of a wast of money than the stimulus.

[Zeb]

I think that there is also a very real possibility that interstellar space travel at useful speeds is just something that is not practically possible and even if we do find evidence that there is life elsewhere, we will never be able to interact with them in any significant way.

I think that the biggest reason I would want to be immortal if that became possible would be to see how everything turns out. We can speculate all we want about interstellar travel and it means very little because we will all almost certainly be dead before it happens, if it can happen.

[sloopyinca]

and even if we do find evidence that there is life elsewhere, we will never be able to interact with them in any significant way.

In all likelihood, there are aliens looking down at us every day, thinking "why would I want to interact with these assholes."

[Zeb]

Or maybe we're all part of a huge galactic reality TV show.

[Auric Demonocles]

The Human Show.

[Corning]

I can think of at least 5 ways anything living like we are living is doomed by the very universe that contains us.

My guess is that technology is gained at about the same time those aliens figured out how doomed they really are...so the technology is probably simply a way to get the fuck out of this doomed universe.

[PapayaSF]

Personally, I think alien civilizations probably destroy themselves with regulations and taxes.

[CatoTheElder]

Devolution to idiocracy seems to be an equally likely cause for intelligent species to fail to develop interstellar space travel. That, and the immense amount of energy required to accelerate to a reasonable velocity for interstellar space travel. It sure seems to be working that way on earth.

[Rabban]

The distances are too great for a straightforward "flight" through space to reach the stars. You have to warp it, bend it, or rip a hole in it, to cover all those light years. The sci fi is pretty solid on this point.

[Emmerson Biggins]

That seems more likely.

[Auric Demonocles]

I actually find either option sort of terrifying:

either we are the most advanced intelligence in the universe....

or someone out there is smarter

[Pro Libertate]

Hold on, hoss. Advanced races could mean power rings.

[Auric Demonocles]

Power rings? I'm going to pretend you meant the Sonic kind, and not only because of what could go wrong if a race of aliens with that kind of power got annoyed with us.

[Pro Libertate]

I mean Green Lantern rings. Or the real equivalent.

[Auric Demonocles]

You're literally worse than Epi.

[Pro Libertate]

You think I'm bad now? Wait until I get my power ring. Libertate justice for the world.

[hamilton]

The yellow ones that work on Fear are basically already here and operational.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

No, just no. At best there is race out there who evolved under a red star, so exposure to yellow sun radiation gives them incredible superpowers.

Now KNEEL BEFORE ZOD

[Pro Libertate]

Did Zod ever get his hands on a Green Lantern ring in the comics?

[Fist of Etiquette]

"I don't care for jewelry on men."

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Who hasn't?

[Pro Libertate]

A Kryptonian with a power ring seems kinda tough to me.

[Corning]

Maybe...

But to be honest none of this makes any sense to me:

http://supermanrebirth.wikia.com/wiki/Im-Zod

[John]

I will take the former. I really don't want to be the interstellar equivalent of the Incas. I am perfectly fine with being alone.

[Auric Demonocles]

Given the options, I have to agree that is the better one. I still find it somewhat unsettling.

[Warty]

You fool. We just need to make sure we're the Space Spanish, not the Space Incas.

[Pro Libertate]

The Ferengi already called the Space Jews. Even though their name means Space Franks.

[Auric Demonocles]

Can we be the Space Romans?

[Pro Libertate]

That's too awesome for us. We haven't earned it.

[Auric Demonocles]

I didn't say we would earn it. I meant that we should take it.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, such men do take what they want, at least when they're Sikh-Mexican.

[Corning]

Can we be the Space Romans?

Nope. Already taken by the Cardassians.

[Zeb]

Anne Frank was Jewish.

[Pro Libertate]

German, not French.

[Zeb]

But she was a Frank. (lame joke)

[Rich]

I really don't want to be the interstellar equivalent of the Incas.

We're probably more like the interstellar equivalent of the gingkos.

[Rich]

*ginkgos*

See what I mean, Vern!

[Tonio]

Meh. If it turns out that FTL travel is (practically) impossible then it wouldn't matter - they'd have no way of reaching us. The closest thing to interstellar civilization we could acheive would be a knowledgebase propagated at speed of light.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's not true at all. They just wouldn't be able to reach us quickly.

[Tonio]

True, but sublight, particularly slow sublight, makes that impractical.

[Auric Demonocles]

Depends on what timescales you think are impractical. What's impractical for human lifespans isn't necessarily impractical for an alien species (especially if they use robotics).

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

There's also the concept of generation ships. If we could accelerate to a decent chunk of the speed of light we could reach a neighboring star system in a century or two.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, near-light speed is theoretically possible, so giant nuclear missiles could be on the way right now.

[Brett L]

I wouldn't bother with nuclear warheads. The kinetic energy at near c is going to be bigger than most sustainable fission sizes. Although, plutonium is pretty dense.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, I was thinking that it would be a little harder to aim something that distance, so I figured the missiles would slow down, pick up signals from Earth, and home in.

[Brett L]

Charlie Stross has covered space warfare at a civilizational level pretty thoroughly in his Eschaton books.

[Pro Libertate]

If the recent criticisms of a possible warp-field drive are correct, there may be another way to wipe out your rivals.

[JW]

At .99c, the last thing you need to worry about is a puny thermonuclear warhead.

[Protagoronus]

It seems like a species advanced enough to get off its starting rock would have had to become peaceful to survive its own technology. Maybe I am just optimistic.

[Pro Libertate]

I've never bought that argument. It might be true within that species itself, but it doesn't preclude xenophobia of the highest order.

[Auric Demonocles]

If anything, I'd expect successful species to have a predilection for wiping out other (especially competing) species.

[Redmanfms]

If anything, I'd expect successful species to have a predilection for wiping out other (especially competing) species.

No shit. Saganites have to ignore basically all of natural history to come to such a conclusion.

The apex species in every observable Earth ecosystem is predatory.

I suspect that a species advanced enough to make it to Earth (assuming they even wanted to) might not recognize us as intelligent life. I don't mean this sarcastically. We're constantly finding that many animals exhibit behaviors that formerly were used to demonstrate humanity's uniqueness. Things like complex communication, learned behaviors, tribal culture, tool usage, and even death ceremonies (elephants bury their dead and mourn them for years, visiting the graves).

I'm not making a moralist "are animals clay" Tonio-style question begging argument, but given that we don't view animals as equals primarily because of their primitiveness it's entirely possible that aliens who were interstellar wouldn't even attempt or accept communication because they don't view us as being capable of such.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Not necessarily. It could be that space exploration was a temporizing measure. Consider the Space Race and the Cold War.

[Protagoronus]

I guess "fingers crossed" does not quite cover it. Maybe Steven Pinker's work into how humans have been getting less violent over time works into some universal theory about intelligence... maybe

[William of Purple]

filter coffee is making a comeback

[Ted S.]

I'm a cheapskate who makes black coffee in my Mr. Coffee machine. I've never gotten the point of paying big bucks for fancy coffees more or less by themselves. (Even when I go to a restaurant I have plain coffee with dessert.) Ditto those old General Foods International coffees or the Keurig single-serving stuff, which seems like an overprices scam.

[Some call me Tim?]

Single serving is nice for those of us who really only want one cup of coffee per day

[Zeb]

French press. Cheaper, easier and better than the pod things.

[Ted S.]

I can make one cup of coffee in my Mr. Coffee machine. Just pour in 8 oz. of water and the right amount of coffee!

[Juice]

No. It comes out shitty. It all has to do with the amount of time the grounds contact the water. If you use a 8-10-12 cup coffee maker and its enormous filter basket to make 1 cup of coffee it comes out shitty because the water didn't spend enough time with the grounds.

[Enough About Palin]

Turkish, made in a saucepan.

That is all.

[Anomalous]

If you know what you're doing. If you fuck it up, it's unpotable.

[Zeb]

All of the stuff you mention is indeed a bunch of crap. But getting freshly roasted coffee really is a huge difference over the shit that sits around for months in stores (even the supposedly premium ones). There's nothing wrong with a regular old drip coffee maker and paper filters.

[Corning]

This is such bullshit.

Caffeine does not break down...or at least not in any real sense when you are talking about the Caffeine found in coffee grounds.

The idea that coffee can have a "good" taste (either fresh or stale) is complete and utter bullshit.

Does fresh coffee taste different then stale coffee? Yes. But both are such an acquired taste (the shit is literally bitter) anyway that making the distinction that one is better then the other is pure bullshit.

[Zeb]

I wasn't talking about caffeine, but flavor. I suppose the quality of the taste is subjective (and I never said it was objectively better, I said there is a difference, which there is), but it is indisputable that coffee loses flavor as volatile components disappear. Yes, coffee is an acquired taste, but that doesn't mean that once you have a taste for it some is not better than others. And freshness is one thing that makes a big difference. If you prefer Maxwell House, that's your business.

You are a fucking moron.

[Live Free or Diet]

Filter coffee went away?

[Generic Stranger]

FTA:

Logically, this filter revival should come as no surprise. There was never anything fundamentally wrong with filter coffee. In Scandinavia and the US, particularly, it is served properly (regularly refreshed; made with freshly ground coffee) and remains popular. In Britain, however, it was one of many things we roundly abused. The unloved filter pot, meanly dosed with stale ground coffee and left to stew for hours in a pub or hotel conference suite, is one of our food and drink scene's (bad) running jokes.

Apparently it did in the UK.

[Brett L]

Jesus. i had coffee so bad at a reportedly 4-star hotel in London, the Starbucks I opted for instead tasted less burnt.

[Jordan]

Hollywood Writers Tapped to Include Obamacare in TV Plots

The California Endowment, a private foundation that is spending millions to promote President Barack Obama's signature law, recently provided a $500,000 grant to ensure TV writers and producers have information about the Affordable Care Act that can be stitched into plot lines watched by millions.

Maybe they can have Jack Bauer track down the Rethuglican wreckers and torture them until they give him the password to shutdown their anti-unicorn device.

[Ted S.]

Damn you!

[Bam!]

Emmy award winning propaganda, coming soon!

[Pro Libertate]

I thought that zombie show was about a post-Obamacare apocalypse. Caused by Obamacare, in case my implication wasn't clear.

[NoVAHockey]

you can fit it into a standard police procedural.

uninsured RWNJ murders someone b/c he doesn't have mental health care. friends and family tried to get him to enroll, but it was too late.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Aaron Sorkin is all over this.

[Brett L]

Please, he probably paid the government for the pleasure.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Buffy The Pre-Existing Condition Slayer

Breaking Bad Insurance Plans

[Somalian Road Corporation]

At least it's a private foundation that's going this. I did note that the sequesterpocalypse apparently had no effect on those US Forest Service "discover the forest!" banner ads. Because reminding people to go outside is absolute top priority.

[C. Anacreon]

The California Endowment

It's true. While growing up in Illinois, I had a fairly modest manhood, but once I moved west I developed a California Endowment. Film at 11.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Ban it

A man wielding a knife has hijacked a bus in western Norway and killed three passengers, media reports say.

The suspect, said to be in his 50s and of foreign origin, has been arrested, police told Norway's TV2 news channel.

The victims included the driver of the bus. There were no immediate details of the number of injured.

The man was overpowered by firefighters who rushed to the scene of what was initially reported as a traffic accident, police said.

Map
The attack took place around 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT) on a remote mountain road near Ardal, about 220km (136 miles) north-west of Oslo.

"For now, I have no information to indicate there was anyone else than the three victims" on the bus, police officer Joern Lasse Foerde Refsnes told TV2.

The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

The suspect is being treated in hospital for knife wounds, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation said.

He stabbed himself?

[Ted S.]

Hollywood Writers Tapped to Include Obamacare in TV Plots

They (ONDCP) tried this in the Clinton administration with anti-drug messages. Vile, vile people.

[John]

Nothing says, hip and cutting edge like writing government propaganda.

[Brett L]

Rock Against Drugs agrees!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I was reading an article on LRC over the weekend sent to me by a friend and I realized something:
While my politics are probably closest to conservative-libertarian, I don't really like most of what conservatives or libertarians write outside of economics and political philosophy. Most libertarian writing outside that scope is bitter, disproportionate, and second-rate. Take Thomas Woods or Pat Buchanan's revisionist histories ? they are badly organized, poorly researched, and highly selective in their factual content. Anyone with a fair understanding of the periods they have written about can see obvious flaws in their work which render their theses invalid; ditto for the cottage industry of revisionist "libertarian" histories they have contributed to.
Even many of the standouts in their fields (Niall Ferguson, for example) are oftimes still not anywhere near the best in their fields. Ferguson's revisionist book on WWI for example is good, but not great. I find that "reasonable" leftists especially in the field of history are more enjoyable to read, more factual and thorough in their presentation, and better at communicating libertarian themes than conservatives and libertarians themselves are in many of their own works (whether that was the liberal historiographers' intent or not).
Does anyone else agree with me, and if so why do you think that is the case? Also, can anyone recommend well-written libertarian books which contradict what I've said here?

[Warty]

What was it, something about how men should wear suits and women should have more babies? LRC excels at those articles.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

It was something about how Reagan was a pawn of internationalist communists or somesuch.

I can link you to it if you really want to subject yourself to LRC.

[OldMexican]

Re: The Immaculate Trouser,

Take Thomas Woods or Pat Buchanan's revisionist histories

Ok, I will...

Can I have an example of what you're talking about?

? they are badly organized, poorly researched, and highly selective in their factual content.

You may be right. Can you provide an example?

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Well, I was merely offering them up as examples but in Buchanan's case there were significant factual errors in his book on WWII (stating that Anthony Eden was removed as Foreign Secretary by Chamberlain, when he in fact resigned in protest -- a huge error concerning a high profile event which he uses to support his thesis; stating that the Holocaust started in 1942 when millions of Jews had already been murdered by this time are the two I can recall off the top of my head) and sins of omission (in trying to paint a picture of Churchill as a deceitful mastermind of UK interventionism throughout his career including WWI, Buchanan missed the fact that Churchill was in fact quite critical of the UK's entry into WWI and believed it would incur massive casualties).

Buchanan has neither the training nor the experience of a historian, did no original research for the book, presents a very sweeping and unorthodox thesis relying largely on tertiary sources, and made some very basic mistakes regarding historical record that even one who is not a historian but merely an enthusiast spotted (namely, myself). All of that speaks poorly as to the quality of the work, and that type of historiography is common in libertarian and conservative revisionism (with the apogee for this trend undoubtedly being Malkin's wretched book on the Japanese Internment).

[PapayaSF]

Not exactly a libertarian book, and I don't know how complete it is, but around here I am always pimping this: For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization by Charles Adams.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Cool, thanks. I'll check it out.

[A Frayed Knot]

So Brazil spied on US diplomats? Funny that St. Greenwald neglected to report that.

[John]

Or wikileaks. It is almost like they have an agenda that isn't really about freedom an privacy or something.

I am glad Greenwald leaked what Snowden have to say. But anyone who thinks Greenwald is anything but a nasty hard core leftist who would gladly put any of us up against a wall and shoot us is kidding themselves.

[A Frayed Knot]

I was ok with the domestic revelations, but when all of the international material started leaking, timed to cause the US the most embarrassment, it was clear that there was another agenda afoot. It's almost as if they leaked the domestic items to make Snowden a sympathetic figure to the American public, and then used the rest of Snowden's gold mine to really cause the US IC some damage.

[John]

I want countries to spy on one another' governments. It lowers the chances of miscalculation and thus wars.

[A Frayed Knot]

I was ok with the domestic revelations, but when all of the international material started leaking, timed to cause the US the most embarrassment, it was clear that there was another agenda afoot. It's almost as if they leaked the domestic items to make Snowden a sympathetic figure to the American public, and then used the rest of Snowden's gold mine to really cause the US IC some damage.

[Tonio]

Why so? Maybe his focus is reforming the US govt. Not everyone can be all things to all people.

[A Frayed Knot]

Because he doesn't give a fuck about "reforming" the US. Anyone who has followed his ranting would know that.

[Tonio]

OK, here's a tissue for you, too. But go easy, Wednesday is coming.

[gaijin]

What's the saying? For each and every opinion you hold, there's an asshole somewhere who mostly agrees with it?

[T]

Well, yes, that's why I come here, isn't it?

[Jordan]

Not that it matters. While I don't particularly care if the NSA spies on filthy furriners, I want as much outrage as possible ginned up against them because they are authoritarian scum.

[Andrew S.]

Lets not get into the two wrongs make a right bullcrap, shall we? I don't give a shit what the Brazillian government does. I care what the American government does, and what it does is generally terrible.

[Redmanfms]

Lets not get into the two wrongs make a right bullcrap, shall we? I don't give a shit what the Brazillian government does. I care what the American government does, and what it does is generally terrible.

Spying on foreign governments and their officials is hardly terrible conduct, it's what the U.S. intelligence community should be doing.

Snowden and Greenwald giving these "revelations" doesn't win them any cred and tends to make people ignore what they've said about domestic spying in the past. Why? Because most people expect our government to spy on other governments for what should be glaringly obvious historical reasons.

If these guys had really wanted to discredit the U.S. IC, they'd have published the "no shit" international spying shit first and then pulled the trump card of domestic, 4th Amendment violating spying out to silence their critics.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Houston Teaxans' coach Gary Kubiak still hospitalized, given treatment for stroke

Houston Texans head coach Gary Kubiak was treated with a protein that breaks down blood clots after he was taken to the hospital following his collapse on the field at halftime during Sunday night's home game vs. Indianapolis, ESPN's Adam Schefter reports. According the Schefter, what Kubiak was treated intravenously with a "tissue plasminogen activator."

Texans general manager Rick Smith said Monday morning that Kubiak will remain under hospital evaluation for at least the next 24 hours.

"Our primary concern is of course with Gary's health and well-being," Smith said in a statement Monday. "There have been so many people throughout the city and across the country that have reached out to express their love and support and we are thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Gary is alert, coherent and in good spirits. He is continuing to be evaluated and monitored."

After the game, Smith told NBC's Michele Tafoya that the team was still in the process of evaluating Kubiak's condition going forward. It still is unknown what caused Kubiak to hold his head and fall to the ground, giving his staff and players a huge scare against the Colts.

[Brett L]

Houston fans probably cheered that as well. We really do have some douche fans. I mean, still better than Dallas, but...

[John]

That is terrible.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

It could explain his QB choices, though.

[Ted S.]

No offense, but I hate GIFs substiting for video.

[JW]

Negative opinions of Obamacare are up, with 53 percent of likely American voters saying they view the legislation at least somewhat unfavorably.

The other 47% don't want to lose their place in the bread line.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Marcotte's column is ghost-written by Tom Friedman:

the war on women really is a race to the bottom, with politicians crawling over one another to throw more and more obstacles in front of women seeking not just abortion but contraception.

If it's a race to the bottom, shouldn't politicians be trying to crawl under instead of over one another? Also, it seems to me a bit counterproductive to limit one's obstacle-throwing only to fellow female contestants who are seeking abortions and contraception. Hell, if they're wasting their time looking for abortion and contraceptives instead of concentrating on the race, it seems to me that they're not the ones you need to watch out for. In fact, why throw obstacles in front of women if they aren't moving forward but rather downwards, to win the race to the bottom? No wonder Republicans are so bad at this!

For Republicans running for office in red states, being perceived as unduly reasonable is a real problem.

Fortunately for Amanda, being perceived as unduly reasonable has never been something she's had to struggle with ? maybe she missed her true calling as an R politician?

Plus, Harry Reid has every incentive to kill this bill before it gets to the Senate floor, because it's just a pain to explain to voters that they really are against it.

I have no idea what this sentence means, and neither does Amanda.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Link: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_....._rino.html

[Brett L]

Rape-proof panties. STEVE SMITH, the gauntlet has been thrown down.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

"Victim blaming!"

[hamilton]

This seems like a really bad idea. Unless the clothing takes down the rapist (btw someone ought to invent dentata for that purpose), it seems like you'd just piss them off and push them towards something more nasty.

[Brett L]

Well, and anything that is a hassle for a rapist to take off, is a hassle for the wearer to take off. So just taking a piss is going to be some sort of exercise in annoyance.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

They already have dentata on the market somewhere. Same thing goes if they fail to incapacitate the rapist, though.

[hamilton]

I'm thinking the Snow Crash kind that injects the rapist with a sedative.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

Now that could work...

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Are they rated like body armor?

Level V - Warty Hugeman
Level IV: STEVE SMITH
Level IIIA - Ben Roethlisberger

[Live Free or Diet]

Rape-proof panties.

Built-in holster, maybe?

[Corning]

What was the name of that device in Snowcrash?

[sloopyinca]

Twitter has raised the price range for its IPO to between $23 and $25.

What the fuck is a "twitter"?

[BakedPenguin]

Someone who fucks twits?

[sloopyinca]

Holy shit, dude. You should at least give Episiarch a chance to defend his "honor".

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

New Yorker writer: I'd Love to Live in a Country...

There comes a time in every day when I think something like, "I'd love to live in a country where there's a machine that can measure your soul, and when someone -- someone, say, like a Ted Cruz, or a Michele Bachmann -- falls below a certainly level of humanity, he or she is simply not allowed on TV. 'Sorry, you're just too hateful and we really would rather not have your toxic bile in our lives.' Yes, that would definitely be a very much better place to live."

Or, "I'd love to live in a country where CEOs are accountable to consumers and there's a weekly TV show called You Do It, where the non-CEOs among us get to confront them on camera and point out the flaws of their products. 'Hello, Mr. Pepperidge Farm man. I'm not able to open a package of your goldfish without ripping it to shreds. Here. Show me how it's done, sir."

Or, "I'd love to live in a country where it was actually possible to give all of these Tea Party types their own state. The biggest state, even. 'Take Texas. Here, it's yours, take it wherever you want to take it, but just GO!'

He also wants to live in a country where Harry Reid fights back against evil GOTP obstructionism.

[Brett L]

He'd love to live in a country where the undesirables are rounded up and put in camps so they don't corrupt the right thinking?

I hope he lives in that country, too, someday. As an undesirable.

[JW]

I hope he lives in that country, too, someday. As an undesirable.

To be fair, he already does. It's just not his turn.

[John]

There comes a time in every day when I think something like, "I'd love to live in a country where there's a machine that can measure your soul, and when someone -- someone, say, like a Ted Cruz, or a Michele Bachmann -- falls below a certainly level of humanity, he or she is simply not allowed on TV. '

Isn't that just a fancy way of saying that I would like to live in a country where I can murder or imprison my enemies? They are getting awfully bold with their revenge porn these days.

[JW]

It seems the left is now subscribing to the idea of ripping the mask off all at once, so it will sting less.

[Bam!]

"Hello, Mr. Pepperidge Farm man. I'm not able to open a package of your goldfish without ripping it to shreds."

First World Problem if I ever heard one. Whiny bitch. 'Waah! My food is too hard to open!'

[MJGreen]

He's too stupid to open a bag of goldfish, but smart enough to be the arbiter of which opinions are worth broadcasting. He's definitely smarter than those damn Teabaggers!!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

How do you get to the point where you are too stupid to open a package of goldfish crackers? Does the author also need notarized instructions for how to boil water?

"I'd love to live in a country where it was actually possible to give all of these Tea Party types their own state. The biggest state, even. 'Take Texas. Here, it's yours, take it wherever you want to take it, but just GO!'

I wouldn't mind living in that country.

[lap83]

Then they would just complain when there's only baristas and bureaucrats left and no evil CEOs to tax.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He takes it on the chin in comments, which surprises me over with HuffPo readers.

[Rich]

"I'd love to live in a country where it was actually possible to give all of these Tea Party types their own state."

The joke's on you, clown -- you already live in *that* country!

[Tonio]

A country where unpopular viewpoints are actively ignored by the media.

[Enough About Palin]

"I'd love to live in a country where there's a machine that can measure your soul, and when someone -- someone, say, like a Ted Cruz, or a Michele Bachmann -- falls below a certainly level of humanity, he or she is simply not allowed on TV. 'Sorry, you're just too hateful and we really would rather not have your toxic bile in our lives.' Yes, that would definitely be a very much better place to live."

* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

[John]

And we should do exactly the same thing to them.

[Enough About Palin]

"But, Grasshopper, they are not our teachers."

[Killazontherun]

You can tell the measure of a man's soul by the extent he uses it as an excuse to not to think things out. Big soul guys are always stupid fucking hippie dipshits righteously spewing away crap that is entirely ignorant of consequence.

[John]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....ng-for-sex

Fewer men paying for sex. Tough time to be a hooker I guess.

[Bam!]

No need to pay for sex when you can just Gibbs slap her.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Clearly, we need to subsidize the sex trade with the ObamaHooha plan. All men will be required, on pain of penaltax, to purchase qualified sex services annually. In order to have sufficient ObamaHooha coverage, men will need to purchase either a Bronze, Silver, or Gold plan. Bronze plans buy you time with a Rosie O'Donnell lookalike, Silver plans get you time with a Rachel Maddow doppelganger, and Gold plans get you time with an Adriana Lima clone.

[Brett L]

Wait, I've already got a plan to match up young women who don/t want to pay back huge loans for college and men who would love to help them. I think a subsidy could be arranged, for those men who are less fortunate.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

SugarDaddies we can believe in!

[Troy muy grande boner]

Yeah but the hoes that take the government plan are ugly.

[C. Anacreon]

Speaking of Rachel Maddow, did anyone see The Simpsons last night? (Yes, I know, the show has been pretty unwatchable for over 15 years, but it is sort of a tradition that my son and I watch together, and as he is almost a teenager I'll take any good bonding time I can get these days).

It was even worse than usual -- but the topper was the guest star was Rachel Maddow. They treated her as if she was the most important and impartial TV journalist in the USA. And while they took shot after shot at their sister network Fox News, they did not insult MSNBC once (and for my money, I think MSNBC is far more partisan to the left than even Fox is to the right.)

The best Simpsons, of course, were apolitical, making fun of our society more than anything else. And there was never really any descent into partisan shots until after the demise of the writing (after season 10 in my mind, though seasons 3-9 are the best). As they have gone to completely talentless writers, the new idea seems to be that any insult to the right or the GOP must be hysterical, but it isn't funny on any level, I'm sure even to hardcore leftists.

What happened to the days when even the minor forays into politics were so balanced? (See the insulting of the Kennedys and Nixon simultaneously, or the Halloween one where the aliens replace Clinton and Dole, with "Don't Blame Me -- I voted for Kang!")

[PapayaSF]

Yes, and it was terrible. The shot at Fox News was especially partisan and feeble. They used to make more of an effort to be even-handed, and were funnier.

The same thing happened to Futurama: started out cleverly even-handed, and then lost a lot when it went for partisan cheerleading with the Proposition Infinity episode.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

You fool, Homer voted for Kodos!

But yeah, during the glory years they took shots at both sides.

Just as sloopy pretends the fourth Indiana Jones never happened, I pretend the Simpsons got cancelled after Season 10.

[Winston]

So it is hard out there for a pimp?

[GILMORE]

It sure aint easy

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

[Corning]

I blame internet porn.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Tough time to be a hooker I guess."

To be fair, it's hard out there for a pimp, too.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Should have checked the replies before posting.

[Redmanfms]

Definitely not safe for work.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

No Really, This Is the ObamaCare Talking Point They're Going With (Marcotte Edition):

When the whole "people's plans are getting cancelled and they're getting charged a lot more for the same plan!" lie started to fall apart, conservatives intent on creating a lot of noise about the ACA shifted gears and trotted out a new line: "We're not free unless corporations can rip you off!"
[snip]
"But wah," say conservatives, "One of the minimum requirements is that health plans cover maternity care, and I'm not going to have a baby! Also, I'm too stupid to understand what 'risk pools' are or how insurance works!"
The maternity care argument is trotted out for two reasons: 1) It taps into the misogynistic urge to blame women for everything and 2) It allows them to ignore the OTHER essential health benefits that plans are required to cover, because looking at those would be tantamount to admitting that people whose insurance plans are getting cancelled were getting seriously ripped off[?]
Conservative notably don't complain[?] unless they fear that the working poor are going to start getting insurance and then sitting next to you in the doctor's office[?]

[Cont]

[The Immaculate Trouser]

The main function of the right wing noise machine now is to try to derail efforts to start improving Obamacare by throwing as many wrenches into the system as possible. They're trying to keep your rates high by occupying the experts with this bullshit instead of allowing a discussion about ways to tighten up the exchanges so they drive rates even lower.

This is so far beyond insane that I won't even try to improve upon it with commentary.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The headline alone hurts my head.

[John]

Honestly, her writing is so bad, I can't tell what the talking point is supposed to be. Is it that anyone who doesn't have maternity care in their policy is being ripped off?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It's like complaining about mandatory headlights on cars by saying, "But I only drive during the day!"

Come on John, makes perfect sense!

[John]

I think she really is that stupid. Clearly she has some level of intelligence. But she been rewarded for spewing nonsense and allowed her emotions and various hatreds rule her thinking for so long, she has lost the ability to think rationally.

[Killazontherun]

I don't think it is clear at all that she has anything above mean intelligence if even that. If her IQ test scores came back higher than that then I have to assume based on the evidence of her writing that she blew a guy to take her test for her.

[Ayn Random Variation]

So she's basically a monkey who gets rewarded with cookies for writing this stuff.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

She is (clumsily) trying to say that any cancelled policies were crap, and that the only way you could disagree is if you are a misogynist or hate poor people going to the same hospital as you... I think. It's hard to tell with Mandy.

[NoVAHockey]

they're trying to link catastrophic care with "mini med" plans.
so no, not all of it was junk. but they'll always hated HDHP and HSAs.

[John]

They're trying to keep your rates high by occupying the experts with this bullshit instead of allowing a discussion about ways to tighten up the exchanges so they drive rates even lower.

And then read this with Amanda in mind.

The difference between savages and civilized men isn't that savages are dumb and civilized people are smart. Savages can individually be quite clever within their parameters and civilized folk can be quite stupid. It's the ability to extend that intelligence in groups that makes for a civilization.

Savages cannot work together. They can fantasize, but they can't build anything bigger than a small group can manage. Savages are warriors, but not soldiers, they are tinkerers, not engineers, they are inventors, not scientists, they cannot work together on a large scale and thereby push past their own limitations as a culture and grow. They may have individual geniuses, but they cannot pass on what they learn.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.....magic.html

[Killazontherun]

As rhetoric it has a pretty, classically oriented structure about it that is almost melodic and beguiling, but as a classification metric that essay fails utterly.

[Killazontherun]

The difference in these circumstances is not that warriors and soldiers, tinkers and engineers, and inventors and scientists have dichotomous personality types, they don't, nor would savage and civilized be an accurate descriptor if they did, the differences is a little thing called administration.

[Killazontherun]

the differences is a little thing called administration.

Hate stepping on my own goddamned points with what should be easy to catch typos.

[Brett L]

Agreed. I wanted to like it, except that he was wrong. The reason we can't build [$COOL_THING] in a year is that the permitting and approval process is so onerous.

[PapayaSF]

I think the "occupying the experts with this bullshit" quote is quite telling. Does she really think that the people working on the healthcare.gov website are "occupied" by criticisms in the media?

"Sorry, boss, I was going to troubleshoot that function yesterday, but... [sob] ...Fox News was just so cruel that I... I... [runs from room in tears]."

I think she does, and that this is an insight into how she sees herself. She thinks her own partisan blather really matters, so she thinks contrary blather really matters, enough to slow or stop the implementation of a law and a website and a zillion regulations. It is magical thinking: people are "obstructing" simply by saying negative things. Marcotte wants us to bring Tinkerbell back to life by clapping.

[Ayn Random Variation]

I can't be from the species as these people. There has to be some point in time in evolution where lefties split off from the normals.

[NoVAHockey]

"unless they fear that the working poor are going to start getting insurance and then sitting next to you in the doctor's office"

not unless the pay for boutique care.

[KDN]

I'm too stupid to understand what 'risk pools' are or how insurance works!

Yes, you certainly are.

[Enough About Palin]

[Cont]

Why?

[BakedPenguin]

I think he just misspelled. Sub a "u" for the "o".

[Juice]

When the whole "people's plans are getting cancelled and they're getting charged a lot more for the same plan!" lie started to fall apart

This was a lie that fell apart? When did this happen?

From where I'm sitting it's wholly accurate and still happening.

[The Late P Brooks]

This is what I was thinking about, a little while ago: in ye olden tymes, people had "family doctors" who were General Practitioners. In this shamelessly idealized model, those doctors had an ongoing semi-personal relationship with their patients, and performed much the same function as what has lately emerged as the "medical concierge".

As with virtually every other job, the government is busy stamping out small personalized providers with vast, impersonal, centrally controlled ones. Will the Obamacare make concierge services illegal?

Will some other useful source of consumer information (bear in mind Angie's List was sued by the AMA or some other faction of the doctor cartel) spring up? Or will you be forced to shamble, hat in hand and eyes averted, into the office of your local death pane Health Services Co-operative and throw yourself on their mercy?

[John]

To some degree that went away because medical care got a lot better and thus one doctor couldn't know how to do every form of treatment. Back when medicine could maybe set a broken bone or remove a cyst, you only needed one doctor.

The interesting thing is that with the rise of information technology, I wonder if that sort of a system won't come back, assuming the government doesn't fuck it up. Now thanks to the internet and information tech doctors can tap the expertise of experts rather than just sending their patients to them.

For example, it used to be that if you wanted the latest cancer treatment, you had to go to one of the top hospitals. Now, every oncologist in America follows the same treatment protocols and gives the same drugs.

[sloopyinca]

Classy Georgia cop gets probation for "burglary" after twice robbing a school twice while on duty.

I guess he left his sidearm in his patrol car or else it would have been armed robbery, right? Anyway, he won't serve a day in jail.

[Corning]

after twice robbing a school twice while on duty.

So he robbed it four times?

And was it really robbery (threat of physical violence) or was it burglary?

[sloopyinca]

Ooh, a typo! Well crucify me.

And tell me if they would charge a "civilian" with anything else...like being armed while in commission of a felony. Or the B&E that would accompany the burglary. Or having a gun in a school zone. Or anything else they let this piece of shit skate on.

[sloopyinca]

When "Show Us Your Tits" gets taken too far...

[MJGreen]

I've been wanting to vent for a while: My workplace has a raging new progtard. We're a small business (7 people), and this guy is the most recent account man. Apparently he's also a fixture in the NYC political scene, or at least really, really tries to be. And he's basically a walking HuffPo commentator. Obsessed with the Tea Party. Everything is the fault of the Kochs. He'll watch WH press briefings at his computer.

What boggles my mind is that he talks politics with clients. He's an account man, a salesman. Bringing politics into conversations. At first I thought maybe he's just doing it with people he knows agree with him, but a coworker said she heard him make apologies, say he didn't mean to offend, etc.

And the more I overhear, the crazier he sounds. The gold nuggets from last week: 1) gambling should not be legal in NY, nor should any drugs or smoking (he's really an old school prog I guess), and 2) the health exchanges website is down because of sabotage. The former may have been said in jest, but the latter was dead serious. Real, not metaphorical, sabotage of the website.

I really regret not getting my voter registration back in order, because I'd love to tell him tomorrow that I voted for Lhota. But if he asks everyone if they voted, I think I'm ready to throw down. I may read up on the Kochs tonight so I can act like a big defender of them.

[gaijin]

sounds like a PURE to me (Previously Undetected Recruiting Error). Who hired the guy? And for sales?

[MJGreen]

He's worked here years ago, apparently, and has bounced around a few places since then. From what I can tell, he does have a few good relationships with big clients that we've been doing business with, but it doesn't seem like he's brought in anything new since starting here again. At least, this is judging by how many times he comes and apologizes to me for not bringing us more work (I'm a peon, I don't really give a shit).

My boss has also had bad luck with the last two salesmen, so my read is that he was frustrated and called on a previous employee that brought him some good clients years ago. I find it hard to believe he'll be around past January.

[JW]

He sounds like a self-correcting problem.

"Huh, look at that, your numbers suck and current clients have asked to be reassigned to someone else. Shit, you don't even get the steak knives."

[Jordan]

"You can't close the leads you're given, you can't close shit, you are shit, hit the bricks pal, and beat it, 'cause you are going out."

[BakedPenguin]

'You know what it takes to sell to Tea Partiers? BRASS BALLS.'

[Ted S.]

Get a hold of his clients, and tell them to call the boss and say that they're not buying becaues the guy talks politics.

[GILMORE]

You might mention that David Koch is easily the most significant charitable donor in NYC.

http://www.kochfamilyfoundatio.....onsDHK.asp

The ballet & opera? Koch. Museum of Natural History. Koch. Sloan Kettering Medical Center? Koch.

It goes on. Horrible, I know.

[Juice]

I may read up on the Kochs tonight so I can act like a big defender of them.

Why? just to piss him off?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Dear Prudence: Help! My perfect boyfriend is terrible in bed!

I am in my early 30s and have been dating a wonderful man for the past six months. He is successful, generous, and funny. He absolutely adores me and we share the same values and beliefs. However, he has very little relationship and sexual experience. He didn't date much when he was younger, instead focusing on his career. I am an extremely sexual and passionate person, and have a ton of past relationship experience. Sex in the beginning is always so exciting because it's new, but now it's become vanilla, and when I try a bit of coaching it becomes awkward. He also asks for my permission to do things or won't do things until I initiate them, where I'm used to, and enjoy, a man taking charge. (And yes I have told him this.) I'm getting to the point where I dread the bland sex I know will be coming, and it's so frustrating because besides this factor he is everything I could want in a partner. I've dated lots of men where the sexual capability was excellent, but our relationship compatibility was not. I have found such a great man?but our sex life is killing it for me. Is there anything I can do at this point? Or is this the beginning of the end?

Maybe he's convinced that being aggressive and forceful is really rape.

[Brett L]

Ah, two subs getting together. Yeah. They should just find a guy who they both enjoy being fucked by.

[Some call me Tim?]

Or woman.

[John]

That would be my guess. If he didn't date much and hadn't had any close female friends, he might not have any idea that the things the feminists told him in college about sex was bullshit.

[Brett L]

Now would be an excellent time for her to have an open and honest discussion about what turns her on, and ask him about his turn-ons. Amazingly, grownups can speak directly on issues that are important to them. "Hey, super-boyfriend, I'd really like it if you'd spit in my mouth and call me names like my uncle used to."

[John]

You would hope so. I really don't get people who, once in a relationship, don't just tell each other what they want and do it.

[The Heresiarch]

Probably because my girlfriend does not in fact want a four way with me and her two sisters.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Prudence won't be able to fix this. It's time for the "Dear Warty" column.

[JW]

Is there anything I can do at this point?

If getting him drunk doesn't work, face it honey, either you're ugly or he's gay. Maybe both.

[Ted S.]

Your boyfriend isn't perfect, honey.

[Corning]

Given the choice between jail time and bland sex I would choose bland sex any day of the week.

Also I like how she has not connected the dots between having a great relationship and the fact that he does not want to abuse her and *gasp* asks permission.

[lap83]

1. She's a sexual butterfly...I don't know if that's a term, but I'm trying to think of a nice way of saying slut because I'm sure she's nice, but she basically implied that she likes sex with a new person more than someone she knows well.

2. She lacks the wisdom to realize that what makes him a great catch in most respects is probably why he's not as exciting as the douchebags she implies she's dated in the past.

3. If you're bored, you're boring. Hopefully it will hit her that it's up to her to spice things up if she's bored. Otherwise she'll continue her habit of exciting but emotionally unfulfilling sex with randoms.

[Juice]

If you're bored, you're boring.

I've always hated this pithy yet totally bullshit little line.

[Troy muy grande boner]

I am an extremely sexual and passionate person, and have a ton of past relationship experience. = I'm a slut.

[lap83]

Agreed. I think another tipoff is the idea that people are like snacks at a grocery store that you try and throw away until you find the right one. Every relationship takes work, even the sexual aspect. If you believe people are disposable, you'll never have a good relationship.

[Killazontherun]

How is it she doesn't know how to properly instruct him? Women are naturally born geniuses at that.

'Take your hands. Wrap them around my neck. Not so hard, get those thumbs rotating. There you go. When I scream off an orgasm, squeeze tight, and let go. Just don't kill me, okay, and we're cool.'

We've all been on the other end of that conversation, right?

[sloopyinca]

Of course we have. I mean, I once was choking a woman out during sex and when she asked me to just use a bit of rope to get the darkness there a little quicker, I wasn't too sure wh......hey, wait a minute. Prank call. Prank call.

[Tejicano]

Not the choking bit but just the roughness. I'm a bit amazed that it took so long and so many women before I found one that took me down that path.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

More compelling proof that Slate's editors went out in a mutual suicide pact after reading one of Marcotte's columns:

If you were one of those who liked to twirl your moustache while drinking a can of PBR at a dive bar before all of those things were things and then abandoned them because they had all become things, then news out of Paris may mean that you're going to have to ditch your bike lock and try?walking?

Somehow that sentence made me hate the person who wrote it more than the hipsters he wrote it about. Shockingly, none of the Usual Suspects were involved in this violent abuse of the English language.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

My ears have just been raped. Trigger! Trigger! Trigger!

[Tejicano]

Luckily it hurt my mind enough the first time to not want to try to go back and understand what it was mumbling about.

[sloopyinca]

Prepare yourselves for the newest and bestest excuse for cops either stealing from taxpayers or otherwise fucking us over another way: I thought somebody else had already clocked me out for the day...

...even though my scheduled shift wasn't supposed to end for hours.

As for his partner? Well, read along: Madsen, who worked for Tampa police for 23 years, was fired and won't be reinstated, McElroy said.

Though Madsen won't be rehired, his status was changed from terminated to resigned after he filed a grievance, Kohl said.

The change in status won't affect Madsen's pension, which he would have been eligible to receive anyway even after he was fired, Kohl said.

"Officers that worked with Paul would say he was a good cop," Kohl said,. "He was a good cop. He just made that one mistake on that day."

Sure. Just that one time.

[Brett L]

Name names. Who else commonly engaged in fraudulently punching the clock for each other?

[The Late P Brooks]

To some degree that went away because medical care got a lot better and thus one doctor couldn't know how to do every form of treatment. Back when medicine could maybe set a broken bone or remove a cyst, you only needed one doctor.

But that is exactly my point. Even back in the Dark Ages of the '60s, GPs did not do everything, but they knew who did, and they knew enough about their patients to steer them into specialized care with a minimum of wasted motion and confusion. Who can claim to be able to do that now?

[Rich]

Well, the administration *claims* to be able to do that now.

[John]

I think they still can. But regardless, your example makes the larger point of how medicine is so fact and patient specific that it can only be handled at the individual level and any bureaucracy trying to do it is doomed to do monstrous things.

[Coeus]

Marcotte's annoyed that one of her treasured slurs was debunked by the daily show.

So basically they get a couple of men to roam around Mississippi and Alabama?which are rightfully considered the last two states in the country that will ever legalize gay marriage on their own?and found that people were nice to them, even though they did stuff like hold hands, kiss, and even have obnoxious public proposals. People ignored them or even applauded them. The idea, I guess, was to show that stereotypes about homophobic Southerners weren't fair. Actually, I don't guess?that's basically what they say.

Problem is that makes no kind of sense. If Mississippi and Alabama are bastions of pro-gay sentiment, then, uh, they'd legalize same-sex marriage already. They bring Nate Silver on to make that exact point, and you know, he's 100% right. Indeed, there's a brief and rightful mockery of the emphasis of anecdote over statistical data?.and then they go on to use anecdote to make the "Southerners aren't homophobes!" point.

This might really take a bite out of her "they don't support my ever-expanding government policies, they must be bigots stchit.

And I bolded the part where she does a complete 180 from her previous articles.

[John]

Anecdotes only count if they fit the narrative.

[Brett L]

But Krugabe tells me that the plural of anecdote is data!

[Eduard van Haalen]

"If Mississippi and Alabama are bastions of pro-gay sentiment, then, uh, they'd legalize same-sex marriage already."

Well, maybe they're against gay marriage, but aren't total assholes about it. The idea that her political opponents might be nice, civil people doesn't cross Marcotte's mind. I wonder where her idea that political disagreement = being an asshole came from?

[Redmanfms]

I wonder where her idea that political disagreement = being an asshole came from?

She's an asshole incapable of civil disagreement and because it can't be a personal failing of hers, she projects it onto her opponents.

[The Late P Brooks]

But if he asks everyone if they voted, I think I'm ready to throw down. I may read up on the Kochs tonight so I can act like a big defender of them.

Just pepper spray the dumb bastard.

[The Late P Brooks]

He also asks for my permission to do things or won't do things until I initiate them

An Oberlin man, apparently.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Death Star Owner's Manual

No Bothans had to die, in order for you to get your hands on the plans to the Death Star from Star Wars. Instead, you can just buy the Imperial Death Star: Owner's Workshop Manual ? published by Haynes, the same folks who did the Millennium Falcon owner's manual. We've got an exclusive sneak peek of this masterpiece.

Just like the first two volumes, this book is chock full of specs and funny images. Some of the documentation is written by the great Grand Moff Tarkin himself, including his own insights into how you shouldn't overestimate the chances of anyone going against this battle station. There are sections about the early history of the Death Star, plus a special section at the back containing specs for the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. You'll learn lots of insights ? like those structures on the surface of the Death Star are more or less copied from city blocks on various Imperial planets.

[hamilton]

On page 13,463 in small italic print:

"Warning: Be sure to bolt down the Thermal Exhaust Port Hatch Cover (part number #X30024-Z008) securely after completing assembly or maintenance operations. Failure to do so could result in foreign objects being introduced into the core and result in damage to property or personnel."

[GILMORE]

There is no sugarcoating it = The Death Star will require some repairs.

[sloopyinca]

OT, but I watched Raiders last night, and I have a few bones to pick with George fucking Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Quite a few bones to pick.

[sloopyinca]

Unless, of course, Indiana Jones is only 4 fucking feet tall.

[Brett L]

Lucas is known for hiring short actors so he can build his sets 6 feet tall.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Are we talking plot holes or what?

[sloopyinca]

Well the fact that the staff was 6 Kadam ("About 72 inches" according to Sallah), and take 1 Kadam away for the Hebrew God would have made it 60" approximately. When Indy is holding it in the map room and it's at least a foot taller than him, that is a hole.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Really? To me the most ridiculous thing is how Indy managed to stow away on the U-Boat.

It would have taken a few days to travel from Egypt to a Greek island and Indy either would have been caught or died from exposure.

[sloopyinca]

Perhaps, but if they were running on the surface instead of underwater, it's entirely possible that he could have sat just aft of the crow's nest and been fine for three days.* (The average low is above 60 for half of the year.)

What is unlikely is for him to have remained undetected for that time.

*Alexandria to 50 miles north of Crete would take a U Boat approximately 37 hours at cruising speed. They could do it in around 22 if they were in a big hurry, but it didn't look like they were.

[Killazontherun]

Wouldn't it have been a much better plot point if he disguised himself as a crew member and got away with it by constantly singing sea chanties in German to fit in? When one Nazi officer of rank got suspicious, he would then burst into a tune, and everyone else would follow along even winning over the officer. Instead of dying of exposure he becomes the most popular guy on board the ship?

[sloopyinca]

He could always sing "The Tipperary Song" if he wanted to fit in on a U Boat.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Whatever your bones are, I can't imagine they're as bad as Crystal Skull's bending-over-backwards to avoid portraying the Soviets as the bad guys... a point which Mr. Plinkett was spot on about.

Mike Stoklasa seems to have pretty reasonable political views in general from the little asides and commentary that I've watched.

[sloopyinca]

I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what a "Crystal Skull" is or what you could possibly be referring to. They made three Indy Jones movies and the last I saw, Indy and his dad were riding away with Marcus Brody and Sallah from the canyon of the crescent moon.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

It's what holds the vodka that Dan Aykroyd is shilling. You know, it's supposed to ying your yang or whatever.

[Brett L]

There was a fanfic production where they nuked a fridge.

[paranoid android]

That probably bothered me more than any other single thing about that stupid movie. Indy chews out the FBI guys for having Americans scared of "Reds under our beds", while they're debriefing him because he just survived an open attack by Soviet soldiers on a U.S. military base. Talk about a lack of self-awareness!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I got the feeling that Georgie and Stevie were so caught up in the "McCarthyism! Red Scare! Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs were framed!" narrative that they lost track of the narrative of their own damned film.

It was quite profitable, however, and made by apparently guilt-wracked billionaires, so I doubt any lessons were learned or will be.

[sloopyinca]

I still have no idea what you two boneheads are talking about and neither do any self-respecting fans of the action/adventure genre. They made three Indiana Jones movies. The one with the Jooz. The one with Data from the Goonies and the one with the Christians. That's it. No Russians. No TransFormers.

Stop fucking talking about things that never existed, please!

[Marc F Cheney]

There's only one bone to pick, which is that Indiana Jones' actions are irrelevant to the outcome of the movie.

[Eduard van Haalen]

+1 Miyam Bialik

[Kid Xenocles]

Okay, this is over three hours late, but you gotta be kidding me. Are you really going to say the Ark winds up in a US government storage facility without Indy there to pick up the pieces? The Nazi team probably radioed in to someone that they were going to that island to try opening the Ark. When nobody hears back from them in a few days don't you think the Nazis are going to send someone to retrieve it? And don't you think once it's in the heart of Germany there's going to be someone smart enough to harness whatever it's supposed to do?

Actually, the real plot hole is that God would actually help Hitler just because Hitler has God's magic box.

[Redmanfms]

Actually, the real plot hole is that God would actually help Hitler just because Hitler has God's magic box.

Well God helped the Israelites dispossess and then exterminate entire peoples because, uh, FYTW, so it's not that hard to believe that he might side with the Nazis because they have his magic box and, uh, FYTW.

Seriously, read Deuteronomy and Joshua. God did some really fucked up shit because the Israelites said the right magic words and were supposedly descended from some guy who nearly murdered his own son because God ordered him to (but then, at the very last minute, God, uh, like changed His mind because, FYTW).

Later, God does some really fucked up shit to the Israelites because they were no longer saying the right words, including punishing the entire nation because a totally unelected hereditary king God placed in power Himself was married to some harridan who murdered some dude so the king could have a garden.

The God of the Old Testament is like a bipolar girlfriend. In the context of the OT, Jesus and his message make almost no sense, which is why so many Jews were skeptical of the guy. It's also what made me lose my faith.

[Kid Xenocles]

It's a plot hole not because the Nazis were evil but because God would just do whatever he wanted anyway. It was never about the box in the Bible, it was about the people doing what they were told. Any competent scholar should have known that the artifact was useless even if the stories of God were true. For the Ark to have any power because of what it was, that power would have to come from God. If that god exists, he has the power to do what he wants and an independent will. If he does not exist, then it's just a shiny box. The idea that the omnipotent creator of the universe is going to help you because you dug up a shiny box is stupid.

Hell, World War I would have rendered that sort of power obsolete anyway.

[jdgalt]

At least some of the people who tell poll takers that they don't like Obamacare don't like it because it didn't go far enough, or because it has been delayed or the web sites aren't working right now. Publishing such factoids is worse than useless if you don't at least try to tell us just how many people actually want it repealed, rather than "fixed" for some definition of "fixed".

[Cytotoxic]

Good news: Markets are infiltrating North Korea, with and without government sanction.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/.....GX20131103

And one of their boats sank.

north-money-insight-idUKBRE9A20GX20131103

[Coeus]

Somebody's running scared:

The president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition confirmed on Monday that New Jersey voters will be voting for the "same principles" as the tea party and conservative Christians when they cast their ballots to re-elect Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Tuesday.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Ralph Reed explained that he thought that tea party Republicans had used the wrong strategy by shutting down the government to oppose President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

[John]

Go fuck yourself Ralph. What a piece of shit. Exactly what about Fatso affirms the SOCONS principles?

[VG Zaytsev]

In an appearance on MSNBC, Ralph Reed explained that he thought that tea party Republicans had used the wrong strategy by shutting down the government to oppose President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

Remember when Jesus said "Blessed are the bureaucrats for they make life possible on earth; Blessed are their sycophants who keep the gravy train rolling?

[Coeus]

The mind of a feminist:

JuliaDatULaura Beck151L
Somehow the rape threats disturb me more than the death threats.
Not to say that the are not horrible, but they are somewhat more logical (in the mind of very bad people who respond to be outraged in disproportionate and awful way): you do bad thing, me punishes you and ends your life.
But using the threat of rape as punishment sounds more like: you stupid woman do bad thing, me man punishes you through rape, dominance, physical and emotional trauma.
They may very well be empty threats, but the fact the first thing that comes into a guy's (I hardly think the rape threats came from women) head when they see a girl doing an insensitive thing is to mention rape sort of makes a case for rape culture and rape as a weapon actually being a thing. Today 9:36am

[OldMexican]

Somehow the rape threats disturb me more than the death threats

HELGA
Thanks for saving me from a fate worse than death.

ERIK
I didn't mean to!

HELGA
(gasping for breath)
Oh, that's all right then... it's the thought... that counts...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Blame power, not gender, for bitchy, catty women

So, trapped in a war of gender essentialism, he will grunt and strike, and she will insult and glare. Sounds like a match made in cave heaven.

Why do we always want to start from these places? We see a terrible act of human gargoyleness, and we want to confirm that this is in our DNA. Maybe it is, but maybe it's also like carrying genes for certain disease: Whether or not it's ever activated depends on whether it's given an environment in which to flourish.

To be fair, it's not that I haven't seen more men go to blows than women to resolve conflict, though where I grew up, I saw my fair share of chick fights, and was in a few myself. It's not that I haven't seen women resort to shunning or malicious gossip. It's not that I'm unaware of the power women have to vibe, on a level that can often go undetected by men entirely. I've seen it, and I've done it.

It's that I don't think it's about sex. I think it's about power. And I think it's a symptom of any group that is routinely denied power, or reduced culturally to having only one kind that matters, such as sexual power, and that, furthermore, is conditioned to never express anger or physical aggression, to come up with more indirect ways to express these human things.

Evolution is cool until it conflicts with the narrative.

[John]

It kind of is about power. For most of human history, power was about brawn. It makes sense that women, a group that is generally on the losing end of that, would develop clever, indirect ways to excerpt influence and thus negated men's advantage in brawn.

It is not surprising a modern feminist would deny that since the entire point of western feminism seems to be to disarm attractive women of their power of sex.

[Corning]

For most of human history, power was about brawn.

Umm...

Then why can nearly every monkey that weighs 75 lbs or more kick the ass of just about any (unarmed) adult man on the planet?

If "brawn" mattered in our evolutionary history should we not be more brawny?

[John]

We got smart and developed weapons so we didn't have to be. But while that put humans above chimps, it didn't put women above men. Before the fire arm, women were destined to lose virtually any physical confrontation with a man.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Unless she's being written by Joss Whedon, in which case she's barefoot, 90 pounds, and able to best multiple grown men in physical combat with the greatest of ease.

[John]

Of course. And without firearms, which require little or no training to use at close range, the years of intensive training the martial class could afford and no one else could didn't keep her from doing that. Nope, the brave peasant woman totally could kick the ass of the 20 something knight who had been doing what amounted to Ranger training since he was 12.

[OldMexican]

Well, she was a genius and a telepath and that trumps physics in any universe, any time.

[Corning]

wait...

We give credit to Minear for the libertarianism of Firefly but he shares none of the blame for the Super Powered supermodels?

[Brett L]

Well, Buffy and the show Whedon did after Firefly (Cathouse?) would indicate that this is more a Whedon thing.

[Corning]

Before the fire arm, women were destined to lose virtually any physical confrontation with a man.

A woman could always sleep with a man and when he is reposed slip a bronze knife into his throat. A heavy rock dropped on his head works as well.

[Coeus]

You're supposed to be left with the takaway that, yes, even if this is observable, it's really all the men's fault.

Not only that, but they reviewed an article, and then pretended like they read the study, even going so far as to criticize the article for not adhering to the standards of a study. A study which exists, and does conform to the standards.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Meanwhile, in Russia...

The young woman, who is only known by her nickname 'Shatuniha': 'I am in urgent need of money, so I am selling the most precious thing I possess. I am ready to meet up soon, even as soon as tomorrow, and I am ready to have my virginity verified. I can come to a hotel at Predmostnaya Square with a document confirming my virginity, and with a person who will take the cash and leave, so that I am not fooled.

On the online auction site - 24au.ru - the lot was described as 'virginity', and the condition: 'new - not used'. It was part of an auction called: 'Children grow up.'

The offer appeared on 30 October and by a day later a deal had been done for 900,000 roubles, or $27,950, which was 100,000 roubles, or $3,100 above the starting price.

The buyer's name was given as Evgeniy Volnov, but no details about him were published.

The police in Krasnoyarsk appeared satisfied the deal was genuine and said it broke no laws.

'This situation is neither an administrative nor a criminal violation,' said a spokesman. 'Nor does it fit into a description of the 'Prostitution' clause from the Code of the Administrative Violations'. The police said they had 'no right to give a moral assessment of girl's actions'.

[Jordan]

So, would this be an example of female privilege or whatever stupid shit feminists are always going on about?

[sloopyinca]

No, it would be an example of the state staying out of the free exchange of services/cash by two consenting adults.

And remember that not only did you see it in Russia, but there's also no way in hell you'll ever see it in the USA.

[Jordan]

LAND OF THE FREE, SON! FUCK YEAH!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Not really. It's an example of a government having too little in the way of effective policing to do much about it, and of women being too poor to do much besides things like this. This is the country that criminalized gay "propaganda" within the last year, after all (though good luck enforcing it).

Let's seriously not pretend that this is a good thing for liberty, or some indication of libertarian tremors in Russia.

[sloopyinca]

All I know is that the cops looked at it and declared they "had no right to give a moral assessment of girl's actions". That's a whole lot better than the busybody fucks here.

And yes, Russia can be a totalitarian shithole, but you can't deny that they got this one right.

[Redmanfms]

And yes, Russia can be is a totalitarian shithole, but you can't deny that they got this one incredibly small inconsequential thing right.

FTFY.

The fact that the police "looked into it" doesn't bode that well. People sell crazy shit on craiglist all the time, including virginity.

Besides, the fact that they continue to get huge things like economic freedom, press freedom, and individual freedom (they still have a draft for fuck sake) so monumentally fucking wrong makes this one girl being allowed to sell her virginity because "well, it doesn't appear illegal" totally irrelevant.

I swear, sometimes your "America is the worst and most unfree nation EVAH!!!11!!!!1!1!" really makes you look fucking stupid.

[sloopyinca]

No way in hell anyone with "Shat" in their name should have to sell their virginity. Too bad the buyer's name wasn't Khaninski.

[Pro Libertate]

"Shatuniha" is Russian for "woman who publicly masturbated while viewing the Shat."

[sloopyinca]

I rescind my earlier statement about this woman.

[Pro Libertate]

She's not a virgin. The Shat accepted her offer.

[ChrisO]

My first assumption is that once your arrived at the hotel, you'd get knocked out by Shatuniha's "person" and have your cash liberated from you. It's Russia we're talking about.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Oh Florida: Florida mother arrested for pimping out her daughters for as little as $20

A local mother was arrested after she was accused of selling her teenage daughters in prostitution. Deputies say those daughters are just 16, 17 and 18 years old.

According to a report, 50-year-old Paula Howard sold her daughters for sex, for as little as $20.

An anonymous tip led Osceola County deputies to Howard, suspected of operating a family-run prostitution business. Deputies arrested Howard after an undercover sting.

Deputies said they found Howard and her three daughters at a bus stop in Kissimmee.

Howard waved over the undercover deputy as one of the girls walked up and offered sex for cash, and then deputies said the second daughter did the same.

Local 6 has also learned that Samantha Howard, 18, was also arrested and charged with prostitution because she's an adult, but her two younger sisters are being cared for in protective custody because they are underage.

Does it make any sense to charge the 18 year old but not the 17 year old?

[John]

No. And is there anything crueler than charging an 18 year old in those circumstances? These people are sick and evil.

But these are also the same people who would have charged the 17 year old with child porn if she had texted one of her johns a topless picture.

[Juice]

It's all about punishing women for their sexuality.

[Coeus]

Coates rides again:

Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."

For what it's worth, Barack Obama's roots in this country go back through his ostensibly "white" mother all the way to an enslaved African in 1640. I point this out because Cruz is not the original author of his line of thinking. Black people are one of the oldest ethnic groups in America. Still, it is fairly normal in our history to find recent immigrants seeking to establish their nativist bonafides by accusing us of being anti-American, and insisting that we be sent back to Africa.

He's turning into Marcotte. Pretend facts that are inconvenient don't exist (i.e. that Obama used to pretend that he was born in Kenya), then in absent of those facts, assume a motive then act confused when your made up motives don't apply.

[Calidissident]

I hardly see how that's Marcotte-level and I don't see why Cruz's comment should be defended. I'm also not seeing much evidence (Google) that Obama ever claimed to be from Kenya. A travel brochure from 20 years ago written by someone else seems to be the only sort of evidence, and that's hardly conclusive.

[Calidissident]

*should just say "brochure" not "travel brochure"

[Coeus]

I hardly see how that's Marcotte-level

That's how she writes almost every column.

[OldMexican]

The Brazilian government, which has complained about the NSA's behavior in the past, has acknowledged that Brazil's intelligence agency has spied on American diplomats.

Well, there's a big difference. Diplomats are fair game, as Benghazi has demonstrated, whereas spying on government leaders is cause for real outrage and not the feinted kind.

[Coeus]

Mandatory body cameras for cops in California have dropped officer UOF by 60%

[Hyperion]

I believe that this should be mandatory.

But I am skeptical that it will result in any reform of law enforcement at all.

A video may show what appears to be, to most people, totally uncalled for force by the cops, and nothing will happen. How many cases of obvious police misconduct resulting in the death of pets and people have been captured on film already and how many of those in question have been held accountable?

[Coeus]

It dropped the officer violence (whether they justified it or not) by 60% overall. Even if they know they can get away with it, the camera apparently still has a deterrent effect.

[Ayn Random Variation]

So, in the same conversation in which my gf public schoolteacher bragged about how she has tomorrow off for the elections, Thursday and Friday off for a teachers convention in Atlantic City that she doesn't have to go to, and next Monday off for Veterans day, this exchange takes place:

Me: So are you voting tomorrow.

her: Yeah the union told us to vote against Christie

Me: Why

her: Christie's against the teachers

Me: How so?

Her: He just is. He's lowering our pensions and I have to fill out all this paperwork showing my students improve their performance over the year.

Me: Who are you voting for.

her: that woman running against Christie

Me: What's her name

her: Whatever I don't know

Me: I'm getting a shot, you want one?

[Juice]

Every teacher and administrator in their bloated school system is going to vote against him and he's still going to win by 30 points? Amazing.

[Hyperion]

It's NJ, so that must mean that Christie is a bigger statist than what's her name. And I have no problem believing that.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I take it she's got a fantastic body and is insatiable in bed?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

So when you told her earlier in the relationship that you don't think there should be public schools at all, how'd she respond?

(One of my brothers is a public schoolteacher and thankfully UAW family members eagerly regaling us with stories about how they called out sick 4 days a week and showed up piss-ass drunk the rest of the time, etc., etc., etc., has somewhat inoculated him from drinking the kool-aid yet, but I met him for drinks a bit ago and he brought along a co-worker who apparently got into the job so he could have a captive audience to relay ThinkProgress pieces to.)

[Ayn Random Variation]

It works because instead of being one of those teachers who claim they're underpaid and overworked, she acknowledges the great benes, and if I say anything about them she says so you should have been a teacher. I can respect that response.
Along with her boobs, cooking and being a football fan.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Catholic bishops make a good point -

Chairmen of three committees of the US Catholic Bishops' Conference send letter to US Senate against the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. Let me focus on one of the letter's objections to the bill, which I hadn't heard of before. The bill

"Lacks a BFOQ exemption. ENDA does not include an exemption for a "bona fide occupational qualification" (BFOQ), for those cases where it is neither unjust nor inappropriate to consider an applicant's sexual inclinations. This omission also elevates"sexual orientation" discrimination within Title VII to the same and, until now unique,
level as race discrimination (which allows no BFOQ), and above religion, sex, and national origin discrimination (which do)."

See, kids, discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is *worse* than discrimination based on religion, sex or national origin!

http://www.usccb.org/issues-an.....-10-31.pdf

[Coeus]

Obamacare website issues are really Republican's fault:

Republicans aren't to blame for the glitchy site, but federal administrators were so worried about the GOP attacking the healthcare law that they implemented in under a veil of secrecy. As The Washington Post reported this weekend, officials delayed key regulations and orders to circumvent possible Republican opposition. "You're basically trying to build a complicated building in a war zone, because the Republicans are lobbing bombs at us," an anonymous White House official told the Post. Following that logic, Healthcare.gov is like skyscraper built in secrecy and missing an elevator. The administration managed to keep details hidden from Republicans, but also from everyone else.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

"You're basically trying to build a complicated building in a war zone, because the Republicans are lobbing bombs at us," an anonymous White House official told the Post.

Remember when the smallest traces of "eliminationist rhetoric" were causing all the bien-pensants to shit bricks 24/7? I sure do!

[PapayaSF]

As I wrote there: If you have the hide the essentials of your program from the opposition because they'd use those facts to convince the public that your program sucks, consider the possibility that your program really does suck.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"If the poor, sick and uninsured are the winners under the Affordable Care Act, the losers appear to include some relatively healthy middle-income small-business owners, consultants, lawyers and other self-employed workers who buy their own insurance. Many make too much to qualify for new federal subsidies provided by the law but not enough to absorb the rising costs without hardship. Some are too old to go without insurance because they have children or have minor health issues, but they are too young for Medicare.

"Others are upset because they don't want coverage for services they'll never need or their doctors don't participate in any of their new insurance options.

""There are definitely winners and losers," said Sabrina Corlette, a senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. "The problem is that even if the majority are winners .?.?. they're not the ones writing to their congressmen.""...

"The disruptions being caused by the new law have been especially jolting for those who support the ideals of the health-care overhaul.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Marlys Dietrick, a 60-year-old artist from San Antonio, said she had high hopes that the new law would help many of her friends who are chefs, actors or photographers get insured. But she said they have been turned off by high premiums and deductibles and would rather pay the fine.

""I am one of those Democrats who wanted it to be better than this," she said.

"Her insurer, Humana, informed her that her plan was being canceled and that the rate for herself and her 21-year-old son for a plan compliant with the new law would rise from $300 to $705. On the federal Web site, she found a comparable plan for $623 a month. Because her annual income is about $80,000, she doesn't qualify for subsidies.

"A cheaper alternative on the federal exchange, she said, had a premium of $490 a month ? but it was an HMO plan rather than the PPO plan she currently has. "I wouldn't be able to go to the doctor I've been going to for years," she said. "That is not a deal.""

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....print.html

[PapayaSF]

Even the MSM can't ignore the ongoing train wreck. And just wait until next year, when the fines kick in, people can't find doctors to see them, and then the employer plans get "improved" with higher premiums, or people just get kicked to the exchanges.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"The Slow Death of Free Speech at Harvard

"By Harvey Silverglate

"A speech to the 55th reunion of the Harvard Law School class of 1958, October 26, 2013.

"...It is Harvard Yard that has become dangerous for the dissenting voice, in contrast to Harvard Square where anything goes. Surely this is a clarion call for us alumni. It is a rather large canary uttering a warning in our academic coal mine."

http://www.mindingthecampus.co.....eech_.html

[Eduard van Haalen]

With the reaction to some of the stories I post, sometimes I feel like Bruce Whatisname in The Sixth Sense.

[PapayaSF]

You aren't alone in that.

[Eduard van Haalen]

White political candidate refuses to shake his black opponent's hand during Democrat/Republican debate! Scandalized headlines in the New York Times!

Wait, the white guy is a Democrat and the black guy is a Republican? Oh, never mind, then.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/1.....ign=Buffer

[JidaKida]

Sounds liek a solid plan to me dude.

http://www.PrivacyRoad.tk