House Passes "Keep Your Health Plan" Bill, Anonymous Hacker Given 10-Year Jail Sentence, Toronto Mayor Stripped of Some Powers: P.M. Links

Credit: City of Toronto/wikimedia

• The Keep Your Health Plan Bill passed the House, with the support of 39 Democrats.
• Toronto city councilors voted overwhelmingly to strip Mayor Rob Ford of some powers earlier today. Ford has threatened legal action.
• FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants carriers to allow their customers to unlock their phones.
• Albania won't host the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons, despite a request made by the U.S.
• Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond has been handed a 10-year jail sentence for hacking private intelligence firm Stratfor.
• Detroit homeowner Theodore P. Wafer has been charged with the second-degree murder of Renisha McBride, who was shot in the face on Wafer's porch. Wafer has told police he believed someone was breaking into his house.

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Comments

[Apatheist ?_??]

Fuck you Fist

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ballsy move. I could have posted the millisecond before you did and made you look like a FOOL. But instead I'll take the high ground.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I figured that comment would work either way.

[playa manhattan]

dammit

[playa manhattan]

If he was second, the "fuck you" could be for you being first. It's a bulletproof comment, really.

[Ted S.]

Just like this fuck you, playa manhattan and Apatheist.

[SomeGuy]

now you just sound like a tool since you are copying :/

[Marshall Gill]

Now?

[Ted S.]

But instead I'll take the high ground.

There's a first time for everything.

Besides, in that case that you had beaten Apatheist to the punch, his comment would still have made sense, as it would have looked as though he were swearing at you for beating him again.

[Apatheist ?_??]

And I haven't even tried before. I happened to click over to the site at the right time and gave it a go.

[Ted S.]

Best first comment ever!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Technically I was first according to the unwritten rules of the the PM Links.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Even with the low bar my fellow commenters regularly set, I looked over those links and couldn't come up with a comment I felt worthy of first. And I say that with all due respect.

[Tonio]

That's how a real gentleman does things. Bravo.

[AlexInCT]

Crackalacking!

That's a good comment for first, isn't it?

[playa manhattan]

What rules would those be? You have to cut 'n paste first?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

You can't cute and paste a comment without knowing what the links are.

For this reason foreign links cannot be considered first. A true first comment is where the poster reads the links and comes up with a suitably snarky comment or joke.

[Ted S.]

You can't cute and paste a comment without knowing what the links are.

Can you ugly and paste it?

[Clich? Bandit]

Also, You MUST have some form of formatting at a minimum. I suggest bold or italics for beginners. Bolding and italicizing a block quote with an external yet relevant URL is the equivalent of a 4 star general...in order to get 5 stars we need Reason to return to the conditions of open warfare where all had blinky text and images.

[Troy muy grande boner]

Man, you guys really need to get a life.

[AlmightyJB]

Commenting about commenting about commenting is boring you?

[mauricegirodias]

It's vitally important to me... knowing whether or not FoE got the first post. At least in the evenings.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Albania won't host the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons, despite a request made by the U.S.

Can't trust a country that spawned Jim Belushi.

[Warrren]

Leave Rob Ford alone!

[Swiss Servator craves R?sti]

I would ask that Toronto trade him straight up for Chicago's mini-Darth Vader...er, Mayor Emmanuel.

[Protagoronus]

"What is edible? In the most practical sense, edible is what the government says we can eat."

This is what progressives actually think.

[Rich]

"There was a moment when you were better off having a firearm than a tonka bean."

I learned something today.

[Brett L]

What? Edible is that which my body will digest without causing me permanent harm.

[playa manhattan]

That seems practical to me.

[Dweebston]

Edible is literally anything you can masticate and swallow without too much difficulty. Nourishing, palatable, or government-approved has nothing to do with it.

[playa manhattan]

If someone asks me if a certain plant is edible, I take it to mean "is it poisonous?".

[Tonio]

That works for North Korea, right?

[Suthenboy]

Why anyone would think the government has any business at all telling us what we can eat is a mystery to me. I will never understand those people. Do they need permission to take a piss?

[fish_remote]

Do they need permission to take a piss?

I thought shreeky and Phonys psychosexual issues were off the table?

[rts]

Occupy Wall Street's debt buying strikes at the heart of capitalism

Across the United States, 2,693 people have received a letter in the last few months, which identified a debt and read: "You are no longer under any obligation to settle this account with the original creditor, the bill collector, or anyone else." This is the work of the Rolling Jubilee project ? a non-profit initiative which buys personal debt for pennies on the dollar in the secondary market (where debt is sold to companies who then resell it to collection agencies) but then simply cancels it.

[playa manhattan]

Their credit is still fucked, and it's not like they were going to pay anyway.

[rts]

Plus it's taxable... who pays the taxes?

Credit collectors can be ignored... the IRS, not so much.

I also imagine that it would make it harder to declare bankruptcy, which might be advantageous over debt cancellation.

[playa manhattan]

True. They would owe for the full amount cancelled, not the amount amount paid in the secondary market, right?

Also, I fail to see how this in any way "strikes at the heart of capitalism".

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Guardian article. Probably required editorial policy to advance the narrative.

[OldMexican]

Re: rts,

Plus it's taxable... who pays the taxes?

Yep. If someone else pays your debt, then that becomes income, whether you like it or not.

[Mad Scientist]

I'm sure it's a big load off their shoulders to no longer owe a debt they had no intention of paying.

[rts]

The fund has already raised $600,000 and has used $400,000 of this to purchase and cancel an astonishing $14.7m of debt, primarily focusing on medical bills. This strikes at the very heart of the system, not only by using its own perverse rules against it, but critically by revealing the illusory and circular nature of debt.

It was all an illusion anyways!

[Sevo]

Was the stuff they bought illusory also? Or just the debt they incurred doing so?

[Brett L]

"We'll give $0.05 on the dollar for this 10 year old $50000 medical bill."

"hmm... deal!"

[Apatheist ?_??]

I fail to see how this "strikes at the very heart of the system" any more than any other charity.

[LynchPin1477]

The first thing that comes to my mind is that they think the heart of the system is backstabbing, anti-social greed.

[Apatheist ?_??]

But they bought the debt from those evil greedy people at a price they were willing to sell at. So really they are enriching those dirty evil people.

[Sevo]

Apatheist ?_??|11.15.13 @ 4:57PM|#
"But they bought the debt from those evil greedy people at a price they were willing to sell at. So really they are enriching those dirty evil people."

And by doing so, made the invisible hand visible: they got what the valued more than the money and the seller got money he valued more than the debt.

[#]

Considering they were able to buy $14.7 million for only $400k, this means that the lenders already expected the bulk of the debt to be cleared away in backruptcy. Which I guess it's good that ther person doesn't get the extra whack on the credit raiting due to it, but from a debt alleviation stand point, it didn't actually do that much.

[Kid Xenocles]

So all the parties involved got something they valued. That sounds like the basis of a system I've heard of before... I think it was around here...

[Sevo]

Oops. Beat me to it, KX.

[Kid Xenocles]

It's worth repeating.

[Boisfeuras]

The fund has already raised $600,000 and has used $400,000 of this to purchase and cancel an astonishing $14.7m of debt, primarily focusing on medical bills. This strikes at the very heart of the system, not only by using its own perverse rules against it, but critically by revealing the illusory and circular nature of debt.

Hey, only $11,279,985,300,000 of U.S. household debt to go!

OWS will crush "capitalism" in no time flat.

[LynchPin1477]

These people don't really understand what is at the heart of capitalism.

[Rasilio]

"Occupy Wall Street's debt buying strikes at the heart of capitalism"

I fail to see how this is striking at the heart of Capitalism.

Seems to me to be a perfectly capitalistic activity of some people preferring the goof feeling of providing charity to keeping their money and acting on those preferences.

[Rich]

Toronto city councilors voted overwhelmingly to strip Mayor Rob Ford of some powers earlier today.

Did they do it in a drunken stupor?

[playa manhattan]

So it's late Friday afternoon. What time does the Obama administration usually release the really bad news to the media?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ford has threatened legal action.

But then he realized he retained the power of the pipe.

[Rich]

LOL

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Slate wants to remind you that 1963 Dallas was filled with right-wing hatemongers that threatened JFK

As Steven L. Davis and Bill Minutaglio, authors of a book on Dallas politics in 1963, write, Dallas was a hotbed of right-wing activism in the early 1960s. The city had strong historical ties to the KKK; in the 1920s, Dallas had the highest per-capita rate of KKK membership in the country. In the 50s and 60s, resistance to school integration and civil rights catalyzed rightist sentiment in the city.

Dallas was also home to Edwin A. Walker, a one-time general in the Army whose involvement with the ideology of the anti-communist John Birch Society and vocal opposition to Kennedy intensified after his discharge. Reverend W.A. Criswell, pastor of the powerful Dallas First Baptist Church, campaigned against Kennedy on the basis of his Catholicism during the 1960 election. And the Dallas Morning News, the largest newspaper in the state, was consistently conservative in its editorial coverage, attacking the NAACP, running editorials by prominent red-hunters, and commemorating the Confederacy in the name of "states' rights."

They really like to pretend that a commie didn't kill JFK, don't they?

[Ted S.]

Fuck the Kennedy shit. I'm sick and tired of Boomers thinking the Camelot garbage is supposed to be an icon for the rest of us.

[PD Scott]

But it's terrific for them. They get to pretend JFK would have done something different in Vietnam AND there's an anti-gun subtext, too.

[Sevo]

"Dallas was also home to Edwin A. Walker, a one-time general in the Army whose involvement with the ideology of the anti-communist John Birch Society and vocal opposition to Kennedy intensified after his discharge."

He was also the guy who led the 101st Airborne in Little Rock when Faubus tried to use those kids as election props.
And did his job just fine.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Hes also the guy oswald shot at and missed. So he has thst going for him vis a vis kennedy.

[Anonymous Coward]

As Steven L. Davis and Bill Minutaglio, authors of a book on Dallas politics in 1963, write, Dallas was a hotbed of right-wing activism in the early 1960s. The city had strong historical ties to the KKK; in the 1920s, Dallas had the highest per-capita rate of KKK membership in the country. In the 50s and 60s, resistance to school integration and civil rights catalyzed rightist sentiment in the city.

Dallas was also home to Edwin A. Walker, a one-time general in the Army whose involvement with the ideology of the anti-communist John Birch Society and vocal opposition to Kennedy intensified after his discharge. Reverend W.A. Criswell, pastor of the powerful Dallas First Baptist Church, campaigned against Kennedy on the basis of his Catholicism during the 1960 election. And the Dallas Morning News, the largest newspaper in the state, was consistently conservative in its editorial coverage, attacking the NAACP, running editorials by prominent red-hunters, and commemorating the Confederacy in the name of "states' rights."

Coming soon to a theater near:

Red Herring 2: Rise of the Libertarian.

This time, it's personal.

[Apple]

in the 1920s, Dallas had the highest per-capita rate of KKK membership in the country

Well, that certainly helps explain why a communist killed a white guy in the 1960s, doesn't it?

[Winston]

Didn't Oswald try to kill Walker with his rifle?

[Apple]

That's what they want you to think.

[Winston]

Oswald also supported gun control.

[Raven Nation]

Almost certainly. Someone took at shot at Walker and Oswald told his wife he did it. But, after Oswald was killed, the DPD dropped the investigation.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

Wow, thems book-learnin' Slate people sure must think Dallasians and the South are all cousin-marryin' hillbillies an' all funny-like, huh?

[Brett L]

So, I won't be telling my son that he wouldn't know what to do with whatever starlet is hot when he reaches the 2nd half of his 2nd decade.

Beckman's father joked that his son "wouldn't know what to do with that," Nistal testified. "So he went and got a shotgun and blew his head off. He missed his head and shot his face and part of his neck."

[PD Scott]

It's terrible when people get "this is my (shotgun), this is my gun" confused.

[fish_remote]

It's like they never saw "Full Metal Jacket" or something! Of course this aforementioned file should never be confused with "Full Leather Jacket" starring reasons.coms favorite son!

[fish_remote]

Fucking autocorrect....."film"!

[Caleb Turberville]

I feel kinda bad. I just noticed in my Twitter feed that Virginia Postrel recently took some offense to the comments in her ReasonTV vid with Gillespie. Maybe we try to be a bit too snarky at the expense of former Reason staff, but I personally don't mean to disgust people like Postrel.

[Pro Libertate]

I met her and her husband at a conference back when she was the editor. Seemed nice enough to me.

[Caleb Turberville]

I don't know. The ReasonTV video comments are kind of a strange environment. I would think very few people are capable of watching the videos when they are first uploaded, so it's kind of hard to foster any worthwhile discussion in the comments.

I just wanted to say that my quote from the Train song "Meet Virginia" was in reference to the fact that I find the name "Virginia" to be a very beautiful name.

[Slammer]

"I can't even read the articles anymore, because I know they are under there."

[Slammer]

^^^ that was someone tweeting her.

[Brett L]

Serious question: Is there any news/opinion website where there isn't a hardcore group of insiders doing most of the commenting and making in jokes?

Granted we seem to have a near Aspie disregard for the mores and customs but still. Its like being offended by some student group protesting your speech. We're goofing off, get over it. This isn't SRSBSNS all the time.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I doubt it's the inside jokes that bother her and the writing staff. I suspect it's the personal shots at Dalmia, McArdle (not on the staff but married to one), Suderman, Gillespie, Welch (he gets it from many and I don't really understand why), etc.

I get that it's the internet and "anything goes" and I certainly think the comments here are better than those at most websites, but I still see her point and wouldn't mind seeing some of what she's talking about dialed back.

[Brett L]

I guess. Does it hurt them more than when they used to get angry letters?

[Caleb Turberville]

Angry letters? Was this something that happened a while back?

[Brett L]

Pre-internets. People used to just write angry letters about that Goddamn [Writer's Name Here] who is actually a crypto-anarchist/idiot/shitbird who is ruining their wonderful product.

Now we critique them in the comments.

[BakedPenguin]

Something upset her. "I hope no @reason commenters go on the cruise, because I don't want to meet these jerks."

[Brett L]

Wow. Okay. So no more drinking game?

[Winston]

Doesn't Reason support vulgarity and coarser society?

[playa manhattan]

Ha! That's what my mom used to say! I got the magazine at home when in was in high school, my mom would complain that I was reading "that dope smoker Gillespie!"

[Emmerson Biggins]

Oh well. Next time somebody sees her, tell her I think she's a big poopy head.

[Fluffy]

Gillespie gets nothing but good-natured ribbing for the most part.

Welch gets shit, but Welch deserves as much shit as can be jammed into his mouth using power equipment.

When he stops concern trolling all of us, I'll stop giving him shit.

[Caleb Turberville]

It's hard not to rib the contributors, if not for mere enjoyment, then to at least avoid feeling sycophantic towards them.

But, if you have that much of a problem with Welch, why give him the attention? Why not just move on?

[Marshall Gill]

Gillespie gets nothing but good-natured ribbing for the most part.

Hmm, I don't think that most of my comments about Gillespie articles can be described so generously, but perhaps I am the exception.

[playa manhattan]

I think you are probably right, BiMon

Someone tweeted: "I can't even read the articles anymore, because I know they are under there."

Her response: "Imagine how writers feel."

[Somalian Road Corporation]

If making japes about cocktail party cosmotarianism is wrong, I don't want to be right.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Chris White (@stoneymonster) can go fuck himself for being a humorless asshole .

[playa manhattan]

There's a possibility that he could have been talking about you:
http://reason.com/reasontv/201.....nt_4136021

I would wear that with a badge of honor.

[prolefeed]

This awesome comment bears repeating:

Heroic Mulatto|11.15.13 @ 3:11PM|#

I don't always drink mezcal, but when I do, I get fucking shitfaced and wake up in a field next to a goat and then I notice I have no pants on.

[Hawk Spitui]

Sorry? but I gotta?

It's just so right!

[Snark Plissken]

It was your tequila joke that made us all look bad!!!!

[Suthenboy]

Good grief lady, grow a pair.

If her sensibilities are that delicate perhaps she is in the wrong business.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I fail to see anything too naught in the comments sections I could find.

[playa manhattan]

There were a few comments about her appearance...

[Caleb Turberville]

I count one. Please point out the others.

[playa manhattan]

" I'm attracted to her, guys."

"It's the grey hair. This freewheelin' dame doesn't give a damn about her hair, and right now I don't give a damn about anything BUT her hair."

"Still looking good, Ms. Postrel."

[Caleb Turberville]

Okay, the first one sounds creepy. The second one sounds ageist. But the third one sounds complimentary.

[playa manhattan]

I think they're funny. She might not.

Anybody with a soul should find the goat-fucking comment funny.

[Caleb Turberville]

Oh, well. Normally I'm not so upset about outside opinions about the commenters here. Most of the time, they seem to becoming from opposing political factions, so I tend to shrug them off.

But, I thought since Postrel (a person held in high esteem around here) had a problem with our behavior, it might be worth a little introspection.

[Mad Scientist]

Virginia doesn't get 100th the grief we give Nick, and we LIKE Nick.

[Rasilio]

We do? I thought we were all just too afraid of the Jacket to say anything bad about him

[Mad Scientist]

I ain't a-skeered o' no jacket. What's he gonna do? Quote Sartre at me?

[playa manhattan]

Sometimes there's serious discussion here, and sometimes it's a locker room. I enjoy both.

[prolefeed]

"But, I thought since Postrel (a person held in high esteem around here) had a problem with our behavior, it might be worth a little introspection"

You left off the ending to that sentence "... on her part."

[Tonio]

Still looking good, Ms. Postrel.

That was me. And I immediately regretted posting that. Not because it wasn't an honest, though perhaps inappropriately expressed, sentiment. But because it was overly familiar, perhaps objectifying, and without context.

Being a middle aged gay man doesn't excuse anything, but does provide the context that I wasn't coming on to her.

My sincerest apologies, Ms. Postrel.

[playa manhattan]

I don't think your comment was one of the ones that bothered her. Either way, classy apology.

[Anonymous Coward]

Were they Youtube comments, or H&R comments?

If YT, then stupidity is to be expected.

If H&R, which one of us pissed off the great Virginia Postrel?

[Rasilio]

Maybe she stumbled on one of Sugarfree's Warty Hugeman stories

[Marc F Cheney]

This is really weird, given that 95% of references to Virginia Postrel in H&R comments are the same highly complimentary in-joke.

[Caleb Turberville]

Yes, but in-jokes haven't been the same around here since Postrel left.

[Marc F Cheney]

I am considering cancelling my subscription and subscribing to your newsletter.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Can't someone with the tweeter thingy just ask her? Or doesn't it work that way?

[playa manhattan]

It didn't werk. I got my dick stuck in the toaster.

[Warty]

Is she talking about this thread? I guess what Broseph said could be construed as offensive if you really wanted to be offended, kinda sorta maybe. I guess.

[Rasilio]

Actually Caleb's response about the Tequilla is pretty offensive

[Caleb Turberville]

Is it? I thought I was making a joke about having to sit down will Gillespie for an hour or so? I'm sorry if I offended her.

[Rasilio]

Yeah it could easily be interpreted as saying she's an alcoholic who never passes up an opportunity to drink

[Caleb Turberville]

Oh, okay. Well, whoever made the initial tequila joke probably intended for that. I was just riffing off of that comment to make a joke about the kind of tedium it would have to be to sit through a Gillespie interview.

I guess I intended it to be an jab at Gillespie. But if I offended her, I would like to apologize.

[Francisco d Anconia]

an alcoholic who never passes up an opportunity to drink

And what, exactly, is derogatory about that?

I resemble that remark.

[Caleb Turberville]

Is Christopher Hitchens technically counted as a contributor to Reason? His drinking behavior was beyond parody.

[Irish]

Is Christopher Hitchens technically counted as a contributor to Reason? His drinking behavior was beyond parody.

Didn't Hitchens go to a reason Christmas party one year? God, I would have loved to have seen what that guy got up to while hitting the booze at a Christmas party.

[playa manhattan]

I wasn't going to say anything because you were already apologetic, but yeah, I took it as implying that she was a lush.

[Caleb Turberville]

LOL. Maybe it says something about me that I don't think a bottle of tequila would be excessive.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Really? I took it as implying that an hour with the Jacket would drive anyone to drink.

[Caleb Turberville]

Thanks, Mulatto. You took it the way I intended. It's kind of hard to craft these comments in such away to avoid ambiguity. It's really high energy in here, so you have to make your thoughts kinda pithy.

[Broseph of Invention]

Shit, man, I feel awful about this. I never thought she would read what I wrote and think "boozer with bad hair"; it was more a projection of myself than her (you know, like glamour). I never thought she'd read the comments period, as I'd never say something like around someone, in case it would be construed that way. I should have known better.

I'll shoot her an email and apologize. I don't want you guys or Reason in general looking bad just because I'm an unknowing asshole.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Albania won't host the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons, despite a request made by the U.S.

All that toxic waste could have turned Albania into a hotbed of super villainy. Your loss, suckers.

[Pro Libertate]

How about passing "The Repeal of the PPACA Abomination for Sanity Act"?

[Rich]

Here comes the Sanity Clause!

[PD Scott]

Ha! Everyone knows there's no Santee Claus!

[Ted S.]

You need something with a pithier acronym.

[Pro Libertate]

Stupid Abomination of a Law Solution Act?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Repeal Obamacare For Legislative Cohesion Of Purpose Toward Ending Ruination.

[NoTalentAssclown]

winner!

[Fist of Etiquette]

They might still get some of those 39 Dems to vote for that at this point.

[Enough About Palin]

Obama Wants Your House To Burn

EPA blocks cities from installing fire hydrants

Philadelphia has 119 fire hydrants that cost about $2,000 each waiting in a warehouse to be installed, yet they sit high and dry because federal regulators say their fittings might taint drinking water with lead.

The City of Brotherly Love and communities across the U.S. face the specter of hundreds of millions of dollars in useless hydrants after a surprise ruling last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires fireplugs put in after Jan. 4 meet stricter standards for lead content, said Tom Curtis of the American Water Works Association in Denver. That means cities must scrap or retrofit inventory or buy hydrants and parts that some vendors aren't even making yet.

Manufacturers and Curtis's group, which represents utilities that serve about 80 percent of Americans, are urging the agency to reconsider or at least allow more time to comply. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., one of the largest hydrant makers, is seeing some customers delay or cancel orders.

"This delivers a huge cost and probably no health protection," said Curtis, the water group's deputy executive director. "It needs to be rethought."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-rule.html

[Brett L]

Holy shit. Every single one of those fittings could fully dissolve in a decade and not significantly change the city's lead exposure profile.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Stop trying to reason with the FDA. They have job security to think of.

[Enough About Palin]

EPA doesn't give a shit.

[Rasilio]

So you're saying the EPA is being run by a Honeybadger?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Don't care.

[Sevo]

"This delivers a huge cost and probably no health protection,"

Your tax dollars are work!

[Brett L]

Former Miss Teen Delaware arrested in heroin sting.

That's the best you got, Delaware?

[PD Scott]

Joe Biden will be so disappointed.

[fish_remote]

An honorary Delawarian....Shotgun Joe is the "Pride of Scranton!

[Rich]

Persephanie Lesperance, 24, has teh crazy eyes.

[Pro Libertate]

What's up with the spelling of the name, anyway?

[Brett L]

Stephanies never win beauty contests. But Persephone is so old fashioned.

[fish_remote]

I'd still nail her!

[Ted S.]

Maybe she looked better before taking heroin.

[Tonio]

You know who else was from Delaware?

[Rich]

George Thorogood?

[Brett L]

I did not know that.

[BakedPenguin]

What, you thought the Delaware Destroyer was Joe Biden?

[Anonymous Coward]

In case you need pics without giving HuffPo clicks.

[Brett L]

Heroin did good things for her.

[Rich]

Nice photo, but prolly NSFW.

[Coeus]

Surprise. A feminist doesn't understand economics or pricing.

Fat people are essentially fined for being fat, irrespective of why they are fat or whether it is possible for them to be not-fat without actually making themselves less healthy.

There are all kinds of "fat taxes" that fat people have to pay, whether it's our clothes costing unreasonably more, or being charged for a second airplane seat, or being paid less. Fat taxes are openly advocated by economists and corporate shills and anti-fat crusaders.

One of the most interesting "fat taxes" I have observed is the disproportionately higher cost of exercise equipment that accommodates higher weights. It is possible to find a basic treadmill with a 300lb weight limit for $200. The cheapest treadmill I saw with a 400lb weight limit is this otherwise very basic model, costing $500.

[Mad Scientist]

It is possible to find a basic treadmill with a 300lb weight limit for $200. The cheapest treadmill I saw with a 400lb weight limit is this otherwise very basic model, costing $500.

Sidewalks are free, Chubby.

[Brett L]

But really, 400lb people should pay extra property tax for wear and tear, like Hummers on their city streets, amirite?

[Mad Scientist]

None of the things she complains about are actually taxes. She's whining that it takes more material to cover her flab, or requires stronger steel to support her friction burn machine, and skinny people don't have to pay for it. It's not fair! Waaaaaa!

[Rasilio]

" She's whining that it takes more material to cover her flab"

While it is true that it is not a tax the cost of the additional fabric does not account for more than a tiny percentage of the price difference between "fat" and normal clothes. Further clothes for small people also cost more and use less fabric.

Some of the price difference can be explained by weaker economies of scale (you might be able to sell a million copies of a given dresses at a size 10 but only 25k for size 24) but even there that doesn't tell the whole story since there aren't very many more women who are a size 0 than who are a size 20 and yet there is no price increase for skinnier sizes (just shorter ones).

Quite clearly clothing makers and retailers who make plus sized clothes are taking advantage of the greatly reduced competition in the plus sized market space to get higher profit margins per item (albeit with lower total sales).

The rest of the stuff she is whining about, yeah sorry those are just facts of life because the stuff made for fat people costs more to make and if you fill 2 airplane seats then you should be paying for 2 seats.

[Coeus]

Don't forget that they will need larger machines for certain types of clothing. Machines which cost more. These clothes are rarely made on tabletop sewing machines.

[Mad Scientist]

Sail lofts do use a lot of real estate.

[fish_remote]

Sidewalks are free, Chubby.

SEE!!! This is why Postrel is so upset!

[Enough About Palin]

A fat feminist doesn't understand economics or pricing.

"whether it's our clothes"

[BakedPenguin]

"And don't get me started on the price of pie!"

[LynchPin1477]

That goes beyond a lack of understand of economics or pricing. She doesn't understand the basic mathematical concept of proportionality.

[Marc F Cheney]

She just thinks that proportionality should be generous.

[OldMexican]

One of the most interesting "fat taxes" I have observed is the disproportionately higher cost of exercise equipment that accommodates higher weights.

The most interesting thing about that fat tax she seems to have observed is that it isn't a tax. Taxes are always levied after the fact, at gunpoint. She can always buy the machines that are rated for less weight and take her chances. Instead, taxes are not optional.

[Boisfeuras]

Or she could forgo one altogether and exercise (or pretend she plans to...) some other way. One of the great advantages of an actual free market is that?in the worst case scenario?you have at least a Hobson's choice.

[Apple]

Also, fat people sometimes have to pay for two hamburgers, while skinny people can get buy with just one.

[paranoid android]

Maybe there's some other part of your budget you could cut down on to save money? How much do you spend on, just to pull an example completely out of thin air, food?

[Bobarian]

I don't think that air (or anything else) is very thin.

[Loki]

Fat taxes are openly advocated by economists and corporate shills...

Pretty much anytime I see someone use the term "corporate shills" to describe people they don't like, I figure I can safely stop reading/ listening at that point. It's one of those catch all terms that left-tards use to disparage their opponents so they don't have to actually refute their arguments.

and anti-fat crusaders.

Anti-fat crusaders like Michelle Obama? Something tells me she doesn't include the 1st wookie in that group.

[Fluffy]

Why would corporate shills want fat taxes?

Doesn't she realize that the corporate shills are the ones FIGHTING the fat taxes?

Stupid cow.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

This fat-activist, like the "anti-fatophobia" movement, is funny on multiple levels.

If you want to look at this from what someone like Sowell might call a "cosmic justice" angle it is actually healthy, skinny people that don't care too much about health that are most disadvantaged, simply by believing in the gov't-approved Food Pyramid view of nutrition - they are vulnerable to the diseases of civilization.

This extremely obese person could have discovered paleolithic nutrition, read Gary Taubes' GCBC and learned about how horrible nutrition research is. Many people who go paleo do so because they're fat or have autoimmune/incurable disease; a much smaller segment are gym rats and people who want to be healthier to be smarter/more successful. And yet, she sits around and whines about this kind of dumb shit, and I can tell she's the kind of person that just gave up on health. Not that she should be mocked for it - so many retards out there who think they know how to be healthy and then don't know what to do once their carb metabolism breaks down and they gain weight. She should be pitied because she's made herself into a victim and she's a social justice warrior. As a former progtard/SJW of sorts I know that shit's a total mind poison that doesn't really help any disadvantaged groups at all. I could literally mail her a copy of Fat Head & Good Calories, Bad Calories and some Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Robb Wolf & Mark Sisson articles and she still wouldn't know what to do.

[Kid Xenocles]

Power rack doesn't cost any extra if you weigh more. And you would have to be astonishingly fat to be unable to fit in one.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

State Department offering $10 million reward for Benghazi information

The State Department announced Friday it has been quietly offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Friday's acknowledgement comes weeks after Fox News reported that the Benghazi case was not listed as part of the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" website. The apparent omission prompted several complaints from Republican lawmakers.

But the State Department, in a letter sent to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, revealed that it has in fact been offering the reward through other channels since January -- though the department previously declined to disclose that information.

Friday's announcement of a reward raised questions among some lawmakers about how effective a multi-million dollar reward could be if it was not widely known or publicized on its "Rewards for Justice" website.

"Due to security issues and sensitivities surrounding the investigation, the event-specific reward offer has not been publicly advertised on the RFJ website," the department said in a statement. "RFJ tools can be utilized in a variety of ways, without publicizing them on the website."

Does it make a difference, at this point?

[Rich]

The State Department announced Friday it has been quietly offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Um, what if it's just an *impeachment*?

[Francisco d Anconia]

The State Department announced Friday it has been quietly offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

I thought they already caught that video guy and put him in jail?

[Restoras]

Max Headroom?

[Bobarian]

For $10M, I'd be happy to bring in Hillary Clinton.

/channeling Dog the Bounty Hunter

[Coeus]

Some feminists actually seem to lose the ability to see when it conflicts with a point.

The wonderful Jennifer Bendery at Huffington Post has done us all the favour of putting together a little Brady Bunch-style grid of all the nominees who are being blocked by the GOP right now. From Circuit Court judges to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, our government is riddled with vacancies. Which is cool, I mean, it's not like we need a functioning government or whatever ? we can just settle all legal disputes through arm wrestling, or trivia contests! And the GOP is blocking the nominations of many of the people who, if confirmed, would fill those vacancies. Bendery's picture makes the eloquent point that a lot of these nominees have something in common: they aren't white dudes.

But there's a picture at the top of the article.

[BakedPenguin]

... it's not like we need a functioning government or whatever...

Well, she already thinks we don't need a functioning health insurance system or whatever.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Nothing says essential government function like "Federal Housing Finance Agency."

[PD Scott]

Now they tell us edition: From a Strategic Studies Institute report on Somalia:

Among the lessons thus drawn, which are applicable to other insurgency and conflict situations in Africa, is that the repeated failure of internationally-backed attempts to reestablish a national government in Somalia underscores the limitations of top-down, state-centric processes that are structurally engineered with a bias in favor of centralization, rather than bottom-up, community-based approaches better adapted to the local sensibilities.

Wonder if the conclusion applies to places outside of Africa?

[Steve G]

Wow, they are essentially UN-polishing the turd that is the ACA. Each little tweak is sending it further down the spiral.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Ban it

Fewer U.S. teens are smoking cigarettes, but more are getting a nicotine fix from hookahs and electronic cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports today.

Overall tobacco use among middle- and high school students last year ? 6.7% and 23.3%, respectively ? was about one percentage point lower than in 2011, mostly due to a decline in teens smoking cigarettes, according to CDC's analysis of the 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

Yet the survey, which queried sixth- through 12th-graders, found a notable increase in those who've used hookahs, also known as waterpipes, and e-cigarettes ? both of which aren't federally regulated and taxed as are cigarettes. Last year, about 5.4% of high school students said they used hookahs at least once a month, up from 4.1% in 2011, and 2.8% tried e-cigarettes, up from 1.5%.

The CDC attributed the increase to lower prices for these products as well as their increased marketing and availability, and the perception that they are safer alternatives to cigarettes. It also found a slight uptick in high school students who smoked pipes and cigars, including the little ones that look like cigarettes but cost a lot less and come in candy flavors.

Regulators, mount up!

[Coeus]

and the perception that they are safer alternatives to cigarettes.

Dishonest fuckholes.

[Coeus]

Schlick, schlick, turn the page. Schlick, schlick, schlick, turn the page.

Two Belgian university professors decided to apply their knowledge of toxicology screenings to the 10 most borrowed books at the Antwerp library. Each book underwent bacteriology and toxicology tests, and the findings reveal that library books are even more germ-covered than you expected.

While the experts found that all 10 books contained traces of cocaine?enough so that people who touched the books wouldn't feel the effects, but might test positive for the drug?they also found something pretty gross: Fifty Shades of Grey, your weird aunt's favorite mainstream erotic series, tested positive for traces of the herpes virus.

[Teenage Girl]

Eewww!!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Coyote attacks small child in Chicago neighborhood

I post this because last night while walking my dog through a nearby park I myself encounter a coyote, which ran right past me. Which made me do some research and apparently coyotes are becoming less and less afraid of people as they acclimatize to urban environments.

[Brett L]

Coyote joins 5k.

Its amazing how much faster you run after your empty and all the blood floods away from your digestive system.

[Brett L]

Shit. Should be after your bowels empty.

[PD Scott]

Saw a news story here in Atlanta recently. A coyote was filmed just sitting in someone's yard in broad daylight. The people in the neighborhood wanted some authority to take it away. Taking a rifle and shooting it (then calling animal control to dispose of it) apparently did not occur to them, but to be fair it might have violated firearm discharge ordinances. It would suck to be ticketed for varmint control.

[Suthenboy]

I once attempted to shoot a coyote with my K-38 at about 100 yards.

The instant I fired he darted away and the bullet hit the ground right where he was. He literally beat the bullet.

There is no sugarcoating it, coyotes are kinda quick.

[Killazontherun]

My sister had the same problem and eventually nailed the bastard on her third or fourth attempt. She was raising game hens at the time, and he got a few.

[PD Scott]

I don't doubt it, however in the video I saw the coyote was maybe 30 feet away.

If cops were held accountable for killing (mostly) defenseless doggies, I wonder if they'd claim they thought they were shooting a coyote?

"It was a poodle!" "These coyotes, they're really wily beasts, ma'am."

[Mickey Rat]

Super-geniuses, really.

[Generic Stranger]

I think the fuckers know when you're pointing a gun at them. I've had several do almost the same thing to me, except they took off as soon as I got them in my sights.

[Francisco d Anconia]

A friend of mine and I actually chased one down the road for about 1/8 of a mile in his pickup. Almost had it, but had to slow for a turn.

[Francisco d Anconia]

last night

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Where do you live?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Montana.

There's a pack of them howling just about every night.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Wouldn't the better question be where do you live that doesn't have coyotes? I've seen one walking down the side of the road in Houston suburbs several times. Those fuckers are everywhere.

[Coeus]

Only large predator to ever adapt to urban life. They do that by not being seen too much. Most people aren't aware that they're around.

[fish_remote]

Only large predator to ever adapt to urban life.

Not true.....the progressive democrat (Gymnopus demokratikus)

Gymnopus demokratikus, G. ceraceicola and G. hakaroa can be recognized by their strong, unpleasant odor when crushed. The smell produced by these species is most commonly described as rotting cabbage or garlic. The species grow in colonies of just a few up to an impressive display of hundreds of fruitbodies on a dead (Detroit) or dying (Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.) urban metropolis or on the lower parts of still living cities.
Another characteristic is the presence of a waxy layer from which the fruitbodies emerge, which is usually colored in green due to the algae commonly living in the substance.

Large....but immobile and barely sentient!

[Tonio]

I saw a werewolf with a chinese menu in his hand. He was walking throught the streets of Soho in the rain.

[Kid Xenocles]

How was his hair?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Perfect!

Ahoooooo!

[Apatheist ?_??]

Haha France. I'm betting that more than a few dubious calls go their way in the second leg.

[William of Purple]

Also Fuck Christiano Ronaldo.

[Raven Nation]

Sadly, looks like Iceland won't be able to pull off the miracle.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Man fires Civil War-era cannon at neighbors

Victims say 52-year-old Brian Malta, of Kiatone, N.Y., fired his Civil War-era cannon -- unloaded -- at their home. Malta says he was settling a dispute, like Stonewall Jackson fending off a Union phalanx from the gates to Manassas.

Nobody was injured when Malta began his alleged assault, using only powder charges and wadding. Still, he was charged with harassment and his beautiful replica cannon was seized, according to Buffalo News.

The barrage, which was heard miles away and lasted several days, harkens back to the Battle of Gettysburg, when the confederate army employed more than 150 cannons to mow down Union forces. Yet, in a classic tale of history repeating itself, the cannon did not win the war.

Police said that Malta had an ongoing dispute with his neighbors, but wouldn't reveal the details, the New York Daily News reports.

Malta was arrested on Wednesday and charged with three counts of harassment and three counts of menacing. He was released from the county jail after posting $2,500.

I'm surprised New York does not have some common-sense cannon control.

[PD Scott]

Several days?!

[Coeus]

Sure, no incentives there...

Vanderbilt students rallied on Wednesday, presenting the school with an 11-page document citing their concerns under Title IX and the Clery Act:

The complaint demands, among other things, that survivors of sexual assault be allowed academic leniency,

If they do this, I recommend that the guys there ask for transcripts before sex. Only bang 3.0 or better, just to be safe.

[OldMexican]

The complaint demands, among other things, that survivors of sexual assault be allowed academic leniency

"My rapist ate my homework!"

"Ok, now I've heard them all."

[Rasilio]

"If they do this, I recommend that the guys there ask for transcripts before sex. Only bang 3.0 or better, just to be safe."

No, you need to stay away from anyone in line for graduating with honors or flunking out. Cause I guarantee that there will be chicks who retroactively decide they were raped if their grades slide for any reason.

So nothing above a 3.2 or below a 2.5

[Rasilio]

'Toronto city councilors voted overwhelmingly to strip Mayor Rob Ford of some powers earlier today. Ford has threatened legal action."

I thought they said if you liked your Mayor you could keep him?

[William of Purple]

How do you say "Sorry, my bad" in Syrian?

[Rich]

"We deem him a martyr."

[fish_remote]

We had to behead him to see what was in him.

/pelosi

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Police in France capture alleged cannibal

The young, homeless man slipped into his victim's house at the edge of the isolated Nouilhan hamlet on Thursday evening, grabbed a metal object in the barn and smashed the old man's skull, a source close to the probe said.

According to his initial statements to investigators, the 26-year-old, who was responding "to messages or voices in his head", set fire to the body and then extracted his victim's heart and tongue to cook and eat them, added the source, who refused to be named but had seen the crime scene.

"It wasn't a pretty sight," he said.

Police discovered the calcinated body of the victim with an open wound clearly visible on his side, and a bit of cooked meat on a plate with white beans taken from the old man's fridge.

The emergence of that detail will inevitably lead to comparisons between the case and Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal in horror film "The Silence of the Lambs", who famously ate a victim's liver with "some fava beans and a nice Chianti".

See what austerity does to people?

[Ken Shultz]

The Democrats are going to have a hard time in the upcoming midterms.

Never mind their Republican opponents; those 39 Democrats are running against Barack Obama and Harry Reid!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

This has got to be the Democrats 'Iraq' moment. The ACA was so obviously foolish it ranks up there with 'we will be greeted with flowers.' The GOP lost both the Senate and House and then the Presidency over that. It is the Democrats turn over the ACA.

[William of Purple]

CLOWNS ARE SCARY

[Francisco d Anconia]

Clown Unit.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Probably NSFW: UK hook-up site names "Horniest Uni Student in UK"

AFTER our month long search across the UK we uncovered hundreds of sex-mad students who were desperate to be crowned Shag at Uni's newly created title. But today we are pleased to announce that Elina Desaine, 20, from Exeter University is officially the UK's Horniest Student.

I should be the UK's horniest student because I have sex with at least 2 / 3 different people a week. Sometimes i go clubbing, have sex with someone, and then go back to the club to pick up my second victim. Feeling horny right now, so might just text someone on my 'shag list' and do it in the computer room (I've done this before, was great!) With your help of Alcohol, I will be able to become an even Hornier Student!

When we revealed to Elina from The Sunday Times University of the Year 2013 Exeter Uni that she had won the world's first horniest student competition earlier this week she was ecstatic and proclaimed this was her proudest achievement to date!
The IT Business Management student told us, "I entered the competition after my friend saw it advertised by Shag at Uni online. He told me that I was perfect for it as I have a huge reputation on campus for letting my hair down and having fun. Everyone should act like me!"

Well she's definitely English.

[Rich]

The Latvian-born student who moved to the UK aged 6 ? also calls herself a 'Slutvian'

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sometimes even I don't RTFA.

[Anonymous Coward]

She's a 5 and I'm being generous.

[Loki]

Unfortunately the slutty chicks usually are the ones with low self esteem. Also really hot chicks tend to know they're hot and aren't going to hook up with just anyone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately the slutty chicks usually are the ones with low self esteem.

Unfortunate? I've acted in reliance on that little truism more times than I care to admit.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Even though she says she practices safe sex, I still wouldn't stick it in a place that multiple dudes had been with in the last 24 hours.

[Anonymous Coward]

What if no one has been in her butt in the last 24 hours?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

She'd have to be 7 or higher. This one isn't doing it for me.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

Some slutty chicks are also sex geeks... but they tend to be sober, hang around in orgies and only fuck other sex geeks/people who take sexual pleasure seriously

[Killazontherun]

Doable, but not really pretty. Maybe there should be another word between homely and pretty, 'pleasant', perhaps. I wouldn't be exactly running out the door. If we were ranking beers, she'd be a lager, not a SA Boston Lager, but somewhere between it and Miller High Life, a Yuengling, maybe. She's a Yeungling. So, 5, is realistic given that's the highest score I could give even the best lager on the bases of its inherent limitation (thinness of mouth fill, low ABV and IBU, etc.).

[PD Scott]

(sigh) This is why Postrel refuses to be a HnR libertarian.

[Rich]

Sidewalks are free, Chubby.

[Killazontherun]

Keeping her out is my intention.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-Remember the famous Yale motto of "No means yes, and yes means anal" (http://bit.ly/1eMr3In). Well this esteemed school is once again playing host to the porn industry (http://bit.ly/1cV5tl3). Below is a draft letter to the president and other Yale University leaders where YOU can send a message.

Outrageous that universities continue to deliver their students, a captive audience, to the porn industry!

I've recently become aware that Yale will be hosting the Sexual Literacy Forum (SeLF), in particular a lecture called "Why do we watch porn?," with the intention to make porn culture more acceptable, rather than highlighting the realities and lies porn promulgates. Lauding the porn industry for degrading and sexually abusing women normalizes rape in our society and perpetuates rape culture. Yale has already been highlighted as a university that disregards female students' safety, as seen in the "No means yes, and yes means anal" fiasco. Please put a stop to your administration's misogyny and protect your students from the real effects of pornography.

http://pornharms.com/action-ya.....ture-lies/

[Anonymous Coward]

Yale has already been highlighted as a university that disregards female students' safety, as seen in the "No means yes, and yes means anal" fiasco. Please put a stop to your administration's misogyny and protect your students from the real effects of pornography.

Fascinating, but as with everyone (except Heroic Mulatto and Sugarfree) I can top it.

From "Filthy Things 2", as told by porn actress, Gia Paloma (Ret.):

I also shot a scene for Jim Powers in "Filthy Things 2." We were in a USC frat house, surrounded by over 200 frat boys. There was beer flying everywhere. Dave Hardman and I were getting it on in front of all of them.

Yale has lectures about porn. USC rents out frathouses to shoot scenes.

Lauding the porn industry for degrading and sexually abusing women

Care to explain the wage disparity between male talent and female talent (women make more) in hetero scenes?

[Eduard van Haalen]

"Driving through the gates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, or "Angola," is a chilling experience. After all, this is the "Alcatraz of the South"...It also has its own fully functioning rodeo.

"..."The rodeo, which was first started in 1967, continues on because we see it as a vital tradition and good reward for the inmates who deserve to be here today. It's a big privilege to be allowed to take part in the rodeo, and they know that," said Warden [Burl] Cain. "It also allows us to raise much needed funds for our rehabilitation programs.""

http://www.vice.com/read/louis.....or-inmates

h/t Lucy Stag

[Apatheist ?_??]

Don't they have a prison with a golf course going through it too?

[Suthenboy]

I went to the angola rodeo once. That place is as close to hell on earth as you can get. I will never go back...willingly.

I felt depressed for days after leaving.

[Raven Nation]

Sheesh man, where HAVEN'T you been? Road of death, Amazon jungle, Angola rodeo. Do you ever go to nice places?

[Loki]

Albania won't host the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons, despite a request made by the U.S.

"Hey Albania, you guys are a 3rd world clusterfuck, how about you dismantle these weapons for us. Since you're already a shithole it won't make any difference if there is an accident or something."

[Eduard van Haalen]

Many violent crimes are unsolved, and Prof. Alex Kreit thinks he knows why. Click below for more (hint: the Drug War)

http://www.learnliberty.org/vi.....lking-free

[Suthenboy]

"Who are the real victims of the government's war on drugs?"

A better question to ask is who is the beneficiary of it.

[Raven Nation]

Wait, I know this. It was covered in class last night.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

re: ROB FORD

What kind of adult in a professional occupation wears a football jersey to work?

[Loki]

NFL players?

[Jack the Reaper]

*looks down at his Bronco's jersey*

me?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I Do Not Think Rush Limbaugh Understands What Eugenics Was/Is

-Mr. Gruber, the architect, it is said, of Obamacare, the professor at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has now introduced eugenics into this entire health care debate by suggesting that there is a lucky gene pool. How did he phrase it? The winner of life's gene pool lottery or some such thing. So what he's getting at is that the healthy are lucky. The healthy, who don't have to spend as much on health care, the lucky, who are only lucky because of their genetics, we have to tax them more. We have to get more from them. The healthy have to pay the freight for everybody who is unlucky, who has bad genes, and because of that they get sick more often. This is Margaret Sanger territory we're getting back to here. This guy is introducing eugenics.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Or maybe he just figured that people wouldn't be aware of the term "dysgenics".

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Maybe he thinks any reference to genes in any way is eugenics?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Who knows?

[Ketogenic Paleo]

"the healthy are lucky" ... or maybe the healthy are smart and know something the fatalistic unhealthy don't?

[Tonio]

And intelligence is itself a form of genetic luck.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Limbaugh link

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/da.....s_must_pay

[Raven Nation]

It still seems to be off, but he seems to making an extrapolation:

"This is not me. This is Jonathan Gruber at MIT. When you start talking about winning the genetic lottery, you are talking about a belief in eugenics. And the belief in eugenics is that some people and maybe some races -- ask Hitler -- some people and some races are inherently genetically inferior and weak. That's what he's saying here. Genetic lottery winners, there are some genetic lottery losers. What does that make them? What is a genetic lottery loser? A victim, somebody who's weak, somebody who is always sick. And, by the same token, if you're going to believe in genetic lottery winners and losers, then the winners are who? Well, they're the genetically superior."

This is only a small cut from a really long piece.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Do you know where your Brony is?

[Rasilio]

My 11 year old Son is a Brony, He even has a Brony T-Shirt that he wears to School.

[Loki]

You have completely, utterly failed as a father then. Congrats.

[Rasilio]

Nah, I'm still gonna make him read all the Heinlein Juvies, he'll grow up fine, maybe gay but at least he'll be a libertarian.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

Okay you just went from an utter failure to an epic success. The Moon is one of the best books ever.
Also don't forget Orwell's Animal Farm; it's an extremely well-made book.
Don't make the mistake some of my English teachers made of giving you kid morally/ideologically correct but boring or difficult books; that'll make people not want to read, thinking either books are boring or that they're not good readers. (Shakespeare should be banned from highschool except in Drama classes.)
Have you considered Game of Thrones?

[Rasilio]

I'm sure he'll read Game of Thrones on his own (in a couple of years when he's old enough for it) and all my kids are already Whovians (even though haven't watched any Dr Who since like 1992 because I just haven't got any time for it)

He's just now finishing up with Harry Potter and over the Summer I found a stash of Heinlein Juvies at a used book store, Citizen of the Galaxy (my favorite), Rocket Ship Gallelio, Between Planets, Starman Jones, Podykayne of Mars, Starship Troopers, and a couple of others.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land we'll wait till he's closer to 16 cause of all the sexual issues explored in it

[Ketogenic Paleo]

You might as well also give him
give him this at 16. That was designed to be read by academics, and some university professors use that sole book to teach courses, so I suggest giving it to him on summer break. But I found it readable in my mid-twenties with no formal medical education*, or even much knowledge of biology. Tom Naughton made a documentary that's more simplified and entertaining; click my name for his YT channel.

*I'm a bookworm and a geek; raided University bookstores for fun when I was in high school. I took a paper psychology test in elementary school that identified me as INTJ. So learning that stuff might be easier for me, but I find that if you have a passion in what you're reading/learning you'll learn fast. The stuff Gary Taubes talks about will certainly stir the passions; your kid would have to be a zombie to not get upset/interested in this stuff.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

That book, BTW, is marketed for and talks a lot about obesity, but the really interesting parts are all the history of nutrition research and the little chapters where Taubes talks about the other diseases of civilization.
You might also want to check out Weston Price's work
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html
and/or checkout the paleosphere / paleo blogs. What's paleo? It's one part smelly hippies, one part caveman luddite wannabes, and eight parts scientific, evolution-based nutrition. If you wonder why do they have to call a science-based approach to preventive medicine/nutrition "paleo" specifically when everyone should be promoting up-to-date science, you need to read that book and watch that Fat Head documentary. I'll give you a hint: Government was involved. Disaster ensued.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Former NFL cheerleader convicted of sexual abuse of a 12 year old, avoids jail time

A former NFL cheerleader accused of following a 12-year-old boy into a bathroom, fondling his penis and offering him oral sex has been spared jail, it has been reported.
Elizabeth 'Leigh' Garner, 42, who was charged with sexual battery and solicitation of a minor for child rape has instead been sentenced to 18 months probation, TMZ.com reports.
Garner is understood to have pleaded no contest in October. As part of her conditions she must stay away from the boy and his family, submit to drug testing and attend AA sessions twice a week.

Garner had been released on a $30,000 bond and had faced more than eight years' prison. She was expected to go on trial this month.
According to Murfreesboro police, the married Nashville woman, who cheered three seasons for the Tennessee Titans until 2008, was at a party in February when she tried to seduce the boy.

The boy told police that Garner asked him whether he'd 'ever been with a woman' before she tried to pull down him pants.
He then bolted from the bathroom and told his mother what happened, who reported her friend to police.
Garner later told detectives the alleged assault was all a misunderstanding, 'that she was drunk that evening and she got the boy confused with a man' who was also at the residence.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Nope. No double standard at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

she tried to pull down him pants.

Did she offer him many wampum?

[Mad Scientist]

It sounds like she was trying to get some wampum.

[Rasilio]

"When it came to her diet, she explained in the 2008 article that she stuck to 1700 calories a day and ate mainly vegetables."

Well apparently she eats some meat

[fish_remote]

Well apparently she eats some meat

Not on the evening in question!

Am I a dick for wondering what this kid was thinking?

Had I been in his shoes they would have needed the jaws of life to extract me from her various orifice(s)...orifici? Well you get the point!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I dunno, 12 is pretty young. He may not have even gone through puberty yet so I can see why this would freak him out.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, I can't say I'd have run out of their and told my mom or even stopped her but at 12 I wouldn't have exactly been an enthusiastic participant.

I didn't even start thinking about girls till I was 15

[fish_remote]

Okay...! Resolved ....fish is a dick!

[Bobarian]

Do you like fish sticks?

[playa manhattan]

Somebody give him the "luckiest boy in america" medal.

[OldMexican]

He then bolted from the bathroom and told his mother what happened, who reported her friend to police.

Look, the woman is hot, but if I were back being a 12-year-old boy, I am sure I would've bolted out of there as well. Young boys like to play doctor with girls their age, not with 40-year-old women.

[Suthenboy]

I must confess, at 12 I woulda jumped on that.

What are we raising our sons to be these days?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Each kid is different, but 12 is just barely out of or even still going through puberty.

14, to me, would seem to be the age when most boys would jump at that.

[playa manhattan]

11 for me.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

She's a woman. She'll get parole. No wait... she got parole. Women are always victims, always helpless, always blameless. Men are incapable of being victimized.

[cavalier973]

If she had done that to any of my sons (before they turned 18), no one would have ever found her body.

Stupid pervert; the boy's not "lucky" because some crazy bitch gets her jollies off molesting children.

[The Late P Brooks]

Sidewalks are free, Chubby.

THIS IS WHY VIRGINIA POSTREL HATES US

[Winston]

When did Reason ever give a fuck about decorum?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm guessing when Postrel was editor.

[Winston]

Wasn't this published in her time?

http://reason.com/archives/200.....tcontainer

[Marc F Cheney]

I vote this the new Virginia Postrel meme.

(Voting is how memes perpetuate, right?)

[Swiss Servator craves R?sti]

A Poll!

[Mad Scientist]

Where's Emily when we need her?

[playa manhattan]

I worry about Emily. She's very "at risk" in the comments section.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Poll-Girl gonna have to slap somebody around here?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Even though Tracy Oppenheimer is the most attractive Reason staffer, IMO.

[Fluffy]

Tracy is attractive, but Emily is seriously top shelf.

[Irish]

The Late P Brooks|11.15.13 @ 5:22PM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom

THIS IS WHY VIRGINIA POSTREL HATES US

[Snark Plissken]

The L.A. Times editorial board's lonely defense of Obamacare

It's possible that this whole mess could have been avoided had Obama told the public, early and often, that the only way they could keep the policy they had before the healthcare law was passed was if they kept renewing it without change. He didn't do so, which is why he finds himself in full retreat today. But we're not joining him.

So people simply got their insurance cancelled because they didn't renew it? All Obama had to do was tell people to renew their policies?

[Fatty Bolger]

was if they kept renewing it without change

I assume that particular "they" means the insurance companies, but you never know.

[Suthenboy]

I agree, this whole mess could have been avoided if the president were not a pathological liar, the giant steaming pile of shit would never have become law.

[Killazontherun]

http://www.politico.com/story/.....html?hp=l6

"There's nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says that your insurance company should cancel you," she told reporters. "That's not what the Affordable Care Act is about. It simply didn't happen."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at the time the statement was made, it was accurate. The problems with the messaging came when people interpreted Obama's comments "expansively."

"You understand that if you had a policy on the day that this bill was adopted, you got to keep it," Hoyer said. "Now, you didn't get to keep it if the insurance companies didn't want to offer it to you."

Half of the geniuses that comprise the Democratic leadership quoted above. Miraculously, the rest are even dumber.

[paranoid android]

So people didn't actually lose their insurance, but if they did lose it, it was only because it wasn't real insurance, and even if it was real insurance, it was still necessary for them to lose it so that they could be forced to buy more expensive policies in hopes that the rest of Obamacare will work, but the President is going to do everything he can to make sure that people can keep the plans that they didn't lose and deserve to lose and will undermine this whole enterprise anyway.

Do I have the Democratic position on this issue more or less summed up?

[Killazontherun]

You got it. And if the people forget all of this in a years time, my coven is ready to summon the Shub-Niggurath to end this national farce.

[Virginian]

Shub-Niggurath

RACIST!!!!!!!

[OldMexican]

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said at the time the statement was made, it was accurate. The problems with the messaging came when people interpreted Obama's comments "expansively."

Yes, stupid people get what they deserve for taking the words of the president expansively. It's all their fault.

[fish_remote]

Yeah that whole "Hope and Change" thing....that was just a throw away.....nobody took it seriously!

http://tinyurl.com/gullible-voter

[Suthenboy]

I wish someone would track that moron down and ask her how that turned out and what she thinks now.

[fish_remote]

I'm guessing that she feels exactly the same way.....with just a hint of doubt creeping in.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says that your insurance company should cancel you," she told reporters. "That's not what the Affordable Care Act is about. It simply didn't happen."

Or, put more succinctly...

LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA!

CAN'T HEAR YOU!

LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA! LA!

[The Late P Brooks]

"There's nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says that your insurance company should cancel you," she told reporters. "That's not what the Affordable Care Act is about. It simply didn't happen."

The BEST.

The BRIGHTEST.

[The Late P Brooks]

FYI- Coyotes are much more discreet in places where you can shoot them on sight and they know it.

[Lord Humungus]

ha! I spent today masturbating working from home. Take that, capitalist dogs!

[fish_remote]

You should try masturbating working at work too! Very stimulating!

[db]

From another thread, but I wanted to address it:

We're all familiar with airline safety theater ? the pretense that when the plane is obviously stuck on the tarmac for lengthy delays everybody is supposed to stay seated with everything stowed as though the plane was going to leap up into the air suddenly and begin its flight. The dog didn't need to be "stowed" while the plane was just sitting any more than anybody else needed to be sitting with their seat belts fastened, seat backs up and all gadgets turned off.

This is not an airline thing. While it may be theater, it is an FAA regulation, and it applies to all aircraft. If I, as a pilot, allow any passenger to unbuckle their seat belt duringtaxi, takeoff, or landing, I am in violation ofthe Federal Aviation Regulations, which can result in revocation of a pilot certificate.

[Francisco d Anconia]

This is an absolute fact. FAA regulations take precedence over common sense.

People generally blame the airlines for the ass-pain they experience (and some of that's justified). But the majority of it is government regulation.

You a pilot db?

[db]

I am a student pilot. Should be taking my private checkride any day now, if the weather would cooperate and the examiner gets a free block of time.

[Francisco d Anconia]

A word of advice...on your checkride...

Don't suck!

No pressure. 😉

What are you checking in?

[db]

I have a '79 Warrior that I got a few months ago. I was sick of competing with all the students at the local community college for rental time and I knew a guy who knew a guy who had one for sale...

I think with all the issues I've had with it so far, I would have had my license in September if I'd stuck with renting 🙁

Anyway, I'm well on my way to getting the reliability problems fixed (transponder crapping out, mostly, and my home airport is within the Mode C veil of Pittsburgh, so I need it).

[Francisco d Anconia]

They are a lot of work.

Good luck on your check.

[db]

Thanks!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

This is a sincere Tweet:

Happy for #SFBatKid, but can't help but wonder if this would happen for a kid who isn't white. Let's put energy into solving societal ills

? Catherine (@shaketini) November 15, 2013

[removed][removed]

[fish_remote]

No shit....another white guy keeping the black man down by bogarting all that lymphocytic leukemia privilege!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Also sincere:

@RichmondDistRic and I'm entitled to voice my opinion, especially as a cancer survivor.

? Catherine (@shaketini) November 15, 2013

[removed][removed]

[Anonymous Coward]

@RichmondDistRic and I'm entitled to voice my opinion, especially as a cancer survivor.

I wasn't aware that surviving cancer imbued one with greater mental faculties or moral authority.

And the kid getting to play Batman for a day probably had more to do with the fact that his dad was a police chief (Professional Courtesy) than with him being white.

I'm sure the police chief of Detroit could arrange the same thing, but Detroit is more like Bludhaven than Gotham.

[playa manhattan]

She's got some hate in her heart.

[fish_remote]

Maybe she can survive that too!

Useless bitch!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Politics aside, many SJWs are just awful people. I pray I never have to interact with them in real life.

[Fluffy]

OK, I have figured out the Postrel thing.

This is reverse psychology to get us all to sign up for the cruise.

Just to be dicks.

Which we can't resist.

[playa manhattan]

You forgot about the part of her plan where she doesn't show up.

[cavalier973]

And then the boat mysteriously sinks.

[Rasilio]

Waitress given anti gay propaganta for tip becuase of short hair

Am I the only one that thinks this one is totally made up?

I mean I have some of the most offensive hardcore fundamentalists around in my family and none of them automatically assumes a woman with short hair is gay. They might make a crack about thinking she was a man, especially if she was wearing pants but she'd have to basically tell them she was gay to their faces or do something that demonstrates she was gay like kissing another woman in front of them

[Suthenboy]

I agree.

The gunshop where I hang out is full of pretty solid SoCons and owned by a lesbian. I dont really know anyone who disparages gays much.

False flag.

[Generic Stranger]

To be fair, armed gays don't get bashed.

[Suthenboy]

Heh. Good point.

And as usual, to make everyone jealous, I got a new one yesterday.

One of these in .357

http://www.uberti.com/firearms.....tleman.php

I now have single actions in every caliber but .41. Six in 45lc. The quest begins.....

[Ketogenic Paleo]

Yes, the only explanation is that she's basically a theocrat/religious fanatic. Except if she were she'd try to "convert" teh gayz into Christianity. Maybe that's what she thinks she's doing. Or maybe she's a very rare type of homophobe. Most SoCons also don't go around killing/beating up gays, yet some people do. Some people are also white nationalists and neo-nazis. Those people are statistically rare but they do exist.

OT: I think the way SoCons get stereotyped so much as bigoted rednecks can function to their advantage; it means they'll self-regulate more and call people out on their idiocy. It is the idiots, the ignorant people and those that aren't smart in any political movement that can ruin it.
SoProgs let their idiots run around free-range and they make themselves look crazy by comparison. They only get away with it because they've successfully smeared all SoCons as bigoted violent rednecks, but that doesn't make the crazier ideas of the CoProgs any less crazy

[Ketogenic Paleo]

I'm not saying SoCon stereotypes are good I'm saying it's a pyrrhic victory for the Left.
Also, if conservatives were smart and could organize as well as the Borg they'd avoid/play defensive on SoCon issues and attack left-wing economics. SoCons are the conservatives' kryptonite, but economics are the Left's kryptonite.
Just look at somethign as simple as the monimum wage. Walter WIlliams wrote a book about how white racists in South African put up a minimum wage for blacks to disenfranchise them. It would be easy to create bulletproof talking points about the minimum wage being anti-poor and racist.
Milton Friedman's negative income tax if implemented would allow, at the very least, the government to be cut and deregulated, and for people to actually see how much money the poor get from the gov't... not 100% libertarian but a great conservative idea that no liberal could ever argue against.

[Ken Shultz]

"Economics are the Left's kryptonite."

Economics is often about why we shouldn't do certain things--because of the likely consequences in the future. Because of that, most voters think of economics the way we think of horoscopes.

They don't believe this stuff until after it actually happens. You tell them that something's gonna happen, and they don't believe you. Once it happens, you get some credibility--but it's for all the wrong reasons. You were right about that last one, so we'll trust you for a while. ...at least until the next time you start talking about economics.

In other words, they might believe you in retrospect--after it happens. But by then, they're all going to pretend like they knew what was going to happen all along--and that they were against it from the get-go.

In the meantime, you won't score many points by telling people we can't do something like ObamaCare without some really bad tradeoffs in the future. All they hear is that one side wants to give them a free unicorn and that you're totally against it.

That's why they call economics "the dismal science".

That's why it's so important for the Republicans to jettison the social conservatives. It's hard enough to win by arguing about economics and so much harder to win despite the social conservatives making fiscal conservatives and anti-tax people look like the bad guys all the time.

[playa manhattan]

Yup. Once this went viral the first time, it started popping up all over the country. I would love for the local media to interview her, get a copy of the receipt, and track down the family. Something tells me the woman wouldn't cooperate with this, though.

[playa manhattan]

This was in agreement to the false flag comment.

[Tonio]

OK, I know it's natural to assume that one's own experiences are representative. But the existence of people like Westboro Baptist proves that there is at least a small nexus of people in the US who engage in extreme, dickish homophobia. The next tier down is a larger group of people who engage in less-extreme, less dickish homophobia. And so on.

[Ketogenic Paleo]

Maybe it is a hoax, maybe not. She wasn't a fanatic trying to convert the waitress, which would make more sense as some fanatics have a way of totally losing touch with reality, with no one to tell them how crazy they're being. Also the way they mention she's an ex-marine is a little suspicious... but maybe coincidental. Then again, this looks like she had a total herpdy-derp moment. don't underestimate people's capacity for retardedness, combined with the Law of Large Numbers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds exactly like that Red Lobster waitress in Tennessee who posted the altered receipt on Facebook.

[Virginian]

Am I the only one that thinks this one is totally made up?

http://www.reddit.com/r/thatHappened/

Lot's of totally true stories like that here.

[Kid Xenocles]

First!

[Mad Scientist]

Oh, man, now you're going to be on Fist's "kill without mercy" list.

[Kid Xenocles]

Worth it.

[nipplemancer]

What's that? You want a soap opera starring nothing but people with down's? Here it is:Downistie.

[Ken Shultz]

I think it's great that somebody gave progressives a chance to do something productive.

They're going to need a lot of encouragement if they're ever going to learn to live independently.

[cavalier973]

Started a new playlist: "Sitting in a Nineties Cafe"

No Ace of Base or Hootie, even though they were extremely popular back in the day.

[Juice]

But you did manage to cram it full of all the other radio garbage that came out back then. Good job.

[cavalier973]

It was the Nineties.

[JidaKida]

Sounds like a plan

http://www.Privacy-Web.tk