Swiss Reject Cap on Executive Pay in Referendum

Reason

Swiss voters have rejected a proposal that would have made it illegal for anyone at a company to be paid more than 12 times the lowest paid employee's wage.

From The Financial Times:

Swiss voters have decisively rejected a radical proposal that would have made it illegal for companies to pay any of their staff more than 12 times the wage of their lowest earner.

Executive pay has been a hotly debated topic in Switzerland in recent months, with the country voting in March to ban golden hellos and golden goodbyes, amid popular and political outrage over revelations that Novartis planned to pay its outgoing chairman, Daniel Vasella, SFr72m ($79.4m) as part of a non-compete agreement.

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Comments

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

In other words, Swiss voters aren't Occupy-stupid.

[Dibbler]

In a country where no one is rich, everyone is poor. Except the nomenklatura.

[Killazontherun]

And prostitution doesn't exist, except to service the nomenkatura.

[Sevo]

You have to wonder why in hell something like this even ends up on the ballot.

[IDPNDNT]

Wealth envy.

[Irish]

The Swiss have a long history of hyper-Democratic proposals. They vote on far more issues through referendum than most countries do.

It's actually worked out for them. They have a debt brake, very low deficits, and one of the freest economies on the planet. They've also got something like 2.5% unemployment.

[Cytotoxic]

Their central bank is fucking it up IMMENSELY. They've decided that the delicate export sector must never cope with a high Swiss-Euro exchange rate, so they've effectively pegged the Franc to the Euro and are printing to keep it that way. They are importing Euro-inflation and have control on capital inflows. What they really need is strong lamp-posts.

[The Late P Brooks]

Capitalist stooges.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fellow one percenters, join with me in flocking to Switzerland. Their electorate is sheepish and ripe for exploitation.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sorry, too busy waging an economic war on Venezuela and it's Bolivarist revolution. They shall kneel before the Viscount or be destroyed!

[playa manhattan]

I'm thinking about it. How are the beaches in Switzerland?

[Episiarch]

Cold and snowy. But the chocolate is great!

[Suthenboy]

Quite good apparently.

http://www.motorhomeroadtrip.c.....iss-lakes/

[SQRLSY One]

I'm thinking about it. How are the beaches in Switzerland?
...
The beaches, they are a bunch of high-up, frozen lake-side bitches!!!
The bitches, they are blonde, buxom and bitchin'!

[SusanM]

I'm in

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

BROOKS WAS HERE

[Snark Plissken]

Actually his brother was in prison and he has an extremely daring and well-thought out plan for breaking him out.

[Ted S.]

If you're going to say the voters rejected it decisively, you ought to quote the portion of the article that gives the actual results (or exit polling if the results aren't final).

[Irish]

From CNN:

The "1:12 -- for fair wages" initiative, which proposed capping executive salaries at 12 times the lowest paid employee's, was rejected by 65.3% of voters, and failed to win majority support in any of the country's 26 districts.

65.3-34.7 is probably a bigger win for free enterprise than you'd get in America on the same proposal.

[Dweebston]

No doubt a little outdated, especially given the timeframe, but I suspect a solid majority of Americans continue to subscribe to the Fuck You, Gimme Mine school of economic thought.

[Ted S.]

SEIU on radio in NYC running ads blaming the Philippines typhoon on "climate change". WTF?

[playa manhattan]

It's so diabolical that it doesn't even make sense!

[Ted S.]

The tone of the ad was mostly, "You should thank all those Filipino nurses." But it ended with something along the lines of, "Also, you should vote for people who will address the root causes of climate change."

[RannedPall]

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4326233
Found this gem shared on Facebook by a rather lefty friend of mine. Thought I'd share this with you all. HAPPY SUNDAY.

[SweatingGin]

"There's no way to structure this coherently."

Hell of an opening line.

[VG Zaytsev]

But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of. for them

Surely no bullshit will follow that caveat.

[playa manhattan]

I saw that more than a few times yesterday.

"When I got pregnant the first time, I was living in a weekly motel. I had a minifridge with no freezer and a microwave."

Poor or not, at no point does this bad decision make "perfect sense".

[General Butt Naked]

I cannot fathom this need to procreate among people that can't afford it. It boggles my mind.

And I'm not saying this as some snob that's never been poor (I've been dirt poor my whole life). I have never, ever, considered knocking someone up in my financial position. It would be an insane thing to do.

[playa manhattan]

I saved up for 10 years before I was ready. Kids are goddamned expensive.

[Episiarch]

That line alone says absolutely everything you need to hear. I mean, it's the perfect confession to being a fucking moron.

[juris imprudent]

But our wealthy society owes fucking morons a comfortable, joyful life and we are just hard-hearted mean motherfuckers for refusing to recognize that.

Do you understand NOW?

[Brett L]

What if we pay them to be non-fucking morons?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I choose cigarettes over dental care. I'm not asking for sympathy, just understand that I can't think straight because of emotional and mental defects.

[SweatingGin]

" I've spent a lot of hours impaling roach bodies and leaving them out on toothpick pikes to discourage others from entering. It doesn't work, but is amusing."

I'm going to be ableist for a moment and point out she might be fucking nuts.

[playa manhattan]

And cooking broccoli is hard.

[juris imprudent]

You have to be able to pay attention so that it isn't so crunchy that even Euell Gibbons would spit it out and so overcooked that it isn't even a decent soup.

[Swiss Servator, kirsch anyone?]

+1 bowl of r dry Grape Nuts

[RannedPall]

Well to her credit, she does point out that not all of what is mentioned is her, and that some is just "random observation", whatever that means.

[juris imprudent]

And of course my lefty FB friends are all on about "see, this shows how crushing poverty is".

[Irish]

Tell them about the fact that the woman claims to be a political consultant and spends enormous amounts of time tweeting.

It almost sounds like the entire story is a lie and they're gullible morons.

[General Butt Naked]

Reminds me of Chad Henderson, who has quietly slipped away into the night.

[Michael Ejercito]

Who was that?

[General Butt Naked]

Who was that?

If this is for me...

It was some college kid that claimed he signed him and his father up for great benefits on the 2nd day the obamacare exchanges opened. He was all over the place as an obamacare success story until it was discovered that his story was a fabrication.

He was also a campaign worker. Funny how these sympathetic stories keep popping up with the protagonists working for politicians.

[Sevo]

"Reminds me of Chad Henderson, who has quietly slipped away into the night."

I gotta assume the kids got all sorts of e-accounts, but he has disappeared from the face of the earth.

[juris imprudent]

Oh they've been shown to be gullible and they've all gone very quiet.

[Bardas Phocas]

It's got more than its share of 'truthiness' to it.

[Rhywun]

All it tells me is how easy the Left fall for trolling - and not even very good trolling at that.

[Irish]

Wow. That's some crazy shit.

I feel like this person would ruin her life completely regardless of how much money we give her. If we gave her 5 million dollars, she'd blow it on lottery tickets and end up in a roach infested motel within two weeks.

[General Butt Naked]

Exactly.

I think that the problem with a lot of lefties is that they hold onto this noble working-class proletariat, marxist bullshit, but haven't spent enough time outside their upper/middle class enclaves to know that a lot of poor people are just shitty people that have no interest in long term goals.

Not that every poor person is like that. A lot of us try to work hard to get out of bad situations and realize that a big, bullying government only seeks to keep us downtrodden.

Take how hard/expensive it is to find a place to live: do you think landlords would need five types of ID, four professional references, first and last months rent, security deposit, perfect credit, etc if it wasn't so hard to evict someone? Of course the government meddling into an interaction between tenant and landlord is going to make things more onerous; it's getting people to see that.

Or how about the cost employers must incur to hire low-skilled workers. It costs them so much(via government manipulation) that it's inevitable that their hiring criteria is going to be more stringent, thereby creating an artificial barrier for the poor.

[Suthenboy]

^This.

Driving past a poor village in mexico once one of the passengers lamented about the conditions those people were living in.

I asked him what would happen if I gave (pointing to one hut) that guy a million bucks. In a year would he be running a fortune 500 company he built, or would he be back in a straw hut with pigs and naked kids running around in the yard, flat broke.

His answer; " Yeah, I see what you mean."

[jesse.in.mb]

I got into it with a friend over minimum wage and a similar thing.

I think the author of the article does have a point though. People raised in poverty conditions do seem to do poorly at long term planning. As a kid there was always a sense that any money we had would get hoovered up by the car breaking down so we might as well spend it on small enjoyable things and scrape together whatever was needed to fix the car when it happened.

It took some unlearning, but I swung hard the other way and save obsessively. I actually have a hard time granting myself luxuries now.

[Dweebston]

Especially since the Patriot Act passed, it's hard to get a bank account.

Porque, hombre?

Not that I care for the PATRIOT Act, nor because I'm especially in love with government intervening between banks and customers, but I'm at a loss to know how the PATRIOT Act impinges on one's ability to secure a bank account unless her name appears on OFAC.

[Agammamon]

The Patriot Act requires you to provide a street address (not a mailing address) to open an account - though you can always make one up, technically its a federal crime to do so.

I've had problems with this while I was in the Navy - A barracks room doesn't exactly have an address and a good chunk of the roads don't actually have names, 'how does room 25 in building 341 on Unknown St sound?'

[Irish]

You mean onerous banking regulations might hurt poor people?

Does the government know? I'm sure they'll be around any day to fix the problem.

[DesigNate]

That'a unpossible!

[playa manhattan]

So what do they do? Pay you in cash?

[Agammamon]

No, I just made up an address (and committed a felony) so the USG could send my money direct-deposit (which they required in order to pay me) to my account.

Funny thing is, when I first joined (1990) they *were* paying you in cash.

Well, a check. Disbursing had one table set up to pass out the checks and another right next to it to cash them if you wanted.

[AlexInCT]

Government at work creating employment for us all, right there.....

[playa manhattan]

I must have missed that on the first read.

Even my cleaning lady, who definitely isn't in this country legally, has a US bank account.

[Dweebston]

EXPLOITER. I bet paying her isn't the only thing you do under the table, IS IT?

[playa manhattan]

$20 an hour and I make sure the government doesn't steal any of it. I'm very proud of it actually.

"I bet paying her isn't the only thing you do under the table, IS IT?"

There are also in-kind language lessons. Every week, I spend 30 minutes teaching her english, and she teaches me spanish. All without filling out the proper government forms.

[Dweebston]

Oh, well, carry on.

[Rhywun]

You monster.

[AlexInCT]

Pinche cabron...

[0x90]

Cleaning woman? Cleaning WOMAN?? CLEANING WOMAN!!??!!

[prolefeed]

Are you objecting to him using comparative advantage to improve both of their lives?

Or just being obscure?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I want Rachel Ward to be my little heinermacherfrau.

[Episiarch]

I can only approve of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid references. You just put your finger in the hole and make tiny little circles.

[juris imprudent]

Dude, didn't you read the disclaimer - random thoughts, etc.

[Hawk Spitui]

I have to ask - how do ever get a libertarian government implemented in country full of people like that?

[DesigNate]

We can't.

Look on the world and despair all ye who love liberty and freedom.

[playa manhattan]

Guns

[juris imprudent]

An open border with a rich, stupid neighboring country.

[Hawk Spitui]

You may be on to something - a quote from a wit from another forum?

When I run for president in 2014, my platform will be to end poverty in the US by sending all the poor people to Canada. My program will instruct the poor on the best way to sneak across the border. My administration will work aggressively with the Canadian government to grant legal status to these emigrants and ultimately citizenship, to help ensure the poor do not attempt to return to the US.

Under my presidency, the US will seal off its southern border to prevent the illegal immigration of additional poor people into the US (we are, after all, a nation of laws).

The resulting absence of poverty in the US will affirm the soundness of my administration's economic policy, and assure my reelection to a second term. Meanwhile, the economic and social policy of Canada will be proven a failure, evidenced by the epidemic of poverty there, especially among minorities. Welfare entitlements for the new Canadian voting citizenry will become popular planks in the platforms of Canadian politicians for generations to come.

[Agammamon]

Except he doesn't realize that 'poor' is defined by those in the bottom quintile of income.

If you get rid of the bottom quintile then the next group up becomes poor - he'll actually be *creating* poverty by his policy.

Jesus was right - we'll always have the poor - just not for the reasons he might have expected.

[Dweebston]

We know that the very act of being poor guarantees that we will never not be poor. It doesn't give us much reason to improve ourselves. We don't apply for jobs because we know we can't afford to look nice enough to hold them. I would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm," which is a nice way of saying "gtfo, pov.

The plaintive bleating of the Stockholm-suffering wannabe serfs. Poverty once meant taking pride in staying afloat; poverty to her means taking pride in helplessness.

[Irish]

What law firm wouldn't want to hire a legal secretary who admits that she doesn't want to try to be middle class, is intimidated by broccoli, and doesn't know how to set up a bank account?

[SweatingGin]

Maybe it was the impaled roaches that didn't fit the image.

[Irish]

I like that progs just take the word of people like this. Her own writings make her look terrible, but we must all unquestioningly believe that the reason she hasn't gotten that legal secretary job is because she can't afford to dress nice.

I'm sure that the type of person living in a motel who impales roaches would be a stupendous legal secretary if only we'd provide her with a nice dress.

[prolefeed]

but we must all unquestioningly believe that the reason she hasn't gotten that legal secretary job is because she can't afford to dress nice.

As someone who is currently wearing all clothing bought at thrift stores, I call bullshit on the notion that you can't dress reasonably professional for about $30 to $40 or so. Hell, if you plead poverty to a sympathetic store clerk, and explain that you have a job interview tomorrow, they'll probably knock the price down to whatever you have in your pocket.

[Swiss Servator, kirsch anyone?]

Well, I've got $20 in my pocket...

[gimmeasammich]

+1 Macklemore

[Agammamon]

Exactly, it *must* be discrimination!

[Dweebston]

Christ almighty, the more of this I read the more convinced I am that welfarism isn't a predominant driver of dependence, just a cofactor. This is a woman in love with being pathetic. I have beau-coup sympathy for the working poor, being a shade above it, but this infernal financial nihilism ("I make bad decisions, but they're the only decisions I can make!") robs any compassion I might have. Mistakes are not things to revel in, not badges of honor, however inured to living them she feels.

[Lady Bertrum]

I didn't read her whole article because it immediate screamed bullshit to me. I grew-up trailer park, welfare, free school lunch poor and no one I knew held two jobs and attended college (part-time or community) and was married.

Two jobs, married, and attending college is temporary poor; it's the kind of poor you eventually work your way out of.

Generational poverty is unemployed or disability payment poor. It's unmarried mothers and criminal record poor.

And, oh, I worked my way out of poverty like so many others before me. The writer is full of shite.

[Irish]

I don't believe her either. Someone who would hold two jobs, take college courses, and get married is not the same person who gets pregnant while living in a motel with no refrigerator.

I especially wonder what her husband is doing. Even if she doesn't make much money, with the dual income of two parents, it's very unlikely they'd actually be living in poverty. The poverty line is like 24,000. Are you really telling me that a married couple with the wife working two jobs is making less than $12,000 a piece?

[Dweebston]

I guess that puts me under the poverty line. But the mistakes I enjoy making are easily affordable. And I buy my own condoms.

[Lady Bertrum]

From Comments:

Linda Tirado, poor person, wrote this in her money-winning essay:
The closest Planned Parenthood to me is three hours. That's a lot of money in gas.

Linda Tirado, who lists her job as political consultant, wrote this on her Facebook page:
August 13, 2011
"Imagine how committed you have to be to travel for, say, six hours round-trip to Ames to sit in an un-air-conditioned tent in August in the hope that your favored candidate will win a fake election."
https://www.facebook.com/l.w.tirado

For someone with two jobs and, a child, a husband and going to school full-time, she sure blogs and tweets and reddit's an awful lot. The sheer number of tweets by her is epic. How does she pay for internet service. If she is just using wifi from somewhere else, then she is never at home or never working.

I make $15k a year at age 61. I'm not complaining. But I'm completely dubious of her intentions.

The author is lying about her situation.

[Suthenboy]

"Linda Tirado, who lists her job as political consultant,.."

"The author is lying about her situation."

Remember Lady Bertrum, the left never, ever argues in good faith. Ever. Of course she is lying.

[VG Zaytsev]

I especially wonder what her husband is doing.

"I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini"

That line is dripping with feminist contempt for men that I've never encountered among actual poor people.

And you're other point is correct too.
Two people both working 2 minimum wage jobs would have an income of at least $800/wk - $42,000/yr - not great but also not 'poor'.

[Agammamon]

Depends where you are - the COL where I live is so low that $42,000 is a pretty damn good income.

You could easily afford a 1,500 sqft *house* on a 1/4 acre (or larger) lot, paying around 25% of your (after tax) annual income in mortgage for example.

[AlexInCT]

Not if you are spending all your money on lattes, smokes, andmicrowave burritos. If you do those things you gonna need to make mo money...

[VG Zaytsev]

I didn't read her whole article because it immediate screamed bullshit to me.

Yep, it's what a trustifarian imagines poverty to be like.

Some much bullshit and so many fell for it, including most of the commenters here.

[VG Zaytsev]

Some

[playa manhattan]

"attending college is temporary poor"

Not if you're pursuing an "education" in grievance studies.

[Dweebston]

Retraction: I think I'm reading this all wrong. The author isn't some dumb bint obsessed with her own abysmal failings, and intent on making more of them; she's an intelligent, creative racketeer pulling on the heartstrings of liberals better off than she. I hesitate to call it scamming, because she's providing a service (giving her mawkish benefactors a feeling of charitability) akin to selling indulgences. We may be witnessing the birth of entrepreneurial grievance-peddling in the body of this formerly dirt-poor working mother.

[General Butt Naked]

Looks like she's raking it in.

[Dweebston]

Another Annita, then?

[Dweebston]

-n, apparently.

[juris imprudent]

akin to selling indulgences

BOOM. The Holy Church of Progressivism.

[prolefeed]

would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm,"

Perhaps she is unaware of the polite euphemism for "You're not good looking or professional looking enough?"

[Kreel Sarloo]

What the fuck??????????

"Free" only exists for rich people. It's great that there's a bowl of condoms at my school, but most poor people will never set foot on a college campus.

Who the fuck "needs free condoms?

You can buy about a months supply just about anywhere for about two days worth of cigarette money.

[Suthenboy]

"This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense - There's no way to structure this coherently."

No shit.

I have seen in great detail many examples of why poor people's bad decisions are......bad decisions.

Who all remembers the discussion the other day about the hood rat girls fighting? Many of the chronically poor manage their money the same way they manage their personal relationships.

Linda Tirado is full of shit.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Suthenoy, when I gave some of my educators a raise, they ran out and bought themselves brand new cars.

Guess what? They complain about their salaries.

I explained to them I'm not there to subsidize their lives. They could have gotten a second hand car like I did.

But noooo, they want the bog salad.

The Tirado's of this world are indeed full of shit. She expects me to sympathize with her work/life schedule? Please.

[IDPNDNT]

It's lifestyle inflation at it's finest.

I'm always amazed to see people who make 80k/yr bitch about how they have no money and they're broke.

Makes you want to ask how they were able to live making a 5th of what they do now.

[Dweebston]

The best you can say about this, besides that she's monetizing her poverty POV by suckering in the condescending affluent, is that she's casting light on the notion that bad decisions breed more bad decisions?which isn't exactly earth-shattering, and more to the point her pleas for understanding (even while denying she's begging for pity) suggests that rather than treating poverty as a condition, a treatable disease, we should treat it as an identity to be accepted, even cherished.

We cisaffluent bigots just don't get it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow. That was some load of sophomoric gibberish.

Welcome to life pal.

Rich people this, rich people that, I can't, I only, I smoke, blah, blah.

[Irish]

This deeply impoverished woman sure has spent a lot of time posting on Jezebel in the last month.

[Irish]

And here's an article she wrote on a blog two years ago. See if you can spot the parts that might poke holes in her story.

I started kindergarten a year early. I went to an exclusive private school where we didn't have grade levels. They grouped us by age and we had workbooks in different subjects depending on our ability level. When my parents transferred me to a closer school with normal grades, they put me in fourth grade. I was seven. They wanted to put me into fifth grade, but my parents thought it would be too difficult for me socially.

School in Utah was a bit of a joke. I'd never really been to public school except for one half of seventh grade. My freshman classes were essentially review of stuff I thought was fifth-grade level. I did take German and Spanish that year, and it turns out I'm kind of good with language. By the time I graduated high school, I was fluent in German, French, Spanish, and Italian. I got awards for that too.

I had private music lessons from the age of four. I was an award-winning singer, piano, and flute player by seven. I owned twenty-three instruments when I was twelve. I toured Europe as a featured soprano the summer after I graduated high school.

Will no one weep for the mulitlingual private school students with twenty three instruments?

[Suthenboy]

Holy shit. Read the 'battertits' bit.

This woman is a grievance monger through and through. That is her life. Everything that happens to her is colored by oppression. I would rather stab myself in the eye with a sharp stick than spend an hour in her presence.

She should tell us next how the arc of the sun and phases of the moon are evidence of the patriarchy.

[Irish]

For the record, I'm only 95% sure that blog is her. It's from a few years ago and uses the screen name she has on twitter, Jezebel, and reddit.

It's a grievance monger with the same screen name though, so I figured it's almost certainly her. Killer martinis isn't exactly a common nom de internet.

[General Butt Naked]

It is.

On the fundraising site that I linked to above she gives the same story. Even has the same odd tone of self-pity and arrogance.

[Irish]

This is ridiculous by the way:

My parents marched me into the middle school to register, because we simply couldn't register on the second day when we could arrive in a car unremarked. I was known as U-Haul Girl after that. They warned the administration that I was a problem child. My English teacher checked my wrists weekly for signs of cutting, which my mother was apparently afraid I might start doing at the first opportunity.

Oh, you poor darling! You got made fun of on the first day of high school...what? 10 years ago?

How did she ever survive long enough to lie to millions of people on the internet?

[prolefeed]

But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of.

Well, I can see how poor people might be reluctant to explain anything to such a condescending ass, much less hang out with them.

I've known plenty of poor people, OTOH, and have some idea of why they were poor, and whether that was likely to be a temporary or permanent condition with that particular individual.

[Luddite]

Hold on a minute, I think we're not completely thinking things through.

Do banks accept well-written business plans for "grievance mongering services"? I have an incredibly cynical idea, that in this day and age would be certain to garner just metric shitloads of cash based on the ~$60k this fraud has raised with the bleeding-heart set on her fundraising page.

I mean, if we're all such heartless bastards, might as well make a few bucks off the situation huh? Or is that too Republican a stance to take?

[Ted S.]

OT: For the people who think the libertarian purity test includes declaring Daylight Savings Time the most evil thing ever:

Icelandic doctor suggests lack of DST causing increased depression in Iceland

(Now, I wouldn't agree with the doctor's thesis: Iceland is in UTC all year round, even though geographically they should be in UTC-1.)

[playa manhattan]

If you're prone to S.A.D., you shouldn't be living in Scandinavia.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I joke with my wife about this. On my calendar, DST day is labeled "Happiest day of the year" and MST day is "Saddest..."

I think we should just leave it Year round. Who cares if you go to work in the dark?

[playa manhattan]

I actually prefer going to work in the dark, I feel more productive.

[Agammamon]

I don't feel more productive, But I'd rather start in the dark so that I have sunlight when I actually will use it - after the end of the work day when I want to go and do something.

[playa manhattan]

That's pretty much what I meant, you just said it better.

[gimmeasammich]

I used to work very early in the morning and would get off around 9 AM. Having 7-8+ hours of sunlight every day even in the dead of winter was really nice.

[Snark Plissken]

My friend who was living in Kaliningrad really enjoyed being on permanent DST.

[Swiss Servator, kirsch anyone?]

Wait.... how do you put "lived in Kaliningrad" and "enjoyed" together in the same sentence... without the word "leaving" in it?

[Michael Ejercito]

I wonder if there is similar concern about the pay gap between movie stars and stage hands.

[Suthenboy]

None whatsoever.

In fairness though, people in the movie industry work whatever jobs they can get to stay in the business. On one movie they may be stagehand, on another they may be lighting or photo director, on another they may be a driver or a caterer, and on another they may be acting in the movie. They all aspire to be actors or directors, but they usually end up working every imaginable position. I never heard anyone gripe about stagehand pay even when they were stagehands.

[Michael Ejercito]

I wonder why the lack of concern for this wage gap.

[playa manhattan]

Probably because they aren't fully aware of it. A lot of movie star contracts are heavily back loaded.

[Mickey Rat]

Movie Stars are production. The conventional wisdom seems to be that CEOs do not do much of anything of actual value for their companies.

[Damned Fool]

O/T: Teen held for three years without conviction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJMR56H6MA0

[Jerry on the boat]

Clearly them Swiss are all a racist bunch.

[Irish]

Start your week with microaggression!

The facts concerning prostate cancer are clear. According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER), the survival rate for prostate cancer is 99.2 per cent. Black males are also twice as likely to develop, and die with or from, prostate cancer than white males. This begs the question: who are all these white cisgender men fundraising and growing moustaches for? This is not to say that SEER statistics are without fault, as they fail to show any facts outside of the established and outdated gender binary. No wonder Movember is exclusionary to trans* people: how are people who do not identify with that binary and have a prostate supposed to partake in this cause? This is also because there are no facts concerning their demographic, and the campaign in question specifically targets cisgender men.

In other words, white people shouldn't raise money for a disease that kills a lot of black people. It's better that white people just let black people die than engage in microaggression.

[Episiarch]

You, and all of us, would be far better off ignoring complete racist scum like this. I know you think it's amusing to point out how retarded they are, but really, they need to be shunned and ignored and not even mocked, just treated like the intellectual pariahs they are. The internet has allowed total human garbage like this to find other total human garbage and think that they aren't alone; they need to be shown that they are.

[Irish]

I feel like pointing out the fact that this person thinks black people should die rather than being microaggressed upon is worth pointing out.

It's worth pointing out because morons like this think they're the ones who are opposed to racism, even though they're the largest racist group in the country.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Irish, the comments were priceless in destroying that piece of shit. I feel better that when push comes to shove, cooler and smarter heads will prevail.

Congrats though on finding what's perhaps one of the worst articles I've ever read in my entire life. Mind you, it's a university rag.

[playa manhattan]

From the comments:
"People with moustaches also have a tendency to invade Poland."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Can I have a rimshot?

Sevo's link to an online rimshot has changed my life. I've been clicking it after every sentence today. My wife is about to kill me.

Blow me!

/rimshot.

[SweatingGin]

Your microagressing with your correct grammar and spelling.

[Suthenboy]

..You are....or You're...

Ooops. I guess I need to be slapped down for microagressing as well.

[SweatingGin]

Don't mansplain spelling and grammar to me, opressor!

[playa manhattan]

Hypothetical. Imagine you are a volunteer at a suicide prevention hotline and you answer this guy's call. What would you say?

[Agammamon]

Jump?

[playa manhattan]

That's probably the nicest thing I would say.

[Matrix]

"Remember, it's down the road, not across the street."

[prolefeed]

Hypothetical. Imagine you are a volunteer at a suicide prevention hotline and you answer this guy's call. What would you say?

"As a libertarian, I fully support your right to make decisions about your own body, which you own."

If I got him fired up enough, he might forget about the suicidal thoughts in his white hot rage at my thoughtcrimes.

Assuming I'd volunteer to work there instead of insisting on getting paid.

[Winston]

Isn't it nice to see such racist scum in one of Canada's most elite universities? And in Quebec at that?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Dude, you don't know the half of it.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013.....uebec.html

This is a letter to the NYT from two PQ putzes comparing their retarded, xenophobic charter and by extension anti-liberty behaviors to...get this...Thomas Jefferson.

Not our most shining moment to say the least.

McGill, by the way, is a top 20 or 25 university in the world. It's a shame that this was attached to them.

[juris imprudent]

Jaysus Epi, we're only human and mocking this kind of stupidity is one of the bases of humanity.

I would mock him right up to the point that he killed himself in despair, and then I would mock him for that.

[playa manhattan]

At no point in this guy's life will he ever be a productive member of society.

[Dweebston]

This begs the question: who

No, that's not... aw, to hell with it. I give up.

[Suthenboy]

Whut? I read that 2x and all I get is that somehow if whites raise money to help fight a disease that disproportionately kills blacks its....because they arent really raising money to help blacks? Or something.

Also that Ralph Haddad has no idea what 'begging the question' means.

And then there is this; "Movember is exclusionary to trans* people: how are people who do not identify with that binary and have a prostate supposed to partake in this cause?"

Uh....by putting some dollars in the collection jar?

What a bunch of horseshit grievance mongering.

[Dweebston]

You know what sounds binary? Whether or not one has prostate cancer. And I'm certain those on the losing side of that binary are more than happy for the support, whoever spearheads it.

[Ted S.]

The more I read things like this, the more I want to argue that wearing pink ribbons in October is morally evil.

[Bill Dalasio]

...cisgender....gender binary...Movember...exclusionary to trans* people...

I'm sorry, but the moment you feel the need to couch your argument in bullshit pomo terms, you've pretty much locked your place on my "To Be Mocked or Ignored" list.

[Matrix]

See, I have no problem with a large salary discrepancy.

A hospital has a janitor who is paid $20k/year and a chief of surgery who makes $400k/year. I have absolutely no problem with this. The surgeon is far more valuable and more difficult to replace than a janitor.

Sorry, progtards, but go fuck yourselves. Swiss voters got it right.

[The Late P Brooks]

"When I got pregnant the first time, I was living in a weekly motel. I had a minifridge with no freezer and a microwave."

[The Late P Brooks]

how are people who do not identify with that binary and have a prostate supposed to partake in this cause?

More importantly, what makes these people think I should care?

[The Late P Brooks]

I seem to have fucked up my italic tag, up there.

Did the woman in the Roach Motel decide to have a baby because a "no pets" policy meant she couldn't just get a dog?

[SweatingGin]

Maybe the army of roaches impaled on pikes was meant to be toys for the kid.

[Snark Plissken]

You know, like Miss Irene is a lady that helped raise me.
She brought over some dressing with almonds in it and stuff. It was great. We had fun till somebody found some legs on one of the almonds. Brother was eatin' it and said, "Say! There's some legs on my almond."

-Richard Pryor

[CharlesWT]

"..., with the country voting in March to ban golden hellos and golden goodbyes, ..."

What about golden showers?

[AlmightyJB]

It wilk be interesting to see what the swiss do with this refendum.

http://www.businessinsider.com.....ve-2013-10

[AlmightyJB]

One would think that if this was what they consider a minimum level of substanance then the vast majority of swiss mkst likely make more then this amount already. So if you apply the 12-1 ratio to this proposed minimum income you're at over 400k a year.I would think only a very small percentage of ththe population have an income that high so yeah as suspected the 12-1 proposal was nothing more than feel good occupy bs that has no effect on society whatsoever but to further limit freedom.

[AlmightyJB]

Obviously there are a lot more negative effects to wage controls then limiting freedom. Was using that more as a catch all.

[Ted S.]

Anybody like NFL ties?

[Episiarch]

No. The overtime rules are stupid. But if Minnesota and Green Bay can't finish the deal, fuck them. Also, the Giants suck. Really hard. Why can't I have gotten the Jets game instead? Oh wait, they suck too, and they lost. Thank Jeebus the Seahawks are 10-1.

[DK]

Rob Ford does.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I love ties. They break up the shitty NFL imposed tiebreakers.

Now Green Bay is .5 game behind Detroit in the Norse Division instead of even.

[Warrren]

I've long thought that ties in all team sports should be treated as losses. None of this half-game crap.

Also no overtime or extra-innings. If you can't get it done in regulation than that's too bad for you.

Coaches would alter their late-game strategy to account so their would likely be very few games that end in a tie.

[Ted S.]

There's nothing wrong with ties.

[Warrren]

There's no reason for them. Just change the rules.

And while I'm changing rules, except for the last two minutes in a half no more stopping the clock on incompletions or runner out of bounds.

Let's get these games sped up. Instead of 3 hour games get them down to 2 hours and have early, noon, and late afternoon games. Three tiers of games instead of two.

[Some call me Tim?]

The pace of the games is fine. 3 hours of football is actually entertaining, unlike baseball.

[Warrren]

Imagine 3 tiers of games across the 4 broadcast networks.

That's 12 games during the day plus SNF for 13 add in MNF and TNF and you get 15 games a week on TV. That's some entertainment. 30 hours of available football a week. And only one game a week left out except for it's region.

During bye weeks you could see all of them and none of it requires having a dish or cable.

[SweatingGin]

Extra innings are exciting as he'll. so are extra periods in hockey playoffs.

Granted, I don't need that much adrenalin every week.

[Palin's Buttplug]

This ought to stir you Peanuts up a bit:

Bank of America Is About To Take Outsourcing To Whole New Level

Bank of America To Replace Local Tellers With Low Wage Video Conferenced Tellers

Meet your new local Bank of America teller who is talking to you from Mumbai, India

http://mfi-miami.com/2013/11/b.....new-level/

A $200 PC could replace 900,000 bank tellers. Don't give me the shit about "all the programming/stenographer jobs" it will create. It is nothing more than fucking I-phone Facetime at work.

[General Butt Naked]

A $200 PC could replace 900,000 bank tellers. Don't give me the shit about "all the programming/stenographer jobs" it will create. It is nothing more than fucking I-phone Facetime at work.

ENGLISH, motherfucker, do you speak it?

[Palin's Buttplug]

You don't know what "Facetime" is, do you?

[General Butt Naked]

Sure do, and it's nothing like what is going on here. Giving your juxtaposition of strawman and ignorance an ESL interpretation was me being charitable, asshole.

[Sevo]

Yeah, Jed, the looms are going to starve people just like last time.

[Cytotoxic]

Jimmies status: unrustled.

Way to betray yourself comrade.

[Sevo]

Oh, and you ought to send the link to the folks who just voted themselves a fantasy 'minimum wage'; they'll be getting the *real* minimum wage soon.

[Irish]

Think about the thousands of hansom cab drivers put out of work by the nefarious automobile!

Do you idiot luddites ever bother changing your arguments? I guess the only thing you like more than ancient technology is ancient and already refuted talking points.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Say good-bye to sweet old Marge who has dutifully managed the drive-thru window at the local Bank of America branch by your house for so long she worked there when it was a locally owned bank and remembers when you opened an account for your son who is now a parent of a teenager. Say hello to Manoj in Mumbai, India or Keshia in Orlando, Florida.

So not only is PB retarded, he's also a racist too.

[Irish]

HAHAHAHAHA! And look at the quote at the top of the article:

"Too often, man becomes clever instead of becoming wise, he becomes inventive but not thoughtful and sometimes, he can create himself right out of existence." -Rod Serling

It's from a fucking twilight zone episode. We're really dealing with some intellectual titans here.

[Episiarch]

No, it's a sockpuppet; its entire purpose is to say stuff that riles people up. There is nothing it hates more than you ignoring it. I suggest you do so.

[Rhywun]

Yeah - its caricature of the typical lefty racist is a little too pat, isn't it.

[General Butt Naked]

I guess Manoj or Keshia aren't human enough in the author's eyes to be allowed to talk to "real Americans".

And who the fuck is "Marge"?

I never see the same people at the bank. Mostly because I don't go in the fucking bank as it's a fucking pain in the ass to deal with what going into the bank entails, i.e. waiting in line and talking to bored tellers.

I, for one, welcome our new Hindroid overlords.

[Sevo]

Just checked the link.
Pretty sure is was Sowell who used Giannini as an example of 'culture'; he was of Italian family and used his knowledge of Italian honor to offer loans on a handshake after the '06 quake.
According to Wiki his family was from Tuscany, not Sicily, so, no, he wasn't a 'Mafioso loan shark'. Same source makes it clear he was one of the first 'retail' bankers.
Is there anything left that isn't a lie in that link?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://mfi-miami.com/2013/11/b.....new-level/

Sevo, he was from Genoa.

Still, if I were a shrieking liberal I could swear there's some bit of racism going on in there.

[Sevo]

Pretty sure Genoa is in the Tuscany region, no?
Lemme check. . . . . . . .
Ooops; it's in the Piedmont, just west of Tuscany. Sorry.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Damn. Wrong link. Sorry.

Too lazy to relink. But like you, couldn't find anything tying him to being a loan shark. If anything, he was pretty industrious.

But that's a left-winger for you. Tenuously try to link a successful entity to some illegal activity at its foundation.

Palin is such a butthead.

[Hawk Spitui]

It's not that Bank of America anymore, anyway. That Bank of America was acquired in 1999 by Nation's Bank, who decided they liked the name and adopted it.

[Bill Dalasio]

Oh, come on, Sevo, he was....Italian. He just HAD to be a mafioso.

[Irish]

Yes, Bank of America, the bank founded by a mafioso loan shark named Amadeo Pietro Giannini is replacing sweet old Marge with a low wage employee from a low wage state like Florida (here's an actual job application for an opening in Jacksonville, Florida) who will connect with you via video conferencing using a modified ATM machine.

Shorter article: Jobs flee over-regulated high tax states for more business friendly locations. Liberals throw a hissy fit and use racist rhetoric as they are horrified that their socialist utopia fails once again.

[Tejicano]

"Don't give me the shit about "all the programming/stenographer jobs" it will create."

I know I've stepped on my crank here before due to the fact that I haven't lived in the US for a couple decades but is anybody in any corporation in the developed world still paid to be a stenographer even for part of their work day? I cannot imagine it.

[playa manhattan]

Yes, in legal proceedings.

Where did you move to, and is it awesome?

[Tejicano]

So I wonder how off-shoring jobs is supposed to increase jobs in the law industry? Oh, it's shreik so reality doesn't apply.

I've been living in Japan. Mostly for the internationally focused work which is one of the few things Japanese industry really gets. The pay is better too.

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

Bank of America To Replace Local Tellers With Low Wage Video Conferenced Tellers

Oh, that will improve earnings! Better call my broker tomorrow.

A $200 PC could replace 900,000 bank tellers. Don't give me the shit about "all the programming/stenographer jobs" it will create.

I don't care what you think, you pompous ass. By reducing costs, the bank seeks to improve operating costs and thus improve its bottom line, which will always help investors and the rest of the employees. It also releases more capital for more investment in new banks and services.

[Suthenboy]

I assume commenting has slowed because you are all getting tanked in preparation for The Walking Dead.

No tanking here, frying fish and shrimp that marinated overnight in hot sauce.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, inequality is the same as poverty. There is no difference whatsoever.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/.....ng-america

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit bitching about inequality. Remember we live in a meritocracy where liberals like Buffett, Jobs, Soros, Gates, Brin, Page, Ellison, Zuck and the like make the most in billions.

[Suthenboy]

You never told us you had a video up on the Youtubes Shriek.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0cosKhRdbA

[General Butt Naked]

No tanking here,

You're fucking dead to me.

I think you need to seriously think about the wagon and whether or not you want to be on or off. This half-drunkard shit is a black mark upon the Drinking-American community.

[playa manhattan]

Wait, what kind of hot sauce? Your reputation is on the line....

[Agammamon]

I don't watch TWD because I can't stand *any* of the characters and the zombies never kill them off despite the fact that the motherfuckers are like ninjas! Standing completely invisible 5 feet away from someone - as long as the camera isn't on them.

[Sevo]

Suthenboy|11.24.13 @ 5:57PM|#
"I assume commenting has slowed because you are all getting tanked in preparation for The Walking Dead."

The Niners aren't playing until tomorrow.

[Some call me Tim?]

Hey you shut your filthy mouth!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Just got back from watching The Hunger Games. It was a good action movie, albeit too long and it has the craziest scene involving lightening since Back to the Future.

As for the political themes, I don't see anything in the government of Panem that's remotely libertarian. Everything is highly centralized and there doesn't appear to be any sort of market economy. Presumably everyone in the district works and produces according to quotas.

Rhetorically the government's ideology is pretty much "We're All in This Together, But Don't Forget Who's In Charge", which is something your average prog would gladly adopt if given dictatorial power.

So I'd say this movie is libertarian given how awful it depicts centralized government.

Oh and I really do hope there is a special place in Hell for people who talk during the movies.

[Warrren]

There is, they share it with child molesters.

[playa manhattan]

It's Sunday. Jugwine time comes early!

[Agammamon]

Well, I just got back from seeing the new Thor movie. My recommendation - Netflix some day when you're really really bored and don't want that to change.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Thor is the second lamest Marvel superhero that's allowed to headline a movie. Second only to lame-ass Wolverine.

[Warrren]

Hulk doesn't make for good movies either.

[jesse.in.mb]

I saw it yesterday. I was impressed that they managed to make such a bad movie.

[Pope Jimbo]

Screw that. I think I have been more entertained by clever audience members in Memphis than I have been by the actual movies.

Now that we have moved back to Sunny Minnesota it kills my daughter and I to sit through stupid movies without talking. All the passive aggressive shusshing from the locals is really sad.

Is your main grievance with the movie talkers that they are saying stupid stuff? Well remember, censorship is bad the best way to respond is with more speech. Engage them in a couple rounds of the dozens. Everyone wins!

[Rhywun]

Oh and I really do hope there is a special place in Hell for people who talk during the movies.

People still go to movie theaters? Sometimes I get dragged by friends but my god the experience in my own house is like 1000 times better in every way.

[Episiarch]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That was an incredibly stupid touchdown, but the Giants have to take what they can get.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What, you Yanks aren't watching the 101st Grey Cup?

[Warrren]

The what now?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

C...F...forget it.

L.

[Boisfeuras]

Who won? The Rough Riders, or the Roughriders?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

hahah a CFL joke that ceased to be relevant in 1996.

[Episiarch]

Look, I have to watch the Giants seemingly want to lose. It's just what I have to do. Hey, maybe Eli can throw another inexplicable pass!

Broncos/Patriots will be interesting, though.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Giants win streak was bull shit. They barely beat the Eagles with a 3rd stringer. How fortunate of them to have faced them at that point.

[Eduard van Haalen]

James Taranto does an inquest on the filibuster, determines cause of death:

"...The abject failure of ObamaCare has made the prospect of a Republican Senate in 2015 and a Republican president in 2017 much likelier. Thus even from a purely partisan standpoint, rational Democrats would have been more cautious about invoking the nuclear option when they did than at just about any other time in the past five years.

"In his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow," which we quoted in May, psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains the idea of loss aversion:

""When directly compared or weighted against each other, losses loom larger than gains. This asymmetry between the power of positive and negative expectations or experiences has an evolutionary history. Organisms that treat threats as more urgent than opportunities have a better chance to survive and reproduce.

"That insight is the basis of prospect theory, which posits that people will take bigger risks in the hope of minimizing a loss than in the hope of maximizing a gain. The psychological impact of the loss itself clouds one's thinking about the risks of magnifying the loss. That explains why the Democrats went nuclear just as the perils of doing so multiplied."

http://online.wsj.com/news/art.....1380873648

[Eduard van Haalen]

forgot ellipses before second quoted paragraph and close quotes from the Kahneman excerpt

[Suthenboy]

President 'I found out by reading the news just like you' is desperate for anything to take the spotlight off of the train wreck that is obamacare.

This aint gonna do it. Obamacare's dumbfuckery is snowballing and will continue to do so.

In a week no one will remember this. It, like most stories out of washington, are mere abstractions to people. Obamacare, on the other hand, is going to make every man, woman, and child feel some serious pain, pain they will blame directly on him. That is what Shitweasel does not get.

Senate rules will only come up again after 2014 when the Republicans have the senate. Then the Dems will be tearing their hair and howling to have the rules changed back. Of course the party of stupid will probably comply.

[Generic Stranger]

The Republicans should re-institute the rule....after a lengthy period of rubbing the Democrat's noses in it.

[Restoras]

I think you are right Suthenboy. ObamaCare is a slow motion trainwreck that is going to hit a lot of people really hard. And when the employer mandate kicks in it will be even worse.

They don't get it because they live in the worst bubble in the world.

[playa manhattan]

"Organisms that treat threats as more urgent than opportunities have a better chance to survive and reproduce."

Ain't that the truth! Why, just last week, I a saw a suspicious man lurking around the neighborhood, and I burned my house down to keep him from robbing it!

Go ahead, Rufus, post the rimshot link.

[Sevo]

"Organisms that treat threats as more urgent than opportunities have a better chance to survive and reproduce."

There's an econ analysis of the same phenomenon that comes to the same conclusion for other reasons:
The more you have of a good, the less you value a unit of that good: If you have $1, you really value another $1, but if you have $1M dollars, one more ain't gonna ring your bell.
Hence, losing $X is more stressful than gaining $X is comforting; the first moves you in the direction of greater unit value.

[playa manhattan]

I think that is the entire premise behind QuiBids. People will way overpay to keep from losing a (modest) bid.

[Sevo]

Haven't heard of QuiBids, but it sure explains why folks will ride an equity to the ground.

[Thane is a cosmotarian!]

I wish I had thought of QuiBids. Such a great scam.

Of course, even if I had thought of it I would have said "nah, people would never be stupid enough to pay for bids, right?"

[playa manhattan]

It's a notoriously crooked online auction site where you lose your bid if it doesn't win the auction..

[Sevo]

playa manhattan|11.24.13 @ 9:07PM|#
"It's a notoriously crooked online auction site where you lose your bid if it doesn't win the auction."

Is it crooked or just trading on that bit of knowledge?

[playa manhattan]

They advertise their site to people who don't have that knowledge. They run their TV ads between hearing aid and rascal scooter commercials...

They don't get much repeat business, to say the least.

[Kid Xenocles]

That's not a crooked auction, it's just a radically different type of auction. If you know the rules up front and all parties abide by them, it's not crooked - you just have to recalculate your strategy.

[playa manhattan]

QuiBids uses artificial bids originated by their own staff to drive up prices. I consider that fraudulent.

[Sevo]

playa manhattan|11.24.13 @ 9:43PM|#
"QuiBids uses artificial bids originated by their own staff to drive up prices. I consider that fraudulent."

Ah, yes, the 'ceiling bidder' (auctioneer points toward ceiling, says 'we have $X bid, now do we have $Y?'.
That is fraudulent; there is no legitimate bid in that case.

[Kid Xenocles]

I hadn't heard that. That is crooked if true.

[Warrren]

All tied up.

[Episiarch]

Not any more. At least the Jets...oh, wait. Never mind. Why the fuck is this a bye week for the Seahawks? I need a win!

[Warrren]

Quit whining, you get an MNF against the Saints and that's going to be a hell of a show.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"The PLO terrorist group Black September demanded his release in exchange for hostages in 1973, recognizing that he was "one of theirs."

"Yet of 5755 hits for "Sirhan Sirhan" in the ALLNEWS database on Westlaw, only four of them refer to him as a "Palestinian terrorist" or "Palestinian extremist;" three of these sources are the Jerusalem Post, and one is the New York Jewish Week."

http://www.volokh.com/2013/11/.....ssination/

[Thane is a cosmotarian!]

Rufus, are you a school principal or something?

[Warrren]

Let's just say he spends a lot of time keeping kids in captivity.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Oregon group promotes religious-freedom initiative -

http://www.oregonlive.com/mape.....hat_w.html

[JidaKida]

I guess America is not the only country run by the rich FOR the rich!

http://www.Privacy-Planet.com

[Eduard van Haalen]

Governor of Wisconsin good re unions, not so good re executive clemency -

"Scott Walker is the first Wisconsin governor who has stated that he will not pardon a single person during his governorship....

"By refusing to even consider pardoning anyone, Walker is putting aside an important constitutional power and missing an opportunity to give worthy, rehabilitated people a second chance."

Curiously, the author, an attorney, says this: "The point of a pardon, however, is not to say that the person being pardoned is innocent."

http://host.madison.com/ct/new.....5714b.html

[Alice Bowie]

An asshole is an asshole is an asshole is an asshole.

[Alice Bowie]

I am all for limiting EXECUTIVE Salaries.

But 12 Times the lowest paid person is CRAZY.
If the lowest paid person made $50,000 per year, the most the TOP paid would be $600,000. That is ridiculous.

Salesmen that work for commission and bring in SALES should not have Salaries CAPPED. Executives yes. I can live with, let's say, 500 Time for EXECUTIVES ONLY and ONLY EXECUTIVES in PUBLICLY OWNED Companies. Private Companies should have none of this.

[Sevo]

Alice Bowie|11.24.13 @ 8:46PM|#
"I am all for limiting EXECUTIVE Salaries."

Yeah, well, you're an imbecile.

[Irish]

Salesmen that work for commission and bring in SALES should not have Salaries CAPPED. Executives yes. I can live with, let's say, 500 Time for EXECUTIVES ONLY and ONLY EXECUTIVES in PUBLICLY OWNED Companies. Private Companies should have none of this.

You realize that would give a huge advantage to private companies because they'd be able to attract the best executive talent, right?

Who are you to give an advantage to some companies over others?

[Irish]

If the lowest paid person made $50,000 per year, the most the TOP paid would be $600,000. That is ridiculous.

I'd also like to know where you're working where the lowest payed person is paid $50,000.

[Alice Bowie]

that's my point.

12 times is RIDICULOUS even for a Limosine Liberal like myself.

[Sevo]

Alice Bowie|11.24.13 @ 8:54PM|#
"that's my point."

My point is you have no business sticking your nose in any transaction between consenting adults.
Fuck off, slaver.

[Alice Bowie]

The $73mm Bonus to Bankers is happening to Publicly owned companies.

The OWNER is not paying these bonuses to these BOZOs.

The Custodians (The Executives) who are NOT owners, are paying it.

Who owns a Publicly Traded Bank?
Everyone? No one?

Sevo, this is not a transaction between consenting adults.

This is a transactions with other people's money and a bunch of crooks.

I know. Won't say how I know...but I know.

[Sevo]

"Who owns a Publicly Traded Bank?
Everyone? No one?"
The stock-holders, you ignoramus.

"Sevo, this is not a transaction between consenting adults."
It would be if you didn't get involved. It is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Is that clear?

[Suthenboy]

You can live with someone else's pay being capped?

How big of you Alice.

I see also that you dont know the difference between public and private companies...or....aaghh! I just realized I am stupider for having read your comment.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

lol
Tom Hanks and Colin Hanks are at the Grey Cup.

[Mike M.]

Not a very good start tonight for Mr. Gisele Bundchen.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Multiple reports have linked rock star Jon Bon Jovi with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment in a bid to potentially bring the Buffalo Bills to Toronto

[Winston]

There goes any chances of appearing in another Super Bowl..

[Kill all the economists]

Monticello, NY Mayor Gordon Jenkins spews anti-white racial slurs on video

Monticello, NY Mayor Gordon Jenkins was arrested on November 16th. He was charged with traffic offenses, drunken driving, refusing the breathalyzer, and criminal mischief for punching a clock in the police station.

While at the police station he berates police officers with racial abuse and spews racial slurs non-stop. He also berates a ranking black officer as being a race traitor for not letting him go free.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Thats probably the first time in years he's punched a clock.

[playa manhattan]

Instant Rim Shot!

[playa manhattan]

Ok, it was a little bit funny.

[Irish]

Andy Borowitz is the least funny human being in the history of the universe.

New Yorker readers must be the easiest people in the world to amuse. Apparently if you just say something glib about Republicans they're like 'Hohoho! You have such a wit, young man!' as they doff their caps and scamper merrily away.

[Sevo]

Tell me about it.
"Edgy" comics in SF just get on the stage and say "BOOOOOOOOOOOSH". Dimwits laugh.
And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECI4QK_mXA

[General Butt Naked]

Andy Borowitz is the least funny human being in the history of the universe.

That was bad. Really bad.

But I think you're selling Lindy West short in the "least funniest person in the universe" award category.

[Irish]

Every New Yorker cartoon would be more enjoyable if they inked it in the blood of a New Yorker reader. At least then if the joke wasn't funny you'd get satisfaction in the knowledge that a New Yorker reader had been brutally murdered.

[Irish]

If you don't think Borowitz is worse than West read this.

Please post something after you do so that I'll know you haven't killed yourself in despair.

[playa manhattan]

He writes this shit FOR A LIVING. I wish I could be shitty at my job and still get paid.

[Irish]

This is Andy Borowitz.

He looks like Stevie from Eastbound and Down.

Stevie Janowski: I'm thinking of fixing my other weak zones too.

Kenny Powers: Oh, like your chin?

Stevie Janowski: My chin? What's wrong with my chin?

Kenny Powers: It's almost like a high neck fold.

From your profile here, it's just face, down to tits.

It's just nothin'. It's like a f*ckin' little nub at the bottom of your face.

Stevie Janowski: Yeah, my chin is sh*tty.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Its like the onion, taking what ought to be a one liner and making it into a whole article.

[Rich]

In a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning Borowitz was called "one of the funniest people in America".

I rest your case.

[AuH20]

He was a stand up? That sounds like a fate that is literally worse than death.

[Irish]

He was editor of the school newspaper, but he said, "The only thing that was interesting to me was the idea of making up the news."

So how is he different from any other reporter?

[playa manhattan]

It sounds like he went the way of Dave Chapelle. In other words, he lost his shit.

But somebody is still publishing him for some reason.

[Some call me Tim?]

He basically doesn't understand that go satire to be good, there has to be an element of truth.

[Irish]

Progressives have destroyed satire because their view of their opponents is so much of a caricature that it has no truth to it. Therefore, the only people who can laugh at jokes from a raving doofus like Bill Maher or Andy Borowitz is a crazed liberal who shares their prejudices.

No one else can find that stuff funny because it's so divorced from reality.

[AuH20]

That's a good point, Irish.

Basically, to liberals, Republicans are OBVIOUSLY all women-raping, gay-bashing, poor people hating, oil spilling evil simpletons... who are populated by just enough aspiring Bond villains to manipulate the sheeple.

Therefore, liberals satirists think it is the funniest thing ever to simply state that caricature, or exaggerate is slightly by, say, hunting the poor for sport.

But to anyone who is even a slight non-liberal, this is so obviously not the reality that it seems less funny than hectoring.

[AuH20]

I see your offer, and raise you another Lindy West article:

Dudes are such whiny baby liars about girls with short hair

Don't try to out act me, boy!

[Irish]

Jenna Jameson clarifies her endorsement of Romney.

Watch Andy Borowitz on CNN.

He seriously told this joke:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo drive into a gas station. The attendant says 'You know, we don't get many kangaroos in here. So Obama says 'At these prices I'm not surprised, and that's why we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

He actually told this joke to millions of people. He did it without shame.

[AuH20]

Lindy West drinks and reviews celebrity liquor

She wrote a love letter to the word Dude!

I have just as many nukes in my arsenal as you do!

[AuH20]

She wrote about how women are happiest at size 12!

She also talked to dudes about what "having it all" means.

Bacon and BMWs are apparently prominent.

[Irish]

Nation that waited decades for health care infuriated by slow web site.

Cruz Plans to read Affordable Care Act!

These two probably exemplify why I hate Borowitz more than West. Borowitz' terrible jokes are actually offensive because he heavily dumbs down important issues so that dumbass leftists can have their biases confirmed without having to spend one second on actual coherent thought.

West makes terrible jokes about the word dude. Borowitz makes terrible jokes in defense of a law that will devastate the economy. More importantly, Borowitz is a terrible example of how the left has destroyed comedy just like they destroy everything else. Everything Borowitz writes is favorable to the Democratic party. All of it. He is essentially a court jester at Versailles, desperately currying favor with King Louis XIII.

West is insane; Borowitz is a diseased courtesan passed around by the rich and powerful. Which is more offensive?

[AuH20]

Dude, West does the same, exact shit with bias confirmation.

Seriously. In the last month, she took on Movember

Then, she yelled at Walmart employees for being charitable to their fellow employee.

I got one more example I'll need to save for another post.

[AuH20]

My favorite one, though, is this:

More importantly, though, whether maternity care is what drives up the cost of women's heath care or not, this entire line of thinking is irrelevant.Because THAT'S WHAT INSURANCE IS FOR. Do you know how much I want to pay for your Viagra? Sooooooooo much! I am so happy to pay for that for you! I want to pay for your penis pills, your back surgery, your kidney transplant, and your deep vein thrombosis. I want to pay for your preexisting conditions, your congenital heart defects, and health problems you brought on yourself through recklessness or unhealthy habits. I want to pay for it all. Because some day, when I need it, I want to have insurance that pays for me and my kids and my parents and my friends and people all over the country I've never even met, but whom I care about because they are human beings.

...

Our society pays for the welfare of our society, to benefit the health and well-being of our society, because it is better for our society. I don't let you die if you don't let me die. If you take that structure away, if everyone only pays for the things they actually use and can afford, then guess what? ONLY RICH PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO BE SICK.

Link

[AuH20]

Ultimately, here is my point: Borowitz dumbs down issues for liberals to feel smug and superior to that. In that, he's a lot like a ton of other comedians: Maher, Colbert, and Stewart on his bad days.

West comments on politics, but she writes also about EVERYTHING. People being nice to a fellow worker. A celebrity and their baby. Clothing. To me, that epitomizes the far more odious side of progressives: That not only do they take over things like comedy- but that they can't stop there. Anything that stands against them or displeases them must be destroyed.

So, sure, Borowitz lets liberals go through life all super smug about politics. But West lets feminists smugly go through life about EVERYTHING, because totes hilarious Lindy West did a PERFECT take down of them obvs.!

[AuH20]

Oh, btw, that link was a response to Stossel's thing about women paying less. Read the whole thing. It is infuriating.

[Sevo]

..."but whom I care about because they are human beings."...

Oh, doesn't that just make you want to
SLAM THE ASSHOLE HEAD FIRST INTO THE FIRST AVAILABLE SEPTIC TANK?

[Bill Dalasio]

Damn you both, AuH2O and Irish! The sheer level of suckage from your incessant linking to Borowitz and West threatens to bring down the known universe into a proglodyte singularity of suck!

[PapayaSF]

The Lindy West piece about Jennifer Lawrence's hair was truly embarrassing. Borowitz is mildly funny at times, but he's no Dave Barry.

[AuH20]

Damn it, GBN!

You beat me to it!

OTOH, I did bring examples.

[AuH20]

Least funny human being. You might think that, there, sonny, but you'd be wrong. Now, I know you think you've stared into the dark heart of the universe, and seen unfunny, but you don't know shit. I guess what I'm sayin' is: You really want to start this with me, boy?

BECAUSE I READ LINDY WEST!

Seriously, I have so many more where that comes from.

[Irish]

First of all, CAN I PUT "GWYN THE SIDE BUM QUEEN" ON MY TOMBSTONE. Second of all, what the fuck is anyone talking about ever? Here's a handy guide to what all of these "body parts" really mean:

Cankles ??- JUST REGULAR ANKLES. JESUS CHRIST. THEY KEEP YOUR FEET ON. WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION.

Why does she always yell at me?

[AuH20]

Having read both of your examples, here is the difference: Borowitz is just a smug, unfunny writer who tries to stretch simple, unfunny one-liners for a few sentences more than they should go. He's awful.

But Lindy West is smug, unfunny, and infuriating.

At the end of a Borowitz piece, like the one on the pope, you just go, "Yeah, I got it, dude, but it just wasn't that funny."

With West, you are just going, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? HOW ARE YOU PAID TO WRITE COMEDY?"

The one point in your favor, Irish: Borowitz does write for the New Yorker, not Jezebel, so we expect a higher standard of funny from that publication. And, yeah, his unfunny shit is more insulting to the tradition of his institution... but has the New Yorker ever been that good other than the cartoons?

[Eduard van Haalen]

What do you mean? The new Yorker had a great expose of the Koch brothers!

[PapayaSF]

Are you kidding? Thurber, Salinger, Updike, Cheever, Nabokov, and many other fine writers.

[Some call me Tim?]

That's different, she isn't attempting humor.

Lindy West just writes angry screeds about how oppressed she is feeling.

Borowitz is actually attempting (an failing) to be witty. They aren't even playing the same sport.

[AuH20]

According to Jezebel... she is. Seriously, she's written numerous articles about being a comedy writer, including one (I think it was the first one SugarFree linked to, I remember it making me mad at the time) about how she was clearly funnier than people who aren't paid... because she IS being paid.

I know it is a better and more sane world to believe that West isn't attempting humor... but read the comments. Read her website. Read up on her. She, very clearly, is. And she thinks she's fucking GREAT at it.

[Eduard van Haalen]

(Adapted from Dave Barry)

The first feminist comedian inscribed the following on a Sumerian tomb in 5000 BC:

"So did you hear the one about the man? He was stupid and had a tiny organ of generation. Ha ha! My cats are laughing at this joke."

[DK]

These are gold, Andy! Gold!

A sampling:

"Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I wish mental health care were as easy to get as, say, a gun."

"As we go from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to Mitt Romney, I now understand why the Republicans don't believe in evolution."

"Congress passed the law, the President signed it, and the Supreme Court upheld it. So it must be repealed." ? Republican logic

"Let's withdraw from Afghanistan and have the army invade America - that's the only way we'll get new schools and roads."

[AuH20]

Ah, the old Republicans are so stupid style.

But, not being a viewer of his... Borowitz or Maher? Which is worse?

[Irish]

Maher is worse because his audience is the worst collection of idiots ever grouped in one place.

Also, I'd like to say that I think you may have won the West/Borowitz argument because of this line:

My love affair with "dude" doesn't have anything to do with dandies or surfing (WHAT IS THAT EVEN**), but it can be traced to two very clear and specific influences:

The footnote leads to this:

**PROVE TO ME THAT THIS IS A SPORT AND NOT A VENDING MACHINE FOR SHARKS

That is the worst joke I've ever heard.

[AuH20]

Okay, having read it 3 times, I think I can explain.

What is that even (implied "...?") is a reference to surfing. Which West implies is not a sport, so much as a convenient way for a shark to get a snack, like a vending machine. She would like the reader to offer evidence that this is not the case.

[Rhywun]

I still don't get it. I am slightly drunk, but... ah, I don't care.

[Some call me Tim?]

I get what she is saying, but it isn't a joke. I think she just has a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and frequency of shark attacks.

[playa manhattan]

And she's also a liar. Surfers are generally in good shape and can do better than that moo cow.

[PapayaSF]

I am now starting to see why Borowitz has the gig at the New Yorker: his political humor is ideological comfort food for self-satisfied liberals.

[Warrren]

So if whitey move away from an urban core it's white flight, but if whitey move back it's destroying diversity.

http://www.detroitnews.com/art...../311170002

[AuH20]

Guys, I think in my desire to win, I've made a terrible mistake: I just read a ton of Lindy West articles in the last 2-ish hours.

I NEED SO MUCH GRAIN ALCOHOL RIGHT NOW!

Oh, dear god... I'm starting to write like her!

[jesse.in.mb]

Matrix|11.24.13 @ 3:08PM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom

"Remember, it's down the road, not across the street."

[AuH20]

Thanks for the directions to the liquor store, jesse! You're a real pal!

[jesse.in.mb]

Anything to help you deal with your suffering!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

hva??

Immigrant parents should take more responsibility for stopping the wave of street crime sweeping Oslo, Norway's new prime minister has argued.

[playa manhattan]

Meh. Most of the intelligent Norwegians came to the US in the 1800's.

/Descendant of Norwegian immigrants.

[PapayaSF]

Whoa, whoa! Are you implying that immigration isn't always a Good Thing? Don't tell Shika!

[Warrren]

Goddamn Leverage was a horrible show. And it's yet another my wife decided to watch all of thanks to Netflix.

The ep she's watching now is an anti-big box store pile of feces.

All the shibboleths of how big-box stores destroy small-towns were presented as absolute fact and that they don't pay "living wages" the management are evil fuckwads willing to do anything to advance their goals and so on.

Of course they missed the plot entirely in a literal sense when it was shown that they mega-store had bought off the local government. The writers didn't go to the next level and focus on how that is the only way an "evil" store could even begin to get away with what they did.

[AuH20]

Admission time: I kind of really like Leverage.

And, if you notice, in almost EVERY episode the bad guy has a deal with at least the local pols, if not some national pols. Now, to be fair, they don't blame the government enough for these companies being in bed with them... but I like Leverage. It's a fun watch.

Look, if you're going to think through all your shows, the only show involving cops you can watch is X-Files.

[Some call me Tim?]

I dunno, The Wire is pretty watchable.

[Warrren]

Yeah the X-Files, I liked it when it was weirdness of the week but once they got into the conspiracy stuff it just got stupid.

I missed a whole bunch of episodes due to work and getting caught up was just not worth it.

As to Leverage the vast majority of their marks were evil businesspeople it goes straight to what the left thinks of capitalism and markets.

Thankfully, she's on the last few episodes. Of course that means she'll find some other thing.

Never watched the Wire. One day maybe.

[AuH20]

Eh, I also like the BBC show Hustle, where they almost exclusively target businesspeople who are often times just nasty, greedy fucks.

I like heist movies, I think, and Leverage and Hustle were like weekly heist movies.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

How to Open a Can without Can Opener

[playa manhattan]

I just shoot it several times.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Dis is good, ya?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

FACT: If there are 2 ties on the same day, the NFL converts to CFL rules for the remainder of the season.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

so close!

[playa manhattan]

Great. Obama's coming to LA tomorrow and fucking up my commute! Why? Fundraising, of course! Fuck this guy.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/st.....id=9338356

[Snark Plissken]

The campaign to repeal the 22A begins tomorrow?

[Killazontherun]

Nephew brought home a six pack of Southern Tier 2XMAS. Surprisingly excellent. It replicates a style I have no familiarity with, the Swedish gl?gg. Judging from this, its something I need to get familiar with. Orange peel, figs and nine percent abv, plus, most oddly, it has the exact same aroma that is distinctive to my own brewing. Taste, think of a whitbeir, but everything heavier, maltier and hoppier which is pretty much my on approach. Caramel malts instead of wheat and crystal.

[Killazontherun]

BTW, this is even better, though certainly try the latter if you get a chance, this though is very well balanced. Boozy without being syrupy sweet or too biting.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3818/47228

Plus, with a name like Inequity, how can you resist.