White House Still Trying to Spin Obamacare, EU Wants Spying Protection, Judge to Rule on Detroit Bankruptcy: P.M. Links

• 

  memories_by_mike / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

  Realizing the national news media is no longer cooperating with positive coverage about the Obamacare rollout, the Obama Administration is turning to local news media instead. They are also working to coordinate a media strategy with health care groups. They still seem to think that the their messaging is the problem, don't they?

• The European Union is seeking stronger protection against U.S. surveillance and the right to sue if their data is abused. Ha ha ha! Like Americans can currently sue if their data is abused.
• A judge will rule on Dec. 3 whether to allow Detroit to declare bankruptcy.
• A federal judge will allow a lesbian couple in Illinois to get married ahead of the actual day their new recognition law takes effect because one of the women is terminally ill.
• Following the negotiations in Iran, Obama is now asking for the release a former FBI agent who disappeared there in 2007.
• The Obama Administration is calling for a crackdown on political campaigning by tax-exempt non-profit groups. So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

Sure, now that he’s done running.

[Entropy Void]

He (Il Douche’) is never done running until he takes his last breath.

[VG Zaytsev]

So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

After they transfer their last dollar to Obama’s bank account.

[miley820]

Im being thankful.. Google is paying 75$/hour! Just work for few hours & spend more time with friends and family. On sunday I bought themselves a Alfa Romeo from having made $5637 this month. its the best-job Ive ever had.It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it out http://www.Buzz95.com

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Obama Administration is calling for a crackdown on political campaigning by tax-exempt non-profit groups. So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

They’ll get an exemption to continue to fight the good fight.

[jesse.in.mb]

MoJo: New Warning: Morning-After Pill Doesn’t Work for Women Over 176 Pounds

The European manufacturer of an emergency contraceptive pill identical to Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, will warn women that the drug is completely ineffective for women who weigh more than 176 pounds and begins to lose effectiveness in women who weigh more than 165 pounds.

Nooooo this changes everything for me…

[Ted S.]

It didn’t work for them this morning, either. 😉

[Auric Demonocles]

This only seems to be relevant to John.

[jesse.in.mb]

And Hugh.

[Nikki just says no]

I assumed it was a reference to your sister.

[jesse.in.mb]

Hugh Akston|8.22.13 @ 8:01PM

That’s him. Martin. He was even quicker with the self-deprecating jokes than I was. He tended to date skinny/slutty girls. I was more partial to chubbies.

Please, Nikki, my sister was only clean for a few weeks before she went back to a steady diet of heroin and meth; no chubby chaser wants on that. Now last time she was clean for an extended period of time she looked like the drag queen Divine.

[Warty]

The article doesn’t say, but I assume it’s really adipose tissue making the estrogen pill ineffective, not body mass, strictly speaking. There’s nothing magical happens about 80 kilos per se.

Also, WHY NO CENSORSHIP WHAAAAAAAAA

Calimazan ? 10 hours ago
WTF is Mother Jones doing not deleting all the fat shaming comments?
This article is important to women and we need to discuss it. Instead we have a bunch of fratbros and neckbeards saying completely horrible things without getting deleted. I’m really disappointed in this magazine.

[Mad Scientist]

We should all play nicely together and not call each other names, like the fatbros and the neckbeards are doing!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wait. Was that the dude trying to start shit (literally) with me, last night?

The complete irony of their own self-unawareness is a strong tell.

[Warty]

You were trolling MoJo?

[Lady Bertrum]

If we shortened Heroic Mulatto’s name like JLo, it would be HoMo.

[fish]

I lol’d!

But wouldn’t that be HeMu…which is funny in it’s own way!

[Brian D]

Or HeMo. If I needed him immediately, would I ask for HeMo STAT?

[Mad Scientist]

HeMo has THE POWER!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Geez, I go to the dinner table to return to this?

As I a hemoglobin mutation, I’m partial to HeMo.

[Heroic Mulatto]

As I have…

[Brett L]

I don’t know about that. LD50 is giving in mass of dose/mass of organism terms, so dosing is often a size thing. Andre the Giant had to have excess anesthesia, even compared to tall, fat people who weren’t freakishly large.

[Warty]

Could be. Fat has some effect on sex hormones, though, so I’m sure it would have some effect. Can’t tell anything from the incredibly shitty story, though.

[Killazontherun]

It’s alright, pumpkin, have another piece of cake. She’ll make primo Solyant Green, one day. Could make a fortune on those hammocks, alone. Care for a doughnut, deary? The sweet funky esters of advanced stage type two diabetes, customers will kill for that shit.

[johnl]

Alert John!

[in4mation]

That explains some things for me.

[waffles]

Realizing the national news media is no longer cooperating with positive coverage about the Obamacare rollout,

NPR reporting in! Still cooperating, sir!

[Sevo]

Isn’t that:
“Reporting for duty!”

[Almanian!]

No, no – that’s John F. Kerry!

[C. Anacreon]

NPR reporting in! Still cooperating, sir!

This. So many people I know love to say things like “Oh, I heard on NPR this morning that….” and feel like they are impressing people that they listen to such a scholarly channel rather than Top 40 radio. These same people will unironically belittle anyone who listens to talk radio or watches Fox News, as a ‘mouth-breather’. They never seem to realize tha NPR is just a well-disguised progressive version of Fox News, always ready to spread the Democrat talking points to the letter.

[Ayn Random Variation]

NPR is just a kinder, gentler MSNBC. If you don’t really pay attention, the discussions sound very reasonable, but normalizing for tone, it’s the same messaging. Grievance mongering, Obama loving, and Republican blaming all the way.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Realizing the national news media is no longer cooperating with positive coverage about the Obamacare rollout, the Obama Administration is turning to local news media instead.

When you’re Obama and the national talking hairdos are no longer pliable enough for you, you know you have problems.

[PapayaSF]

Don’t worry: once the website is fixed this week, everything will go smoothly.

BWAHAHAHA! *Snicker*

[Sevo]

Aspen has a “Vice President, Sustainability for Aspen Skiing Company”, and he’s very certain of “global warming” (he’s behind the times)
He knows we’re already suffering the effects:
“People who’ve been hammered by Sandy aren’t going skiing. And the roads to Eldora and Killington have been, in the last few years, destroyed by superstorms and superfloods.”
And he can see the future 50 years in advance!:
“If we’re looking 50 years out, Snowshoe [in West Virginia], for example, would be gone. Stowe [Vermont] will have more rain than snow, along with warmer nights and earlier springs. Squaw will still get big dumps, but the snowpack will run off faster in the spring. In fact, that’s already a done deal in California; it’s already happening.”
What a guy!
http://blog.sfgate.com/ski/201…..18358101=0

[waffles]

I believe it. As we all know skiing is one of the whitest sports in existence and has a reputation for being enjoyed by wealthy people, like golf. Skiing, being the resource-devouring sport that it is, makes many of these people feel very guilty about it. So to assuage this guilt ski areas pander to the basest of green instincts. And their king is the VP of Sustainability.

[John]

Someone living in Aspen telling the rest of America to give up their sinful consumptive lifestyles. If that is not peek derp, nothing is.

[fish]

“Right-Thinkers” are exempt.

[Almanian!]

Squaw will still get big dumps

heh heh – “big dumps” – heh heh!

[wareagle]

skiing company pays guy to basically foretell of the end of skiing. Okay then.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

“Stowe [Vermont] will have more rain than snow, along with warmer nights and earlier springs.”

What will happen to Ben and Jerry?

[C. Anacreon]

“Stowe [Vermont] will have more rain than snow, along with warmer nights and earlier springs.”

“And this isn’t conjecture here — this is a FACT!”

[Fist of Etiquette]

The European Union is seeking stronger protection against U.S. surveillance and the right to sue if their data is abused.

And who pays out on any judgments there?

[Tonio]

That’s an interesting question, Fist. I know that the US Government seized Sudanese bank accounts here in the US after the bombing of the USS Cole; that money has since been used to pay judgements against the Sudanese government in lawsuits brought by the survivors of the sailors killed. What I haven’t been able to find in only a few minutes is whether those Sudanese assets belonged to the government of Sudan or private individuals or companies.

[fish]

What I haven’t been able to find in only a few minutes is whether those Sudanese assets belonged to the government of Sudan or private individuals or companies.

That hardly matters when we’re looking for positive press Tonio!

[rts]

B.C. has highest child poverty rate in Canada

British Columbia has the highest child poverty rate in Canada, with one in five children considered statistically poor, says a report that calls for quick action to alleviate a worsening situation in the province.

What quick action, you might ask?

“Concerted government action in the form of a comprehensive poverty reduction plan for the province is long overdue,” said Montani in a statement.

…

First Call’s report card makes 16 recommendations, including increasing and indexing the B.C. minimum wage and welfare rates and adopting a $10-a-day child care program to cut the child poverty rate to seven per cent within the next seven years.

Yup, that ought to do it.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Technically speaking, aren’t 100% of children impoverished?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

The ones in my monocle factories sure are.

[fish]

You are an inspiration to us all LTC!

[Ted S.]

Have the kids become residents in schools, where the government will look after their needs. That will certainly solve the problem!

[Mad Scientist]

In my heart of hearts, I’d oppose this if someone were to seriously propose it. But there’s something very appealing in the idea of shipping every kid under 18 to a gulag far, far away from my lawn.

[cavalier973]

Just make the parents scoop the poop.

[prolefeed]

with one in five children considered statistically poor

That “statistically” tells you all you need to know about the bias of the study authors.

[Restoras]

It tells me that one in five children need more statistics.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

There it is, subsidized daycare. Unreal. Are these morons paying attention to the mess it has wreaked on Quebec who can’t even AFFORD it?

These are their solutions?

What else is new? Par for the course.

It’s funny how the welfare state keeps expanding and poverty persists. They just find new things to blame and then tax to “solve” our ills.

[C. Anacreon]

Well, that and the fact that the poverty level is a moving target. These people aren’t really “poor” like those living in huts, with no electricity or plumbing, as so many do in the third world. In western countries, to define poverty, just pick a certain distance from the mean and say everyone under that is poor.

By some definitions you could say that poverty has essentially been eliminated in the US and Canada. But then millions of government employees would have no justification for their jobs, and without a poverty level, how would you decide who gets all the free stuff?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Agreed. A lot of people who qualify as poor have nice material items – like iPhones and flat screen TVs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A judge will rule on Dec. 3 whether to allow Detroit to declare bankruptcy.

So the plan better include judges at the top of the “to pay” list.

[Tonio]

Bankruptcy is an exclusively federal thing, so not an issue.

[Long Range Boredom]

Pope slams capitalism as the new tyranny. “As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems,”

So, when’s the Vatican going to voluntarily redistribute its booty I wonder?

[fish]

So, when’s the Vatican going to voluntarily redistribute its booty I wonder?

How about ….never….is never good for you?

[C. Anacreon]

Whenever I hear “structural causes of inequality,” someone wants every single person to make the exact same income. Nothing bad would happen in a system like that, right?

[jesse.in.mb]

So, when’s the Vatican going to voluntarily redistribute its booty I wonder?

Altar boys can only be spread so thin, LRB.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Well done, sir.

[Long Range Boredom]

Admittedly, the marginal utility of altar boys has gone up recently due to Catholic demand.

[Warty]

But they can be spread so wide.

[Damned Fool]

No, that’s the altar boys’ job.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That thinking comes with the territory of a Southern Hemisphere pontiff.

[trshmnstr]

This opinion [trickle-down] […] expresses a crude and na?ve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.

Yes, but socialism, fascism and communism don’t express a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding political power. Not at all!

[Metazoan]

Nevermind that free-market economics expresses virtually no trust in those wielding “economic power” (wtf is that? having lots of stuff?). It expects people to be greedy.

[IDPNDNT]

Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.

Perhaps they should stop waiting and start working or acquiring marketable skills.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yep, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop with this Pope for a while now. I’ll take a crusty old academic like Benedict over this guy any day. Don’t remember him ever trying to reach into my wallet.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

I’m not Catholic, so he can’t reach into mine – and last I saw, the Lightworker wasn’t listening to him either (not that he needed to in order to try and pick my pocket).

[Apatheist ?_??]

I agree with you in general so I’ll restate that he is advocating reaching into my wallet.

[Corning]

The Vatican did not get its booty via capitalism.

It got it through the more godly means such as the crusades, the Spanish inquisition, the slave trade, taxing serfs and indulgences.

[Eduard van Haalen]

1839 Papal proclamation against the slave trade, citing earlier proclamations in previous centuries:

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/g16sup.htm

[Eduard van Haalen]

Crusades: Didn’t raise much money in comparison with the expenses. If more countries had joined the various crusades – which included European self-defense against the Turks – Europe could have been freed much earlier from the Turkish yoke.

[Eduard van Haalen]

One can see the glass as half-empty (Pope reaffirms longstanding Church social teaching, doesn’t join Libertarian Party), or we can see the glass as half full, as indicated by this endorsement of the H&R philosophy on immigration:

“Migrants present a particular challenge for me, since I am the pastor of a Church without frontiers, a Church which considers herself mother to all. For this reason, I exhort all countries to a generous openness which, rather than fearing the loss of local identity, will prove capable of creating new forms of cultural synthesis. How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralysing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive are those cities which, even in their architectural design, are full of spaces which connect, relate and favour the recognition of others!”

http://bit.ly/1blrFn0

[PapayaSF]

This is rather disturbing: RIGGING THE FUTURE: Obamacare Creates 50 New State Databases With No Function Beyond Gathering Potential Voter Information, Real or Fraudulent

[Almanian!]

Shocked, I am

[Almanian!]

Oh – and they’ll work *flawlessly* – unlike the rest of Obamacare’s interweb infrastructure, amirite?

[Brett L]

Yeah, I’m less concerned about this than I would have been 2 months ago.

[PapayaSF]

It’s a great avenue for voter fraud, which of course Democrats are very good at.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Pope Francis condemns free market capitalism as ‘tyranny’

Pope Francis called for renewal of the Roman Catholic Church and attacked unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny”, urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.

The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the “idolatry of money” and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens “dignified work, education and healthcare”.

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?”

Because if there is any entity on the Earth that’s as moral as the Catholic church, it’s government.

[John]

Whatever happened to that part about thou shalt not kill or how envy is a sin?

It is good to be reminded sometimes why I am a Protestant.

[Long Range Boredom]

So you can wear little rubber devices that prevent issue?

[Almanian!]

I can buy a French tickler if I want!

[Corning]

Martin Luther would kill unmarried women who became pregnant.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I’ll just leave this here:

“World Council of Churches: The KGB Connection”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/20…..onnection/

[Auric Demonocles]

And there goes the goodwill he’d been building from me.

[John]

He is a Latin American communist.

[trshmnstr]

Just like any fascist, he is well spoken, and his one-liners are amazing. If you dig into the bulk of what he says, it’s pretty much standard big government euro/latin Catholicism.

[paranoid android]

We’re talking about a guy who thinks his god has personally put him in charge of looking after things on the Earth, it should come as no surprise that he has an excess of faith in the abilities of top men.

[Sevo]

paranoid android|11.26.13 @ 4:52PM|#
“We’re talking about a guy who thinks his god has personally put him in charge of looking after things on the Earth”

And, hard as it may be to believe, the guy is an adult.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Well you shouldn’t have. He’s always stated the same Catholic teachings as before just way more showy. Much preferred Benedict insomuch as I care at all being a former Catholic.

[Damned Fool]

“You shall not steal.” No?

[Zeb]

I’m pretty sure that the Catholic church has always been OK with the taxation power. There’s a lot in the Bible about paying your taxes and obeying your rulers as well.

[Long Range Boredom]

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” was in response to the Jews paying taxes to the Romans after all.

[trshmnstr]

The context lost in that statement is that the Jews had expected the Messiah to come down and establish a global Jewish state for the previous 4000 years. This was Jesus’ way of saying that he wasn’t here to overthrow our governments, but to lead a personal revolution.

[Juice]

The actual context of the situation was that Jesus was showing the Pharisees to be hypocrites. You like Caesar’s money? The money that has his picture and says that he is God? Go ahead and prove how much you love him and worship him.

[Corning]

One wonders if the Romans, once they got a hold of the Bible, didn’t make some changes.

I am bit suspicious about that whole Pontius Pilate washing his hands thing as well.

[Juice]

Um, the whole fucking thing is made up. Jesus was never a person that walked the Earth.

[BigT]

This is demonstrably false. Josephus refers to him as the Christos. And there are a variety of 1st century carvings about him.

Most of the stories, on the other hand, are pure fabrication, often based on then-current events of note.

See, Crossan, John Dominic, “Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography” for an historian’s perspective.

[Concerned Citizen]

His disciples were tortured to death rather than renounce Him. The church grew throughout the 300 years of Christians being fed to animals. I won’t let the messengers distract me from His message.

[Corning]

Jesus was never a person that walked the Earth.

Maybe…but there was a time before the Romans took over Christianity and these Christians had a bible and one might suspect that that Bible might not have been as kind about the Romans as the one we currently have.

[Killazontherun]

Its a mystery to me why some conservatives got riled up over the book written by a Muslim on Jesus as a political rebel. His questioning of the modern Catholic interpretation of render unto Caesar discredited the pro-socialist and statist spin coming out of that in so many ways vile institution. Sorry that I’m drawing a blank on his name, and that of the book, but it’s dinner time.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Reza Aslan, perhaps?

[Killazontherun]

That’s the one, and Zealot is the book. Thanks. I’ve only read excerpts from it, but covered in depth. It may even been covered at Reason. It’ll have to go on the list.

[Restoras]

You as in You, not Them.

[MJGreen]

The old tyranny kept everyone poor.

The new tyranny lets the poor that remains to have cell phones, clean food and water, greater ease of transportation, and a few other paltry things. Oh the tyranny!

[trshmnstr]

But don’t you understand?!? The POORZZ don’t have broadband internet, 72″ LED TVs and can’t go on vacation every 3 months, they’re being excluded from teh evul “free” markutzz!!!1!

[Mad Scientist]

Plus, they live in food deserts, they’re preyed upon by fast food restaurants and mortgage brokers, and some of them are embarrassed by their EBT cards!

[MJGreen]

Really, fuck this guy. An old man dies of exposure? That never happened to the Noble Savage! He was free to g*mbol across the plains and was always given whatever he needed!

[Entropy Void]

You said “g*mbol”.

Heresy.

[Brian D]

“Thou Shalt Not Steal,” but the Pope certainly hopes some politicians involuntarily relieve the wealthy of more money via taxation.

The Derp of the Lord.

[BigT]

It seems he runs more afoul of “thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods” to say nothing of the hypocrisy of living in a splendid palace just a few miles from Rome’s slums.

[Eduard van Haalen]

One can see the glass as half-empty (Pope reaffirms longstanding Church social teaching, doesn’t join Libertarian Party), or we can see the glass as half full, as indicated by this endorsement of the H&R philosophy on immigration:

“Migrants present a particular challenge for me, since I am the pastor of a Church without frontiers, a Church which considers herself mother to all. For this reason, I exhort all countries to a generous openness which, rather than fearing the loss of local identity, will prove capable of creating new forms of cultural synthesis. How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralysing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive are those cities which, even in their architectural design, are full of spaces which connect, relate and favour the recognition of others!”

http://bit.ly/1blrFn0

[Enough About Palin]

DeKalb juror questionnaire listed “slave” as occupation option

DeKalb County jurors filling out a new on-line juror questionnaire recently were shocked to find an ugly blast from the past when listing their occupation.

In the midst of an extensive drop-down menu of possible occupations a juror could list was the option “slave,” according to a WXIA-TV report.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

should read “wage-slave”

[John]

BSDM is going mainstream I guess.

[PD Scott]

There are enough kinky people in DeKalb Co that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a couple of slaves but I thought it was a lifestyle choice, not a job.

[Almanian!]

Zed’s not dead, baby – and he’s workin’ in Georgia!

[SIV]

I throw my DeKalb County jury summons in the trash.

[Restoras]

Really? Might be a source of endless entertainment, no?

[SIV]

I showed up once.

[prolefeed]

Considering that the government is temporarily forcing people to work for the government at pay that about covers commuting expenses, EVERY prospective juror could list “slave” as their temporary occupation.

[fish]

It also confirms the reports that Pope Francis is a collectivist of the first order.

Still….kid touching aside….I’m sure that they could make Obamacare work.

[Damned Fool]

A federal judge will allow a lesbian couple in Illinois to get married ahead of the actual day their new recognition law takes effect because one of the women is terminally ill.

Not to sound unsympathetic, but is it even legal to enforce a law before it goes into effect to allow someone to benefit who wouldn’t otherwise?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I’d like to see what happens when the living wife goes before probate court and the insurance companies to collect her spouse’s property.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Insurance would not be a problem – you can name a beneficiary without being married to them. Probate only comes into effect if she did not have a will (or, some blood relative challenged – the “greedy heir” problem).

Sounds like a backdoor way to slip an opinion in finding a constitutional right.

[Sevo]

“Not to sound unsympathetic, but is it even legal to enforce a law before it goes into effect to allow someone to benefit who wouldn’t otherwise?”

Not unless you get Obo to issue a Friday evening royal edict.

[prolefeed]

Not to sound unsympathetic, but is it even legal to enforce a law before it goes into effect to allow someone to benefit who wouldn’t otherwise?

Since the legislature had the option to make the law effective “upon approval”, that is, the moment it is signed into law, and chose not to do so, the judge is literally legislating from the bench and usurping the separation of powers.

This is likely to wind up overturned if anyone appeals it.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

The Obama Administration is calling for a crackdown on political campaigning by tax-exempt non-profit groups. So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

Rules are for little people, Scott.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Hobby Lobby: Trojan Horse of the Right

You have to hand to right wing pundits. They kick ass at the bait-and-switch, particularly with their own people. They knew that throwing a major fit over the contraception mandate, no matter how much it’s dressed up in “religious freedom” as an excuse, would be understood by their followers as an attack on stupid sluts looking for a handout who just need to keep their legs closed. And that their people would not think one whit further about the implications of allowing your employer to tailor your compensation for your labor to his religious beliefs. But the Hobby Lobby case that’s going in front of the Supreme Court will not be argued on the grounds of whether or not stupid sluts need to keep their legs closed. It’s going to be argued on the grounds that a business can have a “religion”?which can contain any beliefs they want?and that they have wide berth to use that “religion” to discriminate against their employees. Maybe it will be limited to compensation, or maybe it will be bigger than that. After all, if they’re allowed to withhold benefits because they disapprove of your private life, then what else will they be able to do? Refuse to hire women at all?

Hilarity ensues as she posts post-Hobby Lobby horror predictions from Twitter.

[John]

Maybe they missed the memo that sexual proclivity is not a protected class. Provided they treat men the same way, they can fire you for being a slut, you silly fucking cow.

[Auric Demonocles]

But *gasp* slut shaming!

It’s horrible to judge people based on their actions!

[Brian D]

Unless said action is voting for the wrong people.

[cavalier973]

Or trying to follow the incorrect religious beliefs.

[fish]

If it has to do with vagina Amanda will be there. She likes pussy more than I do!

[paranoid android]

Wait, so as far as I can follow, their actual argument is that while they don’t know or care about the actual statutes, precedents, and legal arguments involved, the case should be dismissed by summary judgment because WAR ON WOMEN!!!!???!!

[#]

Welcome to 95% of all people commenting on court cases. Replace “WAR ON WOMEN” with what ever your respective talking point is.

[wareagle]

and that they have wide berth to use that “religion” to discriminate against their employees.

ah…so not being willing to pay for plan-b and a couple of other abortofascients is now discrimination.

[Eduard van Haalen]

“abortofascients”

I like that spelling.

[Entropy Void]

yup, pretty much so …

[kinnath]

Reposting from the other thread:

The Greens specifically object to four kinds of contraception?Ella, Plan B, and two IUDs?that work by preventing implantation of fertilized ova, which they view as morally equivalent to abortion.
. . . . .
The court also noted that the Greens have no religious objection to 16 of the 20 contraceptives covered by the mandate.

The actual issue is whether Ella, Plan B, and two IUDs are abortifactants or contraceptives which is a way more complicated discussion.

The owners of Hobby Lobby are suing so that they won’t pay for abortions. Apparently they don’t actually care if young, unmarried women get contraceptives and fuck whomever they want.

[Apatheist ?_??]

The actual issue is whether Ella, Plan B, and two IUDs are abortifactants or contraceptives which is a way more complicated discussion.

No it isn’t. There’s no evidence that Plan B is an abortifactant but that is irrelevant because the owner of Hobby Lobby believes that it is and that’s all that matters. He has a right to be wrong about that.

[kinnath]

There’s no evidence that Plan B is an abortifactant

I got into a raging debate with someone awhile ago about when conception begins. A biology textbook will tell you that conception is fertilization. A medical book will tell you conception is implantation. The first definition means that Plan B is an abortifactant. The second definition means it is a contraceptive.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Actually it hasn’t been shown that Plan B even prevents implantation, that’s what I was getting at. I share the first definition of conception, though I disagree that preventing implantation is an abortion for what that’s worth. I’m pro-life so it’s not like I don’t understand their concerns. Unfortunately there are plenty of pro-lifers who are also anti-contraception and that clouds their judgment on the issue.

[kinnath]

Actually it hasn’t been shown that Plan B even prevents implantation, that’s what I was getting at.

OK. That’s new to me.

preventing implantation is an abortion .

I don’t view preventing implantation as an abortion either, but many people do, such as the Green for instance. And that’s what their suit is about.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah but it shouldn’t matter if they are wrong or right about the science (though what preventing implantation is is not a science question). It really shouldn’t be something that the court litigates (and I don’t think they will be).

[Damned Fool]

It’s almost as if they’re working from a set of principles and not barely cloaked misogyny. Unpossible!

[Concerned Citizen]

Separation of Church and State! First Amendment!

[Brett L]

Warty’s true form.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yay more creepy things found off Catalina Island. NEEDS MORE OARFISH!

[Brett L]

“Props from The Princess Bride continue to wash up on California beaches.”

[fish]

Yeah Jesse…..I wouldn’t want to go in the water either!

[Corning]

Fortunately, fellow humans, these beasts are tiny.

This might be why his rape victims never report him…they never even knew he was in there.

[jesse.in.mb]

For Lady B: Seth Rogen and James Franco remake Kanye’s Bound 2 video.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don’t know if that was better or worse than the original.

[jesse.in.mb]

I can help with that:

Bound 2 and Bound 3 SIMULCAST!

You’re welcome, sir.

[Fist of Etiquette]

WHY DIDN’T YOU POST THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? Now I’ve listened to that thing three times.

[jesse.in.mb]

I’m not here to make things easy for you, FoE, but FWIW, I’m sorry. Nobody should be thrice exposed to that song.

[Corning]

“I start a fight club, Brad reputation”

Worst fucking lyrics ever!!!

[Lady Bertrum]

Thanks for that, Jesse. The sexiest bit of both videos is the hair on Rogen’s back.

Some of the lyrics:

I wanna fuck you hard on the sink
After that, give you something to drink
Step back, can’t get spunk on the mink
I mean damn, what would Jeromey Romey Romey Rome think?

Damn, he’ll get her something to drink and even refrain from getting spunk on her mink. He must be in love!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Uh-huh, honey.

[Entropy Void]

http://youtu.be/Y3TTiHRrEBE

Already posted to FB.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

The Obama Administration is calling for a crackdown on political campaigning by tax-exempt non-profit groups. So Organizing for Action is closing its doors when?

A couple things I think about this.

First, I find it ludicrous that people will still insist that the IRS going after “those” organizations had nothing to do with Obama, even after this announcement.

Second, It’s only going to take months to craft the regulations because they have to carefully word them so that they only apply to “those” organizations. Obviously we can’t have restrictions like this on right thinking, common sense people like Organizing for Action.

[Drake]

They should just Move On.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Baseball pitcher David Price: “Ladies, let your man drive”

Today, I took a break from gestating male heirs/ slaving over a hot stove/ piping down and letting the men talk to check this website called “Twitter,” where a famous base-ball player named David Price had some great Thanksgiving travel tips for ladies: let your man drive! Especially in dangerous weather! Men, you see, can drive. Ladies can’t.

David Price, who is an adult man who makes millions of dollars playing a game in Florida and who, in 2012, hurt his neck thrice while wiping his head with a towel (so you know he’s got a universal, relatable set of life experiences), issued his edict in response to weather reports that weather over Thanksgiving will be dicey.

[mr lizard]

Fuck ya, GO RAYS

[Brett L]

RANT:
People who don’t understand databases should stay out of mine. I’ve been watching people spend literally two hours (with no real end in sight) on what would be a five minute fix if they would just either let me do it, or believe me. But at this point I’d have to have a 30 minute seminar to help people who don’t want my help. So I hope they figure it out, or work Friday, but goddamn. It is hard for me to believe that there is about $200k/year of IT manpower working on trying to figure out why an insert into an autonumber field is causing errors.

My solution: “Turn off the autonumber. This is a mirror table. They already have a unique number in the sending database.” And I got a five minute bitch about how the SSIS stuff wasn’t working right.

No, monkey, the computer is doing fine.

I hate people

/RANt

[Auric Demonocles]

People often don’t realize that computers do exactly what you tell them to.

[Almanian!]

The hell you say!

[Brett L]

Apparently, at least 3 people who have made careers out of doing so. I’m out of here in 10 minutes, and they are still hard at work.

[Brett L]

People wonder how I have the time to be on the internet all day and not get fired. This is why. Because I’m the guy who fixes in 5 minutes something people have spent days working on. Its not anything other than actually paying attention to what the computer is telling you it is doing, and modifying that until what you are telling it to do and what it is telling you it is doing are the same.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Again, absofuckinglutely.

People wonder how I have the time to be on the internet all day and not get fired. This is why. Because I’m the guy who fixes in 5 minutes something people have spent days working on

My predecessor at my current job was not very competent. He would routinely take several days to fix fairly simple problems. He was the IT guy for well over a decade here, so most people just thought that was normal. I showed up and I sit around and argue with idiots on the internet all day, and people wondered if I was actually getting anything done.

[Lady Bertrum]

Brett – take a deep breath and think ‘job security’. Stop trying to be all efficient and shit. 🙂

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Good stuff Brett.

[tarran]

My god! someone has it worse than I do! 🙂

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Absofuckinglutely. One of my previous employers learned the hard way that they should have just let me fix it. I was low man on totem pole, just the IT assistant at a local branch. There was an error with a service on one of the servers. I told them that I’d run into the issue before and that I could have it fixed in about an hour or so. I was told that it was too important to trust to an assistant and to leave it alone. I tried to tell them what the problem was, but I just got sneers and “yeah, ok, whatever. Why don’t you go change a toner cartridge”.

Long story short, the fucktard they had in charge ended up re-formatting the server because they couldn’t fix it. Then, accidentally backed up the blank server to the backup media (no backups of the backups).

When they finally realized they were in over their heads, they asked me if I could travel to the main office and fix everything. I looked em dead in the eye and said “No, I’m just an assistant. That’s way beyond the understanding of a mere assistant. However, I know this consultant who would love to help. His hourly is $110” and I handed them my card from my side business.

It’s a good thing I was planning on quitting anyway.

[prolefeed]

I’d have gone with “Sure, once you give me the title and pay of the incompetent who fucked this up, and make him the assistant. Or fire him.”

[Brett L]

So the monkeys cadged together enough fixes to make it work. I think the hard way, but I’m proud of them for doing it at all.

[db]

Hey Brett, if you’re still reading here, can you tell me if you’re mining BC in a pool or on your own? Linux or windows? Any hints?

[widget]

Your malfunction is that you are a database programmer, not a database administrator. You’re not stupid enough to be a DBA? Cry me a river.

Do what you like to now and make yourself happy. Gobs of money and arthritis is about the same as some money and arthritis.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Woman to be $140 a day until she circumcises her son

TThe Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem rejected an appeal Monday by a Netanya woman fined NIS 500 ($140) per day for refusing to circumcise her son, as is required by Jewish law (halacha).

The penalty was initially levied by a rabbinical court in Netanya earlier this year at the request of the woman’s estranged husband who has demanded that the circumcision take place. The two are reportedly undergoing divorce proceedings, and the court stated that it believes her refusal was part of some ploy to save her marriage.

The woman’s lawyer claimed that the rabbinical court had no authority to order the woman to circumcise her son, who is now a year old.

“I’ve been exposed to a lot of material regarding circumcision and I have decided not to circumcise my son,” the woman, who has not been identified, told Channel 2 News Monday evening.

“I have no right to cut his organ and mutilate him. And the court has no right to force me to do so,” she went on, vowing that she would not pay the fine, which has so far reached NIS 2,500. “I don’t have the means; I’m not working,” she said.

The woman intends to take the case to the Supreme Court, according to the report.

Just the tip.

[John]

They have religious courts over there. Reason should take some interest in that case. Reason is constantly telling us how Sharia courts are no big deal. Well, what happens when someone tells the religious court to go fuck itself? Is the judgement enforceable in regular court? The advocates of Sharia courts would say yes.

[Brett L]

Uh, Jerusalem, John. This is Israel.

[Almanian!]

So Jewsharia, then. Right?

Same thing….

/derp

[John]

I know. But there is a movement in this country to let people set up Sharia courts and avail themselves of the jurisdiction. It would create a system similar to what Israel has.

[Zeb]

If the Sharia courts need some kind of special government authorization, that would seem to indicate a problem, but otherwise I don’t see how they are any different from any arbitration agreement.

[John]

See my point below. If you want the judgement enforced in court, the government is involved.

[Corning]

Don’t mix flax linen with wool!!

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Only if each party expressly concurred to have its disputes settled by religious courts. It’s not clear to me that’s the case here.

And we have the same sort of private courts here, John – it’s called arbitration.

[John]

Sure we do. But there are limits to the kinds of contracts that courts will recognize. You can’t go to binding arbitration and agree to trial by combat or that the loser must forfeit their oldest daughter into sexual slavery to the winner.

So, what happens when the religious court orders a kid to be circumcised against one parents’ will, do the regular courts enforce that? What about when a Shiria court refuses a divorce to an abused wife and orders her to apologize and move back in and serve her husband or face fines. Will the district court enforce that? If it won’t, we really don’t have religious courts. If it will, are you okay with that?

[Apatheist ?_??]

You don’t even have to get into types of contracts. You can’t bind a third-party (i.e. the child being sold into sexual slavery) to arbitration.

You’re right that the real question is what happens if she doesn’t pay. Does it just mean she is not in good standing with her religious hierarchy or will the state force her to pay?

[Ted S.]

Can’t the observant Jews just shun her?

[jesse.in.mb]

Hmm, the Nikki signal HAS been getting quite dusty lately. Did we put it in storage?

Oh wait, there it is!

*LIGHTS NIKKI SIGNAL*

To the intactivist-mobile!

[Rich]

Jesse, would you please light the Epi signal too while you’re at it?

[Mad Scientist]

Don’t be shy, Rich. You can tell Nikki that she’s the worst without Epi’s help.

[Rich]

😎

[jesse.in.mb]

I don’t know if he’ll be able to see it from the cramped, fetid cage where Warty keeps him in his basement.

You’ll probably have to have Warty let him out and give him 10 minutes or so for his eyes to adjust.

[Mad Scientist]

Warty’s policy is you can check out any time you like, but…

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I recently switched from being mildly pro-circ to mildly anti. It’s kind of outrageous that Israel has the Church and State entwined to this degree.

[John]

They don’t. They just have religious courts. The question is, can you tell the religious court to fuck off? What happens then?

[Warty]

What’s the matter with you? Having a court require you to have a ceremony where a pervert amputates part of your son in sacrifice to a god that never existed is a proper function of the night watchman state.

[GILMORE]

“Neoliberal Kochtopus|11.26.13 @ 4:52PM|#

I recently switched from being mildly pro-circ to mildly anti.

I hate to break it to you, but its sort of an all-or-nothing kind of deal.

Although if you meet anyone ‘partially circumcised’… no, on second thought, I don’t want to know

[Corning]

I thought Jewish lineage followed the mother.

ie the kid is only Jewish if the mother is Jewish.

Shouldn’t she have the say and not the father?

[Eduard van Haalen]

AHEM!

From this morning:

https://reason.com/blog/2013/11…..nt_4156044

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

AM Links don’t exist on the West Coast.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Well, this is the unkindest cut of all.

[SIV]

A federal judge will allow a lesbian couple in Illinois to get married ahead of the actual day their new recognition law takes effect because one of the women is terminally ill.

How can they get married when the laws of every state specifically bar unmarried lesbians from visiting each other in the hospital?

[Tonio]

WTF? Is that some kind of attempt at a joke at the expense of a dying woman?

[Damned Fool]

A more charitable explanation is that it’s a very ill-conceived question about her not having visiting rights to see the dying woman in the hospital. Considering how she can probably have other visitors or could leave the hospital before death, it’s a bad question.

[waffles]

I fucking love snow. Time to drive over the hills and through the woods. Hope some jagoff doesn’t slide into me.

[John]

Me too. I want to get an all wheel drive 911 and put snow tires on it. I am told they become 350 hp snow beasts. Like having your own rally car.

[Almanian!]

My Taurus AWD – not nearly as fun as the Jeep Cherokee!

[John]

My Merc is AWD. But don’t get enough snow here to justify snow tires. But I bet it would be fun with them.

[Almanian!]

My all time fave was my last Expedition – go into four low and just beat the SHIT out of snow.

In leather-wrapped comfort, listening to the excellent audio system.

I loved that truck….

[Tejicano]

I drive a rear-biased-AWD Nissan Stagea with turbo and dual fuel injection – puts out about 320 HP. One time it was locked in place in my parking spot in about 4 inches of ice. It felt like I was driving some kind of transformer – it just grabbed hold evenly and popped itself out and on top of the ice with authority. No spinning, sliding, nor drift.

[PD Scott]

How to be a feminist according to stock photography.

I think I own that Hitachi drill but I never dress that nicely when I use it.

The lady in pink wearing a pink helmet holding a pink grinder – her smile is a little creepy.

[Brett L]

Pat Forde discovered my favorite Tallahassee watering hole (all the way at the end). So there goes the fucking neighborhood. Although, I hardly get over there anymore. I wish this kid would show up so we could start taking some field trips.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

ha ha ha…yeah right. That’s not how it works. Get it all in now while he’s still in there.

[Brett L]

Eh. He’s so close that I am prohibited from imbibing more than a couple in case I have to drive her to the hospital. Although why the hell she can’t drive and let me be drunk, I don’t get. She gets good drugs once we get there, I get 48 hours in an alcohol free campus.

[SIV]

I used to drink a lot in that area. Milwaukee’s Best I carried into Ca Chapel.It was $1.89 a six at the gas station at the corner of Railroad and Gaines.

[PD Scott]

Bring on the jokes: Poland buying more German tanks.

FTA:In November 2013, Poland announced that it would buy a 2nd batch of Leopard 2 tanks from Germany, along with assorted other equipment. As usual, the package price was incredibly cheap: just EUR 180 million for 119 more tanks, plus range training fittings, machine guns, radios; and assorted armored tractors, cars, and trucks. Poland’s next question is what to do with the new gear?

[Almanian!]

I was just thinking how I never hear Pollack jokes any more. What happened?

Maybe it was when they all got pissed and marched on Washington to protest a while back – musta worked. There were THOUSANDS protesting. Couldn’t get ANYWHERE in Vancouver for days….

*RIMPSHOT!*

PS My aunt Judy was one of my faves. She knew ALL the jokes…cause…married a Pollack. I remember Uncle Tom had a brick painted black that said “Polish Bowling Ball” – HAHAHAHAH! Good times…

[PD Scott]

I was more thinking along the lines of them pre-positioning them to save the Germans time or the Poles buying all the Germans’ tanks then invading and saying “See how you like it!”

[Damned Fool]

+1000 Unsullied

[Almanian!]

Huh – I’m all about the Pollack jokes.

Different strokes and all, I guess

[lap83]

You know who else thought Poland needed more German tanks?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Guderian?

[Corning]

Poland’s next question is what to do with the new gear?

Hold back the Golden Horde.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Fit Mom Maria Kang locked out of Facebook for criticizing fat-positive lingerie campaign

An exercise-loving mother-of-three claims she was blocked from Facebook after launching a tirade against a group of plus-size women who posed in lingerie to promote body confidence.
Maria Kang, 32, from California, wrote on the site last Friday that she was ‘annoyed’ by ‘news stories about how overweight, nearly obese women should be proud of their bodies’

The post, which reportedly received thousands of ‘Likes’ from her 230,000 followers, was deemed a ‘hate speech’ by Facebook Ms Kang says, and she was locked out of her account as a result.

Miss Kang ? who was accused of ‘fat shaming’ when she posted a portrait of herself in workout gear online last month along with the caption ‘what’s your excuse?’ – said she did not intend to upset people and was merely ‘telling the truth.’

She says the online campaign launched by Chrystal Bougon, the owner of California plus-size shop Curvy Girl Lingerie, ‘normalizes being unhealthy.’

Unenthused by the photo project, Ms Kang continued: ‘We need to change this strange mentality we are breeding in the U.S. and start celebrating people who are a result of hard work, dedication and discipline.

[Almanian!]

Jesus Christ – I don’t know which butthurt to be more disgusted by – Kang or the fatties.

Hey, I know – fuck all of ’em! There, now I feel better!

[Corning]

fuck all of ’em!

You will have to get past john in order to fuck the fatties.

[Almanian!]

“That’ll be enough singin’ lads!”

/Robin

[SusanM]

The fitness nazi, sorry. Unless you support socialized medicine in which case, then yeah, go after the fatties for running up you health care bills.

[trshmnstr]

Who tolerates the tolerant?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I wouldn’t fuck with Liu Kang’s wife.

[The Last American Hero]

+2 Green Eyes

[Nikki just says no]

Ha, I was wondering if it was the same “what’s your excuse” woman. Nice. Well it’s not like she should be surprised they came after her again.

[John]

Ever occur to these people that fat people ought to feel bad about their bodies so that maybe a few of them do something about it rather than die of Type II diabetes? I don’t think telling the morbidly obese to stay that way is doing them any favors.

[paranoid android]

Now, that’s just silly, John. That would be suggesting that some people have problems which they inflict on themselves through their own behaviors, instead of being caused by a shadowy cabal of white male capitalists.

[Tejicano]

There’s another benefit for women who stay healthy. My wife, a swimmer and Yoga fanatic, pumped out both of our kids in about as much time as it would take to describe it.

With our first born it was less than 20 minutes between breaking water and holding the little tyke. On our second boy she only needed 3 strong pushes – maybe a couple minutes – to push him out.

There’s a lot to be said for strong core muscles.

[prolefeed]

Ms. Kang is a little too skinny in the first two pics — 3% body fat is too little for a woman — but she’s got a pretty face.

[Dweebston]

A judge will rule on Dec. 3 whether to allow Detroit to declare bankruptcy.

Haven’t we been down this road before? And wasn’t that deal scotched by some other Detroit judge?

[Tonio]

The judge in this case is a federal judge. Bankruptcy is an exclusively federal jurisdiction. Now there may have been some Michigan judges involved earlier on in the decision as to whether Detroit was allowed (under MI law) to seek bankruptcy as a remedy.

[jesse.in.mb]

Five Knives – “The Future”

In a bleak dystopia, a student clone fights back against an army of militant teachers with his bare hands and feet.

[PD Scott]

Keep away is often kind of cruel but this is a whole new level. I bet they make awful puns the whole time, too.

[Warty]

Semi-related, did you ever see this movie? The climactic nunchuck fight scene is fantastic.

[jesse.in.mb]

I haven’t and it looks interesting, but I’m completely illiterate, so subtitled movies are hared for me.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sadbeard: I was once the victim of the Knock-out Game

True story. A couple of years back, I was walking home at night on North Capitol Street here in Washington, D.C., when two dudes randomly assaulted me before running away without stealing anything. At the time, I didn’t think it was all that strange?I’ve lived in urban areas all my life, and plenty of people I know have been victims of anonymous street crime. The good news is that urban crime rates have been trending downward since I’ve been about 9 years old, so we’re making important progress in this regard.
[…]
But to be clear about something?insofar as there’s supposedly a “game” here where the contestant tries to knock someone out with one punch, that absolutely isn’t what happened. I was knocked down, but definitely not out, and then after that I got kicked a bunch of times. If you’re familiar with the phrase “don’t kick a man while he’s down,” take note?it really hurts quite a bit to be kicked while you’re down. In fact, this substantial deviation from the “rules” of the “game” is a lot of what made getting violently assaulted for no reason such a physically unpleasant experience.

Awesome.

[Almanian!]

Roving bands of young, libertarian economists, beating up on old Keynsian women…

Er, men…

[John]

My God is he a strange little bastard. What the hell is his point here? It happened to him so therefore it can’t happen to you?

[tarran]

He’s saying that he *isn’t* a victim of the *Knockout game*, because they didn’t knock him out with a single punch, but kicked the living shit out of him after he went down.

This is Shriek levels of fucking up the lefty talking-points.

[John]

It really is. He doesn’t even seem upset about it. There really is something seriously wrong with him.

[PD Scott]

So, he’s so thick-skulled the knockout game doesn’t work on him?

[John]

It doesn’t work on people with an extra chromosome.

[trshmnstr]

I believe we’re approaching an asymptote of retard. He’s arguing that the knockout game isn’t real because they decided to try to finish him off after they didn’t knock him out cold on the first hit. In what universe does that make things better? “I thought they were playing the knockout game, but they kept kicking the shit out of me, so obviously there is no issue with random urban violence.”

[John]

They clearly beat whatever brains he had previously out of him.

[MJGreen]

It’s good to know that his backward logic extends beyond economic issues. It wasn’t a game, because in this particular instance they also kicked me when they realized I wasn’t knocked out.

[Mad Scientist]

His assailants were obviously not concerned with things like rules. Has anyone asked Sadbeard how he knows that they weren’t just breaking the rules of the game?

[B.P.]

The rules state that you win the game by scoring touchdowns. No touchdowns were scored, so the game didn’t happen.

Is that about right?

[Damned Fool]

Oh come on, it’s like the difference between wars and limited kinetic actions, you filthy teabagger..

[Drake]

He’s so cool and Progressive he didn’t notice they were black. Before he hit the pavement, he had forgiven them and blamed conservatives.

[John]

I am sorry to see anyone get beat up. But it is a level of idiotic and screwed up beyond my comprehension to take such an experience and twist it into a larger political point against people who had nothing to do with it.

[Corning]

This does being up a good point. If disenchanted youth of our clockwork orange dystopian possessive cities are beating the crap out of the ruling classes should we really give a shit?

[John]

If they had beat him up for being an asshole paid liar for the prog cause, I would still say no on the grounds that we don’t want to live in a world where political violence is acceptable.

But they beat him up because he is a doughy fat douche bag. And you can’t condone that no matter what your politics.

[Corning]

And you can’t condone that no matter what your politics.

Is condone the same as not giving a shit?

*looks up condone

accept and allow (behavior that is considered morally wrong or offensive) to continue.

I am going to take this one…I would have to be in some position of power to “allow” this to happen.

So I ask again, as a bunch of libertarians who have no power should we give a shit about this? Isn’t it just babel eating babel?

[MJGreen]

Keep the knockout game contained in DC, and I’ll sleep well.

Though I’ll make an exception for wherever Bloomberg ends up. Contained in DC and the immediate area around Bloomberg.

[Restoras]

I think the point is it happened to him and that’s no reason to go demanding the right to defend yourself – he took his beating and is none the worse for wear.

[John]

No fucking kidding? He is worse than I thought. He really thinks it is our duty to get the shit kicked out of us by whatever roving band of animals we happen to run into?

My God is he a vile person.

[Mike M.]

These are personal levels of Stockholm Syndrome and white liberal guilt that can only be helped by extensive hours spent with a professional mental therapist.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

I’ve been out of the loop here, what’s this whole Munich thing about?

[Drake]

There was another Beer Hall Putsch.

[Restoras]

Could we at least have a Craft Beer Hall Putsch this time?

[Almanian!]

With pizza!

Oooo – deep dish or thin crust???

*runs away*

[John]

The beer in Munich is better than the over hopped hipster swill they make in this country.

[Restoras]

In my Craft Beer Hall Putsch, OverHopped Monsters will be but one variety you can choose from.

[Mickey Rat]

Lowenbrau is not good enough for you?

[Almanian!]

’72 Olympics? Bad times…

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Don’t blame Obamacare if you lose your doctor

With Obamacare, and its requirement of selling policies to anybody willing to buy them, insurers also worry about adverse selection. Previously, they were willing to offer plans without provider restrictions, but only to people unlikely to use either outpatient or inpatient services much. Now insurers have to sell plans to anybody, regardless of pre-existing conditions or risk of illness. In other words, they can’t restrict wide-open access to the people least likely to use it. Faced with this reality, some insurers are bound to raise premiums for those plans?or to stop offering them altogether. That’s why some people who buy these plans now would have to pay more for them next year. (Basically, this is just another form of rate shock, about which you’ve read so much already.)

Still, according to nearly every source inside and outside the industry I’ve consulted, the primary reason carriers are offering so many small-network plans in the exchanges is that they believe consumers want them. Their marketing research suggests that, when forced to choose between paying higher premiums for wider networks or lower premiums for narrower networks, the majority of people will go for the cheaper insurance.

[John]

Their marketing research suggests that, when forced to choose between paying higher premiums for wider networks or lower premiums for narrower networks, the majority of people will go for the cheaper insurance.

Just ignore the fact that the only reason consumers have to make such a choice is because obamacare mandates all of this worthless and unwanted coverage.

Fuck you in the ear you worthless mendacious cunt.

[Winston]

So what’s everyone’s opinion of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry? Is he an atheist hero?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The guy that invented modern boxing and got Oscar Wilde hard labor?

[Winston]

Yes. He couldn’t take his seat in parliament for being an atheist. And he was the head of the British Secular Union.

[Winston]

He even disowned a son for marrying a clergyman’s daughter. Even more of atheist hero!

[Almanian!]

I’m not familiar with his opinion. Have you asked him?

[Almanian!]

I miss derpfee.

THERE, I SAID IT!

[PD Scott]

Open up, Almanian!, tell us the totality of the circs and you’ll feel better.

[jesse.in.mb]

Alec Baldwin out

Baldwin’s dismissal was decided on partly because of his diva-like behavior toward co-workers, a source said.

Besides demanding a humidifier because he claimed the air at 30 Rock was too dry, Baldwin alienated staffers when he demanded a separate makeup room being used by a woman with cancer who is sensitive to hairspray.

When Baldwin was told he couldn’t have his way, he allegedly bellowed at the top of his lungs, “I don’t give a f?-?-?k if she has cancer or not, I want that f?-?-?king makeup room.”

What a mensch.

[Mike M.]

Even more people concur:

“You are worthress Arec Barrwin.”

[Juice]

So he was basically Keith Olbermann and/or Bill OReilly.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And just the other day Howard Stern was saying how ‘cool’ he was while he defended this asshole’s incorrigible and inexcusable behavior.

Alex Baldwin is a douche.

Arec Bahwin!

[db]

You are jobless, Alec Baldwin!

[The Last American Hero]

Haven’t seen this one linked yet, so apologies if it has been:

http://video.bobdylan.com/desktop.html

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

This might be my favorite Dear Prudence question and answer

Q. Penis Size: I wanted to ask a no-nonsense woman about that age old question that all men have. “Does size really matter?” I have asked this question to my wife several times, and her answer every time is, “You’re fine.” I’m just over 6 inches. The only problem is that the inflection in her voice tells me different. She is constantly reading romance novels and I can’t help but think that she secretly wishes for “more.”

A: I’m going to guess that your wife is not reading romance novels for the descriptions of gigantic members, but for the confidence with which the heroes wield them. Imagine how you would feel if your wife was constantly asking you for reassurance that her breasts were big enough and her thighs thin enough. I think you would feel she’d be a lot sexier if she thought of herself as being sexy. The romance novels may be fulfilling your wife’s longing for someone who is more assertive in bed. So read a couple of the books and try taking a page from them. I think you will note, none of the main characters brings out a ruler and whines, “See, I’m definitely bigger than average!”

Again, I maintain girth is more important than length.

[MJGreen]

Isn’t “just over 6 inches” above the norm? This guy really has low self-esteem.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was talking to a guy who was very very big, but he saw himself as average and was a bit embarrassed about it.

Average length by country

Frequency of length according to LifeStyles research.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Jeez, what is it about the French?

[Killazontherun]

Personally, I’ve never measured. Never had complaints, so didn’t care one way or the other. Do you measure from the ball side or the other side?

[cavalier973]

From the base of your spine.

[jesse.in.mb]

@ASM: I don’t know, but I feel compelled to find out.

@Killaz: The balls side is a lie, don’t be that guy.

[Killazontherun]

I was assuming they were measuring from the balls in those stats. Some of these come out sounding awfully generous. I’ve seen Korean porn.

[jesse.in.mb]

A lot of times these are self-reported, but I believe this is the correct way to measure your wang.

Ooh, there’s a map with a table of everyone’s self-reported data. The US is shamefully pink compared to Canada and Mexico. WE MUST CLOSE THE SELF-REPORTED PENIS-SIZE GAP!

Other takeaway: GO HOME CONGO, 7.1″ average cocks.

[Killazontherun]

Here I thought the purpose of spraying DDT in the Congo was to shrink the average penis size of the Congolese. It worked so well in SE Asia!

[Killazontherun]

I guess it is hard to reverse what Dutch miscegenation created in the first place.

Thank you, thank you, I accept the Jimmy the Greek Award for the Raciest Racist of the Year! The hard work has finally paid off.

[Juice]

No no no. Enough with these wild theories. It’s ((L*D)+(W/G))/(A^2)
Length times Diameter plus Weight over Girth divided by Angle of the tip squared.

[Killazontherun]

‘m going to guess that your wife is not reading romance novels for the descriptions of gigantic members, but for the confidence with which the heroes wield them. Imagine how you would feel if your wife was constantly asking you for reassurance that her breasts were big enough and her thighs thin enough.

There is only one right answer here, gentlemen. You want to keep her respect, burn this on your brain cells.

“I’ll let you know if you ever stray.’

[flye]

Well done, taking a note.

[B.P.]

Dear Prudence: My husband used to ask me all the time about his penis size. Now he’s into dressing up like a Viking, speaking in gruff tones, barking commands in the bedroom, etc. What gives?

[SusanM]

His name isn’t Dave, is it?

[Killazontherun]

Plus that, ‘you’re fine.’, as if she doesn’t know what she is doing there by taunting him with an unsettled conditional which ‘fine’ is unless it is said like, ‘you’re so FINE!’ Likely, he’s the kind of schmuck who sets himself up for it. After all, he’s the one with the issue here, like a self hating loser, so can’t feel too much sympathy for him.

[Mad Scientist]

Prudence should have let him know that he can easily make up for his shortcomings with a lifted pickup, a new Porsche, or $5000 of subwoofers in his Hyundai.

[jesse.in.mb]

Alternately he could be enjoying it. Some folks who are inadequate revel in their inadequacies (possibly as a defense mechanism) and bring it up all. the. time.

[Mad Scientist]

Woody Allen Syndrome

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

PornHub tracks their site traffic in relation with holidays, breaking news events, and sporting events

Link is SFW

[jesse.in.mb]

I like that porn viewing went up 5% in the US on the day of Felix Baumgartner’s spacedive.

[Metazoan]

I have to imagine the data scientists at PH are a hell of a lot of fun. I want to meet them.

Also, I love that US porn viewing went up 2% on the day of the opening ceremony of the olympics in london.

[flye]

Queen skydives = boner killer

[CatoTheElder]

They still seem to think that the their messaging is the problem, don’t they?

I understand why the Obama Administration and progressive dimwits playing the home game think that “messaging” is the problem. Team Obama owes everything it has to effective “messaging”. The progressive dimwits, who believed the earlier Hope’n’Change? and YesWeCan? “messaging”, just think everybody else is either evil or stupid and just don’t get how wonderful ObamaCare is.

What I don’t understand is why we use their language. The correct word for “messaging” is propaganda.

“Messaging” isn’t even a word unless it used in the context of texting or e-mailing. Its use by knuckleheaded spin doctors only sugarcoats the fact that their agenda can only be sold with continuous repetition of simple lies.

[JidaKida]

lol what a pathetic joke. Seriously.

http://www.Comp-VPN.tk

[cavalier973]

GoldieBlox is suing the Beastie Boys, because GoldieBlox used the Beastie Boys’ song without the Beastie Boys’ permission.

[GILMORE]

“In the lyrics of the Beastie Boys’ song entitled Girls, girls are limited (at best) to household chores, and are presented as useful only to the extent they fulfill the wishes of the male subjects. The GoldieBlox Girls Parody Video takes direct aim at the song both visually and with a revised set of lyrics celebrating the many capabilities of girls…” …then uses that schtick to sell people some shit”

So, I guess when your heart is in the right place, property rights FUCK YOU THATS WHY?

[ibcbet]

They’ll get an exemption to continue to fight the good fight.

[Ted S.]

I’m disturbed that they vote for such shitty politicians.

Somehow, I don’t think that’s what Frankie had in mind.

[Zeb]

How the fuck do you think we got all the poor people in the first place?

Other poor people fucking?

To be fair, most people have always been poor. The question is why is poverty so persistent in some places?

[Sevo]

Hey, he needs MORE of ’em!