A.M. Links: Democrats Look For Someone Other Than Obama to Blame for Obamacare, Hillary Clinton Run May Be Hastening Obama Lame Duck Status, Amazon Testing Drones

|

Large image on homepages
(White House)
  • ben who?
    White House

    Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden says Edward Snowden's disclosures about US spying practices have been "catastrophic" to the intelligence community.

  • White House staff are the latest people Democrats have turned to to blame for Obamacare's disastrous rollout.
  • Hillary Clinton's potential 2016 presidential run may be causing President Obama to arrive at lame duck status sooner than he otherwise would have.
  • The Syrian National Council plans on attending international peace talks in Geneva in January, but the rebel government may not hold much sway among opponents of the Syrian regime. The Free Syrian Army, a rebel outfit, meanwhile, will not be attending the Geneva talks. Israel says its troops fired into Syria after Syrian forces shot at them in the Golan Heights.
  • A 280,000-year-old stone-tipped javelin was discovered in Ethiopia, predating fossils from modern humans.
  • Amazon is testing the use of drones to make faster deliveries.

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.  You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here. 

Have a news tip? Send it to us!

NEXT: Amazon Testing The Use of Drones For Deliveries

Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time. Report abuses.

  1. Amazon is testing the use of drones to make faster deliveries.

    I can’t imagine the mix-ups from this. I get a Hellfire missile delivered to my door and Edward Snowden gets my new pair of Dockers.

    1. Enough About Palin

      Only fags wear Dockers, Fist. Fags.

      1. GILMORE

        Fag Cops, too.

        1. CherylMcDaniel31

          Love my job, since I’ve been bringing in $82h? I sit at home, music playing while I work in front of my new iMac that I got now that I’m making it online?…WWW.JUMP85.COM

    2. Snark Plissken

      If you order Dockers from Amazon you deserve the Hellfire missile.

      1. Certified Public Asskicker

        I am confused by the hostility toward buying Dockers from Amazon.

        1. country bumpkin

          Me too

          1. Snark Plissken

            It’s the the way they tent FoE’s crotch.

            You asked me to paint a picture, so I painted a picture.

            1. Certified Public Asskicker

              You prefer your Fist in leggings?

              1. Snark Plissken

                Jeggings. And a long knit sweater. On a bear skin rug.

            2. My crotch has introduced confused feelings in many otherwise straight men. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But it’s why I always wear pleated skinny jeans now.

              1. Aloysious

                dear god.

    3. DJF

      Better make sure you find out what Snowden’s size is or he will be very disappointed.

      1. hamilton

        Extra large, heat-seeking, bunker-buster.

    4. Hillary's Clitdong

      “Dockers – Pants for the Bigger-Butted Man”

    5. Douglas “Swish” Reemer: We win, and they get the chicks. That sucks, dude.

      Joseph R. Cooper: I’m telling you, it’s jobs. We gotta get jobs. Then we get the khakis. Then we get the chicks.

  2. White House staff are the latest people Democrats have turned to to blame for Obamacare’s disastrous rollout.

    “We are the ones and zeros we’ve been waiting for.”

    1. Rich

      Obama is ill-served by his current White House staff and must reboot his second term team

      It’d be interesting if he threw Valerie Jarrett under the bus.

      1. gaijin

        It’d be interesting if he threw Valerie Jarrett under the bus.

        Agree. Though I would think she’d be the last one to fall on her sword, she might also be the one most willing to die for her lord and savior!

        1. It’s more likely she would throw him under the bus.

          1. BiMonSciFiCon

            Hopefully he has maternity care coverage.

          2. Hillary's Clitdong

            I’ve heard that he might like that.

  3. sarcasmic

    American scientists holed up in tiny observatory at the edge of the world who could have just transformed the way we understand our place in the galaxy

    US-led $270m astronomical facility, IceCube, has detected neutrinos, subatomic particles from deep space
    They possibly came directly from supernovae or black holes
    It is the first time these very high-energy particles have been ‘seen’
    Unlike light particles, neutrinos hardly ever interact with ordinary matter because they carry no electric charge and very little mass
    Neutrinos in their trillions travel in absolutely straight lines from their source without being deflected by magnetic fields or absorbed by matter
    This means scientists might be able to see what is out there in its purest form, opening up new possibilities of seeing how the universe was created

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..alaxy.html
    Government welfare for physicists.

    1. Rich

      scientists might be able to see what is out there in its purest form

      “Aum!”

    2. Steve G

      Exactly. I’m all about practical science, but whenever I read about some new celestial insight my responses alternate between “And…?” and “So what?”.
      ‘Wow, so what you’re saying is faster than light travel is possible, but we just need infinite power to do so. Great, thanks’

    3. Pi Guy

      I’d Say It Was a Good Day

    4. Zeb

      But it’s pretty damn cool.

      As long as we are living in non-libertopia, I’m going to worry first about the wasteful spending that also causes negative secondary effects. There are a lot worse things to waste $270m on than pure research.

      1. sarcasmic

        It’s not even that cool. What they did was bury sensors in Antarctic ice that will sense the dim flash when a neutrino interacts with matter. Thing is, there’s no way to tell where the neutrino came from. Can’t tell the direction, the source, nothing. And they’ve only had a few hundred flashes over a period of years. It’s got meh written all over it. Welfare for physicists.

        1. Raven Nation

          Of course, in our current system, you’d be paying for them anyway. Do you think theoretical physicists who live in Antarctica would hold down some kind of profitable job.

        2. Zeb

          You have to start somewhere.

          I can see why people might not care. Things like this seem likely never to have much practical use. But if you are interested in pure research into physics and cosmology, then you can’t really say “nah, let’s not bother finding out any more about neutrinos.” And I am a person who is very interested in physics and cosmology.

          1. sarcasmic

            It’s still welfare for physicists.

            1. Zeb

              Sure. So is all government science grants. So what?

  4. …Edward Snowden’s disclosures about US spying practices have been “catastrophic” to the intelligence community.

    Or, alternately, the NSA’s own unconstitutional actions might be the actual problem.

    1. DJF

      Since everything that happens in the world seems to come as big surprise to the intelligence community I don’t see the downside.

      1. Not everything. They know exactly what their girlfriends are up to.

    2. mr simple

      the NSA’s own unconstitutional actions

      But now there are hindrances to these actions and it’s all Snowden’s fault. Why can’t he just leave well enough alone and let them keep us safe by stripping away our freedoms and privacy. Troublemaker.

  5. You know who else wanted to register guns?

    How the Nazis Used Gun Control
    The Weimar Republic’s well-intentioned gun registry became a tool for evil.

    During the five years of repression that followed, society was “cleansed” by the National Socialist regime. Undesirables were placed in camps where labor made them “free,” and normal rights of citizenship were taken from Jews. The Gestapo banned independent gun clubs and arrested their leaders. Gestapo counsel Werner Best issued a directive to the police forbidding issuance of firearm permits to Jews.

    In 1938, Hitler signed a new Gun Control Act. Now that many “enemies of the state” had been removed from society, some restrictions could be slightly liberalized, especially for Nazi Party members. But Jews were prohibited from working in the firearms industry, and .22 caliber hollow-point ammunition was banned.

    1. You can’t self-Godwin, can you?!

      1. recursive logic = memory overload

  6. Rufus J. Firefly

    Oh, look. The AM links are back. I waited since Fridays sitting here at the kitchen table, staring at my computer. Thanksgiving. Pft. Won’t anyone think of my needs? Doesn’t anyone think of the Canadians anymore?

    1. UnCivilServant

      No one cares for the plight of the canukistanis, Rufus.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        One more remark like that and I’ll have to turn to Sadbeard.

      2. Smilin' Joe Fission

        THATS NOT WHAT YOU WERE SAYING IN 1812 HAR HAR HAR!!!@111!!

        1. We got the better of that one – we got to mess around with York/Toronto and you guys burned Washington D.C.

          Say, can we rerun that last part?

          1. Smilin' Joe Fission

            I’d vote for that. Maybe install Rob Ford as president of the U.S. for a bit?

            1. Restoras

              He’d be bettter as Speaker of the House.

              1. Smilin' Joe Fission

                We’ll shuffle him around, see where he fits best for grinding the wheels of government to a snails pace.

      3. We’ve got a Canadian-born person on our staff here. Good for some mild ribbing. I’ve started referring to his homeland as Canadia. Where else would Canadians come from?

    2. Reason 24/7 was basically shut down for the duration. Without that feed, there were no links to be posted. YOU CAN’T POST LINKS IN A VACUUM.

    3. invisible furry hand

      Rufus, they don’t care about Australians either. They still have a chip on their shoulders about our mother country burning their capital to the ground in 1812. Apparently they’re annoyed no-one in the Commonwealth has done it again

      1. Exactly – and trust me, I have asked – Australians, English, Scots, Kiwis, Canadians. Nobody will take me up on that offer. 🙁

      2. Entropy Void

        I’ll just leave this here:

        http://youtu.be/Ety2FEHQgwM

    4. Sure we think about the Canadians. We think, “Thank heaven we’re not Canadian.”

      1. Steve G

        Where is this ‘Canadia’ of which you speak? Is that the new country in Africa?

    5. Rich

      Doesn’t anyone think of the Canadians anymore?

      Rufus, I’ll start calling them the Eh M Links.

      Better?

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        /wipes tear.

        Better.

  7. Bee Tagger

    Amazon is testing the use of drones to make faster deliveries.

    Take comfort, wedding parties.

    1. The double tap will mean extra shipping charges.

      1. gaijin

        Sign up for Amazon Prime….or else.

      2. Auric Demonocles

        Not with Amazon Prime!

  8. sarcasmic

    Nothing like retail therapy! Taylor Swift shows off toned legs as she shops with her mother in New Zealand ahead of concert

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..aland.html
    Can’t say much about her music, but she’s got some nice legs.

    1. Rich

      But do those legs go all the way up?

    2. If you make fun of her music, she’s going to write a song dissing you.

      1. sarcasmic

        I thought she only dissed guys she’d had sex with. And if that’s what it takes for her to write a song about me, well then sign me the fuck up!

        1. I wouldn’t know. I don’t listen to her music.

        2. Cdr Lytton

          I thought she only dissed guys she’d had sex platonic handholding with.

    3. Andrew S.

      Music is at least tolerable. My daughter absolutely loves it, so I’m listening it to it on a regular basis. It’s at least better than Miley Cyrus/Lady Gaga/Katy Perry/et al.

  9. Topless Colorado barber charged with cosmetology without a licence

    A woman who allegedly offered topless hairstyling services in northern Colorado faces criminal charges. But police say the problem isn’t cutting hair without a top. It’s cutting hair without a licence.

    Suzette Hall is reported to have been arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of practising cosmetology without a licence. (Picasa)

    Hall’s former partner says she advertised $45 topless haircuts online.

    1. Certified Public Asskicker

      But police say the problem isn’t cutting hair without a top. It’s cutting hair without a licence.

      My wife started cutting mine at home. If I need to, it sounds like I can report her to the police for not having a license.

      1. Zeb

        Only if you are paying her.

        1. Unlikely that would be a problem. They’re married, right?

    2. Arrested her? What’s the danger, that she’ll cut hair again?

      1. UnCivilServant

        Didn’t pay her protection money, gotta give the beatdown.

  10. Hillary Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential run may be causing President Obama to arrive at lame duck status sooner than he otherwise would have.

    Just imagine how bad it’s going to get once the mid-terms are behind us and Bill starts getting in his little digs.

    1. The real question is whether the media will sacrifice their savior Obama in order to ensure the election they wants.

      1. Raven Nation

        Hmm, I wonder if Benghazi will become Obama’s fault?

  11. invisible furry hand

    British court orders woman be sedated for a forced caesarian and her baby put up for adoption

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..arean.html

    1. Yeah, but she was only an illegal immigrant from Italy. Plus, she had mental disorders. You don’t want a woman to be in possession of a baby when she has mental disorders, do you?

  12. The Capital Hotel Becomes Infested with Squirrels after Installing Christmas Tree

    The 28 ft tree arrived at the hotel yesterday after being transported to Little Rock from Oregon. It took 20 workers several hours to maneuver the tree into position. Shortly after cutting the restraining ropes a large number of squirrels began running out onto the second floor balcony.

    “I was up in my room on the 4th floor taking a shower, when I opened the door there were two squirrels sitting on the bed,” one hotel guest tells us. “They were just chewing on what appeared to be pecans and were watching the Animal Planet on the TV. I quickly got dressed and went down stairs to speak with guest services. The squirrels never even noticed me I think.”

    1. Smilin' Joe Fission

      Griswold!

    2. Auric Demonocles

      Must have the same supplier as Reason.

      1. Did their servers crash?!

    3. Restoras

      I wonder if the hotel ius going to charge its guests for the minibar charges the squirrels rack up.

    4. lap83

      Don’t you hate when they overbook?

    5. Apple

      It’s a local parody news site, and not a very good one.

  13. mr simple

    A 280,000-year-old stone-tipped javelin was discovered in Ethiopia, predating fossils from modern humans.

    Duh. Ancient aliens.

    1. Time Travel Olympics, idiots.

    2. Steve G

      It belonged to Moses. He had to put it down to pick up the stone tablets.

      /Michele Bachmann

    3. CE

      That’s the best bet. According to the Nat Geo article, the spears reached supersonic speeds.

      And some of these artifacts apparently developed fractures after impact at speeds of up to 3,345 miles an hour…

      http://news.nationalgeographic…..n-science/

  14. waffles

    A 280,000-year-old stone-tipped javelin was discovered in Ethiopia, predating fossils from modern humans.

    Ancient Aliens.

    I guess this just shows how little we really know of history before major civilizations with preserved writing. It’s all conjecture around sparse data points. Still cool though.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly

      No kidding. I feel my life is but a conjecture.

    2. Auric Demonocles

      Pro Lib just misplaced it, is all.

      1. He was wondering where he left that thing!

      2. You know, I’ve always accepted the idea that we were the first and only tool-using species on Earth. But there’s really no reason to believe that.

        1. “We”? You and your kind plus us humans?

          1. Well, I have bred with your kind.

            1. Auric Demonocles

              Have you ever watched The Man from Earth?

              1. I have not.

                1. Auric Demonocles

                  I think you would like it (and not even as a joke about it being a biography of you).

                  1. Whoops, I’m wrong–I did see it. It’s written by the same guy who wrote the screenplay for the similar “Requiem for Methuselah.”

        2. CE

          Huh? Crows use tools. So do chimpanzees. So do octopi.

  15. Rufus J. Firefly

    That was an good report on Amazon on 49 Minutes last night.

    I take out the commercials.

    Won’t be long before the left-wing wackos begin to attack Amazon.

    1. Jordan

      DEY TOOK UR JERBS!!1

    2. Restoras

      They are the Walmart of the internet.

    3. Certified Public Asskicker

      Matty Y to the rescue!

      http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon…..doing.html

      1. Certified Public Asskicker

        Eh nevermind, I read it after I linked to it and for once he didn’t overwhelm me in stupid.

    4. Rasilio

      “Won’t be long before the left-wing wackos begin to attack Amazon.”

      They already are. I’ve seen 2 different attack memes directed at Amazon posted on Facebook in the last 2 weeks

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        Fuck.

      2. I wish the kind of idiots that would bash Amazon (or Walmart or whatthefuckever) would simply refuse to purchase shit from places they don’t like rather than spread the stupid in public. I don’t give a fuck about your grievances, imagined as they are.

  16. Police warn of clown epidemic in Norfolk

    Superintendent Carl Edwards said no one had been injured or assaulted, but advised that people ignore the clowns so as not to give them the attention they probably want.

    ‘Firstly I’d like to stress that it isn’t against the law to dress up as a clown,’ he said.

    ‘Nobody has been assaulted and it appears that the people involved are waiting for a passerby to be startled by their appearance and run away, and then the clown runs after them for a short distance.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly

      Wait. Does ‘dressing up as a clown’ include politicians?

    2. Rich

      ‘Firstly I’d like to stress that it isn’t against the law to dress up as a clown.’

      Whew!

      /Lady Gaga

      1. Us too!

        /Juggalos

        1. Rich

          Me too!

          /The Ghost of Tammy Faye Bakker

          1. Aloysious

            She’s dead? When did that happen?

    3. Brian D

      ‘Firstly I’d like to stress that it isn’t against the law to dress up as a clown,’ he said.

      Was he then heard to have muttered, ‘Yet’?

      1. alittlesense

        Every day in Washington is a clown epidemic.

      2. Elspeth Flashman

        This is one of those few times where I say, “but we have so many other regulations, why not this one too?”

    4. Was one of the clowns singing “Royals” by Lorde? Because that guy is awesome.

  17. Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden says Edward Snowden’s disclosures about US spying practices have been “catastrophic” to the intelligence community.

    They putatively work for us.

  18. Bee Tagger

    Hillary Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential run may be causing President Obama to arrive at lame duck status…

    I don’t think Hillary will be getting out her tear ducks.

    1. He’s a lame duck because of his own ineptitude and, more importantly, a hostile House.

    2. CE

      I don’t think Americans will elect a grandma.

  19. Dead sexy! Scantily-clad models pose for Polish coffin company calendar

    Lindner’s 2014 calendar features voluptuous models posing nude next to luxury caskets. The owner said all sales revenue from the calendars go to charity.

    the naughty bits are black-barred out.

  20. invisible furry hand

    ‘I can’t survive on ?500 a week benefits!’: Single mother-of-eight says her children may end up on the streets after she had her benefits capped

    Ask your ex-husband to throw in a few bucks

    1. UnCivilServant

      At the current exchange rate, that is only $60 less than my take home pay each week. Mind you, pre-tax I make $70k. While I wouldn’t claim to be able to support eight children on that, I want to know why any government would be giving that much away, and why someone would have eight children without a plan to handle the care and feeding

      1. Auric Demonocles

        Because having children is not a choice!

        1. Drake

          Every sperm is precious.

      2. Jordan

        why someone would have eight children without a plan to handle the care and feeding

        Well, she had a plan to put a gun to her fellow citizens’ heads and force them to pay for the care and feeding. Too bad it didn’t work out.

      3. Smilin' Joe Fission

        Piece of shit parasitic people don’t plan.

      4. Restoras

        Minimum income!

      5. Rasilio

        She’s not bad looking, I’m sure there is a way for her to supplement her income

        1. 8 Kids. Most guys wouldn’t pay to toss a hot dog down a hallway.

          On the plus side, the comments – by people in the UK no less – were pretty much uniformly of the “don’t have kids / get the dad to pay” variety.

          1. Rasilio

            Doesn’t matter how many kids you have, a mouth is still a mouth and while not a total knockout she’s probably better looking than the average hooker in England.

            Hell she could probably come close to doubling her monthly income just setting up her own porn site.

        2. Gene

          I’m sure they’ll beat a path to her cabin.

    2. Red Rocks Rockin

      Those kids can have a job at my monocle factory. The beatings are only once a week and by random drawing.

      1. When did you turn into a bleeding-heart chump, exactly?

  21. sarcasmic

    Pilots rely so heavily on computer guidance to fly their planes that they are unprepared for when things go wrong, warn aviation experts

    Asiana Airlines crash hearing will take place on December 11
    Jet came down trying to land at San Fransisco International Airport in July
    Three passengers were killed and scores of others injured
    The hearing will focus on pilot awareness in an automated aircraft

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..perts.html
    I remember a Mythbusters a while back where they were testing whether or not a passenger could safely land a plane, guided only by a pilot on the radio. Turns out that using the computer it wasn’t a big deal. Though the guys both managed to crash without the aid of the computer.

    1. Snark Plissken

      There’s no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you’ll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

      1. gimmeasammich

        “Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?”

    2. A couple of years back The Amazing Race had a roadblock involving contestants trying to land a plane on the flight simulator sitting next to an actual airline pilot. Two of the teams needed two or three tries; the other team took something like a dozen times. I’d presume the pilot judging them was fairly strict, however, wanting a standard landing instead of an emergency landing.

      1. CE

        How heavy was the plane? Was the flight simulator damaged when the plane landed on it?

  22. Snark Plissken

    A 280,000-year-old stone-tipped javelin was discovered in Ethiopia, predating fossils from modern humans.

    In related news, US Senators were seen cavorting around the base of large black obelisk in DC.

    1. + 1by2by4

      1. Live Free or Diet

        If it weren’t the government, they would know to use the 1by4by9 one…

  23. SugarFree

    “It allows radishes to make porn noises when touched.”

    1. If I wasn’t already banned from the produce aisle at Giant Eagle, this would seal the deal.

    2. gaijin

      I just, uh, wtf?

      1. Somehow SugarFree has to be involved with this.

  24. 240,000 bottles of beer on the wall. Take one down, pass it around…

    Nigeria sharia police smash 240,000 bottles of beer

    Police enforcing Islamic law in Nigeria’s city of Kano publicly destroyed some 240,000 bottles of beer on Wednesday, the latest move in a wider crackdown on behaviour deemed “immoral” in the area.

    The banned booze had been confiscated from trucks coming into the city in recent weeks, said officials from the Hisbah, the patrol tasked with enforcing the strict Islamic law, known as sharia.

    Kano’s Hisbah chief Aminu Daurawa said at the bottle-breaking ceremony he had “the ardent hope this will bring an end to the consumption of such prohibited substances”.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Nigenrian temperence movement check. Next it’s Nigerian Al Capone.

  25. sarcasmic

    Man who threw $1,000 in dollar bills from top floor of mall on Black Friday because ‘he had a rough year and wanted to help others’ is ARRESTED for disorderly conduct

    Serge Vorobyov chucked the cash from the Mall of America rotunda in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Black Friday
    He timed it as a choir performed ‘Let it Snow’ on the ground floor below
    He said he tossed out the cascade of bills because he’d had a rough year, including a messy divorce, and just wanted to help make others’ dreams come true
    But he was arrested for disorderly conduct

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ESTED.html

    1. Jordan

      Land of the Free.

    2. He should have tossed 100,000 pennies instead. 🙂

      1. UnCivilServant

        Do you honestly think he wanted to lug that much weight up on the roof?

        1. 2000 Half Dollar coins?

        2. Use a pulley.

        3. invisible furry hand

          The answer, dear boy, is Sherpas

          1. If you’ve got enough orphan Sherpas, sure.

    3. Disorderly conduct, law enforcement’s vague catchall.

      1. CE

        You must have missed the “interference with the administration of government” charges in New York.

    4. lap83

      God, those “maybe he should have..” comments. There is nothing more self-righteous than proclaiming how someone else could improve their nice gestures.

      1. God, those “maybe he should have..” comments. There is nothing more self-righteous than proclaiming how someone else could improve their nice gestures.

        This.

  26. G?vle confident its 2013 Xmas goat won’t burn

    The G?vle Goat (G?vlebocken) doesn’t usually last long. In fact, it has been torched by arsonists on more occasions than it has survived the Christmas period since it was first erected in the town’s main square, Slottstorget, in 1966.

    But this year, officials have soaked the hay in anti-flammable liquid in the hope of detracting would-be arsonists, although some locals have complained in the past that such a dousing turns the goat an uglier, darker shade. This was also the case in 2006 and 2007, two years the goat stayed upright.

    Last year’s 13-metre tall structure only lasted until December 12th before it too went up in flames.

    1. Soak it in anti-flammable liquid, and then paint it hay-color.

      1. UnCivilServant

        …with flammable paint.

        I’m acutally happier when it burns.

  27. Enough About Palin

    What an ugly woman

    1. Rich

      Yeah, I saw that, too.

      Couldn’t they find a less-flattering picture?

  28. sarcasmic

    Anarchy in Kiev: Police cower from chain-wielding protestors and mob hurling petrol bombs as Ukraine teeters on the brink of revolution after 300,000 people take over Independence Square

    Anger against president Viktor Yanukovych vetoing a pact for closer ties with the EU
    Yanukovych accused of obeying a strong-arm demand by Russian president Vladimir Putin
    Opposition leaders called for revolution and national strike held Monday in support of early elections

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ution.html
    Are the cops unarmed? You can bet that American cops would have killed the tractor operator.

    1. WTF

      You see, this is why American cops need armored assault vehicles.

      1. Restoras

        And why the 2nd Amendment includes teh bahzoookahs!

    2. Dr. Groovus involved somehow?

    3. Aloysious

      This is how a people protests. We Americans get Occupy Wall Street types who live with rats and wallow in their own poop.

  29. SIV

    Reason intern/junior editor Zenon Evans linked this from a sex-segregated libertarian website yesterday:

    Why Do Women Hate Freedom?

    The answer is because it isn’t all about THEM.

    The good news is that the comments at TOL show there really are libertarian women.

    1. Auric Demonocles

      Of course there are. There’s Nicole. And Banjos. And Kristen.

      1. Elspeth Flashman

        I’m here too.

        1. Argh. Refresh before posting, BP.

      2. ifh, Elspeth, SusanM, amelia, etc. etc.

        1. waffles

          and pancakes too.

    2. Do you think that outright sexism in the libertarian movement might have anything to do with women not wanting to participate? Crickets.

      That question itself is a good indication of why there aren’t many women libertarians. It smacks of victimhood.

      1. invisible furry hand

        If I understand you correctly, not liking sexism = “victimhood”, and women are naturally drawn to victimhood.

        Whatever.

        I just get bored by collectivist thinking of all sorts. And there are certainly some posters around here who simply adore thinking about women as a collective.

        1. lap83

          Yes, this.

        2. Boring or not, it’s tough not to do that when talking about marketing to demographics, which seems to be the jist of the article. The author speaks of women as a group even while she decries the movement doing so.

          I don’t know if libertarians ultimately do the movement any better by pandering to any particular demographic than they did insulting them.

          1. Then again, I could be wrong here. It could be spelt “gist”.

            1. Kid Xenocles

              It’s certainly spelled “spelled.”

              1. invisible furry hand

                Fisty thinks he is mocking my non-American spelling, but secretly he has learnt to love it

                1. Kid Xenocles

                  In ‘Mercan “spelt” is a type of grain.

                2. Get a load of “Xenocles: Grammar Bobby” over here.

                  1. Kid Xenocles

                    I’m more of a grammar SWAT officer personally.

                    1. SIV

                      “paleo-libertarian police”

                      (from yesterday’s blog comments)

        3. And there are certainly some posters around here who simply adore thinking about women as a collective.

          Typical woman.

        4. I just get bored by collectivist thinking of all sorts.

          Australians are the worst.

      2. lap83

        I wouldn’t say it’s a choice between progressivism and libertarianism for most women. Married women with children usually vote conservative. I think the real issue for women is where they derive their security and what their values are.

    3. Let me ask y’all a question. In the last 30 days, how many of you have talked about gender discrimination? What about LGBT discrimination? Sexual harassment? What about rape?

      Again with the forced y’all from a fucking Northerner. I will literally rape the next person who does that.

      The world libertarians are selling right now is a world in which women will be tossed under the bus, and all libertarians will do is throw up their hands and say, “Freedom of association. Not my problem.” But how could such a society be free when its citizens cannot all participate according to their individual will, when some get advantages from the setup while others are cast out?

      Someone does not understand what freedom means.

      1. hamilton

        I will literally rape the next person who does that.

        How do you keep track of your rape list? Is it sorted alphabetically by infraction, or do you keep a schedule, or what?

        1. TONIGHT. YOU.

      2. SIV

        Again with the forced y’all from a fucking Northerner

        But Gina graduated cum laude in Philosophy from Agnes Scott! Which is where I think the collectivist identity politics was inculcated.

        http://thoughtsonliberty.com/i…..y-politics

      3. Again with the forced y’all from a fucking Northerner.

        Few things are more annoying.

        I will literally rape the next person who does that.

        Few punishments are more just.

    4. I like this little bit the author said in a comment.

      Besides, emotion is not the antithesis of reason, not by any means.

      Again, definitions are not her strong suit.

  30. Biden on delicate mission to defuse tensions in East Asia

    In Tokyo on Tuesday, Biden will likely assure Japan that a military alliance with the United States dating back to the 1950s remains valid as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrangles with China over the islands.

    Yet, he will also try to calm tensions between the United States and key trade partner China over the same territorial dispute when he goes to Beijing later in the week.

    what could possibly go wrong?

    1. UnCivilServant

      Well, bumbling biden might start a shooting war between our ally and our trade partner.

      Oh wait that was rhetorical.

      1. WTF

        “If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30% chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

        Joe Biden, Feb. 6, 2009

  31. gaijin

    Notice anything in the pictures of the arctic ice cap?

    Ice Cap Grows by 29%

    1. UnCivilServant

      Not the Northwest Passage!

    2. Rich

      The *totally unretouched* “NASA satellite images”?

    3. Unpossible. We were assured it would be ice free by last summer.

    4. Restoras

      Does this mean polar bears now have plenty of ice to eat?

      1. CE

        Don’t be silly. They eat baby seals.

  32. Obama spends $600 million on rail projects that benefit private companies

    The railroad industry brags in its national publicity campaign that it spends billions of dollars improving its infrastructure “so taxpayers don’t have to.”

    But the ads don’t tell everything. The nation’s freight rail network has been the quiet recipient of more than $600 million in federal investment during the Obama administration.

    According to Federal Railroad Administration numbers, at least half that amount has gone to projects that benefit the nation’s four largest railroads, the same companies at the heart of the industry’s ubiquitous “Freight Rail Works” campaign.

    You know who else wanted trains that ran on time?

    1. Rufus J. Firefly

      I know this one!

      The Chinese slave laborers who built them?

      1. UnCivilServant

        The clock king, for his meticuously planned escapes.

    2. WTF

      Metro North commuters?

    3. Swiss Rail!

    4. I want my trains to run on nuclear.

    5. EDG reppin' LBC

      Warren Buffett?

    6. Rasilio

      While the corporate welfare stinks at least the economic case can be made for freight rail because there is just no other viable option for moving large volumes of freight

  33. The Late P Brooks

    I was just reading a little article in MIT Technology Review (via teh Google News; no linky). The gist: the healthcare.gov site was so complicated and convoluted and dependent on so many moving parts, it was pretty much pie in the sky from the get-go.

    It’s almost as if a group of ten-year-olds were trying to build a Formula One car.

    1. SugarFree

      I SHALL LINK YOU!

      1. Auric Demonocles

        The one time when it would be most hilarious for you to SugarFree it…

        1. SugarFree

          Is it broken for you? It works fine for me, but it might be campus proxy eJournal permissions.

          1. Auric Demonocles

            It works fine. That’s the problem.

            1. Seconded.

            2. What do you want? He’s not Joe Biden, for Chrissakes.

  34. The best and the brightest: Yale professor who died in jail was also a male escort

    Last weekend, Yale University English professor Samuel See died in a New Haven, Conn. jail cell.

    He was gay and had an estranged husband, Sunder Ganglani. See and Ganglani were wed in May. However, marital bliss quickly turned sour. By September, a court had entered orders of protection against both men to stay away from each other.

    The Yale prof also seems to have marketed male escort services and webcam modeling on at least four different websites under the name “Ryan Cochran.”

    1. Our bodies, our choices.

    2. John

      Do you know how much money a tenured track prof at Yale makes? At or near six figures. He didn’t do the escort and modeling for the money.

      1. CE

        Sez you. Just because I make 6 figures, doesn’t mean I don’t freelance on the side.

    3. SugarFree

      What a poorly written story. I’m pretty fluent in tard and I still can’t figure out what happen exactly. It never bothers to connect the dots between arrest, escort work, and his death in jail.

      1. John

        Yes. I don’t care what he is. I would like to know if the cops killed him or did something stupid allowing him to kill himself.

        1. Restoras

          It’s New Haven. It’s a dump and the cops are no doubt the worst sort. Not implying anything was planned or maicious but you can bet there was gross incompetence involved.

        2. SugarFree

          Better written piece.

    4. invisible furry hand

      He turned up dead the next morning.

      Say what you like about male whores, we should applaud the work ethic that has him turn up, despite being dead

      1. CE

        Why? Lots of people turn up missing. Which kind of negates the reason for the search.

  35. Breaking Up With Healthcare.gov

    “So you hit the terminate button. It says you’ve chosen to end the following coverage. ? You then have to check ‘I have fully read and understand that I’m choosing to terminate coverage,'” she says. “Then you click terminate again and we’ll see what happens.”

    What happens is nothing. The health plan Imler signed up for is still listed in her profile. She logs out and then back in, and it looks exactly the same. She checks her e-mail for a notice of coverage termination and finds nothing there either. Imler leans back on the couch and looks surprisingly calm about the whole thing:

    “I’m resigned to the fact that it doesn’t work. No matter what I do, it just doesn’t work. And this is the improved website.”

    1. Have they started auditing her yet?

  36. The Late P Brooks

    It’d be interesting if he threw Valerie Jarrett under the bus.

    That bus would be irreparably damaged.

    1. Auric Demonocles

      Do we really want to get Jarrett pregnant?

      1. *golf clap*

      2. Andrew S.

        Superb.

  37. Fatty Bolger

    Video: Vernon Davis Tackled By His Dick

    Rams safety T.J. McDonald took down 49ers tight end Vernon Davis by grabbing on to whatever he could. “Whatever he could” happened to include Davis’s crotch.

    1. gaijin

      Why wasn’t he wearing a cup?

      1. Auric Demonocles

        Surprisingly, NFL players rarely do.

        1. Restoras

          Is it really that surprising?

          1. Auric Demonocles

            When you have 300 pound men trying to run into you as hard as they can, I do find it surprising that you aren’t protecting your junk.

        2. mr simple

          It really sucks to try to run in a cup.

    2. John

      Things happen in an NFL pile, especially when there is a ball loose, that are so horrible even the players never mention it.

      1. Well, if they aren’t wearing cups, isn’t there a ball [sic] loose on every play?

    3. invisible furry hand

      It really could have been so much worse

  38. Rufus J. Firefly

    Burgundy takes in curling. “Winnipeg is the Paris of Canada.”

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ferre…..39489.html

  39. ‘Bizarre behavior’ could be risk to Christie White House run

    Gov. Chris Christie’s “bizarre behavior” in refusing to say he’ll support a possible GOP challenger to Gov. Cuomo next year could derail his chances to become president, state and national GOP insiders have told The Post.

    “Christie already has a problem with many Republicans refusing to forgive him because of his embrace of Obama and his socially liberal policies,” said a nationally prominent GOP operative. “But this bizarre behavior in suggesting he won’t help a Republican defeat a Democratic governor, and a Cuomo no less, could finish off his chances of becoming his party’s nominee for president in 2016,” the operative continued.

    1. John

      I am starting to think someone has bought off or is extorting Christie for the purpose of using him to divide the GOP. Things are going to look really bad for the Dems in 2016. Christie going third party might change that. You know he would get all kinds of love from the media just as long as he split the vote enough to ensure a Dem win.

      1. WTF

        Or maybe Christie is just a big fat egomaniac and everything has to always be about him.

        1. John

          If he were that, why wouldn’t he be cynically supporting every GOP cause there is knowing he would do whatever he wanted when he was President?

          1. Restoras

            He’s in power and doesn’t want to be disrespectful of his fellow Travellers in Power. Being disresepctful of power is what you do when you don’t have any power.

            1. John

              He doesn’t care about that. He is plenty disrespectful to people in power. Ted Cruz and Rick Perry have power don’t they?

              I think they have bought him off and he is going to go third party. The Dems know they are doomed in a two party race in 2016. But if Fatso runs as a GOP establishment third party, they can win and win with Fauxcohontus and create damn near a dictatorship.

              1. robc

                I will refer you to 1980.

                Any reason to think he will be more successful than Anderson?

                1. John

                  He would get more media love. But I hope you are right Robc.

              2. Restoras

                Sure they do but he doesn’t travel in the same circle as Cruz and Paul, right? Cuomo is his next-door neighbor and Obama makes for good photo ops to make it look like he was doing something post Sandy.

                He won’t go third-party. That smacks of ‘radicalism’ and is a sure-fire losing proposition.

                1. Also. he’d probably get at least as many votes from pissed off Obama voters as Republicans. Other than the unions, there are plenty of TEAM BLUE constituencies who’d love him.

          2. WTF

            Because he is used to politics in New Jersey, where he has to maintain a certain level of proglodyte appeal. Hence his support for New Jersey’s draconian gun laws.

            1. Restoras

              Exactly.

      2. The problem with a Christie third-party run is that its unlikely he will peel off many Repubs in swing states. More likely to peel off Dems.

        So, I say go for it, Joisey Boy!

    2. UnCivilServant

      I would never vote for the ambulatory adipose tumor from the jersey wastes.

  40. invisible furry hand

    German police have developed a Shazam-like smartphone app that allows them to identify far-right rock songs by playing just a brief sample. It could make it harder for neo-Nazis to lure under-18s with music, which is seen as a “gateway drug” into the scene.

    http://www.spiegel.de/internat…..36711.html

    1. John

      Just make the music forbidden fruit. That is guaranteed to make sure kids won’t be interested in it.

    2. Such a tool would never be misused, oh no sirree.

    3. BardMetal

      Do you know who else tried to make certain styles of musik verboten?

      1. invisible furry hand

        Tipper Gore?

        1. *applause*

    4. BardMetal

      I wonder how it identifies neo-nazis? A lot of metal bands have been accused of being nazis just for using viking imagery in their music.

      Hell some of been accused of that just for being German it seems like.

    5. The Skrewdriver detector?

  41. John

    I spent a few hours of my life this weekend I will never get back reading the Tyler Cowen book Average is Over. Man Cowen a half wit. What he is arguing is that the information revolution is going to be unlike every other economic revolution in that this time the people who are displaced or even the next generation won’t figure out some new productive thing to do and instead will just be poor. First, just because Cowen isn’t smart enough to figure out what is next, and really who is, doesn’t mean it won’t happen just like it has every other time. Beyond that, if it doesn’t happen, what Cowen is really talking about and is either too stupid or too dishonest to admit is the end of scarcity. If machines do give us an abundance of everything, then there won’t be anything for most people to do. But I seriously doubt we are anywhere near that.

    1. John

      Beyond that, even if he is right or somewhat right, he totally misses who is going to lose out. It won’t be the blue collar produce things workers who are out of a job. It will be the soft skill people like him. I don’t care how technologically advanced you get, you will always need someone who knows how to fix the equipment and how to make the equipment do what he need it to. Those jobs are not going away. the jobs that are are the soft skill jobs in middle management, academia (yeah, Cowen needs to do some thinking about the higher ed bubble), and in the bureaucracy. But Cowen is so in love with his own class of top men and so disdainful of everyone else, he totally misses that point and thinks it is the guy turning a wrench, rather that the bureaucrat or the economics professor drawing a huge salary to do something that will in the future be done more efficiently with fewer people, who is going to lose out.

      1. SIV

        Projection

        Cowen is paralyzed with the fear he doesn’t have the stuff to retrain as a fast food robot repairman.

        1. John

          The other fact that is too horrible for him to contemplate is that it will be women who will lose out more than men. And even if he is somewhat right, there is an obvious solution to the problem of needing fewer workers, especially when the jobs being eliminated are held largely by women. You see there is one job women are generally better at than men and that can’t be replaced by technology or shipped overseas. It is called being a mother. Think about it. As the economy changes what are women going to do? The smart ones will find nice husbands and enjoy their lives as stay at home moms.

          I am not saying it is the only way to do it. But letting women return to the home is one way to lower your labor force participation rate. And I think that will happen on its own as younger women see the sorry effect that modern feminism has had on their mothers. Who is going to end life happier, some soccer mom with a husband or some screw like Marcotte who ends up dying in her apartment having her five cats feed on her body? Society does have self correcting mechanism.

          1. waffles

            I was told that the soccer mom’s happiness is some kind of false consciousness. She isn’t really happy, it’s just society dictating her life and removing her choices. The spinster with cats? She is truly happy.

      2. Emmerson Biggins

        Does he talk about Education bubble at all, even tangentially?

    2. gaijin

      the information revolution is going to be unlike every other economic revolution<?i

      Whenever someone says “this time is different” it’s probably a good idea to grab your wallet and then turn up the skepticism field to 11.

      1. John

        Very much so, especially when they are projecting and claiming everyone but them is doomed.

      2. robc

        The only thing worse than people saying “this time is different” is people saying “this time will be exactly the same”.

        1. John

          It won’t be exactly the same. But I think it is a good bet that people will like they always have find new and productive things to do with themselves. If I knew what those things were, I would be the next billionaire.

          1. robc

            Totally agree.

    3. If machines do give us an abundance of everything, then there won’t be anything for most people to do.

      Most people will focus on “personally fulfilling” activities rather than work to ward off starvation

  42. invisible furry hand

    Police in Dresden say they have arrested a 55-year-old police officer on suspicion of murder after the body of another man was found in the Erz mountains in eastern Germany.

    WTF is it about Germans and cannibalism?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25151961

    1. SugarFree

      Two minutes. [shakes head, walks off stage]

    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOUobuGaY7U

  43. John

    http://www.kansascity.com/2013…..ot-by.html

    Off duty cop shoots unarmed firefighter on his wedding night. Cop, who of course remains unidentified claims the firefighter “attacked him” and made him “fearful”. It is bad enough cops feel like they have a license to kill on duty, now they moved on to feel that way all of the time.

    1. sarcasmic

      From what I read on that one, the cop was admitted to the hospital with serious head injuries.

      1. John

        Then maybe he was in the right. If that is true, it is another Zimmerman case.

  44. SugarFree

    Anyone else noticed a sharp uptick in German cannibalism stories in the last decade or so? (I won’t say trend, trends are racist.)

    A German police officer was arrested Wednesday and accused of killing and chopping up a man he met online. According to authorities, the man he murdered had “long fantasized” about being killed and eaten.

    The 55-year-old handwriting and document analyst, identified as “Detlev G,” was arrested at the Criminal Technical Institute in Dresden. He admitted to stabbing the 59-year-old victim in the throat four hours after the two met in person for the first time on Nov. 4.

    The victim, who was first reported missing Nov. 11, had traveled over 250 miles by bus for the murder dinner date with G. Two days after being reported missing, “witnesses” told officers that “the missing man had fantasized since his youth about being killed and eaten by another person.”

    According to the prosecutor Lorenz Haase, “There is no indication at this point that the suspect ate body parts, and the suspect denied having done so.” The suspect also made no mention of sexual relations with the victim; he only said that “his victim wanted to be killed and he fulfilled this wish.” After killing the man, the suspect reportedly buried his remains in small pieces in the garden.

    1. I think IFH noticed the uptick.

  45. Rich

    London Mayor suggests society is unequal because many people have low IQs

    [He] appeared to mock the 16% of “our species” with an IQ below 85 and urged more action to help the 2% with an IQ above 130.

    I figure Boris must be a genius to pull off his hairstyle.

    1. Crayons in the noses of the intelligent folks.

      1. Restoras

        Extended warrantee? I can’t lose!!

    2. UnCivilServant

      IQ is a bunk metric. According to it, my sister and I are comperable in intelligence, yet she is incapable of even reliably caring for herself or holding down employment. If anything I have the worse mental health conditions (OCPD and whatnot) but manage financial independence and enough social awareness to understand when I’m driving other people closer to violence.

      1. John

        IQ says nothing about your character or your emotional stability.

        1. Rich

          That’s what *EQ* is for.

          1. Smilin' Joe Fission

            Just make your EQ smile

      2. ah see this is the difference between INT and WIS. Obviously your wisdom score is much higher than hers.

      3. Rasilio

        IQ is difficult to measure and in no means an indicator of success or capabilities but it is useful in that it gives us a rough shorthand metric which is useful for some purposes (for example determining when someone might not be fully capable of understanding the ramifications of their actions).

        Back in the late 90’s/early 00’s 20/20 did a story on the guy with one of the highest measured IQs ever. He was making like $10 an hour as a bouncer and only held that job because the bar owner was a friend of his and tolerated his quirkyness. Sure the guy had the raw intelligence to get multiple PHD’s but he lacked the desire instead focusing on developing some crackpot newageish theory of everything.

        1. gimmeasammich

          A friend of mine got a 36 on his ACT, got a full ride to one of those fancy, private colleges, and now spends every moment of the day getting drunk and high when he isn’t washing dishes at his hump job at a bar. Sometimes he does both.

          1. gimmeasammich

            So again, these scores are basically meaningless.

      4. So, each of you may have INT scores of, say 16, but your WIS score may also be 16 while hers is 9.

        1. The Last American Hero

          Her Charisma score is probably mediocre as well, since women with high Charisma scores usually land on their feet, economically speaking.

    3. Zeb

      I have to say I kind of like Boris.

      I’d like to see this kind of thinking applied to schools more. Focus on helping smart kids who want to learn do the best they can and don’t waste everyone’s time trying to get kids who can’t or won’t learn through college prep material.

      1. Public schools actually do the exact opposite, putting the most time effort and resources into special ed and virtually ignoring the smart kids.

        1. Zeb

          Which is exactly why I’d like to see it applied to schools.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Won’t be long before the left-wing wackos begin to attack Amazon.

    Already happened. Mother Jones (I think) ran an exposay! about how those evil rat bastard uberkkkapitalists at Amazon actually expect their slave laborers to hustle around those “fulfillment centers” for like eight hours a day, DOING STUFF!

    All for a paltry pittance insufficient to support a self-respecting Grievance Studies major in the lifestyle to which it aspires.

    Oh, the humanity.

    1. UnCivilServant

      My reaction to a very similar article posted to the BBC was “The job can be done by robots and has been in other warehouses. Be happy they’re paying people to do the work.”

      1. Certified Public Asskicker

        I worked in the Jos a Bank distribution center during college. I was amazed that stores and internet orders were actually fulfilled at all based on the level of incompetence in that building.

        A lot of the processes could be improved with a little more robotics.

        1. I worked as a Jos a Bank salesman in 2012. I went into work on my scheduled day, and everyone was like “What are you doing here?”

          I had been fired (I guess), and the manager didn’t even have the cajones to tell me. I was like, “Cool. See ya, chumps!”

          What a miserable job.

      2. Restoras

        Amazon bought a robotics company within the past year or so. It will automate as much as it can as soon as it can.

        1. Rufus J. Firefly

          I would too. Who needs the headache of putting up with ungrateful workers and dumbass left-wingers like Motherjones always busting your balls?

          Don’t like it? Fuck off. Robots, you’re up!

        2. Rufus J. Firefly

          But Motherjones doesn’t mind selling their shit on Amazon though, right?

          http://ca.search.yahoo.com/sea…..and+amazon

          1. invisible furry hand

            At least Amazon has a sense of humour about it:

            “mother jones”
            Related Searches: vanity fair.

  47. John

    Criticize Obamacare, get a visit from the IRS.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Insta…..gger-Story

    1. UnCivilServant

      The last time the IRS reviewed my taxes, they found that they owed me more money than I’d claimed. Turns out I’d missed a form somewhere with an additional credit or somesuch. They probably won’t repeat that mistake.

      1. John

        They can audit me if they like. It is just petty tyrannical bullshit.

      2. Certified Public Asskicker

        Interesting that they pointed it out instead of simply saying “looks good” and running away.

        1. UnCivilServant

          I think they tripped themselves up when they first said “Aha! you forgot to file form suchandsuch” then when it was calculated the numbers didn’t point in their direction.

      3. The process is the punishment.

      4. Kid Xenocles

        They once came after me for a couple thousand because I didn’t report some stock that I sold for a loss. Once I was able to prove the loss (interestingly, the records that proved the loss came from the same place that must have reported the sale to the IRS in the first place) I never heard from them again, despite my reckoning that they owed me more refund as a result. I guess it was worth it just to have them go away.

  48. Rich

    After two months of software errors and delays that have threatened the success of President Barack Obama’s signature health law, the administration said yesterday that it met its self-imposed deadline and the site, healthcare.gov, is working smoothly for the majority of users.

    I checked out the site a few times yesterday just for fun, and encountered bugs each time without even trying.

    As a good citizen, I provided helpful feedback as I screamed and laughed.

    However, I must pass this Iowahawk gem along to you guys:
    “Complaining about a broken Obamacare website is like complaining about a blown head gasket on a molester’s van.”

    1. CatoTheElder

      I’ve made 105 attempts on the website, used online chat, telephone assistance, and mailed in the required identification documents. I still haven’t gotten a single useful bit of information from Healthcare.gov.

      I’ve decided to go uninsured and save my old catastrophic coverage insurance premiums.

      Thanks, ObamaCare!

  49. H. ReardEn

    I can’t wait to take down an Amazon drone with the (Adam West) Batman style net gun I will develop for this purpose. And I’m only interested in target practice, not theft of merchandise. Imagine the thievery.

    In other words: unless Amazon is allowed to arm their drones, it will never work.

    1. John

      Good point. I would think there would be a very good living to be made shooting down Amazon drones.

    2. Restoras

      It’ll never work (well, never say never…) from the standpoint of the airtraffic.

      However, on a limited basis in rural/remote areas it’s kinda interesting.

      1. John

        Imagine the liability the first time an Amazon drone causes an airplane to crash.

        1. UnCivilServant

          “It appears that a used book was sucked into the intake of the engine.”

          1. What’s more, it was “Dreams from My Father”, an autographed copy, no less.

        2. Restoras

          I doubt they will fly that high, but yes there are lots of problems to be resolved before it ever takes off…

          1. UnCivilServant

            I don’t know about you, but the last time I was on a plane, we boarded and got off on the ground. Sure drones aren’t allowed in airports, but if it got lost, it’s got a small radar profile and could easily get into the path of an ariplane.

            1. Restoras

              Really? Wow, who knew?

              My first thought when I saw that last night was “wow that will be a lot of drones in the air, how is that going to work?” but in reality they don’t need it for the vast majority of their deliveries. And I am pretty sure that “drone strike” consideration is already worked into the problem.

              Amazon Air is all speculative. It’s R&D. Lot’s of R&D never sees the light of day and I’d be willing to wager this doesn’t.

            2. Kid Xenocles

              “I don’t know about you, but the last time I was on a plane, we boarded and got off on the ground.”

              I’m not supposed to talk about it, but it will make a hell of a movie someday.

  50. John

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

    Progs set to push the Democrats to go full retard in 2016.

    1. Snark Plissken

      Oh please nominate Fauxcahontas, please oh please oh please.

      1. Rich

        “How ya doin’, how ya doin’!”

        1. Rufus J. Firefly

          Homer.

          +1 million.

      2. Restoras

        They are that delusional. I can’t wait.

      3. sarcasmic

        I saw her on the MadCow show a week or two ago when I was up late and channel surfing, and holy cow I can see why liberals love her so much. She totally speaks to emotion. No logic or reason at all. I mean, she’ll contradict herself mid-sentence, but because she’s playing the emotional angle it doesn’t matter. Liberals don’t care that she’s a liar. All that matters is that she understands how they feel. She understands!

        1. Elspeth Flashman

          I saw Arianna Huffington “debate” Victor Davis Hanson in 2008 (?) and it was exactly the same. Sadly, the crowd was mostly moonbats who applauded her every huff.

          1. Restoras

            Going out on a limb but he must have annihilated her.

            1. Elspeth Flashman

              You got it! She never addressed any issues he was raising. He rebutted but she’d never addressed anything. It was a farce. I think the only reason the organization booked it that way was to sell seats to lefties.

          2. Rufus J. Firefly

            Huffington against Hanson?

            Isn’t that sorta like an actual mind debating tin foil with eyes?

            That must have been ugly.

            Though I’d do that hussy in a jiffy.

      4. Andrew S.

        I’m terribly afraid that 2016 is going to come down to Christie vs. Warren. I fear that suicide would be the only proper response to that.

        1. John

          Christie will not win the GOP. Too many people hate him. My fear is that Fatso will go third party as a way to get the Dem into office.

          1. Andrew S.

            But who is the alternative? Rand and Cruz are going to get killed by the mainstream Reps. Rubio’s got too much baggage.

            1. Rich

              Romney.

              *He* knows how to fix Obamacare.

            2. Restoras

              It’s way too early to know, but maybe Scott Walker.

              1. #

                I actually think walker has a very good shot of getting the nom. He has enough right wing cred, but also doesnt come off as crazy and isn’t as easily pillered by the media like the others wil be. He’s also from the midwest, where modern elections are won and lost, and a “washington outsider” governor. He has appeal to non-union hacks.

                And longer everyone else is fighting, better his chances are.

            3. John

              Cruz and Paul will both be huge players. So will Walker if he runs. Walker will totally cock block fatso. Walker offers the GOP establishment everything Fatso does and the base doesn’t hate him.

              1. Andrew S.

                Yeah, but Christie is the candidate that can win! That was the argument for McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012. Can’t see why they wouldn’t use that in 2016 for Fatso.

                1. John

                  Sure they will. It is just that no one will believe them. And you can make an even better “he can win” argument for Walker.

          2. Restoras

            I doubt he will go third-party. He loves power too much and want to play the pplay-along-get-along game.

            1. John

              He would if the media kissed his ass enough and the next Dem administration offered New Jersey enough cash to keep his sorry fat ass in office.

              1. Restoras

                He seems pretty popular right now, and NJ already gets tons of fed money, no? I just don’t see him going third-party. You actually have to be able to think outside the box to go that route and I don’t think he’s wired that way.

      5. Spoonman.

        It would make the Democratic primary as entertaining as the Republican one.

      6. Drake

        I want to be there the first time people in the fly-over country get a load her. She is a caricature of a big-government nanny statist scold.

  51. Smilin' Joe Fission

    Major biological discovery?inside the Chernobyl reactor??

    This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source. Samples of these fungi grew significantly faster when exposed to gamma radiation at 500 times the normal background radiation level. The fungi appear to use melanin, a chemical found in human skin as well, in the same fashion as plants use chlorophyll. That is to say, the melanin molecule gets struck by a gamma ray and its chemistry is altered. This is an amazing discovery, no one had even suspected that something like this was possible.

    1. BardMetal

      Life always finds a way. I wonder if something like that could be used to clean up after a radiation leak.

    2. I think Liev Shreiber’s in that movie.

    3. UnCivilServant

      Gammasynthesis? or Radiosynthesis? What should it be called?

    4. Snark Plissken

      Breaking news from 2008?

      1. UnCivilServant

        If it’s new to me, I’ll take it. Gamma ray eating fungus was news to me.

        1. Snark Plissken

          People with low IQ always say that.

      2. Smilin' Joe Fission

        It was new to me and probably most here. So fuck off.

        1. Snark Plissken

          Radioactive slime been eating away your sense of humor?

          1. Smilin' Joe Fission

            Yeah, that came off a little harsh. For that I am sorry Snark.

            1. Snark Plissken

              No problem.

    5. WTF

      Just wait until it becomes The Blob and engulfs humanity.

    6. I was in a company-mandated safety class, and the instructor explained that the Chernobyl meltdown was purposefully caused. The generators that are supposed to kick in to cool the reactor if there is a power failure takes a few moments to get going. The Russian engineers thought that there would be enough power remaining after a power shut-down to keep the reactors cool until the generators kicked in. To test it, they shut the power off. As it turns out the generators don’t turn on quite soon enough to avoid a meltdown.

  52. Butthurt over CF’s tweet of Reason’s drug dog story…

    most are good people so its inflammatory of you to constantly post articles critical of police.

    well as a LEO I’m more than happy to unfollow @CrossFit , as I chose to not read negative propaganda

    1. John

      Since “most” are good people, it is totally okay to ignore all of their misbehavior.

    2. SugarFree

      I got a “this page doesn’t exist” at the link.

      1. invisible furry hand

        try this

    3. Brian D

      CrossFit’s go to excuse is libertarian. They forget many loyal CrossFiitters are LE

      Lawful Evil?

      1. Andrew S.

        That’s probably exactly where American LEOs fit on the alignment scale, so that works for me.

      2. Restoras

        That word, many. I don’t think it means what they think it means.

        1. It means an insignificant percentage to the parent organization which is probably just more negative propaganda.

  53. John

    http://www.newstatesman.com/20…..cracked-be

    Growing facial hair is gender normative (whatever that is) and racist. You can’t made these people up.

    1. SugarFree

      That’s the third or fourth idiot article I’ve read arguing that. What’s so threatening about men’s health awareness? Oh, that’s right… to the left everything is a zero sum game.

      1. John

        And they must control everything. They are totally incapable of leaving anyone alone. Everything outside the hive must be attacked.

      2. db

        There’s only so much “awareness” to go around in this world.

        One of my personal pet peeves is how people believe and advocate that simple “awareness” of a problem is a goal. If you don’t do anything about it, you’re just a pompous prick with a sticker fucking up the paint on your car.

        “The apparency of a solution can often be mistaken for the solution itself.”

    2. Rich

      Moustaches, whether or not “mo-bros” mean theirs to be, are loaded with symbolism.

      “Why do Italian men grow moustaches?”

      “To look like their mothers.”

      1. sarcasmic

        WOP’s up? How’s your dago?

        1. Rich

          Wassamatta U.

        2. Get a Fiat – dago through mud, dago through snow, when a tire goes flat dago wop, wop, wop.

    3. robc

      What year did Stephenson write Cryptonomicon?

      1. 1999. That beard paper that Randy’s gf did was a masterful parody…that turned out merely to be a prescient actuality.

    4. Zeb

      Holy shit, that is absurd.

      Growing facial hair is what happens when you don’t shave. It is the natural state of affairs. If white people are more clean shaven than other racial groups (which I really doubt is true), then wouldn’t the shaving be the thing that “others” the other groups?

      And if there is any racial/ethnic group with whom mustaches are particularly associated now, it would have to be South Asian men. It seems like just about every man over 30 from India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka has a mustache for some reason.

    5. GILMORE

      Apparently the New Statesman saved itself from the brink of extinction via social irrelevance by latching onto HYTERICAL FEMINIST-BLOGGING TWADDLE as the new centre of their political universe…

      http://www.independent.co.uk/n…..63700.html

      I note that the new/current owner of the rag is a former boss of mine. Hi Mike! Helen must be thrilled with her new magazine.

    6. Growing facial hair is gender normative

      So ageist. Most women start sprouting facial hair after menopause.

      So racist, too. ME, Sicilian, lots of oppressed wimmenz are prone to facial hair.

  54. What Issue Is Missing from the DNC, DCCC, and DSCC Home Pages?

    Now that the Obama administration assures us Healthcare.gov is working smoothly, Democrats have no reason to run away from Obamacare, right? After all, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz both assured us Democrats will be “standing tall” and will be running on the successful, popular issue of Obamacare in 2014.

    Strangely, it appears the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didn’t get the memo. There’s no mention of Obamacare on their home page this morning.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    This is an amazing discovery, no one had even suspected that something like this was possible.

    Does this slime figure in potential remediation operations?

    1. Smilin' Joe Fission

      It could be, but something about fungus that is immune to ionizing radiation scares me.

  56. db

    Today’s discussion point:

    http://www.thesurvivor2299.com : Hoax or the read deal?

    1. John

      What the hell is it?

    2. Rich

      Hoax or real, that’s a scary site.

    3. SugarFree

      Kotaku called it a hoax site not associated with Bethesda.

      1. Andrew S.

        And why would you listen to Kotaku? Why would you read Kotaku? Why would you read anything on the Gawker network? UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!

      2. db

        I know, but Bethesda hasn’t said anything about it.

        1. SugarFree

          Don’t Gauss rifle the messenger.

    4. Andrew S.

      Teaser site for Fallout 4, apparently.

      1. db

        I’m really really hoping it is the viral precursor to a Fallout 4 release in the near future. 2299 is almost twenty years later than the setting of Fallout: New Vegas, and very little has been said about what befell the Northeast during and after the Great War in the Fallout universe. It is sounding like the next game may be set in New England/Boston. Personally I’d prefer a return to the Western wasteland of F:NV. Fallout 3 was a great game but I preferred the more open ended wandering one could do in the Nevada desert to the rubble-scrambling building searches that dominated Fallout 3.

    5. Almanian!

      I don’t get it.

      Looks like the work of Hercule Saivonen Triathalon. Or was it Hercule Triathlon Saivenon?

      Whatever. I like it.

  57. The stupidity of the organic foodie crowd:

    Popular Science notes that black widows like to squirrel away deep in grape bunches, making them tricky to locate with a cursory inspection. Their color patterns also help them blend with darker grapes. We could always follow in the footsteps of Australia and New Zealand ? they fumigate all imported grapes with CO2 gas ? but that, again, defeats the whole purpose of using organic methods to defeat pests.

    I’m fine with organic food. It’s just another choice about what we put in to our bodies. But this kind of shit is simply infuriating. How the fuck is it that CO2, a completely natural compound that is necessary for life on earth, run afoul of organic food production? Is it just a case of CO2 being so demonized in global warming propaganda that any use of it is automatically bad? I just don’t fucking get it.

    1. John

      But global warming!! CO2 is what percentage of the air you breath? I have never met anyone who was serious about “organic” that wasn’t a complete scientific illiterate.

      1. Elspeth Flashman

        I remember reading an article about the unsafe qualities of organic foods, repeating the same to my sister (an organic foodie), and her response was pretty much to cover her ears saying “la la la la I’m not listening.”

      2. I have never met anyone who was serious about “organic” that wasn’t a complete scientific illiterate.

        I have, it’s just that they were never believers in organic food production en masse, but for family gardens and the like. Small scale stuff.

        The ones who think that organic farming will save humanity and the earth are fucking idiots.

        1. John

          But if you grow your own food, you should more than anyone understand the value of chemicals and the tradeoffs of not suing them. I actually think the people you mention are even dumber than the typical “I always buy organic” shopper. The shopper is too uninformed to know any better. The person who grows their own food doesn’t even have that excuse.

          1. Zeb

            On the other hand, it’s really nice to have a garden where you don’t have to worry about poisonous stuff. Of course if you are depending on what you grow to live, you would want to use modern techniques and chemicals to your benefit. But very few people who grow vegetables at home are in that situation, so I think it is usually very rational to make the tradeoff. I’d argue that organic growing makes the most sense in small home gardens. I more or less do that in my gardens. I don’t worry about what kind of fertilizer I use, but I only use pesticides or fungicides to treat a particular problem and try to use the least toxic to humans and pets product that is effective.

            The other thing is that in small scale home gardens, disease and pests are often a lot less of a problem than at large farms because you are usually more diversified and don’t have huge expanses of the favored food of one particular pest.

    2. Snark Plissken

      C02 is a chemical. Grapes are made up of sunshine and rain and love. Those two things should never, ever be mixed together.

      1. Congrats, you’ve distilled my hippie friend’s thoughts perfectly.

    3. Spoonman.

      Organic food is a complete scam. It isn’t even good for the environment – lower yields mean that less productive land will have to be cultivated, reducing wild area. (Farming practices have reduced cultivated area over the past century even as food production has increased massively.)

      1. Drake

        I don’t even believe the organic label. That corn or those apples were probably grown between 2 fields on which pesticides were used.

        I’ve grown organic fruit and corn – they are always full of worms. Always.

        1. Cassanov

          Hey farmer farmer
          Put away that DDT now
          Give me spots on my apples
          But leave me the birds and the bees
          Please!

          1. Numeromancer

            To the tune of “Big Yellow Taxi”:

            I drained out the swamp
            Built me a brand-new home.
            Now Greenpeace and friends
            Just won’t leave me alone.

            Refrain:
            Don’t it always seem to go,
            That you don’t know what you’ll get ’til it comes;
            Drained out a swamp
            Built me a brand-new home.

            Some time ago
            They banned all the DDT;
            Now millions of poor
            die from malarial disease

            [Refrain]

            He broke into my house,
            to try and rape my lady;
            I blew him away
            with a gun that was banned by Ms. Brady.

            [Refrain]

        2. I’ve grown organic fruit and corn – they are always full of worms. Always.

          My problem was always weeds in my garden. I had some bugs, but not enough to ruin a small garden crop (mostly because we can only eat so much, and any garden worth a damn will give you far more than you can use). It’s the fucking weeds that ruined my garden.

          1. Zeb

            Black plastic. And don’t turn over the soil more than necessary.

          2. #

            Another method that works is that if you have a lawn, collect the grass clippings and reguarly spread them over thee garden area. It acts as a mulch that prevents 95% of the weeds from growing while also continuously helping to replenish the soil via the decaying grass clippings.

        3. Zeb

          You need some organic pesticides. Seriously. Organic doesn’t mean no pesticides, but only certain types which are approved. And they are still plenty nasty and toxic.

          1. GILMORE

            BUT CORPORASHUNS

      2. Rufus J. Firefly

        I remember visiting the SIAL food exposition in Paris back n 2004. In the Italian pavilion I visited espresso producers one of which was the exclusive supplier of the Vatican. I asked if they had an “organic” line but they didn’t. The owner said there simply wasn’t enough evidence supporting the claims of organic coffee to justify the investment.

        However, Italy is the largest producer (at least at the time according to the brochure I got) of organic foods in the world.

        Point is, some jump on it for marketing reasons, some stay clear because of science and others do it because they believe in it.

        1. The point I got from that is that when the fucking Vatican buys in to the science before you, you’re probably an idiot.

  58. Yep. From first hand experience as a stay-at-home dad, this is about right.

    1. Snark Plissken

      Those are hilarious.

      “His name is Percy.”

      “Oh, that’s disappointing.”

  59. The Late P Brooks

    From John’;s WaPo link:

    In addition, liberals have accelerated their push for a higher minimum wage ? successfully persuading Obama to support a $10.10-an-hour proposal after he suggested $9 an hour this year. They also are making a case for tougher financial regulations, specifically targeting massive banks they would like to break up.

    Remember, children, this is the “reality-based Party” we’re talking about.

    Pay no attention to that ziggurat of regulations behind the curtain, the cumulative effect of which has been the forcible consolidation of financial services for decades.

    “You know what we need? More rules.”

    1. John

      It is uncanny how every word they use means the opposite of what it should. “Populist” will mean policies that fuck everyone but a fortunate few.

    2. Fatty Bolger

      Regulations have destroyed mid-sized banking and forced banks to get bigger and bigger, so now we need more regulations to break the big ones up. Fucking. Brilliant.

    3. db

      One way to nationalize an industry is to force its consolidation and then place the consolidated companies under tight “antitrust” regulations.

      1. CatoTheElder

        The US ruling elite is too smart to nationalize industry. The old socialist model is so 20th Century. The US ruling elite understands that it is preferable to regulate and tax heavily, to force industry to bend to its will and surrender much of the surplus it may create, but to allow ownership to remain in private hands. That way when things fuck up, as they inevitably will, the ruling elite can shirk responsibility, and blame capitalism and the capitalists. And, when it comes time for retirement from “public service”, there are highly remunerative board positions and consulting opportunities for the ruling elite with private ownership. Of course, this isn’t capitalism: it’s crapitalism.

        1. Redmanfms

          IOW, they’ve understood the magic of Fascism’s “third way.”

    4. They also are making a case for tougher financial regulations, specifically targeting massive banks they would like to break up.

      Alright, I’m with them on that one. The TBTF Banks are the product of decades of cronyism, so my libertarian meter barely twitches on taking a chainsaw to them.

  60. Snark Plissken

    Funniest take I’ve seen on the Amazon drone thing.

  61. It’s not just Hillary’s run, it’s the DNC’s total lack of vision pushing name-recognition ahead of fitness for office, as we’re seeing here in Georgia with national party efforts to anoint Michelle Nunn as the next Senate nominee, as if there aren’t other candidates on the primary ballot. I think someone forgot what “Democratic” is supposed to mean.

    1. In Florida, Democratic means a very tanned, extremely and openly unprincipled idiot. That’s the best they can do in a state of 19 million, apparently.

  62. Arctic Ice Cap grows 29% in one year.

    1. It seems to me that the earth is a self-regulating system.

      1. And on its own schedule.

  63. The educational system, which governments invariably come to dominate, encourages the people to consider the state’s predation morally legitimate, and the world of voluntary exchange morally suspect.

Please to post comments

Comments are closed.