Young People Still Don't Grasp Obamacare, Venezuela Goes Dark Again, State Department Loves Its Cocktails: P.M. Links

• 

  doyougotinsurance.com

  Those young people the Affordable Care Act needs in order to properly function have no idea what the heck it is. Guess those stupid frat boy ads aren't working.

• An engineer of the train that derailed in New York, killing four, reportedly told investigators he was falling asleep as the train approached a curve at more than twice the posted speed.
• Venezuela has had another massive power outage, which the president is blaming on sabotage and not the nation's economy collapsing or anything.
• Intelligence reports suggest North Korea's Kim Jong Un has removed an uncle from a top military post and executed two close aides for "corruption."
• The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.
• A well-known Egyptian blogger was arrested in the country's new crackdown against dissent and demonstrations.

Get Reason.com and Reason 24/7 content widgets for your websites.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.

Bunch of filthy cosmoz!

[Ted S.]

My first thought was, "Only $400,000?"

[Rich]

The rest was for hookers and blow.

[Pro Libertate]

You're thinking about the black slush fund.

[Ted S.]

Always with the racist slush funds.

[Pro Libertate]

No, in this case it's part of the double-secret budget that's secret because of national security. Which may include racism, but that's a secret.

[Mad Scientist]

Hush! Indicating what may or may not be secret is the mark of a traitor!

[Pro Libertate]

Better make it all secret, so there's no question about it.

[CatherineAdams563]

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

[Mike M.]

Being effete State Department types, $350,000 of it was probably for Chardonnay.

[Mad Scientist]

You misspelled white zinfandel.

[Root Boy]

You sure - wasn't Hillary! still running the place last year -- she's a foul mouthed scotch drinker from what I've seen, so at least $100K was for her office.

[hamilton]

Must've been hanging out at reason cocktail parties then.

[CE]

Can't have cocktail parties without cocktails.

[thom]

Seriously. Isn't part of the State Dept's job to throw cocktail parties/host official events/etc? If so, $400K seems reasonable, if not downright cheap.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Intelligence reports suggest North Korea's Kim Jong Un has removed an uncle from a top military post and executed two close aides for "corruption."

So it's al Qaeda No. 2, president of Egypt and anyone in eyeshot of Kim. Jobs you don't want to have.

[The Last American Hero]

What the hell does the AQ org chart look like? Based solely on MSM news reports, I think there is a leader, 1,000 or so vice presidents, and everyone else is a "high ranking member".

[BakedPenguin]

I have to imagine it's pretty flat, even where it hasn't been flattened.

[Boisfeuras]

anyone in eyeshot of Kim

Fortunately, a very narrow criterion

[Rich]

RACIST!

[Entropy Void]

LACIST!

FTFY.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those young people the Affordable Care Act needs in order to properly function have no idea what the heck it is.

Maybe lighter wallets will wisen them up.

[playa manhattan]

A lot of these young "activists" don't even file returns. They won't have any idea that their wallets are lighter.

[JWatts]

Maybe lighter wallets will wisen them up.

A lot of them probably don't have much of a tax refund. If so, or if their smart enough to adjust their withholding, then they effectively pay no penalty.

According to the current provisions, the IRS is only allowed to collect the penalty out of the refund check. So, if you ensure that you owe the IRS a little bit of extra money on April 15th, they've got no way of penaltaxing you.

Well at least until Obama issues another Executive Order and unilaterally changes the law.

[nothinghead]

The IRS will assess a penalty for underwithholding after a couple of years of that.

[Bobarian]

There going to start adjusting withholding to about 50% and let you have some of it back at the end of the year... but not a whole lot of it.

[John]

hose young people the Affordable Care Act needs in order to properly function have no idea what the heck it is. Guess those stupid frat boy ads aren't working.

For once the low information voter works against them.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

hose young people

Legendary John typos.

The real reason I keep coming back here.

[Root Boy]

hose them is right on.

[CE]

Where's x-box support girl?

[GILMORE]

""To be honest, I never paid attention to what the hell was going on. My always voting Democrat was the result of that. My philosophy was and is all politicians are liars, bums and cheats."[8]"

- Moe Tucker

[Michael S. Langston]

My always voting Democrat was the result of that. My philosophy was and is all politicians are liars, bums and cheats.

Sorry Moe - but what you meant to say was:

I've always said my philosophy is all politicians are liars, bums and cheats. But it's not... as if anyone has paid close attention to my actual votes, it's obvious I don't believe this idea because if I did, my vote would either be much more randomly distributed over various parties or nonexistent. Since admittedly I have only voted for one party ever, my actions prove my true philosophy is: all politicians are liars, bums and cheats, except for those on my side. But since this is an untenable position to hold while simultaneously believing myself a decent person, I choose instead to believe in a false reality where mutually exclusive actions can be magically transformed into very similar actions all neatly housed within a consistent political philosophy.

Though mine is wordier...and in a world where intentions matter - I'm sure he means well....

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Venezuela has had another massive power outage, which the president is blaming on sabotage and not the nation's economy collapsing or anything.

How many Fifth Columns do they have in Caracas?

[entropy]

He blames everything on sabotage and not the nation's economy collapsing or anything.

I'm pretty sure in Venezuela, the occurrence of Tuesday is all the Imperial Capitalist Amerikkkans fault.

[Root Boy]

Must be the reason, I keep hearing progs call Obama a moderate Republican these days - plus they can eventually blame his conservative tendencies for ruining Socialized Health Care.

[Libertarius]

Denial is a river in lefty lalaland.

[briny]

Lefty Lakeland (Los Angeles) doesn't have rivers, unless a concrete mulch counts.

[briny]

Teach me to rely on predictive typing!

Lefty Lalaland doesn't have rivers unless a concrete gulch counts.

Sheesh.

[C. Anacreon]

I'm pretty sure in Venezuela, the occurrence of Tuesday is all the Imperial Capitalist Amerikkkans fault.

And they blame Mondays on Bob Geldof.

[Damned Fool]

Currently they're on the Twelfth Column.

[Medical Physics Guy]

True fact, my mother in law used to routinely include me in emails she forwarded two friends from "School of the Americas Watch" about what a great leader Chavez was and not to believe any of the slanderous American MSM when they suggested that he wasn't doing a visionary job.

What was a Reasonoid to do??

[Medical Physics Guy]

*two - to

[The DerpRider]

Mail toilet paper to her.

[BakedPenguin]

The idea that Venezuela is short of toilet paper is a lie promulgated by wreckers and kulaks. They have plenty.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Move your family to an undisclosed location and leave no forwarding address.

[mad libertarian guy]

So now Venezuelans have to wipe their asses with something NOT toilet paper and in the dark? That's fucking shitty.

[Entropy Void]

Cinco!

[CE]

In California we use the massive power outages to tell when it's over 98 degrees without looking at the thermometer.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.al.com/auburnfootba.....ncart_2box

Cuzin' Tommy voted Auburn #3 in the Coaches' Poll. Geez, Auburn, what does it take to get the support of former HCs?

[Andrew S.]

Auburn has Pat Dye as a former HC. Every other former HC they have should shun them as a result.

[Ted S.]

Are you suggesting #3 is too high, or too low? I mean, FSU is ahead of them, and Alabama would probably win nine out of ten, with it being unfortunate that they lost the one that was actually played. But who else would be ahead of them? I suppose we'll see about Missouri on Saturday.

[Caleb Turberville]

Auburn can be unranked for all I care, but I would expect Tubs to lend a helping hand to Auburn. I mean, he even attended the Iron Bowl for crying out loud.

[wareagle]

Tubs is holding out for an AU win Saturday. His son is a walk-on, hence the attendance, but an SEC title might sway his vote depending on how the Big 10 game goes.

[Ted S.]

Seriously, I didn't know if you were thinking he would rank Auburn higher because he coached there, or lower because they fired him.

[Andrew S.]

#3 is fine with me for them, with Ohio State at 2 and FSU at 1. But I count the Georgia game as half a loss, because it was a luckier victory than the game against Bama.

[CE]

Not sure why Florida State is the unanimous number one when Ohio State has a better coach and plays in a better conference and has a longer winning streak.

[Sudden]

I wouldn't call the big 10 a better conference than the ACC

[Sudden]

I wouldn't call the big 10 a better conference than the ACC

[AlmightyJB]

An undefeated season. Just like any other team.

[wareagle]

you would think the buyout would do it. I get the logic; unbeaten trumps once beaten. And AU needs to worry about this Saturday before thinking bigger, tough the season is already bigger than even the biggest optimist imagined.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Hope Mich St., Duke, and Missouri all win just for all the chaos and butthurt it will cause. A perfect send off for the BCS.

[Caleb Turberville]

Don't forget #5 Oklahoma State. They play #17 Oklahoma next week.

May the BCS crash and burn.

[Caleb Turberville]

I honestly believe that any nightmare scenario this weekend will lead to BCS computer self-awareness.

It might be a good idea to avoid pulling the plug. Any attempt at systems shutdown might be interpreted as a threat.

[CE]

If the BCS computers become self-aware, they're going to be pissed that they weren't allowed to consider margin of victory in computing the rankings, just to keep Boise State, Oregon and Baylor down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

An engineer of the train that derailed in New York, killing four, reportedly told investigators he was falling asleep as the train approached a curve at more than twice the posted speed.

With GPS and whatnot, wouldn't it be easy to put a governor or alarm at least when approaching low speed curves? Wait, are those engineers union?

[Mike M.]

They're going off the rails on the crazy train.

[Killaz]

S.A.T.O, best Ozzy, Randy collaboration. The layering of riff and effect nuances is lush like Nikki on Bartles and James.

[Nikki just says no]

I will take this as a compliment, Killaz.

[Killaz]

Without the backhand, my forward serve would be weak and ineffective.

[Killaz]

That sounded good to my ears, but I have no idea what it meant.

[Rasilio]

The hell with GPS you could achieve the same result with spray painted lines on the track, small transmitters placed along the trackside, and a hundred other technologies.

Honestly outside of Government Employee Unions I can think of no legitimate reason why commuter trains require engineers.

We've had the technology to completely automate the trains with error rates far below human error for at least 20 years now

[Rich]

But there's something about a train driver ....

[CE]

Yeah, an automated train would have to pass the Turing Test in order to text their girlfriend when they should be braking.

[playa manhattan]

That same union is telling the driver not to answer questions anymore.

[Ted S.]

To be fair, that's the same thing we'd be saying to a non-union train driver being asked questions by the authorities.

[jesse.in.mb]

SPRAY PAINTED LINES TOOK OUR JOBS!

[Zeb]

It still seems like a good idea to have someone on board just in case, but there really is no reason they shouldn't be fully automated.

[Rasilio]

20 years ago you'd have been right.

Today it would be so ridiculously cheap to install multiple overlapping layers of security.

Onboard computer/sensor system that uses 2 different sets of sensors to know the trains wherabouts on the track at all times. GPS back up of those. finally realtime wireless monitoring of all onboard systems from a remote facility.

If any 2 of those 4 control systems fails the train begins broadcasting a distress signal to any trains behind it so they know not to rear end it then drops down to a minimal safe speed until it arrives at the next station.

A human onboard would be utterly redundant

[Invisible Finger]

The whole point of a human on board is to have a low-level plebe to blame/prosecute should something go wrong.

[JWatts]

The whole point of a human on board is to have a low-level plebe to blame/prosecute should something go wrong.

And to be a fail safe for the unexpected. But sections of railroads with a curve should not be unexpected.

[CE]

Or better yet, have Capt Kirk and that drunk pilot from Flight ready on standby in a pickup truck.

[Bobarian]

But only after Randy lets the train go on its own.

[JWatts]

The rail road companies were required by union rules to employ a brake engineer on their trains for decades after they got rid of the caboose. For the most part, the only way they went away was retiring.

[Libertarius]

You might not be an actual moron, but you sure as hell sound like one when you talk about running unmanned trains lol

I know you guys don't know shit about trains or the mechanics of railroading, but I'm a conductor on a Class 1 so I'll set you straight: there is no way in hell that you could run unmanned freight trains, and the possibility of unmanned passenger trains is only less improbable.

There are too many tasks that have to be performed by a human being, and no way in hell would I ever get on an unmanned passenger train. There is too much shit that can go wrong that a computer would have no way to know about.

[Metazoan]

There is too much shit that can go wrong that a computer would have no way to know about.

Like...? I'm seriously asking out of curiosity.

[Libertarius]

Freight trains are often built between destinations; for instance, we'll have to stop at a remote grain elevator with cars parked on an industrial siding, so I have to inspect the track, throw the switches, guide the engineer back into the siding via radio, ensure the cars knuckle-up, attach the brake lines, then conduct a brake test.

And if a knuckle breaks while the train is underway (which happens all the time), the conductor has to install the new knuckle, knuckle-up, attach the lines, conduct a brake test. Even if a computer system could properly inform itself that a knuckle had busted and stop the train, it would have to sit there for hours until someone arrived to fix it.

A railroad is not a video game, it is a brutal environment where sensitive electronic equipment gets the shit beat out of it. I've been through these scenarios in my head a million times, and I'm convinced the two-man crew is the best practicable way to run freight trains.

[Rasilio]

Ok, you are not talking about DRIVING the train, you are talking about bringing repair crews on long haul inter city routes.

Thing is no one is talking about freight, or even amtrack trains. We're talking about subway and intra city commuter rail lines.

Those are not constructed under way, they are put together in depots and no point along the rail line is more than 50 miles from the central hub.

Oh for reference, the light rail system in Charlotte NC runs completely unattended, no engineer, no driver, not even conductors, fares are collected on the "honor system" with transit cops inspecting tickets every so often to keep people generally honest.

[briny]

Funny, but a robot has been doing that job in the railyard for fifteen years here (Fresno, Ca.). I watch all the time from my front yard. Definitely more reliable than people. Just for reference, I am more than capable of designing and building such from scratch. Nuclear powered even. Been living around tailgates and shipyards all my life.

[CE]

Seems like a train would be easier to automate than a car, and they're doing that.

[Timon 19]

Oh really?

[jb4479]

So I'm guessing you never plan to leave the US? They have trains in Europe that are unmanned and some of the bullet trains in Asia only have a human in case of an oh shit. By the way the Valley Transit trains in Silicon Valley might as well be unmanned. The person is only there if something goes wrong.

[Rasilio]

Hmm, trains go in a straight line on a predetermined course with rails to keep them from deviating.

They have autonomous airplanes which travel in an unbound 3 dimensional space.

They have autonomous cars capable of traveling in an unbound 2 dimensional space with an infinitely more chaotic environment of moving obsticles

If both of those things are possible you are the one that sounds like an idiot.

Yes it is true the trains YOU drive might not be able to be retrofitted to run unmanned (I doubt it but it is possible) this in no way shape or form impacts the ability to run trains in general autonomously

[JW]

His last name wouldn't be Jones, would it?

[Karl Hungus]

And if it was, maybe he should have had a little bump of cocaine when he went on duty.

[PD Scott]

More lives lost because of drug testing.

[mad libertarian guy]

With GPS and whatnot, wouldn't it be easy to put a governor or alarm at least when approaching low speed curves?

With GPS, they can omit engineers at all and run the entire fucking train with a computer.

Wait, are those engineers union?

You bet your as they are.This guy will be sacrificed, but ultimately it will be used to get MORE engineers on the train with less hours resulting in a higher price.

Falling asleep? Take some fucking no doz or drink some goddamn coffee.

[Agammamon]

". . .Wait, are those engineers union?"

So unionized that its illegal for management to refuse the demands of the unions.

This is an organization that only got rid of the requirement for Firemen on *diesel* trains 4 or 5 years ago.

[Cdr Lytton]

4 or 5 years ago? More like thirty years ago or more (depending on state regulations) when cabooses were mostly eliminated and railroads went from 5 man crews down to 2.

[Agammamon]

In 1985 a presidential board decided that firemen were no longer necessary for the safe operation of diesel engines - 25 years after the change-over from steam - but it wasn't until 5ish years ago that the unions agreed to no longer require special pay for engineers operating diesels without a fireman onboard.

Though I may be wrong on the date - it could be closer to 8ish years.

[Cdr Lytton]

Railroad pay practices are completely byzantine. There are lots of leftover extras and special circumstances rules and both sides think it benefits them.

[Cdr Lytton]

Railroads are supposed to be implement Positive Train Control by 2015 but they're unlikely to make it. The latest delay is that all trackside antenna installations (something like 20,000 or so left) have to be inspected and approved by both the FCC and Indian tribes under the National Historic Preservation Act. See http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fre.....wreck.aspx

[Damned Fool]

The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.

You'd need it to work there.

[PD Scott]

Foggy bottom, foggy head, foggy memory...

[CE]

What difference, at this point, does it make?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.

Good to know writing checks isn't the only thing in their bag of tricks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Venezuela has had another massive power outage, which the president is blaming on sabotage and not the nation's economy collapsing or anything.

Socialism is a type of sabotage.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Kenyan man gets 10 years for sexually abusing a goat

Katana Kitsao Gona, 28, last week admitted sexually abusing the animal in the Kenyan town of Malindi.

The female goat watched quietly in the corner of the court room as her attacker was jailed for bestiality.

He was caught when a local resident found him naked in a field having sex with the grazing goat, who was tied up, according to The Star.

The goat's owner was alerted and arrived at the scene with other residents who also witnessed Gona having sex with the animal.

He was arrested by police and a medical examination confirmed sexual abuse had taken place.

Gona told the court his wife is disabled and depends on him but was nevertheless jailed for ten years.

10 years seems excessive.

[Mike M.]

Probably Obama's third cousin or something.

[Damned Fool]

The goat? It speaks about as sensibly.

[Ted S.]

That's only because it's reading a teleprompter.

[Rich]

The female goat watched quietly in the corner of the court room as her attacker was jailed for bestiality.

Now, *that* is journalism.

[C. Anacreon]

How did they know it was a goat and not Stevie Nicks?

[Killaz]

Fucking a goat was the initiation ritual for being a member of the Kenyan nationalist rebellion back in the 1950s. Didn't realize the practice had become frowned upon in the years since. Progress?

[playa manhattan]

I've been away for awhile. Sup' with the new handle?

[Killaz]

No longer running, no longer dodging the law, and taking my stand. Fucking ATF wont be taking this cat alive.

[jesse.in.mb]

Goats need love too, Killaz. Where's HM with that chicken fucking video?

Vice on Columbian Donkey Fucking

[Killaz]

I kinda don't view sex with animal videos.

[Ted S.]

Human beings are animals, at least in Linnaean taxonomy.

[Killaz]

I'm a cyborg with the barest of my original gray matter left undigitized. I view videos of your species nude and rutting against one another with the utmost disgust. Now give me a Tesla going up on top of a Honda Civic and making it screech like a VW bug, and we're talking.

[Agammamon]

Squeal, squeal like a loose fan belt!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nope. Not enough alcohol in me to warrant clicking that.

[JWatts]

10 years seems excessive.

Misogynist!

[Agammamon]

Rape culture.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/1.....cart_river

Animal rights groups want Chimps to be declared legal persons.

[Pro Libertate]

The chain of consequences that go with that are quite profound. I suspect they would like to find a way to give animals the vote, then claim to speak solely for those animals.

[Caleb Turberville]

This really does open the doors for fetal rights.

[Tonio]

Yes, but not necessarily in the way that will make everyone happy. It won't be based on what DNA an organism has, but the neural complexity of the organism (actual, not theoretical or potential).

[Agammamon]

Not really - the attempt is going to fail because corporations, unlike animals, can be (and are) a nexus for contracts.

Animals can't be.

[Tonio]

I suspect they would like to find a way to give animals the vote, then claim to speak solely for those animals.

Well, PL, suspect all you want, but this is the same level as people who "know" that all libertarians are racist, etc.

What about the simpler hypothesis that these people, or the vast majority of them, simply want to protect our closest living relatives?

[jesse.in.mb]

protect our closest living relatives

Why would space reptilians need our protection?

...I mean, chimps yes! Evolution on this planet...Indeed.

[Tonio]

You're not helping.

[JW]

Don't look for it, Tonio. You may not like what you find.

[Pro Libertate]

Could you imagine what would happen if Dr. Zaius had the right to vote?

[JW]

Wasn't he the Secretary of Labor, a few years back?

[Pro Libertate]

You're thinking of that monkey, Robert Reich, not the majestic orangutan that is Zaius.

[JW]

Don't be so easily fooled, ProL. That was just his man name.

[Bobarian]

Secretary of State under the Clinton Admin?

[C. Anacreon]

I'm guessing there are already plenty of chimps, cats, dogs, parakeets and other non-humans registered to vote in those states that are desperately trying to prevent "Voter ID" laws.

[Pro Libertate]

That would explain a few things, as even elderly precinct volunteers would likely note that the chimp who just walked in didn't look anything like his driver's license photo.

[Entropy Void]

That would be "Chicago."

[jesse.in.mb]

I do my part; I don't eat octopus because I fear they will eventually take over. They evolved greater intelligence than dogs and HAVE NO BONES. Tool use, learning how to walk on land...it can only mean we will soon kneel on our paltry two knees to our octopodean overlords.

[Entropy Void]

Jesse-

You kneel before your god, I will kneel before mine.

/no homophobe

[Pro Libertate]

It's like Tonio never saw The Planet of the Apes. The good one. From the 60s.

[The DerpRider]

A planet where apes evolved from MAN!

[SIV]

What, are you some sort of Apeman?

[Pro Libertate]

Dude, seriously? I'm all for protecting chimps. Giving them the fucking vote and the right to serve on juries might be a bit excessive.

[JW]

Giving them the fucking vote and the right to serve on juries might be a bit excessive.

That actually sounds like an improvement over the current situation.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, well, you got me there.

This reminds me of the bit in Scrooged when Robert Mitchum wanted Bill Murray to include more things that appealed to dogs and cats in his programming.

[JW]

And we've been paying for it since, with reality shows.

[Pro Libertate]

Wow, I always thought that was a joke. It explains so much.

[JWatts]

I suspect they would like to find a way to give animals the vote, then claim to speak solely for those animals.

My wife worked as a therapist in a state mental facility a few years ago. The staff would take the patients to vote (their legal right) and literally tell the patients that Obama would take care of them, but McCain was going to take away their stuff.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, integrity at work.

[Rich]

What?! Then before long we will have minkeys with *bimbs*!

[Agammamon]

Minkey? You said 'minkey"!

[Sevo]

When chimps kill another animal, will they then be charged with murder? Who will represent them? Can they participate in their won defense?

[Pro Libertate]

Well, if they're legal persons, they can't be discriminated against on the basis of their species, I'm sure. Also, just because they lack the mental capacity and the speech skills to conduct a defense, I assume some sort of ADA thing would kick in, requiring a reasonable accommodation for their disabilities.

Also, because of their disabilities, they qualify for all sorts of welfare.

Finally, can you imagine the class action suits all of these animals could generate?

[LynchPin1477]

I once had someone tell me that chimps only become violent after coming in to contact with people. So there's your answer.

[waffles]

That person was an idiot. Chimps are capable of ostracizing and murdering other chimps. They exhibit the same tribalism of any ape.

[LynchPin1477]

Idiot doesn't even begin to describe her. Somehow the conversation started with why scientists were interested in Europa as a possible site of extra-terrestrial life. She seemed to think it was because it was named Europa, and it revealed a Euro-centric Western bias (despite an obvious background in humanities she didn't seem to be well versed in Greek mythology). At least I think that was her line of "thought". It was hard to tell. From there the conversation spiraled into other forms of supposed exploitation. It was...interesting.

[waffles]

My condolences. I'm fairly certain that is an incurable condition.

[LynchPin1477]

She home schooled. An example where state-run education is a better choice for the kids.

[C. Anacreon]

She seemed to think it was because it was named Europa, and it revealed a Euro-centric Western bias

Oh, my. At least the poor sop's mind got me to laugh out loud.

[General Butt Naked]

Let's hope that this person had the good decency to sleep with you for making you listen to that hogswishle.

[Pro Libertate]

It's an oral imperative.

[Pro Libertate]

She could be confusing bonobos with chimps, which is a common mistake. Not that bonobos got violent either before or after human contact.

It's interesting that the anti-human elements don't seem to get that many of our inherent traits are shared by our ape relatives.

[Michael S. Langston]

It's more likely part of the stupid myth that only human is the only animal who kills for fun or goes to war and kills for things other than strict survival/food.

But of course it's BS - big cats kill young cats in other species all the time simply to remove competitors - wolves are just destructive and will kill weak things when they don't need to - also for territorial reasons will kill for "war" type behavior.

Whales seem to "play" with dolphins and other animals too while "hunting only for food"... and I'm sure there are tons of other examples.

The base myth is somehow humans killing others is vastly different and therefore evil by definition, than other animals killing animals.

A tangential myth is somehow all non-human animal behavior is "natural" whereas human entry into any ecosystem is considered damaging by default.

& the myths work well with the religion that is the left - as facts aren't required to prove the evil nature of man as all religions require original sin, with the left is human's self-interested nature that is the sin - therefore anything resulting from human is automatically evil (consumerism, capitalism, etc, etc).

[Sevo]

LynchPin1477|12.3.13 @ 4:53PM|#
"I once had someone tell me that chimps only become violent after coming in to contact with people."

I'll bet that someone had all sorts of stories.

[Isaac Bartram]

I once had someone tell me that chimps only become violent after coming in to contact with people.

So it's all Jane Goodall's fault, then?

I knew it.

[Tonio]

When chimps kill another animal...

That again? You people go apeshit any time anyone talks about acknowledging that someone else has rights.

[Cytotoxic]

Only people have rights. Chimps are sub-humnan.

[LynchPin1477]

So if we encountered a race of intelligent aliens, they'd be ripe for pillaging?

[Pro Libertate]

Or vice versa.

[LynchPin1477]

Good point.

[Pro Libertate]

I wonder if there's some sort of galactic test you have to take to determine whether you are a pillager or a pillagee.

[LynchPin1477]

The FYTW test.

[JWatts]

The FYTW test.

I'm pretty sure that covers it.

[Corning]

So if we encountered a race of intelligent aliens, they'd be ripe for pillaging?

Yes.

[SIV]

Thank you

[Tonio]

So, Cyto: Magical Human DNA(tm), inalienable rights granted by Our Creator, or what?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Humph, next thing you'll be wanting to give Warty human rights!

[jesse.in.mb]

That's ridiculous! One doesn't give Warty anything. If Warty wants something he rapes you into a jelly and takes what he wants.

[Entropy Void]

Ask Bo, I'm sure he has represented a few simians before ...

[Killaz]

Sure, as long as every sponsor on a chimp human is willing to be the legal guardian with all the legal repercussions that entails when his little person flings shit at or bites someone's face off.

[Rich]

Mandatory.

[SIV]

I was "de-freinded" on FB a few years ago for mocking a "friend" who said that was racist.

[SIV]

Then we'd have to jail all the chimps for their many, many heinous crimes.

[Killaz]

The funny thing about it, give them human rights, and you just know they will vote Republican. They're dicks that way.

[Pro Libertate]

They'd be suing the pants off of us, though, for all sorts of things. Through their human counsel, of course.

Personally, I intend to represent Homo sapiens neanderthalensis in a class action against Homo sapiens sapiens for a variety of wrongs.

[C. Anacreon]

They'd be suing the pants off of us

Well, that goes without saying. If there's one thing we have over the apes, it's that we have pants and they don't.

[Pro Libertate]

Yep, discrimination right there.

[edcoast]

Speaking of which (whom?), where has TE/PF been lately? Or did he change his name to something and I missed it?

[Entropy Void]

But can I throw poo and semen at Nancy Pelosi, that's ALL I want to know ...

[Jordan]

Then they'd be subject to Obamacare. Talk about animal person cruelty.

[CatoTheElder]

Oh great! Another Democrat Party constituency.

[briny]

Obligatory RAH ref. 'Jerry Was A Man'

[Entropy Void]

The Anti-Nannies win one:

http://dailycaller.com/2013/12.....hydrants/#!

[Pro Libertate]

What's an anti-nanny? Mr. Banks?

[BakedPenguin]

Mary Poppins' ex-husband.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, what? I thought she was strictly banging Bert.

[Entropy Void]

Ninny!

[JWatts]

"No one is getting a steady supply of drinking water from the fire hydrant at the end of their street, so we should not add to the heavy burden our local governments with constrained budgets already experience," said Rep. Paul Tonko, a New York Democrat.

What do you think the results would have been if the EPA had restricted their regulation to private fire hydrants?

[Rich]

Across all age groups, however, a vast majority of Americans are at least somewhat familiar with the law, with 72 percent of all respondents indicating some level of familiarity.

This is bullshit. Saying you are familiar does not mean you have any idea what that monstrosity really contains.

[PapayaSF]

"Would you say that you are 'somewhat' familiar with the Affordable Care Act?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

[Michael S. Langston]

& worse, with such vaguely worded questions - those people who may follow politics, but haven't paid too close attention to the particulars wrt to O-care, might say the aren't that familiar when what they know is more detailed than a majority of people stating they are familiar with it.

I assume a WH poll?

[waffles]

The fair value of bitcoin is zero

With bitcoin above 1000 USD and staying there (for the time being) there is a lot of hand wringing over whether this is 21st century tulipmania or a new paradigm of currency. I remain an interested (uninvested) observer.

[John]

The fair value of anything is what someone is willing to pay for it

[waffles]

It seems like the author goes through contorted definitions of a "monetary instrument" to avoid such simplicity. In this definition is seems like you would find the fair market value of a dollar is zero.

[Ted S.]

The Fed is doing its best to make the fair market value of a dollar be zero.

[Nikki just says no]

Right? I was kind of confused about that.

[JWatts]

Meh, the likely market value is greater than zero, but probably a lot less than the current $1,000.

[CE]

A dollar has value because you can use it to pay your taxes. If the US FedGov goes away, the value would drop to that of colored paper.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

The dollar also has value because it is a widely accepted medium of exchange: Money has network properties, incumbency effects, etc.

The legal constraints on the production of Federal Reserve notes and reserves are an essential component of that, so there would indeed be a problem if FedGov? were to go by the wayside. However, that is not really germane to the larger point.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

"the value of a thing, is what that thing will bring".

[R C Dean]

The bitcoin has every bit as much backing as any other fiat currency. Its hard to slag on it as being nothing but a bunch of ones and zeros backed by nothing, when the same is true of damn near every other currency on the planet.

[Ted S.]

For the fans of death metal:

Communist-era pop music. This time from Bulgaria in 1984.

As far as I know it's safe for work, but I don't speak Bulgarian.

[Enough About Palin]

The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.

And that's just what they spend on booze for their hookers.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Guess Who Wrote This:

Amazon announced last summer it would add 5,000 new jobs to the 20,000 it already has. But not even 25,000 Amazon jobs come near to replacing the hundreds of thousands of retail jobs Amazon has already wiped out, and the hundreds of thousands more it will eliminate in the future.

To put this in some perspective you need to know that retail jobs have been the fastest growing of all job categories since the recession ended in 2009. But given the rapid growth of online retailing, that trend can't possibly last. What will Americans do when online sales take over?

Add to this the fact that most of what's being sold this holiday season is no longer made by Americans. Vast shipping containers of gadgets, garments, and other goodies are fabricated or assembled or sewed together in Asia for the American market.

Online retailers are facilitating this move by having these goods shipped directly from Asian factories to distribution centers in America and then to our homes, without ever having to go to an American retail store or even a wholesaler. This means even lower prices and better deals. But it also means fewer jobs and lower pay for many Americans.
[...]
Get it? Technology and globalization are driving the good deals American consumers are getting this holiday season. But the same forces are keeping wages down, and are even on the verge of eliminating many of the low-wage retail and related service jobs many Americans now need to make ends meet.

[Enough About Palin]

What will Americans do when online sales take over?

Buy shit online?

[Medical Physics Guy]

What will Americans do when online sales take over?

I for one welcome our new online shopping overl.... oh wait that's me.

[Agammamon]

And save money.

Imagine - we *still* get all the shit we could get when those people were employed selling and moving little boxes around the country *and* we have hundreds of thousands of people who can go out and do other things to further increase the wealth of the country.

[briny]

Check the thread about the need for more apprenticeship training.

[Andrew S.]

My standard guess is Sadbeard. I'll go with that.

[Sevo]

"But it also means fewer jobs and lower pay for many Americans."

Yep, when buggy whips are no longer required, why whip-makers will starve!

[Ted S.]

No they won't. We plutocrats need something to whip our monocle-polishing child labor with!

[Rich]

What are tasers, chopped liver?

[Bobarian]

Tasers are made in Korea, buggy whips are good ole 'merican know-how!

[JW]

The streets are still littered with the starved bodies of coachman, unable to find work now that the infernal horseless carriage has taken over the streets.

[General Butt Naked]

Comparative advantage, how does it fucking work?

[Sevo]

Very well, now that you ask.

[LynchPin1477]

Do you want to live in a world where everyone has cars, or a world where blacksmiths can still make horseshoes? Choose wisely!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sorry, the correct answer is Robert Reich.

[JW]

Ah, the candle salesman.

[C. Anacreon]

History's greatest example of "little man syndrome".

[Bobarian]

Does he get to take over from Napolean?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Such an ignorant little shit, peddling his twaddle to the legions of NPR listeners who dream of Kenny G concerts.

[Michael]

Jeezuz Christ on a cracker...

figus_mockum
95 Fans
So technology will be the death of us all. What will the rest of the world do when Americans can't afford all the new technology? Some South American countries are on the up swing (sort of) but that won't last long. We live too fast and too long. Maybe technology will take care of that. We sure can't depend on the 1% to buy much stuff that is mass marketed. Just another step to serfdom.
3 Dec 3:38 PM

[mad libertarian guy]

We sure can't depend on the 1%

Anyone who stills refers to rich people as the 1% can safely be ignored forever.

[MJGreen]

And this guy was supposed to have taught economics, right?

I ran into some poor fellow that was proud of the fact that he got to learn about the American economy from Reich.

[Entropy Void]

Kill him.

[Bobarian]

Did you order fries with your burger?

[PapayaSF]

Countless thousands of people now make a living (or part of one) selling used books on Amazon and everything on eBay, Craigslist, etc.

[Seamus]

I don't know about eBay, etc., but when I try to sell some of my used books on Amazon, I usually find that, unless I'm selling a first edition Leaves of Grass, the book I want to unload is already being sold at a price that would barely cover the cost of a Jiffy bag and postage. And those times when the competition is thin enough that I can offer my book at price that will make it worth my time, a few days later, I find that bots have undercut my price to the point where it's no longer worth trying to beat them. I usually end up carrying my books to my local public library and donating them to the annual Friends of the Library sale.

[PapayaSF]

I depends on the books. Many are sold at 1 cent plus $3.99 shipping, and apparently it's worth it for many people to sell that way. But I give some books to a friend with an established store there, and she's sold lots of them for $25-$500 over the years. I don't think she supports herself selling her books and eBay items, but I think it's a healthy supplement to the household income.

[JWatts]

Guess Who Wrote This?

It doesn't have enough big words to be Krugman.

[CE]

Efficiency, how does it work?

[Caleb Turberville]

http://m.timesdaily.com/news/l.....l?mode=jqm

Florence, Alabama may pass a resolution to allow alcoholic beverages during "special events," provided sellers buy a $250 license and the city is allowed to confiscate 5% of sales.

[Ted S.]

As if you want to liquor up a crowd that's half-and-half Alabama and Auburn supporters.

[JWatts]

As if the lack of a license is going to stop liquor consumption.

[The Late P Brooks]

Those young people the Affordable Care Act needs in order to properly function have no idea what the heck it is.

Why should they be any different than the rest of us?

[Rich]

I would pay (more) money to see a random selection of congresscreatures who voted for Democratcare questioned about its content on live primetime TV.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Starship Enterprise crew sings "Let it Snow"

Don't worry, there's some Wesley in there too!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The internet found its purpose.

[John]

Just a reminder of what a murderous little retard Sad Beard is.

Follow

Matt YglesiasVerified account
?@mattyglesias
@michaelbd No, pretty easy for me. I take an old-school Jacobin-style line that religion should be stamped out.

[Damned Fool]

You usually need charisma to start religious cleansing. The world is probably safe from Sadbeard Yglesias.

[Nikki just says no]

Aw, John, that's an old one! I was hoping for new SadBeard material.

[John]

I don't follow the little retard. It was linked by someone else and I hadn't seen it. I can't figure out if he is just that murderous or so stupid he has no idea that the Jacobeans murdered priests and religious people by the thousands.

[Mike M.]

That may be the most completely honest thing I've ever heard a so-called "progressive" say. Because at heart, Jacobins is exactly what they are.

[wareagle]

can't be both?

[JWatts]

Nah, he's not that stupid. He just got caught up in a public show of honesty.

[General Butt Naked]

Meh.

I can't say much as I take an old-school Jacobin-style line that the pseudo-intellectual ivy leaguers in media and government should be stamped out. I know who I'd start with.

[John]

Oh I have a few ideas for who that would be. Decisions decisions.

[tarran]

Do you have a little list? 😉

[Sevo]

"An engineer of the train that derailed in New York, killing four, reportedly told investigators he was falling asleep as the train approached a curve at more than twice the posted speed."

The next union contract will call for increased 'staying awake' pay!

[Enough About Palin]

No, two engineers.

[Rich]

"The engineers of the train that derailed in New York, killing four, reportedly told investigators they were having sex as the train approached a curve at more than twice the posted speed."

[PD Scott]

And a backseat engineer to nag them.

[C. Anacreon]

The next union contract will call for increased 'staying awake' pay!

I actually had to testify one time as an expert witness in a case where an emergency room doc who worked overnights had worked out a deal with the other doc on duty. They were both on 12-hour shifts, and each would work six hours and sleep the other six, covering for each other. They had created this arrangement after getting a second doc on the shift, after insisting the nights were too busy for one doc to work alone.

I was brought in solely to say that at other ERs, docs weren't paid for sleeping. But his attorney in cross-examination kept harassing me and bringing up studies that showed that sleep was important in work, and why did I want to deny doctors the sleep they needed to do their best? I pretty much responded with "why aren't they sleeping during the 12 hours they have off" and "I don't know of too many jobs where you get paid solely for sleeping" but it was a pretty unpleasant experience on the witness stand.

[CE]

Was the other lawyer taking a nap?

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Short answers. Volunteer nothing. No matter what you say it will be twisted. Yes, lawyers a truly a different (sub)species.

[The Late P Brooks]

Add to this the fact that most of what's being sold this holiday season is no longer made by Americans. Vast shipping containers of gadgets, garments, and other goodies are fabricated or assembled or sewed together in Asia for the American market.

Oh, horror.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Is this Henry Hazlitt writing a parody of his opponents?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The irony is that Reich's partner in progtard mendacity, Krugnuts, has excoriated the Germans for doing exactly what Reich wants us to do.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Pentagon tracking Santa Claus adds new twist: an armed jet escort

As Santa streaks through the sky this Christmas Eve, Rudolph merrily guiding the way, he will be flanked by some new and unusual companions: a jet-fighter escort, bristling with missiles.

That is the twist that ? to the dismay of at least some child advocates ? the US military has chosen to put on this year's version of its traditional animated tracking of the yuletide journey.

The popular program, without the jet escort, reached 22 million people last year and generated tens of thousands of phone calls from kids and their parents around the country. The mock mission allows families, either by calling or logging on, to get "real-time" updates on Old St. Nick's global trip to bring holiday cheer to girls and boys.

This year's updated segment, now previewing on the military's website, depicts Santa soaring over snow-capped peaks with military aircraft keeping pace on either side.

Adding the jets is "part of our effort to give the program more of an operational feel," said Navy Captain Jeff A. Davis, a spokesman for the command that sponsors the event, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD.

Needs more drones.

[Damned Fool]

Santa brings presents for the Western children and Hellfire missiles for the brown ones.

[LynchPin1477]

I guess we know which side NORAD is on in the War on Christmas.

[Boisfeuras]

"I think people are quite aware of the military's true mission," said Amy Hagopian, a professor of public health at the University of Washington, who has written extensively about military recruiting of youngsters. "If the military wants to keep its ranks stocked, it needs to appeal to children. The military knows it can't appeal to adults to volunteer. It is like the ad industry.''

Typical leftist dipshit simply dismisses the existence of that which they can't understand. And yet the average age of enlistment for Army recruits was over 20 every year from 2001 to 2012. In FY11 and FY12, every service exceeded its retention rate goals?i.e. adults volunteering for an additional term of service?except the USAF in one cohort which achieved 95.5% of its goal.

[PD Scott]

You forget, in Obamamerica everyone under 26 is a child.

[CE]

But kegstands are okay.

[Rhywun]

it needs to appeal to children

You'd think they'd be handing out candy-flavored Camels, then.

[John]

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....world.html

Althouse notices Ezra Klein is a moron.

[Ted S.]

She didn't already know this?

[R C Dean]

She lives in a cloud of consensus beltway smug. It can be hard to see through the choking billows.

[PapayaSF]

Althouse? I haven't seen that.

[SIV]

Katherine Mangu-Ward once made Ann Althouse cry at... a cocktail party!

[Spoonman.]

That is awesome.

[Enough About Palin]

"She lives in a cloud of consensus beltway smug"

I read Althouse everyday; I respectfully disagree.

[SIV]

She tears up over the Civil Rights Act.
See above

[Enough About Palin]

Well she doesn't live in the beltway, she lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She's also not smug.

[SIV]

The cocktail party was in Chi-town so it wasn't a "Beltway event".

[Entropy Void]

Name one who lives in Madison that is not smug.

[Irish]

She lives in a cloud of consensus beltway smug.

Huh. I was unaware the Beltway stretched as far west as Madison, Wisconsin.

[R C Dean]

Hell, i was thinking McArdle. Sorry

[LynchPin1477]

Would it actually surprise anyone to learn that the Obamacare exchanges were written using punch cards? Klein might just have some insider information.

[Enough About Palin]

Original Mike said...
Punch cards are so old, they were used to write the Constitution, Ezra.
12/2/13, 2:13 PM

[JW]

Venezuela has had another massive power outage, which the president is blaming on sabotage and not the nation's economy collapsing or anything.

It's good to see that Baghdad Bob has moved up in the world.

[Ted S.]

Is "that British lizard guy" in the alt-text a reference to Piers Morgan?

[Pro Libertate]

Blackadder?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

+1 cunning plan

[PD Scott]

The Gecko has a sad.

[Boisfeuras]

David Icke?

[Coeus]

First, got a few "skeptic" links:

Stop Asking "What Did You Expect?"

The sentiment behind commercials that portray them as bumbling does not lead to cis men being banned from, say, entering china shops. The notion that they will have sex with anything and everything has not led to mandatory chastity belts for cis men. As seemingly anti-male notions do not lead them to be stripped of their power, agency, and authority across society, they don't represent oppression ? but they do have an effect. The liberation of lowered expectations is a not-insignificant part of male privilege.

This is completely insane. I don't even know how to respond to this. And this from the group who blames everything on men, and wants to put the entire onus of sexual enjoyment for both parties on men.

[John]

The liberation of lowered expectations is a not-insignificant part of male privilege.

So I guess women had it made when people expected them to not be able to think like men. And black people enjoyed a golden age when people thought them too stupid to do anything but menial or at most trade labor.

[PD Scott]

Why won't they think of all the fainting couch builders or smelling salt bottlers who have been put out of work by the expectation that women are competent and tough?

[Rich]

Think of a father being praised for taking his child out for an ice cream cone where a mother would have been shamed for having fed her child unhealthy desserts

Think of a number -- ANY number.

[mad libertarian guy]

Think of a father being praised for taking his child out for an ice cream cone where a mother would have been shamed for having fed her child unhealthy desserts

Actually, I don't have to imagine it at all.

As a stay-at-home dad I get this shit all of the fucking time, ad it's goddamn annoying. People expect that my kids should act retarded and barely have the ability to swallow because their father is the primary child raiser in the household.

What I really want to say is "Yes, bitch, my kids are fucking polite. They're that way because I make goddamn sure they are, not because they happened to get smacked by the polite branch this morning."

[Mickey Rat]

The "polite branch" is not the switch you had them cut this morning?

[LynchPin1477]

OK, I have to ask what this whole cis thing means?

[Medical Physics Guy]

Brace yourself...

cisgendered

[Rich]

cisgender [describes] "individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity"

Dammit, MPG, I *thought* I understood cis.

But now I find myself asking "What are individuals who have a match between their bodies and their personal identity, but *not* with the gender their parents had hoped for at conception?"

[LynchPin1477]

Chinese girls?

[Medical Physics Guy]

The Lady Boys of Bangkok?

[Invisible Finger]

+1 child only

[Nikki just says no]

You identify with the gender that you appear physiologically to be, and you also want to have sex with people of the opposite gender.

[PapayaSF]

It's Newspeak for "not a pervert."

[jesse.in.mb]

Pervert seems like such a strong word for non-cisgendered folks when we have a documentary about people fucking Donkeys up thread.

[General Butt Naked]

Did you see the one about the chicken fucker? That kid was messed up. He wasn't even ashamed, which, from my cis-whatever privileged perspective, is whack, yo.

[jesse.in.mb]

Aw, but he loved the chicken and the chicken seemed fond of him to whatever degree the descendants of dinosaurs feel fondness.

I also liked Andrew Mendoza with "I ain't going to lie, I blew a nut in the horse. I then got off the bucket and put my clothes back on and left."

[C. Anacreon]

That was a goat. She only thought she was a donkey.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'd forgotten about the Kenyan man and the goat.

In this thread we've referenced Columbian donkey fuckers, a Kenyan goat fucker, Nicaraguan chicken fuckers and Andrew Mendoza, who blew a nut in a horse hoping to make a horse-man baby because his girlfriend failed to call him back in a timely manner.

I wonder if I can find that video that some friends found while working compliance at Myspace of a Japanese matron filling some girl's bum with eels (probably nematodes or planaria actually) and then having her spray them all over the place while the matron cackled.

[General Butt Naked]

In this thread we've referenced Columbian donkey fuckers, a Kenyan goat fucker, Nicaraguan chicken fuckers and Andrew Mendoza, who blew a nut in a horse hoping to make a horse-man baby because his girlfriend failed to call him back in a timely manner.

Is this what college administrators mean when they speak of "diversity"?

[Mad Scientist]

You call that diversity? Only one of those creatures isn't a mammal!

[Agammamon]

And we wonder why Postrel is afraid to look at the comments.

[PapayaSF]

I'm being flippant. No offense intended. Of course there are many ways of being a pervert.

[jesse.in.mb]

I figured. It was a fun opportunity for doubling down on a bestiality heavy thread.

[Rhywun]

You identify with the gender that you appear physiologically to be, and you also want to have sex with people of the opposite gender.

FTFY

[Boisfeuras]

OK, I have to ask what this whole cis thing means?

It's a term idiots use to inform you of the fact.

[Medical Physics Guy]

So do the PC style guidelines now require replacing "men" with "cis men" in every instance? That is so insane.

[Rich]

Very well. "Cis boom bah", then.

[jesse.in.mb]

has not led to mandatory chastity belts for cis men

A small part of the cis man population is sad.

[Nikki just says no]

The notion that they will have sex with anything and everything has not led to mandatory chastity belts for cis men.

But it does lead to them being banned or side-eyed from children's parks, being blackballed from careers like early childcare, etc...

[Medical Physics Guy]

Not if you are the mighty Teacher Tom, one of my favorite ed blogs.

[Coeus]

As always, nikki finds the other logic errors first. Where you been nik? My antifeminist pm links crusade just hasn't been the same.

[Redmanfms]

The liberation of lowered expectations is a not-insignificant part of male privilege.

So what she's really saying is that woman were experiencing female privilege when they enjoyed lower expectations of professional achievement and income earning in the days of pre-feminism?

[Caleb Turberville]

http://thefederalist.com/2013/.....any-banks/

Wait, Matt Yglesias doesn't know what he's talking about?

[John]

Read the author of that post's bio

http://thefederalist.com/author/seandavis/

He is a bit of a government hack. But he has actually worked in government and has held real jobs.

Sad Beard in contrast?

[VG Zaytsev]

Even so he's still sane.

http://thefederalist.com/2013/.....ouseholds/

[Cytotoxic]

I hate to do this, but excessive bank fragmentation is a problem in America because of inter-state banking restrictions. Canada does not have these and our banks are strong. We have the opposite problem of too little competition.

[Invisible Finger]

Bank fragmentation is NOT a problem.

I'm sure as we shrink the number of banks, shylocks will happily take the place of some of them.

[mauricegirodias]

Payday lenders pretty much have replaced small banks for a certain part of the population.

[Killaz]

By Sean Davis
December 3, 2013
Hangout with us

"America has 6,891 banks," Slate blogger and certified financial non-expert Matthew Yglesias writes in his Moneybox column. "And that's too many."

Why is that? According to Yglesias, it's because small banks are poorly managed, unregulated, and can't compete. It's an interesting argument, to the extent that 2+2=7 is an interesting argument, but Yglesias fails to support a single assertion with a verifiable fact or source citation. Not one. Of the seven assertions made in the first two paragraphs (spanning a whole five sentences), not one has a supporting citation.

Galbraithian social democrats. Small businesses have ideas of their own, implement them, succeed, and crash the system set up by controllers and cronies. Entrepreneurs are enemies of the Public Good who are disruptive of a stable social order, and create ruin through speculation. Their risks taking doesn't just effect them if things go awry but have negative externalities that effect everyone by making us all the poorer for it.

That is what they believe. Completely skewered from reality, proven wrong the first time it was tried, and we got the stagnation that accumulated from their policies in the 70s from it, as well as the failed experiment of the Obama administration, but they keep clinging bitterly to their reactionary love of bureaucratic control no matter what.

[PapayaSF]

We just need one, huge, national bank. Much more efficient that way.

[JWatts]

And we'll call it the Federal Reserve. And it will be run by Top Men.

[Jordan]

Damn, that was an epic smackdown.

[Killaz]

If Sadbeard had any self respect he would stop writing altogether after making an apology along the lines of, 'It's clear that I have been just pulling shit out of my ass all of this time, but what I didn't realize until now, after Sean Davis meticulously proved every sentence in my latest screed to be factually not correct, a lie if you prefer, is that everyone else can see what I that I'm just pulling shit out of my ass except for the useful idiots that run in progressive social circles. I underestimated you all, my bad.'

[Killaz]

everyone else can see what I that I'm just pulling shit out of my ass except for the useful idiots that run in progressive social circles.

[Spoonman.]

His refusal to provide any evidentiary support of this assertion is entirely defensible; none exists.

OWNED

[Karl Hungus]

If you've ever wondered what happens when you watch porn with your parrot in the room . . . well, here you go:

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2013/.....ur-parrot/

*** NOT SAFE FOR WORK ***

[PD Scott]

This is why there are no female libertarian parrots.

[Karl Hungus]

And thank God for that. Birdlike women belong with the Dems.

[PD Scott]

"Paulie want a cracker" but does Paulie DESERVE the cracker?

[Karl Hungus]

Paulie's gotta earn that bitch. But as far as I'm concerned, this bird has more than earned its cracker.

[Generic Stranger]

I watched a documentary on parrots the other day. The thing about them is when they bond with their owners, it's a sexual bond.

Think about that while that parrot is rubbing against that guy's palm and moaning.

[Karl Hungus]

So in a roundabout, passive sort of way, that guy was jerking off his parrot.

Do you suppose that counts as bestiality?

[Generic Stranger]

In the same way that a dog humping your leg does, though usually you stop that instead of just let it happen...

[Coeus]

More from the logic queen herself

4. But here's the rub: the Beastie Boys' song did not appear in this ad. The song in the ad is a clear parody of and political comment on the original. No one is "hiding behind fair use:" this kind of parody is exactly the kind of speech that should be protected from being silenced by parties with more money and lawyers. Had McDonald's made a parody where the word "girls" was changed to "grills" and it was all about how delicious hamburgers are, the Beastie Boys and Faraci may have had a point. Instead, the GoldieBlox suit makes it plainly obvious that this parody stands in direct opposition to the original song:

...

I am most certainly not a lawyer, and so I cannot say for sure whether this qualifies as "fair use." All I know is that this is political speech that absolutely should be protected, regardless of whether it's also persuading people to buy a product. The Beastie Boys have attempted to silence an apt criticism of their song using a lawyer's letterhead, and that's not cool.

[Zeb]

Oh good god. I'd say that is fair use, but the argument that a small, nice company has more of a right to parody popular songs than a large company that the author disapproves of is a bit ridiculous.

[SIV]

Yes, GoldieBlox is a company; yes, they are selling something for money; but that's where the likeness ends. GoldieBlox has a point of view ? a mission, even ? and a hell of a lot of people think it's a good mission.

Chick-fil-A has a mission too.

[Coeus]

And from the comments:

inkpixel November 28, 2013, 12:09 am Log in to Reply
On the subject of for-profit violations of musicians' and artists' copyright, one glaring example would be online music sharing, which profits those who sell advertisements on the download sites, and which is usually nowhere close to a parody or "fair use." I find it interesting that my more libertarian friends accept downloading as ethical, or at least inevitable and good, responding with phrases like "people get exposure that way" and "you can't stop it, you might as well go along with it" and "information should be free." Yet when the violation in question is a political statement from a for-profit or non-profit related to feminism or social justice more generally, I hear crickets chirping?

To be fair, the GoldiBlox company protects its own copyright, I'm sure, so maybe there's an attitude of "if you dish it out, you should be willing to take it." But still, for all the good I'm told that free intellectual property can do, a good portion of the staunch advocates of such freedom go silent in cases where good is actually done (and harm is minimal).

[R C Dean]

On the subject of for-profit violations of musicians' and artists' copyright,

Thinking that whether you charge for your unauthorized use of someone else's material is at all relevant to claims of copyright violation, is a pretty sure sign that you don't know dick about copyright.

[Coeus]

When the "feels" are right, intelligent people who've actually thought about the distinction between public and private use should throw it out the window. Because apparently not doing so makes them hypocrites.

[Cytotoxic]

Here is an article on the recent Iran 'deal' that is superior to anything Reason has or will have.

http://fullcomment.nationalpos.....means-war/

Some say a bad peace is better than a good war. I'm not sure. Perhaps it would be if it lasted, but a bad peace is usually just a prelude to a bad war.

[R C Dean]

If a bad peace is better than a good war, then I can't see any reason for any country to ever fight an invader.

[Zeb]

It's a tricky question, I think. And depends a lot on who you are and your place in society as well as who it is you might want to have a war with. I suspect that for a lot of just plain poor working people, a bad peace would be better than a good war.

[Zeb]

Reminds me of the old Italian guy in Rome in Catch 22 who explains that the Italians are very strong exactly because they are very weak.

[CE]

But once there's an invader, the bad peace is over.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Powerball winner dies penniless and alone 12 years after winning $27 million

A Powerball winner has died broke and all alone in hospice care, just 12 years after raking in $27million cash from a lottery jackpot.
David Lee Edwards, a convicted felon from Ashland, Kentucky, bought a mansion in a gated community, dozens of expensive cars and even a LearJet with the share of a record $280million jackpot he won in August 2001.
But drug addiction and his free-spending ways left Edwards and his wife Shawna broke and living in a squalid storage unit contaminated with human feces within five years. Shawna left him not long after and remarried.

I think this is a good example of how people's poor decisions and inability to control themselves--and not just a simple lack of money--is a major factor in poverty.

[John]

Poverty is a cultural problem not a monetary one.

[Enough About Palin]

Yes. Many if not most of my poor neighbors are in that situation due to poor life planning. Though to be fair, a good many of them had no examples to follow.

[Rich]

a good many of them had no examples to follow.

That's what *public schooling* is for, duh.

[Invisible Finger]

Yes, public schools provide no good examples to follow.

[LynchPin1477]

None of that would have happened if we had a $17/hour living wage.

[Invisible Finger]

All a $17 an hour living minimum wage will do is triple the price of lottery tickets.

[JWatts]

In which case, he couldn't have afforded a lottery ticket, and none of that would have happened. /derp

[Enough About Palin]

Yes.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

There is a direct correlation between habits and choices?

🙁

[Sevo]

It looks like the guy held in NK was reliving his glory days:
"US vet detained in NKorea oversaw guerrilla group"
"Now South Koreans who served with Merrill Newman, who is beginning his sixth week in detention, say their unit was perhaps the most hated and feared by the North and his association with them may be the reason he's being held."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/wor.....029684.php
I wish him well, but it sure looks like he was twisting the tiger's tail.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Gillian Anderson poses nude--with an eel wrapped around her chest

X-Files star Gillian Anderson, 46, has decided to get completely naked and pose with a newfound friend in the form of a large conger eel to support Fishlove?a campaign designed to highlight the issue of collapsing fish stocks, with the message being that British taxpayers' money is being given to French fishing trawlers to destroy the deep seabed in British waters.

A petition, for which this image of Anderson?and others like it? was created for, has been launched in support of Fishlove.

"Amazing animals that live in the deep ocean are being systematically destroyed by massive fishing nets that catch or crush everything in their path," reads the petition. "But in days, the European Parliament could vote to protect one of the world's most precious deep-sea habitats?and we need to give them the public mandate to do it.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Looks tasty.

[Restoras]

The eel? I agree.

[Enough About Palin]

highlight the issue of collapsing fish stocks

Note to self: short fish stocks.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

San Antonio cop allegedly shoots over wife-swapping plan gone bad

Police on Monday identified the accused officer, Frankie Salazar, in the report.

He has been placed on leave with pay pending administrative action, according to the Olmos Park Police Department.

Salazar, 29, and the man who was shot through the chest and hand, Jesus Edward Guitron, had been discussing swapping sexual partners for several months, a female witness told police.
[...]
Another woman, 29,...became upset with Salazar for not telling her what he was planning, according to the report. She began arguing with Salazar, and the first woman walked out and tried to get Guitron to leave with her, according to police.

Before they could leave, Salazar and Guitron got into a fistfight, and Salazar told the 29-year-old woman to get his gun, according to police.

The 29-year-old woman said she grabbed Salazar's .45-caliber Springfield XDS pistol, and when she walked back into the hallway she saw that Guitron had Salazar in a neck hold. The woman told police she shot at Guitron "just to scare him," but didn't know if she had shot him or not.
[...]
The other woman and Guitron tried to leave, but at the front entrance Salazar shot three times, the woman leaving with Guitron said. She ran but then saw Guitron lying in the street and realized he was shot, she said.

[font_of_stupidity]

See, we should only have firearms in the responsible hands of law enforcement.

[Coeus]

Trying to follow what happened there was harder than reading un-commented code.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

FIFA confirms pots for World Cup draw

To make the number in each pot equal, at the start of the draw one of the nine European teams will be drawn into Pot 2, and will definitely face one of the seeded South American sides.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Looks like France got bailed out again. I think this system is fair though (in the context of keeping confederations spread out, which I agree with). If FIFA were more transparent about shit it wouldn't look so dirty.

[CE]

Why is Pete Rose coaching Mexico?

[Mokers]

US High School Students Slide in Math, Reading and Science Performance

"While the U.S. spends more per student than most countries, this does not translate into better performance. For example, the Slovak Republic, which spends around USD 53,000 per student, performs at the same level as the United States, which spends over USD 115,000 per student."

Yet something tells me any education reform bill is going to focus on how we aren't spending enough to educate the children and how we don't pay teachers enough.

[Rich]

What is *class size*, chopped liver?

[LynchPin1477]

Dobre

[Invisible Finger]

We spend more PER student, but we spend almost nothing ON students.

Even a teacher can figure out that more education money only means more administrators. And more administrators mean more red tape and less teaching.

The only thing worse than a teacher is a teacher with an administrator by its side.

[hamilton]

Let's see... pupil-teacher ratio going down every year, real teacher pay going up every year, per-pupil expenditures going up every year, scores consistently mediocre or declining....

What was that they called two variables when, changing one, the other was unaffected? Oh, yeah: uncorrelated.

[JWatts]

"In mathematics, 29 nations and other jurisdictions outperformed the United States by a statistically significant margin, up from 23 three years ago," reports . "In science, 22 education systems scored above the U.S. average, up from 18 in 2009.

"In reading, 19 other locales scored higher than U.S. students ? a jump from nine in 2009, when the last assessment was performed."

I blame Bush!11!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Fear can be inherited through sperm

[mr lizard]

And I'll this time I thought I was just giving them a full dose of Act Right.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

For the first time in 40 years, a majority of Americans say the US plays a less important and powerful role in the world than it did a decade ago

[John]

Smart Diplomacy.

[Coeus]

This, from the guy who is convinced that three heavily miscontrued cases that stand your ground is a racist law:

This is not like finding a dime-bag in someone's pocket, or even catching someone with a vial of crack. People who assault other people for amusement should be prosecuted. Understanding this, it's also worth pointing out that, in terms of long-term trends, we are in the midst of a historic dip

But since the days of slavery, into the days of super-predators, and now the time of the Knockout Game, there has always been a strong need to believe that hordes of young black men will overrun the country in a fit of raping and pillaging. It's how we justify ourselves. Information can't compete with national myth.

And then he links to a piece which says violent crime is actually rising since 2011, and it's all in the category if simple assaults.

[Coeus]

But hey, we know what he wants. He's always talking about our "violent gun culture". It's cause he he believes that you should be able to punch someone who's walking behind you on the sidewalk, but you shouldn't be able to shoot someone who does it:

Richard_Ewell14 Laura Toepfer ? 2 years ago ?
If Zimmerman was walking away, back to his truck, why is Martin justified in punching him? If Zimmerman asks him who he is and what he's doing, why is Martin justified in punching him?
Too many suggestions that the proper response in a situation like this is to start swinging.
13 ?Reply?Share ?
Avatar
Ta-Nehisi Coates Mod Richard_Ewell14 ? 2 years ago
Agreed. Along with too many suggestions that the proper response is to submit yourself to the inquiries of a strange man who follows you in truck, and then chases you through a housing development. Evidently you should regard him as Officer Friendly, even if he has no badge.

Not attacking means submitting. And in earlier articles he's talked about jumping people in his neighborhood with friends. He just doesn't see it as much of a big deal, and wonders why whitey's panties are all up in a bunch about it.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

A reader writes:
My boyfriend says he's bisexual and doesn't always find me attractive.
He only wants sex once a week and says he might not be able to give me what I need. Is this problem to do with me?

[jesse.in.mb]

Nope, he's gay and using bisexuality as a bridge orientation.* Dump him and find someone who loves you for your internal reproductive organs.

Unless you're ugly or a harpy and he's trying to not turn you into an emotion monster while he looks for a good way to break it off. Then of course it's your fault.

But he's still mostly gay.

*not making a claim about bisexuality in men, just that this guy is a homo, not bi (or dating a harpy).

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

"Honey, I'm not gay, I just prefer dicks."

[Coeus]

I would think that if he's mostly gay, he'd be banging more than once a week. This seems more like the limited options on the hetero scene for 80% percent of guys taking it's toll like in the Muslim countries.

More of a "prison arrangement", if you will. I know a guy who did that in college. He's married to a chick now. And no religious conversion.

[Coeus]

Never mind, it's a chick writing. Statement retracted.

[Coeus]

But don't overlook the fact that she may be both fat and unmotivated in bed.

[jesse.in.mb]

My sister had a girlfriend when she was in an all girl's rehab program for over a year. My plotzed but she went back to dick (with vigor) as soon as she was out.

Margaret Cho made a joke about it when she was still funny at the beginning of her career (starting at 3:30):

So I had sex with a woman on the ship and I went through this whole thing. I was like, am I gay? Am I straight? And I realized, I'm just slutty. ...Where's my parade?

[John]

If he doesn't always find you attractive, he doesn't ever find you attractive. He is gay dear.

[Mad Scientist]

Women aren't always attractive. Sometimes they're irresistible and other times the same woman can be a raging harpy.

[John]

I don't think she is talking about him not finding her attractive when she is on the rag in a night shirt with her hair in a pony tail. I think she means he doesn't always find her attractive when she is trying to be attractive. He is gay.

[Mad Scientist]

I'll concede that, assuming she's not shaped like a beach ball.

[Jordan]

Obama still hasn't signed up for Obamacare.

I guess he's not a complete retard.

[Paul.]

Young People Still Don't Grasp Obamacare

I heard this on NPR today. From my perspective, this helps Obama more than it hurts him. To wit, the Gallup pollster referenced dips in support for Obamacare coming from the higher-information voter. No real change in perception from the 18-29s- the group with the least knowledge about the ACA. So from my perspective, Obama's continuous reliance on the low-information voter helps him.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I think there are a lot of 18-26s that will find out a lot about it real quick when they turn 27

[Paul.]

By that time, Obama won't care.

[Invisible Finger]

He already doesn't care.

[Paul.]

*Bam*

[PD Scott]

But his LEGACY!

[General Butt Naked]

Someone posted an article by a gawktard bemoaning the Daniel Defense ad nix by the nfl. It was bad enough of a link that I thought it deserved a shot at the pm links.

A sample:

That is how a kinda-savvy gun company commodifies the dissent of unsavvy gun nuts. Never mind that anyone who thinks an AR-15 or its shorter cousin, the M-4, is a valuable home-defense weapon is a shit-for-brains lemming. The gun's high-velocity, low-caliber, low-weight slugs won't stop shit up close, as those guys in Somalia and Iraq and Afghanistan have learned pretty succinctly. If you really want a home defense weapon, if you really want to open your family up to the high statistical probability that one of them will be killed or maimed at your well-intentioned hands, get a shotgun, or a large-caliber pistol, and get some training.

So an AR will plow through a crowd of movie goers but can't kill one home invader? Odd how the gun can decide when to become a high power killing machine.

[Paul.]

And plow through a classroom full of kids, but not the thug in your livingroom at 2 am. Yeah, cognitive disconnect ad nauseam.

[General Butt Naked]

Not to mention that handguns, though less powerful, have the problem of over-penetration in a home environment. Rounds for an AR, especially ones designed to do so, fragment upon hitting building materials.

[Killaz]

Exactly right. This is what I'm looking at to compliment my home defense.

http://carteach0.blogspot.com/.....ntrol.html

A pal uses this, but I've been too lazy to do my own upgrading. Maybe after the holiday season.

[Paul.]

To be fair, you can purchase home defense rounds that flare or fragment when hitting stuff like sheet rock.

But yes, off-the-shelf handgun ammo will penetrate like a mofo.

Also, this guy needs to disabuse himself of the "shotgun myth". Somewhere out there there's a rather scientific assessment and video of standard shotgun penetration through home materials and walls, and they penetrate with killing power-- all the way down to bird shot.

[General Butt Naked]

I was just gonna respond to killaz above to say something similar.

Personally, I have a 12g with 2 3/4 buckshot for bedside protection and either my 9mm carry piece or a walther ppk (if I'm feeling lazy) on me.

I don't have an AR right now, or I'd probably use that. I do have a mini-14 but it's a bit unwieldy for home defense.

Me and my Pa went to the range one day with a bunch of materials to test penetration and

[General Butt Naked]

wtf...

and .223 did well without over penetrating, 12g 3' slugs went through anything we put in front of it, 9mm +p critical duty went through a bunch of shit, .357 plowed through everything, .25 acp didn't go through much, etc.

We did a bunch of other calibers but you get the gist of it. I should of went about it scientifically and recorded the results, but we were just fucking around destroying old building supply stuff. Should of video recorded it and put it up on the youtube.

[cavalier973]

Your gun shoots three foot slugs? You might consider a less unwieldy form of ammo.

[mad libertarian guy]

Welcome to the Box-o-Truth.

[General Butt Naked]

Just what I need...

Another website to throw my time into. Looks awesome.

[General Butt Naked]

Looks like he got the .223 to penetrate much further than we did. When we did it we had all the materials together with no gaps, so that might have had something to do with it. I think his method more accurately mirrors what a bullet will do inside a home.

[Gray Ghost]

Ol' Painless is a lot of fun to read. His research dovetails with some of the other stuff I've read from wound ballisticians. IIRC, 5.56 overpenetration is really dependent on what type of bullet is used. I've read good things about light, fast stuff like 55 gr TAP going right to pieces after a few interior walls, whereas heavier built 75 gr stuff would keep on trucking. But a lot of terminal ballistics can be summed up with: "it depends."

FWIW, the 123 grain 7.62 x 39 FMJ used in the AK-47 is not know for exhibiting the violent fragmentation that SS109/M855 shows at high velocity. High velocity is the key. At lower velocities, such as found at longer ranges, the SS109 bullet can't be relied upon to fragment in tissue. This lack of fragmentation means that less tissue is destroyed, with a corresponding drop in lethality. Hence all of the anecdotal bitching about hitting Afghanis 5-8 times and having them keep on going. Shorter barrels drop muzzle velocity, exacerbating the effect. Still not volunteering to be shot by one.

7.62 x 39 does yaw like a mother in gelatin though.

One thing I don't think's been mentioned yet is the drastically lower recoil of an AR-15 versus a 12 gauge. My slightly-built GF still thinks ARs are heavy, but the recoil's manageable. I don't think the same'd be true for 3 in magnum 00 Buck with damned near 1 7/8 oz of lead.

[Gray Ghost]

Oh, and one very interesting idea in handgun defense loads is taking advantage of the very long cylinder in revolvers like the Judge, to seat a very long copper bullet. What does that get you? The long bullet will mushroom very predictably, and the giant length means the swept area by the 'petals' will be much greater than usual for a .45LC bullet. According to the linked article's video, a 2 inch wide mushroom is not unusual. Considering I'm ecstatic at the idea of getting nearly an inch in width out of the .45 ACP ammo I use, and considering the lethality of nearly all handgun bullets is directly proportional to how much tissue they crush, crushing twice the tissue is pretty damned interesting.

[General Butt Naked]

Dang man, that gel block was beaten like a red headed stepchild when mom burns the meatloaf. Those petals were artistic in their fanning. Jesus.

That's a scary round.

Now I'm gonna have to buy a goddamn judge.

[Corning]

The gun's high-velocity, low-caliber, low-weight slugs won't stop shit up close

Huh?

So I put a bullet center mass right through a home invader...

I am pretty sure the fucker is stopped at that point.

as those guys in Somalia and Iraq and Afghanistan have learned pretty succinctly.

What the fuck? What guys?

[General Butt Naked]

Right. Is he saying that they use the AK-47 because they've done extensive research of the comparative ballistics of medium power rifle rounds and found the 5.56 NATO round lacking?

It couldn't be that the world is flooded with cheap AKs and they work after you fill them with camel shit.

Or, is he trying to say that we should forget the AR for home defense and move to fully automatic Kalashnikovs? Because I fully support people using fully automatic AK-47s for home defense.

[mad libertarian guy]

I think what he's meaning to say is that in some places there are men who show off their bullet wounds that they survived from being shot.

Which is true.

What this dick bag doesn't get is that although the .223 is the most common caliber for an AR, it's by no means the only one.

[Tejicano]

" The gun's high-velocity, low-caliber, low-weight slugs won't stop shit up close"

Ah, yeah. Up close is the one place where the 5.56mm round IS effective. It's out at distance - 100 to 300 meters - where most combat happens which can be iffy.

"I think what he's meaning to say is that in some places there are men who show off their bullet wounds that they survived from being shot."

Agreed. The other side of this coin is that the other large percentage of men who were shot in combat died - thus are not around to show off those wounds.

[General Butt Naked]

The other side of this coin is that the other large percentage of men who were shot in combat died - thus are not around to show off those wounds.

Yeah, we could still be using M1 Garands at .30-06 and there'd be a guy or two that lives to show his scars off.

Not that I think the author of the original article was making any kind of cogent point about the capabilities of various combat rifles, i.e. I think MLG gives him too much credit. I think he was making a point that would be understood emotionally by fellow gawker readers, but rendered potemkinesque upon further investigation.

[John]

http://thefederalist.com/2013/.....-yglesias/

Someone else is offended by Sad Beard's abuse of the English language.

[Killaz]

Is that a pic of Sad Beard at the top? Looks like an even creepier David Cross.

[John]

My spelling and homonym problems are legendary on here. But in my defense I can honestly say I have never proof read a single thing I have posted. I consider it a bit of a running joke now not to and just let the misspellings fall where they may. This, however, is an internet bulletin board. I don't get paid to do this and do it in between my horrible boring job to pass the time. Sad Beard in contrast gets paid to write. He writes that crap, looks at it knowing it is going to be published in a magazine for the world and thinks "this is good". That says all you need to know about him.

[Invisible Finger]

Are Americans just fucking stupid or is this actually an example of Gresham's Law in action?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/28/us/one-dollar-coins/

[PapayaSF]

Years ago Reason published an article which began something like: "You wouldn't think it was possible to make money that people didn't like, but the US Treasury often does it." It was a sad history of the recent dollar coins, the $2 bill, and other missteps.

[Invisible Finger]

At the very least, if Obamacare can be shoved down the throats of a nation that does not want it, why the fuck can't a one dollar coin REPLACE a dollar bill?

Meanwhile, Canada seems to survive using 1- AND 2-dollar coins.

[Leigh]

I hate fucking coins. Actually I hate shit in my pockets - coins just make it worse. When I'm at work, my wallet and keys go on the desk - at home they go on a counter. Only time when I have shit in my pockets is when I'm not at home or work. Coins are just a pain to deal with. Fortunately, these days, you don't even need cash - my AmEx does almost everything.

[Invisible Finger]

So you're voting for "fucking stupid".

[Leigh]

???

See what happens with coins in my house is at the end of day, all my change goes into a big can. Then some day in the future I can take that big can and go to Vegas to gambol it away. These days, that can grows very slowly - as I said, plastic has pretty much replaced the need for cash. So, the worse you can say is I pull money out of circulation for a while.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I don't get it. Are you calling people "fucking stupid" for having different preferences in currency forms than you?

[General Butt Naked]

Actually I hate shit in my pockets...

PROTIP:

That's not where it goes.

[mad libertarian guy]

As a tourist in Canada I can say emphatically that the worst part about Canada is having $25 worth of fucking loonies and twonies in my pocket at the end of the day.

Fuck coins.

[Agammamon]

Why would you want this? Coins are fucking heavy. I lived in Italy for 3 1/2 years and then only thing I don't miss is walking around with a pocket full of 1 and 2 euro coins pulling my pants down.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

The answer is in the article: Coins are cheaper, a lot cheaper.

[Agammamon]

Fuck that - dollars are lighter, a lot lighter.

If its so expensive to print them then maybe they should consider printing fewer.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

So, you actually agree, in a roundabout sort of way?

[Coeus]

Marcotte forgets who she runs with now:

I have a very simple request to put out there for pundits, journalists, scientists, etc: If you're going to argue with "feminists", could you take the time to bother quoting even just one who has the argument you claim they have? Paul Bloom is a researcher who wrote a piece for the NY Times arguing against the contention that feeling lust for or even just seeing someone naked necessarily means you objectify and demean them. He feels that this argument needs to be made because of all those terrible "feminists" with their terrible talk about "objectification" and wah.

It seems to me Bloom and his team would construct even better studies if they were responding to actual arguments made by real people in the real world?those religious fundamentalists come to mind?than the strawfeminists in their head.

[Coeus]

Oops.

Regardless of the intent behind the calendars, regardless of how much fun we had making them, regardless of how empowering we found them, regardless of the racial and age diversity we showcased, and regardless of the fact that they were run by a woman and benefited women, pin-up calendars added to an existing environment in which women were seen first as sexual objects and maybe if they're lucky they'd later be seen as human beings with thoughts and desires of their own. Back in 2005, I thought skeptics weren't affected by the patriarchy and that misogyny was something left to the religious. In a community like that, a pin-up calendar of women would be absolutely fine. I learned that a community like that does not exist and it was naive of me to assume otherwise.

[jesse.in.mb]

Can anyone tell me what's actually wrong with objectification?

I objectify men all the time and can still be friends with them, treat them like people, and am fairly good about not wantonly raping them.

My sexy Romanian Orthodox priest wall calendar doesn't seem to harm anyone, why is it a bad thing?

[Mad Scientist]

Because the PC police don't care about actions, but words (or thoughts in this case). As far as they're concerned, you're doing it exactly backwards.

[jesse.in.mb]

So I should wantonly rape and then get to know them? Or only find them sexy once I get to know them and learn that they're mindless flesh golems with great abs and difficulty stringing sentences together?

[Mad Scientist]

Bill Clinton, for example, is everything feminists should hate, but they adore the guy because he means well. He doesn't, but that's another story. The left will excuse any action so long as they approve of the thoughts in your head.

Leave that calendar up!

[Invisible Finger]

It makes more sense when you recall the low-quality women that Clinton objectified.

[General Butt Naked]

It makes more sense when you recall the low-quality women that Clinton objectified.

That's a good point. Maybe those, like Marcotte, that object to objectification actually only object the fact that it's not them being the ones objectified. Bill Clinton showed that sometimes the ugly girl does indeed get the hero in the end.

[Tejicano]

" sometimes the ugly girl does indeed get the hero in the end."

And sometimes she just gets the cigar.

[Bobarian]

Hero!?!

Unless you're talking about the sandwich, I don't think so!

[JW]

Can anyone tell me what's actually wrong with objectification?

Nope. Thought and action are distinct concepts to most normal people. My seemingly near-infinite ability to think naughty thoughts towards attractive women that I've only passed on the street, in no way affects my ability to treat them with respect and as equals, on the personal level.

Now, mind you, I'll still be thinking about nailing them the entire time I'm talking to them about the weather and that crass jerk next door.

[Invisible Finger]

Can anyone tell me what's actually wrong with objectification?

Heterosexual white males do it.

Any other group of people do it and it's OK.

[Agammamon]

Because they've confused 'objectify' with 'want to have sex with'.

Objectify should mean - wants to have sex with you and will do anything necessary to manipulate you into getting in bed, even if that means flat out lying or coercing. It means using that person as a toy with no care for their needs/wants except in so far as they will fulfill your own.

It *shouldn't* mean 'hey I just met you and this is crazy, wanna shag in the broom closet real quick?"

[PapayaSF]

It amazes me how often leftists will dismiss as fantasies genuine examples of leftist PC dogma. Point out examples of (e.g.) people being called "racists" for referring to Obama as from Chicago, or referring to a peanut butter sandwich in a school lesson, and they just won't accept them. They're all exaggerations or misunderstandings or meaningless exceptions or something.

Maybe it's a selective blindness caused by the "no enemies on the left" attitude.

[Dave Krueger]

The State Department spent around $400,000 last year on booze.

If you include what I spend on hookers, I got that beat.

[Bobarian]

The secret service has it's own budget, though

[cavalier973]

I know this is old news, now, but this write up about our chimp-swine ancestors makes an interesting statement:

Dr. McCarthy does have a book about bird hybrids published by Oxford University Press, which appears to be his most recent published scientific work

and again:

note that the Daily Mail refers to Dr. McCarthy as a leading geneticist, even though some of his most recent genetics work was published in 2004

The implication is that Dr. McCarthy isn't a "real scientist" because he hasn't published anything more recently than 2004.

Well, his hypothesis seems like looney-tune level of silliness, but that doesn't mean he's not a "real scientist". He threw this idea out there last summer; I think he was joking (or, at least, half-joking), but even if he has proposed this as a serious hypothesis, by testing the hypothesis using the scientific method, he is "doing science". He'll most like find his hypothesis falsified, but he will still be a scientist.

[Kid Xenocles]

You know who else liked cocktails?

[cavalier973]

Another Hobby Lobby is trying to create JesusLand article.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

...despite the fact that even the godfather of capitalism Adam Smith argued that government plays a critical role in establishing the playing field for private markets and fixing inherent inequalities in capitalism.

How do you fix "inherent inequalities in capitalism" without, you know, socialism? That whole article was awful, but this really is above and beyond the call of Proggy.

[cavalier973]

I once heard some talk show host claim that Adam Smith was actually arguing for protectionism.

[Invisible Finger]

And that backing is what exactly?

[Agammamon]

And the US dollar differs how?

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I would assume that he is referring to government assets, such as the infamous and pharaonic gold hoard in Fort Knox, the Manhattan vault, etc.

I suppose that, if such is indeed the argument, I can defend it in a qualified way: There is enough gold possessed by the US federal government (and some other nations) to allow for the re?stablishment of a gold standard on a healthy fractional-reserve basis. Whether that is an economically sound or advisable idea is something that is always fun to debate, but probably not of interest to many here...

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Top. Men.

It's sometimes referred to as "the Ph.D. Standard."

[VG Zaytsev]

Drones, aircraft carriers and nukes.

And guns, lots of guns.

[Restoras]

Yeah right, you may as well bring up abortion, deep dish pizza, or circumcision.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Sarc tags are for pussies.