A.M. Links: Bipartisan Deal To Avoid Another Government Shutdown, US Economy Makes Unexpected Growth, Cops Strike in Argentina

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  Gage-Skidmore-cc-by-sa

  Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murry (D-Wash.) showed some bipartisanship in crafting a mini-deal to avert another government shutdown. And yet, a recent poll shows that the majority of Americans expect political gridlock to persist or get worse next year.

• The U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter of 2013, according to a Commerce Department report.
• Saying that defense officials have not answered his concerns, an independent auditor is reopening a probe into an unused $34 million military facility the Pentagon built in Afghanistan.
• Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) made a surprise appearance at a libertarian fundraising event in Washington, DC, prompting donations to snowball. What if the same were to happen for Reason's own webathon? 
• France says its U.N.-backed military operation is underway in the Central African Republic, the day after some of the worst violence in the latest crisis.
• Widespread looting took place in Córdoba, Argentina after police went on strike for 24 hours. Cue the "libertarian paradise" strawmen.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

And yet, a recent poll shows that the majority of Americans expect political gridlock to persist or get worse next year.

Obama will be keeping that campaign promise to raise DC above partisan bickering any day now.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

and he would if it weren't for racism, Teathuglican obstructionizms, the Koch Brotherz, the NRA, SOCONZ, the reichwing corporate media and did I mention racism?

[gaijin]

You forgot racism!

[Snark Plissken]

It's so easy to forget about racism in today's post-racial society.

Thanks Obama!

[Citizen Nothing]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned racism.

[BakedPenguin]

That's because they're all racialist racists.

[Root Boy]

On a serious note, I read something a week ago that said Ryan and Murray had replaced the sequester but no cuts elsewhere to replace - so, Big Bus. and Welfare leaches are happy, which means it's bipartisan I guess.

[MJGreen]

He'd be able to rise above this damn partisan gridlock if there just wasn't another party challenging him.

[Lord Humungus]

Wendy's employee fired for serving marijuana-topped bluntburger
"We are deeply sorry that this incident occurred," says Wendy's rep.

An employee of a Wendy's in Georgia was arrested last month after a customer called to report that she found a half-smoked blunt inside the bun of her cheeseburger. Apparently 32-year-old Amy Seiber was smoking at work and "misplaced" the blunt.

Officers from the Lovejoy Police Department responded to the scene to meet with the customer and Seiber admitted the blunt was hers. In addition to being arrested, she was also fired.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I'd eat at Wendy's a whole lot more if they had that available as a topping. Not the blunt, just the weed.

[Nazdrakke]

Where exactly was this Wendy's? Asking for a friend.

[Ted S.]

Reading the article, it implies Lobejoy, GA. Look it up yourself.

[Ted S.]

Er, Lovejoy. My daily routine was thrown off today and I need more coffee.

[pan fried wylie]

Depraved Ferengi.

[Ted S.]

This is why fast food workers need to be paid a "living wage".

[MJGreen]

Hey, work is even harder when you're high, so she must have been working extra hard. She should be paid more than a living wage!

[Suthenboy]

"Lovejoy Police Department"

I am not sure what to make of that. Rainbows and unicorns on their badges? They have candycane batons? Their pistols shoot extacy pills?

[BakedPenguin]

Their motto is "think of the children."

[gaijin]

Isn;t that the NAMBLA motto too?

[BakedPenguin]

No, their motto is "we look like Marlon Brando."

[Fist of Etiquette]

What if the same were to happen for Reason's own webathon?

Time for Welch to dust off that guitar.

[Bee Tagger]

No way, the dust adds distortion.

[UnCivilServant]

They'd raise the target goal again.

[gaijin]

^^Exactly this. Slow down the contributions or the goal will be exceeded too soon! 😉

[The DerpRider]

Lower the bar! Now they'll be expecting big bucks every year!

[WTF]

Greed is good.

[Snark Plissken]

The U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter of 2013, according to a Commerce Department report.

Someone was expecting the economy to grow?

[UnCivilServant]

Negative growth is still some form of growth, mathematically speaking...

[sarcasmic]

That's something Tulpa would say.

[Snark Plissken]

Now you are just using ad hom. You still haven't addressed that fact that mathematical plots can grown in both negative and positive fashion.

[UnCivilServant]

Also, I think he'd say it seriously. I was trying to get a chuckle.

[Snark Plissken]

There's nothing funny about food trucks blocking our nation's roads. Nothing funny at all.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

+1

[gaijin]

One word: Inventories!

[Pro Libertate]

It may mean little, but Black Friday was off against last year. If that trends into less consumer spending, then I suspect the economy is going the other direction.

[robc]

But was that because spending was shifted to Black Thursday Night?

[Pro Libertate]

I think it was the whole weekend that was off. More telling to me is that there were more shoppers who spent less than fewer shoppers last year did.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Does this account for online sales as well, or just retail? I think there's a rapidly growing number of people, myself included, who simply refuse to shop at brick and mortar stores during the holidays. I can get great deals online without increasing my hatred of humanity.

[Pro Libertate]

It's both.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Thanks. I suspect you're right about which direction the economy is going, sadly.

[robc]

Agreed, I think he is right, I was just wondering details too.

[Pro Libertate]

It's interesting, because I'm seeing different claims about both. Monday did better, but it looks like some exaggeration is in play, too, which usually happens when they miss, because they want consumers to think everyone else is out buy-buy-buying.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

They were probably taking a cue from the lightbringer and counted all items placed in a cart, but not paid for, as legitimate sales.

[Rasilio]

No someone was expecting GDP to grow. GDP is at best an indirect measure of economic activity

[sarcasmic]

That's not very demure! Lana Del Rey channels the Virgin Mary then goes topless wearing sequined nipple covers in short film Tropico

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....opico.html
Is it just me, or do those toned arms attached to the headless titties not match the lumpy arms attached to the face with lots of lipstick?

[The DerpRider]

Tough call. Good to see Rocky Dennis getting some work again...

[wwhorton]

Nice, but could be bigger. I'll give them a B-.

Also, should I know who this person is?

[sarcasmic]

She's a terrible singer. Ignorance is bliss in this case.

[Jordan]

I give her credit for pissing of proglodytes. Some derphead was bitching about here "appropriating" a hispanic sounding name.

[Jordan]

Holy fuck, I can't spell today.

[Root Boy]

I've got too much schwing! going on after seeing those pics - maybe you have the same problem.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What if the same were to happen for Reason's own webathon?

Another goal post shift?

[UnCivilServant]

I understand when two posters quote the same line separately, but when the same poster quotes it twice?

[UnCivilServant]

PS, curse your three minute advantage.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I didn't trust you idiots to come up with that joke in a timely fashion. With all due respect.

[gaijin]

With all due respect.

Which is to say, none?

[UnCivilServant]

The commentariat deserves no respect, so I expect none.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Pretty soon they will be showing a Doppler shift they are moving so fast...

[wareagle]

I blame global warming.

[Rich]

Reflecting upward revisions to private inventory investment and non-residential fixed investment, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing that U.S. economic activity grew by much more than previously estimated in the third quarter of 2013.

The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product increased by an upwardly revised 3.6 percent in the third quarter compared to the initial estimate of 2.8 percent growth. Economists had expected the pace of GDP growth to be revised to 3.1 percent.

So-called "experts" fuck up *yet again*.

[Nazdrakke]

It's almost like economic activity is revealed rather than predictable..

[BakedPenguin]

They stocked up on inventory that didn't sell. I'm calling downward revisions for Q4 right now.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Christmas inventory stocking

[Spartacus]

Wasn't second quarter growth higher than expected as well? It's almost as if the sequester has improved things rather than causing the econopocalypse.

[Bee Tagger]

Saying that defense officials have not answered his concerns, an independent auditor is reopening a probe into an unused $34 million military facility the Pentagon built in Afghanistan.

The probably response?

"Auditor, audit thyself"

[Root Boy]

Kind of old news. Somebody decided I MEF or whoever runs Helmand needed a spanking new HQ for the pogues which they said they didn't need, but it was built anyway.

Fire some fuckers and move on. Ain't going to get anything back for it. They may even tear it down instead of turning it into a farmers market for the goat herders for some reason.

[Lord Humungus]

Obamacare Rules Could Add Big Costs for Volunteer FDs

A local congressman wants answers on whether volunteer firefighting companies could be unintentionally swept into the national health care reform law championed by President Barack Obama.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs has asked the Internal Revenue Service, which has partial oversight of the law, to clarify if current IRS treatment of volunteer firefighters as employees means their hose companies or towns must offer health insurance coverage or pay a penalty if they don't.

...snip...

"It could be a huge deal," said U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, who is seeking clarification from the IRS. "In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of fire departments are fully or mostly volunteer firefighters. It's the fourth highest amount in the country."

So far, the IRS hasn't decided what to do.

[Rich]

Another Democratcare hose job!

[gaijin]

Yes, but those volunteer take good paying union jobs!

[thom]

They'll just interpret the law differently than the actual words that make up the law and the problem will go away.

[mr simple]

So far, the IRS hasn't decided what to do.

It's a good thing we elected our benevolent leaders in the IRS to take care of us and make laws.

[Ted S.]

So far, the IRS hasn't decided what to do.

That's because they don't know whether volunteer firefighters are generally Obama's political allies or not.

[In Time Of War]

They volunteer to do a dangerous and difficult job. I think we can safely assume they're not liberals.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Widespread looting took place in C?rdoba, Argentina after police went on strike for 24 hours.

But police corruption was down, so it's a trade off.

[Nazdrakke]

Really just a momentary switch of who is robbing who.

[Rich]

I shudder to think what could happen during the strike in Los Angeles!

[Enough About Palin]

Using kids that way is pathetic.

[Enough About Palin]

Using kids that way is pathetic.

[Lord Humungus]

Yearbook picture, purple sock lead to tequila theft arrest

Investigators said the 23-year-old, 367-pound man and a woman took $61 worth of tequila from a Safeway grocery store in Everett Tuesday night and workers said the man was shoeless and wearing mismatched socks, one of which was purple, The Herald, Everett, reported Thursday.

Surveillance footage of the incident was reviewed and another employee told police he believed the man had been a classmate at Everett High School. The worker, who couldn't remember the man's name, retrieved a yearbook and was able to show police the suspect's name and photo.

[UnCivilServant]

$61 ... so one bottle of the good stuff?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

or 30 bottles of Uncle Pepe's Not Really Battery Acid We Swear!.

[UnCivilServant]

Or perhaps three bottles of "Carlos' Agave runoff"

[Lord Humungus]

Guaranteed not to cause blindness in 95% of users.

[UnCivilServant]

"For external use only, if skin contact is made, cover in baking soda and seek medical attention immediately."

[Elspeth Flashman]

Nice how accurate the story is about his weight. Not 350 lbs. 367. I like accurate reporting.

[Clich? Bandit]

That is precision, unclear if it is accuracy.

[Elspeth Flashman]

True, thanks for pointing this out.

[Palin's Buttplug]

GOP Mourns Nelson Mandela, Won't Mention Reagan, Cheney, Religious Right Opposed Him, Supported Apartheid

.....

However, there was no mention about how President Ronald Reagan and conservative Republicans supported apartheid in South Africa and opposed Mandela being freed from a jail cell where he spent 27 years of his life.

Likewise, there was no mention of how the Religious Right despised Mandela in The Christian Post's article about Mandela's death.

According to PolicyMic.com, in 1986, Sen. Jesse Helms (R?NC), Strom Thurmond (R?SC) Phil Gramm (R?Texas) and Rep. Dick Cheney (R?Wyo.) all opposed the Anti-Apartheid Act, which condemned South Africa for its institutional racism, put in place economic sanctions and called for freeing Mandela and other political prisoners.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i.....t-opposed#

[Nazdrakke]

Seriously, troll? Cuz there's just a metric fuckton of Strom Thurmond fanbois here.

Get a grip.

[Palin's Buttplug]

There is a lot more GOP trash than Strom Thurmond. See one Dickless Cheney for example - who called the shots for the GOP 2001-2009.

[Acosmist]

Yeah, Robert Byrd!

Wait.

[sarcasmic]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

[RBS]

I believe, when talking about Mandela the appropriate former president is WASHINGTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!

[Nazdrakke]

I admit sometimes it's so pathetic I nearly feel sorry for it. Nearly.

[Mike M.]

That book isn't going to just magically write itself, you know.

[Acosmist]

Reagan supported apartheid? Weird. I just watched a speech of his denouncing it.

Also, I'm not mourning that sack of crap.

[Fluffy]

I don't support sanctions against Iran or Cuba (or Israel for that matter), so why would I have supported them against 1980's South Africa.

And Mandela wasn't really a political prisoner. He was a violent revolutionary who was not released because he kept reiterating his desire to go on being a violent revolutionary.

Don't get me wrong - he was morally entitled to be a violent revolutionary. I would have endorsed his violence, had he escaped to undertake some.

I just don't think you can call people who openly state that they are actively engaged in armed insurrection "political prisoners".

A lot of people compare Mandela to Gandhi, and that's utterly inapt. He was much more comparable to Washington: a fucking badass stone killer who happened to be (luckily) a classical statesman once he had the upper hand. And that's a pretty cool thing to be. But an Emersonian prisoner of conscience he was not.

[wareagle]

not a word about Mandela's fondness for very young girls, either, but thanks for arguing once again against the point that no one is making.

[Don Mynack]

It should be noted that the U.S. sanctions led to South African Apartheid supporters gaining seats in the 1986 elections, much to the horror of 80's liberals, who thought mucking around with another country's slow, peaceful process of integration would have no unintended consequences. It fostered the strenghening of a far-right Afrikaans party that opposed Botha from the right, and signifigantly weakened internal political opposition to Apartheid.

[RBS]

Via the FB page of everyone's favorite ex-reasonoid...

My favorite right-wing Mandela rant: Hey, the media keeps calling him a peacemaker, but he refused to renounce violence until he won! Excellent point, guys. He should have been more like George Washington, who, if I recall, invited George III over for brunch and politely asked him to give the colonies independence.

[Fluffy]

Don't those douchebags realize that we like Washington...but that it would be equally false to call Washington a peacemaker?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Well, he made peace ... after winning, yes?

[UnCivilServant]

Not really, item one was the Whiskey revolt.

[Clich? Bandit]

rebellion not revolt...i am mr. pedantic today.

[Juice]

And Indian genocide. Washington was good at that.

[Lord Humungus]

Are 'Fast-Food Worker' Protests Just Another Gasp of Occupy?

Alvin Major, a KFC employee currently earning $7.50 an hour, was one of the few middle-aged fast-food workers I came across. "I just need a livable wage, a wage that I could survive on," he told me. "I've got four kids, 18, 16, 14, and 12. The money that I earn can't pay for rent. I have to be subsidizing myself with food stamps and so on." When I asked him how much he though he should earn working his job at KFC, he told me, to start, $15 an hour, but that he wanted a union as well, to eventually negotiate more.

With the groups sufficiently assembled, leaders, such as Laquashia of the ACORN offshoot New York Communities for Change, led people in series of call-and-response chants demanding justice and decrying Wall Street ("banks got bailed out" while "we got sold out"). After several rounds of invocations for "justice" and "equality," condemnations of the One Percent, calls for full-day, universal pre-school, and more, I eventually left, unsure if I had observed a demonstration for fast-food workers or an Occupy Wall Street reunion.

I suppose this is just a wild coincidence that these protests just happen to start with Obama's call for a minimum wage increase.

[UnCivilServant]

"I've got four kids, 18, 16, 14, and 12

Two of them could be his co-workers.

[Root Boy]

FFS - I can't imagine having a dad doing that when I was a teenager. How fucked up is that?

One solution is to put his kids to work to support the family since dad is a FU (but better than a drunk, absent dad, so I give him a C for trying at least).

[Fist of Etiquette]

...one of the few middle-aged fast-food workers I came across.

I assume the others were managers, possibly already making $15 an hour.

[Elspeth Flashman]

And it couldn't be about taking scrutiny off the failed ACA/Obamacare implementation, nah not at all. Now he's sticking up for the little guy again.

[WTF]

"I've got four kids, 18, 16, 14, and 12.

And someone else should have to pay for my bad decisions. Derp.

[UnCivilServant]

Speaking of - why aren't the eldest two working?

[WTF]

Because no one will pay them a living wage.

[robc]

Eldest two? Why shouldnt the 14 year old be working.

And the 12 year old could have a paper route or something, if those still exist.

[BakedPenguin]

I remember wanting to get a job at 14, only to be told I was too young, and it would be illegal.

Unfortunately, it still took me about another 11 years to become libertarian.

[KDN]

I started working at 12 because my father would rather pay me $35 a day to clean braces, sweep floors, and remove debris from his job sites than pay $80 to a non-English-speaking day laborer for marginally superior work. I believe everyone should have the opportunity I was offered.

[BakedPenguin]

Yup. If I ever have kids, they get to do chores. They also get paid on how well they do them.

[Kid Xenocles]

I don't pay my kids to do chores. That's just their role in the household. Our household economy is thoroughly Marxist. Occasionally I reward them for consistent accumulated good work.

[BakedPenguin]

And my household will run with greater efficiency!

[Kid Xenocles]

Doubtful, since you're paying for what I get for free.

[BakedPenguin]

Stop spoiling my fun.

[Kid Xenocles]

We will bury you.

[BakedPenguin]

Just for that, I'm going to go fuck a Cuban girl!

[Kid Xenocles]

Hey, why not?

[Clich? Bandit]

Sloopy's kids send him invoices for picking up dead birds...that is awesome.

[PD Scott]

He took dere jobs!

[wwhorton]

In the comments someone posted an excerpt from an article in the Village Voice. Turns out the guy has a BA in Business Management, but just "likes cooking." So now we're apparently supposed to be in the business of subsidizing people's bad decisions, irresponsibility, and whims.

[WTF]

Working at KFC is not cooking. If he really likes cooking, he would get a job in a real restaurant, and work his way up to chef. But that might take a little drive and ambition, so that's right out.

[Invisible Finger]

He means cooking meth. It's a costly hobby.

[Lord Humungus]

Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor

Storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost 80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say labor regulators and some of those involved in the work.

[WTF]

Dey tuk er jerbs!!!!

[Invisible Finger]

"in part"

Yeah, right, "illegals" made all the mistakes. What a bunch of bullshit. The illegals didn't do ANY construction, they were laborers moving supplies 200 feet from a truck to a yard just like everywhere else.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm surprised he didn't get a taze or a baton to the stomach.

Mark Eskelsen, Oregon homeless man, calls 911 from hot tub, asks for cocoa and hug

The 45-year-old called 911 from his cell phone on Sunday morning and identified himself as the "sheriff of Washington County," Beaverton police said. He then asked for medical attention, later admitting that he wasn't the sheriff.

Eskelsen also said he had been in the hot tub for 10 hours and that his towels had gotten soaked.

"I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it," he told the 911 operator.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, you mean you can't use 911 for hot chocolate deliveries?

[wwhorton]

Homeless man...hot tub...so, not *his* hot tub, then?

[UnCivilServant]

No, he probably just saw it sitting out on the deck and hopped in.

[Entropy Void]

... and calls 911 from his Obamaphonephone..

[Lord Humungus]

More Obamacare woes: Federal website gives unusable Medicaid data

People shopping for insurance on the federal marketplace may be informed they're eligible for Medicaid and that their information is being sent to state officials to sign them up. However, states aren't able enroll them because they're not receiving usable data from the Obama administration.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services wrote a memo to the 36 states using the federal website last week acknowledging the information wasn't being transferred automatically and saying another system was being developed to send it. More complete files could be sent as soon as next week.

[Rich]

Stunned eyewitnesses filmed a mystery luminescent, tentacled being, which was flashing a variety of colors

I learned several new words as a result of reading this article; but, alas, Warty's safe word was not one of them.

[SugarFree]

"In the time it would take to pronounce one letter of Warty's safe word, a trillion cosmoses would flare into existence and sink into eternal night."

[Auric Demonocles]

You gonna eat that?

[Nazdrakke]

+1 sanity roll.

[Auric Demonocles]

Awww, lame.

[Fluffy]

In Boston the people behind that show would be shot on sight as terrorists and fear mongerers.

[Auric Demonocles]

They should at the very least molasses and feather the marketing guys.

[hamilton]

We ran out of molasses after the flood.

[Restoras]

Well, they certainly would be shot at several hundred times by an inept police force...whether or not they would actually get shot is another question entirely.

[hamilton]

Pity. There's no wonder left in the world. I blame you millenials.

[Auric Demonocles]

Did you see the HD photo the Pats put on their facebook? It's from the field during the Denver game. It's good enough that I easily found myself up in the 300s.

[hamilton]

Wow, that is really cool.

[The Last American Hero]

As I understand it, Warty demands that the safeword be either Again or Harder, which causes some understandable confusion.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

That's still false. Warty does not have "safe words" there is no possible way to be safe in Warty's presence.

[SugarFree]

Hey, Bitter Klingon? Where are you, Mary? Oh, that's right...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[sarcasmic]

Down the memory hole.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What, gone? Now all those comments from people engaging her in debate are going to look one sided. Those commenters are going to look like crazy people.

[Nazdrakke]

Those commenters are going to look like crazy people.

So nothing out of the ordinary is what you're saying.

[sarcasmic]

Old gray mare she ain't what she used to be...

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

I resemble that remark.

[mr simple]

Those commenters are going to look like crazy people.

Do you mean because we're posting on a libertarian website, hoping things will actually change for the better?

[UnCivilServant]

Not me, I'm already crazy people, besides I'm here for the snark.

[Snark Plissken]

My fans are legion.

[UnCivilServant]

Okay I walked right into that one, Mister Plissken.

[sarcasmic]

Fuck hope.

[Lord Humungus]

We're the gamblers on the Titanic, enjoying good company as the ship slips lower into the abyss. A few crazies come by to tell us that all is well thanks to the new flower arrangement.

[Citizen Nothing]

I like this^ image. I shall embrace it.

[Pro Libertate]

I think that Hit & Run should construct dummy comments to fill in for those they choose to delete, to preserve the continuity of the responsive comments for all time.

[UnCivilServant]

But that can't possibly be as funny as the deranged rambling of commentaters talking at nothingness.

[Citizen Nothing]

I'm so used to it, I didn't even notice something was amiss. I still can't tell where the missing comments should be.

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

Oh yeah?!! YOU TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT CITIZEN NOTHING, RIGHT NOW!!!

[Lord Humungus]

CEO of Colorado's troubled state health exchange seeks year-end bonus

The head of Colorado's state health exchange has asked for an end-of-the-year raise and bonus even though the website has enrolled fewer than half the people who were supposed to purchase health insurance through December.

Patty Fontneau, president and CEO of Connect for Health Colorado, currently earns $190,549. Her chief operating officer and chief financial officer earn $164,800 each.

The salaries are supported by taxpayers.

Fontneau received a $5,000 raise in 2012 and is eligible for annual bonuses of up to 10 percent with salary increases of 3 percent, according to documents from Connect for Health Colorado.

[UnCivilServant]

I'm slated to soon get my first raise in four years soon - and it's 2%. I don't make half what she does.

Why didn't I find the cozy government job instead of the crappy one!

[Drake]

Yeah government!

[The Late P Brooks]

What if the same were to happen for Reason's own webathon?

Amash will be HnR special guest commenterer for the day?

[SugarFree]

Whoever donates the most gets to pick his screen name.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I shall name him Glee Bagger.

[Fluffy]

That is so...so very...so very, very EPIC.

[Elspeth Flashman]

You made me smile, thanks.

[mr simple]

That's much better than the name I came up with, Amashed potatoes. I guess this is what can happen when you try to do a job you're not properly licensed for.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Certifications aren't there just so they can collect fees.

[hamilton]

That's actually an awesome idea. They should expand this to correlate donations to changing other commenters' screen names.

Take that, Taint of Etiquette! Ha!

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's my cousin's screen name. We're total opposites. He's a douchebag.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Opening up the Navy's reactor technology for use in commercial small reactors

In terms of basic science and engineering, there are no real secrets inside the program, but there is an enormously rich set of tools, knowledgable people, data about complete system performance in unusual situations, understanding about material behavior under extreme conditions (especially high burnup, long life reactors) and carefully designed personnel training systems that could be incredibly useful in civilian applications.

One of the primary assets of the program is ownership of a number of well-proven complete system designs for small nuclear power plants that can be manufactured in factories with proven start-to-finish times measured in a few years rather than a decade or more. These designs have not been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but they have been approved and operated under a legally available alternative path under the auspices of the Department of Energy.

[PH2050]

Thorium can't get here fast enough IMO.

[Snark Plissken]

When IS that going to get here, BTW?

[PH2050]

China plans to have a pilot MSR online by 2017.

[Floridian]

I understand that after the Cold War uranium became much cheaper so thorium isn't cost effective right now vs uranium.

[Snark Plissken]

I watched a long video a while back by that guy whose trying to develop thorium who put the blame on all the money and research put on developing uranium so it could be used for bombs.

[Floridian]

That is what I had read, that uranium is primarily cheaper because the infrastructure is in place and the R&D is completed.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Uranium is just simpler because it is fissile. Thorium is fertile so it first must breed uranium before fission. Less economic neutronically even if it is more plentiful.

There isn't a big push for thorium because it is just more expensive to use than good ol' uranium.

The first MSR will definitely run on uranium. I don't see Th being used in an MSR for a while after that. It makes the reactor much more complex if you want a true LFTR. An MSR running on U would be an incredible reactor though.

[PH2050]

Uranium oxide infrastructure exists and is suported by NRC. Cronyism, more than costs, hinders thorium.

As stated below, weapons played a part back when these technologies were in their infancy.

Bill Gates has seen the writing on the wall (uranium oxide based nuclear energy is currently too costly and unsustainable) and recently come to support thorium.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The NRC is killing nuclear power in the US. There won't be any nuclear innovation here because the regulations make everything cost prohibitive. China/Russia/India will be the nuclear innovators and we will buy the tech off of them.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that though. The only problem is getting new reactors through the NRC no matter how proven they are overseas will still be an incredibly expensive task since the NRC will have zero expertise in reactors not of the pressurized water variety. The NRC will likely add a bunch of "safety" additions to the design that will double the cost of what it is being built for overseas. The cost of building the AP1000's in SC and GA is a great example when you compare what they are being built for in China.

[Ted S.]

Hyman Rickover should have sold to the private sector.

[The Late P Brooks]

"I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it," he told the 911 operator.

We all do, homeless guy.

We all do.

[mr simple]

And yet, a recent poll shows that the majority of Americans expect political gridlock to persist or get worse next year.

Did the poll capture how many people are wishing for more or worse gridlock?

[Lord Humungus]

cuz dammit, we need more laws!

[gaijin]

the truest measure of a Do-Something Congress?

[The Late P Brooks]

One of the primary assets of the program is ownership of a number of well-proven complete system designs for small nuclear power plants

Distributed efficient small scale systems, instead of mammoth centralized megastations?

Where do you think you are, SOMALIA?

[UnCivilServant]

Don't be silly, Somalia doesn't have nuclear reactors.

[tarran]

Ummmm.

Navy reactors, while small, do require a not insubstantial staff to operate. To be frank, I expect an array of them to be far more expensive per megawatt than a bigger pressurized light-water reactor using the same technologies scaled up.

[gaijin]

a not insubstantial

or said another way, substantial 🙂

Seriously though, do you think that the price per megawatt would be more expensive if all realistic risk factors of the smaller design were factored in? Said another way, do smaller reactors offer a not insubtantial 😉 cost reduction in areas such as contstruction (i.e., cost of containment) and liability premiums?

[BakedPenguin]

Another problem with distributed reactors is the need for security. Not that that is insurmountable, but it is another factor in favor of economies of scale .

[tarran]

No.

Very simply, in the context of PLW reactors, containment systems don't get more failure prone with size. So the risk of a containment failure happening somewhere really is more a function of the number of units out there rather than the average size of one.

And should a breach happen, the costs will be comparable between a large facility and a small facility. A large facility might release more radioactive contamination, but odds are its built on a larger reservation and that residents are living farther away. Most containment failures are small leaks anyway, where the size of the facility doesn't really matter.

Radioactive contamination is nasty stuff, but actually relatively easy to avoid... Just don't ingest it or smear it on your body. If you are 100 meters away from even the most potent sources (eg the CO-60 pellets in the Mexican hijacking story) you will likely get a couple of rads thus increasing your chance of cancer a fraction of a percent.

In the case of conventional nuclear power designs, bigger is actually both cheaper and safer.

[tarran]

or said another way, substantial 🙂

You are in good company sir.

[Floridian]

Question: isn't voltage lost over distance? If that's true then wouldn't putting supply closer to consumer be more efficient?

[Tonio]

Energy is lost over distance. Many small reactors would make for a more efficient and resilient system. But there's a lot of anti-nuclear hysteria to overcome.

[Invisible Finger]

You need to think like a power-mad progressive.

First off, efficiency doesn't increase political power.

Secondly, if one were to take efficiency to the point of ridiculousness, moving the consumers closer to the power supply would achieve more political power.

[sarcasmic]

Nuclear reactors create bomb fuel. In this age where everyone is a terrorist until they prove otherwise, there's no way the federal government would ever allow small scale reactors all over the place. Each one needs the equivalent of a military guard to keep the terrorists from getting their paws on bomb fuel. No way. Not going to happen.

[PD Scott]

Hmm, if the war on drugs ever comes to an end we'll have all these fine SWAT trained officers with nothing much to do and plenty of surplus military equipment...

[sarcasmic]

The war on drug users will never end. Ever.

[Lord Humungus]

Today is the yearly corporate Christmas party. This will mean performing acts of embarrassment to partake eating a crappy restaurant meal.

[Nazdrakke]

fra fra fra.

[UnCivilServant]

They expect us to pay for ours, and charge our annual leave since we won't be working, and organize it all ourselves. So really, we could have the party without the organization since they don't do anything at all.

[Restoras]

It would be more fun anyway.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Just bring a couple six packs to work. Done.

[Nazdrakke]

How could some parasitic lifer-doll civil servant get paid if you did that? Are you trying to retard our summer, fall, winter, spring, whatever of recovery?

[UnCivilServant]

By that rationale, the agency should pay someone to organize and run our christmas party... because I thought I mentioned I work for the government.

[Nazdrakke]

UnCivilServant I work for the government

I totally couldn't tell.

[UnCivilServant]

There is the small chance it was a reference to domestic work...

Okay who am I trying to kid, it was a blatant wlay on words.

[Tonio]

The horror, LH, the horror...

[Mike M.]

One of the Worst Ice Storms in Years Continues From Texas to Kentucky.

"An ice storm will continue to affect millions of people into Friday and threaten to cut power for hundreds of thousands from northern Texas to western Kentucky... According to Jesse Ferrell, weather expert and storm chaser for AccuWeather.com, 'This will be the worst ice storm for the United States since January 2009 and will affect many of the same areas as that storm.'"

How is that "global warming" working out for folks down there? I guess it even causes ice storms, just like it causes everything else on the planet!

[tarran]

WEATHER WEIRDING!!! ARGLE BARGLE!

[SugarFree]

POLAR VORTEX COLLAPSE!

[Lord Humungus]

It's CLIMATE CHANGE now - get with the program!

[gaijin]

What do we want?
Climate change!
When do we want it?
Now!

Climate Change Now! That program?

[UnCivilServant]

Without the additional evaporation, the upper atmosphere would be dry and it wouldn't precipitate on that artificially chilled ground to freeze. Don't you know Texas had a leak from its freon factories for years now!

/de-rationalization

oww my brain hurt

[Snark Plissken]

No, more heat means more entropy means more EXTREME climate, so uhm, more ice storms. Don't you understand SCIENCE?

[UnCivilServant]

I understand the scientific method, but not "SCIENCE" as shouted by the climate claimers.

[Snark Plissken]

I got into a long, long argument on teh FB, back before I renounced it, about the more heat==more entropy==chaos==climate change argument. Now I'm no exert on thermodynamics, my degree was EE specializing in emag, but these guys knew zilch, so it was, 'go read the literature', 'you are just using sophistry', etc etc. Simple direct questions were met with, 'I hate the Socratic method BS'.

[tarran]

more heat==more entropy==chaos

I took a number of thermodynamics classes as an undergrad, and I can categorically state that these people were fucking clueless about what entropy is. To oversimplify, the increase of entropy simply means that thermodynamic processes aren't reversible. Thus if you take a fluid, divide it in half, heat one portion and cool the other, and then remix the two, you won't get a situation where ten minutes after the newly remixed material comes into thermal equilibrium, you spontaneously get half the fluid getting hot, and the other half getting cold, all on it's own.

If you try to again heat half and cool half, the thermal processes required to do so will result in an increase in entropy somewhere else (usually in the form of waste heat dumped in the environment).

So yes, an increase in entropy is associated with a decrease in order. Just because chaos and order are antonyms, the chaos in Chaos Theory with respect to meteorology has NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE ENTROPY OF THE EARTH AS A THERMODYNAMIC SYSTEM.

[Snark Plissken]

Also, Earth has so much more heat than Pluto, it must have more entropy, right? Wait isn't life inherently anti-entropic--tending towards more order?

[tarran]

Nope... Entropy always increases.

Every process using energy to move stuff around increases entropy.

If the entropy in one particular subset of a thermodynamic system goes down, there is a a greater increase in soem other portion of the system.

Typically the order in a biological system (for example a warm blooded animal maintaining a body temp above that of its surroundings) comes at the price of dumping even more energy into the environment.

One thing to remember, the Earth is not a closed thermodynamic system.... there's an entire universe it is interacting with.

[Snark Plissken]

Nope... Entropy always increases.

Duh

Typically the order in a biological system (for example a warm blooded animal maintaining a body temp above that of its surroundings) comes at the price of dumping even more energy into the environment.

Again, duh. To be more specific the Earth absorbs higher frequency photons, like visible ones, and give off lower frequency ones such as infrared. The total flux of thermodynamic heat is pretty constant.

The mystery of the anti-entropic properties of life go beyond such simple observations of thermodynamics.

[tarran]

The mystery of the anti-entropic properties of life go beyond such simple observations of thermodynamics.

Interesting.... can you share an example?

[WTF]

Simple direct questions were met with, 'I hate the Socratic method BS'.

"Don't confuse us with facts!"

[Root Boy]

Yeah, even though Cyclone energy, US tornadoes and other measures are negatively correlated with the current temp increase on Earth, they are still pushing Global Warming = more storms.

Effing idiots - but they have their soapbox.

[Elspeth Flashman]

A friend of mine down in TX posted his weather forecast for the next week. It resembles Michigan's weather more than TX.

[mr simple]

Oh joy. I look forward to meeting this storm later today.

[John]

It is like 9 degrees in Oklahoma right now. I can remember playing tennis over Christmas break in Oklahoma. It could get incredibly cold there. But usually not until January.

[Snark Plissken]

In case anyone was wondering, I managed to survive Hurricane Xaver. I didn't even know Europe got hurricanes.

[UnCivilServant]

They're the ones that get really lost trying to find florida.

[Snark Plissken]

Does anyone or anything ever actually 'try' to find Florida?

[UnCivilServant]

The retirees and hurricanes, mostly.

[mr simple]

Must've taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

[robc]

So far with have gotten cold rain.

Further south in KY sounds much worse. But a yawner here in Louisville so far.

[hamilton]

I posted this elsewhere, but 23andMe has capitulated to the FDA after the warning letter.

Thos of us who bought a kit upon hearing the news as a show of support will, unfortunately, not get health info. (They are offering refunds).

I understand that 23andMe only sells ancestry reports and raw genetic data at this time. I understand 23andMe will not provide health-related reports. However, 23andMe may provide health-related results in the future, dependent upon FDA marketing authorization.

[PH2050]

Some related bullshit is that all the miltary veterans donating to the "Million Veteran Program" (a Veterans Affairs project for sequencing genomes) aren't allowed to receive said genomic information. Hmm, so I contribute to potential discoveries that may generate billions for biotech companies but I get squat in return? Fuck that.

When I asked why, I was told it was due to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. I wrote a Congresscritter asking about this BS (like why can't we get waivers or something) but have yet to hear back.

[Root Boy]

Sad. I read a profile of the CEO of that company (was in Fast Company a month ago or so). It was they typical "she's so cool and going to change the world and wears yoga pants to work" kind of thing (with the obligatory her family is into social justice so she went to work on wall street discord).

Another entrepreneur struck down by the giant fist of .gov.

[The Late P Brooks]

The unemployment rate has unexpectedly plunged to 7%!

*Sings*

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So lets sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

And let's not have any of you tinfoil hat Debby Downer conspiracy theorists raining on the Presidential victory parade.

Put on a happy face, motherfucker.

[UnCivilServant]

how many people gave up looking for work and were thus wiped clean from the unemployment rolls?

[Andrew S.]

What's a "labor market participation rate", anyways?

[UnCivilServant]

A metric that no president wants to know exists.

[Drake]

Never heard of it.

/Jay Carney

[The Last American Hero]

Actually, at this time of year, my tinfoil hat is Santa-hat shaped.

[Restoras]

Additions to the annals of de-arming citizens.

Army Lt. Col. clueless about the Second Amendment and the purpose of the Bill of Rights.

This isn't a surprise but is depressing nonetheless, NYC begins outright confiscation of firearms.

[UnCivilServant]

The law is unconstitutional, but that's not even what it actually says! Once again, the NYPD is lying to the citizens.

[sarcasmic]

Army Lt. Col. clueless about the Second Amendment and the purpose of the Bill of Rights.

The 2A gives the military the right to keep and bear arms! That's what militia means! Without the 2A our military would be unarmed! Why do you hate America!

[John]

Is that clown even a lawyer?

[tarran]

No, but he went to OCS where they lectured him about the Constitution and the UCMJ for about 10 hours.

[John]

There are so many gun nuts in the Army. I bet he is real popular with his fellow officers.

[Drake]

I bet the enlisted soldiers hate his guts.

[Root Boy]

I sure would, sounds like a martinet:

What is particularly rich is that in his false accusation that Justice Scalia was cherry-picking which parts of the Second Amendment to support (a conclusion that can only be arrived at by a willful misreading of Scalia's opinion), Bateman himself cherry-picks how U.S. Code defines the militia.

[mr simple]

From the Esquire comments:

David Nangle ? Top Commenter ? Billerica Memorial High School
If you own a gun, and you believe in the Constitution, then you're militia, right? If you're militia, then you'd respond immediately to a command from your president or governor, right? And if the command was to disarm? If you won't respond to commands, you're not militia, and the Second doesn't apply to you. Owning a gun is still a right, except where it interferes with the common welfare. Well, the common welfare is directly threatened by the presence of under-regulated weapons.

And just who the fuck is saying anything about TAKING guns?

Apparently this is the kind of illogic kids are taught in public schools these days. "Let's say these false premises are true. That means you're wrong. QED."

[John]

What makes it worse is that they are told how smart they are their whole lives so they have no idea how stupid they are. Most of them will never get any smarter.

[Virginian]

People like that run the gas chambers, because the authorities say it's ok. That kind of attitude is exactly why I own guns, and why you will in fact take them from my cold dead hands.

[Lord Humungus]

New study: Casual sex depresses teens, raises risk of suicide

Ohio State University researchers found that teens who showed depressive symptoms were more likely than others to engage in casual sex as young adults.

In addition, those who engaged in casual sex were more likely to later seriously consider suicide.

"Several studies have found a link between poor mental health and casual sex, but the nature of that association has been unclear," said Sara Sandberg-Thoma, doctoral student and lead author of the study.

Or maybe it's just being at Ohio State.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I blame syphilis.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That's easy. Once you know what you're missing, it's even more desirable. And teenagers have nearly unlimited sex drive.

[gaijin]

I would like to see a study on the effects of watching online porn on teen suicide.

[UnCivilServant]

How do you keep the test group away from porn?

[SugarFree]

Me.

[Nazdrakke]

Me.

Makes me think of the scene in Seven where Spacey feeds that guy to death.. might just work.

[UnCivilServant]

Yeaarrggg!!

I need my brain bleach now.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I, for one, applaud you SF, not just for the role you are taking on, but also for the way you embrace that role. Keep up the good work, and the good attitude.

[SugarFree]

I'm not the pornographer this board deserves, but I am the one it needs right now.

[WTF]

"As you know, you go to town with the pornographer you have, not the pornographer you might want or wish to have at a later time."

[Elspeth Flashman]

If you like your pornographer, you can keep him.

[The Late P Brooks]

To be frank, I expect an array of them to be far more expensive per megawatt than a bigger pressurized light-water reactor using the same technologies scaled up.

I certainly would not dispute that, but I think a potential small outage in one part of a power network is better than than a massive outage which takes out the entire power grid.

[sarcasmic]

Like the federal government would ever allow distributed plutonium factories in this age where everyone is a terrorist until they prove themselves innocent. Never gonna happen.

[PH2050]

Which is why the USG is having to watch the PRC perfect technology the US developed (LFTR) to flood this planet with safe nuclear power. Uranium oxide for domestic power will disappear

[Tonio]

Oh, I can envision the proggie meltdown when Bill Gates buys say a hundred of those puppies from the Chinese and starts deploying them in Africa.

[Jordan]

Have a morning nutpunch.

Baby boy kicked and stamped on, then 'thrown to his death from a balcony' by girl aged TEN after his mother accidentally left him behind in a lift

Absolutely awful.

[BakedPenguin]

Jesus. WTF.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Saw that yesterday. You can't read something like that and believe that evil does not exist and all morality is relative.

[Snark Plissken]

Jesus Christ, that's way beyond nutpunch.

[Restoras]

This is clearly a lie since everyone knows that women are incapable of such an atrocity and the world would be so much better off if they were running the whole place.

[Tonio]

Well, in all fairness, a ten year-old isn't anywhere near an adult*.

(*)YMMV in other countries, and times.

[Tonio]

Oops, just read downthread. But I don't think they're considered adults in China, either.

[Nazdrakke]

That's just fucked up all the way down.

And they ask me why I drink.

[PH2050]

"All the way down"

I see what you did there.

[John]

I see things like that and think something is seriously broke in our society. How?

[Nazdrakke]

something is seriously broke in our society

It's the Holy Child meme leftist have been pushing forever. Children aren't people, they are people in training and some of them just go over the rails sometimes. It's horrible, but hardly unique.

[John]

Rebecca West once said

Every generation civilization is invaded by barbarians. They are called children.

The idea of the sinless holy child is one of dumber ideas of modern society.

[Plopper]

It's the Holy Child meme leftist have been pushing forever. Children aren't people, they are people in training and some of them just go over the rails sometimes. It's horrible, but hardly unique.

I don't know how you can blame this squarely on the left, I've seen plenty of this exact same attitude from So-Cons.

Even from people on this site as well, people who consider themselves libertarians.

[Jordan]

Well, this happened in China 😛

[John]

Then what the hell is wrong with those Chinese? 😉

Sadly I assumed it was some slum in the US.

[Jordan]

It's probably the insidious influence of kkkapitalism that drove her to do this. I'll bet this sort of thing never happened under the loving gaze of Mao.

[John]

Had she been under the loving gaze of Mao she would have done the right thing; murdered her mother.

[Virginian]

Nothing destroys the respect for human life like communism. China is full of shit like this. Remember that kid who got hit by a truck, and the driver looked in his rearview, saw the kid was still moving, so he backed up over him?

[Restoras]

I don't think anything is necessarily broken, but there are certainly enough people out there that invariably someone way out on the tail of normal distribution is going to come along and do something like this.

[WTF]

Jesus fuck. What the hell do you do with that 10-year-old monster?

[Drake]

Invite her to join the Communist Party since she obviously has the right level of empathy. Perhaps put her in charge of the One-Child policy.

[Tonio]

That is an excellent question, and one for which there are no good answers. The best I can come up with is incarceration in a facility (correctional or psychiatric) for several years, sterilization and release conditions that she have no contact with children. The parents should be held partially to blame since she is a minor and poorly supervised and socialized.

[Raston Bot]

Shit. Was the ten-year old abused? Sounds like a fucked up kid.

[Jordan]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I'll just put this here.
Old Finnish people with things on their heads.

http://www.laravisual.com/old-.....eir-heads/

[lap83]

I loved those pictures until I saw the comments that were taking them seriously. "how beautiful...nature and aging merging together" Why can't ridiculous twig hats be funny in art, why do we have to pretend it's an amazing human achievement?

[Elspeth Flashman]

I liked it since it was so bizarre. Also, I'm half Finnish - descended. But yeah, why does it have to be serious.

[PD Scott]

Happy Finnish Independence Day!

[John]

Best of the Web gives an example America's media's finest.

After learning her and her husband are going to get robbed on their insurance thanks to Obamacare, Margaret Talbot, a writer for the New Yorker concludes

The new health-care law exists for the common good, not just the individual consumer. . . . We are better off as a society--more compassionate, but also healthier--when we can all get the care we need.
So yes, I'll subsidize someone else's prenatal coverage. . . . And I'll remember to be relieved that my own access to health care is guaranteed. But they had better work out the problems with the A.C.A. [Affordable Care Act, the euphemism for ObamaCare]; if they don't, and it doesn't fulfill its promise of insuring the uninsured, I'm really going to feel like a chump.

I somehow doubt the rest of the country is going to be as giving.

[Nazdrakke]

, I'm really going to feel like a chump

Don't fret it, sweetheart, that's what Doublethink is there for.

[John]

+100.

[tarran]

Gosh, how thoroughly clueless. One would hope that she would recognize that women can't be chumps. They are chumpettes.

[Auric Demonocles]

What about the care we don't need?

[WTF]

So yes, I'll subsidize someone else's prenatal coverage...

Fell free to do so on your own, dipshit. Just don't force others to do so against their wishes.

[Andrew S.]

You'll be thankful you were forced to buy prenatal coverage when you're run over by a bus!

[PD Scott]

Especially if the bus impregnates you. Imagine carrying a minivan to term without coverage!

[Nazdrakke]

WTF that's just crazy talk. Nobody helps anyone without the threat of mob violence being used against them.

[John]

She should have been honest and said

So yes, I'll force people who can't afford it and or don't want to to subsidize someone else's coverage..

That is what it boils down to honey.

[Nikki just says no]

Affordable Care Act, the euphemism for ObamaCare

Uh...I think that's a lil backwards there lady...

[John]

Good catch. Forget the idiotic ideas for a moment. It is amazing how bad the writing in major magazines has become. That kind of mistake would never have happened in a magazine like the New Yorker 20 years ago.

[Nikki just says no]

Yeah, you didn't link, so I couldn't check, but if that actually appeared in the New Yorker...at least one person and probably more should seriously be fired.

[John]

Here you go

http://www.newyorker.com/onlin.....alues.html

[SugarFree]

Actually, that's hilarious. We've won them name game and hung the albatross around Barry's neck.

[Tonio]

Albatross! Albatross!

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Actually, that's hilarious. We've won them name game and hung the albatross around Barry's neck.

Yup. I knew that had happened when I heard a radio personality yelling at his co-host for calling it Obamacare. He said "That's just something people that don't like it call it"

I almost had to pull over from laughing so hard. Back when this thing was the most awesomest, bestest, most brilliant legislation EVER, the same guy always called it Obamacare. I haven't heard him utter that word since Oct1 even though his co-hosts keep using it. They REALLY don't want the lightbringer's name associated with it anymore, but that't tough. The name is staying.

[MJGreen]

I'm quite certain that's James Taranto's addition, hence the brackets. It's a joke.

[Sevo]

"I somehow doubt the rest of the country is going to be as giving."

There's a political/economic system based on the hope that they are.
It's been tried many times. It universally fails.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

Did anyone else go to a fast food place, buy some food, then remind those supporters of the strike what you had just done? I sure did....it was GLORIOUS!!! I was called ignorant by at least 4 of my friends. Oh, the irony!

[The Other Kevin]

I didn't let anyone know, but I did go to McDonald's last night. No strikers in sight, and the service was great. I also noticed that everyone there seemed to be about high school age, and probably not supporting a family with 4 children.

[Jordan]

I did enjoy some fast food. Unfortunately (fortunately?), I didn't have anyone whose face I could rub it in.

[Andrew S.]

I went to Chick Fil A yesterday. Angering the left in more ways than just your silly strike!

[UnCivilServant]

They don't have outlets in New York. I don't know how their food tastes (but I'll bet it tastes like chiken)

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Their chicken sandwich (no pickles, of course) with Chick-Fil-A sauce is incredible. Their waffle fries are solid, too.

[Sevo]

Rufus J. Fisk|12.6.13 @ 10:03AM|#
"Did anyone else go to a fast food place, buy some food, then remind those supporters of the strike what you had just done?"
Check out the Biden thread. I did, but the union thugs avoided SF for some reason. They held their performance in Oakland, and chose as poster girl some idjit who is on her third little snowflake while she makes minimum wage.
And it's KFC's fault!
(Oh, and Tony's comments are more amusing than normal)

[The Late P Brooks]

We need our very own Nelson Mandela. A man who can heal the rift of partisanship and distrust poisoning American government, and get the Congress back to their real job of eliminating our freedoms.

Barack Obama is that man!

Shut up and

OBEY.

[John]

Can you imagine what a nasty murderous fuck Obama would have been if he ever had to face any actual oppression?

[Nazdrakke]

Dunno. Ask the people in Afghanistan.

[John]

Actually Pakistan. But remember Obama doesn't have any kind of personal grudge there. Imagine if he did.

[Nazdrakke]

Actually Pakistan.

Actually a lot of places, and I don't think I have to imagine what he'd do given the evidence already available.

[Snark Plissken]

Just like Mandela, Obama is considering stepping aside as president in 2016. Unless someone repeals that silly amendment, in which case he will reluctantly shoulder the oh-so-heavy burden for a few more election cycles.

[Andrew S.]

Can somebody recommend me a good single malt scotch whiskey, not horribly expensive, that I haven't tried yet? It's been a tough week. I need booze.

(Preferrably one I can buy at Total Wine, so I don't have to go running all over to find it)

[SugarFree]

Glenfiddich if you like it smooth, Laphroaig if you like it smokey, Pinch if you are after blended and inexpensive.

[Nazdrakke]

Meh, scotch. Just get yourself a bottle of Bushmills and cus loudly until the stress passes.

[SugarFree]

Try Powers sometime--fairly indistinguishable to Bushmills and usually only about $20 a bottle.

[SugarFree]

Me no read gud.

Glenfiddich if you like it smooth, Laphroaig if you like it smokey, Pinch if you are after blended and inexpensive.

[Andrew S.]

Meh, that's okay.

I've had the Glenfiddich before, but only the 12 year. I should upgrade that.

[BakedPenguin]

There's always Lagavulin, the drink of Ron Swanson.

[Nikki just says no]

mmmmLaphroaigmmmm

[SugarFree]

My wife's favorite when she's not working on a bottle of Lagavulin.

[Restoras]

Smokey!

[Kid Xenocles]

+1 leased Islay plot

[Clich? Bandit]

I drank from the green wellington this year...it was glorious

[Clich? Bandit]

Balvenie Doublewood,
Carduh,
Talisker,
Isle of Jura,
Glen Morangie,
Ardbeg (a big smokey one though)
I could go on forever...
The winner for best discount single malt is Speyburn though. $20 a bottle and decent.

[Marc F Cheney]

No.

[Raston Bot]

I had some Bulleit Rye a month or so ago. I guess it's technically a double malt at 95% rye, 5% barley. It was so good.

[sarcasmic]

I like McClellands when I buy single malt. It's good quality but doesn't break the bank. And they've got several varieties ranging from zero peat to choking on smoke.

[Restoras]

I've been drinking Dewar's lately so I don't feel like I am going broke when I drink my Oban

[sarcasmic]

Try the McClellands if you haven't already. It's single malt scotch at a blended scotch price.

[Restoras]

I will, thanks Sarc.

[Snark Plissken]

I buy a bottle of Popovs vodka and add some tea, then write SINGLE MALT WHISKY in Sharpie on the label. I always use finely brewed Earl Gray Black Gunpowder Tea, not the cheap stuff, because I'm worth it.

[BakedPenguin]

Popov

"We distill out a lot of the amyl alcohols and methanol, honest!" or
"Zero cases of blindness in the past 40 years!"

[Kid Xenocles]

That actually sounds like the start of a good idea. How much tea per vodka do you use for the infusion?

[WTF]

Add a tiny bit of liquid smoke while you're at it.

[sarcasmic]

I've got a bottle of Popov 100 proof vodka. I use it in the airlocks when making beer and wine.

[The Late P Brooks]

if they don't, and it doesn't fulfill its promise of insuring the uninsured, I'm really going to feel like a chump.

I'll be right here, pointing and laughing.

[Nazdrakke]

I'll be right here, pointing and laughing.

Unfortunately, as things stand, it also looks like you'll be reaching for your checkbook at gunpoint while you do it.

[The Late P Brooks]

Can somebody recommend me a good single malt scotch whiskey

I quit drinking distilled spirits a long long time ago, but I know several people who seem to like McCallan* as a step up from well Scotch.

*Spelling may or may not be correct.

[sarcasmic]

McClellands is great quality for the price.

http://www.mcclellands.co.uk/

[Ken Shultz]

"Widespread looting took place in C?rdoba, Argentina after police went on strike for 24 hours. Cue the "libertarian paradise" strawmen."

Just becasue the looting starts as soon as the police go on strike and ends as soon as the strike ends--that doesn't mean the striking police officers were the ones doing the looting.

Doesn't mean they didn't orchestrate the whole thing either.

[Ken Shultz]

Incidentally, whens strikers go on a rampage, rioting and looting, the left calls that "direct action".

[H. ReardEn]

It a protection racket.
'Hate for something to happen to this nice city you have here. You should agree to the outrageous terms of this contract or else we'll be unable to protect you from us a murading, lawless populace.'

[tarran]

Luigi: (looking round office casually)You've ... you've got a nice army base here, colonel.
Colonel: Yes.
Luigi: We wouldn't want anything to happen to it.

[The Late P Brooks]

McCallan is probably not single malt, now that I think of it.

[SugarFree]

They don't make a blended IIRC, but they do have a wide array of casking options.

[Restoras]

Speaking of casking options, I really enjoy the Glenmorangie Sauterne casking. Anyone else?

[Swiss Servator, referendiffic!]

I bow in reverence to Glenmorangie...

[The Late P Brooks]

Baby boy kicked and stamped on, then 'thrown to his death from a balcony' by girl aged TEN

Revenge for all the baby girls sacrificed to the One Child Policy.

[Jordan]

I feel horrible, but I laughed. Well done.

[Sevo]

Charter school teachers get evaluated; good ones get bonuses. Union shills in the comments section scramble to work a spin:

"She was a master teacher.
And based on her job performance, she got a $3,000 bonus as well as a metaphorical front-row seat at one of the biggest battles in public education: how to evaluate teachers and whether to give good ones a bigger paycheck."
http://www.sfgate.com/educatio.....039678.php

[Raston Bot]

$3,000 for earning the top rank? That's nothing.

[Sevo]

Compared to zero, it's not bad.

[The Late P Brooks]

Macallan

[Kid Xenocles]

This seems like as good a time as any to remind my fellow federal employees to kick some money towards Reason via the CFC. Doing it this way has several advantages:
1) It makes your boss think you're helping the team meet its CFC goals
2) The money pretty much goes directly to Reason anyway
3) By designating Reason for your contribution you drag along a portion of the undesignated contributions. All those bake sales and silent auctions suddenly become miniature Reason fundraisers - and you have to appreciate the irony of that.

[lap83]

"Widespread looting took place in C?rdoba, Argentina after police went on strike for 24 hours. Cue the "libertarian paradise" strawmen."

In a libertarian paradise the police would be replaced within 5 minutes of even mentioning the word "strike". Ta-da! No looting.

[Kid Xenocles]

In a libertarian paradise the looters would be dead, with their heads on pikes outside the businesses where they fell.

[The Late P Brooks]

Just because: Current temp= -12F.

ENTROPY WILL GITCHA IF YA DON'T WATCH OUT!

[Kid Xenocles]

ENTROPY WILL GITCHA IF YA DON'T WATCH OUT!

[np]

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) made a surprise appearance at a libertarian fundraising event in Washington, DC, prompting donations to snowball. What if the same were to happen for Reason's own webathon?

Snowballed, eh? let's see....

Months ago, Matthew Hurtt, a well-known player in D.C. libertarian political circle, had made the decision to use the the weekly karaoke gatherings to raise money for one of the movement's elected officials.
. . .
After hatching the plan, Hurtt says the event snowballed beyond his expectations and ultimately raised $6,630 for Amash's 2014 reelection campaign. Each person that attended Tuesday's event was required to donate at least $35 to Amash's campaign.

What is this, black red friday liquidation fundraising? You need to be charging $35,000 for karaoke, like those $10k per plate fundraising dinners!

[Pro Libertate]

Matthew the Hurtt?

[Rufus J. Fisk]

Someone please tear this article apart for me....I do not have the patience. It boggles my mind how insane these people can be.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/0.....d_detroit/

[Cicero Brown]

You're the best. Thanks for the article 🙂

[Juice]

I've met a few here and there and they seem to be somehow at the same time both stern/serious but lighthearted. I can't describe it.