A.M. Links: Tech Companies Launching Anti-Surveillance Campaign, Rand Paul's Wife Doesn't Want Him Running for President, Ukrainian Protesters Topple Lenin Statue

• 

  Wikipedia

  Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other tech companies are launching a campaign to call for restrictions on US surveillance and more transparency about the practices involved.

• The FBI has reportedly had the ability for years to operate laptop cameras remotely without the users' knowledge.
• Rand Paul says his wife doesn't want him to run for president in 2016 but that he's a "very able politician" who should be able to convince her otherwise.
• Democrats believe Scott Brown may run for Senate again, in New Hampshire, and want to be prepared for it.
• Rick Santorum compared the fight against apartheid to the one against Obamacare, saying both were against "great injustices."
• A TSA agent at the St. Louis airport confiscated the two-inch toy pistol of a cowboy sock monkey, because, she argued, it could be mistaken for a real gun.
• Pro-Europe protesters in the Ukraine toppled a statue of Vladimir Lenin, a symbol of Russian nationalism.
• Six people were reportedly admitted into a hospital in central Mexico for radiation exposure. They may be linked to last week's hijacking of a truck carrying radioactive material.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other tech companies are launching a campaign to call for restrictions on US surveillance and more transparency about the practices involved.

If the government isn't going to work harder to keep their cooperation secret...

[Fist of Etiquette]

A TSA agent at the St. Louis airport confiscated the two-inch toy pistol of a cowboy sock monkey, because, she argued, it could be mistaken for a real gun.

Domestic sock monkey terrorism is the next thing.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

You absolutely cannot parody it anymore. They are a walking parody.

[Rich]

The TSA agent told May she would have to confiscate the tiny gun and was supposed to call the police.

In the end, the agent did not call police and May did get her other sewing supplies back.

Emphasis added. Seriously, fire that agent for not following procedure. "Live by the tiny monkey pistol, die by the tiny monkey pistol."

[Slammer]

"That'll be the day"

[GILMORE]

you can have my cowboy sock monkey gun when you pry it from its warm, felty , velcro mitten-paws

[UnCivilServant]

Animist thinking Fist, the image of a gun is still an instigator of violence and violent thought donchaknow

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I see dead people inanimate objects.

[Brett L]

They'd love this book. About evil guns animated by murderous spirits. And trains animated by equally murderous spirits that bring order and regularity.

Hmm. Now that I think of it, it is the perfect parable of progressivism.

[pan fried wylie]

"Maximum Overdrive II"

[Redmanfms]

The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared?the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they're just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope.

Jesus.

Is this a parable about how hope died when the Soviet Union collapsed?

[Russell]

Cut our airport overlords some slack-

Wouldn't you be envious if you saw a sock monkey with a pistol bigger than your brain ?

[cavalier973]

Well, the TSA Agent began to argue with the sock monkey, and when she started to lose, decided to pull rank.

[Lord Humungus]

Take A Seat On The Ergonomically Correct Toilet Of The Future

Today's toilets force users to perch upright at a 90-degree angle, but that's not ideal for health, the designers say. "The angle increases the risk of things like colon diseases and bowel-related illnesses," explains Sam Sheard. "Ideally you should squat, but there are negative social connotations because we're used to sitting down on a toilet, whereas in other cultures, it's fine."

Rather than designing a true squat toilet, the team created a hybrid--you step up on the toilet, and as you bring your legs up, you lean into the correct angle. It's similar to hybrids such as the Anglo-Indian toilet still used in India (and inside ancient Russian trains), which allow for both sitting and squatting, depending on preference. But the Wellbeing Toilet aims to change habits, and push users into better posture.

[Drax the Destroyer]

So...the implcit takeaway from this is that they are going to force us all to squat (at Rape-point) eventually in order to ease the burden on FuckYoucare?

[Brett L]

Maybe you should squat more bro, or else!

[mad libertarian guy]

So...the implcit takeaway from this is that they are going to force us all to squat (at Rape-point) eventually in order to ease the burden on FuckYoucare?

Anything health related will eventually be mandated. You hit the nail right on the head.

[Isaac Bartram]

Not sure what article any of you read but I saw nothing about coercion in the one I read.

I just saw something about some folks who think they have a better idea and might want to put it on the market (you know, that place where people can choose).

[mad libertarian guy]

The point we're making is that once there is enough evidence for statists to support the idea that something is "healthier" it will be mandated as a means to keep health costs down. See sitting to pee in Sweden.

[Isaac Bartram]

My point is that absent any call for coercion or regulation, it's a stretch to assume that there's anything like that here.

Persuading people to "change their habits" is the essence of every marketing campaign ever.

Get back to me when one of these people is shouting "there ought to be law".

Otherwise stop jumping to conclusions.

[Zeb]

Maybe, but I doubt it. There are about a million things that would come earlier on the list of things to regulate. It's a shame that we are to the point where every interesting fact about health is seen with suspicion because it might lead to new rules. It is interesting if true (which I think it is, I've read about it before) and good to know. From what I gather, people who squat to shit don't get hemorrhoids.

[Rasilio]

Unless the manufacturer of this makes the right political donations.

Then we'll get Cash for Crappers, where the government mandates you have to have one of these new pro health toilets but provides you with a certificate to pay for it if you trade in an old fashioned toilet.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

I would have never guessed the amount of water your toilet can use would have been regulated either...

[Elspeth Flashman]

Me neither! Nor the type of door handle, or faucet taps!

My son was going to a school where the bathrooms had no doors - and the sinks were in a communal area. It still had privacy (somewhat) but it was a little . . . odd somehow. The teacher's restrooms were normal though.

[Isaac Bartram]

I must have missed it.

Can any of you point to where it said anyone wanted to regulate anything in the linked article?

[shut the fuck up mary]

Can you point to where anyone said the article said anythign about regulation?

Right, no one did that. Fuck off now.

[Zeb]

Well, you should have seen water conservation mandates from a long way away. With most cities on public water supply and the well known lack of water int eh West, that was obvious.

[Drax the Destroyer]

I've been to China and squatting is probably better for most people. However, if you want to shit on a western toilet seat regardless of potential complications, no power on Earth should tell you not to. Convincing people through evidence is the way to go Zeb.

On a related note, why shouldn't I view everything with at least a tinge of suspicion? Between cops shooting innocents, botched trillion dollar health care programs, disastrous boner wars, a completely distorted economy and my future taxed into oblivion, why should I not question everything these fuckers can use against me? Assholes in New York would probably like to kill all smokers and force fatties into weight loss camps "for their own" good. Sometimes, paranoia is justified.

[Zeb]

no power on Earth should tell you not to. Convincing people through evidence is the way to go Zeb.

I would never suggest otherwise.

why shouldn't I view everything with at least a tinge of suspicion?

Because it makes life less enjoyable. Entirely up to you, of course.

[shut the fuck up mary]

"Because it makes life less enjoyable"

Huh?

What the fuck is that stupidity?

[Zeb]

What the fuck are you on about?

You get to enjoy whatever you want. Don't let me stop you. But I, at least, like to try not to allow political considerations to ruin all new ideas for me.

[VG Zaytsev]

Let me be perfectly clear.

If you like your crapper, you can keep your crapper, PERIOD!

If you like wiping your ass, you can keep your toilet paper, PERIOD!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I nearly spit my coffee out when I went to the story and saw the first comment:

Most people are too fat to sit on these things.

[Moe19]

Larry Craig does not approve.

[alittlesense]

For some reason the phrase "the Anglo-Indian toilet" makes me laugh.

[GILMORE]

If I don't have a place to rest my beer and copy of Guns and Ammo while I shit, then it is a dysfunctional crapper

[Pope Jimbo]

My in-laws have these squatters in their house in Korea. They really suck for an unlimber whitey from the states.

Especially when you are drunk off your gourd on soju and suffering from mild food poisoning...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rick Santorum compared the fight against apartheid to the one against Obamacare, saying both were against "great injustices."

Also, something about Hitler.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Santorum is right and this is the greatest enslavement of the American people since FDR.

[Atanarjuat]

Thank you. "Since FDR" is more accurate. A local libertarian activist called Obamacare "the worst thing to happen to America since George III". A great line, but just inviting people to sideline the discussion by bringing up slavery, then going into hysterics about supposed racism of those who oppose the unAffordable Care Act.

[Zeb]

And it seems a bit ridiculous to call George III something that "happened" to America. Was he particularly worse to the colonies than previous monarchs?

[cavalier973]

Ol' George ruled with a fairly light hand, as I understand it. Parliament was a little more persnickety, but even they (in their own minds) were only trying to recoup the costs of maintaining troops in the Colonies.

Interesting argument: The Boston Tea Party was not in response to Parliament "raising taxes"; the tax rate had actually been cut! What the Americans were angry about was that, with the lower tax, their smuggling activities were less profitable.

I think it was more of the principle of the thing; the Colonists were resisting an attitude of Parliament concerning its power over them. They felt that Parliament should have eliminated the tax completely, since it didn't have the authority to lay the tax in the first place.

[sarcasmic]

Vicious dogs protect me since murder plot, says Joss: Singer has quartet of animals to make her feel safe
Singer bought two new pets after being targeted in murder and robbery plot
The Soul Sessions artist already owned a Rottweiler and a Teacup Poodle
Miss Stone says she researched 'top protective dogs' after 2011 incident
Two men were jailed this year for conspiracy to rob and murder the star
Miss Stone reportedly bought her way out of record deal for 'normal life'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-plot.html
Woman can sing. Don't like her music, but she's got pipes. Shame that she's quitting.

[Drake]

I don't know who she is but she bought a Caucasian Ovcharka - that is a hell of a dog.

[Atanarjuat]

Drake

[Brett L]

He's just the distraction so the little dog can hamstring you.

[mr simple]

Clever girl.

[goneGalt]

+1 Raptor

[Cdr Lytton]

Or just go down to her local gun shop and pick up something for self protection there. Sucks to live in Limeyland.

From the comments

Miss Kitty, West Midlands, UK, 2 hours ago
The most ironic thing is, if someone broke into her home with the intention of robbing and murdering her and the dog bit them, they would probably be able to press charges against her. The world has gone mad

[UnCivilServant]

In other news, Rick Santorum is still an idiot.

[robc]

Im sure he is, but he is right this one specific time.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I do not think the two are fairly, or smartly (as a political matter), comparable.

Obamacare is an abomination. It represents crony capitalism and rank redistribution combined with opening the door for newly expansive federal powers over non-activity. But at its current point and even immediate future its negative effects will be primarily hamstringing our insurance/health care industry, some redistribution, and higher premiums/worse services for many.

Apartheid on the other hand was a more wide-ranging, comprehensively oppressive regime. Basic freedoms of movement, association, property and equality under the law were restricted for about 85% of the population (well, since whites who wanted to interact with blacks were also forbidden to really the entire population was subjected to it).

[Root Boy]

Good response. Nobody has been wipped, beaten or imprisoned for violating O-Care.

At least I hope they haven't.

[VG Zaytsev]

Not yet anyway.

[Drake]

The plan is to impoverish them instead.

[CE]

Apartheid was clearly worse, but Obamacare hurts everyone, not just a faction.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And the "affordable" only applies if you're able to get subsidies.

It's funny how Dems say they support the middle class, then pass a law that's specifically designed to cornhole them economically in the worst way possible, just so poor fatasses can get full medical coverage and Sandra Fluke doesn't have to shell out for condoms.

[Zeb]

"Affordable" is just a name. Has nothing to do with what the law actually does.

[sarcasmic]

Campus officer who shot dead unarmed straight-A student says he opened fire because he 'felt his life was in danger'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....anger.html

Mohammad Haidarasl lives directly below Redus at the Treehouse Apartments.
He told My San Antonio that he was asleep on his sofa when he heard an exchange between Redus and Carter.
'I heard [a man] say, "Oh, you're gonna shoot me?" like sarcastic almost,' he said.
Less than a minute later, Haidarasl heard four to six gunshots. He only realized the man who had been shot was his upstairs neighbor, whom Haidrasl described as 'the nicest guy.'
Carter has been placed on administrative leave while officers investigate the shooting.
Officers investigating the incident haven't attempted to contact Haidrasl about what he heard, Haidrasl told My San Antonio.

Now why would investigators care about what witnesses said? The officer said he feared for his life. That's all they need to know. Witnesses? Ha! Who need's 'em?

[Ted S.]

This was discussed last night. Does the Daily Mail article use the passive voice when the thug cop shoots the student?

[sarcasmic]

I don't know. Why don't you read the article and find out?

[mr simple]

Last night would have been a weekend thread. Everyone knows that weekend threads are a completely different world from weekday threads and don't count towards topics discussed.

[mad libertarian guy]

Last night would have been a weekend thread. Everyone knows that weekend threads are a completely different world from weekday threads and don't count towards topics discussed.

2nded

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

Thanks for that lovely Monday Morning nut punch.

Hang, draw, quarter that cop if this is what happened.

[Dweebston]

Mm, what about PTO pending investigation followed by PTO for PTS symptoms arising from firing his weapon in the line of duty, followed by PTO after the inevitable student outcry, followed by a transfer to yet another department (his ninth in as many years)?

[Zeb]

What does any of that have to do with a power take-off?

[Pope Jimbo]

Well to be fair the cop had just watched that fine documentary on PBS (via the BBC) where the intrepid reporters at Monty Python ran a long story on the Pirahna brothers.

When the kid started using sarcasm, the cop thought he had run into Dinsdale Piranha.

[sarcasmic]

What women REALLY do at home: Blogger mocks the male magazine tradition of glamorous girls lounging around in sexy underwear

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-blog.html
Nice legs.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Her mocking didn't work, I still enjoyed most of the pictures from my male gaze POV.

[mr simple]

Hilariously, the commenters totally missed the point.

[lap83]

I think the reactions are the only funny thing about this. I get what point she's trying to make, but I don't think it's well-executed for the simple fact that no one think it's a good parody except for feminist bloggers. Everyone else just sees that she's still wearing lingerie.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

no one think it's a good parody except for feminist bloggers.

Female comedians--particularly the Social Justice Warrior ones--are, as a general rule, not funny at all. Ladies like Ellen, who's actually a better talk show host than she is a comedian, are the exception that proves the rule.

[Zeb]

I just watched an older Ellen comedy thing the other day and it was a bit dated but very pleasant. It's nice to see a comedian who just tells funny stories and makes jokes without trying to make some grand point or be shocking (not that I object to shocking or dirty comedy). And that does seem to be pretty rare among female comedians.

[Brett L]

Yes, I see: well-built female blogger smart enough to do an underwear shoot, have feminists applaud.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The FBI has reportedly had the ability for years to operate laptop cameras remotely without the users' knowledge.

Can they remotely remove the piece of tape?

[UnCivilServant]

It'd be a real trick with mine - there is no camera, built-in or otherwise.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

So you think....

/FBINSACIA

[db]

There's a reason smart people and people with security clearances tape over their cameras.

[MattJ]

Everyone is acting so casual about this.

Makes me wonder if everyone with a piece of tape over their laptop camera has similar tape over the camera on their phone.

Because that's next month's revelation, right?

[Steve G]

"Spoiler alert!!"

[Lord Humungus]

Joe Biden's Gaffe-Filled Asia Trip, as Told by China, Japan and South Korea's Media

Biden's reputation precedes him, even on the other side of the world. Here's how The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily paper, described Biden on Tuesday in a column urging him to "speak clearly" to China:

In the United States, Vice President Joe Biden is often likened to "a drunken uncle at a wedding party." He may be having the time of his life, but many around him fear he might get carried away and say something outrageous.

Biden is known to have made slips of the tongue, but that apparently is also what makes him affable and interesting.

[UnCivilServant]

Biden is known to have made slips of the tongue, but that apparently is also what makes him affable laughable and interesting [Citation Needed]

Fixed it for them.

[Rich]

I keep waiting for Joe to say to some Asian audience "Me love you long time".

[Austrian Anarchy]

Did he make mention that he brought over some laundry?

[Rich]

A little nostagia for the old folks:

"Not 'Craw'. CRAWWWW!!"

[Austrian Anarchy]

"Not 'Craw'. CRAWWWW!!"
My favorite Get Smart villain!

[Mainer2]

Old timer here.
That just captures how goofy Get Smart was. A villian who couldn't pronounce his own name.

[Lord Humungus]

Two Wongs don't make a white! /Ambercrombie t-shirt

[cavalier973]

Again, why did we send Biden instead of Kerry?

I thought it was Kerry's job to deal with furriners. Biden's job is to not die just in case the President is incapacitated.

[sarcasmic]

Shocking moment police car plows into female basketball player on a crosswalk
Caroline Welker, 21, was hit by a police car as she crossed the road
Delaware policeman failed to yield on his way to a disturbance call
Officer had received a caution over another crash just two days earlier

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....video.html
I'm surprised he didn't shoot her for attempting to damage his vehicle.

[Drax the Destroyer]

If anything, he'd shoot at her, hit several dozen people behind her, and then bring her in for "forcing" him into a situation where he voluntarily shot several dozen people. Her death sentence would be carried out within the month.

[Ted S.]

What a miracle that the dash cam didn't fail.

[Brett L]

He was RESPONDING to an EMERGENCY! HE could have saved someone's life by running over this woman.

[sarcasmic]

Care at top hospitals is NOT INCLUDED in Obamacare, report reveals
Insurers selling cover on the new exchanges will not offer access to cancer centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
Access to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals, may also be limited

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....costs.html
How do you make health care affordable? Don't pay for anything.

[Rasilio]

Well they don't call it the affordable health care act for nothing.

It only covers the cheapest health care money can buy

[sarcasmic]

New York City tries to evict woman, 100, from $219-a-month Manhattan apartment because they say she really lives in ITALY
Concetta Passione celebrated her 100th birthday on Sunday
In November she received an eviction notice to leave her one-bedroom apartment at the Rutgers Houses block in Manhattan's Lower East Side
Following a tip-off, the housing authority claim that Passione spent most of 2000-2009 living in Italy
She lives in the flat with her son Sebastian, 73

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....sione.html
Rent control is insane.

[cavalier973]

They'll still force her to pay city taxes.

[Isaac Bartram]

As near as I can tell the story is not about rent control but subsidized housing.

Since when are Hit and Runners sympathetic to welfare bums abusing public housing?

[shut the fuck up mary]

Who is sympathetic to rent control here (which is what the article is about, not sure where you got subsidization from).

[Isaac Bartram]

I got subsidization from the fact that I RTFA.

The words "rent control" are never used in the article because the case in question has nothing to do with rent control.

The story is about a welfare chiseller who has fraudulently obtained a subsidized apartment from the The New York City Housing Authority which is the agency provides public housing and also administers a citywide Section 8 Leased Housing Program (IOW subsidized housing for poor people). The New York City Housing Authority has nothing to do with administering rent control.

The New York City Housing Authority claims that Concetta Passione, who celebrated her century on Sunday, has been unlawfully residing in Italy and therefore shouldn't be allowed to keep her $219 a month apartment.

You "shut the fuck up mary" seem to have a serious reading comprehension problem.

[Isaac Bartram]

BTW, the welfare chiseller in question would be the "73-year-old son, Sebastian,... a translator for Social Security," who seems to like the idea of having a subsidized apartment that he does not qualify for, while his mother lives in Italy and only comes back for short visits.

Double moocher that Sebastian is; a federal employee leech and and a public housing freeloader. Hardly worthy of any Hit and Run sympathy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pro-Europe protesters in the Ukraine toppled a statue of Vladimir Lenin, a symbol of Russian nationalism.

Seems like this would have been gotten around to a while ago.

[DJF]

Except that Lenin was not a Russian Nationalist, he was somewhere between a Soviet Nationalist and a Communist Internationalist.

As to tearing down the statue, many have been torn down but I personally would not like all of them torn down because there needs to be some reminder and tearing them all down is a little to much 1984 where old history is replaced with new history.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Surely the crumbling buildings and decayed infrastructure would be enough of a reminder.

[DJF]

You would think, but having a statue of Lenin right next to the crumbling building might accent the reminder.

[UnCivilServant]

No, Ukrane's monument is the radioactive park. That's a stain of the soviet era they can't tear down.

[db]

People seem to associate that more with failures of nuclear engineering and science than with the underlying hubris and anti-environmentalism of the Soviets.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Chernobyl would have worked fine for the rest of its life, it would still be running today, if the operators weren't under the immense pressure to run the tests that lead to the accident. To perform these tests, they had to manually turn off all of the automated safety systems built into the reactor. If you wanted to destroy the reactor, you couldn't have thought of a better way.

There are still a few RBMK's running in Russia. I wouldn't advise ever building one again, but the Chernobyl accident was the result of a deliberate action to take the reactor into unsafe conditions by operators for a state mandated experiment. The Chernobyl accident was caused by Soviet iron fisted ruling and was exasperated by the Soviet's want to keep it a secret, which lead to many people getting high rad doses with no knowledge.

Just a disclaimer: A Chernobyl accident is virtually impossible in a Western style pressurised water reactor.

[robc]

I wouldn't advise ever building one again

Yeah, they have design instabilities. They can be avoided with proper procedure, but as Chernobyl showed...that doesnt always happen.

A Chernobyl accident is virtually impossible in a Western style pressurised water reactor.

Yup.

[tarran]

One thing that contributed to the accident, Chernobyl was both a power plant *and* a breeder reactor for nuclear bomb fuel.

So the reactor was designed to be defueled and refueled while operating at full power; a welder cut off the tube taking steam out of the fuel assembly, removed the rod, inserted the replacement rod and then rewelded the tube and then water was allowed to flow into the rod.

Those welds were the weak point in the system that failed when they acheived prompt criticality.

[invisible furry hand]

I can' decide if Prompt Criticality would be a shitty band name or not

[tarran]

It would make an awesome punk band name.

[R C Dean]

I was thinking Culture warship name.

[db]

Yes, I know all that. You're correct to point it out. My point is that the general, non-engineering public doesn't associate those things witg Chernobyl, they just see it as a scary example of technological failure, not of political hubris.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Agreed db.

[BardMetal]

Tear it down but leave the rubble laying there as a reminder of the evils of communism.

[Austrian Anarchy]

We have a president sitting in office to remind us of that every day.

[invisible furry hand]

So that's why Groovus doesn't come round here anymore - too busy fomenting dissent. Good for him.

[db]

Some days I wonder if he ever really existed.

[Austrian Anarchy]

The accompanying picture is from Seattle, where they appear to embrace the Red Terror. Of course, the Red Terror supporters call it "free and fair elections."

[Lord Humungus]

Petition demands Obama execute pardoned turkey

A White House petition demanding President Obama to execute one of the two turkeys he pardoned last week has gathered 3,200 signatures.

The petition asks Obama to "summarily execute Caramel at a time and place of his choosing."

[db]

Does the petition specify drone process?

[sarcasmic]

President Obama accused of LYING about intelligence which he said proved Assad was behind sarin gas attacks in Syria
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist claims the Obama Administration 'cherry-picked intelligence' on Syria
Hersh, 76, cited conversations with military officials who spoke of their 'immense frustration' with the President
Previously he had claimed that the official account of the 2011 raid which killed Osama Bin Laden as 'one big lie'
He says the US media is too 'afraid' to pick on Obama

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....Hersh.html

BOOOOOOOOOSH!

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I cannot wait for the stories to start coming out about this guy post 2016. It is going to be good.

[Rich]

Let's hope that by then the damage will not be irrevocably entrenched.

[mad libertarian guy]

Let's hope that by then the damage will not be irrevocably entrenched.

It already is.

[Ted S.]

President Obama accused of LYING about intelligence

I agree; Obama really isn't that bright.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I swear, I believed that BEFORE he ever got elected.

I really don't see what Americans saw in the guy.

Canada has its own empty suit that will get elected: Justin 'Dreams of my father' Trudeau.

A former drama teacher and son of a beloved but somewhat tyrannical PM - Pierre Trudeau - who was basically an apologist for communism.

[Isaac Bartram]

I remarked in 08 on the similarity between the Obama and Trudeau manias.

I refer to the Trudeau mania of '67. I really know nothing of the son.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not quite the fever pitch but it's there. And the media does try to romanticize the vacuous Justin a little.

It is the same as Obama and quite sickening to see people fawn over politicians this way.

I can't believe the Liberal party cynically made him leader. But it's all about the votes and Justin can superficially draw them in while a more substantive individual like Marc Garneau had no hope.

[Brett L]

Yellowcake!

Oh, wait...

[pan fried wylie]

Chocolate Cake!

/racist

[cavalier973]

Wait; Hersh is 76? Why are we listening to this senile old coot?

[pan fried wylie]

Yeah, it's not as if he's a democratically elected senile old coot. Those guys you can trust!

[sarcasmic]

Snapped! The moment a curious crocodile sneaks up on an underwater photographer in murky reef
Underwater photographer Octavio Aburto was swimming in the Mexican Caribbean when the reptile appeared
The 40-year-old was able to capture the encounter before being noticed by the frightening creature

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-reef.html
My, what sharp teeth you have!

[Bee Tagger]

Rand Paul says his wife doesn't want him to run for president in 2016 but that he's a "very able politician" who should be able to convince her otherwise.

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it in the footnotes.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Makes you wonder what else he convinced her to do go along with.

[Lord Humungus]

wacka-chicka-wah!

[cavalier973]

I thought it was "Bom-chicka-BOMP-bom!"

[Lord Humungus]

you're right - I got my genres messed up. I was thinking all 70s Chase Music, not Tail Chasing.

[pan fried wylie]

depends on if you're doing the bassline or the guitar part.

[CE]

Or worshipping the Aqua Buddha.

[GILMORE]

The correct pronunciation is,

"Bow-chicka bow-wow!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5wfusuQKcs

[Atanarjuat]

I think it's just a clever twist on the usual "No, I'm not running, quit asking...[6 months later]...I'm announcing the start of my campaign for...", except he can say "I finally convinced my wife..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rand Paul says his wife doesn't want him to run for president in 2016 but that he's a "very able politician" who should be able to convince her otherwise.

As long as she's nothing like Rachel Maddow.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

*shudder*

[Lord Humungus]

Ron Paul: Hobby Lobby Case Is About Rights, Not Contraceptives ? OpEd

Some Obamacare supporters cast this case as a conflict between Hobby Lobby's First Amendment rights and the rights of its employees to contraception and abortion. Hobby Lobby is not trying to stop its employees from obtaining contraceptives and abortions; it is simply asking that the government not force it to pay for them.

Forcing Hobby Lobby to pay for abortion services is especially offensive because Hobby Lobby's owners consider abortion a form of murder. Those who, like me, agree that abortion is an act of violence against an innocent person, will side with Hobby Lobby. However, this case is not about the legality of abortion. It is about whether someone can have a "right" to force someone else to provide him with a good or service. Therefore, even those who support legal abortion should at least support a business's right to choose to not subsidize it.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I worked out plenty of ERP projects where the EDI portion took months longer than the front-end transaction.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Whoops, my bad. This was meant for one of your other Obamacare links.

[mad libertarian guy]

However, this case is not about the legality of abortion. It is about whether someone can have a "right" to force someone else to provide him with a good or service.

Leftists will never split that hair. Ever.

[robc]

Slavers gonna slave.

[General Butt Naked]

Where in his political philosophy does Santorum draw his opposition to Obamacare?

I mean, if you asked me to name a republican that's more of a statist than obama, Santorum would be my first answer. No question.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

He draws it from the fact that it is a Dem program and not a Rep program. In other words, he draws his opposition from his TEAM stance.

[General Butt Naked]

I figured, but thought maybe someone would offer some sort of rebuttal.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

Nah, he's pretty TEAM STATIST AS LONG AS ITS TEAM RED.

[Zeb]

And probably something about abortion and birth control.

[The Late P Brooks]

A TSA agent at the St. Louis airport confiscated the two-inch toy pistol of a cowboy sock monkey, because, she argued, it could be mistaken for a real gun.

GOOBLE GOBBLE, GOOBLE GOBBLE

[Rich]

she argued, it could be mistaken for a real gun.

Well, technically she's correct, since *she* did.

Unfortunately, there's no mistaking her for a real TSA agent.

[Root Boy]

Don't worry, Congress is coming to the rescue to provide more funds and to cave on that evil sequester. More money should fix things:

Senior aides familiar with the talks say the emerging agreement aims to partially repeal the sequester and raise agency spending to roughly $1.015 trillion in fiscal 2014 and 2015. That would bring agency budgets up to the target already in place for fiscal 2016. To cover the cost, Ryan and Murray are haggling over roughly $65 billion in alternative policies, including cuts to federal worker pensions and higher security fees for the nation's airline passengers.

[Lord Humungus]

Back-End Errors at U.S. Health Website Jeopardize Sign-Up

There's no way to tell how many people who think they've signed up for health insurance through the U.S. exchange actually have, after about 1 in 4 enrollments sent to insurers from the federal website had garbled included incomplete information.

The data transmission errors have been reduced to 1 in 10 since Nov. 30, the government said on Dec. 6. Still, the acknowledgment suggests consumers need to be vigilant about their health plan purchases. Letters from insurers confirming coverage can take a week or more, and the Obama administration now says people should call their companies if they aren't contacted within that time.

[DJF]

But Obama never said that you can keep you Obamacare signup if you want too.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rick Santorum compared the fight against apartheid to the one against Obamacare, saying both were against "great injustices."

I haven't figured out which one of you Peanuts is Santorum yet but somebody is taking the words directly from his frothyness.

[WTF]

First off, the retarded don't rule the night. They don't rule it. Nobody does. And they don't run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[Rasilio]

I thought lovers ruled the night?

You know, Because the Night Belongs to Lovers

[cavalier973]

Is that from something? I've seen a similar quote before...

[cavalier973]

Ah. Nevermind. Wonderful tool, Google.

[Coeus]

Creator of the wire is cognitively dissonant to an astonishing degree.

There's no barbed wire around West Baltimore or around East Baltimore, around Pimlico, the areas in my city that have been utterly divorced from the American experience that I know. But there might as well be. We've somehow managed to march on to two separate futures and I think you're seeing this more and more in the west. I don't think it's unique to America.

I think we've perfected a lot of the tragedy and we're getting there faster than a lot of other places that may be a little more reasoned, but my dangerous idea kind of involves this fellow who got left by the wayside in the 20th century and seemed to be almost the butt end of the joke of the 20th century; a fellow named Karl Marx.

It's pragmatic, it includes the best aspects of socialistic thought and of free-market capitalism and it works because we don't let it work entirely. And that's a hard idea to think ? that there isn't one single silver bullet that gets us out of the mess we've dug for ourselves. But man, we've dug a mess.

[Jordan]

There's no barbed wire around West Baltimore or around East Baltimore, around Pimlico, the areas in my city that have been utterly divorced from the American experience that I know. But there might as well be.

Yeah, funny an admirer of Karl Marx would say that.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Jesus Fuck. This hack needs to write more crime shows about how much the government fucked up Batlimore. Heck, he could base the next one in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Newark, Philadelphia, etc. etc if he doesn't feel like finger-banging the Baltimore harp quartet of sadness anymore.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I have to credit him for my political beliefs. I would say I was pretty apathetic prior to watching the Wire, but seeing him illustrate how corrupt Baltimore city was lead me to take more of an interest.

Of course, I came to the exact opposite conclusion on how to fix it than he did.

[Root Boy]

Joss Wheden seems to be a brother in arms.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Whedon's an emotionally retarded nerd who really shouldn't be taken seriously on anything he has to say politically.

That guy is the poster boy for "dem panties gonna drop when she sees how sensitve I am" 90s PC-ism.

[Root Boy]

I was thinking of adding that he just thinks like a teenage girl, so that jibes with what you say.

[Zeb]

Seriously. He makes a show that is pretty much a perfect argument for libertarianism and yet still thinks that Marx was onto something.

[MJGreen]

Those cities just prove how insidious the capitalist system is, and why right-thinking people need far more power to make things right.

What's strange is that I don't think there's one character in The Wire that represents evil capitalism. There is a very minor private contractor, but he's only important for his connection to the state senator Clay Davis. Everything springs from government and the war on drugs.

In Treme, there is one businessman that I guess we're supposed to view as a bad guy. Yet he's always drawn as likable and sympathetic and genuinely caring about the city. I'm sure that, in Simon's strange mind, the guy really is the devil that's trying to destroy all things unique and cultural about New Orleans. I'm never sure how much Simon believes of the BS that his characters spew about 'the real N.O.'

[Zeb]

I think he meant Marlo Stanfield to represent evil capitalism (I think I read an interview where he said as much). But I don't see that. If anyone represents Capitalism it's Bubbles.

[MJGreen]

Blech, of course. Marlo's an aggressive competitor interested solely in expansion and profit. He's greedy. Just like all capitalists!!

[MJGreen]

Actually, the pattern I do see is suggests that Simon is a true reactionary. One of those Boomer progressives that sees the 50s and 60s as a golden age. Capitalism and globalism is evil because unionized dock workers see their hours reduced thanks to automation (the horror!). The way music used to be made in New Orleans and elsewhere is changing, and so no good music can ever be made again. It can't be that there are different but equally valid ways for people to make a living or to make culture.

[Zeb]

Yeah. Many so-called liberals really are just extreme reactionaries. You see a lot of that in environmentalism and multiculturalism as well.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

As usual, the details are in the comments section.

Ugly.

[Slammer]

Wonder what kind of neighborhood he lives in?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The Locust Point part of Baltimore used to be a shithole too. But then, something happened. It has seen a ton of growth recently and it is now one of the nicest parts of the city.

Thanks, Under Armour.

[Root Boy]

They can just rename it Obama State Underwear Factory No. 4 and we'll be golden!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

my dangerous idea

Lol--yeah, it's dangerous all right, you douchebag goon. Just look at the millions killed in the name of your cargo cult philosophy during the last 100 years.

[invisible furry hand]

OK, which one of you is responsible for these Christmas lights?

[Rich]

Can't be one of us, ifh -- the upper lights would be white.

[db]

Whoever took that picture needs to have a talk with his lens-polishing orphans.

[Brett L]

We do what we can in FL.

[Lord Humungus]

The ACLU sues to silence religions

Welcome to the next front in the war against religion. The target is members of the clergy themselves, for hewing to their religion. If the ACLU gets its way in Michigan, not only priests could be in legal jeopardy. Also rabbis, pastors and imams.

The case in Michigan is being brought by one Tamesha Means, whose pregnancy miscarried when in the second trimester. She's now suing the bishops for negligence because a Catholic hospital failed to offer to send her to have an abortion.

[wareagle]

it's the hospital's fault that she did not seek an abortion? Okay then.

[SugarFree]

She is suing the wrong people. If her version of events is correct, they sent her home twice to deliver a non-viable fetus that should have been aborted. They risked future sterility or death of a patient rather than recommend that she see a competent medical professional about her condition.

[Zeb]

Seems like a legitimate case against the hospital, though I don't understand why she is suing the Bishop.

Here's a question for those more up on Catholic doctrine than I. Does the church forbid abortion or referral for abortion even when the fetus is known not to be viable and the procedure would generally be considered medically necessary?

[Eduard van Haalen]

Don't know all the details, but basically both the pregnant woman and her child are full persons, and both are deemed patients. Since you can't kill one patient to help another patient, you can't directly kill the child for the sake of the mother, any more than you can suffocate a Siamese twin with a pillow to save the other twin (assumingthis situation actually arises).

I understand cases where it's permitted to do certain operations to save the mother, even if the child dies, but I don't have the details at my fingertips.

[Coeus]

Still trying to figure out why this is enraging to people:

"I'm single, I'm 29, I'm very career oriented," Kooiman explained. "What's your advice in just a couple sentences?"

"My advice is, as the years go on and you find that you want, if you do, to get married and settle down, to understand time is going to be your greatest enemy," Venker opined. "Not your husband, not men, not the government, not your employers. It's time, there's just not enough time in the day to do everything."

"So if you learn to embrace that side of yourself that isn't about work," she continued. "In other words, the nurturing side, the motherhood, all of that. It's okay to let your husband bring home that full-time income so you can have more of a balanced life."

"And we should really be thanking men for this, not saying they're in our way or not doing enough."

[John]

Feminists are enraged because it is true. No one dies wishing they worked harder. But they often die wishing they had spent more time with their kids. Feminists are nasty leftist harpies who hate motherhood and the family because it stands in the way of the state. So anything that tells the truth about either bust be destroyed.

[Brett L]

I just took a week off for the birth of my first. Did I want to go back to work today? Fuck no. But men don't lie to each other and tell each other you can be CEO and the dad who goes on all the pre-school field-trips. If they really want to be empowered, they should start by telling their daughters and nieces that exact truth: There isn't time to do everything, so think hard about what you really want that is within your time budget and do that ruthlessly.

[Spoonman.]

Congratulations - hope your family is doing well. We're closing out week 3 feeling pretty good; she's gotten a lot more alert and interactive.

[Brett L]

Everything was okay with the rapid heartbeat? Because by the 2nd day, I was willing to shoot anyone who tried to keep us there past 48 hours.

Yeah, the little guy gets to a point every day where I think he figures out he's not going back in the womb and freaks out for 30 minutes. I don't blame him at all.

[Spoonman.]

Yep, we have an appointment with the cardiologist tomorrow where they'll do more tests and adjust her dose but right now it's looking like it'll be a minor inconvenience rather than a serious ongoing concern.

Staying there for a week was horrible, I am glad you and your wife were able to take him home. I'm guessing that means things went well for your wife as well.

Does your wife have her mother or sister or somebody coming to help her? The effect that's had on my wife's well-being is tremendous.

[Brett L]

Yes, her mom is in town, and we are both super grateful. So far he's perfectly healthy.

[Bronwyn]

Congratulations to both of you!

[wareagle]

the biggest lie told by the feminists is the one about "having it all." Almost no one can do that, men included, and certainly not at the same time.

[trshmnstr]

Yes. I think this is one of the biggest drivers of statism in the West.

People think that they can get away with part-time parenting, and end up relying on the State to raise their children. What happens when the State raises the children? You get good little statists.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Congrats.

[hamilton]

Hey, congrats Brett!

[lap83]

"Why this is enraging to people"

because the advice is full of wisdom and humility and many people are foolish assholes.

[Zeb]

And it's not as if the advice is that all women should forsake careers for marriage and children. The advice clearly says that if you find that you want to have a family the best thing to do is to make sure you have the time to do that properly instead of trying to do everything and not being able to do anything all the way.

[Lord Humungus]

Ore. man learns driving tank harder than it looks

But Hastings says the tank slipped out of gear and rolled back down across the busy highway, crashing through a guardrail.

Glossop gave it another try, and the tank it rolled backward again through another guardrail and down an embankment.

Glossop was cited for reckless driving and first-degree criminal mischief.

Hastings says the tank is fine.

[Ted S.]

I thought this lesson was learned 25 years ago.

[Jordan]

Rick Santorum compared the fight against apartheid to the one against Obamacare, saying both were against "great injustices."

Aaaaand the Stupid Party strikes again. Throw in some comments about "rape-rape" while you're at it.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

He holds a singular Stupid Individual position - he is not an elected official or TEAM RED offical, nor is he an active candidate for any office right now.

[Jordan]

It won't matter. As a former politician, he'll forever be associated with them. And the media will be happy to reinforce that perception as much as possible.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

True.

[Lord Humungus]

A man has been arrested after holding a pillow over a woman's face because she refused to go to church with him.

Rusty James Leighty, 22, of the 100 block of Cottontail Court, Lancaster, was charged with simple assault and making terroristic threats after a domestic disturbance at his girlfriend's home.

The 36-year-old victim called police on Nov. 24 around 8 a.m. and told police that Leighty had held a pillow over her face and threatened her with a knife when she refused to attend church with him.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Waiiiiitttttt. Do these "terroristic threats" mean he's going to be rape-raped in Gitmo soon?

[Brett L]

I see he's from the Torquemada branch of Christianity.

[Lord Humungus]

Church of Jesus Christ, Sadist?

[Coeus]

How accepting visible labia made me a better feminist.

[DJF]

These same feminists are the ones who constantly tell men that women are more then just a collection of female parts but then go on and on about their female parts.

[John]

You are not supposed to look at them unless they want you to, which they won't tell you. You just should know.

[mr simple]

So you read the comments.

[Rich]

She's not a real feminist unless her leggings are skin-colored.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yes to leggings as pants. Yoga pants get mentioned a lot for their wonderfulness, but I think most men mistake leggings for yoga pants and not giving them the credit they deserve.

[mr simple]

While leggings are great for helping me to objectify women with my male gaze, they are not acceptable substitutes for pants and I judge people who try to use them as such as I judge all victims of poor fashion. Probably because I'm such a woman-hating misogynist.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Well of course no fatties.

[Root Boy]

Luckily my wife is not in that category, so I bought her some Lulu yoga pants for Christmas. I couldn't find the see through ones though....

Off topic - are the Lulu founders still libertarians and pissing off their statist clientele?

[Brett L]

Buy them 2 sizes too small. That's why they're see through. A bunch of girls who usually wear a medium figured out they could "fit" into an extra small. God bless the guys/gals who finally got just the right ratio of cotton to synthetics.

[Root Boy]

I'd get about 1 min of my jollies until she say's WTF, you know my size...and then asks for the gift receipt.

May be worth a try next time.

[Brett L]

I thought you were supposed to buy everything for your wife a size small. Its a flattering way of giving her a veto on anything you buy her. If she likes it, she gets the same thing in the right size, if she doesn't, she can find something more her style.

[Root Boy]

That is the smart approach - especially with you since your woman is a former preggo. Doesn't work so much for my old lady, but I do sometimes buy smaller stuff since it get her motivated to fit into them.

I am probably 50/50 on successful clothes buying for her, which I think is better than most guys do. Sorry, had to brag.

[Lord Humungus]

(Deputy)Governor denies he was robbed, left nude by prostitutes

Amos Nyaribo of Nyamira told The Nairobian that claims that he was robbed by call girls in Kisumu are rumours.

"Those are rumours being spread by my political opponents," he said on phone.

A police source claimed the veteran politician lost three smartphones each valued at Sh75,000, an unknown amount of money and his clothes to the women at a Kisumu lodge. The deputy governor had traveled to Kisumu to address a meeting attended by ward representatives from his county.

[invisible furry hand]

And here's why I love Roy Keane:

The Irishman even took issue with Ferguson praising him in his recently released autobiography for "covering every blade of grass" in the 1999 Champions League semi-final second leg against Juventus.

Keane added: "Stuff like that almost insults me. I get offended when people give quotes like that about me. It's like praising the postman for delivering letters."

[Lord Humungus]

Venom between Obama and Rangel

Their animus blew up when Obama tried to bar Rangel from a Harlem event in March 2011.

"Remember the $30,000-a-plate fund-raiser Obama had at the Red Rooster a couple of years back," said one Harlem insider. "Charlie's people reached out and asked, 'Where's Charlie's complimentary entr?e to the event?' And the answer was, 'There is no complimentary entr?e.' This is in Harlem ? Charlie's home turf. His office was furious. And what Charlie decided to do was say, 'I'm coming anyway.'?"

In recent months, Rangel has been one of Obama's most prominent Democratic critics. He has railed against Obama's stance on Syria, IRS reviews of conservative organizations and, perhaps most of all, the rollout of ObamaCare.

[UnCivilServant]

What galls me is the fact that Charlie isn't in jail at the moment. I have to go look up what he was being tried for.

[Lord Humungus]

More men speaking in girls' 'dialect', study shows

This process is known as "uptalk" or "valleygirl speak" and has in the past been associated with young females, typically from California or Australia.

But now a team says that this way of speaking is becoming more frequent among men.

The findings were presented at the Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in California.

like totally fer sure!

[General Butt Naked]

Australia?

[Atanarjuat]

Australians still sound manly, even when they talk like a Sheila.

[invisible furry hand]

Yep, the terminal rising inflection infects our speech like aural herpes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeqNEFJ9RiU

[SugarFree]

We need to kill it with fire. It's bad enough having to listen to be run there fucking mouths all the time, but talking like Kardasians needs to be stamped out and hard.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I blame The Golden Girls.

[Lord Humungus]

Shanghai Warns Kids to Stay Indoors for Seventh Day on Smog

Shanghai warned children and the elderly to stay indoors for at least a seventh day out of the first nine this month, intensifying pressure on local authorities to control the worst smog since government monitoring began last year.

The city's air quality index was at 238, or "heavily polluted" at 5 p.m., according to the local monitoring center. A warning to stay indoors is triggered any time the index exceeds 200. The index surged to a record 482 on Dec. 6 into the "severe" level, the highest of a six-tier rating system, according to the China Daily. That prompted the government to order cars off the road and factories to cut production.

[Rich]

Seventh Day on Smog

Nice band name.

[Rasilio]

And on the 7th day of Smogmas the Party gave to me a bad case of COPD

[mr simple]

It's pronounced Sma-ug.

[Palin's Buttplug]

FSU opens as solid 8 point favorite over Auburn. Too high - take the points. Auburn could win by double digits with that offense. FSU is no better than Missouri.

[Brett L]

Better O-line, better receivers, better linebackers.

[wareagle]

should be a good game. AU might have to reach deep into the playbook and run 4 different things.

[Brett L]

Yeah, I'm a little nervous because BC was the closest and toughest game and they basically had a similar strategy of some misdirection, block everyone, and let the back run... only without all the Auburn talent. But we'll see. I don't know if the Auburn defense can make enough plays.

[wareagle]

the defense is better than it gets credit for being, particularly the front line. About 10 guys rotate in and out, so the push is always fresh. DBs remain a work in progress.

I like FSU, got a Masters there, and the Noles have been dominant all season. But in watching AU's turnaround from last year to this, the word 'impossible' has lost its meaning.

[Pro Libertate]

FSU didn't have the toughest schedule this year, partially because a couple of usually decent teams weren't, but the difference between them and, say, Ohio State is that they wiped out most of their opponents by large margins--they didn't squeak by crappy teams. That means good offense and decent defense.

All that said, I think Auburn is an easy favorite here, despite the conventional wisdom otherwise. They have an offense that no one can figure out (it's really weird that that's the case, but it is), and if FSU can't stop it, I think they likely lose. Probably in a shoot-out--Auburn's defense isn't very good.

I was a little embarrassed by the SEC championship--the lack of defense on both teams was shocking. I still think Alabama is the best team in the country, but Auburn earned the berth.

[robc]

They have an offense that no one can figure out (it's really weird that that's the case, but it is)

Solid fundamental defense and getting off blocks.

FSU can do the latter, but I saw what we (GT) did to them in 2008 and 2009 when they didnt have a clue about fundamentals.

Auburn's offense isnt anything special, while its different, it works for the same reason any spread option offense works. Auburn just has better talent than most do.

If you overpursue, you get smoked. Play your role and whip the blocker in front of you.

[CE]

The SEC's standing as clearly the best conference in the country took a big hit this year. If they're so superior, why are Missouri and Texas A&M now two of the top SEC teams? When Utah and Colorado joined the Pac 12, they got stuck in the basement. The truth is the bottom half of the SEC is weak, and the top half pad their records playing Div 1AA teams after pounding the bottom tier SEC teams, then rack up "quality wins" beating each other.

[robc]

Based on evidence from this weekend, what Auburn defense?

[Pro Libertate]

It's pretty weak. They did show some moments of something, but obviously not very much. Frankly, how that game wasn't a blowout given the million yards rushing is beyond me.

Auburn likes to turn the ball over, too, which could give FSU an edge. But I think it's going to be tough for FSU, despite being a more balanced team. Auburn's got that mojo right now and has been battle-tested. FSU normally would be in the same position being undefeated, having wasted a good Florida team and a solid ACC team, but that didn't happen this year.

[robc]

They handled Clemson.

So that was a solid ACC team.

[Pro Libertate]

I meant at the end of the season. They usually come out fairly hot if they're in national title contention because of the harder games they have to get through at season end. Not the case at all this year.

[mr simple]

I would give FSU the edge if Auburn weren't the Team of Destiny this year. Sure, every team needs a little luck to win a national championship, but the things that have happened to put Auburn in this position -- along with their ability, I'm not trying to insult them as a team -- are amazing.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, luck has played no small part. But that kind of thing can make a team feel unbeatable.

[CE]

Auburn is allergic to defense though.

[Snark Plissken]

Man jailed for eight hours for telling Mandela joke.

Neil Phillips said he was fingerprinted, DNA-swabbed and had his computers seized.

The 44-year-old was held after posting: "My PC takes so long to shut down I've decided to call it Nelson Mandela."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Is that a dig at Mandela or Microsoft?

[Snark Plissken]

Political correctness.

[Drax the Destroyer]

A little from column A, a little from column B?

[BardMetal]

So sick of hearing about Mandela. And why the hell are the flags at half stance over this?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Any reasons why, Reason, has kept the Mandela articles at a minimum?

[BardMetal]

I don't only read and watch Reason. Perhaps that is the problem.

I just can't stand how the man is made out to be some sort of saint, yet his real past is very different.

[Mike M.]

And why the hell are the flags at half stance over this?

Great question; I brought this up yesterday, and my kudos go out to the dude down in South Carolina who refused to do it.

American flags shouldn't be flown at half staff for Mandela, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, or any other non-US citizen.

[tarran]

Now wait a minute.

The flying of the colors at half mast is a salute.

Ships dip their colors in salute to foreign vessels daily. Ships salute foreign heads of state routinely. Hell, I'm sure foreigners are saluted routinely when they as guests observe military regiments doing a Pass in Review.

The flying of the colors at half mast is a salute that lasts all day (which is why the flag is raised to the top of the staff and then lowered to the half mast when being raised, and raised to the top of the mast before being lowered all the way when being struck).

And, I can think of many scenarios where a foreigner is deserving of a formal salute by the U.S. govt.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well they lowered it for Whitney Houston so...

[CE]

And for JFK, 50 years later.

[Rich]

Yet another reason to never set foot in the UK.

What's really disgusting is -- you just *know* that most of the clowns involved in this guy's arrest were laughing at the joke.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ok, smart-alecs. Let's see what your comedic value is. Fill in the blanks...

Why did Mandela cross the road?

Knock, knock who's there? Mandela. Mandela who?

How many Mandela's does it take to screw a light bulb on?

[Snark Plissken]

Why did Mandela cross the road?

To see what was on the other aparthside.

[Snark Plissken]

Knock, knock who's there? Mandela. Mandela who?

Just let me the fuck in before Winnie lights this tire around my neck.

[Snark Plissken]

How many Mandela's does it take to screw a light bulb on?

Only one, but it takes him forever to figure out the old light bulb was dead.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not bad, sir. Not bad at all.

I like the tire one.

[Snark Plissken]

Thanks, yeah I think that was the strongest one.

[Mongo]

The greatest living South African is now that albino skank from Die Antwoord.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Gary Player and Ernie Els take exception.

[WTF]

Charlize Theron

[invisible furry hand]

What did you think of that post-donation form message Reason shows you to send to your friends which began "I just made a donation which will help Reason keep publishing the best libertarian news and commentary in print and on the web"?

You know, a libertarian may donate for many things: his country, his principles, his friends, the glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally I'd mud wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock, and a sack of French porn. None of which Reason offered me. Sigh.

[UnCivilServant]

"Well done Bladder."

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

+1 cigarillo case with the Regimental Crest of two crossed dead Frenchmen over a mound of dead Frenchmen.

[Brett L]

I changed it to: You know who was for pot legalization, prison reform, and against police shooting dogs before it was cool? Libertarians. The hipsters of politics.

[John]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....e15798546/

Obamacare and the end of the liberal dream.

But Obamacare is much more than a test of a presidency. It's a test of whether big government can solve big problems. And so far, the answer is very bad for the entire liberal enterprise. As venerable left-leaning pundit Thomas Edsall wrote in The New York Times, "Cumulatively, recent developments surrounding the rollout of Obamacare strengthen the most damaging conservative portrayals of liberalism and of big government ? that on one hand government is too much a part of our lives, too invasive, too big, too scary, too regulatory, too in your face, and on the other hand it is incompetent, bureaucratic and expropriatory."

[Palin's Buttplug]

But in a Dec 4 Gallup poll only 32% of Americans want the ACA repealed - a number that has not moved since before the crappy rollout.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/166.....h-law.aspx

You're going to be very disappointed in the midterm results, Johnny Boy.

[John]

CHRISTFAG!! BUSHPIG!!!

[WTF]

"Lamb shanks that are slowly simmered with fresh rosemary, garlic, tomatoes, and red wine. Great served with polenta, or my family's favorite roasted garlic mashed potatoes, as you need something to soak up the wonderful sauce that is created with these. A fantastic dish for company, as all the prep work is done at the beginning, and then you just have to wait."
Ingredients:
6 lamb shanks
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 large carrots, cut into 1/4 inch rounds
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 (750 milliliter) bottle red wine 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
with juice
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken
broth
1 (10.5 ounce) can beef broth
5 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Directions:
1. Sprinkle shanks with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook shanks until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer shanks to plate.
2. Add onions, carrots and garlic to pot and saute until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in wine, tomatoes, chicken broth and beef broth. Season with rosemary and thyme. Return shanks to pot, pressing down to submerge. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 2 hours.
3. Remove cover from pot. Simmer about 20 minutes longer. Transfer shanks to platter, place in a warm oven. Boil juices in pot until thickened, about 15 minutes. Spoon over shanks.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You want MORE ECHO CHAMBER.

"Woo-Wee, the GOP is gonna kick ass in November!"

Just copy and paste that a couple of times and quote me.

[John]

Remember retards don't rule the night and they all want cake.

[tarran]

That's why not only do I always have a cake-a-pult in my car and by my back door, but I also secrete a smaller single shot cupcake-a-pult in my waistband.

[Jordan]

I remember you assuring us that rolling out a website is trivial and the Oct rollout would be smooth as butter.

[SugarFree]

Weren't we supposed to be eating our words by now?

[Lord Humungus]

and people would be flocking! to the exchanges for their good deals.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I never said "trivial" - fuck, I worked for Oracle. No big system is trivial.

Incidentally, the idiot private contractor did not choose Oracle as the DBMS. They chose some little company named Markbase or something. Probably Canadian.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Canadian company behind Obamacare is CGI.

As you were "Mr. Classical Liberal."

[Mike M.]

Yeah sure you did, scumbag.

Nobody here believes a word that comes out of your lying piehole.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

~silence from the plug~

[Drax the Destroyer]

Immediately, at comment 1, they start gnashing their teeth about "outcomes" and how only the government (God?) is powerful enough to right the wrongs of medical catastrophe/evil money grubbing bastards. To these disingenuous publicly educated cunts, no problem cannot be solved without throwing exponential amounts of stolen money at it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

John, yeah, but did you notice the comments? Canadians want you to have single payer. "Study after study prove the American system sucks" and that Americans have been 'duped.'

Wente is the GM's resident conservative.

[John]

If you account for Americans' penchant for shooting one another and dying in automobile accidents, the American system is superior by any statistical measure.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I agree. But you will never convince a Canadian so emotionally invested in universal public health. Even when faced with facts pointing to severe problems all they'll do is deflect and say "at least we're not American."

Canadians are quite astonishing in their inability to critically assess the system.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

Do they ever say anything about what happens if the safety valve (US system) gets shut off? Medical trips to India?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Are you nuts?

They treat it like liberals treat the IRS and Benghazi. It's faux-rage from right-wing nuttos.

Medical tourism from Canada to USA is a vibrant business.

[Lord Humungus]

PR firms cash in on health rollout woes

It may be have been a debacle, but there is one upside to the glitch-plagued rollout of the health care website: It's become a powerful case study for crisis management consultants and their clients of what not to do.

In Chicago, H + A International, a communications firm, delivered its customers a 15-point diagnosis of the administration's handling of the crisis. That led one of its clients to temporarily halt the introduction of a new software product for engineers at a recent trade show of 30,000 people.

[SugarFree]

NSA and CIA Agents Infiltrated World of Warcraft, Other Online Games

Ostensibly concerned that terrorists would disguise themselves as gamers in order to secretly communicate, agents from the NSA, CIA, Pentagon and Britain's GCHQ have posed undercover in online realms like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Xbox Live. In fact, the practice grew so popular with the spy agencies that a special "deconfliction" group was established to prevent the agents from inadvertently spying on or trying to recruit each other.

[John]

Ostensibly concerned that terrorists would disguise themselves as gamers in order to secretly communicate, agents from the NSA,

There was a parallel program that infiltrated the world of Youporn.

[Jordan]

Sweet. Now when I get in a group with a retard who doesn't know how to do his damn job, I can accuse him of being a government shill.

[Clich? Bandit]

+1 "More DOTs, More DOTS, WHAT THE FUCK!!!!'

Greatest internet rant ever.

[Dweebston]

Not without working into a story about creepy government overreach the typical Gawker backhand for private industry:

The business of spying in online games generated millions for the private sector. After a conference discussing the perceived threat in 2009, two private companies?SAIC and Lockheed Martin?received multi-million dollar government contracts to study the links between a persons online persona and their real-life behavior

[tarran]

Sound slike an episode of Night Court:

Ernie: [in Judge Stone's chambers] Bert?
Bert Felch: Ernie?
Ernie: What are you doing here?
Bert Felch: What are *you* doing here?
Harry Stone: [stepping into his chambers] What are all these people doing here?
Ernie: [with his foot on Dan's neck] It's a bribery sting! We're arresting Fielding, we had the judge wired.
Bert Felch: We're arresting the judge, we had Fielding wired!
Ernie: You mean...?
Bert Felch: Oh, for crying out loud! Ain't that the craziest thing?

[Tim]

That sequester thing never touched this?

[Don Mynack]

Agreed. FSU had an easier schedule than OSU, for chrissake.

A ballsy play will be OK on the money line vs. AL in the Sugar Bowl. Not smart, of course, but ballsy nonetheless.

[Brett L]

What? Who did OSU beat who got a BCS bid?

[Pro Libertate]

No, FSU didn't have an easier schedule, even though it wasn't a particularly tough one this year. But there's no question that FSU belongs in the title game. There'd be plenty of questions if OSU had made it. I've seen them play--not impressive.

[robc]

The big problem with the schedule is that a middle of the road SEC team was worse than a middle of the road SoCon team and that hurt FSU's SOS.

[robc]

FSU had an easier schedule than OSU

No they didnt, and it wasnt even close.

There is a reason that every computer system, BCS or otherwise, had FSU at the top and there was question if OSU was going to finish above Auburn or not.

Of course, the question became moot after the B1GCG.

[Pro Libertate]

OSU is obviously not a true top-ten team, but they are decent. Whether they'll get back to being truly good is another question. While Meyer is a good coach, his recruiting at Florida was vastly inferior to the lesser Ron Zook, who got a number excellent players. The wins and the rest of the Big Ten sucking so hard should help them pick up some quality players.

[Brett L]

Will be interesting when Meyer has to recruit his own guys again. I don't really like him, but I will give him credit, he really, really, really hates losing.

[KDN]

FSU's and OSU's schedules were comparable. The difference between the two is that FSU beat the snot out of their opponents (including a very good Clemson team) while OSU's atrocious secondary allowed inferior opponents to stay in games by throwing the ball 60 times.

The championship game convinced me that Meyer is totally overrated as a coach. The play calling in the fourth quarter was Norv-esque. It's like he was trying to save his reputation from the ass whooping Jameis would have surely delivered.

[Pro Libertate]

He used to frustrate the crap out of me. I felt then and feel now that UF's national titles were mostly a result of having great defenses.

[Brett L]

So Obama has to go to the Mandela funeral, because Biden would fuck it up, right?

"Stand up, Nelson, and take a bow for all your hard work in ending apartheid."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Classic.

[The Late P Brooks]

What galls me is the fact that Charlie isn't in jail at the moment. I have to go look up what he was being tried for.

I think the term you are looking for is "embezzlement". Or it would be if one of us little non-Congressional people had been doing it.

[UnCivilServant]

Sorry, Corrupt New York Politicans blend together after a while.

[Rich]

"What's black, white, and red and goes around and around and around?"

[Root Boy]

I think he also didn't report income on his DR rental condos.

Plus he lived in 4 rent controlled apartments in Harlem, right?

[The Late P Brooks]

What did you think of that post-donation form message Reason shows you to send to your friends which began "I just made a donation which will help Reason keep publishing the best libertarian news and commentary in print and on the web"?

Did they run that by Bozo Cara to see if they qualify as authentically libertarian?

[Ted S.]

It could be part of the 6% impurity. 🙂

[Citizen Nothing]

Apparently somebody needs to invite Brooksie to a cocktail party, stat.

[Slammer]

New Smartphone app could help fight "Nazi Music"

FTA: The program has already been dubbed "Nazi Shazam" ? based on the app that recognizes songs on the radio when a smartphone is held up to the speaker ? because it makes it possible for the song title and artist to be identified within seconds. If the software is developed into an app, it could serve as a handy sidekick for police in the future.

For investigators, however, it's often difficult to recognize these forbidden songs. It can be particularly hard to keep track at Nazi concerts where "heavy" music ? so-called "rechtsrock" ? is the norm, according to Rainer Wendt, the Chairman of the German Police Union. "It makes a huge racket, because the music is deafeningly loud," he said. "You can't immediately identify the indexed music, which would justify an intervention."

[General Butt Naked]

You know who else tried to control the music people listened to?

Yup. Hitler.

[CE]

The parents on Footloose?

[WTF]

The Germans sure do love them some authoritarianism and censorship.

[BardMetal]

I just love how they try to fight Nazism with more Nazism.

Seems like only the political ideology has changed, but the authoritarianism remains the same.

[mad libertarian guy]

I just love how they try to fight Nazism with more Nazism.

Seems like only the political ideology has changed, but the authoritarianism remains the same.

Ding ding ding!

[Lord Humungus]

From my days of running punk rock shows, there were also plenty of skinheads around. I learned there are many variations of Oi music, ranging from full-on Nazi stuff, to white power, Nationalistic, to RAC (Rock Against Communism), to Street Rock (more drinking, non-political), and then there is even a lefty contingent, Rock against Racism and the Communist Skinheads.

It's complicated.

[BardMetal]

There is something creepy about a government censoring political points of views. Even when it's only directed at the Nazis.

[Lord Humungus]

On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, but Other Costs Can Be High

In El Paso, Tex., for example, for a husband and wife both age 35, one of the cheapest plans on the federal exchange, offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, has a premium less than $300 a month, but the annual deductible is more than $12,000. For a 45-year-old couple seeking insurance on the federal exchange in Saginaw, Mich., a policy with a premium of $515 a month has a deductible of $10,000.

In Santa Cruz, Calif., where the exchange is run by the state, Robert Aaron, a self-employed 56-year-old engineer, said he was looking for a low-cost plan. The best one he could find had a premium of $488 a month. But the annual deductible was $5,000, and that, he said, "sounds really high."

By contrast, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average deductible in employer-sponsored health plans is $1,135.

[a better weapon]

It's so preposterous that one of the many sales pitches for this law was that "Americans shouldn't have to worry about whether or not a medical accident will bankrupt them."

The solution: higher deductibles for everyone!

If the Hobby Lobby case goes in favor of religious freedom, then this law may end up not delivering on a single promise.

[Juice]

Premiums may be low, but they're actually very high.

[John]

Obamacare going to end volunteer fire departments.

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.

The organization representing the fire chiefs has been working on the issue with the IRS and White House for months.

"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."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....m-geraghty

[Steve G]

I'm fire department ignorant (among other things) but are these 'volunteers' truly volunteers or are they getting paid by a department that is enjoying some sort of antiquated legal/tax designation by calling themselves "Volunteer"?

[Restoras]

In my town, you get a 10% discount on your property taxes if you volunteer.

[Redmanfms]

I'm fire department ignorant (among other things) but are these 'volunteers' truly volunteers or are they getting paid by a department that is enjoying some sort of antiquated legal/tax designation by calling themselves "Volunteer"?

Around here they get free training and certification, which a some of the younger ones use to parlay into being full-time firefighters/EMTs. Most of my fellow volunteers just do it because we have the expertise from prior lives (military/forest service work) and like to hang around with others of how type. Think of it like a fraternity organization that actually helps people.

The one time we got called in for a major forest fire we did actually get compensated as grade I firefighters by the National Forest Service (which pissed off some of the pros who, BTW, were getting paid twice by their localities and by the Feds) because we were stuck on the line for nearly two weeks. One guy got fired from his job because of it.

[Lord Humungus]

The Latest IRS Power Grab
The left wants the disclosure of private information about conservative donors.

Six months after the Internal Revenue Service's inspector general revealed that the tax-collection agency had been targeting conservative organizations for added scrutiny and delaying their applications for tax-exempt status, the IRS has proposed new rules for handling political activity by nonprofits. The proposed rules would plunge the agency deeper into political regulation.

The rules would upset more than 50 years of settled law and practice by limiting the ability of certain tax-exempt nonprofits, organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, to conduct nonpartisan voter registration and voter education. Such organizations would be forbidden to leave records of officeholder votes and public statements on their websites in the two months before an election.

[Coeus]

An insanely long and detailed take down of the proggie take-over of skepticism.

One of the best bits:

Where a skeptical, science minded community used to have healthy discussions, and could "agree to disagree", the Social Justice League has created a culture of "expected solidarity" and uncritical acceptance of other people's claims. The basic blueprint of many of their contributions includes some sort of victim or disadvantaged/oppressed person (claimed), combined with ideological statements that cannot be called into question as solidarity and agreement is expected, and some easily agreeable truisms. Often times this performance is intended to show how "good people" they are, fighting the Good Fight {4} against the evil world that is not disagreeing with them, no, but downright "gaslighting" them. {5}

[John]

I have said this before, leftists are totalitarians. For them everything is the state and everything therefore must be a vehicle for leftist politics. So if you let a critical mass of leftists into any organization or movement, they will co-opt it into a tool for leftist politics.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I profess ignorance about Richard Dawkins and his place in common civil discourse in society. I read about what's said of him and his positions but unsure where he fits, say, among libertarians.

[John]

He doesn't. He is not a Libertarian. But unlike other atheists, he actually tries to be consistent and be critical of all religions, instead of just Christianity and Judaism. For this, the leftists hate him.

[Warty]

He also seems to have no tolerance for political correctness. For this, feminists hate him.

[The Late P Brooks]

Rand Paul says his wife doesn't want him to run for president in 2016 but that he's a "very able politician" who should be able to convince her otherwise.

If he said, "My wife doesn't really want me to run, but it's not her decision. I put her in her place," that would open a vast new front in the War on Womynzes.

[Rich]

"She should be subservient to her husband, the way President Obama is subservient to the American People."

[Lord Humungus]

Binders!

[SugarFree]

Let me tl;dr this Slate article for you:

"Shut up and fucking take it. Take it all. Now tell how big it is. Tell me how you like my big fucking cock in your ass. Now smile, bitch. Smile and say how much you like it."

[John]

I laugh every time I read one of those articles. Instead of throwing Obama under the bus and saying "he screwed up and didn't do single payer where things would be free", these retards are going to tell the country "you are paying more and getting less because it is good for you".

You are watching the public suicide of the Progressive movement. Remember, they did this once before under Wilson. It is why "progressive" became a dirty word and they had to start calling themselves liberals.

[SugarFree]

Barro spills so many pixels on the subject, he smells like a paid shill.

Every article of his on Slate is about providing cover for Obamacare.

[Brett L]

Slate has nothing to offer but comfort for people who want to be in the echo chamber. And Dear Prudence, who, fun as she is, cannot sell enough ads. So if the shill industry collapses, so does Slate.

[Warty]

As awesomely stupid and hateful as these articles are, Slate reached its apotheosis with its incredible BEWARE OF THE DUCK DYNASTY BEARDS article. You might as well stop reading Slate, because it'll never get more Slatey than that.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

So you found PEAK SLATE...

Can PEAK DERP be far behind?!

[Steve G]

b-b-but Farhad Man-goo!!

[Drax the Destroyer]

Well, Slate is the same shit-show that printed an editorial titled "If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person," so this isn't surprising. Disheartening, sickening, and frightening yes. Surprising, not so much. Nazis gonna Nazi.

[Elspeth Flashman]

The title says a lot: "Obamacare shock is necessary and desirable." It's as if the left is saying "We want you to be shocked, you'll know why later."

But they always know what we need, even if we don't /sarc.

[invisible furry hand]

My coworkers and I work outdoors all day and don't always have access to an indoor bathroom. Many of the men simply pee in the woods and tease the women for not doing so. One of the women says 'I would only pee in the woods if I were a tranny.' No one at work knows I am trans*.

Microaggressions is now a tumblr!

[Snark Plissken]

Poe's Law.

[SugarFree]

As a Hispanic non-cis sex worker I picked up a John who proceeded to tell me that this was all "faggots and tannies" were good for, being the receptacle of his sperm and that we should be grateful for it. I then had to have sex with him to pay rent? Made me sad, scared, angry.

[General Butt Naked]

Wow. I really can't tell if that's real or satire.

Jesus.

[Lord Humungus]

Real.

[General Butt Naked]

Wow. I really can't tell if that's real or satire.

Jesus.

[Lord Humungus]

Satire.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

+ both sides of the argument

[Coeus]

I only talk to my non-paid sex partners like that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The phallic contours of a squash offend me as a semi-retarded, black-Asian feminist woman from Westmount. This is why I yelled at my mother growing up whenever she put squash in the vegetable broth. I would shout but it looks like dick! But squash tastes so good (like warm cum drooping down my lips) which is why I'm angry I like the taste.

[Brett L]

My homophobe-in-denial mother threw away an air freshener that I bought for my car that said "So gay, I can't even drive straight!" I was very proud of that little thing, because I bought it at my very first Pride, and it isn't for sale anywhere else. She claimed that it had been 'accidentally' damaged, but her past complaints about my 'unnecessary flaunting' make me doubt that.

Wow. A pride air freshener?! You rebel! Tomorrow you'll mincing 'bout the house in chaps sans pants.

[SugarFree]

Is it still a microaggression if it is something to be grudgingly appreciative of?

"My step-brother only used the N-word once this Thanksgiving. And he kept his shirt on."

[General Butt Naked]

These people have it tough:

In my sociology class we watched a supposedly non-biased news segment on what makes people gay. The segment was called "STRAIGHT OR GAY?", with Straight written in plain bold impact font, and Gay in pink, flowing cursive with a rainbow in the background. a Fucking Rainbow.

My gawd. How they survived this I'll never know.

[The Late P Brooks]

Tomorrow you'll mincing 'bout the house in chaps sans pants.

Wearing one of those great big old-timey fireman's hats with the big porch roof at the back?

[The Late P Brooks]

If the Germans are hell bent on stamping out music with "inappropriate connotations" what will they play on the podium at the German GP when Vettel wins?

[Snark Plissken]

This.

[Lord Humungus]

Anyone get blasted with snow? Only ~2" inches (that's what she said!) here in my part of paradise hell.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I did in MD. Forecast was 1-3", I had to shovel 8.

[Pro Libertate]

What's weird is that our part of Florida wasn't affected at all. It's unseasonably warm now and was before the storm. We usually drop in temperature while the rest of the country freezes over, but not this time.

[Spoonman.]

Six inches, and the Philadelphia area appears to have had no idea it was coming (not forecasted to be like this), so yesterday was catastrophic if you were trying to get anywhere.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Watching the game on TV was awesome.

Of course, all that snow is just another day in Montreal.

[a better weapon]

The ice and snow in Dallas created quite the comical panic this weekend.

Having lived many years in Wisconsin and Minnesota, the streets were basically mine. I was the only one in my office who came to work on Friday.

My coworkers this morning all looked at me like I just lit up a cigarette in my office when they found out I drove in.

[Spoonman.]

My sister's kids (4 and 1) thought the ice was pretty awesome, because their back patio turned into a sliding-around rink.

[Spoonman.]

Sister lives in Dallas, which wasn't quite clear from my post.

[trshmnstr]

Having lived many years in Wisconsin and Minnesota, the streets were basically mine. I was the only one in my office who came to work on Friday.

I don't trust the few morons who are out on the road doing 80 on ice slicked streets. That, and I'm protesting the fact that my company is severely cutting back on work from home opportunities.

Plus it was downright nasty in some spots. I ended up spinning a 180 in my wife's Escape on a sharp bend of a country road, because it was a skating rink. It was a bit embarrassing, something I haven't done since I was 16.

[The Late P Brooks]

Obama and BOOOOSH are flying to Sudeffrika together.

Will BOOOOSH hand over a big paper sack of cash for preserving all his legacy programs?

[The Late P Brooks]

"Shut up and fucking take it. Take it all. Now tell how big it is. Tell me how you like my big fucking cock in your ass. Now smile, bitch. Smile and say how much you like it."

Oddly enough, that's pretty much what Ezekiel Emmanuel said yesterday.

[SugarFree]

Tulpa warned us about this, and we just laughed at him:

College Snowball Fight Turns Vicious, Retired Professor Attacked

Snowball fight?!? Call in the airstrike, with a poisoned kiss.

[John]

Wow

Note what they're not talking about: America. Policy. The economy. Obamacare. Actual live political controversies and possible programmatic responses to the difficulties we face (many of which Obama has caused himself, or made worse).

No, American politics is now merely a MacGuffin, an important-sounding but ultimately inconsequential and disposable plot device for holding interest in the Hero's Journey.

Ultimately the only thing that matters is the Hero itself. It doesn't matter why the Hero Barack Obama wants the Lost Ark of Sensible Gun Control, or the Shankara Stones of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, or the Democratic Holy Grail of Affordable Health Care. These are very minor details and only matter to the extent the Hero exerts himself to achieve them.

The viewers of this film don't really care about these things, but only Obama's frustration at being denied them, or his joy in attaining them.

http://minx.cc/?post=345514

[John]

CONT

For Obama's fan-boys, this is not politics. This isn't even America, not really, not anymore.

This is a movie. And Barack Obama is the Hero. And the Republicans are the Villains. And policy questions -- and Obama's myriad failures as an executive -- are simply incidental. They are MacGuffins only, of no importance whatsoever, except to the extent they provide opportunities for Drama as the Hero fights in favor of them.

Watching Chris Matthews interview Obama, I was struck by just how uninterested in policy questions Matthews (and his panel) were, and how almost every question seemed to be, at heart, about Obama's emotional response to difficulties -- not about policy itself, but about Obama's Hero's Journey in navigating the plot of President Barack Obama: The Movie.

As with a MacGuffin in the movie, only the Hero's emotional response to the MacGuffin matters.

Again and again, Matthews and his panel focused not on weighty questions of state, but on what toll these important-sounding MacGuffins took upon the Star of the Picture, Barack Obama.

Matthews was not terribly interested in hearing about the problems with Obamacare, or how Obama planned to address them.

But he was very interested in learning how Obama was coping with the challenges.

Matthews didn't care all that much about disputes over the budget. But he was keenly interested in Obama's thoughts on his opponents in such struggles.

[Juice]

MSNBC in a nutshell.

[robc]

On football notes:

WooHoo! Music City Bowl! I can day trip it!

Plus a chance to whip Ole Miss.

[Coeus]

I bet you have a small dick.

Men made the dick-obsessed world I live in. MEN. And it is asking too much of me, after having my life ruled by dicks, to not hit where it hurts when I want to cause hurt. And where it hurts is below the belt ? and that's not my fault. I'll trade in "not reinforcing the patriarchy" for playing dirty when I want to. I think this is actually similar to fashion models reinforcing the patriarchy while earning their livelihood. You do what you have to do.

And I don't really give a shit about the bystanders. The innocent men, worried about their dick size. Guys, work it out among yourselves. Fight the obsession with phalluses. But don't make it my responsibility. I have too much else to worry about, and you have so much, SO MUCH, that I will never have, just because you got born with one of those things (small as it may be).

[Warty]

eutie and the Oghma InfiniumUC.A. "Ubertrout" Pinkham31L
Exactly. Being a deranged asshole excludes you from being treated politely. Yesterday 10:23pm

Uh...well said. Cunt.

Also, I'm still shocked that the Jezebel editors did not know that "groupthink" is a bad thing.

[OldMexican]

Re: Warty,

Also, I'm still shocked that the Jezebel editors did not know that "groupthink" is a bad thing.

They don't call it "cognitive dissonance" for nuthin'.

[lap83]

"Everytime you point, I see a penis"

[GILMORE]

"that's not my fault. I'll trade in "not reinforcing the patriarchy" for playing dirty when I want to. "

I don't even know what the fuck this means.

Although it reminds me of the time in junior high for a girl kicked me in the nuts for *no reason*. (someone later suggested "it was because she wanted to get my attention" No Shit?) I punched her in the face, and in exchange received 2 years of shaming by every girl in town for "not being a gentleman".

I don't know what that means either. Its just some kind of fucked up female logic that says, "I can do something *because*, while you SHUT UP AND TAKE IT!" And I don't pretend to understand what the fuck 'patriarchy' has to do with it. And I've read all that deconstructionist post-modern feminist psychoanalytical literary theory bullshit. Why, I don't know, but I did. Blame Liberal Arts programs. I think if anyone's honest they'll admit that stuff doesn't make a whole lot of sense in any application outside literary theory = But its still convenient to whip out when you just want to baffle someone with bullshit. Which is why I suspect it appeals to pseudointellectual women. Suddenly they've got a language which just makes people squint and go, "What the....what?" Which is EMPOWERING!!

Of course there's some phallogocentrism in there somewhere.

[KPres]

"Lastly, all body snarking is not the same. I'm sure it sucks to have a small dick. You know what sucks for women? Having any body at all. There is no such thing as a good female body"

Feminists = pretty girl envy

[GILMORE]

"Our Self Absorption is Your Fault"

Decode that shit!

[WTF]

There is no such thing as a good female body

Millions of heterosexual men beg to differ.

[GILMORE]

Government subsidizes wind farms. Wind farms kill eagles. Government sues wind farms. Wind farms bitch = "omelets! eggs!" Government realizes can't have it both ways. Government says, "OK. Try not killing *very many* eagles"

"US to allow eagle deaths"

http://bigstory.ap.org/article.....gle-deaths

Enviromentalists bitch = "Tofu egg substitute unicorn farts!"

Or something like that.

Please someone now make a cartoon of Evil-Obama putting bald eagles heads in guillotines while he opens an express lane from mexico to permit The "ill-eagles" (Like that~!?!) to flood in and take are jobses and destroy the cultures and something communism. Needs crying lady liberty in corner.

[The Late P Brooks]

There's a collect call for you, from an alternate universe will you accept the charges?

Mr. Obama also outlined several principles to expand opportunity: strengthening economic productivity and competitiveness; improving education, from prekindergarten to college access to vocational training; empowering workers through collective bargaining and antidiscrimination laws and a higher minimum wage; targeting aid at the communities hardest hit by economic change and the Great Recession; and repairing the social safety net.

But there's a crucial dimension the president left out: the revival, since the mid-1970s, of the laissez-faire ideology that prevailed in the Gilded Age, roughly the 1870s through the 1910s. It's no coincidence that this laissez-faire revival ? an all-out assault on government regulation ? has unfolded over the very period in which inequality has soared to levels not seen since the Gilded Age.

Where the fuck do these people come from?

[John]

It is totally about laissez fair. That is why Washington has become the richest city in America.

[tarran]

Where the fuck do these people come from?

Elementary school.

No, seriously!

Their conception of the world is out of some third grade classroom, where income replaces grades, the govt replaces the teacher, and everyone is supposed to cooperate.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

Progderpia.

Tony is H&R's ambassador from there. Shriek is the consul general.

[GILMORE]

""'Where the fuck do these people come from?""

Oberlin.

Or Bard.

[Coeus]

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

As we all know, there are three kinds of economists. There are liberal professional economists; there are conservative professional economists; and there are professional conservative economists (aka right-wing hacks). Surely, you say, there must be four kinds? Not really ? there just isn't enough money on the left, an asymmetry that gives rise to the well-known hack gap.

[John]

Unless there is a mirror, how would Kruginuts know there was any such thing as a left wing hack economist?

[SugarFree]

Krugman is arguing that he doesn't exist. Trippy.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

Woooo....Mind. Blown.

[WTF]

Krugman is trolling his readers to see just how insane he can be before they finally go "Hey, wait a minute...".
But the joke's on him, they will never see it.

[The Late P Brooks]

Dystopia! Chaos! Affliction!
Brought to you by those PUPPETMASTERS at Kkkorporate Amerikka!

Three decades of deregulation and restrictions on legal liability had given companies greater freedom to innovate and expand. But irresponsible companies also had greater freedom to subject their workers to unsafe working conditions, to market predatory loans to desperate borrowers, to sell defective toys and automobiles, to discharge toxic pollutants, to invade the privacy of Internet users, to market unsafe food, drugs and medical devices, and to subject the world economy to systemic risks.

The laissez-faire culture that prevailed in both government and the private sector so deeply discounted risks to workers, consumers, the environment and the financial system that a series of crises was inevitable.

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

"But irresponsible companies also had greater freedom to subject their workers to unsafe working conditions, to market predatory loans to desperate borrowers, to sell defective toys and automobiles, to discharge toxic pollutants, to invade the privacy of Internet users, to market unsafe food, drugs and medical devices, and to subject the world economy to systemic risks."

To be sure, EPA, OSHA, FDA have done nothing but dismantle regulations and stop suing people, citing people, etc.

That was a perfect statement of the opposite of reality - with bonus derp re: who exactly is intruding in the privacy of internet users.

[The Late P Brooks]

Not all of the adverse effects of the laissez-faire revival have fallen disproportionately on the middle class and the poor. Lax regulation of airplanes is as risky for passengers in first and business class as in coach.

"I've been to one World's Fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a pair of earphones."

[Root Boy]

Saw Gillespie did a separate post on the ATF report from the Journal Sentinal, but I'm posting it here anyway. Dig in for the FYTW from ATF spokesbitch, and the general level of crime creation from our betters.

I also like that they pull the same stunt they used on Randy Weaver with a sawed off shotgun. ATF is a fucking mob outfit.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchd.....16641.html

[The Late P Brooks]

"Don't go in there!"

* Vincent Amato
* New York City

What allowed the U.S. to fall back into 19th century laissez-faire norms was the almost complete absence of an opposition party to face down the forces of reaction since 1968, the infamous "year the world ended." As hard as it is for Americans of a certain age to believe, in five years it will be half a century since Lyndon Johnson was forced to resign. Prior to the election of President Obama, only two Southern Democrats managed to get elected to office--both conservative politicians who, rather than stem the tide of reaction, helped grease the skids back into the nineteenth century. The Obama presidency has richly illustrated that this country is still living with the trauma of the 1960s. Its attempts to reverse the tide and give new life to New Deal style reforms have all run into a very thick wall. The demise of the Soviet Union, (still in progress, as current events in Kiev demonstrate), could not have occurred at a more fortuitous moment for those who see a well fed, well educated, well housed and healthy working class as dangerous.

As hard as it is for Americans of a certain age to believe, in five years it will be half a century since Lyndon Johnson was forced to resign.

Wait, what?

[Swiss Servator, Alps avast!]

"The demise of the Soviet Union, (still in progress, as current events in Kiev demonstrate), could not have occurred at a more fortuitous moment for those who see a well fed, well educated, well housed and healthy working class as dangerous."

Huh?!

[Zeb]

fall back into 19th century laissez-faire norms

If only. What is this from, some sort of alternative history fantasy?

[CatoTheElder]

Campus cop gone wild.

'Oh you're gonna shoot me?' The sarcastic last words of straight-A student shot dead by college cop after being stopped for speeding

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....e-cop.html

[GILMORE]

How are "college cops" = "police officers"?

I mean, are they, or aren't they? the article jumps around in how the guy is described. "Corporal" is his *job title*? are college cops civil servants or are they private security?

[Hawk Spitui]

1 in 5 adults will be rich at some point in their lives

A possible libertarian demographic, if they can avoid pissing them off. What are the chances?

[db]

Just talked to one of our cafeteria ladies who was looking quite upset. She said she had canceled her health insurance with the expectation she would be able to get better cheaper coverage under Obamacare, only to find out that the plans available to her cost significantly more.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Did anyone catch the Michael Morton story on CNN last night? Very, very well done. Incredibly heartbreaking. I hope the cops, prosecutors and judges involved all get an incredibly painful, slow-growing form of cancer. And AIDS. And ALS. Fuck 'em.

[Mr. Weebles]

Democrats believe Scott Brown may run for Senate again, in New Hampshire, and want to be prepared for it.

As a NH resident, yeah, no thanks.

[The Late P Brooks]

only to find out that the plans available to her cost significantly more.

But- but, SUBSIDIES!!!!!

Sharing all your financial records with the IRS, the Center for American Progress, Priorities USA, the insurance companies who get to "bid" on you, and any other Nosey Parker with access to the healthcare.gov database will provide you with an experience you could never have imagined.

[Brett L]

My former roommate, who works at the capital has been advocating for an FSM monument, but until then, we'll just have to settle for a Festivus pole at the FL state capitol. At least they understand that the capitol belongs to the people.

A nearly 6-foot-tall pole made from emptied beer cans, marking a parody holiday, will be put up in the Florida Capitol this week as a not-so-subtle protest to the recent placement of a Christian nativity scene.

The homemade Festivus pole will be erected most likely on Wednesday in the same first-floor rotunda as a nativity scene depicting the birth of Jesus Christ that was put up last week by the Florida Prayer Network.

[OldMexican]

The FBI has reportedly had the ability for years to operate laptop cameras remotely without the users' knowledge.

"It is strictly forbidden to hack someone's laptop camera to peep while she's dressing - the government hates the competition."

[tarran]

No, secrete has two meanings:

se?crete 1 (s-krt) tr.v. se?cret?ed, se?cret?ing, se?cret?es
To generate and separate (a substance) from cells or bodily fluids: secrete digestive juices.

se?crete 2 (s-krt) tr.v. se?cret?ed, se?cret?ing, se?cret?es
1. To conceal in a hiding place; cache.
2. To steal secretly; filch.

[tarran]

It's an arcane word that is slipping from common usage.

I am on a crusade to save arcane words that make English so wonderfully expressive.

[SugarFree]

Silence, you bellicose jackanape.

[tarran]

You whelp! Cur! I shall thrash you if you intrude again on the discourse of your betters!

[SugarFree]

As a wide-known niffynaffy man, your petticoat held words mean as little as a curtain lecture from a fishwife gone from horseload to cartload.

[tarran]

I've sent my orphan out to cut me a switch! You shall pay both for your insults and for the unpolished monocle I shall be wearing to tonight's soiree!