Inspector General to Review Healthcare.gov Rollout, Regulators Approve "Volcker Rule," 200,000 Sign Up for Chance to Make One-Way Trip to Mars: P.M. Links

• 

  NASA

  Three years after the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, regulators have approved the so-called "Volcker Rule," which will limit banks from certain kinds of investments and relationships with private equity firms and hedge funds.

• Kathleen Sebelius announced an inspector general will review the botched Obamacare website rollout, and promised to keep trying to improve the site.
• The NSA's collection of Internet data could cost up to $35 billion in lost business for Silicon Valley, according to a new think-tank study. Google's opened its first two data centers in Asia; basing one in Singapore and the other in Taiwan.
• Former Phoenix police officer Richard Chrisman entered a guilty plea for manslaughter for shooting and killing Danny Rodriguez during a domestic violence call in 2010, avoiding a retrial on the charges. He faces up to fourteen years in prison. In the deal with prosecutors, a charge of animal cruelty Chrisman faced, for killing Rodriguez's pitbull, will be dropped. The former cop also faces up to fifteen years for an assault charge he was convicted of related to the incident.
• A man who says his confession was tortured out of him by the Chicago Police Department had his conviction overturned yesterday, and was released from prison after thirty years behind bars.
• Japan's new defense plan calls for an amphibious marine unit and the deployment of surveillance drones.
• More than 200,000 people have signed up for four slots in a possible one-way mission to Mars planned for 2025 by Mars One. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Kathleen Sebelius announced an inspector general will review the botched Obamacare website rollout...

And declare mission accomplished!

[The DerpRider]

I believe we are missing the poll for this story.

[Francisco d Anconia]

NO TALKIN' BAD ABOUT EMILY EKINS!

For obvious reasons.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

She's good with the polls.

*elbows Francisco in the ribs*

[playa manhattan]

This is why

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are no women pollsters?

[CE]

Can we poll them and find out why?

[John]

That is the oldest dodge in the book. Now when someone asks her about the issue she can say "I can't comment on an ongoing investigation". She will use that dodge for about a year or so while the IG conducts a sham investigation. And then when the results are in, she will declare the issue solved and move on.

[Pro Libertate]

How about a special prosecutor? Because that's what we need. Prosecution. . .with extreme prejudice.

[John]

We need one of those. But only if you get a good one who will actually go after people. If you put some clown in there like Fitzgerald, you will just end up with a couple of sham prosecutions and nothing but a coverup.

[Pro Libertate]

I'll take the job. Give me my investigatin' hat and an unlimited budget for. . .pain.

[John]

I would take the job. They would never appoint someone like us pro. We might act with integrity. Instead they would appoint some over credentialed "top man" that they know is in too deep to ever do the right thing.

It wouldn't be very hard. It is just like any other investigation. Give me a staff and subpoena power and I will have results in no time.

[Auric Demonocles]

Sorry, my unlimited budget is only available to space lawyers.

[Pro Libertate]

Does it help that I intend to launch certain elements of the administration into space during my investigation?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

OH MY WHAT A GOAL

[Fist of Etiquette]

The NSA's collection of Internet data could cost up to $35 billion in lost business for Silicon Valley...

Costing people money and putting them out of work is one of the things government excels at.

[Andrew S.]

Huh, FoE? I was led to believe that without government, we'd all be wild animals clawing at each other for the few jobs our corporate masters allowed to exist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That pink slip? You didn't create that.

[playa manhattan]

I can say that it did cause me to reevaluate my stance on cloud storage.

[Dweebston]

As with all fads I'm sure it has its uses, but I'm really unclear what we're supposed to do with all those clouds once they're in storage.

[Dweebston]

Think how much worse it would be if run privately.

[Dweebston]

...what. This was intended downthread. That's derpy.

[Agammamon]

And yet it still works.

[CE]

You don't really need to store them, since nature is always making more clouds. Especially with global warming going haywire.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I've been against it ever since I saw those effeminate "thank you, Cloud!" commercials that came out last year.

A bunch of sunny-faced hipsters extolling the virtues of a centralized data storage bank is going to make want to stay as far away as possible.

[playa manhattan]

Question for Reasonoids:
Is there a repository somewhere on the internet that has all of the stuff Edward Snowden has leaked thus far?

[rts]

This is the closest I could find:

The NSA Files

[playa manhattan]

Thanks.

[Snark Plissken]

Rule 34.

[playa manhattan]

I'm not looking for the porn version. Yet.

[jesse.in.mb]

A man who says his confession was tortured out of him by the Chicago Police Department had his conviction overturned yesterday, and was released from prison after thirty years behind bars.

Chicago cops behaving badly...well I never!

[waffles]

The guy lost 30 years of his life. For me, that's my whole life. 30 years may as well be forever. How do you even begin to make someone whole after that? With taxpayer money?

[Andrew S.]

You make sure this doesn't happen again, by severely punishing both the officers and district attorney involved. Surely that's going to happen, right?

[jesse.in.mb]

That'd barely be a start. I don't think there's anything they could do to even begin to make it right.

[Tonio]

There is no way he can be made whole, of course. But that's no reason to not try.

But nothing will change until the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for letting this go on are personally inconvenienced.

[Francisco d Anconia]

About $100M might begin to cover it. That's, of course, after every cop who beat me was in prison (general population).

[Andrew S.]

And, to the extent possible, that money came out of their income, their assets, their future pensions. Taxpayers can make up the rest.

[PapayaSF]

You silly goose. Don't you know that taxpayer money can solve EVERYTHING?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Japan's new defense plan calls for an amphibious marine unit and the deployment of surveillance drones.

The kaiju laugh at this.

[Snark Plissken]

Japan's new defense plan calls for an amphibious marine unit and the deployment of surveillance drones.

They are always fighting the last war Godzilla.

[The DerpRider]

All defense plans need an assault force!

[CE]

Especially an amphibious one, in case someone attacks your swamp.

[jesse.in.mb]

Martin Freeman reveals secrets of Hobbit movie:

It was mainly fueled by cocaine. Not only, but mainly fueled by cocaine, 'cause not all of it was obviously. The rest of it was speedballs, but a lot of it was just coke.

[playa manhattan]

There's no sugarcoating it, that guy gives a good interview.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's all that time dealing with Holmes.

[playa manhattan]

"and promised to keep trying to improve the site."

Promised, eh? That means a lot coming from this administration.

[Rich]

This. And, mind you, not "to improve the site", but "to keep trying". These clowns are truly outrageous.

[CE]

If you don't like your site, we'll make it better.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery

What's this 'mail' they speak of?

[Tonio]

But what about the old people who live in rural areas? Who will check on them to make sure they're still alive?

This is obviously the fault of previous US administrations.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Heard on the radio. I love when they said, aside for attending to 'customer needs' it would be good on the environment since they won't drive around to drop the mail.

Meanwhile, I have to inconvenience myself, get in my car and get the mail in the future.

Which means I'm probably gonna go once a week if the fricken mailbox is too far. My sister's community box is right next to her house so it's all good. But with my luck it'll be 3km away.

[Gene]

Which means I'm probably gonna go once a week if the fricken mailbox is too far.

You better opt out on flyers and junk-mail.

[playa manhattan]

I did. Some of the direct mail companies wouldn't stop, so I was forced to report them as pornographers. Then they stopped.

[Bobarian]

Of course, if they were direct mailing you, they probably were pornographers.

[playa manhattan]

Every time I tell people how I got rid of direct mail, this is the response I get. For some reason.

[Entropy Void]

But with my luck it'll be 3km away.

You Kanukistaner Bastard.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A man who says his confession was tortured out of him by the Chicago Police Department had his conviction overturned yesterday, and was released from prison after thirty years behind bars.

Please tell me some prosecutor somewhere is working very hard to put him back in prison. Otherwise my world view will be shaken.

[Andrew S.]

Apparently they haven't decided yet.. Bonus racist comments there. Chicago, ladies and gents.

[Fist of Etiquette]

God bless em.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Heated sidwalks? In my city?
No, but maybe Saskatoon

[The DerpRider]

Buddy of mine has heated sidewalk and driveway that I will admit makes me wildy envious. I'm freezing my ass off shoveling while he's sipping a scotch laughing at me.

[playa manhattan]

Mine's heated. By the sun.

[Sevo]

The casinos in So Lake Tahoe have heated sidewalks, and it sure seems civilized.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Gotta be expensive to run it.

[Rich]

Nah. Nuclear waste.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Recycling. Very green.

[Generic Stranger]

So green it glows!

[AuH20]

The Minimum wage fight is really about women's economic justice!

A demand for a $15 minimum wage proves that these shows of interstate worker solidarity and a move toward unionizing and finding success within the community of working-class America proves that this is about more than a federally-decided standard for baseline pay. This is the beginning of a war on an economy that makes certain people vulnerable so a select few can survive.

[Snip]

"When I spoke at the rally today, I wanted to remind people that women still make less wages for the exact same job as men do, and I also wanted to remind people that the Senate recently passed ENDA," trans* protestor and journalist Ashley Love told Autostraddle Contributing Editor Laura Mandanas at the Zucotti Park rally. "I was very upset because at least 20 speakers had spoken and not one of them mentioned gender inequality, and not one talked about discrimination against LGBT Americans in the workplace." Love said her experience of demanding the opportunity to raise these issues was a reminder that "even we in the 98% don't always like to talk about sexism."

[jesse.in.mb]

If you're a drone in a low end job don't you get automatic raises at annual reviews or something?

I have a hard time imagining that there's all that much income inequality among burger flippers who have been at the job for the same length of time.

[John]

Some "keep women at home raising kids" social conservative type should come out in favor of the $15 minimum wage on the grounds that by reducing employment opportunities for low skilled women it will ensure more of them stay at home with their kids where they belong.

If you don't want mothers out working, raising the minimum wage is a good way to ensure a good number of them don't.

[PapayaSF]

When Progressives pushed the minimum wage in the 1920s, that was one of the arguments. It was a eugenics thing, along with disemploying blacks and the handicapped so they would less able to afford children.

As for Ms. Love, "economic justice" isn't justice, any more than "social justice" is.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Can we see about having racists agitate for a wage floor, "to keep the blacks out"?

Oh, wait...

[AuH20]

A demand for a living wage moves the labor rights movement for low-wage workers beyond the concept of "scraping by"and toward a concept of actual economic justice for all people. Economic justice for these women isn't about simply making "enough money to live,"which isn't even a baseline that their jobs are currently meeting,but about moving further past that to a place of access, opportunity,and advancement.Economic justice is being able to dream with your money.Being able to eat and feel full with your money. Being able to clothe and house your family?no matter its size ? without feeling shame, guilt, or anxiety. he concept of a "minimum wage" is the problem is the equation, not the solution: by designating a literal floor for wages, a mark at which only living below is labeled as problematic and not subsisting in stasis with, we both lend shame and deny dignity to the folks earning anything near it, and we allow it to become associated with work that we, as a culture, have agreed deserves to remain there: service jobs. Food service, hotel service,wait service,cleaning service, secretarial service.

No matter your educational experience or your life situation,you deserve to make enough money by working to survive in America.

[Enough About Palin]

"economic justice" is a word coupling with no definition.

[AuH20]

Fuck. The rest of that second paragraph is so bad, I have to post it.

By setting the standard of a living wage ? by raising the bar for employers and challenging our culture's notion of what "a part-time worker" looks like and "needs" from their salary ? we make America's economic system work better for everyone. Most American families currently earn under $60,000 a year, and wage penalties for women related to their family life, gender presentation, sexual orientation, race, and sex still persist in America's workplaces. When we allow any worker to be exploited, harassed, and robbed of their opportunities, we open the door for the effects of that treatment to move up and beyond their sector, beyond their industry, and beyond their life experiences. When we treat low-wage workers like they're not fully human ? which is already inexcusable ? we suggest that we can get away with treating middle-wage workers like they aren't fully human. And so it goes. This is everybody's fight.

[paranoid android]

Maybe there's just some defect in my brain, but no matter how I try, I can never understand this connection that people make so easily between how much you're paid per hour and whether you're being treated as "fully human", or "respected as a human being" or whatever. What does one have to do with other? No one ever explains that part!

[MJGreen]

1) They accept the notion that they always decry: that a person's value is tied to what they make. They project this belief on conservatives/libertarians/Randians, while many seem to take it for granted when talking about the minimum wage or "exploitation." This probably goes back to the non-utopian socialists, who placed a hell of a lot of value on working.

Or

2) As with many of the louder leftists, every god damn thing has to address them, probably for the sake of their self-esteem. If you're not paying someone enough, you're not respecting them. If you don't appreciate the art they make, you don't respect them as human. If you say excuse me, you don't respect their space. If you don't find a gay pride parade appealing, you're homophobic. Everything that is not embraced is considered a slight. Every interaction you have with a person is a referendum on that person's entire being.

[PapayaSF]

"We may not like what we see when we step on the bathroom scale, but we can't pass a law making ourselves weigh 165. Liberals and leftists think we can." ?P.J. O'Rourke

[Fist of Etiquette]

A higher minimum wage means women can buy their own birth control.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Isn't working minimum wage a good way to discourage fucking around in the first place?

[wareagle]

yes. Most baby mamas and white trash do not work at all. Plenty of fuckign though.

[Andrew S.]

One thing I've noticed is that so many people in favor of the $15 minimum wage claim that they'd be willing to pay higher prices in order to see people paid a higher wage. None of those people ever seem to have the ability to realize that the value of the higher wage would be significantly diminished due to the higher prices that person would pay.

[John]

This is because they believe in magical thinking. Business just create money out of nowhere.

[Enough About Palin]

On Facebook, I raised the notion that if burger flippers receive a 100% raise, then they'd be making nearly as much as manages (working 60-hour weeks), who should get a substantial raise too. Otherwise, why wouldn't the just flip burgers and enjoy less stress, and more free-time. And if manager received a raise, then why would directors work 80-hours for little more than the managers make. And what of the VP's then? And the Senior VP? I concluded that the only solution was to raise CEO pay.

So this guy posts that he wouldn't respond to my post because he didn't get my point. I gave it a 'Like".

[Enough About Palin]

To be clear, I gave his post a 'Like".

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The CEO doesn't do anything, and gets rich at the expense of the workers who do all the work.

The only work that matters is the burger flipping and pushing buttons on a register. There is nothing else that goes into a business. Nothing else.

[PapayaSF]

One lefty FB friend thinks it's all very easy: just reduce those massive profits a little and double the minimum pay. Everything is easy to change if you don't understand how it works!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That doesn't even make sense?

Who will reduce the profits and if there's less profits there's less money. If there's less money how the heck can you double wages? See, this is the bad sad of the internet and people getting to express their ideas. I'm willing to bet they represent 50% of the population (including those who sympathize like my idiot best friend who earns 180k and talks like a stupid, fucking socialist.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Sounds like the argument that Matty Y made when he said taxes don't get passed onto consumers (at all).

Slate's economics correspondent hasn't taken Econ 101.

[PapayaSF]

And, of course, it ignores the facts that profits are taxed, are spent on reinvestment that creates more jobs, and boost stock prices (stocks that are held by union pension funds, which need to see growth). So reducing profits hurts tax revenues, jobs, and unions.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

A lot of them base this magical 'living wage' on some gibberish about Ford paying his workers enough to afford the cars they were making.

[Bobarian]

That is because Ford made cheap cars.

[Sevo]

..."many people in favor of the $15 minimum wage claim that they'd be willing to pay higher prices in order to see people paid a higher wage."...

I'm betting this is flat-out bullshit. Stated preference and you'd find between that and revealed preference at about the $0.05 line.

[PapayaSF]

So do these people eat in restaurants where the employees make a minimum of $15/hour? I believe they exist, it's just that they're the $25 entree places.

[mr simple]

If she's trans does she get paid on the women's scale or the men's? Does it depend on being pre or post op?

[PapayaSF]

It depends on your self-identification, you reactionary.

By the way, I discovered that the new term is "gender confirmation surgery": you aren't being "changed" or "reassigned," you are getting "confirmed." Got it?

[Medical Physics Guy]

Cool kind of like Islamic "converts" are sometimes called "reverts"

[Tonio]

Yeah, and there's a difference between being working-class and being an unskilled worker at the lowest rung of the economy. Machinists and carpenters make decent money, and deservedly so. Most fast food positions require little or no training.

[AuH20]

Okay, I do have to repost one sentence, because it is so fucking bad.

Economic justice is being able to dream with your money.Being able to eat and feel full with your money. Being able to clothe and house your family?no matter its size ? without feeling shame, guilt, or anxiety.

See? It's not about money, or having to work or scrape by or anything else. It's about NOT feeling bad about being a poor moron who can't find better than minimum wage and has had too damn many kids. If you feel any guilt about that? Then the minimum wage advocates haven't done their jobs.

[wareagle]

"no matter its size." Because sometimes, families just explode in numbers and no one knows why.

[Sevo]

Tony says kids just naturally happen. He's yet to tell us how many have happened to him.

[Tejicano]

That's what his mommy told him when he asked who his daddy was. He's never been able to drag himself to ponder it much deeper.

[Bobarian]

Maybe Tony was confused and mixed up his mass transit. I think his Daddy involved a train, instead of a bus?

[playa manhattan]

Now who's the pornographer?

[Bobarian]

Present.

[KDN]

Once again, progs admit that there's no logic behind their policy motives other than MUH FEELZ!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Carmen is mother to the most adorable dog on Earth and hates paying more than one dollar for a good slice of pizza."

That's all you need to know about Carmen. She thinks she's a mother to an animal and 'hates' paying for real, proper pizza choosing instead to eat crap. What the fuck can you eat for under $1?

[AuH20]

It's going to be really hard for Carmen to pay under 1 dollar for a slice when they raise the minimum wage, too.

It's actually a hilarious tag line of cognitive dissonance.

[MJGreen]

A demand for a $15 minimum wage proves that these shows of interstate worker solidarity and a move toward unionizing and finding success within the community of working-class America proves that this is about more than a federally-decided standard for baseline pay.

Jesus Christ. I can't even. Do they not even read what they write before hitting the submit button?

[John]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....1-14-50-54

He said the NSA knows of no other way to connect the dots between a foreign terror threat and a potential attack on the U.S.

Alexander said the NSA is open to talking to technology companies for a better solution without compromising security.

Since he can't give a single example of the NSA actually connecting any dots and stopping a terrorist plot, I will take Alexander's comments to mean he thinks the entire organization should be scrapped or at the very least play no role in fighting terrorism.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Constitution allows for an exception to the Bill of Rights when a government agency lacks imagination on how to do its (perceived) job.

[John]

The sorry fact is that he was inadvertently admitting the truth. The NSA has no idea how to detect and disrupt terror plots. They just know how to college huge amounts of information.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former Phoenix police officer Richard Chrisman entered a guilty plea for manslaughter for shooting and killing Danny Rodriguez...

Based on the testimony of his partner. This is interesting. How do the higher ups and prosecutors decide which cop's report to push? Chrisman must not have been well liked.

[tarran]

Crisman's story is hysterically implausible; he claims his partner was making a personal phone call while Chrisman was fighting for his life.

Because when my partner is getting the shit kicked out of him, and I am too terrified to help him, I naturally call a buddy and ask how the Mets are doing.

[Mad Scientist]

That sounds like a deal to me. If the partner agrees to testify against Chrisman, they'll drop the charges they're holding over the partner's head.

[Coeus]

Man, those guys at LGF really, really hate Greewnwald and Snowden.

http://littlegreenfootballs.co.....ents/#ctop

http://littlegreenfootballs.co.....ents/#ctop

[John]

I love it. The NSA listening to and recording everyone's phone calls is just an "area of concern".

[Brett L]

You still go to that echo chamber.

[Brett L]

?

[Coeus]

Found it crossed linked from a "skeptic" site. I had forgotten all about it.

[Andrew S.]

I haven't been to LGF in years. Wasn't Charles Johnson, and the content of that site, actually sane at one point? What the hell happened?

[Restoras]

It was fun back in the day but then I think Charles just reverted back to type.

[The DerpRider]

I think he went nuts. He started banning people from commenting if they didn't agree with him, and the whole thing went sideways from there.

[Andrew S.]

There's nuts, and there's that. That comment section makes HuffPo look sane.

[Winston]

He went from neocon to prog. Was he ever sane?

[Generic Stranger]

A neocon is just a prog with a war boner.

[Enough About Palin]

For the holiday season

[jesse.in.mb]

Is Zach Weiner of SMBC one of us?

[paranoid android]

I believe he is, actually. I remember seeing some Milton Friedman t-shirts in his site's store once.

He seems like an all-around swell guy, from what I know.

[jesse.in.mb]

Based on his comics concerning economics, I agree with you, but he jokes in the linked comic "Jeeves! I am cold. Burn some monocles." And mentions 'single use monocles' as a possible top secret project he's working on.

I mean is he a lurker or commenter.

[playa manhattan]

There are some big name lurkers/occasional commenters here. I understand the preference for privacy, though. Not all of us are like Sloopy.

[Corning]

There are some big name lurkers/occasional commenters here.

I am coming clean right now!!

I am a nobody.

[playa manhattan]

That's exactly what a famous person would say.

[Auric Demonocles]

I've never seen a single sheep fucker joke on SMBC...

[Surly Chef]

Speaking of sheep fuckers, I'm positive I've seen a certain lawyer on the street before. I've never run up to him and yelled "sheep fucker!" though because, I assume there'd be fallout from that.

[playa manhattan]

I say do it! He deserves it, and you know it's going to ruin his day.

[Surly Chef]

I'm often right by his office when I'm drinking...

[playa manhattan]

Perfect.

[AuH20]

Fat booty butch wears leggings, produces one of the worst written pieces I have ever read

Yo, I wore leggings out in the world today for the first time in years. Like literally years, like from before I had my first orgasm is probs the last time I wore leggings in the street. Most days when I step out of my house I make sure that the contours of my silhouette are grid-like, smooth, confined to lines like the streets of my city. Straight-leg men's cut black jeans, button-down shirts,fitted caps and kicks all equal my bouncy butch armor.Nothing about these singular items of clothing are connected to any one gender presentation. For me and only me, they signify protection and deflection.In these clothes, I'm able to control who sees what of me and when. I don't want anyone to see parts of my exposed flesh just because I'm walking down the street.That makes me uncomfortable,makes my skin itch like whoa, and I'm stressed to the ends wondering who's seeing what and wishing I was in control.Form-fitting feels different than tailored and my form is something I'm super protective of?so why the fuck did I decide to wear leggings today?

It only gets worse, but the character limit will force me to post just snippets?

[AuH20]

The proportions of my body seem so out of sync with the measurements of the clothes-buying world. I've got stubby chunky legs, thick thighs, small hips, a beer belly, DD breasts that deflate and inflate with the seasons and a soft back that curves like my grandmother's did. None of this is bad. Matter of fact, alone in my room,I do the body-worship dance.But motherfuckers don't make clothes for my round body-worshipping ass.

[Snip]

Real quick: I feel like I'm constantly navigating multiple worlds.There's the straight,mad-aggro hyper-hetero man world, a.k.a. the patriarchy, and then there's the world with all my queermos and then there's mad other worlds probably that I don't fuck with cuz I've only got so much time and so many heartbeats.On a regular day, a day where I've got my "brown butch thing" down, I'm a fly ghost in the world of men.They don't comment on me or the shape of my body nor do they hold open doors or even pretend I exist.I am 100% okay with that all of the time.

[Snip]

I caught my homeboy, a dude that's called me his "little brother," gazing at my body when I picked up the keys I'd accidentally dropped on the floor. Yo, what? Also, cis-brown-bro-dudes opened doors for me like all of a sudden I was a person to them. It felt so weird ? like a gift that was two shades away from being something I wanted. It felt good but weird and insincere and totally dependent on the amount of ass they were allowed to see via me.

[pan fried wylie]

my body seem so out of sync with the measurements of the clothes-buying world.

Funny, as a lanky guy I have the same problem, since all the sizes seem to be for fat short people. We must shop at different stores.

[paranoid android]

Tell me about it. I've been 32x34 for years and the difficulty finding pants that fit just keeps going up with time. Evidently people taller than they are wide are becoming a very rare breed.

[AuH20]

Confession: I've kinda dismissed femme-invisibility.I always kinda thought "femme invisibility" was some bullshit, like bullshit enough to use quotation marks whenever I mentioned it.Sometimes, I'm a fucked up humanoid living in my own world and totally checked out to things that aren't my life.Me acknowledging something doesn't make it all of a sudden valid, it makes me all the more ready to stand up and feel frayed by humanity,by my own oblivion,by a shred of privilege I try to ignore cuz everything else is so much bigger.I always unfortunately translated femme-invisibility as a holler thang aka something that has to do with your ability to get hollered at,to get flirted with,to get your shine on.I didn't equate FI with fucking community.COMMUNITY.Community is the thing we all need to survive.

Glad I keep my asshole thoughts to myself and unpack them there first because people would literally be slapping me all the time.I'm stunned by the intensity of ingrained misogyny and it's mine,it's all my shit. Inwardly dismissing other people's experience as not that serious because it didn't pertain to my immediate life was some lazy, sexist, bullshit non-radical thinking.I'm not about that.The fight to always exist in equity with others,to be an ally through actions and not lip-service,create solid communities, live a life filled with genuine acts of social justice,starts with me checking myself.

[PapayaSF]

Jeebus, another few decades of prog groupthink and they'll be speaking a language no one else can even understand. "The speech seems to consist of English words, but the meaning... cannot be grasped...."

[playa manhattan]

"Nothing about these singular items of clothing are connected to any one gender presentation"

Ummmm.....

[Tonio]

This is one of the few times I've been thankful for character limits, and Sugar Free'd links.

[AuH20]

Shouldn't have said anything Tonio, because here you go:

http://www.autostraddle.com/fa.....lf-204824/

[playa manhattan]

Im thankful that there are no pictures to accompany the article.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I have to ask. Why are you guys reading this rubbish? It reminds me of my days in University.

[pan fried wylie]

Same reason I watch Tim & Eric....the crazy, you just can't look away.

[John]

Yes, students at Harvard are as stupid and scientifically illiterate as you think they are

Harvard University students agreed by vote that plastic single-use water bottles should no longer be sold on campus, leaving the fate of plastic water bottles in jeopardy at the Ivy League institution.

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/15603/

[playa manhattan]

Give them all A's!!!

[mr simple]

Critics contend the environment is polluted once to create the plastic bottles, then again when they clog landfills

Why aren't these enviro-genuises recycling said plastic bottles? And what about plastic soda bottles? I assume they will still be legal.

[Corning]

So you have a substance that takes decades to degrade because it is so neutral to biological systems...

like rocks or sand...

Why the fuck are plastics bad for the environment again?

[Heroic Mulatto]

You paint with too broad a brush. Because, honestly, how many out of the entire student body do you think actually voted? I'm guessing the ones who didn't have any homework to do or tests to study for. And if you know Harvard, that set correlates nicely to the set "Grievance Studies Majors".

[AuH20]

So, to wash the taste of those retarded links out of y'all's mouths, let's talk about beer.

Proposition: The ubiquity and preponderance of IPAs as microbrews proves that even though American may be starting to put down the Bud and the Coors, they still have really shitty taste in beers.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

It's not possible to just have a beer anymore.
The pretentious winetaster mentality has taken over the beer world.
It sucks.

[playa manhattan]

I shall have a Dogfish Head in your honor (honour) this evening.

[Tonio]

Uh, I believe they still sell that fizzy yellow pisswater.

(American) Budweiser is supposed to be a pils-style beer, but the IBU count must be fractional.

[KDN]

Budweiser is a really strange beer; I've had it fresh off the tap and it was delicious, and old in the bottle when it was terrible. I'm convinced it just spoils quickly and/or takes a ton of flavor from wherever it's stored.

[pan fried wylie]

I swear heineken always tastes skunked to me.

[Mad Scientist]

It does to me too, but I kinda like that on occasion. Same thing with Peroni.

[playa manhattan]

Translation: You don't like IPAs because there is something seriously wrong with you.

[AuH20]

playa manhattan, we told you drinking carbolic acid would kills your taste buds, but did you listen to us? No.

Now you like IPAs!

[playa manhattan]

My biggest shame is my Mountain Dew habit. I take so much shit for it...

[John]

Yes. There is nothing wrong with IPAs. But like any other thing, there is a limit. Hops in American beer has become like Disco in 1979; a decent fun idea that went way overboard.

The prevalence of hops and IPAs is killing American beer making as far as I am concerned. You go into any bar that prides itself on selling craft beer and there will 15 different taps of various "triple monster hop IPA" and maybe one or two taps of anything else.

A beer culture where everyone drinks the same over hopped swill is no better than one where everyone drinks the same watered down rice based swill.

[playa manhattan]

The current trend in beer drinking is much higher ABV than before, and hops are one way to mask the taste. I don't think it is the supper-hopping that a lot of people are after, it's the ability to get drunk without having to piss 30 times in the process...

[John]

If you just want to get drunk, drink a spirit like a civilized person.

[Restoras]

Be a lot cheaper too...

[Mad Scientist]

The Belgians can make beer with way over 10% alcohol that taste delicious. Americans could do it too, but many breweries are currently fixated on hops.

[John]

The Belgium beers are also very heavy and often sweet. I like them. But I wouldn't call them refreshing.

[Mad Scientist]

It's a matter of taste. Personally, I drink beer because I like the way good beer tastes. If I want a refreshment, I'll drink a cold soda or water.

[playa manhattan]

Speaking of which, I have a Costco 3-pack of Chimay in the cupboard. Time to chill it!

[AuH20]

Good beer, like good wine, is all about balance.

Overly hoppy beers are like the shitty, super sweet wines that any number of idiots drink because they think it tastes good.

[John]

Pretty much. Deciding that IPA is good beer is like deciding that beef jerky or spam is good steak. Its called India Pale Ale because they had to shove so many hops in it to get it to survive the journey to India. They didn't do that because it tasted good.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why would you insult beef jerky like that?

[jesse.in.mb]

Roommate recently got overly enthusiastic about IPAs because her ex was into them and dragged her to some decent breweries that specialized in them. Now our fridge is always full of hoppiness, which is not to my liking.

[The DerpRider]

C'mon, who here doesn't like to slug back some Pine-sol... I like a good IPA with some bite, but way too many brewers go batshit insane with it.

[playa manhattan]

I think a lot of bitter tastes are genetic.... Do you like cilantro, or does it taste like soapy water to you? Unsweetened chocolate?

[The DerpRider]

Love cilantro! Don't eat chocolate.

[playa manhattan]

My brother ordered 8 different kinds of paper taste strips from a scientific supply company a while back, and my whole family tried them. All 8 of them tasted like paper to me, my dad, and my younger brother, and my older bother gagged on about half of them. My mom couldn't stand any of them and had to immediately rinse her mouth out. Not coincidentally, my mom is such a picky eater that it is almost embarrassing to take her out to dinner. I blame her a little less now...

[Tejicano]

I have wondered, somewhat idly, if taste perception can be objectively measured, and if a wide enough survey was done what conclusions might be drawn from that. The other senses can be measured objectively in fine detail but taste seems to be not only complex but it might possibly have a wide range of variability between individuals.

[Apatheist ?_??]

You can have a really hoppy beer that is well balanced though. Because there are so many IPA/DIPA choices out there you can stick to the good ones. My favorite style is Imperial Red which is more balanced but can still have crazy high IBUs. Also its not just about a the bitterness but the hop flavor, something thats just plain bitter with no malt backbone and no hop flavors is obviously gross.

[Killaz]

The purpose of hopping the beers in the IPAs was to keep them from spoiling. Bitters like hops tend to have antiseptic qualities to them. Of course, it mellowed out too, and the flavors would become nicely distinct over time. Some ales like SN Bigfoot Barleywine are still made to be aged. Put one in the back of a closet for a year and the taste becomes unbelievable.

There are hundreds of varieties of hops that did not exist back in the early 1800s with a great increase of flavor palette. 'Dry hopping' is used for spicing, after the antiseptic bittering that occurs in the brew. The best American IPAs are pretty well balanced and add unique taste notes you will not find anywhere else. Give 21 Amendment Brew Free or Die! a chance, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[John]

There are some drinkable IPAS. The point is not that there is necessarily anything wrong with IPA per say. It is that the bizarre obsession with them is killing American beer culture.

Beer drinkers pallets are being destroyed by this shit. Just stop it already. Stop making so many of them. Try making a stout or a porter or a dunkle or pilsner. Something, anything but another fucking IPA.

[Apatheist ?_??]

It is that the bizarre obsession with them is killing American beer culture.

I don't see any evidence that American beer culture is doing anything but growing or that the variety of styles and brand available for purchase is growing. If having a steady selling ipa, blonde/hefeweizen, and amber beer (seems pretty standard to me) allows them to experiment with crazier styles all the better.

[John]

I see evidence of just the opposite. Try finding a blond or a hefe on tap sometime. It is hard. But you can find four or sometimes more different IPAs. It is ridiculous. I am tired of them.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Must be a regional thing, here in Texas EVERY microbrewery has a blonde as one of their staples (because of summer drinking I would assume). Most of them have ambers too which I don't really like. The IPA or PA is usually their third beer. I seriously can't think of one that doesn't have a blonde or hefeweizen (almost always blonde).

[John]

In Washington it is all IPA all of the time. That probably has something to do with the number of hipsters. IPA is generally consumed by such ilk.

[Mad Scientist]

I thought hipsters drank Pabst Blue Ribbon.

[Terr]

Real Ale doesn't carry a hefeweizen but Fireman's is a solid blonde ale. Their Lost Gold is probably my favorite IPA because it isn't intensely hopped up. I also wish I could find their ESB more often. That was my favorite beer ever.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah I meant or as in "either or". Anywhere here in Houston that has microbrews on tap will have Fireman's 4 or Bombshell Blonde.

Phoenixx is the shit, you can't find it all the time because it's seasonal.

[Killaz]

The American IPA put us back on the map after Prohibition and the subsequent legislation limiting choice devastated our industry. It's true the American IPA is not to everyone's liking, but its also true the style is now popular and well known everywhere with the American beer industry gaining in leaps and bounds in respect.

Also, there is quite a bit of variety outside of IPAs. Every mid sized brewer does seasonals now. Personally, I love quads, tripels, English bitter browns, whitbeers as much as I do American IPAs.

Damn, I'm thirsty. New Belgium 1554s in the refrigerator. Not my favorite, but it goes down smooth.

[John]

I will give you the seasonals. I am amazed at how even crappy brewers like Sam Adams can still make great seasonals. I would rather drink Bud than Boston Lager. But every one of the Sam Adams' seasonals are quite good.

[Killaz]

Sam Adams has a juniper berry based ale in their latest seasonal collection. Before hops were universally cultivated for the bittering, j-berries were a commonly used for that purpose. I've yet to try theirs, but I had a Scottish brown brewed with them a few years ago that was delicious.

[Bobarian]

I don't know if it's still true now, but Sam Adams was at one time locally brewed, and the flavor could be quite different in different parts of the country. Sam used to be pretty good in the north-east, but was pretty foul in Cali. Currently it's just so-so in KY.

Some of the Seasonals are delicious, but some are not. The Pumpkin Harvest Spice was atrocious.

[Killaz]

One more thing, I know you'll love this John. Its brewed a hop, skip and jump from where I live:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/11036/35284

[Heroic Mulatto]

shitty, super sweet wines that any number of idiots drink because they think it tastes good.

...or it's just Passover.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I love having a huge hoppy monster beer. I also love other kinds of beers. Sometimes I'll even have some of the weird ones that Archduke is complaining about. I don't know what ya'lls problem is, there are so many different beers available you can have whatever you want.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Good grief.
Beer snobs are worse than wine snobs.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Is it the snobs bitching about all the hoppy beers? I donno, it just seems weird to me to complain about having too many choices.

[Nephilium]

That's why I'm a beer geek... Beer geeks care about what they're drinking. Beer snobs care about what everyone else is drinking.

[Restoras]

I dunno, I really like some of them. Personally I'd like to see more porters.

[Mad Scientist]

More porters, more browns, more stouts!

[Auric Demonocles]

Classist. Racist. Weightist.

[playa manhattan]

Lagunitas has a pretty damn good stout. Much better than it's BA score.

[Max Power]

I don't know where you guys live, but I don't notice a huge preponderance of IPAs. Maybe they're more popular on the west coast?
Here's a recent draft list at my neighborhood bar. More stouts and belgian-types than anything else.

[playa manhattan]

I don't drink when traveling on business, so I have a small sample size. But from what I've seen in LA, San Diego, and Portland, they are very popular.

[Killaz]

Delirium Tremens, that's good stuff.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

A man who provided sign language interpretation for Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial service was a fake, the deaf community says.

[Gbob]

He's not the hero I need, but he is the hero I deserve.

[Restoras]

What?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

HE SAID HE'S NOT THE HERO I NEED, BUT HE IS THE HERO I DESERVE

[playa manhattan]

Try signing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Still finding this story funny from this morning.

It would be hilarious if he sign-languaged Obama saying "and I'm gonna take all of your children and make them my slaves and fuck all your wives!"

Something like that.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No, he wasn't a fake; he was a genius. He correctly translated the absolute vapidness of Obama's rhetoric.

[AuH20]

Follow up: I will be in DC this weekend. Any good microbrew recommendations for me to try on Friday/Saturday night?

And if any of you suggest IPAs, I'll sic Warty on you.

[John]

There are not to my mind that many good micro breweries. There are some fun places to drink beer however. The Bier Hause on H Street NE is a legitimate German Beer Garden serving liter sized beers and really good food.

Granville Moore's is near there and has a great selection of Belgium beers if you like that sort of thing.

That is two places I would highly recommend.

[Auric Demonocles]

Related: I will be visiting Miami this weekend. Any good micrbrews for Saturday afternoon/evening?

[Auric Demonocles]

Though I am open to IPAs, because I'm more tolerant than that Indian hating goldwater.

[Andrew S.]

What brings you down to my neck of the woods?

Go to Abbey Brewing Company on Miami Beach. http://abbeybrewinginc.com/

[Auric Demonocles]

I've never been and haven't taken any time off since March, so a buddy and I are going down for a long weekend and the Pats game.

Do they have any food, or would this be a beer only stop?

[Andrew S.]

Just beer. And cigars. IMO it's worth it to make it there even if it is just a beer stop, but that's up to you.

The good news about being an opposing fan at Sun Life Stadium is that most people here either grew up a fan of the opposing team or root for the Dolphins but don't give enough of a crap to care.

[Juice]

The best breweries are 3 Stars and DC Brau. All beers I've had from either are awesome, including the IPAs.

http://www.threestarsbrewing.com/our-brews/

http://www.dcbrau.com/index.cfm

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

I am ridiculously over-the-moon over this weeks Champions League results. Bring on the knockout stage!
/no spoilers

[Andrew S.]

No spoilers, but I wish once certain team just could have scored one more goal to knock another certain team out.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Guessing Napoli?

[Andrew S.]

Yeah. But that's just out of a disdain for Arsene Wenger.

(and I dislike Arsenal the least out of the 4 EPL teams in the Champions League)

(yes, I am a bitter Liverpool fan)

[Rufus J. Firefly]

European fans are hardcore. Inter and AC fans LOVE when either loses and both LOVE when Juve loses. Same with Roma and Lazio and Napoli. They don't give a shit about the league winning trophies. It's all regional rivalry and hatred.

I think fans from other leagues when their team loses they root for the other team from their league. Not Italy.

They actually go for the other team.

[Winston]

Do Inter and AC fans root for Liverpool fans?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If Liverpool plays one of them - yes.

Incidentally, Liverpool was one of my first favorite teams back in the early 80s.

[Winston]

I was referring to a certain incident between Liverpool fans and Juventus fans in 1985...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Damn Juve. Napoli almost made it. Three teams 12 points. Odd team out.

AC Milan ain't gonna do squat next round.

Meh. Look for forward to both Champions and Europa next round.

[Sevo]

"Kathleen Sebelius announced an inspector general will review the botched Obamacare website rollout,"...

Why? To confirm it's fucked up?
No one is going to get fired, since they all meant well.

[jesse.in.mb]

India's Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated a ban on gay sex in the world's largest democracy, following a four-year period of decriminalization that had helped bring homosexuality into the open in the socially conservative country.

In 2009 the Delhi High Court ruled unconstitutional a section of the penal code dating back to 1860 that prohibits "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal" and lifted the ban for consenting adults.

Umm, what constitutes carnal intercourse here against the order of nature here? Hetero blowjobs? Anal? No procreative titty-fucking?

"The Supreme Court has honored the sentiments of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and those who believe in morality," said Baba Ramdev, a controversial but popular Hindu spiritual leader.

"Today they are talking about men having sexual relationships with men, women with women; tomorrow they will talk of sexual relationships with animals."

I think that's a step up from sexual relationships with Epi's mom, but what do I know?

(TBF, I don't know the intricacies of India's constitution, so this may be the right call from a rule-of-law perspective)

[Dweebston]

Today we let our freak flag unfurl; tomorrow we let it fly.

[John]

Gay rights is sadly something that white people like. It hardly exists outside of the West.

[jesse.in.mb]

Gay rights is sadly something that white people like. It hardly exists outside of the West.

Kind of. The law in question was specifically an import by the British while they controlled India. The British Empire exported a particularly intense dislike of homosexual behavior all over the globe. "Homophobia" for lack of a better term is both relatively knew and largely Western, which many of the gay rights movements particularly in African and Asia try to point out when "gay rights" are presented as a Western invention.

[John]

In most places in the world being gay will get you killed.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yes John, now. That doesn't conflict at all with what I just said.

[John]

But the objection to homosexuality didn't come exclusively from the West. It goes back throughout human history and covers a lot of religion and belief systems. It is not like Islam is exactly tolerant of it or Confucianism or animism for that matter.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Confucianism or animism for that matter.

???

Seriously?

Really?

[John]

Confucianism reveres the family and the duties associated with it. It is pretty antithetical to homosexuality.

And animism is mostly fertility cults. Most societies out of necessity value child bearing since doing so is necessary to the continued survival of the tribe.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Confucianism reveres the family and the duties associated with it. It is pretty antithetical to homosexuality.

So did Sparta, and like Sparta they have no problem with where you stick your dick, as long as you stick in in a vagina now and then to make a baby.

And animism is mostly fertility cults. Most societies out of necessity value child bearing since doing so is necessary to the continued survival of the tribe.

I disagree with your definition of animism. And again, valuing child bearing is not mutually exclusive to homosexuality. Take many Native American cultures, they were as animist as they come, but they recognized "two-spirits" and the like.

[Rhywun]

they have no problem with where you stick your dick, as long as you stick it in a vagina now and then to make a baby

Which is not in any sense "gay".

[jesse.in.mb]

And animism is mostly fertility cults.

We've clearly not read the Epic of Gilgamesh: Enkidu, Gilgamesh makes fun of the local fertility goddess because she's hitting on Gilgamesh and he doesn't give a shit, fertility goddess smites the shit out of Enkidu, Gilgamesh goes on walkabout to get his head on straight.

Also one of the main objections to homosexual behavior in the Bible is due to its association with temple prostitution and pagan rites...

[jesse.in.mb]

It is not like Islam is exactly tolerant of it or Confucianism or animism for that matter.

Gonna paint in some broad strokes here. The pagans, by-and-large did not care and you'd be hard pressed to find examples of them flipping out about this behavior. Same-sex love interest or behavior shows up in most of the epic tales of pre-monotheism European and Middle Eastern lore. The first novel Genji Monogatari shows that the Japs didn't have a problem with it in 1000AD. Pacific Islanders and North American tribes seemed to be largely OK with homosexuality, but it was generally coded in third-gender figures. I don't know enough about the Aztec, Olmec or Inca to comment on them.

The Muslim Middle East and modern Confucian cultures place emphasis on family structure and will usually turn a blind eye to same sex involvement so long as you marry a woman and start producing children. Emulating Western gay norms of coupling off and rejecting a heterosexual family life are seriously frowned upon and generally where one gets into trouble. It's also not gay if you're the top (which was actually true in some parts of Western Europe and the US until the gay rights movement kicked off).

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think I agree in a sense with John in this way: while Christianity had some especial negative focus on homosexuality, it is also likely only in the context of Christianity's preaching of non-judgmentalism that a true gay rights culture can really take off. In this sense Christianity can be seen as a two-edged sword in this matter.

[Medical Physics Guy]

The Confucianism argument is not historically valid. In the times of the yellow emperor for example sexuality was well documented to be very open including homosexuality, May/December stuff etc. Similarly for many of the Japanese feudal dynasties, gay activity was seen as no big deal.

[Tejicano]

In Japan people really don't GAF about a person's sexual predilictions. Men and women are expected to procreate and raise good kids but that doesn't mean a man can't hang out in drag or have sex with other men. There are many TV/movie entertainers who are TV's which nobody seems to care one way or another about.

It is well known that one famous boy-band factory has a dormitory where the producer often "samples" the talent. Japanese women, even knowing this, still think the boy-toys-of-the-week are "dreamy". There seems to be no taint to a male star's reputation if people know he is blowing the boss.

[playa manhattan]

I'm going to give Jesse the benefit of the doubt that he absolutely knows his shit. For some reason.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That is a good point. Britain's 'buggery' laws went everywhere their flag went.

[Dweebston]

[citation needed]

Not because I doubt you, but I'm interested in reading more about it if you've something bookmarked.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

-More than half of the world's remaining "sodomy" laws -criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct - are relics of British colonial rule, Human Rights Watch showed in a report published today.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2008/1.....-injustice

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't have anything solid to link to. The places that frequently come up as being terrible places for being gay are places where the Brits had some control like Jamaica, Uganda, and India. It'd be interesting to see a comparison between colonies under the British legal code including their Buggery Act, and the French colonies with the Napoleonic Code which decriminalized sodomy.

[mr simple]

The British hated homosexuality because they thought it undermined their love of comedy involving men in women's undergarments.

[Mad Scientist]

I put on women's clothing, and hang around in bars!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Gay rights is sadly something that white people like. It hardly exists outside of the West.

Nonsense. Gayness in S.E. Asia is barely worth a raised eyebrow. Use to be that way in pre-Mao China as well.

[Tejicano]

In NE Asia male-male sex does not seem to be a big deal to most people. It's almost on the level of how masturbation is seen in the west.

In South Korea buggery is part of military life - almost in a canine way.

In Japan I have actually seen two guys having flagrant sex, outside under a light. Remarking about it to other Japanese I get reactions as if I were exclaiming about a car having wheels.

[Rhywun]

Authoritarianism... it's not just for governments.

[Mad Scientist]

Someone should send them a copy of the Kama Sutra.

[Sevo]

'Let a hundred flowers blossom!'

[Apatheist ?_??]

How exactly does procreative titty-fucking work?

[Tejicano]

with a three-some - and maybe some imagination.

I see you haven't been to Bangkok.

[Coeus]

Breaking news!!! You're all apparently angry protestant white men.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/si.....white-men/

I had no idea.

[paranoid android]

I take offense to that! I am most certainly not Protestant.

Anymore.

[John]

I think that man should stick to physics.

[Corning]

Why is there just as much if not more inequality in nations without any protestant white men?

[Coeus]

How I fell in love with a salon commenter.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/1.....commenter/

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I bet some fellas here wish a similar title by Emily Eakins.

How I fell in love with a Reason commenter.

[Dweebston]

I am so ready for the end of webathon week. As if the constant redirects to amazon and Candy Crush in the play store aren't obnoxious enough, having the donation splash page spaz out and load halfway really is mayo on the cake.

[Killaz]

Warning, may send you into a fit of nausea. NYC you just became Hollywood's prison bitch.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/de-b.....ndraising/

The mayor-elect [held] a high-dollar fundraiser at an undisclosed location Tuesday night to pay for his inauguration and transition[...]

As a non-billionaire, Mayor-elect de Blasio needs to fundraise. So he's assembled a star-studded inauguration committee, bigger than his transition team. Harry Belafonte, Steve Buscemi, Rosie Perez and Susan Sarandon all make the list. (Cynthia Nixon [from Sex and the City] was already tapped for the Transition Team). But the real star may be Gabrielle Fialkoff, the finance chair of his mayoral campaign who is leading this committee.

Individuals can give a max of $4,500, corporate donations are banned, and unlike during the campaign, there's no public matching money. De Blasio's transition and inauguration committee is required to report all donations, but the information won't be made public until after the inauguration.

Of course Cynthia Nixon is on the planning committee. If you said she wasn't, I would thought you a liar.

[Killaz]

HT to Bob Wenzel.

[Killaz]

I would ^^have^^ thought you a liar.

[Libertymike]

Way to go Killaz, nothing cosmotarian or faux libertarian about Wenzel. He is the real deal.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Anyone wanna start an F1 team with me?

[Mad Scientist]

I'm in. And I'll do double duty as a mechanic and a driver.

[John]

I don't think I would want to be a driver. Ever notice how F1 is the one motorsport where great drivers walk away in their prime? The rednecks in Neckcar race into their 50s. But in F1 guys like Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost leave at the top of their game. Why? I think it is because even they know that doing it will eventually get you killed no matter how good you are.

[Gray Ghost]

I think it's for the same reason you rarely see 38 year old skill players in the NFL: the physical effort is too demanding and F1 is precise enough that losing even a fraction of a percent of your reflexes is the difference between qualifying at the top of the grid vs the back.

When's the last time they killed someone in F1? If wiki's right, the last one they killed during a GP was Senna, and that was nearly 20 years ago.

[Michael S. Langston]

Alan Simonsen died at Le Mans - June this year.

[John]

It goes to show what douche bags the various internet billionaires are. Here the US has however many multi billionaires and not a single one of those losers has started an F1 team. There are no F1 teams based in the US.

What do these various dorks do? Build tacky party barges and fly around the world whining about global warming. I don't begrudge them their fortunes. But their total lack of imagination and style in how they spend their money makes me ashamed to be an American. The industrial titans of previous generation left us the Biltmore and the Frick Museum. These clowns?

[Libertymike]

Don't forget The Breakers, The Marble House and Rosecliff.

[John]

The google assholes have something like $63 billion between them. And literally all they do is fly around in a 747 campaigning for global warming. It is fucking pathetic.

[Libertymike]

Maybe they should constantly fly around the south pole given the all time record low temperature recently recorded.

[playa manhattan]

On government subsidized jet fuel, no less.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Some of our new Billionaires are putting their money to other uses:

-Sheldon Adelson's futile war on online gambling

Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is not known for modesty. So it was fitting the recent announcement of his plans to push for a federal online gambling ban is making headlines. Adelson, who said his "moral standards" compelled him to act, is launching an advocacy group, the Coalition To Stop Internet Gambling, to portray the activity as a threat to vulnerable populations such as low-income players and minors. Not only is he wrong, but his proposed ban would cause harm to the very groups he claims to want to protect.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congr.....e-gambling

[John]

Getting the government to outlaw your competition is a tried and true method of staying rich. So there is that.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

That Mexican dude is part owner of Sauber.
I think an American team may appear for this new round actually.

[Mad Scientist]

Owning a racing team is the best way I know of to hemorrhage money. Owning an F1 team is like infecting your bank account with Ebola. It's tremendously difficult to keep an F1 team in the black. This is not an organization where a gentleman racer can campaign a car a few times a year between fox hunts. Ferrari spends upwards of $450 million, per season. How long could Bill Gates run one before he was flat broke?

[John]

Last I looked Gates was worth in excess of $60 billion. So well over a hundred years. All of these people are worth tens of billions. And $450 million is the cost. You don't lose that much. You get some of it back in sponsorships.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Ferrari spend $0 on advertising.
What do other companies pay?
F1 is their advertising.

[mr simple]

Do you know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a large fortune.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My cousin almost signed on as a test driver for an F1 team in the 1990s. The amount of money needed to launch a career was retarded. A team, beyond retarded.

[John]

A good number of F1 drivers were born rich. I don't see how an average person could ever break in no matter how talented.

[Gray Ghost]

Isn't F1 where you pretty much have to start by karting at like age 6 or so, and spend around $15-20k a year doing that?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's pretty much what happened. It's a rich man's sport - and a lot of those guys are insufferable assholes.

[Gray Ghost]

Never met any of them, but I remember when Red Bull was first getting started, and had their little reality show for tryouts of who was going to be their driver. Between the lines, you could read that there were three constants in the competition (at least in R&T's article on it): Scot Speed was the biggest raging cockbag amongst the contestants; accordingly, the promoters desperately wanted anyone but him to be their driver; and he kept winning all of the time trials and other contests by enough to where they couldn't ignore him.

Hilarious to read. I'm going to have to get out to Circuit of the Americas one of these days. Still can't believe they actually managed to get it built, and that fast.

[Mad Scientist]

I'm practically broke racing in ChumpCar a few times a year. I can't imagine going through $50,000 in brake rotors, per car, every race weekend.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My cousin races F3000 and all those circuits. It costs him $3000 just to move the car.

He got lucky when a penny stock he bought rendered him $3 million bucks. He's burning through the cash though I think.

[Corning]

What do these various dorks do?

They build space ships...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'll kick in $100.

I'm still waiting on an Italian-German mechanical alliance alla Schumacher-Ferrari.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Another edition of the Kiwi hipster report.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Here's some good news to brighten your otherwise dreary day.

The autistic kid from DeBary, FL will get to keep his chickens. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. Yes, it took the threat of a federal lawsuit, but it's a positive outcome anyway.

Autistic kid keeps his chickens.

[Dweebston]

So the Feds suddenly realize the necessity of property rights when a 9-year-old autist is the center of the story, but otherwise you're SOL.

Still, I'm grudgingly happy about it. That it didn't end with the tarring and feathering of the three city councilors who voted against it is sacrilege.

[Libertymike]

Careful, those brilliant folks over at Bleeding Heart Libertarians who pride themselves on being formally trained in philosophy might accuse you of being a cartoon libertarian.

[The Late P Brooks]

Kathleen Sebelius announced an inspector general will review the botched Obamacare website rollout, and promised to keep trying to improve the site.

She would totally resign in disgrace and fall on her sword, but that would prevent her from fulfilling her vow to drag America out of the Dark Ages.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Name the butt on the left.

[Libertymike]

Warty's impossible dream?

[Francisco d Anconia]

And I didn't recognize her from this pic, despite seeing her face.

[Francisco d Anconia]

And if you still can't figure it out.

She plays too many Tomboy roles!

[Rhywun]

I didn't recognize either of their faces - just their names. They looked a lot better in outer space, IMHO.

[John]

I still don't know who she is. Never heard of either one of them.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I almost told you to turn in your libertarian card....but...

[Corning]

Isn't she in that new Ridick movie?

Why is she modeling as a biker babe?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Yes.

My wife told me both of them ride.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

National Security Conservative Says Budget Deal A Positive Step Forward

-The budget deal struck between Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray, assuming it's passed by both chambers, hardly solves all of our budget woes. But it is a positive step forward especially for the U.S. Armed Forces, which have faced the prospect of devastating and illogical budget cuts dictated by the sequestration process.

In short the deal should be seen from a conservative perspective as a good outcome?it maintains budget discipline while providing more funding to the armed forces. It is puzzling, therefore, that so many conservative firebrands are expressing opposition and that House and Senate Republican leaders are hesitating to endorse it. Paul Ryan should be winning congratulations for what he has achieved rather than being forced to fight to keep the deal from getting torpedoed by conservative absolutists who have no workable alternative to offer.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/

[Libertymike]

Bo, are you buying that nonsense?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Of course not, I posted it for ridicule. It is nonsense, to be expected from the likes of Max Boot.

[Pro Libertate]

It's one of the things that keeps the GOP from really going after spending--the desire to protect all military spending, regardless of need. At all costs, including letting the Dems build a total socialist state.

[The Late P Brooks]

A man who says his confession was tortured out of him by the Chicago Police Department had his conviction overturned yesterday, and was released from prison after thirty years behind bars.

Ya gotsta break a few heads to make a omlutt.

[Auric Demonocles]

More than 200,000 people have signed up for four slots in a possible one-way mission to Mars planned for 2025 by Mars One.

The two way trip will be Mars Two?

[widget]

This is one of those things I have completely changed my mind about while I've been alive. I watched the moon landing when I was nine and thought 'just strap me to a Saturn V rocket and I'll be next'. Now it's 'volunteers?' and I'm taking one step back.

Even so, if I had some terminal illness that didn't incapacitate me to the point that I couldn't be an astronaut, I wouldn't mind taking a one-way for team human.

Many of those 200,000 might be in that situation.

[waffles]

I'd totally fly into the sun on my 100th birthday. But given the way technology is going I think spiraling out of the solar system would give me more time to enjoy it.

[Pro Libertate]

Tell us when you reach the edge of the solar system, please.

[CE]

But only once.

[Auric Demonocles]

Maybe the problem with these repeated reports is aactually due to the squirrels multiposting it?

[CE]

All of us have a terminal illness, at least until the Singularity.

[CE]

We should be applauding Mars One for planning this without government funding. I wonder if they will be able to find sponsors. The video of the first manned Mars landing will be worth a lot, but is it enough to cover the trip?

As for the 200,000 volunteers, good for them. One of them may be the first human being to set foot on another planet.

[widget]

Japan's new defense plan calls for an amphibious marine unit and the deployment of surveillance drones.

Thank you very much China for agitating the Japanese. The drones will be adorned with Peach and Daisy in combat fatigue I presume.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, let's piss off the Japanese, so that they deploy death robots all the sooner.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

More Security Conservatives Push Budget Deal

-A future historian would describe the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) as having a profound effect on the United States. The BCA, he would write, was a critical step toward making America into a social democracy while ensuring its decline as a global military power.

Thanks to the budget deal crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Patty Murray, and others, there is now a chance to write an alternative history of America's future. To be sure, the numbers in the deal are miniscule: The deal adds $63 billion to the BCA caps for 2014 and 2015, supposedly offset over 10 years by $85 billion in savings proposals. But breaking the BCA's chokehold on the politics of spending and saving the military from the worst of sequestration would be a critical achievement.

The alternative history of our nation's future should be one written by the country's center-right political leaders, one that adds new chapters to the ongoing American story of peace, liberty, and prosperity. The Ryan-Murray deal may represent a small amount in dollars, but it's an opportunity to get the narrative back on track for next year's elections and particularly for the 2016 presidential contest. It's a chance to being strengthening our national defense, and to begin to remind ourselves that providing for the common defense is the first and fundamental job of our national government.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....70749.html

[The Late P Brooks]

Owning a racing team is the best way I know of to hemorrhage money.

No shit.

And, with the "cost saving" limits on testing, you'd be lucky to climb out of the bottom of the barrel in F1 in a decade.

Red Bull Racing wasn't exactly pulled out of a hat, so don't bother to pretend they represent a successful "new team".

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah, it's not as though Red Bull doesn't employ the guy who's been designing championship-winning cars for 20 years.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://forceindiaf1maniacs.com.....ans-terms/

Only four teams make money. Ferrari's place in auto racing is unique.

[ibcbet]

wow.. very fantastic i think

[The DerpRider]

$20ish a SF for the heat only. That doesn't include removing the old and replacing with new concrete.

[playa manhattan]

Scrooge McDuckonomics is real!

[Corning]

Getting hit by a bus is part of the natural process.

[Marshall Gill]

Fool, the rich don't swim around like Scrooge McDuck in their money, they stuff it into numerous mattresses. Bill Gates sleeps on something like 50 mattresses filled with cash! If you were to take one or two of those mattresses, he wouldn't even notice!