Senate Approves Budget Deal, Snowden Offers to Help Brazil, Paul Wants Fed Audit Vote for Yellen Nom: P.M. Links

• 

  Official Portrait

  The Senate approved the two-year budget deal by a 67-33 vote. Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the bipartisan deal.

• Edward Snowden, in an open letter to the people of Brazil, offered to help assist the government investigate allegations of U.S. spying on them. The media has taken the offer to suggest that Snowden is seeking asylum in Brazil, but Glenn Greenwald says no actual asylum has been requested.
• Critics in Congress of the extent of the National Security Agency's reach with its phone metadata collection are pleased with yesterday's court ruling declaring it a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Meanwhile, discussion of NSA's tactics is on the agenda as President Barack Obama meets with several tech company leaders today.
• The only modern president who has had approval ratings lower than what President Obama is pulling at this point in his presidency is Richard Nixon.
• Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to bog down the Janet Yellen's nomination for Federal Reserve chair unless he can get a vote to audit the agency.
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is resisting pressure from the left to resign while Obama is still in office so that he can choose her replacement, not some future (possibly Republican) president.

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Comments

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to bog down the Janet Yellen's nomination for Federal Reserve chair unless he can get a vote to audit the agency.

How the Rand Stole Christmas!

[Sevo]

He's just an obstructionist trying to keep Obo from doing his wonderful work! Sob!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

War on Women!

[Mongo]

Presidents need to have less obstruction when appointing cabinet members otherwise it's just back-and-forth between the two parties.

Imagine the Libertarian Prez trying to get shit done.

[Medical Physics Guy]

That's the point of the Libertarian prez. He wouldn't do anything. He would mostly be un-doing crappy things.

[CE]

The late Harry Browne's hypothetical first day in office:

http://www.wnd.com/2000/12/517/

[Agammamon]

You're fired and you're fired and you're fired and you're fired, no wait I was just kidding.

Just kidding, you're really fired.

And you're fired and you're fired and you're fired . . .

[Anonymoose]

but who will you replace them with??

[Kid Xenocles]

Unfortunately undoing things is a form of doing things.

[kbolino]

I would support an amendment to the constitution that imposes a time limit on how long the President has to wait for the Senate's "advice and consent" on his nominees. If the Senate can't be bothered to give an answer to a nomination in a reasonable amount of time, then they must not have any objection worth airing. On the flip side, however, I think the congress should spend more time impeaching the crap out of the executive branch's appointees.

[Agammamon]

I wouldn't.

If the Senate 'can't be bothered' it might be because they have *so many* objections that non-one can come to an agreement and so the president needs to choose another candidate.

[kbolino]

The alternative to a political appointee is a civil service lifer. I'm not really sure how we the taxpayers benefit more from the latter than the former. In any case, if there are so many objections to a nominee, then presumably all the objectors could at least agree to hold a vote, whereupon they all vote no regardless of their myriad reasons for doing so.

[John]

War on Womenz

[Fist of Etiquette]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is resisting pressure from the left to resign while Obama is still in office...

She's not a take one for the team kind of gal.

[MJGreen]

What are they worried about anyway? The Democrats have a lock on the Presidency for the next 20 years!!

[PapayaSF]

Hang on, Ruthie!

[R C Dean]

Why don't they want Hillary! to appoint her successor.

A chick Justice (it is a seat reserved for chicks, right?) appointed by a chick President. What cuold be more perfect?

[paranoid android]

CHICK JUSTICE

Fridays on Court TV

[font_of_stupidity]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is resisting pressure from the left to resign while Obama is still in office so that he can choose her replacement, not some future (possibly Republican) president.

Justice Ginsburg? Andrew Breitbart. Pleasure to meet you.

[Agammamon]

Justice Ginsburg have you ever read a book called 'the Pelican Brief'?

[grrizzly]

That was about a gay male justice. Totally irrelevant. Oh, wait!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the bipartisan deal.

They can finally start spending again!

[108 Red Stitches]

Thank God! The dearth in spending was really dragging us down!

[Andrew S.]

The Senate approved the two-year budget deal by a 67-33 vote. Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the bipartisan deal.

-----

When talking about Congress, few terms worry me more than "bipartisan deal".

[DJF]

""""few terms worry me more than "bipartisan deal""""

Yeah, its up there with gang rape

[Andrew S.]

I always thought those two terms were synonyms.

[DJF]

Somebody let Kerry out of his cage and he is now in Vietnam giving US taxpayer money to the Vietnamese commies so they can protect the trade routes from the Chinese commies so that the US can "free trade" with the commies of both Vietnamese and Chinese persuasion.

Its all sad but one of the worse parts is that the money involved is barely enough to buy a few small patrol boats which won't accomplish much in a real fight but does get the US deeper into a commie Vietnam vs commie China dispute

I say the US government should stay out of this dispute

"""""US ups security aid to SE Asia, criticizes China ""''

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.c.....rity.html#

[Sevo]

"I say the US government should stay out of this dispute"

I think you will find company here.

[PD Scott]

Those Vietnamese patrol boats are a bargain compared to our Littoral Combat Ships - which hopefully will never have to go up against the PLAN, given the high probability of their destruction. I'd ask how we can spend so much for so little but already know the answer.

I do want to know why one of the ships is being named after Gaby Giffords.

[DJF]

""""named after Gaby Giffords."""

Because she bravely fought off those tea party assassins

[Jack Holby]

named after Gaby Giffords

Because bullets easily pass through both?

[TeamBarstool]

One hit and it's useless?

[SugarFree]

Brain dead is the same as dead.

[John]

So shreek is actually dead? Does that make him a zombie?

[SugarFree]

Zombies have been stripped down to nothing but basic motor functions and the urge to eat.

Please stop insulting zombies, John.

[Agammamon]

Uhm, the LCS is not and never was intended to go up against full-sized warship fleets.

Its intended to stuff where a full-sized warship is both uneconomical *and* isn't designed to operate in - the littorals.

I will agree that the procurement phase could be unfavorably compared to that of creating the M-2.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Try not to piss yourself laughing: Some Democrats are urging Jerry Brown to run for president

If he weren't the nation's oldest governor, a ripe 75, Jerry Brown would automatically be counted among serious Democratic candidates for president in 2016.
[...]
Now, some are pushing Brown to consider another try for the White House, even if it means taking on Hillary Rodham Clinton, the prohibitive, if still undeclared, Democratic favorite.

"I think Jerry is precisely what America needs," said Rose Ann DeMoro, the leader of a national nurses union and a strong political ally of Brown. "He has the courage of his convictions, which we haven't seen in a very long while."

Brown, who is up for reelection in 2014, has not yet stated his intention to seek another term, though he has raised millions of dollars for what would appear to be an easy campaign.

Asked if Brown would categorically rule out another presidential bid in 2016, a spokesman, Jim Evans, referred to a statement Brown made in May at a California Chamber of Commerce breakfast. Citing his past primary victories, Brown said "time is kind of running out on that."
"I guess I'll just have to stay and do the work of being the governor, which I actually enjoy because I have some perspective that I didn't used to have," Brown said.

Biden-Brown 2016!

[Andrew S.]

He'd be a better idea than Elizabeth Warren. Which really isn't saying much, to be fair.

[PapayaSF]

Compared to Warren, he's Friedrich Frickin' Hayek.

[Sevo]

Compared to Warren, Obo is an honest man!

[waffles]

Oh please please please this. Jerry Brown saved California. Jerry Brown can stand up to a Democratic supermajority. Jerry Brown has what it takes to take this country back on the right track. Brown-Biden, not Biden-Brown. Biden isn't ready. Her needs to learn from Jerry Brown.

[Mad Scientist]

I'm really more concerned about the republican candidates. They have the next election in the bag so long as they don't nominate yet another complete idiot. Oh, wait, that's inevitable...

[Sevo]

"They have the next election in the bag so long as they don't nominate yet another complete idiot."

So it's Ds all the way!

[PapayaSF]

I keep saying: Scott Walker 2016.

[#]

I really do think he has a really good shot at winning the nomination and then winning the pres if he runs.

He has a good mix of right wing cred to primary voters, but doesnt come off as crazy to the middle and has the right blue collarish and midwest identity politics going for him.

[PapayaSF]

Exactly.

[Dead or In Jail]

Scott Walker is at the bottom-of-the-pack among GOP primary voters. Even worse, he might lose in 2014. Even if he wins, there's no way he'll get as big a margin as Christie.

Here's my suggestion: Someone should try to nudge Mitch Daniels to get into the race. The lefty bulldogs will go after his wife's tawdry betrayal-of-their-marriage but (hopefully) that would backfire on them and cause a tsunami of public sympathy to break Daniels's way.

If anyone has a better plan, I'm all ears.

[Atanarjuat]

Paul/Cruz. Media will hyperventilate, but talk radio will love them.

[PapayaSF]

One problem with Paul and Cruz is that both are inexperienced Senators, and that's a rather big minus these days. (Though I'll admit most voters don't think in those terms.)

[Dead or In Jail]

TalkRadioLand also thinks that Rush Limbaugh is awesome.

They will not catapult us into the Presidency. (Remember, first we get the Power, then we get the Money, then we get the Pussy.)

[PapayaSF]

Eh, it's too far out for primary voters to matter. And given that Walker survived his recall handily, and seems to be doing a good job, I don't think he'll lose in 2014.

Yeah, I like Daniels, too, but wifey doesn't want all that in the public spotlight.

[Pope Jimbo]

Maybe if Mitch showed her the binders full of hot studly secret service agents?

"Hey baby, I'll be away on a lot of foreign trips, but while I'm gone these guys will have your back..."

[CE]

Rand Paul 2016.

Although Rand Paul 2020 sounds really cool for an eye doctor.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Brown vs Bolton 2016

[Marshall Gill]

I would love to see Bolton run. I don't think he has a snowballs chance in hell at winning but the screeching from the Left would be epic.

[Agammamon]

. . . Jerry Brown would automatically be counted among serious Democratic candidates for president in 2016.

Why? Is it because in Democrat political circles a guy who *slightly* slowed the fiscal destruction of a state is a freaking super-hero?

[Cdr Lytton]

Will they finally make a sequel for http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120171/ then?

[108 Red Stitches]

Three cheers for Mulatto Nixon!

[Dead or In Jail]

I thought we settled on SuperjesusBlackReagan?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

And you thought your family holiday cards were lame

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Hush, now. This father is performing the timeless duty of parents the world over by ensuring that their children will be embarrassed by us and therefore move out of the house ASAP.

I only wish I'd thought of it first.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meanwhile, discussion of NSA's tactics is on the agenda as President Barack Obama meets with several tech company leaders today.

Why is he bothering? He personally doesn't need their donations anymore.

[Sevo]

His boots need licking.

[DJF]

There is still the speaking fees after he is President. You can't expect him to just write books about himself, he is also going to give speeches about himself.

[PapayaSF]

Apparently he went off-topic and gave them all a big Obamacare pitch, which didn't help anything.

[Dead or In Jail]

Back in '10 or so he went off teleprompter and said The Important People "treat me like a dog."

In other words, he resented having to act like he was listening closely to their concerns in those few minutes before or after they signed 5-, 6-, and 7-digit checks towards his re-election.

Well, now he doesn't need them anymore. The charade is up. And he can go back to concentrating on his golf game.

He's the Head Dude in Charge; he'll harangue them about whatever-the-fuck he feels like.

[Sevo]

CA billionaire can afford extra gas money to feel superior; can't everybody?
"Activist Tom Steyer launches California oil tax campaign"
[...]
The oil extraction tax "should happen. It doesn't benefit me in any way. We're pushing to do the right thing, and that's what we've done in the past," he said."
Of course!
And the folks working in that bizz? Well, maybe next year, he'll sponsor longer unemployment benes...
http://www.sfgate.com/science/.....069277.php

[Mad Scientist]

California already has the highest gasoline tax in the nation, combined with low supply due to CARB rules requiring California specific blends that only 2 refineries produce. If they're looking for yet another way to convince people to leave the state, this is a good method.

[Sevo]

The guy in question couldn't care less. He lives "on the Presidio Wall" near Pelosi and DiFi (backed up to park lands). He'd only gripe when his gardener raised the fees to cover the gas.

[Dead or In Jail]

I've been to that neighborhood. Those limousine libs know how to pick 'em!

[Sevo]

Ya gotta like fog!

[DJF]

Tom Steyer -"""It doesn't benefit me in any way"''

He's got his billion so screw everyone else.

[PapayaSF]

^This.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The only modern president who has had approval ratings lower than what President Obama is pulling at this point in his presidency is Richard Nixon.

Maybe he should try price controls. See if that works.

[Palin's Buttplug]

http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

[font_of_stupidity]

Finally, someone gives us current information about the current president!

[Andrew S.]

...seriously wondering. Do you somehow get pleasure out of being a fool?

[Palin's Buttplug]

The fucking Nixon comparison is stupid with Obama at 43%.

So I linked some really shitty approval numbers in the low 20s - worse than Nixon.

[John]

So yes, yes you do.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|12.17.13 @ 5:07PM|#
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

[Derpetologist]

Tonight on National Cartographic:

The team journeys to Nepal to visit the Derpas, a hardy mountain people who make their home in the foothills of the Dimalayas.

Later, a rare interview with Tenzing Lobsang Derpa, the Derpa guide who aided Sir Archibald Crinklecut on the first successful ascent of Knave 2, the second highest mountaint in the Dimalayas.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Mostly we get pleasure out of jerking off to the fine artwork of Shephard Fairey.

And occasionally some gay butt sex.

[Damned Fool]

I never thought that I'd pray for Ginsburg's long life and good health, but there we go. Obama is a uniter, not a divider!

[Andrew S.]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/17/.....?hpt=op_t1

I had posted this late in the AM links, but it deserves more exposure, because it is just. that. stupid.

tl;dr: Whose fault is it that Detroit is in the position its in? Why, the KKKorporashuns, of course!

[Drake]

"Detroit gave away millions of public revenue in tax loopholes and subsidies to big corporations."

Low taxes caused the fall of Detroit!

[Rufus J. Fisk]

hwo can a city "give away" money that is not theirs to begin with? These people drive me insane.

[Almanian!]

Oh, great! I was looking to have more retard in my life!

[Sevo]

And someone shrunk the tax base, honey!
I mean, people just left! For no reason! Didn't have to do with rising taxes and worse service paying off those benes. No siree, bob!

[Raven Nation]

OT: Sloopy sent the following regarding the Yahoo College Bowl Pick 'em:

"Group ID#: 20897
Password: reason

Tell your friends! I've been buried at work but will be free in another week to get the shit-talking started in earnest. Until then, please pass the word on the H&R that I'm still alive, as is the Reason H&R Bowl Pick Em!"

[Banjos]

"OT: Sloopy sent the following regarding the Yahoo College Bowl Pick 'em"

Is there such thing as off topic on a AM/PM thread?

Also, here is the link:

http://y.ahoo.it/OoiW3Ns0

[Raven Nation]

"Is there such thing as off topic on a AM/PM thread?"

*Hangs head in shame"

"Here is the link: http://y.ahoo.it/OoiW3Ns0"

*Hangs head in shame. Contemplates suicide*

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Doomsday preacher Harold Camping dies aged 92

Harold Camping, the California preacher who used his evangelical radio ministry and thousands of billboards to broadcast the end of the world and then gave up public prophecy when his date-specific doomsdays did not come to pass, has died at age 92

Family Radio Network marketing manager Nina Romero said Harold Camping, a retired civil engineer who built a worldwide following for the nonprofit, Oakland-based ministry he founded in 1958, died at his home on Sunday. She said he had been hospitalized after falling.

Camping's most widely spread prediction was that the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011. His independent Christian media empire spent millions of dollars ? some of it from donations made by followers who quit their jobs and sold all their possessions? to spread the word on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the Judgment Day message.
[...]
But after the cataclysmic event did not occur in October either, Camping acknowledged his apocalyptic prophecy had been wrong and posted a letter on his ministry's site telling his followers he had no evidence the world would end anytime soon, and wasn't interested in considering future dates

Camping gets to heaven and asks God, "Why didn't you send Jesus back?"

God answers back, "I was going to, but you went and spoiled the surprise!"

[font_of_stupidity]

From Camping's perspective, doomsday finally happened.

[John]

Let me guess, he wasn't interested in giving up any of the money he made either.

[Zakalwe]

On May 20, 2011 I posted on my Brigade's Facebook page: "Does the Brigade have an actual plan for what to do in the event of the Rapture tomorrow, or are we just going to FRAGO it and make it up as we go along like everything else?"

It gathered a lot of likes before the public affairs officer got off his flight to Afghanistan and deleted it.

[PapayaSF]

I just learned the word "FRAGO."

[Sarg221]

I'll just leave this here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh50LKv6PYc

[Certified Public Asskicker]

#FatMicroagressions

"It won't kill you to let yourself feel hungry." Said after I'd been feeling hungry for two hours. #fatmicroaggressions

#fatmicroaggressions People loudly complaining how fat they are when they are the same size or smaller than you.

And my favorite:

"Fat people are not disciplined enough to get a higher degree." #fatmicroaggressions

[Lady Bertrum]

There's something really sad about being consumed with the minor shitty little things *you think* other people are doing or saying about you.

I'm creating #gingermicrogressions and #freckledmicrogressions so I can tweet the stupid shit people say about redheads. ("Do you have a soul?")

Oh, wait, I'm not going to do that because it's stupid and I can't be bothered.

[Almanian!]

*suddenly EXCEPTIONALLY interested*

You're a redhead? With freckles and everything?

*swoons*

[Lady Bertrum]

But I am soulless. So there's that.

[Mad Scientist]

Sometimes that ginger, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a ginger, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

We can overlook that if you have flattering pictures of yourself you would like to share. #thisiswhy

[John]

You do realize Ms. Bartrum that by revealing yourself to be both female and a red head on this forum, you just bought yourself at least dozen stalkers.

[Lady Bertrum]

I collect the heads of stalkers in an aquarium tank I keep in by basement. Periodically, I sit and gaze at said heads to relive past glories.

[John]

Oh honey, that makes you even more attractive. That raises you to cult hero status. That is warty level stuff there.

[Lady Bertrum]

*Shudder* No one (NO.ONE.) out wartys Warty. (or so I'm told).

[SugarFree]

No one should even try to, Lady B. It makes him... well, the closest human concept is "hungangry."

[Clich? Bandit]

This is true...and I am now frightened of you.

[Entropy Void]

Would your Estate be entitled Woodbury, M'Lady?

[Killaz]

As if that is a turn off to fellow libertarians.

[JW]

Souls only get in the way.

[Agammamon]

That's . . . just a plus.

[Zakalwe]

But she's a lady. Not your type at all.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

There was a time I got upset when people made fun of my red hair.

Then I turned 8.

[Corning]

the stupid shit people say about redheads.

Firecrotch!!

...

sadly that is the only one I know....well that and i heard once red heads have a higher then average tolerance for pain...but i think that is BS. Women are more commonly red heads then men and it is well known women have a higher tolerance for pain then men do...so all you are saying when you say red heads have more tolerance for pain is that women have more tolerance for pain.

TRY TO FIT ALL THAT IN TWEET!!!

[Zakalwe]

Red heads have a higher tolerance for anesthetic; they have to receive more for it to have effect. I'm not sure if the pain thing is real.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Red heads have a higher tolerance for anesthetic; they have to receive more for it to have effect.

Yep my wife has specific anesthetic requirements, some don't even work at all (at least in safe dosages).

Women are more commonly red heads then men

Did you just pull that out of your ass?

[Corning]

Did you just pull that out of your ass?

That is the pint of this thread is it not?

[Corning]

Zakalwe

Use of Weapons?

[Pope Jimbo]

So really soak that rag with chloroform good!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Brazil. Black Nixon. Ginsburg.

Yawn.

Wake me when my shawarma is ready.

[SugarFree]

Q: How stupid do you have to be to think SadBeard is a libertarian?

A: Gawker Stupid!

[Heroic Mulatto]

That link actually committed violence against me. I'm suing you for conspiracy to commit assault.

[PapayaSF]

It's microaggression via URL, HM. Start a Tumblr about it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*Don Knotts voice* Well, I just might!

[John]

Is Gawker Stupid similar to Shreek stupid?

[SugarFree]

Gawker Stupid is the Thai-spicy of the stupid world.

[John]

Complete ignorance with an extra dose of hate and childishness.

[Andrew S.]

Gawker stupid makes Shreek look like a member of MENSA.

[JW]

Gawker stupid stares back, from within the abyss.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Only a Libertarian Would Write This!

The only problem is that dividends are terrible. Bad for the economy, bad for business, and surprisingly unfavorable to investors. A barbarous relic of a less financially sophisticated era, they're also indelibly coated with misleading rhetoric that perpetuates sloppy thinking about business, profits, and investment.

[Corning]

Dividends, by contrast, have a weak and indirect impact on the economy and don't really serve anyone's long-term interests.

I bet he hates interest payments from savings accounts as well.

[R C Dean]

The only problem is that dividends are paying a business's profits to the business's owners is terrible.

Lemme guess where this is going.

[Killaz]

Math is hard and that makes dividends scary? And he prefers the state to make those calculations for him and then to send him a check in the mail?

[GILMORE]

"What it means to be a shareholder is that you obtain a fraction of control over the company's assets."

bullshit. I'm buying a right to a fraction of their future cashflows = not their current assets.

[JeremyR]

Dividends are important - that's what makes shareholders care about how a company is run. Not just in the short term, but the long term.

The problems in the economy are due to people mostly caring about stock price above all else.

[PapayaSF]

To Gawker, libertarians might seem to be a strange, hard-to-understand breed. Like a primitive tribesman who counts "1, 2, 3, many," if someone isn't reliably Team Blue, but not Team Red, then there must be some of that libertarian stuff involved.

[Nikki just says no]

It's like a contest between who I hate more, MattY or Gawker....

[Corning]

I don't know who would win...

But i do know i like MattY and Gawker devouring each other in a feast of stupid very very much.

[SugarFree]

Gawker for me. SadBeard is too sad to truly hate. He's more like the slow kid you wait with at the bus stop. You don't want to be actually mean to him, but you also don't want to have a 20 minute discussion about housing policy with him either.

[John]

But Sad Beard is a violent little retard. Remember he is they guy who said what a better place the world is now that Andrew Breitbart, a man who left a wife and several young children, was dead.

I sometimes think of him as a pathetic slow kid. But he is the pathetic slow kid who tortures cats and sets people's homes on fire for fun.

[SugarFree]

True. Slow kid with violent fits... SadBeard is Adam Lanza.

[John]

Slingblade only if he had sided with the evil step father and killed the kid and his mom.

[Killaz]

We had a kid like that on our bus in middle school. He would take those big rubber erasers and use them to make sores on his body.

[Killaz]

Wrote 'OZZY' on his knee cap through erasing away his skin. Jesus.

[CE]

Life is too short to read that kind of stuff. Or Brooks. Or Krugman. Or watch the TV news.

Give it up for 2014. You can thank me later.

[The Late P Brooks]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is resisting pressure from the left to resign while Obama is still in office so that he can choose her replacement, not some future (possibly Republican) president.

Hang in there, Ruthie.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Why does society sexualize red-headed women but revile red-headed men?

Red is now the shade of choice for contemporary femme fatales, from Jessica Rabbit to Joan Holloway. Meanwhile, ginger boys are ridiculed and sexually marginalized; in 2011, a Danish-based international sperm bank stopped collecting donations from redheads, saying it was "drowning in semen" from unpopular ginger donors. Try to think of a famous redheaded man who isn't Damian Lewis or a prince, and you get a lot of clowns: Conan O'Brien, Louis CK, Carrot Top.

The myth of the sexy redhead and her deviant brother was constructed by male apostles, playwrights, and painters. Some women buy that version of sexuality, too: Knights interviewed one woman who willingly dates a ginger man but still fears the consequences: "Of course I'm going to love it, but I don't want a ginger baby," she said. But projects like Knights' show how easy it is to revert that centuries-old idea by taking a few photos from a different perspective (and recruiting some exceptionally good-looking gingers to pose). "Someone recently asked me, 'What's so special about red hair?' " Knights told The Cut. "Well, nothing. It's not special?it's just equal. All I want is for ginger men to be on a level playing field."

Because they are women?

[LynchPin1477]

Wait, ginger discrimination is a real thing? I honestly thought it was just an internet meme based on an episode of South Park.

Also, we sexualize ginger women because they are hots, so there's the answer to that question.

[John]

We sexualize hot women. It is not like fat ugly girls get a pass if they have red hair or no one lusts after Penelope Cruz because she is not a red head.

[LynchPin1477]

Well yeah, I thought that went without saying.

And in the name of equality, let me just say that I'm totally fine with sexualizing hot guys.

[Warty]

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG

[Lady Bertrum]

The British seem to have a real dislike for all things ginger - a creepy obsessive love/hate thing.

[SugarFree]

Red hair used to be considered a racial trait of the Scot, the Irish, and worst of all... The Jew.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Red hair used to be a trait of the Scots? You obviously never lived here bro. This place is Ginger Ground Zero.

[SugarFree]

I mean "racial trait" as in stereotype. The British only cared about red hair insomuch as it could used to identify a group they were biased against, not that there are no longer redheads in Scotland.

[paranoid android]

Yes, but I believe over there they spell it "Irish"

[Killaz]

In Spain they were discriminated against because red hair was the mark of the Jew. Interestingly, though Lebanon and Syria both have a reputation for hot redheads, I'll vouch for a Lebanese lady I once knew, it doesn't seem so common in the Middle East now, though. Even Mohammed was described as a redhead. Perhaps, much of what we consider Semitic traits are the results of later day invasions by the Turks, Tamerlane and the Mongols? Or, Mohammed was an oddity of his culture, and Syria happened to be where the Romans kept a mass of Celtic mercenaries for a few centuries thus spreading their red hair trait in the gene pool? By the way, it is red hair occurs naturally in Africa as well, but is the result of a different chromosomal factor than the European variant.

[Killaz]

Epi, dude this beer you recommended is wonderful. Like liquid cocaine if you didn't notice.

[Episiarch]

Which beer was that? The Ayinger Celebrator? The Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball? Petrus Sour Ale?

[Killaz]

The Ayinger. At 15 bucks for a four pack from Total Wine that includes tax, it was a steal.

[Episiarch]

Awesome. Glad you like it. It's an excellent beer. Now I want to go to Feierabend and get Jaeger Schnitzel and some Ayinger.

[SugarFree]

Ayinger Ur Weiss is great is you are a fan of wheat beers.

[Nikki just says no]

Oooh, thanks for the tip, I haven't tried that one.

[Killaz]

Do you know if their Ayinger Br?u Weisse is up to par? I saw that in stock when I was there. One of the few Sierra Nevada selections I really don' care for is there take on the style.

[SugarFree]

Br?u Weisse is a good German weisse of the heavy style*, but the Ur is better in my mind. Schneider Weisse is another great beer in that vein.

*The darker and yeastier as opposed to creamy and lemony like Franzikaner.

[Killaz]

I'll keep that in mind, and that settles it. 2014 is the year for sampling a lot of German beers. TW likely has 600 varieties covering the Holy Roman Empire region. I punched in lots of names on beer advocate as I was there browsing. Over a dozen with a 96 or better score. That's incredible given the biasing towards hoppy versus malty brews. Not that that bothers me.

[Agammamon]

And red-headed men tend to look like Conan O'Brien *before* make-up and wardrobe gets ahold of him.

[Corning]

Jessica Rabbit

25 year old movie that I have completely forgotten about...

And when i type in femme fatale into google image all i get are blonds and brunettes and this:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.c.....overlg.jpg

[PapayaSF]

Related: Women with large breasts are considered attractive, but men with large breasts are not. Discuss.

[Rich]

*** meekly raises hand ***

Can his breasts be attached to his wife?

[JEP]

As everyone knows Rich, a man owns his wife, and therefore by extension, her breasts are his breasts...

So, yes.

[PD Scott]

What about red headed men with large breasts?

[Francisco d Anconia]

I'm soooo seeexeey!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I've had women tell me they like my red hair and others tell me they don't. People have different preferences. This offends people, apparently.

[Killaz]

Some dudes look good with it, others don't. It's always a combination of factors that make for a good symmetry. Pale, vampiric looking brunette waifs, or bronze skinned African athletic amazons, could not be more different in appearance, but in their own combination, are hot as hell.

[waffles]

Shaun White? Totally ginger and a badass snowboarder.

[John]

I would like to hate that little hoodlum. But considering the number of hot women he must bang and the amount of fabulous weed the snowboarding community is known to consume, my hatred would just be badly disguised envy.

[JW]

No, it's OK to hate that annoying rat fuck. I might even have a party, were he to be swallowed up by an avalanche.

[Killaz]

^this. I might have to indulge it just to understand what envy feels like.

[GILMORE]

Dear god, slate is close to the center of the earth in their quest to dig an even deeper Pit of Stupid.

Hopefully soon they will strike the core and drown in pure molten Stupid-Magma.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

This week's Christmas holiday Kwaanza-friendly example of that Progressive and Respect We've All Come To Love and Respect:

Launching off a study that found, in 1994, that having a daughter made parents (not just dads) more likely to be Republican, he describes the "satisfied tingle" he got thinking about how lovely it is to discover that having a daughter made you more, not less, likely to be a misogynist. Not his exact words, but basically his point: He was ecstatic to discover that having a daughter makes you more likely to want to strip women of basic reproductive rights and embrace the viewpoint that women are better off being tightly controlled than free to make their own decisions.

Having daughters is the gateway drug to misogyny. OK, sure.

Women are subhuman harpies that are so unbelievably irritating and tedious that the only way to talk men into tolerating their presence is to dangle the possibility of sex in front of them. And if they can get sex without having to put up with women on a more permanent basis, they'll take that opportunity. Why women should take a deal which involves having our human rights stripped from us in hopes that we can use that as leverage to get men who can't stand us to move into our homes, I have no fucking clue.

Yeah, me neither.

[LynchPin1477]

Women are subhuman harpies that are so unbelievably irritating and tedious that the only way to talk men into tolerating their presence is to dangle the possibility of sex in front of them.

Only the ones who write stuff like this.

[MJGreen]

Though there's the unstated assumption that any guy would want to have sex with such a woman.

[Killaz]

These types never really get it. When guys rag on you as hard as they do their own buddies, it means you are an accepted member of the tribe and you have their respect. You know, the boy who pulled your hair. He really was trying to get your attention.

[The Late P Brooks]

When talking about Congress, few terms worry me more than "bipartisan deal".

Any time I hear the term, "bipartisan consensus" my ass hurts.

[Warty]

This is amusing.

The change was so noticeable that an AFP/Getty photographer assigned to cover the event noted in a photo caption only that Obama was there to 'meet with executives from leading tech companies to discuss progress with healthcare.gov.'

[SugarFree]

That is a great picture of The Official Mouthpiece.

Instameme!

[JW]

He smelled the last microgram of his pride burning into a cinder, at that moment.

[Lady Bertrum]

Eric Schmidt always looks like a Nazi.

[Lady Bertrum]

Also, I think he is/was a ginger. Coincidence?

[SugarFree]

Ash, ash--
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

[Hyperion]

Comrade Edward, do NOT trust the Dilma! You've been warned, homem.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Jennifer Lawrence: It should be illegal to call people fat on TV

Jennifer Lawrence said "it should be illegal" to call someone fat and, in an interview with Barbara Walters, railed against people who bash the way women look.

"Because why is humiliating people funny?" the 23-year-old Oscar winner told Walters in an interview for the upcoming ABC News special, "Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013."

"I just think it should be illegal to call somebody fat on TV."

Lawrence became Hollywood's new "It" girl after she was picked to play Katniss Everdeen, the heroine in the film adaptations of the "Hunger Games" series. It's a role that launched Lawrence to mega-stardom. Since stepping into the spotlight, Lawrence has been criticized for her figure, considered full by Hollywood standards, and it makes her furious.

"I get it, and, and I do it too, we all do it," she told Walters.

"[But] the media needs to take responsibility for the effect that it has on our younger generation, on these girls who are watching these television shows, and picking up how to talk and how to be cool.
"I mean, if we're regulating cigarettes and sex and cuss words, because of the effect they have on our younger generation, why aren't we regulating things like calling people fat?" she said.

[Mad Scientist]

Freedom of speech really means the freedom to hear speech you don't find offensive.

[John]

"Because why is humiliating people funny?"

Why is anything funny? It just is Jennifer.

I guess got in the boob and hot ass line and missed getting in line for a brain.

[Dead or In Jail]

Nevertheless, I would sex her.

[Bam!]

I can say why she'd want to outlaw name calling after getting that hair cut.

[John]

It is awful. But good God does she have a great body.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

If only there were (ideally) two adults in a child's life that could teach them what is and is not appropriate behavior. But I have no idea what we would call those two adults that raise children and instill values.

And if she's concerned about the media making kids into fat-shamers because they sometimes see it on TV and in the theaters I guess we should start worrying about our daughters picking up bow and arrows and killing people.

[waffles]

You sicken me with your thinly veiled racism and normative family values.

[Drake]

I forgot Barbara Walters was still alive and asking really important questions.

[Sevo]

"I forgot Barbara Walters was still alive"...

Life support has made great strides.

[paranoid android]

So she's going to turn herself in for those fat jokes at Zach Galifianakis's expense when she did Between Two Ferns, right?

[John]

Calling men fat is different. You know the patriarchy.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Ever since the days of Fatty Arbuckle fat men have been able to turn their fatness into bankable comedy.

It's just another example of hetero-cisgender male privilege trumping fat prejudice.

[Invisible Finger]

But Fatty Arbuckle was a ginger. At least he ruined his own career instead of Technicolor doing it.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Well it was really the amoral and opportunistic San Francisco District Attorney that ruined his career.

[BigT]

Hey hey hey!!!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"Because why is humiliating people funny?"

I don't know, Jennifer, maybe you should ask every comedian ever. Maybe you should watch a Japanese game show. Maybe you should crack open one of Shakespeare's comedies. Hell, you can go waaaay back and read Plautus. Humiliation is the central element of comedy, whether it's mockery or self-deprecation.

[Winston]

Hell, you can go waaaay back and read Plautus

Uncultured philistine. Aristophanes and Menander did it first!

[Freedom Frog]

"I mean, if we're regulating cigarettes and sex and cuss words, because of the effect they have on our younger generation, why aren't we regulating things like calling people fat?" she said.

Jesus Christ. All hope is lost.

[cavalier973]

How about "fathead"? Is it okay to call people "fatheads"?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Letter to the Washington Post: Robert E. Lee was a traitor, not an American hero of any kind

The Dec. 13 letter from Wesley C. Haines-Ynfante extolling Robert E. Lee as "a great American hero" ["Lee was not a proponent of slavery"] was the final straw for me. A man who betrayed his oath as a graduate of West Point to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States, Lee not only took up arms against his country but also arguably, by his participation, caused untold death and destruction and the elongation of the Civil War.

This man, whose statue graces the halls of our Capitol , has nonetheless managed to receive the blessing of history. How can a traitor to his country be recognized by multitudes as one of its heroes?

---Max Beard, Alexandria

[John]

Looks like someone lit the Liberty Mike signal.

[Drake]

Weren't our Founding Fathers all traitors?

[John]

To England? Absolutely they were.

[Clich? Bandit]

Not Arnold.

[PD Scott]

That fickle bitch...

[Francisco d Anconia]

But they won. That makes them patriots.

[Corning]

Now is a good time to remind everyone that it was the confederates who started the civil war.

[Heroic Mulatto]

No. The way the Union was dressed, they were asking for it.

[CE]

How can a traitor to his country be recognized by multitudes as one of its heroes?

You mean like Abraham Lincoln?

(ducks)

[Mad Scientist]

Or FDR?

[Killaz]

Finally, someone had the guts to call General Lee out.

[cavalier973]

How can a traitor to his country be recognized by multitudes as one of its heroes?

Because "his country" was Virginia, not the cooperative of nations known as "The United States".

[John]

http://www.bizjournals.com/was.....sonal.html

DC Far outpaces nation in personal income gains. I am sure the black Jesus is working this inequality day and night.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Something tells me those gains aren't spread equally across the residents of DC, either.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://twitchy.com/2013/12/15/.....mile-pics/

If you suffer from dizzy spells, nausea, vertigo and the like. Don't click on the link.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I'd say "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" but that would be racist. Right?

[The Late P Brooks]

I'm creating #gingermicrogressions and #freckledmicrogressions so I can tweet the stupid shit people say about redheads.

Freckles? I prefer to call them "rotten spots".

[Lady Bertrum]

+1

[Heroic Mulatto]

Fuck Hug-y, Touch-y people.

Seriously. Don't hug people when a handshake would suffice. And don't thrust out your germy clammy hand when just saying "Hi" would do. And if you see I'm busy and have someplace to go, just don't fucking try to talk to me.

[Lady Bertrum]

SF'd the link.

[SugarFree]

Haw-haw! You me'd that all up.

[Rich]

And don't use proper HTML, either!

[SugarFree]

HTML tried to hug him once.

[Nikki just says no]

And it was so angular!

[BakedPenguin]

The HTML was touching him!

[BakedPenguin]

feely-pwnd

[SugarFree]

Just put them together... When HTML hugged him, its hands lingered.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Your links probably has germs anyway.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Here's the goddam link

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

This is appropriate

[Heroic Mulatto]

Considering that Sting was actually an English teacher at one point, it's very appropriate.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Best Photobombs of 2013

[Corning]

That dog in the apartment shots is awesome.

[Agammamon]

Uh, they do understand that its *not* a photobomb if you *intended* the other person to be in the photo, right.

Trump and Bolt aren't photobombing anything.

[Corning]

I still have not got an answer from yesterday: If you clone some meat from some random human skin cells found in dust is it ok to kill the meat and fuck it without a consent contract?

[OldMexican]

Re: Corning,

If you clone some meat from some random human skin cells found in dust is it ok to kill the meat and fuck it without a consent contract?

A consent contract from whom?

[Corning]

The random person/persons that was the previous owner of the skin cells found in dust.

[SugarFree]

If they cared about their skin cells they wouldn't just leave them laying around. Once you discard something, it's hard to argue it is still your property when someone repurposes it. And even if it is still theirs, all they are due back is a single dead cell.

[Agammamon]

Are you working on some mad scientists type stuff and are looking to get the legal angles worked out in advance?

Because you're question is kinda dumb.

[Mickey Rat]

"Killing your own clone is still murder."
- Odo

I would presume killing and raping someone else's clone is also murder and assault.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

if anyone has time....can you read this and sum up a good libertarian response for me? You guys are better at this than me. Doesnt have to be long, my brain is fried but this broad i know sent it to me and asked me to read it. I did....it is bullshit but I can't seem to find the words to tear it apart.

http://www.truth-out.org/opini.....f-violence

[Nikki just says no]

Well I mean, a lot of it is fine...and a lot of it is just non-argument. I mean, e.g.

Where is the public outrage when an increasing number of behaviors are criminalized by the punishing state? ...These types of violence become rampant in a society when aesthetic and economic criteria displace moral considerations and the search for intense pleasure and profits replaces the search for justice. The police state thrives in the midst of a culture of infantilization and the spectacles of violence. A collective amnesia provides the precondition for authoritarian brutality.

The first question (and the bit I clipped) is good. But there's absolutely no evidence given for any of the rest of what I quoted. What does it have to do with profits? It's all just assumed. Pure assumption. I'm not seeing much to tear apart because there ain't much there.

[SugarFree]

Giroux assumes that violence is somehow a novel concept among humans, when all history is awash in suffering and blood. And "spectacle" is just a fancy word for good old fashion Marxist false consciousness. Assuming your ideological opponents only think the way they do because they are brainwashed is arguing in extreme bad faith.

[Nikki just says no]

Yeah, ditto all this. So boring.

[SugarFree]

It's the written equivalent of Telfon: so boring your eyes just slip off of it.

[Nikki just says no]

"Spectacle" should just be considered a trigger word for me at this point.

[Clich? Bandit]

You just ditto'd all of SF...eeewwww.

[SugarFree]

"The area is no longer infected. You may proceed."

[Corning]

Violent crime rates are down across the board despite popular access and consumption by the most violent age groups of ultra realistic violent video games.

When reading crap like this it is always good to look at the original premise and compare it with reality. The author tries to connect our consumption of violent entertainment with real violence...only problem is real violence has declined while violent entertainment has increased.

[Invisible Finger]

Also goes for rape and porn, too. Rapes down, porn up.

(prison rape excepted)

[The Late P Brooks]

The spectacle has been energized and reworked under the forces of neoliberalism and now promotes a mix of infantilism, brutality, disposability and lawlessness. As the visibility of extreme violence is endlessly reproduced in various cultural apparatuses and screen cultures, it functions increasingly, alongside a range of other economic and political forces, to legitimate a culture of cruelty and disposability in everyday life. Pleasure is now colonized in the service of violence, reinforcing Rustom Bharacuha's claim that "there is an echo of the pornographic in maximizing the pleasure of violence."

I don't speak this bizarre space alien pidgin-English dialect. You're on your own.

[Heroic Mulatto]

1980's: Let's make movies where Van Damme and Steven Segal are locked in a Southeast Asian prison and have to kickbox their way to freedom.

2013: Thailand's correctional facilities policy.

I just wished they televised that shit when I was over there.

[OldMexican]

The Senate approved the two-year budget deal by a 67-33 vote. Twelve Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the bipartisan deal.

Finally! Now we can leave the partisan nonsense behind us and get back to bankrupting the country in peace!

[Sevo]

So most everyone knows, Oakland, CA is in trouble. Violence, lack of business, can't afford city services.
So, what to do? Why, close off traffic!
"Oakland looks to unsnarl car traffic around new plaza"
[...]
"But as friendly as Latham is to pedestrians, it has left drivers and nearby business owners seething."
Effing 'feel-good' lefties!
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....to-5015208

[Killaz]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets the role as Morpheus.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.c.....yer-666070

Time to dig out those Cure CDs and black make up.

[Corning]

The origin story is kind of lackluster for a Hollywood treatment.

And any movie would have to spend the first 45 min just explaining what the fuck is going on and who the fuck is this god of Dreams fellow.

I do not see how it could ever work.

TV series would be cool.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Has h&r gotten bullet-pointy, or am I descending into madness?

[Corning]

huh?

It is PM/AM links. Been that way fo'eva.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Must be my device. I can't see it now.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I mean the comments.

[GILMORE]

A note to fellow H&R regulars =

- this poet, 'On the Road to Mandalay' who has recently been appearing on the board? This ...thing.... creates multiple personas in threads and argues with/agrees with itself. Next time they pop up, note this = its foil is usually the only person who speaks whom The Road will not in some way insist in its engaging in some form of anal self-penetration. Weird, I know, but that seems to be its 'tell'.

I think its "Mary", version 3.0 or something.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, I think it's Mary.

[Ken Shultz]

"Edward Snowden, in an open letter to the people of Brazil, offered to help assist the government investigate allegations of U.S. spying on them."

Isn't Snowden starting to risk the wrath of Putin?

I thought he was granted temporary asylum under the condition that he stopped...um...making trouble.

[JeremyR]

Trouble for Russia. Embarrassing the US is just good fun for him.

[RishJoMo]

Sometimes man you jsut have to roll with the punches.

http://www.AnonGoes.tk