No Stay for Utah Gay Marriages, Inventor of AK-47 Dies, Colo. Resorts Prep for Pot Tourism: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: brian.ch / Foter.com / CC BY

  A judge has declined to order a stay in the demand that Utah start licensing and recognizing same-sex marriages while the appeals process begins. Meanwhile in Ohio, a federal judge has ruled that the state's ban on recognizing same-sex marriage is also unconstitutional, but wrote the ruling in such a way that it applies only to death certificates.

• Edward Snowden, in an interview with Brazilian television clarified that he is absolutely not offering to share US intelligence to foreign countries in exchange for amnesty.
• Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor the AK-47, is dead at age 94. Please do not fire your guns in the air as a form of salute.
• Dennis Rodman has left North Korea. He did not meet Kim Jong-Un, who is probably off doing his King Joffrey bit elsewhere.
• Colorado resorts are preparing for marijuana tourism, a little bit worried that visitors won't know the rules and think they can just toke up wherever.
• President Barack Obama has allegedly enrolled for Obamacare coverage but it's all symbolic and doesn't actually apply to him.

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

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

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama has allegedly enrolled for Obamacare coverage but it's all symbolic and doesn't actually apply to him.

Pshaw. He'll be signing up for the top shelf Bullshit Plan.

[Mad Scientist]

So he's just put it in his shopping cart.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Just wait until he gets penaltaxed.

[Mad Scientist]

I'll bet he knows a guy who knows a guy who can take care of that.

[Kid Xenocles]

Basically he just gummed up the works for the rest of you.

[R C Dean]

I'll believe it when I see his cancelled check for a premium.

Forget the fact that he has free health coverage for life. Does anyone think he would even "enroll" in the bug-infested, security-impaired website?

[BigT]

You think Obama fears identity theft?

More likely he is trying to pin his legacy on someone else.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor the AK-47, is dead at age 94. Please do not fire your guns in the air as a form of salute.

Not many guns end up on the flag of a country.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Don't worry. After our "intervention" in Southern Sudan, their new flag will prominently feature an M4 carbine.

[Sudden]

Not sure ending up on the flag of Mozambique is an unmitigated success.

[Killaz]

My nephew is a huge fan of Kalashnikov. He'll be home in a half an hour, and I'll break the news to him.

He plays in airsoft tournies, and is on the Warsaw Pact team. His commander is an honest to Stalin ex paratrooper in the Russian army who fought in Afghanistan. I've met him once, he's intimidating.

[Michael]

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

[2ndClassProle]

AK.... forty...seven, when absolutely, positively have to kill every motherfucker in the room.

[LarryA]

Sorry. All I can think about is hot brass + skin. I've been too long teaching.

[jesse.in.mb]

Colorado resorts are preparing for marijuana tourism, a little bit worried that visitors won't know the rules and think they can just toke up wherever.

The horror!

[2ndClassProle]

I would think some bars would pop up just for this.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those mistakes will be a boon to the Colorado SWAT industry.

[Protagoronus]

Maybe Reason could offer a guide to navigating these new rules. I'm asking for a friend.

[jesse.in.mb]

I bet Vice will have a snarky guide on the topic. Maybe some cross posting or something.

[T]

Y'know, Vice has a pretty good columnist that be perfect for this kind of thing. What's her name again... something to do with deer...

[SIV]

Does weed kill the spelling brain cells?

[T]

Only the weak ones, SIV. And some of mine are pretty damn weak because I only feed them bourbon and amphetamines.

[Brett L]

You should mix some opiates in there, just to shake them up. Like the muscle confusion the P90X guy sells people.

[Sudden]

PCP.

The answer is always PCP.

[Corning]

My recipe for laudanum:

-Put heroin in bottle of vodka.

-mix

[Fist of Etiquette]

...he is absolutely not offering to share US intelligence to foreign countries in exchange for amnesty.

That could have a lot to do with his knowledge of how the United States government is operating these days and what an amnesty deal from them would actually be worth.

[Auric Demonocles]

Maybe he's just trying to drive up the asking price.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The price would have to be pretty high. Not many countries' airspaces are as U.S. murder drone free as Russia's.

[andarm16]

I think the Bipartisan Serious People are stupid enough to send murder drones into Russian territory, provided that they had a good enough reason. Then they'd spin the resulting nuclear war as Russian Aggression.

[andarm16]

Actually, it's not stupidity. It's more an issue of entitlement.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Dennis Rodman has left North Korea. He did not meet Kim Jong-Un, who is probably off doing his King Joffrey bit elsewhere.

He was probably too busy having a Wii bowling tournament with his entourage.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Dennis Rodman has left North Korea. He did not meet Kim Jong-Un...

No meet? Sounds like the beginning steps of a certain dipshit former NBA-er getting purged.

[Derpetologist]

This is Derp News Special Bullentin- The tune to the Gilligan's Island theme song is just a sped up version of Stairway to Heaven.

[hamilton]

Is this new? I though I first heard this theory 25 years ago in college or something. I may be hallucinating.

[Derpetologist]

New to me. This video shows that almost all hit songs of the past 40 years use the same 4 chords.

[Tejicano]

Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne" is the same melody as the 1812 overture.

[Rasilio]

I'll just leave this here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

[CatoTheElder]

Thanks. Never having been a cellist, I always liked Pachebel's Canon.

But that video is really good.

[2ndClassProle]

Seasons Greetings from Chuck Norris

[BakedPenguin]

The tune to the Gilligan's Island theme song is just a sped up version of Stairway to Heaven.

Spirit has a better case to make.

[2ndClassProle]

Jimmy Page ripped off a whole lotta people.

[Enough About Palin]

That is one of the most common, basic chord progressions ever. It could could have been stolen from It's Been a Long, Long Time by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne.

[T]

What's even more fun is that you can sing Emily Dickinson's Death to the Gilligan's Island music, which is usually good for a WTF moment.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Dear Prudence: Help! I'm newlywed but I might be in love with my friend!

I've had a close male friend that I've been secretly in love with for years...Aside from a fun weeklong fling over a decade ago, we've always kept it platonic, mostly because one of us was always dating someone in the couple of times a year we'd see each other. Flash forward to this year when I told him my boyfriend and I were getting married. He seemed shocked, but happy for me, came out to help me prepare for the big day and was an all-around champ. After the wedding I talked to my new mother-in-law and was shocked to find out that he referred to me as "the one who got away" in his own life. What? I never went anywhere and he never said anything! I used to tell my girlfriends that he was the one I'd run away with if he ever expressed any interest. Now, two days after my wedding I'm stuck with this thought that we've been mutually and silently in love with each other for years.

BTW, I love my husband dearly and we have a lovely life together. I'm not interested in leaving, nor do I regret any decision I've made. Mostly I wonder how I go on knowing there was a possibility for that other life I always dreamed of but never believed in. Do I ever say anything to him about this?

Not over it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Let the countdown begin to disastrous affair and realizing that you're probably not compatible in anything other than fantasy land, but not before ruining your marriage.

[Sudden]

Oh, her tawdry romantic laison with this fella will begin in earneast, and they'll likely enjoy somewhere between 18-24 months of what she thinks will be genuine happiness. Then she'll fall outta love just like she did with the chap she hitched and try moving onto the next tryst.

But the problem is she will ultimately hit the wall somewhere between the ages of 30-35 and find herself unable to any longer attract her ill-conceived notions of what she's entitled to, at which point she'll either leave that guy and become a cat-lady spinster or she'll settle for the man she's with and rue the day she left the original man she married.

I kinda picture it playing out like this with my ex-wife. The schaudenfreude will be quite enjoyable.

[Mad Scientist]

Holy shit, were you married to my first wife too?

[Sudden]

Haha. I only separated back in March, found out about a month after we split that she had started seeing someone while I was dropping thousands on her idea of a marriage therapist for us. She's still in the blissfully unaware of her own primal brain stage where she thinks she's in love with this guy. I give it another year before she tires. And part of me wants her to and suffer the endless throes of her own idiocy, but at the same time I don't want to have her calling me and trying to reconcile and reconnect.

[Mad Scientist]

My ex would call me every few months "just to see how things are going." This was code for, "I want to make sure you're poorer than the guy I'm dating now," but the really sad thing was I don't think she really knew that was the reason she was calling.

If there's one thing I've learned about dating someone who cheated on someone else to date you, they'll soon be cheating on you to date someone else.

[Brett L]

If there's one thing I've learned about dating someone who cheated on someone else to date you, they'll soon be cheating on you to date someone else.

This was the most valuable thing I learned in college.

[Auric Demonocles]

That was a lesson I figured out conceptually myself before having to experience it personally.

[Restoras]

Mine still calls to bitch about her friends. I thought a benefit of my own split would be not having to hear about that crap anymore.

[Sudden]

I don't know why you answer.

My saving grace is that we had no kids and divorced after barely a year of marriage (her dad dying six months into our marriage corresponding to when she devolved into sluttery). So I have the great advantage of not having any obligations which would force me to ever interact with her again.

[JW]

Now wait, we all couldn't have married and divorced the same woman.

[Mad Scientist]

I'm not sure why not. She seems to get around.

[JW]

You might be onto something. She was married 3 times before she turned 30, and I was #2. Are you #1 or #3?

And yes, the philandering bitch cheated with me on her live-in cop boyfriend, with whom she cheated with on #1. The guy she cheated on me with, didn't become #3, but I'm sure #3 came into the picture before she dumped #2.5.

[Mad Scientist]

We had an on again, off again thing for years, so I was boyfriend #5 and #15 and #40 before becoming husband #1.

[JW]

Whoa, that's way too much consistency for my ex.

That must have been her cousin.

[Sudden]

Mine left me for a guy who prides himself on his prowess as an adult softball league player for a team named "Beer Goggles", no doubt named to match their wonderous penchant for beer bonging Coors Light.

Jesus, if she left me for a mildly intelligen and somewhat cultured human being, I might not have grown to loath her so much.

But an adult softball league enthusiast? I simply cannot comprehend that level of teh stupid.

[Mad Scientist]

On the bright side, at least she didn't leave you for Warty.

[Sudden]

At least if she left me for Warty I would've known I wasn't rapey enough to keep up with the 50 Shades of Grey cultural shift.

My goal in sexual relations is to become more rapey without actually raping. Its a fine line to straddle.

[JW]

Meh, like me, just be happy that you were set free early, humbled and educated by your very, very poor choice in mates.

[Tonio]

JW, Dude, I'm not being harsh, but if I'm reading that correctly you knowingly were party to a relationship in which she was cheating on someone else. You really thought she wouldn't just turn around and cheat on you? Also, karma is a bitch.

[JW]

Tonio--The story, as it goes, is never as simple as you think. Let's just say I'm now not as naive as I once was.

And yes, it is a bitch, but it teaches important lessons, like to stay away from manipulative, sociopath women.

[Entropy Void]

So you are gay now?

[R C Dean]

My ex would call me every few months "just to see how things are going." This was code for, "I want to make sure you're poorer than the guy I'm dating now,"

And you never yanked that chain? C'mon man!

"Gotta run. Usually, the NetJet charter plane just waits for me, but they double-booked it so they're on a schedule this time. Its cool, though, I met the other couple on the plane at [insert swanky fundraiser here]. Small world, huh?"

[Rasilio]

Ha, outside of having to deal with the occasional spurious call to DFCS and her telling everyone I had gigs of child porn on my computer I got lucky. I moved out of state 6 months after my ex and I split and then she married a Brit and moved overseas.

I haven't had to deal with her in more than a decade.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wow. Sorry to hear that. Musta been rough.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Actually, all you guys need a pint on me.

[Tonio]

I'm mid-atlantic, bro. Shout out anytime.

[JW]

I'm mid-atlantic, bro.

Same here, but you're buying me a pint now.

[Sudden]

Downtown L.A. and I'll gladly accept a free pint anytime.

[fish]

The schaudenfreude will be quite enjoyable.

You haven't lived until, post divorce, you see your ex and realize she outweighs you!

(I played offensive line in college)

[Ann N]

that's disgusting.

[wareagle]

I'm not interested in leaving, nor do I regret any decision I've made.

which is why I can't stop thinking about this guy. Totes magotes.

[Ska]

Tug McScrotes.

[Brett L]

Trolling. This is just chick-fic written from the perspective of the chick from Love Actually married to the government agent from Serenity.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Mostly I wonder how I go on knowing there was a possibility for that other life I always dreamed of but never believed in.

Jesus, Buddha, and Thor! The bitch actually complains that she's not prescient?

[Auric Demonocles]

So why didn't it work at the end of that fling? Cause those reasons probably apply now too.

And I'm pretty sure these two contradict:

nor do I regret any decision I've made

I wonder how I go on knowing there was a possibility for that other life I always dreamed of but never believed in.

[Sudden]

And I'm pretty sure these two contradict:

Wimminz are not particularly known for their discomfort with cognitivie dissonance. That is why there are no female libertarians.

[Zeb]

I don't see much contradiction. I think everyone can imagine a better life than they have and wonders what might have happened if they made different choices. Doesn't mean they regret what they did do necessarily.

[Ann N]

the real word there is 'yearn', not 'wonder'.

dont kid yourself.

ppl who wonder dont savage the lives of those around them. wonder is passive curiosity. that's not enough to destroy lives.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Maybe she's seen the 'Before' trilogy, those three movies starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy with a somewhat similar premise.

[Auric Demonocles]

There's a trilogy with this premise?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Sort of. Basically an American meets a Frenchwoman in Europe. They develop a deep bond after spending one night together. In the second movie, set years later, they meet again by chance and the American leaves his wife to be with her because both have been plagued by the thought of what could have been.

And in the third movie we see them 10 years later, still married but with kids.

All are pretty good movies. It's impressive that they stretched it out over 17 years.

[Sy]

Dear Prudence: Help! I'm an idiot and a shitty person!

[Mike M.]

President Barack Obama has allegedly enrolled for Obamacare coverage but it's all symbolic and doesn't actually apply to him.

"Michelle, honey, what does '404 error' mean? Ahh forget it, just tell the dumb schmucks I signed up."

[Sudden]

I believe he might have had some 404 error issues due to the inability to verify state of birth...

[Bardas Phocas]

He didn't really enroll. The layers of bad PR and failed optics are thick with this "symbolic" enrollment.
HE didn't enroll - his staff enrolled him.
And they didn't use that intertube thingy - they went down to the DC office and did it on paper - like fucking neanderthals.

"Like some Americans, the complicated nature of the president's case required an in-person sign-up," the official said. "As you'd expect, the president's personal information is not readily available in the variety of government databases HealthCare.gov uses to verify identities."
BECAUSE HE'S AN ALIEN CYBORG! HE'S NOT IN ANY OF THE DATABASES!
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

http://www.politico.com/story/.....html?hp=l1

[Kid Xenocles]

""As you'd expect, the president's personal information is not readily available in the variety of government databases HealthCare.gov uses to verify identities.""

Well no, I wouldn't expect that. At all. If the government should have the identifying information for anyone, shouldn't it be the current President?

[Rasilio]

Yeah, they have a system that obscures certain key individuals data, so in the 3rd party system it shows up as Dave Cowen from Peoria Illinois and he's a GS4 for the midwest Milk Market but inside OPM's internal systems they can translate that back to Barack Obama.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

English major forced to work a warehouse job

I now work at Goodwill Industries as a production associate. Basically, I work in a warehouse. I make $9.25 an hour, and it covers almost all the bills. I still am racking up a deficit every month. I'm definitely trying to find another job because I have an MBA.

I went to the University of Alaska for my undergraduate, and I remember trying to get out of Alaska for a long time. I got my undergraduate in English, but there's not a market in English majors, I'm afraid. So I switched over to my master's in business and moved south.

I bike a mile and a half into my job. And I work a full eight-hour shift, which involves tons and tons of books -- we move about one metric ton of books a day. Sorting through all of them, going through the donations and pricing them, putting them on the shelves.

I feel it's sort of -- I hate to say it -- beneath me, but at the same time, I'm grateful. For anything. I mean, yeah, it's dirty work and often demeaning work, but at least it's work.

At least she knows where she went wrong?

[Sudden]

One wonders where the MBA came from.

[fish]

The Milton Bradley Academy.

[hamilton]

Wow. A full eight hour shift. Lordy.

[wareagle]

seriously. The kids in the mine call that a half day.

[Pope Jimbo]

The gunney I used to work for would always refer to 12 hour shifts as half days and ask us why we were bitching because everyone he knew wanted to work half days.

[EdWuncler]

OMG, I have to actually work hard! My grandfather who lived through Jim Crow South, had a third grade education, and is for all practical purposes, an illiterate found pride in hard work. He had fourteen kids and took care of them all without the help of Uncle Sam. Fuck these whiny kids and their sense of entitlement.

[Mad Scientist]

B-b-but she got an education! People with educations are supposed to look down on stockers at Goodwill, not work alongside them!

[fish]

Yeah and no matter how much you scrub you can never completely wash away the stigma....

[Bardas Phocas]

The common people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3UfxyIdgs

[Mad Scientist]

I mean, yeah, it's dirty work and often demeaning work, but at least it's work.

Sorting donations, pricing them, and putting them on shelves is demeaning? You'd think an English major would have a better grasp of language.

[Brett L]

Well, the fact that he's actually the second choice behind people who got community service sentences for being white in possession or first time DUI must sting.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Sorting donations, pricing them, and putting them on shelves is demeaning?

She left out the part where she does it in the nude.

[T]

So, what's the url? I'm sure you already went and looked it up.

[Brett L]

Rule 34 goes too far.

[Auric Demonocles]

I can think of a certain commentator who probably is into this fantasy.

[hamilton]

I can think of a certain commentator who commentariat that probably is into this fantasy.

FTFY

[Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward!]

Good catch.

[Corning]

it's dirty work and often demeaning work

I think she means that working around poor people is "dirty and demeaning".

[Heroic Mulatto]

But just think of the hard-knock-life novel she'll write!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

That's more initiative than I think she'll actually be showing.

[Kid Xenocles]

She's an English major. They don't write books, they critique them.

[2ndClassProle]

He should try trippin' pipe in fucking sleet for twelve hours.

[Brandon]

She. And WTF does trippin' pipe mean?

[hamilton]

Sex on LSD?

[2ndClassProle]

On a rig, when you have to lift the pipe stands out/in the hole, and it is done at 90ft stands at a time. If you been on the hole for awhile, it can a lengthy process going down tens of thousands of feet.

[robc]

The mistake was leaving Alaska.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Where do English majors generally find work?

[Brett L]

Starbucks? But not after they graduate. Starbucks makes you work for your $8.00 and hour.

[Zeb]

There will always be some call for english majors. You need ENglish teachers, editors, people to write boring books that no one reads. Unless you go into academia or study something technical it's not very common for people to work in something directly relevant to their field of study. Problem is too many people believed that college means an automatic good job, but you need to have some marketable skills too.

[Boisfeuras]

They become English professors, in order to train the next generation of English majors. Duh.

[Medical Physics Guy]

That's a great career path if you don't mind this lifestyle

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's an extreme case, and I think the chronic illness has a lot to do with it. However, on the whole, yeah, adjuncts are low-paid. Adjunct-ing is not supposed to be a long-term gig though.

Oh, and lady, if you speak Spanish and Italian well enough to teach it at the college level, you can also do freelance translation work from the comfort of your own library computer and/or smartphone. Depending on the text, you could earn like 15 to 20 cents per word per text.

[Tejicano]

She couldn't afford the licensing fees to continue teaching high school. Sounds like somebody couldn't figure out how to skip a couple dinners out per month to save up for those fees. Or it's complete BS.

[paranoid android]

I was an English major, and a couple years after graduating found myself with a pretty nice gig as an analyst for a legal administration firm. Not really "using my degree" to its greatest extent, but it's not like I was planning on making a living writing essays about Faulkner.

I think the problem a lot of my cohorts have is that sense of entitlement (shocker with my generation, I know). There's still this pretty ingrained sense in a lot of college students that after you graduate, a host of angels is supposed to descend with a golden job offer. The idea of going out there and trying to convince people of your usefulness and, yeah, maybe taking less pay than you really want for a while is frankly anathema to most of these people.

[SIV]

If she is sorting pricing un-sieved fresh donations of books she should be able to knock down another $25k a year at least. Does Goodwill not have an "employee discount"?

[Michael]

I bike a mile and a half into my job.

That's gotta be especially grueling on an English major, what with being something like seven miles round trip.

[Tonio]

[Stands and claps]

[Live Free or Diet]

we move about one metric ton of books a day.

2,204.62262 pounds.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"I feel it's sort of -- I hate to say it -- beneath me, but at the same time, I'm grateful."

She's halfway there.

Drop the 'demeaning' bull shit honey, cuz you ain't that unique especially with that degree, and you'll be alright.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Another thing.

Back in the day, society was governed by "elders" say like a father, a brother, caring boss, brother-in-law, grandmother, mother - whatever - who would slap you across the face for uttering such things.

[EdWuncler]

Even though I think government should be out of the marriage business completely, I can't wait till all states adopt same sex marriage. I am so tired of this being an issue and used as a proxy in the so called Culture War simply to get votes. I've always said the left's worse nightmare is when the GOP stop caring about gay marriage and abortion. They would then have to actually put their positions front and forward while having the scrutinized.

[Leigh]

what, then your only choices are for the borrow and spend party vs the ... oh wait, they are both the borrow and spend party...Then your only choices are the regulate everything party vs the ... oh wait, they are both the regulate everything party...Then your only choices are the anti-immigration party or the ... Oh wait, they are both the anti-immigration party. Then your only choices is the, ah fuck it. Their only choice is the fuck you that's why party.

[Ann N]

if they got rid of abortion, a smarmy wave of unloved babies would destroy civilization in under 2 decades.

all those babies would vote democrat, but they would be irrefutable proof of the true effects of liberalism.

liberalism, as an ideology, is artificially handicapped (dead fetuses) from bearing its natural fruit (liberal offspring).

I question whether its morally correct to support the destruction of Sandra Fluke's evil progeny. But one thing we do know, its in everyone's best interest.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Batman launches tirade in Times Square, ends up confronted by NYPD and two Spider-Men

[Heroic Mulatto]

That wasn't Bruce Wayne, it was Luke Fox (aka Batwing).

A common error.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I would have expected some smartass remarks from Spider-Man. Or the other Spider-Man.

And when will people learn to turn their phones landscape?

[The Late P Brooks]

I feel it's sort of -- I hate to say it -- beneath me, but at the same time, I'm grateful. For anything. I mean, yeah, it's dirty work and often demeaning work, but at least it's work.

Sorry, honey, but you'll be humping boxes of books until you die, unless you manage to pull your head out of your ass.

[fish]

Sorry, honey, but you'll be humping boxes of books until you die.....

Maybe she'll wind up humping something else.....

[Enough About Palin]

Colorado resorts are preparing for marijuana tourism

Why would anyone need to go to Colorado to buy a bag of weed?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Happy Festivus! Enjoy some impotent outrage from an Obama apologist

The White House did not receive much holiday cheer about Obamacare last week from public opinion pollsters, even though millions of Americans already are benefiting from the law. The numbers show just how big the disconnect is between the reality of what's occurred in health care since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and the perception that people have of the law resulting from the relentless campaign of misinformation from the president's opponents.

According to an Associated Press online survey, more people had unfavorable opinions of the law than favorable ones, with many people who have insurance through their employers blaming the law for the hike in premiums and deductibles they've been told to expect for next year.

The one thing that was clear from the survey is that most Americans have not yet heard about how the law already is helping them. Many of the respondents also appear to have short-term memory problems. They seem to have forgotten that premiums and deductibles have been going up, often by double digits, every year for at least a couple of decades. The reality is that the rate of premium increases since Obama signed the Affordable Care Act has been lower than in many previous years.

That's right, blame messaging and the stupidity of Americans.

[robc]

80% is lower than many previous years?

Thats bullshit.

Oh, but they probably didnt count mine, because it was technically a new plan, as my old one got cancelled*.

*yeah, I was able to renew my old one on 12/1 for one more year at only an 8% increase.

[Auric Demonocles]

But robc, have you considered how your new plan will now have maternity coverage for the Mrs-to-be? Did you ever consider what would happen on your old maternity-less plan if you got hit by a bus?

[Rasilio]

Hmm, when my twins were born, adding in the 2 days in the hospital becuase they were a bit early and then later on week in the NICU because some dr uppity about their not gaining weight as fast as he liked total cost was still less than $25,000.

If I had to pay that out of pocket it would have sucked but the payments would have been managable and it would not have bankrupted me.

[Enough About Palin]

"The one thing that was clear from the survey is that most Americans have not yet heard about how the law already is helping them."

If it was actually helping them, wouldn't they kinda notice? These people who write this shit are nuts.

[Sevo]

..."even though millions of Americans already are benefiting from the law."...

Having your insurance canceled is a *benefit*?

[Mad Scientist]

Sure, because now you have the opportunity to buy a different insurance plan with expensive coverage for things you don't need. It's win-win!

[2ndClassProle]

The numbers show just how big the disconnect is between the reality of what's occurred in health care since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and the perception that people have of the law resulting from the relentless campaign of misinformation from the president's opponents.

Talk about projection. Yeah, my rates have not gone up 118%, and the company got rid of its no cost to the employee, high deductible plan.

It is all in my head.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Nothing says, "I want to help you" like declaring that the people you want to help are ignorant.

It's rather astonishing how deeply embedded the Thomas Frank/George Lakoff philosophy of "messaging" has become in their day-to-day thinking. Also, LOL at that manchild's frustration over the poll results. Notice how much these assholes appeal to popularity when the polls swing their way, but start complaining about "messaging" and ignorance when it doesn't. You either believe in the sanctity of mass opinion or you don't (I don't, but that's because I don't want to have to rely on a fickle mob to determine what is in my best interest) if you're going to frame your arguments around the idea of popular support. The fact that they cynically focus on the message rather than the principle shows what a bunch of sociopathic, manipulative fucks they are.

[Enough About Palin]

It's rather astonishing how deeply embedded the Thomas Frank/George Lakoff philosophy of "messaging" has become in their day-to-day thinking.

It really is. My sister-in-law desperately wants Elizabeth Warren to be president and she believe that it will happen if they just get the messaging right. I don't have the heart to tell her that she's nuts if she thinks Warren will ever manage to get beyond all of her evil bullshit.

[Sevo]

..."I don't have the heart to tell her that she's nuts if she thinks Warren will ever manage to get beyond all of her evil bullshit."

I hope you're right, but that lying twit sailed right into a win after it was made clear she got her position through fraud.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Thankfully there are still lingering pockets of American-occupied America that have yet to be stamped out, so hopefully what she managed to get away with with disgusting ease in Massachusetts will not repeat itself on a national stage.

Hopefully.

I can see the "war on women" narrative hitting ludicrous speed if she does run, though.

[R C Dean]

The nice thing is that the first campaign of the War on Women will be a catfight, with Hillary! and Fauxcahontas going mano a mano for the nom.

[Zeb]

That was just Mass. though. People are used to that shit there.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I remember thinking in the twilight of George W. Bush's presidency: "Man, that was fucking horrible. One of the worst. The next guy will have to put in some serious fucking overtime to top that shit."

Hyuk hyuk. With Warren on the horizon and the spectacular incompetence of the Republicans to deal with... man, I sure as hell don't want to think that and be showed up bigtime again.

[Suthenboy]

Hey, that is what I said about Obama circa 2007

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Desperately wants? Warren is so clearly a mediocre person and mind it's frightening.

Alas.

She was the first nursing woman to take the bar!

And she's an Indian!

And she loves to think the system is "rigged" while flipping homes for profit.

http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-you-know/

[Brandon]

I guessed Wendell Potter from the excerpt, and I was right. No need to actually click the link.

[andarm16]

"President Barack Obama has allegedly enrolled for Obamacare coverage but it's all symbolic and doesn't actually apply to him."

So basically, he took capacity on the system that could have gone to people who were actually eligible for Obamacare. (But, of course all of the Serious Media types will spin it as some big symbolic thing against the Republican menace)

[Derpetologist]

For those who missed it, here is the youtube channel for all of Oregon's terrible Ocare songs. Have fun making up your own lyrics!

? Each lawyer and hippie and layabout dad
? Crooked politician and unemployed grad
? We fleeced you for millions our neighbors and friends
? Suckers of Oregon!

[Enough About Palin]

WTF???

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's.

That's pretty bad.

[The Late P Brooks]

Mostly I wonder how I go on knowing there was a possibility for that other life I always dreamed of but never believed in.

Where the fuck does this chick live? She couldn't ever "accidentally" (and repeatedly) brush her boobs up against his elbow at a party? I thought they taught that in Home Ec, along with estimating a guy's annual income by looking at his shoes. It works like a charm, ladies. Trust me.

[Auric Demonocles]

They actually had that whole week of banging she mentioned, so it's not like it shouldn't have been easier to suggest.

[Alton Knutson]

I came across this thought the other day while reading about businesses with less than 50 employees being exempt from providing health care "A Right!" to employees. It makes a good litmus test to separate natural rights form positive rights. Can you imagine the uproar if somebody proposed that you could get gay married, but only if you work for a company that has more than 50 people? You can attend any church you like, but only if your company has more than 50 employees...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Jezebel explains rednecks

These are my people. That place is the South, such as Louisiana, where Duck Dynasty reigns. It is teeming with rednecks. You know, country people? Not much educatin', not much city sense? You know, white, Southern, rural, politically reactionary people you might also call yokels? Totes provincial? You know, if your main course is roadkill and more than one relative is named after a Southern Civil War general yadda yadda? To know them is to love/hate them, and to love/hate them is to move to the nearest city as quickly as possible.

Rednecks may be a dying breed, but trust, they are stubborn one. And all the progress in the rest of the country and even the South doesn't much change the fact that they are part of the geography all the way back to the Scots-Irish ancestors they revere (when they know what an ancestor is/have read books). The region is historically remote thanks to the Appalachians, and that geographical remoteness produced an identity of remoteness, of "independence," of separatism, that still stands. The South also lost the Civil War as you might recall? Some people are still mad about it.

As regions go, it is a pretty homogenous one. It's poorer, and super Christian/religious, has much lower rates of education, and more acute poverty ? a trend that has been going strong for two whole centuries!

[Derpetologist]

These are the same people who get in a huff when feminists are stereotyped as ugly lesbian college students.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

As regions go, it is a pretty homogenous one.

Yep, pretty homogenous.

http://www.uky.edu/Projects/TD.....blacks.gif

What a moron.

[Derpetologist]

There have been times when I've heard progs bring up that Southern so-called red states are net receivers of tax money especially for welfare, etc. I have invited such people to take a look at the demographics and likely political affiliations of those recipients. This chart sums it up well. Use the menu on the top left to sort different groups.

[Corning]

Lots of federal money went into the Tennessee Valley authority.

Lots of Federal money also went into dykes and pumps and storm water systems in New Orleans.

Progressives like to condemn boondoggle projects out of one side of their mouth while praising them out of the other.

[Suthenboy]

Geez whats with Maine?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, you're from LA, yeah? You don't think the Brits managed to get all the Acadiens out of Maine and down there, do you?

I keed. I keed.

Bonus: Maine is the home of the Redneck Olympics.

[Brandon]

Since when are rednecks exclusively white?

[Rasilio]

Forget that, since when are rednecks exclusively southern or even rural?

I come from a family of northern white urban rednecks

Sure they sound more like Southie than Southern and say youse guys is wikkid fuckin pissah instead of Y'all are funnier than a 3 legged coon at the dog show but otherwise there is no difference

[Heroic Mulatto]

As I've said before, the South begins at the South side of Boston.

Which makes Regina Pizzeria soul food.

[Dead or In Jail]

The real Pizzeria Regina is in Boston's NORTH end. Nice try, HM.

[T]

I gotta say, as someone who has lived my whole life in the South, nothing irritates me more than the person who left condescendingly trying to explain the South and failing miserably because they're so blinded by their own hatred for it.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

In her case it's self-hatred, since she claims to be from the South.

[JW]

Are you saying that everything they learned about the South from watching tee-vee and from their never-left-the-city friends may not be accurate?

[2ndClassProle]

This Roscoe Pico Train, and me and Flash are in hot pursuit. ggg.gg.g..gg...ggg

[SIV]

I gotta say, as someone who has lived my whole life in the South, nothing irritates me more than the person who left condescendingly trying to explain the South and failing miserably because they're so blinded by their own hatred for it.

Mike Riggs used to fill this role at Reason.

[Corning]

and more acute poverty

By acute poverty they mean people with larger homes and cars then people in cities own....the TVs are about the same size.

Anyone notice that all the people who call into the Dave Ramsey show are all from the south and make a shit load of money?

[Kid Xenocles]

In my experience there are fewer groups more provincial than the big-city elites.

[Suthenboy]

^This

[R C Dean]

As regions go, it is a pretty homogenous one.

Funny, this map makes the old Confederacy look like the most diverse region:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....County.svg

[Corning]

What the fuck ancestry is "American"?

I thought they meant native American but the map already has a category for American Indian...

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's because the census allows you to self-report ethnicity.

Quite frankly, it's the most accurate ethnic label there is.

[Corning]

So basically a bunch of Scots-Irish?

Quite frankly, it's the most accurate ethnic label there is.

In 2020 I will claim to be ethnically "American" and tell everyone else i know to do the same thing.

[Corning]

Quite frankly, it's the most accurate ethnic label there is.

Actually the most accurate would be African.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Actually the most accurate would be African.

Why you gotta go and other our Illuminati hybrid Lizard-People from Sirius B friends?

[Corning]

The thing about the McCarthy hearings is that they really were secret communists with ties to the Soviet Union.

You can't simultaneously claim to not being something while you are being repressed for it.

When they reveal to the world their dirty snake half-blood roots then I will start being all PC tolerant about it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The aneurysms it would cause gerrymandering FedGov bureaucrats would be delicious!

[Tonio]

What the fuck ancestry is "American

I believe it is a self-reporting category used by people who are fucking with the system by refusing to be categorized.

[JG43]

That's freakin awesome. I've done it the last two census surveys and I thought I was the only one.

[seguin]

In my own case, I put "American" because my own particular ancestral mix is so varied that I don't really have an ethnicity that I can say I'm most related to. I could put English because of my last name, but my surname easily could have been Basey, Holqvist, Koenig, Connolly, or Pathkiller.

Really, "American" is the most honest thing I can think of.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Can I get the government to have you stop linking to those idiots?

I'm doing it for your own good.

You'll thank me later.

[Heroic Mulatto]

A fun way to expose Proggalicious racism is to race-flip. Let's see how this Jezzie screed reads now:

These are my people. That place is the South, such as Louisiana, where Tyler Perry reigns. It is teeming with niggaz. You know, sharecroppin' people? Not much educatin', not much city sense? You know, black, Southern, Baptist, rural, politically ambivalent people you might also call ignorant-ass niggaz? Totes provincial? You know, if your main course is chitlins and more than one relative is named after a bullshit made-up "African" name, like LeBronique? To know them is to love/hate them, and to love/hate them is to move to the nearest city as quickly as possible.

[V V]

If you factor out cost of living, Whites in the South are no poorer on average than Whites in the north.

[Heroic Mulatto]

By "north" do you mean everything that isn't the South, like California? Or just the states that made up the Union? Or something else?

[V V]

If you factor out cost of living, Whites in the South are no poorer on average than Whites in the north.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Martin Scorsese heckled by screenwriter at movie premiere

Scorsese, who was in attendance at the Samuel Goldwyn theatre in Los Angeles for a post-screening Q&A, emerged from a lift to be told "shame on you" and "disgusting" by an unnamed screenwriter who had seen the film, according to a Facebook post by actor Hope Holiday which was first noted by The Wrap.

Holiday, 75, who starred in the classic 1960 Billy Wilder comedy The Apartment, hinted that the reaction reflected the views of many older, conservative Oscars voters for whom The Wolf of Wall Street's gleeful depiction of sex and drug-fuelled stockbroker life was just too much.

"Tonight was torture at the Academy ? "The Wolf Of Wall Street" ? three hours of torture ? same disgusting crap over and over again," she wrote. "After the film they had a discussion which a lot of us did not stay for ? the elevator doors opened and Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and a few others got out. Then a screen writer ran over to them and started screaming ? shame on you ? disgusting." Holiday confirmed she also "hated" the film, though she admitted that other Oscars voters at the screening applauded.

Yeah, can't let an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the director prevent you from posting a screed on Facebook.

[MJGreen]

Wow. The Wolf of Wall Street is the new devil movie? And this from Hollywood mainstays?

Did they think the same about any of Scorcese's gangster pics? Or is glamorizing the mob tolerable when compared to glamorizing Wall Street?

[2ndClassProle]

Then I will probably like it. I loved me some Gordon Gecko in Wallstreet.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Hobbit time.

Hope it doesn't suck.

[Jerry on the boat]

Woman who believes she was a fairy in a previous life has her ears cut and shaped to look more like an elf.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Are you implying it's wrong to embrace your inner elf nature, cis-human?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I can't wait until Obamacare covers my crippling cyborg dysphoria disorder. Deep down inside I've always felt that I was truly a remorseless half-man, half-killing-machine, but that shit runs a bit more than six million nowadays with all the inflation we're not having.

[MJGreen]

I can't wait to become a mog. Half-man, half-dog.

[Episiarch]

You're your own best friend!

[Tejicano]

OK, I have to ask - who would be licking whose balls then?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'd do her. The crazy chick sex alone.

[Eduard van Haalen]

So does she scream in Elvish when she climaxes?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Hot.

Still, according to this, Quenya for "yes" is "ye", which is not exotic enough for my ears.

[Tejicano]

My all time favorite was hearing "Zhe shi shenme?" after bringing her to orgasm. (It's Chinese for "What was THAT?)

[seguin]

Cantonese is either the ugliest or sexiest language alive, depending on who's speaking it.

[Freedom Frog]

From the comments

Did she also think she was a cow?? I see she has the Cattle ring in her nose!!

LOL

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Imagine sex with that elf.

[R C Dean]

Saw the new Hobbit movie. Liked it just fine, with a couple of quibbles:

Too damn long, and a few too many "Ooh, look at the CGI" scenes.

At least I didn't see it in 3D.

[Nephilium]

I wouldn't say it sucked... but I really hated where the film ended.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Is The New Republic praising Nicholas Maduro?

There was nothing left in a Caracas Samsung outlet I visited, for instance. And all the electronics at the duty-free in the city's Sim?n Boliv?r International Airport had taken off, too. Retail workers were worn out after soldiers and shoppers descended on and depleted their stores.

"Which retailer is going to have merchandise in January? None of us. We'll go crazy!" said local vendor Alfredo Rivero on Caracas' Sabana Grande shopping strip. "Do you think that I have a million dollars that I can put into fridges and washing machines? I don't. So why did they expropriate me and force me to sell at 80 percent off?"

Maduro's patron, the late Hugo Ch?vez, also had a soft touch when it came to presents. Ch?vez, wrote Guardian journalist Rory Carroll in his book Comandante, even created a special government department, the Office of Hope, to sort through supporters' wishes so he could fulfill them. Over breakfast, Ch?vez would read through the pleas of Venezuelans and grant some wishes, whether for a new house or an overruling of a bureaucratic decision.

Maduro, then, has simply extended Ch?vez's generosity to all. Where once only a few benefited from Ch?vez's Office of Hope, whole hoards of eager consumers now have new refrigerators and jeans.

[2ndClassProle]

What a hellish place to live. Would have to kill myself or someone.

[hotsy totsy]

Well the murder rate IS sky high, so that's one explanation.

[Medical Physics Guy]

As I've said before, my mother in law used to routinely send me emails praising the misunderstood people's hero Cesar Chavez. Fortunately my wife is an entrepreneur and has teh common sense.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Ack, Hugo Chavez. Could have been either one though...

[Sudden]

Great... here comes the department of Hope.

[MJGreen]

Maduro, then, has simply extended Ch?vez's generosity to all.

Except for the vendors?

Ahh, but fuck them. What a generous savior that Maduro is!!

[Freedom Frog]

Everything from clothes to guitars went for a steal.

Yep.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor the AK-47, is dead at age 94. Please do not fire your guns in the air as a form of salute."

And progressives rejoice.

Until they need the weapon to crush the people.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Dennis Rodman has left North Korea. He did not meet Kim Jong-Un."

/dejectedly throws BFF bracelet over his shoulder and cries.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"President Barack Obama has allegedly enrolled for Obamacare coverage."

Sure he did.

Sure.

/jack off gesture.

[V V]

My problem with libertarianism is that it just doesn't make any sense. The simple fact is that technology has made capital receive obscene levels of return while labor gets very little. Labor is simply not worth very much anymore, when you can just buy a machine to do a lot of it. That's why our society needs redistribution to spread the wealth from the capitalists to the laborers. Because of society doesn't do it, the mob will.

[Derpetologist]

You seem to be lost, so let me give you some directions.

Go 3 blocks south on Fuck Off Avenue, make a right on Fuck Off street and keep going straight until you get all the way to Fuck Off. You'll know you're there when you see this.

And by the way, here's real median income for the past 40 years.

[V V]

Doesn't seem very convincing to me, especially considering the great technological advancements we have seen in the past forty years. Look at how much of the increase from tat has gone to the owners of capital.

[Sudden]

Look at how much of the increase from tat has gone to the owners of capital

But the data from the real median income chart clearly shows that median income has risen in constant dollars over the prior 45 years. If your income increased by 10% last year, but your neighbor's increased by 12%, you're still better off than you were. That someone else made gains (and in the case of returns on capital, those gains are in part responsible for your own gains) greater than you did does not decrease the worth of your own gains, unless you're just being an envious pig.

[V V]

If it was ten and twelve percent gains we are arguing about, it would be a non-issue. It's not. The woes of the working class are not trivial.

[Sudden]

So what, if you gained 10% but your neighbor gained 100% last year, are you any worse off?

[V V]

Considering much of what maters in the world is status(a zero-sum game), then yes it does. And how did the neighbor get that 100% return anyway?(As if that guy would be my neighbor, LOL) I don't think he is entitled to all of it for the sole reason that someone else found a better way to invest his money.

[Heroic Mulatto]

So your argument for wealth confiscation and redistribution by threat of violence is based on your belief that people are petty, jealous little shits?

Yep, textbook Proglodyte.

[V V]

IT's called human nature and basic decency.

[Derpetologist]

Great Scott, are you high on glue?

If you won $1 million in the lottery tomorrow would you be bummed out because some CEO got a $30 million golden parachute?

[V V]

No derp, because I'd still be richer than most. But if everyone made million, it would be a problem. We all know what this is ultimately about, stop dancing around the issue.

[Derpetologist]

Oh, we know perfectly well what it's about. It's about your envy of anyone who is better off than you. But since you're too chicken to go out and steal or too lazy and/or stupid to get a better job, you want the government to do the looting for you.

[VG Zaytsev]

But if everyone made million, it would be a problem. We all know what this is ultimately about, stop dancing around the issue.

But you proggies want everyone to have the same outcomes - because you imagine that envy would then disappear - or something.

[Tejicano]

V V|12.23.13 @ 7:47PM|#
"Considering much of what maters in the world is status"

This is only one of the obvious points showing how you are fucked in the head. "Status" is for idiots. If I had played that game I would never have gotten ahead as far as I have.

[Ratner]

This is only one of the obvious points showing how you are fucked in the head. "Status" is for idiots. If I had played that game I would never have gotten ahead as far as I have.

LOL this is like the teenager who claims "I don't care what other people think."

The reason status matters is the same reason there isn't peace in Israel-Palestine.

[Cytotoxic]

Considering much of what maters in the world is status(a zero-sum game)

Sucks that you're such a dipshit that you see things this way. And that is your problem not other people's problem to indulge.

[V V]

Sucks that you're such a dipshit that you see things this way. And that is your problem not other people's problem to indulge.

You ever been to the doctor? then it's your fucking problem, because without doctors you would be fucked, and we all know not everyone can be a doctor.

[Cytotoxic]

Dipshit can't think.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

You ever been to the doctor? then it's your fucking problem, because without doctors you would be fucked, and we all know not everyone can be a doctor.

The effort that it takes to become a doctor has only a tenuous relationship to this childish interpretation of status you possess.

Doctors have high status because becoming a doctor is hard as shit. So is becoming CEO of a major company.

If your average dock worker had the ability or initiative to achieve that, they would. Your argument basically boils down to bribing people in the hopes they won't hang you.

[Derpetologist]

Pal, how many Americans owned a computer 40 years ago? Or a cell phone 20 years ago? Your assertion that the benefits of technology go only or even primarily to the wealthy is pure bunk.

[V V]

I'm not talking about a computer, I'm talking about the trappings of a middle class life, a house you own, a car, a savings plan, health insurance, and the means to take care of two or three kids. A computer might cost three hundred dollars and last for four years, that is, 6.25 a month. Compare that with the cost of all the things I mentioned.

[Derpetologist]

Fine, let's look at car ownership and college attendance rates over the past 40 or so years:

College grads
1970- 9%
2013- 30%

Car ownership per capita
1970: 0.5
2003: 0.8

[V V]

First is wrong. Second doesn't show a great difference compared to the rate of technolgoical advancement and many of the poor still can't afford them

[Sevo]

A) a house you own
Market distorted by government meddling, local and federal.

B)a car,
Market made 'way more expensive courtesy of government regulations.

C) a savings plan,
Simple: Spend less than you make, save the difference.

D) health insurance,
Government interference has pretty much made the medical market a disaster and Obo has tried his best to screw up what remains.

E) and the means to take care of two or three kids.
If you can afford 'em, don't have 'em.
Yep those libertarians are really screwing things up, right V V?

[JW]

Don't forget the obscene cost of education now.

It must just be a massive coincidence that everything that the federalistas touch also happens to be a sector of the economy whose price increases always exceed the rate of inflation by 100's of percent.

[V V]

It must just be a massive coincidence that everything that the federalistas touch also happens to be a sector of the economy whose price increases always exceed the rate of inflation by 100's of percent.

That explains the price of gas! But I guess the government is involved in that, but "not" involved the computer industry!

Inflation is the rule, not the exception, that goes for land, gasoline, health care, gold, ect. When prices aren't increasing it is because of technological advancement in that sector.

[V V]

Education costs are obscene because you aren't paying for education, you are paying for status, and they have been purposely holding down enrollment even when it's more necessary because all the good old jobs have been automated or shipped to China. Look at community colleges for proof of that.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Education costs are obscene because you aren't paying for education, you are paying for status, and they have been purposely holding down enrollment

You can stop right there, because you clearly don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

Enrollments down? When they're letting every subliterate moron into college and having them take remedial math and english because they can't even function at an 8th-grade level of education, it's pretty clear that low enrollments aren't the problem.

The newest "heartwarming" internet clip is the down's syndrome kid that got accepted into college. You really think in a high-status society where enrollments are being deliberately supressed this would still be the case?

[V V]

Market distorted by government meddling, local and federal.

Agree, but inflation is the main reason.

Market made 'way more expensive courtesy of government regulations.

Needs facts to back up. Regulations have made cars more energy efficient, saving people in the long run, and safer, also saving money in the long run.

Simple: Spend less than you make, save the difference.

Who needs money for things like food?

Government interference has pretty much made the medical market a disaster and Obo has tried his best to screw up what remains.

Actually health care in this country is pretty good. Just look at how seniors defend medicare.

If you can afford 'em, don't have 'em.

In a Malthusian society(which pre-industrial societies regularly approached), the main benefit from slaves was the prevention of their reproduction. Think about that for a while. I want a free, prosperous people.

[Cytotoxic]

Needs facts to back up.

How about reading the bazillion things Reason has written or better yet taking a one-way time trip to 1960 and observing how pre-medicare healthcare in America worked almost perfectly.

egulations have made cars more energy efficient, saving people in the long run, and safer, also saving money in the long run.

Lies and more lies.

[V V]

observing how pre-medicare healthcare in America worked almost perfectly.

Sarc or stupid?

[Sevo]

V V|12.23.13 @ 9:22PM|#
"Market distorted by government meddling, local and federal.
Agree, but inflation is the main reason."
Bullshit. Cite or STFU

"Market made 'way more expensive courtesy of government regulations.
Needs facts to back up. Regulations have made cars more energy efficient, saving people in the long run, and safer, also saving money in the long run."
Weight of cars over the last 20 years, demands for economy costs more than fuel, "safety" regs require huge internal bumpers. I presume you're a run of the mill lefty ignoramus.

"Simple: Spend less than you make, save the difference.
Who needs money for things like food?"
Strawman damage, asshole. Prove you can't eat.

"Government interference has pretty much made the medical market a disaster and Obo has tried his best to screw up what remains.
Actually health care in this country is pretty good. Just look at how seniors defend medicare."
I'm sure that translating that from brain-dead lefty might mean something.

"If you can afford 'em, don't have 'em.
In a Malthusian society(which pre-industrial societies regularly approached), the main benefit from slaves was the prevention of their reproduction. Think about that for a while."
That's a lie, so there really isn't a lot to think about.

"I want a free, prosperous people."
Lefty lie.

[seguin]

The energy efficient thing is bull. In 1984, you could buy a Volkswagen Rabbit that gets better combined gas mileage than a current Golf...and this is with extremely primitive fuel injection. Think of what we could do now if only regs didn't balloon up the weight to the nth degree.

[Tejicano]

40 years, Hell the change in the past 20 years is startling. I left the US 20 years ago so I see the change more clearly than most people who stayed there and only saw it happen gradually.

The standard amount and quality of "toys" - big screen TV's, DVD/BluRay devices, computer hardware (laptops & tablets), music recording/playing devices, smartphones, cars/trucks of every description, tools/guns, kitchen devices,... the increase in level of stuff that has become the "basic requirement" for the average American is hard to believe.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep, a little over 10 years ago a 42" Plasma TV was an upper middle class status symbol that cost upwards of $5,000.

Now you can get one for less than a tenth of that.

[Calidissident]

Do you know the word "median" means?

[Pope Jimbo]

You are just being mean...

[Rasilio]

Your assertion of the reasons for capital recieving "obscene" levels of return are not supported, especially given the fact that actual corporate profits while high are not anywhere near as high as stock prices.

The more reasonable explanation is Fed money printing is flowing into those closest to the source but not making it into general prices or wages hence relatively low price/wage inflation in the face of massive monetary inflation.

[V V]

There is fed money printing yet we have not seen mass inflation. Why? It's because technology continually advances, thereby holding down what should be increasing prices. While this happens, wages stagnate.

[Derpetologist]

Your homework assignment is to google "money velocity".

That money being created is sitting in banks. When they start lending it, the house of cards will come tumbling down.

[V V]

So what's preventing them from lending it now? Hint: It involves money.

[Derpetologist]

They aren't lending because fewer people are taking out loans. Fewer loans are being taken out because businesses aren't expanding and many people are unemployed and ridden with debt. That in turn is the result of various policies which have made it much more difficult to hire employees or even start businesses.

And every single one of those policies, whether minimum wage, easy home loans, or Obamacare, was put in place by fools like you.

[V V]

You don't seem to get it, people don't want to work for 3.50 an hour. You want a situation where the international bankers rule a population of stupid, spiteful non-White peasants making shit wages in the twentieth century, we saw it, it was called "apartheid" South Africa, and it didn't work. People want the first world, and they are more than willing to kill for it.

[Derpetologist]

People won't work for $3.50/hr? Tell that to all the Mexicans picking lettuce.

You get paid what you're worth. Muscle jobs are cheap because almost everyone has muscles.

I know you pine for the days of getting paid $40/hr to turn an air wrench at a GM plant, leave early on Friday, come in hungover on Monday, and keep the job for life, but those days are over.

Your poverty is not the result of Mexicans or Japanese stealing your job.

It's the result of you and many others being lazy, short-sighted fools.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

You want a situation where the international bankers rule a population of stupid, spiteful non-White peasants making shit wages in the twentieth century, we saw it, it was called "apartheid" South Africa, and it didn't work.

Actually, South Africa's economy was one of the strongest on the continent all the way up until the end of apartheid. That national policy ended due to global social pressure, not economic pressure.

[Sevo]

V V|12.23.13 @ 9:26PM|#
"So what's preventing them from lending it now? Hint: It involves money."

Yes, you imbecile; the government is paying the banks to hold the money.
Your fave coercive organization is fucking your fave solution.

[Rasilio]

Hmm, I can hold on to my cash reserves park them in the fed and earn a nice tidy 0.25% with absolutely no risk while keeping the cash perfectly liquid.

Or I can lend on the open market at massively deflated rates thanks to the fed, risk that the money will never be repaid or only repaid in part and have the money tied up in the loan for it's duration which could potentially be a problem if there is another economic collapse.

Combine that with the fact that there is very little demand for additional debt in the economy at large because uncertainty in government policy makes business planning next to impossible and consumers are terrified of taking on more debt after the last crash showed just how shaky their investment portfolio's really were and there is no real reason to wonder why banks are no lending that capital.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

There is fed money printing yet we have not seen mass inflation.

Really?

http://www.economics-charts.co.....i-1913.png

[Rasilio]

No he is right, the year over year inflation has been relatively low for the last ~ 10 years. Sure when you look at the total cumulative impact it is huge but recently the rates have been lower than in the past.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Just because year-over-year has been relatively low doesn't negate the exponential impacts of cumulative 1-2% annual inflation rates. Those have real impacts and real economic costs. The cumulative effect is what really matters.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

VV,

You'll have to try harder.

And curious, where do you read about economics?

[Derpetologist]

He learned everything he needed to know from this video put out by the California Teachers Union.

[Ratner]

Bah. The inequality problem is technological.

[Ratner]

Bah. The inequality problem is technological.

[Metazoan]

what the fuck is this?!

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The efficiency of Monarchy: British Crown finally pardons Alan Turing

Alan Turing, the wartime codebreaker, has been granted a posthumous pardon by the Queen for his criminal conviction for homosexuality.
Dr Turing, who helped Britain to win World War II, killed himself after receiving the conviction in 1952.
He has now been granted a pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy after a high-profile campaign supported by tens of thousands of people including Professor Stephen Hawking.
David Cameron said: "Alan Turing was a remarkable man who played a key role in saving this country in World War Two by cracking the German Enigma code.
"His action saved countless lives. He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the father of modern computing."

[Eduard van Haalen]

Lol Alan Turing is the shizzle, for sure. I was just discussing this with my fellow humans while consuming caffeinated beverages. As a real human, my tear ducts are active thinking of Dr. Turing going tragically offline.

[Pope Jimbo]

Pikers.

Call me when you hold a grudge for 360 years. And then you only grudgingly concede that maybe he was right about that earth revolves around the sun thing.

[V V]

You libertarians hear about this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ics&clsrd;
Great stuff, should give pause to anyone who tries to claim that such things "don't matter."

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, nice to know some folks finally got their 40 acres and a mule.

[Eduard van Haalen]

That certainly rebuts anyone who claims huge payouts from the government don't matter!

[Derpetologist]

I'll inform Mr Strawman straight away!

[paranoid android]

Is there a point you're trying to make? What are these "such things" that this mysterious "anyone" tried to claim "don't matter"?

I'm presuming from your other posts in this thread that you're trying to antagonize, but you're not going to get a lot of disagreement with the notion that state-sponsored racism is a very serious issue and bad news indeed.

[Jordan]

I think this is the latest incarnation of Merkin.

[Sevo]

I don't think so. Merkin rarely pitches wealth redistribution; his shtick is those darn black and brown people!!!!!!

[JW]

Who? Ol' Droopy Tits?

[Derpetologist]

You progderps ever hear about this? Should give pause to the folks bleating for the gubmint to do something.

[V V]

I stopped watching at "public schools." I went to a public school, I turned out fine. Most of the people here went to public schools too, they turned out messed up, but they can count. If kids can't count, it's not because of public schools. It's because of factors unique to the student(wink, wink).

[Derpetologist]

Oh yeah? You think things like this might be a reason public schools suck in so many places?

What would you say about a state that sets achievement goals for students based on race?

[V V]

Yep. That was my school "cheif."(Oh sweet irony) Actually my school chief was a woman who everybody in my neighborhood admired. See the lurking you know what here?

How dare they set realistic goals! They should demand that ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE STUDENTS ARE ABOVE AVERAGE. Actually that's the standard procedure, they just call it "school specific improvement goals." If the Black school goes from 12% proficient to 22% proficient that's good, if the White school goes from 53% to 53%, that's no improvement and that's bad. You are mad that they aren't using code words.

[Derpetologist]

? Hello strawman my old friend...

FTA: "According to the plan, the state wants 90 percent of Asian-American students reading at grade level by 2018 compared with 88 percent of whites, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students.

In math, 92 percent of Asian-Americans are expected to perform at grade level, but the plan lowers the goal for whites (86 percent), Hispanics (80 percent) and blacks (74 percent)."

Isn't holding people to different standards based on race EXACTLY what racism is?

You wanna play the race card? OK, watch this.

[V V]

So those "school specific improvement goals" at all those schools outside of Florida are just fine in your mind. Typical that you view racism is anything where people notice race. And who do you think is responsible for the plan? Who do you think "the government" is made up of. You probably think it's those horrible "White people." No to you, the school should set the goal of 100 PERCENT OF KIDS ARE ABOVE AVERAGE and you blame those who notice the gap for causing it. Actually, the difference between the current proficiency rate for Blacks and Asians is significantly high than the goal, but to you the goal is to make Black kids stupid.

I really don't get the point about the video.

[Cytotoxic]

Yup it's Merikan. We've got the 'skools are kool and would be better if it weren't for negroes and racists like you' schtick going on. Mods, it's bannhammer time.

[Derpetologist]

? His name is strawman and he dances on the saaaaand!

Race should not be a factor in ANYTHING unless you're a racist or a progressive.

But wait! I repeat myself.

[V V]

Race should not be a factor in ANYTHING unless you're a racist or a progressive.

No. If there is a test and Blacks score worse on it than Whites, the test is racist and should be abolished, because race is obviously a factor here right?

[Cytotoxic]

Even if there was, so what?

[Cytotoxic]

I went to a public school, I turned out fine.

No you clearly didn't. You turned out retarded.

[V V]

The purpose of a public school is not to indoctrinate people in your stupid ideology.

[Cytotoxic]

No it's to condition them to groupthink and indoctrinate them in your stupid 'ideologogy', if that's what you can call the national religion in Idiocracy.

[V V]

The national religion in idiocracy is your ideology, the ideology that says that intelligence "doesn't exist" and if it does it sure as hell isn't genetic. Did you even see it?

[Cytotoxic]

Could you please cite the part of the movie stating that?

[Derpetologist]

Your performance here does not reflect well on the public school system.

[Rasilio]

Why would this give anyone pause if they thought such things did not matter. A massive transfer of wealth from the government to a handful of farmers occurred. Of course it would skew the income metrics.

What is not stated anywhere in that article is whether said transfer was justified, went to the correct people, or actually benefited anyone but relatively rich farm corporations.

So tell me, why should this give anyone pause?

[V V]

Why does this not matter?

[Derpetologist]

Everyday, I wake up thinking that maybe, just maybe, I will finally hear a coherent, logical argument from a prog explaining their views.

And yet all I ever get is the same merry-go-round of lies, insults, and logical fallacies from progs who ironically claim to be smarter than everyone else.

Google Economics in One Lesson. Or better yet, How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't. That one is in comic book form so it will not fatigue your feeble brain.

[V V]

Can your book explain Sweden versus Detroit? No, it can't, because it is based on the ultimate logical fallacy, calling anyone who disagrees with you a racist.

[Derpetologist]

Pop Quiz: Which has lower per capita income: Sweden or the poorest state in the US?

Bonus question: Why is Detroit such a mess even after half a century of unopposed rule by the Democrats?

Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or "progressive" platform have been enacted:

A "living wage" ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors.
A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average.
A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members.
A powerful government employee union that does the same for its members.
A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies.

http://www.mackinac.org/10743

[V V]

The poorest state in the United States is still 46% White, dumb nuts. Look at the per-capita income of DETROIT. Yep, that explains why silicon Valley is awash with savage crime and decaying infrastructure, it's those Blue People!

It's not the system that matters, it's the people.

[Cytotoxic]

It's not the system that matters, it's the people.

Is that why the South-which is full of black people-is doing so much better economically than the North?

[Derpetologist]

If the system doesn't matter, then what are you babbling about?

All the most crime-ridden cities in the US are run by Team Blue: Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, etc.

See a pattern?

[V V]

Yes. Blacks vote for Democrats.

[Derpetologist]

Or maybe Democratic policies lead to family breakdown and crime? You know, the exact same thing that's been happening in the UK with poor whites?

[Cytotoxic]

WTF? You're not even using fallacies anymore you're just string words together.

Sweden: welfare state nearly destroyed the nation in 1990. Have been reforming away from welfarism ever since. Still poorer than America.

Detroit: run into the ground by Dems and other crony capitalists and big labor.

In your demented mind, that means NIGGERS.

[V V]

nearly destroyed the nation in 1990

I remember that. Looters destroyed whole sections of the city center.

Still poorer than America.

Still richer than Detroit.

Detroit: run into the ground by Dems and other crony capitalists and big labor.

That explains why Blacks in the South, under the rule of benevolent Republicans, murder their girlfriends at a lower rate than Blacks in Detroit.

[Cytotoxic]

So you accede all of my points. Thanks and fuck off.

That explains why Blacks in the South, under the rule of benevolent Republicans, murder their girlfriends at a lower rate than Blacks in Detroit.

I know you went to publik skool and loved it because you clearly cannot think. Are public schools actually giving their students extra chromosomes in place of actual education?

[V V]

Are you denying what I say? You know what's giving children extra chromosomes? Mutanigenic load.

[Cytotoxic]

Mutanigenic load.

WTF am I reading.

[Cytotoxic]

I don't need to deny what you say because you're effectively saying nothing. You're just babbling.

[Sevo]

"That explains why Blacks in the South, under the rule of benevolent Republicans, murder their girlfriends at a lower rate than Blacks in Detroit."

There are stupid assholes who show up here, but I'm sure you're trying to set a record.

[RishJoMo]

Dude knows what is going on over there.

http://www.AnonIs.tk

[Cytotoxic]

It's hilarious that Merikan is here to babble about IQ and deviations and other stats when it is clear he is actually a retard. Like a seriously cognitively impaired individual.

[Derpetologist]

It's hilarious that all the folks who try to justify racism on the basis of IQ are invariably nitwits themselves.

There's such balance in nature!

[Derpetologist]

OK, VV, I'm in a generous mood. Why don't you lay out your 5-point plan or whatever to fix the US?

[Cytotoxic]

NO NO NO FUCK THAT FUCK YOU GO AWAY

[Corning]

I already know his plan:

1. Reinstate Jim Crow nation wide.

2. ???

3. Profit

The other two points are complex but mostly involve masturbating to images of Woodrow Wilson.

[VG Zaytsev]

Nah, the other two points are

1a) End all "foreign" trade.

1b) End all immigration.

[amelia]

Uh, searched on "mutagenic load" and pulled up this...WTF indeed...

"An example of mutanagenic consumption is wearing sagging pants. When an individual does this, it impacts that persons gait ( the way they walk) as well as their posture. When pants are worn below the hips the individual is forced to walk by bringing the hips forward rather that striding forward with the legs. Also the shoulders hunch and curl forward to balance the individual. One arm is not used to balance the stride or forward movement of the body rather it held in place holding up the pants. The resulting gait is similar to that of a monkey, a primate like much further down the evolutionary chain."

Apparently this writer believes in genetic transmission of cultural traits, and devolution.

[seguin]

WTF...who is this guy, Lysenko?