Drone Testing Sites Named, Police Deaths Drop, Obamacare Rules Hit Vending Machines: P.M. Links

Scott Shackford | 12.30.2013 4:30 PM

(dolescum / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA)

Credit: dolescum / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Keep your eyes on the skies in Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia. Those are the states selected by the federal government for drone test sites.
The incoming mayor of Boston is not on board with the police there getting AR-15 rifles.
As said police continue their efforts to militarize, 2013 saw the fewest number of police killed by firearms since 1887. More were killed in car crashes. Overall deaths in the line of duty are the lowest since 1959.
But what about those on the other side of that thin blue line? In Seattle, shootings by the police accounted for one-fifth of all homicides in the city, six out of 29. Police officials there blame poor management of those with mental illnesses.
The latest stupid revelation from the unexplored innards of the Affordable Care Act is that next year vending machines will be required to show calorie counts for the products inside. This is expected to cost vendors (and therefore consumers) about $25 million a year.
France's proud rejection of Economics 101 continues apace. The government has given approval to a 75 percent tax on the rich. It has also ordered car services like Uber to institute a 15-minute wait before picking up riders in a completely undisguised move to protect taxi drivers from competition.

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.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: Egyptian Secret Police Round Up AlJazeera Journalists

Hide Comments (374)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

The incoming mayor of Boston is not on board with the police there getting AR-15 rifles.
How is Boston going to force citizens to shelter in place at gunpoint if the mayor won’t give them the tools?
1. tarran 10 years ago
  
  This incoming mayor is a hard-core gun grabber. And he really, really hates the AR-15 because of Sandy Hook.
  This should be entertaining; here in Boston the corruption is endemic and if the cops don’t get their way, they can make life hell for the beneficiaries of the graft. The question is which of the cry-bullies is going to knuckle under. My guess is the mayor.
  1. Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago
    
    The unelected always have the upper hand. The mayor needs to worry about votes, and we all know the general voting public cops a “tough on crime”/”cops are heroes” attitude.
    1. tarran 10 years ago
      
      The pathetic thing is the cops are citing the Tsarnaev manhunt as justification for their need of AR-15’s.
      The same cops who shot three cops accidentally and ventilated the upper stories of numerous residences and a pleasure boat in a panicky variant of the Iraqi death blossom.
      They are literally the last people in MA that should be carrying any rifle.
      1. Ted S. 10 years ago
        
        On another forum I mentioned the story about the cops asking the Dunkin Donuts locations to remain open, and you wouldn’t believe how pissed the pig-lickers got.
      2. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
        
        “a panicky variant of the Iraqi death blossom”
        Ah, familiar with that one, eh? Insh’allah, I was always behind it…
2. Entropy Void 10 years ago
  
  Entropy Void|12.30.13 @ 10:41AM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom
  Massholes have a particular kind of STOOPID.
  http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..-proposal/
  reply to this
  1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
    
    ‘ello, what’s all this then?
    1. Entropy Void 10 years ago
      
      This is Her Royal Majesty’s Det. There’s-A-Tiger-Behind-You fishing for a fucking Hat Tip.
      … and I’m ’bout ready to fuck someone up with a raspberry …
Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

The government has given approval to a 75 percent tax on the rich.
They ain’t rich no more!
1. Ted S. 10 years ago
  
  They’ll figure out a way around the tax.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
    
    They ain’t French no more!
    1. JW 10 years ago
      
      Not a tough choice between the 2, I’d say.
  2. KPres 10 years ago
    
    They all live in Monoco, anyway.
2. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
  
  Productive people are frenetically fleeing France.
  Bunch of socialist psychopaths.
John 10 years ago

http://www.c-ville.com/knock-o…..sHmQfuYe6O
Knockout game comes the Charlotesville of all places. Lets hope the people doing this run into a conceal and carry holder soon.
1. General Butt Naked 10 years ago
  
  What a bunch of brutal fucking animals. They’re not fit to live among us humans.
2. Banjos 10 years ago
  
  Ha! I would love to see it happen in Phoenix. Half the people on the street would turn a gun on the little fucker.
3. Firework Surprise 10 years ago
  
  A lightweight MMA Fighter would work too.
  1. Heedless 10 years ago
    
    Obligatory
Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

In Seattle, shootings by the police accounted for one-fifth of all homicides in the city, six out of 29.
Six police officers got to go home safe that night. Isn’t that all that really matters?
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Well, it also matters if procedures wer3e followed and there is procedural-contractual due process for the heroes in blue!
Longtorso, Johnny 10 years ago

Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit
…If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops. The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called “load stations,” agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer.
These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the “most productive operations” conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks “around the world.”…
1. Corning 10 years ago
  
  So if you build your PC what would a hardware component look like?
  Could the BIOS hold NSA malware? If so wouldn’t flashing the BIOS remove it?
  If it was on a blank Hard drive wouldn’t a standard install of Windows or Linux remove it?
  1. Tonio 10 years ago
    
    Hardware component – most likely a keystroke logger so look for strange extra bits and tampering around the USB connectors. But also possible that this is something else. Best bet is to obtain access to or detailed photos of an identical model computer, while being aware that the manufacturer could have changed components in the middle of a production run.
    BIOS – yes, maybe. Theoretically. I’d like to hear a hardware/firmware person weigh in on that. Be sure to obtain the new BIOS from method other than internet download that could be associated with you.
    Even on a non-blank HDD provided you completely overwrite the partition.
    A BIOS tweak combined with a hidden partition would be a powerful combo.
    1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
      
      Ah, but supposedly the NSA can rewrite your hard drive firmware, so reformatting the drive does nothing. Also, it has been said that they make replacement plastic cases with hardware spyware invisibly embedded in it. See the video on this page.
      That said, this sort of targeted spying does not bother me much. It’s what the NSA is supposed to do. What I really object to is the “All phone records for X months” sort of “general warrant,” which the 4th Amendment is pretty explicit about banning.
    2. Michael S. Langston 10 years ago
      
      Putting any of this on a partition wouldn’t work well since lots of people change drives for various reasons.
      As to the firmware question – while I’m not positive, it makes sense that with complete control over the bios one could add code (which might require replacing a chip) which wouldn’t be affected with firmware upgrades as some part of the bios system itself has to load up, be able to run recovery/firmware options independently of the firmware itself.
      & I would think this could all be done to a point where matching pictures wouldn’t show any differences, as while changing this portion of the code may require replacing a chip, it would be the same basic chip, only it would include the original abilities plus the hidden ones within it’s core.
      I would assume even in this case there might be a way to tell if the system is compromised, but it would require a lot of specific knowledge, and most likely additional equipment which is out of range for most people (in terms of use, but also expensive for one use every few years ). I”m thinking specifically if one could get to this “code”, and a copy of known “clean” code, then a simple checksum can be used to verify any differences which might exist.
      I actually assume you can get to most chip info sans additional equipment as I assume the makers themselves have had the need before – but I don’t know for sure.
    3. Michael S. Langston 10 years ago
      
      Another thought – maybe an enterprising individual or current bios/chip manufacturer can create and market a tamper proof chip?
      A chip where any firmware overwrite would restore the entire system, as all of the system is held within flash memory – obviously using enough engineering skills, the NSA could create new chips to replace and circumvent that – but a lot of these problems could have fairly low cost solutions which are easy to implement that could be exploited if the market demand is high enough.
      Though in this climate, I would fully expect them to be banned roughly 35 milliseconds prior to launch… but it seems to be for any chip maker, board maker, etc – if they desired and thought they could do this and money could be made, that they could mitigate this risk without must overhead.
      As there are easy things which can be done to ensure a user can check their system against some values to ask whether it’s been modified beyond what was known or intentional. To ensure accuracy of data compared against they post it openly, it’s encrypted/signed by GPG/PGP, and posted on multiple trusted sites like the manufacturer’s and Sourceforge and others.
      NSA can likely circumvent that at some point somehow – but cat and mouse is always cat and mouse… just sayin’ I think this can be mitigated if someone/some company chooses to do so.
      1. paranoid android 10 years ago
        
        Since my understanding is that developing and creating new microchips is somewhat capital-intensive, the biggest problem would be finding financiers willing to stake a lot of money on what amounts to a prayer that the government won’t send a National Security Letter and torpedo the entire project.
        
        Invisible Finger 10 years ago
        
        OK, so the project happens outside the US.
2. Restoras 10 years ago
  
  Does’t this void the warrantee?
  1. Killaz 10 years ago
    
    Not if you build it yourself. Mine is purely off the shelf parts with am assembled BIOS. They would have had a hard time nabbing it from scratch.
  2. Tonio 10 years ago
    
    I think he’s asking if the NSA actions would void the warranty. Maybe. But they are probably trying to make them undetectable which would mean they have to not cause problems with the normal functioning of the computer.
    1. Killaz 10 years ago
      
      Ah, that does make more sense.
    2. Michael S. Langston 10 years ago
      
      Yeah, modifications to key system parts would definitely violate most computer warranties, but as you said – I doubt their easily visible or we likely would’ve heard about this before “secret additional info being found from time to time in computer repair labs on computers with owners who mostly do not have the skill set required to add what was added where it was added”….
      Though maybe not – if they’re picking up the laptop/computer on the way to the location, nothing says they cannot pick it up on the way back for warranty repairs if it’s ever sent.
      Man in the middle is a good attack – if it’s work you can get.
3. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
  
  How can I get one of these TOA-enhanced computers?
  1. andarm16 10 years ago
    
    If you’re posting here, your already on the list.
    1. andarm16 10 years ago
      
      you’re both times
      1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
        
        I’m both times what?
        
        plusafdotcom 10 years ago
        
        they meant the right word in both locations of your post should be “you’re,” not “your” in the second spot.
        Surprise!
4. Rick O'Shay 10 years ago
  
  Must be why my lenovo tablet from China got held up in “customs” for 2 weeks…
  1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
    
    It took extra long because the NSA had to remove the Chinese spyware first.
    1. prolefeed 10 years ago
      
      Seems like the smart counter would be to walk into a random Costco or whatnot and buy something on the shelves, so it can’t wind up in “customs” at all.
Andrew S. 10 years ago

As said police continue their efforts to militarize, 2013 saw the fewest number of police killed by firearms since 1887. More were killed in car crashes. Overall deaths in the line of duty are the lowest since 1959.
—–
Obviously that’s a result of the militarization of police. If we militarized police further, there’d be even fewer deaths!
(Alternative argument if the numbers showed rising police deaths: This is why we need to militarize police further, to protect them!)
(talk about a lose-lose statistic for us peons)
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  And the car crash part only proves they NEED MOAR ARMORED VEHICLEZ!
  1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
    
    Armored vehicles don’t have adequate crumple zones. That’s an argument against.
    1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
      
      They would crumple the peasantmobile they ran into!
Longtorso, Johnny 10 years ago

Let down again….
Cleveland Browns Do Typical Losery Browns Like Thing in Firing Coach
1. Longtorso, Johnny 10 years ago
  
  Cleveland Browns Players Went Ballistic After Their Coach Got Fired
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    They should have played better. Players are always the ones who get coaches fired.
    1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
      
      Great idea. Let the players coach the team next year! I never thought of that before.
    2. Andrew S. 10 years ago
      
      The love child of Don Shula and a reincarnated Vince Lombardi couldn’t have done anything with that Browns team this year. It’s a miracle they did as well as they did.
      The front office of that team is a cesspool. No legitimate coach is going to want to go there. Maybe they can get Lane Kiffin.
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        I don’t think the front office is that bad. They managed to pawn off Trent Richardson on Indy for a first rounder. That trade was highway robbery.
        
        Some call me Tim? 10 years ago
        
        Considering that this is an all-new front office, it’s tough to lay too much at their feet.
      2. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        Lane Kiffin. That’s perfect. I’m ashamed I didn’t think of that one myself. I mean, he’s brilliantly perfect for the Browns.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        No Pro, Kiffin is going to be the next coach at Florida.
        
        Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        Oddly, Muschamp hasn’t been fired. Of course, Florida would never hire Kiffin, who is clearly a congenital idiot, with all due respect to his old man, who isn’t.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        They hired Muschamp didn’t they?
        
        Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        That didn’t seem totally insane at the time. Heck, even this year, Florida had absurdly bad luck, losing a starting QB early and the entire defensive line. I’d still can him, but that’s because I think UF is not recruiting well and has a shit offense.
        
        Calidissident 10 years ago
        
        Well, Driskel is an awful QB, so it’s not like that was a huge loss. Also, old man Kiffin has completely lost whatever genius he once had. He was awful at USC (I watched it firsthand) and he was awful with the Cowboys this year.
      3. Red Rocks Rockin 10 years ago
        
        Rumor has it that Josh McDaniels might be under consideration because the current GM seems to have a blind spot over the time period when McDaniels wasn’t coaching Tom Brady.
        Don’t do it, Cleveland. You deserve better than Bill Belicheck’s mini-me.
    3. Certified Public Asskicker 10 years ago
      
      E yes, I suppose. But who is going to win with Jason Campbell at QB?
  2. Brett L 10 years ago
    
    “Because we’re bums. Let’s face it, we’re just bums. But we coulda been somebody. We coulda been contendas!”
  3. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
    
    Here’s what I suggest for Cleveland: Let the fans coach. People (or groups of people) will bid on the right to coach the team each year. I guarantee the results will be no worse than they have been so far.
    1. Ted S. 10 years ago
      
      They’d probably do a better job owning the team too, but the league doesn’t like that form of ownership.
    2. RBS 10 years ago
      
      Fans could call plays via Twitter.
      1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        Viral coaching!
    3. Warty 10 years ago
      
      I *told* you! We’re an anarcho-syndicalist team! We’re taking turns to act as a sort of head-coach-for-the-week.
      1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        I say either let the fans call the plays, let the players call the plays, or let a computer call the plays.
        Frankly, I lean towards the last. Get Deep Blue retooled for football, then compute your way to a Super Bowl championship.
        
        Warty 10 years ago
        
        Look, supreme coaching power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some sort of farcical front office ceremony!
        
        Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
        
        BLOODY PEASANT!
        
        Some call me Tim? 10 years ago
        
        The computer-as-play caller idea would be fascinating.
        
        Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        I mean, what do they have to lose? The fans know they’re cursed on some biblical level, so why not a computer coach?
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 10 years ago
        
        The computer-as-play caller idea would be fascinating
        One of the more amusing things that ESPN’s reporters used to do was run a sim of NCAA Football for the bowl games, and the results ended up being fairly close to the end result more often than not.
        I’m not sure if I’d do that on a run through Vegas, but it might be fun if I had about $1000 or so to waste.
2. John 10 years ago
  
  Rumor is they are going to hire Josh McDaniels. God does hate Cleveland.
  1. Brett L 10 years ago
    
    I hear that the coach from Tampa Bay is free, if they need another giant asshole in the mix.
    1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
      
      No, there is a bigger asshole, as suggested above. Lane Kiffin. He’s the best possible coach for Cleveland.
  2. Longtorso, Johnny 10 years ago
    
    Tee-Bow! Tee-Bow! (Cleveland needs yet another QB).
  3. Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
    
    Hey, maybe it can end up working out for them in a crazy backhanded way like it did for Denver. McDaniels moves up and drafts Manziel, they get stuck with him for a couple of years while they draft well everywhere else, then they win a bunch of games despite awful QB play. Finally, Rodgers gets injured, the Packers tank so far they get the #1 pick when a great QB prospect is coming out, and the Browns miraculously end up with Rodgers.
    1. Brett L 10 years ago
      
      Well, I hope that Houston trades down. Ain’t no QB in the draft worth taking at number one. Trade down to number 6 and let someone else draft Clowney and Manziel. Get an extra 2nd round pick out of it.
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        I doubt anyone will trade with them.
        
        Brett L 10 years ago
        
        As long as they don’t draft Carr for QB again unless he’s still on the board in the 4th round.
      2. Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
        
        Rams are looking to trade down again.
        
        Andrew S. 10 years ago
        
        They’re in a good position. Assuming Bridgewater goes 1, there’s going to be a fair number of teams that want Clowney at 2. They’re not going to get quite the haul they got for Griffin (I refuse to call him by the nickname), but they’ll get something for sure.
        
        Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
        
        They might be able to get 2 firsts out of it. Which would be the total return for RGIII up to 4 first round picks.
    2. John 10 years ago
      
      I think Johnny Manziel can play. I want to see him go to the Raiders. Isn’t that little east Texas Gangster just born to play for the Raiders?
      1. Certified Public Asskicker 10 years ago
        
        I want to see him go to the Raiders.
        Why do you hate Johnny Manziel?
      2. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        I sure wouldn’t draft him in the first round. He’s a gamble in several ways. Might pay off, might not.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        I don’t see him as a gamble. The only knock against him is that he is short. His mechanics and accuracy are very good. And I would think Drew Brees and Russell Wilson have finally put an end to the idea that you have to be six three to play quarterback.
        
        Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago
        
        I thought Doug Flutie put that idea to rest 20 years ago?
        
        Pro Libertate 10 years ago
        
        Exceptions do not prove rules, and, incidentally, it’s possible he was somewhat overrated.
        
        Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        I always thought he was under rated.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 10 years ago
        
        And I would think Drew Brees and Russell Wilson have finally put an end to the idea that you have to be six three to play quarterback.
        Those guys are kind of outliers, though. Not that you need to be 6-3 successful, but there are a lot of different things that go into making a successful QB in the pros.
        I think Manziel is more of a Tebow type of player–someone who lit things up in college but wouldn’t be able to translate those skills to the current pro game. And he’s even smaller than Tebow, so it’s not like the team that drafts him could run the modified single-wing that Florida and Denver did without getting him killed.
        
        Arkansaustrian Economics 10 years ago
        
        You also thought Peyton manning would get exposed this year.
        Johnny’s arm sucks shit by NFL standards. 20% of his completions this year were Mike Evans bailing him out. He has great field vision and movement, but not great speed.
        He’s not an NFL QB.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        I never said Mannign would get exposed. I said he would lose in the playoffs like he always does. Manning always does great in the regular season.
        And Manzel’s arm does not suck at all. His arm is strong enough and more importantly he is accurate. He is much better than Tebow.
        
        BigT 10 years ago
        
        Manziel’s problem is that in college he was faster than most of those chasing him. Not so in the NFL. He’ll flop.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        Manziel is not that fast by college standards. he doesn’t just outrun people. He is not Micheal Vick.
    3. Ted S. 10 years ago
      
      One wonders what Auric Demonocles is smoking.
      1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
        
        Prescription Athletic Turf?
3. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
  
  Crazy to hang this on the coach.
  Sheesh. One year in.
  Shanahan I get but this?
  1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
    
    It’s an absurdly bad and unjustified move. Not that he’s necessarily a good coach, but how could they possibly know?
    1. BigT 10 years ago
      
      His clock management ‘skills’ were enough to get him the boot. Apparently you haven’t seen the Browns.
Bam! 10 years ago

The latest stupid revelation from the unexplored innards of the Affordable Care Act is that next year vending machines will be required to show calorie counts for the products inside. This is expected to cost vendors (and therefore consumers) about $25 million a year.
You’ll no longer have buy the candy to find out what’s in it.
1. Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
  
  If you like the candy you already bought, you can keep it.
  1. kibby 10 years ago
    
    Wait…where is that candy bar I had on the counter?
Irish 10 years ago

Professor attacked in New York Times piece kicks the shit out of the Times.
There are many egregious distortions in the article, but the most egregious is Kocieniewski’s lying by omission. Lying. By. Omission. Specifically, he omits the salient fact that the bulk of my consulting engagements (in the form of expert testimony) have been adverse to commodity traders and banks. I have testified numerous times about manipulations by these types of firms, and have testified against them on other matters.

I say again: by omitting any mention of this work the Times is lying by omission, and presenting a biased and extremely distorted picture of me and my work. This biased selectivity makes a joke of the Times’ motto “all the news that is fit to print”. Leaving out this salient fact makes it plain that Kocieniewski and the Times have an agenda, and no interest in presenting a complete picture of me and my work. The Times article (inaccurately-see below) lists some of my work on the side of commodity traders and exchanges to create the impression that I am their creature, but leaves out the work in which I have been their fierce antagonist-and in the performance of which I have contributed to their payment of damages running into the many hundreds of millions of dollars. This failure to mention evidence that contradicts his pre-conceived conclusion is shoddy, dishonest journalism.
1. John 10 years ago
  
  Dishonest journalism is what they do. Get in line behind a few million dead Ukrainians professor.
  1. Corning 10 years ago
    
    Speaking of which the NYTs is also running a piece about how bad broadband Internet is in the US compared to other countries.
    They make no mention how density plays a part. how those other nations have much higher densities and are sometimes measured without considering rural internet costs or speeds (or the fact that many rural part of the world have no internet at all)
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12…..technology
    1. John 10 years ago
      
      But Joshua, the narrative is that America is backwards and those facts don’t fit the narrative.
    2. andarm16 10 years ago
      
      But the broadband gap is getting ever wider! How will our poor children learn! Even more importantly, how will our ever so serious politicians and journalists be able to show their faces at international events if the US isn’t sinking billions of dollars into high speed rail projects for those same serious folks to ride on! They’ll be laughed at by China!
      1. MJGreen 10 years ago
        
        How can we expect our children to compete in the Starcraft 2 industry? This lag will keep America back by 50 years!
    3. Ted S. 10 years ago
      
      I always figured the point of broadband was to make downloading porn faster.
    4. KDN 10 years ago
      
      Don’t worry, I’m sure that any minute now they’ll be printing an article about our world-beating mobile networks. How long has the UK been waiting for 4G now?
    5. PapayaSF 10 years ago
      
      Perhaps this is coordinated with Hillary 2016. Let’s see if she proposes a big government program to “fix” this.
    6. mad libertarian guy 10 years ago
      
      All that said, if our government is going to insist on spending $3.5T per annum, I’d argue that spending it on upgrading my shitty ass internet is better than how they currently spend it. I’m still dealing with late 90s era DSL, with only monumentally expensive and notoriously unreliable satellite internet as competition (which doesn’t mention their bandwidth caps even if it were reasonably priced and reliable).
2. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  MOAR OF THAT PLEEZE
3. andarm16 10 years ago
  
  His mistake is assuming that the Times was setting out to do a fact based article, and not a hit piece.
Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

Police officials there blame poor management of those with mental illnesses.
I don’t think it’s fair to entirely blame law enforcement supervisors.
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Is it true the SPD’s theme song is “Lithium”?
John 10 years ago

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/20…..yoff-spot/
So the refs screwed Kansas City yesterday and failed to make an obvious illegal formation call against the Chargers that would have given the Chiefs another shot at a game winning field goal and probably the game. No worries for Kansas City, their playoff cede was set and the game was meaningless. They didn’t play nearly all of their starters. But the refs screwing Kansas City really screwed Pittsburgh by allowing the Chargers to win the game knocking the Steelers out of the playoffs.
Here is the best part. It was the same crew that basically admitted to screwing the Seahawks out of the Super Bowl a few years ago as a fucking “thank you for your service” to the outgoing Rooney. You couldn’t make this shit up.
1. Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
  
  I feel like the reffing this year has been all around awful.
  1. Brett L 10 years ago
    
    Good thing they got rid of the scabs, eh?
    1. Auric Demonocles 10 years ago
      
      I honestly think it would be about the same. That disappearing first down they did to the Redskins was awful
      1. R C Dean 10 years ago
        
        The Packers got ass-raped with another no-fooling cost-them-the-game no-speculation-needed call early in the season, too.
        Can’t remember the details. Too painful. Or I was too drunk. One of those.
    2. mad libertarian guy 10 years ago
      
      But TEH INTEGRITTIE UV DA GAME!!!!!!
2. Ted S. 10 years ago
  
  Lance Easley says hello.
  1. Episiarch 10 years ago
    
    Look, you Packers fans need to let go. Your butthurt isn’t healthy. It’s been a year, man!
    Also, Golden Tate.
    1. Ted S. 10 years ago
      
      13 titles to zero.
  2. AuH20 10 years ago
    
    As a Bears fan, allow me to say:
    Fuck Packers fans. I hope you guys sign Jay Cutler and start him over Rogers next year.
3. Andrew S. 10 years ago
  
  Steelers have no room to comment; at 8-8, they didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs regardless.
  Also, fuck the Steelers. And fuck Dan Rooney.
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    I really don’t care that the Steelers got screwed after that joke of a Super Bowl. I just think it is wildly ironic that the very same blind mice crew that screwed the Seahawks now screwed the Steelers.
4. a better weapon 10 years ago
  
  Of all the calls to miss, this one had the the least impact on the game.
  This wasn’t a PI call on an ‘uncatchable’ or tipped ball, or a missed offside preceding the sack. Hell, the Cowboys got a delay of game after the game clock had 15 seconds shaven off mysteriously.
  Now, if I were a Steelers fan, I’d probably be pretty sour, but they didn’t come close to blocking the kick or seem to alter it in any way, so in the universe of missed calls, this is probably the least offensive.
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    It is the most offensive. It doesn’t matter if it “affected the game”. What matters is that it is a rule and an obvious objective call and the refs missed it. Suppose the Chiefs had hit a winning TD pass but the tape revealed that they had an illegal formation, you don’t think the Chargers would have had a right to be pissed? I do. Missing such an objective and easy call is more infuriating.
    1. a better weapon 10 years ago
      
      If it was a TD pass, I’d probably be just as ambivalent. Now, if it was an illegal formation for a short yardage run in the direction of the illegally lined up TE, yeah probably since that very obviously would be an advantage.
      I didn’t even know the formation was illegal at the time TBH. Out of curiosity, did you catch the illegal formation pre-snap or as the play was unfolding?
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        The Chargers formation was illegal because on a field goal it is illegal for the defending team to have more than seven men to one side of the center.
        As far as a TD pass, I mean if one of the slot receivers has his head up his ass and is at the line of scrimmage making him an ineligible receiver. That kind of technical call.
        
        904cc 10 years ago
        
        Calls get missed, it’s part of the game. Getting pissed about it is useless, unless they get pissed the next time it goes their way instead.
        This is what leads me to believe you were never a high level athlete. No, you don’t get pissed over this call, because you can pick any of a hundred other things that cost them the game.
        What about that dropped ball? Those penalties?
        When you’re perfect, then you get to complain about refs. Until then, put your focus where it belongs.
        
        Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        I just can’t believe the Steelers nearly got in because the the stars almost aligned for them. The Ravens and Dolphins (pathetically) lost and the Chargers needed some damn luck to squeak by against KC’s second-string team. The Steelers franchise is charmed even at 8-8.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        This is what leads me to believe you were never a high level athlete. No, you don’t get pissed over this call, because you can pick any of a hundred other things that cost them the game.
        Yeah because never once have I seen a professional or college athlete get angry about a missed call. Never once.
        Your post leads me to believe you have never even witnessed a sporting event much less played in one.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        This is what leads me to believe you were never a high level athlete. No, you don’t get pissed over this call, because you can pick any of a hundred other things that cost them the game.
        Yeah because never once have I seen a professional or college athlete get angry about a missed call. Never once.
        Your post leads me to believe you have never even witnessed a sporting event much less played in one.
        
        904cc 10 years ago
        
        Yeah because never once have I seen a professional or college athlete get angry about a missed call.
        I guarantee you the coach told him to knock it off the second he got on the sidelines.
        Ryan Leaf played in the NFL. What does the fact that players don’t always listen to coaches matter in any way whatsoever?
        Your post leads me to believe
        Who cares, you think whining about refs is a valuable use of time for an 8-8 nteam.
        
        Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        “No, you don’t get pissed over this call, because you can pick any of a hundred other things that cost them the game.”
        I don’t know. I played soccer at elite level and I seem to recall players get peeved at calls all the time.
        
        Warty 10 years ago
        
        When you’re perfect, then you get to complain about refs. Until then, put your focus where it belongs.
        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
        Holy shit, this is retarded.
        
        904cc 10 years ago
        
        You’re a CLeveland Browns fan.
        What the fuck could you possibly know about football?
        
        904cc 10 years ago
        
        And it sounds like you had shitty coaches.
        
        Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        If directed at me, no. Coaches always taught us to forget the bad calls but sometimes in the middle of a game you vent.
        The leaders on the field have to rally the team to move forward and at half you collect your thoughts.
        But I don’t get the “you never played at that level” crap. I always it’s all relative. Universal themes in sports don’t change all that significantly at any competitive level.
        
        Warty 10 years ago
        
        This is an old griefer of many handles, Rufus. He’s not looking to discuss anything, he just likes insulting people.
  2. Acosmist 10 years ago
    
    The Cowboys delay of game had no impact on the game at all, since they scored on that drive anyway. Also, no one, including Garrett, looked at the playclock? lolwut? That’s some Boys-level incompetence. How do you dispute that call? “We were too retarded to look at the playclock, ever.”
    1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
      
      If the Eagles get their act together earlier in the year this game is a non-entity. The Cowboys had no business being in the playoffs- especially over the Cardinals.
      1. AuH20 10 years ago
        
        Yeah. Can we all, collectively, feel bad for the Cardinals?
        They had a better season than two division winners in the NFC, and one wildcard winner in the AFC. They got fucking jobbed.
        
        Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        Even if they went 11-5 they weren’t a shoe-in to get in.
        Sick.
5. Warty 10 years ago
  
  GOOD. Fuck the Steelers.
6. Invisible Finger 10 years ago
  
  Why do libertarians expect football to be anything but the fucked up mess it is? The NFL (and its lapdog the NCAA) keeps adding more and more legislation to its rule book that the whole operation is becoming a mirror-image of government.
  The referees are as incompetent as the police because the incessant addition of rules makes the job impossible; their only recourse is ever-increasing surveillance followed by the pretzel logic of a judge who actually can’t sense of the massive jumble of laws.
Pro Libertate 10 years ago

Farm drones?
1. OO=======D 10 years ago
  
  Drone on the farm,
  Drone on the farm,
  That’s what I want to do,
  Drone on the farm.
Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

The latest stupid revelation from the unexplored innards of the Affordable Care Act is that next year vending machines will be required to show calorie counts for the products inside.
Does that mean I’ll be able to blame Glitch Girl when the Twix I paid for fails to drop?
1. Rich 10 years ago
  
  Nope. Penaltwix.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
    
    Come to think of it, that Pajama Boy ad should have had the calorie count for that cocoa on it. (Or maybe the count of how many policies Obamacare is going to cost you.)
kinnath 10 years ago

Happy New Year Reasonoids.
1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
  
  Indeed. But I wish the Links threads weren’t so often filled with sports talk. B-o-o-o-r-i-n-g….
  1. BuSab Agent 10 years ago
    
    This is why there are no female libertarians…
John 10 years ago

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..16432.html
Warty has apparently taken over the Huffpo. It is dead lifts all around.
1. Brett L 10 years ago
  
  I wonder how the skinny-fat hipsters at HuffPo are going to take ol’ Rip.
2. Andrew S. 10 years ago
  
  Dunphy?
3. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Isn’t Ripptoe kind of the High Priest of the Church of Warty? Warty will kill him last, after his long night falls on the rest of us?
4. Warty 10 years ago
  
  YOU’LL HURT YOUR BACK
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    Most people don’t do it right and will. The thing is that you can get in great shape doing pushups and doing circuit training. Unless you plan on being a body builder, you really don’t need to lift weights. And in fact, if you are some out of shape 30 something, you probably should avoid lifting. But don’t let that stop you from taking some idiotic crossfit class and training like an NFL player and getting hurt.
    1. Warty 10 years ago
      
      And in fact, if you are some out of shape 30 something, you probably should avoid lifting.
      Completely wrong. Lifting has an incredibly low injury risk if you’re not an idiot about it, aka Cultfit.
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        Fair enough. But most out of shape 30 somethings who have never lifted before are idiots.
        
        Warty 10 years ago
        
        True. Ego will hurt you faster than anything else. Older women who start training later in life tend to do better at it than men, because they don’t feel like they have something to prove. Just like in shooting.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        I would believe that. I should lift but I just don’t enjoy it.
    2. Warty 10 years ago
      
      Also, backs are incredibly resilient. As long as you don’t pick something up with a rounded back and then twist, you’ll have a hard time doing any damage to yourself. I have a mildly herniated disk (from picking up a big rock with a round back and then twisting) from years back, and deadlifting doesn’t bother me at all as long as I’m careful to keep my back in tight extension.
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

Libertarians have failed gay rights
So why shouldn’t all gay and lesbian voters support these candidates?
Because the Libertarian Party’s stance on gay rights never left the 1990s. The “government should stay out of your bedroom” era, which ended with Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, does not empower LGBTQ people outside of the bedroom?and that’s exactly where we need to take the fight. In the Libertarian view, gay and lesbian marriages are not seen as a committed relationship between two adults, but rather as a step toward ending governmental involvement in marriage altogether. That’s not giving gay people equal rights: It’s stripping away everybody’s rights.
State-sanctioned marriage isn’t a right.
Marriage equality doesn’t end in the home. It carries over into the workplace as well. The Libertarian belief that all marriages should be viewed as a private contract is especially dangerous when coupled with the party’s disdain for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Libertarians believe that categorizing a minority as protected in the workplace impinges on the rights of private businesses to discriminate against employees (and customers) as they see fit
Why are gays a protected class? Why not redheads or left-handed people? Discrimination against anyone is wrong, no?
1. John 10 years ago
  
  If you are unwilling to oppress people, you have failed the gays.
  The whole thing makes me very sad. At some point if we are not lucky, being gay is going to be associated with being a Stalinist asshole. And that will not workout well for gays.
  1. Rhywun 10 years ago
    
    Meh. Every group has a loudmouth fringe.
    1. John 10 years ago
      
      Sure, But gays only seem to have a loud mouth fringe. Last I looked Glaad was the dominant voice.
      1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        Relax, John. I’m pretty sure there are good, conservative, quiet, libertarian gays. Like anything else, the loud mouth’d shnooks get all the attention.
      2. Irish 10 years ago
        
        I’m sure Tonio and Jesse will be glad to know you assume they’re a loud mouthed fringe. The Log Cabin Republicans, too.
        Clearly gay people are a monolith, unlike every other group on the planet, and we should just assume that they all agree with glad.
        Let’s also forget that Out Magazine, a noted gay publication, published an attack article by gay author Bret Easton Ellis in which he absolutely obliterated GLAAD.
        The most popular comments on that page are all anti-GLAAD. Let’s ignore that though because it doesn’t fit the conservative narrative of GLAAD being the only voice in gay America.
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        It is not a meme, it is widespread perception. And this is one case where perception is reality. Ask the average person on the street who speaks for Gay issues, and you will get Glaad as an answer more times than any other issue.
        Sure a lot of gays can’t stand them. But unless they change that perception, it won’t matter. And that is the sad part. Something doesn’t have to be true to have a bad effect, it only has to be perceived as true.
      3. Rhywun 10 years ago
        
        Dude, the vast majority of gays don’t give a shit about politics – same as regular folk.
        
        Michael S. Langston 10 years ago
        
        Sure, but I think John’s correct in that in society today, if a group stands up and says they speak for group X and are crazy and unchallenged, then everyone who could potentially be in group X are tarred as having the same basic ideas.
        Same thing would happen if there were monthly shootings at abortion clinics, all by self-proclaimed Christians, and no other Christians stood up and stated this is not them and not Christian (also would happen if the group who would do so is so small or with so few resources their message never makes it to a very large enough audience).
        More broadly one can think of groups as having “identities” based upon what most others think about that group just like corporations have identities based upon the same thing.
        Which isn’t to say opinions about any corporation are uniform; there are certainly groups that disagree about this corporation or that one – but the societal belief held about any corporation/entity/etc could be said to be the majority opinion of the group on holding the majority with like opinions).
        Possibly unfair/wrong/etc – but I don’t see that really. TO me thinking it’s unfair is comparable to thinking the sky being blue is unfair to other colors?
        Maybe one could posit this rationally, but really describing reality as fair or unfair seems irrelevant and all of this really is just a normal consequence of mostly free market of life and ideas.
        
        Rhywun 10 years ago
        
        a group stands up and says they speak for group X and are crazy and unchallenged, then everyone who could potentially be in group X are tarred as having the same basic ideas
        Point taken.
        I’d like to think that effect will die down over time, as more people realize they know gays that don’t fit in to that mold.
2. paranoid android 10 years ago
  
  That’s not giving gay people equal rights: It’s stripping away everybody’s rights.
  Those nasty libertarians, trying to take away everybody’s right to force single people to pay more in taxes for not making the lifestyle choices politicians would prefer they make!
  My God, guys. Tony was right all along! We were the authoritarians the whole time!
3. Winston 10 years ago
  
  Reminds of this article linked by Reason’s own Zenon Evans on libertarianism’s “documented problem selling their brand to women.”
  http://thoughtsonliberty.com/w…..te-freedom
4. wareagle 10 years ago
  
  Libertarians believe that categorizing a minority as protected in the workplace impinges on the rights of private businesses to discriminate against employees (and customers) as they see fit
  what person does not discriminate in some way every day – choosing where to eat or not eat, where to live or not live, who to be or not be friends with, etc etc etc. Goddamn, this is tiresome.
  Yes, a company can act as it sees fit and the marketplace can respond as it sees fit. What part of that is so difficult to comprehend? Oh, the part that holds that, absent the state’s use of force, people are incapable of doing anything for themselves.
5. JW 10 years ago
  
  Treating everyone as individuals and equal takes away the juicy special protections racket.
6. BSubversive.com 10 years ago
  
  You can’t force me to hire a soul less ginger.
  When an employer chooses to hire A over B, he has in fact discriminated against B. As long as that discrimination can’t be tied to race, religion, sex, age its fine.
  These anti-discrimination laws are rather cute and naive. As long as I don’t tell somebody that I didn’t hire them because well, I don’t hire gay niggers, everybody is happy and the bigotry remains hidden. Bigots are still bigots, its just harder to tell who they happen to be. I’d rather know that a business is run by a bigot so that I could avoid doing business with them.
7. OldMexican 10 years ago
  
  The Libertarian belief that all marriages should be viewed as a private contract is especially dangerous when coupled with the party’s disdain for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
  
  Because the ENDA’s validity is self-evident! Don’t you see, you nefarious Libertarians? It must be so otherwise the author would be guilty of Begging The Question and, why, we can’t have that!
8. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
  
  I’m a leftie and always felt I was discriminated against since the third grade.
  /waves left-hand segregationist flag.
  1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
    
    Me too! *waves flag*
    1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
      
      It only takes two to start a revolution.
      1. Bastiat's Burning Rage 10 years ago
        
        Make that three
  2. BuSab Agent 10 years ago
    
    How do you southpaws feel about ambidextrous people?
9. Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago
  
  So it would seemthat (L)libertarians “unforgivably” support “entrenched, systemic discrimination.”
  People like this are going to lump you in with the “haters.” Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it here in the Haters’ Club – we have manacles – I mean monocles, and everything!
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

But what about those on the other side of that thin blue line? In Seattle, shootings by the police accounted for one-fifth of all homicides in the city, six out of 29. Police officials there blame poor management of those with mental illnesses.
It’s refreshing to see the police brass frely admit they cannot keep their psychopathic goons on the leash, but do they have a plan?
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Spiking their beer with psychotropic meds?
  1. BigT 10 years ago
    
    Spiking their beer donuts with psychotropic meds
JW 10 years ago

Police officials there blame poor management of those with mental illnesses.
You’d think the hiring processes would weed them out.
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Weed them out?
2. Ted S. 10 years ago
  
  I think the hiring process is designed to wee out those without certain mental illnesses.
  1. Ted S. 10 years ago
    
    Er, weed out. “Weeing them out” might be rather painful.
3. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
  
  I ALREADY DID THIS JOKE.
  1. JW 10 years ago
    
    One of those joke monopolist cronies, eh?
  2. Ted S. 10 years ago
    
    It wasn’t funny when you did it.
    1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
      
      Nonetheless.
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

100 year old photo negatives found in Antarctica
A team from New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust recently discovered 100-year-old photographic negatives left in British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition hut on Cape Evans in Antarctica.
The small wooden hut was built during Scott’s 1912 expedition to the South Pole. Scott wanted to be the first person to reach the South Pole, only to find that a Norwegian group had beaten him there. Scott and several of his team members died on the return trip.
The photos don’t come from Scott’s expedition ? they were taken by members of Ernest Shackleton’s Ross Sea party, an expedition that took place between 1914 and 1917. Some members of the party were forced to stay in Scott’s hut in 1915 after becoming stranded when their ship, the Aurora, broke free from its mooring at Cape Evans and blew out to sea.
“One of the most striking images is of Ross Sea Party member Alexander Stevens, Shackleton’s Chief Scientist, standing on-board the Aurora,” the Trust said in a statement.
20-two unprocessed negatives were found blocked together in a small box in the darkroom of Scott’s expedition photographer Herbert Ponting, according to the Trust. It’s not known who took the photos.
1. Jordan 10 years ago
  
  You Obamacared the link.
2. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
  
  Damnit
  http://www.businessinsider.com…..ut-2013-12
3. Killaz 10 years ago
  
  That’s a great photo.
4. Generic Stranger 10 years ago
  
  Who the fuck types out “20-two” instead of 22 or twenty-two?
  1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
    
    It seems to have been fixed. Some sort of autocorrect thing?
    1. Generic Stranger 10 years ago
      
      Or speech-to-text.
OO=======D 10 years ago

As said police continue their efforts to militarize, 2013 saw the fewest number of police killed by firearms since 1887. More were killed in car crashes. Overall deaths in the line of duty are the lowest since 1959.
I would like this graphed along with the rates of police brutality and police shooting unarmed people, etc.
1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
  
  I thought sure that “1887” was a typo.
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

Some members of the party were forced to stay in Scott’s hut in 1915 after becoming stranded when their ship, the Aurora, broke free from its mooring at Cape Evans and blew out to sea.
“One of the most striking images is of Ross Sea Party member Alexander Stevens, Shackleton’s Chief Scientist, standing on-board the Aurora,” the Trust said in a statement.
Were the guys on shore throwing confetti and yelling, “Bon Voyage!”?
1. Steve G 10 years ago
  
  +1 looney tunes
  1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
    
    Bon Voya-gee1
    1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
      
      !
John 10 years ago

Just in time for that New Year’s Eve drinking binge, 3D printed livers.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technol…..2D11812708
1. Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago
  
  Where’s my printed kidney?
  1. JW 10 years ago
    
    Postrel grabbed it.
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

The Middle Class and the Failure of Capitalism
In the winter of 1965, Rob Stanley graduated from Chicago Vocational High School, on the city’s Far South Side. Pay rent, his father told him, or get out of the house. So Stanley walked over to Interlake Steel, where he was immediately hired to shovel taconite into the blast furnace on the midnight shift. It was the crummiest job in the mill, mindless grunt work, but it paid $2.32 an hour ? enough for an apartment and a car. That was enough for Stanley, whose main ambition was playing football with the local sandlot all-stars, the Bonivirs.
What’s the name of that thing that devalues money and erodes purchasing power? In-something?
Also, how many liberals today condone the attitude of ‘find a job or get out of the house’ today?
The argument given against paying a living wage in fast-food restaurants is that workers are paid according to their skills, and if the teenager cleaning the grease trap wants more money, he should get an education. Like most conservative arguments, it makes sense logically, but has little connection to economic reality. Workers are not simply paid according to their skills, they’re paid according to what they can negotiate with their employers.
Cleaning the grease trap is a job that should allow you to raise a family of 4?
1. John 10 years ago
  
  it makes sense logically, but has little connection to economic reality. Workers are not simply paid according to their skills, they’re paid according to what they can negotiate with their employers.
  And their skills have nothing to do with what they can negotiate with their employers. I mean a high school drop out with no work history is in the exact same negotiating position as some highly skilled coder or welder or something.
  Jesus tap dancing Christ, how the hell can someone write something that stupid?
  1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
    
    “You have no education and have only flipped burgers. Yet your job negotiation skills are so amazing that you are our next CEO! Welcome!”
  2. Restoras 10 years ago
    
    Because it is all about feelings and the way they want to see the world, not the way it actually is.
  3. Rhywun 10 years ago
    
    I heard on the news this morning that the Democrats are gearing up to focus heavily on the MW in 2014. I’m bringing the popcorn.
    1. AuH20 10 years ago
      
      Eh, I think they’re doing it because even parts of the liberal base are turning against Obamacare. They need to get those people’s buts out of seats on election day, 2014, unless they want to see a slaughter instead of a massacre.
      I think MW and the Supreme Court hearing Hobby Lobby are going to be played up a lot just so the Dems don’t lose any safe seats (I mean the insane, “Would never vote for a Republican if Stalin was the Democratic candidate” safe seats)
  4. VG Zaytsev 10 years ago
    
    Likely, the factory had to pay a living wage, in the early 60s for shoveling coal into a blast furnace because the job sucked so much that they’d have unacceptably bad turnover if they didn’t.
    Kinda how an uneducated person can make a living wage today on a lobster boat in AK or an oil field in SD.
  5. Invisible Finger 10 years ago
    
    Because apparently the writer was hired without skills or a track record of competence.
2. wareagle 10 years ago
  
  what we have here is some classic projection. There is nothing that the various negative -isms seek more than the destruction of the middle class.
  That’s where all those pesky entrepreneurs and bootstrap types are found, and if some of them make it, before long the rest of the rabble thinks it can survive and prosper without the beneficence of Top Men.
  1. 2ndClassProle 10 years ago
    
    Yes, but how can we sell a chicken in every pot, when the market gives them roast beef and pie.
    1. Restoras 10 years ago
      
      Not too mention putting the Schechter Bros. out of business?
3. Steve G 10 years ago
  
  NEEDS MOAR UNIONZ!1
4. Killaz 10 years ago
  
  I read two sentences and knew exactly where this drivel was first published.
5. Restoras 10 years ago
  
  You aren’t always paid according to what you can negotiate from your employer, just like you aren’t always paid what your work adds to the value of the product.
  You can try to hold your employer over a barrel and force them to pay you more than you are worth but this will encourage the employer to eliminate that bottleneck from the operation.
  In the example provided, a really crappy job paid decently – because ti had to in order to find someone to do it. Flipping burgers is only comparable in the menial sense of the job, but not everything else. Plus there are hundreds of potential workers lined up behind every fast food flipper position – creating a vast oversupply of labor and thus no impetus to pay anything more than it is worth.
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    The market works in the aggregate, not every single case. Sure, sometimes you get paid less than you actually produce. Sometimes you get paid more. But eventually it will even out. If you really are underpaid, some other employer will come along and offer you a better job.
  2. Juice 10 years ago
    
    You aren’t always paid according to what you can negotiate from your employer,
    how’s that? I guess they could screw you by not paying you what they said they would.
6. andarm16 10 years ago
  
  I love how they leave out the whole part about those same wages driving the American steel industry into oblivion.
7. Irish 10 years ago
  
  Like most conservative arguments, it makes sense logically, but has little connection to economic reality. Workers are not simply paid according to their skills, they’re paid according to what they can negotiate with their employers.
  Like most liberal arguments, this argument is self-negating. Getting paid according to what you can negotiate with your employer IS getting paid according to the value of your skills. The more in demand your skills are, the higher the value you can negotiate. On the other hand, if you have skills that everyone else has, then your skills are of low value and you won’t be able to negotiate high pay.
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

if the teenager cleaning the grease trap wants more money, he should get an education.
I’d say he is already getting an education. He needs SKILLS.
1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  Hacker skills? Bo Staff skills?
  1. R C Dean 10 years ago
    
    Its “bow hunting skills”.
    Also, “nunchuk skills”.
    You Swiss and your cultural illiteracy disgust me.
    1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
      
      Expect a gnome in your bank records….soon.
Kitay 10 years ago

Showing nutrition information on vending machines will cost 25 million a year – Considering that there are over 4.6 million vending machines in the U.S. that translates to about 5 or 6 bucks per machine. Doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me.
1. John 10 years ago
  
  Doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me.
  It never is when it is not your money.
2. wareagle 10 years ago
  
  are you unable to figure out for yourself that a candy bar or bag of chips is not health food? Anything else that govt needs to dictate to you?
  1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
    
    Close enough to what I was going to say.
    Besides, anybody buying a candy bar should know the sugar is far more important than simple calories. Right?
3. JW 10 years ago
  
  C-
  1. Restoras 10 years ago
    
    That is some serious grade inflation right there.
    That comment gets no more than a D-.
4. Jordan 10 years ago
  
  Then feel free to pay the cost yourself.
5. Rich 10 years ago
  
  Doesn’t seem too unreasonable to me.
  I agree, so let’s require the calorie counts to be further presented via audio and Braille.
  /You-know-who
6. cavalier973 10 years ago
  
  That’s 5 or 6 bucks every time the vending items are changed, right?
7. Juice 10 years ago
  
  STIMULUS
John 10 years ago

http://espnmediazone.com/us/pr…..pn-duties/
The Church of Tebow comes to the four letter network.
1. Pro Libertate 10 years ago
  
  I’m disappointed. I want the man to play football. Fuck.
2. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
  
  He’d rather do that than come play in the CFL, huh? The Montreal Alouettes (where Trestman coached for a couple of years) own his rights.
  I know the CFL offers limited dollars but it’s still a decent caliber brand of football.
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

Aspie complains that his lack of social skills have prevented him from finding success
I’m kind, warm even. I work incredibly hard and I am incredibly skilled. That Rubik’s Cube I mentioned earlier, I bought it because I’d never tried to solve one. Nine hours later I had. Three days later I was down to two minutes to solve it. Not only can I fix your bicycle, I can explain to you what makes the steel tubing in it good or bad, I can explain how a triaxial weave works on your carbon frame, and the physics of how you shift gears or stop. With no prior experience I replaced the rear end on a Ford Expedition. And I did it in an afternoon, the right way.
But what I can’t do is shake hands and make eye contact all day. That beats the hell out of me. Because of that I’ve been homeless more than a few times.
Learn a trade that’s valuable. You obviously pick up things quickly.
I’m lost, suffocating in poverty, and I have a disability that is the primary cause of that. But I can’t pay the people to write the paper that says I need my version of a wheelchair ramp, my vocational rehab. Because while my handicap makes me brilliant, it also makes me sick and miserable around crowds, noise and disorder. It makes me smarter than my bosses, and no matter how I hide it, the bad bosses take revenge on me for it.
What’s a reasonable accommodation for an aspie?
1. John 10 years ago
  
  Why didn’t someone teach him to code or work on cars or something? I find it hard to believe that someone who has that much aptitude can’t get a job.
  1. Rich 10 years ago
    
    Yep.
    And — at the risk of seeming insensitive — he doesn’t have to shake hands and make eye contact *all day*, just when the occasion calls for it. That’s just learning another “skill”, like non-aspies learn to say “Sir” to their asshole bosses.
    1. John 10 years ago
      
      Talk to anyone who has worked in Silicon valley. Not being able to shake hands with people or look them in the eye would not even be considered a quirk out there. There are coders who insist on bringing their dog to work or wearing pajamas or stripping naked when they code. I am not kidding. And they get away with it if they are good.
      No way does this guy’s issues, whatever they are, keep him from getting a job if he is as skilled as he claims to be.
      1. Rich 10 years ago
        
        I agree, John. I know people like this guy, and they have substantial careers despite weirding out lots of co-workers.
        
        R C Dean 10 years ago
        
        I don’t recall, Rich. Have we worked together?
        [stares at shoes]
        
        Rich 10 years ago
        
        Maybe.
        *** stares at R C’s shoes ***
      2. andarm16 10 years ago
        
        It’s the kind of job he wants. Note the bit about his favorite type of work being the haunted house. In Artsy jobs like that, who you know and networking are everything.
        Basically, what he is saying is that I have a disability, so I should be able to do the kind of work that I want. (never mind that there are normal folk that don’t have the networking skills to make it in this line of work.)
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        I have a disability, I am only six feet tall. God Damn it where is my job as a professional basketball player?
  2. tarran 10 years ago
    
    I worked with a sys-admin who had some traits like this guy. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to shake hands; rather on one occasion I had to restrain him from punching one of our better PLC programmers because the sys-admin couldn’t tell the difference between laughing at and the laughter of gallows humor.
    I actually was promoted almost entirely based on my ability to manage the sysadmin and keep him doing the magical things that made us so much money without assaulting anyone or generating union grievances. It was incredibly hard. I basically made it a point of going to the guy’s office two or three times a day to ask him technical questions or to ask him to review my code; if he was losing it and forcing a guy to use a 32 character password that expired every 5 minutes because they guy had fucked him over, he’d tell me and I’d smooth things over (yes, this happened, the guy deserved it, and had he walked into our server room, I might have punched him in the jaw. I instead handled the matter in a politic way).
    Had I not been managing the sysadmin so closely, he would have been fired for assaulting his coworkers. And he’d probably feel he was justified because they were laughing at him.
    1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
      
      if he was losing it and forcing a guy to use a 32 character password that expired every 5 minutes because they guy had fucked him over,
      I laughed so hard I thought for a minute I was going to stroke.
      1. tarran 10 years ago
        
        The sad thing was that *I* thought it was appropriate revenge.
        Basically, the user was a very senior management in R&D who had insisted on having superuser privileges on our servers (he claimed incorrectly that the custom programs he maintained required those privileges to run and senior management ordered us to give it to him).
        So one day we are upgrading the operating system on all our servers during a mill shutdown. It’s a high pucker operation; my boss and his boss are there to ‘supervise’. And, as part of my training, I’m doing the upgrade on one of the servers. Naturally, we publicize what we are doing and send out emails etc.
        We also disabled user logins, but left the sysadmin group undisabled.
        As the upgrade is finishing, X windows came up properly. I tweaked some systems parameters and then did a reboot to verify that the system would startup and automatically execute all the mill-management tasks. X Windows didn’t come up. It was dead, and the system log was full of errors.
        So I raised the alarm, and my boss and my boss’ boss were all in my shit over the question of how I could have fucked it up. In the meantime we’re investigating, and we find that someone had edited, manually, the X Windows config file and they had broken it badly.
        It turned out that our friend the user had ignored our emails and the notices, and had decided to upgrade his custom program. Naturally, because we were upgrading the OS, it was slow to start (cont)
        
        tarran 10 years ago
        
        . So the asshole decided that the problem was that we had an inefficient configuration of X Windows and he decided to manually to clean up our config file.
        He also purged the previous versions (this was an OpenVMS system). Then he called our server room to confess that he had been editing the file when we rebooted and he was concerned that we had corrupted it.
        I ended up sitting at a line printer/teletype that was the console terminal restoring the original file off of tape backups. We only delayed the startup of the mill by 15 minutes (at a cost of $100,000 in lost production)
        It was the next day that I found my sysadmin exacting his revenge. At my behest we quietly made him a normal user, and he never noticed (of if he did he was cowed enough to not press the point).
        And yes, having my boss chew me out for screwing up an upgrade because of that user had made me very ill-disposed toward that user. 🙂
2. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
  
  They work remotely?
3. Killaz 10 years ago
  
  Nine hours to solve a RC is nothing to brag about. I was so so at it compared to those around me. Solved it several times but put no more than nine hours in accumulated time holding one.
4. Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago
  
  Fuck, man. There are tons of examples of highly successful Aspies (diagnosed and undiagnosed). I have no doubt Howard Hughes was on the spectrum, though a diagnosis didn’t exist when he was alive.
  1. Irish 10 years ago
    
    That’s because this guy is just looking for a pity party and doesn’t give a fuck about whether something is his fault or not. He isn’t looking to take care of himself, he’s looking for a hand out.
    There are tons of jobs people with Aspergers can do, this guy just isn’t interested in doing them.
Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago

So how much of a disaster are the Sochi Olympics gonna be? I say somewhere between Munich and Atlanta.
1. Rich 10 years ago
  
  “Hey, all the security forces are over in Sochi!”
2. John 10 years ago
  
  Atlanta went fine. Fuck all of the Eurotrash who whined about there being evil corporate sponsors.
3. andarm16 10 years ago
  
  I’m guessing more of a Atlanta. (Even if there isn’t some kind of mass terrorist attack, there will be some gay related kerfuffle that the MSM will get all of their panties into a bundle over, and make us wish that some crazed separatists blew the place up.)
  1. AuH20 10 years ago
    
    I think all the anti-gay stuff is just going on so Russia can keep a lock on the medals in its most loved sport: Men’s Figure Skating.
    1. Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago
      
      I’d say they have cornered the market on Ice Dancing, and, to some extent, Pairs. Not too much going on with the Men’s Singles in Russia. Probably because it’s so dang gay.
      And the only thing I have ever agreed with Obama on is his choice of representatives for the games. I love anything that sticks it to authority figures, even if it’s another authority figure doing it.
prolefeed 10 years ago

The measure, introduced in line with a pledge by President Francois Hollande to make the rich do more to pull France out of crisis
The likely result * sounds * similar — the rich will do more to pull out of France.
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

South Carolina woman stabs fiance after he disagrees with her wedding color scheme
Richland County deputies say a 34-year-old woman stabbed her fiance on Christmas Day after they argued over what colors should be used in their wedding.
Krysta James, who was charged in the incident near Blythewood, has been released on bond.
Investigators say the incident began when the man was trying to leave a home on Twin Pond Road after the argument.
Then, investigators say that is when James attacked him around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Deputies say the man was stabbed in the upper body, but his injuries weren’t life threatening.
James is charged with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.
Took a knife but dodged a bullet?
1. R C Dean 10 years ago
  
  Too early to say if he dodged a bullet.
  Did he cancel the engagement?
  1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
    
    True. Love isn’t blind, it’s retarded.
2. Rich 10 years ago
  
  a high and aggravated nature
  Can’t the lawyers get just *one* more superfluous adjective in there?
  1. Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago
    
    “ultrahazardous”
3. creech 10 years ago
  
  There’s a guy who wished to argue over the wedding colors????
  1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
    
    He wanted to marry a fat, homely, violent woman. Judgment is not his strong suit.
4. amelia 10 years ago
  
  Here’s the companion story from 2 hours away, in North Charleson – woman stabs husband with ceramic squirrel for coming home without beer on Christmas day. SC is my home state!
  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/co…..over-beer/
  1. BuSab Agent 10 years ago
    
    That’s it. Squirrels are the ultimate force for evil and should be banned, even the ceramic representation of one is life threatening! They’re worse than guns.
AuH20 10 years ago

The Adventues of Lindy West: Lindy is too fat to sit in an airplane seat
This year, for the first time ever, I got on a plane and discovered that I didn’t fit in the seat. I’ve always been fat, but I was the fat person that still mostly fit. I mean, I couldn’t fit into clothes (MORE TUNICS PATTERNED LIKE A PARISIAN SUITCASE, PLEASE), and I had to be careful with butt safety (I’ll take the chair side, not the banquette, thanks), but I was still the kind of fat person who could move through the straight-size world without causing too many ripples. Until this fall.
It’s been an incredibly busy year for me professionally?I’ve probably flown 20 times in the past eight months?and one day I sat down and it just didn’t work. I was on a flight home from Texas, I think, and the flight out there had been fine. Suddenly, on the return flight, I had to cram myself in. I mean, I know I ate that brisket, but I was only gone for two days! I’m no butt scientist (at least, not certified…ANYMORE), but how fast could a person’s butt possibly grow!
1. R C Dean 10 years ago
  
  You know she would never fly cattle class, so she must be too fat to fit in a FIRST CLASS seat.
  That’s fat.
2. AuH20 10 years ago
  
  Also:
  My boyfriend is 6’5″. His shoulders are so wide that he physically must use both armrests (and then some), and his legs are so long that the person in front of him absolutely cannot recline their seat. He doesn’t fucking fit. He fits worse than I do. Even though fat people are always blamed for RUINING EVERYTHING on planes, I realized the other day that?thanks to insecurity and my proficiency at origami-arms?I’ve literally never used a plane armrest. Even when I’m in the middle seat. I hear it’s nice, though!
  None of this is news. The should-fat-people-be-allowed-on-planes debate has been raging for years, and I have no interest in pointlessly rehashing it all over again. Some people will always disagree. That’s fine.
  But I just want to say this: Before the day I didn’t fit, this conversation was largely an abstraction for me. My stance was the same as it is now (if people pay for a service, it’s the seller’s obligation to accommodate those people and provide the service they paid for), but I didn’t understand what that panicky, uncertain walk down the aisle actually felt like. How inhumane it is. How much it makes you question your worth as a human being. I’ve done it a dozen or so times now, and I’ve also had a fat person sit next to me and squish me a little bit for six hours. There is no comparison.
  I include the beginning part because I’m curious: Is there some bias against 6’5″ men in the gay community that I’m unaware of?
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    Is Lindy a man or a woman?
    1. AuH20 10 years ago
      
      Lindy West is a woman. Supposedly.
      Here’s a picture:
      http://cdn02.cdnwp.thefrisky.c…..00×300.jpg
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        That is what I thought.
        
        AuH20 10 years ago
        
        I just don’t see a straight man dating that. Especially a 6’5″ guy, who she has described in the past as thin.
        So, my guess is gay. But if she’s a beard, she’s not a very convincing one. I’d say she’s about as convincing as Lena Dunham (who is dating the lead singer of fun)
        
        John 10 years ago
        
        Yeah. I will say this for her, she is fatter than Dunham but she does look like she has bathed in the last week, unlike Dunham who always looks dirty and skanky.
        I can’t believe any straight guy, much less one in a band, would ever touch Dunham on a thousand dollar bet.
        
        Irish 10 years ago
        
        That’s my biggest problem with Dunham. She just looks dirty. You may not be able to control how you look, but at least have some pride in hygiene.
        
        Red Rocks Rockin 10 years ago
        
        I can’t believe any straight guy, much less one in a band, would ever touch Dunham on a thousand dollar bet.
        I suspect that’s 90% of the reason Judd Apatow gave her the show, as some kind of avant-garde experiment to see how popular a show about a tubby, unattractive woman getting stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey could get.
        What’s so LOL about Dunham in particular is how obviously the media goes out of their way to try and make her seem way more attractive than she is.
3. John 10 years ago
  
  but I was still the kind of fat person who could move through the straight-size world without causing too many ripples. Until this fall.
  The straight size world? Really? Look Lindy, you are a lazy fat cow who refuses to exercise or mix in a salad. Your choice. But spare me the outsider language. You are a very large insider.
  1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
    
    She’s quoted further up as saying, “I know I ate that brisket, but … how fast could a person’s butt possibly grow!”
    If she thinks brisket (protein and fat) made her butt fatter, she has no idea.
    And BTW, study after study shows exercise is remarkably ineffective for fat loss, and especially so for obese people. For example: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=a…..dt=2835686
    1. Juice 10 years ago
      
      Are you telling me that Sweatin to the Oldies doesn’t work?
      1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
        
        Richard Simmons. My mother in law swears by him. She’s also built about like R2D2. No, not this one.
        According to the actual science (and admittedly, the best science on exercise and diet haven’t been done too well) exercise is good for your health. If you are looking to lose fat, the better the study was conducted, the less effective it appears to be. When looking at the obese, it seems to get worse, not better. Obese women, worse yet.
        And this includes well-controlled animal studies too.
    2. prolefeed 10 years ago
      
      I think she doesn’t mean she just ate several big helpings of brisket. It sounds like she ate the ENTIRE brisket of a cow, to gain that much weight.
      1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
        
        Without serious hormonal problems, it’s hard to stuff yourself with enough fatty meat to gain any body fat.
        A friend took my challenge to eat a diet of meat, fish, hard cheeses and green, leafy and high-fiber vegetables for 7 days. No alcohol, no sugar, no soda, no artificial or substitute sweeteners. Nothing starchier than string beans. Nothing sweeter than raw carrots. A quarter tablespoon of butter was required on every fork full. I told her I would pay her $10 per pound she gained. Too bad I didn’t tell her she owed me for what she lost. She dropped 8 pounds in that week.
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

Not only can I fix your bicycle, I can explain to you what makes the steel tubing in it good or bad, I can explain how a triaxial weave works on your carbon frame, and the physics of how you shift gears or stop. With no prior experience I replaced the rear end on a Ford Expedition. And I did it in an afternoon, the right way.
But what I can’t do is shake hands and make eye contact all day. That beats the hell out of me. Because of that I’ve been homeless more than a few times.
Go work in a junkyard.
Build “custom” motorcycles. If that prancing closet case (no, not Mikey) from OCC can have his own fucking teevee show, a guy with your preeminent skills should be a millionaire.
1. John 10 years ago
  
  Surely he could make a bike that is impossible to steer much less ride for any distance and will vibrate apart after ten minutes of use.
AuH20 10 years ago

A&E returns Duck Dynasty, shows lack of integrity (according the Lindy West)
It’s not like I’m super surprised that A&E immediately caved to the legions of frothing bigots and put Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson back on the air?despite the fact that the dude compared homosexuality to bestiality and said that the Jim Crow south was fucking awesome and then self-high-fived and took a shit on a VHS of Roots. There’s no way that everyone at that network didn’t already know Robertson was a racist homophobic garbage monster, seeing as they had cameras on him pretty much 24/7. There was probably a whole team of people whose entire job it was to scrub the Phil footage of stuff good white American patriotic duck people aren’t “allowed” to say out loud no more (#nobama) so that A&E could keep raking in duck bucks. Clearly, A&E’$ commitment to human fucking right$ end$ preci$ely where their commitment to $$$$$$$$$$ begin$$$$$$$$$$$$.
1. AuH20 10 years ago
  
  The comments are a storm of smug (I mean, who even WATCHES Duck Dynasty?) but I think the third thread takes the cake:
  If nothing else, this whole Duck Dynasty thing has been a very….illuminating experience. You know how during presidential elections, you are constantly being surprised (and not so surprised) by which of your FB friends “like[d]” Mitt Romney? The people that you don’t know that well, but that live on your block and seem pleasant enough that when they friend request you, you see no harm in accepting? It’s just like that. Go find all the “Bring Duck Dude Back to Dynasty” or whatever the fuck FB pages have popped up since this whole thing happened, and goggle at the people who you used to hold in relatively high regard that have joined said groups.
  There’s also this one:
  FUCK YOU REDNECKS AND ANYONE ELSE WHO SERIOUSLY PETITIONED TO GET THIS BACK ON THE AIR YOU PIECES OF SHIT! FUCK YOU A AND E FOR BEING A PUSSY AND CANCELING MY HOARDERS AND INTERVENTION FOR THIS.
  They booted Dog the Bounty Hunter for a few months but they can’t boot PHil? Not like A&E was gonna cancel the series anyway….just keep Phil out. Who’s said that he wants to leave anyway. LET HIM GO.
  Also, this show is looking more and more tired. But hey, $ talks and bullshit walks. Congratulations fucking Evangelicals you will run this country yet.
  /end of rant
  1. John 10 years ago
    
    Nothing says high level taste like watching Hoarders and Intervention. That is some class television there.
    God their tears are yummy. They are totally powerless in this and as a result something outside the hive is being allowed to exist. The horror of it.
    1. AuH20 10 years ago
      
      Also, it’s amazing how disagreeing with someone over Duck Dynasty, or a favored candidate (the latter is somewhat more explicable. I lose a lot of respect for people who still support Obama) makes you utterly discount people and lose respect for them.
      That’s a healthy way to go through life.
      1. John 10 years ago
        
        They are constantly pissed off an angry. Hell they were pissed off after the election in 2008. They are never not pissed off.
2. John 10 years ago
  
  They care about running their business and paying their stockholders and employees instead of the important things like politics.
3. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
  
  Why oh why does these people think ALL CAPS IS TOTES HILARIOUS? It’s bad enough that every sentence gets its own separate tangent in parentheses.
  1. Irish 10 years ago
    
    How can you not find this hilarious?
    Clearly, A&E’$ commitment to human fucking right$ end$ preci$ely where their commitment to $$$$$$$$$$ begin$$$$$$$$$$$$.
    She replaced S’s with dollar signs, goddammit!
    I’m also still waiting for Lindy West to explain to me how someone something she disagrees with is detrimental to human rights.
    1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
      
      Great satirists of history:
      Lucian, Miguel de Cervantes, Voltaire, Lindy West.
      1. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
        
        You forgot Juvenal.
  2. AuH20 10 years ago
    
    BECAUSE, LIKE, GAIS*, IT’S TOTES** HILAR***!
    *Misspelling words like guys to something that sounds similar is also the height of comedy
    ** As is talking like a teenage girl, even though Jezebel is targeted at college educated women (who, admittedly, used that college education on a women’s studies degree
    *** Abbreviating words is also hilarious. Obviously becomes obvs, probably becomes probs, etc.
  3. AuH20 10 years ago
    
    BECAUSE, LIKE, GAIS*, IT’S TOTES** HILAR***!
    *Misspelling words like guys to something that sounds similar is also the height of comedy
    ** As is talking like a teenage girl, even though Jezebel is targeted at college educated women (who, admittedly, used that college education on a women’s studies degree
    *** Abbreviating words is also hilarious. Obviously becomes obvs, probably becomes probs, etc.
    1. AuH20 10 years ago
      
      Triple posting? The most hilarious joke of all.
      Merry New Year, squirrels!
4. Rufus J. Firefly 10 years ago
  
  Why do you guys link to that cesspool of retardation?
  1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
    
    I can absorb Joan Walsh, Sadbeard, Friedman, and even Marcotte.
    But Lindy West is too much even for me to read.
paranoid android 10 years ago

My stance was the same as it is now (if people pay for a service, it’s the seller’s obligation to accommodate those people and provide the service they paid for)
It’s the seller’s obligation to, what, magically make the seat you paid for larger so that you can fit in it? Rebuild the plane at your command to fit your frame?
Hey Lindy, what if the airlines announced tomorrow that they’ll just stop selling tickets altogether to anyone who weighs over 250 lbs, would you be cool with that? Or would you just pout and write another one of your heee-larious articles about how everyone’s such a big bully to you?
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

I was still the kind of fat person who could move through the straight-size world without causing too many ripples.
Face it honey, your wake makes a garbage scow’s look like a jetski’s.
1. Rich 10 years ago
  
  😎
The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago

Ebeneezer Scrooge: Forward thinking progressive
Dickens has presented Scrooge cruelly in this passage, and, by invoking prisons and workhouses, he has brought to mind the worst and ugliest of government agencies, in order to shine a warm light on his own preferred method for alleviating poverty, which is private charity. Prisons and workhouses are, even so, state-run social services, and everyone of a liberal sensibility ought to agree that a proper effort to cope with poverty is going to require government agencies more than door-to-door charitable campaigns.
So horrible government-run institutions are better than charity?
it is left to Scrooge to explain that social services do need to be provided by the state, for which, being an upright citizen, he is willing to pay taxes. “Are there no prisons?” may not be the most appealing way of acknowledging the state’s responsibility to society, just as “healthcare.gov” may not be the most appealing way of acknowledging the state’s responsibility to guarantee health care to one and all. Still, “Are there no prisons?” and “healthcare.gov” do raise the issue, at least, of government action on behalf of society, which is more than can be said about people who call for pity, charity and niceness.
Yes, that appears to be the argument. A shit-sandwich from government is superior to a steak from private charity.
1. Winston 10 years ago
  
  Didn’t Dickens intend Scrooge to be a classical liberal?
  1. BigT 10 years ago
    
    A defense of Scrooge.
    The case against Ebenezer Scrooge is nothing more than a well-orchestrated, vicious conspiracy to extort from my client as much of his money as can be acquired through terror, threats of his death, and other appeals to fear. The only happiness that ensued to my client from this campaign arose from the ultimate cessation of terror inflicted upon him. Like the victim of any crime, the termination of wrongdoing offers a momentary relief that can be mistaken for pleasure, but it is an illusion. Such is the only happiness that Mr. Dickens has in mind for my client.
    
    …
    
    It is instructive that Dickens tells us virtually nothing about the nature of Ebenezer’s business. We know that he is something of a banker or financier, but we are told nothing about the nature of his investments. Even if he has not been a creative entrepreneur himself, he has, presumably, been responsible for financing many successful enterprises, which have not only benefited the rest of the community in terms of goods and services they provide, but afford employment to countless individuals, including Bob Cratchit. For all that we know ? and it would seem to be beneath Dickens’s sensibilities to ask such a question or care about the answer ? Scrooge may have provided capital for researchers seeking a cure for the very ailment from which Tiny Tim suffers.
2. AuH20 10 years ago
  
  This is a parody, right?
BigT 10 years ago

OT: For you fans of single malt.
Single schmaltz!
1. BSubversive.com 10 years ago
  
  mazel tov!
The Late P Brooks 10 years ago

My stance was the same as it is now (if people pay for a service, it’s the seller’s obligation to accommodate those people and provide the service they paid for)
If she had booked her passage in a FedEx air freight container, that would actually make sense.
Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago

Remember Ronald Reagan’s ‘fictitious’ “Welfare Queen?” the one everybody from Murray Rothbard to Thom Hartmann claims was a figment of Right Wing Conservative imagination? Hartmann even claims that “no journalist was able to find her.” Well, she was for real and she was much worse than a welfare scammer, at least according to a recent Slate article. What is amazing is that for 40 years, the Marxist Left has been swearing that she never existed, yet Ronald Reagan’s 1976 details came from either Chicago Tribune 1974 articles, or a Jet magazine article of the same year. The NYT, Chicago papers, and others reported on the trial and conviction of Linda Taylor (one of her many aliases, it turns out) and Slate has recently reported more of her misdeeds. Well, Reagan had his facts right, so did Jet. Hertmann? That is a different story.
1. John 10 years ago
  
  And Dave Weigel claims that article “obliterated Regan’s claim”.
  We all make fun of the little rat fucker. But I think he might be illiterate.
  1. Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
    
    Weigel is still carrying the cross, right into the oven.
  2. Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
    
    Didn’t he say “vaporized?” I am not motivated enough to go back and look.
2. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
  
  Yeah, I remember reading that. The comments were a very defensive “well one evil woman doesn’t discredit the entire program!”
  1. Irish 10 years ago
    
    Which is, of course, true. It does discredit all of the writers, including such lights as Paul Krugman, who pretended she didn’t exist without bothering to do any research.
    1. The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc 10 years ago
      
      That and it shows the hypocrisy of liberals who don’t like it when the fallacy of composition is used against them despite it being of their most common weapons.
  2. Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
    
    That evil woman’s lawyer had something to say along those lines, at the link I gave.
  3. Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
    
    If I may, the thing I find astonishing is that I seem to be the only person with a keyboard who has ever read the December 19, 1974 edition of Jet since it was edited in 1974.
  4. Calidissident 10 years ago
    
    The best part is that despite all of the accusations of dog whistle racism over this story, the woman was actually white.
    1. PapayaSF 10 years ago
      
      Really? She looks at least part black.
      1. Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
        
        1930 and 1940 census documents say white, as well as this 1980s (caution, creepy, have ammonia ready for your eyes) picture.
        
        cavalier973 10 years ago
        
        Dude, you just made me chuckle and wretch simultaneously! Do you know how painful that can be?
        
        Austrian Anarchy 10 years ago
        
        I warned you!
3. Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago
  
  And there’s the part where the cop investigating here was pulled off the case but kept investigating it “off the clock” with his partner’s assistance. All the story needs is them having a shootout with the villains in an abandoned factory.
  1. Live Free or Diet 10 years ago
    
    And the guy who saves them, out-shooting everyone using his home-made sling and a sack full of 1″ ball bearings.
cavalier973 10 years ago

The infrastructure of manufactured intelligence has become a truly impressive thing. Today as never before there is an industry dedicated, not to educating people, but to making them feel smart. From paradigm shifting TED talks to paradigm to books by thought leaders and documentaries by change agents that transform your view of the world, manufactured intelligence has become its own culture.
1. John 10 years ago
  
  Smug is always in demand
2. Bam! 10 years ago
  
  Pretty good, only instead of calling it “manufactured intelligence”, I’d call it “McIntelligence” just to needle those progressives.
Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago

Two British comedians found an atheist chu – I mean organization, the Sunday Assembly. It seems to have branches in 22 cities.
http://m.nationalreview.com/ar…..frankovich
1. cavalier973 10 years ago
  
  But can the officials of this organization make one feel unnecessary guilt? If not, it’s a poor substitute for the Real Thing.
  1. Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago
    
    You mean like guilt for our “carbon footprint,” for not recycling, for having white skin or a male organ? Wait, you’re more likely to find that among the “skeptical” or “spiritual but not religious” crowd.
Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago

More atheism news (aren’t you glad I’m not llinking to a religion story?) –
Comedian raises $125K for atheist storm survivor in Okla – his avowed motive is “simply to be a prick to her Okie-Christian neighbors. It’s funny how hate can make you do real nice things every now and then.”
1. Eduard van Haalen 10 years ago
  
  http://www.mediaite.com/tv/com…..neighbors/
Winston 10 years ago

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/…..-1.2478753
So the husband of the guy Rob Ford defeated is dead.
Winston 10 years ago

I noticed that Cathy Young wrote an article about “shifting cultural taboos” with regards to Phil Robertson. Doesn’t that contradict the notion of society growing more tolerant? Isn’t it really is just changing what is acceptable and not which is nothing new?
RishJoMo 10 years ago

Sometimes man you jsut have to roll with it.
http://www.BeinAnon.tk
Entropy Void 10 years ago

Thanks alot Shackford.
Entropy Void|12.30.13 @ 10:41AM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom
Massholes have a particular kind of STOOPID.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..-proposal/
reply to this
Boisfeuras 10 years ago

In Seattle, shootings by the police accounted for one-fifth of all homicides in the city, six out of 29. Police officials there blame poor management of those with mental illnesses.
Such as giving them guns and badges.
Brett L 10 years ago

Apparently, Arianna is ready to make some money. She’s probably prepping it for a sale, and needs some eyes on pages.
Episiarch 10 years ago

Weightlifting hasn’t been politicized. Yet.
Steve G 10 years ago

If he works out, it’ll open the door for Louie Simmons…
Warty 10 years ago

Certain idiots try, but it’s kind of hard to politicize something that’s completely individual.
Pro Libertate 10 years ago

So, what is the most libertarian of lifts?
Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago

WHERE ARE THE ARTICLES FROM GAY, DISABLED LIFTERS OF COLOR?!!!
/huffderp
Fist of Etiquette 10 years ago

Having a serf do it?
Warty 10 years ago

The two-hands anyhow. Ideally done with a huge mustache.
Steve G 10 years ago

Shrugging Atlas stones of course
Pro Libertate 10 years ago

Wrong!
Warty 10 years ago

I believe they give away free candy at the front desk, and have free pizza and free bagel nights. Deadlifts are prohibited.
Restoras 10 years ago

She hates us but takes our organs???
Episiarch 10 years ago

It’s also very difficult to politicize something that you cannot fake the results of. You can’t politically make someone able to deadlift 405lbs; they just have to train for it. Which is why merit and skill based activities are the most hated of all by the political-is-personal crowd.
R C Dean 10 years ago

it’s kind of hard to politicize something that’s completely individual.
Yeah, no way could something as completely individual as what you choose to put in your body ever get politicized.
Warty 10 years ago

AKA the hairy male sports. It’s not an accident that they tried to kick wrestling out of the Olympics.
John 10 years ago

You can lift, but you don’t have to. The humble pushup or leg lift stresses your skeleton too.
Kaptious Kristen 10 years ago

The bomb and the transportation issues between venues and lodging.
John 10 years ago

Yeah, I totally forgot about that.
Sorry Kristen. I am guessing near Atlanta. I bet they don’t get through.
Live Free or Diet 10 years ago

Yep. Hell, we had a mechanic who could do a temporary fix on a half-million dollar press with piece of rubber, an old tube sock and a hose clamp. (No shit, he did it. I bought him new socks.) He looked like the homeless biker from Hell. Black and gray ZZ-Top beard in rubber bands. A spray of frizzled curly hair out the back of a filthy ball cap. Had maybe five or six teeth and smelled like God’s own pot plant had caught fire.
We loved him.
PapayaSF 10 years ago

You do know she sold it to AOL three years ago, right?
Swiss Servator, Pikes Forward! 10 years ago

LFoD,
That made me smile, reading that…
BuSab Agent 10 years ago

Dear gods! You’ve met my father. I love him too.

Please log in to post comments

Drone Testing Sites Named, Police Deaths Drop, Obamacare Rules Hit Vending Machines: P.M. Links

Latest

Brickbat: Stop the Music

Congress Yet Again Abuses 'Emergency Spending' for Non-Emergency Purposes

Colorado Bans HOAs From Banning Home Businesses

FCC Set To Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules That Seem More Unnecessary Than Ever

She Only Served 10 Months Behind Bars. Florida Still Slapped Her With A $127,000 Bill.

Recommended

Login Form