A.M. Links: Republicans Want to Improve Obamacare Website Security, NSA Reportedly Trying to Develop Quantum Computer, Deaths From Lightning Strikes at Record Low

-
Matthias Krumbholz/Wikipedia The House of Representatives will consider legislation trying to make the Obamacare website more secure and requiring users be notified of data breaches, according to a memo to Republicans from Eric Cantor.
- The NSA has reportedly been spending about $80 million a year to develop a quantum computer that would help it to crack encryptions.
- A majority of Americans think the US will remain on a downward spiral through 2050.
- More than 200 Phish fans were arrested, mostly for drug possession, while the band performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City over the New Year's holiday.
- A physician from Louisiana is suing a police chief in Texas who was sleeping with his wife as well as other officials, alleging police harassment came along with the cuckolding.
- A poll shows 71 percent of respondents believing the Washington Redskins don't need to change their name; the number is 90 percent for Republicans and 59 percent for Democrats.
- Only 23 people died from lightning strikes in the US in 2013, a record low. The record high was in 1943, when 432 people were struck and killed by lightning.
- The conservative media watchdog group Newsbusters found that on network morning and evening newscasts, only one of 41 stories on the stranded Antarctic ship mentioned it was on a climate change mission.
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The House of Representatives will consider legislation trying to make the Obamacare website more secure...
The only thing they're hoping is it will make the website more secure from criticism.
It'll never be secure from that.
Actually I think notifying users of security breaches is supposed to make it criticized more.
Indeed. If nobody knows of the breaches the site is obviously more secure.
Seriously, requiring users be notified of *and rectified for* data breaches might just tighten up security. Hmm, where to get the money?
Well, if nobody has there privacy violated if they don't *know* its been violated . . .
So people are told the site has been made more secure and everyone is getting constant reminders of how not secure it is. Now that is bipartisan legislation!
Plus! The identity thieves will be spending your money - I mean, what were you going to do with it, *save* it for retirement? Don't wory about that man, the next administration is going to *fix* social security!
Why do I suspect it's simply passing a law making it illegal to hack the site?
Hello.
Barbarians.
I am a proud barbarian(Celt)-barbarian(Saxon) hybrid living in the land of the barbarians(USA). I don't think I'd be able to survive in "civilised" lands.
How the hell does legislation make it more secure?
Government magic, duh.
Don't you know that all the government has to do is issue a decree and it is immutable truth. That's why no one does drugs anymore and everyone accepts gays in the states where SSM is legal.
They played a lot of golf in 1943.
I'll bet more of them were soldiers than golfers.
No doubt. I was outside next to golf course as a kid during a hailstorm when some sap got hit by by lightning, that was loud and scary.
I knew there was a reason I hated golf.
I was struck once, sorta. During a heavy rainstorm lightning struck within 50 feet of me and the water on the ground I was standing on allowed it to zapp the piss out of me, literally.
Loud and scary? Yeah, thats pretty accurate.
Wow. You must have been pretty well insulated by your shoes to get off that lightly.
I dunno, I guess it had mostly dissipated by the time it got to me.
In any case I had a deep, primal fear of lightning for a year after that. My rational mind told me it was ridiculous, but the animal instinct in me said different. So far it hasnt struck twice...oh never mind.
It's amazing how little damage it can do sometimes. I know people who have been more or less directly struck and suffered only minor burns.
Do you have special powers now?
I was outside next to golf course as a kid during a hailstorm when some sap got hit by by lightning
Always best to stay positive when golfing.
Wouldn't that draw the electons to you, making you more likely to be the sap to be hit?
Wouldn't that draw the electons to you, making you more likely to be the sap to be hit?
yeah, but if you get hit, it's definitely going to be a case of you getting negative 😉
I saw a half-dozen soldiers knocked on their asses by lightning once. We were standing next to a tree that got hit. Everyone touching a root took a jolt. Luckily nobody died.
Steel spikes are a thing of the past too. I sat my ass down in the golf cart and drank beer when things got nasty.
OH, RAT FART!
Not as many cell phone towers and utility poles back then to give a path of least resistance?
Probably just more people working outside. So obesity and lightning strike rates should be inversely related.
Lightning-related deaths were an epidemic until the Lightning Prohibition Act of 1944, which is the cause of the decline you see before you. If we just enforce it a little harder we can have a lightning-free world by 2020. Prohibition works!
Are you David Brooks in disguise?
Ironically, lightning protection is almost entirely governed by private regulatory bodies, namely U.L. and NFPA. There are no state inspections and no state codes.
So, yes, regulation does work. Private regulation.
Obviously we need a new governmental department to license golf course - for safety.
The NSA has reportedly been spending about $80 million a year to develop a quantum computer that would help it to crack encryptions.
They should build a quantum leap computer so they can travel back through time into the bodies of the terrorists and get their passwords.
about $80 million a year to develop a quantum computer that would help it to crack encryptions
Meanwhile, devious hackers are developing quantum encryption that will require double quantum computing to decrypt...and even then it will only decrypt that which was unencrypted before it was encrypted.
Only Men of a Certain Age could take part in this program, right?
quantum leap
This is one of my pet peeves. A quantum leap is literally the smallest leap possible.
It's exponentially stupid.
Yeah, I think it's a metaphor for a quick, distinct advance with no intermediate steps, rather than referring to distance.
All leaps are some multiple of a quantum, though. There are no intermediate steps in a quantum leap simply because such steps are impossible.
I suppose. I always considered it a sign of scientific ignorance, like talking about light-years but meaning time. I ask the if they think foot-pounds is anything like toe-tapping.
My favorite is Parsec being used as time...that is awesome.
Blame Star Wars for that one. Even though Solo used Parsec correctly when referring to the Kessel Run, people assumed he meant record time, not distance.
For those of you less geeky than me, the Kessel Run was a smuggling route that skirted a cluster of black holes, the route was normally more than 12 parsecs due to the zig zag path you had to take to avoid the black holes. Doing it in under 12 parsecs meant he got closer to the black holes, but was able to escape their gravity due to the speed of the Millenium Falcon.
/end nerdity.
I always preferred the theory that he was deliberatly BSing the country rubes complaining about price. (this being based off of not requiring EU sources of doubious cononicity)
That's G-Canon right there. No higher authority in the Star Wars universe.
Kessel Run
I would be interested to know when GL came up with that explanation. Not accusing him, just curious.
The bad thing about Star Wars canon is that it doesn't matter when something was said by GL. If it comes out of his mouth or his pen, it is gospel. Period.
It is quite possible that he actually screwed up the term, then someone wrote a book and came up with a feasible explanation for the 'parsecs' line and GL said "well, that makes me look like less of an idiot, that's what I meant all along. yup yup." And it's still G-canon.
George Lucas is god when it comes to Star Wars. A petty, vengeful, and wicked god, but a god nonetheless.
That same wiki pointed to the script in which it indicates Han was "boasting and clearly lying" to impress Obi-wan...why on earth dose this bother me so.
After someone pointed it out to him--AFTER the movie came out.
Look, that motherfucker also said that he had always planned more than three Star Wars when its painfully obvious he never even planned 'Empire'. I wouldn't trust a damn thing coming out of Lucas' mouth on the wars.
All trust that I had in him was destroyed the first time the word "midichlorian" was uttered. To my mind, there is only the original 3 and some EU books.
However, my opinion/wishes are irrelevant to the discussion of official Star Wars canon. George owned the property and can say whatever he wants about it.
yeah, quantum effects being dominant on the smallest scales is not their defining characteristic.
NEM is right. The use of the phrase informally is about instantaneously changing from one state to another, not about size or distance and I think it is a fine metaphor. Of course the TV show just used it to give some vague sciency trappings to the silly premise and might as well have just called it magic.
But then they'd be leaping around forever, hoping that the next leap would be the leap home!
Finally.
In all fairness that show did address some prescient social issues and in a decent way.
A majority of Americans think the US will remain on a downward spiral through 2050.
But then the Half-Centruy of Recovery begins! (But only if we elect Chelsea.)
I'm not that pessimistic, but I think 2014 will truly suck.
"Embrace the suck."
'Dr. Doom' Roubini gets bullish on global economy
Economist Nouriel Roubini, renowned for his foretelling of doom and gloom in financial markets, has turned bullish in his 2014 outlook, expecting economic performance to "pick up modestly" in both advanced economies and emerging markets.
CNBC
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
BLS
SInce PB has been telling us what an idiot Roubini is, I suppose we should take Roubini's latest prediction as a sign to sell now before the bear market hits.
If Israel decides that they can no longer afford to wait and they go ahead and destroy Iran's nuclear reactors and gas prices jump up 50% as a result, it could be epically bad.
Otherwise, it's likely to be yet another year of more phony economic recovery, more Federal Reserve created market bubbles, and more sneaky tax increases at all levels of government.
This year's tax increases are pretty blatant. Success will be punished.
"Live coverage of Winter Storm Hercules"
http://nypost.com/2014/01/02/l.....-hercules/
When did they start naming common storms? Hercules! Oh nooooo!
When the ratings dropped.
When did they start naming common storms?
Indeed. A common storm should have a name like 'Prole' or 'Plebe'. Uncommon storms should be named Koch or Patrician.
Brace yourselves for Tinkle, this afternoons rain shower armed with shards of pointy rain drops!
Marketing tie in for the new hercules movie.
Aw, the next Hercules doesn't come until 9:37!
These storms are like pro wrestlers now. Reminds me of the old SNL/Chris Farley sketch with "El Nino".
For those of you who no Abla Espanyol, that is Spanish for "The Nino"
...only one of 41 stories on the stranded Antarctic ship mentioned it was on a climate change mission.
Its Russian name translates to Academic Irony.
Mission accomplished!
OMFG!
Six inches of snow in Central Park.
SNOWMAGGEDDONZES!!11!!11
Look, DeBlasio gets to show off early that he can clear snow better than any mayor in the history of mayordom. How can the media avoid giving him his due?
If only the rich would shovel their fair share.
Big Weather targets poor neighbourhoods. Fact.
Universal Pre-K will end snowstorms forever.
Think of the childrenhorses!
How Kim Jong-Un executed his uncle, with starving dogs
http://www.news.com.au/world/h.....6794492233
Kim Jong-Il was Hollywood crazy.
Kim Jong-Un is full-on, balls-out, inferno-fiddlin' crazy.
Isn't that the point of dynasties, to out-crazy your predessessors?
Now we need a sequel to Team America.
Ultimate power = ultimate depravity.
Did they have lasers?
It's North Korea. They only reason they had starving dogs is because they couldn't feed their regular dogs.
More than 200 Phish fans were arrested, mostly for drug possession, while the band performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City over the New Year's holiday.
IT WAS A TRAP!
Way to ruin the phrase "honey pot" for these guys, coppers.
Well Duh, a Phish concert in the People's Democratic Republic of South Canukistan? Of course it's a sting operation.
Damn you, RePOOPlicans! Their stranglehold on NYC politics must be broken!
I have yet to see a Republican in NYC Politics (despite what letters some people have tacked on to their ballot slots).
Um...
Let me guess - my sarcasm detector is broken again.
A bit. I figured RePOOPlicans would be enough of a tip off.
My mind filters out scatalogical references by reflex.
I sold water at their "last" concert back in 2004.
Sure you don't mean "water" instead of "last"?
Check out definition #3.
Sure, but the question on everyone's mind is why the quotes around last?
Because they've have a bunch of concerts since.
Their fans PAID for water?
When I used to work at Nectar's, they'd play, and their fans would hit up the bar for free water.
Nectar hated it.
I'm surprised they have 200 fans left.
I'm surprised that many were able to a. wake up in time, 2. remember that there was a concert on, and iii. find their way to it.
A poll shows 71 percent of respondents believing the Washington Redskins don't need to change their name; the number is 90 percent for Republicans and 59 percent for Democrats.
I'm still waiting on the Reason-Rupe poll results on my idea to change the name to the Redneckskins in an effort to unite people through offending more rather than less.
I've yet to meet a redneck who was offended by being called a redneck. Part of being a redneck is taking pride in being a redneck.
+1 Mississippi Rebel
Don't ruin this for me!
I'm sure there are plenty of people inside the beltway willing to be offended on behalf of rednecks everywhere.
I'm offended that anyone would dare be offended on behalf of someone else.
I had a history professor who thought redneck was offensive
Let me guess - they were not themselves a redneck.
The preferred term they call themselves is a " 'neck".
Neck Ed.
I'm not sure why any white person would take being called a redneck to be offensive. The term came about due to poor whites working in the fields and getting sunburned as a result--in other words, they performed more productive labor than the clever sillies in progtopia that think it's an insult.
Put it this way--the Duck Dynasty guys are rednecks. The Honey-boo-boo clan is white trash.
Me.
But only because hypocrisy.
Washington Red Inks.
The Washington Red Tape.
The "Washington White Trash" has an alliterative appeal.
I suggest "Washington Whitewash."
Good. No one could be offended by *that*!
Washington WhiteGuilt
More than 200 Phish fans were arrested, mostly for drug possession, while the band performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City over the New Year's holiday.
STOP AND PHRISK
+1 You enjoy myself
A poll shows 71 percent of respondents believing the Washington Redskins don't need to change their name...
None of those racists' opinions matter.
How many think that the Redskins need to change their owners, managers and players?
I think they need to change their location. Washington does not deserve a pro sports franchise. There. I said it.
I would be happy if they changed the uniforms.
Kentucky would love an NFL team. And we are incredibly loyal fans. The Lexington Moonshiners!
Kentucky is a basketball state. Not a football state.
Only because we have been so neglected by the NFL. UK has a horrible football team, just embarrassing, and we can still sell out 65,000 seats.
UK sells out 65000 seats regularly? How many of those seats go to SEC rivals fans?
I think there are 30K season tickets and 5K are sold to students exclusively.
Most people who indulge in regional fandom are split between the Colts and Bengals, and Nashville gets a little fandom.
We have no professional team in any sport. I just want to root for The Moonshiners. GO 'SHINERS!
This is sort of like saying Virginia or Delaware is being neglected by the NFL
You don't grasp how much we hate the states that surround us.
I grew up in Indiana, and boy does Indiana love them some Kentucky.
In Kentucky, they teach the Three R's:
Readin'
Writin'
And Route 3 to Nee Castle
My opinion of Indiana is darkly colored by growing up near Evansville.
Home of the best dark chocolate turtles in these United States.
Well, technically, they're not in D.C.
As for pro sports in general: the Wizards are semi-pro at best so they don't count. Would you also support moving the Nationals & Capitals?
Capitals can come to Baltimore, then I can finally watch them.
Not with that name. They could move to Annapolis, though.
Would you also support moving the Nationals & Capitals?
Yes. Anchorage 'deserves' a pro baseball team more (aka the Pilots). And hockey of course.
Damn team stealing American imperialists...
A physician from Louisiana is suing a police chief in Texas who was sleeping with his wife as well as other officials...
So Florida Man moved, huh?
That police chief gets around.
Vice rounds up some vintage butt-hurt in its Cry-baby of the Year poll. Vote early, vote often.
Only 23 people died from lightning strikes in the US in 2013, a record low. The record high was in 1943, when 432 people were struck and killed by lightning.
I blame Werner von Braun.
Vergeltungs Blitz!
Ja, I jusht puten zee rods in the air. Itch not up to me where zee lightenink komes down!
Has every person who has been struck by lightning spent time looking for the clone that was created?
Only 23 people died from lightning strikes in the US in 2013, a record low.
Damn you, Global Warming!
My first thought as well.
Man, that police chief gets around.
WTF, should read downthread...get out of my brain.
A man accused of avoiding his work duties by carving out a sleeping space in an office ceiling has won his case for unjustified dismissal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z2pLPOYWgo
in the 80's we had a guy at work who built a bedroom in the ceiling. mattress, tv, mini fridge, walls made of plastic sheets. he was the first at work and the last to leave and would have gotten away with it if the boss hadn't caught him showering in the mop closet early one morning.
How do y'all thing telecommuting worked before the internet?
Did he work as the assistant to the traveling secretary for the Yankees?
STEVE?!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
because that's what you do when you find a shy, rare creature
I wonder if he enticed it with Jack Links?
I laughed at this comment, "Problem: accidentally shot a crazy man in the woods. Solution: dress him up as big foot"
STEVE SMITH STILL ALIVE AND NOW HAS NEW RAPE TARGET RICK DYER!
One look at that photo and I can tell you:
I dunno what that's made out of, but its not meat. Rubber? Silicon? Who knows?
A physician from Louisiana is suing a police chief in Texas who was sleeping with his wife as well as other official
Physicians must not have the determination and bladder control of an astronaut.
Only 23 people died from lightning strikes in the US in 2013, a record low.
And exactly how many received super powers from a lightning strike last year? Interesting they don't want to give those numbers out, isn't it?
Lightning alone can't do it, you need something like lighting and chemicals.
We'll just see about that.
A quantum leap is literally the smallest leap possible.
"Pay attention. I leaped already. I suppose you want to see me do it again."
Dude at my bus stop this morning was saying that Newtown was a false-flag operation and that Lanza was already dead a day or two before it happened. Thoughts?
Change bus stops.
^THIS^
What Sugar Free said. And if you can't, consider getting a conceal and carry permit if you don't already have one.
Naw, conspiracy nuts are generally no more dangerous than the average person.
In fairness if you had told me five years ago that soon the government would be sending guns to Mexican drug gangs in hopes their presence there would make the political case for US gun control or that a US ambassador would be murdered in Libya while running a gun operation to Islamist radicals in Syria and God knows what else, I would have written you off as a nut. So who am I to say this guy is wrong?
That doesn't make him likely to cause you injury.
I know. I was agreeing with you. Not only is he probably not dangerous, hell he might not even be crazy.
And Bush masterminded 9/11 to jumpstart a war in Iraq too.
So wait - is he a mastermind or a village idiot?
Crazy or not, I'm not interested to having any talk to me on public transit.
Yeah, but you can threaten to put diabetes on people if they don't leave you alone.
This is the most odd comment from you ever. I would assume most people on public transit are not at all interested in talking to YOU...even the crazy ones.
He considers 'hey, stop playing with yourself on the bus' to be conversation.
Too organized for the people who'd supposedly benefit. I think it really happened and they scrambled to exploit it.
It is completely due to this recent heatwave here in Sunny Minnesota that brings out the crazies.
Gets above 0 and the maniacs come out at the bus stops. I had to listen to the little old ladies at my bus stop bitching about their grandkids not sending them thank you notes. Your stop sounds better.
We've had 8 days in December where the high was above freezing. And 4 of those were Dec 1-4. Cry me a river about 8" of snow in NYC.
The second it hits 1c here, people are in shorts.
What a deep freeze this has been.
I went out last night and damn near lost an eye.
That's what you get for going out with Warty.
Pfft. Old news:
http://truthfrequencyradio.com.....nd-purges/
With a name like Truth Frequency Radio, how could we not trust them?
New record low temperature of -42 degrees set in International Falls, Minnesota, the coldest city in the continental United States. That global warming sure is something.
Plenty of cities in Alaska are colder than that.
Yeah, but none of them are "in the continental United States."
I believe they are, just not the contiguous US.
Ah, good point.
That'll learn me to try to be smartass.
Remember, it's "climate change" now. Is it hot? Climate change. Is it cold? Climate change. Is it raining? Climate change. Is it snowing? Climate change. Is it dry? Climate change.
In short: Before climate change, the temperatures every day were exactly the average, and rainfall was always average. Any deviation is terrible.
I live in MD, so I am a pussy.
But I went out to shovel my 5" of snow this morning and it is 11 with 25 mph wind. I said fuck this, and went back inside.
Why do people live in the north?
Because when people like you get deterred, it's nice and quiet at work.
It's 1.21am and 73 degrees F here. Just sayin'.
You poor bastard, no wonder you can't sleep at those murderous temperatures.
It's also summer, isn't it?
AND, another decent day for the Australian cricket team.
It's astonishing how the Poms have collapsed so quickly in this series.
If you're in a cricket mood, might I suggest investigating the Duckworth Lewis Method, the world's leading cricket-pop group?
Good lord. I'm speechless.
Keeps the homeless population at bay.
Because you buy a coat and you are fine, instead of being boiled alive in the summer.
I guess that explains the death rates due to cold and due to heat. Oh, wait...
Oh, I was naked. That explains it!
It was 59 degrees when I left for work this morning. Everyone's bundled up.
I love South Florida.
In that stifling weather? People that far south are crazy.
Yeah, its too bad everyone is still off at FSU. I wanted to see all the South FL kids in their Michelin Man suits (it being 35 going to 50 in Tallahassee).
Currently 44?F here in West Taintsville.
High of 52?F forecast.
Its warming faster than we thought!!
The problem these liars are going to have is that the more they lie and claim its warming, the more obvious the fact that the climate really hasn't changed that it is still hot in India, still ice at the North Pole and still cold in Minnesota becomes. We are going on 30 years of catastrophic predictions about this and not a single catastrophic thing has happened. At some point people are going to believe their lying eyes that the Seychelles are still there and it still snows in North America.
They were at the point of being completely discredited, yet they seem to be doubling down. I am nearly speechless at their latest claims.
Never underestimate fanatics.
I guess they figured they are so far in they have nothing to lose. Also, there is more than a bit of messianic cult about it. They really are like those occasional religious cults that predict the world is going to end or Jesus is coming back on some date certain. The only difference is they haven't set a date certain so they will last a little longer.
-9 at 7:30am in Michigan this morning. Snot freezing cold.
http://www.theweathernetwork.c.....c/montreal
Welcome to my house.
Tucson today:
High of 70, low of 45.
Oh, and sunny.
Yuma 1046 - 61F. May have to turn the heater on.
Maybe lightning strike deaths are down because the mid-20th century did all the heavy-lifting to weed out bloodlines genetically predisposed to be struck by lightning.
Ol' "Lightning Rod Head" Johnson done got struck!
Maybe this guy skewed the results?"
That and a lot fewer people work outside in places like farms.
weed out bloodlines genetically predisposed to be struck by lightning.
That might explain the epidemic of iron deficiency in America!
Think I'm going to do some science and throw a cup of boiling water into the air. Being like zero degrees out there, I anticipate none of it will make it to the ground.
Cool idea but I think it has to be colder than that. Either way, it will freeze pretty quick on hitting the pavement.
It never hit the ground. One of my coworkers was out smoking a cigarette. She said "Coooooool!"
*yawn*
Boring fucking day.
It is supposed to get into the single digits here. I will have to try that.
The water has to be as close to boiling as you can get it.
But not over?
I mean hotter than off the tap.
If it is over, you'd be throwing steam in the air.
Not nearly as cool to watch.
Of course it isnt cool. It is steam.
Yes, the air has to be dry, too. You want the water to vaporize very quickly.
Back in about 1996, it was -40 degrees Fahrenheit in Minneapolis. Blew up a balloon inside the house, walked outside and it immediately imploded. Pretty neat!
The French interior minister says he is determined to make the controversial comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala pay the big fines he has incurred for racist abuse.
"All the services of the state must be mobilised... to make Dieudonne M'bala M'bala pay his fines."
Get him for blasphemy too while you're at it.
FIFY
http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbr.....itics.html
There's another quirk in the Obama administration's new health insurance system: It lacks a way for consumers to quickly and easily update their coverage for the birth of a baby and other common life changes.
Buying insurance is just so complicated. How were the top men to know that people might have children and want to add them to their insurance?
Why does Obama hate women and children?
One Oregon mother says that she is unable to afford health insurance for her and her 18-month-old son because it's too expensive.
"I've been a cheerleader for the Affordable Care Act since I heard about it and I assumed that it was designed for people in my situation," Holly, a freelance yoga instructor, told KOIN.
"Rah, Rah, Rass! Kick 'em in the *other* knee!"
You fucked up, you trusted us.
Signed
Obama
From the comments:
Everyone is all in favor of helping the poor and making people pay their "fair share" just as long as it doesn't involve them and their money.
Turns out irony is bad for your health.
Dumbass Republicans think it is "free" too. That is their objection to it.
If Obama had just contracted eHealthInsurance with the $700 million it took to build the crappy website and told everyone that the private insurers were the only providers he would be hailed as the next Bezos.
CHRISTFAG BUSHPIG!!!!!
Let it out skreek, just let it out. It is probably cold in your box today and the fits will keep you warm.
So, if only obama was not an idiot he would be smart?
I am stealing that.
If Obama had just contracted eHealthInsurance with the $700 million it took to build the crappy website and told everyone that the private insurers were the only providers he would be hailed as the next Bezos
Right--I'm sure a successful operation like eHealthInsurance would have LOVED taking on the additional responsiblity of verifying whether people qualified for Medicaid/subsidies/MOAR FREE SHIT.
Individually maybe not - but as a company, why wouldn't they want to serve as monopoly control over a government clearing house that, so far anyway, appears likely to stay forever and get paid for even if costs exceed estimates by a a factor of 10K or more?
If you had an individual or small group of individuals with voting control or something - I could see many companies, like you mention, wishing strongly to not be involved.
But make it a public company with multiple institutional owners making up majority stake - and I don't see how they refuse.
"I've been a cheerleader for the Affordable Care Act since I heard about it"
You know, the schadenfreude listening to people like this is about the only consolation coming out of this fiasco.
Kentucky would love an NFL team.
You've already got a team in Nashville, right? How many NFL teams does Kentucky need?
Don't forget the Bengals. Doesn't Kentucky effectively and culturally extend at least a hundred miles or so into Indiana, Illinois and Ohio?
Nashville? NASHVILLE? And The Bengals don't count either. That whole teams pees out of its butt.
More 'climate change' news: Homes evacuated as storm surge hits UK with 30ft waves expected.
Always worth posting:
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/story/.....s/4295785/
Real Al-Qaeda or the video induced rage filled kind of Al-Qaeda wannabes?
Real Al-Qaeda or the video induced rage filled kind of Al-Qaeda wannabes?
We'll need to wait for the NYtimes reporter who is certainly there to let us know. So sometime after 2016.
Real Al-Qaeda or the video induced rage filled kind of Al-Qaeda wannabes?
Which one makes it a real scandal?
Just say thanks.
Careful, now. You're encroaching on sarcasmic's territory. He's liable to get antsy.
Some day I will get a real job, and someone else will need to take up the Daily Fail duty.
Did you see the latest plastic surgery victim? Faye Dunaway is 72. She certainly is not going to look like a Hollywood Starlet. But she was never unattractive and should not look like a monster. My God, how could anyone turn themselves into that?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....party.html
Good lord.
for some reason the prose on this made me laugh
http://gossipplasticsurgery.bl.....e-and.html
So Enough About Palin is sarcasmic in training? Poor bastard...
Despite the fact that drug testing welfare recipients has a 2% yield and actually costs more money than it saves http://tbo.com/ap/politics/wel.....lts-252458 Republicans now have similar laws in the making in 29 states.
A new state law designed to prevent drug users from receiving welfare benefits could end up costing taxpayers far more than it saves, while inadvertently denying assistance to poor families simply because they are unable to comply with its complex paperwork.
Like a recent wave of drug-testing laws passed in other states, Minnesota's legislation was touted as a way to encourage greater responsibility among welfare recipients while saving taxpayers money.
But many county officials and advocacy groups say the reality is quite different: The law contains a bevy of costly local mandates and complicated rules that apply to just a tiny fraction of the 167,000 Minnesotans receiving welfare and other cash benefits.
http://www.startribune.com/pol.....88681.html
The Minnesota GOP is quite the political juggernaut.
Republicans pander to their base. Rain wet, sun hot.
inadvertently denying assistance to poor families simply because they are unable to comply with its complex paperwork.
WTF? Get those people some NAVIGATORS!
Snappy and on topic. A-.
Maybe the GOP should send them a card asking them, "Big government's not quite so cool anymore when it starts fucking YOU, is it?"
I think the drug-testing of welfare recipients is an awfully poor policy to pursue -- it's invasive, financially wasteful, and rooted in fallacious assumptions about drug use. But y'know, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
One of the nice outcomes is that we've conclusively proven that people on state benefits are too poor to buy drugs.
Complicated paperwork? They are being paid to complete it, when you think about it. Are these people such losers they can't even bother to fill out paperwork when they have nothing else to do, and have a check wating at the end for them?
Apparently these morons can do nothing more complicated than stand in a line...
You know Buttplug, you're beyond parody.
A law passed by a legislature that's 54.5% Democrat and signed by a Democrat Governor is all the Republicans' fault.
Yep, makes perfect sense.
You know Buttplug, you're beyond parody.
It's because he actually is a parody.
I think you may be right.
Not too long ago, a Nashua, NH area state representative ran over some ducks in a hotel parking lot.
The letters to the Nashua Telegraph and the comments to them have been amusing. Like this one for example. I'm not going to link to all of them because of the linking limits and the Telegraph's website has a limit for free views, but you can find them easily.
The one I linked had some great comments: We have the guy claiming the Telegraph made a big deal of the incident to help Republicans. I laughed pretty hard at that one, the Telegraph helping Republicans? Seriously? I also like the guy, who if you wade into the Telegraph's letters section you know is a leftist and supports gun control, using the "other things are more dangerous" argument.
How do you accidentally run over ducks? They are really stupid and move very slowly on land. They are very unlikely to just run out in front of you like a dog or a squirrel or something.
Is it really the case that this guy is such a sociopath he runs over ducks with his car for amusement? Have they checked his crawl space for bodies?
Maybe he was backing out of a parking space.
Maybe. It could have been an accident. But if it wasn't, there is something seriously wrong with the guy. A pigeon maybe, they are just rats with wings. But who could run over a duck?
I think I've mentioned this before but a couple of years ago a student at Clemson tried to figure out why there were so many dead turtles on the side of the road. Not the ones in the middle of the road but the ones on the shoulder or even closer to non road areas. Turns out a lot of people will go out of their way to run over turtles.
Same with cats. You always see cats hit on the side of the road. People are sick fucks. If you go out of your way to kill animals you are just about the lowest form of life on earth.
Cane toads in Australia. Fast forward to about the two minute mark & stick with it to about 3:15:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtMtIItimjQ
The cane toads, however, have it coming. The turtles don't.
True. I didn't mean to imply equivalency.
Funny.
They make quite a noise when you run them over. That's cool.
I had friends of mine who would go "toad hunting" when they were camping. Usually involved a 9 iron.
Still, wait an extra few minutes or get out of your car and chase them away.
That's assuming you see them.
From the original story it sounded like he was driving through the parking lot. There's also been some speculation in the Telegraph's comments section that he was drunk at the time.
Here's the original story:
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com.....rep..html#
Ducks are too stupid and lazy to avoid a car going 15 mph?
Around here ducks are pretty shy. The fucking geese on the other hand - people will applaud if you crush a few.
Round here it's turkeys. Those toms can be dangerous. Ever see the spurs on the damn things?
I'm surprised you can get close enough to a tom to see his spurs. Around here they are still hunted and they know it.
There are some places around here where they are protected, and they know it. For a while my wife worked at a place that was smack in the middle of a refuge, and sometimes would get trapped in her car as the birds filled the parking lot. Things would attack people. Seriously.
I hope you mean the refuge is for wildlife in general, not specifically for turkeys. Turkeys are not high on my list of things that need protection. They're somewhere between deer (the most annoying mammal in the US) and groundhogs.
I swear to God I thought turkeys could fly.
Always worth a +1
They can fall gracefully. I have seen a big wild tom make it about 40 feet. Scared the shit out of me...nothing like watching a cow fly by your second story deck while eating breakfast.
Of course you'd stick up for ducks with a name like that
+1
I suspect the ducks at that hotel are getting used to people (and probably associate people with food) and aren't shy any more.
Also, the Colorado State Marijuana Inspectors- are they subject to Colorado's pre employmentdrug screening?
And if they test negative after they are hired, is that grounds for termination?
Because how could they be inspecting if they aren't around it?
And it gets even better
One of the chores the inspectors will be tasked with is making sure the "legal registered pot" and "illegal black market pot" streams don't cross, which... you know, do they realize it's called "weed" for a reason? How many new marijuana-related offenses did legalization create, anyway?
I would like to hear from those on here with more knowledge of this stuff how exactly you tell "legal pot" from "black market pot".
http://booksbikesboomsticks.bl.....y-day.html
I would like to hear from those on here with more knowledge of this stuff how exactly you tell "legal pot" from "black market pot".
The same way government discriminates everything: arbitrarily. Seriously, though, they probably will require a paper trail leading from grower to distributor to retailer to consumer. That's the only way I can think of. And we all know that paper trails can't be falsified.
Of course not. But that will just create more crimes and criminals. When the drug warriors figure out that "legalization" will create more criminals than prohibition, I suspect they will get on board with legalization.
"I don't sell weed, I sell weed papers. Yes, we 'grew' a great deal on my half acre plot. Don't ask me how, it's a trade secret."
I can't wait for the mandatory nutritional labelling!
Avg Serving Size: 1 gram
Avg THC per serving: 10%
Avg Calories per serving: 0
Avg Calories per serving with munchies: 400
Just about any grow operation can launder black market pot with stupid ease.
"Yep, had a real good year. That bat guano doubled my yield."
Remember we are talking about government officials here, their jobs exist to increase government not to do what they say they do. I predict lots of going through the motions and no accountability, just like health inspections.
Mix in a couple of politically motivated arrests for bullshit administrative "crimes" and I think your prediction is probably spot on.
I would like to hear from those on here with more knowledge of this stuff how exactly you tell "legal pot" from "black market pot".
It says right there on the label! Good enough for government work!
Or to put it another way, it'll all be black market pot.
http://io9.com/advanced-imagin.....socialflow
This is pretty cool but I don't think it is as impressive as the article makes it out to be. Building the device doesn't require understanding of some advanced concept not thought to be known in the ancient world like electricity. It just requires knowledge of astronomy, which we know they had and the ability to make fine gears and complex mechanical machines, which we know they had. To me it is more impressive that a person living at any time had the kind of exacting mind that it must have taken to build such a device.
Yeah, a computer is basically just a universal clock and a bunch of switches connected together. You can build one out of anything as long as you can make a clock and switches. I think my favorite computers so far are the ones built using the mechanics of the Dwarf Fortress game. (Google it)
Coming up with the original concept (at least) 1500 years ago is pretty damn impressive, though.
And building it at any time is pretty damned impressive. If the builder had had knowledge of springs or pendulums, he could have built himself a clock.
Being able to produce gears and teeth consistently with that fine a pitch is pretty damn impressive in that era.
It's impressive because it could predict eclipses decades out down to the hour, in an era where there was literally nothing like it on any front in human history, and wouldn't be for many, many centuries later. Had the design been more widely known, mechanical knowledge might be centuries ahead of where it is today.
One of the gear mechanisms was able to factor in a measurement that had to be precise to 6 digits, there was an ingenious pin mechanism used to account not just for the elliptical nature of the moon's orbit, but even for the WOBBLE in the moon's elliptical orbit, and it was using mechanical systems that wouldn't be reproduced for almost a millennium and a half.
It's hard to overstate how impressive it really was.
Of course, it was most likely made by Archimedes, so there you go.
There's a really good Nova on it, I would recommend it to anyone.
Agreed - to understand it is not only to inspire awe in human knowledge from so long ago, but almost inevitably ask - even though society is so impressive, we are still in the infancy conception of our understanding in almost everything.
Paid to fake it
In a traveling band
And I'm working undercover for the man
An alternate take on I [heart] NY in view of the newly inaugurated mayor.
Zing!
There's a new restaurant in Minneapolis called The Hammer and Sickle
I heard it's on the other end of town from the Twisted Cross.
So, I've embarrassed myself in the Reason Hit & Run College Bowl this year (as I did last year). So, given my one opportunity to brag, ket me just say: Oklahoma bitches!
http://football.fantasysports......grouppicks
I have hated Oklahoma football my whole life. But even I am happy to see Alabama finally get their asses kicked and their various troglodyte fans finally have to shut the hell up. Hopefully Oklahoma State will beat Missouri (something they usually did when MU was the the Big 12) and FSU will lay the wood on Auburn and the whole damned SEC can shut the hell up for a few months.
I was surprised I was the only one in the pool to pick OK. And, as a KU grad, I'm rooting for anyone who plays Missouri. I did, however, pick Auburn to beat FSU. Not that I necessarily want that.
If you say OU at the end of the year, they had gotten their act together. Further, Alabama probably should have lost to VaTech in September. That is what is fun about the bowl games, you finally see a lot of good teams from different conferences play each other and find out which conference really is better. When I saw Nebraska beat Georgia and Iowa almost beat LSU, I realized the SEC was down this year and had a feeling OU might win. After last night, I will be very surprised if Auburn even gets close to FSU.
I think FSU will blow Auburn out too, but it's hard to gauge a team when almost all their games were over by halftime.
Looking at how much scoring Duke did on TAMU, I think the FSU defense is much better than I thought.
SEC defenses are way overrated. They generally have slow DBs and don't cover very well. This is why A&M and Missouri have done so much better than people expected. They both run Big 12 passing offenses that the SEC defenses really don't fare very well against.
Yes. This. I grew up hating OU, but seeing 'Bama get their dicks knocked in the dirt was nice. Because now I don't have to hear any shit about how they shoulda been champs but for one bad play.
Any doubt that the Auburn return will be the play of the year?
Nope. It was a great play. But I'm glad I don't have to listen to all the homers talk about how OU was crap and shoulda-woulda-coulda FSU.
I am absolutely loving watching SEC fail in bowl games. Strange that cupcake week didn't prepare them for real competition.
they probably will require a paper trail leading from grower to distributor to retailer to consumer. That's the only way I can think of. And we all know that paper trails can't be falsified.
I saw an article which referred to some sort of RFID inventory tracking system for licensed pot dealers.
It will just be prohibition in a different form. It is better in the sense that I hope fewer users get arrested. But it will be just as bad in most ways as they go after people for the "crime" of having or selling unlicensed pot.
Unless you go full on legalization where it is easy and cheap to buy it from legal sources, there is always going to be a black market for it and all of the problems with prohibition associated with it. My fear is these laws will be so half assed and poorly done that they won't solve any of the problems of prohibition and then will be used by the drug warriors to argue that legalizing doesn't solve anything.
Rumor has it that postal inspectors in Colorado are also stepping up their game. Frequenters of mail-order businesses have been receiving "love letters" from the inspector in lieu of cannabis.
You're not using the same bus stop as Enough About Palin?
You think it's crazy to think that legalization in Colorada results in more attention to interstate weed commerce? Also, I don't ride the bus.
I was making a teasing comment on the "rumour" part of your post. And will never do so again.
Aww, don't be like that. I can conspiracy nut with the best of them. I just forgot my tinfoil fedora today and it's putting me on edge.
Drink some water. The Government doses it with Xanax, so it will take the edge off
http://www.newrepublic.com/art.....acare-2014
"When the stories about higher premiums and plan cancellations first began appearing in October, my first reaction was "This is news?" People who follow health policy understood, from the beginning, that reform had to reorganize the market for people buying on their own?and that, as a result, some small portion of Americans would not be able to buy the same policies for the same prices. Many of us first wrote about this in 2009, when the Congressional Budget Office made its first official estimate of how health legislation would affect premiums for people with private insurance. Earlier this year, blogs were full of arguments over exactly how many people would feel this impact."
People who follow health policy understood, from the beginning, that reform had to reorganize the market for people buying on their own?and that, as a result, some small portion of Americans would not be able to buy the same policies for the same prices
Let me translate that into honest English as opposed to Prog News speak.
We always knew that we were going to have to screw a lot of middle class people so that we could pay for a few people we think are more worth saving and do what what we think is better for the country. Those working and middle class people are just not really important enough to worry about so those of us who follow this stuff have always been honest about not caring.
Or in shorter more vulgar English. "Fuck you that is why."
Yeah, I couldn't believe what I was reading.
Liberal collateral damage.
Sandra Fluke not being able to get free birth control from the Catholic school she chose to go to is a a national problem that must be solved. Millions of people losing their health insurance and not being able to afford new is just something that everyone knew had to happen.
I forget sometimes just how loathsome these people are.
Perfectly summarizes 21st-century progressives of all parties. Unprecedented peace and incredible prosperity breeds unbelievable dopiness in humanity.
some small portion of Americans would not be able to buy the same policies for the same prices.
Millions of Americans is "some small portion"?
Soon to be tens of millions, when the employer side gets hit?
Take it all the way back to pre-OCare policies, and there is probably not one single person who isn't paying more for their health insurance due to the benefits mandates.
The Progs really are going to try to defend this by saying "of course you are having to pay more, that is what everyone knew and expected and what needs to happen."
There is a reason why "progressive" became a dirty word and they called themselves liberals for fifty years. Whenever these assholes get any real power they quickly make themselves hated.
Some employer problems have already begun. My woman works at a place where only 20 something people are on the insurance plan. Next enrollment period they won't be able to provide it anymore because it will be about double the cost and everyone will have to go onto the exchanges and get royally fucked. They're trying to team up with a much larger organization to see if they can be folded in with their plan, but I don't know what the chances are of that happening.
And yet people who warned about this for 3 years were called "fear mongerers" or even "racists" by the very same people that now say "You should've known! Why that puzzled face?"
^THIS^
I just had an argument about this at a new years party. I said something about how some people, myself included, have been saying this since the law first was introduced. 3 years ago, I got called all sorts of names and was accused of being a Fox News shill, etc.
When I brought this up, the people I was arguing with said "nuh, uh. you never said anything about this happening"
Lucky for me, the internet keeps records of EVERYTHING and I was able to pull up some old FB posts where the very people I was arguing with at present were saying nasty things about me 3 years ago. Suddenly, the room got quiet.
Re: itsnotmeitsyou,
Count yourself lucky. I was defriended by my two sisters who are huge Obama supporters, even though one of them doesn't even live in the U.S.
Oh, I've lost friends over this and a few family members treat me with mild disdain due to my views on Obamacare and AGW.
I'm sure a few of the people I shut down won't be at my next BBQ, they got real uncomfortable when I found a comment thread where one of them called me an ignorant racist and another claimed that I was being purposely dishonest to make Obama look bad. And those are the people I stayed friends with.
My fear is these laws will be so half assed and poorly done that they won't solve any of the problems of prohibition and then will be used by the drug warriors to argue that legalizing doesn't solve anything.
Let's not pretend these outcomes are either unforeseen or unintended.
The only reason they have made it this far is the uncontrollable rapacity of government parasites desperate to siphon off profits from businesses successfully providing goods and services to willing customers.
NUKULAR EXPLOSIONS AT FUKUSHIMA!!
A friend of mine posted this on FB this morning. I am still surprised at the flagrant ignorance surrounding nuclear power plants. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.
I've never heard of the EU Times. I assume it's some sort of tabloid? I didn't delve any further for fear of what it might do to my computer.
I love the "melt through point" map. Look out South Atlantic!
I dunno. It probably is some rag. My issue is that people actually believe this crap.
The fact that it's obviously not true is what "fascinates" me the most. If someone were to post a similarly ridiculous/impossible story stating something like "newly discovered batboy proved evolution isn't true", people would simply laugh at it and move on.
But you post an article about a physical impossibility happening, and it's about nuclear energy, and everyone jumps on board and says "wow, nuke are bad."
"New ObamaCare glitch: If you like your baby ?"
http://hotair.com/archives/201.....your-baby/
Chris Kluwe claims he was fired for supporting gay marraige:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-gays.html
Yeah Chris, I'm sure it was your outspoken support of gay marraige and not the fact that punters in the NFL are a dime a dozen--and let's not forget that you got cut in Oakland during the 2013 preseason.
His whole spiel on Deadspin sounds like one of those ShitThatNeverHappened.txt rants that shitlib goons write about being microaggressed by random strangers in the grocery store.
I think it might have got in him cut in the sense that the coach figured all things being equal he would rather have a punter who stays out of the media and cut him because it could get a punter just as good who didn't cause any distractions.
You have 53 guys on a football team who will be anything from hardcore out of the inner city don't give a shit about anything to cerebral went to Stanford types to country boy evangelicals and everything in between. It is probably not a good idea for team unity to have people on the team who make it their mission in life to start political arguments and take up various pet causes. Sure if the guy doing it is Aaron Rodgers and just so good that you tell anyone who doesn't like it to shut up and get over it since they are easier to replace than him, you will put up with it. But not from a punter who has ten guys on the street who are just as good waiting to take his job.
..."all things being equal he would rather have a punter who stays out of the media and cut him because it could get a punter just as good who didn't cause any distractions."
You might say he lowered his marginal utility below market value.
brevity if poetry
Re: Red Rocks Rockin,
Yes, he was. And I was once fired from my sales job at a hardware distribution center for supporting whale hunting quotas.
Right.
Canadian Tire and ice sculptors Iceculture turn 11,000 pounds of ice into a functioning truck, to demonstrate a battery's reliability.
http://www.fastcocreate.com/30.....e-from-ice
As was noted in 24/7 yesterday, the ship stuck in the huge summer ice jams proposed to do 'global warming' research and that fact is ignored in nearly all reports.
Now, you see, "The scientific team on board the Russian vessel had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson's 1911 to 1913 voyage to Antarctica.".
http://www.sfgate.com/news/sci.....107123.php
It was passable in 1912 but isn't now. That is just more proof the ice caps are melting.
Of course they don't want to let people know it was a climate change trip. The same thing almost happened to the "expedition" that I was part of when I worked for Gore. The ship was delayed because of bad weather, and had to re-route because there was too much sea ice. These details were very closely kept during the trip and there was much concern about the ship getting stuck in ice during a trip to show all these famous people how little ice is left in the antarctic. That would have been embarrassing.
So will Elon learn to LOVE the UAW? Find out, 'As the World Turns':
"Unions press for place with Tesla"
http://www.sfgate.com/news/art.....109708.php
It's already just a pile of gov't rents, so I guess there's no reason labor shouldn't get it's share of vig.
Funny to think Elon was so naive he thought taking all that money wouldn't come with some strings attached.
Hey, Elon, build your business in a proggy union-infested hellhole, and guess what you're gonna get?
RC, there was no way in hell he could have built that "business" anywhere else.
His market is the valley lefties with money to burn, the factory was more or less handed over to him after GM/Toyota decided they couldn't build union cars there, the CA 'green' tax credits form a good bit of his income (including the ones for the battery change 'refueling' that never happened), I'm sure there's all sorts of tax advantages dumped on him to keep those jobs where they are.
This is not any sort of manufacturing business; it is a financial concern dealing in government rents which occasionally spits out an automobile to keep the tax money flowing.
In case it's not obvious, I despise Elon Musk.
And don't forget Sevo that the rich fucking leftists who buy those things get a $10,000 tax credit for buying a $60,000 or whatever toy. I see assholes in Washington driving them once in a while and I always have the urge to throw a brick threw their windows.
Was the wife the one sleeping with the other officials or was it the police chief sleeping with other officials?
Yes.
This little libertarian marvels that the NSA sees the primary application of a quantum fucking computer to be cracking taxpayer encryption algorithms.