A.M. Links: White House Preparing For Exodus of Aides, Snowden Invited To Testify Before European Parliament, Rodman Visits North Korean Ski Resort
- The White House is preparing for a number of longtime aides to leave in the next few months.
- Dennis Rodman's public relations firm released an apology on his behalf for his comments about an American currently being held in North Korea. The former NBA player has traveled to a multimillion-dollar ski resort in North Korea with Kim Jong-un.
- NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been invited to testify before a European Parliament committee via video link as part of its investigation into U.S. surveillance.
- CFOs are blaming Obamacare for increases in health care costs, which they are passing along to employees.
- San Francisco has outlined plans to tax tech companies such as Google and Facebook if they want to keep using private shuttles to transport their employees to work.
- An 88-year-old German man has been charged with taking part in the Nazi massacre in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane.
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NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden has been invited to testify before a European Parliament committee via video link as part of its investigation into U.S. surveillance.
Talk about a huge middle finger to Obama.
Hello.
Now which one are you agian?
It’s Rufus J. !
Yeah, what is with these 2 Rufus commentators? Which one is the Canadian?
Rufus Jedidiah or Rufus Jeremiah?
I’m the fucking Canadian.
RUFUS J. FIREFLY.
I’ve only been here a couple of years commenting.
me too…
I am awful with names though
What is a Canada?
All you have to know is it is better than ‘Merica in every metric.. or so my fellow Canadians have told me..
Yeah.
Better at saying we’re better at shit.
We are quite good at it.. and talking about how full of itself America is.
Because the top half is not livable.
“Most of the Canadian population lives in a narrow corridor at the southern part of the country, near the American border….62% of the population lived in Quebec and Ontario, the two largest provinces.”
The vast polar expanses of the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut represent 40% of the continental mass of Canada and are much less populated. Their inhabitants make up just 0.3% of the population.”
From the Canuckian gov website.
http://jaymans.files.wordpress…..p1-eng.gif
I understand that, but even the liveable part is much larger than California.
In America, we use the English system, not metric.
Called the Imperial system, at least over here
Including limited use of metric.
A Canada is a group of huts.
Don’t you mean igloos?
Yes. Igloos.
I’m gonna marry a carrot.
/Lisa Simpson.
I am a proud Kryptonian
Can the Two Rufusesesesseeess just arm wrestle or something?
No, one must become RJ.
I have figured it out. The plural of Rufus is Rufii. We’re all being Ruffied by these two…at least that’s how I explain the strange sensation I feel in my seat after reading morning links the last few days.
Hm.
Rufii.
Makes me think of a Germanic or Italic tribe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Italy
I was roofied once.
I think Rufii is the plural of Rufius. So the plural of Rufus would just be Rufi.
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/rev…..oheads.htm
Posted yesterday.
I think Firefly has dibs on the Rufus J. name.
I’d be pissed if a Smilin’ Jim Fission showed up.
I’m the original Oreo.
Growing up, my best friend had a black and white cat named Hydrox.
What about Smilin’ Joe Fusion?
Or how about Frowning Jim Combustion?
How about Prompt Critical Joe?
+1 radioactive man to all of you
My name is the nuclear power plant and Springfield baseball team mascot from the Simpsons though.. in case no one else here was inspired to enter the nuclear field by Homer Simpson….
I was a NukE before the Simpsons got started.
It was my junior year, in fact. The Smilin’ Joe Fission episode occurred while I was taking Reactor Physics I.
Sweet Sally Solar?
Willing Wendy Wind
It’ll really put a charge in your day when she blows
Good Morning!
What have I done….
Gamboling George Geothermal?
Interesting, I only now just realized their were 2.
“I was a Drell. I was a Drifter. I was a Coaster. I was part of The Gang. I was a Bar-Kay… If they come through Texas, I done played with them.”
Obama just needs to get his message out better to the people of Europe.
No video feeds for him, though. Fire up AF1!
Can’t he just drone the European heads of government? Granted, it’s technically an act of war….
And since someone attacked our NATO allies, we’d be obligated to go to war with ourselves!
Now, *that’s* a “kinetic action”!
Well, we already occupy ourselves so it should only take a few hours of bombing before we surrender.
And after the surrender comes the insurgency, because any US occupation these days triggers an insurgency.
Stimulus!
That’s a hell of a way to retroactively earn his Nobel Peace Prize.
Did Rodman break his pelvis?
The great irony is that killing these poor animals for sport is the best way to save them from extinction.
As it is with any large mammal that isn’t tame or tasty.
Imagine that. The private hunting preserves have much better incentives to keep a healthy population of the large animals going than parks do. They really are the way that things like elephants and rhinos are going to be saved.
A big proportion of progressives/environmentalists/hippies seem to want the world to be a museum.
If we can save even ONE black rhino…
A big proportion of progressives/environmentalists/hippies seem to want the world to be a museum.
They don’t intend for all those animals to die! They want them to live! But how can these animals live if people are killing them? You can’t let people kill them! You must let them live! How can the result of the incentives created by hunters wanting to have animals to kill be more animals? Their intention is to kill them, not to have a healthy population! It doesn’t make sense!
I can actually see how a lot of people might not understand it that way. It does require some limber and open-minded thinking though, which bleeding hearts just don’t have time for.
This game preserve example may end up being a solid go-to to help friends understand the concept of incentives.
Yep. It’s very simple.
Hunters who want to hunt particular animals can’t hunt those particular animals if that animal is extinct.
I’m sure the average proggy thinks hunters are all ignorant rednecks who are too stupid to do anything but kill, kill, kill.
Ignorant rednecks who can simultaneously afford to go on an African safari to the tunes of several tens of thousands of dollars a pop. Walmart must be paying better than we thought.
Dennis Rodman’s public relations firm released an apology on his behalf for his comments about an American currently being held in North Korea.
Shocking. Dennis Rodman actually employs a PR firm?
My ex-wife lost on Jeopardy. That is all.
Weird Al wrote a song about her.
I think he wrote several.
“One More Minute” ring a bell?
Beat it?
Sorry, the Weird Al spoof on that one was “Eat it.” And all responses must be phrased in the form of a question.
Yes, I am become suck today.
It’s OK, you can go home with a gift from the studio.
It’s a DVD of Alex Trebek singing in the shower!
Don Pardo, tell ’em what they won!
Good enough for now?
Is she really controversial, or is it just that the rest of the Media Class doesn’t like Fox News?
I think controversial because of the white Santa and Jesus comments.
Megyn Kelly was great on a long Howard Stern interview. Howard is the best interviewer around although she dodged the lesbian sex and political party questions.
Howard is the best interviewer around…
If you’ve got the maturity of a thirteen year old boy.
Well, those are the two things I wanted to know about and Howard pressed her on them. She is pro-choice and rumored to be a closet liberal by the Fox people.
When I was out in the dating world I wanted to know the same two things. Liberal and bi? Fuck yeah!
So you’ve got the maturity if a thirteen year old boy. Then again we already knew that.
She is only interesting because she is attractive and on Fox News.
I stand by my predilection.
The intellectual ability of a 13-year-old boy as well, given how easy it is to show him up with government data.
The White House is preparing for a number of longtime aides to leave in the next few months.
I think Chigago is about to see the return of a lot of native sons.
May they founder in a thousand deep dishes.
Departures of longtime and trusted West Wing aides will force Obama to go outside his comfort zone in seeking advisers.
Probably not. Anyway, Obama will still have Biden’s counsel.
I’m sure he can find plenty of sychophantic clones to take their places.
Clowns, you mean.
Yes. How silly of me.
As long as Valerie stays, he’s got all the advice he needs.
Or will listen to…
It’s usually called a “purge”. Or “rats leaving a sinking ship”.
So it only takes 5 years on the national stage to become a made man?
Chemistry is for the extremely cautious and the severely burned.
It was always a welcome sight when the hash oil man came to Lexington. You could feel him approaching as the days grew short and a chill crept into the air. On some random day in late October he would appear, hitching a ride down out of the mountains with a gallon jug of hash oil in his filthy backpack, a demented grin on his face. We often found him in the parking lot behind Big Daddy’s liquor store, selling bottlecaps full of hash oil for $5. We’d each get one and stumble back to our apartment, giggling. We’d smear it along cigarettes or joints; we’d use aluminum foil straws to chase the dragon’s tail as it bubbled away in a bent spoon over a Zippo; we’d mix it with shake and load it into bong. That’s what fall is to me: a lazy curl of hash oil smoke rising while fallen leaves rustle gently outside.
Excellent.
That’s the voiceover at the start of a charming coming-of-age movie
Ricky Scaggs needs to write the score.
Bruce Hornsby/Ricky Skaggs/John Anderson – Super Freak
I owe you a drink for that link, sarc.
Jon Anderson?
I’ll have to watch this later.
Good stuff. Thanks.
I’ve only seen the stuff once. My junior year in high school. That was a good year.
Hash oil, good as it is, is nowhere near as good as bubble hash. And no need for chemicals and cooking shit in a lab.
Of course, we wouldn’t have these home labs for the most part if it weren’t for the War on Drugs….
That girl is a statutory rape charge waiting to happen because looking at her it would never occur to me that she was under 21 forget under 18
All you’ve have to do is talk with her for ten seconds and her age would become very apparent.
She may be looking pretty haggard in a few years.
Careful. This comment is straight-up Plopper-bait.
Scottish man sentenced for grinding and talking dirty to drink trolley on train
OK, I’ll do it:
“What is a ‘drink trolley’ in American?”
You know those carts that bring the drinks when you are on an airliner?
It’s a cart from which drinks are sold/dispensed.
So … a drink trolley can have a boyfriend?
Anything with a receptacle can have a boyfriend…at least for a few minutes.
yelling about what he wanted to do to his boyfriend
Oh, *Davidson’s* boyfriend!
Never mind.
a drink trolley can *be* the boyfriend, is how I read it.
Bill O’Reilly warned you all. Allow same-sex marriage and you’re going to have people wanting to marry carts.
Well it’s better he makes an honest homeware out of it than just rutting in sin
Not carts. Maybe androids.
There are no ex-marines. Once a marine, always a marine! 😉
What about dishonorable discharge? Honest question.
That’s when you’re not psychitic enough to be a marine – or take it out on fellow marines.
Any of you maggots know where he learned to Atomic Wedgie like that?
Sir, in the Marines, Sir!
“You will give your wedgie a girl’s name!”
Denver Lee St. Clair is some name.
You know who else liked to read Mein Kampf?
Margaret Sanger?
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem?
Hitler?
Dammit Rufus, you just Godwinned the thread
“read”, not write!
As a writer I’d like to say that you have to read what you’re writing, and if you’re going to finish it, you should probably like to read it.
How can you tell if someone is discreetly downloading something?
Is this supposed to be some sort of sinister trend? Seems quite natural to wonder about the motivations of someone like Hitler and try to find out more about it.
If it were free, I’d think about downloading it just to piss off the proggies.
There are some political parties who’ll give it away for free.
I suspect most of the downloads are evil geniuses bent on world domination, looking for some tips on mass public hypnosis. Or maybe that’s just me.
CFOs are blaming Obamacare for increases in health care costs, which they are passing along to employees.
Greedy bastards. TAKE THE HIT YOURSELVES.
Huge sunspot greets 2014.
The connection between sunspots and earth’s climate is becoming stronger every day. Is it possible this sunspot had some role in the recent ‘polar vortex’?
Wait. Are… are you suggesting that the sun has something to do with the Earth’s climate? BURN THE HERETIC!
Our spaceshots are causing solar warming!
Is it possible this sunspot had some role in the recent ‘polar vortex’?
Doubtful. The polar vortex reaching so far south is probably just weather being weather.
But who cares what the weather is doing? Global average temperature is persistently below the predictions made by all the IPCC-approved models over the last 20 years. This is the only evidence we need that the models are incomplete and can’t be trusted.
Although I did hear a climate scientist arguing the other day that the incomplete nature and inaccuracy of the models suggests that climate change will be worse than what the models originally predicted.
Yep, really.
Al Qaeda controls more territory than ever in Middle East
Mission Accomplished?
I almost had a negligent discharge once with a rifle that I was certain was unloaded whose action I was certain was locked open that I hadn’t handled in over a year. Then I realized that I was planning had my finger on the trigger, so I double checked and sure as hell, there were rounds in the magazine, though not chambered. I was pissed at myself for days because I almost assumed the gun was unloaded.
Negligent Discharge would be a great band name
Or a description of every guy who ever created a baby momma with no intention of assisting in support.
I think that in many cases “I was cleaning my gun” is an attempt to sound more, um, responsible than the actual “I fucked up”.
I suppose it’s a little better than “I was fucking around and shot the wall”. But not much.
Seriously, how long does it take to check? 5 seconds?
Three seconds. I just checked.
“I really don’t understand how that can happen. I mean, first you check that it is unloaded. Then you verify that it is unloaded. Then after that you make sure it is unloaded. Dumbass.”
Incorrect. All guns are loaded all the time and must be treated as such
If you can see the chamber is empty or the gun cannot physically fire (for instance if slide is locked open or the cylinder is open in a revolver), then still don’t point it at anyone but you may put your finger(s) inside the trigger guard for leverage.
I had a former co-worker whose husband shot himself in the groin while cleaning his gun. Ironically, it happened the day after she caught him having sex with another woman a bathroom in a local campground.
You mean she shot him in the balls and he covered for her.
She said she didn’t do it but she had a great big smile on her face when she told the story.
Seriously. If there is one thing that should deprive a person of TRTKABA, it’s an accidental discharge at any time for any reason whatsoever. An AD is absolutely inexcusable. I’d rather be around a random felon or a nut with a gun than anyone who has ever had an AD.
I’ve handled firearms for about 50 years. Never had an AD, never came close to an AD. I’ve known lots of people who had firearms. Two of these guys caused ADs in their past. One was a young, irresponsible acquaintance who laughed it off. The other was an older, competitive shooter. The latter was so upset about his AD that he gave up shooting completely. He understood all the principles of firearm safety, and recognized that a single AD meant that age had deteriorated his competence to handle firearms. I really respect that that guy.
Get back to me when I can get a phaser.
Replicators and holodecks. That’s that I want.
Green ladies.
Ford Exec: ‘We Know Everyone Who Breaks The Law’ Thanks To Our GPS In Your Car
Good thing my 2003 truck don’t have no stinkin GPS new fangled technology
I hate GPS.
Maps for me.
My phone does have GPS though. But it is pretty difficult to use while driving without a passenger to operate it.
And can tell rate of speed versus posted limit, where you stop, when you stop, how long you spend there, allowing for a reasonable inferrence of what you’re doing there.
Pedant: “rate of speed” is acceleration.
Jerk. 😉
+1/s
I’m sure you mean “rate of velocity” is acceleration.
Well, obviously, since speed is a scalar metric and acceleration is a vector.
However, in the vernacular ‘rate of speed’ is also an idom for current velocity. Not technically accurate per physics, but most vernacular idoms are not.
Speed is simply the scalar version of velocity, i.e. the rate of change of position stripped of its direction.
So both “rate of speed” and “rate of velocity” are accelerations. The first would be scalar, the second a vector.
An object in uniform circular motion experiences nonzero acceleration but its speed does not change.
Put more broadly, the magnitude of the derivative of a vector is not equal to the derivative of the magnitude of a vector.
Still doesn’t make “rate of speed” == “speed”
Of course. Because the direction vector is continuously changing.
No, “rate of speed” is redundant. It doesn’t mean “acceleration.” Acceleration is the rate of change of speed. They mean “rate of travel” or simply, “speed”.
I’m sure it can tell them that too
But there’s a library across the street from that club! I swear.
“We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you’re doing it.
Why would he say something like this? DOes he think his customers will think this is a good thing?
Not with the “third party doctrine” for those GPS records.
Retroactive tickets away!
Welp, my decision to never buy another car from an American company just got validated.
Again.
Well, he could blackmail them into buying a Ford again, or else. Why else would someone?
Ex-wife of The Road writer Cormac McCarthy pulled silver handgun from her genitals during argument with boyfriend over space aliens
She then proceeded to “have inner course with the gun,” according to the court filing. While using the gat as a sex toy, McCarthy reportedly asked her boyfriend, “Who is crazy, you or me?”
I *think* I can see why she’s Cormac’s “most recent ex-wife”.
“have inner course with the gun,”
Gives a whole new reason to use Gun Oil.
Millionaire Obama: I Hate Income Inequality
Back from his $4 million Hawaii vacation, President Barack Obama seems poised to sound the populist trumpet in an effort to turn the page on 2013’s disastrous Obamacare rollout….
But remember when he gave back 20k of his salary? What a guy!
He can say that because he earned his money the “right way.”
Inheritance and cronyism?
Pointing a gun at your fellow man is the most noble of enterprises. Voluntarily trading with your fellow man is vile and unclean.
No one needs more than a 3 million dollar vacation. Or was that pension?
SQUIRELLZ!
Apartment Complex Declares War on Squirrels, Squirrel Sympathizers
I hate those damn tree rats as much as anyone. They are pretty cute, though.
Squirrels always bring a smile, though. I’ve never seen a squirrel that didn’t look he was having the time of his life. Even if I shot him right after that.
He died doing what he loved.
Robert Rector: How The War On Poverty Was Lost.
On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson used his State of the Union address to announce an ambitious government undertaking. “This administration today, here and now,” he thundered, “declares unconditional war on poverty in America.”
Fifty years later, we’re losing that war. Fifteen percent of Americans still live in poverty, according to the official census poverty report for 2012, unchanged since the mid-1960s. Liberals argue that we aren’t spending enough money on poverty-fighting programs, but that’s not the problem. In reality, we’re losing the war on poverty because we have forgotten the original goal, as LBJ stated it half a century ago: “to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities.”
The federal government currently runs more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. . . . If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S.
Next time some leftie goes off about how those poor folks need our help, just ask him this:
Ever been to Yellowstone? Did you feed the bears there? Why not?
“It’s against the Law, duh!”
And then, when they ask how dare you compare the poor to animals, ask why they think that poor people are stupider than bears, who are clever enough to figure out where the easy meal comes from.
Don’t forget to call them speciesist for being offended by your comparison to animals.
Because there is a huge federal bureaucracy made of tens of.thousands of employees all getting paid to “administer” the disbursement of whatever aid.is.left. over after their cut.is.taken out? If the federal government were subject.to thesame scrutiny as charities, it would be exposed as the fraud it is. People who would go.on fishing expiditions through a charity’s books to.find overpaid executives and.other waster wouldn’t bat an eyr at the government’s theft.
I’ve been meaning to ask – what’s with the random periods instead of spaces?
The period is next tot eh space bar on my phone’s software keyboard.
Oh, okay.
And I’m lazy.
Or you’re an Annunaki. Returned. From Enki.LOL.
Big Business Doubles Down on GOP Civil War With Tea Party
Slowly, but surely, the GOP is starting to put the nails in their own coffin.
Libya Threatens to Sink Oil Tankers
Anyone up for this weekend’s Houston showing?
Divorce Corp
…A shocking expos? of the inner workings of the $50 billion a year
U.S. family law industry, Divorce Corp shines a bright light on the appalling waste, and shameless collusive practices seen daily in family courts. It is a stunning documentary film that anyone considering marriage or divorce must see….
So, lawyers colluding to take advantage of lawss they (probably) helped write to bilk their clients out of lots more money?
Color me surprised.
The Modest Victorian Proposal to Electroplate Corpses Into Beautiful Statues
You could probably make a lot of money doing that with dead pets.
The Idea behind Plastination
“I developed the Plastination technique at the University of Heidelberg’s Institute of Anatomy in 1977, patented it between 1977 and 1982, and have been continually improving the process ever since.
…
That was on January 10, 1977, the day that I decided to make Plastination the focus of my life.”
Depends, how well can you electroplate fur?
Ok. Pet turtles, then.
Wax wasn’t good enough for them?
An 1887 article in Cassell’s Saturday Journal proclaimed that “the body being hermetically sealed within its metal inclosure, merely dries up and assumes the aspect of a mummy.”
Um, no. The gases would either breach through pressure or it would turn into grandma soup and some asshole would knock it over and sploosh.
That’s what the natron infusion is for.
Oh wait, that sounds a lot like actually going through the process of mummifcation, then enclosing the mummy in a death cast of the corpse.
If this were a Hammer movie, I’d watch it. But I wouldn’t want it done to my remains.
Florida police department now prepared for mine fields, ground assault
No telling how Florida Man will choose to strike.
How well does it handle swampy grounds, mud and shallow to mid-depth waters? Cause those aren’t hard to come by (expecially in parts of florida, where they even come with snakes and gators for no extra charge)
They’re not for chasing meth producers out in the boonies – they’re for Intimidating, Dominating, and Controlling the city dwellers.
Calling Ft Pierce a city isn’t exactly being intellectually honest.
“The White House is preparing for a number of longtime aides to leave in the next few months.”
I’m just a dolphin ma’am, so I’d like to know if this is par for the course at the WH during a President’s term or if this reflects the situation at a particular time. If the former, who cares?
It is not all that rare for there to be a period of large staff turnover in a Presidents 2nd term, but usually happens a bit earlier in the term iirc.
It sounds like this might be a bit larger in scope as well.
My guess is that this is a mix of the normal cycle of aides tiring of the job and looking to move on and some of the rats fleeing a sinking ship
People see the iceberg of the mid-term elections coming, and (mixed metaphor alert) don’t want the stink of it on themselves.
Don’t kid yourself. Obama is cleaning house, getting rid of everyone who embarrassed him in the past few years. It’s a lot of aides.
For those who thought rail travel couldn’t get any worse:
Finland’s new dining cars to offer karaoke
The article also has the obligatory shit about being “environmentally friendly”.
Finland karaoke? So what will they be singing? Korpiklaani, Nightwish, Finntroll?
More likely Vicky Rosti.
The article also has the obligatory shit about being “environmentally friendly”.
Having to listen to drunken Fins butchering their favorite songs may be too high a price for even Euro-trash to pay just to feel smug about their carbon footprint compared to us hethen Americans cruising around in our SUVs and pick-up trucks.
After a night with Warty…
Naked scooter driver was just ‘cooling down’
What the hell! No arrest? Some cop did the normal, rational thing and told the guy to pull his pants up!
Borrowers Hit Social-Media Hurdles
Regulators Have Concerns About Lenders’ Use of Facebook, Other Sites
So some people are putting information about themselves in a public place where anyone can see it, and some other people are looking at that information and using it to evaluate whether they think it is worth the risk to do business with them, and I’m supposed to act like this is some huge scandal because…?
YELP critics must be identified, court rules in online landscape altering decision
The Virginia Court of Appeals [ruled] that the comments were not protected First Amendment opinions if the Yelp users were not customers and thus were making false claims.
This is an interesting case, IMO. One aspect is: How many, um, levels of indirection is one permitted before one is slapped with a slander/libel charge?
If I were Yelp, I would not want my reviews to be anonymous. If the Yelp becomes known as a place where a restaurant’s competition tells lies about it, then people will stop going there for reviews.
Oh, I agree, John.
But what about: “I’m Joe Blow, and my friend says this restaurant sucks”?
Yelp could easily fix this by having all its reviewers registered with names, emails, and locations. They could reject any that do not have verifiable information. They may have this already.
So, after being told that your Yelp comments expose you to personal liability, you’re going to register so the plaintiff’s lawyers know where to serve the lawsuit?
Truth is an absolute defense to libel. If I have a bad experience at your restaurant, have fun suing me over my yelp review. Further, have fun proving my opinion is “false” to such a degree it amounts to libel.
That is really not a concern for anyone giving an honest review. Newspapers have been writing restaurant reviews, some of them scathing for decades. The risk of liability never seemed to deter them.
There is a local restaurant forum I post to that requires real name IDs. There is an exception made for first name, last initial but you have to get specific permission from the site owner.
People post reviews slagging restaurants all the time. Usually within hours they get contacted by the restaurant owner.
It does far more good than a 1-star yelp review.
Yeah, because dickheads who don’t understand the 1st amendment have never abused the legal process to make their critics miserable with meritless lawsuits, right?
You’re right that someone giving an honest review has little reason to fear losing a defamation lawsuit, but don’t act like the threat of being sued, even frivolously, is just something that can be blown off and isn’t a major factor in chilling speech.
One of the best use of Coors…
Houston firefighter puts out truck blaze with beer
Makes sense. Coors is fucking close to water. How they can advertise that tasteless shit as “the banquet beer” is beyond me.
I like Coors Banquet actually.. except for the price, $22 for a 12 pack of cans.. another reason I want to leave Canada.
$2 a can for Coors? I would hate to see what Stone or Great Lakes costs around there.
Shh, Smilin Joe. Make sure no Canadians are listening. You know how sensitive we are.
At least people complain a little about liquor prices up here.. not enough for anyone to actual make it a big deal to politicians to change any laws… but maybe some day we (Ontario) can at least get rid of the government created monopoly on the selling of beer that the Beer Store consortium holds… Bahaha who am I kidding, that will probably never happen.
Molson owns Coor’s (or is the the other way round?), so that’s something.
Because at a banquet you have a lot of people to serve, so you might have to water down your beer. Hence, Coors.
That was God saving that man from drinking Coors.
The federal government currently runs more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. . . . If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S.
Think of all the bureaucrats we have saved from poverty.
5 Redesigned Acme Products That’ll Help Wile E. Coyote Murder Road Runner
http://www.wired.com/design/20…..co16804914
I have always maintained that Wile E. was a product tester fro ACME, and he was reporting on the effectiveness of their prototypes – which explains both his ready access to the costly hardware and their high failure rate.
“In 2014, the chamber will work to protect and expand a pro-business majority in the House and advance our position and our influence in the Senate,” Donohue said in his annual State of American Business speech in Washington. “The business community understands what’s at stake.”
“Pro-business” not same as pro-free-market.
The Chamber of Commerce can suck my balls.
Good point. I think more libertarians should make the point that we are not “pro-business.”
Established big business, I would say, is very anti-free market. They love when government creates artificial barriers to entry and other legislation that doesn’t hurt them as much as it hurts their competition.
Do you think it’s possible to explain to a typical Huffpo reading liberal that many of the policies they support actually help major corporations at the expense of their smaller competition?
Probably not. Too many of their arguments go something like.. “The evil corporations control the government so we have to give the government (which they control) even more power so that uh umm.. OBAMA!!!”
I made this exact point to one of my liberal-ish friends. He was arguing for a carbon tax because “industries are killing the environment”. I asked him why he thinks that the government, whose biggest lobbyists are said industries, would craft a law that cut off its biggest donors. To that he replied “I can be an idealist, can’t I?”
I think “not with my money” was the most appropriate response that didn’t involve telling my best friend where to shove his ideals.
Do you think it’s possible to explain to a typical Huffpo reading liberal
You can explain it. Whether they understand it is a different question.
The free market is proconsumer. It causes producers heart-burn.
Actually Pro Business is the complete opposite of pro free market
Heard on NPR this morning;
A new study shows that mass shootings have been on the rise since 2008…
Is this true? Isn’t the total number of victims of non self or police inflicted gun violence decreasing? Or is it case of a 0.00001% rate going to 0.00002%?
While long term trends are decreasing, judicious editing of any set of data will show whatever you want it to show if you chose the proper time interval.
Liars, Damn Liars, and Statisticians.
It’s just stupid to try to find a trend involving such rare events over such a short time.
It all depends on how they define “mass shooting.” When most people hear the term they envision something like the Sandy Hook shooting, or the Aurora movie theater shooting. But if you define “mass shooting” to mean, say, any shooting in which there are 2 or more victims and include cases where one of the victims was the perp (murder-suicides), then you can greatly inflate the numbers.
Or what kinnath said.
And how many are gangsters shooting it out? That’s still a bad thing and a crime, but it is rather different from some psycho randomly shooting up a bunch on innocent people.
That too. Also police involved shootings that are actual shootouts between police and actual criminals, etc.
A new study shows that mass shootings have been on the rise since 2008 Obama was elected…
Impeach him! For the children. Because if it saves just one life . . . .
Racism May Accelerate Aging In African-American Men
A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that African-American men who reported high levels of racial discrimination, or who have internalized anti-black attitudes, have an increased risk of premature death and chronic disease than white people.
Apparently the study did not examine the effects of being a racist oneself.
So what about whites, and hispanics that have face racial discrimination?
any effects are balanced by their privilege.
A new study shows that mass shootings have been on the rise since 2008…
If “true” I automatically assume it is because of temporal cherry picking.
“As such rare events, we had to make sure our start year was a low point and there were no peaks in between, which is why it’s so recent.”
If it is true, maybe it is the result of our celebrity media driven culture and the media’s obsession with these losers sending the message to other would be losers that the way to reach the holy grail of modern society known as fame, is to go shoot a bunch of people. Just a thought.
First, it’s not true, it’s just cherry picking. Second, attraction to infamy has existed ever since infamy existed. Look at some of the biggest names of the wild west and tell me that they didn’t play off one another.
I suspect they’re referring to this study.
But it gets boiled down to a headline that makes it seems like people are just going crazy with the mass shootings. And people rarely look past the headlines.
Apparently it’s possible to allegedly drink 5 gallons of vodka and live. I would have thought would kill most people.
Also of note: this happened in Florida. It’s always FL.
Must be that cheap diluted vodka. The stuff that comes in a plastic jug.
If he didn’t die drinking it, I bet he wish he would have the morning after.
How do you no throw that up? I would get sick before I could ingest five gallons of anything, much less vodka. Also, John Bonham, who was a man of enormous constitution and had been a heavy drinker for nearly two decades, died from consuming 40 shots of vodka in 24 hours. Assuming the shots were a consistent 1.5 ounces, that is 60 ounces or about half a gallon.
I call Shenanigans.
Eh. Your stomach and intestines shut down. That’s why his serum chemistry was far below the expected rate. If you look at alcohol poisoning deaths, you’d find some interesting variation in BAC per unit ethanol consumed.
Didn’t Bonham choke on vomit? I don’t think it was directly alcohol poisoning that did it.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it was vomit. Same with Bon Scott from AC/DC.
Yep, it was the vomit wot dunnit. When oh when will warning labels be placed on vomit?
According to the story the cops found him staggering around a parking lot at 1:50pm, so I suspect he had started drinking the night before, and just kept going all morning. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t just drinking straight vodka, but vodka mixed with cranberry juice, cocktails, etc. Still, drinking 5 gallons of anything in ~12 hours or so would probably make my bladder explode.
Although it does explain why he dropped trou and urinated right in front of the cops. He probably was staggering around looking for a bathroom and decided “fuck it, I’ve got to go NOW!”
Well, keep in mind they asked the guy, *while he was drunk*, how much he had to drink.
Not exactly a reliable source there.
Pssh. Anything under .4 doesn’t impress me anymore.
I knew a dude that almost drank himself to death. He had to get his stomach pumped and he was in the hospital for 4 days. When he got to the hospital his blood alcohol level was over 0.4.
I like Coors Banquet actually.. except for the price, $22 for a 12 pack of cans.. another reason I want to leave Canada.
Back when mastodons roamed the glaciers of upstate New York, and I was plotting my escape to the hippy ski bum promised land of Colorado, Coors was an exotic specialty beer, transported by bootleggers in the trunks of cars.
When I got to Colorado, I was surprised to discover you could get it in any grocery store for about $2.50 a sixpack.
I still drink it (Light, actually) at home, much of the time. It, unlike Miller, for example, is not actually poisonous.
The excessive water dilutes the poison enough.
Time for another edition of: Mugshot or glamor shot? Apparently, dogs are now trained to smell pharmaceuticals.
Norton asked for permission to search Dutton’s car. When Dutton declined the request, Norton used a drug dog to perform an open air sniff outside the car.
In Dutton’s purse, Norton said he found a green box with several plastic baggies and 1.2 grams of suspected heroin, valued at $360. Eleven Oxycodone pills, valued at $220, were also allegedly found during the search.
She is a regular Frank Lucas. She is not a dealer or even a mule. She appears to be an occasional user. But only a moron cop would call her a “dealer” within any meaningful use of the term.
Dogs are trained to respond to their handlers.
I can go to my friendly neighborhood Costco and buy a thirty-pack of Coors Light for twenty bucks. Take that, you Canuckistanis.
And- to all you yobs clamoring, “Ya gits whatcha pays fer!” I fart in your general direction(s).
When I was in Florida last month, the local Costco sells their Kirkland brand vodka (which is pretty good) for $13.89 for 60 oz. For nothing else I would move to Florida for that liquor pricing.
A 60oz of the cheapest shit liquor up here would cost over $60.
I got talking to an Icelandic guy and his Icelandic-American wife last year at a bar. She described him literally weeping with joy the first time she took him to a liquor store in the US. Apparently, liquor was about 1/5th the price and 20x the selection.
For twenty bucks I can brew five gallons of German style pilsner.
*phhht*
Anything under .4 doesn’t impress me anymore.
Florida Man abides.
A life-sized Lego car that actually can b driven
http://thatslikewhoa.com/air-p…..invention/
“Moreau said the pair started spraying and shaking cans of beer as fast as they could. Meanwhile, the tire continued to burn and eventually exploded.”
Good thing he was able to help Snowman get that fire put out so he and the Bandit could get that Coors to Big Enos and Little Enos.
When will Feeney’s public relations firm release an apology on his behalf for his lack of comments appearing when you hover over pictures?
hover over a picture? What is this hover you speak of? My alt-text appears below the picture. It is just more Reasonable…
Chrome sucks.
I prefer nickel. It has a deeper lustre and looks less flashy.
For twenty bucks I can brew five gallons of German style pilsner.
I’m thirsty NOW, goddammit!
After three years of preparation, I’m delighted to tell you that the “First Annual, Live National Read-Along of the Bill of Rights Over the Internet” took place on Sunday, December 15, 2013, the 222nd anniversary of the Bill of Rights.
We have a video of the webcast now on the web, and, if you’d like to see it, here are the steps:
1. Logon to: http://www.National-Education-Project.org
2. Click on the birthday cake.
3. On the next screen, click on “Click Here” at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll go to the webcast, which will start immediately.
You may also download a free printed copy of the Bill of Rights, which children sign and post on the family refrigerator door as a reminder to everyone in the home of the liberties of all Americans.
We have begun preparations for Bill of Rights Day, Monday, December 15, 2014. We will again have children reading the Bill of Rights on a world-wide webcast.
And on that day, our hope is that the astronauts on the International Space Station will read the ninth and tenth amendments.
Yes, men from space reading the Bill of Rights to the entire Earth! You can lose sleep dreaming of such things.
Best wishes to you all for the great New Year to come.
Words fail me.
San Francisco has outlined plans to tax tech companies such as Google and Facebook if they want to keep using private shuttles to transport their employees to work.
The best part is that state law prevents San Francisco from charging more than the actual costs of providing the service. Since the incremental cost of private buses using a public bus stop is zero, the tax can only bring in enough to administer the tax program itself.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/20…..gle-buses/