A.M. Links: House Approves Trillion Dollar Spending Bill, LAPD Testing Body Cameras, 2013 Hot and Wet

• 

  miss pupik/flickr

  The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a 1,582-page, trillion dollar spending bill.

• Computer security experts are warning the government that the Obamacare website is not protected from hackers.
• The DEA's chief of operations called state efforts to legalize marijuana "reckless and irresponsible."
• The LAPD is testing body cameras for 90 days with 30 cops who volunteered to wear them.
• The IMF's Christine Lagarde thinks this could be the year the global economy finally gets better.
• The French ambassador to the UN explained his country had underestimated the level of hatred between Muslims and Christians before intervening in the Central African Republic.
• 90 percent of Egyptians voted to approve the new constitution, in an election boycotted by the banned-again Muslim Brotherhood.
• 2013 was a hotter and wetter than average year in the U.S., according to government data.
• Oscar nominations were announced this morning. 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, and American Hustle lead in nominations, while Jeremy Scahill's documentary about U.S. covert warfare, Dirty Wars, also received a nomination. Maybe the First Lady will announce that winner this year?

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a 1,582-page, trillion dollar spending bill.

Finally, Congress can stick a crowbar in America's change purse.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm convinced it's rigged.

Hello.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Top o' the mornin' to yuh Rufus!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/raises AC Milan espresso cup.

[Ted S.]

I'm sorry you have such lousy taste in football teams.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Booya!

18 trophies my friend. 18 and 29 finals. Best of any club.

Alas, not good times at the moment. What a shitty defense at the moment! Allegri gone, Seedorf in. We'll see.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

At the moment twice. Sheesh.

[Ted S.]

Bayren M?nchen has that beat: 23 domestic titles, 16 cups, 5-time champions of Europe (going on 6 this year).

And they don't play catenaccio either like those Italian teams do.

[Timon 19]

FC Hollywood and Boring Boring Milan?

You guys need better taste.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes, let us be fairweather fans and chase whatever flavor of the month is.

Teams have ups and downs. So what? Bayern rotted for a couple of decades and now dominate. Milan dominated for nearly a decade and now struggle. Big deal.

[Timon 19]

Relax, I'm just giving you shit, Rufus.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wasn't sure if you were a troll.

Cool.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Um, Ted. You need to brush up on a couple of things.

Inter Milan played 'catenaccio.' Milan employs/employed a different system. Juventus still another. Catenaccio has long been dead since the mid-1990s. I need not remind you, that Spain plays a variation of 'catenaccio.'

As for the trophies. I was referring to Champions League (7 for Milan and 11 finals second only to Real); the former Cup Winner's, UEFA/Europa, Intercontinental and Super Cups - the five most prestigious trophies.

I did not include Domestic trophies.

So no, Bayern - as great as they are and whom I admire - does not have Milan beat.

http://www.rsssf.com/miscellan.....-best.html

I keep a large inventory of soccer statistics. Like, for example, Serie A clubs have a winning record against Bundesliga sides. For the record, I watch German soccer and doing so since the 'Soccer Made in Germany' days. Always enjoyed it.

I know there are many misconceptions about Italian soccer but I can refute most of them. It's a massively tactical league.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Confident on the 6, eh?

They are the favorites. No doubt about it. Very strong side.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Don't mean to pile on in this friendly debate BUT...

MILAN V BAYERN MUNICH 6-3-1 (4-0)

All-time. The 4-0 denotes in elimination showdowns.

My apologies for the destruction.

/smirks smugly.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rigged. Did you even try?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I just want to complain like a left-winger.

[UnCivilServant]

Yes, it's rigged, I arrive at 9:19 and you're at 150 comments already. How am I supposed to make sure my remarks haven't already been made?

[Snark Plissken]

I've done it!!!

once...

[Dead or In Jail]

Honestly, Krayewski needs to be the head guy in charge of alt-text. His fiefdom shall be an autocracy and no intruder should intrude upon or even covet his duties.

I mean, that shit was magnificent.

[wareagle]

did anyone bother to read this bill?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah. Turns out it's just $$$$$$ repeating until the printer ran out of ink.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I wonder if anyone ever sneaks in random comments into the middle of these massive bills?

Something like: Funds raise through I BANGED RAND PAULS MOM the office of....

[lap83]

Only you evil teabaggers would deny children and puppies that many dollar signs.

[CE]

That's only 631 million dollars per page. No wonder people call this a "do nothing" Congress!

[Corning]

Does Ed email you so you know when to reload the hit and run page?

[Lord Humungus]

How did toast become the latest artisanal food craze? Ask a trivial question, get a profound, heartbreaking answer.

The coffee shop, called the Red Door, was a spare little operation tucked into the corner of a chic industrial-style art gallery and event space (clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Evernote, Google) in downtown San Francisco. There were just three employees working behind the counter: one making coffee, one taking orders, and the soulful guy making toast. In front of him, laid out in a neat row, were a few long Pullman loaves?the boxy Wonder Bread shape, like a train car, but recognizably handmade and freshly baked. And on the brief menu, toast was a standalone item?at $3 per slice.

It took me just a few seconds to digest what this meant: that toast, like the cupcake and the dill pickle before it, had been elevated to the artisanal plane. So I ordered some. It was pretty good. It tasted just like toast, but better.

[SweatingGin]

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[Snark Plissken]

Pffft, I didn't want to live on this planet before it was cool.

[Doctor Whom]

I hated hipsters before hating hipsters was cool. Now that hating hipsters is mainstream, I only hate hipsters ironically.

[Steve G]

mind. blown.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

A hipster koan!

[Apple]

Steve Albini hated hipsters and loved toast before toast was invented.

http://mariobatalivoice.blogsp.....-plus.html

[Zeb]

I don't care at all if other people want to pay $4 for a piece of toast.

[Invisible Finger]

You know who willingly buys $4 toast without an expense account?

Democrats.

I wonder if room service sells artisanal toast for $8 a slice?

Remember: you can't spell artisanal without anal.

[Agammamon]

You know this is the same shit everybody said in the beginning about 4 dollar lattes - 'who the hell would pay that much', '50 cents at the diner', etc.

[Gene]

Fuck I'm still saying it, clearly I'm an idiot.

[Fluffy]

I can out-hipster the hipsters on this toast thing -

Because they don't understand that to be REALLY, REALLY cool and authentic, your toast must be as BAD as possible while still being edible.

Making toast taste better misses the point.

The entire reason toast exists (and the reason it's traditionally a breakfast item) is because bread used to go stale much more quickly, and you needed a way to make 1 or 2 day old bread edible so it wouldn't go to waste.

So you'd toast it.

Stale bread is easier to eat toasted.

So MY artisanal toast store would find the worst cast-off bread imaginable and then try to find a way to make it so you could eat it.

It would be just so much more GENUINE than all those other artisanal toast stores.

[a better weapon]

How interesting...in fact, how can I not fork over $4 for a slice?

I like to think I'm paying for the history and the company of your cleverness, not just the toast.

[Marshall Gill]

And just remember, people who pay $3 for toast could never afford to retire without Socialism Security.

[R C Dean]

And just remember, people who pay $3 for toast could never afford to retire without Socialism Security.

Given what it costs to put food on their family, how can they save for retirement?

[Numeromancer]

Given what it costs to put food on their family...

Does that cost more than just putting it on a plate?

[CE]

Probably less. No dishes to wash.

[Doctor Whom]

They need to develop an expensive process to make fresh bread taste stale. The goal is not authenticity, but "authenticity."

[some guy]

Make this taste good and I will call you the Volcano God.

[Azathoth!!]

Make this taste good and I will call you the Volcano God.

What? You don't like dwarf bread?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Tom Waits sitting in a Denny's...

[Ted S.]

Marinate it and stew it for 24 hours before toasting it?

[Elspeth Flashman]

That's why french toast recipes usually ask for slightly stale bread, since it holds the batter better.

[R C Dean]

try to find a way to make it so you could eat it.

I thought that's what dipping it in egg was for.

[Invisible Finger]

Isn't SF sourdough made using yesterday's unused dough continuously for over 100 years?

[defsoad]

soulful guy making toast

WTF?

[a better weapon]

Is he black? I'm betting he's black.

[Rich]

Just scrape it off with a knife. 😉

[Sudden]

Certainly not a ginger

[db]

When I visited Istanbul long ago, they had little carts and kiosks where you could buy toast for a snack. Pretty good, too.

[Timon 19]

All I ever remember seeing were simit carts...EVERYWHERE...interspersed with sahlep carts.

At least in the Sultanahmet.

[alittlesense]

Artisinal toast? San Francisco should be the gathering place for con artists from all over the world. Hipsters have now gone full circle to patsies and rubes.

[VG Zaytsev]

It sounded like the hipsters were the ones selling the $3 / slice toast.

[defsoad]

but each item has specific meaning to Carrelli. Toast, she says, represents comfort. Coffee represents speed and communication. And coconuts represent survival?because it's possible, Carrelli says, to survive on coconuts provided you also have a source of vitamin C. Hence the Yoko. (Carrelli tested this theory by living mainly on coconuts and grapefruit juice for three years, "unless someone took me out to dinner.")

You mean you can live off of one food as long as you consume other foods to get sufficient vitamins/minerals/calories the one food lacks? That's like, so groundbreaking, man. And she (kinda, not really) made this her lifestyle, what a pioneering little snowflake.

[Lord Humungus]

I don't get hipsters -

I mean I'm no fan of hippies - but I understand the original movement as a backlash against a conformist society (by making another alternative but still conformist society).

I get punk rock and the anger directed at "the system"

But "hipsters"? What's the point? It's navel-gazing to the extreme. Me Me Me Me Me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq4bQOX5WCU

[SugarFree]

Leisure bears strange fruit when grown in the soil of the over-educated.

[R C Dean]

Nicely put, my diabetic friend.

[lap83]

It's almost worse than being obsessed with yourself. It's being obsessed with your stuff to the point of moral superiority. That is the only explanation for why they can judge someone for their vinyl collection or lack thereof.

[Lord Humungus]

hey! I'm a record collector.

But a music lover first.

[lap83]

I collect records too. But I don't judge other people for their music taste. I don't even bring it up. The hipsters I've known will bring up the subject of music, JUST SO they can snort with derision at your taste or lord over you with their superior taste. And I know lots of obscure bands...but I don't consider it a reflection on who I am and the last thing I want to do is have it cause a rift in a conversation. So I just enjoy my music and leave the condescension to others. I hate hipsters.

[SugarFree]

It used to be religion and politics that were to be avoided in polite company, but people are far less tolerant of musical taste than either of those now.

People are far more likely to deflect with "Oh, I listen to a little bit of everything," than "I worship every god, just in case."

[Lord Humungus]

I admit I used to - as my sister-in-law said - sit in my trashcan and fling shit when it comes to music; listening to the most obscure stuff I could dredge up.

Now? Meh. I like a lot of shit - some mainstream and some obscure - but I certainly don't lord it over anyone else. I'll give _anything_ a chance now.

[Zeb]

So you're a recovering hipster?

[Lord Humungus]

A hipster teleported back in time to the 90s, living in a wasteland of Grunge. "C'mon, guys, let's listen to The Clean!"

[Zeb]

Heh.

I've been digging your blog, by the way. I recently got a decent cartridge for my turn table and quickly developed a renewed interest in analog audio. A good vinyl really does sound great, even if you can only afford to spend hundreds on your gear. Problem is, now I have urges to spend more on this stuff, but just can't afford to at the moment.

[Lord Humungus]

Thx - I'm in a holding pattern right now - gear wise. I'll be doing some tube reviews soon - once I actually get unlazified.

[Azathoth!!]

Hipsters are the result of cultural collision.

Nothing goes away anymore--everything new is quickly absorbed into a general cultural continuity.

Popular music, clothing, films, books and foods all span an ever lengthening corridor that extends deep into the past while consuming everything the present has to offer.

All that's left to distinguish oneself is an idiotic level of self referentialiosm--hence hipsters.

[Enough About Palin]

I'll be in downtown Ess Eff in April. I will have to check this out.

[Zeb]

It really puzzles me that people get so bent out of shape about things like this.

It's not a bad thing, it's a business opportunity. Imagine all the other silly things you could find a way to sell for way too much. Hipsters are a fucking gold mine if you can just get that fake authenticity thing convincingly right.

[CE]

Soulful, artisanal toast is the best thing since sliced bread.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The LAPD is testing body cameras for 90 days with 30 cops who volunteered to wear them.

As soon as they work the kinks of accidentally shutting them off, the project is a go.

[Tonio]

Even if they're rigged so that the cops can't shut them off, there is always a way to obscure the lens and mic. This is progress, however.

[UnCivilServant]

If the camera goes offline, the officer's testimony should be inadmissable, and the presumtion should be that the accusations made against them are true.

[John C. Randolph]

If I were on a jury, and the case against the defendant hinged on the word of the officer, and the video had somehow gone missing, I'd spring him.

-jcr

[some guy]

Maybe those 30 cops are the 1% who getting a bad name.

[Snark Plissken]

The DEA's chief of operations called state efforts to legalize marijuana "reckless and irresponsible."

Yes, this is an actual quote

"Every part of the world where this has been tried, it has failed time and time again."

[Snark Plissken]

"There are more dispensaries in Denver than there are Starbucks," he said. "The idea somehow people in our country have that this is somehow good for us as a nation is wrong. It's a bad thing."

Capra said that senior DEA officials have faced uncomfortable questions from law enforcement partners abroad. During a recent global summit on counter-narcotics in Moscow, he said, he and the head of the DEA were at a loss to explain the loosening drug laws.

"Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this [while] pointing a finger to us as a source state?" he said. "I don't have an answer for them."

Wah!!! They made us feel bad, stop the madness!!!

[tarran]

Oh the poor widdle crybully!

We should all chip in to buy him a juice-box!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"crybully"

That is so...fitting a term.

[Doctor Whom]

"Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this [while] pointing a finger to us as a source state?" he said. "I don't have an answer for them."

If only there were some sort of behavioral change that would remove this as an issue.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

he needs a ride in a "WAHHHHHmbulance"

[PD Scott]

"Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this [while] pointing a finger to us as a source state?"

Be American, Buy American!

[VG Zaytsev]

Why is the DEA sending thugs to conferences in Moscow?

[CE]

Advanced training?

[mad libertarian guy]

I think he means that in the face of states legalizing marijuana, the DEA will continue to act in a reckless and irresponsible manner.

[Capt. Rimmer]

"Every part of the world this has been tried, it has failed time and time again" said the DEA agent to his KGB buddy.

[R C Dean]

Where has it been tried? How has it "failed"?

I look at, what, the Netherlands? Portugal? What's the failure there, exactly?

[Gadianton]

People used drugs -- and we couldn't bust up their homes or shoot their dogs!

[CE]

Speaking of "tried and failed", how's that Drug War/Prohibition II going?

[Zeb]

On a somewhat related note, the NH house is working on a legalization bill that looks likely to pass the house. Unfortunately, our stupid cunt governor has promised to veto it. How do people still think that Democrats in general are any better on drug policy?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The DEA's chief of operations called state efforts to legalize marijuana "reckless and irresponsible."

And a job threatener?

[WTF]

And a job threatener?

DING! DING! DING! Winnah!

[Elspeth Flashman]

Yup. Where I live the last general election had a city-wide vote on decriminalization, which passed. The county prosecutor immediately went to circumvent the new municipal code.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...the Obamacare website is not protected from hackers.

Hackers being the one group guaranteed access.

[mad libertarian guy]

Computer security experts are warning the government that the Obamacare website is not protected from hackers.

Why would they want to do that?

[sarcasmic]

Model wife of the Miami Dolphins quarterback returns their rental car with an ASSAULT RIFLE on the back seat which was found by the next people to hire it out
Lauren Tannehill left an AR-15 in the back of a rented Nissan Rogue
She returned the SUV after only a few hours, but left the gun behind
It was discovered by a mother and daughter from upstate New York

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-seat.html

'Oh my God, it's a gun,' Ms Fleissig's daughter said. 'I said, 'I think I'm going to throw up,' she recalled.

This is what's wrong with America.

[Ed]

'We got out of the car, we were kind of freaked out,' she told the paper. 'I didn't want to touch it.'

[Rasilio]

Well in fairness I wouldn't want to touch a gun I found in a rental car either.

Not because I thought there was anything wrong with the gun but because I would assume that it was used in a gang hit and would not want my finger prints on the damn thing

[Tonio]

And not touching it is good policy for people with no gun experience, and certainly if you don't know whether the gun was used in a crime or not.

Brickbats to the person who left it; you're not doing yourself or anyone else any favors.

[SugarFree]

She doesn't look like one of America's brightest lights in the article pictures.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm not too concerned with her brights...

[SugarFree]

The Barbie look doesn't do much for me. Not in a world where Diana Morales exists.

[Auric Demonocles]

If I were to choose between the two I would go with yours, but I wouldn't be turning down either.

Well, unless there was a third, redheaded option.

[CE]

You're just jealous that you don't have so many assault rifles that you accidentally leave some lying around.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I'm surprised they didn't scream as if an unknown attacker just sprung from the trunk. I mean, guns have been known to attack at random.

By the way, why isn't the rental company going over the interior of the car before renting it out again?

[sarcasmic]

why isn't the rental company going over the interior of the car before renting it out again?

Good question. I hope someone lost their job over this.

[Invisible Finger]

The question makes the entire story sound bogus.

[db]

Animism is a dangerous delusion.

[Steve G]

"Throw up"? RUFWM? Clearly the brainwashing is complete with this one.

[Bardas Phocas]

And who among us wouldn't have screamed "Score!" at finding it?
I'd give it back, but only after fondling it a little.

[WTF]

Yeah, I'd give it back, reluctantly, like if I'd found a pile of cash.

[sarcasmic]

I'd give it back only because of the traceable serial number. Cash? No fucking way would I return it.

[Steve G]

Fuck that. Remove the lower (serial number), throw it in the river and save all the spending upper bits for a brand new lower...

[Steve G]

*spendy

[mad libertarian guy]

Don't forget about the trigger assembly. In a rifle like that, it's probably a really nice one.

[General Butt Naked]

People that forget rifles and piles of cash in public spaces shouldn't have them in the first place. Not that they should be banned from possessing them by the government, though. The age old societal norm of "losers weepers, finders keepers" is enough to discourage irresponsible behavior.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I would have yelled "Score!", then realized the logistics of an unconnected square like me trying to sell the thing on the black market would be too much to handle.

[General Butt Naked]

It's a rifle. In most states you can legally sell it to a guy from craigslist in a WalMart parking lot.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I don't think you can legally sell someone else's property to another person.

[UnCivilServant]

It's called salvage.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Somehow I don't think that applies to something that has a serial number and is registered to a particular user.

[General Butt Naked]

If he's from Fla, the gun might not be registered.

If I buy a rifle in PA, there's no registry that links that gun to me individually (supposedly).

[R C Dean]

I'm not sure I'd give it back, to tell you the truth. A totally untraceable gun, in my possession? Could come in handy.

First thing I'd do, of course, is disassemble and clean the whole damn thing. If I was really worried it had been used in a crime, I'd replace the barrel and the firing pin (as pin strike marks and rifling grooves are about the only way to tie it to a specific crime).

Then, I'd probably put it in "deep storage" for just-in-case.

Naaah. I'd probably tell the rental car company the previous driver had left something valuable that I felt like should be returned. Wouldn't say what, but let them know I was holding it for the previous driver to pick up directly from me.

[John]

I have a friend who spent several years working as a public defender in DC. One morning he goes to the lockup and one of his clients that day is a 69 year old woman who is a waitress at IHOP.

The poor woman had been given a ride home by a cook there. The cook had bought a car from his neighbor. Turns out his neighbor had stolen the car via a carjacking and left the weapon he used to do this in the trunk. My friend's client was arrested on her way home for felony possession of a weapon and stolen property, even though she wasn't even the driver.

The problem with keeping the gun, is what if it is a murder weapon? I really don't want to be unlucky and have the cops pull me over or be in my house for some reason and be found in possession of a weapon that had been used in a murder.

I would give the gun back. If you want an untraceable weapon, build one yourself.

[$park?]

Here, I don't want to type it again.

[sarcasmic]

Nothing good happens after midnight.

BTW the Ke$ha creature your woman has been in the news.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....rself.html

[SugarFree]

Ke$ha was voted "Most Likely The Drown In A Bidet" in high school.

[General Butt Naked]

Dang.

It's probably a $3000 Noveske, too. I'd of put a tiny ad in the paper, "Rifle found in rental car, call with details to claim." And after 30 days with nary an answer I'd have me a new rifle.

What kind of commie sees a gun and wants to throw up?

[Suthenboy]

I am wondering what would happen if the previous renter had left dope or the smell of dope instead and this twit had gotten pulled over by officer fuckstick.

I also wonder what her stance would be on leaving her and her children's safety in the hands of the cops if those copse hen took her to a hospital and had the staff spend 6 hours raping and torturing her.

Yes.Sarc, she and her ilk are what is wrong with this country.

[Steve G]

Yeah, because the loss of one set of rights isn't at all connected to the loss of another set of rights.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maybe she almost vomited because she knew that, as New Yorkers, they could be shot on sight by authorities for just looking at such a rifle.

[Snark Plissken]

This is what's wrong with America.

Hot ditzy blondes?

[Apatheist ?_??]

The real scandal here is was what a lazy ass job the rental care company did to get the car ready for the next customer.

[CE]

You don't travel much, do you?

[Apatheist ?_??]

I do and also don't expect much from rental companies but not noticing a big bag with a gun in the back seat is a pretty low bar to have failed.

[Lord Humungus]

Amazon.com workers reject unionization in Delaware vote

A group of equipment maintenance and repair technicians voted 21 to 6 not to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), in results published late on Wednesday.

The vote was a symbolic test of Amazon's employee relations policies, but did not affect the vast majority of the 1,500 or so packers and shippers who work at the Middletown, Delaware facility, one of more than 40 distribution centers in the United States.

It does mean however, that under U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules, there cannot be another vote on unionization at the facility for one year.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Isn't this surprising for Delaware?

[Matrix]

Just wait until some mysterious "unfortunate" events start happening to these Amazon.com techs. They'll start voting to join the union.

[Raston Bot]

6 people want to relocate out of Delaware to somewhere south.

[Invisible Finger]

Delaware is below the Mason-Dixon line.

[gimmeasammich]

We're in...Delaware."

[sarcasmic]

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Study reveals parents' poor eating habits are to blame for childhood obesity, NOT fast food
A study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that poor eating habits linked to obesity are learned in children's homes
Fast food does contribute to obesity as does diets low in vegetable and high in preservatives served at home and at schools
Some parents don't take the time to cook healthy meals for their children, and this leads to poor dietary decisions later in life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-food.html
You mean parents are responsible? But, but, but... Corporate greed! Profits! Rich people!

[WTF]

Food deserts?

[Dweebston]

Just desserts.

[wareagle]

clearly Big Food paid for this study. No other explanation possible.

[sarcasmic]

aye

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I got into a bit of an argument with a guy on Facebook a while back over *evil* McDonalds. His basic claim was that McDonalds took advantage of their workers with low wages and took advantage of their customers with shitty food.

Really, all I had to say was that everyone there was there by their own free will. Voluntary contracts. After me taking him to task over his immoral desires of how to force McDonalds to do this or that, he basically folded saying he was a socialist and he could tell from my Facebook that I was a libertarian so we would never agree.

I told him, true, I believe in the rights of the individual over all else. His last reply was him pleading "Well I do too!!!" I laughed a bit and just let him have that. Somehow socialism, to him, isn't the anti-thesis of individual rights. These people believe their fantasies.

[General Butt Naked]

I got into a bit of an argument with a guy on Facebook ...

Well, there's your first mistake.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Yeah, I, 99% of the time, don't bother but I had to reply to his ignorant comment. His comment was a reply to a girl who posted a McDonalds story about eating healthy and skipping McDonalds more often, nothing political.

I could not ideally stand by any longer. Libertarian to action!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Never forget your cape.

[R C Dean]

Never forget your cape monocle.

Geez, Rufus. Tow the lion, already.

[Clich? Bandit]

NO CAPES!

TURBO MAN, SUCKED INTO AND ENGINE!

NO CAPES!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah, it drives me nuts listening to socialists talk drivel about the 'collective' only to have them then claim - in a contorted and hideous 180 degree turn - they're for "individual rights.' Make me want to punch them.

[sarcasmic]

They approve of the right of the individual to support the collective.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

File this under 'No fucking kidding.'

It's hard to get kids to eat healthy food. I get that. But I make damn sure my daughter is exposed to healthy and home made food just like I had.

I know that when she goes to people's homes who have good diets she won't be clueless and turn away food. She has a good pallet and I intend to keep it that way.

Broccoli rabe (rapini) with garlic is one of her favorite vegetables.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When a child is exposed to something (and this is the theory in daycare) they'll explore.

'What's that?' 'It's brussels sprouts. Wanna try?' "Ok.'

You won right there.

[Agammamon]

Only if you consider the look of abject betrayal you'll get after they bite into it 'victory' you monster.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

That is how my parents raised me and is how I intend to raise my children once I find that magical libertarian woman out there... On second thought, I may have to lower my standards if I want to have kids someday I guess.

[The Last American Hero]

Somehow I don't think you'll be the one lowering standards. Just sayin'.

[Sudden]

and is how I intend to raise my children once I find that magical libertarian woman out there

So you intend to die childless?

[Steve G]

It's hard to get kids to eat healthy food

Hunger is a powerful motivator...

[sarcasmic]

Yep.

"Eat what's on the plate or have nothing" works with my kid.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Same here. But she'll put up a fight. Until she realizes she ain't getting her desert if she doesn't eat.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Guess I am lucky - my kids aren't picky at all. If it doesn't run away or salute, they will eat it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My daughter isn't all that picky. Just hesitant; so I nudge her. She follows.

[R C Dean]

she ain't getting her desert if she doesn't eat.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

And nobody's picky after they've missed two meals.

[mad libertarian guy]

"Eat what's on the plate or have nothing" works with my kid.

It doesn't with mine.

And lord knows I've tried that route.

[a better weapon]

All I get from this is a call to arms for school administrators to be more "involved" with the home lives of children.

[Steve G]

I love it when we need "studies" to confirm common sense.

This also explains how "genetics" does not predispose people to be fat. It just explains why everyone under a single roof will often get fat from the same diet.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

A McDonald's In Queens Is At War With A Group Of Elderly Men Who Refuse To Leave
A McDonald's in Queens is warring with a group of Korean senior citizens who hang out and gossip in the restaurant all day long, The New York Times reports.

The group usually arrives at the restaurant before 5 a.m. and sticks around until after dark. Store management complains that they are taking tables from paying customers without even ordering so much as a Big Mac.

[Matrix]

I love how they say they are "entitled" to be there. No... you aren't. It's private property, dipshit.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

But it serves to the public so SPECIAL RULEZZZ!!!!

[Sudden]

And since they're Korean, its RACISM!!1!!

[Dweebston]

PUBLIC ACCOMODATION!!

[a better weapon]

I know I shouldn't expect too much from a McDonald's manager, but good lord, have a little bit of imagination, would you?

Give them place mats with their names written in red. Number every table "4." Make sure to leave numerous electric fans on all night so that when they arrive at 5am it freak them out.

[Steve G]

+1 cultural awareness

[Tonio]

I'm guessing these are all held to be bad luck in popular Korean superstition?

[a better weapon]

Just from a quick Google search, yes.

I'm only familiar with Chinese history and customs, but I'd guess that immigrants of that age and from Korea are probably just as skittish about their own superstitions.

[KDN]

I got the first two, but what's with the fans?

[a better weapon]

Something about a fan running all night invites death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

It's one of the most bizarre cultural superstitions I've heard of, and that's saying a lot since my wife's family is from the Philippines!

[mad libertarian guy]

My wife's Greek father had a superstition where he wouldn't allow her to keep flowers in the house because "they steal your air."

Really.

[Sudden]

I'm guessing you tried to explain the process of plant breathing and the differences between O2 and CO2 and then just shook your head and gave up after five minutes.

[mad libertarian guy]

I'm guessing you tried to explain the process of plant breathing and the differences between O2 and CO2 and then just shook your head and gave up after five minutes.

No. I had already learned that he was a crazy fuck and just shook my head then and there.

[KMA Too]

Laughing my ass off, MLG.

Not doubting you; it's just the concept of flowers in the house, followed by the quote, "they steal your air".

[Clich? Bandit]

Russian make up superstitions on the spot.

My favorite is no empty bottles on tables...always the floor.

My least favorite is make wish when sitting between two people of the same name.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

If I went into a McDonalds and saw a lot of fans going, I would assume they were drying some area where an unspeakable act had occurred...

[sarcasmic]

Man left in agony with permanent erection and an organ HALF its original size after operation to cure impotency was bungled
Dan Metzgar, 45, from Maryland had a permanent erection for eight months
Left in agony and humiliated after penile pump surgery went wrong
Suffered from erectile dysfunction - a problem for 2.3 million British men
WARNING: Graphic content

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....ngled.html
I didn't scroll down. I figure it's best unseen by my eyes.

[Ted S.]

You posted this as a public service for Nikki?

(This is why there are no female libertarians, yadda yadda yadda....)

[General Butt Naked]

There's nothing graphic other than a anatomical drawing of the device. It looks like a futuristic, medieval* torture device. Jesus, dude learn cunnilingus or something.

*I know, it's an anachronism, but it's the only way to describe this horrible thing.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Federal Court: No, Obamacare Doesn't Forbid Subsidies to Those Who Buy Insurance on the Federal Exchanges
... Nevertheless, a district court decided that "duly-enacted law" is a pretty flexible thing and that it's all close enough for government work.

I hope this will be reviewed by the Supreme Court, eventually. It requires, IIRC, four votes for the court to grant certiorari (discretionary review, granted at the whim of the court). One might imagine we'll have four votes for that, as four men voted to strike down Obamacare.

However, we could lose some of those votes: Kennedy could, hypothetically, have felt that the first Obamacare challenge was strong enough to merit striking the law, but might feel this latest challenge is too weak for that, and pass on granting cert. And all it takes for this ruling to stand is the appeals court and then the Supreme Court to simply decline to review it.

[Jordan]

I wonder if the courts would shrug it off if I said "close enough" when underpaying my taxes.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The phrase "no taxation without representation" is really beginning to apply here. Just sayin'.

[PD Scott]

Do you want your Congresscritter to cry? He or she is your representative and your taxation is blessed by their consent, whether grudging or enthusiastic.

[UnCivilServant]

Old Taxin' Tonko refuses to even acknowledge what I'm trying to tell him or hire someone to pretend to care what the residents say to his office, he definately does not represent my district.

[sarcasmic]

Scientists finally solve the mystery of what is REALLY happening in the hit 'leaping chain' YouTube video
BBC Presenter who posted the video had been unable to explain it
Experts wrote a paper explaining the phenomenon for the first time
Problem now being used as a teaching tool to train young Physics students

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....video.html
Cool.

[Matrix]

Marijuana should remain illegal, 'cause Lady Gaga.

[SugarFree]

"Lying Idiot uses Lying Idiot as Proof for Idiot Assertion"

[Fist of Etiquette]

2013 was a hotter and wetter than average year in the U.S. ...

You know what else was hotter and wetter?

[Brian D]

Christie Brinkley?

[SugarFree]

Those girls with water pistols after Tulpa said it was OK for a cop to shoot them?

[WTF]

Wouldn't they be colder after a cop shot them?

[SugarFree]

"Hotter" in that Tulpa likes them non-breathing.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Obviously Kate Upton

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Seconded, enthusiastically so.

[Elspeth Flashman]

The inside of Warty's cave?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

MILLER: Movie mogul says new Streep film to make NRA 'wish they weren't alive'
...The movie mogul said his vision was to scare people away from firearms. He foresees moviegoers to leave thinking, "Gun stocks ? I don't want to be involved in that stuff. It's going to be like crash and burn."

The chairman of the Weinstein Co. (formerly Miramax) is one of President Obama's biggest fundraisers. He brought in more than $500,000 from his Hollywood friends for the president's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2012.

The 5 million members of the NRA are law-abiding Americans who are active in preserving the right to protect themselves and their families.

Mr. Weinstein thinks guns are necessary for self-defense, but only in other countries, during genocides and if the weapon is not personally owned. ...

[John]

I wish them luck. There was a load of movies made in the 00s that was supposed to turn America against Iraq. Every one of them flopped. Propaganda just doesn't make for good entertainment.

[Ted S.]

49th Parallel

[John]

SFed the link.

[Ted S.]

49th Parallel

[John]

Interesting. In fairness Casablanca is propaganda and it is awfully good. So I guess lefty propaganda is awful.

[The Last American Hero]

Except when it comes to shutting down the nuclear power industry.

[VG Zaytsev]

The NRA should reciprocate and come out for IP reform. Specifically eliminating statutory damages for illegal downloads and limiting copyright protection for motion pictures.

[tarran]

OMFG! I hope they do make the movie. I hope they spend millions!

[Agammamon]

*hundreds* of millions.

[Fluffy]

This shit is just comical.

I can spare you guys a lot of effort:

There is no new information you can bring to the table that will make me change my opinion on guns.

I already have all the facts. I probably have more facts than you do. The idea that you can somehow "educate me through art" to change my opinion is frankly offensive and insulting.

[John]

And at least a decent majority of people are against gun control and own guns themselves. Nothing says good business practice like telling over half of your potential customer base to fuck off.

[robc]

Even if I was ignorant of the facts, there arent any that could change me, because my position is based on logic and morality.

If he wants to try to dissuade me arguing from MY first principles, go right ahead, but he has to agree to accept whatever that leads to, in other matters.

[John]

And even if you don't have any "first principles", good luck convincing people they should give up something they enjoy or feel like they need because other people don't use such things responsibly.

I should give up my gun because some nut uses theirs to kill people? That won't convince many people I don't think.

[Ted S.]

They need to give up government power because some (well, most) people use it irresponsibly.

[John]

Or better yet

"There are people out there who use guns to commit crimes and do harm, therefore we need to take yours leaving you defenseless against them."

[Invisible Finger]

It doesn't HAVE to convince many people. It only has to convince a simple majority of legislators.

Prohibition of alcohol didn't work, prohibition of pot didn't work, prohibition of guns istn't going to work.

[Raston Bot]

I look forward to LMAO.

[Jordan]

during genocides

We should also make it illegal to purchase a fire extinguisher until your house is already on fire.

[UnCivilServant]

And verified by the fire inspector, who has a five week backlog.

[Sudden]

Resulting from his SEIU mandated paid two month vacation.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Oh please. As if the "target audience" will attend the movie! Or that they would listen to the message, if it was preached to them by friends who did attend. This is so presumptuous, smacks of paternalism, and makes me ill.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I bet it will have the opposite effect.

[Rich]

Fuck you.

/Michael Moore

[BardMetal]

Oh please let the film be on Rifftrax. It really deserves the MST3K treatment.

[lap83]

Seconded.

[SugarFree]

The article does have these gem of a comment:

Rick Hantz ? 13 hours ago ?
I saw a movie once where only the military and the police had guns, it was called Schindler's List

[WTF]

That is a winning comment, which will be totally lost on the majority of the audience.

[Kaptious Kristen]

We could meme the hell out of that comment, too.

"I saw a movie once where only the military and police had guns. It was called Triumph of the Will"

[Juice]

See also: Hunger Games.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Why am I not surprised that slimy piece of monkey spunk Harvey Weinstein is involved in this?

[lap83]

If that movie premiere isn't an invitation for a mass shooting I don't know what is. It's not like anyone in the audience will be capable of self-defense.

[Winded]

My guess is the very same weekend this opens (except in about 2000 more theaters) there will be another Hollywood production showing what cool killing tools guns can be. Do they seriously believe that if they just get the right narrative out there people will change their view? Hollywood loves to think of itself as influential, but my observation is the opposite, except maybe on cultural stuff like fashion or music. On issues? Not so much.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel
An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world's most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official. ...

[WTF]

Look for El Chapo's severed head to be glued onto an exploding tortoise.

[Raston Bot]

Makes sense why the DEA would be against legalization. If you're working with and profiting from the country's biggest supplier, then you need the black market dynamics to keep your cash flowing.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Probably is a fake scandal from 2009 on...

/Shreek

[Suthenboy]

Hmmm.

As I recall, one fake scandal related to the fake Fast and Furious scandal involved the govt facilitating the arming of gangs in the Chicago area. I wonder....

And people look at me funny when I say this government amounts to a criminal conspiracy.

[VG Zaytsev]

Huh, I wander if there's a tie in to fast and furious

[John]

Remember when even the allegation that the CIA worked with drug smugglers was a big deal? Now the DEA admits to helping cartels smuggle drugs and no one cares. It is a "fake scandal".

And no matter how pro US you are, can you blame the Mexicans for hating our guts right now? This and fast and furious really amount to acts of war.

[Agammamon]

The best part - they probably had a similar arrangement with the other cartels.

Win-win for everyone.

Well except for those Mexicans lying in mass graves.

[Lord Humungus]

Socialising in pubs 'boosts mens' mental health'

The study revealed that men drinking with friends in the pub reported positive effects on their mental wellbeing, allowing them to open up and talk about their emotions ? traditionally a masculine ?taboo in Scotland.

Sharing a round of drinks also helped them look out for each other and lift their spirits, according to research in the West of Scotland.

The negative - you have to hang out with Scots.

[Snark Plissken]

Sharing a round of drinks also helped them look out for each other

And if you've seen Scottish women you'll know how important that is.

[WTF]

And if you've seen Scottish women you'll know how important that is.
Right.

[Snark Plissken]

Big difference between hyphenated Scots and the ones that stayed behind.

[Rich]

"Tossing the caber", WTF?

[Mainer2]

IMHO Scottish women are the sexiest Europeans. Trim, toned, healthy.

Also, my wife and I were once having drinks in a hotel bar in Edinburgh. A Scot, with whom we'd no interaction, upon leaving the bar, paid for our drinks. An unprovoked act of generosity from a Scot....

[WTF]

Big difference between hyphenated Scots and the ones that stayed behind.
An unprovoked act of generosity from a Scot....

Obviously no true Scotsmen...

[Snark Plissken]

Nice one.

[John]

I think it is Austrian women. I went to Europe expecting it to be the Czechs. And the Czechs are amazing. But the women in Vienna are better. They women there are generally tall, almost never fat, athletic, but built unbelievably well with T&A. Add that to beautiful blue eyes and either blond or nice dark hair, and it is quite a combination.

The Czechs have that exotic eastern European thing going, which is great. The Austrians are just classically beautiful.

[Snark Plissken]

There was a pretty decent amount of Czechs migrating to Vienna during the HRE as evidenced by the number of Austrians with Czech names (I suppose Hungarians also). But, IMHO Austrian women are not even close.

[John]

No accounting for taste. And admittedly I have only spent a few days in Vienna and a couple of weekends in Salzburg. But I found the women to be amazing.

But I love German women. I thought the women in Germany were great. They can be a bit uptight like all Germans. But they do look good.

[lap83]

Yeah, but you have to compete with this. (for the ladies)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....Kodjoe.jpg

[Snark Plissken]

IMHO Scottish women are the sexiest Europeans. Trim, toned, healthy.

Those were Polish migrant workers.

[Sudden]

In the western parts of Scotland (county Argyle, Inverary, and Islay) I encountered some of the friendliest people I've ever met.

[sarcasmic]

Jackie Kennedy 'had an affair with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and so did Bobby Kennedy', new book based on interviews with Jackie's 'closest confidantes' reveals
The Pink Triangle penned by Hollywood biographer Darwin Porter and independent publisher Danforth Prince comes out next month
It reports alleged conversations with Gore Vidal and Truman Capote about the extra-marital affairs of Jackie Kennedy
Porter claims Capote told him about Jackie's affair with Rudolf Nureyev while Vidal revealed her affair with another dancer
A separate 'rumor' exists claiming Bobby Kennedy was caught in a passionate embrace with Nureyev
Paris gossip magazine Paris Match allegedly claimed Nureyev once drunkenly boasted of an affair with Jackie Kennedy
In an interview he also boasted that everyone thought he was the sexiest man alive including the Kennedys
Capote also believed Bobby Kennedy was a closeted homosexual, according to the book

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....nnedy.html
Why am I not surprised?

[Ted S.]

Who gives a shit about the Kennedys?

[John]

Some care for the same reason people care about the Kardashians. They are interesting in a train wreck kind of way.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Bobby Kennedy had an affair with Nureyev? that's how I read it.

[John]

Yup. Rudy claimed to be the sexiest man alive and that he could seduce anyone. Apparently, Jackie stopped seeing him when he started putting the moves on a teenage JFK Jr.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Ok then.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Damned if Jackie didn't fit right in with the whole soap opera that was the Kennedy clan.

I once owned a bunch of old hardcover Collier's yearbooks from the 1960s-early 70s (still regret getting rid of them in high school, considering everything that happened in that time period), and one of them talked about all the drama that ensued when Jackie hooked up with Aristotle Onassis.

[John]

And they totally cover up her running around with Onassis while she was first lady. People at the time knew that. I can remember my father bitterly talking about what a slut she was and how she embarrassed the country by taking cruises and running around with Onassis. It was very controversial and known the public at the time.

But the media immediately threw it down the memory hole. For a long time I thought my dad wasn't remembering correctly because I never saw any reference to it in print. But sure enough, he wasn't.

[Jordan]

That's actually what they meant.

[The Late P Brooks]

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a 1,582-page, trillion dollar spending bill.

Next stop, AUSTERIAN DYSTOPIA

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Emails Show Extensive Collaboration Between EPA, Environmentalist Orgs
Internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emails show extensive collaboration between top agency officials and leading environmentalist groups, including overt efforts to coordinate messaging and pressure the fossil fuel industry.

The emails, obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (EELI) through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, could fuel an ongoing controversy over EPA policies that critics say are biased against traditional sources of energy.

Emails show EPA used official events to help environmentalist groups gather signatures for petitions on agency rulemaking, incorporated advance copies of letters drafted by those groups into official statements, and worked with environmentalists to publicly pressure executives of at least one energy company.

Nancy Grantham, director of public affairs for EPA Region 1, which covers New England, asked an organizer for the Sierra Club's New Hampshire chapter to share the group's agenda so EPA could adjust its messaging accordingly in an email dated March 12, 2012....

[WTF]

Shocked, I am.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I wouldn't be surprised if this happens all the time to the nuclear industry. And people in my industry don't see what's wrong with trying to do anything but reduce the power these POS politicians have over the industry.

[Juice]

Kochtopus

[Emmerson Biggins]

Next you'll tell me that the dept of education is just a giant vote buying boondoggle designed to keep teachers unions enthralled.

[Fist of Etiquette]

90 percent of Egyptians voted to approve the new constitution, in an election boycotted by the banned-again Muslim Brotherhood.

Who will oppress the oppressors? The Brotherhood found that out. Turns out it's the next oppressors.

[Lord Humungus]

Some Nigel Farage:

Big Banks, Big Business and Big Bureaucrats Run the EU

[Rich]

Farge/Hannan 2016

[Rich]

*Farage*/Coffee

[Jordan]

Nigel Farage is probably the most entertaining politician on the planet. I really admire his ability to eloquently berate an entire room full of hostile Eurocrats to their faces.

Steve Baker is great too. Basically a British Rand Paul, but less conservative and more libertarian. More eloquent too. I have no idea how he ever got elected in Airstrip One.

[Lord Humungus]

I wish I had half the verbal skill that he has... to speak without umming and without teleprompter.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Ditto. This is my biggest issue when debating face to face.

[Rich]

I would pay a lot to see Nigel debate Obama.

[Matrix]

That's racist.

[Rich]

Very well.

I'd watch it for *nothing*.

[General Butt Naked]

It still amazes me to this day that Obama is thought of as one our time's great orators. You watch a guy like Farage just riffing and it blows that noodly schmuck out of the water. Imagine a serious debate.

[sarcasmic]

'I care deeply for all animals on this planet': Hunter who paid $350,000 in an auction to kill an endangered black rhino defends himself amid public outcry
Dallas Safari Club has sold a permit to kill old endangered black rhino
Fellow hunter named Corey Knowlton as the winner who paid $350,000
Five such Namibian licenses are given out each year in an effort to have targeted killings of older, more aggressive rhinos
Club argues 'culling the herd' is acceptable habitat management practice
An estimated 4,000 black rhinos remain in the wild, down from 70,000 in the 1960s and nearly 1,800 are in Namibia

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ATION.html
I care so much I just gotta KILL them! Fuck yeah!

I've never understood trophy hunters.

[db]

I don't really get trophy hunting either, but culling is important. On whether culling a species of such low numbers.is.a good idea, I have little expertise.

[Floridian]

The real benefit is local tribes have an interest in protecting the heard if they can bring in lots of money selling a few permits. Others wise they have no stake in keeping the rest alive. As for the act of trophy hunting, it is not for me.

[Floridian]

Herd not heard

[Rasilio]

This.

If that $350k actually goes to the local tribes then they have a massive economic incentive to see to it that they have a thriving herd.

The only real question is with the endemic corruption in Africa how can you be assured that the fee paid for the license is actually used in a way that will foster conservation.

[mad libertarian guy]

On whether culling a species of such low numbers.is.a good idea, I have little expertise.

Culling undesirable animals is even more important in small populations.

[Drake]

I don't really either. But I do understand the locals killing rhinos for for food and to keep them out of their crops if they have no economic value. Kind of like deer around here.

[a better weapon]

I get it. If I was insanely rich, I'd probably get into it.

[mad libertarian guy]

I've never understood trophy hunters.

That doesn't change the fact that hunting is conservation, and that the vast majority of conservation efforts worldwide are funded by hunters.

It's very simple. Hunters want to hunt game. They cannot hunt said game if the species is extinct.

[R C Dean]

There's a couple of angles on trophy hunting:

One is that it is basically a dick-measuring contest, with the trophies being a way to show you are the better hunter.

The other is that the trophies are the hardest to hunt, hence the most challenging, and these are hunters looking for the biggest challenge.

For most, its probably a mix of the two.

[mad libertarian guy]

There is also a link between trophy hunting and good game management.

Animals that are considered trophies are generally also the ones that game managers feel are the best animals to get out of the herd: mature males.

Killing mature males assures that there will be a continuing stream of mature males. If you kill the small ones, there will be no big ones in the future.

But yes, there is certainly a dick measuring component, though I would argue that most trophy hunters are in it for the challenge. By the time an animal gets to trophy size, he's a master at avoiding predation (though things like rhinos don't really ever worry about predation).

[John]

If the animal is scarce that is a good thing. But if the animal is a pest like deer, just whacking the big, mature males doesn't reduce the population. You have to whack the females if you want to reduce the population.

But yeah, I wish more people could own big game as property and make money selling the rights to hunt. It would ensure these animals never faced extinction.

[mad libertarian guy]

You have to whack the females if you want to reduce the population.

In places where hunting does on public land is legal, the ratio is about 1:1 doe to buck kills. Then there are places like WY where you can't kill a doe on public land.

[sarcasmic]

It's very simple. Hunters want to hunt game. They cannot hunt said game if the species is extinct.

I understand that. I just don't understand killing something for its head. I get killing pests and vermin, or killing for food, but not killing just to kill.

[mad libertarian guy]

For me the head is simply a representation of the adventure. It's a reminder of all of the work I put in to a hunt. The moments I shared with my hunting partner.

For many it's just about the head on a wall, but that is a very simplistic way of looking at the sport as a whole.

Hunting a rhino is more than just about getting that head. It's a safari in an exotic land which provides an experience in nature that can only be had hunting.

[John]

I could see all of that being incredible MLG. I just wouldn't have the heart to shoot the thing when it came time.

People always make fun of hunting as "armed hiking" and often it kind of is. But armed hiking is pretty cool sometime.

I have often thought of saving my shekels and going up to the NW territories and taking down a musk ox or caribou or something that is plentiful and tastes good. It would be a great adventure to really get out there.

[mad libertarian guy]

People always make fun of hunting as "armed hiking" and often it kind of is. But armed hiking is pretty cool sometime.

Only by people who have never been hunting.

I've done my share of both, and hunting is NOTHING like armed hiking.

[R C Dean]

Trust me, in Africa, not a scrap of a trophy animal goes to waste.

Most hunters in the US are good (to fanatical) about making sure the meat gets used. Tons of game meat is donated every year to charities, as a matter of fact.

Wastage isn't really a good objection to any kind of hunting, trophy or not.

[db]

Hot and wet, indeed.

[sarcasmic]

Why comedians ARE a little bit mad: Funnymen's personalities are similar to those with mental health conditions
Ability to make people laugh comes from a personality displayed by those with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
Historically, painters and playwrights has been linked to madness
Now British experts have found a link with comedians
High levels of psychotic personality traits are behind the 'sad clown' fa?ade of comedians like Robin Williams

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....tions.html
Everyone knows that comedians are a bit psycho. Like this is news.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Mad like hockey goalies.

[Rasilio]

So you're saying we have the choice to get our news from Psychotics (Daily Show, Colbert) or Sociopaths (CNN, Fox, and especially MSNBC)?

[$park?]

Here, I don't want to type it again.

[Steve G]

Yes, because CTRL+C/CTRL+V is much harder than hyperlinking

[Fist of Etiquette]

The French ambassador to the UN explained his country had underestimated the level of hatred between Muslims and Christians before intervening in the Central African Republic.

The French don't understand contempt driven by anything but its own sake.

[Drake]

He should take a stroll through the slums of Paris.

[Lord Humungus]

St. Tammany Parish man calls 911 because he 'needed a woman'

The responding deputy discovered that Collins was a non-compliant convicted sex offender, meaning he didn't notify authorities when he moved from New Orleans to Slidell.

While police didn't bring him a woman he said he needed, they did bring him to the parish jail, where he was arrested on charges of failure to register for a change of address.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

About the weather, all I know is one week it's arctic the next is it feels like spring. Can someone page Al Gore and have him explain this to me?

[Juice]

It's the jet stream. It divides the warm pleasant southern air from the frigid death of arctic air. When it wiggles around you get freaky weather.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oscar nominations were announced this morning.

Don't care unless White House Down was nominated. Or that other one. Doesn't matter which.

[CE]

No nominations for Johnny Depp or William Fichtner for their work in The Lone Ranger?

[sarcasmic]

Fan of 'black metal' band stabs their lead singer to death for 'not being Satanic enough'
Surrender of Divinity guitarist Samong Traisattha was 'knifed 30 times'
Found by his wife in pool of blood after she had put their child to bed
Image of 'murder scene' posted on Facebook by the suspect, say police
User writes: 'I want to drag down those who tarnish Satanism with me'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....nough.html
This is what happens to posers!

[SugarFree]

Apostates are more dangerous than infidels.

[John]

Yes. And converts more dangerous than natives.

[BardMetal]

So how does he feel about metal bands that aren't satanic at all?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

He will kill them next.

[mad libertarian guy]

This is eerily reminiscent of what was happening in Norway in the early 90s.

[Lord Humungus]

duh...

Research Claims Your Cat Thinks You're Just Another (Big!) Cat

So the revelations from a new book on cats don't really surprise me, although they are interesting. According to Dr. John Bradshaw, who's studied felines for over 30 years and wrote the tome Cat Sense, cats were never bred for companionship. In fact, they tend to think of humans as big, lazy, overgrown fellow cats, which might explain some of that cool, disinterested behavior towards us.

An article from CBS Connecticut about Bradshaw's books explains further, stating that "cats treat humans as though they were the mama cat?when a cat rubs against you with its tail straight in the air, it is checking to make sure you are not hostile" and that "if a cat "kneads" you, that's how it used to get milk from its mother."

[John]

I want to read that book. The NYT review was pretty interesting. One of the more interesting points the guy makes is that because of neutering something like 85% of female cats who breed end up breeding with the wildest feral tomcats. So, the gene pool always stays wild.

My old cat was wonderfully different than most cats and damn near domesticated. My current cat is very much like the way the book describes. We are just big, puzzling, nonathletic but friendly cats to her.

[BardMetal]

Just get a dog.

[R C Dean]

I've never been able to figure out if my dogs think I'm just a big, bald dog, or if they are short, furry people.

[John]

They think you are a really curious and stupid dog. We do things like watch TV, even though the TV doesn't move or emit any kind of interesting smells, that are totally puzzling to dogs.

They don't think they are people. They think we are dominant yet slightly defective members of the pack.

[sarcasmic]

Nasa reveal plans for the biggest rocket ever made to take man to Mars - dwarfing the shuttle and the Saturn rockets that took us to the moon
Construction of the SLS system has already begun
Rocket will be 384 feet tall and weigh 6.5 million pounds
First test flight scheduled for 2017
Will be able to carry 130 tonnes into space
Expected to be used to launch far larger interplanetary probes
Could be used as part of Manned Mars missions

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....eyond.html
That's a big fucking rocket.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I don't think I'll be impressed until we (somebody) develop a better method of propulsion through space. Combustion is an awful method and takes far too long to travel any distance.

I'm waiting for the day that we discover how to manipulate gravity. That would be cool. But I may be waiting a long time.

[WTF]

Warp Drive more possible than previously thought, scientists say.

[BardMetal]

As cool as it would be to send a man to Mars wouldn't it be smarter to just focus on the Moon?

The moon is only 4 days away we could actually keep a a lunar base manned like we do now with the space station.

A trip to Mars takes about 8 months to get there, and will probably end with us planting a flag and never returning for another 40 years.

[Auric Demonocles]

Compared to Mars the Moon has lower surface gravity, essentially no atmosphere, and an unusably long day. A base on Mars would actually make more sense as it would be easier to mimic earthly conditions.

[Agammamon]

In what sense of 'sense'?

There is, at least right now, absolutely nothing to do on Mars (or the moon) that requires direct human interaction.

We're talking a *hhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggeeeeeeeee* (astronomical!) pricetag to have a handful of people shovel dirt into an automated analyzer - something the robots have been able to do on their own.

[Auric Demonocles]

In the sense that you're comparing it a base on the Moon.

[Agammamon]

Yeah, its not like either one is anything more than an entry in a dick-measuring contest anyway.

[Pro Libertate]

Big rockets are very expensive. There are cheaper ways to crack that nut, but NASA has Saturn Vs on the brain, I fear.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I have more faith in a private sector initiative than NASA. But the presupposes that their is some reason to go to Mars at this point, with this technology. I think it would be really cool to do, but not through NASA.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm growing increasingly certain that the next manned mission to anywhere other than LEO will be on a private rocket. It may be that NASA foots the bill for the trip, but I think the day of NASA running the industry is already past.

[John]

I think you are right and I think that is a good thing. Until space travel becomes a going and profitable concern, it will never be common.

[Pro Libertate]

Of course. NASA had fifty years to do it the hard way, the Soviet way. Now it's time for the engine of almost all American success to take over--the freeish market.

[John]

People understandably get tired of paying for national vanity projects. And beyond that, if you want to travel and live somewhere, be it the forest, the ocean or space, you have to figure out a way to make a living or it won't happen.

[Auric Demonocles]

If you manage to mine one asteroid you've already got so much material it's crazy. Though if you can move asteroids there are some other obvious revenue streams (not all of which are reputable).

[Pro Libertate]

You mean blackmail?

[Auric Demonocles]

Blackmail's such an ugly word. I prefer extortion. The X makes it sound cool.

[Pro Libertate]

Xtortion Corporation. Officially, the "X" is for "eXploration" and the "tortion" is for "twisting" (from the Latin, torqure - to twist), which shows our twisted yet unique way of approaching space exploration.

[Auric Demonocles]

Has anyone really investigated what the X in SpaceX is for?

[Pro Libertate]

Also for eXploration (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation). Or so they claim.

[Agammamon]

Sell Strategic Defense Insurance!

[Pro Libertate]

What's crazy about NASA and shows how incomprehensible the market and, frankly, reality is to government is that it should've had one primary goal that 90% of its budget should've been dedicated to: Cheap access to orbit.

Since that's nearly impossible to totally impossible for the government, that's now the grail for the new space companies. Look at all of the things SpaceX is doing to try and reduce launch costs. And it and others will go even farther with more robust competition.

Once we have cheap access to orbit, then we'll see some serious activity in space. Not before then.

[DontShootMe]

again, why is the interesting news only in British papers? CNN's current breaking news is about the Oscars. It's stupids, all the way down.

[Rich]

Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, said while the economic "crisis still lingers," "optimism is in the air."

This is why economists pull down the big bucks.

[a better weapon]

So economists are just basically PR reps now?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"now"?

[Lord Humungus]

Dana Milbank: Obama is off-message on the unemployed

On the House floor, 25 Democrats interrupted debate on a spending bill, coming forward one at a time to ask Republican leaders to take up an extension of unemployment benefits, which lapsed last month. The previous day, Senate Democrats had been doing their part to keep the issue prominent, provoking Republicans to block the legislation with a filibuster.

This is exactly the sort of time when presidential leadership is most effective, when consistent use of the president's megaphone can focus national outrage and force holdouts to relent. But at the moment House Democrats were having their rebellion, Obama was giving a speech in Raleigh, N.C. ? about wide bandgap semiconductors.

[Ted S.]

As if keeping them addicted to government benefits is even good public policy.

[John]

They set people up for depenendence and failure. The problem with unemployment benefits is that they are based on your last salary. So, lets say you lose a good job that pays $20 an hour. You go on unemployment. Along comes someone and offers you a new job at $12. If you take the job and it doesn't work out or you lose it before you find another $20 job, you are stuck back unemployed only this time getting less money. For this reason a lot of unemployed rationally turn down job offers until they get a job close to what they had before. Unfortunately, this has the effect of making them "long term unemployed" and unattractive to employers.

Also, there is a tremendous amount of under the table work being done by the "unemployed". A government program produces a black market in something? Who could have seen that coming?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't know if I can take two more years of article pointing to Obama's illiteracy on financial and economic matters.

[mad libertarian guy]

Actually, it's still over 3 years until the new guy, who will be equally uneducated on matters economic, takes over.

[waffles]

The DEA's chief of operations called state efforts to legalize marijuana "reckless and irresponsible".

Our failure, as a society, to eradicate cannabis use will be remembered as the reason the American Empire fell.

But seriously, what do these prohibition officers think is going to happen? I simply cannot believe these people are doing anything other than trying to protect their personal beliefs and careers.

[R C Dean]

But seriously, what do these prohibition officers think is going to happen?

Their little empires will be reduced, and some of them will have to get real jobs?

[The Late P Brooks]

The LAPD is testing body cameras for 90 days with 30 cops who volunteered to wear them.

Not one single person was gunned down by a meter maid or a file clerk during this rigorously structured test program, thus proving there is no need to monitor the police. We need that money for grenade launchers, APVs, and attack helicopters, to better serve and protect our community.

[sarcasmic]

Riding their way to equality: Inside the Afghan skateboarding school where 40 percent of pupils are females carving a new path for their gender

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ender.html
When the Taliban regains control they're all going to lose their heads.

[sarcasmic]

It got so cold so quickly in this Norwegian bay that it froze a bunch of fish swimming in it

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/od.....04960.html
Not exactly what I had in mind when I asked for fish sticks...

[Drake]

Climate change strikes again.

[Jordan]

Is that a goat with a samurai sword in the first picture?

[Jeff]

What are you? A gay fish?

[Jordan]

+1 Hobbit

[Agammamon]

OMG 'Day After Tomorrow' is *REAL*!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The IMF's Christine Lagarde thinks this could be the year the global economy finally gets better.

Get ready to reuse that phrase next January, sugar tits.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And with that, I was able to comment on every link in the list in under ten minutes. And all quality, top shelf comments, too.

[waffles]

I don't think you're a fair judge of your own comment quality. And your cynicism sickens me. Don't you believe in fairies?

CLAP HARDER.

[Rasilio]

I don't know, I think she might be right.

I see plenty of evidence of multiple bubbles being inflated and I think they could provide the illusion of economic improvement for most or all of the year before they finally pop.

That said I think 2016 is going to be a REALLY interesting election because I think we're going to be in the middle of at the least another major recession if not an outright depression by then.

[R C Dean]

The IMF's Christine Lagarde thinks this could be the year the global economy finally gets better.

Somebody on her staff must have deleted the phrase "recovery summer" from her speech.

[Lord Humungus]

Two men robbed of their marijuana in Westlake after practicing medieval swordfighting, police said

According to police, Wozniak, 20, and Anthony Klier, 22, of Avon Lake, met a group of teenagers in the parking lot of a Westlake Taco Bell on Sept. 4 to practice medieval sword-fighting.

"But that's clearly not what ended up happening," said Capt. Guy Turner, public information officer for the Westlake police department.

Klier and Wozniak got into a car with the teenagers to sell them $80 worth of marijuana, but one of the teenagers pepper-sprayed Wozniak, took the marijuana and fled, according to a criminal complaint. Wozniak and Klier contacted police and said they had been robbed by a group of teenagers, but didn't say what the teenagers had stolen.

[waffles]

The pepper is mightier than the sword.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Let down in Cleveland again.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Are you saying they were robbed by the Browns?!

[John]

Aren't you a pretty pathetic sword fighter if you let someone with pepper spray rob you? I wouldn't want to bring pepper spray to a sword fight.

[Kaptious Kristen]

What is my grandma's neighborhood coming to???

[General Butt Naked]

Wow, he's gotten really desperate since he left Apple.

Poor guy.

[Lord Humungus]

Woman hires stripper for her 100th birthday

The centenarian travelled from her home in nearby Saundby by limousine for the celebration, reports the Retford Times.

She had chosen the stripogram herself from an online directory and requested the 'full monty' despite her advanced years.

The widow, who lives with her son Barry and his wife Sharon, had originally wanted to mark her century by booking a helicopter ride in a repeat of her 90th birthday celebration.

The smell of sweaty mothballs and denture cream was thick in the air...

[Matrix]

She also had DirecTV, so she wasn't too busy watching The Weather Channel.

[db]

Just a q: if you were a male stripper and your 100-yeard-old lady client wanted to get frisky, would you oblige her?

[Rasilio]

Parkinsons FTW

[Agammamon]

Parkinsons handy - not a lot of grip but a lot of interesting motion.

[R C Dean]

requested the 'full monty' despite her advanced years.

I don't think "despite" means what they think it means.

[Karl Hungus]

Court documents released in last month's no-knock raid in Texas that resulted in a dead deputy:

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headl.....94901.html

They found weed, but the guns were all legally owned (not stolen, as claimed by the informant on whose information the warrant was obtained).

[Drake]

They got a "no knock" warrant to break into his house because they knew he was armed - without seeing the flaw in that reasoning? I hope a jury acquits on justified defense.

[Karl Hungus]

I hope so too, because for once, I would derive a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from reading the comments at PoliceOne.

[Raston Bot]

'suicide by citizen'

ha good one.

[Karl Hungus]

ha good one.

Gee, thanks mister! 😉

Really, the only appropriate outcome here would be for all charges against Mr. Magee to be dropped; for him to receive a public apology; and for him to be compensated (from the surviving officers' assets) for his legal fees, damage to his home, and ammunition that he was forced to use defending his home.

Of course, I'll be satisfied with a simple acquittal, too.

[a better weapon]

Is that a picture of the victim?

He looks like the stereotypical, fat, campus police guard from of a modern, college comedy.

[Karl Hungus]

Is that a picture of the victim?<?i

I kinda think of it as a picture of the perpetrator of an armed home invasion. 😉

But yeah, he was pretty much a walking stereotype.

[Loki]

He looks like Rod Farva's even douchier cousin.

[Karl Hungus]

He looks like Rod Farva's even douchier cousin.

The Farva comparison is so obvious I'm kicking myself for not seeing it before.

Team Ramrod!

[R C Dean]

They found weed,

I think you're missing some scare quotes, there.

If I was on a jury, I'd want some corroborating evidence before I concluded that the pot a cop walked out of a house with was there before he showed up.

[Karl Hungus]

If I was on a jury--

Of course, unless we lied our asses off during voir dire, the chances that you or I would ever be empaneled on a jury presiding over a marijuana case are slim to none.

[Lord Humungus]

Glenn Beck challenges writer to read 'Lone Survivor' review to Navy SEAL's face
"If you have the balls to say what you just said to Marcus Luttrell and back it up, go for it," Beck says.

"I mean this sincerely -- I will fly you first class," Beck said. "I will put you up at the Four Seasons ? You will dine on the finest possible food, and you will come in here and you will sit down and speak these words to Marcus Luttrell. If you have the balls to say what you just said to Marcus Luttrell and back it up, go for it."

In her review, Nicholson described Lone Survivor as a "jingoistic snuff film" that preaches "brown people bad, American people good."

[John]

Because anything that shows "brown people" doing something wrong clearly makes the larger point that all brown people are bad.

Funny how these people immediately make the kinds of generalizations that they claim to hate. You and I see that movie and think "wow, the Taliban really suck". The reviewer sees it and goes "this means all Muslims are evil!!"

But you and I Humungus are the racists. Never forget that.

[Matrix]

John, you just don't understand, because you don't have a progressive brain. If you did, you would understand that anything that paints [anything but straight white American men] in a bad light is [xenophobic/sexist/homophibic/racist].
Say 1000 Hail Obama's as penance.

[John]

They are incapable of seeing anything but the collective. I don't think the things the Taliban do anymore reflect on some Muslim who lives down the street from me than the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church reflects on my Baptist friends.

But not having a Progressive Brain, I can make that distinction.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

And never mind that a village takes the main character in and saves his life. And that the village also sacrifices many of their own during the process.

No, all brown people bad. These people only see colour while preaching that we should be colour blind.

[John]

I didn't know the part about the village. I haven't seen the movie. Knowing that makes me think that the guy is just pissed that a movie showed the Taliban to be not so nice people.

[Don Mynack]

If she brought the Marines after-action report, which contradicted a lot of embellishments that Lutrell has made ofver the years, she might have a case.

http://www.darack.com/sawtalos.....MATION.pdf

[John]

I am not surprised by that. I think it is pretty distasteful how so many military people rush to cash in on their service like this. It used to be people would do unbelievable heroic shit and damn near take it to their grave without so much as talking about it. They had a sense that most "heroic" actions in war involve having a really bad day where you are totally at the wrong place at the wrong time. Most people who are involved in such things realize that any number of other people would have done the same or better than what they did. It was just their unlucky day to have to do it.

Now they all run and publish books and yell "Look at ME!!"

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"It used to be people would do unbelievable heroic shit and damn near take it to their grave without so much as talking about it."

They are still around - I have met them. Took a third whisky to get the story out of one of them.

[John]

They are. And their existence makes you wonder if the ones writing books are not all lying.

My wife is always telling me I should write a book about Iraq. Not that I did anything heroic, I didn't. But I will see various memoirs by people who served there and go "that is bullshit" or in a couple of cases "I know who that guy is, he wasn't any big deal". But I see no point of doing it. Part of me would love to write the Catch 22 of the Iraq war (indulge me for a moment in the delusion I have the talent to do so). But then I think, why? What would I be doing other than saying "look at me" and capitalizing on my good fortune of not getting blown up?

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

A lot of people back home need the insight though. It would be for more than just yourself.

I think you definitely have the talent though, John. You are one of the more interesting commentators on this board.

[John]

Thanks Joe. My problem with the books that have been written about these things is that they are too pro one way or the other. They are either way too rah rah about the military or just the author looking to show how horrible the US is.

The truth of course is somewhere in the middle. There is a place for a middle of the road account. The military can at the same time be amazingly competent and heroic and unbelievably, stupid wasteful and down right insane. It is an interesting contrast, a lot more interesting than the "our brave boys" or "those baby killing perverted bastard" portrayals that you usually see.

[tarran]

John,

You could do this... Take Pettibone's Law as a model. It's a tragicomedy about the Vietnam war. It makes no claims of special knowledge or heroism.

Yet it fleshes out a whole bunch of things that are only sterilely and offhandedly described in more weighty stories.

[R C Dean]

John, in all seriousness, write the book for yourself, without committing to publish it.

If nothing else, your family and friends will be fascinated and grateful.

And, who knows, you might decide to go ahead and publish.

Regardless, I think you will be happy you did.

[John]

Yeah RC, personal memoirs of unremarkable people are often the most interesting since they show details and give perspectives on things that the famous people don't give.

My great grandfather wrote a book that was never published on the wildlife of Nebraska. It is not scientific and doesn't break any new ground that I am aware of. But it is a fascinating read. He was born in a sod house in the 1880s. The book talks about what it was like to grow up in a sod house in the old west. It talks about wildlife from the perspective of someone who grew up on the frontier just as it closed and learned how people did things back then. What plants you could eat, how you hunted this or that bird, how you cooked this or that game. It is full of all of this folk knowledge, which to me is fascinating. I have often thought you could rework that book somehow and get it published.

[Lord Humungus]

The self-publishing world awaits - Amazon KDP (Kindle), Smashwords, etc etc Don't expect to get rich, but - and especially if you give the book away for free - you will find readers that way.

[tarran]

Don't rework it; just self-publish it. Some libraries would love to have it.

[Kaptious Kristen]

The French ambassador to the UN explained his country had underestimated the level of hatred between Muslims and Christians before intervening in the Central African Republic.

That's because all their international relations experts are on the dole, along with everyone else.

[John]

I had a long talk with an Afghan one time about the "international relations" experts. He said that all of these DOS and UN people assume that anyone who looks and acts like them must be the most important people in the room no matter where they are. It never dawns on them to walk around a place and talk to actual people. They just talk to their counterparts and take whatever is said to be the Gospel truth.

This is why only an "international relations expert" could ever be surprised by the amount of ethnic hatred in a place. All of the people in suits from there that they met in Geneva or New York were so nice. How could there be so much hate?

[General Butt Naked]

There's a documentary about the afghan war called something like, "this is called winning" that makes that point repeatedly.

The movie is really good, it's not some anti-american agit-prop. It follows lowly soldiers trying to make some positive changes in country but are hampered buy corrupt locals and the aforementioned clueless american bigwigs.

[John]

I will check that out. I didn't go to Afghanistan. But I did go to Iraq and have any number of friends who have been to both.

Our biggest problem in those places is that our leadership has no idea how those societies function. They just assume every country's government works like ours. In both Iraq and Afghanistan the State Department and DOD were taken in by fast talking connected ex-pats who had agendas and either didn't know or just lied about what was actually happening on the ground.

The most important person in a place like Afghanistan is not some guy in a suit setting up a government in exile in Geneva. Sadly, the US didn't understand that.

[Lord Humungus]

Restrepo was good too... or at least I remember it being good (it's been awhile).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdJhGh7_uH8

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I thought it was good.. fuckin tough to watch when a couple guys die during a fire fight.

[Lord Humungus]

I'll have to watch it again - I do remember it having an impact on me, part of my turn as a neocon type to an isolationist (and an anti-war one at that).

[mad libertarian guy]

Restrepo had a tremendous impact on me. I asked my wife to watch it and she came away with the exact same sentiment I did.

"What the fuck are we doing there?"

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

My exact sentiment. It all seemed so pointless and tragic.

[mad libertarian guy]

It all seemed so pointless and tragic.

That's because it is pointless and tragic.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

That sounds depressingly similar to some of what I did in 2004-2005. I might have to check that out. And have whisky handy.

[Kaptious Kristen]

It was just a joke about the high French unemployment.

[John]

Sorry I misunderstood.

[Loki]

It never dawns on them to walk around a place and talk to actual people.

Of course not, they would never lower themselves by talking to anyone who isn't a TOP. MAN. like them. Talking to normal serfs is a good way to get prole-cooties.

[Loki]

The French ambassador to the UN explained his country had underestimated the level of hatred between Muslims and Christians

It's almost as if they really don't want to "coexist" and hold hands around the campfire singing Kumbaya afterall. Who knew?

[The Late P Brooks]

A group of equipment maintenance and repair technicians voted 21 to 6 not to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), in results published late on Wednesday.

Yay. One eensy teensy crumb of encouraging news in an extremely depressing week.

[robc]

I know one location doesnt matter much, but 2013 was basically a year without a summer. 2012 was a scorcher.

2013 was one of the mildest summers I can remember, I call shenanigans.

[Bam!]

And what did Shenanigans say?

[John]

Same here. 2012 was miserable. Last summer was cold and rainy. This winter has been fairly nasty too, though we haven't had a good snow storm yet.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Here in Dogdick, Ga 2013 was really mild. But it didn't stop last year from being one of the hottest on record.

The Aussies are seeing record heat again and the Australian Open is experiencing postponements due to heat.

[Damned Fool]

A superior page image-alt text combo btw. Props to Reason for appealing to our prurient interests.

[Lord Humungus]

The best laid schemes of mice and men...

Washington State Police: Suspect carjacked truck with empty gas tank

Troopers said the truck ran out of gas along state Route 18 in Auburn and the owner was napping in the driver's seat about 4:30 a.m. Monday while waiting for family members to help when the 22-year-old suspect, whose name was not released, knocked on the window, Seattlepi.com reported Wednesday.

The suspect allegedly told the owner he would be shot if he did not surrender the vehicle, and the owner complied with the demand.

The owner fled to call police and the suspect attempted to drive away, but only made it about 50 yards before sputtering to a stop due to the empty gas tank.

[John]

Things are tough all over. Gas is so expensive, you can't even steal a truck that doesn't need gas.

[Rich]

Lawmakers threaten TSA with private screeners

I was hoping this would lead to all TSA employees being strip searched each day when coming to work; but, instead, it's this crap (emphasis added):

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said he plans legislation "one way or the other" to privatize all federal screeners within two years. He would leave TSA in charge of gathering intelligence, setting standards and running audits.

[Drake]

Now I have Tina Turner singing in my head.

[Jack Holby]

What's love got to do with it?

[db]

I wonder what ties Micah has to some company just itching to.start into the screening.biz.

[Loki]

He would leave TSA in charge of gathering intelligence...

WTF kind of intelligence would the TSA be in charge of gathering? Would they be in charge of spying on the airport Cinnebon's to make sure they aren't skimping on the icing?

[Agammamon]

Disseminating the message traffic from the local 'fusion center'.

O M G people! Be alert, we have unverified reports that some unspecified activity may possibly kinda could happen during an upcoming unspecified timeframe somewhere in this city and that could be us.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

My last day of work at this job is tomorrow. Then I can start posting more often!!!! Super yay!!!! Anyway, I have the Deftones song "Passenger" stuck in my head this morning. It is a good morning!!!

[John]

Good luck on your next one. But leaving a horrible job is never too bad of a thing.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

i should actually say it is not a bad job at all.....I help retired teachers in PA who are reachin gMedicare age get onto a medicare supplement and explain how it all works. I have learned so much about gov't incompetence having to deal with how medicare and medicaid work. the whole goal of the gov't it seems is to make this such a complicated process that they end up screwing over many people. Sadly enough I am going into another dreaded govt job....going to be a teacher. blarg. I wish i was a libertarian when i started college and gotten something other than a worthless history degree. Decided to get a teaching cert after subbing for many years with just a bachelors degree. I know I am going to get yelled at for working for a big govt entity as a teacher, but I feel if i can impart even some sort of Libertarian/constituional ideals in some kids it may be worth it somehow.

[John]

I don't think being a teacher has to be horrible. I think it would depend on what you were teaching and who your students are. I could see really loving teaching if I were teaching a subject I liked and had students who wanted to be there and learn.

[tarran]

Dude, *I* don't mind... My son's social studies class is doing a unit on resource management. They haven't been taught anything about private property and private resource management.

Literally the entire thing is how best to have the government decide what the people should have.

His teacher looks and talks like a stereotypical male graduate of oberlin.

My poor kid was trying to explain why all the schemes that the teacher was teaching about were doomed to fail, and using his own improvised version of public choice theory and his own improvised version of Hayek's knowledge problem. He didn't have the conceptual framework to express what he was thinking because it hadn't been taught to him.

We had a lovely half hour while I did my Hazzlett routine.

My point, and I have one, is that the education establishment is composed primarily of proggies, and the nation is being destroyed by the corrosive superstitions they are ladling into impressionable minds. Your mere presence is a receptor block keeping a proggie from occupying a teaching slot.

[John]

My wife worked for a very expensive independent private school for a while. I made the mistake of having a conversation with one of the high school history teachers once. And this is a high end school that routinely puts about half its class into the Ivies. But OMG, I think I lost three IQ points from that conversation. It was as if the comentariot at Salon created a history teaching cyborg.

[tarran]

Some of my high school classmates are on facebook (full disclosure I went to a Boston Brahmin elite private school). They are plotting to make a kick ass movie that will wake people up to the dangers of income inequality. It's pathetic and I really have to restrain myself from making fun of them.

[John]

There is an attorney I am in the reserves with who went to various top schools in New York City. He is a really smart guy and a very good attorney. I respect the hell out of him as an officer and as a lawyer. And I really like him as a person. He is a very honorable and level headed person.

But my God, his view of history is so wrong, I can't even talk about it with him because as soon as he makes one factual assertion, it is so off that the conversation veers to that. He honestly believes the DeBouis view that America was a completely have and have not society before the New Deal, that there was no middle class before FDR created it.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

I may get in trouble if I teach the New Deal....because I will devote days to what a authoritarian D-bag FDR was. I want to tear apart Court Packing and do a whole unti on Wikard v. Filburn and contrast that decision with madison and the federalist papers/actual constitution.

[John]

Just tell the history of racism in it and how it fucked small black farmers and such. And don't forget to talk about Davis Bacon.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

oh that will be my focus.....proggies brains would explode. Def a good idea tying it in to racism.

[tarran]

In doing the new deal, start with Hoover.

Contra what they teach in the modern U.S. history classes, Hoover was quite the interventionist, and his interventions pushed the economy into the depression.

FDR's campaign speeches against Hoover are a great source... because quoting FDR is a pretty uncontroversial thing to do as a teacher. 😉

[Rufus J. Fisk]

^another good idea....you guys are a good source. I will have to come to these boards once I get a job to brainstorm with you folks.

[Loki]

It's pathetic and I really have to restrain myself from making fun of them.

Why? Just let it rip dude, you'll feel better.

[General Butt Naked]

Yeah, those Ivies that brag such luminaries as Yglesias, Bush and(*)Obama. I think the rot goes all the way to the top.

*no harvard comma for me, thank you very much

[Rufus J. Fisk]

part of the problem is two fold. I have subbed for about 6 years in various schools in various grades. Even had a few short term assignments where I had to actually teach, get to know the staff, etc. Most staff, especially women staff/teachers, are pie in the sky, typical brainwashed "this is my passion, I love the kids I teach!!" over the top insane. They had good grades in high school, went directly to college, directly to teaching; no real world experience with having shitty jobs, etc. And they absolutely have no way to relate to kids for the most part. They follow teaching methods that are directly book learned. It's pathetic observing how robot like and stereotypical they mostly are. And they are all definitely Democrats who just love Obama, even a few classes where the teacher used his autobiographies in lessons...ugh. I want to throw a cog in that machine very badly.

and a way to tell a bad teacher from another: Do they ask students; "Why are you TARDY to my class?" or "Why are you late, again?" Using that fuckin word "tardy" just shows you are a fuckin assclown.

[John]

Those are very good points Rufus.

One of my wife's uncles was a high school Votech teacher for decades. His students loved him. He taught one of the guys on This Old House how to be an electrician. When he retired, literally hundreds of former students came to his retirement ceremony.

But he is a guy who grew up in one of the worst parts of Boston and was a Marine in Korea. He was and is a no bullshit guy who understood his students and knew how to reach them and not just the teacher's pets who basically taught themselves.

When you compare him to the former straight A, pie in the sky types you mention and realize for every one of the type of teacher that my wife's uncle was there are probably 10,000 of the type you mention, it is pretty clear why so many schools are so bad.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

you hit the nail on the head.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I agree, it's was the same for me coming up in public school in Canada.

Sometimes I have to kick myself because I have been taught that "government will fix it" as the first way to solve a problem and it is still a go-to notion in my head.

It is a form of brain washing. Kids should be taught how best to solve problems themselves or through non-coerced means. People are only taught the "nice-side" of their government, never shown the dark evil side that it must posses.

[Rufus J. Fisk]

Your kid is way ahead of the curve and prob embarrassed the teacher, lol. One of my goals is to teach the history of money and currency and how that plays a factor in civilizations as much or more than any real events. We were never taught in school how important that was and I only really learned it once I started researching libertarianism. I'd love to teach a course; "History of Money"...that is one of my goals.

[Loki]

I feel if i can impart even some sort of Libertarian/constituional ideals in some kids it may be worth it somehow.

^THIS^

We need more libertarians or at the very least non-proggies in teaching positions. Hell, I've even thought that if engineering doesn't work out I could maybe be a math or science teacher, but I don't have the temperament to teach.

It's not the kids that I'd have problems with, I figure if I get one that clearly doesn't want to learn I'd probably do the same thing I do when I get Taekwon-Do students like that: basically ignore them and focus my efforts on teaching those who are honestly trying their best. It's the fucking helicopter parents that I couldn't deal with.

[R C Dean]

"Do you enjoy people telling you what to do, taking your stuff, and generally trying to run your life? No? Neither did the Founders, which is why they tried to create a limited government. How many of you feel like you are ruled by a government that respects limits on its authority? Anyone? Anyone?"

Cripes, the lesson plans to appeal to the native anti-authority mindset (most) every teenager just write themselves.

[John]

Kids would love history from the libertarian perspective. Kids love seeing adults fail and screw things up. And history from the Libertarian perspective is one long story of their parents and teachers doing stupid things. Kids would find that perspective a hell of a lot more interesting than the "America the Brave" or "America the psycho killer of brown people tell Progs showed them better" they get now.

[Lord Humungus]

Congratulations! I've been dreaming of getting out of my current job for 2-3 years now. The shitty law job market hasn't been helping - but my wife is finally seeing a good uptick in business and has a job interview with a firm next week.

*crosses fingers*

I want to be the "stay at home" but do EDI consulting work + stereo repair on the side. And churn out a few books now and then.

[Pro Libertate]

Wasn't she hanging out a shingle, or am I confused?

[Lord Humungus]

Yes she did - but a job at a firm would bring more stability (+ insurance)... though less direct money into the coffers.

We shall see how it pans out. I'm pretty much assuming she won't get the job at the firm, but I'm a cynical bastard after her months of job hunting without any luck.

[Pro Libertate]

She's new to the practice, right? If so, it's no wonder--the market for young lawyers is definitely in the shitter.

[Lord Humungus]

Yep - we thought there was no point just sitting around and doing nothing. So off she went to try a solo practice. Already on her second divorce and a few child custody/support cases. So it's coming along - slower than we want - but still better than whining about not getting a job.

[Pro Libertate]

Even if she ultimately does operate her own practice, there's a lot of advantage of learning at a firm or in-house first. It's painful doing it as a first job.

There's a biker chick/lawyer in Tampa than specializes in biker law and appears to be very successful (billboards everywhere). Somehow, that niche seems fitting for the Lord of the Wastes' wife.

[Lord Humungus]

She's made some mistakes - initially too trusting of clients - and a few filing snafus. Luckily she works in a building that's filled with lawyers of all stripes, so they usually are willing to give advice.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm telling you, motorcycle law. Or stripper law.

[db]

Hey, congratulations!

[Rich]

TSA Pat-Down At DIA Leads To Sex Assault Investigation

"They told me I tested positive for explosives," Steenhoek said during an interview with CBS4. She explained to the agents that the positive hit from her hand swab was probably the result of her pumping gas into her car earlier in the day. "She said, 'We'll have to do a search.' So I thought, 'Okay.' " ... She said when the search turned up nothing, the agent repeated it a second time. "So it didn't make any sense. The whole search was done over and more touching and grabbing than the first time."

"Ah, HA! We found BLOOD!"

Seriously, this swabbing stuff seems worse than the ol' dog alert.

[John]

There was an SNL skit when the TSA was first created where the Super Model, I forget which one, who was hosting the show went through security and this set off a special alert and various "extra security" measures for her.

That skit wouldn't be funny today. It would just be true.

[Bam!]

Conan demonstrates a TSA pat down

[JW]

Computer security experts are warning the government that the Obamacare website is not protected from hackers.

I'm sure they'll get right on that.

[Rich]

Hey! Hackers need health insurance too, you know!

[db]

"Senior UK Defense advisor: Obama 'clueless' and 'chronically incapable of doing this.'"

Strachan, a current member of the Chief of the Defense Staff's Strategic Advisory Panel, cited the "crazy" handling of the Syrian crisis as the most egregious example of a fundamental collapse in military planning that began in the aftermath of 9/11. "If anything it's gone backwards instead of forwards, Obama seems to be almost chronically incapable of doing this. Bush may have had totally fanciful political objectives in terms of trying to fight a global War on Terror, which was inherently astrategic, but at least he had a clear sense of what he wanted to do in the world. Obama has no sense of what he wants to do in the world," he said.

[John]

You mean being a community organizer and running a presidential campaign didn't prepare him to be the leader of the world's most powerful and diplomatically engaged nation?

That is just racist DB. And I thought Hillary was supposed to help with that. She was DOS for four years.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, Obama should have gone in guns-a-blazing Bush style then followed up with a trillion dollar occupation.

[Bam!]

The UK adviser isn't criticizing the Syria outcome, but how Obama arrived at it by sheer chance.

[db]

You missed the part of the section I posted where he criticized Bush's War on Terror as 'astrategic.'

Do you even bother to read shit before you respond, or do you just have an automatic talking point trigger in your head?

[KDN]

Do you even bother to read shit before you respond, or do you just have an automatic talking point trigger in your head?

Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?

[Lord Humungus]

We can make an AI version of shreek - it would eventually spin out of control and be a retarded version of Skynet.

Herpa-Derpa.

[Loki]

I can see it now: the Terminator is sent back to kill Sarah Conner but gets sidetracked and spends the entire time gorging itself on cake and screaming "CHRISTFAG!!!! BUSHPIG!!!!" at walls until it randomly walks into the hydraulic press and turns it on itself without Reis or Sarah Conner having to do anything.

[Lord Humungus]

It would be one helluva script - you could work together with SugarFree. (Yikes)

[tarran]

db.

Shriek is the Internet equivalent of a homeless alky with pudding for a brain shrieking at a wall.

When you hurl abuse at it, it is ecstatic, because the wall is replying and it's having a conversation; it matters in the universe!

It craves any interaction at all because it is too cognitively disabled to tell what is a good positive discussion, and what is not. In fact, I suspect it prefers abuse, because abuse doesn't require much cognitive ability and so it can comprehend it better than incomprehensible words about principles or theory.

Don't be its wall! When you abuse it you are giving it the false impression that it is worth something.

[db]

Normally I entirely ignore it. When it responds directly to a.post of mine, it is.somewhat different. It adds nothing to discussions especially when.it posts responsed entirely ignorant of the.subject matter, in the hopes.of.deflecting.discussion. Its entire.purpose is.to ruin discourse.

[tarran]

Yes, but by responding to it, you are rewarding it.

Remember, it thinks abuse is awesome, because it can't tell the difference between a respectful discussion and monkeys throwing feces at each other. All it knows is being ignored and not being ignored.

When it responds to you and you fire back an abusive response, you are giving it what it wants.

I don't interact with it at all, and it rarely if ever pollutes my subthreads with its verbal feces flinging. It has learned that it's a waste of time.

I refuse to be its wall, so it wanders off in search of walls that *will* shriek back.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Agreed.

[Mike M.]

Shriek is the Internet equivalent of a homeless alky with pudding for a brain shrieking at a wall.

For like the millionth time, he's Dipshit Dave Weigel, and flacking for Obama and the democrats as a sockpuppet is his job.

[Kaptious Kristen]

It will be awesome when, 5-10 years form now, all the executive branch rats start writing books about how clueless and incompetent the Obama administration was. Then all of the Obamapologists and blind followers will say "Whu'? Really?" as if it weren't obvious for at least 7 of the 8 years of his Presidency.

[Suthenboy]

How far into it was he when he said " I don't know the facts but it is clear the police acted stupidly..."?

[John]

It seems the buck stops with Hillary in Bengazi.

The committee found that a string of terrorist attacks in Benghazi against Western targets, especially one three months before the final attack on the US facility itself, should have alerted State to the danger it faced. Furthermore, the committee questioned how State could have ignored its own security standards to approve the use of the building, a decision reapplied in July when State renewed the lease ? just weeks after the previous attack.

These two issues ? of the terrorist activity and the inexplicable waivers for proper security ? drive most of the bipartisan condemnation of the report. The committee pointedly notes that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) warned the Obama administration in June 2012 of the growing threat against Western interests in Benghazi in a report with a title that should have grabbed attention: "Libya: Terrorists Now Targeting U.S. and Western Interests." It listed "recent attacks against the U.S. Mission compound in Benghazi, the growing ties between al Qaeda (AQ) regional nodes and Libya-based terrorists," and said DIA "expect[ed] more anti-U.S. terrorist attacks in eastern Libya [redacted] due to the terrorists' greater presence there."
- See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/.....6zoaV.dpuf

[Drake]

I'm still waiting for the media to wake up and realize that the CIA was running an operation out of Benghazi. They used the State Department as a cover and set them up for the fall.

[Kaptious Kristen]

It should be obvious to any sentient being that there is no need for a fucking Consulate in fucking Benghazi. There are lots of cities around the world that are larger and have bigger American expat communities than fricken Benghazi that don't have Consulates.

But I don't think journalists are all that sentient.

[John]

Consulates serve two purposes, look out for Americans who are there and grant VISAs to the locals. There sure were not many or any Americans not connected to the government running around Libya at the time. And I don't think we were granting many VISAs.

So why we had a consulate there is a pretty good question.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Lots of Consulates don't even process visas - those exist solely to serve the expat community and American tourists.

[John]

You mean Bengazi wasn't full of American expats in 2012? It is so pathetic and obvious something sleazy and illegal was going on. How does the media live with themselves? Fuck, why even bother to be a reporter if your function is to lie and cover up the truth?

[R C Dean]

Well, if there weren't any expats there, they must have been planning to issue lots of visas to the locals.

I mean, why not? They renewed visas for the 9/11 highjackers months after 9/11.

[Kaptious Kristen]

BTW, the US Consulate in Benghazi did not even have a web site, nor were they in the process of building one. Trust me on this.

[John]

I have no doubt. Even if Libya had been peaceful and a tourist destination, I doubt the US would have had a consulate in Bengazi.

[Kaptious Kristen]

ALL of our Consulates have web sites. All. of. them.

Except Benghazi (in fact, until this terrorist attack, I had no idea we had a consulate there, and my work makes me familiar with pretty much all of our overseas diplomatic missions). And it wasn't because there was some delay in getting it done - it wasn't even on the table.

[John]

Or at least ask just what the CIA was doing there. How can they not even ask?

[wareagle]

because they don't want to know the answer. Same reason Repubs do the outrage for show but otherwise let it go.

[Pro Libertate]

They'll cover it in fond hindsight after the movie version comes out in thirty years.

[John]

That is the thing, the truth always comes out in the end. Eventually get old and feel guilty or want revenge or just want the notoriety and cash of writing a tell all. It will take a bit, but the whole truth will eventually be known. I suspect that it will turn out to be even worse than we think it is.

[Suthenboy]

Isn't the NYT about to blow all of this out of the water with their on-the-ground, at-the-scene real time report showing that it was just a protest that came out of nowhere and got out of control?

[John]

The referenced report is a bi-Partisan Senate committee report. That means even the Democrats in the Senate admit it was a terrorist attack and was known as such from the beginning.

Does the NYT plan to print a retraction? LOL I know. But seriously, they really are incapable of embarrassment at this point.

[Loki]

Obviously the Teathuglikkkan controlled Senate is just trying to tar Hillary's image ahead of the 2016 election. /prog-DERP

[Kaptious Kristen]

Border patrol breaks into the house of a man who recorded one of their brethren beating someone up.

[Kaptious Kristen]

BTW, I had no idea that your 4th Amendment rights were suspended if you were on parole.

[John]

Yes they are. You are pretty much at the police's mercy.

[Loki]

The latest trend in self published porn: bigfoot porn.

Say, didn't someone once find one of Mary's old blogs where she claimed to have sex with bigfoot or something?

[John]

Isn't that just a weirder and more intense version of being a furry?

[General Butt Naked]

STEVE SMITH NOT LIKE BEING OBJECTIFIED!! WILL CONSUME TWO HIKERS FOR THIS INSULT!

[SugarFree]

Stupid job. I could have gotten in front of this if I could have focused on my writing.

[Loki]

When I first heard of this on the radio this morning, I thought for a second that perhaps it was you posing as a woman.

It's probably just as well, if a man wrote stuff like this the feminists would totally lose their shit. "Mysoginistic beast rape fantasy! Creep! Sicko! PATRIARCHY!!!!!" Only a woman could get away with writing monster porn.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Kickstarter. I'd donate.

[db]

"That's a shaved Bigfoot. And Steve Summers in a wig--made out of shaved Bigfoot!"

[mad libertarian guy]

They just can't help themselves.

It was awfully cold in Lovund, Norway, last weekend. So cold, in fact, that a school of herring that strayed too close to shore apparently froze in place.

[...]

Whatever the specific cause, reports Reuters, mass animal deaths in the ocean are generally linked to some broader environmental instability, such as sudden temperature shifts or human actions.

Jesus Fucking Christ. Fish freeze in place in NORTHERN NORWAY, one of the coldest places on fucking earth, in the middle of the winter, and the greenhouse effect global warming climate change is to blame.

The picture of the frozen fish is cool though.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Did some enterprising locals go out and collect the fish? Because herring is good eatin'. I like mine with sour cream.

[John]

I do too. Ever have the pickled herring the French do? It is good stuff.

[mad libertarian guy]

The Dutch have pickled herring stands all over the fucking place.

Shit looks and smells disgusting.

[Lord Humungus]

wah? I thought it was all black licorice, weed, and windmill cookies!

[R C Dean]

Actually, I kind of liked the pickled herring I got from a street vendor in Amsterdam.

[Pro Libertate]

I've been using herrings instead of chainsaws. More work, yes, but there's something satisfying when the tree finally goes down.

[Kaptious Kristen]

You're only supposed to use those on shrubbery! No wonder you're having such a hard time!

[Pro Libertate]

That's a common misconception. One uses a herring to chop down trees. A shrubbery is something one acquires in the marketplace from a reputable and licensed shrubber.

[John]

Try a frozen python for the bigger jobs. The scales act like saw teeth.

[Pro Libertate]

Huh, I never thought about that one before. We've been selling them as popsicles.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Hey?! If this cause a Pythonsicle price rise, I am going to be pissed!

[Pro Libertate]

We'll just increase the supply by lobbying Florida to ban python hunting.

[SugarFree]

I've been using herrings instead of chainsaws.

But when the wind is southerly, ProLib can tell a hawk from a handsaw.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm only crazy sometimes.

[Sevo]

CA GOP discovers libertarians!
"California GOP's hope: 'Conservatarian' movement"
"[...]"As Republicans, we're here to uphold the individual rights of people," he said."

Right. I've heard that one so often, I can name the tune from one note.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics.....146882.php

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Really, this time they mean it!

For reals.

Seriously.

[The Late P Brooks]

Venture-Capitalist-in-Chief

The White House said Obama will announce Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C., that a consortium of 18 business and six universities, led by North Carolina State University, has been chosen to lead a manufacturing innovation institute to develop next-generation power electronics. It's the first of three such hubs that Obama called for in his State of the Union address last year.

----------

The new manufacturing institute, run by a collaboration among 18 companies and six universities, will focus on developing the next generation of energy-efficient, high-power electronic chips and devices that will be used to help make things like motors, consumer electronics and other devices that support the power grid smaller, faster and more efficient.

The White House says the institute will help create well-paying jobs and grow the middle class. The Energy Department is awarding $70 million over five years, matched by at least an identical amount in commitments by the winning team of businesses and universities as well as the state of North Carolina.

I hope they can find room for the wizards who ran Solyndra.

[Drake]

Part of the latest 5-Year Plan? Much better than when individuals and companies did this stuff in an effort to make a profit.

[creech]

Those seem to be the latest buzz words:
"create well paying jobs" "grow the middle class", along with "better education for our children", "support our brave veterans" and "help senior citizens live in dignity." I've seen all these clich?s used recently by both Republican and Democrat contenders for a 2014 House seat that will come open.
Invariably, none of the candidates says how he/she will accomplish them, and (not surprisingly)the interviewer/reporter doesn't ask.

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus. There's a market for more efficient energy. There's even a decent market for cleaner energy. Why do we need government intervention, which either won't work at all or will work at a totally insane cost?

[Drake]

The market for more efficient energy is called "The Market".

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed! The market. Let it do it. . .for free!

[Sevo]

Retiring lefty hopes to add one more econ screw-up before he goes.
"Minimum-wage increase may be Rep. George Miller's swan song"

The paper version at least had a correct headline:
"Reducing Low-Wage Jobs May Be Legacy"
If he gets his way, there will certainly be fewer low-wage jobs and far more zero-wage ones.
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....146531.php

[db]

Surprise, surprise surprise!

NASA Orion manned spacecraft will likely not meet schedule for late-2017 flight testing

[Pro Libertate]

Why are they even bothering with Orion? Why not just use Dragon or some other private option? We're within not too many years of several viable vehicles being available off the shelf.

[db]

No clue. None at all.

[db]

Sometimes I wish someone would start up a massive private welfare system to show just how.charity.can be done.on.a. commercial scale without government. If SpaceX can embarrass NASA, imagine what Charit-X would to to HHS.

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed. What's going to make things worse for the government is that when there are several SpaceXs competing on manned and unmanned launches, the smart people still at NASA. . .will no longer be working for NASA.

Once we pass the line where commercial efforts, rather than government ones, dominate spaceflight, things will start moving very quickly.

[db]

And the Man Who Sold The Moon will get his day.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

NASA welfare?

[Loki]

Why are they even bothering with Orion?

In a word: pork.

In four more words: "jobs created or saved."

It mostly comes down to a handful of influential congresscritters from TX, FL, and AL who hijack NASA's budget to continue funding it and the rest of congress not caring enough to put an end to it or having some piece of the work in their district as well. Plus the Orion program was structured from the start to spread the work out to as many suppliers and subcontractors in as many states and congressional districts as possible. It really was formulated from day one to be a perpetual pork project.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeppers. And that's why they continue to fail.

[db]

Why does NASA even need the capability to launch people into space? Spacex and Orbital sciences and even Virgin will have that capability. All NASA needs to be able to do (if anything) is have a spacecrwft capable of taking people on interplanetary flights. It does,ct have to be capable.of ground launch. It doesn't even have to be cqpabpe of reentry. Orion is not only a massive duplication of effort, it is using that effort to solve a problem already solved.

The rality is, NASA can't sell, politically, the idea of interplanetary flight, so the.only argument they have left is that the U.S. needs a national (not commercial) capability to launch humans into space. It is ridiculous.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, someday, a company will specialize in reentry craft. You dock at a station, jump in a ship solely designed for return to Earth, and ride on down.

[db]

Only if you get to wear power armor and.fight bugs.

[Snark Plissken]

Has it left the solar system yet?

[Pro Libertate]

It may never leave the troposphere, let alone the heliosphere.

[Snark Plissken]

I don't want to hear your opinion, nitpicker.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not picking nits. I'm saying it may never leave the ground.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

DEFINE "GROUND"!!!!

[Pro Libertate]

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. . . .

[sarcasmic]

Has it left the solar system yet?

I believe you have Orion confused with something that has actually lifted off the ground and exited the Earth's gravity.

[Pro Libertate]

I believe you have Orion confused for something that's actually been placed on top of a rocket.

[Auric Demonocles]

I believe you have Orion confused with an actual physical object that is capable of being placed on top of things.

[db]

I believe you have Orion confused with something that hasn't developed serious structural cracking when pressurized, with a fix as yet undetermined.

[Pro Libertate]

I believe you have Orion confused with Dragon, which will be flying men into space before Orion gets on top of a rocket.

[db]

http://spaceflightnow.com/orio.....eft1loads/

[Pro Libertate]

Well, I stand corrected. There it is, in orbit.

[db]

Wait, I'm confused. Do you think ai am defending NASA and Orion?

[Pro Libertate]

No, no, I was making a joke about the "artist's conception" image they used of Orion actually in space. NASA's good at that sort of thing these days.

[db]

Jobs created or saved!

If Spaceflight Now had a sense of.humor they would have shopped.in.the atmosphere leaking out of the pressure hull.

[Lord Humungus]

so not this Orion? boo.

Project Orion

[db]

Oh, for the days of thinking big.in space.

[Auric Demonocles]

"Guys, I've got it. What if we set off like a shitload of nukes and rode the blastwaves from the explosions?"

[Pro Libertate]

I mean, that's the kind of crazy that makes humanity the subject of innumerable reality shows in Milky Way programming.

[Auric Demonocles]

So watching people talk about Project Orion is basically aliens' "Pumkin Chunkin"?

[Pro Libertate]

More like that Alaska reality show with Jewel's family. They marvel at our ability to do so much for so little.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm not sure what one you are talking about. I am guessing this is probably a good thing.

[Pro Libertate]

I've only heard about it, but it's some show, and the family featured is Jewel Kilcher's.

[robc]

Sci-Fi* or some reasonable network with money needs to do a Footfall mini-series, so we can see boom-boom in action.

*I dont consider SyFy to be a reasonable network.

[Loki]

I dont consider SyFy to be a reasonable network.

If they were reasonable they wouldn't have changed the spelling of their name from "Sci-Fi" to "SyFy," whatever the fuck that's supposed to be.

[db]

Nuke Surfing!

If everybody had an a-bomb
And a sufboard too..

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, a new role for Val Kilmer: Constructive Use of Nukes Czar.

[Pro Libertate]

I miss the days when nukes were the solution to everything.

[R C Dean]

I'm not sure those days have passed for everyone.

Lets ask an Iranian mullah.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, well, I was thinking more the not-killing-people uses, like nuking out canals, nuking mountains for rights of way, nuking new harbors, and, of course, nuking as a means of propulsion. Happy nukes.

[robc]

A textbook mentioned the nuking new harbors thing. Every NukE in my class, including myself, mocked the concept.

The textbook was obviously a bit out of date.

[Pro Libertate]

I believe the Soviets had a whole lot of construction plans involving nukes. I imagine the U.S. dissuaded them from that program.

[Auric Demonocles]

Scared off from using nukes for demolition purposes? Proof that the Soviets are not worthy of being called Muad'Dib.

[Pro Libertate]

Really, as adversaries, they were kind of weak. Like, I dunno, tribbles or something.

[Auric Demonocles]

I came in on the end of the whole thing, so to me they are sort of the Ferengi. Supposed to be this big bad villain, but that flopped pretty poorly and like a year later just became this bit character who were all about crony capitalism.

[Pro Libertate]

Continuity was never a strong suit of Star Trek, at least not in the later series.

JW revealed to the world that the Kzinti were supposedly going to be featured in Enterprise's fifth season. Sucks that never happened.

[db]

That would have rocked. But ST's universe is so incongruent with the Known space universe it would make little sense. Can you.imagine the.concept of tasp addiction in Roddenberry's clean little socialist utopia?

[db]

Er, droud addiction.

[Pro Libertate]

In a world with holodecks? Heck yeah.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Oh, shit - I can't believe I forgot this!

DING DONG THE FUCKER WILL BE GONE!

His Democrat successor can't be as bad. Can it?

[John]

He might be. But they are going to have to pull someone out of a homeless shelter or a state hospital to do it.

Someone linked yesterday to the story about him choking the ten year old child because he said the kid tried to carjack him.

I really roll my eyes when people who live in NOVA tell me how much better it is than Maryland. Not that Maryland isn't a corrupt shithole. It certainly is. But I don't see how NOVA is any better.

[Raston Bot]

NOVA is a terrible place for small business.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yep

[The Late P Brooks]

Literally the entire thing is how best to have the government decide what the people should have.

Exactly.

It drives me bananas to be watching a business news show, and no matter what the topic might be, whether e-cigs, bitcoin, cable programming packages, electric cars, interest rates, job creation, any fucking thing you can imagine, new or old; the question inevitably asked is, "AND WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THIS?"

And, of course, the answer is never, "NOTHING!"

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed. Nothing.

[John]

I read somewhere that the EPA was considering applying CAFE standards to commercial trucks. I think this idea may have mercifully died. But even if it did. There are people at the EPA who honestly think that the trucking industry, whose biggest cost is fuel, would never think to demand a more fuel efficient truck if the government doesn't make them.

[db]

Sometimes I'd almost swear the EPA is run by people who believe that some dude in the '70s invented a carburetor that lets cars run on water but Exxon bought all his work and sat on the patent.

[db]

All of political discourse in the mass media in this country is a tragic exercise in question begging.

[Drake]

Why the only news shows I watch are Stossel and The Independents. The rest are too bad for my blood pressure.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Ditto for "Marketplace" on NPR. It would be more accurate if they called it "not-Marketplace".

[Enough About Palin]

JEREMIAH WRIGHT: MLK HAD A 'DREAM,' OBAMA HAS A 'DRONE'

[R C Dean]

Somebody didn't get the crony treatment they were expecting from their long-time parishioner, did they?

[John]

Uh huh. And someone is a bit surprised that Obama threw him under the bus and stopped coming around once doing so was no longer useful to their career.

[Loki]

someone is a bit surprised that Obama threw him under the bus and stopped coming around once doing so was no longer useful to their career.

It boggles the mind why anyone would be surprised by that. Just goes to show that Jeremiah Wright is a complete moron who can't tell a fast talking con-man when he sees one.

[Enough About Palin]

Just goes to show that Jeremiah Wright is a complete moron who can't tell a fast talking con-man when he sees one.