The NSA Knows Who You Texted Your Naked Pics To, Gov. Christie Sets Up Scandal Investigation Team, Ohio's New Execution Drug Cocktail Seems Unpleasant: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: IntelFreePress / Foter.com / CC BY-SA

  The latest National Security Agency secret revealed via Edward Snowden is that the government has collected more than 200 million text messages a day through an untargeted system that allows them to extract location, contact networks and credit card details.  

• Maryland lawmakers are proposing legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana, but their chances of success appear low.
• Gov. Chris Christie has set up a team to conduct an internal review and investigate the details of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.
• Ohio used a new drug cocktail for executions never attempted in the United States. The result, witnesses say, is that inmate Dennis McGuire convulsed for about 10 minutes before actually dying.
• The federal government loses $100 billion a year in program payments that are made erroneously. I'm actually a little shocked the figure is not higher, though given that the numbers come from the government itself, it probably actually is.
• The Detroit bankruptcy judge has a rejected a $165 million compromise deal between the city and banks to handle the debt that resulted from a disastrous agreement entered into to avoid defaulting on pension payments. The judge said the money was too much to accept.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

WASSUPPPPPPP.

[db]

x 200,000 per day

[db]

x 1,000

[Killaz]

The other day it occurred to me -- Michelle and Barry's relationship is like these two people getting married.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrgFHeqD3GE

So, its pretty much doomed.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Gov. Chris Christie has set up a team to conduct an internal review and investigate the details of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.

Christie should appoint himself that Fullerton jury.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ohio used a new drug cocktail for executions never attempted in the United States. The result, witnesses say, is that inmate Dennis McGuire convulsed for about 10 minutes before actually dying.

Never volunteer to beta test, dude.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Are these drugs patented or something? Why is there no one else that would manufacture them?

[db]

Moral qualms? As much shit as chemical companies take, there aren't many that want to be associated.with a product explicitly designed for.executing humans.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I mean I have them and obviously Lundbeck does, I'm just surprised there isn't somebody out there willing to manufacture it. If you don't have moral qualms with state enforced death penalty then you shouldn't have qualms making the drug.

[db]

They shouldn't, but then why are the same people concerned about eome.convulsions? Couod.it.be because.they don't want to acknowledge the gravity of.killing.another.human, even.in the nameof.justice?

[Brandon]

there aren't many that want to be associated.with a product explicitly designed for.executing humans.

They're also wary of the long-term side effects.

[Tonio]

Some of those drugs are still made, they just won't sell them to the departments of "correction." The stuff they use to euthanize pets is one of those drugs.

[Floridian]

Pentobarbital is an old anesthetic. Once it when out of patient it became very cheap to make. Once they could no longer make a profit the drug companies switched to diprivan and etomidate. Diprivan is pretty much the only anesthesia induction drug used now. As far as the execution goes, midazilam causes anterograde amnesia, so if the guy had lived he would not remember it anyways. Hydromorphone is a pretty good analgesic, so I think it unlikely he suffered. If people don't like the convulsing they could have given a paralytic like rocuronium.

disclaimer: I do not support the death penalty.

[kbolino]

Pentobarbital is an old anesthetic. Once it when out of patient it became very cheap to make. Once they could no longer make a profit the drug companies switched to diprivan and etomidate.

The only way that makes any sense is with a helping heaping of regulation and cronyism.

[Floridian]

Well from the manufacture's view point, the number of people getting an anesthetic each year isn't controlled by cost of drugs. So if there are X anesthetics per year and you have a product with a profit margin of pennies vs dollars, you are going to stop making the product with the lower product margin. Also Diprivan has several advantages over pentabaritol.

[kbolino]

Well from the manufacture's view point, the number of people getting an anesthetic each year isn't controlled by cost of drugs.

Given the premise, the outcome makes sense. It doesn't change the fact that the premise was artificially created by the government. There is no such thing as demand unresponsive to price.

[Tonio]

Last time I read their execution manual (nineties, I think), Maryland was using a paralytic agent as part of the "cocktail" (hate that term for this) of execution drugs.

[Floridian]

Another example of the government being incompetent at everything. A standard anesthesia induction goes like this. Versed in holding to calm people down and fuzzy their memory. Fentanyl to blunt any pain, lidocaine to suppress coughing and make the IV injection site numb, propofol to render the patient unconscious, and then rocuronium as a paralytic to facilitate intubation. Skip the intubation and you have a pain free execution.

[Dead or In Jail]

How about Fentynyl? That seems like a pleasant way to go out.

[Floridian]

Fentanyl can cause dysphoria. Morphine typically causes Euphoria. My personal choice would be a propofol/marcaine mixture. The propofol renders you unconscious and the marcaine makes you numb and stops your heart after 5mg/kg or so.

[JW]

Can't they just smoke in the gas chamber? I'm told that no level of exposure is safe.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

Eighth Amendment, JW. We don't torture them before we kill them.

[JW]

How about e-cigs? They're OK, right?

[The Knarf Yenrab]

Now you're trying to kill us all. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, you monster.

[Ted S.]

If we're going to have the death penalty (I'm opposed to it, since I don't think the state should have that power), at least use something like the guillotine.

[db]

They should do.it on a late night talk show and ask the severed head questions and see how.long it tries to respond by blinking its eyes.and.moving.its.lips.

[Andrew S.]

I'm personally willing to have the death penalty if, when a death row inmate is exonerated, the prosecutor and judge have to take the previously condemned individual's place on death row.

[Sevo]

Jury, too, if the jury votes on it.

[gaijin]

If we're going to have the death penalty

I'd say this is just one more example of why the state should not have that power...be it by cocktails or drones.

[kbolino]

The fact that we have switched from the very humane gas chamber and the very cheap firing squad to the neither humane nor cheap lethal injection says about all you need to know about the motives of the government.

[Irish]

The firing squad is also pretty humane if you have good shots. It's very quick and painless.

The problem is it's also bloody. I think modern people see the blood and think of it as not being humane even though far more painful consequences often occur from lethal injections than firing squads.

[Juice]

Hanging has to be the quickest, most humane method. If you do it correctly they're dead in a split second.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ted, I obnoxiously answered you in the other thread. Have a look-see.

[Ted S.]

Oh, I don't like Spain either. Rafael Nadal plays the tennis equivalent of catenaccio.

(As I've mentioned in the past, my ancestors are from Bavaria, so I'm not a bandwagon fan. I've still got a ton of relatives in the old country.)

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Misunderstood me.

I don't mind Spain and don't mind catenaccio. But classic catenaccio no longer exists in Italy. That's what drives Italy fans nuts.

Don't understand fans who dislike it so much.

Yes, you had mentioned that and asked where from exactly in a previous thread.

[PapayaSF]

I have never understood why lethal cocktails are so often problematic. Even plain old general anesthetic, improperly done, kills people painlessly. Just put someone under, and then given them something that stops the heart. Why is this so often messed up?

[BladeDoc]

They didn't mess it up. The linked article headline is BS. The CNN article tells the truth. The drug combo used causes euphoria and then depressed respiration and finally you stop breathing. It IS general anesthesia. The "convulsions" we're actually snoring.

I am not in favor of the death penalty because of the states general incompetence but this objection was crap.

[PapayaSF]

Also, there's the fact that anti-death-penalty types will find or invent objections to every possible method of execution.

[BigT]

Personally, here in Ohio, we ought to make them watch the Browns letting us down, starting with the first game of 1965 through the last game this season. Let's see how much they can take!

I'm sorry...unusual and way cruel.

[RFID]

What happens after you die, though? What do the Browns do then?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Maryland lawmakers are proposing legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana, but their chances of success appear low.

Without the War on Drugs there would be no 'The Wire'.

[pan fried wylie]

Therefore, as goes The Wire, along goes the war.

Right? RIGHT?!

[Fist of Etiquette]

You, Serious, are a gaping asshole. We both know this. Fuck if everybody in H&R doesn't know it!...

[rts]

Assisted suicide appeal to be heard by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Canada says it will hear an appeal by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) that could grant terminally ill Canadians the right to assisted suicide.

Got it? Courts "grant" you rights; it isn't the government infringing your rights, no, they flow from the goodness of Top. Men.

[Tonio]

Meh. That's the journalist's wording. They are notorious for getting things wrong. But this is indicative of the unconscious statism which most people hold.

[rts]

But this is indicative of the unconscious statism which most people hold.

Exactly. But when I point this out to people who talk like this, they look at me like I'm from Mars.

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

I've had this conversation with my Dad, a "constitutional conservative":

Me: "So you think you rights come from the Constitution?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "So you don't agree with the Declaration of Independence?"

crickets

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maryland lawmakers are proposing legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana, but their chances of success appear low.

They should wait to try until they see how much scratch Colorado starts bringing in. That might grease the wheels.

[CE]

The first East Coast state to legalize gets all the grass tourism dollars. They could even rename themselves "Mary-J-Land".

[EDG reppin' LBC]

New Hempshire

Pass a doob its

[rts]

Development: Time to leave GDP behind

GDP measures mainly market transactions. It ignores social costs, environmental impacts and income inequality. If a business used GDP-style accounting, it would aim to maximize gross revenue ? even at the expense of profitability, efficiency, sustainability or flexibility. That is hardly smart or sustainable (think Enron). Yet since the end of the Second World War, promoting GDP growth has remained the primary national policy goal in almost every country1.

[Apatheist ?_??]

The fuck is this doing in Nature?

[Jordan]

I read the title and was hopeful that people were finally waking up to the fact that any measure in which economic growth is proportional to government spending is complete bullshit. Then I read the article and got pissed.

That is hardly smart or sustainable (think Enron).

Since when does Enron prioritize revenue over profitability?

[rts]

Then I read the article and got pissed.

Same trap I fell into. Misery loves company.

[Killaz]

It's Nature. They are more primitive in their beliefs than the ancient Druids they resemble.

[Irish]

That is staggeringly idiotic.

What does income inequality have to do with anything? Have progressives developed some sort of inequality Tourettes? Income inequality must be forced into every argument, no matter how irrational!

[Mad Scientist]

It's one of those memes that they'll repeat and repeat and repeat until people just assume it actually means something. They do this quite intentionally.

[Steve G]

artery-clogging saturated fat!

[Mad Scientist]

Exploding gas tanks! Alar! Asbestos!

[JW]

No nukes! No nukes!

[CE]

Along with global warming. Even though there isn't any yet.

[Bobarian]

Wait, summer is coming.

[Juice]

It's summer in Australia.

[PapayaSF]

GDP figures don't measure sexism or racism, either! Something Must Be Done!

[Irish]

GDP fails to take into account the legacy of imperialism or the enervating effect patriarchy has on a woman's self-confidence.

It is therefore useless.

[kbolino]

Remember, the poor, who by definition have nothing, are being hurt by somebody somewhere having something. You need to throw away all of that logic you are trying to apply, and replace it with feeling. Poverty will only truly be solved when everyone is equally poor (except dear leader and the vanguard party, of course).

[Sevo]

..."Income inequality must be forced into every argument, no matter how irrational!"...

Global warming is getting worn-out. They need a replacement BS program.

[Juice]

We need climate reparations to ease income inequality.

[gaijin]

It ignores social costs, environmental impacts and income inequality.

But it counts government spending, so aren't all those things built in?

[The Knarf Yenrab]

If a business used GDP-style accounting, it would aim to maximize gross revenue

A gem in this dungheap of an article.

The undifferentiated mass of stuff that is GDP--and which counts the gov's $600 purchase of a toilet seat with a $5 market value as $600 of GDP "growth"--*is* useless, and not even the most idiotic of small business owners would think that maximizing revenue at the cost of being deep in the red year after year is a recipe for success. And yet that's the way the state is run.

[BigT]

I make $50k and my neighbor makes $40k - income inequality $10k.

5 years later

I make $100k and my neighbor makes $80k - income inequality $20k.

The income inequality gap is growing!! We MUST do SOMETHING!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The latest National Security Agency secret revealed via Edward Snowden...

So far every time I both hate and love what follows that phrase.

[Killaz]

He has been out of that loop for almost a year now. I bet what he had has been dwarfed by now.

[Mad Scientist]

The latest National Security Agency secret revealed via Edward Snowden is that the government has collected more than 200 million text messages a day through an untargeted system that allows them to extract location, contact networks and credit card details.

Uh, oh. That means the NSA is in possession of a whole lot of kiddie sexting pics. I'll expect the FBI raid and formal charges in about never.

[Tonio]

Laws are only for little people.

[rts]

Income Inequality Most Likely Threat to World Economy, WEF Says

The widening divide in incomes between the poor and rich poses the most likely threat to the global economy over the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum.

I guess the looting will start soon.

[alan_s]

That's what Karl Marx said too.

[gaijin]

They're just parroting the Ones' 2014 theme. The ones' including the Commie Pope.

[Ted S.]

The One's theme

[gaijin]

+1 One

[PapayaSF]

World Economic Forum Attempts to Influence the 2014 Mid-Terms.

[SIV]

I first read it as
The NSA Knows You Texted Your Naked Pics To Gov. Christie

and I was like: "what did I miss"?

[db]

What, is reason doing a whole custom headline thing now, like they did with the print cover way back.when?

[Jordan]

Ohio used a new drug cocktail for executions never attempted in the United States. The result, witnesses say, is that inmate Dennis McGuire convulsed for about 10 minutes before actually dying.

I really don't understand why people wouldn't rather take a bullet to the head. Barring that, why not just gas them with carbon monoxide? Why waste time and money developing needlessly complicated, inferior shit like this?

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

How about a nice easy heroin overdose? Yeah I don't get it.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Hmm, well, now that I RTFA, I see they tried using hydromorphone. Which is pretty much what I'm recommending. Hmm.

[Ice Nine]

This lawyer was going to find it "cruel and unusual" regardless of what he witnessed but he is talkin' pure booshee. I could real fast go down to the local skankland and find him a dozen dopers that would really argue with him on the hydromorphone (Dilaudid), which is the holy grail for the drug-seeking patrons of the ER (trust me on this). Um, they don't want it because it makes them suffer. It was given to this guy before the other drug for the very purpose of putting him into lalaland before they hit him with the big gun. Believe me, he went out smiling.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Oh, I know. I mean, I really know. I read the article and stopped feeling bad for the dude because...uh, yeah...well, I'd take it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Why will I spend tomorrow staring down a massive line at the DMV when there are as many people working as there are in line?

Incompetence.

[gaijin]

Why do you hate our noble heroes in public service?

[jesse.in.mb]

Why do you hate our noble heroes in public service?

I almost didn't get my license because a clerk didn't like helping Aquariuses.

While I was out of the country for a year they sent my registration to the wrong address three separate times and I spent a few hours calling and trying to sort it out at 7c a minute. My folks, who were babysitting my car, never got the registration and somehow I had to get my car smogged three years in a row.

I should have been able to renew my license by mail this year because I got my photo redone last time I went in, but they decided it's been too long since my last photo and I need to get it redone this year, so I have to go in to the office to renew.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

I almost didn't get my license because a clerk didn't like helping Aquariuses.

I laughed, then I cried, then I laughed again because it happened to Jesse and not to me.

[Killaz]

It's alright m'am, I'm only half breed Aquarius. I was born right there on the cusp, you see.

[jesse.in.mb]

No such luck. My birthday is the 29th. Anyone that knew off the top of her head that I was an Aquarius knew how few days counted as the cusp.

Also we get a terrible (but not altogether unfair rap when it comes to dating.

[Mickey Rat]

Hmmm.

"Aquarius Jan 20 - Feb 18
It's true that God created you in His likeness. Unfortunately for you, God was feeling particularly shitty about Himself that day."

http://www.theonion.com/articl.....013,34941/

[Killaz]

I'm not looking forward to going back there either in two years.

[CE]

Do you want the roadz to be unsafe? The DMV is a thin blue line between highway safety and Mad-Max style anarchy.

[Tonio]

IIRC, Utah is the only state where execution by firing squad is an option (remembering the Gary Gilmore case from the seventies).

The problem is that the manufacturers of the drugs formerly used for execution have stopped selling to Departments of Correction.

Basically the drugs first sedate you then paralyze you then stop your breathing. Look for a new round of cruel and unusual challenges about this.

[Jordan]

I know. It just doesn't make sense. Carbon monoxide is far more humane than both the old drugs, and the new drugs.

[kbolino]

The problem is that the manufacturers of the drugs formerly used for execution have stopped selling to Departments of Correction.

There has got to be more to the story than that.

[CE]

Just call my vet. When our cat had to put down, whatever he gave her took about five seconds.

[Jordan]

When we put our dog down, the vet used Morphine, IIRC. Quick and painless.

[rts]

Israel is on the brink of banning the N-word. N as in Nazi, that is.

Parliament gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a bill that would make it a crime to call someone a Nazi ? or any other slur associated with the Third Reich ? or to use Holocaust-related symbols in a noneducational way. The penalty would be a fine of as much as $29,000 and up to six months in jail.

What a bunch of... oh, wait.

[Snark Plissken]

When Godwinning is illegal then only outlaws will talk about the internet inlaws.

[PD Scott]

Anti-anti-Semites?

[The Knarf Yenrab]

So can we still call them national socialists, or is that too close? What about just plain old "socialist"?

[Juice]

I did nazi that coming.

sorry

[a better weapon]

Ohio used a new drug cocktail for executions never attempted in the United States. The result, witnesses say, is that inmate Dennis McGuire convulsed for about 10 minutes before actually dying.

He was let down one last time.

[JW]

Guards! SEIZE HIM!

[Snark Plissken]

Ohio used a new drug cocktail for executions never attempted in the United States. The result, witnesses say, is that inmate Dennis McGuire convulsed for about 10 minutes before actually dying

But he was a secret agent who went to Mars and activated an alien oxygen factory during those ten minutes.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

It's Jackass Week at the HuffPo, where people who make bad decisions whine about their lack of success

I have a doctorate. I have been employed full-time for the 35 years I have been of employable age with only a week or so between jobs. I have worked my butt off my entire adult life. I do not have a drinking or gambling problem. And I still live paycheck to paycheck.

I guess that qualifies me for being one of America's working poor.

Like anyone, when I was younger, I thought I could make it in the world if I just worked hard enough.

There's your first mistake moron.

I wanted to be a lawyer or a writer. I didn't care which. Both would have been preferred. But I dropped out of my first attempt at college back in the early '80s as a pre-law student. Big college temptations were too much for small town me. I traveled a bit, moving around as a bartender. It wasn't a bad life for a young man and it fit in with my other dream of being the vagabond writer. I knew all the famous writers probably paid their dues in similar ways. It was just a matter of time before I got mine.

So you spent your youth jerking off instead of putting in some effort. Not looking good for sympathy.

It gets worse...

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I returned to college for a second attempt. Again, I wasn't quite where I needed to be to take it seriously, but I did meet the woman who would become my wife for the next fourteen years. We moved to Ohio so she could get her masters in human resources. I kept bartending.

So again, you weren't willing to put the work in and decided to sponge off your wife.

Once my wife graduated with her masters, we moved to another city for her new job. This was also the time for me to go back to school and for us to start having a family. I got my bachelor of arts in English about a year after our daughter was born in the early '90s. I figured I could teach while I worked on the next great American novel.

Are you sure you expect us to feel sympathy for you? Really?

Over the next decade, we realized life wasn't quite as easy as we thought. Though my wife was slowly moving herself into positions of higher pay and responsibility, I couldn't find a teaching job and had to rely on bartending.

In the late '90s I finally landed a teaching job with one of those for-profit colleges you see on TV. I wasn't a big fan of the corporate philosophy, but I loved the teaching. This was one of the few times in my life I actually felt I might be working well within the system professionally. Things were clicking along pretty well.

Until my divorce.

Hey, it happens.

Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with you being a loser.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I don't know how hard it is to grasp the basic fact: don't. fucking. have children. Until you aren't living paycheck to paycheck.

You're not only part of America's "working poor," you're part of its working stupid.

[John]

Or just have them and be happy with being poor. Who says you have to be rich to have kids?

The problem is these idiots want the benefits of their choices with none of the responsibility or negative consequences.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Well that might kind of suck for the kids, but yeah.

[John]

Not really. Kids only know what they are used to. I would rather grow up poor with two parents who care about me than grow up rich the child of two pill popping drunks.

Having material things is not what makes a good childhood. It is not like this guy is living in the slums of Rio or something.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

This guy--and living paycheck to paycheck--is not exactly the picture of stability. Kids may only know what they are used to but they deserve better.

[John]

This guy is not the picture of stability. But that is not because he is living paycheck to paycheck. My parents lived that way for a good part of my youth. We lived.

[kbolino]

How the paycheck is spent is the problem, not its size.

[kbolino]

Kids are being raised in third-world shitholes by the billions. Being raised by shitty parents in the first world is a luxury. Being raised by good parents in the first world is an extravagance.

[trshmnstr]

I'm sick of this "working poor" narrative. There are a small percentage of folks who have truly gotten boned in life and deserve help, but the majority of the "working poor" are just people who have no self discipline.

It's simple stuff. You have to actually budget your money. You have to actually stick to your budget. You have to pay your bills before you get spending money. You have to critically analyze your purchasing habits and remove wasteful spending.

Four simple principles that these people don't get. In application, it's even easier. If you don't have a solid emergency fund, no cable, no eating out, no going out to the movies. Drive the car you can afford, not the one you "deserve." I drive a 14 year old beater of a car, but I paid cash for it in 2008 and it still runs fine. Shockingly, I don't have a car payment!

I have to wonder sometimes how my wife and I, in our mid-twenties, can be in a better financial position than people who have dual income for 35 years. They've made millions of dollars and have nothing to show for it!

[John]

What trshmnstr said.

I have two older brothers. One of them is a madly skilled tradesman. He is one of those people who can fix anything, is a very high end welder, and is smart as hell such that he adapted to being able to work with computerized equipment and deal with computers very quickly. He has fallen into high paying jobs like you wouldn't believe.

The other one never got a trade and lives in a small town managing a ranch. You would think that the first one would be better off. Not so. Neither are "poor". But the skilled one went through two wives, child support to each, fucked off every kind of job you can imagine and generally made stupid decision. The second one got married, stayed married, raised his kids, stayed in a cheap place to live, supported his wife's career and now with two incomes and a lot of work is much better off.

Life is about choices. If you continually make the wrong ones, you are going to be poor.

[JW]

I'm sick of this "working poor" narrative.

Pretty much this.

I was behind the curve in terms of career and earnings until I was in my mid-to-late 30's. I pretty much lived paycheck to paycheck, even before I had kids and there were some very lean months. I even blew off Plan A of going to law school (a wise choice), with no Plan B.

I'm now making in the low 6 figures. How? I BUSTED MY ASS and didn't work at a career with little to no future. I *planned.* I didn't bum around for 2 decades, pissing everything away and leaving my fate to chance.

No, I don't feel sorry for you, not one bit, you whiny, fucking loser (not you, trshmnstr).

[John]

I am the same way JW. I spent my 20s in school mostly and really didn't make shit for a long time. But I stuck with it. Most people who stay poor, stay that way because they either don't understand or too lazy to stay with something even though it sucks and might not pay anything. Poor people generally have no understanding that success comes very slowly and never just "happens".

[Apatheist ?_??]

It's not just the working poor. My wife and I are in our mid 20s as well and it's amazing to us how many of our friends from college or her coworkers who aren't saving for retirement at all yet. Engineers at her work start making around 70k with just an undergraduate degree and yet complain about how they have no money. Some of them aren't even taking advantage of 401k matching which is literally free money.

[jesse.in.mb]

Reproductive freedom means having as many babies or abortions as you want regardless of your socioeconomic status.

Why do you hate FREEDOM (and therefore AMERICA)

[John]

Accepting the consequences of your choices means you are not free.

[jesse.in.mb]

See, John gets it. Freedom means never having to say you were sorry or wrong but always being to nuzzle into the warm bosom of the state.

[gaijin]

you're part of its working stupid

+1 lol

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

And finally, he gets remarried. And then:

She supported my decision at the age of forty five to go to law school, to finally finish something I started 25 years before and hopefully nurture an opportunity for a life with less struggle.

He wants to enter one of the most glutted job markets out there.

I failed two attempts at the bar exam by less than three points each time. Trust me, that's really close. It is difficult to find the time to study for the bar exam properly when you are working full-time. They suggest you study at least 600 hours. That's ten hours a day for two months. I was able to get in about 450 hours. And taking the test is expensive.

Excuses? Maybe. But sometimes excuses are real.

Dude, you are never going to be a lawyer. Buy a fuckin' shine box.

When I was researching bankruptcy lawyers, I ran into a friend from law school at one of the firms I was shopping. He told me that it took him eight months after passing the bar to find that job, and when he was hired in they started him at a salary of... WHAT?! The number he said was about 60 percent of what I was currently making at my college job.

Damn. I thought getting my attorney's license would be my ticket to a life of less struggle. But I was obviously wrong about that.

Perhaps there is no ticket to a life of less struggle -- a life of "making it". Not even hard work.

Hey, it happens.

It happens all the time.

It's not his fault. He deserves to be successful.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I love that not only did he decided to enter a glutted market, he had no fucking clue that was the case. Is he the stupidest person on the planet? (If only)

[Irish]

He's also a total idiot because he missed an opportunity to enter the legal market when it was a more reasonable career.

Basically, he chose not to finish law school in the '80s when he could have landed a well paying job fairly easily and then decided to go back to law school right when the market was collapsing.

Genius.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

He might very well be. He had no one in his life that could have took him aside and told him that law school isn't a good investment?

No one that could tell him that it's more important to learn valuable skills than to get a degree?

I have to be he must have but he was simply too narcissistic to listen.

[CE]

And he still calls tending bar and teaching "hard work"....

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I'm going to have to say his second wife is even stupider than he is, if no one else.

[Apatheist ?_??]

And let's be serious, it is incredibly unlikely that this loser 45 year old went to a law school that was worth paying for. But even if he had it is a rare case that it would be worth the cost at that age. You'd have to make a shit ton in a short period of time before retirement to make good on that tuition.

[Andrew S.]

I've passed three bar exams. The third one, I was working full time. I took bar review classes at night, and studied when I could. I ended up around the 90th percentile score-wise. And that's studying a lot less than 10 hours a day. Every piece of advice I was given told me that if I tried doing that every day, I'd burn myself out fast.

Unless he's in California, the bar exam really isn't too difficult, and pass rates are generally 70-90%. It's difficult to fail.

[gaijin]

I took bar review classes at night, and studied when I could.

It's not fair that you worked harder than him. In France, there would be a law against what you did. 😉

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah I think he said NY and it looks like its 90% for first time takers and over 80% for all takers. And you certainly don't need 600 or even 450 hours to study. You just have to pass, no one gives a shit how well you did after that.

[Irish]

Damn. I thought getting my attorney's license would be my ticket to a life of less struggle. But I was obviously wrong about that.

Yeah, you were. Clearly you didn't do any research about what it means to be an attorney. A whole lot of them work 60 hour weeks.

If you became a lawyer because it would be easy, you're a complete moron.

[Andrew S.]

I'm usually at work from 9-7:30. Add 5 hours or so per weekend, and yeah, 60 hour weeks are normal. If there's a big deal going on, 80-100 hour weeks aren't unusual.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

How the fuck could he not bother to look into the state of the legal market? Also, if you fail the bar three times, you are either not smart or didn't put the necessary (quality) time in. I bet half of his 450 hours were spent reading the comments at HuffPo.

[JW]

I think the legal world dodged a bullet with this guy.

That's the lawyer I want. The one too dim to pass the bar.

[BigT]

Court appointed defense attorney.

[Tonio]

I'm guessing the massive student loan debt is one of the reasons he lives paycheck to paycheck. But that's totally not his fault, because, something.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Until my divorce.

Sounds like he should be collecting alimony.

[Bobarian]

He probably didn't have a very good lawyer...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Damn. Just damn.

I had a great job, earned a Masters, worked my butt off and things were going along just fine until...I killed my wife. That bitch. Now I'm in jail and have been taking courses to help retarded kids knit. I believe I deserve a second chance because I repent every night and society owes me that.

[Mickey Rat]

He spent at least a decade putting an actual career on hold farting around with the romantic aspiration to become the "next great American novelist", which he apparently never got much beyond the aspiration. He did not get serious about building up a career until the circumstances he chose to live in caught up to him. Hard work is one thing but it does require some ambition to meet a reasonable goal.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Pre-law is bullshit, you can major in anything you want. There aren't even any minimum course requirements like with pre-med for apply to medical schools.

[John]

Even pre-med is bullshit. Pre med just means you took enough courses to do well on the MCAT. You can major in Swahili and got to med school if you are smart enough and knowledgeable enough to score well on the MCAT.

[Andrew S.]

"That's the beauty of college these days. You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit"

[Apatheist ?_??]

Well as a major it is bullshit but most schools don't offer it as a major, it's just a way to signify to med schools that you have taken certain classes. Pre-law doesn't even do that. I went to law school without any pre-law bullshit and was actually pre-med simply because my biology degree satisfied the requirements anyways.

[John]

You are right. To get into med school you have to have a base of knowledge in organic chemistry and biology and such. You don't need anything to get into law school other than a degree in something and a score on your LSAT.

[trshmnstr]

Yup... and after dealing on a daily basis with the people that system produces, perhaps law schools should rethink it a bit.

I know a few people in my classes who are in similar positions. They think law is their ticket to the big bucks and getting out of their "paycheck to paycheck" existence. What they don't realize is that getting a 3.5 in political science 15 years ago doesn't make them even remotely hireable at any job making close to 6 figures.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"I'm pre-law"

"I thought you're pre-med."

"What's the difference?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROxvT8KKdFw

[John]

So the jackass got to live the wastful and fun youth everyone would like to live and he is now angry he doesn't get to have the kind of security and income the people who spent their youth working their asses off.

I generally don't hold the choices people make against them. But I always hold willingness to accept the consequences of those choices against them.

You did exactly what you want. Live with it dickhead.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

So the jackass got to live the wastful and fun youth everyone would like to live and he is now angry he doesn't get to have the kind of security and income the people who spent their youth working their asses off.

Excellent point, John. Truly. Fuck him.

[Irish]

I generally don't hold the choices people make against them. But I always hold willingness to accept the consequences of those choices against them.

This. It's a common slur that libertarians don't like poor people or aren't empathetic. Bullshit. I'm plenty empathetic when something isn't a person's fault and I'm willing to help friends who fall on hard times. I'll even help people I don't know who fall on hard times, if their problems come to my attention.

The problem is that most progs seem completely incapable of admitting the problems with their own decisions and simply acta s if this was totally unforeseeable.

You mean dropping out of law school and working for ten years as a traveling bar tender might have been a bad idea?

[John]

Poverty is for the most part a cultural and moral condition not a monetary one. That is why spending trillions giving money to the poor hasn't resulted in fewer people being poor.

Think about it, most middle class people were in monetary terms poor as hell in college. But we never think of them as being the "poor". That is because being poor is not living on 50 dollars a week eating raman noodles in a basement apartment getting your degree. Being poor is spending $5,000 on car rims when you are living paycheck to paycheck working a low skilled job.

[Irish]

The only time I've ever seen a store that sold nothing but rims was when I was working as a sales person and had to go to a terrible part of Chicago to meet a client.

The rim store was the best looking store in that part of the city. They were selling rims for thousands of dollars and business looked very good.

If progs ever actually went to bad neighborhoods and saw things like that, they might have a more accurate view of poverty.

[John]

Rims and stereos sell very well in poor neighborhoods.

[Mad Scientist]

Yeah, I'm convinced poor people want to be poor. If they don't, I can't explain why they seem to do everything in their power to prevent any other condition.

[SIV]

Rent-A-Wheel

[trshmnstr]

I pass one of those on my way to work each day... It just so happens that it is in the relatively poor hispanic area. However, it's racist to point out that these shops pop up in poor "ethnic" areas.

[CE]

You can rent the car rims now. Heard the ad on the radio in LA.

[SIV]

Been able to for a long time

[CE]

Rent-to-own is where it's at. Just pay 2 to 4 times what it would have cost, to buy something nobody needs.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Most self-described "progressives" reject the idea of personal agency wholesale. Just mention the phrase "bootstraps" around them if they don't bring it up themselves just to mock the idea that an individual can have any control whatsoever over their direction in life.

[Irish]

Like anyone, when I was younger, I thought I could make it in the world if I just worked hard enough.

Well, obviously you also need to get valuable skills, but it's nice to know that you're willing to wor...

But I dropped out of my first attempt at college back in the early '80s as a pre-law student. Big college temptations were too much for small town me.

So you actually weren't willing to work hard since you dropped out of college.

I love how narcissistic progressives are. They'll always say 'I'm a hard worker, why am I poor?" but the moment they give you their personal history it becomes obvious that they aren't hard workers.

[Tonio]

...worked hard enough without incurring unreasonable debt.

[gaijin]

but the moment they give you their personal history it becomes obvious that they aren't hard workers

Clearly a case of effort-inequality. Something must be done for those who suffer a dearth of motivation.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Even their perception of 'hard work' is suspect. My brother claims to be a hard worker and he's a lazy fuck.

[Irish]

I think it's because when you're lazy any work strikes you as hard work. As a result, someone will do a little bit of work and delusionally think he's a hard worker when he's nothing of the sort.

[Mad Scientist]

Everyone claims to be a hard worker. Some people obviously are not, but, to them, they worked and worked until they just got so damn tired and had to take a break for the next 4 hours. But holy shit, they earned it because they were working so very hard.

[BuSab Agent]

I am not a hard worker. I'm lazy as fuck, but I am a smart worker. I'll get the job done as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort on my part, so I have more time to goof off.

[Apatheist ?_??]

One more complaint, yes technically we have a doctorate (JD) but I don't think I've ever heard a lawyer say they have a doctorate just like we don't use Dr. That usually implies phd or md.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a doctorate. I have been employed full-time for the 35 years I have been of employable age with only a week or so between jobs. I have worked my butt off my entire adult life. I do not have a drinking or gambling problem. And I still live paycheck to paycheck.

This paragraph lacks two critical pieces of information:

1. What is your income?

2. What are your expenses?

Please respond in a timely fashion, kthxbai.

[PD Scott]

Meanwhile, in Australia: isn't mass transit supposed to be safe?:

Passengers on a train that derailed near Edgecliff Station on Wednesday afternoon after a bar broke through the floor of a carriage say it was making loud noises and emitting burning smells from the time it left Bondi Junction.

Kiriana Buffett was standing near the entrance to the carriage when the bar burst in, narrowly missing her head after she ducked underneath it.

"It was just like a monster coming up from the floor. It was not that fast. It went up and hit the roof."

[SIV]

"Kilt him a bar when he was only 3"

[db]

Drop bar!

[Tonio]

Nice, db.

[Tonio]

Is "bar" what we would call a "rail" here?

[PD Scott]

From the pics it doesn't look like a rail, it, uh, looks like a metal bar.

[rts]

Falling loonie tied to underperforming economy

The Canadian currency fell 6.6 per cent in 2013, after trading at par with the greenback in February, and is down more than three per cent since the beginning of the year.

The Conference Board, an economic and policy think tank, said the falling dollar is a sign of lack of confidence in Canadian growth prospects.

[John]

You mean American dollars might spend better than Pesos? Cannuckistan is vacation paradise and it looks like it might be affordable again.

[Andrew S.]

Gawd I miss the early 00's exchange rates. Lived in upstate NY at the time, used to go to Niagara Falls and Toronto all the time, incredibly cheap.

[John]

Montreal is a great city. It used to be like going to Europe at Mexico prices.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Montreal is cool and was a financial center. Until the PQ fucked things up starting in 1976.

[John]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1580984

I know it is wrong to judge people too much by their appearance. But Jesus Tapdancing Christ did Adam Lanza look like a crazy fucker. How could anyone who knew him have not thought he was likely to do something horrible?

[Ted S.]

I know it is wrong to judge people too much by their appearance.

God knows what we'd think of you. :-p

[Rich]

***cough***Dianne Feinstein***cough***

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He's...a bit...off.

[Juice]

That boy is not right.

[SIV]

He called John Zerzan's radio show. I bet Jesse Walker knows Zerzan.

[rts]

Osborne wants above-inflation minimum wage rise

Chancellor George Osborne has said he wants to see an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage.

He told the BBC the "economy can now afford" to raise the rate, currently set at ?6.31 an hour for people over the age of 21.

...

The Conservatives opposed the creation of the national minimum wage in 1999.

Mr Osborne said: "The Conservative Party in the 1990s was on the wrong side of the argument. The Conservative Party has changed. It's a modern Conservative Party in touch with the country."

Principles that blow in the wind.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

His principle is that he wants more populist votes regardless of the effect on the economy. Not that politicians know anything about economics with the Keynesians who have the kings' ears assuring them that making labor more expensive won't hurt and might even help employment figures.

[SweatingGin]

"200 million text messages a day through an untargeted system"

That's getting into really big data... Cassandra and Hadoop? Maybe use Map-Reduce to build an SQL DB of person:contact?

[Jordan]

MS Access.

[Coeus]

Ten to one a libertarian created the Casandra database.

[Thane ? the booty]

Apache Accumulo

Accumulo was created in 2008 by the US National Security Agency and contributed to the Apache Foundation as an incubator project in September 2011.[3]
On March 21, 2012, Accumulo graduated from incubation at Apache, making it a top level project.[4]

Controversy[edit]

In June 2012 the US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) released the Draft 2012 Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization Bill, which included references to Apache Accumulo. In the draft bill SASC required DoD to evaluate whether Apache Accumulo could achieve commercial viability before implementing it throughout DoD.[5] Specific criteria were not included in the draft language, but the establishment of commercial entities supporting Apache Accumulo could be considered a success factor.[6]

[PD Scott]

The NAACP hosted a gun buyback at Turner Field today. I don't know what kind of turnout they got as they did not announce details of where and when until yesterday evening. They announced late last year that they planned to do it and I had hoped to go down and buy something from someone in line but figured it had been cancelled because I couldn't find anything about it when I searched on Tuesday. I suspect that they kept it quiet for precisely that reason - to try to keep people from making a mockery of it by buying guns at a discount.

[John]

I never thought of that. But outside of a gun buyback event would be a place to get a great deal on a pistol. I bet most of them would be poor quality ones. But you never know.

[PD Scott]

That's what I've read on gun sites, that people have gotten really good deals on nice guns just by paying a bit more than whatever gift card the organizers are offering, evening dickering if the line is long enough.

Did you read about the buyback in LA, I think it was, where someone turned in an honest to God StG 44 worth thousands of dollars for a stupid gift card?

[John]

Wow. I bet someone's grandfather brought that back from the war. I swear to God if my genes ever produced someone that stupid, my entire life will have been a net negative on the world. I don't care what I personally accomplished.

[Jordan]

You should have gathered up a bunch of old junk guns and turned them in and then used the proceeds to buy a scary black rifle with a barrel shroud.

Last time NYC did this, some guys from out of state did that and made quite a mint selling them non-functioning junk.

[CE]

How does it advance anybody to disarm them?

[PD Scott]

It makes white liberals feel less fearful of black people?

[Rich]

Her relatives were at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville to witness his death,

and applauded the use of the experimental cocktail?

[Rich]

Prepend [McGuire] was convicted in 1994 of the rape and murder of 22-year-old Joy Stewart, who was seven months pregnant.

[Coeus]

Koch derangement syndrome strikes again.

[mr simple]

That's some strong derp. If it weren't for the Koch Bros. the government could make everyone equal and we'd live in perfect harmony with nature!

[Irish]

It's especially hilarious given how much Unions spend on Democrats.

There are literally a dozen Unions that spend more money individually than the Koch Brothers do.

A large portion of the Koch Brothers money also goes to evil things like funding cancer research, supporting gay marriage, building opera houses, and supporting PBS.

Those monsters.

[Corning]

supporting PBS

I now hate the Koch bros.

[BigT]

They support NOVA

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Guess who:

For years political scientists have wondered why so many working class and poor citizens of so-called "red" states vote against their economic self-interest. The usual explanation is that, for these voters, economic issues are trumped by social and cultural issues like guns, abortion, and race.

I'm not so sure...

People are so desperate for jobs they don't want to rock the boat. They don't want rules and regulations enforced that might cost them their livelihoods. For them, a job is precious -- sometimes even more precious than a safe workplace or safe drinking water.

This is especially true in poorer regions of the country like West Virginia and through much of the South and rural America -- so-called "red" states where the old working class has been voting Republican. Guns, abortion, and race are part of the explanation. But don't overlook economic anxieties that translate into a willingness to vote for whatever it is that industry wants.
[snip]
The best bulwark against corporate irresponsibility is a strong and growing middle class. But in order to summon the political will to achieve it, we have to overcome the timidity that flows from economic desperation. It's a diabolical chicken-and-egg conundrum at a the core of American politics today.

[Ted S.]

Robert Reich?

[gaijin]

I'll second Reich...will someone third?

[Sidd Finch]

thirded

[gaijin]

boo, you side stepped my Godwinesque trap.

[Sidd Finch]

I'll third Reich ... teehehehehe

[CE]

You mean a workplace comes before a safe workplace? Who'd have thought?

[gaijin]

The safest workplace is a nonexistent workplace!

[Matrix]

This same mentality is why it is illegal to feed homeless with leftovers or anything else that wasn't "thoroughly" inspected by a health inspector.

Because it's better to be starving and given scraps of "approved" items than given an abudance of things that have not been "approved."

So, it's better to know that there is a job out there that you can't have because it costs too much to employ you according to government standards than to actually have a job so you can keep food on your table, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head.

[BigT]

You can't feed the bears in Yellowstone either. The reason is that you don't want to destroy their ability to live on their own.

Why again do we give money/food to the poor?

[PD Scott]

If those stupid rednecks would just go on welfare and vote Democrat we could finally make this country a decent place to live.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Yes, it's Reich.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....08891.html

[Matrix]

Why do so many lefties vote against their own interests--higher taxes, less freedom, more government intrusion in their lives?

[Anonymous Coward]

For years political scientists have wondered why so many working class and poor citizens of so-called "red" states vote against their economic self-interest.

A bare assertion is a great way to open an article.

The usual explanation is that, for these voters, economic issues are trumped by social and cultural issues like guns, abortion, and race.

Economic issues are trumped, which is why when you ask nearly every TEAM RED member are the taxes too high, the answer is usually "yes." But yes, all the yokels care about are guns, abortions, and race, even though the greatest danger to black men in America is...other black men with guns.

People are so desperate for jobs they don't want to rock the boat. They don't want rules and regulations enforced that might cost them their livelihoods.

And why might rule and regulations cost them livelihoods? Increased operational costs? No. It's because those EVIL fatcats refuse to reduce their windfall profits to pay a decent wage of $30/hour.

The best bulwark against corporate irresponsibility is a strong and growing middle class.

Why limit people to being "middle class" Bob? Why should people be free to get rich? Or is wealth only for people who graduated from Yale and are classmates of Slick Willie?

[Paul.]

The latest National Security Agency secret revealed via Edward Snowden is that the government has collected more than 200 million text messages a day through an untargeted system that allows them to extract location, contact networks and credit card details.

We don't do that.

*report comes out*

Ok, w-w-w-well ok we do do it, but it doesn't matter and we have a very careful process.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AND IT'S NECESSARY.

[Andrew S.]

Of course. Why do you love the terrorists, Paul? Why don't you want us to be safe?

[Coeus]

I love how the breitbarting continues. Everyone who's been defending the NSA is now completely cowed into silence by the relentless, staggered reveal.

[Coeus]

Where a rational conversation about guns ought to start

No more "self defense" excuse. The only people we need to defend ourselves from are the jerks who carry guns. And guns are a lousy instrument for self-defense ? they're indiscriminate and irreversible, they tend to punch holes in objects and people that we didn't intend to punch holes in, and there are no take-backs after you punch a hole in someone by mistake.
You want to defend yourself? Take a martial arts course. Too unathletic to do that, like me? Support your local police and have a phone by your bedside.

[Jordan]

Support your local police

HAHAHAHAHA! Talk about magic thinking.

[Ted S.]

Yeah; they're the "jerks who carry guns".

[John]

And guns are a lousy instrument for self-defense ? they're indiscriminate and irreversible

they really are animists. Guns are not "indiscriminate", the person using them might be. They honestly seem to believe that guns have an agency of their own.

[Paul.]

The proof of this is the number of bad movies where the theme is "the life of a gun" where film follows the progress and mayhem surrounding a firearm as it moves from hand to hand, person to person, leaving destruction in its wake.

[PD Scott]

There should be one where a pistol is lying there, gleaming evilly, the view changes to a person staring at the gun in horror, backing away, turning away from the gun, back to a slow zoom on the gun, moving over the pistol to the sensuous curve of the grips, the metal shimmering slightly. The view goes back to the person, turned away, stopping (the soundtrack plays eerie Theremin music), shaking as they turn back to the pistol, lurching over to it, their hand reaches out tentatively, as if they can't control themselves, the person is gasping for breath until they finally pick up the pistol as the music crescendos to a darkly triumphant note, their expression a mix of fear and triumph.

[Paul.]

To your garden variety anti-gun progressive, a gun is like the Ring of Power.

[John]

You are so right Paul. And they honestly think every gun owner is like Golum.

[Paul.]

*boom*

The circle is complete.

OT: My next precious ring of power is going to be a Walther PPQ

[Paul.]

Jesus... second try:

OT: My next precious ring of power is going to be a Walther PPQ

[Paul.]

Holy tapdancing jesus.

Walther PPQ M2 .40 cal.

Q is next to tab key which puts action on 'submit' button, space bar to type M2 actuates submit button. Blame it on the squirrels I cannot.

[Mad Scientist]

I've been thinking about that lately and it occurred to me that guns can't be the only thing progressives totemize. Other things they think are inherently corrupting: money, (some) drugs, pornography...

[Paul.]

Totemize. That's a good word. We're on a roll on this thread.

[PD Scott]

They totemize democracy and socialism. All some jackass dictator has to do is declare his love for the people and rig an election and he's a hero to proggies everywhere.

[Coeus]

Epi's got a theory that that's why they hate e-cigs.

[Coeus]

Or animists, rather. Guns and small cylinders with vapor have power to them.

[Mad Scientist]

Ah, yes, I remember that from yesterday. In your face, mid-life memory loss!

[Mickey Rat]

As much as I enjoy Pratchett, one of the Discworld novels is basically this. There was much eyerolling on my part.

[Andrew S.]

I think PZ Myers was sane at one point. What happened to him?

Or did it just take me longer than it should have to recognize the crazy?

[Irish]

He's always been crazy. It's just that he's legitimate and respected within his field, it's just that he's a nutcase who tries to hold court about issues he

A) Hasn't researched

and

B) Has no personal experience about.

He also constantly allows his emotions to overwhelm his common sense.

I'm going to butcher the quote since I can't find it right now, but I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said "There is no one less competent than an intellectual discussing something outside his field."

[Sidd Finch]

"Jerks who carry guns" don't give a shit about gun laws, sweetheart.

[Irish]

I wonder if that nitwit PZ Meyers would say we should 'support local police' when they stop and frisk black people or act with extreme and unnecessary force.

I like that when the issue of race comes up, police are vile thugs who attack and keep down the black man. When the issue of guns comes up the cops are a noble blue line and the only thing between us and total anarchy.

It's hard to take progressives seriously when the same group of people fly from being villains to heroes based on who they're currently oppressing.

[CE]

"Hello, police? Someone's about to do me and my family grievous bodily harm. Here's our address so you can investigate what happened when you file the report. And can you call the coroner for me? I may not have time...."

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

they tend to punch holes in objects and people that we didn't intend to punch holes in
...
Support your local police and have a phone by your bedside.

Wow. Just wow.

[montana mike]

Well the local police are pretty close in Morris, it's a very small town and most of his neighbors own shotguns at least (good pheasant and waterfowl hunting in the area and deer hunting is only shotgun with slugs).

Fortunately the local kids won't buy his bullshit bacause most of them hunt and grew up with firearms.

[Paul.]

Support your local police and have a phone by your bedside.

Said no woman who ever woke up to find a rapist standing over her.

The Seattle woman who survived a brutal July 2009 attack in which her partner was killed said she positively recognized Isaiah Kalebu as the man who crept into her South Park home and repeatedly raped and tortured the couple at knife point.

http://seattletimes.com/html/l.....bu10m.html

If only Kelly Thomas had supported his local police and had a phone by his bedside.

[Coeus]

And the comments are full of the usual bullshit. cherrypicked statistics and exhortations of "we're talking about gun crime, not all crime" like anyone with half a brain isn't onto that one.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I should probably thank PZ Myers and his commentariat someday. They're the ones who convinced me any idea of a "liberaltarian"-style alliance was completely fucking retarded. Back before I'd ever heard that term, that is.

[Irish]

I remember the time someone mentioned Radley Balko's work on police brutality and SWAT teams and someone there said 'Don't listen to Balko, his economic views are insane.'

That's the most hilariously fallacious argument I've ever heard. Don't listen to him on a completely unrelated issue because I disagree on economics.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I'm sure everyone will think it's hilarious, but it was circumcision issues that finally turned me 100% against those fucks.

[Jordan]

Deep dish circumcision?

[jesse.in.mb]

Darwinian circumcision!

[jesse.in.mb]

I suppose Lamarckian circumcision would make more sense...

[Coeus]

And to add a new one....

Epigenitics proved lamarkian theory partially correct. But apparently that means there's no such thing as free will, or something.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

The only people we need to defend ourselves from are the jerks who carry guns.

Let's all take a moment to reflect on the good old days when the world was run by young, strong men wearing armor and wielding swords. What a glorious period that was for equality, peace, and shared wealth.

And guns are a lousy instrument for self-defense ? they're indiscriminate

You point the end of the gun--no, the other one--at the thing you want to destroy.

and irreversible

As opposed to, say, a club. Or a fist.

Take a martial arts course.

I'll tell my 90-year-old widowed grandmother who still lives alone to throw away her shotgun and take up judo. Thanks for the sage advice, PZ, you utopian fool.

Without popular ownership of firearms (and the next technological leap, whatever that might be), sustained democracy can't exist in any form and authoritarianism will be the norm.

[Anonymous Coward]

No more "self defense" excuse.

The right to self-defense is a corollary to the right to life.

The only people we need to defend ourselves from are the jerks who carry guns.

That's no way to talk about the police.

And guns are a lousy instrument for self-defense ? they're indiscriminate and irreversible, they tend to punch holes in objects and people that we didn't intend to punch holes in,

I've never shot at anything or anyone I didn't intend to shoot.

and there are no take-backs after you punch a hole in someone by mistake.

So you've figured out the secret to uncrash your car into someone (cars causing more deaths in America than firearms)? Or how to unpunch someone in the face?

Well aren't you just the most special-est kid in class.

You want to defend yourself? Take a martial arts course.

Which one? There are...quite a few, with varying physical demands.

Too unathletic to do that, like me?

Go join the old ladies in the park doing Tai Chi. It is, after all, an internal martial art.

Support your local police and have a phone by your bedside.

The police are quite sufficiently supported by taxes and the courts. And when your killer needs only 10 seconds to end your life, and the police need eight minutes (on average) to reach you, what do you think the likely outcome will be?

[Coeus]

and his comment:

21

PZ Myers
14 January 2014 at 8:58 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Ugh. There it is, the "self defense" argument. It's bullshit.

Home break-ins are not that common, home break-ins in which the homeowner is present are even rarer, and home break-ins in which the homeowner dissuades the threat with a gun are ridiculously rare. Meanwhile, asshole homeowners with guns who accidentally shoot themselves or someone else are relatively common.

You know what would be even better at discouraging break-ins? Hand grenades. If we encouraged people to defend their homes with a supply of hand grenades, thieves would be even more careful about only robbing houses when unoccupied, and they'd run like hell if they heard a stirring in the upstairs bedroom.

Why isn't there a National Hand Grenade Association to self-righteously defend my need to a suicidally guard my home?

They aren't in countries with strict gun control, dumbass.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

You know what would be even better at discouraging break-ins? Hand grenades. If we encouraged people to defend their homes with a supply of hand grenades, thieves would be even more careful about only robbing houses when unoccupied, and they'd run like hell if they heard a stirring in the upstairs bedroom.

Why isn't there a National Hand Grenade Association to self-righteously defend my need to a suicidally guard my home?

People like Myers seem to believe that this is some tremendous reductio argument against the state "permitting" people to own any sort of arms.

The reality, of course, is that private ownership of grenades--always a useful weapon in case of barbarian or foreign invasion by, say, ravening hordes of gun-grabbing fascists--is a far less destructive policy than the existence of a standing army.

The misapplication of the US military over the past decade by statists and their supporters like Myers has resulted in 1,000,000+ lives lost, most of them innocent non-combatants. Does Dr. Myers really believe that "permitting" people to own hand grenades and other arms that are far less powerful than what you could pick up legally at the local farmer's co-op and exxon station would result in 100,000 civilian deaths every year?

Talk about taking pessimistic misanthropy to a whole new level.

[Thane ? the booty]

And hand grenades would be terrible for discouraging break-ins, anyway. Since it would wreck your house, any potential invader would know that you would be unlikely to use it.

[montana mike]

I'm now ashamed that I grew up in Minnesota (less than an hour from Morris, UMM is a glorified CC), very happy I'm in Montana where tards like him are generally bitch slapped (unless you are in Missoula).

[John]

More from the tales of Top Men

"The U.S. military cannot hunt down and kill people responsible for the deadly 2012 attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya..."
"... as long as the terrorists are not officially deemed members or affiliates of al Qaeda, newly declassified transcripts from congressional hearings show."

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....n-and.html

Isn't allowing the murderers of an American ambassador to go free because going after him would require an embarrassing political determination a high crime and misdemeanor?

[CE]

I think just a high crime.

[110 Lean]

Lawyer says Ohio killer's execution was botched; inmate gasps, takes almost 25 minutes to die

[John]

Prison officials used intravenous doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to put McGuire to death for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of a pregnant newlywed, Joy Stewart.

Stewart's slaying went unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, jailed on an unrelated assault and hoping to improve his legal situation, told investigators he had information about the death. His attempts to pin the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unraveled, and he was accused of the killing.

Cry my a fucking river. I hope he suffered a lot.

[110 Lean]

Oops! Should have read RTFA first.

[110 Lean]

"Shark Species Thought to Be Extinct Found in Fish Market"--headline, ScientificAmerican.com, Jan. 14

[110 Lean]

Study: Teen Pregnancy Rate Drops by Half When Planned Parenthood Leaves Town

A study across the Texas Panhandle, using government statistics from 16 counties, found that the teen pregnancy rates among 13-17-year olds from 1994 through 2010 showed dramatic declines even as Planned Parenthood Federation of America facilities in the region shut down?dwindling from 19 family planning facilities to zero.

[Irish]

Correlation =/= causation, etc.

This is a very small sample size and it occurred at a time when teen pregnancy dropped nationally.

[Corning]

Correlation =/= causation, etc.

True enough but it does show Planned Parenthood was not keeping teen pregnancy down.

[John]

Correlation is not causation. So it may be that the rates just happened to go down for another reason. But if there is some causation there, it is an interesting question why. What about PP gets teens pregnant?

Could it be that they give teens a false sense of security by providing them birth control that either fails or the teens, being teens, fuck up and forget to use?

[Irish]

I guarantee that the decline didn't occur because of planned parenthood leaving.

National teen pregnancy rates plummeted over the same period they're describing. It's very likely that the panhandle simply followed national trends and it has nothing to do with anything specific to those counties.

[John]

Perhaps. But at the very least that shows that PP presence does nothing to curb teen pregnancy. So at best it is an indictment of their reason for existence.

[CE]

Maybe it did. When your backup plan moves out, you make sure Plan A works.

[Paul.]

What about PP gets teens pregnant?

To play devil's advocate here, I'm guessing the idea is that PP with the constant counseling girls about sex, offering easy to get birth control etc. encourages sexual behavior which eventually leads to accidental pregnancies, whereas without PP, the girls don't have easy access to free birth control that their parents can't control and the young teens actually begin to take agency over their lives and become more careful about sex.

Not something I think actually happened, but an argument I could see being used.

[John]

I think there is something to that argument. If kids can't get birth control, a lot of them will just not have intercourse. If they can, a good number of them will have sex thinking they are safe only to get pregnant because they didn't use it properly or it failed.

It would take some study to confirm that hypothesis. But it is not an unreasonable one by any stretch.

[Paul.]

But it is not an unreasonable one by any stretch.

I don't find it unreasonable but it would be hella controversial.

It would essentially confirm 25 years of so-con bitching that easy access to birth control increases teen pregnancy due to the 'normalization' of sex amongst teens.

Can you imagine the NYT editorial?

Personally, I tend to lean in the direction that young kidz are going to have sex regardless, so get the damned BC in their hands. But I'm not so philosophically set in my ways on the subject that I would discount a quality study that said otherwise, out of hand.

[John]

I tend to lean in the direction that young kidz are going to have sex regardless,

I am not sure that is true. I know a lot of people who didn't have sex in high school. There are some kids who will. Some who won't no matter what. But there is a pretty large group in the middle that could go either way. The thing about the group in the middle is that they tend to be terrified of getting pregnant.

I think the SOCONS have a point. Kids are not stupid and will generally do what adults encourage them to do. Normalizing sex and taking a "everyone will do it regardless" attitude probably does get kids who otherwise wouldn't to do it, at least in high school. Once college rolls around, all bets are off. But they are adults then.

[Paul.]

I am not sure that is true. I know a lot of people who didn't have sex in high school.

Dungeons and Dragons tended to have that effect.

[John]

Dungeons and Dragons tended to have that effect.

LOL. Know a few of them. But I was thinking of the nice girls I knew who were blowjob queens but refused to have intercourse out of fear of pregnancy.

[Anonymous Coward]

No girl has ever swallowed herself pregnant.

Just saying.

[Paul.]

No girl has ever swallowed herself pregnant.

I keep assuring them by repeating that very line. Fat lotta good it's done me.

[Corning]

Actually if i was not an idiot Dungeons and Dragons could have gotten me laid.

3 or four girls hit on me while we played D&D and it wasn't until years later that i figured out that they were hitting on me...if fact I pretty sure the only reason 1 or 2 of them were playing at all was to hit on boys.

[Paul.]

If there were girls at your D&D games, you were playing D&D in a different era than my generation.

[110 Lean]

This is Enough About Palin. Not that anyone would care, but I think I'd like to stop posting as EAP, which I've used since 2008 because Palin is also in Buttplug's handle and that kind of bugs me.

That is all.

[Mad Scientist]

Come up with a new phrase, but use the same initials.
Everyone Argues Pathetically
Eat Any Peach
Ernie's Argyle Pants

[jesse.in.mb]

Executes Awesome Pirouettes

[PD Scott]

Enervates All Progressives
Eschews Antis Poppycock
Estimates Armadillo Populations

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Palin jokes are still considered fresh and topical by the left, so sadly it's relevant in 2014. Because fighting in the War on Women means being as vile and misogynistic as possible to ladies who won't get in line while literally shaking with rage When A Republican Does It.

[Andrew S.]

I've come to think of EAP as an anti-PB nickname, so I've been totally okay with it.

[110 Lean]

Then maybe I won't.

[C. Anacreon]

But what exactly does 110 Lean mean?
Will you become confused with Live Free and Diet?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

You could have just changed your handle and let everyone wonder what happened to EAP, like I did.

Well, if anyone cared enough about my old username to wonder, anyway.

[Coeus]

Aww, that's sad. I'll ask.

[DWC]

Would somebody please explain to me what the big fucking mystery is about killing somebody with chemicals? Give someone a mega dose of morphine, they go to sleep, stop breathing and die. Not exactly fucking rocket science. There a dozens of compounds which will do exactly this and cause zero suffering aside from the trauma knowing you are about to die. This is not a fucking mystery. Any anesthesiologist could do this with their eyes closed. Somebody please fucking explain this to me.

[Sidd Finch]

lawyers

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

This is actually what they did give him--a shitload of hydromorphone.

[John]

WHy didn't it work? I agree with DWC. We can put dogs and horses such that they drop like a light and never feel a thing. Why not humans?

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

It did work. I think the conclusion above is reasonable, that he was out and his breathing depressed and it just doesn't look like a good way to die. See Ice Nine and someone else, way up the thread.

[John]

Ah. It basically just freaked out his daughter. But why are you going to your father's execution if you don't planed to be pretty scared by the event?

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I mean, it really goes to all the points above about other things being just as humane, or more so, but not looking good. Just like with so many things, it's theater.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"why are you going to your father's execution if you don't planed to be pretty scared by the event?"

He went to her ballet recitals, so the least she could do would be to go to his execution.

[DWC]

Well, they must be total incompetents or something. I have had multiple surgeries with general anesthesia and I was just gone and they could have cut my balls of and head off and arms off and I wouldn't have known it. No matter how you look at it it is just not that complicated. You give someone a morphine drip and leave it running, their breathing slows and eventually stops. It just does.

[Coeus]

They can't get real medical people to do it. hyprocatic oath, and all that.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Tea Party plot against democracy

What if there were a fourth branch of government that would allow the fans of "Duck Dynasty" to overturn Roe v. Wade, repeal Obamacare and pretty much nullify any federal law or Supreme Court decision they don't like, based on the support of as little as 12 percent of the nation's population?

"The best that we have now is the idea of nullification. But the states right now do not have a provision in the Constitution that allows them to countermand laws," Kacprowicz said. But he's crafted a proposal that would change all that. "With this provision, in the Sovereignty and States Rights Amendment, they can countermand it, and they can disallow it when 30 states say 'let's stop.'"

Sounds good. So what's wrong?

Because so many states have such small populations, as of 2012 this meant that legislatures representing just 24 percent of the total U.S. population could nullify any and all federal laws for all the rest of us. In fact, since it only requires a 50 percent +1 majority of any legislature, the actual percentage of Americans represented by them could be as low as 12 percent ? or even significantly lower, given how few people tend to vote for state legislators.

Thus, the idea of enshrining minority rule is absolutely central to Kacprowicz's vision ? it's a feature, not a bug

So?

[John]

But no state could ever nullify another state law. What this guy is really complaining about it that legislatures representing 24% of the country cold prevent him from enforcing his preferences on the rest of the country.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Lol, and as if the "tea-party" is behind this proposal. Headline should be "a couple of guys who are conservatives."

[C. Anacreon]

Forgot to mention about how only 20% of the voting population elected a batshit progressive to be mayor of New York City.

But it's only a bad thing, I'm sure, when the wrong side wins, right?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Anybody else coming across a bunch of people pimping for The Venus Project lately?

The Venus Project is an organization started by Jacque Fresco. Fresco's resource-based economy idea uses his versions of sustainable cities, energy efficiency, natural resource management and advanced automation with a global socio-economic system based on social cooperation and scientific methodology.
Started in 2003 and based in Venus, FL, Venus Project is located in a 21.5 acre facility.[1]

...

The term 'resource-based economy' is used by Venus Project to describe a hypothetical economic system in which, goods, services and information are free. Fresco's system assumes the earth is abundant with resources and that our current practice of 'rationing' resources through a price system method is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival.[4]

Basically seems to be "we're going to solve the socialist calculation and nomenklatura problems with computers and buzzwords like 'sustainable'. Shoutout to my bro Allende! Also the only reason why everyone doesn't have everything are the eternal scourge of kulaks hoarding all the 'abundant' resources that come from the 'earth' like healthcare."

[John]

I am sure that there is an exception to this that someone on here can point to. But my experience is that whenever something mentions how it is "sustainable", it is always a tragically stupid idea or program.

[Mad Scientist]

Seconded. Whenever someone says "sustainable" I automatically hear the addendum "if we make other people pay for it."

[PD Scott]

Unfortunately the supply of stupidity seems to be endlessly sustainable.

[tarran]

James P Hogan actually wrote extensively about such a system in several of his science fiction novels. However, his post-scarcity societies were that way because technology had made energy so cheap that everybody had access to gigawatts of free energy on demand. So essentially, everybody worked on the shit that interested them, and used robots to do the necessary work that didn't interest them, and if you wanted to loaf, you could, although eventually people would take up some trade because of boredom/lack of social recognition.

They are actually very entertaining books. Voyage from Yesteryear I recommend particularly.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

This sounds like the RICH economy from Robert Anton Wilson's Schr?dinger's Cat trilogy. Probably has less sex and lobster Newburg references though.

[John]

A post scarcity world is to the way we think about economics what a Boolean sphere is to Ecludian principles. Everything we know would not work.

[tarran]

Well, the thing is, he predicted much of the behaviors we see in the open source software community.

He was one of those really brilliant nutty guys. He was a fan of Velikovsky, and his Inherit the Stars trilogy is entirely based on Velikovsky's ideas. The story itself was insane, yet awesome.

[Coeus]

guess who?

I have to add that I'm actually made a bit uncomfortable by how overt Glenn Beck and The Blaze are about stoking resentment of pretty young urbane women in their audience. I don't quite feel sorry for the men who just want to take all their pent up and inarticulate feelings of rage and dump them on women that?because of education, cosmopolitanism and feminism?will never settle down as the loyal housewives of some Obama-loathing wingnut who favors camo pajamas. But I do find it repulsive that Beck and all the other right wing media outlets routinely exploit that feeling in their audience for traffic and profit.

[Andrew S.]

This one's easy. It has to be Amanduh. I'd recognize her scrawl anywhere.

[Irish]

Given that I've been to Southern states with very urbane, pretty, and non-progressive women, it seems Marcotte is once again allowing her prejudices to run wild.

"Only progressives are attractive or educated," said the troll whose grunts are incoherent to native English speakers.

[John]

And those conservative hot girls in the South who get married and have kids and live normal lives are totally unhappy. Only bitter, single harpies live fulfilled lives.

[Irish]

I personally stand in awe of these progressives who think an easy degree from a mediocre college is the same thing as 'being educated.'

I know mechanics who never attended college but read history books in their spare time. I'll take their knowledge over the propaganda that Marcotte was stuffed with at St. Edward's.

She was an English major who cannot write a coherent sentence. That would be like graduating with a BA in history and not knowing what year the Civil War started.

[John]

Their most appalling bit of stupidity is their belief that everyone outside of a few "hip" cities is some idiotic troglodyte. There are fucking brain surgeons in Tulsa and geologists with 180 IQs in North Dakota and a couple hundred million other people who do shit that those clowns couldn't do if they had a million years to learn.

[The Knarf Yenrab]

That's the problem, though: they're not intelligent or wise enough to realize how relatively unintelligent and foolish they are. That's generally the way it is with pious narcissists.

[tarran]

I don't care if they don't know the year it started.

It's their insistence that World War I ended when Hammurabi led his elephants across the Alps to conquer China, motivated by the desire to take over their lucrative beaver pelts trade... that is disappointing.

[John]

That doesn't bother me as much as when they tell me Harriot Tubman wrote the Magna Carta.

[tarran]

Martin Luther was executed by being nailed to the cathedral door in Wittenberg for selling indulgences.

[Virginian]

She was an English major who cannot write a coherent sentence. That would be like graduating with a BA in history and not knowing what year the Civil War started.

I had a professor with a PhD in International Relations from Georgetown. She also had to have the Monroe Doctrine explained to her.

People who fetishize academia are the real idiots.

[Killaz]

Suppose Marcotte got the chance to turn one of her hated hated 'Obama-loathing wingnut who favors camo pajamas' into her Pygmalion project. What would be the fate of that guy? He'd never get laid again. Ever. It's amazing how backasswards she gets basic human nature.

[Killaz]

Which is funny because every demographic is out breeding white liberal couples by a wide margin. These things are not unrelated.

[Killaz]

Another counter factual to her narrative. Around '90-92 when newspaper journalist were asked about their voting habits, it was found that around 90% of those who voted amongst their kin did so for democrats, the same question was asked of beauty pageant contestants up to including the Miss America one. The results were the exact reverse.

[Killaz]

it was found that around 90% of those who voted amongst their kin did so for democratsic candidates.

[Killaz]

'I don't quite feel sorry for the men who just want to take all their pent up and inarticulate feelings of rage'? Oh, Marcotte, you dipshit with zero self awareness.

[montana mike]

And zero dates with attractive dudes (or gals if she swings that way). You don't have to be a guy to recognize a snivelling cunt.

[PapayaSF]

Thankfully Amanda never has her own "pent up and inarticulate feelings of rage," am I right?

[Killaz]

She is a font of wisdom from on high.

[Anonymous Coward]

I would join the priesthood before I would ever share a bed, let along a marriage bed, with Aman-duh Marcotte or any woman like her.

[John]

I think Amanda is using the phrase "pretty, young urban woman" pretty loosely.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/0.....lm-critic/

will never settle down as the loyal housewives of some Obama-loathing wingnut who favors camo pajamas.

Sure you won't honey. You will just die alone and be feasted on by your seven cats until your neighbors call the landlord about the smell coming from your apartment.

[Coeus]

She's better looking than amanda, so if she's not pretty...

[Matrix]

The Profressor from Gilligan's Island is no long among us

[PapayaSF]

Wow, he was a B-24 bombardier who got shot down over Mindanao and broke both his ankles.

[John]

It is always the ones you least expect. The professor and Charles Durning were both legitimate bad asses.

[PapayaSF]

Eddie Albert comes to mind as well. He did some pre-war spying for the Army, then joined the Navy and won a Bronze Star in the invasion of Tarawa.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

What was the Professor's last name?

Was he Professor Andmaryann or Professor Andtherest?

[Corning]

Andmaryann

[Jordan]

The stereotypical Canadian politeness here is hilarious:

Canadian Teen Allowed To Board Plane After Pipe Bomb Was Discovered in His Carryon

An alert Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) guard found the bomb. Being polite, he tried to return the explosive device to Murphy. According to CBC News Edmonton, Murphy declined the offer and told the guard to keep it. Murphy then joined his family on their flight to Mexico for a vacation.

"Excuse me sir, I believe you left this bomb in your bag."
"Oh, you can keep it, officer."
"Right then, have a safe trip, eh."

[airforce]

What's wrong with the electric chair? Or a noose? If it was good enough for Julius Streicher, it ought to be good enough for the likes of Dennis McGuire.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Jon Stewart snarking about how if if the Democrats put forth a "Orgasms Cure Cancer" bill the Republicans would oppose it while trying to spin the Obama administration's handling of Iran. Also attempting to imply that the pro-Israel lobby in the US is all Republican. Sure, buddy.

Jesus Christ, I can't believe I used to actually enjoy listening to this idiot. Blech, I guess it used to be better but it's just a smugness recharging station now.

[John]

He has been funny at times. But he is pretty pathetic these days. Does anyone but the really low sloped forehead types even watch him anymore? He seems less and less relevant or is that my imagination?

[Mad Scientist]

My wife records the show on our DVR, but we almost never watch it. If he has an interesting guest, we'll give it a go.

[Paul.]

It's all really too bad because the guy has a very quick wit. I also think he can run a very good quality interview.

it just seems that his show has become a giant talking points-memo for Team Blue.

[Corning]

I can believe that Democrats believe Orgasms Cure Cancer and would try to pass legislation to force an Orgasms Cure Cancer treatment on everyone.

[Virginian]

Also attempting to imply that the pro-Israel lobby in the US is all Republican.

Yeah all those Jewish Congressmen from New York City are staunch Tea Party conservatives.

[PapayaSF]

In jerky news, I did try a half batch using lime juice and Frank's Hot Sauce as someone suggested. I'd rate it a C+. Maybe I used too much lime juice and not enough hot sauce. Next time I'll try straight hot sauce.

The Worcestershire/low-sodium soy sauce/liquid smoke/garlic/black pepper half batch is better.

[RishJoMo]

Wow man thats some crazy stuff dude.

http://www.AnonGlobal.tk

[jesse.in.mb]

PEAK HELIUM, BRO!

[johnl]

N2 is cheaper than He2, but the same idea. I can't understand why we use any drugs at all when inert gas is painless, effective, and non-toxic.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Nitrogen would work just as well, and IIRC it's cheaper.

[jesse.in.mb]

I believe you mean Heatball, citizen!

I actually had a very fun conversation with a German architect/designer about the EU lightbulb law and how much he loved the heatball solution.

[JW]

PEAK HELIUM, BRO!

You have to read that using a squeaky voice.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

In all fairness, I didn't think Wolf of Wall Street was trying to justify the arguments of the Occupy movement against Wall Street. It was pretty simply a straight ahead tale of one guys experience. It was like Goodfellas, but on Wall Street. Good film, by the way.

[C. Anacreon]

I don't know. I think they are actually getting traction with this income inequality crap. What they are hoping to use it for, of course, is just as a way to justify new taxes on productive people -- not to actually do anything to help those on the lower end raise their incomes. To do that would require getting rid of many of the regs and roadblocks that coldcock small businesses, and this Prez aint doing none of that.

So instead it's going to be, "It's not fair that this guy makes more than you do. Let's tax him to teach him a lesson."

[Killaz]

I don't get an anti-market vibe from Scorsese. He is attracted to the more protean element of life. To be anti-market is to embrace slow boring death.

[Ayn Random Variation]

I love Scorsece, but Wolf bored me because I already saw (and loved) Boileroom, Wall Street and Goodfellas.

[Corning]

When the ambassador was alive it was a consulate...after he died it became a compound.

[Killaz]

They are beating that drum to make enough noise to cover their absolute failure so they are not replaced, that is what they hope to obtain. It's purely reactionary.