All Aboard for a Sun-Filled, Intellectually Stimulating Week at Sea! You Won't Want to Miss Fixing the World: Reason Seminar Cruise 2014!

www.reasoncruise.com

Join Reason's own Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch, and some of most interesting speakers around for a spectacular week in the western Caribbean on board the brand-spanking new Celebrity Silhouette! Beginning February 9, 2014, you'll embark on a seven-day cruise through five countries and enjoy thought-provoking seminars, exclusive gourmet dinners, and private cocktail parties with other liberty-loving friends.  Currently joining us on board will be: 

• Skeptical Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg,
• Historian Johan Norberg,
• Author and former Reason Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel
• Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch,  
• ReasonTV Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie, 
• Reason Science Correspondent Ron Bailey, and
• Reason Senior Editor Jacob Sullum

We'll be traveling in style on the Celebrity Silhouette, and all-inclusive accommodations start at just $1,650 per person (and range up to deluxe cabins with incredible ocean views and private verandas).

Make your reservations now and start planning how free minds and free markets will fix the world! For more information, or to register today, visit www.reasoncruise.com.

Comments

[SIV]

Here is a passenger review of a voyage aboard the Celebrity Silhouette in January 2012.

Worst cruise ever - norovirus nightmare

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And don't get me started on the cannibalism...

[note to Celebrity Silhouette: I'm JUST KIDDING!]

[SIV]

you'll embark on a seven-day cruise through five countries and enjoy thought-provoking seminars, exclusive gourmet dinners, and private cocktail parties with other liberty-loving friends

I will say that is an impressive lineup of host/lecturers.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"I'll just have one glass, thanks..."

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk

http://i46.photobucket.com/alb....._glass.jpg

[Notorious G.K.C.]

How did the Archbishop get in there? That was copied from a different article altogether. Sigh...

[Cdr Lytton]

How did the Archbishop get in there?

That's what she said.

[Boisfeuras]

Oddly enough, the British equivalent of "that's what she said" is (for some inexplicable reason) "as the actress said to the archbishop".

[Almanian (yeah, I said it)]

...and Bob's your uncle...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

This nun story is going to end up like the Cleveland Browns thing, isn't it?

[Cdr Lytton]

She only let God down.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Speaking of nuns, here's another one:

"Leprosy village residents rejoice at nun's return

"Anto Akkara Catholic News Service | Jul. 29, 2011

"...Montfort Sister Jacqueline Jean McEwan stepped out and a beaming Karilingappa Sekharappa rushed forward on his crutches outmaneuvering two dozen other people with Hansen's disease, also known as leprosy, and their family members who were eagerly waiting the nun's arrival July 27.

"Sekharappa, 72, embraced McEwan with the stumps of his hands, his palms lost to the disease, decades ago.
Then a group of women, several without fingers, started embracing the nun one after the other with tear-filled eyes. Healthier younger women clapped and smiled.

"This is like my dead mother coming back alive. These are tears of joy," Sekharappa told Catholic News Service, wiping his eyes with a towel....

"I was an orphan and beggar in Bangalore streets until I met Sister Jean in 1983," said Sekharappa, who lives in an independent house in the village, one of five such centers across greater Bangalore.

"Sekharappa's home is one of 44 in the village that McEwan and her colleagues managed to secure in 2006 for people with Hansen's disease through the Indian government."

http://ncronline.org/news/peop.....uns-return

[Almanian (yeah, I said it)]

I'll keep the cruise jerk free and not go.

You're welcome!

[anon]

Come on, you know -somebody's- gonna be jackin' it.

[Hawk Spitui]

Heh. Just don't drop the soap!

[Warrren]

Great day's last thread, Reason. Really.

[anon]

Seriously. I come home after a long hard week of whipping slave-boys and banging hookers to see this shit.

If ya'll were my employees, I'd fire you. Every single one of you.

[Hyperion]

Yawn, lone woman at sea with many hedonistic libertarian anarchists. Ok, this WAS interesting.

ION:

Pussification of NFL

Gawd, I am so sick of the pussification of the NFL. Taunting? WTF, is the NFL the same as kindergarten? Let's just turn it into flag football and if anyone actually gets touched, let's make it a hate crime. That will do wonders for the sport.

Let me splain it to you politicians and victim class. Pro athletes are NOT fucking role models for your kids. That is YOUR job. The NFL is the job of pro athletes as entertainers. Now, get a fucking life before your ruin more things than you already have.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Related: Is it immoral to watch the Super Bowl?

The second argument [rationalizing football violence] is that players choose to incur the game's risks and are lavishly compensated for doing so. This is technically true. N.F.L. players are members of an elite fraternity that knowingly places self-sacrifice, valor and machismo above ethical or medical common sense. But most start out as kids with limited options. They may love football for its inherent virtues. But they also quickly come to see the game as a path to glory and riches. These rewards aren't inherent. They arise from a culture of fandom that views players as valuable only so long as they can perform.
[...]
Pro sports are, by definition, monetized arenas for hypermasculinity. Football is nowhere near as overtly vicious boxing. But it is the one sport that most faithfully recreates our childhood fantasies of war as a winnable contest.

Over the past 12 years, as Americans have sought a distraction from the moral incoherence of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the game has served as a loyal and satisfying proxy. It has become an acceptable way of experiencing our savage impulses, the cultural lodestar when it comes to consuming violence. What differentiates it from the glut of bloody films and video games we devour is our awareness that the violence in football, and the toll of that violence, is real.

[Episiarch]

Ah, the hairshirt brigade. Anything they--or anyone else--enjoys has to be questioned and ultimately judged on a moral scale.

These people are obnoxious as fuck, but we can take solace in the fact that they are abjectly miserable and cannot enjoy anything in their life. Suck it up, losers. Because you certainly deserve it.

So are they going to pop the earlier Independents article to the top soon or what?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

They apply all that sociology bullshit to analyze why the NFL is so popular when the answer to that is simply in the business model:

1. It's easy to follow. Only 16 games a season with most games occurring on the one day of the week most everybody has a day off.

Contrast that to 162 baseball games or 82 NBA games that are spread out over 6 months.

2. It's a television-driven sport that caters more towards the viewers at home rather than getting people to attend. Which means more lucrative television contracts with TV networks and sponsors.

3. It's easy to watch. Yes it features a lot of commercials and clock stoppage, but it's still an action-driven, contact sport. That alone is entertaining to most people.

Enjoying baseball requires a grater appreciation of the sport for what it is.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Pictured:The author

[Sevo]

Wouldn't make me buy the book; whatever message is in that link is a mystery.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Nice neck ya got there Steve.

[anon]

Related: Is it immoral to watch the Super Bowl?

Seriously?

Fuck that asshole and/or cunt. Actually, fuck everyone that works at the NYTimes.

[Apatheist ?_??]

In my bioethics class in law school we debated some law banning midget tossing in Florida or somewhere. The entire class thought it was outrageous that it was ever legal. When I asked how many of them enjoyed watching football in undergrad, instead of shutting the fuck up many instead said maybe that should be banned too!

[neoteny]

some law banning midget tossing in Florida or somewhere

In France. When it got banned some two decades ago, there were noises made that the ban took away income from some people of small stature who were entirely OK with being tossed for money. Ultimately they got saved from their false consciousness.

[BigT]

Is this the INDEPENDENTS ASSEMBLY?

[Episiarch]

It seems to be on the actual Independents thread from earlier. Scroll down, you'll find it.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Maybe?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Obamacare Signups For Private Plans Surpass 3 Million

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....59439.html

Something for both teams in this.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|1.24.14 @ 9:04PM|#
"Obamacare Signups For Private Plans Surpass 3 Million"

Gee, minus the 4 million CA cancellations, that leaves uh, carry the one, only 1 mill less than where we started!
Hey, dipshit, go lick the sweat off Obo again.

[Cytotoxic]

You forgot to mention that the vast majority of those signups were people who already had insurance.

[anon]

And the rest were people that hadn't actually purchased anything yet.

[Sevo]

But they "signed up"!

[RishJoMo]

Soun ds like a sure fire plan to me dude.

http://www.AnonWork.tk

[Mad Scientist]

I can't believe I don't have a spare oil pan baffle plate on hand. You assholes are a major distraction.

[Sevo]

Yeah, I can't find mine, either!
WIH is a oil pan baffle plate?

[Warrren]

It's the plate that baffles the oil pan with mini-mysteries and riddles.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

So it's like the Sphinx of hydrocarbons?

[Mad Scientist]

It's a flat aluminum plate that goes between the engine "block" and the oil pan on a rotary motor. It has a few strategic holes drilled in it so that oil and the oil pick up tube can still pass through it, but it prevents the oil from sloshing around during hard driving and reduces oil foaming. I'm rebuilding one of my race engines and I got to the point last night where I need to install it next, but I don't have one. The reason I don't have one is because I was ordering parts last week when the Kelley Thomas verdict came out and I got so irritated I crossed it off my list without putting it into my parts order. After a few beers, I decided that was everyone's fault but mine.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Am I too late to make a cannibal rat joke?

[Warrren]

Not at all! We'll also need a dumb blonde joke.

[Francisco d Anconia]

A blonde's house catches fire. She runs outside and dials 911.

Blonde: My house is on fire.
Dispatcher: Okay, what's your address?
Blonde: I can't remember.
Dispatcher: Well how do we get there?
Blonde: Duh...Big red truck.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Is this really an outrage?

[Francisco d Anconia]

First of all, a British food shop?

Why, in god's name, would anyone want to eat anything British, let alone pay money for it?

[jesse.in.mb]

Lemon curd!

[Francisco d Anconia]

The only contribution to cuisine that the Brits have EVER made is fish and chips.

[Snark Plissken]

Wrong! They spread the chili pepper from the Americas to places like Thailand and India, making their cuisine much livelier.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Seriously? They banned the yeast spread because it contained Vitamins?!

Jesus, Canada, are you TRYING to out-nanny Great Britain?

[RishJoMo]

You have got to be kidding me man, thats like totally insane.

http://www.Anon-Stuff.tk