A.M. Links: Zuckerberg Advocacy Group Warns of "Shocking Extremism" in Immigration Debate, Russia Calls For Global Ceasefire During Winter Olympics, Talks Between Pakistani Government and Taliban Begin

Credit: Brian Solis/wikimedia

• Mark Zuckerberg's immigration reform advocacy group has criticized the "shocking extremism" displayed by some anti-immigrant groups.

• Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Assad has improved his position but is not winning the war in Syria.
• Mitt Romney says that he won't be running for president in 2016.

• The Russian foreign ministry has called for a global ceasefire during the Winter Olympics.

• Talks between the Pakistani government and representatives from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have begun.

• Weekly jobless claims dropped by 20,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 331,000.

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.  You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here. 

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Russian foreign ministry has called for a global ceasefire during the Winter Olympics.

A ceasefire on tweeting embarrassing stories about Russia.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

I see Suckerberg has entered the 'fear-mongering' brigade.

[UnCivilServant]

Hoy northern neighbor, I'm insane today. I might not be tomorrow.

I can only hope.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Rufus rhymes with doofus... just sayin'.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Morning, Rufus. And yeah, that Zuckerberg twit really shouldn't waste his time, money, or reputation by splashing around the DC cesspool.

[Tonio]

He's probably still politically naive enough to believe he can make a difference. You see this a lot with entrepreneurs; once their fortune reaches critical mass they decide they have to leave a legacy.

[GILMORE]

I missed the part where Russia was waging War Against The Entire Globe.

Planet *Gay*, yes. But that is a Galactic War.

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

Make no mistake. My administration is advancing freedom with Obamacare. Millions of Americans can switch jobs or start their own businesses free from the worry of losing health coverage. It won't happen overnight, but this gives the security for families to grow their small businesses. There are those who say we can't do it, but I say, yes, we can.

-click-

[Aloysious]

I hate phones.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Does the Obamaphone ask 'have you checked the children?'

[DontShootMe]

Does it answer itself at 3am?

[db]

Goes to voicemail, but there's no.indication.of.a missed call until you heqr about.it.on the.news the next day.

[Loki]

+1 new voicemail.

[Agammamon]

It calls you *from inside the house*!

[UnCivilServant]

Me too. Though my hate comes from my stint in a call center. *shudders*

[Zeb]

This is getting to be like those annoying robo-calls you get around elections.

[UnCivilServant]

The ones that make me not vote for the advertized politician?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Indeed - I always suspect that the various opponents of the touted candidates in the robo calls were behind them...

[Zeb]

I once called back the number that came up for a robo call and got someone's campaign headquarters. Told them I just wanted to waste a few minutes of their time and see how they like it.

[Citizen Nothing]

It's coming from inside the country!!!

[Tonio]

And how did they like it?

[Zeb]

They seemed cheerfully ambivalent.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mark Zuckerberg's immigration reform advocacy group has criticized the "shocking extremism" displayed by some anti-immigrant groups.

Pine for it all you want, Zuckerberg, but any legislation passed by Congress will suck major cojones.

[Drake]

Doesn't he live in Singapore or somewhere now? Or, is that a different social media kid I don't care about?

[Mike Laursen]

Zuckerberg lives in Palo Alto, CA.

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

It was the other FB guy who's in Singapore now I think. The guy played by Spiderman.

[VG Zaytsev]

He must be referring the requirement for a federal permission slip to work that' in the legislation, right?

[CampingInYourPark]

The magic of stimulus in one easy to read chart:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-ma.....mprovement

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hey, steady down tick.

Bush!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Have we always used unemployment benefit requests as the meter on unemployment rates?

[some guy]

And unemployment rates are just a distraction from the real issue of workforce participation rates.

[Rasilio]

As long as I can remember we have. They might have used something different back in the 70's or before and they might have tweaked the methods of counting the jobless rate from time to time but as far back as I can remember they always used the Unemployment rate

[CampingInYourPark]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also calculates six alternate measures of unemployment, U1 through U6, that measure different aspects of unemployment:

U1:[44] Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
U3: Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.[1]
U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
U6: U5 + Part-time workers who want to work full-time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment).

Note: "Marginally attached workers" are added to the total labour force for unemployment rate calculation for U4, U5, and U6. The BLS revised the CPS in 1994 and among the changes the measure representing the official unemployment rate was renamed U3 instead of U5.

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

[waffles]

Whew, that's a relief. I was beginning to fear the government spent tons of money and we taxpayers didn't get much in return. At least we know the stimulus was effective at saving and creating jobs.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Useless without the participation rate

[Suthenboy]

Who is stupid enough to buy that shit, really?

Unemployment claims are not numbers of unemployed.

Appropriate use of the word Magic.

[Restoras]

MSNBC readers and followers of Rachel Maddow are stupid enough to beleive it.

I saw my BiL, a raving lefty, a couple weeks ago along with some other family. We were discussing the poor state of the economy - but my BiL claimed it is "humming along nicely, look how much unemployment has come down!". I pointed out that the unemployment rate has come down because of the number of people who have stopped looking for work, and also that the participation rate remains in the crater. I got a blank stare in return.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shoulda asked 'what does humming along' mean?

[PD Scott]

It's like "whistling past the graveyard" but not as shrill.

[Sudden]

It means it blows

[CampingInYourPark]

Don't you see that arrow pointing to the stimulus spending beginning at the absolute peak of UE claims? Come on, it's proof!

[waffles]

Why would someone go on the internet to tell lies?

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

To get laid?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Who is stupid enough to buy that shit, really?

The portion of the populace that does not understand that the derivative of the function tells you nothing about the current absolute value of the function. In other words, most people.

[prolefeed]

What that chart seems to be showing is that, after 5 years of Obamanomics, the new unemployment claims are still higher than during the Bush years.

Oh, and they're government statistics, so they're bullshit, of course.

[some guy]

It's easy to create a few short term jobs when you can borrow the money to do so without having to worry about ever paying it off.

[GILMORE]

Here's the retort you Libertard Anarachists Deserve =

"
1
Dan999 wrote:
10:46 AM EST

All you have to offer is hate. And that's not an argument.

2
slightlycrazy wrote:
10:46 AM EST

it's envy. they wish they could think.

amoreperfectunion wrote:
10:45 AM EST

..... how many times can you read this article before you see nobody is LOSING anything. They are CHOOSING to work less.""

AND SO THE LIBERTARIAN DRAGON HAS BEEN SLAIN.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

how many times can you read this article before you see nobody is LOSING anything. They are CHOOSING to work less

Fucking hell--Stalin could only dream of having people this gullible and unthinking supporting him.

[Flat Fifth]

how many times can you read this article before you see nobody is LOSING anything. They are CHOOSING to work less.

Funny that. Part of what I do is collections and I always have people telling me that their hours were reduced or they lost their job so they can't pay the bills. I've never once had someone tell me they're behind because they took reduced hours so they could find themselves or something.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Weekly jobless claims dropped by 20,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 331,000.

So then Obamacare isn't working?

[UnCivilServant]

Not enough people got jobs for long enough to subsequently lose, so they were ineligable for UI.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You're misreading. It's actually good people aren't working. More time to cut the grass; to stop and smell the roses.

Up is down, red is brown now. Understand?

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

Let me be clear: I just told you people can start their own businesses now that they don't have to worry about getting health insurance.

-click-

[Aloysious]

How do yo shut the ringer off on this gov. issue POC?

[DontShootMe]

Listen, and understand. That Obamaphone is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you vote Democratic.

[110 Lean]

I actually saw an Obamaphone commercial on BET yesterday. WTF?

[Agammamon]

You can't. Just like you can't opt-out of 'presidential warnings' from the new emergency broadcast system installed on all phones.

[mr simple]

POC? Phone of color? Racist!

[UnCivilServant]

I miss Alt-text. I was hoping for something witty, or perhaps even funny. Instead, I just had my regular old mouse cursor.

[Restoras]

Do you mean to say you were let down by the lack of alt+text?

[UnCivilServant]

No, I was already down, I was merely lacking in uplift.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Cleveland Brows style, yes.

[DontShootMe]

High? Or Low? Brow that is.

[UnCivilServant]

For Hit and Run? Low, definately low brow.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Indeed. Tho' I have to wonder if the Cleveland Brows could defeat the Browns...

[Auric Demonocles]

Weekly alt-text less claims jumped by 200,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted infinity.

[db]

Overheard conversations in the office:

"You look nice today!"

"Well, I'm your favorite necrophage!"

["I have your favorite necklace on."]

[Ted S.]

When somebody says "You look nice today" to me, my response is, "I look nice every day!"

[UnCivilServant]

If someone says to me "you look nice today" they're probably too drunk to drive, so I call them a cab.

[waffles]

You sound nice today.

[UnCivilServant]

I have to restock my stores of mean. I ran low.

[Doctor Whom]

Where I work, the standard response to "You look nice today" would be "I'm going to report you for sexual harassment."

[sarcasmic]

Yep.

[Restoras]

I stopped complimenting women at work because of this.

[Brett L]

The raging erection is probably a little much.

[db]

Well, it was female-on-female.

[Auric Demonocles]

Now you're going to be reported for sexual harassment related to your heteronormative bigotry.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

At the risk of repeating myself, but did you see this last night from The Interdependent thread? Cimbrian:

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

[Brett L]

I didn't know you worked for The Laundry. Or, I guess if you're in the US, the Black Chamber.

[db]

I love The Laundry Files, but Stross's insistence.on Thatcher-, Reagan-, and conservative-slamming non sequiturs in his stories really breaks up the.flow of them.

[Heedless]

The crazy thing is that it's a story about massive organizational disjunction in a government agency. You'd think he would make the obvious connection, but apparently not.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

OAS. Investing your own money is an alien thought for people conditioned to take a big, thick, dry bastone in the arse from the state.

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

Is it so hard to drop some savings in a money market?

[Drake]

We're consumers,dammit!

[db]

Man, I hope the "reasonable" developers run with this (the first, awesome part, not the second, funslaying part.

[Ted S.]

The sign said "Beware, the camel spits", and I was.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mitt Romney says that he won't be running for president in 2016.

Rick Perry bet him $10,000 he wouldn't.

[sarcasmic]

She likes what she sees! Miranda Kerr can't hide her excitement as she has a night off from modelling lingerie on the catwalk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....hange.html
Models in underwear. What's not to like?

[Ted S.]

Plus-sized models in underwear.

[sarcasmic]

Ha ha! You made John look!

[Ted S.]

I could have said, "Male models in underwear" and made Jesse and Nicole look. 😉

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Actually, you had me at plus-sized. I am disappoint!

[Flat Fifth]

Eh. Too bony. I like a little more meat on the haunches.

[db]

This morning on the drive in, I saw a car like no other: a mid-2000s BMW 3-series, lowered, with about 19" wheels, and an honest-to-Dunphy Police Interceptor grill guard/ram mounted to the front.

[Jordan]

It's always a shame when someone mutilates an innocent Bimmer. I've seen some people put fartcans on BMWs. Why?

[db]

Seriously. That is a travesty.

[db]

Plus, bonus.points for.correct use of."bimmer" vs "beamer."

[Agammamon]

Everyone knows that beemers are the bikes.

[db]

Sadly, that's not.my.experience.

[neoteny]

I thought Beemer is the correct spelling.

[db]

"Beamer" or "beemer" comes from the moniker "Beezer" for BSA bikes, which dominated until BMWs began.to.be.introduced to.competition.

[neoteny]

Well, I learn something new every day.

[Snark Plissken]

The limeys call Mercedes, 'mercs'.

[UnCivilServant]

Isn't that a mercury?

[GILMORE]

No, that's called a 'car you own because you have no other choice'

[Snark Plissken]

It will always be to me. Had a friend who had a '48 Merc, that had never been modified which I guess was pretty unusual.

[Isaac Bartram]

So do Aussies.

[Brett L]

Autocross! That's about the only reason I can think of.

[db]

Why would.it.be lowered?

[Brett L]

Great question.

[some guy]

Some people like stupid things. You, for example, seem to absolutely love using periods instead of spaces.

[db]

Hey, you try posting from a phone while skydiving nude.into thr.middle of Sochi in this.weather.

[Agammamon]

Its like you're emphatically punctuating every word. The James T Kirk of Reason.

I.have.had.enough.of.you!

[db]

I am. Honored. To be...compared to...The Shat.

[some guy]

I would, but I have a healthy fear of getting frostbite on my junk.

[The Last American Hero]

I think he's using a telegraph.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

BREAK BREAK YOUR CONCLUSION CORRECT STOP BREAK BREAK CARRY ON WITH THE GOOD WORK STOP BREAK BREAK END

[db]

DAH DIT DAH DAH
DAH DIT DAH DAH
DAH DAH DIT DIT

[Doctor Whom]

I once saw a Cadillac Seville with a fake convertible top, a trunk lid with fake chrome straps and a fake spare tire, and fake wire wheels. I wondered how much money the owner had spent to look lower-middle-class.

[Mokers]

They've been doing this a long time. Behold the power of BROUGHAM.

[Jordan]

There's also donks.

[Ted S.]

Goddman motherfucking gifs substituting for video.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

The best explanation I've ever heard for things like this came from a Russian cab driver while swerving through LA traffic.

We had noticed a few really nice cars that had this ugly flat black paint. It literally looked like someone just spraypainted their car. When we asked him if he knew why people ruined porsches, bimmers, and mercedes like that. His response will stay with me the rest of my life.

"Some fucking asshole fucking painted his fucking car that fucking way and then fucking every fucking moron fucking painted their fucking car that fucking way. They're fucking stupid."

Is it just Russians, or do people from other countries insert "fucking" as every other word in sentences?

[UnCivilServant]

I thought all cabbies talked that way.

[sarcasmic]

Young female Bosnian judge fired after she was photographed sunbathing naked on her desk by council worker in building opposite

Seen exercising in the nude and laid on the table in her office at 8am
Photographed by witness at the council offices opposite in Sarajevo
The photo was published in local media
Internal enquiry at the court building revealed identity and she was fired

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....osite.html
She can "judge" me anytime!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

WHERE WAS THAT?! ... when I was there in 1997.

[Agammamon]

Freakin' women. I've had to chase women sunbathing (not nude) off the walkways around the barracks I managed.

[mr simple]

Talks between the Pakistani government and representatives from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have begun.

So far they've agreed on pizza for lunch but the Taliban won't budge from their goat and poppys topping demands.

[Slammer]

I read that as "Shreek-e-Taliban"

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Nice.

[sarcasmic]

Democrats claim millions of jobs lost to Obamacare are a 'good thing' because people won't have to work to get health insurance

Democrats continue to insist that it's a net positive for millions of Americans to be jobless after the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented
The director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed Wednesday that Obamacare will remove the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time jobs from the economy over ten years
Some will choose to 'tuck their child in bed at night' instead of keeping a job so they can maintain health insurance, claimed one lawmaker
Another insisted that 'this isn't employers cutting jobs, this is workers being empowered'
Republicans shot back that joblessness brought on by the health insurance law would deepen a 'poverty trap' that ensnares poor people

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....bless.html
Those were crap jobs anyway.

[Restoras]

It's a good thing air is so nutritious and also protects you from the elements.

[Raven Nation]

The NY Times agrees with the Daily Mail:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02.....inion&_r=1

Winning sentence:

many workers who felt obliged to stay in a job that provided health benefits would now be able to leave those jobs or choose to work fewer hours than they otherwise would have. In other words, the report is about the choices workers can make when they are no longer tethered to an employer because of health benefits.

[Zeb]

How does anyone figure that is a good thing? Maybe if they argued that it allowed people to be more entrepreneurial because they don't need a job to get insurance it would make some sense.

What is this, France or something?

[some guy]

It's all about choice. "Should I work or just steal?" "Should I live within my means or just live large and get a bailout?"

We're talking about freedom here!

[wareagle]

and those workers who "felt obliged" to stay in jobs because of the health insurance. Whose idea was it to connect employment to insurance?

[Contrarian P]

We should all just stop working. Think of all the choices we'd have then!

[Suthenboy]

Be able to leave a job? Choice?

Nice conflation. As I keep saying, never in good faith, ever. Every time I think they have reached peak mendacity, they prove me wrong.

[Rasilio]

...

I just don't get this logic.

If they were really all that concerned about it they could quit their jobs entirely fake some mental condition that make it "impossible" for them to work them get health benefits from Medicare along with a nice chunk of change and other benefits from the welfare state.

There are a small number of people who need to work and don't want to be on the dole but are prevented from changing jobs by their need for health insurance but there is NOBODY who is only working for the insurance.

[Juice]

there is NOBODY who is only working for the insurance.

Even if there were, how does Obamacare allow them to quit? Is it because their income is now below poverty and their insurance is fully subsidized? Or wouldn't they be put on Medicaid? I still don't understand how Obamacare changes the fact that you have to pay insurance premiums.

[UnCivilServant]

I work to eat and pay rent. Insurance isn't even in my top ten reasons for not leaving the labor market.

[Sudden]

this

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

"Eat"? "Pay rent"?? Why do we even HAVE a government if you must do those things?

[Raven Nation]

I remember the stories in 2011 & 2012 about how unemployment was a good thing because people were spending more time with their families, reading books, and getting outside. One paper coined the term "funemployment."

[Juice]

I think that's what diehipster.com says about hipsters in Brooklyn.

[GILMORE]

the 'NYT comment picks': FAIR AND BALANCED example

" I view the ACA as nothing short of emancipation from the shackles of employer sponsored health insurance. Not only will the millions of people be able to stop working and enjoy life without worrying that their benefits will suddenly end when they quit, but millions more will be free to seek jobs that they love rather than drag themselves daily to work that they loathe. To paraphrase Dr. King, thank God we're free at last!"

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time, or accident, had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight."
--Edward Gibbon

[Ted S.]

It would also allow the Democrats to keep banging on about the alleged horrors of inequality.

[Auric Demonocles]

If you like your job, you can keep it.*

*We reserve the right to determine what is a "real" job is

[Doctor Whom]

And whether you really, truly like it.

[The Last American Hero]

What happened to the McJobs?

[Juice]

So the health insurance will be free?

[Brett L]

Zombies in FL again. Drugs blamed.

The similarities between the two cases are still eerie, though. Both assailants got their munch on while stark naked, both men were violent for apparently no reason, and both men were eventually killed by Florida police. Of course, can you blame authorities here? Who wants to get with in baton range of that mess?

[UnCivilServant]

So the zombie apocalypse began in Florida eh? Gotta note that for when the time bombs have to be fired into the past.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Isn't it finally time to revisit the conversation about separating Florida off from the mainland and setting it adrift in the Gulf?

[UnCivilServant]

Might be cheaper than fixing the development problmes with the time bombs.

[UnCivilServant]

*after all, right now they only go off AFTER you've triggered them instead of leaping into the past to attack your enemies before they're a threat.

[some guy]

setting it adrift in the Gulf

I'm concerned that it might not capsize, as planned.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Just put some more Marines on it!

/Rep Hank Johnson (D - GA)

[sarcasmic]

'I can't believe what I've done!' First words of ex police captain after he gunned down father over texting in movie theater revealed

Curtis Reeves, 71, plead not-guilty to second-degree murder charges in court today
He is accused of fatally shooting 43-year-old Chad Oulson because the man was texting in a movie theater
Witnesses inside the theater gave their account of events in court today as Reeves attempts to get released on bail
Family and friends of the accused killed testified on his behalf, hoping for his release
The bail hearing will continue on Friday

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....istol.html
Comments are derpaliscious!

[Brett L]

IANAL, but isn't a two day bail hearing a bit excessive to determine whether or not the dude is going to flee or commit another crime while awaiting trial?

[Andrew S.]

I knew he was a former police officer, but his son's a current one? Yeah, he's definitely getting away with this somehow.

[sarcasmic]

As a former police officer he's trained to shoot people who throw popcorn at him. It's not his fault. He was just falling back on his training.

[Auric Demonocles]

He's got to get home safe and butter-free.

[Pro Libertate]

What happened to people pleading "guilty" when they got caught red-handed? I mean, the murder is on tape, and his comment above is pretty much a confession.

[RBS]

Unions.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, I see--it's like I was shot. . .like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through my forehead.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Common Core MATH lesson plans attack Reagan, list Lincoln's religion as 'liberal'
...The lesson plan then offers three websites for obtaining information about American presidents. The "recommended" site is a page entitled "Presidents" at the website Infoplease.com.

The page links to a biography of each president and provides some key facts about each president including their home states, their ages at inauguration and their religions.

Abraham Lincoln's religion is listed as "Liberal."

Any math student who surfs over to the Infoplease.com biography of Ronald Reagan is in for a treat. The page duly explains that Reagan's "'supply side' economic program" of "tax cuts and sharp reductions in government spending" led to "the worst recession in 40 years" and a "constantly growing budget deficit." The roaring economy and the huge plunge in both inflation and unemployment that ensued rate nary a mention....

[Fist of Etiquette]

Abraham Lincoln's religion is listed as "Liberal."

What? Because he slept with his bodyguard? That's ignorant.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

The actual math to be imparted in these lessons includes ratios, averages and "number sense."

I'm feeling strangely pessimistic about the lessons' ability to teach this.

[John]

What exactly is "number sense"? Has it just been too long since I took math and I don't remember or is that some kind of prog "just feel the right answer" bullshit?

[UnCivilServant]

It allows teachers to mark as 'correct' anything within a gross margin for error, thus improving standardized test scores.

[John]

Wow. I understand that hard science has to have a margin of error since you can never measure anything perfectly. But last I looked, math, at least at the level anyone in high school or undergrad will practice lives in the ideal world where there really is one answer or set of answers.

I am just silly like that I guess.

[UnCivilServant]

From a physics class I once got a value of pi that was 6 plus or minus 3. It was technically correct.

What the "number sense" crap is doing is redefining 'correct' to lower the standard required to pass the test so that teachers don't have to try.

[John]

But Physics is not pure math. In Physics you are making predictions about the real world. So you are going to end up with some plus or minus a lot of times since you can never measure perfectly.

And of course with irrational numbers you are never going to get the exact right answer anyway.

[Rasilio]

Honestly I don't think the curriculum matters all that much.

I have twins in 5th grade, a few weeks ago one of them had a math problem that went something like you have a board that measures A x B (don't remember the exact numnbers) and need to cut it into Y equal planks. How many different ways could you do this. Basically the goal was finding the factors of the area, problem was that one of the factors was physically impossible because it resulted in planks of 2A x B/18. My son had to go through 3 different teachers before they finally agreed his answer was the only correct one.

If 2 5th grade math teacher can't use their brains to figure out the book is obviously wrong what the curriculum says is probably the less important issue.

[John]

What a convoluted stupid problem for 5th grade math.

There is a place for word problems, but at that level it is a small one I think. The problem is that kids have varying reading levels. All creating word problems does is ensure the ones are not reading well also can't do math.

I think at the 5th grade level, especially with a class full of kids of varying abilities, you are better off doing mostly straight number problems. That has the added bonus of maybe giving kids who don't read well something they can be good at.

[Pro Libertate]

It's an interesting question. Some homeschool curricula suggest that math be taught solely in terms of "word problems" (more or less), because that's more akin to real world applications of math.

[prolefeed]

I don't agree. A good word problem teaches kids to apply math to the real world, so they don't wind up regarding math as some ethereal pointless bullshit. You want to start that early.

[John]

Prolefeed,

I think they have their place. I just think it shouldn't be the entire curriculum. Learn how to do the problems first. Without that, you can't apply anything. You can do the word problems later after you have mastered doing the problems.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Actually, number sense is something kids should have, and it's just what it sounds like: a sense of numbers. Being able to say, "shit, this answer can't be right, it's obviously like an order of magnitude off or something" because you just know or whatever. But I don't think you can teach it from incredibly shitty worksheets like that.

[John]

I don't think you can teach number sense as a subject. It something that develops as you gain experience and expertise solving problems.

[prolefeed]

It isn't "a" subject, it's a mastery of the theory of numbers and being able to apply it to the real world.

Learning math is about learning a bazillion little techniques, such as knowing within 3 seconds of calculating that 3,210,655,808,154 is divisible by 3.

[Rasilio]

I agree, I actually had to break that out on a liberal on facebook last night.

They posted a meme about why CEO pay can't be used to give the workers pay raises, she just couldn't understand just how small a raise it would be once you divided the CEO pay across all the employees.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Doh. As a person with number sense, I have very little patience for its lack.

[UnCivilServant]

I'll take my one dollar a year raise from stripping the governer of his pay and distributing it among the state employees. Mostly because I hate Cuomo as a person.

[GILMORE]

1
Dan999 wrote:
10:46 AM EST

All you have to offer is hate. And that's not an argument.

Sorry, I'm reposting Dan999 everywhere as the Default Liberal Retort

[prolefeed]

What exactly is "number sense"? Has it just been too long since I took math and I don't remember or is that some kind of prog "just feel the right answer" bullshit?

I tutor kid in math -- "number sense" means instead of plugging numbers into formulas without any understanding of what is going on, you understand the underlying theory and can figure out whether your answers make sense.

Knowing that 99.99% is really close to 100% when doing rounding is one example.

[John]

That makes sense. But as I said above. That seems to be something that comes with the experience of plugging the numbers in and solving the problems instead of being something that can be taught on its own.

[prolefeed]

You can be really good at plugging numbers in and solving problems and not have any numbers sense, if you're unable to step back from the answer and ask yourself, "does this make any sense at all?"

Prog economics is replete with politicians and whatnot being incapable of grasping that what they're trying is doomed to fail, or even failing to recognize failure when it fucking blows up in their face. They don't have any number sense.

[prolefeed]

I get kids all the time who will do shit like multiply an even number by an even number and get an odd number, or do complicated calculations that wind up off by an order of magnitude, and their math bullshit sensor doesn't go off.

Number sense is basically a bullshit sensor for erroneous answers.

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

What exactly is "number sense"?

I assume this is what happens after you are bitten by a radioactive math problem.

[Ruckus]

I don't remember any Math lessons, classes, or problems that were so rooted in civic or political subject matter.

We don't need to politicize everything, esp primary/secondary mathematics.

[sarcasmic]

'It's karaoke!' Axl Rose weighs in on Red Hot Chili Peppers Super Bowl miming controversy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....raoke.html
No one cares what you have to say, Axe-hole.

[Brett L]

Still bitter about Slash's appearance with the Black-Eyed Peas, I see.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Email: IRS's Lerner, Treasury Department secretly drafted new rules to restrict nonprofits
...The Treasury Department and Lerner started devising the new rules "off-plan," meaning that their plans would not be published on the public schedule. They planned the new rules in 2012, while the IRS targeting of conservative groups was in full swing, and not after the scandal broke in order to clarify regulations as the administration has suggested.

The rules place would place much more stringent controls on what would be considered political activity by the IRS, effectively limiting the standard practices of a wide array of non-profit groups.

"Don't know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off -plan) in 2013, I've got my radar up and this seemed interesting?," Treasury official Ruth Madrigal wrote in a June 14, 2012 email to Lerner and others obtained by Ways and Means and provided to The Daily Caller....

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

FAKE SCANDAL!

/derp

[John]

They were drafting the rules in secret. Then the scandal broke and the rules magically became a response to the scandal.

And again, there is no corruption here, Lerner just took the 5th because she was too busy with other things to testify.

[GILMORE]

"That's not a *smidgen*."

[Slammer]

Mark Zuckerberg's immigration reform advocacy group has criticized the "shocking extremism" displayed by some anti-immigrant groups.

Maybe it's time to install an "unlike" button?

[John]

If I were pro open borders, I would politely ask Zuckerberg to shut the fuck up. I don't see how noxious boy billionaire who wants to be able to hire cheap coders to run his business that people are increasingly souring on due to privacy concerns and general lameness is really a good standard bearer for the cause.

[CampingInYourPark]

Why would a "coder" need to be in any certain location to code?

[John]

That is a very good question. Why does Facebook even have to be in the US and not India or anywhere else?

Kind of puts lie to his claim that he has to have loose immigration laws to run his business.

[kinnath]

Importing workers from India is more productive than trying to manage sub-contractors on the other side of the world.

[Auric Demonocles]

Who said anything about a sub-contractor? Just move the whole company.

[kinnath]

It doesn't work that way in real life. Big businesses in the US either high labor through other companies in India/China or form joint ventures.

[kinnath]

Mark Zuckerberg does not want to give up his US citizenship and go live in India. If he stays here and moves the business, his profits will taxed there, and his income will still get taxed here.

[Brett L]

Well, my experience is that despite all of the advantages of technology, either your workforce is 100% self-motivating or having multiple locations coordinating on the same programs are less efficient. You can read The Mythical Man-Month or any of the other 100 or so volumes on the fallacy of treating code and coders as cogs.

[wareagle]

if there was only a real-world example of the Man Month's premise, something recent, perhaps involving a large project with many moving pieces.

[Brett L]

If we could just have imported more West Asians...

I've been a party to about four of these attempts now to off-shore work and its been less efficient, although not necessarily more expensive. Still, my experience is that there is about a 15% premium that customers are willing to pay to not get fucked around with disconnect issues.

[Rasilio]

I've been working extensively with offshore coders and other IT assets for the last 10 years and have to encounter a single instance where it ended up being cheaper. I've seen a few where it was effectively a break even (cheaper bill rates but less efficient in terms of hours, the 2 basically canceled each other out)

[CampingInYourPark]

I've been working extensively with offshore coders and other IT assets for the last 10 years and have to encounter a single instance where it ended up being cheaper.

Cheaper than what? An estimate? If not, why would you keep doing it?

[UnCivilServant]

The managment looked at the hourly rate, and the lowball initial time estimates for each project, then the project would run into "unanticipated" delays, or be delivered essentially unusable and require the team to add time to 'fix' (ie complete) it.

[CampingInYourPark]

The managment looked at the hourly rate, and the lowball initial time estimates for each project, then the project would run into "unanticipated" delays, or be delivered essentially unusable and require the team to add time to 'fix' (ie complete) it.

Why are you talking about the engineer across the hall from me? This is about long distance project management.

[Rasilio]

Because I am not the decision maker.

As far as why executives continue to do it, there are several reasons.

1) When the VP says "I want to cut our hourly costs by 30%" or "I want N% of our resources offshore" and your yearly bonus is based on achieving that metric you don't care about the bottom line, you care about the ratio of onshore to offshore resources. You also have absolutely no incentive to filter problems with the offshore resources up the chain.

2) Executives don't see the problems injected by offshore resources, they see the reduction in labor costs. Proving a counter factual is impossible and since they are always the ones driving the move offshore they have no desire to admit to a mistake so they handwave any data which indicates that offshore increases the time to accomplish a task as sour grapes on the part of employees who are either racist or worried about losing their jobs.

Basically offshoring continuing even when it is a failure is a problem of broken incentives. Doing it gives an executive a bullet point to add to his resume to claim that he successfully lead an offshoring effort that reduced labor costs by n%, managers are given performance targets that require them to use the offshore resources and NOBODY in a position of authority has any incentive to report that there are any problems or failures involved to the C-level executives

[AlexInCT]

I've been working extensively with offshore coders and other IT assets for the last 10 years and have to encounter a single instance where it ended up being cheaper.

^^^^THIS^^^^

On paper it looks cheaper, but when we have to work overtime to correct the crap here it doesn't. Of course, management doesn't want to hear it because it's no skin off their backs that you have to work 24/7 to dea with the shit.

[CampingInYourPark]

having multiple locations coordinating on the same programs are less efficient

Are you sure it's multiple locations that make it less efficient or could it possibly be a factor of the number of coders?

[kinnath]

complicating factors

1) number of worker bees
2) location of worker bees
3) time zone differences
4) language differences
5) cultural differences

There are many, many points in a big project where nothing gets accomplished (lots of work is done, but no progress occurs) until a face-to-face meeting happens.

[Rasilio]

Both factors make it less efficient.

Multiple locations cuts down on a lot of the informal communications channels which disseminate information much more quickly and efficiently. Without them more time is needed on formal documentation and even with that there is greater levels of replication of effort and wasted effort leading the need to have more manpower to achieve the same goal.

More man power makes things less efficient becuase there is more need to spend time communicating, more possibilities of misunderstanding, and a greater need for coordination.

Basically if you bring in offshore resources for a Software development project you can add somewhere between 30% and 100% to the man hours it will take you to accomplish a given task.

[GILMORE]

"John|2.6.14 @ 9:09AM|#

If I were pro open borders, I would politely ask Zuckerberg to shut the fuck up."

Well, I'm not "pro open borders" (tm), but yeah, shut the fuck up zuck.

[Ted S.]

I was actually on a board once that instead of having an "ignore" list called it "enemies". 🙂

[John]

I believe Pro Liberate came up with that on here a few years ago. Having an "enemy" on Facebook is brilliant.

[Pro Libertate]

I remember that. A "Loathe" button, I think?

[John]

I think so. If you put someone on your "enemies" list, all of your friends had to either unfriend that person or unfriend you.

[sarcasmic]

Chicago Issues $100 Million in Bonds to Settle Police Brutality Cases

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....lity-Cases
Nothing to see here. Move along.

[UnCivilServant]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to sack the CPD and declare bankruptsy before their UI claims roll in?

[Jordan]

So, I take it Chicago is radioactive to insurers?

[UnCivilServant]

Any claim in chicago gets automatically flagged as potential fraud.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Yeah. They have to self insure, as you would have to charge more premium than the limits of the policy (assuming defense costs are outside limits).

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

So, I take it Chicago is radioactive to insurers?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Here's Proof: the Obama Administration Doesn't Care Whether You Work Or Not
...Perhaps when President Obama's acolytes and mouthpieces frame joblessness as liberation they're thinking of some future Jobses and Wozniaks, freed from hourly drudgery to retreat to the garage and change the world with their brilliance. Or maybe he has in mind a J.K. Rowling, living off welfare and dreaming up a boy wizard while doodling in cafes.

Such thinking is consistent with the elite character of the Obama administration ? some 40 percent of the president's men and women hold Ivy League degrees, with more of them receiving degrees from Oxford than from any American public school. When they shrug off jobs as limitations, Obama and Co. have in mind their gifted and talented friends.

This is magical thinking. Most people are not entrepreneurs, geniuses or novelists. Most people don't have big ideas. Most people get by and advance in small steps, not giant leaps. Jobs are the principal way people improve themselves, their lives and the lives of their families, and leave their children better off than they were....

[Red Rocks Rockin]

This whole position of theirs is just so pathetic given the party's history, and it shows just how much the culture has changed. 80 years ago, FDR and his buddies enacted a bunch of make-work programs that paid shit wages, but their argument was that if people were going to get government welfare, at least they wouldn't be sitting around the house being useless. The character of the nation back then is that work was better than sloth, even if you didn't live like a king, so people were happy to take those shit-paying jobs and live in tarpaper barracks because they had work.

Not the Dems are arguing that not working is better for the nation's character. They've basically promoted laziness as a virtue.

[Raven Nation]

Posted on earlier thread but worth seeing: science will save us from pot legalization:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/re.....125514.htm

[Zeb]

I'm sure it's quite alarming if your kid eats some pot food and starts barfing and acting all weird. But medical intervention is very unlikely to be necessary.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Porn star fears her illegal O-sized breasts could kill her

[Ted S.]

There's a law saying how big one's breasts may be? Chuck Schumer's going to go to prison for a long time then.

And nobody forced her to get breasts that size.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

ewwwwww.......

[Auric Demonocles]

Yeah, I like large boobs, but that's not remotely attractive.

[John]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....-bill.html

See it is okay to let the government track your every move because it will produce an efficient fair tax system. Hell, just ask the VA Libertarian Party.

And note how Caterpillar is one of the biggest backers of this idea. No conflict of interest there. And I am sure Representative Shuster (R) is not in line for any kickbacks or anything. No, he just wants an efficient tax system and to save the ROADZ!!

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Westinghouse CEO: Decommissioning is part of the nuclear life cycle

From the comments:

Secondly, this shows the problem with the capitalist mode of production as it's practiced in the U.S. For corporation it's generally both the bottom line and, the responsibility to the stock holders.

No shit. A company is trying to turn a profit and be responsible to the people who invest in the company. FAILURE OF CAPITALISM!!!

[...]

The closing of San Onofre NPP was based not on what the population of California needs but on the needs to the corporation and the immediate financial stakeholders. So they closed it. Leaving nuclear to the "Market" is both a-historical and self-defeating. It's not happening and it won't happen, even with massive regulatory reform (which should occur anyway). We need a true energy policy akin to the Chinese, the French, even the British.

San Onfre was closed due to the NRC basically stalling and threatening until the utilities only viable solution was to decommission the plant down. I guarantee SCE did not want to lose that asset.

The first idea is always government assistance. "How can we get government to give us the upper hand??" Government has been a large portion of the problems, why do you want to continue to bring government into the nuclear industry?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

why do you want to continue to bring government into the nuclear industry?

Because OBEY!

[Ted S.]

why do you want to continue to bring government into the nuclear industry?

They believe they can use Big Government to hobble their rivals.

[waffles]

Westinghouse has always had an extremely conservative culture and absolute deference to government authority and intervention in the Nuclear Industry. Now that Westinghouse is actually building new plants the culture has to change from decay to life. Over the past few years there has been an ongoing culture shift that is slowly forcing the business to operate with a sense of urgency that is completely hamstrung by the piles and piles of procedures. I think the AP1000 will get done, it will be later and more expensive than it was forecasted to be, but I imagine there will be at least 12 AP1000s and first 8 will be the first new nuclear.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I love what Westinghouse is doing and their CEO is out there talking on financial programs and pushing his product. It is paying off because the AP1000 is killing it in new builds.

It is hard to find concrete numbers, but the cost of two AP1000's is in China estimated at ~$7 Billion. The South Carolina two AP1000's are estimated to cost $14 Billion. Twice as much.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yes, the government is desperately trying to get companies to open new nuclear plants but they just refuse to go along.

[Drake]

Isn't San Onfre the base load for San Diego? How will they replace that? with a few more windmills?

I don't understand why a nuke plant would ever be decommissioned. Why not just replace the reactors and continue to get economic value from the hundreds of $millions of infrastructure around it?

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The new steam generators from Mitsubishi they installed had a design problem where when run at full power the tubes would vibrate and a couple small holes developed in them. So reactor water was able to get from the reactor loop into the turbine loop. This presented a potential radiation leak issue. However, the leak was really small and if run at less than full power the leak would not get worse. One reactor hadn't even developed a leak yet so that reactor would run fine if not pushed to the power level where the steam generator tubes would vibrate.

They had to shut down all the reactors when this was detected. The NRC was going to make them go through a ton of shit to do anything so SCE decided to scrap it all.

Likely, natural gas or coal power from out-of-state will fill the void.

[Drake]

So bad cars aren't Mitsubishi's only products. I smell giant lawsuit.

[Brett L]

My one Mitsu ran like a top for seven years despite me running it with the wrong spark-plugs for about 7000 miles. (Granted it would sometimes stall out at idle during that period.) But until it got hit and the front axle broke, it was solid gold. Even then, a 30mph side on collision I walked away from without even bruising. Would buy again.

[John]

To the surprise of no one who pays any attention elite colleges are producing uneducated retards. Yesterday someone put up a link to a Rhodes Scholar who thinks single payer legal where the government limits how much you can spend on defending yourself in court is a great idea. Since he went to elite schools, he probably has no knowledge or history or much of anything beyond Prog dogma.

Not a single institution except for the military academies requires a foundational, college-level course in American history or government. Only two require an economics course; only five require a literature course.

http://www.mindingthecampus.co.....e_tha.html

[sarcasmic]

The point of going to an elite college is not to get an education. It's to make connections who will set you up with high paying do-nothing government jobs.

[Jordan]

Not a single institution except for the military academies requires a foundational, college-level course in American history or government.

Considering the state of some history and political science departments, that may be a blessing in disguise. Sadly.

[John]

Good point. The one institution outside of academics where liberal arts majors from elite colleges still dominate is the major news media. If that is not an indictment of the quality of education these schools are giving their students, nothing is.

[Doctor Whom]

I've known lots of "educated" people who cannot frame an argument beyond "I feel it in my heart" or "Marx/Freud/Derrida said...."

[lap83]

Don't forgot, "You're racist/fascist/stupid/evil"

[some guy]

"Marx/Freud/Derrida said...."

Ah yes, the old appeal to authority fallacy. This is a favorite of the liberal arts major because rote memorization is all they can do.

[Brett L]

Ugh. I had to read Derrida. Luckily after being exposed to a six hour philosophy survey by an awesome professor and a half-semester of Kierkegaard beforehand. Derrida came across as the bullshitter he was. Smart, but useless. Which I think is why people like his arguments. They are sophisticated, consistent, and explained at length, however, they produce nothing of value when applied.

[John]

It is just made up bullshit. They always talk about how you have to "get into the language" of it to understand it.

What that means is you have to learn to use technical words like you understand what they mean even though they really don't have any meaning.

[Brett L]

If you read him closely, the whole point is of deconstructionism is to create an argument antithetical or unconsidered by the original text that supports your narrative. Its all right there.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I have been in and around the academic setting for 8 years now. I am yet to meet another libertarian (I don't search them out though) and I am yet to meet someone who isn't a statist when it comes to healthcare and firearm laws. Not a single person. The only libertarian I know personally is my father.

A lot of university education does not teach people to critically assess anything, but only to regurgitate information that is usually presented by a bias professor. 90% of the class + the prof believe progressive politics. Go with the flow or get a chit grade. I found that out during a philosophy class I was taking in second year. I dropped that class before it could do any permanent danger to my transcript.

[John]

Roger Simon had a post yesterday defending the NY Times editorial page from the charges of bad writing. His defense was that the things they are charged with defending are so stupid and indefensible that there is no way you could do it without engaging in bad writing and poor logic.

That is really what is happening in academia. Their fanatical commitment to an idiotic dogma, has forced them to throw out all rationality and clear thinking.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

They have to perform a sort of gymnastics to write papers and keep to their dogma and it ends in an awful piece of writing.

[Drake]

Take a walk over to the business / MBA program if your institution has one. You will definitely find a few there - or at least hard core economic freedom types.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Actually the one friend I have from home that could easily become libertarian if pushed a little is a commerce major (and he runs his own business).

I find a lot of people like the idea of free-trade but once you start getting into detailed discussion, most default to a need to regulating *certain* things.

[Loki]

Go with the flow or get a chit grade. I found that out during a philosophy class I was taking in second year.

I got a D in Values and Ethics for that very reason. It was a required course for engineers at my school, so I assumed it was going to be a series of engineering disaster case studies and a review of the engineering decisions made that might have averted the disaster had the designers not cut corners or whatnot.

But no. It was basically a "debate" class taught by a hardcore progtard professor who would divide the class into roughly "left" vs "right" and debate topics such as abortion, gun control, affirmitive action, the death penalty, etc. Then you had to write a stupid journal each week talking about your feelings on the subject at hand. As near as I could your grade was based purely on how far to the left you were. With an additional -2 letter grade modifier for ROTC cadets. It was the most worthless class I took the entire time I was in college.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

It was basically a "debate" class taught by a hardcore progtard professor who would divide the class into roughly "left" vs "right" and debate topics such as abortion, gun control, affirmitive action, the death penalty, etc

I forgot how useful abortion, gun control, affirmative action, and the death penalty debates are to performing our craft. Definitely more useful than discussing engineering disasters or ethical procedures in providing engineered products/designs.

[Loki]

Aren't they though? Not a day goes by that I don't have to consider the ethical ramifications of abortion when reviewing a system specification.

[UnCivilServant]

When I had a course like that, the instructor was clueless to the content they were supposed to cover and passed us by default rather than risk being called out by the department they worked in.

[Don Mynack]

One of the first professors I ever had was a libertarian or libertarian-ish (he was real into the group Accuracy in Media).

He was kind of sweaty, wore terrible glasses, and I thought he was kind of a weirdo.

[John]

Fans not showing up to Solchi.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....6-03-42-18

Maybe having the Olympics in a place that requires impossibly high airfares to get to and in a country with a running terrorism problem wasn't such a good idea.

I know the Olympics are not popular on here. But they are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I know the reasons to dislike them and that is why it is a guilty pleasure. The Greeks had them in one place. Maybe we should do the same. Why aren't these things in Switzerland every four years where you could over time perfect the infrastructure?

[UnCivilServant]

I refuse to deal with the TSA again. I don't think I'm alone.

[John]

Yeah. I will drive anywhere under 12 hours now. And can you imagine what the Russian counterpart of TSA is like?

[Tim]

An ignorant, but muscular Russian matron forces you headfirst into the x-ray machine.

[John]

Some people pay by the hour for that kind of treatment. So there is that.

[Contrarian P]

In Russia the x-ray machine divides by you.

[PD Scott]

That's okay, it doesn't work.

[CampingInYourPark]

Yeah. I will drive anywhere under 12 hours now. And can you imagine what the Russian counterpart of TSA is like?

I don't know why you would think there's any difference worth noting. I guess the only thing I noticed is they don't look like they just lost their job manning the fryer.

[RBS]

Some of us like the Olympics as an athletic event. I enjoy watching sports that do not get any or very little coverage over here. I think a permanent site for both games is a great idea.

[db]

Good idea on having a single world venue for the.Olympics, but who would.want.it? On The other.hand, it might have a chance at actually making some.revenue rather than sadling cities with decaying infrastructure for years aheqd.

On the gripping hand, I think Russia is.being.smart by.building pre-decayed infrastructure for.these Games: when.you.know it will fall apart anyway, why not.build a true.Potemkin Olympic Village?

[John]

I think someone would. The reasons why the games lose so much money is that you have to build infrastructure that only gets used once. If you had the games every four years, you could use the infrastructure for its entire lifespan and make money.

I would put it in Switzerland since the Swiss obviously have great mountains and are neutral and unlikely to be the subject of a boycott.

You could put the summer games in Canada or maybe Scandinavia, somewhere with nice weather than no one ever gets angry at.

[tarran]

Switzerland is warm in the summer.

Plus every year you have the Knabenschiessen

On the second weekend in September each year, about 4,000 Zurich boys, ages 12 to 16, (and since 1991 girls too) take part in a marksmanship contest. They use a modern rifle like the one they will later be issued in the army. The winner, who generally is picked in an elimination round on Monday, is named King of the Marksmen and holds the spotlight for a day.

[John]

True. It is beautiful in the Summer. You could play all of t he games there. The only problem is the high altitude would bring down the times in the track and swimming events taking away the excitement of world records being broken.

[db]

I.was in Switzerland last June and it was absolutely beautiful. The sounds of.shooting echoing around the valley on.saturday were music.to my ears. There were obvious.bolt.guns, semis, and even a couple of fulll autos making a.beautiful symphony.of shooting.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Ah....schiessgewehren!

Zurich is wonderful in late Spring, early Summer.

[Loki]

On the second weekend in September each year, about 4,000 Zurich boys, ages 12 to 16, (and since 1991 girls too) take part in a marksmanship contest.

"Oh noez, teh EVUL GUNZ! We can't hold an event dedicated to WIRLD PEESE in a country where everyone's armed! Are you nuts?! Quick, someone get me to my fainting couch and fetch my clutching pearlz!" - Progderp

[neoteny]

(Southern) Ontario gets hot & humid in the summer. (Coastal) British Columbia has very nice summer weather.

[Zeb]

I like the Switzerland idea. The winter Olympics should always be in the Alps if you ask me.

[Auric Demonocles]

Apparently the opening ceremonies are actually after the snowboarding competitions start. I don't really care about the Olympics (either way) but that sounds stupid.

[Zeb]

That's been happening for a long time.

[mr simple]

What, and let the Swiss get all that sweet tourist revenue and good publicity? And how would the Olympic committe get all of their kickbacks?
I love the olympics, too, but I love all things sport and this gives me a chance to see all the sports I don't care about the rest of the olympiad.

[Zeb]

But they are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.

Oh, don't feel guilty. Love the sport, hate the IOC and the TV coverage. I hope NBC does what they did for the last summer Olympics and just put the unedited video of most of the events online.

I really like a lot of the individual sports that rarely get coverage in the US, so I think the Olympics is great. I'd fix it by shooting the IOC and only having it in places where the facilities already exist.

[John]

I hate the coverage so much. The summer games drove me nuts. Every night in prime time it was fucking beach volleyball for two hours. I don't give a fuck about volleyball. I want to see track and swimming and the various other sports that I only watch once a year.

Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me.

[RBS]

I got lucky, during the last summer games I was still a stay at home dad and watched pretty much every event I wanted.

[John]

I was working and would come home hoping to watch something cool and inevitably get another shot of Misty May Trainer picking her suit out of the crack of her ass.

I guess there is worse things to look at. But it was not really what I turned on the Olympics to watch.

[Loki]

Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me.

...
I was working and would come home hoping to watch something cool and inevitably get another shot of Misty May Trainer picking her suit out of the crack of her ass.

I think I know why they chose to show so much women's beach volleyball...

[RBS]

Misty May isn't even the hot one on that team.

[Loki]

I'm not saying she did anything for me, but there may be some guys who are into 30 something MILFs with fucked up grills. Rule 34 and all that.

[John]

Except she wasn't very hot.

[Auric Demonocles]

Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me.

Maybe you'd understand if it they had a heavyweight division?

[John]

If you want to watch porn, we have the internet for that. And the American chicks they were promoting were not that hot. They were both in the 30s and had dropped a couple of kids. It is not like they were following the Brazilian team or something.

I didn't turn it on for MILF porn.

[Auric Demonocles]

It's not about what I want. It's about what the largest group of potential viewers want.

[tarran]

Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me.

Dude! Please don't send hanging fastballs down the middle when Sarcasmic is up at bat.... It's embarrassing.

[John]

Both the Americans were over 30s and moms. Sorry, but MILF porn doesn't work for me. And besides, that is what the internet is for.

[Zeb]

Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me.

I can think of a few reasons. But it was definitely overdone.

[Rasilio]

"Why they decided women's beach volleyball was the most interesting sport at the Olympics is beyond me."

Uh, sweaty half naked women

[mr simple]

In all seriousness, I think they follow the sports the Americans are most likely to win and where Americans know the names of the participants. Most people like familiarity and will only watch if they can root for someone they know. People wanted to watch to see if the American team could win its third (or whatever) gold in a row and feel like a superior country.

[mr simple]

But I appreciate that they show all sports online. I got to watch a lot of weightlifting, fencing and field hockey (although I'm pretty sure I could have coached the Americans better in this sport) that I would otherwise never have been able to.

[John]

It took all of the fun out of the Olympics. The fun part is watching a lot of different sports you rarely see, not one sport night after night. If I wanted that, I would buy an NBA league pass.

[Don Mynack]

Man, you posted this right before I did. Look at the egg on my face!

[GILMORE]

"Why aren't these things in Switzerland every four years where you could over time perfect the infrastructure"

lOLOLLOLOLLO HAHAHHAHAH hAHA HAHAHhaaahahahaha OOHHW WEEEEEEHEHAHAHAHAAHA
...cough, sputter....

...oh, mercy.

John, the Olympics stopped being about 'sports' sometime around Hitler. Now its basically an Official Global Bribe Management Program.

That said, I used to like the Boxing. When they actually showed it on TV. And Greco-Roman (nohomo!) naturally. For some reason every time I've looked in the last few years its gymnastics and [INSERT OTHER where an American is winning, see: Swimming]

[John]

Yeah. The IOC is basically a roving band of Eurotrash that collects bribes.

[RBS]

Work related gripe: My boss is pregnant and "our" (her) assistant is doing some insane juice fast. It's like the perfect storm of irritability.

[Tim]

Get McDonald's for lunch at your desk.

[SugarFree]

Tell them that you will have to start masturbating 4-5 times a day in the office for matters of prostate health.

[Auric Demonocles]

Of course you've got a pregnancy fetish.

[SugarFree]

I'm try to help and all I get are ad homs!

[tarran]

You're grammar sucks, dude.

[SugarFree]

More ad homs! All you people have are insults, not arguments!!!1!!

[GILMORE]

"Dan999 wrote:
10:46 AM EST

All you have to offer is hate. And that's not an argument."

[Loki]

I knew a guy who had a vasectomy and was under doctor's orders to masterbate once every few hours for the first week or two after surgery. So he got to say things to his boss like "I'd love to go to that meeting, but I've gotta go rub one out. Doctors orders!" Luckily his boss was a dude who had a sense of humor.

[Rasilio]

I don't buy it, the Dr didn't say anything to me about that after my Vasectomy

[Loki]

I suppose it's possible he was making it up in order to have an excuse to jerk off at work, but I thought it was to make sure the pipes were still working. Although I'm pretty sure banging his wife every night for a couple of weeks would serve that purposes just as well.

[SugarFree]

Gawker doubles down on "para bellum" idiocy.

MisterHippityUAdam Weinstein271L
I just want to issue a pre-emptive "fuck you" to any right-wing gun historian types who may be planning to post comments here about how the parabellum pistol was invented before the Nazis came to power etc etc fuck you we don't want to hear about it fuck off

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA

[db]

What? Why do you even bother to.read that shit?

[SugarFree]

I was bitten by a radioactive retard. If I don't spend a certain amount of time around them, by body begins to decay.

[UnCivilServant]

Did you at least get their strength?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

I'm gonna dispel a few myths, a few rumors. First off, the retarded don't rule the night. They don't rule it. Nobody does. And they don't run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[SugarFree]

That's all I got. Degenerate cake lust.

[Loki]

That must really suck, what with the diabeetus and all. Or is that how you got the 'beetus in the first place?

[SugarFree]

I was also bitten by a radioactive diabetic.

I really should stop getting bitten by radioactive things. 🙁

[Loki]

But eventually, you may someday be bitten by a radioactive sasquatch and given super STEVE SMITH rapey powers.

[SugarFree]

STEVE SMITH bites only give you cancer of the taint. Even if that wasn't where he bit you. It's a horrible way to die.

[Tim]

Latin is the White Straight Christian Male of languages.

[GILMORE]

yeah, well, Tu Quoque, or something, HATER

[Jordan]

Stupid teathuglicans with their facts and their logic.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

OH GOD THIS IS SO GOOD/BAD

Just like the Swastika has absolutely nothing to do with Nazis because it's based on a thing that's blah-blah-blah.

Try harder.

OH WAIT NO THIS ONE

ugh we don't care go back to breitbart.com with your stupid gun trivia jesus god almighty

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Oh this is gold. Gold!

So your defense is: Even though 9mm parabellum and the Pistole Parabellum originated with the German military through two world wars, that ammunition has become the preferred global standard for punching holes in people's flesh and mushrooming their internal organs, so that makes it an appropriate name association for a major American political party? Got it.

Never change, Adam Weinstein, never change.

[John]

Has anyone told Adam that the US military wears helmets that extend down from the back around your neck? You know like the ones the German military developed?

And while we are at it, we have all of these things called ballistic missiles that were invented by some guy name Von Braun, Werner Von Braun.

I really hope the people who named that organization did so with the intention of trolling these morons. I would like to live on an earth where someone is that clever and understands these people so well.

[Loki]

Has anyone told Adam that the US military wears helmets that extend down from the back around your neck? You know like the ones the German military developed?

Adam probably already thinks the military is a bunch of Nazis, so maybe someone should point that out to him so that he can write another retarded article about that. For the lulz. Unfortunately way too many people would take him seriously. "OMG, I never realized how similar our military is the the Nazis, I mean, they even use similar equipment!"

[John]

And the ACU's are basically field grey. When the ACU's came out a friend of mine said "you know we should just go all of the way and put spikes on the top of our helmets."

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

It's literally named after the gun. The gun was named first, and the lab was named after. Note that nobody ever said it was named for the gun. That would presuppose a certain amount of cultural awareness among the lab-namers that seems wanting!

So. Insanely. Weak.

[Pro Libertate]

Aside from the ahistorical mess of the argument and the many failures in logic (particularly the egregious post hoc ergo propter hoc one), it's not like many people associate that phrase with that gun or any other.

It's an obvious attempt to tar the organization with something that no one in their right mind thinks happened--that it was named after some German/Nazi thing.

[Loki]

When you don't have logic and facts on your side, simply imply that your political enemies are Nazis. It's progtard 101.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, they should know, with their greater familiarity with Nazi tactics and methods.

[lap83]

The reactions are normally reserved for trolls. Is that the prog definition of a troll? Someone who ruins a fun ignorant discussion with the facts?

[Loki]

Is that the prog definition of a troll? Someone who ruins a fun ignorant discussion with the facts?

Obviously. That and anyone who disagrees with their hivemind.

[Zeb]

Don't tell them that the word "campaign" as used in elections is a war metaphor.

[John]

Or that our entire military staff system comes from a man named Sharnhorst. The horror.

[RBS]

Or that some Prussian dude played a significant role in our independence.

[Loki]

Doubleing down on idiocy is all they have.

[The Late P Brooks]

Work related gripe:

Go ahead and quit. Obamacare will take care of you.

[Loki]

Burglar scared away by singing novelty bass.

At first I thought "what a pussy" but when you think about it, it would be kind of wierd to break into a place and then hear someone/ thing start singing. Assuming it's dark and you can't see where it's coming from.

[Brett L]

Oh shit! Its Sub-Zero! I've stumbled into Running Man!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Killian, here's your Subzero, now plain zero.

[GILMORE]

+1 "I promise to kill you last"

[Matrix]

Posted last night. Worth repeating.

NYPD Cop breaks a 10 year old boys leg and sexually assaults his mother

Why? Because the cop was knocking on the door and the boy was recording his encounter with the officer.

Someone assaults my child, I don't care who it is... they're getting a beatdown!

[John]

They must literally walk around in a violent rage all day. I have a pretty bad temper. But I can't imagine breaking a kid's leg or ever acting like that.

You don't just one day snap and get that violent. That is the result of training and repeated behavior.

[SugarFree]

The best bit:

Police had been looking for Krystle Silvera's ex-boyfriend in connection with violating an order of protection.

"I'm looking for someone who has been stalking and threatening you! Stop resisting!"

[John]

You can't make that shit up. I am here to protect you. Now excuse me while I assault your kid and rape you.

[sarcasmic]

"My neighbors saw me naked. It was degrading. I can deal with the embarrassment of what (the police) did to me in front of my neighbors, but the hardest thing is explaining to my kids that not all police are bad," she explained.

Some people never learn...

[db]

Why, at this point, would she.be.even considering telling.her.kids that cops aren't.bad. they should.be.presuming.badness but imagining that some are decent.

[Loki]

the hardest thing is explaining to my kids that not all police are bad,

I hope the kid looked her in the eye and said "Citation needed, mom."

[Zeb]

Someone assaults my child, I don't care who it is... they're getting a beatdown!

Well, for your child's sake (and yours), I really hope a cop never assaults your child. Having a dead or imprisoned father probably wouldn't help his recovery.

[The Late P Brooks]

fuck you we don't want to hear about it fuck off

When we're having a dialog, don't pretend I want to hear you speak.

[Loki]

Mark Zuckerberg's immigration reform advocacy group has criticized the "shocking extremism" displayed by some anti-immigrant groups.

Like I'm going to listen to someone who looks like the long lost lovechild of Adam Sandler and Jesse Eisenburg...

[Don Mynack]

Huge surprise - nobody is going to Sochi except Russians and one South Korean.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....6-03-42-18

[Citizen Nothing]

So yesterday my eldest was selected as Editor-in-Chief for next year's Law Review at Indiana University. I guess that makes him the Hoosier Obama.

[Brett L]

I hope he's specializing in criminal so we can all make bail when we hurl the bricks of your ashes through the statehouse windows.

[Citizen Nothing]

I love you, Brett L. You'll be the first to make bail.

[John]

Congratulations. And since it is a state school, there is a good chance that your eldest has learned a few things and has some brains.

[The Late P Brooks]

Current temperature: -19F

And of course, every time you turn around, you get to hear somebody say, "Back in the [insert random decade before YOU moved to Montana]s, it was COLD. This isn't cold, blah, blah blah."

I spent a few days in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, back in the late seventies when the overnight low was -40F and it never got warmer than about -15 during the day. Guess what; IT SUCKED. It was so fucking cold, it HURT. The skiing sucked. Why the fuck would anybody profess to be nostalgic for that shit?

Bring on teh GLOBAL WARMZIN!!11!!

[John]

It was really fucking cold in the 70s. And sadly, I think it might be getting that cold again. In the winter of 76-77, the Chesapeake bay froze over such that you could walk to the Eastern Shore.

http://blog.baybackpack.com/?p=1317

If you have ever been to the area, the pictures in that link are amazing.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Back when my father went to the school I go to in the late 70's, Lake Ontario would freeze over in the winter enough so that you could drive a car on the ice over to the island about a mile and half out from mainland.

I've been here for about 6.5 years and have never seen ice thick enough for this to happen until this year. I'm also looking out my office window at the frigid -22*C weather and notice the wind farm across the lake on Wolf Island is completely still. What a marvellous piece of technology that wind energy is. Never there when you need it.

[John]

It is amazing. So much better than a single factory burning coal or oil that produces enough power to run a city 24/7.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

The sick part of it is wind farms almost always require some form of backup to "even out" the huge dips and surges in the power they provide. Usually some form of natural gas generators is paired up since they can be throttles very well. However, running a NG generator like this is pretty inefficient.

So, in the end, you have to build twice the capacity and the NG capacity is run inefficiently so you barely reduce CO2 emissions, if they are reduced at all.

[John]

And they murder birds by the thousands.

Remember we banned DDT and brought malaria back because it was killing a few raptors. Now we are totally okay with killing them in the name of the green energy cult.

We are so barbaric. We have the most advanced civilization in history. Yet, our power grid is in worse shape than it has ever been. We are really facing the prospect of the lights going out in the next few years. All because we are idiotic and superstitious. I sometimes think we are living at the beginning of a new dark ages.

[tarran]

I sometimes think we are living at the beginning of a new dark ages.

Nah. It's just that the trainees are running the show.

[Raston Bot]

I would consider dragging a makeshift shack out and ice fishing if that happened again. But only to drink beer in a shack. I would not likely catch anything.

[John]

They seemed to be having fun in Grumpy Old Men

[Raston Bot]

Exactly. Hang a gone fishin sign outside, a padded bench inside. I get that.

[GILMORE]

I thought ice fishing and baseball were the same thing = lies you tell when you just want to sit outside and drink beer and tell everyone else to fuck off?

[sarcasmic]

I spent some of my high school years up on the Colorado Rockies.

The one snow day we had wasn't because of the three feet of snow. It was because it was thirty below zero and the buses wouldn't start.

[The Late P Brooks]

my eldest was selected as Editor-in-Chief for next year's Law Review at Indiana University.

Keep reminding him substance is for suckers.

[np]

America Is Finally Getting Its First Cat Cafes

You want some kitten with that coffee?

The San Francisco Bay Area is getting the United States' first and second cat cafes, a feline phenomenon by way of Japan that reimagines cafes as oases where patrons can kick back with a hot drink and a resident cat. Because who hasn't felt their earl grey would go great with some ambient purring?

[Zeb]

Sounds nice.

[UnCivilServant]

I first thought it was a cafe for cats. Sadly that image didn't surprise me either.

[John]

That is a great idea. Gives a few homeless cats a job. How long before the health department shuts it down or some asshole with allergies sues because they feel othered or something?

People love animals. And being around animals has a real therapeutic effect. I would probably be in a better mood if I could take a lunch a couple of times a week and hang out with a nice cat or dog.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I know! I've been waiting years for a cat cafe. Now I'm psyched.

[SugarFree]

Totally go to the cat cafe. And what if the cats in the cafe were up for adoption?

Actually, why not a petting zoo / bar? (The bar part is mostly to keep kids away.)

[John]

The adoption idea is brilliant. You could adopt the cats out and go down to the pound and pick up replacements. People would come and spend money at your place as a way of supporting animals.

[Citizen Nothing]

Brilliant. I want the Ohio franchise.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

YOU JUST INVENTED THE ZOO I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR MY WHOLE LIFE

[SugarFree]

Seriously. Have a few brews, pet some goats, do some shots, hang out with an alpaca. And we'd have to have the coolest of all rodents, the capybara.

"Damn, girl... you wanna hot tub with me?"

[John]

Don't capybara's bite? That is a serious rodent.

[SugarFree]

If well socialized, they are supposed to make pretty good pets. They can be leash and litter box trained, at least.

I just like that 'bara attitude.

[John]

I didn't know that. They are very cute.

[SIV]

The San Antonio Zoo had them in the children's "petting zoo" area behind nothing more than a 3 rail wooden fence. There was a sign saying not to touch but kids were poking and petting them anyways. The giant rodents seemed very laid back and tame. I was hoping they'd come get one for anaconda feeding time but it was canceled for some reason.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Yes! Yes I do!

[db]

Nice!

[mr simple]

They are:

KitTea will be a halfway home for adoptable cats and has partnered with two shelters to populate the cafe.

[Jordan]

Read the first comment. It's all about how these cats would be better off sitting in a cage in a shelter because "EWW PROFITS!".

[John]

These people are fucking sick. They really are. Better to put the cat down or leave them to roam the streets dying of disease and starvation than have them be exploited by evil capitalists.

[Matrix]

Communists/Socialists are truly the scum of humanity.

It is better for children to starve, animals to suffer, and the people in need to go without because SOMEBODY MIGHT MAKE A DIME IN PROFIT HELPING OTHERS! We'd all be living in squalor and filth if it was up to these, just so long as nobody profits off of giving us a better life.

They should all drink molten lead.

[GILMORE]

THIS IDOL WORSHIP OF TEH FELINES IS COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY! WHAT OF THE VOLK?!

Richard C. (CHARLESTHETENTH)
210 Fans

To much emphasis on the animal thing. For some Humans it's preference for animals over other Humans. Where have we gone wrong?

GriefTroll!!FTW

[John]

I shouldn't, but I did.

There's two places to put on my "avoid at all costs" list. Because I'm allergic. But also because I have an aversion to commercially exploiting animals in need. Now, if it were a bring your own cat venue, I'd still avoid it, but at least it wouldn't be glaringly exploitative.

So, when are these guys opening their "rent a granny" venue?

The funny thing is that I could totally see a business where by you paid to sit down and talk to some nice old person for a bit. It would give a lot of lonely older people someone to talk to and some extra money. But to this asshole, that would be horrible. Better to sit in an apartment or nursing home alone than sully yourself with unclean commerce. Progressivism is a cult.

[Loki]

Better to sit in an apartment or nursing home alone than sully yourself with unclean commerce.

I've heard something similar on the list of reasons why progtards hate Wal Mart. Because apparently giving them something to do and get out of their houses a few hours a week is the height of evilness or some shit.

Because all work is exploitative according to them, plus old people are to be put in homes so that you don't have to see them or ever give them a second thought. Which makes Wal Mart double plus evil for hiring them as greeters. Not only are they "exploiting" them but they're forcing people to see and interact with icky old people.

[John]

It is really no different than claiming that this or that food is "unclean". Since it lacks any sort of metaphysics, I wouldn't call it a religion. But it is definitely a cult.

[lap83]

In one of my classes last semester I overheard an exchange illustrating how dumb liberal college students view Walmart

1st student: "I have something I need to tell you.....I..*takes a deep breath*...went to the Walmart museum over the break"

2nd student: "Oh. My. God."

1st student: "I know..I know"

2nd student: *gravely* "You realize that's like visiting a Nazi museum, right"

1st: "They made me do it! It's not my fault"

[John]

How did you keep from losing it and beating the stupid out of them Iap?

[Mike M.]

New study indicates that Twitter makes you stupid. Weigel's ever increasing levels of idiocy are suddenly making sense.

[Raston Bot]

It's Febrewary. What's on tap? I've got a tentative brew date set in March. Probably going 10 gallons of stout and 5 of a lager.

[Auric Demonocles]

I like this idea. My friend and I were talking about brewing soon, but I've still got close to 100 bottles of backlog to drink.

[Raston Bot]

Between giving some away and having a beer with every meal, I never have that problem.

[Auric Demonocles]

I think you're underestimated how many beers I had at one point. And my stupid friends can't come over to drink without bringing a 6 pack to share.

[Raston Bot]

Mine have that habit too but it's typically the latest sour to hit the shelves which is fine since I don't brew sours.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I started brewing this last summer/fall, and have done 9 batches so far. I am thinking about giving up on brewing. There was something mystical about it when I first started, but now it's kind of ordinary to me.

Last batch was a chocolate milk stout, really good. I'm tired of drinking beer though (!!) and now I am pretty much just waiting to give it away.

[Raston Bot]

In a crunch, beer is currency.

[sarcasmic]

Are you still making extract brews?

All-grain is where it's at. Not only is the beer a hundred times better, but it's a ton cheaper.

[Raston Bot]

And there's something satisfying about storing a 50lb bag of malt under your bed.

[sarcasmic]

I've got two. One for ale and the other for pilsner.

[Raston Bot]

Nice. My stout's base malt is from the Irish Malting Company so it's inconvenient trying to source a 50lb sack.

[Elspeth Flashman]

No, only recipe kits from the local homebrew supply store. If it's really that much better perhaps I will give it a go.

[Raston Bot]

It's much more satisfying. And may slow down your blistering production rate.

[Auric Demonocles]

I've found recipe kits incredibly boring from the start.

Also I really hate the sound of the word "kit".

[db]

Have to.make a wit for the spring time. We just moved.so won't be.brewing.for.a.few.weeks.until we get.everything.situated.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Shreek bait:
The number of criminal prosecutions referred each year by the IRS has risen by nearly a quarter ? 23.4% ? during the Obama administration when compared with the Bush years. Convictions are also drawing slightly longer average prison terms ? 27 months under Obama versus 25 months under Bush (see Table 1).

For both administrations, the odds have been roughly 50-50 that federal prosecutors will accept an IRS referral for criminal prosecution. However, a surge in IRS criminal investigations referred under Obama has fueled an increase in the number of cases prosecuted.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/tax.....c-irs.html

[John]

Come on, it is not like Obama joked about using the IRS to go after his enemies or anything or that Valarie Jerrett talked about all the great payback that was going to come after the election.

[Mike M.]

It would be funny if it wasn't so vile and sickening. This is the kind of stuff that Nixon was forced to resign over.

[John]

Nixon never used the IRS. He tried to and the commissioner told him no. Obama asked the IRS to jump and they said how high.

[Pro Libertate]

Nixon could do less, because he had less power than presidents do today.

Another side effect of the federal government having increasingly unlimited power is that the people attracted to positions in the federal government are increasingly of the power-hungry and corrupt mindset while decreasingly motivated by "public service" and ethics. Which means that we have no Elliot Richardson to say no to the president, for instance.

[John]

And worse still, Nixon really couldn't go after his enemies criminally. They broke into Watergate looking for evidence of sex and other basic blackmail material.

Thanks to our out of control criminal law system, Obama doesn't need that. He can just have the DOJ go after his enemies in criminal court. They can find nearly anyone guilty of something or at the very least get them indicted and ruin their reputation and lives.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Everyone knew they didn't mean it, so fake scandal.

[The Late P Brooks]

The number of criminal prosecutions referred each year by the IRS has risen by nearly a quarter ? 23.4% ? during the Obama administration when compared with the Bush years.

I'm sure those are all the worst-of-the-worst one percenters who have squirreled away billions in complicated offshore blind trusts, and not plumbers getting nailed for "improprieties" involving claiming personal mileage as Schedule C expenses.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Postal Service wants in on the shooting family dog action

"The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition," the notice reads, which also mentioned a deadline of Feb. 10.

[Aloysious]

I thought the USPS was broke. Out of money. Guess not.

[Matrix]

Dammit, I had to click on that link without looking at the URL. Probably just got flagged (DoD computer)

[Trials and Trippelations]

I have to admit when I followed the link from Drudge I was disappointed it was a story from Alex

[UnCivilServant]

"Federal Agents!" *blam* *blam* *blam* "Please sign for this package"

[The Late P Brooks]

The funny thing is that I could totally see a business where by you paid to sit down and talk to some nice old person for a bit.

That's actually a great idea. All you would need to do (in theory) is open the food service of your rest home to the public, with good food and "family style" seating and service, so strangers mingle.

I used to go to a place for breakfast a long time ago which had what they called the "joiner" table. You sat down with whomever was there. I met some interesting people in that place.

[John]

I did legal assistance for military retirees for a couple of years. Met some amazing people. I met a guy who had been in the no kidding horse cavalry back in the 1930s, another one who had been with Stillwell in Burma, another guy who had flown with the RAF in 1940 as a volunteer. And all of them were nice people who were so happy to have someone to talk to.

It always amazed me how many of them had kids and grandkids who just didn't get them or understand how interesting and cool they were.

[CampingInYourPark]

The funny thing is that I could totally see a business where by you paid to sit down and talk to some nice old person for a bit

Some of those religious nuts have been doing this for a long time for free.

[The Late P Brooks]

What manner of cretin worries about cats being exploited by humans?

My cats exploit and oppress me mercilessly.

[PD Scott]

Probably in the pay of Big Dog.

[The Late P Brooks]

Nixon could do less, because he had less power than presidents do today.

I was reading something the other day, and they quote Jonathon Turley (I think) saying, "Obama's Presidency is something Nixon could only dream of."

[Pro Libertate]

Yeppers. Nixon knew he could only do so much. As it was, what he did got him forced out of office, yet there is ample indication that the current president has done worse. No talk about forcing him to resign. So it's not just that the presidency has much more power, it's also our greatly lowered standards for ethical behavior.

[Cdr Lytton]

Oh yay. Gabby Gifford's puppeteer is in my state to push gun control.

[Cdr Lytton]

Try again.

Gabby Gifford's puppeteer

[The Late P Brooks]

No talk about forcing him to resign.

The other day, when Ryan made the completely (to me) unremarkable statement about the increasingly lawless conduct of this administration, the interviewer asked, "So, should he be impeached?" that weaselly bastard Ryan began to sputter and backpedal furiously, instead of saying, "Of course."

[John]

Or at least said, "perhaps after we have had a full and fair investigation of just all that is happening".

[Pro Libertate]

Exactly. There's more than enough, let's call it probable cause, to warrant an independent investigation. Which may or may not lead to some impeachments. I mean, I think the administration up to the president is guilty of some sick shit, but there may not be enough evidence to convict in an impeachment or criminal setting.

[John]

I think there is certainly enough to convict a good number of his minions. That is really more important than going after him. The fact is the country will never tolerate actually sending a President to jail. It would just be too distasteful and divisive. But they can and have sent plenty of underlings to jail over the years. Send them to jail and it doesn't matter what the next President thinks or wants to do, since the people below him will be deterred from following his orders.

That is the biggest problem here, the corruption of the executive. Obama, love him or hate him, is leaving office in three years. The executive that did all of this will largely remain.

[Brett L]

For Warty: weightlifter fails physics for photo op.

[db]

Oh, god, that ankle. Ow.

[Snark Plissken]

Looks like the bar landed on her hip also.

[Snark Plissken]

Dead lift in spike high heels you are asking for trouble.

[Brett L]

What, just divide the area you usually balance on by 4 and make sure your leg bones don't have a direct flat-to-ground connection. Should only reduce your save deadlift by a factor of 5 or so from 1RM.

[Snark Plissken]

She'd have been okay in platforms.

[Brett L]

Eh, I think the angles are a big deal. Even the drop in running shoes compared to gym shoes makes a difference to me.

[db]

It looked.like she was standing.on a.soft mat, too. What was she expecting?

[Acosmist]

I'm not sure why I should be helping a billionaire get moooooar helots for his empire.

[RBS]

I've seen enough figure skating to last the rest of my life.

This.

[John]

You guys make fun of me for not getting beach volleyball and then say you don't want to watch figure skating?

You take the aging American soccer mom over the 17 year old figure skater?

[RBS]

To me it's gymnastsvolleyball milfsfigure skaters

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

You take the aging American soccer mom over the 17 year old figure skater?

Srsly

[Zeb]

I like them all. And shouldn't that be "volleyball mom"?

[John]

Unless they are 15, which some of them are, I would take figure skaters over any of them. They actually have bodies.

Ashley Wagner works quite nicely.

http://articles.chicagotribune.....re-skating

[John]

Except they were not on. It was the two aging Americans.

[John]

But those are not the American women Tundra.

[John]

The Italians were on once in two weeks. Big deal.

[John]

Tundra,

If they had been following the Italians, I wouldn't have been so annoyed.

[Zeb]

There are generally two teams in a volleyball match.

No one is saying that the American volleyball team was the hottest women in the world (though they were both certainly real world hot if not TV hot). Just that fit women in bikinis is why it got so much coverage.