A.M. Links: Religious Liberty a Diplomatic Priority For Obama, Prisons Sending Inmates to Obamacare, US Considering Sanctions Against Iceland

"The Simpsons"/FOX

• President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?
• At least one cohort is getting the "affordable" in the ACA, jailers, who are gladly passing along the cost of their inmates' healthcare to the feds.
• Joe Biden doesn't see an "obvious" reason not to run for president in 2016. Chime in in the comments.
• Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testified at his bribery trial. He maintains he is innocent of the charges against him.
• The U.S. said it was considering whether or not to impose sanctions on Iceland, which it says has violated an international whaling agreement.
• James Carville has signed up with Fox News.

Comments

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

What in the world?
Is this thing on? Hello, hello?
Barry? Barry, what's this phone doing here? What do you mean, what phone? The one in the back corner of your sock drawer!
Don't you take that tone with me, Barack! I'll kick your ass from here to Kenwood! I will NOT mind my own--

-click-

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Have you checked the children?

[Loki]

What's your favorite scary movie?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hm.

Man.

Tough one.

The Shining was pretty haunting. Then again, I did watch it when I was a kid.

Gotta think about that.

Nosferatu was creepy. Silence of the Lambs was great. Argento's 'Suspiria.'

A few others. You?

[Loki]

Scary Movie*, natch.

I'm not really that into scary movies in general, but I usually prefer the older movies that actually had to build suspense through dramatic tension as opposed to the more modern gross out/ things flying toward the camera unexpectedly/ torture porn type movies.

*not really.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testified at his bribery trial.

George Bush doesn't care about graft people.

[Tonio]

First actual substantive comment related to the links. Just sayin'

[Fist of Etiquette]

And that comment had substance, baby.

[The Late P Brooks]

Global Warming has destroyed the economy.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Krugabe would call it economic stimulus, sort of like invading Psychlos.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Joe Biden doesn't see an "obvious" reason not to run for president in 2016.

Which is why we love him.

[AlexInCT]

Long time?

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Rong Time.

[db]

It's always the rong time to.love Biden.

[CampingInYourPark]

"There's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run," he said in an interview that aired on CNN's "New Day" on Friday.

"I think there's a future for this country. I know people think I am too optimistic. But it is incredible ? there's so much just within our grasp. Doesn't mean that I'm the only guy that can do it, but if no one else, I think, can, and I think I can, then I will, and if I don't, I won't," he said.

http://dyn.politico.com/prints.....EAFD657C6F

I don't think you're too optimistic, Joe. I think you're retarded

[invisible furry hand]

Forrest Gump has so much to answer for

[alan_s]

That's all I've got to say about that.

[wareagle]

I think there's a future for this country.

whether it's a future the typical American wants is another matter.

[Suthenboy]

"I think there's a future for this country. I know people think I am too optimistic. But it is incredible ? there's so much just within our grasp. Doesn't mean that I'm the only guy that can do it, but if no one else, I think, can, and I think I can, then I will, and if I don't, I won't," he said.

Wut?

Please run uncle Joe, please!

[Restoras]

JUST THINK OF THE LULZ!!!!!

[JWatts]

+10,000, the late night jokes would just be Legendary!

But, Jay Leno is retiring. Maybe they could bring him back temporarily for a Joe Biden Presidential candidacy.

[Pavlov's Cat]

Anybody could rag that campaign. Hell, even I could rag that campaign!

[CampingInYourPark]

I can't imagine writing this gibberish down and not asking if he wants to reword or retract it out of pity.

[Entropy Void]

Please don't insult the Retarded.

[R C Dean]

There's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run

Jeebus. What, is English his third language?

[KDN]

He'll tap Dan Dierdorf as his running mate and confuse the country into voting for them through abuse of double and triple negatives. It's actually quite brilliant.

[BigT]

Yogi Berra is available.

[Loki]

Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to Joe Biden for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic fucktard gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

[MJGreen]

Doesn't mean that I'm the only guy that can do it

And why do people think politicians are narcissistic sociopaths?

[waffles]

Obviously the vice president runs for office after the president finishes the term. Obviously Joe Biden is vice president. Obviously Joe Biden will run for president. Obviously it's obvious.

[Suthenboy]

The proggies are cumming all over themselves at the prospect of President Fauxcahontas.

A Fauxcahontas / Paul contest would be the most interesting race in history.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Please tell me Warren can't possibly win, can she?

[R C Dean]

In a country that will re-elect Barack Obama, anyone can get into the White House.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

This. *Wipes a tear from his eye

[Pavlov's Cat]

After that I'm digging around looking for my father's old angina pills.

[Rasilio]

Well she could pretty easily win the Primary, Hillary would be her only realistic competition and while formidable has a LOT of negatives to attack.

In the general, it depends. Against someone like Paul who can go toe to toe on her on a lot of economic and social justice issues she'd probably have a hard time. Against a hardcore Social Conservative (which could include Paul since he is personally one and if he can't shake that image it will be a problem for him) she will win on pure war on wommen bullshit

[110 Lean]

Isn't Paul an OB/GYN? How can you paint one of those as anti-wymmins?

[Duke Trshmnstr of Stench]

No, he's an optometrist(opthamologist?)... eye doctor.

However, he founded some clinic for those who couldn't pay for proper eye care, so that's gotta be worth something in the "disparate impact upon the wymminzzz" front.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary isn't being obvious enough.

[BigT]

Too early. She doesn't want to appear power-hungry.

Hahahahaha!

[Jon Lester]

I'll gladly take him over Hillary.

[JWatts]

Well, there's the virtual certainly he won't be nearly as capable as Hillary, nor as testosterone driven. So while Biden would probably attempt a lot of bad policies, they'd probably all be shot down by everyone around him.

But on the other hand there's the potential of Biden getting confused and starting a Nuclear War by mistake when he meant to order Chinese take out.

[Jon Lester]

Maybe having an elaborate kitchen in the White House is a sound investment, after all, although I could see him forgetting that it's available.

[sarcasmic]

Why even a tiny cat bite could leave you in hospital: Cats' teeth 'inject bacteria deep into the joints and tissue', doctors warn

Middle-aged women are the people most likely to be bitten by a cat
One in three people who are bitten have to be hospitalised
Two-thirds of these people need to have surgery to remove infected tissue

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....-warn.html
I was bit by a cat many years back, and if they hadn't put me on IV antibiotics I would have lost my hand.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

22% of cat bite victims need surgery? Damn.

[sarcasmic]

I was bit on my ring finger. Within a day my whole hand had turned red and swollen, so I went to the doctor. He took out a pen and drew a line where the red met the not-so-red, and sent me home with the most powerful oral antibiotic horse pills you can get, with orders to come back the next day. I did, and the deep red had marched right past that line and up to my wrist. At that point they put me on an IV and that killed the infection.

Think about what may have happened if I waited another day. Or a week.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

You could have had an awesome hook for a hand!

[AlexInCT]

You could have had the best pirate costume every Halloween or at every dress party?

[Suthenboy]

Holy shit. That sounds bad. It could have wrecked your sex life.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

zing!

[Entropy Void]

Nah, with a hand that swollen, it felt like a totally different woman.

[sarcasmic]

What sex life?

[Pavlov's Cat]

Wow. No idea. I'm feeling much better about the cat bite on my ring finger. It has taken since Christmas to heal, but is almost finished.

[Ted S.]

I get scratched once in a great while from my two cats, but never bitten.

One loves to be pet, but not picked up or held; the other is a lazy fat fuck, but I love him.

[sarcasmic]

My neighbor's cat picked a fight with my girlfriend's cat, and I got bit breaking it up.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Never break up a cat fight of any species.

[R C Dean]

That must have been one pissed off cat. I've never had one give me trouble after getting a taste of the shovel.

You did use a shovel, right?

[Loki]

Turning a hose on them tends to work fairly well too.

[R C Dean]

You mean, spraying them with water, or whacking them with the hose?

[Loki]

Both.

[Pavlov's Cat]

Water is very effective. Hitting them is merely satisfying.

[BigT]

The preferred method is a swift kick, provided you are wearing long pants.

[Loki]

And then hope the cat doesn't latch onto your pants leg and climb up you like a tree.

[JWatts]

Yep, I've seen that happen.

[BigT]

You apparently were never a striker. Put the cat past the keeper.

[gaijin]

I get scratched once in a great while from my two cats

And your name is Ted?

Do you make the pussy purr with the stroke of your hand?
Do they know they gettin' it from you?
They know just where to go when they need their lovin' man?
They know you're doin' it for free?

[sarcasmic]

His initial is S, not N.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Maybe he is going incognito?

[gaijin]

^bread and butter 😉

[gaijin]

Well, if you were Ted Nugent, don't you think you'd try to go incognito in a place like this?

[sarcasmic]

If you were Ted Nugent, do you think you'd know what incognito means?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Zing!!

[All-Seeing Monocle]

If you were Ted Nugent, you would certainly be familiar with the concept of camouflage.

[Rasilio]

Wait is he Ted Nugent or Richie Incognito?

[Elspeth Flashman]

My brother in law had the same thing happen. Serious stuff.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I was watching that "Cat From Hell" show one time, and the guy explained that cats biting is relatively rare--they already have their claws for defense, so if they're biting, it's basically the "kill" instinct taking over.

[alan_s]

Those things are viscous creatures. Death awaits us all with nasty big pointy teeth.

[waffles]

Viscous? Only if you remove the bones I suppose.

[alan_s]

Yes, they're very gummy after you cook and eat them.

[110 Lean]

I had a cat bite right through my thumb and even tho I was on super-strong antibiotics and am a naturally fast healer, the wound ran puss for seven weeks straight.

[SForza]

"the wound ran puss"

Would you say it was pussy?

[sarcasmic]

Just when you though winter couldn't get any worse! Pedestrian knocked clean off his feet by wall of snow by speeding snowplow in New York

A speeding snowplow knocked a pedestrian off his feet with a wall of snow in New York
The early morning incident was caught on security cameras belonging to an auto dealership
The owner reviewed footage after he found his glass door smashed and snow and slush inside
The force of the snow pushed by the snowplow broke the glass doors
The pedestrain managed to get to his feet and continue on his way

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....oklyn.html
That's happened to me while I was clearing my driveway. Sucks.

[waffles]

On the news this morning they showed this with "hit me with your best shot". Twas pretty funny.

[Zeb]

My mailbox just got snapped off by a snow plow. Fuckers.

[sarcasmic]

Where I live now I lost my first one after the first storm. Then I went to Lowes and picked up a box that's twenty pounds of sheet metal, hung it by chains from a metal post I made from piping, and anchored it in a hole with cement.

It survived many direct hits, though after each one the front had to be bent back into shape, sometimes requiring a five foot lever to get the metal to budge.

Finally last year after six seasons it had to be replaced (so many direct hits had ruined the hinge), so I went back to Lowes for the same thing. This time I mounted it a touch higher and back, and it hasn't been hit yet this winter.

This one will survive for a long time.

[Zeb]

I was thinking of hanging a new one from a chain. Would also make it easier to keep it from getting completely buried in the snow bank.

[sarcasmic]

I made an inverted L, and learned the hard way that you need a third line tethering the box to the vertical post. Otherwise the snow will compact between the box and the post, pushing the box forward out into the path of the plow.

[JWatts]

"Otherwise the snow will compact between the box and the post, pushing the box forward out into the path of the plow."

That's a sign that it's time to move to a habitable climate.

[Pavlov's Cat]

No kidding. I'm happy to be living in a place that the worst typical weather requires shade and a pool.
Of course this winter we've been in single digits. Brrr.

[Timon 19]

Up in the snowbelt areas of NE Ohio, just about everyone on a back road (where the plows can really get up to speed) has a "shield" of sorts that they stick in front of their box. It takes the brunt of the pain.

[Whahappan?]

That wasn't a snow plow. That was Sloopyinca.

[Auric Demonocles]

Just when you though winter couldn't get any worse!

Good olde Daily Maile.

[Loki]

That's happened to me while I was clearing my driveway.

Kind of makes me glad they don't bother plowing residential neighborhood streets where I live, just major streets and highways.

[sarcasmic]

I live on a state road where the speed limit is 55mph. Those plows to by fast.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Kill List

But.

Booooosh!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

SugarFree looms large over your attempted linkage...

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

Here is something you can't understand
How I could just kill a man

-click-

[mnarayan]

You finished yet?

[Pavlov's Cat]

Not likely.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

link text

Still learning this html crap on the fly.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.theguardian.com/com.....t-doj-memo

SORRY guys.

[Fist of Etiquette]

YOU RUINED AM LINKS.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hey, I'm filling out some T-4s here. Can't a guy catch a break? Where's your empathy? Don't you listen to Obama and his message of fraternity, love and serfdom?

[AlexInCT]

Did you mean TPS reports?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Those too.

[Entropy Void]

T-4s are the Canukistaner version of TPS Reports.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't you listen to Obama...

You mean on that Obamaphone? It keeps hanging up before I can get him to repeat the message.

[db]

Wait, WHICH nuclear reactor are you resp9nsible for? Because that province is.off.my travel list.

[Zeb]

It's the other Canadian who does the nukes, I think. Doesn't Rufus run a daycare or something?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Or something...I wish.

[db]

Oh right, sorry. I.was.thinking.of.Smilin' Joe.

[PM]

Doesn't Rufus run a daycare or something?

They're equally dangerous as far as the Canadian government is concerned.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Thanks for making me choke on my Oasis Health Break. Canada is close to mandating helmets for everyone.

[Loki]

So... Canadians will literally be the kids in the helmets?

[Marshall Gill]

Will be?

[hamilton]

Reasonable FTW dude.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S.

BUY THESE CONDOMS!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

OR ELSE!

[Tonio]

So, we're going to tell the Saudis to allow people to practice Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism there?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Joooooz too?!

[Tonio]

Them, too, of course, but I honestly can't imagine Jews wanting to be there.

Buddhism and Hinduism are particularly relevant because of the large number of South and Southeast Asian guest-workers in Saudi Arabia.

Also, they respect at least in theory Christians and Jews because those are Abrahamic religions. Buddhists and Hindus not so much because they are honest-to-god heathens with multiple gods.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"South and Southeast Asian guest-workers"

Yes, the quasi-slave population.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

Yep, pretty much so. But at least they can leave, unlike the actual slaves in Saudi Arabia.

[CatoTheElder]

This is just Obama talking out of his ass again.

Whenever Obama speaks of any of the liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights, he's just bullshitting his audience. Certainly nobody in these parts thinks he actually believes what he's saying. It means absolutely nothing in terms of liberty, though he may be setting up an ostensible excuse to intervene somewhere.

[Auric Demonocles]

Except for the parts of Christianity about birth control.

[Tonio]

There is no single view on BC that is held by all Christian denominations. There are a couple of denominations, including some of the larger ones, that has trouble with all forms of contraception.

[PM]

Generally even in the more liberal denominations anything that prevents implantation of a fertilized egg is considered an abortifacient, so hormone methods are controversial.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

Citation seriously needed for that. Catholics are the only denomination which I'm aware of where that is a doctrinal view; but they also reject condoms and male masturbation.

I've never heard of any mainstream protestant denomination, even the staunchly anti-abortion Southern Baptists having that view about hormone-based women's contraceptives which prevent implantation..

[Rabban]

I know a Pentecostal woman (whose father was a Pentecostal minister) who married a Pentecostal minister, who practiced this very strict form of Protestantism her entire life, and went on hormone based birth control in the early years of her marriage. I do not think it was a doctrinal issue.

[Auric Demonocles]

Hence "parts".

[R C Dean]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority

Couple questions:

When will this start? Because they haven't done shit about the ongoing ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims throughout the Mideast.

Also, which one wins? Religious liberty, or gay rights? Because in lots of places, they think that their religion requires them to kick the gays.

[Tonio]

ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims

Bzzzt. Ethnic cleansing is different than religious cleansing. Those Christians that are getting killed are ethnic arabs.

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

In addition to his Kill List, Obama has a Freedom Priority List.

[sarcasmic]

Criminal charges will NOT be filed over woman's claims she was sexually assaulted during multiple TSA searches

Jamelyn Steenhoek claimed TSA screeners sexually assaulted her during two December 26 searches in front of her 13-year-old daughter
She wasn't even flying that day and was only at the airport to escort her daughter to the gate of her flight
Denver district attorneys announced Wednesday they could'nt prove 'beyond a reasonable doubt' she was assaulted and would not prosecute

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rches.html

'Those TSA agents were purposely abusive to me,' she said. 'And there isn't any recourse. I still feel as if a crime was committed, and as an individual American I am powerless to do anything about it.'

That's what it means to live in The Land of the Free.

[Tonio]

Well, she's lucky she wasn't prosecuted for interfering with the TSA, that's all I can say.

[SugarFree]

The "Shut up, bitch, and just take it" tone of the comments is depressing.

[alan_s]

That's why I never venture outside the walls of this website. I'd have to take Prozac.

[Plisade]

Titular Security of America

[R C Dean]

'Those TSA agents were purposely abusive to me,' she said. 'And there isn't any recourse.

Civil suit. Yeah, I know, its weak tea, but at least you can make bank.

[Entropy Void]

"Gotta unionize to professionalize gropers"

[Snark Plissken]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?

So he'll be breaking Saudi Arabia's balls for religious intolerance starting in 3,2,1...

[Tonio]

Didn't scroll down. ^This.

[sarcasmic]

'I hate this music': Rantings of engineer who shot teen dead over blaring hip-hop are replayed in court as he mounts 'Stand your Ground' defense

Michael Dunn, 47, has plead not-guilty to first-degree murder for shooting dead 17-year-old Jordan Davis in November 2012
Opening statements in the case started today in Jacksonville, Florida
The defense says Dunn was defending himself after seeing Davis grab either a shotgun or a lead pipe
But police found no evidence of a weapon in the vehicle and the prosecution says the men did not threaten Dunn
The case could conclude as early as February 14

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....enger.html
Sorry dude. The "I thought I saw a weapon" defense only works for cops.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

NO DOUBLE STANDARD!

[Floridian]

When the first happened I heard some people already trying to blame the kid that got shot. The theory goes if they had nothing to hide why did they flee from the shooting. Gee, I don't know, maybe because a guy just fired 3 rounds into the car and might do it again?

[sarcasmic]

I thought you were supposed to shelter in place and wait for the authorities to arrive.

[Loki]

And then hope the cops don't just finish the job if you're lucky enough to still be alive when they arrive from the nearest Dunkin' Donuts.

[SugarFree]

'I hate this music': Rantings of engineer who shot teen dead over blaring hip-hop are replayed in court as he mounts 'Stand your Ground' defense

So conflicted...

[RBS]

This is obviously the ultimate conclusion of nuisance law.

[Suthenboy]

I was just thinking the same thing

[Zeb]

"Lead pipe"?

[R C Dean]

Where would you even find lead pipe these days? Unless you're willing to go to an older neighborhood and start digging up water lines, of course.

[Pavlov's Cat]

Old neighborhood! Like where, Rome?

[pan fried wylie]

Hand Crafted Artisinal Roman Lead Pipe.

[Tonio]

Yes, because if you can't tell whether the tubular object you're seeing in low light is a shotgun barrel or a piece of piping you damn sure can't tell whether it's lead, copper or iron.

I blame the press, of course. They never realize how adding unnecessary and inaccurate descriptions destroy their credibility.

[Pavlov's Cat]

"Lead pipe"?

I've been battling that one for 50 years. It means an iron pipe.

[Pro Libertate]

A shotgun or a lead pipe. Smuggled into a theater. Very common, really. Not guilty!

This guy is toast.

[Zeb]

This was loud music in a parking lot, not popcorn in a theater.

[Pro Libertate]

Oops--thought it was the guy here in Tampa. Please continue with the discussion already in progress.

[waffles]

Falling Down 2 - Florida Man

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. said it was considering whether or not to impose sanctions on Iceland...

Don't you think they've been punished enough just by being Iceland?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Bj?rk Bj?rk Bj?rk

...wait, that sounds like the Swedish Chef.

[gaijin]

Bj?rk Bj?rk Bj?rk

that sounds like my cat getting ready to barf.

[db]

Nah, that's "Mork Mork Mork."

[DontShootMe]

And that's Pam Dawber getting ready to barf.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And by coming so agonizingly close to making the World Cup!

[Atanarjuat]

My understanding is the island is filled with bored, promiscuous, horny Scandinavian women. So we should envy them.

[invisible furry hand]

They also believe in elves

[Ska]

Go on.....

[invisible furry hand]

In 1982, 150 Icelanders went to the NATO base in Keflav?k to look for "elves who might be endangered by American Phantom jets and AWACS reconnaissance planes."... A July 1998 survey by Dagbla?i? V?sir found that 54.4% of Icelanders surveyed claimed to believe in elves, while 45.6% did not.[67][68] This survey has been criticized for only allowing yes or no responses rather than more nuanced answers. Notably, it also showed that supporters of Frams?knarflokkur (the Progressive Party) believed in elves more than other political parties.

more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf?lk

[Ska]

Now I'm curious to hear what a nuanced "No, I don't believes in elves, but..." reply sounds like. 😉

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"No, I don't believes in elves, but...

how come my kid looks like one?

[Pavlov's Cat]

Now I'm curious to hear what a nuanced "No, I don't believes in elves, but..." reply sounds like. 😉

Follow up questions about beliefs to include
Half Elves
Dragons
Moon Runes
Wargs
Balrogs of Morgoth

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Land of Kooks, huh? Been known to date a couple.

Booking a flight...now.

[Ska]

And that wiki article is kind of bizarrely awesome.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"Notably, it also showed that supporters of Frams?knarflokkur (the Progressive Party) believed in elves more than other political parties."

Why not? American proggies engage in lots of magical thinking...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Unicorn is their national symbol.

[mr simple]

"I don't want to sound like a queer or nothin', but unicorns really kick ass."

[Tonio]

Whether their belief is real or not, claiming religious persecution is a good way to get what you want without having to make an actual logical case.

That's an inherent problem with religious freedom as we practice it. And this comment is in no way to be interpreted as calling for less religious freedom, but merely a dispassionate observation.

[gaijin]

promiscuous

Wouldn't there be more Icelanders if this were true?

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're all related to each other.

[wareagle]

that's why birth control should be free.

/Icy prog

[Restoras]

Does that mean no more EVE Online?

[Bardas Phocas]

Icelandic/Eve monument to Aspergers Syndrome being built.
http://kotaku.com/eve-online-i.....1516564365
God bless those twitchy shutins.

[alittlesense]

What we really need are a bunch of promiscuous elves, who all look like Evangeline Lilly.....

[alittlesense]

or Cate Blanchett...I'm not fussy.

[sarcasmic]

Proof you can dance at ANY size: Plus-size woman's unbelievable moves make her a sensation in weight acceptance campaign

Whitney Way Thore wants to banish body shame by showing off her impressive moves
The Greensboro, North Carolina radio producer's YouTube videos series has gone viral
She launched the No Body Shame Campaign in part to share her struggle after a diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome and gaining 200 pounds

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....paign.html
John pron!

[gaijin]

John pron...sounds poetic.

[Hillary's Clitdong]

Proof you can dance at ANY size

Not, however, proof that you can dance WELL at any size.

[R C Dean]

Unless those cysts on her ovaries weigh 200 pounds, I don't see what her diagnosis has to do with her fatness.

[invisible furry hand]

PCO plays merry hell with a woman's hormones and a well-known side-effect is weight gain (along with acne and infertility). Most sufferers infer from these facts that they should watch what they eat. Not all, obviously

[Loki]

I have trouble believing that lard ass is only 200 pounds.

[pan fried wylie]

....and gaining 200 pounds

[The DerpRider]

Florida Man says, "No masturbating? I'll burn the place down."

[William of Purple]

Did they use a photobooth twirl filter on his face?

[Elspeth Flashman]

No, it was the blingy thingy from myspace.

[AlexInCT]

Shotgun....

[SugarFree]

Arseface Lives!

[Loki]

I'm thinking there may be some Warty Hugeman story involving Arseface in the near future.

[gaijin]

James Carville has signed up with Fox News

It's the only game in town if you want to actually have anyone watch you I suppose.

[Ted S.]

Note that he signed up with Fox News and not Fox Business.

[Fist of Etiquette]

James Carville has signed up with Fox News.

He'll need a blond wig and a shitload of makeup.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

...and a boob job.

[DontShootMe]

James Carville is already a boob.

[waffles]

with a job!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah, he was burned in the debate by Frank the Tank!

[db]

Bok already put lipstick on the.pig. today.

[Tonio]

Give him a big hand, folks, he's here all week...

[SugarFree]

His wife has already made herself a horrific monster, so James can join her in the plastic surgery disaster district of Uncanny Valley.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh really? I don't think I've heard from her in years. I'm always interested in self mutilations.

[SugarFree]

Flipped past her on the TV the other day and didn't even recognize her.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She kind of looks like she's transitioning into her husband.

[Marshall Gill]

Why? What makes people do this to themselves? How is the stretched Frankenstien look supposed to be better than wrinkles?

[invisible furry hand]

Ma who married 12 year old discovered by authorities when he inquired about spousal benefits at social security

http://www.themercury.com.au/n.....6821090301

[Tonio]

Man who married...

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

I liked it better as "Ma".

[gaijin]

Wait, Bo, wouldn't it be easier for all of us to do it this way? 😉

Man who married...

[Doctor Whom]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?

Respect for human rights is for other countries.

[invisible furry hand]

Michelle Chapman is thought to be the first person in the UK to have been prosecuted for "trolling" herself.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....10128.html

[mr simple]

It's illegal in the UK to make yourself look like a troll?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

They are afraid they would go over to Iceland and hunt all the elves?

[Entropy Void]

She looks like she already ate all the elves ...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?

This coming from a guy who wants to force The Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic organizations to give out free contraception.

I know he's not my leader and I should be respectful but the guy is full of crap.

[gaijin]

By religious liberty, I wonder if he means all religions?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Why should you be respectful of a politician?

[Tonio]

Yes, because that's exactly like forbidding the exercise, even privately, of any religion other than the state religion. Because requiring that religious organizations play by the same rules as everyone else is exactly like executing apostates.

The whole contraceptive mandate is debatable, but conflating that with outright bans is dishonest and unhelpful.

[Zeb]

Yeah, the real problem with the contraceptive mandate is that no one should be forced to provide contraceptives, not that religious groups are being specifically persecuted. Religions shouldn't get special treatment. If it is wrong to force a religious group to do a thing, then it is wrong to force anyone to do a thing. You can't have true religious freedom otherwise.

[Auric Demonocles]

I suppose conflating a law forcing Orthodox Jews to turn the lights on and off on Saturdays with an outright ban is dishonest and unhelpful.

Banning the practice of a religions is the same thing. Maybe there is a good reason for it and maybe you're inflicting different punishments, but if you prevent someone from practicing their religion that's the same thing as banning it.

[Zeb]

The Orthodox Jew example isn't quite parallel. Individual Catholics are not compelled to use or provide birth control, only organizations that fall under the scope of the law.

Of course, I don't think that makes it any less terrible. But I don't much like the religious freedom argument against the mandate for reasons I have explained many times on here. The mandate is so far outside of what the proper powers of the Federal government should be that religion shouldn't even come into it. It is a violation of a much more fundamental right.

[Tonio]

The bigger points which you're totally missing, or pretenting to miss, are:

1) If you require that someone be absolutely pure before criticising anyone else, then you're forbidding criticism. Nobody is pure.

2) There are degrees of banning. The Saudi's absolutely forbid any practice of religions other than Islam. No private christian prayer meetings, no home shrines to Ganesha, no crucifixes, etc. That is different than banning one specific act which is banned for everyone, religious or not. To carry this to the extreme you'd be arguing that satanists had the right to sacrifice children.

[Tonio]

Damn apostrophe.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's not what I said at all.I even explicitly said there may be a good reason to ban a religion. What I said is that if* you ban child sacrifice you are banning Satanism.

*in the hypothetical that Satanism has child sacrifice as a practice

[PM]

Yes, because that's exactly like forbidding the exercise, even privately, of any religion other than the state religion.

It's not a restriction of liberty until you're getting hauled to the gulags. Gotcha.

[R C Dean]

I'm kinda seeing how being forced by the government to do things that your religion forbids is a lot like forbidding the exercise, even privately, of your religion.

Once again, we see the proggy obsession with words over actions. They think that as long as you are allowed to mouth the words, you are fully exercising your religion, so that being forbidden to act as your religion indicates is no big thang.

[PM]

Of course SLD that *nobody* should be mandated to act against their conscience. This particularly affects religious groups though, and violates specifically theological imperatives, so the 1A protections specific to religion should apply. Of course that'll be up to the same supreme court that decided the penaltax was a tax except when it was a penalty.

[Zeb]

My problem with the religion argument is that if successful, it means that courts and legislatures will be deciding what is or is not a valid religion or a sincerely held belief. Which is quite contrary to the whole idea of religious freedom.

[PM]

True, but it's the same thing that happened with conscientious objectors, tax exemption, etc. For better or worse, the constitution kind of necessitates that by offering enumerated, specific protection to religion.

[Zeb]

It is a tricky thing, because religious exceptions are probably the best that we are likely to see unless someone manages to repeal the whole thing. But it would not be great for liberty generally or for true religious freedom.

But, as you point out, the precedent is already set and courts do get to decide if your religious beliefs are sincere and what constitutes an essential religious belief (e.g. Rastas don't get to smoke weed even if they do consider it a sacrament or whatever they think it is).

[PM]

It ends us becoming completely arbitrary, but like I said, it's just hard to avoid given the way the 1A has been interpreted over time. One relatively simple way to settle the issue would be to give religious exemptions to religious organizations that the same government has already decided to exempt from tax law, since technically that's all Obamacare is (thank you, John Roberts).

[Apatheist ?_??]

Yeah I don't see how my objections to the draft and paying for other people's birth control are any less important and sincere just because they are not based in religious beliefs.

[PM]

Morally they aren't, but the practicality of constitutional law is that framing them as a religious issue extends legal protections you otherwise wouldn't enjoy.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Except oftentimes, I as an atheist, don't get those legal protections. Concientious objectors is a good example, and if the ACA had been written with a religious exemption the whole legal issue would have gone away.

It's one of the flaws in the Constitution (and I understand it was an important and necessary at the time to protect religious liberty particularly). In almost all cases violations of religious liberties and freedoms are really really violations of more fundamental rights that merely extend to religion as well such as freedom of association and self ownership.

[PM]

Except oftentimes, I as an atheist, don't get those legal protections.

That was rather my point. Your objections aren't any less valid, but the practical result of the law is that you don't get the same protection as a "bonafide" religious group. (although that's not always the case)

In almost all cases violations of religious liberties and freedoms are really really violations of more fundamental rights

Definitely. I don't know that it necessarily needed to be enumerated since it is a logical extension of the rest of the bill of rights, but as you said, the historical context played a role in it.

It's worth mentioning too that the drafters of the bill of rights probably never envisioned or intended religion being used as an exemption from laws that shamelessly violate the other enumerated rights. That's the court's fault, not the constitution's.

[UnCivilServant]

Well, that is internally consistant with their own track records.

[Tonio]

Are you really calling me a proggie, RC? LOL.

Nice try at recasting the debate so you don't have to acknowledge that there are degrees of opression. Very oily and lawyerly.

[R C Dean]

I'm merely pointing out that you are putting lipstick on the proggy talking point that forcing religious people to violate their religion outside of the church isn't really a violation of their rights.

And that this particular position fits in rather nicely with the magical thinking often displayed by proggies.

Sure, I'm aware that the free exercise clause gets into some difficult territory, but that territory exists mostly because we have a Total State, not a government of limited powers. So, I'm unsympathetic to the argument that the free exercise clause is such an inconvenience to our rulers.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

Ah, ah, RC, there you go being dishonest again. I never said it wasn't a violation of their rights, I made the point that there are degrees of violation. For example, banning communion would effectively ban Catholicism since the sacrament of the eucharist is central to Catholicism. Banning candles in church would be a minor violation of their rights since those are traditional, but (AFAIK) not a core requirement.

Also just because I said something similar to what proggies say doesn't mean I'm espousing a proggie viewpoint, any more than a desire for trains to run on time makes me a fascist.

Your continued dishonesty only undermines your credibility, which is quite fine with me.

[PM]

Nice try at recasting the debate so you don't have to acknowledge that there are degrees of opression.

You're the moron who started down this rabbit by hole by suggesting that oppression doesn't count until somebody is getting caned in town square. Nobody is disputing that there are degrees of oppression; some just have a different threshold than you do for when it "counts".

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

Uh, no. Degrees of violations, PM. Degrees.

[Tonio]

That's right, PMS, black or white. No shades of gray.

[PM]

Makes your views on marriage a bit of a curiosity.

Since I can spell, I'm just gonna start calling you "cuntface" from now on. Because it's so clever, you see.

Hi, cuntface!

[Tonio]

You may call me whatever you wish, PMS. It would be unbecoming of me to criticize conduct in which I myself engage. Also, I can take a bit of ribbing and shrug it off.

And let it be noted that I deliberately mangle the names of friends and foes alike.

And my views on marriage are completely unrelated to this. Just as Mussolini's desire to make the trains run on time didn't make that a bad or inherently fascist goal.

Cheers.

[PM]

Personally, cuntface, I prefer to say what I actually mean rather than make catty insinuation; that seems a little bit cowardly and childish. If I want to call somebody cuntface I find it's best to just call them cuntface. But hey, that's the beauty of libertarianism - to each his own.

And my views on marriage are completely unrelated to this.

They are to the extent that they completely defy your viewpoint on this issue. If no catholics in gulags = STFU about having to comply with a ridiculously shitty law that violates your ethics, then no gays in death camps = STFU about not being able to engage in legally-protected rent seeking, if you want to be ideologically consistent. But that's obviously not an issue for you.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

Again, no. You're trying to pretend that it's an all-or-nothing thing. See my response to RC above.

[Anal Vanneman]

I feel your pain.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

They are still allowed to wear those silly hats. Just as long as they also agree to pass out some pills.

[CampingInYourPark]

There have also been reports that thousands of stray dogs have disappeared from the city street's in recent weeks after a local business was awarded a contract to deal with the problem. Some fear many of the animals were killed after being captured.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....71?slide=3

Ermagod! Yep, you see stray dogs in Russia. Ever wondered why you don't see them in your neighborhood? Here's a hint: they aren't all being "adopted"

[Tonio]

True, but we keep a handle on the problem by doing this regularly. So fewer strays equals fewer litters so fewer dogs killed in the long run.

Also, we do this humanely, for the most part. There are disturbing reports that they are poisoning the dogs. And given the heavy-handed incompetence demonstrated by the russians that's quite believeable. And they are probably poisoning by setting out poisoned bait which could be consumed by wildlife, pets, children, etc.

[tarran]

There are disturbing reports that they are poisoning the dogs.

That's what they were doing in Turkey when I was a kid. I saw one dog get poisoned in my neighborhood by the watchman/janitor. I liked that stray....

[CampingInYourPark]

The country isn't overrun with strays. They can live outside almost anywhere, and when resources become scarce, they die, just like any other animal. If some people hadn't started a hissy fit about stray dogs, they'd still be there.

[Tonio]

Yes, I agree that Western criticism may have driven this. But do you really expect professional gossips to know when to STFU?

But stray dogs can be a real hazard to everyone if there's a rabies outbreak.

[Loki]

Packs of stray dogs controlling major cities.

BTW, I fucking hate it when people post youtube videos that they created by filming their TVs, but this is the only clip of this scene I could find.

[invisible furry hand]

Skinny Puppy has sent a bill for $666,000 in royalties to the Pentagon for usingits music to torture prisoners at Gitmo - and us considering suing it too

http://www.thenation.com/blog/.....-prisoners

[db]

Awesome. I hope ASCAP gets involved.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Good luck collecting on that.

Maybe they should write better music?

[gaijin]

^lol

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Sesame street composer Christopher Cerf"

They played Sesame Street music to torture the Guantanamo detainees?

"So you won't cooperate with us and share what you know? Perhaps the song "cooperate and share" will change your mind!"

[db]

"This is your left, that's your left
This.is.your right, that's your.right"

[mr simple]

"You're gonna die."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjcb7w1Y-w

[tarran]

Funny bit of trivia, the oldest instance of the song published to the public was in the soundtrack of a porn movie

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Cool.

I'm sure they (Sesame) 'knew' that.

[Tonio]

Such a curious and round number. Heh.

And good for them.

[SugarFree]

They should have showed them episodes of Dora the Explorer.

"This is a potato. Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato? Can you say potato?"

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Hey pal, there are some limits to what a torturer will do!

[SugarFree]

Can you count to potato?

[UnCivilServant]

Only for certain values of t.

[PM]

How do they know their music was used? I couldn't imagine that not being a "state secret"

[Somalian Road Corporation]

From the Grauniad:

Skinny Puppy first learned about the alleged use of their music from a former Guant?namo Bay guard, who was "affected or offended" by the detention camp's practices.

[PM]

Clearly a threat to national security.

[Jon Lester]

I wanted to see them in Atlanta this week, but I just didn't feel moved to spend $35 on the ticket and Center Stage prices for beer, or to drive and hour and a half each way.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Big fan of Skinny Puppy and the numerous side projects of its members. If they really wanted to torture they should have put some loud Merzbow on repeat or something like that.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Alternatively, if they wanted to stick to Skinny Puppy-based torture methods, repeated showings of The Doom Generation would be what I would advise.

[Slammer]

President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?

Does religious liberty include personality cults?

[William of Purple]

California voters in 2008 passed a ballot initiative that require larger enclosures for egg-laying hens. Farmers in California worried the new rules, which would increase their costs, would put them at a competitive disadvantage with egg farms in other states, so the state legislature passed a measure in 2010 to require out-of-state producers to comply with California rules.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"so the state legislature passed a measure in 2010 to require out-of-state producers to comply with California rules"

Oooookay.

[Tonio]

I believe this only covers eggs sold in California. So in that sense it's no more or less ridiculous than a state banning fireworks which are legal in adjacent states.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I can see the last exit before Cali billboards now.

[CampingInYourPark]

If not CA, who will think of the chickens?

[invisible furry hand]

I think of them. Roasted, mostly.

[PM]

Warty...

[CampingInYourPark]

Upcoming CA legislation: Double the size of deep fryers. For the chickens.

[Jon Lester]

Speaking of CA, I think someone doesn't know that fried chicken was invented in Scotland.

[Marshall Gill]

According to Thomas Sowell, much of the southern slang used today originated with poor Scottish immigrants.
The MacGill's are not amused.

[UnCivilServant]

California Egg Prices not a $24 a dozen. Dennys closes all West Coast locations.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

McGruff The Crime Dog Actor Sentenced To 16 Years For Pot, Grenade Launcher

[waffles]

police seized 1,000 marijuana plants, 27 weapons ? including a grenade launcher, and 9,000 rounds of ammunition from his home.

This dog could have been a vigilante superhero extraordinaire. Or just a drug dealer.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Why not both?

[SugarFree]

Bitten my a radioactive weed triffid.

[SugarFree]

*by* FFS

[UnCivilServant]

What's with you and getting bitten by radioactive things? That's three now.

[SugarFree]

It's getting pretty bad. I tried to talk to my radioactive doctor about it, but he just tried to bite me. 🙁

[Outlaw]

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore stated that, "Everything I read about you makes you seem like a scary person."

Jesus Christ. If you wonder how this moron got to be a judge, I got two words for you: affirmative action.

Someone should replace her with a qualified adult. Or anyone, really.

[Steve G]

Teach me to refresh more frequently

[Zeb]

I thought McGruff was a cartoon.

[kibby]

I did, too. So that made this story really surreal.

[Tonio]

But they don't draw-in the voice.

[Steve G]

Morales insisted that he was nonviolent, but U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore stated that, "Everything I read about you makes you seem like a scary person."

You FEEL violent to me though!

[Raston Bot]

I want to party with that dude.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

In retrospect to the 85,000, reformism and other things
When men view our blogs in such large numbers, it's a threat. They're not just looking at it, they view it with the intent of harming radical feminists and women in general. They do it to collect information so they know what next to do to prevent women from going there. They batter radfem work in public for all women to see and show the result of their verbal and written battering as an example of what will await women if they do, think or say the same. They write nasty and threatening comments, that in order to trash, I have to read at least a few words of. Even though it doesn't hurt my feelings, they are still harmful and inevitably affect my thoughts.

85,000, that's the maximum number of views I had in one day a couple of weeks ago when the liberals and MRAs circulated my PIV blogpost for punishment. Unlike a normal blogger, attracting 85,000 hits isn't something I want to celebrate. It's threatening: you know they're after you, it only means you've hit men's radar and you have no idea what they plan to do....

[Ted S.]

I presume only one of those paragraphs is a quote?

[Auric Demonocles]

Context suggests otherwise, but HTML would prove it either way.

[UnCivilServant]

So they're saying "I don't want to get my message out there"?

[Tonio]

I think it's a "she". My take is that she's mentally ill, but it's also possible that she's a brilliant troll.

I don't click through to those links anymore; that level of apparent crazy is just too sad.

Johnny, I commend to your attention this quick and easy list of HTML text formatting tags.

[PM]

My take is that she's mentally ill, but it's also possible that she's a brilliant troll.

Poe's Law in action.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Library of Economics Liberty

"As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power...

...Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society's economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the "national interest"?that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. (Nevertheless, a few industries were operated by the state.) Where socialism abolished all market relations outright, fascism left the appearance of market relations while planning all economic activities. Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Liberalism, progressivism, communism, socialism, Marxism...all cut from the same shitty, cheap, cloth.

[Entropy Void]

Yes, the same cloth of winter coat the current Administration is wearing.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

+1 Organisation Todt

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Forgot to add fascism and Nazism to the list. They all came to exist because of left-wing drivel.

[Restoras]

NONONO fascism = REPUBLICANS everyone knows this

[Rasilio]

Well realistically Republicans are just as economically fascist as Democrats

[BakedPenguin]

Mussolini was a prominent Communist leader. He developed Fascism because he didn't want to have to mess with a Politburo.

Sound familiar?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Obama admin looking at extending "administrative fix" for noncompliant individual plans ? for three years?...The president's very own Democrats were desperately floating legislation to enforce the oft-repeated "If you like your plan, you can keep it"-promise that was soon after deemed "The Lie of the Year," but rather than bother with messy legislation, the Obama administration followed their unilateral employer-mandate delay with an "administrative fix" for these individual plans that would allow insurers to un-cancel cancelled plans for another year.

...Heck, they did it once already ? why not extend the "fix" through 2016, really? So what if the decision plagues the already-tottering system with insurance plans that don't pull their redistributive weight? That's what risk corridors are for! ...

[R C Dean]

the Obama administration followed their unilateral employer-mandate delay with an "administrative fix" for these individual plans that would allow insurers to un-cancel cancelled plans for another year.

The ignorance of the administration about their single, solitary "achievement" never ceases to amuse.

They apparently are trying to regulate health insurance without a smidge of a hint of an inkling that the states (also) regulate health insurance. And that you can't just "un-cancel" a plan: you have to resubmit it and get it re-approved by the state commissioner. Which takes time. More time than they have, often, before various enrollment deadlines run out.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Wendy Davis: Hey, I also support open carry of guns

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

I can hear the howls of TX proggies up here in IL!

[Outlaw]

There's no howling because they know she's just lying to get votes.

[UnCivilServant]

And so does everyone else.

[Tonio]

Zing!

[Slammer]

Here's some new metal for Friday. Have some new Behemoth.

[db]

Growls or no growls?

[Jarl ? the booty]

What about some nu metal for Friday?

*ducks*

[Tonio]

You are dead to me, Jarl. [Turns Jarl's picture to face the wall.]

[Jarl ? the booty]

Heh. I dunno whether or not I would say that I like nu metal. I like alt metal, and there are a decent number of good bands that straddle the genres.

I definitely don't like Limp Bizkit.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

I don't know if you've ever played Br?tal Legend, but the opening of that is a brilliant takedown of metal fusion genres.

[Snark Plissken]

From Swedish newspaper (and Google translate). Gay bar owner in Sochi doesn't feel overwhelmed by intolerance.

- Everyone says we have it so bad here in Russia. They do not know what they're talking about. This so-called anti-gay law for example. There is not any law against us, only a law against propaganda and it's a totally different thing.

But the reporter broadly hints that the bar owner is simply frightened of speaking out against Putin.

Roman Kotjagov is businessman and would love to continue to operate its profitable club. What he says is about what President Vladimir Putin says when he asked about the situation of homosexuals: no one is discriminated against, it's just that they can not entice children into destruction.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"they can not entice children into destruction."

You have no chance to survive, make your time!

[mnarayan]

For great justice!

[invisible furry hand]

if you're on the Twitters, follow Sochi Problems https://twitter.com/SochiProblems

[mr simple]

"I'd boycott Russian goods if I could think of a single thing they made besides the rest of the world depressed," Hugh Laurie posted on Twitter in January 2014.

[CatoTheElder]

The only Russian imports I can think of are cheap 9mm rounds of dubious quality and nails.

It's not too much trouble to boycott them, but kerfuffles over gay rights and abortion rights are boring.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's okay. It's not like reporters and journalists didn't lick the balls of totalitarians in the past.

[Snark Plissken]

In this case the reporter is saying how awful Russia is despite Russian gay bar owners telling him it's not at all.

[Outlaw]

The main reasons why all the journalists are bitching about Putin:

1. He's made Obama look like a total pussy and complete moron on more than one occasion.

2. He hates teh gayz.

They were pretty friendly with him during Bush's term.

Putin is an asshole who deserves to be hated but let us never forget that if he was buds with Obama they'd be licking his balls.

[Snark Plissken]

Naw, if he simply presented himself as some flavor of progressive he'd get a giant hall pass. You know, like Stalin did.

[Suthenboy]

In fairness, Putin did not make Obama look like a pussy.

http://www.tomatobubble.com/putin_obama.html

[Malkavian]

Well, they did build those side by side toilets...

[SugarFree]

no one is discriminated against, it's just that they can not entice children into destruction.

Is the Catholic Church banned in Russia?

[Snark Plissken]

Woody Allen and Roman Polanski renounced their Catholicism.

[SugarFree]

"The little girls around here taste terrible!"

"And such small potions!"

[SugarFree]

*portions* I think my brain is having crazy for breakfast.

[RBS]

You've spent too much time in Warty's head.

[SugarFree]

Terribilis est locus iste

[Snark Plissken]

Speaking of Warty, apparently he's stopped the time traveling.

[UnCivilServant]

You need to spend a while in a given time period to shed the buildup of chronitons that would otherwise cause you to disintegrate.

[SugarFree]

Warty Hugeman shall return in Warty Hugeman and The Doomcock of Doom, to be released in March 2014.

[waffles]

How I tell which Warty Hugeman stories are cannon and which are byoo-cannon?

[waffles]

*canon

[waffles]

*Buchanan

[SugarFree]

All stories are canon. Warty contains multitudes.

[Warty]

What's Woody Allen's favorite part about banging 24 year olds? There are 20 of them.

[Tonio]

I see what you did there, Snark. Bravo.

[Malkavian]

No, but it is bullied badly by orthodox church. I used to go to catholic group meetings back in the 90's, they were discriminated against a lot. I think it's gotten worse since Orthodox Church is now allied with the State.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You're ruining a hilarious sex joke!

[Tonio]

There is not any law against us, only a law against propaganda and it's a totally different thing.

Paging Tulip, Professor Tulip please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[Snark Plissken]

Because being gay in Russia is exactly the same as being gay in Cuba or Iran or KSA and if any actual gay people living in Russia say otherwise they are obviously being exactly like Tulpa.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

That wasn't my point, Snark. It was a dig on Tulpa about his claiming that Virginia's Marshall-Newman (anti-SSM) amendment wasn't a "ban" since it only applied to government and had no criminal penalties associated with it. This was entirely about the meaning of "ban."

Funny that you would make that argument in light of my repeated claims above that there are indeed degrees of opression.

If I had to be gay in those countries you mention I'd choose Cuba or Russia over Iran or the Kingdom or Saudi Arabia.

[The Other Kevin]

Last opening ceremony in London, the world was mesmerized by the tribute to national healthcare. Not to be outdone, the Russians are planning a tribute to the KGB. The sequence will include dancers in trench coats partnered with other dancers tied to chairs. The former will work over the latter with pliers and drills, to the tune of a song performed by Justin Beiber.

[Pro Libertate]

With a video segment starring Daniel Craig in his Bond role, buddying up with Putin to execute enemies of the state.

[CampingInYourPark]

California bill proposes mandatory kill-switch on phones and tablets

http://www.infoworld.com/d/mob.....ets-235912

It's a good thing electronics companies have CA to come up with and mandate these great ideas for them to add and everybody else to pay for.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The new patron saint of California

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....low_Taylor

Taylor had very precise ideas about how to introduce his system:
It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.[9]
Workers were supposed to be incapable of understanding what they were doing. According to Taylor this was true even for rather simple tasks.
'I can say, without the slightest hesitation,' Taylor told a congressional committee, 'that the science of handling pig-iron is so great that the man who is ... physically able to handle pig-iron and is sufficiently phlegmatic and stupid to choose this for his occupation is rarely able to comprehend the science of handling pig-iron.[10]

[mr simple]

There's just no way this would ever be misused, but we should still get government officials to promise not to use it for their own purposes.

[The Late P Brooks]

Where socialism abolished money and prices, fascism controlled the monetary system and set all prices and wages politically. In doing all this, fascism denatured the marketplace. Entrepreneurship was abolished. State ministries, rather than consumers, determined what was produced and under what conditions.

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"What's the problem?"

/progtard.

To understand Derp culture one must take a shit and analyze the stool.

[Marshall Gill]

To understand Derp culture one must take a shit and analyze eat the stool.

FTFY

[Zeb]

Where socialism abolished money and prices

When did this happen? I know that is sort of the idea with socialism, but even a place like North Korea hasn't managed to get rid of money.

[Sevo]

"When did this happen? I know that is sort of the idea with socialism, but even a place like North Korea hasn't managed to get rid of money."

The Bolshies thought they could be simply debasing the currency to the point of worthlessness.
They found that humans will find "money" anyhow.

[The Late P Brooks]

I just saw a little film clip from Sochi.

I did not see any snow.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Russia depresses me. When I took a course on Russian history it left me perpetually grey for the semester.

[Don Mynack]

Short history of Russia's greatest invention, the knout.

"A variation, known as the great knout, consisted of a handle about 60 cm (24 in) long, to which was fastened a flat leather thong about twice the length of the handle, terminating with a large copper or brass ring to which was affixed a strip of hide about 5 cm (2 in) broad at the ring, and terminating at the end of 60 cm (24 in) in a point. This was soaked in milk and dried in the sun to make it harder.
Knouts were used in Russia for flogging as formal corporal punishment of criminals and political offenders. The victim was tied to a post or on a triangle of wood and stripped, receiving the specified number of strokes on the back. A sentence of 100 or 120 lashes was equivalent to a death sentence. Even twenty lashes could maim, and with the specially extended Great Knout, twenty blows could kill, with death sometimes being attributed to the breaking of the spine."

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

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

"the specially extended Great Knout"

Sounds....Warty-ish.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Musta missed that episode on 'Deadliest Warriors.'

[Malkavian]

Snow is in the mountains.. Caucasus is gorgeous from what I heard.

[Snark Plissken]

I saw a pretty amazing docu about the Caucasus. Much of it is a very wild and untouched place.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

There was one they showed in class. It was interesting. Forget the title though. Talking early 90s here.

[Malkavian]

Yep. Never been there myself, but my mom and grandfather used to vacation there in the summer. When I was growing up, tribals were just too much trouble, not safe to go.

[Snark Plissken]

That's a big reason why it's so untouched, but this docu went way out of the way, apparently there are places there that are as exclusive as, say, parts of the rain forest.

I think I'd go check it out if I was 20 years younger.

[Malkavian]

It's gotten much better, they don't kidnap tourists as much anymore.

[alittlesense]

not unlike many Russian women.....

[Slammer]

De Blasio appoints his wife to head Mayor's fund.

Mayor de Blasio appointed his wife Thursday as chair of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit that coordinates public-private partnerships with the city.

"I know the official name of the organization is the Mayor's Fund, but it really is the people's fund," McCray said.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What could go wrong?

What's the problem?

/progtard

[Rufus J. Firefly]

link doesn't work.

[Slammer]

Sorry. Here.

[Suthenboy]

A socialist practicing nepotism? Unheard of!

[CampingInYourPark]

Is "House of Cards" prophetic or what?

[invisible furry hand]

Coming soon to a crappy drive-in near you me: Drop Bear Hunters

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

I AM SO IN! Can't wait.

[The Late P Brooks]

it really is the people's fund

"And I, as representative of the People, will decide how to spend it. I will savor this bounty on your behalf."

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

So who will end up the greater looter and wrecker - DeBlasio in NYC or McAuliffe in VA?

[Raston Bot]

DeBlasio has enablers. McAuliffe has our GOP legislative body.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

I'm guessing DeBlasio has an advantage since I'm guessing that the economy of NYC is way bigger than that of Virginia.

[Ken Shultz]

"President Obama said religious liberty is a top diplomatic priority for the U.S. Is it a domestic one too?"

Of course religious liberty is important to Obama.

That's why he's spent so much time and effort trying to destroy it!

[RBS]

Anybody catch the Olympics last night? Women's Slopestyle is boring as shit. The highlight was Bob Costas trying to look and act serious while fighting off an some sort of eye disease.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

First night. Best yet to come...I hope.

[RBS]

I'm sure once hockey and the downhill events get going it will pick up. Unless the lack of a crowd yesterday becomes the norm.

[Auric Demonocles]

If Bob Costas is the highlight of your sporting event you are doing something very very wrong.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

^THIS^

[Snark Plissken]

If Bob Costas has anything to even do with your sporting event...

[mr simple]

He made a big deal about not being a part of the Opening Ceremonies broadcast team, for the first time EVAR.

[mr simple]

I developed an interest in Canadian women's moguls.

[The DerpRider]

I saw Costas. That looked....irritating. Do the three Candadian sister skiers have a bikini photo shoot anywhere that I can look at and decide if I want to root for them?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

On religious freedom, the USA comes off smelling like roses next to China North Korea and Iran. So Obama gets to be this great champion of religious liberty and high-five himself for not being a totalitarian dictator.

Thus he hopes to be let off the hook for his encroachments on religious freedom. Maybe he's threatening nuns with crippling fines, but he's not throwing them in prisoj! Maybe he's denying asylum to persecuted home-schoolers, but he's graciously declining to torture them. So there you go.

Yay, I'm not as bad as a Commie or Islamist tyranny, you should be grateful!

[PM]

That's not the only regard in which Obama wins the faint victory of being tallest dwarf.

[Tonio]

So, you'd rather the USA didn't speak out for religious freedom?

[The Late P Brooks]

Some Labor dept Baghdad Bob is talking about how great the economy is. Traktorz production is up, Comrades! But that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to pay unemployment benefits into infinity.

Now he is babbling frantically about how awesome the Obamacare is.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Let me know when they increase the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 25 grams!

[mr simple]

Russian 'lesbian' duo t.A.T.u to perform at Sochi Olympics?

Note: not actual lesbians

[PM]

Note: not actual lesbians

Close enough for government work!

[PRX]

There's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run

definitive proof that Joe Biden is not SkyNet

[Loki]

This man is officially a hero.

A college student in Albany, N.Y., has been accused of pissing off a police officer by peeing on his head.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

I would not be selling that kid life insurance...

[Loki]

Yeah, he's pretty lucky to still be alive, and I'm sure his stay in jail will be just peachy.

[Ken Shultz]

He should probably claim self-defense.

[Ken Shultz]

I've never had anybody pee at me like that, personally, but if anybody ever did, I'd totally back away.

[hamilton]

accused of pissing off a police officer

Well, as they say, it's better to be pissed off than...oh.

[Jordan]

Police will have 'backdoor' access to health records despite opt-out, says MP

The database that will store all of England's health records has a series of "backdoors" that will allow police and government bodies to access people's medical data.

David Davis MP, a former shadow home secretary, told the Guardian he has established that police will be able to access the health records of patients when investigating serious crimes even if they had opted out of the new database, which will hold the entire population's medical data in a single repository for the first time from May.

Gee, who could possibly have foreseen that?

[Drunketarian]

Unemployment dropped to 6.6%!

US Employers Add 113K Jobs; Rate Dips to 6.6%
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....-of-66-pct

[R C Dean]

Incredible, how adding about half the jobs needed to keep up with population growth cuts the unemployment rate!

[Ken Shultz]

Or, once you've discouraged so many people, and they stop looking for work, and that drops them out of the statistics, it's much easier to get that dead cat bounce in the numbers from new high school and college graduates.

Actually, the numbers are so weak, I think Wall Street is concerned that the Fed may change course and start trying to stimulate the economy again--which would be terrible. Even if you subscribe to an interventionist philosophy, every time the Fed reverses course like that in midstream, it damages their credibility...

After a while, when the Fed announces its ending its stimulus program (or starting it again) people will stop believing them. How do you manage expectations when no one believes what you say until you actually do it?

[The Late P Brooks]

Nice.

They just showed Biden calling La Guardia NYC a third world shithole.

Where is our infrastructure bank?

Get the WPA back to work!

[UnCivilServant]

Not that I really want to agree with 'Creepy Uncle' Joe, NYC is a third world shithole, look at who's running the joint.

[CampingInYourPark]

At least La Guardia doesn't have uncovered manholes! USA! USA!

[Sevo]

Blacks and hispanics employed by Silicon Valley companies in almost exactly the rate at which they get appropriate degrees!
Lefty concern writer CONCERNED!
"Silicon Valley's 'bro culture' locks out many minorities"
http://www.sfgate.com/politics.....php#page-2

[John]

In today's addition of "maths is hard for journalists" we present this classic.

Fewer than half of first-time home buyers can afford to purchase a median-priced home, and rents are increasing faster than incomes, especially for the middle class.

http://online.wsj.com/news/art.....TopOpinion

That made it past an editor and no one thought twice about it.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, they should have caught that.

What they mean by "first-time home buyer" is not people who have actually bought homes.

[John]

Half of America's children are below average!!

[Snark Plissken]

Maths? What are you a bloody limey?

[John]

I believe maths is an American word too. And it sounds snarkier.

[Snark Plissken]

No, it's math. Technically incorrect, as it's short for mathematics, but it's our word goddammit. And at least we don't have a river Thames pronounced Tim. Stand with us or stand with them.

[The DerpRider]

Some call me...Thames?

[waffles]

If by snarkier you mean like a prickish limey, then yes. I prefer the arithmetical arts.

[Capt. Rimmer]

Comrades, Russia is the new Somalia:

It's (Russia) not a police state. It's a free for all. Take whatever you want. That's a libertarian dream.

Just go over there (Russia). I promise you that you won't see the govt or get any help from them, ala libertarians.

The rich and their friends do whatever they want, exactly like what would happen in a libertarian state.

Signed ProgTard

[Malkavian]

Hmm.. Russia currently is a definition of a fascist state. I'd like that person to go to Russia and try 'to take whatever he wants' without an alliance with Putin.

[The Late P Brooks]

They are talking about the SAC guy who just got convicted.

One of the assholes basically said, "He deserves to get nailed to the wall for having the insolence to make the SEC take him to trial. Why didn't he rat out Steve Cohen, like a good little American?" Jesus, what a scumbag.

[The DerpRider]

So, as the Olympics has begun - Derprider life moment share. When I was in high school I dated Shelley Looney, the girl who scored the gold medal winning goal against Canada in 98, was on Letterman, and then quite possibly never dated a man again. Great gal though.

[SugarFree]

You were too good. No other man could compare so she gave up on our entire gender.

[R C Dean]

That's . . . one interpretation.

[The DerpRider]

Meh. I think she had a foot out the door already. I was a placeholder for Sadie Hawkins dances.

[Suthenboy]

So you are saying that after you she never wanted to have anything to do with men again?

You probably shouldn't tell that to people.

[The DerpRider]

Someone has to be the last man out. If not me...

[The Late P Brooks]

Anybody who goes to trial instead of taking the plea deserves an additional punishment.

Maybe we should make Failure to Accept a Plea Bargain a federal crime in and of itself.

[UnCivilServant]

Offering a plea bargain should be a crime. If there's overwhelming evidence to convict, let it be made public.

[CampingInYourPark]

Winter weather is causing some woes for local navigators who are helping get people signed up for health insurance coverage through the federal marketplace.
Some locations that help consumers with the enrollment process have been forced to cancel events and office hours because of winter storms.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/s.....5c68c.html

Climate is trying to sabotage the ACA!

[R C Dean]

I blame George W. Bush.

[Pro Libertate]

That's right, he was supposed to have some sort of weather-control capability. Forgot about that.

[mad libertarian guy]

Constitutional Question: it's my argument, and I imagine most of the people here as well, that the Constitution and BoR is a document designed for laymen, not lawyers. That it was written specifically with the intent that any of us could read and interpret the document without any legal training.

A lawyer friend of mine is indicating that Law School gave him a secret decoder ring, and that it takes a lawyer to "understand the legal significance."

My arguments are all about the FEELZ. For example, it seems inconceivable that the founders, who had just thrown off the shackles of an oppressive government and sought to empower each individual man in self governance, would write a documents (intended to define how we might go about attaining said liberty) that required specialized training and which could only be arbited by the very institution the document specifically limits.

Are there any contemporary documents or evidence I could use to show that the Constitution/BoR is for the common man to be used to tell government to fuck off when need be?

[Ken Shultz]

I'd start with the Federalist Papers.

The whole purpose of the Federalist Papers was to make the case for the Constitution and Bill of Rights to the common man.

Just understand that you're trying to convince someone who just spent a lot of time, effort, and money that what he just spent all that time, effort, and money on isn't really all that valuable.

I'd start by admitting all the specialized stuff he learned that is valuable and marketable and that people will pay for--and then make your case for the Constitution and Bill of Rights being something anybody can understand.

[Pro Libertate]

Practically speaking, lawyers do act as the high priests of the document, but the reality is that much of the plain meaning was encrypted by lawyers in the first place.

The nature of the Constitution is that it's a written version of the social compact by and among the people of the U.S. to agree upon the nature, framework, and powers of the federal government. As such, it naturally was written in fairly plain language. Only years of every part of government working to usurp powers it clearly never had (rather than trying to change things via the legal amendment process) and the twisted opinions and laws that accomplished that have made constitutional law as arcane and difficult as it can be.

[tarran]

Throw the Federalist 51 in his face.

Madison explains that no one has the keys.

[Pro Libertate]

You mean literally? Print it on a bowler hat, then put very sharp blades around the brim.

[mr simple]

Then say, "I guess the truth hurts."

Or something, I may need to work on this some more.

[Ken Shultz]

I would argue, too, that there is some specialized knowledge necessary for understanding some of it--just because the usage of words changed over time, even if the meaning didn't.

So, for instance, the word "regulated" still means something like what it meant in the Second Amendment when we talk about "regular troops" or "irregulars", but when most people today read the word "regulated" in the Second Amendment, the usage didn't mean back then what it means today.

That's a kind of specialized knowledge that not everyone has today, but when it was written, it was intended for common people to understand, and the common usage was different.

[R C Dean]

A lawyer friend of mine is indicating that Law School gave him a secret decoder ring, and that it takes a lawyer to "understand the legal significance."

Your lawyer friend is an idiot.

[cuntface (fka Tonio)]

I think your friend may be beyond convincing. He has a bad case of credentialism.

However, next time he brings up a topic in an area of your expertise, explain to him that nobody outside that specialty could possibly understand the real significance.

[mad libertarian guy]

I think your friend may be beyond convincing. He has a bad case of credentialism.

This.

He keeps trying to compare reading the constitution with reading Old English texts (my specialty in grad school), though without wanting to admit the vast differences in the texts.

[The Late P Brooks]

it takes a lawyer to "understand the legal significance."

Considering what the Supremes have done to the Fourth Amendment, I'd have to say that's mostly true.

[Pro Libertate]

By analogy, a child could rewrite the Constitution in a secret code in crayon, then proclaim his genius in being the only person who can understand it.

Let's be clear: The Constitution has been warped out of shape against the rules it established and against, in many cases, any logical interpretation of its meaning. So, naturally, the people who did the warping can justify their warping (and their predecessors' warping) better than others.

[The Late P Brooks]

Fewer than half of first-time home buyers can afford to purchase a median-priced home

I read that as two separate and distinct things.

Most "first time buyers" buy houses on the lower end of the price scale.

[Ken Shultz]

"First time home buyer" is jargon meaning someone who is looking to buy a home for the first time.

Most everybody who reads it, though, is going to think they mean people who have actually purchased a first home.

[DEG]

Amazon releases a list of 100 books to read in a lifetime. I chuckled at a few of the entries.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/.....?hpt=hp_c2

[OldMexican]

James Carville has signed up with Fox News.

Fox News - Jobs creator!

At least for a few mumbling old farts and bullshit artists.

[Citizen Nothing]

The Obama administration makes me nostalgic for Carville.

[The Late P Brooks]

"First time home buyer" is jargon meaning someone who is looking to buy a home for the first time.

So what?

Do the majority of them buy ten million dollar homes?

[mr simple]

Sherlock might not return to the BBC until 2016

NOOO!

Warning: article contains spoilers for season 3.

[Marc F Cheney]

Spoiler: Holmes is really Khan.