A.M. Links: Shirley Temple Dead at 85, Internet Freedom Activists Planning Day of Protest, Immigration Reform Groups To Confront House Republicans

Credit: Film Star Vintage / Foter / CC BY

• Shirley Temple, the former child movie star who also served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, has died at the age of 85.
• Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who shot and killed a border patrol agent near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010, was sentenced to thirty years in prison yesterday. Guns linked to Operation Fast and Furious were found at the site of the killing. 
• China and Taiwan have held the first direct government talks since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
• Immigration reform groups are to begin confronting House Republicans at public events in an attempt to shame them into engaging with immigration reform proposals.
• The wife of a cancer patient claims that her husband was humiliated by TSA agents who laughed at his diaper and strip-searched him.
• Internet freedom activists are planning a day of protest against the NSA. Thousands of websites are planning to display banners urging visitors to call members of Congress and voice their opposition to the FISA Improvements Act.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Busy signal.

[Doctor Whom]

Buon giorno.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[db]

“…this is the.United.States calling, are we reaching-*click*v

[Aloysious]

+1 Pink Floyd.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

a Salaamu alykhem, Fist

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wa ‘alaykum al-salaam.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Shlonak, saydee?

[Mongo]

Salma Hayek.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

If he had Selma Hayek, he would be doing very well indeed!

[RBS]

Good morning indeed.

[waffles]

Beep Boop. S’morning time, haldo!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Morning to all you rabble.

[Snark Plissken]

Shirley Temple, the former child movie star who also served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, has died at the age of 85.

Her last words, “Yet Abe Vigoda still survives…”

[Drake]

I would have assumed she had been dead for decades.

[Raven Nation]

My first response was, “Who knew there was a suicide cult known as the ‘Shirley Temple.'”

[Snark Plissken]

I actually saw her and Abe on a list of ‘people you thought were dead’ a while back.

[RBS]

I thought the same thing this morning when I saw the news.

[Ted S.]

Since I blog about classic cinema, I check the Wikipedia obituary page every day to see if there’s anybody I need to write an obituary post about. Yeah, I know it’s creepy, but I tend to know which old-time stars are still alive and which aren’t.

[Brett L]

I’m going to have to go find some more of Gabriel Axel’s catalog. I watched Babette’s Feast in a Food & Lit class and found it very well done, even though I’m not huge on foreign films. Perhaps some of his, uh, “series of sexually oriented features” for their, uh, advocacy value.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What’s the site, Ted?

[Ted S.]

Have you tried clicking on my name? :-p

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Never do. Always think it goes to email. Never presume.

Let’s troll!

[Ted S.]

You could always try hovering over it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You should start a death pool.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I’m-a take a wild guess and say http://justacineast.blogspot.com/

[Ted S.]

At least I can thread properly, unlie this P Brooks-wannabe.

[Ted S.]

I may be creepy, but I’m not that creepy.

[Zeb]

It’s funny. For some reason that I can’t recall, I read the Wikipedia article about her a few days ago. And was surprised that she was still alive (and about her later diplomatic career).

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

OK folks, go home. The interwebs are closed for today – they done been won.

[Ted S.]

Somehow I doubt we’ll get a zillion articles about her the way we did with the overrated Lou Reed. But then, he was apparently some sort of cultural touchstone for the people of Welch’s and Gillespie’s generation.

[gaijin]

Welch’s and Gillespie’s generation.

The generation that followed the greatest generation?

[Rasilio]

Isn’t Welch a Gen X’er?

Realistically Lou Reed would have been before his time since he was basically
an old timer by the time the 80’s hit

[Rhywun]

I am Gen X and although he is – bafflingly – venerated by a lot of folks my age (especially *ahem* music snobs), I myself consider him “before my time”.

[Rasilio]

Me too and I am just a year younger than Matt.

I think of Lou Reed as one of those 70’s guys they played on the oldies station my father listened to. While I will readily admit that the 80’s was largely a cultural wasteland wrt to music I identify far more with bands of the 90’s than Lou Reed types

[Brett L]

I am tail end of Gen X, but I can remember the first time a friend put Rock’n’Roll Animal on for me, I suddenly “got” the fascination with Lou Reed and by extension Velvet Underground. RnRA may still be, for me, the best EP I’ve ever listened to. That band is so tight that even though Lou is too high to hit the mic during the first verse of Sweet Jane, its fine.

[Doctor Whom]

The Obots are so desperate for a distraction that I’m sure they’ll be all over it.

[Ted S.]

She served two TEAM RED administrations as ambassador, though.

[PM]

What the fuck, Lou Reed is dead?!

[Zeb]

I don’t know that Lou Reed was so overrated. He’s one of those guys who is well liked by insiders, but he never really got a ton of popular attention except for Take a Walk on the Wild Side.

[WTF]

His live album “Rock n Roll Animal” from 1974 is excellent.

[Rich]

She considered her background in entertainment an asset to her political career. “Politicians are actors too, don’t you think?” she once said.

“Tapdancing Around Benghazi”

[RBS]

She was a politician too?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Eh, if you count Ambassador as one. From what I have heard, she was actually a somewhat decent ambassador to Czechoslovakia.

[SugarFree]

She also ran for California’s 11th Congressional district.

[Brett L]

As a Republican.

[SugarFree]

A Pro-Vietnam War Republican. She was beaten by an anti-VW Republican. Strange days, indeed.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Internet freedom activists are planning a day of protest against the NSA.

The NSA new this already.

[gaijin]

The NSA new this already.

And now it’s old knews

[db]

No gnus is good gnus with Gary Gnu.

[Clich? Bandit]

OH MY GOD YOU ARE OLD!

I remember Gary Gnu…and by the way, no joke, we used to heat our house with wood and coal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That’s for all you idiots who think I know the links ahead of time and can come prepared.

[Drunketarian]

I’ll drink to that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The wife of a cancer patient claims that her husband was humiliated by TSA agents who laughed at his diaper and strip-searched him.

I think the TSA probably has a pretty thick skin at this point. And just wait until they’re armed.

[Rich]

I think the TSA probably has a pretty thick skin at this point.

It’s their callous indifference.

[Clich? Bandit]

they got those callouses from groping too many people.

[Tim]

There are few diseases as funny as cancer.

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

Burn Washington Burn
I smell a riot going on
First they’re guilty, now they’re gone
Yeah, I’ll check out a movie
But let me be clear: it’d better be about me
Get me the hell away from this TV
All these news and views are beneath me
All I hear about is libertards ringing out
And legislators putting each other’s heads out
I’d rather kick some health care out
Come on choom gang let’s go hang out
So let’s campaign like Spike Lee
Because the racists in America don’t like me
This black man could use a third term
Burn Washington Burn

-click-

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: This was soul on a roll, but HnR is treating it like soap on a rope.

-click-

[gaijin]

like soap on a rope.

I know what I’d like to see on the end of a rope.

[Brett L]

A Public Enemy fan? Hmm.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, who shot and killed a border patrol agent near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2010, was sentenced to thirty years in prison yesterday. Guns linked to Operation Fast and Furious were found at the site of the killing.

Most of those years are for exposing an Obama scandal.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

FAKE SKANDULL!!!1!!

/derp

[Raven Nation]

Eric Holder: un-indicted co-conspirator.

[db]

Took a while.for.the.Morning Links.to.find.their sea legs, I.see.

[Ska]

Said the serial punctuation user from the helm of his cigarette boat.

[db]

You try posting from a phone while wrestling a shaved Bigfoot while wearing a wig made out of shaved Bigfoot.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I’m posting this from my iphone while backing a tractor trailer rig down an icy mountain road with a plate of spaghetti in my lap and a steaming hot coffee in my left hand. Get typing skills, bro.

[Rich]

Two words: Neal Cassady.

[SugarFree]

“Neal, wake up. There’s a train coming.”

[Rich]

Hey, I’ll wager db and LBC sleep sometimes, too!

[PM]

Wait, who was wearing the wig, you or the Bigfoot?

[Rich]

Merkin?

[Steve G]

and yet the periods can quickly disappear and italics appear when called out

[Fist of Etiquette]

Immigration reform groups are to begin confronting House Republicans at public events in an attempt to shame them into engaging with immigration reform proposals.

They sure do want E-Verify, don’t they?

[waffles]

Holy shit. Shirley Temple was still alive, and only 85? I guess the 20th century wasn’t that long ago.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I know. Crazy.

[waffles]

I guess it’s because I lump all films made before WWII together. Shirley Temple was born the same year as my grandfather. So I guess that makes her the Miley Cyrus or Lindsey Lohan of their generation. But that comparison doesn’t seem fair.

[Rich]

She did some mean twerking with Arthur Treacher.

[Raven Nation]

*fights down nausea*

[db]

Some girls will do.anything for fish and chips.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

+1 malt vinegar

[CE]

I thought everything in black-and-white was from the distant past.

[Snark Plissken]

Well she was a *child* star.

[gaijin]

I wonder if there will be alot of Shirley Temple’s ordered at restaurants today?

[Ted S.]

Mickey Rooney is 93, Baby Peggy is 95, and Luise Rainer turned 104 last month.

[waffles]

You’re the classic movie guru, correct?

[Ted S.]

I wouldn’t call myself a guru. I just blog about the subject.

[Rich]

Whatever happened to Baby Jane?

[Apple]

Olivia De Havilland is 97

[Juice]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi…..d_1933.jpg

Here she is in 1933. You could easily convince me that this is a pic from Instagram taken last week.

[Apple]

I can understand why Errol Flynn was fond of the sisters.

[Steve G]

Hey, I saw that pic on instagram last week.

[John]

She was beautiuful

[Cdr Lytton]

She still is. I love watching her movies.

And for those foamy choo-choo lovers, she christened SP’s first Daylight train in 1937- http://www.rayman4449.com/Dayl…..0-0021.jpg

[thom]

And her sister Joan Fontaine just died a month or so ago.

[Slammer]

Immigration reform groups are to begin confronting House Republicans at public events in an attempt to shame them into engaging with immigration reform proposals.

You can’t shame politicians.

[PowerBottom]

Guy with palsy has his service dog shot point blank by cop during son’s 9th birthday party. Guy then given ticket for letting his dogs run around. All started when a neighbor called reporting about dogs on the loose. Introducing a cop into the situation let a bullet be fired at a 9 year old’s birthday and a dead dog. There’s video of the incident as well. Fuck your balls/ovaries this Tuesday morning.

http://magicvalley.com/news/lo…..963f4.html

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Thanks for that – I am already home, sick and now my nuts are aching from that kick.

[Matrix]

It’s not a good day for a cop unless he gets to shoot a dog.

[db]

Someone needs.to.shame the.fuck out.of.that neighbor.

[Brett L]

I agree with the sentiment, only I think the NAP was violated by calling the cops, so beating them may be acceptable, if not necessarily the strongest moral position.

[db]

Maybe waiting.until the.neighbor slips.up and.calling the cops on them.

[RBS]

A beating should suffice, no need to have them assassinated.

[Zeb]

Probably not the best practical position either. Especially if he still has any living dogs around.

[Ted S.]

The 6th Amendment explicity allows it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I’d wait until you know how often the guy let his dogs run around and be a nuisance. I’ve certainly had asshole neighbors who let their dog out at 3 in the morning to bark at trees for a couple of hours.

[Ted S.]

This is one of the nice things about not having any neighbors for 1000 feet. No asshole neighbors.

[Jack Holby]

+1 Country Living

[alan_s]

Someone needs to find out where that cop lives. If he has a dog, it’s fair game.

[Nazdrakke]

I don’t even want to read that. When can I call the National Guard to take care of all these black and blue clad thugs running around armed terrorising people and stealing from them?

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

If I were the Adjutant General of the ILNG – it would be today.

[gaijin]

Just don;t call the Ohio National Guard…they may not be your friends

The ONG 52nd Civil Support Team training scenario involved a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”

[Rich]

In the disaster-preparedness scenario, two Portsmouth Junior High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas

I suppose they put it on the hot dogs.

Who comes up with this stuff?

[tarran]

A training officer who has the desire to write like Tom Clancy but lacks the ability.

[Apple]

Four dead in O-Hi-O

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It would be a lot more realistic if the scenario was a social reject with hard-left sympathies.

[PD Scott]

What the hell is that creature on their logo supposed to be?

[Floridian]

I would definitely be dead right now if that fat fuck had shot my dogs. I would have shot him and the responding officers until they killed me. But I have a bad temper and no children to be concerned about.

[RBS]

Goddamn, I’m fucking pissed off now.

[Steve G]

Doesn’t make it any less unsat, but I call BS on the service dog part.

And why would a cop be dispatched to a loose animal complaint; that muni not have an animal control? At least those folks would know how to handle a couple of “vicious” labs and a purse dog–probably by laughing first.

[tarran]

The animal control in my town is one guy who works 9 to 4:30 on MTWT and 9 to 3 on Friday.

And, for emergencies, his answering machine message instructs you to call the cops.

[Steve G]

Well, yeah, that’s true and this was ~5:30… death by cop it is!

[RBS]

but I call BS on the service dog part.

Any evidence that it wasn’t a service dog?

[Steve G]

They’re usually selected/trained for temperament so the barking and “aggression” seems out of character for a svc dog and if I invested in a service dog I certainly wouldn’t let it roam the neighborhood mimicking the behavior of untrained pets and unlearning it’s training–it’d be inside performing it’s service.
I think this guy either considers his dog a service dog unofficially because he’s disabled, or he got some internet certificate declaring the dog to be a “service dog”.

[Trials and Trippelations]

I think you’re right. I doubt this dog was an official service dog. My brother in law has a service dog vest for his dog. Although it has a high level of training it is not at the service dog level and won’t be (due to age I guess), but it could offer him some assistance with his disability.

He said the vests mean nothing. I’ve actually considered asking him how to get a vest for my dog so I can take it with me to hikes in National Parks.

[Steve G]

We’ve considered the faux-vest route as well, but it’d be a tougher sell w/ a doberman, at least ours. She’s a sweetheart, but occasionally get’s squirrely around submissive dogs.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This absolutely infuriates me. Fucking piece of shit that cop is. A cold-blooded, killer.

Heroes my fucking ass. I’m no dog expert but those dogs were not threatening. He shot it, seemingly, when it was at its least threatening moment. ASSHOLE.

And that neighbor, I’d bang down the door, grab him or her by the hair and show them what they did a family pet.

Pieces of shits all around.

Thanks for ruining my morning.

[RBS]

Don’t forget, he kicked it first. Like a fucking pussy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Exactly. He agitated the dog. And judging by his body language, he didn’t seem overly scared. Just itching to act like a coward.

Hazards of the job my ass.

These fuckers have GUNS and shouldn’t be killing for fear of getting bitten.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I wonder how the heroes over at that police website would interpret this piece of work. I can imagine the spinning.

[Steve G]

Yeah, in a perfect world this guy, who claims he shot the dog because he was bitten before, would be pulled aside by someone who has a clue about dogs and told, “here’s what YOU’RE doing wrong around dogs dumbass…”

[Matrix]

Snowacalypse here in North Alabama. A couple of inches of snow has shut down several roads and most schools/universities in the areas. Several businesses are closed for the day. But the Arsenal had a 2 hour delay for work. So, here I am! 😛 Anyway, not so bad driving in. Just had to take it slow. But the worst of it is yet to come, apparently.

[gaijin]

But the worst of it is yet to come, apparently.

The ultimate truth of life!

[Rich]

And then you *die*!

[db]

I suggest running over to MSFC and seeing.if they can light off.some engines in the rocket garden to melt some.snow.off.

[Obamaphone]

Ring***Ring***

You need to apply some of that flinty Chicago toughness.

-click-

[SugarFree]

Don’t worry, little camper. The NYT has you covered: The End of Snow? (2/7/2014)

[waffles]

When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Reason and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.

[SugarFree]

+1 toaster in the bath

[Brett L]

“HEEEEEEEEERE’S JOHNNY!”

[Red Rocks Rockin]

“What are the Finger Lakes?”

[Zeb]

Sounds just like what people were saying would have happened by now 20 years ago.

[GILMORE]

You gotta love the NYT’s utter lack of awareness of how the rest of the nation lives, given they write this piece only like a week after the STATE OF GEORGIA was in severe emergency status due to unexpected snow.

They (and their readers) have seriously drunk the fucking kool aid to the point where they really think they’re already living in their imagined dystopian future.

I am thinking particularly of Rolling Stone Communist-Retard Myerson, who argued that *regardless* of the millions killed under Communism, they about to NOTHING compared to the billions that are going to die in the coming environmental collapse perpetrated by Capitalism.

No, really –

“If I have to answer for Soviet gulags, these market/capital twits have to answer for climate collapse, the greatest genocide in history.””

By “history”, he means “inevitable future”.

Subtle thinking, these progs.

[Zeb]

Because Communists have always been so good to the environment.

It is kind of funny that today’s commies are all about environmentalism, which really is a bourgeois indulgence.

[Matrix]

So they added another 2 hour delay for a total of 4 and I’m already at work. Just shut the damn thing down, GC! Fuck!

[PowerBottom]

Anyone else watching True Detective on HBO? Fuck me, the robbery scene from this past Sunday was fantastic.

[SugarFree]

Yup. It seems like the show is finally taking off.

[Snark Plissken]

Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Also, MM is just a fucking amazing actor. He goes up to the line without crossing over into hamminess.

[PowerBottom]

I used to think he was just the attractive stand in for however many romantic comedies each year, but the dude is mesmerizing in TD.

[kinnath]

He was. Then he decided to take up acting again.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Has been for a couple of years now. He was very good in Mud.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Marshall Mathers is acting now?!?!?!

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

+8 Mile(s)

[kinnath]

Great show

[Brett L]

Goddammit. I was out of town Sunday and last night my wife had her friends over to catch up on Girls. But tonight, we’ll watch. Also, interested to see if Mike Judge will be able to find the magic for Silicon Valley or whether he’s going to recycle Office Space.

[Ted S.]

Goddammit. I was out of town Sunday and last night my wife had her friends over to catch up on Girls.

You need to train your wife better.

[Brett L]

Maybe, but she drank a bottle of wine, decided I was a much better human being than the people she was watching and demanded that we practice the first step in making the first baby. So if that’s what it takes to get enthusiastically ravished… I can take it.

[Brett L]

Making the next baby. The first baby sleeps through the night now.

[playa manhattan]

Babies are really good birth control.

[SugarFree]

Another desperate article by Jezebel beating up the “Women aren’t funny?!?” strawman.

Fire the epic unfunny Lindy West and we’ll have a talk, Jezebel.

[Nazdrakke]

Plenty of women are funny, but rabid man-hating Jezzies are dull, dull, dull.

[SugarFree]

Bingo. The idea that they represent all women is the funniest (and more horrifying) thing about the site.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What’s the next industry for targeting? We’ve got comedy and Silicon Valley right now.

Maybe there aren’t enough female concrete finishers. Fire up the presses gals!

[Brian D]

What’s the next industry for targeting?

American politics.

[Rich]

Big Antacid.

[Floridian]

I’m not reading the article but seriously what women are funny?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Rudner, Handler, Tyler, Diller, Silverman, Burnett…

[Kaptious Kristen]

Banjoes, Nikki, ifh, me…

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Please do not condemn me for my errors of omission. Does Epi count as female too?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Does Epi’s species even have male-female gender assignment?

[SugarFree]

If you are what you eat, Epi is a plastic grocery sack full of deep-fried dog cocks.

[Steve G]

deep-fried dog cocks

Nice band name

[Tim]

I only come here to read stuff like that.

[Ted S.]

The first three, yes; I’m not so sure about the fourth….

[Kaptious Kristen]

*narrows eyes* If it were anyone but you, Ted, I’d be insulted….

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Moore, Ball, and, in a sense, Loy.

[Floridian]

I will tolerate Sarah Silverman and Ayesha Tyler because they are hot. But that is as far as I will go. Carol Burnett was funny especially when she guest stared on mama’s family. I like Phyllis Diller on the comedy roast. Okay. You made your point.

[John]

Burnett was a genius. Silverman can be funny. I don’t think she is very hot though. I kind of like her kind of Russian Peasant could bear 12 children body. And she has great skin. But her nose is really screwy looking and too flat. She is not very pretty.

[Floridian]

I’m a sucker for girls with pale skin and dark hair so I’m probably looking past some of her faults.

[John]

I am too. So much so I married one.

[prolefeed]

Silverman is kinda too skinny NYC nerdy for me. And then she opens her piehole about politics and the non-attraction is complete.

I’d do Ayesha Tyler, though.

[Floridian]

Seriously who wouldn’t love to have a long weekend with Aisha Tyler? Also she can bring Liv Tyler. A Tyler threesome? What?! Come on!

[Juice]

It’s weird. I’ve never thought Silverman was hot. She’s quirky looking and that’s ok. I’ve always liked her because she’s usually fucking hilarious. Her show should still be airing dammit.

[Steve G]

I was in the same boat, but her over-the-top liberal bullshit just finally got to me, particularly that last bit about giving black guys guns or whatever it was. But i do find a smart/funny chick hotter than a gorgeous chick w/ an empty skull.

[John]

Quirky looking is a good way to describe her. I could see why someone would find her hot. I wouldn’t kick her out of bed. But she is not really my type either.

[Zeb]

I’ve always thought that she was very attractive.

[Warty]

Aisha Tyler is funny and gorgeous, but more importantly, she has excellent taste in inteviewees.

[John]

You know who was actually a good comedic actress back in the day? Barbara Streisand. Her 1970s comedies were quite good. The fact that she turned into the queen bitch of the universe has caused this fact to be largely forgotten.

[PM]

Sarah Silverman…hot

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Floridian]

I’ve always had different taste in women than most guys. Half the reason I liked watching Greg the Bunny was Silverman as eye candy.

[PM]

I mean, I understand unconventional beauty, but shit, that’s just downright anarchic

[Floridian]

PM, you can send me all your unused Sarah Silvermans and then we will both be happy.

[SForza]

I think she’s hot. Not very pretty, but hot. And half-funny, half-annoying.

[Rich]

Roseanne Barr had her moments as a stand-up.

*** ducks ***

[Floridian]

I’ll never forget the opening scene when she wins at poker and takes all the candy. That laugh is burned into my childhood memory.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Vicki Lawrence, Natasha Leggero, my wife, my favorite bartender, and pretty much every chick I know and hang with. Of course, I don’t hang out with feminists.

[Floridian]

I only know one of those people and I liked her as “Mama”

[Steve G]

oy, unfortunately Vicki’s Mama gave Tyler Perry a really bad idea that just won’t die

[Juice]

About half of the women SNL cast were pretty funny. It’s up to you to decide which half.

[Apple]

I suppose it’s a matter of taste, but I think SNL has had plenty of funny women. Tina Fey, Amy Poeler, Jan Hooks, Ana Gasteyer, Sarah Silverman, Gilda Radner. I still think Kristin Wiig is the best.

[alittlesense]

Don’t forget Andrea Martin and Catherine O’Hara from SCTV.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Catherine O’Hara….so awesome. But I know her from Christopher Guest movies.

Also from Christopher Guest, Jennifer Coolidge.

[John]

Catherine O’Hara for the win.

And in that vain, don’t forget Madeline Kahn.

[Apple]

I forgot Maya Rudolph too.

[Atanarjuat]

I’ve known (well, not in that sense) many women who were hilarious.

[PD Scott]

Wendy Liebman, Maria Bamford, Elvira Kurt

[MJGreen]

For a big name, Joan Rivers should not be ignored. It can be easy to dismiss her nowadays, but she can be fucking hilarious. Amy Poehler and Julia Louis Dreyfus are goddesses (though only Poehler is a “comedian”). As for some hilarious, amazingly quick improvisers: Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, Lauren Lapkus, Betsy Sodaro. Maria Bamford is great if you’re on her wavelength (excruciating if not).

[Kaptious Kristen]

I hate the Olympics because they put Parks and Rec on hiatus for two weeks.

[RBS]

Parks and Rec pretty much died after season 3.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Totally disagree.

[MJGreen]

Totally agree with RBS. I love Poehler and most of the cast, and love seasons 2 and 3 of the show, but I thought season 4 was godawful and season 5 failed to hold my interest after a few episodes.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

OK, the BBC just required comedy pan shows to have at least one woman each, and tge author worries that these will be panels of funny men andan unfunny woman. And comedy is inadvertently rigged to be anti-women. So she’s describing a feminist victory and immediately launches into a litany of complaints. About a genre of entertainment programs. She needs to cheer up.

[The Late P Brooks]

Morning Joke today featured not only extended in depth coverage of the Bridge Over the River Hudson scandal, but Mika’s ostentatious display of horror and disgust re: the personal life of the French President. Apparently, both of those shamed and downtrodden ladies should leave him. No mention of Clintons in that particular segment.

[db]

Who does she.think she.is, Rand le Pierre?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Kissinger, Albright and Powell all have assigned parking spaces (name tags taped to traffic cones) in our parking lot. Something tells me this Hollande fucker is gonna ruin my lunch break.

[tarran]

I’ll give you 50 bucks if you move the cones to handicapped spots. 😉

[Kaptious Kristen]

Now that I think about it, there are no handicapped spaces on the street parking lot. Only in the garage.

I’m gonna sue.

[tarran]

You don’t have to; there are people who make their living by filing ADA lawsuits; have them kick you a finder’s fee. Say 2% of the costs recovered.

[Brett L]

Never Forget, Sadbeard is an idiot.

[SugarFree]

Matt Yglesias is the Lord Haw-Haw of the Obama administration.

[Brett L]

Radio Freedom Is Slavery

[John]

You think you kid. But the Left really is stark raving mad. I always wondered what it must of been like to live in Wiemar Germany. How did people believe such nonsense? Well, now I know. They may not be advocating killing people (yet), but our entire political and media establishment believes absolutely insane things.

[Mongo]

No Bob Costas pink eye snark?

I was watching the Oly’s last nite and was wonderin’ what was wrong with the tv.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I keep wondering why he’s wearing those Nazi-era German scientist glasses.

[RBS]

Obviously he’s conducting some bizarre genetic experiments to cure his eye disease.

[db]

For some.reason he’s flying to South America once the Olympics are finally solved.

[gaijin]

I’ll leave this here:

Nasa Flyby of Bob Costas’ Eye

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Bob von Costas, rocket scientist describer.

[Ted S.]

Who watches that insufferable twerp?

[Bones]

He needs topical cream, stat!

[Clich? Bandit]

Did any of you see his interview with Sage Kastenburg? Hillarious.

[Rich]

On Tuesday, Wall Street’s eyes will be fixed on Capitol Hill, where Federal Chair Janet Yellen, a little more than a week after taking the job previously held by Ben Bernanke, testifies on monetary policy and the nation’s economic outlook.

Beyond her prepared statements, Yellen will attempt to answer questions

Emphasis added. ZINGG!!

“Madame Chair, exactly WTF is it that you do?”

[db]

I once had to sing rage against the machine’s “Testify” in Rock Band. Never having heard.it.before, I.sang it in a.falsetto Julia Child voice. This.is.what I thought of, reading.your post.

[gaijin]

Madame Chair, exactly WTF is it that you do?”

Behold, I teach you the overman! The overman is the meaning of the Fed. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the Fed! I beseech you, my subjects, remain faithful to the Fed, and do not believe those who speak to you of other monetary hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the Fed is weary: so let them go!”

Thus spake the Overmench

[SIV]

Shirley Temple resists Northern Aggression:

The Littlest Rebel

RIP

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

They lost.

[db]

NO SPOILERS!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yeah, thanks for the SPOILER ALERT, jerk!

[SugarFree]

Fucking idiots:

JULIE F Brown2 weeks ago

I am still amazed that this movie was ever allowed when slavery was still going on. But I have always loved this movie. Maybe that is why Shirley Temple became a ambassador?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Jefferson Davis got on TV to boost Confederate morale.

/Joe Biden

[SugarFree]

Fisherman Bennett1 month ago

abraham lincon was not alive then?

Yes, YouTube commenter: Abraham Lincoln was not alive in 1935.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Sure he was, they saved his brain. It’s still in a vat in the National Archives.

[SugarFree]

TRACY T3 months ago

Racist America….Please Like if you are watching this in 2013 and wished God would reverse the races. Please like if you would have loved to see Shirley Temple dances President Obama. Im sure noone will LIKE this comment because nothing has changed since 1935 because if most of you could have your way we would still be in slavery.

[Zeb]

I know youtube commenters are the stupidest people in the world, but holy shit. What fucking universe do these people live in?

[Juice]

u got trolled

[The Late P Brooks]

The NYT has you covered: The End of Snow? (2/7/2014)

That was pathetic. I read it the other day, and it reads like a high school “science report”.

tl,dr:

OH, NOOES WE DOOOOOOMED!

[Slammer]

How can it be the end of snow? Someone lost the recipe?

[Drake]

Global drying?

[John]

Washington is getting five to eight inches this week right on que. I assume the storm will give that or more to NYC come Friday.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Nope. No snow in DC. All hype. We’ll all wake up Thursday to sunny skies.

[John]

Some day we will have to explain to our children what snow and cold weather are.

[Brett L]

Once, son, warm weather lasted more than just the six weeks after the Summer Solstice.

[John]

Since everything these people say is the opposite of the truth, it would not surprise me at all if my grand children end up trying to keep the glaciers from engulfing Chicago.

[Rasilio]

There was a very good sci fi book written on just that premise.

Basically that an ice age got started right around the turn of the century but our CO2 output was holding it at bay. The enviro’s got their wish banned pretty much everything and whammo instant glaciation. Written in the 1990’s and set roughly in the 2020 – 2030 time frame the glaciers had already advanced as far as the US – Canada border (this is not actually unprecedented, in the last ice age The British Isles went from Ice Free to completely covered in Glaciers in under 80 years)

It really slams the enviromentalist whackjobs and is a very good read…

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-137-fallen-angels.aspx

[The Late P Brooks]

Matt Yglesias is the Lord Haw-Haw of the Obama administration.

A+

[SugarFree]

Thank you. I was afraid I was going too obscure.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Oh not at all – that was top notch, SF!

[Gene]

who also served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana

Who’d she piss off?

[Rich]

Nobody.

She gave $600K to the Obama campaign.

[Swiss Servator, Befehl!]

Prague can get cold when you get older…maybe she wanted a transfer?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“Hi, Mr Ghana President, I’m Shirley Temple – perhaps you remember me from The Littlest Rebel?”

[Floridian]

She was fighting to preserve states rights, not to keep slaves! Argh..,garble, garble!

/ people that can’t let the past go

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It’s precisely when people let go of informed links to the past that they start replacing it with comforting, non-reality-based myths.

[Rich]

LOL

“Pardon me, boy. Is that the Chattanooga choo choo?”

[The Late P Brooks]

TAX CHEATS

The IRS’s latest estimates (for 2006) suggest that about 83 percent of all federal taxes due are paid voluntarily and on a timely basis. Another 2.4 percent are paid late or after the IRS enforces payment. That leaves close to 15 percent of federal taxes owed that are never paid?about $385 billion a year. If that $385 billion were collected, it could fund universal pre-K for 4-year-olds, double the size of both the Earned Income Tax Credit and the U.S. Air Force budget, and reduce the deficit by more than a quarter?all at the same time.

One simple way to reduce the amount of unpaid taxes would be to hire more professional auditors at the IRS. The return on investment in more auditing is about $10 in extra revenue for each additional dollar spent on IRS audit and collection efforts. But an additional way would be to enlist American citizens to help audit some of the most consistent tax cheats: retail businesses.

We must enlist a vast proletarian army to root out the hoarders! To the guillotine with them!

At no point does the writer make even passing mention of the grotesque nightmare which is our tax code.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As a result, businesses can get away with under-reporting sales, which reduces their reported income, and so the taxes they report due to Uncle Sam.

That is a huge strawman, as anyone who has ever endured a sales tax audit can tell you.

[Brett L]

Yeah. I have a couple of friends who got the probe and then arrested. I don’t think either of them were actively cooking their books or failing to report cash sales. They just tried to do their sales tax calcs by themselves.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We went thru one a couple of years ago. I was accurate to the fucking penny on a few million in sales. They still fined me for not paying use tax on a few thousand dollars of internet purchases.

[Brett L]

I got a biased version, but my understanding is that you use a service run by former state tax agency employees or you get fined. One is still lawyering over criminal charges which essentially amount to being a mediocre book-keeper.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

In the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil, customers who ask for a receipt can give their social security number to the cashier. Businesses have to submit their copy of those receipts?with or without social security numbers?to the tax authority. The authority creates an account for every social security number entered into the system and reports to customers which receipts have been entered with their social security number and how much they are for. Customers receive a rebate worth about 30 percent of their share of sales taxes paid through the business each month, and for every $50 of receipts they are entered into a lottery with a maximum payout of $500,000. They can complain online if they think receipts are missing or have the wrong price.

JHFC, is there no end to the ever increasing tracking and reporting requirements that these people desire?

[RBS]

So, as often as SSNs get stolen from gov’t databases, like the SC Dept. of Revenue a couple of years ago, and other sites, when will companies stop requiring them for anything?

[Invisible Finger]

When they start getting shut down for the consequences.

[Nazdrakke]

JHFC, is there no end to the ever increasing tracking and reporting requirements that these people desire?

Nope.

[tarran]

If they could get enough data into a big enough computer, they could solve the socialist calculation problem!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

That is precisely what I’ve been seeing a lot of pimping for recently.

[Brett L]

Haha. Spoken like people who don’t know how multivariable differential equations scale. If we just had a matrix the size of the universe, atmospheric modeling would be perfect, too. And that’s a far easier problem.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

The lottery part is the sweet sweet cherry on top there for me.

[Drake]

In mid-thought he starts daydreaming about spending other people’s money. A pretty clear tell on how Charles Statist thinks.

No thought at all on what the IRS, enforcement, and collection efficiency would look like with a simple flat tax.

[John]

They have been screaming about “ending tax cheats” as a politically safe way to steal more money ever since I have been watching the news.

The idea that no system is perfect and that at some point the the costs of additional enforcement outweigh the returns never occurs to them. Just like we are forever just a few more teachers from a good education system and a few more cops on the streets from living in a crime free Utopia, we are always just a few more auditors away from 100% compliance.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

And really, the only people who are typically going to be hit are the ones with wildly varying returns or those who already pay a shit-ton in taxes to begin with. It’s not worth the cost to the IRS to audit a bunch of waitresses who might not be declaring all their tips, because the cost would far outweigh whatever extra shekels they could squeeze out of them anyway.

[John]

But as the government gets more and more desperate for money, the point will be just to punish people not raise money. As the government goes broke, it is going to start to (or continue to) hate its citizens more and more.

[Rich]

The return on investment in more auditing is about $10 in extra revenue for each additional dollar spent on IRS audit and collection efforts.

The multiplier effect seems pretty good when you ignore the non-IRS “contributions”.

We are so screwed.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Not to mention the cost of salaries and benefits for the additional auditors as well.

This is why managerial fetishists are so obtuse–they only see one side of an equation and never look beyond their very simplistic calculation. “Well, if we just changed this one thing, we’d be far more prosperous!!” Just look at Clegg arguing the other day that going back to a 1950s tax structure was the only way to restore the middle class.

[Rich]

At no point does the writer make even passing mention of the grotesque nightmare which is our tax code.

I asked my congresscreature why “fixing the tax code” gets perennial lip-service.

His answer — I’m not making this up: “Washington is a complicated and complex place.”

[RBS]

I can assure you, having actually worked for a congresscritter, DC is not a very complicated place and is run by incredibly simple minded people.

[Rich]

I agree. However, those “incredibly simple minded people” somehow get it together enough to create sweet gigs for themselves.

[Nazdrakke]

Understandable when that many thieves need to sort out who gets to fleece who and when. That’s what they need staffers and think tanks for.

[Rasilio]

Hmm, agency responsible for collecting taxes estimates that more resources are required for collecting those taxes?

This is my shocked face

[The Late P Brooks]

Tim Cook is a poopyhead.

…Armstrong presented a scenario in which he had no choice. If the Affordable Care Act was going to cost the company money, he was going to have to get it back somewhere.

He doesn’t have to. The world is full of choices for Armstrong. The cost of employee 401(k) contributions and the potential costs of the Affordable Care Act don’t have anything to do with each other. A CEO worried about Obamacare losses can cut costs in any number of places. He could give up half his own salary, for example, which would cover them completely. I’m not saying he has to do this, just that it’s an equally plausible choice.

Or he could simply do what he ultimately did: Accept lower profits. No law binds him to do whatever he can to maximize shareholder value. Armstrong, like every other human, is just balancing two imperatives. Do what you have to to get ahead. Don’t be a bad person. That he is a CEO does not make him special.

It’s good that he wants to build a successful company. He had a good quarter; he should keep at it. But after last week, he should take his punishment in two doses. One for talking about someone else’s kid. And one for pretending that a basic moral decision he made was simply out of his hands.

[John]

He is a wrecker who is unwilling to sacrifice for the greater good. If this sort of behavior were illegal, a lot of our problems would go away.

This is what Progs actually believe. They have gone stark raving mad and full commie.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

You’ll do something, Mr. Rearden!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I guess Armstrong won’t be on ‘Undercover Boss’ any time soon?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

No law binds him to do whatever he can to maximize shareholder value.

Even if this is true in the sense that he’s not required to do “whatever he can” to maximize value (including breaking the law, etc.), his only real job as CEO is to run the company to maximize shareholder value. And he has fiduciary duties to shareholders that require him to do so.

[PM]

Dammit, its like beat the clock around here.

[BigT]

Great sick minds think alike.

[Ska]

I’m glad I hit refresh before writing “fiduciary responsibility.”

[Ska]

I’m glad I hit refresh before writing “fiduciary responsibility.”

[PM]

No law binds him to do whatever he can to maximize shareholder value.

Even if weren’t an ethical requirement (which it is), it’s explicitly stated in most corporate charters (mostly as a reflection of the fact that it is an ethical imperative), and also well-represented in business case law. Executives in a corporation have a fiduciary responsibility.

[BigT]

No law binds him to do whatever he can to maximize shareholder value.

Fiduciary responsibility be damned! Of course, there are consequences.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Humans as parasites. Film from NFB for your entermatainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFaHArkYLsM#t=550

[John]

This is the wages of being a crude materialist who believes in nothing but the world at it is.

Note, I am not saying atheists have to be crude materialists. You don’t have to believe in God to believe in higher concepts like humanism and the sanctity of human life. But Progs are crude materialists and don’t believe in things outside the material world.

[The Late P Brooks]

Business Week, now with added Bloomberg.

Derptastic.

[John]

Obama’s hometown newspaper has gone full racist tea bagger.

Signs say IRS Targeted Tea Party

http://www.suntimes.com/news/h…..party.html

[John]

The uber-feminist actress Martha Plimpton (a star on Fox’s sitcom “Raising Hope”) hilariously came under attack because promoting a pro-abortion event called “A Night at A Thousand Vaginas” was cruel to “trans men” who don’t have vaginas:

***

Plimpton was surprised when some offended Internet feminists urged people to stay away, arguing that emphasizing “vaginas” hurts trans men who don’t want their reproductive organs coded as female.

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/…..stainable/

The only good thing about Progs is that they will kill each other long before the survivors get around to killing us.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Lol they out-crazied her! That must have been embarrassing.

[tarran]

The bolsheviks might have started killing each other before they came to power, but they killed far more non bolsheviks than bolsheviks throughout their history.

[John]

I didn’t say it was going to be good. But there will at least be a lot of shocked progs in the camps with us.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I guess you’re right. If they eat their own like this, they will be merciless to the normals.

[Brett L]

No, for the most part the Bolsheviks got it right: Win first, then purge. Someday the libertarians will learn this.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I do love a good prog-on-prog conflict story

[Hawk Spitui]

Well, then, have another.

[Raven Nation]

Thoughts? Conservative columnist praises Putin:

http://www.theamericanconserva…..ight-turn/

[Brett L]

Just more proof that there are statists and anti-statists now, and all other previous distinctions are meaningless.

[John]

Putin is a nationalist. I wouldn’t praise him. But I wouldn’t make him into an arch villain either. The Russians are weak and facing a demographic collapse and still haven’t come to terms with the end of the USSR. This makes them paranoid and potentially dangerous. They still have thousands of nuclear warheads. I really don’t know why the US government and media insist on constantly fucking with them.

Their human rights record is pretty lousy. But so a are a lot of countries. Russia has a much better rights record than China. I am unaware of any stories out of Russia involving harvesting of organs from prisoners or systematic and brutal suppression of religion like we do in China.

I think Russia and Putin suck. But it seems to me there are worse governments and smarter fights for us to pick than this one.

[tarran]

The big thing that gives me pause about Putin is the bombing spree that got him first elected.

Somebody was blowing up barracks for married junior officers, and as soon as he won, the bombing stopped. He blamed it on Chechen terrorists, but that isn’t their M.O.

Blowing up your own people and their families… that’s cold, yo.

[John]

I wouldn’t want to live in Russia. I just don’t think the Russians have to be our enemy. This is one time where I think we are choosing to make them an enemy rather than them choosing to make us an enemy.

It is a tough issue. One the one hand I think we owe the Baltic States and the Ukraine and Poland our support to keep Russia from dominating them again. On the other, I don’t want another cold war with Russia and risk destroying the world again.

I just think we should be working with the Russians more and antagonizing them less.

[tarran]

I just think we should be working with the Russians more and antagonizing them less.

The fact is that the anti-gay movement is closely tied with the fascist groups that Putin uses as thugs/officially-unsanctioned-activists. And the more people want to sanction Russians for the anti-gay stuff, the more powerful those fascist groups get, because Russians tend to have a huge inferiority complex/xenophobic streak.

Let it be known you will give gay people asylum automatically and move on with life.

[RBS]

Sure, but how do you antagonize Russia less while supporting the Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States?

[tarran]

Don’t meddle in their internal politics.

Trade with them.

Don’t invite them into NATO. But… do cooperate with them an economic/regional issues.

[John]

That is the problem and why it is so hard. Maybe get off their ass about things like Pussy Riot and the gay laws or them taking back the Russian minority in Georgia for a start.

The flip side of that is that by not standing up on those things maybe you embolden them to do other things. That is certainly possible. But it is also possible that by not getting on their asses about that, we then don’t look like we are out to get them when we stand up for the Baltic.

Or it may be that we can’t do any of that and our choice is let Russian have an empire again or risk nuclear war. As much as I like the Baltic, I don’t want to risk a nuclear war to save them from their larger neighbor. It sucks but it is true.

[Snark Plissken]

I like Russians, but I honestly think that their default political position is going to be to try and poke the US in the eye on all international positions unless it is blatantly in their interest not to do so, say, terrorism that affects them also.

This is going to be their position for the foreseeable future and I think trying to play nice would simply be seen by Putin and co. as a sign of weakness.

[John]

I honestly think that their default political position is going to be to try and poke the US in the eye on all international positions

I agree. But I think our interests would be best served by ignoring those provocations as best we can.

[Snark Plissken]

Ignore them by acting less hegemonic, that would be nice. But I don’t see turning the other cheek when confronted to be anything but emboldening Putin on the international stage.

[John]

The flip side of that snark is that if we are too agressive, we feed their paranoia and make them more dangerous than they already are.

The bottom line, a lot of their problems and beefs with the world have nothing to do with us. We should therefore be able to stay out of their way to some degree.

I really wish the media would be honest about the damage that the Kosovo War did to US interests and relations with Russia. They are still pissed off about that and it threw away all of the good will we had with the Russian population after the Cold War. It would be nice if we could avoid doing stupid and pointless shit like that in the future.

[Snark Plissken]

Good points, John.

[The Late P Brooks]

DC is not a very complicated place and is run by incredibly simple minded people.

“Monkey want cookie.”

[Rich]

Pretty much.

“Congress, 535 commoditized temple monkeys pawing through the ruins of America in search of bribes.”

[Slammer]

LA’s plastic bag ban takes some adjusting to…

It’s too soon to know how much difference it will make. San Jose, which imposed a ban three years ago, saw a marked decrease in plastic bag refuse: 84% fewer bags in storm drains and 59% fewer bags on city streets during the law’s first year.

Statistics like that make me feel virtuous when I hand over my bags to the cashier

I’m not complaining. The plastic bag ban is a worthy change. I just can’t imagine living without them.
That’s why I began hoarding them months ago

[tarran]

Say hello to an uptick in food borne illnesses!

Nothing says virtuous like shitting out all your internal organs in a liquid stream.

[Brett L]

And people say there is no Divine Whimsical running the universe.

[John]

There was a Facebook thread that one of my friends liked on this subject. I trolled the hell out of them by pointing to the illness problem.

I linked to numerous scientific studies on the issue and various tests that showed how dirty these bags get. And it bounced off them like nerf arrows. I was just a big racist meanie who hated mother earth.

[Brett L]

Well I hope their totemic displays of Gaia love win her protection from salmonella, cholera, and dysentery.

[John]

Sadly, they haven’t developed the ritual that protects them from such things. But the priests are working on it I am sure.

[califernian]

try pointing out that most platic bags nowdays are made from recycled corn husks and are biodegradable….

[John]

But plastic is unclean to them. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter to them that we are not running out of landfill space and that plastic bags don’t take up much of that space anyway. It won’t matter to them that they are recycled. It is like trying to explain to someone who keeps kosher that shrimp really doesn’t make you sick.

[Clich? Bandit]

Ya know, landfill space and Ocean life both have something in common. It is hard for humans to understand volume. Truly. Play Minecraft for 10 minutes and you will lean that a 4x4x4 cube is a lot of fucking material. We are in no danger of running out of space anytime soon. (or ocean)

[John]

Good point. There was a thread the other day about “number sense”. I was a bit skeptical of its value in education. But volume is a good example of it now that I think about it.

A lot of people don’t seem to get that a 4x4x4 cube doesn’t have twice the volume of a 2x2x2 cube. It has 8 times the volume. For some reason that is beyond a lot of people.

[Atanarjuat]

It’s always other people who need to quit using resources or polluting.

I used to volunteer at a marine research lab. At one point they were going to purchase a few transportable water tanks (like this) to set up demonstrations and have live critters in sea water at schools and whatnot. To save money, they bought used tanks which had held some toxic chemical which would kill the specimens if it contacted them. So they went out into the bay and submerged the toxic tanks in sea water for a few days to clean them out. Ladies and gents, I give you the mindset of the modern environmentalist.

[Brett L]

“The solution to pollution is dilution”

They teach that to every chemical engineer because, frankly, most standards for safe outputs are concentration based. Although, in recent years, adding several tons of water per hour to your final waste stream is considered cheating in design courses. Which did not stop the chirrens from doing it when I TA’d the course.

[Atanarjuat]

OK you’ve got a point. But still, it seems like that wouldn’t be the first resort of an environmentalist.

[Brett L]

No. I agree. It is the simplest solution, and in this case probably the cheapest, but if that isn’t a good excuse for the Goodyear plant in Lake Charles, it isn’t a good excuse on that scale either.

[Atanarjuat]

They also live right on the water, but show up to planning meetings to protest developments that are near the water.

In my anecdotal experience, prominent environmentalists are fairly unprincipled and don’t live up to their ideals, but there are folks out there who listen to them in good faith and do.

[Brett L]

Lots of we-got-ours in that sector, for sure.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Every active environmentalist I have ever met has been a huge resource hog. One would fill an entire bathroom trashcan every day with tissues and various skin care & cosmetics pads. Not exaggerating.

[John]

Drive around the rich areas of Washington Kristen. We will see dozens of Prius parked in front of newly build McMansions.

[SForza]

I love when my kids say things like “I wish we lived in a world without pollution” but can’t be bothered to turn off lights when they leave a room or use water efficiently.

[Invisible Finger]

How stupid is the Illinois Executive Branch?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com…..h-to-young

[Anonymous Coward]

Woman Shoots Up a McDonalds’ For Getting Her Order Wrong. Twice.

[waffles]

Michigan is a brutal and severe place. No bacon, sheesh.

[tarran]

That story is hilarious!!!!

So the women returned to the restaurant’s drive-thru window around 3 a.m. Monday and ordered again. Torres was the passenger in the vehicle, and was flirting with the employee in the first drive-thru window. police said. She left that person her phone number in hopes he would call her later.

Remember folks: Don’t stick it in the crazy!

[John]

I have a friend who is a public defender. He had a client who was in jail for stabbing her boyfriend multiple times virtually throw herself at him. And he said she was a pretty attractive Latin chick.

He wisely declined for professional reasons obviously and moreover because he is not that big of a risk taker. But I have to admit, there would be a bit of an adrenaline rush being with a hot woman whom you knew stabbed her last b/f.

[Brett L]

You and I have very different risk-taking profiles. Although I’ve met two or three women over the years who must exude some hormone that totally short-circuits that part of me. But they were never coming off a criminal rap for stabbing their lovers.

[John]

She didn’t kill him thankfully. But she stabbed him. That would be a new level of crazy.

[Floridian]

I’m with John on this one. It’s like being a human praying mantis. A whole new genre of role playing. I’ll be in my sensory deprivation chamber.

[PH2050]

You. I like you.

[110 Lean]

Shirley Temple, the former child movie star who also served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, has died at the age of 85.

I did not know that she had still been alive. This is not meant to be humorous or demeaning. I guess she kept a low profile.

[John]

She did. And you always think of everyone in movies from the 1930s being dead forgetting how young she actually was.

[Kaptious Kristen]

This is not meant to be humorous or demeaning.

Then you’re in the wrong place..

[Tim]

Then you’re in the wrong place..

Yeah you’re doing it wrong.

[Sevo]

…”who […] served as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia,”…

And unlike our last S/S, I don’t think she got anyone killed at the embassies.

[110 Lean]

Immigration Reform Groups Progressives To Confront House Republicans

[CampingInYourPark]

Republicans Planning To Tie Debt Ceiling Increase To Restoring Military Benefits
2.11.14 9:40 am

Republicans Drop Plan To Tie Debt Ceiling Increase To Restoration of Military Benefits
2.11.14 9:56 am

[Tim]

Republicans Planning To jump off the roof with Democrats 2/11/14/1030 AM.

Republicans Drop Plan To jump off the roof with Democrats 2/11/14/1040 AM.

Republicans Planning To touch metal pole with tongue 2/11/14/1045 AM.

[shamalam]

This was a funny comment. I approve!

[The Late P Brooks]

Say hello to an uptick in food borne illnesses!

This causes me to wonder; several people I know peripherally have whined about contracting some super-flu ailment which lasted weeks. Fortunately, I have trained the overwhelming majority of the people I come in contact with to refrain from sharing tales of their infirmities with me, and never to offer the details of their symptoms, on pain of a stab in the eye with a mechanical pencil.

What if these flu-like symptoms come courtesy of canvas grocery bags? Some of them definitely have the progressive gene.

[tarran]

That sounds like what I contracted, and it was highly contagious.

I caught it from breathing the same air as an infected person. They didn’t sneeze. They coughed into a tissue. And two days later it felt like someone had crammed a pine cone down my throat.

[db]

Are you sure you didn’t just have a nocturnal visit from Warty?

[db]

Since I accidentally took a stream of secondary wastewater at a sewage treatment plant full in the face ten years ago, I haven’t had a cold or ailment more serious than.a.sniffle. talk about.being immunized against disease.

[RBS]

Goes to google maps, finds closest water treatment facility, picks up toddler from daycare…

[db]

Make sure the.toddler has a.Hep C vaccine already…

[Capt. Rimmer]

This happened to me. I got better.

http://youtu.be/sLxX_oSK7Lo

[Snark Plissken]

Yeah, there’s the hormetic aspect to consider also. As the huge increase in polio as children were increasingly isolated from germs shows.

[CampingInYourPark]

Since I accidentally took a stream of secondary wastewater…full in the face ten years ago

So, that’s what the youngsters are calling it these days

[The Late P Brooks]

And two days later it felt like someone had crammed a pine cone down my throat.

Ouch.

[Sevo]

I’ll bet he’ll feel worse once you nail ’em with that mechanical pencil.

[Hawk Spitui]

Italian MP ‘blacks up’ in Parliament in anti-immigration tirade

[John]

The dark night of fascism is forever falling on America and landing on Europe.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

In retaliation, the black MPs dressed as organ grinders, complete with monkeys.

[Rhywun]

It’s so quaint watching Europe flail through the civil-rights movement about 100 years late.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Twas awesome!