A.M. Links: Rand Paul Warns Republicans Might Never Win Again, Venezuelan Government Freaking Out Over Protests, Kerry Announces Envoy to Arctic

• 

  UCAR

  Rand Paul predicted the Republican party might never win another presidential election in his lifetime if it doesn't become a "new" party, following up on a warning that the GOP could lose its electoral advantage in Texas.

• President Obama will announce new federal requirements for fuel efficiency in trucks.
• The Venezuelan government expelled three US consular officials over the weekend, accusing them of meeting with student protesters. It also pulled  a news channel based in Colombia off the air over its coverage of anti-government protests.
• John Kerry announced the State Department would create the position of envoy to the Arctic.
• Two former members of Pussy Riot who were released from jail in Russia ahead of the Olympics were reportedly detained in Sochi and accused of committing a crime.
• Jimmy Fallon debuted on the Tonight Show last night.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two former members of Pussy Riot who were released from jail in Russia ahead of the Olympics were reportedly detained in Sochi and accused of committing a crime.

Does this group even make music?

[Slammer]

Someone has select text

[gaijin]

yes, what is up with this site?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Seems like they disabled text copying. Kind of a dick move if intentional.

[Bee Tagger]

Agreed.

[mnarayan]

Use $('#content-col').swipe('disable') to allow selecting (I added it to my greasemonkey).

Not sure WTH Reason is intending to use TouchSwipe for.

[Ted S.]

They're going to make the site more optimized for people who like to fondle their screens, and more clunky for those of us who use a traditional mouse or keyboard?

[mnarayan]

Just looked at the TouchSwipe code. By default it cancels the MouseDown event if you don't have a touch screen. I...don't have any words to describe the awesomeness.

[NebulousFocus]

Lord. Which explains why it keeps changing to the next article when I try to adjust the screen center.
This is terrible.

[Gene]

Intentional? Do they think we'll be any nicer if we have to type everything out old school? Like Sevo?

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Postrel only thought Reasonoids were bad before. Now that we've lost copy/paste functionality, this board will sound like a Tarantino screenplay.

[gaijin]

So, Fist, are you going into the 'View source' menu to copy your text? That's a PITA approach, but what other way is there?

[Fist of Etiquette]

There is another way, but SugarFree has an even better method than I used described below.

I would never view source. I don't like to see how the sausages are made.

[kinnath]

Rand Paul predicted the Republican party might never win another presidential election in his lifetime if it doesn't become a "new" party, following up on a warning that the GOP could lose its electoral advantage in Texas.

I'm using Chrome at work and having no problems copying text.

[Rich]

Someone has select text

More likely someone knows how to type.

[gaijin]

The Venezuelan government expelled three US consular officials over the weekend, accusing them of meeting with student protesters.

Or copy and paste from source.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

These U.S. holidays are really putting a cramp on my routine.

[Slammer]

Good morning. I read that as poutine.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Heh.

Never had a poutine. Cheap cheese with salty gravy topping greasy french fries never pulled me in for some reason.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

I had some at the St. Lawrence Market and it was grrreat. Would eat again and again.

[Auric Demonocles]

So you aren't Canadian. And you have no idea what ingredients are actually used in good poutine.

[mad libertarian guy]

My thought as well.

Go to La Banquise in Montreal. You won't be disappointed. It's not a place to eat, but an institution.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Alright, so my next foreign trip is to either Montreal or Quebec City. I have heard conflicting reports as to which one would give me a better experience. Can I get some Canuckis to weigh in on this?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Two different experiences but I'd lean Montreal - more to do.

[Auric Demonocles]

Hmm, I've been pretty close to Rue Rachel and St. Hubert a few times, but never made it to La Banquise. Fortunately there are a ton of other places where it's very good as well.

[mad libertarian guy]

I had a fantastic poutine at some small diner joint in the city center. I have no idea what it was called, but it was a red wine gravy that was mind blowing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Auric, was that directed at me?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And Auric, and the rest here, define to me exactly the 'good ingredients.'

Be careful, because I know all about the history of that Quebecois dish - ie the ORIGINAL ingredients.

[Auric Demonocles]

Pretty simply cheese curds that aren't cheap, gravy that isn't salty, and french fries that aren't greasy.

There's nothing to "be careful" about. You just said that you've never even had the dish.

[Auric Demonocles]

Perhaps you should try looking at some at a place other than McDonald's?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Auric, again was that directed at me the McDonald's quip?

I don't eat McDonald's either. Any other presumptuous comment you'd like to make? I proclaimed poutine is basically junk food, you think somehow it isn't. Agree to disagree.

I do my own cooking.

And I KNOW what I'm talking about when it comes to food - especially shit from my backyard.

[Auric Demonocles]

You didn't claim it's junk food. You claimed it's made with shitty ingredients.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

"junk food" is not a real thing anyway, so I'm on Team Auric here. Gravy is not junk food; cheese is not junk food; fries are not junk food. So I'm having trouble figuring out how the combination thereof is.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Fair enough.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Auric, perhaps I'm wrong in grouping junk food with 'shitty' ingredients. Although, not sure you can separate the two.

Curds aren't exactly high-end cheese, gravy has never been considered healthy and french fries are, well, fried potatoes. Now, I guess some make poutine with, say, I dunno higher grade cheese, organic gravy and healthier fries but that wouldn't be a poutine per se I guess.

Go look at the ORIGINAL recipe and the ingredients in each. You think those guys were making it 'healthy?' Come on.

Even Quebecers know it's not healthy.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/0.....t-poutine/

High salt content. Not healthy. Sorry. Which is not surprising because Quebecers do like a high-salt content diet as well as sweet foods.

Anyway. Shit, I touched a nerve. What the fuck? What's with all the defense? It's poutine!

[Auric Demonocles]

None of us claimed it was healthy, and the original ingredients have little relevance to what you can get now, unless you also refuse to have any beer because of they used in it 6000 years ago.

You weren't claiming that it was bad for you, you were claiming it was cheaply made.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just chiming it to write I read the comment. Fair enough again.

Cheers.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The 'be careful' was with a smile.

No, never had it but I know the ingredients. And it's not a stretch to conclude it's not exactly a healthy dish.

I won't get into how the gravy is made here.

But hey, who cares what I think? It's an enormously popular dish.

[SugarFree]

Cheap cheese with salty gravy topping greasy french fries never pulled me in for some reason.

Burn the heathen!

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Seriously, he named like five awesome things and rejected them all.

[SugarFree]

The Trader's Joe frozen poutine kit is really pretty good for what it is. Needs more cheese.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Thanks. Will have to try that now.

[jesse.in.mb]

The Trader's Joe frozen poutine kit is really pretty good for what it is. Needs more cheese.

Ha, I saw that in the last Fearless Flyer and was tempted by it. Now I'll have to give it a shot.

Also Canadian border guards do not think it's funny when your response to "Why are you entering Canada?" is "Poutine. With secondary objectives of ketchup chips and The Falls."

American border guards think it's hilarious though.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Glad you guys like it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorry guys.

What can I say?

It's not like I slagged smoked meat - which is great.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Turn in your citizenship, now.

[Spoonman.]

A Canadian coworker claimed yesterday was a Canadian holiday in an automated reply to my email. Was he making that up?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

No.

Family day.

/shakes head.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shouldn't it be family day, like, EVERY day?

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Wayne Gretzky Day not a thing yet?

[Auric Demonocles]

I believe that's Wayne Gretzky Month.

[Clich? Bandit]

The SHAT Day!

[Gene]

Not at the factory I work at. We get ours as a floater during Christmas shutdown.

[Floridian]

When I read the title I thought it was about the band chicken foot and then I realized a man was actually killed over a chicken foot. Life can be cheap sometimes.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?.....oogle.com/

[SweatingGin]

That's a Florida Man article if ever there was one. Florida Man beats roommate to death over a chicken foot.

[Rich]

Public records show Jugo has been arrested 19 times previously in Florida.

It *is* Florida Man!

[Brett L]

Does anyone else find Michael Rappaport's portrayal of Florida Man on this season's Justified oddly compelling?

[mad libertarian guy]

I can't get over the ridiculous accent. No Floridian sounds like that. Not even Florida Man.

The producers' refusal to insist on half reasonable accents drags the show down. They're bad across the board with few exceptions. Boyd's is fine, but not Appalachian. Wynona's is Texas if I've ever heard it (though she's supposed to be a native Kentuckian), but not so off as to complain (at least it's a real southern accent). Some of the accents are so bad as to be laughable, and Rappaport's is no exception. The character could be great if they could get the accent even half decent.

[Brett L]

I've given up on the accents.

[mr simple]

Can Rapaport do anything but a New York accent?

[Brett L]

A New York accent would be believable on a Florida criminal. Also, I'm still waiting for him to shout, "Floyd! You smoked all the toilet paper!"

[mad libertarian guy]

Can Rapaport do anything but a New York accent?

No. His accent in Justified sounds like a New Yorker talking in a horrifically bad southern accent.

[gritzly]

Walton Goggins (Boyd Crowder) was born in Alabama and raised in Georgia. So his accent is probably fairly genuine, but not hill folk.

[TANSTaaFL]

Oddly? I think he's been pretty good in most all his roles.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama will announce new federal requirements for fuel efficiency in trucks.

How about a solar powered truck subsidy. Surely he or Michelle knows someone in the industry in need of some tax dollars.

[Rich]

Sheesh, why doesn't he just mandate the Star Trek transporter already?

[Auric Demonocles]

Why is the President even announcing a piece of legislation? Why wouldn't Congress want to announce their own accomplishments?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't think Congress has anything to do with this.

[Auric Demonocles]

What? That doesn't make any sense. If the President was just making up laws without Congress people would be way more upset. There would be impeachments even. This was obviously done by Congress and they're just letting him announce it for some weird reason.

[WTF]

He doesn't need congress to legislate. He has a pen and a phone. It's good to be the King.

[TANSTaaFL]

He has a pen and a phone. It's good to be the King.

That's a bit of hyperbole there. My brother-in-law has a pen and a phone and all he does is doodle little penises while prank calling radio-stations all day.

[CampingInYourPark]

How about just making the new standard:
~ miles/gallon?

[Rich]

?

[CampingInYourPark]

It's the lazy form of ?

[Rich]

*** turns head and yells ***

Hey, I learned something today!

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Me too - God Bless Hit&Run;!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

EXCLUSIVE: National clown shortage may be approaching, trade organizations fear

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shortage?

Nah.

They just traded in their red noses for ties. They walk among us now.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

I thought they all transferred to the Juggalos?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I'm just a juggalo and everywhere I go People know the part, I'm playin' Paid for every dance, sellin' each romance Ooh, what they're sayin' .....

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

My heart weeps

[lap83]

I blame Mirth Care

[Brett L]

Octopodes do not like paparazzi.

The accompanying footage, captured recently off Carmel in Central California, shows an octopus estimated to measure 20 feet across leaving its rock and wrapping its slithery tentacles around an expensive camera unit operated by Warren Murray

[Bee Tagger]

Slithery tentacles? Where's the unbiased octopode reporting? I can't imagine how many pinocchio noses that phrase represents at the Post.

[Brett L]

What? no. Its just a little punching up of the copy.

[Bee Tagger]

I think my slithery sarcasm needed a few more tentacles.

[Brett L]

I think I just dropped the ball on being funny in reply.

[Bee Tagger]

Let's just back away slowly and act like this never happened. Deal?

[Rich]

the giant Pacific octopus is a solitary creature that saves its energy for one chance at mating near the end of its 3-year life cycle.

Compare and contrast with STEVE SMITH.

[gaijin]

The Octopus can hold its victim in position with eight appendages wilst copulating. Steve Smith can only hold his victims down with four?

[hamilton]

Well, five actually.

[Rich]

What is his *tongue*, chopped liver?

[Pelosi's Bushweave]

Octopodes

+1 Cannery Row

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Did someone notify the Canadians regarding Kerry's expedition?

Or else you'll have to deal with our Arctic Rangers.

[gaijin]

Where will the envoy to the arctic reside? Will they build this person and their staff a consulate of icy solitude?

[Brett L]

Under the Krampus Treaty of 2013, the North Pole will quarter and accommodate our envoy in exchange for pre-certification of all Christmas gifts by ICE.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

In all seriousness, Canada's approach of taking the Arctic for granted is coming home to roost. For over a century countries have claimed rights in what Canada considers sovereign land. However, words are one thing - backing them up with an army another.

Canadians have called for a stronger Arctic presence for generations only to be ignored by what seems to be a succession of aloof governments.

I fear are fate is sealed on this front. We'll have no choice but to strike a defense/business deal with the USA.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

our

[gaijin]

If others lay claim to Canada's arctic heritage, then Canada will have no choice. She will to melt it.

[Ted S.]

Who gives a shit about the Canadians?

[Rich]

The Quebecois.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Did you guys eat your Frosted Flakes this morning.

Such anger.

[Ted S.]

I probably should have included a sarcasm tag.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I knew it was sarcasm.

Just kidding around.

[Clich? Bandit]

I wonder if Ed knows there aren't any penguins in the North.

[Fist of Etiquette]

John Kerry announced the State Department would create the position of envoy to the Arctic.

The elf delegation is in preparation for preliminary talks.

[WTF]

And why do we get a photo of penguins? What article is that supposed to relate to?

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Yeah, what is up with that?!

/Bill Nye

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was written by Bill Nye.

[Brett L]

You know, I listened to a highly detailed but non-technical (math free) discussion of the theories about what happened before the hydrogen plasma wall (CBMR). Inflation does answer some questions that no other theory does, but holy fuck. It is slightly less satisfying than the version found in Genesis. An infinite space expanding so fast that we can not possibly cross it, of which we can see a light cone about 14B years old. But there are actual an infinite number of these universes in the same space but inaccessible, so quantum theory is really being explored over infinite spaces and thus there is no wavefunction collapse. Its mathematically consistent but intellectually unsatisfying because the "where did the matter come from" makes no real sense in that construct.

Which doesn't make it wrong or less likely than "And God said 'let there be light.'", but it does make me want to mock the anti-Creationists mercilessly for not (mostly) not having a fucking clue about what they really believe beyond the buzzword "Big Bang".

[Rich]

"All your doubts and concerns are addressed by this simple diagram."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Brett, stick people please. Stick people for the less enlightened.

[Floridian]

I just find it hard to believe in a "being" that created everything. Maybe there is a driving force with a will but I find it much more likely that things are just the way they are without a specific design. However, since I have no proof other than what makes sense to me I have no right to mock creationist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Whether people want to admit it or not, believing one explanation or the other boils down to some form a faith.

[Rasilio]

This is only true for creationism in the most generic sense.

It is true that one cannot prove whether there was a creator or the universe just sprung into being from natural processes, it however it is quite easy to disprove virtually all specific creation myths.

For example, Genesis says birds were created before Fish but every piece of evolutionary evidence existing says that Fish have existed far longer than birds. Ken Hamm and his cronies can bend logic into all kinds of pretzels but they cannot explain away the evidence that says Genesis is false.

[Floridian]

Rasilio,
That is a good point. I just do them the courtesy of letting them have their delusion since I can't offer them an answer.

[Pelosi's Bushweave]

Not exactly.

It gives the same "day" of creation for both, and it may list birds first, but not in the sense that, "first there was birds, then there were fish."

[Brett L]

Sure. But inflation posits that matter of some form is injected into a volume as fast as the volume expands such that General Relativity doesn't hold. The volume is expanding at an exponential rate, but at some point pockets of this slow enough to experience the four fundamental forces as we do and then the Big Bang takes over. Quantum perturbations in the local volume lead to matter distribution in such a way that (at least in our local 'verse) stars, galaxies, and superclusters formed. Which is all consistent with our current observation and variation with the CMBR. As far as fitting theories to data, it is far and away the best fit.

All that said, it is totally unsatisfying because there's no mechanism or groundwork for understanding that part. Just at least two infinite multiverses, one local to our space-time, another that explores all possible infinite space-times. Which annoys the shit out of me because infinities are a cop out. If there is an infinite amount of space, there are an infinite number of Earths, and we exist in space-segmented superposition with an infinite number of ourselves. What's the fucking point? Why not say "we exist in the mind of an omniscient being who knows all possible futures"?

[Floridian]

This is something I can think about for only small bits of time before my head hurts. Maybe in the future we can figure out the beginning of all things but right now I think it's like trying to explain nuclear power to a caveman. We aren't there yet. Also there may not be a "point" to the universe and we should just enjoy it as best we can. I mean we are all going to die no matter what so what is the point in living other than what you make of it.

[Protagoronus]

And how was the omniscient being created?

Also... creation of the universe does not need to be understood to accept evolution.

[Brett L]

..And here come the guys I was talking about. Welcome. Way to miss the point.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The conditions before and shortly after the Big Bang are so different than our current conditions that our intuitions just don't work. Indeed, intuitions will never work due to the fact that our brains are a construct of current laws of physics. We e only describe the universe under different conditions using mathematics; however, something will also be lost in translation. We can fully describe the properties of a hypercube with math, but could we ever truly "see" a hypercube? I argue that we could not. Though, "Mimsy Were the Borogoves is a great story.

[Rasilio]

Because the difference between the 2 explanations are irrelivant unless they offer falsifiable tests.

As far as science is concerned whether the ultimate answer to some question is "god caused that" is irrelivant

[jamesrk]

i always like to entertain the idea of a prankster god, constantly screwing with us. "oh look im gonna make them think they came from monkeys", then sometime in the future we dig up a modern human skeleton dating from before dinosaurs. who knows maybe the earth was flat at one time....

[Rich]

It's another way to stick it to the commentariat.

Like no select text.

[Auric Demonocles]

And no blink tags.

[hamilton]

And no edit button.

[Auric Demonocles]

EDDDDDDDDDDDIT BUTTON!

[Tim]

The Polar Bears have recalled their ambassador over this outrage.

[Mickey Rat]

Somebody must stop the Claus regime's illegal dumping of goods every December, disrupting the world's economy.

[CampingInYourPark]

The elf delegation is in preparation for preliminary talks.

Santa will learn better than plot his revenge without consulting us first.

http://articles.chicagotribune.....me-weather

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Untouchable Profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Would you buy stock in a company that barred you from sharing in its future earnings? Of course not. Participating in the upside is what stock ownership is all about.

And yet, as of December 2010, holders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock were subject to such a restriction by the United States government. They didn't know it at the time, though, because the policy was not disclosed.

This month, an internal United States Treasury memo that outlined this restriction came up at a forum in Washington....

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Bush administration seized Fannie/Freddie and put them into conservatorship.

The stockholders are just holding call options in reality.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Sooooo BUSHPIG!!!! is responsible for

a. the policy enacted in 2010
and
b. NOT FUCKING TELLING INVESTORS?!?!?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The number of Americans on food stamps has shot up to 47 million from 31 million under Obama.

Spin this to be Bush's fault.

Discuss.

[Brett L]

Psh. If the Booosh! hadn't cratered the economy in 2008 before leaving, the Lightbringer wouldn't have had to expand the food stamp program. *Bonus round* And he wouldn't even have had to do that if those obstructionist Teathuglicans hadn't stopped his grand plan to lower spending and provide healthcare to all.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Liberal housing policies Bush caused so much damage that even the wonderfulness of Obama can't fix it all.

[thom]

Obviously, Bush was withholding food assistance from 16 million Americans. Thank God Obama came to power and was able to get people the food they need to lead dignified lives.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The "policy enacted in 2010" to pay taxpayers back the $160 billion that F/F borrowed from TARP?

Good. Fuck F/F shareholders. They deserve the same fate Lehman shareholders got.

[WTF]

Don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[Ted S.]

Well, we are in the fourth Booooooosh term.

[WTF]

BUSHPIGS!!111!!!CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!!!

[Spoonman.]

That is some audacious shit. You would think they couldn't get away with that, but becoming a business partner with the government is a clearly terrible idea.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Here in Canada the government always says 'we want to work in partnership' with the private sector.

That makes me laugh because I know - as a small business owner - I'm not a partner. How can I be when the odds are stacked against me in any negotiation?

In the end, the government has something more powerful than bullets: Fuck you, that's why.

[Clich? Bandit]

Cosimo DeMedicci -- Never lend to the King.

600 years ago this was common knowledge...his progeny didn't listen to him.

[Gene]

What's the deal with text selection? It appears some posters *fist* can still do this. Is this browser specific?

[CampingInYourPark]

What's the deal with text selection? It appears some posters *fist* can still do this. Is this browser specific?

All your text are belong to us

[Auric Demonocles]

If we somehow get universal alt-text coverage out of this I am ok with it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What makes you think I'm not just painstakingly retyping the text?

[Auric Demonocles]

We aren't convinced you can type your own words.

[Rich]

Ah, HA!!

[Floridian]

Amazing what you can make when you have unlimited resources. Finally laser canons. Whooo!

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/20.....is-summer/

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

"For the first requirement in war is for unlimited money"

/M. T. Cicero

[Ted S.]

Which lasers aren't part of the canon?

[Floridian]

Fine smart guy it's a rail gun and solid state laser but I like the image laser canon brings to mind.

[Brett L]

Former US Congressman (convicted in US of statutory rape) arrested in Zimbabwe for porn possession.

The state-controlled The Herald newspaper reported Tuesday that Reynolds was arrested for allegedly possessing pornographic material and violating immigration laws.

[SIV]

Do we blame feminism or SoConz?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm just going to blame you.

[BardMetal]

Zimbabwe has immigration laws? Why bother? Who would move to that shit hole?

[Brett L]

Apparently paedophiles.

[Capt. Rimmer]

I can't copy and paste anything off Reason.com

http://reason.com/blog/2014/02.....g#comments

[NebulousFocus]

I can in Firefox on android...

[tarran]

Why are the penguins upset? Those antipodeans have nothing to do with the arctic at all!

[SIV]

"I am fine with all of the political opposition to Ch?vez, so long as it's done legally. There is a method by which you can protest. But now, the opposition is increasingly behaving like the Republican Party in the United States, where it is trying to block, criticize, destroy, any attempt at negotiation."

Liberaltarian fusionism is back!

[Auric Demonocles]

Why yes, it should be illegal to criticize or block negotiations. Dissent is the highest form of.... treason.

[MJGreen]

So... the Republican party is acting illegally?

[Brett L]

Police think deaf man's sign-language threatening, beat & taze him.

This is a homerun Federal Civil Rights case under the ADA, right?

[Auric Demonocles]

Depends. Is he gay or black?

[SusanM]

Well, he's an architect, there's no mention of his race. But he is handicapped so the PC cred is still there.

[Floridian]

He looks white in the photo

[SusanM]

Ack! I have Flash off.

[Floridian]

I'm going to side with the police on this one. I usually punch foreigners in the face when they refuse to speak clear English to me so I can sympathize with beating a deaf man.

A good shoot beat.

hth

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

"They were not trained, specifically, to not punch deaf people in the face".

[AuH20]

Plus, foreigners wave their hands like they're deaf

[Rich]

River says officers should have tried to communicate with Meister using a pen and a piece of paper.

With all due respect, did Meister try to communicate in writing?

This crap happens all the time with non-English speakers.

[tarran]

He did, once he got to the police station and they took the handcuffs off.

IT's hard to write with a chimpanzee yanking your arms behind your back to cuff you.

[Matrix]

well, I've heard urban myths about gang members shooting deaf people mistaking their sign language for gang signs. so, I guess the cops just gonna do what cops gonna do: thuggin'.

[Mongo]

No urban myth: it happened here in Minneapolix in the mid-90s.

[mr simple]

Officers make every effort to communicate effectively?In almost all cases, it is the person's behavior and actions who we contact that dictate police response rather than the communication barriers present. That is certainly the case in this specific matter?"

It's your fault they beat you. They don't want to do it, but you make them. It's for your own good.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Fuck I hate cops and I really hate police unions.

[SusanM]

I remain hopeful that the apparent rise in these incidents is only due to more through reporting.

[Matrix]

*punch*kick*slam*stomp* This hurts me more than it hurts you! *punch*kick*slam*stomp* Oh, and STOP RESISTING!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The global warming pause: the dangers of politicising science
...Such premature speculation reveals that the scientific questions around climate change are driven by political problems, and scientists are complicit in the construction of political narratives. As some sceptics have observed, this new paper's lead author, Matthew England, accused them of lying about the hiatus as recently as 2012. In the space of less than a year, England changed his mind about the stall in global warming, made it the object of a study, and found a way to explain it. It seems that climate scientists like England lack the cool, rational, and value-free approach necessary to investigate the material world.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It also pulled a news channel based in Colombia off the air over its coverage of anti-government protests.

Obama is jealous.

[Atanarjuat]

Not really, Obama's media would just call the protesters a rabble of racists.

[WTF]

Yeah, why would Obama want to pull the news channels when they are covering for him and advancing his narrative?

[BardMetal]

He wouldn't pull all of them, just Fox news. Everyone knows if it wasn't for them we would be living in a glorious socialist utopia right now.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

True, enthusiastic cooperation beats censorship.

[mad libertarian guy]

True, enthusiastic cooperation beats censorship.

Enthusiastic Cooperation is also worse than state sponsored.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Right, why hire a whore when you have a willing hook up?

[Ted S.]

It also pulled a news channel based in Colombia off the air over its coverage of anti-government protests.

Have they banned satellite dishes yet?

[Atanarjuat]

Finally, after spending the first six years of his presidency writing huge checks to his cronies and people in Wall Street, and plotting a government takeover of the health care and insurance industries, Obama throws a few bones to the environmentalists.

[a better weapon]

Its enough to make me wonder if Keystone XL will pass review and be allowed to build in the near future.

[Brett L]

Last link. This one is for the nerds: TCP/IP over audio.

Full duplex P2P communication using your computer's microphone and speakers.
We present a simple to use implementation of networking across ultrasonic frequencies, by making use of Gnuradio and a microphone and speakers. This allows you to use TCP/IP,UDP across an audio link.

[hamilton]

I like the first comment: "Congratulations, you have invented the modem."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm sure my dogs would appreciate that.

[Ted S.]

When I was a kid, we had a poodle that we discovered would start howling if you played the harmonica long enough.

[kibby]

My Mom's dog does this when someone plays the piano. It made practicing for her weekly lessons pretty amusing.

[Ted S.]

RFC 1149 for the win.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Ah, Mr. Frum, don't cops and other govt agents want to carry guns?

Why People Carry Guns: A Response to David Frum
...I'm virtually certain that David Frum was simply trolling Twitter (a popular pastime) when he tweeted on Saturday: "Hypothesis: the people who most want to carry are the very last people on earth who should be allowed to carry." ...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Frum sounding like a liberal. Sweet.

Then again, he IS Canadian. So...

[a better weapon]

That's a fantastic argument for banning the conceal and carry license altogether, is it not?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rand Paul predicted the Republican party might never win another presidential election in his lifetime if it doesn't become a "new" party...

Even if the Christian Right and GOP establishment were capable of that, left- and rightwing journalists would never allow the party to rebrand itself.

[BardMetal]

How come every time the Republicans lose an election all I hear is how it's game over for the Republicans?

Did they say this about the Democrats when they lost two presidential elections to George Bush?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yes. Rove had successfully executed his permanent majority of the elderly, evangelicals, neocon/nationalists, and Hispanics (Bush was pushing amnesty with McCain back then).

Then the financial system blew up while Iraq drug US nation-building spirit down.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Palin, what kind of loser are you?

Seriously.

Your leader has all the power in the world to do what he needs to do and has not. Yet, all you can muster up is multiple tu quoques reverting back to Bush. Why stop at Bush? Why not go back to Clinton? Or Bush Sr.? Or Reagan? Or Carter? Or a bacteria?

What fucking gives with these people?

If a coach takes over a team does he blame the previous coach for his failures?

[John]

He is a mentally unbalanced retard sent here to fuck up the threads and post inane Lefty talking points.

[Pelosi's Bushweave]

I imagine his head is up someone's ass...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Actually they did a little bit of that after the 2004 election. But yeah, it was nowhere near the constant doom and gloom we're seeing from and about the GOP, despite a hefty mid-term gain and probable mid-term gain coming up.

[wareagle]

consider who is proclaiming the GOP's death. The left wants an opposition party that is opposition in name only.

[The Last American Hero]

I remember a fair amount of it. There were a series of articles parroting each other about "The New South" and "The South has risen again" that postulated in a post 9-11 world, Team Red would rule the future through an unholy alliance of folks worried about security, the swelling populations of southern states that usually vote conservative, and a Team Blue tent that got so big it couldn't agree on a good candidate. They lost a gimme election in 2000 and were stunned when they couldn't when in 2004. Despite the pearl clutching, they controlled the house by 2006.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That is right. The permanent Republican majority focused on all the growth states in the South and Southwest while the GOP had won the Senate, House, and POTUS.

Then 2007-08 happened.

[Rasilio]

The difference here is the Democrats had never lost the support of their base. Right now the Republican establishment is only barely supported by it's base because they at least nominally oppose Obama.

Once Obama leaves office Republicans are going to need to actually start listening to their base and voting to actually cut spending and limit government or Paul is right, they won't win another Presidential election for a LONG time

[Auric Demonocles]

Why would you even want to rebrand yourself from "The Party of Rape Camps and Lynching"?

[BardMetal]

The GOP could nominate an openly gay black woman who speaks Spanish, and is married to a Mexican immigrant, and the media would still portray her as some sort of racist, homophobic bigot, who hates immigrants, and who knows nothing about the world outside of some ranch in Texas.

And sadly the media would be successful.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The stench of Bush remains strong today.

[BardMetal]

What is with this unhealthy obsession with Bush? Could you show us on a doll where he touched you?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Bush created or exacerbated every problem we are dealing with today.

Surplus to trillion dollar deficits, TSA, Homeland Security, Middle East wars, spying on Americans, financial collapse, NCLB, Medicare Welfare Part D unpaid for, imperial presidency, huge defense budgets, etc.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm glad the US never got in the Middle East or had big defense budgets before January 2001.

[WTF]

Well thank God that Obama has fought so hard to undo all BUSHPIG'S problematic policies and power grabs.

[WTF]

BUSHPIGS!!1111!!!CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!!

[SugarFree]

SugarFree|2.18.14 @ 9:07AM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom

Click and hold outside the boundaries of the text block and drag across.
reply to this

SugarFree|2.18.14 @ 9:08AM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom

See?

"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" At the time Clapper responded, "No sir." Wyden then asked, "they do not?" Clapper responded, "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps collect, but not wittingly."

I can cut and paste his treasonous lie.

[Brett L]

Mah hero!

Smooches

[gaijin]

Excellent. So what, they are putting some kind of transparent image over the text area? That is lame if so.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Aha! If you build it, we will break it.

[Wandering Texan]

There was an interesting thread on...another website trying to tie the Venezuelan protests going down right now to CANVAS, Cato, and the Koch brothers.

The indivudual in question called the Milton Friedman prize awarded to a Venezuelan student a few years back a "Foreign Contribution" for contributing to unrest in the region, due to the attached award of $500,000.

I wonder how such narrow minded idiots feel about Nobel prizes and the associated awards.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Please give me that website. No one believed me when I said that the Venezuela thing would be blamed on Milton Friedman.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Can Milt get some commies shot like in Chile? I love me some dead commies.

[Wandering Texan]

It was a post midnight thread in the asshole of the internet. The general activity has probably chased it off the catalog by now, as real and new topics have lately proven to be less popular than NatSoc (or Commies), White on Black Crime (And the reverse) and how outdated Christianity is (Or isn't).

It was an interesting exchange with one of the die-hard believers that the Koch brothers are the true heralds of Satan, and should still be up on my home machine. I'll pull some of the better lines after I leave work for P.M. links tonight.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

It was a post midnight thread in the asshole of the internet

I'll look for it over at the Daily Kos later on then.

[John]

If I didn't believe you, I should have. Nothing is too stupid to be believed anymore.

[SugarFree]

Here's something along those lines...

The last wave of protests have had student anti-government groups at the front lines. Some of these students have ties with conservative-founded organisations in the United States, or with their "capitalist revolutionaries" from CANVAS, known for its strategies to use anti-government discontent in other countries for the benefit of US interests. The fact that the Libertarian Koch-brothers funded CATO Institute is backing the Venezuelan student movement and other US trained "economic experts" is no secret, and a recently leaked document shows that CANVAS, known for overthrowing regimes in the interest of the United States, are deeply involved in Venezuela too.

Conservative CATO has rewarded a student opposition leader for leading protests back in 2007 against the non-renewal of the public broadcast license of Radio Caracas Televisions (RCTV), and against the constitutional reform in 2007. Yon Goicoechea, the students leader back in 2007, has received a $500,000 award from the U.S. libertarian NGO. They called it the "Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty." "Goicoechea was chosen because he is "a passionate opponent of the erosion of human and civil rights under the government of Venezuelan president Hugo Ch?vez," according to the Cato Institute website...

[Dweebston]

Christ, they may as well be pinning it on the JOOZ for all the credibility their vituperations have.

CAN'T BE THE FACT THAT VENEZUELA HAS TURNED INTO AN ECONOMIC AND CIVIL BASKETCASE UNDER AN AVOWEDLY SOCIALIST THUG AND HIS THUG PROTEGE. Nope, it's CATO throwing an insignificant sum of money into the mix.

[mad libertarian guy]

When the policies of a socialist country are such that the citizens of said country can't get toilet paper, blame CATO and whatever pennies they're throwing at dissidents in said country.

/proggie

[John]

So because CATO rewarded some student opposition leader who is you know the opposition meaning that he doesn't have any power, turning a prosperous democracy into Zimbabwe is totally Milton Friedman's fault.

Yeah, that is some real iron clad logic there.

[mad libertarian guy]

A student leader who received an award 7 FUCKING YEARS AGO.

[Root Boy]

Along the same lines: Oliver Stone has given up on Obama, but he still hasn't given up on Chavezistas

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-john-fund

[John]

Apparently Stone thinks Obama just didn't steal enough.

[Wandering Texan]

Hah! Those were the talking points, nearly word for word.

[Dweebston]

Haw, someone's a 4chan f?

...er, frequenter.

[Wandering Texan]

Best/worst gun board ever.

I suppose it really depends on your opinion of pre-Soviet Russian rifles.

It has other things, but really only worth a laugh or two.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Everyone knows that making a single poor student wealthy overnight is the best way to topple a massive socialist economy headed by a billionaire dictator.

Much as I'd love it if MF were partially responsible for toppling that shithole of a state, market advocates are better understood as prophetic than revolutionary. Not that socialists would understand the distinction.

[Bee Tagger]

John Kerry announced the State Department would create the position of envoy to the Arctic.

The public's acceptance of global warming theories is directly related to how many applications Kerry gets.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

President Rand Paul should appoint Kerry to that post after he wins, and ship him there.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

+1

[AuH20]

Jimmy Fallon I can sort of get... but why does anyone in comedy keep company with the totally unfunny Seth Myers?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't get the whole late night thing anymore. Once long ago, in the 80s when Letterman crashed the party, it was pretty cool. Now? ZERO interest. Couldn't care less.

And how are SNL guys getting these gigs? My wife watched Fallon live, and while she finds him funny, she totally doesn't see him as a talk show host. I tend to agree.

[AuH20]

Apparently, NBC is oddly beholden to Lorne Michaels. It's weird

[John]

The other thing is the Tonight Show got big before cable. Back in the 60s and 70s there was nothing on after the late news but reruns and maybe a movie (but usually only on weekends) People watched The Tonight Show because Carson was good and there was nothing else to watch. In the days of 24 seven television and a hundred channels and DVRs, it is just another talk show.

[mad libertarian guy]

I like Jimmy Fallon. I like his show.

But I'm not exactly sure why SNL is now a direct pipeline in to NBC sitcoms and/or late night talk shows. Is that considered success now? What happened to the Chevy Chases and Dan Akroids of the world where you would go on SNL for a stint, then become a huge comedian on the big screen?

[John]

I think that is because so many SNL alums have been such failures as movie actors. There hasn't been a successful one since Will Ferrell. I think they go to TV because that is the only place that will have them.

[Rasilio]

Well it can be argued that it is both more prestigous and lucrative to be a TV star these days than a movie star.

Lots of TV show stars make more than $20 million a season, not many movie stars do and generally speaking the quality of television today is far higher than the quality of movies.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

That's Ted Danson money!

[Auric Demonocles]

Brooklyn Nine Nine is pretty funny.

[MJGreen]

How many have actually succeeded? You had the original players, sure, but after that... Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell. Was there anyone else?

[PD Scott]

You don't like Craig Ferguson? Or is that too late for you?

Now if you'll excuse me, I need some more coffee.

[SugarFree]

Gawker can't figure out why Spain's economy is in the shitter. Real head-scratcher.

[Spoonman.]

a different tack is being taken regarding Spaniards' at-home dining hours. Instead of a long mid-day siesta after lunch, citizens would be encouraged to cut lunch down to an hour or less, TV shows would be programmed earlier, and Spain would see a more standard 9-to-5 workday. This means an earlier bedtime and less languorous meals.

Personally, I eat lunch when I feel hungry for it, which is generally sometime from 11am to 12:30pm. I have never once wondered what the national government thinks of my lunch time.

[AuH20]

Seriously, it sucks to try and find somewhere to eat during siesta. Everything fucking closes

[John]

But they didn't follow austerity and they pursued "Green Energy". My God Sugar Free, they said the magic words. That spell works. We know it does!!

[SugarFree]

Not enough carved chicken bones and runes.

[John]

That and the black cat bone the Russian mafia sold them was defective, so I hear.

[SugarFree]

I hear it's actually the silicon shortage. You know, the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust.

[John]

In fairness it is not like Spain has any desserts or beaches. Where are they supposed to get that stuff? I bet the evil Kochs have cornered the market and won't sell.

[Ted S.]

In fairness it is not like Spain has any desserts or beaches.

They've got flan, don't they?

[John]

BTW, last year Top Gear did an episode where they drove around Spain. The real estate bubble there is just epic. There are entire towns that were built on cheap credit and now that the bubble has burst stand abandoned like some kind of post apocalyptic movie set.

[Brett L]

Yeah. My parents were considering buying some Spanish property at one point. Not sure what happened there. IIRC, they were concerned about the taxation situation.

[John]

What happened was they borrowed huge amounts of money and gave it to crony developers to build a bunch of stuff they didn't need and for which there was either no demand or an artificially created demand for. Eventually, they of course ran out of other people's money and the whole thing went bust.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Market failure

[John]

Well that and the fact that they clearly didn't borrow enough money.

[Clich? Bandit]

you clearly missed Brett's point about "don't know what happened"...I believe he was referring to his parents.

[Rich]

vase worth $1m broken in local artist protest

A Florida artist is facing criminal charges after deliberately dropping a vase by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in an apparent protest.

Now, *that* is a crackpot move.

[John]

They should throw his ass in prison for a long time. If it become acceptable for any asshole with a beef to show up at a museum and destroy an art work, we either won't have much art left or won't have many museums.

[Rich]

"Destruction *is* creation!"

[gaijin]

Hire the Monuments Men to protect the artz.

[Mongo]

The pissed-off, local artist who busted the piece isn't even a contemporary artist (which is what the Perez museum all about) and does cheezy landscapes for fat Minnesota tourists.

[BardMetal]

Some of the stuff that passes for modern "art" looks like someone already destroyed it.

[John]

I agree. But someone likes it. And if you and I can go and destroy that trash, other people can destroy real art. No thanks.

[BardMetal]

Thats a good point, but I could see a janitor at an art museum getting confused.

[John]

Mistakes happen.

[Citizen Nothing]

I appreciate modern art as much as the next guy, but I was very, very confused by what I think was a construction/expansion project at a modern art museum once. I kept telling myself, "This can't be an exhibit, can it?" I'm still not completely sure. Maybe that, in itself, makes it art.

[SusanM]

tomaron nuestros JERBS!

[Tim]

There's no need for that bull in a Chinese shop.

[SugarFree]

The dipshit wasn't even being original.

[The Late P Brooks]

Hillary, Kerry; who will be this administration's next Secretary of State, Miley Cyrus?

[Brett L]

Too competent. Who was the pilled up guy who talked about Guam capsizing?

[Auric Demonocles]

Capsizing would still be too competent. He talked about it "tipping over".

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Hank Johnson (D-shriek)

[Spoonman.]

I can only select text after Chrome finishes the nearly Sisyphean task of loading all the "social networking" detritus Reason has on its webpages.

[Auric Demonocles]

Aren't you glad you've got all those connections that you are never going to use, instead of a clean, text-based page?

[Ted S.]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates all the antisocial networking detritus.

[Clich? Bandit]

I have a suggestion for Reason. All of us who have created accounts and logged in should get a second, cleaner page. Let the lurkers and rabble get the adds.

[AuH20]

So, Venezuelan socialism is going to take the bloody way out. Say what you will about the Brits but they let it die relatively peacefully

[DJF]

This is what happens when you turn your private life over to the government. The state of Washington will convert domestic partners to being married without asking them if they want it done. There are three partners in a government sanctioned marriage, and the government has the most power.

"""State (Washington) to same-sex domestic partners: You're about to be married"""

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

[Bee Tagger]

Seattle should trade the space needle for Big Ben so that I can make a joke about it representing the state's biological clock.

[Slammer]

OH NOES!! Why haven't all these violent toys been banned and confiscated?!1!!

[Atanarjuat]

Next SoS: Dennis Kucinich.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

I was going to criticize your over the top attempt at humor, but I realized you are serious, and probably spot on.

*shakes head and wanders off*

[Ted S.]

"24/7" wasn't updated for 30 hours over the holiday, yet the AM links still want to force us to go there.

I really should put this in an Independents thread and see if it makes the Two Minutes Hate.

[John]

So I see the news this morning where the Florida State's attorney has released a tape of the guy in the Florida loud music shooting telling his wife he thinks he is a victim. Most people in jail think that. And what someone tells their wife in private is of very little relevance to the case, absent some kind of confession. And even if it is relevant, present it before the jury, don't leak it to the press. It is really a pathetic example of a prosecutor trying to taint the jury pool and a craven media enabling him to do so.

[Brett L]

Everyone in jail thinks he's innocent, more or less.

[John]

Pretty much. And everyone in trouble cries on their wife or their mother's shoulder if they have one. That tape wouldn't mean shit to a judge or jury. They are only releasing it to poison the jury pool.

[SusanM]

Well, the cops say that everyone in jail is guilty.

[Brett L]

Thus, the whole trial by a jury of your peers. I'm back in the Corrections IT game recently, and it is disappointing how many people make bi- or triannual trips to jail for being a dumbass until they end up in prison for being a dumbass while on probation for the nth time.

[John]

That is most of our justice system Brett. About a quarter of the population is just stupid. They just can't see cause and effect very well and are constantly doing stupid and self destructive things. It used to be these people just sorted wandered around the fringes of society harming mostly themselves. But when we created the bureaucratic state and multiplied the number of laws by a hundred, these people ended up being caught in the criminal justice system. It is totally pointless and barbaric.

[SugarFree]

"You know, someone once told me time is a flat circle."

[Ska]

That show has really impressed me.

[John]

Which show?

[Ska]

True Detective

[Dr. Frankenstien]

So is Det. Rusty Cohle the serial killer? The detectives interviewing him seem to think so. Speculations anyone.

[Ska]

I hope not, that would feel like a cop out to me (no pun intended).

[MJGreen]

Oh hell no. It looks like the Tuttle guy (preacher? governor?) is responsible. So far, the show is suggesting that Cohle went undercover to root it out, and reappears to kill Tuttle (died from "mixed medications"). They've been suggesting Cohle was the killer since the beginning, and there's no way that's the end game.

[SugarFree]

I was a little shaky on it at first. It mostly seemed like an excuse to generate monologues for drama classes, but it's become the best show on TV. Only three episodes left! Gah!

[Tim]

The one time I checked it out there was this girl bent over with her giant boobs hanging out and my wife immediately decided it was pornographic trash.

[SugarFree]

1. Nothing trashy about those boobs. They were majestic, like two juicy eagles in flight.

2. Get her drunk and watch it after she passes out.

[Ska]

I prefer the ass perched on the studded heels in the credits.

[Brett L]

My wife was so disappointed that the 80s-style American Flag bathing suit was a stripper outfit. She still wants one. Who am I to argue? But she was fascinated by those boobs. We had a long discussion about whether they could be real or not. I voted aye, she is unsure that genetics and environment could form those.

[SugarFree]

They are real. Fakies don't hang like that.

[SugarFree]

Brett: American Apparel makes a flag one-piece and a bikini.

[Ska]

Now I want to image search majestic eagle titties, but I know the results will be tragic.

[Brett L]

I'll buy it for her when bathing suit season hits. In a couple weeks.

[sarcasmic]

Navy set to deploy laser gun on ship for the first time (and a rail gun is just two years away)

The first laser to be installed on a Navy vessel is scheduled for later this year
The lasers could be capable of shooting down aerial drones and other aircraft
Rail guns firing projectiles at six times the speed of sound could be tested within two years

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-away.html

[AuH20]

But when do we get giant robots?

[Ska]

When the synthetic vagina is perfected?

[John]

Good to hear. Missile defense is pretty important. It would be very nice if it renders worthless that new hypersonic missile the Chinese has spent billions on.

[WTF]

It would be very nice if it renders worthless that new hypersonic missile the Chinese has spent billions on.

I would suspect that's probably the goal.

[Rasilio]

Actually the goal is far more mundane.

Right now missile defense consists of either ...

1) firing an anti missile missle at the inbound with a cost of over $1 million

2) Putting up a wall of 20mm lead from a CIWS with a cost of ~$30 thousand

The laser system would cost roughly around $5 per shot.

That said it would probably be more capable of intercepting a hypervelocity missile than an anti missile missile

[DJF]

Are they installing them on giant sea bass?

[Wandering Texan]

Need to de-com the entire amphib fleet before we start spending so much dosh on fancy guns.

And it probably means two-years before shipboard testing. Lab testing and protoypes have been around for a few years now.

[Tim]

They should rename them "High-Speed Rail Guns" and then the liberals will want to build them to.

[Tim]

too

[Auric Demonocles]

Make the lasers green.

[WTF]

But what about phasers and photon torpedoes?

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

"make it so"

[Slammer]

NY State suspends drivers license of people who owe back taxes

"Driving is a privilege in New York. And if you don't pay your taxes, we take your privilege away. This will force people to make paying taxes a priority."

[WTF]

Yeah, it's not like there is a right to travel freely in the Constitution or anything.

[Slammer]

And what if you drive for a living?

[Rich]

Yet another reason to go on the dole.

[SugarFree]

Paying taxes is 100% voluntary.

[mad libertarian guy]

They just can't help it!

The socialists of the IOC have deemed that even the most competitive people on earth deserve a Certificate of Participation.

Although every Olympic fan is well versed in the pageantry of the medal ceremonies for the athletes who place first, second and third in an event, few are familiar with the manner in which the International Olympic Committee is honoring the competitors who finish fourth through eighth at the Sochi Games.

It is not with a hearty handshake and pat on the back. It is not, as some athletes suggested (presumably jokingly), with a swift kick to the rear end. Rather, the near-medalists ? and a few not-so-near-medalists ? receive a personally inscribed, autopen-signed, formal Olympic diploma.

Even if you don't win, you're still a winner! It's signed electronically and everything. I guess if autopen is so good as to be used in The Most Important Legislation EVER, it's good enough for Olympic athletes too.

[John]

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

Today is the five year anniversary of the Obama Pelosi porkulus. Never forget that that single bill cost more money than the entire Iraq war had to that point. And we have absolutely nothing to show for it. At least the New Deal built a few nice buildings. The Great Terror built the White Sea Canal. The Obama Porkulus didn't even do that.

[kinnath]

But the newspaper tells me the porkulus prevented the second Great Depression, so it must be true.

[John]

I thought TARP did that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Cash for Clunkers obviously

[John]

That is what Shreek told me. It must be true.

[Palin's Buttplug]

1/3 the stimulus was tax cuts, idiot.

That leaves $500 billion or so vs the $1 trillion the Iraq debacle cost us (and counting for all those limbless and dead soldiers).

[John]

BUSHPIG!!!

It takes a truly deranged retard to lie and claim the thing is okay because it only cost $500 Billion. Not only are your numbers off, even if they weren't, you are not helping your case. But being insane and screaming and throwing shit usually doesn't.

[WTF]

Don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[An Innocent Man]

Stop lying that the Iraq war "cost" us a trillion dollars. No it didn't. FYI, when government spends money there is something called "The Multiplier Effect." Spending on the Iraq war made us wealthier, just like WW II brought us of The Depression. If not for the Iraq War we'd all be eating dogfood for supper. It's almost like you never heard of Keynes.

[John]

That is right. Think of all of the contractors who got rich off that war. I guess Halliburton money doesn't multiply or something.

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

1/3 the stimulus was tax cuts, idiot.

Only in Buttwipe-land would NOT robbing a person blind be construed as a government "expenditure."

[Pelosi's Bushweave]

It's almost as if he had his head up someone's ass...

[Auric Demonocles]

Yeah, but imagine how awful things would have been without it. We'd have endured the horror scenario of 5% unemployment last year, and a peak at the ridiculously high 9% in 2010. Thank God we avoided those numbers.

[Don Mynack]

Regardless of the amount, here is the worst part of the stimulus:

"Shortly after the passage of the Recovery Act in 2009, Vice President Joseph Biden urged local politicians not to spend the money on "stupid things." They ignored his advice, and so did Mr. Biden. The federal government poured billions into the government and education sectors, where unemployment was low, but spent only about 10% on promised infrastructure, though the unemployment rate in construction was running in double digits. "

Of course they did. Gov't employees can't take a pay cut in times like these...

[John]

IT was nothing but one giant theft. As much as I disagree with it, I could probably just disagree and not be pissed off about it if it had done something useful like bury all of the power lines in the country or replaced a shit ton of aging roads and bridges and such. That still would have sucked but at least we would have something to show for it.

But what he did accomplished nothing. It didn't even solve the solvency issues of the various team blue controlled state and local governments since no amount of free money will ever satiate those people. He might as well have bought everyone a dime bag of heroin, at least we could have had a good time.

[sarcasmic]

If you believe Reason has unfairly taken away the liberty to cut and paste, and you use Firefox, you're in luck!

RightToClick
Stops javascript annoyances such as forbidden right click, forbidden text selection or cascading dialog boxes.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Thank goodness, I thought that was just me.

[Auric Demonocles]

Post it from the mountaintops!

[Auric Demonocles]

Hmm, actually this had no effect for me.

[sarcasmic]

You've got to turn it on.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

"is your RightToClick plugged in?"

[Auric Demonocles]

It's already enabled (and I've restarted to allow it to take effect).

[Pro Libertate]

Appears to work for me. Are there any unpleasant side effects, though?

I view this move as yet another attack on the pre-threaded comments crowd. See, back in the Before Time, we'd copy and italicize a previous comment to which we were responding. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

[Auric Demonocles]

And when you came back to a post, you'd search for your last post and read everything below that knowing it was newer.

[Pro Libertate]

Primitive, yet strangely effective.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

The problem is that the site is even more worthless without reasonable.

[John]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hi.....oratorium/

Hillary Clinton's marriage should be totally off limits. It was just too long ago. But remember, George Bush's service in the Texas National Guard and Mitt Romney's business record in the early 1980s was vital information that needed to be reported.

[WTF]

What difference at this point does it make?

[Atanarjuat]

First, we'll start with the Republicans who are revisiting these issues or flirting with them. Talking about Bill Clinton's personal relationships, or the scandals of the Clinton years, is likely only to improve Hillary Clinton's standing with the public.

"We're going to play mum on her past to help her, even though talking about it will really help her."

[John]

All those scandals are really going to help Hillary. He is just telling the Republicans to leave them alone because he is just that nice of a guy and is looking out for their best interests.

They really don't even try anymore do they?

[Pro Libertate]

Paul's latest attacks aside, her past is absolutely fair game. It's time to stop pretending that the absolute best thing we have to judge a candidate is his experience, not whatever bullshit he says. Not just to see if he's "qualified," but also to see what bullshit he's done over the years.

The stench of the Clintons is bad enough throughout their political careers to make any sane person ask, "Um, nobody else? Really? Please, no."

[John]

Yeah, if you are going to run on your street creed as a woman, the fact that you made your political career fixing various sex scandals for your deranged pervert of a husband is pretty damned relevant.

[Pro Libertate]

She's got lots of slime on her. That's something she simply has to address, especially if she does end up being the nominee.

Personally, I think she will not be nominated. Plenty of people are tired of her and her husband, even on the left. They can do much better.

[John]

That is why I think bringing all of that up is essential. If the Republicans don't do that, people will just remember the economy from the 90s and think bringing them back is a good idea. Voters need to be reminded how tiresome and awful they are and how they will never change.

We could tolerate their circus act in the 1990s after the 18 years of post Nixon first family dignity of Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush I. But after 16 years of the various partisan ugliness of Bush and Obama, no way.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The CBS article on Rand shows how, when I see CBS, I see BS.

"It may surprise Paul to hear that even some Democrats are hoping the Republican Party can resuscitate itself....

""There isn't a Republican party," [Joe Biden] lamented. "I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican party. I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from and make a deal and make the compromise and know when you got up from the table that the deal was done.""

Yeah, Rand would be *really* surprised to learn that Democrats are concern-trolling about the viability of the Republican Party. And that Dems want the Republicans to compromise with them rather than fight them.

[John]

How is the party that controls the House, 45 or whatever Senate seats and a majority of the Governorships in need of resuscitation?

I don't recall anyone saying the Democrats were in need of such when they controlled neither House back in the 00s.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Biden's comments are the reverse of the truth. The problem isn't that the Reps need more Boehners caving into the Dems, but that it needs more Rands to put forward a constructive program and go before the people with that program.

[John]

I have been noticing that more and more. The Left and the media always lied but they did so strategically in the past. Occasionally they would tell the truth to give their lies credibility. Now it is nothing but lies. Every word they say and write is the exact opposite of the truth. If Biden says the Republicans are dead, it clearly means he thinks they are very much alive and a grave threat.

[creech]

No need to discuss back then- as our trolls constantly remind us, the Dems who controlled the House and Senate were Bush's lapdogs when it came to stopping the Great Recession and the Wars. So why lament the death of the Democrat party when it apparently had committed suicide? Obama, of course, doesn't have the smarts to do the same to the controlling GOP, so they can only get their way when the GOP dies.

[John]

Obama is the smartest and most competent President ever. The fact that he can never move public opinion on any issue or bring any pressure to cooperate with him on his opposition is just because Republicans are the RACIST.

[Pro Libertate]

The Republicans appear to be quite powerful to me--control of a house, control of the Supreme Court, control over many of the state governments, likely taking the Senate this year, good chance of winning back the White House.

All while the Democrats flail about, refusing to jettison a bad president and a bad law that is their only "accomplishment" while controlling the legislative and executive branches.

[John]

Whenever anyone points to Obama's failures, the Republicans are this unstoppable evil machine ensuring nothing the smartest and greatest President does ever succeeds. Whenever anyone talks about this year's or 2016's election, the Republicans are a dead party that has to stop listening to evil Libertarians and the Tea Party and be like Obama if it is to have any hope of living again.

Funny that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This is a battle for the heart of the GOP. Democrats, for obvious reasons, want the cowardly shitstains called the GOP establishment to win.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yes, they want the Rands of the party to lose. If the CBS writer doesn't know this, (s)he is a moron.

[Slammer]

Scalia says deep dish isn't pizza

[John]

He is a New York Italian. He is one of Episiarch's tribe. I am pretty sure they would put a hit out on him if he said any differently.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Don't get into a land war in Asia, and don't tell a Sicilian that deep-dish is actually pizza.

[John]

My wife's father's family is Sicilian. They take food very seriously.

[WTF]

Well, Scalia got something right.

[Auric Demonocles]

At least he didn't say it was a tax.

[Pro Libertate]

Who cares what Capt. New Professionalism thinks? Where's Thomas on pizza?

[Auric Demonocles]

His favorite topping is Advil.

[Cdr Lytton]

I'm going to say Long Dong Silver likes to go deep, if you know what I mean.

[Pro Libertate]

If that stuff were all true, strange how he's appeared to have gotten it all totally under control in the intervening years. Suppose it's possible.

[Steve G]

Stewart's ADC-channeling rant was pretty good...

[Mongo]

Since Reason is enamored with polling, I have to break the bad news:

73% of independents in Minnesota do NOT want oddblade to be legalized as it is in CO and WA.

[110 Lean]

The fuck is oddblade?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Christian legal aid group wins acquittal for Pakistani Christians accused of murder.

http://aclj.org/united-nations.....er-charges

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'd say it's time for them to leave the country, unless they want a mob to carry out the death penalty anyway.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I can't say for certain they're innocent, but it seems fishy that the accuser is himself a suspect, that he's been trying to take the defendants' land, and that convicting the defendants would facilitate that taking.

[Almanian!]

Um - I just copied and pasted - from work, where we have IE v0.2 or something. Not sure what the problem is for everyone else, but I haz a sad for you 🙁

Scruffy Nerfherder|2.18.14 @ 9:47AM|#

I'd say it's time for them to leave the country, unless they want a mob to carry out the death penalty anyway.

[John]

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....na-johnson

Leftist grass roots organizations have finally figured out that Obama plans to use the IRS to silence them too. It is kind of cute when the foot soldiers don't realize they are going to the camps too.

[Rich]

They would also prohibit public communication 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary election that identifies a political candidate

Here we fucking go again.

It's as if congresscreatures have never heard of the First Amendment.

[John]

The 1st Amendment protects the right to make Warty Porn but it was never intended to allow private citizens groups to campaign against a candidate near an election.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

[John]

Don't know if this was posted this weekend or not. But an interesting read on the thuggish nature of San Fransisco cops. It is not surprising to anyone who reads Reason. The bottom line is that guy called 911 for a biker who had been injured by a car. His reward for that was the cops beating the shit out of him and holding him in jail all weekend only to be released and have all charges drops and be told by the sheriff who let him out that he was arrested because "there are a lot of young deputies out there looking to make a name for themselves". Lovely.

The guy sadly learned the hard lesson "never call the cops".

https://medium.com/human-parts/9f53ef6a1c10

[Cdr Lytton]

Friday. And someone posted in the comments before then.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/02.....s-always-d

[Clich? Bandit]

ME FOR FUCKS SAKE IT WAS ME!

GOD DAMNIT! IT WAS POSTED TWICE AFTER I POSTED IT AND THEN DOHERTY PUT IT UP! Do I get a hat tip FUCK NO! Do my fellow commenters give credit ABSOLUTELY NOT!

For Fuck SAKE!

[Auric Demonocles]

I got my quarterly bonus check on Friday. After federal income tax, state income tax, and social security, I kept 49.5% of my own money. Yay.

[John]

I did my taxes this weekend. I got it right this year and don't owe any money. But when I looked at the total amount I paid, I wanted to vomit.

[Brett L]

We're up $185 with a 1099 left to input. I think we just brushed the line. I'm hoping my wife has some capital-loss carry forward, because I had some long-neglected Dell stock turn out a capital gain. I hate paying the fucking government tax on that shit.

[John]

The capital gains tax is fucking evil. It is totally counter productive and fucks people who save and invest. Tax income or if you don't want to do that tax consumption. But once you make money and pay taxes on it, any money you get for saving or investing that money should be tax free. And yet, our political and media class is totally puzzled why lazy short sighted Americans don't save. Fucking them on their taxes for doing it couldn't possibly have anything to do with it.

[tarran]

John,

They don't *want* people to save!!!!!

Financially independent people are independent! They are harder to control!

[John]

Some of them sure. But I think a good number of politicians and journalists are really that stupid. They honestly can't understand what is going on and think it is because Americans are just lazy and short sighted. Thinking that makes them feel good about themselves.

[tarran]

Oh yeah, there's a multiplicity of reasons.

The envious emote that rich people don't deserve to earn an income from investing their wealth in capital goods.

The ascetics want people to have few possessions because it is more virtuous.

For politicians, though, I suspect it's primarily about preventing people from living outside their control.

[Brett L]

I'd settle for a scaled tax that starts at income, drops to 15% at 18 months and then drops 5% per year after that. If you hold an asset for 5 years, any gains are yours. It obviously isn't income.

[John]

I would take say a two million dollar lifetime exemption. Let everyone save and invest until they have made two million dollars and then tax them. That way average people would have a way to save and build up some wealth besides buying a house. A lot of the reason why we have such an awful housing bubble is buying a house is the only tax shelter or wealth creating vehicle available to most people.

Instead of sinking all of our savings into home equity, maybe it would be better to save it so that it can be invested and create growth and such. Just a thought.

[sarcasmic]

Since most people don't know the difference between wealth and money, and believe the economy is a zero sum game, they interpret your comment to mean policies where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Then politicians feed on economic ignorance.

[John]

It is worse than that sarcasmic. People don't believe that because welfare has done so much damage to our culture. The left has spent a hundred years doing everything they can to convince people work is for chumps and that the system is stacked against them.

The attitudes you describe only take hold if you destroy the culture of work and self reliance and replace it with a culture of envy, powerlessness and dependence.

[mad libertarian guy]

The capital gains tax is fucking evil. It is totally counter productive and fucks people who save and invest.

This.

I made a few really good decisions a decade ago. Now my money is tied up in a stock that, were I to sell in order to diversify and grow my money further rather than watch it sit and wallow in mediocrity, I'd lose my ass. I'd grow poorer by selling my stocks, and would have to make another once in a lifetime score just to catch back up to where it is now in a reasonable time frame. The only tax more evil is property taxes.

[sarcasmic]

were I to sell in order to diversify and grow my money further rather than watch it sit and wallow in mediocrity, I'd lose my ass

I thought you had a window to reinvest and avoid paying the tax. What am I missing?

[Brett L]

My understanding is that you can only do so on your primary residence. If you are selling your primary residence to purchase another one, you can take no hit if you invest 100% of the sale proceeds into a property of equal or greater value. Does not apply to financial instruments.

[John]

You are a good example of the evils of capital gains. Taxes affect how people buy in sell. It causes sellers not to sell when they otherwise would have. Since transactions are by definition mutually beneficial to both parties, capital gains taxes means fewer transactions and property in those cases not going to the party that values it the most. It is a huge drain on productivity.

[sarcasmic]

My company has been on a pay freeze for the last three years. Since my health insurance keeps going up, my taxable income this year was about four thousand dollars less than it was three years ago. Be glad you've got a bonus.

[John]

It is almost as if the economy sucks or maybe the worst sustained labor market since the 1930s has an effect on wages or something.

[kinnath]

Longest, deepest recession in my lifetime.

But Obama tells me he saved me from a depression.

[John]

You should be thanking him. Don't you know that?

[kinnath]

I thank him every day in every way.

[110 Lean]

A.M. Links? I don't recall ever seeing them before. What an interesting idea!

[John]

They are the organic, low fat version of the must less healthy "morning links".

[Invisible Finger]

In case you're wondering what happens to disgraced Congressmen...

Some move to Zimbabwe.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com.....n-zimbabwe

[John]

Well at least he moved to a place with cleaner politics.

[Invisible Finger]

My apologies to Brett L. Thought I was the only one who enjoys the unstoppable decline of IL's 2nd Congressional district.

[Brett L]

Its all good. "Disgraced former Congressman" covers so much ground.

[John]

http://www.charlotteobserver.c.....wN6Ws42q4e

Further proof politicians are petty thin skinned assholes. The Governor of North Carolina goes into some high end cookware store and has a clerk tell him "thanks for nothing". The Governor of course complained and had the guy fired.

Not that the store shouldn't be able to do that or having clerks give your customers shit is a good idea. But it takes a real think skinned asshole to call and complain because some clerk dared to say they didn't like you as governor. God forbid you take it in stride or take five minutes and talk to him and say "hey I understand no everyone agrees with me but I am doing my best and is there anything in particular you are angry about?" Maybe being a nice guy might have helped?

[GILMORE]

"its good to be the King"

[CampingInYourPark]

Did you read the article or just the headline?

[John]

I read the article. And the kid was a bit of a dick. But tough shit for the governor. Part of being in office is taking shit from the voters.

Had the governor been some private person, then I would be on his side. But you want to be governor and get to live in the mansion and call out the national guard and all that shit, then you should have to have a stiff upper lip when some clerk tells you that you suck.

[sarcasmic]

Being that the governor is a Republican, I'm guessing the employee is a progressive and did more than just tell him he sucks. Probably had a full blown temper tantrum.

[John]

Probably. But I still think that is just too bad for the Governor. Get a stiff upper lip.

[sarcasmic]

From what I read it was the governor's security team who complained, not the governor himself.

Did you read the article?

[John]

The governor is responsible for the actions of his team. And even if not, I am not seeing how that makes it better.

Sure he is a leftist douche. But dealing with douche bags is part of being governor. Again, I don't blame the store for firing him. I said that up front. I just think that if you are an elected official, you let that shit slide. It is part of the job.

[CampingInYourPark]

There was no "kid" involved. Nobody "called" to complain. The 45 year-old cook made his comment and "walked away". How exactly do you have a nice little conversation with someone that isn't participating in a conversation?

I'm still going with you not reading the article

[John]

You ignore them and move on. And I didn't notice his age because it doesn't matter.

What we are left with is someone dared say something bad to the Governor and his security detail made a stink. And that is bullshit. If the governor doesn't like people saying their opinions of him, get into another line of work.

[CampingInYourPark]

What we are left with is someone dared say something bad to the Governor and his security detail made a stink. And that is bullshit.

Actually, you have no idea what was said, sort of like how you didn't know the basic facts in the article.

[John]

The article said, the guy said "thanks for nothing". BFD. The governor is a dick.

[CampingInYourPark]

What do you know about the conversation the member of the security detail had with the owner? You described it as a stink. Explain how you came to that conclusion.

[CampingInYourPark]

I'll save you the time. You don't have any reason. For all you know, he might have asked for the guy not to be fired. There's a reference to the conversation in the article by a party privy to the conversation. What does it suggest?

[John]

I don't care camping. I don't care what the guy said to the governor. That is my whole point. Fuck the governor. If he doesn't like the odd voter saying nasty things to him, resign from office.

[CampingInYourPark]

Are you a little touched today or what? The point isn't what the "guy said to the governor".

You have no idea what the governor or anybody with him said. Get it? You attributed something to someone you have no clue about.

[John]

I don't have to know what he said you half wit. I only half to know he said something, the security team complained about it and he was fired for it.

If the guy threatened the governor, that would be a crime. But we know that didn't happen because he wasn't arrested. So we are left with someone being rude to the governor and his security getting butt hurt about it. Once again, fuck the governor.

[sarcasmic]

In my experience in customer service, it doesn't matter if the customer is a bum or a political figure. If you're rude there's a good chance you're going to lose your job.

[Clich? Bandit]

True story: Buddy of mine is infamous for writing "strongly worded letters" No joke. To credit card companies, Blockbuster, Starbucks, and especially the government. He does it really well too and consistently. Got a bunch of free shit over the years from vendors due to his persistence.

Anyway, he was in line for coffee one morning and the Governor was actually in front of him. He said "hey Mr. Governor, I wanted to talk to you about something. I sent you some letters." And the Gov., who had never see this guy, turns around and says "Ohh, You must be *First Name*".

My friend didn't seem to think that was relevant (picture Sheldon). If the Governor knows your name you ARE persistent.

[Sevo]

"Kerry Announces Envoy to Arctic"

S/he'll be received at the court of Santa Claus?

[John]

There is the Court of St. James. Now there is the Court of St. Nick.

[GILMORE]

"The Venezuelan government expelled three US consular officials over the weekend, accusing them of meeting with student protesters. It also pulled a news channel based in Colombia off the air over its coverage of anti-government protests."

And OMG! are the people at Huffington post really fuming and covering every detail about.... uh.... er....

"EXPOSED: WALL ST. OVERLORDS UNHINGED "
"Corporate Cronyism: The Secret to Overpaid CEOs"
"The American Public School Under Siege"
"The Souls of Black Folk and the Shame of the Dunn Verdict" (by *white woman*!)
"Why Leonardo DiCaprio Deserves the Oscar: It's About Time, Don't You Think?"

uhm, yeah, that hard-hitting progressive journalism is ALL OVER this 'collapsing socialist state' story.

Oh well! I bet ThinkProgress has this thing on LOCKDOWN, though...

"How 'House of Cards' Gets Sexuality And Recovery From Sexual Assault Right"
"Fracking Well Blowout Causes Oil And Chemical Wastewater Spill In North Dakota (Updated)"
""Fourth Georgia Hospital Shuts Down As The State Continues To Refuse Medicaid Expansion""
""Obama Condemns Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill: This Will 'Complicate Our Valued Relationship'""

I never fully appreciated how much these sorts of things are "all politics-all the time", to the point of EXCLUSION of any news that doesn't fit the current narrative.

I think the Huffpo "WALL ST OVERLORDS" headline functions perfectly as'self-mockery' as well. Ap'

[Almanian!]

THAT is one concentrated mass of shitbrainia right there.

Holy fuck.

[John]

Well in fairness, it is not like Venezuela is in our hemisphere or supplies the world with a lot of oil something. I mean the gay laws in Russia is so much more important of an issue than the impending collapse of some little country that most journalists couldn't find on a map.

[GILMORE]

I think its FAR more notable as these very same sites were constantly hectoring Bush over his 'unfair' policies to Latin American experiments like Bolivia and Venezuela, and constantly writing glowing endorsements of the 'positive changes' that such new thinking might bring about...

The last piece re: Venezuela I can find @ either site is the following =

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....15848.html

translated = "Why Chavez was Awesome"

"Chavez, who died of cancer at the age of 58, was the only president of Venezuela in modern memory who did ANYTHING for the poor people of that country who make up the vast majority of its nearly 30 million citizens..."

What follows is absolutely nothing demonstrating Chavez's positive ideas for 'the poor' - but a long litany of US Meddling in Latin American politics to prevent leftist dictators *like* Chavez.

"From Generals Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Rios Montt in Guatemala, to the "Dirty Warriors" in Argentina, the Duvaliers in Haiti, and the murderous junta during the Reagan era in El Salvador -- these same right-wingers who condemn Chavez's record were awfully quiet (or supportive) back then..."

Its really *never* about why 'our guy is so GOOD'! - its always, "Why TEAM RED is SO BAD"

[John]

That is all they have left. Chavez destroyed the country. He destroyed the oldest Democracy in Latin America and made the country so poor, even rich people can't obtain basic necessities anymore.

They can't talk about that. So, they talk about how Pinochet killed some communist asshole 30 years ago because that makes what Chavez did totally okay.

[Rhywun]

who did ANYTHING for the poor people of that country who make up the vast majority blah blah blah

This is what they actually believe.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

"The Souls of Black Folk and the Shame of the Dunn Verdict" (by *white woman*!)

So the Onion staff hacked Arianna's blog again. Big deal--happens every few hours these days.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I know when I look for cogent analysis of the intersection between the American legal system and complex sociological phenomenon I turn to a professor of divinity.

[John]

One of the oddest things about 21st Century America is that most "divinity schools", especially the big name ones like Harvard, are filled with people who totally reject Christianity and any God other than government.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

I'm acquainted with a theologian (sign #1 that you're a prick: when you refer to yourself as a theologian, philosopher, intellectual, or expert) whose sole interest in Christianity is a means of spreading socialism throughout the world. He's a moral nihilist who believes that rights are political constructs--gifts of the state--and who becomes enraged to the point of aphasia when anyone points out that minimum wage laws were historically used to discriminate against minorities rather than uplift them.

I can't think of a more pious, irreligious horse's ass than this commie, and theology departments are filled to the brim with his like.

[John]

There are tons like them. They stand as an example of why you cannot allow more than a small minority of leftists into an organization or profession. Leftists are like vampires. They destroy every institution or profession they touch turning it into an undead state of still existing but existing only to further leftist politics and none of its stated goals.

[mad libertarian guy]

They destroy every institution or profession they touch turning it into an undead state of still existing but existing only to further leftist politics and none of its stated goals.

See academia, liberal arts departments in specific.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Notice nothing about the UN's report on North Korea's democide/politicide as well.

In other news though, Ukrainian peasants are well-fed, fat and jolly.

[GILMORE]

Overlooked that, but yes = that was as recent as *yesterday*, yet apparently any mention of it needs to be buried beneath SHOCKING HEADLINES like,

"ARE STRESS HORMONES AFFECTING FINANCIAL CRISES?"

No. Kidding.

korea is down @ the bottom. 36 comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/....._ref=world

Oh... and it gets started AWESOME right away =

Re: Korean Death Camps!?

"
Francisco L. (FrancisLopez)
3 Fans
So what the United states did that same thing with the Native Americans. The United sates committed Genocide. Yeah thats right kids your first ancestors killed thousands of Natives. The point being nobody said nothing to America, Britain, Spain, Portugal, and many others what to do...

Tom L. (1oldhippie)
2,560 Fans
So freakin' what...no one is going to change North Korea. They are a sovereign nation and IF they wanted to change it would come from within...

"you know, uh, like Venezuela!.. Which we're ignoring!"

I have noticed a strong trend toward this notion of "Sovereignty" when a country is a failed socialist experiment...but somehow these same people are constantly agitating for multilateral interventionism in EVERY OTHER CONTEXT IMAGINABLE. I think there's an op-ed scolding Obama over 'not intervening' in Syria on the cover...

[Slammer]

Francisco L. (FrancisLopez)
3 Fans
So what...

Holy shit

[John]

They are getting increasingly dangerous.

[GILMORE]

I note - the "So What?" is almost universal.

Their reaction to egregious atrocity committed in the name of Socialism is, "WHY ARE YOU EXAGGERATING THINGS? WHY HAVE YOU NOT PUT THIS IN THE CONTEXT OF WESTERN IMPRERIALIST COLONIAL HISTORY?"...

...and at the same time refer to the 'forthcoming' mass-deaths as a result of 'climate change' to be the Greatest Crime Ever Committed.

its really not very funny anymore.

[John]

No it is not. I will bet 10 dollars they have no idea that Korea is one of the worst victims of colonial rule and that their colonizers where the Japanese.

[Rhywun]

Nor would they care - because the Japanese are not white Europeans.

[John]

http://www.the-american-intere.....n-revival/

Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina are languishing in differing shades of turmoil, steadily losing ground to regional underdogs. The Pacific Alliance, an historic trade agreement between Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia (and coming soon: Costa Rica), has the potential to recolor Latin America's economic map and introduce some new regional powerhouses to the world stage.

And of course, the leftists are plenty butt hurt over it.

The Latin Lefties are none too pleased with the new arrangement. Bolivian President Evo Morales called the alliance a Washington-led conspiracy. Brazil's Lula and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa decried the Alliance as a neoliberal takeover.

It is almost as if they don't want anyone to notice that their policies really suck.

[GILMORE]

Seriously = Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are all PRIME examples of the idealized leftist regimes that American proggies dream about.... and they are utterly collapsing under their own failed policies, and the young people *in* these countries DETEST them.

The American liberal elites are so fucking screwed trying to spin this one that they have chosen to COMPLETELY IGNORE IT.

Which was my point. Its bloody sad. What is even funnier is the whimpering occasional comments from them about... "Uh, CIA? Kochs? Something... oil?" Even *they* know that's bullshit, and that these countries are collapsing because The People hate their leaders because their policies stink.

So we see the "When in doubt?! IGNORE" take effect in the liberal press.

[John]

What is happening in those places and in Spain and Greece is nothing short of a 1989 for third way socialism. American leftists have spent sixty years claiming that they really were not communists and instead wanted a third way socialism of big government but not quite total government. Now every single example of that is failing spectacularly.

In some ways American Leftists are dumber than the old communists were. At least the communists understood that you can't go half way, that the government either controls everything or it will control nothing.

[Homple]

"The believing mind reaches its perihelion in the so-called Liberals. They believe in each and every quack who sets up his booth in the fairgrounds, including the Communists. The Communists have some talents too, but they always fall short of believing in the Liberals."
~H.L. Mencken

[GILMORE]

"Hugo Chavez defied this history of power relations in the hemisphere. And for that defiance elite voices will vilify him, but a far larger number of people will see him as a hero."

Just like, no one in Venezuela. Bard, Antioch, Wesleyan...Pomona? yeah.

[John]

A lot of people will see him as a hero. The problem is that none of those people live in Venezuela. I am not following how the existence of morally stunted and intentionally ignorant people writing for newspapers in the United States makes Chavez a hero.

[GILMORE]

OK, this has to take the cake for comment of the day.

NYT runs stroke-job piece on Tom Steyer, Liberal Billionaire Election-Fixer! THE AWESOME FOIL TO THE EVIL KOCHS

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02.....pw&rref=us

"..he is rallying other deep-pocketed donors, seeking to build a war chest that would make his political organization, NextGen Climate Action, among the largest outside groups in the country, similar in scale to the conservative political network overseen by Charles and David Koch."

'Our billionaires GOOD! Their billionaires? BAD'

its amazing how they avoid mentioning his personal interests in a number of green-energy subsidy-dependent investments. but, that aside...

COMMENT OF THE DECADE =

"
Fred
Kansas 5 minutes ago
Perhaps if big money comes from left as well as the far right, Citizens United can be changed"

My head. It explodes.

[John]

Since they have no principles, they assume no one else does either. They honestly think that if they take advantage of the 1st Amendment, the other side will be just like them and want to shut it down just like they do now. It never occurs to them that the Right might say "hey that is your right and I will defend it just like I do mine." They are crude materialists. They cannot comprehend much less see the value of non-material principles like "freedom" or "equality before the law". They only see those things as tools to be used to achieve the material results they want. So if "freedom" produces a bad material result, freedom has to go because there is the point in having it if it doesn't translate into desirable results in the material world.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Fred
Kansas 5 minutes ago
Perhaps if big money comes from left as well as the far right, Citizens United can be changed"

Judge, but don't condemn. Fred is offer a koan meant to shatter our presumptions about the nature of reality and help us in our journey toward satori.

That or Fred is a massive fucking moron.

[John]

That too. But it is also that he cannot understand the innate value of an abstract principle like freedom of expression.

[GILMORE]

"ONE HAND CLAPPING. ONE HAND CLAPPING" (Punching wall till hand is bleeding)

[mad libertarian guy]

Perhaps if big money comes from left as well as the far right, Citizens United can be change

That his guy is under the impression that big money isn't coming from the left is proof that we are fucked.

[GILMORE]

"If we can accumulate enough money to engage in effective political speech, we can finally shut down this use of money to engage in effective political speech!!"

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Family Day!?!?!

No my friends.
Yesterday was Louis Riel Day.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

So did his Obamaness watch GoT Season 4 this weekend?

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

No. Murdering American citizens and then gaining re-election while setting up the economy for a massive collapse is one thing, but this is a bridge. too. far.

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

1/3 the stimulus was tax cuts, idiot.

Only in Buttwipe-land would NOT robbing a person blind be construed as a government "expenditure."