A.M. Links: Rand Paul Calls For End of NSA Mass Surveillance of Americans, At Least 17 Protesters Killed in Kiev, Korean Reunions Begin

Credit: Talk Radio News Service / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

• Writing for The Guardian website's "Comment is Free" page Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said, "It's time to trash the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans, for good."
• At least 17 protesters have been killed in Kiev after a truce between the Ukrainian president and the opposition broke down.
• NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden said he is "humbled" after being elected rector of Glasgow University.
• Speaking about health insurance sign up targets, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We may not get to seven million, we may get to five or six, but that's a hell of a start."
• The first reunions between North and South Koreans since 2010 are taking place.
• A family lawyer claims that a cop shot a teen in Georgia after he answered his front door while holding a Wii remote.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Speaking about health insurance sign up targets, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We may not get to seven million, we may get to five or six, but that's a hell of a start."

You don't get to be Vice President of these here United States without being sharp as a tack.

[Rich]

Exactly. He restrained himself from blurting out "but that's a big fucking deal!"

[Bobarian]

Speaking about chaining politicians to the ocean floor targets, disgruntled Reason Blogger Bobarian said, "We may not get to seven million, we may get to five or six, but that's a hell of a start."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race." Vico.

[Brett L]

Shorter Biden: "Put those goddamn goalposts closer!"

[KPres]

The worst thing is that they act like getting people to sign up is a good thing, like they're getting something they otherwise wouldn't have been able to have. It's nonsense. The vast majority of uninsured people in the US are uninsured because they don't want to be, and now the government is forcing them to do something they didn't want to. It's not like they wanted it but just couldn't afford it. People in that situation already have insurance...it's called Medicaid.

[mad libertarian guy]

The worst thing is that they act like getting people to sign up is a good thing, like they're getting something they otherwise wouldn't have been able to have.

What he seems to be glossing over is that it should be read as fucking shameful that they can't get people to sign up for something that THEY HAVE MADE FUCKING MANDATORY UNDER THE COLOR OF LAW. People MUST sign up, yet aren't.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A family lawyer claims that a cop shot a teen in Georgia after he answered his front door while holding a Wii remote.

What if he was playing Wii Sports? A tennis racket or bowling ball would be a deadly weapon.

[invisible furry hand]

How many points did the cop score?

[Pavlov's Cat]

Doesn't matter. Game over. Player offline.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Respawning in 3.. 2.. 1..

[Rhywun]

"Press START to die."

[Cyto]

The cops claim he answered the door with a weapon drawn. Ok, let's take them at their word. You still don't get to kill someone who answers their door with a gun in hand. It is their home after all. They have every right to be armed in their own home.

Every time we have an incident like this I wonder why they don't have the training to back the heck up. It is pretty simple... if you encounter an armed person who is not currently firing at anyone, back the heck up and take cover. What kind of hick nonsense is pulling your weapon and firing wildly at the first hint of a furtive movement? This is all down to training and policy. This is the intended result of police training - shoot to kill the instant you have a hint of cause. The completely foreseeable result is that many people will be killed unnecessarily. And no, the decedent need not be unarmed for the killing to be unnecessary or unjustified.

For those who cringe at the phrase "firing wildly", please see the video of the Jose Guerrena SWAT raid. Guys firing blindly over each other's shoulders, complete panic fire against an innocent citizen in his own home who never fired a shot. Unfortunately not an atypical result.

[alan_s]

Only cops have the right to stand their ground. The rest of us have a duty to retreat.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

What, never seen an Iraqi Death Blossom before?

[Lord Humungus]

The Harder They Fall: Shared Slopes Take Bigger Toll on Women

The question, a difficult one, is why.

The Winter Games have always had dangerous events. But the Extreme Park, as the name suggests, is built on the ageless allure of danger. All of the events there have been added to the Olympic docket since 1992, each a tantalizing cocktail of grace and peril.

But unlike some of the time-honored sports of risk, including Alpine skiing, luge and ski jumping, there are few concessions made for women. For both sexes, the walls of the halfpipe are 22 feet tall. The slopestyle course has the same tricky rails and the same huge jumps. The course for ski cross and snowboard cross, a six-person race to the finish over jumps and around icy banked curves, is the same for men and women. The jumps for aerials are the same height. The bumps in moguls play no gender favorites.

gee... perhaps women are weaker then men?

[Ted S.]

One of the theories I've heard is that because women have wider hips to bear children, that changes the angle of the ligaments in their knees, leading to more knee injuries.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's bullshit.

The reason women evolved to have wider hips is because you need wider hips to twerk well.

[gaijin]

Evolution in action!

[Mickey Rat]

You know,those capabilities are not unrelated.

[UnCivilServant]

If by not unrelated, you mean working at cross-purposes, then yes. That motion vastly reduces the attractiveness of the person doing it.

[a better weapon]

I remember seeing a special on ESPN about women doing physical therapy to train their bodies, legs specifically, to be more balanced like a man's is.

Something about ACL dominance versus MCL dominance. The ACL is much easier to injure, and most women's body structure is such that more weight is absorbed by the ACL on any impact.

[hamilton]

This is why there are no Libertarian knees.

[WTF]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!11!!!!

He has spoken the Forbidden Words!

[Ted S.]

"Deep dish"?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Deep dish is a social construct. All pizza is the same, and can identify itself however it wants. Or something like that.

[RBS]

"Thank you for calling Papa John's, how would your pizza like to identify itself?"

[Ted S.]

I'd like some cispizza, thank you very much.

[John]

And those differences get larger when you get to an elite level. The difference between a good amateur woman and man skier is less than the difference between the two if they were at an Olympic level.

The difference at that level is enormous. To give and example, a Jamaican women named Shelly Ann Frayser Price won the women's 100 meters at the 2012 Olympics with a time of 10.75. To put that in perspective, the last year's winner of the 5A Texas high school boys 100 meters ran a 10.26. If Price had been in that final, she would have finished second to last just .02 seconds away from being butt naked last.

[RBS]

Like this

[John]

And if she had broken her neck out there, something that does happen in football, it would have been all the fault of the patriarchy.

[Pope Jimbo]

A good high school team (Warroad, MN) beat the US women's Olympic hockey team before the last Olympics in a game that didn't allow checking.

[a better weapon]

I had an old lacrosse buddy tell me that they train between the Olympics by participating in a men's league in Massachusetts (could be another state, but I think its there). They alternate between the A and B level. The B level, they're competitive and the A level they always come in dead last.

[John]

I have a lesbian friend who old girl friend was a college Lacrosse coach. Basically, they would put together pick up teams of former high school players who went to the school and practice against them because playing them was harder than playing the other college teams.

[Pelosi's Rabbit]

Our high school girls' team would practice against the jr. high boys' team.

It was glorious.

[RBS]

Also this

[John]

I remember that. That was awesome. Bobby Riggs was in his 50s. He was old and not in particularly good shape and 25 years removed from being an elite men's player (and he was a great player in his day) and he destroyed Margaret Court, the number one woman in the world at the time, and would have destroy Billy Jean King had he not thrown the match for gamblers.

[Juice]

I'm not a hockey fan but I watch it some during the Olympics. Watching the men, it's like, yup that's hockey. Watching the women, it's like, wow they suck. They so horribly, terribly, obviously suck major suckitude. Man, they're terrible.

[a better weapon]

Boy, these girls sure make it look difficult!

-Olympic hockey color commentator

[mad libertarian guy]

It's like watching women;s basketball.

When I was in junior high (8th grade I think), I played a game of 1-on-1 with the star player of a girl's college basketball team (she was a friend of a neighbor who was visiting home from school) and I destroyed her. And I'd never played anything other than 2-on-2 b-ball at the playground.

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

This is why there are so few female libertarians!

Why can't you realize that dragging around the collective history of Patriarchal oppression slows a woman down?

Please bookmark Jezebel. This will save you from further confusion.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Please bookmark Jezebel. This will save you from further confusion.

Because after a few days of reading there my brain would commit suicide in a desperate attempt to make the pain stop.

[Mickey Rat]

The difference between the tricks the men were doing off the jumps were stunning compared to the women. Not only were the men being injured less, they were performing at a significantly higher degree of difficulty.

[John]

The shit the men were doing was terrifying to even watch. The slope style was insane. How do you go over a jump and land and slide down a handrail?

[Mickey Rat]

I certainly would be scared shitless to even contemplate trying that course. I am no good with heights and have no gymnastic capability.

[Juice]

Shaun White? Is that you?

[Mickey Rat]

HA!

[Mickey Rat]

One of the shocking things was seeing White's hair now, he has a standard businessman's cut.

[Rhywun]

When did the Winter Olympics turn into a skate park? I remember when all this X-TREME silliness was confined to late nights on ESPN2 where it belongs.

Oh, and get off my lawn.

[John]

The sky racing is better and more fun to watch. The downhill was equally insane. They hit the bigger jump at 80 mph and flew nearly a hundred yards.

[Mickey Rat]

A lot of those events are athletically impressive, but they are judged events and therefore not really sports to my mind.

[Rhywun]

They're just stunts. Granted, the Winter Olympics have always been full of stunts but I preferred historical continuity over letting in every new kewl x-treme trick like is happening now.

[mr simple]

The Olympics have a history ? sexist, perhaps ? of trying to protect women from the perils of some sports.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"It's time to trash the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans, for good."

And he wants to be my president?

[CampingInYourPark]

The comments:
"OMG, you have that racist lover of korporashuns writing for The Guardian?"

[gaijin]

Cults of personality can seldom be bothered to make eye contact with actual, you know, positions on issues.

[SugarFree]

3/3/14

[Rich]

In selected theaters?

[SugarFree]

I'm still negotiating with directors. Obviously, I want Bay.

[Rich]

What?! I thought you'd be auteur!

[gaijin]

Obviously, I want Bay.
Stay away from Lucas and Spielberg. One can only imagine the horrors perpetrated on the main character in a prequel.

[SugarFree]

"You'sa says-a people gonnas be fingas-blasted-a?"

[WTF]

"Meesa very scared-a!"

[invisible furry hand]

But I bet the toy range would be sweet

[hamilton]

It's a pity John ford is dead, this seems right up his alley.

[Soros' Wank-noose]

"Up his alley", eh?

Figured that was a part of the script.

[WTF]

Obviously, I want Bay.

I was thinking Peter Jackson. Or maybe John Woo

[WTF]

Two thumbs up!

[Rich]

Well, they *look* like thumbs.

[WTF]

Note that I didn't specify where the 'thumbs' are located.

[invisible furry hand]

will there be a t-shirt?

[RBS]

The day we celebrate our independence?

[PD Scott]

The day we lament our sentience.

[Citizen Nothing]

This^ needs to go on the posters.

[Marshall Gill]

Isn't that every day?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I still think you can better sell it to the art house crowds if you pronounce his name like Pok?mon. Or maybe that markets it better to pre-teens.

[sarcasmic]

Spanish police forced to apologise after using 'super sexy' lingerie advert in public first aid demonstration
Officers used the highly suggestive advertisements during a first aid seminar
Members of the public had been invited to an open tutorial in Jaca, Zaragoza
Clips show underwear models striking sexual poses and touching each other
Officers admit the footage was inappropriate and will not be showing it again
Footage was actually taken from adverts by the Fortnight Lingerie company

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ation.html
The Heimlich never looked so good...

[WTF]

I really didn't see anything to apologize for.

[Ebriosa]

You know, if it weren't for the blatant sexual tone, showing people how to perform CPR on a body with few clothes on makes absolute sense. It's easier to see!

Except then you find out it's a commercial with models pretending to show CPR techniques. And ironic or something.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The first reunions between North and South Koreans since 2010 are taking place.

Probably more awkward than After M*A*S*H.

[sarcasmic]

'My brain feels like it's exploding': Lorde the teen queen hits another high note with BRIT award

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-gong.html
I can't get over how unattractive she is.

[invisible furry hand]

I'm sure she will be distraught to hear that

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. All the way to the bank.

[Heroic Mulatto]

She's 17? That's dog years, right?

[The DerpRider]

She's 17 like Dominican baseball players are 17...

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

So 28 then?

[Floridian]

I can't get over the people who love her anti-materialism message and then spend all their money on her albums that then go to the corporate profits they hate.

[a better weapon]

I can't remember who it was on here that was commenting on Tom Morello being incensed that Paul Ryan listens to Rage Against the Machine. Something to the effect of...

"Ryan represents everything that our music has been fighting against... no excuse me while I go cash this royalty check that the machine sends me every 3 months."

[RBS]

It's like Rene Russo gained a bunch of weight then someone hit her in the face with a 2x4.

[sarcasmic]

yeah

[Raston Bot]

she's so ugly she could be a modern art masterpiece.

/hartman

[Lord Peter Wimsey]

At the Grammy Awards she evidently gave a 15 minute acceptance speech in which she blasted the world as being run by free market psychopaths. I'm not sure if they showed any of it or cut away (didn't watch), but I read the transcript.

Lucky for her that free markets don't figure at all in her career choice or her success.

She's a female Matt Damon. If Matt Damon had a sex change operation...

[sarcasmic]

She had sex with Ben Affleck?

[Steve G]

Then I'm sure she won't mind if I torrent her shitty music...

[sarcasmic]

Texas GOP governor hopeful under fire for embracing 'blood brother' Ted Nugent, who called Obama a 'communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel'
The 'Cat scratch fever' legend and National Rifle Association board member railed against the president during a January gun show
He's now campaigning with Greg Abbott, the Republican state attorney general who's running for Texas governor
Wendy Davis, the abortion-rights Democrat running against Abbott, calls the alliance 'repulsive'
Nugent responds that Davis 'hasn't got anything meaningful to campaign on, so she's got to be a [Nancy] Pelosi attack dog'
He also complains about weak-willed politicians who 'check their scrotums in at the door ? even Hillary.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ngrel.html
Please, Ted. Tell us how you really feel.

[Wandering Texan]

Still a plus for Abbott in my book. The state's structure prevents him from doing too much in the traditional areas of right-wing statism, and he has been promoting Open and Campus carry.

[Brett L]

If Governor Good-hair couldn't ruin the state, I'd say the Texas Constitution has the balance just about right. (I'd tweak some language in other sections, but forbidding the legislature to legislate in even numbered years and weak gubernatorial office are both huge wins.)

[SIV]

President Barack Obama is a 'communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel.'

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Did Welch ever clarify his distaste of the Nuge?

I mean, if he thinks what Ted said was bad....has he been on these links before?

Was anything Ted said incorrect?

[sarcasmic]

Don't watch this if you're a nervous flier! Terrifying video shows a pilot struggling to land in strong winds at Birmingham airport

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rport.html
It's called crabbing.

[Citizen Nothing]

He nailed that thing.
I was up with my pilot sis-in-law once, landing her little plane on the island of Lanai. I wondered how there was a runway "M". Turns out it was "3" but we had to come in sideways.
I still piss myself whenever I think about it.
Great. Now I've got to find fresh undies.

[Lord Humungus]

I took a little double-prop hopper from Seattle to Vancouver Island... during a big windstorm. The turbulence was so bad that one of the passengers let out a scream after particular nasty drop.

We ended landing sideways, the pilot jerking the nose straight just as we hit the runway. The only time I wanted to kiss the ground...

[Citizen Nothing]

Back when I was hanging out in paradise more often, we used to fly (commercial) now and then 'twixt islands in those Twin Otter turbo props. I was never comfortable, even in good weather.

[Brett L]

My favorite was flying out of some local airport in Costa Rica: You're in a 12 seater getting ready to drive off the side of a mountain and hope your wings work, and there's some goober with a kitchen fire extinguisher standing off to the side, I guess to make the touristas feel "safe".

[Citizen Nothing]

"Make sure you are extinguished first before attempting to extinguish your children."

[Brett L]

I'm not sure about the stop part, but if you caught fire on the takeoff run, the drop and roll parts were guaranteed.

[Steve G]

Meh, happens a lot.

Buffs even have gear designed for it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCUHQ_-l6Qg

[The Late P Brooks]

A family lawyer claims that a cop shot a teen in Georgia after he answered his front door while holding a Wii remote.

Violent videogames!

[Lord Humungus]

Ron Paul: Ukraine Unrest 'Their Business,' Not Ours

"The American people are very leery of getting involved in another squabble in some other country," Paul told Fox News on Wednesday shortly after both sides of the conflict agreed to a truce after two days of violence resulted in 26 deaths. "I would be willing to wager most of the people in the Ukraine would like to see the United States stay out, and they'd like to see the Russians stay out."

Obama Draws Another Line, This Time in Ukraine

"We've also said we expect peaceful protesters to remain peaceful and we'll be monitoring very closely the situation, recognizing that with our European partners and the international community there will be consequences if people step over the line," he told reporters in Mexico, where he is taking part in an economic summit.

[Jon Lester]

That time has come, but of course, we'll see if it gives the administration pause, of if they'll once again barrel forward with another completely stupid policy objective.

[sarcasmic]

'The f****** curse is gone!' Joan Rivers flips Jay Leno the bird after her 30 year Tonight Show ban is lifted by Jimmy Fallon

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....allon.html

[Rivers flips the bird] 'To Jay! Well, Jay. Twenty-three years. I'm still here and you're going to be selling cars.'

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Fallon was probably wondering how a squawking bag lady managed to become a guest on the show.

[a better weapon]

Sure, the occasional selling of one of his rare car collection items for the sale price of more than she makes in a year.

I actually find Joan's crassness to be funny half the time, but she's like Letterman in that the other half of the time, her bitterness gets the better of her and makes her repulsive to watch or listen to.

[Rhywun]

repulsive to watch or listen to

But still more watchable than Leno ever was.

[a better weapon]

I have actually never watched Leno, so I can't comment on his talent or humor.

[Rhywun]

I've seen him in one or two-minute stretches maybe a half-dozen times. He is utterly unbearable - and that's just his voice. I never knew what he was saying because I would always race to the remote to change the channel.

[waffles]

Best Dad, Worst Dad?

I'll admit, this video made me laugh more than it should have. My favorite part? When his daughter says "Dad, we're kinda like, bad people".

[RBS]

It is possible to laugh at something funny while also being concerned about your kids well being.

[WTF]

I guess I'm a bad person too. I laughed.

[John]

It is a tough world out there. Kids might as well get used to it early.

[Pope Jimbo]

Well, it isn't like there was a gaggle of kids standing right there laughing too. The guy was just trying to fit in with today's yute.

By the way, I would have thought that those Iowegians got enough snow to know that when you get snow/ice you start doing the penguin walk. Of course you are gonna dump yourself on your ass when you take long strides like that.

Luckily for us in Sunny Minnesota, our government spent money wisely to print up a helpful guide to teach us all what we all learned by the time we were 3.

[sarcasmic]

'That's redneck justice for you': Shocking video footage shows moment police shoot dead an unarmed 20-year-old man after he resisted arrest
D'Andre Berghardt Jr was killed during confrontation on Nevada road
Witnesses filmed as Berghardt appeared to run away from officers before trying to open car door

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ities.html
And nothing else happened...

[WTF]

The cops got to go home that night!
STOP RESISTING!

[Floridian]

I guess he won't walk down a public highway again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...after a truce between the Ukrainian president and the opposition broke down.

One punch from Klitschko and it's over.

[sarcasmic]

It's alright for some! Kylie Jenner shares sunny bikini snap as she jokes 'is it summer?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ummer.html
Youth is wasted on the young.

[Citizen Nothing]

Youth is wasted on the young.

I hope you said that in the voice of Barry Fitzgerald.

[sarcasmic]

You're old.

[gaijin]

You're old.

Says the dude linking pics of 16 year olds 😉

[Lord Humungus]

Thank you, Wonkblog

Curlers more likely to hurt themselves than lugers, speed skaters

Curlers may be sporting the wildest pants of any event at the Olympic Games. But they are at risk for more than being flagged by the fashion police.

Four percent of the sport's competitors saw injuries, according to a survey of injuries at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Based solely on injury rates, that made curling more dangerous than six other winter sports, including speed skating, freestyle moguls, luge, and biathlon.

[Ted S.]

Or as the folks at Samizdata pointed out, it's amusing that the sport with the fewest injuries is the one involving a gun.

[UnCivilServant]

Unlike the others, its objective is the least motion.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Pretty standard for the shooting sports.

[Wandering Texan]

The IDPA would like to have a talk with you.

[sarcasmic]

Rebel Wilson bounces off to film Night At The Museum wearing a comfy LA Lakers tracksuit

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....useum.html
John pron!

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Jonah Hill's part-time gig as a drag queen seems to be getting him more exposure.

[waffles]

Whoa, she's huge and not at all attractive. Who is she popular with? Is she some kind of Jezebelian role model?

[RBS]

She just keeps getting bigger doesn't she? She's allegedly funny. I think she's popular with the Saddies.

[mad libertarian guy]

She just keeps getting bigger doesn't she? She's allegedly funny. I think she's popular with the Saddies.

I like her TV show. The lesbian is the best character, but Rebel Wilson does some of the heavy lifting in writing and production too. I liked her in Pitch Perfect too.

None of which should be taken to mean that she is attractive.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

She's the Hollywood version of the fat girl in high school whose parents were good friends with the popular kids' parents, so she ended up in the cool clique by association.

[invisible furry hand]

She's another elaborate Australian practical joke we're playing on you.

[John]

She has a famous father and was part of a one hit wonder girl group over 25 years ago. But she makes up for her lack of accomplishments by being fat and unattractive.

How low on the paparazzi totem pole do you have to be to be given the Rebel Wilson assignment?

She is one of the increasing number of people that you are left wondering, "why do I know who this person is?".

[gaijin]

She just keeps getting bigger doesn't she?

With a Rebel yell, they cried more, more, more.

[waffles]

that earned a hearty belly laugh

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

Agreed.

[invisible furry hand]

Oh FFS, you're thinking ofCarnie Wilson

Rebel is an Australian ex-lawyer turned idiot comedian who is still in her 20s

[sarcasmic]

Wilson Phillips. Man, they were just terrible.

[PD Scott]

Now you just hold on, hold on for one more day, dude.

[John]

Ah. How many D List fat women named Wilson are there? Don't forget Nancy Wilson.

[gaijin]

Or the volleyball that washed ashore in Castaway

[John]

I would be more interested to hear what it is up to these days than hear about whoever this is.

[Clich? Bandit]

One of the original volleyball props was sold at auction after release of the film for $18,500 to the ex-CEO of FedEx Office, Ken May.

Here ya go!

Bless the Google God.

[sarcasmic]

Nancy was the guitar playing sister. You're thinking of Ann.

[John]

Yeah, Nancy was the hot one and Ann was the fat one. They were both hot in the 70s and the Ann got off coke and got on barbeque.

[sarcasmic]

Porcine or not, that woman can sing.

[WTF]

Don't forget Nancy Wilson.

Anne Wilson is the fat one, Nancy is the blonde.

[Jordan]

was part of a one hit wonder girl group over 25 years ago.

Seriously?

[Jordan]

Asked and answered...

[John]

I have no idea who the fuck most of these people are. I really am getting old. And one of the best things about it is no longer knowing or caring who people like Rebel Wilson are.

[tarran]

John's comment puts me in mind of Woody Allen's great historical disinformation scene in Sleeper

[SugarFree]

First Paul Hogan, then Yahoo Serious and now this...

Fuck you, Australia. Seriously.

[WTF]

Yeah, what the hell have we done to piss off the Aussies?

[mr simple]

"As I'm sure you remember, in the late 1980s the US experienced a short-lived infatuation with Australian culture. For some bizarre reason, the Aussies thought this would be a permanent thing. Of course, it wasn't. Anyway, the Down Under fad fizzled and the diplomatic climate turned absolutely frosty."

[mad libertarian guy]

As I'm sure you remember, in the late 1980s the US experienced a short-lived infatuation with Australian culture.

No we weren't. We were infatuated by a caricature of Australians as portrayed Crocodile Dundee and the possibility that Aussies wandered around randomly saying "How 'bout some shrimp on the barbie?" like in the Outback Steakhouse commercials.

[Mickey Rat]

How does that movie get another sequel?

[Bee Tagger]

"We may not get to seven million, we may get to five or six, but that's a hell of a start."

Michael "Brownie" Brown was in charge of the rollout?

[Fist of Etiquette]

NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden said he is "humbled" after being elected rector of Glasgow University.

Humbled? Interesting word after an unrelenting assault by the administration and its media toadies calling Snowden an egomaniac.

[invisible furry hand]

My wife will have sex with me only when she's drunk.

Go on, click to find out what Prudie suggests.

[Rich]

Wow!

[gaijin]

There is a simple question: will your wife have sex with anyone else when she is drunk? No? then it's not you, it's her.

[Heroic Mulatto]

These letters aren't real. I refuse to concede that people this socially dysfunctional and mentally unaware exist, much less maturate into adulthood without experiencing grievous bodily harm.

I can't.

[John]

I believe it. And just think, these are the letters see picks to publish. How many more do you think she gets that she discards because they are too unbelievable?

[RBS]

She should do a compilation. Maybe not answer them but just publish them in a ebook or something.

[John]

I would buy that. I think I will email and suggest that.

[Citizen Nothing]

My problem: My wife doesn't drink.

[John]

That sucks. I hope she is at least fun in bed because if she is not you can't even get her drunk to loosen her up a bit.

[waffles]

Reminds me of Annie Hall.

[KPres]

Sounds like good advice to me. I thought she was going to say something like "stop raping your wife!"

[Rich]

A number of government lawyers involved in lawsuits over the NSA phone-records program believe federal-court rules on preserving evidence related to lawsuits require the agency to stop routinely destroying older phone records [,so] the government would expand the database beyond its original intent

*** facepalm ***

[John]

Those records contain all kinds of potentially exculpatory information. If I am accused of beating up my ex wife, but I have a phone record that shows I was on the phone with my new girlfriend the entire night she claims it happened, that is Brady evidence. And for the purposes of Brady any government agency having the information counts as every government agency having it.

[Lord Humungus]

Henninger: The Rube Goldberg Democrats
ObamaCare is the party's unworkable contraption of nonperformance.

Out in the world beyond what Washington manufactures and spins, no one would get away with putting out a product as flawed as ObamaCare. Today's public won't accept that kind of performance. From the largest consumer-product companies down to the local sandwich shop, you've got to deliver the goods at a sustained level of competent execution. Not everyone deserves a gold badge from J.D. Power, but by and large it has become very difficult to sustain a shoddy product in the marketplace anymore.

Except the government. And the Democratic Party is nothing if not the party whose identity is bound up with government services and the public unions that deliver those services.

[Lord Humungus]

Why the UAW lost

The upshot: Private-sector unions lost their power to protect jobs and raise incomes. Unions were caught in a vise. If they pressed for higher wages and fringe benefits, they risked destroying jobs. Companies might lose sales to lower-cost rivals; or they might move to anti-union states or low-wage countries. Even protecting existing compensation levels became hard because ? in extremis ? companies might fail. On the other hand, if unions abandoned traditional bargaining goals, they might infuriate rank-and-file members and be accused of "selling out."

[sarcasmic]

Nice thing about public sector unions is that if your customers don't like your services and don't want to pay for them, you can send armed men out to make them pay. And if they continue to refuse, you can kill them and steal all their property.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

There's a reason most union members are public sector employees now--because their jobs are protected by the government officials with whom they "negotiate" (read: mutually bribe) their benefits. What good is a union if it can't protect their members' jobs?

Companies realized in the 1970s that they could move their businesses or even shut down completely, and there wasn't shit the unions could do about it.

[The Late P Brooks]

He's now campaigning with Greg Abbott, the Republican state attorney general who's running for Texas governor

I assume Nugent's pushing for life imprisonment for dope smokers.

Fuck that ignorant hillbilly.

[Ted S.]

The AG is clearly trying to shake the voters down.

[Bee Tagger]

"It's time to trash the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans, for good."

Seems like the only time he's in favor of recycling is when it's with someone else's thoughts.

There, that's my audition tape for MSNBC.

[UnCivilServant]

Aluminum recycling makes economic sense, as does steel and copper, which is why scrap yards pay top dollar for these materials. The recycling of other materials often requires more resources than creating new, and can produce an inferior product, so they get down cycled (paper becomes insulation, soda bottles becomne fleece, etc).

Oh wait, that's off topic, isn't it?

[Lord Humungus]

Elephants Console One Another By Genital Touching and Sympathetic Noises

During times of distress, Asian elephants trumpet sympathetic noises and use their trunks to massage their downtrodden comrade's face, mouth and genitals, according to a new study that offers the first empirical evidence of consolation in elephants.

Writing in the open-access journal PeerJ, Joshua Plotnik, a conservation biologist at Mahidol University in Thailand and chief executive of the nonprofit Think Elephants International, reports with his colleagues that this evidence of consolation among elephants adds the species to a very short list of animals known to console one another.

hey, baby...

[Rich]

So, what ever happened to Bree Walker?

[Jordan]

I guess we'll never know...

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

SugarFree abducted her?!

[SIV]

She grew up

[Mickey Rat]

That is horrifying.

[WTF]

Holy shit, talk about hitting the wall. At least the cops didn't shoot her dog.

[invisible furry hand]

Born with a congenital condition called syndactylism -- a fusing of fingers and/or toes

I don't want to sound immature, but that's cool

[Lord Humungus]

I'm sure this was covered already...

Are you ready for the Viking Apocalypse? Norse myth predicts world will end this Saturday

We've survived the Mayan apocalypse and Y2K, but be afraid ? the end of the world is coming?again.

This time it's the Viking apocalypse that is allegedly set to destroy Earth, with Norse mythology claiming the planet will split open and unleash the inhabitants of Hel on February 22.

According to the Vikings, Ragnarok is a series of events including the final predicted battle that results in the death of a number of major gods, the occurrence of various natural disasters and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.

I can live with this, provided we can all drink in Valhalla

[Jordan]

I have faith that Aqua Buddha will protect us from Fenrir.

[Mickey Rat]

Does that mean we should the Swedes win the hockey gold medal?

[UnCivilServant]

Unlike some apocalypses, Ragnarok has a happy ending and a fresh start.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Eh, I played the Ragnarok board game. I think I can handle it.

[Pope Jimbo]

Viking apocalypse? Fuck that, we've been living through end times with Ponder for the last couple years. Can't come soon enough.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

I was wondering when someone would step up and swat that slow pitch over the fence - thank you!

[Pope Jimbo]

Dou itashi mashite.

I can only wonder if knowledge of this could have prevented the Vikes from fleecing us taxpayers for a new stadium.

[Pope Jimbo]

Dou itashi mashite.

I can only wonder if knowledge of this could have prevented the Vikes from fleecing us taxpayers for a new stadium.

[invisible furry hand]

My old hometown fruit juice and soft drink in school vending machines. I look forward to the kiddie riots for blood sugar

http://www.canberratimes.com.a.....334m6.html

[Brett L]

I think you accidentally the verb in that first sentence.

[Ted S.]

Dammit! I swear this comment wasn't here when I started typing mine!

[Marshall Gill]

You Ted S'ed the comment AGAIN!

[Ted S.]

I think your sentence is missing a verb or something. Or do Aussies just write as oddly as they talk?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

I think you accidentally a word.

[Ted S.]

At least I beat somebody to the punch! 😉

[Clich? Bandit]

WW Ted S'd

Nice

[invisible furry hand]

My old hometown ban fruit juice and soft drink in school vending machines. I look forward to the kiddie riots for blood sugar

http://www.canberratimes.com.a.....334m6.html

Happy now?

[Ted S.]

No. The tense is wrong.

[invisible furry hand]

it's nearly 2 o'clock in the morning and i'm knackered but can't sleep. Frankly, it's amazing i'm getting anything right

[gaijin]

knackered

I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a fun word.

[Mickey Rat]

It is what is done to horses at the end of their useful lives. See: Glue Factory.

[Brett L]

Delighted. Happier than when my wife dresses me funny.

[invisible furry hand]

What is it now - little Dutch milk maid or Hans the Nazi torturer? Either way, be safe and stop it if it draws blood

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Discovered: The 'very hairy' marsupial which dies from 'frantic' mating

[Auric Demonocles]

If Warty finds out about this thing the species is going to be extinct tomorrow.

[invisible furry hand]

Apparently each shag takes 12-14 hours and causes infections, internal bleeding, a disintegration of body tissue and eventually death for the male.

Fellas, if this happened with humans, would it deter you? Discuss.

[WTF]

Well, it happens with Warty, and he's still going. His 'partners', not so much.

[Rich]

In related news, Study Finds Most Antechinus Males Are Just Wankers

[Tim]

If you gotta go, that's a pretty good ticket.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

STEVE SMITH IS AMUSED!

[Rhywun]

There is one too many verbs in that sentence.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Mega church pastor beaten to death with electric guitar by man who rammed car into church

[Rich]

Now, *that's* a "contemporary service"!

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Well, it's a good thing it happened two years ago!

[PD Scott]

Hundreds of parishioners? I don't think that really qualifies as a mega-church.

Good thing no one there had a gun, or someone might have gotten hurt.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

For John:

'I want people to treat me like a plastic sex doll': Woman has hypnotherapy to make her 'brainless like Barbie' after spending ?25,000 on breast enhancements

[Heroic Mulatto]

Fetishes are weird.

[WTF]

She's only 38? She looks 60.

[Floridian]

Does she mean tape a m-80 to her and blow her head off? That's what I used to do with barbies.

[Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!]

proto-Florida Man?

[Mickey Rat]

I would think there are much less expensive ways to get that result.

[Auric Demonocles]

One alt-text would be a hell of a start.

[Rich]

DHS Contracted to Purchase 704 Million Rounds of Ammo Over Next 4 Years: 2,500 Rounds Per Officer

As of October 2013, the DHS had a total amount of 159 million ammunition rounds on hand in inventory (see p. 22 in report), which when divided by the estimated number of DHS officers of 70,000, comes to about 2,271 rounds per agent.

I'll just leave this here.

[Tim]

Nobody needs 2, 271 rounds.

[Rich]

Correct. They need 4771 rounds.

[Tim]

The Ukranian regime should adopt this policy.

[John]

Follow the money. I bet anything the contractor is a shell company run by Obama cronies.

[Rich]

At least a cartridge company.

[UnCivilServant]

Nobody needs 70,000 agents. That's an assault payroll!

[Auric Demonocles]

You can have 100,000 agents, as long as you only put 70,000 agents in the field at once.

[Raston Bot]

So demand spikes, then prices. Then another admin comes in and cancels those orders. Then there's a supply glut and prices drop. What am I missing?

[Wandering Texan]

No government department other than the DoD should be buying this much ammo.

[Auric Demonocles]

As of today, I've paid off my student loans. Debt free for the first time since I bought my car in '08. Now I better switch to my parents' health insurance plan while I still can or I might be considered an actual adult.

[Lord Humungus]

I had the fortune of never having any student loans. But now I find myself in the position of paying off my wife's. Goodbye stereo money.

[Lord Humungus]

oh, and congrats!

[Jordan]

I had some student loans, but not much. I paid them off within 1 year. But now I have my wife's med school loans...

[Tim]

Just show up at the ER speaking Spanish.

[Auric Demonocles]

I've got my own insurance, which according to the great Obama is impossible since I'm still a 25 year old child.

[UnCivilServant]

Then how in the hell did you manage to pay off your loans at that age?

[Brett L]

So next month you start the "Great Liquor Stocking" project with those funds?

[Auric Demonocles]

I am trying to decide what to do with the extra $500 a month (minimum). I'm scared to see what the suggestions from the commetariat would be (outside of monocles, of course).

[UnCivilServant]

I'm sure the taxman would gladly take it off your hands.

[Auric Demonocles]

Well, this money is already post tax, so I might be able to slip by him (and I make too much to qualify for the student loan deduction so I won't be "losing" that either).

[Floridian]

IRA?

[Auric Demonocles]

That's not a bad idea. This would be almost exactly the correct amount to bring me up to the max contribution.

[Floridian]

Plus you are already use to making the payment, so it won't hurt your current lifestyle.

[kibby]

You can pay of MY student loans if you're looking for a way to flush that money down the toilet...

[Brett L]

Bitcoins! Or, SF needs another producer for is Warty Hugeman movie.

[Spoonman.]

Invest that shit. Then you can have "fuck you" money earlier.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

As your Reason CPA, you can do lots of wonderful things with that money.

But sadly, best answer is bump up retirement contributions if you are not already saving enough.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I'm scared to see what the suggestions from the commetariat would be

If you want to stay debt-free, don't get into a relationship anytime soon. I promise you she'll find plenty of things for you to spend that extra $500 a month on.

Put aside about $300-400 for savings and enjoy yourself with the rest.

[hamilton]

Wow, congrats!

[Auric Demonocles]

I'd say "More football" but I'm pretty sure I've maxed out on the amount I can attend...

Unless... two away games this year!

[kibby]

Congratulations!!

[Idle Hands]

Obama staffer tells House of Cards Actress reporters sleep with their sources. There's a joke in here somewhere.

[Idle Hands]

Sugarfreed

[John]

Considering what most big media print journalists look like, our political class is more depraved than even I thought. Just what kind of sickos have we had on the Supreme Court that allowed Linda Greenhouse to have a career?

[SugarFree]

our political class is more depraved than even I thought

And you people thought I was writing fiction all this time.

[John]

Sugarfree, anonymous Washington insider writing the truth that is so sick even Hollywood won't touch it.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Not without two pairs of latex gloves on, anyway.

[wareagle]

something about dogs and fleas?

[Idle Hands]

Hey, I never said it was a good joke.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

In the Reuters link about Biden:

"Wrong. Failure is doing nothing. The Republicans are the failures on the healthcare issue. I would try to explain to you further, but you haven't even figured out that the US has the most expensive healthcare in the world by far and with average outcomes, at best. You seem incapable of realizing that that's unacceptable, and yet the Republicans are proposing nothing to remedy the problem. They just want to end the few improvements we're getting from the ACA. You don't care. All you care about is opposing Obama, no matter what the cost to the people. Shameful, and not too intelligent. I put the people first. You put opposing Obama first."

[Tim]

Hodor!

[WTF]

Well, Biden is literally brain-damaged, so at least he has an excuse.

[KPres]

The misinformation is frustrating. Whenever you hear somebody talk about "expensive healthcare" and "healthcare outcomes" in the same sentence, they're basing that on one WHO "study" done like 5 years ago that only used life expectancy and infant mortality (hardly comprehensive or scientific) and didn't even control for the different methods countries use to measure those two.

By now, everybody should know that when you control for injuries, the US has the world's highest life expectancy, and the higher per capita spending is entirely more is spent on elderly people (aka Medicare, aka single payer) than other countries, not because of anything going on in the private market.

[UnCivilServant]

We also calculate infant mortality differnetly. Any body brought out of the womb not already dead is a live birth, even if they have a 5% chance of survival. A lot of places write those off as stillborn. Conversely it means the vast majority of extremely low weight births who survive happen in the United States - simply because the doctors regard them as alive and actually try to keep them that way. Those who regard them as stillborn are less motivated to try to sustain them.

[Jordan]

Cancer survival rates are one of the few measures of health outcomes not significantly affected by lifestyle and cultural factors. And the U.S. leads in those.

[John]

If you take into account the US's high murder rate and traffic accident death rate, the US health system goes to the top by any measure, or at least it did. For decades the Left and its asshole enablers in the media have been peddling statistics that they claimed showed how horrible our health care system is when in fact they showed just the opposite and that American's have a habit of shooting each other or dying on the endless expanse of roads here.

[mr simple]

Yes, we have the highest survival rate for any disease, across the board.

[The Late P Brooks]

This morning on Bloomberg they were interviewing some guy about the California drought.

He suggested a market solution, to get water to its highest-return use. He also pointed out the ugly truth that agriculture is two per cent of the economy, but uses eighty per cent of the state's water. Also, blaming the econutz is pointless, because whether there are smelt or not, you have to keep water flowing in the rivers, or salty water from the coastal area will encroach into the inland waterways.

Whoever booked him is probably cleaning out her desk right now.

[Tim]

It's expensive to flood a desert for agriculture, unless the Gubmint does it for "free".

[John]

That is the issue the right and people like Victor Davis Hansen forget. Yes, cutting off the water sucks for the farmers. But is agriculture the best use for the water?

[Tim]

Any food that doesn't get grown in California will get grown somewhere else. No one is going to starve.

[wareagle]

Agriculture is a pretty damn good use when you consider the product. Hansen tends to focus on the left's preference of bait fish over human beings.

[John]

Fair enough. Fuck the bait fish. But you also need to keep the river flowing a bit.

[Citizen Nothing]

Many of the worst environmental problems are caused by government policies. (I'm lookin' at you, Florida Big Sugar.)
Of course, the eco-freaks would rather turn the country into a desert than admit that market solutions might help.

[Floridian]

What is big sugar doing to the environment? I live in central Florida so am not too family with what goes on down south wrt the sugar business.

[Brett L]

Dumping thousands of gallons of pesticides and fertilizers into watersheds, same as any other monoculture annual crop.

[Floridian]

Bastards.

[Citizen Nothing]

And being subsidized with price supports to do so. (Not to mention the screwing the American consumer gets on sugar prices.)

[Rich]

"toilet availability is a human right"

... a right you can have for $8 a day plus a mandatory $15 annual membership fee.

[gaijin]

What about toilet paper?

[UnCivilServant]

You get the kind so thin that if you pull in it, you get a tiny shred before you can apply enough force to rotate the roll.

[John]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-Cuba.html

Sharon Stone refuses to shoot a film in Cuba or lie to enable it to happen. Leaves film and sues producers for breach of contract. Good for her. And she doesn't look bad for 55 and having had a stroke.

[The Late P Brooks]

As of today, I've paid off my student loans. Debt free for the first time since I bought my car in '08.

You're destroying the economy, you hoarder.

Get out there and CHARGE CHARGE CHARGE!

[Mike M.]

NFL running back Ray Rice plays the knockout game on his fianc?e.

This dude didn't know that casinos have cameras pretty much everywhere? What a fucking dunce.

[John]

The NFL, the league that fines people for wearing the wrong socks, tried to run a guy out of the league for dropping an N bomb at a concert and is trying to run Richie Incognito out of the league for making Jonathan Martin feel bad, will welcome Rice back with open arms. The guy knocks a woman unconscious and drags her out out of an elevator and the NFL will happily allow him back to play.

[Mike M.]

This is indeed the fucked up world we now live in. "Bullying" a 320 pound grown man teammate with vulgar text messages is worse than punching a woman in the head and knocking her unconscious.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I live in MD so it is a big story right now. I don't know of anyone necessarily thinking Rice is a saint after this.

[John]

The Martin thing drives me nuts. The idea that a 325 pound guy who plays in one of the world's most violent sport would be too intimidated to tell a teammate to go get bent is a new level of stupid even for sports journalists. Martin just didn't like playing in the NFL and didn't have the character to play through the season and retire or admit he just didn't like it. So to avoid that he lied and said he quit because of Incognito.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I am with you and on a similar note, Michael Sam will be fine. Him being gay and the stories surrounding it drive me crazy.

Can he play football? Yes? He will be drafted. Then assuming he has the character to deal with the jokes in an NFL locker room (including the ability to dish it back), no big deal.

[John]

If he can play no one will care if he wears a dress on team flights and insists on being called Michelle. I hope he can play. What I would hate to see happen is him turn out to be a stiff and then claim they only cut him because he was gay.

[Mickey Rat]

Maybe not, he is at the end of his best days as a top RB.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

The guy knocks a woman unconscious and drags her out out of an elevator and the NFL will happily allow him back to play.

Ray Rice makes the league money.

[John]

And good for them. I don't have a problem with them making money. I just wish they would drop the smug pretense that they care about anything else.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Yes. The NCAA as well, plz,

[Certified Public Asskicker]

What exactly does a video of the very end of the incident prove?

[John]

In itself, not necessarily anything. But if you are accused of knocking your girlfriend out and there is a video of you standing over her unconscious, that is not good.

[Auric Demonocles]

To relate to another NFL player named Ray involved in an incident, Ray Lewis was accused of stabbing some guys and he had a suit covered with their blood, but he didn't even get charged.

Rice might be able to get away with a self defense claim too.

[John]

You only get force with force. Even her punching him doesn't give him the right to knock her out, though it is mitigating.

I would be surprised if there wasn't some mutual combat going on. But, I seriously doubt his level of violence was justified.

[Auric Demonocles]

The question isn't "do you doubt his level of violence was justified" it's "is it beyond a reasonable doubt that his level of violence was justified". Her punching him first would justify him punching her back one time, which may have been enough to knock her out. He's almost certainly a scumbag piece of shit, but we'll need more than just the fact that she was unconscious to prove that. Even him knocking her out doesn't definitively prove it.

[John]

All true. He may not be guilty you are right.

[Mike M.]

Rice might be able to get away with a self defense claim too.

You can't be serious. Rice is a starting NFL running back; he's basically a Superman with the strength of two to three normal men.

[Auric Demonocles]

Which makes it even more plausible that he could have punched her just once or twice and knocked her out, rather than beating on her long after the (hypothetical) threat was over.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

He's also 5'8".

[Rich]

That alcohol was involved?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Right. I am not saying he didn't hit her, especially if there are reports and another video perhaps showing he did. But this video doesn't really show anything other than both are most likely hammered.

[CampingInYourPark]

His own lawyer describes the event as a minor altercation, so that kind of rules out just being hammered.

The 27-year-old former Rutgers star and his fianc?e were both charged with domestic violence-simple assault and released with a summons.

If this was football, we would have offsetting penalties. Repeat the down

[invisible furry hand]

It could have been worse - he could have kissed a man.

[Andrew S.]

My prog friends are already blaming the Republicans for us not somehow supporting the protesters (militarily) in Ukraine. And in Venezuela too somehow.

[Rich]

Good grief. What exactly would your prog friends have "us" do?

[Jordan]

Maybe they want us to give them salaries like Obama's planning to do with the nutjobs in Syria.

[UnCivilServant]

Fund the more anti-american faction.

[Rich]

"Fund 'em *all*. Let God sort 'em out!"

[UnCivilServant]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to use a nuke to initiate a divine sort?

[Clich? Bandit]

I like this:

int main(){
def divineSort(){
nuke ++;
godSortEmOut();
return 0;
}

[Ted S.]

Progs are supporting the protesters in Venezuela? Or are your proggie friends pissed that the Republicans are blocking Obama from droning the Venezuela protesters?

[Jordan]

From what I've seen, the progs who aren't completely silent on the issue just dismiss the protesters as spoiled rich kids, Kochtopus agents, Kulaks, and wreckers.

[Andrew S.]

In south Florida, even the proggiest progs hate Chavez/Maduro.

[widget]

Rand Paul: "It's time to trash the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans, for good."

The only way. I came across this a couple of days ago:

From the ancient Jerry Pournelle:

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

More succinctly, the 'company man' always wins. If I fully agreed with this I'd jump off of the nearest tall building. That's the way the way the tide ebbs and flows though.

[John]

And since all bureaucracies seek to justify their existence and expand their scope, any possible use for information they collect will eventually happen, no matter how many promises they make otherwise.

There is simply no way on earth that the NSA would collect information that could be used in criminal cases and choose not to share that information to justify its existence.

[The Late P Brooks]

Agriculture is a pretty damn good use when you consider the product.

That's true, but some agricultural uses yield better returns (or cannot be shifted to other, wetter, areas). You can't grow avocados in North Dakota, but you can grow hay.

[The Late P Brooks]

Dumping thousands of gallons of pesticides and fertilizers into watersheds, same as any other monoculture annual crop.

Isn't there also some issue regarding drawing down the Everglades aquifer?

[Andrew S.]

There is, which is why the state's been trying to spend tons of money to buy out the sugar farms.

[Citizen Nothing]

As the American consumer spends tons on money on sugar price supports.

[Citizen Nothing]

CATO has a lot of good stuff on Big Sugar like this.

[Andrew S.]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26265230

I've got to hand it to Putin. I mean, the man's a horrible despot and a blight on the Earth. But using Cossacks as his personal goon squad? So he's not even going back to his KGB days, he's going back to pre-Revolution days. I'm impressed. Sickened, but impressed.

[widget]

So I went to Youtube in search of a song Pussy Riot had written and performed.

I'm confused.

[UnCivilServant]

I doubt he'll be taking the title Czar officially though. Maybe 'rotating president for life'

[Mike M.]

Remember back when America and the west deluded ourselves into thinking the Cold War was over and we won?

Yeah, those were the days.

[waffles]

We won!

[The Late P Brooks]

My prog friends are already blaming the Republicans for us not somehow supporting the protesters (militarily) in Ukraine.

It's funny how the people who fear and despise guns in the hands of Americans will advocate arming foreign "freedom fighters" unhesitatingly, despite knowing nothing about their actual goals and beliefs.

[John]

Funny how it is the Republicans' fault even though last I looked the chocolate Nixon was the commander in chief and responsible for foreign policy. And it is not like he has ever felt the need to go to Congress on anything like this before.

[widget]

I don't mean to fill Palin's Buttplug but Obama is not radical in issuing executive orders.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelli.....-guns.html

Obama is just the latest manifestation of executive governance. My first glimpse into politics was listening to my dad, who I dearly loved, saying that what this country really needs is a strong SOB.

[John]

So if President Rand Paul issued a single executive order instructing the FBI and FEMA to put the entire staff of New York Magazine in supermax detention for the indefinite future, he would be less lawless than Obama or Bush because he only issued one EO and they issued hundreds.

They have really have nothing left do they?

[Jordan]

Indeed. Quality vs quantity. One of Obama's executive orders instructs DHS to establish a "kill switch" for private communications infrastructure, including the interwebs.

Source.

[John]

The threat of "cyber attack" is about as credible as Y2K. The Russians launched as massive of a cyber attack on Georgia as could be mounted. And it had absolutely no effect on Georgia or its ability to wage war.

[Clich? Bandit]

STOP IT WITH Y2K! It was real we JUST WORKED REALLY HARD TO FIX MOST OF IT IN TIME!!!

It is like saying Polio wasn't real threat...no WE FUCKING FIXED IT and it was hard and took decades and billions of dollars.

Go with Mayan calendar, crystal skulls, or aliens but for fucks sake any idiot that thinks Y2k was fake is living in a fantasy world.

[Clich? Bandit]

the billions of dollars line is for Y2k not polio...not sure what happened to the beginning of that sentence.

[widget]

It's a trend. An honest man would understand that his political position is a contract with a specific scope of work. President Rand Paul would seem to be an honest man. He will issue a simple executive order for a hiring freeze on federal government employment. Swing low sweet chariot.

[John]

Do that, and reinstitute the cap of federal compensation for retirees so that all of the grey beards collecting DOD retirements and GS salaries no longer get to double dip and quit. If you had a hiring freeze that prevented them from being replaced, that alone would shrink the hell out of the DOD and DHS bureaucracies.

[alan_s]

"Rand Paul Calls For End of NSA Mass Surveillance of Americans."

Okay! Okay! You win. Sheesh!

[John]

Kay Hagen (D NC) signs letter expressing shock that Obamacare is cutting medicare. This after spending all of 2009 and 2010 telling voters Obamacare wouldn't do that and then twice voting for the very cuts she is now so worried about.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healt.....icare-cuts

She is really depending on the low information voters to save her.

[CampingInYourPark]

I think she's toast.

"AFP holds Hagan accountable on Obamacare"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRM_Hd5LU0

[John]

Her, Pryor, Sheenan, and Landreiu are done for. I have a feeling the Democrats are going to lose those and in some places you wouldn't expect. That San Diego mayor election was very interesting. The Dems and the public employee unions spent everything they had and the entire Obama get out the vote machine was brought to bear. And the guy lost by either seven or nine points. And worse still, the polls had the race a tie the weekend before the election. That means even with all that money and get out the vote, their guy still under performed the polls by 7 points. Unless they figure out a way to get people other than those looking for revenge over Obamacare to turn out, it is going to be a blood bath in November.

[Wandering Texan]

Ugh, much as I'd love to see Pryor lose, the alternative is Cotton. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I feel sorry for my AR family picking that bubble.

It is kinda telling when you are not opposed by the other major party in the US, and only manage 80% of the vote.

[John]

Cotton can get his later. Right now cosmic justice demands that Pryor's career end.

[mad libertarian guy]

Why the UAW lost VW:

For the UAW, success in one era sowed failure in the next.

His argument is interesting. In short, he basically states that unions in the past were much more necessary than they are today, (mostly because some before some deregulation in key areas made particular sectors more competitive in the marketplace, and companies took care of business that traditionally used to be the things that unions did when there were large (near) monopolies), and there were few avenues for workers to use that could help their positions because there was virtually no competition in the marketplace. Competition in the free(r) market combined with the past successes of unions in getting companies to change their own practices in order to provide things like better wages, working conditions, and job security (rather than having unions force them in to it and unions having the ability to do so because there was little competition) has rendered unions mostly moot in the modern business age.

In short, he argues that unions have outlived their usefulness, and the workers at VW didn't buy their BS. They were more worried about losing their jobs because of the unions forcing VW to charge more in order to compensate for more expensive labor practices than they are about being exploited by VW. Good for them.

[mad libertarian guy]

Linky.

[mad libertarian guy]

Holy. Fucking. Shit. The derp is derptastic:

There's one problem: the tendency of legalization advocates to counter anti-drug hyperbole with hyperbole of their own. The data don't actually show that drug prohibition is futile, that its negative side effects are worsening or that legalization would eliminate the social-policy dilemmas and trade-offs posed by drug abuse.

Does drug prohibition achieve its main goal, which is to discourage drug use and abuse? We can't know what would have happened if drugs had been legal for the past few decades or, for that matter, if the United States had waged a war on drugs half as harshly as Singapore, where a 15-gram heroin stash can merit the death penalty.

This guy is fucking insane and delusional. We just can't know how prohibition works because we've always had prohibition, and even if you argue that the current levels of prohibition are failing, we could have done it harder. Because it's DEFINITELY less harmful for people caught with heroin get the death penalty than to just be left the fuck alone unless they commit an actual crime.

This guy's argument is that millions of people imprisoned, hundreds of thousands dead from violence isn't as bad a getting high.

Fuck Charles Lane with a rusty chainsaw.

[mad libertarian guy]

Linky.

[John]

Does drug prohibition achieve its main goal, which is to discourage drug use and abuse?

Talk about moving the goal posts. I think it will come as a hell of a surprise to most Americans that the goal of the drug war is only to "discourage drug use and abuse".