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Eric Holder Briefly Hospitalized, Another Congressman to Retire, NSA Debates Scaling Back Phone Metadata Collection: P.M. Links

Scott Shackford | 2.27.2014 4:30 PM

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  • Needs to take a "wellness" day or two
    Official portrait

    Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized briefly today after experiencing faintness and shortness of breath. He is back at home now.

  • Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced he's retiring from Congress after 23 years of service. He's the 21st member of Congress (split nearly equally between the two parties) to announce plans to step down at the end of this term.
  • There are a handful of proposed changes to the National Security Agency's massive metadata collection procedures. The most significant change would be the option to severely scale back the data collection so that only data from actual terrorism suspects is collected. Outgoing NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander suggested in a Senate committee meeting today that this option may well be a possibility.
  • Some more unredacted documents connected to George Washington Bridge scandal in New Jersey have been released. They don't provide any new information, but do indicate who was texting about the traffic jams and making jokes.
  • North Korea launched four short-range missiles off its east coast. The Pentagon says this is typical, permitted testing by the nation.
  • Five police officers in San Francisco have been indicted for allegedly stealing money and drugs that had been seized as part of investigations. The prosecutions originate from surveillance footage released by the city's public defender.

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NEXT: American Flag Ruled a Disruptive School Influence

Scott Shackford is a policy research editor at Reason Foundation.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    The most significant change would be the option to severely scale back the data collection so that only data from actual terrorism suspects is collected.

    Asterisk: The entire world is a suspected terrorist until the metadata proves otherwise.

    1. waffles   11 years ago

      Exactly that. Look at the NSA thing in Utah. You don't build a death star to go around not blowing up planets.

      1. PD Scott   11 years ago

        Lucas never filmed the scene showing the Emperor and Vader's planned use of it to pick up chicks.

        1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

          How did Palpatine go on to become such a decrepit old man from Episode III to Episode VI? Only 20 years or so passed and the majority of that would have been in relative comfort, with not only the best medical care available at the time but with Jedi powers too. He couldn't have been a day over 70, and Jedi were notoriously long-lived. Fucking Yoda was 900 and he was pretty spry compared to a 75 year old Sith lord.

          Fucking George Lucas.

          1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

            Hey, you spend 20 years being the supreme evil in the galaxy and see how good you look.

            1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

              20 years? Try eight.

              1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

                OK, I've got the explanation. General relativity tells us time slows down for people travelling close to the speed of light. The Emperor was a pretty important guy and had a lot of meetings to attend on a lot of worlds, so he spent a lot of time travelling close to the speed of light. This had the effect of making him age much more slowly than everyone else, which was reducing into his wise, old guy cred. To counteract that, while simultaneously increasing his evil, he contracted with Warty for multiple acidic bukake treatments.

                1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

                  I suddenly remembered why I missed this place.

                  1. Raven Nation   11 years ago

                    Sloopy!

              2. Kaptious Kristen   11 years ago

                Or five. 2009. 2014.

          2. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

            Obi-Wan aged a bit, too, in that time period. Maybe both sides of the Force take their toll.

            1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

              Fuck, man. Obi Wan must have had progeria or something. Dude aged about 50 years from III to IV.

              1. GILMORE   11 years ago

                They never showed his constant chain smoking.

                1. PD Scott   11 years ago

                  Dammit!

                2. Pope Jimbo   11 years ago

                  Well you'd smoke a lot too if you had a bunch of nanny-stater sand people always up your ass about your e-saber.

                  Telling you that it made kids think it was cool to be a jedi again with that faux saber. Too hard to tell from a real saber they said.

                  And you had that local whiny bastard always hanging around pestering you. Fuck you are lucky he wasn't smoking opium.

            2. MJGreen   11 years ago

              Hah, for some reason I never even thought about that. He does go from late 30s to his 70s.

          3. PD Scott   11 years ago

            Obviously the Emperor was a chain smoker and probably a tanning addict, but for benefit of the kiddies was never filmed doing so.

          4. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

            Wasn't the aging a by-product of being force-lightninged by Mace Windu in Episode III?

            1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

              ALERT NERD! But yeah, I think you're right.

          5. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

            He used Channel for 18 to power his Force Lightning against Mace Windu.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Hello.

  2. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    North Korea launched four short-range missiles off its east coast.

    Citizens there on the coast can feast their eyes on North Korean missile capabilities! (In lieu of their stomachs on food.)

  3. SIV   11 years ago

    ABC News Moral Panic Drug Scare: ONE HIT PSYCHOSIS!!!

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      gimme some!

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      "We have seen people have an onset of psychosis and even brain damage from that exposure to that high concentration of THC," said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge at the DEA's San Diego office. "Our concern is that this is going to spread before we get it under control."

      Citation needed.

      1. SIV   11 years ago

        The guy who wins first prize seems to have his shit together even though he could quit tomorrow and wouldn't pass a urine test for another few years.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

          The DEA agent in the video has a classic cop 'stache.

      2. Francisco d Anconia   11 years ago

        Butane, a substance so flammable that any spark can set off an explosion, is used to strip out the THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets a person high.

        DANGER: Butane!

        In other news, 20,000 die at Lynyrd Skynyrd when...

        1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

          Shit, maybe I'll pass on getting a butane kitchen torch... That stuff sounds too dangerous to be around food.

    3. paranoid android   11 years ago

      But a thousand miles away, in Colorado, wax is legal. Anyone over 21 can walk into a recreational marijuana dispensary and buy it right off the shelf. There's even a three-day contest, named the X-Cup, held in broad daylight in Denver, to see who can make the most potent batch of the same drug upon which DEA agents are cracking down in California.

      So have their been scores of deaths and hospitalizations across Colorado as smokers have their brains ravaged by this insidious super-drug, or are they shitting themselves over absolutely nothing, just like the past five dozen drug panics?

      I WONDER. TRULY, IT IS A MYSTERY.

      1. Pi Guy   11 years ago

        I'm sure most here already heard about this (discussed on The Independents on Mon or Tue):

        Annapolis, MD Police Chief cites Daily Courant article "37 overdoses on first day pot was legal in CO" as evidence to keep pot illegal before MD legislature

        I only mention it to say that I graduated with this douchenozzle of an authoritarian, Liberty HS Class of '83. Go Lions!

  4. gaijin   11 years ago

    Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized briefly today

    I wonder he had insurance?

    1. Sevo   11 years ago

      Yeah, but it was twice as expensive as last year.

      1. John   11 years ago

        But fortunately evil induced angina is covered even though it was a pre-existing condition.

        1. Rich   11 years ago

          What about pangs of conscience?

          1. John   11 years ago

            He had his conscience removed in college.

    2. wareagle   11 years ago

      swallowing your own bullshit will eventually make you ill.

      1. Specail Sauce   11 years ago

        Such are the hazards when one is determined to talk out their ass.

    3. Homple   11 years ago

      "Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized briefly today"

      Nothing trivial I hope.

      1. What's that smell?   11 years ago

        I really don't wish him ill will but...I hope he gets anal warts too.

  5. Christophe   11 years ago

    http://www.theguardian.com/wor.....rnet-yahoo

    Peeping while you're webcamming.

    1. Christophe   11 years ago

      My bad. Been posted already.

      1. Tonio   11 years ago

        Meh. Deserved a second look.

        1. Paul.   11 years ago

          Deserved a second look.

          I see what you did there.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      In other news, I heard Lou Reed was dead.

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        but Abe Vigoda lives!

        1. Harvard   11 years ago

          Waylon's gone though......fuck.

  6. SIV   11 years ago

    Police Women of the World

    1. Wandering Texan   11 years ago

      I did an actual spit-take. Thank you for that.

      1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

        That's surprisingly funny.

        1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

          I knew it was coming but was still unprepared.

          1. Paul.   11 years ago

            I didn't and actually laughed out loud. Like... out loud.

            I had to re-view singapore to cleanse that.

    2. gaijin   11 years ago

      Based on these, I'd like to be arrested in Israel. Though anywhere appears better than Washington DC.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      When did Canada invade Taiwan?

  7. Jordan   11 years ago

    The most significant change would be the option to severely scale back the data collection so that only data from actual terrorism suspects is collected.

    Talk about a fig leaf.

    1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

      Good news, we are all now "deemed" to be enemy combatants terrorism suspects!

  8. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

    There are a handful of proposed changes to the National Security Agency's massive metadata collection procedures. The most significant change would be the option to severely scale back the data collection so that only data from actual terrorism suspects is collected.

    I call BS. If they have the ability to collect they data, they WILL collect it. This a purely a Snowden-screen.

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      +1 pun

  9. William of Purple   11 years ago

    You shut your whore mouth while the wookie is speaking

    1. Francisco d Anconia   11 years ago

      Heard this on the radio this AM. Said it would cost business $2B.

      A billion here a billion there and pretty soon you're talkin' real money.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      "Some pushback over the labels is expected from the food industry, particularly regarding salt and sugar content."

      I love how the media always frames these things as though it's common sense action by the government. They don't leave much room for critical thinking, do they?

      In this example, one can come away that the food industry is myopic and greedy incapable of offering counter-points to what's being proposed. Since the food industry is for profits, it stands to reason they're greedy and don't care about people. Hence, the sentence.

    3. 110 Lean   11 years ago

      Does no one realize this bitch was neither elected by the electorate or appointed by any branch of the government?

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        She was part of the twofer offer....buy one Obama, get one free.

  10. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

    See, this is the kind of alt-text we should be striving for.

  11. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    The prosecutions originate from surveillance footage released by the city's public defender.

    Looks like a certain someone better refrain from making furtive movements at their next traffic stop.

  12. Mike M.   11 years ago

    Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized briefly today after experiencing faintness and shortness of breath.

    Fiercely resisting the urge to say something I really mean...

    1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

      It's OK. We were all thinking it.

    2. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      Why resist? Fuck, I'll say it.

      I hope it's something that's going to gradually get more and more painful, and that no doctor is willing to give him the treatment he needs for pain due to fear of prosecution.

      1. Palin's Buttplug   11 years ago

        Did you say the same about Alberto Gonzalez? The AG who denied 'Habeas corpus' existed?

        1. Tonio   11 years ago

          8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

        2. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          1. Fuck you.

          2. Yes.

          Postscript: Fuck you.

        3. John   11 years ago

          8%!!

          1. Palin's Buttplug   11 years ago

            You're just being douchey now, John.

            1. John   11 years ago

              8% Shreek, you are the 8%!!

              1. Brandon   11 years ago

                Apparently I missed something. What's the 8% deal?

                1. BiMonSciFiCon   11 years ago

                  I missed it, too, but maybe it's a reference to shreeks boast that he got a 94 on the libertarian purity test. (It's scored out of 160 but 94 is still very much libertarian, so I think he may have fudged his answers on a few questions.)

                2. Jordan   11 years ago

                  Shriek can't read the polls that he posts. Apparently, only 8% of people don't want Obamacare to be changed. Check one of the Obamacare threads from today.

            2. Tejicano   11 years ago

              Who wants cake?

              1. Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!   11 years ago

                They do. They all do.

      2. Tonio   11 years ago

        "I'm sorry about the pain, Mr. Holder, but I can't jeopardize my license by prescribing opiates for you. Sure you understand how things work today. Here's some aspirin."

        1. Rich   11 years ago

          "On second thought, the *only* thing that will cure you is medical marijuana."

          1. Tonio   11 years ago

            Oh, good one.

            1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

              Legal for all medical marijuana. Some animals get their milk and honey behind the scenes, whether it's legal or not.

              1. Rich   11 years ago

                Good point.

                All administration weenies should have to undergo random drug testing.

                1. Tejicano   11 years ago

                  "All administration weenies should have to undergo random drug testing"

                  Definitely. From the top down. Every member of the armed forces is piss tested regularly and they don't even have anything to do with drug enforcement (other than the Coast Guard - mostly) and definitely have nothing to do with drug policy.

                  I think everybody even indirectly related to drug law policy or enforcement should be piss tested randomly - and when they don't pass they should be lined up with everybody else wearing orange jumpsuits.

        2. alan_s   11 years ago

          I'm sure he's getting the royal treatment. Rules are for the little people.

      3. Jordan   11 years ago

        THIS^

      4. mad libertarian guy   11 years ago

        I hope it's something that's going to gradually get more and more painful, and that no doctor is willing to give him the treatment he needs for pain due to fear of prosecution.

        This.

  13. Pseudonymous   11 years ago

    Chris Christie has figured out how to monetize his office in a great stew of corruption, payola, cronyism etc. Behold:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....26459.html

    1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      Please let these revelations keep coming until 2016. Pretty please.

    2. Rhywun   11 years ago

      TL;DR the whole thing... but is this the best they can come up with after McGreevey, Corzine, et al.? Corporate welfare ZOMG!!!1!

  14. gaijin   11 years ago

    In case you wondered why Reddit has President 0's c0ck in it's mouth:

    Reddit Mods Bury Glenn Greenwald's Story On GCHQ/NSA Use Of Internet To 'Destroy Reputations'

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Technically, this doesn't explain why Reddit has Obama's penis in their collective mouth.

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        I guess not. But if the mods and Redditors are NSA syops creeps, then not much of a stretch to conflate everything about the security state with its commander in chief figurehead.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      I didn't know shriek was a reddit mod.

  15. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    He's the 21st member of Congress (split nearly equally between the two parties) to announce plans to step down at the end of this term.

    Congress is no fun anymore. (K Street will surely be better.)

  16. rts   11 years ago

    Taxing the rich is good for the economy, IMF says

    A new paper by researchers at the International Monetary Fund appears to debunk a tenet of conservative economic ideology ? that taxing the rich to give to the poor is bad for the economy.

    1. Brett L   11 years ago

      Its all the money that sticks to the government/NGA's fingers that I object to.

    2. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      Is this the IMF where the assholes receive tax-free salaries?

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        Is this the IMF where the assholes receive tax-free salaries?

        They figure it's already been collected from someone as a tax so why tax it twice. See, they're super efficient they are.

      2. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

        And don't forget about this guy:

        Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be tried for pimping

      3. Jerry on the boat   11 years ago

        And where they hand over money to another clique of corrupt Ukrainian politicians.

    3. Ted S.   11 years ago

      A study paid for by the government says we need more government. Quelle surprise.

    4. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      The IMF are criminals - extortionists.

      Worse than the mob.

      1. Injun Joe   11 years ago

        Idiotic Mother Fuckers

    5. DJF   11 years ago

      IMF has a special tax deal where they don't have to pay income tax so of course they are in favor of high taxes.

  17. Andrew S.   11 years ago

    There's been too many nutpunches lately. Even worse than normal. I need some good news. Anyone have any?

    1. SIV   11 years ago

      See my link above on One Hit Psychosis.
      Watch the whole highly entertaining video. The old moral panic formula is breaking down.

    2. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      The cheese Danish I had this morning was pretty good.

    3. Kaptious Kristen   11 years ago

      Ron Swanson is back on the teevee tonight!

    4. mad libertarian guy   11 years ago

      My youngest took a dump and two pees in his potty today. That's the best fucking news there is.

  18. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

    Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, came under pressure on Thursday as the city of Rome verged towards bankruptcy after parliament threw out a bill that would have injected fresh funding.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....uptcy.html

    1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      Really? Can someone stay on top of this for me? I'd like to buy Rome in bankruptcy. I've got a plan for making it into a theme park.

      1. John   11 years ago

        I have a plan for starting an empire with it. I hear it is prime real estate for that.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          That's likely inconsistent with my theme park plans. In place of Mickey Mouse, Romamondo will have "Little Boots."

        2. Brett L   11 years ago

          I've been listening to this book on Hannibal. The Romans should really have been an also ran group of upstarts. In school nobody tells you that Hannibal rampaged around Italy for years kicking the shit out of Roman legions left and right. If he had any siegecraft at all, Carthage would have been the great empire.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            That's one way of looking at it. What's more impressive to me is that one of the greatest generals in history kicked ass over and over again, defeating all sorts of odds, and it didn't really matter. Rome bounced back repeatedly, kept most of the allies in line, and ended up taking the war to Spain and Africa despite losing so many veteran legionnaires.

            Rome was built for empire in a lot of ways. Carthage really wasn't.

            1. Brett L   11 years ago

              It is interesting how the right guy at the right time makes all the difference. The younger Publius Scipio notices that nobody is defending New Carthage and races down there and takes it. But seriously, the Romans were, as a group terrible in tactics at that time. Like WWI generals bad. So what if the other guy has an entirely new strategy for warfighting? Line up. Mass wins.

              1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                The weakness was in the having two generals in charge of everything, and switching them out annually. They actually could have won much earlier if they'd stuck to the Fabian tactics for a while.

                Don't forget that the Romans also were taking over Spain while Hannibal was running around Italy. Also, Scipio, I think.

            2. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

              When I read about Cato the Elder's warmongering it makes me almost glad that Caesar kicked his great grandson's ass. Karma, bitches.

              1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                Look, he just really, really, really disliked Carthage.

          2. John   11 years ago

            If you are military geek, you know that. The thing about military history is that always loves a loser; Hanibal, Napoleon, Lee.

            1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

              Someone should do a movie about the great losing generals, I dunno, maybe the next Bill and Ted. I mean, they already snatched Napoleon.

      2. Rich   11 years ago

        *** waves hands furiously ***

        Can I help you with La Bocca della Verit

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          If you mean make it into a working lie detector that bites hands off, yes.

          1. Rich   11 years ago

            *** pumps what remains of fist ***

      3. Tonio   11 years ago

        I'd very much like the Portrait of a Dying Gaul from the Capitoline Museum.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          Okay, you can have it for $100, on the condition that you restore it to its original painted condition.

  19. Pseudonymous   11 years ago

    Ohio State neuroscientist postulates that smoking weed in youth can prevent Alzheimer's disease in old age (due to weed's anti-inflammatory properties):

    http://blog.sfgate.com/smellth.....-suspects/

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      I've conducted that experiment. I'll check back with you in a few decades and let you know the results.

      1. Sudden   11 years ago

        You probably won't remember.

        1. gaijin   11 years ago

          remember what?

    2. Kaptious Kristen   11 years ago

      I think I read about a study on that a couple years ago.

  20. Sudden   11 years ago

    OT and without link:

    There are anti-circumcision protesters on the corner of sixth and flower in sunny downtown Los Angeles right now. While it is all quite interesting, I have better things to think about on my lunch break than penis (I am not my ex-wife after all).

    Additionally, I feel really bad for the hot dog stand operator a block up on sixth and hope. His sales must be hurting today.

    1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      Why? Hot dogs look more uncircumcised I would say.

      1. JEP   11 years ago

        Only if the bun is longer than the hot dog...who wants to pay for all that bread?

    2. playa manhattan   11 years ago

      My office used to be a block from there. I don't miss it at all.

      1. Sudden   11 years ago

        That's cuz your commute blowed. I love this area. It also helps that downtown has undergone a renaissance over the last decade or so.

        1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

          True. I might have done it a little longer if they had FasTrak on the 110 back then.

        2. playa manhattan   11 years ago

          I can't help myself: What did you have for lunch today?

          1. Sudden   11 years ago

            Salad. I really felt like I should consume something more phallic in nature following the anti-circ protests, but I also need to keep it healthy and cheap. I walk home for lunch everyday to eat salad and spend an hour with my dog.

            1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

              Shame. Lots of good food around there. I used to do King Taco every Monday.

              I was in Beverly Hills today, so I stopped by the farmers market and got a bacon hotdog (not to be confused with a bacon wrapped hotdog). Phallic and Non-Kosher!

              1. Sudden   11 years ago

                I know. I still get my food fix in the evenings. Just trying to cut back on mediocre lunches in the financial district.

                King Taco is too far away anyhow. I'd rather not drive (I seriously drive once or maybe twice a week nowadays). I did walk all the way to olive and ninth for persian food lunch the other day though.

        3. sloopyinca   11 years ago

          You think so? We were down there for the Miley Cyrus show on Saturday and with the exception of a two-block swath from Staples Center to Fourth between Figueroa and Grand, it looks like a fucking war zone.

          1. Sudden   11 years ago

            Yep. I live on Grand and Sixth and work on Fig and Fifth, so I don't get accosted by the homeless as much as someone on Spring St would. Although I walk my dog through Pershing Square twice daily and do find myself running into more than a few babbling meth-addled bums in there.

            But I'm a libertarian. I rather enjoy telling panhandlers "no, you may not have any more of my money."

          2. playa manhattan   11 years ago

            Miley Cyrus show? Ha, Good one! What were you really doing there?

            1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

              We dropped my daughter and a friend off for the concert and then had dinner at City Club.

              1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

                That is totally reasonable. I was hoping you would confess to going also.

    3. Francisco d Anconia   11 years ago

      With everything else going on in the world, cut dick is the thing that riles these people up?

      I really don't understand most humans.

  21. Francisco d Anconia   11 years ago

    He's the 21st member of Congress (split nearly equally between the two parties) to announce plans to step down at the end of this term.

    They all sense that the end is nigh and they are smart enough to not be holding the bag when it goes.

    1. PD Scott   11 years ago

      No, he's heard that since Obamacare has gone through he doesn't need to keep his job to get health benefits.

  22. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

    Question: What do you find to be the clearest difference between science and pseudoscience?

    I find the terminology/actual knowledge ratio to be a good indicator. When I'm reading a scientific article (especially in the social sciences) and the introduction and methods sections have a lot of discussion about some vaguely concocted "model" that is twice as long as the statistics and results section, I find that I'm reading some poor schmuck's attempt to validate his pet theory.

    1. John   11 years ago

      The existence of measurable, observable, and verifiable predictions about events in the real world. If it doesn't predict something happening that can be observed and recreated by others, it is not science. It is either bullshit, philosophy, religion or all three.

      1. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

        I guess I'm more concerned about what the observations are actually pointing to. It seems like a lot of scientific papers have plenty of observation and statistics, but what do they mean? The author tries to tie back to his proposed "model," but the loose standards of the social sciences seems to allow models to do sometimes magical things.

        And don't get me started on the fact that the models tend to confirm to left-wing political perspectives.

        1. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

          *conform

        2. John   11 years ago

          Goes back to the prediction part. If the author doesn't explain what his model predicted and whether those predictions were borne out, it is not science.

    2. wareagle   11 years ago

      I think the key to a social sciences paper is the lit review. Longer = better.

      1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

        Not necessarily. That lit review could just be pages and pages of neo-Marxist and/or post-Positivist bullshit.

    3. GILMORE   11 years ago

      Falsifiability

    4. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      Disprovability. If there exists a test which can disprove a given theory based on repeatable, measurable results then what is being done is science.

      The corollary is that the theory has to in fact predict something which can be verified through testing instead of farting around arguing what could be (which is why ID, for example, cannot be considered a part of science).

    5. Tejicano   11 years ago

      With real science any reasonable opposing theory gets presented properly because that is one way to test for veracity. Any theory which is not open for inquiry is not science.

  23. PD Scott   11 years ago

    Funny, don't try this at home.

    I wonder where they got the balloons.

  24. Pseudonymous   11 years ago

    Nineteen-y.o. uses his skateboard to crack the skull of a 70-y.o. Sporting goods store employee, pleas down to a 5-year sentence, and then refuses to apologize at sentencing:

    http://www.oregonlive.com/port.....t-comments

    1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

      I'm ok with the 5 years if the victim is.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        The plea most likely involved an admission and apology. The attacker refused but still got his plea.

        1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          According to TFA, the maximum sentence was 5 years, 10 months. I'm guessing the prosecutor didn't think it was worth going through the expense of a trial to tack on those extra 10 months. I can't argue with that reasoning.

          1. paranoid android   11 years ago

            Still, makes you wonder, what can be done, in situations such as this?

            Obviously, I don't know the defendant and can't get into his head, but judging by the small amount of evidence presented in the article, he's a monster. In five years he'll still be a monster, and a prison-hardened one at that. But you can't just have the state start locking people up forever because of the fear of what they may do, you know?

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      He learned by watching the po-po.

    3. GILMORE   11 years ago

      Nothing is awesome like the self-righteousness of sociopathic gutter-punks.

  25. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    The Pentagon says this is typical, permitted testing by the nation.

    As long as they had the permits.

    1. PD Scott   11 years ago

      I was unaware our relationship with N Korea included us having a say in what they launched and where.

      1. PD Scott   11 years ago

        Other than strenuously objecting to missiles on a southern trajectory, of course.

      2. gaijin   11 years ago

        Probably a case of 'permitted' in the internal procedure sense that it would not trigger a response.

  26. Palin's Buttplug   11 years ago

    Tesla's giant Gigafactory to employ 6,500 and ramp up output enough for 500,000 autos per year (from 30,000 today):

    Tesla Motors says that its $5 billion gigafactory for battery production will be located in one of four Sunbelt states: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. That means that four Republican governors ? Jan Brewer, Brian Sandoval, Susanna Martinez and Rick Perry ? and their offices of economic development are falling over themselves to make the case as to why their state should land the massive $5 billion facility and the 6,500 manufacturing jobs that come with it.

    http://www.siliconbeat.com/201.....gafactory/

    Which state will pay Tesla most to locate in their state?

    1. John   11 years ago

      8%

      1. Palin's Buttplug   11 years ago

        I know you are angry that I rubbed your nose in your own shit earlier today.

        If you like to act like a child then continue to do so. No harm done to me.

        1. John   11 years ago

          No retard, you fucked up the talking points and forgot to not post the part about how only 8% of voters want the law to remain as is.

          Even when they give you canned talking points, you still fuck them up. I can't imagine how much they must hate you. I am sure it is hard coming up them every day and then seeing you fuck them up.

          1. Mike M.   11 years ago

            Weigel is as fucking stupid as he is vile.

    2. OldMexican   11 years ago

      Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

      Tesla's giant Gigafactory to employ 6,500 and ramp up output enough for 500,000 autos per year (from 30,000 today)

      Misallocation of resources... Misallocation of resources... what does that indicate, I ask?

      1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

        We will all drive Teslas when it is mandated.

        1. Brandon   11 years ago

          You're gonna pay for a significant percentage of one whether you drive it or not.

      2. gaijin   11 years ago

        If it's really a giga factory, shouldn't it be creating something in the billions?

        1. Tejicano   11 years ago

          It's shreik- so words mean less than intentions.

    3. Brandon   11 years ago

      Arizona will pay the most, but Texas will probably end up getting it. That said, I wonder how Tesla's sales forecast would look without massive subsidies?

      1. Palin's Buttplug   11 years ago

        Texas bans direct Tesla sales though. Some big regulation lovers in the Loan Star State.

        1. Brandon   11 years ago

          Yes there are. But Texas has the workforce and infrastructure for it, and will probably rescind the ban on direct sales as part of their pitch in lieu of throwing taxpayer dollars at Tesla directly.

    4. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

      Amazing what you can do when there's no risk of the government letting you go broke.

  27. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

    Anybody watching the second season premiere of Hannibal tomorrow night?

    I didn't see the first season, but I've heard some good things about it. I was holding off because the franchise had worn kinda thin. But from what I've heard, the new TV series has a lot to offer.

    1. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

      ...Also, I like how they are limiting the number of episodes per season to less than 14.

      I think this is what killed other serialized shows like Twin Peaks and 24. Serialized, season-long plots are more easily digested in 13 episode hunks compared to 24 episode hunks.

      1. paranoid android   11 years ago

        24 was "killed" despite lasting seven seasons and apparently being newly revived?

        1. Caleb Turberville   11 years ago

          Seasons 6, 7, and 8 had noticeable declines in ratings associated with a decline in critical acclaim.

          The fact that the new, revived season has been shortened to only 13 episodes proves my point.

          1. SIV   11 years ago

            Its not 24 if their aren't 24 episodes. I was disappointed when they moved away from a single day after the first season

    2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      I'd watch it if it were a series about Hannibal Barca.

      1. Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!   11 years ago

        Hannibal, Hannibal, Hannibal - where is the love for Hamilcar?!

    3. SugarFree   11 years ago

      I will be. It's not a good show, but it passes the time as I wait for death.

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        but it passes the time as I wait for death.

        Wouldn't masturbation be a more stimulating way to do the same thing?

        1. SugarFree   11 years ago

          Chafing catches up to you. "It looks like a gnarled wizard's staff."

      2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        I was watching some show or movie I was ho-hum about and started watching it at 1.5 speed (where you can still hear intelligible, albeit Chipmunk-speed dialogue).

        1. SugarFree   11 years ago

          I have a tendency to check the mail on my phone, then find myself somehow playing a video game on it an hour later.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            While watching something at 1.5X speed, I have caught myself regretting that my BluRay doesn't allow me to watch (and hear) the video at 3X speed.

            1. PD Scott   11 years ago

              Maybe have Yakety Sax on a loop for just such an occasion?

              Maybe have an awesome BR player that does it for you whenever you FF?

              1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

                I just remembered that one thing I did that with for a good twenty minutes was some lecture on history. I needed the time, and, it turns out, there's a lot of dead time in a lecture.

                Next up, football.

  28. Pseudonymous   11 years ago

    Californian Christian-libertarian medical marijuana slangers gird their loins and prepare to wage holy jihad against IRS:

    http://nation.time.com/2014/02.....anna-care/

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      That should be entertaining.

  29. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    Rubio ruins Harking about Cuba.

    Seriously. This leftist-liberal-progressive fetish-hard-on for Cuba is retarded.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUN7d1eYUpM

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      But, but, universal, FREE medical care.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        And 100% literacy rate!

  30. Rich   11 years ago

    There are a handful of proposed changes to the National Security Agency's massive metadata collection procedures.

    Oh, I'm sure there are more than a "handful". It's just that most are not considered "reasonable" or "bona fide" by TPTB.

  31. grrizzly   11 years ago

    It was a cool Reason happy hour yesterday. Chatted with interesting people but missed any HnR folks there.

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      None of us is a real person.

      1. grrizzly   11 years ago

        After yesterday I know that the Free State project is real, others -- not so much.

      2. GILMORE   11 years ago

        My software resembles that remark

    2. BiMonSciFiCon   11 years ago

      Apparently there were other HnR people there. They discussed it in the a.m. links.

      If I ever go to one of these, how do you introduce yourself as a HnR commenter? Write your handle in parentheses after your name? Or does commenting here equip us with HnR-dar?

      1. grrizzly   11 years ago

        I asked people how they learned about the event. Only one answered that he had read about it on reason.com. But when I inquired if he'd commented on HnR, he almost took it as a personal insult: "of course not."

        I clearly don't have any HnR-dar.

      2. hamilton   11 years ago

        I totally failed at identifying HampersandR's by looks. I did write "hamilton" under my name on my name tag. no one noticed I think, but Auric did find me. He found Tarran too. Perhaps Auric has the appropriate radar.

        Maybe next time they can give commenters special name tags that are shaped differently. Like pink triangles or gold stars or something like that to indicate their support.

        1. BiMonSciFiCon   11 years ago

          You know who else... nah, too easy.

          But that's actually not a bad idea.

        2. grrizzly   11 years ago

          Yes, there were some people with a second line on the name tag, but I don't see that well from a distance. Too bad, but maybe next time.

    3. hamilton   11 years ago

      I really enjoyed it and had a good time actually (and drank too much, but then again now I can cross off having cocktails with California Reason staff from my bullet list). I really hope they do it again. I even clicked on the "donate" link this morning and stared at the page for a while. But then I decided it was more fun to do that when there was a cool thermometer-logo-thingy.

      1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        Wait, what the fuck did I miss last night?

        1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

          There was a happy hour in Boston. Or Cambridge or whatever.

          1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

            Oh. Did they serve chow-dah?

            1. hamilton   11 years ago

              No, Manhattans. Actually there were nice little snacky things. Hors D'oeuvres or what have you.

        2. hamilton   11 years ago

          No, it was in Boston. The Jacket was in town.

          Welcome back by the way! Banjos put up a pic of the girls a little bit ago - super cuteness.

  32. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    Huffington Post pro-ENDA article includes this:

    "While some Arizona cities, like Phoenix and Tucson, have passed their own municipal laws protecting sexual orientation in some way, such patchwork protections don't cover everyone."

    Wait, I thought Arizona had no protected-status laws for gays. This is what some Reason writers assured me!

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....63388.html

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      The state of Arizona doesn't have protected status. As you noted those are municipal ordinances.

      Did you seriously not understand the difference, or just trolling again?

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        *smooches*

      2. John   11 years ago

        You won't answer this because you just ignore arguments you don't like but just what the hell is your position on protected status Tonio? Should it be illegal for a business to not hire gays or serve them or should it not?

        You are forever slippery on the subject for some reason. It would be nice if you would clear that up.

      3. Tonio   11 years ago

        And for anyone who is curious I stopped responding to John several months ago and have no intention of changing that.

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          What has John done to deserve this favor, and how can I get in on this?

        2. John   11 years ago

          Of course you won't Tonio. You stopped responding because you got tired of losing arguments and me pointing out arguments you didn't like couldn't respond to you.

          I will give you credit, you were smart enough to know you lost. Of course still lacked the integrity to admit it and change your mind.

          You really lost it on the abortion threads where you tried to defend the magic birth canal theory.

          It is not surprising that you won't answer my question. It would force you to be honest and that is something you can't do.

  33. sloopyinca   11 years ago

    Under no circumstances should you ever have a little fun at the expense of the King's men.

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      Wait, it snowed in Austin?

    2. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

      That'll teach that snowball throwing miscreant to respect authority!

    3. Rich   11 years ago

      "If [the boy] had gotten away with it, who's to say what they'd do next? If it doesn't stick to them now, they'll be 16 or 17, and they'll have a gun,"

      And when they get to be 35, they'll want to be President.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        This person right here needs to be saran wrapped to a post and have dicks drawn all over them in permanent marker.

        1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

          Not in that order.

      2. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        "If we don't destroy this kid's life now then we'll have to destroy it in a few years."

        Fucking cocksuckers.

      3. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        I was just going to comment about this sentence. Wow. Tar and feather that asshole.

        Discipline the kid and move on. Instead, they want to ruin the kid's like to show who's boss.

        Assholes. Pure fucking assholes.

    4. Damned Fool   11 years ago

      I feel like every time you post it's either a nutpunch or you're reproducing. Do you reproduce through nutpunches?

      1. Duke Trshmnstr of Stench   11 years ago

        NTTAWWT

      2. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        Speaking of reproducing...it is late February, and you all know what that means.

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          You guys are spawning again? Great news.

          1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

            We don't know yet. I'm just saying it's been 3 months since the last one was born, which gives us this chance and one more to get the next one in the oven in time for a 2014 tax write-off.

            1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

              Are your older kids qualified to babysit?

              I accidentally knocked up my wife, and now I'm gonna have 3 kids age 6 and under. I can't have nice things.

              1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

                Oh yeah. My oldest daughter is gonna be 16 in May and my son is 14, and they have sat a couple of times for Baby Reason. I'm sure now the Baby Liberty is a few months old we could leave them with the older ones.

            2. Brett L   11 years ago

              My wife doesn't want any part of that right now. She's still grumpy about the whole birth experience.

              1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

                Gotta get them to do c-sections, man. It'll change the way both of you look at her hoo-hoo.

                1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

                  Umm...don't you mean more like, "It wouldn't have changed the way either of your look at her hoo-hoo"?

                2. Brett L   11 years ago

                  It'll change the way both of you look at her hoo-hoo.

                  Too late. I've already seen my son's gargantuan head pop out of there.

                  1. Brandon   11 years ago

                    So she has no more excuses for telling you to be gentle?

                3. Spoonman.   11 years ago

                  I'm glad my wife didn't have a c-section, because she was up and walking like half an hour after our baby was born.

                  Of course they are medically necessary frequently, but seeing the women in the NICU who both had a baby in the NICU and had just had serious abdominal surgery, we were feeling pretty fortunate.

                  (In case anybody missed that, baby wasn't premature, just had a fast heart rate right after birth, and she is perfectly healthy now.)

        2. Rhywun   11 years ago

          Nobody needs more than 2 children.

          1. Rich   11 years ago

            Exactly. That's why God gave people two ovaries or two testicles.

            Well, *most* people.

            1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

              Jennifer: You know, Justin might be a little kid, Kip... but he's got more balls than you'll ever have.
              Kip: What, like three?

              Stupid movie but a great line.

          2. 110 Lean   11 years ago

            That family? You didn't build that.

  34. sloopyinca   11 years ago

    If you're deaf, you better not try to communicate with a police officer in the City Of Angels.

    Don't worry. The officers received training.

    1. Brandon   11 years ago

      If you're deaf, you better not try to communicate with a police officer in the City Of Angels.

      Fixed this to make it, well, useful advice.

  35. sloopyinca   11 years ago

    Armed, violent felon gets extended vacation.

  36. Harvard   11 years ago

    The upside of this story is hospitals are truly teeming with vicious infections of every stripe, and nobody deserves a dose of mursa than the shit stain that is Holder. One can hold out hope.

  37. Coeus   11 years ago

    New York pastor: Obama sending 'white homo demons' to 'scoop up' black men

    In a YouTube video posted on Tuesday, Atlah World Missionary Church Rev. James David Manning said that he had displayed the following sign outside his Harlem church: "Obama has released the homo demons on the black man. Look out black woman. A white homo may take your man."

    "Obama has released these demons, particularly upon the black males," he explained. "This homosexual demon, hoping to influence as many black males to subscribe to ideas that homosexual perverted LGBT as possible."

    As evidence, Manning pointed to the "outing" of basketball player Jason Collins and football player Michael Sam.

    "I have noticed that Obama is influencing the few black men that are left to come out of the closet ? or be homosexual ? and they are being scooped up by white homos, leaving the black woman in more dire straits and with less of a choice of a man to come and be her husband, and father her children," he said.

    Manning warned that black women had the most to lose from the "white homo demons."

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      I call dibs on the new band name.

      1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

        Who wouldn't want to wife up a smart, sophisticated peach like this?

      2. Rich   11 years ago

        What, "Atlah World Missionary"?

    2. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

      I'd throw out my back if I tried to scoop up either Jason Collins or Michael Sam. I could probably throw two or three Asian twinks over my shoulder with no problem though.

    3. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

      Just out of curiousity, is there a form you have to fill out to have one of these homo demons sent to scoop you up?

      1. Rhywun   11 years ago

        You have to sign the Do Not Scoop Up Registry in order to stop us from scooping you up.

        1. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

          I'm so glad we moved everything to the cloud for tracking. I was always losing my quota sheet and having to start over.

          1. Tonio   11 years ago

            OMG, for re-ulz. And then there's the lecture by the big, nasty lesbian.

  38. OldMexican   11 years ago

    Attorney General Eric Holder was hospitalized briefly today after experiencing faintness and shortness of breath. He is back at home now.

    The symptoms describe an acute case of guilt.

    1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

      I'm pretty sure Holder doesn't feel in the least bit bad about all the bullshit he's shoveled as AG.

  39. William of Purple   11 years ago

    Canadians can't drive in winter.

  40. Coeus   11 years ago

    GUYS WANT TO DATE ME UNTIL THEY FIND OUT I'M ALMOST 60
    Fifty-five must be a really scary number to men because I -- seemingly overnight -- went from a dating feast to a dating famine.

    Once I entered my 50s, it would work like this: A guy would flirt with me, we'd connect, go out a few times and then, at some point age would come up, either directly or as a reference point. And then, trouble.

    Like the time we were discussing politics and presidential security, and I mentioned that I still remembered my mom's reactions to the Kennedy assassination. Uh-oh. At first he thought I was joking. When he realized I wasn't, he became quiet for a bit. The conversation eventually picked back up but it had lost some of its steam.

    We went out once more and, over dinner, he "playfully" (at first) accused me of pulling a bait-and-switch on him -- meaning pretending to be a lot younger than I actually was. Except there was no pretense. He assumed I was something that I wasn't (a younger woman). I was about 10 years older than he was and he just couldn't see himself with a 55-year-old.

    Boo-fuckin-hoo.

    1. John   11 years ago

      Then don't tell them you stupid bitch.

      1. Duke Trshmnstr of Stench   11 years ago

        Or date guys your own fucking age! Not that the occasional age discrepancy doesn't work, but by and large people don't want to date folks that are closer to their parents age than their own.

        1. Coeus   11 years ago

          She tried that also. She's pissed because the guys want a younger woman. I wonder if she was writing articles about how unfair it was for guys when they were younger that the women only wanted older men. I somehow doubt it.

          1. BiMonSciFiCon   11 years ago

            My mom just told me about my cousin (who's 43) getting dumped by a 33 year old doctor (she's a nurse) and how she was really upset by it. She looks young for her age, but she's still 10 years older than the guy, plus he's a freaking doctor. No wonder she didn't hear from him after the second or third date.

            1. Apatheist ?_??   11 years ago

              Is it really a dumping if it didn't get past a second or third date?

    2. wareagle   11 years ago

      so dating 50-something men never crossed her mind? Maybe 30 and 40 year old guys are past the older woman thing because at their age, older means old.

    3. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

      No one wants a dry socket.

      1. playa manhattan   11 years ago

        Some do. But it's not a good idea.

    4. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

      Unless this chick looks like Adrienne Barbeau, she should have seen this coming. A 20 or 30-year old with mommy issues might get off on banging a 50+ year old cougar, but someone in their 40s and 50s is typically looking for a quiet, decent person to settle down with. I suspect its not her age, but her attitude that's turning these guys off.

      1. Mad Scientist   11 years ago

        No, no, she's perfect in every single way except for her age. She's not a shrew or anything.

  41. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

    Sometimes, you just can't improve on the actual title of an article.

    White America's "Waiver Mania": The right's plot to minimize its culture war defeat

    As America grows more liberal, conservatives are retreating into a variety of interlinking, but isolated subcultures and, when necessary, making or manipulating law to insulate themselves from contact with the masses. Like a cultural manifestation of Going Galt. Welcome to white America's waiver society.

    We've already belabored the right's parallel argument that religious owners of businesses should be exempt from the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate. That argument's much more widely accepted on the right than is the recent push for state-based anti-gay "rights" bills, but it's actually identical in construct to the argument that religious individuals and businesses ought to be free to discriminate against gay couples or any number of other people.

    Well we can't have that... for some reason.

    [Con't]

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      keep going...

    2. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      You can see traces of the same Galtist tendencies among conservatives in states that are resisting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. It's not just that Republican governors are denying their poorest constituents a paid-for Medicaid expansion, though that will certainly contribute to a tiering in American health care that will insulate the right from the left. It's also that Affordable Care Act private health plan enrollment in conservative states is in general lagging far, far behind enrollment in liberal states.

      Well clearly, hatred of the black man is the only rational explanation. No really, keep reading.

      And Now, the Award For the Best Glue Huffing-Fueled Imitation of Conspiracy Brother of 2014 Goes To...

      I see the proliferation of Stand Your Ground laws, and of the consequent "justifiable homicide" surge in those states as a similar epiphenomenon. The tip of the spear protruding from the front lines of white cultural flight, and the literal manifestation of President Obama's controversial observation that some Americans "cling to guns and religion" when confronted with economic and cultural frustration.

      1. Duke Trshmnstr of Stench   11 years ago

        Gosh that's boring. They seriously can't deal with people not hopping on the bandwagon and chanting "Forward! Forward!" while cheering as the kulaks and wreckers are shipped off to siberia.

        There is no room in Forward America for people who aren't marching in complete lockstep with their adolescent, progressive wet-dreams.

      2. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        Numero uno, it's not just white flight, because you don't have to be white to object to many of these laws.

        Numero two-o, why don't these progs ask themselves, "flight? If we're doing something that people want to run away from, maybe we should reconsider whether we should be doing it in the first place."

        But no, it's kulaks, wreckers and hoarders.

        1. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

          Your enlightened betters know what you really want. What you think you want is the result of false consciousness.

          It's easy to justify literally any possible action when you believe the above.

      3. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

        "White cultural flight" is a fucking terrible band name.

  42. SugarFree   11 years ago

    Jezebel is making themselves some of that fine ONDCP money.

    I wonder if the check was stapled or paperclipped to the talking points.

    1. Rich   11 years ago

      "It will kill people as soon as it's released,"

      You know what else will kill people as soon as it's released ....

      1. Swiss Servator, mehr K?se!   11 years ago

        A T-1000?

    2. Brandon   11 years ago

      Zohydro ? which kind of sounds like a marijuana strain, doesn't it?

      What was the point of writing this sentence?

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        To take a slap at legal marijuana as well, a little two-fer.

        I knew Denton was an asshole, but I didn't know he was a cheap whore as well.

  43. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    "closet Luddite" judge Alex Kozinski censored the entire Innocence of Muslims video on request of an actress who appeared only briefly in the video, then bans Google from disclosing the censorship for a week.

    http://www.techdirt.com/articl.....ways.shtml

    1. Outlaw   11 years ago

      Isn't he supposed to be some great libertarian judge?

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        The article says his Luddism is an exception to a nice record.

    2. Tonio   11 years ago

      Uh, Eddy, this was a copyright/contract law claim. The actress claims that the nature of the film was misrepresented to her, and that different dialogue was dubbed over her image.

      This was also covered yesterday.

      I know you're really butt-hurt after yesterday, but acting out, and doing so in a transparently dishonest fashion, only makes you look bad.

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        Yeah, don't you hate it when someone gets weirdly obsessive?

        double smooches.

      2. Tonio   11 years ago

        Yes, damn me and my bourgeois facts.

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          whooooosh!

  44. PD Scott   11 years ago

    Cell phone jammers for prison and a candidate for mother of the year.

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      Faraday cages and directional antennae.

  45. Coeus   11 years ago

    Kotaku, your home for videogame news

    Once, a long time ago. Now it's about you-go-girling a hot topic employee for ripping into a guy on facebook.

    1. Outlaw   11 years ago

      That guy is pathetic and that girl is an attention whore.

      Fedora + trenchcoat + not talking to girl in person = beta basement dweller.

      1. Jordan   11 years ago

        Just the fedora is sufficient to make that diagnosis.

        1. Outlaw   11 years ago

          J.D. Tuccille wears them on occasion, so not really. But most of the time you would be correct.

          1. Jordan   11 years ago

            2chili, I am disappoint.

        2. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

          I thought just going to Hot Topic was sufficient to make that diagnosis.

      2. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck and I can't remember how it ends, but your mother's a whore. [Laughs.]

      3. Coeus   11 years ago

        Agreed on all counts. Now why the fuck is it on Kotaku?

    2. Jordan   11 years ago

      They seem to have dialed it back a little bit though. The commenters have been pretty hostile towards them, from what I've seen, especially towards Patricia Hernandez who used to post this shit almost daily and has now thankfully pretty much disappeared.

      1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        Yet another of the myriad annoyances about Gawker World is their frequent cross-posting of their politically oriented bullshit on blogs that are supposed to be about something entirely different.

        That, and Dr. Fucking Who. Jesus.

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          Agreed. You must have to fellate a Dr. Who blowup doll convincingly to get a job with Gawker.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            Blowup dolls of each Dr. Who. My entire Dr. Who experience was watching a few episodes back in the Tom Baker days because I only had access to maybe six channels of television and nothing else was on.

          2. Tejicano   11 years ago

            Good to know since that means me ending up there through and bizarre twist of fate would be like the splined end of a heat-treated, chome-molly drive shaft fitting into a square hole.

            1. Tejicano   11 years ago

              ..."some" bizarre twist of fate...

      2. Corning   11 years ago

        The commenters have been pretty hostile towards them

        No.

        Kotaku shut my account down into no-view mode. and i have noticed most of the other commentors who pushed back a month or two ago are absent as well.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          I usually feel great pain, like hearing a million voices cry out, when I accidentally read their comments.

    3. Duke Trshmnstr of Stench   11 years ago

      When life is political, then there is no room for an apolitical interest. Personal Finance, Video Games, Sports, Cars, and on and on. You can hardly find a single prog-fascist who doesn't try to mix their hobbies with their politics.

    4. Wandering Texan   11 years ago

      Its been months since I actually looked at a "gaming news" site. Its all identity politics and paid reviews now.

      1. paranoid android   11 years ago

        I still read Rock, Paper, Shotgun here and there. A little while back they suddenly went hardcore SJW for a brief spell, which disillusioned me a bit, but I think their readership more or less rebelled against them, because I haven't seen any articles of that stripe in sometime.

      2. Outlaw   11 years ago

        Yeah, it's pretty fucking terrible.

        You can't trust car reviews, gun reviews, or game reviews for the most part.

      3. Corning   11 years ago

        Joystiq seems pretty clean.

        and as paranoid said below Rock,paper shotgun is good.

        Polygon has some of the crap that Kotaku has but less so. And they actually have game news that was done the hard way (real journalism) to back it up unlike Kotaku.

        1. Wandering Texan   11 years ago

          I was down to just Joystiq, then they pulled that stunt with Wildstar a month or so ago.

    5. Corning   11 years ago

      I have been hit on by women on the internet...

      Why the fuck didn't I think to post their clumsy come-ons on the internet and point and laugh?

      Oh wait now I remember.

      I am not a complete fucking pile of shit.

      1. Outlaw   11 years ago

        There are no women on the internet.

        A/S/L?

  46. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

    The War on Women is just getting started... but not in the way you think.

    Democrats are thinking beyond reproductive rights to recast income inequality, workplace protections, and possibly even immigration as "women's issues." Dovere casts that decision as a purely political one, but one reason the strategy works is because the evidence supports it: Women are disproportionately affected by income inequality and a lack of workplace protections, and feminist organizing might is throwing itself behind the issue of immigration reform.

    "World ends, women, and minorities hardest hit the only ones hit."

    Democrats believe that nothing moves female voters like abortion rights[?] there are all those Republican primaries and local town halls that Democrats are confident will produce a searing "legitimate rape" comment they'll be able to spread far and wide, despite Republican media training aimed at keeping candidates from these kind of stumbles.

    Clearly, the most pressing issue facing America today is what some room-temperature IQ politician says in a town hall about sex.

    [Con't]

    1. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      Female voters tend to be more supportive generally of progressive values on economics, for instance, which is one reason Democrats have decided to craft their pitch to women so that it addresses these economic issues. I have a better suggestion for Republicans: If you want the war-on-women narrative to go away, stop waging it. The reason that "war on women" is such a simple, evocative phrase is that you don't really have to explain what it means to the public.

      Which is of course why immigration, progressive economics, and the rest of the proggie wishlist is along for the ride: because it's All About Misogyny.

      Additionally, I sure as hell am not much of a Republican but it seems like it will be difficult for them to "stop waging" a war that is constantly being re-defined.

      1. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

        The reason that "war on women" is such a simple, evocative phrase is that you don't really have to explain what it means to the public.

        It is a simple phrase and only the simple-minded believe it is true. WHAR ON WIMMINZ!!!!!!!111!1!!11eleventy

  47. PD Scott   11 years ago

    A) There's a National Money Show
    B) It's in the Cobb Galleria mall this weekend

    See! Lawful currency, like the US used to make, now reduced to collectibles! Witness! A $100,000 bill, before inflation catches up to us and you see lots of them, ready for the fireplace! Wonder! If reporter Paul Milliken is always that excited!

    (He is. Still better than the person WAGA used to have on the fluff beat.)

    1. John   11 years ago

      Will they have the trillion dollar coin?

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      For some reason I'm reminded of this.

  48. sloopyinca   11 years ago

    OK, I've been on hiatus for a while. Can someone tell me who are the new trolls and who has been delivering nutpunches with regularity?

    Thanks.

    1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      Yeah, there's this guy who attacked Neil Armstrong's mailbox, but I think we got him banned.

      1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        Your butthurt over that is only exceeded by Buzz Aldrin's.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          If you had any class, you'd have named your children after Neil Armstrong. I'm sorry, The Neil Armstrong.

          Welcome back, dude.

          1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

            Just in case you didn't know it already, I stole the fucker's birthday too.

            1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

              You are a prime candidate for being possessed by the angry spirit of Neil Armstrong. Which would be awesome. Let me know when it happens.

    2. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

      Feeney has been super stingy with the alt-text, so I'm getting nutpunched every day.

    3. playa manhattan   11 years ago

      There's an unrepentant pedophile with a borderline personality that pops up occasionally, but you don't want any part of that.

      Buttplug is rapidly approaching peak retard, but that's nothing new.

    4. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

      I can tell you I'm getting married! How are Reason, Liberty, and Banjos?

      1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

        You know, I wonder if it would be legal in any state to conduct the ceremony on a blog? Any notaries around here?

        1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

          What's the difference between "conduct the ceremony on a blog" and "live-blog the ceremony"? That's a serious question.

          1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

            Marriage happens on-line in one; marriage gets talked about on-line in the other.

          2. sloopyinca   11 years ago

            We tried to live blog ours but the goddamn Riviera wouldn't let us.

            Oh, and on that note, is anybody gonna be in Vegas next week for ConExpo or any other reason?

      2. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        They're all just dandy. Two of them are getting bigger and one is getting smaller...thankfully.

        Married? Well that's wonderful news. When, where and are you registered yet?

        1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

          Nice!

          And thank you! This fall, in the Indiana Dunes, and not yet (but I'm glad you asked, it will help me light a fire under my bf).

          And thanks to you as well, OM!

      3. OldMexican   11 years ago

        Congratulations is in order!

        Congratulations - uh!

        See? In order.

    5. SIV   11 years ago

      Why have you been leaving buried comments at HuffPo? Nobody reads that shit.

      1. sloopyinca   11 years ago

        Why do you take your dog on a walk away from your yard when you know he needs to take a shit?

    6. Tonio   11 years ago

      Welcome back, sloop.

  49. Anonymous Coward   11 years ago

    You Loved Voting For Him in 2003, Now You Get To Vote For Clay Aiken Again

    Former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken officially filed Thursday to run for Congress in North Carolina, saying that he wants to help end the gridlock in Washington and that no single political party has all the answers.

    The performer, a Democrat, turned in his paperwork at the State Board of Elections to seek the 2nd District seat currently held by Republican Renee Ellmers. Aiken, who lives in the Raleigh-Durham area, announced his bid three weeks ago and must first try to win the Democratic primary in less than 10 weeks.

    1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      "Every parent says their child is going to be president one day," said his mother.

      I would be disappointed in my child.

      1. Rich   11 years ago

        "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since." -- Salvador Dali

    2. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

      I saw an interview where Aiken actually used the phrase: "It's a mess"

      1. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

        It's a mayass!

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUVTz5BQzpo

  50. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

    New network could 'revolutionise' the Internet by eliminating viruses, hacking and surveillance

    So there's this Scottish company called MaidSafe that says they are going forward with beta-testing a whole new paradigm-shifting kind of internet after 8 years of development. Supposed to be nullify the need for back-up and end viruses and surveillance. Comment, techies?

    1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

      MaidSafe? So it's a whole new Internet based on maid porn? Like Internet2?

    2. Rich   11 years ago

      effectively eliminating the need for terms like 'back-up', 'virus' and 'synchronise'

      Emphasis added.

    3. PD Scott   11 years ago

      Does their promotional material emphasise how you can discuss terrorist attacks and trade drugs and child porn without any worries? Do they say they are endorsed by the New Software Alliance and General Computer Help Quorum?

    4. Cdr Lytton   11 years ago

      Is it run by George Maharis?

    5. kbolino   11 years ago

      It reads like bullshit backed up with buzzwords.

      The Internet is hardware and infrastructure, you can't replace that with software.

      What little hint of an actual technical idea they have seems to be about obfuscating and distributing information at the application layer.

      That does nothing to stop viruses or hacking, although it may impede surveillance if done properly and largely adopted.

      Even so, you can still compromise the network by compromising the software that runs it, either by exploiting an vulnerability in the code or gaining leverage over the company that makes it.

  51. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

    A heaping helping of Marcotte to round out the list:

    here's the thing: It doesn't really matter that no one is actually harmed by enrolling in an insurance plan at healthcare.gov. The point of these ads is not to make the argument that people lost money, since that argument will get fact-checked pretty quickly. The point is to send the message that, if you go onto the website, bears will eat your face and dragons will set fire to your ass and you will be a sad person who is never the same again. A sad person with a little more money in your pocket, but so what? THERE BE DRAGONS AT HEALTHCARE.GOV. It' a purely emotional pitch, and the facts are just noise to fill up airtime to convey the actual message, which is this poor person went to that dangerous website and now look how sad they are.

    I want to find the person who reads Amanduh hoping to be enlightened on the issues of the day.

    1. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      Link: http://archive.is/TNlMM#selection-717.4-717.751

    2. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      This guy:

      Over and over, we here these stories. Over and over, I ask the same questions or say the same things. Consider the source. Eighty five percent of what you hear on Fox is either misleading or false. Obamacare is not insurance, it is legislation. Do you know what the provisions of the law are?
      Implementation is a rocky road. But we at least are starting to understand the game and who the players are. The Koch Bros will burn in hell.

      1. kbolino   11 years ago

        Eighty five percent of what you hear on Fox is either misleading or false.

        The official propaganda outlets could only hope for such honesty.

    3. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      The comments in that post seem to be scarier than usual.

      1. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

        You read the comments?!

        You're a braver man than I, that's for sure.

    4. Juice   11 years ago

      It doesn't really matter that no one is actually harmed by enrolling in an insurance plan at healthcare.gov.

      Not enrolling, on the other hand...

  52. Corning   11 years ago

    The Pentagon says this is typical, permitted testing by the nation.

    Wait...

    You can get a permit for that?

  53. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

    Finally, some typical Sadbeard ignorance...

    in this chart, which I made to be more readable than Piketty's black-and-white charts, he shows that on a net basis the United States of America does not have any public debt and perhaps never did.

    The conventional way for debt scaremongers to measure the national debt is to compare gross public debt to GDP. But the normal way you measure the debt load of a business or a household is to ask for a net figure.

    Ah, so public assets *greater than* public debts = no problem. Cool, only two problems:

    1) The chart includes federal & state assets and compares to federal debt without including state debts, as well -- an important point since state debts put us back in the red, if we're going to compare assets do debt. Whoops.

    2) In fact, if you evaluate only federal assets vs debts (state governments' aggregate net worth is positive and ~7 trillion), the net worth of the federal government is -$10.5 trillion. Double whoops.

    3) If you look even closer, the states and localities where these assets are in the red are places run by and large by progressives. Triple whoops.

    4) Of these assets, a large portion either cannot be sold per federal law, will not be sold due to prior commitments, and otherwise cannot be counted as assets for the debt which is why underwriters like to see *income* in addition to current assets. Duh.

    1. Brandon   11 years ago

      Sadbeard is not the worst. One of the commenters actually claims that GDP is an asset.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        An asset to people who want to justify government spending, definitely. What other system would assume you could spend your way to wealth?

      2. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

        Nah, he was just nostalgic for old video game tropes.

        ALL YOUR GDP ARE BELONG TO US

    2. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

      I sort of feel guilty laughing at MattY sometimes.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        He did suffer a traumatic head injury.

      2. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

        Yeah. With Marcotte you get the feeling that she's just damned lazy (and more than a little spiteful), but with Matty... something is seriously wrong with that boy.

      3. John   11 years ago

        You shouldn't. He is the guy who said the world was a better place since Andrew Breitbart, the father of two small children, was dead.

        Yeah, he is retarded. But Matty Y is the retarded kid who kills your cat and sets things on fire.

    3. Juice   11 years ago

      Remember how everyone was totally cool with Detroit trying to sell some of its assets? I'm sure that would go over well when they start trying to sell off federal lands. Can you imagine how one of those commenters would react if they went to a non-lefty blog that was casually talking about selling off national parks.

  54. Brandon   11 years ago

    Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) announced he's retiring from Congress after 23 years of service. He's the 21st member of Congress (split nearly equally between the two parties) to announce plans to step down at the end of this term.

    Can we stop using the word "Service" to describe what congresscritters do?

  55. Brett L   11 years ago

    Looks like the U of Texas is throwing off Prohibitionist scolds.

    Unfortunately: The beer and wine trial will not include the spring football game on April 19 at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium.

    Although why, I don't know. I guess they want people to show up late and leave early?

  56. SIV   11 years ago

    Florida Panhandle Man

    1. Brett L   11 years ago

      Huh. Usually in Jefferson county the daughter and the affair are the same person.

      1. SIV   11 years ago

        That's why this one is "news"

    2. paranoid android   11 years ago

      Florida Panhandle man charged in daughter's death, lewd behavior

      Doesn't seem very fair to charge the father for his daughter's lewd behavior, grammatically-challenged headline-writer guy.

  57. jesse.in.mb   11 years ago

    Humble Bundle Weekly Sale: Simulators!

    This week's sale includes bridge building sims, agricultural sims (both contemporary and historical, Euro Truck Simulator, a pool (billiards not swimming) simulator AND

    Trains Simulator 12.

    All of you paleolibertarians can get your crypto-Cozmo on in the privacy of your own home!

    1. Apatheist ?_??   11 years ago

      They love that shit in Germany for some reason. Then again I've been playing Championship/Football Manager for 15+ years so I can't really talk.

    2. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      I hope they have Jiangxi Trail III!

      "Your Mao has died of dysentry"

    3. William of Purple   11 years ago

      Is garage mechanic on sale???

    4. Bam!   11 years ago

      Warehouse and Logistics Simulator. Surprise: It's German made.

  58. Coeus   11 years ago

    This is one of the most confusing mish-mash of a wondering piece of shit article I've seen in awhile.

    Even for Jezebel, it's bad.

    1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

      I read it more as, "Shit, I totally don't have anything to say about this but I have to crank out a blog post."

    2. The Immaculate Trouser   11 years ago

      Point here is: every person, male, female, or some combination thereof, is somewhat at the mercy of some hormonal forces that push behavior one way or another, sometimes in less-than-desirable directions. Gender equality means acknowledging that hormones probably make everyone a little nuts sometimes.

      1) "Some combination thereof"?

      2) I'm pretty sure there's a specific biological function that the female sex plays in nature which probably makes their experiences with hormones just a tad different from those who are biologically male.

    3. OldMexican   11 years ago

      It is nothing but incredibly bad writing from the first sentence to the last.

      I - I have to go wash my eyes with caustic soda. I'll be right back...

    4. Warty   11 years ago

      Gender equality means acknowledging that hormones probably make everyone a little nuts sometimes. Not just women.

      Women get crazy when they have their periods, and so do men. Or something. I think.

  59. OldMexican   11 years ago

    Shriek's 8%, explained

    A reference to Shrike's posting of a phony poll (presumably from Kaiser) which presumably shows that 8% of the population like the ACA just the way it is while 46% or something just wanted it changed or tweaked, from whence the blog to which he linked proclaims the Republirats are in trouble or something.

    The joke is that the 8% is Shrike (Buttwipe) and his cousins in southern Kentucky, where you don't want to make a wrong turn if you catch my drift (wink, wink!).

    1. OldMexican   11 years ago

      Ohh, end-of-looooong-work-day grammar. Please, forgive me, Lord!

    2. Tonio   11 years ago

      Thanks.

      Ego te absolvo.

  60. Coeus   11 years ago

    Man provides food, shelter and drugs for women in exchange for sex. He is arrested and charged with rape and imprsonment, despite the fact he never restrained or assaulted them. Commenters decide that this is a perfect example of why it's ok to hate all men.

    1. Warty   11 years ago

      You realize that you're poisoning yourself by reading all this shit.

      1. Coeus   11 years ago

        Ahh, clicked a link today and got stuck. It's like tv tropes, but all the tropes are related to stupidity.

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