Lois Lerner Pleads Fifth Again, Obama's DOJ Pick Rejected, Gun Control Comes to Facebook: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: PoliticalActivityLaw.com / Foter / CC BY-ND

  Former IRS official Lois Lerner once again invoked the Fifth Amendment before a House Oversight Committee hearing about the targeting of Tea Party groups and declined to answer questions.

• The Senate has rejected Debo Adegbile as President Barack Obama's pick to run the Department of Justice's civil rights division. He drew opposition for his work defending Mumia Abu-Jabal. Seven Democrats voted against the pick.
• Under pressure from gun control groups, Facebook will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and will take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.
• A United Nations special envoy was forced to abandon a mission in the Crimean region of Ukraine by apparent armed supporters of Russia.
• Washington State has issued its first business license to legally sell recreational marijuana.
• Major changes are afoot for SAT tests. Obscure vocabulary words are going to be deleted, as well as the mandatory essay. But calculators will no longer be permitted in some of the math sections.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Senate has rejected Debo Adegbile as President Barack Obama's pick to run the Department of Justice's civil rights division.

Check you're not violating any sacred cows before you nominate someone next time, Barry.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

I bleed the 5th.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Facebook will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and will take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.

Way to speed your own decline, Facebook.

[waffles]

This actually makes them more popular with the "right" people. Facebook, Reddit, and many other social networking type places have made pushing progressive politics a solid side project to their websites. Will it pay off?

Meh.

[GILMORE]

"Look, everybody agrees with progressive issues."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Until they realize they have to pay for it.

[rts]

VPD to feds: We won't enforce new pot law

Vancouver police say they won't bust down the doors of the city's many illegal medical marijuana dispensaries April 1 when a new federal law will delegate weed production and distribution to a handful of licensed premises.

Coun. Kerry Jang ? who closely watches health issues ? minced no words, saying the city believes the federal law interferes with the right of people to access medicine. As a result, the city won't make any extraordinary efforts to shut down "professionally run" medical marijuana dispensaries, even though most operate without city business licenses.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Vancouver has always been laid back regarding drugs.

[mad libertarian guy]

Yes they have.

I was in Vancouver the day they arrested Marc Emery, and I can say emphatically that smoking weed in public, with cops everywhere is not a problem. I did it multiple times, and not always at some rally regarding Emery. There is a cafe there (The New Amsterdam Cafe) that is a pot friendly joint that is right on a public street, and the cops don't give a shit at all. You can't buy weed there, buy you can smoke it in any fashion you desire.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I learned that having visited in 1995. The guys we were with took me a couple of buddies to a park and they just lit up as the cops looked on from a distance. 'No troubles. Cops here aren't as harsh as back east' noticing our concerns.

[Sudden]

I smell more weed walking around the streets of Downtown Los Angeles than I did walking down the streets of Amsterdam.

[Winston]

So does this count as an American style Pot Law?

[Gene]

The new Health Canada regulations regarding med-pot are beyond contempt.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Canada has a few laws on the books that are beyond contempt. Quebec alone has a couple that are a travesty against civil liberties.

[Winston]

the right of people to access medicine

So private healthcare and an end to drug regulations?

[Cytotoxic]

Before any of you get the wrong idea, Vancouver is NOT the place you want to be. City council is insane pinko. This is broken clock-ism.

[mad libertarian guy]

Agreed.

But if you like pot, Vancouver is a fantastic place to visit.

[rts]

Absolutely agree. I meant to add something to the effect of "broken clock" after the block quote, but was in a hurry to beat Fist for first.

[Tejicano]

So, double fail...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Seriously.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A United Nations special envoy was forced to abandon a mission in the Crimean region of Ukraine by apparent armed supporters of Russia.

No one respects the blue helmet anymore.

[jesse.in.mb]

Anymore? Are you just posting from the mid-'90s?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I was talking about a certain brand of prophylactic. Anyway, you're just another one of my cock puppets so why should I even have to explain myself to you?

[Gene]

cock puppets

Can't let that die, eh.

[jesse.in.mb]

No, it's fair. I deserve a bit of flogging for that mistake.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maybe if you did a little less sexting as the kids call it, these kinds of slip ups wouldn't happen.

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe if you did a little less sexting as the kids call it, these kinds of slip ups wouldn't happen.

That's very likely true.

[seguin]

You don't talk to your cock puppets?

[Brandon]

Under pressure from gun control groups, Facebook will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and will take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.

Gun control groups: Following prohibitionists into history's dustbin, kicking and screaming.

[Episiarch]

Under pressure from gun control groups, Facebook will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and will take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.

Well that's the last straw! See how often I post on Facebook or pay attention to it no...oh wait.

[SIV]

Shut you dick-smacker you whiny little cunt.

[Episiarch]

Uh oh, butthurt! Was Wapner not on, Rain Man?

[SIV]

The quality of my stalkers has dropped precipitously.

[Ted S.]

Does Mary Stack stalk your blog?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Ted has a blog? Why haven't I heard about it yet?

[SIV]

How do you think I have so many followers.

[Ted S.]

You'd only have that many followers if Tulpa stalked your blog.

[RBS]

Are you the the Ted S. that got a letter published in the April issue?

[Ted S.]

I didn't read the April issue, but I didn't send them any letters. I did write an email once when commenting here was broken, though.

[SIV]

As you can see I have the lamest of stalkers.

[Episiarch]

Oh Rain Man, this is just sad. You don't have stalkers, you're just a little bitter insecure idiot who obsessively posts about "cosmos" and other assorted moronic shit. Getting called out for it isn't stalking, little guy. One day, when you've memorized all the numbers on the passing trains, you'll understand that.

Now, are you ready to go to K-Mart?

[SIV]

obsessive repetitive posts?

[SIV]

PROJECTION

[Almanian!]

Someone needs a nap. THEN you can watch Wapner.

[Episiarch]

COSMOS!!!

Hold on, let me do you again.

COSMOS!!!

Did I get it right, Rain Man?

[Almanian!]

I always hated that show. AND Carl fucking Sagan.

That's what you're talking a....ohhhhhhhh, right.

*slowly backs out of room*

[BigT]

Almanian!|3.5.14 @ 4:49PM|#|?|filternamelinkcustom

I always hated that show. AND Carl fucking Sagan.

COSMOS was overly dramatic, but interesting. Sagan was the best. You need to read a few of his books - Dragons of Eden would be my recommendation.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

Dragons of Eden was going to be my recommendation as well. In fact, I need to track down my copy and read it again.

... Hobbit

[SIV]

I see you're off the Pamprin again.

[Cytotoxic]

I think SIV's handle has been jacked. Happened to 'Jordan' earlier.

[jesse.in.mb]

Troll didn't jack Jordan's handle he just posted as "Jordan.". Close enough that people might not notice. If SIV has been jacked, Troll has either worked much harder and has actually logged in as him, or used non-standard characters to mimic his handle AND bothered to include SIV's outgoing link.

[Ted S.]

+1 million likes from yentas playing Candy Crush Saga on Facebook

[Ted S.]

Everybody's going to decamp to Myspace.

[Rich]

take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.

Well, OK. Along as FB takes down *all* posts that don't require a background check.

[Pro Libertate]

She plead the Fifth? Wasn't there some sort of ruling that she'd waived that right? Am I getting my constitutional crisis?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I think they claimed she waived it by making a prepared statement.

[Pro Libertate]

It was the House that said that, wasn't it, not a court. Which still can create a nice crisis. Let us commence the ruckus.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

P.S. I didn't get my chance last night, so I'm going tonight.

[Pro Libertate]

Here's my place.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's much nicer than my place, and it has Aji Amarillo, while mine does not.

[Pro Libertate]

We've got lots of South American options here.

[110 Lean]

Lots of Ecuadoran in Minneapolis. Good stuff.

[jesse.in.mb]

Damn it, you two were the ones who got me craving Peruvian.

[Pro Libertate]

My place has something like 10-12 ceviches, just to get started. We always get the ceviche sampler. Which is one reason we almost never get dessert there (we went one time just for some tres leche, which was awesome).

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm partial to the ceviche a coworker makes. I usually avoid it when out if I don't know anyone who can vouch for it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

EDG recommended a ceviche place around here and I gave it a try. The ceviche tostada was $1. Good, but a little bit scary at that price.

[jesse.in.mb]

See, I'd take the risk based on EDG's recommendation.

[Pro Libertate]

There's a fish dive here (Keegan's--actually featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) that I really like that has a very nice scallop ceviche. They also have a conch ceviche, but I haven't tried that yet. That place is really good.

[PD Scott]

Things to do in Berlin: visit the Stasi museum.
FTA:
"The museum shows many of the bizarre ways the totalitarian regime used to spy on it's citizens. Microphones hidden inside church hymn books, wrist watches with wire taps that ran up your sleeve, one of the most peculiar methods even involved the use of sniffer dogs. This latter method involved hiding cotton squares under seat cushions, then after the suspect left their seat, the cotton square was removed from the seat and placed in an airtight jar. Dogs could then be used to track that person based on the scent they left behind."

[Bam!]

The cotton square thing was depicted in The Lives of Others. I didn't know it was a real thing.

[Tonio]

The Spy Museum in Washington, DC, has some of those jars and a good section on Stasi.

[db]

I visited the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. The Stasi museum would be an.interesting counterpoint to that.

[Winston]

Well Communists were part of the Resistance....

[Brandon]

Major changes are afoot for SAT tests. Obscure vocabulary words are going to be deleted, as well as the mandatory essay. But calculators will no longer be permitted in some of the math sections.

This is totes a gr8 idea. Obscure words and writing are, like, hard and stuff.

[Stormy Dragon]

The purpose of the test is supposedly to measure one's aptitude for college level work. Memorizing lists of words no one uses outside the SAT test doesn't really measure that very well.

[Brandon]

Um, if you've actually been to college, memorizing lists of words no one uses measures aptitude for it very well.

[Stormy Dragon]

I have both a BS in Comp Sci with minors in Math and Physics and an MS in Comp Sci. Based on my experience, memorization wasn't the most useful area of intellect even then, and it's gotten increasingly less and less useful as I've gotten older.

In an age where we can look up nearly any fact in a matter of seconds, being able to use facts is far more important than being able to recall them without looking.

[PD Scott]

Sure, unless you go on Jeopardy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

But you have to be as good with clicker I reckon.

[Comrade Donkey Punch]

For some subjects information retrieval is king, but facts will only get you so far with putting them into context (knowledge formation).

There's a good book out describing this called "The Dumbest Generation" written by Mark Bauerlein.

[Pro Libertate]

It's really hard not to be worried about things, even though I'm amazingly aware that every generation thinks the new one is THE END OF THE WORLD.

What has appalled me is meeting kids who are getting great grades, doing well on the SAT, and are complete and utter morons. There's always been some of that, but it seems even more true today. Heck if I know why that is. Then again, I don't know why kids want to live at home forever, either.

[Comrade Donkey Punch]

I hell if I know about kids wanting to live at home. My mom told us once we hit 18 she couldn't really tell us what to do, but even then I didn't want to live at home.

My sister and brother are perfect examples of what you're describing. They excel in book-smarts but fail on a lot of practical common sense things. I tend to find people have a mixture of book-smarts and common sense, but many really smart people lack the latter.

[Invisible Finger]

My mom told us once we hit 18 she couldn't really tell us what to do

My Dad said the only thing he could tell us to do when we turned 18 is leave the house immediately.

[Tejicano]

I cannot fathom any reason why somebody would still live with their parents after finishing high school. To me it is on the level of deviant sex (without any possible moral issues).

When I turned 18 I had already finished boot camp and was in a platoon with the First Marine Division.

[Invisible Finger]

Being able to figure out the meaning of words you've never heard before is actually a test of one's logic abilities.

Perhaps that belongs in the math section of the test.

[Bam!]

College-level work? Then the new test is presumably measuring ones willingness to be indoctrinated?

[Pro Libertate]

What? Back a couple of decades ago, before they adjusted the SAT way down, it was still a fucking cakewalk.

[Almanian!]

Yeah. The whole point is, "does it predict 'success' in college in some meaningful way." And - mostly - yeah, it's pretty useful for that, still.

Cause *college* is way dumbed the fuck down, too.

Everyone wins! And gets a participation ribbon!!!

[RBS]

I thought it only predicted freshman year success? Or is that the LSAT to predicts you might make it through 1L?

[Pro Libertate]

Heck if I know what correlation the LSAT could possibly have with law school success. Just like I can't figure what law school has to do with the bar exam. I could've easily passed the bar without going to law school--just taking the bar review course.

For the record, I did well on both the LSAT and in law school (and passed the bar with ease), but I don't think that those things are very obviously connected.

[mad libertarian guy]

The whole point is, "does it predict 'success' in college in some meaningful way."

I'd argue that it never did.

I did terrible on the SAT (and the ACT) and good but not great on the GRE, but now have an MA and did extremely well in school.

The only this most of these tests do is measure how well you can take that test.

[SIV]

ETS just decided one day that an 800 score would be a 1000.

That was after they decided antonym analogies only measured white male privilege.

[DRM]

Well, the essays were a pile of shit when it came to evaluating "good writing" anyway. Nice to see they're going away; too bad they cam in in the first place.

[Rich]

The SAT's rarefied vocabulary words will be replaced by words that are common in college courses, such as "empirical" and "synthesis." The math questions, now scattered widely across many topics, will focus more narrowly on linear equations, functions and proportional thinking.

IOW, the SAT is being dumbed down.

[Jordan]

Honestly, though, is it really? The essay has only been in place for what, a decade? And using the number of esoteric vocabulary words someone can memorize as a proxy for college-readyness doesn't make much sense.

[Rich]

"Essay"? Is that one of those words common in college courses?

[Jordan]

I don't think college students were noticeably worse writers in the several decades during which the SAT didn't have an essay section.

[Almanian!]

Um, that's kind of why the essay was added. In my experience, recent grads are noticably and consistently HORRID writers (at work - I could give a fuck about elsewhere). HORRID.

I revel in always having to rewrite my "communications coach"es newsletters. She's clearly smart, can put two sentences together...just not nearly as well as I, who does not have a Masters in "Speech and Communications" like she does and did not major in English or writing or whatever and wrote better in fucking high school than current college grads.

But other than that - the essay test was TOTALLY needed before they instituted it, cause twenty, thirty years ago, people totally needed it. Or something.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Um, that's kind of why the essay was added. In my experience, recent grads are noticably and consistently HORRID writers (at work - I could give a fuck about elsewhere). HORRID.

I saw this as a TA in grad school back in the late 90s-early 00s. Probably 85% of the students in class couldn't write a decent five-paragraph standard essay if someone was holding a gun to their head.

That experience was the first step in opening up my eyes to the fact that trying to cram everyone through a college degree program was counter-productive to our country's social and economic health.

[BSubversive.com]

Who needs actual paragraphs? Can they squeeze an entire thought into 140 characters? This is the 21st century, if you can't get your point across in a single tweet, nobody cares.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

This is the 21st century, if you can't get your point across in a single tweet, nobody cares.

Well, there is a reason that SOTU addresses have been declining in vocabularic depth and complexity.

http://www.theguardian.com/wor.....ding-level

[mad libertarian guy]

My TA experience (both teaching composition and 1-on-1 tutoring at the writing center) from 03-07 was the same. College kids suck donkey balls at writing.

During my final semester teaching, I made a bet with myself. I challenged myself to guess whether particular students were publicly or privately educated based only on their writing. I was 100% correct. Government school are completely failing students, not teaching them very simple things that should be learned long before they get to college, but are never corrected in a decade of schooling.

[Invisible Finger]

So what you're saying is that people wrote better when then had to know a bunch of obscure words rather than write an essay on a test.

The problem with essays is that the people writing them don't read the essay. I had a couple teachers in high school that would read the shittiest essays in front of the class. They'd never mention the students by name, but it sure got the point across.

[DRM]

Except the essay test as implemented was a shitstorm of incompetence that lead to SAT prep groups actively teaching bad writing to max points on the test.

[Pro Libertate]

Does the essay even count for anything?

[Jordan]

One-third of your score, I believe.

[Pro Libertate]

You mean people actually read them? I find this highly unlikely.

[Jordan]

I'm super serial, yo.

[Pro Libertate]

So, um, human beings are scoring these essays? What are their qualifications?

There was an essay on the LSAT when I took it, but it didn't affect your score.

[Jordan]

All I know is that the graders are high school and college teachers.

[Pro Libertate]

We do not approve.

[Invisible Finger]

You mean people actually read them? I find this highly unlikely.

They read them like peer review journals.

[Almanian!]

Is this gonna be on the test?

*stink eye*

[SIV]

If you can't figure the right answer off of root and context you're not smart enough to learn it by memorization.

[mad libertarian guy]

I disagree.

But I would agree if what you mean is that they won't retain said knowledge after the test is over.

[hamilton]

"Rarefied"? "Linear"? "Proportional"? Oooh look at me mommy I'm bloody frickin' Shakespeare here.

[Almanian!]

Who does he think he is, king or something?

[Pro Libertate]

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king. . . .

[Banjos]

Baby Reason doing her morning chores.

Baby Reason rearranging our fridge.

Baby Reason playing the drums.

[Brandon]

Coddlers! She should be down in the mines by now!

[Mad Scientist]

When she gets older, she's going to hate that name. No one wants to go through life being called Baby.

[Brandon]

At least nobody will put her in a corner.

[Rich]

Hey, what are Justin Bieber fans, chopped liver?

[Mickey Rat]

One can hope.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

OMG CUTEST EVAR

[Banjos]

The best part is that none of these pictures were staged. I found her in the bathroom trying to clean the toilet (she also tried putting the brush in her mouth afterward because, well she is a toddler and all). I turn my back on her while helping sloopy cook breakfast and she is moving the condiments from the door to the bottom of the fridge. I hear someone drumming in the other room and find her drumming all on her own. My baby is awesome and superior.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

She most definitely is.

[Banjos]

Congrats on the engagement. Do you have a registry set up yet and are any of us invited?

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Thanks! I'll email you guys when I have a registry. Someone doesn't like making planning decisions.

[Stormy Dragon]

Awesome? Or just obsessive-compulsive?

[Banjos]

Awesome, obsessive-compulsive, Aspergers, same difference.

[Raven Nation]

Hater.

[Cytotoxic]

Give her mining equipment and treats for bringing back diamonds or whatever you want mined.

[mad libertarian guy]

My baby is awesome and superior.

Get back to me when you're potty training. You probably won't be so beaming with pride when she shits on the floor for the fourth time in an afternoon, all immediately after she just got off of the toilet without so much as a drop in it.

Yes. I'm currently potty training. And my super sweet boy has turned out to be a shit monster.

[Tejicano]

My oldest (5 now) was having a tough time with it (2-1/2 at the time) until I got my wife to back off on the pressure. Stay calm and let him know what he is supposed to be doing.

My younger one was pretty easy - had one turd on the floor but after that everything in the bowl. He even started wiping himself at about 3.

They're all different.

[RBS]

You should have known Bart Simpson would be a bad influence.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Oh yeah?
My kid likes good beer.

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

My daughter told me that Deviant Dale's was "the worst thing she'd ever tasted".

I'm starting to think that kids don't understand beer.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Boy, cute kids have been produced.

I've been teaching my kid to dip some good bread in wine.

[Warty]

OMG MY OVARIES ARE THROBBING

Also, they have Krogers in California?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Ralph's, owned by Kroger's and uses their store brand.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

BTW, thanks for letting me "borrow" Liberty. I'm feeling a little better about the baby situation now.

[Banjos]

You are quite welcome. Despite everything I was told before having children, babies are easy. I mean really, really easy. I have a lot of free time on my hands. There are times when both babies are upset and need something and it gets a little hectic, but it settles back down right away. The only hard part are midnight feedings, which for both babies stopped at three months. Even teething was easy with Reason. Either other people's baby suck, other people grossly exaggerate how hard it is to raise a baby, or something in between. Most likely it is something in between.

[Spoonman.]

Three months in, it just doesn't seem that hard. It's work, sure, but it's not rocket science.

[mad libertarian guy]

Babies are easy. Toddlers, not so much.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I remember it being easier much earlier on. Now, the hardest part about having a 2 year old and a 6 year old is that they compete for attention. If they don't get it, then they start competing for negative attention. Shit escalates really quickly.

[Almanian!]

SQUEEEEEE! YEAH, I SAID IT!

Daughter #2 is due for her first the first week of May. Can't wait! Esp cause I GET TO GIVE HER/HIM BACK WHEN WE
RE DONE WITH IT!

Couldn't get her to consider naming it "Cosmo" or "Virginia" or "Nick". I'm still hopeful "Lucy" is in the running...

Good work, Banjos!

[Almanian!]

Uh, and "sloopy" - whatever, I'm sure you're contributing...something

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

First grandkid?

[110 Lean]

DON'T TALK ABOUT LUCY!

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

Cutie.

[Juice]

You have a lot of salad dressing.

[Swiss Servator, alles klar?]

That looks like artisanal mustard!!!

[Mad Scientist]

Under pressure from gun control groups, Facebook will block minors from seeing posts about gun sales and will take down posts about gun sales that don't require a background check.

I knew porn, alcohol, and cigarettes were immoral and needed to be kept away from the innocent widdle children. It is a great relief to me to discover one of my other favorite things is only fit for scoundrels and blackguards as well.

[Almanian!]

I didn't know you were such a Facebook whore - I'll note that. Thanks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former IRS official Lois Lerner once again invoked the Fifth Amendment before a House Oversight Committee hearing about the targeting of Tea Party groups and declined to answer questions.

Everyone gets constitutional protections, even - no, especially - government officials.

[Pope Jimbo]

Why don't they offer her immunity and then compel her to testify? Isn't that the deal? If you get immunity than you can't plead the 5th.

That is how Ollie North beat his rap if I remember correctly.

I'd rather let Lerner go free and get her on record testifying that yes they really were targeting people for political reasons and yes she got her orders from the administration.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What's she going to testify to? That Obama or his staff told her to do it? She's as high up as you're going to get.

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, but then you could get the Ollie North result. If you give her immunity, she could just claim that it was her idea, she was responsible for everything and no one else knew anything. Then you have no case against anyone else and she can't be punished.

[Real American]

you don't offer immunity unless you know what she's gonna say.

[SIV]

Major changes are afoot for SAT tests. Obscure vocabulary words are going to be deleted

That's one way to get scores up.

[Pro Libertate]

Over half of my daughter's graduating class is graduating with a 4.0 or better and gets to wear a white "honors" gown.

As a comparison, in the same county (albeit many years ago), my class had about twenty people--not percent--out of a class of many hundreds who got to wear the white.

[Warty]

White to remind the dorks that they were too busy studying to be cool enough to have sex, I presume.

[Pro Libertate]

This may be true at some schools, but not at mine. Lots of partying and sleaziness in that group. Then again, my class included someone who appeared in Playboy and someone who was elected to Congress.

[Warty]

NERRRRRRR...Wait, did you say tits? PICS YOU IDIOT

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

They (the tits) are probably old by now.

[Invisible Finger]

Old pics of young tits are fine.

[db]

In my high.school the honor students did more and more.varied drugs than anyone else. I was in.the minority of top.students.that did not.partake.

[Warty]

Probably in mine, too, but that's probably mostly because they were the rich kids.

[Warty]

Probably in mine, too, but that's probably mostly because they were the rich kids.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It's just like Harvard!

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, indeed. Thanks for the grade inflation, Ivy League! What a great way of disguising who is actually smart and who got in for other reasons.

[SIV]

You're in Florida. That 4.0 or better gives it away. In Georgia you couldn't have a GPA higher than 4.0.

[Pro Libertate]

When I was in school, you could exceed a 4.0, but only by like .25. That was getting straight As and taking every AP class available (which was the only source of extra points).

Now--again, in the same county--they're graduating with over 6.0. It's all meaningless, yet it also still matters come college time. Obviously, the universities adjust the scores back to reality (tossing "nonacademic" classes, even), but it's all a sordid mess.

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, I had a sophomore in one of my classes a couple of years back who graduated with a 4.25 and told me she had never studied a day in her life.

She realized after the first exam in my class that she was going to need to study.

[mad libertarian guy]

Where I grew up in FL, technically you could get above a 5.0.

An A in a regular class counts as 4 points, an honors class is 5, and an AP class is 6.

[Raven Nation]

And all of that basically renders a high school GPA meaningless.

[sloopyinca]

Yeah, those prosecutors out there always drop charges against "civilians" that pull this kind of shit.

Both will have no criminal record and both will be able to collect their full pensions.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Microsoft is Still Sexist

The company's newest ad campaign, coined "Honestly," features a bride-to-be sitting with her friends. Thanks to her shrewd decision to forgo an Apple laptop for a Windows touchscreen, they can now optimize new-fangled technology to check Pinterest and search for the wedding band.

[Mickey Rat]

It is horrible to suggest that women often go to great lengths planning their weddings.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

They seem to care more than men do. So sad.

AND SEXIST!

[Pope Jimbo]

I think that it should be socially acceptable for women to replace their men with life size cardboard cutouts of them. Everyone would be happier.

Guys wouldn't be browbeaten into wasting a nice spring/summer day sitting around in their fancy clothes and women wouldn't have to put up with their guys bitching and moaning the entire time.

I also include the groom in this. No one is more useless at a wedding than the groom.

[califernian]

and nothing is more useless than his cock after the wedding

[Winston]

Isn't it homophobic too?

[grrizzly]

the word you're looking for is heteronormative

[Ted S.]

It's funny because it's true.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Yeah, the thing to be pissed about is that anyone likes Pinterest. And that anyone does it pretty clear the fault of...well, I think we all know.

[seguin]

You? Because, from what I hear around here, you're the worst.

[B.P.]

Windows 8 sucks. Tablets and personal computers are two different things.

That is all.

[Invisible Finger]

Not anymore, you old fart.

[Jarl ? the booty]

On the one hand, Windows 8 (non-RT) tablets use x86(_64) and UEFI and are indeed just PCs in a different form factor.

On the other, the proper UI paradigm for a handheld device with capacative touchscreen is quite different for a PC with keyboard, mouse, and it didn't make sense for Microsoft to try to unify them, at least as much as it did.

Windows 8.1 was a step in the right direction and the rumored upcoming update of it should help, too.

[waffles]

I read that as sexiest and was momentarily confused.

[Jarl ? the booty]

Sounds like somebody can't find a husband.

[sloopyinca]

I guess if you're a cop in Louisville, KY you can get caught punching someone in the face and not even have your name released to the public.

[Mickey Rat]

Crying wolf.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/sto.....id=9454270

[PapayaSF]

We seem to be approaching hate crime/fake hate crime parity.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Two US geographic charts - GDP vs SNAP recipients:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.....g-for.html

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Nice USA Today style infograpic, bro.

Look guys, John McCain won the election in 2008! See?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

LOL at this dumbass:

A bunch of people in Texas and Dixie want to secede to shed liberal America from their more perfect union. Fine. Quietly, a lot of liberals are sharing the sentiment. If we as a nation can't get started on solving our real problems, those voices are going to start growing much louder.

http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html

[Cytotoxic]

What the hell is that first pic even supposed to demonstrate? That Detroit is a bustling contributor to American prosperity?

The second one doesn't even make much of a point.

[Juice]

I don't think they want to put a racial demographic map up after that.

[Juice]

Also: http://xkcd.com/1138/

[PapayaSF]

Nice.

[tarran]

As a court-sanctioned SAT counsellor, I see examples every day of people who would never have voluntarily expanded their vocabulary if they weren't forced to by the courts and law enforcement. Nobody seeks counselling for something they feel is pointless, even if it's sapping the will to live from their brain every time they do it. You talk about 'freedom' but what kind of freedom is that, where you don't want to do what's necessary to become more well-rounded? Sometimes you have to force people to become free.

[Episiarch]

Not bad, but it's not Tulpathetic enough.

[tarran]

What I think is marvelous is how malleable the statement is.

It's so content free, that you can replace a handful of words and get a peevish and derpy pronouncement on any subject.

[db]

What's it from?

[tarran]

One of Tulpa's sock puppetts. Apparently it was intended to "educate us" about underrepresented-on-Reason yet legitimate viewpoints.

[Invisible Finger]

Tulpa should seek counseling for his inferiority complex. Or maybe we should force him since he wants us to.

But I'd just prefer he die from his own hand.

[Pope Jimbo]

I didn't think it was possible, but I guess it is.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Do you have an automated script for that yet?

[tarran]

That's an awesome idea!

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

You talk about 'freedom' but what kind of freedom is that, where you don't want to do what's necessary to become more well-rounded?

Did he really write that?

I learned so much from that viewpoint.

[Max Power]

Someone asked this morning about examples of the free market ending discrimination without the government. I was late to the thread, but I thought of one that no one mentioned. Benny Goodman was one of the first musicians to integrate his band, and actually couldn't tour in the south because of Jim Crow laws. But he was popular enough that he could deal with the financial hit.

[Mad Scientist]

Benny would also threaten to pack up the band and leave a performance if the owner or promoter insisted that black musicians couldn't take the stage.

[John]

Music and sports did more to integrate this country than anything.

[Max Power]

Especial in jazz, if you wanted the best musicians you'd better hire some black guys.

[John]

And it is difficult to be a real racist when you are listening to black music. You can and some sure do. But it is not easy.

[Warty]

This story made the rounds a few months ago, about a black boogie-woogie piano player who made friends with all the KKK members in Maryland and pretty much shut down the organization because of it.

[John]

That is awesome. What a great American.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This is awesome. And all accomplished without the government!

[Warty]

Or Paul Brown winning a shitload of football games because he had the gall to sign black players.

[John]

The Cleveland Browns were the favorite team of black America for 20 years because of that.

It is good to remember Jackie Robinson. But it would be nice if the media bothered to mention the Browns and the Celtics once in a while as well.

[Raven Nation]

Or even mention Branch Rickey every now and then.

[Invisible Finger]

The Celtics were AFTER Robinson joined the Dodgers, so who gives a fuck. The Chicago Cardinals would be a better choice.

[John]

Different sport. And Robinson wasn't the head coach. Bill Russell was. Also they were the first team to have an all black starting line up

[tarran]

When I rise to power, Slayer's Blood Red, a lovely anti-communist song, will be my nation's national anthem.

That is all.

[sloopyinca]

You want to know the real reason for qualified immunity? It's so that pieces of shit like this can keep their jobs even after they do their best to destroy someone's life.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sloopyinca, he was just doing his job. Lighten up!

[Terr]

Many of the comments are great though.

[Rich]

Obama called the failed vote a "travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks against a good and qualified public servant."

What?! No "vast right-wing conspiracy"?

[John]

It was a bi-partisan rejection. Who knew the Democrats in the Senate were also racist tea baggers?

[John]

http://www.theguardian.com/wor.....P=SOCxx2I2

A leading US senator has said that President Obama knew of an "unprecedented action" taken by the CIA against the Senate intelligence committee, which has apparently prompted an inspector general's inquiry at Langley.

The subtle reference in a Tuesday letter from Senator Mark Udall to Obama, seeking to enlist the president's help in declassifying a 6,300-page inquiry by the committee into torture carried out by CIA interrogators after 9/11, threatens to plunge the White House into a battle between the agency and its Senate overseers.

McClatchy and the New York Times reported Wednesday that the CIA had secretly monitored computers used by committee staffers preparing the inquiry report, which is said to be scathing not only about the brutality and ineffectiveness of the agency's interrogation techniques but deception by the CIA to Congress and policymakers about it. The CIA sharply disputes the committee's findings.

Am I the only one who thinks this, if true, is the biggest scandal since Watergate? If the Dems in the Senate are okay with Obama using the CIA to spy on them, then we are finished as a Republic.

Yeah yeah, I know many people think we have long since been finished. But spare me that point and consider whether this is as big of a milestone in the death of our Republic as it seems to be.

[tarran]

Yeah yeah, I know many people think we have long since been finished. But spare me that point and consider whether this is as big of a milestone in the death of our Republic as it seems to be.

It was so predictable - basically it's a move straight out of J. Edgar Hoover's playbook. And frankly, the worthless, collosal fuckups that are the CIA would naturally resort to this stupidity to see if their utter incompetence was again going to be shown to the world.

With that being said, it is a big deal. For checks and balances to work, the other branches have to reign in the rogue branch!

If any congressmen care at all about rule of law, they need to start impeaching people... now.

[John]

And people need to be indicted over this, now. Anyone in the CIA or executive or had a hand in bugging Congress needs to go to prison. And if Holder won't go after them, he needs to be impeached and replaced with someone who will.

Maybe I am too optimistic. I find it hard to believe that even the Democrats in Congress will put up with this shit. Forget Team Red versus Team Blue. This is personal

[Libertymike]

Who is going to play Goldwater to Obama's Nixon?

[John]

Schummer. It has to be killing him to see Lizzy Warren get all of the Prog love. Finally letting progs get their smug back over civil liberties would get him a lot of love.

[Libertymike]

In a way, I would be more impressed by Schumer playing that role than Goldwater. You?

My reasoning is that Schumer is far closer (ideologically - who knows personally?) to Obama than Goldwater was to Nixon. Plus, given what I have read, Goldwater couldn't stand Dick Nixon.

[John]

I only say Schummer because I know he is depraved enough to do anything if he thinks it will advance his personal cause.

[paranoid android]

If these allegations are true, then the President and his men are committing crimes against members of Congress, the supposed representatives of the people.

If Congress does not pull out all of the stops to find the truth and jail those responsible--then in my view, they've lost any claim to legitimacy as representatives of the polity.

[John]

I agree.

[Raven Nation]

Well, it definitely is a big deal. But I would be hesitant to rank it as worse than the NSA stuff or the IRS stuff b/c if you say that spying on Congress is worse than spying on the people, aren't you implying that Congress is more important than the people?

[Raven Nation]

And, could it be possible for me to write more of a run-on sentence than that?

[paranoid android]

I suppose I should have appended "if they haven't already" to my comment.

I don't think that Congress is more important than other people or that spying on them is "worse", but this situation seems a little different because there cannot be any rational justification for this, even a sham one. Obama can't convince people that Congress is full of terrorists and that spying on them is paramount to protecting the country. With the NSA stuff Obama could at least make hazy claims about only going after criminals and keeping the country safe--this is just pure, naked, universally-recognized abuse of power.

[Raven Nation]

OK, I follow your reasoning there and it makes sense.

I guess it is just getting hard to figure which is the bigger crime committed by these guys. A few months back a friend of mine asked which I thought was the worst. I thought through Benghazi, NSA, IRS, & couldn't come up with a definitive answer.

[Invisible Finger]

Obama can't convince people that Congress is full of terrorists

I'm already convinced that the executive, legislative, and judicial branch are mostly filled with terrorists.

He IS the Chocolate Nixon after all.

[CatoTheElder]

The scope of constitutional usurpation and official corruption over the past twenty years is so vast, and the list of offenders so extensive, that a few token indictments will make little difference. The selection of a few scapegoats won't change much, will serve only to cover up the full scope of usurpation and corruption, and will only make government even more expensive and less effective.

A full-blown truth and reconciliation commission that offers limited immunity to those who voluntarily come forward with a full and truthful confession and severe justice for those who do not is really necessary to educate the public regarding their government. In a republic with democratic representation, that is the only way such abuses can be prevented in future.

[Nick M]

Fake Scandal!!!!!!

I hope I'm wrong about this, but with all the other nonsense that's already happened without being examined, why would anyone start to care now?

[mad libertarian guy]

This.

It will be swept under the rug by the media at large, and nothing will come of it.

[CatoTheElder]

Yeah.

At this point, what difference does it make?

[PD Scott]

If you're a well-heeled photographer and the newest professional DSLRs just don't do it for you, Hasselblad now has a 50 megapixel medium format CMOS sensored camera for only $27,500. $30,000 with lens.
FTA:
"One of the key improvements is lower-light performance. An ISO range of 100-6400, up from ISO 50-800 in the H5D-50, means the H5D-50c will not have to be confined to the perfect lighting conditions of a studio. Shutter speeds also now range from 1/800 sec up to 12 minutes, where they previously maxed out at two minutes. The H5D-50c can shoot at 1.5 fps compared to the 1.1 fps of its predecessor."

[John]

So given the rate of technological advance, I can expect my smart phone to take as good of pictures as this thing in what, five years?

[Almanian!]

lulz

[PapayaSF]

Sorry, no. Having big sensors and big lenses will always give real cameras an advantage.

[John]

The laws of physics are racist.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

y no hubble on the samsung s5?

[PD Scott]

Well, not really. Sensor size is important, especially if you want to print larger copies. You can cram plenty of pixels on to a sensor but the image will have a lot of noise on it. This article on Gizmag explains it pretty well:
"Think about it this way, if you had a compact camera with a typically small image sensor, its photosites would be dwarfed by those of a DSLR with the same number of megapixels, but a much bigger sensor. Able to gain more information, the large DSLR photosites would be capable of turning out photos with better dynamic range, less noise and improved low light performance than its smaller-sensored sibling. Which as we know, makes for happy photographers."

Not to say you can't get nice photos with a smaller sensor (and some of it is probably snobbishness) but generally bigger is better.

[John]

Sure bigger is better. That is what your wife always tells me.

I kid. But yeah I was just being a smart ass. The laws of optics are a harsh mistress.

But it is still amazing to consider how good the quality of video you can get from a phone.

[Gene]

That would be awesome on the focus end of my Celestron.

[SIV]

It's a Sony sensor. Pentax (Ricoh) is using the same one in the new 645

[CampingInYourPark]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Severe weather across much of the United States took a toll on shopping and consumer spending in recent weeks, leading to slower economic growth or outright contraction in some areas of the country, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Progress will be stymied unless we can find a way to ban winter

[John]

It is always bad luck.

[PD Scott]

Clearly winter is racist, the way it blankets the countryside with white snow.

[Invisible Finger]

Seems to me people are always working MORE in winter, it's just shifting from one sector of the economy to the other. Weather, by definition, has ZERO effect on the macro economy.

[General Butt Naked]

I've been putting in tons of overtime this winter. Can't beat time and a half instead of being miserably shut in at home talking to you fuckers.

Funny thing is that my coworkers have been eating away at their vacation/sick time. They must really love working in the summer time.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Has anyone else gotten PHP errors on this site in the last few minutes?

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

Yes.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yglesias asserts, um, that robots can't make burritos.

Mechanization works best for tasks that require either enormous physical strength or none at all. For example, while algorithms can't yet do good journalism, companies such as Narrative Sciences have succeeded in automating not-so-good journalism; with that foot in the door, they will presumably iterate and improve. Conversely, if you need to crush a car into a little cube of metal, using a machine rather than a whole team of human workers is a great idea. But a burrito is a physical object that requires little strength but a great deal of dexterity to fold without smushing. For a human being, this doesn't count as a highly skilled occupation. For a robot, it's extremely difficult.

[Warty]

Oh, look, Matty is going to tell us about automation. Tell us more, Matty. Tell us what a PID controller is, for starters.

[Jarl ? the booty]

Don't blow this out of Proportion, Warty.

[John]

A guy who has never had a real job and couldn't get hired cleaning the toilets at a Mcdonalds is going to tell us all about automation and running a business.

[Libertymike]

Can you tell us about all the ingredients in a Taco Bell burrito?

[Jordan]

Derpglesias strikes again.

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

Who makes frozen burritos? Elves?

[SIV]

Orphans

[Almanian!]

Well, reading that, it's clear to me Matty Asshole has never worked anywhere near a plant, nor seen even one episode of "How It's Made", etc.

What a cunt. And dumbass.

[Special Agent Marc F Cheney]

Every time I watch "How It's Made", I hear in my head that swinging song from Looney Tunes that they always play when they show an automated production line.

[Mad Scientist]

I wish I knew what that piece of music was. Anyone know?

My wife and I play a How It's Made drinking game which involves a few chugs every time the narrator says "workers" or makes one of those mind-bendingly bad puns.

[Libertarian Book Club]

"Powerhouse", by the Raymond Scott Quintet

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZACT4UgBog

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Beat me to it.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Powerhouse by Raymond Scott.

[tarran]

Somebody needs to send this abject simpleton a boxed set of "How It's Made"

[jesse.in.mb]

while algorithms can't yet do good journalism

But they're getting close! They have bad op eds down pat.

[MJGreen]

That will never not be great. The one I got includes:

But the Republican party of Rand Paul is not the Republican party of Ronald Reagan. Reagan wouldn't just filibuster, he'd break ranks with members of his own party because he'd understand that the fate of the country, and his own political career, depended on a lasting solution to the problem of gas prices.

Let's make America for the world what Cape Canaveral was to America: the world's greatest launching pad. If I had fifteen minutes to pitch my idea to politicians, I'd tell them two things about gas prices. First, there's no way around the issue unless we're prepared to spend less: and not just spend less, but spend smarter by investing in the kind of green energy that makes countries succeed. That's going to require some tax cuts as well, but as they say, "them's the breaks."

Second, I'd tell them to look at Sweden, which all but solved its gas prices crisis over the past decade. When I visited Sweden in 1998, Kiki, the cabbie who drove me from the airport, couldn't stop telling me about how he had to take a second job because of the high cost of gas prices. I caught up with Kiki in Stockholm last year. Thanks to Sweden's reformed approach toward gas prices, Kiki has enough money in his pocket to finally be able to afford a soccer ball for his kids.

[Invisible Finger]

I caught up with Kiki in Stockholm last year.

Either Thomas Friedman has Stockholm Syndrome or he's a pathological liar.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I love my man. First: "You know, some of the people at Chipotle make it seem extremely fucking difficult too." Then: "God what the fuck does he think robots even are?"

[General Butt Naked]

If he wants to comment, then let 'im comment.

We don't need no quipping by proxy.

[PapayaSF]

Meet the burger-bot.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Seriously, that's the first thing I thought of. Has he heard of Google?

[Adam330]

Hmm. Even if he were right on the automation, seems to me there are other ways to eliminate fast food workers if labor costs get too high. Namely, serve yourself.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Interestingly enough, even his little brain noted this:

Chipotle expects customers to fill their own cups, thus saving on labor costs and letting the customers decide exactly how much ice they want.

But robots? Get the fuck out of here!

[Juice]

The last time I went to Chipotle, I ordered a burrito with "uh, some carnitas I guess, but not too much?just a bit?yeah, that's great, thanks." This perhaps annoyed the woman whose job it was to scoop the protein into the burrito, but she understood it perfectly well. Later, when asked if I wanted anything to drink, I said "no, thank you," but then remembered that my wife strongly prefers fountain soda to cans, so I reversed myself and said "a Diet Coke, actually no, make that two," since I wanted one too!

I now officially despise this person.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Hollywood isn't really diverse

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Khaled A Beydoun is the Critical Race Studies Teaching Fellow at the UCLA School of Law."

Holy shit! And he wrote that junk?

Dafuck?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/sarc. By the way.

[PapayaSF]

Critical Race Studies

Isn't it wonderful that it sounds like a field of studies the Nazis would have had?

[PD Scott]

Turkey has given permission for a US warship to pass through the Bosphorus on the way to the Black Sea.

Turkish sources, speaking with the H?rriyet Daily News on March 5, declined to elaborate on the name of the U.S. warship. The same officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, however, noted that it was not the USS George H.W. Bush nuclear aircraft carrier as suggested in some news reports, as it did not meet the standards specified by the 1936 Montreux Convention in terms of weight.
The U.S. Navy ship to pass through the straits will conform to the convention's standards, the sources said.
According to the Montreux Convention, the total weight of military ships that non-littoral states to the Black Sea may deploy to the body of water cannot exceed 45,000 tons.

[Winston]

Will they be wearing Cardigans?

[Invisible Finger]

Will they give permission for us to retreat?

[gimmeasammich]

Only kind of OT: CA9 ruled that the Yolo County sheriff in California was impermissibly violating the 2A rights of persons to bear arms for self defense.

http://www.calgunsfoundation.o.....onal-3514/

[Jordan]

Yolo County? Any word from Rofl County?

[gimmeasammich]

I'm waiting to hear back from A/S/L and Lulz counties myself. THEN we'll be in business...

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

9th circuit again. Hmmm.

[gimmeasammich]

Since you brought it up...

http://www.scotusblog.com/2014.....-bankrupt/

They were over turned at SCOTUS just yesterday on a bankruptcy case.

[gimmeasammich]

Like I stated sometime last week, if they rule on a case there is like a 73% chance that it will be overturned by SCOTUS. This isn't even a joke. They have been overturned like 101 out of 139 times or something. It's astounding. And depressing.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

iPad is too secure

[Jarl ? the booty]

No, according to the article, Apple's rules for gaining access to another person's account are "too strict".

As an aside, I wonder if this has anything to do with the UK's privacy laws, or if it's worldwide policy.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Everyone's eating 2times the sugar they should.

[BSubversive.com]

Ah it's sweet that the WHO cares so much for the children.

[Caleb Turberville]

So, the SAT is depreciating the ability to recall obscure information and increasing the value of being able to do math problems without the aid of a calculator?

Why are people against this? Google is a much easier way of accessing obscure knowledge than applying for college. Plus, and this is just me, I think you should have to know how to solve and graph a quadratic equation without the aid of a TI-30X IIS.

[John]

I agree with you on that. Your ability to do math on paper says a lot about your overall intellectual strength.

[Libertymike]

How about one's ability to breakdown and identify pass protection schemes or one's ability to read defenses without one's Jaws app?

[John]

That too.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Plus, and this is just me, I think you should have to know how to solve and graph a quadratic equation without the aid of a TI-30X IIS.

Yeah, that's not going to be on the SAT.

[Caleb Turberville]

Well, it was on the ACT when I took it.

[Caleb Turberville]

...I didn't have to "graph" the equation. But I did have to match the equation with a graph showing the characteristic parabolic shape of a quadratic equation.

[SIV]

They only require the ACT in sisterfucker states.

[Warty]

I agree that that should take away the calculators. But vocabulary is a good indicator of how well-read someone is. And if you've never read a book that's any more difficult than the Twilight series, then you can't be very smart, now can you.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Yeah, agreed. And if you have to look up a word on every page, you're probably not about to take up reading many books harder than Twilight either.

[BSubversive.com]

Yet another reason I love my Kindle. Not sure of a word's meaning? No problem, just point at it and the definition appears.

[Coeus]

Three male teens sexually assault Calif. transgender student in boy's restroom

Except not.

From the comments:

gregdn ? 10 hours ago
He has since recanted his story. I'm surprised RS hasn't pulled this article.
? Reply?Share ?
Avatar
crash2parties gregdn ? 5 hours ago
RawStory tends to be honest that way & they know their readers value the conversation as much or more than the story. Also, some advocates who apparently know him seem to have doubts as to his recant. Law enforcement in Hercules is not apparently very trans-friendly.
? Reply?Share ?

bolded for emphasis.

[John]

Your facts must fit the narrative.

[MJGreen]

The conversation is more important than reality. The potential for oppression is far more frightening and dangerous than realized oppression.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

they know their readers value the conversation as much or more than the story

Fuckin' LOL. That's a polite way of saying the readers of Raw Story are a bunch of gossipy pigeons.

[Mickey Rat]

They prefer GoodFacts over TrueFacts.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The waves last Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayjOHtZYAGA

[Jarl ? the booty]

I saw the LEGO movie last night. It was actually pretty great.

[John]

I heard that.

[Caleb Turberville]

Yeah. Too bad it came in February. By next March, the Academy will have forgotten about it and awarded Gay Cowboys Eating Fudge with Best Picture Oscar.

[John]

Broken Chain Mountain, 15 years a gay cowboy slave.

How could it not win?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Grand. Budapest. Hotel.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I was happy every time Batman was on the screen.

[MJGreen]

I finally saw it this past weekend, and really liked it. Not as blown away as other people, but there were some legit laugh-out-loud moments and I like where they took the story. And as someone who's made LEGO movies and was part of that community, seeing anything like it on the big screen is surreal.

[Jarl ? the booty]

I really liked that the made effects like fires and explosions out of LEGO, and not just the characters and objects.

You made LEGO movies? Like, stop-motion?

[MJGreen]

Yep, though only a couple are online any more. I got some press for an LCD Soundsystem video, which can be seen here. I did one back in high school, Cognizance, that was actually used to lead a WSJ article on the hobby. I probably have 10x as much scrapped or unreleased animation. That includes what I wanted to be the start of a libertarian/economics series... I don't finish things.

I also like that they tried to keep everything LEGOized. It was all CGI, but they still tried to remain 'true' to a stop-motion, all brick movie. Even the lighting looked like what you'd get with some incandescents pointed at a set.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Nice. And I always thought MJGreen was a weed reference.

[MJGreen]

...It does now!

[db]

I love how Nick Gillespie shows up in "Cognizance."

[db]

That must have been done before even the most tangential reference to a gun would get you expelled from school.

[MJGreen]

Haha. It was Catholic school, so they may not have been as insane as the surrounding public schools.

[Outlaw]

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/a.....d=22784067

WAR ON WIMMENZ.

[Coeus]

And another feminist falls from favor

So here's the $10 question. Can a woman consent to sex when she's been drinking? Universities have decided that the answer is no. "We heard that students don't understand that it is illegal to have sex with someone who is drunk because they can't give consent," says the Saint Mary's task force report. Although that sentence is crafted to be gender-neutral, its warning is directed at men. It means that drunken sex is tantamount to rape.

Is there a double standard here? Indeed there is. Men are treated as potential rapists, and women as their helpless victims (or, in current parlance, "survivors"). If two young people get hammered and have drunken sex, he is responsible for his behaviour, but she's not responsible for hers. And even if she does say "yes," it's up to him to figure out whether she means it.

She must have a son. It's typically the only way they wake up.

[John]

Instapundit makes a great point. If women lose their rationality and ability to make decisions after drinking, then we better start keeping our daughters and wives at home and not let them out of the house without being escorted by a responsible male relative.

Who knew Saudi Arabia was such a feminist country?

[tarran]

You joke, but my ex was a freshman in college, she took some course on comparative cultures and one of her reading assignments was a feminist praising purdah in Saudi Arabia, because it created a safe zone away from the manocentric male-ocracy.

[Juice]

That's why so many women in Saudi Arabia like it. At least that's what they say out loud.

[Cytotoxic]

Wait: is it actually illegal to have sex with drunk women?

[Jarl ? the booty]

Yes, in many (most?) states

Or at least, if they are "too drunk" to consent

[Mad Scientist]

That's why you should always leave them in the trunk until they sober up.

[Jarl ? the booty]

http://blogs.findlaw.com/blott.....ation.html

[Coeus]

Many colleges have ruled even one drink is enough to negate consent.

[Outlaw]

James Taranto is under fire for writing a similar article.

http://online.wsj.com/news/art.....4067975558

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

That looks freakish.

Keira Knightley's appearance in a wasp-waisted Chanel number has more than the fashionistas talking

[John]

Another beautiful young woman turned into a skeletor.

[flye]

That's a good-looking floor lamp.

[Mickey Rat]

She joined the Way Outs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHeoYRXmmlM

[Jarl ? the booty]

Chinese government news service calls outgoing US ambassador a "rotten banana"

The editorial "Farewell, Gary Locke" took direct aim at Locke's identity as a third-generation Chinese-American, calling him a "banana" ? a racial term for Asians identifying with Western values despite their skin color.

"But when a banana sits out for long, its yellow peels will always rot, not only revealing its white core but also turning into the stomach-churning color of black," read the editorial.

...

Wang belittled Locke's inability to speak his ancestral language and accused him of failing to understand China's law but fanning "evil winds" in the ethnically sensitive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

...

Wang also made the innuendo that Locke should be blamed for the smog. "When he arrived, so did Beijing's smog," Wang wrote. "With his departure, Beijing's sky suddenly turned blue."

"Let's bid goodbye to the smog, and let's bid goodbye to the plague. Farewell, Gary Locke," ended the article, which was clearly inspired by Mao Zedong's 1949 piece, "Farewell, Leighton Stuart," that scoffed at the last American ambassador under the collapsing Nationalist government in Nanjing.

Emphasis mine. I really hope that's just a stupid metaphor that sounds better in Chinese.

[Jordan]

The commies hate him because he has really endeared himself to the Chinese people by doing things like buying his own coffee. I'm not kidding.

[Jordan]

Oh, I see the article discusses that. Derp.

[PD Scott]

It's true.
"Chinese netizens love Locke, and that love began even before his arrival in Beijing. A photo of him shopping at a Starbucks with a backpack at a US airport went viral in China before his assignment started. Chinese netizens were "shocked" because a Chinese official at his level would never pay for his own coffee or carry his own bag.
Locke won hearts for his humble manners, for his honest, and for the fact that he is the dream official that many Chinese have hoped to have but never did. His popularity, however, may be part of the reason why he resigns.
"Though Locke simply behaves like all ordinary US officials do, he actually violates all of the unwritten rules of China's officialdom. He is isolated." One netizen ??? commented. Another netizen ????? commented: "His humble manners and his promotion of PM 2.5 awareness are like a slap in the face of those authoritarians.""

[paranoid android]

I'm a little more troubled by the implications of the "rotten banana turns black" metaphor...

[Jarl ? the booty]

So, I don't know how it generalizes over those cultures as a whole, but many of my East Asian peers' parents were incredibly racist against black people.

Probably the most extreme I heard about was: "If you see a black person walking around near the house, go inside and lock the door."

"If you don't marry a Korean, fine, but marry a white person, not black man, OK?" was also pretty good.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Kitty with a slipper

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Ah'm givin' her all she's got, Cap'n, but ah cahn't take sae much cuteness!

[Hash Brown]

"He drew opposition for his work defending Mumia Abu-Jabal."

I can't believe I'm the first person to point this out... but the dude's name is Mumia Abu-JAMAL, not JABAL, ya knuckleheads!

[Pro Libertate]

What, he represented Kareem? Is there some objection to the skyhook?

[Juice]

So he was a criminal defense lawyer for a murderer and that precludes him from being appointed to whatever it was? This makes no sense.

[Jarl ? the booty]

Taiwan's Falun Gong dilemma

...Now, nearly three million Chinese come annually, generating handsome revenues for restaurants, hotels and shops.

But all along the Falun Gong movement, a religious sect persecuted in China but respected in Taiwan, has been following the Chinese tour groups at every turn, exposing them to graphic pictures of torture victims and organ harvesting. The Chinese tourists tend not to react to this, presumably because decades of autocracy at home have taught them to stay clear of politics.

...

She adds that some younger female tourists get scared when approached by the Falun Gong, and that visitors from northern China easily feel offended, "as they are more fond of the Communist Party".

...

And Tony Kung, a Falun Gong activist, puts the allegations in concrete terms. "If the communist agents who are secretly embedded in those tour groups report back that a certain tour guide hasn't kept us at bay, the Taiwanese travel agency employing him loses its lucrative subcontract with the Chinese," he says.

...According to Chang, the Taiwanese Tourism Bureau has long been bombarded with tour guides' complaint letters regarding the Falun Gong, causing the bureau to issue a directive last October ordering Taiwan's local governments to remove Falun Gong banners and billboards at tourist attractions.

[Cytotoxic]

Ayn Rand (PBUH) on abortion.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/abortion.html

[Juice]

So an embryo is not an actual being, only "potential." And and infant is a being somehow? It seems that exiting the vagina is a magical act that turns a non-being worthy of no rights into a being with all rights.

Ayn Rand has a trite, superficial view of something. Whodathunkit?

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Well, no one is right ALL the time!

[Coeus]

The fact that I wasn't taken to jail for an obviously false rape allegation is proof of rape culture, and proof that everyone else but me is actually guilty.

I further recognized that in my escaping more dire repercussions like, say, actually encountering law enforcement at any point, meant that actual rape was going unpunished. The lies that victimized me meant real victims were being doubly victimized! Stories recounted by victims on the internet, like EEB's story of her being brutally assaulted by a stranger but being disbelieved by the police, crystallized me on the point that I benefited from rape culture directly, and strengthened my resolve to combat it and right some serious injustices that were being perpetrated in trade for my own comfort. For every one case like mine, there were potentially hundreds of rape cases where the rapists walked.

Take his balls. Give them to someone more deserving.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

For every one case like mine, there were potentially hundreds of rape cases where the rapists walked.

Citation. Definitely a fucking citation needed.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I further recognized that in my escaping more dire repercussions like, say, actually encountering law enforcement at any point, meant that actual rape was going unpunished.

I feel like the fact that that sentence makes absolutely no sense is a sign of the strength of the logic behind the argument.

[Coeus]

He's a "skeptic". He has no use for logic. Talk about redefining a word.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I suppose I could puzzle out his meaning, but I would like to use the brain cells I'd need to do that for some more constructive purpose, like posting here, for example.

[Coeus]

???

I already did the brainwork. It's the orange part.

[EdWuncler]

This has to be parody.

[Mickey Rat]

"... crystallized me on the point that I benefited from rape culture directly, and strengthened my resolve to combat it and right some serious injustices that were being perpetrated in trade for my own comfort."

He'll make sure that no one else falsely accused of rape goes free, I guess?

This is a pathological case of collective guilt.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The *real* reason the Senate should have rejected Debo Adegbile - he wants the government to tell businesses they can't just have a flat ban on hiring felons. That would be racist!

And by the way, we still need to combat stereotypes about black criminality.

And we need to support our wonderful criminal justice system which creates the felony convictions the feds are so worried about employers looking at.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....le/2545006

[Warty]

GOMG CREATINES

Hilarious.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Connor builds his strength the old fashioned way".

Not really, though.

[Coeus]

You have got to be shitting me.

[General Butt Naked]

Oh jesus, you've exposed HnR to the worst concern troll yinzer assholes on the planet. You're truly a monster.

They're just soooo fukcing concerned about your children that it makes me wanna puke all over their ugly faces. Really, look at their faces. Fuck me. How do they cram so much care and condescation onto their stupid fat fucking faces. Gawd.

...as you all can tell, I really hate our local newscasters. Except for Don Cannon, that motherfucker's so drunk all the time that I give him a pass.

[Almanian!]

Bob King whistling past the graveyard re: the Union's "setback" at VW in Tennessee.

http://www.detroitnews.com/art.....rn-setback

[jesse.in.mb]

Regarding those gold coins found recently:

"There is nothing connecting these coins to any theft from the Mint," said U.S. Mint spokesman Adam Stump. "We've done quite a bit of research, and we've got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we'd be going after it."

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I'm actually more surprised they didn't simply come up with some bullshit pretext to take them. I still wouldn't have told anyone I had that big of a stash.

[jesse.in.mb]

I thought the same thing, but I like the honesty in the quote.

[db]

Yeah, I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor.

[Real American]

suddenly, Lois Lerner cares about the constitution.

[Coeus]

Politics is all about giving me stuff.

One of the things I try to get through to my conservative friends is, even if I didn't object to Republican policies for analytical or moral reasons, there's nothing in them for me, even though I'm a college educated middle-aged white guy. I live in poverty, barely scraping by on low paying jobs, an occasional free-lance gig, and the generosity of readers. If a racist conservative white guy offered me a job paying a paltry 40k a year, let alone 60k, it would be so much money to me after years of barely surviving, maybe I would be conflicted. Maybe, I would be sympathetic, I might even be reachable.

[Coeus]

But that doesn't happen. They don't offer me a job paying a living wage. They don't offer me a job at all and they pay other people good money to actively make my dismal life even more difficult. Right now the House is voting to repeal Obamacare. Ryan is trying to turn Medicare into a crappy voucher program, others are trying to eliminate Social Security and unemployment. And thanks to Rick Perry and the GOP controlled House in Texas, tomorrow morning I have to forgo interviews or filling out applications to get up at the crack of dawn, put precious dollars into my gas tank, drive to the other side of town in rush hour traffic, take the chance a job will pop up on a job site that I won't see, and spend most of the day sitting in a bullshit required seminar where a TWC wonk will teach me there is a thing called the Internet and show me the job sites I search half a dozen times a day as if it is useful information I never knew about.

[Raven Nation]

Hmm, well s/he clearly shouldn't apply for any jobs which require clear, analytical thinking and/or writing.

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Are you catching the mental masochism bug, there, Coeus?

This stuff rots brain cells on contact.

[Coeus]

I find a link to something stupid, then look around the blog I've landed on for more. I find it entertaining. It's like watching 3 Stooges, except it's actually funny.

[db]

Gawddemmit, how did I miss the CockAsian Food Truck thread all day. That looked fun.

[Invisible Finger]

One-legged, wheelchair-bound man required to register as a sex offender but not allowed to register as a sex offender.

http://www.wbez.org/news/crowd.....ole-109798

[american socialist]

Yeah man, because taking the 5th=guilty. Give her the chair!