Paul Criticizes Cruz, Inmates Signing Up to Obamacare, Clapper Says US Intelligence Didn't Fail Ahead of Russian Invasion of Crimea: P.M. Links

Credit: Gage Skidmore/wikimedia

• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has criticized his colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an op-ed for Breitbart News, in which he takes Cruz to task for saying that the GOP has nominated insufficiently conservative presidential candidates in the past and for his frequent references to Reagan.

• Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea.
• The Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection, thereby temporarily halting U.S. legal action against the Japan-based company.
• Thai officials say that tickets used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that were linked to stolen passports were purchased by an Iranian man.
• Inmates are signing up to Obamacare in order to receive benefits once they're released.
• NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden told the SXSW conference via video link that mass surveillance carried out by governments across the globe is "setting fire to the future of the internet."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea.

He provided the least wrong intelligence he was able.

[Tonio]

Go, Fist!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm glad you put that comma in there.

[Tonio]

LOL.

[gimmeasammich]

I'm glad you put that comma in there.

"Go help your Uncle Jack off that horse,"

vs.

"Go help your uncle jack off that horse."

Grammar FTW.

[Number 7]

A boss has to decide whether Barbara or Jack will be the ones to be laid off, he tells Barbara, "I don't know what to do, I need to lay you or Jack off."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Bullet to the head!

[gaijin]

U.S. intelligence did not fail

he spelled 'exist' wrong

[Drake]

We are still monitoring every phone in the U.S. - success!

[paranoid android]

I want to make a t-shirt that has on it something along the lines of "James Clapper walks free for telling lies while Edward Snowden is hunted for telling the truth" but that seems too wordy to get anyone's attention.

Ideas?

[Lady Bertrum]

I have a t-shirt that says, 'Team Edward' with a picture of Snowden. It's a Twilight thing, if you didn't know.

[Slammer]

This one's kind of cool

[Corning]

Just find an image of Obama eating ice cream then photo shop in Saturn devouring his son

[Raven Nation]

There was also the "Edward Snowden: Enemy of the State, Hero to the Rest of Us" bumper sticker that was floating around.

[DJF]

The US intelligence Ouija board actually predicted that New Zealand would invade Canada and James Clapper says that it was close enough for government work

[Stormy Dragon]

I actually have to agree with Clapper here. The fact we looked at a situation and concluded there wasn't much we could do to stop it doesn't mean we didn't know what was going on.

[CE]

So he doesn't lie all the time then?

[Stormy Dragon]

Of course not. You have to tell the truth enough that people believe the lies, otherwise what's the point?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Inmates are signing up to Obamacare in order to receive benefits once they're released.

Seems like a metaphor for something.

[Brett L]

Don't they qualify for Medicaid in the states that signed on to the expansion that came with Obamacare?

[NoVAHockey]

yes, some of them are being enrolled in Medicaid

[gimmeasammich]

I assume they are counted new sign ups as well? Are they part of the 8% that are happy the way it is?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea.

I'll buy it, he seems like a trustworthy dude to me.

[BakedPenguin]

The blatant corruption would be a bit more palatable if these idiots had even a semblance of competence.

[gaijin]

or self awareness

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Amen.

[rts]

Port Metro Vancouver strike underway

Picket lines have been set up at nine separate locations around Metro Vancouver, including the main Port of Vancouver and Deltaport as well as at several trucking companies that carry containers to and from the port.

Enjoy the extra business, Seattle!

[Episiarch]

We can use it.

[Sevo]

"The union said the average rate of pay for truckers moving containers to or from Port Metro Vancouver is $15.59 an hour, whereas the average rate of pay in the B.C. trucking industry is $23 an hour."

Sounds like some guys like driving a truck enough that they aren't worried about the income.
If you have competition willing to work for less, you are SOL.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

For a gig that requires few skills and training, that's a pretty good salary.

[BakedPenguin]

That's what I was thinking. To be fair, though, I personally would hate that job.

[rts]

Maybe my thinking is off-base here, but if we take the union rep at his word (snicker) and there really hasn't been a rate increase in eight years, in that time minimum wage in BC has gone from $8.00 / hr to the current $10.25 / hr, with rumblings of it increasing again soon.

So the government enforced floor is encroaching, pushing all wages up (and destroying jobs) as it goes.

[Sevo]

"So the government enforced floor is encroaching, pushing all wages up (and destroying jobs) as it goes."

Can't be. It's the evil companies bringing in those things made by the yellow hoards who are stealing out jobs!

[CE]

Oh, driving a truck takes plenty of skill and some training, but trucking companies vary in whether the skill and/or training are required.

[PD Scott]

AFAIK, if your bill of lading says you're going to offload at Vancouver, you are damned well going to offload at Vancouver. I imagine our dear friends at Customs and Border Protection take a rather dim view of changing the discharge port just because of some labor dispute. They probably have an extra-intensive exam form for just such an occasion.

[rts]

If it drags out, I imagine orders going forward that would have been to Vancouver will instead land in Seattle.

The last strike in 2005 lasted 70 days, IIRC.

[Sevo]

True enough, but if I'm generating B/Ls and Vancouver pulls that crap, the next B/L is going to have a different destination.

[PD Scott]

Sad thing is, it seems like all the ports pull that crap at one point or another. Union membership may be declining (outside of govt employees) but the longshoremen unions still seem pretty strong.

[BakedPenguin]

Modern container ports can move incredible amounts of product with relatively few workers. So the unions have leverage, since their cost as a percentage is low, even if they are "objectively" overpaid.

[Cdr Lytton]

The longshoremen's union also handled the conversion of their industry away from the historical labor intensive one differently than other industries. Most other unions fought a rearguard action to preserve as many jobs as possible for far longer than they were viable. The longshoremen, on the other hand, traded headcount for higher wages and other benefits much earlier on.

[Brett L]

You can amend freight bills fairly easily, especially for something like this. The only caveat is that if you have negotiable bills, you'll have to turn in the full set before your amended set gets issued. (Negotiable bills are like checks, whoever shows up with the endorsed original bills gets the cargo.) I was working documentation for a shipping company during the Long Beach strike. Some containers got dumped at a convenient port to await reopening. A lot got offloaded at Tiajuana and got to their destination by rail.

[Cytotoxic]

Someday we'll have a port up on the north coast of BC and this won't so easy to pull.

[Sevo]

Isn't Prince Rupert sound capable of handling this?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...he takes Cruz to task for saying that the GOP has nominated insufficiently conservative presidential candidates in the past and for his frequent references to Reagan.

If Paul is unwilling to haul out the Gipper's corpse every now and then, I don't know how he plans to get through the primary debates.

[Brett L]

Is dry-humping it like a dog on a teddybear to show dominance part of it, too?

[JEP]

Maybe that's what Clint Eastwood will do at the next national convention...

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

Unfortunately, he still kinda did that in the Brietbart piece. You see, Cruz just has the wrong idea of Reagan; Paul has the right one. Or something like that.

Debates are useless, but I would like to have the candidates asked "What was Ronald Reagan's biggest mistake, not including amnesty?" My guess is a consensus that "he didn't go far enough".

[Palin's Buttplug]

"What was Ronald Reagan's biggest mistake, not including amnesty?"

Possible answers:

Sandra Day O'Connor
raising taxes six times
banning guns
not retaliating for the 241 US Marines killed in Lebanon
running the defense budget way up
record deficits

Nahh, they would never say those!

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

Assuming you're not being sarcastic, we agree.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Record deficits....hmmmm!

Reagan increased the debt by $3T in 8 years.

Your buddy increased it $7T in 5.

[CE]

Bush or Obama?

[SusanM]

Is that adjusted for inflation?

[Don Mynack]

"not retaliating for the 241 US Marines killed in Lebanon"

Uh, they retaliated. They really, really retaliated.

"On February 8, the USS New Jersey fired almost 300 shells at Druze and Syrian positions in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut. This was the heaviest shore bombardment since the Korean War.

"In a nine-hour period, the U.S.S. New Jersey fired 288 16-inch rounds, each one weighing as much as a Volkswagen Beetle. In those nine-hours, the ship consumed 40 percent of the 16-inch ammunition available in the entire European theater...[and] in one burst of wretched excess," the New Jersey seemed to be unleashing eighteen months of repressed fury."

CIA also car-bombed a sheikh.

[Cytotoxic]

I didn't know that! That's awesome. That makes me happy.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

CIA also car-bombed a sheikh.

Isn't that kinda terroristy?

[Brandon]

Just think of it as the 80's version of a drone.

[Tejicano]

And when Hezbollah started taking potshots at Marines (the press called them "snipers") the Marines sent some real snipers who took the Hezbollah shooters out like shooting fish in a barrel. Hezbollah shooters seemed to think they were safe at 150 to 200 meters but for the Marines that distance doesn't even require optics.

[Corning]

not retaliating for the 241 US Marines killed in Lebanon

If you think that was a mistake you are an idiot.

Having marines in Lebanon...

yeah that was a mistake.

[LarryA]

Unfortunately Paul is correct. The Democrats are extremely vulnerable on ACA and gun control, so of course the Republicans will nominate candidates who will run on right to life and traditional marriage.

[sigh]

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

STEVE SMITH is old

[Rich]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea.

Yep, CNN covered the mobilization quite adequately.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Creationist Ken Ham says the upcoming Hollywood film "Noah" deviates from the Bible and argues it would do more harm than good in reaching out to non-Christians with the Gospel.

In a blog post for Answers in Genesis, the AiG president was responding to a Christianity Today article by Dr. Jerry Johnson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, saying the author seemed to encourage families to watch the film, which stars Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe and will be in theaters March 28.

"Too often, Christians are in knee-jerk reaction mode when it comes to popular culture," Johnson wrote. "The concepts of sin and judgment are front and center throughout the whole film."

http://www.christianpost.com/n.....od-115834/

[Brett L]

As a friend said, "This film is the orthodox story of a loving God who kills every man, woman, and child on Earth who had the bad fortune except an incestuous drunk and his family. What could be more Christian?"

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Are you telling chummy jokes with PB? Has the spawn left you that sleep-deprived? 🙂

[Palin's Buttplug]

It has Jennifer Connely as co-star. That is one fine Jewess.

[Agammamon]

How come no-one complains when a non-Jewish actor plays a jew in a movie?

[Andrew S.]

Only slightly on topic, but you should see some of the Social Justice Warrior whining over Jared Leto's Oscar, since he won it for playing a trans* individual while he's in reality a dirty white cis hetero scumbag.

[jesse.in.mb]

Umm maybe they just "felt like destroying something beautiful."

[Episiarch]

Uh, jesse, the first rule of fight club is THAT YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.

[Brett L]

You know what the opposite of Fight Club is? Crossfit. Because its all they talk about. Its like the fucking Jehovah's Withness of fitness. And my wife has the full on zealotry right now. (She looks damn good for being 13 weeks off delivering a baby, so I'm tolerating it.)

[Episiarch]

Crossfit cultists are at least in shape. They may be retards, and they may not be able to lift what I can, but they at least aren't fat. Give them that.

[Zeb]

I don't think Jews had been invented yet at the time of the great flood.

[gaijin]

except an incestuous drunk and his family. What could be more Christian?"

So, it's a story of redemption...like green mile?

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

Q: What chapter of Genesis discusses Noah and the receding Flood?

A: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

[Mongo]

I have an Awake! by the Jehovah's Witnesses illustrating the flood and those animals that were drowned by the deluge.

It shows a Tyrannosaurus and a Stegosaurus thrashing amongst the floodwater's debris.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

The Arky Arky song

[BakedPenguin]

Wow. I thought the Simpsons made that up.

[LarryA]

Best Noah ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgsFCyD4nEw

[Cdr Lytton]

Hah hah! I knew what it was before I clicked through the link. I played that over and over as a kid.

Now I have to go find some chocolate cake.

[CE]

In the Bible, Noah wasn't a ship's Master/rebel archer/Kryptonian scientist/gladiator/action hero?

[Fist of Etiquette]

NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden told the SXSW conference via video link that mass surveillance carried out by governments across the globe is "setting fire to the future of the internet."

Reading comments on the various articles about his appearance, I'm simultaneously surprised at how many people are paying attention to the dangers of government spying and at how many Americans accept it because they think the spying is for their own good.

[Overt]

Yeah, I can understand the arguments from people who say Snowden is wrong because he violated trust/duty/etc. I don't agree, but I can understand the argument.

But people who argue that the level of surveillance is acceptable? Are they nuts? Really?

[Rich]

tickets used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that were linked to stolen passports were purchased by an Iranian man.

Iran will *never* get the bomb after the sanctions this revelation precipitates.

[Tim]

NSA:
"Missed it by that much..."

[CE]

So you have to show a passport to get on the plane, but no one bothers to check it until you land and go through customs at your port of arrival? I think I see the security flaw here...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Thai officials say that tickets used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that were linked to stolen passports were purchased by an Iranian man.

That's not going to be good for anybody.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Last night's episode of Cosmos may be obsolete

[Pro Libertate]

An article by the io9 editor? What, is the universe really a giant Tardis or some other Dr. Who thingee?

[Brett L]

So, everything was warm enough to keep water liquid, but there was almost no carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, or really anything but hydrogen and helium during the period. Well, they've certainly convinced me.

[BigT]

There would have been precious little oxygen to make that water as well. Oxygen also is produced in stars and distributed when they die explosively.

[Pro Libertate]

The one thing the original Cosmos did for me as a kid was impress me with the fact that I'm made of stuff that stars had to blow up in order to make.

[gaijin]

Cosmos, even with NTD...is so 1981...some seem always doomed to a life of repackaging the same old shite.

[Corning]

Intelligent life would disprove the big bang.

Any space faring species would after a few 1000 years have long ago fundamentally changed how the universe looks.

claiming the big bang in such a universe would be like claiming the Hittites invented soccer by the evidence found while examining a new jersey dump.

[BigT]

Ignoramus is ignoramus.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8HAAhVtos

[Corning]

If you are going to defend the Big Bang then fucking defend it.

The same goes for you BigT.

Jesus you dipshits act like you know anything more about the bigbang then Joe Shmo walking down the street.

[The Laconic Marc F Cheney]

You have to put forward an alternative theory that is consistent with the evidence. Otherwise you're just farting around.

The last one you put out there, I shot down pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, while the Fermi paradox demands resolution, it's not a refutation of modern cosmology. Intelligent life could be extremely improbable, or probable but we're the first, or probable but it quickly sublimes in the Banksian sense, or probable but swiftly annihilates itself...

[Corning]

You have to put forward an alternative theory that is consistent with the evidence.

Bullshit. You do not need an alternative to disprove a theory.

Science is hard!!

Hey by the way i got a new disproof today while driving home.

So the big bang depends on everything flying away from a common big bang point....ie everything we see is redshifted.

If that is true then why is the Milky Way set to run into fucking Andromeda?

yeah sure everything is expanding...except you know that huge galaxy right next to us.

[BigT]

If that is true then why is the Milky Way set to run into fucking Andromeda?

That's not a completely stupid question (I am surprised)

Everything is moving apart when looked at on a large scale. On a smaller scale lots of things are moving about more helter-skelter. Just look at how the planets and asteroids are moving in various directions. And different parts of different, far-away galaxies can appear to be moving towards us or away from us due to their spin. Our galaxy and Andromeda may well be like two asteroids that are being flung about by more massive gravitational fields, or by previous close encounters, or the like. But all else is receding from our local group.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Or, to put it another way, gravity trumps cosmic expansion on the smaller scale. Where matter is close enough to gravitationally interact, it will generally start moving closer together. On the larger scale, where matter is too distant for the force of gravity to have any effect, things are moving further apart.

It has actually been a matter of debate for quite some time as to whether or not gravity will trump cosmic expansion in the long run, causing the universe to eventually implode (called the Big Crunch) and form back into a singularity. This could possibly lead to yet another Big Bang. However, I believe the current data suggests this will not happen, and the universe will instead continue to expand.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

I'm not sure it'd be worth my time, or even where to begin. It's like listening to a child try to disprove the existence of "bed time" based on a nonsensical interpretation of the word "time". But I'll give give it a go anyway.

There are many different reasons why your little "theory" is wrong. CE has one of the options, but they are multitude and varied. One may be that our ideas of what is actually possible in terms of space travel are wildly inaccurate, and there simply isn't any way to go fast enough to make interstellar travel practical. Another is that the universe is an extremely big place, and there isn't any possible way that a space-faring species could, even with millions of years of effort, fundamentally change it in a manner we could detect.

In any case, the existence of intelligent life has absolutely nothing to do with the big bang, except for perhaps putting maximum on how old a species could possibly be, and trying to extrapolate the correctness of the big bang theory based on the existence of intelligent life is a complete non-sequitur.

[BigT]

...there isn't any possible way that a space-faring species could, even with millions of years of effort, fundamentally change it in a manner we could detect.

Correct WW. Unless the other intelligent life were remarkably close to us - which is extraordinarily unlikely - there is no way they could re-arrange anything meaningful. It simply takes too much energy and too much time to travel any meaningful distance. Don't forget, there is a cosmic speed limit that it takes infinite energy to reach.

Ignoramus is still ignoramus.

[Corning]

there isn't any possible way that a space-faring species could, even with millions of years of effort, fundamentally change it in a manner we could detect.

We can today change the trajectory of an asteroid or comet simply by putting a space craft near it.

Space craft moves comet comet moves big asteroid asteroid moves moon moon moves planet planet moves bigger planet bigger planet moves star star moves bigger star bigger star moves star cluster star cluster moves galactic arm galactic arm moves galaxy galaxy moves bigger galaxy bigger galaxy moves super cluster super cluster moves universe.

The thing about stuff moving really really fast, which pretty much everything in the universe is doing, is if you only move something a hair in degrees it can change the whole friggin thing.

Also millions of years is not so very long. Brains on earth are millions of years old.

[BigT]

Your little spacecraft-moves-comet analogy is pointless. To move something of a certain mass takes a certain amount of energy. The larger the mass the more energy required; E=1/2mv2 (if I remember freshman physics). So, no, one could never move really large things because it would require too much energy.

[CE]

Unless we're the first.

[Corning]

Well yeah.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Thai officials say that tickets used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that were linked to stolen passports were purchased by an Iranian man.

Slam dunk.

[110 Lean]

I block you, but fuck, is that ever stupid. This plane is part of a common route used to smuggle people into Europe, by way of Malasia and Beijing.

[tarran]

Obviously you don't block it, if you are responding to it.

BTW, it can't tell the difference between you telling it you love its ideas and want to send it some cake and you telling it that it's stupid.

It's not sentient. It literally can't comprehend that it's not liked.

The existence of the reply is what lights up the pleasure center in that shamble of neurons that was once a human brain. It has learned by hit and miss the strings of characters that maximize the likelihood of a response. If everyone ignored it, it would eventually 'learn' that other sites were more likely to stimulate its pleasure centers with a response and leave us alone.

So when you interact with it, you are in fact training its neural net to stick around.

[110 Lean]

There's a "show once" option.

[Raven Nation]

*Rises to applaud*

[110 Lean]

I block you, but fuck, is that ever stupid. This plane is part of a common route used to smuggle people into Europe, by way of Malaysia and Beijing.

[Slammer]

"Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez plotted 2 escapes from San Quentin.

The first escape plot was foiled on Sept. 21, 1993, when Ramirez was escorted back to San Quentin after appearing in a San Francisco court on a murder rap.
As a correction officer used a wand to scan Ramirez's body, the metal detector went off near his buttocks.
An X-ray later revealed that Ramirez had stuffed a handcuff key inside his rectum along with a ballpoint pen, a syringe and, strangely, a sticker that read, "I Luv chocolate."
Ramirez told prison officials he needed the items for "self-defense."

[Pro Libertate]

The Malaysia Airlines business seems odd if it's Islamic terrorists. I mean, Malaysia is a Muslim nation, after all. At least officially, though Islam is probably a minority religion there (with the very large Indian and Chinese minorities in the country).

[RBS]

though Islam is probably a minority religion there

Not According to wikipedia

[Pro Libertate]

Okay, I spoke too soon. Not an absolute majority, anyway.

[RBS]

Hell of a place...

Cases concerning a Muslim and a non-Muslim are usually handled by the civil courts, although in cases such as child custody or property settlement the non-Muslim has no say.

[Pro Libertate]

The people were really friendly when I was there, back in the 90s (just for a week--I'm no expert on the country, clearly).

[RBS]

To be fair, I was cherry picking from the wikipedia article.

[Rhywun]

I have a very good friend there (Chinese). It's a hell-hole.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was there in 2009 and things seemed fairly cosmopolitan, but the friend I went with who had grown up in Malaysia encouraged me to avoid getting arrested on sodomy charges while we were there. This was right after another round of trials had kicked up for their former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Even when we went to Malacca (2/3 Muslim), it was pretty laid back (and I didn't get arrested on sodomy charges).

[Pro Libertate]

I heard the same thing about drugs. I believe they execute people busted for some drug offenses, or, at least, they used to. I had visions of being locked up for the vitamins in my luggage.

[BigT]

Singapore is famous for executing drug users. I remember being a bit shaken reading their 'welcome' on the airplane.

And they wouldn't even let me see a caning!

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, BIG story in OZ when I was in college:

http://articles.latimes.com/19....._drug-laws

[grrizzly]

I wouldn't be surprised if those sodomy charges were enforced only sporadically.

[Tonio]

No, but Islam is the state religion in Malaysia. And fairly uniquely for an officially muslim country their constitution does guarantee FoR.

So, yeah, I'm not seeing this as state-supported terrorism. Unless there was someone on that plane that Iran really, really wanted dead.

[Pro Libertate]

That's what I was thinking. Malaysia has to be fairly tolerant with such large non-Muslim minorities, but it's still an Islamic nation. Not that acts of terror haven't happened in Islamic nations before, of course.

[Tonio]

And to further complicate things both India and China have large indigenous muslim populations; I have no idea what the ethno/religious breakdown is in Malaysia.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm going by memory, but I think it's something like a bare majority native Malay, with the rest being roughly split between Indians and Chinese. Probably not quite right, but it's something like that.

[Rhywun]

Malaysia has to be fairly tolerant with such large non-Muslim minorities

Except the large minorities have zero political power and are outright persecuted in some of the less-tolerant states.

[Pro Libertate]

I meant compared to other Islamic nations, not compared to more liberal countries.

[Rhywun]

Yeah I figured. I do think it's important to note that things are getting worse there, not better.

[Pro Libertate]

I was there back in the mid 90s, when all of the SE Asian tiger stuff was going on. All smiles back then.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Malaysia has to be fairly tolerant with such large non-Muslim minorities

Someone ought to tell this guy.

We're talking about a country that recently made it a crime for non-Muslims to use the word "Allah", which is something Arabic countries don't do, and based on the Arabic language, would be ludicrous.

And don't forget that special form of affirmative action for the Muslim majority, a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra"the Bumiputra system.

Fuck Malaysia.

[Pro Libertate]

ONLY COMPARED TO OTHER MUSLIM NATIONS, DANG IT.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Again, in Malaysia you can get into legal troubles if you're a Christian who uses the word "Allah" to talk about God. In Saudi Arabia, if you're a Christian you have to use the word "Allah" to talk about God, because that's how you say God in Arabic.

If I had to live in a Muslim nation, I'd choose a place like Kazakhstan or Bahrain, over Malaysia*.

*Note that the 2010 court decision that caused the Malay mob to frenzy and burn down a church was recently superseded by the recent law I mentioned above.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm just going to stop talking about a place I only visited for a week back in the roaring 90s.

[Apple]

According to the travel agent, the Iranian didn't even pick the flight. He just asked for the cheapest flight to Europe.

[Brett L]

I wonder what the usual number of stolen passports used on a Malaysia to China flight are. We are putting this through a first-world filter, but stolen could just mean "sold and disavowed" in many other parts of the world.

[flye]

That was my first take too. Just run-of-the-mill paper shuffling on a flight like this. But I guess we'll see.

[Tonio]

A good question, Brett.

[Not an Economist]

If we knew where the aircraft was, the stolen passports would probably be a footnote at this point of the story (this would change if it turned out to be a terrorist act). Since we don't know the aircraft is, the stolen passports are a bigger story because of the potential terrorism implications.

[Raven Nation]

WOW! This just turned up when I was looking for something else:

http://www.presstv.com/detail/.....-malaysia/

[Francisco d'Anconia]

A terrorist attack isn't all that effective unless you tell people about it.

I suppose they could have attempted to hijack the plane and been thwarted by the crew, but it's a lot more likely they simply crashed.

[Tonio]

A terrorist attack isn't all that effective unless you tell people about it.

True.

And I would imagine that the crews are instructed to inform control about ongoing terrorist attacks before taking any other action.

[BigT]

it's a lot more likely they simply crashed

How does that explain that they didn't report anything? Planes don't crash in milliseconds. A fault that caused the fuel to explode or a bomb are the most likely explanations IMHO.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Aviate, navigate, communicate. In that order. If you have a handful of fucked up jet, the last thing on your mind is making a radio call.

It could have also been something rather mundane. That jet crashed in the Everglades years back because the entire flight crew was trying to replace a lightbulb in the gear handle.

Not saying it couldn't be terrorists, but way, way, way too soon to be jumping to that conclusion.

You should have heard Hannity on the radio this afternoon...911 times a thousand!

[Not an Economist]

Whatever it was it was catastrophic. By which I mean, they either had milliseconds, or were so busy trying to save the aircraft they didn't have time to communicate.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Catastrophic failure is most likely, but it might have been anything.

Oxygen contamination, fire, could have had a malfunction and got focused on that and weren't flying/monitoring the jet, flight control malfunction, maybe the pilots ate rat poison or they simply fell asleep... Could have been a thousand things.

Pilots are very good at finding new and improved ways of crashing airplanes.

[robc]

Pilots are very good at finding new and improved ways of crashing airplanes.

As Ive said in the past about computer systems, but probably applies to aircraft to: making things "idiot-proof" leads to evolution of bigger idiots.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

It's funny. In AF aircraft technical manuals they insert "Notes, Warnings, and Cautions" in between the paragraphs to make the pilot aware of potential gotchas.

e.g.

WARNING: Never adjust seat height with lap-belt unbuckled. Buckle can jam between seat and control stick causing out of control condition.

Every time some poor dumb bastard fucked up, they'd add a couple warning and cautions. If you were flying a new model aircraft there would be hardly any. The oldest planes Tech Orders were full of them simply because pilots had figured out more ways to fuck up.

[Pro Libertate]

Catastrophic failure of some sort, mid air? If the plane disintegrates, then no crash needed. Not sure how that would happen, of course, barring explosives being involved.

One insanely unlikely possibility is a meteor hitting the jet.

[SIV]

The wing fell off. It was previously damaged in a ground accident and either:

1. It was repaired incorrectly

2. Someone cheaped out and straightened something that should have been replaced.

3.It is a new plane and Boeing's recommended wing-replacement procedure doesn't cut it.

My money is on the wing failing, the pilot does everything possible to control the plane and then it shears off.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

More from George Moonbat

[Brandon]

Nothing threatens democracy as much as corporate power.

His first sentence is already wrong.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Perhaps someone should inform him that corporations have no power?

[Rich]

"For those newly covered, it will open treatment doors for them" and potentially reduce recidivism, said Dr. Fred Osher of the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

1) It will also potentially increase recidivism, Fred.

2) Cue "Dog Day Afternoon" references.

[Pro Libertate]

If Liam Neeson is best known for Episode I--something I dispute, but there it is--what's Chris Sarandon best known for?

[Episiarch]

Uh...The Hidden, you ultra-tard? IT HAS MUA'DIB, YOU TOOL.

[Pro Libertate]

I don't recognize any film or television version of Dune, but thanks for playing.

Probably The Princess Bride, though it might be Fright Night for some.

What's funny is that the "movie" I remember him most from is a TV movie of A Tale of Two Cities. He played Carton/Darnay, and I recall him being quite good, though that was a long time ago.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Bieber

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why do you hate our future PM?

[Rhywun]

After Rob Ford, I hope.

[BakedPenguin]

Oh, damn. Ford as PM would be awesome.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I would be so for it except he's apparently a brutish bully behind the scenes.

Him and Don Cherry. Gold.

[PD Scott]

"Send the Electromagnetic Levitator to the Space Station!" sounds like something from a bad Republic serial but is actually a real (and really cool) thing.
FTA:
When activated, the MSL-EML automatically feeds one of 18 spherical samples, 5 to 8 mm in diameter, consisting of various aluminum, copper, and nickel alloys into the process chamber using a rotating magazine. The machine uses electromagnetic fields to levitate samples in a the container, keeping them out of contact with the walls or any other materials. Then the inductive heating pushes the sample temperatures up to 2,000? C (3,600 ? F), reducing them to a liquid state.
In such a controlled environment, scientists will be able to dial-in various factors and study how such samples change as they cool and solidify. There's no need for crucibles, which could contaminate the samples, and the samples aren't under the influence of gravity, which would deform the developing crystals or set up convection currents, resulting in uneven cooling. Meanwhile, the sensors record every detail of the process.

[Brett L]

This is total materials engineer porn. I'll be in my bunk.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Economist Nouriel Roubini, renowned for his bearish thoughts on financial markets, appears to be equally pessimistic on the fledgling virtual currency bitcoin, declaring it a "Ponzi scheme" and a "lousy" store of value.

Bitcoin - a "virtual" currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services - has received criticism and praise in equal measures since appearing in the spotlight back in April last year. Seen as a libertarian movement with no central bank, the price rallied to well over $1,000 last November before regulatory moves in China and problems at major exchange Mt.Gox curbed investor appetite.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100609493

[Corning]

declaring it a "Ponzi scheme" and a "lousy" store of value.

I agree. But it is a slightly better Ponzi scheme and less lousy store of value then fiat is.

[Brett L]

Not to worry, if you're under 40, Social Security is toootally not a Ponzi scheme and lousy store of value.

[Cytotoxic]

In which Nouriel Roubini demonstrates that he neither understands what a ponzi scheme is or what BTC is.

[OldMexican]

Economist Nouriel Roubini, late in the game of stating the obvious, calls Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme.

Actually, it is not a Ponzi scheme. The speculative run it enjoyed for some time looked more like a tulip mania than people being suckered into a fraudulent scheme.

[Cytotoxic]

In which Old Mexican demonstrates that he neither understands tulip mania or BTC.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

HeLO!

[Slammer]

HowDY!

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

HeyUGUYS!

[The Late P Brooks]

Thai officials say that tickets used to board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane that were linked to stolen passports were purchased by an Iranian man.

Proof positive the Global Caliphate crashed the plane.

[RannedPall]

When did I sign up for these annoying fucking app pop ups whenever I open an article from reason on my iPhone? Is Nick in bed with those candy crush whores? Knew it.

[neoteny]

Pennsylvania trooper fatally shoots pregnant wife in the head while cleaning his gun

The trooper, who has not been named, told police that he was cleaning his .45-caliber handgun when it discharged. He said that he did not realize the gun was loaded.

A likely story.

[rts]

A true professional either way.

[gimmeasammich]

Did his dog survive the attack?

[Rich]

He probably said basically the same thing when his wife told him she was pregnant.

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

If a handcuffed, patted-down kid can shoot himself in the head in the back of a squad car, I don't see why this is so out of the question. Holding the officer accountable would just discourage police from cleaning their guns, which would decrease public safety.

[Injun, as in from India]

Training, people!!! Blame the training, not the policeman.

[robc]

Day 1 of jury duty survived. 9 to go.

They only called two pools today, one of 15 people for a disability trial, one of 45 people for a circuit court.

There were about 150 of us total, I missed the last one by 1 number.

[Ted S.]

They make you go in every day? Here in New York, you call in the evening before and they tell you how many people they need and which section of the pool they're using. The first time I got a juror summons, they ended up not needing anybody that week; the next time they only needed jurors on one day and that case was settled before getting to jury selection.

Unfortunately, my six-year exemption ends in September. 🙁

[robc]

No, I have to call in at 6 tonight for tomorrow, although they told us tomorrow will be everyone.

Thursday and Friday will be light, may only have to go 1 max. And Wednesday is a tossup.

There are 43 judges working out of the Jefferson County courthouse, so thats a lot of potential cases to fill.

17 district judges (misdemeanor and civil cases under $5k)
13 circuit judges (felony and civil over $5k)
10 family court
2 appelate
1 supreme

Im assuming the supreme doesnt actually meet in Louisville, he just represents it.

Those were the 43 judges with names/pictures on the wall.

[Ted S.]

The county I'm in has about a quarter the population of yours, which would probably be why they don't need nearly so many jurors.

[robc]

They say that somedays they dont have enough people, if cases dont settle, that everyone dismissed comes back to form the next pool for judges waiting on people.

It didnt happen the last time I had JD, but I can see how it could happen. 3-4 circuit court cases would empty the entire jury waiting room.

The district cases and disabilty cases only use a jury of 6, while circuit uses 12, but starts with a pool of 45. The disability had a pool of 15, and I think they said the district cases use 20.

[robc]

We also only have a 2 year exemption.

But, my last time was about 6 years ago.

[Rich]

"Thank you for being the pillow of the American Justice System."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm soooo lucky to have bad hearing.

[Cytotoxic]

I'm so jealous. I'd love to be on jury duty.

[robc]

There is a difference between being summoned and twiddling your fingers and actually being on a jury.

If Im gonna be there, I would actually prefer to be dispensing justice.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

...Vigilante justice no doubt.

[Not an Economist]

I have jury duty in a couple of weeks. I hope to god I don't have to go.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

First Apple, now Google likely to get sucked into paying for breeders' retardation

"The targeting of children by Google and inducing them to purchase, without the knowledge or authorization of their parents, millions of dollars of Game Currency is unlawful exploitation in the extreme," she says in her lawsuit.

Did you hand your kid the phone? Sounds like you authorized it, bitch.

[Andrew S.]

I hand my kid the phone all the time. But since I have a brain, I don't allow auto-login for purchases (in app or otherwise), and if she wants something, she has to ask me first, and I'd have to type in my password.

[Matrix]

you have to type in the account password before the transaction is processed. So, parents who give out the account passwords are the ones to blame.

[Sunmonocle Backwards Tophat]

The Breeders' retardation was getting back together in 2002.

[BakedPenguin]

I'd say the retardation wasn't getting back together, it was making a totally shitty album. Which I'd conveniently forgotten about until you reminded me. Dick.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Did you hand your kid the phone? Sounds like you authorized it, bitch.

I disagree, but I'm a formalist when it comes to contracts. I am disdainful of shrinkwrap/clickwrap though I know it's a necessity; however, Apple and Google can suck it up if they didn't get sufficient consent to sell their products.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I am firmly of the opinion that if you hand a smartphone to a toddler, you deserve whatever is coming to you: naked pictures sent to your parents and boss, a phone that stops working due to being filled with drool, telephone bills for calls to Samoa, the works.

[Overt]

Next you'll say that when a salesman visits my house and finds my toddler there while I am at work, I should have to pay for anything the salesman gets my kid to consent to. No Thank YOU!

/jk

In all seriousness, there has to be some middle ground to show that a person really is intending to make a purchase- putting in a password is the best thing.

The problem is that the early in-app purchases didn't necessarily force that. If you had recently put in the password, it could remember that for future purchases.

[Andrew S.]

NY Nurses unions, politicians protest Koch Brothers for their dastardly deed of making a huge donation to a hospital.

What monsters those Koch brothers are.

[gaijin]

But those koch dollars are not as valuable as the clean, crisp dollars that come from the right people.

/derp

[rts]

That was a whole lot of stupid; I think it infected me through my computer monitor.

[Slammer]

Unbelievable.

FTA: The Washington Times reported last week that former President Bill Clinton accepted a $225,000 speaking fee from the Washington Hospital Center in 2012, the same year the hospital laid off 300 employees, on top of the 200 layoffs announced in 2011.

I'm speechless.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I look forward to them protesting PBS and that one art museum next.

A while back I started recognizing (though I'm sure I'm not the first to do so) that when it comes to helping people, the left does not care one bit about individuals. They care only about helping "people," groups of whom are never defined beyond generalities and the ways in which their policies will help "people" are never made clear beyond feelings (which many here point out on a regular basis).

Examples:
1) Gun control: An individual with a hand gun is safer in a dangerous neighborhood that one without one, and indeed the spillover effects of concealed carry benefit those who don't carry handguns. But "guns" kill people, so guns are bad.

2) School choice: the lives of families and individuals in school choice programs are made better by the existence of school choice. Yet the left opposes school choice, for various
reasons, none of which seem to be related to helping students.

I am sure I have recognized many more, but those are the first two that come to mind.

[110 Lean]

The Really Big Money? Not the Kochs

Harry Reid surely must have meant the unions when he complained about buying elections.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Someone should go Bluto on those guitars.

[montana mike]

"right wing political Panzer division", I like it.

[Lady Bertrum]

No one say a thing about the finale to True Detective. I haven't seen it yet and don't want to accidentally read a spoiler.

I'm talking to you, Serious Man.

[Episiarch]

There's no spoiler. The end was a dud. I am disappoint.

[Lady Bertrum]

Shhhhhhh. Pipe it.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

What, no more boobs?

[Episiarch]

DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT ALEXANDRA DADDARIO...and her inhumanly perfect boobs. It's like a cartoon superheroine in there.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

What are you talking about, I was hoping she was going to make an appearance 17 years later looking exactly the same and that the finale was just going to be her walking around topless the entire time.

But it sounds like that is not the case 🙁

[Episiarch]

Nope. I'm not a tit guy, but...holy fucking shit. Just...wow.

[robc]

Ditto.

[Ted S.]

Rosebud was his sled.

Norman Bates is also his mother.

Soylent Green is people.

There, I spoiled it for you.

[The Laconic Marc F Cheney]

Ixnay on the Ednay Arkstay...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha, I was going to remark about that but forgot!

The butler did it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Brush Buddies 00311-72 Justin Bieber Singing Toothbrush

[Andrew S.]

Is this a request for a present? Because I'll buy it for you if you really want. But only if you promise to brush your teeth twice a day for the whole two minutes each time.

[Brett L]

He's totally gonna use it as a dildo.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

GAME OF THRONES TRAILER 4

[Tim]

Teh awesome.
Obama should study Tywin Lannister, he'd learn a lot about Putin.

[cavalier973]

Ehhhh....

[Corning]

Holy crap that was Bravos!!

Did not think the story was that far into the books.

Also:

"Kill the child"

[lap83]

I look forward to everything but Daenerys. I haven't read the books, is she as annoying in them as the shows or is it the actress who plays her?

[Terr]

Her story drags on and, yeah, she can be annoying. She is a teenager after all.

[Emmerson Biggins]

yes. i find the whole sub plot more annoying in the book than in the show.

[cavalier973]

This. I flippin' hate Dany. She's like an expy for the love child of Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt.

[Overt]

In general the books are just terrible. Being "Good" means being stupid- i.e. trusting what those lying backstabbers are telling you and telling everyone your plans because you expect them to help you.

Further, every time someone makes a plan and shares it with the reader, some horrible fate will befall them. Every. Fucking. Time. Because catastrophic twist, RIGHT? RIGHT?

Likewise, if someone is sure they are about to die, you are pretty much guaranteed that they will be saved by some random army/hero that comes out of fucking nowhere.

I got so fed up with the books and the "heros" just wandering around, that I refuse to pick up the movies.

[Corning]

Swords from scabbards do not "shing"!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzbfuI0PMdA

Been reading some medieval fantasy lately...they make the same damn mistake.

[cavalier973]

That's awesome.

[The Late P Brooks]

I haven't seen it yet and don't want to accidentally read a spoiler.

It was all a dream.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Did Rusty wake up next to Suzanne Pleshette?

[Pro Libertate]

Silly, that's how Game of Thrones is going to end, with Ned Stark waking up next to a Suzanne Pleshette lookalike.

[Tim]

Then she gives him head.

[SugarFree]

His own, in fact.

[Pro Libertate]

You may mock my prediction, but remember that Martin was first a TV guy.

[Lady Bertrum]

Okay. My mistake was drawing attention to the topic. I'm off to the gym, so spoil away.

[The Late P Brooks]

He said that he did not realize the gun was loaded.

And, as we all know, the only way to know for sure was to press it against her temple and pull the trigger.

[gaijin]

He said that he did not realize the gun was loaded.

If only there was some way to check a gun to see if it is loaded...

[The Late P Brooks]

He slipped in the shower, and hit his head. That's how he became a female angel.

[Corning]

That or his dad didn't want the mob outside his door to rape the angels he had hidden in his house...so instead he slapped some lipstick on his son and threw him to the mob.

[Gene]

From the comments.

I don't know which situation is worse--if it's true, or if it's not

That was my first thought.

[SugarFree]

Werewolf enthusiast, 44, 'groomed 14-year-old girl for sex and went on the run after recruiting teens online to join his fantasy weapon games'

[Episiarch]

It's like reading your biography.

[Andrew S.]

All of SF's stories are purely imaginary. Now, SF's imagination is as disturbing as I've ever seen. But they're purely imaginary PLEASE DON'T ARREST ME FOR SEEING THEM NSA.

[SugarFree]

Some of them are true. I really did get a handjob on a log flume, for instance.

[Episiarch]

TOO MUCH INFORMATION

[110 Lean]

Kinda like this?

[SugarFree]

Yes, although I wore the coat better.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

After what happened to SF, I hope he has better trigger discipline than that guy.

[Episiarch]

If only I could shoot him. I wouldn't miss.

[SugarFree]

I'm pretty sure those guns only fire statutory rape.

[Episiarch]

And this, people, is where NutraSweet and I are exactly the same. We might as well have come from the same mother.

[Warty]

You didn't?

[Episiarch]

Well, if it was your mom...

[SugarFree]

We came in the same mother. Yours.

[SugarFree]

HA! Same joke even though thousands of miles apart. I told you drinking all that mercury would pay off.

[Episiarch]

I can't quit you. Or the mercury.

[Brett L]

SOCKPUPPETZ!!

[Tim]

Too bad an angry father didn't find him first. But there are no more fathers.

[Rich]

Wow. You can't make this shit up.

That dude's eyes are further apart than Jesse Jackson's.

[BigT]

Big Green suffers a big setback...

This week the environmental movement suffered its biggest defeat since Climategate. And at the hands of its most hated enemy: Big Oil.

Here are the reasons why the court ruling by a US federal judge that Chevron should not have to pay $9.5 billion in damages to victims of oil pollution in Ecuador is a victory for common sense and justice which we should all be celebrating.

Money quote:

As Judge Kaplan says in his highly-readable summary "This case is extraordinary. The facts are many and sometimes complex. They include things that normally only come out of Hollywood..."
Indeed. What Kaplan concluded beyond reasonable doubt was that Donziger's case [against Chevron] was constructed on a web of lies, deceit and corruption.

The initial expert assessments of the damage had been conducted by a man driving past the pollution sites at 50 mph; the supposedly neutral and independent expert testimony had been in fact written by a US environmental company in the pay of Donziger; the presiding judge had been bribed with a promised $500,000; the judge's decision had been written for him by the plaintiffs; Ecuador's left wing president Rafael Correa - a close ally of the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - had cheerled the affair.

[Brett L]

Sloopy, are you related to this guy?

[PD Scott]

Warm, flat, and scenic, the south should be a bike rider's dream.

Flat? Compared to where, the Rockies?

Okay, I'll give you the coastal plains and Florida.

"Cycling fatalities are inversely proportional to the amount of money spent on bike infrastructure,"

See? We just need to spend more money and everything will be fine. The people in cars gritting their teeth at the cyclists way out from the curb, waiting to pass them, just need to spend more tax money to accommodate the tiny cycling minority.

[Yegg Central]

The Supreme Court actually ruled in favor a property owner in a case against the Feds. Amazing.

[robc]

Property owners who were given land by the government, oddly enough.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), the leading Republican in the field, is tied with Democrat Michelle Nunn in a general election matchup in the Georgia Senate race, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey released Monday.

Broun had the best matchup of any of the Georgia Republican candidates polled in the primary. Nunn and Broun are tied with 38 percent support each in a head-to-head matchup. Twenty-four percent of those surveyed said they were unsure who to support.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....helle-nunn

This will be an easy win for the GOP - UNLESS super-nutcase Paul Broun is the nominee.

I live here - don't dispute me.

[SIV]

It will be an easy win for the GOP no matter what. I'm voting for Broun in the primary.

[Palin's Buttplug]

What is wrong with Kingston? He has a very conservative voting record and he is a personable and pleasant guy.

Paul Broun is a fruitcake. And I am not just referring to his Playboy ban for military bases.

[SIV]

I'd much prefer Jack Kingston to the current senators, but if we can elect a radical, why not?

[Palin's Buttplug]

OK

[Brett L]

Also: Coastal elite shocked to find out that Southerners aren't really the anti-gay bigots they've been painted as.

[Episiarch]

I have to say that as a born and bred Northeasterner, the collective guilting of the South is annoying as fuck.

[Palin's Buttplug]

As a Southerner I agree that we are less bigoted as depicted in the media.

But what accounts for the white hatred of Obama (that doesn't exist in lily-white states like Iowa and Vermont which he won)? And keep in mind Obama starts off with a 30% advantage with black voters in the South. Those black voters don't exist in Vermont or Iowa - which Obama won.

So what dooms Obama in the South?

Southern Baptists do. They are the stupidest form of life in the USA.

You don't think it is because Southerners are libertarian, do you? No way.

[Corning]

Southern Baptists do. They are the stupidest form of life in the USA.

Like Clinton and MLK.

[Stormy Dragon]

Just because "National Baptist" and "Southern Baptist" both have the word "Baptist" in their names does not make them closely affiliated. I'm pretty sure the MLK did not think much of a church that banned black clergy and had been explicitly pro-slavery.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Clinton was a Southern Baptist.

[Palin's Buttplug]

So was I until I hit adolescence and realized they were full of shit.

[Corning]

As was Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Bill Moyers.

All left not because of its stance on slavery over a 100 years ago but because some of them *gasp* started voting for republicans.

[robc]

If you did a family tree of denominations, they would be a fairly recent split.

But very similar heretics are the worst.

[robc]

This one seems reasonable. There are some with different branching (and crossovers), but this one is good idea.

[robc]

Ugh. After I posted that I realized its creator is one of those people who spell "God" "G-d".

Double ugh.

Im not Jewish, I can put vowels in God's name.

[jesse.in.mb]

Thanks. That's rather neat. My folks are Foursquare and I'd realized they were part of the swarm of late turn of the century Pentacostal sects, but didn't realize that was an outbranching of Methodism.

[robc]

There is a lot more cross-pollination than that chart shows.

But it shows where the people came from, if not necessarily the influences.

[Stormy Dragon]

*Pictures everyone fighting over who gets to be Mayor of the church*

[jesse.in.mb]

*Pictures everyone fighting over who gets to be Mayor of the church*

My introduction to the denomination was in elementary school and I was confused as to why they'd name a church after a game involving a red rubber ball and a grid drawn on pavement, but I suppose the app is more appropriate now.

[jesse.in.mb]

Whoa, there's video of Aimee Semple McPherson (founder of the Foursquare denomination and notable Canadian-American in Los Angeles) telling a joke about Prohibition.

[Stormy Dragon]

The Southern Baptist Convetion formed in 1844, explictly over slavery because they got into a snit over the fact the American Baptist Missionary Union banned Baptist missionaries from personally owning slaves.

The National Baptist Convention formed in 1866 as the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. It never had any relation to the SBC because the SBC never considered black churches to be legitimate churches.

Not only wasn't the split not fairly recent, the two organizations aren't even from the same part of the family tree.

[robc]

Ummm...in what way is 1840s and 1860s not recent?

The Assyrian Orthodox split off from the roman catholics in 431. That is "not recent".

And compared to the presbyterian or methodist or anabaptist tree, they were on subranches of the baptist tree.

Sure, if you only look at the baptist branch, they arent close, but Im more big picture ecumenical than that.

Im moving from a southern baptist church to a non-denomination church led by an Assemblies of God pastor.

Now THAT is a jump along the family trees. Its been since before 1517 since they have been a part of the same branch.

[Stormy Dragon]

Would you consider it accurate to say "The United States only recently stopped enslaving blacks"?

[robc]

Would you consider it accurate to say "The United States only recently stopped enslaving blacks"?

Depends on context.

When discussing denominational splits, mid 19th century is recent.

When discussing US history, no. When discussing the entire scale of human history, yes.

And by some measures, the Jurassic was recent.

I thought the context was clear from my post. I was well aware than the southern baptists split from the american baptists in the mid 19th, so I figured you knew I knew this, so would no would time scale I was discussing.

Hell, I even gave the time scale in my post: "If you did a family tree of denominations, they would be a fairly recent split." Its clear I only think it was "fairly recent" on the time whole time scale dating back to 33.

[robc]

Fix that one sentence so it makes sense, multiple clauses of it got changed mid-thought and ugh, its awful.

[Stormy Dragon]

Well in the context of MLK's religious affiliation, I would consider something that happened nearly a century before he was born to be "not recent".

[robc]

Well in the context of MLK's religious affiliation

Yes, but that wasnt the context I declared I was using in my post.

You know, if I hadnt had that explanatory clause, my post might have been confusing.

[cavalier973]

So what dooms Obama in the South?

Southern Baptists do.

Well...we can't take all the credit. We had help from Obama.

[Corning]

Southerners aren't really the anti-gay bigots they've been painted as.

But my Pacific Northwest bias is still correct right?

That southerners are bat shit insane?

[Matrix]

Well, they call a damned shopping cart a "buggy," so you tell me.

[Corning]

And Pepsi is Coke!!

[Matrix]

Yes, I know. I've had this argument with my friends here. (From Oklahoma but currently live in Alabama)

Coke = Any Coca Cola item, like Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Cherry Coke.

Coke =/= Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, 7-Up, Mountain Dew, etc

I use Soda or Pop interchangeably to describe carbonated soft drinks like the Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, etc much to the chagrin of my friends.

[Brett L]

Where in the Northwest? Because if you live in one of those places where it rains more than 150 days a year, we are never going to agree on a definition of sanity.

[Corning]

I live in the rain shadow of the cascade mountains.

It is a desert where I live.

Epi, Paul and that cop live in the rainy part.

[Episiarch]

How often do you go to Leavenworth, Josh?

[Corning]

Almost never.

Use to go there more often and even lived there for a bit.

But yeah for the past 2 years it has not come up unless I am looking at a piece of land or something.

When I was like 20 I rolled my Subaru in Tumwater canyon though...only about 10 min from Leavenworth.

[PD Scott]

You jus' stay on yor side of the cont'nental div-ide, damnyank.

[cavalier973]

That southerners are bat shit insane?

The culture derives from the Borderlands between Scotland and England, where people outside the family were pretty much trying to kill you, and you had to keep an eye on your family, too.

I read about it in a book.

[Warty]

I'm half Johnny Reb, and I get fucking fed up with the stereotyping of Southerners too. Like the time that some Ohio liberal-ass dipshit asked me if my Texan grandmother, who has a master's degree in math, thought that Jews have horns. Excuse me?

[Episiarch]

I think I recall fantasizing about a girl who was a Southerner. Good enough for me. Lovecraft didn't know the half of it.

[110 Lean]

Some do

[Corning]

thought that Jews have horns.

THEY DON'T?!?!!

How on earth can you run an international bank without horns?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Gold standard they say.

[Corning]

That is the Mongolians not the Jews.

And they had both a gold standard and a central bank.....and horns.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

As someone born, churched, and educated in the South during that era, I remember that the idea of being gay or lesbian was simply dismissed, and the term "homosexuality" was reserved for hushed conversations about those sinful urban areas far north and west of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Got news for you, Robert--it was like that just about everywhere else, too.

[The Late P Brooks]

I don't know which situation is worse--if it's true, or if it's not

Universally applicable.

[Matrix]

CT cop to gun owner: I cannot wait to get the order to kick your door in.

My response would be: And I would not hesitate to put a couple of rounds in your face.

[Brett L]

"If you do that, I'm giving you the bullets first."

[Injun, as in from India]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea

Ah yes. Move on. Nothing to see here folks. Except for all the images of hot women from webcams that were intercepted by the GHCQ and shared with the five voyeuristic eyes.

[Cytotoxic]

I am increasingly convinced that Forbe's Rick Ungar is Shriek/PB. If Suderman wants to make a debunking Ocare post (hint hint) he should start with this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ri.....ing-begin/

Samples:

the number of part-time workers in the United States has fallen by 300,000 since March of 2010 when the Affordable Care Act was passed into law. What's more, in the past year alone?the time period in which the nation was approaching the start date for Obamacare?full-time employment grew by over 2 million while part-time employment declined by 230,000.
.
.
.
Indeed, it was this very reality that made it clear to those who follow the health insurance industry that Obama's "If you like your policy you can keep your policy" proclamation was a near impossibility for those participating in the individual marketplace. This simply wasn't the way the individual market worked. The Urban Institute study bears this out, noting that "the non-group market has historically been highly volatile, with just 17 percent retaining coverage for more than two years."
.
.
.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is out this morning and reveals that 15.9 percent of American adults are now uninsured, down from 17.1 percent for the last three months of 2013...

That translates roughly to 3 million to 4 million people getting coverage who did not have it before.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Awwww! I thought I was Dave Weigel? Now I am Rick Ungar?

I am really Bruce Bartlett. I left the GOP plantation in 2004.

[Cytotoxic]

You're really retarded.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I am an independent. I voted for Reagan in 84 then LP until Bush came along. The GOP has to prove that Bush/Cheney is the past only before I consider voting for them again.

[Freedom Frog]

You're old enough to have voted in '84?

I had thought you were some libtard a year out of college living in your parents basement. Shit, you're more pathetic than I had thought being that you're too old to still be this much of a statist, oh wait, Independent.

[The Laconic Marc F Cheney]

Shriek is old as fuck. That's what makes it extra sad.

[Corning]

Take your 8% jokes like a man.

I am pretty sure you will be eating them for at least 4 more months.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Well, how do you account for the fact that the OPPOSITE of what ACA critics said would happen is occurring?

FT employment up - PT down.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|3.10.14 @ 5:39PM|#
"Well, how do you account for the fact that the OPPOSITE of what ACA critics said would happen is occurring?
FT employment up - PT down."

Your cherry-picking, sleazebag.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Take it up with Ungar, dumbass. It is his data and link.

[Cytotoxic]

His shitty data and mendacious presentation which you are so quick to wield 2 comments up.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't know if his data is "shitty" - you posted no rebuttal at all.

You just don't like his data, do you?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I don't know if his data is "shitty

"I just took it at face value because I love the taste of Obama's taint."

http://reason.com/blog/2014/01.....macare-alr

[Red Rocks Rockin]

FT employment up - PT down.

And LFP keeps dropping.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Wealth keeps increasing far more than the LFP drops.

Sounds like the accoutrements of a society flourishing.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Wealth keeps increasing far more than the LFP drops.

Debt does not equal wealth.

Sounds like a dumbass can't do basic math.

[Palin's Buttplug]

A booming stock market and recovering home values boosted Americans' household wealth by nearly $10 trillion last year, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday.

The net worth of households and non-profits was $80.7 trillion at the end of 2013, a 14% increase from 2012. More than half of the increase ? $5.6 trillion ? came from stocks. Real estate holdings rose $2.3 trillion in value.

Household wealth, or net worth, reflects the value of homes, stocks, bank accounts and other assets minus mortgages, credit cards and other debts.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

A booming stock market and recovering home values boosted Americans' household wealth by nearly $10 trillion last year, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday.

Hmmm, "wealth" built entirely on a stock market and housing bubble--where have we seen this before?

[montana mike]

so you want to steal my assets, fucknuts , I earned them as a blue collar worker who chose my work and am happy that my assets have done well. if you want to steal them I'll be first in line to shoot you, you fucking moron.

[The Late P Brooks]

I am increasingly convinced that Forbe's Rick Ungar is Shriek/PB./i

It's not the most preposterous suggestion I have ever heard.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that U.S. intelligence did not fail ahead of the Russian invasion of Crimea.

"In spite of the evidence, I'm good at my job!" claims professional bureaucrat pulling $200k per annum.

[Carl the Jarl]

ZTE wows world with Engrish skills, releasing Grand SEXT S EXT smarphone.

[BigT]

Move over Jared, there's a new biggest loser in town.

Man loses 56 pounds after eating only McDonald's for six months

He makes nutritionists frown, but a man who ate all of his meals at McDonald's for six months says he's lighter and healthier as he nears the end of his unconventional weight-loss plan.

John Cisna, a high school science teacher in Colo, Iowa, who gained national attention for his experiment, says he has lost 56 pounds, lowered his cholesterol and lost a total of 21 inches off his chest, waist and hips while dining only at the fast food emporium.

[Pro Libertate]

The new Jared of McDonald's. He's going to be doing commercials any day now.

[SugarFree]

They have white people in McDonald's commercials where you live?

[EdWuncler]

Hahahahahaha.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Yes, but he was only able to lose the weight because he had aides.

[cavalier973]

Heh, heh. He had AYDS

[Corning]

McDonald's is an emporium?

I feel so much classier now.

[robc]

"All jurors report Tuesday morning at 9."

Expected, but fuck.

[Pro Libertate]

Why do they make you go back? I think that's a technical possibility here, but I've always been dismissed if I wasn't empaneled after a day here.

I've been called something like 7-8 times, include several times after I actually was on a jury for a full trial. That pisses me off.

[robc]

Why do they make you go back?

Because its two weeks of service.

They can stick me on a jury any time in that two weeks. Last time, I didnt end up on any, was only in one pool.

Other people served on 2-3 juries during the two weeks.

[Pro Libertate]

What? What kind of horrible commonwealth would do that? That's wrong on so many levels.

Now what I would enjoy is being named to a grand jury. I'd do everything in my power to make the grand jury become a runaway grand jury.

[robc]

Which parts?

Honestly, with 40+ judges, I dont know how they could do it different.

They bring in enough people that if cases dont settle, they can cover most of the pools needed at once. And fill the others after people are struck from the initial pools.

But, most cases settle, so they only need a few pools a day in most cases, so we get sent home about lunch time.

[robc]

Last time, I think I had to go in for 3-4 days during the two weeks, but Thanksgiving was during my two weeks.

This time, I figure probably 6 days total.

[Pro Libertate]

Maybe what we need are professional jurors.

[robc]

Maybe what we need are professional jurors.

Next you will suggest a professional, volunteer army instead of a well-regulated militia that can be called up to fend off an invasion or insurrection.

[Pro Libertate]

Juries have changed a lot in the U.S. Used to be that you were expected to not only know something about the case, but also you likely knew some of the participants personally.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Juries started in England as witness panels who were called on by judges to answer certain questions which would be known in the local community. "Who owns this land"? Is one example. Also, "who in the area is reputed to be a criminal?" (origin of the grand jury). And if someone is accused of a crime by a private accuser, "did the accuser act from malice?" Eventually, the actual issue of guilt or innocence in criminal cases began to be referred to these panels, and the jurors began to hear evidence.

But the principle of getting local community members, rather than people from outside the area of professional judges, expanded into the jury system.

Until they found a way around the jury system by coercing pleas, but that's a different story.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Used to be that you were expected to not only know something about the case, but also you likely knew some of the participants personally.

Yeah, the concept of "jury of your peers" isn't what it used to be.

[Stormy Dragon]

My Dad has said that getting picked for a federal grand jury duty was one of the worst experiences of his entire life. For six months he had to get up at 4am every monday so he could drive 60 miles to Philadelphia by 7am.

[cavalier973]

And he lived in Cleveland!

[EdWuncler]

http://thinkprogress.org/justi.....president/

"Yet, if Rand Paul were elected president, he would have the power to nominate potential Supreme Court justices who would restore Lochner and who would potentially strike down the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters to boot. And this is the man that one of the nation's top conservative gatherings selected as their first choice to be the next President of the United States."

For the love of Bob, don't read the comments.

[~Knarf Yenrab~]

Libertarians want us to be unfree by protecting our freedom of association. As a corollary, they want women to be unfree by protecting a woman's freedom to choose her sexual partners. Men will only achieve freedom from sexual deprivation when women no longer have an unbounded right to select their own associations.

The process of the progressive mind, so far as I can tell:
a) do whatever our arbitrary impulses believe is "fair," regardless of the unintended but self-evident consequences of our actions
b) justify our laws popularly through emotional blackmail, then judicially via tortured reasoning that stands in direct, blatant contravention of the highest law of the land and classical liberal sentiment
c) mock, shame or, failing these, threaten anyone who points out our sophistry