Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

A.M. Links: Republican David Jolly Wins In First 2014 Election, Snowden Calls Feinstein a Hypocrite, Obama Gets Game of Thrones Episodes Early

Ed Krayewski | 3.12.2014 9:00 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Large image on homepages | HBO
(HBO)
  • you know who else had a cult of personality?
    HBO

    Republican David Jolly won yesterday's special election in Florida's 13th congressional district in a race Democrats and Republicans believed was going to be an indicator on the political fallout from Obamacare. Libertarian Lucas Overby, a 27-year-old commercial diver, won nearly 5 percent of the vote.

  • President Obama is planning to unilaterally expand overtime pay requirements for "executive or professional" workers by revising Labor Department regulations to lift the salary threshold at which employers are no longer required to offer salaried employees overtime pay.
  • Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have come out in support of allegations made by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) against the CIA. Graham says the Senate should declare war on the CIA if the allegations are true, while John McCain wants to see an independent investigation. Edward Snowden, meanwhile, called Feinstein a hypocrite for only caring about government spying when it involves her staffers.
  • European Union countries have approved the wording of sanction measures against Russia for violating Ukraine's territorial sovereignty. The seven-page document is expected to be approved by a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers on Monday. NATO is now flying surveillance planes out of Poland to monitor the situation in Ukraine.
  • Three Somali soldiers convicted of killing a journalist as well as fellow government soldiers were publicly executed by firing squad in Mogadishu.
  • President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO because the network sends them to him in advance, according to the show's co-creators. (h/t Jeff Patterson)

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here.

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Republican David Jolly Wins Special Election in Florida's CD13, Libertarian Covers Spread

Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (586)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Republican David Jolly won yesterday’s special election in Florida’s 13th congressional district in a race Democrats and Republicans believed was going to be an indicator on the political fallout from Obamacare.

    So this means Obamacare is automatically repealed, right?

    1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby taking 8,893 votes, or 4.83 percent

      So close.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        So did he “steal” Democrat votes?

        1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

          Naturally – Alex Sink is quite libertarian….so it was gonna happen.

          HAHAHAHAHA! Suck it Sink. You were a horrible pain in the arse to everyone holding a FL adjuster license, including selling our info to third parties so we could be spammed to death. I hope you end up living in a box under a bridge.

          1. The DerpRider   11 years ago

            Get in line to provide your fingerprints for your license, sir…

        2. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

          And it would indeed have been stealing, since the Teams have a property interest in votes. [/talking head]

        3. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

          Of course. We only steal votes away from the loser.

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      I thought this was going to go the other way. That’s what I get for believing PPP polls favoring Dems.

      1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

        You know how else thought it was going to go the other way, too?

        1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

          Peyton Manning?

          1. Clich? Bandit   11 years ago

            SHUT UP!

          2. Brandon   11 years ago

            You watch your back, Schweiz. Still an open wound.

        2. PD Scott   11 years ago

          The ’72 US Olympic basketball team?

          1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

            Oooh, good one!

        3. Brett L   11 years ago

          Napoleon?

        4. Warren's Strapon   11 years ago

          Arthur Carlson?

        5. Dances-with-Trolls   11 years ago

          That guy from the Crying Game?

      2. prolefeed   11 years ago

        I thought this was going to go the other way. That’s what I get for believing PPP polls favoring Dems.

        It was a special election, with the usual low turnout, in a swing district. The margin of error in any such poll, if honestly reported, would have been perhaps + or – 10% — but then who would bother checking polls if the pollsters admitted they had no idea how it would turn out, that it was basically a coin flip?

    3. Adam330   11 years ago

      I’m just going to leave this here. I’m sure he’ll be around to apologize and admit he was wrong any minute now.

      Palin’s Buttplug|3.11.14 @ 4:24PM|#

      There is a special US House election tonight in Florida. The district has voted 49% for Obama over the last two elections.

      Many of the Peanuts have been saying that DOOM IS COMING! for Democrats due to Obamacare foibles. Tonight’s election will give us a preview of the midterms.

      I predict the Peanuts are wrong (again).

      1. Juice   11 years ago

        I thought that special election was in no way a predictor of the midterms.

        1. Pro Libertate   11 years ago

          It’s not, but it is an interesting result.

          1. prolefeed   11 years ago

            As noted above, it was basically a coin flip of an election, decided by about 3,000 votes, or less than 2% of the people who bothered to turn up at the polls.

            About all you can glean from this election is that maybe — MAYBE — in some swing districts the D incumbent should be worried that their vote for Obamacare might tip the election to their opponent.

            Or not.

            1. prolefeed   11 years ago

              Shorter: PB had a false sense of confidence about something where admitting no one could accurately predict how it would turn out would have been the most realistic assessment.

              1. Corning   11 years ago

                The fact that i want republicans to win simply to prove Shrike is an idiot only makes me hate shrike’s bullshit all the more.

  2. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Disabled woman, 45, suing ‘abusive tax collector boss who kept a fake urn of problem employees ashes and acted like Adolf Hitler’

    New Jersey clerk Michelle Ruppert, 45, is suing members of the Borough of Point Pleasant’s Office of the Tax Collector for discrimination and creating a hostile workplace
    She claims her boss, 69-year-old Bernadine Pearce, kept a ‘Wall of Shame’ with names of employees she ‘exterminated’ or fired
    Ruppert, who is disabled, claims her boss acted like Adolf Hilter, kept a fake urn of bad employee ashes and verbally abused her
    Ruppert also claims Borough Administrator David Maffei failed to investigate her complaints against Pearce

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..itler.html
    One of the comments pretty much sums it up.

    A tax collector who has little to no humanity? Enjoys seeing others in pain and exercising cruelty over those under her??? No! Say it ain’t so! This can’t be true!! And ladies and gentlemen, we give them the power to do this to us, and the people who like doing this to us, seek out these jobs.. End the cycle:)

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Oh come now. If you do your job, you have nothing to worry about.

    2. KDN   11 years ago

      Fuck Point Pleasant. That town is the embodiment of everything I hate about the Shore. We’d be better as a country if Sandy swept that worthless expanse into the ocean (yes, yes, you could say that about 90% of the state).

      1. PD Scott   11 years ago

        So, Pointedly Unpleasant?

    3. 110 Lean   11 years ago

      WTF is a fake urn?

      1. cavalier973   11 years ago

        I think the writer meant to say “urn of fake ashes” of problem employees.

  3. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Man changes his name to Full Metal Havok More Sexy N Intelligent Than Spock And All The Superheroes Combined With Frostnova after losing a bet

    A New Zeland man lost a bet five years ago and changed his name in wager
    Took on 99-character moniker after completing paper work and paying fee
    The name can be changed again at anytime if he chooses

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..wager.html

  4. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Revealed: Obama’s controversial pick for surgeon general adopted his anti-gun stance by watching violent CARTOONS

    Vivek Murthy, 36, complained as a teen that violent Saturday morning cartoons were feeding ‘society’s preoccupation with firearms’
    Murthy isattracting criticism for using his status as a physician to promote strong anti-Second Amendment views
    He founded Doctors for Obama before the 2008 presidential election
    Senators complain that he’s agenda-driven and too inexperienced to be ‘America’s Doctor’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..TOONS.html

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      What are his views about dropping anvils on animals?

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        I heard he is on the board of directors for ACME.

      2. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        Only if it is a coyote!

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Who doesn’t laugh whenever they see Yosemite Sam – and those tiny feet?

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Yosemite Sam is a trans lesbian trapped in a man’s body. Why are you and your cis hetero privilege hating on her?

    3. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      One of my disappointments with American gun owners is that they don’t do much immigrant outreach. For the tradition of firearms ownership to live on, immigrant and new citizen outreach should play a role in it.

      1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        Trust me, the people who come to my county from Tecalitl?n/Jalisco are quite into pistol ownership. They like to fire off celebratory shots on New Year’s Eve, heh heh.

        1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

          LOL. maybe it is a thing about Indian immigrants. I had to seek out and learn about firearms myself. There was no outreach when I was naturalized, except from the League of Women Voters. None of my immigrant friends owns firearms, and I doubt their kids will learn or own them.

      2. Clich? Bandit   11 years ago

        College buddy of mine was from Europe. was only here on a student visa. Got off the plane and went straight to a gun store and bout two guns…BEFORE moving into the dorms later that day (we could keep out guns in our dorms no problem back then, and back then was ’94).

    4. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

      Top
      MEN

    5. Mike Laursen   11 years ago

      I’m reserving all judgement until I see what kind of facial hair he rocks.

  5. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    HeLO!

    Hey, Palin you buttplug, Jolly won in Florida.

    Stick to your day job.

    Whatever it may be.

    How is the sockpuppet industry these days anyway?

    1. Jordan   11 years ago

      Speaking of his day job, I wonder if his shorting gold and buying FSLR has paid off yet?

    2. BigT   11 years ago

      PB’s sockpuppetry industry is booming! So many comments. And profit (truth) is sure to follow.

      /sarc

    3. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      I blame the butterfly ballot.

    4. tarran   11 years ago

      Hey, Palin you buttplug, Jolly won in Florida.

      Stick to your day job.

      GOD DAMMIT RUFUS!!!!!!

      IT IS NOT SENTIENT! IT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE TAUNTING IT!!!!!!

      All you are doing is training its neural net as to what random sequences of characters reward it with attention!!!!!

      It’s like leaving food out for the pretty skunks!

      Stop it!

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        You can ask the gang here I’ve been deferent to your authority about him!

        I couldn’t resist. I repent.

      2. John   11 years ago

        Shreek is nowhere to be found.

        1. Restoras   11 years ago

          It’ll be back – evenutally.

  6. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

    God damned Broncos.

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Peyton will fuck it up in the playoffs again. 😉

      1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        If they also get Ware like it looks like they will, he’s going to have to try really hard to do that. He was absolutely fucking terrible in the 06 playoffs but it wasn’t enough to make up for his defense playing that well.

      2. Clich? Bandit   11 years ago

        SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!!

  7. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    ‘Illegitimate son’ of Mr. T filed $5.4 million lawsuit against The A-Team star because he ‘abandoned’ him and caused him to join a gang

    Alexander Taylor, 25, of San Diego claims that he is the illegitimate son of Mr. T
    Last year he filed a $5.4 million lawsuit claiming that the actor had walked out on him because ‘he did not fit into Mr. T’s public image’
    Claimed that being abandoned left him with low self-esteem and so he bailed out of school, was sent to juvenile hall and then joined a gang
    Alexander’s mom tried to take legal recourse against Mr. T in the early 1990s when Alexander was a small child
    Born-again Christian Mr. T has never commented on the allegations
    He married his wife over 40 years ago and has three children

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-gang.html
    I pity the fool who, uh, never mind.

    1. a better weapon   11 years ago

      Maybe he can settle by sending a gold chain sets to one of those cash-for-gold-scraps companies.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Cue A-Team theme!

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        If no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can have… a father.

        1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

          Imagine T walks into the court room holding a ghetto blaster blaring the theme to The A-Team.

    3. Drake   11 years ago

      Fucking bastard.

    4. mr simple   11 years ago

      Everyone knows he ain’t got time for no jibba jabba.

  8. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

    President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO because the network sends them to him in advance, according to the show’s co-creators.

    Leave the Ukraine alone or I’m going to tell you all the spoilers.

    1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      I wonder which character he most identifies with.

      1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        I would say Cersei, unless he’s read into book 4.

        1. Drake   11 years ago

          Particularly Cersei in book 4. Stupidity, complete lack of self-awareness, petty plots while missing major events, and everybody hates him just because he’s black.

          1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

            Well, I think the later Cersei fits him perfectly, but I suspect he would disagree.

          2. prolefeed   11 years ago

            Well, except in the heads of liberals, hardly anyone hates Obama because he’s black, it’s all the other stuff that provokes ire.

            If, say, it had been Clarence Thomas who had become the first black president, that false meme would not have arisen.

            1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

              And nobody hates Cersei just because she’s a woman, except in her head.

              1. Drake   11 years ago

                Exactly

      2. WTF   11 years ago

        Gonna have to go with Joffrey on that one.

        1. Ed   11 years ago

          He probably identifies with Ned Stark and thinks the Republicans are the Lannisters.

          1. WTF   11 years ago

            You are probably pretty close. He doesn’t really have the self-awareness to think he’s anything other than a noble man beset upon by scoundrels.

          2. lap83   11 years ago

            He especially thinks the “always pays their debts” part is the most diabolical feature of the Lannister.

            1. cavalier973   11 years ago

              I see what you did there.

          3. Corning   11 years ago

            Ned Stark was kind of a dipshit.

            1. prolefeed   11 years ago

              Nah, Ned Stark was just clueless about how power struggles work in the capitol, a relatively decent man as rulers go who did WAY too much projecting of his character upon sociopaths.

              I guess you could label that being a dipshit if you kinda squint at the term.

              1. Corning   11 years ago

                Err…

                He supported Robert and shat on Jamie.

                He supported the sociopath killing babies and shunned the guy who killed the mad king…the very guy who torcher killed his father and brother.

                And all that happened before he ever went to Kings Landing….well before he went to kings landing the second time anyway.

                Seriously everything he did was pure dipshitness.

        2. prolefeed   11 years ago

          Gonna have to go with Joffrey on that one.

          Except Joffrey was unconstrained by the need to garner favorable PR so his colleagues could win elections / popularity contests.

          Give Obama unlimited power and yeah, he’d totally act like Joffrey.

      3. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

        Daenerys and her fleet of drones dragons.

        1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

          She just needs better messaging!

      4. Tim   11 years ago

        Little Finger

        1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

          Not who you people identify him with, who he sees himself in.

          1. WTF   11 years ago

            Yeah, we know, but that’s a lot less fun.

          2. Tim   11 years ago

            Right. Jon Snow because he violates his vows and breaks all the rules to do what he thinks is right.

            1. Brett L   11 years ago

              “For the Watch”

          3. Ed   11 years ago

            ^this

          4. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

            Little Finger is too competent for anyone to associate Obama with him.

            1. Tim   11 years ago

              I was thinking more on the lines of scheming bastard, but yes.

              1. Tim   11 years ago

                Maybe he’s Danaerys- wandering around trying to do good but leaving murder and chaos in her wake.

                1. lap83   11 years ago

                  I knew there was a reason I hated that overwrought final scene of season 3. It reminded me of a certain election.

              2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                Obama is more Theon Greyjoy. Thinks he’s great leader, but everything he does blows up in his face.

                1. Jordan   11 years ago

                  Sounds about right. I think Ed and Stormy nailed it.

                  1. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

                    Nah, he’s Viserys–a spoiled, entitled, hypersensitive megalomaniac who was enabled by people sympathetic to his ambitions.

        2. WTF   11 years ago

          Not Varys? I’m pretty sure Michelle took his balls early on.

        3. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

          I dislike Little Finger more than any character.

          1. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

            He’s pure Machiavellianism–completely amoral and self-serving. I still can’t decide whether to despise him or if he’s one of my favorite characters.

            You know who I’m not all that fond of? Brienne. Total Ackshun Grrrrrl caricature and a Mary Sue to boot.

            1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

              It’s my built-in honor. I want Little Finger to get his commeuppance. Of course in the GoT, those most deserving of a dose of karma are the least likely to get it.

              1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                Karma for what? Compared to most of the other nobles in GoT, has Littlefinger really done anything bad?

            2. Ska   11 years ago

              I really like Littlefinger as a character, but if he was a person I’d despise him. Total scumbag.

            3. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

              How is Brienne a Mary Sue? She’s described by nearly everyone as hideous, she’s mediocre at most things she does, and nearly everyone she comes across despises, or at best pities her. If there’s a Mary Sue character in GoT, it’s Arya Stark.

              1. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

                She’s described by nearly everyone as hideous

                Mary Sues don’t have to be attractive.

                she’s mediocre at most things she does

                She’s completely out of place socially, but mediocre is hardly how I would describe her.

                nearly everyone she comes across despises, or at best pities her

                The point is that she’s a completely sympathetic figure for the reader, with no character flaws that would be out of place in a normal fantasy setting.

                She a subversive version of a Mary Sue in that someone of her nature and fighting prowess would be highly respected in a traditional fantasy novel. Martin turned the caricature on its head a bit by making her a joke to others in-world, but in a way that would make the readers admire her regardless of the circumstances.

                And yes, Arya is basically the same way–she’s just a younger version of Brienne who’s been hardened up a little more by her experiences. If Ned hadn’t become Hand of the King, Arya probably would have turned out the same way as Brienne–a fantastic warrior with limited social skills.

                1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                  mediocre is hardly how I would describe her.

                  Name one task she’s set out to perform since her first appearance that she’s completed successfully?

                  Name one fight she’s won that wasn’t against a completely untrained peasant?

                  Count how many times she’s been captured?

                  She’s as good as a woman can be as a knight, but she’s still a shitty knight.

                2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                  She’s completely out of place socially

                  Which is pretty much the opposite of a Mary Sue character. Mary Sue doesn’t mean “female character I don’t like”.

            4. cavalier973   11 years ago

              How you describe Brienne? That’s how I think of Arya.

          2. prolefeed   11 years ago

            Little Finger is an annoying sociopathic prick, but in a fascinating way.

            Joffrey is the one who gets the most hate from me.

            1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

              Joffrey is the one who gets the most hate from me.

              I have some good news for you then!

              1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                Let me guess: he dies. BIG SURPRISE

                1. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                  It’s more the way it happens that makes it good news if he’s a character you love to hate.

      5. Jordan   11 years ago

        Which king just hears about events in his kingdom on the nightly news?

        1. cavalier973   11 years ago

          Stannis?

    2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

      President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO

      An overly talky show for an overly talky President. Fitting.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        He talks?

        I thought he rambles aimlessly.

        1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

          Just like Game of Thrones!

      2. prolefeed   11 years ago

        President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO

        It would be great if HBO deviated from the book and created a unpleasant, unlikeable sociopathic character who acted exactly like Obama.

        1. cavalier973   11 years ago

          I think someone already pointed out the similarities to Cersei.

    3. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

      HBO knows how to bend the knee.

      1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        It was the drones we bowed to.

    4. Clearly Hodor   11 years ago

      He’s Hodor:

      Mildly retarded… check
      Covers ears and makes loud noises when confronted… check
      easily manipulated my his puppeteers… check

      Only logical conclusion Obama = Hodor

      1. Drake   11 years ago

        Is Valerie Jarrett the Warg?

        1. Clearly Hodor   11 years ago

          As plausible as it currently seems, sadly, no Jarrett is not his Warg. In a huge plot twist it is revealed that Bush is his warg.

    5. Drake   11 years ago

      Have Moon Boy or Patchface appeared in the TV show?

      1. The DerpRider   11 years ago

        Ho ho ho, I know!

      2. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

        Patchface’s song did, the character has not.

    6. Cdr Lytton   11 years ago

      If HBO hadn’t, the NSA would have.

      It’s good to be the king (of wiretapping).

  9. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    related to the first AM link:

    Florida race shows Democrats’ Obamacare dilemma

    The widely respected Florida political analyst Adam Smith sees big problems for Democrats in the loss of Alex Sink to Republican David Jolly in the special election to fill the House seat from Florida’s 13th Congressional District. “Democrats had a better-funded, well-known nominee who ran a strong campaign against a little-known, second- or third-tier Republican who ran an often wobbly race in a district Barack Obama won twice,” Smith wrote Tuesday night. “Outside Republican groups — much more so than the under-funded Jolly campaign– hung the Affordable Care Act and President Obama on Sink. It worked.”

    1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

      related:

      Republican David Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink on Tuesday in a Tampa-area House district where President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul got its first test ahead of November’s midterm elections and Democrats and Republicans spent millions of dollars auditioning national strategies for the rest of the year.

      With almost 100 percent of the vote counted, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.

      http://abcnews.go.com/Politics…..n-22861028

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        5% strikes me as a good showing.

        Anyone can enlighten me? Is it for a place like Florida? Does it mean anything nationally?

        1. Spoonman.   11 years ago

          5% is pretty standard in Texas in races where Team Blue and Team Red both have candidates; where one of them sites out, the Libertarian can get more like 20-30% depending on the district.

          When the Libertarian runs a decent campaign against dickhead Major Team candidates, they can get that number all the way up to…8%.

        2. Brett L   11 years ago

          Yes, its above average for FL. Although Jolly definitely got painted as an establishment guy, so that could have pushed things.

        3. Huh?   11 years ago

          Michigan votes ~5% libertarian also.

        4. prolefeed   11 years ago

          Anyone can enlighten me? Is it for a place like Florida? Does it mean anything nationally?

          That’s a pretty good outcome for a three way race — in places like Hawaii, the LP candidate can wind up with less than 1%.

    2. Restoras   11 years ago

      How long before Shrieeking Shit for Brains shows up to say it really doesn’t matter anyway?

      1. WTF   11 years ago

        He’ll be saying the same thing after the dems lose the Senate, too.

      2. Tim   11 years ago

        Stop thinking about it.

      3. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        Stop summoning it!

        1. Dweebston   11 years ago

          You can’t conjure it any more than I can conjure herpes. It just happens.

          1. SugarFree   11 years ago

            I think Tulpa had to work this morning.

    3. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

      May be the reasons Obama won have little to do with his policies or are generally applicable to Democrats as a whole.

  10. Longtorso, Johnny   11 years ago

    ObamaCare’s Secret Mandate Exemption
    HHS quietly repeals the individual purchase rule for two more years

    ….But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you “believe that the plan options available in the [ObamaCare] Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy” or “you consider other available policies unaffordable.”

    This lax standard?no formula or hard test beyond a person’s belief?at least ostensibly requires proof such as an insurer termination notice. But people can also qualify for hardships for the unspecified nonreason that “you experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance,” which only requires “documentation if possible.” And yet another waiver is available to those who say they are merely unable to afford coverage, regardless of their prior insurance. In a word, these shifting legal benchmarks offer an exemption to everyone who conceivably wants one…

    1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      At least they’re now self-aware enough to try to hide what they’re doing. Perhaps they even found shame? Maybe?

      1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        Between the shouts of “treason” in October and now? I doubt it.

      2. gaijin   11 years ago

        All you have to do is fill out a form? And if you are on the wrong team, does this form become evidence in a fraud investigation?

        1. DontShootMe   11 years ago

          ^This^

    2. Jordan   11 years ago

      So, has anyone done their taxes with TurboTax this year? I wonder if they force you to input health insurance info. Because I am definitely not filling out that part.

      1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        Serious question: why not?

        1. Jordan   11 years ago

          Because it’s none of their business. Well, none of it’s their business, but I don’t want to go to prison for not filling out the rest.

          1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

            This may sound, cowardly I guess?, but I’d much rather not be audited on some pretense about health insurance.

            1. Jordan   11 years ago

              Meh. I don’t blame you.

      2. BigT   11 years ago

        No, Turbotax does not ask about health ins. I think that kicks in NEXT year.

        1. kinnath   11 years ago

          Correct, the insurance mandate for 2014 will be part of the tax return due in April 2015.

          1. prolefeed   11 years ago

            Unless Obama decides enforcing that is politically inexpedient and unilaterally changes the law … again.

      3. Brett L   11 years ago

        They did ask if I had health insurance, yes.

      4. lap83   11 years ago

        I did mine using TurboTax. They asked me if I had health insurance, but they didn’t force me to go into detail.

  11. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    I posted this late in the PM links yesterday and reposting:

    http://m.nationalreview.com/co…..oy-murdock

    Chart on pipelines.

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Good luck on your attempt to qualify for the Europa League.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        You prick.

        They won’t.

        Defense is way too weak.

        Bayern looks great. Robben is a dirty diver. Atletico is a serious dark horse. Ruthless team. Remind me of old Juve teams. I like them.

        Meh.

        But I’ll enjoy our 18 trophies (more than any team; including 7 CL’s) and 29 finals appearances (in five major tournaments; again, yawm, more than any team).

        /winks.

        1. Ted S.   11 years ago

          I thought Bayern looked terrible. And I don’t like Robben — I would have been OK with him picking up a yellow card for diving.

          Good to see Schweinsteiger get the goal, and disappointing to see M?ller miss the penalty.

          Enjoy living in the past. 🙂

          1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

            Bayern got through – all that matters.

            Sigh. In the past I shall stay!

            They need to retool.

            Will be watching the rest of the games.

        2. KeithC   11 years ago

          Athletico are a great watch this year. Costa is brilliant and a textbook heel.

          Round of 16’s been a bit of a snooze, but the quarters are going to have some fantastic match-ups. It’s just too bad that Dortmund are so banged up — otherwise I could see anyone in the quarters (save for Olympiakos/United) winning it all.

  12. Longtorso, Johnny   11 years ago

    After Big Bet, Hedge Fund Pulls the Levers of Power
    Staking $1 Billion That Herbalife Will Fail, Then Lobbying to Bring It Down

    …Regulators frequently get entreaties from financiers urging action for their own financial gain, like the hedge fund executives who in 2010 tried to secretly push Obama administration officials to investigate for-profit colleges, again citing fraudulent industry practices, after betting that their stocks would decline.

    But Mr. Ackman’s efforts illustrate how Washington is increasingly becoming a battleground of Wall Street’s financial titans, whose interest in influencing public policy is driven primarily by a desire for profit ? part of an expanding practice in the nation’s capital, with corporations, law firms and lobbying practices establishing political intelligence units to gather news they can trade on.

    So far, Mr. Ackman has persuaded four members of Congress, a New York State senator, a City Council member in Boston, the majority leader of the Nevada Senate and other elected officials in California to join the cause. …

    1. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      This is obviously the fault of too little government. Yes, I have heard progs use this argument.

      1. Juice   11 years ago

        We just need smarter regulation.

  13. Matrix   11 years ago

    Chimps can play video games.
    But can they play Crysis?

    1. Jordan   11 years ago

      +1 glorious master race

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      If the audio feeds are any indication, they’ve been on Call of Duty for years.

  14. Matrix   11 years ago

    Don’t bring a BB gun to a shotgun fight

    1. PD Scott   11 years ago

      I note that the police arrested the guy who fired the shotgun (for refusing to allow his precious bodily fluids to be tested to see if he was under the influence of drugs, not for discharging a shotgun into some idiot). I guess you have to be a law enforcement professional if you want to shoot a guy for carrying something that looks like a firearm.

  15. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

    President Obama is planning to unilaterally expand overtime pay requirements for “executive or professional” workers by revising Labor Department regulations to lift the salary threshold at which employers are no longer required to offer salaried employees overtime pay.

    How community organizers roll…

    1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      I have to admit I cannot wrap my head around what’s going on here. There are federal requirements for overtime pay?

      1. Ivan Pike Trolle   11 years ago

        There are federal requirements for overtime pay?

        Exempt vs. non-exempt. He is moving the level for non-exempt.

        http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html

        1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

          Gah, Refresh, refresh!

      2. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        Fair Labor Standards Act

        1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

          OKAY ALREADY.

      3. Rasilio   11 years ago

        Yes…

        http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html

        Basically most Management and Professional jobs are considered exempt meaning you do not get overtime pay, even if you are paid hourly. You just get straight time for all hours worked or a straight salary.

        That said if he does this Silicone valley will rebel massively. IT workers are almost always salaried and even where not generally act as if they were because they are exempt. If a company is forced to start paying overtime it means restricting coders to a strict 40 hour work week which means strict business hours to make sure no one is working over their 40. That will hurt the companies for sure but it will piss off the workers even more because the overwhelming majority of them prefer to work whenever they feel like it/need to for deadline purposes and if that means putting in 60 hours 3 weeks in a row and then having a 35 hour week so be it.

        Sure, the guy managing the McDonalds earning $26,000 a year will like it better but a lot of people this will effect don’t care about the time and half as much as they care about the flexibility in schedule that being exempt affords them.

        1. Ted S.   11 years ago

          That said if he does this Silicone valley will rebel massively.

          Silicone Valley: The cleavage between breasts with implants.

          1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

            +36DD

          2. Riven   11 years ago

            Commonly referred to as the “refund gap.”

        2. db   11 years ago

          I.worked as a plant engineer for a few years. The.company paid us overtime, even though we were “exempt” employees, when.we.had.to stay late or.be called out.to.deal with plant issues.When I became a supervisor, the OT went away.but I was of.course still required to respond, more than.ever.

          When the.company.faced.hard times and.tried.to require 5he exempt engineers to.accept comp.time.instead of overtime pay, we newrly had a riot on.our hands. We supervisors were basically stuck with few people available on.normal.shifts because of all the.comp time we granted due to.callouts.

        3. Rhywun   11 years ago

          that means putting in 60 hours 3 weeks in a row and then having a 35 hour week so be it

          Ha, nobody actually gets the 35 hour week. That is just a myth.

    2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

      Naturally, I’m not in favor of anything related to the FLSA, but this move is completely meaningless. $455 per week is $22,000.

      1. Adam330   11 years ago

        That’s the current level. He’s bumping it up to an as-yet undisclosed level.

    3. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Since self-employed people are technically executives, do they get an automatic raise now?

  16. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

    Fannie, Freddie could send $179.2 billion to taxpayers: White House

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/…..39897.html

    Looking forward to my check!

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      “could send” = “won’t send”

  17. Matrix   11 years ago

    Stossel declares WAR ON WOMEN! TIWTANLW, amirite?

    1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      You couldn’t wait until noon?

      1. Matrix   11 years ago

        NO!

        1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

          Fair enough. I will say, my son (2) loves trucks.

          Do I? No, I am not a big car or truck guy. But he is obsessed, he even started using the youtube app on the iPad to watch random videos on trucks (how he learned to navigate around youtube, I don’t know).

          I buy what Stossel’s saying.

          1. Apple   11 years ago

            My son, who just turned three, is obsessed with youtube videos of a Brazilian woman opening and playing with Disney toys. That and clips of Judas Priest. Both of these he just stumbled across randomly, playing on the computer.

    2. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

      Yet when I reported on that, feminist icon Gloria Steinem told me that gender differences shouldn’t even be studied. She sneered, it’s “anti-American, crazy thinking to do this kind of research.”

      Reality is un-American.

    3. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      The radfem party line is that gender-based behavior is purely a social construct, except for the ways in which men as a class are intrinsically evil.

    4. mr simple   11 years ago

      That’s just math, too, because most women live longer than men and, despite the “woman-driver” stereotype, we men get into more car accidents.

      Men drive more. Women get into more accidents per mile driven, but men get into more serious accidents.

      note:These statements for insurance purposes only and do not predict how an individual man compares to an individual woman.

  18. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Inside the Beltway: A new interest in Rahm Emanuel for 2016?

    The recent Conservative Political Action Conference provides a forum for big names. But it’s also a platform for the murmurs and asides from political strategists who’ve been everywhere and done everything, and like to speculate. Such is the case when the potential presidential candidacy ofHillary Clinton was parsed by a pair of insiders.

    Would she run? Maybe, if her health and vigor remain strong. But is she holding a place for someone else? Could be. The take-away suggestion: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is seriously being groomed as a White House contender.

    “Maybe in the lead role, maybe the running mate. Hey, he’s already been in the White House anyway,” one strategist said to the other.

    1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

      I would laugh and laugh and laugh if that happened. He is such a brittle, small man with a hot temper. Listening to him speak is painful.

      1. Drake   11 years ago

        What this country really needs is a Chicago machine politician in charge.

        1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

          It has worked out well so far!

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Anyone watch Chicagoland on CNN? Wondering what you thought.

      1. William of Purple   11 years ago

        on CNN

        never heard of it.

        1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

          CNN really is derp. A glitzier CBC. The amount of appeals to emotions in their reporting is ridiculous.

      2. Juice   11 years ago

        Yes, I watched one episode about the teachers unions vs. Rahm Emanuel. At the end I hated both sides.

    3. cavalier973   11 years ago

      Rahm is for same-sex marriage, so he is practically a libertarian, you know.

  19. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    ‘Candy Crush’ Maker King Prices IPO at as Much as $24 a Share

    King, whose owners include Apax Partners LLP and venture capital firm Index Ventures, will sell 22.2 million shares at a price of $21 to $24 a share, it said in a filing today. Dublin-based King, which plans to use the funds for working capital and acquisitions, has applied to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KING.

    The company would raise about $532.8 million at the top end of the price range. It also said today it has an over-allotment option to sell 3.33 million shares.

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      I’m sure there are a lot of stupid yentas playing the game on Facebook willing to buy the stock.

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        It actually makes a disgusting amount of money through micropayments. (Disgusting mostly becaus eit might encourage that malicious model to encroach in other games)

        1. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

          it might encourage that malicious model

          What’s malicious about it?

  20. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

    Here’s a chick in a cardigan and pearls doing an awesome acoustic version of Bad Religion’s Generator.

    1. TheZeitgeist   11 years ago

      Nice. A talented girl with a great work ethic given all the practice, sounds good without need of a synthesizer, plus she’s pretty without the minis, spray tan, and glitter.

      In Hollywood, that’s called a ‘failure.’

      1. prolefeed   11 years ago

        She looks like a Mormon chick until she busts out the F-bomb.

  21. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Underwater drones to map world’s oceans
    A fleet of 16 underwater drones are to trawl the world’s oceans as part of a research project into mapping the world’s oceans

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tec…..ceans.html

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Will the next step be arming them with torpedos?

      1. mr simple   11 years ago

        The next step will be sending a handpicked team to discover why the drones went missing. Find out this summer the horrible secret they discover in the murky depths.

        1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

          Warty?

  22. Matrix   11 years ago

    Prius driving fat “hippy” doesn’t like diesel trucks

    1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

      An oldie, but what an obnoxious, self-righteous cunt.

  23. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Man died from heart attack caused by biting his nails

    Mar 11, 2014 14:13
    By Steve White
    0 Comments

    2005 Shares
    Share
    Tweet
    +1
    Email

    Amateur football referee John Gardener, 40, would bite his fingers until they bled and contracted septicaemia
    Ross Parry / Getty
    Infection: John Gardener died after biting his fingernails so much he contracted a septic infection (includes file photo)

    A man died from a heart attack after biting his nails until they bled.

    John Gardener’s habit had become so severe the infection turned sceptic and caused a fatal heart attack just days after his 40th birthday.

    He was rushed to hospital but died two weeks later.

    His fingernail biting was so extreme that doctors believe he became immune to the pain.

    1. Matrix   11 years ago

      Damn! Just about anything can kill you, it seems!

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      John Gardener’s habit had become so severe the infection turned sceptic

      I didn’t think the infection was capabale of believing or disbelieving anything.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Dammit, that should read “capable”, not “capabale”.

        1. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

          Joe’z Law strikes again.

  24. Bee Tagger   11 years ago

    President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO because the network sends them to him in advance, according to the show’s co-creators.

    So the one thing he’s learned before reading about it in the papers was the scene with the Bush lookalike on a post?

  25. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    U.S. judge freezes assets of Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange boss

    The market for the digital currency was rocked last month when Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, ceased operations, and soon after filed for bankruptcy. Mt. Gox said it may have lost 750,000 bitcoins, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, in a hacking attack.

    The freeze on Karpeles’ assets, issued by Judge Gary Feinerman in Chicago, also applies to Mt. Gox’s U.S. affiliate and the Japanese parent company, Tibanne, according to Christopher Dore, an Edelson attorney who represents U.S. customers of the bitcoin exchange.

    The judge’s order did not apply to the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox KK, which was shielded from litigation after it filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the United States.

  26. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Stock Market Surge Bypasses Most Americans, Poll Shows

    More than three-quarters of Americans say the five-year bull market in U.S. stocks has had little or no effect on their financial well-being, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.

    Seventy-seven percent of respondents dismissed the 176 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since its March 9, 2009 financial crisis low, according to the poll, taken March 7-10. Barely one in five — 21 percent — said the market’s gains have made them “feel more financially” secure.

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Why are you trying to summon Shreeky?

      1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

        To summon the shreik-meister, just say something negative about Buffet or Soros. He is sure to make an appearance.

        I bet he is slulking in the basement since his Florida prediction was off.

        1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

          “The Nazi occupation was the happiest time of my life.”

          soros.org

  27. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Chicago man estimates he shoveled 25 tons of snow this winter

    Matthew Walberg wrote in the Chicago Tribune he is the sole shovel-slinger in his household and he used a free maps tool to calculate he is responsible for clearing snow from 1,944 square feet with each fresh snowfall.

    Walberg said he consulted with Jamie Enderlen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chicago, to determine the approximate weight of the snow using data from the water content of each snowfall since the start of the season.

    Walberg said approximately 75.2 inches of snow have fallen on his property this winter, the equivalent of an estimated 5.01 inches of water.

    He said his final calculations revealed he has shoveled an estimated 50,645 pounds of snow this winter, more than 25 tons.

    1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

      we got dumped on today… and for a short spell I was king of the road again – 4X4 + snow tires ftw

    2. Jordan   11 years ago

      It amazes me that people voluntarily live in such places.

      1. Restoras   11 years ago

        Chicagoans are more serfs than citizens.

      2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        Somedays I’m amazed at that as well, and I am one of those people.

      3. Zeb   11 years ago

        I love living in a place where it snows a lot, but living in a city where it snows a lot would be a pain.

        1. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

          To be fair it doesn’t snow that much in chicago and even when it does they rarely shovel.

          So it ain’t all that bad.

    3. db   11 years ago

      That’s cool, but I would.have bought a snowblower for the.orphans.to.use.

  28. SugarFree   11 years ago

    Warty Hugeman and The Doomcock of Doom

    Chapter Four

    Warty materialized in his underwater fortress. He had spent three days subjective on the island Futurecock used as a proving ground, learning the capabilities of his new penis. It had 480 different vibration and torsion settings and was strong enough to let him fuck an ancient internal combustion engine block in half with only a dozen shattering thrusts. The urethra could dilate to empty his bladder in a fraction of a second or squeeze down to make his urine a water knife that could carve through flesh. When deployed, launcher rails for missiles and mines made the entire length bristle like a manic porcupine. The frenulum was an arc welder, the corona glandis became a cutting edge spinning up to 700 rpm?more than a match for the toughest of hymens. Interfaced with the timesuit, Warty could program offensive and defensive attack scenarios. It could even run the attacks if he was unconscious, wounded or even dead. The thought of his big black doomcock avenging his death made the entire device shiver with electric pleasure.

    Continue Reading

    1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

      You sure you’re not gay? You seem to have an unhealthy cock fetish.

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        I have a weapons fetish.

    2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

      Suggested revision:

      It could even run the attacks if he was unconscious, wounded or even dead.

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        Yes, good strike out. I’m terrible at proofreading my own work.

    3. William of Purple   11 years ago

      Continue Reading

      I’ll pass

      1. WTF   11 years ago

        You don’t know what you’re missing.

        1. SugarFree   11 years ago

          The literary equivalent of an STD?

          1. WTF   11 years ago

            Because it’s a lot of fun while you’re in the process, but the after-effects are terrible?
            I’ll buy that.

    4. gaijin   11 years ago

      The urethra could … squeeze down to make his urine a water knife

      So many real world technologies first envisioned in sci fi novels…I can’t wait for this to be real! Writing one’s name in the snow will seem so 20th century.

  29. Jordan   11 years ago

    President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO because the network sends them to him in advance, according to the show’s co-creators. (h/t Jeff Patterson)

    Fucking disgusting. Somebody should write a book about the Imperial Presidency…

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      I wonder if he gets consulted on the script? Do they have a scene where someone needs quality, affordable health care insurance?

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        I don’t get the whole Game of Thrones worship, anyway.

      2. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

        There’s a scene where he gets interviewed by Hodor.

        “Hodor!”

        “Yes, yes, I am a most amazing person, but I’m not supernatural.”

        “Hodor!”

        “I agree, all republicans are evil and ought to be beheaded like Ned Stark.”

        …

  30. BigT   11 years ago

    Graham says the Senate should declare war on the CIA

    April 12, 2014: Sen Lindsay Graham found dead in apparent suicide.

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      hah! When’s the last time anyone in congress actually declared a war?

      1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        1941…

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Would Lindsay Graham’s death be a bad thing?

    3. DontShootMe   11 years ago

      The CIA has now become too stupid to exist. How dumb is it to piss off your biggest legislative cheerleader? (Feinstein) Amazing.

    4. Cdr Lytton   11 years ago

      Lindsay Graham found dead in apparent suicide similar to David Carradine.

      NTTAWWT.

      1. prolefeed   11 years ago

        If the CIA decides to go after Graham, they don’t need to kill him, unless he’s so squeaky clean in his personal life that they can’t leak something to ruin his political career.

        You know the NSA has every phone call and email and website visit and whatnot Graham has made. Gotta be some dirt there.

  31. a better weapon   11 years ago

    Looks like I’ll be joining some of you fine fellows in the joys of fatherhood before too long. Yesterday, we found out we are having a girl! Do you know what this means!? This means there could very well be another libertarian woman one day. If we keep this up, there will be dozens of libertarian women, literally DOZENS!

    1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

      Politics is not genetic.

      1. a better weapon   11 years ago

        The nurture side of the equation will be weighing heavily on the political portion of her development. Persuasive and gentle, yet commanding.

        1. Jordan   11 years ago

          Gotta start the War on Womenz early.

        2. prolefeed   11 years ago

          As someone who has tried to raise all my kids to be libertarians, all I can say is, you can only nibble at the margins. They’re gonna come up with their own (read: their teacher’s) views, and all you can do is point out counterfactuals.

          1. cavalier973   11 years ago

            If you’re not homeschooling, you’re not a true libertarian.

    2. Jordan   11 years ago

      Congrats!

    3. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Nine minutes of passion for you, nine months of work for her! 😉

      1. Rasilio   11 years ago

        Yeah don’t give me that BS.

        You know how many times I cleaned up her pregnancy induced projectile vommit?

        More than I care to count.

        1. prolefeed   11 years ago

          Wait til the baby comes. You will be thankful for the days when it is only vomit you’re handling.

          Not to piss in your Cheerios or anything, just sayin’.

          1. Rasilio   11 years ago

            Yeah good advice for those who havn’t had kids yet but since I have 4 I am well versed.

            God forbid it be a boy, those things have a very bad habit of spraying everywhere as soon as the cold air hits the hose

            1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

              Yeah, back in the day I considered offer my infant son up for rent to the fire department…

    4. SugarFree   11 years ago

      I am available to babysit.

      1. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

        It’s a trap!

      2. BigT   11 years ago

        Don’t bother, SF, they can just read your bedtime stories to the child.

    5. Spoonman.   11 years ago

      Congratulations. It’s worth it.

    6. Spoonman.   11 years ago

      Also, take good care of your wife over the next nine months.

    7. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

      Have you considered adopting a crab or lobster instead?

      1. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

        Too conscious of pain.

    8. Citizen Nothing   11 years ago

      Awesome. I love being a dad. I hope you find it as fulfilling as I have. And if not, I hope you can at least train the little brat to toil in your factories.

    9. Brett L   11 years ago

      Congratulations!

    10. Bronwyn   11 years ago

      Congratulations! As one of the half-dozen libertarian women, I welcome our new little sister in liberty.

      I’m raising four potential libertarian suitors, so keep us in mind as you build your list of “boys my daughter can date once she’s 30.”

      1. a better weapon   11 years ago

        HA! The vetting of suitors is one of the things I look forward to most

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          “What are the four rules of safe gun handling?”
          “Who was Lysander Spooner?”
          “What is the proper response to my daughter wanting you to touch her?”

          “Wrong! Now lets see if you can run faster than birdshot.”

          1. prolefeed   11 years ago

            “Is he a dick, or does he treat you well?”

            That’s it. That’s the entireity of my checklist.

            1. Bronwyn   11 years ago

              The three older boys (7, 5, and 3) are already little ladies’ men. I’ve had discussions with all three of them about not kissing girls who don’t want to be kissed.

              Doesn’t help that they’re stinkin’ good looking little boys. The girls flock to them. It’s crazy!

          2. Citizen Nothing   11 years ago

            I’m picturing a scene out of Diner, only with questions about Ayn Rand instead of the Colts.

    11. Apple   11 years ago

      Congrats! And don’t count on it. 😉

    12. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

      we found out we are having a girl

      Good luck. When you have a boy, you only have to worry about one penis. When you have a girl, you have to worry about ALL the penises.

      1. a better weapon   11 years ago

        My office mate just said this to me moments before I read this.

        *narrows gaze and checks office mates monitor for an open H&R tab*

    13. cavalier973   11 years ago

      Many congratulations to you both!

  32. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    On a bipartisan, the US House of Representatives exempts people who religiously object to all medical care from the individual mandate.”

    http://thehill.com/blogs/floor…..-obamacare

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

      But don’t worry, they’re not going overboard on this whole religious freedom thing:

      “The EACH Act does not change the Obama administration’s ruling that some religious affiliated groups must provide health insurance that covers contraception. Instead, it only provides exceptions to the individual mandate that requires people to buy health insurance under ObamaCare.”

    2. kilroy   11 years ago

      What religions qualify? I may need to get my religion on.

  33. TheGreatCornholio   11 years ago

    “called Feinstein a hypocrite”

    Liberals are hypocrites? This is my shocked face.

  34. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

    Poll Worker Who Said She Voted Multiple Times For Obama For Family Members Released Early From Prison

    In time for the upcoming elections!

    Actually this was a good move considering:

    Melowese Richardson of Madisonville was released Tuesday after her attorney says she gave him permission to reveal that she has bipolar disorder.

    http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/…..om-prison/

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

      This will just support the fake Republican talking point that there’s some kind of so-called vote fraud in this country.

      Why give aid and comfort to the Right Wingers, CBS?

    2. WTF   11 years ago

      Voter fraud is a right wing meme.

    3. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      Phony scandal. Besides, what difference, at this point, does it make?

    4. Matrix   11 years ago

      Do people with multiple personality disorders get a vote for each of their personalities?

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        No, they have to reach concensus within themselves.

        1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

          So they use the scientific method, then?

          1. cavalier973   11 years ago

            Zing!

  35. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    The pace of my freedom is ever increasing…

    Go ahead, hock a loogie: Bizarre Grand Rapids law to be repealed

    A ban on spitting in public soon will be scrubbed from the city code, as the municipal attorney’s office continues to modernize local ordinances.

    Grand Rapids City Commission on Tuesday, March 11, will consider deleting the word “expectorate” from a list of prohibited public acts that also includes peeing and pooping.

    1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

      and…

      Other action Tuesday including decriminalizing fortune telling. Commissioner Elias Lumpkins joked, “Let’s tax it!”

      Commissioners also made it legal for a homeowner to remove a birds nest from their property. Previously, only city police had that legal power.

      http://www.wzzm13.com/story/ne…..e/6283031/

    2. a better weapon   11 years ago

      I don’t know if “modernize” is the word I would use to rationalize the legalization of spitting in public

      1. cavalier973   11 years ago

        It’s part of our new “anything goes” culture. You can now spit while you’re performing gay sex with someone of the opposite sex (but not gender) to yourself while smoking marijuana and drinking caffeinated alcohol, just as Darwin intended.

  36. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    President Obama is planning to unilaterally expand overtime pay requirements for “executive or professional” workers by revising Labor Department regulations to lift the salary threshold at which employers are no longer required to offer salaried employees overtime pay.

    Fucking private enterprise- how does it work?

    1. a better weapon   11 years ago

      I may not be the most up-to-date on BLS definitions, but aren’t executive and professional workers typically the highest paid positions in the labor force?

      I guess it kind of makes sense. 1) he wants them to be paid more so he can tax them more and 2)maybe it will result in some layoffs for the lower rung employees who don’t pay as much in taxes and can more easily be turned into a government dependent.

      1. Rasilio   11 years ago

        Sometimes, however there are some who make relatively little money, especially in retail and hospitality fields.

      2. db   11 years ago

        IMO the purpose is.to.reduce the reliance on.OT and force employers to hire.more people.

        In reality this.will not work, because there is.a limit to how many workers a task can be divided among. You can’t just hand.off.engineering work to the.next shift and 3xpect to pick it.up again tomorrow when.yoy.roll in at 8. Many technical tasks are single pers9n jobs and can’t be easily split.

        1. a better weapon   11 years ago

          I know you blame the superfluous punctuation and misspells on the fact you are commenting from a phone, but even that doesn’t quite explain it.

          Do you have one of those old Blackberry Pearls or just lumberjack hands on a touch screen?

          1. db   11 years ago

            It’s a combination of inconvenient key positioningand my aggravation and being.too lazyto go.back.and.correct most errors.

            I have an LG G2 phone, and even.without the.aotterbox case, the positioning of the keys on the.touch screen is very inconvenient. It is.more that I have relatively small hands compared with the width.of the screen and my ability to strecth my thumbs far enough.while.typing as.fast as I like to.

            A slightly narrower keyboard would actually help. The screen.is HUGE on this phone and it causes the “home position” of my thumbs on the keypad to.be much.further away from the center than.wasthe case.with.my.old ph9ne.

            Actually I do a.lot of editing ajd.correcting (I have corrected about six.really really bad mistypes already while.writing.this.post). I.just get frustrated.enough.with it that I don’t bother with the relatively minor 9nes.

  37. gaijin   11 years ago

    you know who else had a cult of personality?

    Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Muzz Skillings and Will Calhoun?

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Everybody wants Gaijin when he’s bi.

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        “the tension and the passion’s double amplified”

  38. GotOutOfCali   11 years ago

    Apparently Salon ran some “Facts” that will make libertarians’ heads explode. I will not link the article. You’re welcome.

    1. William of Purple   11 years ago

      They don’t let real facts get in the way of their “Facts”

    2. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      Don’t be like that:

      http://www.salon.com/2014/03/1…..e_partner/

      1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

        what if you want to buy your pizza in the evening, and you need streetlights in order to walk to the pizzeria? Now you’ve got a problem, because you can’t go out and buy a streetlight.

        Good point. They’ve got us.

        1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

          but what if you don’t need streetlights? Batteries, how do they fucking work?

          1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

            What if you didn’t even have to leave your house for the pizza?

            No wait, roadz. I lose.

        2. a better weapon   11 years ago

          The gig is up, asskicker! Hand over your monocle and orphans!

          -Salon Police

          1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

            You can have the orphans, but you will never take my monocle!

            1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

              I’ll give up the monocle. It’s worthless without the orphans to polish it anyways.

        3. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

          Damn, can an entire magazine be treated for an obsessive disorder?

        4. lap83   11 years ago

          Not like you’d need to counter that dumb fact with anything, but just for kicks I’d point out that it’s a lot easier to commit crime with free streetlights.

        5. Azathoth!!   11 years ago

          because you can’t go out and buy a streetlight.

          Yes you can. They sell streetlights. I’ve got two mounted on my house.

          I know someone who owns a farm that’s got at least 6.

          Salon, wisdom from the ignorati

        6. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

          Bullshit. I once owned my own streetlight. It’s just a fucking poll with a light on top! The house we lived in prior to our current residence also had its own parking lot. Small businesses…how do they work?

      2. Zeb   11 years ago

        Do they really think this would make any thoughtful libertarian doubt anything? Do they think they’ve stumbled upon something new here?

        1. Matrix   11 years ago

          Salon is just one big circle jerk. They don’t care if they aren’t able to change the opinions and beliefs of libertarians or conservatives. They just want to give their devout readers and writers more lube.

        2. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

          The Left has no intellectual history. They always think they have stumbled onto something new. That’s why they keep making the same errors.

      3. Juice   11 years ago

        Are these Salon anti-libertarian “articles” on a regular schedule? Do they have a stack of them that they release once a week?

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

      Inequality, streetlights, national defense and oligopolies.

      http://www.salon.com/2014/03/1…..e_partner/

      1. GotOutOfCali   11 years ago

        It really is an obsession

        http://tinyurl.com/pk8k928

    4. OldMexican   11 years ago

      I’ll wait for the bullet points, then.

      1. GotOutOfCali   11 years ago

        – Roads
        – Somalia
        – Who will protect us???

      2. Emmerson Biggins   11 years ago

        Also, and I think it’s the stupidest one by far:

        – Inequality

        Did your head explode yet?

    5. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

      I’m not going to give the salon slavers the clicks they desire, but I’ll venture a wild guess that it’s a bunch of shit that the government does (shitty) that the authors can’t imagine being done without coercion.

      In other words, “ROADS!”.

      1. Jordan   11 years ago

        I’ll also hazard a guess that their inequality spiel doesn’t include a word about the Federal Reserve’s merciless War on Savers or the Regulatory State’s imposition of enormous costs on starting your own business.

        1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

          Regulatory State’s imposition of enormous costs on starting your own business.

          Yes, but:

          The iPhone would not exist if the public had not invested in research to develop GPS and touchpad technology, or developing the Internet, or creating the highways on which Apple can move its products.

          1. Jordan   11 years ago

            Oh good lord.

          2. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

            Like I give a shit. Even if I grant this as being true, I’d give up the iPhone in a nanosecond if it meant no state. I don’t even have an iPhone, nor want one. Fuck it.

            Also…

            They’re always arguing about infrastructure and roads, but that’s a tiny part of our government’s spending. We all know that’s not what they want, they want the other $3.7 trillion to buy off the FSA and keep their power grab moving along. So I say, okay cummonkey, we’ll keep funding the ROADS and cut everything else to zero, happy?

          3. R C Dean   11 years ago

            Yeah. Apple didn’t build that Iphone.

      2. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

        that the authors can’t imagine being done without coercion.

        Many statist talking points do seem to boil down to the argument from personal incredulity.

        1. Juice   11 years ago

          They have very little imagination and are generally frightened of the real world.

    6. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      Even by the standards of Salon, the derp is strong with that one.

  39. OldMexican   11 years ago

    President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO because the network sends them to him in advance, according to the show’s co-creators. (h/t Jeff Patterson)

    “I’m Lrrr, emperor of Omicron Persei 8 and I demand to see fair ladies getting shafted naked! For free!”

    President Obama is planning to unilaterally expand overtime pay requirements for “executive or professional” workers by revising Labor Department regulations to lift the salary threshold at which employers are no longer required to offer salaried employees overtime pay.

    At least now most women will have the perfect excuse to run to their cars at exactly 4:59 PM – “They won’t pay overtime!”

  40. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    The Daily Show interview with Napolitano about Lincoln starts at 7:45 (after the commercial)

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/fu…..napolitano

    1. OldMexican   11 years ago

      Robert Wenzel’s take on what went on yesterday during The Daily Show.

      The Judge smiled through it all, but he was destroyed by these mainstreamers [Lincoln historians], who didn’t offer facts to dispute the Judge, but simply declared him to be wrong. There was no attempt at balance. Prof. Thomas DiLorenzo, historian and expert on Lincoln and the civil war, was not on the panel, nor anyone else that was going to go up against Stewart’s cherished myths about Lincoln. It was a set up from start to finish. That’s how MSM works. They control things when they operate and they will do whatever to twist an outcome so that it favors the cherished version (which usually includes putting libertarians in a bad light).

      Lew Rockwell did the right thing when NYT showed up at the Mises Institute. He did the Clint Eastwood thing, he showed them the door and told them to get the hell out. (SEE: Lew Rockwell Faces Down the New York Times).

      1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

        who didn’t offer facts to dispute the Judge, but simply declared him to be wrong.

        John was on the panel?

        1. John   11 years ago

          Well, when your opponent doesn’t acknowledge facts that don’t fit their narrative, it can appear that way.

          And I agree with you most of the time. You are the one who is always pissed off and calling me names, not me.

          1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

            I only call you Red Tony when you attack straw men. Ass.

            1. John   11 years ago

              You only claim strawman when I point out something wrong with your argument. One man’s strawman is another man’s goal post moving.

              1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

                No. I claim straw man when you argue against points I never made and expect me to defend things I never said. Ass.

                1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

                  For example I state that perhaps Iran wants a nuke because the US has never invaded a country with a nuke. Then you respond as if I said the Iranian government is warm and fuzzy and would never ever hurt a fly, and expect me to defend the argument that Iran is totally peaceful and has never ever hurt anyone. Ass.

                  1. John   11 years ago

                    But that does respond to your point. If the Iranian government really sucks and means us harm, then they want nukes because they suck not because they fear we will invade them.

                    And the argument about needing nukes to keep us from “invading them” is bunk anyway. We only invaded Iraq because we thought they were building nukes. We haven’t invaded Cuba have we? They don’t have nukes the last I looked and they only time we ever got close to war with them was when we thought they did.

                    The best way to avoid US invasion is not build nukes and not attack us. The only reason Iran wants nukes is so that they can attack us or our allies and not have to worry about us invading them.

                    1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

                      If the Iranian government really sucks and means us harm, then they want nukes because they suck not because they fear we will invade them.

                      Those things are not mutually exclusive.

                      We only invaded Iraq because we thought they were building nukes.

                      Really? I thought it was chemical weapons. Or Kuwait. Or Bush’s war boner. Or… fuck, who knows?

                      We haven’t invaded Cuba have we?

                      What does that have to do with anything?

                      The only reason Iran wants nukes is so that they can attack us or our allies and not have to worry about us invading them.

                      You just said… Oh, never mind. You’re not even pretending to be honest at this point. Fuck off.

                    2. John   11 years ago

                      What does that have to do with anything?

                      They are just as much of an avowed enemy as Iran and 90 miles from our coast and don’t have nukes. Once the Soviet Union fell, why didn’t we invade Cuba? They are our enemy and don’t have nukes, doesn’t your logic argue for us invading them?

                      Really? I thought it was chemical weapons.

                      You don’t have to think. The reasons were stated. We invaded because Huissain wouldn’t let UN inspectors in and we thought he had WMDs. Had he let the UN inspectors in and renounced his WND program, we never would have invaded. We didn’t invade him because he didn’t have nukes. We invaded because we thought he wanted them and was going to get them or some other from of WMDs.

                      Do you honestly think that if Iran didn’t have a nuclear program and wasn’t constantly talking about blowing up Israel and the United States, we would just go invade them? If so, what makes you think that?

                      They keep saying they are going to build nukes and use them on Israel and eventually us. They are spending a lot of money doing things that would allow them to have nukes. How can you now say “well they only want nukes so we won’t invade them”?

                      Well in one sense that is true. It would limit our ability to invade. But they only view that as a concern because they mean us harm not because we just go around randomly invading countries.

        2. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

          No, it’d be more like…

          who didn’t offer facts to dispute the Judge, but simply declared him to be wrong a “retard”.

      2. Zeb   11 years ago

        It’s a left leaning comedy show. Why would he expect to get a fair treatment?

        Sounds almost as bad as their bit with Peter Schiff. If your political philosophy requires a lot of explanation it is just too easy for a show like that to make you say whatever they want.

        1. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

          I agree.

          It’s kinda fucked up what they do, but at the same time, EVERYONE knows exactly what they do. I have a hard time believing that Schiff or The Judge didn’t know the Daily Show’s history of creative editing in the pursuit of laughs and degradation of political outcasts.

          1. Juice   11 years ago

            Napolitano made his original statements on The Independents.

  41. 110 Lean   11 years ago

    Three Somali soldiers convicted of killing a journalist as well as fellow government soldiers were publicly executed by firing squad in Mogadishu.

    How on earth did folks get to the public execution?

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

      I bet they were shot in a good libertarian fashion.

    2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

      hovercraft, as it should be in Libertopia

    3. Steve G   11 years ago

      They skyped in

  42. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Is China in Al Qaeda’s Crosshairs?

    What does a knife attack in western China have to do with the Malaysian Airlines disappearance?

    Two weeks ago, on March 1, 34 people were killed and 130 injured in a mass stabbing attack at the Kunming railway station in Yunnan, China. Reports said as many as 10 black-clad assailants wielding knives and machetes attacked people at random. The event caused shock in China and around the world with many referring to it as the “Chinese 9/11.” Just days before, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group released a video threatening China. And this week, that video gained much greater significance, when Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared without a trace.

    1. OldMexican   11 years ago

      This is the first time I’ve heard of a knife/machete attack in China. Is the MSM trying to make it seem like things are hunky-dory save for evil czar Putin and those dastardly Republicans?

      1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

        This is the first time I’ve heard of a knife/machete attack in China.

        Really? I’ve heard of several. Often in schools.

        1. OldMexican   11 years ago

          Not this big. I’ve heard of the random attacks by deranged individuals and such, but not something so well-coordinated.

    2. Loki   11 years ago

      Reports said as many as 10 black-clad assailants wielding knives and machetes attacked people at random.

      I wonder why no one shot the fuckers? Oh wait, nevermind, China probably has very restrictive gun control laws.

      1. PD Scott   11 years ago

        We just haven’t exported shelter in place techniques yet. Once we do, the Chinese will be fine.

    3. R C Dean   11 years ago

      I can’t believe this was terrorism, for one reason:

      Nobody has taken credit for it. And that’s the whole point of a terrorist attack – to link the violence to your cause.

      Nah, its something else.

  43. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Why expats are ditching their U.S. passports

    The tax obligations imposed by the U.S. drove us crazy! We live in a small town, and it was difficult to find an expert who knew the ins and outs of the U.S. tax system. When we did find a firm, it cost us more than 4,000 New Zealand dollars ($3,360) for them to do our U.S. taxes each year. We looked at the money we paid the accountants as the price we paid to retain our U.S. citizenship. But as we got older and U.S. tax laws became more convoluted, it just didn’t seem worth it anymore.

    The accountancy fee is the main reason why we both renounced our U.S. citizenship last year. It wasn’t an easy decision — super stressful, and very emotional. But at the end of the day, I think it was the right thing for us.

    1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

      The only first-world country that has double-taxation. And a huge exit fee, if you want to ditch the passport.

      1. Tim   11 years ago

        But…equality!

        1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

          Just sort of skimmed it, but the article doesn’t seem to mention the huge exit tax.

    2. Jordan   11 years ago

      Look at those fatcats trying to escape their civic duty.

    3. John   11 years ago

      It is funny how Progs are always so concerned that the US isn’t like the rest of the civilized world yet are totally okay with the US and Eratria being the only countries who tax expats.

      Our tax system is barbaric.

      1. Zeb   11 years ago

        A lot of people don’t seem to know that. Another amusing thing to point out to progressive types is that a lot of their beloved Euro-social states also have lower corporate income tax rates than the US. And that that is a lot of the reason why multinational companies don’t bring more money back to the US to invest here.

        1. John   11 years ago

          I always like to point out the Europe has lower car emission standards. No one ever believes that until I point out how impossible it is to import a car built to European specs.

          1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

            As far as I can tell Europe just pushes people into more efficient cars by the high gas prices. At least they’re honest about it.

            1. John   11 years ago

              But even their efficient cars are not built to American specs. America has some of the strictest environmental laws in the world. But Progs just assume we don’t because they take our being the center of evil cowboy capitalism as an article of faith.

              You would think they would grow tired of going through life profoundly ignorant but they never seem to.

            2. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

              Lower emission standards do not mean higher efficiency. In fact, often they are at cross-purposes.

          2. Zeb   11 years ago

            That’s a good one too. And why we can’t get all the cool new turbo-diesel engines here.

            1. John   11 years ago

              The diesel standards are one of the more amazing bits of green insanity. They set the particulate matter standards beyond any sane standard. As a result, Americans can’t buy turbo diesels that get 45+ mpg and perform as well as a gasoline engine. But at the same time Greens are all about fuel efficiency.

              American leftists are insane.

              1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

                In Europe it’s sort of the opposite effect. Turbodiesels are extremely popular because the exorbitant price of gas. So much so, that it has driven the price of diesel up to almost the same as gas.

                1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

                  ~100 euros to fill up my wife’s diesel car.

          3. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

            I don’t know about that. I read an article a while back about a company that imported German cars into Germany from America because they were cheaper. This included having to do some work to meet the German emission standards.

            1. John   11 years ago

              I know about that. Before US emission standards, there used to be a grey market in European cars imported from Europe. That market died with the clean air act amendments of 1990. You have to get permission from the EPA to import a European spec car into the US.

              1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

                This article wasn’t that old, they were importing Porsche SUVs. I think the grey market was in Britain where they were trying to stop people even buying cars in mainland Europe.

                1. John   11 years ago

                  It has been a long time since I have done clean air law. But at least as of the late 1990s, the US standards were stricter.

                  Every car in the US has to be built to the California emission standards. I honestly can’t see how anywhere could have standards stricter than that.

                  1. Cdr Lytton   11 years ago

                    Safety standards too. That’s why LandRover hasn’t imported a Defender for twenty years.

                    There’s an exemption for imports older than 30 or 40 years. My dream to is to import a ’70s diesel Defender from a company that restores and ships them to the US. Next would be a Unimog.

    4. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

      Here’s what I don’t understand, forgive my ignorance of our 74,000 page of tax code, how would the IRS even know what someone is making overseas?

      If I’m a citizen somewhere else I’m not reporting shit voluntarily to Uncle Sugar.

      Does your host country send the U.S. your info?

      1. John   11 years ago

        The don’t. But, if you ever come back to the US or do anything that will allow them to get their filthy paws on you, you are screwed. There are cases involving children of expats who grew up overseas and then moved to the US as adults. The IRS successfully claimed that since they were citizens their entire lives, they owed US taxes on every dime they had ever made before moving to the US.

        Yeah, our government is that fucking evil.

      2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

        They make foreign banks turn over information on US depositors as a condition of having access to US financial markets.

  44. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    So Andrew Napolitano decided to address the neo-confederate thing by going on The Daily Show last night and digging the hole deeper.

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/wa…..napolitano

    Biggest derp was when he actually claimed that the South only started the war because Lincoln “tricked” them into it.

    1. OldMexican   11 years ago

      Re: Stormy Dragon,

      Biggest derp was when he actually claimed that the South only started the war because Lincoln “tricked” them into it.

      On December 26, 1860, six days after South Carolina declared its secession, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie, spiking its large guns, burning its gun carriages, and taking its smaller cannon with him to be trained on the city. He secretly relocated companies E and H (127 men, 13 of them musicians) of the 1st U.S. Artillery to Fort Sumter on his own initiative, without orders from Washington. He thought that providing a stronger defense would delay an attack by South Carolina militia. The fort was not yet complete at the time and fewer than half of the cannon that should have been available were in place, due to military downsizing by President James Buchanan. Over the next few months repeated calls for evacuation of Fort Sumter from the government of South Carolina and then from Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard were ignored.”

      The rest is history – the government of SC fired on the garrison to compel it to surrender the fort. It was a clear and obvious trap set up by the US government.

      1. John   11 years ago

        So Lincoln started the war because he didn’t surrender quickly enough.

        Yeah, that makes sense. Of all the stupid and idiotic hills to die on. Napalatano has so much good to say about so many things. Yet, he wastes his time and credibility arguing over the civil war and pretending the slave holders were the victims.

        Regardless of what you think of the issue itself, that is first rate idiocy as any kind of public debate strategy.

        What is more important, scoring political points against Lincoln or doing something about what is happening now. This is why Libertarians never get anywhere, even though they are right and history is on their side.

        1. RBS   11 years ago

          As a lifelong Southerner there is probably no discussion I find more boring than anything having to do with the Civil War.

          1. John   11 years ago

            It is just stupid. Why did he agree to go on there? The only reason Stewart had him on was because he knew no one would listen and it would keep people from hearing everything else Napalitano has to say.

            I do not get the obsession with the civil war among Libertarians. Let it go already. If you have to talk about history, how about going after Wilson or FDR instead? That won’t involve defending the rights of slave holders and people might learn something.

            1. RBS   11 years ago

              Not all libertarians are obsessed with it, just the LRC crowd. My personal historical obsession is the Revolution. A lot of cool shit happened here in SC.

              1. John   11 years ago

                I am not obsessed with it either. And the Revolution is a lot more brutal and interesting than the school history books let on. I read Almost A Miracle, a couple of years ago. It was a great read.

                The parts about the Carolinas were very interesting. I loved it how the people in the Piedmont hated the rice growers on the coast and didn’t give a shit if they were taken over by the English. The British could have held the South had they not been such assholes and let Colonial Tories form militias from the very beginning. As it was, by the time they did that, it was too late.

                And Danial Morgan is one of the great heroes of American history. Doesn’t get near the credit he deserves.

              2. SIV   11 years ago

                Like war crimes

            2. Zeb   11 years ago

              Civil war stuff can make for an interesting historical debate, but I agree that it is a dumb thing for libertarians to focus on. The traditional sainted Lincoln story is obviously not so simple, but neither side was fighting for anything remotely libertarian.

              20th century history is more relevant. But even that gets tiresome. You need to look to the future. We’re not going back.

            3. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

              I do not get the obsession with the civil war among Libertarians

              Me too. It’s one of those things that even if your’re right it doesn’t fucking change anything. And, as you say, it only alienates people by bringing out the kooks. Who cares if lincoln was an asshole? He probably was. Whatever. How about the mathematical certainty that our country cannot perpetually spend as it has? Or the millions in rape cages for selling unpopular chemicals? Or people losing the health insurance that they’ve been content with because Dear Leader needed to meddle?

              Fuck, man. Who fucking cares about lincoln? He’s fucking dead. If you hate him so much, dig up his rotten corpse, rip out his eyeballs and piss on his brain. Then just shut the fuck up about it. Fucking retards.

              1. Zeb   11 years ago

                Eloquently stated.

              2. SugarFree   11 years ago

                I stand with The General.

              3. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

                I do not get the obsession with the civil war among Libertarians

                Because the majority of the country simply accept it as a condemnation of Federalism. Many here even believe that anything but strong Central Power = human slavery.

                This false meme also removes the individual actions of abolitionists and exchanges them with the supposedly benevolent State, which is bullshit. Not coincidentally, many, if not the majority, of abolitionists were religious. People falsely believe that “Juneteenth” is the day the last slave was freed but don’t know the name William Wilberforce.

                The argument that individuals, not the State, are the basis for morality is explicitly Libertarian. The general acceptance of the belief that Lincoln, or other Top. Men. “freed the slaves” is explicitly unlibertarian.

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

                  Lincoln comes up when people are attacking federalism and when neocons are going on about how we need to lock up people without trial and censor the media (which Lincoln did).

                  Now, I will say this – wait until the other side brings up Lincoln before getting into the issue – don’t simply go around preaching against everything he did.

                  Also, much of the Lincoln talk involves misstating what Lincoln actually did or believed, and there’s nothing wrong with rebutting that. I read a neocon who “defended” Honest Abe by calling him a liar who tricked the American people into supporting freedom.

                2. John   11 years ago

                  Marshall,

                  The false premise is that people never admit how horrific the Confederacy was. Apparently to some trying to leave the Union is like Lordes and magically washes away all sin.

                  The Confederacy was a boil on the ass of civilization. Even if you support the right of secession, you should be embarrassed by such an abomination being associated with it.

      2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        I still don’t see how that’s a “trick”, OldMexican.

        Not only that, but true or false: there were skirmishes well before 12/26/1860?

        1. John   11 years ago

          Yes. In fact, had R.E. Lee done his duty, the war would have started in November and in San Antonio. There, the Southerners seized a federal armory, without a fight since the federal officer in charge, one R.E. Lee surrendered it.

          Saying “Lincoln tricked the South into war” is just saying Lincoln caused the war by not letting the South leave the union and giving them all of the federal property located there.

          1. R C Dean   11 years ago

            Lincoln caused the war by not letting the South leave the union and giving them all of the federal property located there.

            In the absence of any prohibition on secession in the Constitution, I would say that the Tenth amendment gave states the authority to secede.

            Compensation for federal property could have been worked out between the sovereigns, the way sovereigns generally do.

            1. John   11 years ago

              Sure. But the South could have also waited to work that out before stealing the property by force.

              You people amaze. There is no act that the South took that you guys won’t justify and defend.

              Do you think the South did anything wrong RC? Was the Confederacy the last best hope for mankind and the one perfect government ever put on earth? If not, you sure could have fooled me by reading your posts.

            2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

              The southern states do not have the authority to secede. The PEOPLE in the southern states have it. As the confederate governments did not have the consent of those people, they had no legitimate power to make that call, especially when it’s being made specifically to continue their ability to impinge the rights of those people.

      3. Zeb   11 years ago

        “Clear and obvious”?

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

      The argument was comparatively substantive, at least by TV standards. Not the same as saying it was totally informative, but it exceeded my low expectations.

      I think the Judge wasn’t being 100% fair with Lincoln, since he *did* offer to buy the slaves. And before the war, his program was for the gradual, peaceful end of slavery. Even during the war, he was willing to postpone abolition to 1900.

      But this tends to go against Stewart’s indignant “why do you think abolition should have been gradual” point.

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

        Lincoln wouldn’t have said “buy the slaves,” he would have said compensate the slave states for the inconveniences of emancipation.

        But in 1849, he offered to buy the District of Columbia’s slaves. Well, not buy them himself, but for the taxpayers to buy them. And he signed a bill to that effect during the war (for DC).

        1. John   11 years ago

          What the Southern defenders never mention is that the South would have never accepted payment for their slaves even if it were offered. The South viewed slavery as a unique part of their culture. They didn’t want to end it at any price.

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

            I didn’t deny that – but Lincoln *offered* to buy slaves – in fact he actually did so. Stewart suggested that buying slaves was immoral.

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

              And Napolitano also went on as if Lincoln had never offered any plans of gradual emancipation. As you said, the South rejected *any* gradual emancipation, or any suggestion that slavery wasn’t the coolest thing ever.

            2. John   11 years ago

              Stewart is an idiot. And I was trying to agree with you.

            3. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

              No, Stewart said buying slaves was a bad idea. Which it obviously is. Adding more demand for something necessarily leads to an increase in supply.

  45. Warty   11 years ago

    BIGOREXIA

    “There are some males who do want to be thinner and are focused on thinness,” Field says, “but many more are focused on wanting bigger or at least more toned and defined muscles. That’s a very different physique.”

    Someone wants to gain weight??? UNPOSSIBLE

    1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

      “I used to squat all day until I collapsed in a quivering weeping heap of shame. Yet my legs were never big enough in the mirror.”

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      I’m 34 and I still don’t weigh as much as I’d like to. If I ever get my hands on a time machine, I’m sending my 14 year old self a copy of Starting Strength and force feeding the little fucker. (Diet is still most of my problem.)

      1. Warty   11 years ago

        I just wish I could go back in time and tell my football coach to make us squat to depth and deadlift with a flat back. It would have been fun to be squatting 500 in high school, you know?

        1. RBS   11 years ago

          This.

    3. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

      If I could design a package for people called “The Guide To Life”, Starting Strength and Why We Get Fat would have to be included.

  46. SugarFree   11 years ago

    What so gross about putting on clothes covered in someone else’s menstrual blood?

    Period-shaming bastards.

    1. Warty   11 years ago

      I liked the comments in this one.

      beatrixkiddoUTracie Egan Morrissey241L
      Gosh I just love all the commenters who swoop in to be smug. “See? Fat shaming is great after all because being fat is totally bad for you!!! Told ya!” You all don’t even understand the point of body acceptance.

      Almost everyone, even people who are absolutely at peace with their fat bodies, knows that being overweight can and often does lead to poor health. But the fact remains that you can’t diagnose someone based on their size?plenty of people are thin and unhealthy, and plenty of people who are fat are healthy. Plenty of people who are thin are sedentary, and plenty of people who are fat are active. And even when a person is obese has all kinds of obesity related health problems, that doesn’t give you license to treat them like a pariah. It’s school yard bullying under the guise of concern.

      “If we don’t mock and shame them for being fat, how will they know it’s potentially bad for their health?” Yesterday 11:37am

      Good question, fatty.

      1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        I have heard of the active fat people, but have yet to meet one. Are they a myth?

        1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          Over on This is Thin Privilege, they claim to be obese despite exercising 12 hours a day and eating only 800 calories a day. Or something like that.

          1. WTF   11 years ago

            they claim to be obese despite exercising 12 hours a day and eating only 800 calories a day. Or something like that.

            Absolute nonsense.

          2. RBS   11 years ago

            I performed a little experiment on my saddie cousin one weekend. She was house sitting for my parents and they wanted me to go over before she got there and remove all the junk food. I never got around to doing that part and instead kept tabs on it when I would go over and walk the dog. With my admittedly small sample size I can tell you she was eating well over 800 calories a day.

          3. Warty   11 years ago

            There is a such thing as starvation mode, where if you eat too little and exercise too much, your body gets hormonally fucked up and it’s very difficult to drop any fat. However. How many fatties have the willpower to put themselves in that state? I’m thinking somewhere between zero and zero.

          4. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

            I’ve heard nonsense like this before and I think the laws of thermodynamics prevent such things.

            If you’re eating less calories than you burn in a day you can’t gain weight. Unless that’s the oxygen you breath hanging over your belt.

            1. Brett L   11 years ago

              I’ve heard nonsense like this before and I think the laws of thermodynamics prevent such things.

              You appear to believe that any given body burns the same number of calories in a given day. This isn’t remotely true. The variance can be several hundred calories between any given day. Think of it this way: at 3500 kcal/lb fat, eating just 100 more kcal than you burn will put 10lbs on you a year. But cut 100 kcal a day from your diet and see what happens. I’ll bet you its nothing, because your body will adapt to your current set point. At best, you’ll feel a little more tired. There are more than two dials on the machine.

              1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                You’re telling me that I can burn more than I eat but still lose no weight? uhh…I’m calling bullshit.

                1. Brett L   11 years ago

                  No, I’m telling you you won’t burn more than you eat for long. Especially not at 800 calories (or 1200 or 1400). You’ll just start feeling sick and stop exercising. Then you’ll find an equilibrium.

                  1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                    Which means what you’re saying is yes, you will lose weight if you burn more than you eat…right?

              2. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

                I’m not talking about people cutting 100 cal from their diets. I’m addressing what is mentioned above, that is, people saying that they take in 2k cal a day and exercise but keep gaining weight. If over a year you, on average, burn 365*2500 cal but only take in 365*2000 cal, you’re not gonna gain weight. Maybe they’re living in some sort of waking-hibernation state that allows them to blog and eat lettuce.

            2. Jordan   11 years ago

              The laws of thermodynamics would tell you that it’s physically impossible to maintain a calorie deficit. And unless your body is in ketosis, it will cannibalize muscle before it cannibalizes fat.

        2. RBS   11 years ago

          They do exist although they might have a different definition of active than you…

        3. Warty   11 years ago

          Much like unicorns, they were killed by privilege.

        4. Warty   11 years ago

          I like Jamie Lewis’ series on this. Your Fat is Unequivocally Your Fault NSFW contains anorexiaporn.

          1. RBS   11 years ago

            Hahaha, speaking of Jamie Lewis, he pretty much destroyed a fb thread about that crossfit tranny the other day.

            1. Warty   11 years ago

              Link? I love when that guy gets spun up.

              1. RBS   11 years ago

                I tried to find it but it looks like the girl deleted the thread.

          2. Juice   11 years ago

            Hey it could be your parents’ fault.

        5. WTF   11 years ago

          Sort of. Fatties eat too much of the wrong foods and don’t exercise enough for their caloric intake.

        6. Brett L   11 years ago

          Nope. I see people all the time with 40 extra lbs doing active things, up to and including half marathons. Some people just either (a)retain fat well or (b)can’t be arsed to fix their diet. \I watched an active fat woman train for a marathon and complete it. She’s done two or three and is training for an Ironman now and is probably 40lbs lighter than her marathon weight, which was 15lbs lighter than her start weight. But she wasn’t in horrible conditioning when she was fat, just had a bad diet and wasn’t consistently exercising.

        7. Jordan   11 years ago

          Well, exercise isn’t really that effective for losing wait. Proper diet is far more important. I’ve seen active fatties, but I’ve never seen one that eats a good diet.

        8. Wasteland Wanderer   11 years ago

          Ever see an NFL lineman?

        9. Corning   11 years ago

          I have heard of the active fat people, but have yet to meet one. Are they a myth?

          My mom.

          She is a Tenis freak and beats women 30 to 40 years younger then her.

          She also beat one of my brothers who was all varsity in tennis and football. He was pissed about that for years.

          He said she intentionally hit him with the ball.

      2. SugarFree   11 years ago

        The comment with the study showing that PCOS is not a cause of weight gain is going to be roundly ignored by the fat acceptance crowd. PCOS, glands and “I eat nothing and I’m still fat” are the three legs of the self-delusion stool.

        1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

          OMG. I had no idea until this moment that PCOS was used as an excuse for weight.

          This explains about five Facebook friends who mention their PCOS in every post.

        2. Warty   11 years ago

          It’s not my fault I’m fat, I have Hashimoto’s disease! I haven’t been to an endocrinologist or anything, but I feel like I have it!

        3. Obese American   11 years ago

          Look, just leave me the fuck alone, ok? I’m fat. Fuck off.

    2. Tim   11 years ago

      Menstrual stories are PM links material. Never morning.

      1. Warty   11 years ago

        You’re right, my extra-runny eggs could use a little salsa.

        1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

          *throws up in mouth*

          c’mon, I’m getting over the flue.

          1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

            or even the flu.

        2. Loki   11 years ago

          extra-runny eggs

          Pun intended?

    3. John   11 years ago

      Has anyone told Andrew Sullivan this? Sullivan spent about four years in the 00s obsessing about charges that the CIA exposed detainees in menstrual blood. According to Sullivan, that was worse than water boarding or any other form of torture he could think of.

  47. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    The iPhone would not exist if the public had not invested in research to develop GPS and touchpad technology, or developing the Internet, or creating the highways on which Apple can move its products.

    Bow down and praise The PUBLIC, from whence all good things flow!

    *paints self blue, sacrifices goat*

    1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      That iPhone, Mr. Jobs? You didn’t build that!

    2. John   11 years ago

      America wouldn’t even know what a toilet was if Obama hadn’t showed them.

      1. General Butt Naked   11 years ago

        True.

        I have a pic of Dear Leader taped to the bottom of the bowl to help improve my accuracy.

        I scored a ten out of ten on my number two on the fifth!

  48. Loki   11 years ago

    This is happening in Denver this morning.

    Longmont Police issued an Amber Alert for a missing 4-year-old boy Wednesday morning, and released the photo of a man who stole the vehicle the child was in.

    After issuing the Amber Alert, SkyFOX immediately found Longmont Police were involved in a high-speed chase with the SUV, which likely began on southbound I-25 heading towards Denver, but continued on side streets and, as of 7:30 a.m., had shifted to I-76 eastbound towards Brighton.

    This likely isn’t going to end well. Denver area cops are somewhat known for their itchy trigger fingers. Hopefully they’ll be able to remember in their ‘roid and adrenaline fueled haze that there’s a 4 year old kid on board and refrain from filling the car with a couple hundred rounds.

    1. John   11 years ago

      Well, if that really is just some strange guy who grabbed a four year old child and not a father involved in a custody dispute, I really won’t have much of a problem with the cops blasting him. Not very Christian of me I know. But man, if you are out grabbing little kids, you really are broke to such a degree that there is no point trying to fix you.

      1. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

        And anyway, angels will protect the kid from the hail of bullets.

        1. John   11 years ago

          That is assuming they didn’t kill the kid too. Forgive me if I have no concern for that guy’s safety.

      2. Loki   11 years ago

        I don’t entirely disagree, I’m just not sure adrenaline fueled cops can aim straight enough to miss the kid.

        1. John   11 years ago

          That is a legitimate concern. But the actual guy’s safety? Not so much.

    2. Loki   11 years ago

      Looks like the story’s been updated:

      However, the suspect put another couple in danger, pulling off the road in the red SUV and stealing a gold mini van from the couple.

      Shortly after that, police confirmed Chavarria-Rodriquez was found safe. However, it was not immediately clear if the boy was found in the discarded SUV…
      Satur said the SUV’s owner, a woman, went in to pay for gas when a suspect stole the vehicle

      That’s why you always pay at the pump. I’m going to speculate that the guy took the car without realizing at first that there was a kid inside and then panicked, and after a while decided to ditch the SUV and steal a different car. So maybe the asshole isn’t completely irredeemable.

      1. John   11 years ago

        That is totally what happened. What an idiot for stealing a car. And a double idiot for not immediately giving it back when he realized the kid was in it. Going down on a stolen car wrap is one thing. Going down for kidnapping a child is entirely different. Fuck it, dude, pull over and just run, something anything, but leaving with the kid.

  49. William of Purple   11 years ago

    Don’t talk shit about bikini bridges!

    1. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

      Skeletons are sexy.

    2. SugarFree   11 years ago

      This comes hot on the heels of the other trend sweeping women’s social media in 2014, the “bikini bridge”. This involves getting so thin your pelvis bones protrude when you’re lying on your back and your bikini bottom is suspended between the bony outcrops (see above).

      One way to achieve all this would be to follow the extreme diet being spruiked today by the publicity-addicted “Human Barbie”, Ukranian model Valeria Lukyanova. She hit front pages of websites around the globe for spruiking the so-called ‘breatharian’ diet.

      Can any of you kids at home spot the non sequitur?

      1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        What’s spruiking? Sounds hot.

        1. SugarFree   11 years ago

          I think it’s like twerking, but only to country music.

          1. Brett L   11 years ago

            Great. Now I’m going to think about all of the kicker clubs I went to in HS/college with the big girls in the Rocky Mountain mom jeans getting down to the booty music break. I hope your pancreas fails.

  50. Sevo   11 years ago

    “Snowden Calls Feinstein a Hypocrite,”

    She’s not a hypocrite.
    She didn’t mind at all when the A4 protections of the little people were ignored.
    Now that the big people got the treatment, well, that’s different!

    1. Loki   11 years ago

      She didn’t mind at all when the A4 protections of the little people were ignored.
      Now that the big people got the treatment, well, that’s different!

      Well, this is the same woman who pushed gun control while simultaneously employing bodyguards armed with the same kinds of weapons she thinks are too dangerous for us peons to have.

  51. DEG   11 years ago

    From an article on the underground sex trade economy:

    Coercion: It’s often assumed that sex workers are physically coerced to work for and stay with a pimp. But researchers found that psychological manipulation played a major role, too — whether it was the promise of attention from the pimp or more tangible incentives.

    An offer of a pay raise count as coercion to these folks?

    1. John   11 years ago

      I had a friend whose legal clerk in Korea saved his shekels to buy some Ukrainian hooker out of her contract thinking they were in love. She immediately took another bonus and signed up to go back to work.

      Some women like being hookers and others don’t mind it enough to make it preferable to other options.

      How are the women in the “sex trafficking” world any different than the Duke undergrad doing porn? They just have tougher options than she does.

      1. Warty   11 years ago

        thinking they were in love

        Aw, dude. What was he thinking? Poor dumb bastard.

        1. John   11 years ago

          I know. They tried every way in the world to get him to not do it. But these kids get away from home and have never had a g/f before and they do dumb things.

          I feel bad for the guy. But maybe he learned a valuable lesson.

        2. tarran   11 years ago

          I watched my men do it, tried to stop them from doing it, and then did it myself.

          White-knight-itis is a hell of a mental illness.

          1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

            Please don’t drag that Roissy bullshit in here. I just had the carpets cleaned.

            1. tarran   11 years ago

              Who the fuck is Roissy?

          2. John   11 years ago

            I think men secretly want a reformed hooker for a wife. They want the hooker part for them and the reformed part for the security of knowing it is just for them.

            It is like all fantasies, a bit unrealistic.

            1. tarran   11 years ago

              In my case, I didn’t see my ex as a reformed hooker at all. Nor did any of the other disasters I witnessed.

              In every case we saw ourselves as rescuing a pretty, sweet girl from a bad situation, and were blind to all the warning signs.

              The thing that gets me is despite seeing it happen to so many guys in the Navy, I made the same damn mistake! Hell, one my roommates on the ship tried to warn me, and I still blew it!

              1. John   11 years ago

                So you didn’t think she needed to be reformed? You just thought she was a nice girl in a bad situation?

                Interesting. I never thought of it that way. I guess I knew enough hookers and strippers over the years to realize they needed reformed.

                1. tarran   11 years ago

                  Every sad story is unique. The common thread was, though, that whatever problems the girl had were the product of a bad environment, and that the serviceman would be able to provide the stability and love that she needed to have a normal life.

                  Nor were the girls’ problems promiscuity. My ex, for example led a cloistered life and I was her first…

                  Several cases involved girls running away from an abusive home, (in one case turning to prostitution because that was her only option as an underage runaway). In every case, the outsider could see it was going to end badly, but the guy was convinced that this girl was different, that he had a connection with the girl etc.

                  And that is white-knight-itis, because what really was happening was that we saw ourselves as a white knight, wanted to be a white knight so desperately, that we wanted to be fooled and even actively fooled ourselves.

                  1. John   11 years ago

                    I am sure you know this now Tarran. Lots of girls have broken homes and abusive parents and such horror stories. But most of them don’t become hookers or strippers. Really only the crazy ones do. Maybe the abuse made them crazy or maybe they would have been crazy anyway. But the fact is, they are crazy.

            2. PD Scott   11 years ago

              Should we blame Julia Roberts?

              1. Warty   11 years ago

                We should blame Shakespeare.

                1. tarran   11 years ago

                  … and that asshole who wrote that fucking book Ivanhoe.

                  1. Warty   11 years ago

                    That stupid cocksucker caused the Civil War, too. Is there anything he didn’t ruin?

            3. Corning   11 years ago

              I think men secretly want a reformed hooker for a wife.

              Thinking about all the the other guys my GFs had been with bothers me.

              You need to replace “men” with “some men”

          3. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

            EVERY rotation to Germany had at least one enlisted dude get hooked that way….gah.

        3. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

          My friend – who spent a few years in Iraq doing civilian work – fell in love with a young sex worker Cambodian he met. She wanted to go to *cough* nursing school. He paid up. He paid for this… he paid for that… thinking they were going to get married.

          She ended up in the states, working in the garment industry. She got married alright – to someone else.

          I saw it coming from a million miles away but no amount of reasoning could convince my friend that she was “the one”.

          1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

            *wasn’t

          2. John   11 years ago

            One of my clients in German had a flat out mail order Russian bride. She was hot as all get out. But it was so obvious it was a business transaction to her. As soon as she got her seven years of marriage and US citizenship, she was gone. It was obvious to anyone who met her.

            I guess if you really didn’t have any desire to keep or get attached to a woman, you could just do Russian mail orders on the seven year lease plan. But given divorce laws, you would need some serious prenups.

            1. Warty   11 years ago

              It would be cheaper to rent college girls. Get rich, move near a fancy-ass private school, put out ads that say you’re looking to pay for a freshman girl’s tuition as long as she live with you and lets you bang her. When she graduates, repeat.

              1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                hey, sounds like a solid mid-life crisis plan.

              2. John   11 years ago

                I hear college girls go for like $10,000 a month on that Sugar Daddy sight. Russian chicks are colder but a lot cheaper. And I am pretty sure they put out even if they don’t always show a lot of enthusiasm.

                1. Warty   11 years ago

                  Only the top-shelf girls cost that. I’m sure you could get one that’s 80% as good or better for tuition and room and board.

                  1. John   11 years ago

                    True. Get the community college chick who figures it is better than being a stripper since it is private and not public.

                2. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                  10 Gs a month? Someone has an overinflated sense of worth.

                  1. John   11 years ago

                    NK,

                    If you were some fund manager who made millions, what is 10Gs a month? That is only 120K a year. If I had an after tax income in the millions, I could see that not being a big deal, if it ensured someone really hot and not crazy.

                    1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                      well sure in the millions. I guess I am going to have to settle for the chunky friend.

                    2. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

                      Heh.

                    3. Azathoth!!   11 years ago

                      If you can afford 10G a month on a girl toy, you’re never going to have to pay that unless you’re seriously malformed.

      2. DEG   11 years ago

        A fool and his money are soon parted.

  52. Sevo   11 years ago

    SF Chron hires brand-new brain-dead columnist:
    Tech firms should agree to pay less to employees to keep bay area housing costs down;
    “Silicon Valley CEOs inhabit an alternate reality”
    http://www.sfgate.com/business…..308591.php

    I don’t know if he’s dumb enough to believe this or maybe it’s some sort of ‘Sokal’ joke on the editors.

    1. Matrix   11 years ago

      You just can’t keep liberals happy, can you? They want companies to pay their employees more, except they also want them to pay their employees less.

      W… T… F…? South Park can’t even satire this.

    2. John   11 years ago

      Because, people with a lot of money will never want to pay more to live in a really beautiful city like San Fran. And it is not like the city is on a peninsula, meaning there is a finite amount of space, or it is filled with all kinds of historic homes and buildings that can’t be touched or it is in an earthquake prone area limiting the size of apartment buildings or anything.

      How do people like this live without assistance? Did the Chronicle hire Yglesias or something?

      1. SugarFree   11 years ago

        SadBeard is going to work for Ezra Klein. Here’s hoping we re-open debtor’s prisons in time for when they go bankrupt.

        1. John   11 years ago

          The Klein venture is a really good money suck. The money various rich leftist idiots give him won’t go to organizations like ACORN or SPLC that do real harm. Instead, it will go to pay a collection of idiots high salaries to write propaganda to the believers. What is the marginal value of another leftist propaganda site masquerading as a “news organization”. Whatever it is, it is pretty close to zero.

          And as annoying as Klein is, he at least seems to be somewhere on the normal social scale. Klein seems to be the typical “President of the Campus Democrats” type everyone knew in college. As much as I don’t like him, I am sure if I had to I could have dinner with the guy and have at least somewhat of a pleasant evening.

          Yglesias in contrast just creeps me out. He is not normal by any measure. There is just something wrong with him. I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with him if I could avoid it.

          1. Loki   11 years ago

            Yglesias in contrast just creeps me out. He is not normal by any measure. There is just something wrong with him. I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with him if I could avoid it.

            “I must turn away lest I soil my hands with the blood of a fool.” – Shakespeare(?), I think

            1. John   11 years ago

              Klein is a fool. But Yglesias is just a freak.

            2. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

              Now you may blow up my train.

              And what will you do now?

              Now I go home.

              They will carry my toys.

              They will carry my toys too, see?

              Major Lawrence will campaign

              this winter.

              But you got what you wanted,

              so you’re going home, is that it?

              Of course. When Lawrence has got

              what he wants, he will go home.

              When you’ve got what you want,

              you will go home.

              No, I shan’t, Auda.

              Then you are a fool.

              Maybe. But I am not a deserter.

              Give thanks to God, Brighton…

              …that when He made you a fool,

              He gave you a fool’s face.

              You are an impudent rascal.

              I must go, Lawrence, before I

              soil myself with a fool’s blood.

          2. Brett L   11 years ago

            Remember, MattY got knock-out gamed before knock-out game was cool. I try to read his column with the same patience and sympathy I would any other person trying to make a living after a TBI. It does wonders for my blood pressure.

      2. Sevo   11 years ago

        “Did the Chronicle hire Yglesias or something?”
        This is the Chron’s 4th or 5th try at some “business” lefty who tries desperately to turn the Chron’s bias into readable copy.
        I don’t know why they disappear. Maybe they laugh themselves to death proofing what they read, but they tend to last about a 6 months or so.

        1. John   11 years ago

          Father Guido Sarducci used to do a routine about how he was going to start the “Five Minute” university where you got a degree and just learned what the typical college grad remembered five years on. The economics class would consist of “supply and demand”. That really describes what the typical leftist economics and business reporter knows about the subject. This guy knows supply and demand and therefore if you just cut salaries, the price has to go down. Scary.

  53. Warty   11 years ago

    On the subject of giants, Nest of Giants. NO PUSSIES.

  54. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    “Silicon Valley CEOs inhabit an alternate reality”

    They won’t be lonely.

  55. CampingInYourPark   11 years ago

    Texas governor Rick Perry told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that “America is a great place for second chances” when asked about running for president in 2016.

    I thought Rick was a lock for the GOP nomination in 2012 just running on the relative success of the Texas economy. Then he actually opened his mouth on national television and got his derp on. Does he think he’s become more articulate since then?

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/…..84672.html

    1. John   11 years ago

      Maybe he will do better this time. I thought he had a great shot too. All he had to do was point at the Texas economy and contrast it with the sorry assed Obama economy. I really don’t understand how he managed to fuck it up so badly. The entire GOP was dying for a choice other than Romney.

    2. Loki   11 years ago

      For better or for worse, I think it will be a while before a TX republican governor will do well in a national election. Because all the Dems and the MSM have to do is repeat, over and over again, “Remember the last time a Republican governor from TX got elected president? DERP-DE-DERPITY-DERR!”

  56. SIV   11 years ago

    A local lawyer and pilot who specializes in plane crash litigation is critical of the way the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane is being conducted.

    Philadelphia attorney Arthur Wolk says that, by calculating the flight path, winds aloft, and weight of the Boeing 777, it should have been relatively easy to find the wreckage.

    1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

      I have it on good authority that the virginity of sheep is NOT*, I repeat, NOT IN JEOPARDY* around Arthur Wolk

    2. Warty   11 years ago

      I hear that guy likes to *REDACTED*.

    3. John   11 years ago

      I am sure the people searching for this plane never thought to look at the flight path, wind speeds, and glide characteristics of a 777. I bet they just got in a speedboat in Vietnam and just started driving around.

      Does Wolk just think Asians are stupid or something?

      1. tarran   11 years ago

        I’ve been reading a conversation thread on the subject on a pilots’ bulletin board.

        First, reading it has taught me how laughable the CNN-BBC-etc coverage is. Essentially, the plane vanished, and it shouldn’t have vanished. Some military radar observed something that might or might not be the plane flying over the straits of Malacca. The plane didn’t explode in mid air. It either crashed in a way that left little to no debris or oil slicks or… crashed someplace nobody is looking.

        And, the thread is full of people who, like Tupla, are claiming to be pilots who clearly have no fucking clue what they are talking about.

        1. db   11 years ago

          I have been reqding the same forum and havebcoke to much the.same.conclusions. there are a number of.real pro pilots there but the moderators are getting.swamped in.a.sea.of retards.

        2. John   11 years ago

          This thing is really wierd. It is not impossible to find a plane even in the open ocean. They found that Air France A340 that went down over the Atlantic a couple of years ago. They should be able to find this.

          From what I have read, it apparently turned off its radar and the equipment that is used to track it. And then it went way off course according to the military radar that was still able to track it.

          The other bizarre thing is that the families of the passengers say their loved ones’ cell phones are ringing instead of going straight to voice mail like they would if the phone had been destroyed.

          I can’t even pretend to have a theory on what happened. They have been investigating jumbo jet crashes for 50+years. If it was anything like something that had happened before, they would already have found the crash debris and have a working theory or two on what might have happened. As it is, people a lot smarter than me are going what the fuck.

          1. SugarFree   11 years ago

            “I’m not saying it’s aliens…”

            1. tarran   11 years ago

              That hair is epic. I imagine that he is relishing the anguish his mother is feeling for him going on TV with purposefully de-combed hair.

              1. SugarFree   11 years ago

                de-combed? I took him hours to get it to look like that.

                1. tarran   11 years ago

                  Hence my addition of the adverb ‘purposefully’.

          2. Loki   11 years ago

            It’s a mass alien abduction!

            “Ancient Aliens at the first thanksgiving!”

            1. SugarFree   11 years ago

              It’s a mass alien abduction!

              It’s always bugged me… If the aliens in Close Encounters were smart enough to cross interstellar distance, why weren’t they able to put the shit they “borrowed” back in the place they found it?

              A ship in the desert? Bermuda Triangle planes dumped off in Arizona? Idiots. Lazy idiots.

              1. db   11 years ago

                Alien Jackass.

              2. Swiss Servator, alles klar?   11 years ago

                They were just trolling us.

          3. db   11 years ago

            Honestly the thing that makes the.most sense.to.me.now is a major systems failure resuling in cabin depress and radio/xpdr failure, and lack of time for.the.pilots to don their O2 equipment, or.failure of the emerg O2 (unlikely, since.I.think the cabin O2 is.independent of cockpit.O2.
            If the autopilot were not.damaged, and the pilots had.commanded a course change in their flight.management system but entered a wrong waypoint, the plane could have.continued ying at altitude.with an.unconscious.crew and.passenger omplement until fuel exhaustion.

            The plane could be in the.middle.of.the.Indian.ocean or.could have.just continued circling after reaching the wrong waypoint. I d9nct know how the 777 FMS would handle this in reality.

            1. John   11 years ago

              If the oxygen goes out everyone dies but the plane flies on. That happened in the private jet that killed the golfer Payne Stewart. The plane lost oxygen killing everyone on board but was otherwise mechanically sound and just kept flying until it ran out of fuel several states away. Maybe something like that happened here.

          4. tarran   11 years ago

            My guess is:

            1) Something happened that destroyed the main electrical busses, and depresssurized the aircraft.

            2) So the pilots took immediate actions for depressurization including ordering the autopilot to descend to 10000 ft, and initiating a turn (don’t know why, but all the pilots talk about ordering a turn as well).

            3) The pilots’ oxygen failed.

            4) The plane either failed to descend fast enough and they died of hypoxia while the plane flew 1000 miles out into the Indian ocean

            5) They flew into a mountain in one of the numerous square miles of trackless jungle down there.

            The ringing thing is I think a report that one person’s phone rang the first time that a relative tried to call it, and someone is claiming that’s an artifact of the phone system feeding a spurious ring while it seeks to connect with a phone that was on the network recently while it is paging it.

            1. John   11 years ago

              There is a lot of trackless jungle there. One of your theories has to be it.

            2. SIV   11 years ago

              I’ve read next to nothing on the speculation. I just heard previously the plane had a ground accident and the wing was repaired/replaced. My money is on the wing coming off in mid-flight. That would send the plane straight into the ocean/ground. I’m not sure it wouldn’t already be in little pieces when it hit.

              1. db   11 years ago

                IMO that’s unlikely. The ground incident resulted in damage to the.wing tip only, as I have read it. Lots of planes have wing damage that is repaired and.never causes a problem down the road.

              2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                It takes a long time to fall 35,000 feet. If that’s what had happened, there’d have been radio of the pilots freaking out.

  57. John   11 years ago

    Holy Shit, the post that named he who shall remain nameless disappeared. If I ever win the mega millions, I am going to give Reason a defense fund and dare he shall remain nameless to sue them.

    1. Warty   11 years ago

      Yeah. Fuck that one guy.

    2. Warty   11 years ago

      Wait, now it’s back? I’m confused.

      1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

        linky?

      2. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        Wait, is this a new one or from a couple years ago? I thought those ones were already nuked.

      3. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

        Me too.

        1. Warty   11 years ago

          I mean, we should know better than to even mention him by now, and especially to make our stupid little jokes. But still.

          1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

            If we knew any better we wouldn’t be the lovable bunch of scamps that we are.

            1. Warty   11 years ago

              Who are we kidding? We do know better. We’re just assholes.

              1. Corning   11 years ago

                I think you mean you are an asshole.

                Don’t drag us all into your own misbehavior.

                1. Neoliberal Kochtopus   11 years ago

                  Lighten up Francis.

                  1. Corning   11 years ago

                    Don’t leave all the plants will die.

      4. John   11 years ago

        I am glad someone else noticed that. It disappeared and then came back. Weird.

        1. SIV   11 years ago

          My comment disappeared? It’s just a topical news link ;^)

        2. Restoras   11 years ago

          I bet there is a protocol somewhere deep in the code or whatever that runs this site that automatically removes any post with that name exact name and spelling in it and is also sent to a lawyer/moderator that can decide if it is ok to leave up.

  58. Warty   11 years ago

    Dogs Awkwardly Sleeping

    1. Corning   11 years ago

      those sons of bitches

    2. lap83   11 years ago

      The puppies sleeping on the bigger dog is the cutest thing ever.

  59. Mainer2   11 years ago

    President Obama gets to watch Game of Thrones before the episodes air on HBO

    What a little man our president is. This seems like a small thing, but says so much. President Special Snowflake. He’s been a pampered little poodle his whole life. If he were in the military, his last thought would be bafflement why his men rolled a grenade under his cot.

    1. John   11 years ago

      Picking up my car Friday Mainer. I am now committed. I will either be wildly happy or broke and divorced. I still can’t believe I am doing it. But I figure if it costs me too much, I can just stick on the interwebs for what I have in it and go buy myself a good hot hatchback with a warranty and a manual transmission.

      1. Mainer2   11 years ago

        “committed”…can you say Freudian ?

        But you should go for it. There is no regret like the road not taken. And as you say, if it doesn’t work out, sell it. It’s not like the value will go to zero. I’m guessing though that you will love it….the 911 is a archtypical “look back car”…the kind you look back at as you walk across the parking lot after you park it.

        Just remember the words of David E Davis, every car will let you down in some way. i.e. keep perspective on having your dream car.

        Good luck, man.

        1. John   11 years ago

          Yeah they always do. And a 911 is one of those cars that even after you sell it, you will always remember you had it.

          It is funny, if you go to the Rennlist forums, you would think every 996 blows up and leaves the owner broke. Go to Kelly Blue Book and you can find page after page of people who bought 996s used and recently who rave about how fabulous and reliable they have been.

          I really think that the Flatsix Solutions and LN Engineering people troll the Rennlist and Planet 9 borads with various horror stories trying to convince people to replace their engines. There is just no reconciling the difference between the reviews of the cars found on non Porsche sites (which are 9 to 1 great) and those found on the specific Porsche boards (which are fifty percent OMG the car blew up bad).

          1. Mainer2   11 years ago

            Another forum you may like is pelicanparts.com

            I get all kinds of useful info related to the early 911’s but I know they also have forums for the newer models too.

            The thing about the IM shaft bearing is the failure is catastophic. No such thing as a minor failure, it’s 0 or 1.

            The early ones have a similar issue with the cam chain tensioners. If one fails, valves contact the pistons and again…catastrophic failure. There is a fix for that, though, and any early 911 should have oil pressure fed tensioners.

            But it does speak to the love/hate relationship. When it’s all working, man it feels right, feels good. Tempered with the thought that the car may not just break down, but fail spectacularly and expensively.

            1. John   11 years ago

              Yeah. Mine has the upgraded IMS bearing, so that shouldn’t be an issue. It is also an 2002, which was the 996 facelift. It seems that the first 996s 99-01, have better IMS bearings but are more prone to the other failures of the engine. The 02 facelift fixed a lot of the problems with the early 996s but managed to make the IMS bearings worse. The IMS failure rate for the 02 to 04 996s is like 8%. Mine has the upgrade so it is probably less than 1% now.

              But after having read those forums obsessively, I am convinced that most of the problem cars are cars that are not driven often enough or hard enough. It seems like those engines want to not just be used but reved hard and tend to throw fits when they are not.

              I have no scientific facts to back that assertion up. But you almost never hear of someone who tracks their car or drives it hard talking about a catastrophic failure. It is always seems to be someone who is careful with it that has the problem. And those notorious M96 engines were used in racing for years and were quite successful. Hard to see how they could have been if they were as weak as some claim.

            2. John   11 years ago

              I am told the ones in the early 70s blew up quite often. Even the beloved 993s are not all they are cracked up to be.

              1. Mainer2   11 years ago

                Every generation had it’s problems. My 73 is the last of the first gen. The chain tensioner problem, soft copper valve seats, but generally reliable. The next gen (74-77) raised displacement and had overheating problems, and pulled head studs. And until 1987 they all had the 915 transmission which is sort of like a scalpel…wielded well, it’s great, but easy to screw up if you treat it like a kitchen knife.

                Basically, it’s like dating a really hot but volatile girl. It’s really great, except when it’s not.

                1. John   11 years ago

                  And of course she has a design flaw. So when she isn’t blowing up she can without warning try to murder you by spinning you into a telephone poll or oncoming traffic.

                  The 911 really is the beautiful Euro chick your mother told you stay away from.

    2. Loki   11 years ago

      He just wants to watch it early so that if the obstrukkkshunist teathuglikkkans get too uppity he can force them to listen to spoilers.

      Or maybe he wants to take notes on how to be a real princess?

  60. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    Yesterday, I heard someone claim the cellphones of passengers on the “mysteriously disappeared” plane were still working. “Still working” in the sense that they ring, and not go directly to voice mail as they would if they were turned of (or smashed to smithereens at the bottom of the ocean). As far as I could discern, nobody answers.

    Where that claim came from, I have no idea.

    1. Mainer2   11 years ago

      ooo….spooky

    2. John   11 years ago

      That has been all over the news. I am not an expert on Asian cell phone systems. Maybe those systems ring even after the phone has been shut off. I suspect that that is some quirk in the cell phone network. But who knows.

      1. Mainer2   11 years ago

        oh come on, isnt’ it more fun to make wild speculations.

  61. Russell   11 years ago

    Given the President’s precocious interest in Game of Thrones, dare we hope bear baiting will once again grace the White House?

    1. John   11 years ago

      I don’t think Michelle would go for fighting a bulldog.

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

How Tariffs Are Breaking the Manufacturing Industries Trump Says He Wants To Protect

Eric Boehm | From the July 2025 issue

The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War

Matthew Petti | 6.6.2025 4:28 PM

Marsha Blackburn Wants Secret Police

C.J. Ciaramella | 6.6.2025 3:55 PM

This Small Business Is in Limbo As Owner Sues To Stop Trump's Tariffs

Eric Boehm | 6.6.2025 3:30 PM

A Runner Was Prosecuted for Unapproved Trail Use After the Referring Agency Called It 'Overcriminalization'

Jacob Sullum | 6.6.2025 2:50 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!