A.M. Links: NSA Overhaul Could Mean Carriers Store More Data, Obamacare Allies Say Employer Mandate May Not Be Implemented, US Reevaluating Role in Middle East Peace Talks

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  • President Obama's plan to overhaul the NSA's phone surveillance program could force phone carriers to store more data.
  • Hillary Clinton said that the media treats women with a double standard at the start of the Women in the World Summit.
  • Obama administration allies are questioning whether the Obamacare employer mandate will ever be implemented.
  • Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act yesterday. Opponents of the legislation say it could lead to state-approved discrimination against gay people, while supporters say it will protect religious freedom.
  • Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the U.S. will be reevaluating its role in Middle East peace. The news comes after Israel announced that it would not be releasing some Palestinian prisoners as scheduled in response to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seeking accessions to conventions through the United Nations.
  • The underwater search for MH370 has begun.

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NEXT: Friday Funnies: That Obamacare 'Deadline'

Matthew Feeney is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

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  1. President Obama’s plan to overhaul the NSA’s phone surveillance program could force phone carriers to store more data.

    Obama’s pretty good at transfering costs to the private sector.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly

      Hello.

      Each time I see ‘there are no comments’ I don’t bother.

      Oh.

      And I suck at applying peanut butter (all natural, naturally) on a bagel. What a mess.

      1. UnCivilServant

        Bagel Abuse! You Canukistani Bastard! you don’t put pureed legumes on a bagel!

        1. Andrew S.

          Correct. The only proper bagel toppings are cream cheese and smoked salmon.

          1. When there was a break-in at the Jewish deli, the owner solved the problem by putting lox on all the doors.

            1. PD Scott

              That wouldn’t keep out a cat burglar.

              1. invisible furry hand

                +1

              2. lap83

                It would keep him busy while the police arrive

          2. Rufus J. Firefly

            Yeah, yeah.

            Well, I don’t like cream cheese.

            If not PB, then jam.

            Suck it.

            1. Were you out of cheese curds and gravy?

              1. Rufus J. Firefly

                I think you just came up with an idea.

                1. I think I did and I bet it wouldn’t be half bad either.

            2. Raven Nation

              Actually butter & Vegemite work pretty well too.

            3. LynchPin1477

              Aren’t you from Montreal? You should really know better how to treat a bagel.

              1. Rufus J. Firefly

                Meh.

          3. KDN

            Nonsense. There’s also whitefish.

      2. What if I said all of next week I will wait to post after someone else?

        1. a better weapon

          In the words of Sudden from yesterday,

          “While your offer is certainly magnanimous” Fist, “I could not accept this in good faith. This would be akin to accepting charity, and acceptance of charity is the sole provenance of the weak and feeble and those unworthy of the blessings of life itself.”

          1. I missed that. Now I have to post second to show superiority.

        2. Snark Plissken

          You lost all credibility after you reneged on your promise to stop quoting Armageddon.

          1. I’m able to promise three percent of things and begging your pardon, sir, but that’s a big-ass promise.

        3. Rufus J. Firefly

          Now you’re just being condescending.

        4. Then perhaps nobody should post at all to keep you off the boards? :-p

          1. Now that would be interesting.

      3. You’re supposed to apply it to your body and have your lover lick it off.

        1. gaijin

          Or apply it to the body of your enemy before tying them up and leaving them in a hog pen.

    2. Andrew S.

      Good morning, Mr. Fist.

      Today’s my birthday. My secretary bought donuts. They’re in the kitchen if anyone wants one.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        Have a maple doughnut on me.

        There are maple doughnuts, right?

        /narrows gaze.

        1. Andrew S.

          Unfortuantely I’m as far away from Tim’s as I could possibly be. 🙁

          (Haven’t had one of their maple donuts since I was in the Vancouver airport a couple of years back. They are indeed spectacular.)

        2. Restoras

          mmmmmm….maple dooonuuuutsss….

          Though pumpkin donut season is still my favorite

          1. Raven Nation

            Maple donut, good; pumpkin donut, bad.

        3. invisible furry hand

          I had never heard of a maple donut. Sounds yummy, might try to make some.

          Google also revealed the existence of a maple bacon donut, which sounds terrifying

          1. DontShootMe

            Do NOT blaspheme against the Bacon!

          2. Cdr Lytton

            Maple bacon donut is ok but the hotdog on a maple bacon donut bun is outstanding!

            1. invisible furry hand

              Holy Satan. I’m appalled and intrigued.

              1. Cdr Lytton

                Enjoy!

      2. Another year consuming resources. Happy Birthday.

    3. Bee Tagger

      The 6th season of The Wire is just going to be McNulty trying to date a Verizon tech.

    4. This is playing out exactly as I predicted.

      Apparently, it makes all the difference, right, what server the data is stored on when the NSA accesses it.

      If its on an NSA server, why, that’s awful. If its on a telecom server, why, that’s just fine.

  2. sarcasmic

    Rogue alcoholic court reporter kept writing ‘I hate my job’

    http://nypost.com/2014/04/03/a…..-verdicts/

    By phone Wednesday, Kochanski denied screwing up his transcripts.
    “I never typed gibberish. I always did my job 100 percent. I was let go because of substance abuse,” he said.
    “I’m in recovery. July will be one year I’m clean,” he said.

    It wasn’t my fault! Give me my job back!

    1. a better weapon

      “I’m in recovery. July will be one year I’m clean

      Nobody believed him since July sounded more like “Jurrrey”

    2. Rufus J. Firefly

      “I always did my job 100 percent.”

      64% of the time!

      1. Hillary's Clitdong

        I did the job 100% right, 60% of the time.

  3. UnCivilServant

    The underwater search for MH370 has begun.

    We will scour the floor of the indian ocean – we need more funding!

    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.

      It links to a CNN article. Surprise surprise.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        Man, you get up early.

        1. Pl?ya Manhattan.

          Still awake. Had a deadline to meet before I go on vacation.

  4. sarcasmic

    Marijuana black market still thrives in Colorado, where pot is legal

    http://www.washingtontimes.com…..rado-wher/
    Obviously this just proves that you can’t make the stuff legal. I mean, those high taxes, licenses, fees, and regulatory compliance costs driving the price of the legal stuff so high that it’s just as expensive as the stuff on the black market couldn’t have anything to do with it.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Also, when does the first legal crop come in that wasn’t part of that initial transfer from the medical dispensories?

    2. gaijin

      Exactly. Cigs are legal too and there is a thriving tax avoidance market.

    3. Zeb

      The limitations on selling to tourists probably contributes a lot too. And the inevitable export market.

      1. I did a little consumer research in Denver this week. It reminded me of a BMV, only with a very different product.

  5. invisible furry hand

    Here’s somewhere to live if you’re in Seattle. Who wouldn’t want to share a home with this guy?

    1. Jordan

      *Barf*. Incredibly NSFW. NMS as well.

      1. barf? it’s just a naked guy.

        1. Jordan

          Yeah, barf.

          1. weird. in a different time and place I may have given it a go. eh.

        2. LynchPin1477

          Yeah but an NSFW warning might still have been nice.

          1. invisible furry hand

            sorry, i keep forgetting most people here are at work now.

      2. Gene

        NMS

        Neuroleptic malignant syndrome?

        1. Jordan

          Close. Not Mind Safe.

          1. Gene

            Indeed.

    2. Pl?ya Manhattan.

      What is that I don’t even…

    3. Dunphy?

    4. Snark Plissken

      For some reason I pictured Epi with longer hair.

      1. JW

        But he’d make an excellent roomie! He’s very neat and tidy.

  6. Turkey Blames Election Shenanigans on a Cat

    The suspicions of many Turks were raised on election day, by a series of statistically improbable electricity blackouts that according to local news reports occurred in 40 cities across more than 20 Turkish provinces during Sunday’s vote count, in some cases forcing hand counts by candlelight.

    Energy Minister Taner Yildiz has blamed a cat, which got into a substation and shorted out the electricity in Ankara. Other outages were caused by storms and snow, he said. Still, the image of a “lobby” of stray feline kamikazes fanning out across a country that stretches from Bulgaria to Iran to short electricity substations has gripped the imagination of Turkey’s social media users. Conspiracy theories are rampant.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Turkey really hates the internet if it will try to cage out the twits and is throwing the kittehs into their electric lines.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly

      It’s a refreshing change from blaming da Joos!

    3. gaijin

      Turkey vs Cat…is this like Alien v Predator?

      1. Florida Man

        Bah AVP. It had so much potential and it was squandered. Now I’m mad. Thank non-Japanese man!

        1. gaijin

          Sorry. I agree with your AVP assessment. It is Friday though.

  7. Snark Plissken

    Hillary Clinton said that the media treats women with a double standard at the start of the Women in the World Summit.

    There must be some sort of legislation that can fix that.

    1. Does that mean a summit of women in the world or is that women within a larger world summit? Are there binders involved anywhere?

      1. gaijin

        Are there binders involved anywhere?

        If Hilary is speaking, rest assured there are blinders.

    2. Red Rocks Rockin

      Secretary of State and former (future) presidential candidate, and she still acts as if it’s the 1910s.

      I think it’s the lack of double standard that’s really bothering her here.

  8. News that matters.

    Napoleon’s penis size confirmed: Channel 4 documentary calls the artifact ‘very small’

    Poor Napoleon. Nearly two centuries after his death, it has been confirmed that the French military and political leader had a “very small” penis, measured at a modest one-and-a-half inches.

    In what sounds like a very morbid, yet compelling, new Channel 4 series, Dead Famous DNA aims to find the remains of history’s most famous figures ? from Hitler’s hair and Elvis’s DNA to Napoleon and his penis. Presenter Mark Evans travelled to New Jersey to find the artifact, which now belongs to Evan Lattimer ? who was given it by his father, a renowned urologist, after it was bought at a Paris auction for $3,000. The relic is known among the Lattimer family as “Napoleon’s Item”.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Skeptic’s advocate:

      How do you confirm authenticity on a ‘item’ like that? And did anyone bother to factor in dessication? Work with mummies (both natural and artifical) has shown non-ossified tissue loses substantial volume as water is removed, which happens over time.

      Also, this sort of story triggers my hoax alarm and I have to question its authenticity simply because it allows a large number of people to laugh at a historical figure.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.

        This.

        Also, I hear that you lose a lot of weight when you are dead.

        1. gaijin

          Also, I hear that you lose a lot of weight when you are dead.

          The First Lady just got an idea for combatting obesity…

      2. The Laconic

        What are you, some kind of Napolean-microcock denialist? THE SCIENCE HAS SPOKEN.

      3. How do you confirm authenticity on a ‘item’ like that?

        Probably like you do on any one-of-a-kind doohickey: You look at the paperwork.

    2. Snark Plissken

      It’s well-known that Napoleon died right after getting out of the pool.

      1. Hillary's Clitdong

        “I WAS IN THE RUSSIAN WINTER! I WAS IN THE RUSSIAN WINTER!”

        1. DontShootMe

          +1 shrinkage (er, maybe -1?)

    3. Rufus J. Firefly

      Despite his condescension towards Italian culture (though it didn’t stop him from raiding its cultural assets), let the man lie in peace for fuck sakes. I don’t see the purpose of this.

      Didn’t The Simpsons make the point of letting Jebediah Springfield’s tongue and the past be?

      1. Florida Man

        Simpsons did it!

      2. Notorious G.K.C.

        But if this is true, we have an explanation for why Europe endured so many years of war.

      3. BiMonSciFiCon

        A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man… (except for Napoleon, it would seem)

      4. MJGreen

        Is that Napoleon’s damning flaw? He was condescending towards Italian culture?

    4. mr simple

      Is that a flaccid measurement? Perhaps he was just a grower, not a show-er.

  9. Obama administration allies are questioning whether the Obamacare employer mandate will ever be implemented.

    Without it, either the pre-existing condition mandate goes away or private insurance does.

    1. Shirley Knott

      Which do you think is their preferred outcome?
      How is this not working exactly as planned?

  10. Bee Tagger

    Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the U.S. will be reevaluating its role in Middle East peace.

    Over a plate of waffles, right? Or maybe a plate of flipped flapjacks at a waffle house.

  11. Obama administration allies are questioning whether the Obamacare employer mandate will ever be implemented.

    Dammit, I know ORomneycare opponents were hoping for the most possible pain to be inflicted on employers.

    1. 110 Lean

      I see you used the word “questioning”. Are you someone who is “questioning”? You know, as in GLBTQ, where the “Q” stands for Questioning? The reason I am questioning you about this is partly based on your handle, which implies an interest in anal self-stimulation. Perhaps you might find my line of questioning to be inappropriate. Perhaps you are questioning why I would be questioning you about this. I too am questioning why I find your use of the word “questioning” to be so intriguing. I suspect other posters are questioning why as well. I have to go to lunch now, so there is no need for you to be questioning why I have gone. But then I am questioning whether you’d be questioning that at all.

  12. Opponents of the legislation say it could lead to state-approved discrimination against gay people, while supporters say it will protect religious freedom.

    Or both?

    1. state-approved discrimination against gay people

      This again? “If you don’t think people’s lives should be ruined for doing X, then you must approve of doing X!”

  13. Rogue court stenographer causes chaos for New York legal system
    Daniel Kochanski reportedly wrote ‘I hate my job, I hate my job’ into one of the 30 compromised transcripts

    A Manhattan court stenographer caused chaos in New York’s legal system when he typed nonsense instead of recording the proceedings in the trials for which he was responsible ? including, in one case, reportedly writing, “I hate my job, I hate my job” into the transcript.

    Officials have been rushing to fix the mess, first reported by the New York Post, by calling back witnesses, lawyers and judges in the affected cases to try to reconstruct missing transcripts.

    1. sarcasmic

      Beat you by three minutes! Ha ha!

  14. Bee Tagger

    Hillary Clinton said that the media treats women with a double standard at the start of the Women in the World Summit.

    But by the end of the summit, they’re all equally bored to tears.

    1. Bardas Phocas

      For the lulz – they’re holding at the ‘David H. Koch Theatre’.
      http://davidhkochtheater.com/moreinfoWITW.html
      I’ve been pushing the theory that HILLARY! is a tenticle of the Kochtopus.
      Another data point.

      1. invisible furry hand

        HILLARY! is a testicle of the Kochtopus? Who’s the other one?

        1. Who says there’s only 2?

        2. wadair

          Don’t Kochtopus’s have eight testicles?

  15. Jeff White of Waveland, a founder of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Lesbian and Gay Community Center, said as someone who is gay and Jewish, he worries such a new law could make him more vulnerable to unfair treatment.

    by not having special privileges? Also, since when is Mississippi so allegedly hostile to Jewish people now? Is there no bigotry that cannot be unfairly painted onto the South?

    1. Restoras

      Duh, because its the South and they are all, every single one, knuckle-dragging, gun-toting, stock-car-racing, illiterate, white-sheet-and-hood-wearin’….white people!

      1. gaijin

        Don;t forget “mouth breathing”!

      2. Florida Man

        I would respond but I never learned to read!
        /runs off sobbing

    2. UnCivilServant

      During the Dixiecrat era, the Klan was equally hateful of Jews. I never got that one, since it seemed like an out of nowhere addition to their ideology to add in hate for a group that didn’t have a large presence in their area.

      1. They also hated Catholics and were powerful in parts of the North.

        1. Given that some prominent Confederates like Judah P. Benjamin were Jewish, their antisemitism seems kind of an odd notion

          1. Bigots aren’t generally intelligent or reasonable.

      2. invisible furry hand

        You’ve got to remember that conspiratorial thinking is a great way to make sense out of a confusing world if you’re an idiot, and the “Jews are our secret evil rulers” is a simple hermeneutic. Why else would any Japanese bother with anti-semitism? Got nothing to do with any actual Jews they might have met, that’s for sure.

        1. gaijin

          conspiratorial thinking is a great way to make sense out of a confusing world if you’re an idiot,

          Exactly. Jews are convenient scapegoats. Besides, everyone knows it’s the Illuminati that run the world. 🙂

          1. *narrows gaze*

            And the Gnomes of Zurich are what, chopped kalberwurst?

            1. gaijin

              Gnomes of Zurich…excellent band name.

              1. mr simple

                They could call their album something like 33rd Degree Burns. I don’t know, just spitballing.

          2. Why do you think the Pentavirate got itself written into So I Married an Axe Murderer?

      3. I suppose I should have said that I was aware of the history but I see no evidence that anti-Semitism is that much of a threat today. This feels like a gratuitous descriptor thrown in to make the bill sound that much “worse” with no evidence it has anything to do with Judaism. And fuck man Jews aren’t supposed to be OK with gay marriage either.

        1. Restoras

          A friend of mine, who is Jewish, is from Birmingham, AL. His family has been there for several generations. They never had any problems. Just an anecdote.

          1. Due to historical ignorance promulgated in the school system, people don’t realize that Jews did and still do very well in the South. Charleston, SC and Montgomery, AL being prime examples.

            1. UnCivilServant

              Due to historical ignorance promulgated in the school system, people don’t realize that Jews most people did and still do very well in the South

              FTFY.

              1. UnCivilServant

                I botched the blockquotes again 🙁

                1. Crusty Juggler

                  Botched it? You need some trash to plug up the cut!

        2. Zeb

          Jews aren’t supposed to be OK with gay marriage either.

          I’ll leave that up to the individual Jew.

          1. That’s a cop-out: don’t be Jewish if you’re not in concurrence with fundamental tenets of Jewish faith.

            1. Zeb

              You don’t get to choose not to be Jewish.

              I will also leave the determination of what the fundamental tenets of the faith up to the individual Jew.

              What are you, the religion police?

              1. Yep, I am. I get to determine what’s valid and what’s not. And hey guess what? So do you.

                you can choose not to be Jewish. I get Judaism is a religion and a tribal identity, but you can repudiate both. Judaism doesn’t have an automatic claim on anybody.

              2. Tonio

                You don’t get to choose not to be Jewish.

                Actually, you do. Others may try to claim you’re jewish once you’ve abandoned that belief system but I reject any claims seeking to supercede the individual’s self-ownership, specifically the right to define one’s own belief system.

                Duly noted that judaism seeks to define who and who isn’t jewish based on heredity, but that’s judaism’s problem, not the individual’s.

                1. Zeb

                  I was mostly joking in response to the silly suggestion that only orthodox fundamentalists should call themselves Jews when for many if not most Jews today their Jewish identity has a lot more to do with culture and heritage than strict adherence to the religion. Though if you define being Jewish as having a mother who was Jewish, then it’s true. I can’t choose not to have English ancestors.

        3. The Laconic

          I see no evidence that anti-Semitism is that much of a threat today.

          That’s impossible, because I have it on good authority that religious freedom is under a greater threat than ever.

      4. SlV

        The South has always been tolerant and open to Jews since the earliest days of settlement. The first Jews elected to congress, the Sec. of the Treasury of the CSA, Lehmann Brothers, some of the oldest Jewish synagogue congregations, merchants in even the smallest towns…

        1. The Original Jason

          David Emanuel, Governor of Georgia (first Jewish governor in the US)…

      5. SlV

        Congregation Mickve Israel of Savannah, Georgia was organized in 1733.

        Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue in Charleston was started in 1740.

        These were founded over 100 years before any in New Jersey or Massachusetts.

        1. UnCivilServant

          The southern colonies were founded to make money. The north by religeous zealots. It sort of fits.

          1. Tonio

            Not quite that simple, UCS, but you have the basics right. Virginia, being a crown colony, had Church of England (later known as the Episcopal church in the post-revolution colonies) as the state religion until 1776. Maryland (very much Southern, antebellum) was a Catholic colony.

  16. sarcasmic

    A model’s guide to the perfect holiday! Kate Moss wows in tiny black bikini as she enjoys a chilled out cigarette and poses by the pool in Brazil

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..ation.html
    Not bad for a chain smoking, alcoholic, anorexic 40yr old.

  17. invisible furry hand

    Japanese gangsters Yakuza create theme tune and website for recruitment drive

    What they really need is a cute anime character – Yakuza-chan or similar,

    1. Bardas Phocas

      Fruity Oaty Bar!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7idn3PcKBM
      Subliminal recruitment.

  18. Scientists dismiss claims that Yellowstone volcano about to erupt

    Yellowstone National Park assured guests and the public on Thursday that a super-volcano under the park was not expected to erupt anytime soon, despite an alarmist video that claimed bison had been seen fleeing to avoid such a calamity.

    Yellowstone officials, who fielded dozens of calls and emails since the video went viral this week following an earthquake in the park, said the video actually shows bison galloping down a paved road that leads deeper into the park.

    “It was a spring-like day and they were frisky. Contrary to online reports, it’s a natural occurrence and not the end of the world,” park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett said.

    1. SugarFree

      And the bison shall lead them…

      1. Florida Man

        + 2 bison dollars for every British pound

    2. Not an Economist

      Using Murphy’s Law and typical government competence, I think this means one thing — RUN AND HIDE SHE’S ABOUT TO BLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1. Restoras

        This was my thought as well.

        I’m wondering what the commentariat thinks will be the best currency in a bugout situation. Cigs, .45 ACP, or diet coke?

        1. gaijin

          Water.

          1. Red Rocks Rockin

            Yep–clean water and ammunition (and fuel if you’re using a vehicle).

        2. Florida Man

          I vote survival guides. Knowledge is power.

        3. beer. duh. it’s like i don’t even know you people.

        4. I have about 50 lb of green coffee and electricity free ways of roasting and grinding them. I also have the materials to separate liquids by their vapor point.

      2. gaijin

        I look forward to teh prosecution of the scientists who said ‘nothing to fear’.

        1. SugarFree

          Like they did in Italy with the seismologists that didn’t predict an earthquake.

          You bastards better science up right, or Love Bubba is gonna be your cellmate!

      3. “Preach it, Brother!”

        /Jailed Italian Seismologists

    3. I’m finally getting around to watching the NOVA (thanks, Evil Kochs!) on the geological and biological history of Australia. Really interesting stuff, and they hit on all of the major catastrophes the Earth has had in the last 4.5 billion years. You know, getting smacked by a Mars-sized world, getting bombarded by rocks nonstop for ages, freezing almost completely, etc., etc.

      One of those was a period of massive volcanic activity. Not a good time for life.

      1. The Laconic

        On the bright side, weed was legal. Or would have been if it had evolved yet.

    4. Mickey Rat

      Then we can imprison those scientists if they are wrong.

      1. Curse you!

  19. Jordan

    Obama administration allies are questioning whether the Obamacare employer mandate will ever be implemented.

    It will be safe to implement when they can get the Supreme Court to stop striking down their Incumbent Protection – I mean Campaign Finance Reform – acts.

  20. Having an aneurysm? Put ice on it.

    The wife of a man suffering a life-threatening aneurysm says she was fobbed off by the 111 call centre and told to put an icepack on him after he complained of agonising back pain.

    But instead of calling back in half an hour, as advised on the phone, John Raven’s family drove him straight to Hutt Hospital – where he collapsed in the lobby, his faced drained of colour.

    “If we’d been any later we would never have got him to hospital and he would have died,” Judy Raven said of her husband, a 79-year-old former air force driver from Upper Hutt.

    Daughter Donna Symes said emergency staff at Hutt Hospital were “absolutely appalled” that an ambulance had not been sent for her father.

    Five hours later, he had emergency surgery at Wellington Hospital after it was discovered his aorta – the main artery – had burst in his abdomen, causing massive internal bleeding.

    1. Mickey Rat

      The problem is, ice is hard to come by on Tattooine.

      1. pan fried wylie

        Cmon, even Arrakis had polar ice, and what with moisture farming on Tatooine, there’s gotta be some ice. Or maybe having two suns prevents ice accumulation.

  21. Other than that, how was it?

    Police Hunt For Man Who Left Woman Down A Well After She Fell In During Sex

    Aponte apparently had not realised a wooden covering over the hole in the city of Ciudad Real, in Spain, had come loose causing her to fall into the water almost 5m below.

    Police are now hunting for her partner after he fled the scene, leaving her stranded at the bottom of the well.

    1. UnCivilServant

      I’m guessing she felt let down.

    2. Snark Plissken

      If caught, the man will be charged with violating their Good Swimaritan law.

    3. Rufus J. Firefly

      Why is it up to me to ask:

      Is she hot?

      1. Doing God’s work in some of the meanest comment threads in America?

      2. Pl?ya Manhattan.

        He was just neging her. Second date for sure.

  22. sarcasmic

    Man arrested after he RETURNED to tryn and claim $2,500 worth of heroin he accidentally left in rental car

    Bronx man Carlos Tavarez, 30, rented a Chevy sedan from a Manhattan rental car service on Saturday
    He told Budget employees he was driving the car up to Boston and back and later returned the car to a location at Newark International Airport
    Soon after, he called the location back saying he left his child’s medication in the car and wanted to retrieve it
    Employees reported the ‘suspicious’ black bag to Port Authority Police who found it contained 250 small bags of heroin
    Tavarez was arrested Wednesday when he returned to the rent-a-car location to pick up the bag

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..l-car.html

  23. German landlord tries to collect rent with chainsaw

    A landlord demanding rent arrears threatened tenants and German police with a whirring chainsaw, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

    The frightened tenants called police to the scene, and the 45-year-old man eventually dropped the chainsaw when the officers showed their guns.

    The spokesman said the landlord was apparently trying to collect 13,000 euros ($17,900) in rent on a flat in the southern town of Burgau. He was charged with threatening bodily harm.

    1. Restoras

      But was it a black chain saw with disturbing cosmetic features that have no effect on its functionality?

      1. ZomG! Bayonet!

      2. Assault chainsaw! Where is the German Chuck Schumer?

    2. Steve G

      In the US, he’d be dead by cop

    3. UnCivilServant

      I still side with the landlord if they were that far behind in rent. They broke the contract first. Pay up and get out.

      1. Zeb

        I suppose you have to do something when the law makes it practically impossible to evict someone.

    4. Rufus J. Firefly

      How do you say ‘Leatherface’ in Germanian?

      1. Ledergesicht

    5. JW

      “Listen up you primitive screwheads…”

  24. Bee Tagger

    President Obama’s plan to overhaul the NSA’s phone surveillance program could force phone carriers to store more data.

    Private-public partnerships. A plan only President Gingrich could love.

  25. invisible furry hand

    Proof that Jon Hamm was once a dickhead with a tragic haircut

    Sigh. Some things really do get better with age

    1. in the 90s that was haircut was Sex Concentrated. You ladies went nuts for that sort of thing.

      1. Rhywun

        I still do… :ducks:

  26. Rufus J. Firefly

    I was thinking about the CEO of Mozilla and the notion of companies letting be known where they stand on issues and whether it’s their right. I know the Eich was outed by the evil IRS cheered on by progressive assholes. In any event, while it’s their right, is it wise?

    I just look at my situation. I live in Quebec where we have nationalist separatist who would notify the government in a heartbeat if they hear or see too much English (yes, it’s that bad). We’re especially on high alert when the PQ are in power because it empowers and emboldens these piece of shits. So what happens is my sister and I make sure we speak to our (perfectly bilingual and in some cases trilingual) staff about this sad reality. My sister in particular is aware that politics and business can’t mix. So as much as she loathes the squawkers in our midst she plays ‘bella fiugra.’ That is, she smiles and nods at even the most retarded comments.

    Business first.

    No?

    1. Jordan

      Well, he didn’t own Mozilla, so it’s a bit different from your situation. It really is up to you. I can’t imagine trying to run a business in any Western country these days.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly

        Very hard. Not the actual running of a business which is a challenge in of itself but dealing with all the unnecessary, fabricated, bull shit.

        Everyone itches to get a piece of you.

        It’s weird.

  27. sarcasmic

    Spring strikes out! BASEBALL-SIZED hail hits Texas – smashing car windows – as tornadoes strike in the latest unseasonable weather to hit the country

    The town of Denton, Texas was hit with two monster hail storms Thursday evening
    There were also four tornado warnings with sightings to the north, west and south of town
    No injuries were initially reported, though the hail caused serious damage to cars and buildings

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..tings.html
    I’m surprised they didn’t call it a climate event.

    1. Andrew S.

      Tornadoes in Texas in April are “unseasonable” now? Huh?

      1. robc

        40th anniversary of April 3rd tornado outbreak.

        This one was teeny in comparison.

        1. robc

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Outbreak

    2. SugarFree

      I’m surprised they didn’t call it a climate event.

      They don’t bring up tornadoes much. Most of the models they rely on suggest that global warming will reduce the instance of tornadoes. If there are the same or more tornadoes, global warming isn’t happening; if there are fewer tornadoes, people have a hard time seeing global warming as a bad thing.

      1. sarcasmic

        Really? I seem to recall the last few destructive tornadoes being blamed on climate change.

        1. Zeb

          They must not have been up on what the models predict. Don’t expect rationality here. The whole idea of determining whether a particular weather event is “caused” by climate change is absurd. If there is climate change, then it is a cause of every weather event.

        2. SugarFree

          They go back and forth. Here’s a NeoGeo article about it.

      2. I distinctly recall the last time an (alleged) F0 hit NYC, they blamed it on global warming/climate change.

        Funny how when stuff doesn’t happen accodring to the model, how dare you suggest the models are wrong; but every single newsworthy event is PROOF that global warming/climate change is real.

        1. sarcasmic

          Anything that doesn’t fit the narrative is just weather.

          Anything that does is a climate event.

  28. The Income-Inequality Love Train
    The Obama Democrats and IMF want the U.S. to slow down and divide up the pie.

    On Monday, the United Nations released the fifth report by its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In addition to its familiar warnings of species extinction, irreversible eco-destruction, and the disappearance of ski resorts, the report introduced what it called “a novelty in the IPCC.” That would be income inequality.

    “Climate-resilient development pathways,” the IPCC’s authors announce, “will have only marginal effects on poverty reduction, unless structural inequalities are addressed and needs for equity among the poor and non-poor people are met.” Until now, saving the planet’s ecology alone was thought to be a heavy lift. No more. Among the new challenges: “Existing gender inequalities are increased or heightened by climate-related hazards.”

    of course…

    1. UnCivilServant

      Well, he doesn’t know how to make the pie larger, so did anyone expect anything else?

    2. Jordan

      As if anyone needed more evidence that AGW is just the latest bullshit vehicle for implementing the progderp wishlist.

  29. They should have just hit it instead

    Five young adults were in a car on Votm?lavegur, road 34, connecting Selfoss to Eyrarbakki and Stokkseyri, South Iceland, early Sunday morning when a rabbit jumped over the road. The young driver lost control of his car and rolled over.

    (No Jimmy Carter jokes, please.)

    1. UnCivilServant

      If it’s too small to do substantial damage to my car, I’m not risking myself to avoid pasting it.

      1. Zeb

        Yeah, never swerve to miss a small animal. It’s dangerous and you might hit the thing anyway. And the squirrels deserve whatever they get.

    2. In such cases, you must kill the wabbit.

  30. Russia’s big bet on Putinomics

    Economic warfare is often costly for both sides. Putin’s central insight is that the other side is risk-averse. Although sanctions could be strengthened, the odds seem against it. Many U.S. executives see sanctions as a “lose-lose” proposition: U.S. firms lose foreign sales (“you get tagged as an unreliable supplier,” says a Caterpillar executive); and the U.S. government doesn’t achieve its political goals. With closer ties to Russia, Europe has greater reservations. It also dreads the effects of a cutoff of Russian natural gas, even though this gas supplies only about 7 percent of Europe’s total energy.

    The essence of Putinomics is to exploit these fears. Collective commerce, which was supposed to muffle bellicose behavior, loses much of its restraining power. Bergsten worries that China may one day resort to military aggression to achieve its goals on the same assumption that its economic partners can’t ? or won’t ? retaliate. It’s an unsettling thought.

  31. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the U.S. will be reevaluating its role in Middle East peace.

    The new policy will be called Fuck This Shit.

  32. Certified Public Asskicker

    Facebook derp (on Mozilla’s CEO):

    Don’t feel bad for him. I’m sure he will get a lucrative job as a Fox News pundit after being a victim of the “anti family, anti free speech, pro gay liberal agenda brought to you by perverts abortionists, terrorists and satan himself”

    1. Rufus J. Firefly

      It’s like…they have no IQ or wisdom.

      1. sarcasmic

        IQ and wisdom require cognitive process. They run on emotion. No thought necessary.

        1. Certified Public Asskicker

          That reminds me, I used your “tolerance means not tolerating intolerance” line in passing once to a liberal. I was ridiculed because “that makes no sense!”

          1. sarcasmic

            They tend to have unpleasant emotional reactions to the truth.

      2. Apparently Social Justice looks like wildly outsized repercussions for a six-year-old, $1,000 donation while simultaneously not punishing the most powerful man in America for holding the same stance because something something party affiliation and skin color.

        1. wareagle

          as someone else here has said – principles vs principals.

    2. UnCivilServant

      Despite not being meant seriously, “Perverts, Abortionists and Terrorists” does describe a lot of the left power loci.

      1. invisible furry hand

        and some of the people around here too

        1. SugarFree

          I am not an abortionist. That flight of stairs did all the work.

    3. Drake

      I wish he had been fixing his shitty browser instead of worrying about guys buggering each other. I get script run errors every time I try to use Firefox now.

      Posted using Chrome.

      1. Carl the Jarl

        Millions of people use Firefox every day with little or no issue. It sounds like either your computer is messed up our you’ve hit an obscure bug.

        1. Drake

          Do an internet search for “Firefox unresponsive script error”. I am not the only one.

  33. Tea Party challenger to McConnell: The founding fathers were into dogfighting and cockfighting.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l…..ng-fathers

    1. UnCivilServant

      You talk as if there was anything wrong with those sports.

      1. sarcasmic

        No, no, no, no you don’t get it. The fact that they were into those things makes them bad people which discredits their views on liberty and free markets. See? It makes total sense as long as you don’t think about it.

        1. invisible furry hand

          anyone who objects to cockfighting is a homophobe

          1. UnCivilServant

            You should turn safe search on when looking up that information, IFH.

    2. Restoras

      Archer: Woodhouse! What are you doing?
      Woodhouse: Uh, sitting down sir.
      Archer: What, at the table? Like people?

    3. Don Mynack

      Well, we are gonna eat that chicken anyway, amirite?

    4. Juice

      They were also into slave holding from what I hear.

  34. Why Do So Many Leftists Want Sex Work to Be the New Normal?
    Yes, let’s erase stigma. But feminists, please: let’s not forget to talk about male privilege.

    It’s one thing to say sex workers shouldn’t be stigmatized, let alone put in jail. But when feminists argue that sex work should be normalized, they accept male privilege they would attack in any other area. They accept that sex is something women have and men get (do I hear “rape culture,” anyone?), that men are entitled to sex without attracting a partner, even to the limited extent of a pickup in a bar, much less pleasing or satisfying her. As Grant says, they are buying a fantasy?the fantasy of the woman who wants whatever they want (how johns persuade themselves of this is beyond me). But maybe men would be better partners, in bed and out of it, if they couldn’t purchase that fantasy, if sex for them, as for women, meant finding someone who likes them enough to exchange pleasure for pleasure, intimacy for intimacy. The current way of seeing sex work is all about liberty?but what about equality?

    I thought the left was about that, too.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Oh that nut.

      How is it entitlement if you have to pay and the provider can still say no? that sounds like a business transaction to me.

    2. And she’s sexist for ignoring hustlers and t-girls.

    3. Mickey Rat

      “They accept that sex is something women have and men get (do I hear “rape culture,” anyone?),…”

      By this, and the thread last night, I am utterly baffled about what “rape culture” is.

      1. My best guest would be it’s a cultural attitude which protects perpetrators and blames victims of sexual assault. Given the feminist penchant for broad and fluid definitions I don’t think I can be more specific.

      2. mr simple

        It’s any culture that doesn’t constantly put men down and tell them how terrible they are for being men, while privileging all women and telling them how great they are, especially the obese or homely.

    4. Zeb

      Seems to me the biggest reason why straight prostitution is nearly all women is that far more men want to give it away for free. Convince more women to be sluttier if you want more equality in that area.

      1. UnCivilServant

        *psst* that’s a biological factor that they can’t admit to because it undermines the nuttier aspects of their ideology. Pregnancy is a great resource sink for the mother, so they evolved to want to mitigate the risk of loss, or gain assistance. The low biological resource investment in the matter from males means the imperitive to create as many offspring as possible was stronger. these are fairly strong hardwired differences.

        1. Zeb

          That’s impossible. Gender is just a social construct. We are all born as blank slates.

    5. PD Scott

      So this person wants sex workers to be unstigmatized – and unemployed.

  35. 110 Lean

    Mother killed by Capitol Police was shot in back of head

    WASHINGTON ? First they called her a terrorist threat.

    When she turned out to be an unarmed suburban mother, they said she was on drugs.

    Now, WND has exclusively learned, without a trace of doubt, that was wrong, too.

    WND can also now report Miriam Carey was shot in the back of the head by U.S. Capitol Police officers and uniformed Secret Service agents six months ago, on Oct. 3, 2013.

    The official police investigation still has not been released. But Carey family attorney Eric Sanders obtained the toxicology and autopsy report on this macabre anniversary.

    The report showed there were no drugs in Carey’s system, prescription or otherwise, when she was shot dead.

    The report was prepared by Dr. Nikki Mourtzinos of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia.

    1. invisible furry hand

      That is enraging

      1. The Capitol Police made it home safely. Nothing else happened. 🙁

        1. Yeah, something else happened – they got a standing ovation by Congress – fuckfuckfuckity fuck that makes me boil.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.

            And there was this gem:
            In fact, no media other than WND showed up Thursday to a press conference Sanders announced.

            Nothing to see here.

  36. Mummies had heart disease too! CT scans of ancient Egyptians reveal they had clogged arteries just like people today

    The scientists scanned 76 mummies from around the world and arterial disease was found in around 38 per cent of them, with the average age of death estimated at 37.

    The team also scanned 178 Cairo cancer patients, aged from 14 to 48, and found that 61 per cent of them had arterial hardening.

    ‘There was no difference between the mummies and patients in terms of atherosclerosis incidence or severity,’ Dr Allam said. ‘They were nearly equivalent’.

    1. UnCivilServant

      Note – Those who could afford to be mummified were among the upper strata of Ancient Egyptian society.

      Depending upon who in Egypt today can get treatment for cancer (which strikes me as an odd sample to compare to. Was it just who they found in the hospital? Or were they limited to patients who’d had MRIs for unrelated reasons?) that says something about the change in standard of living since then.

  37. KDN

    Mark Cuban and Thomas Melsheimer: How the Feds Rig Their Prosecutions
    In the Mark Cuban case, the SEC refused to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense for three years.

    The government’s job as criminal prosecutor is not to obtain convictions, but “to do justice,” according to the traditional legal maxim. It should be required to follow the Brady rule in civil trials as well. But the SEC does not, even when it accuses a citizen of fraud. Had the agency complied with this simple rule in its recent insider-trading case against one of us, Mark Cuban, it is unlikely that a lawsuit would even have been filed, let alone go to trial.

    While there has been much mainstream media discussion of the case since the trial last autumn, there has been little focus on the SEC’s conduct in pursuing the case all those years, and its withholding of exculpatory evidence until the case was on the cusp of going to trial.

    1. It’s pretty fundamental that any prosecutor turn over exculpatory evidence, regardless of what part of government he operates in. Not to do so is unethical and anathema to our system of jurisprudence.

      Naturally, there will be no consequences.

      1. I’m reminded of the scene in My Cousin Vinny where Joe Pesci tells Marisa Tomei how he basically pulled one over on the prosecutor by getting the prosecutor to give him all that evidence, and Tomei points out that the prosecutor is required to do that.

        1. So you’re the other person that saw that movie!

          1. Zeb

            I did too! It had something to do with limited slip differentials, I believe.

          2. Pl?ya Manhattan.

            I thought that was a thing around here. Several people have used the term “Yoots”.

            1. Oh, I hadn’t noticed. I’m too busy driving exotic cars and partying with androgynous European fashion models to read all the comments.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.

                That’s a tough price to pay.

          3. He’s not the only one. I loved that movie. And not just because Marisa Tomei, that hot POA, mouth all those sexy words about independent rear suspension.

  38. How did people find out that Mozilla’s CEO donated to support Prop 8?
    Rumors are floating around Twitter that proof of Brendan Eich’s donation was illegally leaked by people in government sympathetic to the cause of gay marriage. Not so. I’d forgotten about it, but friends reminded me that the LA Times obtained a list of people who gave, for and against, to the fight over the Prop 8 referendum in 2008. They put the whole database online and made it searchable. Search it today and, sure enough, there’s Eich with a $1,000 donation in favor. …

    1. uhh so how did the LA Times “obtain” that list again? I don’t see how the “obtaining” and the “illegal leak” are mutually exclusive theories.

      1. UnCivilServant

        The IRS agent ‘forgot’ a thumb drive on a bench next to a LAT operative.

        1. SugarFree

          The story says that by law the state of California had to release the information when LAT requested it.

          Illegal IRS leak or Cali law? I’m curious to know which is true.

          1. UnCivilServant

            Illegal Cali law.

          2. Andrew S.

            The leak was by the IRS, and it was illegal by federal law. I’m not sure how Cali law would play into it.

            1. SugarFree

              Cal-Access: Searchable political donation database put up by the state of California.

              Brendan Eich comes right up.

            2. gaijin

              The Feds found a convenient time to support Federalism and give priority to state law?

              1. SugarFree

                I’m not defending the IRS. I think everyone of them should be in jail. But it seems a little too conspiracy-minded to suggest that the IRS leaked information that was already publicly available. I found the database with one google search.

              2. Except that Cal-Access has been around for a while.

                It’d be interesting to find out who would be looking and why, though.

    2. kinnath

      http://www.slate.com/articles/…..rop_8.html

      The numbers in these tables don’t represent contributions from the companies. (All the money came from individuals.) Nor do they reflect the balance of contributions that came from a company’s employees. (I haven’t added up the donations that went to the campaign against Prop 8.) A quick glance here and there suggests that in many cases, the balance of contributions from these companies went against the ballot measure.

      But those caveats are true of Mozilla, too. And we’re not cutting Mozilla any slack, are we?

      If we’re serious about taking down corporate officers who supported Proposition 8, and boycotting employers who promote them, we’d better get cracking on the rest of the list. Otherwise, perhaps we should put down the pitchforks.

      Until the very last sentence in the article, it appeared he was actually calling on people to boycott every employer of every donor to the “wrong” side of the campaign.

      And the derp is still strong:

      Top Comment

      The CEO is not a typical employee. You’re being purposefully obtuse.

      1. John

        So you redneck fundies can work, but don’t expect to ever be anything but a drone if we have something to say about it.

        pathetic.

        1. They are the exact same kind of people that wrote Jim Crow.

  39. Steve G

    “Religious Freedom” They keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what they think it means.

    1. UnCivilServant

      It means people get to believe things they don’t like, so they have to stop it.

  40. John

    Something is seriously wrong when I have to admit Andrew Sullivan nails something. But he does.

    Will he now be forced to walk through the streets in shame? Why not the stocks? The whole episode disgusts me ? as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society. If this is the gay rights movement today ? hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else ? then count me out. If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.

    http://dish.andrewsullivan.com…..ndan-eich/

    I don’t think the gays are going to like it very well when the other side starts doing this, and they will. When the CEO of some Red State company like Bass Pro Shop or something is outed as gay and the company has to fire him in the face of a boycott, the gay mafia as Sullivan calls them will have a fainting fit but they are the ones who have set the precedent for it.

    1. Restoras

      What’s the saying? Sauce for the goose?

      1. John

        They don’t think it will ever happen to them or that the rules should ever apply to them. It would be one thing if gays were a majority or anything but a tiny minority. It wouldn’t be good but it at least it wouldn’t be self destructive to the point of insanity. Doing it as a tiny minority that has been despise and oppressed for most of human history is insane.

        People on both sides often seem to forget that society can move both ways. There is nothing that says that because society is tolerant of gays today that it will be in 50 years. I hope it is, but anyone who knows anything about history knows that there is no guarantee.

        Society is always going to be unfairly intolerant of someone. Everyone should realize it is mostly dumb luck it is not them.

        1. Florida Man

          I’m pretty sure I know who the US will be unfairly intolerant of in 50 years. Hint: it will be the only unprotected class.

          1. John

            Maybe. But that unprotected class may get tired of being pushed around and start to push back. If that happens, my guess is the Progs and fascist will move on to easier targets. They are at heart bullies. And it really doesn’t matter who their enemy is, they just need one to provide the hate to fuel their ideology. They don’t really want to get into a full on violent conflict. When the whites start pushing back and I bet they will, the fascists will move on to find a different target. If I were the gays, I would be a little nervous about that.

            1. Florida Man

              But that unprotected class may get tired of being pushed around and start to push back.

              This is why I don’t really worry about it. Even if whites lose majority status and are the new scape goats for everything, it won’t go too far because a significant portion of the population is well armed.

              1. John

                I agree. And that is why I think the Progs will find a new and easier enemy at some point. I don’t know who that will be but there is nothing to say it won’t be the gays. It is not like progs latched onto the cause of gay rights because they give a shit about actual gays. Progs never gave a fuck about and were actively hostile to gays for must of the 20th Century. It wasn’t the evil SOCONs who classified homosexuality as a mental illness, it was Prog psychologists. They only latched onto gay rights when they realized they could use it as a way to go after their political enemies.

    2. sarcasmic

      the gay mafia as Sullivan calls them will have a fainting fit but they are the ones who have set the precedent for it.

      So what? Principles don’t matter. People matter. It’s OK if they do it, but bad if other people do the exact same thing. Who matters. Not what.

      1. John

        See above. I don’t think “principles don’t matter” is a very good position to have when you are 1% or 2% of the population.

    3. In some states, firing someone for sexual orientation would be illegal. But firing someone because you don’t like what he thinks is legal.

      Seems like both should be legal, to me, or what does freedom of speech and association mean, anyway?

      1. Snark Plissken

        Now you are being entirely too sensible.

      2. John

        Even in those states, if my company is facing bankruptcy because my customers won’t shop there because my CEO is gay, I am better off firing my CEO and just giving him a payout. All the laws do is give him a tort claim against me. Paying that is better than going out of business.

        I agree with you about both being legal. But getting the government out of things will be a pretty hallow victory is we end up with a society that spends its time fighting the culture war through commerce.

        1. I’m very surprised Mozilla acted to remove him. I mean, it’s one thing to be a vocal advocate of something that’s getting your company boycotted, but it’s quite another to quietly support whatever it is you support.

          We may not agree with his position, but the reaction to what he’s done seems more like he was unveiled as a Nazi than as someone who favors traditional definitions of marriage. Which, incidentally, doesn’t necessarily make him anti-gay.

          1. John

            To them Pro, he might as well be a Nazi. And you and I might as well be too, though not necessarily for holding the same view.

            The thing that ought to enrage people about this if nothing else is the understanding that they won’t stop at gay marriage. Once they are done making objecting to it impossible they will move on to something else. It really is just like that famous quote about first they came for the Communists. They are coming for the people who object to homosexuality. When they are done there they will move on to others.

          2. Mozilla is a not-for-profit. The real story is the IRS’s role in revealing his donations. Totally without malice, I’m sure.

            1. Yes, that’s the part I’m most disturbed by. Seriously, that agency needs to be gutted, with prosecutions galore.

            2. John

              That is a story too. But the leaking it only matters so much because the gay movement is so intolerant.

              1. You know, I’ve seen several gay friends push back on FB. But the divide was very much ideological. The progs think this is great. My less progressive gay friends think it is shameful. Because it really has no more to do with the gays than race-hustling has to do with the blacks.

                1. It’s a really bad strategy. I mean, circumstances for blacks were, for a good while, steadily improving. Then it became an identity politics, rather than a civil liberties, concern, and everything got ugly, and the general improvement got all screwed up.

                  If you want things to get better, convince people to be tolerant. They don’t have to love you and your lifestyle, they just need to not use their majoritarian power to legally discriminate or otherwise harm you. Anything else is a bad idea, long term.

                  1. John

                    Yes Pro. I don’t see how going after Eich does anything but make people who want to go after gays feel justified in doing so.

                    It is just a matter of time before the Right resorts to the same sorts of tactics and that won’t be a good thing for either the country or gays.

    4. Maybe Sully finally got his meds balanced again for the first time since about 2003.

    5. Notorious G.K.C.

      I think that right-wing boycotts are generally aimed at companies like Disney with gay-affirming policies, not at a company that just has a gay guy in management.

      1. John

        Yes. And they should stop those too. I remember laughing about the Right going after the Dixie Chicks. But I was wrong. Who cares what they think? If you like their music, buy it. You shouldn’t have to be a right winger to be a country star anymore than you should have to be a moron prog to be a pop star.

        This sort of nonsense leads nowhere good.

        1. Notorious G.K.C.

          Well, once a corporate policy reaches a certain threshold of badness (however you define badness, whether from the right-wing or left-wing perspective), you gotta consider whether they’re worth a boycott. You also gotta consider backlash, which is one reason I’m not joining the Girl Scout boycott despite their connections with abortion promoters. I’m not dying on that particular hill. And I like Thin Mints.

          Nor am I horrified that Hobby Lobby has employee pension funds that invest in pharma companies that make Plan B. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t object to getting a gun pointed at them requiring them to buy “free” Plan B for their employees.

          But there’s no philosophical reason to oppose nonviolent boycotts against companies based on legitimately-obtained information.

          1. John

            But there’s no philosophical reason to oppose nonviolent boycotts against companies based on legitimately-obtained information.

            Yes there is. The reason is that if that becomes common place we won’t be able to have a successful economy and there will be an incredibly chilling effect on free expression. I don’t want to live in a country where everyone is afraid to speak their mind or express an unpopular opinion for fear of losing their job or being boycotted out of business.

  41. John

    The Western Left’s biggest lie is that it represents a movement of the young, but it really represents the very old. Their very concerns are geriatric: Marxism, trash recycling, health and safety, public transportation and gossip.

    The big giveaway is we as a civilization don’t want to go to the planets any more, because the old don’t want to go anywhere. Imagine clambering into spaceships! The very idea gives us the shivers. Only the young and immortal travel to places where they may never be able to get Ibuprofen.

    http://pjmedia.com/richardfern…..epage=true

    That is one of the remarkable things about the left, all of their ideas are old. They haven’t had a single new idea since the 19th Century. Forget being the party of Wilson, they are the party of Otto Bismark.

    1. sarcasmic

      They haven’t had a single new idea since the 19th Century.

      Even those ideas were old. Ancient in fact. Forced collectivism is as old as civilization itself.

    2. invisible furry hand

      I’m always enraged by the lazy conflation of libertarianism with conservatism by people on the left. I’m not the one whose politics prioritise stasis* over dynamism.

      * “We must preserve entitlements / union power / the quaint little community / drop bears from the evil right wingers who want to destroy it all!”

      1. John

        It is worse than that. They conflate conservatives, libertarians, fascists, theocrats and anarchists. We all hear the “if you want to be a Libertarian just move to Somalia” line to the point of wanting to vomit. They also have the “conservatives can’t move out of the US because other conservative countries are places like Saudi Arabia where they wouldn’t want to live.”

        They are profoundly ignorant. They just live in a fantasy world.

        1. sarcasmic

          They are profoundly ignorant. They just live in a fantasy world.

          It is easy to be that way when you judge everything by how you feel instead of what you think.

        2. Juice

          That’s all just straight trolling.

    3. gaijin

      he old don’t want to go anywhere. Imagine clambering into spaceships!

      Because they know ITS A COOKBOOK!

  42. Certified Public Asskicker

    Bob Costas fears black men with guns:

    “There is in fact a gun culture, no matter how you feel about the Second Amendment or gun control, leave that aside. There is a gun culture in sports. Since I made that commentary in December of 2012, just since then, forget about the dozens if not hundreds of sorry incidents prior to,” there have been a number of incidents of athletes with weapons, Costas said, ticking off names.

    1. John

      I really wish someone would confront white liberal assholes like Costas over the racism in their views. Some redneck white athlete can be right out of duck dynasty and no one says a word. If a black athlete owns a gun, however, it is a national problem.

      A lot of athletes black and white come from places that Bob Costas wouldn’t want to drive through much less live. And they are the kid in their community who made good. That means everyone back in the old neighborhood knows who they are and knows that they are rich. That is a pretty dangerous place to be in.

      Even if you are a good guy who never associated with criminals, that won’t matter if someone in your family does. Sean Taylor was not a criminal and didn’t associate with them. Sadly, one of his dingbat cousins did and her boyfriend murdered Taylor trying to rob his house.

      Taylor may be dead, but Bob Costas feels better knowing Taylor wasn’t a scary gun owning black man. That totally makes up for Taylor being dead I guess.

    2. Restoras

      Dear Bob Costas,

      STFU. About everything.

      Signed,
      Everybody

      1. John

        I really can’t stand him. I think he is a terrible baseball commentator. He is one of the best examples of the modern commentator who just won’t shut the fuck up and let the game speak for itself. The art of broadcasting is the art of properly using dead air. When broadcasters don’t say anything is as important as when they do something. Costas, and a lot of other people, don’t get that and think a broadcast is just a platform for them to show you how smart they think they are.

        1. Restoras

          I think he is very knowledgeable but he has the personality of a wet fern, and has no more business pontificating about shit he knows nothing about than anybody else.

          1. John

            He is very knowledgeable. So are a lot of other people. Being knowledgeable doesn’t make you a good broadcaster. That is what Costas doesn’t get.

            1. Restoras

              He is like that kid in school that want to be part of the cool crowd so he does their homework for them, or buys all the gas for cruisin’ around.

    3. he tried to fuck up the Olympics with his preaching but was pulled (ostensibly for near-terminal pink eye).

  43. Moran: $174K a year is not enough for members of Congress

    Moran tells CQ Roll Call that members need bigger paychecks because they have to maintain two residences — one in their home district, and one in Washington.

    “I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid,” Moran told Roll Call.

    “I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.”

    1. Given all the money they make from these jobs, they should be paying us. In fact, why not drop elections all together and just auction off the seats? What, the results could get worse?

      1. Restoras

        I kinda like this idea.

        1. I’d like to do it at least once, to see what the market value of those jobs really is.

    2. Jordan

      this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.

      Spoken like a true fascist dipshit.

    3. John

      I agree with Instapundit on this. Build them a dorm. Better yet, put them in the Marine Barracks on I street. It is walking distance from the capital. Bunk them two to a room, with a small desk and communal showers. And make the floors coed. I think a good alcohol fueled Congress critter on Congress critter sexual assault scandal would be highly entertaining.

      And if that isn’t already a plot of some of Sugar Free’s smut, he disappoints me.

    4. UnCivilServant

      So Moran is trying to tick off as many “wrong on all counts” boxes as possible?

    5. Stick the legislators in dorms.

    6. but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.

      No, you’re not, and the fact that you think you are is the problem.

    7. invisible furry hand

      Cool. You want to be paid like a board, you should have the legal liabilities of a board. See how you like that.

    8. doesn’t this asshole live in northern Virginia?

  44. invisible furry hand

    Knowledge is power, or something:

    Tens of thousands of books at a new ?190million library cannot be reached because the shelves are too high.

    Staff had been climbing ladders to fetch the tomes but bosses have banned them over fears they could fall and hurt themselves.

    1. John

      Every time I think the US is gone, I read about the UK and realize it could be much worse.

      When you think about it, how is that any different than just burning the books? I really think we are in danger of slipping into a new dark ages.

    2. UnCivilServant

      Knowledge is Power, Guard it well

    3. No wonder they couldn’t beat Hitler.

  45. Slammer

    LA Times opinion writer: who cares why Ft. Hood shooter did it? The guns are the problem.

    “Given the fate of gun control measures recently, it’s clear that the NRA and the die-hard 2nd Amendment types in this country have won. So we’ll stay on the road to routine rampages.
    It’s the path Ivan Lopez chose.
    And I couldn’t care less why.”

    He also thinks everyone on a military base is armed all the time.

    1. John

      His real problem is that he thinks it is the guns that cause the rampages or that there is anyway to eliminate guns from the world or that we would want to if we could.

      1. Zeb

        Or that even if it were possible to eliminate guns, people would rampage with knives, pointed sticks or boards with nails in them. People were much more likely to die violently in the time before guns were readily available.

        His biggest problem is just being wrong about everything.

        1. John

          Without guns we would return to a world ruled by men who were young enough, fit enough and had the time to train in the martial arts. It is not so easy to pick up a sword or a knife and us it as a weapon. It takes years of training to do it well and even if you do it well your physical stature and fitness limits how good you will be. Take away guns and the people you see doing MMA fighting, or those who are smart enough to manipulate them would pretty much rule the world. Doesn’t that sound great?

          1. Zeb

            I really think that the “women and minorities hit hardest (by gun control)” is a good angle to push on lefty gun control advocates. Remind them that young men trained to fight can use violence to get what they want with or without guns. Guns give far more comparative advantage to the weakest and most marginal in society.

    2. Zeb

      Because people having guns is a new thing.

    3. invisible furry hand

      “And I couldn’t care less why.”

      Traditionally, willful ignorance was something to be ashamed of.

    4. Drake

      What a fucking jackass. He thinks there were armed Sailors and Marines at the Navy Yard too. Does he even get CNN?

      Remember in the old days when journalists did research and editors checked it?

    5. wadair

      And I couldn’t care less why.

      This is why he will remain ignorant.

      Few problems, if any, can be solved without knowing why.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Each time I see ‘there are no comments’ I don’t bother.

    C’mon, Charlie Brown. There’s the football. Go kick it!”

  47. Steve G


    Planet Fitness douchbaggery strikes again

    1. John

      If most of your customers are old hags who are threatened by the sight of an uncovered attractive young women, isn’t it the smart thing for the owner to do to tell her to put a shirt on? It is his gym and he does have to please his customers.

      1. A gym that fit-shames instead of fat-shames is brilliant. I am intensely jealous of the founder and the big piles of money he or she must have delivered by dump truck every month.

        1. John

          Me too. I am sure the guy that started Curves is a hell of a lot richer than I ever will be. And he should be. Shame on me for not thinking of that idea first.

      2. Steve G

        Yep, as a business model it’s legit as hell (just ask NK), but as a solution to the obesity ‘epidemic’, it’s a complete and utter disaster.

      3. lap83

        Oh good lord. It’s not always about jealousy. Some people are just conservative.

    2. Planet Fitness douchbaggery strikes again

      you mean where they apologized and offered her a lifetime membership?

      projection: not just for progs.

      1. Ken Shultz

        Surely, you don’t mean to suggest that this was a public relations victory for Planet Fitness, do you?

        Maybe it was!

        Maybe the idea is to get their name in the news as keeping fit women out so the ones that are out of shape will realize that’s where they want to go…

        But that kind of victory isn’t mitigated by offering the fit woman a free lifetime membership, is it.

      2. Steve G

        yeah, wow, she’s got a lifetime of wearing uncomfortable clothing to work out in so as to not offend the clinically sensitive.

  48. Ken Shultz

    “Obama administration allies are questioning whether the Obamacare employer mandate will ever be implemented.”

    Obama made a speech in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner last night!

    Didn’t they get the memo?

    The time for debate is over.

    The science is settled!

    Now shut the fuck up and do your taxes, you uneducated working stiffs, or Barack Obama will send the IRS to kick your uninsured ass.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    In fact, why not drop elections all together and just auction off the seats? What, the results could get worse?

    Exactly right.

    And the money could be used for a special treasury account for retiring debt.

    1. John

      And how much would you really pay for a two year rental on one of 425 House Seats? Not that much I bet. What would happen is someone would want the seat and take up a collection and whoever got the most backers would win the auction. Really, that is not much different than what we do now when you consider that the candidate who raises the most money nearly always wins.

      1. mr simple

        the candidate who raises the most money nearly always wins.

        Actually, most studies show that there is a threshold amount necessary to get a candidates name out, but beyond that there is no correlation between money spent and electoral success. There are many high profile examples of this as well, like John Kerry in 2004 or Meg Whitman in 2010.

    2. Zeb

      That’s almost as good an idea as the one I was just discussing with my co-workers. Sell permits to hunt congressmen. One permit is auctioned off for each member of congress giving the holder the right to shoot the legislator named provided they take reasonable precautions to avoid harming innocent bystanders.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.

    If the CEO packed the Board with his gardener’s alcoholic son and other random losers he encountered panhandling on street corners.

    1. John

      And last I looked Boards are subject to insider trading laws and it is a bit of a problem when they allow the company to run up 14 or whatever trillion dollars in debt.

  51. John

    Holy shit is Bruce Braley, the Dem running for Senate in Iowa stupid.

    After the Ohio State men’s basketball team won its second buzzer-beater in a row with a 3-point shot, Braley tweeted: “It’s official. Ohio State is the luckiest team in the tournament. #TrailOfTears.”

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/…..t/2035569/

  52. 110 Lean

    CEO gets canned for opposing gay marriage

  53. 110 Lean

    Hillary Clinton said that the media treats women with a double standard at the start of the Women in the World Summit.

    STFU, bitch.

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