Obama to Order Contractors to Provide Pay Data, SCOTUS Declines Early NSA Review, Biden's Twitter Starts Tweeting Again: P.M. Links
-
President Barack Obama will sign an executive order requiring government contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race to the Labor Department and prohibiting contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other.
- Jesse Jackson Jr., in prison for illegally using campaign funds for other purchases, was temporarily put into solitary confinement before being moved from a prison in North Carolina to one in Alabama. Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that prison guards took offense to the former congressman advising prisoners of their rights.
- The Supreme Court declined to hear activist Larry Klayman's challenge to the National Security Agency's mass domestic metadata collection program before it makes its way through federal appeals court.
- The death toll from the Washington State mudslide has risen to 33. Of those, 30 have been identified.
- The Democratic National Committee has dusted off Vice President Joe Biden's personal Twitter account to use for campaigning. He still has his other official @VP account.
- It took less than a week to claim all 85,000 visas for next year for high-skilled foreign workers to work in the United States.
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I say we occupy Hit & Run until our voices are heard. Reliably. In a stable commenting system. WHO’S WITH ME?
WHAT ARE YOU PRATTLING ON ABOUT NOW
Who knows. It seemed like there was an issue with commenting today. WHO’S WITH ME?
YES! YES! YES!
My axe is!
I AM! FKN SQRLZ!!
They did fix it after I emailed them. so really, I think the appropriate response is just to say, “Thanks, web guys.”
Now, if we could just get them to add an edit button…
Oh, the thought of EDIT BUTTON…
Is this the right time to bring up our readability score thingy again, or are we going for one victory at a time?
Hamilton, you are making us appear to be suboptimal. Providing commentary at only the equivalent of a 9th grade dialogue? How are we expected to compete with the greatness that is present in other artificial discussion forums if we are conversing in such a juvenile (albeit clear) manner?
You will never silence the rabble. WHO’S WITH ME?
RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!
WHAT DO WE WANT? AND WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
If the answer to question one is time travel than then answer to question two is whenever.
If the answer to question one is time travel than then answer to question two is whenever.
Time travel back and avoid the second post.
It’s still kind of sketchy for me right now.
OCCUPY REASON.
Will there be side dishes?
More to the point, since this is an Occupy event, will there be sexual assault tents? Or drumming? Tell me there will be drumming.
I’ll be happy to come by drunk at 2 AM and do a stumbleby yelling. That’ll give it the authentic Occupy Boston experience.
I was walking by Stephanie’s on Newbury during the whole Occupy thing and overheard two guys at a table (popped-collars, but I make no judgments) talking about getting drunk and heading over there to heckle. That was the deepest social commentary I experienced during that period.
I did that, but no popped collar of course. Also I didn’t do it on purpose, but just ended up having to walk by on my way back to the T.
Actually, it was probably too late for the T, as this was before they started this wonderful late night pilot. Where the hell was I walking to across the greenway in the middle of the night?
Can we occupy Gillespie’s house and steal some stuff? I’d love a leather jacket.
Duh. Yes.
The problem, Fist, is: How do you know you’re occupying H&R when THE SYSTEM IS MALFUNCTIONING?
I say we ignore difficult questions and reality. WHO’S WITH ME?
WHAT IS REALITY?!
until our voices are heard
I understand that if any more words come pouring out your cunt mouth I’m going to have to eat every fucking chicken in this room.
well played
Timely and appropriate.
Hello.
What difference does it make at this point?
The Democratic National Committee has dusted off Vice President Joe Biden’s personal Twitter account to use for campaigning.
Please tell me he feeds the thing himself. Right from his own brain.
No, his direct thoughts are already piped directly through several YouTube commenter accounts.
“Does anyone else ever forget how to poop? #inthebathroom”
So, since I didn’t make it onto the AM links until they were already half-dead, I’ll just post this one last time and then I’ll be done flogging it for a while:
fascr, a reasonable-esque extension for Firefox. Still a WIP.
Did you take my suggestion from yesterday? How does it handle responses to trolls?
What was your suggestion again? To hide the replies to blocked comments?
If so, it did that from the beginning; however, now that behavior can be turned off if desired. In addition, the bylines of blocked comments can now be hidden (optional, off by default).
Yes, that was the suggestion. INCIF did that, but sucked at it, threads over 150 responses took forever to load. Reasonable didnt.
Cool, if you port it to chrome, I will try it. **smirk**
YOU WILL NOT SILENCE THE VOICES OF THE PEOPLE! Who’s with me?
Don’t make me hardcode you in.
Or worse, automatically move your posts to the bottom of the page.
No, automatically move his posts to second on the page.
I might switch back to Firefox if that is an option.
Make sure.you include a P Brooks mode. Some.of.us.like to remember an elegant mode.of.commenting from a more.civilized age.
Or, you know, real levels of threading. More than the 4 or whatever we have.
That cat’s out of the box. Without people having to quote what they are responding to, they never will.
You mean when people didn’t put random periods in their comments? :-p
Hey, I’d switch to firefox if the extension had a “censor db’s gratuitous abuse of punctuation” button. :p
The whole system here would break down.
We wouldn’t have a bunch of people talking about who got a meaningless achievement like we’re on a forum in 1999?
Is making the top of Everest meaningless? Is setting foot on the moon meaningless? Is being Tom from Myspace’s friend meaningless?
Allright, I’m giving it a try. Reasonable doesn’t do it for me, because I dislike Chrome more than I like the extra features.
Is this to support the Mozilla CEO, the one just forced to resign because he donated to a definition of marriage ballot proposition?
It took less than a week to claim all 85,000 visas for next year for high-skilled foreign workers to work in the United States.
AND ALL OF THEM WANTING FREE BENEFITS. ANCHORBABIES.
Maybe if Silicon Valley firms weren’t colluding on salaries, they could find enough employees at the higher clearing levels?
The “shortage of STEM workers” is really, as you know, a shortage.of STEM workers willing to worrk at reducedabor rates. The good.news for engineering.amd.scientific professionals is.that the effort and talent required.to earn a STEM degree is.typicallly enough to convince any graduate that 5hey should hold.out.for.good.money.
I do feel.for.the.people with Bachelor’s Degrees in chemistry or biology…it’s ha4d to.reqlly do.anything with those short.of pursuing an advanc3d degree, unless you.want.to.be a lab rat all your.career.
yes and no
I probably.overgeneralized the second paragraph.
My wife found that with biomedical engineering as well. A masters in mechanical fixed that.
This is obviously because of the patriarchy as biomedical is one of the few engineering disciplines that is half women. Though in my observation most were gunning for medical school.
My wife got a job in EHS with her chem degree, and damn good one at that. She picked up the training at her previous job. So I think it how you try to steer your career.
I agree. I’ve been.asked a few times for.advice onchemistry/bio.degrees and have always said you need to.have a plan. I’ve known plenty of people who.got.stuck.indead.end.lab lobs but also.plenty who planned ahead and found the “right” jobs with just a chem/bio B.S.
Hey, how come high tech workers have to go through that H1 stuff and be limited to 85,000 people? Can’t they just walk across the Southwest border like those folks Reason welcomes with open arms and a generous welfare state?
Why, when this issue comes up, do you always act like Reason is against high-skilled immigration or opposes loosening restrictions? And since when does Reason control the US government’s immigration policy?
Because the great majority of Reason posts and comments are about Hispanics. Also, the national discussion is about South of the Border, all the way down.
It’s a revealed preferences matter.
I feel like this is a great storyline for a comic book. Race-pimp reverend moonlights as a mob killing vigilante.
President Barack Obama will sign an executive order requiring government contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race to the Labor Department and prohibiting contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other.
Wish he would require them to report compensation data based on merit and performance.
Why? We’re in a post-merit society.
Carryover from the probably dead knife article:
Spyderco Civilian. Pro or con?
Looks positively ban-able! Although I’m partial to my benchmade…
ELECTION 4 SALE
If I walk around with a sandwich board saying “Archduke von Pantsfan is evil and unfit for dogcatcher; vote for Sarcasmic instead”, that’s perfectly acceptable. If I pay to have a video of myself doing that run on TV, that’s campaign finance and EVIL EVIL EVIL.
The dichotomy makes no sense to me.
Your analogy is incomplete. Add in that Sarcasmic has the support of unions and they are paying for video ads attacking you and supporting Sarc. It is evil if you attempt to pay for ads to counter theirs. It is evil if you want them barred from paying for ads.
Right thinking people understand that only the left is allowed to be heard.
The last time I paid for democracy I had the buyer’s remorse.
…prohibiting contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their pay with each other.
Obama is all about whistleblowers’ and leakers’ rights.
It’s all about what you say, not what you do.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_…..Government
I hope Snark Plissken is OK:
Camera trap confirms wolves’ return to north Bohemia
You know who else came from an area on the German border.
Roger Federer?
Tin Tin?
Fritigern?
Joe Biden?
The retreating French army?
STEVE SMITH ESCAPED THE BLAST! And is making his way southwest, pushing the wolves further into central Europe.
Dear god the french are doomed.
Obama will sign an executive order requiring government contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race
Maybe he can require the contractors to also provide Democratcare sign-up stats while he’s at it.
“How about you provide that data first, Mr. President?”
“We’ll have it next month.”
io9 updates its manifesto, still no mention of fellating Dr. Who in 9 out of every 10 posts.
Is the word “suck” in their manifesto?
No, just omnipresent in the terrible writing.
Gawker is truly a blight on humanity. It bothers me that alien intelligences might judge us based on these blogs.
Wouldn’t be awesome if we were destroyed simply because our portrayal of the Daleks is terminally offensive to an alien race?
I swear, those fucks want us to be destroyed by some super race.
Not really. They are just the same kinds of people.
When you use fake science to push politics, low information people are rationally better off rejecting it whole cloth.
Holy fuck. Their mongoloid commenters are actually applauding the mixing of politics with science.
That’s it. I’m done with this planet. I’ll alert the Vogons.
I just got some lovely new towels from Frontgate, so I’m ready.
science is under attack
*Sigh*. Science is a method, not a result. Yeah, there are some results that are attacked, and people may question the way the method is being applied in those instances. But more broadly, science isn’t under attack. Most people appreciate the scientific method and the advances it brings in most areas, even if they don’t always understand them.
And frankly, most of the attacks that are out there are pretty weak. I worry that the “science is under attack” mentality is going to lead to the equivalent of Patriot Act policies, and that the cure will be worse than the disease.
A little Lysenkoism should right the ship and get us on the right-thinking path.
And I had such high hopes once, about science and technology leading to a much better world. Now we’re going to replace science with something else less useful and effective.
On the most recent Cosmos, Neil dePatrick Harris was talking about the Ch’in dynasty and the concept of Legalism there imposed, and how it stifled scientific discovery. Once the State declares something to be true, there’s no further debate.
Sounds familiar, but I’m not quite sure from where…
Geologist assesses the IPCC report:
I can’t wait until AR15 comes out.
“To their eternal discredit too many of the Western scientific establishment abandoned common sense and scientific standards of objectivity and prudence in order to accommodate their paymasters.”
That sums it up nicely.
I read through the Drone thread from earlier. I love when Cytotoxic the Brave Canadian comes to tell everyone who the US government needs to kill.
I love it when Reason hosts those threads so I can level the pathetic peacenazi ‘arguments’ without even trying.
Jesse Jackson Jr., in prison for illegally using campaign funds for other purchases, was temporarily put into solitary confinement before being moved from a prison in North Carolina to one in Alabama. Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that prison guards took offense to the former congressman advising prisoners of their rights.
—-
What the hell, Reason? First you try to get me to feel sorry for Dianne Feinstein, now Jesse Jackson Jr?
What, you believe what Jackson’s cronies are saying about this? Anonymously? Why would you do that?
Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that prison guards took offense to the former congressman advising prisoners of their rights.
Did his Democrat buddies vote to strengthen the prison guard unions? Does he regret it now that he is at the receiving end of the State’s brute force?
When Keepin’ It Real Goes Wrong…LAPD Version.
The number of felonies here are astounding. We have rape, rape, rape, a few firearm enhancers, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, attempted bribery…and rape.
I hope that big, phallic eyesore turns to rubble when the big one hits.
You said rape four times.
The first three in succession were to summon Warty. The fourth was for emphasis.
“I like rape.” COME ON PEOPLE.
[smacks self in forehead]
How the hell did I miss that one?
Sloopy only pawn in game of life.
Pardon me while I whip this out.
+1 Schnitzengruben.
You were having a Governor LePetomane moment. Or anyone of the inbred Johnson people from town. You get to pick.
I saw this on one of my prog friends’ social media posts. NOW that LAPD is raping white women, they suddenly care.
Don’t go to the other link I posted. It’s 100x worse.
The comments are mind boggling. Oh no no. The police unions are good, they don’t have anything to do with police criminality.
Jesse Jackson Jr., in prison for illegally using campaign funds for other purchases, was temporarily put into solitary confinement before being moved from a prison in North Carolina to one in Alabama. Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that prison guards took offense to the former congressman advising prisoners of their rights.
It takes a special level of depravity to make a corrupt politician the sympathetic figure in a story.
No nearly special enough for me.
State Department Misplaced $6B Under Hillary Clinton
Meh.
/DoD
She’s got the thighs you could hide $6B under.
What difference, at this point, does it make?
Oh yeah, they also misplaced an Ambassador and a CIA operation.
*** whispers ***
Look under the thighs.
**Warning!**
Don’t look anywhere near those thighs!
All you need is for the Treasury to mint a Trillion Dollar Coin, and this $6 billion mistake will become a trivial rounding error.
Why only one? Why not 300M Trillion Dollar Coins and then we could all be trillionaires!
Slate thinks your ID has TMI, decides the best solution is more government.
Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that prison guards took offense to the former congressman advising prisoners of their rights.
I wonder how difficult it was to fight the urge to embezzle from the prisoners he was helping.
Professor John McWhorter like, totally defends the use of modern idiomatic expressions and says public profanity is [bleep]ing awesome!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04……html?_r=0
Motherjones, terrified of a Paul nomination, tries to sick the neocons on him.
I don’t think Paul has any chance of winning the GOP nomination. The warmongers in the GOP will flood money against him. He will be accused of all sorts of sh, have straw man arguments foisted on him, tarred and feathered by the media. That said, I will be super happy if he does.
I think Paul is going to win. The GOP establishment doesn’t have any votes. And Paul is smarter than his father. He is going to finesse the issue and come across as someone who will look out for US interests but not engage in any wars in the name of internationalism or other stupid shit. That will be enough for the GOP voters. The establishment is screwed, they just don’t know it yet.
We’ll see. As I said before, the establishment is its own worst enemy. They could co-opt Cruz or West or whatever but they’re going all in on JEB BUSH.
I’ve never bought into the blood for oil stuff, but it’s pretty rich to see Mother Jones calling Paul out for it.
It’s pretty rich for MJ to call anybody on it.
I’ve never bought into the blood for oil stuff, but it’s pretty rich to see Mother Jones calling Paul out for it.
The Democratic National Committee has dusted off Vice President Joe Biden’s personal Twitter account to use for campaigning. He still has his other official @VP account.
#LOL
#rotfl
#getashotgun
#whatajoker
The Slow And Painful Death Of Reason Magazine
So it’s over? We can all go home now!
I….I’m free?
If libertarianism isn’t radical egalitarianism, I’m afraid I have a different set of definitions for those words.
It depends on what the meaning of the word “isn’t” isn’t.
Does “radical egiltiarianism” include opposing income inequality, high taxes, a maximum wage, a high minimum wage, nationalized industries and redistribution of wealth?
*plays “American Pie” – the song, not the insipid movie*
not the Madonna version, I hope.
srsly, Madonna aborted that song?
Death is too good for her…
Here we are all in one place…
Crap, the next line is “a generation lost in space,” isn’t it? Motherfucker, I should not know that.
Lost in space? Danger, Will Robinson!!
I’ll be honest and say that I’m a bit wary of “thick” libertarianism. Who exactly gets to decide what other issues libertarians must agree on?
And doesn’t this risk turning libertarianism into another “you can do whatever you want as long as we allow you” ideology?
I haven’t followed his site in years. Care to clarify?
The Rockwellians have their own hangups by the way. They have the Leninistic belief of being the vanguard of some libertarian revolution and that means allying with any sort of group that opposes the USG. And the more fringey and Un-PC the better.
Not to mention their Tom Friedmanesque belief that America’s Enemies are TOP MEN who can Get Things Done.
Since libertarianism is non-interventionist, you can still be racist. You just can’t be racist and call yourself a libertarian, at least not without looking like a fucking moron.
I don’t mind the part about opposing racism (as long as it doesn’t lead to supporting anti-discrimination laws) but there are a bunch of other issues “thick” libertarianism is about. And knowing Richman and Long they are eager to sneak in some communal ownership stuff.
(1) What is race?
(2) What is racism?
(2) What is racism?
Judging by many progs, libertarianism?
You just can’t be racist and call yourself a libertarian,
Why not?
Why can’t I be a good Constitutional minarchist, and also refuse to do business with [insert group here]?
To me, libertarianism is about primarily about defining a state-free zone of liberty. When it starts telling me what I can do in that zone of liberty, it starts sounding not very libertarian any more.
When it starts telling me what I can do in that zone of liberty, it starts sounding not very libertarian any more
“We should be able to do whatever we want as long as libertarians approve.”
I would say one can be, but it’s a philosophy that runs counter to some of the basic underlying tenets of libertarianism (such as the primacy of the individual, refraining from collective guilt, etc.) and racists, now and historically, almost always support some sort of state force to back up their ideology.
“Mr. Libertarian” Walter Block, disagrees. The NAP has nothing to do with your views on race, or groups in general, just your actions.
Libertarianism is square with collectivism.
libertarianism must oppose racism.
If they had only inserted “state-sponsored” before “racism”, I would agree.
I start tapping the brakes when anyone says that libertarianism must oppose a choice that people make about their own property, and their own non-violent interactions with each other.
I am also concerned that to progs “opposing racism” means supporting anti-discrimination laws and Affirmative Action.
And since this means using Prog language how exactly can these libertarians argue against that definition.
It’s like Gillespie and co. going on about “social tolerance” when its pretty clear that to the progs “social tolerance” means suppressing opposing views like those of Nick Gillespie.
Fucking Christ, will the endless war between the libertarians never end? Ah, the brutalism… the libertarian brutalism!
How a libertarian Reign of Terror? Who will be Robespierre, Danton and Hebert? And who will lead Thermidor? And who will be Napoleon?
“Like Jesus, Fist of Etiquette loved ardently the commenters, and only them.”
Jesus christ, that article is retarded.
Did they support the boycott? Even I don’t think they did. I just think they said that boycotts in general were a acceptable and laudable things to do
I bet he is a life time gun owner who supports common sense gun control and always voted Republican until those damn racist Tea Partiers took the party away from him too.
Concern troll will forever be concerned.
It was probably Matt pretending he had a secretary or something.
is it just me or are the douchebags at LRC just insufferable cunts.
There are only 9 comments. They are a rare breed, totally focused on economics. I think the disagreement over racism is pedantic actually.
“[Boston] residents will be able to drop off any unused prescription drugs at certain police stations throughout the city on National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, or April 26.
“The push to get unused prescription drugs out of homes is part of a broader national effort to raise awareness about the dangers posed by opiates and prescription drugs.”
Also, “[Boston Congressman Stephen] Lynch has expressed deep concern over the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the controversial new painkiller, Zohydro.”
http://www.masslive.com/news/b….._back.html
I think a better way to celebrate National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day would be to take a lead pipe to the kneecaps of everyone who supports National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day and refuse to give them painkillers so that they can get a taste of the hell that many patients go through because the DEA has made it impossible for them to manage their symptoms.
+1 Joint
Mazda recalling 42,000 cars due to…
Spiders?
Wouldn’t be the first time. Fucking spiders.
The new villains: High frequency traders
Well, he didn’t say they were villains. He wasn’t pleased about front-running incoming orders, which doesn’t seem like a crazy position to take.
One comment hits a key thing. The spread is much smaller than it used to be.
If the HFT’s are just eating a portion of the previous spread, more power to them. Its only an “issue” (and a technical one, not a legal one) if the HFT movement is larger than the old spread.
THIS FUCKING SHIT PISSES ME OFF!!!
You see a stock, you like it, you agree to pay some broker a fuckload of money to buy it for you (e-trade = 9.99 if you are buying on the market and .75 per contract if selling naked puts). YOU agree on the price, unless you are stupid. Price gets executed. Big Fucking Deal!
They never seem to point out this applies to market orders only. Place a damn limit if it bothers you so much. Better yet, sell naked puts and get paid for the privileged of getting the stock at a steep discount.
High-frequency trading is fundamentally fraudulent. Its core mechanism is placing thousands or millions of orders that the trader has no intention, or likely even capability, of filling.
It should be outlawed for that reason.
Agreed. It is fraud.
Geocentrism is making a comeback.
Am I the only one who feels that this is a predictable consequence of the political take-over of science to justify ever increasing government control?
Yeah, if we are orbiting the sun at 67,000 mph, and the sun is moving through the galaxy at 450,000 mph why can’t I feel the breeze?
That Galileo, he really had us going.
No, you are not the only one. I have been pissed and raising hell about it for years, predicting this very sort of thing.
Why can’t you put the Earth at the center of the universe? Seems like a matter of perspective.
Yes, it makes the math really, really hard, but for certain types that’s a feature not a bug.
Speaking as an engineer, if you choose the right coordinate system then yes you can say the earth is the center of the universe. Of course that will make a few equations rather complicated, but hey what’s a little math between friends.
Command: UCS
/ ZAxis / 3point / OBject / View / X / Y / Z / Prev / Restore / Save / Del/?/ (World):
Autodesk will, henceforth, have “world” represented as “Earth”.
Gene Haas, one half of Nascar’s successful Stewart-Haas Racing team, is thought to be keen to join Formula 1.
Officer murders infirm 95-year old WW2 veteran and actually gets charged (hooray!)…with one count of reckless conduct (boo!).
FTA:
Un-fucking-believable.
But don’t fucking worry. Justice may still be served.
FTA: If convicted, Taylor faces a sentence ranging between probation and three years in prison. No other officers have been charged in the case.
Yeah, justice.
That was its own thread a few days ago. I am still trying to figure out how killing the guy is just “reckless conduct”. The charge implies that the cop was just driving his cruiser a little too fast and accidentally hit him rather than tazing him to death.
And bonus vomiting points for all of the talk in the media coverage about how this thing has made life so hard for the cop. It made life pretty hard for the other guy too.
It made life pretty hard for the other guy too.
Actually, it made it pretty much impossible for the other guy.
That too.
Though Wrana was infirm and needed a walker or a cane to get around, police considered him armed and dangerous. They said he brandished a cane, a knife and a 2-foot-long metal shoehorn that some officers initially took for a machete.
HE’S COMING RIGHT AT ME!!!
“President Barack Obama will sign an executive order requiring government contractors to provide compensation data based on sex and race to the Labor Department”
And if you don’t like it, comrade, CHEKA will knock on your door.
Goddammit Florida Senate, you and your ever-increasingly-ridiculous crony capitalism. Messing with craft beer? Many steps too far.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com…..d_forc.php
Its like they saw the fight over the House bill and decided that those pissant craft brewers needed to be taught their place.
Given that the President of the Florida Senate once played up his relationship with an InBev representative and said he’d do whatever they told him to do…
James Taranto in WSJ:
“‘Shut Up’ Is No Argument
“The illiberal left lacks confidence in its ideas.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/art…..57790.html
EJ Dionne for the win
“Is there any accountability in American politics for being completely wrong?” demanded the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne in his Thursday column. “Is there any cost to those who say things that turn out not to be true and then, when their fabrications or false predictions are exposed, calmly move on to concocting new claims as if they had never made the old ones?”
It won’t surprise you to learn that Dionne did not demand accountability from Obama and the other politicians who sold ObamaCare on the fraudulent promise “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” Rather, he asserted that the administration’s claim of having “hit its original goal . . . of signing up more than 7 million people through its insurance exchanges” was a definitive refutation of any notion that ObamaCare is “doomed.”
Clearly the problem is that voters are not holding Republicans responsible enough for Obamacare.
Naturally, its way too early to say how many people actually signed up. Gotta pay that first month, remember?
So if anybody should be facing any accountability here, its shills like Dionne who parrot administration propaganda.
I saw a friend recently after a long time and this person was sporting an Obama 2012 shirt. Seriously. I can understand 2008, but supporting Obama in 2012 just reveals what a partisan hack you are. Either that or you are a low-information voter.
Any Prog who didn’t vote Green or stay home in 2012 has no standing to ever claim to care about civil liberties or the WOT again because none of those issue matter to them. If they did, they wouldn’t have voted to re-elect Obama.
It’s not as bad as voting for Bush in 2004, but it’s still pretty stupid.
Hmmm… so taking the two major party candidates only, are you saying Bush was worse than Kerry more than Obama was worse than Romney?
I’m not sure I’d agree, given the very little thinking through of those four scenarios I could without becoming nauseous.
“The illiberal left lacks confidence in its ideas.”
Lurking in that statement is an assumption that the left believes anything they say. They don’t.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04…..ed-by-irs/
IRS Agent to Congress, “no progressive groups were targeted”. Down goes another Prog talking point.
Look, it’s no scandal, because radical fringe groups need to be repressed by any means necessary.
The problem is money in politics. If it wasn’t for Citizens United, everyone would have been prohibited from putting money into politics and the IRS wouldn’t have been able to unfairly target anyone.
The talking points just write themselves don’t they?
Everyone knows all the money is in the hands of the Republicans and their corporation-fake-person puppetmasters. No business or rich person ever gave a dime to more enlightened, progressive causes or candidates.
Holder: We Want to Explore Gun Tracking Bracelets
Others have suggested manufacturing GPS tracking and RFID chips into every gun.
FTS. Manufacture GPS tracking and RFID chips into every *human*.
If that happens, the first thing I’ll do everytime I buy a gun is expose it to an EMP.
But how will that help with the stuff in the humans?
They will just make owning a gun with a malfunctioning GPS device a crime. And they will also make it a crime for anyone owning an older weapon not to register it and put a GPS device on it. When people refuse, they just succeeded and making most gun owners criminals, which was the goal all along.
Guns are mechanically very simple devices. It should be fairly easy to remove or destroy any tracking device, and disconnect any “smart” features that prevent the gun from firing without it.
Or just 3D print one.
Yup. Or build one using parts from the hardware store.
Faraday cage holster?
THERE ARE NO NEW IDEAS
The series that inspired George R.R. Martin to write Game of Thrones is getting a sequel
In 1988, fantasy was a relatively simple genre, mostly consisting of fairly direct Lord of the Rings knock-offs (the Shannara series) or sexualized versions of Conan the Barbarian (the Gor series).
Dragonlance gets no love.
Also Gor is from the 60s and 70s…what the hell is this asshole even talking about?
Maybe he confused Gor with the Thomas Covenant books.
Also the dismissal of Conan is kind of shity.
The Nobel savage vs tyrannical civilization themes in GoT are taken directly from Howard’s Conan stories as well as the re-imagined fantasy Europe.
Tolkin also took this last part from Howard’s Hyborian age.
HOLY SHIT
Obama is Thulsa Doom! I never saw it before.
The president is a giant snake? Ewwww.
There is no Thulsa Doom in Howard’s Conan. Thulsa is based off a story from Marco Polo about a Muslim King who used suicidal assassins during the Crusades. Cool stuff…but not Conan.
I have been reading the unedited versions of Conan that have not been published since they were first published in weird tales in a new anthology.
The Conan you think you know from the comic books, movies and even the pulp books (which were heavily edited and rewritten and include tons of stories not written by Howard) is not the real Conan.
Note: Funny fact Conan the Cimmerian is a true proto-scotsman according to Howard.
“Thulsa is based off a story from Marco Polo about a Muslim King who used suicidal assassins during the Crusades.”
I would guess that Marco Polo got that story from the real-life Assassins (who name their name to the profession).
gave their name
Yeah.
But Marco Polo has all the stuff like the Orgy room and the kidnapping of kids and turning them into assassins in it.
Which may or may not be true about the real Hassan-i Sabbah of Alamut.
Sounds like the makings of a hell of a movie, to me.
Conan the Barbarian was a great movie.
Just, you know, wasn’t really Conan.
So why did Matthew Feeney call Hannan a libertarian? He’s probably pretty good for a British Tory but a libertarian? And how is he different than Farage?
Inflation May Hit The Poor The Hardest
Clearly, then, we need to raise the minimum wage, OM. Clearly.
It is almost as if the Fed and Treasury are screwing the rest of the country to take care of various connected rich who are able to game the system and benefit from inflation. I just must be cynical or something.
Wrecker! Kulak!
You’re just one of those Ron Paulbots who always rants against the Fed. You just don’t want people to have money, is that it?!
I have spent the last 20+ years laughing at gold bugs and considering their ideas silly. When even I think the Fed is destroying the currency, it is pretty obvious that is what is going on.
Wow…you have been wrong for 20 years? That must be painful.
If my 1999 self could have bought 10 ounces at $385.00 (4/94)…ahh the dreams today ($1,296/oz)
p.s. this isnt about a 4x increase in investment. It is about a 4 x drop in value of my dollars in a 20 year period.
Laugh all you want at goldbugs.
edit 1999 for 1994
Just because gold is a good investment doesn’t mean the gold standard is a good idea or any kind of economic panacea the gold bugs claim it is.
What the gold bugs don’t get is that everything is effectively a fiat currency. A government can debase a gold based currency just as easily as a paper based one. Indeed, that is exactly what most governments did during World War I and the 1920s.
They also don’t understand that the value of gold is just as arbitrary as the value of paper. More importantly, most currency is just digits today anyway.
The solution to our problem is to get rid of the fed altogether and stop letting the government manipulate the money supply and interest rates. Doing that does not require returning to a gold standard.
What the gold bugs don’t get is that everything is effectively a fiat currency.
No, I think that is exactly the goldbug’s point: that in the world today, everything is a fiat currency, and that no fiat currency has ever survived more than a fairly short time as these things go.
A government can debase a gold based currency just as easily as a paper based one.
You can’t debase gold.
You can debase a “gold-based” currency through a variety of means, the most obvious being reducing the level of gold that back each unit of currency. The advantage that gold-based currencies have over fiat currencies is that the debasement of a gold-based currency is instantly obvious.
And if you’d have put that $3,850 in an index fund like VFINX then you would have done almost twice as well over the last 20 years.
GHAAAA twice i typed a long, and well formed response. twice the sqrlz ate it.
fuck it
AND of course THIS is the response it takes.
I give
You must be an idiot that hates America to spew such intolerant dreck. Obviously you don’t know what our soldiers have done for us, and you’re part of the problem.
I can’t think of any other ad hom cliches off the top of my head, but it’s a good start. Perhaps my words will incite some prog-bots to pile on so I can get some more material for next time I want to sarcastically deride you for making a good point.
Yeah, it may.
HAVE AT IT!
How Right-Wing Loons and Pro-Gun Nuts Blame Everything But Guns for Mass Shootings
Oh no. I’m not dumb enough to click on an alternet link.
It is like saying
How right wing loons and pro gun nuts blame everything but cameras for child porn.
We joke that they are animists who attach actual agency to inanimate objects like guns but they really are. Guns are at fault, just like cameras are at fault for child porn.
I hate that they constantly prove Episiarch right. But they constantly prove Episiarch right – projection and animism, all the way down.
Only a real monster would constantly prove a monster like Episiarch right. And yet, they constantly do exactly that.
Man I remember that an old yearbook showed that my Toronto high School used to have a gun club a few decades ago. Shows how important the Second Amendment is.
Despite 30 years playing in pipe bands from Windsor to Toronto (the last 10 with the Toronto Police, even), I literally never saw a gun in Canada. Not one.
Different country, man!
When I was in London a tour guide talked about how weird he felt whenever he went to Buckingham Palace because he had to see guns.
Ha! They were hidden in the pipes!
When I went to high school, there was rifle range in the basement in an abandoned civil defense tunnel. Once a month on “club day”, all the gun club members would bring their rifles to school for the range session.
This brave officer should have moved to Hawai’i.
“You cannot send a police officer to the big house in Jefferson City with evidence like this,” Regan said. “The evidence is horribly insufficient.”
Implied, seemingly, that sending a non-officer to jail with the same evidence would be perfectly acceptable.
Gender Neutral Basketball
the game pits players against each other by separating the amount of men and women on the court per period.
Say what?
But men don’t have periods…..?
OHHHHHH, they….never…mind…
Coed softball leagues have done that for years. Every team is required to have a minimum number of women to make the sides equal.
And every team carries exactly the minimum number, desperately scrambling about for additional females when PMDD robs them of their catcher.
My coed soccer team used to often play one over the minimum.
Part of that was the rule that a woman had to touch the ball in the offensive third before a man could shoot from that 1/3. He could shoot from behind the line at any time.
We had a female goalie for a while but usually had 2 other women on the field, but sometimes only 1. We also had the thing that always matters in coed sports, a women that can hang with the guys. She had played college soccer.
Just to be clear, indoor soccer.
Only 2 out of 11 would be silly.
I went through pretty much exactly that. My intramural volleyball team came within a couple of points of winning the championship. The reason we didn’t is that one of our two girls (who had played in high school) broke her arm during the semifinals. They let us finish that match shorthanded (we won it playing 2 guys and the remaining girl), but we had to find another girl to not forfeit the final. We realized that we technically had a third girl on the roster though she hadn’t come to a single game all year so we ran and got her and tried to have protect her area during the finals.
The men generally operated at a fairly competent level, so the games often came down to which team had the better women players. Yay.
Softball is the only sport I’ll play coed. Other sports tend to have retarded rules on men in addition to balancing the numbers. The coed division of the indoor soccer league I play at limits men to three touches in a row, which sound awful. There are women who play well in our men’s divisions without any extra bullshit rules, it’s not like the people in our league are athletic superstars.
That is completely stupid. If a woman played at a high level in high school much less college, she will hang with most amateur men and kick the hell out of someone who hasn’t ever played it competitively like me. Women can play coed with men, they just have to play it against men of a lower skill level.
The problem I guess is demand, at our location there are 6 men’s leagues and 2 coed (no women only leagues). So the skill differential is harder to break apart in coed leagues with promotion/relegation. And the men aren’t looking to play at a lower skill level but play with their friends/girlfriends, so teams are inevitably going to have a large range of skill level. It’s true of mens teams as well but at least after a couple of seasons you should be around other teams who meet your skill level as a whole.
The was a flag football team that my wife played in. You had to complete a certain amount of passes to a girl. So you’d end up in a situation where it would be “Fourth and a Woman” to get a first down.
The flag football league I played in required alternating men/women quarterbacks every two downs. Having a good woman qb was essential to winning.
How is that different from coed softball or the coed soccer league I used to play in?
Reading y’all’s comments….just wait a minute.
If I am playing on a co-ed team it isn’t because I am a competition driven freak who has to win. It is a social activity for me. If I get to play around and socialize with women then that is a reward in itself. I couldn’t give half a shit who wins.
Ultimate frisbee actually works pretty well as a co-ed sport. Each team has 7 players on the field, 4 guys and 3 women generally.
The ratio can be changed. Usually it’s “offense calls” so it becomes part of the strategy if you think your team’s women are better than the other team’s.
Eric Holder Would Be ‘Glad To Work With Congress’ To Reschedule Marijuana
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration would be willing to work with Congress if lawmakers want to take marijuana off the list of what the federal government considers the most dangerous drugs, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday.
“We’d be more than glad to work with Congress if there is a desire to look at and reexamine how the drug is scheduled, as I said there is a great degree of expertise that exists in Congress,” Holder said during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. “It is something that ultimately Congress would have to change, and I think that our administration would be glad to work with Congress if such a proposal were made.”
HuffPo
Even for Holder, that language is incredibly weasel-y.
Again. He doesn’t need Congress for this. Obama has the ability to instruct the DOJ not to enforce federal marijuana law. He hasn’t hesitated to do that for other stuff, yet this, he needs Congress for. Wonder why.
That is damn white of him considering that Congress could repeal the whole law if it wanted to and had enough votes to override the Chocolate Nixon’s veto.
But pointing out that Congress has that power, doesn’t alleviate the Chocolate Nixon’s responsibility for not suing his power, which last I looked included taking marijuana off the schedule 1 list.
“I would be happy to let Congress do my job for me because political considerations matter more to me than liberty or justice.”
Cop sets up part-time multimedia business. May have been unwise in the “talent” he pursued.
Milwaukee officer charged with misconduct.
FTA: After taking Lafrenier into the booking room, he shoved him headfirst into the wall.
They have a funny way of spelling “assault and battery” in Milwaukee.
The reason why jail is such a terrifying prospect is not the other inmates. It is being at the complete mercy of the cops that makes it so scary. Basically, if you are in jail, the guards and or cops can murder you and not have to worry about paying a price for it. Sure, they don’t do it that often. But they have that power and know it and do a lot of other horrible things short of murder.
Our jails are a national disgrace.
We have an interesting cop situation in Milwaukee. Our county sheriff is a vocal conservative African American who is in favor of people owning firearms for self-protection. As you might expect, the resident progressives hate him.
Apparently Detroit’s PD chief is telling people to use their 2A for self-defense.
“Conservative African American?” Oh, I get it, a white guy from South Africa, right?
Luddites rejoice! Toyota is giving jobs back to humans
We must destroy the robots before they destroy us!
Speaking of guns that want to go outside and make holes in thing… mine are clamoring for exercise.
ps- safes are for money, not guns, right? Unless they’re extremely rare and valuable, I suppose.
You would be amazed at the looks I get when people find out I keep a loaded rifle in my bedroom. Some of them have actually asked “how do you sleep with that thing like that?”. No shit. To them I might as well have said I sleep next to my pet cobra or something.
I have yet to figure out what and how exactly they think the weapon is going to harm me.
I’ll be.honest, I think.if.you’re a gun.owner and you don’t take precautions to.keep.them safe.from.theft, you’re quite.irresponsible. Mine are well secured unless.on.my person or.at night, and close.to.hand. I really hate the.idea that someone could steal one of my guns.and then hurt.someone.else.
I don’t think there should.be.mandqtory safe.storage laws, but securing your weapons.is the right.thing.to.do, for.yourself, and.for the.overall gun-owning community.
I see what you are saying, but unless you are known to have a lot of guns, what are the chances of you being robbed and the guns stolen? More importantly, even if they are, that doesn’t mean they will be used in a crime or if they are the criminal wouldn’t just have used a different gun had yours not been available.
Mine are well secured unless.on.my person or.at night, and close.to.hand.
So, every night, you go to the gun safe, twiddle the combination, and take out your home defense gun, and every morning, you put it back?
Chuckie Mantits, that explanation needs a little work…
“The Koch brothers aren’t just sitting there innocently on the side,” Schumer said. “They’re spending $40, $50 million in ads that are not focused on their real agenda, which is just eliminating all regulation on corporations, cutting taxes to virtually nothing. And so that demands a response. So I don’t feel sorry for them.”
So basically Schummer thinks that you can have all of the free speech you want just as long as you only express ideas he finds acceptable. If you don’t do that, he is just fine with anything that happens to you.
These people are fascists.
I don’t drink Pepsi. They spend millions. I don’t use Colgate. Millions. And so on. Billions.
spending $40, $50 million in ads
I’m pretty sure that’s a lie. Source?
that are not focused on their real agenda,
This confuses me. Why would they spend money on something that is not their real agenda? If Schumer opposes their real agenda, why does he care if they spend money on something else?
Some of mine need to get out of the safe – AND – a trigger lock. Clever bastards, those ones.
Hey Tundra,
Bought a 4-pack of Surly Blackr (sp?) at the Robbinsdale liquor store across from Bill’s Gun Range. $18.99. Didn’t like it. Too damn sweet.