A.M. Links: Barack Obama Proposed 442 Tax Increases, Harry Reid Says Ranch Showdown Can't Be Over, Rick Perry May Face Criminal Charges

Ed Krayewski | 4.15.2014 9:00 AM

(grumpyelder.com)

veooz.com

Since taking office as president, Barack Obama has proposed 442 new tax increases, according to Americans for Tax Reform.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the showdown at the Bundy ranch in Nevada is "not over" because "we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."
A grand jury was empanelled in Travis County, Texas, to consider criminal charges against Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) over the withholding of funds from the Travis County District Attorney's office.
Ukraine's president announced military forces would begin an anti-terrorism operation in eastern Ukraine aimed at the pro-Russian insurgency there.
Masked gunmen in Libya kidnapped the Jordanian ambassador.
The drone company Titan Aerospace was acquired by Google. Facebook previously expressed interest in the company, which manufactures solar-powered drones.

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NEXT: Bundy Ranch Showdown Not Over If Harry Reid Has Anything to Say About It

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Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

Since taking office as president, Barack Obama has proposed 442 new tax increases, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

Does that count as 442 broken campaign promises or just one?
1. Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago
  
  Hello.
  
  Reid is pure evil incarnate.
  
  Imagine that. Threatening the American people. Mind you, he called them liars. So. For a dweeb like him it's easy pickings.
  1. Hollywood 11 years ago
    
    Good Morning!
    
    Sorry you won't be able to come visit us, Rufus:
    
    Canadians' mental-health info routinely shared with FBI, U.S. customs
    1. Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago
      
      /snaps finger.
2. Bee Tagger 11 years ago
  
  It was done to show how divisive the Republicans are. Baiting them into supporting something they're party supposedly does not support just to make Obama look bad.
3. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  If you like your money, you can keep it! PERIOD.
4. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
  
  Duh. 0. Because something something Bush something free healthcare.
5. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  The Illinois playbook is to find revenue enhancement through new fees. so, not taxes. See the difference? Me neither.
  1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
    
    They dropped that pretense with the "temporary - now lets make it permanent and increase it more" income tax rise.
  2. creech 11 years ago
    
    Yes, there is a difference. Fees are not the same as taxes.
    Fees eliminate so-called free riding.
    Taxes are paid whether you ride or not.
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      Yes, there is a difference. Fees are not the same as taxes.
      In the dictionary perhaps. Not in reality.
      
      If they were the same gasoline taxes would really be fees. The Universal Service Fee on my mobile phone, whether I use it or not, that's really a tax in spite of what it says on my bill.
      
      I guess income taxes are really fees since it prevents freeloaders from keeping the money they earned while those that earn nothing get to keep everything they earned and then some.
      1. gaijin 11 years ago
        
        ugh...
        If they weren't the same
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the showdown at the Bundy ranch in Nevada is "not over" because "we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."

Unless they work on Capitol Hill.
1. Rich 11 years ago
  
  This.
  
  And, despite being fully aware of the irony, these clowns are certain such utterances will never come back to haunt them.
  1. Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago
    
    I don't think they are aware of the irony. They got where they are because of their ability to know people in the right places, that somehow absolves them to be "average" Americans and follow the law: what of it? Either you know the right people or you don't.
    1. Rich 11 years ago
      
      You have a good point, Elspeth. However, I think *most* congresscreatures have *some* awareness of, um, Constitutional controversies. They probably just stick their fingers in their ears a lot and "hope" they're doing nothing wrong.
2. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  Laws are for little people.
  1. gaijin 11 years ago
    
    Robert Reich agrees!
3. Red Rocks Rockin 11 years ago
  
  "we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."
  
  How many bank execs were prosecuted for fraud after the housing bubble popped, again? Oh, that's right, you gave them a bailout.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

KFC debuts chicken drumstick corsage

For just $20, buyers will receive a corsage kit from a Louisville, Ky. florist, which includes a $5 KFC gift card that can be used for a drumstick of one's choice?Extra Crispy, Kentucky Grilled Chicken or Original Recipe. (The site advises whichever best matches the dress. We suggest whatever's least greasy.)

Act fast, though, because only 100 corsages are available.
1. Rich 11 years ago
  
  RACIST!
  1. lap83 11 years ago
    
    who doesn't like chicken and watermelon?
2. lap83 11 years ago
  
  Pretty cool, but I'd rather have bacon roses. Less likely to get on your clothes. http://www.carsbikesbacon.com/img/15208.o.jpg
Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago

New Book: Mike Nifong was a misunderstood crusader for justice.

(Review in Commentary Magazine)

http://bit.ly/1ilzxXo
1. wareagle 11 years ago
  
  Mike Nifong was a dumbass who got exactly what he deserved. If only a fraction of the same would happen to the Duke faculty that convicted the lacrosse team before charges were filed AND the school's president.
  1. BardMetal 11 years ago
    
    Exactly what he deserved? Does that mean he's in prison getting ass raped? He was more then willing to sentence 3 innocent boys to that fate.
2. RBS 11 years ago
  
  As the case progressed, Cohan reports, Nifong gave up "reading the newspapers?except for the New York Times."
  1. Rich 11 years ago
    
    LOL
    1. DJF 11 years ago
      
      It was mutual, the NYT gave up any reporting that did not involve press releases from Nifong's office.
  2. Snark Plissken 11 years ago
    
    Thomas Friedman op-eds were all that kept him going during those dark times.
3. Raven Nation 11 years ago
  
  I remember just after the verdict that some commentator on TV opined something along the lines of, "I just think, with all the accusations and buzz about this case, that something probably happened, despite the verdict."
  
  Idiots.
  1. Ted S. 11 years ago
    
    Jurisprudence based on feelings. Evil, evil, evil.
  2. wareagle 11 years ago
    
    well, something DID happen. A black woman made a false accusation against an easily dislikable group - affluent white boys playing a preppy sport at a snobby university.
    
    Durham has a significant black population, an uneasy relationship with Duke, and a faculty full of liberals ready to believe the worst re: groups they don't like.
    1. BardMetal 11 years ago
      
      By the way how come that whore who made the false accusation isn't in prison?
      1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
        
        She is....for killing her boyfriend, however, not for the lies.
      2. mnarayan 11 years ago
        
        I believe she is. For subsequently murdering someone.
        
        Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
        
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....conviction
4. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  New Book: Mike Nifong was a misunderstood crusader for justice.
  
  So, this means Nifong is planning on running for some office somewhere isn't he?
5. Mike M. 11 years ago
  
  The lefties are still obsessing over the Duke lacrosse players?
  
  Every time I think they can't get any more psychotic, they manage to sink even lower.
6. DEG 11 years ago
  
  The Economist claims the author was even handed. William Anderson had a piece on Lew Rockwell was not as nice.
Bee Tagger 11 years ago

"we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."

Poor meter and rhyming structure.
1. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  Exactly...and when the feds shoot Bundy dead in his home, will Reid be saying that the American People got what they deserved?
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Survey shows ObamaCare sending premiums rising at fastest clip in decades

"But at 12 percent, 11 percent increase on average across all the states -- that puts it at the upper end of any increase we've seen for decades."

That is the national average in a survey done by Morgan Stanley. But in some states, it found rates are soaring.

"There are specific states with exorbitant increases," Gottlieb said. "Delaware had 100 percent increase, Florida had a 37 percent increase, Pennsylvania 28 percent increase, California had a 53 percent increase in their premiums."

Rates vary widely, often depending on the state and how highly regulated it was to begin with. Analysts, however, say the main reasons for the higher costs are not medical inflation, but rather the requirements of ObamaCare itself.
1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
  
  More like an 8 percent increase...
  1. Rich 11 years ago
    
    "I'm not talking about hate. I'm talking about EIGHT!"
2. wareagle 11 years ago
  
  bigger question is, will outlets not named Fox have this story?
  1. gaijin 11 years ago
    
    bigger question is, will outlets not named Fox have this story?
    
    If they do it will go something like this:
    
    "Imagine what the increases could have been without Obamacare"
    1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
      
      Ah, you have pre-read our troll's talking points then!
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

A grand jury was empanelled in Travis County, Texas, to consider criminal charges against Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) over the withholding of funds from the Travis County District Attorney's office.

The Democrats should have tried to have the House GOP arrested over the Great Shutdown.
1. Drake 11 years ago
  
  No Spending = Criminal
  
  I like it.
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  If tthe governor had the same pardon powers as the president does, I'd start issuing blanket pardons for anybody tried in Travis County.
3. prolefeed 11 years ago
  
  I'm pretty sure these charges are unconstitutional -- you can't charge a politician with a crime for the political policies they implement. Impeachment proceedings, sure.
  
  Thank you, goddamn People's Republic of Austin politicians.
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    And yet the same office jury shopped until they found someone to indict Tom DeLay. Who probably was a criminal, but what they indicted him for was bullshit.
Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago

Scandal of the century!

Monk apologizes for shoplifting jerky

A Buddhist monk in Nantou County apologized for disregarding the Buddhist tradition of strict adherence to vegetarianism when he was reportedly caught shoplifting packets of beef jerky at a convenience store last week.

After his arrest on shoplifting charges, the 60-year-old reportedly said: "It was the covetous desire inside me, I am very sorry, I have let Lord Buddha down."

"I don't know why, but lately I had this craving for meat," he reportedly said when questioned by police.
1. SugarFree 11 years ago
  
  I'm calling it: That monk is totes preggers.
2. Rich 11 years ago
  
  It's OK. You'll soon be reincarnated as an animal.
3. EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago
  
  ...I have let Lord Buddha down.
  
  Actually, Buddha would tell you if you want to eat meat, eat meat. Don't focus on the act of eating meat. Instead, meditate on your desire to eat meat. So, don't sweat it Monk Boy!
  1. Citizen Nothing 11 years ago
    
    There is one true Buddha and his name is Aqua.
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      part of the Hunger Force?
4. BardMetal 11 years ago
  
  Wait a second Buddhism doesn't allow you to eat meat? How on Earth were they able to become a major religion?
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    He is a monk. I don't think vegetarianism is a universal thing among Buddhists.
    
    And you can be perfectly healthy and vigorous as a vegetarian. It just takes more effort and planning.
  2. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    It also forbids intoxicants to those who wish to achieve enlightenment.
  3. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    It also forbids intoxicants to those who wish to achieve enlightenment.
    1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
      
      You double-posted, but you're probably too high to notice
      1. Brett L 11 years ago
        
        I get high on my own smell!
Injun, as in from India 11 years ago

Since taking office as president, Barack Obama has proposed 442 new tax increases, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

How does that compare against the former president from the so-called party of small government?
1. Drake 11 years ago
  
  Did W. ever propose tax increases? He may have signed some into law while not paying attention, but I can't recall him floating them as proposals.
  
  Now HW - that fucker was looking to undo Reagan's tax policies from day 1.
  1. Citizen Nothing 11 years ago
    
    So we're into H.W's seventh term?
  2. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
    
    Does Medicare Part D count? Does the Iraq war count?
    1. Zeb 11 years ago
      
      Even if you don't propose new taxes yourself, lots of deficit spending is pretty well equivalent. We'll pay eventually, one way or another.
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

Masked gunmen in Libya kidnapped the Jordanian ambassador.

These YouTube video protests have gotten out of control.
1. Hollywood 11 years ago
  
  WD,ATP,D.I.M?
invisible furry hand 11 years ago

So there's a family here in Sydney which hoard garbage. The flies, the rats, the stench... anyway, the local council has spent nearly $400 grand on clean-ups (another one is underway).

Thoughts on the whole private property / public nuisance / public money issue?
1. wareagle 11 years ago
  
  seems the flies and rats would be clear infringements on the rights of neighbors to enjoy their property.
2. Restoras 11 years ago
  
  Flies, rats, stench - violations of the NAP?
3. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Nothing that a fire couldn't resolve
4. Rich 11 years ago
  
  "$400 grand"?!
  
  Sheesh, the government could encapsulate the entire property for less than that.
  
  Even with an airlock.
5. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  If they're not keeping the rats and flies on their side of the property line, then yeah, NAP violation. I wouldn't go straight to Scruffy's fire, but it could probably be justified.
6. Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago
  
  A family which hoard. You people with your extra u's and using collective nouns as plurals and having a queen.
  
  Anyway, obviously that's an egregious encroachment on neighboring properties. Everyone should do what I do and not have any neighbors. It's the best way.
  1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
    
    Did you make a pyramid of their skulls, to discourage others from moving near you, or just stick with the tried and true heads-on-pike method?
    1. Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago
      
      A gate and several acres of my own (well, the bank's for another decade) and hundreds of acres more of surrounding lands held up in an estate dispute. That's the key.
      
      Of course, I may or may not have a coal mine entrance for a neighbor in the future.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Penguin Dance, Goofy Wedding Staple, Sweeps Saudi Arabia
Hopping Dance Is a Thrill in Kingdom Where Many Diversions Are Banned

"I know what you're doing in there!" she cried, in an episode Mr. Qahtani recounted two weeks later. "Cut it out!"

Mr. Qahtani's mother had warned him about the penguin dance, a perky conga-line of bounces and kicks that landed in Saudi Arabia from out of nowhere late last year. It has been sweeping this most traditional, un-bouncy penguin of kingdoms ever since.

In a land where a strict interpretation of Islamic law means movie theaters and many other diversions are banned, nightclubs are unthinkable and the weight of tribal custom is heavy, Saudis in large numbers are discovering the thrill of a little sidekick-sidekick bunny-hop.
1. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  Just wait until some Mullah passes a Fatwa and kills the fun.
  1. DJF 11 years ago
    
    Literally.
    1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
      
      Beat me to it, curse you!
2. mr simple 11 years ago
  
  They need to find a place just over the county line to hold the dance.
3. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Not the funky chicken, or the YMCA dance? What kind of monsters are they?
4. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  Damn you, Baked Penguin! Look what you started!
  1. Ted S. 11 years ago
    
    IFH is just pissed that the rest of us got to the good jokes before she did.
5. Zeb 11 years ago
  
  this most traditional, un-bouncy penguin of kingdoms
  
  Probably not a band name, but that is definitely something.
  1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
    
    Unbouncy Penguin, supported by Goofy Wedding Staple and Mr. Qahtani's mother
6. JW 11 years ago
  
  the thrill of a little sidekick-sidekick bunny-hop.
  
  For once, I actually support Islamic law.
EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago

Morning all from the Best Coast! Love the photo for this A.M. links.
Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago

Tea Party challenger to John Boehner runs "electile dysfunction" ad

""Your electile dysfunction? It could be a question of blood flow. Sometimes when a politician has been in D.C. too long, it goes to his head and he just can't seem to get the job done," the voiceover says as footage of Boehner shaking hands with President Barack Obama plays. "If you have a Boehner lasting more than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention.""

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/.....z2yxZ6cpzd

http://www.politico.com/story/.....05697.html
1. Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
  
  (both links are for same article - sorry)
2. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Can't find the article this morning, but last night, Drudge had one up that claimed that Boehner and McConnell were going to "face serious challenges to their leadership positions". One can only hope that will include people like Amash and Cruz getting up and saying, "you fucking losers have led us to the point where the average citizen thinks us no different from people like Barack Obama and Harry Reid. If you had any honor at all, you'd fall on a sword or at least have an underling do you in."
  1. Ted S. 11 years ago
    
    I thought the average citizen believed all Republicans were racist gay-bashers who wanted women to have no health care at all.
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      I certainly hope the average citizen is smarter than a reporter.
      1. gaijin 11 years ago
        
        I certainly hope the average citizen is smarter than a reporter.
        
        Well, reporters do know how to read....just sayin'
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        Sounding out the words is not the same as comprehending the meaning of the writing.
        
        gaijin 11 years ago
        
        True. In fact, there was a story yesterday about a guy on Jeopardy who lost 1 million dollars and a car. The entire puzzle was spelled out and all he had to do was pronounce it. He pronounced Achilles as 'atch-uh-lease'.
mr simple 11 years ago

Since taking office as president, Barack Obama has proposed 442 new tax increases, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

Right, but not one is an income tax increase on the poor or middle class, so it's ok.*

*guaranty is not guaranteed.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

"we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."

OBEY
Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago

ERMAGHERD CULTURAL APPROPRIASHUN!!!!!

The American presence in Japan now extends far beyond the fast-food franchises, chain stores and pop-culture offerings that are ubiquitous the world over. A long-standing obsession with things American has led not just to a bigger and better market for blockbuster movies or Budweiser, but also to some very rarefied versions of America to be found in today's Japan. It has also made the exchange of Americana a two-way street: Earlier this year, Osaka-based Suntory, a Japanese conglomerate best known for its whiskey holdings, announced that it was buying Beam Inc., thus acquiring the iconic American bourbon brands Jim Beam and Maker's Mark.

In Japan, the ability to perfectly imitate?and even improve upon?the cocktails, cuisine and couture of foreign cultures isn't limited to American products; there are spectacular French chefs and masterful Neapolitan pizzaioli who are actually Japanese. There's something about the perspective of the Japanese that allows them to home in on the essential elements of foreign cultures and then perfectly recreate them at home. "What we see in Japan, in a wide range of pursuits, is a focus on mastery," says Sarah Kovner, who teaches Japanese history at the University of Florida.
1. Ed 11 years ago
  
  http://www.vice.com/read/b-sty.....erg-photos
2. mr simple 11 years ago
  
  Seems about right. All of the teppanyaki chefs here are Mexican. Heck most line cooks at any restaurant are not actually of the country of origin of the cuisine. I don't think there's a genetic component to being able to cook certain foods.
  1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
    
    Spoken like a true cracker cultural imperialist
    1. Zeb 11 years ago
      
      I thought the Japanese were the cultural imperialists in this case.
      1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
        
        No. PoC cannot engage in cultural imperialism.
        
        Zeb 11 years ago
        
        That is what is really insane about all this. I can see being concerned for small groups with interesting cultures that are in danger of being overrun by more dominant cultures. I think it's silly to try to preserve that sort of thing at the expense of development and modernization. But I think that at least recording and preserving those traditions is valuable.
        
        But it is not as if Europeans are the only culturally dominating, colonialist civilizations out there. The Japanese, Chinese, Islam and various Indian empires, just to name a few, all have been at least as "culturally imperialist" as Americans are now. And pretty much any culture that exists today is the result of the mixing (sometimes by force) of different cultures over the years. But now the world has to be a museum for some reason.
        
        Tejicano 11 years ago
        
        Some of the most developed cultures in the pre-columbian Americas, in terms of written language, mathmatics, societal organization were the Toltec, Aztec, and Mayan. These also revolved around cultures/religions which were so purposely cruel that it boggles the imagination. (Priests skilled enough to skin a man alive fast enough to don that skin and dance so that the victim would see "himself" dancing before expiring) There were some cultures which might not have had enough value to have been saved.
        
        Zeb 11 years ago
        
        Yeah, that too. Some cultures (or aspects of them at least) are not something that should be preserved. Imperial Japan probably falls into that category as well.
  2. Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
    
    Sakai was my favorite.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Chinese Thunder God Herb Works as Well as Pain Therapy

A centuries-old Chinese medical herb known as "thunder god vine" eased the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis as effectively as the commonly prescribed methotrexate, a study showed.

In a trial of 207 patients in China, those who took extracts of the herb showed slightly more improvement than those on methotrexate alone; combining the two boosted efficacy significantly over methotrexate alone. The study appears in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases published by BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal.
1. Drake 11 years ago
  
  Do I want to know the side effects of "Thunder God"?
  1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
    
    You get to wield Mjolnir and strike fear into mortal men's hearts?
    1. Rasilio 11 years ago
      
      Lady, I wield Mjolnir every time I go to the bathroom
      1. Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
        
        +1 Hemsworth
  2. Atanarjuat 11 years ago
    
    May cause a predilection for blond women and very large hammers. Consult your physician.
  3. Rich 11 years ago
    
    Does it live up to its name?
2. WTF 11 years ago
  
  The Chinese Thunder God is called Herb?
  
  Thor sounds a lot more badass.
Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago

Bernie Sanders has a sad because ambition.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers

"For the Koch brothers, $80 billion in wealth, apparently, is not good enough. Owning the second largest private company in America is, apparently, not good enough. It doesn't appear that they will be satisfied until they are able to control the entire political process."

How much is ENOUGH!

/pounds table with hammer. Cuts neighbor with sickle.
1. Atanarjuat 11 years ago
  
  The Koch brothers should take a lesson in humility from the socialists, who merely want a hand in every economic transaction that humankind undergoes from here through eternity.
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Good question. How much is enough?
3. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
  
  Sanders has no desire to control more of the political process?
4. John 11 years ago
  
  Maybe he should ask Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi that question.
5. 110 Lean 11 years ago
  
  So who owns the first largest private company in America?
  1. mr simple 11 years ago
    
    The Cargill family?
  2. Raston Bot 11 years ago
    
    Some hick tractor family.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Robert J. Samuelson: The idleness trap

We don't know because, since World War II, long-term unemployment has not been as big a problem in the United States as it has been in Europe. In Germany, France and Italy, the share of the unemployed who have been jobless for more than six months routinely exceeds 50 percent. By contrast, that share in the United States hit a then post-World War II peak of 26 percent in June 1983 and fell one month later. Now that's changed. In December 2009, this share passed 40 percent and peaked at 45 percent in September 2011. It remained above 40 percent until October 2012 and is now 35.8 percent.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  Hard work is in no small part a culture. If your culture loses it, it is very hard to get back. Some cultures really don't value work. Go to Yemen sometime (I wouldn't advise it). I have never been, but I am told by people who have that the culture totally revolves around getting stoned on Kaat. Everyone works until around 2 and then takes off to hang out and chew the stuff.
  
  That sounds nice and all, except that you end up pretty damned poor. You are only as rich as the total amount of goods and service you produce. The more people you have idle, the poorer you will be. Math is a harsh mistress like that.
  1. prolefeed 11 years ago
    
    I would say, more precisely, that it is a matter of individual upbringing (which you can call "culture", though that doesn't quite capture it) about whether your kids value two things:
    
    1) getting an education so they can have the tools to succeed
    
    2) implementing those tools by teaching them to be professionals who value doing any job, however menial, well, because trading value for value is how you build wealth.
    
    I don't think those things are as fragile and easy to lose as you posit. For example, Mormons are famous for taking what were the dregs of society and turning them into productive and happy people because they emphasize those two things above, and promise those former dregs that they will get to the best heaven if they conform. Which, IMO, is a lie, or rather the heaven part is, but by following the big lie they wind up achieving a lesser truth -- that specific practical methods can turn around most any life.
    
    The Muslim Mideast is the mess it is in part because Islam's running roughshod over other religions and promoting groupthink prevents alternatives that work for some people from lifting many of the dregs of that society out of the life they are mired in.
    
    Big cities tend to be vibrant economically despite the rampant statism because of that cross-pollination of ideas/culture.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      I don't think they are fragile. I think it is as you say hard to lose. That is because society is really hard to change. The upside is that it is going to take a lot for these idiots to fuck it up. The downside is that once they do it is going to take just as much to fix it.
      
      Also, all people in all societies respond to incentives. People don't work hard in a lot of countries because the governments are so corrupt there is no point. Why work hard and try to earn something when some government official can show up one day and take it all?
      
      I pick on Yemen but individual Yemenis who come to the US or Europe often work really hard and do very well. Amazing what having some measure of a rule of law and opportunity does to people's work ethic.
      
      In this country, our inner cities are often like Yemen. You have a corrupt government that make it impossible to start a business or get a job. You have horrible schools that don't provide their students with any marketable skills. If you grew up in a place like that, could anyone blame you if you said fuck it, went on welfare, and hung out and drunk 40s all day? I mean what is the alternative?
      1. prolefeed 11 years ago
        
        The inner cities, though, aren't entirely mired because of "culture", unless you are using an expansive meaning of that word to include political "culture".
        
        Get rid of the oppressive government, get rid of the handouts to buy votes, and cities like Detroit would turn around all on their own because the citizens would get the right incentives -- work hard, whether it is dealing suddenly legalized drugs or something else, and you can keep what you earn -- lay around, and you'll go hungry and watch your more entrepreneurial neighbors get all the money and pussy.
        
        Blaming "culture" on the government locking up entrepreneurial kids dealing drugs in cages instead of letting them succeed, and using minimum wage laws to prevent them from seizing other opportunities, and confiscating their earnings if they work and paying them to not work, sending the wrong market signals -- that's blaming the victims, even if the victims were foolish enough to vote in the bastards who fucked up their lives.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        We are both saying the same thing really. The government, by creating perverse incentives, creates the "culture" or whatever you want to call it.
        
        Yes, get rid of the horrible government in Detroit and give the people living there an alternative way to be and they will be that.
      2. WTF 11 years ago
        
        That is because society is really hard to change.
        
        The left has spent the better part of a century conducting their long march through the institutions to achieve their desired change. So far they have been pretty successful.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        They have. That doesn't make their achievement any less remarkable. Evil but also remarkable. It took them a hundred years of fanatical dedication but they have damn near succeeded where many lesser evil fanatics would have failed.
        
        Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
        
        Have you seen the new Captain America? I was stunned Hollywood let that script out into the public.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        No. I hear it is good though. I never watch comic based movies. I am told I should make an exception for this.
2. prolefeed 11 years ago
  
  Companies are understandably reluctant to shoulder the costs in an economy that collapsed in 2008 and hasn't yet regained its zest. Why take the chance?
  
  Sixty percent of the long-term jobless are 35 or older; 36 percent held professional, technical, managerial and administrative jobs (the rest were scattered in sales, service and blue-collar occupations). The public policy question is, "What can we do about the long-term unemployed?" And the candid answer is, "We don't know." "Implementing rational economic policies would interfere with the statists running the federal government from growing an ever-expansive state that satifies their lust for power and for keeping the proles submissive and obedient to their whims."
  
  "Candid" doesn't mean what that author thinks it means.
prolefeed 11 years ago

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the showdown at the Bundy ranch in Nevada is "not over" because "we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."

Can't have those fucking proles just asserting their rights and being all uppity, even if that means a few snipers gotta teach the rest of the slaves citizens not to mess with their betters in Congress.

Breaking the law and getting away with it is for the ruling class * cough how Obamacare got deemed as passed cough *.
Warty 11 years ago

This is a really weird piece. The GOP is evil, sure, but the real problem with it is that Rand Paul and Ted Cruz aren't professional enough to handle dis Glock 40.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  You SFed the link.
2. Warty 11 years ago
  
  GODDAMMIT. Working link
  
  Little wonder then that its presidential candidates range from the callow to the comedic. (I exempt Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush from this group.) Rand Paul is in the former category ? a gaggle of ideas untethered to practicality or practical experience. He remains a voice in the wilderness. He should stay there.
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    It is always heads I win tails you lose. George W. Bush could actually fly a plane. When he did that, he was a stupid fighter jock who didn't take his job seriously. Had he not done that, it would have been "he doesn't have any professional skill and understanding."
    
    If Cruz and Paul were real target shooting and quick draw fanatics, Cowen would be telling us how they are stupid cowboys who can't understand the bigger issues.
  2. Rich 11 years ago
    
    What did I just read?
  3. wareagle 11 years ago
    
    a gaggle of ideas untethered to practicality or practical experience
    
    hmmmm; is there anyone else to whom this could apply? Anyone at all.
  4. WTF 11 years ago
    
    Not to put too fine a point on it, but what has Rand Paul ever done? Oh, sure, he's a member of the U.S. Senate, but only a freshman, and it's the only political office he has held.
    
    Oh, that's rich, coming from someone who certainly voted for Obama.
    1. MJGreen 11 years ago
      
      He actually had a job in the private sector for, what, 10+ years? And a job that wasn't intimately connected with government.
      
      How many members of the Senate can say the same?
  5. BiMonSciFiCon 11 years ago
    
    Why are op-ed writers for the NYT and WaPo so terrible? There wasn't a single coherent idea in that article.
    
    Seriously, read it paragraph by paragraph. It's incoherent.
    
    1. Why is Rand Paul running?
    
    2. Rand Paul is leading a bunch of polls (this might provide an answer to his question in #1).
    
    3. Something about the Freedom Summit. Not sure what he's trying to say here.
    
    4. Rand Paul is a meaning for opposing things. Which doesn't count. Only proposing new legislation and "doing stuff" counts.
    
    5. The old Republican candidates were better and more qualified (funny, I doubt he was writing this at the time).
    
    6. Finally a paragraph that maybe has a point (not that it's a good one)
    
    7. Paul has bizarre positions (which are? Funny how he omits these).
    
    8. Something about Broadway. Seriously.
    
    9. More nonsense. Then he throws in a line about the GOP being anti-immigration. No mention of Paul's own stance here. Not surprising.
    
    10. An attempt at a pithy closing. Unsuccessful.
    1. BiMonSciFiCon 11 years ago
      
      "meaning" should be "meanie" in #4
3. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Right. We need real professionals like the Clintons!
4. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  I saw that this morning. Rand Paul must make Cohen nervous. Wouldn't want the Democrats to have to compete on actual principles or debate someone who would clean their clocks.
5. prolefeed 11 years ago
  
  From the piece (the non-SF'd link):
  
  "If you compare Paul to Republican presidential nominees of yesteryear, you can get an idea of just how far the GOP has sunk. Mitt Romney was the governor of Massachusetts and a very successful businessman. John McCainis a long-serving senator and war hero. George W. Bush was twice elected governor of Texas;Bob Dole had been Senate majority leader;George H.W. Bush had been just about everything; and Ronald Reagan was governor of California for two terms."
  
  Yes, because nominating someone for office who has succeeded in private practice for decades delivering value to people who voluntarily paid them for making their lives better is, in Cohen's eyes, "sinking" compared to nominating statist fucks like McCain who spent decades in government being a parasitic leech who took our money and in exchange used it to take away our freedoms (McCain-Feingold -- nuff said).
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    So how far did the Democrats sink to nominate the inexperienced and untested Obama?
  2. WTF 11 years ago
    
    Wait, now Romney is an example of what a politician should be? I thought he was a dangerous extremist who ran evul kkkorporashuns!
    1. prolefeed 11 years ago
      
      Well, he's an example of what a Republican candidate should be to a leftist -- someone who fucking LOST.
Brett L 11 years ago

Amazon's data mining guide to how to start dealing drugs.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Small U.S. Colleges Battle Death Spiral as Enrollment Drops

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has predicted that as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years. The growing acceptance of online learning means higher education is ripe for technological upheaval, he has said.

"I'm not sure a lot of these institutions have the cushion to experiment with how to stay afloat," said Michelle Weise, a senior research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a think tank the Harvard professor helped establish in San Mateo, California.
1. Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
  
  About time.
2. Andrew S. 11 years ago
  
  15 years? My daughter will be 20 then.
  
  Pray that this leads to lower tuitions in 13 years.
3. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Overdue. I'm astounded by the tuition rates for small colleges.
  1. Ted S. 11 years ago
    
    I figured it out over 20 years ago when I was a freshman in college. I and my parents had to fill out a financial aid form, and the college would determine how much the family could afford, with the rest of the tuition/room and board/fees being made up from scholarships/loans etc.
    
    It quickly occurred to me that if the government injected more money into the system in the form of grants/subsidized loans/what have you, I'd still be able to afford paying the same amount, but the college could jack up the tuition and get that extra money from the government.
    
    It also occurred that any scholarships paid directly to the student and not the college ought not be declared, although if memory serves at least those would lower the amount of loans one would have to take out.
    1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
      
      Yeah, I immediately concluded that the financial aid portion of the package should be independent of the scholarships.
John 11 years ago

http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill.....ting/?dcz=

Congress shows little interest in its Praetorian Guard gunning down the proles.
1. Restoras 11 years ago
  
  District 1 thrives and its Agents kill at will while the rest are poor and die if they step out of line.
Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago

God I hope this was on purpose, though I doubt it:

Angela Merkel's historical China map flap

Last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a dinner where they exchanged gifts. Merkel presented to Xi a 1735 map of China made by prolific French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville and printed by a German publishing house.

...

The map showed, according to its original Latin caption, the so-called "China Proper" -- that is, the Chinese heartland mostly populated by ethnic Han people, without Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, or Manchuria. The islands of Taiwan and Hainan -- the latter clearly part of modern China, the former very much disputed -- are shown with a different colour border.
1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  I misread that as "map fap" all got intrigued, disappointed, and then resigned to my fate
  1. gaijin 11 years ago
    
    as "map fap"
    
    A geography fetish, eh?
    1. Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
      
      to IFH all the maps are upside down...kinky
2. Rich 11 years ago
  
  You know who else presented items printed by a German publishing house ....
  1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
    
    Hitler?
  2. Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago
    
    Martin Luther?
  3. EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago
    
    Albrecht Durer?
    1. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
      
      Damn you!
  4. Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
    
    Albrecht Durer?
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      I am impressed that both you and EDG above posted this within moments of each other.
      1. EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago
        
        Yet for some reason, Swiss Servator is always the second post?
        
        Swiss Servator, Versicherung! 11 years ago
        
        I was trying to clean the fondue and 2 franc coins off my desk and was too slow!
3. Tejicano 11 years ago
  
  I would, on some level, be impressed if Merkel understood the Chinese well enough to have done this with the attitude of "Screw your childish pride, grow up already".
  1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
    
    Personally I would classify it as something more pernicious than "childish pride", but I agree.
    1. Root Boy 11 years ago
      
      Diplomatic Trolling in modern speak
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Let HHS nominee Sylvia Burwell explain Obamacare lie

The agency Burwell heads, the Office of Management and Budget, is responsible for the president's budget. But OMB also has another, lesser-known responsibility: fact-checking presidential speeches. Every proposed presidential utterance is scrubbed for accuracy by OMB.

When speechwriters finish a draft presidential address, it is circulated to the White House senior staff and top cabinet officials in what is known as the "staffing process." As part of that process, nonpartisan career policy experts at OMB review the speech and are responsible for attesting to the factual accuracy of everything the president says.

So thanks to Burwell's nomination, Americans may finally get to the bottom of how the biggest presidential lie in recent memory made it though OMB's fact-checking process ? not once but dozens of times.
NebulousFocus 11 years ago

The New Republic explains how great it would be if we raised taxes.
1. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  What a f-ing idiot.
2. Rhywun 11 years ago
  
  "But, just so you know, there's probably less waste than you think."
  
  Whopper of the millenium.
Brett L 11 years ago

GPS -- useless without monitoring.

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Two convicted sex offenders dutifully checked in with police every month and wore their GPS trackers around the clock ? the rules of parole that are designed to tip off authorities if a freed felon backslides.
Yet for at least two months last fall, authorities claim, Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon were raping and killing at least four women ? and probably a fifth ? in the seedy prostitution hangouts of Orange County.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  If someone is an actual deranged lunatic, the only way to protect society is to put them in prison. No amount of "home monitoring" and "registration" is going to stop someone evil enough to want to go kidnap or molest some child.
  
  All those systems do is make life impossible for anyone who isn't a deranged lunatic and actually wants to live a better life.
  
  Maybe if we didn't throw millions of people in jail for drugs, we would have room in our prisons to keep actual dangerous people. Just a thought.
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    It isn't hard to see how making ALL sex offenses equal has led to having to monitor the guy who screwed his fifteen year old girlfriend after he turned eighteen the same as these guys, to the detriment. Dudes who are raping and killing prostitutes (or anyone) are sex offenders who deserve the deepest, darkest hole we can find forever if we aren't going to trust the state with the death penalty.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      It isn't hard for you and me because we understand something called limited resources and diminishing returns. The rest of society seems to have forgotten that. The solution to any problem is always to just throw more laws and money at it as if there is never any downside to doing so and all marginal results are equal.
      1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
        
        There might be downsides, but you just fix those downsides with more money or laws.
      2. Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago
        
        That. Plus no politician will try proposing getting rid of laws that are "tough on crime." b/c that pol will then be seen as being "weak on crime." Imagine that scare-tactic campaign ad. This may change when we have 90 year olds filling prisons b/c of lifer laws. Hopefully.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        It is not just crime it is everything. Any politician who suggests the solution to education is anything except spending more and hiring more teachers is called "anti education".
        
        I am friends on facebook with an old high school teacher of mine. She was a very good teacher and is a good person. She however is a perfect of example of what we are talking about. I pointed out to her one day that since not all teachers are equal and teaching is a tough job, there is a limited number of people who are cut out to be good teachers. For this reason, reducing class size is just another way of saying "restricting access to the best teachers". You could almost smell the smoke coming out of her ears as she tried to comprehend that. She couldn't get mad because I was complimenting her profession and telling her how hard it is to do. Yet, she couldn't grasp how that means maybe endlessly hiring teachers might not be the best idea.
        
        Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago
        
        True.
  2. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    It is really idiotic. If someone is so dangerous that they can't be trusted in society, keep them locked the fuck up. If not, let them do their time and get on with their lives.
2. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  There was a case in Syracuse last year where a guy on GPS monitoring disabled his bracelet and killed a mom and raped her young daughter.
Hollywood 11 years ago

Jonathan Cohn: More Taxes Would Make a Better Society!

But one reason for the rage against them?and the perception that [taxes] are larcenously high?is that the act of paying them is so divorced from the act of receiving the benefits that they finance. You might not like paying a lot for groceries, clothing, a car, or a house. But it feels a lot better because, once you're done with the transaction, you know what you're getting for it.
...
axes do the same thing. That payroll tax taken out of everybody's check? It's buying you Medicare and Social Security, which means a more secure retirement free of crippling medical bills. Your federal income tax? Its effects are a lot more diffuse. But chances are pretty good that you've already used some infrastructure today?whether it was a road or railway you took to work, or maybe the information technology connections you're using to read this article. Federal, state, and local taxes helped pay for that. Is your water and air clean? Are you safe from threats, domestic and foreign? Then you're getting something valuable from the Environment Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Defense. Your tax dollars paid for those, too.
1. Hollywood 11 years ago
  
  cont'd
  
  Why does the U.S. not have the massive underclass that characterizes many third-world countries?or the incipient danger of violent upheaval that accompanies it? The safety net your taxes purchased, tattered as it is, buys a degree of social harmony, too.
  
  ...yes, thank god for those taxes!
  
  Happy Tax Day. Yes, I say that every year. Yes, I still mean it. Yes, I know that not many people feel the same way.
  Nobody likes writing checks to the government. At best, it's something people tolerate. At worst? It's a source of resentment and anger. Either way, it's a political fact of life?one that imposes narrow boundaries on what policymakers in this country can do.
  
  Paging barfman
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    Come on Hollywood. The federal government is skimping by on like four trillion dollars a year. If you want some bare bones do nothing government like the one we have, go live in Somalia. The rest of us want to pay the price of civilization and give the government the funds it needs.
    
    /sarc
    
    These people are like medieval doctors. The solution is always "more leeches".
    1. Hollywood 11 years ago
      
      At least he pointed out all the valuable things I am getting. I'm so grateful!
      
      *signs check to IRS, smiles*
      1. gaijin 11 years ago
        
        Are you safe from threats, domestic and foreign?
        
        So Boston Marathon taxpayers gets a refund on their purchase last year?
    2. OldMexican 11 years ago
      
      Re: John,
      
      These people are like medieval doctors. The solution is always "more leeches".
      
      That was brilliant, John. You should copyright it so I can pirate it without feeling remorse.
      1. JW 11 years ago
        
        Leeches? Piker.
        
        Bloodletting!
  2. OldMexican 11 years ago
    
    Why does the U.S. not have the massive underclass that characterizes many third-world countries?or the incipient danger of violent upheaval that accompanies it?
    
    I'm just going out on a limb and say that it may be because the U.S. has a more productive population than most third-world countries, and not so much because of a safety net.
    
    There are rich people in France that live like most poor here in the US. I've seen working "poor" people living in a 1300 sq.ft. house, with three cars and a boat.
    
    Just sayin'.
2. Warty 11 years ago
  
  I like the carefully chosen list of countries. "See? These countries are civilized and they have lots of taxes. You have to pay more taxes to be civilized!" I wonder if this kittenfucker has ever considered that some of us don't want to be civilized.
  1. Hollywood 11 years ago
    
    Look, you just don't appreciate what you are actually getting. Ok? Understand? Render unto Caesar so he can take care of you and don't cause any fuss.
    
    /Jonathan Cohn
  2. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
    
    Sweden, so civilized it requires transgender people to be sterilized to ensure they can never have biological children; Scandinavia, a place of happy racists... it's that's civilized I'll stay with the low-taxed savages
    1. BardMetal 11 years ago
      
      You know if they're also sterilizing furries then they might have the right idea. Surly those people don't need to be reproducing.
    2. BardMetal 11 years ago
      
      By the way isn't majority of people in Malmo Muslim? If Sweden is the horrible racist country that doesn't allow brown people to move in, then they are certainly doing a very shitastic job.
    3. prolefeed 11 years ago
      
      Kind of funny how he fails to correlate how the economies with relatively lower taxation -- U.S., Japan, South Korea -- have better economies than the ones near the top of the list like France or Greece or Italy.
  3. JW 11 years ago
    
    I wonder if this kittenfucker has ever considered that some of us don't want to be civilized.
    
    :::Pats Warty on head with a fatherly 3 lb sledge. Drags him off to the Camps of Insufficient Gratitude:::
3. Andrew S. 11 years ago
  
  Just once I'd like to see somebody who writes something like this put their money where their mouth is and voluntarily send in extra money.
4. Rasilio 11 years ago
  
  The funny thing he misses is that we get a lot less services for each tax dollar than we used to, even after adjusting for inflation.
  
  The effect is most noticeable at the state and local levels but it is there across the board.
  
  Things like trash collection, water bills, schools all used to be completely funded out of state and/or local taxes today however they are at best partially funded by those taxes and now there are separate fee's for all of them.
  
  The newest, my son starts High School in the fall. Beginning this year they are required to have IPads because all of their text books and a lot of the coursework will be done on them. However, parents are required to buy the IPad (the school offers a payment plan). So what the school is doing is basically shifting a huge portion of their textbook budget from their own general budget to a separate fee paid for by the parents. Basically it is a stealth tax increase
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    Yes. My core government services, roads, trash, police, fire and such are much worse in Maryland than they were in red states like Oklahoma, Texas and Georgia, even though I pay much higher taxes here.
    
    It is always about services with the Progs, right up until it comes to actually providing those services.
5. prolefeed 11 years ago
  
  But one reason for the rage against them?and the perception that [taxes] are larcenously high?is that the act of paying them is so divorced from the act of receiving the benefits that they finance. You might not like paying a lot for groceries, clothing, a car, or a house. But it feels a lot better because, once you're done with the transaction, you know what you're getting for it.
  
  It's almost as if he is incapable of understanding the difference between voluntarily paying for something you have personally chosen, and having money stolen from you and having some of it given back to you in the form of overpriced "services", some of which you would pay money to not have inflicted upon you, like the salaries of people at the DMV or bombing brown people far awy, to try to buy your vote so they can steal from you again.
  
  It's like he lacks -- empathy -- for those who see WTF is actually going on and object to it.
6. Red Rocks Rockin 11 years ago
  
  It's buying you Medicare and Social Security, which means a more secure retirement free of crippling medical bills.
  
  Those "crippling medical bills" weren't even an issue before Medicare and Medicaid were installed--in fact, costs were 50-80% cheaper.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Dog Chosen for Jury Duty?

"I got the mail and I look at it, and I'm like IV Griner, this is my dog's name," he said.

"I'm wondering like, What is this? Something from the county office about her vaccinations or something? Like, why is my dog getting mail?"

The notice, addressed from the Cumberland County Clerk of Courts, was a juror summons for someone with the first name IV and the last name Griner -- the exact name Barrett Griner IV says he legally gave to his dog.

One Bark = Not Guilty. Two Barks? Hung Jury.
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  He couldn't do any worse than many humans.
  
  Hell, he could probably do a better job than the judge or prosecutor.
2. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  Registered voter roles are clean I tell you!
3. Rhywun 11 years ago
  
  "Like, omigod!" His dog probably speaks better English - that's why he's getting summoned.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Spanish village considers changing name from 'Kill Jews'

Families in a Spanish village who have been living with the name Castrillo Matajudios (Kill Jews) since the Spanish Inquisition may finally be changing their town's name back to what it was originally, Castrillo Mota de Judios (Jews Hill).

The 60 resident families will meet at a town hall meeting to discuss the proposed name change next week.

According to Haaretz, area residents often say "killing Jews" when they are referring to "the traditional drinking of lemonade spiked with alcohol at festivals held in city squares at Easter, or drinking in general."
1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
  
  See - Hitler & Co were really talking about lemonade.
  1. EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago
    
    So... when life gives you lemons, start shoveling people into ovens?
2. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  I believe it actually means "Jew Killer" but am happy to be corrected on this.
  
  I don't think they should change it. All anti-semites should be that considerate and give a fair warning
  1. Warty 11 years ago
    
    Correct. Fun fact: El Cid is also known as Matamoros, the Moorkiller.
    1. Restoras 11 years ago
      
      Great flick. Will have to see if it is on Prime.
    2. Hollywood 11 years ago
      
      I thought it was Saint James (Santiago) who had that title?
      1. Warty 11 years ago
        
        You're right. I was conflating the two.
        
        Rodrigo D?az de Vivar (circa 1043?1099) was a Castilian nobleman and military leader in medieval Spain. He was called El Cid (the Lord) by the Moors and El Campeador (the Champion) by Christians.
        
        Saint James the Moor-slayer (Spanish: Santiago Matamoros also known as San Tiago de Matamoros) is famous Spanish mythological figure who helped the Christians defeat the Muslims in battle. According to legend, the Matamoros was Saint James, son of Zebedee, an apostle of Jesus Christ. Spanish legends recount his heroic appearance in the Battle of Clavijo on 23 May 844, in which Christians defeated the Moors (Muslims), to launch the Reconquista ("Reconquest"). Historians agree the battle never happened and that he never appeared; the legends were invented centuries after the supposed event.[1]
        
        invisible furry hand 11 years ago
        
        I was conflating the two.
        
        Is no perversion beyond you?
        
        Warty 11 years ago
        
        Speaking of perversions, there's a new Opeth album coming out. The press from the label makes it clear that it's terrible.
        
        invisible furry hand 11 years ago
        
        The advance warning is much appreciated, but i think i'm all cried out after Heritage. Now i just stare at the old albums emptily, wondering how a band that could produce Ghost Reveries could come to this
        
        Zeb 11 years ago
        
        That's too bad. I saw them on the tour from the last album and it was not exactly what I was expecting. Sort of Opeth Unplugged.
3. Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago
  
  'Considers?'
  
  Gee, I thought that the need to change it would be pretty self-evident, no?
  
  If I were there I'd propose changing it to 'Kill Spics.'
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    Umm. I'm pretty sure the Spanish don't think of themselves as Spics. Spics definitely don't speak Castillan, according to several of my friends who do.
  2. gimmeasammich 11 years ago
    
    If I were there I'd propose changing it to 'Kill Spics.'
    
    This reminds me of the line that Derrick has in Strangers with Candy: "The only thing we hate more than racists...is spics," or something.
4. BardMetal 11 years ago
  
  Well at least it isn't something as horribly racist, and offensive as "Red Skins"
  1. gaijin 11 years ago
    
    Well at least it isn't something as horribly racist, and offensive as "Red Skins"
    
    Peanuts of the world, rise up and throw off these hateful labels!
Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago

Mayor Hau And Taipei City Government blow emergency funds on pro-annexation propaganda

The local government's Department of Information and Tourism squandered taxpayers' "life savings" after it used money from the city's emergency secondary reserve fund, which is earmarked for emergency relief, to release a set of eight LINE stickers featuring panda cub Yuan Zai (??), Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (???) of the Democratic Progressive Party said on Tuesday.

.....

The city government has taken about NT$3.33 million from the reserve fund to promote the pandas, NT$1.6 million of which went toward the sticker pack and NT$1.73 million for a 10-day outdoor art exhibition featuring 1,600 papier-mache giant pandas made by French artist Paulo Grangeon, the sources said.
1. Rhywun 11 years ago
  
  Am I to guess that by "bombastic expansionist power" they are referring to... China?
  1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
    
    Oh, but of course
SugarFree 11 years ago

The Loneliness of The Beta Male Bed

Q. Need More Heat: I have a happy marriage for the most part. I'm a take-charge kind of woman, and my husband normally is happy to let me control most situations unless they are serious issues dealing with our family. Our marriage works on that capacity. The trouble I have is, in the bedroom, I actually want the opposite. I want him to take the lead, be more commanding, and me to be more submissive. He goes along, does what I want, and half the time I have to guide him, goad him, and tell him to tell me what he wants or just simply do it. I'm finding it difficult to have a discussion with him about what turns my crank per se. Our sex life is good, we both walk away satisfied, but I just know it would be so much better (for me) if he went outside his normal personality a bit. How do you suggest I go about telling him, hey, I want you to be more demanding/bossy/alpha/dominant in bed?
1. RBS 11 years ago
  
  Translation: I'm not very good at sex and don't put much effort into it and my husband is the kind of guy who plays to the level of his competition.
2. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  I thought Gwyneth and Chris had already split
  1. lap83 11 years ago
    
    lol
3. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Our sex life is good
  
  Then why are you writing to Prudence?
4. John 11 years ago
  
  Maybe if you didn't browbeat your husband outside of the bedroom, he might be more interested in taking charge in it.
  
  I will stand up for her husband here. The women probably wasn't like this when he married her. After they had kids I bet she got more and more domineering. Now the poor guy is stuck with the choice of putting up with it or leaving and facing poverty due to child support and also sticking his kids with growing up in a broken home. My guess is he just checked out and said fuck it. Now she wants him to be Mr. Take Charge in the bedroom. Well, you get what you wish for. If she wants Mr. Take Charge, maybe she should want that, as in having a husband who does that rather than one that performs like a trained seal pretending to be in the bedroom.
  1. JW 11 years ago
    
    I would even entertain that the situation was exactly like this when they got married.
    
    She's always been **cough** strong and he's always been a cringing, limp mangina, which is exactly how she likes them. But, I see her confusion: How could he possibly be so useless in real life *and* in the bedroom?
5. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
  
  Not that I have any evidence in any direction, but I wonder how she treats him outside the bedroom.
6. Restoras 11 years ago
  
  So, they want equality except when they don't? Do you want a man to be a man or not? If yes then don't emasculate. If not then don't be surprised if your sex life is less than satisfying.
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    Exactly. You can't spent your hole life emasculating him and then expect him to turn into Mr. Viking in bed. People just are not wired like that.
    
    Also notice how she thinks she is entitled to the sex she wants and doesn't have to do anything in return. The thought that "well maybe if I stop bitching and tell my husband to buy that car he wants or go on that golf trip to Pinehurst, he will do this in return" never occurs to her.
    
    Fortunately not all women are like this. Feminism really has created a lot of entitled nasty self absorbed women sadly.
    1. Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago
      
      Is your "hole life" anything like your sex life?
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        I generally roll my eyes at the humor of my typos on here. This one, however, is actually pretty funny. And yeah, I guess it is.
        
        Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
        
        you are a priceless treasure to the comment board john
      2. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
        
        It's foreshadowing of the golf trip.
    2. Restoras 11 years ago
      
      Feminism really has created a lot of entitled nasty self absorbed women sadly
      
      Yep. Word to the wise out there - beware of this attitude. If you happen to marry someone like this it will ruin your life.
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        And the thing is restoras, they are going to end up bitter and alone. Feminism isn't even helping women. It is making them as miserable as it is men.
        
        The women I know who are the happiest and most content are the ones who are about as far away from the feminist ideal as you can get. The ones I know who fit that ideal are all pretty miserable with their lives.
        
        Restoras 11 years ago
        
        They will end up bitter and alone - and I will laugh heartily. Fuck them.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        Me too. In about 20 years the thumb sucking "where did it all go wrong" books and magazine long forms are going to be delicious.
  2. lap83 11 years ago
    
    Emasculation is bullshit. No one can turn you into a doormat without your permission. I don't know how she treats him, but I do know that people have a choice about whether they let others take the lead in a relationship.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      That is true. But everyone has a range of ways they can be. No question this guy has more tolerance for this than you or I do. That, doesn't mean that he has to be a submissive as he is. Her bullying and domineering pushed him further along the submission scale that he would be if he had married someone else.
      
      Like I said above, maybe he loves his kids and doesn't want to break up their home. If he does, then his choices are to constantly fight with this woman or just check out. I don't think checking out means that he can't be any other way.
      1. lap83 11 years ago
        
        The only impression of bullying I got was what Prudence pointed out, which is expecting him to change his personality in the bedroom. It's possible that she is taking charge in areas he doesn't want, but if he doesn't make that known to her she'll probably keep on living in her dream world.
        
        And I say this as someone who had to learn over many years to not be a doormat because my preference is to avoid conflict. In my experience, women are easier to stand up to than men. They'll fire you if you work for them, but they're less likely to be combative like dominant men because they're not as used to being challenged. I have a feeling this woman would respond well to her husband growing a spine. It could even be that the sexual thing is an unconscious need for him to take control in other areas.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        That is true. I have found though my years now of being married that if I really want something or feel strongly about something and put my foot down, she will back off. I have to do it though and be decisive about it. If I do, she will go along and I will get my way.
        
        I don't do that all of the time because I don't want to always make the effort and I don't want to be a bully myself. If I didn't do it at all though, even my wife who is not a shrew would run right over me if I let her.
        
        It is a give and take. You are right, if you never stand up for yourself, chances are your wife will roll over you.
        
        Agile Cyborg 11 years ago
        
        It's your wife- she is not women in general. The dynamic is entirely different than the real world if the relationship is well-balanced for reciprocity.
        
        Agile Cyborg 11 years ago
        
        " They'll fire you if you work for them, but they're less likely to be combative like dominant men because they're not as used to being challenged."
        
        Perhaps in your view, but my wife has significant position in a large corporation within a very competitive environment and she says that every workplace psycho she's run into over the last 20 years has been a woman.
        
        To say that women are less likely to be combative than men indicates naivety or bullet-dodging.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        I find women over the long term are much more combative than men. Men will tell you to your face to go fuck yourself and get really angry but ultimately get over it. Women won't say a word and harbor a grudge. Harboring a long term grudge is much worse than even the worst occasional blow up.
        
        I also find that the worst male bosses are bullies. If you stand up to them, they will leave you alone or act better. Women in contrast will take you standing up to them personally and ensure that your doing so makes things worse.
    2. Restoras 11 years ago
      
      Technically you are right, of course. You can't be emasculated without your permission. However, if you are faced with the choice of beign emsaculated and still being a part of your kids lives everyday, and keeping your wealth intact, then a lot of guys will opt for that.
      
      On the other hand, if you stand up for yourself early then you set the tone for the realtionship in the future - or you end up breaking up.
      
      That said, women can be devious and deceptive. They will 'play along' with you being the man until they have you solidly in thier clutches, you are cemented into family life, and then slowly emasculate you. I've seen plenty of that too.
      1. prolefeed 11 years ago
        
        However, if you are faced with the choice of beign emsaculated and still being a part of your kids lives everyday, and keeping your wealth intact, then a lot of guys will opt for that.
        
        That's pretty much a false choice if you know how to handle relationships. You can stand up for yourself without making a big deal of it, and walk away if they don't respect you for a while until they get a clue about how to treat you.
        
        Though sometimes you just gotta walk away and stay away because they refuse to acknowledge your needs are just as important as theirs.
    3. Tejicano 11 years ago
      
      I can only imagine the kind of woman she must be and that is one type of woman I would never have even asked out. Completely Ef that. She could be hot as my wildest fantasies but a bossy, "no time for tact", witch-with-a-capital-"B" never got any time from me.
      
      Whatever type of fool who courted that deserves the fate of following a freak who doesn't even know what she herself wants - as proven above.
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        She is the kind of woman that wouldn't have given me the time of day when I was single. I think these kind of women when they are single have kind of a six sense of who they can dominate and who they can't. If they think you are not an easy mark or might take some attention away from them in a social situation, they want nothing to do with you.
        
        I knew a lot of women like that in law school. They would be pretty hot some of them and often smart and near the top of the class. They would always have some meek and unremarkable husband or boyfriend. My theory was that they didn't want anyone who might stand up to them or worse take away the spot light in a social situation.
        
        JW 11 years ago
        
        I knew a lot of women like that in law school.
        
        Bingo. That was my very first thought. Either that or the head of a federal department, which require the exact same personality set.
        
        An old neighbor of mine, Harvard lawyer, who was very nice as the mom across the street, but has since moved on to be a major public figure and a cut-throat bitch (I mean that as a compliment) had a husband like that (also a lawyer). If I didn't know him as I did, I would have bet you good money that he was gay.
        
        She dumped him after after a couple kids and eventually married an ex-jock.
    4. Zeb 11 years ago
      
      We also have no evidence that the husband is at all dissatisfied with the situation. And I don't think it is completely safe to assume that the guy is imasculated. Maybe he just doesn't care too much about the things where she takes charge and is happy not to think of it.
      1. gimmeasammich 11 years ago
        
        It could be that he likes her to take charge in the bedroom (which is her complaint about him), but doesn't really care one way or another about the day-to-day stuff around family life.
        
        prolefeed 11 years ago
        
        Or maybe she's just really crappy about motivating her husband to take care of her needs too -- dress up in slinky lingerie, whisper sultry stuff in his ears, mention all the naughty stuff she'll do if he licks her pussy -- do that right and he'll be happy to reciprocate.
7. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  How do you suggest I go about telling him, hey, I want you to be more demanding/bossy/alpha/dominant in bed?
  
  Not lecture him for a solid hour when he checks out a random hottie? Not get offended when he slaps you on the ass when you aren't in the mood and he is?
8. All-Seeing Monocle 11 years ago
  
  Easily fixable, he just needs 6 months with a hot, young submissive mistress.
9. Warty 11 years ago
  
  I have a happy marriage for the most part.
  
  Let's ask her husband that question.
10. lap83 11 years ago
  
  Most likely, his personality is laidback and he likes other people taking the lead in a relationship. I've known several guys who gravitated to more dominant women for that reason. That said, it's unreasonable to expect him to change his personality in selective circumstances just because it turns you on. If he was comfortable doing it, he'd probably want to take the lead in the rest of the relationship.
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    That's what I'm thinking. Some people want that sort of thing.
  2. gimmeasammich 11 years ago
    
    it's unreasonable to expect him to change his personality in selective circumstances just because it turns you on
    
    I *might* disagree on this point. If he really did love her, he might do something that he may not exactly be into in the bedroom as long as it doesn't totally gross him out. The problem here seems to be she wants something, but hasn't told him what that is. It is possible that he has no idea that she feels this way.
    1. gimmeasammich 11 years ago
      
      I'm finding it difficult to have a discussion with him about what turns my crank per se.
      
      Basically she is just upset that he hasn't magically read her thoughts to know exactly what she wants. As far as he is concerned (according to her), he is doing everything right.
11. PRX 11 years ago
  
  odds are she's fat and he's a hero.
12. Rasilio 11 years ago
  
  There actually is another intrepretation here that most guys are missing.
  
  He might not be emasculated, she might not be a shrew, it could simply be that he is not into domination.
  
  Having power and control over someone is not a turn on for everyone.
  
  Hell, this could have been written by my wife. I defer to her in most things because I'm lazy and don't really care but we both know that ultimately I am in charge. In the bedroom she wishes I would be more dominant, and occasionally I am when the mood strikes me.
  
  However for the most part I don't like being with someone that I have to tell what to do. I want my sexual partners to be fully engaged using their own instincts and creativity to actively find new and interesting ways to please me (and I return the same to them). If I have to tell them everything to do and make them do it there just doesn't seem to be any point I could get the same thing for a lot less hassle from a real doll. 95% of the time being dominant in bed is just a huge turnoff for me.
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    I agree. And I think that is more likely the case.
    
    I don't want anyone to be dominant in sex. Just that we are both fully engaged in it.
    1. gimmeasammich 11 years ago
      
      This. It's a give an take thing. If she was completely submissive I'd feel like I was taking advantage of her. Since I am a nice enough guy to think about what others might or might not want, the thought of this is a real boner killer.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

"What we see in Japan, in a wide range of pursuits, is a focus on mastery," says Sarah Kovner, who teaches Japanese history at the University of Florida.

That's so twelfth century.

"Fuck it, good enough," made this country great.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  "Fuck it, good enough," made this country great.
  
  It most certainly won us two world wars. While the Germans and Japanese were building beautiful practically hand made aircraft and tanks. We were cranking out "fuck it this is good enough" by the millions.
  
  I don't know about the Japanese, but if there is one thing Europeans don't get is is "fuck it good enough". That is not a good thing. One of the things that puzzles them most about the US is how we can make cheap buildings or products that fulfill their function and no more.
  1. BardMetal 11 years ago
    
    Yeah the Sherman doesn't have to be the equal to the Tiger when you can produce 40,000 of them in the time it takes the Germans to build 1,000 Tigers.
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      "We need some of these for the French Resistance."
      
      --"Just flip the transmissions over so the drive gears are now reverse."
      
      Didn't a German general say, "Our tanks were equal to 10 Shermans, the problem was that the 11th Sherman was always coming over the hill right behind them."
      1. Restoras 11 years ago
        
        Forget where I saw it, but in the bocage of Normandy a Tiger or Panther would take out several Shermans with its far superior main gun before the last Sherman got behind the Panther/Tiger and hit it from behind.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        We could have made the Sherman better. Making it gasoline rather than diesel powered was pretty much an act of murder by the war department.
        
        The other issue is that the US had to ship everything across the Atlantic. There just wasn't shipping to get enough big tanks over there.
        
        That said, it is pretty appalling that the War Department didn't come up with their own 88 mm gun like the Germans did. The German 88 was an amazing weapon.
        
        Restoras 11 years ago
        
        The Brits outfitted a bunch of Shermans with a higher muzzle velocity gun for D-Day. It was a far more effective tank.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Firefly
        
        Interestingly, just as with the Mustang and the Merlin engine.
        
        gimmeasammich 11 years ago
        
        Firefly
        
        Hmm. That's pretty goram interesting.
        
        JW 11 years ago
        
        The thing is is that our planes were the opposite. Heavy, tough and meaty planes that could take a beating. The Japanese planes were fast and maneuverable, but made of balsa wood.
        
        Our planes would shred them more often than not. That strategy didn't work out for the Japs. They eventually ran out of trained pilots.
        
        gimmeasammich 11 years ago
        
        They eventually ran out of trained pilots.
        
        And look where that got them.
    2. John 11 years ago
      
      Yup BardMetal. In 1944, the Germans were still hand sowing fancy leather seats into fighters that were likely to last two weeks in combat. The Americans put cheap canvas seats in theirs. Small things like that add up.
      
      It is interesting how national characters manifest themselves in total war. The US won the war as much as anything because of the bulldozer, the duce and a half truck and the jeep. The Germans for all of their engineering and scientific prowess were never that interested in simple grimy thinks like trucks and bulldozers. If they had used the resources they spent building rockets and jets and various other glamor engineering projects instead on building trucks and bulldozers, they would have been a lot harder to beat. The US army ran on trucks when the Germans were still often using horses.
      1. Zeb 11 years ago
        
        I was reading about the V2 rockets the other day. They really did waste an enormous amount of resources on that.
        An interesting fact about the V2 is that more people were killed manufacturing them than were killed by them when used as weapons.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        They were great terror weapons but militarily useless. You couldn't aim them with enough accuracy or make enough of them even if you could to make any difference.
        
        For V2 to have worked they would have needed to be accurate enough to destroy every ship in port at Rotterdam or something. And they were not even close. They would fire them at the port and maybe 1 in a 100 of them would hit the port and the rest would just randomly blow shit up in the city.
  2. Rasilio 11 years ago
    
    This is true.
    
    No one in the world has ever seemed to understand "Fuck it good enough" as well as Americans.
    
    Even other countries who try like India and China. They mistake it as meaning "Quality doesn't matter only quantity" when in reality it means finding the right balance between quality and getting the thing into service NOW.
    
    The one country which does seem to grasp it is Russia. In WW2 the T-34 was nowhere near the technological marvel the Tigers where but it was the best tank in the way by a pretty significant margin and all through the cold war their gear was solid rugged cheap and effective
    1. Rhywun 11 years ago
      
      "Fuck it, good enough" - that is pretty much the way business works. Took me years to learn that. I cared about quality work - my bosses just wanted something that sort of works most of the time.
2. All-Seeing Monocle 11 years ago
  
  That was profound.
3. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  The guys who welded the engine ducting on the Saturn V were definitely masters. Their "good enough" was a single piece of metal on the x-ray. What they didn't necessarily learn was the 87 other ways to do this with traditional technology.
invisible furry hand 11 years ago

No deep dish allowed:

The Best Margherita Pizza Is In Australia, Says Unreliable Competition
Carl ?s his privilege 11 years ago

Belle Knox is PornHub's new intern

The internship has angered some of Knox's colleagues. Although Knox told the Daily Dot she believes Pornhub increases porn companies' sales, industry insiders believe the site encourages piracy. Knox has a point?most porn studios advertise on tube sites like Pornhub?but right now she can't afford this kind of controversy. Her new infamy and endorsement deals have aggravated many fellow porn performers, who work in a tough industry where few actors become wealthy household names. In a harsh essay on Short and Sweet NYC, one performer, Belle Noir, even called her out for arriving late to a shoot and claimed that "Knox is actually a very tyrannical and rude person towards the performers and industry workers on most of her sets."

Being "outed" sure has been terrible for her... (not that I necessarily support the guy who did it).
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Not to put too fine a point on it, but what has Rand Paul ever done? Oh, sure, he's a member of the U.S. Senate, but only a freshman, and it's the only political office he has held.

This is what passes itself off as insight, now?
1. Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
  
  We can't just elect a freshman US Senator to the Presidency! His inexperience would be disastrous for the country!
  
  Uh, wait a minute...
  1. Andrew S. 11 years ago
    
    If you put it that way, he has a point.
2. John 11 years ago
  
  Funny how they were not asking that in 2008. Also, is Rand Paul a doctor? Maybe things have changed but when I was in school becoming a doctor was in the words of our VP a pretty big fucking deal.
  
  Moreover, if Cohen wants to make elections about "what have you ever actually done", I wish him luck with that during the Hillary campaign.
  
  The Republicans may often be stupid and venal, but there are a few of them who have owned businesses, been doctors and other things besides working in politics. The Democrats? Not so much.
  1. tarran 11 years ago
    
    He also set up an ophthalmology board because he felt the state board was too lax.
    
    It has failed to take off, and people mock him as if he created a diploma mill. It's a shame, because it shows a man who puts his money where his mouth is, the lack of which is supposedly why the political process is so broken.
    1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
      
      Tarran! Get back to the email thread so we can lock down those plans.
    2. John 11 years ago
      
      Ophthalmologist is an MD who specializes in eyes. Not that being an optometrist isn't a good thing in its own right but being an ophthalmologist is a very big deal.
      
      Only a real moron like Cohen with a warped sense of the world that only involves government could ask what an ophthalmologist has ever actually done.
3. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  Link?
4. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  He should have been elected to the KY State Senate first, then everybody would be prising him for having done so much.
  1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
    
    Clearly spending 4 years in the US Senate is worth just as much as 6.
Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago

"Lincoln coffin replica draws York crowd

"More than 150 showed packed Heffner Funeral Home to look at replica coffin"

http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_25.....york-crowd
1. Rich 11 years ago
  
  Lincoln coffin replica
  
  Nice band name.
  
  /Captain Beefheart (RIP)
kinnath 11 years ago

The only useful thing Salon has published in months

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/1.....n_history/

I mean seriously, NOT SAFE FOR WORK. But if you really must, it's here.

Go there, click the link, I dare you.
1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  Da plane! Da plane!
  1. Agile Cyborg 11 years ago
    
    Nobody survived evidently.
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Awesome. Now I want video of the firing that followed.
3. kinnath 11 years ago
  
  We now know the fate of MH370
4. Injun, as in from India 11 years ago
  
  We need a new Samuel L Jackson movie. Planes in a ...?
  1. Agile Cyborg 11 years ago
    
    Dildo of Death?
5. John 11 years ago
  
  It is safe for work. The link only has a link to Jalopolink, which has censored it.
  
  Did they get hacked? Did they forget to cut off access to the Twitter account for a person they fired? How does this happen?
  1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
    
    Someone tweeted the pic to the airline. The idiot running the airline's account supposedly tried to report it but accidentally retweeted it. It is such a lame story I suspect it's true.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      That is totally true. If they were lying, they would have come up with a better story.
  2. kinnath 11 years ago
    
    There is a link to the picture in its full glory, and no it is not safer for work at all.
  3. kinnath 11 years ago
    
    Scroll down a Jalopnik (but do it fast then close the window).
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Why Bold Ideas Backfire in Politics

Americans think better of Clinton's time in office than they do of either Bush's or Obama's. In part that's because the 1990s were a time of relative peace and prosperity. Perhaps it's also because Clinton's health-care law failed and he undertook no grand initiatives during the six years he governed with Congress under opposition control. He came back from the 1994 congressional defeats by blocking the Republicans' big plans and undertaking small-scale efforts, such as encouraging public schools to adopt uniforms.

George Will of the Washington Post called Clinton the least consequential president since Calvin Coolidge, the difference being that the latter was inconsequential by design. When Bush ran to replace Clinton, he scorned his predecessor's lowered ambitions. "So much promise, to no great purpose," was one of his refrains about Clinton at the Republican convention in 2000. Bush famously derided "small ball" politics.

But maybe in our era small ball is what people like. If so, then activists with more far-reaching agendas will have to resign themselves to advancing them in small bits. And people considering running for office should know that politics, for the foreseeable future, is probably not going to be much fun.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  We are living in a era of great technological change and economic growth. It doesn't feel like it because in our neck of the woods our government is strangling our economy. Overall, however, tens of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 15 years. The first 15 years of the 21st century has been one of the best for mankind as a whole since the 19th Century.
  
  In an era of economic growth and transformation, the best a leader can do is get out of the way. That is not a good roll for Progs.
2. OldMexican 11 years ago
  
  George Will of the Washington Post called Clinton the least consequential president since Calvin Coolidge, the difference being that the latter was inconsequential by design.
  
  I beg to differ with George Will. Coolidge may have been a low-key president but hardly inconsequential: his administration paved the highway (not merely the road) to the greatest economic miracle of the 20th Century which made America rich enough to withstand the greatest economic disaster the world had ever seen with FDR. His administration started to pay down the national debt; during the era of Clinton, the debt did not diminish one cent - the US is still paying for the debt incurred to fight WWI !!!
Agile Cyborg 11 years ago

There is plenty of leeway in the law according to Crybaby Holder.
DEG 11 years ago

Anyone want a cheap house?
1. invisible furry hand 11 years ago
  
  No way mate, I've seen what happens to Australians who buy cheap Detroit housing
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    To be fair, it happens to anyone who buys cheap Detroit housing.
  2. Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago
    
    I actually did work on a case where a Detroit -area guy got into one of these swindles. They were at discovery & I drafted interrogatories. Same kind of plan: buy foreclosed Detroit homes, flip them, and rent them out in the interim - all profit! There was a detroit Plaintiff, a Canadian Defendant (they promoted the houses via a website), and a US defendant. Surprisingly they were still in circuit court.
  3. DEG 11 years ago
    
    The article doesn't say whether or not the Aussie had a knife.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Teacher fired 'after she ordered six students to attack 7th grade boy who spoke back to her' in shocking videotaped beat-down
Dru Dehart was fired on Thursday evening from her position at Northport K-8
Dehart is accused of encouraging a March 2013 incident that was caught on surveillance video and showed six male students attacking classmate Radravious Williams
The attack took place after Williams reportedly told Dehart that he 'wished he could curse out teachers someday'
Radravious now reportedly suffers from trust issues, and his mother Latasha Darrisaw says Dehart has yet to apologize for what happened

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....e-her.html
1. John 11 years ago
  
  Let me ask a stupid question here. How is this woman not in jail? If I paid a couple of kids in my neighborhood to gang up on and beat up some other kid, I am pretty sure I would be facing charges for that. I believe it is called conspiracy.
  
  I guess teachers are now like cops. What is an appalling crime that ends in prison if any of us do it is just a firing offense?
  1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    I guess teachers are now like cops.
    
    Unionized government employee. Duh.
  2. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    Had this happened at a private school, you can fucking bet she'd be in jail right now.
  3. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
    
    Well she didn't make a gun shape with her hand and point it at the kid.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio kisses his 21-year-old girlfriend Toni Garrn as she goes topless on the beach in Polynesia's Bora Bora

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-Bora.html
It's good to be Leo. Boobie alert!
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Its dirty to not tell us that Leo's are bigger.
  1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    She's a model. Of course his moobs are bigger.
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      Leo is a very average looking dude. Doughy. Good on him for punching above his weight.
      1. EDG reppin' LBC 11 years ago
        
        The $200 Million doesn't hurt his game either.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Amazon villagers nearly kill two teenage motorbike thieves by tying them to a tree covered in poisonous fire ants
Two teenagers accused of stealing three motorbikes in Bolivia
Angry villagers kept them captive for three days demanding ransom
Tied them to a tree covered in fire ants to force families to pay up

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-ants.html
Nice.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Texas police officer CAUGHT on video BREAKING student's arm while attempting to stop school fight
Incident took place on March 7 at West Brook High School, part of the Beaumont Independent School District (BISD)
Officer Stephen Rivers is seen on video breaking a male student's arm while he is on the ground
BISD Police Chief Clydell Duncan said Rivers broke the student's arm while using an 'improper technique' meant to handcuff him
Rivers is currently on administrative leave without pay

'Improper technique' sounds like 'needs more training.'
The officer went home safely. That's all that matters.
1. Warty 11 years ago
  
  Wow, the pig either has no idea what he's doing, or he purposefully broke the kid's shoulder. It's amazing how many of these fucks have no idea how to grapple, and it's amazing how many of them are psychopaths, so both are possible.
  
  That said, the kid was...not so smart. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, as they say.
2. Warty 11 years ago
  
  Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....fight.html
3. John 11 years ago
  
  I will stand up for the cop a bit on this one. High students are adults. If this were breaking up a fight between two 9 year old kids, I would want this guy in jail. I would have to see a video of what happened. Maybe this guy is a scum bag. I would say it is at least possible the kid was big and pretty violent and a struggle ensued. In that case, then I am not so sure the cop is that at fault.
  
  Beyond that, why the hell are we arresting kids for fighting in high school? What a waste of resources.
  1. Warty 11 years ago
    
    The video's in the link I posted. The kid was big, stupid, and belligerent, but he was already held down by another cop when the pig broke his arm. Either the cop had never had any training in joint locks at all, he had a couple hours of bullshit departmental training that he slept through, or he broke the arm deliberately. All those possibilities are bad.
    
    Also, the video looked more like something from a prison yard than a school. Why are we bothering to force stupid, belligerent, fully adult young people who have no interest in school to be in these places? It's like it's training them to be in prison.
    1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
      
      It's like it's training them to be in prison.
      
      Like?
      1. Warty 11 years ago
        
        I'm being polite, you cunt.
    2. John 11 years ago
      
      That is the better question Warty. And silly us for thinking that paying taxes to hire and train a police force means that apes they hire actually learn how to subdue someone without hurting them.
      
      When Dunphy used to troll on here, I would tell him that if we just wanted cops to beat people up and shoot people, we could get people to do that for free. We pay cops and train them so they will not do that and treat everyone, even the worst criminal with some respect and humanity. Needless to say, that point went right over his head.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

He should have been elected to the KY State Senate first, then everybody would be prising him for having done so much.

Community organizing is where it's at, man. That's where you learn the nuts and bolts of wealth redistribution and modern social justice warfare.
Elspeth Flashman 11 years ago

Intuit (Turbotax's maker) and its allies are continuing to work against proposals for what's known as return-free filing.

http://www.propublica.org/arti.....tax-filing

Over the last year, a rabbi, a state NAACP official, a small town mayor and other community leaders wrote op-eds and letters to Congress with remarkably similar language on a remarkably obscure topic.

Each railed against a long-standing proposal that would give taxpayers the option to use pre-filled tax returns. They warned that the program would be a conflict of interest for the IRS and would especially hurt low-income people, who wouldn't have the resources to fight inaccurate returns. Rabbi Elliot Dorff wrote in a Jewish Journal op-ed that he "shudder[s] at the impact this program will have on the most vulnerable people in American society."

via Tax Prof blog (http://taxprof.typepad.com/)
1. Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
  
  So a rabbi, a state NAACP official, and a small town mayor walk into a bar
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    Heh. That was exactly my thought as I read that.
    1. Notorious G.K.C. 11 years ago
      
      Great minds think alike
Sevo 11 years ago

In SF, an apartment owner is prohibited by law from increasing rent more than X amount.
A tenant in that apartment will soon be able to sub-let it at market rate to short term renters:

"S.F. Airbnb rules would pull short-term rentals from shadows"
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....402598.php
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  So you "rent" it to your wife/brother/cousin at X and then they sublet it at market and split the difference, right?
  1. Sevo 11 years ago
    
    Brett, I'm guessing there's 30 or 40 ways to game that bit of insanity.
    And the BoS will claim they're all 'unintended consequences' as if that's an excuse.
2. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
  
  They should put up that AirBnb Reason TV video again...
110 Lean 11 years ago

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says the showdown at the Bundy ranch in Nevada is "not over" because "we can't have an American people that violate the law and then just walk away from it."

Lois Lerner?
1. Sevo 11 years ago
  
  "Lois Lerner?"
  
  Barack Obama?
2. WTF 11 years ago
  
  She's not one of "the people" she's one of "the overlords".
3. John 11 years ago
  
  Eric Holder? You know there is that contempt finding that he claims to take so seriously.
Capo 11 years ago

I posted the image that went along with these links onto facebook today and you guys would not believe the liberal tears that flowed.

Without making a single comment about it, I was accused of being a right wing extremist, of being "for" militias, being stupid for thinking a bunch of people could stand up to tanks, of wanting to go to war with Russia, of being against property taxes and food stamps (seriously), some comment saying I get all my news from Rush Limbaugh...and on and on. Multiple times I tried to point out it was just a little bit of satire...but man they just kept coming.

It took my breath away. I am now planning to make T-Shirts with this image on it.
Bam! 11 years ago

They're both qualified, respectful of each other (shocker!), and represent the vast majority of middle America. So what's not to like about another Clinton/Bush race for 2016?

The "Bush/Clinton" part.
DontShootMe 11 years ago

Um, I think you have less pain when you're dead, so, it's effective.
prolefeed 11 years ago

Bingo. I was married to a bossy alpha woman like that (still am technically, but separated for good), and when the oldest ones were headed off for college, got a GF who treats me better than that.

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