A.M. Links: Biden Says U.S. Stands With Ukraine Against 'Humiliating Threats,' Christie Not a Fan of Colorado's Pot Policy, Court Orders Release of Targeted Killings Memo

Credit: Nightscream/wikimedia

• Vice President Joe Biden said during a meeting in Ukraine's parliament that the U.S. stands with Ukraine's leadership against "humiliating threats."
• Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized Colorado's marijuana legalization on a local New Jersey radio show yesterday saying, "see if you want to live in a major city in Colorado where there's head shops popping up on every corner and people flying into your airport just to come and get high," and, "to me, it's just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey and there's no tax revenue that's worth that."
• Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has praised former Florida Governor Jeb Bush for saying that many come to the U.S. illegally as an "act of love." Flake said "having such a prominent Republican speak so humanely and unapologetically about the motivations behind many of those who have come to reside in this country is good for all of us."
• A federal appeals court has ordered the Department of Justice to hand over sections of a memo justifying the government's targeted killing of people linked to terrorism such as the American Anwar al-Awlaki.
• A family is suing a New Jersey school district and its superintendent over the use of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance recited by students. The unidentified family filed the suit with the American Humanist Association, claiming that including the words "under God" in the pledge violates New Jersey's constitution.
• The confirmed death toll from the South Korean ferry that capsized last week with many school students still aboard has reached 108.

Comments

[Snark Plissken]

Vice President Joe Biden said during a meeting in Ukraine's parliament that the U.S. stands with Ukraine's leadership against "humiliating threats."

And by humiliating, he meant him giving more speeches.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

I have $7.80 in Canadian Tire money that needs spending.

[The DerpRider]

Hockey puck and some friction tape.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Been eying that $300 titanium stick.

Bah. I need some sand paper for my sander. I have to paint the deck.

Choices, choices.

[Restoras]

I miss the days of splurging on a Christian for $20. And if I was really lucky, a Torspo for $30.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha. Sher-Wood!

[The DerpRider]

Unbreakable one piece sticks my ass. I kept snapping them off just above the heal, and I had pro sticks that the old Thrashers GM used to give me. I take the frankenstick approach now - cut off the blade, keep the shaft, and glue in replaceables.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

How did you get those from the GM?

[Andrew S.]

Mornin' Mr. Firefly.

Didn't realize until now that you replied to me last night asking if my sister recognized what kind of a person my brother in law is. And no, she doesn't. She's simultaneously one of the smartest people I've ever met and one of the dumbest.

Every boyfriend she's ever had has been an asshole and she's gone along with it. She ended up marrying the worst of the bunch.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My sister is a serial monogamist. She brings home, however, really nice guys and then dumps them. My older sister and husband are fed up with it. You invest time in liking someone and then...gone.

Your sister is not alone. I hear a lot of those stories.

[WTF]

"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's Presidential material right there.

[Rich]

"If you can't stand the heat, get back in the kitchen."

[Injun, as in from India]

He really said that?

[Sudden]

It would be worth it to see him and Bobby Jindal run against each other in the next cycle just to hear Jindal get all offended by that remark.

[Ted S.]

I'll ask the same quetion I did last year: Did you get to whip your wife yesterday?

[Snark Plissken]

Heh, no. But my son had a pomlazka. Nowadays, girls get them also, it's a terrible state of decline.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Haha. I forgot about that tradition.
When I was in Slovakia they were more focused on dumping a bucket of cold water on women instead of whipping them with twigs.

[Bee Tagger]

the U.S. stands with Ukraine's leadership against "humiliating threats."

Is he reading from his speech to Poland?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello...(looks behind guitar)...Springfield!

[Lord Humungus]

Rioting crowd severely beats 5 chengguan (Chinese Urban Police) for killing civilian

According to eyewitness accounts, the crowd -- which was growing at an alarmingly rapid pace -- was shouting for the chengguan to be murdered on the spot for what they did, yelling: "Kill them! Kill them!" They proceeded to beat the five until they were bloodied and unconscious, and later collectively tipped over the ambulance that had arrived to provide medical treatment.

State-run Cangnan Newsreports that later on, more than 100 riot police were dispatched to disperse the crowds at around 4pm, with more than 10 onlookers arrested in connection with inciting the riots.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

How far off is the US from that scenario?

[Snark Plissken]

Obviously more tanks and body armor are needed to stave off this horrific possibility.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm guessing very.

[Raven Nation]

I categorically reject the attack on the ambulance.

[Tejicano]

Crowds in China are something a bit different from other countries in East Asia.

On my first trip the the PRC - a month backpacking around a big loop on, and south of, the Yangtse in 1988 - I saw a number of arguments between strangers in public. Everybody within earshot - all strangers as well - would join in and take sides. Generally it would go in the favor of one side - everybody would agree who was wrong or right.

I can see how something like the incident in this article could rise up in a crowd of strangers in China. If the crowd decided the cops were wrong things would go south in a heartbeat.

[Injun, as in from India]

A federal appeals court has ordered the Department of Justice to hand over sections of a memo justifying the government's targeted killing of people linked to terrorism such as the American Anwar al-Awlaki.

Memo in one word: authority!

[wareagle]

ah, the FYTW memo.

[Raven Nation]

FYTW: is there any situation it can't resolve?

[The Late P Brooks]

"One waffer-thin mint, Governor."

[Certified Public Asskicker]

The evils of McDonald's go way beyond low wages and fatty foods.

Huffpo praises girl for fighting gendered toys.

[mr simple]

They have anecdotal evidence!

[gaijin]

They have anecdotal evidence!

aka 'hard data' to a politicians, activits, and social scientists

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Quality of life... hmm... Colorado or New Jersey?

[Tejicano]

I just have to say - Christie is a freaking disgusting fat tub of lard.

I can and do abide obese people just because everybody gets to choose how they want to live. But a clown like that with, evidently, the self-control of an amoeba trying to tell the rest of us how to live our lives... ...what caliber do I need to use to explain "no" to him?

[wareagle]

I'm not sure 'quality of life' is what I would be banging the drum on if the subject was New Jersey.

[WTF]

Because ignorant people think New Jersey is just what you see from the Turnpike.

[Adam330]

I lived in NJ for a long time, and not in an area near the turnpike (or parkway!) but it definitely was not for the quality of life.

[Rich]

For the *quantity* of life, then?

[Sudden]

So Hoboken?

[gaijin]

Because ignorant people think New Jersey is just what you see from the Turnpike.

So you are saying the New Jersey is more than what I saw on Jersey Shore?

[invisible furry hand]

Yes, it's what you saw on The Sopranos too

[WTF]

Hey, at least in New Jersey we don't have to worry about the wildlife and plant life murdering us.

[Restoras]

What about Newark?

[WTF]

Fair point.

[Elspeth Flashman]

One might argue that pot use would increase the quality of life in NJ.

[VG Zaytsev]

You'd think that a shithead authoritarian, like Christie, would favor legal marijuana as a means to keep the rabble distracted from his own venality.

[gaijin]

You'd think that a shithead authoritarian, like Christie, would favor legal marijuana as a means to keep the rabble distracted from his own venality.

Christie is obviously concerned that a wave of the munchies might sweep across New Jersey...leaving him with less.

[Damned Fool]

Just last night I was looking at a potential job opportunity in Chalfont, PA. Imagine my horror when I realized I was viewing its relative proximity to NJ as a good thing.

[Spoonman.]

That area is pretty nice from what I have seen, actually. And it's much better to live in PA than to be in NJ.

[Lord Humungus]

Creating a political bogeyman is no easy thing, but Democrats must try to win the midterms

Here's how Democrats can save themselves in the coming midterms elections: Use the exact same "1 percent" economic messaging that won President Obama a second term in 2012.

That's according to a memo circulated in Washington this week from longtime Democratic operatives Stan Greenberg and James Carville. "The economy is still the main issue in the 2014 election, impacting the mood of the country, driving likely voter turnout, and defining what is at stake," the duo writes, adding that, to date, the way Democrats have talked about the economy has failed to connect with voters.

[WTF]

Odd, haven't the democrats been in charge for quite some time now? So Carville is saying to tell people they should vote for more of the same?

[Injun, as in from India]

It's more of the same only if it's Bush/Cheney.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1% Class Warfare

[VG Zaytsev]

If the phants weren't the stupid party the'd use political jujitsu to shove the 1% meme up the donk's asses.

[gaijin]

"1 percent" economic messaging that won President Obama a second term in 2012.

I thought he won because of the War on Women? Or was it Obamacare? Or the do nothing congress?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Oklahoma House passes solar surcharge bill

A bill that would allow regulated electric utilities to impose a surcharge on customers who install rooftop solar panels or small wind turbines passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-hou.....le/3955378

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I have less of a problem with this than the states where electricity sold back to the utility receives a much lower rate than what you would pay for it.

[OldMexican]

A bill that would allow regulated electric utilities to impose a surcharge on customers who install rooftop solar panels or small wind turbines passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday.

Because you can't choose to be "off the grid" and not enjoy the wonderful services dispensed by the government that makes you pay for them even if you want to live off the grid.

[VG Zaytsev]

But, but, electric utilities are private companies, just like insurers under Obamacare.

[tarran]

A family is suing a New Jersey school district and its superintendent over the use of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance recited by students. The unidentified family filed the suit with the American Humanist Association, claiming that including the words "under God" in the pledge violates New Jersey's constitution.

Yes! But if we take Under God, then the children of godless commies could take our forced loyalty oath without being hypocrites!

[tarran]

... er take out "Under God", I mean

[Sudden]

Under God? Is that kinda like an undersecretary?

[gaijin]

Under God? Is that kinda like an undersecretary?

Better than an Overlord?

[Rasilio]

Lol I actually had to have a talk with my 11 year old son about the pledge. He doesn't like saying it for reasons that have nothing to do with god (even though both of us are athiests) he doesn't like saying it but his teachers make him.

I told him if he really doesn't want to say it they can't make him but he needs to think long and hard because taking that path will make him very unpopular with the other students and make him the target of bullying

[Snark Plissken]

Now that's just entirely too sensible. How do you expect your son to compete in a world of whiny, self-entitled special snowflakes with that sort of attitude?

[Lord Humungus]

When I was in HS, we did the pledge every morning. I had AM study hall, and sat right next to the flag.

After awhile, I stopped standing for the pledge... and had 40-50 kids staring at me during the whole thing. Soon my friend started doing the same.

A teacher aide - after a few days of this - finally came over and asked me why I wasn't standing for the pledge. I said something about all the wars the U.S. started or something like that. My friend, who wasn't as quick on his feet, said uh, I don't know. She told him to stand but left me alone.

[lap83]

"I told him if he really doesn't want to say it they can't make him but he needs to think long and hard because taking that path will make him very unpopular with the other students and make him the target of bullying"

That's good advice. I think it's the main thing that separates normal people from progressives, having the wisdom to choose your battles because some things are more important than politics.

[lap83]

Also, I've noticed when you've built a good initial foundation of being nice and likeable, it's actually easier to incrementally persuade people of your beliefs down the road.

[cavalier973]

From the New Joisey State Constitution:

"We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution."

The state constitution violates the state constitution!!!!

[Snark Plissken]

A family is suing a New Jersey school district and its superintendent over the use of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance recited by students. The unidentified family filed the suit with the American Humanist Association, claiming that including the words "under God" in the pledge violates New Jersey's constitution.

Under Obama is more honest.

[Raven Nation]

+1 theocracy

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When does he start ordering portraits of himself be erected in schools?

[wareagle]

why do you think he would have to order this? I'm waiting some union teacher toady to make this a class assignment.

[Ted S.]

Wasn't there a school in Philadelphia that was also a polling place in 2012 that had a giant Obama mural on the wall?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'What's the problem? I was only teaching students the art of creating a mosaic!'

[Azathoth!!]

Start?

That's standard.

[invisible furry hand]

Is there nothing alcohol cannot do?

Strangers stop savage dog attack with six-pack of beer

[Brett L]

No greater love hath a man for another than to sacrifice his beer.

[Snark Plissken]

Make me watch Bill Maher.

[Raven Nation]

Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems.

~ Homer Simpson

[Swiss Servator, K?se, K?se!]

"It makes women more attractive and makes a person virtually invulnerable to criticism!"

[Sudden]

Her daughter, well-known multiculturalism and refugee advocate Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis, 70, who lives at the Evans Street home, suffered serious injuries to her hands as she tried to pull her dog, Caesar, off her mother.

The dog was just exercising its unique cultural heritage.

[Lord Humungus]

Good customer relationship building here:

GM seeks court protection against ignition lawsuits

General Motors Co filed a motion in a U.S. bankruptcy court to enforce a bar on lawsuits related to ignition defects in cars sold before its 2009 bankruptcy as it fights a class action lawsuit that seeks to set aside the restriction.

The plaintiffs also filed a class action lawsuit on Monday, seeking an order declaring that GM cannot use the bankruptcy protection to absolve itself from liabilities.

The faulty ignition switch has been linked to at least 13 deaths and the recall of 2.6 million GM vehicles.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The UAW are experts in friendly relations with potential adversaries.

[Bee Tagger]

"to me, it's just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey and there's no tax revenue that's worth that."

What about all of the private economic exchange he just listed previous to this quote? Is that also not worthwhile? At this point what even makes him a Republican? I understand most Republican's don't walk the walk their talking holes talked, but he doesn't even talk the talk.

[Raven Nation]

August, 2016:

"And of course, the big political news tonight is Hillary Clinton's selection of Chris Christie as her vice-presidential running mate."

[eyeroller]

but he doesn't even talk the talk

That just makes him a more honest Republican.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

For hockey fans.

With all the dirty hits, cheap stick work and spearing, NOW you know why there's fighting in hockey?

Let them drop the gloves. It's self-regulating just like the free markets.

[Brett L]

Having not followed any hockey this season, did last night's loss to Chicago presage the annual collapse of the Blues, or will they at least see off their hated rivals before not going to the Finals?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Blues sure have a history of collapsing. We'll see.

[db]

The Canadiens the.other.night were really pushing my buttons. They were operating on the very edge of hockey propriety and the refs were giving them the benefit.of the doubt every time. That game was shameful in several ways.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, they lucked out on the over turned goal. Other than that, I don't care about the Habs anymore.

But really, no one pushes buttons more than the Boston Bruins. The Habs may push but the Bruins are outright dirty.

[Ted S.]

Boston Weak. It's the only way they can win.

[Ted S.]

Montreal fans will literally riot if the refs aren't biased in their favor.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's so 1950s!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'They were operating on the very edge of hockey propriety.'

In one game the Blackhawks did more damage than the Habs could. Last night there was a knee on knee in the Wild-Avs game.

Nah. I see worse in other teams.

[db]

That may be. I.didn't see either the Bruins or the Blackhawks games.

[Restoras]

Fine by me, I just wish the NHL would officially acknowledge it as part of the game. Maybe with a Paul Holmgren Award for best pugilist of the year, and start inducting the best goons into the Hall of Fame.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wasn't Holmgren less a fighter and more physical, shit disturber like Bobby Clarke? I can't remember.

[Restoras]

At the time, as I recall, he was one of the most feared with his fists. I could be mistaken. Or it could just be his association with the Broadstreet Bullies at the time. I did enjoy watching Nick Fotiu tear him apart a couple of times.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Actually, yeah, he did drop the gloves. I remember him with the North Stars too.

He was tough. Fotiu was an animal. Him I only got to see late in his career barely but my older buddy tells me stories.

[Restoras]

Fotiu wouldn't fight just to fight, but when he did it was insane. He did a lot of training as a boxer, so acutally knew how to fight - not just pummel the other guy's helmet or throw haymakers.

Dave Shultz was more famous in the annals of the Bullies. Maybe the pugilist fo the year should be the Dave Shultz Award. He can be the first goon inductee into the HoF.

[Ted S.]

Bettman wants offense, and no defense at all.

Of course, he's too stupid to realize that a goalie who can start the attack with puck-handling skills is an offensive skill.

[Restoras]

I can't beleive that guy is still Commissioner.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

On the flip side, the NHL is a more viable economic entity under him.

I agree with Ted about the goalie thing. Ridiculous.

[Restoras]

While true I am not certain it has anything to do with him. Sports programming on television is in huge demand and hockey is in part just riding that wave.

Almost everything you could want to watch sports related is on TV now. Soccer, rugby, curling, skiing, archery, cycling - everything. It's amazing.

[Swiss Servator, K?se, K?se!]

NEEDZ MOAR RUGBY!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This is true. Lacrosse is on tv now. Fucking darts is on tv. Many sports get their 'exposure.'

[Citizen Nothing]

I was at the Jackets-Pens game last night. A part of me died.

[Lord Humungus]

This was probably already posted...

Parents Outraged After Finding Easter Eggs Filled With Racist Notes

The Smiths were having an egg hunt with their 3-year-old son Sunday afternoon. It's an Easter tradition that was interrupted after an upsetting discovery.

"My husband noticed the last Easter egg and i knew it wasn't one that put out. we opened it and it's got the white supremacist stuff in it," said Jackie Smith.

Inside the egg was the message "diversity = white genocide." It said, "Mass immigration and forced assimilation of non-whites into our lands is genocide."

[Spoonman.]

That wasn't very smart, 'Merican.

[Bee Tagger]

This is the very reason I stopped buying All-Whites brand egg whites.

[Rich]

LOL

Nice yolk!

[Sudden]

Egg whites are anti-Volk

[tarran]

Somewhere a white supremacist is sniggering. His message is getting wide airplay thanks to the Streissan Effect.

Now the white people will wake up to the genocide that is race mixing.

[Tejicano]

My wife is an obviously different race than I am so we have mixed race kids. If I had stumbled across something like this I would pocket it and bury it deep and never speak a word. Fuck whoever thought they would cause pain to me or mine. My children are much more precious to me than any 15 minutes of fame I might grab.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think this is a wise way to go.

[Brett L]

I assume the leaver and the finder are the same person in these situations.

[Rich]

"While plaintiffs recognize that (the child) has the right to refuse participation in the flag-salute exercise and pledge recitation, the child does not wish to be excluded from it"

I'll bet the child wishes to be excluded from the plaintiffs' activities.

[John]

???? Doesn't "I refuse to participate" necessarily mean "I wish to be excluded"? Am I missing something or am I just mansplaining again?

[Raven Nation]

Probably. But I assume their point is that their kid wants to "pledge allegiance" but not with the words "under God."

Or, at least, that's what the parents want their kid to want.

[wareagle]

so not saying "under god" is undoable? Yes, I realize the phrase was a late-comer to the actual Pledge but the kid could say "under the mattress" for all anyone cares.

[Rich]

This.

"It's my little way of sticking it to The Man Upstairs."

[John]

Then tell the parents and the kids to grow a pair and not do it. I thought the value of dissent and being different is something kids are supposed to learn?

They want to be able to dissent but they don't want to have to pay any price for it. Sorry but the world doesn't work that way. They might as well start teaching their kids that lesson now.

[VG Zaytsev]

Are kids actually punished for not reciting the pledge verbatim?

It sounds more like the kid wants everyone to stop saying under god because it offends the precious snowflake.

[John]

No they are not. If they were, there would be a lawsuit over it and rightly so. These people are just whining that their kid has to be different by opting out. Well, tough shit. They are different. That is the whole point isn't it?

[Elspeth Flashman]

So he wants to be part of the group, but have his special-ness recognized by the group, in other words.

[John]

Exactly Elspeth. As I am sure most people on this board know, it is not the easiest path to be a dissenter and to be different. Of course, it not being easy is a lot of the value of doing it.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Couldn't he just say the words he likes and not say the ones he doesn't?

[Andrew S.]

I always stood up and didn't say anything.

But while I don't agree with the lawsuit, I see what they mean. The kid can refuse to participate, but he'll be ostracized for it.

[vazhzsh]

but he'll be ostracized for it.

For not saying the pledge?

You haven't been to school in a long time I see. It's not 1956 anymore.

[John]

Kids are always ostracized for something. That is what kids do to each other. Unless it is the teacher doing it, the parents need to tell their kids to get over it and understand that standing up has a cost.

I went to school where I was one of maybe three kids in my class who didn't go to church at least twice a week. The other kids totally looked at me like I had a horn and tail when they found out I didn't even go to church.

You know what? I got over it and am probably a stronger willed person today for the experience.

[Lord Humungus]

Russia Displays a New Military Prowess in Ukraine's East

Secretary of State John Kerry has accused Russia of behaving in a "19th-century fashion" because of its annexation of Crimea.

But Western experts who have followed the success of Russian forces in carrying out President Vladimir V. Putin's policy in Crimea and eastern Ukraine have come to a different conclusion about Russian military strategy. They see a military disparaged for its decline since the fall of the Soviet Union skillfully employing 21st-century tactics that combine cyberwarfare, an energetic information campaign and the use of highly trained special operation troops to seize the initiative from the West.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They've had the benefit of watching the US flounder around for the last twenty years and developing the best alternatives to our methods.

[Ted S.]

I heard a report from a German broadcaster this morning interviewing a Crimean Tatar famliy who claim one of their members was killed by the Russians for being opposed to the Russian takeover.

I have no idea of how much truth there is in the report.

[Swiss Servator, K?se, K?se!]

"skillfully employing 21st-century tactics that combine cyberwarfare, an energetic information campaign and the use of highly trained special operation troops to seize the initiative from the West."

Oh come on... they walked into an undefended area on the edge of a next-door country that is in internal turmoil. This is not Joe Biden's Big F'in Deal.

[Brett L]

This is just more of the same whipping of war-fervor. 'Those poor Ukranians being menaced by the worlds 2nd most competent army. Luckily, we have the first most competent army and we need to send it to kick the shit out of those meanies.'

[Brett L]

Lawyering up for the Republican takeover? Obama hires former Clinton lawyer as chief counsel.

[The Late P Brooks]

"The economy is still the main issue in the 2014 election, impacting the mood of the country, driving likely voter turnout, and defining what is at stake," the duo writes, adding that, to date, the way Democrats have talked about the economy has failed to connect with voters.

Bear with me here. Maybe I'm crazy, but perhaps the American peoples are not so oblivious to cause and effect as Carville would like to believe.

[Brett L]

Ehhh.... You say that, and I hope that, but its more the hope of a divorced guy getting engaged again. Probably, I'm just giving half my shit to someone I don't know I hate, but maybe not.

[Raven Nation]

I'd be more optimistic if Team Red was offering any kind of coherent, free market economic alternative.

[VG Zaytsev]

Maybe I'm crazy, but perhaps the American peoples are not so oblivious to cause and effect as Carville would like to believe.

The voters of Detroit haven't made the connection in over 40 years.

[John]

Not true. Lots of them made that connection. They just left the city and were no longer voters.

[Swiss Servator, K?se, K?se!]

"Voted with their feet"

[Lord Humungus]

2 Executions in Oklahoma Are Stayed, Ending Tussle

The Oklahoma Supreme Court stayed the imminent executions of two murderers late Monday, ending a Kafkaesque legal showdown in which courts argued over jurisdiction even though the prisoners had successfully challenged the legality of the state's secrecy in obtaining lethal drugs.

On Monday, lawyers for Clayton Lockett, who was to be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and Charles Warner, who was to be executed at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, filed the latest of several appeals to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, asking it to set aside its odd jurisdiction battle and grant a delay while there was still time.

[Ted S.]

I'm opposed to the death penalty, but why not just use a firing squad or build a guillotine?

[Rich]

Chicago public schools are set to introduce a new Afro-centric curriculum.

Students will learn that Africans populated the Americas well before Columbus and will be introduced to "critical race theory," which holds that institutional racism and white privilege are pervasive throughout society.

Just provoking discussion!

[tarran]

BWA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah, we touched on that on the TI thread last night.

Bunch of pseudo-intellectual garbage.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The seven scariest words in the left-wing arsenal:

You need to keep an open mind.

[Damned Fool]

"Open minds, like open wounds, are prone to infection." - a friend of mine

[Tejicano]

I like the one I read on-line : "Don't keep your mind so open that your brains fall out."

[Brett L]

Eh. If the students learn this curriculum as well as they learned the previous one, there's no danger of these ideas ever taking root.

[Rich]

Good point.

[wareagle]

okay..THAT was funny.

[John]

I wish that anyone could ever make the point of how profoundly racist that is. That program is saying black kids are not capable of learning like white kids and have to be given a special program designed to make them feel good about themselves instead of learn any useful skills. It is white supremacy at its paternalistic worst.

[Rich]

black kids are not capable of learning like white kids

Not at all, John.

They are merely "differently abled".

[John]

Black kids are "differently abled" and can't be expected to learn like white kids. Nothing racist about that.

[Rich]

Diverse!

[wareagle]

and what is it that we say about progs and projection? There's your sign.

[Brett L]

Just pick out all the great things the Irish did. I think, in their entirety it comes down to a couple of monasteries so remote they never got the memo recopying Greek writings because they had literally nothing else to do. And yet, nobody worries about Irish-centric curricula. (Of course, if you grew up in a classic second-wave Irish family, the Irish actually ruled the world several times once granddad got in his cups, so maybe we did get the Irish-centric raising at home.)

[John]

How about you appreciate things regardless of who did them. I don't have a drop of Italian or Greek blood in me. Yet, I still manage to appreciate Michelangelo's David and The Iliad.

Indeed, every Prog I know prides themselves on their ability to appreciate the accomplishments of other cultures. Do Progs think black children are inferior and can't do that?

[Brett L]

Most of us need role models with whom we can identify. In that sense, it is well-intentioned. And, frankly, lots of people without the best intentions of young, urban, black people have spent a lot of time telling them that they come from a different, inferior culture. The right answer, as you say, is to teach people that culture isn't about outsides, but it sure does help if you can lead people down that path. Given the relative lack of written records and archaeological evidence, it is probably quite challenging to find real, historical examples of sub-Saharan Africans who weren't transported as prisoners or their descendants. You can say "who cares", but its harder for 12 year olds.

However, making things up whole cloth is exactly the path to Hell that good intentions in the absence of good sense creates. Nothing good will come of this except, perhaps, some young men and women getting so incensed at the bullshit that they seek the truth on their own.

[John]

I agree with you about role models. I don't see how role models have to look like you. Maybe in our society with its racial history, black kids do. Even if that is true, making shit up is about as insulting to black culture as anything you could do. There are lots of great black role models.

These people are so terrified that the truth might not fit the narrative, they let the truth die to replace it with lies.

[Brett L]

Like I say, if you are teaching history before 1800, its tough to find Africans to discuss (and most teachers are lazy). I agree, you could have a completely race free discussion. You could talk about how Hannibal used Numidian cavalry to fight Rome to a standstill for several decades. How Africa has been continuously colonizing Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar since Carthage became the dominant Phoenician colony. There's lots of things you could do, but it requires learning some history.

You could set up the parallels of Greek and Roman slave markets for war captives and the 16th century market that suddenly opened up to the Portugese, etc. I can think of lots of ways to engage black students in substantive discussions of history of people whom they might be descended.

I think you are right. This will do nothing but harm to the students it is tried on, but I get the intention.

[John]

The irony is that these idiots are obsessed with oppression and there are a million stories of amazingly courageous black people who fought and overcame incredible oppression in this country. How about we just have every high school student in America black or white read the autobiography of Frederick Douglas? That might be a good start. He seems like a pretty good role model to me.

[trshmnster the terrible]

But he was an oreo because he didn't embrace hip-hop culture, and besides, that was written like 100 years ago!

/grievance prog

[Ted S.]

And yet, nobody worries about Irish-centric curricula.

Ten years or so ago the Irish-Americans here in New York were trying to get the "potato famine was genocide" put into the curriculum. I pointed out to my mother who is of Irish descent that the Ukrainian famine really was genocide and killed far more people, so perhaps that should be in the curriculum first. She wasn't very pleased.

[Damned Fool]

Progs need someone to feel better than so they can get their inner noblesse oblige on. I should know, I'm surrounded by aspiring lawyers and politicians and public planners.

[sarcasmic]

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They're just preparing them for college.

[John]

Maybe they should include crushing student loan debt as part of the program then.

[Tejicano]

And from what little I have gleamed about this "theory" is that the Toltec/Aztec culture was founded by Africans. I have no idea why anybody would want to claim that. If the Aztec culture was not the most blood drenched society which fed on mass human suffering it was definitely in the top five. For those who know the details it isn't difficult to argue that it deserved to be wiped from the face of the earth.

[John]

The Aztecs were about a hundred times worse to the smaller tribes around them than the Spanish ever were. They were a horror show right out Hollywood.

[WTF]

Sure, which is why the Spaniards had thousands of warriors recruited from the neighboring tribes fighting with them to help conquer the Aztecs.

[Raven Nation]

Here ya go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....ished_work

Interestingly, when this work came out, Native American cultures went ballistic pointing out, correctly I think, that it was dissing their cultural achievements.

[John]

RN,

The Prog cartoon of the Indians being these groovy savages who lived in "harmony" with nature is utterly insulting. The Indians farmed and altered the land just as much as the Western settlers did. They were a civilization with all that implies. As someone who has always had a fascination with real Indian culture, I find the Prog fairy tell to be particularly grating and frankly racist.

[Raven Nation]

True. And the picture you describe is pretty much the way academics teach early American history now. Still heavy on European conquest narrative but acknowledging the violent nature of Indian society as well as its culture, etc.

The Van Sertima myth is really extreme since it basically argued that all the massive architectural & scientific accomplishments of Toltecs, etc. was because of African voyagers who arrived here and taught them. Fortunately, it was pretty widely criticized by the academy.

[John]

I was thinking about Obama's new found commitment to using his clemency power for drug offenders. I really think that this is a good example of how you can have an effect without actually winning an election. Regardless of what you think his chances of winning are, Rand Paul is a force in the Republican party. I have no doubt that if Paul ever became President he would use his clemency power and at the end of his four years there would be fewer black people in federal prison than at the beginning. The Democrats would not be a viable national party if the Republicans ever got even 30% of the black vote. I absolutely think that the thought of a Republican President freeing hundreds or thousands of non violent and mostly black drug offenders puts the fear of God in them. So now they have to beat the Republicans to the punch and do something so that if that ever does happen they can claim "he is just continuing what we started."

[The Late P Brooks]

will be introduced to "critical race theory," which holds that institutional racism and white privilege are pervasive throughout society.

That should help.

[John]

Nothing encourages hard work and dedication like telling someone the entire system is set up to ensure that they fail.

[WTF]

And that all their failures are someone else's fault.

[Suthenboy]

^This.

[Lord Humungus]

Black Students In Seattle Are Suspended Or Expelled 5 Times More Often Than White Students

More than 15 percent of black students in Seattle were suspended from school for at least one day in 2013, according to data from the non-profit group Washington Appleseed. That compares to just over 3 percent of white students. Native Americans fared nearly as badly in Seattle's schools ? just under 15 percent of Native students were suspended. While Asians were the one ethnic group suspended less often than white children.

This data comes from a broader examination of suspension and expulsion rates from nine different school districts in Washington state. In each of the districts examined by Washington Appleseed, African Americans were significantly more likely to be suspended than white students, although Seattle had far and away the worst racial disparities. In other districts examined by this study, black students were anywhere from 1.68 times to 3.31 times as likely to be suspended or expelled as white students.

[OldMexican]

Those guys are sure rowdy.

[John]

I would like to see the number for black boys. I bet that is where most of the difference is. I bet it is not that high for black girls.

The problem is racist white feminists who want to criminalize the male nature and that disparately impacts black boys.

[tarran]

It's not just that....

Ghetto culture plays a role too. Judging from the stories my son brings back from his school, a large contingent of the black students, male and female, are very focused on being at the top of the pecking order, literally. They bully people seemingly on the principle that only by putting other people down does a person have any status, and that if one is successfully thwarted or resisted then that means one has lost an unacceptable degree of status. It's not different than chickens pecking each other to establish dominance.

Naturally, these are the people who view black students who don't act in ways concordant with this ghetto culture as oreos.

And the zero tolerance policies encourage their behavior, since their victims tend to be punished alongside of the victimizers, except the victimizers don't change their behavior while the victims are hurt by the punishment.

I think the fear of being called out for disciplining students in a way that has a disparate racial impact is hindering the situationally based discipline that administrators need to deploy to deal effectively with the different cultural attitudes towards school, working with others, bullying etc that students bring to their schools.

OF course, repealing the LBJ Great Society programs that have gutted the black middle class and encouraged the rise of ghetto culture would help too. While I am dreaming I'd also like a pony for my daughter. 🙂

[John]

Culture is a huge problem. And one of the biggest drivers of that culture is the complete lack of in tact families and a father. The fact is that boys suffer the most from not having a father around. Without a father they never learn how to properly channel their aggressive and masculine energies.

The worst thing of all that we do to young men in this society and young black men in particular is that we allow this idea that being "masculine" means never letting someone "disrespect you" and to get into physical confrontations with strangers over perceived slights. That is why Trayvon Martin is dead. He got offended by some guy following him and confronted him and sadly for Martin the guy he confronted was terrified and had a gun. If you never learn how to walk away from confrontation either you are eventually going to really harm someone and end up in jail or you will run into the wrong person and end up dead. Our entire popular culture sometimes seems built around ensure as many young black men as possible never learn that lesson.

[Suthenboy]

"While I am dreaming I'd also like a pony for my daughter. :)"

Be careful what you wish for. My first guess is that you have never had a hay burner.

I ran into a woman at Tractor Supply the other day. I was looking over into the crates where they had chicks, ducklings and rabbits. She came up to me and said that last year she was in charge of the Easter Egg hunt at her church. She had bought a bunch of dyed chicks to give the children as prizes. She said after the hunt the parents were so angry at her that they threatened to kick her out of the church.

[Brett L]

Never gives something that eats to someone outside your own family.

[Ted S.]

That's only five times as often, or four times more often.

If two things happen at equal percentage rates, do you say one of them is "one time more likely" to happen?

(I'm not criticizing you, LH, since the faulty wording is in the original headline.)

[vazhzsh]

Then maybe go nitpick it there instead?

[mr simple]

Those numbers do not say what the headline says they say unless there are an equal number of black and white students. We can know nothing of the situation unless we look at actual numbers and get down to suspension rates for the same violations. I haven't read this study, but I'm guessing it's nonsense made to push the narrative.

[Lord Humungus]

Via Ezra Klein:

Two degrees
How the world failed on climate change

Around this time, an advisory council of scientists in Germany proposed a stunningly simple way to think about climate change. Look, they reasoned, human civilization hasn't been around all that long. And for the last 130,000 years, Earth's climate has fluctuated within a narrow band. So, to be on the safe side, we should prevent global average temperatures from rising more than 2? Celsius (or 3.6? Fahrenheit) above what they were just before the dawn of industrialization.

Critics grumbled that the 2?C limit seemed arbitrary or overly simplistic. But scientists were already compiling evidence that the risks of global warming became especially daunting somewhere above the 2?C threshold: rapid sea-level rise, the risk of crop failure, the collapse of coral reefs. And policymakers loved the idea of a simple, easily digestible target. So it stuck.

[Brett L]

I can't bear to read this idiot's "analysis" on something far too complex for him, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he argues that the climate is actually more sensitive and that dramatic action is needed by TOP. MEN. (with whom he just happens to rub elbows) who need to be given more power NOW.

[John]

I wish someone would tell Ezra to drop the juice box and get a real job for a few years and then come back and try to explain the world to the rest of us. It is just pathetic anyone listens to that clown.

[OldMexican]

But scientists were already compiling evidence that the risks of global warming became especially daunting somewhere above the 2?C threshold: rapid sea-level rise, the risk of crop failure, the collapse of coral reefs.

Now, if only the Earth was nice enough to cooperate with the doomsayers, everything would be hunky-dory!

[Suthenboy]

Bingo.

[Lord Humungus]

should have added that Ezra didn't write the article - just tweeted it
Tweet

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This fucker will be 50 years old and still yapping about this in the future long after it ceased being an issue.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This fucker will be 50 years old and still yapping about this in the future long after it ceased being an issue.

[Ted S.]

But will he be double-posting about it when he's 50? :-p

[Ted S.]

How the world failed on climate change

Yes, the world failed to change the climate.

[WTF]

And for the last 130,000 years, Earth's climate has fluctuated within a narrow band.

Wait, wut?

[Lord Humungus]

why there is almost a pattern there...

[Elspeth Flashman]

Michigan man calls judge a liar, receives two life sentences.

With time ticking away on his freedom, Ryan Wyngarden spent more than an hour blaming just about everyone involved in his double-murder case. First, he accused detectives of coercing his wife, the key witness, who testified against him.

http://www.freep.com/article/2.....conviction

Ryan Wyngarden, the man convicted of murdering his sister and brother in-law was given two life sentences in an Ottawa County courtroom on Monday.

[Brett L]

It sounds like it might not have been causative.

[John]

Considering how many people are convicted and later turn out to be innocent, who is to say he is wrong?

[tarran]

The evidence is entirely the testimony of his wife: that he had led her to the bodies and shown them prior to their discovery:

Pam instead told the court that after Gail and Rick Brink were killed on Nov. 21, 1987 he took her to see the bodies before they were found on Nov. 23.
At that point they had only known one another since about August. They married roughly two years later in 1989.

[John]

How did he not claim spousal privilege and keep that out? I didn't see the trial, but I would want more than that if I were on the jury.

[invisible furry hand]

They weren't married at the time of the disclosure, so no spousal privilege, surely

[John]

Correct. So it was his ex wife. Yeah, nothing fishy about an ex wife's testimony.

[tarran]

Because they weren't married; they got married two years later.

AS far as I can tell, the evidence is that as a 12 - 15 year old he and his 9 - 12 yo sister messed around a little sexually, and when he was older he felt guilty about it.

The prosecutors claim that he couldn't stand the fact his sister married another man and gunned them both down.

The wife claims shortly after they started dating, and two years before she married him, he showed her the bodies prior to the cops discovering them.

To me her actions make no sense; at the start of your romantic relationship, the dude shows you the corpse of the sister he killed, and you keep dating him?

My bullshit detector is alarming like crazy.

[John]

yeah. You found out that your boyfriend screwed his sister as a child and later gunned down her and her husband in a fit of jealousy and he even shows you the bodies and you still marry him? Better yet, you marry him and then somehow after the cops get ahold of you you come clean? You were willing to marry him but then later decide you want to rat him out? Bullshit. No way no how.

[Rich]

Under OPM rules, Sebelius, who was sworn into office on April 28, 2009, would be eligible to receive [taxpayer-funded health-care] benefits after completing five years of continuous service in the federal government. While she announced her resignation on April 11, Sebelius does not mark her five-year anniversary with the federal government until April 28. Her successor is not expected to be sworn in until after that date.

Slick move to avoid applying for Democratcare!

[Tim]

DARPA designing computer to replace/reduce air crew.
"Now DARPA has an answer. The Pentagon's research arm is developing a sophisticated, drop-in autopilot that can replace as many as five crew members of a military aircraft, and turn the pilot into a high-level "mission supervisor" issuing commands through a touch screen.

The Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program is a tailorable, removable kit that will assist in all phases of aircraft flight ? even dealing with emergency system failures in-flight. The agency says the system will reduce pilot workload, augment mission performance and improve aircraft safety"

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/d.....autopilot/

[Lord Humungus]

Charles Cooke: The 'Royal' Clinton Baby
The U.S. media treat America's powerful families as untitled nobility.

Which is to say that America has not succeeded fully in abolishing titles of nobility, because Americans are human beings and human beings like nobility ? formally titled or not. When Good Morning America's Bianna Golodryga squealed last week that Chelsea Clinton's pregnancy would afford American citizens the opportunity to count down the days until "their own royal or, rather, presidential baby" was born, she was not merely betraying her own excitement but revealing something hardcoded into the human condition. So too Annie Groer of the Washington Post, who exclaimed that the news of Clinton's unborn child constituted "not quite a royal baby announcement, but a pretty big deal" nonetheless.

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, I should say that it is not at all clear to me why it is a "pretty big deal" that a married woman whose father was president one and a half decades ago is going to have a child ? especially given that there is no throne that requires filling. Still, I accept that I am an outlier. As Golodryga, Groer, and the whole cast of reporters who leaped merrily onto the story demonstrated, the myth of Camelot still looms large in the American psyche.

[John]

It is only a "pretty big deal" to the media. I don't think it is a big deal to anyone else, regardless of their political views. The media have become the royal court to Democratic politicians. Even Democratic voters are not as bad as the media has become.

[Aloysious]

"Royal Clinton Baby"

Bah.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I don't give two flying fucks about the Clinton baby. However, I still find it amazing that Bill managed to impregnate Hillary.

[Brett L]

Have you seen the other women he has been associated with? The man is a slummer. He obviously has the charisma to screw supermodels and he picks... yeah.

[trshmnster the terrible]

NTTAWWT?

[Zeb]

He and Tiger Woods are kindred spirits that way.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I dunno about the untitled bit. It galls me that media members continue to use titles like congressman, speaker, etc. when addressing former holders of those elected offices, and the individuals play right along with it.

[VG Zaytsev]

The unidentified family filed the suit with the American Humanist Association, claiming that including the words "under God" in the pledge violates New Jersey's constitution.

Because it falsely implies a power higher than the state, which deserves and demands the unwavering loyalty and obediance of all.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I'm much more troubled by the administration of a loyalty oath in public schools than by some vague invocation of God, though I don't think that is appropriate for public schools either.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I think it's ironic that the religious right promotes the pledge as written so fervently is based on the same Christian faith that says "But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all" and "Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do" and "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other."

Rational Christians would be boycotting the Hell out of the pledge because it involves loyalty to another master, the country. However, in SoCon "Christianity" America is the new Israel.

[Zeb]

Only Quakers seem to really take that bit to heart.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Last-minute reprieve: Incredible moment an Iranian killer is spared execution by his victim's mother. . . with the noose already round his neck

"Murderer was due to have chair kicked away by victim's mother and father

"But mother instead slaps him around the face and chooses to forgive him

"Convict's jubilant mother rushes over and embraces the grieving woman

"She had change of heart after her dead son appeared to her in a dream"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rents.html

[The Late P Brooks]

to be on the safe side, we should prevent global average temperatures from rising more than 2? Celsius (or 3.6? Fahrenheit) above what they were just before the dawn of industrialization.

How does the "party of science" justify their fetishization of stasis?

[Rich]

fetishization of stasis

Nice band name.

[sarcasmic]

Lana Del Rey is besieged by admiring fans at Coachella as she jumps into the crowd in plunging mini dress

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....crowd.html
She sure looks good (not that the guys in the pic would care, they look queerer than a three dollar bill). Now if only she could sing.

[John]

I think Lana is a serious babe. I never got the hate for her. Her music isn't bad. Since when is a woman using her looks in the music industry some kind of shock?

[sarcasmic]

I never got the hate for her.

So saying her music sucks is the same as hating her as a person? Really?

Her music isn't bad.

You're right. It's terrible.

[John]

There was a lot more hate for Rey than just her music. She is the daughter of some hedge fund manager. Her dad bought her into the music industry. She is hated on a very personal level.

As far as her music, it is no worse and sometimes better than Katy Perry or Avril Lavine or any of the other white girl pop stars out there. Yet, no one hates on them.

[sarcasmic]

As far as her music, it is no worse and sometimes better than Katy Perry or Avril Lavine or any of the other white girl pop stars out there.

I COMPLETELY disagree there. Those two produce catchy tunes with a beat. Rey is a crooner. She doesn't even sing. She softly mumbles. Every song is morbidly slow. Granted I haven't heard every song of hers, but without exception every one I've heard sucked. I can't say that about Perry or Lavine.

[John]

No accounting for taste I guess. Not that any of it is good. But Del Ray doesn't bother me. Perry and Lavine in particular make me want to gouge my ear drums out to make it stop.

It all sucks. I just don't see how Rey sucks any worse than the rest of it.

[sarcasmic]

I just don't see how Rey sucks any worse than the rest of it.

Pop is supposed to be fun. Her music is not fun. It's depressing.

[Zeb]

Gloomy weirdos need pop music too.

[John]

That is right Zeb. If they didn't, how would the Cure or Morrisey ever had a career?

[lap83]

I find most pop music depressing, but then I'm weird.

[Restoras]

To me it's mostly just uninteresting and unimaginative. Occasioanly I like pop tunes if the singer actually has a good voice and the tune is catchy, but otherwise - here today, gone tomorrow.

[Zeb]

I hate Katy Perry. I have no idea what Lana Del Rey sounds like.

[Brett L]

Like a 45 played at 33 of Katy Perry.

[John]

Sounds like an improvement to me.

[lap83]

It's not the fact that her dad bought her into the music industry so much as the fact that he bought her into the ALTERNATIVE music industry. Hipsters take their music very seriously, it's practically a religion to them. So they love to hate musicians in their preferred genre who don't have the right "integrity". They don't care about Katy Perry or Avril Lavigne because they're not trying to be indie.

[lap83]

As for me, I dislike all of their music. Although Lana's music doesn't grate on me as much as the other two.

[John]

That is is lap83. If Rey had been a rich girl who just took her daddies money to make idiotic kuzoo records while living in Williamsburg, she would be a hipster icon. But that she took the money and used it to make an actual record is something that can never be forgiven.

Of course the whole affair of hipsters, who by definition live a subsidized lifestyle, bitching about Rey using her father's money to get into the music industry further proves there is no such thing as peak irony.

[John]

I like her as a brunette there better than I like her as a blond.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Michigan could be first state to use roadside saliva test for marijuana use & impairment.

Under a bill proposed in Lansing, Michigan could become the first state to adopt a roadside saliva test that aims to tell police if a driver is impaired due to consuming marijuana.

Saliva testing is being pushed by a bipartisan group of Michigan legislators and championed by the Michigan State Police. But researchers who've studied the test method said results are inconsistent and especially misleading when applied to regular users of cannabis, such as the more than 100,000 Michiganders who are allowed to use medical marijuana.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.....-marijuana

[John]

Doesn't pot stay in your saliva and blood long long after the effects of using it have worn off?

[Zeb]

I don't know about saliva. The metabolites can stay in your blood for weeks.

[John]

Yes. Depending on how young you are and your body fat content, it will stay in your urine for weeks or even months. Even a young person with a low body fat will be peeing out the metabolite for 10 or 15 days after use.

[gaijin]

Yes. Which is why the impairment argument seems tenuous.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They don't care about that.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Surprising to me that they are floating this bill, since the Michigan Supreme Court doesn't think random roadside sobriety tests are constitutional. But, as the article said "law enforcement wants all tools it can have" or something like that (I'm paraphrasing).

[Lord Humungus]

Militarized police may be in a town near you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im66lCgZrbc

"Now ask yourself: What sort of person would be attracted to a career in law enforcement based on the images and activities depicted in that video? And is that the sort of person you'd want wearing a badge and carrying a gun in your neighborhood?" Balko asked in the online edition of the Washington Post.

"The video isn't disturbing only because of the type of police officer it's likely to attract. It also suggests that the leadership in the Hobbs police department believes that these are the aspects of police work most worth touting ? that this is the face they want to project to the community," Balko said in the civil liberties and the criminal justice blog that he writes called "The Watch."

[Lord Humungus]

oops, SFed the Youtube link:

YouTube

[Suthenboy]

Christ, that is some straight-up jackboot. They could have saved money by not making that video and just use old footage of the SS.

[sarcasmic]

Victoria Justice shows off svelte figure in midriff-baring bohemian crop top and Daisy Dukes as she parties with Cody Simpson at Coachella

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....hella.html
sarc likes svelte. Yum.

[sarcasmic]

Now there's no reason to get lost! Designer spends TWO YEARS creating the ultimate road map of America - detailing EVERY highway in 48 states

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tra.....tates.html
That's actually kinda cool.

[sarcasmic]

Pictured: Skydiver, 49, who plunged to his death landing in a family's yard during an Easter egg hunt after his parachute failed
Arkady Shenker, 49, of Brooklyn, died after his parachute failed during a skydive on Sunday
Shenker, an experienced skydiver, landed in the backyard of a New Jersey home
He was using a special 'wing suit' parachute
He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead soon after
Freefall Adventures continued to take skydivers up just hours after the tragedy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ailed.html
Well, I can think of worse ways to go.

[Ted S.]

Well, I can think of worse ways to go.

Yeah; eight skydivers died in Finland.

[Sevo]

But 'they died doing what they loved!'
Getting their bones broken and their insides crushed?
And how come the guy who dies at 75 after smoking his entire life never gets the 'he died doing something he loved!' bit?

[sarcasmic]

Because you're not allowed to love smoking. That would imply that there is something pleasurable about it, or that people enjoy it. No, every smoker is a slave. They all smoke under duress of teh corporations.

[Sevo]

And do we pay for this?:

"Bay Area climber falls from Yosemite face"
[...]
"A crew of CHP officers and National Park Service responders flew a helicopter to the injured climber and hoisted him aboard."

[Sevo]

Oops, link:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....418884.php

[OldMexican]

A family is suing a New Jersey school district and its superintendent over the use of the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance recited by students.

"We want to return to the old socialist pledge with the raised arm salute and everything!"

Just get rid of the pledge once and for all.

[creech]

Kid, handle it like many libertarians do: "I pledge allegiance to mumble mumble mumble ...liberty and justice for all."

[db]

If you have to pledge allegiance to an institution (why?), you could try this:

"I pledge allegiance to my Self
And to the principles of liberty and reason.
And to any Republic that shares these aims, supportive of freedom, rejecting slavery and theft, as long as it shall remain true to them."

[Tejicano]

I should come up with some alternative nonsense words that they could repeat and be difficult to notice in a group. The problem would be keeping a straight face.

"I pledge ali just chew the fag, up - duh, you might've stayed in America..."

[sarcasmic]

Special needs student facing two felony charges after school calls police for assistance - and he's only EIGHT-years-old!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....s-old.html
Warning, imbedded video starts automatically.

[Rich]

He has anger issues.

With all due respect, this is YA catch-all excuse.

Dogs with "anger issues" get muzzled.

[John]

First, maybe mainstreaming kids with serious emotional and physical problems is a really bad idea. The school clearly has no idea how to help this kid.

Beyond that, the police and DA as usual are evil horrible fucks. He is 8 years old and disabled. That is called "lacking mental responsibility". God these people are evil.

[sarcasmic]

NCLB. One of my coworkers has a Downs kid who was mainstreamed. Kept behind for two years because that's all the law will allow. I think he'll be graduating soon. We're talking about a kid who can't talk and barely understands what is being spoken to him, yet he'll be getting a diploma.

[John]

I have an older sister who is mentally handicapped. Don't even get my parents' started on the idiotic commitment to "mainstreaming". Basically there are thousands of "educators" out there who are convinced that people like your coworker's kid or my sister could be totally normal if we just treated them like they were.

They put these kids in horrible environments they don't understand and can't cope with so that they can feel good about themselves and live in their fantasy world. Road to hell paved and all of that.

[Zeb]

Some kids definitely benefot from mainstreaming. But they really have to have sufficient emotional control and a reasonable ability to do things for themselves, I think. Using high schools to house the severely mentally disabled until they get too old seems half-assed and pointless in many cases.

[John]

Some kids do Zeb. The problem is that rather than leaving that very fact specific determination to the parents and the educators involved, we pass uniform rules that enforce one decision on everyone.

[sarcasmic]

Pictured: Wife gunned down by NYPD cop husband 'for having an affair'
A 40-year-old woman was shot dead Saturday morning in her Queens home
Police arrested 43-year-old Kevin Canty, the woman's husband, a mile away from the home
A four-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy were inside the house when the shooting occurred
A neighbor saw the two children run from the house, yelling, 'Daddy shot Mommy!'
Canty is former NYPD transit cop who retired with a disability last year

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ffair.html
Dumbass. If he'd done it while in uniform, nothing else would have happened.

[John]

Or just had one of his buddies do it in uniform.

[Aloysious]

...retired with a disability last year...

Right. Disability. Sure.

[sarcasmic]

Crip gang member shot dead by court guard as he rushed the witness stand armed with a PEN

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-pen.html
How did he smuggle an assault pen into the courtroom? Damn lax security!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm not seeing the problem here. Violent thug with sharp object charging someone whom he has motivation to hate and/or want dead.

[sarcasmic]

Guard fired eight shots, hitting him twice. Which is more dangerous, a pen or stray bullets?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I guess I should RTFA all the way thru. I blame your reading comprehension privilege.

[Brett L]

Not exactly Raylan Givens.

[Sevo]

Repeat, but a sports team owner pays for his OWN STADIUM!

"Warriors shift arena plans to Mission Bay"
[...]
"the arena will be entirely privately financed - a rare instance of a modern sports venue that would use no taxpayer funds or public land."
http://www.sfgate.com/warriors.....418579.php

[Sudden]

In a great twist of irony, San Francisco is actually among the best cities for having sports teams pay for their own stadiums (ATT Park and now the Warriors stadium)

[Sevo]

It's even better than that: The 9ers' new stadium is in the south bay, since SF was gonna kill the local stadium in the death of a thousand cuts.
That's seems to be the reason the Warriors did so, and it's a pleasure watching the stump pulled right out from under a couple of proggies who just lost their reason to be heard.

[John]

I know. They told the 49ers to pound sand and let them leave for Santa Clara. I guess every place has some virtues.

[Sudden]

I suppose they needed all that money for public sector pensions, inflated salaries, and heroin needles for the bums.

[John]

And free sex change operations.

[Sudden]

The free needles is the thing that pisses me off so much. Living in downtown LA, people are always complaining about the heroin needles that are scattered about the parks near skid row (and they make it as far as my own Pershing Square at times). But those same people seem to lament the "gentrification" pushing the skid row slums into a smaller and smaller radius while still supporting all of these taxpayer handouts to these junkies. (and yet these same people talk about how hopeful they are that Broadway is turning into a street that attracts major retailers because its "ghetto" right now since it is largely small hispanic businesses selling quincera dresses.

[John]

There have to be millions of diabetics who take insulin in this country. Many of them are poor and too sick to work. Yet, they somehow manage to buy clean needles. I don't care if someone wants to be a junkie. That is their business not mine. Anyone that is a junkie and is too stupid or lazy to use a clean needle pretty much is asking for whatever they get. Giving them free needles is not going to save them or make them any smarter.

[Zeb]

It's not always easy to buy a new needle if you don't have a prescription. But that is a problem that is easily solved.

[John]

They manage to get the drugs without a prescription Zeb. That said, it wouldn't be hard to just boil the needles you have and reuse them and keep your own supply that you don't share with other people.

[Zeb]

Some states allow pharmacies to sell needles to anyone, I think, which seems like a good policy.

As I understand it (I have no direct experience), the thing about syringe needles is that even if you don't share and keep them clean, they get dull very quickly. There's a reason why diabetics don't use theirs over and over.
Of course if you are a junkie, that's your problem. But I think allowing sales of needles is a sensible harm reduction move that doesn't require anyone to subsidize junkies.

[Sevo]

"I suppose they needed all that money for public sector pensions, inflated salaries, and heroin needles for the bums."

It's really simple; None of the teams employ enough union workers to lean on the proggies, so you're right about the pensions.

[John]

Anyone else watched the ESPN 30 for 30 on the English soccer disaster at Hillsborough? It is a great film. I remember when that happened. The media totally played it, even in the US, as a case of drunken English soccer hooligans having some kind of riot and killing a bunch of people. That was a complete lie. The disaster was entirely the fault of the English FA using an out of dated and frankly insanely designed stadium and the local police failing at even basic crowd control. It took over 20 years for the truth to come out. The media printed lies slandering innocent people to cover for the police. I guess we know where the US media learned its tricks.

[Restoras]

An appalling miscarriage of justice. Utterly insane. The top cops rival ours for cravenly covering their asses. I hope they burn.

Some of the tragedy I am sure was driven by bad stadium architecture, now rectified at least at the Premiere League level.

[John]

The stadium at that end was general admission. But it has the risers divided into cages surrounded by six foot high spiked fence. There actually were not any more people there than the listed capacity of that end. It was that they were all funneled into these small areas and couldn't get out. It was insane.

And oddly enough, the Bobbies themselves come off really well in the film. They did everything they could and told the truth about what happened. It was the leadership that later rewrote their witness statements and told them to shut up or else.

In America of course, the beat cops would not have had to have been told to lie. Of course they would have been seen on TV clubbing fans like seals as they tried to escape onto the pitch.

[Rhywun]

"My bad!"

[John]

Disgraceful

[Sevo]

Hours and hours of billable time coming up:

"A mission for the Mission: Preserve Latino legacy for future"
[...]
"Longtime neighbors want to put a halt to those dramatic changes and make sure the area's cultural, architectural and artistic history is maintained."
http://www.sfgate.com/politics.....419370.php

One of the 'problems' with the Mission District is it popularity coupled with a limited housing supply. I'm sure this will really help keep the costs down.

[John]

For sure. They can restrict the housing and then when only super rich internet trash can afford to live there, they can then move on to protesting the lack of neighborhood diversity. That is called job security.

[John]

And if you ever want to really stick it to a prog, mention the complete eviction of the once thriving San Fransisco black community to them. Bait them a little bit and bring the topic of San Fransisco up and let them wax philosophical about how wonderful and tolerant it is. Then, get your best righteous anger on and talk about how angry it makes you that the black community no longer exists and how blacks were evicted for rich white people to gentrify the entire city. It shut them up real quick.

[lap83]

That reminds me of today's Thomas Sowell column. He wrote about policies, such as open space laws, that restrict housing. http://townhall.com/columnists.....188/page/2
One of many great examples that the GOP, if it was smart, would latch onto to show how liberals mistreat poor people.

[Suthenboy]

"see if you want" .......... "to me, it's just not the quality of life we want ...."

Shorter Chris Christy - "I will tell you what you like"

[John]

My perceived quality of life is more important than your freedom. Don't you understand that?