Grimm Indicted, NBA to Respond to Clippers Scandal, Tenn. Deputy Fired for Choking Guy: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: John Messner

  Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been indicted on 20 federal charges involving an alleged tax evasion scheme connected to his New York restaurant, horrifyingly named Healthalicious. He has pleaded not guilty and said he will not be resigning his seat.

• Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) announced he will not seek out another term after being caught on video kissing a married female aide.
• The National Basketball Association (NBA) will hold a press conference tomorrow to respond to the growing firestorm over private racist comments by Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
• A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication. Two other deputies have been placed on leave.
• Hundreds more Egyptians have been sentenced to death for connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, including the organization's supreme leader. This comes after most of the death sentences previously handed down to another large group of Egyptians were commuted to life in prison.
• Syrian President Bashir al-Assad is running for re-election in the midst of his country's civil war. He is expected to win. Many of those who fled the country through "unofficial" channels will not be allowed to vote.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been indicted on 20 federal charges involving an alleged tax evasion scheme connected to his New York restaurant...

Things are looking - wait for it - grim for a certain REPUBLICAN.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Miss me?

Of course not.

Bunch-a-low-lives.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Where'd you go?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Been busy.

'Working.'

[waffles]

You monster.

[Andrew S.]

::puts on sunglasses::

YEEEEEAH!

Good afternoon all. I survived the boozeless birthday party for my daughter. Didn't go too badly.

In a couple of weeks I'm taking her to a friend's birthday party that's at something advertised as a princess palace. I may not survive that one.

[gimmeasammich]

"Bring me the royal mead!"

-Andrew S.

[Rich]

Like the Bunny Ranch princess palace?! COOL!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Andrew. From Philly, right? Right.

What part of town is the best to book a hotel in 'delphia?

[Andrew S.]

I moved away from Philly in April 2005, so anything I might tell you is woefully out of date. That and I lived in the suburbs. But it depends on what you want to do. The times I've been back I've stayed somewhere in Center City, usually closer to the historic district.

[C. Anacreon]

I'm not Andrew, but I've stayed in hotels in Philly three times in the last year on bizness. The whole central downtown area is filled with decent hotels, at much better prices than NYC or DC. I stayed at the Marriott, the Ritz-Carlton and the Embassy Suites. Embassy Suites I had to pay for myself, but it was a pretty good deal for a big 2-room suite right near all the action.

[sloopyinca]

Embassy Suites are always the best because they're part of the Hilton chain and they have the greatest hotel marketing plan in the civilized world.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

S, will definitely look into it.

[Bobarian]

^^ This! Two hours of free booze and snacks are the bomb.

[The Last American Hero]

The breakfast the morning after is fantastic as well, but you have to drag your carcass out of bed in time.

Eggs to order.

[Brandon]

You yankees can never spell "bidness" correctly.

[Ted S.]

I don't think there is a good part of town in Philly to book a hotel.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Thanks, Ted. Helpful in the usual dead-pan way.

C.Anacreon. Thanks too.

Andrew, well. Not sure. We're there one or two nights. Looking at taking a Phillies game. Even though I loathe them - going back to the Expos days.

[Ted S.]

More seriously, the only times I've been to Philly, it wsa in conjunction with events at UPenn, so I stayed in that area. It didn't seem terribly dodgy, but doing the historical area stuff was a bitch.

[Max Power]

I live in Philly, and I second Sloopy on the Embassy Suites. It's not super expensive and they have the free happy hour. It's on the Ben Franklin Parkway, so you can walk to a lot of places and it's right near the Art Museum so you can run up the steps like Rocky and that's a pretty safe part of the city. You can email me at the address in my handle if you have any Philly-related questions.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's a solid email address.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I may take you on that. Thanks.

[Sevo]

"What part of town is the best to book a hotel in 'delphia?"

Pittsburgh.

[Bobarian]

Wrong! Still in Pennsylvania.

[The DerpRider]

I survived picking paint colors. However, my not found in Michigan beer stash took quite a hit.

[Mad Scientist]

So, what color did she pick?

[Rich]

Black, right? Please say black!

[The DerpRider]

Butter cream...

[Ted S.]

Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...

Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?

Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.

Mr. PeDelford: Check.

[Big Chief]

Great movie, great scene.

[Marshall Gill]

In a couple of weeks I'm taking her to a friend's birthday party that's at something advertised as a princess palace. I may not survive that one.

I went to something like this sober, once. Ever since, even if it is 10:00 in the morning, I get nice and relaxed. You can not slash your wrists with the My Little Pony scissors, I know, so don't think you can get out that way.

*Downs glass of straight whiskey*

Damn, even thinking about it gave me the willies.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

How do you know if it's the right castle?

[prolefeed]

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been indicted on 20 federal charges involving an alleged tax evasion scheme connected to his New York restaurant, horrifyingly named Healthalicious. He has pleaded not guilty and said he will not be resigning his seat.

Wait a minute -- you mean a cash-heavy business like a restaurant might not report all that cash to the IRS?

I am shocked. Next thing you will be telling me that waiters and waitresses often don't report cash tips.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication.

All that back pay is going to come in handy in a few months.

[Mad Scientist]

Lately, it seems more of these articles report the cop has been fired rather then the usual "and nothing else happened."

[Tonio]

Yes, but those firings are often reversed once the union has something to say about it. Call me cynical but this is just a PR move. Fire the cop immediately to give the appearance of having done something, but knowing full well the firing will be reversed.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd like to see an organization formed that just tracked the quiet follow-up to these kinds of actions. Oh, he was re-hired, was he?

[Tonio]

Well, you could start one.

[Pro Libertate]

I just did, didn't I?

[Mad Scientist]

Undoubtedly true, but isn't the net effect that cops will tend to reign in their ire at least a little?

[Mad Scientist]

Dammit, rein, not reign.

[Almanian!]

No, I think they "reign" over the civilians. That works.

[gimmeasammich]

I prefer reign, as in Reign in Blood.

[Rich]

As opposed to rein in their ire? You bet!

[Pro Libertate]

Rain on their Eire?

[Suthenboy]

The first time this was posted there were a number of photos. Just before the kid passes out it appears from the look on the cops face that he is having an orgasm. No shit.

I criticize my wife's taste in tv because she likes cop shows that feature a parade of depravity. I thought that the depravity they portrayed was over the top, but I guess not. The problem is that in real life the cops are the sick fucks doing it.

[Swiss Servator ...nichts]

So much for the hat tip I had eagerly hoped for....

http://reason.com/blog/2014/04.....nt_4475451

[Bobarian]

Nobody's given good hat tips since Lu...

She-who-must-not-be-mentioned left.

[Injun, as in from India]

A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication. Two other deputies have been placed on leave.

Don't worry. With his incredible experience, he will find another law-enforcement job with a different agency. If it's not the city, he will be the county. If not the county, it will be the state or the feds.

[wareagle]

come on, man. Can't we just enjoy that, for a change, a cop was actually held accountable and lost his job?

[gimmeasammich]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[sloopyinca]

I'll consider him being "held accountable" when he is brought up on attempted murder or at least ADW charges (with a firearm enhancer) and the other two deputies that held his victim while he choked him out are brought up as accessories.

[Tonio]

^This.

[The Last American Hero]

See, there's no such thing as a good cop.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hundreds more Egyptians have been sentenced to death for connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, including the organization's supreme leader.

You have to admit, the mid-terms would be much more interesting if this fate was waiting for the losers.

[Ted S.]

Why can't it be waiting for the winners, too?

[Rich]

Barbarian!

Just ban them from political activity for life.

[PD Scott]

The finest new whisky in the world comes from under a bridge in Waco.

[Root Boy]

Hmm. TX is becoming a nice land of spirits. Tito's is awesome and now this. I'm sure there is a good tequila on the way as well (though for the price, Herradura can't be beat).

[Brett L]

I was only sad that Titos had to stop giving distillery tours because of some bullshit regulation.

[Root Boy]

Didn't hear that. Would have loved to do a tour.

With all the new found freedoms (actually re-discovered freedoms) in distilling and brewing arriving we still have our nanny's out there trying to restrict us.

I should suggest a brewery tour field trip to my kids school just to see the horrified reaction.

[Bobarian]

"I should suggest a brewery tour field trip to my kids school just to see the horrified reaction."

You'd be more likely to get some voluntary chaperone's to attend.

[gimmeasammich]

A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication. Two other deputies have been placed on leave.

I'm glad that not all of these incidences are swept under the rug.

[John]

Me too. This will of course make cops even more determined to make photographing them a crime.

[gimmeasammich]

I think the IL SC recently said that recording the police is now NOT a crime. It's definitely a step. I'm too lazy to look up the actual case right now.

[Mad Scientist]

True, but I also read IL cops are generally ignoring that and continue to threaten people with arrest for taking their pictures.

[gimmeasammich]

IOW, business as usual.

[Root Boy]

And don't forget, in LA the cops just break their own cameras.

[John Thacker]

Illinois was one of only three states (MA and MD the others, all pretty liberal) that both are "two party consent" states for wiretapping (meaning that you can't record someone else without their permission, even if they're voluntarily talking to you) and apply it to cops.

The IL SC previous had a ruling saying that recording cops wasn't covered by that law, since that certainly couldn't be the intent. The IL legislature then immediately wrote a bill saying "Yes, they are, that was the intent." I believe the IL SC has responded by saying, "Look, you really can't do that."

[JW]

The MD law was ruled unconstitutional in the Graber case, but that was in a lower court.

[sloopyinca]

I think they're applying the new ruling in Chicago, but the cost for recording them is one anal rape and a few broken bones in the county jail for males that film them and a summary rape in the back of a squad car and release on the South Side for women that do so.

[Anonymous Coward]

The deputy's error was in leaving his prey alive.

The rest of the pack will learn from this and grow stronger.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Syrian President Bashir al-Assad is running for re-election in the midst of his country's civil war. He is expected to win.

Just like Abraham Lincoln.

[Tim]

If Lincoln had helicopters and chlorine gas, I'm sure he would have used them.

[Root Boy]

Will Vogue do another profile on him and his wife for the election?

[Homple]

Imagine General Sherman with modern artillery, tanks, helicopters, machine guns and chemical weapons.

[Agammamon]

Imagine him with low-yield tactical nuclear weapons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W48

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Am I being naive into thinking this Sterling thing will get over blown?

The NBA is a 'black league' just like the NHL is a 'white league.'

Happy Barkley? Lines. Drawn.

[Injun, as in from India]

Am I being naive into thinking this Sterling thing will get over blown?

Depends on who blows this Sterling thing. A black NBA guy or a white NHL guy.

[Ted S.]

Overblown, or blown over?

[John]

How many people black and white believe similar or equally offensive things as what Sterling said? Considering the collective experience of the interracial couples I have known, a pretty good number of people. Not the majority thank heavens but a sizable minority of all races. Considering that fact, I am inclined to think that people are going to huff and puff and pose a lot over this but in the end it will blow over if for no other reason than a good number of people really don't want their own views subjected to scrutiny.

[Andrew S.]

I think it wouldn't have been a big deal if it was anybody but Sterling. But Sterling has a history of actions (discrimination in real estate he owned (SLD goes here)) and comments about Danny Manning back in the day. Plus everyone in the NBA already hated him.

[John]

That is a good point. Sterling has always been a disgrace as an owner. From a purely business perspective, the NBA should have forced him to sell years ago. He has run his franchise into the ground and made no attempt at having a competitive team for decades. That has cost the NBA millions. LA is a huge market. It can easily support two teams. A no kidding intra city LA rivalry between the Lakers and Clippers would have made the NBA millions. It never happened because Sterling has been squatting on what should be on one of the most important franchises in the league. Between him and the idiot Dolan son running the Knicks, another vital franchise that has been run in the ground, the NBA has been operating at about 3/4s of its full capacity.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

All true. He's a terrible person.

But damn. He bought the Clippers for $12 million. It's worth over $200 mill now.

[Brett L]

Probably even at the discount they'll force on him to sell it to Magic.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

$200 mil? More like $1 billion plus. The Bucks just sold for $550.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He's worth c. $1.2 billion. Heard the team is worth $200 million.

[The Last American Hero]

The ownership group in Seattle is willing to pony up $600 million.

[Invisible Finger]

the NBA should have forced him to sell years ago.

Some protector of property rights you are.

Remember, Sterling had to buy into the NBA AND be approved. They're stupid enough to share revenue with the guy, they deserve what they get.

No matter how many sponsors and season ticket holders stop doing business with him, the fact remains that an NBA franchise has a bare-minimum value that is a ton more than he paid for it. The league has only 2 options - pay him to leave or let him go bankrupt and fold.

The owners and players will wind up setting a bad precedent by allowing contracts to be voided. Doc Rivers and Blake Griffin could have the balls to make a stand by refusing to show up for work until the team is sold - but they're too chicken-shit to put their money where their mouths are. They'll all happily accept dirty money while lying about how much they despise the man. There ain't a Curt Flood in the bunch.

[Overt]

Some protector of property rights you are.

Remember, Sterling had to buy into the NBA AND be approved. They're stupid enough to share revenue with the guy, they deserve what they get.

Huh? The relationship between a franchise-owner and his fellow franchise owners have nothing to do with property rights.

Sterling also had to agree to the rules of Franchise when he bought in. That included the caveat that if he was big enough of a douche, he would be forced to sell his team.

Honestly the reason this hasn't happened yet is that owners don't want to set a precedent that could be used on them if they had a couple bad years. But this occurrence is the perfect excuse they need to turn on him like wolves.

[Swiss Servator ...nichts]

My you are brave with someone else's money.

How about you stage a sympathy strike?

[Almanian!]

But....but...he'd been scheduled to receive a MAJOR AWARD!

From the NCAA! Or...SIEU...or...something...

[RBS]

I think we've already reached the point were nothing new or interesting can be said about this story. Now ESPN and some radio guys like Rome and Feinstein will beat it to death. By the end of the week nobody will care.

[RBS]

Speaking of which, Rome was going after the other owners this afternoon for not doing something about Sterling sooner. Why would they though? I doubt you get to be the owner of a NBA team by making unnecessary trouble for yourself.

[Almanian!]

I always hated Rome.

Rome. OUT.

[Pro Libertate]

Me, too. He's been fucking annoying all along.

[JW]

We'll always have Rome.

[Pro Libertate]

He's a dick. No like.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Solid Take. Rack him.

[John]

NBA owners are nearly all incompetent and a good number of them are outright crooks. The last thing any of them want is to set the precedent that being a bad owner or even a bad person gets you run out of the league.

[RBS]

Yeah, Rome couldn't seem to wrap his head around that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't get this line of thinking at all.

It's not a fucking baby sitting service. It's a business. An exclusive club no doubt but saying that is weak in my view.

[The Last American Hero]

Most of those stadiums weren't built privately. You feed at the public trough you better expect some indigestion.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It's already overblown. Waaaay overblown.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Oh, and this. Just plain wrong.

[Almanian!]

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

THAT was funny!

[Almanian!]

...I mean WRONG. That was just WRONG! And I'm OUTRAGE...pfffffffAHAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

[Root Boy]

Why...he's just the same as a slave owner making those poor millionaire players toil on his plantation!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'We are Trayvon.'

Jesus CHRIST.

[Mike M.]

What, you don't think that Sterling's racism is the most important story in American history since the George Zimmerman trial? Anyone who thinks such a thing is probably a racist himself!

One thing is for certain: Reason is going to be along for this ride every step of the way, pretending that there's some sort of deep libertarian philosophical perspective that needs to be analyzed.

[Rich]

I don't care if you blow this Sterling thing. Just don't bring it to the games!

[Injun, as in from India]

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been indicted on 20 federal charges...

Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) announced he will not seek out another term after being caught on video kissing a married female aide.

Those evil teathuglicans. Democrats are obviously the party of moral virtue, uprightness, honesty, and of concern for the poor and suffering.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, Weiner's dick-pic got him bounced out of the House and it was perfectly legal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Luckily Chuck Rangel avoided any such persecution.

[PD Scott]

Putting the "special" in the special relationship: the stereotype map of every US state according to British people.

Georgians have a weird accent?

[gimmeasammich]

"Page not found"

Might want to check your link?

[Tonio]

Non-SF'd link hier.

[PD Scott]

Thank you.

[gimmeasammich]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphi.....british-pe

[Tonio]

Pwned.

[gimmeasammich]

I'll get you Tonio, if it's the last thing I do!!!

[PD Scott]

Thank you, also.

[Clich? Bandit]

On what planet do the Brits claim the ability to mock others for inbreeding...they live on a fucking island.

[Clich? Bandit]

PLUS, they revere the most inbred person. And if that person dies they search for the next most inbred person.

Seriously WTF?

[PD Scott]

a)This planet, probably other planets as well.

b)I'm not sure that's how the monarchy works, CB, but if not for the bland PCness which unites the entertainment gatekeepers your idea would make for a truly terrifying reality show.

[Clich? Bandit]

The only non-inbred royal is Harry and that is cause he ain't related to the royals. And lets not forget...they are all German anyway and those guys had like 1000 kings and princes and princesses etc.

[PD Scott]

Actually it looks like Harry isn't that non-inbred, either. From wiki, re: the Spencer family:
"Today's Spencers are direct descendants, albeit illegitimate, of the House of Stuart, with the family boasting at least five lines of direct descent from the Stuarts; and from them, the Spencers can trace their ancestry to other royal houses such as the Bourbons, the Medicis, the Wittelsbachs, the Hanovers, the Sforzas, the Habsburgs, and the Houses of Howard and Boleyn through Mary Boleyn, Mistress of Henry VIII of England."

[Clich? Bandit]

My understanding was they were finally raised to the peerage after the 100 yrs war for some shit they did for the Lancasters or something...Perhaps there were dragons involved.

[Brett L]

They nailed FL.

[Almanian!]

...and MI

[gimmeasammich]

That's way more comprehensive than what my list of Britain would look like, which would be more like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhZ6KgjIg_E

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I see the Brits have had Berger cookies.

[John Thacker]

David Bonior opens a restaurant in DC, discovers that small business is difficult, and regulations like those he loved to write in Congress make it harder:

"It took us a ridiculous amount of time to get our permits. I understand regulations and .?.?. the necessity for it. But we lost six months of business because of that. It's very frustrating."

[John]

He just learned the hard lesson that he better keep his sorry ass in charge and not down with the proles.

[Tonio]

Good. But he didn't learn anything.

[Injun, as in from India]

Didn't a prominent politician from Minnesota have the same problem? Can't remember the guys name or find a link.

[Injun, as in from India]

Okay. George McGovern. SD not MN.

http://www.cato.org/blog/rip-george-mcgovern

[Ted S.]

Happened to George McGovern too.

[Injun, as in from India]

I Should've hit refresh!

[Ted S.]

It's always nice to beat somebody to the punch. :-p

[Anonymous Coward]

"Small-business people work very hard," said the 68-year-old, who has spent most of his life in government. "If you are a small-business guy, you are out there and not as protected as a government employee. They struggle every day. A snow day, a government worker is off. A restaurant person takes a hit from that snow day. This winter was very, very tough on the [restaurant] industry."

No shit, sherlock.

[JW]

But we lost six months of business because of that. It's very frustrating.

Cry me a fucking river.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Cincinnatus returns to his estate, only to get a huge tax bill under his own Tax Fair Share Act.

[Overt]

+ 1 Pro Consul

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) has been indicted on 20 federal charges involving an alleged tax evasion scheme connected to his New York restaurant..."

It said in another article that he hid over a million bucks. It sounds like shitty health food restaurants are pretty lucrative...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

SlashDerp:

The Koch Brothers Attack On Solar Energy

[John]

The sad fact is that the lights are going to have to go out before the country wakes up and runs these idiots out of power. The lights going out will never cause the morons writing that article to think again. They would literally freeze to death in a power outage and swear the whole thing was the fault of the evil fossil fuel companies not giving renewables a chance.

The rest of low information America who believe this shit only because it makes them feel good and they don't know any better are going to be pretty damned angry when the lights start going out. Make no mistake, if something doesn't change the lights are going to start going out. These idiots are literally trying to put us back in the stone age.

[John Thacker]

There's a big difference between net metering at wholesale rates and net metering at retail rates (which indeed doesn't pay for the grid if you do that.) A lot of net metering proponents want to mandate retail rates, which is unsustainable.

The article, and the linked article, lack context to know if they're opposing retail rate net metering laws, or wholesale ones.

[Ted S.]

A lot of net metering proponents want to mandate retail rates, which is unsustainable.

Isn't this what they're doing in Germany?

[John Thacker]

Yes, but they're having to cut back on it now since it doesn't pay for the grid.

You can sort of get away with it when it's a small number of people, but it's unsustainable at a high percentage of people doing net metering. The more honest advocates will admit that it's unsustainable, but claim that it's worth it as an initial boost to get solar going.

[Homple]

Doesn't pay for idling standby generation either.

[jesse.in.mb]

Thanks. A friend sent me a similar article this morning and I was left scratching my head. The retail/wholesale difference helps.

[PapayaSF]

Are they attacking solar energy, or are they attacking solar energy subsidies? Big diff.

[Pro Libertate]

I, too, oppose solar energy and advocate the deployment of a giant mirror to reflect it back at the sun.

[Brandon]

Not really. So far they're pretty much the same thing.

[jesse.in.mb]

As far as I can gather they're trying to levy a surcharge on homes that sell energy back to the grid. I haven't seen any reference to rolling back the subsidies on solar implementation.

From the NYT article:

They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don't need back to electric utilities. So they've been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

That sounds like implementing a soda tax instead of just removing the subsidies that make corn syrup cheap.

[John Thacker]

Does the phrase "surtax" mean "impose a grid use charge so that the price you get for selling electricity back to the utility isn't the same as the retail price you pay for purchasing utility?" That is what it seems to be by following the link.

Again, I think it's just the difference between paying people full retail price for producing electricity, and paying them something less, possibly wholesale (or possibly more or less). In this case, the law requires that people get paid the full retail price in Ohio, so they're doing the grid costs as a separate line item fee.

Under the standard regulatory system, the grid costs get bundled into the retail price. This works fine, on average.

[Zat Man over Zer]

Sources say Toyota fleeing CA, taking 5,000 jobs to more business-friendly Texas

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Race to the bottom!! Economic genocide!! ROADZ!!!

[Andrew S.]

Roadz? Where we're going we don't need... roadz.

I'm starting to preliminarily shop for a car. I know I'll get some shit for it, but seriously thinking of a Lexus hybrid. Given length of commute/traffic, a hybrid would be awesome for gas mileage. And Toyota knows how to build hybrids.

[Root Boy]

Good choice. I drove one of those small Lexus hybrids (CT200?) and it felt cheap, but great mileage around town (have a big SUV that was in the shop).

I hear the RX300H is really nice though.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My mom has an RX400h. They borrow my car to go skiing a lot, so I've driven it quite a bit. I let it run out of gas once, and I still ran errands for another 2 days before filling up...

[Certified Public Asskicker]

If you are concerned about mileage, you must be a little sensitive to cost(s).

Why the hell then are you buying a Lexus?

[tarran]

And why the hell are you wasting money on a hybrid?!?

Get a smaller car and you aren't wasting money on the gas needed to haul batteries around.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

That too.

It amuses me when someone says they bought a new 30k Prius, and brag about how much they save on gas.

Except, when you trade in your car worth 7k, it is going to take you forever to recover $23k.

[Bobarian]

I looked at the math once, comparing a Corrolla to a Prius. It took about 150K miles at $4 a gallon to break even on the price difference between the two.

Throw in the fact that the Prius battery allegedly dies at this point, creating a slew of problems, and Corrollas lasting to 300K, and Prii become less than cost effective.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Throw in the fact that the Prius battery allegedly dies at this point, creating a slew of problems, and Corrollas lasting to 300K, and Prii become less than cost effective.

I'd agree with you on the return on gas prices, but there are Priuses that have been on the road for ten years or more at this point. If the problems you mentioned were that ubiquitous in the older models, they'd be getting a lot more attention by now.

[Almanian!]

May I also recommend the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid? Excellent car, very competitive w/Toyota.

Enjoy!

[SPG_900]

The Fusion/MKZ platform is a great car

Id seriously recommend a Passat TDI,Mazda 6, fusion 1.6T, or a ford or Accord for a hybrid

[SPG_900]

The Fusion/MKZ platform is a great car

Id seriously recommend a Passat TDI,Mazda 6, fusion 1.6T, or a ford or Accord for a hybrid

[Overt]

The Infiniti G hybrid is nice too. It gets the mileage of their v6 sedan, with the horsepower/0-60 of the v8.

[jesse.in.mb]

Sad times in Torrance.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Lot of sad in my Facebook feed today. I have 3 friends working there, and 2 have said they aren't moving.

[Anonymous Coward]

All I have to say is...

[Agammamon]

Speaking of cars

Read this article today

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets.....avigation/

About Google's self-driving cars and one thing struck me as odd.

Talking about how the car's computer can recognize cyclist hand-signals. Since when the fuck do cyclists use hand signals. Typically its just swerve into my lane and then get pissy when they almost hit me. Or come flying up the right side of my car at a right turn and nearly get crosschecked. Of course, that's all *my* fault.

Cyclists in Mountain View must be very well behaved because the only good thing I can say for cyclists in Yuma is that there's not very many of them.

[jesse.in.mb]

Curious Alice: The 1971 anti-drug movie that wasn't.

In Curious Alice (1971), a film intended for eight to ten year olds, our young Alice falls asleep while reading a book. She encounters cigarettes, liquor, and medicines, and realizes that they are all types of drugs. When she sees the "Drink Me" bottle, she understands that it contains something like a drug, yet after a half-second's consideration, she drinks the entire bottle and enters a fantasy world. In Drug Wonderland, Alice learns about the hard stuff from her new friends the Mad Hatter (LSD), the March Hare (amphetamines), the Dormouse (barbiturates), and the King of Hearts (heroin). The events of Curious Alice play out as an expression of Alice's drug trip. Unfortunately, the trip is kind of fun and effectively cancels out the film's anti-drug message.

Reason writers could learn a lot from archives.gov alt-text.

It's hard to hear Alice's inner monologue when there are so many pretty flowers.

Reading is bad for you, kids. Don't do it.

Direct link to the movie.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You want something anti-drug to show the kids, try H.R. Pufnstuf. It was before my time but holy crap was that disturbing.

[Rich]

What is Naked Lunch, chopped liver?

[C. Anacreon]

HR Pufenstuf, can't do a little 'cause he can't do enough!

The awful live-action show for kids was up against cartoons on other channels, during an era when you really only had cartoons on for a few hours once a week, on Saturday mornings. So most kids didn't want to waste time on this show and miss cartoons, and there was no such thing as recording a show, you had to watch everything live, and we only had a total of six channels. Even as a 1/6 choice the show bombed.

Poor Jack Wild, the child star and friend to some guy dressed as a ginormous lizard, it killed his career. He had just played the Artful Dodger in the Best Picture Oscar winning Oliver! and deserved a better fate.

[Brandon]

You want something anti-drug to show the kids, try Watership Down. Then tell them if they ever do drugs you'll make them watch Watership Down again. They'll be lifelong teetotalers.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

GoT: I don't recall Littlefinger being as creepy in the books.
no spoiler

[Fist of Etiquette]

NO SPOILERS.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

THAT'S WHAT I JUST SAID

[Tim]

turns out he's a chick.

[Ska]

The stories about Littlefinger's home islands are a good cover for the obvious basis of her nickname - that enormous clit.

[Tim]

He's creepy alright.

[John Thacker]

Littlefinger is *incredibly* creepy in the books. Maybe he doesn't have the spooky accent or the goatee from the Mirror Universe, but he's creepy as all, including the stuff with Sansa and Lysa and so forth.

[SugarFree]

He was just as creepy, he just didn't spend as much time twirling his mustache and tying Nell Fenwick to the railroad tracks.

Why not just have him wear a t-shirt that says "EVIL GUY" and cut out all the ambiguity?

[Warty]

"Sansa's not a murderer. YET. Because you, dear audience, are too stupid to realize what's going on with her character arc."

[SugarFree]

And they have been doing that with Littlefinger from the start. The actor is chewing scenery, but the writing is just as bad.

We get it, he's up to no good. Move the fuck along.

[Episiarch]

The show has been continuously moving in a direction that says the writers think less and less of the audience. They are making things extra explicit (like the Queen of Thorns admitting to Joffrey's murder) and obvious because they clearly think the audience is stupid and won't get subtlety. If they keep this up, they will ruin the show by making it black and white and obvious.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe the writers will give you all some more Theon torture.

They love torturing Theon, so you should love it, too.

[Overt]

The show has been continuously moving in a direction that says the writers think less and less of the audience.

So they are following the books pretty well then.

[Bobarian]

I thought last night took the greatest steps away from the books, so far.

NO SPOILERS

[Stormy Dragon]

I just restarted reading the books and while I hadn't remembered Peter being as creepy as he is on the show, he is. It's just that the first time I read it, I didn't realize how creepy he was because I didn't know what his seemingly innocuous comments actually meant.

[Stormy Dragon]

Just started RE-reading even.

[Andrew S.]

No spoiler, but I was so happy to see a certain friend of Tommen's appear in yesterday's episode.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Ser Pounce isn't really a spoiler.

[Andrew S.]

I'm just trying to play it safe!

Was worried they wouldn't do anything with Tommen and his cats is all. Glad to see they are.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I couldn't tell if you were talking about Ser Pounce or the boner the lad was no doubt sporting due to the other pussy visiting that night.

[Bobarian]

BOING!!

[Anonymous Coward]

He was more sneaky than creepy. Book 3 reveals the depths of his evil genius.

[Ska]

I don't remember the scene at Craster's or the Walkers having rituals with babies, Bronn training Jaime, or anything the show's version of Vargo Hoat is doing.

Littlefinger being a creepy fuck over the Tully women - I remember that in the books.

How do you tell if someone read the Game of Thrones? Don't worry - they'll tell you.

[SugarFree]

Maybe we just get sick of listening to people speculate about plot points that they could have found out about by reading a book 13 years ago.

It's not even a particularly long or difficult book either.

[Ska]

I have to give a presentation next Monday, so I'm going to open with a powerpoint of Westeros and that line about the series' readers.

[tarran]

Evidentally, you stopped reading before Dance of Dragons, in which George R.R. Martin decided that he wanted to go full Robert Jordan.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

He's doing to die before he finishes, isn't he?

[tarran]

Hey, if it gets Brandon Sanderson into the saddle to fix the mess, I won't be too sad.

[SugarFree]

He's doing to die before he finishes, isn't he?

Have you seen him lately? I'd wait to the last minute to buy him Christmas presents as bad as he looks.

[Ska]

It's not like you can regift a muumu and matching tam o'shanter.

[Lord at War]

He's doing to die before he finishes, isn't he?

See also David Gerrold and "The War Against the Cthorr" series.

[SugarFree]

No, I've read it. It has its own problems.

I'm talking about Storm of Swords. It's out there, people.

"Whut's gonna happen wit Arya and Da Hound?!?"

Pick up a fucking book, you illiterate shits.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Whut's gonna happen wit Arya and Da Hound?!?"

personally I hope the show version gets them a stage show in Vegas.

[MJGreen]

That's like telling a kid, "Just go find your christmas presents and open them, idiot." Speculation and anticipation is fun. Presumably you did it 13 years ago before SoS was published.

[SugarFree]

Only because there was no way for me to know.

And I hated waiting for Christmas.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Either Aiden Gillen has throat cancer or he's playing Littlefinger like he has it. His voice has definitely changed over three seasons, and not in a good way.

[PD Scott]

Sir Patrick Stewart interview in Smithsonian magazine.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Runaway Budweiser blimp floats over New Brunswick

[PD Scott]

Is it a piloted airship? Because the picture looks like well, just a balloon, albeit a very large (70' long) one.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Looks like it's piloted. You can see a tiny gondola on the bottom.

Better view here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2.....90316.html

[PD Scott]

The Budweiser Red Zeppelin. I can't tell if it's manned or RC. It seems too small to carry more than one person, which is possible.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Limbaugh: Sterling Only 'In Trouble' Because He Didn't Donate Enough To Obama

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....nate-obama

PigBoy can't get anything right:

On Sunday, Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times columnist, tweeted that local voter records show Sterling to be a registered Republican "since 1998." We followed up on that, and a search of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's website for Sterling's name, date of birth, and address confirmed that he's registered as a Republican:

http://www.motherjones.com/moj.....nba-racism

[John Thacker]

Doesn't contradict the fact that he's donated only sparingly, and both times to Democrats, as noted. Like most business guys-- Wall Street Republicans for Hillary Clinton 2016, would also like Jeb-- he will play both sides.

Only goes to show that bipartisan moderates and No Labels folks are all racist. Just look at Bloomberg and the NYPD, even.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Well, Bill Bradley was an NBA donation. He would have gotten it if he had been a GOPer.

Sterling is no partisan for sure.

But the odd thing was how the conservative media desperately tried to make him into a Democrat.

[John]

So if he were a Democrat it would be okay? Being retarded, you seem to have a hard time grasping that no one cares what party he belongs to.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I don't care about Sterling nor do I care if he keeps his team.

I do like to laugh at the idiotic right-wing media and their lying, desperate support of Team Red.

You fit right in there.

[VG Zaytsev]

I do like to laugh at the idiotic right-wing media and their lying, desperate support of Team Red.

Nice and subtle way to imply that Sterling = Team Red.

As a racist old rich guy he's obviously Team Blue, no matter how he registered 25 years ago.

[John Thacker]

Odd? Seems pretty normal. Just like how Mother Jones and you tried to make him into a Republican, and how they, or the SPLC, or other try to make other people into Republicans. And Republicans do the same about other random people-- like the dude in Silicon Valley who choked his wife, defending beating her in public, and just got fired. Big Dem donor, picture with Obama. As if that means anything.

Seems like you do exactly the same thing, with your own desperate attacks and support of centrist extremists. You're quite motivated by hate yourself.

[Jerry on the sea]

Toyota Moving U.S. Sales HQ to Texas from California.

[Rich]

"Moving Forward"

[Invisible Finger]

Let's go places - where taxes are lower.

[Stormy Dragon]

Hundreds more Egyptians have been sentenced to death for connections to the Muslim Brotherhood

Why does the press keep reporting this story as though the alleged connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are credible when it's obvious this has become the EAF's version of accusing people of witchcraft.

[jesse.in.mb]

A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication. Two other deputies have been placed on leave.

Cheryl Tunt: "Sploosh!"

[Tonio]

I thought she was now "Cherlene".

[jesse.in.mb]

I'll call her whatever I want.

OUTLAW COUNTRY!

[Pro Libertate]

I finally started watching Archer on Instant Video (first four seasons are free).

[Restoras]

I finished my binge watch of the first four seasons a couple of weeks ago. Best use of my free time in a long while. Enjoy!

[Pro Libertate]

I spent the first season thinking, "Wait, they can do that on TV? Wait, they can say that on TV?"

[MJGreen]

Duh and/or hello.

[Agammamon]

I recently introduced a friend to that show and he was saying the same thing.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Singers Paul Simon & Edie Brickell to return to court next month over "disorderly conduct" charge

[Ted S.]

I knew the fucking lag meant somebody was going to beat me to it.

[John]

I wish I had had them in the "next celebrity couple likely to be involved in a domestic violence rap" pool if such a thing exists. Paul Simon and Eddie Brickell going all Chris Brown and Rhianna ganster? WTF?

[Invisible Finger]

+50 ways to leave your lover

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So that's what happened to Edie Brickell!

"Simon, 72, first found fame as one half of folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, while Brickell, 48, was lead singer of Edie Brickell & New Bohemians."

So informative. I thought he was one-half of Simon & Simon.

[Ted S.]

Let's see who beats me to posting this:

Paul Simon and Edie Brickell arrested in domestic dispute

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

ME!

[Rich]

You can call him "Al".

[Stormy Dragon]

SCOTUS to decide if a fish is a financial record for the purpos of Sarbanes-Oxley:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

[Andrew S.]

Sarbanes makes me question why I was insane enough to become a securities lawyer.

(ok. It's one of many things that make me question the sanity of my choice of career.)

[Ted S.]

My mother is a fish.

[Stormy Dragon]

Sarah Palin gets applause at NRA for comparing waterboarding to Christian baptism:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-.....terrorists

[Palin's Buttplug]

And conservative Christians were rightly offended.

Sista Sarah long ago became a cartoonish laughing stock.

[C. Anacreon]

Sista Sarah long ago became a cartoonish laughing stock.

You mean like some posters who give the impression they live in her anus?
Still cracks me up every time. You, sir, are comedy gold.

[Palin's Buttplug]

'Palin's Buttplug' is a literary principle like Occam's Razor.

It means always assume that when a politician says something incredibly stupid it is because they are in fact, that stupid.

[C. Anacreon]

Yep, comedy gold. Keep beating that dead horse, it never gets old.

Do you do any jokes about losing socks in the dryer? How about riffs on the "do not remove under penalty of law" tags on mattresses? I bet you've got a million of 'em, you are sort of the Fozzy Bear of the internet.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You're looking for comedy on H&R?

[C. Anacreon]

Actually, yes. I find the snark here to be among the best on the internet.

[SugarFree]

shrike thinks speed dating means taking a trip to the petting zoo. Just ignore it.

[Palin's Buttplug]

So you get 'Palin's Buttplug' then.

"Hey, that politician IS as stupid as what he said!"

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Or you're just fucking crazy. That's the most likely explanation.

[PapayaSF]

So then Palin must have some IQ points on Joe Biden.

[Rich]

Interesting quote in TFA.

At least you know where she stands.

[PD Scott]

8 Foods that "Fight Back". "Lots of seemingly innocent veggies, legumes and other everyday bites are secretly packing deadly chemicals that can send you to an early grave if you're not careful."

I never knew Brazil nuts had 1000x more radium than other foods. Or that Icelandic people eat dried, cured toxic shark meat.

[Ted S.]

How many of those organically grown foods are labeled as dangerous in California?

[gimmeasammich]

You can look it up yourself if you'd like.

http://oehha.ca.gov/prop65/bac.....plain.html

Basically if any study, anywhere, at any time finds a certain chemical that *might* cause a birth defect or something, then the CA AG's office adds it to this list.

[John]

Plants evolved defenses to animals eating them. The defenses range from making their leaves and roots tough, of little food value and hard to digest up to and including toxins. A lot of plants have small amounts of toxins that don't kill animals that eat them but make the plant unappetizing enough to animals that they don't eat too much at any one time.

It is a curious piece of modern idiocy that so many people think only consuming animal flesh can ever have ill health effects.

[C. Anacreon]

It is a curious piece of modern idiocy that so many people think only consuming animal flesh can ever have ill health effects.

Here's an Oakland Raiders defensive lineman who believes that all his aches and pains in the NFL were caused by eating animal flesh. He's now a vegan, and apparently indomitable as a result.

[Bobarian]

Does indomitable mean '29 Tackles in 3 years?'

[Mad Scientist]

Yep, even grass takes up silica from the soil to discourage the animals that graze on it.

"I was the only one who ever talked in this whole group. It was always, 'Socrates, what is true?' 'Socrates, what is the nature of the good?' 'Socrates, what should I order?' 'Socrates, what are you having?' And not once does anyone ever say, 'Socrates, hemlock is poison.'"

[Agammamon]

Heh, Socrates, what is the nature of the good?

To crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentation of their women.

[Clich? Bandit]

One I heard recently is the phyto-estrogens in wheat and grain products is to control the breeding of larger herding herbivores. No idea if the science is valid but it is cool that "grass" devised a way to go go extinct that takes a super long view.

[gimmeasammich]

"Life... uh, finds a way."

-Ian Malcolm

[Clich? Bandit]

first go = not

[Root Boy]

Whole lot of carcinogens out in nature.

Except for benzene and some other uncommon chemicals, there is not nearly as much man-made bad shit out there as you can find in nature.

[Brandon]

Weird, I just saw the Greenland Shark thing on River Monsters last night. I'd never heard of it before either.

[Suellington]

Hakarl is brutal. I have tried many many foods, but when my Icelandic buddy brought that over as soon as he opened the tub the whole house smelled. Fermented, Fucking, Shark.

[Mike M.]

Big breaking news that will make our resident members of the JournoList very happy: Wall Street has already determined that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president.

There's no point in even holding the election now, as it's nothing but a ritualistic formality.

[John]

Perhaps I am just cynical but if it really were inevitable, these idiots wouldn't feel such a need to constantly explain why. What is that old line from Shakespeare about protesting too much?

[Rich]

It's just a Republican ploy to keep Democrats from voting.

Seriously, this^.

[Pro Libertate]

Not even the nominee, and it sounds like they're becoming increasingly aware of that. This is bad for them, because she's someone whose price is known. Mystery nominees are an unknown quantity and are much more reluctantly embraced.

[Root Boy]

Yeah, wow. Wall St crony bankers say the reverse carpet bagging, former senator from NYC who is based there is the one that will play their game and keep TBTF fat and happy.

So surprising.

[Mike M.]

Of course she's going to be the nominee. Who's going to beat her this time, Joe Biden? Preposterous.

[Brandon]

Hillary's too old.

[Brett L]

Sorry, Warty. Vince Young is the best the Browns can do?

[Warty]

Is he named Weeden? Then he's all right with me.

[Brandon]

A former pro bowler whose career was only derailed by a racist coach's slander? Yeah, I think they could do worse.

[Brett L]

It seems like if we replaced "veterans" with some less adored status, this wouldn't be cause for adulation.

Two months ago, Delgado began working for the Veteran Beer Co., a new Chicago microbrewery, where every role ? from brewing to sales ? is filled by veterans. The company essentially plans to market employees like Delgado to sell their craft beers and employ as many disabled and non-disabled veterans as possible along the way.

SLD: Business should be able to hire this way if they want to. Same as they should be able to hire only white males between the ages of 20 and 40 if they want.

[Pro Libertate]

Counsel Ale--produced, sold, and distributed just by disbarred lawyers.

[Invisible Finger]

Sounds like Caste Beer to me.

[Brett L]

Louisiana PGA player casually shoos gator away from his ball.

What was the name of the Gator in Happy Gilmore?

[Palin's Buttplug]

I've walked up on big gators playing golf in FL and I have been in serious car accidents I could see developing for 8-10 seconds.

The gator scared the shit out of me but not the car accident.

[Jordan]

I have been in serious car accidents

Ah, now it all makes sense.

[Homple]

Saw big gators playing golf, eh? Did their caddies seem nervous?

[Brandon]

I have been in serious car accidents I could see developing for 8-10 seconds.

Given that the average vehicle can go from 60-0 in about 7 seconds, including reaction time, this seems to indicate that you are either a sociopath or a retard.

[Bobarian]

Why can't he be both?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Best hockey game of the weekend? Sharks-Kings Game 5.
Worst call of the weekend? The blown offside on the tying Avalanche goal.

Best game tonight? Pens and Jackets.
Must watch game tonight? Sharks-Kings game 6.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Best game? The Kings slaughtered them.

But it's been the best series.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Sharks annual playoff collapse begun in Game 3. they were fortunate to win it in OT.
Let's see if they can get out of the collapse tonight.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Let's talk collapse...Blues...

[Pro Libertate]

Ha! My team was in the playoffs, now it is not.

[Brett L]

Two more young men "abused" by female teacher. I bet she beats the rap if they can get enough heterosexual men on the jury.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Not enough info based on picture provided.

[Anonymous Coward]

4/10. Would not hit.

[Bobarian]

At 17, would knock the bottom out of that.

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus, are they all in Central Florida? WTF?

She's reasonably attractive, too. Why on Earth would she resort to some teeny-bopper? Must be nuts.

[Brett L]

Because the female astronaut threatened to kill her if the teacher looked at her man again?

[Pro Libertate]

That's a plausible explanation.

[Homple]

Better her than a priest.

[Tonio]

I bet she beats the rap if they can get enough heterosexual men on the jury.

FTFY

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

This is what music looks like on fire and in 3D

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

The 80s are now over

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Anyone else follow Dan Mitchell's blog?

He's been hanging out with her the last week.

Lucky bastard.

[Brett L]

Who is that? And orange is not the best color for the super-tan.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Apparently his girlfriend, but I guess I missed the part where he has been dating her for awhile.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

And orange is not the best color for the super-tan.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Yeah, I like orange, grew up an Orioles fan, so maybe that is it.

But on my pasty ass, it is also not a good look.

[Paul.]

A deputy in Tennessee has been fired after photos emerged showing him apparently choking a college student charged with public intoxication. Two other deputies have been placed on leave.

To be reinstated next month after arbitration. And with back pay!

[The Late P Brooks]

Can't we just enjoy that, for a change, a cop was actually held accountable and lost his job?

Get back to me when this sadistic fuck is discovered in a pool of congealing blood.

[Homple]

While we're wishing, let's be sure it's all his blood.

[GILMORE]

So i got all of Breaking Bad & GoT so far via Netflix...

I watched 3 seasons of GoT, and the first 2 from Breaking Bad.

Conclusion =

GoT is a very shallow soap opera, with lots of gore and sex to cover up how weak the storytelling is.

Breaking Bad is a very-deep character drama where the drugs and violence are actually a minor component compared to the stories of the actual character's lives.

Both are entertaining. But GoT does produce some really maddening 'character motivation' question-marks.

An example = explain to me why Jamie Lannister was still schtupping his sister in Episode 1 when he'd already sired the next 2 heirs to the throne. There's no real incestuous love interest thing going on (at least from the sister POV). Then why? My conclusion was = 'So the kid could catch them, so the story could move forward'. One could argue he's genuinely smitten with his evil bitch sister. But she's not on that tip = so why risk the 'in flagrante delicto' in someone elses crib? Beggars belief.

This is the answer for a lot of very stupid and unjustifiable character behaviors.

[GILMORE]

Sorry = i meant, "characters continually do things that *don't make any sense* because it is necessary to move the story forward"

in fact, a lot of the times, they do things that don't make any sense that *doesn't* do anything to move any story forward - it just prolongs sideplots that have no bearing on anything and just overload you with unneeded detail and disposable characters.

Lord of the Rings was a few-thousand pages long - and was a comparatively *tight* story compared to this. GoT just goes off on completely bullshit tangents for an hour like grampa simpson overdosing on cough syrup.

[PD Scott]

"I had a dragon tied to my belt... 'twas the style at the time."

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I just finished Breaking Bad yesterday. I was going to move on to GOT next...or Walking Dead.

You make me want to try Walking Dead first.

[Ska]

If the comics were as cheap as a netflix subscription, I'd say read them. The comic is better (but the show is pretty good).

[Agammamon]

The Walking Dead

is

soooooo

boring.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Season 1 was mostly outstanding. And the after that the title becomes an elaborate metaphor for the show itself: it lumbers along, offers occasionally imaginative spectacle in the action and set designs, but ultimately you just feel it is going nowhere.

I think the zombie apocalypse would be fertile ground for an anthology series where each season is different stories and characters.

[Anonymous Coward]

One could argue he's genuinely smitten with his evil bitch sister.

Incoming Book Snob: This is the correct answer. Setting aside the narcisscism, treason, and immorality that arises from fucking your twin sister who also happens to be the queen, Jaime is actually in love with Cersei and has never been with any other woman.

Aside from getting it on at Winterfell, here are some other fun sex spots for Jaime Cersei:

In the bed...while Cersei's husband is passed out drunk on the floor right next to them.

In the sept(church)...with their dead son's corpse next to them.

In a tavern...after Cersei pulled a Mission Impossible and snuck out of the Red Keep.

These two are serious about getting it on.

[GILMORE]

Fine= setup for a long string of "fucking in absurd places". We'll accept that. all it does is undermine Cersei's character who is supposed to be the 'clever and conniving one'.

(although = when her dad points out, 'you're not as smart as you think you are'- i admit: good call dad~)

next up in "WTF?= Explaining GoT's Dumbass Characters"

- Robb Stark interrupts his war of vengeance to marry some strange cooze; then gets all distracted by other shit and completely loses the whole "Kill the Lannisters' plot" When he's murdered, you the viewer think, "Geezus, you did't see THAT coming? Dumbass"

next week = Theon decides to betray the starks because.... WTF?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

- Robb Stark interrupts his war of vengeance to marry some strange cooze; then gets all distracted by other shit and completely loses the whole "Kill the Lannisters' plot" When he's murdered, you the viewer think, "Geezus, you did't see THAT coming? Dumbass"

Yeah they made TV Robb so stupid you just can't feel sorry for him or his loss. It makes a lot more sense in the books where he screws this completely different girl out of grief (he learned that his brothers were dead) and marries her to preserve her honor. That's a very Stark thing for him to do and, while still stupid, is not out of character and is understandable.

Although Oona Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter) does have a nice ass.

[Stormy Dragon]

Also the war doesn't fall off because he's distracted so much as:
1) his bannerman keep leaving because he expects them not to commit attrocities
2) some of the ones left are deliberately undermining his efforts
3) what's left gets split in half by the need to take on the second Greyjoy army that suddenly shows up behind him

He doesn't get bogged down so much as he loses mommentum because he's vastly outnumbered. The reality is he should have stayed in the north and let the river lands burn, but it's hard to tell your mom you've decided to let her entire family be killed for sake of expediency.

[Stormy Dragon]

But Cersei ISN'T supposed to be the clever and conniving one. She's good at manipulating people, but she's not nearly as clever as she likes to think.

In the books, the Starks repeatedly make it clear that Theon's just a hostage to them and that they're never going to trust him with anything meaningful. Then he finally gets to go home and finds out his actual family wrote him off years ago and think he's too weak to be trusted with anything by them. So he's naturally kind of pissed that his entire life is doomed to just leaching of either the Starks or the Greyjoy's charity because of something that they chose to do to him as an infant.

And in his desire to go prove they're both underestimating him, he ends up in a position where Bolton's bastard can manipulate him into doing something extremly stupid.

[GILMORE]

"In the books, the Starks repeatedly make it clear that Theon's just a hostage to them and that they're never going to trust him with anything meaningful."

Great.

instead, in the show, they skip that, preferring instead to make endless hay out of the fact that Jon Snow is a 'bastard'...but which somehow makes him endlessly devoted to them, nevertheless.

The answers to all my questions seem to be, "See, in the books..."

When that's the fucking problem, isn't it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fine= setup for a long string of "fucking in absurd places". We'll accept that. all it does is undermine Cersei's character who is supposed to be the 'clever and conniving one'.

Tyrion is the clever and conniving one, if you hadn't noticed. Cersei is a narcissist and possible sociopath.

Robb Stark interrupts his war of vengeance to marry some strange cooze; then gets all distracted by other shit and completely loses the whole "Kill the Lannisters' plot" When he's murdered, you the viewer think, "Geezus, you did't see THAT coming? Dumbass"

Yeah. I can see that. Especially when her sole qualities are "she gets snarky with King Robb."

*Puts on Book Hat*

Robb had a lot of stuff on his plate. His brothers were dead, his mother betrayed him, and Theon had turned on him. A nice girl from the Westerlands comforts him with some strange and he falls in love.

Meanwhile, he forgets that he swore to marry one of Walder Frey's butterface offspring. Hilarity ensued.

Theon decides to betray the starks because.... WTF?

This is an easy one: "I just want daddy's love and approval, even though daddy thinks I'm dogshit."

[Stormy Dragon]

Cersei is a narcissist and possible sociopath.

She's actually the opposite of a sociopath. Because she's a woman, neither he father nor society will recognize her as a leader, and everything she does is really about getting them to go, "oh wow, I guess you really were better than us all along".

[paranoid android]

She's monomaniacally obsessed with gaining more power for herself and has zero regard for who she has to hurt to accomplish this--I don't think that makes here the "opposite" of a sociopath.

Book 4 does slightly humanize her...in a way...but she's still pretty much a monster (albeit one raised and surrounded by other, often worse monsters).

[Stormy Dragon]

She's a monster yes, just not a sociopathic one. Sociopath's don't understand other people's emotional states. Cersei does very much: she's obsessed with other people liking her and thinking well of her.

If we're going to psychologize her, she seems more Borderline Personality Disorder to me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.....y_disorder

[Anonymous Coward]

Because she's a woman, neither he father nor society will recognize her as a leader

This what does she do that is remotely "leadership"? When she tries to rule through Joffrey, she fucks it up so badly that Tywin has to send the son that he hates to straighten things out. Then when she rules through Tommen, more fuck ups resulting in *redacted for spoilers*. Then there is the ending of Dance with Dragons where *redacted* would rather have Cersei running things than *redacted* and *redacted* because she has a proven track-record of fucking up, which will pave the way for *redacted* to take the throne.

[Stormy Dragon]

As I said, she's not as clever as she thinks she is. She thinks she's disrespected solely because she's a woman when it's obvious that she's a terrible leader and would have been disrespected anyways.

[Virginian]

Reading the Cersei POV chapters is like living inside of Hillary Clinton's head.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

all it does is undermine Cersei's character who is supposed to be the 'clever and conniving one'.

Is this actually the case? Cersei obviously thinks she's clever and conniving, but Martin goes out of his way to show that although she has pretensions about being a female version of Tywin, she has none of his political acumen and only still has her head on her shoulders because of Tyrion's herculean efforts to hold off Stannis' army at Blackwater Bay.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So, it's a family-oriented TV show?

[Warty]

The books make clear that there are reasons for all these things. The show substitutes tits for reasons and increasingly insults its audience's intelligence.

[GILMORE]

"There are ....reasons"

I don't doubt it.

The fact that these "reasons" would actually take so much more extra fucking time to explain is what i mean by *bad writing*. Like they "don't have enough room/time" in the ~40 hours of screen-time so far to adequately 'motivate' the... 3 dozen "main" characters?

"As I Lay Dying", it aint.

[John Thacker]

In fairness, sometimes the tits are the reasons.

[Warty]

On the other hand, if you don't like tangents, you might not like GRRM's endless descriptions of the food his characters eat.

[GILMORE]

Let me put it to you this way =

More 'storytelling' happened to Walter White in the first 2 episodes of BB than to most of the characters in the first 2 seasons of GoT.

And you *cared* more.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Danerys is really starting to get on my nerves with the self-righteous Messiah complex.

Jon Snow was only interesting when he was getting it on with Ygritte and now he's just boring because Kit Harrington is extremely boring in the role. Dude has only one facial expression and zero range.

Really, the stuff that happens in King's Landing is the only thing really captivating at this point. Although Ramsay is...interesting to watch.

[Stormy Dragon]

Danerys is to some extent recapitulating Robert Bratheon's rise to the throne. It's easy to be a Messiah when you're the conquering hero freeing the slaves. Once you have all these newly freed slaves and all the old master lurking around, getting them to do anything becomes hard.

They're building Danerys up so that her fall will be that much harder.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Really, the stuff that happens in King's Landing is the only thing really captivating at this point.

But that's kind of the way it is in the books, though. One of Martin's biggest fuckups with this series was ultimately deciding not to do the five-year "and then a bunch of stuff happened" summary after Storm of Swords. So now we have to go through this ridiculous slog where he now feels the need to describe everything that happened in that five years in excruciating detail.

There's a good story here, but Martin never exercised the type of self-control that a good writer needs, especially with a fantasy series that contains so many moving parts. Instead, he fell back on the "sometimes the story goes in directions you don't expect" excuse to disguise his lack of narrative discipline and inability to produce the books in a timely manner.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Yeah, I Wrote the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Memo
I stand by every word of it. And it's even worse today.

"By CHRIS LEHANE

"Let's go all the way back to the summer of 1995....

"All roads led to a mysterious source?the newly exploding Internet.

"One Saturday morning in the midst of an oppressively hot D.C. summer weekend, Mark and I found ourselves squirreled away in a stuffy room on the fourth floor of the Old Executive Office Building, where there was a bank of computers from which you could access the "World Wide Web." Remember?this was the pre-Blackberry, pre-Google, dial-up world of 1995, when only around 10 percent of the public had Internet access and the White House had just barely launched its own web page....

"What we learned in those eight hours became the basis for our 332-page report, written so that those of us in Clinton White House responsible for fielding questions about these bizarre rumors could apprise mainstream reporters of what we called the "media food chain"?basically, so that we could show them how such a wacky conspiracy theory like the supposed murder of Vince Foster had even become a news "story" at all. We would simply hand the memo to the reporter asking questions, tell him to review it and to come back to us with any remaining questions. Few did."

http://www.politico.com/magazi.....155KfldVUC

[Anonymous Coward]

We saw the transition from an electorate that passively consumed the information put before it (a joke at the time was that a political rally was a family watching a political commercial on television) to an electorate that could use technology to actively engage in the creation, distribution and self-selection of information.

Dammit, you ignorant sheep! Why couldn't just be happy with the Evening News?! Why did you want to know more?

[Cytotoxic]

The F-35 is a stupid piece of crap that no one should use let alone buy.

The F-35, in contrast, is a compromise aircraft that stems from the Pentagon's desire to procure a single model for the Air Force, Navy and Marines: an unachievable aircraft that would land vertically, evade radar detection, conduct ground attacks, and still hold its own in aerial combat.

Instead, all three versions of the F-35 are oversized, overweight, underpowered ? and still under development.

In 2008, a RAND Corporation study found that the F-35 has a high "wing loading" and a poor "thrust loading" compared to other fighter jets. The biting conclusion: "It can't turn, can't climb, can't run."

In 2013, Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, revealed that the U.S. government was downgrading the specifications for the F-35 by "reducing turn performance from 5.3 to 4.6 sustained g's and extending the time for acceleration from 0.8 Mach to 1.2 Mach by eight seconds."

http://fullcomment.nationalpos.....he-cf-18s/

[GILMORE]

No relation

The F35 is indeed, a $1trillion P.O.S.

[Brandon]

Government: When a project fails to meet our standards, we lower the standards.