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A.M. Links: Shooting at Georgia FedEx Facility, Russia Slams U.S. Sanctions, Rep. Grimm Seeking Meetings With GOP House Leaders After Indictment

Matthew Feeney | 4.29.2014 9:00 AM

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Large image on homepages | Yevgen Nasadyuk (Євген Насадюк)/wikimedia
(Yevgen Nasadyuk (Євген Насадюк)/wikimedia)
Credit: United States Congress/wikimedia
  • FedEx has confirmed a shooting at its facility in Kennesaw, Georgia. The WellStar Kennestone Hospital has confirmed that six of its patients are related to the shooting.
  • Doubts remain over President Obama's policy toward Asia despite his recent four-country visit to the region.
  • Russia has condemned what it calls "Iron Curtain" U.S. sanctions, the latest to be implemented amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
  • Secretary of State John Kerry, who recently said that Israel risks becoming "an apartheid state" without a peace deal, reaffirmed his commitment to Israel, saying "…if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."
  • Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who said earlier this year that he would throw a reporter off a "fucking balcony" in the Capitol if he was asked about campaign finance again, is reportedly seeking meetings with House Republican leaders after being indicted on 20 counts of tax and fraud charges.
  • North Korea has conducted live fire exercises near its western sea border with South Korea.

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NEXT: Today at SCOTUS: Do Cops Need a Warrant to Search Your Cellphone When You're Under Arrest?

Matthew Feeney is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

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  1. Longtorso, Johnny   11 years ago

    Divorce and suicide risk
    ...Divorced men were over eight times more likely to commit suicide than divorced women (RR?=?8.36, 95% CI?=?4.24 to16.38). After taking into account other factors that have been reported to contribute to suicide, divorced men still experienced much increased risks of suicide than divorced women. They were nearly 9.7 times more likely to kill themselves than comparable divorced women (RR?=?9.68, 95% CI?=?4.87 to 19.22). Put another way, for every divorced woman that committed suicide, over nine divorced men killed themselves....

    1. Longtorso, Johnny   11 years ago

      Eat it, fist.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

        Meh.

      2. Bee Tagger   11 years ago

        Doesn't count since it wasn't a comment on one of the AM links.

        1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

          No, it doesn't count because anyone on the entire board (including himself) mentioned it.

      3. waffles   11 years ago

        I'll count it.

        1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

          It has content, so I'll count it too.

    2. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

      Don't feel like checking for myself -- does it account for the attempted vs. completed suicide gap (i.e., women attempt suicide more often, but men more often actually die from their attempts).

      1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

        Oh: except for China, for some reason

    3. Restoras   11 years ago

      So, I'm going to get bored with my emancipation and off myself? I am disappoint.

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        My first thought was alimony and abuse by Family court.

        1. mr lizard   11 years ago

          Pretty much this. Leaving this plane of existence is the ultimate trump card to forced servitude. Although I would consider expatriation first. I think any husband who foresees this should be learning a second language.

          1. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

            S?, es cierto.

        2. Restoras   11 years ago

          That's a good point. Divorce law basically sends the father into legal bondage and poverty, all on the whim of an 'unhappy' spouse.

          Alaska, here I come.

        3. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

          Maybe guys should stop making such a habit of marrying women who make shitty money?

          1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

            Impossible. WAGE GAP.

          2. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

            That just means she can afford better lawyers to screw you all the more in family court.

          3. Ted S.   11 years ago

            Pre-nups.

            1. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

              Bless your heart. Spend more time in family courts. Pre-nups often have exactly the same effect as "Congress shall make no law..."

              1. Old Man With Candy   11 years ago

                Judge tossed ours out and put me in lifetime bondage. And ruled that I had to pay for her lawyers.

                Ah, well. Advice to the Perplexed: never get married in California.

                1. Restoras   11 years ago

                  Ah, well. Advice to the Perplexed: never get married in California

                  If you value your menatl health and financial well being, I think this might be better. YMMV.

                  1. Old Man With Candy   11 years ago

                    Nah, my current wife is a gem. And a libertarian. We made sure to get married in Vegas, then went to see Penn & Teller for a honeymoon. All her idea.

                    That's a keeper.

                    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

                      Did you lure her with candy?

                    2. Old Man With Candy   11 years ago

                      No, pizza. That works better on her, sort of the same effect as Quaaludes.

                      I'm tellin' ya, she's a keeper in every respect.

                2. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

                  Advice to the Perplexed: never get married in California.

                  FTFY

                  1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

                    at the same time but still second!

        4. lap83   11 years ago

          I know family court is more likely to favor women, but if losing a court battle led to such a high risk of suicide you'd see the same rate among half of the participants in every case.

          More likely, this has to do with the fact that women are much more likely to initiate divorce and yet men still appear to derive enough benefit from marriage that once-married men are much more likely to remarry than once-married women. Men who get married really like being married and it hits them extremely hard, on more than just a financial level, when their wife wants to end it. Very sad.

          1. Illocust   11 years ago

            Men lose out in custody cases something like 80+% of the time. Women who lose custody of their children are active drug/alcohol addicts that abuse their children. There isn't really a good way to do a control study to see if it's losing out on the divorce that causes the suicide or being male.

    4. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Hello.

      I for one will refrain from disparaging FOE.

      /places envelope inside coat pocket.

      1. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

        Hau, kola.

      2. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

        Wha?! I did it gratis!

        1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

          Sucker.

      3. Ted S.   11 years ago

        I hope you won't be disparaging me in the PM Links. 🙂

    5. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      So going by the logic of the gun control vis-a-vis guns in the home and child deaths, we should outlaw divorce to save men. Right? After all, if it can save one life....

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Silly Injun. Heterosexual men's lives aren't worth nearly as much.

      2. Zeb   11 years ago

        Or, by the logic of people who spend their time worrying about inequality, we need to find out why women aren't killing themselves more and do something about that.

        1. BardMetal   11 years ago

          Naturally they just come up with a way for women to start killing themselves more, which even though more people are dying, they'll be happy that at least it's even and fair now.

          Because fairness trumps all in progressiveland.

    6. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

      "Put another way, for every divorced woman that committed suicide, over nine divorced men killed themselves"

      So as more chicks put themselves back in the market, more dudes take themselves out of the market. Awesome. The higher chick to dude ratio the better.

  2. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Doubts remain over President Obama's policy toward Asia despite his recent four-country visit to the region.

    Never get involved in a land policy in Asia.

    1. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

      +1 Classic Blunder

      1. Steve G   11 years ago

        Conceivable!

      2. db   11 years ago

        This administration has committed a few more than *one* Classic Blunder.

  3. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    ...is reportedly seeking meetings with House Republican leaders after being indicted on 20 counts of tax and fraud charges.

    He fears Obama will put him in his cabinet.

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      Ooh, snap!

  4. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Former Congressman Bonior, longtime liberal on Capitol Hill, discovers the profit motive

    "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."

    Bonior retired from Congress in 2003 after 26 years serving his Michigan constituents, including fighting for better wages. He said he entered the business world in order to help his stepson and daughter-in-law. Both had longed to own their own place after toiling for years in the restaurant business.

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Another argument for term limits.

      1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        Or perhaps a requirement for private sector experience before running for office? I know that is not very libertarian. Still.

        1. robc   11 years ago

          I dont know how a restriction on government service can be either libertarian or not libertarian.

          Its no different than the 35 age limit for the presidency.

          libertarianism doesnt really have much to say about acceptable qualifications for office.

          Minimum 4 years of private sector work for House, 12 for Senate (length equal to two terms in office) works for me.

          1. SugarFree   11 years ago

            Depends on the private sector work. Being a crony scumsuck for AstraZeneca to rentseek is worse than not having any experience at all.

            1. robc   11 years ago

              Voters still have to show some judgement.

              1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

                That'd be a first in the history of history.

                1. robc   11 years ago

                  Some voters have shown some judgement in the past.

                  They were just outvoted.

          2. Zeb   11 years ago

            Right. It's undemocratic, but irrelevant to libertarianness.

            1. robc   11 years ago

              But is it unrepublic?

              I dont think so.

              I wouldnt have a problem with a return to landownership being required for the franchise.

              1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

                I wouldnt have a problem with a return to landownership being required for the franchise

                I'm going to guess you're a landowner. As a renter I'm opposed to this on the grounds that I'd no longer be able to vote. I'd support 'paid net taxes' as a requirement though.

                1. robc   11 years ago

                  I supported it back when I was a renter too.

                  The problem with yours is once we eliminate the 16th amendment, its harder to figure out.

                  1. SugarFree   11 years ago

                    There'd have to be some landowner rules as well. Owning a square inch of some field would get us right back to the same set of problems.

              2. Zeb   11 years ago

                But is it unrepublic?

                I don't think so either. A little bit of democracy is good to keep some checks on who is in power, but a universal franchise really isn't necessary for that.

          3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

            I'd bet a quarter of Congress is made up of failed businessmen. They couldn't make a business work, but they're good at selling bullshit.

        2. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

          It's a common-sense regulation on something that, after all, is a privilege, not a right. Nobody needs to hold office without first having worked in the private sector. I can haz op-ed column?

          1. Ted S.   11 years ago

            Single-payer law, and anybody who wants to work as a prosecutor has to work in the public defenders' office first.

            1. robc   11 years ago

              Prosecutors office and defenders office should be merged.

              Random assignment, so that 50% of work is prosecution and 50% defense. Or maybe more like 70/30 since some people get private defense attorneys.

              Just balance it.

              1. Zeb   11 years ago

                I like that idea, I've been thinking of something similar for a while.

              2. kinnath   11 years ago

                Who needs prosecutors when the police are free to shoot people at will?

                1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

                  I am the Law! /Dredd

        3. Ted S.   11 years ago

          *uck Schumer went from law school to the NY Assembly (I think; it might have been the NY Senate), with only the six months between graduation and the election in between. He hasn't been in the productive sector since, with this election day being 40 years.

    2. WTF   11 years ago

      I'm sure he would support Obama's $10.10 minimum wage for his workers, if only he could afford it.

      1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        Of course he can afford it! Once you start a business, you're part of the evil capitalist class.

        1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

          Free and constant flow of cash! Just like in the land of milk, honey and chocolate! It's mine, mine, all mine!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjB9jlDvUNM

          1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

            LOL.

    3. Raven Nation   11 years ago

      after 26 years serving his Michigan constituents, including fighting for better wages

      Really? Is that WaPo's unbiased bio? Or did the Pit Yorky write that himself?

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Actually, they probably did just lift a copy of a press release.

    4. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      There is no bubble. Politicians know the struggles of the common people in America.

  5. Bee Tagger   11 years ago

    Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who said earlier this year that he would throw a reporter off a "fucking balcony" in the Capitol

    I see Clinton jokes are in vogue again.

    1. gaijin   11 years ago

      how do you pronounce "defenestration"?

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        *wilhelm scream*

      2. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

        Prague Castle.

    2. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

      The reporter wasn't black, gay, or female so how is this news?

    3. AuH20   11 years ago

      Clearly a fan of the ending of the British House of Cards (Series 1)

  6. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    the lamentation of the women...

    Toyota withdrawal a bombshell, economic blow to California city

    Toyota Motor Corp's decision to move its North American sales headquarters from California to Texas was met by disbelief in Torrance, this Los Angeles exurb where the Japanese car manufacturer has run its U.S. operations since 1982.

    Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto, looking grim, said outside city hall on Monday that he had been blindsided by the move. A few feet away sat Pat Simpson, a Torrance resident for over 60 years, with her head in her hands. "Why do they want to tear this place apart?" Simpson, 72, asked.

    1. tarran   11 years ago

      "Why do they want to tear this place apart?"

      Why did she leave me?

      I was a good man; I only smacked her around a little!

    2. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      One of the talking heads was chastizing Perry's business outreach and claimed he hadn't drawn anyone to texas the day before Toyota announced this. I forget which one, but they all blend together into a blurr of idiocy.

      1. gaijin   11 years ago

        They are stealing our jerbs!

        /CaliDerp

      2. seguin   11 years ago

        That was stupid in itself, considering XCOR just made the move.

    3. WTF   11 years ago

      A few feet away sat Pat Simpson, a Torrance resident for over 60 years, with her head in her hands. "Why do they want to tear this place apart?" Simpson, 72, asked.

      Unfortunately he wasn't referring to the idiot progressive legislators that drove Toyota away.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        I think you need to reread the bit you quoted. 😉

        1. WTF   11 years ago

          Okay, "she".

        2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

          Relax, Bo.

      2. gaijin   11 years ago

        that drove Toyota away

        nice

    4. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

      "Why do they want to tear this place apart?" Simpson, 72, asked.

      I think her question could better be addressed to a different "they" than the one she means.

    5. Restoras   11 years ago

      Well, if you bite the hand that feeds you enough, eventually the hand stops feeding you.

      Or, goose, golden eggs, and you know the rest.

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        Well, since they can't reproduce normally, we should try cloning the golden goose.

        1. Restoras   11 years ago

          It's really unfortunate the irony is totally lost on those idiots. If it wasn't they could at least laugh about it - if not have headed the whole thing off before Toyota bailed.

          This is what happens when you have people in government that don't know jack shit about how business works, and what the purpose of capital is. Clowns. Sucks for CA but great for TX.

      2. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

        Nah-ah. Corporations don't respond to disincentives caused by taxes and regulations. This is what statists (at least those of my acquaintance) actually believe.

        1. Restoras   11 years ago

          It's a near universal belief among the statist brigades. I think in part they don't understand that businesses come and go - literally - based on innovation (or lack thereof) and disappear; can seemingly spring up out of nowhere; or in the quest for the greastest return on scarce capital will absolutely respond to disincentives like taxes when all other factors are equal, or approximately so.

        2. Red Rocks Rockin   11 years ago

          Corporations don't respond to disincentives caused by taxes and regulations. This is what statists (at least those of my acquaintance) actually believe.

          Yeah, they don't seem to understand that the only reason the Silicon Valley techs and Hollywood stick around is because the massive influx of capital into those industries prevents the state's nickel-and-diming from affecting their bottom line too much (and even Hollywood finds it cheaper to shoot a lot of stuff outside Cali). For companies with less of a fiscal footprint in the state, their cost-benefit analysis isn't quite as rosy.

          This is a good example of why California is going to resemble the social demography of Mexico or Central America in about 20-30 years--a small bunch of hyper-wealthy individuals in gated communities with armed security surrounded by a sea of low-income service workers in run-down neighborhoods, with the what remains of the middle-class limited mostly to state or local government employees.

    6. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      "Why do they want to tear this place apart?" Simpson, 72, asked.

      I don't know. Maybe because capital goes where it is most needed, and stays where it is best treated.

      1. Steve G   11 years ago

        Your tears, they are delicious Ms Simpson.

    7. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

      My company has a regional office in Torrance. I've actually considered transferring to it, though I'd only want to do a couple of years.

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        Wait a while, you might have one in plano instead.

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          Why do you hate Auric? Nobody should be sentenced to living in Plano.

          1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

            I hate everybody. It's nothing personal.

          2. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

            Our automotive based efforts already have a Detroit office, and the LA one is more aerospace/defense related, so I'm probably safe from a Plano one. Though I'd definitely consider an office in Texas, depending on where it was.

          3. Jordan   11 years ago

            What's wrong with Plano? I loved the North Dallas area when I lived there. The main flaw was that it didn't have a beach.

            1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

              What's wrong with Plano?

              The summers.

              Seriously, the biggest thing that bothers me whenever I look at texas is the thought of trying to survive those summers.

              1. Spoonman.   11 years ago

                They are not nearly as bad in Houston as they are in Dallas, or, God help you, Midland.

                1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

                  The summers would be why I couldn't stay in Texas for more than a couple of years either.

            2. Brett L   11 years ago

              Ugh. Had a college girlfriend who went home one summer. Other than being hot, flat and treeless, with boring grid streets, there is nothing Wrong with Plano. But I grew up on the north side of Houston, so I am obviously biased.

              1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

                hot, flat and treeless, with boring grid streets,

                This is why I moved out of Plano. I found another suburb that wasn't completely razed to put in cookie cutter houses with half-arch windows and two story arch entryways. (They only razed half of it, the other half is nice houses with big trees and farms)

              2. seguin   11 years ago

                Downtown Plano has gotten better. But really, if you want to have a good time, it's Oak Cliff, NE Dallas/Whiterock lake, or...if you wanna get nasty, Harry Hines.

                Although Uptown also has a few things going on, like Oak Lawn.

      2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

        Torrance is actually affordable. My wife used to work for Honeywell's legal department there. Nice commute up the beach, no freeway.

    8. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

      reallynowwhat wrote:

      Well, really? So Japanese company moving away from Pacific Ocean, before the nuclear waste of another Japanese company gets there? I suspect when the masses understand that the entire Pacific Ocean is dead or dying, the blowback will be tremendous.. especially toward Japanese companies. I know I currently boycott anything Japanese when given the choice.

      Someone figured it out.

      1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

        I know you can never reach peak derp, but, can we declare this peak derp for the week, at least?

        1. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

          Seconded.

      2. The DerpRider   11 years ago

        I also understand Godzilla will be arriving soon.

        1. Restoras   11 years ago

          Don't you mean Godzirra? Or is Hideki Matsui going to attempt a comeback?

          1. Brett L   11 years ago

            Please, Gojira.

            1. Ted S.   11 years ago

              I want Mosura!

          2. Brett L   11 years ago

            Please, Gojira.

            1. mr simple   11 years ago

              You can beg all you want, but he's still coming to destroy the city.

              1. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

                History shows again and again
                How nature points out the folly of men.

        2. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

          Well there is a 2014 reboot in the works.

      3. gaijin   11 years ago

        I know I currently boycott anything Japanese when given the choice.

        So they refuse to watch Anime...but I bet they eat sushi

        1. waffles   11 years ago

          Most of the sushi in California is of the pan-American variety, so it's okay.

        2. BardMetal   11 years ago

          Oh please, you know they still fap to sailor moon.

      4. Zeb   11 years ago

        the entire Pacific Ocean is dead or dying

        Yes, lots of evidence for that I'm sure. Nuclear power has been around for a while now. How are people so ignorant about how fucking huge the Pacific ocean is and how much radioactivity is already in there?

        1. waffles   11 years ago

          Strong feelings and effective groupthink are more powerful than abstract concepts like radiation and accurate perception of the actual size of oceans.

        2. Brett L   11 years ago

          One of the nuke engineers did the math for us here. You can safely drink the "radioactive" water coming out of the Japanese reactor. These people are innumerate fools who deserve the fucking we're all getting.

      5. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        It's as if they expect companies to move there and take all their shit without questions asked.

        They're burnt in the head.

      6. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

        Here's how my lib friend and employee of the Torrance headquarters reacted:
        "I have never worked for a company that is so dedicated to its employees and has so much class. Even when breaking the worst news, it is handled with respect and absolute class. Regardless of the decisions we will have to make moving forward, it is a privilege to work for TMS."

    9. Jordan   11 years ago

      Frank Portillo, a co-owner of Los Chilaquiles Mexican Grill next to the Toyota headquarters said he did not blame Toyota, although he might lose business himself. "The taxes are lower in Texas. There are fewer regulations. It's cheaper for a company there. Why wouldn't they leave California?"

      Frank Portillo gets it. I'm sure Texas would welcome you too, Frank.

      1. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

        He should get a place in Plano.

    10. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

      But wait! Something Toyota hasn't considered:

      What is the quality of life in Texas? 0
      What is the quality of life in California? A lot

      HOW DID THEY NOT CONSIDER THIS!?

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Think of all the cancer they won't get, though.

      2. Terr   11 years ago

        The weather sucks but I have to say that I'm having a hard time leaving Fort Worth. I have an interview for a pretty cool job in CO, which I also love, but this city fits my wife and I almost perfectly. I guess you could say our quality of life is "a lot."

        1. Spoonman.   11 years ago

          The fact that Fort Worth and Oklahoma City are growing like crazy shows how bad government must be places where the weather is good.

    11. Damned Fool   11 years ago

      I like to say that my family dog understands economics better than most liberals. He knows not to bite the hand.

    12. db   11 years ago

      Ah, don't worry, folks. Once enough California businesses move to Texas and take their Democrat-voting employees with them, Texas will die the slow death too, eventually.

      1. seguin   11 years ago

        Hopefully, enough of them are derpy enough to believe that "quality of life" argument up there.

  7. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

    Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.), who said earlier this year that he would throw a reporter off a "fucking balcony" in the Capitol if he was asked about campaign finance again, is reportedly seeking meetings with House Republican leaders after being indicted on 20 counts of tax and fraud charges.

    Is the house going to vote to throw him off the balcony of the Capitol building?

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      No, just under the bus. Being a NY Pol, odds are he's guilty as sin.

  8. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    and for no particular reason:

    Behold The Terrifying Tree Stump of Cthulhu

    Somewhere out in the woods of Lovecraft Country, located in a part New England you hope to never find yourself in, lurks this terrifying tree stump of Cthulhu. Ia! Ia!

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Ftagn?

      Fits right in with the morning I've been having.

  9. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    "...if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."

    He needs to find his predecessor's reset button.

    1. Bee Tagger   11 years ago

      Yeah, the trick seems to be Sec. of State THEN presidential run, not vice versa.

    2. Lord Peter Wimsey   11 years ago

      Really John Kerry? If you could rewind you'd reconsider calling Israel and Apartheid state on Holocaust Remembrance Day?

      Or would you reconsider calling the ONLY nation in the region where an Arab female can get a PhD in a mixed race/gender school an apartheid state?

      Either will do. Or you could just resign.

  10. Rich   11 years ago

    If two Democratic lawmakers have their way, Barack Obama's Justice Department will submit a report for action against any Internet sites, broadcast, cable television or radio shows determined to be advocating or encouraging "violent acts."

    So keep a civil tongue in your head, H&R Commentariat.

    1. Bee Tagger   11 years ago

      OR ELSE WHAT?

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      Encourage violent acts? I wonder what Thomas Paine would have had to say about that back in the day.

    3. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

      Advocating violent acts like invading other countries?

    4. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

      whitehouse.gov for droning?

    5. Brett L   11 years ago

      "Congress shall make no law..."

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        This is just a law allowing the executive to to an end-run around the legislature. That's different.

      2. db   11 years ago

        "...without a really good redefinition of the term 'infringe upon'."

    6. DJF   11 years ago

      So no more demands of raising taxes that take money from people at the point of a gun?

  11. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Liberals Understand The Constitution Like Justin Bieber Understands Particle Physics

    Liberals like to call the Constitution a "living document." Oh, how many activists in robes cite that mind-bogglingly misguided metaphor as they turn a foundational document into a kind of political Mad Lib where they scribble nonsense into blanks that don't exist?

    In fact, the Constitution is dead, dead as a doorknob. It has to be. Otherwise, it's not a constitution.

    The Constitution is designed not to change with the times, not to yield the ancient wisdom that flows through it to the faux-wisdom of the present. It is the foundation of our system, not something to be causally disregarded every time some politician who thinks he's smarter than James Madison gets a bright idea.

    1. Marshall Gill   11 years ago

      But it is supposed to change and the mechanism for it is described in the document itself. It is called "amendment" but that isn't what Leftists are talking about.

      1. Restoras   11 years ago

        When I brogught this up to a liberal acquaintance of mine his response was, "well yes but that's hard to do", and when I asked him why it was structured that way, he gave me a blank stare back.

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      The Constitution is dead or dying in the sense that it is disrespected and violated, and living in the sense that the goalposts appear to move around quite a bit. Therefore, the constitution is an *undead* document.

    3. Old Man With Candy   11 years ago

      Great Clarence Thomas quote, after hearing that "living document" bullshit one time too many. "Mine appears to be inanimate."

  12. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    Dumbing down America, one column at a time.

    But today's conservative leaders were raised on Ayn Rand's novels and Ronald Reagan's speeches (as opposed to his actual governance, which was a lot more flexible than the legend). They insist that the rights of private property are absolute, and that government is always the problem, never the solution.

    The trouble is that such beliefs are fundamentally indefensible in the modern world, which is rife with what economists call externalities ? costs that private actions impose on others, but which people have no financial incentive to avoid. You might want, for example, to declare that what a farmer does on his own land is entirely his own business; but what if he uses pesticides that contaminate the water supply, or antibiotics that speed the evolution of drug-resistant microbes? You might want to declare that government intervention never helps; but who else can deal with such problems?

    Well, one answer is denial ? insistence that such problems aren't real, that they're invented by elitists who want to take away our freedom. And along with this anti-intellectualism goes a general dumbing-down, an exaltation of supposedly ordinary folks who don't hold with this kind of stuff. Think of it as the right's duck-dynastic moment.

    1. robc   11 years ago

      externalities

      COASE COASE COASE COASE COASE
      COASE COASE COASE COASE COASE
      COASE COASE COASE COASE COASE
      COASE COASE COASE COASE COASE
      COASE COASE COASE COASE COASE

      RIP

      1. KDN   11 years ago

        I read that to the tune of the "charge" call. I think I might actually chant it the next time someone brings up the term.

        COASE-COASE-COASECOASE-COASE-COASE ..... COASE!

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      With Krugman, it's always "I project, therefore I am.

    3. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

      One word: nuisance. Everyone who has stayed awake through the first semester of law school can tell you about it.

      1. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

        I also like how he slipped in an association fallacy. Hitler ate sugar.

    4. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

      But today's conservative leaders were raised on Ayn Rand's novels and Ronald Reagan's speeches

      Okay, now I'm just going to get bitchy and say that if the NYT isn't correcting "raised" to "reared" here then everyone can go home. GO HOME, NYT.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Maybe the editor was afraid if she started with the red pen, she'd never stop.

        1. SugarFree   11 years ago

          There's no way Krug Kingman has to submit to an editor. He has a Nobel Prize, you scum!

      2. Pope Jimbo   11 years ago

        Do they lube up the Ayn Rand books before they rear the kid with them.

  13. robc   11 years ago

    Kennesaw seems like a stupid place to do something like that, although I guess a FedEx facility is more likely to be gun free than a random home in Kennesaw, considering the law.

    1. WTF   11 years ago

      I would guess FedEx has a strict no weapons allowed on company property policy.

      1. robc   11 years ago

        Maybe the city of Kennesaw should pass a law wrt businesses.

        1. gaijin   11 years ago

          See, Georgia passes a concealed carry law and this happens!

          /MomsDemandAction (not that kind of action)

          1. Restoras   11 years ago

            Double or single?

            1. gaijin   11 years ago

              single...no cocking required

              1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

                You have that backwards.

                Double action means the trigger pull does two things - cocks and drops the hammer.

                1. gaijin   11 years ago

                  yes. I am 'shamed

    2. KDN   11 years ago

      Significantly more so, if my brief googling is any indication. Looks to me like FedEx bars employees from having guns at work, which is their right, but makes any mention of Kennesaw's law a non-sequitur.

      Guns in the Parking Lot: A Delicate Workplace Issue

      Many big employers, including FedEx Corp, Volkswagen AG, Caterpillar Inc, and Bridgestone Corp, have fought the laws, arguing that their right to maintain a safe workplace?and set the rules on their property?should trump the right to carry a gun.

      "Much like a private homeowner is able to tell his guests whether they can bring a gun into his yard, FedEx should have the right to decide what it will and will not allow on its private property," Mark Hogan, vice president of U.S. security for FedEx Express told Tennessee lawmakers last year. Tennessee considered?and eventually passed?a law allowing guns in parking lots.

  14. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Wall Street Republicans' dark secret: Hillary Clinton 2016

    The darkest secret in the big money world of the Republican coastal elite is that the most palatable alternative to a nominee such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky would be Clinton, a familiar face on Wall Street following her tenure as a New York senator with relatively moderate views on taxation and financial regulation.

    "If it turns out to be Jeb versus Hillary we would love that and either outcome would be fine," one top Republican-leaning Wall Street lawyer said over lunch in midtown Manhattan last week. "We could live with either one. Jeb versus Joe Biden would also be fine. It's Rand Paul or Ted Cruz versus someone like Elizabeth Warren that would be everybody's worst nightmare."

    1. mr simple   11 years ago

      If we can't nominate someone like Bush or Christie from the pro-business wing of the party, and if the GOP nominee is from the far right, then we will hold our noses and tolerate Clinton.

      To these leftists, pro-business means handing them free shit.

      1. Azathoth!!   11 years ago

        So New York would go to the Dem. What a loss for the GOP

  15. Ted S.   11 years ago

    My son was killed, so I should have a heckler's veto

    The family of a young father are disgusted his alleged killer will be "immortalised" in a photo exhibition at an upmarket Auckland art gallery.

    They say including the accused man in the exhibition is "unacceptable" and have called for his portrait to be withdrawn. However, the gallery will not budge.

    1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

      It doesn't seem unreasonable for him to at least ask.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        It doesn't seem unreasonable to point out what a horrible precedent this would set, either.

    2. Gene   11 years ago

      Holy fucking face tats.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        I was thinking it was a collage or something similar.

  16. Jaybirdmojo   11 years ago

    Kennesaw, Georgia is the county that passed a law saying that everybody needs to own a gun and appropriate ammo.

    So expect THAT to be pointed out in days to come.

    1. robc   11 years ago

      1 minute slow.

      1. Jaybirdmojo   11 years ago

        Dude, when I got to the comments, there were, like, only 10 or so.

        Of course I slowed myself down by checking Wikipedia first...

    2. robc   11 years ago

      And the law is everybody, it is every household, IIRC.

      1. Jaybirdmojo   11 years ago

        Yes, of course. The head of the household must buy a gun and appropriate ammo.

        Burglaries, for some reason, went down even though all of the potential burglars knew that there would be guns worth stealing in every house!

  17. Gene   11 years ago

    Ball of Debris as imaged on radar

    Looks more like a plume to me.

  18. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

    Boston area HnRunners are getting together for tacos and drinks tonight in Cambridge. If you're interested but haven't talked to us yet, contact hamilton.

    1. Restoras   11 years ago

      Stop by Mead Hall for a pint or two. The proprietor is an acquaintance.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Drinking beer at Mead Hall?

        1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

          I sampled several of their meads. I was much more impressed with their beers. Also they had good sliders.

  19. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

    Has anybody posted this yet?

    First photos of the NASCAR Dogecoin car

    Last month, members of /r/Dogecoin, a subreddit dedicated to the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, helped raise more than $50,000 for NASCAR driver Josh Wise. As a result, his number 98 racecar will be sporting Dogecoin imagery during the upcoming race at Talladega Superspeedway on May 4th. Photos of the finished "Dogecar," as some are calling it, were tweeted by Phil Parsons Racing yesterday. An illustrated likeness of Kabosu, the now iconic Shiba Inu, features prominently on both the hood and rear bumper of the vehicle.

    I hope this increases the value of my 2500 doge.

    1. Jordan   11 years ago

      Wow. Such fast. Much speed. Wow.

  20. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Story of four-year-old's near-death experience transfixes America

    "This is not a Christian film with a whitewashed easy story where everything turns out fine and life is easy. This is our real life. It's not fiction at all, this is real and I want people to know that and be given hope".

    Colton himself, now a 14-year-old would-be musician, continues to believe fervently that he died and went briefly to heaven while surgeons fought for his life, and uses his experiences to comfort children suffering from terminal illnesses.

    He says he is a big fan of the film, although its makers haven't quite captured the glories he has seen.

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Never heard of this story. It hasn't transfixed me.

    2. robc   11 years ago

      Buffy did it first.

    3. Zeb   11 years ago

      My rule of thumb when it comes to death: If you are still alive, you didn't die. Death is permanent.

    4. SugarFree   11 years ago

      The misguided father railing against God at the moment his child is in heaven, a dose of confirmation bias for the anti-abortion crowd, the afterlife as perfectly described by his cultural background.

      They turned a burst appendix into a quick buck. Good for them.

  21. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Child porn charges filed against ex-state Rep. Farnham

    Former Illinois State Rep. Keith Farnham was charged Monday with using both personal and state-owned computers to trade hundreds of images and videos depicting child pornography and engage in graphic online chats in which he allegedly bragged about sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl.

    The federal criminal complaint alleged that Farnham, 66, a Democrat from Elgin, possessed two videos depicting child pornography on a computer that was seized from his state office in Elgin a week before his abrupt resignation in March. Authorities also linked a Yahoo! email account used by Farnham to a online trading forum in which he chatted with other users about his sexual preferences, according to the charges.

    "12 is about as old as i can handle," Farnham allegedly said in one online chat in November, according to the charges. "i love them at 6 7 8"

    see - all Democrats are Child Molesters

    1. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

      They gerrymandered a district so the Donks could slice off part of my town, and this is what we got out of it...

    2. The DerpRider   11 years ago

      I bet the Grimm tales will lead the news.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      Besides being a sick fuck, how GD stupid do you have to be to use a state computer or a dedicated yahoo email to trade child porn?

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Politician stupid?

      2. PD Scott   11 years ago

        As an Illinois politician, he knew it would be a matter of time before he went to prison for something. So he said the hell with it, I'd rather be busted for doing something I love.
        Which is children, innocent, innocent children.

  22. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Kansas City, St. Louis officials urge Missouri legislators reject bill to nullify federal gun laws

    James said that thanks to lax gun laws, urban neighborhoods have seen a flood of cheap weapons and violence. Efforts to nullify federal laws would only make the situation worse, he said.

    "State law already impedes our ability to keep handguns out of the hands of idiots and felons," James said. "This legislation simply takes that to an unreasonable extreme. The concept that nullifying federal gun laws somehow makes our cities safer is absolutely absurd."

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      "keep handguns out of the hands of idiots"

      Stop insulting our law-enforcement officers!

      1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        +1 specimen of the porcine kind.

  23. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

    Rep. Grimm

    Technically alt-text. You win this round.

    1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

      He probably shakes down wesen lobbyists when he catches them woge.

  24. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

    I don't know anything about planes, so maybe this is normal or reasonable, but it sure doesn't seem like it...

    New U.S. Stealth Jet Can't Hide From Russian Radar

    The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter?the jet that the Pentagon is counting on to be the stealthy future of its tactical aircraft?is having all sorts of shortcomings. But the most serious may be that the JSF is not, in fact, stealthy in the eyes of a growing number of Russian and Chinese radars. Nor is it particularly good at jamming enemy radar. Which means the Defense Department is committing hundreds of billions of dollars to a fighter that will need the help of specialized jamming aircraft that protect non-stealthy?"radar-shiny," as some insiders call them?aircraft today.

    These problems are not secret at all. The F-35 is susceptible to detection by radars operating in the VHF bands of the spectrum. The fighter's jamming is mostly confined to the X-band, in the sector covered by its APG-81 radar. These are not criticisms of the program but the result of choices by the customer, the Pentagon.

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Seems to be a recurring problem.

      We lost an F117 over the balkins because it was highly visible to the old soviet long band radar equipment they had in that area. Yet they keep designing it to be invisible to our radar instead of what they'll run into in the field.

      Plys, ditch the F35, they won't even committ F22s to combat because they're too expensive to risk, and the F35 costs even more. Invest in A-10s, cruise missiles and drones, since they actually get put to productive use.

      1. Jordan   11 years ago

        The F-22 and F-35 are just welfare for Lockheed and Raytheon.

        1. DEG   11 years ago

          During a period of temporary insanity in my younger days, I worked for two years too long (I was only there two years) at a big defense contractor. A VP gave a speech one day during my time there. In the speech, he called federal spending on defense "pork", but when the spending was on our company, "it's good pork".

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      Well, I guess we'd better allocate another 10 year, $250B cycle to the defense companies, huh?

      1. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

        "You are hired!"

        /USAF

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      The development on F35 and F22 radar jamming equipment goes back at least 20 years. I can guarantee it hasn't changed a whole lot over that period.

      The real problems with these aircraft are the long development cycle and enormous price tag. Cheap and replaceable is the order of the day in military equipment and pilots fit neither category.

      1. Restoras   11 years ago

        What, exactly, is wrong with the F-15, F-16, and F-18 as platforms aside from the fact that they are old? Can't they be retrofitted with better engines and avionics to meet the vast majority of threats we are likley to face?

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          McDonnell-Douglas actually has a retrofitted F-18 Super Hornet that has a bunch of updates. I'm pretty sure they offered up an updated F-15 a couple of years ago, too. Those Boyd platforms are fucking fantastic. Ever see the picture of the Israeli who flew the F-15 home with only one wing?

          1. Restoras   11 years ago

            Didn't see that...

            1. Brett L   11 years ago

              Here you go

  25. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    FedEx worker goes POSTAL!

    Do I have to spoon feed you people?

  26. gaijin   11 years ago

    What Libertarianism is not?

    What Libertarianism is not?

    1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

      Libertarianism is exclusively a political philosophy describing the legitimate use of force in society. It claims that humans have the right of self-ownership, and that theft, assault and other forms of aggression violate this right, except in the case of legitimate self-defense against an aggressor.

      Sez who?

      This keeps being brought up, and maybe in some fairy land it is true, but in modern political discourse libertarianism is a "big tent" that includes many variations on a desire for small government, with many different motivations.

      Also, ZH is weird.

      1. robc   11 years ago

        libertarianism is a "big tent"

        Election results suggest otherwise.

        1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

          You know what I mean.

          1. robc   11 years ago

            I do, and you are still wrong.

            There may be many small government fellow travelers, but that doesnt make them libertarian.

            I dont consider Ancaps to be libertarian.

            1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

              Enough relatively well educated people outside the libertarian movement think otherwise that what you and I "consider" to be part of the libertarian movement is a moot point.

              1. robc   11 years ago

                Ive never concerned myself with what other people think.

                1. Zeb   11 years ago

                  Ive never concerned myself with what other people think.

                  How's that working now that you're married?

            2. Zeb   11 years ago

              Well, I consider libertarians to be Ancaps without the balls to follow through on their principles.

              1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

                Jeez Zeb, you don't need balls to follow through on principles.

                1. Zeb   11 years ago

                  OK, gonads generally. Apologies to you and any other female anarchists.

            3. Emmerson Biggins   11 years ago

              I consider ancaps to be a subset of libertarians. Why don't you?

        2. Night Elf Mohawk   11 years ago

          Just because the tent is big doesn't mean a lot of people show up.

          1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

            I thought this was a circus.

          2. Restoras   11 years ago

            Do you mean to say that If we build it, people won't necessarily come?

          3. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

            Build a big enough tent and they will come try to burn it down.

        3. gaijin   11 years ago

          Also, ZH is weird.

          message does not equal messenger and all that.

      2. Ted S.   11 years ago

        As I discovered by reading the comments. 🙁

      3. BardMetal   11 years ago

        Big tent? Now where's Bo at so he can burn the heretics from true libertarianism?

        1. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

          +1 Witchfinder General

        2. Restoras   11 years ago

          For True Believers there is only one Libertarian Truth and all others are Deniers, Heretics, or Apostate, and must be purged back to their Original Parties and then herded into pens and euthanized.

          1. Ivan Pike   11 years ago

            One True Libertarian

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Shouldn't that be a link to a picture of hot women? 😉

      1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

        I know you're being glib, but as a young'un around here, I feel I must point out that I actually know several (yes, several) hot libertarian women.

        And quite a few socially well-adjusted libertarian men, to boot.

        Times, they are a-changin'.

  27. DEG   11 years ago

    Chris Dodd says Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. I guess it depends on how you define "perfect", I mean, there are still banks and rich people.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

      If he means that it doesn't do a damn thing to address the real problems in the banking industry, then he's correct.

    2. John   11 years ago

      He wasn't saying that when it passed. For a creature like Dodd, this is a full admission that the thing is a complete disaster and he and Frank completely fucked up the financial system.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Don't you worry about Chris Dodd, he landed on his feet and is now busy trying to destroy people's lives with crushing copyright violation penalties at the MPAA.

  28. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    The Great Big Midterm Polling Roundup

    The Liberty Foundation contracted with Magellan Strategies to conduct surveys of 600-900 likely voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin on the upcoming U.S. Senate elections and gubernatorial races. (Note they polled general-election matchups in states where the primary has not occurred yet; undoubtedly the candidates who weren't polled will gripe that this is anointing a primary winner before anyone casts any votes.)

    Most of the results are more or less in line with past polling, with perhaps a bit more good news for the GOP than conventional wisdom suggested.

    trade one douchebag for another.

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      trade one douchebag for another.

      Wrong. The choice is between douchebag and turd sandwich.

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      Yes, but the new douche has less experience.

    3. John   11 years ago

      More or less. All you can hope is that ending the career of one douche bag maybe puts a bit of fear into the next douche bag.

      It is not perfect, but at least you have punished one douche bag even if it is at the expense of rewarding another. There is always another election to punish the new douche bag.

    4. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

      Here in NH, it looks like we'll get a "choice" of Jeanne Shaheen vs. Scott Brown for Senator.

      I'm probably not going to vote on that race, because I'd hate to even infinitessimally help out the eventual winner.

      1. Zeb   11 years ago

        They usually have a Libertarian in senate races. I have no idea who that might be, but it's usually a safe vote.

  29. Jordan   11 years ago

    FedEx has confirmed a shooting at its facility in Kennesaw, Georgia.

    Gun grabbers, start your fapping!

    1. Brett L   11 years ago

      I'm far more concerned that "Going Postal" may result from anyone having long term exposure to packaging materials.

  30. Lord Humungus   11 years ago

    Despite the facts, America has convinced itself Obamacare is a disaster

    "News about the problems with the exchanges was on a lot longer than any discussion of beating the enrollment goal," Hamel says. "It's possible that all the reports were still in the forefront of people's minds."

    And its likely that most Americans are gauging their understanding of how well ? or poorly ? Obamacare is going from the news coverage. Most Americans already have health insurance, and aren't shopping on the exchanges for new policies. So even if the Obamacare experience improves, most people won't necessarily notice.

    "So many people are not impacted by the law that they're more likely to respond to messages in the media than they are to evaluate their own experience," Hamel says. "That makes me think it will be a while before there's any shift in how people think the law is going."

    1. Carl ?s his privilege   11 years ago

      Three weeks of Vox.com

      One of their innovations ? which has occasioned lots of hostility ? has been to shift the window of what is considered "reportable as accepted truth." A MSM article does not put defenders and opponents of evolutionary theory on the same footing. Vox presents the workability of a health care mandate as something ? if not quite to be taken for granted ? as a matter where a pro-mandate journalistic stance can be considered a matter of fact. By no means do I agree with all of their judgments, but I see them as ahead of the curve and outflanking their critics.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        Jesus H. Christ. These people have no shame at all.

      2. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

        I want to say, "Hmm, that's interesting," but Cowen is so fucking sloppy sometime this isn't even a sentence.
        Vox presents the workability of a health care mandate as something ? if not quite to be taken for granted ? as a matter where a pro-mandate journalistic stance can be considered a matter of fact.

        Is he just saying that Vox takes a pro-mandate stance as a matter of fact? Or that they present its workability as a matter of fact? I mean WHAT IS HE ACTUALLY SAYING?

        1. Brett L   11 years ago

          "Vox appears to be able to deepthroat the entire Obamacare apparatus, which is impressive even to this seasoned journalist."

          1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

            Much better.

    2. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      So many people are not impacted by the law that they're more likely to...

      Not impacted, like my premium now being 250% of what it was before the law despite not changing plans?

      *shakes heat at talking head*

      1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

        I haven't seen a pay increase in the last three years, and increases in my health insurance premiums have reduced my taxable yearly income by four grand. It's fucking crazy.

    3. robc   11 years ago

      Sigh, the biggest problem, dating back to the beginning, was linking how well Obamacare was working with how well the website is working.

    4. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

      "Despite"?

      A lot of people signing up for it says nothing about whether it's "working", besides that it's passed 1 out of the 700 necessary steps for it to "work". Of course, that's not even considering if it "working" is a good thing.

      1. Auric Demonocles   11 years ago

        Even getting the website functioning properly doesn't mean Obamacare is "working". In case these people forgot, before they fucked it up so royally us critics weren't even claiming that the website was going to be the part of Obamacare that wouldn't "work". Those parts were supposed to come later, but the Democrats turned out to be even more incompetent than we could imagine.

      2. Elspeth Flashman   11 years ago

        I thought the "despite" was out of place there as well. How about: "Because of the facts, Americans know that O'care is a disaster."

      3. Zeb   11 years ago

        No one has any definition for "working" so they can just make it up as they go along.
        People also seem to forget that a law "working" doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good idea as policy.

    5. mr simple   11 years ago

      They "beat" their enrollment goal, therefore it is a success. The science is settled!

  31. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    "A panel of health insurers agreed Tuesday that the number of insured people in the country has climbed by millions, despite arguments by some Republicans that the insured population has declined because of canceled plans."

    http://www.politico.com/story/.....06134.html

  32. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Megan Fox goes make-up free and displays her impressive post-baby body in grey leggings three months after giving birth

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....birth.html

  33. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    see - all Democrats are Child Molesters

    Yes, exactly. Now we're getting somewhere.

  34. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    'It's always nerve wracking, but remember': Elizabeth Hurley urges women to get screened for breast cancer during mammogram selfie

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....elfie.html
    There's a whole lot of stupid in those comments.

  35. sarcasmic   11 years ago

    Moment cop shot dead 19-year-old girl in raid on house party as her friends looked on in horror

    Samantha Ramsey, 19, was shot four times by a sheriff's deputy as she left a party early Saturday morning
    The officer claims she tried to run him over and passengers in the car say he jumped on the hood
    Video shows him trying to stop the car but not the shooting
    It also shows the distraught reactions of those who witnessed the killing

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-dead.html
    Executed for failure to obey.

    1. Elspeth Flashman   11 years ago

      It's called "attempted fleeing and eluding," sarcasmic, and don't you forget it.

      1. Jordan   11 years ago

        Also, First Degree Failure to Respect Authoritah.

    2. Drake   11 years ago

      I'm shocked that the parents don't hunt down and kill the cops responsible afterward.

      1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

        There are never any happy endings in real life.

  36. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    Watch this space:

    "Together with my colleagues Sean Southard and Arsh Haque, my goal is to investigate and combat intellectual discrimination, specifically within political science departments across the United States. With help from the University of Louisville's political science department, we hope to construct a survey that asks students how comfortable they are with sharing conflicting viewpoints, as well as if they personally have encountered intellectual intolerance in the classroom."

    http://www.iop.harvard.edu/blo.....-classroom

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Is this a witch hunt, or are they actually going to confront the fact that academia is infested with raving leftists who couldn't survive outside the bubble?

    2. robc   11 years ago

      Tiny head on a toothpick neck.

      Thats a weird looking picture. Of course, since she started college at 15 and is a senior, she is probably 18 or 19?

      So she has time to reapportion.

      Also, everyone who goes to Covington Latin graduates at like 15 or 16, its a weird school. Former MLBer Dave Jusice went there, IIRC. Also, a former boss of mine.

      1. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

        If everyone who goes there has a HS degree by 15, I'd say it's a "good" school. A really good one, even if they only take the cream of the crop.

  37. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    "Hollywood people promise to make a 15-second movie for the winner of a cool-movie-idea contest Chicago man submits his idea: a movie called "Linclone" about an evil Lincoln clone. The man's entry wins and is duly turned into 15 seconds of awesome.

    "Judge Napolitano wishes it were a real movie so he could watch it 50 times."

    http://www.mlive.com/entertain....._evil.html

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      (I'm quoting myself from yesterday)

  38. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    But- fairness!

    These historical examples point the way toward achievable solutions to our own crises. Over the past half century, people have stopped learning double-entry bookkeeping ? so much so that few know what it means ? leaving it instead to specialists and computerized banking. If we want stable, sustainable capitalism, a good place to start would be to make double-entry accounting and basic finance part of the curriculum in high school, as they were in Renaissance Florence and Amsterdam.

    A population well-versed in double-entry accounting will not immediately solve our complex financial problems, but it would allow average citizens to understand the nuts and bolts of finance: balance sheets, mortgage interest, depreciation and long-term risk. It would also give them a clearer sense of what financial accountability really means and of how to ask for and assess audits. The explosion of data-driven journalism should also include a subset of reporters with training in accounting so that they can do a better job of explaining its central role in our economy and financial crises.

    Not sure how this deranged piece of redneck teabagger propaganda got by the NYT editorial board.

    1. Fr?ulein Nikki   11 years ago

      Christie Malry?

    2. John   11 years ago

      Wow. That really slipped under the radar. I agree with the wholeheartedly. I am not sure however that the people at the Times are going to like the results of the voters becoming financially literate.

      1. Restoras   11 years ago

        Serioulsy. They should replace the foreign language requirement with this.

        1. Certified Public Asskicker   11 years ago

          Accounting? Or do you mean personal finance?

          1. John   11 years ago

            Accounting. Personal finance would be too easily co-opted by the lefty teachers. "Personal finance" would just turn into how to properly recycle and make sure you never invest in anything connected to Israel.

            Accounting would be harder to corrupt since it is hard and fast rules. Make people learn about double entry book keeping, depreciation, profit and loss, dividends, how actuarial tables and things like that.

            If people had to learn that it might dawn on them that perhaps Social Security isn't so secure, that taxing corporate profits is completely idiotic and counter productive, that our government is lying to us when it reports the deficit on a crude cash in versus cash out basis.

            A basic accounting class would be very eye opening to a lot of people.

            1. Restoras   11 years ago

              I think a basic persaonl finance class in this case would alos involve a lot of hard and fast rules as well as math that just can't be co-opted. Teaching kids/yound adults how credit cards, mortgages, car loans, compound interest, mutual funds, life insurance, annuities, etc. work would go a long way toward better financial literacy.

              1. John   11 years ago

                I agree that one should. I just thing the Ed majors would ignore all of that and just make it political indoctrination. They would try to do that with accounting. It would just be harder.

                1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

                  John, the common core turned math into political indoctrination. You think they can't corrupt accounting?

          2. Restoras   11 years ago

            Both.

  39. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    "Prosecutors said Ana Rosa Mora, who faces a first-degree murder charge, killed her baby out of fear her boyfriend would leave her. The teen then concocted a story intended to dupe those who knew she was pregnant, officials said....

    "...Prosecutors said that Mora told police the baby looked like her ex-boyfriend, who was in fact the father, and that she was afraid her current boyfriend would realize that and leave her."

    http://articles.chicagotribune.....lastic-bag

    1. Restoras   11 years ago

      This is clearly wrong. Everyone knows that women ae incapable of being this monstrous.

  40. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    Vox presents the workability of a health care mandate as something ? if not quite to be taken for granted ? as a matter where a pro-mandate journalistic stance can be considered a matter of fact.

    What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?

    1. Sevo   11 years ago

      I'm guessing they're telling themselves it's just ducky to lie about it now.

  41. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

    Net Neutrality failed, so let's seize the pipes.

    http://www.ilsr.org/save-inter.....ibution-2/

    With the announcement by the FCC that cable and telephone companies will be allowed to prioritize access to their customers only one option remains that can guarantee an open internet: owning the means of distribution.

    1. Brett L   11 years ago

      These guys should be out protesting the USPS charging more for priority mail, too.

    2. Swiss Servator ...nichts   11 years ago

      I suggest they create an ISP.

      1. Brett L   11 years ago

        You'd think there'd be HUUGE space for an ISP that treated all the packets that went across it the same. If only there were some... system... whereby people could express their preference to competing vendors by giving the one that most matched the purchaser's preference the most of the purchaser's money. We should really invent a system like that.

  42. Damned Fool   11 years ago

    Rutgers Students Occupy Building to Protest Award of Honorary Degree to Condoleezza Rice

    A bunch of people I knew were hawking this protest yesterday. One of them is a pretty standard liberal, and another is a Spanish communist feminist who regularly wears t-shirts about why porn is evil. You can probably guess the type of people attending.

    One of them posted this: "The protest today at Rutgers is so diverse and yet so together - pharmacy students, socialists, muslims, war vets, organizers, debaters, brown, white - but it isn't over yet."

    I guarantee you a least five of those categories came from the same handful of people. And it was only a handful, if what I saw when I walked by twice was anything to judge by.

    I am trying so hard not to laugh in their faces.

    1. John   11 years ago

      This is what fascism looks like. Leftist can trespass and commit various crimes shutting down the school and nothing will happen to them. If someone on the right so much as passes out copies of the Constitution, they are immediately expelled and if possible arrested.

      That is how it worked in the 20s and 30s during the rise of fascism. Fascists took over by co-opting the law and criminalizing their opposition while getting law enforcement to ignore their law breaking. You are seeing a microcosm of that same thing on college campuses. Since leftists run colleges, it is where they can do it to its greatest effect. They would like to do that to the entire society.

      They kind of have. The IRS harasses right wing groups and tried to get DOJ to indict them for lying. Meanwhile, left wing groups break the law by coordinating with Democratic politicians with impunity.

      1. sarcasmic   11 years ago

        "When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts, it will not be in jackboots, it will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts. Smiley smiley."
        -George Carlin

    2. db   11 years ago

      The same people would jump at the chance to award a position to Ernesto Guevara.

  43. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    What are the chances our overlords could fob off a scam like the Obamacare on a nation of citizens who actually understand double entry accounting?

  44. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    I am trying so hard not to laugh in their faces.

    Why?

  45. Sevo   11 years ago

    Surprise! Oregon claims market failure!

    "Oregon blames Oracle for health exchange failure"
    [...]
    " the website, Cover Oregon, ended up an utter failure by all measures."
    http://www.sfgate.com/business.....hc-bustech

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      [Oregonians with guitars stroll around an outdoor stage set]

      Oh, we had a health-care law to make everyone get better
      But our whole plan was sabotaged by kulaks and by wreckers

      Kill, kill, kill the kulaks! Bury them in the ground
      And grow sustainable vegetables where their bodies can be found
      [repeat chorus]

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        The Kochs, they bribed reporters
        With money from their vaults
        They tried to blame us for the failure
        As it were *our* fault

        [repeat chorus]

        But President Obama
        He'll replace the wrecking crew
        With a single-payer system
        That heals me and you

        [repeat chorus]

  46. Restoras   11 years ago

    Good God. That is what you call aging well.

  47. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

    The one woman for which I could get a hallpass from my wife.

  48. Scruffy Nerfherder   11 years ago

    It's a moot point in any case.

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