Obama Visits Wal-Mart, South Korean Prosecutors Target Ferry Owner, Johnny Manziel to the Browns: P.M. Links

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  NFL screencap

  President Obama visited a Wal-Mart in northern California to make a speech about energy. Labor activists showed up to protest. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other labor activists criticized the president for his choice of venue.

• Speaker John Boehner announced his appointments to fill the Republican seats on the House select committee on Benghazi, filling it with lawyers. Democrats have not announced any appointments or whether they will make any.
• Nigerian military commanders had advanced warning that Boko Haram militants were on their way to raid a girl's boarding school in Chibok, according to an Amnesty International report, but couldn't raise enough troops to respond and left.
• At least 20 pro-Russian militants were killed in Mariupol, Ukraine, according to government security forces, who say the rebels occupied a police headquarters.
• Prosecutors in South Korea want to arrest the owner of the ferry company that owned the ferry that sank in April on charges of cargo overloading.
• The 2014 NFL Draft began yesterday, with the Cleveland Browns drafting quarterback Johnny Manziel at #22. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The 2014 NFL Draft began yesterday, with the Cleveland Browns drafting quarterback Johnny Manziel at #22.

What a let down.

[Warty]

He’s the most punchable little shit I’ve ever seen. Either he’ll suck and I’ll get to enjoy hating him, or he’ll be good and I’ll get to enjoy other teams’ fans whining about how much they hate him. I can’t lose.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Over/Under as to whether he’ll be better than Doug Flutie?

[C. Anacreon]

He’s the most punchable little shit I’ve ever seen.

I know it’s frustrating to have Fist of Etiquette always being first, but really, that’s taking things a bit far.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Wait until he gets beat out by VY.

[Brett L]

That is something the Browns would do.

[Jerryskids]

As a long-time Seahawks fan, I remember well the supplemental draft prior to which I was heard saying “Boy, I sure do pity the team stupid enough to draft Brian Bosworth.”

Is this kinda like that?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Using essentially the same joke as alt-text? Who are you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The first person to re-use that joke in the same thread?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I expect more from you, but since it is Friday, I will give a pass.

[jesse.in.mb]

Look at you with your soft bigotry of low expectations.

If you really respected Fist you would hold him to a higher standard.

[Ed]

You let us down

[Brandon]

Using essentially the same joke as alt-text? What a let down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Won’t be the last time.

[Auric Demonocles]

I as about to come bitch at Reason for talking about Manziel, but the alt-text made me reconsider.

[Pro Libertate]

He’s got trouble written all over him, though he might not actually be a bust. I’d sooo relieved the Bucs passed on him, though.

[Mike M.]

That poor, poor kid. You can kiss his career goodbye before it even starts.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Eh, I still think he’ll be ok.

Do we have any Panthers fans around here? What the hell are they doing this offseason? Cam Newton has got to be pissed seeing the Bills trade Steve Johnson to the 49ers for a fourth round pick.

[Brett L]

Kelvin Benjamin is the real deal. Big, strong guy who can catch anything. They’ll be happy with him.

[C. Anacreon]

Brown is the color of poo.

[Hyperion]

He’s like Tebow, only shorter and with more talent.

[Virginian]

He’s not like Tebow. He can make all the throws, and I think he can do some work. The Browns have a solid D, one of the best WRs in the league, and a good TE. If their OL gets a little better, they could be pretty good.

[Warty]

The OL is a strength of the team. Weeden made it look bad last year by holding on to the ball 10 seconds every play and taking stupid sacks. Fuck Weeden.

[Virginian]

Yeah taking Weeden was retarded. But not as retarded as taking Trent Richardson 3rd overall was.

[Warty]

Almost as retarded as trading a 1st for him. Thanks for being a drug addict, Irsay!

[Virginian]

Haha true that. I mean, if he had been AP 2.0, sure trade a 1st for him. But he isn’t that great. He’s mediocre at best.

[Hyperion]

He’s not like Tebow. He can make all the throws

Umm, yeah, that’s why I said ‘and with more talent’

[Hyperion]

He’s under 6′ tall, that might be a vision problem in the NFL.

[Sudden]

Russel Wilson had the same questions.

Of course Russel Wilson despite being short is reasonably stout for a guy his size and has some humility.

[Hyperion]

Wilson has the benefit of one of the great defenses in NFL history. Don’t get me wrong, he’s also a rare talent. It’s not at all objective to compare Manziel with Wilson at this point. There’s a huge jump from College ball to the NFL.

[Episiarch]

It hasn’t been for Russell Wilson. But Wilson studies the film and works his ass off, and according to the Patriots report, Manziel does not.

This could be interesting.

[Virginian]

and according to the Patriots report, Manziel does not.

He worked pretty hard last summer to tighten up his game, from what I heard.

[Sudden]

He also had the highest wonderlic of any QBs in this draft, albeit much lower than Certified Smart Man and now Doctor Alex Smith, Lord of the eight divisions, King of the NFLs and First Round Draft Picks, and Protector of the Ball.

[Brandon]

I actually think Manziel will be a good player, along the lines of Favre. That said, he is an entitled little shit and has a lot of growing up to do and his pouting and bitching into his phone about Cleveland picking him until he realized the cameras were on him is not likely to endear him to local fans.

[Not an Economist]

I think Manziel will be a smaller, more mobile version of Favre, only without Favre’s arm strength. Favre was a gambler as a passer, far too often throwing into coverage, but he had the arm strength to get away with it. Manziel doesn’t. I think he may follow a game with five touchdown passes with five picks. Plus his style will get him injured in the pro’s.

[Pro Libertate]

I think he might be a Favre-Lite, with much less durability and probably more picks. Whether that can work depends on whether he can make the big plays to make up for his failings. And the durability is a big question mark with him.

I think Cleveland is a good place for him, with a good OL, a big receiver, and an okay defense. If I were the GM, I’d focus on making that defense much better now, to make up for the turnovers.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I actually think Manziel will be a good player, along the lines of Favre.

I don’t see it. I think right now he’s Tebow with a slightly better arm and a much smaller build. He’s got the potential to be another Drew Brees, IF he recognizes his limitations and works to become a better pocket passer. If he tries making his bones as a “scrambling QB” he’s going to get killed.

[Caleb Turberville]

As a Bama fan, I have my own hatred for Manziel’s personality. But he has physical abilities.

He’s the fastest dual threat QB I’ve ever seen.

He tends to float the deep balls, but he can throw on the run as good as anybody out there.

[Caleb Turberville]

After drafting Richardson and Weeden in the first round two years ago, the Browns have made some pretty good decisions as far a personnel.

I don’t expect Manziel to carry them to the playoffs his first year, but I can see an 8-8 season coming up.

[benji]

http://www.nationaljournal.com…..b-20140509

When Jay Carney was grilled at length by Jonathan Karl of ABC News over an email outlining administration talking points in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attack, it was not, by the reckoning of many observers, the White House press secretary’s finest hour. Carney was alternately defensive and dismissive, arguably fueling a bonfire he was trying to tamp down.

But Carney needn’t have worried. He had plenty of backup.

He had The New Republic’s Brian Beutler dismissing Benghazi as “nonsense.” He had Slate’s David Weigel, along with The Washington Post’s Plum Line blog, debunking any claim that the new email was a “smoking gun.” Media Matters for America labeled Benghazi a “hoax.” Salon wrote that the GOP had a “demented Benghazi disease.” Daily Kos featured the headline: “Here’s Why the GOP Is Fired Up About Benghazi?and Here’s Why They’re Wrong.” The Huffington Post offered “Three Reasons Why Reviving Benghazi Is Stupid?for the GOP.”

It’s been a familiar pattern since President Obama took office in 2009: When critics attack, the White House can count on a posse of progressive writers to ride to its rescue.

[benji]

Still, Jilani worries that some endorse the White House’s positions not because they always agree with them, but because they don’t want to give the GOP any fodder. “That’s a hard thing to separate,” he says.

Joan Walsh, an editor-at-large at Salon, brought this tension to a head last year when she slammed Klein for being too critical of the Obamacare rollout and, in essence, giving aid and comfort to the enemy. “On one hand, yes, it’s important for Democrats to acknowledge when government screws up, and to fix it,” Walsh wrote. “On the other hand, when liberals rush conscientiously to do that, they only encourage the completely unbalanced and unhinged coverage of whatever the problem might be.”

Unbalanced. Interesting word for a card-carrying member of the progressive media to use.

[John]

They all get their talking points and follow orders.

[Cytotoxic]

If they believe in Tinkerbell, she’ll live.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I can’t fathom how an fricken Ambassador being murdered is somehow not a big deal and a “hoax”. I’m gobsmacked.

[Coeus]

Well, if gun running to cartels and then using that to push for 2nd amendment restrictions is a hoax, despite the extensive documentation, then pretty much everything can be.

[Pro Libertate]

The fact that this is viewed almost entirely as a partisan matter and not as a scandal is just heartwrenching. We were such a strong people once.

[Tonio]

Pope Francis [Jorge Bergoglio] called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the “economy of exclusion” that is taking hold today.

No specifics, yet.

[Injun, as in from India]

And why oh why are we supposed to heed his advice?

[Warty]

Because he has that pointy hat.

[paranoid android]

Oh yes, liberals, by all means, please do start pushing the line that the governments of the world should take policy prescriptions from the head of the world’s largest child molester protection racket.

Perhaps Francis should start by redistributing the several tons of gold that ornament the Vatican?

[Episiarch]

“Do I want to do it? Does the pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes?”

“Is that something I’d want to do? Is the Pope Catholic and making the world safe for pedophiles?”

“Does a bear crap in the woods and does the Pope crap on the dreams of 200 deaf boys?”

[Marshall Gill]

please do start pushing the line that the governments of the world should take policy prescriptions from the head of the world’s largest child molester protection racket.

The Pope is a member of the Teachers Union?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

the head of the world’s largest child molester protection racket.

Bob Iger?

[Brett L]

I’m sure the Vatican is busy cutting a deal with eBay to sell off their entire collection of priceless artifacts.

[Tonio]

Well, Bergoglio has done some actual reforms of the financial excesses of the hierarchy, but, yeah, I’ll take him seriously when they sell stuff off before they tell people to start stealing from others.

[Ted S.]

What’s up with the time stamps?

[Brett L]

The squirrels are on vacation in French Polynesia?

[Ted S.]

How much artwork is the Vatican selling off?

[Corning]

Didn’t god say something about “thou shall not steal”?

Also how can we be charitable if our charity money is taken from us?

and How can we be thankful of charity given to us when what is given to us through theft and the identity of those who gave to us are hidden and/or derided as greedy rich people?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“no specifics yet”

But let us assume the worst anyway!

But here is the official English text of his remarks – if after reading it you have specific objections, please say so.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/f…..unite.html

[Juice]

A contribution to this equitable development will also be made both by international activity aimed at the integral human development of all the world’s peoples and by the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the State, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.

It all depends on what he means by “economic benefits.”

[Michael S. Langston]

Notorious, how about this:

…the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the State…

Is unequivocally wrong because there is not, nor will there ever be, legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state and the Chruch’s own teachings say this as well.

First – the church cannot claim man is fallible, yet once given the power to use violence to take money from some and give it to others, somehow they magically transform into divine beings with perfectly moral vision allowing them to ensure only those truly needy and truly moral people receive redistributed benefits.

Second – no one can claim money stolen from one and given to another is a form of legitimate moral good such as charity. The mere fact coercion is being used removes any legitimacy the idea might have had.

Sorry – I know many people see the Pope as some moral arbiter, but all I see here is him agreeing with socialistic ideas because his chruch and socialism have a lot of common ground; specifically with forced redistribution, but also in their love to control people as much as possible.

IE – I see this as self-serving BS dressed up as morality, all backed by the implication that god wants it this way too.

So the left uses carbon credits and global warming – the church uses god and charity – both want the same – authority over all.

[Pro Libertate]

I’ll agree to this provided that he perform miracles to eliminate all forms of scarcity.

[Fist of Etiquette]

…but couldn’t raise enough troops to respond and left.

What difference at this point does it make?

[Rich]

But this involved *children*, Mandrake.

[Injun, as in from India]

President Obama visited aWal-Martin northern California to make a speech about energy. Labor activists showed up to protest. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other labor activists criticized the president for his choice of venue.

The venue? A KKKorporation.
Who to blame? The KKKoch brothers, of course!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

“aWal-Martin”

A runaway black comedian?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Its a joint venture between Wal-Mart and Lockheed-Martin

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other labor activists criticized the president for his choice of venue.

Wal-Mart and their slave labor. Someone should do something about the choices people make.

[C. Anacreon]

Now Robert Reich, he’s truly the most punchable little shit I’ve ever seen.

[flye]

Being wrong about everything is apparently not enough to keep you out of the papers.

[Injun, as in from India]

Nigerian military commanders had advanced warning that Boko Haram militants were on their way to raid a girl’s boarding school in Chibok, according to an Amnesty International report, but couldn’t raise enough troops to respond and left.

They came, they saw, they left.
Is only US troops were stationed there?

[Injun, as in from India]

^If only US troops were stationed there…

[Brett L]

Big Dig II: Seattle — with even more hijinx and less progress!

The tunneling machine is the key workhorse in a $3.1 billion tunnel project aimed at replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct, a double-decker elevated highway that was damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake. Bertha’s meltdown, though, has put the project in jeopardy of being the West Coast version of the biggest public works boondoggle in U.S. history, Boston’s “big dig” — which cost taxpayers $14.6 billion, nearly four times the original price tag.

Who wants to bet the “under”?

[Hyperion]

If the aliens hadn’t of buried shit under the city, it would have went smoothly. How can you get anything done when aliens, with thousand of year of premeditation, bury shit just to fuck you up!

[Episiarch]

A lot of people opposed this project. For just this reason. But they’ve already demolished part of the viaduct, so…they have to finish, pretty much. Burning piles of money, here we come!

[paranoid android]

Why do you hate progress, Epi?

[Brett L]

I have to think it would be more efficient, in both time and money, to pay people to run hand-drills and blast with sticks of dynamite. Maybe use heavy equipment in the clearing. I mean, $45M buys a lot of jack hammer time.

[Brett L]

Sorry, I meant $3B buys a lot of time. $45M buys a lot of jackhammers.

[SusanM]

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

[Ted S.]

They learned well from Robert Moses, the evil bastard.

[John]

So the engineers told them this would happen and they did it anyway because they are government and the laws of physics don’t apply to them. We are a third world country now thanks to these retards.

[Tim]

Science? The science is settled.

[Brett L]

Remember, Atlas Shrugged is so unbelievably fake! Nobody would ignore the advice of trained engineers because they had a political goal!

[Ted S.]

I want to see elected officials who voted for this dragged out of their houses as said houses are sold off to pay for the construction project.

[B.P.]

They named their tunneling device after a WW I German howitzer?

[jesse.in.mb]

Jimmy Kimmel does man on the street piece “What is Gluten?”

Hilarity ensues. Folks mention oats, bran and rice as gluten containing products. I’m assuming they are confusing gluten and carbs.

It reminds me of this scene from This Is The End

[Rich]

“And what *is* ‘the legislative process’?”

[Warty]

Not that these people would know it, but rolled oats and other things do tend to have trace amounts of gluten due to being processed on the same equipment as wheat.

Gluten-free diets crack me up. If you do them as “intended”, it automatically cuts out most junk food, so obviously you’ll feel better. Of course ascribe those benefits to not eating gluten because they’re stupid.

But if you do what most people do, and eat gluten-free substitute junk food, all you’re doing is spending more money and eating food that tastes worse. Which I suppose makes it the perfect LA diet.

[Corning]

I added 12 grain bread (all glutan bitches) to my diet like 3 months ago.

Never felt better. My shits are now miracle of science, I sleep better, feel better in the morning, and have more energy then i have had in years.

Also think I have lost a pound or two and my tummy is less bloated.

[C. Anacreon]

And they replace the gluten with extremely high-calorie/high-carb alternate foodstuffs. You’ll often see people who are now gluten-free getting roly-poly plump and can’t figure out why.

More than 99% of the people who claim they need to eat gluten-free don’t need to. This is just one of the silliest food fads of all time. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

[jesse.in.mb]

And they replace the gluten with extremely high-calorie/high-carb alternate foodstuffs

Mmm. My food needs more gritty rice flour starch.

[Mad Scientist]

My wife is one of the (evil) 1% who actually has celiac disease. The fad has made it a hell of a lot easier for her to find new things to eat, so this is a fad with an upside for her.

[Episiarch]

People are always looking for a magic bullet with food. Always. 30 years ago the magic bullet was not eating fats and cholesterol and you’d live forever. Today it’s either don’t eat gluten or eat paleo or whatever. They will never stop looking for the magic bullet that will magically make them live forever, feel wonderful, and be in perfect shape without exercise. They’re the Ponce de Leons of the modern era.

[Ted S.]

I’ve also used the term “Smug Diet”: people who think their food choices are virtuous, and want to force that virtue down everybody else’s throats.

[Mad Scientist]

Locavores piss me off.

[Ted S.]

Of course, there are performance athletes who weren’t eating much junk food before who claim cutting out gluten has helped them, Novak Djokovic being one.

And then there’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

[Brett L]

Why is that man wearing a skirt on the tennis court?

[Ted S.]

Her Wimbledon outfit was worse.

[Warty]

Yes, I see that her new diet and that weekly gram of Anavar have really paid off.

Also, I think you underestimate the amount of shit athletes eat. Plenty of them are morons, remember.

[jesse.in.mb]

Novak Djokovic

A bit skinny for my tastes, but I wouldn’t toss him out of bed for eating cookies.

[Ted S.]

I didn’t watch this video; a Google search linked to it

[jesse.in.mb]

Best still from the video. No nudity.

[Brett L]

I’ll see you guys on the plane.

After a highly scheduled 24 days (including Thailand, Mumbai, Istanbul, and finally London), it is fair to say you will have made 50 or 51 new friends or at least frenemies. Do the Pilkingtons always leave something at the hotel that they remember when you’re halfway to the airport? Why do the Armitages always bicker loudly? Does Countess Brunjardin have?um ? lactose intolerance? YOU WILL GET TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER.

Cost, including all accommodations, transfers, and most meals is a mere $119,000. This is per person, double occupancy. There is an $11,000 supplement for a single room.

[paranoid android]

See, if they really wanted to be classy, they’d have just built a blimp rigid airship.

[Almanian!]

Oh, the humanity!

[Brett L]

Where would I smoke?

[MJGreen]

For the last time, it’s helium!

[Warty]

This has all happened before and will happen again.

For months the great pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land was chatted about in the newspapers everywhere in America and discussed at countless firesides. It was a novelty in the way of excursions?its like had not been thought of before, and it compelled that interest which attractive novelties always command. It was to be a picnic on a gigantic scale. The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry?boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselves out with a long summer day’s laborious frolicking under the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean in many a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history!

[The Bearded Hobbit]

+ Twain

… Hobbit

[Sudden]

The 2014 NFL Draft began yesterday, with the Cleveland Browns drafting quarterback Johnny Manziel at #22.

Remember what happened last time you guys jumped in front of my Chiefs to select a QB in freefall at the 22nd overall slot? 2007, anyone?

I’d tell you to go to hell Cleveland, but you’re already there.

[Auric Demonocles]

More recently they got Weeden at 22.

[Sudden]

Yes, but that was a reach, as opposed to trading up to get a guy who was free falling.

And they traded immediately in front of KC this time just as they did in 2007.

[Brandon]

Are you mad that the Chiefs didn’t get Manziel? I thought Ford was a great pick.

[Ted S.]

I’d have thought Rob Ford was too fat to play football. He might be a more interesting train wreck than Manziel, however.

[Sudden]

I think Ford is a great pick too. Insurance for Hali or Houston getting injured, plus they’ll be able to work all three onto the field in nickel third down packages.

And on top of that, I’m a huge Alex Smith fan. But Johnny Manziel would ensure that I’d actually get coverage of my Chiefs from the national media which is important because I don’t live in KC.

[Warty]

What are you complaining about? They got tons of national coverage when that one player killed his girlfriend and himself.

[Sudden]

Don’t act like you didn’t contemplate doing the same thing when Brady Quinn was starting for your team…

[Fist of Etiquette]

Democrats have not announced any appointments or whether they will make any.

Public relations folk?

[GILMORE]

Boko Haram militants were on their way to raid a girl’s boarding school

Because this joke Never Gets Old…

…and because Nicole says my last attempt wasn’t “Thug-Life” enough…

… I bring you =

The Final Chapter in the Boko Haram Rapification Project

http://alturl.com/yiz8u

Obviously, you should go fullscreen, take your shirt off, and dance on your desk

[The Late P Brooks]

War on Men

“As I traveled around the world with our first film, ‘Miss Representation,’ I heard the same refrain over and over again, ‘But what about our boys? Isn’t there a boys crisis going on? And, how can we help our boys be part of the (gender equity) solution instead of the problem?'” Newsom told the NewsHour. “Having just given birth to a son, I was beginning to understand the challenges unique to our boys and men and knew I needed to dig deeper into unraveling the damaging masculinity narrative that is fed to our boys and men.”

Somebody’s little boy is going to do a lot of falling off the monkey bars.

[Tonio]

What monkey bars. You think she’ll let her precious little snowflake anywhere near those death machines?

[GILMORE]

The premise is that both genders are ‘victims’ of ‘unhealthy gender norms’

What “unhealthy” means is left somewhat unstated and assumed.

What we *should* be seeking is something called ‘parity’. A fancy way of saying ‘equality’, albeit more often used in economic contexts. However, the person saying this doesn’t seem to be talking ‘economics’ at all.

In the mush of feelgood terminology funging, at one point it becomes clearer that what is ‘unhealthy’ is Anger and Aggression = things in overabundance in Male life.

“Branch tries to help these boys learn how to cope with situations without anger or aggression”

Apparently Anger is the only tool in the Male Toolbox. Like, ‘a hammer’.

Someone also helpfully adds, “What if you need to build something? You can’t build things with *just* ‘a hammer’. Sometimes you don’t even *need* a hammer.”

I am assuming this person isn’t the person doing the work around their house.

[Coeus]

Maybe they just prefer wood screws?

[PD Scott]

“Tell you one thing though ? he’ll take no truck from no one. If anyone is getting too bolshy, he’ll reach out and give ’em a right smack.”

It’s not political, it’s about a cat who herds sheep, except, well, it really doesn’t.

[Brett L]

Dan Snyder, apparently concerned that his crown as biggest living asshole was in danger, dings his former player for using a photo in uniform to promote a summer camp.

[Injun, as in from India]

Speaker John Boehner announced his appointments to fill the Republican seats on the Houseselect committee on Benghazi, filling it with lawyers. Democrats have not announced any appointments or whether they will make any.

Of course, they won’t make any appointments. That will grant the committee an air of legitimacy. By not appointing anyone, they can call it a partisan, unpatriotic attack by the rabid GOP.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Only RWNJs care about Benghazi. Gallup has Obama at 47% approval now:

http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

Obviously, the Benghazi ship has sailed.

Seriously, let’s reform taxes, cut spending, do Simpson-Bowles, something useful.

[Brandon]

None of which Obama wants to do.

[Palin's Buttplug]

That is absolutely not true. He wants to transition to a territorial C corp tax at a 25-28% top rate. He has already proposed entitlement cuts in the form of Chained-CPI. He was all-in on the “Grand Bargain” before Boehner got kneecapped by the Tea Party in 2011.

[paranoid android]

I do find it odd that Congressional Republicans have seized on this particular scandal to pursue instead of, say, the several U.S. citizens Obama has admitted he illegally murdered.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The government can illegally murder US citizens as long as they are said to be Bad People, didn’t you know? See, Ruby Ridge, for example.

[Palin's Buttplug]

One party I know, Al-Awarhi (sp?).

The GOP almost fully supported that.

[Tonio]

Nigerian military commanders had advanced warning that Boko Haram militants were on their way to raid a girl’s boarding school in Chibok, according to an Amnesty International report, but couldn’t raise enough troops to respond and left.

No wonder they need outside help for this. But, seriously, if your fricking national army can’t deal with something this small, do you think they’d be any good in an actual war?

Hmmm…maybe those advisors we’re sending are an invasion force. We could probably take the whole place with a platoon of Marines.

[Virginian]

Armies are either field forces, constabularies, or regime protection forces. The Nigerian army is a regime protection force, nothing more.

[Tonio]

Nailed. It.

[Tim]

“Labor activists showed up to protest. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other labor activists criticized the president for his choice of venue.”

Racists!

[Sudden]

Seriously, they’d never protest a white president doing this!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

“Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and other labor activists ”

The Lollipop Guild?

[Rich]

“Why did Robert Reich go shopping at Wal-Mart?”

[flye]

He heard they had low prices.

You know, ’cause he short.

[Jerry on the sea]

For Robert Reich, any store is a big store.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

One can’t help but giggle a little whenever his name is mentioned in the context of ‘minimum’ wages.

[Coeus]

This is a freezepage, because the story was pulled shortly after being posted.

Why Did Kidnapping Girls, but Not Burning Boys Alive, Wake Media Up to Boko Haram?

On February 25, between 40 and 59 children were killed by the fundamentalist militant group. Early that morning, Boko Haram terrorists attacked a boarding school and shot many of children, aged 11 to 18, while they slept. Some of the students were gunned down as they attempted to flee. Others had their throats slit. In some buildings, Boko Haram militants locked the doors and set the building alight. The occupants were burned alive.

All of the victims were boys. Reports indicated that the young girls the militants encountered were spared. According to the BBC, the militants told the girls to flee, get married, and shun the western education to which they were privy.

Beyond wire reports and a handful of segments on globally-focused outlets like NPR, this atrocity went unremarked upon in the popular news media.

[Coeus]

February 25 was not Boko Haram’s first atrocity. By March, more than 1,000 people had been killed in the country’s northeast since the first of the year. Prior to Boko Haram’s shift in tactics, from wholesale slaughter of young men to the kidnapping of young women, the group traveled from village to village where they killed children and razed buildings with near impunity.

The massacre in February prompted me to ask what the press found lacking in story surrounding Boko Haram’s atrocities that they would not cover it extensively. Was it a geographical bias? Was reporting from Western Africa more difficult than Beslan, Russia? There, hundreds of school children were massacred in 2004, and that event comprehensively covered in the Western press. Maybe there was simply an ethnic bias at play, and American audiences were prejudged to care less about atrocities in Africa than in Europe.

But the events of the last month have demonstrated that none of these explanations were accurate. Apparently, the press simply needed the right reason to cover this terrorist group and their brutal tactics. But an even more disturbing question needs to be asked now: why did the press spring to action when young women were kidnapped, but were virtually unmoved when it was young boys who were being slaughtered and burned alive?

[Tonio]

Interesting. And thanks for preserving that. I wonder why the media is so keen on burying this?

[PD Scott]

Look, those girls are in danger of being human trafficked, which is the worst thing ever, even worse than being burned alive just because you wanted an education.

Plus, too, the girls are still alive, presumably, so I can see being concerned about them, but the deafening silence about what happened to the boys does seem odd.

[Virginian]

Interesting. And thanks for preserving that. I wonder why the media is so keen on burying this?

Some people have said it’s because girls are the official victim class, where boys are not. Now, that is true, but still. You’d think the media would also be bringing the dead boys up to whip up interest and outrage.

Maybe they’re waiting for their marching orders? Because if they whip up enough frenzy to “do something!” Obama will actually have to take action at some point. So I’d say they’re waiting for the Journolist 2.0 honcho to tell them what to do. Is this supposed to a be a grand crusade or a flavor of the week distraction?

[Coeus]

You’d think the media would also be bringing the dead boys up to whip up interest and outrage.

I think the point is that it doesn’t.

[Mike M.]

At least 20 pro-Russian militants were killed in Mariupol, Ukraine, according to government security forces, who say the rebels occupied a police headquarters.

Yet another Reichstag Fire moment for Putin.

[PD Scott]

People sat around a table and thought this, this is the ad campaign we’re going with.

“A TV commercial by Spanish clothing company Desigual has caused a stir by showing a young woman sticking a pin into condoms as a means of falling pregnant more easily.”

[Brett L]

Of course, because there are way too many women who can relate to that.

[jesse.in.mb]

Russia, Fuck Yeah: U.S.: Russian planes flew near California, Guam, in upped activity

General Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle said the activity had included Russian flights to the coast of California, and around the U.S. Pacific island of Guam.

So I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this is inching toward being “our problem.”

Speaking at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, Carlisle showed a slide of a U.S. F-15 fighter jet intercepting a Russian “Bear” aircraft over Guam. He used the Cold War NATO name for Russia’s Tupolov Tu-95 strategic bomber.

Russian Bear sited in CA, but was it Silverlake or the Castro?

[Virginian]

Russian Bear sited in CA, but was it Silverlake or the Castro?

Admit it, the only reason you found this story is because you regularly search for that particular phrase.

[jesse.in.mb]

No!

maybe…

Also, I’m going to assume you were joking when you said I was better than ruining a joke by responding seriously. That or you’re thinking of someone else.

[Virginian]

I’ve been working nights at a desk, so I just hop on Reason after everyone else goes to bed and leave comments on dead threads.

[PD Scott]

If those Russian fools tip Guam over with their jet wash, no way it doesn’t become a shooting war.

[The Late P Brooks]

Be AFRAID.

The emergency order requires that each railroad operating trains containing more than 1 million gallons of crude oil ? the equivalent of about 35 tank cars ? from the booming Bakken region of North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada provide information on the trains’ expected movement, including frequency and county-by-county routes, to the states they traverse. The order also requires that railroads disclose the volume of oil being transported and how emergency responders can contact “at least one responsible party” at the railroad.

Much of the oil from the region is being shipped across the U.S. and Canada in trains of 100 cars or more that accident investigators have described as “moving pipelines.” The trains traverse small towns and big cities alike. Local and state officials, fire chiefs and other emergency responders have complained that they often have no information on the contents of the freight trains moving through communities and their schedules. Nor are they able to force railroads to provide that information, they say.

Won’t somebody think of the officious petty tyrants?

[Brandon]

Are they all in favor of the predictable routing of fixed pipelines, then?

[Ted S.]

This is what pipelines are for….

[PD Scott]

Maybe pass a lot mandating that someone has to run behind the train carrying a fire extinguisher.

Or go ahead and ramp it up, mandate that trains have to carry a hazmat unit in the caboose. That would be popular because older people who vote probably miss cabooses.

[PD Scott]

Passing a lot?! LAW.

[DJF]

The railroads could do things to improve rail safety like installing “Positive Train Control” on its systems, but they can’t because the FCC is demanding that they give approval to everyone of the 20,000 antennas needed and the FCC has not even figured out how they want to do this.

http://www.safetyandhealthmaga…..ion-claims

[MJGreen]

The Story Of The Darth Maul Game That Never Came To Be.

It’s a fun read, if only to get some (more) insight into how Lucas’s dementia:

The next day, Red Fly finally met with George Lucas, but not before being told how to talk to him. Our source says they were told to never say “No” to him, or to say, “Yeah, that will be easy.” They were also told not to mention Force Unleashed’s protagonist, Starkiller. If he’s referred to by George, it will be “that guy.” The most important rule, much like not feeding a Mogwai after midnight, was “Don’t tell George how the Force works.”

[…]

A friendly George Lucas entered the room and was eager to hear the pitch from Red Fly’s creatives. “Before they could finish their spiel, Lucas cut them off, stood up, walked over to the statues, rotated them to be facing the same direction, pushed them together, and said ‘They’re friends!'” adds the source. “He wanted these characters to be friends, and to play off of each other. He talked about the show Burn Notice as a reference point.”

[MJGreen]

How Lucas’s dementia what? WHAT???

I want an edit button.

[Cytotoxic]

The Dementia is so strong with Lucas it leaked into you.

I remember a line from The Last King of Scotland where the protagonist calls Idi Amin ‘a child’. George Lucas is strikingly similar in too many ways. He is however not a cannibal, to the best of our knowledge.

[Cytotoxic]

When this vast time divide was brought up to Lucas’ attention, he brushed off the notion of it not working, and said that it could instead be a descendant of Darth Maul or a clone of him.

I hate this man.

[Corning]

Obama’s Poll numbers are up.

Must be that 0.1% GDP or his skill at trying to start a war with Russia.

[Palin's Buttplug]

http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

It’s Benghazi, I’m telling you. It will backfire on the stupid party if they rub this shit in the country’s face all summer.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I doubt it is Benghazi, but the GOP should focus on Obamacare, then Obamacare, and finally Obamacare.

[Brandon]

Why? IF they weren’t the stupid party, they could be picking a new scandal every week.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think there is a point where when you keep flinging you look like a crank. Obamacare is working, let it do its work.

[Cytotoxic]

And I’m telling you that you’re retarded.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Global Climate Model clique feedback loop
…AND who has the time and indirect support etc, gets funded? Who reviews the grants?

Why, the very people you would be competing with, who all have a number of vested interests in there being an emergency, because without an emergency the US government might fund two or even three distinct efforts to write a functioning climate model, but they’d never fund forty or fifty such efforts. It is in nobody’s best interests in this group to admit outsiders ? all of those groups have grad students they need to place, jobs they need to have materialize for the ones that won’t continue in research, and themselves depend on not antagonizing their friends and colleagues….

[Coeus]

Posted that yesterday. Well worth reading the whole thing. Not working in academia, it’s a perspective I hadn’t seen.

[Sidd Finch]

New Oberlin College policy would mandate transgender sensitivity training for entire athletics department

“It’s basically like, don’t question people about their transitioning processes, respect pronouns and names, don’t use ‘ladies’ or ‘gentlemen’ when addressing a group of people,” she said.

Clarke is also a former member of the Oberlin Rhinos, the school’s women and trans-inclusive rugby team.

In addition to the training, the new policy would also mandate that athletic department documents replace “FTM” (female-to-male) and “MTF” (male-to-female) with “a transgender student-athlete who was designated a female at birth and is/is not taking medically prescribed hormone replacement therapy related to gender transition” and “a transgender student-athlete who was designated a male at birth and is/is not taking medically prescribed hormone replacement therapy related to gender transition.”

[Almanian!]

don’t use ‘ladies’ or ‘gentlemen’ when addressing a group of people

“Hello, la….I mean Obertards!”

[PD Scott]

“don’t use ‘ladies’ or ‘gentlemen’ when addressing a group of people,”

Since it’s Oberlin, just say “comrades”, that will work, right?

[paranoid android]

Clarke is also a former member of the Oberlin Rhinos, the school’s women and trans-inclusive rugby team.

I would have gone with “The Manhandlers”.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

SoCon Phyliss Schlafley Couldn’t Hit the Backside of a Barn

“While Obama has presided over hundreds of billions of dollars in budget cuts to our military, Communist China has been building dramatic new strategic military capabilities in every field of modern warfare. And it’s all been paid for with U.S. money that has flowed to China through the racket mislabeled ‘free trade.'”

http://www.eagleforum.org/publ…..erica.html

[jesse.in.mb]

Phyliss Schlafley

Anyone notice you can’t say her name without sounding like you’ve had a few drinks?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Are you old enough to remember Anita Bryant? The original homophobe beauty queen?

In a Playboy interview she said that the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge was semen.

“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”[11] She also added, “All America and all the world will hear what the people have said, and with God’s continued help we will prevail in our fight to repeal similar laws throughout the nation.”[10]

A lovely conservative lady.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

“people who sleep with St. Bernards”

Hm, pre-Santorum, huh?

[jesse.in.mb]

I know of her. And I’ve read that apple juice and vodka is called an Anita Bryant* because it was served whenever anyone asked for a screwdriver in gay bars while she was spokesperson for Florida Oranges.

But I was born in ’83 and she was active in the late ’70s.

*A truly vile beverage.

[Ted S.]

More or less vile than an appletini?

(I’ve never tried either. I generally drank my vodka straight, and these days stick to wine.)

[jesse.in.mb]

Different kind of vile. Appletinis are like drinking overly sweet candy. Apple juice and vodka just don’t work well together and taste blech.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ha! She started praying with pie all over her face. I don’t think I had ever seen that before.

I kind of feel sorry for her despite her willful delusion.

[jesse.in.mb]

The pie was…inappropriate. Considering she’d lobbied to drive gays from their jobs, I don’t have a problem that they went full boycott on her ass, but I do feel bad for her that she somehow became THE homophobe of her generation when she was hardly the only person with her beliefs or pushing for similar laws.

[flye]

*Donald Sterling nods in sad bewilderment*

[Irish]

While Obama has presided over hundreds of billions of dollars in budget cuts to our military,

*Citation needed*

Communist China has been building dramatic new strategic military capabilities in every field of modern warfare. And it’s all been paid for with U.S. money that has flowed to China through the racket mislabeled ‘free trade.’

Anyone who thinks China in 2014 is Communist is too much of a fucking moron to take seriously.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Communist China sounds scarier than just China, and Yellow Peril is frowned upon these days.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yellow Peril

That’d be a great roller derby girl name.

[Almanian!]

For a blonde chick.

[paranoid android]

Or a severely jaundiced one.

[Brandon]

China in 2014 is…what, then? Not capitalist. Fascist?

[Kaptious Kristen]

I was in China in 1996. What I saw of business was aggressively capitalist, but it was all under the table. Money and wealth accumulation is a really important part of Chinese culture. I don’t know if there’s a name for what kind of system China has.

[Irish]

China in 2014 is…what, then? Not capitalist. Fascist?

I don’t know what you’d call it. I don’t even think socialist is the right word.

They’re an authoritarian capitalist country.

[Corning]

They’re an authoritarian capitalist country.

That implied the capitalism and authoritarian are somehow related.

They are a free market country with an old authoritarian government layered over it. Neither of which can be credited for causing the other.

[Virginian]

Anyone who thinks China in 2014 is Communist is too much of a fucking moron to take seriously.

They’re sure as hell not capitalist. A one party state where the one party is the Communist party is by definition a Communist state.

[Jerry on the sea]

But at least the Chinese won’t frown upon people making money.

[PD Scott]

Yes, but they’re communist like a lot of people go to church, more for an appearance of propriety and standing than anything else.

With the dramatic disparities in wealth in China (actual disparities, not like the BS peddled here), I wonder sometimes if a real-red no-BS commie might not start a movement in some backwater there.

[Cytotoxic]

A one party state where the one party is the Communist party is by definition a Communist state.

NOPE

[Irish]

They’re sure as hell not capitalist. A one party state where the one party is the Communist party is by definition a Communist state.

No it’s not. A Communist state needs to have production entirely nationalized. Since China does not have nationalized production, and have lots of privately owned businesses, they are not a communist country.

The Communist party is called the Communist party for the same reason Angela Merkel’s party is called the Christian Democrats: Inertia. The Christian Democrats are no longer an explicitly Christian political party and the Communist party no longer advocates Communist policies.

[Virginian]

A Communist state needs to have production entirely nationalized.

Well there was plenty of Chinese style reform in the Soviet Union. The NEP, the Kosygin reforsm, perestroika, etc. Not as pervasive obviously, but it was there.

Does that mean the USSR wasn’t Communist?

[Irish]

The NEP was abolished in 1928 and basically allowed people to own incredibly small businesses while the government continued to control all the capital due to state ownership of banks and all large industries.

Perestroika was a last attempt to preserve the Soviet Union which occurred in the mid to late 80’s, right before the Union collapsed.

Neither one of those existed for a long enough period of time to seriously change the economic policy of the Soviet Union.

On the other hand, China has had liberal capitalist reforms which have been ongoing for 25 years. They just approved a privately owned banking system that the Soviet Union never had and the top 500 privately owned Chinese businesses have a combined revenue of 1.5 trillion dollars.

I am amazed anyone could look at a country that is attempting to institute private banks and has trillions of dollars of private equity and conclude they’re a Communist nation.

[Virginian]

Right but then we get into the hair splitting. Because I guarantee you right now there are two North Koreans swapping something in defiance of the State. So any statement about a nation’s economic system is a statement of degree, because all economies are mixed, to one extent or another.

I still say that the overwhelming presence of the Chinese state in the marketplace makes it a Communist state that allows capitalism, rather than the reverse. Obviously they’re moving in the right direction.

[Irish]

Communism does not strike me as an economic philosophy capable of allowing capitalism.

If you have a legally mixed economy, you are a capitalist nation. It’s only a question of where on the continuum you are. China is a heavily authoritarian capitalist state.

Because I guarantee you right now there are two North Koreans swapping something in defiance of the State.

Yes, and it’s illegal for them to do so. The fact that the Chinese government legally allows companies to amass trillions of dollars of revenue and legally allows banks to open privately is what makes them not communist.

[Virginian]

Communism does not strike me as an economic philosophy capable of allowing capitalism.

Right but historically every single Communist state has in fact done that, with the possible exception of North Korea. The Russians had the NEP, deStalinization, perestroika. They moved away from agricultural collectivism too.

China is well documented, and Vietnam has done largely the same thing.

If you want to make the argument that it at certain point becomes a matter of degree, then that’s fine. It’s certainly a good argument that allowing the formation of private investment capital is a big step away from Communism. But still, the USSR allowed the market to operate in limited ways. The PRC allows the market to operate in limited ways. The only difference is in how much freedom they allow.

[B.P.]

White people continue to have babies…

http://www.usatoday.com/story/…..y/8864399/

[PD Scott]

So I was watching Conan last night. One of the jokes in his monologue was about the “COPSLIE” license plate in New Hampshire.

“In New Hampshire, it’s been ruled that a man has the right to keep his license plate that says, ‘Cops Lie.'”
(At this point the audience was almost dead silent except for a few quiet laughs.)
“The man also has the right to get pulled over 18 times a day.”
(The audience reacted with a smattering of nervous laughter.)

Not all that great a joke, but it left me wondering, were they AFRAID to laugh at cops?

[Irish]

I think that’s just a terrible joke.

[PD Scott]

Yeah, but the reaction was different from his usual terrible jokes.

[MJGreen]

Why? Too obvious?

[Ted S.]

So I was watching Conan last night.

Why?

(Well, I’ll admit to watching him do the intros for the Carson on TCM interviews. But that’s because I wanted to see Carson, not Conan.)

[Irish]

On my way home from work today, I listened to AM 820, Chicago’s Progressive Talk Radio.

I tuned in just in time to catch the Ed Schultz show, guest hosted by the man who runs Raw Story who was deeply embroiled in a conversation with a big shot from the Center for American Progress.

It was exactly what you would imagine.

[flye]

He fixed the cable?

[MJGreen]

Don’t be fatuous, flye.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The Gaying of America

“In Making Gay Okay, Robert Reilly says the ascendancy of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) started with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s victory over Aristotle and that once philosophy fell the triumphant march through the institutions was quick and maybe even inevitable.”

http://www.crisismagazine.com/…..of-america

[Coeus]

More SJWs in the wild.

Toward the end of the day, an older guy walked toward us and I asked if he’d sign my petition. He thought for a moment and said, “No, I don’t think so.” I replied, “Alright, that’s fine.” Dave then asked, “Well, will you sign a petition for the Voters Bill of Rights?” and explained it some. The man interrupted him and said, “No, I don’t support that at all,” and started walking away. That would have been that, except then he added, “If your petition was to only allow property owners and tax payers to vote, I would sign that.”

I immediately blurted out, “Wow, fuck you, dude, you’re trash.” He grumbled something about how he “pays for everything” and how he’s sick of “moochers,” and I just continued to reiterate “Wow, you are an absolutely disgusting piece of trash.” until he got in his car and drove off. I obviously didn’t change that dude’s mind, but at the very least, he probably drove home, grumbling about “moochers” & loud-mouthed women who don’t know their place. And I’m happy with that. Sorry dude, you don’t just get to say things like that in public with no consequence (even if the only consequence is me calling you trash).

Charming.

[Coeus]

bonus, final line of the spiel:

No one ever got their rights by being civil and nice to their oppressors. I refuse to play civility politics, and you should too.

[Episiarch]

I have a question for you. Do you do anything other than read these “SJW” and feminist sites? Anything (besides PUA idiocy)? Because you are fucking obsessed.

[Coeus]

Takes about 20 minutes of my day, while I’m doing other things (got multiple screens). I find them funny. Don’t you?

[Episiarch]

The first three times. Now they’re endlessly tedious. They’re idiots. We get that. You don’t need to keep posting their crap. I know it makes you feel superior and shit, but not all of us need that. It’s not like their shit changes from day to day in any meaningful way.

You should try getting a new shtick. This one is completely played out.

[Coeus]

I know it makes you feel superior and shit, but not all of us need that.

I have a question for you. Do you do anything other than read these “SJW” and feminist sites? Anything (besides PUA idiocy)? Because you are fucking obsessed.

hmmm.

[Episiarch]

Hit a nerve, did I? Here’s a tip: if every day, every single weekday, you post endless links to the same exact types of people whose shit you read (and think are idiots) every day, you. are. obsessed. You can squirm and deflect and try to pretend that isn’t so, but…it is.

[Coeus]

Hit a nerve, did I?

Not really. I just find it humorous that you’d say that in a pissing contest you started to demonstrate your supposed superiority.

[Episiarch]

It’s too bad that you’re too insecure and obsessed to take this for what it was: advice that you have beaten this shtick to death and then some. It’s tired. Give it a rest.

[Coeus]

Amazing how many comments are under this beat to death shtick.

But thank you for the advice. I’m honored that you care so much for how I’m regarded here.

[John]

Lay off Episiarch. Don’t begrudge a man his hobbies.

[Episiarch]

Hay, man, I couldn’t care less how many hours a day he spends jerking off to these sites. But I’m not seeing how he thinks it’s still humorous to post them here after months or years of doing it every single fucking day. Beating jokes into the ground isn’t funny, unless that itself is the joke. And that’s not his joke.

It’s like someone saying “your mom” again and again and again.

[SusanM]

If he wants a hobby than what’s wrong with a model railroad?

[Ted S.]

Takes about 20 minutes of my day, while I’m doing other things

“Other things” being a euphemism for jerking off to the stories. :-p

[Coeus]

I’m also running a cam show while I do it. So technically 3 things.

[jesse.in.mb]

…go on.

[Ted S.]

Don’t you mean “come on”?

[C. Anacreon]

I enjoy reading them Coeus. After a day working in the Bay Area, they can be fairly cathartic.

[Coeus]

thank you.

[Brandon]

I think I’ve asked this before, but what are SJW’s?

[Mad Scientist]

Social Justice Warriors.

[Corning]

Coeus needs a better name for them.

Social Justice Warriors could be a whole host of left wing groups that have a completely different flavor then the feminist crazy shit he posts.

Tony for example is an SJW but he wants government mandated birth control…now the feminists i am sure would very much like the government to pay for their birth control but i am pretty sure they would oppose forced abortions and forced sterilization.

[Coeus]

I guess I could call them Critical Race Theorists, but everyone would think I’m talking about old computer monitors.

[Virginian]

I’d sign that guy’s petition, and I don’t own any property.

Hell, I’d go full Grainne if I got the chance. Want to exercise political power? Join the forces, muster out, then pay a shit ton of money into the treasury. Once you do that, you get to vote on how it’s spent.

[Brett L]

Except that he didn’t blurt it out, he just said it in his head and made up the rest of it.

[Stormy Dragon]

He grumbled something about how he “pays for everything” and how he’s sick of “moochers,”

I bet one fun token he’s a retired public teacher or something similar who spent his whole career in a tax payer funded job and is now living off a public pension.

[Virginian]

Sure why not. Because she made the whole thing up. It didn’t actually happen.

Notice how these people always seem to run into complete strangers who spit out exactly what is needed to punch up a bullshit column. The entire fucking story didn’t happen.

[Irish]

Notice how these people always seem to run into complete strangers who spit out exactly what is needed to punch up a bullshit column. The entire fucking story didn’t happen.

Have I ever told you the story about the time I was talking to a leftist and he said ‘I want to put all my opponents in camps and murder everyone with a net worth over $250,000?’

Because it happens all the time and I feel like I should write a blog post about it.

[Stormy Dragon]

It’s just been my experience that people who actually pay a lot of taxes and want them lowered don’t talk about it that way. The only people I’ve ever met who would say that out loud are either perpetually unemployed or working for the government.

[MJGreen]

Haha, this seems like a case of literal projection. This guy gets all hot and bothered by the old man, but he thinks himself victorious by imagining that the old man got all hot and bothered by him.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

That whole spiel is right out of shitthatneverhappened.txt.

[Michael S. Langston]

Or possibly – the grumbler did basically say “go to hell – you’re an idiot” and the little wussy did nothing but stand there shocked; but unhappy with the reality of his actions and being a completely insecure self-absorbed POS, he decided to rewrite it to make himself the “man”.

Of course who knows, but in my experience, even lightly questioning children pushing childish simplistic ideas only confuses them to the point of turning them mute.

In fact, many of them seem shocked when faced with anyone who would dare disagree in the slightest (after all – everyone they know is completely for their obvious common sense ideas).

On top of that – what’s the likelihood an old man willing to yell at and call names such as “moocher”, but when called “trash” to their face will simply slink away?

Irregardless, I agree with others here – the article isn’t any factual retelling of anything – instead it’s a complete fantasy; a dream world where everyone agrees with him, and the very few who don’t, only mumble because they are too scared to be taken to task by those strong in character such as the author.

Yeah – in his eyes – he’s Dirty Harry and just taking out the trash.

In reality – he’s Andy Dick, scared to leave town for vacation because he cats might plot against him.

Seriously – what a transparent, insecure little pussy.

[The Late P Brooks]

Seriously, let’s reform taxes, cut spending, do Simpson-Bowles, something useful.

Speaking of doing something useful, did you ever buy that Ruger, or did your involuntary commitment cause t5yhe FFL to cancel the sale?

[Palin's Buttplug]

No, I bought a Taurus 605 instead. It was about $200 cheaper than the SP101 and I’ll probably never have to fire it anyway.

[Coeus]

You’re not gonna practice with it?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

So…you have no plans on actually practicing with it? Or at least function testing it?

[jesse.in.mb]

Only the Dutch: Girlband “ADAM” do music video of them singing through an orgasm.

As far as I can tell they’re singing the song with a bullet between their thighs.

[Warty]

I’ll take one of the redheads and a couple of the little blond pixies. I’ll leave their mom for someone else.

[Damned Fool]

Warty shares because Warty cares?

….

OH GOD WARTY CARES RUN AWAY

[Warty]

I still can’t believe my WARTYCARE proposal didn’t get more support from the insurance industry lobby.

[Warty]

I still can’t believe my WARTYCARE proposal didn’t get more support from the insurance industry lobby.

[John]

I know redheads have no soul but when they work THEY WORK. Google Meg Turney sometime. She is a fake redhead but she really works as one.

[Irish]

WAY TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE PLANET, YOU CISGENDERED PATRIARCHS!

Right. This is estimated to happen by 2030? 2030! That gives us 15 years to live, if we even survive that long. Before that there will be floodings and terrible tsunamis, the sea level is likely to rise at least 50 meters higher. The monetary system will crumble down before, and I shudder to think what men will do once their system falls apart and they will no longer be able to hide the truth.

Shudder. To. Think.

The unstoppable death-machine has always only been orchestrated by the homo rapiens. By men. YOU. Women are not and have never been responsible for the atrocities committed by men, for men’s global industrial rape and death system. By lying and deceiving you are continuing to be part of the problem, because you are masking the fact that the obvious solution all the time, long before the extinction of all life was impending, was to depopulate the earth of males or to reduce them to manageable levels again ? only by doing so would have men’s patriarchal and industrial necrophilic sado-system come to an end without destroying the rest of life.

Fucking Homo rapien death machines.

[John]

These people have lost what small minds they have. What do you do with that other than laugh?

[PD Scott]

Pass the hat around to buy her some tranquillizers and/or organic fair trade aluminum foil?

[PD Scott]

For a hat, if that wasn’t clear.

[paranoid android]

The unstoppable death-machine has always only been orchestrated by the homo rapiens. By men. YOU. Women are not and have never been responsible for the atrocities committed by men, for men’s global industrial rape and death system.

But you can blame all men? That’s really giving Warty short shrift for his vast personal contributions to the field of industrial rape and death.

[Mad Scientist]

I wonder if she’s ever considered solving this problem by becoming an irritating fucking nag.

[Damned Fool]

Sweeties ? ? ?

I have known this for a couple of decades now.

All we can do as witches is to raise our energy for our re-incarnation on a female planet. Parthenogenesis. It’s a huge Universe, we’re out there in our own Worlds.

So they can reincarnate themselves on a different planet but they can’t even end FGM or child marriages? Good to know.

[Virginian]

All we can do as witches is to raise our energy for our re-incarnation on a female planet. Parthenogenesis. It’s a huge Universe, we’re out there in our own Worlds.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the reality based community!

[Corning]

Parthenogenesis.

Doesn’t Athena justs kill, or mutilate all the Women there for looking at her husband and curse the ones he rapes?

[PD Scott]

I’m pretty sure she’s in her own world already.

[The Late P Brooks]

except then he added, “If your petition was to only allow property owners and tax payers to vote, I would sign that.”

SWEET.

[John]

Abagail Breslin, Emma Watson with blond hair and a much better body or fat girl waiting to happen? The curves are nice but that is an awful lot of them to have at 17.

http://www.becauseiamfabulous……-carpet-2/

[Episiarch]

I’m going to guess she’ll be pretty fat within 10 years. She has the look. She might be able to beat it but she’ll have to work at it and stay vigilant.

[John]

That is my guess too. She has that “peaked at 18” look about her.

[Warty]

She looks extremely fertile. Those don’t usually age well. In other times, she would have had 4 kids by now and be on her way to 20 more.

[John]

Child bearing hips and nurturing boobs.

[Sidd Finch]

She’ll be lucky to make it to 21.

[Warty]

She’ll be as fat as the chick from Cheers soon. Whatever her name is. The Scientologist.

[Mad Scientist]

Norm!

[C. Anacreon]

You are on a roll today. That’s a few laugh-out-louds that put me at risk with my secretary nearby. “irritating fucking nag” got me as well.

[Mad Scientist]

Oh, great, now my wife will think there are two of us with awful senses of humor.

[flye]

Seconded.

[John]

Shelly Long though Long is like 60 so she stayed thin a long time.

[jesse.in.mb]

Wait is this like Reason style Godwinning where we do not name Kirstie Allie?

Shelley Long is only fat by sarcasmic standards.

[Warty]

Kirstie Allie! Yes. I have a tumor in the part of my brain that’s responsible for remembering the names of fat Scientologists.

[Episiarch]

Can’t we all just remember her from the better times? The Kirk times?

[Brandon]

I dunno, I knew a girl in college who had bodacious curves like that at 20, and at 30 she now looks exactly the same. Should’ve known, her mom was hot into her early 50’s.

[Damned Fool]

So I was procrastinating yesterday and I realized for the first time in my life that the bill of rights has a preamble. Considering the importance attached in political rhetoric and sometimes the courts to the preamble to the Constitution, it seemed strange that I had never heard of it in 12 years of public education and 3 years of college. But then I realized what the difference was: while the preamble to the Constitution is packed with statements extolling the virtue of the government, the preamble to the BoR explicitly mentions the need to “prevent misconstruction or abuse of [the Constitution’s] powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution” by keeping the federal government on a leash. No wonder educators and congresscritters don’t like to talk about it: they like to turn parts of the document into an enabling act.

[paranoid android]

the preamble to the BoR explicitly mentions the need to “prevent misconstruction or abuse of [the Constitution’s] powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution”

Oh, those poor, naive fools.

[Brandon]

the preamble to the BoR explicitly mentions the need to “prevent misconstruction or abuse of [the Constitution’s] powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution”

This is why it’s not taught in public school.

[jesse.in.mb]

“The most radioactive place in New York” declared Superfund site.

For decades, Wolff-Alport processed rare-earth metals and dumped the waste product, radioactive thorium, down the sewer. Later, they sold their thorium to the Atomic Energy Commission.

Oops! At least we know where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came from.

Now that the Superfund site has been designated, the E.P.A. will have to decide which method of cleanup will most effectively reduce the area’s elevated radiation levels?one option is to dig up the contaminated soil and ship it to a treatment facility. But, […] that process has its own problems, including health risks.

Good thing they’re planning on getting rid of that radioactive soil…

The remediation could also cause significant disruptions to the lives of the people who live and work in the area. Alberto Rodriguez, the owner of Los Primos auto-body shop, which is located directly above the contaminated site, said today that he was not happy about the designation. “We might have to move our business,” he said. “We’re probably not going to be able to get much work done.“

Ah, it’s a shame there’s something on top of that soil. Also, Alberto Rodriguez is a master of ironic understatement.

[Corning]

Good thing they’re planning on getting rid of that radioactive soil…

At Hanford they send in D8 cats and after they get to hot (radioactive hot) they bury em where they sit.

[Coeus]

GPS Bullets

Over the past few years, companies like Starchase have begun developing technologies like its “GPS bullet” pursuit management system, which the company describes as a “real-time tagging and tracking tool to reduce dangerous high-speed pursuits.”

The Starchase system can be mounted to the front-grill of police cruisers, and it fires stick-on “GPS bullets” or tracking devices at the suspect’s vehicle through a compressed-air launcher. “The dispatcher then views the location and movements of the tagged vehicle in near real-time on a digital roadmap via a secure Internet connection,” thus rendering a dangerous high speed car-chase unnecessary. The system is being tested by a number of police departments around the US.

High speed car chases, often associated with action movie franchises like the Fast and the Furious and Die Hard, are, in fact, quite pervasive in the real world. Unlike Bruce Willis’s fictional Detective John McClane, most ordinary humans are not very durable. In fact, one study, undertaken in 2006, estimated that police pursuits have been causing “14,000 injuries and 700 pursuit deaths each year.”

Any bets as to whether the cops with this system will stop the chase, or just use it as backup?

[PD Scott]

Backup, surely. The other cops will laugh at you behind your back if you let the perp get away, tracker or no tracker.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

*begin Austrian accent*

Remember when I said I wouldn’t post any more articles about Civil War re-enactors?

I lied.

“Cannon fire echoed off Downtown buildings today as a two-day Civil War encampment got under way at the Ohio Statehouse….

“The encampment includes displays and explanations of the food and weapons used by the soldiers, as well as medical instruments and practices of the era.”

http://www.dispatch.com/conten…..pment.html

[Brandon]

I saw “echoed,” and I read it as “ricocheted.” This article got a lot less interesting when I realized my mistake.

[Sidd Finch]

Why I unfollowed Patton Oswalt ? and you should too

Oswalt’s almost-pathological need to confuse and belittle the easily outraged is getting really tired, really fast

This is in response to him apologizing for tweets he never sent a few days ago.

“The FUCK is wrong with me? Last Tweet deleted. The victims of the Holocaust deserve our highest respect, not penis limericks.”

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“Pizza lovers should head to Jet’s Pizza in Lawrenceville on Saturday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. for a free slice of signature deep dish square pizza (one per person) and free Jet’s Bread (two pieces per person)….

“Jet’s Pizza is based in Michigan and is known for the deep dish square pizza with crunchy crust.”

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/atl…..ets-bread/

[PD Scott]

“deep dish square pizza with crunchy crust.”

You know, in case you’re nostalgic for public school cafeteria pizza.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Hey, I liked that stuff, at least in comparison to the other stuff on the menu.

[PD Scott]

I honestly can’t argue with that.

[Mad Scientist]

The square pizza at my school was cardboard. Flimsy, soggy, cardboard at that. Jet’s Pizza sounds like heaven in comparison.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street activist convicted of assaulting a New York police officer, received a celebrity endorsement of sorts on Friday when two members of the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot visited her in prison….

“They said at a press conference in Washington last week that they were “appalled and saddened” about McMillan’s case, and suggested that she was a “political prisoner”. They added on Twitter: “We are hoping that Manhattan court will not convict Cecily McMillan to prison term. Anyway, it’s time to start your own, american Pussy Riot.””

http://www.theguardian.com/wor…..ll-street-

[The Late P Brooks]

I’ll probably never have to fire it anyway.

If you can keep your hand from shaking, once should do it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Mitt Romney Comes Out For Minimum Wage Increase

“I, for instance, as you know, part company with many of the conservatives in my party on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it,’ Romney said. ‘Because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay.'”

He also said he parted company with his party on the Unicorn Act.

[Irish]

‘Because frankly, our party is all about more jobs and better pay.'”

If you want more jobs and better pay, you should oppose artificial barriers to entry into the workforce…you know, barriers like the minimum wage.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What I thought remarkable was that he actually out-Progressived our own Tony on this issue. In debates about the minimum wage Tony has said ‘yeah, it might costs a few jobs at the margin, but it will also leave some people with better pay.’ Romney just went and had the cake and ate it too.

[Irish]

Remember that wonderful moment in time between April 2012 and November 2012 when Mitt Romney was a Randian libertarian that was going to abolish child labor laws?

[Virginian]

Mitt Romney Comes Out For Minimum Wage Increase

The Republican Party Has Never Been More Extremist!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“The gentleman in the picture above is Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, not, as CBS News states, new Los Angeles Clippers CEO Richard Parsons.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/…..88273.html

[Jerryskids]

Remember that Sunday is Mother’s Day, but take a minute to
remember an old friend.

I have my own reasons for having that link bookmarked.

[Sudden]

Every now and then, there’s a thread where I think to myself, “man, would love to see J-sub comment on this” and I get a sad.

And going back to that thread was a trip. I completely forgot about rather.

[Warty]

Three years already? Damn.

[Virginian]

The Editors would like to extend our condolences to Senator Harry Reid and his family as they go through this difficult time. While we can only guess at the exact nature of the psychiatric or neurological trauma the Senate majority leader has suffered, we assume that it is severe

There’s something about Harry

[Winston]

So I guess Mitt is back to being a Reasonable Sane Republican now that he lost?
Also Mitt, Paul Ryan and John Boehner are considered too radical by the progs. Heaven help Rand Paul if he gets the nomination.

[Irish]

So I guess Mitt is back to being a Reasonable Sane Republican now that he lost?

Sort of like how Reagan is a Reasonable Republican now that he’s dead.

[Mad Scientist]

The left will gladly say that abut any republican, so long as they die first.

[Virginian]

No, they’re quite capable of saying glowing things about Republicans who are against Republicans they hate more.

See McCain before he ran against Obama.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I have to wonder what McCain’s fate would have been with the press had he beat Bush back in 2000 and ran against Gore, or if he was not running against the First Black or First Woman for President.

[Virginian]

I have to wonder what McCain’s fate would have been with the press had he beat Bush back in 2000 and ran against Gore

Seriously? You wonder? I don’t. The media loved McCain when he bashed W, when he called his own party out. They never would have given him a fair shake against a Democrat in a competitive race.

Hell, if he’d been from a purple state, they would have dragged him down decades ago.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Oh, I don’t know. I see why the media had to fawn all over Obama over him, but I am not sure they would have done the same with Gore.

[Virginian]

I am not sure they would have done the same with Gore.

Then you fundamentally misunderstand what the media is.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

For what it’s worth, there’s this study about the press coverage of Bush and Gore.

http://www.journalism.org/files/legacy/lastlap.pdf

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Contrast with this one:

http://www.journalism.org/files/legacy/WINNING THE MEDIA CAMPAIGN FINAL.pdf

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Eh, stupid link. Just Google this:

WINNING THE MEDIA CAMPAIGN:

How the Press Reported the 2008 Presidential General Election

[Virginian]

Yeah, you really don’t get it, do you?

The media is dedicated to advancing a leftist centralism. Whichever action furthers that cause is the action they will take. Right now the Democratic Party in general, and the left wing in particular, advances that.

They will always be in favor of the candidate closest to the Left. It’s why they used McCain as a club against Bush for a decade, then turned on him. It’s why they turned on Hillary in 2008: they had a candidate they liked better.

They’re not objective. They’re not neutral.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

How do you explain then the differential treatment for Gore and Obama? If it is just about the media being dedicated to advancing leftist centralism they should have treated them the same.

I understand it is a common view on the right that the media is an arm of the Left, but I think that is as simplistic as the leftist view that corporations are supporters of the Right. The GOP nominates some unexciting, unmomentous candidates who struggle to be personable and not appear ‘square’ lately. That’s not the media’s fault.

[Irish]

The media is pro-state. In every instance they advocate the statist cause.

I realize people may have forgotten this, but remember the total deference to the Bush administration that the media had when they believed everything the Bushies had to say about Iraq?

They aren’t really pro-Democrat. They’re pro-state and the Democratic Party has been the more statist party in the last several years.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I would agree with what Irish said. They love the state, and even more so than the general public since they are convinced they have an ‘in’ with the powers-that-be.

[Virginian]

They aren’t really pro-Democrat. They’re pro-state and the Democratic Party has been the more statist party in the last several years.

Right, I said that. They didn’t have an issue with Part D because it added to the leftist centralism that they think is the best thing ever. They tore W apart when he tried to privatize Social Security because that would undermine the rule of the leftist Top Men.

[Virginian]

How do you explain then the differential treatment for Gore and Obama?

What differential treatment? You linked two studies by freaking journalists as though they were unbiased sources. There is no way to quantify media coverage. It isn’t possible.

You are completely buying into the bullshit, the idea that they are fair minded, or that they are interested in anything other then the advancement of their preferred system.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The research is by the Pew Center.

But if they journalists covering for journalists who were trying to pull the wool over your eyes about them not being biased, then why would they release a report documenting how much more biased journalism was against the GOP candidate McCain?

I also like how you say “There is no way to quantify media coverage. It isn’t possible.” But you are sure the coverage is biased.

[Virginian]

report documenting how much more biased journalism was against the GOP candidate McCain?

Right, because they won. They usually do some hand wringing about it when they drag their preferred candidate over the line. They did it in 2012 too. They do it to gain back credibility with the useful idiots, like yourself. So that you will sit here and suck your thumb and think that they really try hard to overcome their bias and tell it straight. Gosh, it’s just not their fault they get all swoony for every single Democratic candidate in a general election.

The problem with the charisma thesis, that the media swoons for the most charming or likable politician, is that Reagan kicked the shit out of both his opponents in charisma and likability. But the media hated him.

They’re ideologues, dedicated to pushing their ideology. Everything they do advances that ideology.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

So their admission of bias in 08 and 12 is just part of a longer run strategy to convince people that they are not biased.

Unbelievable.

[Virginian]

It’s in the way they spin the bias. What they did after Obama’s two wins is had this head scratching, thumb sucking, ritual dick beating of confession and expiation. They swear up and down that next time they’ll call the balls and strikes the same, for real. They do this not out of genuine contrition, but to repair their credibility.

Ever have an addict in the family? Same thing. They will say anything to get you to give them just a little more cash.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You have set up a theory which cannot be falsified. That’s not a good thing, btw.

The GOP does this. They consistently nominate unremarkable ‘next in line’ nominees and then scream ‘media bias’ when the candidate performs badly. It’s blame shifting.

[Virginian]

Who said anything about the Republican Party? Do you smell SoConzzz Botard?

[Winston]

Sort of like how Reagan is a Reasonable Republican now that he’s dead.

Even Goldwater has received the same treatment. I guess when Ron Paul dies the Progs will be praising him as a Reasonable Republican compared to his insane son?

[Damned Fool]

That doesn’t mean much. Anyone not a prog is considered too radical by the progs.

[Winston]

Anyone not a prog is considered too radical by the progs.
See Reason favorites Paul Ryan, John Boehner and Chris Christie.

[Cytotoxic]

WTF are you talking about?

[Winston]

I was being sarcastic in describing them as “Reason favorites.” Even the Republicans that reasonoids hate for being statist are attacked by progs for being too anti-state.

[Cytotoxic]

Okay.

[Cytotoxic]

Rand won’t have the problems. If you’re always crying wolf, people tune you out. The progs already turned it to 11 they can’t raise it for Rand.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“”Sort of like what Captain Kirk used to say, we need to boldly go where no Republicans have gone before. So we need to go to Harlem, East L.A., Berkeley, maybe even Hollywood, though that may be dangerous,” [Rand] Paul said on Fox News, making a crack about Hollywood as a liberal hub.”

http://www.politico.com/story/…..06527.html

[MJGreen]

Hehehe. That was good.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“An MIT researcher claims he’s quantified some of the troubling self-censorship civil liberties advocates worried would result from public knowledge of mass spying.

“The new study reports that Google users were slightly less likely (2.2 percent) to use search terms that the National Security Agency flagged as potential national security threats.”

http://venturebeat.com/2014/05…..-activity/

[$park? has had enough]

Quick, everyone get on Google and search “dirty bomb materials.”

[Warty]

Today in the bad decisions hall of fame

Heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder taught an internet troll a lesson in respect after meeting him for a fight in a Los Angeles gym.

Charlie Zelenoff, who subjected Wilder to years of abuse on social media and harassed him with phone calls, challenged the 28-year-old to a bout to settle their differences.

The 2008 Olympic bronze medallist accepted Zelenoff’s offer and met him at the Hollywood Boxing Gym on Wednesday evening.

His fake charge at the end is one of the best things I’ve ever seen.

[Virginian]

There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity.

[Coeus]

He keeps talking shit the whole time. Even after he gets his ass beat and is cowering. That dude is not gonna live to old age.

[jesse.in.mb]

I would like to point out that I have ALWAYS been a supporter of our future cephelopod overlords.

Seriously.

[Coeus]

That is fucking amazing.

[$park? has had enough]

Pssh, I’ll be scared when they start walking out of the ocean.

[jesse.in.mb]

So, now?

Or maybe now?

Do not wait to fear, DollarsignparkYen!

[$park? has had enough]

That’s not walking, that’s somewhere between a gyre and a gymble. And not once did I hear either of them burble. You can’t fool me jesse.

[SusanM]

The Elder Gods return.

[$park? has had enough]

This poor doctor is engaging in a serious war with technology.

As a psychiatrist I can tell you that Facebook contributes to narcissism, depression and impaired interpersonal relationships. This likely happens because users craft appealing profiles of themselves, twisting their stories along the way, fooling themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends” and finally using a keystroke to block unwanted feedback.

Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg.

But the new Yik Yak app, originally designed for college campuses, is the most dangerous form of social media I’ve ever seen.

[Virginian]

But the new Yik Yak app, originally designed for college campuses, is the most dangerous form of social media I’ve ever seen.

Pants shitting hysteria over an app?

[Coeus]

A week ago, a private high school in Massachusetts experienced a 24-hour onslaught of ugly rumors and comments about students and administrators. School officials had to plead with the students to stop using their smartphones to ravage the self-esteem of others.

Plead? Ban the fucking phones. This is beyond stupid.

[C. Anacreon]

This person is the type that give Psychiatry a bad name. Depression is a serious illness with an endogenous brain basis. Serious cases can be devastating. It isn’t caused by a website any more than Facebook causes diabetes.

[$park? has had enough]

I sent this link to the H&R mailbox last night, don’t know if it’s been around here yet.

At Tufts, Justina had been treated for mitochondrial disease, a group of rare genetic disorders affecting cellular energy production. When Justina began experiencing some gastrointestinal problems, the Tufts doctor treating her, Dr. Mark Korson, wanted the girl to visit Dr. Alejandro Flores at Boston Children’s Hospital, according to the family’s attorney, Phil Moran. Flores had treated Justina in the past, Moran said, and Korson thought it beneficial for the teen to see a gastroenterologist.

What happened next was a “tragic nightmare” for Justina, according to her father.

Justina was taken by ambulance to Boston Children’s Hospital because she was in a wheelchair at the time and a heavy snowstorm was blanketing the region. Because she arrived by ambulance, she was taken directly into the hospital’s emergency room, where a “resident refused to send her to Dr. Flores” and, “declared this was his case,” according to Moran. He said the unnamed resident then called upon a psychologist who diagnosed Justina with somatoform disorder — a mental condition in which a patient experiences symptoms that are real but have no physical or biological explanation. Justina was diagnosed with the disorder “within 25 minutes,” Moran claims.