A.M. Links: President Obama Mad About the VA, Deval Patrick Wants to See a 2016 Primary, Switzerland Rejects $25/Hour Minimum Wage

• 

  camptocampo.org/Wikipedia

  President Obama is mad about something happening in his administration again. This time it's about mismanagement within Veteran's Affairs. An undersecretary for health has resigned.

• Governor Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) says he'd like to see a Democratic presidential primary campaign, which is apparently not something all Democrats are willing to support publicly.
• The Justice Department announced it was filing charges against government officials in China accused of cyber-espionage.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered troops stationed near the border with Ukraine to return to their home bases.
• Rebel forces in Libya loyal to retired General Khalifa Haftar stormed the Parliament, saying they had "suspended" the legislative body. The Libyan government maintained it was still in control.
• Voters in Switzerland rejected a proposal to set the minimum wage at $25 an hour. 

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Comments

[UnCivilServant]

24/7 Links!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered troops stationed near the border with Ukraine to return to their home bases.

Their homes now being on the border with Ukraine.

[DontShootMe]

No, I believe most of them have been "granted" home in Kiev. They may now return to their homes.

[UnCivilServant]

The Justice Department announced it was filing charges against government officials in China accused of cyber-espionage.

Somehow I don't think they'll ever see trial.

[VG Zaytsev]

Fuck those goombahs trying to break into our racket.

[gaijin]

How can the US DOJ file charges against government officials in another country?

[UnCivilServant]

It's to distract people from them not filing charges against government officials in this country.

[Bee Tagger]

Voters in Switzerland rejected a proposal to set the minimum wage at $25 an hour.

But I thought they liked their logic like they like their cheese: full of holes.

[UnCivilServant]

No, that's just the backers of the initiative, who represent less than 23% of the people.

[Injun, as in from India]

I really wish they had passed the proposal, and watched their jobs vaporize or get automated. They would have given a great example to the world of what NOT to do.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The world isn't a great student.

[Raven Nation]

*Stands silently in admiration of the wisdom of Fist.*

[Lord Humungus]

is this going to be on the final?

[Sevo]

Until next election, it is.

[Fluffy]

The problem is the Switzerland is so economically successful that low-grade economic doofery on a marginal labor issue wouldn't significantly derail them.

So they would have passed this, and the apocalypse would not have come, and the left would have danced with glee and proclaimed that this "proved" that the minimum wage "worked".

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

That would have been a lot more than low grade doofery - life is expensive enough in the ol' Confederatio Helevetica without dialing wage costs up to 11. The average Swiss person knew exactly where that cost would have landed....on them.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Instant Cocoa

[Sevo]

"The average Swiss person knew exactly where that cost would have landed....on them."

Could you please send some over to teach in San Francisco?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

They would have to check their White European privilege, ja?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Most people there understand they have something a bit unusual (in a good way)and do not wish to foul it up... also, they can look all about them at the EU and see what not to do.

[Don Mynack]

"The minimum wage would have meant raising the wages of about one in every 10 workers by an average of 15%. "

In other words, the labor marketplace had already gotten them to an hourly wage of 21.75 francs per hour with no government interference, so why approve a massive intervention in the labor market for something that is probably going to happen anyway?

[Snark Plissken]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered troops stationed near the border with Ukraine to return to their home bases.

Thanks to Obama, can we get that guy another Peace Prize?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rebel forces in Libya loyal to retired General Khalifa Haftar stormed the Parliament, saying they had "suspended" the legislative body.

In United States, legislative body suspend itself.

[UnCivilServant]

In United State, coup doesn't shoot the legislators.

[Lord Humungus]

Study suggests short men may live longer

Here's some good news for gents who may have been robbed of a few inches in height: A new study shows that shorter men may live longer.

According to data culled from researchers out of the University of Hawaii, the taller the men, the shorter they lived.

The reason? Shorter men -- defined as 5-foot-2 and under -- were more likely to possess a protective form of the longevity gene FOXO3, which leads to smaller body size and a longer lifespan, researchers explained.

insert Joe joke here

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Maybe it just seems like they live longer.

[Ted S.]

I thought short people had no reason to live.

[invisible furry hand]

That is the irony

[DontShootMe]

You couldn't make the team, because you're short.
You couldn't get the girl, because you're short.
You couldn't get the promotion, because you're short.

And, just to rub it in, we're going to make you live longer. Enjoy.

[Slammer]

Fuck. That means at least another 20 Tom Cruise movies.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That's why I've planned ahead on a lower leg amputation at age 70.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama is mad about something happening in his administration again. This time it's about mismanagement within Veteran's Affairs.

The anger tension totally throws off his backswing.

[Injun, as in from India]

If only we had the right TOP MEN, this would not have happened. This is a good lesson learned for the not-so-distant future when we attempt SINGLE PAYER! Yay!

[gaijin]

In Obama World, the Stages of Grief are Anger, followed by apathy, then denial.

[Bardas Phocas]

What's your bet for how many weeks until this is declared (by all the correct-thinking people) a:

FAKE SCANDAL! FauxNews! Pay no attention to those corpses!

[gaijin]

If it follows the IRS fake scandal timeline, it will be under investigation until shortly after the 4th of July...then it will move increasingly to fake as the midterm rhetoric heats up in late September...so ~12 weeks is my guess.

[The Last American Hero]

I'll never understand why there weren't more anti-Obamacare ads comparing pictures and horror stories from the VA system and ending with "Obamacare - a VA system for the rest of us" or "This is the best the US Gov can do for those who served our country - do we really want them running the whole health care system?"

[Virginian]

The Republican party use media to make a cogent and effective attack on the Democrats? When pigs fly.

More and more I've come to the conclusion that the GOP is just the Washington Generals. They're not out there to win, they're out there to make idiots and children think that there's a real contest.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yet another Judas among the disciples

[Lord Humungus]

Men flock to My Little Pony convention

They are to be featured on TV next week in National Geographic's Outsiders with Darren McMullen.

The programme follows fans to the Bridgewater Hall for Europe's biggest brony convention, with many dressing as their pastel-coloured heroes.

Fan 'Spitfire' said: "It was ironic at first but then I kind of got into it."

The fad took off in 2010 with the launch of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, a cartoon update that did away with some of the old sexist stereotypes.

[Virginian]

The decline of the West on full display.

[Ted S.]

I'd presume National Geographic TV is going to go out of its way to make them seem even more freakish than they are? (I know that's tough, but they'll still try.)

[gaijin]

Men flock to My Little Pony convention

Those are not men in the traditional meaning of the word

[Fist of Etiquette]

I will get to the bottom of what this cartoon is about if it takes me all workday today. There have to be clips or something on YouTube.

[waffles]

There is nothing to get. Just combine one part power puff girls, one part furries, one part hipster "irony" and you get bronies.

[Rhywun]

I like Power Puff Girls.

/narrows eyes

[invisible furry hand]

Your six-inch thick crust of cynicism would need to be prised off, revealing your soft pink childlike skin through which the faint lines of your veins are visible, for your heart to be touched by their colourful antics

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sounds painful

[UnCivilServant]

Cyniectomies are usually fatal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Then never mind. I suppose I can do some work instead.

[Rasilio]

There are tons of them. In the end it is just a REALLY well written show.

I wouldn't call myself a Brony but with 11 and 5 year old girls at home along with an 11 year old Brony I hear this (either being played on youtube or just being sung by my kids) all day long...

This Day Aria

[Fist of Etiquette]

I find the idea of talking animals blasphemous.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wait a minute. These are unicorns not ponies. I smell a rat.

[Brett L]

I am disappoint. How long until you can introduce your Brony to the MLP/Wu-Tang mashups?

[vazhzsh]

it is just a REALLY well written show.

Cool story Bro..ny.

Seriously though, no one's judging you man, you don't need to lie about how good a child's show about magic ponies is, you're a grown man, own it.

Lol, "it is just a REALLY well written show..." that was great.

[Mike M.]

Block Yomomma now trying to put gun retailers out of business via back door regulation and pressure on the banks.

What a fucking slimebag. I guess the old strategy of trying to have Homeland Security corner the market on ammunition didn't work, so this is the next phase.

[Virginian]

BoA is scum. Anyone who does business with them should expect this. They became the official libprog bank when they took the bail out.

Vote with your feet gun manufacturers. Take your business to supportive institutions.

[VG Zaytsev]

The problem is that there aren't supportive financial institutions and regulation preclude the formation of new ones.

It's straight up economic fascism.

[robc]

Bb&t?

[Virginian]

Well the CEO retired to take over CATO, but BB&T might be a good bet. The old CEO made Atlas Shrugged required reading.

[robc]

I do my business banking with them.

[waffles]

I thought Brack the Obnoma was considered the best gun salesman of all time. I'm sure that if you look at gun and ammunition sales since November 2008 you will know this to be true.

[Ted S.]

An article that runs to three pages, and fucking Disqus comments?

[Bee Tagger]

Obama 'madder than hell' about scandal at VA, aide says

Even madder when he has to find out about this in the morning paper!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Obama warned about VA wait-time problems during 2008 transition
The Obama administration received clear notice more than five years ago that VA medical facilities were reporting inaccurate waiting times and experiencing scheduling failures that threatened to deny veterans timely health care ? problems that have turned into a growing scandal.

Veterans Affairs officials warned the Obama-Biden transition team in the weeks after the 2008 presidential election that the department shouldn't trust the wait times that its facilities were reporting....

[Virginian]

This shit happened under Bush too. Because the VA is a shitty, shitty system, like all socialized medicine.

[The Last American Hero]

Yep - but Hope and CHANGE. Where's the f'n change? Also, after 5 years, this is Obama's shit sandwich.

[Drake]

Fuck, I could have warned them in 1992. That's when I realized the VA sucks and I need to get a better job with decent private insurance instead of counting on those shitheads for anything.

[NebulousFocus]

Give it a couple weeks, then it will be a fake scandal.

[Ted S.]

Obama 'madder than hell'

Can he threaten to shoot himself on TV like Howard Beale?

[UnCivilServant]

Do you really want that clutz to pick up a gun again?

[Lord Humungus]

Post-Snowden, the NSA's future rests on Admiral Rogers' shoulders

As U.S. National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers seeks to repair the damage to the agency caused by leaks about its electronic spying programs, the abuses of government revealed in the wake of the Watergate scandal are very much on his mind.

As a teenager growing up in Chicago in the 1970s, Rogers recalls watching news broadcasts with his family and being horrified by how the CIA, FBI and NSA had illegally spied on hundreds of thousands of Americans.

"I can remember being very impassioned with my father, and telling him: 'Dad, what kind of nation would we ever want to be that would allow something like this to happen?'" Rogers recalled.

[Jordan]

And yet he still believes that wiretapping the entire country is Constitutional. Fuck him.

[UnCivilServant]

People change. I don't trust him to have the same conviction after brainwashing and indoctrination.

[Jordan]

He contradicts himself in the same article. He believes everything the NSA has done is just fine.

[Virginian]

So I assume the Admiral is secretly planning to bring down the system from the inside?

[The Last American Hero]

I guess he learned to love Big Brother.

[Rasilio]

So who is going to be responsible for repairing the damage that the actual spying programs did to the Constitution?

[Bryan C]

'Dad, what kind of nation would we ever want to be that would allow something like this to happen?'

'...without pretending to be morally conflicted about it, like I would.' He concluded.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Targeted? Gun sellers say 'high risk' label from feds cuts off banking options, restricts business
Gun retailers say the Obama administration is trying to put them out of business with regulations and investigations that bypass Congress and choke off their lines of credit, freeze their assets and prohibit online sales.

Since 2011, regulators have increased scrutiny on banks' customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2011 urged banks to better manage the risks of their merchant customers who employ payment processors, such as PayPal, for credit card transactions. The FDIC listed gun retailers as "high risk" along with porn stores and drug paraphernalia shops....

[Injun, as in from India]

If it was up to King George, the colonists would never have any arms. We truly are dialing the clock back by centuries.

[Matrix]

People did not give two shits when it was porn stars. Let's see if SoCons finally get pissed off about this.

[Slammer]

Chris Christie calls for more aggressive foreign policy

[UnCivilServant]

Drop Christie on them, the kinetic force of impact should ruin the whole country.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Ginormous Crater

[Pope Jimbo]

Sort of like Pershing's use of pork to scare the islamic rebels in the Philippines, huh?

"You middle eastern trouble makers don't change your ways, be prepared for a porknami out of NJ"

[Fist of Etiquette]

CLOSE DOWN THE WORLD'S BRIDGE DURING RUSH HOUR.

[KDN]

Too late, global warming already took care of that.

[invisible furry hand]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn to sue over G?rard Depardieu sex addiction film

more

[Lord Humungus]

Could civilization collapse? NASA-funded study looks at framework for how, when

A new study partially funded by NASA suggests heavy demands on the world's natural resources and extreme economic imbalances could spell a premature end for modern human civilization.

The research paper, titled "Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): modeling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies," was published this month in the journal Ecological Economics.

Led by Dr. Safa Motesharrei, a mathematician at the University of Maryland, the study's authors applied human factors such as wealth, economic disparities and use of natural resources to a scientific model typically used to study the interaction of animal populations.

[WTF]

NASA really has no reason to exist anymore, does it?

[invisible furry hand]

'Sorry, we meant to give it to some other Indian girl': Race row erupts as New Zealand beauty pageant judges tell winner they mistook her for another asian contestant

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z32ANfXVXI

[Bee Tagger]

Should have used the patented Michael Scott marker technique.

[Injun, as in from India]

In other words, "Y'all look alike to me!".

[Fist of Etiquette]

Terribly written article. I still don't know what's going on. I did like the pictures, though.

[Drake]

They are both pretty hot.

[The Late P Brooks]

President Obama is mad about something happening in his administration again.

If only there were something he could do. The poor little guy is just tied to the railroad tracks.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

If only Comrade Stalin knew of these injustices!

[Lord Humungus]

Houston Stripper Being Sued, Customer Wants His Money Back

Robert wouldn't say much, but confirms he met Nomi at a strip club. He says she owes him about $3,000 worth of Harry Potter DVDs, a laptop and cash, and he's suing to get it back.

"We started going on dates, going out to places," he said. "I helped a little bit here and there, with money here and there. Because she was staying with me for a while because we actually had a relationship."

"This guy is a nutcase!" Nomi said.

[waffles]

I wonder why she dropped the "a".

[Slammer]

$3,000 worth of Harry Potter DVDs,

Are those the ones with the nude Hermione scenes?

[invisible furry hand]

Doesn't surprise me. Even tax lawyers-turned-porn barons forget to put this in writing and end up in court

[Ted S.]

I had a friend who went to put a single in a stripper's strap, but accidentally pulled out a 20. To compound his problem, he tried to take it back. 🙂

[Brett L]

Dude. $3000 is a cheap lesson in "most strippers do not love you when you are broke." Although I think we have a counter-example commentator. Still, my advice to my son is that sex-workers with a heart of gold is mostly a literary archetype.

[Bobarian]

People "with a heart of gold" are mostly a literary archetype.

/cynic

[Jordan]

The Justice Department announced it was filing charges against government officials in China accused of cyber-espionage.

Not sure how they can even say this with a straight face.

[sarcasmic]

Bikinis in the Daily Mail.

Wish You Were Here! Avril Lavigne poses in a bikini in South America as she reveals she's been 'sick for the past two weeks'

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

[sarcasmic]

Get a load of those curves! Sean Penn and Robin Wright's daughter Dylan strips down to a lacy bra and briefs and shows off her voluptuous physique for Bonds campaign

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....paign.html
Voluptuous isn't the first word that comes to mind. I mean, she's too skinny for John so she's certainly not voluptuous.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's safe to date her now that dad got rid of his guns.

[Rasilio]

Eh, her mom was hotter

[sarcasmic]

Oh, I agree.

[sarcasmic]

Bella Thorne has some fun in the sun while wearing a white bikini as she enjoys beach getaway in Miami

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....Miami.html
That's it for sarc's Daily Mail bikini pics. My work is done.

[Virginian]

16 will get you 20

[robc]

Not in a majority of states.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Creepy

[Lord Humungus]

George Will: What LBJ Wrought
After 50 years of his anti-poverty policy, a "tangle of pathologies" has spread dramatically.

But the institutionalization of anti-poverty policy has been, Eberstadt says carefully, "attended" by the dramatic spread of a "tangle of pathologies." Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined that phrase in his 1965 report calling attention to family disintegration among African Americans. The tangle, which now ensnares all races and ethnicities, includes welfare dependency and "flight from work."

Twenty-nine percent of Americans ? about 47 percent of blacks and 48 percent of Hispanics ? live in households receiving means-tested benefits. And "the proportion of men 20 and older who are employed has dramatically and almost steadily dropped since the start of the War on Poverty, falling from 80.6?percent in January 1964 to 67.6?percent 50 years later." Because work ? independence, self-reliance ? is essential to the culture of freedom, ominous developments have coincided with Great Society policies:

[Raven Nation]

In the sixties we waged a war on poverty, and poverty won

Guess who?

[Mike M.]

Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn the country that this would happen, and almost everything that he predicted would come to pass, has.

But he was a sane liberal, a virtually nonexistent species today.

[Ted S.]

Instead of a "war on poverty" and a "great society", we got a war on society and great poverty.

[Bee Tagger]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered troops stationed near the border with Ukraine to return to their home bases.

It isn't your national pastime, so stick to the hockey metaphors, Vlad.

[UnCivilServant]

Didn't you hear, Russia has declared Ukraine to be one large military base for it's upcoming exercises.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Veterans scandal risks engulfing Obama
Amid contrived outrage over Benghazi and the improving fortunes of its healthcare reform, the Obama administration could be facing a genuine scandal about its treatment of military veterans that has the potential to attract broad political condemnation of its competence.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing mounting evidence that some of the hospitals it runs have been keeping two sets of books to make it look as if they were reducing waiting times to see a doctor.

More damning, the department is investigating the claims of a whistleblower doctor in Arizona that dozens of patients at one hospital died while they were languishing on a hidden waiting list without ever being given an appointment....

[Virginian]

Veterans scandal risks engulfing Obama

Not if the media can help it. They will shield the lightworker from the forces of evil.

[EdWuncler]

^^^This.

If he wasn't crucified for the Benghazi debacle, he sure as shit won't be crucified over the VA debacle.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I dunno. There are a lot of folks with veterans in their families, and many of those veterans can tell stories of fighting with the VA over things great and small. I think that this is something that could get traction because unlike Benghazi, which is half a world away and happening to someone else, this is something that a great many people can directly relate to. I think it's just getting started.

[BuSab Agent]

I agree. I don't know anyone in my large extended family that has anything to do with the State Department, but my grandfather and younger brother both died in part because of the VA's suckitude, and my father fights them almost daily just for routine care. Anyone who has anything to do with the real workings of the VA is utterly unsurprised by these stories. So yeah this may have legs far beyond what Benghazi did.

[Bryan C]

You can see the future right there. Within a month or two Obama will have sufficiently expressed his anger on TV, and some random underlings will resign/retire. Then the "genuine scandal" of VA deaths will silently move over to his handy list of "contrived outrages" and "improving fortunes".

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Amid contrived outrage over Benghazi and the improving fortunes of its healthcare reform

That is quite a slurping lead in. Did the author wipe his chin before finishing the sentence?

[Virginian]

Did the author wipe his chin before finishing the sentence?

Not unless he was told to.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Governor Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) says he'd like to see a Democratic presidential primary campaign, which is apparently not something all Democrats are willing to support publicly.

I'm sure Hillary would just rather have her coronation.

[Bee Tagger]

Can you blame her after Lazio hulked out on her?

[The Late P Brooks]

Governor Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) says he'd like to see a Democratic presidential primary campaign

What a misogynist bastard, trying to steal the Presidency from Hillary.
That job belongs to her, dammit.

[Drake]

Nothing would be funnier than Patrick and Hillary comparing achievements in a primary debate.

[Lord Humungus]

Minnesota High School Assures Parents That Mandatory Vagina Inspection Letter is "definitely a hoax"

Prior Lake High School is located in Savage, Minnesota. Earlier this week letters showed up in the mailboxes of students at the school that announced mandatory vagina inspections would take place in the coming weeks. The official-looking fake announcement was printed on "imitation school letterhead" and police are following leads to find out who was behind the letters. In case any students or parents thought this was real, a district spokeswoman had this to say:

"It's definitely a hoax. We believe a student or students created it after school hours."

[waffles]

And they call the kids of today lazy. Some damn fine pranking right here.

[Pope Jimbo]

I just thought that Chris Hanson was getting lazy with his "To Catch a Predator" bit. Instead of knocking them off one at a time, he sent that letter knowing that umpteen pedophiles will show up to that gym with their fake doctor coats on.

[Elspeth Flashman]

What about the Federal Boobie Inspectors? Are they legit?

[Brett L]

Oh yeah. Obamacare mandated them.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Oh good. Just checking.

[Lord Humungus]

Always Hungry? Here's Why

FOR most of the last century, our understanding of the cause of obesity has been based on immutable physical law. Specifically, it's the first law of thermodynamics, which dictates that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. When it comes to body weight, this means that calorie intake minus calorie expenditure equals calories stored. Surrounded by tempting foods, we overeat, consuming more calories than we can burn off, and the excess is deposited as fat. The simple solution is to exert willpower and eat less.

The problem is that this advice doesn't work, at least not for most people over the long term. In other words, your New Year's resolution to lose weight probably won't last through the spring, let alone affect how you look in a swimsuit in July. More of us than ever are obese, despite an incessant focus on calorie balance by the government, nutrition organizations and the food industry.

But what if we've confused cause and effect? What if it's not overeating that causes us to get fat, but the process of getting fatter that causes us to overeat?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

So Obama and the Democrats are hoping to overcome the hole that the disaster of Obamacare has put them in with an issue that was just soundly rejected by Scandinavian Social Democracy. Good luck with that.

[Virginian]

Switzerland is Scandinavia?

[Injun, as in from India]

And Austria is Australia.

[Ted S.]

IFH is Hitler?

[invisible furry hand]

No, I'm Hedy Lamarr

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

(starts planning trip to Down Under)

[Injun, as in from India]

Who are you going down under? Heidi Lamarr, i.e., IFH?

[Bobarian]

It's not *Hedy*, it's *Hedley*. Hedley Lamarr.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Ah, I was thinking Sweden.

Meh, same difference.

[robc]

Says someone who has clearly never worked in either.

[Ted S.]

Sweden tried a financial transaction tax, and it didn't work. Yet the rest of the lefties around the world think it's the greatest idea since sliced bread.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Odd, I felt like I was in Western Europe when I was at the mothership...

[Fluffy]

Wait until the Swiss discover they now have a coastline.

[Raven Nation]

They do, apparently, have a small naval force:

http://www.ask.com/wiki/Milita.....s_flotilla

[Ted S.]

They also have a merchant marine.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

You have to keep an eye on those sneaky Italians and French...you never know when they are going to try something across a lake or two!

[Slammer]

Teen claims he got disorderly conduct ticket for cursing

Andersen said he doesn't think it was right to issue him a ticket without a warning. If he had been warned, he would have listened to the officer.

"I would have respected his authority," he said.

However, he admitted his parents suggested a different approach.
"It's a bad idea to argue with cops," he recalled them telling him.

[Injun, as in from India]

Here is how cop programming works:

try {
// something
} catch (MisDemeanor m) {
} catch (Felony f) {
} catch (DisOrderlyConduct) {
}

[UnCivilServant]

Don't they go for the felonies first?

[Injun, as in from India]

You're right. It's a "Throw the book at them" approach usually.

[Bobarian]

There's a subroutine that checks amount of paperwork against time to shift end that is used to determine felony vice misdemeanor charges.

[Lord Humungus]

Allies Urge Obama to Appoint CEO for Obamacare

The idea would be to take the exchanges out of the current bureaucracy and put them in the hands of a CEO with private-sector experience who could run them as true e-commerce sites. The CEO would answer only to President Barack Obama and his intended new health secretary, Sylvia Mathews Burwell.

CAP's plan would have the CEO assume full oversight of both federal and state exchanges, as well as insurers and market regulations, but not Medicare or Medicaid.

The White House said in a statement it had not reviewed the CAP recommendation, but was open to considering "all ideas" that might improve the law's implementation after the botched October rollout and subsequent recovery.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

CEO? Why not a Czar? Too obvious?

[Bobarian]

A fuhrer might be even more appropriate.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Three Openly Gay Candidates Run for GOP Seats

"Innis is a hotel owner who speaks with the confident, matter-of-fact cadence crafted during his years as a business professor.

He is one of three openly gay GOP candidates who, 10 years after the nation's first gay marriages were performed in Massachusetts, are vying for offices on Capitol Hill this year.

The three are Innis, who faces former congressman Frank C. Guinta in the primary to challenge Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter; Richard Tisei, who hopes to be victorious in what will probably be a rematch with Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.); and Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member who hopes to unseat Democratic Rep. Scott Peters."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z5

[Lord Humungus]

Glass Ceilings in Statehouses in the Northeast

The industrial Northeast enjoys a reputation as a cradle of liberalism, a region that voted overwhelmingly for America's first black president, started the push on same-sex marriage rights and can reliably be found at the forefront of causes for equality. But there is a notable gap: The Democratic Party has yet to elect a female governor in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island or Massachusetts.

Even this year, with women running for governor in three of those states, it is uncertain that any of them will break the pattern. The Democratic Party in each state is rooted in urban machine politics and unions, both of which have been traditionally male dominated. And there have been fewer opportunities in those states for women to acquire executive experience in the state and local offices that are traditional steppingstones to running for governor, or to hold the levers of power in political organizations. (Philadelphia, New York and Boston have never elected female mayors.)

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"The Democratic Party has yet to elect a female governor in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island or Massachusetts."

Why is it just the Democratic Party's job to elect female governors? There have been quite a few GOP female governors (as the last GOP convention showcased).

[UnCivilServant]

Bo, these states are very, very blue. You have to royally piss off the electorate to get a GOP governer.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

This is my point. How do you win in a state where your party is at a disadvantage? With a historical candidate.

[UnCivilServant]

Not really, no.

[UnCivilServant]

Bo, no body but the Dem base gives a damn about 'historical candidates', and if they don't have a D after their name in states like NY, their campaigns tend to be rather abortive for the high offices.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

'Historical' candidates appeal to independent voters, which is where a minority party can pick up a win.

[The Last American Hero]

I'll need a citation for that one. Historical candidates work for TEAM BLUE voters, will back the TEAM BLUE candidate, regardless of race/gender.

[Fluffy]

Somewhere in the backwoods of western Massachusetts, Jane Swift is crying and doesn't know why.

[WTF]

Christie Whitman was elected Governor of New Jersey all the way back in 1994.

[wareagle]

Why is it just the Democratic Party's job to elect female governors?

maybe so the party can quit projecting. It's the Dems howling about wars on the wimminz. This is just one more bite of the schadefreude cake.

[Raven Nation]

Because Republican women politicians are not really women in the same way that black conservatives are not really black.

[Rhywun]

The Democratic Party in each state is rooted in urban machine politics and unions, both of which have been traditionally male dominated.

And inside the head of race- and gender-obsessed NYT reporters, only women vote for women candidates.

[EdWuncler]

Is it just me or does Salon and Slate have an obsession about libertarianism? It seems as though every shitty article these days about libertarianism or at least their uninformed idea about it. On one hand it's called a fringe movement but then they say it's a huge creepy danger. The comments as always are full of derp.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A useful measuring stick of how they see Rand Paul's chances.

[Virginian]

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Unscientifically, I really seem to notice that whenever Paul breaks what liberals see as the 'type' on the Right, for example, filibustering over drones, calling for more clemency or undercutting calls for voter ID laws, then he gets attacked by the liberal press more.

[Jordan]

I think it's a combination of shame and anger for being shown to be the phonies they really are. They claim to be champions of civil liberties, yet they can't be bothered to make any noise about actual civil liberties issues, instead focusing on forcing others to pay for their healthcare.

[EdWuncler]

It's all political. They care about civil liberties when a guy with an R is in office but the moment a guy with an D next to their get into office, suddenly they forget all about civil liberties. I remember in 2006 some guy in one of my classes were bitching about Bush's "destruction of the Constitution," and while he was right I called him out for being a hypocrite because dude wouldn't care if Gore (if he had won) was pulling that shit.

[EdWuncler]

Exactly. I had a progressive friend who went apeshit when Rand Paul decided to do the filibuster saying that he was being an obstructionist. He could not admit that Paul was right about the droning. Principals over principles I guess.

[Rasilio]

That's cause they are smart enough to realize that if he gets traction on those issues he will completely destroy the liberal alliance that props up the Democratic party

[Injun, as in from India]

"I am not in Danger, Skyler. I AM THE DANGER."

[VG Zaytsev]

Carlos Danger.

[Injun, as in from India]

So over the weekend, I heard a family member go on and on about how Narendra Modi's election victory was the next best thing in India after the invention of Paneer Makhni. I tried to convince this person that putting your faith in a TOP MAN is a stupid idea, but to no avail. There is token opposition in India for the next 5 years, and I worry about the corruption that will follow from it. I tried convincing this person that decentralization and privatization are better than any politician, but failed. I guess people will have to learn the lesson the hard way.

[Warty]

Is this the Hindu nationalist guy that Shikha hates so much? In any case, India's history of politicians doesn't suggest there's much hope for this guy to be anything but horrible.

[Injun, as in from India]

Yup. That's him. The BJP is the right-wing Hindu nationalist party that has a band of SoCons associated with it. He is supposedly a good administrator, but whatever he does won't last for long unless he pushes some serious reforms and sends power back to the states, privatizes more public sector "enterprises", and so on. Personally, I don't trust the guy one bit, but a lot of people really believe in him.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Is this the Hindu nationalist guy that Shikha hates so much?

That's the guy.

[Brett L]

Less-worse than the Ghandi clan leaves a lot of room to be horrible.

[KDN]

There are some instances where centralization could help. We had to pay an import tariff to ship a router from our office in Mumbai to our factory in Gujarat because they're in separate states (along with the requisite forms filled out on paper, notarized, in triplicate, signed by both the plant manager and AT&T because India). That's the type of thing that the central government can and should do something about.

[Virginian]

Regulate interstate commerce you mean?

[KDN]

It's amazing how 150 years can warp such a sensible concept.

[Injun, as in from India]

I agree with Virginian, but worry about the excesses that happen over time, like say, Wickard v Filburn. Overall, the central government in India has too much power. It also runs too many things which are awfully inefficient. That includes essential things like defense. (Examples like the Light Combat Aircraft, and the INSAS Rifle come to mind.)

[KDN]

I don't disagree. I'm willing to believe that the national gov't is worse than the states overall and completely agree that any power granted to the national government will eventually be used in the worst possible way.

[Lord Humungus]

GM suggested engineers avoid 'judgment words' like 'death trap,' 'grenade-like'

Instead of "defect," they were supposed to say a part "does not perform to design." "Safety" was to be replaced with "has potential safety implications."

Part of the consent agreement involves GM agreeing to "expressly disavow statements diluting the safety message" like those included in the Powerpoint. Since the recall scandal broke earlier this year, GM has started a new campaign to tell rank-and-file employees to speak up and tell top executives about safety issues.

"We have learned a great deal from this recall," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety. We will emerge from this situation a stronger company."

[widget]

GM's problems stem for the word choices deployed by it engineers in internal correspondence. I'm going to buy some GM stock today in support of this.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Stop building grenade-like death traps.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Start listening to your product liability defense attorney(s), GM.

[Stormy Dragon]

GM has started a new campaign to tell rank-and-file employees to speak up and tell top executives about safety issues.

So that they can be fired to make sure that there's less pesky whistleblowers hanging around the next time this happens.

[Fluffy]

Actually, I think GM is going to have the opposite problem.

I have seen the correspondence about the ignition recall that's been published in the press, and the engineers being damned here appear to have genuinely thought the concerns of their colleagues were overblown.

GM will probably end up creating a culture where actually demanding engineering evidence that a product is defective will endanger your career.

A culture where any specious correlation data about a product is enough to establish a hazard.

[Lucky Jack]

Hello.

Having a good day, but don't want to?

Here's an hour-long video of man's inhumanity to man, courtesy of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in glorious HD. Drive-by's, executions, IED's, a full cavalcade of horrors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=.....FI7lLnoUyY

NSFW, Graphic, etc.

[entropy_factor]

Never been to Allah's Snackbar, but these guys really seem to be fans.

[widget]

The Justice Department announced it was filing charges against government officials in China accused of cyber-espionage

Huh? The US Dept. of Justice is now enforcing laws outside it's jurisdiction. Those capes are made in China.

[The Late P Brooks]

But the institutionalization of anti-poverty policy has been, Eberstadt says carefully, "attended" by the dramatic spread of a "tangle of pathologies." Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined that phrase in his 1965 report calling attention to family disintegration among African Americans. The tangle, which now ensnares all races and ethnicities, includes welfare dependency and "flight from work."

If you had set out to intentionally destroy black Americans' ability to thrive and be economically successful, I don't know what you might have done differently than what was done in the Great Society.

[Jordan]

New Mexico cop tasers a 10-year-old boy for refusing to wash his car; then refuses to provide medical attention.

[Warty]

PICK UP THAT CAN

[waffles]

"Let me show what happens to people who do not listen to the police."

Failure to obey, laid bare.

[Andrew S.]

Even with my own extreme amount of cynicism about cops, I clicked on that thinking "there's no way in hell that's what happened. It must be exaggeration.'

Shows what I know.

[sarcasmic]

Webb has been charged with battery, failure to render emergency medical care, unreasonable seizure and excessive force.

Charged don't mean convicted.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

What the Fuck?

[Andrew S.]

After looking at this a second time, I realized the story was 2 years old.

The lawsuit was settled last year, and, of course, the state denied all wrongdoing on the part of the police officer.

I can't find anything on the outcome of any criminal charges against the officer, but I can guess.

[sarcasmic]

legal precedent in federal court bars suit for an officer's accidental, negligent or careless use of force

Fucked up. Not at all surprising, but totally fucked up.

[Matrix]

If he'd just obey the cop, none of this would have happened. Little punk needs to learn to respect authoritah!

/bootlicking copologist.

But seriously, he assaulted a child with a deadly weapon. He should be in a pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

[Brett L]

Pssh. You think tasing a kid at school on career day is bad? At FLDOC, they tase little Bubbas on Take yer Spawn to Work Day.

[Warty]

Animals at War

Sgt. Stubby is the best, obviously.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

What about 6 inch gun kitty?

[Warty]

It was a tough decision. If the kitty had had a uniform and medals...

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

A fair point.

Maybe if it was Commander Kitty, VC.

[John]

I like the cat that was on the British cruiser.

[Slammer]

Estimate of 8 million horse deaths. That always blows my mind. What happened to all the farming in the years after?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Motorization.

[Warty]

What kills me is that all the horses that were left in France at the end of hostilities were just slaughtered rather than spending the money to ship them back home.

[Jordan]

Anybody else read Child 44? I'm about 3/4 of the way though it, but I just haven't really been able to get into it for some reason. Curious if anyone else had the same problem.

[The Late P Brooks]

"We have learned a great deal from this recall," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. "We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety. We will emerge from this situation a stronger company."

"Holy shit. Nobody ever told us these cars were supposed to be reliable. Boy, do we look silly."

[Warty]

Good thing GM wasn't allowed to die in 2009.

[EdWuncler]

Didn't the government basically tell the bondholders to pound sand simply to appease the UAW?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yep

[Andrew S.]

Why yes. Yes they did.

[Bobarian]

The bond holders, I believe got some stock in the new GM, but stock-holders were completely ass raped.

[Lord Humungus]

Rift Widening Between Energy And Insurance Industries Over Climate Change

With all the clout that the insurance industry has on Capitol Hill, why is it not crusading for action on climate change? In fact, only 23 of the 184 insurance companies that the investor network Ceres surveyed say that they have a comprehensive strategy to deal with climate change. That's ironic, given that coastal cities around the world are expected to incur $50 billion in annual losses through 2050, adds the OECD ? a tab that would fall, in part, on insurers.

Not all carriers are "passive." This past week, Farmers Insurance Co., a unit of the Zurich Insurance Co., filed suit against the city of Chicago for its alleged failure to prevent flood-related damages that it says are associated with climate change. It maintains that city officials are aware of the potential fallout from climate-related weather and yet they have done nothing to mitigate such events. As a result, it paid out millions in claims a year ago tied to storms in the city.

[Virginian]

why is it not crusading for action on climate change

Because they're rational people and thus deeply skeptical of climate change alarmism?

[John]

Maybe they pay electricity bills too.

[Tonio]

This could be a brilliant strategy. Since governments tend to be the people funding all those climate change alarmists, let government be the first to take those alarmists seriously, and to do something about it themselves instead of leaning on private entities. Sure, this will screw the taxpayers, but government always finds a way to do that...

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

I suspect they threw in the "climate change" as bit of sand in the eyes - Chicago has not done enough to keep normal storm waters from damaging parts of the city.

[John]

I am pretty sure that flooding is something you might want to plan for in a city built on a swamp.

[Warty]

If the ice caps melt, we'll see a Katrina scenario in DC someday. I'm not saying anything, but...I'm just saying.

[nailzer]

Obama better stop worrying about the veterans and stay zeroed into global warming before the United Stated burns to a crisp!

LOL!!! I made myself LOL! Too funny!!!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

REGULATE THE FOOD!

The World Obesity Federation and Consumers International is leading the call for stricter controls on how food is advertised, with plans to introduce pictures on packaging showing the damage caused by obesity, similar to those on cigarette packets.

So, a fat guy on a bag of Oreos?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Zamyatin looks more prescient every day

[Ted S.]

All advertisements for government programs need to have warning pictures of the damage governments do to people.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Let's start a pictures of dead dogs on police cruisers campaign.

[invisible furry hand]

All food should be in plain packaging. Like in Repo Man.

[Warty]

Put it on a plate, son. You'll enjoy it more.

[Elspeth Flashman]

My dad used to drink "generic beer." It came in a white can with black lettering.

[Lord Humungus]

Home-court advantage: Ky. voters narrowly prefer Rand Paul over Hillary Clinton for president

Broken down by ideology, Clinton wins 59 percent of self-described "moderates" to 33 percent for Paul. Among respondents who described themselves as conservative, Paul bests Clinton 79 percent to 15 percent, but among liberals, Clinton enjoys 88 percent of support to Paul's 6 percent.

While Paul has made outreach to minority groups one of his top priorities, the poll found that only 29 percent of black respondents would back Paul compared with 62 percent who would vote for Clinton.

Respondent Regina Lees of Elizabethtown said it's way past time to have a female president.

"I simply would vote for Hillary Clinton for president over Rand Paul because she's a woman. Women are a lot smarter than men," she said.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Principals, not principles

[Virginian]

Women are a lot smarter than men

http://chartsbin.com/view/3069

Uh huh.

[EdWuncler]

Sexist. Why do you (and your facts) hate women so much?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Even if the chart were reversed, the mindset reflects a simplistic mentality whereby simply possessing a different appearance is qualification for the leadership of the most powerful nation on earth.

And these people call conservatives anti-intellectuals.

[Virginian]

Right, the notion is silly, but if you want to argue that one sex is smarter than the other, then all the evidence points to it being men.

[widget]

Bell Curve.

Women, on average, are slightly smarter than men. But their smarts don't distribute as widely.

To be a physicist who makes a ripple in pond you will need a very high IQ. There are more men than than women on the far left and far right of the bell curve.

Serious people, on rights side, have spent theirs careers figuring this out.

[KDN]

+4 Std Devs

[EdWuncler]

"I simply would vote for Hillary Clinton for president over Rand Paul because she's a woman. Women are a lot smarter than men,"

Whoa.

[UnCivilServant]

The facts actually say that the average intelligence is on par between human genders, but the standard deviation is higher for men, so you get more at the top and bottom of the range. ie, more geniuses and more morons for the same population.

[John]

the poll found that only 29 percent of black respondents would back Paul compared with 62 percent who would vote for Clinton.

Are black people in Kentucky weirdly Republican or is the idea of a Republican getting 29% of the black vote as shocking as it looks?

[Fluffy]

If Paul got even 20% of the black vote nationwide, he'd win 46 or 47 states.

[John]

Yup. It would be a Reaganesque landslide.

I won't believe it until I see it, but I keep seeing poll after poll that shows about 20% or so of blacks souring on the Democrats. That and the fact that the media has gone all racist all of the time to the extent of making a small town cop in New Hampshire who said something racist about Obama front page news makes me wonder if something might be changing.

[Matrix]

Well, if Paul won 46 or 47 states, then Clinton would still win 10 or 11, because there are 57 states, afterall.

[Virginian]

Are black people in Kentucky weirdly Republican or is the idea of a Republican getting 29% of the black vote as shocking as it looks?

I think it's more just vestiges of the nasty knife fight that was the Dem primary in 2008. There was some no shit dog whistles blown by the Clintons, and I don't think black folks have forgotten.

[John]

If that is true, that doesn't bode well for Hillary. I doubt Kentucky is the only place the Clintons did that or that black voters still remember it.

[Warty]

Rand Paul polls 29% among black people and this hack reporter is trying to spin it as bad news for him. Hilarious.

[The Late P Brooks]

This past week, Farmers Insurance Co., a unit of the Zurich Insurance Co., filed suit against the city of Chicago for its alleged failure to prevent flood-related damages that it says are associated with climate change. It maintains that city officials are aware of the potential fallout from climate-related weather and yet they have done nothing to mitigate such events. As a result, it paid out millions in claims a year ago tied to storms in the city.

WTF?

There was a time when something like this would be laughed out of court. Now... who knows?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Without having the complaint in hand, I suspect that might be one of a number of theories of the case being advanced - a "you are corrupt and don't maintain basic infrastructure" complaints don't get publicity.

[widget]

Safety and reliability are two distinct properties. If your GM car stalls on hiway 709 in the middle of night that is a reliability issue. Getting raped by a motorcycle gang or a tribe of wild indians while you wait for the AAA truck to come around is a safety issue.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I read that first as white indians.. gave me a momentary pause, it did.

[invisible furry hand]

28 y old French-Ghanaian-Irish lady living in Barcelona.

Mostly into girls but sometimes "flexible" with guys who acknowledge the white supremacist heteropatriarchy.

Yes, it's OK Comrade

[waffles]

marxist transfeminist. man-hater and queer supremacist

Now I know what to put on Tinder.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Any page that references anarcho-communism as a coherent philosophy gets blocked by my browser.

[Evan from Evansville]

This is fantastic. Some of my favorites:

"name's sylvia. 20 year-old trans woman in austin, tx, looking for other trans* people to hang out with and smooch (cis queers, too, there's just more of a vetting process). marxist transfeminist. man-hater and queer supremacist. jewish anti-zionist and yiddishist. when i'm not planning how to destroy our capitalist, transmisogynistic, racist society, i'm reading an obscure autobiography or practicing my esperanto & spanish. aspiring sign language interpreter, on pause due to transmisogyny. xoxoxox"

[Evan from Evansville]

"22 queer trans woman, Washington DC, tranarchist, anarcha-feminist/marxist (something like that), prison abolitionist, Jewish anti-Zionist, poly/relationship anarchist

Looking for friendship/comradeship mostly, preferably with other young queers experiencing the alienation of abstract labor value. i study philosophy and religion and i'm looking to sell my soul to the academy in the next year or so and hop on this massive student debt bandwagon.

Anyway, I'm looking to meet other people who are interested in forming alternative relationships to those mediated by cispatriarchal-racist global capital, so send me a message if that sounds like you. expect angry feminism, continental theory, and puns.

[Evan from Evansville]

"cis female anarchist looking for some help writing and illustrating childrens' books that challenge heteronormativity, gender binaries, racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism, classism and all the other hegemonic crap thrown at munchkins by the state to create good little capitalists who dont question the state. send me a message if you're interested in collaborating from anywhere around the world. much love and solidarity to all in the struggle"

[John]

President Obama is mad about something happening in his administration again. This time it's about mismanagement within Veteran's Affairs. An undersecretary for health has resigned.

After five years of the media being his paid operatives, they now have a case of incompetence that can't be traced back to anyone in the White House. The media will not get their "watch dog, good government crusader" on and actually cover this. Doing that will allow them to claim "see we really are hard on Obama" and give them an excuse not to cover the scandals that can be traced back to the White House. If you were cynical you would almost think Obama has a mole in the VA who did this specifically to create something generally harmless to the White House for his lap dog media to cover.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Not sure about that. I believe that the Obama transition team was informed about these sorts of problems at the VA even before the One took office. Might not be able to shrug it off quite so easily.

[John]

If that is the case, then expect the media to drop it as a "fake scandal" pretty quickly.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

As per my comment above, I don't know that they are going to be able to do that. An awful lot of people are the family members or friends of vets who can and do tell stories about how shitty the VA is. People respond first and foremost to what touches them personally, and I think that the sheer number of people that can relate added to those that have a soft spot (or outright fetishize)vets may very well keep the pressure on in a way that earlier scandals did not.

[The Late P Brooks]

"I simply would vote for Hillary Clinton for president over Rand Paul because she's a woman. Women are a lot smarter than men," she said.

Behold the American voter.

[invisible furry hand]

Presumably that means she'd vote for Ayn Rand over Barack Obama too?

[John]

She means a real woman not one of those fake ones.

[Elspeth Flashman]

This. I know a lot of liberal ladies who think I have been a traitor to my sex for not being liberal like them.

[SRVolunteer]

It means that she preferred McCain-Palin to Obama-Biden, of course.

[Virginian]

From Cooper's Commentaries, May of 94

We see that the Bahutu and the Watutsi have resumed their age-old hostilities. Truly they enjoy this sort of thing, and what they may lack in aptitude they make up in enthusiasm. This, of course, is one of the rewards of independence. The Belgian administration did not put up with it.

You may have noticed Janet Reno's notable pronouncement to the effect that she came from a place where she had been born and raised. Last week on the radio we heard her state that she had had various conferences with "survivors of homicides." This unpleasant woman, who holds one of the highest offices in the land, appears to be a borderline illiterate, besides which we all remember that she offered to take all responsibility for the massacre at Waco, and then did nothing of the sort. She is still on the payroll.

[Virginian]

cont

The Babamkulu Expedition was an occasion of unexampled magnificence - a broad mosaic of lapidary experiences which became so crowded together as almost to lose their individual characteristics. The exotic, the new, the wonderful, the exciting all happened so quickly and steadily that one's sensitivity circuits sometimes became overloaded. Pliny wrote, "Ex Africa semper aliquid novi," two thousand years ago. It must have been true then, for it is still true today. Babamkulu was an act impossible to follow.

This is not to say that one cannot do another African adventure, but only that one cannot step into the same river twice, and what one builds up in his memories may possibly never be approached again.

[Virginian]

Most members of our gang kept a journal, and I will be enchanted to read as many of them as I can see, since what impresses "A" does not necessarily impress "B." Atop my own recollections, for example, stand the little kIipspringer "Bokkie" who delighted in head-banging with the guests, the baby rhino who wanted to adopt us, the platoon of wild dogs enjoying the comfort of the day-warmed asphalt with no fear of man, the mamba heaving one-third of himself erect as he went to Condition Red, the stately beauty of the mighty kudu, the quite unbelievable giraffe, and the joy of watching our grandchild distinguish herself both by her superb marksmanship and her astonishing physical stamina. I must not forget to mention the evil serenade of the hyena at our bush braai. "Hear me! Out in the dark beyond the fire, I wait. Hear me! You will all come to me - in the end." Almost you get up and walk out to meet him. Almost.

And that just scratches the surface!

[John]

The rape culture in one graph

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/.....witter#mbl

[Virginian]

That's why they claim that there are millions of unreported rapes a year.

Magical thinking.

[John]

Eight years of the God damned Bush in the White House caused women to be afraid to report forcible rapes.

[Virginian]

Yeah they seem to actually believe that we live in Iran or something and that women who report their rapes will be punished. Craziness.

[Fluffy]

But what about all those women who had sex with men because they thought they'd get something out of it, and not because they really, truly enthusiastically wanted to?

All of those are rapes. They're not included in that statistic because of evil patriarchy.

[Pope Jimbo]

Ooops, I got married in 1993. Should I expect the inquisition to show up on my doorstep one of these days?

[widget]

"heteropatriarchy"

Is that like Sushi with cheese?

[UnCivilServant]

I don't know, cheese might make the vinegared rice palatable.

[The Late P Brooks]

While Paul has made outreach to minority groups one of his top priorities, the poll found that only 29 percent of black respondents would back Paul compared with 62 percent who would vote for Clinton.

Why do I read this as, "29% of the black people surveyed have jobs."?

Does that mean I'm a RACIST?

[widget]

Over 100% of black people voted for Obama during the last presidential election in some Philadelphia precincts. You can interpret that 29% as you please.

[Sevo]

"Voters in Switzerland rejected a proposal to set the minimum wage at $25 an hour."

The local (paper) rag featured this on pg4, below the fold, 4 paragraphs. Can't find mention in the on-live version, searching "Switzerland" or "minimum wage".
Oh, did I mention the local rag is pushing the local ballot issue to raise SF's m/w to $15/hr?

[Warty]

So I got trapped in my neighborhood yesterday because the Cleveland marathon route blocked both ends of my street. I didn't even know there was a Cleveland marathon, and I am completely unsurprised that the geniuses running this shithole failed to look at a map while they were drawing their retarded route.

Why would a shitty third-rate city like Cleveland have a marathon, anyway? It's like our crooked shitheel mayor saw that Boston has a marathon, noticed that Boston is an important city, and came up with a brilliant plan to make Cleveland into a boomtown.

[sarcasmic]

The current mayor started the 38th annual marathon?

[Raston Bot]

Brilliant marketing.

[Warty]

I didn't say the current mayor. I'm sure the mayor was a crooked shitheel 38 years ago, too.

[sarcasmic]

Well, yeah. Who else seeks out to be mayor?

[Warty]

Never mind, he sounds like the best mayor who's ever lived.

As mayor, Perk became the subject of national ridicule on October 16, 1972, when he accidentally set his hair on fire while he attempted to use a welder's torch for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a convention in Cleveland.

[db]

Priceless.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

1) host marathon

2) ????

3) World Class City!

[Pope Jimbo]

Maybe he's hoping that terrorists will blow up a good chunk of the population that is causing the city to be so shitty?

Then they can start over with the new soviet man and things will be perfect.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Both ends of the street? That's pretty fucked up.

[Lord Humungus]

Cleveland? Did you ever see the Pagans play?

[db]

I was in Florida two weeks ago.and stopped.in a Miami-area Burger King. There were a group of rough-looking motorcyclists at a table, all wearing
vests and shirts with logos and the name "PAGAN'S" across their backs. I luckily managed to refrain from correcting their egregious.use of the.apostrophe.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

They should have used a period instead.

[db]

I'll be.honest, it.took me a second to get your joke.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Check their Wikipedia page. They know it's incorrect. Probably so some pedant points it out, and they can beat the poop out of the pedant.

[db]

Honestly, I figured it was something like that.

[vazhzsh]

It's not incorrect, it literally means "the motorcycle club that belongs to the pagans" and they LOVE when you assume they're stupid.

[db]

No, I get it.

[Fluffy]

But that would be Pagans'.

Pagan's means the motorcycle club that belongs to A pagan.

[The Late P Brooks]

Why would a shitty third-rate city like Cleveland have a marathon, anyway? It's like our crooked shitheel mayor saw that Boston has a marathon, noticed that Boston is an important city, and came up with a brilliant plan to make Cleveland into a boomtown.

"Marathon" and "boomtown" in the same sentence?

SIR, YOU GO TOO FAR.

[Virginian]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/.....488931.php

Sad and funny at the same time.

[db]

A.M. Links: President Obama Mad About the VA

I just heard over the weekend about a former co-worker, a Vietnam veteran, who just retired dying just after retirement.

Evidently, his new VA health insurance did not cover the blood pressure.medication he had been taking for years. This made management of his hypertension difficult to impossible, and he.died of a.massive heart attack.