Russian Prime Minister Says New Cold War Is Coming, Kerry Compares Climate Skeptics to Flat Earth Society, Macklemore Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Garb: P.M. Links

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  We're heading for a new Cold War, warns Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. Hopefully we'll get a sweet reboot of Rocky IV out of this.

• Speaking at Boston College's commencement, Secretary of State John Kerry compared climate skeptics to members of the Flat Earth Society.
• President Barack Obama announced that 500,000 acres of land in New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks will be set aside as a national monument.
• For the second time in less than a week, General Motors is recalling over 2 million cars. This brings the company's total recall count this year to over 13 million vehicles.
• Chipotle announced that it wants customers to stop bringing guns into the restaurants after an open carry demonstration last weekend. Talk about backfiring.
• Rapper Macklemore issued an apology for a costume he wore on stage that some people perceived as anti-Semitic, though he denied that has the outfit was intended to look like a Jewish stereotype.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama announced that 500,000 acres of land in New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks will be set aside as a national monument.

You weren't gonna use that anyway, were you, New Mexico?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Tonio]

Meh. It appears that at least some of that land was already federal land administered by the BLM. So not a land grab so much as a reclassification.

[PapayaSF]

Is this on the Mexican border? If so it'll make it harder to catch border crossers, if vehicles aren't allowed.

[TeamBarstool]

See the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. BP is exempt from the rules and they tear the place up more than the border crossers.

[Mike M.]

They shouldn't own all that land in the first place. It's persecution under the phony guise of environmentalism.

[DJF]

Wimp, Obama should declare that Manhattan is a Federal Wilderness area and let loose wolves.

[Agammamon]

You weren't gonna use that anyway, were you, New Mexico?

Hell, they couldn't use it - its all owned by the federal government anyway.

[Corning]

Mineral rights and cattle.

If what has happened over the past 10 years in regards to fossil fuels in the US there is probably enough oil gas and coal under New Mexico to supply the world for 10,000 years.

I base that number on no studies...only the observation that recently we seem to be finding oil gas and coal in astronomical amounts everywhere we happened to not look for it over the past 100 years.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

We're heading for a new Cold War, warns Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. Hopefully we'll get a sweet reboot of Rocky IV out of this.

Reboot? Stallone's still alive! Rematch!

[Drake]

Who are the good guys this time?

[Ted S.]

Sealand?

[Pro Libertate]

If we were to get back on track economically, which isn't totally impossible, Russia would be absolutely insane to challenge us. Militarily, we're several times their strength (that likely goes for nukes, too), and, of course, Russia is mostly a one-trick pony economically. Heck, we could cause them a great amount of economic grief even given our current decline.

It's a shame we didn't do more to try to encourage them to lurch towards the West. Instead, we just sent Lurch out there to piss them off some more.

[110 Lean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCc-RWIp7XU

[Caleb Turberville]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY4kJlIkjqw

The new Koch Brothers documentary that threatens to blow the lid off of our plutocratic secret government!!!!!11

(Of course this would be accepted by the Sundance Film Festival.)

[Tonio]

The KBs made a film?

[Caleb Turberville]

They're using their fortune to rent valuable space in the heads of lefty documentary filmmakers...So, yes.

[Injun, as in from India]

...produced, written, and directed by Harry Reid.

[Coeus]

The next feminist battleground:

The fact is, menstruation is not debilitating for most women. But for up to 20 percent of women, period pain interferes with daily activities just as surely as a nasty cold or flu. Ample paid sick leave would seem to take care of the problem just as well without forcing women to share their lunar cycles with their bosses. It's no coincidence that several of the countries with menstrual leave also have lackluster sick leave policies?neither Japan nor Korea mandate paid sick leave for non-serious illness.

But then again, neither does the United States. Perhaps we should start agitating for the Boxer-McConnell American Menstrual Leave Act after all?

[Tonio]

Oh, this is going to be fun...

[Ted S.]

As if people wouldn't figure out that's why ladies were taking the leave.

[fish]

Chipotle?

[Tonio]

No, we must demand that this be a separate category from SL, so that all the "who's here today" reports show ML leave-takers.

[Rich]

Not necessarily, Ted.

Do people know when you take off for blue balls?

[Matrix]

But don't you dare use her taking all that sick leave as an excuse to not promote her or give her raises. That would be sexist! YOU SEXIST!

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Look, they all have the Pill for free now, so nothing to complain about. Stack 'em and stop bleeding. Done and done.

[Tonio]

It really is true what they say about you.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Personally I see that as what makes me THE BEST but whatever.

[Clich? Bandit]

Well, you ARE the best worst.

[poloniusium]

Thank you for being the worst for the rest of us.

[Coeus]

nice

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Some people aren't smart enough to properly identify the sugar pills. I have my sister in law in mind as I say this.

[Agammamon]

Not only that, but if you're actually worth a damn in the office you're boss is not going to mind if you take a day off.

But then again, if you're worth a damn in the office you're not going to ask for that day off unless you actually need it - ie actually are being significantly affected - and not simply because its there and you can.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Mandatory onsite mikvas if employee count is over 49...

[Carl ?s his privilege]

There's no way this could come back to hurt women in the workplace.

And if it does, we'll just mandate that it doesn't.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

Are you saying that getting 25% of my time off should mean I don't get equal pay?

[Carl ?s his privilege]

Yes. Was my mansplanation not clear enough, sweetie?

...so, I totally deleted and retyped "mansplanation" when it was flagged by spellcheck, forgetting that it was a bullshit neologism. Fuck me.

[MJGreen]

Jesus. Why should women be required to show up at all? Just send 'em a paycheck every 2 weeks. Social justice!

[Corning]

We're heading for a new Cold War, warns Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev. Hopefully we'll get a sweet reboot of Rocky IV out of this.

I never saw the new Red Dawn.

Was it any good?

[Slammer]

Two words: John Milius.

BTW the Milius documentary on Netflix is awesome

[Slammer]

I thought you said Red Dawn, didn't notice the word new. Sorry.

[grrizzly]

You're not the only who made this mistake.

[Corning]

I probably should have said "reboot" rather then "new".

[Zenon Evans]

It is indeed awesome. I felt so sad when they showed him in his current state.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was not. Like the original Red Dawn, Rocky IV is an unassailable classic that cannot be improved upon.

[grrizzly]

I watched it a week ago. It looked like they couldn't find a single actor who could speak Russian. Most of the Commie occupation force was Cuban. Still entertaining.

[grrizzly]

I meant the old Red Dawn.

[Tonio]

Yeah, we got that. In the remake it's NORKs. Plus Chris Hemsworth [/drool]

[Tonio]

I never saw the new Red Dawn.

Josh, I am deeply disappointed in you.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

Josh, I am deeply disappointed in you.

Ha! We know his first name! Now we can mercilessly stalk him...

...oh, wait.

[Corning]

If you look hard enough you can find the comment from like 7 years ago where I put up my social security number.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

Seven years ago? You must be one of those old people.

[Tejicano]

Git off my lawn!

[Fist of Etiquette]

This brings the company's total recall count this year to over 13 million vehicles.

Government Motors. The only time government will take back something bad they've foisted on the American people.

[Slammer]

Feds won't allow water for pot growers

[Rich]

That reminds me. What ever happened to Utah cutting off water to NSA's data center?

[PD Scott]

The decision could hit particularly hard in Washington state, with the federal agency controlling the water supply for two-thirds of Washington state's irrigated land.
...
The Bureau of Reclamation, the nation's largest wholesaler of water, is a key federal agency in the West, best known for the dams, canals and power plants it has built in the 17 states it serves.
Created in 1902 to promote economic development, it's now part of the Department of Interior and delivers water to more than 31 million people and one out of every five Western farmers. It contracts with local irrigation districts to provide the water.

Thank goodness all those states and their citizens have the federal government controlling their water for them.

[Corning]

Not hard to find water rights in Washington state...

Just time consuming if you are trying to move it and it is getting expensive.

[Corning]

Should also point out that the western half of the state does not need irrigation to grow pot.

The Olympic Peninsula is a friggin rain forest.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Created in 1902 to promote economic development

No, it wasn't created to promote economic development, it was a social engineering scheme designed by TR to nominally relieve pressure on city populations by irrigating land for small, subsistence farms that had no business being turned into farmland to begin with.

And of course, it turned into a massive JOBS/agricultural corporate welfare program that, without the revenue from the Bureau's hydroelectric plants, would be an annual money loser.

[Corning]

irrigating land for small, subsistence farms that had no business being turned into farmland to begin with.

err...

There is a lot of dryland ag in eastern Washington so even without irrigation that same land would be ag...just not irrigated ag.

Also there are local PUDs that own dams in eastern Washington so even if the FEDs did not do it private interests would have built reservoirs and irrigation systems anyway.

The FEDs I agree should not have done it...but you go to far claiming it would not have been without the FEDs.

The Columbia River exists...there is no way that much water going by that much flat farmable land would not have been exploited for agriculture.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The FEDs I agree should not have done it...but you go to far claiming it would not have been without the FEDs.

The article specified the USBR as a whole, and that question has been examined in depth by western scholars like Donald Pisani.

In some isolated areas under ideal conditions, there probably would have been development. But it's begging the question to imply that it would have been executed on the scale that occurred without the feds. The article's claim that the Reclamation Act was created to promote economic development (as commonly understood) is completely specious. Even Floyd Dominy, who ran the Bureau for years, argued that the whole point of the Act wasn't to grow wealth, it was to put a bunch of people on farms that would provide no more than the minimum subsistence.

[Corning]

it was to put a bunch of people on farms that would provide no more than the minimum subsistence.

Then they were bat shit insane. 20 acres of irrigated land in Washington state can more then feed a 100 families let alone one on minimum subsistence.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Then they were bat shit insane. 20 acres of irrigated land in Washington state can more then feed a 100 families let alone one on minimum subsistence.

Blame that on the one-size-fits-all nature of the Reclamation Act and the Homestead and Carey Acts that it sprang from.

And maybe 20 acres will feed 100 families today, but that wasn't the case in 1902, when the damn law was passed.

[Corning]

In some isolated areas under ideal conditions, there probably would have been development. But it's begging the question to imply that it would have been executed on the scale that occurred without the feds.

Isolated areas? No where in eastern Washington is isolated from the Columbia river and its tributaries.

The only issue would have been power to pump the water...but as I mentioned hydroelectric dams were built and are owned by local PUDs.

Also look at Google maps if you don't believe me about dryland ag.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Isolated areas? No where in eastern Washington is isolated from the Columbia river and its tributaries

Then why weren't any large-scale irrigation projects implemented before the Bureau came along? Were these farmers simply waiting for the right opportunity to strike?

The only issue would have been power to pump the water...but as I mentioned hydroelectric dams were built and are owned by local PUDs.

Not the ones on Bureau projects--which is the focus of the article. The Bureau makes most of its funding from selling the electricity generated by the hydroelectric power plants on its projects.

In any event, this is getting away from my original point--which is that the Reclamation Act wasn't an "economic development" plan at all, it was a social engineering law using JW Powell's report and the massive immigration to the east coast in the late 19th century as justification for its passage. That it turned into a huge over-scaled JOBS program stocked with bureaucrats managing projects that were money losers should hardly come as a surprise.

[Injun, as in from India]

President Barack Obama announced that 500,000 acres of land in New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks will be set aside as a national monument.

As a national monument to his incompetence

[fish]

We'll probably want to confiscate some more land.

PS: NEEEEDZMOARCHRISTFAG

[Winston]

So has anyone seen Shriek considering what he said yesterday?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What did I miss?

[Slammer]

He kept posting the same all-caps Koch brothers shit over and over.

[Winston]

The comments Slammer is referring to are here:
http://reason.com/blog/2014/05.....-t#comment

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I was involved in accusing him of being ass raped by his church, but I don't recall his reaction being out of the ordinary. He must have said something pretty fucked up to get it deleted....

[Winston]

It was before. It was the remark I was referring to last night.

It started here and later comments were deleted:

http://reason.com/blog/2014/05.....nt_4521772

[Winston]

I'm pretty sure Hyperion and Sevo replied to the formerly deleted comment.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I know exactly what you are talking about now. I responded also, and my comment got deleted too.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It was pretty libelous.

[Restoras]

He's off his meds, or the current prescription is no longer effective. It does happen with severely brain damaged people.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh cool PB is actually having a melt down.

[Slammer]

I'm not sure what the libel thing is. I know what he said sounded really violent, though?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He claimed to have evidence that a certain public figure was a pedophile.

[Slammer]

oh. Golf course thing?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Yep.

[Mike M.]

I'm not sure what the libel thing is. I know what he said sounded really violent, though?

ROFL. The only way that little pussy bitch Weigel is committing violence on anyone is if he gets himself a gun.

[Corning]

Something about Kochs and 20 billion dollars...i didn't understand the reference he was alluding to.

Maybe that the Koch's inherited their money or something.

*shrugs*

[Tonio]

Yeah, linky please.

[Winston]

No it was deleted. He made a statement which I imagine was found to be potentially libelous.

[Corning]

I think he is hung over.

The freak out before the last freak out where he called me an anti-semetic jew hater he became absent for a a day as well.

It is not shame that prevents him from posting it is his throbbing head....

Stocks are down as well which does not help his depression which corresponds to the Dow.

[Ted S.]

I think he is hung over.

I would have guessed he's got extremely tiny genitals, and not hung at all.

[Jordan]

Probably just his admitted cocaine abuse catching up with him.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I think we can all agree that it is a coke hangover.

[Ted S.]

What did he say yesterday?

[Winston]

He made a potentially libelous comment about someone (a non-poster) that he hates and the post and comments referring to it were deleted.

[gimmeasammich]

That can happen? The posts being deleted part I mean. I've seen so crazy shit on here and have yet to see any of it deleted.

[gimmeasammich]

some*

[Winston]

I wasn't around when it happened but I believe Reason got in trouble when Warty said something about a lawyer who threatened (or did?) sue. Can someone explain better.?

I'm sure those posts were deleted for similar reasons (drink!).

[gimmeasammich]

Ah. I was unawarez.

[Mad Scientist]

There was a lawyer who did something stupid. Someone suggested that lawyer had never denied being a sheep fucker. Then we all piled on with all sorts of nasty things the lawyer had never denied doing. Eventually we used the lawyers name so many times that the thread was the top hit in Google for his name. So the lawyer, who may or may not have fucked any sheep, threatened to sue Reason. They took the post down because, although they would have won in court, it would have been a pointless, expensive battle.

[Warty]

It did produce some awesome court documents, however. Don't say I never did anything for you people.

[110 Lean]

Yup. Listed "The Gobbler". Whatever happened to that guy?

[Invisible Finger]

Are those court documents on the web?

[Warty]

Should be. Look for the H&R post announcing the settlement.

[Invisible Finger]

Searching for "sheepfucker" returned no results here.

[Slammer]

It's this story.

[Sudden]

Warty being named in a lawsuit, along with various and sundry other humorous internet handles, was fairly epic.

[poloniusium]

I'm surprised 4chan didn't get sued as well, considering someone was using '/b/' as their pseudonym.

[Clich? Bandit]

This is so true. I would like to frame the complaint

[Corning]

the thread was the top hit in Google for his name.

This might be why it is so hard to search comments.

[Tonio]

The lawyer in question was notoriously litigious. A bunch of the commentariat started making jokes about his alleged fondness for a certain barnyard animal and those got deleted.

[MP]

I'm surrounded by Sheep Fu(censored)s!

[Corning]

Mary sockpuppet posts get deleted all the time.

Plus there was that one day when someone figured out how to post images in comments....and then told everyone how to do it, so of course everyone did it.

Animated gifs and everything.

All that shit got deleted.

[Restoras]

*Moment of Silence for the Day of the Commenters*

[Jordan]

American and Mary get deleted everytime they show up.

[Tonio]

Yes, but only rarely.

[Coeus]

Acacia trees are racist.

He adds that the underlying issue can be more pernicious: "Of course, there are the deeply ingrained problems of post-colonialist and Orientalist attitudes. We're comfortable with this visual image of Africa because it's safe. It presents 'otherness' in a way that's easy to understand. That's ironic, because what is fiction if not a way for you to stretch your empathetic muscles?"

That's a reasonable diagnosis. But how to solve the underlying problem? Certain books are allowed to stand on their own; others?too often those by African, Muslim, or female authors?are assigned genre stereotypes. Mendelsund suggests that designers should start by initiating conversations with editors about what makes a book unique, so that they have something to respond to visually. And if that fails, and designers are pressured to use an offensive stereotype, Mendelsund says, "We can tell them that it's racist, xenophobic, whatever."

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

I actually read something about this last week or something, and while I don't think it's racist, I do think it's legit to complain about. Book cover design is terrible, and almost completely for lazy-ass reasons.

[PapayaSF]

But as it says in the article and the comments, book covers have to communicate, and following tropes can help that. Note all the tropes used on the covers of science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, etc. Vary too much from the clich?s, and your sales go down because it doesn't "look like" the sort of book it is.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

It's true. There are huge trade offs. But I would prefer to see the tropes used more creatively, say.

[Agammamon]

That's ironic, because what is fiction if not a way for you to stretch your empathetic muscles?"

Hmm, maybe its a way to present 'otherness' in a way that's easy to understand?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It should be fairly easy for me to boycott Macklemore, since I've been boycotting him already without even knowing it!

[Rich]

You beat me to it. What's a "Macklemore"?

[fish]

What's a "Macklemore"?

My first thought was scotch.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"It's not anti-Semitic because I look Jewish"

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

[Carl ?s his privilege]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

[Carl ?s his privilege]

See also: http://reason.com/archives/201.....r-us-the-p

[Invisible Finger]

I think a Macklemore is a decrepit second baseman from Seattle.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

One of these days one of these celebrities will release their pre-written apology before they do the offensive thing they plan to apologize for. Won't *they* have egg on their face!

[Mad Scientist]

Speaking at Boston College's commencement, Secretary of State John Kerry compared climate skeptics to members of the Flat Earth Society.

When you don't have any facts on your side, resort to ad hominem.

[tarran]

With Natural Climate Change Deniers, it's projection.

[Slammer]

Kerry: If We're Wrong on Climate Change, 'What's the Worst That Can Happen?'

[Lady Bertrum]

Ummm. We would squander billions of tax dollars (confiscated from citizens) in dubious "fixes" that are funneled into the pockets of cronies adding to corruption?

[PapayaSF]

More like trillions.

[MJGreen]

"So I ask again: What's the problem?" - John Kerry, net worth $200 million

[tarran]

Comically, even if they are right - and empirical observations say definitively that they aren't - they are spending far more money in prevention than the harms they seek to mitigate.

This is the equivalent of plowing fields with salt to keep witches at bay.

[Pro Libertate]

It's such nonsense. Even if the catastrophic AGW crowd were right, which is highly unlikely, they don't have overwhelming evidence (the only "consensus" appears to be that there's a warming trend with some component attributable to human activities), haven't been able to predict jack with any accuracy (in fact, rather the opposite), and the whole thing is based on recent data. If the Earth were about to plunge into another ice age, for instance, then any AGW would be pretty much irrelevant.

These leaves aside the fact that even if catastrophic AGW were absolutely true, there's almost nothing we could do about it, absent slaughtering most of the planet.

[MP]

I confronted a liberal friend last weekend, reminding her that the AGW alarmists were just Conservatives who, as per the traditional sense of the word, are resistant to change. That quieted her.

[Brett L]

What's that? The 5B people least like them have to die in order for this scheme to work? Bonus!

[Pro Libertate]

The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death.

Your execution is so ordered.

Kodos
Governor of Tarsus IV

[Coeus]

Bullet to the face.

CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) -
Chesterfield police say a man was shot in the face and neck by his own brother, Sunday evening. The brother who allegedly fired the gun was taken into custody, but later released. Investigators are looking into whether the situation was an act of self-defense.

The violent shooting off the 7,400 block of Hickory Road happened just before 6 p.m.. It's still unclear what sparked the argument between the brothers.

Police say a 23-year-old man living in a mobile home, had a severe showdown with his older brother. The visiting brother came to check on his sibling, after alleged prior arguments and word that the younger brother shot off a gun inside the home.

Police say the older brother claims his younger brother flashed a gun. The older brother then shot the younger brother in the face and neck. He told police it was in self-defense.

The older brother called 911 and waited for emergency crews. His wounded brother rushed to the hospital. The man spit up a bullet that passed through his nose.

[Rich]

Cool!

[Ted S.]

The brother who allegedly fired the gun was taken into custody, but later released.

Is he a po-po?

[The Late P Brooks]

So has anyone seen Shriek considering what he said yesterday?

Did you guys break the ShreeekBot?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Chipotle announced that it wants customers to stop bringing guns into the restaurants after an open carry demonstration last weekend.

I'll do them one better and stop bringing myself into their restaurants.

[RannedPall]

Some prog linked to this on Facebook, to which I asked him if maybe one armed patron could've prevented Luby's massacre? They responded with the usual "well what if that patron accidentally shot someone else/himself/was in the bathroom? Gun control works!"

[rts]

My proggie friends stated that if anyone is crazy enough to bring a firearm to a burrito joint, he'd run out the door.

Now, he did say "yes, that applies to cops to" when I pressed him on it, but I suspect he's never actually run out of a restaurant any time a cop walks in.

[PD Scott]

If he did, the cops would wonder why he was fleeing them. Things would snowball from there.

[tarran]

I think it would be really comical to scream "Gun! Gun! Gun!" when a cop walks into a diner while pointing at him.

Of course, it's only funny until the taser is deployed.

[RannedPall]

I also brought up "well what's the difference from cops going anywhere with their guns?" "COPS R TRAINED AND TRAINING AND GOOD SHOTZ." They also only cared about openly carried guns, because that's scary, but when someone is carrying a concealed weapon, that's not scary because I can't see it. All bout da feelz.

[Warty]

I posted this in the PA gay marriage thread, but that's no reason not to post it again. Finally, we have an answer to the age-old conundrum: Who would win in a fight, an idiot with baseball bat or a fat guy?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I think there was a little bit of muscle under the fat.

He showed a tremendous amount of restraint given the circumstances.

[Warty]

Not only that, but excellent technique and amazing composure. Look at how he steps into the swing and traps the guy's arm. It's perfect. And choking the guy unconscious with his own bat from a full nelson gives him a huge amount of style points.

[R C Dean]

That is some expert fighting, there. Stepping into a swing is very hard to do, even with training.

[Agammamon]

Just goes to show the importance of proper stance when you're trying to bash someone's head in with a baseball bat/

[Warty]

But then you open yourself up to the double-leg takedown and other stuff. The rule is, basically, don't attack a guy with big shoulders and cauliflower ears.

[Rich]

Thanks, Warty!

Now we know what to issue adults getting onto commercial airplanes.

[Mad Scientist]

I have no idea who started that, but I was rooting for the fat guy.

[tarran]

The little guy came in too fast. As a result the fat guy was inside the effective range of the bat, and free to move in and take the center.

A sword fighter must avoid being uncentered and be mindful of the distance to his opponent at all times for this very reason.

The little guy also spent too much time talking and trying to summon help once he lost the initiative. After being slammed into the car, he was understandably stunned, but the fat guy hadn't finished him off. He could have sought to wriggle free of the fat guys grip or even taken advantage of the fat guy's need to maintain a hold with both arms to get some strikes in, especially by letting go of the now useless bat. Instead, he blustered, and the fat guy was able to get behind him and choke him out.

Had the little guy had friends, the fat guy would have been in trouble. He took too long to convert his initial counter into a victory. He just hung on after putting his opponent's head into a car window. Rather, he should have then immediately pulled the stunned man down onto the ground, disarmed him, and sat on him.

The appearance of being distracted until just the right moment to lunge in and take the center was absolutely perfect, though.

[Warty]

The fat guy has clearly had some training. There was no way the little guy was getting away once the fat guy laid hands on him. And it looks to me like he took so long to subdue the little guy because he didn't want to hurt him. Look at how gently he laid him on the ground once he was asleep.

[Sudden]

A reverse nut kick while in the full nelson hold was his only resort.

[Pro Libertate]

Or he could drop or try to crush the big guy's arches. It's better not to be caught like that in the first place, of course.

[GILMORE]

That guy's not fat = he's "working-class Ripped".

So its got approximately a half dozen cases of beer and 100 mcChicken sandwiches too-much in its diet recently. Big whoop. Look at your average cop. Same build.

I completely agree on the guy's excellent technique. Step INTO the swing. Had he backed up, he'd have taken the slapping end of the bat. Instead he defused the guy and owned him in one move.

[Lady Bertrum]

Damn. Where's part II? What happened to skinny guy? Dead, passed-out, or drunk?

[jesse.in.mb]

That was delightful!

[PD Scott]

Now you can reach your far-flung interests without any pesky stops for fuel: Gulfstream introduces the world's longest-ranged business jet.
ln a further enhancement to its largest and fastest business jet, the G650, Gulfstream Aerospace has just announced the new G650ER. An ultra-long-range aircraft, the G650ER can travel up to 7,500 nautical miles (13,890 km) at a speed of Mach 0.85, or up to 6,400 nm (11,853 km) at the higher operating speed of Mach 0.90. This is an increase in range of up to 500 nm (926 km) over the original G650.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Pat Sajak has angered Global Warming Alarmists.

He follows up the backlash with today's tweet:

Taking next few weeks off. Computer models have already determined winners.

? Pat Sajak (@patsajak) May 20, 2014

[removed][removed]

[poloniusium]

Did those models predict previous winners?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I have long suspected the wheel is rigged.

[gimmeasammich]

You and my dad. Any time one of the contestants guesses the correct answer before him, he just starts yelling, "They've been briefed!" over and over.

[The Last American Hero]

If you're not following Pat on Twitter, stop what you're doing right now and add him to your feed.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Despite warmest April on record, Antarctic sea ice at greatest extent ever recorded

While the globe simmered last month to its warmest April in 135 years of records, Antarctic sea ice was at its all-time largest April extent on record, according to a report released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In fact, Antarctic sea ice last month was measured at 3.47 million square miles, which was 21.6% above the long-term average, the greatest April extent since records began in 1979.

How can this be?....

Well, although they are related to each other, there's a difference between Antarctica's sea ice (which freezes and melts with the seasons) and the Antarctic glacial ice that's melting due to global warming, according to scientist Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

It's the steady melting of the glacial ice in Antarctica that's expected to contribute to global sea-level rise of four feet or more in the coming centuries.

Overall, the amount and volume of ice in Antarctica depends on a complex relationship among air, water, wind and ozone depletion, with both natural and man-made influences involved.

Maybe John Kerry can investigate in his wife's private yacht.

[Tonio]

But, but...western US drought!!1!

[John]

At some point you have to start to question their assertions of a "global temperature". Just what the hell is the "warmest April"? What does that even mean?

[Brett L]

Apparently it means snow covering the corn and spring wheat shoots in the Midwest.

[Tony]

Your stupidity is your own.

[Contrarian P]

What a sophisticated rejoinder. Ever tried positing an argument?

[paranoid android]

If past experience is any indication, he'll ignore the thread for about twelve hours, come back when he's sure everyone else has stopped posting, and call you a big meanie stupid-head so he can bask in his own smugness for getting the last word.

It's pretty much his standard MO.

[Restoras]

Coldest April I ever experienced here in the northeast - but weather is only climate when it's hot, right?

[tarran]

Everybody assumes it means an average of temperatures.

However, the question of how the raw measurements are combined to form an average is very interesting.

First where do you do the measurements? Anthony Watts' surface station project has been looking at siting issues, with limited success at getting the NOAA to eliminate the worst stations (like one that was bathed in the exhaust of newly built air conditioners).

Then the question is when do you do the measurements? Some people advocate taking the temperature at noon every day. Others to average the highest and lowest observation of the day. Others say use nighttime temperatures.

What happens when instruments are swapped out? What happens when the station is moved?

A lot of stations are near airports. A common occurrence is that those stations will experience occasional spurious Tmax observations because a taxiing jet was held in a position where their exhaust was playing over the station. Sometimes that is very easy to see in the raw data, but there really is no machine executable algorithm to filter out all of them.

It's not sexy science, and is very, very sadly neglected I suspect because it's hard and not groundbreaking.

[Brett L]

Anthony Watts and Steve McEntyre have been doing heroic work in pointing out and quantifying this stuff. For instance, one of the surface stations approximates everything above about 83 degrees north latitude off of 3 stations. Its an area approximately as far across as Toronto to New Orleans. Several people have attempted to reproduce the old method of measuring when the change the adjustment (and there is an adjustment) on the surface station datasets. Note that there SHOULD probably be adjustments. Especially if you are doing temperature per unit area and you get more stations. You HAVE to change the way you figure that number. But, as best they can tell, there seems to be a weighting such that older data gets adjusted down and newer data gets adjusted up more often than the opposite, which you wouldn't expect from random bias. None of the things mentioned are cool to sort out, but they are the sorts of things that openness would have helped. If the East Anglia raw data existed, if the NOAA algorithms and raw data were public, etc.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Not everyone loved Abraham Lincoln.

"In fact, John M. Barr has discovered that the iconic president had more than his fair share of critics - on all sides of the debate.

"The professor of history at Lone Star College-Kingwood is the author of a new book on the subject, entitled "Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present."

"Published on April 7 by LSU Press, the book is now available online and at select bookstores."

http://www.chron.com/neighborh.....492605.php

[Notorious G.K.C.]

(jots in notebook)

Subjects respond to circumcision trolling, but not Lincoln trolling...next, post deep-dish pizza article...

[JEP]

You should post an article about cutting the crust off a deep dish pizza so that looks like a normal pizza...

[paranoid android]

Is this supposed to surprise some people? What did they think all the riots were about? Have they never seen Gangs of New York?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I thought the riots were about Leonardo DiCaprio avenging his father.

[MJGreen]

There was also some kind of war that erupted after his election.

[110 Lean]

Not everyone loved Abraham Lincoln.

It's because he was hard drinkin'.

[The Late P Brooks]

Kerry: If We're Wrong on Climate Change, 'What's the Worst That Can Happen?'

"It's not my money."

[Injun, as in from India]

"It is my wife's Heinz Ketchup fortune!"

[Drake]

Who will notice if a few peasants starve or freeze?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

But bet if they do, we'll be glad we brought ketchup!

[Injun, as in from India]

"Let them eat ketchup!"

[The Last American Hero]

Sign this marriage certificate here John, you can have like $200 million.

/Ghost of Shriek

[RannedPall]

OT, but a few blocks from my house! Love when my hood gets some well deserved recognition:
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/n.....7131.html#

[Injun, as in from India]

Restoras|5.20.14 @ 11:38AM|#
Why? Obama is a POS politican and they all deserve every bit of mockery heaped on them.

I don't get how a slavery joke is pertinent to criticizing Obama.

[GILMORE]

note =

If you intend on attempting to reopen a topic no one cared about the first time you raised it, then you should actually make the effort to state what it is you took umbrage with, and your own POV, rather than expect people to fucking backtrack your entire past conversation and decode your meaning on their own.

Its fucking lazy. Or, 'millennial', as its sometime called.

[Injun, as in from India]

If you intend on attempting to

And who the fuck are you? Some sort of rule setter? If you don't like my post, you can ignore it, shithead.

Its fucking lazy.

Oh right. Someone you never met before and know the least bit about can be judged as whatever.
Or, 'millennial', as its sometime called.

Aah. You even guessed my age! You must have seen my birth certificate! For the record you little chicken shit, I'm not a millenial.

[Humberto Brenes]

You certainly cry like one.

[Restoras]

*Dialing your wah-bulance...*

In the context of Bo's outstanding 3/5's angry comment/joke, which I found hilarious, I believe the mockery applies, especially since he was never a slave and does not have any slave ancestry.

[Calidissident]

He actually does, but funnily enough, it's from his mother's side. He's an 11th great-grandson of John Punch, the first documented African to be enslaved for life in American history

http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/2.....rst-slave/

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'm guessing he has some slave-owning ancestry on his mother's side.

[Injun, as in from India]

Dude. All I was saying to not mock something like that so lightly.

[Fr?ulein Nikki]

After the open-carry rally on Saturday, the gun-control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched a campaign on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #burritosnotbullets.

And yet again, moms prove they are even worse than me.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

#GuacamoleNotGuns just doesn't flow as well.

[Injun, as in from India]

I prefer #bulletsnotbullshit

[Slammer]

#fartsnotfirearms

[PD Scott]

#tacticaltacos

[Warty]

#carbinesnotcarnitas

Open-carry activists are annoying twats. How do they not realize that they're being counterproductive? Our side is winning. We don't need them creating bad PR for us.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Interview with the feminist who coined the phrase 'mansplaining'

The term "mansplaining" has resonated with so many women. It shifted the cultural universe ever so slightly (in a good way). Did you expect this response?

You know, I had a wonderful conversation about a month ago with a young Ph.D. candidate at U.C. Berkeley. I've been a little bit squeamish about the word "mansplaining," because it can seem to imply that men are inherently flawed, rather than that some guys are a little over-privileged, arrogant and clueless. This young academic said to me, "No, you don't understand! You need to recognize that until we had the word 'mainsplained,' so many women had this awful experience and we didn't even have a language for it. Until we can name something, we can't share the experience, we can't describe it, we can't respond to it. I think that word has been extraordinarily valuable in helping women and men describe something that goes on all the time." She really changed my opinion. It's really useful. I've always been interested in how much our problems come from not having the language, not having the framework to think and talk about and address the phenomenon around us.

[wareagle]

"...it can seem to imply that men are inherently flawed, rather than that some guys are a little over-privileged, arrogant and clueless."

and certainly no feminist has ever thought any of those things about any man. Ever.

[PapayaSF]

And thankfully women are never over-privileged, arrogant and clueless.

[Caleb Turberville]

U.C. Berkeley, figures.

Look I'm not against speaking out when men act like jerks to women. But, "mansplaining" is childish gibberish.

Let's act like grown ups.

[Invisible Finger]

I can't wait for someone at work to accuse me of mansplaining. The sexual harassment lawsuit is gonna be fun.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My biggest complaint about UC Berkeley. The STEM is world class, and then they award doctorates for this kind of bullshit. It is effectively 2 different schools.

[Raven Nation]

Thanks for the reply on my Sloopy/Banjos Q yesterday.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

No prob.

[Corning]

It is effectively 2 different schools

Without STEM where would the other school get its money from?

[Rich]

No fatalities have been associated with this recall.

What?! Not even GM?!

[PD Scott]

School cancels honors night because of "exclusive nature" of event.

Officials at a middle school in Rhode Island ended a tradition of a student "Honors Night" because of the event's "exclusive nature."
School administrators said students will instead be recognized at "team-based" ceremonies...
In the notice to families, Cole Middle School Principal Alexis Meyers said the change would allow the school to "celebrate the individual and collective successes of all students and their effort, progress, and excellence."

[GILMORE]

Harrison Bergeron High?

[Caleb Turberville]

I remember when my high school had a ceremony to honor those who had been awarded athletic scholarships.

Meanwhile, those of us awarded academic scholarships had extra dessert when we had dinner that night at home.

[Ted S.]

We had an academic scholarships night at our high school. My memory of it is that one of the scholarships was announced as being "In memory of..." and named the French teacher, who was very much alive and in the audience.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Do they still celebrate athletic triumphs?

[PD Scott]

"Additionally, our Cole varsity athletes will receive their medals and trophies at an after school ceremony."

[Slammer]

I think they reversed their position after the attention, though.

[Pro Libertate]

My kids' high school has 50% of the kids wearing "honors" white gowns. In my class of nearly 900 in the same county, I think 20 people got to wear them.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

To quote David Burge: "Probably reads better in the original German"

[GILMORE]

I thought, "the symbionese liberation army?"

It also needs to say that Rage Against the Machine is the opening act, or something.

[JW]

Shouldn't we be getting some royalties off the Kochtapus theme?

[Invisible Finger]

The people who think the climate should stop changing after having changed for the last 50 billion years are the crackpots.

[poloniusium]

50 billion?

[Ted S.]

You're a Young Earthre? 😉

[Ted S.]

Or a Young Earther, for that matter.

[blushing]

[Pro Libertate]

Well, in this context, I suppose I'm a Younger Earther, because I think the Earth is more in the 4.5 billion range.

[Agammamon]

Just tell 'em its the European spelling. You learned it while living abroad.

[GILMORE]

"Rapper Macklemore..."

I stopped there.

Can we please not turn H&R into TMZ-lite as well? I mean, I thought that's what The Independents was for.

If its trending on twitter? I don't want to know.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I don't see what is the relevance of this story to... anything. Even if I knew or cared who this idiot is.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Indiana man drugs, repeatedly rapes wife; gets no jail time

On Friday, a Marion Superior Court judge sentenced Wise, 52, to 20 years -- but not a day in prison. Of the sentence, 12 years were suspended and 8 years were to be spent in home confinement.

Prosecutors had asked for 40 years in prison.

And Boardman -- who divorced Wise after discovering what he'd been doing -- is furious.

"To have my rapist, my attacker, convicted on all six counts, only to be let go ? only for him to walk out that door the same time I could -- was just unfathomable," Boardman told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview on Monday. "I never thought that he would be at home, being able to have the same rights and privileges as I do."

Boardman, 36, is particularly outraged by what Marion Superior County Judge Kurt Eisgruber said to her in court.

"While the judge was giving his opinion on the sentence, he first turned to me and told me I needed to forgive my attacker, which is unfathomable," Boardman told The Times. "He told me I needed to forgive my attacker and I needed to let my attacker walk. It was a punch to the gut from the justice system -- or from one judge."

[Andrew S.]

We need those prison cells for the truly awful people, like the ones who put substances into their own bodies that we don't like, talk to people we don't like, make exchanges of their own "services" for money, and the like.

[poloniusium]

Judge lynch never sleeps.

[Brett L]

She should shoot him dead and see if her jury is as lenient.

[Coeus]

She should shoot him dead and see if her jury is as lenient.

It's possible they would be. This would certainly fall under the "battered wife defense". Manslaughter at the most.

[Brett L]

See below. I think there is a moral case for administering her own justice as long it is subject to review by her peers in the form of a trial.

[Coeus]

I get the feeling that the judge filtered the crime through his own experience.

Married guys out there- how much prison time do you think your wife should get if you found out that she'd drugged you and rode you in your sleep?

[poloniusium]

I'm not married, but how does 'dead' rate for prison time?

What if she was doing it to get pregnant?

[Coeus]

You would kill a significant other for having sex with you in your sleep?

Or is it for the drugging? Or is only the combination that would require a death sentence?

[poloniusium]

I'll make sure I stock up on rophynol next time I go on a date, since apparently drugging and fucking someone without their permission is A-OK. The next step in your argument is that she belongs to her husband and owes him sex, because they're married and she forfeited her self-ownership.

You surely realize how fucking creepy you are?

[Warty]

Watch out. He's about to neg you.

[Coeus]

I'll make sure I stock up on rophynol next time I go on a date, since apparently drugging and fucking someone without their permission is A-OK.

If you got that from anything I typed, I suggest you read it again.

[Agammamon]

The drugging - that's a (lethal) paddlin'.

[Mad Scientist]

You're not coming in your sleep (unless you're still 11 years old).

[Brett L]

I'd probably volunteer to do it awake and see where that gets us first.

[Coeus]

Common, gimme an honest answer. How much jail time should your wife get?

[Brett L]

For non-consensually drugging me and sexually abusing me? 20 years sounds about right. Just not suspended. If they let her out after 12 years for good behavior, that might be different. As above, if she isn't satisfied with the state's justice, she should administer her own and see whether the state and her peers are sympathetic. That should be part of any justice system.

[Coeus]

As above, if she isn't satisfied with the state's justice, she should administer her own and see whether the state and her peers are sympathetic.

I agree, and I think that's the crux of it. This gets such wildly disparate answers because it's so person specific. Kinda like fist fights. Depending on your temperament and disposition, you can view a punch or kick as a violent assault or a minor disagreement. But ultimately it's the person who's been violated that the weight of the decision needs to go to.

And since I've been pushing everyone else for answers, I'll give mine. If the drug and dosage was relatively benign (i.e. no organ or brain damage), I probably wouldn't even file charges. End the marriage, and use the threat of prosecution to keep all of my property, yes. A scorched-earth divorce.

[Calidissident]

I'm not married but I would definitely not be cool with any person drugging me without my knowledge or consent for any reason. This was rape, and the guy deserved far more than the slap on the wrist he got.

[Coeus]

So put a number on it. How many years?

[Calidissident]

Given the fact that he did it for several years, and given his age, I'd say 30. Same if it was the other way around. I would be fine with a girl I was in a relationship starting sex while I'm asleep, but that's something people should discuss before doing it, and I would certainly not be ok with her drugging me to do it.

[Coeus]

30 years. Thank you. I'm not sure why everyone but you is dodging the question.

[Calidissident]

I'll add that I don't think life would be unfair, however. I chose 30 since he'd be 82 by then, and at that point, if he was still alive, probably wouldn't be much of a threat to the public.

[Coeus]

if he was still alive, probably wouldn't be much of a threat to the public.

I'm not entirely sure about that. If he ended up in a nursing home, he might be more of a threat than he was before.

[Calidissident]

It would probably depend on his physical condition and where he was. I guess the chance at parole after 30 years would be most appropriate rather than automatic release.

[Corning]

I'd say 30

Should that number be the same if the couple was not married?

Should it be different if they were not even in a sexual relationship?

[Calidissident]

No, I don't think so. Although the odds of someone being drugged and raped for 3 years by the same guy who they weren't in a relationship with are probably pretty low, making the situations less analogous.

[Corning]

Yeah...

Marriage is a contract and pretty specific about sexual access.

I think the judgement was too lenient but any judgement for marriage rape should be more lenient then unmarried rape.

Don't like it? Then don't take vows that gives another person contractual sexual access to your body.

[Calidissident]

Seriously? Marriage vows make you obligated to have sex with your spouse whenever they want, against your will, while forcibly/unknowingly drugged, etc.?

It doesn't even say she was refusing to have sex with him. He says he drugged her cause it made her nicer, apparently. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy had a necro-fetish.

[poloniusium]

I've learned today that several people here believe marriage is a vow between a slave and a master.

[Calidissident]

Yeah I didn't realize people still thought like that, outside of fringe religious communities (at least in the US)

[Corning]

Yeah I didn't realize people still thought like that, outside of fringe religious communities (at least in the US)

You are surprised a middle aged male bachelor libertarian has a dim view of marriage?

Also +100 for jumping to the conclusion that I am a religious fanatic.

[Calidissident]

I'm surprised that a libertarian is apologizing for marital rape. One doesn't have to have a positive view of marriage to think that marital rape isn't a big deal.

[Corning]

Never said it was not a big deal or that it should not be prosecuted. I said the punishment for raping your spouse should be less then raping your non-spouse.

Stop beating up a strawman.

Or are you a troll fucking with me?

[Calidissident]

Also, I didn't call you a religious fanatic. I said that I was unaware that people thought like that (in the USA at least) outside of fringe religious communities.

[Corning]

I would say marriage is slavery to one another.

If marriage for both participants is not submission to another then what the fuck is marriage at all?

A joint checking account?

[Calidissident]

I'm shocked that you're still a bachelor

[The Last American Hero]

Go fuck yourself. Nobody here is under contract to answer your every question and reading the lack of response as somehow endorsing the verdict in this case is silly.

[Corning]

Go fuck yourself. Nobody here is under contract to answer your every question and reading the lack of response as somehow endorsing the verdict in this case is silly.

Huh?

You don't have to answer...it is just a question on the Internet.

Also I did not explicitly endorse the verdict. I explicitly said it was not enough punishment for this particular case.

[Coeus]

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy had a necro-fetish.

Given the cellphone videos, I agree. The "made her nicer" thing reeks of a poorly thought out rationalization.

[Corning]

Seriously? Marriage vows make you obligated to have sex with your spouse whenever they want, against your will, while forcibly/unknowingly drugged, etc.?

I did not say it was not rape...but yes all things being equal it is a lesser rape.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I guess I need to reread my vows, don't remember that being in there.

[paranoid android]

Corning subscribes to a particularly creepy understanding of the words "to have and to hold", apparently...

[Agammamon]

What vows actually give contractual access?

There are vows for sexual fidelity - meaning that you won't screw someone else, not that your spouse *has* to screw you.

Even the RC church recognizes the difficulties of this position and allows anullments/divorces in the case where a partner chooses to not provide sex.

They still don't say its cool to *take* it.

[Corning]

I didn't say it was cool to *take* it either.

I said it should carry a lesser punishment then raping people who you are not married to.

[JW]

Married guys out there- how much prison time do you think your wife should get if you found out that she'd drugged you and rode you in your sleep?

Wait, this is an option?

I see this as a real win-win time saver.

[Warty]

You are a strange little fucker.

[Coeus]

Why? No one is ever normally shy about saying what sentence, say, a cop should get who gets off too leniently. I just find it odd that, with the exception of death, no one has quantified it in this case.

If asking the question is off-putting to you in this case, why is that?

[Warty]

It's off-putting because a woman-hating little fedora-wearing PUA cult weirdo whining about how a rapist should go unpunished is intrinsically off-putting. You know that feeling you get when you watch a spider walk? Those eight legs, they just don't look right, you know? It's off-putting. You. Off-putting.

[Coeus]

It's odd that, due to the fact that I find certain dating tactics designed to maximize the number of positive responses I receive useful, your mind fills in all this insane bullshit.

I guess I'm a racist, cross-burning Klan member because I'm for private property rights as well.

Is it because of the Warty Hugeman stuff? You don't need to overcompensate, we all realize that it's a joke.

[Warty]

Excellent negging. You identified a trait of mine that you suspect I'm proud of and denigrated it. Outstanding work. If I were a woman and I hated myself, I'd be sucking your dick right now.

[Coeus]

A: that's not how it works. At all. It's simply giving a slightly backhanded compliment. Not denigrating, just not the effusive fawning compliments she's been hearing all night from everyone else. But I realize that if you had knowledge of the topic, you wouldn't be saying all this retarded shit to begin with.

B: I'm not even sure what trait you're even referring to.

C: Women who hate themselves are horrible at blowjobs. You gotta take pride in your work if you wanna be good.

[Mad Scientist]

Married guys out there- how much prison time do you think your wife should get if you found out that she'd drugged you and rode you in your sleep?

I don't mind the sleep screwing one bit, but I'm not OK with the drugging. That's grounds for divorce, but I doubt I'd file charges. All that assumes, of course, it only happens once.

[Corning]

but I'm not OK with the drugging.

That part is actually kind of scary. Anything powerful enough to knock you out and keep you asleep during sex could easily kill you.

Forget the years he should get for rape he should be getting a pretty stiff sentence for aggravated reckless endangerment alone.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Hopefully that judge is elected and not appointed, and that the voters of Marion swiftly remove his ass. Unbelievable.

[jesse.in.mb]

Minnesota bans triclosan containing soaps

I don't know about banning it, but the stuff shouldn't have been put in every goddamned hand wash on earth. My feelings are officially mixed on this.

[Coeus]

Some of us need it for skin conditions.

[jesse.in.mb]

It's safe enough to be available in OTC formulations for specific applications, but it's retarded to have it in every hand soap on the market. It also doesn't seem to make hand washing any more effective than soap without it.

I've had a few friends who get rashes whenever they come in contact with it, which makes washing their hands in restaurant or public bathrooms a gamble.

[Coeus]

but it's retarded to have it in every hand soap on the market.

Agreed. But I'm glad it's widely available and cheap because of that.

[PapayaSF]

There is a concentrated benefits/dispersed costs argument against it, antibiotic resistance being a real problem.

[Corning]

Antibiotic resistance is a problem in hospitals and are attributed to bad practices associated with government health care programs fucking up incentives at hospitals to fix it.

Domestic use of these products are not causing it.

[Contrarian P]

Antibiotic resistance is a problem everywhere, not just hospitals. It comes from the widespread use of antibiotic substances, which force natural selection of resistant organisms. If you think there is some special property of hand soap that causes bacteria not to adapt to it, I don't know what I can tell you. I'd agree with you that resistance to a hand washing agent is probably less of a problem than resistance to penicillins, but it's a matter of degree, not whether or not it exists.

[Corning]

No it isn't. When was the last time someone got a superbug infection from their kitchen?

The outbreaks are all in hospitals.

[Contrarian P]

Please define "superbug". I don't think it means what you think it means.

MRSA is considered a superbug and it is ubiquitous in the community now, cause by widespread use of penicillins. Gonorrhea could also be considered one, as it is resistant to pretty much everything except ceftriaxone and strains are emerging that are resistant to that too. Unless of course you are arguing that gonorrhea is a hospital acquired organism.

We see e. coli urinary infections which are resistant to multiple antibiotics. These could certainly be kitchen acquired, although it's pretty hard to determine from where a specific organism originated.

I'm really not sure from where you're getting your information.

[Contrarian P]

"Caused". Oh, for an edit button.

[Corning]

MRSA

What percent of staph infections are there in any given year that do not originate in hospitals?

Like 0.1%.

MRSA did not originate in someone's kitchen. Give me a break.

[Contrarian P]

What percent of staph infections do not originate in hospitals? Just about every staph abscess I see, just about all of which are methicillin resistant, is community acquired. Your numbers are pulled straight out of your rear end.

Nobody knows where MRSA originated. It could have just as easily been a kitchen as any other place.

You stated "antibiotic resistance is a problem in hospitals", which is an absolutely ludicrously inaccurate statement. Now you've decided that we must only focus on hand soaps. Way to move the goalposts around.

[Corning]

Gonorrhea could also be considered one, as it is resistant to pretty much everything except ceftriaxone and strains are emerging that are resistant to that too.

it sure as fuck isn't the dish soap.

We see e. coli urinary infections which are resistant to multiple antibiotics.

And you know as well as I do that comes from over prescription of anti-biotics. Not dish soup.

[Contrarian P]

If an e coli organism develops a resistance to dish soap, we wouldn't know it unless we cultured e coli for resistance to antimicrobials found in dish soap. Have you done such a study?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

People don't use it correctly anyway. It requires 2 minutes of contact time to be effective.

[Corning]

requires 2 minutes of contact time

So in other words they are prefect for cleaning food prep areas and washing dishes in people's kitchens to prevent the spread of food borne diseases.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Yes, but I use stuff that's a lot stronger on my raw meat cutting boards.

You can even scrub into surgery with triclosan if you wash for more than 2 minutes. But as a hand soap in public restrooms, it's pretty useless.

[jesse.in.mb]

So in other words they are prefect for cleaning food prep areas and washing dishes in people's kitchens to prevent the spread of food borne diseases.

Perfect. I know a bunch of people who wash their dishes, leave them sitting for 2 minutes and then wash them. But that's only when one of their triple sinks is clogged and they can't do a wash, disinfectant rinse.

[Coeus]

Jessie, that's a bit disingenuous. Lots of people let the dishes soak in the soapy water for a few minutes.

[jesse.in.mb]

Regional difference maybe? I'm trying to think if I've seen anyone in my extended family or friends do that. A few of my friends will fill the sink to soak, but usually not add detergent until they're washing, and that's only if they have a double sink to rinse. I'll soak everything in bleachy water if something has gone terribly wrong in the back of the fridge or if I exploded a raw chicken in my kitchen.

Then again, I read some British guy freak out that Americans bothered to rinse their dishes after washing them and that he just put them on the rack to dry soapy and it was fine.

[Raven Nation]

I read some British guy freak out that Americans bothered to rinse their dishes after washing them and that he just put them on the rack to dry soapy and it was fine

Yeah, that's what we used to do in Australia as well. Since moving to America, however, I have seen the light.

[Coeus]

A few of my friends will fill the sink to soak, but usually not add detergent until they're washing,

I always soak with soap.

Yeah, that's what we used to do in Australia as well. Since moving to America, however, I have seen the light.

I always thought that the soap would give you the green apple splatters. They told me that in boy scouts.

[jesse.in.mb]

I always thought that the soap would give you the green apple splatters. They told me that in boy scouts.

I was surprised by that too. Eating a steady stream of dish detergent residue seems...sub-optimal.

[Agammamon]

Unless its to soften up something stuck on - My dishes go in the soap, straight to scrubbing, rinse, dry with no soaking.

It is mostly driven by me only cooking for myself and not having a lot of stuff to wash in the first place, but still.

[Agammamon]

. . . or if I exploded a raw chicken in my kitchen.

What the hell have those European dudes been teaching you?

[Corning]

Dude for at least 30 years commercials have shown people soaking dishes in soapy water.

Don't pull that region BS.

[jesse.in.mb]

Commercials also show you using 10x the amount of toothpaste you're supposed to use.

It's cumbersome to fill a single basin sink full of water and wash dishes out of it with no place for the water to drain. It's also a massive waste of soap. My birth mother from NY and my adoptive mother from Michigan both taught to put the soap on the sponge and wash dishes under hot running water.

I'm sorry your mother learned all of her life lessons from vignettes geared toward making you use several times as much product as is necessary.

[Corning]

You don't have to fill the sink to soak a bunch of forks in a drinking glass with soap.

I wet everything fill a bowl or pitcher or glass with soap. Wipe everything down with soapy sponge put small shit in my soap bowl/glass/pitcher let sit then come back to it for another scrub and rinse.

My mom did not teach me that. She has always had a dishwasher. I learned that while in college.

I also use a soapy sponge to wipe stuff down in the kitchen and don't bother to dry it.

[Corning]

My feelings are officially mixed on this.

All the super bugs come from hospitals not from people's bathrooms and kitchens.

Give me a break.

[jesse.in.mb]

Or Asia where they bathe in Dettol. Let's be more like them!

[Corning]

You mean flu virus?

Antibiotics never worked on viruses.

[Contrarian P]

No, but they are prescribed for them all the time, which is one of the reasons antibiotic resistance has become a problem.

[Corning]

antibiotic resistance has become a problem.

...in hospitals.

Bleach works. Get hospitals to bleach the fuck out everything all the time in hospitals and the problem goes away.

I am not even kidding about this. Some hospitals have implemented better practices and they have cut this shit down to zero.

[jesse.in.mb]

Seriously?

You're suggesting that using a denaturing disinfectant such as bleach (or soap that isn't a 'body bar') is better in hospitals (which it is), but that in the home people should continue to use triclosan which is less effective when improperly used, and has more of a downside?

[Contrarian P]

I realize you aren't kidding, but you're just not correct in your assertions.

Antibiotic resistance is everywhere. It is not confined to hospitals. I'm not sure what "shit" you're referring to, but if you mean hospital acquired infections, there has been a considerable improvement. The rate isn't zero, though, in any hospital.

[Corning]

Antibiotic resistance is everywhere. It is not confined to hospitals.

Name one kitchen where a super bug strain originated in.

[Contrarian P]

Again, please define what a super bug is, in your view.

If someone comes in with a resistant organism, they could have picked it up in their kitchen, their living room, their bathroom, or their workplace. Your argument seems to be that because nobody has traced a resistant infection directly to a kitchen, then it couldn't possibly have come from there. Please identify for us other safe places that we can all go that have no bad germs in them.

[Contrarian P]

Did I miss where kitchens are the only place people use antibacterial soap? Your argument is rather silly.

[jesse.in.mb]

Antibiotics never worked on viruses.

STFU! I'm sure nobody else was aware of that. I'm also sure there's nothing nasty you can pick up in Thailand or China besides the flu.

[Corning]

Also Minnesota kitchens and bathrooms are not in Asia.

[Contrarian P]

"All the super bugs come from hospitals not from people's bathrooms and kitchens."

Really? All of them?

[Corning]

Yes all of them.

When was the last story you heard about an entire family getting a super bug from their kitchen?

How about mass groups who got it from a McDonald's?

From a public bathroom?

None.

All the stories about super bugs are found in hospitals.

[Contrarian P]

I'm not sure what your background is, but I'm a physician, I treat these things all the time, and you're just completely wrong.

And again, please define "super bug".

[Contrarian P]

And while I'm at it, it is hardly possible to determine the precise origin of most infections. The reason that we know the source when a hospital acquired infection occurs (which generally occurs on a ward or in an ICU), is we have the patients all in one place where we can acquire enough data to determine from where the infection originated. A community acquired infection will likely present to several hospitals, making backtracking to determine the source of the infection difficult, if not impossible.

[Corning]

A community acquired infection will likely present to several hospitals, making backtracking to determine the source of the infection difficult, if not impossible.

All of them are not impossible. Yet there are none I have ever seen reported.

You are a physician show me one report of a family who got a super bug from their kitchen.

If we are outlawing soup certainly there should be one piece of evidence beyond theory that supports the prohibition.

[jesse.in.mb]

Nice strawman.

Nobody is talking about "banning soap. We're talking about banning a chemical component of it that doesn't add to the efficacy of washing in most contexts and has serious potential downsides.

[Corning]

that doesn't add to the efficacy of washing in most contexts

Bleach is good but it does not have breaking power of detergent...mixing detergent and bleach does not work so well.

So yes it is more efficient. Great for cleaning cooking surfaces, bathroom surfaces and soaking dishes....which is exactly where it is most used.

You are banning something that has not one shred of evidence has ever created a super bug.

[Contrarian P]

You are arguing based on an unrealistic supposition. Your substance apparently is unique in that no bacteria ever has developed a resistance to it, according to you. I don't believe tests for such resistances have been done, because unless the organism infects a person, nobody cares. Then the only thing that matters is what antibiotics can be used to eradicate the infection.

The bottom line here is that you come off as a shill for the manufacturer of this stuff. Your "facts" are completely inaccurate and you fall back on "kitchens" like that's some sort of deft syllogism. If you want to argue by saying "look, I think this stuff is effective at eliminating bacteria and I don't think that developing resistance is likely to be a problem going forward", then fine.

Instead, you make laughably wrong statements like "antibiotic resistance is only a problem in hospitals". You really shouldn't make broad sweeping statements such as that, which is what I originally objected to. Now you've decided to narrow your discussion to kitchens, and unfortunately are still wrong.

[jesse.in.mb]

Dude, you're retarded.

Up above you said that hospitals should be scrubbed from end to end with bleach and that would solve everything. Now it's not enough.

Also, triclosan isn't the chemical acting as a detergent. It's an antibiotic additive TO detergents. Nobody is coming for your soap or your detergent.

I'm sure you'll be shocked, SHOCKED, to know that my all purpose bleach spray contains water, sodium hypochlorate (bleach), and surfactant. Surfactant, as I'm sure you know, is the chemical in detergent that lowers surface tension and gives it that penetrating power. Odd that those two can exist in a three part mix, no?

[Contrarian P]

http://www.reuters.com/article.....J920140416

Here's a reuters article for you to read titled "kitchens could be sources of drug resistant bacteria".

Here's the study that found drug resistant organisms in both hospital and home kitchens:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.....=JSTOR-pdf

No, the study doesn't identify "a family who got a super bug from their kitchen", but if it's present on kitchen surfaces, it's not much of a stretch to conclude one might contract an infection from there.

Took me like 20 seconds to find with a simple google search. Maybe you should read it and reconsider whether or not you should shoot your mouth off in the future before knowing what the hell you're talking about.

[Pro Libertate]

Is triclosan the stuff in Fringe that gives you powers?

[R C Dean]

OT:

New frontiers in police abuse:

In order to get bonded out on an arrest, the DEA requires a citizen to retract statements made to the press that she was assaulted by DEA agents, and state that she lied.

http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/p.....a-photo-of

[Invisible Finger]

WTF? It was her sister that talked to the press, not the person actually arrested.

[tarran]

This is why, when I rise to power, everyone who works for the DEA is going to end their lives in the boats. And I mean every motherfucking one of them, from the head honcho to the cleaning lady emptying trash cans!

And it will be done in the fucking DC reflecting pool, and the boats will be left floating permanently as a reminder to any other asshole who wishes to follow in their footsteps!

[Rich]

"Oh, just *say* you lied. You can *think* whatever you want."

[Pro Libertate]

So everyone involved at the DEA will be going to prison now, right?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

What's really important about trigger warnings

Despite good intentions and individual professors' interests, implicit biases are a legitimate and serious problem in academia. There is no reason to think these biases would not inform judgment and reduce empathy. Trigger warnings are fundamentally about empathy, which is informed by epistemology, status and stereotypes. People with higher status, wealth, race and/or sex, for example, have the least amount. This is a consequence of living in a culture optimized to reflect their perspectives and address their needs. When it comes to trigger warnings, the prediction and acknowledgement of pain are salient.

Actually a pretty succinct summary. But of course she doesn't realize it's 'informed' by sophistry.

[Invisible Finger]

How can one have higher "race and/or sex"? Is this tacit admission that a race or a sex can in fact be inferior?

[Ted S.]

Perhaps they meant "more sex" and not "higher sex"? Or did they mean sex while on drugs?

[Coeus]

I hope so. That's the best kind.

[poloniusium]

mplicit biases are a legitimate and serious problem in academia

Oh, the irony.

[GILMORE]

"Trigger warnings are fundamentally about empathy, which is informed by epistemology...
...which is informed by epistemology, status and stereotypes"

...

...

"Something I was taught not to do in college"

is write sentences like that.

Dear reader =

- what did this person just say?

[Pro Libertate]

Except for people expressly talking about philosophy, I'd say that the use of words like epistemology, ontology, or hermeneutics are trigger words.

[GILMORE]

trigger for, "Pay no attention to me"

[Pro Libertate]

Hegemony is another one. Or it used to be, anyway.

I wish aliens would hurry up and show up here, so that human would seem a broad enough class to kill all this identity bullshit. It's so tiresome and so unimportant.

[JW]

Brian Wilson, a libertarian-ish talk show host, used to tell lefty callers he was arguing with to get an "epistemological head check, pal" before he would cut them off. I liked that.

[Pro Libertate]

Their problem is not just one of epistemology but of ontology. They deny existence.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm in that "least amount" category, and I'm just loaded with empathy. For instance, I pity the person who believes such dreck.

[Mad Scientist]

But she's got a $5 words in there! Everyone knows that randomly shoveling $5 words into a sentence means you're extra-smart.

[Pro Libertate]

The real skill is being able to communicate complex ideas simply.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Tennessee man arrested for attempting to have sex with an ATM and then a picnic table

A man was arrested at a Murfreesboro bar Friday night for attempting to have sex with an ATM and later a picnic table.

According to the arrest report, Lonnie Hutton, 49, walked into the Boro Bar and Grill on Greenland Drive and up to the ATM.

He pulled down his pants and underwear, exposing his genitals, and then attempted to have sexual intercourse with the ATM, the report stated.

Responding officers found Hutton, still nude from the waist down, walking around the bar, thrusting his hips in the air.

Officers took Hutton outside and told him to sit at a wooden picnic table.

The report stated he "exposed himself again and engaged in sexual intercourse with the wooden picnic table."

Hutton smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and was unsteady on his feet.

He was charged with public intoxication and booked into the Rutherford County jail on $250 bond.

Hutton is scheduled to appear in court July 1.

Looks like Florida Man has competition.

[Slammer]

Gotta admit, some ATMs are pretty cute.

[Jordan]

Some guy called into one of the local radio shows here this morning and said that he's been to Murfreesboro before, and the ATMs looked pretty good compared to the locals.

[Mad Scientist]

Robot Chicken did it first.

[poloniusium]

+5 minutes of washer humping

[Rich]

Paul McCarthy

(Maybe NSFW.)

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I want whatever drugs that guy had.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

You want to end up with splinters on your dick?

[PD Scott]

I think he wants twenties in his waistband.

Better get the PIN right, it'd be a shame if the machine decides to shred your "card".

[Carl ?s his privilege]

Posted on Volokh today:

Case study of an OCD patient who, after treatment with deep brain stimulation, started liking Johnny Cash.

Disclaimer: I haven't read it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Johnny Cash's music *is* brain stimulation!

[Stormy Dragon]

I don't know what kind of poor unfortunate you have to be to not like Johnny Cash, but I'm glad they finally found a treatment.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Chicago deep-dish pizza was born at Pizzeria Uno in 1943, even as World War II was in progress. Pizza's appeal to poorly educated immigrants ? largely from southern Italy and with low-paying jobs as factory workers ? was its cheap price and belly-filling ability. It was truly a poor-person's meal ? an inexpensive peasant's food, some termed it ? largely a secret among Italian Americans in cities where they congregated but remaining virtually unknown to mainstream America."

http://www.itemonline.com/opin.....in-America

[Certified Public Asskicker]

No one has posted this yet? Well, alright...

KOCH BROTHERS STILL EVILZ!

A political group backed by the Koch brothers wants to stop the state from providing $195 million in aid. The money would be used to limit deep cuts to retirees' pensions and avoid selling off the artwork in the city-owned museum.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Why do they hate art?

[Slammer]

It's weird. Whenever someone all-caps koch my reasonable filters out the whole comment.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Oh really? I will have to tame it down then.

[Slammer]

I can do the hover thing and open it anyway

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Enjoy this CNN comment in the meantime:

You don't hear about these big Democrat donors because they are not constantly doing crappy things like the Koch Brothers.
Scumbags like the Kochs are constantly using their money trying to take over the world like twisted mad men. Big donor Democrats have not bought entire political parties like the Koch's purchase of the Tea Party.

[Slammer]

Fucking yahoo. There were like 3000 comments on that this morning. Now there are zero.

[Brett L]

I think that is a default of the reasonable from when 'Murcan/Mary/White Injun used to go wall of text with the all caps Koch featured prominently.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

School district backs down after initially punishing honors student who spelled 'Back that ass up'in her year book using the periodic table of the elements

Paris Gray is a senior class vice president, a member of SADD, the Beta Club, and a leader on campus at Mundy's Mill Hgih School.
Now, she could be kept from speaking at graduation next week.

"I think their reaction was beyond what it should have been because nobody understood it," said Paris Gray.

She received an in-school suspension and was kept from participating in a senior walk last Friday after yearbooks were distrubuted, all due to a quote she left near her portrait.

The message was: "When the going gets tough just remember to Barium, Carbon, Potassium, Thorium, Astatine, Arsenic, Sulfur, Uranium, Phosphorus."

Gray tells Channel 2's Carl Willis the message wasn't flagged by any editors or adults.

Friday, administrators learned that by using periodic table the elements spelled "To back that as_ up."

"My first reaction was, you are such a nerd," said Gray's mother Zarinah Woods.

UPDATE: Paris Gray and her family met with the school's principal and the area superintendent on Tuesday. They apologized for the miscommunication and said they would not deny her giving a speech at graduation. The superintendent challenged her to "give the best speech ever."

[Invisible Finger]

Any member of SADD deserves to be vilified. Statist asshole deserves the wrath of their fellow statist assholes.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I'm not aware of that is, but hopefully this is a learning experience for her.

[Sudden]

Students Against Drunk Driving

[The Last American Hero]

I'm not so sure. When I was in high school, the SADD group was mainly about informing people about drinking and driving and offering free rides home to kids who partied a little too hard. Maybe it's changed since then.

[Christophe]

That's kind of how MADD started too. Nowadays the original founder has disavowed them.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

So just for shits and giggles, I looked up the school district:

On August 28, 2008 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) revoked accreditation for the Clayton County School District.[6] Clayton County Public Schools is the third school district in the United States to lose accreditation since 1969.

Looks like they have their priorities straight.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Which raises the question - who at *this* school was able to figure out the joke?

[poloniusium]

I was going to bring up this; some parent or faculty member sat down with a kids yearbook and probably spent an hour figuring this out.

Because they have nothing better to do.

[110 Lean]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL2txMU50CI

[PapayaSF]

A great prank, and what an over-reaction. When I was on the high school debate team, the school paper wrote an article about us. We convinced them that there were two rankings for debaters, the junior debaters and the master debaters. They printed it. Ah, good times.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Dear Prudence: Help! My husband and I enjoy rough sex and now my daughter thinks I'm being abused!

My new husband and I enjoy very rough sex. Unfortunately?in spite of efforts to keep quiet?my 12-year-old daughter overheard us. I got called in for a private meeting with her teacher outside of school hours. She told me my daughter heard her stepfather slapping me and was extremely upset. I was completely taken aback, not to mention embarrassed beyond belief, and couldn't think of anything other than mutter that I was fine and everything was fine at home. Of course, this only made the teacher believe I was trying to cover up the "abuse" and told me repeatedly she was there to help when I was ready. I know I can't just let my daughter continue believing her mother is being abused, and I really don't want this kind teacher to be concerned over a complete misunderstanding. However I just don't know how to begin. Please help.

She better clear that up with the teacher before the cops get involved.

[Warty]

Better clear it up with the daughter. Thinking your stepdad is a rapist and wife-beater can't be good for a kid.

[Mad Scientist]

Sweetie, daddy's hitting mommy because mommy asked him to. You see, it helps mommy come.

[paranoid android]

Man, I'd love to have a drink with whoever writes these fake letters sometime. They obviously have a hell of a lot of fun with their job.

[Paul.]

No shit.

[poloniusium]

Time for The Talk. And then explaining Kink.

Your daughter is going to be so popular!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I wonder if the stepdaughter likes New Daddy?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

wonder *whether.*

Maybe (if the story is true) the stepdaughter is simply looking for a way to embarrass them, or even get put in the custody of Real Dad.

[John]

That is what I am thinking. She is 12 not 6. I would be surprised if she didn't understand what was going on.

[poloniusium]

That could be a thing too.

[gimmeasammich]

I had a neighbor that lived below me that like it rough. The first time I heard it I almost called the police, but listened a little more and heard her moaning with pleasure. It happened a couple of times after that, and each time I had to question what was really happening. It was fun looking at her in the eyes after that...

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Ahh...the old "I-had-to-listen-more-to-avoid-rashness" ploy.

Well played.

[Brett L]

Still not cool to jerk it openly while staring at her unless she's okayed that.

[Paul.]

Macklemore... hip hop for white people and the NPR set.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yo, hear all you people near and far
I'm down with the brothers and I listen to NPR
I'm cutting edge, I like everything new
Does my big nose make me look like a Jew?
But I'm sorry about the nose, that was just jive
Remember to donate at the next pledge drive!

[GILMORE]

Take out "hip hop" and you're getting closer.

[Paul.]

I'm trying to be generous.

Antidote.

[Brett L]

Sunday I put 10kg of corn sugar in a 6 gallon carboy, filled it with hot water, stirred to dissolve as much sugar as possible (I think it was supposed to be 1kg/gallon ideally and I fumbled the numbers, there was a shitton of undissolved corn sugar in the bottom), waited for it to cool to merely warm, and tossed in a thing of high-alcohol surviving yeast and nutrients. I'm gonna let it run for a week and see what happens. I'm hoping for about 35-40 proof right off the carboy. Who knows what could happen after that.

[poloniusium]

Well, careful you don't draw the ATF if you plan on distilling it.

Is your yeast hardy enough for that proof?

[Brett L]

Is your yeast hardy enough for that proof?

So they claim. I bought a 50lb bag of corn sugar and three different types of high-proofing yeast. Once I get highest conversion settled, I can start using something that doesn't taste like sweet, bland, champagne, which is how I would describe its current state. No real taste but so bubbly that it is reminiscent.

[gimmeasammich]

Who knows what could happen after that.

The revenuers show up?

[Auric Demonocles]

Are you going to do anything for the taste?

[Warty]

Add artificial fruit juice flavor. Give it to high school girls. PROFIT.

[poloniusium]

Profit?

[gimmeasammich]

Just dump some Country Time mix in there. That's what we used to do with Everclear in college before we were 21. It still burned like hell, but it tasted OK enough to make you want another glug's worth.

[Warty]

glug

Erupt into a bev-rage this summer...with Glug!

We'll add the word "dog" for the blacks. They like that word, like they're friends with the product.

[Brett L]

1) make high alcohol mash
2) ...
3) age in charcoal

It should then taste not terribly different from bourbon at the end.

[Warty]

Peregerine falcon babies are not so cute. Mom and Dad are pretty handsome, though.

[PD Scott]

In my head, the chicks are yelling "Attica! Attica!" as the ID bands are being put on them.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

11 year old golfer qualifies for Women's US Open

Li earned her way into the event by shooting rounds of 74 and 68 on the par-72 Old Course at Half Moon Bay in a sectional qualifier in California on Monday.

She beat second-place qualifier Kathleen Scavo by seven strokes.

Lexi Thompson (12 years, 4 months, 18 days) previously held the record for youngest to qualify for the event, doing so in 2007.

The 11-year-old from Redwood Shores, California, already has a victory at Augusta under her belt, having won her age group in the first annual Drive, Chip and Putt Championship held in April ahead of the Masters.

Last year, Li qualified for the match-play portion of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship but lost in the first round.

Li, however, will not be the youngest player to participate in the U.S. Women's Open. Beverly Klass was just 10 when she competed in the event in 1967, prior to the qualification process.

The U.S. Women's Open will be played June 19-22 at Pinehurst.

[The Last American Hero]

More proof that golf is not a sport, but a leisure activity.

[Matrix]

This man is and idol of American liberals/progressives. He is even the profile picture of the Being Liberal Facebook group

FDR

Yeah, very liberal of him. But they worship Saint Franklin Roosevelt!

[Sevo]

Woman hired as clerk, thinks that means "editor"; quits:

"Tweeting clerk quits, tells Pleasant Hill what she really thinks"
http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/20.....ly-thinks/

I hope we don't get stuck with her retirement benes.

[poloniusium]

Lehmkuhl took a job in Washington, D.C., with Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO that represents non-union workers

That does sound more her speed.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Her job was to produce the minutes for city council meetings, and she didn't do so for over a year? Hmmmm...

[Paul.]

Macklemore J-dilla, homework edit. Respect.

[Matrix]

6 year old boy beaten by police at school

Granted, he was being very unruly at school, but to leave bruises on his chest and back? If Mom did that, CPS would take him away.

[Juice]

Niblack elementary

Really?

[Cytotoxic]

I have read that the legalization efforts of CO and WA states are having a profound effect on MJ cultivation by cartels, namely that these crops are being replaced by opium and consequently really good quality heroin is in Chicago and other areas. Is there any report of knock-on effects on Afghan opium prices and harvest? I would like to think that MJ legalization is depriving the Taliban/AQ of monies.

[Agammamon]

President Barack Obama announced that 500,000 acres of land in New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks will be set aside as a national monument.

YES!

Because if there's one thing New Mexico is on the verge of losing, its wide-open spaces with nothing but dirt and cactus in them.

Can President Obama come down here to Yuma and create another national monument to sand?

[Pro Libertate]

Must be oil or something useful there he's afraid someone might exploit.

[DRM]

No. No oil, no coal, no anything worth anything.

[Stormy Dragon]

Chipotle announced that it wants customers to stop bringing guns into the restaurants after an open carry demonstration last weekend. Talk about backfiring.

And once again responsible gun owners suffers because some guy has to go around freaking the normals by strapping an AR-15 to his back.

[Cytotoxic]

Were you born this lame or is it an acquired trait?

[Stormy Dragon]

Chipotle doesn't want to be pro-gun or anti-gun, they just want to sell burritos. But they let their customers carry. But they could just be happy about that, no, they have to stage a giant EVENT.

So the basic message is, let it be known publically that you allow guns in your business, and you'll end up with a giant argmed crowd in front of the store scaring away all your normal customers. Not suprisingly, businesses don't consider this a good thing.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Obligatory.

[Andrew S.]

And the NFL continues to punish Miami for not (yet) giving into Stephen Ross' demands for a few hundred million dollars to renovate the stadium.

[Caleb Turberville]

I'm finding it hard to watch the NFL.

First the taxpayer funded stadiums, then the 16 team playoff.

I miss the 90s when the only stadium that got built was the Georgia Dome.

[Mike M.]

The Vikings should go back to playing outdoors, like real men.

[Andrew S.]

Gay marriage controversies? In MY Reason?

No, of course not. But in another thread, a Tulpa sockuppet (after claiming that Reason writers support people shooting cops, and getting called out on his bullshit) responded by saying that Hitler never admitted what the Final Solution was about.

[Tonio]

Yes, the dreaded "plum dress" discussion.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I have never had a problem digesting Chipotle.

Denny's, KFC, and Chinese Buffets on the other hand...

[fish]

I wonder if he's contemplating a handle-change a la tulpa.

Does the commentariat have any suggestions?..?

[Corning]

I hope he goes back to Shrike.

It was stupid that ever changed it in the first place.

[gimmeasammich]

You just described my college experience.

[wareagle]

and the Falcons' brass is agitating for a replacement.

[Caleb Turberville]

They're going to get it.

It's not as insane as replacing Turner Field after a mere 19 years.

God, I hate Atlanta. It's hard living in Braves country. I wish Nashville had an MLB and an NBA team.

[PD Scott]

Groundbreaking was yesterday. The govt is kicking in "only" $300 million, the Falcons are going to pick up the rest of the tab.

But hey, we'll have all these jobs and stuff, and maybe a Super Bowl.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I went to a Chinese Buffet in college, and they had a "wasted food charge". It was how they made money. The food was so disgusting, it was impossible to finish.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I went to a KFC buffet once...

*starts to get teary eyes*

I can't finish.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

That is potentially pretty asshole-ish of them, but the person doing the response should be honest and use a picture with her body in it.

She looks fine, albeit not my "type". The actress next to her, though... dayum.

[gimmeasammich]

How do you make a Chinese buffet disgusting? I mean it's not exactly quality food to begin with, so the bar is pretty low to start with.

[Rich]

"wasted food charge"

Blirriant!

[Agammamon]

Sounds like 'Rice King'. Had a couple of them on the bases in San Diego - ate their once, only once, it was like eating re-heated garbage.

[Mad Scientist]

Bushpig's Christfag?

[gimmeasammich]

I think it depends on whether you say some snappy quip, or just wince and look away as you pull the trigger.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"K-F-C has an all you can-eat buf-fet!"

"What did you say?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK5hup3TK0Y

[Auric Demonocles]

"Punish" Miami by not getting an 11th Super Bowl. Those poor, poor babies.

[gimmeasammich]

A friend of mine who great up around Irvine, CA said that the all you can eat sushi places he went to were like that. Anything you left on your plate, you paid for on top of the standard charge.

[KDN]

In the Braves' defense, Turner is definitely near the bottom of the stadium rankings; the fact that it wasn't built for baseball is a handicap it doesn't really get over.

Turner and Cleveland are the two worst I've been to now that the shitholes in NYC are gone, but the latter is because it's not taken care of while the former just isn't a great design. In an era where the ballpark is half the draw, that's important.

[Caleb Turberville]

So, if Braves fan want a better park, let them each contribute $50-$100 to the cause. With a rabid fanbase of at least 4,000,000 strong, you could easily raise $200-$400 million.

If they don't want to pay for it voluntarily, then why do they want to pay for it by force? I just don't get the logic.

[Invisible Finger]

So Cleveland is ignoring building maintenance again?

[Caleb Turberville]

This is one of the reasons I can't stand to hear die hard sports fans blather about how much they suppor their team.

Visit any NFL message board, and you'll see dozens of threads saying that such and such team needs a new stadium. Good luck finding a thread asking for voluntary donations to the new stadium.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Tough meat, and from my experience, it wasn't prepared that day, or even that week. So incredibly gross.

[Tejicano]

I wouldn't eat in a Chinese place if it is staffed and run by recent immigrants from the mainland.

At a dumpling place in Wuhan, as I was paying the check, I saw how they "clean" the chopsticks between uses. Used chopsitcks were stuck tip-down in a bucket of water to soak - then any pair at random was grabbed for the next customer. It was little more than a microbe exchange system.

[KDN]

If they don't want to pay for it voluntarily, then why do they want to pay for it by force? I just don't get the logic.

I agree. I'm not defending the county / city / whatever; these deals never work out for the local governments. But the team gets a free ~$250m asset out of the deal and they'd be stupid to say no to that.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I go to a KBBQ place in Irvine that has that rule. Never been a problem, it's so delicious.

You just have to order 1 meat at a time so you don't overshoot. I always finish with the beef belly. It's so fatty, it's easy to swallow even if you're full.

[Jerryskids]

I like the fact that the AJC runs regular news stories on how bad the deal is on the new Braves stadium (since they moved to Cobb County) while knowing that the same deal applies in spades to the new Falcons stadium (not to mention the old Falcons stadium and the old Braves stadium) but the AJC ain't sayin' shit about that because that's in Atlanta proper. It's funny how the AJC can see so clearly how the Cobb County taxpayers are getting raped by the Braves when they themselves were pushing for the Braves to stay inside the city limits and promising the Atlanta taxpayers the sex was going to be consensual.

[gimmeasammich]

Mmm. Korean BBQ is delicious. I might have to get some this week...

[KDN]

MetLife Stadium (and PacBell in SF, IIRC) were built privately, and the Devils took out a huge loan for the Prudential Center (which has been the source of endless money troubles over the last 5 years). It's not like it's unprecedented.

You're absolutely right, though. It seems that a majority of sports fans whose teams need a new building feel entitled to have you pay for it.

[Caleb Turberville]

Yeah, but Metlife Stadium is officially owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

Give it 10 years, and the Giants and Jets are going to start asking New Jersey to cover the cost of maintenance and upkeep.

[Warty]

It's bad enough having to deal with a pissed-off gander if you wander too close to where his woman is nesting. I would not want to anger anything that can fly 200 miles an hour and has inch-long talons.

[Warty]

There are so many red-winged blackbirds along the lakeshore. I should see if I can get one to divebomb me.