Tonight on The Independents: Jeffrey Miron on the Stimulus, John Stossel on Good News, Deroy Murdock on the V.A., Mary Katharine Ham on the CIA & Life Sentences for Teen Hash Dealers, Plus Call-in Aftershow and More!
Tonight's live episode of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT, repeats three hours later) is so jam-packed with material that we had to sacrifice Topical Storm, and there isn't even enough room in the headline to mention that one of our guests will be Aliea Bidwell, a young Alabama mother who claims that a pediatrician at the hospital threatened to have her newborn taken into state custody unless the parents consented to give the child a Hepatitis B vaccine.
Also, for the second (and possibly last!) time, tonight's after-show, which can be found at foxbusiness.com/independents beginning at 10 p.m. sharp, will feature LIVE PHONE CALLS FROM ALLEGED HUMAN BEINGS, or at least those who call the super-secret telephone number (*cough* 877-249-9626 *cough*). Please do the world a solid and DON'T ACTUALLY CALL THAT NUMBER UNTIL JUST BEFORE 10 P.M. Kthnxbi.
Party panelists tonight are Hot Air/Townhall media personality Mary Katharine Ham and Demos Senior Fellow Rich Benjamin, who will talk about most of the following stories: 1) The National Security Agency recording every damned phone call in the Bahamas; 2) a 19-year-old Texas kid facing LIFE IN PRISON for making and selling pot brownies; 3) the CIA vowing to really never again pose as vaccinating doctors when collecting blood data on people they hope to assassinate; and 4) the Chipotle/Bloomberg/gun kerfuffle.
We're just getting started. Beloved Harvard economist and occasional Reason contributor Jeffrey A. Miron will be on to defend his outlandish ongoing contention that maybe the ARRA Stimulus wasn't the best of public policies. Beloved eponymous Fox Business Network host and Reason.com columnist John Stossel will be on to promote his upcoming Thursday show on the "Good New Days." National Review Online contributor Deroy Murdock will talk about the V.A. hospitals scandal, and the co-hosts will discuss about some under-appreciated aspects of the Beverly Hills Hotel boycott.
Follow The Independents on Twitter @ independentsFBN; tweet out during the show and we might use it. And click on this page for more video of past segments.
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I'm not watching if they're not doing the news weather.
How do you envision Kennedy's style as weather girl?
Arguing with the tornadoes?
Maybe Kennedy can interrupt global warming and save us all!
Climatus interruptus.
Via some sort of earring-related superpower.
Tonight's hoops: her biggest ever?
Could be twin particle accelerators.
Hello.
Howdy, Rufus!
"will feature LIVE PHONE CALLS"
Best behavior guys.
left out an "a" in the middle.
They never did put up the video of the previous live call-in show. It sounded awesomely bad.
Live as in live on the air?
Uh-oh.
Am I going to get to hear Mary?
God willing.
Looky, for all you here suffering from extreme nut punch trauma today, Stossel has some good news! It will be like nut punch healing balm!
Hey Hyperion, remember what Shriek said yesterday? Turns out Reason deleted it.
Shieks a moron. I never remember anything that he says.
Re: a golf trip. My response got deleted too.
Maybe I missed it. Are we censoring things here now?
You got a problem with that, you _____?
It was a good call, and I support it. I don't want Reason getting sued.
Shriek made a libelous statement.
"_____ is known to _____ with _____."
Wait a minute... it's coming back to me. Oh yes .... mmmhmm, I now remember.
But, what does it have to do with 'Stossel's nut punch healing balm elixir, TM'?
Well, if anyone remembers, I said only yesterday that Shriek was teetering on the edge of a massive freakout, Mary style. He was totally losing it yesterday, so nothing surprises me.
Coke bender. He's getting too old for that shit.
At least he'll sleep through tonight's show.
So he's a cokehead Georgia redneck? That or Weigel.
Well, I think his problem is that his ____ is ____.
Well he already made a comment that Reason saw fit to delete so he seems to have just gone over...
Classical liberalism lost a good one.
I got a laugh out of that. Thanks.
I will contact you later to find out what exactly was said. I need a laugh today.
Yeah, I'm bored by golf discussions too.
Dodgers prized Cuban prospect Alex Guerrero has a chunk of his ear bit off by his own teammate during dugout altercation
Also, for the second (and possibly last!) time, tonight's after-show...will feature LIVE PHONE CALLS FROM ALLEGED HUMAN BEINGS...
The first time should have been the last time. Fool the Independents once, shame on you; fool them twice, shame on them.
"the CIA vowing to really never again pose as vaccinating doctors when collecting blood data on people they hope to assassinate"
I'm beginning to think all those crazy people babbling about how even the most innocent-looking people are part of a CIA plot may be on to something...
And the Cleveland Cavaliers will likely feature 3 Canadians next season.
Time for Canada to avenge 1783!
Canadians play basketball?
Ah. Apparently its all because of Vince Carter & the Raptors
http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/f.....ion-131010
Basketball was invented by a Canadian.
True! I love this bit (from Wikipedia):
there used to be a TV spot about that.
"Winston|5.20.14 @ 8:53PM|
Basketball was invented by a Canadian.
yeah and your only team is named after a fucking dinosaur. Well done there.
is Anyone actually watching Judge Judy Primetime?
Why on fucking earth would anyone ever do that to their own eyes?
I would say ears.
Senses, period.
Self esteem. You watch the people on the show, and immediately feel better about yourself. Sort of like Hoarders.
This is true.
This was what they found in the 1990s with daytime tv like Montel and... the one with the woman... and Jerry Springer etc. Middle class housewives LOVED to watch shows about shitty people who could get their fucking lives together. bad families, problem relationships, whatever.
I wrote about how this was also what made Starbucks successful in the 1990s-2000s
it made the middle-class feel upper-middle-class. it made tasteless people feel like they had taste. They may not even care for the coffee particularly, but *at least they're better than people who drink Dunkin Donuts*
I'm sure Jersey Shore fits in there somewhere too...
Which has better coffee by most accounts.
I eagerly await the expansion of Dunkin Donuts into CA.
No Krispy Kreme, either, right?
No, we have that. I take my kids to the factory store to get free samples.
My wife and I disagree on the educational value of such excursions.
Yes, much better coffee. Starbucks has better customer service but their coffee is extremely overrated.
The locals in Seattle used to regularly mock Starbucks' coffee when I worked for a Seattle-based company.
Starbucks burns their beans and that's just gross.
I am tempted to call the number, and then just scream STEVE SMITH! at the top of my lungs.
Sure, but don't do it before 10PM Eastern.
STEVE SMITH LOVE SHOW! THINK MATT HAVE PRETTY MOUTH
I'm tempted to call and ask Kennedy if being a guest on Bill O'Reilly's show made her appreciate how it feels to be interrupted by a host.
Oh, that is brilliant!
Surprisingly, it was not the interrupt-fest we were all expecting (and the reason I tuned in). Kennedy won on O'Reilly, and got the center square, to boot.
INDEPENDENTS, REGURGITATE!
I don't assemble to an orange font.
We resemble that remark
It's a John Stossel kind of night, I see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUis9yny_lI
"we had to sacrifice Topical Storm" -- But then how is Kennedy going to get her gossip fix?
How about a Tulpical Storm? Rollo and Hydra will add commentary.
Ugh, Cavuto.
In some ways, The Independents is a 1-hour mind-wash of the 5 mins of Neil Cavuto I have to see.
it doesn't even clean it all. what's the deal with that?
The Special K is back.
What's the "K" stand for?
Kwality.
It stands for "you just got Kut off, bitch"
Also her face has much more color to it today, so I guess she had her fill of virgin blood today?
POST THE PICTURE!
Of hippie Matt, if it wasn't obvious.
Ever been to Disneyland... on weed?
Is it improper to call attention to Reason giving one a hat tip, or is that frowned upon here?
"Should I have gone to jail for life for experimenting with baked goods?"
Hell no is right, Matt. But for your wardrobe, on the other hand...
I like that suit.
It's okay. But I'm talking about previous outfits like the cowboy one.
Victimless crime is an oxymoron.
Wow, The People want reform! They said so in a poll! This defendant should be reassured!
Wouldn't it be great if Kennedy, Matt, and Kmele all wore Ks on their shirts? You'd have K, K, uh oh.
Suddenly they're prosecuting white people!
(which they've never done before)
Matt cut that BS off right away.
Nicely handled. Texas doesn't discriminate when it comes to life sentences and the death penalty...everybody gets one or the other!
This gives us another view of those caribbean vacation destination ads.
Welch sounds fired up tonight!
Come to sunny Belize and have NSA agents watching your every move!
A lot of yes-persons on the panel - where's John Bolton?
Answers from the government?
Call BR-549
How is our show? Call 1-800-EATSHIT
No matter how awful tonight is, it cannot be worse than this Dancing with the Stars bullshit. My extended family is the worst.
all extended family is the worst, kibby.
At least most extended family has internet.
Relatives are merely a tedious pack of people with no clue how to live nor the slightest idea about when to die.
-paraphrased from Oscar Wilde
Is kennedy channeling Gaffigan?
I feel like I'd be a perv for tuning in afterhourssss.
No, there's no connection, it's just a coincidence.
So one of the guests is the author of In Search of Whitopia...
That book is an attempt to explain why white people move away from cities. Because of course, the answer must be racism.
I'm white and I moved away from Chicago because it is a crumbling, crime-infested shit hole.
I'm white
Racist.
They've hated livable suburbs from the very beginning. See Stalin-apologist Pete Seeger's 'Little Boxes' song.
Amazon quotes from Publishers Weekly:
"Starting in 2007, Benjamin, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Demos, and, more significantly, an African-American, spent two years traveling through America's whitest communities?patches of Idaho and Utah and even pockets of New York City?where, according to his research, more and more white people have been seeking refuge from the increasingly multicultural reality that is mainstream America. There's plenty of potential in this premise, but Benjamin writes without any sense of purpose, alternating between undigested interviews with policy experts, self-indulgent digressions on the pleasures of golf and real estate shopping and sketchy portraits of his subjects. Despite Benjamin's countless conversations with everyone from Ed Gillespie, former head of the GOP, to a drunk in an Idaho bar, he never offers any fresh insights or practical suggestions. He concludes by barraging the reader with a series of unearned musts: we must revitalize the public sector, we must work hard for a new universalism. If his time in the nation's whitest enclaves gave him any specific thoughts about how those ideals might be achieved, he would have done well to share them."
I miss Bolton.
Yeah, a "revitalized public sector," that's the ticket.
I like when people claim that whites are segregating themselves from a 'multicultural' America. Those people never seem to mention how black and Hispanic people have a strange tendency not to live in the same places.
Why aren't Hispanics pilloried for not living with black people? It's almost like there's a weird double standard.
Double standards about race? Seriously? Is that even possible?
When white people live with lots of other white people in rural Idaho, it's evil. When Mexican immigrants live with lots of other Mexican immigrants in rural California, this proves nothing you racist rethuglicunt.
What about when second generation Mexicans live in Harbor Gateway alongside blacks and something approaching a race war develops between the two?
CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!
An evil Republican fake scandal conspiracy, that's what it's called.
Funded by the Kochtopus, of course. As are all white communities in Idaho, because evul gunz or something.
Idaho is a Koch brothers conspiracy.
Idaho is a Koch brothers conspiracy.
And the only character in Dune who without the aid of "magic" is actually worth a shit.
GILMORE should call in to do his wardrobe review live.
Seconded.
MAD AS HELL
How long did he take to comment on Skippy Gates as he attacked Cambridge police for 'acting stupidly' again?
This guy is not a leader. He's a poser.
Isn't it ironic that a cop who was actually doing his proffered job - serving and protecting - got pilloried for it?
Obama votes "Present" just like in the IL house. The on responsibility Prez
Why do we even have a president if his job is to eat burgers and play little league?
To distract the proles?
Because our head of government is also our head of state.
At least with monarchy, the celebrity is centered around the Queen and not around the PM.
He's a clown because it's the VA is a fake scandal.
I thought the VA was a real scandal, because it was that guy that was retiring's fault, not his Gracelessness'.
I was surprised to find that there are three Chipote restaurants in New Mexico (all in Albuquerque). I can't believe that they survive with a city full of Sadies, La Cocina, and Los Quates, to name a few. They would get slaughtered in Santa Fe.
... "Red or green?" Hobbit
We have Taco Bells in SF and environs, and there are Taco Bells in NM.
Really, there's likely nowhere in the U.S. that doesn't have a Mexican restaurant better than Taco Bell. It serves its purpose.
I ran into a place in Eureka, MT that had New Mexico chile on the menu. The wife of the owner was from Chama, NM.
I'm also told that one of the best New Mexican restaurants around is in Anchorage.
BH
The Red Iguana in Salt Lake City was excellent.
Unfortunately, true. Even a couple in Santa Fe. I thought that they had closed the one in Espanola, but I see that a new one has opened up.
BH
I can't tell you how many times I see people passing by the amazing food trucks where Mexican families make authentic street tacos for Crapotle.
I will tell you why - because there are enough white people in Albuquerque who are embarrassed by their Spanish pronunciation, and less appreciative of real Mexican food, that they would go to Chipotle to feel comfortable ordering in English.
Shorter version - snow birds
They absolve their white guilt at not know lots of spanish by ignoring hispanics.
makes perfect sense.
Let's go to the phones!
When it's all said and done, this is a scandal that really shows the administration's contempt for the American people. Because you must hold people in contempt if you expect them to swallow the line about the president not knowing and being madder than anyone about this whole thing which exists separate from the administration he ostensibly runs.
If this happened under Bush the progs would screaming about how Chimpy doesn't care about our veterans and this is exactly what happens when you elect people that don't believe in government.
It did happen under Bush, as well, and I think we're going to hear as much BOOOOSH as usual.
Aren't this more systemic problems bigger than any President? Can the President really fix things since in the end, it's all bureaucracy anyway? It'll never get better. It'll just slowly rot away.
But, thank God, we elected someone who Cares, someone willing to tackle these problems inherited from Bush!
As soon as he gets through the next election he's really going to shake things up!
Remember, Obama cares-
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A3LlyoeCAAAdCIw.png
Oh jesus.
That looks like a police sketch of a child molester.
Uh, it did happen under Bush. Walter Reed. And the progs did flip out.
Hot.
The Independents Attire Review, 20 May 2014
Blue Jean-Edition
- Kennedy: We discover that Lisa was actually a member of the least-known sorority @ UCLA = "Kappa"; either that, or she's a bigger Kafka fan than we thought. We're 2-for-2 for Pink Week (which I guess is what Pre-Memorial Day Weekend-Week is?) so far. If we can go all 4 days with shades of Pink we will mail Kennedy a stuffed animal. WE SWEARS IT.
- Matt: We note = The Formula Suit here has only *ever* been worn on this show with the pink shirt and the same cyan tie. (hence the name 'formula') Our feelings here are neutral (as always, a white shirt would be better) Mixing things up here challenges our comment from last night = will he go another full week without Drastic Disasters? We continue to bemoan the over-use of the grey and pink shirts and pray for their eventual consignment to the laundry bin of history.
- Kmele: I'm mixed on Kmele's fondness for patterned/plaid shirts with sport coats. (particularly the 'Boyd Crowder' thing) It isn't something I have a lot of experience with or appreciation of; however, the color-balance with shirt and tie is just 100% On. Let's call this sort of thing, 'Expert Level' - its easy to do it wrong. He doesn't do it wrong.
- All about the Benjamins: The hair wins. 'nuff said.
On This Day In History =
May 20, 1953
French see "light at the end of the tunnel" in Vietnam
Ha!
Merci
An economist getting on cable TV to say we don't necessarily know a lot about something?
(flips through Book of Revelations)
uh...
All this talk of the MSM sucking up to Obama is just plain rubbish!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mLG9.....nquest.jpg
Jesus, I thought it was a shop.
Wow, but at least it's Newsweek.
Dear Fox Business News =
Please don't call the guy "Harvard Economist". We're not children. We understand that if he worked at say, George Mason U, you wouldn't tell us because *that* would seem stupid, but that you WILL do that with Harvard because Harvard is being used as a replacement for "Really Fucking Smart!"
It makes us think you, the producers of the show, are fucking idiots.
Thank You
It is sad that people continue to drop the name of a college which can count the following as alumni:
Bill O'Reilly
George W Bush
Barack Obama
and of course-
MAAAAAAT DAAAAAAMON
You forgot McNamara.
He puts the body counts of Bush and Obama to shame.
This what you mean?
http://assets.amuniversal.com/.....163e41dd5b
It is sad that people continue to drop the name of a college which can count the following as alumni:
Bill O'Reilly
George W Bush
Barack Obama
and of course-
MAAAAAAT DAAAAAAMON
The CIA again.
You ever heard of a sub-dermal neurophone?
Heard about it? I've been trying to convince my doctor of it for years!
Matt Damon did 1.5 years @ Harvard and dropped out
not 'alumni'
unless he went back?
I thought that was a Good Will Hunting reference.
How do you like them apples?
Newsweek can't die soon enough:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2CNA.....sident.jpg
First gay President, second black President!
/Bill Clinton
James Buchanan gets the er...shaft once again.
You mean Abraham Lincoln:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....am_Lincoln
Who wants to claim Buchanan - that slaver? Just because he never married and roomed with other men in Washington...and really liked that Alabama senator...they were simply bonding over a common interest in chains and whips.
This Bondaphobia must end. Time for Reason to get on the bandwagon!
(I think Barry Nelson and Woody Allen were the best by the way.)
I wonder if they will note the ~dozen or so aid workers murdered in Pakistan since 2010 because everyone trying to help are now considered 'spies'
It seems like that guy on the corner babbling about the CIA was ahead of the curve.
It seems like that guy on the corner babbling about the CIA was ahead of the curve.
It seems like that guy on the corner babbling about the CIA was ahead of the curve.
Would you cut that out, CIA!
CIA, heh
not funny
Knock-knock.
Great Zeus, is there no end to Newsweek's brown-nosing?
http://www.groundzeromedia.org.....t-full.jpg
Your friends are getting concerned about you...you need to get on the wagon and read healthy stuff like Reason...
Too much derp... he's gone feral..
The evil of the Derponomicon has been loosed, and all shall be consumed by it.
There's no way that's real.
It's real and it offended Hindis
Oh, but it is:
http://lockerroom.johnlocke.or.....-newsweek/
Shiva is known as "the destroyer", so....
Or just Remo.
Holy cow. Could they commit journalistic suicide a little more quietly?
What the hell was kennedy doing around her junior high teachers?
Matt *says* he doesn't work for "the Agency"...
...yet seems to have an intense desire to look like Matt Damon in The Good Shepherd
This guy is confused, isn't he?
He works for Demos, so yes.
They should have a guy on from the Family Research Council...just a suggestion...
He's proof liberals don't understand conservative or libertarian viewpoints at all...
How does one not get the idea of FORCE? It's so maddeningly simple.
Punch them in their faces, and take their wallets... they'll get it..
Sure, I'd get a Volvo, but I'm worried that the annoying voice-over lady would be included in the deal.
Poor Francisco, missing his role model on TV. I hope everything is OK.
he's probably fishing.
Corey?
Corey, sleeps with the fishes.
He got caught pulling a 'Snowden'.
He mentioned fishing season having opened, so he's presumably off enjoying retirement.
I hope he is getting his questions ready for the call in segment.
College students protest a right wing hatemonger.
An anarchist wants to *reform* the justice system?
She's an anarcho-syndicalist, which basically means she wants the government to stay exactly as it currently is, but we'll just call Congress a 'Worker's Committee.'
With a two-thirds vote for major policy changes, and a majority vote for purely internal matters...
If only their meetings were only bi-weekly.
College = where you go to insulate yourself from different opinions.
More than a mere "protest" -
"Students at Portland State University stormed a panel talk on police brutality and continuously chanted "we will not be silenced in the face of your violence" among other profanity-laced insults until the event was shut down, a video of the protest shows."
This induces Orwell-gasms.
More Krazy Kollege Kids!
Clearly the best way to run a learning environment is to allow students to unilaterally veto the teacher's lesson plan.
What's the difference between the Borg and progs? Well, one is a hive-mind prone to speaking in unison...wait, let me try again.
HAHA! ^this
I liked the 1980s, when nuclear war was imminent, AIDS was going to kill everyone, crack babies were going to be the mutant survivors, and music was descending into an anarchic combination of fags playing metal and drug dealers doing Rappity Rap.
These days, the worst they can come up with is *global warming*?
i'll be honest. I prefer flip-flops. I fail to see the downside.
I don't get the flip flip hate. You wear Tevas? You better be on your way to a rock climbing excursion.
*flip flop.
What about scrambling up creek beds?
Flip-flops are the goto 'shoe' in FL...
Same here.
I used to wear nothing but flip flops. However, I do have to be a bit more careful on those occassions that I do, lest I puncture my foot with a stray heroin needle walking past skid row en route to watching the Blackhawks sweep the Kings at the Escondite.
New Reefs will protect against that, but if the tread is worn down, you'll take a needle to the heel.
I have always been partial to the Adidas soccer flip flops that have the little nubs on them. Bloodflow and shit.
Shower shoes..
Also, exfoliation.
I worked @ REI when tevas were first marketed/invented
Never liked them, even as pre-climb/post-climb footwear. And I climbed a lot.
My roommate freshman year of college wore them. He came out to visit me one summer, and I confiscated them.
ABC
Anything
But
Crocs
*narrows gaze*
Accent should be on "new," not "good" or "days."
The razor commercial?
I thought Kennedy.
Good new days, the Stossel show
she's fucking the lawyer
...who has a great sense of humor, I hope?
What a scum bag doctor.
The lawyer used to be a bouncer
He seems to be earning his money. Won't even make eye contact.
This is an important lesson; everyone needs a crew.
Also, the bouncer-lawyer doesn't know not to wear a striped tie with a plaid shirt
He fits right in.
I keep expecting the lawyer to be like, "YOU'RE LEADING THE WITNESS!"
What was the point of the lawyer?
To interrupt if it started going south.
I assume to keep her from blurting out something that would be used against her in court.
I get that but it was too weird.
True, he could have whispered into her hear a few times congressional-testimony style.
That law talkin' guy better not bill her for that.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Lou Dobbs!!
What I said yesterday.
Mitch McConnell won his primary.
Was so hoping he'd get bounced.
You know who isn't disappointed by the McConnell win?
[removed][removed]
Guess Rand knows when you have to be a Team player.
This, but I did my duty and voted against Mitch.
OK, who's calling in?
They're screening me for some reason...all I said was that I wanted to share my own experiences with the CIA, in my fillings...
You are Caller #1. Sadly, we will not have time for a Caller #2.
Let the calls begin!
Is Chris really Episiarch?
Interrupting callers?
OH MY FUCK WILL YOU GET TO THE FUCKING POINT?
So the first caller is going to take 30 fucking minutes to make a goddamn point?
And he's a doctor? Normally these people cut to the chase.
I couldn't stand the tension...what was the point?
It was a ruse.. all the long.
Pathogen and the medical profession should have a dialogue...why should they be so hostile all the time?
They refuse to recognize our right to exist... Oh, and they deny the antibiotic holocaust...
Doctor?!?
Damn, medical school ain't what it used to be...
Boy the guest is pretty proggie.
"Employers use force too!"
She sure is.
I'm talking about the dude with the freaky hair. Buckwheat.
Me too.
Heh.
Well I called in and got their call screener who said they're done taking calls. Should have done it sooner.
awww shucks!
Oh I would have bored you all by asking about whether or not a Federal judge striking down Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban was a net gain for liberty.
Quality bunch of callers. Very information sparse.
I was expecting a spazzed out paranoid Beavis to call in.
It would have been an improvement.
I imagine he has proof that BOOOOSH was behind 9/11.
I thought the Joooooos did it...
I think one of those Texas accents was fake, though.
Mary Stack called?
WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Information That Glenn Greenwald Says Could Lead To 'Deaths'
Snowden's closest source and the U.S. government believe that revealing the unnamed country "could lead to increased violence."
So....Iran?
Cut her off!!
Because.. gunz.. In your face.. smelly hippie!
I called, but could not get through. I was going to ask the Whitopia guy if he thought high taxes, corruption, crime, stupid gun laws, & awful schools might be reasons people would move from big cities.
The callers they did have were much better. /s
Big improvement this time around. Screening works, unless you get an experienced Baba-Booey in there.
Check your privilege... next caller!
My stream was interrupted, doctor, is that a common problem?
Still planning my Memorial Day weekend.
San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Legoland, or poolside in the desert?
Depending on which way I drive, there will be a 30 degree temperature differential...
Which place will give you the least hassle if one of your kids helicopter pisses on something?
I keed, I keed
Probably the desert. He can helicopter piss in the pool without detection. So can I.
San Diego Zoo. They sell beer.
I'm not above bringing it with me in my stomach.
San Diego Zoo ? Beer content 0.0%
Wild Animal Park ? Beer content 0.0%
LEGOLAND ? Beer content 0.37%
Poolside in the desert ? Beer content 100.0%
I included this in my calculation.
The hotels in the desert get so douchey this weekend, though. It's close enough to LA that all of the Persians show up with their fufu dogs and go clubbing in the lobby with their purple curtains.
Last weekend was probably better...
For you. Most of the Persian dudes pluck their eyebrows. I'll get you some business cards if you want.
Blech, no plucked eyebrows.
If you bump into that guy who explained bitcoin on TI a few months ago you can give him business card though.
Twenty miles to Legoland!
Hello, hello... (Hola)
I'm at a place called Vertigo (d?nde est?s?)
It's everything I wish I didn't know
Except you give me something...
I can feel, feel
I believe this page covered these lyrics well:
http://www.thebestpageintheuni.....?u=11worst
Hating U2 is the new hating U2?
I've heard of U2 so of course they suck.
The part about the "poignant lyrics" made me chuckle. As did this:
It's even better than the real thing.
I'll still listen to them with or without you.
I wish they satisfied all my music wants but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
How long must they sing those songs?
"something sacred about our music"
You laugh, but they borrowed some of their lyrics from the great liturgical composer Palestrina:
You know you're chewing bubble gum
You know what that is but you still want some
You just can't get enough of that lovey-dovey stuff
Howard Dean stumping for a Dem:
"We have had enough of the extreme right wing," Dean continued. "We have had enough of the politics of anger, we have had enough of the politics of hate, we have had enough of the politics of division..."
Based on a knowledge of prog-jection, we can guess what comes shortly after this:
""This country has been sold down the river by the right wing for their own purposes," Dean told the wildly enthusiastic crowd. "This is a Republican Party that has decided they like power so much that they think it's okay to win by taking away the right to vote. They are not American. They could be more comfortable in the Ukraine or Russia. But stay away from our country, this is based on the right to vote.""
The candidate Dean was endorsing felt it necessarily to walk this back.
http://www.coloradostatesman.c.....s-romanoff
Wasn't Dean supposed to a more libertarian Democrat?
Yes, much in the same way as melanoma is a benevolent cancer...
It's been too long to remember. Who *hasn't* been touted as a New Kind of Democrat?
A libertarian from Vermont?
I don't think so! Wha happened?
I think he was supposed to beeYAAAAAAAAAAa!
Wasn't he the forerunner of the socialist ACA type laws at the state level?
We was anti-Iraq war so that was the most important thing.
Yeah, but then.. there's this..
So far, less than 100 foolhardy souls have attempted to read The Derponomicon. Dozens must be tumbling headlong into a mental abyss by now.
And you're there waiting to welcome them?
That's probably about the # of readers here.
I survived the first entry. I don't know if my stomach is strong enough to go back in there.
Some fresh derp- a prog tried to tell me that Asians invented medicine and Muslims invented math. I asked him who invented the microscope, vaccines, antibiotics, calculus, differential equations, & statistics.
No response.
Trick question - it was the Egyptians, who stole it from the Nubians.
Mmmm, Nubians.
Smokin' Hot Air/Townhall media personality Mary Katharine Ham
fix'd
I can't get that stupid song 'Gigantic' from the iPhone5 commercial out of my head.
That and Bluto for some reason.
oh I'm done with that ad.
Clean out your brain by thinking about another song.
"Weee're no strangers to loooove, you know the ruuuules, and so do I..."
Yeah.
Thanks.
Not.
That is still better than the fucking Apple song.
Who wants some PJ O'Rourke?
http://thebea.st/1oGtDEn
Gonna watch the rest of this Ind/Mia game and head to bed.
Ciao.
I love O'Rourke to death, but once he admits that only a tiny minority of the students were involved in that silly protest, he shouldn't have used it as a segue to bash *all* the students today with their ipads and their hippity hop.
They should have replaced the Topical Storm with a Tulpical Storm.
How was the show?
I'm in Salmon, ID to pick up the new puppy.
good stuff!
Which one? And what was the name?
Also, there was a call in segment on the after show, and I had high expectations for you.
I won't see them till tomorrow AM.
Name is going to be Cutty.
Also, Stossel was a guest. Have I mentioned that?
SJW has fire in her belly. Featuring SJW classics like "check your privilege" and "studies show":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1W-UT1sr4E
SJW has fire in her belly. Featuring SJW classics like "check your privilege" and "studies show":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1W-UT1sr4E
You've finally lost it, haven't you?
They should put you to bed with some Bastiat until you recover.
And a medicated shower gel, to scrub away the filth...
... except in Minnesota.
Yes, void where prohibited...
Don't get Corning started.
Look, you fools, you're in danger! Can't you see?! They're after you! They're after all of us! Our wives, our children, everyone! THEY'RE HERE, ALREADY! YOU'RE NEXT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFnSxeDfENk
Nothing can save from....
INVASION OF THE WINDOWLICKERS
Neocon at Night: Commentary Magazine Cites Reckless Rhetoric on the Right
"Mr. LaPierre is not the only one who describes America in dystopian terms these days. Earlier this year Dr. Ben Carson, a Tea Party favorite who is considering a run for the presidency in 2016, said America is "very much like Nazi Germany." Michele Bachmann, a 2012 GOP presidential candidate, has said the Affordable Care Act is evidence of a "police state." This kind of language?America is bordering on or has basically become a tyranny?is common currency within some quarters of conservatism.
Now it is one thing to believe, as I do, that in some important respects America is in decline and that President Obama is in part responsible for that decline. I agree, too, that there are some alarming problems and trends facing the United States just now, which many conservatives are attempting to address in a responsible fashion.
But it is quite another thing to describe America as the New Left did in the late 1960s, when America itself was spelled with a "k" ("Amerika") in an effort to identify it with Nazi Germany. Among the young and left-wing academics there was talk about the need for revolution. The United States was viewed as fundamentally corrupt. Once upon a time conservatives fought against this. Today, however, some on the right are turning on America. They employ language you would associate with Noam Chomsky."
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
Good thing libertarians don't have that problem.
Tulpa is running out of socks
Poor Gilmore, ignorant of the fact that I do not cite Commentary articles with approval but derision.
Carry on my wayward son.
I don't think Bo is Tulpa. Tulpa isn't smart enough to run someone so different.
Bo is just a troll who likes to argue.
Or maybe I am a libertarian who happens to disagree with you on some things that get you really angry.
Hint: It's not your ideas. It's the way you behave.
You've outed yourself a long time ago as off the libertarian reservation, so maybe you just dislike the fact that I am on it?
Case in point.
Bo: you're not wrong, you're just an asshole.
Again, one can't help but notice how all those who say that lean.
You're 95% contrarian sophistry, 5% obvious observations that SNOCONZ have bad ideas.
And you're curiously really, really, concerned about criticisms of SoCons.
You're tiresome. Notorious G.K.C can be tiresome as well with the topics that interest him but he isn't a dick about it. I actually find him entertaining at times.
You just split hair after hair after hair when you argue.
Again, the correlation of how you lean and your denunciation says it all.
You have a serious case of dick denial. YOU ARE A DICK. Look in the mirror. That's what a dick looks like. Nobody wants to listen to your ideas, no matter how brilliant you think they might be, when they are wrapped in dick.
There's no way you're not aware of this fact either. No way. It pervades your personal life.
Stop being a dick. Have a little self control.
You only think that because you aren't libertarian enough.
You forgot to call me a peanut.
Bo really reminds me of someone.
Come on Serious, you couldn't possibly be a libertarian and hate Bo.
You see, when I asked Bo why he's despised by nearly everyone here, he claimed it was because everyone here is a Republican. After all, it couldn't be anything he's done. So, OBVIOUSLY, if you don't like Bo it's simply because you aren't libertarian.
Rationalization and denial.
Again, he's not wrong to call out so-cons when they try to impose shit through government, but he incessantly tries to bait everyone here with it as if you can't find progressives more threatening to liberty than social conservatives.
So he's an asshole that just likes to hear himself argue.
How do I lean?
I think you are an asshole.
You aren't a libertarian if you hate Bo. It's the libertarian litmus test.
Talk about rationalization.
Francisco, you have libertarian leanings. I think it is just that your normal self-centered, thoughtless approach to life find some kind of vindication in a vague, unprincipled libertarianism, and, in your obvious loneliness, you post here for friendship and community, but you've given little thought to what libertarianism might demand and you get really, really angry if anyone points out something uncomfortable to you.
You live in your own little world, don't you?
Have you taken the Libertarian Purity test, though?
Pol, you may be joking, but you are on to something here.
Same lack of self control as PB. Different voice, same pathology.
"You've outed yourself a long time ago as off the libertarian reservation"
Citation fucking needed.
Don't remember our exchange on that immigration thread, eh?
I don't. You sure it was me? I've said I don't like you on numerous threads, but I have always been pro freedom of movement.
It's like if a proggie thought he was a libertarian and felt the need to exclude people from his new team.
You've outed yourself a long time ago as off the libertarian reservation, so maybe you just dislike the fact that I am on it?
Ok, I've literally (not figuratively) made popcorn. Please tell me about this reservation. Does it have border guards, or just roving Indian Affairs officers. Did we get to keep our ancestral homeland, or was there a Libertarian Trail of Tears led by Abe Lincoln?
The reservation has a tribal council that will argue you to death.
(I made way too much popcorn)
"Francisco d'Anconia|5.20.14 @ 11:24PM|#
I don't think Bo is Tulpa. Tulpa isn't smart enough to run someone so different.
"
Well, that's a reasonable theory.
My impression is that Tulpa is a half-assed and incompetent law-school grad from Tulane who never functioned at all well in Law. He couldn't have. He's too fucking dumb.
However, I think he may have some minor talent in creative writing. He is obsessive about creating alternate personalities. Some of which are at least temporarily convincing for their attempt at differentiation of rhetorical style.
By himself, he's just a boring dick. Add a little character flair? = potential for MegaDick.
See: Bo.
if bo is a real person, he's a seriously fucked up sociopathic, masochistic retard, because he's desperate to have his dumb ass kicked around.
But if Bo is just a Tulpa sock? its actually something of a creative success.
Which is my point = I think tulpa has some minor talent in character creation. Unfortunately, his only successful character is a despicable douchebag. its a start. I can respect him at least for the creativity to create the voice.
Derp is highly addicting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlrE8hRidnU
Addicting...good...now you admit you have a problem...
"I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness. . . ."
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/quotes.aspx
Trigger Warnings?
"Last Monday, members of a New York group called the Satanic Temple joined Harvard students to hold a "black mass" at a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
the ceremony - a quasi-religious parody of a Catholic Holy Mass - was originally scheduled to be sponsored by a Harvard University student organisation and held on campus.
Although Harvard did not prohibit the event, allowing it as an expression of student free-speech rights, the campus group - the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club - pulled its support, forcing relocation at the last minute to the nearby Hong Kong Restaurant and Lounge.
This didn't dissuade Catholic groups from criticising the ceremony, however, and urging Harvard to prevent it from taking place on campus.
The Boston Globe's Tom Keane disagrees, saying that those who called for blocking the Satanists are just as wrong as people who protest controversial university commencement speakers or get upset when God is invoked on public property.
"We seem to be afraid of words," he writes."
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-.....s-27476868
Well, The Boston Globe's Tom Keane's commanding grasp of the obvious intrigues me.. I wonder if he has some sort of "news lett"... Oh..
Some other column titles from the Boston Globe's Tom Keane:
"The numbers are in: Menino was a great mayor"
"Gun violence's toll a relentless form of terror"
http://www.bostonglobe.com/contributors/tkeane
Why did the Catholic groups object to mere words, Eddie? I know you've poked fun at groups doing this about college speech before.
Let me see, do you have a citation, just for fun?
A citation of you criticizing, say, the trigger warning movement?
Like the NYT article you posted recently noting they were part of an alarming trend of trying to shut out students from hearing points of view that upset them?
IIRC, that was at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a *public* university, i.e., an arm of the government subject to the constitutional guarantees of free speech.
Oh, yes, trigger warnings for the classics, now I remember. I did post that one.
Yes, indeed, assigning Hamlet without giving trigger warnings is just like sacrilege! Where's my consistency?!?!?!
Trigger warnings for the classics, what an affront to free speech!
What, you want to have a Satanic ritual on your college? NOOOOOO!
"Trigger warnings for the classics, what an affront to free speech!"
No, an affront to education. Professors should rigorously censor bad books by not assigning them.
Really? That's all that article was about?
I don't have it bookmarked, perhaps you do?
Eddie, you've already acknowledged at 11:45 that that one is not going to go your way...
http://xkcd.com/1081/
"Why did the Catholic groups object to mere words, Eddie?"
I don't get it.. are you asking him to defend the Catholic groups
The inane tirades of religious zealots are just low hanging fruit, Bo... You tell us... Why would they object?
"I don't get it.. are you asking him to defend the Catholic groups"
Er, do you not know Eddie?
I know a few Eddies, some Edwards too... even knew a Ted, once. I still don't understand the point...
Notorious G.K.C. is the commentator formerly known as Eddie Van Haulen.
And...
A noted, regular, Catholic apologist.
If you post about the Pope talking about redistribution, expect Eddie to be there lickety-split to defend him.
As is his right... and the point is?
"Why did the Catholic groups object to mere words, Eddie? I know you've poked fun at groups doing this about college speech before."
http://xkcd.com/386/
Soo.. then, it's a battle of attrition over just how many angels could dance on the head of a pin?
If you think 'angels dancing on a pin'=criticizing groups trying to squelch speech while defending Catholic groups doing the same, then yeah Pathogen.
This, from the good libertarian who was promoting a ban on the Confederate flag the other night.
Because freedom of speech means speech Bo approves of.
Such a principled libertarian.
You're angry, Bo... I understand..
The Boston Globe's Tom Keane finds some words he's afraid of.
It seems that there's a billboard insulting Yankees fans.
In Boston, of all places.
And Tom Keane is Deeply Concerned.
"ATOP A yellow brick building on Boylston Street, within spitballing distance of Fenway Park, a billboard from auto dealer Herb Chambers proclaims, "We give everyone great service. Unless you're a Yankees fan."...
"Given this history, given some of the viciousness that has erupted, just how much of a joke really are Chambers's billboards? One read on the ads is that they're subtly self-mocking. Some, I suspect, see them as braggadocio, crowing about just how over-the-top we can be. Others may think they give imprimatur to behave badly. At a minimum, Yankees fans have a right to feel a bit worried. And Red Sox fans, me included, should regard those billboards as exposing an ugly side of ourselves that is a joke that *should never be*." [emphasis added]
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opi.....story.html
This is great.
Eddie has posted comments criticizing groups for trying to squelch speech on campuses, but when confronted with an article about his groups doing the same he feels the need to attack those pointing it out.
It's almost as if his principles bend to who is involved!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUKIMU4MwlE
Ah, the usual retreat.
Did I kick sand in your face as a child or something?
You're great Eddie, just do not think that libertarians are going to go 'ok, that's great' for your Catholic apologia.
The article is quoting people from different sides...bizarre...
Fox News's Emily Walker says that if she had tried to hold a ceremony at Harvard mocking Islam, it never would have been permitted.
Other than at a Chinese restaurant, you mean?
I had to work. How was the show? The aftershow? Disasters?
Chair were thrown, baby-daddy's were revealed, unruly teenagers were scared straight, tear gas was fired...
Did they beat on the commie twit?
No, they drank slivovitz with him, and sang the Internationale...
And this is totally believable. But I'm sure Kennedy went ballistic over, uh, something.
Apparently, he doesn't like Wal-Mart...
Protests of Commencement Speakers!
"A little over a year ago, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny was invited by Boston College to give the commencement speech for the Class of 2013. Anti-abortion extremists, livid over the audacity of a Jesuit Catholic university hosting a man who appeared to them to support abortion rights, attempted to stop the occasion from happening.
This particular band was not "pro-life" as one might expect, but rather"pro-death".
Here's why: Kenny was attempting to reform Ireland's abortion law in accordance with a 21 year old Irish Supreme Court decision that found abortion to be legal in circumstances that threaten the health and life of the mother. This push stemmed from a 2012 case in which a woman named Savita Halappanavar was refused an abortion in the process of a miscarriage, contracted septicemia as a result and died shortly thereafter.
Somehow, they didn't get the hint the first time and they're back for Round 2.
John Kerry: former Senator from Massachusetts, the Democratic nominee for President in 2004, and current Secretary of State, will be giving the commencement address. But the same "pro-death" extremists who had a problem with Enda Kenny last year want to ruin the fun and protest John Kerry too for similar reasons."
http://bcgavel.com/2014/05/17/.....n-college/
Sooo, Universities are fever swamps of intolerance and groupthink?
I think this is nothing new. Conservative and liberal groups have been protesting and complaining about speech and speakers for years. It's news this year because some prominent conservative speakers were targeted, so conservatives have been raising the issue. But neither side is interested in free minds.
I agree. That's why I thought the conservative hissy fit over the Dixie Chicks was as moronic as the left-wing hissy fits over Condollezza Rice and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
I would say that left-wing groups stifling opposition speech is a much greater threat in modern times because the left controls most American institutions - or at least the type of institutions in which stifling free speech tends to be the most odious, like colleges, bureaucracies and the media.
You ought to use ellipses when you're leaving out text.
At the end of the first paragraph you quote, there's this sentence: "They [the pro-death extremists] wrote letters to Father Leahy, Cardinal O'Malley, and Pope Francis, and protested on Commencement Day, but to no avail."
Horror!
So they really tried to get the speaker disinvited but could not. Awesome!
Which has nothing to do with the fact that pro-lifers were trying to do exactly the same thing progressives do.
They failed, but all that proves is that their brand of anti-free speech fascism is less popular on campuses than the prog-version.
I agree with FIRE - if a private university, secular or religious, holds itself out to the public as places which enforce a particular orthodoxy, I wouldn't hold them to standards of academic freedom.
FIRE's policy isn't to call such colleges fascist or what have you, but to acknowledge that they're free to impose their openly-stated orthodoxy.
Catholic colleges (like Boston College) are among those institutions with an openly-stated orthodoxy, so their constituents can ask them to adhere to it.
If you're blaming me for agreeing with FIRE, go right ahead.
Oh dear, Boston college of course adopts secular academic-freedom standards in its policy, naturally earning FIRE's ire.
Well, so be it, let them invite all the abortionists they wish.
Well, so long as they drop their claims of Catholic affiliation, let them have Sebelius herself give a talk at the LGBTQ Center.
Must. Preserve. Orthodoxy.
You're no different than these wacky feminists.
So you are fine with Brandies or Harvard etc., using as many trigger warnings or disinvitations to speakers as they feel proper?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUKIMU4MwlE
Last one, I promise: Climate skeptics heckled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWLeXqOpgc
NYC DA Wages War on Assault Weapon ('Gravity Knives'), Lawsuit Challenges for Vagueness
"Shortly after taking office as District Attorney of Manhattan, Cyrus Vance, Jr., began enforcing a novel interpretation of New York State's half-century old ban on "gravity knives."
The gravity knife was invented for German paratroopers during World War II. It is made to open (the blade coming out of the handle) with almost no effort. In contrast, common folding knives require a push on the blade to open. Unlike the gravity knife, they have a bias toward closure.
District Attorney Vance and the New York City Police Department (under Mayors Bloomberg and de Blasio) have prosecuted individuals and stores (e.g., Home Depot, Orvis, Eastern Mountain Sports) for possession/sale of common folding knives from mainstream manufacturers such as Husky and Benchmade. The prosecutions are based on the claim that any folding knife which possibly could be opened with a hard and dexterous flick of the wrist is a "gravity knife." Owners and vendors have no way of knowing which folding knives are legal, since the Vance/Bloomberg/de Blasio position is that even if one person tries to open the knife with a wrist flick and cannot, maybe someone else could."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ty-knives/
Those pearls aren't gonna clutch themselves...
NYC has what, 8-9 million people? How much do you want to bet that murders with 'gravity knives' can be counted on two hands every year?
A ridiculous law.
I'll agree with that.. I don't recall the last time I heard about a drive-by 'Gravity Knifing'...
When the same people who tell you they are not for banning guns but just want the especially dangerous ones banned turn around and push bans on knives, then you know they are liars and terrible people.
I deduced that when the gave the NYPD M-4's and MP-5's...
This calls to mind Feudal Japan/Scandanavia where peasants were disallowed to be armed or to even make eye contact with their betters on pain of being beheaded on the spot.
NYC is designing and building their own hell. Fuckem.
Batman Explains Government
Wayne Enterprises never took a dime of the bailout money...
"And with that power I created a world where no child would lose his parents because of some punch with a fun.
I really hate my phone right now.
Well 'Fargo' has gotten really bleak.
Bo isn't banned? Still? Huh, the vile racism in the Clarence Thomas thread was apparently ok? Then why is Murican always deleted?!
Did Murican say something anti-Semitic?