A.M. Links: Tea Party Candidates Tank in Primaries, Supreme Court Stays Inmate's Execution, Iranians Arrested for 'Happy' Video

• 

  Gage Skimore/Wikimedia

  Super Tuesday 2014 has come to a close, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) scoring an expected win over Tea Party darling Matt Bevin in the Bluegrass state. Establishment Republicans also saw victories over Tea Party-backed candidates in Idaho and Pennsylvania. 

• Hard up for hackers who don't smoke pot, the FBI is considering letting cannabis users into its cybercrime fighting ranks. 

• Six young Iranians were arrested for recording a video of themselves dancing to the Pharrell Williams's song "Happy." Tehran's police chief called the video "a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity." 

• Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suspended the execution of Russell Bucklew Tuesday night, an hour before the Missouri death row inmate was scheduled for lethal injection. 

• An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison for embezzling public funds. 

• Smokers who use electronic cigarettes to help them quit have 60 percent higher success rates than those relying on nicotine gum, nicotine patches, or pure willpower. 

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Establishment Republicans also saw victories over Tea Party-backed candidates in Idaho and Pennsylvania.

More of the exact same GOP. Yay.

[Restoras]

Never understimate the ability of the Stupid Party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh, I am confident they'll make gains in November. But for the country it will be a lateral move.

[entropy_factor]

damn, I was rooting for the biker or the old gold panning miner guy for Idaho.

[Lord Humungus]

Alternative Headline:

Cosmotarian goes temporarily Yokel to win

[Lord Humungus]

interesting:

The Tea-Party Candidate in Kentucky
It seems to have been Mitch McConnell. In an NBC News/Marist poll earlier this month, the Senate minority leader was beating Matt Bevin 53-33 among Republicans who consider themselves tea partiers. A Bluegrass poll had him ahead of Bevin 58-35 among conservative voters.

[Jerryskids]

That's because the Tea Party-backed candidates were backed by 'outsider special interest groups' (the Tea Partiers) while the Establishment candidates had the grass-roots support of local voters like Citigroup and JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs - and the RNC. The outcome of the David vs. Goliath battle is only newsworthy when David wins, otherwise, who gives a shit?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suspended the execution of Russell Bucklew Tuesday night, an hour before the Missouri death row inmate was scheduled for lethal injection.

He loves to build suspense.

[Injun, as in from India]

Alito is opposed to the death penalty if I remember it right. He says it meets the criteria for cruel and unusual punishment.

[DJF]

Russell Bucklew was not opposed to imposing the death penalty.

"""""Russell Bucklew, who murdered a man in front of his children, shot a cop and raped and kidnapped his ex-girlfriend"""'

[Ted S.]

His own ex-girlfriend, or the cop's ex-girlfriend?

[UnCivilServant]

I don't think either is really worse than the other in the context.

[Tonio]

Sure, Bucklew is scum. But I'd rather keep scum like him alive than give the state the power to kill people. And don't forget the cases of actual innocence.

[VG Zaytsev]

You mean the innocent, non violent, prisoners that scum like Bucklew go on to murder in prison, right?

[Calidissident]

Congratulations, you've found another flaw in our fucked-up prison system. If your solution to that is "Give the government the power to legally kill, and make sure they do it quickly" then you need to reevaluate your logic.

[tarran]

Sounds like Romancing the Stone:

That was the end of Grogan... the man who killed my father, raped and murdered my sister, burned my ranch, shot my dog, and stole my Bible! But if there was one law of the west: Bastards had brothers, who seemed to ride forever.

[Juice]

SC justices can do that?

[Snark Plissken]

Hard up for hackers who don't smoke pot, the FBI is considering letting cannabis users into its cybercrime fighting ranks.

Don't ask, don't tell, don't bogart.

[Slammer]

It's a trap!

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

+1 Admiral Ackbar surprised....face.

[Doctor Whom]

I'll drink to that.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Now that will get you fired.

[Rich]

"I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed"

Don't hire them! Pot makes you stupid and kills your motivation!

[WDATPDIM?!]

Whatever.

[gaijin]

...the FBI is considering letting cannabis users into its cybercrime fighting ranks.

At last, Obama can pursue his dream of becoming a member of the FBI.

[Rich]

Federal Bureau of Interception

[creech]

But it sends the wrong message to our youth! And it's a gateway drug to heroin! And you probably don't want FBI agents selling crack to our kids in the schoolyard!

[UnCivilServant]

And you probably don't want FBI agents selling crack to our kids in the schoolyard!

Yeah! That's the local PD's turf.

[Fist of Etiquette]

An Egyptian court sentenced former president Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison for embezzling public funds.

The Al Capone strategy?

[Lord Humungus]

Aldi's Security Guard Shoots Meat Thief After Pepper-Spraying Himself in the Face

The (72yo) security guard unleashed his pepper spray, but the wind caused the spray to blow back into the guard's face. The victim took advantage of the guard's sudden incapacitation by punching him in the face, causing him to stagger backward, police said.

When the would-be shoplifter stepped forward to continue wailing on the guard twice his age, the guard pulled out his not-so-secret weapon and fired shots at the suspect, striking him once in the ankle, police said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment. Once he was released, police took him into custody.

[Old Man With Candy]

Whaling.

[gaijin]

The (72yo) security guard greeter

Fixed for practicality

[UnCivilServant]

I'd say the guard was justified.

[Fluffy]

Aldi has some freaking devoted employees.

[John]

Got to protect the store.

[Christophe]

Even blinded with pepper spray, the guard was more accurate than our LEO's.

[Austrian Anarchy]

Was that Aldi in a food desert?

[sarcasmic]

'I'd kick a*** at the Hunger Games!' Real-life Katniss Everdeen huntress who loves nothing more than sneaking up on her prey and taking it down with a bow and arrow
Huntress Christie Pisani, 30, from Queensland first shot a rifle aged 4
Switched to bow-hunting when she was 20
She's a semi-finalist in the Extreme Huntress competition, a televised U.S. competition for female hunters
Christie met her husband through hunting and says she would raise her children to 'respect animals'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....hobby.html
Want to see some stupid? Check out the comments.

[RBS]

Read about 6 of them, wow. That's some impressive bow hunting though.

[Ted S.]

The deer never die when I bow before them.

[Mock-star]

The stupid....it burns.

[KDN]

Apparently one of White Indian's disciples is posting at the Mail.

That is not a bow, it's a machine. It has more in common with a rifle than a bow. Now if she had made it herself with an axe and knife and then killed her dinner because of hunger I might have some time for her. Being an archer and bowyer this type of "news" makes me puke. I grew up learning how to bend and shape wood, rope a string and fletch arrows to get a rabbit for the pot and it was thanked for its life and every scrap was used. This behaviour is despicable

Way to reveal to the world that you failed 4th grade science.

[RBS]

Shorter homemade bow guy: Get off my lawn!

[Tonio]

^This. And while I have total respect for traditional archers as a class, this guy is just being a douche.

[UnCivilServant]

The compound box is the current standard. It simply gives a different mechanical advantage than the weak, cheap self bows the dipshit is talking about. An axe is a machine (a wedge) a knife is a machine (also a wedge) A self bow is also a machine. Calling a compound bow a machine is pointless.

[Pope Jimbo]

Hope he only used flint tools to build those traditional bows and arrows of his.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wonder which of the two handsome young suitors she'll end up with.

[UnCivilServant]

The one who quietly shivs the other and hides the body in the woods.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Have you even seen The Hunger Games or read what I assume are books the movies are based on?

[UnCivilServant]

No. And I have no plans to. I'm going with the most dischordant remark I could get that was still within the realm of believable.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, if you watch the Rifftrax version, you still get the gist of the story.

[lap83]

Rifftrax is the reason I know the gist of Twilight. (I'm still disappointed they didn't get the rights to do a live version)

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The wife and I just watched The Starving Games on Netflix last night. Fun movie.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Is that a porn flick? I couldn't tell from the reviews.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

In our household, every movie is a porn flick.

[Pope Jimbo]

Holy crap! The picture of her preparing to shoot a water buffalo at short range is scary.

Maybe I read too many stories by Peter Capstick about all the hunters buffalo have torn up in gory ways, but that seems semi-suicidal.

[R C Dean]

The people who bowhunt dangerous game have more balls than me. The last thing I want to do with a grizzly bear or a water buffalo is poke it with a sharp stick.

That is all.

[Pope Jimbo]

Peter Capstick tells about how he lost his mind once and tried to kill a cape water buffalo with a spear.

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Si.....0312186185

If I remember the story correctly, his spear throw would have been fatal, but he tripped after throwing it and had to be saved by his gun bearer.

[Zeb]

I love the ones who try to say that hunting is not sport. I'm pretty sure hunting was considered a sport long before the games that we call sports now were called such.

British animal rights people are weird. I just don't get the idea that getting industrially produced meat from the store is less disturbing than hunting. A lot of the objections to hunting seem to be that people enjoy it.

[sarcasmic]

A lot of the objections to hunting seem to be that people enjoy it.

A lot?

[UnCivilServant]

My objections to hunting are the deer ticks and getting up at four in the morning to go outside.

[Zeb]

Well, I didn't read all of them, so I don't want to overstate it.

[Warty]

melmel1987, Leeds, United Kingdom, 8 hours ago
This literally makes me fume. I do not see how you can look an animal in the eyes, knowing that in a few seconds, you're going to take away it's life. No regard to a family it might have, nothing and its for fun, for a competition. It sickens me.

Literally.

Smily-face, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 4 hours ago
I would be very weary of anybody who gets pleasure from killing a living creature, animal or human. Killing to survive is one thing (with supermarkets in abundance totally obsolete), but killing just because you can - that is plain creepy. Seeing an animal alive and well and then enjoy killing it.... I would never have anything to do with anybody like her. I am sorry, but same people going on and on about leather shoes and vegetarians etc missing the plot. Here we are talking about killing for PLEASURE.

Somebody doesn't know the sublime joy of killing an animal you hate, like, for instance, a fucking deer. Fuck the fucking deer.

[Brett L]

Agreed. Hooved-rats and bushy-tailed tree rats should be killed often.

[SugarFree]

I like to think you kill the deer and then just eat the entire thing raw, right there in the woods.

You can squat 585 lbs, that's like 2 to 3 deer carcasses, right?

[Warty]

I prefer to kill the does, because fuck the deer population. So yeah, that's like 3-6 does. Also, the 585 is under normal conditions. I can squat 650 immediately after I consume a few raw still-beating heart of my deer enemies.

[SugarFree]

The look of fear from the other gym-goers also gives you power, I assume.

[Pope Jimbo]

Warty, I know a lot of people make cracks about your dungeon and extreme sexual mores, but I didn't give them much credence until this post.

You only kill deer that are fucking? And it seems as if you kill them by anally raping the buck while he is engaged with the doe?

Fuck dude, that is hard core. Do you estimate the weight of the bucks you kill this way field dressed, or with the organs and what I assume is your massive load still inside them?

[Pope Jimbo]

Warty, I know a lot of people make cracks about your dungeon and extreme sexual mores, but I didn't give them much credence until this post.

You only kill deer that are fucking? And it seems as if you kill them by anally raping the buck while he is engaged with the doe?

Fuck dude, that is hard core. Do you estimate the weight of the bucks you kill this way field dressed, or with the organs and what I assume is your massive load still inside them?

[Lord Humungus]

and incredibly there have been no comments on her relative hotness or not. Perhaps there is hope for the libertarian male. (ha!)

[Christophe]

Dude, she's lethal. That's automatically hot in my book.

[Warty]

Have you ever tried to explain to an animal lover that one of the main reasons there are still wild lions in the world is that rich people will pay a lot of money to shoot a wild lion? It doesn't go over so well.

[Suellington]

I tried that. few weeks back with that story on the guy who paid. massive sum to get to hunt a rhino. It was kind of funny to watch people get super pissed and have no real comeback.

[Zeb]

I have. It was better received than I expected.

[Juice]

This one seems pretty spot on.

Katniss did it to provide food for her family .. does Christie eat everything she kills? Keep it, store it, so she has meat all year round? I doubt it - because if she did she would only need to kill 1-2 big things a year at most. No, I would say she does it for the blood lust aspect.

[sarcasmic]

Did 'climategate' change your view on global warming? Google searches reveal scientific rows do not affect public opinion
During 'climategate', emails were hacked from the University of East Anglia
The revelations were used to accuse scientists of hiding key climate data
Shortly after, news broke of an error on rate of ice melt in the Himalayas
At the time, there were spikes in the search term 'global warming hoax', indicating scepticism, but levels of the search quickly fell to previous lows

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....-rows.html

A scientific study which suggests global warming has been exaggerated was rejected by a respected journal because it might fuel climate scepticism, it was claimed last week.

Not rejected because it is wrong, but because it conflicts with the narrative. A brief bit of honesty from these folks.

[gaijin]

because it might fuel climate scepticism,

97% of scientists agree!

[UnCivilServant]

Except you can't see the data that led to the 97% number - it's secret and proprietary, and the U of Q will sue you.

[gaijin]

Except you can't see the data that led to the 97% number - it's secret and proprietary, and the U of Q will sue you.

because it might fuel climate scepticism, ad infinitum 🙂

[PM]

Give or take 8%

[Brett L]

97% of scientists can be wrong. See: Germ Theory before Pasteur or the state of Chemistry before about 1850. Very smart people in the height of the Enlightenment were incredibly wrong using the best tools at their disposal.

[gaijin]

^Yes. my comment was /sarc.

[Brett L]

Sorry, I know that about you. I was piling on, not disputing.

[John]

Or more recently the belief that ulcers were caused by stomach acid instead of bacteria. In fact, the vast majority of scientists are often wrong about something. If they were not, there would never be any scientific revolution. What makes a scientific revolution a revolution is that it contradicts conventional wisdom or the "consensus".

[kinnath]

Consensus is valuable right up until it isn't.

[cavalier973]

There is no such thing as "settled science"; there are only those theories that have not yet been falsified.

[Slammer]

University of Texas study on medical marijuana legalization.

Findings

Results did not indicate a crime exacerbating effect of MML on any of the Part I offenses. Alternatively, state MML may be correlated with a reduction in homicide and assault rates, net of other covariates.

[Ted S.]

Obviously industry-funded, and therefore bad science.

[sarcasmic]

'People work too hard for their stuff and somebody is going to shoot you': Teen boy turned over to police for robbery by his mother? but the dressing down he gets from his grandmother is even worse
Teenager in Houston driven to police station by his own mother after allegedly trying to rob a man at gunpoint
The 16-year-old's furious grandmother arrives at the scene and berates her own grandson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....worse.html
What kind of parent takes their kid to the cops? Oh yeah. A parent who raises an armed robber. Losers all around.

[Jordan]

I think it's better that she turn him in than try and cover it up.

[Jerryskids]

What makes you think she was turning him in? Maybe she saw her son being a thug and thought, "You know, I've got the perfect job for you. Let's go down to the police station and put in an application."

[Jerryskids]

What makes you think she was turning him in? Maybe she saw her son being a thug and thought, "You know, I've got the perfect job for you. Let's go down to the police station and put in an application."

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Wait, parents can make their children turn out exactly like they want them to? When did this start?

[Humberto Brenes]

A very long time ago when people who are smarter and better than you started having kids.

[Tonio]

Yeah, what Jordan said. Sure in an ideal world he would have been raised better, but as is often said here harm reduction is preferable to doing nothing.

[Brett L]

Well... Probably the safest way to not get your armed robber son killed. The woman has a husband who lives at home, so this kid has a chance.

[Matrix]

Sounds like he has a promising career as a police officer or tax collector.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Six young Iranians were arrested for recording a video of themselves dancing to the Pharrell Williams's song "Happy." Tehran's police chief called the video "a vulgar clip which hurt public chastity."

Respect their culture everyone.

[Injun, as in from India]

What would a public chastity belt look like?

[radar]

Sheldon Richman has repeatedly assured me of the benign nature of the Iranian regime.

[Zeb]

I respect their culture of trying to have some fun in spite of their cruel and capricious government.

[Juice]

I'll respect their culture when they respect the culture of their citizens.

[sarcasmic]

Led Zeppelin STOLE Stairway To Heaven from us, claim band who toured with them three years before hit song was released
U.S. band Spirit claim Stairway's opening riff was taken from their song
They say Led Zeppelin heard it when they toured together in the 60s
Taurus was released in 1968 and was a main part of their live sets
Stairway To Heaven came out in 1971 and propelled Led Zeppelin to stardom

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....eased.html
Not completely dissimilar...

[Jordan]

There's a video on Youtube convincingly demonstrating that they stole quite a few more songs than just that one.

[sarcasmic]

When they first came out they were panned for ripping off old blues songs.

[RBS]

Didn't this same discussion occur about a month ago?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Yes

[Zeb]

And yesterday.

[Tonio]

Yep, and everyone in the old-school blues community knew it. They finally did admit to stealing most of their catalog from Robert Johnson (1911-38).

[Restoras]

De riguer in music since forever.

[Zeb]

That's the thing. It's not stealing. It's just how music works. All blues songs take from earlier songs. Pretty much all music except for unlistenable academic music does.

[Drake]

Best cover band ever. They have been successfully sued and had to change writing credits on many songs.

I found the rip-off of Howlin Wolf's "Killing Floor" the most shocking. Just 3 years after the original was released, Led Zeppelin slowed it down (Page couldn't have covered Hubert Sumlin at full speed since he played with a pick), and had Plant screech it out word-for-word as the "Lemon Song".

They didn't think the Wolf would notice? Didn't have the balls or decency to ask permission?

http://turnmeondeadman.com/led.....lagiarism/

[John]

And Killing Floor is and was pretty damned famous. They were quite good at ripping off other stuff.

If it makes you feel any better, every late 70s stadium rock band ripped them off just as blatantly and the John Bonham drum track from "When The Levy Breaks" is last I looked the most sampled piece of music ever. That track pretty much drove hip hop in the 90s and 00s.

We have had this debate before. I love Led Zeppelin and think their music, while admitted derivative, was very different from the music it was based on and very creative. To me "ripping someone off" is Eric Clapton spending his entire life trying to sound like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Led Zeppelin didn't do that. Whatever your opinion of their music, it isn't blues. It is something different.

[KDN]

When The Levy Breaks

Those damned English and their antisemitism.

[Drake]

But Clapton never claimed to have written "Crossroads". The Rolling Stones never gave themselves writing credit for "It's All Over Now" or any of their early covers.

Such disrespect is hard to get past.

[John]

True but both Clapton and the Stones called songs that were known to have been written by other people but not copyrighted by them "traditional" rather than crediting the author. Look on the liner Let It Bleed sometime. Love in Vain is listed as "traditional". Somewhere in hell that must have come as a hell of a surprise to Robert Johnson.

[Ted S.]

There hasn't been anything original in music since the death of Josquin des Prez.

[John]

We have been down this road before. In the 1980s Fantasy Records, who owned the rights to all of the CCR songs sued John Fogerty claiming "The Old Man is Down the Road" plagiarized "Green River". That was a bit ironic since Fogerty wrote both songs. But Fantasy owned the rights to the former and such is IP law. Indeed, the two guitar riffs in the songs sound just as similiar as this. Fogerty got on the stand with a guitar and explained to the jury how the riffs were similar sounding they were in fact different. Fogerty won the case. "It sounds like our song" absent note for note rip off (for example the Beach Boys taking Sweet Little 16 and putting different lyrics to it and making it Surfin USA) or sampling (the song Bitter Sweet Symphony using a sample of an old BBC plays the Rolling Stones record), you don't win these sorts of suits.

[sarcasmic]

Ice Ice Baby

[John]

I can't remember, did Queen sue and did they win?

[sarcasmic]

I don't think they sued.

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Oh, that's a great song.

[Lord Humungus]

The Rutles taught me everything I know.

[Jordan]

The Only Email System The NSA Can't Access

When the NSA surveillance news broke last year it sent shockwaves through CERN, the particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. Andy Yen a PhD student took to the Young at CERN Facebook group with a simple message: "I am very concerned about the privacy issue, and I was wondering what I could do about it."

There was a massive response, and of the 40 or so active in the discussion, six started meeting at CERN's Restaurant Number 1, pooling their deep knowledge of computing and physics to found ProtonMail, a gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor.

Pretty cool. The servers are hosted in Switzerland, and they recently added Chinese language support to help dissidents in China.

[DJF]

Unfortunitly they forgot to change the password to something other then PASSWORD.

[Brett L]

CERN's Restaurant Number 1

So very, very European.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

You have to say the number!

[sarcasmic]

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

http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....93392.html
Oh, I don't know. Wreck the economy? Destroy our standard of living? Totalitarianism? No biggy.

[Rich]

"This is not a matter of politics or partisanship; it's a matter of science and stewardship."

"What's the worst that can happen?" is almost as good as "WDATPDIM?"

"Stay merciless, my friends."

[PM]

Oh, I don't know. Wreck the economy? Destroy our standard of living? Totalitarianism?

Well they were planning on doing all of that anyway.

[Lord Humungus]

South Carolina men busted after refusing to pull up pants at Waffle House: cops

A pair of South Carolina men were busted for disorderly conduct early Saturday morning after they refused to pull up their trousers during a disturbance at a local Waffle House, authorities said.

Andrew Gehring and Donovan Johnson, both 22, became hostile after a security guard at the restaurant "asked them to leave for failing to comply with his request to pull their pants up and not show their boxers," according to the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office report.

The pair continued to be belligerent and used foul language as police officers tried to arrange rides home for them, according to the sheriff's office.

[waffles]

Isn't the whole point of sagging your pants just waiting for the confrontation when someone asks you to pull them up?

[Ted S.]

You'd think they'd grow out of it by 22.

[RBS]

Sigh...good to see my alma mater so well represented.

[waffles]

waffle house?

[Rich]

How waffle!

[DJF]

I always thought that the low pants fashion was created by chubby middle age cops so they could chase down young men who can't run fast since they have to hold their pants up.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I think it's from prison culture. It signals "fair game".

[Fluffy]

I thought it was because in LA when you got arrested the first thing they did was take your belt.

So the county lockups were full of guys walking around with their pants drooping down.

[Zeb]

That's the story I heard. Same thing for shoes without laces.

[RBS]

Fair Game

[sarcasmic]

Camden County Officer Removed From Duty For Alleged Lewd Act In Starbucks

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.c.....starbucks/

The officer has been removed from duty and suspended without pay.

Spanking it in a public restroom gets a cop suspended without pay, but killing an innocent person will get a cop a paid vacation. Oh, he was off duty. Never mind. Had he been in uniform nothing else would have happened.

[gaijin]

One for the intellectuals...

Prominent Chicago Neurosurgeon charged with Public Indecency

[gaijin]

crap! link fixed

Prominent Chicago Neurosurgeon charged with Public Indecency

[sarcasmic]

'Sunshine is good for the soul!' Debra Messing reveals her newly slimline bikini body in a selfie after losing 20lbs

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....eater.html
Is that a leather bikini top?

[RBS]

I'm surprised she had 20lbs to lose.

[PM]

Hey gramps, Debra Messing is practically old enough to collect social security.

[sarcasmic]

45 ain't that old.

[Restoras]

Not only is it not that old but if a woman that age has taken care of herself they can be damn attractive, and are often great in the sack.

[Tejicano]

I'm a gonna leave this right here -

I have a hotel date tomorrow with a 49 year old Korean who could pass for 30 and performs like few I've met before.

What a sweet woman.

[R C Dean]

Pix or it didn't happen, T.

[sarcasmic]

King Castro: How Fidel lived the life of luxury in Cuba, complete with his own private island ? and turtle farm
Claims made in new book by former bodyguard Juan Reinaldo Sanchez
Says the Cuban leader lived hidden life of luxury on private island and yacht
Alleges the island included both a turtle farm and dolphins
Adds that Castro never went anywhere without 10 bodyguards
But others who have met the leader says he lives a simple, austere life

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-farm.html

[Jordan]

Meanwhile, salaries for the proles were capped at $20 a month. But only capitalism breeds inequality.

[R C Dean]

Who you gonna believe, the bodyguard who went everywhere with him, or people who "met" him?

[Lord Humungus]

More Hispanics Declaring Themselves White

Hispanics are often described as driving up the nonwhite share of the population. But a new study of census forms finds that more Hispanics are identifying as white.

An estimated net 1.2 million Americans of the 35 million Americans identified in 2000 as of "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin," as the census form puts it, changed their race from "some other race" to "white" between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, according to research presented at an annual meeting of the Population Association of America and reported by Pew Research.

[Ted S.]

THAT'S RACIST!

[UnCivilServant]

So there are White Hispanics? The media wasn't completely wrong?

[Zeb]

Hispanic has never been a racial classification. You can be Hispanic and of any race. Peru has loads of Japanese Hispanics, for example.

[UnCivilServant]

I know. I misplaced my supply of sarcasm tags today.

[Zeb]

Gotcha. Some people still don't seem to get it, though.

[Fluffy]

If we took the Irish, I guess we can take the Hispanics too.

[Drake]

As long as Italians and Greeks don't start claiming they are white.

[UnCivilServant]

Don't they claim to be Native American?

[John]

You kid but it is true. There is a huge intermarriage rate among Hispanics and Whites. Give it another a generation or two and being "Hispanic" will be about as meaningful as being Irish or German. This possibility is killing the race mongers who want to make Hispanic the new black.

[Fluffy]

You know what else is going to burn their ass?

When Indian Americans declare themselves white, and nobody bats an eyelash.

[John]

Yup. You have to love the American melting pot. They have spent decades trying to destroy it but thank God they haven't. Of course, one of the biproducts of actually tolerating each other, something they claim to support, is marrying each other and in the process eliminating the difference among the races, which is not something I think they really want to happen.

[Tejicano]

What, they aren't Aryan?

[Jerryskids]

When Indian Americans declare themselves white, and nobody bats an eyelash.

I can't imagine a White Indian being welcome on the Reason boards.

[The Last American Hero]

Won't ever happen. How's an aspiring professor going to get their big break?

[R C Dean]

The vast majority of what we call "Hispanics" are what they call "mestizos" (in Mexico, at least), meaning "mixed blood."

And Mexicans are racist as shit about it. They still place great store in looking as white and European as possible. Even the more indio-looking ones want to "identify as white" because in Mexico, white = upper class.

[Jordan]

So, a reverse Lana Del Rey.

[Rich]

Obviously the solution to racism is an objective measurement of the color of one's skin at some reasonable place on one's body, say the palm of the hand between the eyes.

[waffles]

Increasingly race is meaningless. Poverty defines much more about a person than race.

[Elspeth Flashman]

You know who else declared himself white? (Sorry! I couldn't resist).

[Tonio]

Michael Jackson?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

+1

[Drake]

Gandalf?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I believe Tulpa went by "Tulpa the White" at one point.

[The Late P Brooks]

Why do you think they call it Political Science?

Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker put this in more quantitative terms: since 1975, Senate Republicans have moved twice as far to the right as Democrats have to the left ? and McConnell has been a part of the leading edge. A statistical analysis of his votes since he came to the senate in 1984 shows that he's voted more conservatively every year since.

At each level of governance below the Senate, the conservative undertow grows stronger. The House Republican caucus has shifted to the right six times further than the Democrats have left. And when you get closer to home ? state-level offices and local races ? you can see policies rolling backwards years of progress, most notably in reproductive health, gay rights and, most alarmingly, voting rights.

Caramba!

The sky, she is falling!

[Ted S.]

It's as scientific as Climate Science (TM).

[WDATPDIM?!]

Not the conservative undertoad! Nooooo!

[PM]

Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker put this in more quantitative terms: since 1975, Senate Republicans have moved twice as far to the right as Democrats have to the left

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

In order to measure something like "rightness" or "leftness" quantitatively you first have to assign numerical values to subjective - qualitative - information. Fucking Christ.

[Rich]

The House Republican caucus has shifted to the right six times further than the Democrats have left.

That's six POINT FIVE times further, "Doctor" Hacker.

[R C Dean]

A conclusion totally consistent with the Dems starting out pretty effing far left, and the Repubs starting out center-left.

[gaijin]

In order to measure something like "rightness" or "leftness" quantitatively you first have to assign numerical values to subjective - qualitative - information. Fucking Christ.

Check your math priveledge!

/polislidederp

[Matrix]

When you move the goalposts, you can make it look like anything. So being pro-socialized healthcare is probably "moderate" to these folks, as well as increasing the welfare state and all that.

[Jordan]

At least the trains run on time. Wait...

France's national rail company SNCF said on Tuesday it had ordered 2,000 trains for an expanded regional network that are too wide for many station platforms, entailing costly repairs.

[Restoras]

Feature, not a bug, as the alterations now required creates more jobs.

[Matrix]

Moonshadow Kati aka Lady LocksmithUJamie Condliffe
3 minutes ago
A costly mistake, but at least the correction of said mistakes will generate jobs and economic activity, and result in newly modernized train stations. Not the worst mistake ever. =)

That was, no shit, someone's response.

[Matrix]

On the Gizmodo article about this, I should add.

[Slammer]

We should run around throwing rocks through windows, then.

[Jordan]

KEYNESIAN DERPULUS!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Smokers who use electronic cigarettes to help them quit have 60 percent higher success rates than those relying on nicotine gum, nicotine patches, or pure willpower.

Uh, that's like stopping your heroin addiction by switching to meth. WHO ALLOWED THESE NUMBERS TO GET OUT ANYWAY?

[Tim]

If it makes quitting easier then it stands to reason that IT WILL BE EASIER TO GET KIDS HOOKED!
PANIC!

[Lord Humungus]

Police: Man tried to have sex with ATM, 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."

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Pffft. Warty could roger an ATM to death with his little finger.

[hamilton]

Perhaps it was the ATM for a sperm bank.

I'll be here all night. Try the veal.

[gaijin]

+1 deposit

[Ted S.]

German Bus Drivers Attempt to Smuggle More Hot Dogs

Bus drivers have been caught with their vehicles stocked with a large amount of food and drink for sale effectively meaning that passengers would not need to purchase food and drink from stores or restaurants while in Iceland.

Considering the price of alcohol in Iceland, I can't blame them for trying to smuggle in booze. But the Germans should really be bringing in more ample swimsuits.

[Slammer]

Wonder where they'd hide them?

[Elspeth Flashman]

Under their clothes? I mean, Who'd look there?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

*shudder*

[Drake]

The bus ride from Germany to Iceland is probably pretty long. I'd get hungry.

[Lord Humungus]

Jonah Goldberg: Trigger Unhappy
"Trigger warnings" are the latest trend in political correctness ? and they're madness.

And what a strange madness it is. We live in a culture in which it is considered bigotry to question whether women should join combat units ? but it is also apparently outrageous to subject women of the same age to realistic books and films about war without a warning? Even questioning the ubiquity of degrading porn, never mind labeling music or video games, is denounced as Comstockery, but labeling The Iliad makes sense?

I do wish these people would make up their mind. Alas, that's hard to do when you've lost it.

[Dweebston]

It's not the same women, or the same breed,of women, doing both things. Presumably we can accommodate women desiring different roles in life, including their exposure to undesirable content.

Which doesn't make the trigger warning hysteria right, it's just a weak point on Jonah's part.

[John]

That is true except that another myth in our society is that "girls can" and that any woman is capable of doing anything. It is not like there is some breed of super woman who can join the infantry and then some kind of second class "sensitive female" who can't read Huckleberry Fin without being traumatized.

[lap83]

Even though it's not the same women doing both things, you're supposed to simultaneously assume that any given woman could be as strong and powerful as any man and that any given word could turn any woman into a shivering ball of tears. It's not like they'd approve of professors asking on the first day of class for all of the women to divide themselves into the war-hardened on one side and the sensitive ninnies on the other.

[R C Dean]

If I was in academia these days, I could see starting each semester by asking my class if any of them were so sensitive or weak that open discussion of ideas might traumatize them, and ask them to sit together so they could be excused whenever we might want to talk about anything interesting.

If nobody self-identifies as a fragile flower who came to university to avoid the frank exchange of views, then I would conclude that we don't need to worry about "privilege" or "trigger warnings" in this class, and carry on.

[Azathoth!!]

It IS the same women, or the same breed,of women, doing both things

FTFY

[Rich]

Yet another nail in the coffin of the Rule of Law:

Pentagon eyeing immigrants who arrived illegally

[Tonio]

Granting citizenship to non-citizens who serve in your army is not without precedent. This is also different from amnesty since they actually have to earn it by doing something hard and risky. Now, I'd say if these people don't complete their terms of service for any reason other than medical that they get automatically deported. Complete your term and be granted US citizenship and amnesty from prosecution for immigration crimes you committed.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Indeed.

See also KATUSA.

[John]

Sure it is not without precedent. It is just that the law says you have to have a green card to join the military. And Obama is saying he is just going to ignore that law.

If you want to change the law to let illegals in, that is a different debate. What is happening here is they are ignoring the law and that is the problem.

[Rich]

"But there's *no time* to change the law! And Washington is broken, anyway!"

[Dances-with-Trolls]

My battle buddy in basic was a foreign national who was earning his citizenship through the service, and also about the most squared-away guy in the platoon. There are some technical details I'd be concerned about in relation to illegals (criminals, drug gangers, that sort of thing) but I see this as a net positive.

[VG Zaytsev]

Granting citizenship to non-citizens who serve in your army is not without precedent.

Worked great for the late Roman Empire.

[Tejicano]

Nobody's heard of the French Foreign Legion? It's not like this is a new concept.

[R C Dean]

As John pointed out, its not the concept, its the way His Majesty likes to decree things.

No doubt with a gracious wave of His scepter and a benevolent nod of His head.

[Dweebston]

Smokers who use electronic cigarettes to help them quit have 60 percent higher success rates than those relying on nicotine gum, nicotine patches, or pure willpower.

But they're doing it wrong!

[UnCivilServant]

Opera singers don't understand their own medium, have over-inflated sense of self: http://www.bbc.com/news/entert.....s-27500461

Have we arrived at a point where opera is no longer about singing but about the physiques and looks of the singers, specifically the female singers?

Yes dipshit, It's always been that way. Anyone who parades themselves around in front of audiences is there to be judged. They do this willingly, for pay.

It is not about lights, it is not about costumes, it's not about sets, it's not even about sex or stature? It is ALL about the human voice - Alice Coote

Wrong. Opera is theater without spoken word, that makes you an actor first and a singer second. Actors are prostitutes paid to prance around before the audience.

[Medical Physics Guy]

It's more complicated really. Now the trend is for the singers to do more animated acting, but the singing is a lot of work, so they tense up and shout at each other. In the old days the singers would just relax and sing, and a bit of acting would flow out of that, and it was quite satisfying. Pavarotti didn't act for crap, but I could never take my eyes off him at the Met, no one could.

[UnCivilServant]

And when people remarked that it might be earier to roll the tenors onto the stage, it was taken in stride with the commentary about their singing ability.

[UnCivilServant]

*easier

[WDATPDIM?!]

An opera performance with good singers who are bad actors is fine, if somewhat dull. An opera performance with good actors who are bad singers is pure torture.

[UnCivilServant]

And? Because one way they can fail is more tolerable it means that it's not a job requirement?

[WDATPDIM?!]

And therefore "you [are] an actor first and a singer second" is false.

[Slammer]

Kid struggling to learn to ride? Hire a bike coach.

How about you just put some effort in teaching him your damn selves?

[Tonio]

Meh. Some people just aren't good teachers. And a professional bike or swim coach certainly has more experience than parents can reasonably have. Having said that, no sympathy for the parents who just can't be bothered.

[Ted S.]

I presume these are Brooklyn hipsters?

[Slammer]

Long Island

[Rich]

Max's mom hired Howard Roth, a Long Island based bike coach with his own method. Roth says balance on the bike is the key

You can't fool *me*, Slammer. That's from The Onion.

[Lord Humungus]

French rail company orders 2,000 trains too wide for platforms

A spokesman for the RFF national rail operator confirmed the error, first reported by satirical weekly Canard Enchaine in its Wednesday edition.

"We discovered the problem a bit late, we recognise that and we accept responsibility on that score," Christophe Piednoel told France Info radio.

Construction work has already begun to reconfigure station platforms to give the new trains room to pass through, but hundreds more remain to be fixed, he added.

[Jordan]

Too slow, yo.

[Lord Humungus]

"The train has already left the station" would have been a better response 😉

[UnCivilServant]

But it got stuck trying to pull into the station.

[Slammer]

Next order: One million tons of KY jelly.

[Rich]

"Ramming speed!"

[R C Dean]

The Warty Express.

[The Late P Brooks]

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito suspended the execution of Russell Bucklew Tuesday night, an hour before the Missouri death row inmate was scheduled for lethal injection.

Who will play Alito in the movie? Who will play Bucklew?

[Lord Humungus]

David Weigel: Todd Akin A Tea Partyer? Not So Much

ox attempts to explain the media narrative of the day?that "the Tea Party will lose three primaries"?but this is a subject that defies simple Voxplaining. Here was the original lede:

...snip...

After some Twitter-shaming, the article has been edited and the "Tea Party" candidates are now called "right wing." That's a blander term that covers basically everyone who irritates the Republican Party's establishment. Still, the back-of-hand calculation that "the GOP would control the Senate today if not for the Tea Party" has never seemed right to me. Below, I've ranked the candidates mentioned by Vox. #5 had the least claim to be a Tea Party disaster; #1 had the most.

[Lord Humungus]

ox = Vox

[Brett L]

Its pretty bad when former Journolisters are using "Voxsplaining" derisively. I think Ezra, et. al. are going to be looking for a new job in a year.

[John]

Pardon me while I overdose on Schadenfreude.

[Rich]

Barron likely to be confirmed to appeals court

Barron's legal opinion was ... the legal basis for the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

[Slammer]

When are they releasing the memos?

[Rich]

Right after they release the drones!

[Dances-with-Trolls]

confirmed to appeals court

Some nice irony there

[R C Dean]

John Yoo is a pariah for his legal opinion opening the door to "enhanced interrogation."

David Barron is Great Legal Thinker, deserving of elevation to the very heights of the judiciary, for his legal opinion opening the door to extrajudicial killing.

Principals, not principles.

The memos, naturally, will be heavily redacted for "national security". Although I am baffled by what legal analysis has to be kept secret lest our foes gain some advantage.

[Lord Humungus]

Galloping Asian meth demand drives record production: UN

Strong and growing demand for drugs in Asia is driving up global production of methamphetamine, with seizures in the region tripling in five years to record levels, a UN body said Tuesday.

Both the use and the production of the drug is growing in the region, in concert with the expanding economy of the world's most populous continent, leading to growing social problems and higher healthcare bills.

[Jordan]

What about gamboling Asian meth demand?

[Fluffy]

Just so you know, when you use the word "g***ol", Reasonable blocks your post to Chrome users.

[UnCivilServant]

Chrome users don't matter.

[Fluffy]

Compared to Firefox and IE users?

IT IS TO LAUGH

[Fluffy]

Or wait - I just realized.

Maybe you use Opera.

(Backs away in disgust.)

[UnCivilServant]

Didn't you see earlier in the thread? I'm derisive of Opera.

[Ted S.]

Ahem. I use pre-Chrome Opera.

[Fluffy]

Do you use it on a computer, or an Apple speak-and-spell?

[Jordan]

Don't you guys think it's time to retire that particular filter? It's not as if White Indian is still around.

[Tonio]

That's what she wants you to think, Jordan, but she's lurking, licking her wounds, biding her time...

[PM]

Good job, now you've summoned it.

[Rich]

Hey, Chrome experts -- Would someone *kindly* enlighten me as to how to implement mousewheel functionality?

[PM]

Click "Control Panel" then "Uninstall a program" then select "Chrome" and press the "Uninstall" button. Then you can download a web browser instead of a data collection and advertising platform.

[Rich]

You are truly a Chrome expert. I'll take that as: "It's impossible".

[Humberto Brenes]

Click "Control Panel" then "Uninstall a program"

AHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

CONTROL PANEL!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHHA thanks for that, one of you giving other people advice...

[Fluffy]

Your keyboard lacks arrows?

We need a government commission to study this problem.

[Rich]

Yes, that would implement the *functionality*, I suppose.

[waffles]

When I type gambol, koch, or any other phrase that tows the lion I receive mild vibration between my thighs.

[UnCivilServant]

Is this the reboot of the opium wars?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

This memo shows that the VA knew of records manipulation in 2010
...Petzel admitted that he knew of the issue after Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) questioned him about the memo below, in which a top VA executive warned the directors of all VA health networks that questionable scheduling practices would "not be tolerated."

The message summarized at least 17 tactics that VA hospitals were known to have used to hide treatment delays and give the impression they were meeting the department's goal of seeing patients within 14 to 30 days....

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

FAKE SKANDUL!!!

/derp

[Ted S.]

Fick Dich! 😉

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Muhuhuhuwha!

[Ted S.]

FAKE SCANDAL!!!111!!!

[Tonio]

Oh, that was well into the current administration. Not good.

[John]

What happened to "its not the scandal its the cover up"? Somehow I bet we won't be hearing that phrase much.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

That's why it's important to have the DNC propaganda industry MSM confirming that these are quite obviously fake scandals. Because obviously if they were real scandals then CNN, NBC, and many other reputable institutions not ending with the letter X would be covering them, but as they are not being covered it is proof that they are, in fact, fake scandals. Also, BOOSH.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

See also

. Unlike some other cable news networks that were left unmentioned, Zucker said CNN would not be "shamed" into covering the Republican-led investigation if it did not contain any real news.

[Fluffy]

Unlike all those newsworthy Rose Garden events CNN shows live, amirite?

[R C Dean]

The real scandal may be this:

the department's goal of seeing patients within 14 to 30 days

Holy fucking fuck. My Board would have our heads on pikes lined up on the driveway to the ER if we told them our actual goal was to see patients within 14 to 30 days.

That's not success in this business. That's abject failure.

[Lord Humungus]

GM Adds 218,000 Chevrolet Aveo Cars To Growing Recall List

General Motors has added yet another recall to its growing list for the year.

The recall of 218,000 Chevrolet Aveo subcompact cars is the company's 30th this year, bringing the total number of recalled GM vehicles in the U.S. to around 13.8 million. That breaks GM's previous annual record of 10.75 million set in calendar year 2004.

The new recall, posted Wednesday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, covers Aveos from the 2004 through 2008 model years. The daytime running light module in the dashboard center stack can overheat, melt and catch fire. GM is aware of an unspecified number of fires due to the problem, but spokesman Alan Adler says it does not know of any injuries or deaths.

[UnCivilServant]

Wouldn't it be easier to say "If GM made it, bring it back and get a real car"?

[The Other Kevin]

Just took my Aveo in yesterday because the "hold" light keeps blinking and the AC doesn't put out cold air. I's been recalled and in the shop more times than I can count. Screw this BS about buying American cars, next time I will go with another Honda.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

The Fords we've bought have been fine.

[UnCivilServant]

As have those in my hands.

[Lord Humungus]

For GM and non-truck, I've had decent luck with Buick. But for anyone asking about a reliable car, I try to steer them toward Honda, Toyota, and co. Of course one of my young co-workers just started a lease on a Dodge Dart... he wouldn't listen to anything against it.

[Humberto Brenes]

I've had decent luck with Buick

Might be because most Buicks these days are Opels, which is kind of a separate company from the rest of GM.

[Lord Humungus]

It's been a long time since I've bought a Buick.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

...just started a lease on a Dodge Dart.

If it doesn't sport a 225 c.i. Slant-6 engine, it's not a Dodge Dart.

MOPAR!!!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Report: Obama transition team was warned about unreliable wait times at VA in 2008
...There are three steps in Hopenchange crisis management: (1) they profess to be "mad as hell"; (2) they accept a resignation/announce the retirement/place on "administrative leave" some relatively low-ranking officials; (3) as time wears on and media interest fades, they pronounce the whole thing a phony scandal. Their problem with the VA mess is that, no matter how long it drags out, they don't dare pronounce this one "phony"; they can laugh at "#Benghazi" but they won't laugh at wounded troops. So they need a Plan B for defusing the crisis, which, in this case, will be to claim that it's another problem they've inherited from Bush. For, er, five and a half years....

[The Last American Hero]

You forgot having some schlep accept full responsibility, which apparently consists of nothing other than saying you accept full responsibility.

[Brett L]

This is cool. Carbon-carbon batteries that have about the same energy density as Lithium, but no rare-earth metals. And charge/discharge 20 times faster. Also, apparently one of the carbon types is derived from cotton.

Power Japan Plus is creating a new, drop-in material with the world's first and only organic carbon material ? Carbon Complex. Made of naturally grown organic cotton, Carbon Complex wields unique properties not seen in other carbon material. By controlling the size of the carbon crystals during production, Power Japan Plus can engineer the Carbon Complex for a variety of high performance applications.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Wow. I know a prof who studies using chemical bonds as a battery instead of photovoltaics. But it couldn't just be swapped in where I would use a regular battery today like this one can -- that's amazing.

[Brett L]

I'm not sure this is a chemical battery. Well, not more chemical than any other ion exchange battery. Just continuing the trend of using less toxic ions, with better life-cycle statistics.

[Brett L]

Seperately, the term "cradle-to-cradle" is strange in this press release. Take it from a one-time lifecycle engineer. We do "cradle-to-gate" (raw materials to product sale), "gate-to-gate" (purchased intermediately worked materials to product sale), "cradle-to-grave" (raw materials to end-of-life processing [landfill or recycling]), but not "cradle-to-cradle", which would I guess be end-of-life processing back to the same raw state you got it in. I don't know of anyone doing that. This stuff isn't turning back into cotton at the end-of-life, I don't think.

[gaijin]

This would seem an important strategic 'feature' in a world of heightened geopolitical tensions:

"manufacturing of the Ryden battery is under no threat of supply disruption or price spikes from rare metals, rare earth or heavy metals."

[Christophe]

Not just that, but carbon is plentiful. This is the battery world equivalent of fiber-optics did replacing copper cables.

[Bardas Phocas]

High school grades predict your future salary.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ake-today/
Two words: Permanent Record.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Not mine.

[Lord Humungus]

or mine.

[Andrew S.]

Contractor gets $1.6 million from taxpayers after being railroaded by DA

tl;dr: Contractor in dispute with church. Church has politically connected members. Contractor's name dragged through mud by DA, accused of stealing large amount of money. Turns out the church was stiffing him. Except for the payout from taxpayers, nothing else happened.

[John]

How evil do you have to be not only stiff a contractor of a fair debt but also charge him with theft when he asks for his money? Oh, and just because you want to hit the double bonus points of evil, you do so in the name of a church. Holy cow.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"ER Visits Rise Despite [Obamacare] Law

"Health Act Isn't Cutting Emergency Volume So Far; Government Says It's Too Early to Draw Conclusions"

http://online.wsj.com/news/art.....0961658638

[Ted S.]

The people visiting thing they've got free healthcare now.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

To think, the law and its mandate were sold as a way to reduce the number of people using the emergency room because they couldn't afford a regular doctor visit!

[UnCivilServant]

No doctors take this phoney plan, so I gotta go to the ER.

[UnCivilServant]

*/end O-care enrollee

(I am not on an exchange plan)

[R C Dean]

That is exactly what happened when ObamaCare Jr. was launched in Massachusetts.

But naturally, the geniuses running the show are incapable of looking at their pilot program and predicting that their master plan will work about the same.

[The Last American Hero]

C'mon, Mass just didn't have the right Top Men in charge.

[The Late P Brooks]

This is cool. Carbon-carbon batteries that have about the same energy density as Lithium, but no rare-earth metals.

Who will ban these first? EPA? FDA? NRC?

[Brett L]

I'm certain the State of California will find that they cause cancer.

[UnCivilServant]

The state of California has found that cancer warning labels cause cancer, so no one pays any attention to them.

[Tonio]

It was even cooler at 9:15. Just sayin'

[Ted S.]

P Brooks has some sort of religious belief banning him from threaded posting. Why do you hate his religion? 😉

[Tonio]

Because if I played favorites I'd be no better than Myers.

[Drake]

Didn't the EPA already declare carbon a poison?

[Brett L]

Certainly six carbons in a ring with six hydrogens.

[UnCivilServant]

Or one with two oxygens.

[Ted S.]

Get rid of half the oxygen, and it will only be half as poisonous! 🙂

[UnCivilServant]

+1 monoxide

[UnCivilServant]

...I mean this is the EPA we're talking about here.

[Lord Humungus]

this just popped up on Drudge:

Federal funds earmarked to offset Affordable Care Act insurer losses

The Obama administration has quietly adjusted key provisions of its signature healthcare law to potentially make billions of additional taxpayer dollars available to the insurance industry if companies providing coverage through the Affordable Care Act lose money.

The move was buried in hundreds of pages of new regulations issued late last week. It comes as part of an intensive administration effort to hold down premium increases for next year, a top priority for the White House as the rates will be announced ahead of this fall's congressional elections.

[Tonio]

intensive administration effort to hold down premium increases for next year

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

[Drake]

So much better than the old days when Congress controlled spending. They really are like the Roman Senate during the late Empire now. They still meet and debate, but it doesn't matter it the least what they actually do.

[Tonio]

But I am still a Senator of Wome! I still have my fancy purple toga.

[Fluffy]

If one single dollar appropriated for a non-risk-corridor use is deliberately misdirected by HHS to the insurance companies, it cries out for immediate impeachment of the President and imprisonment for the HHS secretary and anyone in the chain of command who cooperates with them, as well as any officer of any insurer who accepts the stolen funds.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What is a non-risk-corridor, one of those ramps across highways for animals to safely cross?

[Fluffy]

To append the prefix "non" to a compound noun, the proper usage is to hyphenate out to the second word in the compound noun.

[John]

There is an act called "The Anti Deficiency Act" that makes it a crime for someone in the executive to spend money that hasn't been appropriated by Congress or for a purpose counter to the purpose Congress gave it in the appropriation. There has only been one prosecution under the act in its 40+ year history. But it is there and it is a crime, a "high crime" in fact.

[VG Zaytsev]

I'm holding my breath. I'm sure the justice department will get to it after they prosecute Holder and Lerner for contempt of Congress.

[John]

I didn't say it would happen. I am just saying it is there.

[Rich]

I'm starting to think not even The Stupid Party can fuck up taking back the Senate now.

[Drake]

Oh they'll take it back, then spent 2 years trying to lose every election in 2016.

[Rich]

Astute observation.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Hmmm, sounds....correct.

[John]

The move was buried in hundreds of pages of new regulations issued late last week

Since when can the executive unilaterally obligate federal funds via regulations? I know because FUTIW

[Lord Humungus]

Armed robbery
Quietly, and rather politely, Britain is getting a gun lobby

But a gradual increase in the popularity of rifles, both for shooting targets and for killing deer and other animals, has since reversed the trend. Novices find it fairly easy to get a licence: despite rigorous checks police refuse less than 2% of the applications they receive.

As their ranks have swelled, political support for shooters has rebounded. Among the many populist pledges put forward by Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, is a promise to loosen gun laws if elected. Conservative bigwigs probably think that a small public subsidy for gun owners is a meagre price to placate voters in their rural heartlands?especially given that the Tories have not yet held a promised vote on repealing the ban on fox hunting for fear that MPs would vote to uphold it. In September a cabinet subcommittee blocked a plan, backed by the Home Office, to push up the gun licence fee.

[Tonio]

Know hope.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Media Turn Blind Eye to Defense Department Waste

"Do you remember the $16 muffin? It was big news in 2011, coming from an inspector general's report on Justice Department overspending at conferences. There were front-page articles in newspapers, but the real heat came from conservative media, particularly Fox News, which blasted the government for spending so much for muffins.

Now here's another similar story from today you won't be hearing about on Fox, or perhaps anywhere else. It appeared on page A11 of today's Post: Northrop Grumman improperly charged the U.S. government more than $100 million in "questionable" costs on a contract, according to a Defense Department inspector general's report.

How many stories do you think there have been in the last 24 hours about Northrop Grumman's $100 million overcharge (I suppose we might even call it "fraud") of the American taxpayer? A dozen? A hundred? Nope. Just one ? the one in the Post. Nobody else seems to find it interesting. people seem to get angrier about bad behavior from government employees than from contractors, even though contractors at a place like Northrup Grumman are government employees in all but name"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....d/?hpid=z7

[UnCivilServant]

Contractors have as much ability to reommend purchases as state employees where I work. However, Contractors are allowed to accept gifts from vendors, etc. While the rule was for a time that we couldn't even attend a training session about a product we'd already bought if lunch were provided.

[John]

Funny how $500 hammers were a scandal when a Republican was in office. We spend more adjusted for inflation on defense today than we did at the height of the Reagan buildup and have much less to show for it. We have got to reform DOD.

[Matrix]

The problem is they will start cutting in areas that don't need cutting and let this kind of waste, fraud, and abuse continue unabated.

[John]

Exactly. They will protect their cronies and fuck military members and the nation by destroyed readiness.

[Matrix]

Well, we are disposing of excess that we will actually need. Guess who gets a big payday when we have to buy it all back?

[Auric Demonocles]

Okay, maybe I should go to the doctor today. 3rd day of fever.

[Rich]

Don't mess around if it's a high fever, especially.

[Lord Humungus]

I suggest a course of leeches.

[hamilton]

Ick. Feel Better. Any recent trips to Saudi Arabia?

[Auric Demonocles]

My guess is that it's from the party I attended on Friday. One of the other guests got sick on Monday as well.

[Lord Humungus]

it must have been one hell of a party.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I had a 3 day fever last week. Finally went in to get it checked out, and I had quite a bit of stuff in my lungs. 2 kinds of ABX to treat it.

3rd day is a good day to reevaluate your situation.

[Libertarian]

Yeah Florida!!

Sarasota officer fired in Club Ivory beating to be reinstated

http://www.heraldtribune.com/a.....l&tc=pgall

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Slim troll pickings today, but there's this -

"Underwear with cellphone pockets for sale in New Brunswick

"While chilling at home in his boxers, Danieal Cormier of Quispamsis came up with a plan"

"I had my cellphone and I kept doing the hand motion to put my cellphone in my pocket, but my underwear didn't have any pocket,"...

"So that's when it kind of sparked in my head ? 'Why don't underwear come with pockets?'"

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.2641523

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"Slim troll pickings today"

Come on Eddie, you can do better. Certainly somewhere there is an article about Lincoln and abortion.

[Brett L]

What the fuck? My home has surfaces known as "tables" in pretty much every room. When I am walking around in my underwear I can transport anything, including cellphones, I wish to take with me when I leave a room in my hand for a very minimal amount of time. And if my phone happens to be on a table in another room, people can leave a fucking message or wait an hour for me to reply to their text.

[Lord Humungus]

go on...

[R C Dean]

Yer missing the point here, Brett.

Underwear pocket plus vibrating cell phone.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Obama administration has quietly adjusted key provisions of its signature healthcare law to potentially make billions of additional taxpayer dollars available to the insurance industry if companies providing coverage through the Affordable Care Act lose money.

The United States Chamber of Commerce approves.

This morning, as the Bloomberg Bimbos were giddily reporting the victories of establishment Republicans over teathuglican challengers, they referred to the Chamber of Commerce's increased political activism after the radical nutjobs shut the government down.

[John]

Isn't gloating about victories over the evil tea party now going to make it a bit harder to claim the Republican nominees are evil, nihilist tea partying Libertarian racists come November?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That is entire months away, so of course not. They will be extremists by November, heck, September.

[Fluffy]

Wait until you see the gloating when Christie beats Paul and gets the nomination.

It will last straight through to Hillary's inauguration.

[John]

Paul may not win the nomination but I don't think Fatso will be the guy who beats him. Cruz or Walker maybe but not Fatso. Outside of the Northeast Republicans hate his guts. How does he win a primary in the South?

[Andrew S.]

Does he need to?

And regardless, if the GOP establishment wants him to be the nominee, he'll be the nominee.

[John]

Not true. The establishment was not fond of George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.

I don't see how anyone can win the GOP nomination with the record on guns Fatso has. There are a ton of single issue gun voters in the GOP. Rudy Guiliani, who was otherwise really liked and respected in the Party, went nowhere because people didn't trust him on guns. Fatso is much less liked than Guiliani and has a worse record on guns.

[Restoras]

If it does come down to Fatso vs. Bilary, I'd vote for Bilary.

A gun-hating Repubican in the White House could set gun rights back a decade. With Bilary - it'd be political poison and h/she won't touch it.

[John]

It would be a nightmare choice Restoras. I think Hillary might be the one person who could make the DOJ worse than it has been under Obama. And if there is any Republican most likely to "make all of the abuses of Obama and more 'bipartisan'" it is Christie.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A true dilemma, but I think I would hold my nose and vote for Christie. I can not vote for Hillary.

[Restoras]

I hear you Bo, but I've done that too many times in my life by now. Personally, I'm not going to do it again.

[Tejicano]

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I voted "for" somebody - and I've been voting for 37 years. I'm always forced to hold my nose and vote "against" the other turd.

Between Hitlery and Fatso I don't know which would really be worse.

[Injun, as in from India]

Why not vote LP or some other candidate and free your conscience? Why choose between Teams Red and Blue? I voted for Gary Johnson in 2012 and happy I did so.

[John]

Hilery would be worse for the simple reason that she would appoint much worse judges and Heller and Citizens' United would be in real jeopardy.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I agree. Jeb Bush has a much greater chance than Christie.

[John]

And Jeb Bush has little or no chance. There is another guy who has backers but no actual supporters.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I would think he has supporters among the religious conservatives.

[John]

No he doesn't Bo. The Bushes were never SOCONs. The SOCON guy is Huckabe. I don't think Huckabe will win the nomination either. The SOCON candidate never does. But he will be a force in a way Jeb Bush won't be because he has an actual constituency.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Do you think Huckabee will even run? W did well with religious conservatives and I bet Jeb would too, especially if Huckabee or Santorum do not run.

[John]

I don't know if he will but I keep reading that he will. What else does he have to do? I think he is kind of like the SOCON Ralph Nader, just a professional candidate.

[Restoras]

John has it right on the SnoConez - Huckabee is their guy. That's not to say the SnoConez won't support Jeb if he wins the nomination but that support will likely depend on Huckabee's showing in the primaries and the level of influence they beleive Huck will have in a Bush IV presidency.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I just do not see Huckabee running.

[R C Dean]

For guys like Huckabee, winning isn't nearly as important as refreshing their brand by doing a little campaigning.

Good way to feed your sycophants by giving them overpaid campaign jobs, make yourself "relevant" to the east coast media which pays the bills, etc.

[VG Zaytsev]

How does he win a primary in the South?

I doesn't matter who casts the votes, it matters who counts them.

[The Late P Brooks]

Screw this BS about buying American cars, next time I will go with another Honda.

I'm sure the Honda dealer will at least give you scrap value if you trade in a Chevy .

[John]

And the Honda is likely to have been made in the USA and most of the Chevy's parts likely to have been made overseas.

[UnCivilServant]

Unless it's a Volt and they have to dispose of the toxic matteries.

[UnCivilServant]

*batteries.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Batteries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ7Aif5aXlQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yHJBDeshPA

[Andrew S.]

In 2002, I bought my first new car, a Honda Accord. I traded in my Dodge Neon. The dealership gave me scrap value, because that's all it was worth.

[robc]

Bevin was a tea party "darling"?

I think he was just best available not-McConnell on the ballot. I voted for him, but I voted for Barr too.

[SugarFree]

I think pretty much any GOP primary challenger is a "tea party darling" at this point. Bevins got beat by 25 points. And Grimes did her little happy dance.

[robc]

I would think Grimes would have preferred to face Bevins.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

GOP Pol Turned Away at Polls Because he did not have the ID the law he supports required

"A Republican candidate for Arkansas governor supports the new voter ID law, but he was left waiting after he forgot his identification.

Spokesman Christian Olson told The Associated Press that Asa Hutchinson forgot his ID when he attempted to vote at the polls in Bentonville on Monday. Olson says a staffer was able to retrieve the ID and bring it to Hutchinson so he could vote."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article.....ts-id-poll

[John]

I would hope this guy is saying "damn straight I should have been turned away it is my fault I forgot my ID". I give it 50 50 that he is that smart instead of whining about "don't you know who I am!!"

[Brett L]

He appears to have said, "Huh. That's the law? It is inconvenient when you leave your ID at home." Its almost like there's a difference between a petty inconvenience (needing a document) and a grand inconvenience (taking a test that may be administered differently to different people).

[UnCivilServant]

And?

The story seems to show that it's not a real barrier. Though most people would have to pick it up themselves as they don't have staffers, but still.

Weak.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If you had time to make one pass at the polls and did not have a staffer to go get it...

[Brett L]

If voting was that important to you, you'd make sure to bring your ID. If I only have one pass at the gas station and I forget my money, is it their problem when I don't get gas?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's kind of hard to refute the idea that voter suppression is ok with you when you say things like 'well, if they weren't careful enough to bring their ID they should not be voting.

[Restoras]

You want to vote, you bring your ID. How exactly is that suppression?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

How is it suppression? The guy is eligible to vote, but he cannot because he does not have the ID with him. So he doesn't vote.

[Restoras]

I don't think that is suppression but more likely just laziness.

Suppression is a concerted effort to prevent whole groups of people from voting to influence an outcome. That's not what this is.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think suppression is too strong a word myself, for the reasons you give. But I think it is a known, foreseeable consequence that these laws will result in people who are eligible and want to vote being turned away. If it can happen to a Governor it is going to happen to a lot of other people.

[Restoras]

If the use of the word 'suppression' does not describe the situation then by defination it is not suppression.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I don't want to get bogged down in a pedantic discussion of the best word to describe it, my point is that this story illustrates that this kind of thing can happen, it can happen to people who obviously have a political interest, and it can happen to people who might have less chance to overcome it than a governor. That's going to be a cost if we value our government having the consent of the governed. Maybe the cost is worth it in terms of the gains of fighting fraud, but let's not pretend this is not going to be a cost by saying 'well, if it were really important to him he would have made sure to bring it!' People are not perfect, this is going to happen, and foreseeable consequences have to be thought of as intended at some point.

[Restoras]

If voting is important to you, you get an ID and bring it with you to the polling station. It isn't that hard or even much of a leap of faith. You need an ID for an awful lot of ordinary transactions and if you don't have one you are just lazy.

[RBS]

I don't want to get bogged down in a pedantic discussion

...

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I don't want to get bogged down in a pedantic discussion...

But you did, anyway. Just let it go, dude. Your argument is weak.

[Mainer2]

I don't want to get bogged down in a pedantic discussion of the best word

seriously ?

[Brett L]

Bo, first of all, I didn't say they shouldn't be voting. I said it probably wasn't very important to them. Big difference. I also said that it shouldn't be the problem of the polls if you forget the one document you are required to have in order to vote. None of that is suppressive.

In FL, early voting runs for almost two weeks, and the polls are open for 12 hours. Again, I think this is a matter of personal prioritization if you fail to arrive at a polling place with the identification that you are required by law to have in order to work or receive state relief.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

People forget things. Heck, even Governors can forget things. Turning away an eligible voter who took the time to come to the polls is one of the costs of these laws.

[Restoras]

Yes, they do forget things. So go back and get it. Your employer is required by law to give you the time you need to vote so there is no excuse "well I have to get to work and I forgot my ID so I can't vote and that is suppression".

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Are employers really required by law to do that? Of course, that requirement might be there but I can see lots of people not invoking it for a variety of reasons.

""well I have to get to work and I forgot my ID so I can't vote and that is suppression"."

Again, suppression is probably too strong a word, but it does mean an eligible voter gets turned away.

[Restoras]

Sure, but turning away an eligible voter is not the same as turning away a memeber of a group of people that another group doesn't want voting. The former is - what, stupid? Lazy? Apathetic? - whereas the latter is suppression.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Call it what you will. We know human beings are not perfect, so we know people will do this and be turned away. Is that a good thing? I don't think so.

[Restoras]

I agree that it is not a good thing - a functioning republic depends on the participation of the public. However, the random few that would be turned away would be miniscule and have no impact on the results.

[Fluffy]

But is it a bad thing?

Not one I am going to sweat over.

I also think you have an unrestricted right to read any book you want.

Will I grieve for you if you forget to bring your wallet to Barnes and Noble one day, and then can't go back because you have to pick up your kid from school?

Nope.

Sometimes you have to have basic competence as a human being to be able to take advantage of every instance where you can exercise a right.

If you fuck up and miss one opportunity in a long line of opportunities, that's unfortunate, but also nah mah problem.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If you had one half day a year to go by Barnes and Noble and buy a book you might have an apt analogy.

[Fluffy]

It's an entirely apt analogy.

I missed my chance to buy a book TODAY.

If I go tomorrow, that's an entirely different episode of my right to buy a book TODAY. You can never give me back my right to buy a book TODAY. You monster.

"Silly Fluffy, you can just buy your book tomorrow." And you can just vote in the next election.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's totally inapt, because elections come once a year (depending on the office you can say they come once every two, four or six years actually).

[Fluffy]

It's totally apt.

You have a series of moments where one can exercise a right.

Each one of those moments is a discrete whole.

If you miss one, you miss it forever.

So if I miss out on buying a book because I forgot my wallet TODAY, I have still lost out on that opportunity to exercise a right even if I correct my mistake tomorrow.

It's just more obvious that I shouldn't regard it as a big deal, because my next opportunity is so close to the first one in time. But that's a quantitative and not a qualitative difference. I chose it as an example specifically for that reason.

Sometimes your own incompetence will frustrate you when you attempt to exercise a right. Or sometimes blind luck or a lightning strike will. Is that your problem, or a problem for everyone around you? To me it's pretty clear that it's YOUR problem. (Or mine, when I'm the one who screws up.)

[R C Dean]

Far more eligible voters don't vote because they didn't bother to register than will ever not vote because they forgot their ID.

If you're going strictly on the "suppression" of eligible voters by bureaucratic requirements, you need to be pushing for the elimination of registration as a requirement to vote.

[UnCivilServant]

Not a persuasive hypothetical given how long the polls are open on election day.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If you work a full time job and, say, have a kid, you can easily have trouble with the 12 hour window for voting that many states have.

[UnCivilServant]

People drag their kids to the polling place because it matters. I've been that kid before. You're still weak.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A common time for voting is 7 to 7. If you have a child and a job, you wake up and get that kid on the bus and then you probably are on your way to work until 5 or 6. You have to pick up that kid, vote, make dinner for that kid, do homework, etc. You've got about an hour to vote, and if you get turned away when you make that pass there is a good chance you won't come back.

[Restoras]

I beleive your employer is required by law to provide you with time off to vote? That's how it is in NY anyway.

[UnCivilServant]

A: That's not a common schedule.

B: Dinner can be moved real easy.

C: Where you you get 7 to 7 from? In states without early voting, the polls go to 9 or 10 pm. 12 hours is used in states with prolonged early voting periods.

D: There's usually a lunchtime rush at the polls too.

Can you get any facts right?

Also, you're sounding like someone trying to make up post-hoc exuses for being lazy. Clearly voting isn't important to you.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"That's not a common schedule."

You do not think it is a common schedule for a parent with kids and a full time job? Do you know any of those people? If you work from 8-5 (hour lunch) and your kid catches the bus at 7 (probably waking up at 6) and you commute, say, just a half hour and have to pick your kid up from daycare by 6, when are you going to make two trips to the voting place?

"Where you you get 7 to 7 from? "

A lot of states. Many states do not have early or extended voting. Do you want a cite?

"There's usually a lunchtime rush at the polls too."

If you work just a half an hour from where you live, good luck with that.

"Clearly voting isn't important to you."

This is what it boils down to. People have to earn the right to vote in your opinion rather than the government earning their authority from the consent of the people they govern.

[RBS]

I work 9-5, sometimes later, have a wife with the same schedule and a young child and have somehow managed to vote regularly despite all this suppression.

[Fluffy]

OK, Bo, what about people who oversleep?

How about people who are sick that day? Or in comas?

What about people who get drunk at lunch and pass out for the rest of the day?

Wouldn't it be "voter suppression" for the government to not figure out some way to make sure those people vote?

I propose that we suspect any election where any voter in that jurisdiction is in a coma until everyone comes out of their coma and can vote.

If you disagree, obviously you feel that people have to earn their right to vote by being, you know, fucking awake. YOU MONSTER.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"Wouldn't it be "voter suppression" for the government to not figure out some way to make sure those people vote?"

How many times have I said I would not call it suppression? But yes, I do think we should have extended voting windows to make it easier to vote. The only reason not to seems to be this 'well, if you really care like me then you can plan well and do it.'

[Fluffy]

But yes, I do think we should have extended voting windows to make it easier to vote.

Oh, is that all you want?

Then sure. Let's do that.

Now that we've done that, that eliminates your voter ID complaint. Right?

So now all your concern trolling about ID problems can be dispensed with.

AWESOME. NOW WE ALL AGREE.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think there are two problems with these ID requirements. One involves people who have trouble getting the requisite government approved paperwork to vote. We know how regulation and bureaucracy work, as barriers to entry, and there is no reason to think it will not work the way it usually works in other arenas.

A second problem is the one I'm talking about here, and yes, I think extended opportunities to vote largely addresses that. But if you look at the list of state polling times you will see that many of the states with these ID laws do not have extended polling times.

[Fluffy]

Oh, so what you're saying is that your true issue is still with the ID requirement, and your focus on the voting hours was disingenuous misdirection?

I AM SHOCKED. SHOCKED TO DISCOVER THAT BO WOULD ARGUE THAT WAY.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

If you want to see my conceding that longer voter hours would address at least one half of my concerns as 'disinengenuous misdirection then you just want to fight and not take yes for an answer.

[RBS]

One involves people who have trouble getting the requisite government approved paperwork to vote.

What? It takes very little time and effort. Last time I moved I called the voter registration people on a Friday and my new card arrived the following Tuesday. When I originally registered to vote I did it while at the DMV renewing my license, also very easy to do.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I'm talking about getting an Id like a drivers license. Because everyone knows libertarians see the motor vehicle department as a trivial hoop to jump through.

Wow, it's like all libertarian thought gets chucked for short term partisan thinking on this issue.

[R C Dean]

One involves people who have trouble getting the requisite government approved paperwork to vote.

You mean, like registering to vote?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Google Ballotpedia voting times for voting times for all of the states. Note a lot of them still have the old 12 hour, one day window. Check out Indiana, 6 to 6. I know when she worked full time my mom never had time to do anything like vote until after 6.

[Fluffy]

Vote absentee.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yeah, that's easy.

[Restoras]

It isn't hard, either. I did it in college. It just requires planning, a little attention to detail, a phone call or two and maybe a letter.

[RBS]

It just requires planning, a little attention to detail, a phone call or two and maybe a letter.

That seems to be Bo's main issue. How dare anyone suggest someone exercise a little personal responsibility.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Do you feel that way about other regulations and government imposed requirements, RBS? In every other area libertarians acknowledge that while a person can fill out the forms and stand in the right government lines, that these are barriers to entry that will, at the margin, work to lower participation. And we don't say 'well, if these people had some personal responsibility they would plan better and take the time to jump through those hoops! They must not really want it!'
I think a lot of you guys are chucking this well accepted maxim of libertarianism in this one area because, well, DEMOCRATS MIGHT WIN THROUGH FRAUD OH NOES!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The wife and I are permanent vote-by-mail voters. So, the Long Beach mayoral race is being contested, and I wasn't going to vote for either candidate. Until I got a flyer in the mail last week. The headline was "Do You Trust The Tea Party?" This piqued my interest so I read further. Turns out, candidate Robert Garcia sent out this flyer in an attempt to smear the reputation of his opponent, Damon Dunn. As it is, Damon Dunn has been active with local TEA Party activities. I didn't know anything about Damon Dunn, until I read the flyer. I filled out our ballots for Dunn, and sent them in last week. Thank you Robert Garcia for pointing me to the candidate I voted for; your opponent, Damon Dunn. What a dipshit.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I love it when that kind of thing has that result. That's happened to me several times, as a college student we get these fliers on campus for Democrat candidates with the assumption we are more liberal than the surrounding areas, so it touts all kinds of things that I can see and say 'oh, my, that's a good reason to not vote for you, thanks for letting me know!'

[waffles]

If you have a child and a job you probably have a purse or wallet. Most people keep an id in that thing. It's stupidly preposterous that somebody who uses their id for hundred of things would suddenly forget it on the day they remember to vote. I'm sure it can happen, but it isn't suppression.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"It's stupidly preposterous that somebody who uses their id for hundred of things would suddenly forget it on the day they remember to vote."

Well, here the governor of the state did just that.

[waffles]

And I am allowed to think he is a jackass and an irresponsible adult for it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

This is what it comes down to: if a governor can do it then lots of people who do care about politics are going to do it. Now, for some people here, obviously you are fine with that because, well, such people are stupid, lazy jackasses and stupid lazy jackasses not being able to give their consent towards their governance is not a bad thing. But for some people it might be.

[Fluffy]

Now, for some people here, obviously you are fine with that because, well, such people are stupid, lazy jackasses and stupid lazy jackasses not being able to give their consent towards their governance is not a bad thing.

It's not necessary to regard anyone as stupid or lazy.

Accidents happen. In a nation of 300 million, it is impossible for me to account for everybody's personal circumstances every day of the year. That means that any set of rules we make up for voting is going to inconvenience somebody, somewhere. It's statistically inevitable given the size of the pool.

You're just not going to guilt me into getting rid of all voting rules by telling me the story of some poor guy who gets a flat tire. Because flat tires happen, dude.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

This isn't an accident, it's a requirement that the government imposes. The government can decide it only wants a half day window to vote, or that you have to have a piece of paper to vote. But since as you concede we all know accidents happen, then the foreseeable result of those rules is eligible people not being able to give their consent. You don't see that as a problem, I do, because, well, whatever legitimacy government has to make rules for me, you, the guy with the flat tire and the guy who forgets his piece of paper and does not have time to go back, get it and come back, rests on us indicating our consent.

[Fluffy]

This isn't an accident, it's a requirement that the government imposes

The government is imposing on Flat Tire Guy by having voting at a precinct polling place instead of sending a personal valet to Flat Tire Guy's house to collect his vote individually while giving him a foot massage.

Dude, voting used to require walking to a central voting area, standing in a public place for 12 hours, and then voting in your own name in front of your neighbors.

Nobody in history has ever had an easier time at voting than modern Americans. There's just no comparison.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Fluffy, why not have a wall in front of the voting place where you have to scale it, and then answer a riddle at the door? I mean, it would still be easier than walking to the central polling place and we would REALLY only get those who are responsible enough to WORK for it.

Sheesh. For a libertarian you've got things strangely ordered: if they are going to rule over us and others then they should bend over backwards to get our consent.

[Fluffy]

Sheesh. For a libertarian you've got things strangely ordered: if they are going to rule over us and others then they should bend over backwards to get our consent.

The problem here is that you're incredibly parochial.

Machine-driven multiple voting has been a feature of every system featuring elections, going all the way back to ancient Athens.

Making it incredibly easy to vote, and eliminating any possible safeguard against multiple voting, will not make it easier for voters to hold their rulers to account. It makes it harder. Because it allows factions to corrupt the election process.

Making it easier (incredibly marginally easier) for me to vote doesn't help me if you also make it easier for the Tammany or Curley or Daley machine to send its people out to vote 100 times each.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I've said all along maybe the benefits of these requirements outweigh the costs, I'm just noting that there are costs, you seem to be arguing 'meh, no costs, or none I care about.'

An eligible voter not being able to vote under the situations I'm talking about is a bad thing, but of course an eligible voter having their vote canceled out by fraud is a bad thing too. For any particular requirement the question is one of whether the costs outweigh the benefits. Denying the costs seems immoral to me.

[Fluffy]

Denying the costs seems immoral to me.

OK, fine.

This is another chance for agreement, then.

Because I am not attempting to deny the costs.

It would be "denying the costs" if I said, "Silly Bo, no one will ever forget their ID. That will never happen. Everyone will always get to vote!"

I don't say that at all. I admit freely that some people will forget their ID and not get to vote, the same way that other misfortunes befall people and keep them from voting.

I just think that the responsibility for that falls on the person who makes the error. It certainly doesn't fall on me, if I'm not the one who makes the error.

Lots of things are "costs". What's important is moral blame for costs. Since I think I can establish to my own satisfaction that it's really not my concern if you forget your ID after rolling the dice and not voting absentee, no moral blame attaches to me, and I can just shrug at your cost.

[Restoras]

The portion of the populace that would not be able to vote because of negligence or accident wouldn't hamper the functioning of the republic because such incidents would be miniscule and random. Requiring responsible and capable adults to be responsible and capable on election day really doesn't seem like a stretch.

[waffles]

I just don't get the double standard. In most of my life I'm expected to be some kind of capable responsible human being, but when it comes time to vote we throw that all out the window?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

As I said, the double standard seems to go the other way for libertarians, bureaucratic hoops act as barriers in every other arena and we don't respond with 'why don't these people just exercise some responsibility and capability and jump through those hoops!' But when it comes to the prospect that 'low information voters' might be voting for Democrats many here are like 'oh my gosh, it's just a little old bureaucratic hoop to jump through, show some gumption and jump!'

[Fluffy]

No, Bo.

Arguing that having to have your ID to vote violates your right to vote would be like a libertarian arguing that having to produce evidence you own property violates your right to property.

"You should just take my word for it! What if I lost my deed? What if I forgot to bring it? What if I'm bad at keeping track of things? What if aliens ate my wallet?"

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Again, that's an inapt analogy. But it is increasingly interesting to see you guys defending bureaucratic requirements.

[Fluffy]

Strikingly, whenever you try to explain how one of my analogies is inapt, you draw irrelevant distinctions, or quantitative ones.

You wouldn't know an apt analogy if it raped you.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Your analogies all involve equating something where you have one half day in several years to something you can do on any continuous day. They're inapt.

[Fluffy]

You don't have one half day in several years.

Since you can vote absentee, you have months.

"But Fluffy, I thought I'd be able to vote on that one half day no problem, so I didn't take advantage of those months. And now it's the last minute and something came up and I'm screwed!"

That can happen to you in any area of life.

I can't live your life for you and hold your hand to make sure you don't fuck up.

You're the one making an inapt analogy when you attempt to compare demonstrating your eligibility to vote with going through some bureaucratic process before you, say, open a restaurant.

Voting is an act of governance. It is not reasonable to expect to be free from interacting with government while you're in the act of governing.

Voting itself is an inherently bureaucratic process. I have to go to my precinct, identify myself (whether proof of my identity or not is required or not), and fill out a form. There's no way for that to be done in a non-bureaucratic way.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Imagine that in order to carry concealed you had to go during a twelve hour period during the day and stand in line and fill out a form (an easy one), and if for whatever reason you missed it you could not carry concealed until another chance came up two, four or six years later. Now lets say you have to have certain ID too. That would not rankle your libertarian inclinations? Now that's an apt analogy.

And I don't think voting is 'an act of governance,' voting is where the government that rules you has to come to you and ask for your permission in continuing to do so. It's only legitimacy lies in that, it should make it easy for you, not hard.

[Fluffy]

Voting is an act of governance, because it's the tool by which every other citizen picks from among their number the men they want to employ to control me.

When you vote, you're governing me.

So I want to be sure you don't get to do that 100 times to my 1.

[Restoras]

But when it comes to the prospect that 'low information voters' might be voting for Democrats

I haven't seen any evidence on this board that that is what people here think. Plenty of 'low information' voters vote Republican too - in fact accoring to the Progtards all those that do are in fact 'low information' voters. That isn't the issue/prolbem.

[Restoras]

I'd go with apathetic - politicians that make a spectacle of themselves voting is more of a show than anything else.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I can honestly think of several times in my relatively young life where I wanted my ID or something in my wallet and I for whatever reason did not have it. So I bet over millions of people that is going to happen for voters somewhat commonly (of course not for most voters most of the time, just a lot in the aggregate). I think that's a real cost. Maybe the cost is worth it in preventing fraud which cancels out people's votes, maybe it's not, but it helps to realize there is that cost.

[waffles]

I see it as a benefit, not a cost.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Of course you do, voting should be reserved for the lucky, wise and responsible people like yourself, it should not be easy, because we all know what kind of people those kinds of voters are and how they will vote, amiright?

[Restoras]

because we all know what kind of people those kinds of voters are and how they will vote

Care to enlighten us?

[Fluffy]

Care to enlighten us?

Right. If anything, the people most likely to be caught up in Bo's scenario are employed people with other issues to deal with on election day.

The parasite class has all fucking day to vote.

Why are we assuming that the people who will have trouble voting will lean Democrat? Democrat voters navigate paper-driven bureaucracies as a survival skill.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I don't think or care how they lean, but I think a lot of people here do. How else to explain the sudden, selective indifference to bureaucratic strictures?

[Restoras]

And it's not like there can't be an alterntaive form of ID required or acceptable in place of a driver's license.

[Fluffy]

I would say that if you suffer from a neurotic anxiety that some accident or mischance will prevent you from voting on election day, you can allay that fear by voting absentee.

Then you have months to vote, and overcome any obstacle your own forgetfulness or bad luck puts in your way.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I am not worried about my missing the vote, but I do think it is a cost when an otherwise eligible voter does not get their chance to register their consent or the opposite because of some stupid bureaucratically imposed rule like that. Our government's legitimacy is based on that consent.

[Restoras]

It is fair to say it is a cost. The question is, how much is the cost? It seems miniscule in terms of the cost to a fucntional republic though I conced the cost to the individual could be higher. However, the cost to the individual would only be high if h/she was accutely interested in voting. Otherwise, not so much.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think I can agree with pretty much all of that (though I'm less focused on the functioning of the republic than I am a rights based idea that we have the right to give our consent if others are going to rule us).

[R C Dean]

Lots of people have drivers to shuttle them around, staff to run errands, etc., and so have no regular need to have ID on them.

Apparently, voter ID requirements are going to really suppress the voting of the rich and privileged.

[RBS]

So he doesn't keep his DL in his wallet like everyone else?

[Brett L]

Probably doesn't carry a wallet. Hasn't paid for anything in months.

[Sevo]

Racist columnist caught in Freudian slip:

"Chinua Achebe was a black African writer, yet his "Things Fall Apart" has been deemed racist."
http://www.sfgate.com/entertai.....493178.php

[John]

The truth is always liberating. Sexual images from Greek mythology, another target of the labelers, links us with the past in an immediate and intimate way. They're also beautiful, and the cultivation of aesthetic appreciation is what a college should be all about.

People told me if I voted for Mitt Romney they would be banning classical works in universities because they were too sexual and risque and they were right.

[Sevo]

That joke has legs and many apps.

[John]

It never gets old because it is too true.

[John]

I haven't read that much about the GM recall but it is easy to make too much of these sorts of things. The thing is no testing no matter how thorough can reveal faults in a design that making a hundred thousand or more versions of a car and people using them daily for years and tens or hundreds of thousands of miles can. Just because the flaw was revealed doesn't necessarily mean GM was incompetent for not seeing it. Sometimes shit just happens. Maybe they were incompetent but the mere fact that they have a flaw doesn't necessarily mean that.

Every car company has had issues, sometimes serious issues, that didn't become apparent until after the car was in production and use. I would also point out that the ever increasing safety, mileage and emission standards serves to make cars ever more and in many cases needlessly complex. More complex the car, the more likely there is to be a fault that is not apparent in testing.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Maybe they were incompetent but the mere fact that they have a flaw doesn't necessarily mean that.

I think the issue here is that GM decided to penny-pinch rather than spend an extra $10 per part or whatever it might cost to put a sturdier part. It's a systemic problem that's biting them in the ass.

All car companies go through recalls; I think most people would understand that. But GM is going to go through extra scrutiny due to the loss on the bailout and can't afford to be viewed as putting out inferior products just to save a little bit of money on production. Other than GM lifers (and there are lot of them out there still), the company has a shit reputation and can't afford to lose market share. These recalls aren't doing anything to reassure a Ford or Chrysler/Dodge customer that they can switch brands and still get a reliable "American" vehicle.

That and GM is making a lot of odd moves, like waiting until next year to release their mid-size diesel trucks when Ram is pushing their 3.0 1500 and both Nissan and Toyota are working with Cummins to also offer a diesel option.

[R C Dean]

There's a big element of coverup to this. Apparently, GM knew about the problem, but swept it under the rug for years, resulting in deaths and injuries that would have been prevented if they had just done the fucking fix when they should have.

GM deserves to be crucified by the trial lawyers for this. And will be.

[Sevo]

Well, we all knew it, but it sometimes gobsmacks others; TINSTAAFL:

"Electric-car charging program hits speed bump"
[...]
"Nissan's plan to let buyers of its electric Leaf recharge their cars for free may be in jeopardy,"...
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....hc-bustech

Yep, someone expected to get paid for the free shit.

[John]

You mean electricity doesn't just come from the light socket? I don't believe it.

[Alice Bowie]

Are Libertarians supporters of the Tea Party?

[Brett L]

The non-party affiliated movement to restrain Federal bailouts of banks and reduce Federal deficit spending, or the insurgent GOP movement that has been applied to everyone who isn't DemLite?

[John]

The Tea Party was never "Libertarian" but it is a no kidding grass roots small government movement. Libertarians rather than trying to co-opt it or help it do some good, immediately went no true Scotsman on it and joined the left is trying to marginalize it, because that is just how they roll.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The Tea Party isn't libertarian per se, but their focus, or at least rhetoric, on cutting spending is going to be attractive to many libertarians.

[Sevo]

The 'tea party' (whatever it is) will get support from libert'ns the same way the dems or repubs do; when they propose policies that favor freedom and less government.

[sarcasmic]

It's TEA, not Tea. As in Taxed Enough Already.

Also, Libertarian is a political party, while libertarian is a political philosophy.

I don't know about anyone else, but this particular libertarian supported the TEA Party when they were about reducing taxes, but stopped paying attention when the social conservatives ran to the front of the parade.

[R C Dean]

Pretty much my history with them. I had real hopes, but they were dashed by the SoCons, then the Establishment Repubs, and finally by the IRS persecution.

[Christophe]

I don't believe the political process is how individuals will ultimately reclaim their sovereignty.

So I regard them as a well-motivated, but futile, attempt (to the extent that they're even a bit libertarian).

[R C Dean]

I don't believe the political process is how individuals will ultimately reclaim their sovereignty.

Its either that or violent revolution.

So, yeah, I tend to agree. The Master Class won't go quietly, and will have to be driven into mass graves.

Whether that will happen or not, I have no idea. But the prospect of a civil war in America in this day and age makes me shudder. I would expect the body count to be in the millions, easily.

[The Last American Hero]

As others have noted, there would be some overlap if you did a Venn diagram, particularly on the issue of taxes and the general size of government, as well as those libertarians that just want to see TEAM RED incumbents get thrown out of office (see Lugar).

[Warty]

Among our language the word is "Tiger!"

Penn featured this sublime insanity on Sunday School a few weeks ago. Amazing stuff.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Warty is a Member of The Congregation?

[Warty]

Oh, oh, SugarFree. Jezebel wants you to call them.

42. Male librarians

There's something undeniably cool about a person who bucks gender stereotypes to pursue their passion, whether that's owning the shit out of the Dewey decimal system or kicking field goals.

[John]

How is being a Libertarian "buck gender stereotypes"? I thought men were all predatory capitalist pigs?

[sarcasmic]

librarian... derp

[John]

Ah. Nevermind.

[Zeb]

librarian

[SugarFree]

I'm sure the blush would be off the rose once they found out I was straight, untattooed and a libertarian.

[waffles]

But do you kick field goals?

[SugarFree]

No, I'm not really into super-fat chicks.

[lap83]

How do you read this crap? I couldn't get past 99.

"Hillary reports that he was super chill."

The description is less fucking descriptive than the subhead. God, I hate lazy writing.

[The Last American Hero]

Does the author understand that Dewey created his system in part because he believed women to be simple minded?

[John]

This is awesome.

Undercover journalist James O'Keefe released his latest video featuring a sting operation to expose Hollywood environmentalists.

The video features an undercover journalist from Project Veritas posing as "Muhammad," a member of a Middle Eastern oil family, offering $9 million in funding to American filmmakers to fund an anti-fracking movie. He was joined by a second undercover activist posing as an ad executive.

O'Keefe entraps actor Ed Begley Jr., actress Mariel Hemingway, and director Josh Tickell, who agree to the film while promising to hide the source of the funds.

The undercover activist tells the group that "if Washington, D.C., continues fracking, America will be energy-efficient, and then they won't need my oil anymore."

In a phone call to Tickell, the "ad executive" states, "My client's interest is to end American energy independence; your interest is to end fracking. And you guys understand that?"

Tickell's response: "Correct. Yes, super clear."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-H.....cking-Film

[waffles]

This is pretty naked.

[Stormy Dragon]

I'm not sure why this is supposed to disturb me.

[John]

It is not supposed to "disturb you". It is just an illustration that Hollywood people and environmentalists are morons who make up for it by being dishonest and having no principles.

[sarcasmic]

Stormy Dragon would fit right in.

[Stormy Dragon]

How are the Hollywood people here being either dishonest or unprincipled?

Because they won't reveal the source of their funding? Does that apply to any political group with anonymous donors?

Because they allied with people who share their policy goals for different reasons? Is a Libertarian who supports, say, Rand Paul dishonest and unprincipled because he's not 100 percent libertarian?

[R C Dean]

How are the Hollywood people here being either dishonest or unprincipled?

By agreeing to coverup who is funding their movie and what its true purpose is?

That doesn't strike you as dishonest or unprincipled?

Does that apply to any political group with anonymous donors?

So we now are equating making political films with being a political group? Supporting Citizens United, are we?

Here's one difference, though: an overtly (conservative) political group runs the risk, we now know, of drawing down the wrath of the IRS on itself and its donors, giving it a reason for anonymity.

Hollywood film-makers and their foreign national funding sources? Not so much.

[Stormy Dragon]

When haven't I supported Citizens United?

Here's one difference, though: an overtly (conservative) political group runs the risk, we now know, of drawing down the wrath of the IRS on itself and its donors, giving it a reason for anonymity.

Hollywood film-makers and their foreign national funding sources? Not so much.

It's dishonest and unprincipled! Unless you're a Republican!

[Christophe]

Epic Troll. Not that anyone will care.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

How dumb do Hollywood people have to be to accept an offer like that?

I doubt anti-fracking activists are acting from support of the Ay-rab agenda, so beyond exposing the silliness and double standards of certain prominent leftists, I don't see the point of...

oh.

[Stormy Dragon]

The two biggest funders of anti-fracking groups are middle eastern oil concerns and the US coal industry. They're the "bootleggers" and the enviros are the "baptists" in this particular issue.