A.M. Links: Hagel Calls for Military Health Care Review, De Blasio Wants to Legalize Ferrets, Oldest-Ever House Member Ousted

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  aida mira rodriguez/Flickr

  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is calling for a widespread review of the military health care system in the wake of recent troubling revelations about U.S. veterans' medical care. 

• Edward Snowden told Nightly News anchor Brian Williams that he "never intended" to wind up in Russia, but the U.S. State Department "trapped" him there. Secretary of State John Kerry called it "a pretty dumb answer, frankly." 
• A high school in Long Island is the latest to ban backpacks, forcing students to carry books and belongings in clear plastic bags. 
• The De Blasio administration is considering legalizing ferrets in New York City. They were banned there by Rudy Giuliani in 1998. 
• Wisconsin abortion providers testified in federal court Tuesday that requiring clinic doctors to have hospital admitting privileges creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles; state attorneys present witnesses today. 
• Ninety-one year-old Republican Rep. Ralph Hall—the oldest-ever member of the U.S. House (he once had a brush with Bonnie and Clyde)—lost a primary runoff against a little-known challenger in Texas. 

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Comments

[Snark Plissken]

A high school in Long Island is the latest to ban backpacks, forcing students to carry books and belongings in clear plastic bags.

Now that's transparency!

[Rhywun]

the latest

You mean there are other school administrators this incomprehensibly stupid? I would not have believed it.

[waffles]

The De Blasio administration is considering legalizing ferrets in New York City. They were banned there by Rudy Giuliani in 1998

As long as he can keep Baldwin fuming I don't care what he does with his ferrets. Also it looks like a squirrel orgy this morning. Maybe they invited the ferrets.

[JW]

The De Blasio administration is considering legalizing ferrets in New York City. They were banned there by Rudy Giuliani in 1998.

Blahzio isn't about to turn his back on his brothers.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I say we boycott Hit and Run until Brown quits breaking commenting. WHO'S WITH ME?

[Snark Plissken]

My name is Snake Plisskenus, behold my first comment, ye Fisty, and despair.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's not in the spirit of the boycott.

[Snark Plissken]

I work alone, FoE.

[sarcasmic]

Like we have a choice.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

We do and I am exercising it!! NO COMMENTS, NO PEACE!

Oh, wait a moment...

[tarran]

Attica! Attica! Attica!

[Cdr Lytton]

Has Macklemore released his squirrel song?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Secretary of State John Kerry called it "a pretty dumb answer, frankly."

Kerry is an expert on pretty dumb answers.

[Rich]

And I'll bet he "never intended" to wind up as SecState.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

But he did proffer this erudite snippet of wisdom:

"...man up and come back to the United States."

Nut Up or Shut Up!

[Rhywun]

man up

He left out the trailing "BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!"

[Pro Libertate]

Dumber than letting one contractor walk with the NSA's entire database? Is that possible? And when are people getting fired for the gross negligence in security? Target's CIO and CEO are gone.

[BigT]

THIS^^

Obama may not have been intimately involved in all the scandals, but he is responsible for holding those who were involved accountable. But whom has he fired? Even the Progs should be ashamed of this.

(He is afraid of the books they would write)

[Invisible Finger]

It's not like those books aren't going to get written anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"We'd be delighted for him to come back. He should come back. That's what a patriot would do. A patriot would not run away and look for refuge in Russia or Cuba or some other country. A patriot would stand up in the United States and make his case to the American people," Kerry added.

Yeah. Once in custody Snowden's done talking to the American people. We'll never hear from him again.

[tarran]

Kerry is an expert on pretty dumb answers.

Clearly, Beacon Hill is missing one of its village idiots.

[Juice]

The response Kerry gave is exceptionally dumb. Snowden never said he wanted to "end up" in the US, just that he didn't necessarily want to be in Russia, of all places.

[Juice]

"He can come home but he's a fugitive from justice which is why he is not being permitted to fly around the world," he said.

Which is precisely what Snowden said, you butt nugget.

[Cyto]

Much worse:

Snowden: I had purchased a ticket to Cuba and on to Latin America.

Kerry: to have just admitted that he wants to go to Cuba.

When senior government officials are willing to twist lies about you so readily on live TV immediately after having heard a contradictory quote and the press is sitting there not uttering a word.... yeah, I wouldn't "trust in the American system of justice" either.

[heartburn]

But to be hiding in Russia, an authoritarian country...

Is that Kerry's personal opinion, or is that how the US classifies Russia.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The De Blasio administration is considering legalizing ferrets in New York City. They were banned there by Rudy Giuliani in 1998.

Big Apple's rat lobby didn't like the competition.

[Tonio]

Ferrets were originally used to kill rats; they'd let them into the space behind the walls of houses and they'd sweep the place clean.

[Matrix]

"Power of whiteness" is why you can survive the Holocaust and make a good life in America, says MSNBC host Toure

Fuck you, Toure!

And fuck you squirrels!

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

Maybe the squirrels were jealous of all this attention to ferrets?

[waffles]

Well squirrlmistress do you have a better solution?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

RODENT WAR!

[Tonio]

Ferrets are carnivores, as are cats, bears and dogs. Rodents are a different branch of mammals entirely.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

They are fancy rats to me.

I hope we do not reprise the lobster/sea bug debate all over again 🙂

[Pathogen]

Say what you want about tenants of rodentism, but at least they have an ethos...

[Teaching Student]

Wow... Of course nothing will come of it.

[SugarFree]

The white people also stole his last name, it seems.

[BakedPenguin]

Last names are a tool of the patriarchy.

[SugarFree]

You know who else didn't have last names until the Germans made them take one?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

The Lusatian Sorbs?

[Zeb]

So, how come the power of whiteness failed for the millions who were murdered?

Is MSNBC trying to make black people look stupid or something?

[Matrix]

They've been making the Left look stupid since their first day on the air.

[Invisible Finger]

Not like they needed any help.

[anomdebus]

They were killed by white people, therefore it cancels out, or something...

[Juice]

Well, at least he'll see how it feels to have a bunch of professional grievers on his ass all day for a while.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know, if I wanted to read a bunch of stories I couldn't comment on I would head on over to Drudge. At least he doesn't make me load a bunch of useless social networking widgets.

[Steve G]

I just gave you a life in Candy Crush Saga

[Warty]

Ghostery.

[The Late P Brooks]

Via PBS:

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Yahoo News that the cost-cutting culture in Washington helped lead to the VA scandal.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Must be a deeply underground culture.

[sarcasmic]

There is a grain of truth to that. They never cut costs by cutting staff. That's just taboo. What they do is tell their staff not to work. By not working they save money, because doing stuff costs money. It sounds ridiculous, but that's how they cut costs.

[Steve G]

Sort of. They do cut staff...by cutting vacant positions. That's how the DoD is performing their "20% headquarters reduction" right now. Not a single pink slip is ever given.

[KPres]

If the costs keep getting cut, why is the spending always going up?

[robc]

I swore I saw a graph that said 100% of incumbents won their primary.

Liars or just jumping the gun? Or is there any difference?

[OldMexican]

Wisconsin abortion providers testified in federal court Tuesday that requiring clinic doctors to have hospital admitting privileges creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles;

"Killing should be a sport, not a job!"

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

"creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles"

The irony is so thick, the witnesses may drown.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Since they surely do not accept your basic implied premise, not so much.

[mr simple]

"So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading," he said.

Government officials lied? Say it isn't so!

[SugarFree]

Why can't men just accept that they are the worst?

Another rude awakening played out on social media this weekend as news of Rodger's attack spread around the world. When women took to Twitter to share their own everyday experiences with men who had reduced them to sexual conquests and threatened them with violence for failing to comply?filing their anecdotes under the hashtag #YesAllWomen?some men joined in to express surprise at these revelations, which amassed more quickly than observers could digest. How can some men manage to appear polite, kind, even "wonderful" in public while perpetuating sexism under the radar of other men's notice? And how could this dynamic be so obvious to so many women, yet completely foreign to the men in their lives? Some #YesAllWomen contributors suggested that men simply aren't paying attention to misogyny. Others claimed that they deliberately ignore it. There could also be a performative aspect to this public outpouring of male shock?a man who expresses his own lack of awareness of sexism implicitly absolves himself of his own contributions to it.

Collective guilt, collective blame. To the gas chambers go.

[waffles]

I thought Nicole was the worst? Can't we just agree that BMW drivers are the worst?

[Game of Thrones fan]

Britta is the worst.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Nikki in a BWM would be the worst of the worst?

[tarran]

I think the outragegasm from this spree killing will be over in three weeks, unless we get another one in the next few months.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"These women were *killed* - that's *much* worse than our polite request that you simply put yourself in these stocks for a couple weeks so that we can tell you how much you suck."

[Brett L]

4 men killed, 2 women. Obvious misandry.

[KPres]

That sounds about right, given that men are statistically almost twice as likely to be the victim of a violent crime as women. What could be more indicative of a war on women than that?

[The Late P Brooks]

And how could this dynamic be so obvious to so many women, yet completely foreign to the men in their lives?

A conundrum, it is.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Japanese samurai commit seppuku for losing some battle, yet you men balk at a little ritual self-flagellation. Hypocrites!"

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Wisconsin abortion providers testified in federal court Tuesday that requiring clinic doctors to have hospital admitting privileges creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles; state attorneys present witnesses today.

Not even an abortion link can get enough comments past the squirrels.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Ding dong the Dewhurst is dead. So nice to see him going on on a losing streak.

[entropy_factor]

yeah, but Patrick won. That guy is a flaming yankee. Texas lost out during this primary season.

[OldMexican]

I do wonder how does it feel to lose over a guy who was accused by Dewhurst's campaign of being a swindler. The rejection by the voters must have delivered boatloads of butt-hurt.

[robc]

test, is this thing on?

[robc]

Hmmm...Im 2 for 2. 3 for 3 if this posts.

[BigT]

Check your posting privilege!

[BigT]

You can keep your plan.

Mark Pryor (D-ARK) is a parrot.

[Tonio]

Lovely plumage, the Arkansas Ruby-Naped.

[mr simple]

Legendary author Maya Angelou dies

She was found in front of her computer with her browser open to a page titled: The Time Travel Adventures of Warty Hugeman...

Trigger warning: auto play video

[SugarFree]

The Man Who Killed Maya Angelou. I'm making some business cards.

[tarran]

I imagine it something like Paladin's card in Have Gun, Will Travel, but with a giant cock instead of the knight.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

*rises to vigorously applaud*

[SugarFree]

You have a strong design sense. To the Photoshoppe!

[Soros' Wank-noose]

here are some sketches for your perusal

[SugarFree]

I want something with wings. To represent freedom.

[Soros' Wank-noose]

Hmmm....excellent choice!

[BigT]

Maya Angelou dead.

Wrote Dem campaign strategy:

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Anyone here ever read anything of hers? Was it worthwhile?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Poem written on the occasion of Bill Clinton's inauguration, 1993

http://poetry.eserver.org/angelou.html

[tarran]

Holy shit that sucks.

I'm serious, it's so pompous that I'm surprised she didn't stab all her roommates after publishing it.

[BigT]

Got it. Pure crap.

[Doctor Whom]

I remember hearing her read it. Bad poetry and bad political pandering had had a baby.

[waffles]

Well I'm still not sure why the caged bird sings.

[Matrix]

Cops strip-searched a woman and sprayed mace on her genitals

Nothing else happened!

[sarcasmic]

Did the officers go home safely? Because that's all that matters.

[Matrix]

Well, they should get paid time off for the emotional stress this has caused them.

[croaker]

Considering that the female cop in Texas got a year (suspended) and two years probation for roadside cavity searches, what's the over/under for this one?

[The Late P Brooks]

In an earlier comment, which was devoured by skwerlz, I linked to an opinion piece by some headshrinker in NYT about how, despite his (and hopefully your) unshakable faith in the mumbo-jumbo powers of psychoanalysis, its predictive powers are imperfect with regard to spree killers. The answer (no peeking!)-

Make it harder for people with no demonstrable inclination toward spree killing to buy teh gunz.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Comments fixed?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

🙂

[Steve G]

He should man up and come back to the United States," the secretary of state said

Trigger warning1!!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Stop the presses!

"The bottom line? Though [heavy] metal may be the music of choice for some alienated working-class males, it enjoys its greatest popularity in the most advanced, most tolerant, and knowledge-based places in the world. Strange as it may seem, heavy metal springs not from the poisoned slag of alienation and despair but the loamy soil of post-industrial prosperity. This makes sense after all: while new musical forms may spring from disadvantaged, disgruntled, or marginalized groups, it is the most advanced and wealthy societies that have the media and entertainment companies that can propagate new sounds and genres, as well as the affluent young consumers with plenty of leisure time who can buy it."

http://www.citylab.com/politic.....1400261093

[OldMexican]

Strange as it may seem, heavy metal springs not from the poisoned slag of alienation and despair but the loamy soil of post-industrial prosperity.

Why would one find this strange? Makeup and chickets to bite their heads of ain't cheap, you know!

[Warty]

Mellander, who is Swedish, attributes Scandinavia's proclivity for heavy metal bands to its governments' efforts to put compulsory music training in schools, which created a generation with the musical chop to meet metal's technical demands.

There's the answer. Metal is technically demanding and pays shit. There's a reason why most American metal acts are garbage compared to most Scandinavian ones.

[heartburn]

Is it customary to file gratuitous value judgments under "Politics?"

[mr simple]

Strange Brews: The Genes of Craft Beer

After thousands of years of unwitting domestication, brewing yeasts ? the microorganisms that ferment a brewer's tepid slop of grain, water and hops into beer ? are as diverse as the beer they make. And now two research teams, from White Labs and a Belgian genetics laboratory, are mapping out their sprawling genealogy, creating the first genetic family tree for brewing yeasts and the beers they make.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Bud is the black sheep of the family.

[Warty]

Crowbar

[Warty]

Do things work now?

OH NOES CREATINES

Chris Akin, who knew 'virgin killer' Elliot Rodger for several years after meeting him on holiday, said he noticed a sinister change in him over the past four months after he started to take creatine to build up his muscles.

Not surprisingly, it's a complete troll job.

[waffles]

How could anyone believe that guy had bigorexia?

[mr simple]

What a silly cooz. Way to verify your sources.

[Matrix]

Armed and armored criminals savagely beat a man, who was repairing a tractor in his driveway, without provocation

He says he still respects law enforcement, but that day they made almost fatal mistakes.

And nothing else happened!

[antisocial-ist]

How does someone respect people who damn near killed him for shits and giggles?

[Matrix]

Years of indoctrination and fear will do that to some, I suppose.

[Invisible Finger]

The press goaded him into saying it.

Journalist: "Do you still respect law enforcement or do you want me to portray you as a nutjob?"

[sarcasmic]

I wish they'd stop calling them law enforcement. A more accurate term would be compliance officers. Because they don't enforce the law. They beat and kill anyone who is not compliant (does not obey). Anyone who has been the victim of a crime can assure you that compliance officers don't give a shit about enforcing the law.

[croaker]

You give them the respect they think they're entitled to, or you get beaten and arrested again.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/20.....400868399/

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nothing will happen until people start taking their revenge. They understand nothing except force.

[sarcasmic]

Without provocation? He was working on a tractor, which means he was surrounded by tools that could be used as deadly weapons! I'm sure that the brave officers shouted conflicting orders when they approached him, which he obviously failed to obey or they would not have been forced to defend themselves! He should thank them for not killing him! Failure to obey is a deadly threat! They would have been justified in using deadly force to defend themselves from that deadly failure to obey!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Dear Reason. This persistent comment problem is now unacceptable. Thank you. Best, Rufus.

[Invisible Finger]

Rufus was SO intent on rioting and had to settle for this.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What am I gonna do with this sledge hammer now?

[Bobarian]

This is Canadian for rioting.

What we consider rioting, they consider attending hockey.

[Matrix]

50 Cent should stay away from baseball

Stephen Hawking could throw better than him.

[Cdr Lytton]

Get it over of the plate or die tryin'.

Oh, and this is for the squirrels:

http://www.rodent-killer.com/Squirrel3.html

[Libertarian]

In his defense, he was trying to throw left-handed.

[The Late P Brooks]

Dear Reason. This persistent comment problem is now unacceptable. Thank you. Best, Rufus.

NEEDZ MOAR CANCEL MAH SUSCRITSHUNZ