A.M. Links: Edward Snowden Speaks, V.A. Hospital 'An Organized Crime Syndicate,' Pro-Russian Forces Shoot Down Ukrainian Army Helicopter

• 

  Credit: Wikimedia Commons

  Edward Snowden sat down for a wide-ranging interview with NBC News. The U.S. government has "no idea what documents were taken," he said. Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden should "man up and come back to the United States."

• According to a whistleblower who works at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Texas, the place is run like "an organized crime syndicate…. People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they're pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up." As the V.A. scandal grows, calls are getting louder for embattled Veterans Affairs chief Eric Shinseki to resign.

• Pro-Russian forces near the eastern Ukraine town of Slaviansk shot down a Ukrainian army helicopter, killing 14.

• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has recognized a First Amendment right to film the police in public.

• Air pollution levels in London may be worse than those in Beijing.

• A new study finds that 30 percent of the human population is overweight.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden should "man up and come back to the United States."

"So we can shut him up."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Is this shithy thing working this morning?

[Slammer]

Howdy. It theems to be working fine.

[Rich]

So far, so good.

Hey, Reason -- How about posting an announcement about the technical fix, if any?

[Fist of Etiquette]

They post the solution on the "thank you for your donation" page.

[Rich]

Brilliant!

[DontShootMe]

sure, US browsers work fine.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Exceptshunalizm!

[Bee Tagger]

Is Kerry mansplaining things to Snowden or saying Snowden should mansplain things to the American people?

[entropy_factor]

That's my argument. If he was to come back here, he'd be locked naked in a cage indefinitely a la Manning. These revelations would NEVER have come out. It's like these people are desperately begging for the blue pill when reality is slapping them in the face.

[Doctor Whom]

Man up and come back to the United States. You can truuuuust us, bwahahaha.

[gaijin]

It's interesting to me that John 'Vietnam Veterans Against The War' Kerry is now criticizing someone for revealing uncomfortable information about the activities of his government...

[Doctor Whom]

Someone in government is a hypocrite? Unpossible!

[Rich]

Hey! Kerry manned up, and he's now SecState!

[Brett L]

What is the statute of limitations for conspiracy to cover up war crimes? Did they offer Lurch amnesty to testify before Congress?

[Root Boy]

Maybe Nixon was more lenient on whistleblowers than Obama.

Share that at your (not you literally) next Moveon meet up.

[Brett L]

I've begun referring to voting as "anonymous commenters commenting on matters of governance" and reminding friends that YouTube commenters' votes count the same as theirs. I'm doing my part to undermine the holiness of voting.

[invisible furry hand]

I was discussing this with someone who is for compulsory voting. When i pointed out how debased our political discourse is, and linked it to compulsory voting, he said 'twas ever thus, and anyway you can't expect smart political discussion because most people are stupid.

SO WHY SHOULD THEY BE FORCED TO VOTE AND AFFECT PUBLIC POLICY WHEN THEIR OPINIONS ARE SO FUCKING STUPID?

Answer came there none...

[Warren's Strapon]

Nothing says freedom like compulsory voting.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

SO WHY SHOULD THEY BE FORCED TO VOTE AND AFFECT PUBLIC POLICY WHEN THEIR OPINIONS ARE SO FUCKING STUPID?

Everybody knows voting makes you smarter. Like how victimhood makes you right.

[Brandon]

You can't increase the sum of wisdom by adding zeros.

[Paul.]

You can't increase the sum of wisdom by adding zeros.

You're on fire lately. Have another internet.

[Brett L]

You can't increase the sum of wisdom by adding zeros.

It just brings down the average.

[JW]

Not sure if Carlin said this, but still appropos...

[Snark Plissken]

Secretary of State John Kerry said Snowden should "man up and come back to the United States."

The media is already figuring out how to roll over for the admin when Snowden gets shot 47 times while "trying to escape".

[UnCivilServant]

*53% of bullets missed.

[DontShootMe]

So, you're saying federal agents are a LOT more accurate that local police?

[a better weapon]

That seems kind of high, don't you think?

[Jerryskids]

I would be curious to know how John Kerry would react to a modern-day Jane Fonda visiting an Al-Qaeda camp, posing for pictures with them and their weapons, encouraging them to keep fighting that evil American government that so many Americans hate.

Would he be supporting their right to free speech or defending Obama's decision to drone-strike them?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Barack Obama Has Unicorn Sex With Princess Celestia from My Little Pony

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nope, not clicking that

[Rich]

SugarFree?!

[invisible furry hand]

The felching is a nice touch

[Andrew S.]

I'm Reason's resident brony, and that's about a million steps too far for me. Even the description scares me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new study finds that 30 percent of the human population is overweight.

Please tell me they're measuring that by BMI.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm 5'10 and weigh 150lbs and in decent shape. I bet you they'd consider me "fat" on some level. Even though my wife, despite modest rippage, considers me too thin.

[WTF]

150 is a little thin for 5'10. I'm 5'10 and weigh 180, but I also work out a lot so I have a good amount of muscle weight (I have a 31" waist, so I'm not fat). If you don't work out, 160 is probably a decent weight for your height.

[Fist of Etiquette]

25.8 BMI. Go be fat somewhere else, fatty.

[WTF]

And that's why BMI is generally worthless.

Mmmmmm.....donuts!

[Auric Demonocles]

He's so fat, he's fat everywhere at once.

(I'm overweight according to BMI as well)

[gaijin]

Dude, do you even squat?

[WTF]

Of course. Squatting doesn't give you a big waist.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not according to my doctor who thinks it's how I'm made. Never hit and never will hit 160 lbs. Highest I went was 155.

I do tone work out because I run and cycle and getting back into tennis. No more team sports for me - what, with two ACL surgeries under my belt.

[WTF]

Your doctor would know what's best, everyone has a different body type. As long as you're healthy nothing else really matters.

[sarcasmic]

Drink more. You'll put on weight.

[Rich]

And a big bowl of ice cream before bed -- don't forget *that*!

[Zeb]

None of that has worked for me. Plenty of drinking and late evening high calorie snacks and my weight has hardly changed since I was 18.

[sarcasmic]

I've gained weight twice in my life. Once when I was in a long term relationship with a girlfriend, and shortly after getting married. I imagine that if we were to divorce I'd quickly lose thirty pounds. Hope that never happens though.

[Clich? Bandit]

One of my best friends (he just turned 50) has always been pretty healthy. He just went through a nasty 2 year divorce (no kids thankfully) of his 20 year marriage. He channeled his anger...for 50 he looks 35 and is more ripped than Dorian Yates could ever be. He actually scares me now.

He likes going to Bars wearing his kilt. I imagine he is getting more ladies now than he ever has.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Same here.

I tried the 'stack on fat' theory.

Nothing.

[waffles]

By BMI absolutely not. BMI is the only way to measure a mass population. I bet Warty is obese by BMI.

[WTF]

A lot of professional athletes are obese by BMI.

[pan fried wylie]

KORPORASHUNS!

They'd be in perfect shape if they played non-profit sports.

[Warty]

My BMI is well over 30. Let's check. At 6'1.5" and 260 (I went to a wedding this past weekend and bloated up at least 5 pounds), my BMI is 33.8. BEEFCAKE

[invisible furry hand]

School forces disabled teenage girl to shave her armpits in front of students.

http://www.theage.com.au/victo.....396jg.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

All part of the equation having abdicating and handing over our rights to the government. Our bodies belong to bureaucrats and even schools now.

Didn't you read the fucking memo. It's right there in the TPS reports.

[invisible furry hand]

The thing is, Rufus, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.

[Fluffy]

Meh.

She enrolled her daughter in a "life skills" class.

Apparently one of the life skills she was learning was "Groom your fucking self."

[Root Boy]

I always laugh that the schools have those classes and the politicians are always pushing things like financial literacy in schools, etc.

I know it's because kids are raised by parents who don't teach them anything, but damn, the schools can't even teach math and reading...do people think they will do a great job with health or sex?

[invisible furry hand]

It was actually a school for intellectually disabled kids, so an independent living skills program is probably more needed than trigonometry

[Root Boy]

I see. That makes more sense for what happened (promises to at least read some links in the future). Hope they at least did that in an all girls classroom (you can report me for being cis-whatever).

[Clich? Bandit]

I am taking a page from Sloop's book where his kids invoice their chores (I still think he paid too much for dead bird removal): I am going to start teaching her about money and investing. I am working out the selling of hug puts but when done there will be a whole secondary hug market.

Since she is 4 tickle futures have bottomed out.

[Paul.]

I wonder if these schools that teach financial literacy have any civics teachers who suggest stimulus and deficit spending 'help' the economy?

[Root Boy]

That is my fear. They start teaching finances and it becomes the glories of deficit spending and how public school financing is always being cut which is bad, bad, bad (a double lie).

[JW]

"Touch my child without my permission again and we'll play a game of "wax the teacher.""

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Obama acts to protect workers from ObamaCare.
...The word that got our attention, though, is dump. It appears in the headline, too: "I.R.S. Bars Employers From Dumping Workers Into Health Exchanges." If the New York Times were our only source of news, we'd be very confused right now. (Well, OK, we'd be very confused almost always.) For months the Times has been touting the quality of ObamaCare policies, scoffing at those who liked their previous plans and were victimized by President Obama's fraudulent promise that they could keep them.

Now all of a sudden the exchanges are a garbage dump? Or is it that the exchanges are a pristine wilderness into which workers are the garbage being dumped?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not even Kafka or Orwell could have come up with this.

Time to hand the Obamcare file to Cafe Irreal.

[Slammer]

Wow. That's some blatant fucking bullshit.

[Rich]

yet another perverse effect of the law: Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act.

Next time, clowns, perhaps you'll *read* the law before you pass it!

[Root Boy]

Been a long term project of the progs to get rid of private charity and force everything under govt control.

Of course the ban against employee dumping is a short term fix before the election to prevent even more anger at O-care

[WTF]

Next time, clowns, perhaps you'll *read* the law before you pass it!

No, you have to pass it to see what's in it!
/Pelosi

[WTF]

"I.R.S. Bars Employers From Dumping Workers Into Health Exchanges."

The I.R.S. has the power to create and pass legislation now?

[Bee Tagger]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has recognized a First Amendment right to film the police in public.

I guess it's like the right to free speech. You can say it, but it doesn't mean the other person has to like it or not ruin the next few days of your life over it.

[pan fried wylie]

or just kill you dead, cause hey, why not.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Exclusive: Texas VA Run Like a 'Crime Syndicate,' Whistleblower Says
...Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why?to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives' bonus pay.

What's worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight.

"For lack of a better term, you've got an organized crime syndicate," a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. "People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they're pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up."

"I see it in the executives' eyes," the whistleblower added. "They are worried."...

[Ted S.]

Those VA managers need to man up and face charges.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The irony will be lost on the progs

[WDATPDIM?!]

I see a lot of black-market medical care in our future.

[UnCivilServant]

"Welcome to Doctor's Bob's Quick-Stitch, will you be paying is cash, crypto-currency or body parts?"

[WDATPDIM?!]

"Fresh eggs will also be accepted."

[Andrew S.]

Yo, um, I must've, like, fell on a bullet, and it, like, drove itself
into my gut.

[Doctor Whom]

IOW, it really is what progressives want for America as a whole.

[Root Boy]

You lie! O-care is totally different than the VA system...or so I'm told:

http://www.nationaljournal.com.....w-20140527

[Tonio]

Out of all the scandals and near-scandals, this one has the greatest possibility of damaging the administration. In all fairness, it does appear that this has been going on for years. However, the thing about being president is that you assume responsibility for the actions of the executive branch; this administration has been in power for roughly 5.5 years, far long enough for them to own this.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Dear, sweet, naive Tonio. It's Bush's fault.

[WTF]

Bush drove the VA onto a ditch!!11!!

[RG]

It's just another example of progs, especially this admin's empty words. They swear up and down they can make big gov't work, but fail to even do the basic diligence of asking questions.

Obama made grand promises about improving access and care, threw some money at it, and walked away. There was a report the other day that he hadn't met with Shinseki since 2012. Any bitter clinger who still supports him can no longer claim how great his intellectual curiosity is, since he never bothered to ask questions about the VA, the exchange website, the IRS, etc.

[Doctor Whom]

the thing about being president is that you assume responsibility for the actions of the executive branch

Plenty of people seem to believe with perfect faith that the VA scandal, like anything else bad that happens in the executive branch, is the fault of either Bush or obstructionist teathuglicans in the House. Obama has a lot of room to get away with being President Not My Fault.

[Eric L]

"People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they're pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up."

Happens frequently in bureaucracies. Shift blame so no one is held accountable or at get your underlings to cover it up so the blame shifts to them when the shit hits the fan. Those who do not play along are targeted by management for removal. I seem to remember several years ago a scandal with another federal agency, Defense Contract Audit where upper management was hiding serious findings against major defense contractors. Management put pressure on the auditors who did the work to turn a blind eye or falsify their audit findings. Those who did not play along were run out of the agency. If I remember correctly, the head of the agency was hauled before the US Senate and she and other higher ups did finally get replaced - sadly, they just moved on the other government jobs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Air pollution levels in London may be worse than those in Beijing.

But their state internet firewalls are catching up.

[pan fried wylie]

Come To Beijing: less air pollution and more internet porn than London!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Don't Nationalize the VA's Failures
..."Don't sweat it," The New Republic's Noam Scheiber wrote rather bluntly in January, for Obamacare's "going to get us to a single-payer system before long." Leading progressive lights Ezra Klein and Paul Krugman certainly hope so ? the former having praised the VA as one of "the best health-care systems in the world," ...

...All of which is to say that this is not only a question of what government does to health care but of what health care does to government. As Patrick Brennan noted yesterday, the sorts of problems that we are seeing at the VA ? "gaming statistics, secret waiting lists, long wait times for serious procedures" ? "seem to be endemic to single-payer health systems and especially fully socialized ones (as in ones where the government employs the doctors and runs the hospitals, too, like the VA, Britain's, and Spain's)." In short: Governments can't run health-care systems efficiently, which irritates people, which leads to governments lying about health care. It's a mess...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What? You mean bureaucrats lie about their performance?

[WDATPDIM?!]

It's almost as if they're rewarded for lying. Oh wait....

[Jerryskids]

It's simple to fix the bureaucractic problems - just set hard goals for them to meet and get rid of any bureaucrats who fail to meet them. Of course, these problems didn't arise overnight so you can't expect them to be solved overnight so bureaucrats should be given a reasonable amount of time to meet the goals. I think 5 years is about the right timeframe to use for planning purposes.

[Illocust]

They had hard goals though. They just lied about meeting them. The corruption is so deep now nothing short of firing the lot of them is going to fix it.

[Brett L]

This should be fun! Gov. Scott in FL is going to make hay by trying to have state investigations of the VA facilities in the state.

[Slammer]

Corrine Brown says he's grandstanding. There are no VA problems in Florida

[Brett L]

Oh, well now that Ms. "GO GATA!" has spoken... Maybe, just maybe, Rep. Brown might consider that "trust us" only works when you don't lie EVERY SINGLE TIME.

[Rich]

"Go Gata!"

[gaijin]

That wig is sure a fraud

[Libertarian]

Say what you will, Corrine Brown is a detail person and she knows the intricacies of all the major issues. Even if there's something going on on the other side of the world, in Freedonia.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01.....to-oz.html

[JW]

I can tell just from the screencap that she's an 150-pound bag of bugshit crazy.

[Ted S.]

Is he going to be investigating Medicare fraud, too?

[Brett L]

If anyone knows what it looks like, Rick Scott does!

[Andrew S.]

I'm so depressed about our choices for governor this year. I'll be voting for Wylie, but I couldn't imagine the D or R candidates being any worse.

Hell, I'd rather go back to '94 with the Lawton Chiles-Jeb Bush race than this.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Governor Medicare Fraud is just the guy for that job!

[WTF]

BUSHPIGS!!11!!!CHRISTFAGS!!11!!!

[Brandon]

Predictable and late.

[Tonio]

We need to hammer Krugabe about this. Every appearance, every lecture, every interview, every posted article. Dog him and demand that he retract those VA comments.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You could comment on his posts at the NYT, but he'd just have them edited out.

[a better weapon]

Aren't comments always disabled for his articles?

[Michael]

Commenting is only disabled for people that don't address him as Professor Krugman in every sentence.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

How about Professor Fuckface?

[Rich]

Almost a third of the world is now fat, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades

Paging Michelle Obama!

[Slammer]

The Campaign for Junk Food
Michelle Obama on Attempts to Roll Back Healthy Reforms
By MICHELLE OBAMA MAY 28, 2014

And when we make decisions about our kids' health, we rely on doctors and experts who can give us accurate information based on sound science.

[Ted S.]

Like carb-loading?

[WTF]

You mean the government's fucking food pyramid, which is responsible for generations of obesity and heart disease?

[Root Boy]

The perfect answer to these Top Men (and Michelle) who think they know best and have been proven wrong again and again.

[gaijin]

when we make decisions

haha. Who is this 'we' of which you speak?

[WTF]

It's the Royal 'We'; the serfs just simply obey.

[Libertarian]

In a 100 years of (albeit struggling) capitalism, we've gone from starvation being a huge problem to hysteria about obesity. And, oh by the way, at the same time quadrupling the population. Forgive me while I sit here in my lazy-boy and worry about bigger problems.

[invisible furry hand]

Described as "somewhere between This Is Spinal Tap, The Office and Boogie Nights... Adult Content follows the cast and crew through the week of shooting 'The Seven Holes of Rome', a swords-and-sandals epic that tries to make up for its lack of plot with a lot of double penetration."

You can back it on Kickstarter

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Didn't Guccione already do this?

[WDATPDIM?!]

Hollywood has no new ideas.

[Brett L]

So behind the scenes at Game of Thrones?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit has recognized a First Amendment right to film the police in public.

The 1st Circuit can now try to enforce that ruling.

[Tonio]

Come on, Fist, it's not much, but it's a small beam of hope.

[WTF]

You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride.

[Tonio]

Thanks, Debbie Downer!

But some day there may be a cop who gives the ride bud doesn't beat the rap. That's when things will start to change, and this is the foundation for that.

[sarcasmic]

Unless cops face consequences, there's no foundation. The department shelling out taxpayer cash while admitting to no wrongdoing is meaningless.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. Unless cops face consequences for illegal actions, nothing else will happen.

[WTF]

So, basically unless Hell freezes over, nothing will happen.

[Ted S.]

Lady Gaga plug crashes Finnish breast cancer swimsuit website

Warning: some of you are probably going to bitch about the pictures. (No, it's not a slideshow.)

[Longtorso, Johnny]

CNN's Costello Claims Michelle Obama 'Signed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act Into Law'
On this morning's 10:30 ET segment of CNN Newsroom, anchor Carol Costello reported on resistance to Federal mandates requiring healthier food be served to students. She ran a video clip of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Then, a gaffe: she claimed Mrs. Obama signed a nutrition bill into law in 2010...

[waffles]

How do we know she didn't? It's certainly possible she forced Barack to give up the pen and she signed the damn thing.

[WDATPDIM?!]

Yeah, maybe he had her sit on his lap and gave her the pen while he guided her hand. "Hey, baby, why don't you try this for a change?" Then he gave Sasha and Malia each a bill to sign.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

She just gently guided her husband's hand...

[Libertarian]

At first, I thought this was hilarious! Then I realized that they're probably just conditioning us to the next Clinton presidency........

[WTF]

And then after Hillary, it will be Michelle's turn!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Elliot Rodger Is The First Male Feminist Mass Murderer
...While I stand by my argument that game would have helped Rodger, I am beginning to wonder if being a feminist was the seed that drove him to desperation and delusion, eventually leading to a tragic loss of life. This line of thought is worth pursuing by people who want to understand why a man felt that taking other lives and his own was seen as the best solution. You definitely won't read about this conclusion in the media, which is too busy trying to toss Rodger to our side like a hot piece of coal, even though Rodger shares absolutely no similarity in thought and behavior to game practitioners.

I have logically come to the conclusion that Rodger was in fact the first male feminist mass murderer that we have seen in America. I'm afraid that if the feminist ideology contained within Rodger's head is allowed to continue spreading, we are likely to see more violent acts by men who believe in the exact same things that feminists do.

[waffles]

how a male-friendly culture encouraging Elliot into self-improvement (game), legal prostitution, and foreign marriage with Southeast Asian women would have prevented his murderous rampage

1. Self Improvement? Okay, that's good.
2. Sure, sounds good too.
3. What!?

[Libertarian]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where is this "male-friendly" culture of which you speak? I want to move there.

[Christophe]

For 3, I think the point is that even the loseriest westerner could easily find a bride in non-western culture (because we're less sexist, wealthier, etc.), but very few even try due to the barriers to bringing the spouse into the country.

I don't think it'd have helped the guy, who was, above all, an evil sociopath who would have killed people at some point for some reason, but I can see the reasoning.

[Doctor Whom]

Elliot Rodger was motivated by whatever the person invoking him doesn't like. He's the reverse of the Buddha, Jesus, and Martin Luther King.

[WDATPDIM?!]

And The One.

[Ted S.]

Like freedom feels, where wild horses run?

[Jordan]

Dumb. Just dumb. Feminists are idiots, but they aren't murderers at any greater rate than anyone else.

[Tonio]

But...but...ABORSHUNS!!1!

/beating Eddy to the punch

[Bee Tagger]

"Years ago, people had to walk for hours if they wanted to make a phone call," he said. "Now everyone has a cellphone."

By the time you're done exercising, there'll be no need to call a doctor about the heart attack you or your loved one is having.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

No One Would Have Died If PUAHate Killer Elliot Rodger Learned Game
...Until you give men like Rodger a way to have sex, either by encouraging them to learn game, seek out a Thai wife, or engage in legalized prostitution?three things that the American media and cultural elite venomously attack, it's inevitable for another massacre to occur. Even game itself, as useful as it is on an individual level, is a band-aid fix upon a culture which has stopped rewarding nice guys while encouraging female whoring to benefit only the top 10% of alpha males, all in the name of societal progress. Game is a tiny release valve on a cultural pressure cooker where meaningful relationships have become sick, fractured, and unfulfilling compared to the time of our grandparents when traditional sex roles existed. Game may not have led Rodger to find his dream girl and live happily ever after, but it would have given enough results to stop him from killing six innocent individuals and himself. Until you allow and encourage all men to get sex by some means, these massacres will be more commonplace as America's cultural decline continues.

[waffles]

I had no idea there were so many different men's grievance groups. PUA, PUAHATE, MRA, and this Red Pill/Blue Pill thing. And if I, a terminal denizen of H&R can barely make out the distinction then the average person is just going to lump them all into the same "bunch of angry men who hate teh wimminz" category.

[Tonio]

Yep.

[Clich? Bandit]

NO MAAM!

/Bundy

[Tonio]

Until you give men like Rodger a way to have sex...

There's a grain of truth there, but it sounds like a top-down solution such as a statist would unconciously propose. What about this, you do away with those anti-prostitution laws and let people like Rodger find his own sexual way.

Also, while we're on the subject I've heard his family had money and was related to the film business. Surely they could have arranged for him to get laid.

[Tonio]

Also, the ROK guy is playing right into the feminists on this. Cue Jezebel to start screeching about the belief that "men deserve access to women."

[WTF]

But don't the Jezzies believe that fat women deserve access to men?

[Christophe]

That's just reparation payments for past generations' sexism.

[Rich]

*** meekly raises hand ***

What is "gsme"?

[Rich]

*game*, even?

[WTF]

In a nutshell, it's a system of teaching men certain social skills to make them more attractive to women.

[waffles]

It's a term for strategies to become less socially awkward, desperate, or creepy around women. Unsurprisingly describing "game" comes off as awkward, desperate, and creepy. I think it's really just emulating what men who a successful with the ladies do but broken down for the socially retarded.

[Tonio]

I think it's really just emulating what men who a successful with the ladies do but broken down for the socially retarded.

Yep, this. But do note that the PUA community focuses on improving the skills of men, and the feminist community also focuses on "improving" men.

[invisible furry hand]

What is it about Duke University?

A rising sports star and former Sydney Grammar vice-captain is suing an elite US university after being banned from graduation over a thrown-out sex assault allegation.

[Ted S.]

How do you captain vice?

And what is "grammar vice", anyhow? You Aussies sure do talk funny. :-

[gaijin]

captain vice

Sounds like an idea for a comic book antihero.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Image comic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A vice-captain is a lieutenant. Did he bring that vice-captain nonsense with him here from down under?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The English Department. Specifically, the deconstructionist and postmodernist trend that was initiated by Stanley Fish in the 80's.

[The Late P Brooks]

SCIENCE, motherfuckers.

A letter signed by more than 50 researchers and public health specialists is urging the World Health Organization (WHO) to "resist the urge to control and suppress e-cigarettes".

The letter says the devices - which deliver nicotine in a vapour - could be a "significant health innovation".

But the UK's Faculty of Public Health says it is too early to know whether benefits outweigh potential risks.

"Say, have you hard about this new-fangled 'cost-benefit analysis'? If those guys can't prove their product is good for you, we get to ban it. Awesome, huh?"

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Please, Make Don Johnson's College Football Show a Real Thing
...It's called Score and it's set in the '80s, and it's about the rise of big-time college football. I play this outrageous fucking coach who breaks all the rules and recruits basically criminals and everybody else and shoots the finger [extends middle finger in my direction] to the NCAA....

[Rich]

A heartwarming story: Mr. G and Jellybean

[Jordan]

I saw that the other day. Very cute.

[Slammer]

Yay! Anti nutpunch!

[invisible furry hand]

Do we know if Jellybean was similarly pining, or do burros just not give a shit?

[Jordan]

Burros are the honey badgers of the equine world.

[Old Man With Candy]

Nothing here about the end of the Huy Fong lawsuit?

[Tonio]

Dammit, OMWC, don't tease. If you know, tell.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I have a pantry full of Sriracha. I was going to sell it to pay for a vacation in Austria. But alas, the lawsuit is dropped.

The Irwindale City Council voted Wednesday night to drop a public nuisance declaration and lawsuit against Huy Fong Foods, makers of Sriracha (suhr-AH'-chuh) hot sauce. The dual moves brought an effective end to the spicy-air dispute that had Sriracha devotees worried about future sauce shortages and had suitors including the state of Texas offering Huy Fong a friendlier home.

Huy Fong must have greased the right palms.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Or made a sufficiently credible case for their leaving.

[Tonio]

Ten minutes, biotch!

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You just made the list, pal.

[Auric Demonocles]

I bet Snowden stole the alt-text too, that bastard!

[The Late P Brooks]

How about posting an announcement about the technical fix, if any?

How can you "fix" a problem which never existed? Also, the skwerlz are pleased to announce an increase in the chocolate Victory Gin ration.

[Rich]

I love Hit & Run.

[invisible furry hand]

Stockholm Syndrome

[Rich]

*slap!* in advance

[invisible furry hand]

*slap!*

[Clich? Bandit]

This is hot.

[waffles]

It's memory holes all the way down.

[Auric Demonocles]

We haven't hit the drinking game nearly enough lately.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

John Kerry seems to have spent his entire adult life seeing which way the wind is blowing and then sprinting in that direction and he tells a guy like Snowden to 'man up?'

Incredible. You really could not make that up.

[Tonio]

So that's how he keeps so thin.

[Rich]

I trust "Man up" will join the Pantheon of "WDATPDIM?" and "There's no sugarcoating it ...."

[WDATPDIM?!]

And the Nobel Peace Prize.

[gaijin]

Kerry certainly has a history of Pantheonisms...

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

[Brett L]

In honor of Maya Angelou, a couple in Tallahassee engages in trafficking of 16 and 17 year old girls for the purpose of sex. The paper is careful to make sure that it sounds like the girls were deceived, but I remain skeptical.

The girl told authorities she and Thurman told her mother in Thomasville that she would be taken to Destin to babysit Thurman's child. Instead, she ended up as a prostitute.

"This sounds like this was the mechanism by this recruit to lure her into the activity through the guise of being a baby sitter," said Ralph Bradley, resident agent in charge with the Department of Homeland Security in Tallahassee.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

In honor of Maya Angelou?

[Rich]

I understand she was a prostitute and ran a brothel.

[Brett L]

I guess you missed the discussion on the PM Links where people pointed out that she had dated a pimp and done a turn as a madame. Its pretty tasteless, but I do by tastelessness on H&R so I don't embarrass my wife.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I thought I saw an SIV post having something to do about that, but I of course know better than to take his seriously. Were there any links about the story? I just googled Maya Angelou trafficking and got nothing.

[Slammer]

She spent the next several years bouncing between jobs, scraping by first as a streetcar conductor and cook who read the Russians ? Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov ? in her free time. She said she also fell in love with a man who worked as a pimp, which led her to prostitution and then a stint as a madam.

[invisible furry hand]

Gloomy Russian literature and prostitution is probably not that odd a combination. What was her brothel called? The Cherry Orchard?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"What was her brothel called? The Cherry Orchard?"

Ah, that was a (albeit guilty) laugh there, well done sir.

[invisible furry hand]

thanks, but i'm a ma'am

[Tonio]

That was tasty, 'Hand.

[Clich? Bandit]

You are on it toady IFH

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Interesting, thanks.

[Tonio]

Pwned!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

She's had a more varied and productive career than I thought. Artistically, that is.

[Brett L]

We don't manufacture anything in the US anymore!

DAYTONA BEACH ? Hudson Technologies in Ormond Beach has had manufacturing jobs open for skilled and experienced workers for at least six months with wages from $12 to $28 an hour, depending on experience.

"It's becoming more and more difficult to find external candidates," said Bret Schmitz, company president. "If I could find an experienced tool-and-die maker, I would hire them in a heartbeat."

[Doctor Whom]

Nonsense. The only reason why they're not hiring is racism. "Experienced" is just a dog-whistle word.

[Jordan]

We're still the number one manufacturer of outrage.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Who needs tool and die makers anymore? We need more phone apps!

[WTF]

More jobs Americans won't do.

[UnCivilServant]

"If I could find an experienced tool-and-die maker, I would hire them in a heartbeat."

How about offering training in exchange for a requirement that they work for you for a given period of time to cover the cost of the investment?

[Brett L]

Pssh. How you do it (explained in the article, btw) in America is you get the local community college to get a federal grant for training and re-training. Although there is no reason in Libertopia why technical/vocational schools might not arise whereby these programs are directly funded by companies in the area who need the skills. This, of course, brings cries of "FREE RIDER PROBLEM!" from the statists. Then again, if 75% of enrollees graduate and 95% of people who graduate make more than $20/hr starting out, I'm sure you could find an institution willing to lend you the tuition at, oh, 5-7%. Even at $20000k over 7 years, that would be a good deal.

[JW]

Sorry, but those candidates are too busy running up $80,000 in debt for their Paraguayan Poetry degree.

We all haveta to go to college, doncha know?

[Rich]

Indian court asked to rule on whether Hindu guru dead or meditating

"Maharaj has been in deep meditation. He has spent many years meditating in sub-zero temperatures in the Himalayas, there is nothing unusual in it. He will return to life as soon as he feels and we will ensure his body is preserved until then"

Hence the putting-his-body-in-a-*freezer* part.

[gaijin]

he's deaditating.

[WTF]

He's obviously pinin' for the fjords.

[Slammer]

+1 kippin' on his back

[DEG]

I was away for more than a week. Did I miss anything interesting?

I know some EU elections happened or are happening. Koeln was littered with posters from Die Linke, and I noted a couple of posters for a nativist/anti-Muslim party in the vicinity of the Hauptbahnhof.

Someone on here, I think it was db, mentioned the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. I stopped in that museum while I was in Amsterdam. It was quite good, well worth the eight Euro admission. It covers more than just Europe. It also covers the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation. Lots of stuff, but not everything, is translated into English. The English audio tour doesn't add much, but is included in admission.

[db]

Yep, that was me. The Reistance Museum was an excellent look into the bravery and cunning it takes to fight an underground war against a murderous, oppressive state. I recommend it heartily once again.

[DEG]

It's good that jet lag didn't kill my memory, only my ability to stay awake.

Thanks!

[Apatheist ?_??]

The Danish Resistance Museum in Copenhagen is good too, and free!

[DEG]

I'll keep that in mind for whenever I make it to Copenhagen. Thanks!

[db]

A new study finds that 30 percent of the human population is overweight.

Anyone know what the scientific definition of "overweight" is? It couldn't be, say, +1/2 std dev above the mean, could it?

[DEG]

Overweight is whatever the Top Men don't like.

[db]

That sounds Patriarchical.

[DEG]

I need more caffeine in order to add something snarky. Jetlag is the white male privilege killer.

[The Late P Brooks]

"If I could find an experienced tool-and-die maker, I would hire them in a heartbeat."

That's like a phd in Mansplaining, right?

How would that improve Social Justice in the workplace?

[The Late P Brooks]

Even game itself, as useful as it is on an individual level, is a band-aid fix upon a culture which has stopped rewarding nice guys while encouraging female whoring to benefit only the top 10% of alpha males, all in the name of societal progress.

Does the Pulitzer have a "Words in no Particular Order" category?

[Libertarian]

RULE NO. ONE: be very skeptical of anyone who uses the word "societal" instead of "social."

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Army Drill Sargent, Serial Sexual Assaulter, Military Scapegoat, Both, Neither?

"An Army staff sergeant is accused of sexually assaulting several female soldiers since 2011, including at least one while he was deployed to Afghanistan and others more recently while he served as a drill sergeant, according to military officials and court documents."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z1

[WDATPDIM?!]

He took his job title a little too literally....

[The Late P Brooks]

Anyone know what the scientific definition of "overweight" is?

It's a lot like the "living wage". You have to kind of squint and look a little bit to the side, and then look back real quick, and maybe you'll catch a glimpse of it.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

So sort of like an SEP field.

[Rich]

"As my husband and I prepared to go to bed we were confronted by a hotel member of staff and a member of security. They said we had been seen talking to some people earlier who had been asked to leave, and for the safety of the staff they had been advised to ask us to leave."

"'For the safety of the staff' .... Yeah, *that's* the ticket!"

[Brett L]

"Could you put that in writing? I'd like to make sure that my attorneys get the largest settlement with the least work."

[WTF]

"For the safety of the staff, our hotel admits no guests."

[Rich]

"Safety is our *top* priority."

[gaijin]

OT Question: Anyone have experience with Chromebooks? Looking for something bigger than an ipad/tablet to sit on the porch and read email/browse websites...and reason.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Check out the Samsung Note 12.2 instead

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I got a Chromebook a year ago. It worked fine for three weeks and then died. Don't get it. Look for a different device.

[gaijin]

Thanks!

[widget]

I'm watching the Snowden interview. He's a hero, but he makes the claim that a government agency can turn on your smart cell phone. I don't buy that. And uses the phone to pictures without your knowledge. Maybe.

...goes back to watching interview.

[WDATPDIM?!]

A government agency can also program you to go on a shooting spree in order to divert attention from the latest scandal.

(OK, maybe not yet.)

[UnCivilServant]

Wait for the anti-ptsd chips, then it will be.

[Mike M.]

It might be possible to do if the battery is in it, with the cooperation of the cell phone manufacturers. And at this point I assume that all the big manufacturers are pretty much doing whatever the government tells them to do.

[Clich? Bandit]

It is trivial on cracked iPhones and Androids. iPhones do not have removable batteries so I will wager a spy would only use one as a honeypot/diversionary tactic.

[Christophe]

Not nearly as unlikely as you think. Certainly can happen trivially if the phone is *asleep*, rather than powered down (assuming remote access is obtained somehow).

With proper hardware support, powering the phone back on (as long as there is charge left on the battery) is just as easy. Your laptop/desktop can "boot on LAN" (boot when it receives packets over the network, despite being "off".

Now I encrypt the hard drive on my device, so accessing my data *should* be impossible once it's turned off. But there could be a lower lever layer (including camera access) that can run without my actions.

None of these things are impossible, and at this point I'm mostly willing to believe anything the guy says that passes that test.

[Tonio]

Domestic Sriracha Production Saved! Irwindale city council drops lawsuit against Huy Fong.

h/t to Old Man with Candy for mentioning that upthread.

[Old Man With Candy]

I'd be more ahead of the curve if the squirrels didn't hate me so much.

[UnCivilServant]

He should leave California anyway.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Q1 GDP revised downward!

The second estimate of the first-quarter percent change in real GDP was revised down 1.1 percentage points, or $43.7 billion, from the advance estimate issued last month, primarily reflecting a downward revision to private inventory investment and an upward revision to imports that were partly offset by an upward revision to exports.

The Summer of Recovery is on the way. Also, if Q2 numbers are negative, it will officially be a recession. We'll find out sometime in October.

[WDATPDIM?!]

Yeah. I just love the way news blobs talk about the 2008 recession as if it's a thing of the past.

[RG]

They recycle the same "labor markets slowly healing", "recovery gaining steam" article every few months now for the past four years.

[Rich]

Serious question: Since all these figures get revised, why doesn't the government wait and release the "correct" figures just once?

[Auric Demonocles]

Because this way they can release incorrectly high numbers originally, get credit in the media for them, and then publish the correct ones later with no one caring.

[WTF]

Yes. You'll notice the error is never in the direction of underestimating.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Economic figures are like temperature figures - they only get revised one way.

[Rich]

"We pretend to release the correct figures, and they pretend to care."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

*snort*

[Rich]

Hey, just trying to be a good steward of the taxpayer's dollar!

[Brett L]

Recovery Summer V: Recession Strikes Back

[waffles]

Return of the TARP?

[invisible furry hand]

The Phantom Recovery?

[Jordan]

IT'S A TARP!

[Brett L]

Fuck. My assets are not even as troubled as they were in '08 and I wasn't eligible for shit, although the government seems bound and determined to make my cash and my home equally worthless. I wonder if I should just stop paying my mortgage and stash that money somewhere.

[Auric Demonocles]

To me, it seems like the government seems determined to make sure home prices don't drop to a level where it makes sense for me to buy.

[Brett L]

Come on down to FL. We probably even have some work in your field.

[Auric Demonocles]

Florida is way too hot.

[Pro Libertate]

Only for part of the year. The rest is perfect.

[Mike M.]

Keynesianism works! It really, really works!!

Or not. The recession may have ended, but the Depression still lingers on.

[Auric Demonocles]

The longer the recovery takes, the more that shows how horrible the initial recession was, which means the stimulus is just that much more impressive!

You can't expect someone to stick to their predictions!

[Pro Libertate]

Exactly. Stabbed in the back! Oh, sorry, Dolchsto?legende!

[Ted S.]

So Sweden apparetnly has a policy that political parties can visit the schools, but that the schools can't discriminate on the basis of viewpoint.

Only now have the politicans realized that "every party" includes Nazi sympathizers, and the politicians want to ban wrong-thinking parties from visitng schools.

[Rich]

"I think we are all in agreement that this idea of allowing obvious Nazi parties to get access to our youth shouldn't happen," Bj?rklund told Sveriges Radio Ekot programme.

"Fuck you," replied a Nazi party.

/Captain Obvious

[UnCivilServant]

"I think we are all in agreement that this idea of allowing obvious Nazi Political parties to get access to our youth shouldn't happen,"

FTFH

[The Late P Brooks]

Q1 GDP revised downward!

I never expected that.

[waffles]

Inconceivable!

[Jordan]

Anyone playing Watch Dogs? I'm trying to decide whether to buy it or not.

[The Late P Brooks]

the government seems bound and determined to make my cash and my home equally worthless. I wonder if I should just stop paying my mortgage and stash that money somewhere.

You crazy, crazy PEANUTZ!

[The Late P Brooks]

What was her brothel called? The Cherry Orchard?

The Briar Patch.

[The DerpRider]

Detroit spends $8 million to renovate homes it sold for $2 million...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nothing left to cut

[sarcasmic]

Homeowner, 73, charged with murder three months after he used two pistols to shoot dead father-of-two squatter in his home
Wayne Burgarello shot and killed Cody Devine last February after discovering the 34-year-old and a woman sleeping in his vacant home
The 73-year-old was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder and attempted murder
Devine's friend Janai Wilson had been squatting at the vacant property off an on for the past three years and was also injured in the attack
Burgarello told police that he shot the squatters in self-defense, believing Devine was holding a gun
The victim's father Richard Devine told MailOnline that he expects 'justice will be served' in Burgarello's trial

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....drawn.html
Sorry dude, but the "I thought he had a gun" defense for killing unarmed people in their sleep only works for police.

[Tonio]

Why is it at all relevant that the squatter was a father-of-two? Oh, yeah, media already picking the winner.

[Libertarian]

It's more relevant than stating someone arrested, in jail, etc. etc. is a VETERAN. Sorry for the caps -- this is a huge pet peeve of mine. For the uber example, go to Fox and read about the MARINE who is in a Mexican jail.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

#HEROES

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That gun discharged of its own volition! Suddenly!

[sarcasmic]

It'll fly through the water: 100mph luxury speed boat is powered by reconditioned Merlin engine taken from a Spitfire
The design of the ?3m Aeroboat has also been inspired by the iconic plane
The Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 allows the boat to hit more than 100mph
Owners could breakfast in 'St Tropez, lunch in Antibes and dine in Monaco'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....tfire.html
I wonder if the Top Gear guys will get to try it out.

[Sevo]

I don't think one Merlin is gonna push a displacement hull to anywhere close to 100MPH.

[sarcasmic]

For three million quid it better.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Owners could breakfast in 'St Tropez, lunch in Antibes and dine in Monaco'

Ummmm... I'm pretty sure you could do the same thing in a sailboat.

[Clich? Bandit]

A kite boat at least...That thing is AWE-SOME!

[sarcasmic]

High school under fire after it secretly Photoshops yearbook pictures to make girls 'LESS sexy'
Wasatch High School in Utah altered the images of certain female students to show less skin without them knowing about it
Some girls have complained, and said they also feel upset because the photos weren't altered consistently
However, the school has defended the general decision to edit images for modesty

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

[Rich]

*Sasquatch* High School -- Haw!

[sarcasmic]

'He's loved her for years': Quentin Tarantino and his muse Uma Thurman go 'from friends to lovers'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....level.html
He finally gets to suck on those toes he so loves to film. *barf*

[Drake]

According to Reuters, "Pro-Russian separatists" wearing Russian Army uniforms, who happen to be from Russia, shot down a Ukrainian helicopter using a Russian anti-aircraft weapon.

[Sevo]

I'd say that comment is 100% true!

[Rich]

Russian to judgment, aren't you?

[Sevo]

http://instantrimshot.com/

[Tonio]

Was the helicopter Russian-manufactured?

[WTF]

Ukrainian Freedom Fighters, obviously.

[Sevo]

CA legislators stop SF's Anti Going Out of Business Law:

"State Senate rejects bill to curtail S.F. Ellis Act evictions"
http://www.sfgate.com/default/.....512017.php

[widget]

CA Democrats are in the pocket of big software.

[WTF]

The 1986 state law allows property owners to evict tenants in order to get out of the rental business, but it has been used by speculators as a way to buy affordable properties, evict tenants and flip the rental for profit.

"We're talking about hard-working people trying to make their way in a very expensive city," Leno said. "And for no cause, for no reason, they are being evicted."

It seems they are being evicted for a reason, namely that they are living in a building while not paying market value for the privilege.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

But feelings!

[Sevo]

Leno has never held a job in his life. Sorta like the lying bastard in the WH.

[widget]

Edward Snowden: "I made a lot of money for a guy with a high school diploma."

He's trying to pop the college tuition bubble too.

[Rich]

He should man up and get a higher education.

[widget]

Or marry a ketchup queen.

[Sevo]

Needs moar purple heart.

[The Late P Brooks]

News from the Top Men desk:

A task force convened by the Obama administration issued the most detailed study yet of blight in Detroit on Tuesday and recommended that the city spend at least $850 million to quickly tear down about 40,000 dilapidated buildings, demolish or restore tens of thousands more, and clear thousands of trash-packed lots.

It also said that the hulking remains of factories that dot Detroit, crumbling reminders of the city's manufacturing prowess, must be salvaged or demolished, which could cost as much as $1 billion more.

If carried out, the recommendations by the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force would drastically alter the face of the nation's largest bankrupt city. They would also cost significantly more than the approximately $450 million that the city already plans to spend on blight, raising questions about the feasibility of the vast cleanup effort, which is part of its larger campaign to emerge from bankruptcy by fall and begin remaking itself.

I cannot help wondering how they plan to deal with all those pesky "ownership" issues, never mind where they plan to get the money.

[sarcasmic]

Unless the owners of these abandoned properties have been paying their property taxes, they've forfeited ownership to the city, have they not?

As far as getting the money goes, what about selling the property to their cronies?

It's a win all around! Cronies get property for dirt cheap after the city pays the bill to clear it!

[Drake]

So Obama's task force decided that what Detroit really needs is more government spending. This is a shocking development.

[Sevo]

Amazon stops selling books which it thinks are overpriced. Publisher responds with stupidity:

"By preventing its customers from connecting with these authors' books, Amazon indicates that it considers books to be like any other consumer good. They are not," Hachette's statement said."
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/2.....index.html

By that argument, the authors requiring money for the books are preventing certain people access to them!

[widget]

I've had my eye on this book for a while now.

http://www.amazon.com/The-High.....B00CELQJU8

According to this book traffic lights should be white, gray, and black. But, from the segments I've read, it makes some good points about over-saturating users with color codes.

How do I post in blinking purple here?

[Sevo]

Looks very interesting. I just sent a nasty note off to my email provider; they redesigned the page and neatly moved the 'trash' tab to where the 'reply' tab lived for years.

[widget]

I imagine there is skyscraper in Seattle where every Microsoft employee therein works on the great cheese moving problem.

[db]

Ensuring universal cheese mobility is the greatest work available now at some mature tech companies. Apple will eventually follow.

[Brett L]

Well green and red, being the two most likely colors for the color-blind to not see just make no sense.

[widget]

Traffic lights are always organized from top-to-bottom: red, yellow, green. This consistency make the signal color-blind friendly. It's one of things civil engineers get properly picky about.

[widget]

But maybe New Jersey still has horizontally mounted traffic lights, and Bruce Springsteen (who I like).

[Brett L]

Aye, but were we to redesign them today...

[invisible furry hand]

... they would need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act by making sounds too, so that blind drivers would know to brake.

[Brett L]

You are en fuego, lady.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Yeah, ifh is killing it this morning. She must be drunk.

[sarcasmic]

Not always. One of my coworkers is color blind. He told me which way the horizontal ones are organized, but not being color blind and having no reason to remember, I quickly forgot.

[Christophe]

The horizontal ones I've seen also use shapes: Red square, yellow diamond, green circle.

[gimmeasammich]

A much older coworker of mine said when he was a kid his teachers called him "color stupid" and it wasn't taken as a huge insult. I can only imagine what parents' outrage would be like today.

[Roger the Shrubber]

traffic lights should be white, gray, and black

I don't think that would work so well at night.

[gimmeasammich]

Or they could put a face on the lights that makes it show "S," "Y," and "G." Or do nothing else because, as far as I know, it hasn't been a huge issue so far.

[JW]

As the V.A. scandal grows, calls are getting louder for embattled Veterans Affairs chief Eric Shinseki to resign.

Fuck that. Take the entire team out back and shoot them. Place heads on pikes outside the front door and bring in the replacement management. Lather, rinse, repeat at the first sign of corruption or malfeasance.

I predict that good things will happen very quickly.

[db]

The whole Administration should man up and face what they have coming to them.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Scout Willis has a nice rack #FreeTheNipple (NSFW)

(can't link - too long for H&R)

[The Late P Brooks]

But officials acknowledged that they currently have no particular plan for securing so much money in such a short time, particularly given all of Detroit's other looming needs, such as improved police services and firefighting equipment.

The survey grew out of a task force convened in September by the Obama administration, which was seeking options for ways Detroit could remake itself after it became the nation's largest city to file for municipal bankruptcy. The task force, which included business, academic and foundation leaders from Detroit, offered measures for sorting out which neighborhoods to tackle first, an issue that has long been a concern for some of the city's most troubled blocks, which in some cases have just a few families in homes on otherwise empty streets.

The basic plan, Mayor Mike Duggan said, is to clean up neighborhoods with the fewest blighted structures first to prevent them from falling into more widespread decay. Neighborhoods with numerous dilapidated houses on every block will come later, he said.

The most depressing part of this story, for me, is the complete (and completely casual) dismissal of any notion of a solution based on economically rational action on the part of private individuals.

[Drake]

You mean the most depressing part of the Obama Administration and the current Democrat Party?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Tobey Maguire and producing partner Matthew Plouffe have acquired movie rights to Peter Carlson's book "Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey."

"The book tells the story of two Northern journalists working for the pro-abolitionist New York Tribune ? Junius Henri Browne and Albert Deane Richardson ? who were caught by Confederate soldiers and imprisoned in seven different prison camps over 20 months before escaping from North Carolina in late 1864."

http://variety.com/interstitia.....201195348/