A.M. Links: Obama Defends Prisoner Swap, New NSA Chief Doubts Snowden a Spy, NASA Releases Picture of Universe

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NASA While in Poland, President Obama defended his decision to trade prisoners with the Taliban in order to secure the release of a soldier captured in Afghanistan, saying that it's what happens when wars wind down. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, however, was never listed as a prisoner of war. Obama will also meet with Ukraine's president elect, Petro Poroshenko, while in Poland.
- Adm. Michael Rogers, the new head of the National Security Agency, says whistleblower Edward Snowden is probably not a Russian spy.
- According to contract documents, the Secret Service is purchasing software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet. Great idea guys!
- The results of the Mississippi Republican Senate primary, between the six-term senator Thad Cochrane and Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party challenger, remain too close to call.
- Former Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi won the presidential election with 96 percent of the vote, according to the country's electoral authority.
- NASA released a new panorama composite photo of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that includes ultraviolet light for the first time.
- The pharmacologist who helped popularize MDMA, Alexander Shulgin, is dead at 88.
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I say we boycott reason until they stop unfixing commenting. WHO'S WITH ME?
Hello.
Given that they can't keep the regular commenting system working for a desktop environment, I have no hope for the craptacular mobile interface.
NASA released a new panorama composite photo of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that includes ultraviolet light for the first time.
No vampires in space?
There are space vampires, and they don't wear clothes.
Go on...
Lifeforce
I saw that movie, and it was..... awesome.
It does appear to be one *mighty fine* film.
Am I being sarcastic?
Am I being sarcastic?
Secret Service shakes new magic 8 ball...and the answer is...maybe.
According to contract documents, the Secret Service is purchasing software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet. Great idea guys!
And they're using the H&R comments for their beta run.
This commentariat is *far* beyond whatever these clowns can come up with.
Am I being sarcastic?
No, you don't post enough babes from the Daily Fail.
Right, like their detector can pick out *typos*!
Good luck, I make many sarcastic threats against public officials which I am in no way responsible for should some unstable fanatic carry them out.
Having read a couple months of this stuff I believe their sarcasm machine may explode.
"Great idea guys!" Nice:)
Will we be compensated?
Teacher charged with raping student flipped out over prom date
Their relationship escalated and got physical on June 5, 2013 when Morsi brought the teen into a closet in the school's gym exposed her breast to him, performed oral sex and had intercourse, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said the teacher and student had sex more than 20 times in the school last year in various places, including the basement and gymnasium, prosecutors said.
Yep. Very rapey.
She brought joy.
I'd bang that.
The Daily Mail with more pictures:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-year.html
We had a few teacher sex scandals when I was in high school. I was not a part of any unfortunately.
Yeah for 39 she looks really good.
Also, thats one helluva weight loss program for wrestlers. ....Thanks Common Core??
That, poor, poor boy. My dick heart goes out to him.
OK, the idea of "My dick goes out to him." even being a possible saying is quite hilarious. Sounds like a saying people in the future would think we used now, a la Demolition Man
Hitchens and Rushdie literature jokes
^^^ This is the wrong video. I wanted the one where they took all the classics with HEART in the title and said DICK instead. This is still funny, though.
Oh her husband works at the same school. So....yeah.
"This defendant violated the teacher-student trust,"
What? Maybe the parent-teacher trust, but I don't think the student is really complaining.
I think the real story here is that there is a female gym teacher somewhere out there that isn't a mannish lesbian.
Yes. It's extremmely difficulyt for a woman to find a man of legal age willing to have sex with them.
Going to have to find out where the local high school teachers go for happy hour. Almost typed girls instead of teachers:)
Internet search habit?
Also +1 Dazed and Confused
What kind of wrestler couldn't man handle that teacher. I call shenanigans!
software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet.
Life imitates Futurama?
And the Simpsons, IIRC
Oops. It's comic book guy. How could I forget?
software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet.
Maybe something Eric Holder's crew could use?
Holder announces task force on 'homegrown' terrorists
""Now -- as the nature of the threat we face evolves to include the possibility of individual radicalization via the Internet -- it is critical that we return our focus to potential extremists here at home," Holder said."
How much you want to bet it fails to find the thousands of terrorists with badges roaming the streets.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....enses.html
I wouldn't mind wearing down her defenses.
I wouldn't mind wearing down her defenses
nice
Wow. You will go far young man!
Not bad.
I never seem to catch the vulnerable ones.
She looks good all dolled up, but that mug shot is pretty scary.
Could you imagine if a 34-year-old man accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl tried this defense?
I think Mac tried it in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Didn't go over so well....
Saw the movie suggestions last night. Grazie, sir.
If you like Aldo Ray in The Marrying Kind, a movie of his that might be more up your alley is Nightfall. And then you can go watch Anne Bancroft in The Slender Thread.
Who usually brings these teenage-boy + female-teacher relationships to light?
Another student. Lesson to be learned: Don't fucking brag...to anyone.
Ah yes.
I don't get why they go along with it, even if someone else makes the accusation. It says he accurately described her tattoos and house to prove the allegation. Why not just stay silent, if not lie.
Ugh. You know she'd set your cat on fire and take a sledgehammer to your car during the break up
Cat's have a short life span anyway and the car's got a lot of mileage on it. You only live once and that's a story and memory that will be with you for decades.
Just sayin'
Notice the motto of the school "defend the tradition"
Nice!
Adm. Michael Rogers, the new head of the National Security Agency, says whistleblower Edward Snowden is probably not a Russian spy.
But definitely not a whistleblower?
But definitely not a whistleblower?
Until they are able to throw him into a pond, hands bound, and see if he floats, there will always be uncertainty.
The pharmacologist who helped popularize MDMA, Alexander Shulgin, is dead at 88.
Ever noticed 88 is a palindrome? Trippy, dude.
You know who else liked the number 88?
Charles Messier?
The people in charge of the Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway?
If there really is a Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway, that's pretty fucking ironic.
I-88, in IL
Herman Cain?
Piano makers?
Patrick Kane?
TOO SOON!
*sobs*
Skinheads?
*ding ding ding* Nazi Skinheads!
+1 Blood and Honor lol
Quentin Tarantino?
Michael Irvin?
Phillip Booth?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The fat motorcycle twins?
David Kaufman?
Bush Sr
Anybody who questions Obama's methods or motivations is a RACIST.
*** DING DING DING DING ***
SARCASM DETECTED!!
This is what happens when you specify an 1/20 false positive rate is acceptable.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-case.html
He should have killed a person. Then nothing else would have happened.
Yeah, uh, taking the trophy pic w/ the animal doesn't really help your case there guy.
Carter argued that the elk had become dangerously domesticated and was scaring local dogs.
Cop claiming that he was trying to protect the local dogs? That's some nice chutzpah, Sam.
Two things here.
1. If he was 'protecting the dogs', who gave the order to shoot the animal? I certainly hope individual cops aren't allowed to exercise that much discretion. If no-one ordered him to shoot it then he overstepped his authority.
2. Its fucking ridiculous that a person could face NINE YEARS for shooting a moose.
Well, its six years in the text of the article.
The charges against Carter included three felonies ? forgery, tampering with evidence, and attempting to influence a public official.
Misdemeanor counts against him included misconduct, illegal possession of a trophy elk, conspiracy to commit illegal possession of wildlife, unlawfully taking a big game animal out of season, and unlawful use of an electronic communication device to unlawfully take wildlife.
The misdemeanors all relate to the elk. The felonies all relate to abuse of his authority. Sounds about right, to me.
One question: why no firearms charges? Sure looks to me like he illegally discharged a firearm. So, yeah, if you're looking for a double standard, its still there. A "civilian" would have been treated even more harshly.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....eroin.html
Wow that's a shock. Not.
They're going to open a GWARbar though. I heard there's a Kickstarter.
Wait, so 'Spider Bite' is the new code for heroin overdose?
oh, that was Slayer...my bad.
Cause of GWAR frontman's death revealed: Shock rocker Dave Brockie AKA 'Oderus Urungus' overdosed on heroin
At least he died a proper rock star death. I think choking on his own vomit would have been more appropriate but that still counts as dying with his boots on.
Choking on someone else's vomit. Now that's rock n roll.
Come, we all know what happened. Oderus evacuated the host body. The resulting toxic shock brought on by decades of maintaining an alien biochenistry caused the host to cease functioning.
A new host will be found although Oderus will have to answer for failing to have disposal creatures on site to eat the husk.
He also enjoyed dropping LSD and sticking his head in the bass drum because it sounds cool
Any cause of death except natural wouldn't have shocked me he is Oderus
the intergalactic correspondent to earth.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....prank.html
Um, in the last bit shouldn't the mother's first instinct have been to pick up her youngest daughter? She pulled a Costanza.
Funny prank though. He did a good job of easing into people and not spazzing.
She pulled a Costanza.
Nah she ran around her helpless daughter.
Costanza would have stomped right over her.
They didn't show the clip where the elderly guy went into cardiac arrest from the shock.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....y-dog.html
How come your C&Ps; don't have any periods?
.................................................
Poser.
lo.l.
They take the pill for birth control?
Fucking cops.
From a few days ago. Beyond the speed of light.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05.....-data.html
They're trying to prove Einstein was wrong. That's not science. The science is settled. There's a consensus. They're just deniers and heretics. True science takes a vote and declares everything to be settled.
Clearly anti-science anti-Semites. And probably virulent SoCons.
You're not thinking about the demise of Comcast with enough enthusiasm.
That has been known for a while. Two quantum particles can sometimes be linked in some mysterious way such that if you change the spin of one, the other changes at the exact same time in the exact same way regardless of distance. It is pretty wild.
So far everyone that has teleported information was unable to retrieve said information without communicating using classical physics between the two points (limited by light speed). This article really drops the ball in explaining how anything has changed.
Yes. The hope is that you could use it for instantaneous and completely secure communication. But no one has been able to perfect that. This phenomena has been known about since the 70s. It was one of the main justifications used for string theory. Yet, to my knowledge no one has made any progress figuring out what is going on or how to use it for anything productive. It still is just in the realm of really weird shit no one seems to be able to explain.
Absolutely. I for one really hope D-Wave is actually using quantum entanglement.
Pssh we've had quantum entangler comms for years on the SR2 Normandy
Actually it's been known since 1935. Einstein first proposed it when he presented the EPR paradox.
It's kinda like how certain TEAM players change their spin to align with their principals.
That isn't accurate. It's that if you MEASURE a property of one entangled particle, you now know the same property of the partner.
This is why Quantum Physics annoys the shit out of me. Essentially, these particles are so small that you can't make measurements without changing them- I can't measure the speed of a proton without some sort of tool that- in the process of taking that measurement- changes the speed. This leads to all sorts of problems like I can only measure one property at a time, and therefore only know one property at a time.
Entanglement happens when you treat two particles exactly the same so that they should have the same (or exactly opposing) properties. So if you measure one, you now know the other without having to measure (and therefore change) the property of the other.
The problem is that Quantum Physics has gone from saying "We can't know this property until it is measured" to saying "The property doesn't actually exist in any state until we measure it". And because of that symantic difference, suddenly the Measurement "causes" the new property to take shape.
Do you have a link that doesn't go to the NY Times? We have a bit of an adversarial relationship, and I can't read their articles.
Thus proving that the big bang is bullshit.
According to contract documents, the Secret Service is purchasing software that can detect sarcasm on the Internet. Great idea guys!
Those guys are geniuses.
A sarcasm detector? Yeah, that's real useful.
I could beat it.
I can beat it too, but what does that have to do with a sarcasm detector?
http://slate.me/1nLtbWa
How you'll die by state.
Florida = accidents. There's a shocker.
When an alligator eats you, it's not an.accident to the alligator.
Finally, the motto for my coat of arms.
Cum ad alligator comedat te, id est, non ad alligator an.accident.
Not the greatest translation, likely, but it will do for a start.
Definitely leave the periods in.
There are a lot of states where "septicemia" is disproportionately large as a cause of death (third graphic). Way more than I expected. Maybe those are the states with the most VA hospitals.
It's about fucking time.
Company plans to have first flying cars ready in two years...
I won't believe it until I read it in Popular Mechanics.
I won't beleive it until the FAA bans it.
or Car and Flyer.
Skies.to.begin raining idiots shortly thereafter.
Next up - "Self-flying car!"
Flying cars will not happen for a number of reasons entirely independent of regulation:
1. Instrument meteorological conditions.
Inadvertent flight into IMC is one of the top leading causes of aviation fatalities. Drivers are not equipped with the required skills to avoid disorientation in IMC, not to mention the hazard they would create to other aircraft.
2. Choppy air. 80% of drivers and their passengers won't be able to handle the bumps especially near the surface.
2. Obstructions.
Basically flying cars are a cool idea but even if they became a reality, few would adopt them because of the.serious issues of training required (leaving aside.regulatory requirements) to use them safely.
The other reason is physics. To get lift, you have to have speed. There is no where for cars to get that kind of speed. What are you going to do, run up to 80 in your driveway?
Also, the driving mechanisms for moving on land don't work very well in the air and vice versa. You can't drive your jet powered car down the street without barbequing the guy behind you. And if switching from conventional wheels to a prop or a jet were practical, we would have long since had flying cars.
Until they develop some kind of Jetson like anti-gravity propulsion, we are never having flying cars.
Even with antigravity
Even with antigravity, the other considerations will kill it as a transport method absent complete automation..
Yes. And anti gravity only gets you airborne. It doesn't get you moving horizontally. You would still need some kind of propulsion to do that. Also, short of a Back to the Future Mr. Fusion, where the hell are you going to get the power to move the weight of a car airborne and forward?
Well if you have full gravity manipulation, then anything is possible basically. Mass constraints essentially disappear.
Hell, slap an AG unit inside a Nimitz class carrier and boom... Marvel comics is real.
Slap one inside an SSN, instant spaceship.
SSN's are good at keeping pressure out, not necessarily in keeping in contained...
So wrap on a shitload of reinforcement. You can flip the switch and make gravity go away, it's no problem.
Shit with antigrav tech we could all move to orbit.
Look, you dumb-dumbs, solar roads are going to obsolesce all of this.
Will they have LED lane markers?
It will look like friggin tron
In Turkey, they have solar-powered LED centerline and lane markers at intersections of their inter-city two-lane highways (and at important/dangerous curves). They're useful, because when you're away from the cities, there's NO light.
Au contraire Chrysler Turbine Car, STP Turbine Car
Granted, your point still stands about jet turbines for aviation.
Don't tailgate.
Feature, not bug.
"The other reason is physics. To get lift, you have to have speed. There is no where for cars to get that kind of speed. "
I'll be sure and let the pilot know that what he's doing is in violation of the laws of physics the next time I ride in a helicopter.
You, of course, know, that helicopters develop lift by spinning little wings in a circle to obtain the airflow over the airfoil that airplanes generate by.moving forward in a straight line, right?
I'll be sure and let the pilot know that what he's doing is in violation of the laws of physics the next time I ride in a helicopter balloon.
My hovercraft is full of eels.
Yes, you can get lift from lighter than air gas. But I was operating under the assumption we are talking about heavier than air flight here. And for that you need lift and speed either in the form of a rotating wing or horizontal movement creating airflow over a wing.
If lighter than air flying cars were practical, I am pretty sure we would have them by now just like we would if putting rotors on cars was practical.
.db debbie.downer.
Seems more like a driving plane than a flying car.
It would almost have to be. You have to start with the most specialized systems required and design from there, which guarantees what you say.
heard Norm Macdonald tell this joke to Carl Reiner the other day. Let me know if you have heard it before.
Hitler did one good thing in his life.....He killed Hitler!!!
Do you know who else tried to... Oh, never mind.
You know else went into Poland and then tried to make lame excuses for his behavior?
The Polish?
Justin Bieber?
That's easy.
Obama.
The Golden Horde
Obama snapped pumping iron at hotel gym
Pussy. Do some squats.
That is hilarious.
Putin would squat about 150 kg.
Bah. Thanks to Uncle Warty's Squat Program for Great Justice and Might, I could squat two Putins tied to a bar!
You laugh, but Slavs seem fond of that exercise. Especially the smart ones.
I am not laughing - I am getting noticeably stronger. I appreciate the advice you gave, although I would curse you for putting that mnemonic in my head (the one about form...gah!).
What was the mnemonic?
BOAGYA? Bend Over And Grab Your Ankles?
Shit on the floor, don't shit on your feet.
hah! Looks like he's using those shake weights...with cooling spray!
South Park Shake Weights
Less lame link.
Oh my fucking god. Cheated hammer curls with about 10kg dumbbells. For fuck's sake. It's bad enough that we're ruled by a huge asshole, but to be ruled by a huge asshole who has the physique of a 16 year old anorexic girl? Humiliating.
he lacks the doomcock
I read that and my first thought was that the stress and embarrassment finally got the best of him and he lit into reporters or reamed out a subordinate in public at a gym.
Exclusive: The story you haven't yet heard about Bowe Bergdahl's desertion
Mark my words: The Dems lose the Senate this fall.
I think Bo is right. I honestly think that Obama and the White House staff are so out of touch and stupid that they didn't understand trading Taliban leaders for a deserter would be a problem. It really is another Obama "as God is my witness I thought Turkeys could fly" moment.
Ah, Les, Herb and Mr. Carlson.
God bless 'em all.
Jay Carney kind of is Less Nessman when you think about it. Valarie Jerrett is sort of like Carlson's mother who owned the station.
Chi Chi Rodriquez and swimming meeting.
Don't forget those little dogs from Mexico "Chi hua huas."
turkeys can fly though?
The other thing is there is no way they will be able to shut up the guys who served with him and know the truth. NOTHING lasts longer than a grudge that arose during combat.
Berghazi! Fake scandal!
Swift Boats.
Fuck Disqus.
Yeah, sorry 'bout that.
Am I being sarcastic?
processing...processing...
/USSS
I'll be the devil's advocate here. If we're bugging out of Afghanistan why not take him with us? It's a lost cause and has been for many years.
Except for the 10,000 troops the Prez wants to leave there. You can't have it both ways, dude.
Maybe you do, but you don't give up anything or anyone of value to do so.
He's not worth it. He deserted, from all accounts. You move heaven and earth, and kick in the gates of hell to retrieve a POW. You let deserters deal with the consequences of their own decisions.
And that's exactly what they want. If the GOP controls both houses, anything that gets passed will be vetoed. The media and the Dems will continually lambaste the GOP for passing stupid shit. The Dems will say that in order to do what America desperately needs, the electorate must elect a Dem president in 2016 and turn both the senate and the house Dem too. It's a long-term strategy. Lose a battle, win the war.
I don't think so. Controlling the Senate allows Reid to keep politically embarassing issues like fixing or repealing Obamacare from ever coming to a vote. This allows Democrats in the Senate to have it both ways. They can claim to be for doing something but never have to actually piss off their base by casting a vote for it. Take away the majority and Reid no longer can keep things from coming to a vote. That means Democratic Senators will have to vote yeah or neah on a lot of issues they don't want to deal with.
The media can only claim it is Congress being unreasonable as long as only Republicans are voting for it. Once a few Democratic Senators break and vote for a bill, and they will if they lose the Senate, it is bi-partisan and the old "its just the evil obstructionist Republicans again" Jedi mind trick no longer works.
Losing the Senate would make things very difficult for the Democrats in the Senate up for re-election in 2016. They would either have to make really unpopular votes or create a very visible divide in the Democratic Party that even the media couldn't ignore.
I doubt these guys think that far ahead. There's waaaay too much uncertainty for anyone to think it's worth giving up power.
Mark my words: The Dems lose the Senate this fall.
If anything this drew away attention from the VA scandal which has closer links with Senate democrats.
This new scandal is also a perfect chance for Senate democrats to distance themselves from Obama without actually going against any of his core party policies.
http://www.techdirt.com/articl.....ping.shtml
We followed the back and forth situation earlier this year, in which there were some legal questions over whether or not the NSA needed to hang onto surveillance data at issue in various lawsuits, or destroy it as per the laws concerning retention of data. Unfortunately, in the process, it became clear that the DOJ misled FISA court Judge Reggie Walton, withholding key information. In response, the DOJ apologized, insisting that it didn't think the data was relevant -- but also very strongly hinting that it used that opportunity to destroy a ton of evidence. However, this appeared to be just the latest in a long history of the NSA/DOJ willfully destroying evidence that was under a preservation order.
The key case where this evidence was destroyed was the EFF's long running Jewel v. NSA case, and the EFF has now told the court about the destruction of evidence, and asked the court to thus assume that the evidence proves, in fact, that EFF's clients were victims of unlawful surveillance. The DOJ/NSA have insisted that they thought that the EFF's lawsuit only covered programs issued under executive authority, rather than programs approved by the FISA Court, but the record in the case shows that the DOJ seems to be making this claim up.
Forget Obama, Eric Holder needs to be impeached and indicted.
The password is "escrow".
Careful, John -- You're starting to sound like a homegrown extremist.
Am I being sarcastic?
I saw that. It sounds like the right thing to do. I mean who doesn't want to go after the assholes who shoot up Jewish Community Centers. But then you realize Holder is talking about anyone who isn't reliably Democrat.
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, however, was never listed as a prisoner of war.
If I recall correctly, neither were the Gitmo detainees.
Some were. The ones who found to be in organized units fighting for the Taliban government of Afghanistan were rightfully declared POWs. The ones like KSM and many others who didn't fight in organized units and were just terrorists with government supporter were and are rightfully not considered POWs.
That makes sense (until you get to the part where "if they are not POWs then what are they?"). I was under the impression that actual Taliban POWs went to a different prison.
The ones who were found to be Taliban and POWs were sent back to Afghanistan and the new Afghanistan government dealt with them.
If they are not POWs, they are just criminals like Tim McVeigh or any other terrorist. What they should have done was tried them under the rules of Nuremberg, which is still good law, and sentenced them accordingly.
Indeed, they did one military tribunal on Bin Ladin's chauffeur and they ended up giving him time served. The military tribunals were not and did not have to be kangaroo courts. To me one of the bigger mistakes Bush made was letting the Left bully him out of running full on tribunals down there and deciding all of those cases. As it was, he did nothing and we ended up with a bunch of guys sitting there without any consistent legal justification for keeping them.
How using a smartphone or tablet could make you FAT: Blue light emitted by devices 'increases hunger'
Ha! K-Mart did it first!
Well, actually *the sky* did it first.
Oddly, my weight seems to depend on how much and what kinds of food I eat and how much I exercise these days just like it did back in the days before smart phones. I guess I am immune.
I could stand to lose some weight (or more accurately replace some fat with muscle), and I rarely use a smartphone.
Make an exercise app. There's some appurtenance you can buy with the Samsung Galaxy series that monitors your heartbeat and respiration. Yankee marketing at its finest. Buy this and get fit.
^Agree. I began tracking my calories using an app and it is interesting what a difference just paying attention can make in weight management.
As to K mart's blue light--creating demand or providing supply?
I think it could have an effect, but it's more about interrupting sleep cycle, thereby creating more stress, etc.
[quote]In agreement with [every other study], blue but not red light suppressed melatonin. But it appears as though both sources of light, or just "light" in general, enhanced cortisol [modestly]? odd, somewhat, because visually, red light should be more similar to darkness:[/quote]
Those poor hungry sailors.
http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....ew-movie/#
Well played.
When you have lost Mad Magazine. It seems impossible to believe, but I think at least some in the media and mass culture may be starting to turn on him.
Well Bush was pretty much mud from 2006-2008. Why should Obama be any different?
He is a Democrat and black. The media hated Bush pretty much the whole time. I thought the media would eventually turn on Obama but frankly have given up all hope. They just have too much invested in him. I may, however, be wrong.
Mad has always ripped everyone.
This latest move is mind-numbingly bizarre not sure what the advantage is. It's like he's playing chess using Connect Four strategy. And will this lead to a "ransom" strategy by terrorists?
Also, not sure using the Israeli example of them swapping for prisoners is the same.
A wise man once said "people don't just one day become depraved". What other bizarre things is he going to do? Forget fucking up as President. The country has survived plenty of bad Presidents. I am starting to worry Obama isn't just bad, he may be dangerous.
only starting to worry? I've long held that once you exhaust all the possible reasons for things going bad - lousy advice, hiring the wrong people, bad decisions, etc - you have start considering the heretofore impossible. Like malice. Fundamental transformation; it's not a bumper sticker slogan.
They've actually spoofed Obama more I think.
I read that Reid was happy about this because Republicans won't close down Gitmo.
He's mental.
He really is mental. Did you catch the "I have been told that not telling Congress was legal". Really Harry? By whom? The Gnome that lives in the trunk of your car?
Who in the hell keeps VOTING for him? I don't get it. He's obviously unhinged.
I think he is pretty much a front for the Mormon Mafia and the Casino Unions out there. Apparently, their members still take orders.
Mormon Mafia?
I didn't think there was such a thing, but Harry Reid seems to be proving me wrong. Every other group has a mafia. Hell if the Amish have one why wouldn't the Mormons? And if anyone is a front for the Mormon Mafia, it is Harry Reid.
Mormons are almost all conservatives.
Would not be surprised if most Mormons in NV did not vote for him.
It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes. The Reids own Clark County. Something like 75% of the people in Nevada live in Clark County. Reid can do whatever he wants, there's no chance he loses an election.
^ding. Right on the money.
I thought of that movie when this subject came up. I loved Joe Bob Briggs as the hick fuck up employee.
"How did you not know you were being scammed after the second jackpot? The odds of that are trillions to one. It can't happen"
"Well sir, somebody has to win".
Yes. Ignorance is not a defense but for these guys it is.
Frightening as it is disturbing as it is sad.
it became clear that the DOJ misled FISA court Judge Reggie Walton
Imposserous.
http://cnsnews.com/news/articl.....poverty-us
That's what happens when you define poverty as the bottom quintile. Duh.
Yep. I once had a really fun time trying to explain to a prog that if we define poverty as "the ten percent of a group with the fewest money" then you can find "poverty" in a room full of CEOs.
Although I would question the validity of living standards of the 1960s and how much of those in poverty receive govt food assistance, I'm not seeing where they define poverty by the bottom quintile. I miss something?
I was being semi-sarcastic.
Rog..
*closes secret service job application tab*
Steve man, the good news is that the Secret Service has new software to help people like you. SO open up that application again and get ready to start your new life as an agent of oppression!
No matter how many minimum wage increases we pass and increases in welfare we institute, 1 in 5 Americans are still in the bottom quintile!
CNN/Money article on the wealthy buying second citizenships or buying permanent residencies. Comments are what you would expect for CNN/Money.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/0.....ce=cnn_bin
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....na-johnson
MetroCon Weekly thinks this is a controversial statement:
In some quarters I suppose it is. But Progs might want to consider that statement. I would imagine McDaniel is not the only guy who thinks that. Do Progs really want millions of Americans saying fuck you, I am not paying? I don't think that will work out so well for them.
Which was my point. The only places "slave reparations" are taken as a serious policy idea is in retarded leftist enclaves. The vast majority of the country thinks it's crazy. NR wringing their manicured hands as though that's a controversial position to take shows the Beltway Bubble for what it is.
I feel pretty confident in saying that we will never have slavery reparations in this country short of some kind of left wing dictatorship doing it. I can't understand for the life of me why the Left, when they are on the run anyway, want to bring it up. It is a dead loser. Worse, it is nothing but an invitation for Hispanics to vote Republicans. I can't imagine any support for reparations in the Hispanic community.
They really have gone insane.
I feel pretty confident in saying that we will never have slavery reparations in this country short of some kind of left wing dictatorship doing it.
Sometime in Obama's third term, then?
Yes RC, maybe then.
The 22nd only says he can't be elected to more than two terms. Nothing in there about serving a third (or more) term.
And the 22nd can be waived just like any other law.
Another reason progs hate small business that I never considered. Self employed can more easily practice tax avoision. Due to withholding, employees cant.
Yup. It is also why they hate cash so much. Progs are in love with the idea of a "cashless society". Without cash, everyone has to depend on the banks, which the Progs know they can control.
And why they're going apeshit over BitCoin. It scares the hell out of them.
They don't give a shit about drug dealers and terrorists using it. They are terrified of people really being able to go Gault and check out of the regular economy. If that ever happens, they are fucked. Like the movie says "no bucks, no Buck Rodgers".
Especially with more and more people going to an ad hoc employment model. Like me. A little part time work, a little work for cash, a little tutoring, a little bit of this and that, etc. Of course I always file every dime of income, like a good citizen does. But not all are so honest.
They probably assume only racist teabaggers wouldn't pay, so they'd finally have an excuse to throw them in jail.
It worked out okay for FDR...
Many of my Irish and English ancestors were slaves. How much do I get?
New Chains.
This morning, on Bloomberg, they asked the question, "Is China better off now than they were before Tienanmen Square?"
What a headscratcher.
I once had a really fun time trying to explain to a prog that if we define poverty as "the ten percent of a group with the fewest money" then you can find "poverty" in a room full of CEOs.
For every winner there must be one or more losers.
THE SUM IS ALWAYS ZERO.
But then they extend that same line of thinking to wealth. The sum is always zero, right? So how much poverty can we alleviate with all the wealth in that room full of CEOs?
Full Disclosure: Lefty Catholics hold an anti-libertarian conference in Washington DC and a top Vatican cardinal is a keynote speaker
http://iprcua.com/2014/06/03/e.....tarianism/
More:
http://ncronline.org/blogs/dis.....rtarianism
The guest speaker list says more than anything else:
Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO
Mark Shields
Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles Federation of Labor, Latinos, Labor & Solidarity
The Catholic Church just wants to be included as part of the power structure.
It's lefty American Catholics with a boost from a Vatican official.
I thought I'd acknowledge it so nobody could spring it on me later.
Sometimes I get a soft spot for the Catholic Church. They haven't sold out in many ways nearly as much as the main line Protestant Churches have. Then I see things like this that remind me why I will never be a Catholic.
Don't forget Tom Woods and the Acton Institute.
In his day, Fr. John Courtney Murray was suspected by the higher-ups, until at Vatican II they turned to him for theological advice.
They haven't made a declaration against free-market ideas. They haven't even censored Woods and the others they way did Murray.
So let's not jump to conclusions about what the Church will end up deciding. It's still open to debate.
Don't forget this guy: Fr. Thomas J. Hagerty.
I think if I ever decided that I just had to join a church, I might do the Eastern Orthodox. Despite a ton of effort, I still don't fully understand the split between them and the Catholics regarding the nature of Christ and I agree with them about the Bishop of Rome just being another Bishop.
Plus you can get shit-faced at church events!
There is that.
I suspect that the theological quarrels were often secondary to political rivalries and bitterness.
And while of course you'll find Orthodox hard-liners whose Catholic-baiting makes Ian Paisley look mild, on the other hand lots of Orthodox and Catholics have kept the lines of communication open...and the Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch recently got together in Jerusalem.
http://myocn.net/live-ecumenic.....sepulcher/
Only possible way a government funded sarcasm detector would go.
Also, why the hell does Canada want a military presence of several dozen guys in Eastern Europe?
Because several dozen Canukistani berzerkers are worth their number in tanks.
+1 Leo Major
http://www.badassoftheweek.com.....8548116863
How else will NATO beat the Russkis at hockey?
OMG, Canada is sending over half their armed forces to Eastern Europe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CzYw5-qdA
40th Anniversary of 10-Cent Beer night.
http://fox8.com/2014/06/04/10-.....ars-later/
When I was living in San Antonio, one of the local radio guys told the story of some Spurs game in the early 80s he attended. It was ten cent beer night and before the days when they cut off beer after the third quarter. The game ended up being one of the longest NBA games ever played. It went something like four overtimes. He said he has never seen so many drunk people in his life and never been as drunk himself before or since.
"If they pass reparations, and my taxes are going up, I ain't paying taxes,"
Unfortunately, nobody sys, "I they raise my taxes to hire more cops to terrorize the city, I ain't gonna pay."
That's simple self preservation.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-her.html
See? See? There's proof that these non-traditional taxi services must be shut down! See?
picked up from nightclub..woke the next day. There seems to be a LOT of missing data there lady. Can ruffies be absorbed from a car seat through osmosis?
Regardless, even if she did do something willingly, the driver would have to have been a complete and utter moron to.do.anything but take her to her stated destination. Even.if.she insisted, he would be in.breach of.simple common sense to have engaged in any sexual.activity.with her.
If I were an Uber or Lyft driver, I don't care.if it were Emily Deschanel coming on to.me, I would have absolutely nothing.to do with her sexually in conjunction.with our professional transportation arrangement. The risks are.simply too high.
I am pretty sure I would risk prison for a night with either of the Deschanel sisters, but that is just my poor impulse control. Otherwise, you make a good point. Using Uber to pick up women is a very bad idea.
"But when she woke..."
There seems to be a serious gape in her story. If I got really drunk, left a bar and then told the police "but when I woke..." they would have a great laugh.
lol, you said gape
Oh damn! That might have been the case.
Waking up in a motel room in Panorama City with a half-naked man es no bueno. Running to the 7/11 and calling 911 only compounds the problem.
Oh, CPA, I saw your pullups question long after that thread died. You should be concerned, because if you can't do pullups, it means you're weak, fat, or injured, none of which are good. So, yeah, get less weak and/or get less fat. And you know my advice about that.
I can do a few pullups, but I am definitely weak and fat. But I can do pushups pretty well and can squat and dead lift a pretty good amount of weight. So there is that. But I haven't been good at pullups since I was in high school and weighed about 170 lbs and could crank out about 20 of them.
The best thing I've ever found to increase my pullups ability is just to do a shitload of them all the time. Like, set up a pullup bar in a doorway and do 5 every time you walk through that door. When you do 100+ in a day you start noticing good things.
Those assisted pullup machines are pretty good too. If there was one home exercise machine I would like to buy, it is one of those. You can play with the assist and just crank them out and get stronger and stronger. When I get out of the military and don't have to give a shit about doing pushups and situps and running anymore, I think I might buy one of those and a really good elliptical for cardio work and call it a day.
Mastodon
Amazon must be forced to sell goods, since maker of goods makes "art":
"Hachette is in business to make money, of course, but it's also in business to make art."
http://www.sfgate.com/entertai.....526140.php
It's listed under "entertainment" but the slimeball makes the same claims as Stewart; he's a humorist when he gets caught BSing, when he gets away with it, he's a serious critic!
So if Amazon decided that it wasn't going to sell books by authors it deemed "homophobic" like Orson Scott Card or Michelle Malkin, I am sure the SF Gate would be outraged. Right?
It's worse than that.
http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/.....edman.html
John,
The Chron's response to the O-care disaster was to bury short articles and run edi-cartoons about how if the GOP just quit thinking bad thoughts, everything would be fine.
This morning, the coverage of the swapped guy was an editorial saying Obo prolly blew it. NOTHING else.
When even they have to admit Obama fucked up, the Bergdahl thing must be an epic disaster.
Fucking artists
OW, my head!
A woman has died from injuries she suffered when she walked into a spinning airplane propeller at a southwest Ohio skydiving business.
Twenty-four-year-old Sarah Rhoads died Tuesday at a Dayton hospital, where she had been flown after Sunday's accident in Middletown. Authorities said she suffered severe head injuries.
She had been office manager for three years at Start Skydiving. It operates near Middletown Regional Airport.
Owner John Hart says it's the first time the business has had such an accident. He says it can be difficult to see fast-spinning propeller blades.
Hart said Rhoads was like family and called the accident the "worst nightmare of my life," WHIO.com reported.
"It's hard," he said. He told the station that he suspects she walked out to the Nouvel Air airplane to see if the pilot needed any food.
The Federal Aviation Administration says it will investigate the accident.
Gene Newsome, a manager at the business who was vacationing during the accident, described Rhoads as an employee who "worked at 100 miles per hour."
"She was awesome," he told FoxNews.com
Walked into a spinning prop? I bet. I'm surprised she even made it to the hospital.
I knew someone who got hit by a prop. He was a retired Air Force flight instructor and tough as nails. The prop opened his back shoulder up like a huge flap of meat and he still drove himself to the hospital while his buddy puked.
Unfortunately, he got seriously screwed up while testing a float plane in Canada. Fuel blockage cut the engine while he was at low altitude and he went into the trees. He survived, but lost an eye and broke his back in multiple places.
I have no idea if this is true, but when I was a kid a friend of my father's took me up in his Cessna. He told me that if you stair at a moving propeller too long you can get hypnotized and walk right into it and that there are cases reasonably often where people do just that.
It never maid sense to me, but the guy was a former Marine F4 pilot and had been flying his own plane for ever 20 years at that point. Maybe he was just trying to scare the kid into staying the hell out of the prop. But he seemed serious and certainly knew what he was talking about otherwise.
It is a true phenomenon. As a motorcyclist you are probably aware of the phenomenon of 'Target Fixation'.
Hypnotism is an odd thing. But everyone is unacceptable to it in some circumstances.
Dude!
That's not even a homonym! WTF?!?
I had a root canal yesterday. The mind is a bit goofy today. Not sure where that came from.
John + spellcheck = chaos
John's priceless
I like the implication of hypnotism being a sentient being who becomes easily displeased with humans.
It is a true phenomenon. As a motorcyclist you are probably aware of the phenomenon of 'Target Fixation'.
There's a telephone pole in Annapolis, near Church Circle, that almost had my name on it. My bike just slid up on the low curb, like some kind of black magic, and I had to force myself to look away to miss it.
I salute that pole every time I drive by it.
I totally want to paint my plane's prop with a spiral hypnopattern now.
Spinning props are really hard to see, and people get hit by them.occasionally, but I wonder how people can just miss the engine and blade pass noise. It has to just be an effect of the brain's unconscious path-selection algorithms looking for most efficient paths and seeing no obvious obstacle, regardless of other.sensory.inputs.
It is possibly why "body positioning" is commonly a major.factor in.industrial accidents.
People just forget their environment. Props don't look like a drooling bear waiting to rip your head off. After being around them for a while, you forget how dangerous they are.
Tail rotors are probably the worst.
There was a model who did this a couple years ago. And if you read WW2 pilots' accounts, you hear about this happening occasionally. I remember one B-24 pilot writing about the Ploesti raid, which started out with the bad omen of the squadron's mascot dog running out on the runway and being bisected by a propeller.
The other thing that will happen is once in a while a ground crew will walk too close to a jet with wing mounted engines and get sucked in. It is basically like being fed through a giant food processor.
One of the most dangerous jobs in the world is the guys who work on the decks of an aircraft carrier. They are constantly a few steps away from being julienned alive.
Guy gets sucked into jet engine aboard aircraft carrier and lives
He wasn't in front of the engine?
And someone not so lucky (seriously NSFW and graphic)
(They're going to have to line up the airport crew and see who's missing to identify the remains?)
"A woman has died from injuries she suffered when she walked into a spinning airplane propeller at a southwest Ohio skydiving business."
If you're ever around WWII aircraft, you'll notice all the multis have big yellow stripes on the fuselage.
If someone doesn't know why they're there, they shouldn't be near the plane.
She died like she lived.
if you can't do pullups, it means you're weak, fat, or injured
My shoulders are fucked. I probably couldn't do a pullup if somebody was shooting at me.
Fucked shoulders are terrible. Probably only a fucked back is worse.
Back is the worst but having fucked up legs sucks too. You don't realize how much your walk and stand until it hurts to do so.
As far as short term injuries, the worst I ever had was a severely bruised tailbone once in high school. It was horrible. The only time I was only in bad pain versus horrible almost unbearable pain was laying flat on my stomach. Any other position or movement was torture.
Fucked up legs are awful, but hip and knee replacements are pretty easy nowadays. There's not really a whole lot they can do for a truly fucked-up shoulder.
I herniated a disk once when I was younger, and that was pretty bad. Making my back stronger pretty much did away with most of the pain and sciatica, but still. That sucked.
Which is why the way movies treat a gunshot wound to the shoulder so cavalierly as a short term partially incapactiating injury rather than a life changing event annoys the piss out of me.
And no one ever goes into shock in the movies. When someone is shot anywhere on their body, one of the biggest initial dangers is their bodies going into shock. The closest I ever came to seeing someone actually die was a guy who was shot in the hand and went into shock before the medics got there. He made it, but it was a hell of a lot closer call than you would ever think being shot in the hand would be.
I was helping a friend a few weeks ago.and.another helper shot himself through the hand with a nail gun. He went into pretty much immediate shock.
Damn, that must have been brutal. I think I would rather get shot than take a nail thought the hand. Ouch.
Was his name Jes?s?
I wasn't actually there when.it happened, we were driving back from the.old.location to the new one.where.it.happened. but we saw him shortly after the EMTs showed.up and he was looking bad.
I took a nail through the foot, working concrete, stepped on a form, went all the way through boot and out the other side. It wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to me, certainly way better than getting shot I imagine.
I am not so sure about that Snark. Unless the bullet tumbles or its a hollow point, it will go in one side and out the other and leaves a smaller hole than that nail did.
Strength is the best thing you can do for your back. I had a doctor tell me once that the reason why a muscle spasms is because it is weak. The way to stop it from doing that is make it stronger.
The other thing about having a fucked up anything is that it causes you to change your gate and movement which then injures other parts of your body. You see this all of the time in athletes who try to come back too early from an injury. They often don't re-injure the initial injury but instead create a new injury because their body is compensating for the old one.
Yeah, coccyx injuries are brutal. There is nothing to do other than wait them out.
Shoulders (like knees/backs) are remarkably (non-surgically) fixable...
http://breakingmuscle.com/inte.....kettlebell
I personally get great results from wall-walks and "self-wheelbarrows" with those ab wheels you can strap your feet into and hand-walk out and back 25 yds. There's much goodness in stablizer work around the shoulder joint.
Sure, you can fix most joints by strengthening the muscle around it. Unless we're talking about a bone or cartilage injury. If you have bone spurs and no cartilage left in your shoulder, stabilizer work isn't going to do a whole lot for you.
Well, yeah, but a lot of people I've worked with are in the category of Martone: they think their {pick a joint} is too far gone, but really they need to skip the compound lifts and/or bodybuilding lifts and do stabilization work first. Even I thought my knees and back were beyond help 6 yrs ago...until I learned to squat correctly and reverse 35 years of misuse.
Look, we have super-powerful *government* software that detects sarcasm and it didn't send up an alert - therefore he *must* have been serious.
Faux Activism: Recruiting Anti-Chevron Protesters for $85 a Head
Several dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland to condemn Chevron. To fill out the ranks of the demonstration, a Los Angeles-based production company offered local residents $85 apiece to serve as what the firm described in a recruiting e-mail as "extras/background people."
Julieta Gilbert, executive producer of DFLA Films, said in the e-mail that the company "need to get a group of people to help us document this event. ? We will pay each one of them $85. They will be there for a couple of hours (8am to 12 pm). We need ethically [sic] diverse people."
http://mobile.businessweek.com.....-85-a-head
"extras/background people."
Uh, "SHILLS"; let's be honest.
Are we sure that that "sic" belongs there?
That 'ethically' wasn't a mistake.
Never listed as a POW? According to the link "Reason" provided, that's because the Pentagon doesn't do that any more. Instead, he was listed as "missing/captured."
ALAN VANNEMAN
I believe the period in "missing/captured." should go after the ending quotation mark in this case.
I just got word from the alma mater that they're looking to renovate one of the end zones of the football stadium and put in premium seating (suites and other similar stuff). Who in the heck would buy a friggin end zone suite? That's like the worst view in the entire stadium!
You're assuming people who buy luxury suites actually watch the games.
Not in a million years. I don't understand how they sell out most NFL games. Give me a good seat between the 20s and not too high, sure I would love to go. But give me an end zone or one of the nose bleed seats, and I wouldn't go if you gave me the tickets. I would rather watch it at home in high def. Yet, people continue to buy those sorts of seats for big money. I don't get it.
It's where they take clients to impress them and transact business. They don't give a rat's sphincter about th3 game.
Yeah. I would be a bad client because I would not be impressed with a luxury box that gave me a shitty view of the game. But I am actually a fan of football, something that seems to be rare these days.
At least in soccer that's where the Ultras go, if one is into that sort of thing. Otherwise ITA.
I have friends who go to the Redskins games and they tell me the crowd has gotten increasingly rough. The only people they can sell the cheap seats too are people who go there to drink and cause trouble.
So it's like soccer, then.
Ha. So you get e-mails from the University of Colorado, too? Season ticket holder?
They don't have a Jennifer or a Bailey. And this is one of the better reasons to hate them.
Jen Psaki
(but not as smart as Jennifer)
Bailey Jennifer