Tonight on The Independents: Obama Plummets, Cheney Vomits, Geraldo Pontificates, Plus Redskins Ruling, Delicious Big Fat, Jason Riley Says 'Stop Helping Us,' and Two Minutes Hate!

Whose vitriol will be read by Fox Human Resources Director Bernie Maxsmith on tonight's episode of of The Independents (Fox Business Network, 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT)? Well, that's the point: You have to tune in to find out.

Party Panel tonight is Wall Street lawyer-turned comedian Paul Mecurio, and Breitbart.com columnist Lisa De Pasquale, who will talk about President Barack Obama's sinking poll numbers, Dick Cheney's stinking op-ed, the Patent Office's trademark ruling against the Redskins, and the growing popularity of the World Cup. Fox News mustache-legend Geraldo Rivera will give his idiosyncratic take on Iraq, Jason Riley will talk about his new book Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make it Harder for Blacks to Succeed, and Nina Teicholz will talk about her new book, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.

Follow The Independents on Facebook at facebook.com/IndependentsFBN, follow on Twitter @ independentsFBN, tweet during the show & we'll use the best of 'em. Click on this page for more video of past segments.

Comments

[Agammamon]

Wakka wakka.

[gaijin]

+10,000 points

[Winston]

So isn't the Wold Cup some collectivist nationalist cronyist enterprise?

[gaijin]

It's a fifa-dom

[Raven Nation]

Oh, very good sir.

[mr lizard]

Wow... Just wow

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Wall Street lawyer-turned comedian Paul Mecurio"

"That's what they call the Sanity Clause." "You can't fool me, there ain't no Sanity Clause!"

What do you call 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start!

How many lawyers does it take to shingle a roof? Depends on how thin you slice them!

Thank you, you've been a wonderful audience, the veal meets all applicable regulatory standards, do not harass the waitresses!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

oops, I mean wait staff regardless of gender.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

No allusion to any litigious person, living or dead, was intended or should be inferred.

The term "you're killing me" is strictly a humorous remark and is not to be taken literally.

[gaijin]

I think the hastag #sarc has been shown to send the secret service bots elsewhere.

[Winston]

Patent Office's trademark ruling against the Redskins

Government intervention is justified in this case, amirite?

[mr lizard]

I will say, the Statist have been quite creative over the last decade. However tapping the Patents Office straight Post-doctoral Nanny quality.

[wwhorton]

Ok, so it is an insulting name. It just is. I grew up with it and have been a fan all my life, but it's like if we had a team called the Washington Darkies. Now, not enough of the fans care enough to not pay ticket money or stop watching the games. Will that change if the name is changed via the courts? Probably not. I'm not sure what that means. All I know is that the Wizards were called the Bullets before it was decided that the name of our NBA team somehow had an impact on annual homicides. Turns out it didn't.

[Sevo]

wwhorton|6.18.14 @ 11:16PM|#
"Ok, so it is an insulting name. It just is."

Not according to most Amer-Inds; see well down below.
If you find it insulting, don't go to the games.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The most nerdy thing ever (h/t to the wonderful kibby):

Convert your nation's currency into fictional ones from sci-fi

[Raven Nation]

So when you say nation, you mean US, UK, & EU only.

[Agammamon]

So convert your Raven Bukks or whatever to dollars first.

[Raven Nation]

Very droll.

[WDATPDIM!?]

The proper term is "beaks."

[Agammamon]

They already done screwed up right from the get go.

$1 = abso-fucking-lutely noting in Federation credits.

100 dollars at 5% interest for 200 years becomes I'm not doing the math, by which time its worthless.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

+1 Heinlein

... Hobbit

[Episiarch]

What bullshit. No gold pressed latinum? No Quatloos? No Flanian Pobble Beads? Well, those wouldn't convert into anything but themselves...

[GILMORE]

NOT NERDY ENOUGH

because i could not determine the $ value of a kilo of Arrakeen Spice

OR

the going rate on a Star Wars clone battalion
(10,000 base clones per order)

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Here

4.1 Currency

1 Solari is roughly equivalent to 1 pound sterling.

1Kg Pundi rice
1 Solari

1-way Heighliner trip
10,000 Solari

2g Melange
124,000 Solari*

Harkonnen reward for a Crysknife
1,000,000 Solari

* This is the price on the open market. On Arrakis, melange is much more freely available and vastly cheaper.

[GILMORE]

NOW ITS TOO NERDY.

HOW MUCH FOR AI MECHA-WHORES?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

No cubits?

[Sevo]

Cubits?!
How about meters?

[db]

I was looking for Voltarian credits (Mission Earth) and was disappointed.

Tickled to see that it's about 0.74 bottle caps to the dollar.

[GILMORE]

Everything has a price

[Heroic Mulatto]

No quatloos?

LAME!

[Episiarch]

As lame as you saying this over an hour after I did?

PWN'D

[SusanM]

No Altarian Dollars or latinum either.

[RussianPrimeMinister]

OT: Pay attention to me!

I want responses and snark like you guys get!

Waaaahhhhhhh!

[gaijin]

have some cheese with your whine...it's binding 🙂

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If you get enough attention, will you stop invading Ukraine?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Russian Prime Minister? So you're Putin's bottom?

[mr lizard]

Ya right, some invasion y'all got there. One asshole puts a few rounds into a pipeline, and suddenly everyone calls timeout?

[John]

People now consider Obama more incompetent than they did Bush post Katrina. That is not good.

[gaijin]

or maybe it is good?

[Irish]

People now consider Obama more incompetent than they did Bush post Katrina. That is not good.

Let the hate flow through you.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

or

[Raven Nation]

It's probably worse for Obama. The media painted Bush responsible for some Katrina stuff that he had nothing to do with while they have been fairly assiduously protecting The One.

[John]

Can you imagine how bad his numbers would be if the media wasn't covering for him so much?

[Episiarch]

I wonder what his image is going to be in 20 or 50 years. Some pretty scathing books will come out, I imagine.

I have a feeling that the media is going to go into "pretend he never existed" mode about five minutes after he leaves office, for quite some time, until maybe they feel they can rehabilitate his image.

[Winston]

Didn't harm Truman, JFK, LBJ and Bill Clinton.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Then a half-white reactionary named Obama came into office to continue Bush's policies. Progressives fought against his attempt to wage new wars, to hold people in prison without trial, to bail out big banks, but the right wing pushed Obama's agenda. Obama continued the right-wing reactionary policy of deficit spending..."

[Palin's Buttplug]

You think that because you are stupid.

In 20 years his legacy will be "avoided the second Great Depression, killed bin Laden, got us out of two wars, pass health insurance reform, and cut the huge deficit in half."

Liberals write the history, fool.

[John]

Which means they will pretend he didn't exist since he is so embarrassing. Just do humanity a favor and die already.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|6.18.14 @ 7:53PM|#
..."Liberals write the history, fool."

So you're hoping the lies continue? Yep, that's slimy enough for you.

[wwhorton]

Hold up. Like up to two months ago weren't you cheerleading for this fucker? I mean, seriously. Just say you've had a change of heart. Shit, I voted for W twice, and I fess up. It's good for the soul.

[JW]

What's more amazing is that he inherited such a shit economy and as bad state of affairs, that all he had to do was stay out of the way on the economy and it would get better, faster. And, all he had to do was to undue the worst of the Bush executive excesses. He'd be a fucking rock star, compared to Dubya.

Nope, he triple dog dared down on the stupidity and egomania.

[Episiarch]

Well, that is what megalomaniacs do, after all. You can't expect someone like Obama to not be a moron. He has to be a moron to think he's that much more intelligent and capable than he actually is. The stupidity of narcissism.

[JW]

And his sycophants ate it up. He's a leader! No, he's our leader!

His game plan is pretty good, politics-wise. All he has to do is pretend to do something to make things better and punish his political enemies and his low-information mongoloid supporters all get solid TEAM bonurs.

Too bad that's true of the republicans, as well.

[Overt]

OBAMA, I want you to squeeeeze and squeeeeze and SQUEEEEZE until there is nothing left.

And then I will send you, Hillary. Sweet Hillary.

[Copernicus]

I'm trying to imagine who would be the person to say these lines in our real world.

I keep picturing Barney Frank as the Baron.

[WDATPDIM!?]

But ... HEALTHCARE!

[Lady Bertrum]

Suspicion, disappointment, and cynicism in politics is a very good thing.

[Lady Bertrum]

Uggg.

are very good things.

[BakedPenguin]

The first sentence could work. They often come as a package deal.

[Bobarian]

Suspicion, disappointment, and cynicism IS politics.

[Palin's Buttplug]

"Bush post Katrina" was the high-water mark of his second term. It got a lot fucking worse.

[John]

And Obama is still lower. He is a fucking moron and everyone but a few depraved retards like you know it.

[Winston]

Well Truman had hideous poll numbers when he left office and is now regarded as a great president and I believe Woodrow Wilson was not very popular either but he is loved now too so Obama can always count on that.

And libertarians gush over Clinton Carter and McGovern so I can see them gushing over Obama eventually.

[Irish]

And libertarians gush over Clinton Carter and McGovern so I can see them gushing over Obama eventually.

...What.

[Winston]

http://reason.com/blog/2012/09.....lgianomics

[Winston]

http://reason.com/blog/2014/04.....ake-2-feat

http://reason.com/blog/2012/10.....ern-as-lib

[wwhorton]

Can I say, as I say often to my critical wife, that Reason != libertarianism?

[Sevo]

I think you can say that.

[Suthenboy]

Oh yes it is good. Very good for us, for him, not so much.

[Episiarch]

Exactly. The more people who consider more politicians, especially our megalomaniacal president, as incompetent, the better. For everyone. Anything that shakes belief in TOP MEN.

[Winston]

Nothing says individuality then watching the World Cup because everyone else is.

[GILMORE]

The what?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It's a video where 2 girls do something to a cup.

[Derpetologist]

Is it bad if I think the people in both these videos are equally nutty?

1

2

[GILMORE]

On #1 - I could not help but think of the Pyrofox example

#2 - Transgender children?

... i do not think of them the same way at all. #1 is an 'adult' (more or less) who's chosen a particular lifestyle they want to live.

#2 is completely unjustified until a kid has reached adolescence.

For the record, there's a long history of children who were raised as 'the other' gender for much of their lives, then finally 'normalized' after puberty.

Acting like a child can determine for themselves at a very young age their 'socialized' gender is a bit of a stretch. I think the parents are nuts for considering hormone therapy even before the child has reached adolescence.

[Derpetologist]

For me, I was face-palming around the 2 minute mark when the Mom said she put her 3-year old on Prozac.

[Pathogen]

"..Acting like a child can determine for themselves at a very young age their 'socialized' gender is a bit of a stretch..."

The same proglidytes that crow and cheer over this, are the same group that are absolutely convinced that kids are too young and fucking stupid to have a say in what they eat at school... The irony burns..

[Derpetologist]

If you watch the whole, thing the mom argues that since children can commit suicide, they should be allowed to get sex changes.

Oh...kay....

[Derpetologist]

Is it bad if I think the people in both these videos are equally nutty?

1

2

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not sure if two is nutty.

Want nutty? Just a few months ago I stored my company statements in a bin so when my accountant beckoned I'd be ready with them. For some reason can't find them.

Worse, can't find the damn cable I need to download pictures from my phone a fence company required.

I seem to be forgetting more and more stuff. I even lost some blank cheques my mother handed over for our commercial line of credit.

All out of character.

Sigh.

Help me, TI!

[jesse.in.mb]

cheques

You're commenting on an AMERICAN website and by GOD, the BALD EAGLE and the AMERICAN FLAG, you will speak AMERICAN.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Ask him what the last letter of the alphabet is.

[jesse.in.mb]

No. He'll just say "zed" and put a bunch of letters "u" in the centre of his words in the process.

I WON'T HAVE IT!

/provincial American Fox News viewer

...wait.

[paranoid android]

No. He'll just say "zed" and put a bunch of letters "u" in the centre of his words in the process.

Excuse me, but centre?

*Narrows eyes*

[jesse.in.mb]

Yes. The centre, you know like a towne centre where the shoppes and colourful theatres are.

[Episiarch]

jesse's a secret Canadian?!? BURN HIM! BURN THE WITCH!!!

[JW]

I SAW HIM LICK A MAPLE TREE! DURN DID IT TWICE!

[Pathogen]

"Ask him what the last letter of the alphabet is."

And per se and (&)

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Age, and average daily alcohol intake?

[Derpetologist]

Bill Nye vs. Penn Jillette

Sadly, Bill deploys some rather Tony-like arguments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkIWN1PwmW0

[GILMORE]

What, he throws a fistful of poop then runs away?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Battle of the bow ties?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Bill Nye said there's only two sexes! Transphobe!

[Winston]

Personcott him!

[wwhorton]

Wow. Fuck Bill Nye. I'm from PG County. Right outside of DC. This isn't the first time he's thrown that little regional tidbit out there. Like many progs, he retreats to racism. Well, funny thing is, if you're from the area then you know that it has been a hotbed of racism from many directions. This should, I'd hope, be irrelevant to a scientist.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"The Truth About Our Libertarian Age

"Why the dogma of democracy doesn't always make the world better...

"The libertarian age is an illegible age. It has given birth to a new kind of hubris unlike that of the old master thinkers. Our hubris is to think that we no longer have to think hard or pay attention or look for connections, that all we have to do is stick to our "democratic values" and economic models and faith in the individual and all will be well. Having witnessed unpleasant scenes of intellectual drunkenness, we have become self-satisfied abstainers removed from history and unprepared for the challenges it is already bringing. The end of the cold war destroyed whatever confidence in ideology still remained in the West. But it also seems to have destroyed our will to understand. We have abdicated. The libertarian dogma of our time is turning our polities, economies, and cultures upside down?and blinding us to this by making us even more self-absorbed and incurious than we naturally are. The world we are making with our hands is as remote from our minds as the farthest black hole. Once we had a nostalgia for the future. Today we have an amnesia for the present."

http://www.newrepublic.com/art.....ign=buffer

[Irish]

That's some brilliant word salad right there. There isn't a single rational thought I can pick out of that ridiculous blob of stupidity.

[Derpetologist]

What a load of garbage. Libetarians don't make claims about how the world works? Mises wrote a gigantic book analyzing human action.

The fact that this dolt is a professor is a disgrace.

Liberals invite and resist refutation? HA!

[Derpetologist]

And it sure is great how the author has to throw so many French and Latin words to distract from the fact that he's a booger-eating moron.

Great Scott! Now that is DERP.

[Jensen]

This is literally just a lefty professor grabbing everything he disagrees with in modern political thought and calling it 'libertarian'. It really is the new replacement for neoconservative.

[GILMORE]

pssst. "Neoliberal". Pass it on.

[Jensen]

Neoliberal seemed to be bigger in the late 90s, at least that's what I got out of my international relations courses in the Bush years. Back then it seemed like neoconservative was the new catch-all capitalist plot. See Klein's 'the Shock Doctrine' etc.

[GILMORE]

I think neoliberal is making a big comeback, particular with the Internet-enabled Femicommunistitarians

[Jensen]

Neoliberal's been reinvented multiple times, it wouldn't surprise me if they define it into something else. Throughout the 1930s Keynesianism was basically considered neoliberal, then it was 'hyper capitalism' in the 60s, now it's more just a general decrying of corporate and government behaviour as free market capitalism with no context whatsoever.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Ugh Klein, now that is true derp

[Jensen]

The Shock Doctrine's great if you just replace every 'neoconservative' with 'Jews' and read it as a satire on Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

[PapayaSF]

LOL

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Was that from the Thomas Friedman article generator?

[Winston]

A prog accusing libertarians of hubris is classic projection.

[JW]

You can't fool me. That's from a Freidman random column generator.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

BOOM

[JW]

Big boom?

[Suthenboy]

That is just gibberish to me.

[Winston]

As far as I can tell he's saying that if we believed in TOP. MEN. then we would be fine.

[JW]

From what I can tell from that stately pile of gibberish, is that our name is a killing word.

[BakedPenguin]

We also have spice. Lots and lots of spice.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Dear Prudence: Help! My 11 year old transgender daughter was forced to change with the boys on a school swimming trip!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Headline edit: the transgender girl was sent to change in a separate room, not with the boys.

Although I suppose that is still "othering".

[paranoid android]

Wait, wait. I can't watch the video right now, so perhaps you can cissplain for me: is the mother upset she was sent to a separate room? What would the mother have preferred happen? Does she think her daughter should have been allowed to change with the natural girls?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

To clarify: the little boy still has a penis. He just dresses like a girl.

[paranoid android]

I got that part. I understand why having the trans-girl undress with the boys would make her uncomfortable, and having someone with a penis undress with the girls would make everyone uncomfortable, so having her use a separate room seems like a perfectly legitimate compromise suited to everyone's interests...so what's the mother's complaint?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

so what's the mother's complaint?

She wasn't getting the attention she felt was due her?

[Lady Bertrum]

I imagine the mothers complaint would be that her kid was singled-out and separated from everyone, but there's no winning here.

If she undresses with the girls, their parents might complain. If she undresses either with the boys or separately, she feels uncomfortable or singled out.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

One of the mothers of the girls wanted the transgender to change in another room. The mother of the transgender wanted that girl to have to change in another room instead.

[jesse.in.mb]

The mother is a bitch.

Accommodate the shit out of your 11-year-old. Part of that means not creating a shit-ton of drama around the kid so that you feel like you're doing everything for your special snowflake which just ends up making the kid the odd-ball center of everyone's attention.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

*cough cough BULLSHIT cough cough*

[Derpetologist]

I was going to write a long comment, but I think South Park nailed this transgender stuff years ago:

http://www.southparkstudios.co.....hinoplasty

[Derpetologist]

I must be a cave man. I was in shock when the mom said she sent the kid back to school after the kid decided to be a girl.

If someone believed they were trans-black and should be allowed to go around in black face, people would shit bricks.

[JW]

If someone believed they were trans-black and should be allowed to go around in black face, people would shit bricks.

Beautiful.

[Suthenboy]

"If someone believed they were trans-black and should be allowed to go around in black face, people would shit bricks."

Holy shit that made me laugh. I am going to be using that.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

11 year old. You left out the part where the kid was an 11 year old.

[Derpetologist]

What is your point regarding the age of the child?

If adults want to live as the opposite sex, OK. Children have no capacity to make decisions like that. And the people who enable their delusions are bonkers.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Then you got my point. The kid has no idea what the hell he wants as an 11 year old.

[jesse.in.mb]

I dunno. I've got a nephew who has been raised in a moderately conservative, Christian home who refused to leave the house as a toddler without sparkly ruby red boots and a purse. Fast forwards a few years and he's demanding that my mother teach him how to sew.

I think my sister and her husband have handled it extremely well by gently nudging him toward gender-normative stuff, but letting him find his own interests.

[Heroic Mulatto]

If someone believed they were trans-black and should be allowed to go around in black face

Umm..yeah. We've been putting up with that since at least Elvis.

[Derpetologist]

OK, I can sort of see your point there, but at least those people had enough sense not to actually present themselves as black.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I would link to the tumblr of some white chick who actually believes she's trans-Japanese, but Gandalf stayed my hand.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Hail Sauron and link that shit

[Heroic Mulatto]

Looks like the blog is deleted. This is all that remains.

[Derpetologist]

OK, I need to see that link. Pretty please.

[SusanM]

Trans-Black?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N68t7NvuTgQ

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Dear Prudence is just clickbait trolling with urban, white liberalism sprinkled generously throughout.

[Suthenboy]

You fucker. Warn me next time it is a link to Slate so I can not click on it.

Good grief, look at the other titles linked there:

-Can Women's colleges survive the transgender movement.

-Can theater really help homeless transgender youth?

-Help! My husband slept with my half-sister.

-The tragedy of having a mass killer in the family.

-Help! My sister-in-law won't adopt a developmentally disabled child.

And it goes on and on and on. This is supermarket checkout grade stuff. What a bunch of shit.

[Episiarch]

Was there a story on Batboy? Possibly an article on how to determine of your pet is actually an extra-terrestrial?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I miss Batboy

[BakedPenguin]

Yeah, it was heartwarming to read how he got Bill Clinton to meet with aliens for world peace.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

This is supermarket checkout grade stuff.

Eeeexactly. It's the kind of shit I keep in the magazine rack in the guest bathroom.

[Sevo]

Saves on toilet tissue?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Strongly discouraged. It burns on contact.

[Bobarian]

Wiping your ass with a computer screen linked to Slate is probably not very hygienic, either.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

For your libertarian viewing pleasure:
The Kings victory parade featured an armored vehicle from one of the local police departments.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Classy. You take your boys? I think it ended at the Manhattan Beach pier.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Yep. It was quite the scene. +/- 50,000 people near the pier.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

What do you do when your kids, being kids, are inclined to view the police armored personnel carrier as awesome?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I let them enjoy their childhood.

[Derpetologist]

This is good time to re-post this:

http://www.political-humor.org.....raffic.jpg

[jesse.in.mb]

Did the parade come up MB Blvd? I saw a dozen motorcycle cops going east while I was on my way home.

Maybe they were just leaving after the parade? ~5pm.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It came along the beach, and ended just above the pier. If you saw a black bus with the motor cops, that was the Kings on their way back to their training facility in El Segundo.

Oh, and anyone who makes a comment about leaving their wallet in El Segundo can kiss my ass.

[Episiarch]

I didn't leave my wallet in El Segundo!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Because you're responsible. I don't leave my AMEX behind either.

[Episiarch]

Gold or Platinum? They keep bugging me to go to Platinum, but for $450/year? Hmmmm...

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I quit Platinum, and now I have Blue Preferred. 6% back on groceries, 3% back on gas, and 1% back on everything else. According to Quicken, I spend about $6000/yr on groceries, so the 6% adds up pretty quickly.

I don't give a shit about the concierge or purchase insurance bullshit, so it made sense to switch. And the Blue card looks awesome.

Still have no credit limit, but I'm not sure if that was grandfathered in....

[grrizzly]

I've had the Platinum for 3 years. Go with the AmEx Premier Rewards Gold. Much better. I'd get it myself, but I cannot because of my Platinum card. Have to make my partner get it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Now he can buy more potatoes!

[grrizzly]

An authorized user card is free. I can buy him the potatoes myself!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"California lawmakers consider expanding teacher tenure despite court ruling...

"[Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez's] Her bill, which passed the Assembly but failed to get four votes needed to make it out of the Senate's education committee Wednesday, would require small school districts to grant tenure to credentialed teachers after three years on the job. Districts with fewer than 250 students are not currently required to grant tenure. It also would require all districts to grant tenure to vocational education teachers, nurses, psychologists and counselors after three years."

http://www.reuters.com/article.....liticsNews

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Speaking of tenured and pensions and shit.

An acquaintance of mine is an RCMP officer but has since left the force and collects a nice pension now. He's into hard training as a personal trainer and follows his family around on their work out joys.

He's 40.

[JW]

It's only fair since you Canucks rarely make it past 50. It's the numbing cold that kills you that soon, right?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Not the waits for single payer health care?

[WDATPDIM!?]

Eventually, they'll just start ignoring court rulings that go the "wrong" way, George-Wallace style.

[Winston]

So what do people think o of the war economies of WWI and WWII? Both of those wars did grave damage as they convinced many people that centrally planned economies could work.

[Sevo]

..."they convinced many people that centrally planned economies could work."

So long as a country is at war and the customer (gov't) directs all the production, they work fine.
Want a toaster? Tough shit.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Right. If you enslave (conscript) most workers and direct the economy Soviet Style pushing workers to work in the name of avoiding being killed by Huns you can have a temporary increase in GDP and drop in unemployment which collapses when you stop. Yay.

[Irish]

Right. If you enslave (conscript) most workers and direct the economy Soviet Style pushing workers to work in the name of avoiding being killed by Huns you can have a temporary increase in GDP and drop in unemployment which collapses when you stop.

A temporary increase in GDP which doesn't actually improve the standard of living of the public. If GDP goes up because of federal spending on explosives but no one can buy a refrigerator, that's hardly something to crow about.

[Sevo]

Near the end of the war, Hitler was cutting the potato ration well below daily requirements; the potatoes were converted to jet fuel.
He was, in direct terms, trading the stored body fat of his population for fuel.
Yeah, those centrally-planned economies "work".

[paranoid android]

Which reduced obesity and lessened Germany's reliance on fossil fuels simultaneously! Truly, a hero for social progress crusaders everywhere.

[Sevo]

Next time some twit posts about 'fossil fuels', I'm stealing that along with the note about Hitler.
Oh, and Stalin did far worse, but the starvation was so general and lacking in purpose that it was just passed off as Stalin being Stalin.

[Winston]

Hitler was cutting the potato ration well below daily requirements; the potatoes were converted to jet fuel.

Also for the V2 whose construction killed more people than in the rocket attacks.

I find it pretty creepy reading about how in the World Wars Canada, the US and UK the politicians made big deals about post-war Reconstruction since those TOP. MEN. running the war economy could lead the peacetime economy right?

And this brings to mind the CCF slogan "conscription of wealth, not men" and the Beveridge Report.

[Sevo]

"Also for the V2 whose construction killed more people than in the rocket attacks."

I don't doubt that and I'd love to have a cite on it.

[Winston]

I should also mention that the UK Liberals were behind WWI including its war economy and Keynes and Beveridge.

[PapayaSF]

The war economy of WWI, and other "progressive" policies of Woodrow Wilson, played a huge role in discrediting the term "progressive" and thus caused the left in the US to adopt the label "liberal."

And then it happened in reverse in the '60s-'70s.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Catholic SoCons: Tiny, Tiny People Being Frozen Against Their Will and Forced Into 'Concentration Cans!'

"Cryopreservation of embryos keeps them alive but development is arrested as they remain frozen in a state of suspended animation. Submerged in liquid nitrogen in a freezer, dubbed a "Concentration Can" by the great geneticist, Jerome LeJeune, cryopreservation exposes these innocents to a host of risks, offenses, and further manipulation...

The most obvious offense to their human rights is that the process of freezing and thawing the embryos leads to the death of many...The two primary causes of death? Formation of ice crystals (freezer burn) or cytotoxicity (poison) from the cryoprotectant...In short, the freezing and thawing process exposes them to serious risk of harm and death.

But even if the technology was perfected and no deaths would occur (an exceptionally unlikely scenario), these human beings are frozen against their will and not for their own good. Consent to such a procedure cannot be presumed because IVF and the freezing of embryos do not offer reasonable hope of success or great benefit for the embryo."

http://www.crisismagazine.com/.....man-beings

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I thought of microscopic Han Solo being frozen while reading this.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Jabba the Hut that son of a bitch.

I'm surprised the PC buffoons haven't after that term - son of a bitch.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

gone after

[WDATPDIM!?]

or "bastard." That's very othering.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Ha ha, that hick Jerome LeJeune!

From his recent obitiuary in the Independent:

"JEROME LEJEUNE, a pivotal figure in medical genetics, is best remembered for his discovery 35 years ago of the chromosome abnormality which causes Down's syndrome....

"...he crusaded against the prenatal Down's screening programmes, which had become commonplace since the early 1970s. The screening allows identification of foetal Down's syndrome with a view to offering termination of an affected foetus; for Lejeune this was a most unwelcome and contradictory outcome of his early and pioneering research....

"There can be not doubt that Lejeune was a man of outstanding integrity, a highly disciplined and methodological scholar, as such much respected by his colleagues and the general public alike."

And as further proof of his scientific acumen, he didn't peddle fake stories about 800 dead babies in a septic tank.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....69490.html

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yes Eddie, his accomplishments in one area totally makes his comment about 'Concentration Cans' for Tiny Frozen People totally wise!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Where it's at
800 dead babies in a septic tank

Where it's at
800 dead babies in a septic tank

For best results, sing these lyrics to this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfmNxKLDG4

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Woosh.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Is that the sound of the babies being flushed into the septic tank?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I thought it was you missing a point sailing over your head, but it could have been the sound of wails emitting from a Concentration Can.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

*smooches*

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Now, now Eddie, your church frowns on that (unless you think I'm an underage boy, is that it?).

[Heroic Mulatto]

It was actually the sound of an abortionist vacuuming a baby's brain out of it's skull.

You know, Bo's fetish.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yes, vacuuming a baby's brain out of its skull=freezing microscopic embryos!

Weak HM. Why not use the ready made 'Concentration Can'?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Why not use the ready made 'Concentration Can'?

Because I don't have the ghoulish fascination with abortion that you seem to have by spamming every other fucking thread with it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I doubt I bring it up as much as Reason does.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*sigh*

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Look, I bring it up sometimes because it's a pretty fundamental right which has been part of the LP plank since the beginning. I imagine Reason brings it up for the same reasons. What's your aversion to it?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Additionally, the article was not about abortion, it was about IVF and freezing embryos. It was talking about the human rights of embryos being violated because of freezer burn for Pete's sake. Any other topic that would be fair game for ridicule.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Additionally, the article was not about abortion, it was about IVF and freezing embryos.

And now you're being your usual disingenuous self.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Says the guy who equated what I was talking about with 'vacuuming baby's brains out of their skulls.'

[Heroic Mulatto]

Says the guy who equated what I was talking about with 'vacuuming baby's brains out of their skulls.'

You're lying again, or you have the reading comprehension of a 3 year old. You know damn well that was a reference to the "woosh" sound you made.

And with that, I'll leave you to play pigeon chess by yourself. So go ahead, hop on the board, knock over the pieces and then shit on it. Then strut around like you did something worthy of praise.

Your autism schtick gets old quickly.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You don't bring it up "sometimes", that's the problem.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Again, I think you're wrong, perhaps due to some oversensitivity. I bring it up probably less than Eddie and the Reason writers to be honest.

And again, this was not really about abortion.

[Derpetologist]

This is a good time to throw this in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtJ9_-WOXik

Note the comments.

[Jesus H. Christ]

The comments are mostly hideous.

[Cytotoxic]

The top one is correct: it should have been aborted.

[Cytotoxic]

I thought I was the only one!

[Cytotoxic]

With that fetish.

[Cytotoxic]

That's nice Eddie. He's still fucking nuts for thinking embryos are people.

[Acosmist]

That's pretty fucked up and utterly against any medical ethics.

So, your point was...?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

My point was to highlight the sheer absurdity of sitting around and taking seriously the idea that microscopic embryo's are 'tiny persons' with rights. Things fall off my dog that are more complex and possessing of the traits associated with having rights.

There's something to arguing about fetuses in later stages, that seems obvious. But it's sheer goofy to be talking about embryo rights.

[sarcasmic]

I wonder which has higher ratings. Maddow or the libertarian circle jerk.

[sarcasmic]

I tried to google it, but apparently this show "The Independents" doesn't exist outside some narrow circle jerk of beta male libertarians.

[Irish]

Maddow probably gets like 20 times the ratings of The Independents.

It's on Fox Business. All the conservatives are watching Megyn Kelly and the libertarians mostly get their news online.

[Episiarch]

Show us on the doll where The Independents touched you. And it had better not be your heart.

[sarcasmic]

They touched my penis. Not just touched, but they stroked it with hoopy earrings. It was disgusting. In and out. In and out. So close to a warm mouth, but yet so far. But it was all a tease. There was no gratification or satisfaction. They promised something that meant something, and failed. Utterly. Or in the case of Kennedy molesting me, udderly. Bastards.

[Episiarch]

That...that was a better answer than I expected.

[Derpetologist]

Well, you're in a rotten mood. Here, have a look at these gorgeous women:

http://th08.deviantart.net/fs7.....6pvlad.png

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Haven't you already dropped that bomb?

[Derpetologist]

Shh!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Maddow by a 15-1 margin.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.c.....14/274023/

Fox Business itself only gets 45,000 viewers during primetime and they're probably Lou Dobbs viewers.

[Irish]

WHEW! Either the Independents gets more viewers than I thought, or Maddow gets fewer.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Granted, that source does not record Fox Business show by show, so it's possible The Independents gets 10,000 viewers before everyone else tunes in for Dobbs.

But yeah, Maddow is MSNBC's top show and she gets only 838,000 viewers. Megyn Kelly gets over 2 million.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

One important thing to keep in mind is that Fox Business is widely unavailable. Half the people here stream it.

[Episiarch]

Good point, I often forget how poor so many people here are and don't have every single possible channel like a proper person does. You all disgust me!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Seriously. I bet they don't even have Tivos. Generic cable company DVRs at best.

[Episiarch]

Now you're just making my skin crawl.

[jesse.in.mb]

Wait, I want to make Marie Antoinette comments with the cool kids, but I have a Roku box and my parents' cable log-in information instead of paying for cable...

We need a new topic.

[Episiarch]

What kind of satellite radio/Bluetooth stereo system do you have in your car, jesse? I've got an Alpine.

[jesse.in.mb]

Don't be a dick. You know I drive a 2009 Honda Fit.

*runs off sobbing*

[Derpetologist]

I am watching the pirate feed on a CRT monitor while sitting on the floor with my back against the wall.

But I am wearing a monocle.

[Pathogen]

You're in!

*Thumbs up*

[Sevo]

..."I often forget how poor so many people here are and don't have every single possible channel like a proper person does."...

Somehow, Ill live without the world cup coverage.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Fox Business/News isn't even offered here in Canada. Which is beyond the pale really. I get Fox for shows but that's it.

Suck my dick CRTC.

[Sevo]

But the CA legislature did knock-back the SF "Anti-Going-Out-of-Business" law:

"Anti-Ellis Act bill dealt major blow in Assembly"
[...]
"The bill would force many rental property owners in San Francisco to wait at least five years before removing their units from the market ? even if losing money month after month."
http://www.caanet.org/news_eve.....-assembly/

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What the? That's Soviet...

[Suthenboy]

Make no mistake about it. Turning the U.S. into the U.S.S.R is the proggies wet dream. They are even getting close to admitting it.

[Winston]

No more KOCHTAYL PARTIEZ! for you.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

San Francisco is a place difficult to caricature politically. It's as if the Soviet Union were led by gay, drug addled ex-hippies, in city form.

And consider that the highest ranking Democrat in the House represents that area. Remember when there was quite a bit of criticism about Southern Republicans in the House leadership supposedly illustrating that the GOP had leadership from places highly unrepresentative from most of the nation? And not a peep on that note about Pelosi...Sheesh.

[paranoid android]

"Anti-Ellis Act bill dealt major blow in Assembly"

How much are we talking, like a couple kilos? Was it Colombian?

[Cytotoxic]

You can do worse than Moonbeam.

[Sevo]

"You can do worse than Moonbeam."

It is to our great misfortune that you are correct.
And I'm sure CA will.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Looks like Massachusetts won't be able to get the death penalty for Tsarnaev thanks to Judge O'Toole.

http://bit.ly/UdeXAk

[Rufus J. Firefly]

By the way, where's Holder in all this?

[Suthenboy]

He is busy deleting...I mean looking for Lois's emails.

In all seriousness, he probably is. I have heard rumors that the reason they are hell-bent to keep anyone from reading them is that they were discussing how to not only hold up the formation of the tea-party groups but also to prosecute the people involved with them.

[WDATPDIM!?]

Unless this is going to be another birth-certificate rope-a-dope.

"We lost them. We lost them. We lost them. ... Oops, we found them." And they're not incriminating at all.

[Suthenboy]

That is possible. Of course it is also possible that I could win the power-ball. The difference is that the latter is much more likely.

[WDATPDIM!?]

Sniffing out teh racists.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Judge O'Toole did not rule out the death penalty altogether, however. He noted that the prosecution had cited several other legitimate reasons for pursuing capital punishment in their filing in May, including Tsarnaev's alleged lack of remorse and substantial planning and premeditation."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah but on a local show they seemed to be be pessimistic about the chances.

Then again, it's a conservative show so who knows?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

US Attorney Carmen Ortiz had cited national "betrayal" as one of the reasons the prosecution was seeking a death sentence.

Well, there's the first problem with this. Carmen Ortiz is a cunt. Mary can put that on her blog for all I care. I've had first hand experience with Ortiz, and she is an awful, awful human being. So awful that it's hard to put into words.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Interesting.

She needs a belt beating then?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'd prefer to let karma run its course.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

INDEPENDENTS ASSEMBLE!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pg1IzQ2KLk

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Did you get any snow today?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

There was some on the peaks of the Highwood Mountains this AM. Wife got a pic from Butte with it snowing yesterday.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It was snowing pretty hard in Park City, UT today. I'm pretty fired up about this alleged El Nino winter.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Summer starts here tomorrow. Supposed to be 70 and then in the upper 70s and 80s for the next 10 days. Bout time.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Sun's out, guns out. Enjoy your new body.

[AlmightyJB]

Is that show still on the air?

[JW]

You have to marvel at the overflowing stupid in this vid.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I saw that earlier.

There are no good guys. None.

[JW]

Meh, the news crew did nothing wrong.

But, I mean, you have to work to be that much of an imbecile. That doesn't come naturally.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Well, yeah. They guy who doesn't want to be filmed and then takes his helmet off? He's definitely the star of the video.

[AlmightyJB]

Wow. The stupid hurts.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Prediction: Cleavage.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I thought it was a trademark, not a patent.

[PapayaSF]

Yeah, she got that wrong.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Tell you what I want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw-QRyQcFH8

[Winston]

New York was named after a slave-owning elitist Papist who would have likely opposed abortion and gay marriage. I demand New York city and state get rid of their offensive name.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Eboracum was a person?

[Winston]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II

In 1664, Charles granted American territory between the Delaware and Connecticut Rivers to James. Following its capture by the English the former Dutch territory of New Netherland and its principal port, New Amsterdam, were named the Province and City of New York in James's honour

[Heroic Mulatto]

Shhh....Don't ruin the joke!

[gaijin]

all i see is orange

[Derpetologist]

Tales from the Derp

In 7th grade, I took a computerized test to determine my career. It was just a series of questions where you rated your various abilities. Being a modest sort, I didn't give myself many high marks. The result: my ideal career is airport baggage handler.

Mind you, this is after I gave myself below-average marks for attention to detail.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Rate yourself low enough, and you get yourself a job at the TSA.

[gaijin]

hah!

[gaijin]

airport baggage handler

or TSA Agent!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

And what do you do now?

[Derpetologist]

process engineer in a plastic bag factory

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You're Milhouse's dad?

[Derpetologist]

Hey! He worked in a cracker factory. And was NOT an engineer. Also, I don't sleep in a race car bed or wear glasses.

[Pathogen]

Yet...

[Derpetologist]

? Can I borrow a feeling?

[Sevo]

I had a friend who did that as a summer job at SFO. This was a while back when the airlines were 'regulated' such that the customers didn't have a lot of choice.
He said he learned the first day that a good arm was important; if you could heave the bag to the back of the luggage compartment, you didn't have to crawl inside.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

One of my best friends from high school became a baggage handler. It turned his life around. I bailed him out of jail at least 3 times over a period of 2 years, and things weren't looking good. He got a job with Delta, and things went really well for awhile.

[Sevo]

..."things went really well for awhile."

This "while"; is that like, oh, five minutes?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

2 years. And then he got laid off after 9/11. This is the funny part: He's now a safety inspector for a BP refinery. Basically, he's Homer Simpson now, only more fun to drink with.

[PapayaSF]

One of the all-time great pranks on the old Candid Camera show involved school aptitude tests like that. Afterwards they got each kid into the counselor's office and then told them that their ideal career, the only one they'd really be suited for, was something off the wall. E.g. they'd get the science nerd kid and tell him that his perfect career was "shepherd." Watch that face fall!

[kibby]

...Why are there so many comments already?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Because people abuse the live blog thread.

[kibby]

I'm beginning to understand your irritation with that.

[jesse.in.mb]

Has anyone even talked about the show yet?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I like Kennedy.

[gaijin]

FoE mentioned cleavage

[Bobarian]

What show?

[Sevo]

Show?

[Sevo]

ABUSE?! Abuse, you say?!
Well, I NEVER!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Using the thread like an amusement park!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The world doesn't revolve around you.

[kibby]

It most certainly does.

[Winston]

New Jersey is named after a dependency which is othering. Also PETA would oppose it being named after a cow.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I was told there would be no math.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Citizen of the world my ass.

I've known plenty of guys who travel for work and are complete dolts and lack any curiosity despite visiting so many places.

[gaijin]

I've seen the inside of the same conference room in 10 different countries!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed. What do you call someone who lives in China for 30 years and can't speak a word of Chinese? British.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The British are infamous for that kind of parochial behavior. They do it in Italy and my cousin who lives in Spain is blown away by how they not only don't speak Spanish but don't seem interested in learning.

[Winston]

So I guess that means the British Empire was a good thing? It allowed lots of easy world travel and intermixing of cultures.

[Heroic Mulatto]

So I guess that means the British Empire was a good thing? It allowed lots of easy world travel and intermixing of cultures.

I wouldn't be here without it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

BTW, how did you get a CARICOM passport?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I have Trinidadian citizenship through my father.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Nice. So you have an escape, you know, just in case....

[Heroic Mulatto]

*nods*

Indeed. The thought has crossed my mind.

[Derpetologist]

Jerry Sandusky jokes are still topical? South Park did it:

http://www.southparkstudios.co.....e-fun-here

[JW]

Do they know the cameras are on?

[Winston]

Shouldn't Harry Reid change his name too? Reid comes from the Old English word for Red which could offend gingers and remind them of anti-ginger sentiment.

And Harry is derogatory in Norway and Henry means Home Ruler which implies Tea Party extremism.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those electric cars are going to be subsidized, right?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh, Geraldo is in this?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

So did they show get its budget cut and they decided to compensate for Stossel by bringing Geraldo and his stache in?

[kibby]

Does that mean he'll become a regular? Because that's going to be a problem...

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Geraldo is basically Stossel, just he works out more while Stossel thinks more.

[JW]

Don't be absurd. The Stache only brings style and class to a show.

[C. Anacreon]

I've got the new name for Washington football:

The Red Shins.

Think about it. You've got the Red Sox and Redlegs, and no one complains about them -- Red Shins is very similar.

And all you have to do is change a K to an H, very easy to do.

Feel free to pass along to the appropriate people. Make sure I get a cut of the licensing revenues, thanks.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Copyright 2014 Playa Manhattan.

You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!

[Bobarian]

I think CA owes Playa a royalty payment.

That's how that works, right?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My lawyers are on it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Snyder is truly in a tough spot.

On the one hand, the criticism is not going away any time soon. I could care less about it, but a good case can be made the term is offensive, and in our politically correct atmosphere that isn't going away anytime soon.

On the other hand, his team has an unusually devoted fan base and is a huge moneymaker, and many, many, many of them are highly attached to that name.

[Derpetologist]

I think they should be renamed the Washington Baby Fuckers. People who dislike the current name will be happy; people who like offensive names will be happy.

Win-win.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

They already had a Washington Senators...

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

How about the Washington Indian Reservations Are Absolute Shitholes So Get Your Priorities Straight Assholes?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Kurdistan will drink Sunnistan's milkshake. Drink it up.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It brings the boys to the yard.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You sicken me.

[Cytotoxic]

Clap...clap...clap...

[Bobarian]

A three country solution would have been a good, more manageable, solution to post Saddam Iraq.

[C. Anacreon]

Thanks for your input, Mr. Biden.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else proposed to divide something into thirds?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Solomon? No that was halves.

[Bobarian]

Moe Howard?

[Winston]

I was thinking of Caesar.

[kibby]

This is boring. I bought two dresses for work tonight! They're pretty.

[C. Anacreon]

Pix or it didn't happen.

[kibby]

Nope. Ask Serious to take some when he next visits me.

[JW]

Complimenting shoes or GTFO.

[kibby]

Pshaw, I've had the shoes for months!

[Fist of Etiquette]

You're just inviting male gazes.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

She's very male gaze-able.

[kibby]

Some women might take great offense to that statement.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Not sure why, it's clearly a compliment. Besides, you are clearly not 'some women'.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She means the other women will take offense to singling her out as male gazeworthy. "What, I'm not pretty enough to be gazed?" She thinks women are catty.

[kibby]

Stop triggering me!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I usually push the ladies' buttons not pull their triggers. I'm a gentleman that way.

[gaijin]

ewww. Geraldo's passion all over the desk...ewwww.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Geraldo knows that Foster would be the girl.

[JW]

I can feel my own balls growing and growing larger, the more Geraldo talks like a tuffgai.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I see his point though that sometimes some people just understand force. Syria always shuts up whenever Turkey mobilizes some troops on the border as someone from the area once told me.

[JW]

Oh, I don't disagree, but the only thing that should happen is that the Iraqis put on their big boy pants and stand up to these batshit fucknutters.

But, we know that won't happen and who is everyone looking at to handle this? Hmmmmmmm???

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah.

[Cytotoxic]

This. Helping out Iraq = military welfare for Iraq, and Iran too. It might also hurt Kurdish independence, which should be America's FP there.

[GILMORE]

Geraldo is a foreign policy boob who uses his years of experience in journalism to allow himself to authoritatively make bland, broad pronouncements that actually make zero sense were you to read them on paper. Which is exactly why he adopts this stentorian 'assertive' lecturing tone of voice = because he knows what he's saying is basically full of shit, and he's trying to intimidate people into accepting his 'empassioned' claim sans rebuttal.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It all went downhill when he opened up that empty vault.

[Derpetologist]

That reminds me- did you ever see him debate O'Reilly? That was derp for the ages:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I2TAMdSKF4

[ArbutusJoe]

His "you know nothing because you haven't beeeeeen there; I know everytheeeeeng because I have" attitude makes me want to puke. The people who have been first hand witnesses to the debacle of American intervention in this ongoing sectarian civil war are the soldiers, diplomats and journalists. They should be BLAMED for their stubborn refusal to see what is plain to everyone: these people want to kill one another. Furthermore, they want to kill us because we are interfering with their attempts to achieve this goal. Step back, leave them alone, and let them grind each other into a righteous pulp. It sickens me to see humans desire such things, but I'm not made a better person for contributing to the debacle.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Great, we could use another Walter E. Williams-type book.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This guy is just going to make Foster redundant. Or vice versa.

[C. Anacreon]

Kmele seems to be wincing. I don't think he likes this guy.

[JW]

Nobody puts Kmele in the corner!

[Winston]

Delaware was named after a colonist who warred against the Indians. He was also accused of trying to overthrow the government which is dangerous with the Tea Party around. It should be changed to Lenape.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Is East Pennsylvania taken?

[Winston]

They Should give back the Wedge too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Designed to help blacks? I'd like to believe that.

[gaijin]

Johnny Bench shilling for Blue Emu? wtf? Heroes fall hard.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Uh, I just realized this thing isn't live. No aftershow.

[kibby]

Oh, hey! This is the Reason commercial everyone has been yammering about. It's....weird.

[C. Anacreon]

Celebrity photos!
Hollywood gossip!
Scandals!

All in Reason Magazine, available in supermarket checkout lines everywhere.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don't get to see it on the Internet powered by Xfinity stream. All I get is fucking Phazeyme commercials.

[Bobarian]

Those are specifically targeted at you.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You visit one fart fetish site after a few drinks and...

[GILMORE]

The Independents Attire Review, 18 June 2014

The Finest Hour-Edition

- Kennedy: Orange you glad I... don't make that joke *every* time? I don't know if its the color that radiates or if its just Kennedy's Armenian-Pale-Flesh that supercharges every color into Day-Glo. We mentioned yesterday Cabela's Hunting-Orange was one of our "Top 4"? = here we get that same effect, PLUS more sexy-skin. It places the lotion in the basket *indeed*.

- Matt: Speaking of "steaming pile", Matt... The Formula Suit was originally noted as being delicately-assembled; the various elements held together by the most-slender thread of harmony. Throwing a blue shirt into this mix is like trying to cook Coq Au Vin in Kool Aid. By contrast, the usually-bemoaned black suit would have been *fine* here. Blue on Blue w/black is often a great call.

- Kmele: The jacket seems almost 'stiff' with newness (we note a little neck-gapping). The patina is also a little shiny. Recent addition to the sport coat library? Also appearing tonight is a fairly rare (for Kmele) point-collar blue shirt. The tie does its namesake-duty masterfully here, unifying the whole ensemble. Take note, sports fans.

Ya Minya

[Lady Bertrum]

Matt's sport coat is Willy Loman-esk

[GILMORE]

Thats' funny, i was contemplating noting that "the formula suit", sans the unifying pink shirt, looks like something a 'cheap-furniture salesman' would wear.

Willy Lowman sold... hardware? I don't remember. But its close enough. Good eye.

[Lady Bertrum]

If I remember correctly it was ladies stockings or just stockings?

[BakedPenguin]

Matt's sport coat is Willy Loman-esk

I was thinking "K-Mart clearance rack ca. 1979."

[Derpetologist]

I want an episode where the hosts all take the form of sock-puppets. Or maybe Muppets.

[kibby]

We already had a sock puppet episode. I think I was the only person thoroughly delighted by the whole mess.

[Mt low rider]

kibby likes sock puppets...who knew.

[Winston]

Matt Welch looks like a muppet so...

[GILMORE]

Beaker

[Fist of Etiquette]

How is he going tell if they're poor?

[Pathogen]

Poor people smell awful, are riddled with the pox, are not prudently invested, and have no orphans lugging them in a sedan.. they stick out like an infected thumb...

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Welch is a cynic.

[JW]

$300!? One art, please!

[Winston]

Washington should be renamed. It means "the estate of the descendants of Hw?sa." I thought Reid loves the estate tax? And Hw?sa would have been an white guy which means inequality. In addition Hw?sa means "wheat sheaf" which implies rural white racist hick Tea Partiers so the name is bad.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Dogs rule, cats drool.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ha, every dog story sends Foster off into a fit of cat hating.

[kibby]

Kennedy & Kmele have never met one of my cats after I've been gone for a week.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You leave your cats alone for weeks at a time?

[kibby]

They do not love their catsitter the way they love me.

[Bobarian]

So, Kibby is an animal abuser?

Do you at least leave the toilet lid up for them?

[kibby]

NOOOOO KIBBY IS THE FURTHEST THING IN THE WORLD FROM AN ANIMAL ABUSER!

[jesse.in.mb]

Uh-oh, she's gone third person.

[Heroic Mulatto]

ANIMAL ABUSE

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Marion kibby, don't look at it. Shut your eyes, Marion kibby. Don't look at it, no matter what happens!

[kibby]

I already know better than to click on HM's links.

[Heroic Mulatto]

See if I link you up some knife porn then.

That's right, I'm harumphing you.

[kibby]

I'd apologize, but you're a monster with the youtube things you link so...not so much.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Monster? No. I have merely evolved beyond the need for a sense of morality.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

She can't win.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Classic Hillary.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

A fracas?

[gaijin]

that became a melee

[JW]

It was more of a hurly-burly.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

a free-for-all

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That's a bit socialist, go with 'fair price reached via voluntary exchange-for-all.'

[JW]

The family that stabs together...

[GILMORE]

gets crabs together!

[gaijin]

...were conceived in a stabbin' cabin

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The family that fights cops together, stays together...in county lockup.

[GILMORE]

Millions of people must submit to the panic, bigotry and fears of a hysterical majority and relinquish their right to defend themselves
- Hilary Clinton

[Bobarian]

And by 'Majority', she means majority of people who give her campaign donations.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Look at Welch ripping on Santa Clarita! They have metal detectors now.

[Winston]

Isn't the term boycott cisprivilege? I deman it be replaced with personcott.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I call Fist of Redskins.

[gaijin]

the FoRskins?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't be crass. Not here on the internet.

[Mt low rider]

We referred to the Redskins as the foreskins 30 plus years ago.

The stupid now days would be funny if it wasn't real.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

No, don't change the name.

[Winston]

Also the Boycotts were Hugenots. Doesn't this mean Boycott is an endorsement of anti-Protestant discrimination and genocide? Oh wait...

[gaijin]

The patent thing will be in appeal for years. Also, I think this patent ploy was tried 15 years ago.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The Cleveland Indians and Chief Wahoo is legitimately offensive.

[Bobarian]

Just for the 'Cleveland' part.

[gaijin]

Rename them the Cleveland Steamers

[Winston]

Cleveland Spiders?

[BigT]

That was the name in about 1900

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Cleveland Letdowns?

[Winston]

Cleveland means cliff-land. Triggering women who engaged in abortions. Name must be changed to Ratzenburgerland.

[BigT]

At least the Injuns were legitimately named to honor one of their players Chief Soxalexis.

[JW]

The Greendale Human Being is looking for work. He could do mascot work.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

The Independent Redskins.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Meh. The Eagles will take the NFC east.

[Bobarian]

Probably with a 7-9 record.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

11-5!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Ban soccer!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Euro-trash.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Soccer is very boring compared to hockey and baseball. The constant flopping and faking of injuries is also a major demerit.

[Bobarian]

Soccer is boring compared to cross-country or golf.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Soccer is boring compared to cross-country or golf watching paint dry.

[gaijin]

Hockey yes. Baseball, more boringer than just about anything...cept curling.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I played both soccer and hockey and have no clue what you guys are going on about 'boring.' Love them both.

[Bobarian]

Playing is different than watching.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I watch both. In fact, I find hockey 'more' boring because it lacks the tactical aspect of soccer. Hockey is just all instincts really.

[gaijin]

I like soccer....as player and spectator. But from a continual action standpoint, I do think hockey is about as frenetic as it gets. Maybe boring isn't the right word.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Frenetic absolutely.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's the problem. People thinking baseball is supposed to be "exciting" is what brought shit like the DH rule.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Baseball is awesome. My wife and I don't miss a chance to see a game wherever we are. Love playing it too.

[Cytotoxic]

Why? Difficulty sleeping?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Baseball has more tension in it than any other sport other than perhaps playoff hockey. It's the only sport where regular season games are worth watching for the sake of the game itself.

Football is fine but terribly overrated.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

...and World Cup soccer. That's tension my friend.

[gaijin]

Baseball has more tension

see: Chicago Cubs

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Okay. As opposed to who? The mighty Cleveland Browns or the Philadelphia 76ers?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Actually, that proves my point. The Cubs might suck but on any given day a pitcher could throw a gem or one of their hitters can have a great game or make a great play.

The Browns and Raiders are guaranteed to suck in 3/4 of the games they play. Ditto for bad basketball and hockey teams.

[Cytotoxic]

All team sports are stupid and boring and if you watch them you're stupid.

[Mt low rider]

You obviously have never participated in team sports and probably feel picked upon by those that did. Team sports teach people to work together to reach a common goal and to maximize your potential.

I'm guessing you spend a lot of time in the basement playing video games because you can't hack it real life. Life is all about competition which is why most people embrace it as a metaphor for life.

That you make this type of statement says far more about you than team sports.

[Cytotoxic]

LOL. I played plenty of team sports and didn't have a game console until my mid-teens. You're an idiot.

[GILMORE]

American chicks like soccer because

1) it means they know just as much as most American men
2) they like hot european guys flopping around
3) nothing ever happens so they can talk to their friends and text and stuff and no one will ever be like, "ARE YOU EVEN WATCHING?"

[jesse.in.mb]

2) is better taken care of by rugby. Also the manliness factor is much better.

[GILMORE]

Fuck yeah.

i spent a few weekends with a british girl living in boston, watching the rugby world cup in ...the late 90s.... we'd get up every day @ 6AM to watch the broadcast from England... drink all day, fuck all afternoon, then do it all again the next day.

I got to see Jonah Lomu play. It was epic. He ran 50 yards dragging 3 people. I also saw some South African guy kick a series of drop kicks that were farther than most field goals in the NFL. it was mind-blowing. Great sport.

[Cytotoxic]

An attractive British woman?

[GILMORE]

She was a very nice girl.

[GILMORE]

She was actually sporty-hot. Not like sporty-spice. Think 'soccer team'. An athletic woman.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I would love to slide tackle you guys.

[GILMORE]

Aw, that's so sweet. I'd love to accidentally cleat your face while you did it. And we could both pretend we were both the victim! Its SUCH a great game!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You can cleat me in the arm and I'll clutch my face!

[GILMORE]

I'll do a scene from Othello so that everyone can see i'm the better actor!

[Bobarian]

Othello is straight up racist, yo!

[GILMORE]

My soccer career lasted one game in the early 1980s. I dont know what i was doing there, because at least i knew the rules of other 'kids sports'. I must have said, 'why not' and then regretted it. But i scored 2 goals in my first game.

For the other team.

[BakedPenguin]

I was thinking they could have a taped episode of the show where Kennedy dresses up as herself, Matt, Kmele, and all of the guests. Then I realized it probably wouldn't work, as she would be constantly interrupting herself.

[Lady Bertrum]

Nina's ripping off Gary Taubes?

[Lady Bertrum]

Woof Woof, Kmele is a Crossfitter too.

Leave those fries alone.

[GILMORE]

Diet.
vs
Exercise.

relative importance? 1 to 10?

It matters. But it doesn't matter nearly as much as everyone makes out.

[Fist of Etiquette]

French fries with steak?

[Bobarian]

Steak fries.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Huzzah!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reason Magazine is rivaling Progressive Insurance in owning < i The Independents.

[Derpetologist]

Tales from the Derp

A 3rd grade class is asked to come in the next day dress as their hero/favorite person. A student named Martin decides to come to class as MLK. In black face. Uh-oh. Comments from Gawker are surprisingly sane:

http://gawker.com/5911495/seco.....k-like-mlk

[Heroic Mulatto]

He kinda looks like a black lion.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"MLK was the historical figure eight-year-old Sean King was assigned as part of a "wax museum day" project. He was to present himself to the class dressed as the civil rights leader."

It was supposed to be a *respectful* wax figure!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So, let me get this straight: If he'd said he was really a girl despite having a boy's equipment, they'd have to give him access to the girls' locker room and bathroom.

But if he play-acts being a black person, as part of an assignment that was given to him, it's offensive.

[Rich]

Just imagine what would happen to John Howard Griffin were he to try his experiment today.

[jesse.in.mb]

I find it weird that this revision in dietary best practices is news, but I still have to tell people to stop buying "fat free" salad dressing and non-dairy coffee creamer.

[Derpetologist]

Why am I getting suit commercials? Are The Independents criticizing my wardrobe? Or lack thereof?

[kibby]

Now I'm really hungry.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Two Minutes of Hate! Two Minutes of Hate! Who's idea was it to push it back to every three weeks?

[kibby]

I think you inadvertently did that when you snarkily pointed out to Matt that it had been two weeks since the last one & where was our Two Minutes Hate?

Way to go, kid. Way to go.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

No, he was trying to pull a fast-one on us and I called him out. The Final Solution to the Two Minutes of Hate Question had clearly been answered by then.

I bet they had a summit at Kennedy's villa to discuss it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hey, I made it!

I made it!

I made it!

I made...ooo, jelly beans.

[Derpetologist]

? Not gonna live forever!

? Gotta give fame a try!

? Try!

Welcome to the club. Yes, it's where you were already.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Storms just knocked out my satellite feed. Let me know if there are any good messages of hate.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Narrow ties make Foster's head look huge."
-You

[Fist of Etiquette]

That was taken out of context.

[GILMORE]

Nice tie Ashley!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

GILMORE cannot be overcome.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

It's GILMORE's world, we all just live in it.

[kibby]

But at least we're all really, really sharp dressers in his world.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Did you see Welch take a deep breath before he even finished reading the comment? He knew something bad was coming.

[Winston]

The Independents are bunch of homo losing losers who lose and like the buttsecks.

I think I gave as an erudite insult on the interwebz as possible.

[Lady Bertrum]

GILMORE, Fist, Rufus all made it.

[Bobarian]

WOOT! I'm no longer a virgin.

But it is pronounced Bob-arian, not Boe-barian.

[grrizzly]

Your handle is Armenian. Boe-barian is as close as one can get.

[Bobarian]

You mean like a Kardashian?

That is probably the worst thing anyone has ever said to me.

[Derpetologist]

I nearly forgot my most incredible find of the day- an Amanda Marcotte column THAT MAKES SENSE!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_....._idea.html

[Winston]

Baltimore means "town of the big house" which is an unacceptable endorsement of income inequality and so it most be changed.

[Winston]

Cleveland Browns is offensive to people with Brown skin.

Also they should be Matt Welch's official team since he lets me down again.

[Rich]

Baltimore Ravens is offensive to maniacs. Tampa Bay Rays is offensive to people named 'Ray'. The list goes on and on ....

[jesse.in.mb]

I accidentally clicked on a buzzfeed and hate myself, but can't help pass on what it was.

I'll link directly to the salient image so you don't have to go to the website. Because I'm a mensch.

Charlie Brown is a sexist.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

They cut out the last panel where Lucy asks what's wrong with being a girl and Charlie Brown says "Nothing. You're just a bossy c*nt."

[Derpetologist]

Any cartoon can be made funnier by replacing all the dialog in the last panel with one character saying "Christ, what an asshole"

http://boingboing.net/2010/03/.....w-yor.html

[Bobarian]

It's an appropriate caption for anyone who reads the New Yorker, as well.

[Winston]

I liked the piggy.

[Robert]

Surely I couldn't've been the only reader who got "Big Fat, Jason Riley" as "Big, Fat Jason Riley" until the 3rd read.

[Winston]

This is as funny as the Chico and the Man episodes without Freddie Prinze.

[PapayaSF]

I would like to see a large-scale survey of actual Native Americans (not you, Fauxcahontas) to see what they think of the Washington Redskins name. I bet that only a small minority wants it changed, and that most either like it or don't care.

[PapayaSF]

From 2004: Most Indians Say Name of Washington "Redskins" Is Acceptable While 9 Percent Call It Offensive

[Sevo]

"We can't let a small minority..."
Oh, the hell with it.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

9% of the population finds bunnies offensive.

[Winston]

Damn wabbit!

[Sevo]

37% of the population finds Obo offensive, for pete's sake!

[Sevo]

As a misdirection, it's as least as good as the deserter guy.

[SIV]

Black people in GA overwhelmingly liked our old offensive flag.

[Winston]

Star Wars features rebel generals made to look like Confederates. Ban it!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

To be fair, it's *still* offensive - look at the lowermost phrase:

http://bit.ly/UO2N1j

(wikipedia image)

[Winston]

The last time I such lame posing was in an Animotion video.

[Winston]

The last time I *saw* such lame posing was in an Animotion video.

[Winston]

The last time I saw a white man prance about so lamely was in Pink Lady and Jeff.

[Derpetologist]

I think this is the gold standard in men prancing lamely:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhUrzWmrhzI

Good manners are the only thing that prevented me from howling in laughter when that video was shown to me.

[Rich]

"You're doing the French Mistake!"

[Derpetologist]

+1 Blazing Saddle

[GILMORE]

That was a bad year

This, IMHO, was even worse

[Winston]

I haven't such a boring show since the United States Steel Hour.

[GILMORE]

please stop

[Winston]

You Know Who Else told someone else to stop talking?

[Rich]

Edgar Bergen?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Bill Clinton?

[GILMORE]

Kennedy

[Bobarian]

Kennedy's husband?

[Winston]

I haven't seen such an infantile facile superficial jejune attempt at political discussion since....well since yesterday's episode.

[Winston]

I'm Teh Disappoint at the lack of Pod People references with regards to Kevin McCarthy. But then again every word is a lie including "and" and "the."

[Winston]

And can it really be called Reason 24/7 if there are days between postings?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Are you having some sort of meltdown?

[GILMORE]

He's trying to develop some 2min H8 material.

it hasn't been going well.

i reminds me of when i played soccer as a young man

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You stood on the sidelines and shouted things?

[GILMORE]

I scored 2 goals.

For the other team.

[SusanM]

More police courtesy - the fun begins at 3:00

[SusanM]

A link would be nice, no?

http://roygbiv.jezebel.com/wit.....rkshrayber

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Doesn't look good for Officer Chucklenuts.

[Winston]

Once again for a bunch of drug and sex addicts you would think Reason commenters would stay up past 10 PM EST.

[Jesus H. Christ]

I guess they are all occupied with the drugz and buttsecks.

[SusanM]

They're all doing drugs and having sex - whaddya think they're doing now?

[Winston]

That implies they stop having drugs and sex to watch the Independents? Not sure Kennedy is such good fap material.

[SusanM]

You must be into Chess or AV Club girls (NTTAWWT mind you...)

[Warrren]

I'm polishing my chakras with an artisinal gluten-free, vegan rub.

[Winston]

I'm sure you only buy fair trade artisanal non-genetically modified organic fat-free pot ironically colored orange grown in Inner Mongolia?

[Warrren]

Inner-Inner Mongolia. Not to many people know about it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

No jugwine?

[Warrren]

The potency has to be increased, no more weak jugwine! Who is with me?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I maxed out at Hop Stoopid tonight. I don't drink whiskey anymore, except for when I plan on causing a scene...

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I might re-post this tomorrow.

This guy is the person who replaced Max Baucus, John Walsh. This is his position on Iraq. Not bad, for a Democrat.

[Sevo]

Got a bit of a summary?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Opposite of a chicken hawk.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Pretty much... been there, done that and it's time to leave Iraq to the Iraqis. President Obama, we need to stay the fuck out of Iraq.

[Sevo]

"President Obama, we need to stay the fuck out of Iraq."
Thanks. I hope he's a legion.

[Jesus H. Christ]

Not a gifted public speaker but it was clear, reasonably concise, and nuanced. It was clear he did not want to upset the party leadership, but he still managed to make his point.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Good. But that's one of many issues. How's he on economic freedom?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I general, he's a piece of shit Democrat and I'd never vote for him in a million years. Just kinda happy to see a principled one, without Obama's cock in his mouth.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I general = In general

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Night kids.

[Jesus H. Christ]

G'night.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Are we going to hit 600 tonight? Winston got most of those.