NSA Thinks Privacy Is for Extremists, Rob Ford Has Tried 'Every Drug,' Thousands Flee Hurricane Arthur: P.M. Links

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Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com The NSA's XKeyscore surveillance system's source code was leaked. If you care about your online privacy and use things like the Tor network, the NSA classifies you as an "extremist."
- Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicates that employers added 288,000 jobs to the economy in June. Sounds great, except, at the same time a record high 92,120,000 Americans 16 and older didn't participate in the labor force.
- "We don't discuss veterans. We do not work for veterans. … Our customer is the VA central office, the White House and the Congress," a whistleblower says. "We actually put incoming applications aside so we could focus on the [Obamacare] related applications that came in over last summer."
- After facing a potential $54,000 deficit due to federal lunch guidelines, one school board president in Milwaukee says he's ditching the program "pushed by and large by Michelle Obama, who last I checked has been elected by no one." Burn!
- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford announced that he's tried "every drug you can probably think of." Either this is a bold reelection strategy, or he was on drugs when he said it.
- Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 troops to the Iraqi border.
- Thousands are fleeing the North Carolina coastline as Hurricane Arthur is expected to hit it tomorrow.
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Just here to ruin your day:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelli.....ation.html
Hello.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford announced that he's tried "every drug you can probably think of." Either this is a bold reelection strategy, or he was on drugs when he said it.
That's some hollowed company right there,I tell ya what.
Hallowed, even.
"I've tried *pot*, and, uh, *crack*, and, uh, what were we talking about?"
See? Even Canadian MEN can get the pill.
What's his reason handle?
White Indian...
Or Warty?
Thousands are fleeing the North Carolina coastline as Hurricane Arthur is expected to hit it tomorrow.
When is Carolina going to change the name of its pro hockey team? #notokay
That hurricane is going to get lost between the moon and New York City.
Just remember, my friend. Paybacks are hell when it comes to ear worms.
It could be worse. You could have Christopher Cross' other hit song stuck in your head.
For some reason, I have "Hurricane Bea Arthur" stuck in my head.
I just added you to my "best when served cold" list.
It should be "caught", not "lost".
Back in '92, shortly after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida (I swear, I had nothing to do with that), there was an honest-to-goodness article in the Miami Herald saying that the Miami Hurricanes should change their name.
Thousands are fleeing the North Carolina coastline as Hurricane Arthur is expected to hit it tomorrow.
Can you blame Arthur? I'd hit that coastline.
Thousands are fleeing the North Carolina coastline as Hurricane Arthur is expected to hit it tomorrow.
I always hated that TV show.
North Carolina? I'd hit that.
Cheers,
Art
If you care about your online privacy and use things like the Tor network, the NSA classifies you as an "extremist."
As in, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice"?
Goldwater would be in jail in today's America.
*Goldwater* was a Linux user?!
Goldwater would be in jail Gitmo in today's America.
After facing a potential $54,000 deficit due to federal lunch guidelines, one school board president in Milwaukee says he's ditching the program "pushed by and large by Michelle Obama, who last I checked has been elected by no one." Burn!
That school board president should know to let the Wookie win.
Somebody should send Michelle Obama a cake with a picture of Marie Antoinette etched in extra sugary, extra fatty icing. Of course that someone would also have a hard-on for seeing what the inside of a Gulag looks like. But it won't be so bad, I'm sure the grub will be nutritious.
I'm sure the grub will be nutritious.
But it will definitely not taste too good.
Black conservative author Jason Riley criticizes Rand Paul on drugs, Voter ID
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2.....big-issue/
Is he criticizing Rand's stances as too statist?
He's ignorant of the racist policing policies of the NYPD and other PDs.
Stop & frisk assist has been a smashing success...
Black RINO
...one school board president in Milwaukee says he's ditching the program "pushed by and large by Michelle Obama, who last I checked has been elected by no one."
Yeah, like it's a great feat to get voted onto a school board.
Yeah, but it's a feat MO never managed.
My wife's a local reporter who covers a couple of school boards. Politics on that personal a level can be industrial-grade vicious.
Dear Prudence: Help! I'm widow in my 50s and I just want to get laid!
Several years into my widowhood, I think I'm going to die if I don't have sex soon. Before I was widowed I had always had a vigorous and enthusiastic sex life, but now it's like I'm dead to the world in my 50s. I'm lively, reasonably charming, interested in the things going on in the world, and not a dog. I'm self-supporting and self-reliant, so it's not like I'm looking for a sugar daddy. It's true that I don't get out as much as I should, but when I do meet men around my age, they seem to be so weary. But at the same time they appear to be angling for women 10 or 20 years younger than I am! I live in a young and lively area, and I must confess that I am getting somewhat entranced by a few men around here who are a couple of decades younger. I know it's a ridiculous fantasy, but a one-night stand would be fine. Am I weird, perverted, crazy? I miss rolling around with and holding a male body. I want to get laid. Help.
She's going to be the most popular profile on OkCupid.
Dear Lonely,
Volunteer at the local nursing home.
Marry a Russian man - he'll be grateful for the green card.
My advice? Wear a skimpy t-shirt that says "I fuck on the first date."
Or maybe "Had head?"
Would work for me; but then, I'm kind of simple.
Dear Prudence, when I was in my 20s and 30s I only wanted to date older men. Now I'm in my 50s and all the men my age are dating the younger women! So unfair!
Look for a man in his 70's.
Google search for your "cougar lounge" and the name of her city. Tart up a bit. Sit at the bar and drink chardonnay. The rest will take car of itself.
Also, try to avoid showing photos of your 10 cats to every gentleman who passes by. And it wouldn't hurt to shave that mustache.
Is this her?
Highley was entertaining victim Crue Finley in her Jensen Beach home when trouble began around midnight
"Can I call you ... Motley?"
"We actually put incoming applications aside so we could focus on the [Obamacare] related applications that came in over last summer."
Uh-oh. That guy better make haste to Russia.
In Amerika, Russia make haste to you!
I wanted to link to an article, but it's behind a paywall and I couldn't find other articles on the topic on Google.
Anyway, the Senate rejected Rand Paul's foreign-aid amendment. The amendment would have cut off aid to countries which mistreated Christians or women.
Or to phrase it in proggy terms, Democratic Senate Wages War on Women!
The stupidest thing you will read today
http://theweek.com/article/ind.....ng-deficit
Obama pivoted immediately to austerity, trying repeatedly to strike a Grand Bargain with Republicans.
That part is right on.
They keep using that word "austerity", but I don't think it means what you think it means.
They keep using it because it's meaningless in this context, but sounds bad to statists.
Obama pivoted immediately to austerity
That part is a fucking lie.
Bullshit. Obama set up Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction and then negotiated the Budget Control Act of 2011 that contained the largest real cuts in US history.
Go back to Bratfart or Free Republic. I bring the facts. That is why I am hated here.
You mean the 'cuts' that were really just reductions in the rate of increase and were then later repealed with Obama's full consent? Are those the ones Captain Dipshit?
Actually Shrike, you are hated here for other reasons.
So Shrike completely agrees that there's nothing left to cut.
No. Obama served up Social Security benefit cuts. That took balls. The GOP slapped him down.
No he didn't liar.
YES HE DID!
I think it is pronounced, "Yes, we can!"
Let's see. There was a President in recent history who gave a little lip service to SS reform, who was that again?
Oh yeah. BOOOOOOOSSSHHHH
So now the shrieking imbecile can't even tell them apart, either.
Bush didn't suggest cutting SS. He wanted to divert 1/3 of workers payments into private accounts and borrow to repay the Trust Fund - a tax increase on the public.
A total fucking idiot plan that thankfully didn't come to vote.
and borrow to repay the Trust Fund
I don't know who's stupider: Bush, for proposing to do what was already standard operating procedure, or You for thinking it was something new.
But I'll go with "You" because it's a pretty safe bet.
Ron Paul suggested going back to year 2000 spending level so that we could abolish the income tax, and was labeled an extremist and laughed at.
Obama pivoted immediately to austerity, trying repeatedly to strike a Grand Bargain with Republicans.
That part is right on.
Dude aren't you pissed that Chait usurped your prime presidential fellatio spot!
What part of "I will not negotiate" do you not understand?
I'm not going to read it.
You shouldn't. Stay within your comfort zone.
The comfort zone being 'reality'.
Why should he read it? Slavish Obama worship?.that's what you're here for!
Stupidest? Really? I reiterate:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelli.....ation.html
"How Barack Obama Saved the Obama Administration" by Jonathan Chait.
On climate and health care, he bucked significant pockets of intra-party disagreement ? not about policy goals themselves, which the whole Party shared, but of the prudence of accepting political risk to achieve them.
Like the "political risk" of being labeled Worst Prez Evah?
Progs spend half of their time in the made up world from The NeverEnding story. Austerity is the Nothing. Obama is Bastian, the little boy who relies on wishes and dreams to vanquish his enemies. It all makes sense.
If you look just below, you will see that you are mistaken.
Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 troops to the Iraqi border.
Spreading Democracy all over the Middle East! What a plan that was.
Which is why we should have stopped in January 2009, or at least by the end of 2009 like the Lightworker promised. Sorry pal, but after 5 years, you own the shit sandwich.
Yeah, what kind of moronic president uses American power to help a country get rid of a nasty dictator that, nevertheless, we can work with for the right price, in favor of a bunch of radical nutjobs?
Mummar Qaddafi liked this post.
But, but........ Michelle!
CNN news anchor Carol Costello ? who frequently demonstrates an inability to understand that anchors don't inject personal political commentary into their broadcasts ? proved Tuesday that she's confused about a lot of things after claiming that First Lady Michelle Obama "signed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act into law."
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05.....z36RKhsqRf
Can you really be sure she didn't?
Rachel Maddow and CNN agree: Rand Paul cannot, under any circumstances, say anything positive about the Civil Rights Act
Both MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night and CNN's John King this morning, drew attention to the inherent contradictions between what Paul was saying a few years ago and what he's saying now.
In a statement on his website Tuesday, Paul wrote, "It is simply unimaginable to think what modern America would be like if not for the brave men and women who stood up for the rights of all Americans." During the final segment of her show Wednesday night, Maddow latched on to those words.
In that 2010 appearance on MSNBC, Paul said he would have tried to "modify" the section of Civil Rights Act relating to private institutions had he been around during that era. He said he was not entirely comfortable with the idea of the government preventing restaurants, as an example, from banning black people.
"Today he says, 'It is simply unimaginable to think what modern America would be like if not for' that law to which he used to admit he was opposed," Maddow said, in reference to an interview she conducted with then candidate Paul back in 2010. "Now he's its biggest champion. The word 'unimaginable' is exactly the right word here."
Maddow is such a hack. Why do people think she is intelligent or objective?
Rhodes Scholar helps.
I thought Rand said he would have voted against the CRA (or portions of it).
Paul Krugman has a Nobel Prize, and he's a complete idiot. Awards mean nothing when people spew bullcrap on a constant basis.
So she's just evil and dishonest rather than stupid. Thanks for clearing that up.
Why do people think she is intelligent or objective?
She makes their little reptile brains pulse with soothing impulses.
Paul's statement on his website was talking about MLK, Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders and the other individuals who stood up to the government enforcers of segregation and Jim Crow laws, not the johnny-come-latelies in Washington who finally acknowledged that what their brothers in pork had been doing with their complicit approval for the last few decades was wrong. Maddow is a disingenuous hack.
What? What can civil rights refer to other than a far reaching federal law!?
Prosecutor engages in character assassination in effort to get grieving father held on charges. This is the guy who's kid died in the car the other week. OMG, he texted women sexual things that day! OMG, the couple had insurance policies on their kid! OMG, he didn't dial 911 and the police had to subdue him when he discovered his kid dead in the car seat! I don't know, all of this stuff sounds like a prosecutor trying to find a case to me, with an infinitesimal chance that the guy is a cold, cold killer.
You know, I now think he is being set up now (didn't before today).
Bond denied as of one minute ago.
But Nancy Grace says he's guilty. She's even made up a #hotcardeath hashtag. What more evidence do you need?
The wife said some crazy things at the funeral. Something about the world being too cruel and evil to raise a child in.
See, none of this moves the dial for me. I have no idea what I would say after being a part of that kind of mess, but you can bet it would not sound sane or coherent. I'm with your statement above. This looks like a prosecutor who promised "tough action" and is not doing everything he can to pre-shape the jury pool.
Just found out he didn't put "child free life" into a search engine like we were led to believe.
He did click on a link with that title in Reddit to watch the attached video.
BIG difference.
I read the Atlanta paper everyday and there are some hinkey things to this story.
Among some of the most explosive pieces of testimony included:
Justin Ross Harris engaged in sexual texts with underage girls on the day his son was left in the car.
Harris also visited an Internet site for people who want to live "child free."
When Harris' wife Leanna was told her son was dead, "she showed no emotion."
Also, he went to his vehicle during lunch and Search warrant affidavits obtained by The AJC state that both Harris and his wife, Leanna, told police they had each done research online about child deaths in hot vehicles. Leanna Harris has not been named a suspect in the case
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/f.....-to/ngYQX/
Illinois Supreme Court rules that Jon Burge gets to keep his pension
Because, remember, according to the cops on the appeals board, Burge's convictions on perjury regarding his torture of suspects had nothing to do with his career as an officer.
Look, it was only his first conviction, okay?
Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete, WWII vet, and evangelist, dies at age 97
Zamperini was the "Torrance Tornado," the tough kid turned track star who set a national high school record for running the mile. In 1936, he was known as "The Zamp," the 18-year-old USC standout who ran at the Berlin Olympics, where his roommate was Jesse Owens. In 1943, he was Lt. Zamperini, a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator, who, along with 10 other crew members, fell off the map on a May 27 mission over the Pacific.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent his parents a formal condolence note in 1944, he had no idea that Zamperini was still alive and living a nightmare in a Japanese prison camp. For 47 days, Zamperini had drifted on a life raft, fighting off sharks and starvation with two other crew members, one of whom died. Picked up by a Japanese patrol boat, the two survivors were beaten, tortured and humiliated for more than two years.
After the war, Zamperini was told by an Army superior that his raft trip qualified him for $7.60 a day in reimbursement. But someone higher up in the command nixed it: "Request denied," the letter said. "Travel unauthorized."
Zamperini, who became an inspirational speaker and evangelical Christian youth worker after returning from the war emotionally battered, died at his Los Angeles home Wednesday. He was 97.
More recent deaths: Frank M. Robinson, a science fiction whom I knew slightly, and Paul Mazursky, the director.
Make that: ...a science fiction writer...
Zamperini was the "Torrance Tornado," the tough kid turned track star who set a national high school record for running the mile.
That would explain Zamperini Way and Zamperini stadium by the Torrance airport (Zamperini air field).
Sad to hear. If you ever read the book about him, "Unbroken" (same author, Laura Hillenbrand, who did "Seabiscuit") you thought the guy might live forever. His story was just amazing and showed that some people are just a million times tougher than I could ever be.
I see a pattern with Hillenbrand's books. She's disabled and still cranks out good books, about people who overcome their own disabilities.
Huh. I remember all the hubbub about chronic fatigue syndrome from years ago, but I was about to classify it as some sort of mass hysteria, because it's been years since I've heard about anyone who still had it. Sort of like carpal tunnel syndrome, which also seemed to be epidemic back then, and but seemed to disappear.
Whatever it is, she didn't invoke it as an excuse.
Carpal tunnel is still a thing although it's improperly invoked a lot when people actually have radial styloid tenosynovitis or another repetitive strain injury.
I had thought they'd decided CFS was an Epstein?Barr Virus induced condition (like infectious mononucleosis), but wikipedia and the CDC say they still aren't sure. It may be that cases that would've been labeled as the catch-all CFS are now being properly diagnosed as other things (like EBV-related illnesses) and that's why it has fallen out of favor. Or maybe everyone's just more intrigued with fibromyalgia as the mystery illness now.
CFS is often comorbid with fibromyalgia, as is chronic myofascial pain syndrome.
Chronic pain prevents restful sleep; which prevents normal muscle recovery; which causes chronic pain; which prevents restful sleep; which...
You don't hear about AIDS as much in the news as you used to either. That doesn't mean HIV was just a hoax.
I might have to buy the book.
Love these stories.
These are the people that make nations great and interesting.
Yet, Obama ordered flags at half mast for...Whitney.
Those job numbers aren't so hot when you look into them: about 500,000 full-time jobs lost, but more part-time jobs were created, so the net is supposed to be a "gain."
LFP didn't move at all, but we're supposed to believe the job market is improving.
World Cup project collapses in Brazil.
"Discount Olympics tickets! Get your discount Olympics tickets now!"
A few of us were warning Hyperion not to believe what he was seeing on TV about Brazil. They were cutting corners.
Uber wins a battle in its fight to operate in London. It will still have to fight a war but on Thursday, Uber?whose services are typically much cheaper than the egregiously expensive rates of London's iconic black cabs?won a major advance in its fight to gain a foothold in the European market when Transport for London, the city's transport regulator, said that Uber could legally operate there.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....light.html
BTW, if you live in a place without Uber and want Uber, download the app! They will notice the demand. That's why Uber recently decided to expand to Miami.
Damn, those black cabs in London are awfully cool though, very comfy and fun to ride. I wish they had them in other cities.
Last night on my flight from Charlotte back home to Milwaukee and the guy next to me was reading a Heinlein book. In my slightly inebriated state we got to talking and turns out he's an occasional HnR commenter (handle "1955"). So obviously we talked Hobby Lobby and craft beer. Our ranks are growing.
What's the first rule of H&R? HUH?
I have a hard time keeping them straight, is #1 Don't talk about Lucy? Or is it Drink when someone says Reason?
It's the same as the 2nd rule. Don't talk shit about Lucy is #3.
Goddammit, somebody should be keeping track of these. I don't think Lucy is busy these days...
20 minutes. Is Episiarch dead?
He's busy doing his mom.
Long live Episiarch!
We've decided he's molting.
I can just imagine the soon to be released SugarFree serial: The Many Loves of Mecha-Epi-thra.
I can just imagine the soon to be released SugarFree serial: The Many Loves of Mecha-Epi-thra.
Mecha-Epi-thra and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Skank
Each head hopes to fellate Mech-Epi-thra, but all three are disappointed. Mecha-Epi-thra blames having just broken free of a very cold iceberg. Ghidorah destroys Tokyo in search of a decent vibrator.
#1. Don't talk about Lucy.
#2. Or deep dish circumcisions.
#3. Ass sex, drugs, and Mexicans for everyone
#4. We didn't have these stupid rules when Postrel was running things.
#5 DRINK!
The only drinking game rules I can remember are "For a magazine called Reason....", "ROADZ", and Somalia. Are there others I'm forgetting?
"Things weren't like this when Postrel ran the magazine/was here."
There should be a hand signal. All my books are digital and I think I look silly in a monocle.
That's cool.
First rule about HnR Club is...?
1,295,571 Obamacare enrollees may be illegals.
The more the better. If they're illegal they probably can't and won't vote for this abomination. They're displacing the 47% free shit constituency. Illegal immigration may be saving America.
Um, what? I'd bet nearly all of them are getting subsidies, so in what sense are they "displacing the 47% free shit constituency"?
As for "saving America," does that count the kids infected with various diseases, and gang members, now pouring across the border? Your idea of "saving" seems idiosyncratic, at best.
As for "saving America," does that count the kids infected with various diseases, and gang members, now pouring across the border? Your idea of "saving" seems idiosyncratic, at best.
The 19th century called, it wants its xenophobia back.
Ah, the old "xenophobia" bullshit. You can't deny that what I said is true, so call me a name.
That's...an oddly specific number.
And only on Breitbart.
But no, the media is completely unbiased and always reports any story of significance.
99% chance it is a lie if on Bartfart.
Like when Breitbart himself offered $100,000 for anyone who had any proof -- audio or video -- that anyone at the tea party DC rally said the N-Word to the Congressional Black Caucus and Eugene Robinson, much less the "14 times" they all claimed they heard it.
No one ever got the reward, despite likely hundreds of cell phones, radio and tv crews being right there.
So you are correct, when the words of the CBC and Robinson were on "Bartfart", there was a greater-than 99% chance they were self-serving lies.
It comes directly from the IG report.
It's pulled from an HHS IG report, and there's a link to it in the piece.
Here you go. The number is in Table 1, on page 11.
We requested data on inconsistencies for October through December 2013 from all
marketplaces although four did not provide any.
*** facepalm ***
The ACA doesn't allow illegals to participate in the program.
So the real answer is 0 - not 1,295,571.
You got ratfucker bit. Now if some number of illegals did sign up they will just be dropped.
Ha, you actually think the administration is following the law? They used an "honor system" for deciding eligibility for subsidies, and it's known that the "navigators" coached people.
You are right in that they could be dropped... and the enrollment numbers for this fabulously successful program will drop by 1/8th.
How will they be dropped if they can't even verify if they are citizens or not?
If you want your claims to be taken seriously, don't link to Breitbart.
Don't give me that sort of ad hominem crap. There's a link to the HHS IG report in the piece. Who do you expect would highlight this news? Mother Jones? Salon? The NY Times?
The Office of Inspector General determined that "the federal marketplace was generally incapable of resolving most inconsistencies."
We obviously need a new Czar of Inconsistency Resolution.
Research shows conservatives understand liberals better than liberals understand conservatives, and this is underlined by the Hobby Lobby case:
"... Many liberals seem incapable of grasping that there were and are profound moral issues present in the controversy. Conservatives can, or should be able to, easily understand why liberals who do not believe that Purity, Authority, or Loyalty are morally significant qualities disagree with the decision. Conservatives can also understand why liberals who don't believe that life begins at conception cannot grasp why it's such a big deal to those who do, based on the Harm foundation. What is remarkable ? and deeply worrying ? is not only that so many liberals cannot imagine why conservatives conclude the things we conclude, but that they assume our beliefs only come from illegitimate assumptions. As Zywicki wrote, it's a quick step from concluding that one's opponents are only driven by hatred to concluding that they must be thoroughly stamped out, because their irrational animus must not be allowed any quarter. Error has no rights. Suffer not a witch to live. Etc....
"What compounds the fear and frustration is that according to Pew, I am a "faith and family leftist" ? that is, a moral and social conservative whose moral and social conservatism (my Christianity, frankly) causes me to break ranks with the mainstream right, usually over issues of economic fairness, including protecting the poor....
"Yet seeing the grotesque animosity towards people like me from liberals over the small-beer Hobby Lobby decision compels me to face up to the fact that the only political force standing between me, my church, and my community, and a State dominated by people who think we traditional church people are cretins who deserve to be pushed around, is Republicans."
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2.....big-issue/
Oops, wrong link:
http://www.theamericanconserva.....-freakout/
Yes, Haidt is good.
I am a dedicated secularist.
The Christian theocrats are far bigger enemies of liberty in the USA than Islamist terrorists are.
Luckily, my side wins in the courts but seldom at the ballot box.
Gads, you are a deluded fool.
How so? A dozen nutjobs take over a few planes and we get Afghan war (13 years and counting) Iraq II (11 years and counting), the TSA, NSA wiretapping, Gitmo, and the NDAA.
Christian theocrats make stupid statements about rape and more people vote for Team Blue.
OK, so it's push.
Your ignorance of the history of western philosophy and religion is showing.
Both secularism and the idea of liberty owe a debt to christianity.
A good read. Thanks.
I've read The Righteous Mind and recommend it. Not mentioned in the article, but in the book he also adds a sixth moral dimension which libertarians would be familiar with: liberty/coercion.
Conservatives think that liberals are good people with bad ideas, whereas liberals think conservatives are bad people
Yeah, for the most part. Not sure I'd lump a lot libertarians in there with conservatives. There's a lot of assumptions of evil intentions on the part of liberals here in HnR comments since our worldview can also be "thin". We're huge on freedom/coercion stuff to the exclusion of the others dimensions. So anytime a liberal suggests govt should "do something" there's a tendency to scream "statist" who "crave power". That's not how ppl on the left see themselves so we'd fail the Ideological Turing Test.
If you don't want to read Chait try Arnold Kling's e-book The Three Languagues of Politics. You should be able to finish that in a little over an hour. Covers a lot of the same stuff but give libertarians equal footing with conservative and liberals worldviews.
Not so fast, there, Eddie.
Conservatives can also understand why liberals who don't believe that life begins at conception cannot grasp why it's such a big deal to those who do...
Uh-huh. I keep hearing that, but in practice I've never met, for example, an anti-abortion activist who has ever acknowledged that their opponents honestly don't believe it's a human being from the moment of conception. Srsly.
Also, I've never met a soi-disant "pro-lifer" who has ever acknowledged that there's any such thing as a blastocyst, and what the implications of that are.
But, yeah, other than that profound bit of dishonesty you're kinda, sorta right.
I, and the prolifers I've met, are aware of the non-human argument and don't think the choicers are just making it up.
And I've never heard a prolifer deny that there's such a thing as blostocysts.
You might want to meet more prolifers.
Though an at least equally-common choicer argument is that the early-stage fetus isn't a *person.*
I does amaze me that liberals don't even to pretend to examine the more libertarian philosophy they get so indignant about. I'm old enough to remember that when Reagan was shot, liberals wondered "well, maybe now he'll change his mind on gun control", as if his position was just a personal, emotional vendetta to piss them off.
I'm beginning to suspect that principles are so far outside the Progressive experience that they can't even imagine anyone actually has them.
That would explain a lot. 8-(
OTOH, they may imagine non-proggie principles exist, but they appreciate them to be paranoid delusions.
Pee Are Oh Jay...
I've noticed a distinct shortage of stories about the Camp of the Saints situation we've got at the southern border. No H+R piece from Shikha Dalmia about how tens of thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America are actually good for the economy? Maybe something about who people are "racists" for not wanting disease carriers and gang members bussed into their communities by the feds?
I love how conservatives always complain about how pussified the culture is and the next moment are soaking their pants over foreign kids at the border. Please government save us from furriners!
THEY TOOK OUR JERBS!
That has got to be the stupidest few words in political discourse since "trickle-down economics." How the hell do you think supply and demand work when it comes to labor? Specifically, if you greatly increase the amount of low-end labor in a welfare state, what do you think happens to the price of low-end labor? Hint: It does not rise. And what do you think happens to welfare expenditures?
Yes, it's more like "We overpriced our jobs!"
Specifically, if you greatly increase the amount of low-end labor in a welfare state, what do you think happens to the price of low-end labor?
I'm still not understanding why some libertarians believe that a government intervention into the marketplace is a-ok in this instance, because supply-and-demand aren't doing what we want them to do.
How, in defense of you, Papaya, you at least add the rider of the welfare state portion. However, I'm not sure how many immigrants that are taking our jerbs are also taking our welfarez.
I'm not sure there's much evidence that these people are driving the price of labour DOWN because they're working, and driving the price of welfare up, because they're not working.
I'm betting that if you looked at the numbers, it's native-born Murricans who are driving the cost of welfare up.
I speak anecdotally, but I am personally acquainted with a considerable number of healthy, working-age recipients of direct government money. Meanwhile, the people with the heavy foreign accents are busting their humps and emptying my trash.
"How, in defense of you" should read "Now, in defense of you..."
Part of the question is the boundaries of the market. Free trade in goods in one thing, but open borders are hugely problematic from the point of view of labor, IMO. I don't think it's an obvious good for low-end wages in the US to drop to the world average.
Yes, immigrants can simultaneously drive down wages by working, and be recipients of welfare through WIC, schools, emergency room visits, subsidized housing, and so on.
It's inarguable that the native born are sucking up vast amounts of welfare, and that immigrants make some contributions. But I think it's insane to think that you can import huge chunks of the poorest parts of Mexico and Honduras without making the US more like Mexico and Honduras. Some, sure, we can more or less assimilate. But by the millions and tens of millions, it's helping bankrupt us and tears at the social fabric.
THEY TOOK OUR JERBS!
To be fair, they did take my jerb, but I support their right to do it.
And actually, they didn't take my jerb, the company I work for took my jerb and handed it to them.
"Here, have Paul's Jerb"
Do I really blame the foreigners for something a bunch of incompetent MBAs in a corporate office 1500 miles away did?
I know you are an unreasonable fanatic about this, but yes, one of the few valid functions of government is to protect us from foreign invasion. It's not "pussified" to object to millions of illegals, many with contagious diseases and many of whom are violent criminals, from just walking into the country.
Calling that an "invasion" is silliness.
I will agree that our idiotic economic policies - like minimum wage coupled with a transfer payments system so screwed up that 20% of the citizens don't have to lift a finger to live comfortably - make it easier to find work for people who are obviously willing to skirt the rules.
But you don't correct a wrong by creating another wrong - that's what a progressive would do. Our idiotic economic polices GUARANTEE such "invasion" and spending hundreds of billions on a "crackdown" will not make a dent.
Do you think the reaction would be different if, in an alternate world, Scandinavia was in Central America, but economically and socially like Honduras etc., and millions of poor and uneducated Swedes were coming here? You think everyone of those protestors would stay home, thinking "Well, they're poor and infected with contagious diseases and often gang members and overall a huge burden on the welfare system, but it's OK because they're Aryans"?
Unless you give me a citation re: "disease-ridden" and "gang members", yeah, I'm going to chalk it up to racism.
A Public Health Crisis at the Border
El Paso Children's Hospital spends $60,000 treating illegal immigrant children
Border Agents: We Are Letting In Gang Members
America has a history of hating on the stupid squareheads and wops and micks.
I'm not even sure it's racism, just good ol' American "I got mine so fuck you I don't want to have to work to keep it."
Yeah, but a history of disliking some foreigners unfairly does not mean that it's always wrong to oppose any amount of immigration from anywhere.
Papaya, if they thought about it long enough to consider alternative scenarios they'd probably have something more substantive than "Racism!11"
lap83: I just think immigration is a blind spot to dogmatic libertarians, and is a fatal flaw in libertarian philosophy. You can't have a libertarian country if it attracts anti-libertarians who vote for policies that kill liberty, and that is the plan among many Democrats.
You mean the brave souls who are screaming at children?
Don't be a fool.
Don't deny that the people who are protesting are doing it out of pure xenophobia and racism, not some real libertarian-type stance about the welfare state. Don't tell me you buy the "disease" excuse. If that was an excuse we should just warehouse the kids of the people on the extreme left and extreme right who refuse to vaccinate.
Obviously it's not a libertarian-like stance against the welfare state. It's a stance against mass illegal immigration, and all the costs (fiscal and social) that it brings. Which is not the same thing as "xenophobia and racism." Gads, some libertarians are just as willing as leftists to descend to name-calling when it comes to immigration.
Someone not vaccinated is not the same as someone who has a contagious disease.
"Don't deny that my absurd argument could possibly be incorrect and you're a racist if you do!"
Great argument.
"disease carriers and gang members bussed into their communities by the feds"
Lonewacko, is that you?
I have been around here at least a dozen years, and I am not him.
The latest front of the War on Women:
"Stop Treating Women Like They Don't Know Anything About Soccer
"We're not eye candy for crowd shots. And we know the game every bit as well as men....
"...exism is built into the sport, and it extends from front offices to the bars where women who know to call it football go to watch games. We are assumed to be with our boyfriends. We are met with snide remarks and knowing smiles?we're only there, obviously, to watch attractive men run around and tussle with other attractive men. No woman could possibly like football the way men do, understand how it's played, know its history, or appreciate the skill behind James Rodriguez's goal against Japan or the evil genius of Robben's drawn foul against Mexico. Forty-three percent of World Cup 2010's global audience was female, but the people hired to write about, comment on, and narrate this World Cup remain almost exclusively male. The message is clear: only men are real fans; women are fangirls."
http://www.newrepublic.com/art.....ign=buffer
Therefore, don't do a Google Image search for "women soccer fans."
"We're not eye candy for crowd shots."
"ARE TOO!"
Seems about right to me.
Well, soccer is for pussies, so maybe she's got a point.
All soccer fans are women, whether they have penises or not ...
Well, maybe you and your homely friends aren't eye candy, but some of them soccer bitchez be hawt!
Tales from the Derp
Ecopaths mourn the death of trees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE2M7g_IWSE
For Pete's sake, dude. After yesterday's "Night of the Living Derp" I figure you'd let up a bit. We're only human after all. Well, mostly human.
Stop othering Warty!
I'm being inclusive!
Are you gauging "mostly human" by weight or by genetic makeup?
number and size of limbs, mainly.
To be a champion of derp, you must practice constantly.
Ecopaths mourn the death of trees
Perhaps in a metaphorical sense?
In any event -- Wow.
record high 92,120,000 Americans 16 and older didn't participate in the labor force.
Disability, baby, disability.
http://moneymorning.com/2013/0.....-security/
Saudi Arabia deployed 30,000 troops to the Iraqi border.
So, just like my users, if you don't do it for them, they'll take some agency in their own work routine?
So my wife is pursuing her MBA and her first class is Economics. Her book is written by... wait for it... Paul Krugman.
I flipped to the "Macroeconomics" chapter and the first thing he writes about was that the "myth" that markets are self-regulating was debunked in the 1930s, and that FDR of course got everything right. He also touts Keynes as the pinnacle of thought on the issue.
I felt like throwing the book in the garbage, but I settled on recommending to her to basically unlearn everything she learns in this class.
If college students are learning economics from Paul Krugman, we're in serious trouble.
I don't see the sexism.
Those are not soccer fans, those are soccer victims ... who need my empathy ... long, hard empathy ...
Look carefully at photos 3 and 12.