A.M. Links: EPA Can Garnish Wages, Dems Push Birth Control Bill, More Parents Choose Cohabiting Over Marriage
-
ParentingPatch/Facebook Not much for separation of powers this season, Congressional Democrats have developed legislation to override the Supreme Court decision on contraceptives. The bill, put together in consultation with President Obama, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby to include coverage for contraception in employee health plans. #CantStopWontStop
- The Environmental Protection Agency quietly slipped a note into last week's Federal Register asserting its right to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order." Oh, is that all?
- Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah told supporters Tuesday that he needs more time to decide whether to declare his own government after the Afghan Independent Election Commission released preliminary results showing him more than a million votes behind his rival.
- Married women have dropped to just 45 percent of all first-time U.S. mothers (and 25 percent of those under 23). Researchers say it's less a matter of single moms and more about parents shacking up without tying the knot.
- Sexual orientation isn't a basis for anti-discrimination lawsuits in America, but a gay Georgia music teacher is challenging his job dismissal on grounds of gender discrimination. "When you fire somebody because they are engaging in a same-sex marriage, I think that pretty clearly fits," said his lawyer.
- The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is bringing in Lisa B. Nelson, a former Visa executive who worked in Newt Gingrich's office when he was speaker, as its chief executive.
- Is this the soda tax's last stand?
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Is this the soda tax's last stand?
Fizzled out? Gone flat? Some third thing?
Popped.
Yinzer alert!
Coked up?
I've thought way too much about this and I have decided that "pop" is better. Soda is carbonated liquid. Pop is a flavored carbonated beverage. Also dropping a syllable aids in brevity. The rest of the country is wrong.
But "pop" is a "long" syllable, like "Schultz". Easier to say "soda".
Actually, if you want to get all specific, soda is carbonated liquid with a sodium salt in it. Carbonation probably isn't strictly necessary.
I'm not sure on the origin of "pop", but soda comes to mean fizzy sweet soft drinks through the soda fountain, where soda water was served with sweet things and flavors added. So I think soda is pretty good. Then there's "tonic", but all the people I knew who used that are dead now.
Unless ordering a Gin and Tonic.
Well, yeah. But it was an old-timey New Englander word for fizzy soft drinks in general as well.
Then there's "tonic", but all the people I knew who used that are dead now.
But not from malaria!
No, it was from drinking Moxie.
I drink tonic water... without anything else. Love the stuff.
Me too. There's nothing quite as refreshing on a dusty summer day.
I loved it as a kid (still do, I guess, but why not throw a little gin in there). I also learned to mix G&Ts; when I was about 6. I remember once grabbing my dad's drink instead of my plain tonic water and getting a bit of a surprise.
For a G&T, I like to use lots of crushed ice. Add the gin and stir it into the icy mix. After that, top off with tonic water until you get the desired blend.
Coke is also one syllable.
Hello.
From comments in the NYT about Democrats amending the law concerning birth control like bratty, petulant assholes:
"Thank you, Senator Murray for representing 50% plus of the population! I'll be there to support every Senator who stands up to assure our rights to coverage under this national law. Shame on the members of the Supreme Court who signed the majority opinion -- shocking."
That's the first one with 191 recommends.
These people are insane.
139 recommends:
"The Senate should pass a law that overturns the HobbyLobby case.
First, the HL case is a matter of discrimination. The company selected medication/devices that are only used by women and said they would not be covered by the company health care plan. (I cannot help but wonder what some of you would say if a company did something similar for men, e.g., prohibit coverage of cialis or pumps, etc.
Second, the HobbyLobby case should send a shiver down the spine of every "free market" and capitalist advocate. The Court pierced the veil of a corporation to look at the religious identity of the owners."
All over...birth control.
Wait, but the government selected medications/devices to be covered that are only used by women and told companies they have to provide coverage.
So if these shitheads want to make an equal protection issue out of this, I'll be happy to oblige them.
I have had multiple employers that didn't cover Cialis.
not that I would know.
So they are going to pay for my condoms now?
Giving people slightly more freedom to run their business the way they want sends a shiver down me capitalist spine!
I wouldn't give a flying fuck because I don't consider sexy-time to be a "right".
"All over...birth control."
This isn't about birth control. It is about punishing ideological opponents and making people do as they are told.
They seem to really believe that they have the right to force people to buy them stuff. Incredible.
I'm to the point that people being forced to buy this stuff should turn around to the forcers and point out that the forcers hate these people's children since they want to take money that could be used to feed the children or whatnot. They're committing a War on Children too.
"Why do you hate my children?"
It is nice to have an example where they're so forthright about it. They demand to be given this "right." They're not couching it in some welfarist sob story or trying to limit a handout to a select group of people. They're saying simply, "The government should create this right, because we don't want to buy our own IUD or morning after pill." Unmasked plundering.
A right to coverage means that the government can not stop you, not that it has to force someone else to provide the coverage.
The Hobby Lobby case was overturned on the narrow grounds of violating the RFRA. Anything that gets passed now to override the case will get struck down as a violation of the First F***** Amendment. The Democrats know it, and this is all just political theater. And if course, no way the GOP House would pass anything like it.
Agreed, nobody wants this bill to pass. The Democrats just want to use it as a campaign issue.
Given the RFRA was only passed to override Employment Division v. Smith, I'm not sure weakening it is the obvious first amendment slam dunk you think it is.
".....our rights to coverage..."
No such thing exists.
I really toyed with both of those.
bad soda tax puns, that is
You should have toyed with getting the link right. :-p
go on...
All of those apply to the link.
I'm sure by the 30th minute you kicked back and enjoyed things?
Incidentally, I read an article a while ago where someone was bashing films from the 30s, 40s, 50s etc., saying the acting was 'wooden' and writing terrible.
Personally, I disagree. What do you think?
At least films back then had writing, as opposed to today's movies that are effects and nothing else. And much of today's "acting" seems to be looking for photogenic people who have the bodies for comic-book hero outfits.
Color back then was color, too. All the TV ads for movies I see seem to have a color pallette of light blue with a smattering of orange for the explosions.
Seriously, there were good movies back then, and lousy movies. Just like in any era.
I agree with your first paragraph totally. I also feel the plots were more challenging and dynamic. Action movies had far better dialogue even if they seemed 'forced' unlike today where there really isn't much thoughtful writing in the script. Depending on the movie of course, but generally, it's how I come away with things.
With most older films, you have to accept that they weren't going for the super realism that is so common now in films and the writing and acting makes sense. It was more like writing and acting for the stage than films are today, for the most part. I can completely see how people only used to more modern film making would think that the writing and acting in older films seems odd and somewhat stiff in comparison.
I can see why they think this.
And yes, older films do feel like more 'theater'.
I agree. Old movies suck. New movies suck too, but in a different way.
It's official: Juggalos are gangmembers now.
A judge has thrown out Insane Clown Posse's lawsuit against the FBI, saying the government has every right to categorize the band's fans as gang members....
U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland dismissed the latest lawsuit because the FBI's report on gangs "does not recommend any particular course of action for local law enforcement to follow."
So when will police departments be officially classified as gangs by the FBI? Not saying they have to follow any particular course of action, but if the shoe fits... (it's probably stepping on your neck.)
Do Juggalos actually go around committing violence?
To some their mere existence is an act of violence.
Assaults on my sensibilities.
How about categorizing judges as gang members, they stick together, they make their own laws, they wear those gang black robes.
Researchers say it's less a matter of single moms and more about parents shacking up without tying the knot.
Libertarian couples refusing that official stamp of approval!
We should bring back the term 'bastard'.
I've been refusing that official stamp for 15 years. Because FYTW government.
Cops don't think private Roberts rights should apply to them.
http://www.policeone.com/chief.....ave-store/
Also threaten retaliation or to not protect people that don't treat them better than "civilians".
How the fuck did my iPad get "Roberts" out of "property"?
I blame the NSA.
I was wondering what the hell that was.
Huh,
Last I checked you assholes WERE civilians. Did they pass a new law?
The people are the police and the police are the people.
These fuckers don't give a shit about the Peelian principles.
They ARE the Law!
What do they care about laws? They don't have to follow them, and they certainly don't enforce them.
Maybe we should all become police
http://www.detroitnews.com/art...../307080032
At least one of them is sane.
I have a carry permit. I have no intention of using it to defend people who go unarmed.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Depends. If it is theft I'd let it go. Rape or trying to kill someone I feel like they need to be put down. One less scumbag that could hurt someone I care about.
Just be sure to have your firearm put away before the cops show up.
I'll see,your sanity and raise you one xenophobe with a badge:
well those new generations have no clue about respect or common sense when it comes to the police, and even fire and EMS service as you can read from the news about riots because of "delayed" response. It will get worse, as we are loaded up with immigrants who come from countries where the cops are crooked, and our own younger generations here have not been taught respect for anything...welcome to hell
Which means they will know how to deal with the police more effectively than the native-born.
I saw that one too. I never read a police one post before. I thought it would be an echo chamber, but that one guy says LE shouldn't be treated different. If I didn't post that it would be like finding a unicorn and not telling anyone about it.
It will get worse, as we are loaded up with immigrants who come from countries where the cops are crooked
Arizona is a country?
(Feel free to substitute every other possible locale in the US.)
"as we are loaded up with immigrants who come from countries where the cops are crooked"
Immigrants from Chicago?
"He fared no better against the murderous POS but he was willing to TRY. Many other good folks out there with CCW would have done the same."
That guy was like a hero.
My understanding is that he misread the situation and thought that the loser guy had abducted the girl that was with him as a hostage, so he took a shot at the guy. When the girl saw him draw on her boyfriend, she killed the guy that was trying to save her.
I was wondering about the recent item about the Philly woman who got popped for carrying her licensed and permitted gun into NJ (and got popped because at a traffic stop she showed the cop her license and notified him she had the gun) - when Obama visits NJ, does his Secret Service detail have to leave their guns behind?
when Obama visits NJ, does his Secret Service detail have to leave their guns behind?
No, because laws are for the little people, not the nobility.
What rights have cops ever thought they should have to respect?
IKEA rolled over:
"We regret that there was a misunderstanding of our weapon policy in our College Park Store. Our weapon policy does not apply to law enforcement officers. We are taking steps to ensure that this is clear for all our co-workers."
We will make sure that all of our employees know that some animals are more equal than others.
Madonna excused from jury service after two hours
McCarrran airport smells especially like BO this AM
/rimshot
How do you know how Bo Cara Esq smells?
I would imagine he smells like Egg McMuffins and Mountain Dew Red.
OMG these links are all so wordy. ENB needs to trim them down for quick and easy turnarounds into snarky comments.
Life is getting harder, day by day
Nonsense, we need more verbosity!
I prefer prolixity.
Facility.
Felicity?
Tiny Houses Big With U.S. Owners Seeking Economic Freedom
Liberal trailer parks.
Wow. You're right! This is a trailer park by another name for the right sort of white people.
That 500 sq.ft. house in California probably cost $6 million.
One man's economic freedom is another man's loss of standard of living and expectations thanks to idiotic government policy. Expect to see more of this between now in 2014. See America, Obama and the Progs haven't lowered your standard of living and made you poorer, they have given you economic freedom. You should be thanking them for your new shitty house and eco box car.
I'd never tell anyone what size house they should or should not live in. But it is cheaper to live in a smaller space - and it leaves more money for other things, like a nice car or whatever else you like to spend your money on.
Most of the stuff I like to spend my money on requires space.
To each his/her own.
Same here. I need workshops and space to stretch out.
And for me, for what I like to do, I prefer more land over more house.
The difference between us and the Proglodytes is that we realize the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What may be right for you, may not be right for some.
No, Heroic, we must force everyone to live in a large house with a basement brewery and spacious backyard!
I'm down with the basement brewery mandate. Let a thousands bottles bloom!
Cubic light years of space?
Parsecs, really.
I'm not too greedy. Just one seven-billionth of the solar system...
Ah, but I know that you define the scope of the solar system. . .liberally.
It is cheaper to do so. It would be one thing if people were doing this because they wanted to spend their money in other ways. But that is not what is happening. They are doing this because they don't have the money to do anything else and still be financially responsible.
I remember when I was buying a house about 10 years ago. At the time there was lots of advice to buy as much house as you could afford - I guess the thinking being that real estate always goes up and you can't lose.
Trouble with that, aside from the burst housing bubble which is bad enough, a large house requires a much bigger monthly nut than a smaller house. Factor in the upkeep of a larger piece of property, and property taxes that always move in one direction, and all of a sudden that buy as much house as you can afford advice doesn't look so smart. Just sayin'.
If people are downsizing to be more financially responsible, well maybe that's a good thing.
It could be. But I think it is more likely they are also downsizing because they are poorer and the media is trying to spin it as "you are getting your freedom".
They totally are spinning it, in the vein of the press secretary's "those unemployed people were given the freedom to pursue hobbies".
property taxes that always move in one direction
Actually, my property taxes have gone down by about 30% since 2008. The Zillow estimate on my home value has dropped about 10% over the same period.
I think the house value of 2.5x annual salary is still a good rule of thumb. There are way too many people with 5 digit household incomes living in 300k homes.
Huh. Our house was about 1.5x our annual salary. Guess we could've done better.
Good news, my house started at 3x my annual salary, and between raises and devaluation, is now less than 1.5x. Wait...
Yeah, I poked fun above, but I hate owning stuff so I generally like the idea of not living in giant spaces.
My house is only about 1,500 sq ft and I still have spaces that are empty.
Same here. I guess my apartment is around 800 sq ft but I have a whole room just for the cat box and some misc junk in the closet. A lot of my friends have so much shit it amazes me. I like to watch Hoarders and marvel at how those people are the exact opposite of me.
To me, there is such a thing as too much house. I've found that about 1000 square feet is the sweet spot for me. Any less I start to feel cramped, any more is just unused space I have to clean.
But it is cheaper to live in a smaller space - and it leaves more money for other things, like a nice car or whatever else you like to spend your money on.
At $30K for 500 sq. ft. that's pricier, smaller, and (from the pictures) shittier than many of the mobile homes I've been in.
I understand the economics of buying a smaller home, that's not what this is. This is putting the biggest contribution in your particular church's offering plate as loudly as possible.
Well, I'm in the process of moving from 3200 sf to 1900 sf, but that's because in 3200 sf I am doing OK and in 1900 sf I am rich.
I moved from a larger house to smaller digs. Of course the new place is in a much, much better neighborhood + school.
My apartment is bigger than 500 sq ft. I wouldn't stuff four people into that space.
I previously lived in a ~750 sq ft one bedroom w/ my wife. Much of the complex was Indian immigrants living 4-8 in the same space. I could see how it's doable, but that just can't be comfortable.
I lived like that too, but I was in college back then. No way would I do it now.
Its a bit much to claim small houses are winning big when their own story says that the average house is getting bigger.
Revolutionary Truth, Comrade - do you doubt it???
So, hipster homes? I'm not gonna lie, I dig it.
I wonder how much of this is market grab by a guy who lives in a state that is starting to mandate a certain %age of new houses be small.
It's not a bad idea, but wish it we're the market creating it rather than government regulation.
Since when has government mandated smaller houses, and how the hell do these houses conform to zoning laws? My county has a 'temporary' moratorium on multi-family housing that's been in place about 7 or 8 years now and upped the square footage requirement "to maintain the character of the community", i.e., keep out poor people who can't afford big fancy houses or even want to live in small houses that makes it look like they can't afford big fancy houses. Grandfathered duplexes and small houses are hard to find on the market and fetch a premium price. A single person or a retired couple can live quite comfortably in a two bedroom 1,000 s.f. house and have more money for travel and leisure, but not in this county.
Look up Plan Bay Area. They're mandating that growth in a nine county area have a certain percentage of homes built for low income people as well as a certain percentage be within walking distance of BART stations. And the only way to accomplish the goals is to build considerably smaller homes in certain areas.
It was challenged by a couple of municipalities and the challenge was just rejected a few days ago.
Look up Plan Bay Area. They're mandating that growth in a nine county area have a certain percentage of homes built for low income people as well as a certain percentage be within walking distance of BART stations. And the only way to accomplish the goals is to build considerably smaller homes in certain areas.
It was challenged by a couple of municipalities and the challenge was just rejected a few days ago.
In an area with high demand, little to no room to build on, and decent transit - why wouldn't that happen by itself?
Nothing happens in the Bay Area unless the government deems it to be.
who shares a 500-square foot home with his wife and two young children
Child abuse.
Little House in the Big Smug
* golf clap *
I've often thought about making an old fashioned log cabin - one large "communal" room (kitchen + living), a loft for sleeping, a side bedroom, and a bathroom.
Then I think how nuts I would go without some additional privacy.
Sounds like the Finnish m?kki that everybody goes to for their summer holidays.
Well, yeah, often people on vacation stay in a small space, because they want to experience the place they went to vacation, not the.inside of a building.
Alright, I had a long and thoughtful reply to this that I typed twice, only to lose it. Suffice to say, not everyone can be.squeezed into a small urban living space without going nuts. Many people value quiet time alone more than the.bustle of city streets, and when.you live.in a shoebox, I.imagine you spend much.of your time and money outside.of it. If all you have is room to sleep, you either.live a super boring existence, or you depend on others to share or rent their space to you.
You know who else thought cramming people into tiny quarters would improve economic freedom?
People at the US Mint?
Nice.
Nice one, although I kind of doubt they want economic freedom...wouldn't be good for job security.
*applause*
The Soviets?
If you really want economic freedom. Don't buy a friggin house
Researchers say it's less a matter of single moms and more about parents shacking up without tying the knot.
But I thought marriage was this giant welfare program built on the backs of the gays. How could it be that people don't take advantage of such. Perhaps marriage isn't quite the big government welfare program Reason always says it is? Never!!
I pay more in taxes now that I'm married. But we have no kids.
Me too. I think it's the lack of kids that screws us, too.
Trust me, you pay more when you have kids than you get credit for on your tax bill. But it's all worth it, right?
Certainly is worth it!
I'm not sure how different our tax situation would be if my wife and I were not married but my wife has more than $20k in student loans she would not have had to take out if we had not been married and I won't even get into the fact that if we were not married she would qualify for tons of free shit that we could never qualify for together
But with the government rewriting a lot of the welfare programs (read: ACA subsidies) to benefit singles, methinks reason was in fact correct in their assessment.
You look at it differently because you're a productive member of society whose income level likely renders the benefit/drain of marriage financially irrelevant. But there are a lot of people out there whose status in that 1099 box makes a whole lot of difference in the amount of free shit they get.
It has been the case for a long time that the easiest welfare scam is to have kids and never marry their father. If dad has a job, you can live with him and get welfare. Since you are not married, his income doesn't count for your welfare eligibility.
The government basically pays mothers to have kids and not get married. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly what they do.
I guess I just didn't get your jab at reason.
For the longest time, there were certain bennies only married people got while gay couples we're excluded.me so in a way, my getting married so Kara could be on my insurance was being done on the backs of others in a similar relationship that the state refused to recognize.
And now that gay couples are free to get those same bennies, the story reverts back to welfare queens gaming the system for more free shit. Only now we're adding in the ACA to the equation so there's even more incentive to not get married for people otherwise disposed to.
Sorry, I just don't see where your beef is applicable here.
That's because it's more like a meatloaf than a pure beef.
A beefloaf?
Meatcake!
When's the wedding?
And where's our invite?
At the rate you two are producing kids, Banjos wouldn't be able to fly to the wedding anyway. 😛
She's not pregnant this year.
Yet.
It's like her uterus has a crosshair painted over it.
If marriage produces so many bennies, then why are people living together and choosing not to get married?
If there really was free shit to be had by getting married, it would create incentive to get married that wasn't there before. If that were true, marriage rates should be going up in response to the incentives. Yet, marriage rates are doing the exact opposite.
The truth is there never were nay bennies to getting married. The government has been creating disincentives to get married for over 50 years now. The idea that there was was just bullshit put out by the pro gay marriage people.
If marriage is as disincentivized as you say, why do gays want to get married?
Maybe it's part of their quest for greater/full social acceptance?
It is that Restoras. The power of the gun via government certainly makes that quest easier.
I just have a hard time thinking most people would accept a disadvantageous position for themselves to make such a point, but I guess its possible.
I think they likely want what sloopyinva is talking about, plus some people see marriage as having non-economic values and they see government recognized marriage as 'real marriage.'
There is no evidence the majority of them want to. They just want the "right to" and they also want the right to fuck with their cultural enemies.
This is actually a VERY easy question to answer.
For a heterosexual couple that never marries no one will ever challenge their long time partner's role in their lives. For a homosexual couple they will.
So if your life partner of 20 years is sick in the hospital whether the staff assumes you are "family" or not determines if you are allowed to visit past "visiting hours", whether you are capable of making decisions for them (sometimes even in the face of medical power of attorney contracts). For an unmarried heterosexual couple they are very likely to just assume you are married and treat your partner as your spouse. For a homosexual couple this is often no the case.
Therefore the benefits and incentives for marriage are actually different for heterosexual and homosexual couples and there is more of an impetus for homosexual couples to seek the institution out.
I never said there was free shit, and if I gave that impression I apologize. I was merely saying that only married couples got certain rights, like survivorship benefits and the family coverages for group insurance (due to regulations). Those are pretty big incentives to the productive class if you ask me.
I used to think that too Sloopy. But the more I think about it the more I think gays were better off being outside the marriage system. Before gay marriage they were free to create whatever relationships they wanted. Now they are stuck in the ones the government mandates.
They may have been free to create whatever relationships they wanted...except for the one most socially recognized by society writ large.
And also, insurance, adoption and survivorship benefits were being withheld/restricted until the marriage issue became a moot point. And I think those are/were pretty important to a lot of gay couples.
And also, insurance, adoption and survivorship benefits were being withheld/restricted until the marriage issue became a moot point. And I think those are/were pretty important to a lot of gay couples.
IMO, this is still a bit of a "fuck you" from the "gay rights" community.
Being denied these benefits is only a violation of a fundamental human right if they're gay. And the only way to deal with being denied these things is to make the Federal Gov't and subsequently each and every state legislature create, not just civil unions (which are/were more generally inclusive), but gay marriage.
At the very least, it sounds more of the same shitty logic that created whatever 1100 legal privileges that went into marriage in the first place.
They aren't; He is. And can you blame him with how divorce is handled in this country?
Hasidic Jews are famous for this in Brooklyn. They get married but dont invole the government in it, and the wives collect on the ten kids they have. Then they shave their heads and put a wig on.
Perhaps some people have got the strange idea that the law makes a marriage a raw deal for them?
You mean having to go before a judge and ask permission to split up and be forced to split up by the terms some stranger decides might be a downside?
And all the wonderful tax incentives to get married! Unless of course you both actually work and already pay taxes.
Yep.
There are no tax incentives for people who don't pay federal income tax.
EIC?
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah told supporters Tuesday that he needs more time to decide whether to declare his own government...
I'm declaring my own comments section. AND I'M FIRST!
FTFY
The First Fist, Leader of the Glorious new Declared Comment Republic of H&R is Fist of Etiquette!
Don;t you mean "Declared Comment Monarchy"?
We're calling it a republic for marketing purposes.
Splitter!
Literally!
*runs from room*
Are you equipped to rule? Do you have a phone and a pen?
I shan't be issuing any dictates. Seems like a lot of work.
Congressional Democrats have developed legislation to override the Supreme Court decision
They think they can override a constitutional right with legislation? After the Nazgul just knocked down that very thing? We really are doomed.
RFRA is a statute, albeit a statute attempting to override a Supreme Court misinterpretation of the Constitution.
I was surprise the SCOTUS bothered to rule on such a question: whether a statue trumps a regulation. One imagines they would strike down any law designed so blatantly to limit 1A rights...*giggles*
Weren't they grumbling about doing the same thing for Citizens United? I'd have figured they'd try a 2A override first...because they are that insane.
Republican should attach an amendment that requires employers to fund employees Second Amendment rights.
Sure, since there is actually an enumerated right to keep and bear arms, then it would be fine to require businesses such as the NY Times to provide guns for their employees.
Also, give employees bacon cheeseburgers, CO2 machines, and NASCAR tickets.
Require employers to give all employees two hours off per week to attend religious services.
All they need do is wait for a Republican administration's HHS to put out a regulation mandating employer's insurance cover pro-life 'crisis pregnancy counseling' to spark the hypocrisy.
You are starting to morph completely into shrike, do you know that?
This is a libertarian site, not one for GOPer fanbois.
Bo's right here. I think he's arguing more of the "Hey Lefty, if a President Santorum did the kind of stuff Barry does, here's what it would look like."
Do you not get this post is in agreement with all the others? Liberals who support the contraceptive mandate are so short sighted and unprincipled they do not realize that the same HHS that can make a regulation mandating something they think is good (BC) can tomorrow with a different administration be one mandating something they will go 'ape crazy' about.
Then I guess I misread your comment. You're so quick to accuse the right of hypocrisy that I assumed you thought a GOP admin would propose such a regulation and the hypocrisy would be from their side.
I guess it would have been wishful thinking to think you'd just admit you were wrong in your rush to attack me.
First off, I apologize for,misreading your comment.
Secondly, it took me 16 minutes. Hardly a rush.
Ummm...he did.
You have a track record of doing exactly that, to be fair.
I made a similar argument to a friend, but used gay conversion therapy as an analogy. Mandate that the employer provide it, and let the employees choose whether they want it or not. I got blank stares at first, and them arguments about how gay conversion therapy is unscientific and opposed by the American Psychiatry Association or something. My point was entirely lost.
Bo's analogy is better and closely related to the case.
"arguments about how gay conversion therapy is unscientific and opposed by the American Psychiatry Association"
Good grief, it's like if a Comittee of 'experts' had passed on it then it would be ok to force people to do!
Progressivism in a nutshell, I submit.
Good grief, it's like if a Comittee of 'experts' had passed on it then it would be ok to force people to do!
I don't know his friend but it wouldn't surprise me if they are that batshit crazy about it.
There are forumites around these parts that are that start to tilt in crazy directions about it.
How about Prostitute coverage.
Well really sex therapist might be a better term but there are already a couple of European countries who cover payment for prostitution services to the "disabled" on the grounds that sex is a fundamental human right
Agreed.
That's ok. The screams of hypocrisy are nicely drowned out by the unceasing leaden clangs of cognitive dissonance echoing inside their heads.
"Are you serious?"
This idea (the proposed legislation to override a decision) just seems so . . . stupid. And pandering. And makes me so annoyed with the constant one-upmanship from the left. Also, does no one on their side get Con Law?
Well, the President was a (n adjunct) professor and there are some who say he is a "constitutional scholar" .
How To Blow $9 Billion: The Fallen Stroh Family
Someone tell Thomas Piketty.
When a company stays in business, the progs tell us it is the market failing by creating an oligarchy. When a big company goes out of business, the progs tell us the market failed and destroyed this great thing. Funny that.
It's a core tenet of progressivism that the market always fails. It sounds like the fate of the Strohs wasn't determined by government experts, who would have had sound reasons for either allowing the company to stay in business or forcing the company to shut down. Instead the "market" did this, with no regard to reason or rationality at all.
My roommate was an intern there in the early 90's. He can't be surprised. Great stories about incompetence and drunkenness.
Beer was free in the cafeteria - and he quickly learned to never schedule an afternoon meeting because everyone was drunk and/or asleep.
sounds like a good place to work - provided you don't want to actually accomplish anything.
Plus, good ice cream.
There is a lot of interesting shit from the beer wars era. It wasnt clear until it was over who was gonna survive. In 1980 no one would have predicted Bud Miller Coors and sorta Pabst.
'Buffalo' Bill Hillmann, Author of Pamplona Bull Run Guide, Gets Gored
Sometimes you get the horns I guess.
The Battle of Bull Run?
Shorter "How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona" - stay out of Spain.
Avoidance is a fairly foolproof risk management technique.
Tip #1: don't trip whilst running from angry bulls.
Maybe the bull read his book as well?
"Hillman, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
-The Bull
+1 minute faster
You magnificent bastard, I read your book!
damn you, WTF!
The trick is to get tight. Real tight. And run with a friend from the war who got his balls shot off.
The Environmental Protection Agency quietly slipped a note into last week's Federal Register asserting its right to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order." Oh, is that all?
Between this new found ability to raise revenue and this new found ability to spend it, both without Congressional input, we've pretty much tossed away the last remnants of the Old Republic.
I swear to gourd, keep an eye on the EPA - that's where the coup is coming from. From the fact that they don't have to do cost/benefit analyses on their regulations to the SC argument that you have no right of recourse to appeal their process outside of the EPA itself, to the 'due deference' that says they have the final say in interpreting their own regulations (even if they decide after 40 years that their interpretation has to be re-interpreted) to the ever-expanding jurisdiction, at some point the EPA is going to be the first executive branch agency to declare its' sovereignty from the rest of the federal government.
They've already argued that the SC can't tell them what to do, they've already argued that Congress can't tell them what to do, the next R president will be told he can't tell them what to do. With their own army of EPA SWAT-team enforcers and their own revenue source of fines, a blank check to write and enforce and interpret their own laws, and a wholly internal adjudication system, what do they need any other government agency for?
And when they start fighting a holy war against those who would profane Goddess Gaia, forced to do so because the morally weak-willed cowards in the rest of the government refuse to save Humanity from itself, there will be a ton of supporters applauding their bold action.
there will be a ton of supporters applauding their bold action.
"This is how liberty dies....to thunderous applause."
/iblametheprequeltrilogy
Stripper is terrorizing my family, woman claims
"The screaming, the spanking, the moaning
Let it not be said Rogers isn't a good time. And who on earth has a five year old and wants to live a quiet life takes a stripper in as a roommate?
Someone looking to go halvsies on bulk glitter and body oil?
There is that. I am thinking there are a lot of people in Las Vegas who don't have small children who are sorry they missed out on renting a room to Rogers. I know I would be.
$1,500 a month for a room.
She must live in Manhattan Beach.
Or maybe no one would rent to her and she was forced to pay a premium to someone who would.
The government should have forbidden that price gouging!
I don't think I'd want a stripper for a roommate even without kids. From my experience they're some of the dumbest creatures on the planet and I've watched MSNBC.
Most of them are pretty fucked in the head. It is fun to tell yourself that we should all be free sexually and doing things like take your clothes off and let strange men grope you for money should be just like any other way to make a living but it is just not true. It is true for a small number of people. But for most women doing that does something really bad to their self image or their doing it is the result of them being fucked up to begin with. It is just the way it is.
I have a friend who's a former stripper. She's an odd one, that's for sure.
You know the thing about a stripper, she's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When she comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'.
+1 bigger pole
I think you are wrong about the job doing something bad for their self image but I will agree that the overwhelming majority of the people who would ever consider taking a job like that are pretty fucked up in the head before they ever take it and that kind of career is certainly not going to help them one bit.
I had a stripper for a roommate for a short time in college. She was the girlfriend of one of my other roommates, and he invited her to stay in the apartment (without asking myself or the other guy). She was pretty touched in the head. She'd spend hours screaming and crying on the phone in polish to her mom. Every fucking day. Also her thighs were like tree trunks, which I assume was from all the pole dancing.
Also, I currently have a stalker who is an ex-stripper. She's clearly insane, but she keeps texting me nudes, so I haven't called the cops.
PICS YOU IDIOT
Be careful what you wish for, she not only has thighs like tree trunks, she has an Adams apple like a baseball. And those are dick pics.
Jerryskids, this is Warty you're talking to here. Are you trying to get him all horned up?
I will give you credit, you really have a high class of stalker. My compliments.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-duck.html
They're cops. They have no humanity to expose.
What's the bill for this "Duck of Justice"?
*narrows gaze*
"Suffering succotash!"
Duck you, that's why.
I wouldn't give them too much credit...they thought they were.ordering a "Duke of Justice."
"Duck, I sez."
Their mascot ought to be a dick of justice:
http://smg.photobucket.com/use.....e.jpg.html
"I am the cock of jurisprudence, I am the penis of truth and right, I AM...
THE DICK OF JUSTICE!"
Clapclapclapclapclap
Ok, now do one where the President is actually a talking asshole.
Does that have sound? Because all I got was a candy bar ad.
This is taking away jobs from real duck superheroes like Darkwing Duck and Batduck!
Gizmoduck talented enough to avoid the downturn?
I've never been duck hunting, and I'm very interested now.
Duck Season!
I don't know. Bangor probably has low enough crime that the rot might not have totally spread there
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-park.html
That's funny.
The number of adult lifevests in those pictures is... disturbing.
That time Obama shook hands with a man wearing a horse mask
Repost from late last night in PM Links:Officers beat and sic K9 on man for filming them beating a woman
Queen claims the authorities confiscated his phone and erased the video of police beating up the woman before giving him back the device.
Let this be a lesson... live stream that shit and password your phone.
Trenton already lost a case last year for the exact same thing... someone recorded the police beating up someone. That person got an ass kicking for not turning over the phone so the evidence could be erased. The only thing that needs to be erased is the Trenton PD.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-City.html
Looks more queer than hipster. NTTAWWT
Being John Malkovich.
Malkovich Malkovich? Malkovich.
The real question is, WTF is wrong with them, wearing jackets, a hat and a scarf in fucking July in NYC? Even if it was early morning, it would have been in the low 70's, and heating up fast.
When you're that cool...
The bill would ensure that women had access to insurance coverage for birth control even if they worked for businesses that had religious objections.
? la carte coverage independent of one's employment, one might suppose?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-exam.html
Too tough for Tony or PB.
What did Lily do ...?
Since Lily is depicted as a person of color, one might be tempted to go with "ripped off a can of soda".
False, and you fail.
The correct answer is, "This is a trick question. Lily lives in manhattan, therefore her maid Consuela does the shopping."
Surely not all the kids that get in are taking that test? I imagine there is a different "test" for a lot of them.
The Environmental Protection Agency quietly slipped a note into last week's Federal Register asserting its right to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order." Oh, is that all?
How do I due process?
Due process is whatever the EPA says it is. I'm sure they have some secret group of top advisors using a secret garnishment matrix to determine who gets whacked with a garnishment and there's a secret court that has signed off on all this with a secret ruling making it all ok.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....Ibiza.html
They pixelate her nipples when she's standing, but not when she's laying on her back. Weird.
The uncensored version if you are so inclined.
Obviously NSFW.
Amanda Marcotte: Obama's Contraception Mandate: Still Punking the GOP
Every poll I have seen shows that a healthy majority, 60% or more, support the Hobby Lobby decision. I guess I am missing the genius of forcing your opponents to take a popular position.
The Progs I think have finally found a position so ridiculous even the average low information voter won't buy it.
Free shit, John. FREE SHIT.
The 40% free shit people already vote Democrat.
Down 7%?
According to the polls, yes, at least with regard to this particular piece of free shit.
The problem with the "but everyone wants free shit" theory of voting is that not everyone wants the same free shit. And people are always happy to vote against other people's free shit.
The problem for them is that birth control is one thing involved with health that most people have a good idea of the cost.
Yes. And more than half of the population has no need for it. The only people who want birth control are young unmarried women and married women who don't want kids. Most of those women vote Democrat anyway. So what does this issue buy them?
Political parties have to do things for their base occasionally, lest they lose them.
So she may have read the decision at this point.
http://www.goodrx.com/ella
Ella costs a whopping $41 at Kroger, with no insurance. A drug you have to take ONCE - that's not even a weekly prescription you have to fill. So, liberals are freaking out about a company that pays its employees a minimum wage of $15/hr, provides generous bennies and vacay, and is requiring its employees to pay 1/5 of what an entry level smart phone costs for drug they will hopefully never have to take again, plus covers the medical if you have any side effects.
What exactly are they mad about here?
Yes. That's what we've all been saying. That's why we laugh at the hysterics over it.
So we can all agree that the HL decision was nothing huge? I have a feeling Marcotte and friends will not be so cool about it as the midterms get closer.
smart enough to prefer the cost savings you get from covering contraception to worrying about what their employees are up to in their private time at home.
Huh?
I've seen the tactic with firearms from the left. "My opponents support of the NRA is a direct indication of his support for ."
I can only assume, in some collection hyper-feminist of minds somewhere; that not paying to have women forcibly sterilized is tantamount to raping them.
Given those people I can only assume greater numbers with more "mild" suppositions like; "The GOP doesn't want to pay for my BC because they think abstinence is the best policy or women should be barefoot and pregnant or the Church is against it."
You need to assume a weird sort of anti-logic to grasp the concepts. I mean, she uses the phrase "prefer the cost savings" like employers were falling all over themselves to provide birth control and screaming at the top of their lungs to get Obama to finally sign the ACA into law.
Holy shit - you mean to tell me that Congress is going to pass a bill allowing/requiring HHS to do exactly what the Supreme Court suggested HHS do, except that the requirement the SC ordered HHS to change is one HHS wrote itself? Tell me this isn't grand-standing by Congress.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rders.html
That which is not allowed is verboten.
Um, yeah. That makes sense. Ban the machines over unpopulated areas while they assess how to best pilot them over populated areas. That's government.
Dude, that is how the FAA works. It starts by prohibiting absolutely everything in the National Airspace System, and then doles out "authorization" to do certain things to certain entities.
The Environmental Protection Agency quietly slipped a note into last week's Federal Register asserting its right to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order."
They realized controlling money is where the real power is.
They need to fund their SWAT teams.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....shoot.html
What a maroon.
What difference at this point does it make?
Still the best thing Steven Tyler ever produced.
A Window Opens Onto the Left-Wing Conspiracy
A Window Opens Onto the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
Fixed!
Jonah Goldberg: Our Conservative Popular Culture
Does the Left really have a monopoly on storytelling today?
Hollywood loves to make liberal polemics. They just don't sell any tickets. If they want to make money, they have to make at least a neutral and likely a conservative movie. All of the really big money making movies have at least a pro freedom or a pro American message.
Transformers?
Haven't seen it. But I have never heard where it had any kind of a liberal message. Even if it did, it is just the exception that proves the rule.
Actually, the better example is Avatar, which was a total liberal crapfest and made a fortune, though you could argue it made money because of its special effects and in spite of its idiotic political messages.
I agree it had an idiotic message. Let's all live in trees!
And a primitive civilization would be able to defeat one advanced enough for interstellar travel.
They had the Ewoks as precedent.
But the Ewoks had Jedi help.
If they'd made the Ewoks Force-users, they'd have been far less stupid.
Transformers?
Haven't seen the latest, but my son makes me watch the first three constantly. Very pro military. The Autobots basically become another branch of the military and fight alongside U.S. troops. Also, none of them transform into Priuses.
Transformers?
If I'm not mistaken, Optimus Prime's mentor says, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." as he enslaves the human race (from Chicago, naturally).
Then Optimus Prime shoots him in the face.
I made sure the kids watched it twice.
I mean, if I thought Micheal Bay had half a wit of cultural intelligence, I'd think his repeated destruction of the Tribune Tower in Chicago was some sort of message.
I forgot to add that Optimus' mentor is colored solid red, while Optimus himself is, obviously, red, white(steel), and blue.
The bill, put together in consultation with President Obama, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby to include coverage for contraception in employee health plans. #CantStopWontStop
The cheap and promiscuous girl vote is going to push them over the top in November.
It's also the "Free Shit" brigade they are counting on.
*There's* an overlapping Venn Diagram!
"The cheap and promiscuous girl vote is going to push them over the top in November."
No, but comments like that might help.
I like to pitch in where I can.
"Snarky Comment on Libertarian Site Propels TEAM BLUE to Electoral Victory!"
More at 11?
No, that's pretty much it.
The cheap and promiscuous girl vote is going to push them over the top in November.
Ladies night at the DNC!
"The bill, put together in consultation with President Obama, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby to include coverage for contraception in employee health plans."
Well, Obama's proven that he's openly hostile to the Fourth Amendment, and openly violating the rights of hundreds of millions of Americans by way of the NSA hasn't cost him a thing--why should Obama give a shit about the First Amendment either?
The important thing is to spin this legislation as an attack on rednecks. Because the Constitution doesn't protect the rights of rednecks. I know because Obama used to teach a class about the Constitution in college.
Obama confronted by 1/8 reverse centaur.
What's with the person in the blue dress?
She is stunned by his holy visage.
Looks like she got stunned *twice*.
They need to test that blue dress.
is she the devil?
thanks for the earworm.
Apparently the ACA sucks for mythical creatures just as bad as it does for real ones.
That shouldn't be too frightening for him. Didn't Joan Rivers recently claim he was being confronted every night by a half-reverse girly man?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et38_Ufv-Jw
Baryy knows all there is to know about the crying game.
That photo is creepier than I feel like it really should be.
I think the nonplussed mook in the stripped wifebeater, the staring girl and the old man hand from nowhere really amps it up.
It truly is a delightful image.
Look carefully. Who is *really* shaking hands with the horse?
It does feel like some sort of cognitive test.
Like somebody's got a gun in the president's rib cage and none of us noticed.
Looks like a pair of jackasses to me
Is that Ramsay Bolton in the tank top?
I AM CENISTAUR!
Meet the ratfuckers who went after Menendez (includes Cubans).
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/m.....llegations
Menendez is worthless but ratfuckers gonna ratfuck.
First off, the retarded don't rule the night. They don't rule it. Nobody does. And they don't run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.
I still protest this insult to the mentally disabled. They generally have no choice in the matter. PB makes a conscious choice to be this stupid.
We ever figure out what kind of cake?
I always figured we would sex it up with some yellow cake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGi0ViNg1hc
The Mendendez thing is interesting. If it were a Republican Senator involved I think you'd hear more about it in the comments here.
John and other Ream Red types openly support the GOP ratfuckers.
DC is a big enough cesspool without the paid liars making things worse.
Yeah, there is nothing suspicious about a Senator accepting free trips from a big donor to a resort that is known for its underage prostitution.
I guess he deserved to have all this concocted and he, not the liars, are to blame?
I am no fan of Mendendez, but these people are 'busted' up to no good.
If I am a politician and I like to spend my vacations alone in Bangkok, can I really be surprised when one of my political enemies smears me for being a child molester? Doesn't make my enemies right. But it also doesn't make me any smarter or less corrupt for taking the free trips.
I think the bigger scandal is not your trip to Bangkok but a conspiracy to lie and defame you. Look, if this were a Tea Party Senator being set up by liberal activists you'd be screaming right now.
ehhh, this happens all the time. Do I condone it no, but its politics and its why no decent person will ever be involved in it.
The bottom line is that he was taking free trips with a big donor down to a resort in the Dominican Republic that is renown for its underage hookers. If the charge was false, and I am still convinced it was, it is hard to have much sympathy for him considering his total lack of judgement.
So when Rush Limbaugh visited those same resorts with a box of Viagra we can assume the same thing?
Like most lefties, PB thinks that Rush Limbaugh is both a member of congress and head of the GOP.
First off, the retarded don't rule the night. They don't rule it. Nobody does. And they don't run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.
If he were a Republican he would be forced to retire over this.
So, did Menendez do it or not?
I have no idea.
shrike never saw him there, so that means Menendez must not have been there. QED, ratfuckers.
It was a ratpack of lying ratfuckers, you idiot. It is the GOP way from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove to James O'Keefe.
Karma hit Atwater hard. His head blew up to twice its normal size right before he died from a brain tumor.
Jesus Christ, PB. You're usually incomprehensible but this is horrible, even for you. Fuck you for even suggesting that anyone deserves something like that, you piece of rat feces.
Don't try to reason with it.
This has nothing to do with reason. The ratfucker's political ramblings can be ignored, but shit like that I'm going to call him out on.
When your life work is destroying others via lies then you might deserve a miserable end.
Fuck. You.
No, seriously. Fuck. you. I pray you've never known anyone to die of cancer, and I pray you never will. The fact that you can make a fucking joke like that proves you're even worse than most people here think you are. Crawl in a hole and die, you sub-human piece of shit.
Andy, it doesn't believe anything, it just says what it can to wind you up, to get any sort of attention. Just ignore it.
It's not sentient. It can't comprehend the concepts contained in its comments. Cancer and cockroach are equally meaningless words to it.
Somewhere it saw a joke about cancer, and it repeated it here hoping to elicit a response.
*When your life work is destroying others via lies then you might deserve a miserable end.*
So I guess that means you'll be coming down with a bad case of Lou Gehrig's Disease any second now.
The real story has always been Melgen.
"Separately from the escort story, a federal grand jury was reportedly investigating whether Menendez used his office to advocate for Melgen's business interests. Menendez had caught the attention of the Senate Ethics Committee when he reimbursed Melgen for two flights to the Dominican Republic aboard his private jet after initially failing to report them. Melgen also acknowledged that he and Menendez discussed a Medicare-billing dispute and a port contract in the Dominican Republic benefitting Melgen's company."
Student abandoned for 5 days without food or water in DEA cell awarded $4.1 million
Nobody was punished, of course. Even after they intentionally compromised the investigation.
No one was punished? They had to pay up $4.1 million!
We had to pay 4.1 million.
That's the problem with this sort of thing.
I agree. I'm sympathetic toward his ordeal but that money doesn't belong to anyone who could be considered responsible for the travesty. How will it change anything?
He deserved it, it was the taxpayers and the perpetrators of this outrage who did not deserve what they got.
If I had to go through what he went through, I don't think I would ever be right in the head again. No amount of money would ever make me whole.
I'll take it if you don't want it.
If it comes at the price of being locked in a cage and forgotten for five days with no idea when or if someone will find you, you can have it FOE.
I think fist was being facetious.
How. DARE. You.
But due to the multiplier effect everyone is better off. Look at all the shovel ready jobs that money will create.
Citizen + Police + Cemetary = Shovel Ready Jobs
We paid up $4.1 million. The cops involved had a few beers and laughed at the kid they fucked over.
They had to live with the shame they put a kid through that and cost the taxpayers money.
Well, clearly.
(I was going to say something about how while I know you're being facetious, it's depressing that people out there are probably saying that exact thing seriously. Then I realized that most of those people are actually saying the kid deserved nothing and deserved to be locked in that cell alone for the marijuana. Then I cried a little inside.)
I know people springboard off my comments to vent at the sentiment in general. That's the service I provide.
he drank his own urine and tried to eat his broken eyeglasses
Obviously high on the bath salts.
"Sources say all he had was the ability to comment in an online blog called Reason.com where he went by the username of "Palin's Buttplug."
Wanna see his head explode?
$820,000 a day? Not bad work, if you can get it.
If I were in that position I don't know which emotion would win out: Fear that I might die alone or elation that I'll be set for life if I survive...
I'm just surprised that the kid wasn't found to have committed suicide after 5 days locked up and forgotten. Sure, there might be some questions raised about how exactly he managed to hang himself with his shoelaces with his hands handcuffed behind his back after having beaten himself up badly enough to have broken a few ribs and ruptured his spleen and shattered an eye socket and where exactly he got the gun that he managed to shoot himself in the back of the head twice with, but I'm sure an internal investigation would have concluded that he just really, really was determined to commit suicide.
Some Facebook idiocy (I'm currently still debating on her hotness-to-advocacy ratio) regarding a power outage caused by a storm up in Vermont:
As her if she farted during that time.
This is why Nicole is the worst.
That would certainly help with the hotness question.
Help clear it up whether she's hot enough to warrant keeping around, I mean. Not help as in "make her hotter".
cool story, bro. We all remember that your original handle on the board was "dutchovenlover."
Dealbreaker.
"A referendum proposing to allow the use of experimental drugs not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration on terminally ill patients will be on Arizona's general election ballot in November."
(from azpm.org)
http://bit.ly/1xRTFGL
Members of Congress Declare "Immunity" from Insider Trading Probe
I don't believe insider trading should be a crime, and I would never convict a private citizen of it. However, those who intervene in markets with force should absolutely be subject to these laws.
The dog ate my homework, we lost the emails, we have Congressional privilege...
Oh, FFS! I thought 60 Minutes settled this years ago.
Jesus. Would it be wrong for citizens to simply tar and feather these guys?
As usual, the government gets it exactly backwards.
Televised sports' 'honey shot' plays into the idea that games are only for men
I'm not going to pretend I have never admired someone beautiful. I'm not going to say that during Wimbledon I have not looked at a player's legs and thought thoughts that do not belong in the national press. But when watching a sporting event, the athlete's almost superhuman fitness, their shape and definition, the fact that they are physically extraordinary, is very much part of the natural admiration we have for sportspeople. I don't see how shots of a player's beautiful girlfriend ? between every point, it feels like sometimes ? add to that.
To me, the explanation is simpler and grossly offensive. It is this: only men like sport. All men also like "birds". Let's throw some "birds" in with their sport. And if you're thinking it is all rather innocent and not objectification, consider that some (almost without exception) middle-aged, male director is sitting in a control room somewhere, scanning shots of the crowd, until he chances upon one and thinks "Phwoar! Yeah. Let's show her."
Back in the 80s when Ted Turner owned WTBS watching a Braves game was made pleasant due to the many "honey shots". One of the producers preferred the big breasted variety.
Liberty Media now owns the Braves and honey shots are verbotten. Fucking fundies!
The honey shot isn't what suggests that games are only for men. At most it suggests that there's a horndog behind the video editing somewhere. Is he an authority on culture just because he has that job? What does play into the idea that the games are only for men is the fact that this is probably the only thing she got out of watching the match.
What does play into the idea that the games are only for men is the fact that this is probably the only thing she got out of watching the match.
Ding, ding, ding.
What CPA said. The other thing is that they do the same thing when the sports appeal to women. They don't televise men's diving during prime time every Olympics because it is wildly popular or particularly exciting. They do it because the men are generally really good looking and it is the lust Olympics for female viewers. Sex sells to each sex.
if you watch a sport any sport the commentators will comment on the physique of the players at least once, which is why this whole thing is retarded, everyone is objectified in sports.
And isn't she being a bit heterocentric? Who is to say only men enjoy seeing an attractive woman?
I'm not going to endorse this practice, but come on:
"Objectifying images of spectators imply that only men like sport, and that all men like pictures of lightly dressed women"
No, not all men like sport and lightly dressed women, but a lot of them do, and they're one of the key demographics of these broadcasters.
Um, duh?
There is this, but anyone that watches baseball games know that there are other types of things they like to show between the action. Pictures of fans with their children outnumber these 'honey shots' and anyone sleeping or the like is highly valued.
Fauxrage is fauxrageous. During the womens events, do the cameras not zoom in on boyfriends?
I thought the womenz only played beach volleyball?
I've heard rumors of other women's events, but haven't checked to confirm.
Oh, I forgot the Dutch Field Hockey Team.
How can she navigate on the ice with those high heels?
Naomi Van As? Now they're fucking with us. That's clearly a pornstar's name.
I'm not exactly certain but my I believe it's pronounced more like "Ahsh".
I recall from my Tasmanian high school days that womens' field hockey can be a pretty rugged sport.
What about all the sweaty, young, athletic men? That's not anything for the ladies?
And most women I know seem to get some enjoyment from looking at or commenting on attractive women.
And most women I know seem to get some enjoyment from looking at or commenting on attractive women.
THIS. Who's kidding who, here?
Obama's 'imperial presidency' doesn't rule much of anything
His dictatorial ways and his imcompetence kind of cancel each other out? If only that were true in all cases!
"It's all right for Obama to have all this power because he is so incompetent."
Gosh, I certainly feel better now.
I'm sure wedding parties in Yemen constantly worry about what Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein knows about any of the attendees and what he intends to do to or about any of them.
Maybe that's because Prince Hans-Adam II, in an interview with the Hoover Institution stated his belief that "government should be limited to a small set of tasks and abilities," and that people "have to free the state from all the unnecessary tasks and burdens with which it has been loaded during the last hundred years, which have distracted it from its two main tasks: maintenance of the rule of law and foreign policy.
I think that guy gets.my vote as emissary of Earth to the Alien invaders.
Chart and economic fact of the day: Texas has added one million jobs since 2007 vs. only 24,900 jobs in California
And Texas has the same issue with illegal immigration, a much worse climate, no direct access to the Pacific Ocean and nothing like Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
But hey, California must have just had some bad luck.
Though I think your general point is correct, to be fair, Texas does have energy industries and access to the Atlantic.
We did - a bunch of northeastern assholes moving here in the 70s and 80s that brought their crappy political culture with them.
Texas does not pander to the sodomites. That may be the reason.
WTF?
Cute.
Those hard, lithe bodies of those sinful homos force ungodly thoughts right into his mind.
"Why do all these fucking faggots refuse to suck my cock?!?"
Debbie does Dallas contradicts all your points.
Also why would you wanna go anywhere where you couldn't get a blowjob?
Texas has far more oil.
TN and FL have no state income tax. Check their numbers out.
Does it try to be this stupid, or does it come naturally?
The implication is that TX has done well due to a lack of a state income tax. Test that thesis with FL and TN, dumbass - not CA.
Must be natural. You can't force this kind of blatant cluelessness and stupidity.
The implication is that TX has done well due to a lack of a state income tax.
Man, this board just can't handle complexity. Thank God shrike is here to correct our simplicity.
The presence of very few zoning laws in its major metro areas also go a long way towards cheap housing, even if it doesn't meet the visual esthetics of limo liberals.
So you have a state with cheap housing, low taxes, and fast job growth - it doesn't take a genius to figure out why people move there.
Maybe try reading the article before responding.
He doesn't do that even when he is the one posting the article.
He? Are we giving it a sex now?
Can't speak for Tennessee, but Florida has probably the largest retiree population in the country, which means a hell of a lot of people NOT working. Hard to hand out jobs to people who have stopped working.
Florida
Totally inaccurate--where are the bugs?
When I was in the Everglades last week, the guide told me they think there are at least 100,000 pythons there now. They cancelled a planned hunt for this year, because during the last one, the number of pythons they caught was less than than the number of hunters they had to rescue.
Texas has far more oil.
More like Texas exploits it's natural resources instead of trying to create a pre-human eden.
Also CA is still one of the larger oil producers in the country, even if not as large as TX.
In defense of California's affirmative consent law for college sex -
"So are affirmative consent laws a good idea? If they are broad enough to include nonverbal cues, I think so. If we can admit that enthusiastic consent is often communicated in body language or knowing looks, then we must also accept that the lack of consent doesn't always manifest itself in a shouted "no" or "stop," either. It shouldn't be the sole responsibility of the uninterested party to speak up during a sexual encounter. If you think it's easy for a person to just say no, then why would it be so hard for his or her partner to just ask?"
(If only there was some method to make consent to sex unambiguous, such as some kind of formal committed relationship which includes sex...)
Any married person can tell you that being married does not make consent to sex unambiguous Eddie.
800 women said yes, and their babies ended up in a septic tank!
Like Linus with his blanket.
The problem is not that you made a mistake, but that like PB with his 8% you tried to bluster your way out of it instead of just saying, "oops, I was wrong, sorry about that."
If you can't graciously acknowledge mistakes, you're going to make yourself vulnerable to these kinds of taunts.
And how will you bluster out if this comment suggesting marriage=tacit consent for subsequent sex between the parties?
That's what's going on here, it's like a middle schooler tripping in front of everyone and getting up and saying to someone laughing 'oh, yeah, but remember when you fell running the bases at baseball practice two years ago! What about that, huh?'
Marriage *does* equal tacit consent to subsequent sex between the spouses (or "parties," if you prefer).
What I should have specified - and it's *my* fault for not doing so - is that I certainly don' think it's OK to use *violence* to enforce your sexual rights vis-a-vis your spouses.
Consent to sex/= consent to violence.
Now, any confusion I caused is my own fault, so I apologize.
And there you go - see how easy that was?
Marriage *does* equal tacit consent to subsequent sex between the spouses (or "parties," if you prefer).
I don't think that is a completely uncontroversial statement. And in any case, that's hardly an arrangement exclusive to marriage.
What is the Church's teaching on sex while one party is asleep?
800 women said yes, and their babies ended up in a septic tank!
A bit of a non-sequitur. It wasn't the mothers who threw them in the tank. Also, how do you know they said "yes"?
Women's bodies have a way of shutting down a pregnancy when they are raped.
He's just trying to draw attention from himself stepping in it Zeb. He said something silly (being married would make consent to sex unambiguous), I called him on it (gently I might add), so he just brings up my posting a WaPo headline that turned out to be incorrect as to one detail. It's dodge and duck in the overall driving aim to defend the Catholic Church in all things and at all times with Eddie.
"I don't agree about what marriage means, so my disagreement makes everyone else stupid"
"one detail"
heh heh.
If you think it's easy for a person to just say no, then why would it be so hard for his or her partner to just ask?
I'm sorry, are we endorsing drug dealing here? If so, I'm down.
Georgia whore murders Google executive via heroin overdose on his yacht:
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/calif.....ing/ngb5d/
Georgia girls!
ISIS winning hearts and minds
You know who else failed at winning hearts and minds?
The Cylons?
Violence escalates in the Middle East
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPYT4aEho4
The dog is hilarious.
Jesse 'The Body' Ventura's Lawsuit Against Chris Kyle's Estate
"Mr. Ventura, 62, who on Tuesday sat quietly at the plaintiff's table in a sedate gray suit, his hair in a modest silver ponytail, has sued the estate of Chris Kyle, the former SEALs member, who alluded to Mr. Ventura in his book, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History."
The case is likely to test the higher legal standard a public figure must meet to prove defamation. The proceeding is also complicated by Mr. Kyle's death in a shooting in Texas in 2013, about a year after the suit was filed. The death left Mr. Kyle's widow, Taya, as the defendant on behalf of his estate. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07.....itics&_r=0
Takes a lot of balls to sue a dead man. Be a shame if Jesse had a run in with some of Kyle's buddies.
"I ain't got time ta bleed..."
That's why Almanian takes Yaz.
Yeah!
Wait - what?
He's defending himself against the charge of insensitivity to killed SEALS by.....suing the estate of a killed SEAL...
He sued a live man. It's not his fault that the man died.
Who's fault is it that he didn't drop the lawsuit when Kyle died? Instead he continues to try to take money from a dead SEAL's widow and children.
Hilarious @salondotcom Twitter parody site run by at least one libertarian. Honestly, it's really difficult to tell their fake headlines from the real ones. And you have to follow the reactions of outrage as some clearly think they're real.
Some of my favorites:
Nanoaggressions: Science reveals structural oppression too small or human eyes.
"Winter is coming": The racist motivations behind Game of Thrones seasonal cycle.
Dear climate crazies: If global warming isn't real, why is it so hot? Weatherman predicts continued trend.
Seven misconceptions about Stalin's land reforms.
"They've been around for centuries" Matt Damon on why rights are the new racism.
Michael Lind on the libertarian hellscape where you can buy birth control over the counter.
Let's nationalize Amazon and Google: Publicly funded technology built by Big Tech -- time to make them utilities.
Oh wait, that last one is real.
So Nate Silver and 538 had Brazil as a prohibitive favorite at 45% to win the WC before it started. I don't really care that that prediction now looks silly, given yesterday's result. What I am curious to know is whether he or anyone at 538 put big money on Brazil, given the bookies mostly had them at 3/1 pre-tournament. That's an implied 25% probability of winning it all, not a marginal difference.
Interestingly, they did run a 'mea culpa' article of sorts after the game had ended, but much of the article focused only on that particular game, as opposed to how ridiculous it was to have them at 45% at the off.
This is what people don't get about Nate Silver; the numbers are only as meaningful as the knowledge of the person who created them. Silver is a statistician. He knows how to do math. He doesn't know shit about soccer or most sports. So he has no way of knowing if the numbers he feeds into his math in anyway correspond to reality.
I don't know soccer so I was not smart enough to see the weaknesses in Brazil's team. I have no doubt however, that people who do know soccer watched Brazil play and knew they were going to get beat at some point, though probably not this badly.
People like Silver and the rest of the advance metric geek crowd annoy the shit out of me because they pretend that there isn't more to sports than numbers. And by that I don't mean mythical bullshit like "clutch hitter". I mean real things that you can only understand by watching the sport like match-ups and technique and weaknesses in the way a team is built that don't necessarily show up in every game.
Going into the Super Bowl some people were just looking at the numbers and saying that Denver was going to win (and maybe even win big) by scoring all over the Seahawks. Just from watching games from both teams through the season, I felt pretty confident that Seattle would win, and certainly wouldn't give up a ton of points. If you were able to take away the quick, short pass, the offense was shut down. Though if you didn't have the cornerbacks to do that against 4 legitimate receiving threats, they would score a ton.
Although I didn't think it would end up nearly that lopsided.
The Super Bowl is a good example and I thought the same thing. Denver had never played a team that had the defensive back seven anything like Seattle's. They had never played anyone who could match up one on one with their receivers and shut down the short passing game. So all the numbers Denver ran up against teams that couldn't do that, meant nothing against Seattle. Indeed, a really big strong physical team that ran the ball down Seattle's throat, like San Fransisco, gave Seattle much more problems than Denver, even though Denver, by any statistical measure, had a "better" offense.
Denver got pretty shutdown by the Colts until their defensive backs started dropping.
Tebow would have won that game.
[the] real things that you can only understand by watching the sport like match-ups and technique and weaknesses in the way a team is built that don't necessarily show up in every game.
The advanced metrics crowd is all about quantifying exactly this. Basketball is especially adept at it because the NBA has embraced the concept fully and tracks everything.
Since t he opponents and the conditions are different every night, it is not that simple. To the extent it works, it will work in a very closed environment like the NBA, where there are a set number of teams, the lineups are the same or close to the same every night, and each team is overall equally motivated.
International soccer is completely different. Not every national team fields its best lineup for each match. They will send younger players to friendlies sometimes or not quite have their act together yet even of they do send their best.
For example, I am sure Silver based a large part of his analysis on Brazil's winning of the Confederations Cup last year. The problem is that the teams that went to that are not the same as the teams that come to the world cup. So the numbers don't translate.
International soccer is different for a shitload of reasons, not least of which is because these guys really don't play together very frequently unless you have most of a super-team like the Bayern-Germany connection (and even then, there are plenty of players from bitter rivals Dortmund). Even if you train together for a month and play 5 games together during a high-pressure tournament, you don't have the cohesion of a club team.
It was no real secret to many people who follow the game that Brazil was the weakest team of the four remaining. The only question was if they could ride the home-field advantage any further.
NO ONE expected that insult of a match yesterday.
To be fair, I don't think it was crazy to have Brazil as the favorite -- they've got good players, they've played well under their current coach and their playing in their own country. Having them as such a huge favorite is what I found ridiculous. As AD mentions below, you essentially have to have them as better than 2-to-1 favorites in BOTH the semi and the final, and that says nothing of the earlier games (they were inches away from losing against Chile, and were fortunate to not have a man sent off against Colombia).
Up until yesterday, I would have given even odds for any of the 4 remaining teams in the quarterfinals to win it all. Up until yesterday, nobody was playing for anything greater than 1:0.
Ugh - again I sound repetitive once more.
It was borderline crazy to think that this version of Brazil could have much of a shot win it all without a ton of things going their way. They proved it time and again.
They were the most thuggish team at this tournament by some way and should have lost to both Chile and Colombia.
Even after getting to the semifinals, a 45% chance of winning the whole thing would be huge. That would mean you had something between a 45% of winning one with a 100% of the other and a 67% chance in each game. Whatever the breakdown, that would be a massive advantage in at least one of the games.
+1 Feynman
Oh, it was Feynman? I thought it was Chiun.
Salon.com @Salondotcom ? 16h
Why I harassed Hobby Lobby employees at their work and homes and why it's a social justice victory
ReplyReplied to 0 times RetweetRetweeted 105 times105 FavoriteFavorited 76 times76
More
Salon.com @Salondotcom ? 13h
'Sh-tlord' is ableist against those with Crohn's disease -- try out these 6 progressive insult alternatives
ReplyReplied to 0 times RetweetRetweeted 46 times46 FavoriteFavorited 41 times41
More
Salon.com @Salondotcom ? 4h
Germany's completely gratuitous goals served only to humiliate PoC in a way all too common in our culture
ReplyReplied to 0 times RetweetRetweeted 47 times47 FavoriteFavorited 26 times26
More
Dammit.
'Sh-tlord' is ableist against those with Crohn's disease -- try out these 6 progressive insult alternatives
I'd totally read that article.
Huh - I'd assumed you WROTE it.
Good to know.
I'm going to use my non-priveleged status to say that "shitlord", or any insult based on a derivation of "shit", is fine for you guys to say. If someone calls you out on it, just them it's cool, you've got a colon-less friend.
Fuck you, I can say 'shitlord' because I have a friend who's a buttplug.
But I thought the employees were victims? Why is he harassing the victims? That is like being mad about the OJ verdict and deciding the best thing to do is harass Ron Goldman's father.
These people are so retarded they don't even know how to engage in proper political violence.
Pssst, look at Handjob's post about this same account higher up...
How so? I don't always read retard very well.
It's a parody account.
And John proves how good the parody site is, and how ridiculous the Proglodites at Salon are by not being able to tell the difference between the two
What does that make Jerome Boateng? Not to mention that Bernard looks a little white to me. Oh that's right, these people only think in terms of "tribe".
Oh shit, I guess I was fooled too. That's what I get for skipping around.
Please fix the link for the soda tax story.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=soda+tax+last+stand#
Sounds like some serious business.
http://www.Anon-VPN.com
Today is the 76th anniversary of Daniel Wrong Way Corrigan being the first to fly solo across the Atlantic without permission.
Prosecutors want to force teen in sexting case to receive a shot so they can take pictures of his erect penis
I'd say it was a joke before seeing who the prosecutor is, given that he's one of the worst prosecutors around. How on earth could a judge possibly even consider granting that warrant?
Looking at teenage erect penises - no deviancy there.
So it's okay for the government to produce CP, but it's not okay for a teen to do so of himself?
Got it!
Brewery update time:
The first building in BG fell thru. It was very good location but owner didnt go for concept after delaying for months. Found better location with owner who loves concept. Negative is it isnt large enough for both retail and packaging, so will have a pilot brewery there and the packaging brewery in dirt cheap warehouse somewhere. LOI went to landlord yesterday. He closed on buying the building last week. Its raw shell space, gravel floor right now, so gonna take some workbto get open.
Since the ruling was based on a legislative basis (namely the RFRA) rather than a constitutional basis, how does changing the legislative basis violate a separation of powers?
It's all pointless culture war crap for the election, anyway. Nothing like that is going to pass.
"The Environmental Protection Agency quietly slipped a note into last week's Federal Register asserting its right to "garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order." "
There is so much wrong here I hardly know where to start.
1. Government agencies do not have rights, they have powers.
2. One power government agencies do not have is the power to grant themselves more power.
3. Why would the EPA want to evade already existing and available legal means if they have a sound case?
4. It seems that the courts may have a problem with being cut out of the loop here.
The Feds are out of control.
The Feds are out of control.
The EPA is especially out of control...and the courts have been giving them a pass on it for decades.
The bill, put together in consultation with President Obama, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby to include coverage for contraception in employee health plans.
Wait...
So Obamacare didn't require it yet the government tried to require it anyway?