Potential Prez Candidate Doesn't Want Immigrant Kids in His State, FBI Fears Driverless Cars Could Be 'Lethal Weapons,' Senate Dems' Bid to Reverse Hobby Lobby Decision Fails: P.M. Links

• 

  The Verge

  A restricted FBI document intoning that driverless cars may be used as "lethal weapons" has been released through a public records request.

• Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), a potential 2016 presidential candidate, criticized President Obama's plan to send undocumented children back to their native countries, then reportedly privately pleaded that the White House not "send these kids to Western Maryland."
• Senate Democrats failed to secure enough votes to open debate on a bill that would have reversed the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision.
• The latest data indicates that Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate and greater than a 99 percent chance of taking the House in the midterm election this year.
• Members of a House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee asked the Center for Disease Control how the hell it keeps accidentally exposing people to things like anthrax and avian flu.
• Syria's Bashar al Assad was today sworn in for his third seven-year term, vowing to defeat terrorist groups like ISIS. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A restricted FBI document intoning that driverless cars may be used as "lethal weapons" has been released through a public records request.

Cars don't kill people, Skynet on wheels kills people.

[Andrew S.]

Plot twist: Ahnold is actually a T-800. His policies in CA possibly led to Google being able to put driverless cars on the market, in a long-term effort to wipe out the human race much more easily, without having to deal with John Connor's meddling.

[Brandon]

Can driverful cars not be used as lethal weapons?

[Episiarch]

Yes, but they're not new and therefore can't be used as effectively to sow baseless fear and further the security-police state.

[Homple]

There is a difference between driven and driverless cars in mayhem production. The operator of a driverless car isn't injured or killed when the vehicle crashes into something and won't be at the scene of the event when the authorities arrive.

Subtle, I know, but a difference.

[Christophe]

The operator of a driverless car is a program. These aren't RC vehicles.

Now, maybe the program is defective, or has a backdoor, or has been hacked. But that is already a risk with any car that has an on-board computer controlling the throttle (ie. any recent model).

[Homple]

Someone does tell the program where to go and the route to follow getting there, right? Bad guys could load such a vehicle with nefarious stuff and set its destination to someplace with crowds of people.... In other words, make it a drone as others mention below.

A bit less dangerous to the perpetrator than driving it himself.

[Brett L]

Gee, about 2001-2005, a number of driver-operated cars were used as lethal weapons by jealous women in Houston. I'm uncertain that this is in any way a "new risk" category.

[Brandon]

Wait, was that the diaper lady?

[Brett L]

No, there were like 5 women who decided that the answer to unfaithful spouses was parking their front tires on his head. The memorable one did so with his (but not her) teenage daughter in the passenger seat.

[Brandon]

Oh yeah. That was fucked up. I don't remember much outcry about a War on Men, though.

[gaijin]

Riggs: You want me to drive?
Murtaugh: No, you're supposed to be suicidal, remember? I'LL drive.
Riggs: Anybody who drives around in this town IS suicidal.

[The DerpRider]

I wish Always Sunny would just do a rehash of all the movies.

[Slammer]

No wonder Obama tried it out. He can use them on little brown kids.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hi.

Ooo, risque today.

"Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), a potential 2016 presidential candidate, criticized President Obama's plan to send undocumented children back to their native countries, then reportedly privately pleaded that the White House not "send these kids to Western Maryland."

Apparently the Prez asked Massachusetts to take some in. It will be interesting to see the answer because the Patrick admin. assured citizens they wouldn't have to.

[Ted S.]

Ooo, risque today.

How is that different from any other day?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I spooked enough people for claiming I'd fuck Coulter. Could be worse. Alamanian said he found Sebelius attractive. Dude is mental.

[Hyperion]

That's beyond spooky, dude. She is a MAN you know. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No woman has an adams apple like that.

Just for the record, I find Coulter and Sebelius both fugly.

[DEG]

I know I'm late to the thread, but this is appropriate, and probably not safe for work if anyone is still working.

I Fucked Ann Coulter in the Ass, Hard.

[Ted S.]

Guns don't kill people, cops kill people.

[ant1sthenes]

Guns don't kill people, the government does. /gribble

[Suthenboy]

Imagine the tears from Police departments and municipalities if they lose the pretense they use to shake people down on roads.

I will love a car with an option for being driverless.

[Hyperion]

Don't get your hopes up, they'll still blame you for whatever your rogue driverless car of anarchy does.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, this is one time the FBI is saying something where I go, "Hey, that's true." Then again, someone could remote-control a car--or suicide-pilot it--right now.

In any event, accepting that risk as true, if we largely went to automated cars, I imagine we'd see far fewer fatal accidents in general, so if a few suicide drone-cars were used to commit acts of violence, that's still unlikely to come close to the number of lives saved by getting humans out from behind the wheel.

The scary part is when someone hacks the whole network and takes over. Especially if that someone is a EVIL COMPUTER.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...asked the Center for Disease Control how the hell it keeps accidentally exposing people to things like anthrax and avian flu.

Their name was always meant to be ironic.

[Ted S.]

Like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife?

[Obama's Buttplug]

Nice.

[Episiarch]

Hey, Anthrax is (was?) a pretty good band!

[Doghouse Reilly]

WHATISHE - CAUGHT!

IN A MOSH!

[Warty]

I'M THE MAN! I'M THE MAN!

[Trouser-Pod]

I can't remember how many days I spent listening to this. Still cracks me up.

[mr simple]

Bird Flu, on the other hand, is terrible.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senate Democrats failed to secure enough votes to open debate on a bill that would have reversed the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision.

And who paid for the legislative prophylactic used to stop the conception of this new bill?

[MegaloMonocle]

Big Baby?

[robc]

Dont they have a majority? What does it take to open debate?

[Bobarian]

I'm not sure they even had a majority of Democrats willing to support that ugly baby.

[NoVAHockey]

60 votes. it's part of the cloture process.

[robc]

I thought that was necessary to close debate.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The latest data indicates that Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate and greater than a 99 percent chance of taking the House in the midterm election this year.

And then rape was brought up.

[jesse.in.mb]

But was it rape-rape?

[Los Doyers]

I can't wait to go to the polls this year in CA and uselessly vote for the "well, he/she is better than who is in office now" candidate. But at least there'll be glimmers of hope from other states.

[Hyperion]

Sounds about right. I really, really hope they take the Senate. Not because I expect them to do anything good, or even right, but the amount they will fuck with Obama will be priceless. I'll be buying a truckload of beer and pop-corn just to watch it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Don't forget we've outed PBPlug as Weigel

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You haven't convinced me yet. State your evidence.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Twitter feed matching comments. Common use of the term 'ratf-cker'. Played at being seen as libertarian while on the JournaList.

[tarran]

That evidence is also consistent with my assertion that Shriek is not sentient.

The shambolic neural net that is comprised by what little is left of its mind is merely giving more weight to Wiegel's pronouncements than other random strings of words, since Wiegel says the sorts of things that are more likely generate a response from members of the commentariat than if it quoted some random words from the twitter feed of Carl Weathers.

[Cytotoxic]

I find this unconvincing.

[Los Doyers]

Follow the link trail man, follow the link trail... Also, have you tried Bludso's BBQ? I ate at the La Brea location and it was delicious, good drinks, too. There's one in Compton but I doubt that most of the SoCal reasonoids would be game for that.........

[Auric Demonocles]

That link trail is way too convoluted. The only good thing about it is that it caused me to see an article about a guy who got arrested for jumping in the shark tank at the NE Aquarium, which is a perfect conversation for the redhead who threatened to push me in the shark tank when I take her to the aquarium on Sunday.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Like a date? Do they have a bar at the aquarium?

[Episiarch]

No. The NE Aquarium sucks monkey balls; it's basically one huge boring-as-fuck tank several stories high. Mystic used to be awesome but kind of sucks now too.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yes, no. We've already done a bar, and there are a lot of them nearby for afterwards.

Neither of us has been since they did a ton of renovations last year, plus I get free tickets through work.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I think I've been there. Is it a large room with ramps circling around and penguins in the middle?

[Auric Demonocles]

That's the one.

[jesse.in.mb]

EDG and I talked about the place. I've been wanting to go. He had tried to go but the streets were crowded.

I never followed up on this thread.

[Los Doyers]

It's really good. Although our best bet is definitely lunch, as they tend to run out of meat later in the day. I recommend the Texas Margarita, if you don't get bourbon.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I tried to get my wife to pick up some for lunch today. She had Jury duty at the Compton Courthouse. It's cash only, and she wasn't comfortable going to an ATM in the area...

[Los Doyers]

Compton is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It's mostly working class Mexicans now, rather than gangbanging nwa niggas. I took a tour of the Compton Courthouse about a year ago. One of the judges there has quite an interesting story about almost being shanked by a cholo during his prosecutor days. He took the piece of Plexiglas used to nearly shank him and had it mounted on a wooden plaque in his office. Hardcore.

[Slammer]

Potential Prez Candidate Doesn't Want Immigrant Kids in His State

I don't want Martin O'Malley in my state (s), either, so the feeling's mutual!

[Hyperion]

I 2nd the motion. In fact, I will trade O'Malley to Gautemala for 3 orphan immigrants. On 2nd thought, they can have him for free, and I'll pay for the ticket.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), a potential 2016 presidential candidate, criticized President Obama's plan to send undocumented children back to their native countries, then reportedly privately pleaded that the White House not "send these kids to Western Maryland."

So the only two options are sending them back to their home countries or sending them to Maryland?

I don't really see the governor's hypocrisy here.

[Andrew S.]

NIMBY-ism. It's very prominent among persons of all political faiths, but it's seemingly more apparent on the left.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"As governor, I had to do what was best for my state. As president, I will do what's best for, uh, the country? Or what screws all the states but mine."

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Also,

Here is the building the was being considered

"No illeagles here"

[Certified Public Asskicker]

*Fears he just outed himself*

[Sudden]

I often wonder with these things if this is the other TEAM purposefully trying to make the TEAM they're ostensibly framing look stupid.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

yes.

[John Thacker]

In this case, everyone's pretty sure that the White House leaked this one in order to embarrass O'Malley. O'Malley believes it as well.

It would be a political problem for O'Malley if the kids were sent to MD to stay. It would be a political problem for Obama if the kids stay in the US. O'Malley criticizing the Prez on the latter while privately rejecting the former ticked off some WH aides.

[PD Scott]

Lt. Patrick McCrory, commander of the state police Westminster barracks, told the Times that he considers the message a hate crime.

"This is definitely a racial, religious, ethnic incident," McCrory said.

No illeagles (sic) here
No undocumented democrats

Is it just me, or is there no religious part to the graffiti? And racial/ethnic only because the aforementioned "illeagles" are from south of the border?

[Suthenboy]

Only healthy eagles allowed?

[grrizzly]

The headline is also delicious.
"Maryland State Police investigates 'No illeagles here' graffiti as a hate crime."

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I thought there had to be a victim for it to qualify as a hate crime....
Hmmm.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I hate the fucking illeagles, man!

[Slammer]

Get out of my kab!

[flye]

Stay out of my quiet bay state!

[flye]

Oops... Maryland not Mass. I retract that poor joke.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You're out of your element here.

[MJGreen]

They've got good crabs, flye.

[Warty]

I remember getting a troll here many years ago who said something like ILLEGAL AIN'T A SICK BIRD. Oh, the memories.

[Warty]

Also, there's no chance that's real.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Oh it is. Someone else has since done some graffiti of their own by covering it up.

Apparently no one is watching this building.

[Warty]

I mean real in the sense that it was done honestly. I'm reminded of the Romney worker who scratched the backwards B in her face.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Agreed. False flag bullshit.

[ant1sthenes]

Our native eagle population is very vulnerable to disease.

[MegaloMonocle]

I don't really see the governor's hypocrisy here.

If you say you want them to stay in the US indefinitely, you don't get to say you don't want them in your neighborhood.

[Paper Wasp]

The hypocrisy is that O'Malley is a bleeding heart with an open checkbook and a cushy welcome mat, ready to write fat welfare, schooling, and Medicaid checks with a ton o' zeroes in them for these kids--until the checkbook he uses might be his own.

I guess that's not really hypocrisy; I guess that's more like "textbook definition of a liberal."

[Mad Scientist]

The latest data indicates that Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate and greater than a 99 percent chance of taking the House in the midterm election this year.

And they still won't repeal Obamacare.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I need to do more pull ups:

First Woman to Reach American Ninja Warrior's Finals

She's five feet tall and weighs 100 pounds...and pretty cute.

[Andrew S.]

She's smoking hot, though I fear she could kill me with her bare hands if she wanted to.

[JEP]

What's wrong with a little excitement in a relationship?

[Auric Demonocles]

That just makes her hotter.

[JEP]

mmmm...bear hands

[MJGreen]

You don't think that's hot? Like, a big, sweaty gymnast throws you out of the obstacle course, lays you on the sidewalk and you think, "Yeah, okay, she's gonna give me mouth-to-mouth", but instead she just starts choking the shit out of you, and the last sensation that you feel before you die is her squeezing your throat so hard that a big, wet, blob of drool drips off her teeth and just, flurp, falls right onto your popped-out eyeball.

[JEP]

+1 Carol/Cheryl

[Sy]

+1 crysTAAAL

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I could do a shitload of pull-ups if I weighed 100 lbs.

[Episiarch]

Time for the South Bronx Parasite Paradise diet!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I have a good worm guy. He works out of Hollywood.

[Episiarch]

"I don't know why you're exercising. It's just sweat that you're gonna have to wash off. Exercising's for dummies and women."

[Sudden]

This. I sometimes see people acting like they're the shit because they can do a bunch of pull ups and think to myself "dude, my back muscles could still out lift you, I just happen to carry an extra 50 pounds of beer/whisky/friedfood sloshing around my belly."

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Makes for a nice calve workout, though.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You know a lot of small women who can do what she did? I don't.

[Sudden]

I didn't watch the whole video. Not saying she's not impressive, just that pull-ups are sometimes a bad metric of overall strength, especially for guys like me with, er, massive bone density.

[jesse.in.mb]

massive bone

Go on...

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Not 'til you win the bet.

[jesse.in.mb]

I think I'd be more worried about that if I lost the bet, no?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I don't know many ninjas.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

She's not a ninja...yet.

[gimmeasammich]

How many ninjas *do* you know? And no, Gecko45 does not count.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

3 and a half. Two of them are Brazilian. Go figure.

[Jesus H. Christ]

That was an amazing athletic performance.

And she is smoking hot.

[Suthenboy]

That was amazing.

[Curtisls87]

Very cool!

[Warty]

Very few women can do an honest pullup. That chick is fucking awesome.

[Brett L]

Yeah. The ring-walking is pretty unbelievable. I am impressed. And not showing my wife. She'll decide that's her next goal and further put my casual fitness routine to shame.

[Warty]

You've convinced her to never ever ever do the cultfit dead fish flopping pullups, right? And not to do the retarded shit that they do on gymnastics rings without having the strength prerequisites? Shoulder surgery is expensive.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Is that the kipping pullup?

[Warty]

*flop flop flop* "Ow! My labrum!"

Yes.

[Auric Demonocles]

What. The. Fuck.

[Brett L]

Yeah, she overdid the kettlebell swings and/or doesn't have the flexibility for the overhead squats she did and strained a muscle. I think the deprogramming is starting to work.

[Auric Demonocles]

I wanted to kill this Crossfit group who did the same trail run as me on Sunday. They were more interested in chanting their stupid "OUR HOUSE" motto and shooting each other with squirtguns than actually running.

We get it, you guys workout. Now stop trying to make sure we know that, and just try to run this race faster than me. It should be easy, I suck at running.

[JEP]

Any movement with the wrong technique is awful. I used to do kipping pull ups quite regularly and never had trouble with them. But, I'm also primarily a weightlifter so that provided a lot of the prerequisite strength that Warty speaks of for almost any movement.

Personal Note - First PR since knee surgery in August: 2 kg snatch PR at 80kg. I'm back baby!
\Bender

[John]

Gymnasts male or female are fucking awesome in general. The shit they do is astounding.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I half agree.

[jesse.in.mb]

That's fine, I'll pick up the other half of agreeing and John's gotten one whole agreement.

On topic (and not male gymnasts!)

Alexei Nemov on the rings in 1996 before he got fat. Warty will appreciate that his neck is almost as thick as his head.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I went to the Barcelona Olympics in '92 and the tickets were by lottery. I got basketball finals (yay dream team) and rhythmic gymnastics. I think i fell asleep about 20 minutes in.

[Obama's Buttplug]

As a former coach of Olympic women gymnasts from around the world, I am not all that impressed.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's a pretty bold claim.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

There's a live-action Super Mario Brothers event?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"A restricted FBI document intoning that driverless cars may be used as lethal weapons has been released"

Next thing you know, they'll be using pilotless airplanes as lethal weapons too.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Next thing you know, they'll be using Mel Gibson as a Lethal Weapon.

(+1 too old for this shit)

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Watched the Prager video you linked to last night.

Interesting take and one most have concluded as well. However, did you read the comments?

As long as people pick 1948 as a starting point and that it means Israel had no right to those lands, you will always have those who side against it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I generally don't read youtube comments. I'll go back and have a look.

[Sudden]

I generally don't read youtube comments

That's a pretty good strategy to avoid a homicidal rage forming a crescendo in your skull.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Then he shouldn't go.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/ph.....roes-ever/

http://mathematigal.com/home/2.....ot-my-hero

Apparently, Richard Feynman was a sexist pig, so feminists don't like him anymore.

[Ted S.]

I'd like to see them try to disobey the laws of physics because those laws were figured out by allegedly sexist men.

[Caleb Turberville]

Einstein was just as sexist as Feynman.

May I add that Einstein was a proud socialist and Feynman was decidedly not a socialist?

[Caleb Turberville]

At least Feynman sacrificed his time and energy to hitchhike across New Mexico to care for his ailing wife, just as he was busy building the bomb.

[Brett L]

Yeah. Feynman in context of having his one true love come down with TB and never really being able to consummate the marriage (I believe they claim they did, but only the once), faithfully writing her love letters and visiting her until she passed, and then adopting a penchant for chasing skirts is not exactly the story they want to tell.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He wrote her love letters long after she passed.

I would probably do the exact same thing in his situation.

[Brett L]

Yes, sorry. I didn't mean to imply he fulfilled his pro forma duty and quit. I think he always loved her first and every other woman, including the ones he married, second. I don't know how anyone can read What Do You Care What Other People Think and see him as some sort of heartless womanizer. He pursued many women, but he was always deeply respectful of pretty much everyone.

[Gene]

feminists don't like him anymore.

They probably don't get quantum electrodynamics either.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Does anyone really? Squiggle this. Squiggle that. Pretty soon it's all squiggles.

[Brett L]

There are probably a hundred people in the world who do. I am not one of them. My brain tried to bash its way out the back of my skull once P-Chem became all quantum theory all the time.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Moore is one of the 3 books I need to recreate civilization, though.

[Warty]

And most importantly, being really good at physics or any other intellectual endeavor is not an excuse for being a reprehensible asshole.

Funny that PZ Meyers should say this.

[Pope Jimbo]

That explains why that Barbie doll said "Math is hard" after spending the night in my kids' toybox with a genuine Feynman action figure.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

That second link is pretty bad. People yelled at me 'cause I'm a girl and they're meanies. ProTip: you don't have to be a girl to be yelled at by your advisor or coworkers.

[Brett L]

Why I was "mean" to one of my junior coworkers today because he wasn't using his brain. He got huffy when I kept simplifying the assignment.
Me: Does the Winform app point at the SQL or SQL Express?
Him: I don't know
Me: Look in the app.config
Him: I still have no way of knowing
Me: Then your assignment is to learn about how connection strings work in .Net and write me a one pager on how you would know.
Him: I know how connection strings work, its just there's all this stuff in the framework. and I couldn't be 100% sure because [lots of excuses]
Me: Honestly, I don't care about any of that. If you know how connection strings work, make them work for both cases

Nothing more annoying than a junior "programmer" who wants to be spoon-fed. He's getting an endless ration of let me google that for you until he starts taking some initiative.
"I will motivate you [Junior Programmer]!"

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Real conversation a few years ago:

Me: You're already running worse BER on A+.
Him: I don't give a fuck about A+! We're not fucking talking about fucking A+. Shut the fuck up about A+.

Rinse and repeat for about 10min til he exhausted his air supply.

Consequences? I knew the guy was an asshole and had less respect for him, but we still worked together.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A restricted FBI document intoning that driverless cars may be used as "lethal weapons" has been released through a public records request.

Ironically that FOIA request was made by Michael Hastings before his death.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The latest data indicates that Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate

I'd love to take that bet on the underdogs at 6-1 odds (not at even money obviously).

Need six, have three in the bag (WV, MT, SD) and the three toss-up states (AR, NC, LA) have polls showing Dems leading with KY as the wild card.

[Slammer]

Hi, ratfucker.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Hey Weigel. Clear up that skin and lose that gut yet, if you can't get taller?

[Obama's Buttplug]

I wonder when the last time it was that he was still able to see his cock.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Never, without a microscope.

[Slammer]

Shoe mirrors.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

magnifying shoe mirrors.

[Brandon]

Wait, is Slammer Weigel?

[jesse.in.mb]

We're all Weigel, even you, Brandon.

[Azathoth!!]

Are we sure PB is Weigel? I thought PB was Shrike. Was Shrike Weigel? Venting after he had to write a libertarianish column to maintain his cover?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So he's David Weigel? Him?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Weigel is as Weigel does - he can't keep his acknowledged writing from matching his comments here.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Weigel didn't invent the term "ratfucker", you idiot. It is a decades old term for a GOP political goon.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Weigel now refers to itself in the 3rd person. Has it cleared up its skin, lost its gut, or gotten taller than my dining room table?

[See Double You]

It is a decades old term

Believable.

for a GOP political goon.

Doubtful.

[Doghouse Reilly]

I know, right? You'd think as much as he posts here, he'd just ask for his old job back.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Make him the new intern. Charge $10/slap in the face as a fundraising initiative.

[Doghouse Reilly]

Taking a page outta Pantera's book, huh?

http://puregrainaudio.com/feat.....cal-images

Apparently the model they used for the Vulgar Display of Power cover art got paid $10 to get hit in the face. He made $300 because it took them 30 tries to get it right.

[Mike M.]

Yes.

By the way, just in case anyone is wondering, the pimply-faced scumsucker lives at 2124 12th St NW Washington, DC 20009, phone number 202-261-2848.

[Brandon]

This seems unnecessary.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You're next, Brandon.

[Mike M.]

I've decided that it has become necessary. A lot of people here have had enough of this lying scumbag, just like his days at the JournoList.

In case you haven't noticed, he has that effect on people.

[Brandon]

Meh. If he gets too aggravating, you can just ignore him.

[Sudden]

It's not Weigel. Just the algorithm (or should I say Al Gore Rhythm) that he's programmed with is trained to note repeated uses of a word and add them to the automatically generated scripts that its programmed to type.

[John Thacker]

I think you have to add IA in the toss-up category, no?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, I saw that new poll this week. 43-43 iirc.

High cred too - NBC Marist.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

8% undecided?

[C. Anacreon]

Please just keep telling your friends on the Left to make the whole election about income inequality. Please please please. Everyone who actually has a job can see through that like grandma's underpants. Rs will get total control of both houses if they hang their hats on that one.

[jesse.in.mb]

The Environmental Defense Fund and Google teamed up to equip StreetView cars with methane detectors and mapped the results.

Boston and NY with aging infrastructures registered much more frequent leaks (~1/mile driven) than did Indianapolis (~1/200 miles driven).

LA is next up. I'll be curious if city utility companies will use this information to improve their infrastructure or if the leaks are cheaper than maintenance.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Are we talking naturally occurring methane, or gas leaks?

As evidenced by that building in New York a few months ago, gas leaks can be very expensive...

[Sudden]

To be fair, most of the L.A. methane was emitted by me the day after shabu shabu.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What was it? The exotic mushrooms? I didn't really notice anything...

[Sudden]

It could be the result of the many other things I ate and drank that day as well.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Eating 2 lunches will do that to you.

I hade a beef shortrib panino with swiss and horseradish for lunch today. This evening is going to be.... aromatic....

[NotAnotherSkippy]

I don't get shabu shabu. Yakitori hai! Sukiyaki mo. Shabu shabu was just meh. Still haven't tried the raamen.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I have a really good yakitori place. $3 per stick, and there's more than a 1/2 pound of thigh meat on each. Best sauce ever. I think it's loaded with mirin.

[Suthenboy]

"The latest data indicates that Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate and greater than a 99 percent chance of taking the House in the midterm election this year."

I have no doubt that the party of stupid will squander their opportunity to do anything meaningful if this comes to pass, but I am still keeping my fingers crossed. It will be delicious watching Chocolate Jesus squirm. Didn't he say that if that happens it will unbearable for him?

Also, to my fellow Louisianians, will you please fire Mary Landrieu already?

[gaijin]

Syria's Bashar al Assad was today sworn in for his third seven-year term, vowing to defeat terrorist groups like ISIS.

So, we're on his side now?

[Sudden]

No, Obama has altered the Bushism.

"You're either with us or against ISIS"

[Seamus]

Ever since we started backing Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq, we were effectively on the side of the Iranian ayatollahs, which meant indirectly on Bashar's side as well.

[pmains]

No. [Wheels out blackboard.] Assad is secretly in cahoots with ISIS. Assad is also allied Iran. Iran is supporting Nouri al-Maliki in his fight against ISIS. ISIS is fighting the Syrian Rebel Alliance, which is in bed with the local al Qaeda affiliate. Al Qaeda used to support ISIS, but now opposes them. Of course, al Qaeda is also working with Iran, which opposes ISIS and supports Syria. As you can see from the chart, each of these groups is on both sides of the larger conflicts, which makes it all the more important that we do something.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, are we with the People's Front of Judea, then?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Wa Po: Sarah Palin is right about impeaching President Obama
..."Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president," Palin wrote. "His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.'?"

But Palin, at least, has the courage to follow her conviction through to its logical conclusion. Boehner doesn't.

[Palin's Buttplug]

So you're another fan of the Klondike Kardashian?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Hey Weigel. Lose that acne and gut yet? Get any taller?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Now you have me reading his comments in the voice of the kid in The Simpsons who has all those drive-in and restaurant jobs.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...and a unit that's only 8% the size of normal ones.....

[Corning]

She is better (less worse) then Hilary and Warren.

Why do left wing moon bats like you have such rage filled conniption fits over women conservative politicians?

Hell she is not even really a politician any more...more of a guest host for reality TV.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Illegal Alien Minors Spreading TB, Ebola, Dengue, Swine Flu says wingnut Georgia Rep Phil Gingrey.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/b.....swine-flu/

KIDDIE EBOLA! RUN FER YER LIVES!

[Jerry on the sea]

Korwin-Mikke on minimum wage laws: young people are being treated like negroes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMcAe2Q71Bs

[Slammer]

THANTIFAXATH - Where I end and the hemlock begins

Ontario post-Black Metal

[jesse.in.mb]

"Life with Archie" the version of Archie Comics set in their adult lives to end, with a bang.

Freckle-faced Archie will meet his demise when he intervenes in an assassination attempt on senator Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character, who's pushing for more gun control in Riverdale. Archie's death, which was first announced in April, will mark the conclusion of the "Life with Archie" series.

As long as they aren't trying to assassinate Colby Keller we won't have an issue.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first openly gay character

Jughead wears a crown to school ever day. Just sayin'.

[waffles]

As was the style at the time.

[Ted S.]

Every male monarch on the planet is gay?

[Slammer]

Probably.

[Mad Scientist]

That would explain Dr. Girlfriend's voice...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The editor came to speak at my wife's school. Weird chick.

You have to be to kill of fucking ARCHIE. It's not Marvel or DC where heroes lay their lives on the line.

The should do one where Reggie is raping Veronica only to be killed by her. Or Betty who went in thinking she could crash it to make it a threesome. Or if you prefer, Archie - for the same reason.

[Slammer]

+1 Tiajuana Bible

[adifferentken]

Well, he did team up with the Punisher once.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....e_Punisher

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not only that. He's very un-PC with his addiction to hamburgers. Surprised Michelle hasn't asked for that to change.

[Episiarch]

I see that Archie has come a long way from the days of Jughead cutting ping pong balls in half and drawing pupils on them so he can sleep in class.

Politicization ruins everything. People who politicize shit are fucking scum.

[John]

No shit. It is like doing a Happy Days reunion special where everyone dies in a suicide bombing at Arnolds.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I would SO watch that.

[Episiarch]

"No Fonzie! Don't hit the jukebo-KABOOOOOOOM"

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Chuck at least got his 72 virgins, after mysteriously disappearing to the mid east after season 1.

[Pro Libertate]

Chuck didn't disappear. He was implied.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm in the office listening to my sister talk to a parent about a biting incident and I'm smirking like an idiot reading these comments.

Nice.

[gaijin]

Does anybody still read Archie Comics?

[Slammer]

They still sell like crazy.

[Sudden]

Top markets for Archie comics in 2014:

1. West Hollywood
2. The Castro
3. Williamsburg

[gaijin]

Interesting...one of those three seems not like the others

[Sudden]

The reference was to the area of Brooklyn loaded with hipsters, not VA.

[Ted S.]

Archie favors gun control? Fucking bastard. (I presume this is the hypothetical future version of Archie Comics.)

[Cytotoxic]

Then he gets what he deserves.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Congrats for getting me to search for who that is.

[jesse.in.mb]

You should've known better.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The name seemed so benign.

[jesse.in.mb]

Did you skip straight to an image search?

[Fist of Etiquette]

This browser search defaults to Yahoo for some reason I never looked into or changed, so there were some images. They were beefcake but not inappropriate as I recall. I got from the context quickly his likely profession but I didn't linger.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

Potential Prez Candidate Doesn't Want Immigrant Kids in His State

What is it about immigration that causes so many libertarians to go full prog?

[PapayaSF]

Cytotoxic will be happy that the government didn't restrict this guy's freedom of movement. An illegal immigrant who was released by U.S. authorities with a Notice to Appear has been arrested for the alleged murder of a woman and kidnapping of children on U.S. soil. The alleged crimes occurred after the man was released.

[Jordan]

We should make it illegal to move to a different state too, since plenty of people commit murder after changing states.

[PapayaSF]

That's just silly. States are not countries and cannot control immigration from other states, nor should they. But it's fundamental that countries protect themselves from undesirable people who want to enter.

[Cytotoxic]

But it's fundamental that countries protect themselves from undesirable people who want to enter.

Which is why we should open the borders. You won't find the bad guys if you treat everyone like bad guys.

[PapayaSF]

Well, that's brilliant. It's like saying you shouldn't lock your car or your house, because you won't find thieves if you treat everyone like a thief.

[Cytotoxic]

The border is supposed to be a selective filter, not a barrier. Except to you. You're supposed to pretend that you're only against illegal immigration. Don't drop the mask so soon.

[Episiarch]

As stupid as Cytotoxic is about, well, everything, do you actually think one isolated case proves some sort of point? Are you enjoying being exactly the same as a moron who goes "it's super hot today! Global warming!" Does that feel good?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Shhh! Don't wreck the narrative!

[jesse.in.mb]

Epi defending Cytotoxic!

*Faints*

[Sudden]

I've called the National Weather Service to ask if hell has frozen over.

Predictably, I'm on hold. Something about union mandated breaks.

[Episiarch]

You might want to reread my first clause there, jesse.

[jesse.in.mb]

I did, and it's not like I would've needed that there for me to know how you feel about him. This is why it warranted the *Faints*

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Man of the people regardless of retardation.

[Cytotoxic]

A thrill be going up my leg.

[Corning]

As stupid as Cytotoxic is about, well, everything

What PapayaSF is saying about Cytotoxic makes me think Cytotoxic is right about immigration.

[PapayaSF]

Seriously? You agree with the statement "Which is why we should open the borders. You won't find the bad guys if you treat everyone like bad guys"?

[Cytotoxic]

The NSA will never find the bad guy-related stuff in the mountains of data they are dragnetting. Same principle applies here. Otherwise, the tens of billions we're spending on enforcement would actually be helping.

[PapayaSF]

I don't think you grasp how borders are supposed to work. You can't let millions of people into the country and then decide if they should stay. You don't let everyone into the nightclub and then check to see if they are old enough to drink. And you fail to acknowledge how terrible we are at actually deporting dangerous and undesirable immigrants, the huge costs involved, and the basic economic fact that importing low-end labor drives down the wages of low-end laborers.

[PapayaSF]

It's not that "isolated," Epi. Illegals commit lots of crimes. How many links do you want?

Report: U.S. released thousands of immigrant felons last year

S.F. family's murderer killed before, FBI was told

The [three] killings on June 22, 2008, gained national attention after The Chronicle reported that city juvenile-justice officials, relying on San Francisco's sanctuary-city policy, had twice shielded Ramos, a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador, from possible deportation after he committed a gang-related assault and an attempted robbery as a minor.

We are now letting in "children" with gang tattoos.

Yes, I know there will always be bad apples in any group, but the point is that we are no longer even making much of an attempt to keep them out, or deport them when they are discovered.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh no! Not TATTOOS!

Too bad for you there's still no data to corroborate a link between immigration-legal or otherwise-and crime. None, you stupid links notwithstanding. This is all retarded hysteria.

[PapayaSF]

Here you go.

[Cytotoxic]

Why don't you link to Alternet next time?

Here's a link to a non-retarded site:
http://reason.com/archives/201.....han-native

[PapayaSF]

Ah, the old ad hominem argument. Yeah, negative evidence about immigration is likely to be found on sites that oppose illegal immigration. Your evidence comes from people who are ideologically in favor of unlimited immigration. Funny how that works.

Saying "less criminal than average" is damning with faint praise. Why should we import any criminals at all? And what's the "average"? If you take blacks out the stats, immigrants commit more crimes than the remainder of citizens. I'd like a higher standard than that.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Hmmm, the numbers aren't that great.

shows that 36,007 immigrants in the U.S. illegally who were convicted of crimes were freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, including those who had multiple convictions. Those numbers include 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 9,187 dangerous drug convictions, 16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions and more.

I don't know what a dangerous drug conviction is and they don't break out drunk vs. drugged driving.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students

The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri.

Lesson plans and class materials obtained by The Huffington Post make the course's message clear: The minimum wage hurts workers and slows economic growth. Low taxes and less regulation allow people to prosper. Public assistance harms the poor. Government, in short, is the enemy of liberty.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

That's the teachers' union's job.

[Mad Scientist]

So HuffPo disagrees with indoctrinating impressionable kids? Who would have guessed?

[Bobarian]

The HuffPo disagrees with IMPROPERLY indoctrinating impressionable kids.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

They disagree with having competition in that arena.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Many students reported enjoying the course, according to Davis, and he told HuffPost that he liked teaching it. "You see students who are C or D level ... who are so bright and the traditional school system isn't working for them," Davis said, describing the program's appeal. "The idea that your actions and creativity could make you money right out of high school was a very sophisticated idea [for them] to latch onto."

Kids are enjoying a class? What is wrong with it? OMG, THE FUCKING KOCH BROTHERS!!11!!

[John]

Buying their way into the minds of students.

Other people call that advocacy. Orwellian is too weak and too over used of a word for these people. We need a new one.

[Bam!]

Just call it "common core" and no one will challenge you.

[Sudden]

So it's pretty much an actual macroeconomics course?

Seriously, the econ courses at the high school level are atrocious. Mine, in senior year of HS, was a mishmash of limited micro, limited macro, how to write a fucking check, and the stock market game. And this was only one semester, ergo, no fucking information whatsoever imparted.

While I usually attribute such failures to incompetence, this is the one that I continue to believe is by design.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

No econ or personal finance was taught in my high school.

[Warty]

Low taxes and less regulation allow people to prosper. Public assistance harms the poor. Government, in short, is the enemy of liberty.

This is controversial?

[John]

Yes Warty, so controversial that it can't even be uttered in the presence of children.

This is how the retards at HUFFPO actually think.

[C. Anacreon]

And Huffpo also apparently thinks that the idea of free markets is "radical."

[John]

And remember, if there was a program to teach high school kids the fun and excitement of cross dressing and being a tranny hooker, Huffpo would think it was great. But a program to teach economic illiteracy is just beyond the pale.

[Matrix]

Teaching economic illiteracy is par for the course in high school. Paul Krugman writes their text books.

[John]

Yes.

[John]

Economic literacy. I mean.

[Jesus H. Christ]

yeah, we know what you meant...

[See Double You]

Teaching children to think this way is indoctrination.

Teaching children to think our way is education.

[Brandon]

*Ahem*

http://reason.com/blog/2014/07.....nt_4640369

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You win this time!

[OldMexican]

Lesson plans and class materials obtained by The Huffington Post[...]

I'm sure many Bothans died to get that information.

[...] make the course's message clear: The minimum wage hurts workers and slows economic growth. Low taxes and less regulation allow people to prosper. Public assistance harms the poor. Government, in short, is the enemy of liberty.

How horrible. Imagine that, sound economics! We can't tolerate this!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

SNL spoofed Palin making Fey a star. Yet, they won't touch Reid's obsession with the Koch brothers. I see potential with Reid.

[Ted S.]

They know their audience.

[John]

They won't satirize the Chocolate Nixon. It is not like they care about being funny anymore.

[PD Scott]

They did have Jay Pharaoh portray him as exhausted and oxygen starved after the Denver debate.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Saturday Night Live viewers all knew Sarah Palin. Few know who the hell Harry Reid is.

[Palin's Buttplug]

SNL had Amy Poehler spoof Hillary Clinton.

"Boner-shrinker", "shrew" and "harpie" were thrown at her in the same skit with Sarah Palin (Fey).

It was their best Fey/Poehler skit.

[GILMORE]

"Republicans have an 86 percent chance of taking the Senate and greater than a 99 percent chance of taking the House in the midterm election this year"

...Which, once you factor in 'GOP Stupidity', means a 1 in 3 chance of any positive outcome at all.

[John]

http://news.nationalpost.com/2.....ederated=1

Canadian Progs find out mass transit is great, as long as someone else is the one using it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

In Quebec there's the added problem of transit workers being rude and anti-English.

[Homple]

"I used to be a big supporter of the streetcar until I started riding it every day"....

A nice part of my day, that quote.

[ant1sthenes]

You know who else wanted to put other people on mass transit?

[Brandon]

Moonbeam?

[The Late P Brooks]

The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers.

SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

[The DerpRider]

40 year old makes Saints Cheerleading Team. Crazy, crazy eyes.

[John]

It is not the eyes. It is the bad makeup and cosmetic work. She does have a hell of a body though.

[Bobarian]

WRONG! The bad make-up and slight cosmetic work may accentuate the eyes, but I see the gates of R'lyeh when I blow up the picture. Chthulu is waving at me from the left one.

[Brett L]

Watch for lots of camera angles filming her from the back/side and then cutting away at the turn next season.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

In the interest of fairness, the age of the cheerleaders should closely match the age of the players.

[Bobarian]

That would make her the Mort Andersen of cheerleading.

[C. Anacreon]

I know a lot of women in their 40s who look a lot better and a lot younger than she does. Those eyes make her look more like she's in her 50s. Maybe it's NOLA to blame.

[Brandon]

That's a haaaaarrrrrd 40.

[Brett L]

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

[PD Scott]

Not sure if this was discussed here: late in June, some thieves stole a bunch of guns out of an unmarked Atlanta police car. The Mayor of Atlanta is against this.

Mayor Kasim Reed wants to know how law enforcement guns were stolen right out of a police vehicle.
Reed says he knew nothing about the incident that sources indicate happened in late June.
According to two sources familiar with the incident, thieves broke into an unmarked police vehicle used by an officer assigned to a special detail. The officer is trained to handle high-powered weapons. Multiple guns, including long guns were stolen, according to sources.
City officials have been tight-lipped about the incident. The mayor says he is troubled that police guns have gotten into the wrong hands. Reed says there must be a better way to secure weapons inside a vehicle.
Reed says he will have a conversation with his chief, George Turner, to find out how police brass can keep firearm theft from happening again.

[PD Scott]

Oh, and Mayor Reid says he didn't learn about it until the reporter asked him. Does that make him Presidential material?

[PD Scott]

Mayor Reed, not Reid.

[John]

What are the chances some guys just happened to walk by and see the guns and stole them out of a police car on a whim?

I can tell the mayor how this happened. It is called an inside job. Those guns were left there to be stolen and the thieves were tipped off to when they were going to be there and some cop or cops is now spiting in the proceeds of them being fenced.

[Mad Scientist]

Yep. If they want to catch the thief, they'll start looking in the house of the cop who drove that car.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

If they were using a Santa Cruz mount (which most agencies use), you need a key to get them. Or, in the case of an electronic mount, you need power to the ignition.

[John]

Assuming they were in the mount and someone didn't conveniently forget to put them there.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Unpossible. That would be negligent on the part of the officers.

[PD Scott]

It's possible the thieves made the car as an unmarked police car and decided to hit it when the officer was well away from it. You'd think they'd have car alarms or something, though.

But inside job wouldn't surprise me.

[Bobarian]

Cops are notoriously bad about locking up their cruisers or the guns in the mounts when they're 'rolling'.Someone probably caught em taking lunch or otherwise fucking off.

[PD Scott]

In other local news: Euharlee police officer who killed boy holding Wii controller (because she thought it was a gun) will not face charges.

A Euharlee police officer will not face charges in the fatal shooting of a teen in February.
A Bartow County grand jury returned a "no bill" on the proposed indictment against Nancy Beth Gatny.
Euharlee police say 17-year-old Christopher Roupe was pointing a gun at their officer on Feb. 14 when they knocked on the door to serve a probation warrant for the teen's father. But Roupes' attorney says family members told him the teen was holding a Nintendo Wii controller.
The District Attorney's Office for the Cherokee Judicial Circuit presented a proposed indictment charging Gatny with involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct, however the grand jury did not find sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
"Because the Grand Jury has determined that the actions of Officer Gatny did not rise to the level of a criminal offense, this concludes the involvement of the District Attorney's Office in this matter," District Attorney Rosemary Greene said.

[John]

Fuck that jury. You don't fucking shoot someone just because they happen to be holding something. Stupid cowardly bitch.

[Whahappan?]

John, as a lawyer, indeed a former prosecutor, you know the prosecutor has almost complete control over the Grand Jury process. If the prosecutor didn't want the cop indicted, the cop wasn't going to get indicted.

[Suthenboy]

Yesterday I saw a black boy riding a bicycle in Alexandria carrying a pellet rifle. That kid must be suicidal.

[Los Doyers]

You in NoVa also? If so, why weren't you drinking with me and Sloopy last week?

[Virginian]

Ow, my balls.

[Pope Jimbo]

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ? The Nutter administration has lost in its legal battle to tax lap dances performed in the back rooms of strip clubs.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.c.....rip-clubs/

Huh, I would have thought the Nutter administration would have been way more pro-lapdance than it apparently is.

[Warty]

I once ate a cheesesteak and drank $3 Yuenglings in a filthy Philiadelphia strip club. Later that club got shut down after some guy got murdered there. Good times.

[John]

Skanky strip joints have their charms. The girls are always a lot friendlier and more interesting and fucked up than the ones at the expensive places.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The best lunch buffet in LA was at a strip club. IDK if it is still around.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Apparently, it is still around.

[Warty]

Looking for a glamorous job? Ever dream of living in Los Angeles? Bare Elegance Gentlemen's Club is hiring girls ages 18 to 25 years old as exotic dancers. If selected, you can start right away!

It's poetry.

[PapayaSF]

Cripes, 26 is considered too old?

[Auric Demonocles]

You're damn right it is. I don't want to be looking at strippers who are too old to be on their parents' insurance.

[Warty]

When you have an endless pool of failed actresses, sure.

[Mad Scientist]

Bring us some fresh wine! The freshest you've got - this year! No more of this old stuff.

[gimmeasammich]

Bring us some fresh wine! The freshest you've got - this year! No more of this old stuff.

"Waiter! There are SNAILS on her plate."

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Hmmm, they have a separate website for recruiting dancers.

"Airfare and a safe comfortable place to stay can be arranged."

I bet.

[jesse.in.mb]

I made the mistake of making eye-contact with a stripper once. After that she was staring at me any time I looked at her while she went around the room giving lap-dances.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That must have been pretty scary for you. Did her vagina have teeth?

[See Double You]

Wait, jesse, why were you at a female strip club? 😉

[Brett L]

You didn't know? Many of teh gheyz still love the titties.

[jesse.in.mb]

It was for a younger coworker's 18th birthday. Someone got him a stripper who gave him a blowjob gratis because she was a mensch. We weren't at a club. I think the only club I've been in with lady dancers was when I went to Hamburger Mary's in Long Beach on Lesbian Night. The stripper standing by our table had gnarly implant scars and I felt bad for her.

Pl?ya: I don't know. I've yet to go spelunking in any lady-caves.

[See Double You]

Did she try giving you a lap dance, too?

I'd have to have told her to bugger off, being married and all.

[jesse.in.mb]

I honestly don't remember. I was sort of outside the main circle of people (guys and girls) who were getting lap dances, sitting on the stairs, which put me a little higher than everyone else and at eye level with her. It was a little soul crushing to watch her grinding and gyrating and be totally disconnected from what she was doing and fixated on me.

[Libertarian]

"I'd have to have told her to bugger off, being married and all."

WHAT?!?!? That counts now?!?!?

[Bobarian]

His wife must be watching him type.

[GILMORE]

This was a thing in the "midtown" financial sector in NYC in the 1990s/early 2000s

You would go to the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet @ Flashdancers for lunch. $20 if i remember.

I think i went once and hated it.

[Los Doyers]

You went once? This is the comment circle of truth, GILMORE.

[Lady Bertrum]

The high-end strippers were at Scores.

Not that I'd know anything about that.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That sounds familiar. Is that were Jean-Claude Van Damme got his ass kicked by a bouncer?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

*where

[Trouser-Pod]

Good times

Paging SF! I sense a great, new chapter just waiting to be written.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sure this has been posted before since it's two days old, but in case it hasnt:

Book News: Famed Philosopher Accused Of Plagiarizing White Separatist Journal

Marxist philosopher Slavoj ?i?ek ? who is one of the world's most prominent living public intellectuals ? has been accused of plagiarizing from the white separatist magazine American Renaissance. (The magazine calls itself a "race realist" publication, while the Southern Poverty Law Center calls it a hub for "proponents of eugenics and blatant anti-black racists.")

[GILMORE]

" one of the world's most prominent living public intellectuals"

...and therefore completely unknown to anyone who isn't a douchebag...

[See Double You]

What does that even mean? "Most prominent" to whom?

No to mention that the guy is a Marxist. I wonder if he thinks all machines contain the congealed labor of a century of workers.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

"Most prominent" to whom?

People who give a shit about continental philosophy -- retards and Euros.

[See Double You]

Leave it to NPR to characterize him as world-renowned.

[jesse.in.mb]

I think the only reason I'd heard of him was someone making fun of him in the comments here.

[Mad Scientist]

They told their proggie audience he was world-renowned, so now they know he's world renowned. It's consensus.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

Ya'll have done an admirable job avoiding the assholes who won't shut up about Zizek and Derrida.

[See Double You]

I live in prog town and I haven't heard of either of those two.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

Here's some representative gibberish from the comments on the Slate article I linked below.

I can't believe how much marxist philosophy hate is in this comments section. Your comment in particular has me wanting to at least lodge a counterpoint so you scientific realists don't simply steamroll over anyone with intellectual curiosity for linguistic philosophy.Here's a passage that I like: "to mean is automatically not to be; as soon as there is meaning, there is difference: this inherent lag in signification is differance."

You may not understand the point of this passage (I'm not insulting your intelligence, it just sounds like you don't read a lot of poststructuralist theory), but it is neither incomprehensible or irrefutable-by-virtue-of-vagueness. ....

But this does not mean that Derrida made his name off of being obscure. He was *also* obscure, but he did this primarily as a performative act to show people how to think outside of platnoic, logocentric vocabularies. If he wrote clearly and methodically (like a mathematician), he would have failed before he began, and someone else would have had to accomplish this project.

These are not easy passages or concepts, but reading them and attempting to understand them has been the most rewarding intellectual experience of my life, and I would urge you to give them a little bit more credit

[See Double You]

I'm curious whether post-structuralists have policy preferences that don't involve written law or legislation, given the fluid nature of meaning and the way it is proscribed by words.

Yet somehow I bet they support traditional progressive-flavored statutes and regulations anyway.

[jesse.in.mb]

A friend of mine in college had his head way up Derrida's ass. I may haven not been paying close enough attention if he talked about Zizek.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

http://www.unz.com/isteve/slav.....-critique/

Slavoj ?i?ek is perhaps the highest-grossing Marxist continental philosopher.

But there's always been the suspicion that the purported Communist is a bit of a prankster and put-on artist.

Here's the Slovenian critical theorist pointing and sputtering at Kevin MacDonald's book The Culture of Critique. Still, a reader inclined toward deconstructionism might note that ?i?ek summarizes MacDonald's controversial argument quite lucidly. In fact, the superstar professor achieves a higher degree of clarity while expounding MacDonald's message than in any other passage I've read by ?i?ek:

LOL at this whole thing

[GILMORE]

"the highest-grossing Marxist"

Makes total sense.

But then, does the "Estate of Che Guevara" collect royalties on his image?

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

A bunch of 5 dollar words imparting a penny's worth of informaton.

[Suthenboy]

"Marxist philosopher Slavoj ?i?ek ? who is one of the world's most prominent living public intellectuals ?"

Who?

Marxism is not a philosophy. It is a mishmash of falsehoods, fallacies, justifications for theft and wishful thinking. Therefore this Slavoj dude is not an intellectual. Funny how the left does that. If you learn the narrative and repeat it often enough you get called 'an intellectual'.

[JEP]

I took a Sci-Fi and Fantasy class in college and Zizek was one of the authors for some assigned reading. He's associated with a lot of post-modern analysis and film theory stuff.

I started the assigned reading and thought there was something fishy so I did some googling on Zizek and found out his political affiliations.

[Sidd Finch v2.01]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bro.....sance.html

Here's an example of a classic ?i?ek passage (which is itself quite heavily indebted to Derrida):

Word is murder of a thing, not only in the elementary sense of implying its absence?by naming a thing, we treat it as absent, as dead, although it is still present?but above all in the sense of its radical dissection: the word 'quarters' the thing, it tears it out of the embedment in its concrete context, it treats its component parts as entities with an autonomous existence: we speak about color, form, shape, etc., as if they possessed self-sufficient being.

[JEP]

This was one of the passages we had to read. It's tied to Lacan's idea of "The Real." Freud had his several stages of psychological development: oral, anal, etc. Lacan said, from my understanding, that birth is as close to The Real(reality) as humans ever get and developing as a human means greater separation from The Real. The use of language is a big separation from the real precisely because it's limits ideas. Once defined, a thing is no longer fluid and if it changes, then it's no longer that original thing. So language is a collection of terms referencing dead things.

Lacan also said that as adults, we've created a world of simulations. We use language, etc. Instead of interacting with what is real, we interact by proxy. So when the real suddenly emerges in our lives, it's horrifying - hence the film theory stuff.

All this can also be tied into Beaudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, which is what the movie The Matrix was based on.

Most of it is re-hashing Plato's theory of forms with a post-modern/pyschological twist.

[Suthenboy]

"?i?ek typically writes in the tradition of Derrida, Foucault, and other icons of Critical Theory, who object to clear, identifiable theses on philosophical grounds (long story)."

A fancy way of saying that they are bullshit artists.

[ant1sthenes]

Hey, all those asshole progs that over-politicize everything are actually libertarians.

What is this I don't even.

[Suthenboy]

"What makes LIBERTARIANISM a dogma is the inability or unwillingness of those who espouse it to accept that some people might choose, for morally legitimate reasons, to dissent from it. On a range of issues, LIBERALS seem not only increasingly incapable of comprehending how or why someone would affirm a more traditional vision of the human good, but inclined to relegate dissenters to the category of moral monsters who deserve to be excommunicated from civilized life ? and sometimes coerced into compliance by the government."

Damon seems confused.

[See Double You]

I thought Reason covered this.

The guy conflates libertarians with liberals and vice versa.

[Suthenboy]

I missed it.

[Sevo]

You didn't miss much.

[OldMexican]

They're going to steal our word just like they stole "liberal" back in the 20's. Trust me on this.

[Libertarian]

"Libertarian" has been getting watered down for several years. Pretty soon it will be meaningless. Wonder what will take its place?

[Los Doyers]

Ooohhhh baby. HONY's latest pic showcases the thoughts of an nypd traffic cop. I'll admit, it wasn't at all what I expected him to say. He's still a shitpile, though.
http://goo.gl/mYvxn6

[Freddie Sykes]

RE: Senate Democrats failed to secure enough votes to open debate on a bill that would have reversed the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision.

You have accepted the media's characterization of the vote. Voting for cloture is a vote to limit debate; voting against cloture means that the minority wishes to have an extended, open ended debate perhaps even with the right to offer amendments to the bill. Invoking a cloture vote before any debate is the method the majority uses to freeze out minority input.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

SALONDOTCOM's twitter account has been suspended. That's some bullshit!

[Brandon]

Is that the parody one? Was Salon mad that it got more traffic than their oh-so-earnest "legitimate" account?

[Andrew S.]

Yeah, that's the parody one. I can only guess that Salon was mad that their headlines were actually more believable and less idiotic than Salon's own real headlines.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

7-year old Canadian raises about $50,000 for a friend to have surgery (which is "only available in New Jersey").

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rgery.html

[Sevo]

..."(which is "only available in New Jersey")."

And after you read that, no explanation is required.

[PapayaSF]

But I thought Canada had better health care than we do...?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Americans Say Jews Are the Coolest

"Oh, how times have changed: In a new survey, respondents reported feeling more warmly toward the chosen people than those of any other faith....

"There could be a few factors at play. There's generalized cultural cache, which is a little hard to pin down, but from doting articles about deli food in The New York Times to Adam Sandler's famous ode to Hanukkah, staples of Jewish culture have become ubiquitous and adored.

"But Jewish cool is probably more complex than think pieces and schticks. It's worth noting that white evangelicals rated the faith more highly than respondents from other religions..."

http://www.theatlantic.com/nat.....st/374530/

What I Like About Jews -

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

[Libertarian]

"What I Like About Jews -"

Wasn't this a song by the Romantics?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

A parody of same.

[Stormy Dragon]

And all the goyim say I'm pretty fly for rabbi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93OlHZcNsM

[OldMexican]

Syria's Bashar al Assad was today sworn in for his third seven-year term, vowing to defeat terrorist groups like ISIS.

But... we're arming ISIS in Syria so we can bomb them in Iraq! What is Assad' problem with them, anyway?

[Hyperion]

Thanks, I just threw up.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And people say I'm sick.

[jesse.in.mb]

We do. Though only infrequently to your face.

[Brett L]

She was complaining to me about a month ago that if you aren't new, the trainers don't watch you. So the whole point of going to a group fitness class (having someone call you out when your form goes at the end of high intensity training) is lost. I definitely see how that can happen. I told her to email the owner, who was pretty damn gung ho about that -- at least at orientation.

[jesse.in.mb]

Probably not. In college I had long blond hair and a goatee or short brown hair and no facial hair.

I start looking fairly boyish when clean-shaven.

[Brandon]

Did anyone else read that as "fatly boyish?"

[jesse.in.mb]

Fatly boyish is as good a description as any. This picture was within a year or two of the stripper.

I'm the pudgy white dude in the light blue shirt. I was at least 45 pounds heavier than I am now.