Toledo's Water Is Poisoned Because of Libertarians or Something, U.S. Scolds Israel, New Evidence Suggests Texas Executed an Innocent Man: A.M. Links

EconPop explains the free market message of The LEGO Movie.

• 

  The LEGO Movie / Youtube

  It's a state of emergency in Toledo, Ohio, after government officials determined that the water supply was poisoned. Thank goodness we don't live in a libertarian utopia, writes Americans Against the Tea Party.

• U.S. State Department chided Israel for shelling U.N. school housing Palestinian refugees.
• Civilian drone use is largely unregulated—but hungry bureaucrats may be ready to sink their fangs into the issue.
• New evidence suggests that Cameron Todd Willingham was innocent of the crimes for which he was executed in 2004.
• EconPop explains the free market message of The LEGO Movie.

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Comments

[Lord Humungus]

Steamy Windows: 3-in-5 Americans Had Sex in a Car, Survey Says

The survey found that 59 percent said they had sexual relations in a car, whether behind the wheel or in the back seat. When asked why? 31 percent responded that, "it wasn't planned, it just happened." Another 26 percent said they intentionally "wanted to do something a little bit risky," while 22 percent said "it had to be the car (because they) couldn't have sex at home." But the car of choice may change soon. General Motors has discontinued the roomy Pontiac which was preferred by 11 percent of lovers.

[Ted S.]

Only 59 percent?

[Bobarian]

According to good porn, you have the sex ON the car, not IN it.

But to the 'only 59%', I think the lack of room in most cars now days is a deterent. How much of our population is considered obese?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Feature: 'Comes with cum stained bucket seats..."

[UnCivilServant]

I'd rather not have pre-stained seats when I buy a car.

[Matrix]

When I was a teenager, my car was probably where I did the deed most often.

[Free Society]

When I was a teenager, I got to have sex with teenage girls. Fresh and firm. Those were the days...

[The Last American Hero]

It was a very good year

/Sinatra

[Zserve90]

Sounds like some serious business to me dude.

http://www.TotalAnon.tk

[Lord Humungus]

G-20 Revolt? France Gets "Positive Reception" To Challenge US Bank Fines

France has gathered support to challenge US regulators imposing heavy penalties on foreign banks at a G20 meeting of world leaders later this year after the record $8.9bn fine levied on BNP Paribas last month.

Berlin, London and Rome have backed Paris in its push to have its concerns about so-called US extraterritoriality discussed when leaders of the world's top 20 economies meet in Brisbane in Australia in November, according to French and other European officials.

[UnCivilServant]

Don't the French realize that they're just Vassals and should do as commanded?

[Ted S.]

They have some Gaul to resist.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

To be Frank, I'm not all that impressed.

[Bobarian]

Hey, don't get froggy there, Kid Charlemagne

[Rich]

Nice.

[Libertarian]

Neice

[Slammer]

Vichy vhat youre doing zere

[UnCivilServant]

You might almost call it a collaborative effort. I'm afraid I must resist the temptation though.

[Ted S.]

Can we have a Lille decorum here instead of bad puns?

[Libertarian]

But dis is d day for it!

[Rasilio]

I'm not sure Eiffel I can handle any more of these Puns

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's all pretty Nice to me.

[Redacted]

If these puns continue I'm going Toulouse my temper.

[robc]

What would Charles Martel do?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Smite someone with an axe?

[Bam!]

Call them a "tax" instead of a "penalty" and France will go along with it.

[Ted S.]

Remember when IKEA was found to have horse meat in its meatballs? What do you make of this?

A Swedish woman picked up more than she bargained for when she discovered a pile of unattended Ikea bags in her local church.

Instead of opening the bags to find a treasure trove of affordably priced flat-pack furniture, Kicki Karl?n was instead greeted with the skulls and bones of nearly 80 people.

According to the Kl?ckeberga church, the bones had been stored in the bags and covered with tarpaulin since 2009 after they were dug up during a renovation of the church that saw the addition of a wheelchair ramp.

[Rich]

they were dug up during a renovation of the church that saw the addition of a wheelchair ramp.

Fucking SDA!

[UnCivilServant]

Darnit, you mean Ikea didn't kill them?

[Bee Tagger]

Let me guess, it's going to take an allen wrench to put those skeletons together.

[UnCivilServant]

And the two you have are too small or too big.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Expedit Shelf

[BakedPenguin]

You're going to be missing a few connecting bones.

[The DerpRider]

Did they turn out to be the orphans of unwed Catholics?

[VG Zaytsev]

Damn Swedish shame culture,

[bdhr]

New version of fascr (sometimes called "Firefox reasonable", though it's a completely separate project) out today. See the homepage to see what's new (the stuff labelled "new in 0.5.00").

Portions are not well tested / experimental so it should be considered alpha.

[Rhywun]

Hey bdhr,

Are you considering adding a feature to keep track of my recent posts? That would probably get me back on Firefox because Chrome is pig-slow lately - slower than Firefox.

[bdhr]

What do you mean?

[Rhywun]

See Reasonable and do what it does - license permitting I guess.

[bdhr]

Oh I see. I have other things I'm working on for now, but maybe.

license permitting I guess

Reasonable is under the same license (MIT) as fascr, but it would take more time to adapt the code than to just rewrite it.

[Lord Humungus]

If you played a card game in Hinton, Alberta in the 60s or 70s, and the stakes were a human skull, the RCMP want to talk with you

Police in the Alberta way-stop community between Edmonton and Jasper are asking for help in identifying an old human skull found tucked away in a family's garage.

According to Andrew Groeneveldt, the skull was apparently won by his father, Leo Groeneveldt, in Hinton decades ago during a heated hand of cards.

Groeneveldt said family lore has it that the skull was placed in the pot by no less than the chief of Hinton's municipal police at the time.

Never play cars with Warty.

[gaoxiaen]

I've always wanted a spare.

[Rich]

Libertarianism is one of the worst, right there with communism, fascism, feudalism, and mercantilism, and its poor treatment of our environment is just further proof.

Good Lord.

[sarcasmic]

Libertarians are anarcho-fascists.

[Rich]

Well said.

[Slammer]

Damn environment needs to get slapped around for not making my dinner.

[Doctor Whom]

Defeat your own argument much?

[hamilton]

Mercantilism??!! Sir, those are fighting words.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This alert happened because there was a government running things, and not a private company motivated by profits to keep silent so it could continue to sell the water.

Derpity doody derp

[UnCivilServant]

I thought the poisoning happened because there was a government running things and not a company motivated by profits that didn't want to lose its customers.

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but I have been repeatedly told that before the government started regulating things, everything out there was poisoned. Everything. The water, the beer, the food, the grain... all of it. Because corporations. Every time someone consumed food or drink it was a roll of the dice. About a 50/50 chance that it was poison. No one lived past thirty. They were all poisoned by the corporations. Then government came and saved us from the evil corporations and their poison. It's the truth.

[gaoxiaen]

The unleaded gas thing really pissed me off.

[mad.casual]

But, but, but I have been repeatedly told that before the government started regulating things, everything out there was poisoned. Everything. The water, the beer, the food, the grain... all of it.

Poisoned with freedom. Horrible, awful freedom that, when foolishly combined with personal responsibility, is extremely toxic.

If you don't support government, freedom will literally kill you.

[robc]

Beer historians have determined that while beer was sometimes tainted, most of the stuff was just rumor and urban legend and, of course, slandering the competition.

And anyone who thinks the Reinheitsgebot was anything other than a protective trade law is seriously whack in the head.

[sarcasmic]

I hear that about beer a lot as well. That beer had poison in it before government told brewers to stop putting poison in their beer. That argument just doesn't pass the straight face test, yet lefties will cling to it nevertheless.

[robc]

The three usual and principal adulterations of porter consist, then, of water, by which its strength is reduced and its bulk increased, and sugar and salt, whereby its colour and flavour are in a measure restored. But there is good reason for believing, from evidence given before a recent Committee of the House of Commons on Public Houses, of which Mr. Villiers was the chairman, that other adulterations are practised, and that sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, salt of steel. or sulphate of iron, and cocculus indicus, are likewise not unfrequently used, and this both by the publican and the brewer. -- Source: "Food and its adulterations" by Arthur Hill Hassall, 1855, pages xxvii - xxviii

[robc]

The adulterations were done at the pub, not by the breweries.

Pubs were stretching out old beer instead of dumping it.

[UnCivilServant]

But, tests show Beer still contains measurable levels of Ethanol - a toxic substance, and worse, hydrogen hydroxide!

[The Last American Hero]

It's true. My great great great grandpa died because he drank a glass of water and failed his saving throw.

[MP]

No no no. Private = Evil. When you don't work for the Government, your only goal is wealth acquisition and your only tools are theft and anal rape.

[Doctor Whom]

When's the last time you ever heard of a coverup by government? Checkmate, loonytarians.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When did a 'libertarian' government ever form power?

Sheesh. They're beyond help at this point.

[sarcasmic]

Libertarians are anarcho-fascists. They want no government at all except when they want to control everything. It's obvious as long as you don't think about it.

[pmains]

We don't seize power. We merely pull the strings of puppet governments. The Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pentavirate all take their marching orders from the Libernazi Elite.

[sarcasmic]

Put Down the Cupcake: New Ban Hits School Bake Sales

http://online.wsj.com/articles.....TopStories

A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars.

That's going to raise a lot of money. Not.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

And heave forbid you wash them down with raw milk.

[Lord Humungus]

cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars

replacing "bad" sugar with "good" sugar.

[pan fried wylie]

replacing "stingy" sugar with "donor" sugar

[wareagle]

a federal law. Seriously?

[Ted S.]

It's the same shit that gave us Reagan declaring ketchup a vegetable and Clinton declaring yogurt a meat substitute in school lunches.

[gaoxiaen]

Ketchup is my FAVORITE vegetable! I even have a hamburger or French fries with it sometimes. Heinz 57 forever!

[Slammer]

Eat Hunt's instead. Fuck John Kerry.

[thom]

Eat Hunt's instead. Fuck John Kerry.

Heinz is owned by Warren Buffet and a bunch of Brazilian investors.

[Slammer]

Fuck Warren Buffet, then.

[Rasilio]

Yeah but is Buffet taxed enough on those Brazillians?

[Colonel Slanders]

^^^^^^ THIS!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

At least those were limited in their impact. Nutritional requirements are open to interpretation and have the potential to become a morass.

[Clich? Bandit]

bad nutrition leads to morass.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I thought, technically, tomatoes are fruit.

[Joshua]

They're both.

[sarcasmic]

Loneliness of Prince Harry: Dumped by BOTH of his great loves, jealous of William's happy family - and about to turn 30

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....rn-30.html
Yeah. Sucks to be prince. Poor baby.

[Bam!]

He's the red-headed bastard child of the royal family.

[Ted S.]

The one that's not going to inherit the throne and going to live out a life in relative obscurity compared to his brother? I can see some people not liking that.

[UnCivilServant]

Ahh the life of the Spare to the Throne...

[Bobarian]

I could see me liking the fuck out of that.

Bangin' starlets and hookers, not havin' to put up with the pomp and circuses? Having a piece of one of the largest fortunes going?

What is not to love?

[The Last American Hero]

Exactly - all of the benefits and none of the responsibility. It's good to be spare.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Do they still have pubs in the UK? He can go to a pub and cry in his beer like a commoner.

[sarcasmic]

Michelle 'pushed' Obama into 'siding with black people': First Lady urged president to pick sides in racial controversies claims new book on the hidden lives of Secret Service
New book claims that Michelle Obama asked President Obama to be vocal in support of African Americans
First Lady wanted her husband to back family of Trayvon Martin
'The First Family Detail' delves into the secret world of president's personal guard
The Secret Service are underfunded and security lapses are more common

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rvice.html
Principals trump principles.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

underfunded? Citation please.

[Rhywun]

I think they just assume everything is underfunded in America because orphans and starving old people.

[sarcasmic]

Are you looking, Cody? Gigi Hadid reveals her incredible bikini body on a yacht in St Tropez after being dumped by singer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....mpson.html
Never heard of her, but dang. I mean... dang.

[SugarFree]

What the hell is that thing with her, the creature from the blue bikini? Her face looks like a fistful of hateful ass polyps.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

As usual, you have a way with words, Sug.

[Lord Humungus]

but if you want a dog shot...

Police: Do not call us if Facebook is down

An officer from Los Angeles County took to Twitter on Friday when Facebook users called for help to report that the social media website was down.

Sgt. Burton Brink, the public information officer in La Crescenta, CA, posted a Tweet reminding people about the reasons for calling them for help.

"#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up!" he wrote.

[Ted S.]

I'm surprised this didn't happen in Florida.

[sarcasmic]

Brooklyn Woman 'Traumatized' After NYPD's Arrest Left Her Nearly Naked

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/20.....her-naked/

They pepper sprayed her four year old grandson and a male officer punched her twelve year old daughter, the same twelve year old they claim they were there to protect.

Pepper spraying little boys and punching little girls. That's the city's finest in action.

[Ted S.]

I hope you enjoyed your weekemd. :-p

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Bratton's war on 'corrective behavior.'

[Slammer]

TLC officers tell stories of attacks on them when seizing vehicles. Union suggests they should be armed.

"We're in jeopardy. They know who we are. Everything is escalating," said one source. "Their common enemy is the TLC. They used to fight over fares before, now they're organizing."

"We don't want to wait until a body hits the streets for [the TLC] to arm them," said Randy Klein, assistant director of Teamsters Local 237, which represents the officers.

"TLC inspectors do an essential, difficult and sometimes dangerous job, protecting public safety," said agency rep Allan Fromberg.

Officers recently sent a letter to the TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi detailing their abuse on the streets.
"How long will management roll the dice before one of us is either fatally stabbed because we are unarmed and essentially unprotected?" they wrote.

How about they let people decide for themselves who they want to drive them around? It's such an obvious strong arm racket..and they're not even armed!! They should get SWAT teams involved when they steal from people!

[Ted S.]

TLC officers tell stories of attacks on them when seizing vehicles. Union suggests they should be armed.

Next thing you know they'll be burning down NFL wide receivers' houses.

[Drake]

Breaking news - people hate being carjacked.

[VG Zaytsev]

Only teatards want the anarchy of unarmed taxi cops.

[Ted S.]

"TLC inspectors do an essential, difficult and sometimes dangerous job, protecting public safety," said agency rep Allan Fromberg.

Government safety, not public safety.

[Lord Humungus]

The diverse and varied universe of 'folks', according to President Obama

During his news conference on Friday, President Obama made a strong assertion about the CIA's behavior under his predecessor. The United States, he said, had tortured ... some "folks." The contrast between the act and the description of those acted upon struck some as awkward. Understandably so.

But just as it was not the first time Obama had referred to America's having used torture, it was very much not the first time that he'd used the word "folks." Below, a brief history of how this president and folks have interacted over time.

[Elspeth Flashman]

So much for his eloquence! Why not just use the proper term? Instead of "folks" use people. Or if you're referring to a nationality, use that nationality (Korean folks? Just say "Koreans.")

[VG Zaytsev]

Um, uhhh, hmm.

[gaoxiaen]

Just being a little "folksy". You know, torture is kind of cute.

[Joshua]

It's a black thing. It's way better to say black folks and white folks than blacks and whites.

[Ted S.]

Note that there's no admission the torture and droning continued under his watch.

[Lady Bertrum]

Yes, weird word choice. Why not 'enemy combatants', or 'detainees', or just 'people'.

'Folks' is usually reserved for the people you represent or allies.

[SugarFree]

Gay Men Draw Vaginas

We've got a well-stocked monsters section, a buildings, systems and diagrams section, flora and fauna, animals, talking vaginas and others. Keith has put the vaginas in a mysterious artistic order so the viewer has a certain, paced experience of the entire collection, like a song. A long, vaginal song.

Check the comments for feminist rage against synecdoches.

[Rich]

Ooh, ooh -- Synecdouches!

[Ted S.]

Because no artist has ever drawn/painted/sculped both naked men and naked women.

[Drake]

Just Bi's - duh.

[gaoxiaen]

A long, drawn-out, modulated queef? Cool.

[Rich]

India's Toilet Race Failing as Villages Don't Use Them

"Feces don't belong under the same roof as where we eat and sleep."

Somewhat misleading title, BTW.

[Juice]

This is India! It belongs in the streets and on the sidewalks!

[Lord Humungus]

Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam and oilfield in victory over Kurds

Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping across much of northern Iraq in June.

Capture of the electricity-generating Mosul Dam, after an offensive of barely 24 hours, could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

[The Late P Brooks]

This is COOL

Don't tell ed, but it's part of a convoluted, horrible, multi-page multi-volume slideshow extravaganza excreted by some web design genius at the Weather Channel.

Trigger warning- text contains insipid fearmongering about teh Climate Armageddon.

[Ted S.]

Doesn't everybody hate slideshow lists?

And doesn't everybody hate the Weather Channel?

[gaoxiaen]

I already saw Sharknado. What could be worse?

[Bobarian]

Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda?

[thom]

On Saturday the Weather Channel said 0% chance of rain. 0%! Absolute certainty!

It rained.

Yesterday they said 40% chance of rain all day.

No rain.

[MegaloMonocle]

Climate change!

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's Corporatist Constitution

Maybe we shouldn't read too much into a press conference, but Obama certainly seems to be groping for a formal argument here that would set out the circumstances in which he is justified in bypassing the legislature described in the Constitution ? Congress ? and acting on his own. The argument would be: "Where the key interest groups of society -business, labor, religious organizations and the MSM (who else is going to anoint a bill "common sense ? legislation"?) are lined up behind a policy? then if Congress doesn't act, the President can.

In short, it's an argument for bypassing archaic elected legacy institutions when they stand in the way of modern government by interest group elites.

I urge President Obama to elaborate on this sophisticated theory in the coming weeks, because I don't think there's much chance the Supreme Court will buy it. More likely it's sufficiently alarming that the Court majority will feel compelled to somehow accept a case in order to reject it.

[VG Zaytsev]

Well he wouldn't have to take unilateral action if those racist fucks would just do what he wants.

[The Late P Brooks]

TED.

"Don't tell Ted."

Proofreading is for suckers.

[Ted S.]

I figured it was for me and not the former EvH.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

EconPop explains the free market message of The LEGO Movie.

Holy shit, it's Bernie Maxsmith!

[Lord Humungus]

Dispute over Chips Ahoy sends Illinois man into a frenzy

When Allen M. Hall's 49-year-old female roommate ate three Chips Ahoy cookies, that apparently sent him into a frenzy, which almost resulted in her death.

When Hall, 23, threatened to kill his roommate when he discovered she ate the cookies for breakfast, at first she thought he was joking.

But after repeating the threats Hall attacked her, said an affidavit by Decatur patrol officer Joseph Kish.

[SugarFree]

How am I supposed to know that you're high if you won't even dance?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"See, when I was growing up, all the other kids had Chip Ahoy. I didn't get nuttin'. It made me mad as it did sad. I vowed that if I was to ever get out of this poor town and away from my drunk father and whore of a mother, I'd never be without Chips Ahoy. I'm proud to say I made it to assistant to the assistant junior manager at the Screw Bar and I can afford to buy all the Chips Ahoy I ever wanted!"

/Peaks with one eye over to jury with nervous grin.

[Xeones]

There are times that i think Sal Paradise was right...

[gaijin]

well, he lives in Decatur...anyone living there is likely to be just a heartbeat away from a psychotic break.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Illinois Man.

[Lord Humungus]

London Renters Win in Billionaire Backyard as Prices Soar

Home prices in London's best districts have risen three times faster than rents over the last five years, according to broker Knight Frank LLP, making it much cheaper to lease a home than to own one in neighborhoods like Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Kensington, home to billionaires including Lakshmi Mittal and Len Blavatnik. While the gap probably will narrow in the coming months as leasing demand rises, constraints on raising rents mean change will be slow in coming.

"People are thinking, 'Let's stay put and wait for six to 12 months and see what happens to the sales market,'" said Gary Hall, a partner at broker Knight Frank LLP. "There's so much press at the moment about the sales market overheating that people are just not prepared to pay the prices."

[Lord Humungus]

Burglar smoked man's wife's ashes

He said he came back to find the house ransacked and the ashes thrown around the room, adding it "looked like they tried to smoke some of them".

Mr McMullen thinks the burglar thought the ashes were drugs, as they were kept in a plastic box, rather than a metal urn.

"I guess they figured out this stuff ain't worth smoking, so they threw it up underneath one of my toolboxes," he said.

[Rich]

"Weird tasting shit, Leroy!"

[straffinrun]

"Why'd you smoke that?"
"I thought it was drugs."
"But it's ashes."
"Yeah, I thought the ashes were drugs."

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

B-b-but MUH NET NEUTRALITY:

Sprint Will Sell a $12 Wireless Plan that Only Connects to Facebook or Twitter

For that same price, they could choose instead to connect only with Twitter TWTR -2.40%, Instagram or Pinterest?or for $10 more, enjoy unlimited use of all four. Another $5 gets them unlimited streaming of a music app of their choice.

[UnCivilServant]

A wireless plan that only interacts with the sites I go out of my way to avoid? *sigh* I'd rather have the plan that blocks those sites.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Well aren't you hip...

[UnCivilServant]

No, I'm not, Now piss off, whippersnapper.

[Ted S.]

It's hip to be square.

[Bobarian]

Thank you, Huey Lewis.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I can't wait for this to hit slashdot

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

They already shit their pants over it on Techdirt, as they have been with similar programs for a while, including programs that offer *free* access to certain sites in developing nations. There was also a panicked HN thread.

I understand (some of) their concerns, but it would be nice if we could, you know, wait for the potential problems to come fruition instead of going crazy before anything has even happened.

[robc]

Next some cable company is going to sell channels in "tiers" or "bundles" instead of making it a one price for all. And the bastards would probably try to charge extra just for something like HBO. Bastards.

[Atanarjuat]

Speaking of drones.

[Lord Humungus]

Rescuers race to find survivors after 400 die in China quake

An intense rescue operation was under way in China Monday after an earthquake killed at least 381 people and injured thousands more, leaving scenes of devastation across a mountainous area.

More than 12,000 houses collapsed and 30,000 were damaged in the quake zone in the southwestern province of Yunnan, China's official news agency Xinhua said.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Somewhat related, there was also a gas line explosion in Kaohsiung, Taiwan over the weekend. Some of the footage looks like something out of a movie.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Oh, and an excellent YouTube comment as a bonus:

Humans using unstable gasses to heat and power devices. Blind luxury gone wrong.

[Lord Humungus]

Obviously we should go back to coal or wood for all our heating needs.

[UnCivilServant]

Rendered Lard and Tallow, with a dose of Whale oil for authenticity.

[Rich]

Grandma, 68, Sentenced To Jail For Public Sex At Her Florida Retirement Community

I know *some* of you guys would hit it.

[UnCivilServant]

Does she also go on the offender registry?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You talkin' to me?

[Ted S.]

Perhaps the male retirees in the community liked it?

[Lord Humungus]

Rich is obviously an ageist.

[Libertarian]

Was her partner under age? (i.e. less than 55?)

[PD Scott]

She looks disturbingly like the first Doctor, William Hartnell.

[Bobarian]

This comment disturbs me enough to not look at the original link.

[Drake]

Americans Against the Tea Party - wow is that a bag of stupid. So a private company would purposely poison people for profit? Because reputation and massive liability lawsuits are less important than a week's worth of profit to the evil theoretical corporations (none of theses theoretical evil managers live in the vicinity apparently).

Do Prods think every CEO is a Bond villain or Dr. Evil?

[UnCivilServant]

I tried to explain this concept to someone who threw a conniption when health inspectors complained about 'low staffing levels'. They seems convinced the restaurants were going to start selling rotten food to save a few pennies despite the fact that it would drive away all their customers.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think, like anything else, some bad actors don't assume they will be caught.

[Ted S.]

Those bad actors are all working for the government.

[Zeb]

That is true, but I don't think that a company providing water for a large number of people would fall into that category. That would be a pretty easy one to track down.

[robc]

Im not sure, Evian still gets away with selling their stuff.

[Atanarjuat]

Apparently it goes "first they ignore you, then they fight you, then they flail around hysterically making you look reasonable..."

[sarcasmic]

You don't understand. Corporations force people to buy their products. People have no choice. So absent government regulations, the corporations will intentionally kill their customers and no one can do anything about it. That's why libertarians are so evil. They want to allow the corporations to kill people. That's what they really want.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The plot of Continuum in a nutshell

[datcv]

That is literally what this dumb cunt who use to be married to one of my friends believed.

She was also into a lot of the social justice warrior bullshit where you have a giant pissing match over who has the least privilege (thus elevating your status...).

[sarcasmic]

I used to feel that way until I learned to think.

[Bobarian]

Citation needed.

[Jerryskids]

It's like when Duke dumped all the coal ash and that was proof of how evil corporations were. I asked some people why, if Duke was so evil, they didn't just switch to a competing electric company and got repeatedly called a moron for not knowing that there are no competing electric companies. Because that's how an efficient free market works, I guess - only one electric company survives the fierce competition to become the sole provider of electricity in any given area.

[Rich]

Speaking of poisoned water: Mysterious lake in Tunisian desert turns from turquoise to green sludge

"This region is overflowing with large deposits of phosphate, which can leave behind radioactive residue so there is a real risk that the water is contaminated and carcinogenic. There's no security of any kind. The site is certainly stunning and there are many large rocks perfect for diving, but it has become infested with green algae, meaning the water is stagnant and conducive to diseases."

PARTY ON!!

[UnCivilServant]

However, it is in the middle of Tunisa, so the number of people who will come into contact with said lake is next to none.

[hamilton]

Those god damned Tunisian corporations.

[Ted S.]

Technically, anybody who dies leaves behind radioactive residue.

[Zeb]

Or takes a shit, or trims their nails. Well, pretty much everything leaves behind a radioactive residue if you have sensitive enough ways of measuring it.

[Slammer]

Panopticon new full album stream.

Folk/Appalachian/Black Metal from Kentucky. He's kind of a commie, but I really dug his last record. He mixes bluegrass in there too. For fans of Agalloch, I guess.

[Lord Humungus]

I've been listening to Gary Numan's latest album - Splinter - quite a dark/industrial turn from the guy who made the song "Cars".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMAz9jofm_4

Video was directed by Chris Corner of IAMX.

[The Late P Brooks]

Doesn't everybody hate slideshow lists?

And doesn't everybody hate the Weather Channel?

Yes and Double Yes.

But that is one phenomenally cool little foot bridge.

[bdhr]

Since it is stuck in that awkward position not near the top but not near the bottom, I am going to post my announcement again here:

New version of fascr (sometimes called "Firefox reasonable", though it's a completely separate project) out today. See the homepage to see what's new (the stuff labelled "new in 0.5.00").

Portions are not well tested / experimental so it should be considered alpha.

[Lord Humungus]

Installed the latest version - looking good.

and many thanks!

[Atanarjuat]

it should be considered alpha

Does it accomplish this by negging, or a strategically-placed Gibbs slap?

[bdhr]

I knew someone would make that joke.

a strategically-placed Gibbs slap

0.5.00virginian

[Atanarjuat]

it should be considered alpha

Does it accomplish this by negging, or a strategically-placed Gibbs slap?

[Free Society]

It's a state of emergency in Toledo, Ohio, after government officials determined that the water supply was poisoned. Thank goodness we don't live in a libertarian utopia, writes Americans Against the Tea Party.

In a bureaucratically protected ecosystem, polluters pollute within allowable limits and pay the bureaucracy for extra polluting rights, regardless of property owner objections. In a property rights protected ecosystem, every single person owes for the damage the cause to the property to others. Why are property rights so hard for people to understand?

[sarcasmic]

Why are property rights so hard for people to understand?

The left loves to remind us of rivers catching fire as proof that libertarians hate the environment and that only government can save us from the corporations.

What they neglect to mention is that the whole reason why those rivers caught fire is because property rights were abolished in favor of common rights, meaning that people downstream from polluters couldn't sue. The result was rampant pollution, caused by the abolition of property rights.

Yet the left will continue to say property rights are the problem and common rights are the solution, even though what they favor is the cause of what they want to avoid.

[UnCivilServant]

What good is a river you can't light on fire?

[Free Society]

Go read the comments on the linked article of the "Americans against the Tea Party" page. Virtually every person there claims that property rights are the problem and common rights are the solution. I am always amazed at the ability of lefties to not think. I would find their level of bad reasoning very difficult to attain. I mean in what universe did property rights cause this? How is common rights, like is currently the norm to deal with pollution, seriously the best proposal for mitigating pollution?

They're so fucking stupid I can't even imagine why they believe what they do. I cannot fathom arriving at such poorly thought out conclusions. I was genuinely flabbergasted reading those comments.

[sarcasmic]

They don't believe or think. They feel. It's all about justifying emotional reactions. They don't reason their way to logical conclusions. They reverse engineer false premises and use shoddy logic to justify what they feel. That's why it's so easy to pick apart their arguments without even making an argument of your own. Yet they can't be reasoned out of what they feel because they were not reasoned into it.

[Free Society]

That's a great way to put it, that they reverse engineer false premises to justify their feelz. And long long ago I realized indeed that you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. Like when you hear stories about a libertarian that converted to become a progressive/socialist. That tells me the guy never reasoned his way to libertarianism to begin with.

[sarcasmic]

That tells me the guy never reasoned his way to libertarianism to begin with.

That could be explained by social pressure. I mean, if the choices are being a scorned social pariah or giving up your principles, a lot of people will choose to give up their principles.

[Free Society]

Everyone has a threshold for letting their principals give way. For some, it's only concentration camp type conditions that will do this, for others it's mere social discomfort that will do the job.

[The Last American Hero]

John Mellencamp even wrote a song about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0kMueFY3OM

[Atanarjuat]

Why are property rights so hard for people to understand?

Because they're neoMarxists who hate freedom more than they love the environment.

[Free Society]

Since the fall of the USSR and the utter disproving of all the various socialist models, environmentalism became the new vehicle for socialism. Most people know that socialism is not good at bettering the lives of people. Now we are told that socialism is bettering the environment. In another hundred years after socialism's 2.0 catastrophe, it will be reborn with some other nefarious purpose.

[robc]

Considering how the USSR treated the environment, its just insane to say that kind of shit.

[Free Society]

Considering how the US federal government is the biggest polluter in the world, by far, it's amazing that people would give them a monopoly right of environmental protection. We'll add that to the list of unworthy monopolies they hold.

[robc]

Is that only because the USSR was broken up?

[Free Society]

I'm not sure who was the bigger polluting asshole during the USSR's existence, probably the Soviets given their flagrant disregard for property rights. The modern US govt though, disregards property rights on a smaller scale but it's no surprise that the institution with the sole power to determine who can pollute and who can't, takes it upon itself to do whatever the fuck it wants with it's waste on a scale that no private entity could hope to match.

[The Last American Hero]

NO!

The Siberian oil pipeline was an absolute environmental catastrophe on a regular basis, just to name one.

[thom]

Because they're neoMarxists who hate freedom more than they love the environment.

No! They love freedom! Which is why they advocate for people to be free from the oppression of horrible corporations that only seek to exploit them. Why force people to be enslaved to private corporations who only care about profits when the government is perfectly capable of taking care of them, leaving them free to live their lives?

[Free Society]

To make this conversation shorter, please tell me in the Marxist view, what isn't slavery and exploitation?

[thom]

To make this conversation shorter, please tell me in the Marxist view, what isn't slavery and exploitation?

Obeying well intentioned experts. They only want the best for us.

[Free Society]

I had no idea it was that simple. I guess we can all stop thinking and comply with our overlord's directives without question or hesitation.

[thom]

It's really freeing not to have to worry about any of that stuff.

[straffinrun]

If you lived on Broadway you wouldn't want the filth from skinning dipping urchins on Baltic and Mediterranean showing up in your drinking water.

Get your point though. "If you violate the property of another, you are responsible for damages" somehow becomes, "Libertarians support dumping of sewage into preschool swimming pool."

[DEG]

NYPD arrest the man that filmed Eric Garner's death on weapons charges.

A source says the police didn't know it was the camera man until the camera man said something:

The source said it was only after the arrest that police realized Orta filmed the deadly confrontation with Garner when he told police, "You're only mad at me because I filmed your boy."

[Hampton]

Some assert that poverty causes crime. People commit crimes because they are poor and have no other option. Blacks commit a disproportionate number of crimes. Some assert this is because they are poor, so of course they will be committing crimes. However, the majority of Americans living in poverty are white.

[Jordan]

Fuck off, Merkin.

[Sevo]

That's such a stupid statement, I'm sure it confuses you.
And, yeah, fuck off.

[Free Society]

Sub-Saharan Africans also lacked the wherewithal to develop any civilization prior to colonization. Sub-Saharan culture is a disease of which they are the most predominantly afflicted even still in America thanks to welfare statism and other policies that 'keep them on the plantation'.

[Zeb]

Not sure if this is supposed to be parody or what.

Sub-Saharan Africans also lacked the wherewithal to develop any civilization prior to colonization.

Is not exactly true.

[Free Society]

A handful of kingdoms is not civilization. Civilization is technological innovation, division of labor and the cultural and scientific expansion that comes with it. It's exactly true unless you think large(ish) centralized political units are the essence of civilization. Even under that faulty standard, the Sub-Sharans have made scant progress towards civilization prior to it being imported to their shores.

[Zeb]

I suspect it might have more to do with climate than culture. The world's larger and longer lasting civilizations haven't come from tropical parts of the world.

[Juice]

India?

[Sevo]

County whines it can't afford public defender for couple; compares fighting the state AG with "David and Goliath".
No one asks who in hell an individual could afford it:

"Nevada County wants state's help with mounting legal bill"
http://www.sfgate.com/default/.....666070.php

[Kaptious Kristen]

Toledo

[robc]

So the wife has never seen Star Wars. Any of them.

Started rectifying that yesterday. We never watch movies straight thru, they get done in chunks, we are up thru the trash compactor scene. She is liking it so far, but she is worried that Obi Bon Jovi is going to get killed by Vader soon.

Oh shit, I should have put up spoiler warnings, I forgot how whiny some of you get. Also, its a sled.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Wait....are you saying that Bruce Willis is dead the whole time?!??!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Spock dies.

The killer puts on his mother's clothes and stabs people.

Donald Sutherland is replaced by a body-snatcher.

The Transformers blow up the Lego Corporation headquarters.*

*I'm guessing, I didn't watch the latest film.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Giant teddy bears defeat the Empire and save the galaxy.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Giant *carnivorous* teddy bears. Almost forgot that part.

[hamilton]

Now you're just making silly shit up.

[Bobarian]

After racially offensive, jamacian frog-people lose it in the first place?

[Free Society]

There's a trick to killing AT-STs and that is to smash it between logs.

[sarcasmic]

I don't think my wife has seen them either. Don't think she ever will.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Carrie Fisher today:

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

[JEP]

We never watch movies straight thru, they get done in chunks

What are you? Some kind of animal?

How do you go through that willing suspension of disbelief multiple times for the same movie?

[robc]

Because I used to watch TV so stopping and restarting for 2 minute breaks is nothing unusual.

[JEP]

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the less weird it seemed...

[Bobarian]

"We never watch movies straight thru, they get done in chunks"

Sort of like watching porn? Or so I hear.

[JEP]

she is worried that Obi Bon Jovi is going to get killed by Vader soon.

Spoiler Alert!

Obi Wan walks out of the Death Star Load 'n' Jug, and Vader jumps him under suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. Proceeds to force choke the shit out of him.

[JEP]

Loaf 'n' Jug

Damn my fingers!

[Bobarian]

Load 'n' Jug is the death star gay bar.

[The Late P Brooks]

Go read the comments on the linked article of the "Americans against the Tea Party" page. Virtually every person there claims that property rights are the problem and common rights are the solution.

The confounding thing about this is these supposedly "college educated" brainiacs have apparently never dealt with the festering ordeal which is a communal kitchen in a shared off-campus rental house. Talk about your tragedy of the commons.

"I don't care what your room looks like when the door is closed, but WASH YOUR FUCKING DISHES."

[robc]

I don't care what your room looks like when the door is closed

There is even a limit to this, when the roaches start leaving your room.

Which is applicable in the real world for the neighbor who wont mow his grass. You want to mow every 2 weeks? Fine. But you better mow it before critters start leaving it for my yard.

[Zeb]

My solution to that was just to wash the dishes every day since having a clean kitchen was more important to me than making everyone do their fair share.

[MegaloMonocle]

I would wash my dishes, and periodically shift my roommates dirty dishes into a bag under the sink.

For some reason, this pissed them off. I think what really bothered them was that I wouldn't wash their dishes for them, or let them use my clean dishes when all their were composting under the sink.

[The Late P Brooks]

There is even a limit to this, when the roaches start leaving your room.

Fair enough.

[Slammer]

THIS time it oughta work!