A.M. Links: NATO Meets in Wales, Ebola Death Toll Mounts, U.S. Forces Head to Ukraine

• 

  Credit: White House / Flickr.com

  President Barack Obama is attending a NATO summit in Wales. The topics under discussion include the rise of ISIL and Russian aggression.

• A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.

• According to a new report, customer information—including bank and credit card numbers—may have been stolen from all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores in the U.S.

• "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this week will launch a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials."

• The death toll from the current Ebola outbreak is now greater than that of all previous Ebola outbreaks combined.

• U.S. forces are preparing to conduct military exercises in Ukraine.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. forces are preparing to conduct military exercises in Ukraine.

Calisthenics.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I thought calisthenics was a west coast philosophical framework.

[Elspeth Flashman]

That’s diuretics.

[db]

“The science of matter over mind.”

[WTF]

What could possibly go wrong?

[Bee Tagger]

This is the Presidential Fitness Test.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

“A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.”

Will he supply the Letter sweaters?

[UnCivilServant]

When I started reading htat sentence I hoped it would end with “…to a duel.”

I am disappointed.

[VG Zaytsev]

He’ll bring speaking notes to a knife fight.

[SweatingGin]

New credit card every 8 months, just shop at major retailers.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Home Depot isn’t major?

[Zeb]

What I want to know is why they are retaining customer credit card numbers. Is there any reason they need to keep them after the transaction is complete?

[Agammamon]

Marketing

[PBR Streetgang]

Tracking customer buying patterns to the household level

[Metazoan]

But you could just as easily hash the CC number and use that to track buying patterns, no?

[PBR Streetgang]

Sure, I would think so, but I’m not an IT person at all. Spouse does retail customer analytics and if the company doesn’t have a rewards program/buyer card/whatnot, they use CC numbers to track. I would think HD tracks by Customer Card #, so I could wrong about why HD retains Credit Card #s.

[Furburguesa]

The CC number is encrypted and customer demographic data is bought from companies like AgilOne. I did work on a project like this at a major sporting good retailer. With the data, the marketing department could pull up a Google map with households identified by number of people and household income in relation to store. This is in addition to loyalty programs. If you choose not to sell your demographic data via a discount in a loyalty program. They still get it from your CC number. Always pay cash.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I doubt they’re retaining the full cc info. The hackers probably picked up the numbers mid-transaction.

[Pope Jimbo]

My guess too. Probably hacked the cc terminals in the stores.

I would be absolutely stunned if HD was storing full cc #’s.

[Lord Humungus]

Part 4: Why Libertarians should like buses

Today libertarian (if not “Libertarian”) transportation policy (best represented by Reason) favors moving towards road pricing, public private partnerships, contracting out, HOT lanes, and privatization as strategies, but doing so intelligently. All of this will have the consequence of raising the cost of travel by automobile and result in fewer vehicle miles traveled than current policies. It also suggests that if auto travel is more expensive, the use of other modes will increase. One of those other modes is buses.

Libertarians uphold the value of “Liberty”, freedom of action. Providing mobility for those without effective options increases overall freedom.

[Jordan]

Libertarians uphold the value of “Liberty”, freedom of action. Providing mobility for those without effective options increases overall freedom.

I’m still hoping for the day I read an article critical of libertarianism in which the author actually understands what libertarianism is.

[Ted S.]

I have nothing against buses. It’s the government monopoly on municipal mass transit I have a problem with.

I remember John Stossel doing one of his 20/20 reports, on the subject of dollar vans in New York, which supplemented bus routes in underserved minotiry areas but were private-sector. The progressives on the City Council were the ones who hated them.

[sarcasmic]

The progressives on the City Council were the ones who hated them.

Of course they hated them. They weren’t asking permission and obeying orders.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Or paying the vig.

[Jordan]

Don’t forget the DoT putting out fraudulent stats about bus collisions and then using them to shutdown cheap bus service providers.

[Jordan]

Oh, it was the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. How many fucking agencies do we have?

See here and here

[Rhywun]

It’s the government monopoly on municipal mass transit I have a problem with.

Not to mention the government’s penchant for pissing away billions of dollars on useless desert rail and vanity train stations. Buses? Pshaw – not interesting enough.

[robc]

I have nothing against buses. It’s the government monopoly on municipal mass transit I have a problem with.

This.

I guess this idiot didnt see the pieces on the cheap private bus lines reason did.

[thom]

It’s the government monopoly on municipal mass transit I have a problem with.

The monopoly is why progressives love transit. They get to control where and when people can move.

[Pope Jimbo]

^This.

The gubbment should figure out how valuable it is to have people share rides and then offer a subsidy to anyone who can provide proof of shared rider/miles.

Let the private sector figure out how to provide routes/rides in the best way to take advantage of those subsidies.

I think that it is worth it to the gubbment to subsidize some level of ride sharing. For example, if you offer a high enough subsidy, rider ship will drop to the point where you don’t have to build more lanes to relieve congestion.

But the golden rule of mass transit should always be: Mass transit can only be increased by making it better. It cannot be increased by punishing people who drive by themselves.

[Brandon]

then offer a subsidy…

I’m surprised nobody has covered this, but fuck off, slaver.

[Zeb]

Obviously that’s not the libertopian answer, but it’s a lot better than spending billions on new passenger trains.

And if it saves money on road building and maintenance, it might actually make you a little bit less fractionally enslaved.

[DJF]

“””public private partnerships”””

Public Private Partnerships are a horrible idea, combining the worse of public with the worse of private to screw over both the taxpayer and customers.

We need a seperation of public and private not a crony merging

[robc]

Its fascism.

[John]

Buses are fine, provided they pay their own way. Most of the time buses are much cheaper, more flexible, and better than trains.

That said, I fail to see why anyone should “like” any particular mode of transportation. Buses like all modes, have their uses. Sometimes they are right sometimes they aren’t. The key is WHEN THEY PAY FOR THEMSELVES.

[MJGreen]

I personally like buses, and I know Reason often points out how much better buses work in LA than the subway / light rail.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.

Winner keeps his head?

[Idle Hands]

Seriously what’s to debate? Like someone who is committing jihad against the US, the most powerful military in the world, cares.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

Sotloff’s head?!!

[Pro Libertate]

I don’t get this. What’s there to debate? These radical, murderous thugs aren’t operating on rational principles that they can be reasoned out of. Whether or not we use force against them is a different issue, but they are what they are.

[Citizen Nothing]

Resolved: Cutting the head off one journalist is a good start.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If Abu Whatsis refuses to debate, they can shame him as a coward. If he agrees, maybe his debating skills will be subpar and he’ll get beaten.

[WTF]

If I was Sotloff’s close friend I would hope Abu Whatsis showed up to the debate so I could cut his fucking throat.

[thom]

Maybe he hopes to expose their irrational principles as irrational?

[VG Zaytsev]

I don’t get this. What’s there to debate?

The nature of Islam.

Sotloff’s friend is going to prove that he knows the true nature of Islam, as he learned from his into to religion class at Harvard.

[PRX]

the close friend just lost the debate by asking for a debate.

[sarcasmic]

‘Shrinking slooooooowly!’ Ajay Rochester shows off a side view of herself looking slimmer as her weight-loss battle continues

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..inues.html
John pron!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Knew I shouldn’t have clicked

[straffinrun]

It’s not the click that kills you, it’s the scroll.

[Ted S.]

Wait a few months and she might become Sarcasmic pron!

[Rich]

Is that side boob or under boob?

Can we have a ruling?

[RBS]

Is that side boob or under boob?

Yes.

[Lord Humungus]

The horror… the horror… /Colonel Kurtz

[Not a Libertarian]

OK, so admittedly as a gay man, I have no real say in what men find attrative in women…

BUT DEM TITTIES THO

Surely that is attractive to most men, no?

on a saturday night, in a bar out of town, after a few drinks

[WTF]

No.

[RBS]

BUT DEM TITTIES THO

goddamnit.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Maybe a really dark bar. And define ‘a few drinks’?

[Zeb]

Well, there are definitely some men who would find her very appealing. Not my type, but really not bad for someone that fat.

[Fist of Etiquette]

“Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this week will launch a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials.”

It’s unfortunate for them that this happened in an election year.

[Idle Hands]

Chief Squaw High Cheeks seeks to make war with bearded desert people:

“ISIS is growing in strength. It has money, it has organization, it has the capacity to inflict real damage. So when we think about a response we have to think about how to destroy that,” Warren told Yahoo’s Katie Couric.
Warren agreed that “time is of the essence.”

“We need to be working now, full-speed ahead, with other countries, to destroy ISIS. That should be our No. 1 priority,” she said in a wide-ranging interview promoting her latest book, A Fighting Chance.

I think the best part of this is finding out that Katie Couric is working as an anchor for yahoo news, how far the mighty have fallen.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

how far the mighty insufferable have fallen

[Idle Hands]

I leaves me to wonder what will happen with David Gregory.

[Rich]

Finally prosecuted for his weapons felony?

[Jordan]

Now NYC Liberal can put on his shocked face. Fauxcahontas speak with forked tongue.

[Idle Hands]

Shocker socialist seeks to attack outside ‘threats’ news at 11.

[Rhywun]

They’re going to rally around how tuff she is.

[John]

Elizabeth Warren is less naive than Reason. That is a man bites dog story.

[VG Zaytsev]

She’s no Cosmo.

[Pope Jimbo]

Of course she is for going after them over there. What did you expect? That she would circle the wagons and wait it out?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I was thinking “put on the war paint and go count coup”

[Lord Humungus]

FiveThirtyEight’s Senate Model Is Back And It Gives Republicans The Edge

But if you’re looking for a headline, we have two. First, Republicans are favored to take the Senate, at least in our view; the FiveThirtyEight forecast model gives them a 64 percent chance of doing so.

The reasons for the GOP advantage are pretty straightforward. Midterm elections are usually poor for the president’s party, and the Senate contests this year are in states where, on average, President Obama won just 46 percent of the vote in 2012.1 Democrats are battling a hangover effect in these states, most of which were last contested in 2008, a high-water mark for the party. On the basis of polling and the other indicators our model evaluates, Republicans are more likely than not to win the six seats they need to take over the Senate. This isn’t news, exactly; the same conditions held way back in March.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Rotherham: A Quintessentially Liberal Scandal
…You don’t have to imagine the outcry that would ensue, because something similar to what I describe above (with the possible exception of the petrol dousing) happened only recently, when hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped by the Islamist Boko Haram group in Nigeria. The international outrage was unanimous, and when the Nigerian authorities appealed for help the response was swift, with President Obama sending troops and drones to hunt for the girls; meanwhile his wife and various celebrities lent their support to a facile and self-indulgent social media campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls.”…

…Other than the starkly different locations and the fact that Boko Haram is a recognized terrorist group, the notable difference between the two episodes is that the Nigerian schoolgirls were black, and the Rotherham abuse victims were white…

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Are you trolling John?

[John]

Yes it is. It shows the failure of big government at every level. It is a first class horror story about the perils of socialist government and liberal multiculturalism as well as a disarmed and defenseless public.

But Reason doesn’t want to talk about it for some reason.

[Citizen Nothing]

Reason doesn’t want to talk about it for some reason.

Cocktail parties, FTW!

[John]

You said it I didn’t. It is more like “immigration for the win”, which is really stupid. The Right I think is wrong about this being an immigration issue. If the police and government had done the right thing or the people been armed, the Pakistanis would have figured out they can’t pull this shit in England and not done it. Just because you let people immigrate doesn’t mean you have to roll over and stop enforcing the law in the name of not being racist.

[Metazoan]

Not even that. I’m surprised myself, as cocktail-swilling cosmo Manhattanite, that Reason has not said much on it.

[Monty Crisco]

Totally with John on this one. That reason has said NOTHING on it is fucking disgrace. IF they are worried about the “racism” angle with regards to immigration THEN ADDRESS IT, but don’t pretend like the Auschwitz of RAPE didn’t occur in Rotherham…

[Xeones]

Dammit, it’s too early to drink. Wait, maybe it’s not.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Early today is the same as really late yesterday.

[Rhywun]

the perils of socialist government and liberal multiculturalism as well as a disarmed and defenseless public

Sounds like much of the US. So why aren’t these horrors happening here?

[WTF]

Because Americans have not yet been disarmed and totally emasculated by the government. Yet.

[Rhywun]

Because Americans have not yet been disarmed and totally emasculated by the government. Yet.

Oh really? Tell that to New Yorkers or Californians.

The same areas which are as “multiculti” as it gets.

My only conclusion is that British culture has thoroughly degenerated to the point where this is allowed to happen by the British themselves.

[John]

The US isn’t disarmed the way the UK is. And the cops, while awful, are at least awful to everyone and as of yet are not choosing sides.

[BuSab Agent]

Incentives. Protected classes misbehave. It does happen in the US (not the rapey bit thank goodness), but surely you have all run into the minority and/or union asshole in both public and private sectors who desperately needs firing yet is practically immune until his bosses have a mountain of documentation and even then arbitrators can/do reverse the firing. British cops have unfortunately correctly observed that up til this incident failing in their jobs won’t get them fired but being accused of racism will.

[jmomls]

*Sounds like much of the US. So why aren’t these horrors happening here?*

How do you know it isn’t? I mean, if the ‘victim’ is not an “unarmed” “urban” “youth”, the media simply doesn’t give a rat’s arse.

[jmomls]

*But Reason doesn’t want to talk about it for some reason.*

The staff is too busy combing the interwebz for any instance of a Cop looking at a civilian cross-eyed, anywhere at any time.

[Zeb]

I certainly would behoove Reason to do something on this. I’m sure there’s a good libertarian angle somewhere.
Perhaps a whole series on What the Fuck Happened to Britain.

[Lord Humungus]

DNC chair Wasserman Schultz rips Scott Walker on women’s issues

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz ripped into Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s record Wednesday during a round-table discussion on women’s issues at the Milwaukee Athletic Club.

The Florida congresswoman said: “Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand. I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality.”

Wasserman Schultz added: “What Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back. It is not going to happen on our watch.”

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Could you stand to be in a room with DWS for an hour, listening to her verbal diarrhea? I doubt I could.

[Rich]

I suspect the smell of her hair would limit one’s presence to just a few minutes.

[Not a Libertarian]

Every. Single. Time.

Every single time that I see the acronym DWS, I think “Dancing with the Stars”

Admittedly I doubt I could stand to be in the same room with “Dancing with the Stars” for an entire hour.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Oh I could.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

She’s not an extremist. Suuurrrre.

Also. She needs a new hair stylist.

[Entropy Void]

Effing Medusa.

[John]

So public sector unions’ being able to force people into membership and loot the treasury is now a “women’s issue”. Since when do women stand for national bankruptcy?

[WTF]

Since all true women are socialists.

[Bee Tagger]

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this week will launch a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials.

Unlike his boss, he may still have some elections to win in the future.

[Rich]

I predict starting in 2017 ol’ Eric will be keeping a low profile.

[Brandon]

Probably in a non-extradition country.

[VG Zaytsev]

Nah, he’s on the top of the blanket pardon list.

[sarcasmic]

Schizophrenic man armed only with pellet gun ‘had no face after being shot 80 times’ by Texas cops
The incident was caught on a surveillance camera that shows 30-year-old Jose Walter Garza being gunned down in a hail of bullets
Police say his finger was on the trigger of the gun when he began pointing it at the officers
Six officers were placed on administrative duties pending an internal investigation
The shooting appears justified, according to the Laredo police chief

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-cops.html

‘No officer goes to work thinking they’re going to kill somebody.’

I almost choked when I read that.

[Ted S.]

Shot 80 times? How many thousands of bullets did they actually fire?

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

2,381

[WTF]

Well, they probably don’t go to work thinking they will kill somebody. Hoping, on the other hand…

[SugarFree]

‘No officer goes to work thinking they’re going to kill somebody.’

Just hoping.

[John]

And maybe praying depending on their metaphysical views.

[Citizen Nothing]

…and plannin’ and dreamin’ each night of his charms
That won’t get you into his arms

[Juice]

And again they cuff the corpse. You never know when you’re dealing with a vampire or zombie.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Do The Rapes of Rotherham Tell a Tale of Conquest?
…What Rotherham puts me in mind of is the behavior of the conqueror. One of the terrible after-effects of invasion and war has been the subjugation of the women, the rape of wives and daughters, the seed of the conqueror, inserted into a culture and a society ? yet another tactic meant to subdue and eradicate.

And yet, there has been no old-fashioned “invasion” and no “war” in the southern part of Yorkshire. This conquering was invited, and it was invited throughout Europe, where Rotherham will be discovered to have been replicated. Why wouldn’t it be? Who in Europe would dare to prosecute?

Rotherham will not be the last “conquest”. There are radical Islamists ? not “observant” mind you, just radical ? living in the West and determinedly unassimilated to it, on every continent….

[Drake]

I would assume if this happened in a place where the indigenous population had not already collapsed or surrendered, there would be bodies hanging from lampposts. The bodies of rapists and their government enablers.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This. I can’t imagine the local populace putting up with this.

[John]

Me either. But your local population likely has guns and the ability to defend themselves. The population of the UK doesn’t. When you don’t have weapons and the cops do and are on the other side, you have a big problem.

Make no mistake, if it were up to the Progs in this country, this kind of thing would be happening here. We are basically one supreme court justice having a heart attack away from being in just as bad of shape as the Brits.

[RG]

I’m surprised the English Defence League hasn’t shown up en masse in Rotherham yet.

[John]

I suspect they will. People will not take being victimized forever. They eventually will stand up and protect themselves if the government won’t.

[Monty Crisco]

Guns angle is one I fully appreciated when this story first broke. It just couldn’t happen in America because there would be a rash of fathers committing murders….JUSTIFIED murders, which the BIG STATISTS hate when they’re not pulling the switch…

[John]

Yes they do. That is why they hate gun ownership. If people own guns, they can’t be intimidated by the mob. Remember Progs are fascists. What they really want more than anything is to use mob tactics to intimidate their political enemies. Gun ownership prevents that.

People forget that there were no kidding Nazis and Fascists in America in the 1930s, and I don’t mean Roosevelt. But they never got anywhere because America was just too armed and too violent for their tactics to ever work here like they did in Europe.

[Drake]

A gun, club, knife, whatever…

A very secondary consideration to an actual father. Missing fathers has to be a big part of this story.

[John]

That too Drake. And the breakdown of the family. Maybe young women would be less vulnerable if they had older brothers, uncles and fathers to look out for them? What a revolutionary thought.

But don’t expect feminists to ever admit that. They are not “feminists” they are socialists and socialists hate the nuclear family more than they hate rape.

[VG Zaytsev]

Several fathers were arrested by the local police for trying to rescue their daughters.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Apparently they did not have a certain set of skills.

/too soon

[Tonio]

I haven’t gone into the details of this, but my impression was that both the victims and perpetrators were members of the Pakistani immigrant community.

[John]

Your impression is wrong Tonio. The victims were white.

[Colonel Slanders]

Why can’t you imagine the local populace putting up with this? They have been trained since birth that because they are white they are the quintessence of evil and that it most certainly is not the fault of the perpetrators for they are lowly downtrodden minorities in a white racist world.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Quite possibly because I am projecting

[John]

Not if you live amongst the bitter clingers. Maybe I am too optimistic, but I really don’t think Americans would have put up with that shit.

[RG]

Same here, I’m kind of surprised the Brits did, but from what I can gather, they targeted girls who wouldn;t necessarily be missed or cared about. Many were in the foster system, I believe.

[John]

Part of it was the UK’s terrible class system. The government and the elites hate white poor people with a passion and really didn’t give a shit that they were being raped. There are horrible stories about cops saying they were not going to investigate because the 12 and even 11 year old victim was a tart who consented to it. Just disgusting.

[Restoras]

Part of it was the UK’s terrible class system. The government and the elites hate white poor people with a passion and really didn’t give a shit that they were being raped

And this adds yet another libertarian angle to the story, and yet Reason appears to remain unwilling to comment or report on it.

I really hope that they are putting together a comprehensive story on this that covers all the libertarian angles we lowly and reviled commenters have been pointing out.

[Tonio]

It would seem a good oppo for Reason to comment on a clear case of the state totally failing. However, I’m not sure reason is obligated to comment on every state failure anywhere in the world.

[Lord Humungus]

Utah woman swallows stolen ring, cops make her sift through her poop

A Utah woman is behind bars, where she has been ordered to comb through her bowel movements to find a ring that her companion stole from a jewelry store, police said.

“No, she hasn’t passed the ring yet, and no, we’re not digging it out,” Orem Police Lt. Craig Martinez told the Daily News on Tuesday.

All things must pass.

[Ted S.]

I’d suggest she exercise her 5A right not to incriminate herself, but the cops will just say FYTW.

[thom]

She should at least mention her 5A rights to the cops just to make sure she still retains said rights.

[jamesrk]

amendment #2?

[Snark Plissken]

President Barack Obama is attending a NATO summit in Wales.

NATO: where men are men and sheep are scared.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

Blackadder: Have you ever been to Wales, Baldrick?
Baldrick: No, but I’ve often thought I’d like to.
Blackadder: Well don’t. It’s a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough, sinewy men roam the Valleys, terrorizing people with their close-harmony singing. You need half a pint of phlegm in your throat just to pronounce the place names. Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick. You’ll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight.

[Agammamon]

Fresh Prince of Cwmbran

[BuSab Agent]

I lived in Wales for three years. I can confirm that there are plenty of sheep there for NATO to *ahem* enjoy.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Obama Invents ‘Immigration Rights’ For Foreigners
President Barack Obama believes that many foreigners have a right to immigrate into the United States, regardless of what Americans prefer, say immigration experts.

The evidence emerged from the president’s mouth on Labor Day, as Obama was urging his supporters to vote in November, despite the struggling economy.

“Cynicism is a bad choice? Hope is what gives young people the strength to march for women’s rights, and worker’s rights, and civil rights, and voting rights, and gay rights and immigration rights,” Obama told union supporters gathered Sept. 1 in Milwaukee, Wisc.

That “immigration rights” phrase “implies that some people have the right to move here,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center of Immigration Studies….

[Longtorso, Johnny]

U.S. Hikes Fee To Renounce Citizenship By 422%
Over the last two years, the U.S. has had a spike in expatriations. It isn’t exactly Ellis Island in reverse, but it’s more than a dribble. With global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals who renounced is up. For 2013, there was a 221% increase, with record numbers of Americans renouncing. The Treasury Department is required to publish a quarterly list, but these numbers are under-stated, some say considerably.

The presence or absence of tax motivation is no longer relevant, but that could change. After Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin departed for Singapore, Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons. That hasn’t happened, but taxes are still a big issue for many….

[Drake]

I plan to sail down to the Cayman Islands in a boat loaded with cash and gold.

Fuck Chuck Schumer.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Prepare to be boarded by the Coast Guard along the way. They’re not shy about stopping sailboats leaving the coast.

[Drake]

Stop wrecking my daydreams. I haven’t fully developed the “acquire a boat full of cash and gold” phase of my plan yet.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I’ve sailed in a small boat from Norfolk to the BVI. Got stopped by the Coast Guard before even leaving the Chesapeake Bay and was monitored by the Navy twice. They do high altitude passes to spot and then follow with a low altitude jet pass. You haven’t crapped your pants until a jet does a low speed pass by your boat in the middle of the night.

[Drake]

Have to crapped my pants!

[robc]

Build the boat out of gold. Hope they dont notice.

[robc]

And props to Neil Stephenson for the idea.

[SusanM]

Don’t forget the parrot and cutlass.

[Lord Humungus]

outrun ’em. or outshoot ’em 😉

[Jordan]

Private submarines are where it’s at.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

You could probably get one off soviet surplus.

[Ted S.]

And of course Fuck Schumer and Bob Casey are psychics who know why people are giving up their citizenship.

[Matrix]

Need to start charging those damned dead people taxes too for leaving. Those fat cats keep taking their money to the grave, and they’re denying us votes!

[Andrew S.]

Except in Chicago.

[Jordan]

Once I decide to leave (which is extremely likely, but not soon), I’ll start moving my wealth offshore gradually, then just take a trip and never come back.

[John]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights States

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Can we try Obama at the Hague now? Looks to me like we can.

[tarran]

Their argument will simply be that you *are* allowed to leave and return. You merely have to keep paying taxes.

[John]

That is like saying that the East Germans had a right to leave, they just had to fill out the write paperwork or if not get lucky and have the border guard on duty that day be a bad shot.

[tarran]

I am reliably informed that taxes are the price we pay for civilization, while getting shot in the head is not.

Of course, if you refuse to pay your taxes, you might get shot in the head, so my informer might be mistaken and occasionally getting shot in the head (or spending the weekend with the pain monster) could be part of the price we pay for civilization.

[Rhywun]

East Germans

Supporters of walling off Mexico keep saying it’s to keep people out, not in.

Yeah, right.

[John]

You can keep people out. But what you can’t do is keep people in.

And keeping people in is the last thing the Mexican government wants. If they couldn’t send their disgruntled population to the US, the elites down there might have to actually start giving a shit and doing something to make the place better And no one wants that.

[WTF]

Can we try Obama at the Hague now? Looks to me like we can.

“How many divisions does the Hague have?”
-Obama

[John]

Can we at least get some indignant lefties demanding it?

[Rich]

Sharyl Attkisson said the Obama administration is refusing to tell Congress where the ten of thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexican Border this summer were sent

The White House bowling alley?

[WTF]

Rotherham?

[John]

Well played sir. Well played.

[robc]

Hey, look, Obama got something right. First time for everything.

[thom]

That’s what I thought too. I doubt I’d want to discuss the details with him, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[robc]

Im sure the details are awful. But the big picture is okay.

[Lord Humungus]

Cow Flees Slaughterhouse, Gores Jogger, Heads to Oktoberfest

A cow escaped from a slaughterhouse and headed for the grounds of Munich’s Oktoberfest Tuesday, triggering a high-speed police pursuit. The bovine, which fled after a worker mistakenly left a gate open, ran through the southern German city. A 28-year old woman who was out jogging was injured by the cow. “The animal stabbed its horns into the woman’s back, who had to be brought to a hospital with massive injuries,” police spokesman Carsten Neubert told NBC News.

The 1,200-pound animal ran toward the Oktoberfest field where workers were setting up tents for the beer festival, which is due to begin in two weeks. “The cow then tried to attack another person and was luckily blocked by a police vehicle, which eventually got damaged by the impact,” Neubert said.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I like the cut of that cow’s jib.

[Ted S.]

Technically, if it has horns, isn’t it a bull?

Or are you talking about the cow who got gored?

[UnCivilServant]

Not all breeds of cattle discriminate when it comes to horns.

[Zeb]

Females of some breeds of cattle can grow horns.

[SugarFree]

Some cows have horns. She can identify as whatever gender she feels like, bigot.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Only when ‘horn’ is a euphemism.

[Jordan]

That cow has earned a lifetime in the pasture. Most libertarian cow ever.

[tarran]

The cow was emulating a sung hero:

Cows with Guns

[UnCivilServant]

Is the worker who left the gate open liable for the injury the cow inflicted?

[Ted S.]

It the worker in the private sector or government sector?

[Jerryskids]

Because the cow could not be subdued, officers eventually had to kill it with two shots from a rifle.

How embarrassing for those cowboy cops in Texas who needed 80 shots to bring down a target.

[Rich]

Hey! I think that cow was *not* carrying a pellet gun!

[The Late P Brooks]

“Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this week will launch a broad civil rights investigation into the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, according to two federal law enforcement officials.”

Can the taxpayers of Ferguson afford a billion dollar extortion payment to the Justice Dept?

[Rich]

A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.

“Oh, yeah? Well, *you’re* going to hell, too!”

[Lord Humungus]

Tripping through IBM’s astonishingly insane 1937 corporate songbook

Thomas Watson is our inspiration,
Head and soul of our splendid I.B.M.
We are pledged to him in every nation,
Our President and most beloved man.
His wisdom has guided each division
In service to all humanity
We have grown and broadened with his vision,
None can match him or our great company.
T. J. Watson, we all honor you,
You’re so big and so square and so true,
We will follow and serve with you forever,
All the world must know what I. B. M. can do.

?from “To Thos. J. Watson, President, I.B.M. Our Inspiration”

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

+1 Barack Hussein Obama, Mmmm Mmm Mmm Mmmmm!

[sarcasmic]

‘You’re the dude that shot me’: Father tackles and beats boys’ football coach at sign-up event after recognizing him as the man who shot him four years ago

A football coach who allegedly shot a man four years ago pummeled by the same man last Wednesday, who had taken his son to a sign-up event where the coach was present
Encounter took place August 27 at Seattle’s Southwest Athletic Complex, after the man’s son signed up to play for a different boys’ team
The father said ‘You’re the dude that shot me’ – and the coach said ‘Yeah, I shot you,’ according to a police report

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..s-ago.html
Nice.

[Drake]

Sounds like he needs to shoot him again.

[Lord Humungus]

Penn State student gains rep as squirrel whisperer

A Penn State student is gaining an Internet reputation as a “squirrel whisperer” for befriending, feeding and dressing up a furry little friend she has named “Sneezy.”

Junior Mary Krupa tells WJAC-TV that she’s able to dress up the squirrel in party hats, or get Sneezy to hold doll-sized props, simply by feeding the animal.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Worst. Superpower. Ever.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

Are you sure?

http://www.webcomicsnation.com…..an/toc.php

[Matrix]

any army of Foamies might be pretty cool

[goneGalt]

I dunno… I know a certain website I’d like to send her resume to.

[Ted S.]

Did the squirrel give affirmative consent?

[Agammamon]

*Enthusiastically* affirmative consent or it doesn’t count.

[Rich]

she’s able to dress up the squirrel in party hats, or get Sneezy to hold doll-sized props, simply by feeding the animal

roofies.

[OldMexican]

A Penn State student is gaining an Internet reputation as a “squirrel whisperer”

I guess it beats being Aquaman.

[Steve G]

simply by feeding the animal

You keep using that word, ‘whisperer’. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[straffinrun]

Hey, Rocky. Watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat. *cop emerges from hat, unloads 80 shots into his face* Looks like I shouldn’t have used a police hat.

[Lord Humungus]

AMAANDDDAAA!

Let’s Stop Idealizing the Home-Cooked Family Dinner

The home-cooked meal has long been romanticized, from ’50s-era sitcoms to the work of star food writer Michael Pollan, who once wrote, “far from oppressing them, the work of cooking approached in the proper spirit offered a kind of fulfillment and deserved an intelligent woman’s attention.” In recent years, the home-cooked meal has increasingly been offered up as the solution to our country’s burgeoning nutrition-related health problems of heart disease and diabetes. But while home-cooked meals are typically healthier than restaurant food, sociologists Sarah Bowen, Sinikka Elliott, and Joslyn Brenton from North Carolina State University argue that the stress that cooking puts on people, particularly women, may not be worth the trade-off.

[Jordan]

the stress that cooking puts on people, particularly women, may not be worth the trade-off.

As opposed to the stress of wasting tons of money and being morbidly obese.

[Idle Hands]

Saying she’s retarded is insulting to retarded people.

[John]

I find at least that the biggest indicator of my weight after how much I drink beer is how much I eat out. The best way to lose weight is start fixing your own food. It is amazing the crap they serve at most restaurants.

Amanda just wants to give women type II diabetes I guess.

[Idle Hands]

Stress? What the fuck I cook all the time? what the fuck is stressful? All you have to do is make a list of meals for the week shop one time, and cook. In addition I think she’s underestimating the amount of men who cook in relationships.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You know what is stressful, menus.

[Idle Hands]

Yea especially if you go with an indecisive person.

[Lord Humungus]

Welcome to my world.

Waitress: Are you ready to order?

Me: yes…I would like…

Wife cuts in: I need a few more minutes.

[Citizen Nothing]

You are not alone, Lord.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I won’t lie, I agonize a little over what to get, but when the waitress comes around, I’ll pick.

But yes, wife always needs five more minutes to look at a menu she has seen many times before.

[Citizen Nothing]

With my wife, it’s like she decides that the point in time when the waitress hands us the menu is the exact point in time when we should begin to rehash our plans for the week, what color to paint the bathroom, whether our kids will go to the sleepover to which they’ve been invited.
“You know, honey, they’ll let us talk after we peruse the menu and place our order, too.”

[Entropy Void]

I HATE when they take the menu as soon as the last syllable of your order leaves your lips … when did this tradition start, anyways?

[Zeb]

I do pretty much all of the cooking in my relationship. And it’s probably one of the least stressful things I do.

Of course, I actually know how to cook, which helps. It amazes me how many people are utterly useless at cooking.

[thom]

Same here. Honestly I prefer my wife…not to cook, and she hates doing it. It’s basically 20-30 minutes of alone time when I can chill with a beer and let her take care of the kid.

Even if you’re not the greatest cook – once you come up with 10-15 stock recipes that you can mindlessly make on the fly it becomes really easy.

[OldMexican]

The home-cooked meal has long been romanticized,

“I can’t cook shit, so let’s berate home cooked meals.”

But while home-cooked meals are typically healthier than restaurant food, sociologists Sarah Bowen, Sinikka Elliott, and Joslyn Brenton from North Carolina State University argue that the stress that cooking puts on people, particularly women, may not be worth the trade-off.

“And as evidence to back up my berating of home cooked meals, I mention three completely unknown women who probably can’t cook shit either but coincidentally happen to be little red marxian sociologists from North Carolina State University.”

[Rhywun]

Cooking is for the help, anyway.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

stress that cooking puts on people, particularly women

Because women are the weaker sex?

Sexist much?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I’ve got a better idea. Send the kids out to pick scavenge for food. If they want meat, they’ll have to help daddy kill it and pick its remains.

What a retard.

[Steve G]

*sponsored by the restaurant association

[Idle Hands]

Money is also a problem. Low-income women often don’t have the money for fresh produce and, in many cases, can’t afford to pay for even a basic kitchen setup. One low-income mother interviewed “was living with her daughter and two grandchildren in a cockroach- and flea-infested hotel room with two double beds,” and was left to prepare “all of their food in a small microwave, rinsing their utensils in the bathroom sink.” Even when people have their own homes, lack of money means their kitchens are small, pests are hard to keep at bay, and they can’t afford “basic kitchen tools like sharp knives, cutting boards, pots and pans.”

This is totally false. Also believe it or not Amanda there are/were people who are still alive who didn’t/don’t have a dishwasher or a microwave. Fresh produce is cheap and abundant you tard, there is a supermarket on every corner.

[Idle Hands]

Also how long was this person in this situation in which to able bodied adults were between jobs? It’s like she has a snapshot of someones life for like a month and pretends that is how most people live there whole lives in this country.

[Ted S.]

They don’t have money to buy raw food and cook it, so where are they going to get the money to go out to eat?

[Zeb]

This idea that decent and healthy food is expensive is very persistent (and wrong). Buying ingredients and making things is way cheaper than any highly processed junk food or restaurant food.
Fresh produce may be expensive per calorie, but you don’t get most of your calories from fresh produce besides starchy root things which are cheap.

[John]

Healthy foods can be a bit labor intensive but they are not expensive. If you are eating unhealthy processed foods it is because you like them and or are lazy. Crap food is usually cheap and always easy to make.

[thom]

That low income mother with a microwave needs to learn about canned vegetables & beans, potatoes, and some basic seasoning techniques.

[John]

There is nothing wrong with canned vegetables. You just have to wash the salt and the brine off of them and season them as you say. If you do it right, canned vegetables can be as good as frozen ones.

[BuSab Agent]

Canned green beans are heavenly. I prefer them to fresh.

[thom]

Agreed. For green beans canned fresh frozen.

[jmomls]

*Low-income women often don’t have the money for fresh produce and, in many cases, can’t afford to pay for even a basic kitchen setup.*

How the f*ck did humanity survive the dark thousands of years before welfare and/or Applebee’s????!!!!

[Entropy Void]

“Also believe it or not Amanda there are/were people who are still alive who didn’t/don’t have a dishwasher or a microwave. Fresh produce is cheap and abundant you tard, there is a supermarket on every corner.”

BUT BUT BUT F O O D D E S E R T S !!!!

[John]

So how long before Rachel Ray and Giada catch Amanda in New York and give her a beatdown? I thinking Rachel will kick Amanda’s ass.

And I am pretty sure Amanda won’t be getting invited to play celebrity chopped anytime soon. So there is that.

[Gleep Glop]

Is there no triviality that Sociologists won’t study? You want to know why people hate academia? People like this get tenure for writing crap like that…

[Steve G]

Yes, it is SUCH a bitch to throw veggies and pork shoulder in a crockpot and eat 8 hrs later and 2-3 meals of leftovers. The Stress!!!

[MJGreen]

She’s just bitter that men are better at cooking, too.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Women can only cook properly when they’re barefoot.

Letting them wear shoes is what started the downfall of civilization.

[Jordan]

Bullied teen Joshua Davies ‘will not walk again’ after plunging from a 50ft bridge running from his tormentors

An autistic teenager who plummeted from a 50ft bridge onto rocks and broke his spine in four places has been told he will never walk again.

Joshua Davies’ family believe he was running away from a gang in Pontypridd when he slipped and fell on to the rocky riverbed, breaking his arms, legs, feet and spine.

[…]

According to his family, Joshua was attacked by members of the gang earlier this summer when he refused to buy them alcohol.

“He came out of the local corner shop and one of the boys jumped on his back and started hitting him on the back of his head,” said Michael.

“That was the only time he defended himself and he was arrested and charged, which made him scared to defend himself again.”

[…]

He claimed his stepson had approached the police for help on more than 15 occasions, but believed he had not been taken seriously.

He should have claimed his assailants made a racist remark. Then the cops would have been all over them.

[Ted S.]

So the state was complicit in the bullying. Unsurprising.

[John]

Of course they were. In a more civilized world, his parents could have done something to put a stop to it. But in our barbaric one, had they laid a finger on any of the gang members they would have been in prison for abuse of a child.

[Monty Crisco]

IF this was my kid some gang members would be kneecapped very soon…in BOTH knees…

[Lord Humungus]

Balko: How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty

The officer found that Bolden had four arrest warrants in three separate jurisdictions: the towns of Florissant and Hazelwood in St. Louis County and the town of Foristell in St. Charles County. All of the warrants were for failure to appear in court for traffic violations. Bolden hadn’t appeared in court because she didn’t have the money. A couple of those fines were for speeding, one was for failure to wear her seatbelt and most of the rest were for what defense attorneys in the St. Louis area have come to call “poverty violations” ? driving with a suspended license, expired plates, expired registration and a failure to provide proof of insurance.

The Florissant officer first took Bolden to the jail in that town, where Bolden posted a couple hundred dollars bond and was released at around midnight. She was next taken to Hazelwood and held at the jail there until she could post a second bond. That was another couple hundred dollars. She wasn’t released from her cell there until around 5 p.m. the next day. Exhausted, stressed, and still worried about what her kids had seen, she was finally taken to the St. Charles County jail for the outstanding warrant in Foristell.

[sarcasmic]

Yesterday I picked up a hitchhiker who said he’d lost his license in much the same way. Couldn’t afford the fine for a speeding ticket, so he didn’t show up to court. Got pulled over while license suspended, and decided to stop driving. Now he’s got two fines plus several fees before he can get his license back, and that’s just what he knows about. There’s probably a bunch more fees and hoops to jump through.

All because he failed to obey magical numbers painted onto a pieced of metal.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You pick up hitchhikers often?

[Lord Humungus]

…and then delivers them to Warty.

[Citizen Nothing]

What the deposit on those things?

[sarcasmic]

Depends. If I don’t like the looks of the person I don’t pull over. If they person doesn’t look like a creep then I’ll pull over and, doors locked with the window down, ask them where they’re going. If they’re going my way, and don’t appear to be angry or threatening, then I’ll give them a ride. I probably pick up one or two a year.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

When he runs out of the the previous ones, yes.

[sarcasmic]

Oh, I get it. Very funny.

One thing I will never do is give a single female hitchhiker a ride. Because they could accuse you of anything, and it would the your word against theirs.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Can’t disagree there.

Every male hitchhiker I have ever seen looks like they smell really bad.

[sarcasmic]

Most of the people I have given rides to weren’t bums, but rather people who had lost their licenses.

[Steve G]

Front/rear DVR would fix that

[Lord Humungus]

enough of your sex life.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Inputs from every angle.

[Ted S.]

That’s what the dashcam is for.

[Citizen Nothing]

Oh that, no. I was just grabbing a gummy Venus De Milo that got stuck to your pants.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Because they could accuse you of anything

Most of which would be true, but that’s beside the point.

[John]

You picked up a hitchhiker? Damn, you are a braver and better man than I. Good for you. But be careful.

[sarcasmic]

Only once did a hitchhiker make me feel uncomfortable. Though I should have picked up on it before I let him into the car. The guy was angry about something, but the ride was uneventful.

[John]

My dad talks about being in radar training at the Naval Air Station in Memphis. You couldn’t drink at the bars in Memphis until you were 21 but the ones out in the small towns didn’t care. This was 1963, so hitchhiker was still pretty common. So they would hitchhike out and back to go drinking. He said some of the rides you would get in rural Tennessee and Arkansas in the early 60s were pretty interesting. So interesting in fact, they would sometimes turn them down. That is right, the people offering them were so scary that 18 year old Marines trying to get back to base before dawn would turn them down. That is pretty fucking scary when you think about it.

[sarcasmic]

When I lived in Boulder I would regularly hitchhike to Red Rocks to see concerts. The worst that ever happened was people would light up a joint and pass it around.

[John]

I would hitchhike in Boulder. And Red Rocks is a beautiful place isn’t it? I love the Rockies.

[sarcasmic]

Red Rocks is amazing. No doubt. I sometimes miss living in Boulder, until I think about how the cops harassed me. They’re the ones who taught me to despise anyone who chooses their profession.

[John]

Funny how places like Boulder who are supposed to be so enlightened often have the most fascist cops. Austin is the same way. Austin cops are the worst.

[B.P.]

I’m headed to Red Rocks tonight.

[sarcasmic]

Nice. I like the Arctic Monkeys, but not enough to go to a show.

[John]

Talk to anyone who has done criminal defense work and they will tell you that the criminal justice system mostly exists to pray on the poor and the stupid. I am friends with several criminal defense attorneys who are old school law and order religious conservatives. Even they admit the system is completely immoral and obscene. We have all of these rules that mostly entangle the poor in the system and then brutalizes them.

All it takes is getting unlucky and getting a ticket you can’t afford to pay. Then the fees and the fines start. Then the bench warrant. Then the time in jail causing you to lose your job and perhaps your home if you are not lucky. The whole system is just a machine to crush people.

[jmomls]

*Talk to anyone who has done criminal defense work and they will tell you that the criminal justice system mostly exists to pray on the poor and the stupid.*

I think you have it the wrong way around. The poor and the stupid are just the ones who are CONSTANTLY breaking laws.

[jmomls]

PS–you sound as stupid and paranoid as the commie idiots who complain about the “capitalist system” and how it is “set up to screw the poor”, as if the poor couldn’t possibly make their own bad decisions, time and time again.

[INFORG]

You really can’t empathize with people that have few resources? If I get a speeding ticket, maybe I do without one more bottle of Scotch this month. If one of my employees gets one, that is a weeks take home pay. Should a speeding infraction really involve taking 25% of someone’s monthly income? Add on the consequences when they have to choose rent over the ticket and these things can really spiral out of control and put people in a terrible place.

[Entropy Void]

“as if the poor couldn’t possibly make their own bad decisions, time and time again.”

um … isn’t that why they are poor?

[John]

And you are a moron.

Yes, poor people tend to do stupid things and have poor decision making skills. That fact doesn’t excuse the government passing idiotic laws designed to fine the living shit out them and throw them in jail using my tax money to support the police state.

Those efforts are not making society any better or any safer. Back when we had a small government things were better or certainly no worse. All things like speed limits and nanny laws do is create the need for police and jails to take my tax money. That is it. They accomplish nothing else.

[Jordan]

A Minnesota man has developed a 3D printer that uses concrete…and he’s built a castle with it as well.

Andrey Kudenko, contractor by trade, has taken to building a concrete castle in his backyard. Standing at 3 x 5 meters, this castle just happens to be the worlds first 3D printed concrete castle, and one of the largest objects every created using a 3D printer. Unable to find a commercial solution to his idea, he set about creating a printer on his own. Utilizing an Arduino microcontroller and a set of special drivers, he was able to create a device that allows for printing free-layering concrete.

An entrepreneur, eh? I can hear the regulators sharpening their knives as we speak.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That is cool. But I want some rebar in my concrete walls.

[hamilton]

Well, his first castle will sink into the swamp.

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

+1 huge tract of land

[ant1sthenes]

I think these guys have been working on this for a while. For, you know, actual buildings.

[Ted S.]

Can he build a stadium cheaper than Zygi Wilf can?

[Rich]

Deep sea ‘mushroom’ may be new branch of life

News about Warty’s family tree?

[Xeones]

You do NOT want to know about Warty’s “deep sea mushroom.”

[Juice]

These organisms, too, have proven difficult to categorise and some researchers have even suggested they were failed experiments in multi-cellular life.

If they’re still extant, how did it fail?

[Drake]

The topics under discussion include the rise of ISIL and Russian aggression.

Maybe our problems will take care of each other. A full-time strategic thinking President might even try to arrange things that way.

http://rt.com/news/184836-isis…..rov-syria/

[Brandon]

“Hey Putin, that ISIS guy called you a pussy!”

[Lord Humungus]

Yes Means Yes, But…
Much of the ambiguity and misunderstanding could be avoided if we took sex more seriously.

Many would prefer not to acknowledge it, but really “rape culture” is strongly associated with hookup culture, or a culture that devalues sexual acts. If sex is just another activity people use to get high, by means other than (or in addition to) drugs or alcohol, then they’re missing the truly intimate nature of sex. Yes, sex can be fun and can release into our brains and bodies hormones that make us feel good physically. But sex is meant to be so much more than that.

Sex creates and maintains a bond between two people, sometimes in a way that transcends our human understanding. Perhaps that’s why, in nature, the act can come with serious side effects such as the life-creating condition of pregnancy.

If we want young people to avoid putting themselves in situations where they feel pressured into sex, we’ve got to change the expectation that sex is ubiquitous on campus and just another way to blow off some steam on a Friday night.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If it ain’t a transcendent experience, it’s rape.

[Idle Hands]

Well, I can’t get behind this article because it doesn’t openly and disdainfully mock the term rape culture. I also think most people do take sex seriously.

[Drake]

The problem is feminists writing these articles and making up terms like “rape culture” don’t take sex seriously. They promote promiscuity, then tie themselves in mental knots when young women can’t deal with it.

[Idle Hands]

Exactly.

[John]

What Drake said. There are a small number of women who really can screw for fun and not get emotional about it. But most women, especially when they are young, can’t. You can’t tell women to go out and fuck like a sailor on liberty in Bangkok and then whine when it doesn’t work out so well for a lot of them.

[OldMexican]

Many would prefer not to acknowledge it, but really “rape culture” is strongly associated with hookup culture

And don’t get me started on second-base culture!

But sex is meant to be so much more than that.

It can be used as a strategic weapon to keep the wife happy for a Saturday so she lets you sleep the rest of the week.

[Steve G]

hehehe, you said ‘but sex’

[ant1sthenes]

Well, rape culture is a thing. It’s just a thing that you tend to hear about in news stories about Central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or the UK. You know, places where people use rape/gang rape to control women or to punish their male relatives.

[OldMexican]

A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.

There is no question that engaging in meaningful debate is what the leader of ISIL is seeking. This fact is incontrovertible, the beheadings and forced human displacements notwithstanding, right?

[Rich]

“Got your ‘debate’ right here!”

[Drake]

That’s the kind of open dialogue the Prophet used to spread his message the first time around.

[Jerryskids]

That Cheesehead at the game might be an undercover cop looking for rowdy ‘Hawks fans.

And the important questions: Will Aaron Rodgers be challenging Richard Sherman? Is Green Bay +6 1/2 a sucker bet? And what do the Millenials think of tonights game?

[Mike M.]

Is Green Bay +6 1/2 a sucker bet?

I say probably yes, though my drop-dead stone cold lock of the week is the Steelers.

[RBS]

my drop-dead stone cold lock of the week is the Steelers.

Do you have an 800 number I can call?

[Mike M.]

That pick was your freebie. The rest will cost you. 🙂

[Jerryskids]

Carolina is getting points at Tampa Bay.

[Brandon]

That’s because only one of Carolina’s receivers would even make another team’s practice squad.

[sarcasmic]

School cops caught on video restraining high school girl and kneeling on her ‘for using her cellphone’

Brief clip shows female student lying on hallway floor as two officers hold her down and a third stands over her
The incident, which has prompted a small protest and flurry of social network activity, is under investigation over whether the use of force was justified
Comments on social media suggested police pinned the woman down because she was talking on her cellphone

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ation.html

[Metazoan]

under investigation over whether the use of force was justified

FYTW? How do people report on this with a straight face?

[John]

This is why having armed guards at schools is a nightmare waiting to happen. They will just be cops with an even worse insecurity and bullying complex than the rest of them.

What kind of dregs of the law enforcement profession would you get to be a high school cop? The guy’s who were too stupid and sadistic to work in the jails, that is what kind.

[Lord Humungus]

Warren: Destroying ISIS should be ‘No. 1 priority’

“ISIS is growing in strength. It has money, it has organization, it has the capacity to inflict real damage. So when we think about a response we have to think about how to destroy that,” Warren told Yahoo’s Katie Couric.

Warren agreed that “time is of the essence.”

“We need to be working now, full-speed ahead, with other countries, to destroy ISIS. That should be our No. 1 priority,” she said in a wide-ranging interview promoting her latest book, A Fighting Chance.

She no smokem peace pipe with ISIS?

[Rich]

You know what else has money, organization, and the capacity to inflict real damage?

[Idle Hands]

The Republicans and Democrats?

[TwB]

Dan Snyder?

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

S.P.E.C.T.R.E?

[Jerryskids]

The Egg Council?

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

K.A.O.S. ?

[Jordan]

NYC Liberal has a sad.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Curious. How does electric services work in your necks of the woods? Are they private? Is there competition? Or is it like here where it’s a government monopoly?

[Rich]

electric services

Do you mean hydro?

[Ted S.]

Damn you! That’s the first thing I thought too. 😉

[Jordan]

Mine’s provided by Duke Energy, which is ostensibly private, but I’m pretty sure is a typical utility with it’s government granted monopoly. There is no competition here (NC).

[Drake]

I don’t think people really want competition on the distribution level – basically a second or third set of power poles and wires through every neighborhood.

[robc]

What does “want” have to do with it?

But yeah, its a small step towards liberty to have a monopoly on distribution but a free market on supply.

[Xeones]

Most “natural” monopolies are actually aesthetic in origin.

If only Edison had left Tesla alone to work all the kinks out of wireless energy transfer…

[UnCivilServant]

NYPA (State ‘Authority’) owns the power plants, National Grid (State licensed Monopoly) owns the distribution grid. State tacks on more fees after the fact.

[Ted S.]

And then when the prices go up they invariably blame the nominally private company for the increase, and all of the fuckwits in the media go along with the propaganda.

[Drake]

Are they the geniuses who bought a running nuke powerplant just to decommission the thing?

[Drake]

Where are you?

In most of the U.S. electric distribution (the wires to your house) is by state-regulated private companies.

Transmission (big power lines) is federally regulated.

Generation has been somewhat deregulated although the EPA is doing its best to destroy coal generation and replace it with nothing.

[UnCivilServant]

Where are you?

Rufus J Firefly is Canukistani.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Unless you live in a couple of cities that have grandfathered municipal utilities, here in Texas you have free market supply with private monopoly distribution.

[Brandon]

Xcel has a monopoly in Denver, but I’m still holding out hope for house-scale Thorium reactors.

[The Late P Brooks]

How does electric services work in your necks of the woods?

Rural co-op. Don’t tell Tony.

[NebulousFocus]

The Greatest Threat to Our Liberty Is Local Governments Run Amok
And only a strong federal government can stop them

[robc]

Its a lot easier to shoot a rouge mayor than a rogue president.

[Rich]

Its a lot easier to shoot a rouge mayor than a rogue president.

Or to bitchslap it.

[Entropy Void]

“Its a lot easier to shoot a rouge mayor ”

… because the red on his cheeks stands out more?

[John]

In one sense they are right. As bad as the feds are, the locals collectively do even more damage. The solution to that is now however to centralize the violation of our rights. The solution is to have a robust court system that holds governments accountable and enforces the constitution.

How about instead of having a strong federal government, we have a strong court system and rule of law? Let’s start by applying the law to government officials by ending the doctrine of qualified immunity? How about that?

[Lord Humungus]

Health Care Workers Struggle To Enroll People Who Have No ‘Concept Of Insurance’

Signing people up for health insurance is the easy part of Rawha Abouarabi’s job ministering to immigrants and Arab Americans in this manufacturing hub along the Rouge River.

But many of those she’s enrolled are surprised and indignant when they go to the doctor and are asked to a pay a bill? perhaps a copayment. They insist they’ve already paid their monthly insurance premium.

“They call us and say, ‘it’s a scam’,” says Abouarabi, an insurance navigator for the Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS), a nonprofit agency that specializes in helping the largest Arab-American population in any U.S. city.

[Jordan]

So they have the same concept of insurance that Obama does. Maybe he really is a closet Muslim.*

*Note to Shriek: It’s a joke; calm your fucking tits.

[Drake]

The Rouge River? This that where Apocalypse Now was filmed?

[The DerpRider]

Nah, it’s where the Ford plant blows up every six months.

[straffinrun]

Sounds like they understand it just fine.

[Ted S.]

Technically, what they’re trying to enroll the people in isn’t insurance.

[Xeones]

“They call us and say, ‘it’s a scam’,” says Abouarabi

They’re not exactly wrong.

[John]

Poor people were already getting their care for free. Why did these idiots think they were going to get them to buy insurance?

[Colonel Slanders]

Except John, Most of them are not really poor. I live here and a bud of mine is DFD. They are constantly going on runs to tote them to the hospital where they claim medicaid but live in a nice big house with nice cars and a bunch of their family members. Anyone who doesn’t like what I said? Too bad, its the fucking truth.

[John]

I am sure it is. And they are not going to be happy when they find out Obamacare isn’t free.

[The Late P Brooks]

Health Care Workers Struggle To Enroll People Who Have No ‘Concept Of Insurance’

Does that include the President?

[Sevo]

And Ms Pelosi!

[Lord Humungus]

“From the beginning, I was in it for real”: Ice cream legend’s plan to radically up-end America
Ben Cohen is best known for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. But his new project to transform politics may change all that

But while it’s unlikely that the struggle to fully reform American campaign finance law will be “won” in any of our lifetimes, if the reform movement kicked off by Citizens United ultimately gets results, future scholars may view Ben Cohen’s work in politics as more important to American history than his co-creation of the company that brought us all Cherry Garcia.

Hoping to catch up with him on the status of his campaign to overturn the Citizens United decision through amending the Constitution ? which he and his supporters call “The Stampede” ? Salon spoke with Cohen recently via phone. Our conversation is below, and has been edited for clarity and length.

[tarran]

It’s really distressing how much progressives fetishize feudalism and how desperately they wish to recreate it.

[TwB]

Mr. Cohen, please just stick to making your delicious ice cream concoctions and stay out of politics. Otherwise, there may be a new B&J flavor called Proggy Praline coming to a store near you.

[Xeones]

There will only be one flavor of ice cream! And you will like it!

[TwB]

And I imagine it will be Bitter Boysenberry and it will cost $20 per pint.

[Jose Chung]

Proggy Praline..

Cost increases with each passing day, comes with 100 pages of instructions on how to eat it, and still manages to taste like shit.

[Entropy Void]

Ben and Jerry’s tasted better when the Winchester guy was running it.

Gunmetal Granola FTW!

[Agammamon]

A close friend of murdered journalist Steven Sotloff has challenged ISIL leader Abu Bakr to a debate on Islam.

Who enthusiastically agreed and suggested, since he can’t get a visa, that the friend come on over to Syria.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Surgery on ailing Great Dane reveals cause of stomach upset: 43 ? socks

[Rich]

Serious question: Why are pet owners not charged with animal cruelty over stuff like this?

[UnCivilServant]

The article never stated that the owners fed the dane the socks. The question is one of what motivated the dog to eat them.

[Rich]

“Owner should have known dog would eat vast quantities of foreign material if not properly secured.”

[Xeones]

“Owner should have known that dogs are generally idiots.”

[Sevo]

My question is how many socks does the owner have?
If our dog ate 5 pairs, I’d be digging in the bottom of the drawer.

[UnCivilServant]

What happened to the last half of a sock?

[Rich]

The Dane hung it on the bedroom doorknob while he was eating the rest.

[Juice]

I Like Socks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swmuqGWgZCc

[The Late P Brooks]

Our conversation is below, and has been edited for clarity and length.

“Republikkkans bad. Democrats good. Government good. Now, lean forward.”

[Jose Chung]

Lean forward is just another way of saying bend over.

[TwB]

http://www.reuters.com/article…..YK20140904

Go ahead, join the SEIU. Get your $15/hour wage. Then watch as your jobs are slowly automated and you’re replaced. In the mean time, your paychecks aren’t all that great because your union dues and taxes are taken out and you’re left with maybe $11/hour. Yes, that’s better than the current minimum wage but you won’t be working at BK for much longer anyway. So, you have to ask yourself this question: was going on strike for a minimum wage increase of $3/hour really worth it?

[Jordan]

I wonder if the machines will be able to project the same mix of loathing, disdain, and apathy I get from BK workers.

[TwB]

I’m sure there’s software for that. And, it can be recorded in Spanish and Hindi for amusement purposes.

[UnCivilServant]

Radiating waves of contempt are an optional extra on our newest line.

[Pro Libertate]

I’ve noticed the same thing. Yet McDonald’s doesn’t seem to have this problem. At least, not as much.

[robc]

Chick-Fil-A even less.

[TwB]

Every time I go to a Chick-Fil-A, the folks working at the counter or drive through have the most happy go lucky demeanor. It’s a pleasant surprise, even though I know they probably are forced to act that way. Oh well, the chicken, waffle fries and CFA sauce are all delicious.

[sarcasmic]

It’s because they’re happy Christians, like Flanders on the Simpsons.

[Jaybirdmojo]

They’re not forced to act like that. They’re Mormons. They are like that.

[Drake]

Seems to me that Fast-Food workers are generally friendly in smaller towns, and surlier the closer I get to a big city.

Same goes for cops and people in general.

The cutie who brought my burger out of Sonic in Philly a few weeks ago was an exception.

[Rhywun]

Which is why I am a city person. Friendly strangers creep me out.

[Pro Libertate]

You know what’s weird? Around here and in other nooks and crannies of our society, people keep saying, “Wouldn’t a huge increase in the minimum wage drive places like McDonald’s to automation?”, yet I don’t recall hearing that from the major media outlets. Which is truly odd.

[Citizen Nothing]

So what’s the stock play in fast food automation? Anybody have any tips?

[TwB]

Well, you’d think that the big fastfood companies’ stocks would go up when automation takes over due to record profits when they don’t have to pay as many workers anymore. Plus, you can invest in the tech company that builds the automation machines. Win-win.

[WTF]

Just wait until the NLRB rules that automation constitutes unfair labor practices and bans it. Because FYTW.

[ant1sthenes]

Just wait until the next Republican president decides to automate the NLRB.

[John]

It is only odd until you consider that the people writing for those media outlets are total economic illiterates.

[straffinrun]

http://www.jstor.org/discover/…..4653200573

He wasn’t just Lucy’s husband.

[Jordan]

DON’T TALK ABOUT LUCY!

Oh, nevermind.

[Raston Bot]

Look, I get it that we’re desensitized by all celebrity vids and pics released but that one* of J Law is going to hurt her career.

*and you know which one I’m referring to

[MJGreen]

…Which? Does she wear “Fuck the Weinsteins” panties or something?

[Sevo]

Nothing about Tesla digging deep into the pockets of Nevadans?

“Tesla expected to bypass California for ‘Gigafactory’ in Nevada”
[…]
…”incentives worth roughly 10 percent of the project’s total cost, or $500 million.”…
http://www.sfgate.com/news/art…..hc-bustech

And I’m certain of two things:
1) Proggies lie when they claim ‘taxes don’t matter’
2) That’s just the start.

[John]

The Nevada economy is actually worse than the California economy. That won’t stop Musk from robbing them though. What a piece of shit he is.

[The Late P Brooks]

“Wouldn’t a huge increase in the minimum wage drive places like McDonald’s to automation?”

Marginal return is just another Old Wives’ Tale from the peanut gallery.

[The Late P Brooks]

I cannot imagine why Tesla would choose Nevada over California as a site to build a huge toxic waste dump battery factory.

[userve32]

Really? Wow I never thought about it liekthat.

http://www.Crypt-Anon.tk

[Lord Humungus]

saw this on twitter:

Derek Hunter @derekahunter ? Sep 2

One thing the celebrity nude pictures story shows us is the only thing ever permanently deleted from the internet is Lois Lerner’s emails.

[John]

That is awesome.

[Idle Hands]

A totem pole?

[Ted S.]

Csa he build it solely off of pull-tab revenues? 😉

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I don’t usually like Deadspin, but I do like the “Why your Team Sucks” articles.

Packers

Seahawks

[Ted S.]

Fuck Pete Carroll, Golden Taint, and the 12th man. And Lance Easley.