ISIL Pile-On Becomes a Team Effort, Billions for the Border, Scottish Independence Is For Muggles: P.M. Links

• 

  LiveLeaks

  Several Arab countries want to join in the fun now that Obama has an anti-ISIL strategy. Of sorts.

• President Obama…Not such a boost to Democratic congressional prospects.
• The White House wants an additional $1.2 billion to do whatever it's going to do at the border, which we'll get to hear about after the election.
• Author J.K. Rowling apparently believes that Scottish independence is for lowly muggles. Nevertheless, it looks like it could happen.
• The European Union slapped Russia with new energy sanctions for being very naughty in Ukraine.
• The Export-Import bank may get an extended lease on life while congrecritters get their politicking out of the way.

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Comments

[Francisco d'Anconia]

We are the government and we want to fuck you so hard your head falls off.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Looks like the late post threw Fist off his game...

[Francisco d'Anconia]

He had to pee really bad.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I got shit to do, I can't wait around forever.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

No you don't.

[Los Doyers]

Brownies. Always brownies.

[CE]

First comment doesn't count if you don't quote the article. Generic anti-government comments can come from one of my bots.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Narrows gaze silently. Looks at Tuccile. Looks down and writes on clip board. Tears sheet out.

"Please hand this over to Warty on the way out".

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I'd be reallllllyyyyy pissed if I bought one for $200 a month ago when it came out.

Amazon Just Dropped The Price Of Its Smartphone To 99 Cents

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Fire sale

[The DerpRider]

/golf clap.

[PD Scott]

Every time I see one of those goddamn kid hipster ads I want to set my TV on fire.

[Bam!]

There are businesses that try to make money and then there's Amazon.

[Pro Libertate]

Yet for consumers, they remain totally awesome.

[John]

Did you see this? California now has cobras

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....71282.html

You Floridians with your army of pythons has started a reptile arms race. You mad men.

[Pro Libertate]

Heh, heh, all part of the master plan.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Cobras can't turn doorknobs. Yet.

[Pro Libertate]

Cobras are stupid--ever see them not biting Indians? Figures California would embrace them.

[Los Doyers]

Hey, many of the progs here are total animal lovers. "Oh look at that cute little snake in the middle of the road! We have to help it cross." So let's see how this plays out.

[Mad Scientist]

They'll call them an invasive species and want to have them deported and/or euthanized. Progs know what's best for snakes!

[Trouser-Pod]

They'll call them an invasive species and want to have them deported and/or euthanized

What do you think this is, Alabama?

[jesse.in.mb]

That's what makes ADA-compliant lever door handles so dangerous!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nope

[Corning]

That's what makes ADA-compliant lever door handles so dangerous!

And the Award for best sound in a youtube video goes to...

...envelope please...

...Goes to "Snake Opening a Door"!!

[C. Anacreon]

round doorknobs are now illegal in newly-built public buildings, they all must be levers now. Snakes, dogs and cats should have no problem with them. Opposable thumbs be damned!

[Florida Man]

*checks front porch*

Damn, Panther-alligator hybrid isn't here yet. Lazy geneticist.

[Mock-star]

How many asses will it have?

[Stormy Dragon]

Just to be safe, LAPD arrested a bunch of southweatern blackhead snakes.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works)

[CE]

They lose money on every sale but they make it up on volume. My favorite is when they have free shipping on kitty litter.

[Jordan]

Two year contract? Fuck that.

[Juice]

AT&T? Fuck that.

[Los Doyers]

$30 a month for unlimited data, beeyotch!

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Most people would be pissed if they bought one at all.

[Ted S.]

How many people are going to sue over this?

It wouldn't surprise me if some asshole state AG tried.

[Pro Libertate]

So if Scotland secedes, does that mean the return of the monarchy?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It means the return of legalized ginger inbreeding.

[Episiarch]

Dagless: The cabin crew suggested we all go out and club it. I had no option. It was that or one of their B&Bs;. I figured it'd be safer on the streets. For the first time ever I saw the Scotch in their natural habitat, and it weren't pretty. I'd seen them huddling in stations before, being loud but? this time I was surrounded. Everywhere I went it felt like they were watching me; fish-white flesh puckered by the Highland breeze; tight eyes peering out for fresh meat; screechy, booze-soaked voices hollering out for a taxi to take 'em halfway up the road to the next all-night watering hole. A shatter of glass; a round of applause; a sixteen-year-old mother of three vomiting in an open sewer, bairns looking on, chewing on potato cakes. I ain't never going back? not never.

Sanchez: My aunt lives in Scotland; she says it's quite nice.

Dagless: Well, she's wrong.

[Corning]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-DtAXBUpI

[Los Doyers]

Go on...

[C. Anacreon]

I wonder what old Shrimpy would have said about all this.

[John]

It means she is no longer the Queen of Scotland, just the Queen of England, Ulter and Whales. Sort of like when King John lost Normandy, the King was no longer Duke of Normandy.

[Pro Libertate]

Isn't there a Stuart claimant still around?

[John]

I bet so.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yeah, I think it's this guy.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Dammit

[Brett L]

I was expecting Idi Amin.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Actually I laughed at that

[Winston]

Well the Queen is still the Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands.

[PD Scott]

Scotland and England were dual kingdoms with the same monarch from 1603 until the Acts of Union in 1707. Only Jacobites believe the current line of succession is incorrect so I presume Franz, Duke of Bavaria won't be taking the throne.

[Pro Libertate]

What, you acknowledge some German pretenders to the throne? Ha! Bring back Stuart incompetence!

[Winston]

German pretenders to the throne

So, Elizabeth II?

[Pro Libertate]

Kraut.

[PD Scott]

Look, just because everyone knows the House of Windsor is really the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha doesn't mean Elizabeth II is German.

[Pro Libertate]

No, she's just descended from German usurpers.

[PD Scott]

There aren't any Stuarts, they died off and the most legitimate claimant is Franz.

[Winston]

Eh, I think it was more the Dutch who usurped the throne.

And it was James II's usurping younger daughter who passed the Union of England and Scotland/

[Pro Libertate]

Them, too. Full of usurpers. Bring back the Plantagenets!

[Corning]

The English are Germans.

[Agammamon]

Scotland is not leaving the UK, just GB.

[Winston]

Great Britain is the name of the Island that includes England, Wales and Scotland and was the name of the English and Scottish united state from 1707 to 1801. The UK is the name of the merger of GB and Ireland in 1801. Of course most of Ireland left in 1922 but the name "United Kingdom" remains the name of the State.

[CE]

What about the Andals and the First Men?

[Mickey Rat]

Andals=English

First Men=Celts(Scots)

[Episiarch]

They will make Sean Connery emperor. He is the last one!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

There can be only one.

[Pro Libertate]

They do that, I'm moving to Scotland.

[John]

That actually makes a lot of sense.

[Warty]

He's said that he won't set foot on Scottish soil until it's independent. So I think you're right.

[Redbeard]

No, that was Forest Whitaker.

[Pro Libertate]

You mean Idi Amin.

[Jerryskids]

I thought we had determined that it was always Haile Selassie.

[John]

It also means Scotland could declare its own royal family. I think I am up for that job.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You're a drunk?

[John]

I could be.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Wrong country - you just need a set of bagpipes, and no underwear.

[Pro Libertate]

I've got family that's supposedly descended from or at least related to Kenneth mac Alpin, so I'm willing to take the throne after whatever bloodbath is required.

[PD Scott]

I imagine they'll be a constitutional monarchy under Elizabeth the First of Scotland.

[Winston]

Great Britain was formed when England and Scotland, which where ruled by the same Queen, united in 1707. I suppose Scotland could appoint a new Monarch or become a Republic but I'm not sure of the exact legal situation?

[Ted S.]

Britain was formed long before that. 🙂

[Pro Libertate]

When the Earth cooled and the plates moved around a bit.

[Pro Libertate]

What? No. Piss off.

Too bad none of the Pythons are Scottish.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Scones and kilts will be mandatory.

[UCrawford]

Neither are Scottish.

[Pro Libertate]

Kilts may not have been invented by the Scots, but they certainly do wear them at times.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why is it attached to Scottish culture then?

What am I missing?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What am I missing?

A couple of chromosomes maybe?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Perhaps, but oh so drole. Yuk, yuk, yuk. It is to laugh.

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, why do Americans have a red, white, and blue flag?

[Los Doyers]

Um, the colors of freedom and liberty and- ah fuck it, I can't continue typing with a straight face.

[Corning]

Conan was a proto-Scot.

Not even joking.

Cimmerians are descended from the survivors of Atlantis and they devolved into ape like creatures then re-evolved into Cimmerians and then after the hyborian age Cimmeria broke off from the European continent to become Scotland.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

*starts looking for the Reynolds Wrap*

[Pro Libertate]

No, he's citing Robert E. Howard. I think the Cimmerians were supposed to be forebears of the Gaelic peoples.

[Corning]

I thought the Gauls were the Picts.

[Corning]

Then again maybe i don;t know what Gaeilic is.

from wikipedia:

In his essay The Hyborian Age, Howard states that "the Gaels, ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scotch, descended from pure-blooded Cimmerian clans," and he names Conan with a Celtic name, and portrays him cursing by Celtic gods, so obviously there is meant to be a strong cultural connection between his Cimmerians and the historical Gaelic people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmeria_(Conan)

[Pro Libertate]

It's all a sordid mess, with inbreeding, rape, pillage, and name-calling.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's all a sordid mess, with inbreeding, rape, pillage, and name-calling.

So, just like Scotland, I get it now.

[Pro Libertate]

Exactly.

[PD Scott]

From Scottish-History.com:

Nowadays, the kilt is seen as the national dress of Scotland. In fact, it started life as NO SUCH THING, being entirely confined to the Highlands. The Lowlanders, who have always made up the majority of Scots, regarded what they considered a "barbarous" form of apparel with'loathing' and 'contempt' and conferred the opprobrious term of 'redshanks' on the Highlanders, who were, they reckoned, what we would now term 'blue' with cold. But today anyone with the smallest claim to Scots ancestry (and not a few without) proudly wears the kilt; even Lowland chiefs and their followers vie with their Highland counterparts in a way which their forefathers would have found incomprehensible and appalling.

[Pro Libertate]

To be sure, the Lowlands Scots are just English people with bad habits. I mean, all the cool Scots came from the Highlands.

ABSOLUTE PROOF OF MY POSITION: There's no cool movie called Lowlander.

[Stormy Dragon]

OMG, did you just make a literal no true scottsman?

[Pro Libertate]

Indeed!

[Tonio]

OMG, did you just make a literal no true Scotsman? (ed.)

Why, yes, he did. Thus winning the whole interwebs for a very long time.

[Los Doyers]

I prefer scotch and haggis.

[Pro Libertate]

I have a cunning plan. A fondue with a scotch base in which one cooks chunks of haggis. The new national cuisine of FREE SCOTLAND!

[lap83]

at least it wouldn't taste any worse going down than coming up

[lap83]

or vice versa

[PapayaSF]

There are possible upsides to independence: Scotland is now a strong Labour bastion, so removing them from Parliament kneecaps the English Labour Party, to the benefit of the Tories and the UKIP. Then, Scotland on its own would have to get its economic act together, the way Slovakia did after independence.

[Pro Libertate]

Zombie Adam Smith for the win?

[PapayaSF]

Let's hope.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Scottish independence will give Quebec ideas.

Which is ironic given Scotland's contribution to the Dominion of Canada and who remain staunch loyalists.

[Pro Libertate]

Hold on, are you suggesting an impure union between Quebec and Scotland? Scotbec? There is a long history of alliance between France and Scotland, after all, so there is a vague historical justification.

[Winston]

Bring back the Auld Alliance!

[Los Doyers]

Quebec just wants its own m o m en t.

[grrizzly]

I think that supporters of Quebec's independence are perceived as losers by Scottish nationalists. I recall their leaders didn't want to be seen next to Pauline Marois.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They are indeed a ragged bunch the PQ and all the other separatist parties.

I don't blame Scotland. They have a rich history that actually contributed to Western civilization.

[Pro Libertate]

You know how they say the U.S. got all the good Germans after WWII? Same thing with Scots after 1600.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My Grandma went back in her 80's, and she was shocked at what she saw.

[CE]

Six Californias.

[Pro Libertate]

Six Californias, Quebec, and Scotland. Scotbecfornialand!

[Corning]

Scotland is now a strong Labour bastion

Marxists ruin everything.

[Tonio]

Scotland is now a strong Labour bastion.

I blame the English moving in to the South. Just sayin'

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

"Da Gou", China's Own Big Dog Robot

Two years ago, Boston Dynamic's four legged Big Dog robot was recruited as the U.S. Army's Legged Squad Support System (LS3) tech demonstrator. But in the meantime, China has not been standing still in the field of bionic robots. At a late August expo on unmanned technologies, NORINCO provided the first official look at a Chinese quadruped robot, officially named Mountainous Bionic Quadruped Robot (unofficially, people have dubbed it "Da Gou", which is Mandarin for Big Dog).

Developed by the NORINCO Vehicle Research Institute of arms manufacturer NORINCO, this "Da Gou" weighs 130kg by itself and can carry a 30kg payload. Da Gou can trot at a speed of about 6 kilometers an hour, and can handle slopes of up to 30 degrees. The Da Gou's size speed and slope climbing capability is similar to that of Big Dog (110 kg, 6.4 kmh and 35 degrees), Big Dog and LS3 carries 150-300kg of cargo.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

NORINCO, eh? I have a few of their products.

[Rhywun]

Inside-the-egg egg scrambler?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Close. AK-47.

[Pro Libertate]

As seen on TV.

[Mock-star]

I wish the ban on their products had a sunset

[jesse.in.mb]

Long form: Police intelligence targets cash

WaPo is doing a three-part series on asset forfeiture and the coordination and back-channel information that goes into it. Reason reader are already familiar with a lot of this, but the article will make blood boil.

In January last year, David hired himself and his top trainers out as a roving private interdiction unit for the district attorney's office in rural Caddo County, Okla. Working with local police, Desert Snow contract employees took in more than $1 million over six months from drivers on the state's highways, including Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City. Under its contract, the firm was allowed to keep 25 percent of the cash.

Part 1 is here and part three is coming.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Are you trying to steal Shackford's beat?

[jesse.in.mb]

Yes.

Wait, no!

*pulls on stealthy ninja mask*

[John]

I hope he is. Jesse would be a big improvement.

[jesse.in.mb]

Jesse would be a big improvement.

I appreciate the compliment, but am certain that's not the case.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

This country is overdue for a revolution.

[jesse.in.mb]

A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in the network's chat rooms and sharing "trophy shots" of money and drugs. Some police advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.

"All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine," Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County, Ill., wrote in a self-published book under a pseudonym. Hain is a marketing specialist for Desert Snow, a leading interdiction training firm based in Guthrie, Okla., whose founders also created Black Asphalt.

Hain's book calls for "turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

present-day Robin Hoods

I think you have your metaphor backwards.

[Winston]

Don't most Robin Hood tales and the current "Robin Hood" keep their loot?

[PD Scott]

No, see, because anyone they confiscate money from is an evil rich drug lord, and the money goes to the poor police departments, so cash strapped they have to take thrown away weapons and vehicles from the federal government.

[Brandon]

They think the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John are the good guys.

[Corning]

Author J.K. Rowling apparently believes that Scottish independence is for lowly muggles.

I thought she was a muggle?

Lower class single mom...

Sounds like a muggle to me.

Is it very smart to pull the class card in support of a unified England?

Maybe she was being sarcastic.

[PapayaSF]

"Devo Max" would be a great name for their greatest hits collection.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What's a muggle?

[Rich]

If you have to ask, you're one.

[Corning]

In the world of Harry Potter it is a non-magic using person.

The whole idea is steeped in English class system. Wizards who have muggle blood are considered lower class then full wizard blood people.

I think Harry Potter has some muggle blood. I can't remember and I have only seen most of the movies and read none of the books. I know his buddy, the red headed guy, has muggle blood and him and his family are treated like crap for it.

[PD Scott]

Harry has two magical parents. Lily was born to muggles but Harry isn't considered a mudblood except by the most racist magicians. Ron Weasley isn't hated for muggle blood, he's hated because he's poor, ginger and his family are pro-muggle. Hermione is a mudblood because she has two muggle parents.

[paranoid android]

the most racist magicians

Good Horrible name for a band.

[jesse.in.mb]

I think it was Hermione with the muggle blood. The red headed family was treated like shit because while they were an old family they lived rustic, lower class lives and the father had an eccentric fascination with muggle technology.

It's been a while though, so I could be wrong.

[Gene]

Muggles.

It's a slang term for cannabis.

[lap83]

I can't believe no one quoted rifftrax here...

"You see Harry, when one group of people is different from another, it helps to come up with a funny-sounding word-- or "slur"-- to describe them. "

[Bill Dalasio]

Rowling has even called parts of the debate "a little Death Eaterish for my taste."

Well, if that's the case, wouldn't that mean that secession would be strictly-non-mugglish?

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

The Relative Cost of Bandwidth Around the World

Spoiler alert: North America is the second-cheapest region.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Don't tell slashdot, you'll break their hearts.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

To be fair, at the consumer end US broadband pricing is pretty mediocre.

Our speeds are in the top 10, though. Our IPv6 penetration is also relatively high, which is kinda funny since we don't need it as badly as many of the countries that are behind us.

[Corning]

Ironically it is Google fiber which is responsible for much of the IPv6 penetration which was rolled out in response to net neutrality not coming through for them.

"No no evil ISPs don't throw me in the briar patch. Google says it is horrible."

[jesse.in.mb]

The Dying Russians

Long form article discussing the demographic crisis in Russia. The first five paragraphs seem like the whole thing is about feelz, but it gets fascinating pretty quickly.

In the seventeen years between 1992 and 2009, the Russian population declined by almost seven million people, or nearly 5 percent?a rate of loss unheard of in Europe since World War II. Moreover, much of this appears to be caused by rising mortality. By the mid-1990s, the average St. Petersburg man lived for seven fewer years than he did at the end of the Communist period; in Moscow, the dip was even greater, with death coming nearly eight years sooner.

It's a real fucking downer, but it's well worth the read.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I question the accuracy of record keeping during the Communist period.

[jesse.in.mb]

I dunno, communist regimes tend to be technocratic and very detail oriented. I'm sure Stalin was fapping to the number of disposable peasants that died each day for progress.

[paranoid android]

No one questions that they are detail oriented, it's whether those details bear any resemblance to reality that is suspect. During one of the show trials, Stalin's men prepared a meticulous and detailed account of how one suspect handed off vital intelligence to Trotskyite agents in Vienna. They had the exact date and time and the hotel where the meeting took place.

They were somewhat embarrassed when Western journalists did a little checking and discovered that the hotel where this rendezvous occurred had been demolished two years prior to the date and time the prosecutors had laid out.

Stalin was reported furious with his investigators: "Why did it have to be a specific hotel? Just say the rail station. There's always a rail station."

[PapayaSF]

Robert Heinlein wrote some interesting things after his visit to the USSR in the 1960s. His wife chatted with people about their families (very few had two or more kids), and they counted ships on the Volga (seemed to be fewer than Moscow needed to support its reported population), and he concluded that the official Russian population numbers were inflated. I've always wondered if he was correct.

[Invisible Finger]

The welfare state kills personal responsibility so much people no longer know how to take care of themselves. When the welfare state shrinks or vanishes, this is the result. Imagine the libertarian dream of ending the welfare state - this would be the result in America as well.

As HL Mencken would say, few of these deaths are deleterious.

[PapayaSF]

I think the US could handle the end of the welfare state better than Russia could handle the end of 70 years of Communism.

[grrizzly]

Oh, it's Masha Gessen. In the early 2000s she declared that anti-gay discrimination in Russia was gone and that she would not write any support letter on behalf of gay Russians seeking asylum abroad. The good days.

I've been reading her for almost two decades.

[jesse.in.mb]

In the early 2000s she declared that anti-gay discrimination in Russia was gone

Ha. That didn't work out very well for her. The best bits of the article are where she's block quoting Nicholas Eberstadt.

Oh, and I apparently missed you yesterday by 5 minutes. I was hoping to get a look at some Alaska vacation pictures.

[grrizzly]

Yes, that's unfortunate, hopefully next time. Then I may even have the pictures to show. I took hundreds if not thousands of them but, as usual, it will take me awhile to process them.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sympathetic. I have some great shots of Yosemite from a year or two ago that haven't gotten much further than being unceremoniously dumped on my hard drive.

[Sudden]

If its any consolation, when I return from my Siberian trip, I will immediately share with you photos of all the Russian corpses I'll have to walk upon as I traverse the country (assuming the validity of the linked piece).

[Sudden]

One woman says that the difference between current poverty and poverty in the postwar era is that "now there are rich folks."

So their fatalism is caused by envy?

[jesse.in.mb]

I think Gessen is arguing that's part of it but that other factors are at play as well.

But envy is a powerful force. If you compare the wealthy of a few generations ago to the paupers of today we seem very well off. But people seem stuck on the paupers of today compared to the wealthy of today and they're upset by that.

[Sudden]

"In a terrible sense it was as if the poverty of her youth and the poverty of the early 1990s had merged together. Thirty-five years of her life, from age nineteen when she started work in the mechanics factory to age fifty-five when the Soviet Union fell, fell out of view."

Sadly, this is a consequence of seen vs. unseen. She saw the prosperity from the Kruschev era through the fall of the Soviet Union and thought it some permenant fixture. However, what wasn't seen was the fact that what was erected was ultimately a house of cards that was destined to fall as it was constructed on borrowed money. The same is what's happeneing with the entitlement state in the U.S. and the broader Western world, and when it collapses, the view will be the same: "if only we had that wonderfully lavish social safety net that we had before" without any recognition that it is that very safety net that planted the seeds of its own demise.

[Winston]

Wasn't the Union of England and Scotland bought through use of massive amounts of bribes to the Scottish aristocrats in Scottish Parliament? Not helping matters was the massive debts from the Darien Scheme.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Export-Import bank may get an extended lease on life while congrecritters get their politicking out of the way.

Let us give thanks to Our Lady of Perpetual Electioneering.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Wuhan college builds transparent, 'economical' bathrooms in dorms

Those rooms look pretty big, especially considering that it's Asia.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'm one step closer to my dream of being able to take a dump in the shower.

[Corning]

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

[PapayaSF]

The local Communist Party princeling owns the local glass manufacturer...?

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Apparently they can't handle frosted glass, though.

[PapayaSF]

Cutting corners.

[Rhywun]

Compared to most public Chinese bathrooms, that is pretty damn luxurious. Hell, it's got a sit-down toilet.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

All hail the chief!

It's Official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times

[PD Scott]

When things are good, it is because of the President. When things are bad, it's because of his predecessor.

[PD Scott]

I mean, it couldn't possibly be that economies improve or decline without the benevolent hand of a great leader, right?

[PapayaSF]

Ach, what bull. It's more of a dead cat bounce.

[CE]

The Quantitative Easing President.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

If you look behind the "unemployment rate" number, you start to see that it is all smoke and mirrors.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Someone on my FB posted this link with the caption:

"I love obama... But I think he is too good a person to keep his job... Don't politicians have to be spineless assholes??"

Jesus...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You did explain to him he won't be getting fired because, you know, two terms, right?

[Sudden]

Jebus Christ. The TEAM derp in that comment thread is mind-numbing.

[jesse.in.mb]

Crimea Chief Says Gays Not Needed

The senior official in Crimea says sexual minorities "have no chance" on the peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.

Aksyonov said that if gays tried to hold public gatherings, "our police and self-defense forces will react immediately and in three minutes will explain to them what kind of sexual orientation they should stick to."

He said Crimean children should be brought up with a "positive attitude to family and traditional values."

I wonder if "explaining" would involve Cossack horse-whipping.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

5 bucks says he's gay.

[jesse.in.mb]

He could be an adulterer or kiddy diddler or something and wants to demonize a different group to stroke his own moral superiority.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That too. Nobody is that vehement without having their own hidden guilt.

[Sudden]

I dunno. I think that level of projection is something common in the West, but in an Eastern culture, it could be something different. Hard to say.

[Rhywun]

OK this bothers me for some reason - how is Crimea (and esp. Russia which is always calling itself "Eastern") not "Western" in any sense other than relative geography? To me, "Eastern culture" is like China or Japan.

[Mickey Rat]

Older definition of "East" and "West". The difference between those Christian cultures that consider themselves inheritors of the Eastern Roman Empire and those of the Western Empire.

[Coeus]

97 hours of consensus

For the next 97 hours every hour a different scientist will twit to show their support for the CAGW consensus.

[Pro Libertate]

Politics or science? You make the call!

[Coeus]

The newest trick I've been seeing is people typing "climate change/global warming/sea level rise" all together like that. Since sea level rise is real (but not increasing) they're hitching the train to that instead of temperature. And it's working.

I asked about a dozen people I know, most of them smart and technical, if there the sea level ever increased before the 1800s. Only one said yes. They are banking on this knowledge hole.

[Juice]

Sea level has been rising almost continuously for thousands of years. There have been a few retreats but overall it's still rising since the last major glaciation.

[Coeus]

Correct. But it seems that that is no longer taught in schools. It we should make it a point to mention this whenever a climate argument breaks out. I never even considered that people might not know this.

[Pro Libertate]

The fact that science can be affected by votes--which it most assuredly is--is highly distressing. My hopes for longevity, flying cars, and a post-scarcity society driven by technological advance are rather dependent on a robust and fundamentally sound scientific community.

[PapayaSF]

"Pay no attention to the last 18 years of measurements! Look at our computer models instead!"

[Coeus]

Good summary. Also this:

Professor Ann Henderson Sellers
Macquarie University
Expertise: Climate change models & communication

What do you figure that means?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

She has a degree in propaganda.

[Coeus]

Also I saw a climate change article the other day. No commenters posted the cato climate change caculator.

Every time someone mentions experts, or especially nasa, someone should post this link. It's done with nasa's own calculations. If they deny it, they're denying science.

[Atanarjuat]

Holy fuck, the climate model simulator is called "MAGICC"*.

*MAGICC: Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse-gas Induced Climate Change

[PapayaSF]

I like the idea, but not the implementation. For one thing, it'd be nice to have the output in Fahrenheit. Also, shown as a total. I.e., instead of giving a result like "in 2100 the average world temperature will be lower by .173 degrees Celsius," it should give the average world temperature both with and without the change.

[Gene]

Maximum economic disruption for negligible impact, what's the problem?

[Corning]

I am pretty sure 97% of the web traffic skepticalscience.com gets is from people who don't believe in AGW and read it just to be pissed off.

[C. Anacreon]

I'm assuming that they are doing 97 hours because of the overly-repeated claim that 97% of "scientists" agree on AGW. But of course, the tiny study that led to the 97% number shouldn't have even stood up to basic peer review, and was ridiculously slanted.

Indeed, if 97% really do agree, why do you even have to keep trumpeting this? Has there ever been any part of "science" that had to continually push an idea that the general public dismissed? I mean, even the vast majority of smokers accept that cigarettes are bad for them.

[Coeus]

A Taxonomy of Mansplainers

The Logician
He would really love to debate and discuss a number of hot-button issues with you - but only if you make sure to balance your "emotions" with logic and reason. Don't you see? Your arguments are more sound that way!

The example there was a guy asking why something was racist. How dare he!!!

And my favorite:

The Fact-Checker
This variety of mansplainer has looked at your evidence and discerned it to be wrong. Utterly wrong. He looked it up on Wikipedia, and you don't even know the first thing about it.

When a wrong thing is said, it apparently just ? hangs there until he righteously sets it right. He nails down hard facts, and punishes those who would seek to manipulate them for their devious ends. After all, people who say wrong things must have malicious intent.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A complete repudiation of rationality, that's what they want.

[waffles]

*refudiation

[PapayaSF]

How dare they use logic and facts, those misogynists!

[Mickey Rat]

"Your arguments are more sound that way!"

Because they actually are more sound?

[Invisible Finger]

The European Union slapped Russia with new energy sanctions for being very naughty in Ukraine.

Women and children hardest hit.

/rayrice

[SugarFree]

Mandy Marcotte is no longer listening! lalalalalalalalala!

[Coeus]

Melody Hensley of the Center for Inquiry came out about being diagnosed with PTSD, due to Twitter harassment. Feminist vlogger Anita Sarkeesian was recently driven out of her home by a man making threats on Twitter.

[John]

Her article about the "tyranny of cooking meals" ought to be engraved on her tombstone. It sums up everything she is. Its an entire article whining about how its such a tyranny to have to cook for yourself and how horrible the world is because everyone can't live like the lord of Downton Abbey and waited on hand and foot 24/7.

When you think about it, that is really who she is. Her entire existence is one giant cry in the wilderness about how horrible it is that the world doesn't cater to her every whim.

Next up, Amanda explains the tyranny of home bathing and dressing yourself.

[PapayaSF]

Her speil also amounts to "I attack men and whites and conservatives and libertarians all the time, but when people attack me and people on my side, it's mean!"

[Gluesponge]

..and she realizes that her familial and friend associations are all echo-chambers (her term "love"), so she doesn't have to listen to all the "meanies" on the internet.

She was an early adopter of Twitter. So what? I used the internet before the Web. Big deal.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Slate Plus? What the fuck did you guys do?!?

[John]

Pay to find out what full retard really looks like.

[ant1sthenes]

It's the intellectual version of a freakshow.

[Corning]

I remember slate starting out as a pay for view site...that failed so they became free.

Now I guess they think if it failed the first time might as well try again.

From Wikipedia:

In March 1998, Slate attracted considerable notice by charging a $19.95 annual subscription fee, becoming one of the first sites (outside of pornography and financial news) to attempt a subscription-based business model. The model did not work; in February 1999, Slate returned to free content, citing both sluggish subscription sales and increased advertising revenue

[Aloysious]

Funny; I swore off reading anything by that woman a long time ago.

[John]

It is like staring a car wreck. You shouldn't do it and you feel bad afterwards but you can't help but look sometimes.

[This Machine Kills 40s]

*mouses over link*

Don't do it. Don't click, you idiot, you know exactly what you're going to get.

*thinks about it*

DON'T FUCKING DO IT! THIS SHIT IS BRAIN POISON!

*clicks anyway, starts reading page*

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-

[Marshall Gill]

Nutra Sweet, damn you to hell! I was stupid enough to read only two comments to that article and this was the second one, I swear.

That 'sticks and stones' rhyme we teach children is the literal opposite of what we should be teaching youth.

Almost no one teaches this!! That is why people like Amanda are so deeply fucked up. Now off to the liquor store for a half gallon of cheap whiskey.

[Mad Scientist]

Physical harm is harmless! The opinions of others are all that matters!

[PD Scott]

sticks and stones

So the poster is okay with other people hitting them with rocks, etc. as long as no one says anything mean to them while they are doing it?

[Corning]

That is why people like Amanda are so deeply fucked up. Now off to the liquor store for a half gallon of cheap whiskey.

soo...

Her words did hurt you.

[Rich]

Obama is expected to outline his [Islamic State] plan Wednesday to the American people.

"Let me be clear. This situation, uh, is unacceptable, as well as unsustainable. And since Congressional Republicans, uh, refuse to act, I promise I will look for whatever legal, uh, actions I have to protect the American People."

[Pro Libertate]

". . .and I fully expect my successor to firmly deal with this threat after I'm no longer in any way responsible for deciding, um, anything."

[Rich]

"God bless you, God bless America, and God bless those who fight those who have hijacked a Great Religion."

[Pro Libertate]

"God blesses those who bless themselves."

[PapayaSF]

Hey, focus groups take time.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

How does the top of a roller coaster catch on fire?
http://ktla.com/2014/09/08/fir.....r-coaster/

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Hat tip Jesse in MB.

[Mad Scientist]

I'll hazard a guess that the chain motor lives up there. The ride may not be running, but the motor likely still has power hooked up. Some old wiring finally shorted and lit the kindling coaster up.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I re-watched. You are probably 100% right. It's at the top of the first hump, and it's a gravity fed coaster.

It's been closed for a month. You'd think they would have cut power by now....

[Rich]

Bet it's those guys who put the white flags on the Brooklyn Bridge!

[Corning]

How does the top of a roller coaster catch on fire?

So if you tow a coaster up to the top in order to fall and ride out the track where do you think they put the engine and gears that pull the coaster to the top?

Which parts of a roller coaster get the hottest? Engines and gears or other parts?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It was decommissioned last month. Mad Scientist probably nailed it. That, or we had a thunderstorm this morning.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sounds like a cheap way to demo it, and maybe collect some insurance.

[Winston]

Ah speaking of Scotland and the Hanoverians/Saxe Coburg Gothans did you know that New York City and State along with Albany were named after a slave trader? Someone tell De Blasio and Andrew Cuomo.

[Pro Libertate]

UNCLEAN.

[PapayaSF]

Let's start a movement to force them to change those offensive names!

[Juice]

I live in a city named after one of the largest plantation/slave owners in the country at the time.

[Aloysious]

Does anybody have a single good thing to say about the McAfee security program, or am I missing some of its better qualities? Because I am seriously hating it right at the moment.

[Mad Scientist]

Uninstall it. The only thing it's good for is fucking up your system.

[Aloysious]

That is my reaction to that POS as well. Thinking about going with Avast freeware. The old computer had AVG, and no problems whatsoever.

[CE]

McAfee doesn't just detect viruses, it is a virus. Kaspersky is the way to go.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The founder of the company seems pretty awesome.

[paranoid android]

Ever see that Simpsons episode where Bart buys a factory at a tax auction? He and Milhouse have fun screwing around in it for a couple days. Bart comes back one day to find the whole thing has collapsed to ruins and Milhouse is standing outside staring at it.

"Milhouse, what happened? You were supposed to be the night watchman."

"I was watching! First it started to fall over. Then it fell over."

That's the best metaphor I can come up with for how McAfee keeps your stuff secure.

[Aloysious]

Dear gawd. I am hating it more and more every second that goes by.

[Juice]

It's not as bad as Symantec.

[Winston]

Virginia and West Virginia ought to be renamed for having names endorsing slut shaming. And Joe Biden ought to have his state renamed for being named after a guy who tried to overthrow the government.

[Corning]

his state renamed for being named after a guy who tried to overthrow the government.

Can Washington DC be renamed as well for being named after a guy who did overthrow the government?

[CE]

So now the NFL suspends Ray Rice indefinitely, after suspending him 2 games following their investigation, then changing their league policy to 6 games for domestic violence. How did they think he knocked her out before? By not punching her?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Plus, they already had the other video. It shows Rice dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator.

[waffles]

Optics!

[jmomls]

Good thing he didn't step on another player's head with his cleats and bust him open like stuck pig--he might have gotten another 100 million dollar contract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.....g_incident

[The Late P Brooks]

It's a good thing Ray Rice hasn't sent any racist e-mails, or he'd really be in trouble.

[The artist known Dunphy]

Here is an example of the kind of good acts that cops do day in and day out. They rarely make the mass media let alone a place like reason. Administrators generally don't like to make press releases unless it's some kind of incident like a cop shooting where they have to.

And even when they make a press release the press will rarely pick up the story and run with it because they prefer bleeding stories, in order for them to lead. If the cops supervisor hadn't shown up and decided to start filming there would likely be no record whatsoever due to no video and most cops wouldn't write a report either.

Even when cops go beyond what people expect of them you were simply almost never going to hear about it. But since the supervisor decided to film it and the chief was progressive enough to release it and we have YouTube here it is. Maybe in this case some media outlets have picked it up I did not do a search for that.

As far as I can tell from the sparse facts surrounding this incident, this cop was not dispatched to the call but came about it on his own accord. He was familiar with the two dogs and came upon one dog looking agitated and decided to investigate. I would assume the water in April in a Texas harbor is not particularly warm.

-happy to show how phenomenally rarely they use force and that a NYPD cop is 100 times or more likely to get shot on duty as a random person is to get shot by a cop.

[C. Anacreon]

Dunphy, is it really you? Been awhile.

[Sudden]

Maybe he's actually been working. I like to think that he only comments when he's on Administrative Leave due to beating the living shit out of someone.

[New West Republic]

Example missing and [citation needed] on the 100x thing.

Including kills only, there have been 323 NYPD cops shot dead since 1845, an average of 1.91 per year. I don't think there are any official numbers on how many NYPD kills per year, and how many are "random persons" if such a thing even exists in the porcine mind.

[The artist known Dunphy]

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/d.....t_2012.pdf

In brief in 2012 there were 30 people shot by police out of the population of 8.2 million. And actually there are substantially more than 8.2 million people in New York during the daytime because there's a net influx of people for jobs etc. and Manhattan actually doubles it's population during the workday

New York City Police has 35,000 officers and in that same year 13 were shot. None were killed but 13 were shot and wounded

So do the math plz. cop is hundred times more likely to be shot by some person in New York City then that person is likely to be shot by a cop

And of course for the average person not committing a felony not on some wild drug rampage etc. your chances are substantially smaller than than What I calculated. out of the 30 shot by police a substantial percentage of them fit in a relatively small demographic convicted felon's engagement violent crimes probably drug use etc.

And yes cops shoot certain minorities disproportionately but the disproportionality tends to correlate with the disproportionate crime offender rate as documented in the and NCVS.

Note also that many people here think police are trigger-happy towards black people because they are disproportionately shot by police. However stats show for example from 1985 to 1994 nationwide 40% of cops killed were killed by black males who the make up about 6% of the population.

[The artist known Dunphy]

Cops shoot some demographic groups Disproportionately. However that disproportionality closely matches the disproportionality of offender rate in part one crimes Based upon the Disproportionality to Which Those Groups engage in the Kind of Violent Crime That Tends to Get You shot.

If you really want to look at disproportionality look at how much more likely cops are to shoot a minority called man versus the majority who are called women

Roughly 5% of people shot by police women. Again, the disproportionality correlates with part I. Offender rates and also with rates at which they shoot cop.

[cavalier973]

Truett Cathey went on to his reward. St. Peter will finally get to enjoy a delicious chicken sandwich.

[The artist known Dunphy]

Lots of other nifty stats in this report for example NYPD officers in 2012 shot one person for every 800,000 dispatched calls or on view incidents they responded to.

In that year 26,000 arrests for unlawful weapon use

5700 unlawful gun use arrests

1374 shooting incidents investigated that year

And again only 30 people shot out of way more than 8.2 million (stats using 8.2 mill make shootings per persons in NYC appear more common than they actually are. So the .0004% is actually going to be lower technically

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Yeah, he post generally dumb stuff all the time.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I feel like writing: Such a good person that he personally gave the OK to assassinate a 16 year old US citizen.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So do it. Throw it in their faces.

[Los Doyers]

Do it, then screenshot the response and post it here.

[Gluesponge]

I point that out all the time to the Progs I know, and they claim "he deserved it."

I never get a clarification as to why the President gets to violate the Constitution on a whim. They seem to think there's some magical litmus test that equates loyalty to the US government as the only way you get "Constitutional Protection"....

It's nauseating, really. But fun to watch them froth at the mouth...

[John]

Be a founding member and get an Matthew Yglieses bib druel wipe.

[Sudden]

Yeah, but Playa, after she flung herself repeatedly against his fist, it was his duty as a gentleman to assist her from the elevator.

I see you have a bright future in law enforcement.