Cruz Booed, Palin Brawls, Cat Enthusiast Seeks Greatest Yearbook Picture Ever: A.M. Links

• 

  Trinacria Photography / Facebook

  Republican Sen. Ted Cruz offended the crowd at an event he attended, "In Defense of Christans." Cruz told attendees that persecuted Christians had no greater friend than Israel, which prompted boos.

• Ohio authorities apprehended escaped convict T.J. Lane. Lane, 19, had been serving three life sentences for murdering three classmates at his high school. At his trial, he showed no remorse, taunted his victims' families, and laughed when the verdict was read. He escaped with two other inmates but was caught early Friday morning.
• Apparently the Palin family got into some sort of fight with the locals at an Alaskan snowmobile race. Someone told Bristol Palin that she couldn't just do whatever she wanted because,"This isn't some Hillbilly reality show."
• A sixth grade teacher in the Washington, D.C., area apologized for giving her students a homework assignment that required them to make a Venn diagram comparing President George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler.
• New York public school student Draven Rodriguez has a dream: He wants a weird picture of hin and his cat to make it into the yearbook. Fight the good fight, kid. (The picture is the greatest thing ever.)

Follow Reason and Reason 24/7 on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. You can also get the top stories mailed to you—sign up here.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Someone told Bristol Palin that she couldn't just do whatever she wanted because,"This isn't some Hillbilly reality show."

Seems like there'd be video, reality show or not.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

You're not at war with ISIS.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/.....isit-isis/

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I thought we were always at war with ISIS.

[UnCivilServant]

We have always been in a quantum war with ISIS - both at war and not at war.

[CatoTheElder]

A new take on Orwell:

Kerry's ISIS = Schrodinger's cat.

This is doubleplusgood doublespeak.

[AlmightyJB]

What's wrong with being a hillbilly?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cruz told attendees that persecuted Christians had no greater friend than Israel, which prompted boos.

Yeah, who doesn't love the Jews.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

You know who else didn't love...ah, fuck it.

[Restoras]

The Reverend Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Annie Hall's grandma?

[Lt Womack]

Data?

[Atanarjuat]

Have Israelis ever done anything to help persecuted Christians around the world? Not that I expect them to, but it seems that was what Ted Cruz was saying.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Israeli's let Christians worship openly within Israel without chopping off their heads. Outside of Israel? I dunno.

[Jose Chung]

Well, except for the one....

[AlmightyJB]

Nice:) although he was a jew.

[Drake]

I believe his point was that Christians and Jews are in the same boat. The groups hunting down Christians are the same who already chased out the Jews and want them dead. Israel is the only tolerant country in the Middle East.

How this kind of statement could spark boos or controversy is a mystery to me.

[Atanarjuat]

How this kind of statement could spark boos or controversy is a mystery to me.

I don't get it either. I would expect most people who see Cruz speak are fairly pro-Israel.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The article says there were just a few people who were booing. It seems that Cruz overreacted and made it into a big deal.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOOZ6aPooSk

Don't agree with his position, but I don't blame him for walking off stage.

[Zeb]

Israel is the only tolerant country in the Middle East.

I guess maybe tolerant isn't necessarily the right word, but Lebanon is like 40% Christian.

[Drake]

I think Balkanized better describes most of Lebanon. Following Mormon or Hare Krishna missionaries through the Bekaa Valley would make an awesome reality show.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

Might end rather abruptly.

[CatoTheElder]

For about a millennium there were Christian minorities in the Levant and Iraq that managed an uneasy relationship with Muslim rulers and Muslim majorities. Under the Ottoman Empire, the relationship was fairly stable, though Christians did have second-class dhimmi status. WW I and Sykes-Picot changed all of this, but European administration of the region was a mixed bag for the Christian minority (disaster in Turkey; not so bad elsewhere). However, the creation of the state of Israel after WW II changed everything for Christian minorities everywhere in the Near East. It polarized the region, and most Muslim Arabs interpreted this development to mean that the infidels, including the dhimmi, were at war with the Muslim Ummah. Jews were, of course, expelled outright. Christians were persecuted.

Israel may be the most tolerant state in the region with respect to religion, but only because its creation so polarized the region. However, its formation has done nothing good for the Christian minorities that have resided in the region for the past 2000 years. And every US intervention has only made things worse for them. Curiously, the secular totalitarian monsters in Syria and Iraq had no reason the crush the Christian minorities because they had no political ambition because they were a subdued minority. Now that the US has liberated Iraq, the Christian minorities are experiencing deadly persecution.

[Azathoth!!]

I'm unsure how you missed noticing that your 'tolerant' countries were 'tolerant' of the dhimmi. Maybe you weren't paying attention when you wrote it?'

There is nothing 'tolerant' about dhimmi status.

[Juice]

Israel is the only tolerant country in the Middle East.

Well, besides Lebanon, it is now. Christians were living in Iraq and Syria for centuries. The Iraq War fucked all that shit up.

[Steve G]

Have they ever done anything to help their "#1 ally" for that matter??
It's a one-sided relationship all around with these guys. Is it really any surprise why they piss so many people off?

[Mike M.]

They prevented at least two of these psychotic middle eastern Muslim countries from becoming nuclear powers; a very good thing for America and the entire civilized world.

[Steve G]

very good thing

Says them, and they did it to retain strategic advantage, not cause they were looking out for us. If this were a worthwhile goal, they and us would be actively seeking to disarm Pak, NK, etc.

[Bill Dalasio]

...and they did it to retain strategic advantage, not cause they were looking out for us.

That's a pretty silly retort. If you get open heart surgery, the doctor who's saving your life is doing it because he expects to get paid, not because he's looking out for you. Is that any less reason to be grateful for his skill and effort?

[Mike M.]

Exactly. As if everything we in America do is completely out of our kind, altruistic hearts and not out of self-interest.

And I don't even know what to make out of the "says them" part.

[Steve G]

I would have to say yes, it's less reason to be grateful; I paid him to fix my heart, he didn't do me a favor.
My orig point is that our alliance is a one-way street. Mike M gave an example presumably of them looking out for us, which is really them looking out for them.
How much of an ally can they be when a primary consideration whenever we conduct operations in the ME is 'how do we keep Israel out of it'?

[jmomls]

*How much of an ally can they be when a primary consideration whenever we conduct operations in the ME is 'how do we keep Israel out of it'?*

We keep Israel out of it so the rest of the lunatic Arab Muslim states don't jump in the fight.

This is why Saddam launched Scuds at Israel during Operation Desert Storm, to try to lure other state to his side when the Israelis fought back.

[gimmeasammich]

Yeah, who doesn't love the Jews.

+1 Lucille Bluth

[Fist of Etiquette]

Finally.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Alimony for Your Eggs
...Mr. Lieberman is asking his client's soon-to-be-former husband of eight years to pay $20,000 to cover her egg-freezing procedure, medication costs and several years of egg storage. "When they got married, the expectation was they would start a family," he told me. "Now she might not have the chance much longer."...

...All of a sudden, fertility has been assigned a value. If the point of a divorce settlement is to take inventory of a couple's joint life and divide the assets, then that commodity belongs on the negotiating table ? alongside vacation time-shares and projected earnings from his and her M.B.A.'s.

In the New Jersey couple's case, they decided to divorce after undergoing several failed attempts at in vitro fertilization. Mr. Lieberman's argument is that since fertility treatments were part of the marriage, they should be considered part of the marital lifestyle, which should be maintained as much as possible post-divorce. The only difference is, in the future, she'll use another man's sperm....

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Aw c'mon, what the hell?

[Johnny Bravo]

In the New Jersey couple's case, they decided to divorce after undergoing several failed attempts at in vitro fertilization.

They or she?

No matter, that is fooked up. Maybe the US should nuke NJ, just to be sure.

[DontShootMe]

... from orbit ...

[Brett L]

I'd tell my lawyer, "fuck no. she'd have an in for getting child support if I contribute in any way to any child she has in the future. Fight this one all the way to the end."

[Atanarjuat]

His lawyers should make the ex-wife pay for hookers for life, since he "expected" sex at least once a week in perpetuity. Oh wait, the resources only flow toward the woman, I forgot.

[lap83]

I hate women who act like a child is a pet they're entitled to. Newsflash, maybe you shouldn't have a kid if you have to use legal coercion. "Mommy, how was I made?" "well, honey, when a divorcee and her lawyer love each other very much..."

[antisocial-ist]

They don't have to be in love, they could just be drunk.

[Lord Humungus]

Venezuela Threatens Harvard Professor for Default Comment

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro instructed the attorney general and public prosecutor to take "actions" against Harvard Professor Ricardo Hausmann, saying the economist sought to destabilize the country by suggesting the government default on its debt.

Maduro lashed out at Hausmann during a televised address last night, calling him a "financial hitman" and "outlaw" who forms part of a campaign "that has been initiated around the world against Venezuela." He didn't specify what actions he had asked the attorney general and prosecutor to take.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

*Harry Reid perks up and takes notice*

[DontShootMe]

You're kidding, right? When did someone learn to reanimate the dead?

[UnCivilServant]

SoNAR has been doing it for a while now.

[Ted S.]

Venezuela is going to default on their debt anyway.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

And now Maduro moves to take "actions" against Ted S.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Mad Dog also notes that Venezuela would never default on its debts, but would instead repudiate them as venal and bourgeois relics of an unjust economic system.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I slept with a girl from Venezuela while vacationing in South Beach once.

I know Venezuelans intimately.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/grin.

[Lord Humungus]

You didn't use a roll of Charmin as bait did you?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'll admit it. I laughed at that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Charmin?

Snob.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Snob?

Cheap date.

[Suthenboy]

That is right, Venezuela's troubles are because not everyone thinks socialism is a good idea. If just one person doesn't believe then socialism won't work. We must take action against those people.

Jesus fuck, how stupid do you have to be to think socialism is a good idea? (yeah, I am looking at you Barry)

[Fist of Etiquette]

He wants a weird picture of hin and his cat to make it into the yearbook.

Put it in there but airbrush Rodriguez out.

[Raven Nation]

I'm assuming there will be Rodriquez beatings at some point in the near future.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You never know. Kids are different these days.

[Juice]

That's a great looking cat but I didn't think the picture was as "epic" and "awesome" as people are saying. Shrug.

[Restoras]

Yup, all Christians are bad. All of them. All are raving Anti-Semites. Well done Soave.

[Jordan]

What? How did you get that from his post?

[Restoras]

It's obvious! I mean, aside from the fact that the Christians that booed him off stage were Lebenese and Palistinian Christians, all Christians are evil and anti-semitic, well except a lot of Catholics and Evangelicals, but they are still all Christians so obviously don't deserve any differentiation from the anti-semitic Lebanese and Palistinian Christians.

[Jordan]

I don't think Robby was implying anything. Chill, bro.

[Restoras]

Yeah, I'm sure you're right.

[Ted S.]

EvH hacked Restoras' account?

[Zeb]

Apparently.

[Steve G]

Please consult your doctor for outrage erections lasting longer than 4 hours

[sarcasmic]

Duplin County K-9 dead, deputy suspended

http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/09.....-suspended

As of now, Williams is not charged with any crime because the da said there was no willful criminal intent

Since when did that matter?

[Ted S.]

They better not have a state funeral with hundreds of cops in attendance.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Weddings and funerals make for excellent drone strike targets.

[Brett L]

Its nice they've rediscovered mens rea. Now we just have to convince them that the little people deserve it to.

[sarcasmic]

Off-duty cop chokes, pushes and slams 24-year-old bachelorette in vicious arrest caught on casino's security cameras

Amy Walsh is filing a lawsuit against Harrah's Casino, claiming an off-duty police officer working as a security guard hurt her there in 2012
The then 24-year-old was celebrating a friend's bachelorette party when she was kicked out of a nightclub
She was taken to a holding center when off-duty officer Dayton Brown was caught on security tape choking and pushing her
At the time, she was too ashamed to report the officer's behavior, but found the courage after others came forward with similar stories

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....meras.html
For some reason cops just love to choke people. Must be that feeling of having someone's life in your hands, literally. Just another squeeze and their dead. Ahhhh, power.

[Ted S.]

Nothing else happened.

Will the media go as nuts as they have over Ray Rice?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

HAS ROGER GOODELL SEEN THIS VIDEO!?????

[Juice]

24?

[Lord Humungus]

Unprecedented in France: Front National's Le Pen tops presidential poll for first time

Polls out in the past few days in France have shown far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen topping a presidential poll for the first time. This matters as supporters of main parties may no longer be doubling up to push out Front National. Meanwhile, President Hollande's popularity has hit an unprecedented low.

[gaijin]

In France, does 'far right' mean the same thing as in the rest of the world?

[UnCivilServant]

Far right in France means left of center

[Ted S.]

Actually, it means that you don't agree with their equivalent of the Beltway Class.

The other slur word being used to shut down debate is "neo-liberal" (with "liberal" in the classical sense).

[ant1sthenes]

No, in France the center is "democratic socialist", the left is "communist", and the right is "national socialist". Le Pen is... not good people.

[jmomls]

A vote for LePen is a vote for fun.

[creech]

Could be. My French tour guide told me that the French consider Obama to be right of center.

[Zeb]

"Far Right" doesn't mean the same in the rest of the world either. In Europe, it tends to mean a more nationalistic type of socilaist, possibly with slightly less overt socialism.

[Citizen Nothing]

You know who else liked a nationalistic type of socialism, possibly with slightly less overt socialism?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Sen. Harry Reid?

[Lt Womack]

Every "conservative" opinion writer for the NYT?

[Cdr Lytton]

Oswald Mosley?

[The Original Jason]

Alexander Raven Thomson?

[CatoTheElder]

B. Obama?

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

"Socialism with no furriners"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"A sixth grade teacher in the Washington, D.C., area apologized for giving her students a homework assignment that required them to make a Venn diagram comparing President George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler."

There are no more words.

[Auric Demonocles]

So it's some kind of collage style Venn diagram?

[gaijin]

A sixth grade teacher in the Washington, D.C.,

I'm guessing she didn't know it was called a 'Venn diagram'...that's what she is sorry about.

[DesigNate]

Not that I think Obama is anywhere near Hitler (yet at least. Give Tony (read: the base) the opportunity and he'd be calling for the President to set up camps for all conservatives and libertarians) but there is WAY more overlap in their personal stories.

[sarcasmic]

Moment armed secret service agents took down intruder in Pokemon mask on White House lawn on 9/11 anniversary

Intruder dressed in bizarre Pokemon merchandise
Armed officers apprehended the unidentified man immediately
Man taken arrested and taken into custody
Onlookers tweeted '#pikachu' and '#yolo'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rsary.html
I'm surprised they took him alive. I would think they'd just kill people for trespassing on the king's lawn.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

If he had been driving, with a child in the car...

[gaijin]

Well, she did almost hit a hero with her car...so death sentence

[Fist of Etiquette]

A sixth grade teacher in the Washington, D.C., area apologized for giving her students a homework assignment that required them to make a Venn diagram comparing President George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler.

Now that's how you display your biases. With gusto.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

But she apologized....that takes the gusto out of it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest maybe she exists in an echo chamber and had little idea there were people out there who might not share her politics.

[Lord Humungus]

"But everyone I know voted for McGovern!"

[NoVAHockey]

what's fascinating is (according to local radio) the parent who complained make it clear that he "didn't share Bush's political views."

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

That is the "with all due respect" preface to anything in Bluetopia.

[sarcasmic]

Deep space here we come! Orion shuttle designed to fly astronauts to Mars is prepped for test flight

An unmanned version of the Orion capsule has been under construction for three years at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
It is due to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket on December 4 from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
In December, Orion will be flown to an altitude of 3,600 miles from Earth, 14 times farther away than the International Space Station
A test flight with crew aboard is set for 2021 - eventually, the U.S. space agency wants to fly a four-member crew to Mars

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

[Auric Demonocles]

Get back to me when someone actually leaves LEO. Or hell, at this point, when NASA even gets someone to LEO themselves.

[sarcasmic]

http://xkcd.com/1074/

[gaijin]

Hey, we can always hitch rides with the Russians...oh wait...

[Entropy Void]

... into Ukraine?

[Pro Libertate]

You're being too harsh. NASA will get someone to LEO soon. . .via someone else's rocket.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's what the "themselves" was about.

[Pro Libertate]

They'll use their, er, our money to buy seats and cargo space.

[CatoTheElder]

NASA has really become pathetic. Though it has done some interesting stuff lately (Mars rover), most of the coverage it gets is about global warming and lame astrobiology speculation.

One of NASA's "foremost" missions is "to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science."

Seriously?

[Mr. Soul]

Think it's gonna be a long, long time?

[Brett L]

Gee, if we just give Boeing another $1B and 10 years, maybe they'll fly people to LEO in it.

[Pro Libertate]

As scams go, this is a great one.

[sarcasmic]

Charges for teacher, 41, who 'slept with 16-year-old student' are thrown out after he married her in Las Vegas

Sexual assault charges against teacher Illich Guardiola, 41, were thrown out on Wednesday
The Houston man and his young student were spotted together by police this spring
The 16-year-old reportedly texted Guardiola 'I love having sex with you'
Guardiola married the girl in Las Vegas in front of her mother in late April before his arrest in May
16-year-olds can get married in Texas and Nevada if a parent or guardian consents to the marriage
Both the girl and her mother have not cooperated with investigators
Guardiola has worked as a drama teacher and also voiced anime characters

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....n-out.html

[Auric Demonocles]

There's a 16 year old willing to put out and she's got to bang that guy? Man, she must be ugggly.

[The Original Jason]

Well, a 41 year old teacher could pay for a lot more college than one of her classmates?

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

"I can voice anime characters from the vasty deep."

"Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they arrest you when you do voice for them and bang a 16 year old?"

[Brett L]

The 16-year-old reportedly texted Guardiola 'I love having sex with you'

Oh, so as long as the 16 year old enjoys it, its not statutory rape?

[Auric Demonocles]

I think they meant that's the evidence the police had that stuff was going down.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I didn't know they had Japanese schoolboy porn.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Altogether now! You're sixteen. You're beautiful and you're mine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hv1GSTR-JE

Come to think of it. I'm surprised Ringo wasn't arrested. Try and write this song these days.

[Zeb]

Age of consent is 16 in the UK and a lot of US jurisdictions.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Play along Zeb.

Now sing.

[The Last American Hero]

Go do a Wiki on Thomas Edison some time.

[jmomls]

"You're 13, you're my cousin, and England can kiss my ass!"

[Zeb]

Seems like a good outcome. If 16 year olds can get married, it seems a bit absurd to consider them unable to consent to sex without the magical marriage certificate.

[tarran]

That's not it!

Because they are married, the prosecutors can't compel her to testify against him. They can present the cell phone evidence, but nobody can be forced to testify who physically entered those texts into the phone.

There literally is no way to convict.

[Zeb]

I didn't think of that.

Still, good outcome for less good reasons.

[Brian D]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChPG1rSOU0

[Lord Humungus]

Special Report: Moscow stifles dissent as soldiers return in coffins

Late last month Yelena Tumanova was handed the body of her son in a coffin at her home in Russia's Western Volga region. Anton Tumanov was 20 and a soldier serving in the Russian army in the North Caucasus region of Chechnya.

The documents Yelena Tumanova was given with the body raised more questions than they answered - questions about how her son died and about the Russian government's denials that its troops are in Ukraine. The records do not show Anton Tumanov's place of death, said human rights activists who spoke to his mother after she got in touch with them.

You know who else stifled dissent?

[Restoras]

Warty?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Stifled, not raped.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

Ming the Merciless?

[Spoonman.]

She was handed the coffin with a grown man inside? She must have some serious upper body strength.

[Xeones]

Have you seen a Russian woman before? They look like models for about 3 years in their 20s, and then they turn into basically farm equipment.

[Ted S.]

Title IX?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

The NSA?

[Cdr Lytton]

Pepto Bismal?

[Entropy Void]

UC Berkley?

[sarcasmic]

Could MAGIC MUSHROOMS help smokers kick the habit? Psilocybin hallucinogen has 80% success rate, study claims

Study by John Hopkins University in Baltimore gave 15 people psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic agent in 'magic mushrooms'
The participants had all been active smokers for an average of 31 years
They were given three doses of psilocybin over eight weeks
After the sessions 12 of the 15 participants were able to quit smoking
The researchers do not condone the use of magic mushrooms but say psilocybin could be useful in such controlled circumstances

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....laims.html

[trshmnster the terrible]

GAYTWEHY DRUGGGGG!!!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

be useful in such controlled circumstances

Such as their living rooms on Saturday night.

[Zombie Jimbo]

Not in the living room. THe bright Heriz rug can cause issues when hallucinating. It seems to move.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

That is not an 'issue' that is a 'benefit'.

[Roger the Shrubber]

It really brings the room together.

[sarcasmic]

Dictatorships: Seduced by the promise of 24-carat glamour, young Britons are signing up as superyacht crew - only to find they're stranded aboard floating tyrannies, forced to indulge the bizarre whims of monstrously spoilt owners

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tra.....wners.html
Interesting read.

[db]

I know a young woman (early 30s) who served as chief steward aboard a 200 foot yacht for a number of years after working her way up. She and her.husband (who was the engineer) now own their own charter operating in the Caribbean. I think it all depends on just what your plans are and how you.execute them. If you blow all the money you make, of course you're going to be stuck on that yacht. If you play shit.right, you buy your own yacht eventually.

[Mr. Soul]

cue Otto from the Simpsons: Now I drive the school bus

[Longtorso, Johnny]

But enough about the annual Reason cruise.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

*applause*

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Always always always know with whom you're going to be stuck in a confined space with no possibility of escape, especially when you're not at the top of the power structure.

[Lord Humungus]

So don't go into Warty's sex dungeon/cave?

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

Words to live by.

[Zeb]

I have a good friend whose father is very rich and has a large yacht. He used to rent it out sometimes, but after one particularly ridiculous hookers and blow party with some rich Russians the crew told him that they weren't going to do that anymore.

[The DerpRider]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ1lc6KASWg

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hey. This sounds like a good movie.

Who would play John Kerry?

[DontShootMe]

Who would play John Kerry?

Joe Biden.

[Entropy Void]

Nah, Biden is too busy at the Gates of Hell, telling guys in wheelchairs to "stand up or else."

[Ted S.]

But if agents of the state were doing it, it would be virtuous.

[ant1sthenes]

Seasteaders, man. *shakes head*

[jmomls]

*Dictatorships: Seduced by the promise of 24-carat glamour, young Britons are signing up as superyacht crew*

I guess someone had to pick up the slack after the Royal Navy got whittled down to two row boats and a rusty old destroyer.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ohio authorities apprehended escaped convict T.J. Lane.

He probably shouldn't have been wearing that "killer" t-shirt.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Dalrock: Exploding 50 something pregnant women.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

My wife had our last kid at 48. She swore never again after that one.

[Steve G]

I think this link is defective, I saw no pictures of exploding women.

[db]

Meow, that truly is the greatest yearbook picture ever. I mean, the.composition, the content, the cat, all amazing.

[Rhywun]

"He wants, simply, to be remembered."

LOOK AT ME! Bit of a narcissist, I think.

[db]

Meh, lots of people try to make their yearbook entry "unique" in some way. Most high school students aren't quite fully developed emotionally anyway, so they tend to go overboard with lots of stuff. I say let him have his fun, and possibly regret the stunt later. For me, it's a fun statement on the silliness that is a yearbook and senior pictures in general.

[Rhywun]

I suppose he can learn life's lesson that he is NOT a unique snowflake later, but I find it more beneficial to learn it earlier than this.

[Jordan]

Good news for progressives! Even though your attempt to gut the First Amendment failed, Venezuela has found another way to silence the press: fuck up the economy so bad that publishers run out of paper

CARACAS - Venezuela's oldest newspaper will stop publishing next week because it cannot find printing paper, the latest victim of a shifting media landscape triggered by shortages.

"As of Monday the 15th, and for a time we anxiously hope will be as short as possible, the mouthpiece of the people of Lara state will cease to accompany their morning coffee," regional daily El Impulso's editorial board wrote on Wednesday.

"The obstacles we've faced to get paper, which we're running out of, represent just one link in a difficult chain of adversities inherent to the country's serious economic situation," said the 110-year old privately owned paper.

[UnCivilServant]

Where are their readers supposed to get their daily supply of toilet paper!

[Rhywun]

Not to mention their daily supply of what to think.

[Ted S.]

They haven't run out of coffee too?

[Entropy Void]

They have run out of everything but brainless socialists, of that they have an overabundance.

[Lord Humungus]

In a Study, Text Messages Add Up to a Balance Sheet of Everyday Morality

The survey found no significant differences in moral behavior or judgment between religious people and nonreligious ones.

It did find some evidence to support theories developed in lab experiments. For instance, psychologists describe good deeds as "contagious," and so it appeared in the new data. People on the receiving end of an act of kindness were about 10 percent more likely than the average person to do something nice themselves later in the day. On the other hand, those who granted that kindness were slightly more likely than average (about 3 percent) to commit a small act of rudeness or dismissiveness later in the same day ? granting themselves "moral license" to do so.

yeah, well fuck you.

[gaijin]

I wonder what the null result studies of this effect look like? oh wait...

Scientists are unlikely to even write up an experiment that produces so-called null results (esp Social 'Scientists')

"A study of 221 survey-based experiments funded by the TESS (Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences) program at the National Science Foundation has found that almost two-thirds of the experiments yielding null findings are stuck in a file drawer rather than being submitted to a journal, and only 21% are published. In contrast, 96% of the experiments that yield strong results are written up, and 62% of them are published.

[lap83]

So there's no difference in moral behavior among people using a mode of conversation that's generally reserved for telling others when one is running late. Shocking.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

This Is The Most Intense List of Demands You've Ever Seen On OKCupid

[Lord Humungus]

Buy Condo, Then Add Parking Spot for $1 Million

What will $1 million buy in New York City? A diamond-encrusted Cartier men's watch. A small fleet of 2014 Bentley Continentals. Or maybe your very own parking spot in SoHo.

A new development, 42 Crosby Street, is pushing the limits of New York City real estate to new heights with 10 underground parking spots that will cost more per square foot than the apartments being sold upstairs.

[Jordan]

So, if you see a guy living out of his car in NYC, he could be a millionaire.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

Nice.

[Lord Humungus]

First the toilet paper... and then...

Venezuela's oldest newspaper avoids shutdown

Venezuela's oldest newspaper says it has staved off closure by reaching a deal with a state company guaranteeing it newsprint for at least two more weeks.

El Impulso announced Wednesday that it would stop circulation as of Monday because of falling advertising, mounting inflation and a lack of basic materials. The daily has reported on the western city of Barquisimeto for 110 years.

But newspaper marketing director Gisela Carmona said Thursday it would get enough paper to last through at least another two weeks.

[Jordan]

Too slow, bro.

[Lord Humungus]

don't micro-agress me.

[UnCivilServant]

How about macroagression then?

*looks around for rocket launcher*

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"Mucus-Harvesting Drone-Pilot" Sounds Like A Pretty Awesome Job

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Draven Rodriquez is the best!

[invisible furry hand]

Man masturbates to death

[Longtorso, Johnny]

No, I'm still here.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's because you're well-conditioned.

[Jordan]

Died after 4 times in one week? What a wanker.

[UnCivilServant]

That's it?

You don't want his genes.

[hamilton]

ISWYDT

[db]

Talking about sapping one's precious bodily fluids.

[trshmnster the terrible]

*sniffle* at least he died doing what he loved.

[Steve G]

at least close your incognito window before you.. uh, culminate.

[Entropy Void]

OT?

http://jezebel.com/man-kills-f.....1618278044

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Why Is Your Poop Green?

[db]

Rouladen and spaetzle last night.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Too much halloween candy.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Last Halloween's? Or the stuff I've already seen on the shelves?

[Lord Humungus]

OkCupid founder: "I wish people exercised more humanity" on OkCupid

Rudder begins his book with a distressing opening salvo: two charts that reveal what age groups men and women generally find attractive. From age 20 to 50, women are consistent ? they're drawn to men who are in roughly the same age cohort. Men are equally consistent: From age 20-50, they are attracted to 20-year-olds. The discussion is over: Men are dogs.

Rudder's data on race leads to similar implications ? prejudice is alive and well on online dating states, and what we say ? and don't say ? in our profiles offers impressive support for cultural stereotyping. Rudder does the math on what different groups are most or least likely to say in their profiles: Black men, for example, hardly ever mention Belle and Sebastian, snorkeling or "Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog." White women don't talk about slow jams, j-pop or Malcolm X. White guys, however, are really into mentioning their "blue eyes," brewing beer, and Robert Heinlein. Asian men frequently say "tall for an Asian," "gangnam style" and "noodle soup.")

[Auric Demonocles]

From age 20 to 50, women are consistent ? they're drawn to men who are in roughly the same age cohort.

No, women on OKCupid are drawn to men slightly older than themselves. (I.e. a 25 year old will have an age range of 24-34). Calling that "roughly the same age cohort" is misleading.

Men are equally consistent: From age 20-50, they are attracted to 20-year-olds.

That's because men have eyes.

White guys, however, are really into mentioning their "blue eyes," brewing beer, and Robert Heinlein.

Guilty on 2 counts, but 1) my eyes aren't blue and 2) nobody ever gave a shit about your fucking eyes so I wouldn't mention them anyway.

[lap83]

"Men are equally consistent: From age 20-50, they are attracted to 20-year-olds."

I'll never forget a 40-something male coworker at a job I had when I was 19 who once was talking about me as a dating prospect, like I wasn't there. "19 is just too young. Now if she was 20, I'd consider it." Apparently it was just a given that I'd want to date him.

[Restoras]

Some young women are attracted to older men. It's a numbers game finding out which ones...

[lap83]

Yeah my maternal grandmother was like 20 years younger than my grandfather. Her job was basically to take care of him. They were happy, but they were the embodiment of this study that came out a few years ago (can't remember where it is) showing that in such relationships, the men live longer than average and the women die sooner than average. I find that vaguely creepy, like the husband steals some of her years. But hey, it works for some people.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As a 40-something male, I can honestly say that most everyone in the 18 to 25 year old category is just eye candy. I am certain there are exceptions, but most of them I meet just don't have anything interesting to say.

[Lord Humungus]

^this^

they're nice to look at but I can't have any kind of conversation with one.

Of course a sizable number of the women in my age group have lost their looks/gotten fat. It's all rather depressing.

Of course I'm forever young. *prances happily away*

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Agreed. You would have to get a really mature one to make things interesting.

[Auric Demonocles]

Are you saying "Oh god, yes!" isn't interesting?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Are you saying "Oh god, yes!" isn't interesting?

There is an interim that you have to deal with.

[lap83]

"most of them I meet just don't have anything interesting to say."

They don't really have to. In my experience, most guys want a girl of inferior intelligence.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Intelligence is hot.

[Johnny Bravo]

Intelligence is hot.

Oh hell yes.

[lap83]

But most guys don't think this.

Then again most guys aren't that intelligent, so it works out.

[Idle Hands]

yeah women on average are smarter than men. Women who are stupid are mostly boring.

[Idle Hands]

As are men who are stupid.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Generally men are bimodal, and women are a standard single mode bell curve.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

Ooooh yes it is.

[Lord Humungus]

I once dated a not-so-bright girl. It was b-o-r-i-n-g as hell.

Sure she was good looking but there is only so much sex you can fit into a day.

[Fluffy]

You see, I just don't believe this.

You must be talking to stupid 18 to 25 year old's.

Because when I was 18 to 25, my conversation would have been every bit as interesting as it is now.

The only subjects I could not have conversed about just as well at 20 as at 40 would have been things that didn't exist yet. I couldn't have talked about the new iPhone at 20. Politics, economics, religion, art, literature, music, whatever - 20 or 40 would have made no difference.

In fact, I was probably a better conversationalist at 20 than I am now for the simple reason that I had more enthusiasm and energy for all of these topics. Now I've heard it all before and I'm sick of your shit before you dump it on me.

MAYBE I am a better conversationalist now about parenting. But that would be it. And who the fuck wants to talk to someone in a bar about parenting? Nobody. So that doesn't count.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As a parent, I am an expert on all things poop.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

for the simple reason that I had more enthusiasm and energy for all of these topics

It's called patience. And you are correct, I have little patience for the starry eyed socialism that typifies that age bracket.

[The Last American Hero]

Admit it. After that conversation, you did.

[jmomls]

*women are consistent ? they're drawn to men who are*

Rich.

[gaijin]

Regrets all around!

Nobel Committee Regrets Obama Peace Prize...sort of

"The Committee therefor joins the public statements of several Nobel Peace Laureates in expressing its regrets over the conduct of the 2009 prize recipient"

[db]

Sorry, guys. Forever tainted.

[John]

It already was. But it went from being tainted to a complete farce with that. Even though Arrafat was a terrorist, you could at least say the Palestinians viewed him as a real freedom fighter. Giving to Obama made the entire thing a joke. It will never recover from that.

I still can't figure out why they did it.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The DNC, Obama campaign, Soros, or some other rich Obama supporter paid the Nobel committee for the award.

[John]

That must have been it. I bet Soros and a few Tech billionaires paid them off. But that begs the question, why did Soros and company think doing so was a good idea? It was a political debacle for Obama and made him look ridiculous. They might as well have paid the NBA to give him the MVP award. I can't see how Obama or the Nobel Prize people benefited from it.

[Restoras]

They really believed their own bullshit. That's all it was. Plus it had the effect of making W look much worse (at the time) in comparison.

[John]

I suppose. Even at the time though, I seem to remember even the worst Obamabots being embarrassed by it and defending it by saying "it is not his fault they gave it to him".

[Raven Nation]

I'm pretty sure Rachel Maddow did a piece defending it. A friend of mine linked to it on FB. I, being committed to my own sanity, refused to watch it but I gathered it was, in fact, a defense.

[Restoras]

Plus I bet they also felt that the more gravitas or whatever Obama had at the beginning of his reign would translate into much more progressive action and goals being met before getting bogged down in politics. Thankfully Obama has proven to be even more incompetent and inept than hoped/feared.

[RBS]

I still can't figure out why they did it.

You know why John.

[Ted S.]

It was a fuck you to the people who disagreed politically with Obama.

[tarran]

It was supposed to be a big fuck you to Bush.

You know the road rage incidents where a guy is so busy trying to give the finger to someone else that he wrecks his car? Like that.

[John]

Now that is a plausible explanation.

[Raven Nation]

Also consistent: you could say 2002 (Carter) and 2007 (Gore) were also fuck yous to Bush.

[CatoTheElder]

^ THIS

[CatoTheElder]

The Nobel Peace Prize has been a dubious honor ever since it was awarded to the Rough Rider who shot a Spaniard in the back to get his kill, the same warmonger who wrote:

"A just war is in the long run far better for a man's soul than the most prosperous peace."

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

"So you have done to the Peace Prize, so shall you endure; you've made your bed, now lie on it."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

No shit.

And if Obama had any dignity he wouldn't have accepted it in the first place.

[BFawlty]

^this^

[invisible furry hand]

"The absence of qualifications prior to or since the awarding of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was by no means unique to this case. The prize has frequently been awarded to advocates for war or to individuals whose work has not touched on the field of war and peace. The awarding of the prize is itself an act on behalf of peace, and that act involves risks."

This probably doesn't sound so mad in Norwegian

[db]

That's like handing over the Stanley Cup to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the beginning of the season in the hopes it will inspire them to championship play.

[Raven Nation]

Hey, let's not get crazy now.

[db]

How about awarding the Art Ross to Scott Hartnell?

[gaijin]

^hah! good analogy

[The DerpRider]

Hell, it's like giving the Stanley Cup to a Canadian team.

[Steve G]

nice passive (aggressive) voice there

[Lord Humungus]

I drive right-wing trolls crazy: Here's why they still don't understand anti-capitalism arguments

Having previously attracted the ire of conservatives in my role as a publicly self-identified communist who advocates for collective ownership of property, I should have seen it coming. Knowing how giddy my critics would be, I shouldn't have tweeted when my backpack, containing my computer, was recently stolen from a friend's car. When I did, conservative Twitter had such a ball taunting me with Extremely Hilarious variations on the same "liberating property" line that they made a whole entire Twitchy out of the affair (my apologies if this is the first you are learning of that site).

[Lord Humungus]

cont.

Specifically, the barbs confused possessions with property, a long-acknowledged dichotomy I have attempted to articulate on television, social media and here at Salon, evidently in vain. So, once again: When I advocate collectivizing property, I am talking about financial assets (land deeds, stocks, bonds, patents and other intellectual property monopolies, and so forth), not personal possessions that human beings use on an ongoing basis, like computers or backpacks or clothes or cars or whatever. The latter are for use, the former for making money. If the occasional blurriness of these categories is reflected in dictionary definitions, that does not eliminate the obvious conceptual distinction.

blah blah...

[trshmnster the terrible]

Stuff I have can be owned. Stuff filthy rich people have must be shared with the rest of us!

Politics of envy all the way down.

[Auric Demonocles]

Making money isn't a use? And there are a lot of uses to land besides making money.

[UnCivilServant]

When I advocate collectivizing property, I am talking about financial assets (land deeds, stocks, bonds, patents and other intellectual property monopolies, and so forth), not personal possessions that human beings use on an ongoing basis,

What's the difference? My Intellectual property is a nothing to scoff at element of my food budget.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why would I go out and buy stocks with money I EARNED if I have to share it with confiscatory and envious assholes like Myerson?

[Johnny Bravo]

Why would I go out and buy stocks with money I EARNED if I have to share it with confiscatory and envious assholes like Myerson?

See, now you are getting it, you should turn over all your "excess" income to people who don't work as hard, or as smart, as you do. This is why Russia is such a capitalist powerhouse, everyone has stocks and bonds to fund enterprise.

[trshmnster the terrible]

If trinkets and ipods can be owned, but stocks and cash can't, I'll be demanding pay in trinkets and ipods.

[Johnny Bravo]

I'll be demanding pay in trinkets and ipods.

Tinkets and ipods will become the new currency.

[John]

"Confuse possessions with property".

"Freedom means slavery". You can keep your IPOD but we will be taking every other thing you own. Thanks asshole.

[Brett L]

So, articulate when a possession reaches property status. And then you'll see that the consistent view is that the dichotomy is arbitrary and false.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

He can't, it's just obvious man. Like for real.

[gaijin]

He knows it when he sees it...and he sees it when it's his.

[KDN]

He could actually make a consistent argument if said that real property should be collectivized while personal property should not, but I don't think he's smart enough to pass an intro to accounting course, never mind absorb and leverage the concepts.

[Brett L]

If he did that he'd have to exclude all that other capital that labor should have ready access to. Its just Communism re-labeled.

[KDN]

Is it even relabeled? Dude seems to be pretty up front about what his idiotic philosophy is or wants to be. The whole idea would be retarded regardless, but from my starting point it at least would be more coherent than arbitrarily deciding the difference between property and possessions.

[ant1sthenes]

When it is owned by a non-leftist. Pretty simple rule.

[LynchPin1477]

So I suppose he never used his computer to make money...

[invisible furry hand]

He doesn't have a wife's cousin who made $8729 last month working on the internet and now has a Lexus

[Elspeth Flashman]

I'm not talking about people robbing people for their own reasons, I'm talking about the state robbing people for its own reasons.

[sarcasmic]

Translation: What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Specifically, the barbs confused possessions with property, a long-acknowledged dichotomy

Asserted, not acknowledged.

I may not be able to take my cotton field with me when I go to the store, but that doesn't make it any less mine provided that I acquired it through labor or voluntary exchange.

[Kurt]

Even Homer Simpson figured out that money can be exchanged for goods and services.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

How did I know that was Myerson?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Myerson must be some strange performance art role. Nobody is that willfully stupid, please tell me they're not.

[Drake]

He is really good if it's all a play. A writing talking about liberating "the means of production", getting his computer stolen, they saying "that's different" is almost too delicious to be a coincidence.

[John]

Have you read Salon? If there is one thing Salon proves every day it is that yes people really are that stupid.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Myerson is in a class by himself. He's completely oblivious to his own situation. His psychiatrist must be making bank on him.

[John]

If you ever notice, most hard core leftest are seriously broken people. I can't think of a single leftist intellectual who didn't have major psychological issues in their personal lives.

[sarcasmic]

One reason I have on trust for psychology is that without exception, everyone I know who studied the field did so so they could try to figure out deep personal issues. So you've got a field that is dominated by people with mental and emotional problems, and they're supposed to be a help to others? Yeah right.

[sarcasmic]

*no* not on

[Jordan]

Psychology was one of the goto majors for people who failed out of real majors in college.

[Johnny Bravo]

everyone I know who studied the field did so so they could try to figure out deep personal issues. So you've got a field that is dominated by people with mental and emotional problems

I would have to disagree with you as I know many psychologists who are perfectly normal with no emotional issues. Now psychiatrists are a bit of different story.

[sarcasmic]

I get the two mixed up.

[Jordan]

Psychiatrists are MDs.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

They have all the good drugs.

[Johnny Bravo]

I get the two mixed up.

No big, most people do, and some psychologists have issues as well. Most psychologists I know have a fascination with what makes people tick. As a side-note, my degree is in psychology.

[The Last American Hero]

Yeah, but you just majored in it because of the hot co-eds.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

everyone I know who studied the field did so so they could try to figure out deep personal issues

Doubly so for child psych

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's The Commie!

Still pretending he's smart, eh?

[Entropy Void]

No wonder he works for Salon.

From Wiki:
Business model and operations[edit]

Salon has been unprofitable through its entire history. Since 2007, the company has been dependent on ongoing cash injections from board Chairman John Warnock and William Hambrecht, father of former Salon CEO Elizabeth Hambrecht. During the nine months ended December 31, 2012, these cash contributions amounted to $3.4 million, compared to revenue in the same period of $2.7 million

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He expects, I surmise, people make up the 700k deficit. Because civilization.

[Lord Humungus]

How An American F-16 Pilot Was Given A Kamikaze Mission On Sept. 11

"We wouldn't be shooting it down. We'd be ramming the aircraft," Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney said describing her orders to The Washington Post. "I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot."

The fourth recently identified hijacked plane appeared to be on a heading for Washington, and there was no time to arm the base's fighter aircraft before Penney and her commanding officer took off to intercept the rogue Boeing 757 passenger plane.

"We had to protect the airspace any way we could," Penney said.

Penney, the first female F-16 pilot of the D.C. Air National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron, had just completed two weeks of combat training on that historic Tuesday, and the base's fighters were still equipped with dummy ammunition. According to the report, there were no armed aircraft ready for immediate scramble over post-Cold War Washington in the fall of 2001.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's actually fairly disturbing.

[Pro Libertate]

September 11 was a big surprise to me as far as our defense capabilities go, because I assumed we could quickly defend our airspace.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It was a surprise to me as well. Langley AFB operated hot hangars (always on alert, fueled, and armed) throughout the 80s. I would have assumed that they were still operational.

[Steve G]

Pre Sept 11 defense was all predicated on some sort of strategic warning (intel, radar, etc) in the hours/days timeframe.
Loading jets w/ live ammo from a standing start is an hours long affair.

[CatoTheElder]

It pretty well demonstrates that the so-called "Department of Defense" is really a department of aggressive war.

[Restoras]

The Germans resorted to this tactic against Allied bombers, but the idea was to damage the aircraft enough to force it to turn back while preserving the life of the German pilot.

I have no idea of the physics of the thing, but maybe you could damage the engines enough to force it down and still have time to bail out?

[tarran]

No.

The Bernoulli effect is such that the two aircraft will get sucked together, and the F-16 is a tiny little thing.

Any collision would be fatal to the pilot, and ejection before the collision would result almost certainly in the aircraft missing each other.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Calling the F-16 a 'tiny little thing' is misleading.

It is 50' long and over 10 tons empty. It can take off at ~25 tons.

A 757 is a lot larger(179', 67 ton empty), but it is not a hardened combat aircraft. I'd like my chances of surviving the intial controlled strike in an F-16 a lot better than in a passenger jet.

[Drake]

Rand Paul vows to repeal "all previous executive orders" in one of his first acts as president, should he run. Just when I start to doubt the guy he says something this awesome.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....-President

[Jordan]

Holy fucking shit, that is amazing.

[gaijin]

But will he do it via executive order? 😉

[Restoras]

Well sure, that'd be great but Obama promised to close Gitmo and it's still open...just sayin'.

[db]

Unfortunately that is exactly the.kind of statement that gets picked up and replayed during a campaign to tar him as a radical, or unserious, or both.

[Mike M.]

I like Rand Paul a lot, but yes, that's a very stupid and unserious thing to say, especially for a highly intelligent guy.

[Lord Humungus]

'T' Is For ? Thomas The Tank Engine Is Also Racist

The TV show "Thomas and Friends" is racist, wrote Tracy van Syke for the Guardian in July, because good engines puff white smoke and bad engines puff black smoke. She is so relieved her son doesn't have "a manic train fascination like so many other children," because although the show "seems to impart good moral lessons about hard work and friendship," it is in reality "concealing some pretty twisted, anachronistic messages" ? it's racist, classist, sexist and anti-environmentalist. The smoke is just one example. "I'd like to think there was a good environmental message in there," she writes, "but when the good engines pump out white smoke and the bad engines pump out black smoke ? it's not hard to make the leap into the race territory."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Race tinted glasses

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why? Does he tie up black kids on the railroad tracks like Snidely Whiplash did?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just re-read my remark. To be clear, Whiplash did not tie black kids to railroad tracks. I repeat. I don't believe he was racist.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

But he was the bad guy and he chose to wear black, so he's 'obviously' racist.

He was canadian, too.

[Steve G]

it's not hard to make the leap into the race territory

Absolutely not, you just have to be standing on the edge of rational territory, leaning way over as a gust of wind drops you into race territory

[tarran]

It has nothing to do with the fact that black smoke is what you get form an incomplete combustion process, you know, wasting fuel?!?

I wonder if they hate astronomy because it's all about the white stars and looks through and ignores the black space.

[Steve G]

But black holes are stronger, therefore better at athletics

[tarran]

Yes, but do they focus on the good qualities of black holes?

No! Instead they promote racism by painting the black holes as eating white stars! It's the black menace all over again!

[The Last American Hero]

She sounds like the dipshit in college that was arguing that Mercator Projection Maps were racist.

[CatoTheElder]

I had to Google to see if this was for real.

It is.

[ant1sthenes]

She is so relieved her son doesn't have "a manic train fascination like so many other children,"

Well, at least we know he won't grow up to be a prog.

[This Machine Kills 40s]

Thousands of Green Berets Headed to Iraq

Given the alternatives, I'd say this is a much better option for the U.S. Shows that we're willing to make a tough stand against the caliphate and inspire the Iraqi Army to fight.

[gaijin]

Given the alternatives,

Like the one where we don't send troops?

[CatoTheElder]

I don't want Americans to die to doing what Iraqis should be doing.

If the Iraqis don't care enough to stop IS, why should the US?

I'm tired of Middle East perma-war.

[jmomls]

*I'm tired of Middle East perma-war.*

There'd be perma-war there even if there were no such place as the USA.

[db]

If they aren't already inspired to fight by considering the collapse of their current way of life and possible murder at the hands of a local scourge such as ISIS, how exactly is pur presence going to do any more than it did from 2003-2013?

[John]

If they can run a campaign like the one we did in Afghanistan in 01 using the Iraqi Army like we used the Northern Alliance, it will work fine.

I wonder if Obama is going to send Rumsfeld a thank you note for providing him with a strategy.

[tarran]

The Northern Alliance knew how to fight and were motivated.

Secondly, much of the advance was due to a really effective program of payign off clan leader to go turncoat.

ISIS members are amenable to being bought off.

Personally, I think this is going to end up like the Chinese civil war.

[John]

The local tribes will happily be bought off to turn on ISIS. And the Iraqi Army is much bigger and better armed than the NA. Also, Iraq's terrain is much more conducive to the use of air power. The air power will be even more lethal.

If Obama has the will to do it, it will be a slaughter. Think about it, you have 31,000 light infantry running around a desert in HMWWVEs and light trucks. That is a turkey shoot.

[tarran]

Fair point.

[Brett L]

The problem is getting the various factions to hate instability more than they hate sharing power with each other. So far in Afghanistan and Iraq we have never reached that point.

[Swiss Servator, Go Genf!]

So far no one ever has reached that point in Afghanistan...since the "warlike Paktuike" shot Alexander the Great in the lung with an arrow.

h/t Herodotus

[Brett L]

Agreed. I don't think it is doable thing. Three of the mightier empires in history foundered upon Afghanistan. No reason to think a fourth won't do the same. I just have no illusions that we're gonna bribe or bomb our way to happiness.

[Steve G]

The NA was a homogenous force united under a common goal. The IA is a hodge podge of individuals with conflicting loyalties.
We're again naive to think that this can be solved with "inspiration" or a sharing a few TTPs.

[John]

Doesn't matter. Once we start bombing they will decide it is best to come to work again.

[Steve G]

Oh, concur completely. It's a SOF and CAS operator's wet dream. I just don't think the IA will be in any better position to fend off the next ISIS after we leave.

[Obama's Buttplug]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hshbq4_OySI

[CatoTheElder]

Very good!

[CatoTheElder]

There are fewer unknown unknowns in Iraq now than in 2001.

For example, we now know that the US will screw this up even worse than before, though we don't know exactly how it will get worse or why.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They should sing the Green Beret song and M.I.C.K.E.Y. M.O.U.S.E.

And Born on the Bayou.

[John]

And Run Through the Jungle and Green River

[The Last American Hero]

And Fortunate Son.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Bird is the word (Surfin' Bird).

[Brett L]

"Good-by my darling, hello, Syria."

[Mike M.]

By the way, where is the so-called "antiwar" left with their signs and their screaming big mouths?

[tarran]

As soon as they figure out which of the czar's ministers to blame so that they can write his name on the signs and know where to march, we will see them.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Too busy protesting to get $15 for flipping burgers.

[This Machine Kills 40s]

RTFA you plebs.

[NoVAHockey]

ha. duffelblog.

[db]

"Iraq has a long and controversial history with the beret."

[Lord Humungus]

ISIS can 'muster' between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters, CIA says

The terror group that calls itself the Islamic State "can muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria," a CIA spokesman told CNN on Thursday.

Analysts and U.S. officials initially estimated there were as many as 10,000 fighters, including those who were freed from prisons by ISIS, and Sunni loyalists who have joined the fight as the group advanced across Iraq.

"This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity and additional intelligence," the spokesman said.

[LynchPin1477]

That seems like a really small number for a group that supposedly poses a clear and undeniable threat to the U.S.

[Zombie Jimbo]

OKay for the intersection of the Venn Diagram:

1. Both were painters

[LynchPin1477]

Both were white, and really, isn't that all you need to know?

[John]

Both pee standing up.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I bet Hitler was a sit down kind of guy.

[Idle Hands]

yeah I could see him getting pissed at "eva" for leaving the seat up. Speaking why haven't we seen a sitcom featuring Hitler yet?

[tarran]

We have. Monty Python did it, but there really wasn't enough material for more than a single episode.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Both their last names end with "hitler"

/shreek

[DesigNate]

No no no. Bush's last name is McHalliburton.

[Pro Libertate]

Want to see an interesting one? Do a Venn diagram of Obama's and Bush's presidencies.

[Auric Demonocles]

Both were Presidents.

I ran out! They're nothing alike!

[Pro Libertate]

This is the kind of project that would get kids thinking. "Say, why do people hate Bush and like Obama? They're almost the same!"

[Idle Hands]

Oh comon one is a ivy league graduate and the other is a feces throwing chimp. Oh wait...

[Sevo]

Obama = 5 letters
Bush = 4 letters

[Pro Libertate]

Bush's wife has killed people, Obama's may not have. Maybe. No one really knows.

[Idle Hands]

One is an admitted coke user and the other is a dunce.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

I would be curious to know the last president who didn't use cocaine.

Maybe--maybe--Carter.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Clinton only used it on the tip of his penis.

[The Last American Hero]

She is known to tear people's arms off when she loses.

[The Late P Brooks]

So, once again: When I advocate collectivizing property, I am talking about financial assets (land deeds, stocks, bonds, patents and other intellectual property monopolies

other people's property.

[Sevo]

Judge says it's *ALL* BS:

"Federal judge strikes down Ohio's campaign statements law"
[...]
"In a ruling that could have reverberations around the country, a federal judge on Thursday struck down an Ohio law that bars individuals from knowingly making false statements about political candidates."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/.....?track=rss

[Idle Hands]

So Condi for commish looks inevitable if Goodell gets fired. A Black Women would be the most pc choice to be in charge of the NFL. I've always thought she was a decent person, and it makes sense seeing how the league is becoming so pussified. The best thing about it though will be progs heads explode over at deadspin.

[NoVAHockey]

The roughing penalties last night were awful. you can't hit a guy anymore. The Ravens got hosed on the opening series with the sack on 3rd down and the Steelers did on the Ravens TD drive in the 3rd quarter.

[Idle Hands]

I always like watching that game because there are always some of the best hits of the year but couldn't. I'm so burned out by all the Rice talk I couldn't take another minute of it.

[Idle Hands]

the worst is the inability to hit someone out of bounds that, I've seen so many teams get burned on that it's awful.

[jmomls]

That roughing on Roethelisberger was so lame. If that dude can survive getting thrown off a motorcycle into another car's windshield, he can take a shoulder pad to the chest.

Later, Flacco got jacked up on a helmet hit right to his jaw...no penalty on that one.

[Drake]

So league will continue to become less and less watchable.

[Idle Hands]

I don't know she's been good at warmongering and at some level has to be a hard ass to be where she is. I bet she's better then Goodell who would cave to whims of the pc police at every turn.

[John]

I said that yesterday. And I think she would be good. I bet she woudl dewussify the game a lot.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Is she down for celebrations?

[The Late P Brooks]

So Condi for commish looks inevitable if Goodell gets fired.

I don't have anything specific against her, but what the fuck makes her a qualified candidate?

[Pro Libertate]

I have a recommendation: Hulk Hogan. Bring back the violence.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Real violence.

Folding chairs and ladders and cage matches and...

Wait-a-minute? I watched the first week of the XFL. It was not as good as it sounded.

[Pro Libertate]

That's because they didn't have the right guy running it. Rowdy Roddy Piper is also acceptable.

[The Last American Hero]

+1 He Hate Me

[Mike M.]

The only real "qualification" there is to be NFL commissioner is the ability to do what most of the owners tell you to do, which isn't that hard. It's the ultimate figurehead position.

Yes, he gets paid an absurd salary, but that's mostly because the league is practically printing its own money due to football being America's de facto religion.

[Brett L]

She's a longtime fan of the NFL, has run a dysfunctional agency into mediocrity, and can ignore illegal behavior at least as well as Goodell.

[The Late P Brooks]

The roughing penalties last night were awful. you can't hit a guy anymore.

As far as I can tell, the NFL outlawed tackling years ago.

[The Late P Brooks]

To be clear, Whiplash did not tie black kids to railroad tracks.

Nell Fenwick looked nothing at all like Obama's son.

[The Late P Brooks]

Hulk Hogan? That sissy? Bah! Where's Jack Tatum?

[The Late P Brooks]

New York public school student Draven Rodriguez has a dream: He wants a weird picture of hin and his cat to make it into the yearbook.

Voted "Most likely to own his own hair salon" too, I suspect.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Word is that Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly, and it's something to hear when Sarah screams, "Don't you know who I am!" And it was particularly wonderful when someone in the crowd screamed back, "This isn't some damned Hillbilly reality show!" No, it's what happens when the former First Family of Alaska comes knocking. As people were leaving in a cab, Track was seen on the street, shirtless, flipping people off, with Sarah right behind him, and Todd somewhere in the foreground, tending to his bloody nose.

To repeat the oft-heard assertion, this is why politicians and their families need to wear body cameras at all times.

[BigT]

Good news. Zombies are awakening.

Obama losing support of coalition that elected him.

[jmomls]

Nonsense. The zombies will just on to Liz Warren.

[GILMORE]

The kid with the cat/lazer-beams picture is a mockup of one that was part of some Gawker/Buzzfeed type thing "10 worst pictures of men with cats"

See example. A version of the same thing I found here

The point is that kids these days are wholly unoriginal and endlessly recycle 'shit they found on the internet'.

I don't mean to suggest he doesn't love his cat, just that he's no budding Andy Warhol.

[jmomls]

*A sixth grade teacher in the Washington, D.C., area apologized for giving her students a homework assignment that required them to make a Venn diagram comparing President George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler.*

Apologized??? She should be sent to the camps!