A.M. Links: Obama to Use Iraq War Authorization to Justify ISIS Airstrikes, U.S. to Deploy Troops in West Africa to Combat Ebola, Queen of England Warns Scotland About Voting for Independence

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  Michael Gwyther-Jones/flickr

  President Obama is looking to use the never repealed authorization of the use of military force in Iraq to justify airstrikes on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has meanwhile released video purporting to show the beheading of another British hostage. Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to hunt the killers down, but has not yet committed the United Kingdom to joining in on airstrikes against ISIS.

• The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola.
• Hillary Clinton and her husband were in Iowa this weekend. So was Bernie Sanders.
• Queen Elizabeth II warned voters in Scotland to "think carefully" about this week's referendum on independence.
• Hurricane Odile is threatening Baja California with winds upward of 100 miles an hour.
• There are a record high 60,000 centenarians in Japan, 90 percent of whom are women, according to the country's health ministry.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are a record high 60,000 centenarians in Japan, 90 percent of whom are women, according to the country's health ministry.

It's all that Mothra meat they eat.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Not the Gamera soup?

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's for sexual prowess.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Something about sick japanese porn involving GGGGILFs.

[creech]

Did something happen about 75 years ago that killed off significant numbers of Japanese men?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

something something Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

[Mike Laursen]

I used to have a Nissan Mothra. Really nice car.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I keep saying it is women and not men who want patriarchy (the vast majority of men do worse under patriarchy, which only benefits actual patriarchs). Any words to the contrary are just to grind down any men they don't consider fit to be patriarchs. Most men want 1:1 marriages and society works with men encouraged to produce surplus for their families. This is just going back to the mass of men being forced to produce surplus via tax and family law.

Is polygamy next in the redefinition of marriage?
...If couples want to bring cheating out of the deceitful shadows and instead incorporate it openly into their relationship?plus have more hands on deck for kids and more earners in the household in a tough economy?who are we to judge? ...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

At Ohio State, you may be guilty of sexual assault if?
Consent Is?

The act of knowingly, actively and voluntarily agreeing explicitly to engage in sexual activity. Consent must be freely given and can be withdrawn at any time.

Sober
Not coerced
Imaginative
Enthusiastic
Creative
Wanted
Informed
Mutual
Honest
Verbal
The absence of "no" does not mean "yes"
It must be asked every step of the way
It cannot be implied or assumed, even in the context of a relationship

[DJF]

"Sober"

So Ohio State women can no longer have sex with drunk Ohio State men?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

"Sober"

So Ohio State women can no longer have sex with drunk Ohio State men?

FTFY

[Ted S.]

It's terrible that Reason won't cover stuff like this.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I wonder what millenials think?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Someone should ask them, and then record all the responses and compile them.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There's a name for that, I think it's called an Ekins.

[straffinrun]

"Sober"
Instead of blaming the booze for plucking some random loser, force OSU gals to claim rape to salvage their dignity.

[carol]

So is it rape if the guy isn't "imaginative" enough?

[Rich]

Is polygamy next in the redefinition of marriage?

Yes.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

No it's not, they assured us that was a right-wing scare tactic!

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I thought beastiality would beat it out.

[Rich]

I'm thinking that'll be after robots.

[Ted S.]

I'd like to thank Jesse for posting this several months back.

[gaoxiaen]

Necrophiliacs never hear their partners say no.

[Tonio]

Is polygamy next in the redefinition of marriage?

Um, except that polygamy has been a societal norm in many places for much of recorded history.

Really, read your bible. Them ancient biblical hebrews were are about the multiple wives.

SoCon butt-hurt and ignorance/dishonesty for the lulz.

[Doctor Whom]

Those parts were meant for people back then, or they need to be interpreted correctly, or something. The parts that I like are a crystal-clear expression of God's eternal will.

[Tonio]

Good one, doc. Pitch-perfect.

[robc]

I wouldnt expect more than token resistance to polygamy from "socons".

The NT is very clear, monogamy is only required of church leaders.

[Ted S.]

Why would you expect "socons" to be any more consistent than anybody else using the government to try to get eheir way?

[robc]

Im not, I just figure they dont care too much about it.

Also consider that a big bunch of "socons" are mormon. Like I said, token resistance.

[SugarFree]

"Please don't throw me in that brier patch!"

[robc]

Exactly.

[Lord Humungus]

The atheist libertarian lie: Ayn Rand, income inequality and the fantasy of the "free market"

Why atheists are disproportionately drawn to libertarianism is a question that many liberal atheists have trouble grasping. To believe that markets operate and exist in a state of nature is, in itself, to believe in the supernatural. The very thing atheists have spent their lives fleeing from.

According to the American Values Survey, a mere 7 percent of Americans identify as "consistently libertarian." Compared to the general population, libertarians are significantly more likely to be white (94 percent), young (62 percent under 50) and male (68 percent). You know, almost identical to the demographic makeup of atheists ? white (95 percent), young (65 percent under 50) and male (67 percent). So there's your first clue.

Your second clue is that atheist libertarians are skeptical of government authority in the same way they're skeptical of religion. In their mind, the state and the pope are interchangeable, which partly explains the libertarian atheist's guttural gag reflex to what they perceive as government interference with the natural order of things, especially "free markets."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

To believe that markets operate and exist in a state of nature is, in itself, to believe in the supernatural.

No, it is the belief that order can arise w/o a central, omnipotent god or govt, imposing order.

[Citizen Nothing]

No, it is the belief that order can arise w/o a central, omnipotent god or govt, imposing order.

Economic creationism, as some other poster called it.

[Citizen Nothing]

That is, the progressive view is "economic creationism."

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

So you are not offering the world ORDER?

[Steve G]

Ha! Belief, you said "Belief"!!!

[gaoxiaen]

Ha! You said "Anus"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbVItpQp7BI

[Spoonman.]

How are markets any more supernatural than xylem?

[Clich? Bandit]

Ok smart guy, what is your position on phloem? how about cambium?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That whole article is one huge strawman. And it quotes Robert Reich liberally.

[Protagoronus]

Is there any other way?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

*opera applause*

[Florida Man]

The pope never stuck a gun in my face and said "pay up bitch!". Not that the actual government does this, they just take it out of your paycheck, but it is more colorful this way.

[Tonio]

But historically the church did execute people. See Inquisition, Spanish.

[The Last American Hero]

No one expected it.

[Florida Man]

The church of today is not the church of the past. Like the leaders of today have nothing in common with the founders.

[robc]

Not my church.

[Entropy Void]

Don't think the Lutherans participated in that Spanish Inquisition so much ...

[robc]

Baptists tended to be on the getting persecuted end of the stick.

And Im now a member of a non-denominations church, we are free of all that stuff.

[CatoTheElder]

WRT "Inquisition, Spanish":

I have. It was established in the late 15th Century by the State, specifically King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

The Church was an official institution of the State during the Spanish Inquisition.

As with all other official institutions, it was corrupted by the State, and acted as an agency of the State in its Inquisition.

[Doctor Whom]

That's on the level of those creationists who argue that "evolutionism" is a competing religion. The appeal to personal incredulity has spawned a mutant child that argues that whatever position the author won't make the effort to understand is ipso facto supernatural.

[Kure'i]

Of course they're young. I've read that most libertarians are Millenials. Secret Millenials, or something.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

To believe that markets operate and exist in a state of nature is, in itself, to believe in the supernatural.

60 years of FEE and this is what we end up with.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hurricane Odile is threatening Baja California with winds upward of 100 miles an hour.

Wouldn't it be a typhoon over there?

[Ted S.]

Typhoons are only in the western Pacific.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If it's in the Pacific, I will be calling it a typhoon.

[Entropy Void]

So if the storm zig-zagged about the International Dateline, it would be both typhoon and hurricane?

[Entropy Void]

A "TransStorm" as it were?

[gaoxiaen]

Cyclone.

[Entropy Void]

I'm gonna go with Hermaphrocane.

[Florida Man]

Is 100 miles per hour really a hurricane?

[gaijin]

SuperStorm!

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, if it hits anywhere other than Florida.

[Rhywun]

Speaking of which... they finally finished work on the flooded subway tunnel I used to take every morning. After 13 months. My commute just got slightly less shitty!

[MJGreen]

They finally got the R running normally again? Radical!

[Spoonman.]

The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola.

What exactly is it anticipated they'll accomplish, besides getting Ebola? Military forces ended up giving Haiti cholera, which they weren't able to stop.

[Rich]

Well, given the nature of most White House plans, the announced plan will probably be "We will deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola."

[Kure'i]

Kerry: "It's not a war against Ebola, because Ebola is not a country that I've heard of."

[Jerryskids]

The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola.

Millions of tiny little airstrikes.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

To be fair, that was Fijians, under the UN, yes? I think the US DoD can manage not to spread a plague or such. However, why in Hell is this a DoD mission?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A Global Force for Good?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Not just a job, an adven...

Uh, a really shitty job?

[Spoonman.]

Right, it wasn't US soldiers, I think they decided it was a unit from Nepal.
My point is more that they couldn't do anything about it, because the military is good at kicking ass, and using it for things other than kicking ass is stupid.

[WTF]

using it for things other than kicking ass is stupid.

So this is just what you'd expect from Obama.

[Ted S.]

Allegedly good intentions.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Ah, only good can come it, then. Let's get on with the humanitarianism.

[perlhaqr]

We're going to humanitarian the fuck out of those people.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Until their heads fall off?

[Tonio]

Field hospitals, lots of good isolation gear and medical personnel who will follow proper procedures, and clean water.

And even though Liberia was never our colony, we're the closest thing to an ex-colonial power which Liberia has.

None of which justifies this, but I'm not as cheesed about this humanitarian intervention as I would be about an ill-conceived military intervention.

[Rhywun]

Aren't they overdue for another Civil War? We might as well get our troops there ahead of time.

[sarcasmic]

Time to change gear! Colombian women's cycling team appear to have had Brazilians in bizarre flesh-coloured kit

Six athletes pose on podium as they reveal startling new kit design
Strip features flesh-coloured section covering lower torso and groin
Bizarre outfit causes a stir on social media ahead of race in Italy this week

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-kit.html
I did a double-take.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola.

Clear! and shock and awe.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We must use our superior air power to shock and awe Ebola back into its cave.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Using MOABs (Mother of Antiseptic Bomb)

[sarcasmic]

Extent of Antarctic sea ice reaches record levels, scientists say

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ce/5742668

CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, Tony Worby, said the warming atmosphere is leading to greater sea ice coverage by changing wind patterns.

There truly is nothing that cannot be explained by global warming.

[DontShootMe]

I'm waiting for someone to blame global warming for the rise of ISIS/ISIL/ISI*.

[sarcasmic]

I believe they already have. You see, global warming has made it even more difficult to grow crops in that region, resulting in an influx of people into urban areas. It was this that concentrated discontent of Assad and laid the foundation for the Syrian uprising, which eventually became ISIS.

[Raven Nation]

Close:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsp.....10301.html

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

So... less ice - GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!

More ice - GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!

[Tonio]

Nailed it.

[The Last American Hero]

We are long past the point where we need another bet with the climate scientists about what life will be like in 2025. And when they lose, they need to shut up.

[Ted S.]

You forgot:

Same amount of ice -- GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!

[tarran]

It's a entirely a pseudoscience. As Feynman pointed out:

You cannot prove a vague theory wrong. If the guess you make is poorly expressed and rather vague and the method you use figure out the consequences are vague... then you see that theory is good because it can't be proven wrong. If the process of computing the consequences is indefinite, then with a little skill any experimental result can be made to look like an expected consequence.

[CatoTheElder]

I really wish Feynman were alive to comment on CAGW.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I like to think he's sketching portraits of strippers somewhere up in the aether.

[tarran]

If he were, they'd be dismissing him as a womanizing member of the patriarchy.

[Lord Humungus]

Christ Arrested for Assaulting Muhammed in San Rafael

On Wednesday, September 3, San Rafael Police Department received a report of a fight between a man and a woman in the 300 block of Fourth Street in San Rafael.

On arrival, officers found Fatimah Muhammed and Jesus Christ located at a nearby CVS store. The officers learned that the couple were in a dating relationship and currently live together. Earlier Christ had become upset with Muhammed because she had been driving too slow. According to Muhammed, Christ then spit on her and then they proceeded to punch each other.

The biblical implications...

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Officer Buddha calmly took both into a serene custody?

[Mongo]

As an atheist, I don't believe this happened.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Slightly related...

Rene Descartes is sitting at the tavern when the barkeep says "last call gents, will you have another?" Descartes says "I think not" and promptly disappears.

[robc]

One of my all time favorite jokes.

[Rich]

"So, Muhammed and Christ walk into a drug store ?."

[creech]

What football team does Christ play for?

[Entropy Void]

Cowboys, of course.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

He came out of Notre Dame.

[sarcasmic]

India: Killer Leopard Preying on Drunks Stumbling Home Spreads Terror

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/india.....or-1465525

Theories about why the leopard, which is estimated to be around 10 years old, has acquired a taste for human flesh include that its usual diet of dogs is no longer in plentiful supply.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

"Bourbon Marinated Human - yum!"

[sarcasmic]

'I had to protect my family': Houston convenience store owner kills robber in gunfight

Terror: Usman Seth said the gunman threatened his sister at the cash register with a shotgun
History of violence: The family convenience had been threatened by robbers multiple times since it was opened three years ago
Gunfight: Seth shot the masked gunman in the leg once before finally hitting him again and killing him

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

[sarcasmic]

Django Unchained actress who claimed she was harassed by LAPD officers for kissing her white boyfriend was actually having sex with him in car, reveal witnesses

In a police audio of the incident obtained by TMZ, Watts is heard accusing the police of racism when Sgt. Jim Parker asks her for ID
She then accuses cops of not knowing who she is before storming off
Witnesses told police they were watching her and her boyfriend have sex in the passenger seat with the door open
Daniele Watts played slave CoCo in the Oscar-winning 2012 film
Watts and boyfriend Brian James Lucas claim that they were kissing in Hollywood when police were called
Watts claims her wrist was cut when police handcuffed her
Says she was put in a police car after refusing to show her ID

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-rant.html

[gaijin]

She then accuses cops of not knowing who she is

Because who you are makes a difference in how the law is applied. Got it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If she did that, she sealed her fate. Cops love to screw with people who shoot their mouths off. Not saying the cops were right, just that she was stupid.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. Being a wealthy entertainer doesn't get you anywhere with the cops. Now if your father is a judge or your mother is on the city council, then you can pull a "Do you know who I am?" and get away with it.

[thom]

I would have no idea who that lady is, and based on the pictures on the linked article, I would be more inclined towards 'street hooker' than 'famous actress'.

[Mongo]

THIS ISN'T SOME HILLBILLY REALITY SHOW!!

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

*golf clap*

[sarcasmic]

Shifting his views, Rand Paul seeks broader appeal ? but may risk his outsider image

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

As the prospect of a 2016 presidential bid looms larger, Paul is making it clear that he did not come to Washington to be a purist like his father, former congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.).

He came to be a politician, like everybody else.

[waffles]

There are a record high 60,000 centenarians in Japan, 90 percent of whom are women, according to the country's health ministry.

This sounds like a nightmare. There were a few cases where the super elderly is actually dead but the 60-70 year old children are collecting the sweet sweet bennies.

[Lord Humungus]

Pre-diabetes, diabetes rates fuel national health crisis

Americans are getting fatter, and older. These converging trends are putting the USA on the path to an alarming health crisis: Nearly half of adults have either pre-diabetes or diabetes, raising their risk of heart attacks, blindness, amputations and cancer.

Federal health statistics show that 12.3% of Americans 20 and older have diabetes, either diagnosed or undiagnosed. Another 37% have pre-diabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar. That's up from 27% a decade ago. An analysis of 16 studies involving almost 900,000 people worldwide, published in the current issue of the journal Diabetologia, shows pre-diabetes not only sets the stage for diabetes but also increases the risk of cancer by 15%.

A Fridge To Far

[Steve G]

Just wonderful. We're all on the hook for each other's health care and arguably the largest threat is essentially preventable. I want off this ride

[Doctor Whom]

Typical greedy and selfish loonytarian.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

SugarFree looms large

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

For someome who talks about "narrowing eyes", that was uncalled for.

Imma keep my eye on you.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Sure, when he marches to power, leading the Legion of Diabeetus, you will see what I mean.

[SugarFree]

When the stars are right, your screams will be drowned in the roar of a million Rascal scooters.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

your screams will be drowned in the roar of a million Rascal scooters

Bravo! Author! Author!

*applause*

[Ted S.]

Of course this won't get the USDA to stop promoting carb-loading.

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

Diabetus.

[Adam.]

I chortled

[sarcasmic]

Plastic surgery-obsessed Venezuela hit by shortage of breast implants

http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyl.....-1.2006950

"The women are complaining," said Ramon Zapata, president of the Society of Plastic Surgeons. "Venezuelan women are very concerned with their self-esteem."

[Rich]

They were probably using the implants for toilet paper.

/Captain Obvious

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Hollywood should start a boob drive.

[DontShootMe]

Hollywood isn't full of boobs already?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

"We may have shortages of toilet paper, basic foodstuffs and such....but stop the tit embiggening and the Revolution will falter!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Queen Elizabeth II warned voters in Scotland to "think carefully" about this week's referendum on independence.

Unlike any other vote, where you can just mindlessly pick whatever out of your ass. (Her words.)

[gaijin]

"think carefully"

She should have given that advice to her son before he married

[Jerryskids]

Has someone reminded her that the people she's telling to think carefully are the same ones who think haggis is a food and bagpipes are a musical instrument and grown men look fine dressed in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

*narrows gaze, takes bite of haggis and starts sharpening claymore*

[Kaptious Kristen]

Chicks dig men in kilts. Just sayin'.

[Raven Nation]

It's actually pretty rare these days for the monarch to say anything political. Problem is knowing whether she's speaking for herself or for the government.

[robc]

Maybe she is threatening to disband Scottish parliament and rule with an iron fist north of the wall.

[tarran]

Given the utter incompetence with which the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Windsor has ruled since the death of Victoria, I doubt she will be imposing anything.

[Isaac Bartram]

tarran, the monarch has no control over policy beyond what she can suggest to the PM in private meetings.

Her only major public statement on policy is the "Throne Speech" which is read by her verbatim from a script written by political functionaries of the party in power.

[tarran]

Isaac, yes, I am well aware of the customs that have arisen around that family's pervasive dereliction of their responsibilities.

[Kure'i]

KING OF THE NORTH!

[Isaac Bartram]

Raven, according to the article it was not a public statement and also it was quite neutral in content.

The queen was photographed saying something to a small group of three four Scots, and a similar number of English visitors, in the crowd.

She is understood to have remarked that "you have an important vote on Thursday", before adding: "I hope everybody thinks very carefully about the referendum this week".

She has not personal interest in the outcome since according to the promoters of independence she will still be Queen of Scotland.

The Scottish Government's proposal is that the Queen remains Head of State in Scotland, in the same way as she is currently Head of State in independent nations such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

[perlhaqr]

Sounds like a threat to me.

[perlhaqr]

Although, given the attitudes of the people I've talked to about it, I almost wonder if she's trying to push them into it. I can easily imagine Scots saying "Oh yeah!?!"

[CatoTheElder]

What would Lincoln do?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

I don't think the Queen could get 50,000 volunteers....initially.

[sarcasmic]

British Playboy bunny says she became a prude after suffering dramatic personality change following brain tumour surgery

Kerri Parker, 30, became model in 2003 after winning magazine competition
Spent time attending A-list events and partying at Playboy mansion in LA
However last year she was diagnosed with brain cancer and had surgery
Now she says operation has changed her into introverted 'wallflower'

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

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

They removed her slutal lobe?

[Idle Hands]

brits have the ugly market cornered. Even their hot chicks are soso. Exceptions do exist.

[sarcasmic]

American who tore up tourist visa so he could be imprisoned 'to experience human rights abuses in North Korean prison' is sentenced to six-years hard labor

Matthew Miller, 24, sentenced in Pyongyang on Sunday
Entered North Korea in April, tore up his tourist visa and claimed asylum
Sent appeal to President Obama, but never received a reply

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

[waffles]

This man deserves his fate. Asylum? Asylum from what?

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Asylum from sanity.

[Ted S.]

And then he writes an appeal to the president?

[tarran]

I think his deck is short a few cards, if you catch my drift.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I see they gave him a tactical turtleneck.

[Tonio]

+1 Glengoolie

[perlhaqr]

"The American who tore up his own tourist visa on landing in North Korea and demanded to be arrested so that he could experience prison life in the communist nation" -- "will get his wish."

Man. Some people really fuck up when they find the djinni in the lamp.

"I wish for... uh... oh god... too much pressure... bilateral compound femur fractures! NO! A Ferrari! I meant to say a Ferrari!"

[thom]

I don't really understand what North Korea gets out of imprisoning this guy for six years. Even the kind of thugs that run that country - it would make more sense just to kick him in the stomach a few times and dump him at the border...

[tarran]

They are thinking they'll trade him for some concession.

Or after a few years' hard labor, he'll jump at the chance to train their intelligence agents about American customs etc.

[perlhaqr]

Oh, come on. Surely even the military heads of the DERPK aren't dumb enough to want that idiot training anyone about anything?

[tarran]

I imagine it would be something like that hilarious scene in the movie Sleeper when Woody Allen's character is presented with a whole bunch of 20th century artifacts and asked to explain their significance, and his answers are completely misleading.

[Lord Humungus]

Noisy clarinet blamed for neighbor's alleged threat

A western Colorado woman is accused of pointing a rifle at several children in a neighboring back yard because she was upset that an 11-year-old boy was playing his clarinet outside.

Mesa County sheriff's deputies believe 60-year-old Cheryl Ann Pifer of Clifton had been drinking before allegedly threatening the children Wednesday afternoon.

[waffles]

The clarinet in the hands of an untrained 11 year old is a deadly thing. I'm just glad the rifle got home safely.

[Ted S.]

If the kid had been practicing the bagpipe she would have been justified.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

*adds 'Ted S.' to list*

[Poppa Kilo]

A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the bagpipes, and does not.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

One more name to the list...

[JW]

Stand Your Grandioso.

[Steve G]

War on African Disease?!

[Ted S.]

11 photos of Icelandic volcano eruption

As far as I know, it's all on one page. (Or, at least, it was all on one page when I stopped the rest of the non-photo stuff from loading.)

[Lord Humungus]

OECD Cuts Economic Growth Forecasts

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Monday cut its economic growth forecasts for the U.S. and other large developed economies, and said the continued weakness of the recovery demonstrated the need for significant changes in economic policy.

The Paris-based research body warned that economic growth could prove to be even more disappointing in 2014 and 2015, given an array of risks that include conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, the Scottish independence referendum, and the possibility of major shifts in financial flows and sharp exchange-rate movements as investors prepare for a tightening of U.S. monetary policy that is expected next year.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to hunt the killers down, but has not yet committed the United Kingdom to joining in on airstrikes against ISIS.

He may be under the impression that air-to-surface missiles aren't great at investigating.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

OT: Nicola Blackwood, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, ain't bad at all.

Researcher who tried to expose Rotherham abuse 'feared for life after police officers' threat'
A Home Office researcher whose report into child sexual exploitation problems in Rotherham was 'suppressed' more than a decade ago has claimed she was threatened by two police officers.

The researcher claims she was approached by two officers while she was in her car at night, to be told it would be a 'bad thing' if the abusers she was investigating found out her home address....

[Lord Humungus]

When your boyfriend loses his lover

Today I have two boyfriends, but only one who lives with me, the father of my amazing children, who is now divorced from his wife. His ex-wife is married to my ex-husband and they have a child. For better or for worse, I wouldn't have played it any other way. Polyamory has become a part of my context, my narrative and my belief in the right every person has to configure their relationship in a way that makes them happy. But there are some situations the polyamorous literature rarely covers. What to do when your boyfriend is grieving the loss of his lover?

Of course, I'm projecting about his heartbreak, as I always do. He's a "coper," one of the reasons I love him. When we met, I told him about my baggage, and he said, "Don't worry, darling, I can handle heavy." He's always been the dependable one.

At least most card games are better with a few other players around.

[perlhaqr]

What to do when your boyfriend is grieving the loss of his lover?

Console him? WTF? This is not rocket surgery.

[Lord Humungus]

Sarasota bus driver accused of attempting to pick up prostitute while on duty

A Sarasota County Area Transit driver is off the job after being arrested for allegedly soliciting an undercover office for sex -- while on duty.

43-year-old Rodrigue Macharie may not be driving a bus anytime soon. Sarasota Police say they arrested him at U.S. 41 and 42nd street at 9:45 Thursday morning after he approached an undercover officer during a prostitution crack down.

"He did show up in a county vehicle and was dressed in a county uniform," says Sgt. Demetri Konstantopoulos of the Sarasota Police Department.

[Ted S.]

SLD about the evils of undercover officers doing prostitution stings.

[perlhaqr]

SLD == "Standard Libertarian Diatribe"?

[Fringe Loony]

"That county vechicle was a SCAT bus normally used for special needs passengers. "The arrestee engaged the undercover officer, a deal was made...in exchange for $20 dollars U.S. currency.""

"What about MY 'special needs'?" Macharie was not recorded as saying.

[CatoTheElder]

A SCAT bus?

Seriously?

[Lord Humungus]

Obama forced by events to reverse course --- and disillusion base

In the late 1960s Democrats switched from being the more hawkish of our two parties, more likely to support military interventions and commitments, to being the more dovish. Visceral opposition to military action, and suspicion that even the most limited such action will lead to massive war, is deeply implanted in many Democratic voters.

You can expect, therefore, a skittish reaction to Obama's announcement of a military escalation from senatorial and congressional candidates in states with dovish Democratic electorates like Colorado and Iowa. We also may also see depressed turnout of Democratic doves all over the country in November.

It is apparent that Obama's decision to take military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, however limited, came despite his deep-seated feelings and was forced on him by events. American voters do not take kindly to videotaped beheadings of Americans. It unleashes a Jacksonian impulse to wipe the people who do these things off the face of the earth.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"came despite his deep-seated feelings and was forced on him by events."

Look what you fanatics made me do! You made me go to war! I'm a peaceful person!

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

"It's just this war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson..."

[John]

I always said they would Johnsonize him. I just figured it would happen during his first term.

[gaijin]

The world continually disappoints O

[Steve G]

If he would only do what other messiahs do to attempt to save it....

[Rich]

Holder Says Private Suit Risks State Secrets

"I have never seen anything like this," said Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented clients in other cases that have been quashed because of state secrets.

"The most transparent administration in history."

[CatoTheElder]

Isn't this pretty much an admission that United Against Nuclear Iran is some sort of CIA or DoS front group?

[The Late P Brooks]

Baby steps

At a Thursday meeting in Laramie, the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee approved a draft bill that would eliminate civil asset forfeiture and establish a process for seizing assets of people convicted of crimes punishable by more than one year behind bars, said committee chairman Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson.

Defendants would receive a notice about what property is up for forfeiture, the bill states. After they are convicted, they can contest the forfeiture and have a hearing. In some cases, the hearing can be before a jury.

---------

Gingery said the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police has opposed alteration of the civil asset forfeiture law. The organization did not return a message from the Star-Tribune.

Pigs are opposed; what a surprise. I wonder if the feds will throw their weight around on this, behind the scenes.

[Ted S.]

said committee chairman Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson.

Whoa, Nellie.

[Andrew S.]

Given what's happened in other places, they'll just stop with the state forfeiture and go with the "equitable sharing" with the feds.

[perlhaqr]

It's fucking madness that asset forfeiture isn't tied to convicting the owner of the property of a crime that warrants forfeiture.

I mean, even leaving aside the "The War on Some Drugs is a travesty" aspect of things, if the forfeiture is for being tied to drug profits, the gov't should have to prove the defendant was actually guilty of selling drugs to activate the forfeiture.

Just... fuck! "We're taking stuff from people because the stuff derived from illegal activity" should require a finding of illegal activity. This seems remarkably basic.

[CatoTheElder]

"Pigs are opposed ..."

Pirates are usually opposed when their letters of marque and reprisal are revoked.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama push to hire veterans into federal jobs spurs resentment

With veterans moving to the head of the hiring queue in the biggest numbers in a generation, there's growing bitterness on both sides, according to dozens of interviews with federal employees.

Those who did not serve in the military bristle at times at the preferential hiring of veterans and accuse them of a blind deference to authority. The veterans chafe at what they say is a condescending view of their skills and experience and accuse many non-veterans of lacking a work ethic and sense of mission.

[John]

It is a Vet mafia in a lot of places.

[CatoTheElder]

My old company acquired a small firm that could be characterized as a vet mafia. Mostly ex-AF pilots, with a couple of Marines. They had a reasonably valuable client list, but it was a peculiar organization, and not a good fit. To my knowledge the only thing that remains of that acquisition is the client list.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If you want work ethic and sense of mission, why are you seeking a federal job?

The only thing worse than lazy federal employees is federal employees with a sense of mission.

[John]

The worst kind of officer his the hard working stupid one.

And a lot of vets went in the military right out of high school and have no idea how the nonDOD part of the federal government actually works.

[Doctor Whom]

Those of my acquaintance have no idea how the non-DOD part of anything works, but they're sure they know how it ought to be regulated.

[John]

Whenever I would meet some old Colonel who had gone to West Point and then spent 25+ years in the Army, I was always reminding of Red in the Shawshank Redemption talking about how he didn't want parole anymore because he was "an institutional man" now. That is really what those guys are. They have no idea how anything outside of the military works.

[Idle Hands]

"Brooks was here"

[Clich? Bandit]

I worked for a full bird right after he retired from the the AF. He got a rude awakening when he told one employee to do something the was not only outside his scope but also against policy and the employee looked at him and said "no" (with no small amount of indignity) and kept walking. I almost shit. Dude forgot we don't just "follow orders" out here in the private sector.

Needless to say he never really got the hang of persuasion.

[John]

My older sister used to say it took us 12 years for us to deprogram my dad from four years in the Marine Corps.

[Lord Humungus]

One of my co-workers is an ex-marine. He used to have two employees under him.

One was the first to go under a round of cuts.

The other had a near nervous breakdown. You would find him in near tears. He eventually refused to report to the SOB anymore... a year later and he quit.

The ex-marine no longer has any employees reporting to him.

[perlhaqr]

"but they're sure they know how it ought to be regulated."

Lemme guess -- Like the DOD?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

how the nonDOD part of how the nonDOD part of the federal government actually works.

False flag operation. The nonDOD part of the federal government doesn't do any actual work.

[John]

If only that were true, we would be in a lot better shape than we are today. Trust me the EPA, and DEA and DOJ and CPB and a lot of other people are out working very hard. And that is the problem.

[Steve G]

accuse many non-veterans of lacking a work ethic and sense of mission

Chill, veterans, that's a job requirement for federal employees. Or is that not why you're applying too??

[Cdr Lytton]

Hiring preferences for single gold star mothers too and because that's sexist, soon to be expanded to single gold star fathers.

[Steve G]

Anecdotally, the sharpest civil service folks I have in the (DoD) office here are non-veterans. They are ambitious and knowledgeable. The vets are not only the highest paid (not counting their mil retirement) and lowest performing. One, the highest paid by far, I can't even give him the most rudimentary tasks since they cause me more rework--I'm talking simple fucking spelling errors.
By the way, they are all GS-14s...

[John]

Didn't we spend the entire last five years of the Bush Administration hearing how the war in Iraq was "illegal"? So if it was an "illegal war", how can the Chocolate Nixon use the AUMF it was based on to wage war in Iraq?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

LALALALALALALALALA THEY CAN'T HEAR YOU

[Rich]

Bush's war was illegal because of its false pretext.

Obama's is a holy just war.

[John]

First, I there not being WMDs does not make the war illegal. Second, if the AUMF is somehow invalid because it was based on "BOOSH LIES", then isn't it still invalid today? For the last 11 years every Team Blue hack has claimed the AUMF for Iraq was a fraud. Well, okay, if its a fraud then it is invalid, right?

[Rich]

Sheesh, John, you're such a nitpicker!

[John]

I just want Obama to fail I guess.

[Tim]

You bastard!

[perlhaqr]

Racist.

[Doctor Whom]

We've always been at legal war in Westasia.

[Lord Humungus]

Russia's Militarization of the North Pole Has U.S. Lawmakers on Edge

But this year, strained relations between Washington and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis have quickly frozen U.S.-Russian cooperation in the Arctic. Soon after Russia claimed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea as its own in March, the U.S. suspended joint naval exercises in the Arctic Ocean, canceled a bilateral meeting on Coast Guard operations there, and paused a submarine rescue partnership.

A break in cooperation has not slowed Russia's pursuit of national interests inside the Arctic Circle, however. Russia already has the biggest military footprint there of any Arctic nation, and it's beefing it up at a much faster rate than the U.S. and Canada. The country's Northern Fleet is getting new nuclear attack submarines. Restoration of Soviet-era defense infrastructure is underway. And this week, Russia announced it has begun building a complex of military bases in the region, The Moscow Times reports, the first new facilities in the area since Soviet posts were abandoned at the end of the Cold War.

The Snowball Gap

[Tim]

Let them spend a fortune, That has to be some fabulous duty up there.

[Rhywun]

Let them spend a fortune

Yeah, isn't that more or less how they lost the last Cold War?

[Ted S.]

I presume the called the military base "Zebra"?

[Tim]

Just because the Russians want to waste a hundred billion dollars at the north pole doesn't mean we have to.

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

FOOLISH MORTAL! You have much to learn of the Ways of DC.

[JW]

We can't let the Ruskies have a Polar Cap Gap!

[Kure'i]

We should goad them into building a base on Mars, too.

[John]

Laws or for little people

The Department of Labor coordinated with the White House on whether or not to release hidden portions of former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis' schedule as Solis battled an FBI investigation into her illegal fundraising for President Obama.

New emails provided to The Daily Caller from the nonprofit legal research firm Cause of Action show the White House thanking the Department of Labor for "flagging" a public information request for "withheld" portions of Solis' schedule. (SEE THE EMAIL CHAIN). The White House then asked for the name of the conservative group making the request ? information that Labor officials were eager to give up.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/09.....z3DOEGTend

[Aloysious]

Hard drives will start crashing any second now.

[Tim]

The drive crashed was recycled, scratched, crashed again, caught fire, fell from an airplane and was lost in the Atlantic.

[John]

There was a meme running around twitter last week that said if only the NFL had stored the Ray Rice tape on Lois Lerner's harddrive, no one would have seen it.

[Rich]

Feds step up terrorist recruitment fight in U.S

"These programs will bring together community representatives, public safety officials, religious leaders, and United States Attorneys to improve local engagement; to counter violent extremism; and ? ultimately ? to build a broad network of community partnerships to keep our nation safe," Holder said. "Under President Obama's leadership, along with our interagency affiliates, we will work closely with community representatives to develop comprehensive local strategies, to raise awareness about important issues, to share information on best practices, and to expand and improve training in every area of the country....Ultimately, the pilot programs will enable us to develop more effective ? and more inclusive ? ways to help build the more just, secure, and free society that all Americans deserve."

But what exactly are "these programs"?

[sarcasmic]

Isn't it when law enforcement agents entrap stupid people into going along with a plan that is completely and totally created by the agent, and are then arrested when they agree to use a "bomb" that the agent says he'll make?

[John]

Rich, the idea right now is to copy the UK and start having the federal government in conjunction with state and locals do an "intervention" on anyone they think might be turning into a radical. I am not fucking kidding. They actually think that is a good idea and won't end in disaster and abuse.

[Rich]

I trust they understand that the H&R commentariat is just a bunch of harmless jokesters.

[John]

We will all get our own case worker to try and get us to repent our sinful ways. I hope mine is cute at least.

[Tonio]

Never underestimate their stupidity.

[John]

Don't. I know the person whose idea that is. I can assure you they are not some evil totalitarian. And they are not "stupid" in terms of having a low IQ. They just really seem to completely lack the imagination to understand how something can and will be abused. It is an utterly mad and evil idea made by an otherwise intelligent and well meaning person. If anything that makes it worse. If it were made by an evil person, we could just dismiss it as the product of a degenerate mind. The fact that it is made by a well meaning and otherwise intelligent person makes me think we are doomed. How do you stop such ideas if they appeal to even the otherwise reasonable and well meaning?

[tarran]

The Byzantine method involved using a impenetrable and hence immovable bureaucracy and blinding emperors who fucked up with a salad fork.

We've adopted half of that, why not go the whole hog?

[perlhaqr]

I'll bring my fork.

[perlhaqr]

Well, I hope you punched some sense into them. Or at least made a strong attempt.

[John]

Nope. He is too high and there are too many yes men at that level. They are "studying" the idea. Lets hope the usual government incompetence and apathy kills it.

[Ted S.]

So the Feds are fighting to recruit terrorists. This is my shocked face.

[CatoTheElder]

'But what exactly are "these programs"?'

This will result in a propaganda campaign, similar in both style and effectiveness, to the War on Drugs. In other words, utterly lame, deceptive, and ineffective advertisements and an utterly lame, deceptive, and ineffective program like DARE.

If the USG will not recognize that Islamic militancy is a (emphasis on the indefinite article "a") genuine expression of orthodox Islam, it will be correctly viewed with a mixture of ridicule and suspicion by Muslims inclined toward militancy.

America thrives when the USG lives up the principles of its founding. Every departure from those principles ends in failure. Part of the Al Qaeda strategy is to incite the USG to depart from those principles. They are succeeding brilliantly, and the USG is failing miserably.

[Lord Humungus]

A whole bunch of retreating?

Here's What Arab Militaries Bring to the Fight Against the Islamic State

A great deal is being made of the fact that the Gulf Arab states with the most to fear from ISIL are loath to contribute their militaries to president Barack Obama's global coalition against the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Although the Gulf countries are nominally members of the coalition, they have pledged only to provide military "assistance," rather than aircraft to strike against ISIL targets, much less troops to fight the terrorists.

But, how useful would Gulf Arab contributions be? In purely military terms, not very.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They're probably afraid their forces would defect during the fight.

[Rich]

Or at least turn over their weapons.

[Tim]

They're afraid a charismatic military leader could emerge and launch a future coup.

[tarran]

But, how useful would Gulf Arab contributions be? In purely military terms, not very.

Of course they wouldn't!!!!!!

The ISIS and Al Queda are in a state of war with each other. They both have similar visions for the future, except Al Queda wants to overthrow the gulf arab states, and ISIS doesn't. Hmmmm.

ISIS became militarily powerful after the U.S. govt refused to bomb the Syrians as the Gulf Arabs were demanding. Hmmmm.

Within weeks of the U.S. govt rejecting the Gulf Arab demands, ISIS repudiated Al Queda and suddenly became capable of waging a three front war successfully. Hmmm.

I wonder what the *true* Gul Arabs attitude toward ISIS is?

[John]

So the crazy drunk that runs the public integrity section of the Travis County DA's office is now trying to indict the UT Trustee who leaked the fact that UT was ignoring the law and running still giving race based admissions preferences. Their theory is that leaking of governmental information that causes people to "speculate" based on privacy protected information is illegal. Now the law in question was written to criminalize government officials from leaking say the location of a future highway so that their cronies could "speculate" by buying up the land next to it. The Travis Country DA's office is reading "speculate" to mean, "cause people to guess that blacks may have lower admissions scores". No shit.

These people are fascists. The GOP may be corrupt and stupid. But they are just the Wiemar Republic to the Democrats have gone full on fascist.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....williamson

[Lord Humungus]

Hacked Model Suing Apple
I Warned Them ... Twice

Joy Corrigan says she was hacked months before Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and others who suffered the same fate.

Joy says she reached out to Apple in early July ... but the company blew her off, saying she was simply a victim of phishing, so she needed to change her password. She followed orders, but days later she was hacked again. Apple gave her the same song and dance.

After the story broke late last month Apple contacted her and again denied any responsibility.

[Lord Humungus]

oops, SF'ed the link:
http://www.tmz.com/2014/09/14/.....-corrigan/

[gaijin]

Joy Corrigan. Kate Upton. Jennifer Lawrence. Kirsten Dunst.

One of these things is not like the others.

[Idle Hands]

Did someone hack her diet as well?

[Rich]

Coming soon to a kindergarten near you: Google Classroom

Spicijaric was leading a grand experiment that couldn't be discussed outside the halls of her Catholic high school in Brooklyn. The 38 teachers, along with school administrators and attendees, were under strict rules to keep quiet about the new Web-based software they were testing

Good thing Google would never collect and use all kinds of data on students, right? RIGHT?!

[Tim]

Only to sell them things they need and want.

[John]

At this point, what is stopping some budding "home scholer" from just taking in four or five kids about their child's age and running their own little private school? Yes, that would be illegal and technically subject you to all kinds of regulations. But if you had the other parents show up just enough so they could claim they were "home schooling", I bet no one would notice.

Home schoolers already form cooperatives to ensure their kids get to have friends and socialize and participate in sports. It is just a short hop to creating little mini schools, which would be a very good think I think.

[Rich]

"Time for your play learning date, Honey!"

[gaijin]

Catholic high school in Brooklyn. The 38 teachers, along with school administrators and attendees, were under strict rules to keep quiet

Seems like they would know how to keep secrets pretty well.

[perlhaqr]

Only about sexual abuse of children.

[DK]

The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola.

And medical personnel have been sent to Syria to see if they can reattach some heads.

[Tim]

This will end with them shooting at us.

[John]

And hating us for trying to help.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I foresee rumors about Americans spreading the disease and being responsible for the whole outbreak.

[John]

Yup.

[Tim]

Yep

[userve32]

There is a dude that clearly knows what time it is. Wow.

http://www.Crypt-Tools.tk

[Raven Nation]

But does he know where his towel is?

[John]

http://www.dawn.com/news/1131779/rotherham-lessons

Really good article on the Rotherham scandal. It wasn't just Pakistani on white crime. A good number of Pakistani girls were victims too. And when their families tried to get the cops to do something, the cops ignored them as well.

I still would be good money at least some of the cops were on the take from the gangs and are now hiding behind the "but we didn't want to be racist" defense. But even for the ones who were not, this is a case of multiculturalism taken to its fullest and most evil. The idea was "hey, sexually abusing kids is just what these people do and it is not for us to tell them they are wrong". Disgusting.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's the logical outcome of basing laws on things other than actual physical crimes against people and property.

[John]

How do you mean? I am curious.

[tarran]

My guess is that if you focused on assault and battery without worrying 'why' the assault and battery occurred, if you didn't criminalize comments like "white men can't jump" then perhaps the police wouldn't be able to use "we didn't want to seem racist" as a shield.

[John]

It ultimately Western self loathing. The British elites hate Western values and morality and thus can't bear to actually enforce such. It really is a case of "well rape is just what they do" kind of thing.

[WTF]

What they need is a little Charles James Napier.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The UK has plenty of thought crime and hate crime laws. They're a distraction at best from physical crimes against people and property. At worst, they actually work in opposition to the prosecution of physical crimes when the offenders are members of the "victim" class.

[John]

Good point. If it is a crime to think Pakistanis might be more likely to bugger children than white people or that an immigrant community may have a culture that tolerates such things, then it gets real hard to deal with an immigrant community that actually does tolerate it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's a strange perversion of moral relativism where feelings count more than anything else.

[John]

Feelings and an irrational hierarchy of "victim status". If you are a poor young girl, your victim status is just not high enough to save you from a Muslim man. Now if a white guy rapes you, you can expect the authorities to do something. But if someone higher on the victim hierarchy does, well that is just too bad.

What sick madness.

[John]

Here Nerfherder is exactly what you are talking about. Words fail. They really do fail.

A damning report released last month detailed how 1,400 children were sexually exploited in the area over a 16-year period.

The Times reported that a woman whose case is being investigated by authorities - but has not yet been interviewed - was arrested after tackling a man she says groomed her when she was 15.

A witness accused the police of 'acting like insensitive thugs', telling the paper: 'A police van came and six male officers piled out.

Two of them dragged her away, handcuffed her, put her against a wall and then shoved her into the back of the van.'

The woman was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z3DOdSoulv
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

I think I am going to be sick now.

[Restoras]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09......html?_r=1

According to the official report published in August, there were an estimated 1,400 victims. And they were, in the main, poor and vulnerable white girls, while the great majority of perpetrators were men, mainly young men, from the town's Pakistani community

the Labour-controlled council was, for reasons of political expediency and ideology, unwilling to confront the fact that the abusers were of Pakistani heritage. Proper investigation, it is said, was obstructed by political correctness ? or, in the words of a former local M.P., a culture of "not wanting to rock the multicultural boat."

The Pakistanis who raped and pimped got away with it because they targeted a community even more marginal and vulnerable than theirs, a community with little voice and less muscle: white working-class girls

[John]

And the police just arrested a victim who tried to confront her victimizer.

Feminists are making a hero out of the chick who is walking around Columbia with a mattress because her drunken hookup hasn't been expelled for rape. I bet they will make this woman a hero real soon. Right?

[Restoras]

You know they won't, but at least it puts their hypocrisy in stark relief for all to see.

[CatoTheElder]

I suppose they reason that, since all men are rapists, there is nothing particularly interesting about a Pakistani sex slavery ring.

And, since Pakistanis are a protected minority in the UK, feminists think they should be more concerned about the sort of "rape" that is practiced by all sexually active, heterosexual white men.

[Restoras]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09.....pe=article

When she finally found the courage to tell her mother, just shy of her 14th birthday, two police officers came to collect the clothes as evidence, half a dozen bags of them.

But a few days later, they called to say the bags had been lost

"All of them?" she remembers asking. A check was mailed, 140 pounds, or $232, for loss of property, and the family was discouraged from pressing charges. It was the girl's word against that of the men. The case was closed.

[Aloysious]

Everything about the Rotherham story makes me sad. Those poor kids.

[John]

Me too. And it makes me hate the British government. Ultimately, all of those good caring British progs just don't give a shit about poor kids, white or Pakistani. I bet if someone had raped some rich girl from Kensington or Oxford the authorities would have done something. The whole thing is just a bunch of evil assholes whose attitude was "they are all animals anyway so why should I care?".

[Aloysious]

Every time I read a story like this, I think humanity is irredeemable.

Then I start studying something like the Singing Revolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution

and admire the beauty of what the Estonians accomplished, and I am somewhat heartened. (Estonian wimminz singing is a beautiful thing.)

[John]

That is amazing. I really want to visit Estonia and the Baltic States. They seem like really interesting and great people.

[MegaloMonocle]

Interesting.

I'm still amazed that no angry fathers/uncles/brothers didn't exercise a little self-help when the Total State failed them.

[John]

Two reasons. The police are acting as enforcers and will arrest t hem before they do anything and the population has been disarmed. Rest assured the gangs have guns. So what is an unarmed father to do in the face an armed gang with police protection?

[Dweebston]

Hurricane Odile is threatening Baja California with winds upward of 100 miles an hour.

What a crock.

[John]

Outside of Cabo, does anyone even live there?

[perlhaqr]

ISWYDT.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Adrian Peterson would like to avoid any punishments, because God.

[John]

How old was the kid? How bad did he beat him? The press reports seem to be pretty scant on what he is actually supposed to have done.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

There are plenty of details on what happened.

1. Kids was 4
2. Badly. There are pictures taken a week after the fact.

[SugarFree]

4-year-old and he beat him with a switch on the back, buttocks, legs and scrotum until he was bruised and bleeding. He pushed his brother off his bike.

[John]

I am about as radically pro parental rights to discipline kids as anyone can be these days. But you can't use a switch on a four year old. Fuck Peterson. I still wouldn't consider it a felony. But it is still a crime.

[SugarFree]

A couple of swat on the butt would have made the point. Sounds like someone has rage issues.

[John]

Definitely. How do you get that mad at a four year old child? A mouthy teenager maybe. But a four year old? No way unless you are just a complete asshole with no self control.

The age of the child is what really hangs Peterson here. There is no way a four year old could ever do anything to justify that.

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

Sounds like someone has rage issues.

Someone who has devoted his life to a game rife with high-speed collisions has rage issues? Unpossible.

[Idle Hands]

It's sad but I think Peterson is going to get off lightly compared to what Ray Rice did. To me Petersen is worse simply because he beat the shit out of a four year old and not an adult.

[Idle Hands]

in addition Ray took one shot at her and Petersen beat the living shit out of his kid. One takes a larger amount of intent and malice.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

This. I am surprised at how it seems that people are taking a lighter approach with Peterson, unless it is outrage fatigue.

[Idle Hands]

No video.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

That and the ever popular, flawless argument:

"My dad did it to me, much worse even! What's the big deal?"

[John]

I agree. Rice can make the legitimate claim that his wife hit him first and started the entire thing and thus bears at least some responsibility for the entire event. Peterson can't say that.

He is going to get off much lighter than Micheal Vick. I love dogs as much as anyone. But as bad as animal cruelty is, being cruel to a child is worse.

[Restoras]

Watching the NFL is becoming more like a weird cross of going to the zoo and Roman gladiator games.

[MegaloMonocle]

That kind of beating, on a kid that age?

Felony.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

And started it all off by stuffing the leaves in the kids mouth.

[John]

That is fucked up. Screw him.

[Aloysious]

...scrotum...

Pederson needs his head examined. That right there is brutality.

[Idle Hands]

Aparently he's falls in the old Joe Jackson "it's not a beating unless you use a stick" crowd. From what I heard he worked him over pretty good lacerations and bruising everywhere.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As my grandmother told my father:

"I'm going to beat you till the blood runs down the back of your legs."

[John]

That would have made a great blues song.

[sarcasmic]

I guess that's better than "I'm going to rape you till the blood runs down the back of your legs."

[perlhaqr]

Heh. I know this is the wrong direction of anecdote, but I have to admit that this line reminds me of the time my grandmother tried to spank me with a yardstick, and broke the yardstick. We both ended up laughing our asses off. (I really had been misbehaving, and I really did deserve a swat on the ass for it. Also, there was no chance my grandmother was going to beat me until I even bruised, let alone bled. I think the fact that it was rare enough for me to get a spanking that I can recall specific instances is indicative, though.)

[Clich? Bandit]

same thing happened at my house. Except the next day, in the corner appeared a metal yard stick. Behavior improved significantly thereafter.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Expect Molyneux to appear any moment, but...

My aunts and uncles like to talk about how my grandmother would force them to cut their own peach limbs for a switching. Always had to be a green limb, and it had to be just the right size or else she'd make them go back and choose another one.

Now that's economically efficient parenting, as the kid torments himself over his wrongdoing while you can get on with your chores.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

MY great-grandfather had a bit of a rage issue. He beat his grandchildren (who were left with him as the result of a broken marriage) with a fire poker for the slightest infractions. The kids were my dad's cousins, but my father never found out until they were at a reunion a few years ago.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Caps unintended

[Idle Hands]

I guess he's an old testament guy.

[Raston Bot]

I would just like to point out the fantasy repercussions are huge.

[Mainer2]

Regarding the Ray Rice story, I followed some links to a web forum dedicated to corporal punishment. Parents discussing the proper way to humiliate as well as beat. The consensus seemed to be that boys should always be stripped naked and beaten in front of the whole family, with some disagreement whether daughters should be beaten in front of their brothers or whipped in private, but nude of course.
Some really sick shit as far as I am concerned, but these folks seemed sincere that this is just normal proper discipline. Holy fuck.

[Rhywun]

Holy fuck indeed. I got a few spankings and that's about it. If I had kids I'm sure I would be the same way - because sometimes they deserve it. But bruising and bloodied, as mentioned above? That's prison time as far as I'm concerned. And this naked shit - I just can't even.

I have a Chinese friend who described some twisted shit he and his siblings endured, things that he says are quite common there. People who can do these things don't seem human to me.

[Ken Shultz]

"The White House is expected to announce a plan to deploy military personnel in Liberia to combat the outbreak of Ebola."

I didn't realize conventional weapons could work against a virus like that.

[Tim]

We will be vaccinating from the air. No boots on the ground.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Napalm and White Phosphorus are both really effective anti-virals.

[Ken Shultz]

Incidentally, have the Liberians heard about this?

I know Obama gets a lot of his news by reading the newspaper, but they may not get the same newspapers in Liberia.

We should probably call ahead to make sure they know we're coming.

[Lord Humungus]

MI funeral home opens drive-through window

The Saginaw News reports Paradise Funeral Chapel has installed a window that displays a body inside the building. Curtains over the window automatically open when a car pulls up, and mourners get three minutes to view a body as music plays overhead.

President Ivan Phillips says many people are afraid of funeral homes. He says his drive-through allows people who might not otherwise visit the funeral home to honor the deceased.

Phillips says it's up to each family to decide if they want to use the window. His business also offers a silver, horse-drawn carriage to bring the dead to nearby cemeteries.

Can I get some fries with that?

[Ken Shultz]

You know what's always seemed weird to me?

I think it's a Mexican thing, like getting a tattoo of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but, you know how some people put up stickers on the backs of their cars/trucks that say, "In Loving Memory of so and so...1977-2013"?

I can't get behind that.

WTF is that supposed to mean? You've recommitted your car as a rolling memorial to the dead, huh?!

It's not just that it's tacky, it's so...

I can't put my finger on it, but there's something not right about that.

[sarcasmic]

Or when people maintain crosses with flowers on the side of the road where an accident claimed the life of a loved one. Those annoy me.

[thom]

Those serve a useful purpose. If you start seeing a lot of those in one area...slow down and be careful.

[perlhaqr]

And if you start seeing a lot of those stupid "ghost bikes" in one area... don't ride your fucking bicycle in the middle of the street there.

[Entropy Void]

Also good advice if you see a lot of Mexicans in one area ...

[Swiss Servator, Lucerneriffic]

Dangerous curves are marked, at least in Christian lands, by white wooden crosses positioned to make the curves even more dangerous. The crosses are memorials to people who've died in traffic accidents, and they give a rough statistical indication of how much trouble you're likely to have at that spot in the road. Thus, when you come through a curve in a full-power slide and are suddenly confronted with a veritable forest of crucifixes, you know you're dead.

? P.J. O'Rourke

[Knarf Yenrab!]

I see these all the time at intersections and flat curves on highways.

Why relatives of the dead don't petition the state to do something about its shitty roads rather than remembering the spot where your loved one died is beyond me, but I've never seen a non-profit dedicated to haranguing or suing the state over its highways. It's like God created them and we just have to make the best of what we have.

[sarcasmic]

Petitioning the state about shitty roads doesn't do any good. They'll just say that a team of engineers approved it. It went through the process, and therefore it is good. Top men and all that, with a hint of FYTW.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

I know, but it's odd that there's no grassroots movement at all about it, even among libertarians. We talk about private roads vs. public, but discussing how many lives are lost due to bad and irresponsible planning outside of the market never happens, much less grassroots groups.

Everyone was furious over the recent VA abuses, but I wouldn't be surprised if non-market roads killed 10x as many people a year as VA central planning.

[waffles]

As a traffic engineer, FYTW.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Actually there's a lot of cases out there where folks tried to sue the state over bad highway design. (I was bored one day at the law library, what can I say). They lose, lose, lose at it though.

[Rhywun]

"You can't fight City Hall" - another old chestnut you don't hear anymore.

[Kure'i]

I was really shocked the first time I was in Paraguay, and saw those little marker/cross/memorial things lining so many country roads. It seemed like there was one every 50 feet in some places. I guess the combination of motorcycles without working lights, free range cattle on the roads, and flooding don't make for the safest combination while driving.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

The decals/paint jobs aren't just Mexican, as I see them in Old South Wal-Mart parking lots while on my way to take advantage of low, low prices and homogeneous consumer culture.

They bother me less than license plates do. At least they're voluntarily in bad taste.

[Ken Shultz]

Dude, there are a lot of Mexican-Americans in the South.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Only season labor here, and these are on Bubba trucks next to the proud to be American and Calvin pissing decals.

Based on my experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't begin with Mexican influence here--might have popped up independently, as commemorative tattoos are an old tradition and these things are basically tattoos for your truck.

[thom]

They were really common in the white-trash neighborhood in Baltimore I used to live in.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Bright startup idea: an e-funeral home with webcam visitation. Just think of how low the overhead would be.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Webcam permanently installed in the coffin. Just so you can pay a visit once in a while and make sure Uncle Bob is still where he's supposed to be.

[SugarFree]

Zombie uprising early-warning system.

[The Late P Brooks]

Speaking of racist oppression...

Detroit is the largest city ever to seek bankruptcy protection, so its bankruptcy is seen as a potential model for other American cities now teetering on the edge.

But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they'd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.

----

Among those being asked to sacrifice are Detroit's former city employees, now dependent on pensions and healthcare benefits the city years before agreed to pay. Also investors who bought $1.4 billion worth of bonds the city issued in 2005.

Both groups claim the plan unfairly burdens them. Under it, the 2005 investors emerge with little or nothing, and Detroit's retirees have their pensions cut 4.5 percent, lose some health benefits, and do without cost-of-living increases.

Oh, the humanity!

And- all those white people in the suburbs are stealing Detroit's ROADZ!

[John]

There hasn't been a wealthy white person living within the city limits of Detroit for at least 50 years. How exactly are wealthy white people escaping the costs of public goods in places where they don't live and don't even go?

[Rhywun]

I've seen this argument before - they're usually talking about museums and parks and other regional attractions. And yes, local roads. It almost makes you wonder if there was some OTHER way to fund such things.

[CatoTheElder]

Can't the regional attractions charge admission?

Can't the local roads charge tolls on departure from Detroit?

The statist's lack of imagination is staggering. The State continually screws up everything it touches, and the statist blames it on low tax rates.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Both groups claim the plan unfairly burdens them. Under it, the 2005 investors emerge with little or nothing, and Detroit's retirees have their pensions cut 4.5 percent, lose some health benefits, and do without cost-of-living increases.

Always the unasked question here is, how many of those retirees are still living n Detroit, and how many got the fuck out while the getting was good?

Maybe they can do a tier system where the closer you are to actually living in Detroit after you retire, the higher your pension. If you moved down to, say, New Mexico or the South, you get 10%.

[The Late P Brooks]

He swoops in for the kill:

Buried within the bankruptcy of Detroit is a fundamental political and moral question: Who are "we," and what are our obligations to one another?

Are Detroit, its public employees, poor residents, and bondholders the only ones who should sacrifice when "Detroit" can't pay its bills? Or does the relevant sphere of responsibility include Detroit's affluent suburbs ? to which many of the city's wealthier resident fled as the city declined, along with the banks that serve them?

Judge Rhodes won't address these questions. But as Americans continue to segregate by income into places becoming either wealthier or poorer, the rest of us will have to answer questions like these, eventually.

Get back to me when every member of Detroit's city government for the past fifty years is in jail, Bob.

[John]

And of course the total breakdown in basic civil services in Detroit had nothing to do with anyone who could leaving. Nope. They just left because they were racists and didn't want to pay for that first class Detroit government.

[thom]

...and the Federal government subsidized huge roads out to nowhere. The idea that suburbanization was completely the work of market forces is nonsensical.

[John]

The government building roads just enabled people to do what they wanted. Suburbanization is the result of three things; people's desire for more space, the total breakdown of inner city schools, and the development of reliable and cheap cars. Building roads had nothing to do with it. Those roads could have remained roads to nowhere if people hadn't wanted to move out of the city.

After the war and the depression, people were tired of living on top of one another in apartments. They wanted their own homes. That more than anything drove the move to the suburbs. When the schools failed and the big cities became progressive run hell holes, it just accelerated it.

[thom]

Fewer people would have moved to the suburbs without the subsidies. The cities wouldn't have deteriorated as badly as they did.

The breakdown of the schools and the progressive takeover of local government was a result of suburbanization, not a cause.

That leaves one cause: the desire for more space. A genuine desire, for sure, but as with many desires, one that people aren't necessarily willing to pay for. Kick in some government subsidies however and all that open space becomes a lot more attractive.

[John]

First, the cities already has suburbs. They were inner suburbs. Ordinary people couldn't afford them so they moved further out.,

Second, people did pay for those roads. They paid taxes. Who do you think paid for those roads, welfare recipients?

If you think that having private roads would have made any difference, you are kidding yourself. The people would have taken the money they saved in gas taxes and used it to pay tolls. The developers would have built those roads.

The government never subsidized suburbanization. That is one of the dumbest lies people tell. Why is it so hard to admit most people fucking hate cities and for good reason?

[thom]

I think the government should buy me a house...I paid for it after all because I pay taxes...derp derp

[Rhywun]

Who do you think paid for those roads, welfare recipients?

Everyone did, whether they used them or not. If anything, it was a huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Something the government is good at.

The government never subsidized suburbanization.

They didn't just subsidize it, but they eminent-domained any poor folks who got in the way.

[CatoTheElder]

Bullshit. Ever hear of a gas tax?

[CatoTheElder]

What fucking subsidies? Ever hear of the tax on gasoline? Ever hear of tolls?

[Rhywun]

The gas tax and tolls do not fucking pay the full cost of construction or maintenance, as you probably know.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Lawyer appears in Thomas Jefferson garb to defend law license.

http://www.abajournal.com/news.....sual_capit

(also former libertarian candidate for Governor.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

That should help our reputation as a bunch of eccentrics.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Wyoming: Firing Squad bill advances (if lethal injection becomes unavailable as death penalty method).

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/.....n-wyoming/

[OldMexican]

Queen Elizabeth II warned voters in Scotland to "think carefully" about this week's referendum on independence.

"Otherwise we may have us another Neville's Cross!

[CatoTheElder]

I think she should look back on history, and consider what other heads of state have done in cases of secession. For example, what would Lincoln do?

[GILMORE]

"There are a record high 60,000 centenarians in Japan, 90 percent of whom are women, according to the country's health ministry."

I got excited for a second, because i thought that said, "Cosmotarians"