Iraq Prime Minister 'Won't Allow' Foreign Troops, Biden Apologizes for Anti-Semitic Slur, Peterson Benched: P.M. Links

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  Foreign troops are "out of the question. Not only is it not necessary, we don't want them. We won't allow them," says Iraq's new prime minister Haider al-Abadi. Uh, he may want to tell that to the Obama administration that. Also, a House vote is set to take place today on Obama's plan to arm and train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. And, a New York man was arrested for allegedly trying to provide material support for the Islamic State terror group.  

• Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Jewish groups for describing some bankers as "Shylocks." Apparently, he referred to China as "the Orient" hours after the first gaffe.
• Former Press Secretary Jay Carney says about his new CNN gig, "It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side." Well, at least he's honest about that.
• Scotland votes on independence tomorrow, and it's going to be very close.
• According to the QS World University rankings, MIT is number one. Five other American universities are also in the top 10.  USA! USA! USA!
• Regarding star player Adrian Peterson who is facing child abuse charges, the owner of the Minnesota Vikings said "we made a mistake" by reinstating him, so he's on the exempt list now. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Jewish groups for describing some bankers as "Shylocks." Apparently, he referred to China as "the Orient" hours after the first gaffe.

Stand up, Joe. Let everyone see ya.

[Rich]

"God love ya!"

[SusanM]

"Niggardly" is next for him, I just know it.

[DesigNate]

Fingers crossed.

[Max Power]

I think he should go with "indian giver".

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Accuse them Iraqis of being uppity.

Trying to gyp us out of using our war boners.

Are they out of their cotton-pickin minds?

[CatoTheElder]

Speaking of the Iraqis, why did they welsh on their obligations to maintain a multicultural government?

[CE]

Is that why the Scots are revolting? They're too cheap and want to Welsh on their debts?

[Almanian!]

I think you've discovered the chink in their plan.

[Hyperion]

Cottonpickers are causing a real clustermug.

[Slammer]

I don't care how many dago guinea wop greaseball goombahs come out of the woodwork!

[Trouser-Pod]

+1 Best piece of ass

[Pro Libertate]

Really, he's the best possible vice president. I say give him lifetime tenure, with the understanding that he won't be in the succession for president.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He makes presidents look too good in comparison. I vote no.

[Pro Libertate]

Are you kidding? I'd take him over Obama in a heartbeat. I mean, worst president ever is hard to beat.

[Juice]

booosh?

[SusanM]

Biden Secret Service Codename: 'Assassination Insurance'

Ann Coulter

[CE]

They copied it from Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney and Al Gore.

[AlmightyJB]

You know who loves Joe Biden. Sarah Palin. Every time he speaks she must shake her her head and think "really fuckers?"

[Juice]

Ok, Joe Biden makes some gaffes from time to time. Sarah Palin is functionally retarded. Honestly, I'd like to know what her IQ is. It's certainly

[Juice]

Fuck. can't do the less than sign I guess.

It's certainly less than 100, maybe even close to 80.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah. Cause DC is such a brain trust. Those men are waaaaay smarter. Gotcha.

[jmomls]

A person insults Sarah Palin's intelligence and then can't figure out how to type a character on the interwebz.

Hilarity.

[seguin]

Really now? What's your reason for believing this?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Jewish groups for describing some bankers as "Shylocks." Apparently, he referred to China as "the Orient" hours after the first gaffe."

Biden: It's not like I said Redskins.

On a serious note. Imagine - I mean just imagine - given all the gaffes and stupid things (including racist ones) Biden, Obama, Holder and Reid (and Trudeau here in Canada) if someone outside the left-wing herd had said.

Holy Moly Mother of something. SNL and every media outlet would be all over it launching careers a-la Tina Fey. Songs, movies and documentaries would be made, celebrities would mobilize and plead to the people to stop the evil libermatarians!

[Ted S.]

Poor Rufus.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Poor Rufus what, Teddy?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Your almanac?

[Ted S.]

Champions League. You know you hated that last-minute goal. 🙂

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not really. I respect great sides.

I watched that game and Roma.

Immobile scored a sweet one for Borussia the other day.

[Jensen]

I mean, it's not like Trudeau Jr threw a hissy fit and said he'd become a Quebec separatist.

OH WAIT.

[Entropy Void]

I think Jay Carney was gonna cover that for CNN.

[CE]

Isn't "the Orient" just a descriptive term from Latin, like Oriental and Occidental?

Even though China is west of California, it is east of London which is the center of the Universe.

[Almanian!]

This. I realize we're all trendy Millenials here, but "Orient" is a slur when referring to geography or a country in the.....orient?

No.

[Heroic Mulatto]

A slur? No. As antiquated as stating that 'you're going to stop by Transjordan on your way to Indochina'? Yes.

[trshmnster the terrible]

You need to get permission from the Sultan before traversing the Ottoman on the way to Siam.

[Headless Body of Agnew]

Back off statist! I will traverse the ottoman on the way to the icebox for a beverage, anytime I please. If the damn Siam cat has something to say about it, I have a squirt bottle and am ready to use it.

[Almanian!]

Get off my davenport, get to the damned deep freeze and get your sarsaparilla, ya young tough!

[Juice]

There is nothing at all wrong with "The Orient." You know why? Because it IS The Orient, ie The East.

Hey, PC morons. For the last time, Orient and Oriental are not slurs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Scotland votes on independence tomorrow, and it's going to be very close.

Like it does for sex, alcohol makes voting easier.

[Raven Nation]

"Beer: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

Homer Simpson

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They should vote for a name change.

Scotposse!

[rts]

City paid $5.5 million to get rid of the Abbotsford Heat but has yet to find a replacement

Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers' Association says the building is a prime example of why municipalities in Canada should not be funding arenas of this size.

"I love minor hockey," said Bateman, "but taxpayers don't build 8,000 seat arenas to house it. Does minor hockey rent even cover turning lights on...or staff?"

[Raven Nation]

Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers' Association says the building is a prime example of why municipalities in Canada should not be funding arenas of this size.

FIFY

What a train wreck of a story.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They built the Copps Colosseum in Hamilton predicated on the faulty belief they were going to get an NHL team back in the 1980s. They used it for some Canada Cup games (memorable, legendary ones mind you) but since then I think the place may as well be an abandoned Romanian orphanage.

[Almanian!]

Oh, so The Tigercats (ROWWWRRR!) are not enough for Hamilton now?

Prigs...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Former Press Secretary Jay Carney says about his new CNN gig, "It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side."

If only the rest of CNN...

[CE]

TEAM!

[jesse.in.mb]

Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Jewish groups for describing some bankers as "Shylocks." Apparently, he referred to China as "the Orient" hours after the first gaffe.

I love that he continues to be everyone's embarrassing uncle.

[Andrew S.]

The thing is, everyone laughs about it.

I'm not saying I'm offended (being Jewish) about what he said, because I'm not. But can you imagine what the reaction would be if he had an R after his name instead of a D?

[John]

He would have to resign from public life.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was a bit young when Dan Quayle was around. I think at the time my parents believed he was mocked relentlessly because he didn't buy into the New World Order.

My childhood is an inexhaustible mine of crazy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

He WAS mocked relentlessly and he never really said anything on par with the clowns you see today in Obama's administration. Or at least, not at such an alarming rate. It seems like every time they talk they utter something stupid and ignorant. Shit, not even Bush - the Devil himself to the left - rivals them.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Potatoe

[CE]

+7 extra states

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Oooh, I haven't thought about the NWO people in years. I remember my first encounter in the wild. I was 18 and had just got a job at First Union and was casually talking with one of my co-workers about some mild political things and then, whoosh, all of a sudden she is talking about black helicopters and the UN army massing on the Canadian border to subjugate us all. Awesome stuff.

[CE]

There really are black helicopters, and they have practiced UN missions in American cities. And George HW Bush fed the insanity when he actually used the term "new world order" in a speech.

[Juice]

Was Clinton trolling when he repeated it?

[ant1sthenes]

I always liked stuff that built on that conspiracy mindset. X-files and Deus Ex come to mind.

[robc]

In this case, your parents were probably right.

[robc]

Sometimes reality is batshit crazy.

[DesigNate]

I'm pretty sure you would have heard the shrieks from deep space.

[Trouser-Pod]

Because it's true

[Andrew S.]

Any tips on what one should do with a couple of days in San Juan, PR (besides drink rum)?

[Protagoronus]

Go see Arecibo

[Pro Libertate]

Go use Arecibo to send messages to superaliens, requesting a power ring.

[Andrew S.]

Green Lantern was always my favorite superhero.

Anyone know the coordinates for Oa?

[Protagoronus]

8-6-7-5-3-0-ooooeoene

[Pro Libertate]

I'd make an excellent Green Lantern, living as an example for others of how to use power to make me and my friends and family exceedingly comfortable.

[CE]

I'd be good too, except for the courage part. My constructs would be awesome.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

867-5309.

[Protagoronus]

Oh, right. I'll get off your lawn now.

[Hyperion]

Well, he had Cato, so there was that he had going for him.

[Hyperion]

Does everyone remember that episode when Batman and the geh boy wonder took on Green Hornet and Cato, and the Green Hornet and Cato were handing them their arses when something happened... I can't remember now, some super villain showed up, or cat woman was masterbating with her cat of nine tails again, or something...

[CE]

Burt Ward (Robin) was bragging on how he had a black belt in karate. Then Bruce Lee (Kato) showed him that not all black belts are created equal.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Go on...

[Protagoronus]

Yeah, that.

[Andrew S.]

Good idea. I've always wanted to see that. As much because "space is fucking awesome" as "Goldeneye!"

[LynchPin1477]

Having been to Arecibo several times, I'll second this. It never stops being impressive.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Is Sr. Frogs still open?

[Brandon]

Scuba diving. Also the fort is pretty cool, if you're into that kind of thing.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Drink some more rum?

[grrizzly]

Have a day trip to Vieques.

[Citizen Nothing]

Vieques. Yes.

[CatoTheElder]

If you like nature and have never been in a tropical rain forest, a hike in El Yunque National Forest is worthwhile.

At least it was 20 years ago.

[grrizzly]

Yes, it's indeed very nice.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Drink a little more rum?

[rts]

Seal pup rescue lands hiker in hot water

A woman hiking on the West Coast Trail in Pacific Rim National Park may be fined after she tried to rescue an injured seal pup.

The two-month-old pup had a damaged eye and appeared near death when she picked it up and took it to Port Renfrew.

The problem is, it's against the law to remove wildlife from Canada's national parks.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We have rules for a reason people.

[Ted S.]

Obligatory

[John]

Someone out there really hates Fareed Zakara. And wow is Zakara a plagiarizing dirtbag.

http://ourbadmedia.wordpress.c...../#comments

[Jerry on the sea]

Makes me wonder if he actually writes his own books.

[gimmeasammich]

It's apparently not bad enough to get Sam Huddleston to stop watching. All he is looking for is a "good enough" reason for plagiarizing another's work.

As a faithful 'watcher' of Fareed Zakaria's TV show each week (GPS), I was extremely disappointed to learn of his use of plagiarism in his writings. If he fails to address this issue on his show to explain his use of other's work I will no longer feel comfortable watching his show each week.

Besides being a pretentious asshole, I never thought FZ was even very intelligent. He's got quite the punchable face as well. What's even worse is that CNN only saw it fitting to suspend him for a week before letting him back on.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Foreign troops are "out of the question. Not only is it not necessary, we don't want them. We won't allow them," says Iraq's new prime minister Haider al-Abadi.

"Look! He thinks he's people!"

[SusanM]

Time for some old fashioned "Regime change" - for freedom - I guess.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Why such a Haider?

[Rich]

Town bans "bad body odor"

The American Civil Liberties Union ... believes the ordinance is unconstitutional because it appears to single out homeless people.

That ACLU statement is dangerously close to hate speech.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, I don't see that right in the Bill of Rights, so it's not a right. How can a right not be in the Bill of Rights and be a right? Right?

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Living in a time of unwashed masses, manure in the streets and only eau de cologne for deodorant, I guess the Founding Fathers never thought to include the right to reek.

[Entropy Void]

PENUMBRA!

[seguin]

If not that then certainly emanations.

[John]

n a set of strange coincidences not unlike those surrounding the IRS/Lois Lerner email disappearance, the Los Angeles Unified school board has decided it will only retain internal emails for one year going forward.

The Los Angeles Unified school board voted Tuesday to buy a Microsoft email archiving service programmed to automatically destroy staff emails after one year.

Why only one year? According to the Chief Information Officer of the school district, the one year limit is mandated by district policy -- which is handy, but likely not the real reason. (Keeping all those bytes is considered "too expensive.") After all, if this policy was already in force, why the vote on retention limits?

More likely, this decision was prompted by recent events -- namely the publication of emails more than a year old.

The decision comes less than three weeks after KPCC published two-year-old internal emails that raised questions about whether Superintendent John Deasy's meetings and discussions with Apple and textbook publisher Pearson influenced the school district's historic $500 million technology contract.

[Pro Libertate]

Just for the record, I think government bodies should have to permanently retain all records in digital form. Forever.

[John]

In the day and age of $100 terabyte harddrives. there is no reason not to. Any government that doesn't should be presumed to be hiding corruption.

[Pro Libertate]

There is no legitimate reason whatsoever for them to not do this. So witness them not doing it and continuing to not do it.

I predict a spate of disappearing records that would tend to incriminate someone but for the disappearance. Assuming for the moment that we held politicians accountable for anything.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

For some reason I have a vision of a government archive version of V'ger.

[Pro Libertate]

Is there any doubt that Skynet starts with the NSA's massive database achieving sentience, then wiping us out in disgust?

[Warty]

"NSA, let's play Global Thermonuclear War!"

[CatoTheElder]

It probably costs more money to ensure that data are deleted than it would to retain it.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, discounting legal fees for what the evidence reveals, anyway.

[Rich]

I think bodies of government official should have to permanently retain all records in tattoo form.

[Pro Libertate]

Wrong, sir, wrong! In paper form, shoved in their asses.

In triplicate.

[0x90]

"It's a shame that you didn't know the previous Commandant!"

"However," the Officer said, interrupting himself, "I'm chattering, and his apparatus stands here in front of us. As you see, it consists of three parts. With the passage of time certain popular names have been developed for each of these parts. The one underneath is called the bed, the upper one is called the inscriber, and here in the middle, this moving part is called the harrow."

"The harrow?" the Traveler asked.

[Furburguesa]

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/ns.....ta-centre/

They have the space for it

[Pro Libertate]

Very convenient one-stop shopping for FOIA requests, lawsuits, and general snoopery.

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

Corruption is the all of it, and all of it is corruption.

Now that they're finding out how this nifty gee-whiz technology can be used against their positions of power, it's going to be a scramble to limit all the ways it bite them in the ass.

[Invisible Finger]

Someone should tell them the NSA has all the information already and never deletes any of it.

If the NSA ever needed a budget boost, they could just sell access to their archives.

[CE]

And Google has the backup copies of everything, just a court order away.

[kinnath]

This and SarbOx.

It is illegal to destroy records unless you have a published policy to destroy records.

I am surprised it is one year. We destroy everything over 90 days.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Us too.

[Cdr Lytton]

Holy shit. It's going to be like Groundhog Day there. I regularly go back and use emails older than a year in my own work.

Better disable the print button too because if all emails are going to disappear after a year, then staff are just going to print the good ones out for their own personal CYA file.

[CE]

All Microsoft email services already randomly delete your email for free.

[Stickler Meeseeks]

"Stand up, Chuck, and let's see ya!"

[Dances-with-Trolls]

"It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side." Well, at least he's honest about that.

It's all I ever really ask of journalists.

[John]

After you have have surrender all of your dignity and self respect the way Carney has, you just can't pretend anymore. He is an institutional man now. There is no point in him denying it.

[Slammer]

"It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side don't love Big Brother."

[John]

The really pathetic and sad thing is that Carney seems to actually think he has his own opinions. He isn't even aware that he thinks exactly what he is told to think. It is a remarkable bit of psychological control when you think about it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Archival Neglect: Flooding of FBI Archives Destroyed Hundreds of Thousands of Pages of Files Related to Civil Rights Movement History

To what degree were FBI agents and undercover informants in the Klan complicit in hate speech and hate crimes in the 1960s? What effect did FBI repression of the Klan during the 1960s have on the history of the right and on American politics more generally? These and other questions related to the history of the FBI's COINTELPRO against the Klan deserve further investigation.

But unfortunately, valuable documents through which these and other questions could be investigated were destroyed last year during Hurricane Sandy. In a huge loss from a one-of-a-kind archive that had never been released to the public, somewhere between one fifth and one third of the FBI's 62,000 page Birmingham, Alabama field office file on the United Klans of America (UKA) was destroyed by flooding of FBI archives in Alexandria, Virginia

Fail.

[SusanM]

In other news, vital IRS memoranda were eaten by the dog.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

What the fuck is it about government records that makes them attract floods?

[jesse.in.mb]

One of my professors studied Cuba and did a stint there (loved the people, hated the government). He joked that they didn't actively destroy embarrassing records, they just put them in the most humid corner of the archives and neglected to fix the roof over that section. Records just don't do well in tropical climates.

[trshmnster the terrible]

It's the weather control machine! No where is my mind control inhibitor hat?

[John]

Holy shit is Neil Degrasse Tyson a putz.

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/.....space-pen/

[Pro Libertate]

I'm surprised he didn't know that was bullshit. I heard that whole story years ago. What's he implying, anyway, that Soviet statism/communism is better than our mixed-up economy?

[John]

Yes he is.

[Brandon]

He's implying that while we foolish Americans fuck around with free will and waste money on frivolous pens, the Soviet system with people like Neil Degrasse Tyson in charge is much more efficient and productive.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yeah well, the Soviets were still using knob and tube wiring in their cosmonaut training center when the country fell apart. It's one thing to be practical, it's wholly another to be mired in the dark ages.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

I was reading Richard Rhodes's Dark Sun recently, about the Soviet nuclear effort and the subsequent development of the hydrogen bomb. One of the big things in the book is how much the Soviets engaged in industrial espionage, stealing every process and plan they could on a mass scale. Somehow those who glorify Soviet achievements never mention how much of it was based on Western intellectual property.

[John]

Funny that. And Dark Sun and The Making the Atomic Bomb are great books.

[John]

They also never mention how so many of those Soviet achievements were accomplished with slave prison labor.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There was a reason the Soviets never announced a space trip until after it was complete. Quite often, they would get the trajectory wrong and the capsule would either bounce off the atmosphere and burn up or shoot off into space, missing the orbit entirely.

[Winston]

Apparently for manned flights they would only announce it after orbit was achieved.

They also covered up the fact that Yuri Gagarin parachuted from his spacecraft since you need to land in your craft to achieve any record under FAI rules.

[SusanM]

As loathe as I am to defend the Soviets, I think that distinction has a heavy air of "NUH-UHHH" about it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The Komarov incident is probably the most famous. They sent him up in a defective capsule knowing he couldn't return. Gagarin objected in an official memo prior to launch, but apparently everyone who read that memo got demoted or disappeared.

[CatoTheElder]

In the 1990s, Russia had a traveling exhibit of the USSR space program. The welding on a few vessels (capsules, whatever) was visibly bad, and I have no doubt that quite a few failed to perform. Several Russian-speaking shortwave listeners monitored communications back in the 60s and 70s, and reports of catastrophic failures were pretty commonplace.

[CatoTheElder]

However, there is no doubt that Russia was first with Sputnik and manned spaceflight.

[Winston]

This is true but it more had to do with the fact that the Soviets were quite willing to one-up the Americans for the propaganda value. For example Sputnik 1 was sent because what became Sputnik 3 wasn't ready yet. And Vostok couldn't properly land and Voshkhod was shit.

[Pro Libertate]

This is actually a huge missing link in the success of a lot of places--what's actually supporting that success? Without the West, the Soviet Union likely would've had dick for science and technology.

The same goes for the socialism the U.S. subsidizes in Europe and other weird miracles that seem to run counter to the need to have free markets and limited government to nurture technological advance.

[Hyperion]

Oh yeah, well then explain to me why the Norks are number 1 in technology, you ratfucking teabagger! And... oh wait, never mind...

[Pro Libertate]

If the U.S. collapses, who will be the economic engine of the world? No other major economy would avoid cataclysmic results, as they're all heavily dependent on us in one way or the other, and no other is independently strong enough to take on that role.

The rest of the world should be begging us to be the free market "shithole" of the world.

[Jensen]

To give the Soviets a bit of credit, they did invent THE SPACE SHOTGUN.

Ok, so it was used because some cosmonauts had almost been eaten by wolves, but I like to think they were terrified of space monsters.

[Warty]

32 Gauge and 5.45x39

WANT

[gimmeasammich]

While that looks awesome, what was wrong with just stowing a couple of AKS-74U carbines on the shuttle?

[Jensen]

They did carry other firearms before the TP-82 (the article mentions the use of a Makarov pistol) but I haven't been able to find anything on other firearms used. I'd assume it was to cut down on weight probably.

[gimmeasammich]

Good point on the weight. It looks like the AKS has an empty weight of 2.71 kg, and the requirement was for 2.4 max.

[Winston]

Ok, so it was used because some cosmonauts had almost been eaten by wolves

Voshkhod 2?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Totally badass

[Slammer]

Tiny hamster versus Kobayashi in hot dog eating contest

[jesse.in.mb]

Goldfish recovering after 'high-risk' tumour removal

A goldfish in Australia is recovering from surgery after a life-threatening tumour was removed from its brain in a "high-risk" operation.

I'm sure you'll all be happy to note that George the goldfish is expected to live another 20 years.

[Slammer]

We're gonna need a bigger bowl.

[Sy]

Until someone forgets to clean the tank in a week

[Hyperion]

Or some over zealous 5 year old decides it's time to feed the fishies and throws in an entire pack of hot dogs into the tank.

When I was in my early twenties, having had fish tanks and fishies since I was a little kid, I had a 100 gallon aquarium full of my prized fishies, some live bearers that I had had for like 10 generations. That's not the only tank I had, I had several smaller ones.

So I went on vacation and asked my retarded cousin to feed the fish for me. I knew I was gonna fucking regret it, but I thought, ok, it's possible to train even a chimp to do simple tasks. So I went over and over fish feeding with him. I arrived home to a tank full of fish food, he had dumped all of my fish food into the tank, and dead fish. I really wanted to kill the retard, but as always I felt sorry for him, and I didn't really want to go to prison.

[Medical Physics Guy]

That's quite a showing for Imperial College!

At least Edinburgh made the top 20 again. That's why I like QS -- Edinburgh scores the highest. None of them are worth a rat's ass.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

According to the QS World University rankings, MIT is number one. Five other American universities are also in the top 10. USA! USA! USA!

My alma mater is not ranked as highly in this index as it is in some others. Ergo, this index sucks.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Faber?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

American Universities have always dominated the list.

Ironic for such an ignorant society according to some, eh?

As for Canada, racist Quebec nationalists should be pleased with McGill's slow slide downwards. That's right, I believe they deliberately try to sabotage McGill. After all, it's an Anglo institution that towers above the French ones.

[John]

Its the only college in Quebec with any kind of international cache. They really are ignorant lot aren't they?

[Medical Physics Guy]

I think of Universite de Montreal as having a pretty good reputation (MNI and all that). Though McGill does tower over it.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

I was pretty surprised when I learned McGill was in Quebec, having only known it as being "in Canada" for years.

[Winston]

Montreal used to be a quite Anglo city from the British conquest until about the early 1900s when the city annexed enough outlying French-speaking areas to become majority French-speaking. And the city's economic elite continued to be English until the separatists came to power in the 1970s. I believe Quebec infamous sign law was created for the sole purpose of making Montreal's commercial are French.

[Invisible Finger]

until the separatists came to power in the 1970s.

Major League Baseball was the last straw, apparently.

[Isaac Bartram]

Actually, baseball was quite popular in French Canada. I think it's slipped in the last forty years or so though.

There is a reason why Montreal got the first major league franchise in Canada. Toronto couldn't even keep a AAA club in the 1960s.

[John]

They had a lot of Irish there back in the day.

[grrizzly]

And not just Irish but Irish protestants. I visited an exhibition about them in the McCord Museum, across the street from McGill.

[Winston]

So Rufus what do you know about the Merger-demerger of Montreal? The PQ forced all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal into one city in 2001 but 15 of them demerged in 2005 when Charest came to power. Was there a bunch of language issues involved with that too?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

On Beyond Preschool: Alleviating Poverty Over a Lifespan

Preschool is good for disadvantaged children...Yet almost all studies of garden-variety replicable preschool programs show that the clear positive effects of preschool in the early grades fade as children go through elementary school. This should not be a cause for despair, but rather for realism about how to help children succeed all the way through to adulthood.

Preschool for adults?

[John]

The fact that the benefits don't last could never be interpreted as meaning the program is a waste of time. NEVER!! The solution is always and forever "MORE LEECHES"!!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

That article is full of hilarious bullshit:

The exact size of the gap reduction is speculative, of course, but it's the thinking that matters here, not the specifics.

[John]

You can't even satirize that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They really said something that stupid? Unreal.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Isabel Sawhill and Quentin Karpilow at the Brookings Institution recently issued a paper making exactly this point, and illustrating it with evidence. They argue for intervening early and often rather than once and done. To support their position, they take proven, replicable programs that are readily available and imagine that government provided disadvantaged children with all of them in sequence, from early childhood to adolescence.

[John]

Why don't they just come right out with it and argue for the government kidnapping every child and raising them from birth?

[Invisible Finger]

Let me guess, these programs all involve giving someone else's money to the disadvantaged and their agents?

[Invisible Finger]

that government provided disadvantaged children with all of them in sequence, from early childhood to adolescence.

And then what? After you've trained people to be dependent for 13 years, they are incapable of being independent.

Yes, I know that is the sick goal of these types.

[Invisible Finger]

Alleviating Poverty Over a Lifespan

Just the title alone means they don't really want the disadvantaged to ever NOT be disadvantaged. Until maybe a few days before death.

[John]

I see they are developing robot friends for autistic children. I wonder if the Vox staff is pulling strings to get Yglesias to the top of the list to get one.

[trshmnster the terrible]

No, he's happy with the fleshlight strapped to a roomba that they gave him for Christmas.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

He's happy with it, but they're not too pleased.

He keeps bringing it to the office, chasing it around without any pants on.

[trshmnster the terrible]

At least it cleans up after he's done with it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Kazakhstan looks to ban gay 'propaganda' and identify gays by searching for degeneratism in their DNA

We have stooped so low that LGBTs no longer hide their orientation. One can see a lot of people in the city's malls and other public places ? these are young people in coloured pants. This means they no longer hide their (sexual) orientation. I think it is very easy to identify a gay person by his or her DNA. A blood test can show the presence of degeneratism in a person," Dauren Babamuratov, the leader of the Kazakh national movement, said.

This is useful information, next time I'm out and am not sure if a guy is checking me out, I'll just look to see if he's wearing coloured pants.

Great sign: Homosexualism, a threat to the nation.

[John]

I read somewhere Egypt is cruising the dating sites trying to find the gayz.

Of course pretty much every Imam who runs a madress in both Egypt and Kazakhstan is ass fucking every small boy who fits his tastes and most who don't. Apparently its not really "gay gay" if you are the pitcher.

MY God what a fucking up culture.

[jesse.in.mb]

Recently someone figured out how to pull exact locations from Grindr, the original location aware 'social networking' app. People panicked because groups were hunting gays already through these apps and having them able to pull up exact location instead of approximate distance was very bad news. I believe Grindr fixed it but it took them quite a while, and requires that users update their version.

[Invisible Finger]

Maybe "homosexual" means something different over there. Like adult-on-adult sodomy only, or something.

[John]

Whatever gets them through the night I guess. And yes, they honestly think that as long as you are the pitcher, it is not gay. So the same people who ass fuck little boys use the Grindr app to hunt down and kill gays who don't have the decency to confine their desires to sodomizing small boys.

These people are thoroughly fucked in the head.

[Invisible Finger]

A cop friend of mine has noticed a whole subculture of similar-thinking sodomizers in the "underprivileged" areas of town. Being the pitcher is now a sort of badge of honor even outside of stir these days.

[Cdr Lytton]

See British board schools in the first half of the last century.

[jesse.in.mb]

My understanding was that this attitude was pretty common in the US until the 1960s. The more active gay rights movement tried to knit gay identity and homosexual behavior more closely together. They were largely successful, but it also led to more restrictive definitions of male sexuality. Being "on the down low" is the contemporary equivalent but you also saw shades of it in "trade" relationships and whatnot.

[trshmnster the terrible]

They're African-American pants! We don't use the c word anymore!

[jesse.in.mb]

Is it bad that I thought of that too when reading it?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Yes, yes it is. However, that's what happens when people aren't allowed to use certain words anymore.

[Invisible Finger]

Pants of color, to you.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Samsung Seeks Probe of Alleged Vandalism of Its Washing Machines by LG

Mr. Jo couldn't be reached for comment. An LG spokeswoman on Sunday released a rebuttal to Samsung's statement that confirmed the presence of an LG president at one of the Berlin shops, but blamed the breaking of the washing-machine doors on the poor quality of the door hinges.

"Our executives, which included a company president, indeed paid this shop a visit to check out a number of products," LG's statement said, without directly identifying the LG executives or the company that made the accusations.

...

"Unlike washing machines from other companies, a certain company's washing-machine model was particularly weak on the hinges," the spokeswoman said, in an apparent reference to the Samsung appliance.

BURN!!!

[Suthenboy]

I am sorry that five minutes after the worst president ever was re-elected he did not have to leave office for some reason and give us the most entertaining president ever. So sad.

[OldMexican]

Former Press Secretary Jay Carney says about his new CNN gig, "It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side."

I am pretty sure the few remaining CNN viewers will welcome such honesty about where his true allegiances lie.

[Brandon]

http://cnsnews.com/news/articl.....first-time

Ground beef hits record high. What inflation?

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

Thanks to Noah Smith's twattish rant about Austrian economics, I learned about the Billion Prices Project, which is pretty cool.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Flash fail

[jesse.in.mb]

LA Schools Are Giving Back Grenade Launchers (But Keeping the Tank)

Los Angeles School Police Department announced this week that it would be sending some controversial surplus military equipment back to the federal government. Specifically, the school police will send back three grenade launchers. In related news, LA school police had grenade launchers.

Of course they did.

While school cops won't be launching grenades, they will have access to an arsenal of 61 automatic M-16 rifles that have been modified to semi-automatic as well as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicle. That's basically a tank. For school police.

I bet test scores will go WAY UP when there's one of those posted in every classroom.

[paranoid android]

No, the kids won't really be safe until an ED-209 is patrolling every hallway.

[SusanM]

Don't these rifles require constant maintenance to be usable? The more I hear these stories the more I think this is really theater rather than some looming conspiracy. Body armor degrades over time (and what they get has got to have been on the shelf for a while) MRAPs and other vehicles need a steady stream of expensive replacement parts and general upkeep. How is this all going to work out in the long run?

[jesse.in.mb]

I think it's much more about mall-cop-equivalents getting a chance to fap all over some military grade hardware and have their dicks grow three inches that day. This stuff could be totally non-operational and they'd go home thinking they're a better lay because they got to dress up as a soldier for a few hours at work.

[Redmanfms]

Don't these rifles require constant maintenance to be usable?

No.

Body armor degrades over time

Depends on type and storage.

Hard armor (ceramic or steel) doesn't degrade.

The soft vests are usually bought through a different Federal program
and are replaced via inspection and warranty dates.

MRAPs and other vehicles need a steady stream of expensive replacement parts and general upkeep.

Only if they actually use them. Most of the automotive stuff is COTS, so the same shop that maintains the municipal government motorpool will likely be able to keep them running without spending much more than they would on schoolbuses.

Military vehicles are designed to sit for years, outside, with little or no maintenance and only light refit to be put back to use. The biggest expense will be replacing dry-rotted tires.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Enjoy* a catchy pop tune with a well done video: Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass.

*Or don't enjoy it, if you prefer.

[SugarFree]

[sarcasmic has stroke]

[Hyperion]

I am so not clicking on that..

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

It's humorous, has attractive women (even one reasonably skinny one)... you've clicked on worse. You know you have.

[Warty]

Do fat girls really need a self-esteem anthem? We all know that women are supposed to feel bad about themselves at all times.

[Trouser-Pod]

C'mon...that's Kelly Osbourne, in't it?

[ant1sthenes]

You bast. It's "catchy" like Ebola.

[OldMexican]

24/7 Newsfeed:
Return to normalcy - Fed renews zero rate pledge, but will increase the cost of borrowing because... why not, right?

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday renewed its pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a "considerable time," but also indicated it could raise borrowing costs faster than expected when it starts moving.

Stocks were little changed after the statement, but the dollar hit its highest level against the Japanese yen since September 2008.

The last part is the kind of thing that idiots like Shrike latch on to say that the dollar "never had it soooo good!" especially when naively-optimistic journo-nitwits compare the dollar with even worse performing currencies.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

They learned it from global warming. "It's in the ocean now, but when it gets going, it's going to get bad fast."

[ant1sthenes]

It's sort of reversed, though, innit? Anti-fed types say that we are gradually heading for catastrophe, pro-fed types say it's alarmism and that the predicted inflation hasn't manifested, anti-fed types say it is just delayed, and when it kicks in, it will be hell on earth.

[Raven Nation]

but the dollar hit its highest level against the Japanese yen since September 2008

I would suspect that's mostly b/c Abe-nomics is working even worse than QE.

[PRX]

"It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side."

got it carnie. your entire journalism career up to this point has been a lie. dog bites man.

[Derpetologist]

Tales from the Derp

Last Saturday, I poked around on a defunct missile silo near Vernon TX. They built a whole bunch of wind turbines there recently. None were turning while I was there.

http://platedlizard.blogspot.c.....ernon.html

In other news, I went to a Catholic mass and a Baptist Bible study. The mass featured a sermon about Yahweh sending snakes to bite complaining Jews. Then Yahweh told Moses to build a bronze snake statue so the people who got bit could look at the statue and not die. I also found a neat pamphlet that was a hypothetical dialogue between a Catholic and an Evangelical. The gist of it was Catholicism is better because it is closer to what the earliest Christians did. To that I say why not be Jewish and be even more authentic.

[jesse.in.mb]

I believe King Josiah or Hezekiah eventually destroyed that because it was being venerated as an idol in its own right. It's interesting how closely it* resembles the Rod of Aesculapius, which is also associated with healing.

*9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.

[Derpetologist]

At the Bible study, we read about Paul's interrogation by some Pharisees and Sadducees. At one point, the high priest slaps Paul and Paul calls the priest a jerk. Then Paul apologizes and says that one should not speak evil of one's rulers.

That led to a discussion of whether Christians should criticize the government. I said that a bunch of OT prophets criticized the kings of Israel, but the pastor says that doesn't count because the prophets were just giving god's opinion. In the same place as that rule, another rule says not to charge interest to poor people, which begs the question of whether it's OK to charge interest to rich people. Then we looked up a story in Mark and Matthew. In one version, Jesus says divorce is no different than adultery and is totally forbidden. In the other version, he says it is OK in cases of sexual immorality. The pastor said that in these cases, it's best to go with the simpler version since people add but they rarely subtract detail.

So, all in all, I left feeling that religious books are confusing and not very useful when it comes to deciding what is right and wrong.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If you want to justify something, the Bible is a useful resource.

[Derpetologist]

"Religion is regarded by the wise as false, by the foolish as true, and by the rulers as useful."

-Seneca the Younger

[Ken Shultz]

You're also supposed to love those that hate you, bless those that curse you, etc.

In the case of politicians, if you can't criticize them, you can quietly look forward to the day that Jesus comes back and throws them into a lake of fire...

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

We don't need no water--let the motherfucker burn!

Burn, motherfucker, burn!

[ant1sthenes]

"Jesus says divorce is no different than adultery and is totally forbidden. In the other version, he says it is OK in cases of sexual immorality."

Marriage is a contract. You have no right to unilaterally cancel it without cause; if you get a divorce to a faithful wife because you want a younger piece of ass, you might as well have just slept around for all the honor you showed the contract.

But if she breached it by cheating, you are entitled to break it off. A fairly libertarian take on marriage.

[Mickey Rat]

"Former Press Secretary Jay Carney says about his new CNN gig, "It would be disingenuous to suddenly pretend that I wasn't loyal to one side." Well, at least he's honest about that."

How can any former press secretary go into a journalist position? They've spent several years being a professional liar. How can they ever have credibility again?

It is perhaps the most slimy job in the entire government.

[Ken Shultz]

It's disingenuous of CNN to pretend they're not loyal to one side, too.

[Ken Shultz]

"Vice President Joe Biden apologized to Jewish groups for describing some bankers as "Shylocks." Apparently, he referred to China as "the Orient" hours after the first gaffe."

If he were the owner of a professional sports franchise, he'd be forced to sell the team.

[Warty]

I have an old pair of Rogue Do-Wins and I love them. They may be discontinued now. Lots of people swear by Nike Romaleos, and the Adidas ones whose name I forget now. The Do-Wins are wide, the Adisases are narrow, and I don't know about the Nikes.

[Warty]

For only $16000 you can own your very own.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti.....=440723132