A.M. Links: Congress Votes to Arm Syrian Rebels, Iran Skeptical of US ISIS Plan, Joe Biden in Iowa

• 

  FreedomHouse

  The House of Representatives voted 273 to 156 in favor of arming rebels in Syria, as part of President Obama's proposed efforts against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), once just another rebel group in Syria but now a self-proclaimed caliphate. The foreign minister of Iran, meanwhile, says air strikes alone won't defeat ISIS, while Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, called the American-led coalition "ridiculous." Police in Australia say they foiled a plot by ISIS supporters to behead people in Australia and video tape the acts.

• Even if it were faced with a search warrant, Apple says encryption in its latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, won't allow the company to bypass users' passwords.
• Police in Phoenix arrested Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer on aggravated assault charges connected to two alleged domestic altercations, involving a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old child.
• Joe Biden becomes at least the third potential Democrat presidential candidate to visit Iowa this month.
• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been diagnosed with cancer. Nothing funny about that.
• A non-binding decision by the International Whaling Commission to extend a moratorium on scientific whaling by Japan won't affect the country's 2015 culling plans. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The House of Representatives voted 273 to 156 in favor of arming rebels in Syria...

From Patriot Act to this. That's a quick pendulum swing.

[Bee Tagger]

You have to admit, the Syrupatriot Act sounds pretty delicious when you want to pancake a region of the world.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

I waffling on whether to laugh at this or not.

[db]

Look on the sunny side: you're bacon us groan.

[Furburguesa]

Shut down foreign aid to every country and threaten not to turn it back on until they cough up all the terrorists, dead or alive, doesn't matter.

Then never turn it back on ...

[Phoenix SEO]

This is a good thought but what will happen is the innocents will be raided and you will have mass collateral damage and PR nightmare for the US.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been diagnosed with cancer. Nothing funny about that.

Yeah, no shit. Thanks, Krayewski.

[Florida Man]

I'm not going to lie, I chuckled.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You can chuckle at this.

[Florida Man]

I didn't watch Seinfeld. I've caught some re-runs, it had its moments.

[UnCivilServant]

Whenever one of those reruns pops up, I want to hurt the characters for their stupidity. I can't watch that show for very long without becoming violent towards the television.

[Idle Hands]

Meh. It's pretty dated, 99% of the plot is rendered obsolete by cell phones.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Then have I got something for you.

[Auric Demonocles]

I have trouble remembering how I ever met anyone before I had a cell phone.

[Pro Libertate]

Pure, random chance.

[Zeb]

People actually had to make plans and stick to them. Wild stuff.

[Auric Demonocles]

Still doesn't work when you're meeting some place that you haven't been before.

[Pro Libertate]

It's interesting how dependent we've become on technology. I mean, imagine a good solar flare that knocked out cell service for a week or something. There are people who would become quite helpless.

Say, is this how the Butlerian Jihad gets started?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Say, is this how the Butlerian Jihad gets started?

Do I get my own Mentat afterwards?

[Pro Libertate]

If you're wealthy enough, sure. You can even hire your very own Bene Gesserit witch.

[Zeb]

Still doesn't work when you're meeting some place that you haven't been before.

How's that? It worked for me many times back in the dim dark ages. There were things like maps and street signs back then.

[Auric Demonocles]

There were things like maps and street signs back then.

Which doesn't help you actually find the person once you're there.

[Zeb]

So what are you saying? People never successfully met up in public before there were cell phones?

[Pro Libertate]

It can be done. I mean, we went to the fucking Moon without cellphones and the Internet you know.

[The Laconic]

Meh. It's pretty dated, 99% of the plot is rendered obsolete by cell phones.

That's that same reason I can't read anything written before 1995. I'm always like "Jesus, just sext Mr. Darcy already, problem solved."

[Idle Hands]

What's the deal with cancer?

[Sevo]

Fist of Etiquette|9.18.14 @ 9:01AM|#
"Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been diagnosed with cancer. Nothing funny about that.

Yeah, no shit. Thanks, Krayewski."

It is worth noting that he's being treated in NY, not in any hospital north of the border.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Apple says encryption in its latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, won't allow the company to bypass users' passwords.

Unless you signed that iTunes agreement.

[UnCivilServant]

Doesn't matter, it's all stored in iCloud anyway, so the whole world can see it.

[invisible furry hand]

Finally we get to see those Fisty nude shots

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't use the cloud, but if you want a glimpse, all you need to is visit my website with a valid credit card handy.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Do not google that.

[Ted S.]

Nobody is that kinky.

[AlmightyJB]

Would be a great commercial. NSA HQ. Can't hack your account.

[Lord Humungus]

Female Florida body builder attacks boyfriend, snaps inside patrol car: report

Dani Reardon, 24, freaked out on her live-in beau, Ian Schofield, at a party early Sunday in Edgewood, near Orlando, and kicked out the windshield of his truck, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

After police arrived, Reardon, who calls herself "Little Monstar," went nuts in the back of a police cruiser and began slamming her head into the cage that separates officers from the back seat, authorities said.

Cops said the chiseled blond dynamo reeked of booze during the incident, which happened about 2 a.m. at a home just south of Orlando.

ah, a little plaything for Warty.

[Ted S.]

This story is bogus. Everybody knows women never hit men; only men hit women.

[Brett L]

'Roid rage! Which, like usual, is actually booze rage.

[NebulousFocus]

Roid rage.

[Warty]

She's cute. The drugs haven't deformed her facial features yet and her enlarged clit will be fun to play with.

[gaoxiaen]

Just clip a clothes pin on it. Works for nipples too.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Agent 'Fifi': The stunning British spy who seduced secrets of war from her 'prey'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....?tid=hp_mm

[Snark Plissken]

Unsurprisingly, they had to outsource the stunning part to a French woman.

[Florida Man]

I was shocked to learn Eva green is French. I assumed English cuz the accent, but in hindsight I should have known better.

[Idle Hands]

The arm pits are a dead giveaway.

[Brett L]

Yep

[Zeb]

English and Latvian, according to the article.

[Idle Hands]

Honeypot?

[Florida Man]

My personal favorite
/sterling archer

[Snark Plissken]

A non-binding decision by the International Whaling Commission to extend a moratorium on scientific whaling by Japan won't affect the country's 2015 culling plans.

Carr me Ishmaer.

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

"Some years ago - never mind how rong precisery - having rittle or no money in my purse, and nothing particurar to interest me on shore, I thought I wourd sair about a rittre and see the watery part of the worrd..."

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Japanese scientists are studying the effect of A-1 sauce on whale meat.

[WTF]

Consensus says....delicious!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

...but follow-up research is needed.

[Lord Humungus]

Factory gives fighter jet to head of Russian Orthodox Church

Kirill was presented with the jet after giving workers at the civilian and military aircraft plant icons blessed by himself, the church said in a statement on its official website on Tuesday.

The patriarch, with whom President Vladimir Putin has fostered increasingly close ties in recent years, addressed the workers on the importance of protecting Russia.

"Russia cannot be a vassal. Because Russia is not only a country, it is a whole civilization, it is a thousand-year story, a cultural melting-pot, of enormous power," RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

[hamilton]

Sally Field doesn't stand a chance.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

a cultural melting-pot

More like a cultural abattoir.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Now he can deal with those Uniates!

[ant1sthenes]

"O Lord, bless this thy fighter jet, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin.

[invisible furry hand]

Radical Librarianship: how ninja librarians are ensuring patrons' electronic privacy

http://boingboing.net/2014/09/.....w-nin.html

[Fist of Etiquette]

A non-binding decision by the International Whaling Commission to extend a moratorium on scientific whaling by Japan won't affect the country's 2015 culling plans.

The non-binding part might be the problem.

[DontShootMe]

How many flotillas does the IWC have?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Discovery Channel reality show producers are very interested in the answer.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"We are conducting studies on whether whale tastes better with tartar sauce."

[Ted S.]

They just need to find whales that are into bondage.

[Slammer]

Hash oil fire HYSTERIA!

Across the country, emergency responders are warning people about a drug called hash oil. It's a dangerous recipe: marijuana leaves and extremely flammable butane that can cause explosions and fires.

"You don't know what your neighbors are doing," Eckert said. "You don't know what's going on till the walls come tumbling down, basically."

While there have been no reports of hash oil fires here, emergency responders warn that a butane hash oil lab can be as dangerous as a meth lab.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

*Checks inbox for hash oil panic memo*

[Doctor Whom]

There have been no reports ... YET! But can we really take that chance? [/statistderp]

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Category 3 killstorm!

[hamilton]

"You don't know what your neighbors are doing,"

The reason for all statist interventionist stupidity, right here. Everybody else is so fucked up, I need protection from them!

[Auric Demonocles]

Statism is built on the belief that people are evil.

[hamilton]

Absolutely. Every fucking argument I have, I point this out. "But you're assuming people are fundamentally stupid / evil / untrustworthy". It never ever connects. If you mean well, you can ignore anything anyone says about your fundamental beliefs, intentions, or consequences of your actions.

[trshmnster the terrible]

No, it's built on a three class system. There are evil people, there are stupid people, and there are "right thinking" people. The proper order of things is for the right thinkers to control the world such that the evil people are punished and the stupid people are helped along.

Generally, libertarian thought has one class of person, a selfish person. Therefore, since all are selfish, none can be trusted to lord over another.

[Auric Demonocles]

Thursday seemed to be the magic day for STHs panicking and putting up all there seats. Got some in your neck of the stadium.

[hamilton]

Awesomesauce. I'll be tailgating with the kids, you're welcome to come by (I understand completely if that does not sound like a massively fun time). Else we can grab a $10 Bud Light inside at some point.

[gaijin]

Statism is built on the belief that other people are evil.

Truer?

[Doctor Whom]

The American variant of statism is built on the belief that people are usually evil but suddenly become good as soon as they either enter the voting booth or narc on their neighbors.

[Florida Man]

Um....can't I buy butane in large bottles at any hardware store?

[Citizen Nothing]

Not for long!

[Zeb]

You have to get the stuff for lighters that doesn't have an odorant in it.

[Brett L]

Is your neighbor using OLIVE OIL near an open flame?!!

[Lord Humungus]

Weird Ways People Have Tried To Stop Lava

Back in 1935, an eruption of lava from Mauna Loa began threatening the city of Hilo, and in an effort to divert the flow, a young George Patton ordered an area near the lava flow bombed in an effort to divert the flow. Whether or not the bombing worked is still a matter of debate, as the eruption stopped less than a week later. Additional bombing runs on Mauna Loa occurred in 1942, and the Air Force did experimental bombing runs on Mauna Loa in the 1970s.

Gotta bomb something

[gaijin]

We're just lucky Godzilla was not awakened.

[Citizen Nothing]

That's just gonna make Pele (not the soccer player) mad.

[hamilton]

Hm. When you're thinking of the volcano goddess, all of a sudden the "she's like the Pele of anal" quote doesn't work so well. Your thought for the day, folks.

[Citizen Nothing]

"It burns! It burrrrnssssss!"

[WTF]

Even the fucking volcano was afraid of Patton.

[Lord Humungus]

You magnificent magma bastard, I read your book!

[Lord Humungus]

Research Shows Zero-Calorie Sweeteners Can Raise Blood Sugar

The artificial sweeteners in diet soda, yogurt and other foods consumed by millions can raise the blood sugar level instead of reducing it, according to new experiments in mice and people.

The provocative finding?made possible through a new avenue of research?is likely to stoke the simmering controversy over whether artificial sweeteners help or hinder people's ability to lose weight and lower their risk of diabetes.

The research shows that zero-calorie sweeteners such as saccharin, sucralose and aspartame can alter the population of bacteria in the gut and trigger unwanted changes such as higher blood glucose levels?a risk factor for diabetes.

[UnCivilServant]

Was that at human consumption levels, or force-feeding a truckload of splenda to a mouse?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

The scope of our discovery is cause for a public reassessment of the massive and unsupervised use of artificial sweeteners.

I think I see what the real agenda is.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I thought it was that they stimulated an insulin response even though they're non-caloric. Regardless, I don't like them, I find the taste gross.

[SugarFree]

Well, fuck.

[DontShootMe]

Anxiously awaiting updated moniker.

[SugarFree]

Never!

[UnCivilServant]

I'm awaiting an answer to the dosage required to enact such a change.

[Snark Plissken]

So just Synsepalum dulcificum from now on?

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, I was gonna say at least one commenter here is gonna be pissed.

[robc]

Water for you!

[SugarFree]

[grumble] Mostly down to water anyway. Stupid pancreas.

[Marshall Gill]

Cheer up! I believe that they ended the ban on saccharine. Mmmm, Sweet-n-low...

[Zeb]

There was a ban on saccharine?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

This just in - Sugarfree fiction can alter the population of bacteria in the eyes and frontal lobes and also trigger unwanted changes such as curvature of the spine, uncontrollable gagging, and dark curly hair growing out of the palms--a risk factor for insanity or demonic possession.

[Lord Humungus]

I, for one, have been forever warped.

[SugarFree]

I prefer to think of you as "remolded."

[MegaloMonocle]

Humungus 2.0!

[Zeb]

And they taste terrible too.

[gaijin]

Iran Skeptical of US ISIS Plan

So if you are skeptical of the US ISIS Plan, well, you are just like one of those crazy mullah fukkers!

[Pro Libertate]

At last, common ground. Now there can be reconciliation and make-up sex between our two great nations. Well, one greatish nation and one that was great a couple of thousand years ago.

[Lord Humungus]

"Comfort women" who serviced U.S. soldiers demand justice

This "keejichon" ? the Korean term for a gray and grubby "army base town" ? has closed shop. But the prostitutes who once lingered here continue to be treated as untouchables, derided as "Yankee whores" and "UN ladies."

"I have so many regrets. Life was so hard," Kim said.

Who's to blame?

It's not entirely the fault of US soldiers, she argues, many of whom were young, fun-loving and surprisingly innocent men. Rather, Kim points the finger at another alleged culprit: the South Korean government, which she argues backhandedly encouraged this largely illegal trade.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm not sure why they were necessary. According to M*A*S*H, nurses did that duty as well.

[Zeb]

"Comfort women". Wasn't that what the Japanese called their sex slaves? Seems a bit insulting to those women to apply the same term to voluntary prostitutes who got paid for their services.

[lap83]

So I guess blaming others for the decisions you regret making is not just a Western thing.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police in Phoenix arrested Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer on aggravated assault charges connected to two alleged domestic altercations...

I wouldn't envy the new commissioner.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Two Takes On Ted Cruz's Recent Performance at Meeting for Persecuted Middle East Christians

"When someone like Ted Cruz, son of a fundamentalist Christian pastor, has the unspeakable arrogance to go into this group of Orthodox, Catholic, and Coptic Christians who are facing the martyrdom of their entire communities and expect them to recite the gospel of American neoconservatism ? that is, not simply to denounce anti-Semitism, which the people in that audience were willing to do, but to affirm the goodness of the state of Israel, even if doing so would put their own lives in danger once they return home ? he forces the rest of us Christians to make a choice. Which is more important to them: the fate of Israel, or the fate of the Church?"

http://www.theamericanconserva.....istianity/

"for Cruz to ignore the agenda of the gathering and harp on a pet issue of his ? knowing that it would resound beyond his immediate audience ? was shameful. Politicians simply don't lecture anti-Obamacare rallies about capital punishment. If I were there, I probably would have booed, too."

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com.....z3DfjSr3TD

[Idle Hands]

Ultimately he wins. No such thing as bad publicity and he got a war boner feather for his cap.

[Idle Hands]

As an aside, why do Republicans pander so much to the the plight of the Israelis when Jews demographically in this country are solidly team blue?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Fundamentalist Christians who believe in the Second Coming and Armageddon

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A lot of conservative Christians care very deeply about the state of Israel. Several Bible passages can be interpreted to direct this.

Also, many non-religious conservatives note Israel's alliance with us during the Cold War.

[Tonio]

Seriously? It's the SoCons, of course. Many Christians believe that the continued existence of the state of Israel, and the reconstruction of the Hebrew temple, are necessary prerequisites for the second coming of Jesus. These people use US foreign policy as an instrument for the fulfilment of their beliefs. Also, neocons who see Israel as a bulwark against Islam.

[Marshall Gill]

It certainly couldn't have anything to do with several centuries/millenium of Jewish persecution.

Why any right thinking non-Jew would care if all the Jews get slaughtered by their "religion of peace" neighbors is beyond me. It must be because of the Bible, or something.

[PRX]

yeah Bo, Cruz is a real asshole for going OT and harping on his pet issue.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Totally the Samez!

[Tonio]

I think he was hoping for a stunning victory much as Carter (Ford?) got by announcing amnesty for Vietnam era draft dodgers at a VFW convention.

[Don Mynack]

Agreed - Cruz was stupid to do this, but evangelicals are often confused as to how encompassing the Christian religion truly is.

[Ted S.]

They're not confused; they just think theirs is the only true Christianity.

[carol]

Yeah, it is so much better when politicians tell people what they want to hear.

[Doctor Whom]

Why does Apple hate our heroes in blue? Why does Apple want to turn this country into the United Stateless Zones of Somalia?

[Ted S.]

The more important question is, why doesn't everybody?

[Idle Hands]

I sympathize a little as they deal with the lowest common denominator on a daily basis. However they should all be held to a higher standard than the rest of us as they enjoy an incredible amount of privilege and power.

[Lord Humungus]

Who Were the Southern Democrats?

Ezra Klein writes:

he Democratic House majority that dominated through much of the 20th Century wasn't the Democratic Party as we think of it at all.

Instead, it combined liberal and moderate Democrats with a conservative southern bloc that was, for reasons of congressional seniority and tribal history, Democratic, but which voted to the right of many Republicans.

[Lord Humungus]

In fact, all of Lyndon Johnson's major War on Poverty programs were enacted with a majority of Southerners voting for final passage. The 1964 Economic Opportunity Act ? the omnibus bill establishing Job Corps, a federal work-study program, adult education funding, and various other things ? was sponsored in the House by staunch anti-labor segregationist Phil Landrum of Georgia, and passed with 60% of Southern Democrats voting in favor, even as 87% of Republicans opposed it. Likewise, Medicare passed in 1965 with 61% of Southern Democrats in favor and 93% of Republicans opposed. The 1964 Food Stamp Act, after an intra-party log-rolling deal involving farm subsidies, went through on virtually a straight party-line vote.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Very interesting and informative, thanks for posting.

[Idle Hands]

Revisionist history, Ezra Klein is such a hack, can't even be bothered to research anything.

[sarcasmic]

Man, 60, sues hospital for $200,000 after nurse, 33, 'forced him to have sex with her' while he waited for a heart transplant

John Cantone says that Rachel Shaper had sexual intercourse with him while he lay in 'compromised health' in her care
Cantone claims that Advocate Christ Medical Center officials were aware of Shaper's inappropriate tendencies
Cantone's wife says that Shaper's conduct has hurt their sex life

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

[WTF]

We really need to start teaching women not to rape.

[sarcasmic]

"Here's something you'll never hear a man say: 'Stop sucking my dick or I'm calling the police.'"
-George Carlin

[Auric Demonocles]

Surprisingly, this 33 year old nurse isn't even ugly.

[sarcasmic]

I wouldn't have complained.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

You mean, this will help me get better?

[Idle Hands]

Take your medicine CPA.

[Rhywun]

"Man, 60"

WTF. Don't let it get stuck in crazy.

[Idle Hands]

Wife found out. Only explanation.

[AlmightyJB]

You're doing it wrong.

[Brett L]

Cantone's wife says that Shaper's conduct has hurt their sex life

Its tough to go back to 63 once you remember what a 33 year old body is like.

[Don Mynack]

Yup.

[Idle Hands]

Gulf Whore Syndrome?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Ball Turret Gunner

[invisible furry hand]

What a spoilsport:

Libertarian Senator objects to immunity for special intelligence agents who torture people.

[Jerryskids]

"Covert operations may expose intelligence personnel or sources to legal liability in the course of their work. For this reason, some significant covert operations do not commence or are ceased. To address this issue, the Bill implements the recommendation to create a limited immunity for participants in authorised, covert operations...The limited immunity is subject to rigorous safeguards."

Didn't Feintein try much the same thing with her bill to "make sure the NSA isn't doing anything illegal" by basically making anything the NSA wants to do, by default, legal? But not to worry, there's rigorous oversight in place to make sure they don't get too illegal.

And what would those rigorous oversights consist of? Well, we can't tell you that, it's a secret, you'll just have to trust us. Yeah, you'll pardon me if I don't completely trust your oversight capability when it turns you have to read in the paper that your oversight committee was being spied on and you guys knew nothing about it.

[Raven Nation]

Before your time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3qK0iPWBR8

[invisible furry hand]

Aah, Redgum. Since I was watching Countdown from the age of 4, very little is before my time 🙂

[Raven Nation]

Excellent! I pretty much disagree with all their politics these days. But, in my raving leftist days, they were like gods. And live they were one of the best acts I've ever seen.

[Lord Humungus]

Gap Between Manhattan's Rich and Poor Is Greatest in U.S., Census Finds

Manhattan is becoming an island of extremes.

The mean income of the top 5 percent of households in Manhattan soared 9 percent in 2013 over 2012, giving Manhattan the biggest dollar income gap of any county in the country, according to data from the Census Bureau.

The top 5 percent of households earned $864,394, or 88 times as much as the poorest 20 percent, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which is being released Thursday and covers the final year of the Bloomberg administration.

[Ted S.]

It's all those libertarian extremists governing the place.

[waffles]

Hasn't it always been that way?

[Rhywun]

Yes. But UNFAIR!

[AlmightyJB]

Should put low income housing on Wall Street I guess.

[Jerryskids]

The top 5 percent of households earned $864,394, or 88 times as much as the poorest 20 percent...

By my math, that means the lowest 20% earned about $10,000. That can't be right, can it? How the heck does anybody support a family on $10,000?

Oh, wait - it says "earned" so that would not include any other form of income like investment income or SSI disability checks or pension checks or food stamps and housing vouchers, and "households" would include single people like college students.

So what is the wealth gap when you allow for comparable households? Does the top 5% of households by any chance include a lot of college-educated married couples who both work and are in their mid-fifties so they are in their peak earning years while their kids are grown and gone out of the house?

And would a disproportionate number of the bottom 20% of households be young unemployed single people?

[Zeb]

And some households are old people or single young people. Not everyone needs to support a family.

I'm still waiting for a meaningful answer about why inequality is something we need to worry about. If there is a large population that can't support itself on earned income, that is a problem. But it has nothing to do with other people being rich.

[thom]

I think you're missing the point: INEQUALITY!

[sarcasmic]

Actress Emma Watson heads to Uruguay on UN Women Goodwill Ambassador duties as she campaigns for more females in politics

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....itics.html
Fucking entertainers think they know it all.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Meh. They're recruited into the positions by the non-profits. It's easier for them than formulating an actual position and selling it with a good argument. And they get to hang with hot chicks.

[WTF]

she campaigns for more females in politics

Why?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

She's making it a global campaign, which, I guess is nice.

[Tonio]

Fucking entertainers think they know it all.

Only because much of the rest of society enables that by caring about their opinions on politics, etc. While it is certainly possible for an actor to have skills outside of emoting (qed, Hedy Lamarr who invented spread-spectrum radio) that pool of people is not a go-to for opinions on world policy, etc.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Hedy Lamarr, Goddess of Electrical Engineering

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

"That's HEDLEY!"

[lap83]

I wonder if it has something to do with her Austrian-Jewish heritage. It's just anecdotal, but my dad's side of the family is German and Jewish and they're all scientists or engineers. Even my grandmother had a degree in chemistry.

[invisible furry hand]

It certainly had a lot to do with her first husband's business interests - she met a lot of scientists through him, which got her interested in applied science

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Slate or Salon?

Spanking is a sex act

"Spanking is a sex act. It has been for a very long time?probably even longer than it's been a parenting choice. A fresco at the Etruscan Tomb of the Whipping, which dates back to approximately 490 B.C., depicts an erotic spanking. In Francum, a 1599 epigram by John Davies, includes one of the most explicit descriptions of sexual masochism in Renaissance poetry. In Victorian England?well, there are way too many examples to list them all, so suffice it to say that spanking was a constant focus of Victorian erotica.

And butts aren't just culturally sexualized; they're biologically sexual, too. Nerve tracts that pass through the lower spine carry sensory information to and from both the butt and genitals. Some scientists speculate that these nerves can stimulate one region when the other is provoked."

[Florida Man]

Bullshit. Whoopin' some snotty kid's ass has got to be older than kink sex.

[Brett L]

This is like a scat fetishist trying to reclaim pooping as a sex act.

[The Laconic]

Slate or Salon?

What difference, at this point, etc. etc.?

[Lord Humungus]

Why Is Wikipedia Deleting All References To Neil Tyson's Fabrication?

Neil Tyson, a prominent popularizer of science (he even has his own television show) was recently found to have repeatedly fabricated multiple quotes over several years. The fabrications were not a one-off thing. They were deliberate and calculated, crafted with one goal in mind: to elevate Tyson, and by extension his audience, at the expense of know-nothing, knuckle-dragging nutjobs who hate science. Tyson targeted journalists, members of Congress, even former President George W. Bush. And what was their crime? They were guilty of rejecting science, according to Tyson.

There's only one problem. None of the straw man quotes that Tyson uses to tear them down are real. The quote about the numerically illiterate newspaper headline? Fabricated. The quote about a member of Congress who said he had changed his views 360 degrees? It doesn't exist. That time a U.S. president said "Our God is the God who named the stars" as a way of dividing Judeo-Christian beliefs from Islamic beliefs? It never happened.

[gaijin]

Technically it isn't Wikipedia doing the deleting...it's more likely NTD's cultish followers, right?

[SugarFree]

According to a review of the edit history of Tyson's page, one long-time Wikipedia editor deleted an entire pending section summarizing the issue of Tyson's fabricated quotes. Another editor attempted to insert a brief mention of Tyson's fabrication of the George W. Bush quote. That mention was also deleted. When it was reinserted, it was deleted yet again by an editor who describes himself as a childless progressive and an apostle of Daily Kos (h/t @kerpen). Here are just a few of that user's political ramblings, in case you were curious about the motivation behind the scrubbing of Tyson's wiki.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The political ramblings are internet gold:

=General Elections=
Idea: All election methods must be regulated and standardized based on the standards of the federal government.
Thoughts: Gives the federal government the ability to regulate elections again

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

=Term Limits=
Text: The term limit of any federal office shall be at max of 12 years.
Thoughts: Supreme Court, Congress, President (left locked at 10 years already).

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"Gives the federal government the ability to regulate elections again"

Was this written by the Bush 2000 legal team?

[Idle Hands]

It's different because their guys are in charge now. Their lack of foresight is incredible.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Tyson may be a great scientist, but what he's selling at a price of $70 per ticket isn't science. He's selling the self satisfaction that comes from moral preening. Neil Tyson is adored by people who want the sweet feeling of smug, intellectual superiority without all the baggage of actually being intellectually superior in any way.

Awesome.

[Idle Hands]

Preach.

[Shirley Knott]

Oh, goodie. Now we have this generation's Carl Sagan.

puke

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sagan, while pretty vehemently agnostic and anti-nuclear weapons, was not nearly so political.

[Idle Hands]

I still don't understand the amount of love any of these guy's get: Tyson, Sagon, the Science Guy.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sagan was the original science evangelist. A lot of us grew up watching the original Cosmos series and reading his books. To his credit, he pretty much limited himself to commentary on science, religion, and the scientific method. Not at all like Tyson and Nye who engage in ad hominems against those who disagree with them and what I'll refer to as populist science.

[Lord Humungus]

What Scruffy said, though the very last episode of Cosmos - for example - gets very preachy.

Sagan had a major impact on my ~10 year old life. Cosmos - both the book and the tv show - made me question my religion and to question everything. It also fostered my interest in history.

[WTF]

Because they cloak the progressive agenda in the cover of 'science'?

[Doctor Whom]

Sagan earned it. For the other two, I think it's social signaling.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, I liked Sagan well enough. Whatever his personal politics, he was much more focused on science and preaching the gospel of the scientific method. And his smug was much less condescending.

I'd hoped that Tyson would be a decent evangelist for science, but he seems to be getting ever more political and self-promoting.

[Clich? Bandit]

Sagan's biggest crime was the one phrase that was the antithesis of everything he believed (or more likely was misinterpreted as such). Feynman had a better description of the principle but many people don't even know who he was.

Sage: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The misinterpretation simply being quite the opposite.

[Pro Libertate]

I actually use that phrase sometimes, but it obviously doesn't work in all circumstances. It should be rephrased as "absurd claims require absurdly huge amounts of evidence."

[Clich? Bandit]

Again this is counter to the scientific principle. For two reasons:
1. Evidence FOR a claim in only of statistical value and the pre-judgment of the next subsequent progressing claim. No amount of instances can ever prove a theory. This is a bedrock of science.
2. All evidence is objective. Hence no matter what the counter claim is to falsify any initial claim, its evidence must be taken objectively. If you say all cows are black and I find only one...in the whole universe...purple cow your claim is not only wrong but must be completely discarded due to the new evidence (not extraordinary in any sense) falsifying it.

This ties very neatly with global warming. "Models predict"...evidence says no...the NECESSARILY you must discard your models and the assumptions therein. This does not mean global warming, or cooling, or FSM pee rain isn't real. It means your theory, as stated, is shit.

[Clich? Bandit]

Let me clarify. It does not take an Italian sailing to America to prove the earth round (the Extraordinary example) all it took was 2000 years ago a guy who simply made measurements sufficient to demonstrate that "The world is not flat."

[Pro Libertate]

No, no, I understood your point. I think it's just a good rule of thumb for lay people to avoid believing in bullshit and basing their life's decisions on that bullshit.

[DontShootMe]

Why hasn't NPR sued Tyson? They've been selling moral preening for years.

[Idle Hands]

Because if you ever actually listened to NPR you would realize that 99% of their guests are hack liars, as 50% are politician it's not surprising.

[Zeb]

That pretty much describes all national news organizations.

[Idle Hands]

true.

[Pro Libertate]

My big beef with NPR has always been their focus on the federal government. Even during Republican governments, they do that.

[Zeb]

That's true. Probably because their big names are all in DC. My local NPR station is pretty good on covering state politics, though.

[Pro Libertate]

It's one of the reasons I sometimes think Reason and CATO both should have less of a presence in Washington. It's inherently corrupting. It's like operating The Elven News out of Mordor.

[Lord Humungus]

b-b-but the cocktail parties!

[Pro Libertate]

That's what the Nazg?l said.

[sarcasmic]

Is Kim Jong ill? North Korean dictator in poor health as his weight has ballooned thanks to an obsession with cheese

Kim Jong-un's health said to be at risk due to his high cheese consumption
31-year-old imports vast quantities of Swiss Emmental - his favourite variety
His weight has ballooned in recent months and he now walks with a limp
But experts think weight gain may be deliberate to look like late grandfather

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

I assume they have other Kims at the ready to take over?

[UnCivilServant]

A handful, but they're even less capable then Jong-Un.

[DontShootMe]

they're even less capable then Jong-Un.

How is that even possible. Isn't there a lower limit on this sort of thing?

[Citizen Nothing]

It's Kims all the way down.

[invisible furry hand]

thanks to an obsession with cheese

He's French?

[Citizen Nothing]

He's a rat?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Behold, the power of cheese!

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

imports vast quantities of Swiss Emmental

MUHUHUHUWHA!

[Doctor Whom]

But remember: Only capitalist countries have a 1%.

[John]

He is going to be like the glutton in The Meaning of Life. Some day he is just going to explode.

[Slammer]

+1 wafer-thin mint

[Rhywun]

But experts think weight gain may be deliberate to look like late grandfather

But he was already a lot fatter than gramps.

[gaijin]

Constitutional Scholar:

"Our Constitution reflects the values we cherish as a people and the ideals we strive for as a society. It secures the privileges we enjoy as citizens, but also demands participation, responsibility, and service to our country and to one another."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-.....-constitut

Rights = Privileges?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

In fairness the Constitution does speak of privileges protected in at least a couple spots.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Yes three mentions.

1.[Senators and Reps] be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses,

2. Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

3. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

[SugarFree]

3. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Like how because no one in Colorado or Washington can be arrested for marijuana use, no one in any other state can be either?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Or a conceal carry permit is valid across state lines?

[SugarFree]

Yup. I'd like to see Equal Protection lawsuits rammed down the throat of every shitty state government.

[Marshall Gill]

I'd like to see Equal Protection lawsuits rammed down the throat of every shitty state government.

Because this would only work in one direction? Be careful what you wish for.

Wouldn't the welfare lawsuits be wonderful? "In California, I would be getting $4000 a month!".

[WTF]

Like how because no one in Colorado or Washington can be arrested for marijuana use, no one in any other state can be either?

Cancelled by the Slaughter-House Cases.

[WTF]

To a prog, yes.

[John]

I will let Obama off the hook on that. No way did he personally write that. I doubt he ever saw it. What that says is that Obama has some amazingly stupid and ignorant people working for him.

[WTF]

So you're saying Obama is actually stupid and lazy enough to just read whatever is on the teleprompter, whether he thinks it's correct or not?

Yeah, I'll agree.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Go fuck yourself San Diego

[SugarFree]

I'm Ron Burgundy?

[John]

I am pretty sure Susan Rice is Ron Burgundy. But perhaps that is just because Obama has retired the trophy.

[John]

That too. Honestly, I would hope any President has more important things to do than read and approve press releases relating to Constitution Day. I wouldn't expect any President to personally be involved in that. This is totally on the shoulders of his staff.

Now, is his staff copacetic with their boss and writing something that he would have written himself? Probably.

[trshmnster the terrible]

People don't know what rights are, even in the slightest.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Not only Rights = Privileges? but where in the Constitution is

demands participation, responsibility, and service to our country and to one another

The author of that statement is obviously confusing the Constitution with the Declaration, and poorly interpreting both.

[WTF]

Well, you can't blame them, those documents are like a hundred years old and hard to read.

[thom]

Seriously - I owe exactly zero to "our country". I pay them their protection money every year, but I definitely don't owe them "service".

[The Late P Brooks]

"You don't know what your neighbors are doing," Eckert said. "You don't know what's going on till the walls come tumbling down, basically."

If you wait until you can actually see something it will be too late.
Just preemptively SWAT the motherfuckers, and make the world a safer place.

[invisible furry hand]

Update on the Australian terror raids: 800 cops, two charged

[gaijin]

Odds on the case involving the Gov setting this 'plot' up via entrapment-like outreach to nutjobs?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

They have to justify their government's decision to send ground troops into our administration's latest interventionist folly. Beheading plots are the way to go for that.

[Ted S.]

800 cops, one cup?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Gah!

[SugarFree]

Watch horseshit being formed into "common sense" in real time:

Possibly the Most Relevant Political Movement for Our Future

FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE LOANS ARE A VERY SMALL PART OF THE PROBLEM

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Targeting for profit colleges is certainly something the left is starting to pick up on, and many are quite open about it being the opening salvo in a push to get 'free college' for all.

[John]

It is a diversionary action. The big private and public colleges are shockingly wealthy. All of the Ivy League schools for example have endowments in the tens of billions. Tenured professors at the prestigious schools have been the new leisure class for about 30 years now.

At some point the student loan debt crisis is going to come to a head and something will have to be done about it. When that happens, the big, rich schools really don't want anyone noticing just how much money they have and how much they have benefited from student loans. To avoid talking about that they are prepping the battlefield by blaming the evil "for profit schools". Time will tell if it will work.

[Raven Nation]

Odds on "forgiving" all student loans between now & 1/2017?

[John]

I don't think they will forgive them all. Too many people don't have loans or have paid theirs off for that to ever happen. I do think they will eventually become dischargable in bankruptcy after so many years.

No matter how much you want to talk about how the idiot who spent $200K to get the puppetry degree deserves to live in poverty, student loan debt is becoming an enormous drag on the economy and the country. We have large numbers of an entire generation that can't afford to buy a house or start a family or in some cases move out of their parents house.

What is going to drive it is that it is starting to effect more than just one generation. Its like medicare. Medicare is wildly popular not because old people like it but because their children don't want to have to pay for their parents' medical bills. The same dynamic is going to happen here. Old people are going to get tired of supporting their kids and also wonder who is going to buy their house when they retire.

[Raven Nation]

That could be. I'm still astonished at the way people borrow money for education. I won't give my students formal financial advice, but I do try to make them think about numbers and paying stuff back, etc.

[John]

I borrowed money for education. And it has paid off. But I looked at it as a capital investment. I took the amount of money I thought I would make because of the loan and made sure that was greater than the loan payment. I wish I didn't have those loans. But at the same time, I have made money off them when you consider how much it increased my income.

The problem is most kids and parents either don't know how to make that calculation or if they do have wildly inaccurate estimates on what the degree is really worth. They are, however learning. The days of kids taking out big loans are coming to and end. The colleges have managed to overdraw a blank check.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I don't buy into the "poor kids can't afford to pay off their loans" crap. Except for the extreme cases, the students in the worst position come out of school with around $100k in debt, and $35k a year in earning potential. A single person can live on $25k a year and pay the loans down in 10 years. It's not pleasant, but it's doable. God forbid they get a raise or two in the 10 years, or pay it off more slowly, and have a few bucks for the occasional meal out or day trip.

Now, if you're an entitled princess with a $100/month phone plan, $120/month cable, $50/week bar tab, $250/month car payment, $1000/month rent, and a $250/month clothes budget, you can't afford your loans.

[John]

Terrible,

yes and no. First, 100K is actually a small amount of loans these days. Second, if you live in any but the cheapest urban areas, 35K a year is going to barely cover your expenses. Taxes and the cost of living are horrendous in most of the country. You couldn't live on 35K a year in Washington. You could, but it would be barely and forget making your loan payments.

[Rhywun]

People go to college so they don't have to live like poor college students into their mid-30s. The real problem is that high-school students are being sold a line of crap about how "essential" college is.

[Raven Nation]

Since I teach history, my most common conversation is with grad students borrowing money to earn an MA in history who have neither the ability nor the intention to pursue a PhD. IMO, borrowing any amount of money for a History MA is foolish.

Then there are the u/g who borrow to get a BA in humanities. This is predicated on the crap being peddled that someone with a college degree makes more money in their life than someone without. This is, apparently, because all college degrees are equal.

[John]

I can't believe people borrow money to get an MA in history. Even back in the dark ages of the early 90s, I was told that if a humanities program wasn't willing to give you an assistantship and pay for your degree, they really didn't want you there and you shouldn't go. Actually paying for an MA in the humanities was always in my experience unheard of.

[Raven Nation]

Agree. I paid for mine the first year but that had a lot to do with my own personal situation. Plus, my goal was to go on and get the PhD. But I have students who actually figure their course load in order to qualify to borrow money. I try to explain to them that taking an extra 2 or 3 semesters and paying for it themselves makes more sense.

About half our MA students are high school teachers. Although the schools don't pay for the degree, the salary bump they get at the end of the process makes it worthwhile. Then we have some ex-military who are getting it paid by GI Bill.

We have a handful of TA positions which come with tuition waivers.

[John]

For the teachers who get a pay bump, it probably makes sense. And the GI bill guys are just doing it for fun.

Part of me would love to use my GI bill to get a PHD in history. My problem is that I really don't want to give up my intellectual freedom and have to start reading and studying the things someone else tells me to study. When I first finished with school, I had this tremendous feeling of freedom at the thought of being able to read anything I wanted to without worrying that I was blowing off school work to do so. I have never lost that feeling and don't want to. But at the same time, I could do worse things with my spare time than get a PHD in history, because I do love the subject to the point of obsession.

[Raven Nation]

Well, if you wanted to keep your intellectual freedom, you could just stop by your local campus bookstore and check out the assigned reading lists.

[John]

Rn,

But I can't get a credential that way.

[CatoTheElder]

Yale has some really excellent history courses online with first class lectures and reading lists. The Greek and and early Middle Ages classes are particularly good.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Decisions must have consequences. Just like bad businesses should go bankrupt, so should these debt-holders. Making the debt dischargeable will go a long way towards bringing sanity to the market.

[ant1sthenes]

How is letting someone stiff the feds going to teach anyone anything?

[invisible furry hand]

It will teach them plenty, just nothing positive or ethical

[John]

Yes. And what people sometimes forget Nerfherder is that both the lender and the debtor's decisions should have consequences. Sure, people who borrow money and can't pay it back should face some consequences. But also, people who lend money to people who can't pay it back should face consequences. You need to have both. There should always be some risk to loaning money. It makes banks be careful about how they loan their money and helps to prevent bubbles. Anytime banks feel they can loan money with no worries about it being paid back, you end up with an asset bubble.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Anytime banks feel they can loan money with no worries about it being paid back, you end up with an asset bubble.

Exactly. Although ant1sthenes is correct, I doubt the federal government would feel the pinch like a private entity would.

[ant1sthenes]

We should start seeding the right with the idea that there should be loan forgiveness after some time -- but at the expense of the universities who gave some poor child (since most students are under 26, which is apparently the new cutoff) an education they couldn't afford or make use of. Just cut off loans to schools who don't agree with the rule.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Get the federal government out of the lending business. Make the universities or private banks loan the money.

[John]

an1sthenes,

I would make the loans eligible for bankruptcy after ten years. Make them like any other debt. Now, that would cost the federal government some money. I would pay for that by taxing university endowments. The universities are the ones who benefited from the bubble. They should be the ones who bear the cost of cleaning it up.

We have bankruptcy for good reasons. It allows people to get a fresh start and provides for the orderly settling of debts. As far as moral hazards, people run up debt to gamble and take vacations only to walk away from it every day. Student loans should be no different.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

As far as moral hazards, people run up debt to gamble and take vacations only to walk away from it every day. Student loans should be no different.

Bingo. The whole point of bankruptcy law is that both parties have skin in the game if the loan goes sour--the lender eats it for giving a loan to a risky lendee, and the lendee gets their credit fucked for a certain amount of time so that it becomes harder to get a loan for something they can't afford.

I think your idea about taxing university endowments for federal loans is the way to go. Universities don't ever have to worry about increasing tuition because they get their money no matter what. Nailing their endowment would reform their curriculums in a hurry.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Incidentally, I also borrowed money for my education--and ended up with a Master's in history for the final cost of $25K. It has actually paid off, due more to dumb luck than anything else. I paid it all off nine years after I got my MA, but about $20K of that I paid in the last two years I had the loans. I basically paid of all my credit cards, paid off the car, and then shoveled everything towards the student loan.

[Rabban]

Hey John last time I looked at my paystub I saw a pretty big chunk being taking out for SS/Medicare. Tell me how again I am not paying for my parent's medical bills.

[Stormy Dragon]

I make my last student loan payment in October, so I'm guessing it will happen in November.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Aren't all colleges 'for profit'?

[John]

Yes, but not profit profit. Not the evil kind of profit that goes to dirty capitalist investment. This is the good kind of profit that goes to enlightened leftist professors and administrators.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not profit when the excess money is used for good.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Like salaries?

[John]

Yes, like paying high salaries to card carrying leftists.

[SugarFree]

It's a tightrope act for the debt-forgiveness movement. They have to condemn the source of the debt to make forgiving it seem reasonable, but they can't throw out the bearded leftist professor babies with the foul bathwater. On the other hand, they can't call the students who racked up the debt for a useless degree idiots because they are the bloody shirt being waved--and most people are willing to let idiots hang by their hoisted petards.

And almost all discussion I have seen elides the fact that academic debt was made undischaragable by the FedGov. FedGov is love.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Blaming corporations is much easier

[SugarFree]

What I want to see are fraud convictions. A $40k masters in puppetry is fraud, no different than selling a bottle of tap water as a cure for cancer.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Last I checked, the colleges never issued any guarantees with their degrees. They're just participating in the delusion that we are now a leisure society and it is no longer necessary to work in fields that are not emotionally gratifying.

[invisible furry hand]

I detect an implied criticism of my Masters in Underground Puppetry

[CatoTheElder]

I kept seeing this reference to getting a masters in puppetry, and just had to Google it to see if it was for real, or just s goofy meme.

Turns out its for real.

U of Conn: MA/MFA Puppetry
http://drama.uconn.edu/program.....-puppetry/

[SugarFree]

Last I checked, the colleges never issued any guarantees with their degrees.

I don't know about that. A lot of accreditation rides on student placement rates and there is a lot of shenanigans in those numbers. They have about the same confidence rate as unemployment figures from the FedGov.

In either case, the suits will be some ugly fun to watch.

[John]

I think they are kidding themselves. There is no way people are going to let the colleges sit on all that money once things come to a head.

And even if they do, kids are going to learn and stop borrowing all of that money. That is already starting to happen. The non Ivy private schools are finding it harder and harder to attract students. People just are not willing to pay big money for college anymore. The best students are choosing schools based on cost rather than rep. There is only so many full pays running around out there.

I think the days of the well paid bearded lefty profession are numbered, or at least the days of there being a lot of them.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, why doesn't the federal government get out of the subsidy, loan, grant, etc. business and simply offer an on-line university for free? God knows it would be much cheaper.

[SugarFree]

Because the Democrats would destroy an industry that produces a lot of donations, foot-soldiers and life-long stooges for the left. And the right isn't foresighted enough to do it themselves.

Take a look at the hysteria over MOOCs and you'll see the panic over on-line free education.

(Not to mention it would massively devalue a lot of expensive degrees if the kids coming behind you got a free piece of paper that counted just as much.)

[John]

Sugar Free,

You are exactly right but I think they are fighting a losing battle. I don't see how the credentialist economy survives forever. It could have survived if the colleges hadn't gotten greedy and made getting a credential mean a mountain of debt for all but the wealthy. But since they have done that, more and more people are just going to opt out and choose less expensive options. Once that happens, the value of the credential will start to fall as more and more smart people chose not to get them.

[SugarFree]

Oh, I think the bubble will pop, I'm just outlining that there are a lot of people who will be interested in keeping it inflating.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm almost certain the bubble will pop. I'm not bothering with a prepaid plan for my youngest just because of that belief. It paid for the first three kids, but it seems like a bad idea this time around.

[thom]

The problem with the "for profit" colleges is that they aren't really colleges. They're clever marketing schemes set up to capture federally guaranteed student loan dollars.

The unfortunate thing is that they have tarnished the business - nobody is going to set up a real for profit college now (that actually competes on price and results) because these marketing schemes have destroyed any credibility in the diplomas issued.

[Pro Libertate]

I think it's still doable, it's just a big leap from "Here, buy some education" to THIS DEGREE SHOWS THAT JOHNNY WILL LIKELY BE A GOOD EMPLOYEE.

[Warty]

In a stunning example of how a political movement can actually change lives, the Strike Debt project has raised over $100 thousand

$100,000? Uh, good job, I guess.

to purchase and abolish student loans for a group of recent grads with a punishing amount of debt. They hope to turn this into a national movement.

...uh...

[WTF]

Hey, they've got the first grad covered.

[Pro Libertate]

Every leap off of a cliff begins with one jump.

[SugarFree]

They purchased distressed loans that were packaged as a financial instrument and then dismissed them. Paid 3 cents on the dollar for 3.6m in toxic debt.

Private bank debt, so they wouldn't be able to do this for Federally guaranteed debt, which is the vast majority of student debt.

[Pro Libertate]

How much private debt is there for undergrad, anyway? I mean, why on Earth would you loan private, unsubsidized money to some kid paying too much to go to college? I can see it with some graduate degrees, because the risk is much lower.

[SugarFree]

I can't imagine there is very much, but I'd love to know a number.

[Pro Libertate]

It's got to be a tiny figure, with much of it being tied to programs subsidized by private universities, I imagine. Otherwise, such loans would be entirely too risky.

[Ted S.]

More wacky Aussie news:

Australian researchers develop a new psychological test for psychological well being of dogs

Researchers from the University of Sydney have developed a scientific test that evaluates whether dogs are feeling optimistic or pessimistic. It's hoped the test might help to help scientifically assess animal welfare.

I don't think "scientific" means what they think it means.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Korean scientists...never mind.

[INFORG]

Does optimistic or pessimistic have any relation to how they taste?

[invisible furry hand]

So one tone meant that when they touched the target they would get a lactose free milk reward and the other time meant that when they touched the target they would get water instead.

I don't think "reward" means what they think it means.

[The Late P Brooks]

Rights = Privileges?

For those who believe rights are created and granted by the State, yes.

[Lord Humungus]

interesting:

11 facts for National Hispanic Heritage Month

#9: A majority of Latino adults (55%) say they are Catholic, while 16% are evangelical Protestants and 5% are mainline Protestants. The share who say they are Catholic has declined from 67% in 2010. Mexicans and Dominicans are more likely than other Hispanic origin groups to say they are Catholic. Meanwhile, Salvadorans are more likely to say they are evangelical Protestants than Mexicans, Cubans and Dominicans.

[John]

The evangelical churches are very good at attracting converts. They offer answers and meaning. A lot of other churches have sold out so much that they no longer do that and are just social clubs with really nasty internal politics.

[Doctor Whom]

I think the identification with Catholicism is to a considerable extent cultural. I was shocked when I read statistics on how few Latino Catholics understand the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is not a small thing not to understand if you want to be an observant Catholic.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

transubstantiation=Cannabalism.

What's so hard to understand?

[Marshall Gill]

transubstantiation=Cannabalism.

Nah, it is grokking.

[Azathoth!!]

Same thing

[invisible furry hand]

All property is theft, man

Occupy Wall Street Activists Sue Each Other Over Who Owns the Movement's Twitter Account

[Ted S.]

How much money does it cost to set up another Twitter account?

[Doctor Whom]

Other people's property is theft.

[John]

One of the great Onion articles ever is the one about how the house with the three socialist roommates fell apart because no one would ever clean up or pay the bills or do anything but sit around and talk politics. It wasn't a satire. It was a documentary on how these people actually are.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

I kind of expect something like this will end up happening on that TV "reality" show Utopia.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Tonight at the Tokyo Restaurant and Experimental Station, we are conducting a study on the best method of preparing whale meat and making it tasty. Those interested in taking part in the study may do so for a modest fee. And don't forget to tip your hostesses...ah, research assistants..."

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"As beings created by God, animals are deserving of a great deal of respect. Animals should not be viewed merely as tools to aid us in our own existence but rather as creatures of God who must be treated with fairness and kindness.

Hunting any type of animal given to us by God to the point where they are in danger of extinction shows a lack of respect for animals and therefore a lack of respect for God. We should aim to care for animals to the same extent as God cares for them. Just because we have the power to kill animals does not entitle us to wipe out entire species', rather it demands us to protect and care for animals as God protects and cares for us."

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I hope you don't get started on chickens, and the insensitivity of crossing-the-road jokes under Catholic doctrine.

[Lord Humungus]

something something Death Panels?

Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life

The 21-member nonpartisan committee, appointed by the Institute of Medicine, the independent research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, called for sweeping change.

"The bottom line is the health care system is poorly designed to meet the needs of patients near the end of life," said David M. Walker, a Republican and a former United States comptroller general, who was a chairman of the panel. "The current system is geared towards doing more, more, more, and that system by definition is not necessarily consistent with what patients want, and is also more costly."

[Ted S.]

Wait until they try this with breast cancer patients.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

WAR ON WIMMENZ!!!!

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

NAS called for wider application of the "pillow over grandma's face" care pathway...

[John]

Don't get that expensive surgery. Just tell grandma to take a bottle of pain pills.

[Ted S.]

DEA won't let her have the pain pills.

[John]

Then I guess we are going to have to use the pillow.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Have you got all the stuffing up one end?

[Idle Hands]

No way that happens. The gov. is involved so the one thing that is guaranteed is that they will use the most expensive and convoluted method available.

[CatoTheElder]

This is true only to the extent that the ruling elite benefit from such methods. If such method requires inherently expensive resources, as is the case with some health care treatments, such that they do not allow for considerable graft, those methods will be disallowed. Then Gramp's gonna get a cyanide pie.

Since progressives are all about equality, the only reasonable answer is euthanasia at about age 60. Lots of people die before 60, so it's unfair that any should live beyond that age.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Because I want the government managing a market that involves scarcity and death.

[antisocial-ist]

When the government's involved, everything involves scarcity and death.

[Brett L]

If only we could, I don't know, get some sort of panel together... who could decide when medical treatment is no longer worth paying for to keep a person alive. We could call them "Life Panels".

[Slammer]

The money saved could pay for teachers and stuff!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Democrats turn on Debbie Wasserman Schultz"

I thought we already knew they turned her on?

http://www.politico.com/story/.....11077.html

[Ted S.]

They didn't mean it.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

You just put the thought of an aroused DWS in my head...

You are worse than Nicole.

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

Not sure how many card-stacking enthusiasts we have here, but it looks like the Middle Eastern Championship is postponed again. I guess there's always next year!

[Ted S.]

Is Duffel BLog supposed to be funny?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Yes.

http://www.duffelblog.com/2013.....-injuries/

http://www.duffelblog.com/2014.....n-missing/

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

Is Duffel BLog supposed to be funny?

What SS said.

Lighten up, Francis.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Ha, sorry to those getting NFL fatigue:

Adrian Peterson's mother defends her son by saying 'when you whip someone you love it's about love'

Bonita Jackson of Spring, Texas, said she and Peterson's father, Nelson Peterson, were 'big disciplinarians' who used hands, switches and belts to occasionally spank all six of her children.

Jackson, 50, said most parents discipline their children a little excessively sometimes, but they are trying to prepare their children 'for the real world'.

She told the Houston Chronicle: 'When you whip those you love, it's not about abuse, but love.'

[Ted S.]

Yes, it's about love.

[Andrew S.]

Jackson, 50, said most parents discipline their children a little excessively sometimes, but they are trying to prepare their children 'for the real world'.

"This is what cops will be doing to you when you grow up"?

[Idle Hands]

But the state does it with love. Everybody likes rough sex every once in a while.

[John]

The funny thing is that this really is an example of a different culture. People who grow up in the rural south or in the culture of the rural south the way Peterson did don't view disciplining even small children with switches and such as wrong.

Funny how the same people who excuse forcing women to wear burkas and arranged marriages as just another culture worthy of respect are trying to hang Peterson.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

The difference between physical discipline and abuse is often just a matter of extent and mental state of the person doing the discipline.

The one discription I saw of Peterson's switching sounds like he was emotionally out of control.

If you get angry when whuppin your child, then you should never do it.

[John]

He was totally abusing the kid from what I have seen. And I say this as someone who is loath to ever want the government to get involved with how parents discipline their children. But even I can't defend Peterson.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Yes, agree completely, if the account I saw was true.

The old saw of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' should be absolutely true before you raise your hand to your child.

[RBS]

Yeah, my initial reaction last week was to defend him, that was mostly out of 1) outrage fatigue and 2) only reading the Four Letter bottom line description. But, yeah, I can't defend that now.

[Don Mynack]

The issue should be that Peterson is probably a terrible father - 7 children with 4 different women, there is simply no way one can properly raise a child in such circumstances - but it's become a stupid debate about "whuppins" because Peterson is using that as a lame-ass defense of his terrible parenting.

[John]

And his terrible behavior as a person. I am a big libertine. I see nothing wrong with consenting adults having sex within or without of marriage. But once children are involved, that all changes. Children don't ask to be born and don't get to choose their parents. Anyone who has multiple kids by multiple women out of wedlock is a dirtbag. Just a low class immoral dirtbag.

[Obama's Buttplug]

I overheard a guy on the bus who was like that. He had gotten a third women pregnant here in Minneapolis and then decided to move to Chicago saying, "Just because I got her pregnant don't mean I have any ties to the woman." What a piece of shit.

[Idle Hands]

Why are people all the sudden surprised that NFL players are violent? Look at the fucking sport they play.

[The Late P Brooks]

'When you whip those you love, it's not about abuse, but love.'

"Aww, Babby, you know I wouldn't choke you into unconsciousness if I didn't love you."

[Brett L]

C'mon, you missed the layup. "I only punched you out because I love you. You were out of control and I was teaching you discipline."

[Matrix]

After two failed attempts by the DA to get a conviction on a, then, 12 year old girl and 8 years later, they have finally dropped the charges on her.

What did she do? She went outside to, as her parents asked, to check a breaker box. Police rushed her and beat her, accusing her of being a prostitute. She was charged with assault on an officer. Fortunately, the heros went home safely that night.

[Andrew S.]

And this wasn't kidnapping (as a sex crime?), assault, battery... why, exactly?

(YES I KNOW THE ANSWER THE QUESTION IS RHETORICAL. RHETORICAL!)

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Love means never having to say you're sorry.

They're just guilty of loving us too much.

[John]

I bet anything the officers where white. Where the hell are the race baiters on this? Do they only agitate in cases where the black person is in the wrong? Do they just not think it is worth it to talk about real cases of racism and oppression?

[Matrix]

I said this last night:
"Ray Rice knocks out his fiancee, and he loses his job. Adrian Peterson uses a switch on his child, and he's suspended from all team activities until the case is settled. Three cops beat a 12 year old girlf for walking out of her house, and one gets an 'officer of the year' award. Let this be a lesson to you. If you want to beat people up and get away with it, become a police officer. Instead of being vilified, people will call you a hero!"

But honestly, who could blame the father (besides LEOs and their worshippers) for shooting each of these guys in the head while this was happening?

[John]

That story even shocks me. And after reading Reason and Balko for so long, not much shocks me anymore. A group of government thugs were driving around in a van beating up and kidnapping children. Outside of Stalin's Soviet Union and places like Cuba, name me another country where that goes on? It makes you embarrassed to be an American.

[Matrix]

I saw a Facebook post by a friend who is the wife of a cop. It was from a group of wives of cops, and they call themselves "Wives of warriors." Warrior cops should NOT exist. Warriors are reserved for warfare, not keeping the peace. That's the new mentality of police, though... warrirors.

The thing that puzzles me the most is that she used to be distrustful of cops. She used to badmouth them. Why? She had an ex-boyfriend that was a cop. He used to stalk, harrass, and hit her. Nothing could be done about it because he was a cop. She ended up marrying a guy who is now a cop. I don't think he was when they met. I think was still in the academy, or probably hadn't even enrolled.

[RBS]

Families of cops are generally pretty awful.

[John]

They often are. I know a fair number of cops. And the ones I know at least are not the kind of sadist fucks who end up in Balko stories. What is infuriating about them is not that they are themselves sadistic fucks. It is that they are actually decent people who do a good job at what they do yet are totally unwilling to admit the problems within their profession at large. Many of them, though not all, will go to the wall defending the indefensible about other cops. It is just sickening.

[Idle Hands]

That is my experience as well.

[tarran]

There's a bit of that in many professions.

I got into a huge argument with my brother on facebook about Ray Rice and Pistorius, and it became a weird argument where the lawyers were saying society was condoning bad behavior on the part of athletes and that all crimes should be prosecuted, and that the ones who shielded the criminal-athletes were worse than the criminal-athletes themselves.

My argument was that an accessory after the fact is rarely worse than the evildoer, and that saying that society was worse than the evildoers was a ridiculous assertion.

All the lawyers were baying for blood - essentially saying that people should be called to account for not policing their own.

And I said, "great, let's talk about Martha Coakley and the bar complaints about her misconduct in the Amirault case".

Aside from one like, the comment went nowhere. Literally the conversation continued for days but nobody would acknowledge that a person who should have been disbarred for the child abuse and false imprisonment she orchestrated is likely to become the next governor of the commonwealth.

I think it's a horribly destructive part of human nature that we often choose to turn a blind eye to the bad acts of our in-group fellows.

[sarcasmic]

Ever ask who the cops are at war with?

[Idle Hands]

So a badge bunny.

[SugarFree]

Stockholm syndrome.

[John]

Warriors fight other warriors not run around with a badge and a gun terrorizing people who can't fight back.

[sarcasmic]

Warriors fight other warriors not run around with a badge and a gun terrorizing people who can't fight back.

But, but, but they're on the front lines in the war against domestic terrorism!
There is a subculture in this country of cop killers with fully automatic machine gun!
Ever person the police meet could be a terrorist or a cop killer with a machine gun!
Every moment of the day their lives are in danger!

Seriously, that's the argument that a local mayor made to justify the police acquiring military gear, even though that department has lost only three officers in the last century, the last one in the nineties.

[John]

If there is a cop killing sub culture, it is a pretty fucking incompetent one because they don't seem to kill many cops.

And of course, maybe cops should ask themselves, why do they hate us?

[sarcasmic]

They don't care why they are hated. They've got the power to do any damn thing that they please because who's going to stop them? The cops? So why should they care if they are hated? If someone hates them then they can just beat the shit out of the person and charge them with bogus crimes. Fuck you. They don't give a shit.

[thom]

And the very elected officials who are supposed to be overseeing them have done them a favor and made nearly everything illegal. Get in the cops' way and they can figure out a way to lock you up.

[antisocial-ist]

Wtf.

[sarcasmic]

Disgusting.

[sarcasmic]

I bet the plan was to rape her. Seriously. Gang rape her and then charge her with a bunch of crimes.

[Matrix]

How dare you besmirch the reputation of our fine officers.

We all know that cops never, ever,

[Matrix]

EVER, do anything as horrible as rape women.

[Agile Cyborg]

You are on to something.

For the most part rape is an act of contempt. Police are highly contemptuous people. Even minor law-breakers are treated with varying levels of distaste. It seems to come with the territory.

This child was literally hated over an assumption which opens the door to debasement through sexual violation.

From what I can gather and ascertain it is likely rare that a rape will be committed without the desire to debase while gaining some form of temporal superiority. And, as most Libertarians realize, law enforcement is a magnet for those who suffer with inferiority and attitude problems.

I'll go out on a limb and state that if these guys had zero problems beating a 12 year-old over anything much less an assumption over prostitution they've probably committed some pretty fucking horrible acts of barbarism on others.

[sarcasmic]

They of course tell people that they take the job to help people, but that's a lie. It's all about power. They do whatever they want, and use violence on anyone who tries to stop them. It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

[Agile Cyborg]

It's definitely a lifestyle and a culture. But I'm willing to bet many start in the business far more pure than they end up.

[sarcasmic]

Those are the ones who get forced out. Good people are not welcome on the force.

[thom]

Bullshit. Young cops are the worst. They love to do the whole military dress-up bullshit. The least evil cops are the patrol guys who have been on the force for 20 years but never really advanced much. To them it's just a job.

[Agile Cyborg]

I'll give you that. But in my defense this area has a cop school down the road and over the years I've run into a couple of young ones in the bars that seemed bright-eyed about helping people. I looked at them with sadness over the frosty lip of my tall boy.

[sarcasmic]

I've run into a couple of young ones in the bars that seemed bright-eyed about helping people

Feed them enough drinks and the dirty truth will always come out.

[ant1sthenes]

Look, just because a bunch of guys tried to pull a little girl into a van doesn't mean they were going to commit gang rape and then abuse their status as knights to cover it up.

But they probably were. Honestly, as bad as the story was, it could have easily been worse.

[Lord Humungus]

King Richard III's Final Moments Were Quick & Brutal

But Richard III was almost certainly brought down by more than one man ? and more than one weapon. A knife or dagger likely left a 0.4-inch-long linear wound on his right lower jaw; he also had a penetrating dagger wound to his right cheek. A keyhole-shaped injury to the top of his head was almost certainly caused by a rondel dagger, a needlelike blade often used in the late Middle Ages. That wound would have caused both internal and external bleeding, but would not have been immediately fatal.

The deathblows likely came from a sword or a bill or halberd, which were bladed weapons on poles often used on the battlefield. At the base of Richard III's skull, researchers found two wounds, one 2.4 by 2.2 inches and one 1.21 by 0.67 inches. This wound was in line with another, about 4 inches (105 mm) away on the internal wall of the skull, as well as in line with damage to the top vertebrae. In other words, it appears that the blade entered the head, sliced through the brain and hit the opposite side of the skull.

[ant1sthenes]

Something something blackadder.

[Warty]

Alone, Scotland will go back to being a failed state

Sounds about right. I did enjoy the juxtaposition of this in the article:

In the lengthy discussion that followed my lecture, virtually every question was from a Yes supporter. (The worst came from that insufferable type of person who is always claiming to feel "offended" by something.

with this in the comments.

3333333 ? 38 minutes ago
Sorry reporter, but when I read an article like this, it's no wonder the Yes Campaign seem to be doing so well at this late stage. Comparing Scotland to Afganistan where Scots born military have been killed in action is mind blowing.

[invisible furry hand]

There's a third option between state failure and Scandiland. One of the Volokh conspirators argued that this could play out like the Czech/Slovak split - no longer supported by their richer neighbours, the Slovaks were hit by reality and had to introduce free-market reforms and haven't looked back.

[Warty]

What are the odds of that? It would be great, but, I mean, Scotland is where US trailer trash culture comes from, after all.

[invisible furry hand]

They weren't always SugarFree's ancestors. Many of them were sober, hardworking, and inventive. And could produce a judge whose retirement speech to his fellow judges was the simple and eloquent "Farewell ye bitches!" Can this be entirely lost?

[SugarFree]

Irish/German, you transported convict spawn.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm Dutch - aka, a rich German.

[Warty]

My people were Covenanters who came to America for some reason or another. I think they even managed to keep their cult together for some generations.

[antisocial-ist]

It's also the birthplace of Adam Smith. In any event, they'll eventually run out of other peoples money. Secession IMO will speed up that process.

[Ted S.]

Vladimira Meciar was of the non-far-left, so he's evil.

[John]

Maybe. Scotland leaving will certainly make England a better place. Scottish voters are utterly mindless labor supporters.

Someone posted on here this week how the north sea oil fields are not what they used to be. They are about pumped out. So, Scotland won't be turning into a petroleum welfare state.

I am inclined to hope they split. Decentralization and more local control usually increases freedom as it forces people to make choices and bear the responsibility for them because they can no longer blame someone else. The Scots will no longer have England to blame for their problems. Lets hope it is educational.

[tarran]

John, I largely agree with you on this, but beg you to reconsider; apparently Piers Morgan has threatened to leave the UK and to return here if Scotland is split off from the UK!?!

[SugarFree]

That they would let him back in shows that the Obama administration hates America.

[tarran]

It's one thing to have open borders and allow peaceable members of ISIS to enter or leave one's country, but Piers Morgan?!? That's going too far.

[John]

Someone gave Beiber and Robin Thicke a VISA.

[CatoTheElder]

The North Sea definitely isn't what it used to be, and Scotland won't have a huge sovereign investment fund like Norway has amassed over the last few decades nor has it accumulated capital like Sweden has over the past century and a half.

Personally I think Scottish secession is great. First, secession is great experiment in secession itself. Second, it will be a great economic experiment if the UK liberalises (in the classical sense of the word) or at least stays the same without the Scottish pull to the left while Scotland ventures further toward socialism. Third, it poses problems for EU bureaucrats, which is always a good thing.

[Doctor Whom]

Hume wept.

[Don Mynack]

The left is under the delusion there that they will able to transform the place into a largely socialist country. That will be impossible without deficit spending, which they will be unable to accomplish since they will be using the Sterling as currency, at least according to this: http://reason.com/archives/201.....s-on-inde.

Will the oil-rich class there put up with the high taxes required by the lefties to fund their paradise?

[sarcasmic]

I thought the whole point of leaving the UK was to join the EU.

[Don Mynack]

Don't they have to accept austerity to do that?

[sarcasmic]

I have no idea. But I read somewhere that they want to join the EU and use the Euro instead of the Sterling.

[invisible furry hand]

If they join the Euro, then they definitely are handing over a large chunk of their fiscal powers to the EU. But then again joining the EU even without monetary union would be a sacrifice of most of that lovely independence. Perhaps the Yes voters just have a finely-developed sense of irony

[The Late P Brooks]

it appears that the blade entered the head, sliced through the brain and hit the opposite side of the skull.

Hence the term, "splitting headache".

[Agile Cyborg]

Chris Welch of CNN is at the moment having an extensive, worshipful, breathless orgasm over a cop funeral in Scranton. What a brain-dead plebe.

[The Late P Brooks]

Chris Welch of CNN is at the moment having an extensive, worshipful, breathless orgasm over a cop funeral in Scranton.

The latest innocent victim of the WAR ON COPZ, I presume. A poor, innocent guy who only ever wanted to help people.

[Agile Cyborg]

Yet another proof that law enforcement needs grenades and unfettered access to everything you say and do.

[Ken Shultz]

"Police in Australia say they foiled a plot by ISIS supporters to behead people in Australia and video tape the acts."

Once Obama defeats ISIS in Iraq, terrorism in places like Australia won't be a problem anymore--is that what we're supposed to think?

Because Australia and Iraq couldn't be much further away from each other.

I wouldn't expect defeating ISIS in Iraq to do anything at all to alleviate terrorist threats against Australia, the U.K., Canada, or the United States.

[invisible furry hand]

It may well exacerbate the risks, as it feeds into the narrative of evil Westerners oppressing Islam.

Our homegrown terrorists might take inspiration from ISIS, and even go fight for it, but the real issue is why they have such a jaundiced view of the society they grew up in*. And that has got more to do with a stream of thought in the West that is pessimistic, self-loathing, and keen to side with soi-disant victims of the West everywhere, no matter how mad, hate-filled and murderous they are.

* to be contrasted with that of their parents, who usually are pretty grateful to be here as they know the alternatives

[Warty]

Here is a woman I would enjoy throwing it to.

[Slammer]

This one's for you, Warty:

New Cannibal Corpse

[Warty]

It sounds exactly as expected. Good.

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

Saw Cannibal Corpse with Between the Buried and Me in Cleveland a couple years back. I'm a bigger fan of BTBAM, but CC put on one hell of a show. I like the new stuff, good choice.

[Warty]

Cleveland??? THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

*unsheathes katana*

I TOLD YEH I DINNAE WANT TEH PLAY YER GAMES!

[Idle Hands]

Seems like a classy lady.

[CatoTheElder]

Ok. I now know what to watch before next GoT season starts up.

[Ken Shultz]

"The House of Representatives voted 273 to 156 in favor of arming rebels in Syria, as part of President Obama's proposed efforts against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), once just another rebel group in Syria but now a self-proclaimed caliphate."

I think this is a bait and switch, by they way.

They may tell the American people they're arming Syrian rebels to fight against ISIS, since beheadings are in the news, but they're arming Syrian rebels to fight Iran, Hezbollah, and especially Assad.

[tarran]

I'm sure that their Gulf Arab masters will now tell ISIS to back off on the beheadings.

[Pro Libertate]

Has the shift in Turkey towards less secularism killed the talk about them joining the EU? I haven't heard anything about that in a long while.

While we're at it, will Scotland join the EU?

[Ken Shultz]

I'm sure they'll get back to thinking about whether to let Turkey into the EU again--just as soon as they stop thinking about whether they're going to kick Greece, Spain, and Italy out of the EU.

[tarran]

Last I heard, a lot of Turks have turned their back on the EU, bitterly stung by a process they say was designed not to let them in regardless of what changes they did to appease the EU.

The perception was that the EU members would never let a muslim nation join the EU, and that whenever one set of obstacles was surmounted, new objections would be thrown up.

The secularist movement gained its power from the premise that a westernized european Turkey would garner greater respect and prosperity. They consciously modeled their institutions after european institutions, particularly French ones.

And the EU rejections meant that that premise became a hard-sell to younger Turks. And into the vacuum come the islamist traditionalists. They actually have a positive narrative to market, while the secularists are perceived as clinging to a failed ideal.

Again, it's been years since I last had any significant contact with my Turkish relatives (the ones I was close to have all died of old age).

[Pro Libertate]

An EU with Turkey would've been interesting. Bet Europe would've ended up meddling more directly in the Middle East as a result, which would've likely been good for the U.S. Sayonara, suckers!

[John]

The Gulf Arabs are scared shitless of ISIS. ISIS doesn't just hate Iranians. They hate the Gulf Arab monarchies even more. People say we are fighting this war for Iran. That is bullshit. We are fighting this war for the Gulf Arab States. If Iraq went tits up and ISIS took over the whole country, they wouldn't be invading Iran next. They would be heading South first.

[tarran]

I argue that some gulf arabs are scared of ISIS. I think, however, that ISIS's power comes from some heavy logistical support from a wealthy faction of ultra-religious gulf arabs, who would love to set up a proper caliphate.

I don't see how ISIS could have managed to get so much ammo and weapons and people into the area without some support from a faction within the Saudi royal family.

[CatoTheElder]

The House of Saud is split. There is a minority faction that is totally down with ISIS-style Islam, and it could negotiate an arrangement with them. The ISIS folks who respond to money could get all the money they want out of the arrangement, and ISIS folks who respond to power could get the power they want running the muttawa.

[Agile Cyborg]

You are on to something... in some ways ISIS strikes me as a Lost Boys cult. Their macabre incursions and desperate desire for attention smacks of something way more pathological than the singular imposition of religious 'purity'.

[Sevo]

Gov't panel says people really don't want to keep on living, and it's the nasty market that makes them! And if we let 'em die, it'll save the gov't money! And this proves there are no "death panels", too!

"End-of-life care often unwanted, too aggressive, study says"
http://www.sfgate.com/health/a.....763051.php

I have a document that tells a doctor when to pull the plug, which is really what's at issue; 'for profit' care has nothing to do with it.
OTOH, possible liability judgements play a major role, and not surprisingly, that gets barely a mention in the story.
This isn't a study, it's propaganda on stilts.

[lap83]

That is pretty bad. It makes it sound like evil greedy doctors are forcing dying people to pay for needless procedures.

Maybe, just maybe, it's the family members who tend to push the aggressive, expensive treatments for their dying loved ones. Nah, it's probably that doctors only see dollar signs instead of patients. Obviously, we need the government to save us.

[Sevo]

" Obviously, we need the government to..." [...tell the doc to pull the plug and cut the deficit].

But the 'death panel' didn't say that! No, there is no 'death panel', just a group of bureaucrats. Not a "panel" at all!

[Zeb]

Are there "death panels"? I've never been able to figure out what that is supposed to refer to.

[Sevo]

No, since the gov't would never name the "panel" that decides who "dies" a "death panel".

[Zeb]

Well, that was very unhelpful.

Also, everyone dies. Obviously I think that government should not be involved at all, but unless you are paying out of pocket, it's always down to someone else to decide if some procedure is going to be paid for.
And in some contexts, it seems like what people call "death panels" are just discussions between doctors and family about appropriate end of life care, which are something that should happen.

I find that the use of the term just muddies debate.

[CatoTheElder]

Like most legislation (e.g., Privacy Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, PATRIOT Act, Affordable Care Act, Tax Simplification Act, etc.) the name of the panel will be exactly opposite of its true function.

Something like the Commission for Senior Quality of Life.

[This Machine Triggers Warnings]

I know this was a big deal yesterday, so I thought I'd update y'all:

Looks like "So help me God" is now an optional part of the Oath of Office/Enlistment.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

It was always actually optional, it was just that the AF had screwed up the instructions on the form so that you had to do it on the form.

The Army text has always had the Swear(or affirm) option.

As a former officer, I'd always ask the person if they preferred one or the other. Don't recall anyone ever actually choosing to affirm. Often times, we'd do mass oaths, and individuals could choose to affirm. Never an issue.

[Zeb]

Good. Forcing someone to swear to a god who they don't believe in seems rather undesirable, making the oath less meaningful.

[John]

The Presidential Oath of office in the Constitution does not contain the words "so help me God". Those words were allegedly added by Washington when he first took the oath. But there is no clear record of that happening.

To me, the template for federal oaths ought to be the one that is in the Constitution. Since it doesn't contain "so help me God", neither should any other federal oath of office.

Seems pretty simple to me.

[Zeb]

Yeah, there's an even better reason.

[The Late P Brooks]

I saw a Facebook post by a friend who is the wife of a cop. It was from a group of wives of cops, and they call themselves "Wives of warriors."

[comment redacted]

[Agile Cyborg]

In a culture where the community as a whole is viewed as capable of committing extreme violence upon him at any given moment the status of 'warrior' is an absolute necessity.

[The Late P Brooks]

"I will defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign or domestic, so help me Cthulu."

[Zeb]

I think they should allow "fuck yeah!" as a substitute for "so help me God".

[Brett L]

I would think Cthulu would be more frightening to our enemies than some dude who got crucified and still wants to hug it out.

[CatoTheElder]

Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, called the American-led coalition "ridiculous."

You know things are really, really bad when Iran's president makes more sense than the US President and his secretary of state.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

This, but I will say I have enjoyed watching progressives uncomfortably dance around the issue of it being a common event in African American households.

[John]

I agree. I don't but him any slack. But i don't cut the people who do the things you mention any slack either. A lot of people do, however, and seem to be really angry at Peterson.

[Marshall Gill]

He beat the shit out of 4-year old.

Bullshit. He disciplined a child. Punishment is supposed to hurt. While I wouldn't go that far with my children, was the child permanently damaged? At what point does spanking become "beating the shit out of"?

Don't be surprised when CPS decides that all spanking is "beating the shit out of" and outlaws it. But of course, you will oppose government raising children, then?

[John]

I would give anything to see a few black athletes come out in defense of Peterson and drop the race card. Wouldn't that just be entertaining as hell?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

A few kind of have, Charles Barkley (what the fuck was he doing on an NFL pregame show?) touched on it during CBS this past Sunday.

[tarran]

I think it's going to happen very soon.

Already Barkley is saying this is what southern blacks do, and proggie moralizing isn't likely to change their minds about what they see as a vital component of childrearing.

I think the more they are condemned by outsiders the more defensive blacks will get. Blacks as a group tend to be far more socially conservative than many whites realize, and most of them seem so far to have quietly resisted change on things like gay rights.

[John]

Awesome. Hoist those assholes on their own petards. The only smart thing Alinsky ever said was "hold the other side to their own standards".

[RBS]

what the fuck was he doing on an NFL pregame show?

Sir Charles can always be counted on to bring a little controversy/viewers.

[John]

Yeah. This is pretty extreme IF the accounts are accurate. If he had just beat the kid's butt red with his hand, I would be on his side and tell the NFL and the state to butt out. But if the accounts are true, that is appalling.

[John]

Of course the elephant already in the room is the Ray Rice thing. The fact is that domestic violence is viewed very differently in the black community than it is in the middle and upper class white community. A good number of black people, men and women, don't see what Rice did as that big of a deal and feel like the thing is being totally blown out of proportion because Rice is black. Frankly, they have a bit of a point. There is a whole lot of "OMG look at the big scary Negro" voyeurism going on in the media with the constant showing of the security tape.

They are already feeling defensive. Going after Peterson very well might produce some push back.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Bullshit. He disciplined a child. Punishment is supposed to hurt. While I wouldn't go that far with my children

So he was just disciplining his kid, but you wouldn't take it as far as he did with your own child? Interesting.