FBI Dislikes Apple Encryption (Shock!), Cali Bans Forced Inmate Sterilization, Pornhub Launches Record Label: A.M. Links

• 

  wicker_man/Flickr

  FBI Director James Covey has the sads over tech companies like Apple makng it harder for the National Security Agency to spy on people.

• The Danes are now fighting ISIS with us. All signs still a go for WWIII. 
• Police across Colorado next week will undergo special training on not killing dogs.
• California Gov. Jerry Brown signed some non-terrible bills for a change, including one banning forced or coerced sterilizations of inmates in Cali prisons and another giving those behind bars easier access to DNA tests that could clear their names.
• Uber and Lyft have been given a preliminary okay in Austin, Texas, while San Francisco and Los Angeles are stepping up efforts to shut down the services, along with newcomer Sidecar. 
• Pornhub is moving into the music industry. "We're looking for acts that aren't necessarily porn-focused," said the website's head. 
• Several protesters were arrested after an attempt at reconciliation from Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson didn't go over so well.  

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

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Several protesters were arrested after an attempt at reconciliation from Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson didn't go over so well.

When you wade into a crowd still feeling like you're above them, it doesn't work out.

[Fist of Etiquette]

FBI Director James Covey has the sads over tech companies like Apple makng it harder for the National Security Agency to spy on people.

He would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that meddling Bill of Rights.

[Ted S.]

Oh, I'm sure the DOJ will come up with a way to screw over Apple.

[Doctor Whom]

Yet again, what the progressive goodthink predicts will happen and what actually happens are 180 degrees apart.

[Doctor Whom]

When government arrogance is too much even for FluffPo commenters, you know it's too much.

[hamilton]

That is only because it is Apple, which is in the very very very small set of "good" corporations / billionaires. Where "good" = "accepted by progressives".

[Rhywun]

Maybe, but progs sure are also busy lately hammering Apple - and only Apple - for using the same "sweatshops" and "environmental practices" as every other gadget company. That'll teach Apple to get so rich.

[Snark Plissken]

The Danes are now fighting ISIS with us. All signs still a go for WWIII.

They'll be making the stylish blonde wood chairs the drone pilots will sit in.

[Doctor Whom]

Let's fight another world war against an enemy that we helped to create. Yippee.

[CatoTheElder]

Wasn't the Cold War, with all of its hot proxy wars, really WWIII?

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

WW2.1

or

WWIIA

[Rasilio]

Yes

WW3 was the Cold War
WW4 is the war against Islamic Terrorism, unless you want to consider the war on drugs to be WW4 in which case we are up to WW5

[ant1sthenes]

Considering that the Commies were initially (allied with the fascists) the enemy in WW2, it was more like a continuation of WW2.

[WTF]

Oh, hell, you could make a reasonable argument that it is all just a continuation of WWI, basically the modern equivalent of the Hundred Years War.

[cavalier973]

What we call WW2 was actually WW4. The Cold War was WW5. We are now in WW6.

[Bee Tagger]

"We're looking for acts that aren't necessarily porn-focused," said the website's head.

Aural porn reads better than it sounds, I suppose. Or vice versa.

[gaijin]

"We're looking for acts that aren't necessarily porn-focused," said the website's head.

What would a p0rn focused musical act look--or sound--like?

[Shirley Knott]

Two naked individuals racing onto the stage as The Village People's 'Macho Man' begins to ring out over the sound system. They proceed to f**k their brains out until the song ends, then take their bows.

This actually happened, btw.
The horror, the horror.

[Idle Hands]

Don't know.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

What would a p0rn focused musical act look--or sound--like?

Chemical People.

[Ted S.]

Porn for the Blind

[gaijin]

^surprised I am not. In awe at human ingenuity, I am.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Exists, does there, Yoda porn? For a friend I ask.

[Andrew S.]

Rule 34, there is. Exists, I'm sure it does.

[MegaloMonocle]

"There is only cum, or cum not. There is no fap."

[Rich]

You can help! Record a description now

[Fist of Etiquette]

Uber and Lyft have been given a preliminary okay in Austin, Texas, while San Francisco and Los Angeles are stepping up efforts to shut down the services, along with newcomer Sidecar.

It's like California is determined to make Texas look good.

[Johnny Bravo]

It's like California is determined to make Texas look good.

Like Texas needs any help from them. The only downside is that Cali's will move to Texas, Californicating it in the process.

[CatoTheElder]

^THIS

However, Californians aren't so bad. The worst are the Yankees who come down here for the business environment, complain about how backwards we are, and try to re-create the messed up business environment they left.

[invisible furry hand]

Cuban company develops Che and Chavez perfumes

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the.....logne.html

[trshmnster the terrible]

It smells like condescension and poor economics!

[Slammer]

Smells like human misery?

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

THIS

[Bee Tagger]

Sounds like something Dennis Feinstein would create.

[Ted S.]

Imagine the reaction if somebody tried to develop a Nazi perfume.

The idea that totalitarian collectivism is somehow not so bad if it's coming from the left is utterly repulsive.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ted. You KNOW it will be a hit with the progs. Shit, I'm already bracing myself to hear one of the buddies bought it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Imagine the reaction if somebody tried to develop a Nazi perfume.

I'm pretty sure Chanel is still successful.

[Ted S.]

As is Hugo Boss.

[WTF]

Hugo Boss has a cologne.

[Zeb]

The Che one makes sense. He is a fashion accessory more than anything at this point (which is also stupid and somewhat disturbing, but fashion is weird and stupid). But Chavez?

[Steve G]

If I want a Nazi perfume, I'll burn a roast in the oven and then rub it on myself...

Still too soon??

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Smells like a Cohiba!

[Suthenboy]

One smells like rotting flesh and the other like a musty, moldered mummy?

[Slammer]

Pornhub Launches Record Label

What's a record?

[trshmnster the terrible]

It's that red dot button on the iPhone to keep a copy of what you say.

[gaijin]

It's what someone in the slammer gets 😉

[Rich]

It's like a 'broken record', but not broken.

[An Innocent Man]

What's a record?

It's when you stack firewood, and it falls over, and you have to stack it again.

/Yes,Redneck

[waffles]

73 in less than a minute.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

+nobody Can Eat 50 Eggs

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police across Colorado next week will undergo special training on not killing dogs.

They misread the flyer, thought it was gonna be a dog shoot.

[Ayn Random Variation]

The other day I'm talking to a retired cop about how he doesn't carry anymore because he still has to qualify.
Unfortunately, my filter was disabled due to Jameson, and I said, "Qualify? So you would have to shoot a puppy?"

He was not amused.

[cavalier973]

I once told a co-worker (a Marine who had been to Iraq): "Thanks for killing people for me."

He just looked at me and said, "It happens."

[invisible furry hand]

Drunken bigoted poofter-basher is just daddy's little girl at heart

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/2.....tter_feed/

[Andrew S.]

With bonus abuse of cop powers!

[Andrew S.]

Especially this one. Shows what a joke that kicking doors down is to cops.

[Andrew S.]

In case the above gets deleted...

Kathryn Knott
?@kathryn_knott
@garlicknott dad just let me kick down a door on a raid #epic

[RBS]

"has a law enforcement background in her family.

Ah ha!

[Raston Bot]

^one of the few readable articles from a Salon writer

[Raston Bot]

the one where she posted pics of patients from her med tech job and was then suspended pending a HIPAA investigation is particularly gratifying.

[MegaloMonocle]

Good Christ. Suspended pending an investigation? That's an instant firing anywhere I've ever worked.

[Fist of Etiquette]

LET'S NOT START PUTTING VIDEOS IN AM LINKS AGAIN. People have to reload this page, you know.

[trshmnster the terrible]

That ship sailed with all the BS sidebars and social mediduh elements. It locks my phone up a couple times each morning.

[Ted S.]

I don't know how many times my browser freezes up just trying to scroll up and down pages at H&R.

[trshmnster the terrible]

At one point, I had written a custom firebug script to prevent all the memory hogging elements from loading (and make a kickass supplement to reasonable) , but I lost it when I switched jobs. I cry myself to sleep every night for not saving that script.

[Ted S.]

The problem is that AdBlock/Ghostery fuck up my browser even worse.

[CatoTheElder]

Same complaint here. Reason.com really does load up too much crap.

[Mongo]

The ad people at Reason got rid of that intrusive Verizon auto-play ad that would loop over-and-over.

Thanks!

[Auric Demonocles]

+1

[Ted S.]

I have my browser set up to only load plug-ins on demand, and the antisocial media shit still wreaks havoc with the memory.

[Bee Tagger]

another giving those behind bars easier access to DNA tests that could clear their names.

Just as long as its not 23andMe running it because they would re-violate their civil rights all over again.

[Andrew S.]

Police across Colorado next week will undergo special training on not killing dogs.

After training, will there start to be consequences for unnecessary dog killing?

No?

Then what's the point?

[Slammer]

"It was a good shoot, he's been fully trained."

[db]

That is exactly what will happen. Notice that the identified "root cause" of these incidents is lack of proper training. Once they're trained and policies are in place, they substitute good judgment and moral behavior with following procedure. Problem solved, as far as the bureaucracy is concerned.

[Bardas Phocas]

How to fillout a dog shooting report:

A large PITBULL (approximately 200 lbs) approached the Officer at a rapid velocity. The Officer felt his life in danger. Bullets exited the service pistol at a rapid velocity, intersecting with the PITBULL. Nothing else happened.

[WTF]

Using this handy guide to dog breed identification.

[MegaloMonocle]

Somewhere, there's a page showing all the breeds that our idiot media has identified as "pit bulls".

[mad.casual]

Once they're trained and policies are in place, they substitute good judgment and moral behavior with following procedure.

This implies good judgement and moral behavior existed in the first place.

You'll note that they have to train officers of the peace *not* to shoot stuff. Additionally, officers who behaved so abnormally as to require training will retain their positions on the force.

Most of us would get a pink slip, maybe a warning first. These guys get free "How not to steal office supplies." and "How not to destroy co-workers' property." training and keep their jobs until their behavior becomes egregious enough that it's obvious training is/was ineffective (for some/many).

[db]

I'm not saying that they had good judgment and moral behavior before; I'm saying that *procedure*, *policy*, and *training* are considered by the bureaucracy to relieve its members of the responsibility to act in moral, ethical, and reasonable ways.

[Shirley Knott]

Bragging rights.

[Steve G]

If they were the military the "training" would be there to let the supervisors off the hook since they 'did something', but seeing how it's all a thin blue line with these guys, there is no point.

[Carl ?s his ? for ?s]

FBI Director James Covey has the sads over tech companies like Apple makng it harder for the National Security Agency to spy on people.

Filesystem encryption has little to nothing to do with the NSA's work.

[MegaloMonocle]

Seeing as the NSA functions exactly like hackers and identity thieves, you can't have any kind of security that doesn't burden the NSA.

When you function exactly like criminals, perhaps people making your job harder isn't your biggest problem.

[Idle Hands]

Dem Candidate's Film Studio Failed to Pay Taxes While Taking Subsidies to Make a Movie Criticizing Farm Subsidies.

The Democratic House candidate for New York's 21st congressional district received three separate tax warrants on his documentary-film company for failing to pay state taxes ? the second time one of the candidate's much-touted business enterprises has earned the attention of New York law enforcement for tax delinquency.

The delinquency occurred as Woolf was directing and producing a documentary entitled "King Corn," a critique of federal subsidies for American corn farmers. The sweetest part: Woolf's company was itself receiving subsidies from the congressionally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, while failing to pay the required state taxes.

[antisocial-ist]

I'll go ahead and beat shriek to it.

FAKE SKANDALZ!

[Ted S.]

Woolf's running against a woman, and has been playing the WAR ON WIMMINZ!!!111!!! shtick in his ads, with one of them having questions like "What if it were the 'Violence Against Your Sister Act'?"

Thankfully the ads in my district haven't been nearly so obnoxious.

[WTF]

What if it were the "Violence Against White People Act"? Is it still a good thing?

[sarcasmic]

I got nuthin.

[Idle Hands]

All you need is love.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

You shan't find that here.

[invisible furry hand]

only the sort that comes with an hourly rate

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

STEVE SMITH or Warty style "Love" is given for free.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Technically, it's TAKEN for free.

[WTF]

Warty's love is a special kind of love.

[trshmnster the terrible]

+1 upgrayedd

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

The love that dare not speak. Or even whimper.

[db]

How about lust, then?

[hamilton]

Um, you'll find that here. But you won't be happy about it.

[trshmnster the terrible]

The Rapesquatch will be, though!

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

We got your Lust, Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath...

What we need to round it out is more Gluttony.

We always need more Gluttony.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

Would not all our food and booze commentary promote gluttony? I think we have all of them covered!

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

You can never have enough Gluttony.

[MegaloMonocle]

Lust, Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, and Wrath

Sounds like a sister franchise to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

[Restoras]

Well, one makes a better store than the other.

[Rich]

US Homeland Security moves to tackle climate change risks

"Increasingly, we've moved not only from a security focus to a resiliency focus," said Caitlin Durkovich, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection

"And speaking of 'focus', we're now also monitoring opthamology, if you catch my drift."

[trshmnster the terrible]

And in one administration, the DHS goes from those guys who fondle your balls in the airport to the SS for the EPA

[Ted S.]

A bureaucratic agency engaging in mission creep? That's impossible!

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

They will be in a jurisdictional struggle with the FDA within 18 months - "We will protect the Homeland from Obesity!!!!!"

[Rich]

focus

"You keep using that word, ...."

[invisible furry hand]

"Our parents trust us to know that we want what is best for their children, and a high-sugar diet is anything but"

http://www.dailytelegraph.com......27a4361cd1

[trshmnster the terrible]

I hope these children violently revolt and show these do-gooders what happens when you're a nanning bitch. I'll give you a hint, you get strung up by your toes!

[Rich]

Teachers check lunchboxes and phone parents if they contain junk food

Just the lunchboxes?! Require those kids to drop trou in front of the school nurse!

[trshmnster the terrible]

"we have a reasonable suspicion that your Little Johnny is smuggling ding dongs up his bum. We have conducted three enemas and a colonoscopy, but haven't yet found his cache of controlled snacks. We need your permission to perform exploratory surgery on his entire GI tract. Thanks! Your friendly school administration.

[gaijin]

We need your permission

It all sounded so real until you used that line

[Zeb]

ding dongs up his bum

[CatoTheElder]

Schools should perform random blood-sugar level tests. Not only would it deter the use of sugary foods and beverages, nothing would teach the kids about the nature of the state better than a compulsory bloodsucking.

[Ted S.]

Suggest the teachers be subject to such a thing, and the shrieking would be deafening.

[Rich]

"If it helps save just one child from juvenile onset diabetes, ...."

[thom]

Kids would have no problem complying with that. Anything like that done on kids is just conditioning.

[Rev-Match]

"...we will have a personal conversation with the student's parents to remind them that these foods are not suitable and recommend healthy ?alternatives."

*clears throat* - FUCK OFF.

[Rev-Match]

"Parents play a huge part in their child's wellbeing and I find a lot of the time they don't know what they are doing wrong."

Yea, but your kids really belong to the state community.

[Rev-Match]

"Homemade banana bread or blueberry muffins are perfect."

Banana bread is delicious. However, being bread (a carb), it is just as bad as sugary sweets. This fascist is disqualified from ever giving anyone nutritional advice, ever.

[Zeb]

Yeah, not too much difference nutritionally between those two and a handful of sugar. They are also not exactly low sugar either.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

How much do you want to bet the administrator is at least borderline diabetic?

[Roger the Shrubber]

Our parents trust us to know that we want what is best for their children

If so, these parents are mindless sheep whom might as well just hand their children to the state to raise for them. Scenes from 'Brave New World' come to mind.

[MegaloMonocle]

That sentence is deeply confused:

"Our parents" - is the speaker referring to their own parents, or asserting ownership of the parents?

"trust us to know that we want what is best"

WTF does that even mean? Seriously, what a frikkin word salad.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Our parents trust us to know that we want what is best for their children

If so, these parents are mindless sheep whom might as well just hand their children to the state to raise for them. Scenes from 'Brave New World' come to mind.

[Zeb]

"trust us to know that we want what is best"

That's a fucking weird way to say it too. Note that it doesn't say that they actually know what is best for the children, but that they know that that is what they want.

[Rhywun]

It's all "wishes" with these people.

[Steve G]

Homemade banana bread or blueberry muffins are perfect

Are you freaking kidding me? It'd be one thing if their asinine policies were based on something resembling smart nutritional science, but as they are not they are all the more retarded. Replacing a bag of chips with a piece of fruit or a homemade muffin is not a fix! Replacing a coke with capri sun or fruit juice is not an improvement!

[Rich]

Ultra-Orthodox Jews cause chaos on flight to Israel

You know who else demanded segregation of men and women ....

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

The YMCA and YWCA?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Spartans?

[Andrew S.]

My sister married an orthodox Jew (or an abusive piece of shit that uses orthodoxy to justify the fact that he's an abusive piece of shit). Had to go to their synagogue once. Couldn't stand it.

[waffles]

So it's okay to dislike your brother-in-law? I was worried that it was just me.

[Andrew S.]

It goes beyond dislike. He's truly a piece of shit human being. Not only is he an abusive piece of shit, he doesn't work (despite being handed several easy opportunities over the years). Sits home and smokes pot all day. Has been known to leave his two handguns (as far as I know, he may own more) around the house, loaded and unlocked, in easy reach of the kids. Cut sister off from entire family after my daughter was born, because my wife isn't Jewish and daughter is therefore evil or something.

Moved to Maryland with grand plan of getting major Conservatives to work for his Zionist organization, despite him having no work ethic or money, and, you know, the existence of AIPAC. Started complaining a month after moving there that Maryland had too high taxes and was too liberal for him (love that so much; not what happens in Maryland, but that he didn't bother to check on these things before moving). Will probably move to Israel in a year or two, at which point I expect he'll take the kids and kick my sister out the door.

(He gets me worked up, what can I say)

[Certified Public Asskicker]

And on top of all that, he doesn't even like bacon!

[Andrew S.]

Nah. He's a complete hypocrite as well.

[Ted S.]

I guess that would mean I'm an ultra-heterodox Jew. Never been to a synagogue, eat pork, mix meat and dairy all the time, and probably a whole bunch of other things that aren't particularly kosher.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

But do you take off work for the holidays?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I guess that would mean I'm an ultra-heterodox Jew.

Only if you consider yourself Jewish in the first place.

[Ted S.]

Has been known to leave his two handguns (as far as I know, he may own more) around the house, loaded and unlocked, in easy reach of the kids.

Maybe one of the kids will shoot him.

[db]

If he lives in MD and leaves guns out like that, he's breaking the law (not that I endorse that law, but there it is).

[Andrew S.]

Issue isn't with the possession of the guns, obviously. But to the extent that you have two small boys walking around the house, just put the fucking guns out of their reach instead of leaving them on counters or on the bed (both of which I've seen with them).

[Heroic Mulatto]

Tell him that negligence and irresponsibility are clearly state in the Talmud as sinful in halachic law and that if he doesn't engage in utterly sincere teshuvah, you'll get his Rabbi (and thus through the yenta-web, the entire community) involved.

[Rich]

"Jew eat yet?"

/Woody Allen

[Stormy Dragon]

If he goes to Israel, he'll fit right in:

Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Welfare Kings

[MegaloMonocle]

Cut sister off from entire family after my daughter was born,

That's a beating, right there. And I mean a "wake up in a roadside ditch" type beating.

[Spoonman.]

One of my sisters has an asshole husband. Just a real piece of shit guy. Once pushed my other sister against a wall because she didn't want to go home with one of his friends. Real piece of shit.

[Spoonman.]

My parents know that there's a reason that I, my wife, my other sister, and her husband all loathe him, but that we won't tell them because it won't do them any good to know.

[MegaloMonocle]

Once pushed my other sister against a wall because she didn't want to go home with one of his friends.

Goddam, at this rate that roadside ditch is going to get crowded.

[Rich]

What does your BiL think about *ultra*-orthodoxy?

[Andrew S.]

Does it leave him in total control? Then he's in favor of it.

[Ted S.]

Can she get a get?

[gaijin]

The Catholic Church?

[Idle Hands]

Ehh we always had to sit boy girl boy girl in catholic school.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Segregation of the sexes? Then where did all these children come from?

http://www.catholicworldreport.....ilies.aspx

[Idle Hands]

Storks dude, storks.

[gaijin]

fwiw, I was referring to the priesthood.

[Idle Hands]

Feminists?

[MJGreen]

Sheesh, flying from NY to Israel with a plane full of such people. That'd be unbearable.

[Rhywun]

I know! Women should fly in their own planes or something.

[An Innocent Man]

FBI Director James Covey has the sads over tech companies like Apple making it harder for the National Security Agency to spy on people.

I've been cynicalized to the point, I assume fedgov was given a backdoor, and they're all just play fighting for our entertainment.

[Swiss Servator, Grundgesetz!]

THIS. THIS. THIS.

[Raston Bot]

yep. Apple's institutional shareholders don't give a shit about altruism or taking a principled stand. if they don't see ROI, then the board will shake up the officers. and taking the high road against the govt is a sure money loser.

[Steve G]

Pay no attention to the gov hacker behind the curtain whilst these suits 'fight'

[Fluffy]

Yup.

100%.

They realized that now that Snowden has exposed all the backdoors, they have to convince people they're secure again...so they won't think about all the NEW backdoors.

[Rich]

Woman Irate That Ontario Family Is Flying Mexican Flag In Their Front Yard

"You know we live in America right? This is the United States. So, why are you flying a Mexican flag in your front yard?" she is heard asking the woman. "I was offended. I was pretty upset. But I couldn't understand her," Capps said. The woman behind the window doesn't speak English and didn't understand the questions.

I suppose that *really* pissed Capps off.

[Ted S.]

Shouldn't they be flying a Canadian flag? 😉

[Rich]

"You know we live in America right? This is the United States. So, why are you flying a Dale Earnhardt flag in your front yard?"

[Apatheist ?_??]

That woman would die of outrage here in Houston, though I assume it would be quite common in socal as well.

[Cdr Lytton]

Or around here. Bunch of Danes and other nordics flying their old country colors. Not to mention the British pub. Or the Irish restaurant. Or several of the hotels. Don't take her to a certain amusement park, either.

[trshmnster the terrible]

MUR-I-KUH!!!

This type of story is exactly why this nation won't turn around until the Chinese are pulling us out of fedgov "re-education camps. " There are far more muricans than principled people in this country.

[Johnny Bravo]

"I don't understand what all the hatred is about. Why everyone is labeling me these names. Racist? I don't understand why everyone is so angry."

Clueless is no way to go through life, but some people sure give it a go.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Capps says the fallout from the video caused her to lose her independent contact position with a real estate company.

Methinks this is about Capps' notion of "curb appeal" and property rates in the neighborhood. The average realtor is just one step above a zoning board member in being the block's petty tyrant.

[WTF]

Yeah, probably worried the obvious presence of Mexicans would lower her property values.

[perlhaqr]

I was extra special confused until I read the article and found out that Ontario is apparently a city in California.

Goddamn, that's still confusing.

"Ontario CA."

"USA."

"What?"

[blackjack]

Ontario is basically easternmost greater L.A. Anybody who hates on Mexicans should really consider moving far away. But then they'd miss out on the best Mexican food anywhere (including most of Mexico!)

[hamilton]

OK, I haven't been posting this week because work is busy and all, so maybe I missed a rant somewhere. But I just wanted to say I swear to Tiny Baby Jesus that these slide-in pop-up ads are going to make me go all Dunphy at some point. You have been warned reason. There is no call for doing this sort of shit without compensating us with an edit button (EDIT BUTTON!) or readability score or some little pittance. I have spoken.

[sarcasmic]

ABP

[All-Seeing Monocle]

^That. I use firefox and ABP and reason (along with most of the internet) is ad-less.

I'm shocked whenever I have to visit a site using another browser and discover how much annoying crap there is that I never see.

[Ted S.]

Amazingly, I haven't been getting slide-ins or pop-up ads on H&R. It's the facebook/google/twitter shit that's the problem for me.

[John]

They are better than the browser destroying computer crashing plug in ads. My God does reason have some nasty plug in adware.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I just switched from mobile Chrome to mobile Firefox, and installed ABP. Day and night difference.

[Auric Demonocles]

I am disappointed in you, Mr Hamilton, for how could you be comfortable writing at merely the equivalent of a 6th grade reading level? Given that level of eloquence, one might as well take part in the commentary on the website referred to as "Youtube" (which is widely known for boorish and unintelligible [among other unsavory adjectives] comments).

[hamilton]

I humbly accept your well-intentioned chastisement, and genuflect before my peer group in demonstration of my respect. I shall reflect on my shortcomings and vow to return with renewed vigor and aplomb.

Oh and thank for the ad block thingy, it does work well, so I guess I'll stop ranting or something now.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

"I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no one in this country is beyond the law," (FBI Director) Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington.

"Well, except anyone on the government payroll, obviously."

[Rich]

That "but" speaks volumes.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Agree.

I also think it's no coincidence that he used the expression "beyond the law" instead of "above the law".

[Roger the Shrubber]

That he separates the the two clauses with a 'but' is odd. I would think that anyone who understands the 'rule of law' would understand that equal protection is a component of it.

FBI director....understanding the principle of the 'rule of law'...I crack myself up sometimes. FYTW is the only principle they have to justify a lot of what they do and that quote is evidence of that fact.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

"I AM DA LAW!"

[Raston Bot]

ignore everything someone says before "but"

/ned stark

[Roger the Shrubber]

I've always liked 'Everything before the 'but' is BS'

[John]

Dick Morris I think pretty much pegs Obama.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfro.....id/596244/

Morris writes that almost all of Obama's key initiatives and agenda items have one common theme: They seek to turn America into a banana republic ruled by one party, by putting the Republican Party out of business ? effectively ending America's long bipartisan system of government.

Obama is a left-wing president who is desperately determined to impose his radical agenda to transform our democratic government and free market economy into his socialist-style ideal before leaving office in 2016. He's a president who is obsessively fixated on keeping the left in permanent power by turning our two-party system into a one-party monopoly."

I don't think he is or will be successful because Obama is a moron. But that sums up what he is about.

[sarcasmic]

Fundamentally transform...

[Ted S.]

TEAM BE RULED has been a one-party monopoly for decades.

[John]

I think people like Obama and Holder are envious of places like Argentina and Venezuela, where the elites get to do anything they want with no worries of the proles doing anything about it.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Not envy, pity. See, the argentine and Venezuelan elites are stuck with uncivilized savages to run their socialist schemes. Socialism is a system for civilized people. Therefore, we will learn from the mistakes of the tin pot dictators and establish Socialism with the civilized (college educated) first, and worry about the proles later.

[cavalier973]

What good is it being rich and powerful if there aren't miserable and destitute people to feel superior to?

[VG Zaytsev]

Republicans hold more elective offices in the US than at any point since the 1930s and will be gaining offices this November.

So apparently, he's no better at building a one party country than he was as a community organizer or education reformer.

Forward!

[John]

Like I said. He is thankfully a moron. But there is no question to me at least that is what he would like to do.

[thom]

The one thing we can be thankful for is that Obama is incompetent. Imagine if he was an effective leader and manager? We'd be fucked.

[INFORG]

He is building one party, just not the one he thinks he is

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I thought Michelle pegged Obama?

[VG Zaytsev]

Reggie Love.

[John]

Yeah, you went there.

[Idle Hands]

Question was this ever really a thing or just speculation on conservative blogospheres.

[Rev-Match]

Ew.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

From Sept. 24:

"Birth of a new world: the Tolkien poem that marks the genesis of Middle-earth

"On this day in September 1914, as war broke out, Tolkien created the mythical land that led him to The Lord of the Rings. Here's the story of the poem that changed his life"

http://www.theguardian.com/boo.....ddle-earth

[John]

I don't know but I would imagine that building his Middle Earth was a way to mentally at least survive serving in the trenchs for Tolkien

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I read that he wrote some of his material in the trenches on the back of a military form.

[John]

I am sure he spent a lot of time thinking about it and building it as a way to mentally escape what was going on around him.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

That may have contributed, but I think the main thing was he was obsessed with this other world of his, working on it during the war and later at Oxford, etc.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Pacific Justice Institute vs. California charter school - threats to have a federal court supervise the content of the school library.

Supposedly, the school bans "sectarian" books from the library. The PJI wants the federal courts to intervene to protect these Christian works.

I say, Christians can survive the selection procedures at a charter school without making a federal case out of it.

http://www.pacificjustice.org/.....-christian

[Heroic Mulatto]

Are the works of Homer, with their peans to the Olympian gods or the Bhagavad-Gita similarly banned from the school's library? If not, then you have a tax-payer funded school engaging in arbitrary religious discrimination. If so, then how is the charter school meeting district and state curricular guidelines by presumably eliminating a good sixty percent of all English language literature?

[John]

I agree.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I actually support self-determination for charter schools re curriculum and library content, even if this means some schools will leave out literature I would have liked to see.

And the publisher of the Bhagavad Gita or *The Imitation of Christ* can use this in their marketing materials - "read the book which was too racy for the South Sausalito Charter School!"

I do wonder, however, when the American Library Association will step in.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And if parents don't like the curriculum, they can choose another school, or supplement the curriculum.

[Azathoth!!]

And here again we have it--two articles about the 'banned book list' that features no books that were actually banned--while actual book banning, using the power of the state, is just a comment in the AM links.

And it's the socons who are dangerous?

[Idle Hands]

I pot was legal nationally I don't think this would be such a big issue.

Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it's also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry.
"There's an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak," David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. "I figured this would be a good place to start over."
While shelters across the metro area are willing to open their doors, they're quickly running out of room.
"We were averaging 190 (homeless) last year. We're now averaging 345 a night," Murray Flagg of the Salvation Army said.

[John]

No it wouldn't. You really don't want to be the only state that legalizes it because you end up attracting a ton of losers to your state. If it is legal everywhere, the losers stay where they are.

[B.P.]

We had a freak overnight snow here (Denver) a couple of weeks ago. I was really, really hoping that it froze for a week to freak some of these newcomers out and send them scurrying back home.

[Sevo]

Wear what a stylish mass-murderer would:

"New Cologne 'Hugo' Honors Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez, Fruitier Than Che Cologne"
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/15008.....WGeUGUH.99

[Ken Shultz]

I think it's great to see the people that scripted apology was meant to assuage refuse to play by the script.

Fuck the Police Chief. Why is he still there?

[Stormy Dragon]

Real or Parody?

Christian Blogger Rewrites Harry Potter, Saves Our Souls With "Hogwarts School Of Prayer & Miracles"

[John]

You are surprised by the existence of bad fan fiction?

[Stormy Dragon]

I can't figure out if it's an actual evangelical Christian being unintentionally hilarious or someone parodying an evangelical Christian being intentionally hilarious.

[John]

I bet its real. I am never surprised, though often amazed, at how unbelievably bad fan fiction can be.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Helsing vs. the Twilight Vampires: The Easiest, and Most Satisfying, Job He Ever Had.

[ant1sthenes]

If you must write out the magic, why not make the Hogwarts School of Sufficiently Advanced Technology? Then you can get the support of ardent materialists as well.

[cavalier973]

According to Harold Bloom, the Harry Potter books are just rewrites of 19th century stories with the addition of magic.

[Stormy Dragon]

They don't write out the magic. It's just that instead of saying words that cause spells to occur, they pray to God, which causes miracles to happen, which is somehow completely different because Jesus.

[cavalier973]

Hsarry Potter doesn't practice occult magic; he is himself a magical being. Hogwarts simply trains him to use his natural abilities (which happen to be supernatural).

[cavalier973]

It's satire

[cavalier973]

Here is a good bit of Harry Potter Fan-Fic: Harry Potter and the Natural 20.

It's about a D&D Wizard that stumbles into Harry Potter's world. Hilarity ensues.

[Stormy Dragon]

My favorite is "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality":

http://www.hpmor.com/

Imagine if J. K. Rowling had been the bastard child of Ayn Rand and James Randi.

[cavalier973]

I read some of that. It's pretty good, but it didn't make me laugh like "the Natural 20". The metaknowledge of the main character is most amusing. (He identifies which of the characters are "PC's" and which are "NPC's", for example, and he correctly recognizes Quidditch as a sport tailor-made for PC's).

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

WTF???

http://www.ranker.com/list/bes.....HOW&page=9

[John]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....le/2553992

Byron York wonders if the Democrats will finally give in on Keystone if they lose in November. I could see it going either way. The Democrats have basically written off the working class. They simply won't do anything that benefits them. The Democrats are entirely a coalition of gentry liberals, public employees and welfare recipients. At this point, I am not sure they cold reach out to the middle class if they wanted to.

[Paul.]

Well, the goal of course is to get as many people into one of those three categories as possible.

Gentry liberal progressive is a little tough, but the latter two, public employees and welfare recipients, much easier.

And for the Gentry progressive, much more desirable. Keeps the dirty poor out of their neighborhoods.

[Restoras]

In the area of Westchester County that I live I drive through a few working-class/middle-class neighborhoods. Been seeing a lot of signs for Chris Day, the Republican challenger to Nita Lowey for Congress. Prior to this I had never seen a sign for a challenger to the seat.

It's unlikely that he will win in a hardcore libtard district, but at least it looks like some people are waking up. Maybe.

[SusanM]

Sympathy for the devil?

Delco officers struggle with 3d suicide of officer
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/n.....4BmeiBB.99

[The Late P Brooks]

"I am a huge believer in the rule of law, but I am also a believer that no one in this country is beyond the law," (FBI Director) Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters in Washington.

I keep reading this, and I can make neither heads nor tails of it. You've got to give credit where credit is due; it's a finely polished gem of doublespeak.

[Paul.]

I know... wasn't that an awesome line? The disconnect is mind-shattering. "No one is above the rule of law, except for law enforcement who want to violate the fourth amendment."

[Paul.]

Pornhub is moving into the music industry. "We're looking for acts that aren't necessarily porn-focused," said the website's head.

Is that why I've been... why I've heard that people have seen these bands in popup ads when they visit the site?