Secret Service Chief Gets the Third Degree, Doves Get Hawkish, FCC Won't Block Your Games Anymore: P.M. Links

• 

  Arizona Cardinals

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson got raked over the coals for the very un-secret breach of White House security.

• A host of former Democratic doves have learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
• Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are expected to have long-term ramifications for both the former British colony and for all of China.
• The exodus of people fleeing northeastern states—largely because of high taxes—is shrinking the region's share of the national population, and consequently its congressional representation and political clout. Heh.
• Many Syrians along the Turkish border are abandoning everything to get as far away from ISIS as they can.
• The FCC dropped its NFL-enabling sports blackout policy, so you just may be able to watch the damned game you want to see after all.
• California has now banned plastic bags because…well, it's California.
• A New Hampshire cop involved in a really sketchy drug bust that resulted in a fatal shooting may get his job back despite criticism from his police chief and the state's attorney general. It looks like city officials are afraid of the police union.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The exodus of people fleeing northeastern states?largely because of high taxes?is shrinking the region's share of the national population, and consequently its congressional representation and political clout.

You know what would fix that? An exodus tax.

[Ted S.]

I was hoping for a leviticus tax myself.

[Rich]

We'll have to run the numbers.

[PBR Streetgang]

What's the genesis of this line of jokes?

[Mike M.]

Get a Job.

[Slammer]

Puns are the Kings of comedy

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

We'll be the Judges of that.

[Ted S.]

These bad puns have been a revelation.

[Rich]

Isaiah, this Amos fun! So glad H&R Habakkuk or two!

[B.P.]

Well, the Deuteronomy of it all is that....

nevermind.

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

It may be challenging, but I plan to Chronicle all of this.

[antisocial-ist]

But they'll continue to vote for the same shitty politicians and failed policies that made their former homes uninhabitable.

[Rhywun]

Suck it, non-Northeasterners.

Also, how is this news? This trend is like 50 years old.

[LarryA]

^This. Remember the 2010 census when Texas picked up four Representatives?

[PapayaSF]

And if the minimum wage was higher, then more people could afford to live there! /derp

[thom]

We wouldn't have this problem if we were more like China.

[Pro Libertate]

Why not do what the feds do and tax people even after they leave?

[Mike M.]

A host of former Democratic doves have learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Hat Tip to Mike M.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's not how it works.

[Ted S.]

That's not how any of this works.

[rts]

Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us

But over decades of research and therapeutic practice, I have become convinced that economic change is having a profound effect not only on our values but also on our personalities. Thirty years of neoliberalism, free-market forces and privatisation have taken their toll, as relentless pressure to achieve has become normative. If you're reading this sceptically, I put this simple statement to you: meritocratic neoliberalism favours certain personality traits and penalises others.

[Ted S.]

"Neoliberalism" is just the latest slur word with no real meaning other than the user doesn't like something and wants to signal that it's evil.

[Winston]

relentless pressure to achieve

Because before the 1980s people were pressured to be lazy bums.

[PapayaSF]

And everything was better then! In the late '70s, I was getting 14% on my money market fund! Good times.

[Trouser-Pod]

Just WTF was his point in that article? He wants more control, or less? More government, or more freedom? One tyrant or a billion?

[CatoTheElder]

He wants to go back the Britain's good old days of a single national coal company that produced high-cost coal, a single national steel company that produced high-cost steel, a single national electric company, a single state radio and TV broadcaster, a national telephone company with a single style of telephone that was as large as a shoe box, a couple of half-decent national airlines, and a few national car companies that produced cars famous for their unreliability ... that and strikes called by one or another unions every week or so, double digit unemployment, and double digit inflation.

Those were the good old days. It was all so predictable when the only direction was down, and losers could enjoy the schadenfreude of knowing the people who would do well in a normal society were falling faster than they.

[The Original Jason]

That neoliberalism means that you can chose between The Guardian and other newspapers and the stress of the choice is trying people psychopathic, so for the protection of the mental health of the public, newspapers other than The Guardian should be banned.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

You forgot the best part of the title:

An economic system that rewards psychopathic personality traits has changed our ethics and our personalities

Of course, the reality that market societies evidence comparatively greater social tolerance, less corruption, and a stronger impulse toward fairness in encountering and dealing with strangers--all for self-evident reasons for people who understand how and why incentives matter--doesn't in any way detract from his argument.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

The personality traits that he condemns are, natch, those that allow people to convince one another to engage in trade, namely being convincing and having strong salesmanship. I hear these same traits are also useful for attracting social relationships, from friends to one-night stands to mates.

Presumably Verhaeghe disdains the seductive aspect of markets, where sellers must woo buyers and mates must woo one another, and would prefer a coercive one where state strength determines how scarce resources are utilized and, if he's progressive enough, when and with whom sexual relationships will take place. Because voluntary relationships are sociopathic.

[Coeus]

if he's progressive enough, when and with whom sexual relationships will take place. Because voluntary relationships are sociopathic.

Exactly what I was thinking. As long as there's choice, there will always be a sexual marketplace.

Maybe he thinks our ancestors were really attracted to a Phd, and it's this damn capitalism that's holding him back from George Clooney status.

[Fist of Etiquette]

California has now banned plastic bags because...well, it's California.

Someone is in the pocket of Big Paper Bag, AKA Tree Killers.

[blackjack]

I'm so pissed. I live right at the edge of a small city (Burbank,) so I can shop there and get bags with my purchases. L.A. banned them a while back. Now, I'll have to juggle items just to get them to the car.

[Los Doyers]

You don't have orphan slaves to help with groceries? Get with it.

[CatoTheElder]

All of the Hollywood leftists have their personal assistants do their shopping for them. The politicos have their interns do the same.

This is no more of a problem for them than NYC traffic is for His Oneness.

[The Original Jason]

Hasn't anyone pointed out that Koch Industries makes paper bags?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"for the very un-secret breach of White House security."

How far he got was a secret until yesterday.

[jesse.in.mb]

California has now banned plastic bags because...well, it's California.

Wait, what?

[Ted S.]

Sorry to see you won't be able to get your autoerotic asphyxiation on any longer.

[Los Doyers]

Damn you.

[Slammer]

The fact that it is now illegal is more of a turn on.

[jesse.in.mb]

Did they ban belts too?

[Los Doyers]

Ugh, brown bags just aren't the same choke high.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Are we supposed to know who you are?

[Los Doyers]

A select few knew, but they're all dead.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A host of former Democratic doves have learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

The hope of riding the voters' not-at-all-weariness of war into midterm gold.

[ChrisO]

I LOLed.

Seriously, Obama is doing everything he can to wage a not-war war. The Dems know how little public appetite there is for this little adventure.

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

"Obama is doing everything he can to wage a not-war war."

DON'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE WAR!

The jokes just write themselves with President Bozo.

[Slammer]

White House exempts Syria airstrikes from tight standards on civilian deaths

Amid reports of women and children killed in U.S. air offensive, official says the 'near certainty' policy doesn't apply

At the same time, however, Hayden said that a much-publicized White House policy that President Obama announced last year barring U.S. drone strikes unless there is a "near certainty" there will be no civilian casualties ? "the highest standard we can meet," he said at the time ? does not cover the current U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

The "near certainty" standard was intended to apply "only when we take direct action 'outside areas of active hostilities,' as we noted at the time," Hayden said in an email. "That description ? outside areas of active hostilities ? simply does not fit what we are seeing on the ground in Iraq and Syria right now."

Hayden added that U.S. military operations against the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) in Syria, "like all U.S. military operations, are being conducted consistently with the laws of armed conflict, proportionality and distinction."

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

OBAMA BOMBS SYRIA. WOMEN AND CHILDREN HARDEST HIT.

I'm here all week.

[CatoTheElder]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-sdO6pwVHQ

[The Ghost of Joan Rivers]

California has now banned plastic bags

That's OK. I wouldn't set foot in that fucking state anyway.

[jesse.in.mb]

You'll eat our food*, but you won't visit?

Tacky, TGoJR, verrrry tacky.

*"[CA] produces nearly half of US-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables."

[Pro Libertate]

Half of the shitty fruits and vegetables. "California" stamped on most stuff means not so good. I mean peaches? California should be nuked for selling those.

I exempt avocados.

[Los Doyers]

Go home east coast kook.

[Pro Libertate]

Look, you can grow stuff in a subtropical climate conducive to life, or you can grow stuff in the fucking desert.

Your oranges suck, too.

[Los Doyers]

Our water wars are what make CA so much fun. You'd never understand.

[Pro Libertate]

No, I understand. I fully intend to drop a few icy comets on your state.

[Los Doyers]

Sure, if you can get out of your rocking chair

[Pro Libertate]

You're so fucked. Ice from the sky. From the sky.

[Los Doyers]

Next you'll tell me you can accurately predict the weather.

[Pro Libertate]

Predict? No. Direct? Um, maybe.

[jesse.in.mb]

I still think we should steal water from the Pacific Northwest. It's not like they're using much of it.

[Pro Libertate]

Screw that. Steal from a very sparsely populated country that hoards ice and other precious resources. Hint--it's near the Pacific Northwest, only northier.

[jesse.in.mb]

Fuck that, what if whatever it is that makes Canadians so...Canadian is in the water!?

Then we irrigate our crops with it and the illness spreads across this great country!

For 'Murrica's sake, NO!

[Pro Libertate]

No, no, I've thought this through--irradiate the water.

[John Titor (Formerly Jensen)]

If you're talking about B.C., it's probably THC. B.C., where even the bears are stoned.

[Los Doyers]

Meh. Salmon can be farmed. I want my DTLA water slide.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sorry that my state produces enough food at competitive prices that you can find reasonably priced alternatives when you go shopping?

Is that the right answer?

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, thanks for flooding the market with substandard produce so that I can buy decent stuff cheaper. I am grateful.

[jesse.in.mb]

See, that's the spirit. Do you like almonds, because we produce ~80% of the global market. You probably don't even have any options there.

[Pro Libertate]

Ha! You mean the almonds that have to be pasteurized to avoid spreading salmonella? No thanks, I'll have my cyanide-laced Turkish almonds.

[Homple]

I like the Marcona variety.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Just for that sass, I'm going to make sure that I buy as much local produce as possible from this store, just to spite you.

[Pro Libertate]

California shouldn't be allowed to produce shitty agriculture anymore. I say it's time for Florida to kick its ass, which it could easily do with all of the elite cadres of insane people here. All with guns and highly trained pythons.

[Florida Man]

*looks up from grafting 9 pythons together*
Whadya say ProL

[Pro Libertate]

The living python lasso--unbeatable.

[Los Doyers]

Gators are surprisingly easy to break in a saddle, I hear.

[Pro Libertate]

Jest got to show 'em who's boss.

[Andrew S.]

My house backs up on a natural lake that's part of the Everglades. I can find all sorts of natural weapons to help with the fight.

[Florida Man]

I hunted pythons in the Everglades in 2013. What an amazing amount of life in one area. And no I did not bag any pythons. 🙁

[Pro Libertate]

When we were down there earlier this year, a guide told us that they caught fewer pythons in the last hunt than hunters they had to search for and rescue.

Clearly, the answer is (1) making industrial use out of pythons or (2) building and deploying python-hunting robots.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, really? I just went to the Everglades for the first time (not counting driving through the northern part, which I've done a number of times). Pretty cool.

[Florida Man]

Oh, really? I just went to the Everglades for the first time (not counting driving through the northern part, which I've done a number of times). Pretty cool.

I went for the first annual python hunt. I learn some lessons, like not taking a 12 gauge and just carrying a revolver, and don't camp in the back country, far too wet for tent camping. I had a great time and was looking forward to going 2014, but they canceled it. I heard only 86 pythons got harvested.

[Pro Libertate]

That's a sad commentary when Homo sapiens can't exterminate some nonmicroscopic fauna. Am disappoint.

[jesse.in.mb]

*looks up from grafting 9 pythons together*
Whadya say ProL

Et tu, Florida Man?

I mean I expected it from Andrew S., but not you.

[Pro Libertate]

Floridians are all part of a secret eugenics program and are bred for, among other things, fanatical loyalty and an almost pathological loathing for California.

[jesse.in.mb]

Selective breeding or germline alterations using your beach MRSA as the vector?

[Pro Libertate]

Strictly breeding, but I will note that only tourists have been infected by MRSA.

[Homple]

If Carl Hiassen turns this comment into a novel will you get royalties?

[Mickey Rat]

There are enough Native Floridians to have a breeding population?

[seguin]

The proper name is Homo floridensis

[Florida Man]

Et tu, Florida Man?

Well I was grafting the pythons anyways, ProL just happened by and needed them.

[MJGreen]

Almonds and Cabernet Sauvignon make up about 50% of my diet.

[Ted S.]

At least you're not drinking white zin.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's the other 50%

[The Original Jason]

90% of American broccoli comes from California...

[C. Anacreon]

100% of British broccoli is Albert "Cubby" Broccoli

[Rhywun]

They're just going to move to your state and ban bags there too. Face it, environmental religionists have won on this one. Everyone else loses.

[grrizzly]

I call them eco-fundies.

[blackjack]

This^.

Who pines for the days of ripped paper bags spilling all of their groceries, on the way to the car? Imagine all the little old ladies who have take buses to get stuff. Ten extra trips? As long as that .04% of the garbage is reduced, it's all worth it.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

When I go to Trader Joe's, they always double up the paper bags anyway.

[jesse.in.mb]

How are your little old ladies carrying enough plastic bags to carry 10x what they can carry in paper bags?

I'll just miss the convenient trash can liners.

[Ted S.]

Don't people use those plastic store bags to line their small wastepaper baskets with anyway?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Outside my office window there is a patch of grass that dog walkers let their dogs shit all over.

The ol' grocery plastic bag seems to be their go to for picking up the shit.

[Heroic Mulatto]

WHO LET THE DOGS SHIT? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO-WHO?

[rts]

Jesus never existed

I'm not posting this link to start a religious war; I'm posting it for the comments: there is a general consensus among historians for the historicity of Jesus; but consensus isn't how science is done and is therefore crap! By the way, did you know 99.99999% of all scientists confirm global warming?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Sevo clapped.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And you guys say *I'm* trolling...

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Nuncio in Trouble in More than One Country

"Archbishop Wesolowski, who was defrocked in June by a Vatican canon law court which found him guilty of child sex abuse, has been placed under house arrest in the Vatican.

If and when the 66-year-old former Nuncio is brought to trial, this will represent the first time that a senior Vatican official faces criminal charges of child sex abuse.

It is believed that prosecutors in both the Dominican Republic and Poland may yet want to press charges against the former nuncio...
The former nuncio's case resurfaced last month, following a report in the New York Times which provided details and first hand evidence of his paedophile acitivities in Santo Domingo. Victims claimed that Archbishop Wesolowski used to "cruise" the oceanfront promenade, looking for shoeshine boys to whom he would offer modest sums of money ($10 dollars) in return for sexual favours. It is alleged that sometimes, he simply wanted to watch the boys swim naked."
http://www.irishtimes.com/news.....-1.1939964

[Los Doyers]

The Nuncio here doesn't get in trouble because he's so heavily entrenched in American politics.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You are aware that the reason he's subject to prosecution in those countries is because the Vatican took away his diplomatic immunity?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtQLIU4ze0g

[Wasteland Wanderer]

I am disappoint. I was so hoping that would be a link to Lethal Weapon II...

[creech]

Bill O'Reilly begs to differ. I can't count the times he's said "historians agree that Jesus lived."

[Scarecrow Repair]

They were probably thinking of their gardeners.

[C. Anacreon]

got me out loud on that one, well done

[GILMORE]

Not to belabor the same point made repeatedly last week:

*religious people don't make their cases based on 'evidence'. The lack of it hasn't been an issue in 2000 years and it wont start now.

it is about as compelling as telling Lottery ticket buyers that, "Mathematically, its not a good idea"

the argument is not meant to actually convince anyone of anything except the person making it that they're "smarter" for it. Congratulations! Have a cookie.

[lap83]

Some would say that the historical documents that were put in the Bible, and many that weren't, qualify as evidence.

You may think there isn't ENOUGH evidence to convince you, but there's a big difference between that and no evidence.

[Pro Libertate]

The evidence of his existence is decent, and it's mostly trolling (not you, them) to claim otherwise. However, what is lacking is tons of direct evidence, and some of the evidence relied upon as independent verification is tainted thanks to the Church's meddling.

This has become in vogue, because I recently read something about Mohammed being fictional, too.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

John Smith is an obviously made up name.

[Pro Libertate]

As is Ronald Reagan. I mean, come on, alliteration? No one does that with names.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Except, you know, Stan Lee.

[Pro Libertate]

I meant real people names. Obviously you could do it with fictional names. I mean, for instance, James J. Jerk.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

PBUH

[Knarf Yenrab!]

It was fashionable for a while circa ~1900 to view Siddhartha Gautama as a legendary figure and the personification of traditional Buddhist wisdom.

I suspect that this was around the time that historians began to become bored and just started flinging speculative shit at the wall to see what they could make a career of.

[Steve G]

I hear he was not only real, but loved deep dish pizza

[Scarecrow Repair]

Except on pepperoni-less Fridays.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, the Gospel of Luigi. Sadly, that's not considered canonical.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Many Syrians along the Turkish border are abandoning everything to get as far away from ISIS as they can.

So then I guess we can't count on them to pitch in.

[Rich]

Well, they could help launch cruise missiles.

[Los Doyers]

Cut and runners

[Pope Jimbo]

Splitters!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Champion of Liberty Thomas Jefferson's Wanted Ad for Fugitive Slave
"Seven years before writing that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson ran this ad in the Virginia Gazette, offering a reward for his runaway slave, Sandy. "
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/.....cello.html

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Of course you've been reading Slate.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I read Slate, and many other sites, quite a lot PM

[Los Doyers]

Your point?

[Mike M.]

His point is that because some of the founders were hypocrites, we should therefore junk the entire U.S. constitution and replace it with the international charter of peace, freedom, and free shit for everyone. Or something.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You better thoroughly vet whoever writes that charter.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Not at all.

My point is that Jefferson and other slave owners are, at the least, awful spokespersons for liberty. Many Founders, involved in the Revolution and drafting of the Constitution more than TJ, were not and should be held up instead.

[Los Doyers]

K.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Easy enough to do in regard to the Constitution as Thomas Jefferson was out of the country when the US Constitution was drafted.

[C. Anacreon]

What's going to be really funny, Bo, is 225 years from now, something you currently do that you think is completely normal will be considered morally reprehensible. And people will hear about you and think you were the most vile person ever on earth for doing this.

In other words, it's so easy to judge people from other eras, isn't it? We're so much better than they were, aren't we?

[MJGreen]

But TJ's words were still quite eloquent and some of his arguments compelling. That's what people cite. Anyone looking to Jefferson as a guide to living a moral life would have trouble.

[Keegan]

"are, at the least, awful spokespersons for liberty. "

Their points are either valid or they aren't.

[robc]

Exactly.

[tarran]

Many Founders, involved in the Revolution and drafting of the Constitution more than TJ

Thomas Jefferson would have opposed the Constitution had he not been kept in the dark by Madison's faction as they hijacked the convention to revise the articles of confederation.

And his opposition would have been based on the fact that they were centralizing power in a unaccountable government that would have a similar taxing authority to that of the Crown.

God! Bo! How can you be so ill informed and yet so snottily certain?!? If you were humble, your ignorance would be tolerable, if you were more knowledgeable your arrogance would be understandable, but the combination is just incredible!

[robc]

That is bullshit.

Adams was vehemently anti-slavery and he picked TJ to write the thing.

Adams,of course, hss his own problems. They were men, not gods.

[Mickey Rat]

Partly for the politics of it. Adams wanted a southerner involved with the drafting so to have the South invested in the Revolution instead of being a New Englander issue.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Slavery was a universal feature of human life until the industrial revolution, though not an uncontested one. Jefferson viewed it as a necessary evil, though he was far more ambivalent about it than most plantation owners would have been.

People discovered their morality about slavery the moment that it became financially profitable to do so, as also occurred during the so-called civil and animal rights movements. And, if you use reason for a moment, you might recognize why no one gave a damn about slavery in the 1800s when people were enjoying traditional subsistence-level incomes and most families were burying at least one of their children.

The downside of the economic worldview, of course, is that it offers fewer opportunities to sneer at people who lacked the benefit of characteristic 21st-century wealth, not to mention smugness.

[robc]

There were plenty of people at the time who were anti-slavery, so the slavers dont have that excuse.

Just because it isnt chattel slavery in America today, doesnt mean attitudes have actually changed.

[RBS]

I am a PhD candidate in American history at the University of Pennsylvania, writing a dissertation on proslavery expansion in the American West, namely California.

Riveting.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Slavery in the American West did have a bit of influence in starting the Civil War. Just a bit.

[John Titor (Formerly Jensen)]

Bo, if you've used any portable or electronic device that contains a hard drive between 2000 and 2012 you are very likely an active beneficiary of Congolese slave labour for rare earth metals. So why should we believe anything you have to say about liberty?

[Juice]

Totally the same as owning slaves.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It's certainly enabling the enterprise. Why do you think so many "fair traders" chimp out about things like the kind of coffee they buy?

[rts]

E-cigarette ban debated in Vancouver

Presenting a report to council Tuesday, Dr. Meena Dawar from Vancouver Coastal Health supported the banning of e-cigarettes in public spaces.

Dewar warned of a laissez-faire attitude to the product, noting that there is an absence of quality control in place, and that basically anything can end up in them.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Next up, bans on shirts with pictures of e-cigs

[Rich]

And bans of shirts with pictures of *vapor*.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I just read that NBC's show of comic character Constantine will be mostly smokeless. For those who are familiar with the character you know how PC that is

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Smokeless Hell?

[Ted S.]

Government-sector health workers don't really care about health.

This is my shocked face.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Secret Service Director Julia Pierson got raked over the coals for the very un-secret breach of White House security.

At least we found out the Secret Service supports our veterans, whatever they may be up to.

[Jordan]

A while back, Reason reported on the travails of Draven Rodriguez, who was attempting to take a yearbook photo with his cat. Well, it turns out that not all school administrators are humorless dolts:

The image is of Rodriguez holding his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, accompanied by blue and pink lasers. And it's pretty unique.

He started a petition drive with the goal of getting 500 signatures. He has received 7,408 signatures on ipetitions.com.

[...]

The high school in Schenectady, N.Y., reached a compromise last week.

His principal, Diane Wilkinson, would also appear in the photo with their animals, and the photo will appear on the principal's page in the yearbook, the Daily Gazette said.

Great photo. And that headline: "Teen takes laser-cat yearbook photo with principal".

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

SF'ed link.

[Jordan]

Argh. Here.

And uncropped photo here.

[RBS]

That Chihuahua looks even more stressed than most.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This guy gets it.

[Slammer]

So does the band Sleep

[rts]

Lower cellphone prices lead to bad service, Telus tells CRTC

European companies are now living with the unintended consequences of stimulating increased competition to keep consumers happy, Georg Serentschy said as hearings continued Tuesday into the health of Canada's wholesale wireless market.

Forcing lower prices in the short term, he said, has resulted in Europe having among the slowest and least reliable wireless networks in the industrialized world.

"Europe's telecoms industry ? and its entire digital ecosystem ? is suffering because over the last two decades European telecom regulators have created rules intended to keep wireless prices low by stimulating increased competition," said Serentschy.

My head hurts reading this.

[Ted S.]

Rent seekers gotta rent-seek.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Go fuck yourself Telus.

[Cytotoxic]

Of the Bigs, Telus is the best. They are really trying to be a better TV service.

[Ted S.]

Don't you mean "least bad"? 🙂

[Cytotoxic]

Hold on there guys. Telus may be referencing a number of anti-'monopoly' rules in Europe and the Canadian government's stupid attempts to force another carrier into the Canadian marketplace. These are artificial government edicts and the European ones in particular-forcing companies to share cell towers-kneecaps investment and in turn service.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong are expected to have long-term ramifications for both the former British colony and for all of China.

China-man Spring.

[Mike M.]

Michael Phelps arrested for DUI again in the Sheople's Republic of Maryland.

[GILMORE]

Newsflash -

Rahm Emmanuel, "Not Scumbag Enough" for Chicago - which clearly needs party-boss Mayor to help accelerate urban devolution into New Detroit. Emmanuel counters by appealing directly to 5 yr olds: "I have Candy!?"

[Invisible Finger]

Everything south of 59th Street already followed Detroit's slide - and during the exact same period. Affected a higher number of citizens, too. Thus the higher murder rate.

But no one gave a shit because it was only 25% of the city.

[SusanM]

"He came in here with the Obama halo, and it was assumed his policies would reflect those of the president,"

How right they were.

[jesse.in.mb]

Something for all the Lena Dunham fans out there: Lena Dunham Does Not Pay

Apparently Dunham had a contest to have people perform (for free) as opening acts for her tour. Gawker had a fit, one responded pointing out that she had essentially volunteered, and now Dunham has decided to pay the acts.

As an artist raised by artists, no one believes more than I do that creators should be fairly compensated for their work.
? Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 29, 2014

This is of course AFTER someone made a stink about it. And ignores the fact that people felt the honor of working with Dunham was enough:

I essentially volunteered by applying. I have a chance to work with someone whom I respect and who's highly accomplished, which is rare for someone at my level. It'll be a unique addition to my credits. That's plenty

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You owe me a hat tip. I posted that in the chatroom yesterday, and I know you fucking saw it.

[GILMORE]

YOU WILL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT. THIS IS A SHARING ECONOMY

[Los Doyers]

Does the sharing economy also apply to STD's? Hmmm

[jesse.in.mb]

When? I was pretty busy at work and just skimmed yesterday. And if it was later, I didn't have power until after 6.

But on review I will acknowledge you got to it first.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I have a timestamp.

[jesse.in.mb]

It's not in my Pidgin history, which means that it was during the time that I was checking intermittently from my phone during the power outage. You cannot prove that I *saw* it, just that you linked it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I linked it here. The post was "hypocrite is gonna hypocrite". Thanks for volunteering to buy drinks.

[Los Doyers]

The Baltika Extra Lager looks good, 8%.

[jesse.in.mb]

Did I even participate in PM Links yesterday?

[Ted S.]

I didn't get my hat-tip for this morning's brickbat. Why should you get one?

[Jordan]

Gawker. That's some serious hypocrisy, considering their interns made a big stink a while back about not being paid shit.

[PapayaSF]

I'm glad she's decided to pay them, but it should have occurred to her that asking people to support a millionaire's book tour for free was unseemly.

[B.P.]

Jesus, that story is a fecal tornado of awful. People paying $900 for scalped tickets to see Dunham read from her book, with local buskers serving as the opening act.

[Steve G]

I'm happy to know I have no idea what she does on "Tour". Comedy? Music?

[Heroic Mulatto]

She shoots darts from her vagina to break balloons held by members of the audience.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Something for all the Lena Dunham fans out there: Lena Dunham Does Not Pay

Yep--instead, everyone else has to suffer.

[Winston]

So there was an article on the problems with the post of POTUS. I should point out that a parliamentary system is no panacea. It didn't do much good to Weimar Germany or the Portuguese First Republic.

And then there is the fact that Communist countries are often "parliamentary" countries as well. Lenin was never head of State. Neither was Stalin who wasn't even of Head of Government until 1941! And Mao served as President until 1959 and was never head of government. And Pol Pot was not Head of State either.

[Slammer]

Officer kills man through car door in his driveway

The 68-year-old black great-grandfather was shot to death after a slow-speed chase as he parked in his own driveway, by a 25-year-old white police officer who repeatedly fired through the driver's side door.

Investigators determined that North Augusta Public Safety Officer Justin Craven broke the law. A prosecutor, in a rare action against a police officer, sought to charge him with voluntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. But the grand jury disagreed, indicting him on a misdemeanor.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's why I line my doors with kitty litter.

[creech]

Yet another reason not to shirk jury duty.

[Andrew S.]

People who aren't properly deferential to the state tend to get struck off quickly during voir dire.

[Brandon]

So lie. If it's ok for the DA, it's ok for me.

[kbolino]

You go to jail. The DA? Not so much.

[MJGreen]

I have jury duty a week from today. I'm not gonna shrug it off, but like Andrew said above, I'm guessing I won't last very long.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The 68-year-old black great-grandfather was shot to death after a slow-speed chase as he parked in his own driveway, by a 25-year-old white police officer who repeatedly fired through the driver's side door.

I demand more spurious adjectives! What was the sexual preference of each individual? Their handedness? Their golf handicap? Their World of Warcraft primary's level? Their favorite pasta dish?

HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THIS CONTEXT OUT?

[RBS]

Fucking Yahoo. Nothing but outrageous click bait and sensationalism.

[Ted S.]

I'm sure if any of us did this, we'd only be indicted with a misdemeanor too.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What's wrong with these retarded juries?

[GILMORE]

Newsflash

Microsoft continues to smash through traditional boundaries of computing, with revolutionary new approach in Operating Systems and how they are conceived; tentative name for project titled, "Windows 10"

Comments from CEO indicate "game changing" new features:

"We're thinking of making buttons bigger." He said, referring to highly-technical GUI components, "People are getting older. Also, you know that "Bwoooaooow daaah duhh dahhhh?" sound when it boots up? Yeah, we're going to make that louder."

[PapayaSF]

Copying Apple again, I see. [Ducks and runs]

[Cytotoxic]

Both those companies need to DIAF. Where's my Android OS?

[PapayaSF]

LEAVE APPLE ALONE!

[Ted S.]

I thought you could already customize the size of buttons.

[GILMORE]

"This is NextGen button-resizing"

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

"Instead of a paper clip, a tiny Bill Gates will talk you through your tasks."

[Cytotoxic]

Is this going to be the Xbox One of OS?

[Matrix]

Cop seizes vehcile and leaves man stranded in 20 degree weather with no phone or wallet because the man had the audacity to flex his 4th Amendment rights

[Ted S.]

Because fuck you, that's why.

I presume there must have been two cops in the cop car, one to drive the cop car away and one to drive the victim's car away?

[Matrix]

Tow truck, I believe.

[The Late P Brooks]

It looks like city officials are afraid of the police union.

No

fucking

way.

[The Late P Brooks]

A host of former Democratic doves have learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

"my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious."

[Rich]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson got raked over the coals for the very un-secret breach of White House security.

That's a little extreme. Tarring and feathering would probably suffice in this case.

[MJGreen]

Sure to be the documentary of the year: We The Economy. Let Morgan Spurlock and friends explain money, banking, regulation, etc. to you idiots. Includes interviews with Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Kennedy Jr!

The best part in the trailer is Amy Poehler's My Little Pony parody, in which she says, "Taxes on the rich have fallen, but the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation." It's a beautiful non-sequitur.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

I like Amy Poehler, but I hate her politics.

Actually, I kind of wish all entertainers would keep their politics private. Be a lot easier to like them that way.

[DesigNate]

So this^

[Cytotoxic]

No. Just no.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"Taxes on the rich have fallen, but the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation."

Odd that their solution is always to raise the minimum wage rather than deflate the currency so those wages buy more stuff.

[Coeus]

What Happened When Some Libertarians Went Off to Build Ayn Rand's Vision of Paradise
Hint: nothing good.

In what should be an unsurprising outcome, it didn't turn out very well. That news comes (via Metafilter and Gawker) from a blogger named Wendy McElroy, who writes that she bought some property in Galt's Gulch with her husband and then learned it never had legal rights to the property in the first place. A visit to Chile revealed that many of the area's local vendors had also been defrauded by the Galtians.

As Gawker's headline puts it, " Ayn Rand's Capitalist Paradise Is Now a Greedy Land-Grabbing Shitstorm."

It's possible to feel genuinely sympathetic to the McElroys' plight, and yet wonder why this outcome was the least bit surprising to any reader of Rand's work. Atlas Shrugged actually celebrates fraud, at least against those whom Rand despises. These charges aren't an aberration. They're the inevitable outcome of Rand's own philosophy.

[PapayaSF]

Thank heavens all those socialist intentional communities always panned out!

[Andrew S.]

To the extent any of them failed, it was only because the correct Top Men were not involved.

[MJGreen]

So it wasn't "libertarianism" or "Ayn Rand's vision" breaking down or failing. It was a couple of swindlers. OK.

[MJGreen]

And Wendy McElroy is hardcore. It's sad that she got caught up in this. But if someone was gonna put her money where her mouth is, it'd be her.

[Coeus]

If you put Rand's name on a ice cream truck and it gets in a wreck, these people would be crowing about the failure of "libertarians".

[Cytotoxic]

I always thought that was a silly scheme. Wait for the ZEDEs to get up and running.

[Heroic Mulatto]

by Richard Eskow

Need anything more be said?

[Brandon]

Isn't Morgan Spurlock the Supersize Me fraud?

[CatoTheElder]

The real story is quite a bit different than a casual reading of the Eskow article would suggest.

Here's a more balanced account by Vice:
http://www.vice.com/read/atlas-mugged-922-v21n10

Here's Wendy McElroy's account

Here's Jeff Berwick's, one of the principals, account.

Bottom line: The project failed and the land deal was misrepresented to McElroy but the guy who allegedly seized control of the project. However, it was not quite as scandalous as the Eskow article suggests, and the story is not over. One of the principals says he's going to resurrect the project. (Of course, it this were a full-blown scam, that would be Phase II. However, Berwick is publicly dissuading new investors, and that would be a very unusual for a scamster.)

For the progressives who see this as a failure of libertarianism, this is a piddly million dollar scam. Why is the progressive, billion dollar MFGlobal scamster Jon Corzine still walking free? Would have something to do with being the chief bundler for Obama? Even the George Bush DoJ saw to it that Enron's Skilling got justice. But Corzine ... guilty as sin and free as a bird.

[Coeus]

"No Climate Justice Without Gender Justice:" Women at the Forefront of the People's Climate March

"No climate justice without gender justice!" This was the banner slogan at the forefront of the women's contingency that gathered for the historic People's Climate March on September 21st in New York City.

The message comes from the fact that global warming is most dramatically affecting women, primarily Indigenous women and women of the Global South, with disproportionate strain and suffering caused by unpredictable weather patterns, drought, floods, and rising tides; all triggered by the planet's increasing temperature.

[Coeus]

For women present at the march, the roots of the climate crisis are not simply an environmental problem. The climate crisis is a structural problem based in gender and racial inequality. Understanding the drivers of the climate crisis means comprehending that Global Southern and Indigenous women's work, and their societal and political positions, are overwhelmingly at odds with today's development model centered on endless profit-seeking and growth.

Global warming is a symptom of a brutal transformation of ancient women's economies based on self-reliant, ecologically sustainable, and durable localized community markets, by intensive industrial development and production imposed by transnational neoliberal and neocolonial economic agendas. Historically, household and domestic food economies were women centered, providing women with secured and often revered positions of economic and social power.

[Slammer]

Historically, household and domestic food economies were women centered, providing women with secured and often revered positions of economic and social power.

They want women back in the kitchen?

[tarran]

... and dying of childbirth, apparently.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

"The climate crisis is a structural problem based in gender and racial inequality."

It's not nice to underpay Mother Nature?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"World ends, women, minorities hardest hit" isn't a joke to these demonstrators.

[CatoTheElder]

This assessment is contrary to the IPCC reports I've read. If you take the climate scientologists at face value, the most dramatic effect of AGW is in the northern latitudes.

I don't think that anybody has said that anthropogenic GHG emissions affects the tides. I'm pretty sure that there is a 100.0000000% consensus that the tides are overwhelmingly caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun.

[CatoTheElder]

Article 46 of IPPC-sponsored Pre-COP "Margarita Declaration":

46. The structural causes for climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system. Fighting the climate change involves changing the system.

Article 48:

Education is one of the fundamental driving forces for transformation and
construction in diversity of the new women and men, for the Good Living and the respect of life and Mother Earth.

[Andrew S.]

It's time to play, WAS THIS OFFICER PUNISHED?

School Resource Officer in a High School caught looking at a website with "racy and explicit pictures of High School girls"

[Ted S.]

No officer is ever punished.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Transferred to the middle school?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

What more do you want? They took the site down and "The 15-year-old Columbia Central High School student who police said created the site will be prosecuted in the juvenile justice system."

[The Late P Brooks]

Let Morgan Spurlock and friends explain money, banking, regulation, etc. to you idiots. Includes interviews with Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Kennedy Jr!

It's awfully kind of you to offer, but I must demur.

[Andrew S.]

I'd partake, but I'm busy shoving spikes into my eyes. Seems a better and less damaging way to spend my time.

[MJGreen]

Too busy counting your Koch bucks!?

[Invisible Finger]

I wouldn't even subject my slaves to such abuse.

[Pro Libertate]

Sounds like an Ebola case has just been confirmed in the United States.

[Los Doyers]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102037055

Never too late to start prepping.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, goodie.

[Andrew S.]

This case, however, is the first known in which a citizen was stricken by the virus and diagnosed domestically.

Slightly misleading statement there, no? He wasn't diagnosed overseas, but like the other cases, he did catch it overseas. And unless he was bleeding on his airline seat neighbors, I'm not sure there's an issue...

[The Original Jason]

No, it's right? he first showed symptoms four days after arriving in the US according to "CDC confirms first case of Ebola in the U.S.".

[Heroic Mulatto]

The incubation period for Ebola is four to six days.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Time to declare martial law. For the children.

[PapayaSF]

Obama's plan to import poverty, disease, and religious savagery is proceeding.

[Cytotoxic]

...this is a joke right?

[MJGreen]

If it is, he's been playing it for a long time now.

[SugarFree]

🙂

[Brandon]

No. To Papaya, everything means we have to close the borders. He's like the president of Madagascar.

[PapayaSF]

We don't need to "close" the borders, we just need to have borders, which means not open ones.

[jesse.in.mb]

Man, I found a gift card like three days after they closed Borders.

I blame you.

[PapayaSF]

The nearest Borders to me became Ode Books: they kept three of the big metal letters from the old sign.

[PapayaSF]

I'm half joking.

[Cytotoxic]

There is nothing for us to worry about. Ebola can't cause a large outbreak in America.

[Andrew S.]

It can't, but the media and the government can profit by making people believe it can and will.

[Pro Libertate]

Unless the virus mutates and becomes transmittable on an airborne basis. Then it's road warrior time.

[jesse.in.mb]

"us"

By which you mean "Canadians," eh?

[Florida Man]

Why not?

[PapayaSF]

Ebola can't cause a large outbreak in America.

Oh, really? You can get Ebola from a few virus particles in the sweat of someone infected, or from a sneeze or a cough or a drop of blood. (When journalists were given tours of a facility in Africa recently, they were told "Don't touch the walls!")

About 75,000 people a year die from hospital-acquired infections, and that's just pneumonia, C. difficile, MRSA, and other things much less scary that Ebola. You think they'll all be able to handle the clean-room conditions required for Ebola?

Male Ebola survivors can transmit the virus in their semen for months.

And every new infection is more chances for the virus to mutate into an airborne or insect-borne form.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You can get Ebola from a few virus particles in the sweat of someone infected, or from a sneeze or a cough or a drop of blood.

If that person is symptomatic, yes. However contact would have to be made between infected body fluid and an open wound or mucous membrane. In the United States, we have plenty of latex gloves and N95 respirators.

Remember those guys in the 80's who screeched that AIDS was going to kill us all? Don't be that guy.

[PapayaSF]

AIDS is far harder to catch. You can't get it from sweat or a sneeze or a kiss or touching a drop of blood.

However contact would have to be made between infected body fluid and an open wound or mucous membrane.

False. See my link below. You can get it from a handshake or touching something sweated on by a victim.

[The Late P Brooks]

Also, you know that "Bwoooaooow daaah duhh dahhhh?" sound when it boots up? Yeah, we're going to make that louder."

Or, you could just replace it with the shark's theme music from JAWS.

[The Late P Brooks]

Sounds like an Ebola case has just been confirmed in the United States.

Did I read the GoogleNews headline correctly, that some doctor/researcher felt ill, so he GOT ON AN AIRPLANE AND FLEW HOME TO GET TREATMENT?

[PapayaSF]

I'm not seeing that, but if so, it's very reckless, given that you can catch Ebola from a few virus particles in someone's sweat.

[Andrew S.]

...no you can't.

[Andrew S.]

...well, to be more specific, I guess it's technically possible, but the odds are about the same as being struck by lightning on your way to cash your winning Powerball ticket.

[PapayaSF]

One Virus Particle Is Enough To Cause Infectious Disease

[PapayaSF]

There's a high risk, for example, of catching Ebola if you shake hands with an infected patient and a very low one if that same person coughs or sneezes around you.

A drop of blood can remain contagious outside the body. And virus particles can survive for days or weeks, depending on the environment. Ultraviolet light, heat and exposure to oxygen gradually deactivate the virus, while cooler temperatures and humidity help keep it active. [...] So yes, there's a risk you can catch Ebola from a drop of blood on a table.

[The Late P Brooks]

a blogger named Wendy McElroy, who writes that she bought some property in Galt's Gulch with her husband and then learned it never had legal rights to the property in the first place.

Sounds like somebody didn't do her due diligence.

CAVEAT EMPTOR, Wendy.

[Dweebston]

The exodus of people fleeing northeastern states?largely because of high taxes?is shrinking the region's share of the national population

Northeasterners must be made to sign affidavits swearing their regional patriotism. Population inversions must not be allowed to stand. The peripatetic rich must pay their fair share.

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

From the StarTribune Comments:

wardnjuneSep. 30, 14
1:44 PM
@halfabubble It might make sense to you if you lived in a coastal state. Florida has a huge problem with plastic bags ending up in their waterways, clogging their drainage systems and causing serious back-ups and flooding.

One of the most serious threats to our oceans is plastics pollution. Plastic constitutes approximately 90% of all trash floating on the ocean's surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. Dwell on that.

moretaxesnowSep. 30, 14
2:50 PM
@wardnjune There are 27,878,400 square feet per square mile. Dwell on that.

[PapayaSF]

Wow, insight and rationality from someone called "moretaxesnow"?

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, Florida what? First I've heard of this.

[Cytotoxic]

Don't Tampons also clog stuff up?

[Coeus]

Pretty sure that's their only function.

[Mexican Hop-head Buttsex]

According to this logic, they should ban E85, since scientific studies prove the increased growing of corn around the Mississippi River has resulted in a gigantic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico due to nitrogen run-off, a much bigger problem, but no, let's TRY to ban plastic bags.

[Coeus]

How embarrassing.

Two people accused of murdering two Illinois men, then having sex on top of the bodies were unable to orgasm during the corpse-side intercourse, according to a newly released police interview.

Alisa Massaro and Joshua Miner were accused in the strangulation deaths of Eric Glover and Terrence Rankins, both 22, in Joliet, Illinois, back in January. Two others, Adam Landerman and Bethany McKee, were also accused in the murder.

Police said Glover and Rankins were lured to Massaro's apartment, where they were robbed and strangled to death. Police also said Miner, 24, asked the 18-year-old Massaro to have sex with him atop the freshly deceased bodies.

In a videotaped police interview played in court Thursday, Miner ? whose trial began Tuesday ? claimed that Massaro was the one to suggest the sex, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

"She's like, 'Let's have sex,'" Miner said. "And I was like, 'Let's have sex on the bodies.'"

Miner continued that they ultimately ended up having sex next to the bodies, not on them, but "We both couldn't get off, plus it was weird."

[Pro Libertate]

"Plus it was weird?" Holy sweet fuck, what is wrong with people?

[Florida Man]

Is it bad that I am slightly turned on by her? Jodi arias or whatever her name was too. Jesus I need help.

[Pro Libertate]

It's bad. Also, about you living with that woman named Casey. . .I have some bad news.

[Florida Man]

Not the kids?!? Noooooo!

[Coeus]

Yes. And coming from me, this should be a wake-up call.

[Heroic Mulatto]

At least Jodi was hot.

[jesse.in.mb]

*Kills some people*

*Sends Florida Man a drink at a bar*

Hey there, how's it going?

[Florida Man]

You're looking pretty good right there.

[jesse.in.mb]

I do believe I just stuck the landing on a John Hinckley.

My place or yours?

[Pro Libertate]

Holy shit, Sam Kinison was right! [Runs screaming.]

[Riven]

Hey, at least they couldn't finish.

[SugarFree]

Miner continued that they ultimately ended up having sex next to the bodies, not on them, but "We both couldn't get off, plus it was weird."

Sounds like a couple of candy asses to me. And selfish. Did they even try and involve the corpse or did they just let him lay there?

[jesse.in.mb]

SugarFree: Guardian of the Dead

[SugarFree]

Just because you are dead doesn't mean people can ignore your sexual needs.

[lap83]

"We both couldn't get off, plus it was weird."

This reminds me of "The Loathsome Couple" by Edward Gorey. The murderous lovebirds try to make love after killing children, but their "strenuous and prolonged efforts came to nothing"

[Invisible Finger]

The exodus of people fleeing northeastern states?largely because of high taxes?is shrinking the region's share of the national population, and consequently its congressional representation and political clout.

Wake me up when California's political clout shrinks.

[The Original Jason]

Businesses are already leaving California for Texas?

[Coeus]

More nonsensical bitching about the forbes fraternity article.

I have yet to see a single refutation of anything in that article. Just mindless bitching.

[PapayaSF]

Agreed.

[JeremyR]

Of course the trouble with those exoduses is that the people who move from the NE will still continue to vote for the same politicians and policies that made them flee in the first place.

So basically, they are going to ruin the places they move to. Especially in places like Texas, where you have all the immigrants from over the board who fled corruption and socialism, but will happily vote for it in their new home, never connecting the dots...