A.M. Links: Obama Open to Ebola Czar But Not Travel Ban, FBI Director Wants to Ban Cellphone Encryption, Royals-Giants World Series

• 

  Fox 4 News

  President Obama says he's open to an Ebola czar but not a travel ban. The Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from a patient she was treating arrived in Maryland for treatment, while a Dallas lab worker on a cruise ship off the coast of Belize has been quarantined because he handled the Ebola patient's specimen.

• FBI Director James Comey is worried that Apple and Google allow users to encrypt their phone and called on Congress to pass a law to stop them from doing that.
• The U.S. and Iran remain cautiously optimistic about ongoing nuclear talks.
• A poor economy and a plunging ruble don't seem to be having much of an effect on the popularity Vladimir Putin enjoys in Russia.
• Venezuela, Spain, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Angola were elected to the United Nations Security Council as non-permanent members.
• The Kansas City Royals completed their sweep of the Baltimore Orioles and will advance to the World Series to face the San Francisco Giants, who are making their third appearance in the last five years.

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Comments

[Restoras]

**NYC Reasonoid Meet-Up!!**

When: Wednesday, 10/22/14, 6:00PM
Where: Rattle N Hum
14 E 33rd St
http://www.rattlenhumbarnyc.com/home

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Restoras]

I am disappointed...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not enough umph in my hello?

[Restoras]

No, the hello is perfect but I thought I snuck in ahead of the great FoE. I should have known better...

[Restoras]

Protocol Theater!! The continuing stooory of Bumbling Government Buffoonery!!

Don't worry, the Protocols are in place - except that Thomas Duncan, the original Ebola patient, was left in an open area of the Dallas emergency room for hours and the medical staff treating him did not have protective clothing for the first two days.

Don't worry, they did eventually get fully sealed, protective clothing - well, except for their necks, which remained exposed.

Don't worry, exposed medical staff aren't supposed to fly - except that Nurse Amber Vinson got on a flight to Cleveland with a fever.

Well, okay, but that was totally in breach of the Protocols - except that Nurse Vinson called the CDC to check and they said, "Sure, get on the plane. What's the worst that can happen? And make sure you share the bag of mini-pretzels..."

Well, okay, but the next time Nurse Vinson got a flight, everyone followed the Protocols and wore hazmat suits - except for the guy with the clipboard, who works for the CDC and so can't be expected to know all this Protocol stuff...

The good news is Ebola seems to be rather harder to catch than SARS. The bad news is the CDC seems to be doing its best to change that.

[Doctor Whom]

Everything you listed is the fault of Republican budget cuts.

[Ted S.]

Actually, it's all the fault of the Cosmotarians.

[Lord Humungus]

mmm... cocktails.

[gaijin]

except for the guy with the clipboard, who works for the CDC and so can't be expected to know all this Protocol stuff

I heard one of the 'Medical Correspondents', Dr. Johnathon LaPook, say that the guy 'did' follow protocol...which requires someone who doesn;t have the restricted vision of the hazmat suit be available to direct the workers in hazmat suits...he actually said this with a straight face. Just about the stupidest thing I've heard in awhile.

[Roger the Shrubber]

He must have drawn the short straw.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

The thought of seeing that written up in actual CDC protocol made me laugh hysterically (in the true sense of hysterical)

[Invisible Finger]

Protocol was followed.

Bureaucrats assume all protocol is intelligent protocol when the opposite is true almost all the time.

[straffinrun]

Don't worry, they did eventually get fully sealed, protective clothing - well, except for their necks, which remained exposed

A panic room that deadbolts after the rapist has followed you in.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The CDC's entire existence is supposed to be to confront these type of diseases (especially ones with a 50-90% mortality rate)--but when Duncan was admitted for it, they didn't send one single task force immediately to Dallas to take charge of the situation.

The absolutely cluster-fucked way that the CDC has handled this leads me to wonder if someone in power actually wants this to become a more serious problem than it is right now--maybe so they can get mo money fo dem programs.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

The CDC's entire existence is supposed to be to confront these type of diseases

Exactly. And yet, instead of anyone coming to the conclusion "well, I guess there's no sense in continuing to pay these fuckers", I am 100% convinced that all I will hear about is that we really need to DO MORE. It never ends.

[perlhaqr]

That's what you always hear about public schools. "Last infusion of cash didn't solve the problem? Little Johnny is actually a worse reader now and can't count to 10, even using his fingers? Clearly, the answer is MOAR MONEYZ!"

[Invisible Finger]

Please note this is also the same thing you hear from the economic politburo known as the Federal Reserve Bank. Last round of quantitative easing didn't accomplish any lasting results? More quantitative easing then.

If the retardation was confined to the US it would be OK, but the US insists on being as retarded as Europe, Asia, and Africa.

[Tonio]

But honestly in any other situation wouldn't we have derided a federal government agency for swooping in and taking over, especially a private business?

Yes, this is a special situation. We are not anarchists, etc. This actually presents a teachable moment for what libertarians acutally believe about the role of the federal government.

[Invisible Finger]

The travel ban will happen when pilots and flight crew refuse to work on flights and planes going to/from West Africa.

And I expect FedGov to frame these refuse-to-work-niks as terrorists.

[Marshall Gill]

when Duncan was admitted for it, they didn't send one single task force immediately to Dallas to take charge of the situation.

To be fair, the CDC's swat team isn't equipped to deal with disease.

[invisible furry hand]

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation inadvertently spied on its own employees, in one of a series of surveillance breaches in the past 12 months compiled by Australia's intelligence watchdog.

http://www.theguardian.com/wor.....ays-report

[John]

How do you "inadvertently" spy on someone?

[KDN]

The NSA can explain it to you, they're experts in it.

[John]

I am pretty sure the NSA hasn't ever done anything inadvertently.

[KDN]

I don't think the NSA is targeting me directly, but they're happy to hoover up my info nonetheless. That fits my definition of inadvertent.

[gaijin]

A panopticon with one extra mirror?

[Injun, as in from India]

Who else is going to watch the Inner Party other than the Inner Party?

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Sed quis custodiet, ipsos custodiem?

[db]

"Are you ready for MIND-BLOWING weirdness at every turn?"

[Slammer]

Open season on cops!

Cops have been caught up in the city's political struggles.

But now the police are the city's No. 1 whipping boy.

Police do make mistakes. But so do lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers, who perform their work in quiet and safety ? whereas a cop carries out his complicated tasks amidst chaos and danger.

So great is the hostility to our men and women in blue that multiple outfits are lined up for a chance to take a swing at them ? including the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the new NYPD inspector general, the commissioner of investigation and the new federal monitor, as well as five district attorneys and two US attorney offices.

Joining officials in the hunt for police scalps is an army of civil-rights lawyers and personal-injury attorneys.

Either America's greatest police department will be reduced to the status of a guard force, with little impact on crime ? or the public, alarmed by crime and the terrorist threat, will rally behind our police, make some necessary changes but basically support officers who are doing their jobs

Slobber slobber slurp ugh slurp!!!!

[John]

Maybe telling everyone to go fuck themselves and never holding any officer accountable for anything except maybe telling the truth about other officers carries a price. Those poor things. How were they to know?

[Ted S.]

What took Noo Yawkers so long?

[Injun, as in from India]

Either America's greatest police department will be reduced to the status of a guard force

What the heck do you think of yourselves if not a guard force?

[UnCivilServant]

Petty nobility.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

After Italy's early exit at the WC for the second time the nation's biggest sports paper screamed, 'Adapt or disappear.'

Reading that article, I get the sense police forces across the continent are not getting the message. All these stories of shooting innocent people and dogs, beating people up, stealing money, no-knock raids etc. at some point people with push back.

If police departments are tone deaf to the point of arrogance then they won't adapt and they will disappear likely to operate in a different manner in the future.

I'm no expert but just my impression and 'hunch'.

[Ted S.]

After Italy's early exit at the WC for the second time the nation's biggest sports paper screamed, 'Adapt or disappear.'

Germany adapted after Euro 2000. England have never adapted, instead deciding to throw more money at the domestic league.

[Rhywun]

I'm almost surprised at this point that national team soocer is still around. The money in the leagues is just unbelievable and the people running that show don't like their investments injuring themselves in lowly national duty.

[Zeb]

The headline is disappointingly misleading.

[Fluffy]

When lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers make mistakes, they aren't given qualified immunity by the courts.

When lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers enter my house without a warrant and shoot my dog, I can kill lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers and the courts will back me up.

When lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers make mistakes, police, prosecutors, and state agencies don't do everything they can to whitewash those mistakes and suppress information about them as "personnel matters".

When lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers make mistakes, they don't get given paid vacations (cough cough "administrative leave") for years at a time - vacations from which they are recalled when their transgressions have been successfully covered up or swept under the rug.

When lawyers, doctors and Wall Street money managers make mistakes, they are expected to know the law that covers their actions - even if prosecutors or attorneys general are applying that law in novel ways. They aren't given a free pass because they weren't "properly trained" in what the law is.

[VG Zaytsev]

And most importantly, they're personally liable for the damage they cause.

[Fluffy]

That falls under the qualified immunity bit.

[Juice]

Are you sure that all of that doesn't apply to Wall St money managers? How long is Jamie Diamond's prison sentence?

[swillfredo pareto]

Are you sure that all of that doesn't apply to Wall St money managers? How long is Jamie Diamond's prison sentence?

Bernie Madoff's prison sentence is 150 years. What was Diamond convicted of?

[Contrarian P]

Oh that's rich. I work in a profession where I'm required by law to treat anybody that comes through the door, even if I won't get paid, exposing myself to potentially deadly disease, physical violence, and the like, and as a reward I can be sued at the drop of a hat. If I make a mistake, it very well could cost me my license to practice, my job, or both, or maybe just get me dragged into a courtroom where my life savings is endangered, but I'm supposed to have a sad for police officers?

Sorry, buddy, but when you take a job where you get to wield deadly force, you damn well should expect a much higher standard of scrutiny than other professions. The vitriol headed the way of the police is their own damn fault, because of their recklessness, contempt for the citizenry, misuse of power, the us versus them mentality, and the complete lack of accountability demonstrated over and over again by this website and multiple other sources, not to mention the blatantly racist and unconstitutional stop and frisk policy and surveillance of Muslims carried out by the NYPD of which the author speaks. Maybe if the police showed any interest whatsoever in holding their own accountable, they might deserve more sympathy. So no, I don't give a damn about the plight of your city's police department.

Oh, and by the way, my profession, which you claim is practiced in "quiet and safety" is by every measure a hell of a lot more dangerous than being a cop. So fuck off.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

^THIS^

Great comment.

[WTF]

...a cop carries out his complicated tasks amidst chaos and danger.

Assuming facts not in evidence.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Well, the cops bring the chaos and danger with them, but I grant you your point that whether those tasks are "complicated" is pretty debatable.

[KDN]

I was going to post this as a breathtaking example of cop apologia. Funny thing is that even this textbook cop-fellator understands that yes, the NYPD does need to change some things.

The Broken Windows theory, for example, posits that low-level enforcement is the way to deter serious criminals from taking over a neighborhood.

This may have been true when drug dealers set up operations on every corner and attracted all sorts of troublesome characters. But today it may [MAY!?!?!?!] mainly result only in a roundup of low-level and technical offenders.

...

I've suggested one strategy: Focus on murderers, rapists and armed robbers via anti-crime drives organized around classic and modern (CSI) police work, which is the wave of the future.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I've suggested one strategy: Focus on murderers, rapists and armed robbers via anti-crime drives organized around classic and modern (CSI) police work, which is the wave of the future.

Author doesn't know that cops have no desire to go after these types of criminals? Low-hanging fruit (stupid, impaired, and/or unarmed) is all they care about. Going after actual murderers is dangerous!

[KDN]

Hence my objection to the use of "may." It's the entire fucking point, they don't want to get their hands dirty prosecuting real crime.

[Invisible Finger]

whereas a cop carries out his complicated tasks amidst chaos and danger.

Usually of his own doing.

Mayor: Your job is to hassle people for doing things that don't endanger anyone's life or property. Ten percent of the time you'll WILL have to respond to an actual problem of life or property. But the bulk of the job is to be my bitch because I don't want to directly be an asshole to people I don't like, I'd rather have someone else be the asshole.

LEO: Yep. That's what I signed up for! The adrenaline thrill is worth it. Poor me.

[Juice]

largest != greatest

[invisible furry hand]

Lyrics of Baa Baa Black Sheep have been banned by kindergarten teachers because the nursery rhyme is 'racist'

Concerns over the implications of 'black' in the nursery rhyme prompted the change

Staff were also troubled by the sexist connotation of the line: 'one for the little boy who lives down the lane'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z3GPHxCPDf

[UnCivilServant]

"Staff were promptly sent to mental hospitals for being insane and barred from working with children"?

No?

*sigh*

[John]

Why don't we just ban the color and world "black" and just get it over with.

[Lord Humungus]

that's awfully niggardly of you.

[Injun, as in from India]

Next up on the racist ban list: LOTR because Gandalf the White.

[gaijin]

no ban, it will become an exercise in illustrating white priviledge...how do you think Gandolf went from grey to to white afterall?

[db]

Radagast the Brown would've been the real hero if the anti-science right hadn't portrayed him as such a hippie tree hugger.

[John]

I am pretty sure they have already done that but not because of Gandolf. LOTR is the racist because all of the enlightened, totally non racist Progs say the hideous inhuman evil creatures known as Orcs and immediately thought "those are black people".

[db]

Bingo.

[Slammer]

Actually, taking Elves (the people of light and goodness) and enslaving and torturing them for thousands of years until you twist them into Orcs kind of fits the prog narrative.

[Restoras]

Yeah, I bet the progs just wish they had the kind of power that Melkor wielded.

[db]

Pretty much.

[db]

I just had an idea...someone should remake LotR with the main wizard walking around on his knees all the time. "Gandorf."

[Restoras]

That, and the Haradrim look suspiciously middle-eastern.

[John]

You and I see such things and think "wow Orcs". But that is just because we are racist. If we weren't racist, we would see these things and they would immediately remind us of black people.

[Fluffy]

To be fair, even if you don't directly analogize the Middle Earth races to our own racial phenotypes, it is pretty indisputable that in Tolkien's universe personality attributes are racially driven.

Even if Orcs aren't black people, having Orcs be "born evil" means that in your fantasy world race is destiny.

Of course, Tolkien is describing an entirely different reality, so maybe in that reality race really is destiny. You can write about that without saying anything about our own reality at all. The human beings in his universe certainly run the gamut of moral types. There were evil Numenoreans, for example, even though they are supposedly "half-Elven" and better than ordinary men.

[John]

That is all true. And Tolkien is making points about the real world but race being destiny is the means to make those points not the point itself. Tolkien is not Wagner.

The funny thing is that the modern Prog multicultural view of the world is built around the central idea that race is destiny. And they are just the retarded grandchildren of the old communists and fascists who believed class and race respectively were destiny.

[Zeb]

Tolkien wanted to embody his Catholic morality in Middle Earth. So race is destiny except for Man, who clearly did have a choice. Men have free will and can be good or evil or anything in between. Which really means that the other races, particularly Orcs, are not supposed to represent people at all since Tolkien deeply believed that people can be redeemed and can choose to be good.

[Restoras]

Interesting point, Zeb. Numenorean Men were fooled into making a bad choice about sailing West is analogous to the Garden of Eden? Very interesting.

[John]

Numenorean Men were fooled into making a bad choice about sailing West is analogous to the Garden of Eden?

Absolutely. Suaron, the Satan figure, seduced them into trying to conquer heaven for themselves.

The only part of the cosmology that doesn't quite fit to the biblical cosmology is the existence of Morgoth. If Morgoth is initial a Satan figure who revolts against the creator. That works as far as it goes but then if he is Satan who the hell is Sauron? Sauron was Morgoth's minion sure. But Satan doesn't disappear from the earth to be replaced by his assistant in the biblical account.

[Restoras]

Well guessing here but he used the story more as inspiration than as a template? Perhaps Sauron is meant to represent the evil in the world that is not of divine provenance? Not perfect obviously given that Sauron and the Wizards could probably be characterized as angelic in Catholic mythology.

[Zeb]

Tolkien didn't have a very high regard for allegory and didn't want to just make it parallel to Catholic mythology. Sauron and the Wizards were Maiar and comparing them to angels is probably fair. But the Maiar are also just lesser Ainur, who function somewhat like gods, but are also created beings with limits to their powers. Elves, being immortal and mostly inherently good could also be compared to angels.
But as I said, I don't think he wanted it to be directly analogous to anything.

[Zeb]

Sauron would be a lesser fallen angel. Melkor is clearly akin to Lucifer as the most powerful created being in the universe.

There certainly are differences, such as Melkor/Morgoth eventually being ejected from the earth. He didn't want to simply create an allegory for Catholic cosmology, but a real alternative universe.

[Restoras]

He also appears to have been keen on the idea that good can be corrupted by evil up and down the scale of importance and status, i.e.-Saruman, Grima, Theoden, Gollum, Denethor, Boromir, and even Bilbo and Frodo. Even Gandalf was fearful of being corrupted.

[Zeb]

Yes, that it very much part of it too. Elves certainly weren't immune to corruption and the corruption of Melkor is the origin of pretty much all of the evil in the Tolkien universe.

[John]

Yes Zeb. And in the Simarillion Sauron's evil is explained in a bit of a sympathetic way. He was a peer of Gandolf and such and was at first a very committed and hard working angel. That proved to be his downfall. He couldn't stand how messy the world was and how hard it was to get anything done. Morgoth seduced him by offering the easier way to order.

[Restoras]

He couldn't stand how messy the world was and how hard it was to get anything done

The very beating heart of progtard ideology.

[John]

Yes. You want to know what evil looks like, look at leftism. Other than a few psychotics people don't wake up every day intending to do harm to the world or make it a worse place. They wake up with the best intentions and the more noble and grand those intentions are, the greater the evil they will do trying to accomplish it.

Evil is not usually fire and brimstones and horror. If it was, evil would be limited to a very few psychotics. No, evil is much different and more seductive. Evil is mostly well intentioned people thinking they are doing the right thing and being a part of something greater than themselves. That is why evil is so tempting and why there is so much of it. Human beings are masters of rationalization and evil at its worse and most sinister provides us those rationalizations in the form of "this is for the best".

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I think that's right.

He was kind of embarrassed for creating an unredeemable race of Cockney-speaking villains, but I think he used the Orcs as a facet of the evils faced by the *real* protagonists - men, dwarves, hobbits - the ones who *do* have moral agency.

[Zeb]

Or African. Which would make sense since the north-west of Middle Earth is roughly analogous to Europe and the Haradrim are from south of there.

Tolkien was a conservative from the end of the British colonial era, so it makes sense that that perspective shows up in his work to some extent. But he insisted that his work was not allegory so it is best not to look at anything as directly representative of anything in the real world.

[KDN]

I feel like I've heard this idea somewhere before.

[John]

I assume that is a parody but sadly its impossible to be sure.

[thom]

What am I missing? I feel like every prog I've ever met loves LOTR. I couldn't tell you why, since I've never made it past 100 pages in, but they do.

[Tonio]

IIRC correctly Tolkien specifically referred to the orcs as having black skin. And yes, he was racist by today's standards.

[Zeb]

He would be considered racist by today's standards, I'm sure. But I don't think that the Orcs being black had anything to do with black people, just good and evil. There were Men with black skin too. They were mostly on the side of the bad guys in LOTR, but they are not inherently corrupted as Orcs are.

[Tonio]

Agreed, but the PC crowd would see it as straight-up racism.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

They see "baa, baa black sheep" as straight-up racism.

[Zeb]

You'd think Australians would know enough about sheep to realize that it really is just about a black sheep.

This is right up there with banning Three Little Pigs to avoid bothering Muslims (who knew that the very mention of the existence of pigs was haram?)

[Pro Libertate]

I hear that and I think of the old TV show.

[Bee Tagger]

FBI Director James Comey is worried that Apple and Google allow users to encrypt their phone and called on Congress to pass a law to stop them from doing that.

Actually, just give him access to your phones, Congress, and he'll set everything up for you.

[Slammer]

Unbelievable. He's actually proposing force to stop people from having anything private. Truly evil. Firing him isn't enough.

[Doctor Whom]

He read We and thought, "Wow, this is a great instruction manual."

[gaijin]

but TEH CRIMEZZZZZ!!!!!

[Restoras]

I propose a mirror image tattoo of the Bill of Rights on his chest.

[Injun, as in from India]

The FBI and NSA should merge and call themselves Control-Freaks-R-Us.

[Cdr Lytton]

Is there a vacant lamppost outside of FBI headquarters? Piano wire and "Sic Semper Tyrannis" on a cardboard sign should be enough.

[perlhaqr]

I would normally suggest a wood chipper, but your suggestion might possibly have a more instructive effect. I'm down with this plan.

[Invisible Finger]

Poor police. Such an inconvenient job.

[invisible furry hand]

Yet more proof of French sophistication: Paris' 24 foot butt plug

[UnCivilServant]

Well, they needed something large enough for the colossal assholes the country has managed to breed.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Gigantic Orifice

[Slammer]

I thought he was from Georgia?

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Shreek in tears

[Ted S.]

Not 8 feet, or 8 meters?

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

I'm booking my flight to Paris as we speak.

[Zeb]

Yet more proof of French sophistication

The butt plug, or the uptightness?

[Bee Tagger]

poor economy and a plunging ruble don't seem to be having much of an effect on the popularity Vladimir Putin enjoys in Russia.

Do you want to hear about the poor economy or do you want to see me take my shirt off and ride these horses?

[Bardas Phocas]

See, they're Russians. They expect things to suck.
But a good looking czar is a rarity.

[Drake]

Making things suck even worse for your neighbors is the sign of a good Russian leader.

[Lord Humungus]

America's looming freak show: How GOP control in 2015 will terrorize a nation ? with no political repercussion

The shutdown cost the economy $24 billion in growth. It showed the nation the incompetence of House GOP leadership. It exposed the civil war in the Senate. The country saw that the party was craven, dysfunctional, agenda-free and not merely incapable of governing, but uninterested in it. After the shutdown, the share of voters identifying themselves as Republican dropped to 25 percent in Gallup polling, the lowest level in 25 years, and polls showed Democrats might have a shot at taking back the House.

But a year later, Republicans are in no danger of losing the House and have a better than even chance to take back the Senate. Even at the time, it was clear that a feckless, frenetic media ? which immediately went on to treat Obamacare web site glitches as just as catastrophic as the GOP's shutdown debacle ? would let the party off the hook. Yet so have voters. The Republican base is more than content to have its leaders do nothing but block and sabotage Obama. And the Democratic base still disproportionately sits out the midterms, which lets the obstructionists dominate the agenda.

[John]

The Republican base is more than content to have its leaders do nothing but block and sabotage Obama.

We can only hope so.

Their histrionics and tears are going to be delicious.

[Roger the Shrubber]

I recall Howard Dean as the DNC Chairman (after the 2004 election when GOP had control of House and Senate) was asked 'what is the D's agenda.' He replied that the Democratic Party was the 'opposition party' and that was the extent of their agenda.

I have unsuccessfully tried a number of times to find confirmation of this recollection on the internet. Do you remember this? Can anyone find it on the internets? I think it was from an interview on Meet the Press or similar Sunday talking heads program.

[John]

I remember that too. He also said thinking George Bush knew about 911 and let it happen was a serious view and entirely possible.

But remember no President has ever been subject to the kind of obstructionism and irrational hate that Obama has had to endure.

[Free Society]

Jimmy Carter knows where all the hate is coming from.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

I thought that was lust he felt in his heart?

[Injun, as in from India]

The Republican base is more than content to have its leaders do nothing but block and sabotage Obama.

Translation: If you don't fall in line and obey the POTUS, you're a partisan hack.

[Ted S.]

Just like TEAM BLUE was when they didn't fall in line and obey BOOOOOOOSH.

[Injun, as in from India]

No way man, that was patriotic dissent. Some even call that bipartisanship.

[Slammer]

Obstructionists!

[waffles]

The shutdown cost the economy $24 billion in growth

No fucking way can this be proven.

[Restoras]

Something something a lie get's halway around the globe before the truth get's its boots on...something something

[John]

All of the spending and government back wages were restored when it ended. There is no rational reason to believe that figure.

[Restoras]

Since when does rational thinking get in the way of politics and power grabbing?

[John]

And even if it were true, the US GNP is around 15 Trillion dollars. $24 Billion sounds like so much until you realize that it is around .16% of the country's wealth.

[thom]

Wealth is way higher than GNP

[Doctor Whom]

In many cases, it cost more than it would have to leave stuff open. Team-Blue-bots hated it when I pointed that out.

[Doctor Whom]

Yeah, the news media have such a huge bias against Obama and against any attempt to expand government.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Pre-emptive warning!

I think it's worth to keep repeating: This kind of mentality so prevalent among left-wingers is the thought process of natural born losers.

Seriously.

[invisible furry hand]

Well she didn't see that coming:

Psychic Sally Morgan sacks husband for launching anti-gay attack on critic

[John]

She isn't divorcing him just firing him? That must make for some awkward dinner conversations at the Morgan home.

[UnCivilServant]

The job loss might just be a PR move to avoid damaging the company/brand.

[Elspeth Flashman]

That's what I was thinking too.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Just when you thought you were safe . . .

A Pennsylvania law requiring convicted sex offenders to reveal their Internet aliases does not violate the First Amendment, according to an en banc panel of Pennsylvania's intermediate-level Commonwealth Court.

The sex offender, Richard Coppolino, had alleged the law violated his right to anonymous online speech, report the Legal Intelligencer and the Allentown Morning Call. He alleged the reporting requirement was overbroad because it was intended to protect minors, but his crime did not involve a minor or the Internet.

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

[Ted S.]

Nobody's ever going to break this law.

[Cdr Lytton]

It's just another potential gotcha just like so many post conviction restrictions that have zero to do with the crime committed.

Next, sex offenders ballots shouldn't be secret either because they might vote for candidates that vote for laws that wouldn't treat offenders harshly.

[Invisible Finger]

Who can possibly remember all their internet aliases?

[Bee Tagger]

Venezuela, Spain, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Angola were elected to the United Nations Security Council as non-permanent members.

Seeking greater irrelevancy?

[Lord Humungus]

Jihadis Take Their Kids to War; Moms Fight Back

Extremists in Syria are apparently encouraging jihadis traveling to join them to bring children, intent upon proving they can establish an Islamic caliphate, compete with devout families. In addition to the fighters who sometimes bring their children, teenage girls and young women from Europe and elsewhere have been targeted for jihad and ultimately enlisted to help in babysitting, according to interviews with security officials and families.

Erion's case received wide attention in Kosovo after his mother made a public appeal for her son's return. A Facebook page was opened in support of Zena Abazi and she made media appearances in Kosovo and Albania, from where a growing number of youths have joined Islamist radicals in Iraq and Syria.

[Injun, as in from India]

If a young boy Jihadi dies in battle, will he get his own 72 virgins and 28 prepubescent boys, or will he end up as one of the prepubescent boys for a dead older Jihadi male?

[db]

It's all unionized so it depends on seniority.

[Tonio]

OK, that 72 figure is canonical, but I'd never heard about the 28. Srsly, they believe that?

[Lord Humungus]

NASA's Hubble Finds Extremely Distant Galaxy through Cosmic Magnifying Glass

Peering through a giant cosmic magnifying glass, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a tiny, faint galaxy -- one of the farthest galaxies ever seen. The diminutive object is estimated to be more than 13 billion light-years away.

This galaxy offers a peek back to the very early formative years of the universe and may just be the tip of the iceberg.

"This galaxy is an example of what is suspected to be an abundant, underlying population of extremely small, faint objects that existed about 500 million years after the big bang, the beginning of the universe," explained study leader Adi Zitrin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "The discovery is telling us galaxies as faint as this one exist, and we should continue looking for them and even fainter objects, so that we can understand how galaxies and the universe have evolved over time."

[Raven Nation]

Umm the royals completed the sweep Wednesday

[Restoras]

Ed is obviously not a baseball guy. I won't hold it against him but I bet Welch is dressing him down as we speak.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

Yeah, the fucking Royals are perfect in the play-offs, and the Giants aren't as good as the Angels or the Oriels

[Lord Humungus]

Cruel and Unusual
Death with Dignity Executions meet euthanasia.

Belgium is on the verge of executing its first murderer by lethal injection. Well, not exactly "executing." The state isn't going to kill convicted murderer/rapist Frank Van Den Bleeken for his crimes. Rather, it is helping him be euthanized. By a doctor. At a hospital. To which he was transferred after a court ruled that Den Bleeken's request to end the suffering caused by his imprisonment (he has served 30 years of a life sentence) and continuing violent sexual urges fits snugly within that country's euthanasia law.

Ironically, Belgium opposes capital punishment under any circumstances. But it legalized euthanasia in 2002. Since then, the country has fallen off a moral cliff, with a growing number of lethal injections administered by doctors not just to the dying, but also to those with severe mental illnesses, crippling disabilities, and chronic, nonterminal illnesses. There have been several medicalized joint killings of elderly couples who would rather die together than live apart. Belgium even permits euthanasia followed by organ harvesting and the assisted suicide of dying children if they make the request in writing (among other requirements). Killing a prisoner who would rather be dead than imprisoned is merely the next logical step.

[Florida Man]

Ironically, Belgium opposes capital punishment rape under any circumstances. But it legalized euthanasia consensual sex in 2002.

Not really seeing the irony.

[Ted S.]

If the guy wants to die, why not just give him extra-long shoelaces so he can hang himself?

[Free Society]

I actually know several Dutchmen who've ended their life with euthanasia. They had to jump through hoop after hurdle to finally get it done and by that time he had already experienced much of the suffering he was trying to avoid.

Nonetheless these conservative columnists almost universally use strawmen to describe the practice of letting people own themselves and own their deaths.

[Zeb]

Yeah, the right to end your own life seems like a pretty fundamental one if you own yourself. Depriving people of a fundamental right to supposedly protect them is no good. Right up there with "we had to burn the village to save it" and "we had to pass the bill to see what was in it".

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

If only they had passed the village and burned the bill.

[Hey Nikki!]

Killing a prisoner who would rather be dead than imprisoned is merely the next logical step.

I've always thought the most cruel and unusual punishment of all was not allowing prisoners to commit suicide. So. Everything described as "falling off a moral cliff" sounds excellent to me. Elderly couples dying together instead of living apart? Uh, yeah, I'll take that too.

[Tonio]

But the downside to that is that it incentivizes the jails to control costs by encouraging prisoner suicides. That also makes those inconvenient actually-innocent prisoners shut up and go away.

[Mongo]

Sex offenders, tired of their endless incarceration, run for local civic and county office in Frostbite Falls Moose Lake MN.

http://www.startribune.com/pol.....18962.html

[UnCivilServant]

"You won the election, but state law forbid you from actually working in city hall, as it's within 1000 feet of a school"

[straffinrun]

Don't give me a reason to vote for him.

[Bobarian (dinosaur hunter)]

An elected official who isn't allowed to work in his office? Sounds like the perfect candidate.

[Lord Humungus]

Bunbury local discovered a spider had burrowed under his skin on Bali holiday

Later that morning he awoke to blisters.

"That's when it became painful, it was a searing burn," he said.

He finally saw a dermatologist on Monday, who told him that it was something out of the ordinary.

Doctors extracted a tropical spider that had burrowed itself into the scar from Dylan's recent appendix removal.

"It was a bit bigger than the size of a match head," he said.

amazingly this did not happen in Australia.

[UnCivilServant]

If it has been Australia, he'd have been dead before Monday, and 10,000 baby spiders would have feasted upon his carcass.

[Lord Humungus]

and then exploded into an orgy of rolling arachnids, menacing a small town until the local flamethrower spider specialist was called in.

[invisible furry hand]

Just an ordinary weekend here

[Ted S.]

He should have been more earnest.

[The Laconic]

FBI Director James Comey is worried that Apple and Google allow users to encrypt their phone and called on Congress to pass a law to stop them from doing that.

...Demonstrating that he's the kind of person that you need encryption to protect yourself from in the first place.

As with guns, so with cryptography.

[gaijin]

Comey seems like the kind of guy who would suggest all safes have their combinations registered with the FBI.

[Free Society]

Comey seems like the kind of guy who would suggest all safes have their combinations registered with the FBI.

He wouldn't be the sort to merely suggest. He would insist with the force of law.

[Lord Humungus]

Advert of woman's breasts posted on side of van causes 500 car crashes in just 24 hours

The photograph showing a woman cupping her breasts with a thin blue strip across the nipples was posted on the side of 30 vans in Moscow, Russia.

The advert simply read: 'They attract'.

But as the vans drove around streets in the city, cars started colliding with one another in their wake. It is thought 517 accidents happened in total.

[John]

Those are pretty spectacular. I would look.

[Restoras]

They look like bolt-ons. Just sayin'...

[John]

Totally. But bolt ons have their charms too.

[Restoras]

I could not agree more.

[Slammer]

In Russia tits stare at you and make crash!

[Kaptious Kristen]

I don't think Russians need tits to get into accidents. (yes, they have enough to make weekly and monthly compilations)

[Kaptious Kristen]

(the squeeze and I love lying in bed watching these. Ya gotta keep the romance alive, ya know?)

[Slammer]

I was obsessed with those for a while. Now I like this.

[Lord Humungus]

aww...

[Kaptious Kristen]

Oh jeeze!

[Restoras]

That's cool. People can be amazing. I wonder how much of that was driven by the experience of living under a horrific socialist authoritarian government? You couldn't count on the government for anything except fear so people depended on each other?

[db]

Nice.

[Elspeth Flashman]

He's a man on a mission, and he doesn't care if he loses:

"It's a long, uphill fight to get back to original orthodoxy," (US Supreme Court Justice Antonin) Scalia said in a speech at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "We have two originalists on the Supreme Court. That's something. But I feel like Frodo (Baggins). We'll get clobbered in the end, but it's worth it."

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

[UnCivilServant]

So... if he's claiming not to be the Nazgul, who on the court is Gollum?

[invisible furry hand]

Leave Ruth Bader Ginsburg alone!

[Elspeth Flashman]

That would be RBG.

[Swiss Servator, CH yeah!]

Ginsburg?

[Slammer]

Gimli= coin flip Kagan/Wise Latina

[gaijin]

So this makes Roberts teh Steward of Gondor?

[Restoras]

That seems about right. Clarence Thomas is Faramir?

[gaijin]

that works! Someone with mad pshop skills should do a portrait of the Supreme Court LOTR 'cast'

[antisocial-ist]

So Sauroman = Roberts?

[Lord Humungus]

The European Arrest Warrant is a betrayal of our freedoms. Are MPs really going to opt BACK into it?

One of the saddest meetings I've ever had as an MEP was in Athens, with a 20-year-old from Enfield called Andrew Symeou. Two years earlier, Andrew had been celebrating the end of his A-levels on a Greek island. There was a fracas in a nightclub, during which a young man tragically died. Andrew wasn't in the nightclub at the time, and didn't match witness descriptions of the perpetrator. The case against him rested on identically-worded statements that had been beaten out of his friends. It would almost certainly not have come to court in this country.

But, under the terms of the European Arrest Warrant, Andrew was vacuumed away to Greece where he spent nearly three years in detention, 11 months of them in one of the nastiest prisons in Europe. When he eventually managed to have his case heard he was, unsurprisingly, cleared. But how do you give back three years of a young man's life? By the time he got back to Britain, the friends with whom he had been celebrating his A-levels were graduating.

[John]

Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have always been authoritarian shitholes. Why anyone thought it was a good idea to form a union with them is beyond me.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

John.

Italy was a FOUNDING member of the EEC.

And your comment about this important economic G7 nation with a strong manufacturing and industrial base suggests to me you know jack shit about that country.

Is it perfect? No. But to take that typical stance is ridiculous beyond understanding.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I know, you know better.

[John]

The Italian justice system is awful. And yes Italy is beautiful and Northern Italy actually productive.

So no, they shouldn't be lumped in with the other three. You are correct. Spain Greece and Portugal are banana Republics in good locations.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The justice system is severely under strain indeed. On the other hand, it deserves a lot of credit for A) taking on the Mafia and B) fighting drugs in sports - more than most EU nations.

And I fully agree conflating Italy with the other Mediterranean countries with less of an industrial base is misguided. Italy's finances are more along the lines of France.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh, the other bad part is the power of the unions.

[John]

Italy's finances are more along the lines of France.

If there is a hall of fame for backhanded compliments, this needs to be in it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I didn't say it was good or bad!

Meh.

What can you do?

They are who they are.

[John]

The Northern Italians get unfairly lumped in with the Neapolitans. Northing Italy is where Fiat and Ferrari is. It is where they make all of the great leather goods and where the fashion industry is. It is a bit like Germany only with a bit less grim Teutonic competence. Southern Italy and Sicily is where the stereotypes of a family of five on a Vespa come from.

My wife's grandfather was Tuscan. Her grandmother was Sicilian. The Tuscans never really accepted the fact that he married her.

[Restoras]

My wife's grandfather was Tuscan. Her grandmother was Sicilian. The Tuscans never really accepted the fact that he married her.

I find that hilarious.

[John]

The Sicilians and Italians hate each other. And the Sicilians and Northern Italians go beyond that. In 1920s North Boston it is a wonder there wasn't gunfire at the wedding.

[perlhaqr]

It's not about the manufacturing, it's about arresting scientists for not predicting earthquakes.

[perlhaqr]

Seems like a reasonable complaint. This is why the US ignores UK libel suits, after all.

[Ken Shultz]

"President Obama says he's open to an Ebola czar but not a travel ban."

Obama sees the genius of appointing an Ebola czar, but he's already decided what the Ebola czar will and won't do.

Barack Obama is a shithead.

[UnCivilServant]

The Ebola Czar will be in charge of managing the spread of Ebola (into population groups ideologically opposed to the collective)

[Ken Shultz]

You'd have to be an idiot to want to be Obama's Ebola Czar.

Obama's just looking for a patsy. He's looking for someone else to take the blame if things go wrong.

He's already decided what he will and won't do--he just wants someone else to take the wrap if things go badly.

Maybe you get a name for yourself if you take that job/maybe you become the most hated person in American history. Why would anyone qualified want to take a chance like that?

[John]

There is no shortage of idiots willing to take the blame for the cause. Read Darkness at Noon sometime. That is how these people actually are.

[Drake]

What does an Ebola Czar do? Call the CDC every hour and ask them to do their jobs? Make excuses for keeping travel from plague areas open?

It sounds pretty easy, could I work from home?

[Invisible Finger]

You'd have to be an idiot to want to be Obama's Ebola Czar.

When you realize 80% of humanity are idiots and/or sadists, democracy loses most of its appeal.

[Lord Humungus]

Is sex only for rich people?

America has decided: Sex is for rich people. Non-procreative sex in particular.

How else would you explain the trap we're laying for poor people who deign to get it on?

Our country apparently doesn't want low-income Americans to have free access to birth control, either by compelling all insurance plans to offer it or by adequately funding public reproductive health programs. In many schools ? predominantly located in low-income, high-teen-pregnancy areas ? we don't even teach kids how contraception works. We also don't want them to have easy access to abortions when they inevitably get pregnant because they're not using birth control, with states such as Texas and Mississippi trying to shutter their few remaining abortion clinics.

[Idle Hands]

If there definition of rich is being able to afford bc and an abortion, this country is in pretty fucking good shape.

[invisible furry hand]

and in pretty good fucking shape too, for that matter

[Restoras]

So, you have a pulse?

[John]

They are just trying to make it better by making sure the wrong people don't procreate.

These people really do hate humanity. The underlying assumption of the entire article is that having children under any but a very select set of circumstances is always a personal tragedy. Think about that for a second.

Basically, any child not porn to a wealthy lesbian couple who used IVF is just a burden on society and needs to either not be born or killed.

[waffles]

any child not porn to a wealthy lesbian couple who used IVF

I don't believe that one, though hilarious, was unintentional. Look at your keyboard, look at it! C'mon man.

[Slammer]

Pure gold.

[John]

Proof reading is for fascists.

[Cdr Lytton]

Geez John. Even your rejoinders are open to interpretation. Proofreading is for fascists or proof that reading is for fascists?

[John]

Yes CDR Lytton. I will admit to that one being on purpose. Glad to see someone got the double meaning.

[The Laconic]

I am in total agreement.

[db]

You'll never live like common people,
You'll never do whatever common people do,
You'll never fail like common people,
You'll never watch your life slide out of view,
And dance and drink and screw,
Because there's nothing else to do.

[Pro Libertate]

The Shatner version?

[db]

The only version is the Shatner version.

[Pro Libertate]

Affirmative.

[l0b0t]

Hell yeah!! One of my all time favorite covers. First, you get Shatner (awesome in his own right) then, when his dulcet vocals have you all entranced... BAM!! Joe Jackson.

[gaijin]

Great article...not a single hard number on the scale of 'The Problem?'...just context-free percentages...no trend data...just 'MOAR MONEY'

[Lord Humungus]

of course... and they always seem to be written in that style of moral outrage.

[Injun, as in from India]

That is an article begging to be parodied.

[WTF]

So, 'poor' people can afford smart phones but they can't afford a pack of condoms. Oooookay.

[KDN]

Having to pay $0.50 to avoid getting pregnant each time you want to bone is a violation of basic human rights.

Besides, there's plenty of charities (and bars) that will give condoms away for free.

[John]

Or 69 rather than have intercourse?

[Idle Hands]

I hear if you swallow you can get pregnant, at least that's what my gf tells me.

[BuSab Agent]

She's right.

[The Laconic]

So poor people get pregnant because condoms are expensive. Also because they're unaware that condoms exist. Right.

PS I thought teen pregnancy was at an all-time low?

[Invisible Finger]

all-time?

[This Machine Wants Cake]

"Not giving is taking! It's so unfair! Someone has to do something!"

The way they infantilize the poor is just fucking wrong. They're adults that can make their own goddamn decisions and learn from them like anyone else. Has it occured to this harridan that maybe it's the other way around? Y'know, since children cost a lot of money to raise properly and maybe that's what keeps their folks living in low-rent neighborhoods and shopping at the dollar store?

[Lord Humungus]

New York Times Cocoon, Verified!

677 Caterpillars: A man named Tyler Pearson had posted a list of the 1000 Twittter accounts most commonly followed by the 677 New York Times staffers on the paper's public list. It is, as you would expect, embarrassingly cocooned: Times staffers follow people who share the liberalish/leftish viewpoint of the Times itself, meaning these staffers are less likely to even find out discordant information. Which may be why they are so often surprised, or late to a story. ?

Actually, it's not as bad as expected. It's worse! Jack Shafer takes the Liebling-Optimality award (in that he's the first non-liberal on the list, and with 235 NYT followers well above anyone more conservative) but as far as I can see you have to go a long ways down, past acceptably self-critical conservative David Frum, and the NYT's own Ross Douthat to get to a genuine partisan 'winger Tweeter ?@Karl Rove, who's followed by 67 Timesers that person is merely talking head Ari Fleischer, followed by 6.9% of Timesers.

[tarran]

It's fucking twitter!!!!!

Who the fuck cares! I mean, really! It's almost the most worthless medium for communication ever invented. It's an attempt to fill the world with Gilmore-girls banter!!!!!!!

[John]

It really is. I hate how journalists have stopped putting up their email address and just put up their twitter accounts like anything intelligent could ever be said to them in that medium.

[UnCivilServant]

I get more of an impression along the lines of "Communication goes from me to you, so shut up and listen to my drivel" or "You're not worth more than 140 characters of my time".

[John]

There is a lot of that. I could see where they would get tired of crazy rants. But Twitter is even more conducive to that. All going to twitter does is keep the readers from giving you a substantive challenge.

[Slammer]

But then we wouldn't get gems like this:

David Burge @iowahawkblog ? Oct 15
Halloween costume idea: sexy hazmat suit

[Kaptious Kristen]

Gawd, he's good. That's a better idea than my "Sexy Quasimodo" costume.

[KDN]

I disagree. Twitter exists as a circle jerk for journalists of all stripes, and they care about it a great deal. Reporters, op-ed pundits, sportswriters, they all obsess about their Twitter lives and verbally perk up whenever they get the chance to talk about them, like that also in your office who won't stop talking about his fantasy football team. This is probably the most useful indicator for the actual interests of these guys as there is.

[KDN]

*that asshole in your office. I really wish I could blame that on autocorrect.

[Fluffy]

I have a guy in one office I work in who is in 5 motherfucking fantasy leagues and wants to tell me about his team in all of them.

I hope Peyton Manning dies in a car crash just so I can see this full motherfucker weep like a little girl.

[Anon E. Mouse]

"A Dallas lab worker believed to have handled specimens from the Liberian man who became the first person to be diagnosed and die of Ebola on U.S. soil is quarantined aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Belize."

"The government of Belize reassures the public that the passenger never set foot in Belize and while we remain in close contact with U.S. officials we have maintained the position that when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people," the government said in a press release.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/.....-stranded/

Repeat after me:

"...when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people"

"...when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people"

"...when even the smallest doubt remains, we will ensure the health and safety of the Belizean people"

[Ken Shultz]

People are still flying to the United States from Liberia every day.

I'm starting to wonder if Obama just thinks that prohibiting travel from Africa is somehow racist.

And I'm not being facetious. If you heard the justifications for why we we're not prohibiting travel, they don't make any sense. It just sounds like someone making excuses for a stubborn supervisor, who doesn't want to tell people why he decided something and won't change his decision no matter what.

Someone should ask Obama straight up whether he thinks banning travel from Africa is racist, and whether that has played any part in his decision to allow travel from West Africa to continue.

[The Laconic]

Africa may be the last place left on earth where he has an approval rating over 50%. You think he's going to risk that?

[Ken Shultz]

The CDC Director, Dr. Frieden, told us the other day that the reason they don't ban travel from West Africa is because that would make it harder to get infected people out of there--and bring them here.

Here's the exchange:

Dr. Frieden implied a travel ban would be harmful: "If we do things that are going to make it harder to stop the epidemic there, it's going to spread to other parts of?"

Ms. Kelly interjected, asking how keeping citizens from the affected regions out of America would make it harder to stop Ebola in Africa.

"Because you can't get people in and out."

"Why can't we have charter flights?"

"You know, charter flights don't do the same thing commercial airliners do."

"What do you mean? They fly in and fly out."

http://online.wsj.com/articles.....1413502475

What they're saying doesn't make sense--unless it's coming from the top, and Obama won't stop issuing visas to people from West Africa because that would be racist.

...or maybe there's some other explanation! But the ones they're giving us don't make any sense.

[Ken Shultz]

P.S. If you're not a sub, do a google search on the title of the article, and you'll get in through the link. Noonan gets it right, here.

[John]

It is totally coming from the top. The immigration and naturalization act gives the President the power to stop travel from places where there is an outbreak of contagious disease. This is Obama's decision all the way.

And he won't do it for the reasons you give and because doing it now would be admitting he fucked up not doing it before. The man is utterly incapable of admitting a mistake.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Won't the airlines, of their own accord, institute a travel ban?

[Cdr Lytton]

Maybe not. They might be afraid that if they do, all airline travel, not just to Africa. will crater like it did after 9/11.

[Invisible Finger]

The airline workers may.

But most of them are union and would suck Obama's ebola-infected cock.

[Tonio]

Frieden is completely worthless. I heard another part of his testimony where he repeatedly refused to answer the question put to him. In a sane world congress would have held him in contempt. In the world in which we actually exist holding him in contempt would be seen as obstructionism and denying the nation of the services of one of our most valuable resources against Ebola (which he most definitely is not).

[Mike M.]

Here's the deal, plain and simple: he simply doesn't care that much about Ebola spreading to America and the west. "Why should these horrible infectious disease be limited to Africa?" is what he no doubt thinks to himself.

He ESPECIALLY doesn't care about Ebola being in Dallas of all places. If the outbreak had happened in D.C. or Chicago where his peeps and supporters are, perhaps he might care about it a little, but Texas? Most of the state can drop dead as far as he's concerned.

[WTF]

Yeah, why should America be any better than Africa? It's just another country among many after all.

[John]

He only cares about it hurting him politically. If he could somehow keep it spreading a secret such that it would not hurt him politically, he wouldn't give a fuck if it killed a million people.

That sounds shocking but I think he really is that kind of a sociopath.

[Mike M.]

Agreed. If he cares about anything at all, it's the timing of the outbreak.

[WTF]

Why? He'll just lie anyway.

[Invisible Finger]

People are still flying to the United States from Liberia every day.

Because they vote Democrat.

[Fluffy]

You may as well cancel any cruise plans you have for the next year.

Imagine norovirus getting loose on a cruise ship - and all of a sudden everyone is projectile vomiting and shitting water.

That is actually not that unusual.

Now imagine you, the captain, the ports authorities, and the CDC wondering if any puking-and-shitting passengers recently had contact with someone with ebola.

Good times.

[Anon E. Mouse]

+ 1 lifeboat

[Cdr Lytton]

WTF is with those health workers taking off? "Oh our patient finally died. Now I can take that vacation!" Does the hospital management not look at the work schedules for everyone that may have come in contact with the patient?

[Cdr Lytton]

WTF is with those health workers taking off? "Oh our patient finally died. Now I can take that vacation!" Does the hospital management not look at the work schedules for everyone that may have come in contact with the patient?

[Cdr Lytton]

You squirrels better hope Ebola doesn't cross over.

[Invisible Finger]

we remain in close contact with U.S. officials

Gluttons for punishment.

[John]

Bulgarian vampires are so much cooler than the American teenage kind.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....yards.html

[Elspeth Flashman]

Accepting all forms of payment?

Man proposes sex as vehicle payment, shows gun after test drive: court records
An 18-year-old Grant man trying to sell a vehicle allegedly asked a woman to trade sex for payment, then showed a handgun as they sat in the vehicle.

http://www.mlive.com/news/gran.....cart_river

[John]

Too bad she didn't immediately just use her own handgun. He basically gave her a legal license to murder him. You tell me the jury that would convict a woman who shot a stranger who pulled a gun on her while they were alone in a car.

[Lord Humungus]

Is that a gun in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

[gaijin]

Trigger warning much?

[Lord Humungus]

it could go off at any moment.

[trshmnster the terrible]

He just likes to shoot from the hip

[An Innocent Man]

She went for a test drive, alone? Not real bright herself.

[Free Society]

FBI Director James Comey is worried that Apple and Google allow users to encrypt their phone and called on Congress to pass a law to stop them from doing that.

Congress should pass a law preventing the people from protecting themselves against the unlawful aggression of the state. James Comey is criminal scum so what else can we expect from his kind.

[John]

Why do you hate children? You must just have a bunch of child porn on your phone.

This is what these people actually believe.

[WTF]

This is what these people actually believe.

Yes, citing the protections of the 4th amendment means you must be a baby-raper. These people really are vile. Yet they pay no price politically.

[Free Society]

Yet they pay no price politically.

Because politics is all about externalizing the costs of evil. The system actually selects and promotes evil. It's the reason that the top echelons of the state are dominated by sociopaths.

[Aloysious]

Good old CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/1.....us-bureau/

Over 48 million Americans live in poverty, according to a special report by the Census Bureau Thursday. It provides an alternative look at the worst off people in the nation than the official numbers that come out in September.

[WTF]

Yeah, if you define poverty as the lowest-earning quintile, there will always be at least 20% (relative) poverty. Actual poverty on the other hand is pretty fucking rare in the U.S.

[Aloysious]

Link from prior CNN article:

U.S. poverty rate drops for first time since 2006

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/1.....us/?iid=EL

There's not much good news for working Americans struggling to rebound from the recession, except perhaps this: the U.S. poverty rate is finally on the decline.

Okay...

[Invisible Finger]

recovery! let the interest rates rise!

[Aloysious]

Second link from the CNN article:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/1.....en/?iid=EL

Gender inequality doesn't end at the workplace. For many women, the gender gap haunts them well into their retirement years, when far more women find themselves living in poverty.

So we go from 48 million living in poverty, to the poverty rate dropping, to the gender gap in retirement years.

So is CNN saying that the economy is crap, the economy is good, or that retirement isn't fair?

Good old CNN.

[Pro Libertate]

It's election season, don't you know?

[The Laconic]

For many women, the gender gap haunts them well into their retirement years, when far more women find themselves living in poverty.

Because the men are dead already.

[Aloysious]

ouch.

[WTF]

Yes, far more women than men are alive in retirement age. But let's not talk about that gender gap.

[Mr Whipple]

IIRC, in the UK, you MUST turn over your passcode upon request.

But there are ways around everything. Set up your PC to host a Tor Hidden Service through a LAMP or XAMPP . Set up a phpBB3 on it, or something, and send everything there directly from your phone.

These fuckers are so far behind the curve it ain't funny. Well....actually, it is funny.

[John]

I think the program is called lock box but I am not sure. But there is a security program that allows you to set up what amounts to a second operating system that is password protected and shows no trace of your other real operating system. This way you can give the cops your password, let them look to their little hearts content and they will never see your actual system hiding below it. Even the DOJ computer forensic people admit that absent enormous effort there is no way to crack it.

[Mr Whipple]

Assange wrote a program called "hose [something]". It gives access to part of your drive where you can have a little bit of semi-incriminating evidence, but hides the rest from detection. It hides it so well, they don't can't even tell it's there.

[Mr Whipple]

"Rubberhose"

http://tinyurl.com/2alfb4k

[The Late P Brooks]

Janet Yellin is very concerned about income inequality. So we've got that going for us.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Because the Eye-talians absolutely rock at murder investigations.

[invisible furry hand]

God that's depressing. Pantani's death was a huge loss. That it might be an unavenged murder really just twists the knife

[Kaptious Kristen]

The Italian cops are just as skilled at investigation as the Salem witch trial judges. If it was somehow murder, they won't pin it on the right person nor get the circumstances correct.

But I'm pretty sure that blood doping and cocaine are a bad combo.

[Stormy Dragon]

Obama loses xkcd:

http://xkcd.com/1435/

[The Late P Brooks]

The President has named a career political knob polisher as Ebola Czar.

Nothing says credibility like making it clear the "optics" are priority number one. Even the full time slobbering Obama worshippers on Bloomberg were saying, "Huh- I would have expected somebody with a medical background."

[John]

When all that matters is politics, you hire someone who knows the politics. The point is not to stop ebola. The point is to limit the political damage to Obama.

What the hell does an infectious disease doctor know about limiting political damage to the President and Democrats in Congress? What is a doctor going to do? Save people? Big fucking deal.

[Brandon]

A poor economy and a plunging ruble don't seem to be having much of an effect on the popularity Vladimir Putin enjoys in Russia.

It's not who is polled that matters, it's who reports the polls.