Ferguson No-Fly Zone Aimed to Stop Media, Brittany Maynard Commits Suicide, GOP Senate Candidates Pull Ahead: A.M. Links

Brittany Maynard/Facebook

• Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman suffering from terminal cancer, committed assisted suicide this weekend in Oregon with a lethal dose of prescription drugs.
• Audio recordings reveal that the Federal Aviation Administration's 12-day ban on flights over Ferguson, Missouri, was intended—at least by local authorities—to keep news helicopters from witnessing and covering events there.
• It will all be over soon, but one more time for kicks: Weekend polling numbers show Republican candidates with a slight lead over Democrats in several of the more contested U.S. Senate races. 
• J/K!, it never ends: Runoff elections are looking likely in Georgia and Louisiana, which means "Who will control the Senate?" might not actually be answerable until 2015.
• Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, Pro-Russian separatist Alexander Zakharchenko has been elected "head of the Donetsk People's Republic"—a vote Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denounced as a "farce". 
• The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today concerning the passports of American citizens born in Jerusalem. 
• Canada has officially joined in on bombing ISIS. 
• Meet Texas' wacky roster of third-party gubernatorial candidates.  

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Audio recordings reveal that the Federal Aviation Administration's 12-day ban on flights over Ferguson, Missouri, was intended?at least by local authorities?to keep news helicopters from witnessing and covering events there.

Duh.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Canada has officially joined in on bombing ISIS."

Canada FUCK YEAH!

[Doctor Whom]

Kak pozhivayete vy?

Why can't you Randroid loonytarians trust government like normal people?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm fine, thanks for asking.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Weekend polling numbers show Republican candidates with a slight lead over Democrats in several of the more contested U.S. Senate races.

I smell a mandate.

[WTF]

The Democrats are furiously cranking up the fraud machine to overcome those slight Republican leads. Which will then give the Democrats and Obama a mandate.

[Drake]

It would be hilarious if Democrats used open fraud to win every single seat in the House and every election in the Senate.

[Idle Hands]

I honestly think they could get away with it.

[BardMetal]

Yep, we would still hear that there is no such thing as voter fraud. It's just an issue invented by Republicans to stop blacks from voting.

[Ted S.]

mandate

WAR ON WIMMINZ!!!111!!!

[Injun, as in from India]

mandate for what?

[Bardas Phocas]

Rape and stuff.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

WHATEVER THEY CAN PULL OUT OF THEIR A

Well, you know.

[Restoras]

I dunno. I seem to recall polls being terribly wrong in 2004 on the second W election. Didn't they have Kerry with a slight lead, and then he got blown out? My own prediction if for Team Red to mop the floor with Team Blue - not based on anything but gut feel, mind you.

[Bee Tagger]

Meet Texas' whacky roster of third-party gubernatorial candidates.

I haven't seen an H that pointless since George H.W. Bush was President.

[Slammer]

Harvard Sex Week

Harvard University's annual Sex Week observance, which launched Sunday, includes a workshop called "What What in the Butt: Anal Sex 101? that aims to teach the Ivy League students how to have anal sex.

So-called sex experts from a local adult store will lead the Tuesday talk, which seeks to "dispel myths about anal sex and give you insight into why people do it and how to do it well," the Fall 2014 Harvard Sex Week agenda states.

...other planned activities, according to the agenda, include "Brown Girlz Do it Well: a Queer Diaspora Remix," a workshop that will "situate our personal narratives within broader systems of racism, casteism, classism, islamophobia, and imperialism."

[Idle Hands]

I thought anal sex was supposed to happen when everyone involved is extremely intoxicated?

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

Yep. Take it from me: it can get pretty nasty there inside Matt Yglesias' pooper. We need all the liquor we can get.

[Injun, as in from India]

Stay classy, Harvard.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

aims to teach the Ivy League students how to have anal sex

Somebody has to show those future government apparatchiks how to treat the plebes.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 #Occupy_Rectum

[Rich]

myths about anal sex

Like what? "It's not just for breakfast"?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Fight fiercely, Harvard!
Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
How we shall celebrate our victory?
We shall invite the whole team
Up for tea! How jolly!
Hurl that spheroid down the field
And fight! Fight! Fight!"

-Tom Lehrer

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hub/sounds/fight.shtml

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Impede them!
Impede them!
Make them relinquish the ball!

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

aech ai ah,
aech ai ah,
aech ai ah wit a vee,
Vee ai ah,
Vee ai ah,
Vee ai ah wit a dee,
Haah-vaad!
Haah-vaad!
Sqeee!!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Harvard's charter of 1650 said the college's purpose was "the education of the English and Indian youth of this country, in knowledge and godliness."

The Puritan solons of Massachusetts, in an unfortunate omission, failed to mention "instruction in the art and mystery of sodomy."

http://library.harvard.edu/uni.....er-of-1650

[Zeb]

I think it falls under "knowledge". Unlawful carnal knowledge.

[Zeb]

Given the prevalence of anal sex in porn, it's probably good for people to learn that it doesn't generally work like in the movies.

[Lord Humungus]

Here's how we beat the right: How progressives withstand Fox News, blast Obama defenders, and chart a new future

Each year it's a harder case to make, even to other Democrats. Each year the middle class grows smaller, the democracy grows more corrupt and the chance of stopping global warming in time to save ourselves or our planet grows dimmer. You can't run forever on the slogan "Die Slower! Vote Democratic!" Time's running out on the democracy and the middle class, just as it is on global warming.

In the words of political upstarts everywhere, it's time for a change. If it comes, it will be from within the Democratic Party, or rather from the progressives who still reside there. But for all the talk of a "populist revolt," progressives have yet to spark one. If Democrats win the Senate on Tuesday, that's unlikely to change. If they lose, progressives might wake up, which would be the best thing to happen to the Democrats in a long time. It may not feel like much consolation, but it's true.

[Idle Hands]

#Winning.

[Injun, as in from India]

Wait, wait. I just read the word "change" in this article?

[Bee Tagger]

which means "Who will control the Senate?" might not actually be answerable until 2015.

And might not matter ever again.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Is the Emperor going to rule directly through military governors?

[WTF]

What's to stop him?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Nothing, now that he has this here fully operational battlestation!

/Death Star Crew

[cavalier973]

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant when compared to the power of the Derp.

[Mike M.]

Maine Snowstorm Leaves Thousands Without Power, Dumps Two Feet of Snow

Thousands of people in Maine were waking up in the dark Monday morning after an early winter blast knocked out power and buried parts of the state in almost two feet of snow. More than 130,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity as of Sunday night and Maine Governor Paul LePage declared a state of emergency...

Snow also fell as far south and east as Charleston, South Carolina - the earliest flakes on record in the city - over the weekend. Farther northwest in the southern Appalachian Mountains, up to six inches of snow fell around Asheville, North Carolina while 2.5 inches were measured in Boone, North Carolina, according to The Weather Channel...

After a weekend that saw record low temperatures for this time of year in Ohio and Florida, temperatures were forecast to bounce back as the snow shifted north to the Canadian Maritimes, Roth said.

Ahhh. Love ya "global warming"!

[WTF]

Hah, all of this early cold and snow is because of global warming, because SCIENCE! Which is SETTLED!

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

THAT IS JUST WEATHER!!!11!1!1

[Zeb]

Yeah, but by the same reasoning, every big hurricane proves global warming. Are you trying to be stupid?

This probably explains the lack of Daily Mail links this morning.

[Clown Hunter]

Zeb, the tongue-in-cheek "Jiminy, its cold outside" postings around here are generally intended to mock and neutralize the inevitable "OMG, its so hot today we're all gonna die!" from the warmistas.

[Zeb]

I'm not entirely sure that's the case with Mike M.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm looking at the forecast for where I will be deer hunting next weekend and it is looking like a good old fashioned frost fest. Highs of 31 and lots of wind.

My boys are going to finally see why I am luke warm on hunting white tails in Sunny Minnesoda. They've had nothing but nice weather for the last 5 years. Now they get a good dose of real Minnesoda weather.

[Rhywun]

Oh FFS, 2 feet of snow in Maine is a "state of emergency"?

Ow, I stubbed my toe - STATE OF EMERGENCY!!

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

But a "state of emergency" can make you eligible for funding from ...somebody, right?

[Zeb]

Yup. That's what it is, Federal money. The only emergency is not budgeting enough for snow removal.

[cavalier973]

Well, think how bad it would be if we didn't make global warming...

[Slammer]

Campaign materials aimed at getting out the black vote are featuring references to lynchings, Jim Crow-era signs, racial unrest ? and, as of last weekend, the Ku Klux Klan.
In Alabama, fliers distributed in largely black communities warn voters to cast ballots or else "land may be given to extremist groups to honor klansmen."

Here's the Flier

[WTF]

So, they are telling blacks to vote Republican, because all of those bad things and people were Democratic?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Heh

[Notorious G.K.C.]

During Reconstruction, the Klan wasn't the paramilitary wing of the Democratic party - the Democratic Party was the political wing of the Klan.

[Doctor Whom]

They're telling them to vote for big-government candidates because, as a goodthinker actually told me, Jim Crow was laissez-faire.

[WTF]

as a goodthinker actually told me, Jim Crow was laissez-faire.

Why do you try to have serious conversations with the retarded?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

he sells cake.

[Juice]

So the flyer, distributed in black communities, tells black people that if they don't vote for Democrats they'll lose their food stamps, because obviously if they're black they're on food stamps. That's not insulting at all.

[Lord Humungus]

Excited to return to Obamacare exchanges? Not so much

A .430 batting average will guarantee you a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In Obamacare's Hall of Fame, however? Not so much.

A new survey finds that 51 percent of people who used the government-run Obamacare health insurance exchanges in the past year say they will not to do so again when open enrollment resumes Nov. 15.

Just 43 percent of people who used HealthCare.gov, the federal insurance marketplace, or a state-run exchange plan on using such an exchange to shop for 2015 insurance plans, the Bankrate.com survey found.

[Ted S.]

That's an 8% difference.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

+ 47%

[Bee Tagger]

at least by local authorities?to keep news helicopters from witnessing and covering events there.

Finally, the press can get angry about the flight ban.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Canada has officially joined in on bombing ISIS.

"Armed with what? Pamphlets about Canada's responsible gun control laws?"

[Ted S.]

Send the PQ over their to impose their paradise on the region.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

7 years later, ISIS offers unconditional surrender in exchange for an aid package...

[Slammer]

Frozen hockey pucks really hurt when dropped from aircraft.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Maybe the Blackhawks should try that.

[Mickey Rat]

Gump Worsley says "Wussy!"

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Ex-Googler Poached By Obama Is Already Praising "Talented Regulators"

But you're not in I.T. Your focus is national technology policy. What are you doing with that? We're working with talented regulators, figuring out how to help innovators have a space in which to prototype and plan ? what we call "sandboxing" ? while we're still protecting the American people.

"Talented regulators" ? was that a phrase you ever would have used before you started working in government? They are talented. I love how entrepreneurial people are here. I actually think that working in the federal government, or state or local, is one of the most significant things that a technical person can do.

[Ted S.]

They're talented at screwing the private sector.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

I actually think that working in the federal government, or state or local, is one of the most significant things that a technical person can do.

Harm-wise, certainly.

[JW]

"I peaked very young, so I'll fuck anything that moves to keep my head above water."

[Lord Humungus]

Lena Dunham cancels book tour dates following claims she 'sexually abused' her younger sister

The author tweeted to confirm she was cancelling two events in Berlin and Belgium as part of her book tour to promote her memoir Not That Kind of Girl.

Dunham's decision to cancel the dates follows her furious reaction after a right-wing website in the US claimed she "sexually abused" her younger sister.

The article published on the blog Truth Revolt cites a passage from Dunham's memoir in which she talks about seeing her younger sister's vagina at the age of seven.

So it's a claim to cite a passage from a book?

[John]

Shouldn't that be "her confession to"?

What amazes me about this story is not that Dunham did what she did, I am not naive about how often that kind of stuff happens. What amazes me is completely and totally fucked up she must be to have thought admitting to doing that in her book was a good idea or wouldn't be a big deal. It is one thing to have done something like that. It is quite another thing to have done it and apparently not even understand that admitting to doing it isn't a good idea.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Perhaps she perceives herself as this generation's Roman Polanski

[Slammer]

Forget it, scruffy, it's Dunhamtown

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What you did there, I see it.

[John]

Even Roman was smart enough to write a book explaining how he raped the girl. And even Roman doesn't get off on doing close relatives. I think that comparison is unfair to Polanski.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I think that comparison is unfair to Polanski.

Not disagreeing with you on that count.

[Idle Hands]

Polanski also has done some good work. Dunham being a terrible artist just makes it that much more awful.

[John]

That too. Polanski may be a dirty old man who can't control himself around teenage girls but he is at least a legitimately good and sometimes great director and artist.

Dunham is just a freak show with a hideous fat ass she seems to want to inflict upon the world at every opportunity.

[VG Zaytsev]

Polanski also had a really fucked up childhood - escaped from a nazi concentration camp at 5yo or something.

Dunham was once sent to bed before dessert was served.

[John]

Come on VG, he is a privileged white male. How does surviving the holocaust as a small child and seeing your entire family murdered compare to oppression of growing up a rich white girl in Manhattan?

You think I am joking but I bet Dunham believes exactly that.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Dunham was once sent to bed before dessert was served.

Have you seen what Dunham's parents do for a living? I'm not surprised at all that she turned out as fucked up as she is.

That whole family is the Honey-Boo-Boo clan of the NYC upper crust.

[jmomls]

*Polanski also had a really fucked up childhood - escaped from a nazi concentration camp at 5yo or something.*

Not to mention the Manson family slaying his wife and unborn child in the most horrendous fashion conceivable.

Still no excuse to rape underage girls.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Or, what John said.

[John]

Where was her agent and the editors of the book? Ah, Ms Dunham I think it would be a good idea to cut out the parts of your book were you talk about molesting your toddler sister. Did they tell her and she made them do it or are they as stupid and depraved as she apparently is?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

They are probably just as screwed up as she is.

How do we get people to talk about this book that they do not care about? Oh, you did what as a kid?

[John]

That is true. Dunham is if nothing else just boring. There are few things less interesting than a whinny rich girl, which Dunham is a perfect example. How do you get anyone to care about this story? Throwing in some incest and child molestation would do that I guess.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Probably thinking "Her star is just about burnt out, how do we get one more decent hit out of her?"

[Idle Hands]

Do you think they actually read that drivel? I've seen like two episodes of the show. If that's an indication of the book I would have thrown in the towel a chapter in.

[John]

Someone had to at least copy edit it for typos and such. No one noticed that part about her committing a felony?

[UnCivilServant]

You might think that, but traditional publishers are getting sloppy in that regard.

[Restoras]

I doubt that her editors actually care about her. Controversy, however, can sell a lot of books.

[Fluffy]

Because it's Lena Dunham, she was just "exploring her sexuality", John.

It's only child abuse when a boy does it.

Think how lucky that little girl was to get to explore sexuality with "the voice of a generation"!

[John]

That is what she thinks I am sure. I have to give you credit. You really understand how people like Dunham think. I really respect that ability about you, but I don't think I would ever want to have it myself. It must be pretty awful looking into someone like Dunham's minds.

[Zeb]

Meh. Who cares? Seems like normal kids' "playing doctor" shit. Is the sister complaining?

[John]

Ah no Zeb. The sister was very young, under five I think, and Dunham was a teenager. It wasn't two kids playing doctor. Dunham seems to be a legitimate sicko.

[Zeb]

I must have misread. I thought it said she (Lena) was 7.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Seems like normal kids' "playing doctor" shit.

If she doesn't want to be accused of being a sicko

And yes, kids do normally go through a phase where they are curious about each others' genitals and such--but parents are typically there to set boundaries on that behavior. It says a lot more that she apparently used her little sister as some sort of sexual release for several years and her parents never told her to knock it off, which most parents were weren't deviant freakshows would do.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"If she doesn't want to be accused of being a sicko, she shouldn't compare her behavior to a sexual predator's in her own damn book."

[Certified Public Asskicker]

She's obviously an attention seeking whore. You really thought writing that wouldn't stir up any controversy? Really? Fuck you.

[John]

If we ever got a GOP President who had any brains (I know work with me here), they would take the entire child exploitation section of the FBI and DOJ and tell them to take a break from arresting perverts downloading crap off of the internet and spend the next four years going after Hollywood. I have no doubt Hollywood is absolutely rampant with pedophilia. You think those child actors get parts in movies because they are just that much cuter and better actors than the other 10,000 kids who are trying to get the part?

I would go after all of them. Find every pervert director who ever banged an underage actor on their casting couch. It would serve justice to a lot of really horrible and evil people and it would also do a lot of harm to a big Democratic constituency.

[Restoras]

It'll never happen no more than any Wall Street crook going to jail. Both are huge centers of wealth and power, and therefore are key sources of funding for the Democrats.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

They give lots of money to Repubs as well, they're just less vocal about it.

[Restoras]

That's correct - at least on Wall Street. Also another reason why none of those that are actual criminals will be arrested, tried, and convicted.

[lap83]

Yeah I remember reading about that a few years ago when Corey Feldman talked about pedophelia in Hollywood http://www.foxnews.com/enterta.....perts-say/
It makes sense that the industry would attract pedophiles. Go where the kids are cute and the parents are desperate.

[lap83]

Would the media be so forgiving if Lena was "Leon" and had touched his little sister? Or would they just try a different way of glossing it over?

Btw, I know that kids "experiment" and do inappropriate things before they know better. But your own SIBLING? Really? My guess is that this is a failing of her parents. However, it's still her fault for not realizing it's something to be embarrassed about now that she's an adult.

[John]

Maybe I am wrong but wasn't Dunham like 13 or 14 and the sister three or four? That is what makes it so horrible.

[lap83]

I didn't know, so I looked it up and there was apparently a misreporting of her age as being 17 on some news site initially, but she was 7. Her sister was 1. Not quite as bad as if she was a teenager, but still ...her baby sister? Ugh.

[John]

She was clearly a fucked up child. That is just weird.

[Clown Hunter]

If there's two places where sexually abusing your baby sister won't raise an eyebrow (other, perhaps, than for an "attagirl"), its Belgium (definitely) and Germany.

[Rich]

Nice rant from the NY Post, encouraging people to vote GOP

Sample: Obamaism, a quasi-socialist commitment to a more powerful government at home and an abdication of American leadership around the world, is being exposed as a historic calamity. It is fueling domestic fear and global disorder and may well lead to a world war.

[Slammer]

may well lead to a world war.

The Post sure hopes so!

[Rhywun]

Because they're running out of new things to say about the Kardashians.

[gaijin]

J/K!, it never ends: Runoff elections are looking likely in Georgia and Louisiana, which means "Who will control the Senate?" might not actually be answerable until 2015.

SO many people to be disappointed that a binary red/blue, black/white message won't be evident. Can't we have more Elections by Spielberg??

[SugarFree]

Officer Caught On Dashcam: "Go Ahead. Call the Cops. They Can't Un-Rape You."

Officer 1: Alright, we're gonna be riding out for a week.
Officer 2: Yo, we used to. They used to do that.
Officer 2: Hey, put it this way; if we ride out for a week, crime is gonna be on the run and (expletive) non-existent. (Expletive) would get real for the bad guys. The world would be at peace for a week.

Officer 1: Either that, or, you'd think that because we'd turn a blind eye towards everything.
Officer 2: Or that.
Officer 1: (Expletive) who cares.
Officer 2: Or that. It could be that.
Officer 1: I want to report a robbery! You probably deserved it.

Officer 1: Look at that girl over there.
Officer 2: (blows whistle) Go ahead and call the cops. They can't unrape you. (laughter)
Officer 1: You didn't turn your camera off, did you?
Officer 2: They can't unrape you.

[sarcasmic]

Not surprisingly, the officers are still on the streets.

[Warty]

(Expletive) would get real for the bad guys. The world would be at peace for a week.

There's the really disturbing part. Give me a guillotine and I will make the world anew.

[Lord Humungus]

I AM IRON MAN!

City Worker Gets 20-Day Suspension for Using Robot Voice to Answer Phone

Miller's decision says that during the hearing the Health Department played a recording of Dillon speaking to a customer in a "slow, monotone and over-enunciated manner" and saying, "You have reached the Help Desk. This is Mr. Dillon. How may I help you?"

His droid imitation was apparently good enough to fool callers.

One confused customer who spoke to Dillon later called back and told another Health Department worker that she thought "there was a new automated answering system and had hung up when she heard 'the robot' answer the phone because she needed to speak to a human about her issues," the decision says.

[Ted S.]

One summer eons ago I worked at a McDonald's. When they put me on drive-through in the late evening shifts, I'd greet the customers with my best Alfred Hitchcock voice. Most of them seemed to get a kick out of it.

[cavalier973]

If I owned a McDonald's I would increase the pay of anyone who would do something clever like that.

[mauricegirodias]

I hadn't eaten at McDonald's since they got rid of both Angus burgers and the McSkillet burrito, but Sunday night I went to one (only thing open apart from a Denny's I know to be roach-infested.) It amazed me how hard the staff was trying. They literally got my order perfect (chicken club grilled, no mayo), but yanked my drink back when she realized it wasn't full.

Maybe you could tweet your idea to them...

/McD's Angus wasn't great or anything, but it was often the best thing you could get if you were working late, their regular burgers make me ill.

[Idle Hands]

Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman suffering from terminal cancer, committed assisted suicide this weekend in Oregon with a lethal dose of prescription drugs.

People are just upset because she was hot.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Yup. Just need cute white girl to push an issue/disappearance/etc

[This Machine Implies Consent]

Exactly this. Had she been a dumpy middle-aged woman, the whole ordeal wouldn't have rated even a passing mention.

[Mickey Rat]

How long did it take to die from that concoction? Death penalty states should steal the recipe. If it is merciful enough for a goodthink suicide surely it is good enough for a rapist murderer.

[Lord Humungus]

Man's Best Friend indeed...

Alabama man's own dog helps police bust him on drug charge

Prattville Police spokeswoman Paula Barlow says the pooch named Bo followed his fleeing master, who was being pursued by officers. When the dog stopped and wagged his tail in tall grass, she says, officers found and arrested Edwin Henderson.

Barlow says the chase began when two drug officers arrived Wednesday with a search warrant and Henderson took off running.

After an investigator pointed at Henderson and told the dog "go get him," that's what Bo did.

[WTF]

The guy is probably thinking, "Great, the one fucking time they don't just shoot the fucking dog!"

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

*applause*

[Lord Humungus]

UCLA faculty approve new diversity requirement

Last week as the faculty voting took place, students lobbied for the measure to pass by distributing pledge cards and holding a rally. Its supporters argue the course will help students understand new perspectives and improve campus climate.

But opponents, including a coalition of six professors who openly opposed the requirement in a widely distributed statement, say the requirement's goals are not academic, that studies purporting to show that such classes help curb racist tendencies are not valid, and that imposing new restrictions on graduation requirements will add burdens to students currently struggling to graduate.

Professor Thomas Schwartz, in a statement to the Daily Bruin, said the requirement will suck "up resources to pay for this piece of ideological puffery." He also said that the requirement would be used to inculcate students with a liberal agenda.

[The Late P Brooks]

SCIENCE!

WHAT DID YOU DISCOVER?

That the battle wasn't about science, but economics. From reading their papers, you could see that these physicists were very strong believers in the unfettered free market. They believed that without free markets, you couldn't have democracy.

When we began, we wondered about the common thread linking smoking, acid rain and global warming ? what was it? Well, each was a serious problem that the unregulated free market didn't respond to.

How does the free market prevent acid rain or climate change? It doesn't. How do we know about the potential harm to individuals or the environment? Because of science. And how does one prevent harm? With regulation. To prevent regulation, we've had this campaign of doubt-mongering about science and scientists.

"I wrote this Chicken Little science fiction book so I could prattle about my complete ignorance of basic economic principles."

[BardMetal]

I wish I could experience this unregulated free market people are always going on about.

[JW]

Krugabe has a woodie by the 3rd page.

[Lord Humungus]

Russian judge gives it a 5.

China Employs 'Porn Judges' to Scrub the Web

China may be the only country where "porn judge" is an actual government job title. The army of specialized judges, first created in 2010, has the occasionally cringe-worthy job of watching every allegedly pornographic video that comes under the government's radar to decide which meets the Chinese definition of porn.

These judges, the government says, have the sacred task of returning the Internet to a clean and safe state.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

the sacred task of returning the Internet to a clean and safe state

Next Dirty Jobs episode?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Filming Mike Rowe as he watches "two girls, one cup"?

[Injun, as in from India]

the occasionally cringe-worthy job of watching every allegedly pornographic video that comes under the government's radar to decide which meets the Chinese definition of porn.

Cringe-worthy? I'll bet you $5 a lot of guys would love to sign up for that job.

And what the heck is chinese definition of p0rn? Some special Confucius style as opposed to missionary style?

[Steve G]

As a bureaucrat, I wonder what their office tissue budget is...

[Ted S.]

SugarFree wants that job.

[Elspeth Flashman]

He also created parts of that job.

[Doctor Whom]

China may be the only country where "porn judge" is an actual government job title.

Together, we can change that. [/American politician]

[John Titor]

Porn regulator pictured here.

[sarcasmic]

Humiliation for Scotland as Japan's whisky is named 'best in world' (and even the English do better than Scots)

Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 given title by Jim Murray's Whisky Bible
For first time, the 2015 edition features no Scottish distillery in its top five
European Whisky of the Year went to Chapter 14 Not Peated, from English Whisky Company
Yamazaki Single Malt from Japan's oldest distillery, which dates to 1923

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

[Injun, as in from India]

Law declaring Scottish-made whiskey as the only true whiskey passing in 3.. 2.. 1..

[Bardas Phocas]

Yamazaki is a pretty good single malt.
I got a bottle out of couriosity, then took it to a wake. The fucking canadians attending sucked it down like water.
Drunken louts.

[Restoras]

C'mon Bardas, they were just topping of their levels of anti-freeze!

[Zeb]

I keep wanting to try it, but it is expensive when there is a Scotch I know is very good for half the price.

[Zeb]

Oh, good, I was worried for a bit that maybe the snowstorm in Maine would rob us of our Daily Mail links.

Jim Murray has had a number of Bourbons for his whiskey of the year in the past as well.

[sarcasmic]

I got barely an inch at my house, though they did have to plow the parking lot at work.

[db]

No True Scotchman...

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

*narrows gaze*

[sarcasmic]

Woman gets the internet to pay her 'unjust' $362 Uber fare - after she woke up to find receipt following night out for 26th birthday

Gabrielle Wathen was stunned when she checked her receipts for the ride
She found that Uber had charged her nine times more than usual
But she turned to a 'crowdfunding' website to raise the money back
She said that the charge left her unable to pay her rent of $450
Uber have not offered to rectify the charge for the cash-strapped woman

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

[SugarFree]

Uber failed to obtain enthusiastic consent.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

*golf clap*

[creech]

Don't you know that 1 in 5 college girls is overcharged by Uber sometime during their drunken enrollment at university?

[UnCivilServant]

What is missing from the story - the reason why premium pricing was in effect.

Lets see, it was 3am, who wants to bet she would have been waiting until 6am for a cab?

[Fluffy]

It was 3 a.m. Halloween night, when every drunk "slutty cat" in Maryland wanted a cab ride.

[Rhywun]

I took a car service home in NYC after my Halloween exploits and I paid 5 bucks (or 14%) more than usual. Is 900% the normal rate typical for Uber? Because that strikes me as a bit ridiculous.

[mauricegirodias]

Seems crazy, but if she switched to Premium Uber, agreed to congestion pricing, etc., it could add up.

/I spent $47 to barhop Halloween night in St. Pete, a ride that's usually $10, but my favorite karaoke bar had gone all haunted house, and I really, really needed to sing Godzilla.

[sarcasmic]

Lost archive that shows pitiful poverty of the real Artful Dodgers: Touching portraits of London's Victorian street children taken by photographer who took up their plight

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-book.html
Libertopia!

[Slammer]

It can't be Libertopia. None of those orphans are working.

[Restoras]

Most of them have shoes. What's the problem?

[UnCivilServant]

They're not working.

[Clown Hunter]

That is hearbreaking.

So glad our welfare state has kept inner-city children from having impoverished lives.

/sarc off

[Lord Humungus]

Top Democratic strategists acknowledge 'challenging' environment as Tuesday looms

"Challenging," acknowledged Ali Lapp, executive director of the House Majority PAC, a super PAC spending millions of dollars on ads to promote House Democrats, referring to the national dynamic.

"It's a very challenging environment," agreed Penny Lee, a Democratic lobbyist and longtime political aide to former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.

"Unsettled," offered Democratic pollster Fred Yang.

"The trends are not good," said Steve Rosenthal, a veteran Democratic and labor strategist.

[Lord Humungus]

While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar

Every time fossil fuels get cheaper, people lose interest in solar deployment. That may be about to change.

After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity-bill prices in 47 U.S. states -- in 2016, according to a Deutsche Bank report published this week. That's assuming the U.S. maintains its 30 percent tax credit on system costs, which is set to expire that same year.

Even if the tax credit drops to 10 percent, solar will soon reach price parity with conventional electricity in well over half the nation: 36 states. Gone are the days when solar panels were an exotic plaything of Earth-loving rich people. Solar is becoming mainstream, and prices will continue to drop as the technology improves and financing becomes more affordable, according to the report.

[The Late P Brooks]

Canada has officially joined in on bombing ISIS.

Cytotoxic is gonna need a bigger tub of lube.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I believe that he'll start self lubing...

[Pope Jimbo]

I hope he is a prime member so he gets free shipping on this:

http://www.amazon.com/Passion-.....716&sr=8-1

[Lord Humungus]

Pensioners in 'mafia war' over garden ornaments

A row over garden ornaments amongst elderly folk in Swansea has led to "threats, intimidation, accusations of theft and damage".

Ron Little, 80, claims he was the victim of a "mafia" style gang of residents at the sheltered housing complex in Waverley Close, Clydach.

Neighbourly disputes over their shared garden have grown so regular that the police and local council have intervened.

All garden ornaments have now been banned.

[John]

http://thehill.com/homenews/se.....black-vote

Rand Paul courts the black vote. This is very good on two levels. First, since very few blacks are Republicans, Paul is court an entirely new constituency in the primaries. If he could get blacks to come out and vote for him in the primaries, he would have a new constituency that no other GOP rival would have a piece of. Second, if he could somehow manage to even get 20% of the black vote in a general election, the Democrats would be finished. He would win in a landslide.

[WTF]

That will never happen, as the Democrats will convince black people that Rand Paul wants to bring back Jim Crow and lynching, because he would have opposed the CRA.

[Zeb]

I fear that is likely what will happen. But it's worth a try.

[John]

That is what they always do. But I think that is likely to get less and less effective. Democrats may have really fucked up in electing a black President. If they hadn't done that, they could still tell black people that some day things will get better. The problem with finally electing a black President is that blacks expected things to get better now that they finally had a black person in the white house. Things not only didn't get better, they got worse for them under Obama. Black still support Obama but they do so out of racial loyalty and nothing else. They are incredibly disappointed and disillusioned by the results of the Obama Administration.

So now what do the Democrats have to sell? They gave black America a black President and things still got worse and the Democrats didn't do a single thing about the drug war or the incarceration problem or anything else that would help the black community.

I think some of them are willing to listen to someone else. The ting to remember is that it doesn't have to be that many blacks. If even 20% of the black community left the Democratic Party, the Democrats would be screwed.

[Lord Humungus]

Mitch McConnell's Freighted Ties to a Shadowy Shipping Company

Before the Ping May, a rusty cargo vessel, could disembark from the port of Santa Marta en route to the Netherlands in late August, Colombian inspectors boarded the boat and made a discovery. Hidden in the ship's chain locker, amidst its load of coal bound for Europe, were approximately 40 kilograms, or about ninety pounds, of cocaine. A Colombian Coast Guard official told The Nation that there is an ongoing investigation.

The seizure of the narcotics shipment in the Caribbean port occurred far away from Kentucky, the state in which Senator Mitch McConnell is now facing a career-defining election. But the Republican Senate minority leader has the closest of ties to the owner of the Ping May, the vessel containing the illicit materials: the Foremost Maritime Corporation, a firm founded and owned by McConnell's in-laws, the Chao family.

Cocaine? Chaos Family?

What is this, a James Bond story?

[Idle Hands]

With his turkey neck and dismal record of leadership? More like a spiderman villain.

[Lord Humungus]

It's a ruse to hide his super-villain status.

[John]

I find it difficult to believe that McConnell is smart enough or interesting enough to run some shadowy shipping operation. Whatever the truth is, nothing associated with McConnell is going to be as interesting or well run as what that article claims.

[SRVolunteer]

Not so good now. Quid pro quo, douchebag.

[SRVolunteer]

I got all kindsa heat on my ass. I got FBI, Bangkok PD, Interpol, MSNBC...

[Lord Humungus]

hahahahaha.... *wipes tear from eye*

To salvage his presidency, Obama faces pressure to reboot - but will he?

Forecasters say that Republicans, who have made Obama's unpopularity a top issue in the elections, are in a strong position to capture the six seats they need to take over the Senate from Democrats. They are also expected to expand their majority in the House of Representatives.

But current and former White House aides say that even if those predictions prove correct, Obama will likely resist calls to clean house for the final two years of his administration, a departure from the dramatic makeovers quickly ordered by many of his predecessors after similar setbacks at the ballot box.

[Drake]

Any other college football fans who can't take the constant stroking and fellating of SEC teams by ESPN?

When a Big Ten or Pac 12 team loses a tough conference game, it proves they suck. When an SEC team loses a conference game (they only play non-conference against pansies) it proves how awesome they are.

[KDN]

The SEC West is clearly the class of the sport this year (and I say this as an inveterate SEC hater). The problem is that they're not nearly so much better as to warrant being treated as if it's some middle point between the NFL and D1, which is how the media is treating it. And that narrative is going to feed on itself to create a terrible outcome for the sport's new postseason.

Putting two or more SEC teams, never mind two SEC West teams in the playoff is beyond the pale. What's the point of even having conferences at that point? Just throw the four highest ranked SEC teams in a tournament at the end of the year to anoint the champion.

In summary: No, Fuck You, win your conference.

[John]

People say that but how much of it is just a self fulfilling profecy? Who outside of the SEC West have those teams beaten?

Auburn got outplayed at KState. While KState is good, no one is calling them elite. Alabama won but didn't look dominant against West Virginia. Other than those two wins, those teams haven't played anyone other than each other. Everyone assumes they are all good but what if they are not and are just beating each other? People love Mississippi State but forget the fact they have one of the worst defenses in the country.

Fuck you win your conference is right. College football has too many teams to make sweeping judgments about one conference against another. People say the SEC West is better than the Pac 12, but how many games have the teams from those two conferences actually played against each other? None that I am aware of. So how do we know other than the media just assumes it is so?

[TwB]

Valid points, all. I would also add that these "top programs" need to quit with the cupcake scheduling bullshit going forward. Play one shitty team at the beginning of the season for a tune up, then have a real deal schedule the rest of the way. Prove that you can beat anybody, anytime, anywhere; unlike Florida State, who after beating Notre Dame and Louisville, have no legit challengers the rest of the way until the ACC title game.

[Drake]

The BCS computer should automatically count any game against non-BCS eligible team as a loss.

[KDN]

The computer has been replaced by Condi & Friends.

[Mickey Rat]

HHad to replace objective criteria with the human element because it did not always favor the media darlings.

[Brett L]

What should FSU do? Their problem is the ACC sucks. Clemson was supposed to be good, they suck. Miami is getting better but not in time for this year. Who the fuck knows which Gators team will show up in town Thanksgiving weekend. But those were 3 games that should be schedule testing that aren't.

[John]

That is the problem with the whole "who did you play" thing. You can only play who is on your schedule. By that logic if you let the Seahawks play in the NCAA, they wouldn't get into the playoffs if they happened to be from a conference having a bad year.

I think any team from one of the five AQ conferences from the old BCS that goes undefeated should be in the playoff unless there are more than four undefeated teams. If you don't do that, you are telling entire conferences "fuck you, you are not getting in the playoff no matter what you do". That makes no sense.

[Drake]

Well, you can't control the other teams in your conference sucking. You can schedule non-conference games against traditionally strong team. The scheduling is year in advance, but if you schedule a Notre Dame or Ohio State, it will probably be a good test.

FSU had a respectable schedule and beat Oklahoma St. They better not look past BC who already knocked off USC.

[Drake]

Oh yeah, they squeaked it out against ND too.

[John]

The problem Drake is that it is hard to schedule good teams non conference and since the schedule is made years in advance there is no way to ensure you will play good teams.

Ten years ago a team that put Texas on the schedule no doubt thought they were scheduling a strong opponent. Turns out that they weren't and there was no way to tell that. So unless they just schedule FBS teams, I don't think you can hold a weak non conference schedule against a team.

[Drake]

So 10 years ago the Alabama AD thought Florida Atlantic, Southern Miss, and Western Carolina would be challenging games?

Fucking pathetic. Why not try to schedule high school teams then tell me how awesome they are.

If you schedule a Texas, Nebraska, UCLA, etc... they may not be ranked in a few years, but they will always give you a tough game. Florida Atlantic will never give Alabama's 2nd string a real game.

[John]

I agree with you Drake. I think every school should have to schedule at least two non conference games against schools from the other AQ conferences. This shit of playing three games against directional schools needs to stop

[KDN]

You can tell by looking at the talent. If you look at the preseason draft boards, the upper echelons are swimming in SEC players, particularly in the lines as has been the case for the past decade. They're also pulling more blue chippers from recent recruiting classes than the other conferences.

You're right about the non-conf schedules, though. The only tough games from the SEC upper echelons were AUB / KSU (close), Clemson / UGA (UGA romp), Bama / WVU (close), and LSU / Wisc (close). The SEC won all of those games, but if they were as awesome as the narrative they should have been blowouts.

[John]

That is bullshit. Time and again teams that were supposed to be more talented have gotten their asses kicked in the bowls.

In 1995, Florida had the most dominant season in SEC history. And the "experts" nearly all picked them to beat Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl because they were perceived to have "more talent" and have so many players who were going to get drafted. Of course Nebraska had one of the great teams of the 20th Century and ran all over them. It is just not that simple.

The big thing is that since the NFL is a different game the college, having more NFL talent doesn't always translate to the best team. If it did Mack Brown would have won four or five national titles at Texas rather than the one he did. Talent wins out over average or good teams but not always against really good teams that are well put together and have players that fit their system.

Lastly, NFL scouting is hardly an exact science. Those boards do not accurately represent who is the most talented and are even less accurate at ranking who is the best football player. They basically are the NFL's educated guess as to who has the best physical skills that will translate into the pro game. That is it.

[KDN]

You do realize that we're like 95% in agreement, right? But if you're looking for a reason as to why the SEC gets the edge, that's it. They have superior talent on the lines, and the conference's reputation gives it the opportunities to play for titles every year. It's the latter part that's probably more important; championship games are essentially a coin flip, but the SEC is always in them.

If it did Mack Brown would have won four or five national titles at Texas rather than the one he did.

Note: Mack Brown being a shitty game coach and a not-great developer of talent has a lot to do with this. Buckeye fans are still in the honeymoon stage with Urban Meyer, but they're in the same boat. I'm amazed that Bradley Roby has made more strides in 10 weeks as a Bronco than he did in 3 years at OSU. I'd kill to see what Mark Dantonio would do with that program and talent base. I think it says a lot that they were never as good once he left for Cinci.

[John]

It was more than Brown being a bad game coach. It was Brown recruiting players totally based on talent rather than on how they fit together and worked in his system.

The other thing about college talent is that the top rated high school players are often early bloomers. They are top high school players often because they played for top high school programs that were able to develop their talent more than players who play for lesser programs. So what often happens, and Texas under Brown is a case study in this, a player comes out as a five star recruit but is already pretty close to his ceiling as a player. So he goes and has a middling collage career because he is a middling talent who looked like a five star talent in high school because he was just closer to his ceiling than other players.

To give two examples, Texas passed on both Drew Brees and Andrew Luck. Both were good recruits but not top recruits. They also passed on Justin Blackmon who went on to win two Balitnikof awards and would be a great pro player today if he would stop smoking weed. Texas took two five star receivers the year Blackmon came out and neither one amounted to much of anything. Blackmon was a three star recruit because he was skinny and played at a small school where he didn't get much coaching. He wasn't as good as those guys in high school but his ceiling was obviously much higher.

[KDN]

I think Luck was an early commit to Stanford. He was the 7th ranked QB in his class and only fielded one offer. With his background he was probably more interested in the degree than the football program.

Agreed otherwise. Scouting 18 yo's is a crapshoot, and the guys that develop first have a significant edge.

[Drake]

Stanford probably has the highest academic requirements for football recruits in Division 1. They look for smart talent early and nationwide (my daughter knows a very smart kid being recruited).

[Drake]

Pac 12 usually cranks out the top defensive linemen. Leonard Williams at USC will probably be the first Defensive Lineman picked next year.

[Clown Hunter]

Let us take a moment to reflect on the utter dog's breakfast that the Big 10 has made of itself.

It used to be a very solid conference, with lots of competitive high-level games.

Now that they've expanded it in order to make money, most games any given weekend come off like pre-conference games.

Over time, this will wreck their brand. Idiots.

[KDN]

Before this season started, the Big Ten East was being spoken of as the second or third best division in the NCAA, and it includes the two newcomers and the worst program in the conference. They're not doomed by expansion, they're doomed by the collapse of PSU and Michigan as CFB powers.

[Drake]

I'll give them "class of the SEC". Until they start playing real non-conference games, they are pretenders who get exposed in the Bowl games like last year.

I doubt any of them would win either division in the Pac 12 or finish above .500 with Notre Dame's schedule.

[Restoras]

ESPN has sucked for the last 15 years. Maybe that has something to do with it?

[KDN]

espn.go.com is still the best run sports site on the web, unfortunately. I would love to send my money elsewhere (yes, actual money since I'm an Insider), but I have yet to find another site that has as much information available in so easily navigable a layout.

I will say that if they redesign the whole site in a similar vein to ESPN FC, I will cancel my subscription and boycott the site immediately. Blech.

[Ted S.]

Only 15 years? I think it goes back to at least the founding of ESPN2 which was originally supposed to be sports with "attitude" or some such shit.

[The_Millenial]

Is that really how they promoted it at first?

[KDN]

THE DEUCE! Oh yeah. It was built with Gen X attitude and a focus on niche sports like ice hockey.

[cavalier973]

Stop wasting H&R real estate by discussing athletic subjects. Stick to the issues!

[Rich]

Two-time 'Teacher of the Year' charged with raping student

The teacher's attorney, Adamo Lanza, said his client "would be vindicated.

"Adamo Lanza", eh?

[Ted S.]

That's the first thing I thought too.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Wait, I know!

"What do you get when you cross Battlestar Galactica and a Fiat mechanic?"

[Drake]

Explosive decompression and vacuum exposure?

[The Late P Brooks]

If it comes, it will be from within the Democratic Party, or rather from the progressives who still reside there.

"Take the Democratic Party, please!"

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's Border Policy Fueled Epidemic, Evidence Shows

The deadly EV-D68 enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack Obama's decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence.

The evidence includes admissions from top health officials that the epidemic included multiple strains of the virus, and that it appeared simultaneously in multiple independent locations.

The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois to see if they are close relatives to the EV-D68 viruses found in Central America.

[Clown Hunter]

This is absolutely right,

But "federal" researchers are going to have a very hard time doing this study or publicizing their results. If it plays out that kids are dying and being paralyzed because of open borders, that vaporizes a huge chunk of the Narrative.

And that cannot be allowed.

[Lord Humungus]

Entomologist Slammed For Euthanizing 'Puppy Spider'

SIMON: You began to get a lot of very aggressive email from people who didn't like the fact that you study something like the South American Goliath birdeater, and to do that you've got to kill it.

NASKRECKI: Yes, I have received quite a bit of negative reactions to the fact that we scientists have to collect specimens occasionally. I would like to emphasize that we never do it lightly and this is probably the most unpleasant part of our job. But unfortunately, there's really no other way to look inside of an organism. We need to dissect things to see how their internal organ works. The easiest way to get the DNA is to grind the muscle of an organism. But in addition to that, we collect specimens not knowing what they will be used for. The museum where I work has 21 million specimens collected over the last 200 or 300 years, and they're still being studied. And we are still answering questions that would have been unconceivable when the specimens were first collected.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A nation of idiots

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Must be email from en.... every woman I know would want the spider killed, immediately.

[KDN]

Even Silicon Valley Tilts Republican
After Harry Reid scuttles patent reform, tech companies look elsewhere for a political solution.

technology companies long associated with liberal causes are switching loyalties. In 2010 Democratic candidates for national office got 55% of contributions from tech-company political-action committees. This year Republicans have received 52%. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, companies with PACs giving more to Republicans than to Democrats include Google, Facebook and Amazon.

Democrats especially humiliated Silicon Valley this year by failing to enact patent reform. Patents make little sense for software, which almost always builds on earlier work. There are some 250,000 potential patent violations in smartphones alone. Companies known as "patent trolls" stockpile patents to extract huge settlements from technology companies, not to build products.

Plaintiff lawyers joke that their focus has gone from "PI to IP": Now that personal-injury litigation has been reformed in many states, they're turning to intellectual-property lawsuits such as patent infringement.

[KDN]

The rest of the article explains how Reid's twattery scuttled a bipartisan bill that sailed through the house. I didn't follow this issue, but both House libertarians voted against it, so it's probably an imperfect solution with lots of pork attached.

[Rich]

The deadly EV-D68 enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack Obama's decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence.

The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois to see if they are close relatives to the EV-D68 viruses found in Central America.

Ah, so *that's* what "staying with relatives" meant!

[John]

http://grantland.com/the-trian.....-cheating/

Bill Simmons bothered to write a decent article on Brady v. Manning last week. The interesting thing to me is that he spins it as being a pro Manning article. The point of the article is that Manning is better than Brady because unlike Brady, Manning doesn't just do what the coaches tell him and play with the players the GM gives him. He insists on running things such that he always has good offensive weapons to play with and the offense runs through him.

The problem with the article is I don't see how that is a good thing and why Manning should get a pass for doing this when no other player would. Maybe if Manning didn't insist on the team always having a lot of offensive weapons, his teams would have better defenses. And maybe if Manning didn't insist on running his offense, his teams could run the ball better when they need to and play better in bad weather and in the playoffs. I read that article and see Manning as kind of a tragic figure who while immensely talented has allowed his ego and desire for control become his own worst enemy and why he hasn't been more successful in the playoffs.

[Restoras]

Those few (many? I don't honestly know...) where Manning appears to have single handedly shredded a defense in the second half with his audibles could lead one to believe all that.

[John]

Manning's numbers speak for themselves. His approach works really well. The problem with it is that it doesn't work very well in bad weather and it doesn't work very well against a team with a really good defense. It also doesn't work as well when the referees are not calling a tight game, which they usually do in the playoffs since no ref wants to let his whistle decide a game if he can avoid it.

At some point, every team has to gut it out and run the football and be able to win a slow nasty defensive struggle. Contrast Manning's teams with the 1999 Rams who despite being the greatest show in turf won a vicious defensive battle with Tampa Bay in the NFC title game. Those are the kinds of games Manning has a hard time winning because his teams never play that kind of football and you can't just decide to play it after not doing it all year.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

This^^

The year the Colts won the Super-bowl, their defnse was terrible in the regular season and turned things around with a healthy Bob Sanders. They caught everyone by suprise, by being a completely different defense in the post season.

[TwB]

I agree but the last part of your opinion can be applied to Belichick as well. He let his ego and desire for control ruin the last 7 years of Brady's career and probably cost them 2 Super Bowls in the process. I hope that Patriots fans remember that fact 10 years from now, but who knows if they will.

[John]

I am not sure about that. Those two Super Bowls were very close. Let Wes Welker catch a ball he should have caught and not let the Giants get the famous helmet catch and they win both of those games.

Yes, they didn't and that is football. But at the same time they played well enough to both get to those games and well enough to win. They just caught some bad breaks, which happens.

Every other great team has suffered losses like that. The Lombardi Packers lost a nail biter to the Eagles for the 1960 NFL Championship, the only playoff game Lombardi ever lost. The 49ers lost two NFC title games to the Redskins in 83 and the Giants in 1990 in improbable ways. People rip on the Patriots because their improbable losses happened in the Super Bowl rather than earlier.

[TwB]

Very true. Still, if Belichick had given Brady just one or two more solid offensive weapons, the Pats would have had a much better chance of winning 5 Super Bowls instead of 3. That being said, if the Patriots play like they did last night, they will be hard to beat come playoff time.

[John]

They will be. I am not a Patriots fan but I can't help but marvel at how great of a coach Belicheck is. Rarely do you see a team really improve the NFL during the season. The teams are so good that you pretty much are what you are. The Patriots looked horrible on that Monday night against Kansas City. And now they are blowing out the Broncos. That to me is just an astounding coaching job.

[TwB]

I despise Belichick because he's so fucking arrogant but the man can coach. I mean, he got the Pats to go 11-5 w/ Matt fucking Cassel as their starting QB and not much else around him right after losing Brady for the whole season. That's a helluva accomplishment.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Having a healthy Gronkowski made a huge difference in opening Brady's options.

Not for nothing, though... All of the Patriot Super Bowl wins were due to really great defenses and Brady being just good enough.

Gunslinger Brady hasn't ever won the big one.

[Pope Jimbo]

Belichick is a hard person to like, but I respect him for putting together teams with smart players.

So many other teams put together their team with A-level physical guys who have C-level understanding of the game. Belichick seems to put together teams with B-level physical guys who have A-level football smarts.

For me it is a breath of fresh air to see guys playing who seem to understand the basics of the game. For example, their left defensive end is more committed to not letting the other QB escape containment and run to his right. Fuck, if only the Vikes could figure that one out. I like our end (Robison) but I can't stand it when I see Rogers/Cutler/Stafford escape the pocket and roll right.

I think that it also helps him keep his teams intact year after year. Other teams are less likely to poach his players in free agency because they look at their physical abilities (b-level) and decide they'd rather get the guy who has a freak 40 time, but has no idea where to run.

[John]

I don't know why people dislike Belicheck so much. He is just a dick to the media. So what? The media sucks and if I were him I would be a dick too.

[Ted S.]

Manning has a worse playoff record than Brett Favre, but it's amazing how many sportswriters treat the two quarterbacks so vastly differently.

[John]

And Manning has played with much better players around him than Farve ever did. Farve had one great running back, Aman Green, during his entire career. Manning has had two of them. How many hall of fame receivers did Farve ever get to throw to? Manning had Marvin Harrison and a ton of other very good players like Pierre Garcon, Dallas Clark and now DeMarious Thomas and Wes Welker.

[The_Millenial]

Don't forget Reggie Wayne. Manning has pretty much always had an abundance of offensive talent at his disposal. Contemporaries like Brady, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Eli, and to a lesser extent Brees have all gone through periods where the pieces around them were fairly weak.

Manning is obviously great, but we shouldn't pretend he "made" the receivers around him.

[antisocial-ist]

Manning's teams have always suffered from a lack of physical play on both sides of the ball. No matter how much has changed since the days of the flying wedge the teams that hit harder still have the advantage, especially on the road or in bad weather. Look at the game last night. Peyton threw for over 400 yards and lost a blowout. NE dominated the line and played bump and run with the receivers. People forget about it now, but the NE teams that won the superbowl had a very tough defense and good running game. Look at the majority of superbowl winners from any era, its teams that can run the ball and play good defense.

[Johnny Bravo]

Look at the majority of superbowl winners from any era, its teams that can run the ball and play good defense.

Wasn't it Lou Holtz that said that "offense wins games, but defense wins championships"?

[antisocial-ist]

Close, he said offensthe winsth games but defensthe winths champthionthipths.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

nithe.

[John]

Yes. The sportswriters always under appreciate the value of the running game because they being nerds themselves love to listen to stat nerds. Stat nerds love the passing game. What the stat nerds don't get is that the running game has second order effects, like being less prone to turnovers than passing, dominating time of possession keeping the other offense off the field, being effective regardless of the weather that the stats don't account for.

If you are going to win a Super Bowl, you have to be able to beat teams that play physical defenses and slow the game down. This is especially true since the playoffs are officiated differently than the regular season. See my example above the 1999 Rams. They were this hugely explosive offensive team. But, they had a great running back in Marshal Faulk and they were coached by a real old school coach who emphasized toughness and physicality in Dick Vermeil. So when Tampa Bay and later Tennessee forced them into a physical low scoring game, they were able to man up and beat them at their own game. Manning's teams of always failed to do that. The one year he won the Super Bowl he did it by beating a Patriots' team with a middling defense in a high scoring game in a dome.

[antisocial-ist]

The second order effects are huge, and even more so in lower levels. Tubby Raymond used to say he liked the wing t because just running it in practice gave the entire team a tougher mindset. It's even more true in high school where a lot of players play both ways. If you install an old school smash mouth offense on day one, the clear message you're sending to everyone of your players offense, defense, or special teams is "we win games by physically dominating our opponents". Pretty soon, that becomes the culture of the team.

[John]

Run blocking takes less athletic talent than pass blocking. Pass blocking is like ballet dance. The footwork of a really good left tackle in the NFL is amazing. Pass blocking also takes tremendous skill with your hands. A lot of NFL lineman take marshal arts classes in the off season to get quicker and better hand work. Run blocking in contrast takes leverage and explosiveness. If you are lower than the other guy and strong you will block him. Even a lineman isn't going to make it at the next level, college or pro or even high school varsity, they will likely be able to run block if they are strong and tough.

Lastly, passing takes work and timing that running doesn't.

[antisocial-ist]

As a former lineman, you're absolutely right about the talent that pass pro requires. But what most people don't understand is how much raw strength it takes. Think about it though, pass blocking is much more passive than run blocking. All I can do is put my body between the de and the qb. When he rushes me with his full body, I punch with both hands. You can work the hips into it a little, but it really takes a lot of upper body strength to do it effectively. Run blocking OTOH lets me put my entire body into the block and take advantage of angles and double teams. Example: one year I was coaching a team where 4 out of our 5 starting lineman weighed 170 or less. We rushed for over 300 yards a game and averaged 46ppg. The only way we could throw the ball was quick play action and sprintout.

[John]

I didn't mean to imply pass blocking doesn't take strength. It does and bulk as well. Even if you have the technique down, if the guy on the other side is bigger and stronger than you, he can just bull rush you and run you over. In run blocking the smaller guy has a chance because he can get low and use his legs and leverage the bigger man. Can't do that as much pass blocked.

You will see full backs or even recivers take on linebackers and sometimes even defensive ends in the run game. Hell even a receiver can run block a lineman if he is down blocking and catches the lineman at the right angle. But you never see a fullback pass blocking a lineman or big linebacker. He may assist a lineman in doing that or sacrifice himself by getting bull rushed by a blitzing linebacker but that is it. That is because in pass blocking size has quality all of its own.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

What you say is true if you're a 'three yards and a cloud of dust' form of running.

In a good running offense (You mentioned Dick Vermiel), the run blocking that both the Rams and later the Chiefs did was actually significantly harder than pass blocking.

The Chiefs O-line under Vermiel (arguably the best Offensive Line unit in the history of the game) was all over the field, pulling stunts and blocking down field.

Brian Waters blocking down on a miked up Ray Lewis on a Monday night game was hilarious. Springing Priest Holmes or Larry Johnson for big gains was due to that line.

Terrell Davis and the Denver zone blocking schemes were same type of thing.

[John]

Bobarian,

Thanks for the love of that Chiefs line. It never gets any credit and it was spectacular. Willie Roaf was one of the most athletic big men I have ever seen. I remember when he first came to the Chiefs Green threw an interception in the left flats and Roaf took off after and caught the guy like a gazelle. It was amazing to see a man that big move like that. Him and Will Shields were an unbelievable left side of the line.

I will as a Chiefs fan forever hate Ryan Sims. Had that fat lazy piece of shit been anything but a total waste of space and oxygen and instead been worthy of his draft status, the Chiefs would have had a decent defense in 03 and won the Super Bowl. That offense was spectacular and would have bum rushed the Patriots had they beat the Colts. They wouldn't have rolled the Chiefs and that line the way they did the soft Colts.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Ryan Sims wasn't the only problem with that defense. He who shall not be named having Ryan Sims drop back and attempt to cover someone in a passing down was prime example of ultimate stupid.

But I agree, the Colts were the only team that could keep up with Chiefs offense that year. That game was won at the coin toss. First possession wins.

Chiefs Defense could have stopped any other team at least once.

[TwB]

Exactly. And then the Colts got to play the Bears who were QB'd by Rex Grossman, one of the worst starting QBs in Super Bowl history. The game was gift wrapped to Manning for him to win. Manning will go down as one of the greatest QBs ever but the deck was stacked in his favor as a passer not just recently but over his entire career. I honestly think that he is overrated as a QB and Brady is not given his due and may never be.

[KDN]

The sportswriters always under appreciate the value of the running game because they being nerds themselves love to listen to stat nerds. Stat nerds love the passing game. What the stat nerds don't get is that the running game has second order effects, like being less prone to turnovers than passing, dominating time of possession keeping the other offense off the field, being effective regardless of the weather that the stats don't account for.

Erm, the stat nerds get this quite well. Run over to FO or PFF and offer this up and you'll get laughed off the boards. Sportswriters, particularly those of the old school, don't like stat nerds at all; they consider them no-talent amateurs daring to encroach on their God-given domain.

Passing is big now not because of some football sabermetric focus on it but because the NFL has spent the past decade changing the rules to make it easier to pass.

[John]

No they don't KDN. The stat nerds were preaching pass long before the rule changes. The stat nerds love passing because it produces big stats. Go find me any run oriented team that ever got any love from the nerd ball crowd.

[JW]

It will all be over soon, but one more time for kicks: Weekend polling numbers show Republican candidates with a slight lead over Democrats in several of the more contested U.S. Senate races.

Oh, thank god.

We're saved.

[Lord Humungus]

phew... *puts down can of gasoline*

[John]

Really there are only two races that really matter tomorrow and both of them are governor's races. If Scott Walker doesn't win, his defeat will stand as a warning to any other governor who wants to take on the public employee unions and also a lesson that using a corrupt DA to go after your political opponents works. That would be a very bad thing and a much worse thing than anything that happens with the Senate.

The other race that matters is the Massachusetts governor's race. It doesn't matter in political terms. But it matters more than anything because of the moral justice on the line. After all the Amirults have been through, the State of Massachusetts kicking them in the face one more time by electing that bitch governor would be a tough pill to swallow. I so hope that bitch loses. She will never get the justice she deserves in this world but going down as the one Democrat who was so loathsome they couldn't even win in Massachusetts is something and a lot better than her being governor.

[JW]

What's more amazing to me is that our betters continuously pout forward sociopaths that should be beaten with rubber hoses, tarred, feathered, immolated and then run out of town, as our leaders, and those same cunts who see this as a sport then tell us to believe in democracy.

Yeah, I'll just clap harder. I'm sure Tinkerbell will wake up.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"voter shaming" techniques have a history of boosting Democratic turnout

http://online.wsj.com/articles.....1414803485

Dem voters willingness to submit to insults and bullying from their own party is symptomatic of the relationship between that party and its...there's no other term...followers.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

and its...there's no other term...followers.

"Subjects"

[Aloysious]

DNC chair: 'We're going to hold the Senate'

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballo.....the-senate

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) predicted Sunday that her party will hold the Senate in Tuesday's midterms thanks to its "superior" ground games in key states.

Trigger Warning: pic of DWS

[WTF]

The Dems actually do have a better get-out-the-vote ground game than the GOP. The Dems also have an effective fraud machine to help swing close elections. So DWS may not actually be talking out her ass this time.

[Lord Humungus]

Yep - I'll give this a (qualified - too many unknowns) 50/50.

[Lord Humungus]

Remembering Blackadder Goes Forth: How a TV comedy made the most powerful point about the First World War

But it's the ending everyone remembers.

It has since been voted one of the greatest TV moments of all time.

Yet the footage of the four men running to their fate initially looked awkward and clumsy.

It was only the subsequent decision to make it black and white and broadcast it in slow motion against a melodic version of the Blackadder theme which gave the sequence the awesome power it has today.

The final shot sees the field as it would be today: covered in poppies.

[WTF]

The Blackadder series was one of the finest comedy series ever made.

[John]

Most downer ending to a TV Series ever. And incredibly well done. The whole series was the unit shamming out combat and making the war a giant boondoggle trip to France, right up until the end.

[Warty]

Disney princesses with realistic waistlines

I'm gonna start a campaign to get Gaston's measurements changed to be more realistic. Also, this fat woman is training her poor kid to be a miserable loser like her.

Laura Gutleben ? Top Commenter
My six year old asked me, a portly woman, why princesses were so skinny.

After the whole "They're not real" thing, I asked him which was better, the skinny or the real one.

My kid pointed to the real ones.

[Idle Hands]

No one's slick as Gaston
No one's quick as Gaston
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's
For there's no man in town half as manly
Perfect, a pure paragon!
You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley
And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on
Lefou and Chorus:
No one's been like Gaston
A king pin like Gaston
LeFou:
No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston
Gaston:
As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!
Lefou and Chorus:
My what a guy, that Gaston!
Give five "hurrahs!"
Give twelve "hip-hips!"
LeFou:
Gaston is the best
And the rest is all drips
Chorus:
No one fights like Gaston
Douses lights like Gaston
LeFou:
In a wrestling match nobody bites like Gaston!
Bimbettes:
For there's no one as burly and brawny
Gaston:
As you see I've got biceps to spare
LeFou:
Not a bit of him's scraggly or scrawny
Gaston:
That's right!
And ev'ry last inch of me's covered with hair
Chorus:
No one hits like Gaston
Matches wits like Gaston
LeFou:
In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston
Gaston:
I'm espcially good at expectorating!
Ptoooie!
Chorus:
Ten points for Gaston!
Gaston:
When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs
Ev'ry morning to help me get large
And now that I'm grown I eat five dozen eggs
So I'm roughly the size of a barge!

[Idle Hands]

Gaston most realistic disney villain?

[Warty]

Sergio Olivia would have been proud of Gaston's chest/waist ratio, that's all I'm saying.

[Idle Hands]

All you have to do is eat 5 dozen eggs a day and you'll beable to squat like Gaston.

[Warty]

You know, 5 dozen eggs a day was not an outlandish amount for an old-timey bodybuilder, especially one of Vince Gironda's guys. Maybe Gaston is on to something.

[John]

Aren't the princesses supposed to be teenagers? Those are realistic waistlines for a thin teenage girl. I am not seeing how giving them the body of a 30 something MILF is a good thing.

[Warty]

I like this exchange. Listen, sugartits, let me tell you what you think about feminist perspectives on the depictions of the female form in media.

Elizabeth Robertson ? Digital Arts Center UCSD Extension
THATS my thought, cartoons are supposed to be exaggerated! they are not supposed to be taken literally. No one should take it as the status quo.
Reply ? ? 45 ? October 30 at 9:57pm

Thom Haberer ? Teaching Assistant (T.A.) at San Diego State University
Elizabeth Robertson You are not paying attention to society then. No one is saying you need to look like Ariel, but the way she looks, the way Mulan looks, the way Cinderella looks....White hetero-normative standards are in effect. The idea that one should look like a princess in the first place........ Where might that have come from?
Reply ? ? 29 ? October 30 at 11:53pm

[John]

The funny thing is that unless you are Roman Polanski, the thicker waist lines are the hetero standard. Study after study shows that men prefer women who are a little thicker and have hour glass figures to thinner women with straighter figures. Changing their waist lines is just making them look more like adults and less like children and closer to the hetero standard.

That doesn't bother me but I would think it would bother Thom Harberer since he is so concerned about running the straight male out of society.

[OldMexican]

Thom Haberer ? Teaching Assistant (T.A.) at San Diego State University

....White hetero-normative standards are in effect.

Finally, we have stumbled over the answer of why most lesbians are fat and ugly: their significant others do not respond to the White, hetero-normative standards.

[DEG]

I'm imposing my English knowledge privilege here, but Thom contradicts himself.

[lap83]

Well they're not realistic for anyone considering their waistlines are the size of their necks and they don't wear corsets. But who gives a shit?

[John]

No one who has any sense. But I have three sisters and my impression is that young girls feel most insecure about their bodies because they don't have boobs and curves. If your concern is that you don't want Disney characters to make young girls feel bad about their bodies, I am pretty sure making those characters build like brick shit houses that will stand in contrast to the thin and curveless bodies of the young girls watching is not the way to do it.

[lap83]

True, when I was a teenager I was insecure about being too thin. I think it's the chubby middle-aged moms who are the most insecure about it, which is just pathetic.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

My kid pointed to the real ones and I gave him a cookie.

[lap83]

oh you just know she uses food as reward

[ninaconnollyled]

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What Matthew responded I'm shocked that a stay at home mom can earn $8529 in four weeks on the internet . pop over here.

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[Elspeth Flashman]

I know it's too late in the AM links for anyone to pay attention to a new post, but here goes:

Cop who tortured at least 100 defendants will keep pension, IL Supreme Court rules.

The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld a decision to give a disgraced ex-Chicago police officer his $4,000 monthly pension, Courthouse News reports.

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

Former detective commander Jon Burge avoided being charged in the torture of more than 100 suspects because of the statute of limitations. But in 2011 he was sentenced to 4? years in federal prison for perjury in the matter.

[OldMexican]

It's becoming so pervasive it stopped being shocking. Which is shocking in itself.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

That guy was legendary - nobody did squat because "ah, if they didn't do that, they did something else" attitude in Cook County.

I am surprised someone didn't revenge kill him.

[Rhywun]

Donetsk People's Republic

Has a pleasant ring, doesn't it.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Donetsk? Don't tell.

[Root Boy]

Daily Beast has an article on what we all think of Russell Brand:

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

[Rhywun]

I know absolutely nothing about the guy except he shows up at a lot of English Premiere League matches rooting for gazillionaire players.

[Zeb]

I sort of like him as a comedian sometimes. He was better when he was a drugged out weirdo, though.
His politics are entirely stupid, though. How does someone who became famous for smoking crack and never combing his hair get taken at all seriously?