Obama Sent Secret Letter to Iran on ISIS, GOP Wants Keystone Pipeline, Star Wars VII Gets a Name: P.M. Links

• President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS.

• House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says that the Republican-controlled Congress is going to push for the Keystone XL Pipeline and the repeal of medical device taxes implemented by Obamacare, and they're going to resist unilateral immigration decisions if Obama tries to use executive orders.
• This ex-Navy SEAL says he killed Osama bin Laden. This Marine just got charged for a fraud scheme involving the president's helicopter fleet. And, the U.S. Army today quietly ended a policy that permitted black servicemen to be referred to as "negroes."
• Russia is sending ballistic missiles-equipped units to Ukraine's border. Every day since the revolution turned bloody in February, I've thought, "It can't get any worse than this," and every day it does.
• The Archdiocese of Chicago released 15,000 pages on 350 incidents of child abuse within the Catholic Church.
• The next Star Wars movie just got a title: "The Force Awakens." …You're kidding, right? That's not just a porno parody? 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

That's not just a porno parody?

Rape culture in space.

[mr lizard]

Male Gaze Saber

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are like, what, two women in all of the original Star Warses? What kind of porno is this gonna be?

[Rich]

Girl on girl?

[db]

Aunt Beru/Mon Mothma?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It was 3, your forgot Michelle

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well played.

[Agammamon]

Beru
Leia
Mon Mothma
Teh Wookie (not that it matters with a wookie)

[RBS]

The Bukkake Menace

[Raven Nation]

Apparently there were supposed to be some female X-fighter pilots but their scene were cut from the final version.

[Raven Nation]

Pics:

http://www.cinemablend.com/new.....34581.html

[C. Anacreon]

What's with the black-and-white middle photo of Shirley Booth? Was she really going to be an X-wing pilot too?

[MJGreen]

You know that's a joke, right?

[Trouser-Pod]

DACK
Right now I feel like I could take
on the whole Empire myself.

LUKE
(quietly, strapping
in)
I know what you mean.

[Pro Libertate]

Who said Chewie or the droids were male?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I DID.

[waffles]

You and what army!?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The rebel army. Or clone one. I forget.

[Pro Libertate]

Hey, look, a secret army being cobbled together under suspicious circumstances. Let's make it our military.

[Zeb]

Why assume that male and female even have direct equivalents in alien species?

For some reason, now I am having a flashback of the early 80s anti-smoking ad featuring R2D2 and C3PO.

[Pro Libertate]

Well, they did have some male-female pairings among what appeared to be humanoid creatures. Didn't you see The Star Wars Christmas Special?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I saw it - it was like a dream you have after watching star wars and eating too much pizza. And too much bad acid.

[Pro Libertate]

I was a kid before that day. After that, I was a child no longer.

[Restoras]

Solo shot first?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Porkins II: The Next Day

[Kaptious Kristen]

I was thinking of going as Porkins for Halloween.

[Fist of Etiquette]

But instead?

[seguin]

Sexy Admiral Akbar.

[Coeus]

Yeah, but she has to go with a guy in a dress for that to work.

[Idle Hands]

Best thing Seth McFarland ever contributed to humanity.

[Idle Hands]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxBFWMBE2ik

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"This ex-Navy SEAL says he killed Osama bin Laden."

No. Obama killed Osama.

/narrows gaze.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I've been so corrupted by SF that I thought it was gonna be Star Wars VII: Darth Warty and the Doomcock Massacre

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A New Hope For Merchandising

[seguin]

"Spaceballs-the T-shirt, Spaceballs-the Coloring Book, Spaceballs-the Lunch box, Spaceballs-the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs-the Flame Thrower!"

[Fist of Etiquette]

R2D-Cup

[db]

C3PeeOnMe

[Fist of Etiquette]

I was trying to think one up for him.

[Rich]

Is that the droid you were looking for?

[Fist of Etiquette]

This Marine just got charged for a fraud scheme involving the president's helicopter fleet.

You can't inflate your price unless you're building a nonfunctioning website for the taxpayer.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Also all the links go to same article for the ex-SEAL.

[GILMORE]

He was a busy man

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

He was a Navy SEAL, a Marine and in the Army. What, the Air Force wasn't good enough for him to join, too?

[Injun, as in from India]

Okay. So Jon Stewart did not vote. Or maybe he did. He was only joking.

Jon Stewart apologizes for joke about not voting

But then, according to this, the Democrats can verify who did and did not vote.

Democrats Try Scaring Voters to the Polls

"We're sending this mailing to you and your neighbors to publicize who does and does not vote," said the card sent out by the Connecticut party. "We will be reviewing these records after the election to determine whether or not you have joined your neighbors in voting."

I wonder if the Democrat Party of NYC is going to verify whether Jon Stewart actually voted, and vote-shame him if in reality he did not.

[JWatts]

Well you know, it's the Statist party and all. What would a good Statist be without a little coercion mixed in.

[Coeus]

How the fuck do they maintain the cognitive dissonance required to call non-dem voters "uninformed"?

[CE]

Their whole strategy is to try to get more uninformed voters to turn out to vote, so they have a chance to win.

[Zeb]

That does seem to be an obvious part of the strategy. You see a lot more Ds than Rs doing "get out the vote" stuff. Their whole strategy seems to be to get more people who are either insane or completely uninterested in politics to vote.

[MJGreen]

What a pussy.

It's fine if you didn't vote, Jon! Especially since it was probably a busy day for you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says that the Republican-controlled Congress is going to push for the Keystone XL Pipeline and the repeal of medical device taxes implemented by Obamacare, and they're going to resist unilatera-

Yeah don't even bother reading that whole thing; it ain't happening.

[C. Anacreon]

tl;dr

[PapayaSF]

Hey Anacreon, I've been meaning to ask you: I've been reading reports of lots of shortages of pharmaceuticals, and even saline. Have you noticed anything like that?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Lil' Wayne used up all of the drugs.

[jesse.in.mb]

For those who aren't familiar with this important news story.

[PapayaSF]

This has been going on for months. Why is sterile saline in a bags suddenly so difficult to produce? And we are headed into flu season, not to mention Ebola, which requires a lot of that stuff.

[Ted S.]

Because fuck you that's why. Or because the government has more control of the health care system?

[C. Anacreon]

Yes, we are seeing it across the board in a great number of drugs and equipment.

You might wonder how there can be a shortage of intravenous saline when 3/4 of the planet is seawater? But unsurprisingly, it is our great friends in government we have to blame. The FDA is way, way behind in approving manufacturers of generic drugs and other medical supplies, and you can't make anything without their blessing.

Essentially, people are suffering, hospitals are out of stock, and there's tons of companies ready to fill the need, but the FDA can't get its collective thumb out of its ass.

I'm affected both as a doctor and as a patient. The chemotherapy infusions that I get injected into me weekly each used to be delivered in one saline IV bag per drug. Now they combine several drugs into one tiny bag.

[PapayaSF]

Dude, sorry to hear about the chemo. And we need to do another H+R SF meetup.

[C. Anacreon]

Thanks but no need to be sorry on the chemo, it's got me in remission and the side effects are minimal -- that's why the guy you met at the meetup has hair, eyebrows, etc.

We definitely need to set up another SF event -- or maybe even an All-California Spectacular! Let's road trip to Manhattan Beach and have Playa, Jesse and the others host us.

[jesse.in.mb]

Do we have San Diegans? I feel like they're under represented here.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Good luck buddy.

[Mokers]

Would love another SF meetup. I was out of town for the first one.

[Tonio]

Congrats, Doc. You keep kicking that thing in the ass.

Also, thanks for the disturbing news about saline, etc. At least saline you can formulate easily if you have to, other stuff not so much. Heat sealer or old-school IV bottles? I'm thinking heat sealer because plastic and because those rubber stoppers difficult to sterilize.

[Tonio]

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS.

Well, it's not a secret anymore, is it? /Dr. Strangelove

[Palin's Buttplug]

GOP war boners are shrinking. Iran is their #1 target.

[jesse.in.mb]

The next Star Wars movie just got a title: "The Force Awakens." ?You're kidding, right? That's not just a porno parody?

Aren't we encouraging recycling? The porn parody can be identical but include XXX at the end.

[Mad Scientist]

Vin Diesel only gets a cameo?

[Rich]

"A secret letter"?

How quaint. I trust it had The President's wax seal.

[derpules]

It was a folded piece of notebook paper that said "Do U wanna beat up ISIS w/me? Yes No (circle one)"

[UnCivilServant]

*circles the word 'one'*

[Tonio]

Heh.

[The Late P Brooks]

Quoth Numbnuts:

Obviously, Republicans had a good night. And they deserve credit for running good campaigns. Beyond that, I will leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through yesterday's results.

What stands out to me, though, is that the American people sent a message, one that they've sent for several elections now. They expect the people they elect to work as hard as they do. They expect us to focus on their ambitions and not ours. They want us to get the job done. All of us in both parties have a responsibility to address that sentiment.

I'm eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible. I'm committed to making sure that I measure ideas not by whether they are from Democrats or Republicans, but whether they work for the American people.

And that's not to say that we won't disagree over some issues that we're passionate about. We will. Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign. I'm pretty sure I will take some actions that some in Congress will not like. That's natural. That's how our democracy works.

What a heaping helping of vapid gobbldygook.

[Rich]

"Skip a bit, Brother."

Seriously, whence his reputation as an orator?

[Ted S.]

He can read off a teleprompter?

[Pro Libertate]

Never have understood that, not from the beginning. Bill Clinton, who was a solid if not totally brilliant speaker (recall his endless convention speech), was miles better than Obama.

[Ted S.]

I only looked at the last paragraph. Yeah, a bunch of garbage.

[Rich]

It's incredible. And if Martin O'Malley runs we'll be treated to more.

[C. Anacreon]

What a heaping helping of vapid gobbldygook.

I thought the only thing you would get a "heaping helping of" is "hospitality".

[Pro Libertate]

"No, fuck you, cut spending."

For starters.

[Palin's Buttplug]

repeal of medical device taxes implemented by Obamacare

That is reasonable. About $3 billion per year.

But what will the House lard the bill up with?

[Injun, as in from India]

I don't know. Ask Joni Ernst.

[kinnath]

Joni will be a Senator, not a Representative.

[Injun, as in from India]

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS.

Dear A$$ahollah,

We created some serious unintended consequences by meddling in your country and overthrowing a democratically elected socialist. Then we intervened in your neighboring country and supported, and then, deposed a dictator. And then when that dictator was deposed, we did not finish the job and left, leading to more unintended consequences.

Should we say (-1) * (-1) = +1.

Let's fix the unintended consequences once and for all.

Barry O.

[Cytotoxic]

We created some serious unintended consequences by meddling in your country and overthrowing a democratically elected socialist.

No, that was MI6 and the people of Iran.

[Injun, as in from India]

CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup

Declassified documents describe in detail how US ? with British help ? engineered coup against Mohammad Mosaddeq

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Only about 60 years after everyone knew they were involved. What's next, an admission they were in Guatemala?

[jesse.in.mb]

Next you'll tell me we were involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Or the Bay of Pigs, you think that's possible?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Wait, the Spaniards didn't sink the Maine?

[jesse.in.mb]

Was it 2008 when there was a scuffle in the Strait of Hormuz?

I was just waiting for us to punch some holes in our own ships and start nuking Iran. I was pleasantly surprised that didn't happen.

[Pro Libertate]

No. Hearst sank it with mechanized, floating sleds. Project Rosebud.

[UnCivilServant]

Wait, the Spaniards didn't sink the Maine?

Examination of the damage to the vessel has shown that it was a boiler explosion.

[Pro Libertate]

Caused by mechanized, floating sleds. Jesus.

[Cytotoxic]

This is the coup that didn't actually succeed in installing the Shah, correct? That's not a trick question. I'm pretty Mossadeq-an evil thug dictator who ran Iran into the ground-was removed by massive protests against him, which were supported by the Shia clerisy at the time.

[Rich]

"The Force Awakens."

I was *so* hoping it would be "Hive of Scum and Villany".

[JEP]

They already made that show. They called it House of Cards

[Rich]

😎

[cavalier973]

I was hoping for either "The Yoda Prophecies" or "The Skywalker Prophecies", and that it would be set 900 years later, with Luke still alive. Because Yoda's "quip": "When 900 years you reach, look as good, you will not" was, I maintain, a prophetic utterance.

[Cytotoxic]

I just wanted to share my story of election night. I went to check if Brownback had been re-elected as I dearly hoped so I Google news-searched his name. Here's what I see, more or less:

MSNBC 4 hours ago: Kansas Prepares to Retract Conservative Tax Experiment

Voc 2 hours ago: Conservatives Abandon Brownback

KZNT News 2 min ago: Brownback Beats Davis

Awesome. So great. Better yet, the Libertarian got a respectable 4%-double the spread.

[Ted S.]

The anti-socons are probably bitching that the Libertarian candidate spoiled the election for them.

[John]

That is what Brownback gets for not appealing to that 4%.

[Cytotoxic]

Clearly his re-election was dependent on not getting those votes. DERP

[John]

That or he made the right decision not giving a shit about them. Clearly he would have been doubt re-elected if he had the majority of his supporters to fuck off and gone after that 4%

Face it dude, the GOP just isn't into you and doesn't have to be. Go be a Democrat. You will like it better.

[Cytotoxic]

HAHAHAHA yes John, that's why the GOP tries to get us to vote for them constantly. It's really because they don't want us to vote for them.

Why don't you go back to RedState or some other conservaderp shithole? You clearly hate libertarians. Go somewhere you can cajole with your fellow statists.

[ChrisO]

I'd think you would get more interesting hits than that by googling "Brownback".

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS."

Am I the only one who thinks this is a tad pathetic, if not disturbing?

What's wrong with this guy?

[JEP]

People will justify it be saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

However, the enemy here isn't Sunni or Shia. It's the radicalized religion and the violence that stems from it.

I have no doubt that if Iran is involved they will take every opportunity to scorch the earth and commit acts of violence every bit as bad as ISIS.

And once again, in order to defeat an enemy, the US will have to become the enemy.

[Stormy Dragon]

If we're really worried about governments backing religious radicalism, we should be far more worried about our alliances with Saudi Arabia than any possible alliance with Iran.

[Cytotoxic]

Both of those governments have got to go.

[CE]

Why not all 3?

[Buddy Bizarre]

Yeah, but what happens then? Everybody got high on the idea of liberal democracy in Egypt which led to the radical muslims getting elected & trying to adjust the gov't to their needs.

Dumping these gov'ts would just allow the radicals there to grab control. Its sad, but I don't know what the options are.

[Tonio]

Nice handle. +1 Not in the face.

Srsly, though, they have to do this for themselves. We can help incipient democratic movements, but nobody has much success in creating those movements from scratch. And cooption has its risks because you often end up with an unsavory client who becomes adept at performing just well enough to make it more trouble than its worth to (risk) replacing them.

[Cytotoxic]

Iran will get more liberal. Saudi Arabia...not sure. Maybe they'll just kill each other.

[UnCivilServant]

"the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy. the key to that situation is to try to maneuver the other two into devastating each other before striking the killing blow upon their weakened state.

[Tonio]

"War is not about dying for your country. War is about making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his."

[Furburguesa]

He meant to write to the Ayatollah of rock and rolla

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

+Y2J

[ChrisO]

This factions in the Middle East are all playing off one another. Obama's way out of his depth in trying to get in the middle of that.

For example, my guess is that Iran is perfectly happy to see ISIS control the Sunni portion of Iraq and keep the Kurds off-balance. Iran gets to adopt the Shia portion of Iraq as a more direct surrogate, and they have less to worry about from the Kurds and Turks.

[Pro Libertate]

Maybe we should just give the Kurds nukes. Or threaten to.

[jesse.in.mb]

Well fuck. Professional retard Gordon Klingenschmitt won by 40%. I hope his opponent was worse than Hitler because electing this dude

Democrats like Polis want to bankrupt Christians who refuse to worship and endorse his sodomy. Next he'll join ISIS in beheading Christians, but not just in Syria, right here in America.

or

"When they manifest sexual immorality," Klingenschmitt declared, "there's something inside of them that is manifesting and, on this show, we like to discern the spirits and I would say that's a demonic spirit that is manifesting inside of them and sinning by an act of their consent, of their free will, they're cooperating with the Devil and there is something unhuman in side of them ... There is something nonhuman inside of them and that should be discerned as something not human"

just makes your district look retarded.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

But he probably has some libertarian views on the economy, so there's that.

[grrizzly]

What's the matter with Colorado Springs?

[jesse.in.mb]

A 40 point lead makes me think "quite a bit"

I particularly like the story he tells about exorcising the demons of lesbianism out of some woman who came to him for counseling because she was raped.

She gave her life to Jesus. She welcomed the Holy Spirit. And I looked into her eyes as she began to weep and I said "you foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus' name" and she began to wrestle with that and suddenly her eyes began to bug out and then she began to weep, and weep, and weep as the Holy Spirit forgave her sins.

Well done voters.

[John Titor]

Demons of Lesbianism, good band name.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nice of him to turn a rape counseling into an evangelical session. Dick.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A rabid homophobe with the nickname of Dr. Chaps?

No shit?

[Stormy Dragon]

But John keeps assuring me that Socons aren't actually anti-gay!

[Pro Libertate]

Certainly, some aren't. I know some who don't have any particular problems with gays. Might not be thrilled with gay marriage on religious grounds, but aren't really flipping out over it, either.

[Tonio]

That just can't be, Jesse. I'm constantly assured here how there are only, like, five people in the US who actually believe that, and they're all members of the Phelps clan (Westboro) and not a threat.

[Cytotoxic]

These people are Libertarians' natural allies /Hit 'n Runpublican

[Pro Libertate]

Klingenschmitt means maker of Klingons in German.

[Paul.]

Why would we make Klingons in German?

[Pro Libertate]

Look, I'm merely the translator.

[seguin]

The languages sound related.

[Stormy Dragon]

Russia is sending ballistic missiles-equipped units to Ukraine's border. Every day since the revolution turned bloody in February, I've thought, "It can't get any worse than this," and every day it does.

Actually, this is good news. The missile discussed in the article has a range of 6,800 miles; if he actually wanted to use them, they don't need to moved to the border. The fact he's visibly move stuff around unnecessarily suggest that he doesn't actually want to use them, he's just saber rattling.

[JWatts]

No you got fooled by the lazy editor. The picture is of a Topol-M, but the article actually says:

"The missile systems being deployed were described as conventionally armed, short-range ballistic missiles, multiple launch rocket systems, and BM-21 Grad multiple rocker launchers."

I saw the photo and immediately thought, that's not a "short ranged missile", skimmed through the article and realized Business Insider has a lazy staff. The editor probably just searched through their image director for Russian missile and pasted in the first photo.

Frankly, the Russians wouldn't waste anything as expensive as a Topol-M on the Ukraine, unless they were going to scrap them anyway. For that matter the Topol-M is classified as an intercontinental missile.

[C. Anacreon]

Huh. I always thought Topol was "The Smoker's Tooth Polish".

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

No, Topol was a Jew who had 3 daughters.

[Ted S.]

Damn your nimble fingers!

[Ted S.]

It's also the guy from Fiddler on the Roof

[Pro Libertate]

Huh. An Israeli actor who is also an ICBM?

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

(singing) "If I were a MIRV man..."

[Pro Libertate]

You've got a lot of MIRV.

You know, it strikes me that I still know quite a bit of nuclear weapons terminology, thanks to being a child of the Cold War. Weird.

[Agammamon]

And doing it stupidly. Those types of missiles tend to have *minimum ranges*, not to mention the troops that will now be needed to be pulled away from other duties to provide security.

[DK]

The next Star Wars movie just got a title: "The Force Awakens."

It was shorter than "The Midi-Chlorians Become Sentient and Say 'Fuck This!'"

[SusanM]

And the other option "George Lucas Had Nothing To Do With This" involved paying royalties.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Now that I would pay to see!

I'll probably pay to see this one, too.

[Paul.]

President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to discuss their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS.

And what would the Ayatollah want in return? I can't think of what that would be.

[JWatts]

Well, he might want to embarrass another American President. It's been a while, but it's bound to play well for him in domestic politics.

[Tonio]

New...something?

[Pro Libertate]

Iran Disney, of course.

[The Late P Brooks]

This morning, the mental giants at Bloomberg were sitting around whining about the lack of "gender parity" in Congress. They FEEL the number of women in Congress should be, as a percentage, the same as in the general population.

That's what keeps ME awake at night.

[db]

Then they should ban women voting for men, and vice versa.

[Paul.]

Now that Republicans are in charge, this article makes sense.

[Rhywun]

It would make more sense to FEEL that Congress should be composed solely of hermaphrodites.

[CE]

I feel Congress should be adjourned and come back in a hundred years if we really need them.

[Rich]

It's disgusting that they ASSUME it is not.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

As a supporter of the Guns and Dope party, I want to know when we're getting some damn ostriches in there.

[The Laconic]

Let's just take a (stratified) random sample of the population every two years and let them be Congresscritters. Two from every state and one from every district. Deal?

[John Titor]

Maybe we should just go with eunuchs and chemically infertile women. Worked well for Ming China.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe we should just go with eunuchs and chemically infertile women. Worked well for Ming China.

At least that would eliminate the problem of political dynasties in America.

[BigT]

So, men over 60 and Pelosi, Boxer, Hillary, etc.

That's what we got.

[Pro Libertate]

It's interesting that we now have a record number of women in Congress, all after a major Republican victory. Please explain to me how that makes the Democrats the party of women?

[Every Cop is a Criminal]

Star Wars VII Gets a Name: P.M. Links

I trust Reason is suing.

[Stormy Dragon]

Dallas ebola outbreak ends without any of disaster predicted by the hysterical pants-wetters:

http://thehill.com/policy/heal.....bola-cases

[Paul.]

He is receiving care at Manhattan's Bellevue Medical Center. A total of 357 people are being "actively monitored" for Ebola symptoms in New York City, health officials said Wednesday.

Wow.

[Ted S.]

The border fence and travel bans worked!

[Agammamon]

That Marine's link goes to the *Reason* Navy Seal stroy writeup.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Also the "negro" soldiers one. It's not SFing, exactly, we need a new term.

[Agammamon]

Zenoned the link?

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

"This link... it's been Zenoned!"

"My God..."

[The Late P Brooks]

Star Wars VII- in Which Our Hero Finally Fixes the Cable.

[MJGreen]

Don't be fatuous.

[jesse.in.mb]

Lauren Scott, a transgender woman and veteran of the Persian Gulf War, has failed in her efforts to become Nevada's (and the nation's) first openly transgender state lawmaker.

The kicker? She's a Republican running against a Dem incumbent in a Dem district where Dems have a 13% registration lead and she only lost by 8%.

Politics be weird, yo.

More here

[Paul.]

We don't want those sorts of Republicans 'round here.

[SusanM]

I'd like to see a lefty and a rightie hear that together. Just to see whose head explodes first.

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe get the Slow Mo Guys to film it?

[John Titor]

Guaranteed income argument comes to Canada: "Are you willing to trust the poor?"

[John]

If they were the kind of people you could trust, I suspect they wouldn't be poor.

[CE]

+1 Gekko

[Stormy Dragon]

She has had to justify a no-contact order against her son's father

God forbid we do an investigation before we terminate someone's ability to see their child.

[Coeus]

How dare they!!! I read an article the other talking about how bad VAWA was. Why, you ask? Because sometimes women go to jail. I'll probably post it tomorrow.

[Rich]

"You can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots."

OK, screw the "annual income". Give everyone a million dollars when they reach the age of 14 and be done with it.

[John Titor]

It does make me wonder if you could sell a Friedman-esque negative income tax in this country. But I suspect they'd want to keep the welfare bureaucracies in place, which is completely counteractive to the goal.

[robc]

I would be "fine" with a negative income tax vs what we currently have. Sprinkle slds liberally.

[JWatts]

" But are you willing to trust the poor?"

Shouldn't the first question be, how the hell can we possibly afford this? That seems an impossibly high number.

And I'm a potential supporter of a guaranteed income.

To put it in perspective, Canada GDP per capita is roughly 60K (CD) per person. The amount of money involved would be about the size of the current total government expenditures.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Give them 20 they'll ask for 21 because they went out and bought a fancy car.

Other than that, give a GI provided you get rid of all these wasteful social programs.

One or the other I reckon.

[Coeus]

Nicole Gray, a 24-year-old single mother living in Victoria, feels like a "beggar" every time she has to go into a government office and ask for help to pay her bills.

Isn't that the point?

[Palin's Buttplug]

30 Years of Conservative Nonsense, An Explainer

http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....al-history

Pretty much spot on. Creationism to tax cut myth - the myths conservatives cling to.

[John]

8% of conservative myths are false I am told.

[Paul.]

Fair enough. We have North Korea, Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler to show for progressive nonsense history. It's only fair conservatives get theirs.

[BigT]

I am so disrespected. = Mousie Dung

[Cytotoxic]

Step 1) Blame tax cuts for Reagan deficits Step 2) Ignore recession Step 3) Blame Reagan for excessive spending, and thereby contradict your initial point about tax cuts causing deficits.

[JWatts]

"30 Years of Conservative Nonsense, An Explainer"

Short Version: Yet another Butthurt Leftie, is striking back in anger, frustration and denial after the election losses on Tuesday night.

[Trouser-Pod]

Winner, winner; Chicken dinner!

It's even got the, "Well, yeah, D's did this, but that doesn't count!" dodge.

[cavalier973]

"Deregulation qua deregulation" is not what caused the S&L's to fail.

Congress decided to make the S&Ls; more like banks by removing "Regulation Q," which limited the interest rates banks and S&Ls; could pay. Both banks and S&Ls; opposed this for obvious reasons: costs for deposits would rise. But the S&Ls; had a more substantial argument against partial deregulation: if Congress did not make them entirely like banks, they would "pay out short, but take in long." Congress allowed the S&Ls; to pay competitive rates for deposits to attract more money, and it loosened some of the lending restrictions. But they remained overwhelmingly frozen into the long-term mortgages, and that "interest-rate mismatch" could not be overcome quickly enough. By the time the slow-liquidating mortgage loans could be recovered and new higher interest-rate loans made, the S&Ls;' cash would be gone. The only solution was to invest in assets that brought higher returns?mostly land, but also, to a smaller degree, junk bonds.

[Coeus]

Why ebola is a feminist issue.

I don't even know what to quote from this.

[Rhywun]

The face of Ebola is human. It is, importantly, usually black and usually female.

It's like they borrowed Salon's random article generator for the day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Feminists should care that 75 percent of Ebola victims are female, certainly. But they should also care because 100 percent of Ebola victims are human. Blood is not a thing of jungles and wild creatures, of an "elsewhere" in which we ourselves have no place. Blood is on all of our hands, yet we are all deserving of health.

I think the author is trying to tell white feminists that they should try actually giving a damn about brown people, especially brown women...

LMAO, I know, hilarious, right? Anyway, back to the campaigns against street harassment and video games. And make sure you wear your pink ribbons.

[Rich]

Blood is not a thing of jungles and wild creatures, of an "elsewhere" in which we ourselves have no place. Blood is on all of our hands, yet we are all deserving of health.

Are we taking *menstrual* blood?

[GILMORE]

"It is a story of colonialism, of racialized globalization, of the persistence of a system in which wealth is allocated to the few and essentials denied to the many. It is the story of sexism, of a gendered distribution of labor in which caregiving?and thus pathogenic exposure?is disproportionately the burden of our female communities. It is the story of poverty, of squalor, of inequality so stark that while the ill of one nation are sustained in negative-pressure biocontainment units, the ill of another have neither soap nor clean water with which to wash their hands. It is a story, centuries in the making, of the very power differentials with which feminists have always concerned themselves.

Feminists should care that 75 percent of Ebola victims are female, certainly. But they should also care because 100 percent of Ebola victims are human. Blood is not a thing of jungles and wild creatures, of an "elsewhere" in which we ourselves have no place. Blood is on all of our hands, yet we are all deserving of health."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Collective guilt for the win

[John]

It is like they are trying to remind their hateful readers not to forget men are humans too.

[Rhywun]

the persistence of a system in which wealth is allocated to the few and essentials denied to the many

Well, they got that part right. I wonder if they can identify "the few", though.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

or the why

[BigT]

in which wealth is allocated

Just who is doing this allocating??? I want to talk to him/her.

[The Laconic]

Blood is on all of our hands, yet we are all deserving of health.

Somebody should tell the impersonal forces of nature that health is to be awarded according to merit.

[PapayaSF]

Short version: Ebola is caused by all the things our ideology already demonizes!

But I note: no mention of Islamic burial practices.

[db]

...And, the U.S. Army today quietly ended a policy that permitted black servicemen to be referred to as "negroes."

What about the policy that permits female servicemen to be addressed as "sir?"

[CE]

It still fits in most cases.

[Rhywun]

-1 Capt. Janeway prefers "ma'am"

[Coeus]

Letting it all hang out.

A California police officer was arrested on Thursday after he was accused of exposing himself to five women, ages 12 to 80.

KABC reported that 33-year-old LAPD Officer Ryan Eric Galliher was charged with "attempting to commit a lewd act with a 12-year-old girl; one felony count of contacting a minor with the intent to commit a lewd act; five misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure; and one misdemeanor count of engaging in lewd conduct."

Galliher was first arrested on suspicion of committing a lewd act in late last month when two women, ages 18 and 19, identified him as the person who had exposed himself in the Bolsa Chica wetlands area while they were jogging on Oct. 20.

After an investigation, the Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA) determined that Galliher had walked out on the same trail three days later and masturbated in public.

According to the OCDA's Office, he also exposed himself to a 12-year-old girl on the Bolsa Chica wetlands trail in February, and asked her if she wanted to touch his penis.

A 43-year-old woman reported that the officer approached her in June wearing nothing but tennis shoes. The oldest of Galliher's known victims was 80-years-old, the OCDA's Office said.

[Anonymous Coward]

Has this brave public hero been trained to not expose himself to women?

Sounds like the LAPD is grossly underfunded and needs to implement additional training. Preferably somewhere like Cabo.

[PapayaSF]

exposing himself to five women, ages 12 to 80

Well, at least he's not ageist.

[Coeus]

"My flashing will be intersectional or it will be bullshit"

[The Last American Hero]

To be fair, I heard the 12 year old looked like a very young Morgan Fairchild.

[Anonymous Coward]

Feminist Professor Who Attacked Pro-Life Protesters Now Hit With Civil Lawsuit

The feminist studies professor, who specializes in queer theory and pornography, went on a video-recorded rampage in March when she stole and destroyed a pro-life poster, before attacking and causing minor injuries to 16-year-old protestor Thrin Short.

In July, Miller-Young was convicted of assaulting Short, and stealing and destroying the protestors' property.

The Ph.D.-wielding professor whose dissertation is called "A Taste for Brown Sugar: The History of Black Women in American Pornography," is still listed as an associate professor at the public university. And according to the Life Legal Defense, she might keep her job because UCSB apparently does not blame the convicted assaulter for igniting the attack.

"In fact, communications from university officials implied that the youth who had been peacefully engaged in advocating a pro-life worldview caused the incident," the press release said.

Previously, Miller-Young who was pregnant at the time of the attack, defended her actions claiming that the graphic pictures of aborted babies upset her.

[The Laconic]

Oh, she was upset. Case dismissed!

[Coeus]

Good. Sue the school for not firing her, too.

[JWatts]

"Good. Sue the school for not firing her, too."

Actually, that's probably a much better law suit than the original.

[PapayaSF]

So, if a drunk frat boy sleeps with a drunk sorority girl, he's a rapist who should be expelled, but a professor who assaults someone and attempts to suppress their speech is no big deal?

[Coeus]

Quadruple amputee sought in Florida after his parents were found killed.

lorida man who lost parts of all four limbs during a childhood illness is being sought as a "person of interest" in the shooting deaths of his parents earlier this week, law-enforcement officials said on Thursday.

Sean Petrozzino, 30, is believed to be "armed and dangerous," said the Orange County Sheriff's Office based in Orlando, Florida. Authorities, who have not named him a suspect, said they think he was headed to south Florida.

The sheriff's office released a photograph of Petrozzino and asked the public to take note of his mostly amputated hands for identification purposes.

Bolded for emphasis.

[PapayaSF]

"Don't worry, he won't get far on foot."

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I think any quad amputee who manages to kill two people should get a pass.

[BigT]

Yes, the old 'orphan defense.'

[Rich]

At least his name isn't "Matt".

[jesse.in.mb]

Boooooo

Ok fine. What do you call a man with no arms and no legs adrift in the ocean?

[C. Anacreon]

Bob. What do you call a girl with only one leg?

[jesse.in.mb]

Eileen, but what if she's Asian?

[db]

I don't know, what do you call her?

[jesse.in.mb]

Irene

[C. Anacreon]

My work firewall is blocking whatever you linked to, but if it hasn't already been said, her Asian cousin is Irene.

What do you call a guy with no arms or legs hanging on your wall?

[jesse.in.mb]

It was just the original (and terrible) video for Come on Eileen.

Art!

[Alton Knutson]

What do you call a girl with no arms or legs sitting on a fence? Barb.

[cavalier973]

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs hanging on a bush?

[C. Anacreon]

I haven't heard this one before!

I'm going to guess "Barry".

[cavalier973]

You, sir, are correct.

[cavalier973]

Whatever her parents named her, of course.

[lap83]

What do you call a girl with no arms and legs on a roller coaster? Jocelyn (jostlin')

[Alton Knutson]

Bob

[db]

The last thing his mother said to him?

"Why don't you do something with your life? That Oscar fellow seems like such a nice man, and so successful, too! Why can't you be more like him?"

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I am sure this has been posted already today, but I can't help myself:

Salon: 52% is no longer a majority; Arithmetic now sexist.

[Coeus]

Sexist and racist. victimhood bonus. +2 to shrieking ability.

[Carl ?s the level]

It is amazing how even Jonathan Fucking Chait is smart and reasonable next to these people.

[PapayaSF]

Indeed.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Tribune cited CNN exit polls to illustrate the landslide, saying Abbott "beat Davis by lopsided margins with white voters (72-27), men (65-34) and women (52-47). Davis beat Abbott among Latinos (57-42) and African-Americans (93-7).

I'm confused, who is racist? The white people voting for the white man? Or the brown people voting for the white woman?

[Carl ?s the level]

What is claimed to be "racist" is saying that more women voted for Abbott than Davis, when more black and Latina women voted for Davis than Abbott.

No, it doesn't make sense.

[The Late P Brooks]

But I suspect they'd want to keep the welfare bureaucracies in place, which is completely counteractive to the goal.

Let's not fool ourselves as to who the true beneficiaries of those programs are. That kind of headcount reduction among the civil servant caste is utterly unthinkable.

[Coeus]

Brianna Wu of gamergate:

How dare something cater to men:

The major issue that's leading to women getting a lot of crap today is culture. Videogames have been developed by men for men for a long time. I remember being a child and seeing posters for Smash TV in the local arcade. They promised the "Pleasure Dome" where bikini-clad women would sit on the male player's lap as he sat on the throne.

That culture pushes women away in ways the industry hasn't bothered to think about. The truth is, women love games. Even though the culture is toxic, even though the representations of women are often demeaning, we've still shown up. And now we are 48 percent of all players. We're asking the industry to grow to include us. We're all gamers, and we're not going to be relegated to Candy Crush and Farmville.

See, if she just wanted some games to appeal to women, she wouldn't call games that appeal to men toxic. Nobody want's to start a movement against the "toxic" romance novel industry? Just write in another genre. Their rhetoric belies the lie that they don't want to eliminate things that appeal mainly to males.

[Coeus]

And, this kind of arrogance is everywhere in gamedev. If you try to get those kinds of issues addressed, there's all kinds of cultural inertia. But, if we're suffering from death threats they might listen. It's a really twisted situation. The culprit is obvious. It's male privilege. And, if there is a mecca of male privilege, it's gamedev.

Gee, that sounds like a motive for faking threats or faking how serious they are.

The irony burns:

What are the obligations of men in the industry, in the wake of all this?

It's so simple, but they need to be listening to women. That's it.

It's sad, but so predictable what happens when you try to bring up industry issues affecting women. They tell you how you are allowed to feel. They tell you how you have to interpret your own experiences.

[PapayaSF]

Thank heavens the SJWs never tell me how to feel, or how to interpret my own experiences. *rolls eyes*

[GILMORE]

"We're asking the industry to grow to include us. We're all gamers, and we're not going to be relegated to Candy Crush and Farmville."

Yes, so put your money with your mouth is, and finance your feminist game and sell it to the masses who you argue are out there, proving that your 'market' is under-served.

[Coeus]

She did, it just ain't selling.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you telling me that Revolution 60 isn't the best game you've ever seen?

[Carl ?s the level]

That character has a sexist waist-to-hip ratio.

[The Laconic]

From Wikipedia:

Poorer reviews state "I do have issued with how sexualized the characters are.", "blatantly sexist" and "character designs give unrealistic standards of beauty for women"

BAHAHAHAHAHA

[Coeus]

Not only that, but where's the inclusivity they're always talking about? Where's the option to play as a guy?

[The Laconic]

I think the industry grew to include women BY creating Candy Crush and Farmville. No?

Is she saying anything more than that she wishes someone would make a special game just for her and her closest friends?

[The Laconic]

You know what, though, fair enough, she's trying at least.

[JEP]

Games are catering to women, they just might not be the games she likes to play. With Mass Effect, you can choose whether you want Shepard to be male or female - and that started way back in 2008 or 2009. You can even pursue hetero or homosexual relationships. Or pretend like you're Bill Shatner and nail an alien.

Even Halo, in the latest versions, lets you play multiplayer as a female Spartan. You can also play as a female, of multiple races, in Skyrim.

I don't think Assassin's Creed has had a female main character yet, but there are female assassins.

From what I've seen, Destiny let's you play as female characters.

[Carl ?s the level]

In Saints Row IV (and also III IIRC) not only can you pick between a man or woman character, but you can go to the plastic surgeon and change during the game.

[Coeus]

I don't think Assassin's Creed has had a female main character yet

Incorrect.

[cavalier973]

"It's interesting that the most successful "women" game developers (except for the inimitable Roberta Williams) used to be men."

~Vox Day (paraphrased)

[Coeus]

Not true. But a surprisingly large portion of the ones complaining about male sexuality in games used to be men. I have no idea what proportion of the actually successful ones used to be, because they rarely get mentioned in the laughably titled "videogames press".

[cavalier973]

You know who does get mentioned in the laughably titled "videogames press"?

[Coeus]

Whoever the most appealing professional victim that week happens to be?

Any guy who even remotely associated with the industry who has rumors of inappropriate behavior?

That Jack Thompson clone with hoop earrings?

Stop me when I get the one you're thinking of.

[cavalier973]

I don't know; I was asking you.

[Coeus]

hitler game doesn't really work here. They've been pretty good about only using "ISIS" and "KKK" in their comparisons to their detractors.

If they did, I haven't seen it.

[GILMORE]

"House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) says that the Republican-controlled Congress is going to push for the Keystone XL Pipeline and the repeal of medical device taxes implemented by Obamacare..."

FWIW, both of these things will get done for more or less the same reason =

- they're things that Obama probably wanted to do anyway, but couldn't do unilaterally because it would admit the law was flawed. Making changes he already wants to make, but appearing as though he's 'compromising' is a Win-Win as far as he's concerned. In fact there's probably a dozen 'fixes' which they will amend the ACA with, and pretend to fight about them... but which in reality would probably be *inevitable* anyway, to simply make the thing less likely to implode.

Keystone, same deal. He can pretend he did his best, and that the Evil Forces of Darkness finally will get their planet-destroying Pipe of Doom... he wins credibility as a Green, and gets this thing off his desk before the GOP forces him to come up with excuses even lamer than the one's he's already used.

[GILMORE]

Also = if he throws the GOP these 'compromise' bones early on, it sets himself up to veto *actual* stuff he knows they are going to send him shortly thereafter. They know that just as well as he does and they want to stage manage their own legislative drama as well

[Andrew S.]

Bar in Louisville takes two bottles of Pappy Van Winkle, makes Jell-O shots out of them

I'm against the death penalty, but I'm willing to make an exception here.

[Stormy Dragon]

"A riot is an ungly thingk... undt, I tink, that it is chust about time ve had vun."

[Coeus]

I am impressed by how annoyed I am by that. Something which doesn't affect me in the slightest. Excellent troll.

[The Laconic]

I can't even get my hands on that stuff. *tear rolls down face silently, as if tears ever make noise though*

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I have yet to try PVW. Those monsters.

[Stormy Dragon]

Two days after the election, and the circular firing squads have begun:

Rose McGowan attacks LGBT community for failing to campaign for feminism: 'Gay men are more misogynistic than straight men':

I think it's what happens to you as a group when you are starting to get most of what you fought for? What do you do now? What I would hope they would do is extend a hand to women. Women, by-and-large, have very much helped the gay community get to where they are today. And I have seen not a single peep from these people, who supposedly represent lesbians as well? when the equal pay act was shut down by Republicans in the Senate, not a single man mentioned that.

[cavalier973]

If it weren't for women, there would be no gay people alive today.

[jesse.in.mb]

Eh, Equality California started advocating for everyone in the New Left alliance and that was around the time I told them never to call me again. I really don't know where she's coming from since women's issues are almost always a litmus test for gay advocacy orgs.

Oh well, it's always fun watching groups eat themselves.

[Coeus]

I'd assume it's because there's less of the "how can I help, sure, whatever you want" associated with gay males than the straight ones that someone as hot as Rose McGowen is used to.

Also, in the new and improved "intersectional" feminism, you can't tell gay guys to "shut up and listen" like you can the straight guys. You have to respect that they have their own interests. Respecting that men have their own interests can send a feminist into a rage.

Either or both of those, or some other reason entirely. Because, as you said, her stated reason is nonsense.

[lap83]

This is what I was going to say. Being a male feminist is probably a great way to get laid. Gay men don't have that incentive.

[Coeus]

Being a male feminist is probably a great way to get laid.

Add "a few times a year, at most". Unless you pull a Hugo Schwyzer, like the feminist professor dad in that Dane Cook movie (I think it was based off Hugo). But that's cause they don't really believe it. The true believers are lucky to get the odd pity fuck, now and then.

[Atanarjuat]

"a few times a year, at most"

The true believers are lucky to get the odd pity fuck, now and then.

For some guys, that's probably an improvement over the status quo (ie, never). Actually... I'm one of those guys. But hard up though I may be, I'm not fucking some awful feminazi.

[cavalier973]

"Well, uh, Sir, we are negroes. All except our accomp... uh, company... accumpli... uh, the fella that plays the guitar."

[new balance flux 574]

recently Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei got a letter from President Barack Obama. obama worries about their mutual interesting in wiping out ISIS. now many people know isis