A.M. Links: ISIS Leader Reportedly Wounded in Airstrike, GOP Gears Up for Attorney General Confirmation, Massachusetts Town Wants to Ban Tobacco

• 

  Credit: lanier67 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

  Iraqi officials say ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike.

• A suicide bomber dressed as a student has killed dozens at a school assembly in Nigeria.

• The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, is weighing a measure that would ban the sale of all tobacco products.

• Senate Republicans are gearing up for a confirmation fight over President Obama's nomination of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as attorney general.

• With the next health care enrollment period starting in less than a week, federal officials "are scrambling" behind the scenes to get contingency plans in place in case Healthcare.gov experiences another round of troubles.

• According to a new report, federal workers and contractors are severely undermining the government's efforts to protect sensitive information. "They have clicked links in bogus phishing emails, opened malware-laden websites and been tricked by scammers into sharing information."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, is weighing a measure that would ban the sale of all tobacco products.

Ban the use. Pussies.

[sarcasmic]

Does this printer come with a mouse? Rodent tried to make its home inside computer peripheral – but got squashed to death when someone used it

When printer stopped working, Russian user thought it was a paper jam
But when he opened machine up he realised a mouse had been sucked in
Photos have now gone viral with many commenting that mouse looks alive

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ed-it.html

[sarcasmic]

whoops, that was supposed to be a stand-alone post

[Fist of Etiquette]

No hop-ons!

[JEP]

You’re going to get some hop-ons.

[Ted S.]

And of course the term “bug” comes from the fact that there was an actual bug inside the hardware in the first instance. (I think a moth, but don’t hold me to that.)

[Cdr Lytton]

Found by Admiral Hopper after she came back from a particularly bad date with Alan Turing.

[waffles]

Sounds like someone is aching for a smoke-in. Or is it a smoke-out? SMOKE!

[Bee Tagger]

This kind of smoke-in?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

“The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, is weighing a measure that would ban the sale of all tobacco products.”

Ah, I remember the days when the progressive/liberal extremists who knew what was best assured us the laws would never ever never go beyond ‘common sense’ rules infringing on anyone’s rights. Quite frankly, we were all crazy for following their gibberish to its logical end.

And yet, here we are. The commencement of an outright ban of a legal product.

Long way we’ve come from merely making kids aware that tobacco kills to now.

[Elspeth Flashman]

OK, so what’s to prevent folks from growing their own tobacco for their own use? Yeah, this proposed law stinks, don’t get me wrong: I am just trying to find a legal work-around for residents.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Medical tobacco

[Hyperion]

They’ll probably try to ban that also. What if the children eat one of those dangerous plants?

[Root Boy]

Commerce Clause. Impacts the market for tobacco that isn’t sold.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Oops. Never thought of this other legal work around for the other side. Thanks.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Mmmm, Tomacco.

[Zeb]

Nothing to prevent people from growing their own (except maybe climate). Curing it to make good cigarette tobacco is a lot more involved than just drying it out, though.
I hope never to see it because prohibition is stupid and evil and I like tobacco, but it would be interesting to see how many people would go for black market tobacco if it were fully banned.

[Clown Hunter]

Getting from a pot seed to good smokable dope is a lot easier than getting from a tobacco seed to good smokable tobacco.

Err, at least that’s what a friend who’s done both tells me.

[Zeb]

I tried smoking some uncured tobacco once. Not awesome.

[SugarFree]

Welcome to the boring hell that is a dry county.

[carol]

I grew up in Pulaski County, Kentucky. You either had to drive an hour north to Nicholasville or drive south to Tennessee. On the bright side, the legal age was eighteen back then.

[SugarFree]

I grew up in Henderson, so we were always wet, but going to dry counties was always such a pain.

[carol]

I lived on Lake Cumberland which is a big turist location in the summer. You should have seen the looks on people’s faces when they would ask where the closest liquor store was and we’d tell them that it was a dry country.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Hardin County went wet 2 years ago. We were completely dry ~8 yrs and then went damp (by the drink sales in some places).

The thriving community of liquor stores and bars that existed just across the county line has all but gone. The only one left is the one bar that also sold food.

[robc]

Warren County is dry, I dont see the problem.

[Joe Biden's liver]

“Warren County is dry, I dont see the problem.”

Of course you don’t, you’re an idiot.

[Clown Hunter]

I grew up in a dry county. Half an hour to the nearest liquor stores.

What I learned was the jello principle of regulation: that regs are like a brick put on a blob of jello: the jello just squishes out from under the brick.

In dry counties, since its an hour round trip to get some beer, you never buy just a sixpack. You buy a couple of cases.

Net result: mo bigga booze runs, more booze in the house, more drinking.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I figured that you lived in a moist county.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

It’s a moist basement.

[Mickey Rat]

If the people had been reasonable and conformed with his common sense policies the Emperor would never had had to build one Death Star, let alone two.

[CE]

You know who else banned smoking?

[Fist of Etiquette]

…federal officials “are scrambling” behind the scenes to get contingency plans in place in case Healthcare.gov experiences another round of troubles.

Blame the new GOP Congress?

[Raven Nation]

Or the government shut down. That should still be good for a few more SNAFUs.

[Root Boy]

They will need to set up barriers around your computer to prevent web site use during the shut down.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, is weighing a measure that would ban the sale of all tobacco products.

At this point why not just ban inhaling smoke into your lungs? It’s Massachusetts, I’m sure they’ll get a good run while it goes through the courts.

[Rich]

NO! Ban *exhaling*!

[Injun, as in from India]

Ban exhaling CO2 as a measure to fight global warming.

[Slammer]

It will work this time if we believe hard enough!

[Ted S.]

Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

[Slammer]

Iraqi officials say ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike.

We’re spending all this money to wound people now?

[UnCivilServant]

Sure, all of our attacks only do one point of damage, but if we manage to hit the guy 7781 more times, he’ll go down!

[Hyperion]

We could just go into the woods and kill 8000 pigs so that our attack skills are way up, then we only have to hit the guy once more!

[Protagoronus]

Not sure if anyone picked this up, but under the Sunni rules for a Caliphate, this may mean he has to stop claiming that title. Basically, the Caliphate has to be able to fight and so has to have all limbs, eyes, etc.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I’m guessing these guys are about as good at living up to their own rules as SJWs. Maybe I’m wrong though.

[Cdr Lytton]

Become Caliph Emeritus and name some easily controlled 10 year old as the new Caliph.

[gaijin]

otoh, it would be interesting to see al baghdadi degrade on yout ube

[Fist of Etiquette]

According to a new report, federal workers and contractors are severely undermining the government’s efforts to protect sensitive information.

The system would work perfectly if not for all the humans.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Iraqi officials say ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike.

But did it kill ISIS’ number 2? We always seem to nail Al-Qaeda’s Number 2 in airstrikes.

[This Machine Slips It In]

Yeah, “Second-in-Command of [ ] Terrorist Organization” seems to be one of the deadliest jobs on the planet.

[UnCivilServant]

That’s why ISIS doesn’t have many public figures beyond the #1 guy.

[WTF]

Kind of like being a drummer for Spinal Tap.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Stole my joke.

[Furburguesa]

Or the guy in the red shirt in Star Trek

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Right after “Russian Investigative Reporter” and “Liberian Doctor of Internal Medicine”.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

“Keyboard player for the Grateful Dead”?

[DontShootMe]

That’s our way of saying we didn’t kill sh1t

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senate Republicans are gearing up for a confirmation fight over President Obama’s nomination of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as attorney general.

Stand by your pick.

[Ted S.]

I think the AG nominee was born a coal miner’s daughter. No standing by her necessary.

[Raven Nation]

*Applause*

[Rich]

*Another* high-tech Lynching?

[KDN]

Previous high-level jobs for the last several Attorneys General:

Reno: Fl. State Attorney
Ashcroft: Gov, Senator, AG from MO.
Gonzales: White House Counsel, TX Supreme Court Justice
Mukasey: Federal District Chief Judge
Holder: Asst. Attorney General
Lynch: US Attorney

Seems like this is the least-credentialed nominee in forever, and she’s not exactly young. Is it that no high profile candidates wants to be anywhere near this administration at this point?

[Colonel Slanders]

Dude… She’s black. Needs no more explanation.

[Clown Hunter]

She’s black, and she defended the Clintons back in the day, I believe.

Why do I suspect that Obama put her name out there just to give the Repubs and the Clintons a chance to damage each other in the confirmation hearings?

[Cdr Lytton]

State Attorney in FL is the D.A, not state attorney general.

[KDN]

Yeah, I know. The AG’s since Reno people have had more to hang their hat on than identity politics.

[Cdr Lytton]

Gotcha. Thought you were throwing Reno out as one of those well qualified.

[sarcasmic]

French cyclist thrashes Ferrari on his rocket powered BIKE and roars to new world record after hitting 207mph in five seconds

Francois Gissy has long been riding rocket-powered bikes but he broke his own world speed record last Friday
Took just five seconds for him to go from 0 to 207 miles per hour
Bike was built by Swiss company Exotic Thermo Engineering

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-bike.html

[some guy]

This is way up there on the list of ways to kill oneself.

[Drake]

Approaching unity.

[Auric Demonocles]

That’s an average of about 2 Gs.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

It’s a little slow for Top Fuel or Funny Car, but that’s about the only thing it’s slow for…

Entering orbit would be faster, too, I guess.

[sarcasmic]

Shocking video shows high school teacher, 68, lying unconscious in hallway after being knocked out by a STUDENT

Pewu Johnson, 68, ‘reprimanded student for having a girl sit on his lap’
Teen then allegedly confronted him in hallway at Bartram High School
Told Mr Johnson, ‘get the f*** out of my face’, before knocking him out
Video shows substitute English teacher lying motionless on the ground
Mr Johnson was taken to hospital, where he was treated for concussion
Although he has since been released, he still suffers intense neck pain
Unidentified student has been suspended; awaiting potential charges

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..udent.html

[RG]

Student on teacher violence is not rare at that school. This stuff has been caught on video in Philly a few times over the past year. The inamtes are running the asylum.

[Misanthrope]

He could get a hefty $ettlement out of this. The student, as a juvenile, will definitely have his record expunged at 18. Everybody wins!

[Cowboy]

Where’s Tom Berenger when you need him?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

He died and Treat Williams took over.

[PapayaSF]

The giant picture of Obama in the hallway doesn’t seem to have helped calm things down.

[some guy]

Krugman compares PPACA to his parent’s deed

If you were tell Krugman that we have reached Peak Mendacity, he would take it as a challenge.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Krugman is the Times’ readers’ court astrologer.

[some guy]

The problem here is that all Democrats are now making this same argument. It’s as if they think the rest of us don’t have memories.

[some guy]

Oh, where’s Warty? I didn’t have enough willpower to delve past the first few comments. I’m sure it just gets worse the deeper you go…

[SugarFree]

He’s nuturing his whelp.

[SugarFree]

Here’s this, though:

It is quite likely that Justice Roberts also saw some economic arguments to having a generally healthier America vis-?-vis the ACA, but the bottom line is it seems ludicrous to have a typo (intentional or not) derail a law that has literally changed the lives of millions of American lives for the better and maybe a few hundred thousands for the worse.

If it’s intentional, it’s not a typo.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

I think he has those number reversed…

[Zeb]

And if it is poorly written or vague, it’s not a typo either.

[Mickey Rat]

He really means it os ludricrous to make the government implement a policy the Congress and the Administration never expected to have to implement because the States should have folded like cheap rugs instead of calling the bluff.

But “typo” is less wasteful of ink I suppose.

[sarcasmic]

Alaskans demand their Snoop Dogg concert after the rapper promised to perform in the state if voters legalized marijuana

The rapper and marijuana enthusiast promised in September that he would perform a concert in Alaska if the state voted to legalize marijuana
Alaskans voted to legalize the drug during Tuesday’s midterm elections
Many took to Twitter soon after to remind the rapper about his promise
‘Sounds like its concert time for @SnoopDogg in Alaska,’ tweeted D-ice

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..juana.html

[waffles]

That Pitbull guy went to Alaska due to spamming an online contest. If Snoop won’t go for the legal weeds then I will just lose all faith in humanity.

[mauricegirodias]

Did he give a shout-out to Miami? ‘Cuz I think Pitbull is from Miami.

[Brian D]

Iraqi officials say ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike.

ISIS is now MOAR DANJERUS THAN EVAR!

~John Bolton

[Root Boy]

I saw him on Fox yesterday and he did at least say lets have a debate about what is critical to our interests and what is not.

OBama seems to want to have it both ways – kinda sorta fighting in Iraq and Syria, but not really. I may be in the GTFO chorus, but I really hate Obama’s half measures.

Of course Issa then says we have to go all in, which is crazy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I give you a link from Old Man With Candy:

There’s already a good discussion going on about it in Brick Bat today.

[Fist of Etiquette]

(That’s as much of a teaser as you’re going to get from me.)

[Bee Tagger]

Dangerous.
Precedent.

[waffles]

Slippery.
Slope.

[Slammer]

Fucking.
Bullshit.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

ALL.
RACIST.

[Bee Tagger]

Was I supposed to go to the link?

[LynchPin1477]

So much BS. I and several other people in my major did a double major in STEM fields taking as many as 21 credits a semester. I know another guy who threw in a minor and I think was taking, at one point, over 24 credits a semester.

And then of course there is the larger point that maybe you shouldn’t be in a STEM field if algebra is a real barrier for you.

[Marshall Gill]

I am not falling for it. Just because you posted this doesn’t mean you are not a racist!

[Old Man With Candy]

Thank you, Mr. E. That’s the issue with my commute, it prevents posting stuff I see in the morning in the appropriate threads.

[LynchPin1477]

Just post and drive. It’s not you’d be using SMS.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What the hell? You’re here? I went to all that trouble and you’re here? I have been taken advantage of.

[Old Man With Candy]

Hey, you got it up in that first critical hour. Feel proud of yourself, bigot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

First five minutes is the key time frame for any comment here.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

It was a test to see if you were racist…

The jury is still out.

[Old Man With Candy]

FWIW, because I hadn’t gotten past 10th grade in high school, I had to take “pre-calculus” (i.e., algebra and trig) my first semester. Somehow I managed to graduate in 3 years with a physics degree and one course short of a chem degree. Since my parents were artists, you can safely assume I had no economic privilege, and I had to work my way through to pay my tuition.

We call this “not fucking off and working hard.” Is that racist to say?

There’s an implicit assumption that students are incapable of teaching themselves anything, that it must come from an official “course.” After having spent the past 40 years or so in STEM, I can assure you that anyone who can’t do teach themselves will fail professionally.

[Marshall Gill]

Just stop with the Old Man stuff, we want candy!

[Florida Man]

Bubblegum and taffy.

[19sigils]

get in my way punk, you’re gonna get ya ass beat, nasty
Do it till your dad sees, embarass your whole family
Just ’cause you came between a kid and his candy

[Whahappan?]

“He like some teempuffs”

[Old Man With Candy]

“who can’t do teach”

Needs moar editing skilz.

[sarcasmic]

Superstorm dubbed the ‘Bering Bomb’ sends temperatures plunging across the country: Explosive storm more powerful than Hurricane Sandy hits

Flurries expected today in Maine, Vermont and upstate New York
Snowstorms will become more widespread over the next week
Daytime temperatures below freezing set for much of New England
Follows winter typhoon over Alaska moving frigid weather system south
So-called ‘Bering Bomb’ recorded sharp drop in pressure over weekend

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..south.html
No mention of climate change in the article. I’m shocked.

[LynchPin1477]

Flurries? Snow? Freezing temperatures? In New England in November???

The horror. The horror.

[WTF]

Yeah, that is so unprecedented, it must be due to CLIMATE CHANGE!!1!!!!

[Rhywun]

STATE OF EMERGENCY!!1!$!

[Bee Tagger]

Senate Republicans are gearing up for a confirmation fight over President Obama’s nomination of Loretta Lynch

There are probably less offensively-named Loretta Lynn cover acts out there.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Sounds like a good roller derby name as well.

[Root Boy]

You are so right.

Assassination City, here she comes.

[Elspeth Flashman]

One of my friends in derby is named “Lyndsey Blowhan.”

[Root Boy]

A Classic.

[LynchPin1477]

Hey, it’s a legitimate Irish surname!

[sarcasmic]

‘I pointed the gun at her chest. The baby wailed’: The moment Brooklyn tailor to the stars who survived the Holocaust was freed from Buchenwald concentration camp and went to seek revenge on his tormentor

Martin Greenfield, 84, was ordered to be beaten by mayor of Weimar’s wife
When he was freed, aged 16, he went to her house with machine guns
Pointed gun at her chest as she held a baby, couldn’t pull the trigger
‘My conscience wouldn’t let me become honorary SS member,’ he says
He is now a tailor to the stars in New York, dresses the president

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..entor.html

[Slammer]

That guy’s coming to my store to read from his book and have a talk.

[Raven Nation]

Wow! I guess he wouldn’t have qualified to serve with the ATF.

[Root Boy]

He has class, good taste, and morals.

Someone to learn from. I can’t imagine not killing the nazi bitch, kid or no kid.

[Clown Hunter]

You gotta love the way she used her own baby as a human shield.

[sarcasmic]

Ferguson cop has ALWAYS known he will not be charged for shooting Michael Brown – and he treated the unarmed teen as ‘less than human’, his parents will tell the United Nations

Relatives of Brown, including parents, attack police officer who killed teen
Say his ‘brazen confidence’ meant he was sure he would not be punished
Darren Wilson, 28, killed Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, this August
Brown family complained about treatment of his body in report for UN
The Browns will fly to Geneva, Switzerland, to deliver document tomorrow

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ittee.html

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Genf gets what it deserves, hosting the UN.

[sarcasmic]

Led Zeppelin turn down Richard Branson’s ?500MILLION offer to reform for 35-night tour

Robert Plant, 66, ripped up the 35-date contract in front of promoters
Money men tried to talk front man around but he is adamant, it was reported
Sir Richard Branson, a huge fan, is reportedly ‘gutted’ at his decision

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-tour.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Am I the only one bloody annoyed at the video in the article titled, ‘Obama honors Led Zeppelin?’

[UnCivilServant]

Obama honors Led Zeppelin

He stayed away from them?

[UnCivilServant]

I never thought I’d actually see a case of “There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to work with them again”.

[Ted S.]

Good on them. I don’t want them to re-form, either.

[Drake]

It would be kind of funny to watch Plant try to sing all those songs 2 octaves lower.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

^^This.

Recently been listening to a live album collaboration between Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes.

Chris Robison sounds a lot better than Robert Plant. Album rocks!

[Lord Humungus]

This is classic:
Heart butchers Stairway to Heaven

[PapayaSF]

Little Roger & the Goosebumps did it best.

[Slammer]

America still has the n-word problem

Shorter: “it’s complicated”

[Rich]

Stop saying the n-word!

/The Knights Who Say ‘Ni****’

[Zeb]

Yeah, if we can just get rid of the word we’ll be all set. Seems to me that getting people to stop caring would be more effective. Words aren’t magic.

[BigT]

Why read the NYT? They’re just a bunch of naggers.

[Lord Humungus]

GOP’s secret weapon: How right-wing churches turn the 99 percent into the Tea Party

Now here is the central contradiction: most people hate this kind of reality, believe that it is in stark contrast to the values they would like to live by, but simultaneously they also believe, based on their daily life experience in the economy reinforced by almost every sitcom and television news story they ever hear, that the logic of capitalist society is the only possible reality, and that they would be fools not to try to live by it in every part of their lives. But they hate that this is the case. They often will tell you that “everyone is selfish and materialistic, so I’d be a fool to be the one person who is caring for others in a world where everyone is just out for themselves.” Unconsciously, many people adopt the values of the marketplace, and these values have a corrosive impact on their own friendship, relationships, and family life.

[Doctor Whom]

Everyone knows about the pro-capitalism bias of the media.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The one with constant commercials for stuff and product placements?

[Doctor Whom]

Knowing every tree by its fruit, how does it work? The New York Times is full of ads for luxury goods; what conclusion do you draw about its editorial policy?

[LynchPin1477]

They often will tell you that “everyone is selfish and materialistic, so I’d be a fool to be the one person who is caring for others in a world where everyone is just out for themselves.”

Come to think of it, I *do* hear a lot of socialists/progressives say this. Very insightful of them.

[Ted S.]

LOL at the headline.

[LynchPin1477]

If 99% of the country had been turned into the Tea Party I don’t think Salon would have any readership left.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Does Salon have any readership to start off with?

[Elspeth Flashman]

The article seems to imply that voting for the GOP means you are mentally impaired.

[Suellington]

They should stick with that line, it will definitely pay off for them.

[Hyperion]

Not many people even attend church today. I wonder what the total number is who attend ‘right-wing’ churches? What is a ‘right-wing’ church anyway? Does that mean they don’t preach about Mao and Stalin to their members?

[Zeb]

Sure there are alternatives to capitalism. You could live a poor, rustic subsistence life, or perhaps in an authoritarian hell.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Khmer Rouge

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

You ever been to Santa Cruz CA?

Most beautiful weather in the world. Spend 15 minutes talking to the locals, and you’re ready to call in nukes from space.

[lap83]

“Unconsciously, many people adopt the values of the marketplace,”

No, you idiot. The marketplace adopts the values of people.

[sarcasmic]

Virus that ‘makes humans more stupid’ discovered

http://www.independent.co.uk/n…..49920.html

[SugarFree]

Reality TV is a virus?

[Fist of Etiquette]

No, posting links from Jezebel is the virus, smart guy.

[Marshall Gill]

Not so smart guy, then?

[Zeb]

Or is it the symptom?

[Hyperion]

All the proggies have this?

[Pope Jimbo]

“You’re the disease and I’m the cure”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE2-7a_F_B0

[Doctor Whom]

OT: Civil asset forfeiture is about enforcing the law for your safety.

Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize

[Root Boy]

Just about to post this….

Get in line for the new Mercedes.

Fuckers.

[sarcasmic]

Twin no more? Mary-Kate Olsen sparks surgery rumors after looking noticeably different at recent red carpet event with twin sister Ashley

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..shley.html

[LynchPin1477]

She looks like a man.

[sarcasmic]

It is definitely not an improvement, that’s for sure.

[alittlesense]

She doesn’t look human. She looks like laser beams shoot out of her eyes, and flames shoot out of her mouth, and she has wheels where her feet used to be.

[This Machine Slips It In]

I don’t blame her – if I could get those upgrades to my meat-chassis, I would, flimsy human appearances be damned.

[JEP]

I guess, but robosexuality is still taboo.

[Pope Jimbo]

A man? Or she is from Iran?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2KsZHRrFpU

[PapayaSF]

That’s not surgery, just makeup (or lack of it).

[SugarFree]

Jezebel suggests no women ever be put in jail. For anything.

Oh, wait. It’s just clickbait.

[Root Boy]

You sure about that? It sounds like the rigorous thinking I’ve come to expect from their links.

Plus it seems what they wish for.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Damn. Are you saying the chances of passing my ‘Meatloaf’ bill making it a crime to serve bad meatloaf are remote? Or the the second part of the bill which proposes women always smell nice and cook naked?

/crumples up paper.

[Ted S.]

Yes, we should stop putting them in prison. We should just stone them to death.

[Free Society]

This summer, another House of Lords “peer,” Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill

I don’t know what the jezebel writer was going for here. Is she denying that members of British peerage can be referred to as peers? Or is she claiming that a women has no business in the peerage? What’s with the seemingly “arbitrary” use of quotation marks? I “don’t” understand.

[sarcasmic]

Couple fined for refusing to host same-sex wedding on their farm

http://nypost.com/2014/11/10/c…..heir-farm/
Equality!

?In Oregon, Christian bakers who refused to sell a wedding cake to two lesbians face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

In Washington state, an elderly Christian florist could face hefty fines after she refused to provide wedding flowers to two gay men.

A Christian Colorado baker is appealing a judge’s decision ordering him to start baking wedding cakes for homosexuals and to provide his staff with sensitivity training, after he refused to create a wedding cake for two gay guys.

?The US Supreme Court this year declined to hear the case of a Christian photographer from New Mexico who claimed that refusing to shoot the commitment ceremony of two lesbians was not only an expression not only of her constitutional right to religious freedom, it was protected by her First Amendment right to free speech. New Mexico’s Supreme Court and the state’s Human Rights Commission have decreed that her refusal to shoot equaled unlawful discrimination.

All the want is equal rights! The slippery slope of lawsuits is a homophobic myth!

[This Machine Slips It In]

But, but… TOLERANCE!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I wonder how many claims of discrimination on religious grounds have been enforced in the same period.

[Free Society]

I wonder how many claims of discrimination on religious grounds have been enforced in the same period.

What does religion really have to do with it? You are either a slave or you are not. Your freedom of association is either violated or it is not. The presence of supernatural beliefs are irrelevant to whether such violations are justifiable.

[Hyperion]

I just read that. Sickening. Now you have to let fat lesbians tell you what you can do with your own property, actually worse, what they can do with your own property.

[Brian D]

Is anyone shocked that the left supports policies that force people to work for others, yet they say the Republicans want to reinstate slavery?

[sarcasmic]

What ticks me off are all the useful idiots who refused to see that this is the goal of many who support SSM, who enabled this bullshit to happen based upon some fucked up notion of fairness.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yeah, equal protection of the laws, how silly.

Look, we can’t oppose things involving fundamental rights because someone might twist it in an anti liberty way. Should Kentuckians have opposed gun rights because later some might get a law passed like the one ordering employers to allow employees keep guns on the employers property?

[sarcasmic]

The moment SSM started being sold as a civil right, it became painfully obvious that the point was not equality, but rather a means to punish those who have improper beliefs.

[Almanian!]

Forcing me to bake you a cake = supporting Kentucky gun rights.

Release the Botard!

[LynchPin1477]

No, he was saying

Forcing me to bake you a cake = forcing me to let you carry a gun on my property

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The Alamaniantard has been released into the principle-less wilds long ago. It’s his native habitat now.

[Zeb]

I’m all for gay marriage. But it isn’t a fundamental right to have a marriage legally recognized. It’s an equal protection thing. Getting rid of all legal marriage recognition wouldn’t violate anyone’s rights.

[Clown Hunter]

And whatever “equal protection” might be advanced by requiring the state to license your marriage does not require the state to force other people to do business with you.

[Zeb]

Absolutely. I really loathe a lot of the people who agree with me about the marriage part.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

“Human Rights Commission”

I find disgusting that enforcing gays’ access to private actors’ goods and services is given the same name as organizations that fight to prevent mass rape, genocide, and subjugation under tyrannical governments.

Methinks the gays have a way too high opinion of their ‘struggle’ in 21st century America.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You do realize these Human Rights Commissions predate the SSM movement and have been happily forcing private actors to serve people they’d rather not because of the customers religion for decades with nary a peep from most groups up in arms about gays being similarly protected?

I’m all for getting rid of all protected class laws but this selective outrage is really something.

[Clown Hunter]

Botard, you seem to think that we haven’t been opposed to violations of freedom of association, speech, and contract in the name of “civil rights” all along.

Given that, why shouldn’t we also be pissed that these Human Rights Commissions have seized on gay marriage to justify a little mission creep and even more violations of these freedoms?

[Emmerson Biggins]

I’ve been against public accomadation bullshit the whole time. So, is my opinion allowale?

[LynchPin1477]

I have a feeling this shit is going to backfire for them in a major way. Maybe even enough to restore freedom of association across the board? OK, that’s just crazy talk, but I really doubt SCOTUS lets this all stand.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Sure they will – what indication have you seen that they would oppose involuntary servitude?

[sarcasmic]

Cop suspended after he was caught on camera brutally slapping driver who asked why he needed to search his car

Sgt. Shawn R. Glans, 48, has been suspended without pay
Two men who were questioned by police secretly filmed the incident
They were spoken to because the officer spotted a rifle on the back seat
The deputy apparently slaps the young man; the strike can be heard but isn’t seen
Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo calls the video disturbing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..h-car.html
Will anything else happen?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The copper’s wife says he’s in a delicate place emotionally and this video could send him over the edge. The copper himself says he’d do it all again as long as he wasn’t being filmed. Amazing stuff.

[Auric Demonocles]

He’ll get back pay.

[Spoonman.]

…Glans? I would change my name if it was a penis part.

[Clown Hunter]

Oh, really?

Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
Shaft, ya, damn right

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Shut Yo’ mouth!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

How he kept is job after the 1999 incident is beyond me.

[Lord Humungus]

Typo?

Krugman: Death by Typo
The Latest Frivolous Attack on Obamacare

But it now appears possible that the Supreme Court may be willing to deprive millions of Americans of health care on the basis of an equally obvious typo. And if you think this possibility has anything to do with serious legal reasoning, as opposed to rabid partisanship, I have a long, skinny, unbuildable piece of land you might want to buy.

Last week the court shocked many observers by saying that it was willing to hear a case claiming that the wording of one clause in the Affordable Care Act sets drastic limits on subsidies to Americans who buy health insurance. It’s a ridiculous claim; not only is it clear from everything else in the act that there was no intention to set such limits, you can ask the people who drafted the law what they intended, and it wasn’t what the plaintiffs claim. But the fact that the suit is ridiculous is no guarantee that it won’t succeed ? not in an environment in which all too many Republican judges have made it clear that partisan loyalty trumps respect for the rule of law.

[SugarFree]

Still running with the typo lie, Kruggy?

Nobel prize winner, everybody.

[Raven Nation]

And one of the sad things is that, according to people I respect, the work he won the prize for is actually very important. I guess he jut needed the approval of the elites.

[SugarFree]

I think someone needs to go back over that work very carefully. Only to look for “typos,” of course.

[Zeb]

Yeah, he apparently once was a real, proper economist.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

http://dailycaller.com/2014/11…..obamacare/

[Rich]

“I’d rather have this law than not.”

Fuck this guy. I look forward to his congressional grilling.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

He won’t be grilled. He is Top Men.

[Rich]

A gem from Kos: There are only two types of Republicans: 1) racists; and 2) people who are willing to be associated with racists.

Seems like that truism is, um, malleable.

[Elspeth Flashman]

A friend on fb recently posted something similar to this, who knows it may have linked to this article (I rarely read other’s political stuff, and recently it is filled with so much butt hurt that I can’t but feel some schadenfreud). As a reply, I wanted to post how racist affirmative action is, and so on, along with other tenets of the left but restrained myself.

[jmomls]

*As a reply, I wanted to post how racist affirmative action is, and so on, along with other tenets of the left but restrained myself*

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Nice job.

[PapayaSF]

There are only two types of Democrats: 1) totalitarians; and 2) people who are willing to be associated with totalitarians.

[Juice]

I’m sure there is more than a few racist Democrats.

[CE]

When they win, they’re the science based party. When they lose, you’re a racist.

[Lord Humungus]

‘Kissing bug’ disease infects OVER 300,000 people in the US…most of whom don’t know they have the parasite referred to as ‘the new AIDS’

Chagas is being called the new AIDS because of its asymptomatic beginnings that can turn to a fatal end if the disease progresses.

‘We were astonished to not only find such a high rate of individuals testing positive for Chagas in their blood, but also high rates of heart disease that appear to be Chagas-related,’ said Nolan Garcia, an epidemiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine.

The CDC has said that they believe most of the people infected with Chagas got the parasite in Mexico or South America before coming to the U.S.

[PapayaSF]

Don’t tell Cytotoxic. He’s sure that immigrants never, ever bring diseases.

[Slammer]

NYC reasonoid?

[Almanian!]

SugarFree on vacation in the Big Apple

[SugarFree]

Hey! I’d never let my bare asshole touch a subway seat!

[Almanian!]

That’s why you cover it with duct tape, remember?

[SugarFree]

I did that once. It didn’t really work out.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Just like waxing?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

looks like Krugman on his lunch break.

[Lord Humungus]

Duped by Innocence Project, Milwaukee man now free

Simon’s shocking admission ? not to police but to an investigator working for Northwestern University’s Innocence Project ? led to the release and pardon of a man on death row for the crime, and ultimately to the death penalty being abolished in Illinois.

Two years later, I wrote about Simon again. This time he had reached out to me from prison to say the confession and subsequent guilty plea were involuntary. He insisted he was innocent, as do most inmates who send letters to reporters from prison.

My column was not sympathetic. His confession was right there on videotape for everyone to see, including the detail that he had “busted off about six rounds.”

Last week, Simon walked out of prison a free man after Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that her office, after a yearlong investigation, was vacating the charges against him and ending his 37-year sentence.

[Redmanfms]

Jesus tap-dancing Christ.

How in the fuck can the people at Innocence Project sleep at night after having gone to such extraordinary lengths to frame a man for a murder he didn’t commit, just to advance their political cause?

Those involved deserve some good ol’ fashioned murdering.

[Bill Dalasio]

The town of Westminster, Massachusetts, is weighing a measure that would ban the sale of all tobacco products.

Because it’s not like consumers could trek to the next town over or anything, is it? Cripes, this is one of the more blatantly idiotic pieces of feel-good legislation I’ve heard of in recent memory.

[Doctor Whom]

But … but … something must be done! This is something!

[Rhywun]

Because it’s not like consumers could trek to the next town over or anything, is it?

Ban it there too – duh. Why, this could spread like wildfire!

And then we can ban other dangerous stuff. Like driving. Skiing? Swimming… so many ideas.

[Pope Jimbo]

Sort of like smoking bans in bars and restaurants. In Sunny Minnesoda, Minneapolis passed a smoking ban and felt so good about themselves.

They guaranteed that businesses in Minneapolis would soon be swarmed with people who had avoided bars and restaurants because of the dangerous second hand smoke.

After a couple of months and lots of bars closing because of the drop in business, they decided that they needed a state wide ban. It was the only way to keep the evil suburban bars and restaurants from stealing all the business from the Minneapolis businesses.

Repealing the smoking ban never even entered the equation.

[Rhywun]

Repealing the smoking ban never even entered the equation.

Of course not, because it was never about “protecting” anybody. It has only ever been about harrassing a disfavored group.

[Lord Humungus]

Nice pic of Obama doing his best Chinese impersonation:

Obama urges China to be partner in ensuring world order

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday a successful China was in the interests of the United States and the world but Beijing had to be a partner in underwriting international order, and not undermine it.

Speaking to growing concerns among U.S. and other companies about the Chinese business environment after arriving in Beijing, Obama also urged China to reject the use of cyber theft for commercial gain and create a more level playing field where policy is not used for the benefit of some firms over others.

[Brian D]

Obama also urged China to reject the use of cyber theft for commercial gain and create a more level playing field where policy is not used for the benefit of some firms over others.

He said this while signing a bill granting federal subsidies to green energy companies.

[Rich]

What an “Ah, so”.

[Lord Humungus]

How a national food policy could save millions of American lives

The food system and the diet it’s created have caused incalculable damage to the health of our people and our land, water and air. If a foreign power were to do such harm, we’d regard it as a threat to national security, if not an act of war, and the government would formulate a comprehensive plan and marshal resources to combat it. (The administration even named an Ebola czar to respond to a disease that threatens few Americans.) So when hundreds of thousands of annual deaths are preventable ? as the deaths from the chronic diseases linked to the modern American way of eating surely are ? preventing those needless deaths is a national priority.

[waffles]

If the damage is incalculable then so must be the money we must spend to fight it. This is just common sense people.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

1. Establish a national food czar

2. Pass Byzantine and contradictory regulations

3. Bankrupt most private food providers, farms, and ranches

4. Declare capitalism wrought with market perils and

5. Institute single-payer food!

[Brian D]

The Affordable Food Act will deliver a federally regulated amount of nutritious grey paste to everyone, regardless of income!

[Lord Humungus]

something, something made from people

[Brian D]

If you like your dinner, you can keep your dinner.

[Rich]

nutritious grey paste

Nice band name.

[Doctor Whom]

Nobody needs more than seven kinds of entr?es.

[CE]

+1 protein block.

[Doctor Whom]

5. Institute single-payer food!

National Everything Care!

[This Machine Slips It In]

The food system and the diet it’s created have caused incalculable damage to the health of our people and our land, water and air. If a foreign power were to do such harm, we’d regard it as a threat to national security, if not an act of war, and the government would formulate a comprehensive plan and marshal resources to combat it

Please, for the sake of my fraying sanity, tell me this is satire.

[jmomls]

In between which numbers is this step: “liquidate the kulaks, saboteurs and wreckers”?

[LynchPin1477]

– Foreign country drops bombs that kills thousands

– People choose to eat food that harms only them

Yeah, those things seem exactly equivalent to me. DO SOMETHING!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

All that matters is outcomes to some people.

[Bill Dalasio]

All that matters is outcomes control for some people.

There FTFY

[RG]

Yet lifespans continue to increase. Amazing how they ignore that inconvenient truth.

[This Machine Slips It In]

[Hyperion]

Sounds me me like the food policy is a bunch of climate change mumbo-jumbo.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

It’s always ‘me me’ with you, isn’t it?

[Hyperion]

Brazil has had a national food policy since 2004

Haahahhaaaahahaaaa!!! This dumb motherfucker has never been to Brazil. Brazilians eat what they want to, they would laugh this shit out of the country if any such thing actually existed in reality and anyone had ever even heard of it.

[Hyperion]

Good grief, that article, you can tell the guy is a clueless lefty, he just prattles on and on about nothing.

Why don’t he just simply state:

Government should micromanage every single facet of your existence from cradle to grave, I want more spending on green cronyism, and anyone who disagrees with me is crazy.

[Clown Hunter]

Because he’s paid by the word?

[Lord Humungus]

Arrest in Jacksonville toilet flusher mystery

On Nov. 4, a McDonald’s restaurant employee reported its commode flusher had been taken, and investigators obtained surveillance video from the restaurant.

A police officer identified a subject in the video from a previous arrest.

The sheriff’s office on Friday said they found their flusher thief: 24-year-old James Ton.

Officers say Ton was arrested at a metal recycler, trying to unload his commode booty.

[Lord Humungus]

This Is Not a Drill: Pepsi Confirms Existence of Doritos-Flavored Mountain Dew

Everybody panic. Despite all reasonable lines of thinking that would suggest Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew could not possibly be real, here comes the kicker from PepsiCo: The food and beverage corporation, which owns both the Mountain Dew and Dorito brands, confirmed to Quartz this afternoon that it’s indeed testing a “Doritos-inspired flavor” of Dew.

Thus far, “Dewitos” (which is plural for some reason) is only available at select colleges and universities, where one Redditor says he got a sneak peek of the drink: “It honestly wasn’t that disgusting,” the drinker reports. “It tasted like orange with a Doritos after taste.” Congratulations everyone, the Doritofication of America is already here.

[UnCivilServant]

That sounds disgusting. I don’t care what that taste-tester said, I’m not going anywhere near that if it hits shelves.

[Ted S.]

You’re not the only one who thinks it sounds disgusting.

[Cdr Lytton]

Yes, but will there be Mountain Dew flavored Doritos to absorb that fluid?

[CE]

Those sound good. Doritos flavored Dew, not so much.

[Zeb]

People don’t drink Mountain Dew for the flavor, do they?

[Bill Dalasio]

Not unless they’re masochists.

Foul swill that.

[Bill Dalasio]

Not unless they’re masochists.

Foul swill that.

[jmomls]

*like orange with a Doritos after taste*

So exactly like vomit, then. Nice.

[Rich]

Administration officials have said that the system is secure, but computer experts from the Department of Homeland Security as well as HHS are trying once a day to hack into HealthCare.gov to see if the system is vulnerable, a CMS spokesman confirmed.

Triple checking!

[Not a Libertarian]

If Senator Rand cannot simultaneously run for the Presidency and his Senate seat in 2016, will he choose not to run for President in that cycle?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Now that the economy is healthy its time for another Bush!

[Not a Libertarian]

How perceptive of you to get to the actual (rather than the plainly stated) heart of the matter.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Now that the economy is healthy its time for another Bush!

[BigT]

Now that the economy is healthy its time for another Bush!

No and no.

[Lord Humungus]

Collier County man calls 911 looking for a date

According to arrest reports, 45-year old Stephen Ramsey called 911 on November 4th three different times. It was during his last call that he ended up asking the dispatcher on a date. She quickly told him that was an inappropriate question to be asking while calling 911. Ramsey went on to ask her if she was “into handcuffs”.

A deputy was sent to his home where Ramsey told the arresting officer he was “looking for a date or escort service to help him pass the time.” The officers notes show that Ramsey was “slurring his speech heavily” and had a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath.” The officer even added that he knew Ramsey from previous run-ins and that the last time they met he was on his way to a substance abuse treatment program.

[CE]

Did they cuff him?

[Lord Humungus]

Meanwhile in Seattle:

Woman arrested after swilling wine, munching on pie at Northgate grocery store

An employee spotted a woman drinking a bottle of wine in the store about 6 a.m. and asked her to leave, police reports indicate. Unfazed, the woman finished off the bottle and picked up a blueberry pie from the store’s bakery section.

The woman scooped chunks of pie into her mouth with her hands in the store’s coffee shop area before leaving the pie behind and exiting the store.

Police arrived, called to the store by employees, and arrested a 48-year-old woman at the scene. Cops booked her into King County Jail for investigation of theft and trespassing.

[paranoid android]

“Wino steals stuff, acts like loon” is the most dog-bites-man story imaginable in this city.

[Palin's Buttplug]

According to Erik Erikson the GOP bigshits are all falling in line with a Jrb Bush/Rubio ticket now that Florida is safely in Rick Scott’s hands.

I heard this on wing nut AM radio so it might not be true.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Why not Scott Walker?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Florida is why. The GOP can’t win without it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Scott Walker can’t win FL?

[Palin's Buttplug]

McCain and Romney couldn’t. Elections are about winning to the parties. Not ideology.

[Hyperion]

You’re asking Shreek for advice about politics? You’ve now reached an all time low, Bo.

[Pope Jimbo]

Bo wants to argue, Shreek wants someone to respond to his posts. They were made for each other.

It reminds me of when we used to use our office phone system to call two knotheads in the office and conference them in with each other. Each thought the other had called them. We’d just put our phone on mute and listen to them start random gibberish conversations with each other.

[CE]

Florida and the old people who live there were so crucial last time, Romney picked a VP from Wisconsin who wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare and still didn’t win.

[jmomls]

*According to Erik Erikson the GOP bigshits are all falling in line with a Jrb Bush/Rubio ticket now that Florida is safely in Rick Scott’s hands.*

That ticket is impossible since the POTUS/VPOTUS candidates cannot be from the same state, dolt.

[CE]

You mean like GW Bush and Cheney, when they both lived in Texas?

[Joshua]

If it’s a Bush V Clinton election, the third parties are going to have a field day. Kinda makes me hope for that outcome actually.

[Lord Humungus]

World’s largest solar plant applying for federal grant to pay off federal loan

After already receiving a controversial $1.6 billion construction loan from U.S. taxpayers, the wealthy investors of a California solar power plant now want a $539 million federal grant to pay off their federal loan.

“This is an attempt by very large cash generating companies that have billions on their balance sheet to get a federal bailout, i.e. a bailout from us – the taxpayer for their pet project,” said Reason Foundation VP of Research Julian Morris. “It’s actually rather obscene.”

The Ivanpah solar electric generating plant is owned by Google and renewable energy giant NRG, which are responsible for paying off their federal loan. If approved by the U.S. Treasury, the two corporations will not use their own money, but taxpayer cash to pay off 30 percent of the cost of their plant, but taxpayers will receive none of the millions in revenues the plant will generate over the next 30 years.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Hilarious

[Not a Libertarian]

I actually don’t know the cash flow situation at Google (they aren’t Apple to be sure) but my guess is that they could “shake out the couch cushions in the employee breakroom” in Mountain View, and could cough up $539 million.

[waffles]

Isn’t this plant also a death ray that incinerates those of the avian persuasion? The headline could easily be rewritten as “Government approves grant for solar death ray”. Mr. president, we cannot allow a doomsday device gap!

But yeah, this sucks. I think most of the generation industry is just a contest to see who get the government to pay more. It’s policy over practical.

[Clown Hunter]

The headline could easily be rewritten as “Government approves grant for solar death ray”.

See, that I would support.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

It’s pointed in the wrong direction.

A death ray pointed at CA is a good start.

[waffles]

Oh, and from this wikipedia page I see that the p;ant is 3500 acres and produces less than 400 MW at an average of 31% uptime. That’s a lot of money for a plant that has less generation than a coal plant on 200 times the area.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Why not just say “buy out” and call a spade a spade?

[Almanian!]

call a spade a spade?

That’s RACIST

[JEP]

Just wait till we start talking about pots and kettles.

[LynchPin1477]

millions in revenues the plant will generate over the next 30 years

I seriously hope they meant to say billions, or at least profits.

[UnCivilServant]

Given the lack of output, I think that there was no mistake

[Not a Libertarian]

All of the openly gay men who were nominated by the GOP for the House lost, although they been touted as very competitive (if not even favored) in their races.

I am curious as to any exit polling data from those districts.

[Mike M.]

Anyone catch the outfit Obama was wearing in Beijing? I think he has officially gone around the bend.

[Lord Humungus]

ah-so

[Root Boy]

Probably way late with this one:

http://online.wsj.com/articles…..1415394846

I also read recently that there were three WM LT’s who finally passed the entrance test (combat conditioning course?) to get into IOC at Quantico. They all later failed IOC, but for some reason that was not reported as much as them getting in the door.

[Drake]

This is new news? The Marine Corps has been allowing female officers to try the Officers’ Infantry course for some time. Sort of an annual ritual of let them into the class to get hurt or quit. Better than admitting the female body isn’t designed for Infantry.

[CE]

You haven’t been watching the CrossFit games on ESPN2 then.

[Rich]

Indian woman paraded naked on donkey

On the council’s order, the woman’s head was shaved and her face was blackened with coal dust, she was stripped naked and taken around the village on a donkey.

Apparently this is quite the thing in rural India.

[antisocial-ist]

Still better than probation.

[Mickey Rat]

Similar things happen in urban Westeros.

[Lord Humungus]

How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Radicalized Putin

In 1989, as East Germany collapsed around him, a KGB spy in Dresden named Vladimir Putin came to some hard conclusions about power and its paralysis?lessons that would later inform his bellicose geopolitics

[Fist of Etiquette]

It’s always Reagan’s fault, isn’t it?

[John]

And it is always the job of other people to remain enslaved in a police state so things are easier for the US.

[ryanactonuvo]

my best friend’s half-sister makes $81 hourly on the internet . She has been out of work for nine months but last month her paycheck was $19645 just working on the internet for a few hours. this link…..

????? http://www.payinsider.com

[Lord Humungus]

242.5 hours? That’s a hell of a lot of work for a month.

[Almanian!]

I WAS TOLD THERE WOULD BE NO MATH

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Masturbating in front of a camera for roughly 50 hours a week can lead to calluses and carpal tunnel.

[derpules]

Worth it

[Doctor Whom]

It’s the same math that says that America’s public schools are underfunded.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Sounds legit.

[Lord Humungus]

Happy 108th birthday to Mr. Richard Overton, the oldest living veteran. He celebrates today with whiskey and a cigar.
Twitter Pic

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Hope he doesn’t live in that Mass town

[Almanian!]

Survived war only to kill himself with smoking and drinking!

Good on ya, soldier – slainte mhath!

[jmomls]

*Survived war only to kill himself with smoking and drinking!*

It’s not working.

[Not a Libertarian]

A Salute to Mr Overton.

[KB Check Release]

Browns in 1st

I’m 28 and cannot honestly remember the last time the Browns were alone at 1st in a division after 9 games ever.

Probably in the 80’s when I was a toddler.

Maybe they wont be letting the fans down this year after all.

Yay!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

No way the Ravens don’t ultimately overtake them

[LynchPin1477]

Baltimore is one of the few places shittier than Cleveland.

[Almanian!]

Cleveland’s really nice (general environs). I wish I were still there. Lovely area.

Baltimore, on the other hand…more like Camden than Cleveland.

[Restoras]

Cleveland is a great spot. I really enjoy visiting and wished I had moved their years ago – although there is no place to ski.

[KDN]

Downtown Baltimore is significantly nicer than downtown Cleveland. Significantly better as a drinking and sports town, too based on my experiences (which revolve solely around drinking and sports).

[John]

I like Baltimore. The inner harbor and Fells Point both have very good night life. I would rather go out drinking in Baltimore than about anywhere in DC. Baltimore is more like Philadelphia or the better areas of New York; real bars with real people instead of posing hipster douche bags like Washington DC and the fake areas of New York has.

[Hyperion]

The nice parts of Baltimore are very nice. I love Harbor East and Canton, Fells Point too. I live out in the sticks, but it’s very nice out here also.

In contrast the bad parts of Baltimore look like something out of a post apocalyptic world.

[KDN]

real bars with real people instead of posing hipster douche bags

So I take it you haven’t been to The Brewers Art?

But yeah, B-more is basically a smaller version of Philly. I’m a fan of both.

In contrast the bad parts of Baltimore look like something out of a post apocalyptic world.

Just like Philly.

[John]

No I haven’t KDN. And Hipsters are like roaches, they are everywhere. You can only hope to limit their infestation. You can never end it entirely, at least not in a city of any size.

[Hyperion]

Baltimore sure as hell has a better climate.

[BigT]

Not in summer.

[Lord Humungus]

Lions 7-2! 1st in NFC Northern Division!

*checks apocalypse calendar*

[Almanian!]

Dude, it’s only a matter of time. And “how”. I predict – first round loss, bad, we all go home and wonder “what could have been?”

#GoLions!

[Lord Humungus]

I know you are right… it’s the Lions curse: every year is “the year”.

[Almanian!]

+1 Billy Sims, and Barry Sanders

[John]

If you are a Heisman Trophy winning running back who played college ball in Oklahoma and the Lions draft you, just retire from football right then. It is not worth the heartache.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

That is a good one

[John]

Its true Bo. Sanders was by a lot of objective measures the greatest running back since Jim Brown and maybe the best ever. He spent his career playing behind quarterbacks like Andre Ware and Scott Mitchell and never got to play in a Super Bowl. Sims should have been another Earl Campbell. Instead, he had a short spectacular career of being run in the ground on on horrible Lions team after another until finally suffering a catastrophic knee injury.

[antisocial-ist]

Barry Sanders really was incredible. I got to see him play the Packers the year after they beat NE in the superbowl and I can tell you this, the tv cameras didn’t do him justice. There were so many plays where he was surrounded by several Green Bay defenders and managed to make 3 or 4 guys miss in the backfield and pick up 20 yards or more. He’s the only RB I’ve ever seen who almost didn’t even need a line.

[Andrew S.]

Which is good, because he never had a decent line. Part of the reason why he actually (IIRC) has the highest number of negative-yard runs for any RB in NFL history.

But damn was he incredible to watch. Just imagine what he could’ve done if he’d switched places with Emmitt Smith.

[John]

Sanders never had a good line and more importantly never played with a quarterback the defense had to respect. It is not so much the Dallas line, which was great, that made Smith as Troy Aikman. Aikman was tremendously accurate and had a huge arm that allowed him to throw a great deep ball. With Aikman at quarterback teams could rarely sell out to stop Smith they way they could always sell out to stop Sanders.

[Almanian!]

Srsly, I’m TRYING to “enjoy it” while it’s happening. But….52 years on this planet, and we’re still talking about Bobby Layne and 1957.

At least they beat the BROWNS to win their last championship!

#LetMeDown

[John]

They are 7-2. The entire NFC is a mess. Who in that conference really scares you? Why not Detroit to the Super Bowl this year? Seattle is clearly not the team they were last year. Green Bay has Rodgers and thus will always have a shot but they are not great. Drew Brees doesn’t look like an elite quarterback anymore for whatever reason. Who else is there? Arizona I guess. But Detroit has just as good of a shot as Arizona.

[Clown Hunter]

Green Bay has Rodgers and thus will always have a shot but they are not great.

Chicago certainly made them look world-class last night.

[John]

They did. But I think Chicago may really be that bad. I wouldn’t count out Green Bay at all. I just don’t think they are dominant.

[Mickey Rat]

There are no consistant teams in the league at all. Every team that has looked dominant has had at least pne loss where they were run out of the stadium.

[John]

You are right Mickey. There is not. This is going to be one of those years like when the Giants won the Super Bowl where some team gets hot and rolls through the playoffs. The regular season won’t mean much as long as you can get into the playoffs. Get in and you will have just as good of a shot as anyone regardless of your record.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The AFC is pretty much a mess too.

[Ted S.]

They’ve certainly had a horseshoe up their asses all season.

[Almanian!]

I like to think they borrowed it from Peyton Manning. They have to give it back… but he drops it down the sewer on the way to the Stupor Bowl.

[Auric Demonocles]

Did you see his 51 yard TD pass on 3rd down, which involved 54 yards after contact from the guy catching it? He’s still got that crazy luck.

[John]

And the Cardinals are 8-1. The end is nigh.

[Andrew S.]

But their QB tore up his knee yesterday, partially restoring balance to the force.

[John]

Carson Palmer did? I didn’t hear that. That is a shame. I like Palmer and hate to see him have more bad luck.

[KDN]

Maybe they wont be letting the fans down this year after all.

Incoming 6 game losing streak.

My pathetic Jets took care of the even more pathetic Steelers yesterday as evidence continues to mount that John Idzik should be lauded for straightening out the Jets’ cap situation while being summarily dismissed from his GM gig for being a completely worthless talent evaluator. You’re welcome.

[CE]

Browns in 1st…

Maybe they wont be letting the fans down this year after all.

They can’t genuinely let you down until they give you false hope, can they?

[Auric Demonocles]

Did Westminster try to ban alt-text, too?

[Ken Shultz]

“Iraqi officials say ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike.”

Well I think that’s great. We win!

Now, let’s go home.

[Almanian!]

QUITTER!

/Jon Bolton

[Ken Shultz]

Anybody else remember when that sack of shit president of ours promised he wasn’t going to commit any ground troops?

http://www.theguardian.com/wor…..roops-isis

You remember! It was just like a couple of weeks before he announced he was sending another 1,500 troops.

Oh, wait… Right, that was before the midterms–silly me! Why anybody would believe anything Barack Obama says about anything is a mystery.

Why do we even pay attention to what he says anymore?

[John]

I am pretty sure no one does Ken. Honestly, is there anyone on either side above the intelligence level of shreek and Tony who doesn’t think we are going to end up back hip deep in Iraq again?

Even the really hawkish people I know view that with depressed resignation. No one I know likes it or thinks it is a good idea but they are all convinced it is going to happen.

[John]

Its always interesting when the facts don’t fit either side’s narrative on an issue. Here is the story of pro closed borders Anglo Republican running in a district in New Mexico that is along the border and overwhelmingly Hispanic. Easy win for the Democrats right? Wrong, the Republican won big last Tuesday.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/198019/

This cuts against the pro open borders narrative that Republicans can’t win Hispanic votes without being pro amnesty. It also cuts against the pro closed borders narrative that Hispanics are forever going to vote liberal Democrat like the blacks have.

I am not totally sure what is going on here. My guess is that there is a difference between the Hispanic community as a whole and Hispanic voters. The Hispanic community as a whole contains a whole lot of recent immigrants from Central America. Since the recent immigrants can’t or are not supposed to be able to vote, the Hispanic voting block is largely Mexican and in Florida Cuban. Well Mexican are not Hondurans or Salvadorans and indeed Mexico has very strict immigration laws to keep central Americans out of Mexico. Perhaps, and again this is just a guess, that the Mexican voting public not as uniformly for the idea of granting amnesty to millions of central Americans.

[Ken Shultz]

There are lots of issues like this. I remember when school districts in California were shocked–shocked!–that immigrants would protest against their children being taught in bilingual public schools.

They wanted their kids to be taught in English–just like everybody else. Why are they giving our children an inferior bilingual education?! They already know Spanish–they need to learn English!

Immigration disproportionately impacts people living in border towns. It’s like living next to an airport, except instead of hearing airplanes flying overhead all day and night, they’re bothered by smugglers, the smuggled, crime, etc.

Immigrant voters would probably vote against putting an airport next to their communities, too. There isn’t anything about being “hispanic” that makes you enjoy all the downsides of living on the border. And there are plenty of downsides.

Of course, the long term solution to those problems probably isn’t making crossing the border even more difficult. …just like the solution to gangs isn’t cranking up the drug war even harder.

[John]

The other thing is that legal immigrants who have their citizenship and can vote have every bit as much economic motive to vote against new immigration as natives do.

And yes, things are not as great on the border as the media would have one believe. The lesson for the pro immigration side I think is that appeals to racial solidarity and framing immigration as some kind of “save your friends from the evil white man” argument are not as effective as many prog open borders advocates think they are.

If the immigration debate is about legal immigration, the open borders people tend to win. If it is about amnesty for illegals, they lose. The other point that pro immigration, at least those on the left, don’t make and should is that you are never going to control the border if you don’t do something about the demand to cross it illegally. People are no different than drugs. If there is a demand here, there is no way to stop them. So the key to controlling the border is setting up some legal way for the immigrants to get here and thus get rid of the pressure for them to come here illegally.

[Zeb]

The other point that pro immigration, at least those on the left, don’t make and should is that you are never going to control the border if you don’t do something about the demand to cross it illegally. People are no different than drugs. If there is a demand here, there is no way to stop them. So the key to controlling the border is setting up some legal way for the immigrants to get here and thus get rid of the pressure for them to come here illegally.

This is pretty much my practical (as opposed to purely principled) argument for more open borders. If you really want to know who is coming into the country and to have any opportunity to control or regulate that, you need to let enough people in legally that there isn’t huge demand for illegal crossing. The only alternative I see is to heavily arm the border and implement a massive police state, inevitably violating the rights of many citizens and legal residents, to catch all of the illegals who are already here or who still make it across the border.

[Ken Shultz]

Just for the record…

http://articles.latimes.com/19…..-education

Progressives types have been inflicting all sorts of horrible shit on immigrants for a very long time.

Como se dice “Do. Not. Want.” en Espanol?

Yeah, and the Republicans were blowing it by bashing the immigrants instead of the Progressives back then, too!

[John]

Biliqual education is a not kidding human rights crime. It is a program set up specifically to ensure that the children of immigrants don’t speak English and remain in their communities with limited hopes of ever advancing economically or assimilating into larger society.

It really is one of the more evil Prog programs. The entire point of it was to keep Hispanics out of mainstream society and reliable Prog voters.

[Hyperion]

It really is one of the more evil Prog programs

All prog programs are evil. They are evil people.

[John]

They are. But Bilingual education is evil even by Prog standards.

[Zeb]

True bilingual education could be a good thing if done well and for English speakers as well. Being fluent in two languages is a very good skill to have. But if the effect is to keep students from learning to speak and write well in English, that’s pretty bad.

[Juice]

Border Patrol checkpoints tend to destroy towns also.

[Hyperion]

What I’ve personally witnessed, talking to legal immigrants here, and I know a lot of them, they are more against giving green cards to those here illegally than what native born Americans are. And I can understand why, after going through the draconian process of getting legal status here, they just hand the same benefits to those who didn’t follow those rules? It’s pure bullshit, and this is why the Dems are losing on this issue.

[John]

I lived in Central Texas for most of seven years. And the Hispanics I knew were not big on giving free green cards either. They were also pretty socially conservative. They didn’t have a lot of use for welfare either. I never saw them as natural fits for the Democrats the way the media pretends they are.

[CE]

They’re mostly pro-life Catholics too.

[Ken Shultz]

And it’s really easy to make Republican bashing of illegal immigrants look to them like Republicans are bashing all immigrants indiscriminately.

I should say, too, the media is pretty anti-American back in Mexico–and Univision, Telemundo, La Opinion aren’t exactly out to disabuse them of the notion that the Republicans are out to get them either.

[CE]

To be fair, Univision and Telemundo have some great on-air talent.

[Zeb]

And I can understand why, after going through the draconian process of getting legal status here

That is certainly understandable. But a pretty poor basis for policy. It’s an argument that can be used to keep pretty much any shitty regulation or policy. “we all got screwed by this, so everyone else should too”

[Clown Hunter]

John, part of is that “Hispanic” voters in a lot of those border counties have been there for many, many generations.

I knew some in South Texas where they are called “Tejanos”. They have zero sympathy for illegals, at best.

[John]

Yes. I think that is most of it. The “Hispanic” community is not one big monolithic block of poor recent immigrants with “fuck you its still Mexico” bumper stickers the way the media portrays them.

[Winded]

Nice mix of FYTW and Kafka here…if you rent property to the state, they’ll decide when to vacate and when to pay, regardless of what any lease might say. But they can’t pay back rent until you renew their lease. And if you’ve got a problem with that, don’t worry…you can file suit and have it adjudicated by the department you’re suing.

http://www.rrstar.com/article/…../141109635

[John]

maybe I am remembering wrong, but I remember reading something a while back about how the City of Chicago is one of the biggest dead beat debtors in the country. The city literally just routinely refuses to pay contractors and tradesman hired to do work on city property. They basically refuse to pay any bill unless ordered to by a court.

[KDN]

The City of Newark cycles through heating oil contractors regularly. Not because of any sort of competitive bidding process, but because they are such deadbeats that nobody’s willing to service their properties.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

My pride in IL bursts forth reading this…gah!

[Juice]

They’ll have to sue in federal court it seems.

[John]

http://www.newrepublic.com/art…..-whisperer

The Prog media begins to turn on Valerie Jarrett. I predicted this would happen. They can’t turn on Obama but someone has to be blamed for Obama’s failure. Jarrett has not handled success well and is by all accounts a very unpleasant person with a lot of enemies. She is the perfect scapegoat for the Obama loving media.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

It’s no surprise that Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett would govern as reasonable people. It’s who they are. The tragedy is that we live in surpassingly unreasonable times.

Doesn’t sound like a damning critique.

[John]

Its the Nation. They could never admit the ideology is wrong or that any Prog is ever unreasonable. But they will place blame for political failures. And that article is blaming Jarrett.

[Lord Humungus]

What does the Chicken say?

Trigger warning: Chinese pop video

[Ken Shultz]

Sometimes a trigger warning isn’t enough.

I’m as much about free speech as the next guy, but just because you have the right to, say, own a gun, doesn’t give you the right to start shooting people indiscriminately–and, quite frankly, I feel like that’s more or less what’s happened here.

How are we supposed to unsee that?!

Holy Jesus!

If the government of China imprisoned the people who made that video for inciting hatred against the people of China, I can’t say it would surprise me. For the love of God, just becasue you have the right to make a video like that doesn’t mean you should!

And you brought this into our midst, Lord Humungus. Don’t imagine we’ll forget that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It’s obviously a warning against marriage.

[ProLifeLibertarian]

Jesse Ventura and Ralph Nader want the death penalty for people who don’t engage in “corporate patriotism”.

These two are idiots. Big government is bad, but if you dare cross the big government which we support, then off with your head!