Obama to Announce Immigration Actions, Gay Marriage Comes to South Carolina, DOJ Rakes in Bank Bucks: P.M. Links

• 

  jonathan mcintosh / photo on flickr

  President Barack Obama will be announcing executive actions on immigration tonight Thursday night during primetime. But there's a new episode of Arrow Scandal!

• A planned sitcom starring Bill Cosby has been canceled by NBC in the wake of sexual assault allegations against the comedian.
• The first marriage licenses to gay couples in South Carolina were handed out today, even as the state's attorney general fights a federal ruling striking its ban down.
• Five students in Thailand have been detained for reportedly using the three-fingered salute invented by the rebels in The Hunger Games in front of the country's prime minister.
• Speaking of The Hunger Games: Snow has killed six folks in New York State.
• The Department of Justice announced it has collected a record $24 billion in penalties for fiscal year 2014, three times the amount they gathered last year, thanks to some big bank payouts.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama will be announcing executive actions on immigration tonight during primetime.

No one is interested unless he includes a laugh track.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

http://bit.ly/1qrToep/

"The total bill of $950,000 included more than $160,000 for Huculak's hospital stay and $40,000 for a medical evacuation, she said. The rest of the cost went to care for Huculak's daughter.

So far, she said Saskatchewan Health has paid for $20,000 of the bill and the U.S. picked up the cost of Reece's delivery, at $12,000. That leaves $918,000, she said.

Blue Cross denied her claim, citing a pre-existing condition.

"I had a bladder infection and I hemorrhaged a bit at four months," she said. "My doctor saw no reason for me not to go.

"We had no questionnaire (from Blue Cross)."

[Cytotoxic]

404

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....e21646844/

[Cytotoxic]

Not sure how to feel. She says Blue Cross didn't giver her a questionnaire, but should they have to? If their policy says 'no pre-existing conditions' and she had one, they aren't responsible. She should do a fundraiser. Kick-start that debt.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

But it wasn't related to the pregnancy sounds like.

[Cytotoxic]

Then maybe she should take BC to court.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

That sucks... a lot

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think they can negotiate that fee though.

[rts]

The comments on that mostly centre around how cruel and heartless etc. US health care is.

I present:

Australian couple faces $1-million hospital bill after baby born in B.C.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Health care and guns.. Two things most Canadians can't rationally discuss unless it involves arguments for more government involvement and less liberty. It makes me sick.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

change rationally to calmly... you know what, just remove everything after "discuss" and before "it makes me sick"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Precisely.

[New West Republic]

Me too, and I think the most rabid defenders of Canada's health care system(s) are either young, stupid, or enjoy robust good health. I have a very large extended family and many of my relatives would be dead today if they hadn't sacrificed and fund-raised the shit out of everyone they know to raise money for cancer treatment in the US.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It cuts across all demographics.

[New West Republic]

True, but when shit gets real even the most die-hard dippers will open their wallets like real humans and not dare to suggest there's nothing their beloved socialized medical system can't fix.

[New West Republic]

Damn, beat me to it

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha, ha! Notice there are no comments in that two-year old story.

[New West Republic]

Not that I don't feel bad for these parents, but people have no idea how much neonatal intensive care actually costs and should be extremely careful travelling internationally late in a pregnancy. Here's a CBC story about this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.2840519

Don't read the comments, but one moron posited that similar care would cost maybe $40k in Canada, the balance being exorbitant profit-taking by US hospitals. Then there's this very similar case of an Australian couple's premie born in Vancouver:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.1197529

But health care is a right and should be free!

[Mike M.]

So Reason is finally going to get what they've been waiting for years for.

I wonder how many times Shikha Dalmia will crush her clitoris tonight because of this.

[Citizen Nothing]

I just pray you're replaced by a commenter from Bangalore.

[RBS]

If the Ebola doesn't get him first.

[Mike M.]

My guess is she crushes it once during the pre-speech warmup on MSNBC, again during the speech itself, and once more before hitting the sack for good measure. So, three altogether.

[Cytotoxic]

Lets hope so-it'll be a huge boon to the economy and freedom IFF it's legal.

[The Laconic]

You're vile.

[MJGreen]

Well she shouldn't be the only one to have any fun. Here's some material for you to stroke it to tonight.

[Mike M.]

"We here at Reason hate and oppose the Cult of the Imperial Presidency. Except for those rare occasions when we feel it works on our behalf."

Not very principled at all.

[John Titor]

Stay classy Mike. And I'm the guy who posts Godzilla bukkake.

[RightofCenter]

Mike, in the future can you include some sort of trigger warning, like maybe "Before reading, put down the spoon full of red pasta fagioli"?

Because now I'm explaining to my coworkers why I'm cleaning pasta fagioli off my monitor and keyboard. Thanks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Five students in Thailand have been detained for reportedly using the three-fingered salute invented by the rebels in The Hunger Games in front of the country's prime minister.

They should have each lowered two of those fingers then.

[AlmightyJB]

I usually start with one and work up to three.

[Crusty Juggler]

I was going to make the same joke! Three-finger brothers!

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Three fingered salute?

Is it the shocker?

[RBS]

Two in the goo one in the poo.

[Riven]

Go on...

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Two in the pink, one in the stink.

[Troy muy grande boner]

So, like a bowling ball?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A planned sitcom starring Bill Cosby has been canceled by NBC in the wake of sexual assault allegations against the comedian.

Saved themselves the cost of making six or seven unwatchable episodes.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

A spin-off of Blackish, called Rapish?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The first marriage licenses to gay couples in South Carolina were handed out today, even as the state's attorney general fights a federal ruling striking its ban down.

By the time the AG gets his day in court, those couples will have already been long divorced.

[AlmightyJB]

Now Bubba can marry brother Bubba or other brother Bubba instead of sister Bubba.

[RBS]

This is great news for my family law practice.

[UnCivilServant]

Holy crap, Dragon Age: Inquisition is 23.8Gb plus DLC. You ahve any idea how long it's going to take to swap out 16,925x3.25in disks?

[Ted S.]

I prefer my games on cassette tapes, thank you very much.

[UnCivilServant]

I couldn't find a driver for the tape drive, which tends to eat the tapes anyway.

[Tonio]

Real old-school geeks used COTS cassette recorders. But, yeah, those special computer cassette drives were a PITA and expensive.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Tee-hee! He said 'cassette'.

/giggles s'more.

[Rhywun]

Wow... talk about a word that has fully exited the language.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I remember playing Monopoly on the Commodore 64. It was on tape. It took an hour to load. You could almost finish a real Monopoly game in that time.

[Rhywun]

I remember typing in a game in Assembly from a magazine. My friend and I spent all night typing (and retyping) it in. Fun times.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't recall what it was I spent hours doing on the Commodore, but it taught me the importance of saving often when someone knocked out the power and all my work was gone...

[Medical Physics Guy]

I remember using PEEK and POKE a lot. I wonder if they still use those in today's BASIC.

[Hyperion]

VB .NET? No, they don't use goto either, it's an object oriented language now. It compiles into the exact same code as C#. So it's really just a syntax choice.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha! We used to play the Olympic games on the Commodore 64.

[New West Republic]

I killed so many joysticks cycling in the Summer Games

[New West Republic]

Even with the disk drive,

load "*", 8, 1

[go to work, fail to earn $18,992 for just a few hours work since the internet hadn't been invented, leave, shop for groceries, run a couple other errands, get home phone's ringing boss's sending you to Australia on the next flight, survive 10 day business trip dodging God's most dangerous creatures, return home, brew coffee, Jumpman!]

[Cytotoxic]

Based on what I've heard, it'll be worth it. Not like the last few years have had many really good games.

[Jordan]

I'm really liking it so far.

[Cytotoxic]

How's it compared to SkyRim? SR is moddable, pretty sure DA:I is not.

[Jordan]

Well, that's a tough comparison. I played Skyrim on PC and put well over 100 hours into it without even coming close to beating the main story. I've just started DA and am playing it on PS4 (my PC sucks now). I can't really make a judgement call at this point, although my hunch is that Skyrim's open world is a bit more engrossing. I fucking loved wandering the wilds alone in that game.

[Jordan]

And of course Skyrim allows you to rob and murder civilians...

[Cytotoxic]

Which is wrong unless they are supporting terrorists.

[UnCivilServant]

I've managed to clock 488 hours in Skyrim somehow...

I still can't puzzle that one out. You'd think I'd notice a missing part-time job's worth of time.

[Rhywun]

You either live in a basement or alone.

Hell, I live alone and there is no way I could find that much time to spend on a game.

[UnCivilServant]

Hey! it's been out for three years...

And no, my apartment is not in a basement, it's on the middle floor of a three story building.

Though if you have a spare svelte redhead woman of anywhere from legal to my age, I could find space for her...

[Rhywun]

Then again I bore kind of easily - I have a bunch of games I've barely cracked open let alone finished. Skyrim is one of them, I am afraid to admit.

[Riven]

Try harder!

[UnCivilServant]

Try harder!

I'll see what I can do, but I was born without charm, and some pretty brutal personality flaws.

[Riven]

Here's the deal: you rack up a solid 1000 hours in any one game of your choice, and I'll give you the number of the hot redhead I dated a few years ago.

Bonus: she's still hot, has a nice rack, and is currently looking for direction in her life.

[Rhywun]

She has to be willing to relocate to... Albany, is it?

[UnCivilServant]

🙁 Yes, I'm still stuck in the Albany area.

[Riven]

I'm not sure if Albany is in the territory of her stripper-caravan, but I could check.

[Agammamon]

Its not moddable - at least without a ton of effort. They won't be releasing mod tools like Bethesda does.

On PC, the UI is fucking horrible. Not Skyrim horrible, but still really bad.

The controls and camera are . . . unpleasant. Low FOV and you have to hold the Rmouse down to use mouselook - and it, along with a lot of functions are not rebindeable.

Tactics - remember how in Dragon's Age: Origins you could customize your NPC's tactics to an unprecedented degree? Yeah, they got rid of that. Now you can tell them which abilities they can use and at what health percentage to use a potion. No more 'pile onto the fucking enemy mage *first*' level of control.

OTOH - its large. each area is about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of Skyrim, but there are around a dozen of them.

Your companions aren't annoying and don't consistently place themselves between your arrow and your target (like they do in TES) and are decently to well written and characterized.

Overall I *like* it, I'm just upset at how a studio like this can piss on their PC customer-base with a half-arsed port.

[Agammamon]

Though, overall, I have 700+ hours in Skyrim alone (and 400+ in FO3 and NV each). I don't think I'll get a 100 out of DAI - lack of serious modding means this is a one or two shot game and that's it. Kinda a waste, that it.

[UnCivilServant]

Given that there have been recent releases where I've been lucky to get 20 hours out of them before the content runs out, 100 would still be an improvement.

It's finished copying the base game files, and moved on to the finalizing part. So I may wander off soon.

[Riven]

Please.

PC gaming has always been the red-headed stepchild of the gaming world, and everyone knows it.

[cavalier973]

Always?

[seguin]

I guess since the Xbox/PS1 yeah, but only really for AAA.

Way more good indie stuff for PC. More crappy indie stuff too, but more is always betterer.

[Rhywun]

PC gaming has always been the red-headed stepchild of the gaming world, and everyone knows it.

Feh. Try Mac gaming.

[Tonio]

Well maybe less time if you used the industry-standard 3.5" disks instead of those oddball 3.25 ones. Also, they managed to get the capacity up to 200 MB or so before the format became obsolete.

/geek

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Obsolete?

What will I do with all those AOL disks then?

[Tonio]

Coasters?

[Free Society]

door stops

[Mad Scientist]

Hang them up in your lawn to scare birds away from new grass seeds.

[Riven]

Uh... What exactly are you doing with them now?

[Agammamon]

They prop up the Chevy without tires that he's 'working on' instead of cinderblocks.

[Riven]

Of course it's a Chevy; they need constant work.

[UnCivilServant]

I always mix up the measurement numbers. The system I had ages ago had both a 5in and 3in drive, so the fractions never got properly set in my brain (I was a kid and Cds came out)

But it still amazes me to think about it, my internet conntection has demonstrated download speeds of 2.4 mb/s. While there are faster out there, that is still more data than more data each second than my old computer could even hold.

[Tonio]

Back in my day you needed 8" to get taken seriously.

[UnCivilServant]

I wasn't born yet in that day.

[Tonio]

Boy, you haven't lived until you've had to boot up the CPU with a punched paper tape just to get it to recognize the disk drive and load the OS.

[Medical Physics Guy]

That's good stuff. I arrived in the 8 inch days. I could never get an actual CRT terminal so I would use the ones that were just printers.

[Snark Plissken]

Geez, and here I though *I* was an old codger...

[CE]

I'm old enough to remember the paper tape drive to boot up....

We were playing "internet" computer games on a teletype timeshare from the university 30 miles away, at 10 characters per second on the telephone modem (where you plugged the phone physically into the modem).

[BillPrep]

or some fucktard drops your 11,537 card deck, shrugs, and laconically says 'sorry'.

[Crusty Juggler]

This is why I could not break in to the adult film world.

[grrizzly]

Tonio, an old braggart.

[Stormy Dragon]

I remember getting a computer with a 52 Mb harddrive and thinking "Wow, there's no way I'll ever be able to fill that much disk space!"

[flye]

I had an Apple Lisa with a 10Mb ProFile hard drive and never did fill it up completely.

[kinnath]

5 Mb platters. We was living high on the hog back then.

[AlmightyJB]

Packard Bell 32MB HD. 25mhz. 9.6 kbps modem.

[PapayaSF]

First hard drive: 30Mb, for $700.

[MJGreen]

That sounds about right. I don't think the first HDD I had was over 100 MB.

At work, we're struggling to make do with 96 TB.

[PapayaSF]

I just bought a 2TB portable drive for $80. Amazing.

[Stormy Dragon]

I find flash cards even more impressive. hundreds of gigs on something the size of my thumbnail? Unbelievable

[Stormy Dragon]

They were 3.5" or 5.25", whippersnapper!

[UnCivilServant]

I explained to Tonio the source of my fractional lysdexia regarding removable media.

[Stormy Dragon]

I take it then you plead guilty to the remaining charge of whippersnappery?

[UnCivilServant]

No contest.

[Stormy Dragon]

The court hereby revokes your lawn priveleges and sentences to 30 days of embarassing teenagers with dad jokes.

[Anonymous Coward]

So far, Dragon Age: Inquisition is looking suspiciously like Dragon Age: Oblivion.

[UnCivilServant]

So far it's looking like a progress meter at 77% done.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Department of Justice announced it has collected a record $24 billion in penalties for fiscal year 2014, three times the amount they gathered last year, thanks to some big bank payouts.

And those savings will be passed on to you, the consumer.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Shoved up your ass, a nickle at a time.

[flye]

So that's where the name Nickleback comes from. I learn something new every day.

[Tonio]

Ha!

[AlmightyJB]

Give a trillion take 24 billion. Give a trillion take 24 billion. Sign me up for that program.

[UnCivilServant]

You need to start with a trillion. Have you got it?

[HeteroPatriarch]

The Department of Justice announced it has collected a record $24 billion in penalties for fiscal year 2014, three times the amount they gathered last year, thanks to some big bank payouts.

And of course not a penny of it will go toward reducing the deficit, but the DOJ budget will go up next year. And a $24 billion bonus pool!

[Medical Physics Guy]

They need to spend it all on full time security details for senior DoJ staff.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Speaking of The Hunger Games: Snow has killed six folks in New York State.

Spoiler alert.

[UnCivilServant]

They believed the President and Algor when they said global warming would end the snowfalls in Buffalo, they thought it was great.

[Andrew S.]

President Snow is openly killing people in the Districts now?

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

Ever since Catching Fire.

[Andrew S.]

But this is the first time he's done it himself!

[Cytotoxic]

Yesterday I was of two minds regarding Paul's vote against the Freedom USA Act. Now I am one mind: the Freedom USA Act sucked. "Rand votes against extending enhanced spying powers" should have been Bailey's headline. Bailey is wrong on this issue. This isn't perfect vs good, this is an excuse to entrench the surveillance state and add some meaningless trim to it. I hope Rand can wrangle some deal with McConnel to simply not renew the NDAA and Patriot Act in the future.

[Jordan]

Exactly this. It was an awful bill.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

^^Yes this.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

On the way into work I saw a bus driver (who are on strike because 80k a year isn't enough for them) eating as he drove while wearing ear phones.

A 'wtf?' moment if there ever was one.

[Cytotoxic]

Quebec seems to be s l o w l y changing. These guys are probably over-reaching.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

A true professional.

[paranoid android]

So I got myself on a streecar
And it drove right into someone
You know the driver said,
"I was looking straight ahead!"
But he was reading the Toronto Sun

[kinnath]

So hipsters have managed to corrupt the boy scout salute.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Violating Swedish airspace is the hip new thing: French plane spotted in Swedish airspace

"Following unconfirmed reports that a Russian plane entered Swedish airspace on Saturday, the Swedish military has told The Local that the aircraft actually came from France."

So, really a French plane, or the Swedes (wisely) picking someone besides Russia to get huffy with?

[HeteroPatriarch]

Guess they haven't seen Men of War.

[Tonio]

You know who else violated Swedish airspace?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Peter the Great?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hitler.

Always Hitler.

Or, if you prefer, Norwegians.

/narrows gaze.

[CE]

Thor?

[cavalier973]

Sinterklaas?

[Entropy Void]

Isn't Sinterklaas a Nederlandish?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

To be fair, European countries are pretty small and he was French.

[Matrix]

My girlfriend is Swedish. I was talking to her about the Russian sub yesterday. I basically told her that all Sweden will ever do is whine and complain about it. Just fold like a cheap suit.

She did not appreciate that very much.

[Stormy Dragon]

Notice that Russia isn't messing around with Finland.

[John Titor]

Ah, the Finns: "oh shit, we're fighting the Soviets, quick, ally with the Nazis!" *several years later. "oh shit, the Nazis are losing, quick, peace deal with the Allies!"

[tarran]

Of all the nations that cooperated with Germany in World War II, the most justified were the Finns: the Russians decided to bite of a chunk of their territory, and the Finns did a pretty good job holding them off.

And I should point out that the Russians, who initially were allied with Nazi Germany are much more deserving of the pass they get because they switched sides.

[tarran]

God, I butchered that last paragraph! It should read,

And I should point out the Russians, who initially were allied with Nazi Germany are much less deserving of the pass they get because they switched sides.

[PapayaSF]

Thanks, I was going to say.....

[John Titor]

The Russians, in typical European realpolitik, did have a 'claim' on Finland, due to the previous Grand Duchy of Finland, but they actively alienated the Finns even before the Soviets took power. That, compiled with Finland's civil war between the traditionalists and the socialists meant that conflict was probably unavoidable.

[seguin]

The Romanians also. The Soviets stole Bessarabia from them in 1940. This of course was the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in action, but I don't think King Carol II knew that.

[John Titor]

What did she think they would actually do? Sanctions or something? It's not like Sweden can respond militarily or anything.

[Matrix]

I think she realizes that. I think she was upset because I pointed it out in such a manner.

[widget]

I blame the Matriarchy.

[The DerpRider]

How many 19 year olds have cellulite and stretch marks already? I mean other than the gross ones.

The stickers, called Lammily marks, include cellulite, stretch marks, freckles, acne, glasses, temporary tattoo, scratches, bruises, cast, mosquito bites and dirt stains.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

From the pictures, I guess Lamm would have gotten in trouble if he called it "Florida Barbie".

[lap83]

Stretch marks tend to occur at puberty, so yeah, most 19 year olds have them. Even guys.

[Crusty Juggler]

I am a guy and I have stretch marks. Wink.

[The DerpRider]

Really? /Grabs camera and heads to campus. Excuse me ladies, it's for science!

[Riven]

Yep. I have stretch marks. Not across my stomach like that, but there's a couple here or there.

Granted, I used to be a little chubby.

[BigT]

I've stretched it a few times, but never noticed marks.

[BuSab Agent]

I've had five kids and I have no visible stretch marks. (I have a few tiny ones completely covered by my pubic hair.) Coconut oil and not turning into a lard ass is your friend!

[trshmnster the terrible]

Skin sensitivity is a contributing factor. I have some on my arms from when I used to lift regularly.

For whatever reason, I inherited tissue paper skin. I would have real nasty bruises all along my shoulders from football pads.

[BuSab Agent]

Oh I bruise like a peach too and my skin is very thin. Nope, I credit my lack of stretch marks to the habit of coating myself in coconut oil daily to fight the hyper dryness that occurs from regularly being in a chlorinated pool every day for several hours. I don't swim like that any more, but I still put the oil upon my skin. No hose needed.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I may have to acquire this coconut oil and see whether it helps.. is this like the coconut oil that I can buy at the hippie grocery store as a replacement to lard?

[BuSab Agent]

The very same. It comes in two varieties refined (no coconut smell) and virgin (coconut smell) and both work equally well.

[BuSab Agent]

I started using it because I am allergic to Balsam of Peru which is in the fragrance of virtually every commercially manufactured moisturizer, cream, or lotion. If you see a weird lady in the make-up aisle patch testing herself on her arms...that's me.

[seguin]

I have massive stretch marks that I got from my growth spurt - they trace over my shoulders to my pecs/mantits.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Why is there a boy depicted playing with dolls? This is not alright!

G.I. Joe...that's it!

[widget]

I had a G.I. Joe when I was a lad. I played with it a few time before I taped an M80 I swiped from Dad's 4th of July stash. to it.

I get negative sometimes looking at the world spin. But the kids are OK. My six-yo would take a G.I. Joe gift and place directly in the drawer with all the other toys he never spent a minute playing with.

Nothing unique about him in this regard. Kids are saturated with toys these days. You can buy a box of toys from Toy's R Us for a few hours worth of minimum wage pay. The containers filled with toys from China might just as well be dumped directly in the landfill.

A ball holds it's value, but nothing else.

[cavalier973]

Legos are good.

[BuSab Agent]

No Legos are bad, very bad. I figure the kids owe me the cost of at least 3 replacement vacuums and one visit to the podiatrist.

[Free Society]

Tony's fat wife makes $78 every day jacking off homeless men under a bridge . She has been laid off for ten months but last month her pay was $13879 just jacking some bums for a few hours. try this web-site....

http://www.wifeoftony.com

[SusanM]

So someone's squishing a bean bag chair. What's your point?

[Jordan]

LOL I had not heard that euphemism before. I'll have to remember it now.

[SusanM]

😉

[Len Bias]

Now, now, personal attacks against Tony accomplish nothing.

[Free Society]

Levity?

[Len Bias]

I didn't read it carefully enough. That it was spam and the use of Tony was a coincidence.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Especially considering the fact that Tony is openly gay.

[BuSab Agent]

Tony's fat wife is a homeless guy.

[Fluffy]

I laughed.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Department of Justice announced it has collected a record $24 billion in penalties for fiscal year 2014, three times the amount they gathered last year, thanks to some big bank payouts.

Totally not extortion!

[antisocial-ist]

" The first marriage licenses to gay couples in South Carolina were handed out today,"

So that's where Bo was today.

[cavalier973]

Passing out business cards?

[seguin]

He just wanted to get a whiff newly budding arguments.

[Cytotoxic]

I looked up Uber in Google News. Fresh hits include: Daily Beast-'The Definitive List of Uber Horror Stories' & Slate-'Uber Thinks It's Invincible-What if It's Not?'.

Yeah keep wishing and hoping the future away guys. I really like it when you wallow in your fears and desperation.

[Len Bias]

Uber is progress, yet so-called 'progressives' hate it. Imagine that.

[widget]

I used Uber for the first time when I was in Philly last month. Yeah, it's cool to watch your driver's location on the smart phone, but it's about 40% higher in cost than a taxi. But then I didn't know it possible to negotiate with the driver, or so I've since heard. Is that true? Even so, that would put some friction in the service.

[Jordan]

Pricing varies with demand too. Prices during peak times can be extremely high. But most of the people I've talked to said the price was good when they used it.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Weird, Uber is cheaper than a Taxi here.

[Steve G]

I used it twice going to/from the airport a few weeks back. Was a satisfied customer, but noted the drivers were both of the regular cab driver demographic.. I was expecting Kennedy to pick me up I guess.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Ich bein ein cabdriver!

[Eric Hanneken]

Anyone else besides Scott Shackford and me watching Arrow this season? Have an opinion on (spoilers ahead) who killed Sara Lance?

[Crusty Juggler]

Laura Palmer.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

Bum.

[Robert Falcon Scott]

Nope.

[The Late P Brooks]

Uber is progress, yet so-called 'progressives' hate it.

"Progressives" fetishize stasis. Innovation and change confound them.

[Stormy Dragon]

It's the Divine Right of Stagnation

[Jordan]

Keynesian Klownconomists are shocked as Japan slides back into recession:

Why all of this is so "unexpected" is an apparent mystery. Sales tax hikes do not spur the economy, no matter how much of it government wastes. And it should not take a genius or an 8-point synopsis to figure that out.

So why was this news so "unexpected" in nearly every quarter? I have two answers.

Economists are the most optimistic lot on the planet. They believe what they want to believe.
The average economist also believes in Monetarist and Keynesian fairy tales.

Japan is living proof of the absolute stupidity of Abenomics (a combination of Keynesian and Monetarist stupidity), yet academia, let by economist Paul Krugman concludes "Japan did not do enough".

Apparently, debt to the tune of 250% of GDP fighting deflation was not enough. 500% would not have been enough either, for obvious reasons.

But don't expect any Keynesian or Monetarist clowns to admit that. They will never stop believing in fairy tales.

[Suthenboy]

I think there are two parts to this.

1. Useful idiots blame leftist failures on obstructionists and not hitting it hard enough. These are the true believers.

2. The top echelon leftists know their policies will fail, they are designed to do that. The purpose is to collapse society so they can achieve total power. They don't really believe any of the shit they say.

[Every Cop is a Criminal]

Naked outdoor protest over SeaWorld float in NY's Thanksgiving parade

Animal rights advocates outraged that a SeaWorld float is included in next week's lineup for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade unveiled plans on Wednesday for a naked protest outside the landmark store.

Demonstrators wearing nothing but black and white body paint to resemble orcas will squeeze into a bathtub outside the midtown Manhattan store on Thursday to mimic orcas held in captivity and to repeat last year's demand - which was denied - that the float be excluded, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said.

"It is unacceptable to confine orcas to barren tanks that, to them, are the size of a bathtub," said Delcianna Winders, PETA's deputy general counsel.

The naked protest in temperatures predicted to hover just above freezing rides a wave of controversy surrounding SeaWorld after the 2013 documentary film "Blackfish" alleged the park mishandled the huge sea mammals. The marine theme park uses orcas in its aquatic shows.

http://www.reuters.com/article.....ES20141119

[Jordan]

Sigh. PETA, why do you have to be so fucking retarded? I actually agree with them on this, so it's a real shame that their idiocy will instantly cause people to tune them out.

[Rhywun]

Yep, I just automatically assume they are wrong on everything.

[John Titor]

Welp, time to invent an orca translator.

[Bill Dalasio]

Of course the funny part would be if the translation revealed the orcas saying something to the effect of...

"Released?! Fuck you, bitches! I've got a sweet gig here! I do a couple of shitty-assed jumps and they give me all the fish I can cram down my gullet. In the wild, I'm stuck scrounging around for shit. What the fuck do you think I look like, White Indian?"

[Stormy Dragon]

Wouldn't help. Years of single language schooling have left most oracas only capable of speaking dolphin:

Captive orcas speak dolphin

[Mickey Rat]

Darwin Award comtenders.

[The Late P Brooks]

Apparently, debt to the tune of 250% of GDP fighting deflation was not enough. 500% would not have been enough either, for obvious reasons.

"You're just not hitting it hard enough!"

[cavalier973]

Stop contributing to the Rape Culture with your horrifying language!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"No one is "bracing," in press parlance, for white riots or police violence should Officer Wilson be indicted. Nor were there preparations for Asian riots last month in Los Angeles as a jury heard a murder case against a 22-year-old thug from South Central L.A., who, along with an accomplice, had shot two Chinese engineering students attending the University of Southern California in 2012. That murder, as the Ph.D. candidates sat quietly in their car near campus, was part of a horrific pattern of attacks on Asian students at USC, one that has not resulted in either the threat or the reality of Asian "unrest."...

"Normal, as well, is the sickening sense of dread with which one awaits another possible outbreak of black rage. The press's eager expectation of such an outbreak is palpable."

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....mac-donald

[Stormy Dragon]

So the National Reviews opinion is that they should quit resisting?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Resisting what?

Oh, wait, that would be begging the question, invoking the query of whether there's anything to resist in the first place.

Better to just chant those slogans and ignore the evidence...that should work.

[Stormy Dragon]

Would that the National Review was invoking the query of whether there's anything to resist in the first place.

But their complaint seems more of the "I wish blacks would stop protesting; it's making it hard for me to look the other way when their the victims of police abuse".

Which they may or not be in this particular case. But it's also hard for the authorities to go "look, I know we've screwed up all those other times, but trust us, we did it right and Officer Wilson really is innocent this time."

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Fuck you, if the cop can't be proven guilty, he shouldn't be indicted, full stop, you scapegoating little punk.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Nor should the local convenience store bear the punishment for any real or alleged police misbehavior.

[Stormy Dragon]

Did I say he should be indicted? I'm just pointing out that the social unrest is the result of the environment the government created before the Brown shooting even occured, not (as the National Review would like us to believe) because blacks are just inherently more violent than the rest of society.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And the owners of the local businesses are a bunch of white guys whose Klan-like machinations led to police misconduct, thereby justifying burning their businesses? Retard.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And when rioters drive businesses out of their communities, the SJWs fret about food deserts and the rarity of good businesses in the area.

[Stormy Dragon]

It's not justified. It is predictable blowback though.

[PapayaSF]

not (as the National Review would like us to believe) because blacks are just inherently more violent than the rest of society.

And you know that, how? Reams of statistics indicate blacks are more violent. Whether it's "inherent" or not, it's simply and sadly true.

[Robert Falcon Scott]

Bob Beckel is shitting the bed over Gruber on Fox. It's funny.

[Mike M.]

The vermin know full well just how dangerous Schickelgruber's exposure is for them. That's why they're all desperately trying to disavow him.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Criminal Injustice System and the Reliability of Child-Witnesses: Ricky Jackson Freed After 39 Years for Murder

Ricky Jackson is headed for freedom, 39 years after a boy lied to authorities and said Jackson and two other men killed a money-order collector at a Cleveland grocery store.

The lie helped a jury convict Jackson in 1975. He has been in prison until Tuesday, when Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty told Judge Richard McMonagle that the case against Jackson had fallen apart ? based on the recantation of Eddie Vernon, who, at 12, helped build the case against Jackson. Prosecutors dismissed the case.

Jackson broke into loud sobs, his face buried in his handcuffed hands.

...

This week, Vernon told McMonagle that he had lied to police, prosecutors and juries when he was a boy. What began as an attempt to please others and help authorities, spiraled into a web of lies that put Jackson and his friends, Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman, in prison.

"All the information was fed to me,'' Vernon said. "I don't have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of the crime.''

Later he said, "Everything was a lie. They were all lies.''

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Rage...building...distracting shiny object...looks appealing...forgetting the latest outrage...

[Francisco d'Anconia]

How many lives fucked up there?

I'm certain there will be prison terms for the prosecutors/cops.

[Mad Scientist]

Certainly. After all, they're held to a higher standard.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Thanks for the comic relief, I needed that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oops, Our Bad: California Man Spends 36 Years In Prison Due to Wrongful Conviction

Prosecutors in Southern California say a man who has spent 36 years behind bars for murder was wrongly convicted and could be released next week.

The Ventura County District Attorney's office announced Tuesday that new evidence resulted in a judge overturning the conviction of 69-year-old Michael Hanline.

Hanline was found guilty in 1980 of first-degree murder in the 1978 death of Ventura resident J.T. McGarry.

New DNA testing of crime scene evidence found material that came from a man who isn't Hanline or his alleged accomplice.

Hanline is expected to be released following a court hearing Monday. Prosecutors will conduct an investigation and decide whether to retry him.

The California Innocence Project, which took up the case in 1999, says Hanline's case was the longest wrongful incarceration in state history.

[The Late P Brooks]

Surprise! The Secret Service, currently under scrutiny for security lapses, has announced to the media* their interception of a man with a rifle and forty (FORTY!) rounds of ammunition in the vicinity of the White House. No word yet as to whether he was operating under orders from his dog.

See News Goggle

[Anonymous Coward]

Deaf? Framed By Your Siblings? Can't Participate in Your Own Defense? We Call that a Fair Trial in Florida

Some 32 years ago, Felix Garcia was framed and sentenced to life in prison for the 1981 armed robbery and murder of Joseph Tramontana Jr. in Tampa. Garcia was only 19 at the time of the murder. Framed, bizarrely, by his own siblings.

Because his older brother and sister asked him to, he signed a pawnshop receipt for a ring. He had no idea the ring was stolen, no idea that pawnshop receipt would be the only piece of evidence -- the only one -- that would convict him in Tramontana's murder and put him in prison for 99 years.

During the 1983 trial, the court failed to provide Garcia with an interpreter, failed to offer him adequate services for the deaf so the jury could be sure he understood the proceeding.

"Felix was at his girlfriend's mother's home six miles away when the crime was committed," said Reggie Garcia (not a relation), Felix's pro bono attorney, "giving him a seven-hour alibi before, during and after the murder." Two people testified to that in court.

Furthermore, Felix's brother and sister since recanted their stories and filed affidavits attesting to their brother's innocence and admitting they framed him.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I know how you feel!

[cavalier973]

It annoys me that immigration seems to generate such passion, but creeping FedGov control over the lives of American Citizens through the Patriot Act, the NSA, and such is of only passing interest.

[Scott S.]

Oops, the speech is tomorrow night. I fixed. Adjust your DVRs because I know you all are recording for posterity.

[cavalier973]

Right. Will do.

....

....

How do I get it to stop blinking 12:00 again?