George Stephanopoulos Lands First Interview with Darren Wilson, Obama Hurts Hagel's Feelings, First Jurassic World Trailer Debuts: P.M. Links

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  In the continuing fallout from the Ferguson grand jury decision, George Stephanopoulos will be the first journalist to air an interview with Darren Wilson, the cop who killed Michael Brown.

• Documents suggest the grand jury confronted huge volumes of conflicting eyewitness testimony from people who claimed to have seen what happened between Wilson and Brown.
• President Obama reportedly thought Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel "just wasn't the right man for the job."
• Sen. Charles Schumer says focusing on healthcare reform was a mistake for Democrats.
• Obama doled out the Presidential Medals of Freedom to all those very worthy recipients, like Meryl Streep and Rep. John Dingell.
• Budweiser is switching up its marketing in order to broaden its appeal among millennials, whatever those are.
• Watch the first trailer for the forthcoming Jurassic Park sequel, Jurassic World.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

…George Stephanopoulos will be the first journalist to air an interview with Darren Wilson, the cop who killed Michael Brown.

Wilson was comfortable talking to Stephanopoulos because he stands four foot nine.

[Rich]

The Incredible Yoda.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Ted, ahem.

/crosses arms.

[Andrew S.]

I foresee absolutely no absurd reactions to this interview from either side, and that everybody will be happy and that there’s an actual point to the interview.

[Rich]

“How did you feel when you first realized you had killed Mr. Brown?”

[PBR Streetgang]

“Did you hate Michael Brown, or all people that are Brown?”

[Rich]

“Do you now regret promising ‘To Protect And Serve’?”

[C. Anacreon]

If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?

[Crusty Juggler]

Wilson, commenting on Stephanopulous: “He was like Mean Gene Okerlund! He had a face like that of a gremlin!”

[gaijin]

and eyes as red as a demon’s…demon weed eyes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Charles Schumer says focusing on healthcare reform was a mistake for Democrats.

Is there any way not to hate this man?

[DJF]

“””Is there any way not to hate this man?”””

There is the times when instead of hating him I fear him, such as when I see the evil look on his face when he was shooting that TEC 9. He looks like a serial killer.

http://www.tonyrogers.com/news…..n_back.htm

[Spoonman.]

Huh. It won’t help Hillary that she introduced a meaningless gun control bill in 2006.

[Mokers]

There is the times when instead of hating him I fear him

like if you’re standing between him and a camera.

[PRX]

I thought mammograms were covered.

[gaijin]

+1 manzier

[Elspeth Flashman]

It’s the Bro! /NTTAWT

[SERENITY NOW!]

I thought mammograms mannograms were covered.

FIFY

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama doled out the Presidential Medals of Freedom to all those very worthy recipients, like Meryl Streep and Rep. John Dingell.

The Peace Prize people told him to pay it downward.

[Shirley Knott]

Oh, c’mon — Dingell is so important that they named a berry after him.
Singularly appropriately, too.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Tee hee heeeee!!

[SERENITY NOW!]

Obama being introduce to Dingle:

Barry, Dingle.
Dingle, Barry.

[Marshall Gill]

Excellent!

/Burns voice

[Tonio]

Well-done, Shirl. Needed to be said, and that’s a difficult joke to setup.

[JWatts]

Yep, excellent!

[rts]

Economics 101 surprises some people

According to a search CBC News performed Monday on travel website Expedia, the average price for a hotel room calculated from among 86 downtown Vancouver hotels is $261 a night during Grey Cup weekend.

For the same period one week later, that average price drops to $137 a night.

Gougers! But this time it’s OK, because it’s a “luxury item”.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

How is that different from any other city?

[Carl ?s the level]

CDNMalcontent

Governments should legislate price controls and fair prices for hotels. There is no Hotel room worth more than $50 a night plus taxes.

Genuinely not sure if serious, but alas, I am leaning towards that. There is no hope.

[Andrew S.]

I’m going to assume it’s not serious. I have nothing to base that on, but if I don’t I’ll lose the last tiny shred of faith I have in humanity.

[DJF]

Actually the hotels and motels I have been in do have price controls. The government usually require them to post the top price on the door or table. Its just that the price is 3 or 4 times the normal price leaving them plenty of room to raise and lower price.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Those are the rack rates in case the customer skips on the bill. In CA, the rate posted on the door is what you are criminally liable for if you leave without paying.

[thom]

Just wait until CA realizes that people aren’t paying taxes on that amount. They’ll move to close that loophole I’m sure. Isn’t that the state that makes you pay taxes on the unsubsidized price of a new cell phone?

[Stormy Dragon]

The calls for price controls is bad enough, but what skeevy hotels does this guy stay at where $50 seems a reasonable price to him?

[gaijin]

and imagine if breakfast is included in the price

[C. Anacreon]

what skeevy hotels does this guy stay at where $50 seems a reasonable price

The Spooge Motor Inn and Conference Center?

[HeteroPatriarch]

The taxes, of course, don’t need to be controlled.

[Stormy Dragon]

They should see what the hotels in State College, PA charge the weekends of home football games.

[BigT]

Sandusky specials – kids under 14 free!

[DesigNate]

I’d love to know what their hotel taxes and fees are. Dallas’ are ridiculous.

[Raven Nation]

Generally speaking, hotel taxes are the smartest taxes local governments can deploy.

[JWatts]

Right up until travelers start maximizing stays just outside the local jurisdiction.

[Injun, as in from India]

With liberty dependence and justice free sh1t for all!
Under Obama’s immigration action, many of those protected from deportation will also be eligible for Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits

[PapayaSF]

Surprise, surprise.

[C. Anacreon]

Even better than Welcome Wagon!

[Injun, as in from India]

For those of you morally opposed to abortion:

Obamacare’s New Abortion Surcharge Rule: Opaque and Oblique

The result of this guidance is to ensure that the abortion surcharge is virtually completely hidden to consumers who in many cases will only receive notice of the surcharge in a stack of paperwork at the time of enrollment. Many consumers will be paying the hidden abortion surcharge without any knowledge that their premium is going to an account to fund abortion. And, of course, as our research has confirmed again for the enrollment period that began on November 15, 2014, finding out whether or not your ACA plan covers elective abortion before you enroll in it is a steep challenge in dozens of states.

[Zeb]

Here’s something I wonder about. Putting aside any moral debates about abortion, it seems like insurance companies would want to cover abortions under health insurance plans that also cover pregnancy and birth related stuff. Abortions typically cost a hell of a lot less than a whole pregnancy and birth. Anyone know if there is some actuarial reason why they don’t?

[Injun, as in from India]

I thought the reason was more legislative than actuarial. I remember a big debate about abortion when Obamacare was being discussed by Congress.

I personally am not opposed to abortion, but I think it is horrible that my anti-abortion, religious neighbor will be forced to violate his conscience to subsidize abortions.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Abhorrent really. To force people like that.

[Zeb]

I oppose any forced subsidy. But in a more free market in health insurance, if you wanted to buy an all-inclusive sort of plan (I don’t know why you would in a free market for health care, but you might) I would think that it would generally cover abortion unless you specifically wanted it not to or the people running the company objected to abortion on moral grounds.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Family plans cost a lot more than individual or spouse plans. And they are more profitable.

[Zeb]

So, assuming that the kid will be eventually covered by them as well, the insurers actually do make more from live births? I guess that could work out.

[HeteroPatriarch]

If the kids are on family plans for 26 years, yeah, they make more from live births.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Link was aborted

“For those of you morally opposed to abortion”

Or to paying for someone else’s abortion

[Injun, as in from India]

Yup – I don’t want my neighbor to be forced to violate his conscience at the point of a government gun. Thanks for posting the right link.

[Mickey Rat]

Why would you want to obfuscate and something only a small minority would object to?

It is a mystery.

[Mickey Rat]

“obfuscate and hide”

Also, fuck taboola.

[JWatts]

“For those of you morally opposed to abortion”

I’m generally in favor of abortion, but that level of opacity is still sleazy.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama reportedly thought Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “just wasn’t the right man for the job.”

Not political hack enough.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

It’s YES MEN all the way down.

[gaijin]

Wonder what he thought about him before he picked him for the job.

[JWatts]

He viewed him as the token Republican who could be blamed if the foreign policy side went wrong. Unfortunately from Obama’s point of view, Hagel was apparently cagey enough to not rubberstamp the President’s decisions. So Obama’s attempt to make Hagel the Fall guy is pretty much a complete flop.

[VG Zaytsev]

That he was a typical hayseed that could be easily controlled by his Ivy League betters.

[rts]

Competition Bureau voices support for Uber, other rideshare services

A federal government agency tasked with fostering competition between Canada’s businesses has voiced its support for ridesharing companies such as Uber.

In a news release issued Tuesday morning, the Competition Bureau said “digital dispatch services” such as Uber, where users request nearby drivers and pay using their phones, can introduce lower prices to the taxi industry while being more convenient and potentially leading to better service.

[Jordan]

A federal government agency tasked with fostering competition between Canada’s businesses

Please tell me you made that up.

[rts]

I wish. Sounds like it’s straight from an Ayn Rand novel, eh?

[JWatts]

It needs to be renamed to the “Fair Competition Bureau” to really fit in to a Rand novel.

[BigT]

So they will support Rufus government in competition w Ottawa?

[Injun, as in from India]

Documents suggest the grand jury confronted huge volumes of conflicting eyewitness testimony from people who claimed to have seen what happened between Wilson and Brown.

I’m no legal expert, but seriously, if there is so much conflicting eyewitness testimony and other evidence, why not just freakin’ indict and actually have a trial?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Because you should only indict people you think are guilty?

[RBS]

Sort of, you should only indict someone if it is more likely than not that the person in question committed a wrongful act.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So, you should only indict people you think are guilty?

[JW]

Because, cop.

[JeremyR]

Because the physical evidence backed up Wilson’s story?

[Carl ?s the level]

I’m a few days late posting this, but…

Oxford cancels student-group-organized debate on abortion, after the student union “voted to inform College Censors about the mental and physical security issues surrounding the debate.”

mental security issues

Ugh.

I helped shut down an abortion debate between two men because my uterus isn’t up for their discussion ?.

The idea that in a free society absolutely everything should be open to debate has a detrimental effect on marginalised groups. Debating abortion as if its a topic to be mulled over and hypothesised on ignores the fact that this is not an abstract, academic issue. It may seem harmless for men like Stanley and O’Neil to debate how and if abortion hurts them; it’s clearly harder for people to see that their words and views might hurt women?.

[Zeb]

Holy shit. Don’t attend the debate if it causes you distress. Problem solved.

But they actually are saying that debate must be stifled because… I’m not exactly sure why.

[Riven]

Because the debate is just the patriarchy trying to force its opinions on oppressed women, of course!

I would have thought that was obvious!

[Zeb]

Mansplaining?

[Rich]

The idea that in a free society absolutely everything should be open to debate has a detrimental effect on marginalised groups.

Mind you, it’s not the *debate* — it’s the fucking *idea*. 8-(

[Injun, as in from India]

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em shut ’em down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Higher education isn’t for everyone.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The idea that there might be a ‘free society’ has a detrimental effect on merchants of butthurt.

[gaijin]

Merchants of Butthurt…nice!

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Agreed.

[Injun, as in from India]

Reasonoids, I need your advice!

Fast forward 48 hours to Thanksgiving Dinner. You have family members over, and some of them are obnoxious progressive loudmouths obsessed with talking politics. What coping strategies do you have?

I usually keep my mouth shut, but I’m worried that this year I will open my mouth and cause a big unpleasant argument. It’s not like Facebook, where you can simply scroll down and ignore the loudmouths. And I doubt that I can really handle any more whining from them.

Note that not inviting them over is an impossibility.

[Riven]

Wine.

If they’re not that kind of people, beer.

If they’re not like that, either… well, that’s why I have a flask.

[Jordan]

Tell them to STFU about politics and religion during one of the rare times the family gets to spend together.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

^This

[Gray Ghost]

Especially if it’s your own house. How incredibly rude of them.

Scrolling down (there’s a first time for everything), db’s advice in this sub-thread makes a lot of sense.

[BardMetal]

Balance your booze until it’s just enough not to give a shit about their opinions, but not so much that you actually tell them how you really feel.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Yeah, find out where that balance is, then blow right through it. If you can’t make someone cry, you’re just not doing it right.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I’m at a stage in my life where I don’t bite my lip and call out bull shit regardless of where I am or who is in front of me.

So I may not be the right person to ask.

But when I don’t feel like dealing with idiots I just get up and walk away. Watch TV. Change the subject.

[db]

Generally I just get up and walk away. Fuck ’em, I don’t owe them an explanation. If they demand one, I tell them that I don’t enjoy talking about politics.

If you’re inviting them over to your hose, Injun, there is nothing wrong with telling them up front that you.make the rules and the rules say no politics.

[db]

On one occasion when some prog relative asked me my opinion on a political matter, I told her that I believe that politics has intruded too deeply into our personal lives, and that every second spent discussing politics is a second not spent enjoying life’s too-sparse pleasures, bringing one that much closer to the grave having only experienced the disappointment of failing at convincing every single other person that one’s way of life is truly superior to everyone else’s.

[Coeus]

I told her that I believe that politics has intruded too deeply into our personal lives,

Shit, that’s when I talk about it. You should have heard me ranting to my dad when I found out after surgery that they will no longer prescribe hydrocodone.

Just figured it’d be more difficult. Didn’t realize that it meant that some surgeons would be shutting down prescriptions of it completely.

[C. Anacreon]

Of course not, that would involve surgeons to do work that is not surgery itself, and they hate all the other stuff.

[Coeus]

On the plus side, I got set right in the middle of the assembly line they had set up that day. Probably why this one hurts less. I had an identical surgery on the other side a few years ago and was in about twice this much pain.

[Coeus]

I think I was first that morning.

[Zeb]

Every time someone starts talking politics just stick out your tongue and make a loud raspberry sound until they stop.

[Carl ?s the level]

Whip it out.

[Zeb]

Or that. Do it really subtly and see how long it takes people to notice.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Maybe you can be subtle about it, but I can’t.

[Zeb]

Takes too long to find it?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Something something 3.0 on the Richter scale

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I don’t know what’s wrong with me today. I succumbed to the impulse to make a penis joke, but I just don’t have the will to follow through with it.

[db]

There’s a pill for that.

[C. Anacreon]

You would if you were adept at Cock Magic.

[db]

The trick is to grab it in the middle and then you only have to unreel half of it.

[JEP]

I prefer to grab mine right behind the head like catching a snake.

[Crusty Juggler]

the trick is, kick someone’s ass the first day or become someone’s bitch. Then
everything will be all right.

[Too many cooks]

Why not have a big unpleasant argument? It’s Thanksgiving after all. Plus if the argument is heated enough maybe they never come over again?

[Fist of Etiquette]

…but I’m worried that this year I will open my mouth and cause a big unpleasant argument.

I thought that was the point of Thanksgiving Dinner.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I only have conservative loudmouths at my Thanksgivings. No one cares if you disagree though and if it gets too animated my GMom just shuts it down with pie.

[Rich]

“Shut your pie hole, Sonny Boy!”

[Stormy Dragon]

Having a drunk relative holding forth on what Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity said last week isn’t much of an improvement over the progressive loudmouths.

[db]

My mom’s husband manages to quote both the far right and far left talking points in a weird mishmash of Rushael Maddow. My mom once told me how smart she thought Maddow was and I think I actually bared my teeth in a snarl.

[Stormy Dragon]

In my case, it’s my dad. Who, other than funerals and weddings, has not been to church in 20 years yet keeps going on about how creeping secularism is ruining society.

[Clich? Bandit]

I am fortunate, my whole family is fairly (if not totally) libertarian. We still hate each other at holiday times but at least we don’t argue about politics or religion. It is the guests who are in danger.

[Zeb]

Interesting. My family is pretty all over the place on politics and religion, but we generally always get along very well when we get together.

[tarran]

In my extended family people are either conservative, rockefeller republicans or elizabeth warren progressives.

And they used debate politics at the primary table. The last time they put me in the big table, I did manage to get a degree of unanimity by poking fun at everyone else’s positions until they ganged up on me. After that episode I found myself permanently exiled to the overflow table for parents with newborns or little children. I’m much happier there. I do get a kick out of the fact that they didn’t exile my cousin’s birther father in law.

This year should be interesting. Thanks to a messy divorce that has split my extended family into two camps with one camp refusing to acknowledge the existence of the other camp, and the divorced guy marrying into a substantial multigenerational family, there will be a new dynamic. I think this is my chance to request that politics not be introduced at the table.

[JEP]

After that episode I found myself permanently exiled to the overflow table for parents with newborns or little children.

You can “corrupt” the youth easier from there.

[PapayaSF]

I did manage to get a degree of unanimity by poking fun at everyone else’s positions until they ganged up on me.

I applaud you.

[Apatheist ?_??]

It’s not but it’s the allowed to disagree part that matters. People who get their feelings hurt when their disagreed with are the worst, no matter what side they are on.

[PapayaSF]

Yes, the people who take it all so seriously are the worst.

[db]

Make it a point to open carry at dinner.

[BakedPenguin]

Reductio ad absurdum. Agree with them in a totally over-the-top fashion, to the point of utter stupidity.

[db]

Oooh, good one! I like it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

That may backfire.

[db]

Eh, it’s in line with what I said above about people wasting time on politics. They want to waste time, and you’re captive anyway, then *really* waste their time.

But I like my approach better.

[Zeb]

Which approach? Open carry or just avoiding politics and changing the subject? A combination of the two might be good.

[db]

My true tactic is to get up and walk away. Most of my family has realized that if they want.my.company, they shut up about politics and religion. The.other.comment about telling someone how politics is a waste of time is my.backup for.when I can’t just walk away and I have only had.to use it about 3 times.

[db]

I.developed the “walk-away” method way back when my parents started watching TV at dinner. I didn’t want to do that so I just wolfed down my food and left. Eventually they thought I was avoiding them and I explained that I was avoiding the TV.

[BakedPenguin]

Then declare Thanksgiving a bourgeois holiday created on the backs of noble Native Americans and denounce everyone who was agreeing with you.

[Stormy Dragon]

Are they the sort of people who become more beligerant when drunk or more agreeable when drunk?

[Warty]

Tell them to shut the fuck up or get out. With any luck they’ll choose the latter and you won’t have to invite them ever again.

[Rich]

And you’ll really have something to be thankful for.

[PRX]

pull the plate out of their fat fingers and say “to each according to their needs”

[DesigNate]

Nice!

[JEP]

Remember that you don’t have to attend every argument that you’re invited to.

You could also play “progressive talking point bingo.” Try to predict what arguments/topics they’re going to bring up. Put each one in a square on a bingo card. Print it out and keep it in your lap during dinner and in your pocket otherwise. When you get enough in a row, stand up and yell “BINGO!” and leave.

[Cytotoxic]

When they something really stupid, make them wear it with a really biting quip. Be Gregory House for an evening.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Questions only. You’re not going to change a progressive loudmouth’s opinions, but you might get through to someone who’s just listening.

[BigT]

^^THIS works. Ask the Prog “what should we do in Syria?” “What evidence convicts that cop?” “How should we handle illegal immigrants?”

Let them propose solutions rather than argue over others’ ideas.

[JEP]

In high school, the debate team would play a game when they got bored in class. They would pick a list of words and rank them by how difficult they would be to work into normal conversation.

Create a list of words and try to work them into the conversation without anyone noticing that you’re being weird.

It should be really interesting to see their response to you trying use the phrase “sexual tyrannosaurus” in a healthcare discussion.

[flye]

“Obamacare forces insurers to cover everyone at the same rate without regard for risky lifestyle choices, so even a timid prude has to pay the same as a sexual tyrannosaurus.”

[Mickey Rat]

This is why football games are played on Thanksgiving. To have other topics.

[Crusty Juggler]

ROMO SUCKS

[Ska]

Who can really argue with that?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Romo, and…Romo’s mother. Maybe.

[Mickey Rat]

Jerry Jones, Colin Cowherd…the d-bag contingent.

[JeremyR]

Well, apparently you talk about Michael Brown, because Reason and other libertarians seem to share the progressive view on the matter

[Redmanfms]

You have family members over, and some of them are obnoxious progressive loudmouths obsessed with talking politics. What coping strategies do you have?

If they are coming to your house make it known that political discussion will not be tolerated.

I’ve had the same problem with a progtard cousin. I actually wouldn’t have a problem if she could manage to discuss political topics politely without hurling invective if her soliloquies are interrupted by disagreement. But after 2012 Thanksgiving (where she strongly implied that anyone who didn’t support Obama is a racist) I told her that she was to keep her mouth shut on political topics as she is unable to disagree with others without calling them (in the smarmiest passive-aggressive ways I might add) the worst things imaginable.

Then Newtown happened. When I refused to agree that we must have “common sense” restrictions (and gave my reasons why) she looked at me straight in the eye and said, “I don’t feel safe with you being around my children.” I got up to get a Coke and she continued haranguing my other guests like nothing had happened.

Well, anyway, she was physically removed from my house, along with her luggage and told to go home. It’s a long drive to Maine from Virginia, but you know what, fuck her.

So yeah, tell them to shut the fuck up about politics or they’ll be disinvited.

[lap83]

Smarmy passive aggressive insults just about sums up my experience of political debating with progs. The worst of it is that it’s impossible to use facts or nuance in an argument with them because they are much quicker with hurling invective. It’s like trying to load a gun while a monkey flings poo at you.

[lap83]

“Actually, gun control doesn’t work because of the incentives inherent in..”

“BLAH RACIST WANT BLACK PEOPLE DEAD”

“But gun control has the effect of increasing crime and”

“WHY YOU HATE CHILDREN YOU FASCIST”

At some point you just sigh and get more dessert

[SERENITY NOW!]

Michael Brown’s Stepfather Urged Protesters To “Burn This Bitch Down” After Grand Jury Announcement

Michael Brown’s stepfather last night repeatedly urged protesters to “Burn this bitch down” after a prosecutor announced that no criminal charges would be filed against the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who killed the unarmed teenager.

Louis Head, an ex-con who is married to Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden, was with McSpadden outside the Ferguson Police Department headquarters Monday evening as prosecutor Robert McCulloch disclosed that a grand jury declined to vote an indictment against Officer Darren Wilson in the August 9 shooting.

After consoling a weeping McSpadden, the 38-year-old Head–who was standing atop a platform in the middle of the agitated crowd of several hundred protesters–began screaming “Burn this bitch down!” He did this at least ten times, and at one point yelled for a microphone so that he could broadcast his incendiary message beyond the range of his unamplified voice.

While trying to incite the crowd, Head (pictured above) was wearing a commemorative t-shirt with the words “I Am Mike Brown” and a beanie, both of which bore a silkscreened photo of Brown in his high school cap and gown.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/b…..own-879056

[Injun, as in from India]

Yeah, they sure burned it down.

‘Heartbreaking’ Video Shows the Moment a Ferguson Store Owner Processes What Looters Have Done. But This Isn’t Just Any Business?

[Cytotoxic]

He should have been there with a shotgun if he wanted to save his business.

[db]

No way, man, you can’t expect people to actually defend their property in this world anymore. It would be barbaric.

[T]

Can’t shoot a molotov.

[db]

“Can’t” or “shouldn’t?”

[paranoid android]

…either?

[Clich? Bandit]

I beg to differ. I nailed my first trap double at station 3 a few weeks ago…I almost shat myself. Then realized there were people watching besides me and my friend. Then it got weird.

[tarran]

He can rebuild the convenience store. Getting permanently injured or killed by the mob is worse.

We shouldn’t be demanding that he altruistically sacrifice himself to make it less likely the mob would come after us some day.

[JeremyR]

Except maybe he can’t. Insurance won’t pay for this damages.

He might be wealthy enough to rebuild out of his own pocket, but maybe not.

[Gray Ghost]

Insurance won’t pay for [these] damages.

I thought that too, but according to this St. Louis Biz Journal article, a standard businessowners policy will cover damages arising from riot.

Now, knowing that, if he starts fearing for his life and shooting rioters, what would the State of Missouri do to him? Personally, I have no problem with someone shooting a rioter armed with a lit Molotov.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sad.

[tarran]

Poor guy. In my mind he is the biggest victim in this whole fiasco.

[Zeb]

Well, burning down the police station would be a hell of a lot better than burning down the businesses of people who had nothing to do with it.

[HeteroPatriarch]

But that might carry some risk.

[waffles]

Which bitch?

[Antilles]

The police can’t arrest him because they’re too busy arresting and prosecuting rappers for inciting gang activity.

[Riven]

I’m just going to leave this here, in case anyone wants to see something awful that females sometimes inflict on themselves.

[Rich]

“It’s pronounced ‘Katie’.”

[C. Anacreon]

I was actually thinking it’s pronounced “Loser-ina”.

I didn’t see it either, what was in the blocked page?

[Zeb]

“Luzserenaa’s profile is viewable by MyFitnessPal members only.”

But now I want to know what this is.

[Warty]

You can’t go in there, it’s too perilous.

[Carl ?s the level]

Dangerously thin (anorexic or bulimic) girl.

[Warty]

I’m guessing it’s something anorexic. A 5’11” girl limiting herself to 800 calories? Something like that.

[Warty]

Oh wait, I do have a myfitnesspal account. Jesus. I wonder how thick her fur is.

[Riven]

This is that picture I was telling you about earlier where you could see the the side of her hip bone through her skin.

[The_Millenial]

Reminds me of a great song

Karen says I’ve reached my target weight
Kate and Emma and Kristin know it’s fake
Problem is diet’s not a big enough word
I wanna be so skinny that I rot from view

I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not soil its purity

[DesigNate]

That is a damn shame.

[RBS]

FSU’s newhomepage

[PapayaSF]

Ha.

[Horatio]

Your hate…it’s fuels us.

Also, hilarious.

[SERENITY NOW!]

President Obama Americans reportedly thought Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel President Obama “just wasn’t the right man for the job.”

[Mickey Rat]

If only Obama had had the authority to prevent Hagel’s nomination.

[Jerry on the sea]

Budweiser is switching up its marketing in order to broaden its appeal among millennials, whatever those are.

You know who else tried to broaden its appeal among millenials?

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Reason-Rupe?

[Wasteland Wanderer]

STEVE SMITH?

[waffles]

Thanks Robby! I like dinosaurs and I’m tired of Ferguson.

Watch the first trailer for the forthcoming Jurassic Park sequel, Jurassic World.

But this trailer just makes this movie seem so boring and utterly predictable. Also why would the people running this successful park even want to fuck with carnivorous high jumping dinos? Have they learned nothing!?

I hate plots that require all parties involved to be imbeciles in order to work.

[Bam!]

They spared an expense: The screenwriter.

[T]

Why? Too life-like?

[Andrew S.]

Not sure if Jurassic World exists in the same, well, world as Jurassic Park. AFAIK from the story, the park’s been open for about 10 years, and people are bored with the same old dinosaurs, hence the genetic spliced dinos.

I’m just wondering why Star Lord is riding a bike with a bunch of raptors jumping around him.

[Cytotoxic]

I hate plots that require all parties involved to be imbeciles in order to work.

Well that rules out almost all of Spielberg’s films.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh great, another ‘dinosaurs break out’ film with a warning about the dangers of playing god. How about a Jurassic World film where a disease starts wiping the dinosaurs and scientists and shareholders work against the clock to use molecular genetics to stop it?

[Zeb]

How can you work explosions, chasing and Wayne Knight getting eaten into a plot like that?

[Andrew S.]

Uh, uh, uh! You didn’t use the magic word!

[Stormy Dragon]

Dino park is attacked by ALF-style ecoterrorists, and the owners of the park have to fight them off to protect all their hard work from being destroyed.

[Zeb]

ALF would never do anything like that.

[Bam!]

That was basically The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Check out the Nostalgia Critic’s review of it. He points out how Vince Vaughn’s eco-lover character is responsible for all the mayhem that ensues.

[JEP]

How about busy-body statists try to domesticate the healthcare market, but it all blows up in their face proving that central planning is not a good solution to problems in a dynamic system?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Jackassic Park: If You Like It You Can Keep It

[Agile Cyborg]

Budweiser is great for cooking Clydesdale meat, Milleniosi. Gives the horsey meat a sharp and organic pissy flavor so loved by the common man. You can drink your Bud with a bit of Clyde and I’d love to laugh at that while I’m fucking stoned and drunk on shit that doesn’t bloat my goddamn stomach into a viable country for illegal aliens to escape to. I’m not even fat but I feel fucking fat when I drink Bud which I rarely do unless I’m visiting Uncle Everybody Else that isn’t me.

[Crusty Juggler]

Agile, you are by far the most entertaining reason commenter. Thank you.

[Agile Cyborg]

You, sire, have a most humorous moniker! Lovely.

[SERENITY NOW!]

Maybe you two should get a room.

[Crusty Juggler]

I’m just so tired of being alone…

[Coeus]

Are both of you Alastair Reynolds references?

[Big Chief]

Just crossed the Mississippi heading West on I-70 and feel like stopping to buy a soft drink at a convenience store. Anyone know if there’s any good ones at this Ferguson exit?

[Agile Cyborg]

One despotic forager left his warm Sunkist on the back alley behind that beauty salon that burnt to the ground. I saw it on CNN briefly so I’m sure its there though getting it is likely far more complicated than someone calling himself Big Chiese is willing to suffer through.

[DJF]

Look for the ones on fire signaling their early Black Friday sales event. Everything is free.

[Tonio]

Funny: 10
Timing: 2

[Jordan]

Ask a friendly bystander for the Darren Wilson special.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Stop one of the friendly gendarmes in the armored gestapo suits and ask “Where de white womens at?!”

[Big Chief]

The last time I passed that exit they were rioting. Maybe it’s me.

I do like the friendly “Historic Downtown Ferguson – Next Right” sign.

[wareagle]

I-70 does not cross through Mississippi. You may be lost.

[Zeb]

There is also a river with that name.

[Dry_Gin_Wet_Farts]

I know it’s too late, but for future reference, there’s a Love’s truck stop in downtown STL on I-70 exit 246A. It has a police precinct in it.

[Mickey Rat]

That’s a big truck stop to have an entire precinct in it.

[Dry_Gin_Wet_Farts]

Perhaps precinct isn’t the right word. It has a station, and there’s always quite a few cops there.

[Clich? Bandit]

Gunna be in Manhattan tomorrow night for the weekend…anything reason related going on?

[GILMORE]

Chuck Schumer =

” He lamented that the tea party was able to use the President’s focus on health care to make the argument that “this government is aimed at someone else and not you”

Oh, the Tea Party *argument* is what created that appearance?

I mean, how could anyone get that impression without the awful Tea Party?

[Mickey Rat]

I kinda prefer to not have something massive, clumsy and powerful aimed at me.

[Mickey Rat]

So I think Schumer got his metaphor wrong.

[Cytotoxic]

Do you know how insane economics and the reporting thereof is getting? A few weeks ago I read a Reuters article that seriously included someone (or just the author) stating that falling oil prices might be bad because of: no, not deflation. Inflation that’s too low.

[Cytotoxic]

More and more Canadian veterans are joining the Kurds to fight ISIS.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2…..ederated=1

[T]

Nah, they just think they’re signing up to protect the Middle East’s cheese curd reserves. It’s all about the poutine, man.

[The_Millenial]

I’m assuming that you’re going to join them soon

[Cytotoxic]

You would. Being a retard and all. RTFA

[The_Millenial]

Why the hostility? I understand you are very passionate about this issue, but that doesn’t excuse a lack of civility.

[Carl ?s the level]

Overall I like TechDirt, but boy do they crank up the stupid on their hard-line net neutrality stance (and to a lesser degree, Glyn Moody’s anti-trade stance):

T-Mobile Still Doesn’t Understand (Or Simply Doesn’t Care) That Their ‘Music Freedom’ Plan Tramples Net Neutrality

You can put me in the “doesn’t care” column too, if you’d like.

[Mickey Rat]

“Judging from this recent Reddit conversation, many consumers are confused as well, and are quite eager to root against their best self interest.”

What’s the matter with T-Mobile customers?

Basically complaining that the market is not functioning the way they want by lowering the price of things that people want.

[LynchPin1477]

Apparently they train velociraptors to fight the mutant dino. My prediction? This movie will be awful, and I’ll enjoy every second of it.

Also, why is Bryce Dallas Howard not in more movies? It’s a travesty. Those eyes…

[Redmanfms]

Also, why is Bryce Dallas Howard not in more movies? It’s a travesty. Those eyes…

She can’t act for shit.

Supposedly she is a titanic bitch too. If daddy wasn’t Ron Howard she’d be doomed to years of rapidly cancelled TV shows.

[John Titor]

So I hang out on r/badhistory a lot, found an old thread for you guys:

In which statism is literally a religion, markets were totally solving child labor before government stepped in, businesses never discriminated becuase that would cost them customers, and much more.

“In regard to child labor, as has been shown in other bad history posts, markets were not hopping all aboard the “get rid of child labor” train. In fact, Congressional attempts at were repeatedly stymied by business interests, who often relied on the cheap, unaccountable labor to maximize profits. “Not until the Factory Act of 1833 did things improve.”

“In regard to segregated lunch counters, the idea that business owners’ desire to make money trumped their innate racism is just plain false. Segregated in most cases didn’t mean “whites here, blacks over there,” it meant “whites everywhere, blacks get off my property.” They said that they shouldn’t have to serve blacks because it was their “private property” and their richer white customers would prefer to eat in a whites-only diner. Have people already forgotten the Greensboro sit-ins?”

[Andrew S.]

That kind of thing was why I unsubscribed from /r/badhistory.

[John Titor]

I’m mostly there nowadays for the calling out of Stalin apologia and ‘Jesus didn’t exist’ atheism threads.

[Tonio]

Awwwww…

[SERENITY NOW!]

I have a bit of a money problem. I knocked a pint bell jar full of quarters and a second bell jar with about $60.00 in dollar coins off of a dresser while moving it. They hit the floor and shattered. I swept it all up and put it all into a bag. So now I have a bag with about $160 in coins mixed with broken gass. Any tips on how to seperate the coins from the glass?

[paranoid android]

CoinStar at a grocery store you don’t mind getting banned from?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Yep. It’s worth the 12% commission.

[John Titor]

Do you have semi-intelligent children of any kind?

[db]

Sifter.

[db]

Glass should melt lower than nickel. You might have an.issue with the copper, however…

J/k

[flye]

Smash the glass into very tiny pieces, then dustbuster to separate from the coins.

[JEP]

If you don’t want to get banned from a grocery store, you could find a big kitchen floor (anything that’s not carpet), spread all the coins out in one layer and start separating out the coins from the glass. Tedious, but effective.

Then, sweep up all the glass.

[paranoid android]

Alternate solution: what’s the largest and most powerful magnet you can get your hands on?

[PapayaSF]

Gads, it’s like some sort of science experiment or Mythbusters problem. I’d just put on gloves and pick out the coins. My only other idea would be that because coins are denser, if you could figure out a way to toss it all some distance, the coins would go farther and you could catch them on a tarp or something. But some glass would probably travel with the coins, and you’d be spreading glass shards everywhere, so that’s not good.

[trshmnster the terrible]

1)Hit the bag with a mallet or some other glass crushing implement.
2)Pour over a tennis racquet.
3)Profit!

[HeteroPatriarch]

This is the best idea.

[Stormy Dragon]

Get a big bottle of rubber cement, put it in a container. Coins will sink, glass will float. Let the cement dry, then peel the coins off the bottom of the resulting block of rubber. Throw rubber and glass away.

[straffinrun]

Spread all the contents on the floor, get a neighborhood peasant’s newborn and roll it back and forth leaving only the coins to scoop up. What kind of a libertarian needs this explained?

[Tonio]

“you just don’t lead them as much”

I like the cut of your jib, Captain, and your spinnaker is also remarkable.

[Coeus]

Crunch it a bit more, then coinstar it at the supermarket.

[John Titor]

Is it weird that Jurassic Park has been completely ruined for me after learning all the inaccuracies I didn’t notice as a kid?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If I wanted to worry about accuracy and plausibility, I wouldn’t be watching a movie in the first place. I’d read a book or something.

[John Titor]

I read the books as well. All I want are some damn feathered dinosaurs and for the primarily aquatic fish-eaters to not be more badass than a t-rex, is that too much to ask?

[trshmnster the terrible]

*Insert obligatory “It’s a bird until it turns around and happens to be a velociraptor” scene*

[Wasteland Wanderer]

To be fair, we had discovered that dinosaurs had feathers until after the first movie came out, so there’s that.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

*hadn’t, damnit.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

NPR does softball interview with Ferguson pastor Willis Johnson – so, reverend, how are you responding to the horrible grand jury decision?

[The Late P Brooks]

Any tips on how to seperate the coins from the glass?

If you have access to an air compressor, pick the big chunks out by hand, and then blow the glass shards away from the coins.

[BigT]

You could use a leaf blower. Or crush everything in a bag and vacuum up the ground glass.

[Sevo]

I’m sure when anyone considers “freedom”, either in the abstract or with regard to a particular freedom, Merle Streep immediately leaps to mind, right?

[Coeus]

Amanduh takes on Reason

But I digress. Jessica Valenti debated libertarian Wendy McElroy about how colleges should handle sexual assault, though it sounds like McElroy spent most of her time obsessing over the weird libertarian fixation on the idea that culture has little to no impact on people’s choices in life.

That’ll keep the crows away.

It appears her argument is that you have to choose between blaming the person who did a bad thing and blaming the social messages he got encouraging him to do that bad thing.

So, I guess everyone is in agreement that people telling rape jokes encourages people to rape? Cause that’s what she’s building this on.

Obviously, I get that this is part of a larger libertarian obsession with denying that society shapes people. This has always been a dumb argument.

So dumb that no one actually made it, you disingenuous twunt.

[Coeus]

The rape metaphor thing is also a bit of bad faith. People say that they feel “raped” because they want to sound edgy and blas? about sexual abuse. Otherwise, they’d use the more figuratively understood figures of speech, like “killing”. Soave knows this, for roughly the same reason he speaks English and not Russian.

Makes sense. Obviously she’d want a murder culture, since men are much more likely to be murdered, instead of just slightly more likely to be raped.

Isn’t she arguing for a murder culture here? By her own admission?

Yeah, the logic doesn’t gel. But this should be common sense. No, most men aren’t rapists. It’s actually very hard for human beings to stifle our basic reluctance to commit violence against innocent people, so much so that even when violent behavior is glamorized, most people won’t engage in it. But for a certain number of men who are narcissistic assholes, hearing other men joke around about rape and otherwise compete with each other to demonstrate the most brotastic disdain for women, yes, that reads like cultural endorsement of rape. This isn’t some kind of speculation. As Lisak said, rapists he interviewed were proud of themselves and sure that other men would be interested in hearing how wild and daring they are when they force sex on women, especially if you didn’t call it “rape”.

[Coeus]

All of that is true for all types of assault. What thug doesn’t brag about jumping somebody?

And still, not a single word linking metaphors or rape jokes to this attitude. Just bald assertion.

Dealing with liars is very tiring, y’all.

No shit, took three posts.

[Zeb]

more figuratively understood figures of speech, like “killing”

That doesn’t really even work. If you’ve been killed, you don’t feel like anything. And “rape” has other meanings which probably have something to do with using “rape” as a metaphor for excessive taxation, for example.

[Contrarian P]

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Craiginmass and his post on the savings thread, hours after anyone is around to respond to it:

craiginmass|11.25.14 @ 5:00PM|#

SS is not broken and it’s not going away. At best they will come up with some sort of combined plan where the worker can have a small amount added to their SS as a semi-pension/IRA.

SS is perhaps the most successful program in our history. It’s an extremely conservative program and perhaps should be made more so. I don’t support increasing the ss tax or the amt of wages subject to it – rather keep it as “security”, not pension.

The sad reality is that most people are not going to save for the following reasons…

1. Real wages (median) are down quite a bit since 1999. There is simply no extra for a large % of the population.

2. Our breed of capitalism thrives on marketing, time payments and selling people stuff they don’t need…using fear and other reasoning. Having people “save” would destroy the current commercial economy.

3. With the average net worth of hispanic and black families at under 10K, this is 30% or more of the population – even before you get started with other general poverty and low wages – that don’t have a pot to piss in.

[Contrarian P]

And the conclusion, the real kicker, which I believe completely encapsulates the view of humanity shared by him and his ilk:

“Americans don’t save for their retirement because they are basically immature. Like children, they cannot delay gratification – and like bad parents, our culture, corporations and governments want to see them spend spend spend so offer them unlimited candy and ice cream.”

Yes, there it is. Americans are children. Our parents are “the culture, corporations, and governments”. Every time this nimrod posts in the future, this should be thrown right in his face. I’m not your child, you cretin, and neither are my fellow Americans. If you can’t convince us to behave the way you wish, it’s a reflection of the flaccidity of your argumentation, not on us being “immature”. You condescending prick.

[Libertarian]

Boy, you’re going to be a hit at Thanksgiving dinner.

[Contrarian P]

Luckily my family has infinitely more ability to reason and brains than Craig.

[Contrarian P]

Oh, and just so he doesn’t accuse me of failure to respond to his arguments:

1. If real wages are down (leaving aside the undeniable role of government policy as a cause), it would make sense to scale back the current 13% Social Security taxation rate (a regressive rate that your kind claim to loathe because it disproportionally affects the poor), giving people more money to invest. It would also make sense to lower federal and state tax rates to reflect the decreased earning power of the citizenry. Also, the personal savings rate is now higher than it was in 1999, so I have a hard time seeing how your argument holds any water. If what you say is true, Americans should be saving less, not more.

2. Our breed of capitalism only became debt based a short time ago and our economy was not destroyed by that shift, so the idea that increasing the savings rate (which would happen slowly over time) would destroy the commercial economy is just not supportable. We did perfectly well with little consumer debt for most of the 20th century. Indeed, one could argue that the continual draining of the poor and middle class through interest payments on debt, enriching the upper classes who are the net recipients of those payments, creates the whole “wealth inequality” thing you and your friends continually while about.

[Contrarian P]

3. Your argument for keeping a program that even its own trustees admit is in trouble is that minorities are poor? The same minorities that the policies you support have trapped in cycles of poverty? So in other words, government programs made people poor, and we can’t change the government programs because people are poor. Your reasoning seems somewhat circular here.

And finally, if Social Security is the most successful program in our history (which is laughable, by the way), it’s more of a commentary on our government’s inability to do anything right than on any upsides to Social Security.

[Irish]

And finally, if Social Security is the most successful program in our history (which is laughable, by the way), it’s more of a commentary on our government’s inability to do anything right than on any upsides to Social Security.

Hell, even moving to a Chilean style privatized system would be a drastic improvement.

Chile has a 21% savings rate because their system is actually rational, as opposed to retarded like America’s. Given that Chile’s economy has boomed over that period, it also disproves Craig’s argument that high savings would harm the economy.

Have you noticed that there doesn’t appear to be any actual evidence to support Keynes’ paradox of thrift? He just said it’s true, but if you look at countries with high savings rates, they tend to be more stable than countries with low savings rates.

So the evidence actual seems to contradict Keynes’ argument.

[Contrarian P]

Indeed. I also notice that my own peace of mind and sanity have risen exponentially now that I have savings. I realize that I don’t represent the country as a whole, but I’ll go with my experience (as well as the empirical evidence which you cited).

I don’t really believe that politicians (of all parties) want Americans that are financially independent, because that would eliminate a major lever of control that they possess.

[Mickey Rat]

“1. Real wages (median) are down quite a bit since 1999. There is simply no extra for a large % of the population.”

Maybe then heaping additional costs to employ people like Obamacare should not be done? Anyone?

[straffinrun]

Capital formation vs Capitol formation. One grows with freedom and the other with feifdom.

[leaniefeneckgik]

my friend’s half-sister makes $74 /hr on the laptop . She has been fired for 8 months but last month her payment was $15926 just working on the laptop for a few hours. browse this site….

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

[HeteroPatriarch]

I wonder how ignored this will be by those who have decided Brown was a thug who obviously had it coming?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Can do, bro. Can do.

[Zeb]

I think I prefer the regular flavor.

[GILMORE]

” Hutchinson has been meticulously working on this project since the summer, with the same care as was given the vintage blueprints that hang on her walls. To name the company she “compiled a list of beautiful ways vaginas were described in literature. That was a week alone looking up euphemisms.” … “I was thinking of a name that would be catchy, cute and playful, because a big part of the company is trying to make vaginal health something we feel comfortable talking about,””

I just want to make something clear =

this millenial kid spent *a week* to come up with the name “Sweet Peach”

“Hutchinson remains optimistic: “There is nothing I can’t overcome. I am a young woman in 2014.””

Yeah. Uhm. I hope that’s not your fallback plan.

[The_Millenial]

Which is worse?

[The_Millenial]

*Fixed

My apologies

[C. Anacreon]

I think virgins would taste like Diet Cherry Coke.

[Horatio]

Since Big Red already taste like ass, I would think that flavor would be the natural starting point