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President Wants New Spending to Monitor Militarized Cops, Americans Anticipate Government Gridlock, Hong Kong Cracks Down on Protesters: P.M. Links

J.D. Tuccille | 12.1.2014 4:30 PM

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  • Militarized cops
    YouTube screen capture

    President Obama wants new rules on police use of military equipment and new federal spending to buy cops body cameras to make sure they're abiding by those new rules. Ummm…Wouldn't simply cutting off the flow of armored vehicles be cheaper? Just sayin'…

  • The House is taking up, yet again, a one-year extension on some corporate and individual tax breaks. Hey, if you folks want to kneecap the IRS while you're at it, it'd be much appreciated.
  • Americans' opinions of the Republican Party are improving even as they see gridlock as the likely outcome of a GOP Congress. Cause and effect? You decide.
  • Iraq's prime minister canned 24 Interior Ministry officials cuz the whole ISIS thing is getting out of hand.
  • A voter-approved constitutional cap on income tax rates goes into effect in Georgia. Which is nice. 
  • The Chinese and Brazilian economies both look pretty lousy, though lower gas prices are giving Americans some welcome relief in the wallet.
  • In the wake of mass arrests, Hong Kong's chief executive warned protesters to stay off the streets.
  • Researchers say that every three minutes a child is injured by a toy. Well, hell, give the kid something that isn't labeled "Spyderco" to play with.

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NEXT: Obama Doesn't Really Care About Police Militarization

J.D. Tuccille is a contributing editor at Reason.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Researchers say that every three minutes a child is injured by a toy.

    GET THAT TOY AWAY FROM THAT CHILD ALREADY.

    1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      I bought my kid Bag O' Glass. That's safe, right?

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        +1 Happy Fun Ball

        1. expat   11 years ago

          Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball

      2. Medical Physics Guy   11 years ago

        "You sound defensive."

      3. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

        For Xmas, I got my infant "Baby's First Dry Cleaning Bag". At least that's safe, right?

        1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

          Sure it's safe. I recommend throwing a few washing detergent pods into there. The color will entice lots of fun play.

        2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

          People who purchased this item also viewed:

          Lil' Tykes Bathtub Toaster Oven

          My First Deli Meat Slicer

          1. CE   11 years ago

            And the "Johnny Human Torch" Halloween costume.

    2. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

      I'm pretty sure every 3 minutes a child is raped by a toy.

      1. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

        When will they learn that goo-goo MEANS goo-goo!

  2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    Hello.

    Is it me or have people lost their moral compass in the Michael Brown story?

    Sheesh.

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      If by "moral compass" you mean "brain cells" then yes.

    2. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      Is it me or have people lost their moral compass in the Michael Brown story?

      This is clear scientific evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is flipping north and south.

    3. Juice   11 years ago

      Again, I ask, why him? Why not the 12 year old kid that got smoked by a cop last week? Or the kid in Wal Mart that got smoked by a cop a few months back? Why not any of the innocent people who were just gunned down for no reason? If you're going to pick a face to protest police brutality and unaccountability then why pick this knucklehead?

      1. John   11 years ago

        Because the point is not to stop police brutality. These assholes love the cops. The point is to create racial division. The cases you list wouldn't do that.

        1. Juice   11 years ago

          I don't know if any of the protesters actually out there protesting want to sow racial division. I think the protests started because of the initial story that he had his hands up and was surrendering. When the video of Brown robbing a store came out, the protesters weren't going to let that stop the protesting. By the time the autopsies came out it was too late for them to turn back. The protests already had momentum and whatever other facts came out wasn't going to deter anyone.

          But, I don't see why protesters aren't taking the opportunity to protest other instances of police murder. I know they have more general slogans, but it still makes it look like the principle is rooted in what happened to Mike Brown. If they highlight other, more clear cut cases, they would have a much more powerful message, IMO.

          1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

            Perhaps. But why are schools and pro teams jumping on this despite have the benefit of the facts?

            1. Juice   11 years ago

              Just the momentum of the movement, bandwagon effect, if you will. The details of the case don't matter all that much anymore. That's my guess. I actually don't know.

            2. Brett L   11 years ago

              Wait, wait. You think NFL players should have considered opinions on social issues? You know many of these guys didn't have a lot of brain cells before smashing into each other as hard as they can starting at age 8, right?

      2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        Or Zemir Begic.

        http://twitchy.com/2014/12/01/.....ic-murder/

        No. Let's go with the thug hoodlum with a step-father who encouraged they 'burn the bitch down'. Schools, the Rams - all morally bankrupt in my view.

        1. Juice   11 years ago

          That story is horrible, but he wasn't murdered by cops.

          1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

            Yeah. But it still points to how we pick and choose which deaths we want to martyr.

      3. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

        The kid in Walmart picked up a gun! Something that the hoplophobic left disapproves of.

        The 12-year old kid had a (replica) gun! Again, something that the hoplophobic left disapproves of.

        Michael Brown did not have a gun on him when he was shot. I wonder if that has anything to do with the media's hyperfocus on it.

        1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

          That's precisely why they're going nuts. So what he was bullying an employee and charged a cop? Mere details.

          He had no gun ergo doesn't deserve to die.

          As usual, no appreciate for nuance. All zero-sum with them all the time.

          The unfortunate thing here is there seems to be legitimate concerns for how police and the law conduct themselves in Ferguson (and elsewhere) but burning down a town and propping this guy up is not the way to address these problems - perceived or real.

      4. Mock-star   11 years ago

        Exactly this. Not many were upset over Kelly Thomas. Or Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Or John Crawford. Or Bounkham Phonesavah. Or Eric Garner. etc. etc. I just dont get it.

        1. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

          Or Seth Adams, Patricia Cook, Douglas Zerby.....

      5. PapayaSF   11 years ago

        Why Michael Brown?

        1. A long-time anti-police activist named Anthony Shahid arrived at the scene very soon, talked to a bunch of witnesses, and lo and behold, the catchy but false narrative of "Hands up, don't shoot" was born.

        2. The Anthony Shahids and Al Sharptons of the world have a number of motives: promoting justice for the innocent (fine), racial solidarity (not so fine), and self-promotion/enrichment (ditto). But these days I think there's one more: racial intimidation. I no longer think it's just an accident that so many of these "martyrs" like Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin are violent criminals who got what they deserved. The Shahids and Sharptons of the world promote them because they are on the side of violent criminals, as long as those criminals prey on whites, Hispanics, and Asians. It means intimidation of other races, and so more power for their race, and more power for them.

        1. Juice   11 years ago

          Hmm, I had not heard of this guy before. But if he's the one that came up with the slogan, and the slogan is the reason it all caught on, then it makes sense.

          1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

            A long but informative post, from a website that's done better reporting on this than the MSM.

    4. RBS   11 years ago

      I wouldn't mind not hearing anything about the Michael Brown story for a few days.

      1. db   11 years ago

        Turn off the news, step away from the computer, and do.something constructive. The 24/7 focus on mass media is hogtieing our minds and our creative nature.

      2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

        Oh, a racist, eh?

    5. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

      Another Michael Brown thread? You did that on purpose Rufus.

  3. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

    "President Obama wants new rules on police use of military equipment and new federal spending to buy cops body cameras to make sure they're abiding by those new rules."

    You be good now, you hear? Promise me.

    1. Juice   11 years ago

      It's Obama's attempt to appease everyone at the same time. The cops want their toys and he's not willing to piss them off by cutting them off. But he also wants to appear to the public to give a shit, so he comes up with this "compromise" that probably will end up pissing everyone off.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        Exactly.

      2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

        And it's another excuse for more federal control. Want to bet that more "diversity training" will be one of the solutions?

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      How about not letting cops use that equipment in the first place?

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        Look at this guy.

        1. Ted S.   11 years ago

          Ahem. I beat Playa Manhattan [sic] to the point by a full minute!

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

            My post talks about spending, Ted S. [sic].

            1. Ted S.   11 years ago

              Ah, but I actually got your handle wrong, because I couldn't be arsed to look up where the a with an accent grave is in Unicode. And we were pretty much making the same point.

              1. Tonio   11 years ago

                Copy and paste, Theodore.

        2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

          This guy here.

    3. Invisible Finger   11 years ago

      It isn't just "spending". Obozo wants 263 MILLION DOLLARS.

      Iraq, Ferguson... same spending for the same effectiveness.

      1. CE   11 years ago

        When you're blowing through 10 billion dollars a day already, what's another 263 million?

  4. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

    A voter-approved constitutional cap on income tax rates goes into effect in Georgia. Which is nice.

    Can the voters there also pass a Colorado-style TABOR, please!

    1. CE   11 years ago

      Georgia's looking pretty good these days for retirees -- nice tax breaks.

  5. John   11 years ago

    Researchers say that every three minutes a child is injured by a toy. Well, hell, give the kid something that isn't labeled "Spyderco" to play with.

    That is 175,000 kids a year. But there are are like 73 million people under 18 in this country and what constitutes an "injury"? I wish people who printed such idiotic and deceiving statements and the media idiots who print them would go off and die somewhere,

    1. RBS   11 years ago

      Yeah, nothing about severity, just treatment, which could be a variety of things.

    2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      I still have a dimple on my cheek from falling against a Tonka truck as a child. It's a lifetime scar that actually makes me cuter.

      1. T   11 years ago

        Can we get an opinion from someone besides your mom?

        1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

          My ex-wife, various girlfriends, and some female co-workers agreed. It's a little dent in just the right place, that shows when I smile. My "real" dimple was on the other cheek, but that one went away with adulthood as they usually do.

          1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

            They just said that to get you in the sack.

            1. flye   11 years ago

              They were just looking for a piece of that Tonka money

            2. Pope Jimbo   11 years ago

              Huh? I don't get it.

              How is complementing Papaya's facial deformity going to entice him to expose his scrotum so his ex-wife, girlfriends and some female co-workers can hit it with a Tonka truck to induce another dimple (i.e. "get him in the sack")?

              I mean, sure maybe the first time his face dimple is complimented it works out fine, but how dumb do you have to be to fall for that a second time? I bet even PB caught on after about the 4th application of dimpling.

          2. JEP   11 years ago

            And then you have the adorable story as to how you got it. Damn you!

      2. AlmightyJB   11 years ago

        I was bit on the face by a dog. The solution is obvious. And by solution, I mean final solution.

        1. CE   11 years ago

          The police are working on that.

    3. Hyperion   11 years ago

      what constitutes an "injury"

      Probably the stuff that we inflicted on ourselves 20 times a day when we were kids. You know, bruises, scrapes, and other minor 'ouches'? For the snowflakes these days, any of those are a major crisis worthy of more government regulations.

    4. Pope Jimbo   11 years ago

      Wait, wait, wait. You throw around numbers and expect me to keep up?

      I need numbers like this translated into things I can visualize. For example, if I piled these kids up in a pile, how close to the moon would they be?

      Or you can always convert to the age old "bathtubs of rope" factor. Everyone knows about that and can easily convert btor into whatever other measurement they like.

    5. CE   11 years ago

      You know those little green army men? I stepped on one of the kneeling machine gunners once, and punctured my foot. Hurt like crazy. Does that count?

  6. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Iraq's prime minister canned 24 Interior Ministry officials cuz the whole ISIS thing is getting out of hand.

    How are they going to find 24 well-connected replacements???

    1. JEP   11 years ago

      The Obama administration is an expert authority on replacing cabinent and white house staff.

  7. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

    Is it me or have people lost their moral compass in the Michael Brown story?

    This is clear scientific evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is flipping north and south.

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      Darn squirrels.

      1. Not an Economist   11 years ago

        You blame the squirrels, I blame Earth's magnetic field that is changing orientation.

        1. Ted S.   11 years ago

          You can't change orientation; you're born that way.

          Or is the magnetic field trying to pray its orientation away?

      2. Tonio   11 years ago

        Climate change.

    2. Hyperion   11 years ago

      This is clear scientific evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is flipping north and south

      Only a new 'polar tax' can save us from this calamity. We have to get right on that.

      /The Democrats

  8. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

    So every 3 minutes a child actually learns something about risk and pain tolerance? Wish we could get more of that.

    1. Tonio   11 years ago

      It is unclear that learning is taking place. Not every lesson results in learning.

      1. RBS   11 years ago

        Yeah, my 2 year old apparently only learned that some things only hurt for a little while.

    2. Brett L   11 years ago

      I bought my son a toy with a square wooden mallet for his first birthday. Sure, he'll smash his fingers eventually, but at least it will be with his tiny human strength and a wooden mallet, not a full swing from a claw hammer at 14.

      1. HeteroPatriarch   11 years ago

        Yep. But be careful about who you show that to, or you'll get a visit from some well-meaning parasites.

  9. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    A voter-approved constitutional cap on income tax rates goes into effect in Georgia.

    Does that come with a cap on spending?

    1. Ted S.   11 years ago

      I'd like to see them try to print money to inflate themselves out of debt.

  10. db   11 years ago

    The whole "rein in the militarized police" movement was bound to end in a plethora of ineffective new spending programs, never an actual rollback of militarization. Similarly, the war on drugs will end in repurposing the prison/police infrastructure to fight thoughtcrime and fill out the ranks of agency police forces such as the postal service inspectors, EPA field agents, and eventually the Eonomic Competition Encouragement and Levelization Bureau.

    1. CE   11 years ago

      More cameras on cops would be good though. Maybe they can design some that don't cut out the video during beatings.

  11. JEP   11 years ago

    Angel investor Paul Graham destroys every PC talking point in one paragraph. I read this awhile ago, but stumbled onto it again this morning...

    Labels like that are probably the biggest external clue. If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it. You don't need to say that it's heretical. And if it isn't false, it shouldn't be suppressed. So when you see statements being attacked as x-ist or y-ic (substitute your current values of x and y), whether in 1630 or 2030, that's a sure sign that something is wrong. When you hear such labels being used, ask why.

    1. JEP   11 years ago

      Full essay here:
      http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

  12. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Hey, if you folks want to kneecap the IRS while you're at it, it'd be much appreciated.

    Obamacare enforcement might effectively do that.

  13. John   11 years ago

    http://dailycaller.com/2014/11.....NQ.twitter

    Obamacare totally fucks the middle class. I hope all of those single issue racism and birth control middle class voters think it was worth it.

    1. John   11 years ago

      the money quote

      t's a remarkable shift: after Obamacare's redistribution of wealth, the middle class is actually delaying medical care due to high costs at a higher rate than the poorest section of the country, which is highly subsidized by taxpayers.

      That ladies and gentleman is your progressive policies at work. Take from the productive and give to the bums and eventually make everyone a bum because they are easier to control.

      1. kinnath   11 years ago

        My old "cadillac plan" insurance covered allergy injections and serum at 100%. Now it is out of pocket and subject to a $2500 deductible.

        But hey, my 57-year-old wife (who no longer has a uterus) can get free birth control if she wants it.

        1. mr lizard   11 years ago

          Did you at least get a core charge back on the uterus?

        2. Hyperion   11 years ago

          My family plan for my wife and I had a $1500 deductible and very little out of pocket expense for us on most doctor visits. Now we are paying almost everything out of pocket and the deductible is $7000, and the rate is up 30%.

          All we are doing is paying to subsidize Obama deadbeats.

          The Democrats have only began to suffer the consequences of this shit, and if every single one of them who voted for this crap were tarred and feathered and deported to Antarctica forever, I still wouldn't be happy with that level of pay back.

          1. Suthenboy   11 years ago

            "All we are doing is paying to subsidize Obama deadbeats."

            That peach Dr. Gruber explained in explicit detail that that is what Obamacare is designed to do.

            1. Hyperion   11 years ago

              Turns out the death panels are real. And there's no one sitting on them.

    2. Hyperion   11 years ago

      Obamacare totally fucks the middle class

      Oh really? You talking about that trivial stuff that has the middle class paying for insurance that they can't actually use because their deductibles are sky high? Well, ok, in a catastrophic situation where your medical bills are more than 7k or so in one year, then yeah, that helps. Otherwise, if you're the middle class, you effectively have no health insurance, you're just paying to subsidize others.

      It's just crazy that this is pissing people off so much. They're just selfish and don't want to pay their fair share, for nothing.

    3. Overt   11 years ago

      The downside of that article is that they say the problem is due to higher deductibles.

      If we are going to fix healthcare in this country, that is how you start- with high deductible plans linked to health savings accounts (HSA). This would insert even more price sensitivity into the market, which is what we need.

      Of course, this may be ameliorated with a tax-shelter HSA. People would have more incentive to save for the big health expenses that would invoke these large deductibles. We could easily cut through all this wealth distribution obfuscation by making deposits into the HSA for the truly needy. However, ultimately we are always going to need people to be cost conscious. And that may result in many people foregoing expensive health care. The long term is that people defering health care will create incentives for cheaper alternatives. However, that same process will be used by people pining for Single Payer.

    4. Suthenboy   11 years ago

      That can't be true. Obamacare will make premiums drop by 2500 bucks/yr, everyone will be covered and you can keep your current plan and doctor.

      1. Hyperion   11 years ago

        He just misspoke. He meant to say that deductibles would rise by 500%. An easy mistake.

  14. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

    "President Wants New Spending to Monitor Militarized Cops"

    How about not spending the money to militarize cops in the first place?

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Look at this guy.

    2. db   11 years ago

      See my cynical take above.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

        Jeez, that's a real downer.

        1. db   11 years ago

          If you want a picture of the future, imagine a sad clown pooping on a subway third rail, forever.

    3. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      Not spending money? What kind of anarchist are you?

      1. Lady Bertrum   11 years ago

        Because multiplier!!!!

  15. Fist of Etiquette   11 years ago

    Americans' opinions of the Republican Party are improving even as they see gridlock as the likely outcome of a GOP Congress.

    Just wait until the GOP starts flapping its gums.

    1. John   11 years ago

      Doubtful. what are they going to say? I know the reason line is that gay marriage is the most important issue in the history of the known universe, but most people really don't give a shit. The country is still majority middle class. And they only worry about the culture war shit one way or the other when they are fat dumb and happy and can worry about such things. Now is not one of those times.

      1. Ted S.   11 years ago

        Oh, they'll find something stupid to say. And I don't mean this.

        1. John   11 years ago

          Politicians on both sides say stupid things all of the time. And the Dem Operative media will no doubt pounce on anything the GOP says. That, however, doesn't mean anyone will care.

          1. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

            "Well yeah, we fucked up your health insurance and caused your utility bills to skyrocket. But look over there, that guy's thinking mean things about teh gays.(or blacks, or trannies, or womyn)" / progrard

            That'll totally get the dims back in power in 2016.

      2. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

        Fact is Americans are offended by GOP homophobia. You don't like it but it's true.

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      There's a reason the GOP is called the Stupid Party.

  16. rts   11 years ago

    North Koreans really wanted to see the new Annie.

    1. Injun, as in from India   11 years ago

      As an act of revenge, Sony should produce Team America 2, featuring Kim Jong Un as the villain.

      1. SERENITY NOW!   11 years ago

        As an act of revenge, Sony should produce Team America 2, featuring Kim Jong Un as the flamboyantly gay villain.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          And BHO as his evil partner and lover boy.

      2. Juice   11 years ago

        They've already got that stupid Seth Rogan, James Franco (both talentless hacks) flick about killing Un.

    2. Carl ?s the level   11 years ago

      Some are speculating, as the piece you linked kinda-sorta hints at, that the attack is retaliation for the upcoming release of The Interview (a Sony Pictures movie in which Seth Rogen and James Franco attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un).

      1. Juice   11 years ago

        All I had to do was read the next comment down.

      2. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

        The Interview (a Sony Pictures movie in which Seth Rogen and James Franco attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un).

        I'm being honest here because I haven't heard about this movie -- is it a comedy?

        It sure sounds like it is. I really can't imagine Seth Rogen being anything in real life except jokester chubby guy, and James Franco's a bit of a stoner/sissy. Would they really be assassins? I guess if it's the last people you'd expect......

        1. Gray Ghost   11 years ago

          Isn't this a sort-of update of "Spies Like Us?" I.e., take two comedians, put them in a fish-out-of-water James Bond type environment, and hilarity should ensue.

          At least the training scenes should be entertaining, and if they can duplicate Vanessa Angel's debut, I'll be amazed.

  17. Tonio   11 years ago

    Wouldn't simply cutting off the flow of armored vehicles be cheaper?

    Unfortunately, that doesn't do anything about the armored vehicles already out there. There would need to be a mandatory buyback program to address those.

    The only good news is that those vehicles are expensive to maintain so when they break presumably they won't be repaired. The bad news is that when you just drive them around town once a week they don't get that much wear and tear so could keep on for decades.

    1. John   11 years ago

      They won't last that long. They take a lot of maintenance that you correctly point out takes money and expertise the cities don't have. They are going to be lawn art at police stations all over America with in ten or fifteen years.

    2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   11 years ago

      My local Bearcat made its only appearance this year for the parade after the Kings won the Stanley Cup.
      It probably has less than 100 miles on it.

      1. The Original Jason   11 years ago

        You're forgetting all the time the police break it out for exhibitions like county fairs...

      2. Brett L   11 years ago

        Is that what they replaced the APC that got blown up at Nakatomi Towers with?

        1. Trouser-Pod   11 years ago

          It can't be. The quarterback was toast!

      3. Gene   11 years ago

        Bearcat

        I'm surprised Rufus didn't reflexively link to this Can-Con gem, oh well I guess I will.

    3. Juice   11 years ago

      They get them for free, so the buyback would be more like a takeback.

    4. CE   11 years ago

      Can't they do some common sense background checks and waiting periods on the police chiefs and sheriffs who want these armored vehicles?

  18. John   11 years ago

    Black teens in St. Louis beat white man to death with hammers.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/l.....66084.html

    1. JEP   11 years ago

      Well, you know what they say...when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

      1. John   11 years ago

        Its just too bad the little bastards didn't bring a hammer to a gun fight.

      2. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

        I thought it was when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a honky.

    2. Doghouse Riley Jr.   11 years ago

      Clearly we need common sense hammer control.

      Also, since the guy was Bosnian does that mean the Bosnian community will have a grudge with the perpetrators' families for the next 500 years?

      1. John   11 years ago

        They might just do that. You always see this cases of the families of murderers throwing a fit about how unfair the whole thing is to their little snowflake and generally shitting all over the victim's family. I would strongly advise these guys' families against doing that. The Bosnians are generally not people who forgive and forget.

        1. Warty   11 years ago

          Yeah, if there's a substantial Bosnian community in St. Louis, that's not such a great idea.

    3. Medical Physics Guy   11 years ago

      "We think it was wrong place, wrong time," Jackson said.

      There is a great Mark Steyn essay taking down this exact line, from another incident where a woman was killed while washing her car.

      1. db   11 years ago

        "We think she was wearing the wrong kind of clothes at the wrong time of night and should have known better."

      2. Invisible Finger   11 years ago

        The truth is always the exact opposite of what police spokesmen say.

    4. kinnath   11 years ago

      He's was from my home town.

    5. Gray Ghost   11 years ago

      Never get out of the car. And people wonder why there are hit and run pedestrian deaths in sketchy neighborhoods. Though, to be true, a lot of times it's because the driver's drunk, illegal, has warrants, or all three.

      1. Whahappan?   11 years ago

        No shit. A coworker went to a concert at the old JFK stadium in South Philly. As he was coming home some dude ran a red light right in front him causing an accident. He gets out of the car and goes to the other car to check on the driver/passengers and the guy gets out and slugs him, then the nearby porches empty and they grab everything they can from inside the car in seconds. He was lucky to come out of it with only minor injuries.

  19. Tonio   11 years ago

    Over the weekend I encountered a new low in SJW preening. There's a group that hunts down racist facebook posts, then report the poster to the employer of the poster. Often the posters are fired. Then the SJW's brag about what they've done.

    Oh, and they gloat about the apologies but never do anything to forgive the person.

    I presume that some of these firings will be reversed under threat of lawsuits, and that others are of a deliberately temporary nature. But still disgusted.

    1. db   11 years ago

      Live by the doxx, quite possibly die by the doxx.

    2. Ted S.   11 years ago

      Reason #54858428584275824357498268742653254251 not to use Facebook.

      1. paranoid android   11 years ago

        "...and what about this applicant? He doesn't even have a Facebook page! Wonder what he's trying to hide, can't take that risk...next!"

      2. mr lizard   11 years ago

        True Players don't use Facebook... Former True Players continue the practice

    3. PapayaSF   11 years ago

      And I'm sure they use a generally agreed-upon definition of "racism," right? Ha, just kidding. And I'm sure they'll expand to hunting down the "sexist" and "homophobic."

      1. Tonio   11 years ago

        The posts in question were indeed full-on racist, example: "This is why we need the KKK" when referencing Ferguson.

        But even actual racists get 1A rights. And they are not going to reform those people, they are just going to harden them and make victims of them.

    4. Juice   11 years ago

      It's what they do in Russia to gays. They hunt them down and then expose their gayness to their bosses and most likely they will be fired.

      1. PapayaSF   11 years ago

        "But it's OK when the good guys do it!"

    5. PRX   11 years ago

      I wonder how many are doing Social Justice on their employer's dime? and how many are doing it on the taxpayer's dime? It might be a game that is fun for children of all ages. Who knows, maybe there will be an app for that.

      1. flye   11 years ago

        Committees for the Defense of the Revolution - Online

      2. The Original Jason   11 years ago

        More likely Daddy's dime? a lot of SJWs come from wealthy families.

  20. The Late P Brooks   11 years ago

    The House is taking up, yet again, a one-year extension on some corporate and individual tax breaks.

    Kick that can again.

  21. Mike M.   11 years ago

    Happy $18 Trillion Dollar National Debt Day, suckers.

    That's some "hope and change" alright, but I don't think it's exactly the kind of change most of the country was hoping for. It takes an awful lot of piggy banks to hold that much change!

    1. Libertarian   11 years ago

      All those who think this will EVER be paid off, raise your hands.

      1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

        Oh, "we" can just keep paying the interest on it by inflating the currency with which "we" pay and in which "we" owe "our" debt.

        The Keynesians assure me that nothing bad could ever happen by following this strategy and that anyone who differs just doesn't understand how government debt differs from personal debt.

      2. Dr. Fronkensteen   11 years ago

        That's what the wheelbarrows are for.

  22. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    I can't exactly call this surprising news: Chris Rock doesn't want to do his act at colleges - calling them "conservative" -

    "Not in their political views ? not like they're voting Republican ? but in their social views and their willingness not to offend anybody. Kids raised on a culture of "We're not going to keep score in the game because we don't want anybody to lose." Or just ignoring race to a fault. You can't say "the black kid over there." No, it's "the guy with the red shoes." You can't even be offensive on your way to being inoffensive."

    http://www.thefire.org/chris-r.....-campuses/

    1. Bam!   11 years ago

      They're not conservative, they're oppressive.

    2. db   11 years ago

      PC thought police are of course the manifestation of conservative cultural control the progressives of the 1990s thought they were fighting against.

    3. Juice   11 years ago

      I think he views the term the way I do. I consider the general culture in the DC area to be pretty conservative although the politics cannot be classified that way. I wouldn't call the politics liberal either, just statist. Well, the recent weed vote is liberal for sure, or at least liberalizing.

      If you constantly have to watch your mouth to make sure you don't offend anyone, even though you never mean any offense, that's stifling and in my view it's conservative.

      1. Mickey Rat   11 years ago

        It is a conservative temperment informed by a progressive worldview.

      2. Bill Dalasio   11 years ago

        If you constantly have to watch your mouth to make sure you don't offend anyone, even though you never mean any offense, that's stifling and in my view it's conservative.

        Sorry, but that's just silly. Virtually, none of the people most directly pushing this shit would self-identify in any way as conservative. They're dyed-in-the-wool progressives. Calling them conservative, just because it fits the narrative of conservatives as icky, unfairly shifts responsibility for the attitude to those who oppose it.

        1. VG Zaytsev   11 years ago

          No, he's correctly using it in the non political sense as one who reflexively resists change.

          Under that (valid) definition, proglodytes are ultra conservative-reactionary.

          1. Bill Dalasio   11 years ago

            Except, since when has perpetual offense and the need to walk on eggshells been the status quo? Can't speak for anyone else, but all my life, if I'd whined half as much as these folks do, I'd have been told to buck up and grow a pair. So, it sounds a lot more like imposing a change than resisting one.

  23. lap83   11 years ago

    "Researchers say that every three minutes a child is injured by a toy. Well, hell, give the kid something that isn't labeled "Spyderco" to play with."

    How many of the injuries are inflicted by other siblings or just by kids being kids? When my brother was little he could turn a styrofoam peanut into a weapon.

    1. Live Free Or Diet   11 years ago

      My kid has three Spyderco knives. A Delica, a Centofante and a Dragonfly.
      Her Dragonfly is very pretty too, with etchings on the scales.

    2. db   11 years ago

      I think kids' fascination with weapons is an instinctive survival thing.

  24. Andrew S.   11 years ago

    So the St. Louis Police Officer's Association is now really pissed off (even more than they were yesterday) because the St. Louis Rams and the NFL aren't disciplining the players who made the "hands up don't shoot" gesture yesterday.

    This is the asshole who's their spokesperson. I'll note two things from that article:

    1. He doesn't like dashboard cams or officer cams. Says it's because they're used to harass cops, or something. I'm sure it couldn't be because of this from his past:

    Four years later the department fired him after a dispute with his police chief over paternity leave grew heated. Roorda claimed that the chief verbally intimated him, but an audio recording proved that this claim, too, was a "false report."

    Guy who was proven to be a liar by a recording against recording others? Shocked I tell you.

    1. Andrew S.   11 years ago

      2. I'll just leave this here without comment.

      Instead, we asked Roorda what he would say to people who lost faith in police after witnessing the events in Ferguson. He insisted that officers act in the best interest of people's safety, and that it was wrong to burden cops with constant second-guessing.

      "Our guys do things the right way, and when they make a mistake, they make a mistake because they're defending the lives and property of the people of St Louis," he said. "I think the record of law enforcement in this county is that we performed wonderfully in incredibly challenging circumstances."

      Wait a minute. I think that he may actually be Tulpa.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

        Fuck these jackoffs who tell other businesses or people on how to run their affairs. I also have grown wary and irritated by the 'you owe us/me an apology' crap.

        Take care of your own shit.

      2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

        He insisted that officers act in the best interest of people's safety

        This may be correct, providing you take into account that Roorda may not consider non-cops to really be human.

        1. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

          This probably the root of the problem of modern police culture. Non-cops aren't really people to them.

    2. flye   11 years ago

      Between Michael Brown, Darren Wilson, the protesters, the police response, the mayor, the governor, our president, the DA, the grand jury, the media, twitterers, rioters and looters, police responses to rioting and looting, various celebrities, now athletes and responses to athletes... I'm starting to think Wilson is the only one who acted rationally and he fucking killed a guy.

    3. Suthenboy   11 years ago

      "Roorda sees the push for body cameras as a way of harassing officers who commit minor infractions, like rolling a stop sign or not buckling their seat belt."

      So, enforcing traffic laws and seat belt laws are harassment. I doubt that moron even knows what he said there.

    4. Bill Dalasio   11 years ago

      The irony is that that little incident illustrates precisely why honest cops (yeah, yeah, I know, all two of them) should welcome cameras. It's the perfect means to exonerate them against false accusations.

  25. lafe.long   11 years ago

    I used to think Chris Rock was cool...

    They always seem to want a Bush or a Clinton.

    Maybe they just want a Bush. Maybe they want no regulations. It's hard for me to figure out people voting against their own self-interests. At some point you go, Okay: Is that what they want?

    1. lafe.long   11 years ago

      That'll teach me to refresh.

    2. Winston   11 years ago

      A Hollywood celebrity is a prog? Shocking!

    3. Trouser-Pod   11 years ago

      This was a guy who stated (in his act, but rather convincingly) that, if he needed help, he would not call the police. "I have a gun-I'll take care of it", or some iteration of that.

      And, it was in a riff on paying taxes to support police!

      What is wrong with comedians as they age?

      1. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

        You do know that a whole mess of Democrats are gun nuts? Especially ones who might have cause to fear and mistrust the cops or wild critters? This fact keeps surprising the shit out of the urban proggies every time their cunning "sensible" gun control laws go tits up.

  26. CatoTheElder   11 years ago

    "kneecap the IRS"

    Fuck that ... I want 'em to double-tap the IRS.

  27. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    I drink, therefore I am:

    Ability to consume alcohol may have shaped primate evolution

  28. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

    Researchers say that every three minutes a child is injured by a toy.

    Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.

  29. Sevo   11 years ago

    OT:
    Has anyone heard any-damn-thing from the Ebola Czar? Has his mug now showing up on milk cartons?

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      What? You were thinking that after you get appointed as some czar by the Obama regime that you actually have to do stuff? Bwwahahhaaahahahhaa!!!

    2. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

      Hey, presently he's as effective as Lisa Simpson's rock which prevents tiger attacks.

    3. db   11 years ago

      Now that Ebola is over, I expect to any day hear how the position of Ebola Czar and all sub organizations are being disbanded and the budget returned to the taxpayers.

      1. Hyperion   11 years ago

        It's like as a child when you used to lie awake all night on the Saturday before Easter waiting to get a peek at the Easter Bunny and he never showed up.

  30. dodgybennettyre   11 years ago

    my neighbor's step-sister makes $62 an hour on the internet . She has been fired for seven months but last month her paycheck was $20988 just working on the internet for a few hours. visit this site....
    ????? http://www.netjob70.com

  31. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

    First line of the Georgia-caps-taxes link from Bloomberg:

    This month, Georgia became the first U.S. state to make raising its income-tax rate unconstitutional, a move that could hamstring its ability to raise revenue in tough economic times.

    If only Georgia could seize more wealth from the citizenry to relieve its financial hardships in these tough economic times.

    Yet the experience of the recession that ended in June 2009 shows the risk of writing off any fiscal tool: Most states resorted to tax increases to balance budgets during the crisis, according to the Tax Policy Center.

    "It's like taking a weapon out of your revenue-raising arsenal," said Brenda Ojendyk, a senior research analyst for Chicago-based Nuveen Asset Management. "You don't want to do that if you don't have to."

    Yes, tell us more about this recession that concluded five and a half years ago and how states need every "weapon" they can find to "raise revenue" at the expense of, you know, the people who actually create and then invest the wealth.

    These people apparently think that government funding just falls from the heavens like manna.

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      "It's like taking a weapon out of your revenue-raising arsenal"

      It's like taking tanks and automatic weapons away from cops! We have to think of the children!

    2. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

      Bloomberg is trash.

    3. CE   11 years ago

      What about the multiplier effect?

      1. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

        Yes, with any govt spending, there are multiple liars.

      2. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

        Just imagine how wealthy we'd be if *all* spending was government spending!

        That people believe in nonsense like multipliers or some manipulable "aggregate demand" for even a second is a good indication that we're a credulous, dimwitted species. When there are x physical resources to be consumed or invested, you cannot grow x by creating more fiat currency or causing people to spend their cash as quickly as possible. X is x, and putting private dollars in a government's hands can't change that.

        The degree to which an economist disagrees with that simple proposal is IMO the degree to which he is not an economist.

    4. Whahappan?   11 years ago

      "These people apparently think that government funding just falls from the heavens like manna."

      No, they just think the people working for government and the people benefiting from government are more important and more worthy than the people funding government.

  32. natttureboy   11 years ago

    Do you think that among the statues at the inevitable Obama Memorial will include something about Michael Brown or Trayvon? Obama hitting a golf ball, the trajectory of which is the stock market hitting new records is a lock. I can't wait for his apotheosis.

    1. Hyperion   11 years ago

      They'll just put him on Rushmore with the other greats. Right in the middle. Two of the others will have to go to make way for his ears.

      1. natttureboy   11 years ago

        No. Not enough people make it to SD for him to be satisfied with that. I think Obama's ego demands something on the National Mall.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          And it has to be taller than the Washington monument.

          1. natttureboy   11 years ago

            That's a given. I would like a Collosus of Obama doing the black power salute, with MLK and Malcom X sitting atop him, so as to see standing on the shoulder of a giant.

      2. CE   11 years ago

        Probably the two inconsequential presidents who owned slaves.

    2. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

      It will be a marble portrait of a beaming Obama joining his left hand to MLK's right over their heads in symbolic triumph over the American legacy of slavery, racism, etc. Maybe they can be jointly holding a Bible over their heads to make it extra offensive.

      A generation from now, kids will learn that Obama was The First Black President and that'll be his sole legacy.

      1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

        A generation from now, kids will be huddling in fear behind crumbling concrete ruins as they seek to hide from the roving cannibal rape gangs that hunt during the day in the wastelands that were once known as America.

        1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

          cannibal rape gangs

          Can do one or the other, but I'll be damned if I'm going to eat someone who's covered in my fellow rape-buddy gang member's semen.

          1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

            It will be a brutal and unforgiving world in many ways.

        2. Hyperion   11 years ago

          As long as they eat all of the SJWs first, I'm down with it.

      2. CE   11 years ago

        They'll just add him to the Lincoln Memorial, giving Abe a high five.

  33. C. Anacreon   11 years ago

    Wow, I just got a link at work to the website of a consulting company, which assists governmental and non-profit agencies. I defy anyone to find another website more overrun with meaningless PC buzzwords.

    Oh, and their mission statement says their main goal is social justice. Imagine that, a for-profit company to help your agency fight capitalism!

  34. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

    The price of oil and gold sure bounced back.

  35. Libertarian   11 years ago

    OFF TOPIC:

    As Americans break out the cranberries for Thanksgiving dinners, the federal government is taking steps to put more of the tart fruit in food pantries and school lunches.

    In a win for the Congressional Cranberry Caucus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to purchase up to $55 million in cranberry products, double its previous purchase, which was in January. It is expected to pump up to 68 million pounds of surplus cranberries into the diets of low-income children and families.

    http://www.wisconsinrapidstrib...../70123076/

    I can't improve on what H.L. Mencken said about the sacred farmer: "No more grasping, selfish and dishonest mammal, indeed, is known to students of the Anthropoidea. When the going is good for him he robs the rest of us up to the extreme limit of our endurance; when the going is bad be comes bawling for help out of the public till. "

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      Yeah, as if the city slickers wouldn't steal twice as much if given half a chance.

      Proof: They do it all the time.

      1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        It's not rural v. urban, it's robbers v. "wow, I thought I had more money in my wallet."

      2. Libertarian   11 years ago

        agreed

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          Look, I love H. L. Mencken as much as I can love any Nietzschean atheist with a lingering affection for the Bill of Rights, but Prohibition gave him a vision of liberty as the province of some holdout urban areas defending themselves against pitchfork-wielding agrarian hordes.

          Agrarian populism can indeed produce some frightening anti-freedom ideas, but that's nothing compared to what clever people living in cities are able to come up with.

          If candidates supported by rural voters won all their elections, this country would be just a tad better off today.

          1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

            I think you're terribly underselling the horribleness of the "Cross of Gold" Grangers. Had it been not for the urban NE and McKinley, some dude in Nebraska would have been Lenin to the punch by a mere decade.

            1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

              *beat

              1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

                Look, I'm not romanticizing rural people, but look at the great mass killers of the 20th century and you'll find they tend to be urbanites killing rural victims rather than the other way around.

                1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

                  Hmm...maybe Mao is a major exception, I lack the expertise to rule on that.

                  1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

                    Trotsky and Pol Pot were farm boys as well. But it's not a urban vs. rural thing, as you said, but the context of Mencken's quote. At the turn of the century, rural American politics in the Midwest, were radical, collectivist, and populist. Not that you didn't have for-reals anarchists in the cities, but folks like the Grangers got a lot more traction. Hell, the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party, which is totally a thing, voted in Al Franken.

                    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

                      Mao, Pol Pot and Al Franken? Maybe I should reconsider my urban bias.

              2. Juice   11 years ago

                *beaten

                1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

                  While both "beat" and "beaten" are accepted forms of the past participle of "beat", I tend to use "beat" over "beaten" as "beat" is used the adjective form. The parallel to "-ed" past participles used as adjectives (e.g., loved, excited, interested, etc.) appeals to me.

          2. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

            Agrian populism birth progressivism, and early progressivism was the most potently anti-freedom, far worse than the urban proggies of today. Fuck farmers.

            1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

              Yep, they were afraid of increased industrialism and ended up selling their souls to the devil (Roosevelt the Elder)

  36. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    Look, here's what's on the Independents tonight, according to the Web site:

    "TONIGHT: Lachlan Markay and Michael Malice join our party panel. Mike Baker discusses the latest terror threats. And Kennedy, Matt, and Kmele take on Obama's Ferguson executive order."

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/the-independents

  37. SIV   11 years ago

    Hell, I step away from the computer for a few hours and miss everything:

    Hi Robby! Thanks for stopping by! One small correction: I don't think you've ever "reported" a goddamn thing in your life. (And because I know you're going to do this, either here or in my Twitter mentions, which you and your friends are currently stink-clouding up with your Feelings, I have a master's degree in journalism from Columbia and I write investigative stories. Have done for years, both at Jezebel and before I got here. Thanks for asking!)

    I'm kinda torn on who to root for here.

    1. Libertarian   11 years ago

      Kinda weird that the writer, IN HER VERY FIRST SENTENCE, says the girl was "allegedly" raped.

    2. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

      Which is more impressive: her stunning academic credentials (A master's! In journaling! From the least of the Ivies!), her lazy vulgarity (surely a master's of journaling fundamental her professors teach to all their journaling students), or her undeniable talent for prognosticating imaginary insults and then answering then with sarcasm and exclamation! points!

      This is exactly the sort of idiot you find in a journalism program, to say nothing of the sort of person who would write for "feminist" gawker.

    3. Tonio   11 years ago

      You can root for everybody to lose, or be eaten by zombies.

    4. Suthenboy   11 years ago

      I don't believe that rape story. It is simply a story, many parts of which are implausible and not one shred of evidence can be found, not one actual witness named. Not one participant named.

      I think it is a complete fabrication and Soave was right to question it.

      That Anna person writes for Jezebel for fuck's sake. I think she thought she was upping her credibility by mentioning that.

      1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

        Yes, because journalistic ethics are second only to the Hippocratic Oath.

        1. paranoid android   11 years ago

          *Clicks*

          Well, I know what I'm doing for the next hour or so.

        2. lap83   11 years ago

          I expected a larger number than that.

      2. Hyperion   11 years ago

        It's not believable at all. It's almost assuredly at least a partial fabrication and more likely a complete fabrication.

        I wonder how fast all of these shreaking harpies scurry for cover when this is proven to be total bullshit?

        They'll scurry under their rocks and come out again for their next hysterical made up delusion of fighting the patriarchy.

    5. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

      Welcome to the level of discourse of a modern ivy league j school. columbia should be proud.

      1. Heroic Mulatto   11 years ago

        When it comes to rape, one would think a Columbia grad SWJ wouldn't strut that fact around like a peacock..err...peahen.

        1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

          I got down to the New Yorker cover before yakking and shutting the tab... It makes me wish that these morons could be shown the shallowness and vapidity of their lives without it killing hundreds of millions.

  38. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

    AFA Spokeperson Lauren Kitchen Stewards:

    My husband and I talk about the importance of teaching our children not only biblical principles, but one of those being to respect authority. Because you're doing them a favor when they learn to go, OK, that person's an authority over me.

    But remember, socons are the natural allies of libertarians.

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

      Thank you for that fair and balanced Amanda Marcotte article.

      Here's a Ben Carson quote from the article:

      ""Certainly in a lot of our inner cities, in particular the black inner cities where 73 percent of the young people are born out of wedlock, the majority of them have no father figure in their life." "Usually the father figure is where you learn how to respond to authority. So now you become a teenager, you're out there, you really have no idea how to respond to authority, you eventually run into the police or you run into somebody else in the neighborhood who also doesn't know how to respond but is badder than you are, and you get killed or you end up in the penal system."

      Obviously a crypto-Klansman.

      1. Bo Cara Esq.   11 years ago

        I think you're missing Stormy's objection in your rush to defend Carson (and Stewards???).

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

          I'm going to wish I hadn't asked this, but...maybe you could articulate Stormy's objection in more intelligible language?

          1. Bo Cara Esq.   11 years ago

            Why am I not surprised that a guy who said he would stop arguing for pot legalization if his Bishop told him too doesn't get how Stewards authority quote comes off bad to libertarians

            1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

              Generally, Catholics have a much higher tolerance for this sort of "human authority" speech. The reasons should be obvious to anybody who knows an iota about the RCC. Not knocking Eddie at all, but those who accept a human hierarchy for their spiritual authority are more likely to accept the same for their governmental authority.

              As a protestant, I found that quote as immediately and viscerally objectionable as I assume most atheists and agnostics do.

    2. Hyperion   11 years ago

      Who said that SoCons are allies of libertarians?

      1. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

        Oodles of people here say that in spite of the mountains of evidence to the contrary.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone here say that.

          1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

            I wouldn't say "natural allies," because that would be silly, but I would say that if libertarians and SoCons worked together on matters of common concern, they would be surprised at how much they had in common. And as to the parts they *don't* have in common, they can chat about those while fighting the common prog enemy.

            1. Hyperion   11 years ago

              I may have been able to believe that until the afternoon, right after CO legalized weed that I saw a few thousand of them on a website calling for the potheads to be rounded up and executed and a giant wall built around CO to turn it into a prison.

              SoCons are not our friends. They will team up with Proggies when it comes down to it to stomp on peoples freedoms and get shit banned.

              1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

                "a website calling for the potheads to be rounded up and executed and a giant wall built around CO to turn it into a prison"

                Oh, dear!

                Do you have a link to that Web site? It sounds bad.

                1. Hyperion   11 years ago

                  I can't remember now or I would show it to you. I spent the entire afternoon on there fighting with those assholes, and I had very little company. I felt like I was on HuffPo fighting with the proggies. It was really that bad. I think it was Breitbart or FoxNews. I posted the link here on a thread right after that.

                  Seriously, SoCons can be almost as group think like as progs. They think that so called 'liberals' smoke pot so therefore, pot is bad.

                  Libertarians don't have any allies, we may as well just face it. Sure, we can work with SoCons on economy based issues at times, and with progs on things like the WOD at times. But neither are our friends, and don't think they won't join together to gang up on us, because they have more in common with each other than they do with us.

              2. lap83   11 years ago

                I have a hard time keeping up with the definition of "SoCons". Sometimes it means "people who aren't pro-choice". Sometimes it means "These crazy people I saw on this website once". The questions it raises are: all pro-lifers crazy? and are the crazy ones even that well-represented?

                1. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

                  Aren't you one of the "work for google from the comfort of your home" bots?

                  1. lap83   11 years ago

                    Me?

                2. GILMORE   11 years ago

                  "lap83|12.1.14 @ 7:19PM|#

                  I have a hard time keeping up with the definition of "SoCons".

                  Well, first off = they wear Khakis.

                  And Bo sees them everywhere, like Dead People.

              3. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

                SoCons are not our friends. They will team up with Proggies when it comes down to it to stomp on peoples freedoms and get shit banned.

                They ARE Proggies. It is important to remember that both SoCons and SJW Progs are two branches on the same diseased tree. It makes it much clearer who our "friends" are, and why the "Libertarian MOMENT!!!" is so laughable.

          2. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

            The SoCon squad ex Eddie often repeat the 'Socons can be our allies meme'. Just stick around it'll happen.

            1. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

              OK, so I get that you disagree. Now, let's consider what arguments you have to reject my points.

            2. BakedPenguin   11 years ago

              I often wonder if SoCons are actually secret atheists. The idea that the most powerful being in the universe needs assistance to enforce punishment for breaking his laws is so illogical and moronic, it shouldn't stand up to a moment's scrutiny.

              1. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

                It's more simple than that... they merely serve two masters. They worship God and America, and sometimes choose America over God.

      2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

        Libertarians aren't anarchists, so respecting authority is not necessarily an un-libertarian thing. I think socons and libertarians can agree that parents should teach their kids not to commit crimes.

        And the socon point about single parents is supported by psychology: mothers are usually the source "unconditional love," while father love is more often conditional. That creates a sort of good cop/bad cop structure that keeps kids in line. Without fathers, the kids can grow up feeling like they can do no wrong: see Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin.

        1. CE   11 years ago

          Oh, I think all libertarians are anarchists at heart.

          1. Hyperion   11 years ago

            I'm not at all an anarchist and I consider myself more of a big L libertarian than probably most around here.

            Anarchists can't really be serious. If you had real anarchy then the next thing you know it, the strongest bunch of assholes would be in control and everyone else would be fucked, sort of like it always was until there was some form of representative government.

            I don't think libertarianism can actually exist without a minimal government.

            1. Juice   11 years ago

              Anarchists (or voluntarists) would argue that there may indeed be "government" but it wouldn't be a centralized monopoly based on force.

            2. RussianPrimeMinister   11 years ago

              You're absolutely right about Libertarianism being a pure form of minarchism.

              But I know that I, at least, am an anarchist at heart. But that might be simply because I'm one of the ones that would probably end up on top of the pile of dead bodies, with a chainsaw in one hand and double barrel in the other, covered in blood and screaming my defiance at the heavens.

              Seriously, how cool would that be?

              Anarchists are, or should be, the allies of libertarians. In a libertarian society, we get everything we want besides the ability to steal and kill. And since nobody gets the right to steal or kill, that seems pretty fair.

            3. trshmnster the terrible   11 years ago

              Anarchists can't really be serious. If you had real anarchy then the next thing you know it, the strongest bunch of assholes would be in control and everyone else would be fucked, sort of like it always was until there was some form of representative government.

              I don't think libertarianism can actually exist without a minimal government.

              I have had a lot of discussion with AnCaps, and they talked me off the ledge, in a sense. I still don't think that anarchism is a stable state, but I think we can get much closer than many libertarians would imagine.

              1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

                I still don't think that anarchism is a stable state

                http://instantrimshot.com/inde.....&play=true

            4. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

              Anarchists can't really be serious. If you had real anarchy then the next thing you know it, the strongest bunch of assholes would be in control and everyone else would be fucked

              This was basically Rand's reaction to Rothbard and co. when they recapitulated the old Molinari argument about making defense a private affair--and thus better and more responsive--like everything else. The Randians suffered from a characteristic failure of imagination, and I think that's also the issue when it comes to modern takes on ancapistry.

              But if you try to imagine how intellectuals raised under the all-powerful God Kings of just a few centuries ago would've viewed the American Experiment, I think you can get an idea for how limited a community is by the imagination of its citizens. A society in which everyone rejects divine right or the social contract is one where these institutions can't exist. The same thing is true of a stateless society based on mutual respect of rights (or ethical intuitionism or whatever--just keep your hands to yourself).

              1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

                Even if a sort of Nozickian minimalist state re-emerged in that community, it couldn't be a strongest bunch of assholes scenario, as those people would always be at the mercy of a rich, armed citizenry that's ideologically disinclined to put up with monopolies of any sort.

                Most people reject slavery entirely today as a moral concern, and it's difficult to see even the leviathan forcing it down people's throats as they might the TSA or NSA or whatever other terrible, wasteful, crude stuff they're doing this week.

                Who's to say that 200 years from now at least one community of people wouldn't reject the state as a moral concern for the same reasons people reject slavery today?

              2. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

                I come home to witness my neighbor sneaking out my front door with my TV. I call my private security form who head next door, where they run into a squad of my neighbors private security firm who say they think the TV is the neighbors and won't allow it to be taken back.

                Now what happens?

                1. Knarf Yenrab!   11 years ago

                  Adjudication. Next question.

                  1. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

                    Ajudication is anarchese for 'magic'.

              3. Cytotoxic   11 years ago

                The Randians suffered from a characteristic failure of imagination to delude themselves in the same way Rothtads do.

                FTFY

        2. lap83   11 years ago

          Also, you can disagree with those in charge while being respectful. If you can't do that, you may be lucky enough to not be arrested but you'll probably be fired from every job you have. (and I say this partially from experience)

        3. Juice   11 years ago

          Libertarians aren't anarchists

          Some are. I think of anarchism as a subset of libertarianism.

        4. Bo Cara Esq.   11 years ago

          "mothers are usually the source "unconditional love," while father love is more often conditional. "

          Cite?

          1. GILMORE   11 years ago

            Your mom?

          2. PapayaSF   11 years ago

            Cite: My freshman psychology course. I believe the prof got it from Erich Fromm:

            Fromm distinguishes between motherly love and fatherly love. Motherly love is unconditional love and teaches the child that it is loved/desired no matter what. Fatherly love is conditional love and teaches the child that it also needs to do things and 'earn' love and acknowledgment.

        5. Stormy Dragon   11 years ago

          I think socons and libertarians can agree that parents should teach their kids not to commit crimes.

          Yes, but they should teach their kids not to commit crimes because it is hurting the victim, not because a "that person's and authority over me" and said not to.

  39. Hyperion   11 years ago

    First off, let me say that I don't believe this. I've seen serious 3rd world poverty and Baltimore is not as bad, not even close. The only way that it is as bad might be the level of violent crime, but not in level of poverty.

    But I'm not sure how this could even be considered possible in a city where the champions of the poor, the saviors of the poor, those ensurers of equality, the Democrats have always been in control:

    Baltimore worse than Nigeria

    1. Suthenboy   11 years ago

      Yeah, the poverty in Baltimore may not be as bad, but what about the INEQUALITY?!

      *squints and looks hard at Hyperion*

      1. Hyperion   11 years ago

        The inequality here is not even close to what it is in Latin American countries.

        Sure, the worst parts of Baltimore are just as dangerous as the worst slums in 3rd world countries. But people in 3rd world countries lives in lean to shacks, not actual houses and they sure as hell don't have cars, TVs, and iPhones.

        1. Hyperion   11 years ago

          They don't even have indoor plumbing or electricity in many communities.

        2. Juice   11 years ago

          Lean-to shacks and shanty towns are illegal in the land of the free. If they weren't you'd see a hell of a lot more of them.

    2. GILMORE   11 years ago

      Wow what a classy publication

      Navy Seal Who Killed Bin Laden = Let's Dig Up Some Dirt on His Parents

  40. userve32   11 years ago

    Obama is a d bag, wait, D-bag with a capital D

    http://www.Anon-Rocks.tk

  41. chenoacorksduu   11 years ago

    Start working at home with Google! It's by-far the best job I've had. Last Wednesday I got a brand new BMW since getting a check for $6474 this - 4 weeks past. I began this 8-months ago and immediately was bringing home at least $77 per hour. I work through this link,
    go to tech tab for work detail ????????????? http://www.jobsfish.com

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