A.M. Links: Rand Paul Is Running for Reelection, Bill Cosby Resigns from Temple University Board, Wife of ISIS Leader Arrested in Lebanon

• 

  Credit: C-SPAN

  Rand Paul is now officially running for reelection to the U.S. Senate.

• Bill Cosby has resigned from Temple University's Board of Trustees.

• A wife and child of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have reportedly been arrested in Lebanon.

• "President Barack Obama spoke forcefully on Monday about using his last two years in office to take on the problems of race and policing illustrated by the controversy in Ferguson, but—for now—he has offered policy solutions that fall short of what activists have demanded."

• President Obama is reportedly considering whether to open a new front in the air war against ISIS in order to create a "safe zone" for rebel forces.

• St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar claims that the St. Louis Rams organization has apologized for the actions of five players who raised their hands in a Ferguson-inspired protest before Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders. But Keven Demoff, the executive vice president of football operations for the Rams, has denied making any such apology. "I do believe that supporting our players' First Amendment rights and supporting local law enforcement are not mutually exclusive," Demoff told the Associated Press.

Reason's annual Webathon is underway! Your (tax-deductible!) gift will help Reason magazine, Reason.com, and Reason TV bring the case for "Free Minds and Free Markets" to bigger and bigger audiences. For giving levels and associated swag, go here now.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bill Cosby has resigned from Temple University's Board of Trustees.

Cos is like JoPa, he's been alive too long to maintain his legacy.

[Idle Hands]

Should have died in his 60's when he had the chance. Auto-erotic afixation would have preserved his legacy better.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"A wife and child of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi"

Is she hot?

What? Like you weren't thinking it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So...three wives left?

[UnCivilServant]

NAw, I'm pretty sure there's som dispensation for 'important' people to go beyond the limit.

[prolefeed]

Nope. The Koran is the Koran.

Way it works is, you divorce the least attractive wife to make way for the new one.

[Steve G]

Is she hot?

The wife or the child?
\old man with candy

[Atanarjuat]

Is she hot?

It's unlikely there are any pictures of her where you can tell. A seductive pair of eyes peering out between sheets of cloth is probably the extent of it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...but?for now?he has offered policy solutions that fall short of what activists have demanded.

Obama disappointing someone who had high hopes? I can't believe that.

[Injun, as in from India]

If you like your hope and change, you can keep your hope and change! Period.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

A wife and child of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have reportedly been arrested in Lebanon.

I'm sure he's devastated.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Note it was "A" wife... crunch all you want, we'll make more!

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

A wife and child of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have reportedly been arrested in Lebanon.

They are the Kardashians of the Levant?

[Rich]

Kardashians of the Levant

Nice band name.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I, for one, would not go see that band, based entirely on that name.

[sarcasmic]

Clearing out 'The Jungle': Authorities descend on squalid Silicon Valley homeless camp to warn the makeshift city's 200 residents to get out or face arrest

People living in the San Jose camp, known as The Jungle, must be out by Thursday or face arrest for trespassing
On Monday morning, more than 20 police officers and construction workers walked through the encampment
The city wants to restore the polluted mile square stretch of woodlands and waterways at the outskirts of some of America's wealthiest neighborhoods

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rrest.html

Caring and sharing...

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Don't be evil.

[Zeb]

It's much easier to romanticize the poor when you can imagine that they are all living authentic lives in third world crap-holes and you don't actually have to see them.

[RBS]

We used to have several homeless camps around here. Eventually they grew rather large and one day the property owners decided that they did, in fact, want to sell the timber on the property.

[Mike Laursen]

After years of drought, just as they scheduled this, we are having a week of torrential rain.

[Brett L]

See! The squatters were causing the drought! Burn the poor people!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Reason's annual Webathon is underway!

This thing again? Cut spending.

[UnCivilServant]

This sort of drive doesn't make me want to give them money. I already paid for a subscription (which I gave away so that the magazine doesn't appear ay my mailbox...)

[RBS]

which I gave away so that the magazine doesn't appear ay my mailbox...

Haha, I'm pretty sure my mailman thinks I'm some racist lunatic.

[antisocial-ist]

I understand it now, the boobs post from yesterday was just an attempt to get us in a good mood before asking for money.

[db]

I found out last weekend that a friend of my sister who we went to high school with is a marine biologist who works at the aquarium in Boston and is known as The Lobster Lady. Just sayin'.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

How much does she make an hour by working on the internet?

[jester]

Whatever happened to Lobstergirl?

[WTF]

Here she is!

[Mad Scientist]

I'm disturbed to discover that image is named lobster_girl3. Apparently there are at least 2 other lobster women which Reason is keeping from us.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Study: Strong net neutrality rules could cost you $84 a year or more in new fees

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....-new-fees/

[Suthenboy]

Well worth the vast improvement in the technical aspects of the internet and greater freedom of expression that net neutrality will undoubtably bring.

Yep.

[Not a Libertarian]

from the article

It's no secret Americans hate the idea of abandoning net neutrality.

Is this true of all Americans or of a vocal subset

[Brett L]

What? The Hell you say that regulation will lead to increased cost and decreased service!

[BoscoH]

That's even more expensive than getting Dodger baseball on SportsNet LA (estimated $60/year forced on every cable subscriber in SoCal).

Just so y'alls know from the SportsNet LA fiasco. Hold the line at all costs against the NN bullshit now for about 6 months. At that point, the costs will become etched into the minds of people and they'll be completely against it. But right now, make no mistake, the sheeple love NN and you've got to stand firm!

[Lord Humungus]

Most College Students Don't Earn a Degree in 4 Years, Study Finds

"Students and parents know that time is money," said the report, called "Four-Year Myth." "The reality is that our system of higher education costs too much, takes too long and graduates too few."

At most public universities, only 19 percent of full-time students earn a bachelor's degree in four years, the report found. Even at state flagship universities ? selective, research-intensive institutions ? only 36 percent of full-time students complete their bachelor's degree on time.

[Idle Hands]

As a recent grad I can attest that the advisers are set on you finishing in 5 years they do everything they can to keep you there. I basically went to my adviser the 4 mandatory times, I filled out my requirement sheet on my own but funny you had to go to have a meeting to get one for my major at least.

[UnCivilServant]

At my school they designed the schedule for the BofS to take 5 years.

[Idle Hands]

Episode V Return of the Super Senior.

[Brett L]

134 hours to get a ChE degree at mine, and that's only because the school limited the maximum hours a major could require to 134.

[Zeb]

At one school? I know several people who took forever to graduate, but they kept changing schools.
How hard is it to finish a bachelors degree in 4 years?

[Idle Hands]

I think this is part of the issue a lot of guys I know went to community college for two years and spent 3 at a state college.

[Rasilio]

Don't forget nice little things like scheduling mandatory courses every other semester and their having fewer actual seats in them than the number of undergrads pursuing major(s) for which that class is mandatory

[Gray Ghost]

Or having labs held during the same time. I went to a cow and silage state university and even there it was a pain in the ass getting all of the lab classes to line up. And that's not counting the "full employment for grievance studies" general education classes shoehorned in.

Why is it that an engineer needs to be conversant in Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, and the Songhai Empire (not sure I kept thinking of it as Song Empire, but w/e), but an English major can get away with knowing absolutely fuck-all about statistics or any math more complicated than 2+2?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Because if you study the humanities , you don't need all of that sciency, rational shit.

[ColonelEngineer]

Breaking news: water is wet. More at 11.

[Auric Demonocles]

I would have finished in 3.5 years if they didn't require a course only offered in the spring. Instead I took a beer brewing "food science" course to hit my minimum credit requirement for that last semester.

[Spoonman.]

I got out in 3.5 with an engineering degree, but I got nearly a year's worth of AP credits accepted.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Juveniles arrested, charged with brutal murder of Bosnian immigrant in St. Louis suburb

Police say Robert Mitchell along with two other teens, both juveniles, attacked the 32-year-old man with hammers early Sunday. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Mitchell and one of the juveniles are black and the other teen is Hispanic, according to police.

A police spokeswoman said investigators do not believe race played a role in the bludgeoning death of a Bosnian immigrant early Sunday, but declined to say what authorities believe is the motive in the killing.

Many at the scene of the murder near Gravois Avenue and Itaska Street speculated that the four men who beat Zemir Begic, 32, to death with hammers targeted him because of his Bosnian descent.

But detectives do not believe Begic's Bosnian heritage or the color of his skin served as a motive in any way, police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said.

Witnesses told police that the victim and the suspect exchanged some words as Begic was walking past them on the way to his car, Jackson said.

Someone then hit Begic's car with something or kicked it, and Begic stopped his car, got out and exchanged words with the suspects once more. That's when he was attacked, Jackson said.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And Holder and Obama and the race hustlers said nothing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just read some of those comments. St. Louis has its fair share of crazies.

I thought Cardinals/Blues/Rams fans were the most chill.

[kinnath]

Not just a Bosnian immigrant. He was a refugee from a war zone relocated to Iowa.

[Ted S.]

Isn't relocating people to Iowa a crime against humanity? :-p

[kinnath]

You would think so. But apparently, some international organization thought that getting people out of a war zone was more important than finding them a civilized place to live.

The Bosnian did manage to push most of the illegal immigrants out of the local meat packing jobs.

[Zeb]

The Bosnian did manage to push most of the illegal immigrants out of the local meat packing jobs

He must be a really good worker.

[kinnath]

yes. Now that he's dead, 200 mexicans will take his place.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

There's a war zone in Iowa?

[kinnath]

You struggle with standard English?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The warzone was obviously relocated to
Iowa.

What warzone deserves that kind of treatment?

[Gray Ghost]

A police spokeswoman said investigators do not believe race played a role in the bludgeoning death of a Bosnian immigrant early Sunday,

Certainly. Because minority young males, living in a ghetto, are known for their tolerance of different races.

What a load of horseshit.

Thought experiment: how much shit would Mr. Begic have been in, if after the guy kicked his car, and threatened or struck him with the hammer, Begic shot him or any of the other three that ended up killing him?

I'm guessing it'd be more than a little. Especially if the hammers all disappeared from the scene. "How could you shoot him? Didn't you know he was a child? And unarmed?!"

[Lord Humungus]

McCain tells White House he wants Lieberman for defense secretary

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Monday that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough had contacted him about his thoughts on who should be the next defense secretary.

"I said Lieberman," McCain told our colleague Steven Ginsberg as he got off the Amtrak Acela from Washington to New York. McCain laughed and said McDonough thanked him for his input, but that McCain did not think his close pal, the former senator from Connecticut, a Democrat turned Independent, would be considered for the job. (After all, he did endorse McCain over Obama in '08.)

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Curse your fleet fingers!

[Crusty Juggler]

Yes, finally! It is time for a little Joe-mentum! I have to say, McCain still has it.

[UnCivilServant]

Would that be Joe Lieberman, the guy who I couldn't help but laugh at every time he opened his mouth during his Vice Presidential bid?

[Injun, as in from India]

Senator Palpatine for Secretary of Defense! Yay!

[Pope Jimbo]

I always thought he looked more like Willie Tanner:

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gall...../18754.gif

vs

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....rtrait.jpg

[Injun, as in from India]

Here is a comparison of Lieberman and Palpatine. WARNING: Mute or turn down your audio.

http://palpatinetwist.ytmnd.com/

[Ted S.]

Why should we give a shit what McCain thinks?

[Mike M.]

If you like you $18 trillion national debt, you can keep your $18 trillion national debt.

Say, remember the days when the national debt going up by another trillion dollars was a big news story?

It happens so often now under this Obamination of an administration that it doesn't even get reported as news any longer, even by many small government news entities.

[UnCivilServant]

One Trillion is a Tragedy, Eighteen Trillion is a statistic.

[Mike M.]

And besides, all of the $7.4 trillion of debt accumulated over the last nearly six years is probably Bush's fault somehow.

[Injun, as in from India]

^THIS.

When you've been screwed so much, what difference at this point does it make?

[JW]

A quadrillion here, a quadrillion there. Pretty soon you're talking about real money.

[WTF]

Like the homeless, it will be reported once again when there is an 'R' in the White House.

[Zeb]

It wasn't that long ago that it was a big deal that it was $4 trillion.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

McCain tells White House he wants Lieberman for defense secretary

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....4&hpid=z12

[Idle Hands]

I love user fees.

[Lord Humungus]

Robert Samuelson: The key to stronger economic recoveries?

This disappointing recovery, you see, contrasts sharply with the 1920s experience, when the economy rebounded strongly. Depleted inventories had to be replenished; production restarted. Lower prices for building materials encouraged a housing boom. What explains the rapid recovery and why wasn't it repeated a decade later in the Great Depression?

James Grant thinks he has answers. Grant has written an elegant history of the 1920-1921 depression from which my brief description is drawn. The lesson, Grant argues, is that if left alone, the economy generates powerful recuperative forces.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Leave it alone? Are you fucking nuts?

[Brett L]

As the Instapundit is wont to say: "Not enough opportunity for graft."

[Kaptious Kristen]

The lesson, Grant argues, is that if left alone, the economy generates powerful recuperative forces.

NO WAI!!!

[Rich]

In Paterson, New Jersey only 19 kids who took the SAT's are considered college ready.

The "SAT"? How quaint (and RACIST)!

[Injun, as in from India]

The solution is to make the SAT easier, so that more kids are considered college-ready.

[DJF]

Be cheaper to just staple a college deploma to every kid;s birth certificate.

[Injun, as in from India]

That would be awesome. What should the college be called?

The National Preparatory College for Free Sh1t?

The United States "No Child Left Behind" College?

[UnCivilServant]

The Chicago School of Art.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Be cheaper to...

I don't think you're getting the concept behind sending everyone to college.

[DJF]

I do get the concept of what results they want.

[SIV]

They've been doing that for years. How else would the average Millenial qualify for her student loans?

[Zeb]

Yeah. "renormalizing" is the word they use, I think.

[Drake]

Why I shell out a sizable chunk portion of my income for private high school in NJ.

[Acosmist]

Uh, it's dumb students that lead to dumb results.

[Rich]

In Paterson, New Jersey only 19 kids who took the SAT's are considered college ready.

The "SAT"? How quaint (and RACIST)!

[Lord Humungus]

Cricket farmer says crop could help solve world food shortage

The crickets are raised in a cavernous structure ? think IKEA warehouse, except the lights are dimmed and the contents of the containers are chirping.

The rows of tall racks hold containers of crickets ? 30 million of the hopping insects. Females lay up to 200 eggs at a time, and the eggs take eight to 10 days to incubate.

Darren Goldin already had years of experience raising crickets for pet food when last year he read a United Nations paper on population and projected food shortages. The report hailed insects as, "a healthy, nutritious alternative to mainstream staples such as chicken, pork, beef and even fish."

[UnCivilServant]

Fuck that.

Use the crickets as livestock feed if you must, but I'm sure as hell not eating them.

[Zeb]

I'll eat them if they taste good. Hell, I'd eat dog shit if it tasted good and was reasonably healthy to eat.

[Gray Ghost]

I'm not sure if crickets taste the same, but chapulines are awesome. Of course, in accord with Zeb's post, Hugo Ortega probably could make dog shit taste good, given enough chile and garlic.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Dear Report Authors/Hailers,

You first.

Sincerely,
Swiss Servator

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, Mountie Python is considering a spin-off fast-food chain called Johnny B's, which will be Christian-themed and sell only three items, locusts, wild honey, and water.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I like it! Let me know when investor opportunities arise.

[Pro Libertate]

Those never end, given the Urkobold's cutting edge accounting principles that allow for selling off 10,000% of the equity of any of his businesses.

[Pope Jimbo]

By Jiminy! That is a plan.

Have Michele Obama announce that from now on all school lunches will be entirely cricket based. Shit, why don't we convert the UN cafeteria to cricket food too?

[Pope Jimbo]

I should point out that my only known food allergy at this time is beondegi (roasted silk worm larvae).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beondegi

I ate some on a trip to Seoraksan mountains with my wife's family. I bought a whole cup full as a joke and ate a few (they taste pretty much like bugs) and started climbing a trail. I was quickly out of breath. Since I had never had a food allergy, I thought it was just me being out of shape. Then I started getting hives and realized that I was probably allergic to bugs.

[tarran]

I'll bet the reactions you get when you go to the ER and they ask you about your allergies must be quite funny?

"Are you allergic to anything?"

"Yes, bugs."

[Pope Jimbo]

I don't cause much ruckus at the doc's. Where I shine is when I get real loud and strident at my kids' schools demanding that NO ONE is allowed to bring bugs to school because my kids might be allergic to them.

I throw a tantrum about the danger of my kids dying if even one kid plays with a bug on the playground at the school and then touches my kid.

It sure shuts the peanut and gluten freaks up.

[tarran]

I LOVE YOU AND WANT TO CARRY YOUR BABY IN MY WOMB!

[antisocial-ist]

This could easily end world hunger. Provided the people who get these crickets have hooks, lines, and live near a nicely stocked body of water.

[Zeb]

I have a friend (who is a tremendous weirdo and was never going to follow through) who decided he was going to go into cricket farming for a while. We had some amusing conversations about the most humane way to kill crickets in large numbers for human consumption.

I think that ideas like this and lab grown meat and other alternative protein sources are a good idea really. If the world becomes prosperous enough that most people want meat or something resembling it, alternative sources of animal protein are probably going to be necessary.

[UnCivilServant]

LAb grown meat from normal foodstock animals I have no problem with. It's just that I'm not going back down the food chain dammit! Bugs are for chickens to eat.

[Zeb]

I'm going to guess that you are not a fan of shellfish or crustaceans as food.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

+1 sea bug (hi Tonio!)

[Tonio]

+1 Narrowed gaze (hi, Switzer)

[Azathoth!!]

What world food shortage?

[RFID]

You guys see the jezzie response to the Reason UVA alleged rape article yesterday? They seem upset.

[Crusty Juggler]

You are probably one of those white, rich frat boys. Always drunk. Always getting whatever you want. RAPE COMMENT! RAPE COMMENT!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Link it.

[RFID]

Im on mobile, but here goes:

http://jezebel.com/is-the-uva-.....1665233387

[Fist of Etiquette]

Man, they are hanging their hat on a pretty rickety rack. When that story inevitably falls apart, I'll sort of but not really be interested to see if "Anna" reports facts or emotes her way out of it.

[Drake]

They FEEL the story to be true and plausible - therefore it is whatever the "facts" turn out to be.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Robby responds in the comments over there...

the author responds:
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!)

Instead, I think, as I made clear above, that you're piggy-backing on the work of other people who are calling Erdely's story into question without a single shred of evidence. You don't get brownie points for saying *IF* the story is true *THEN* UVA should have called the cops. That's what any decent human being would suggest.

But by all means, do some journalism! Follow up on those leads! Let's see it! Can't wait!

What an asshole. "I'm a real journalist, so I don't have to go out and check facts". But she wants Robby to disprove a string of unvalidated accusations in RS.

[Zeb]

people who are calling Erdely's story into question without a single shred of evidence

I just sort of skimmed the article, but doesn't Erdely's article also not provide a single shred of evidence?

[Fist of Etiquette]

What an asshole.

She's a real journalist. That's why she's staying so objective.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

People like shriek still believe Dan Rather and "Lucy Ramierez"... why wouldn't these nutsos hang onto their belief, damn the facts?

[Restoras]

Women never lie about rape so of course it isn't a hoax. Shame on Soave for being skeptical.

[This Machine Can Handle a Rope]

They FEEL the story to be true and plausible - therefore it is whatever the "facts" turn out to be.

Even if it's a lie, does that make it untrue? After all, rapes perpetuated by the patriarchal Greek system happen every day on campuses nationwide - if this one account is a lie, it's a noble lie that exposes the rape culture for what it is at its heart. A lie told for the enlightenment of society is not a lie! We should be so glad to have such brave reporters willing to put to rest the notions of ethics and honesty, that they might drag our backwards civilization out of the primordial muck and into the shining Future!

[Drake]

The church of feminist grievances should present it as a parable rather than news.

[ColonelEngineer]

I'm curious but I value my brain cells too much to visit the site. Spark notes?

[RFID]

Heres a comment from the author responding to a comment by Mr Soave:

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!)

Gives you an idea of the tone of the article.

[ColonelEngineer]

jfc...

"with your Feelings"

Projecting, much?

[DJF]

A rape story with only one person claiming knowlege but refusing to give names.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

You are not permitted to exercise critical thinking skills when the crime in question is rape. It's fine for genocide and the slaughter of war, but not rape.

Our preferred alternative is ranting about rape culture and victim-blaming, but we will also accept your tacit, cowed consent for campus kangaroo courts.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You mean 'The Cosby Show' isn't...wasn't...real?

[Lord Humungus]

My wife gave me a strange look - like I was a freak - when I told her I had never seen the Cosby show.

[tarran]

You missed something pretty good.

Yes, it got preachy at times, and there were some seasons where they really cruised on the "we are a groundbreaking show that only a racist would cancel" pass it was getting. But it had moments.

[Lord Humungus]

meh - at that time in my life, if it was mainstream it was out of consideration.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Fuck that!

Thursday night was for 'The Simpsons' and a half-hour break before 'Cheers' ans 'Night Court'.

The only time I ever watched TV in college.

[Zeb]

Simpsons was only on on Thursday because of the Cosby show.

[Juice]

$400 a month for an apartment in Manhattan? Even in the 80s that's ridiculous. And then half that per month for clothes and shoes.

[Zeb]

It was a real show.

Whatever the truth of the allegations turns out to be, he did some great stuff. It would be a shame if it turns people against the good stuff he did.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Californians in a panic as strange drops of liquid fall from the heavens

A Pacific storm moved into drought-dry California on Tuesday, bringing hopes for much-needed moisture but fears of mudflows on wildfire-scarred hillsides.

Light rain began falling before sunrise, but the heaviest downpours were expected later in the day.

Storm watches were posted for a large swath of the Sierra Nevada, where a huge amount of the state's water supply is normally stored as snowpack. Significant accumulations were predicted but not enough to be a drought buster.

Any delight over the prospect of beneficial precipitation was tempered by concerns about the threat of debris flows from the many areas of California where wildfires have burned away vegetation that would keep soil stable.

A weak storm Sunday was enough to block Pacific Coast Highway west of Malibu with a flow of mud from a section of the steep Santa Monica Mountains denuded by a 44-square-mile fire last year.

The muck was cleared but debris basins that overflowed were still full and will keep the highway from reopening anytime soon.

Residents prepared for Tuesday's storm by placing sandbags to protect properties in foothill cities northeast of Los Angeles, where some communities below steep mountains have long lived with concrete barriers lining streets in hopes of keeping debris flows out of homes.

[UnCivilServant]

If you think about it though, precipitation itself is a very strange phenomenon.

[Rich]

Don't think *too* much, or *anything* is strange.

[UnCivilServant]

Quiet you ambulatory chemical reaction!

[Zeb]

Not nearly as strange as everything that people do.

[Injun, as in from India]

Climate Change!

Carbon sin!

[Ted S.]

I'm reminded of this story.

[Lord Humungus]

VIDEO: Hostile protesters force Univ. of Michigan regents to flee board meeting

"We are holding the meeting today that is the real meeting, that is the meeting of the students," lead organizer student Kate Stenvig declared as students and other attendees who came to witness the regent's meeting began filing out of the room.

Their demands?

"Double Underrepresented Minority Student Enrollment."

"Jail Killer Cops."

"Make U of M a Sanctuary Campus ? No Immigration & Customs Enforcement on Campus."

"We're going to keep shutting these meetings down and having our own meetings until these demands are met," Stenvig said.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Or until the Regents have the cops arrest you...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Or until they forget what it was they were protesting and decide to play in traffic instead.

[Free Society]

Do they literally think their university's board of regents are equipped, suitable, or capable to "jail killer cops"? Christ, if these lefties get their way we'll literally have PC police roaming the streets arresting people for offending other people.

[UnCivilServant]

"We put that in there so people would know we're serious!"

"I thought it was there to have something to give up in negotiations"

[Cdr Lytton]

Do they literally think their university's board of regents are equipped, suitable, or capable to "jail killer cops"?

Why not? Schools are perfectly competent to adjudicate rapes.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Fall of the West.

[Drake]

The Regents have to pretty damn embarrassed that these are their students.

[Warty]

Sallie Mae's money well spent.

[JW]

Were that my kid, I'd be very torn between glowing pride at her stickin' it to the man and embarrassment that anyone would presume that I had something to do with that jibbering idiocy.

I'd probably just cut her off her tuition payments.

[Mickey Rat]

One demand would seem to require judging applicants based on race and the other two the Regents do not have a0ny authority over.

[Zeb]

College activism is fucking weird. It is funny how it has become part of what the "college experience" is supposed to be, a major selling point for some schools. Which makes this situation extra funny. Students (or their parents and the taxpayers) are paying these people to run a school for them to attend so that they can protest their meeting to try to get them to do things they have no power to do.

[some guy]

President Obama is reportedly considering whether to open a new front in the air war against ISIS in order to create a "safe zone" for rebel forces.

Wait... I thought ISIS was the/a rebel faction in both Syria and Iraq. Does anyone really know what the hell is going on in the Middle East?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

new front in the air war

Does ISIS have an Air Force now?

[Gray Ghost]

There were some photos of them clambering over an overrun Syrian air force base. Hanging off the intake of a MiG, basically acting like kids on a jungle gym. Doubt they could get one in the air, or use it if they did.

[Lord Humungus]

Conservative cabinet minister admits she gave naughty speech to British Parliament for a bet

Penny Mordaunt, the Conservative minister, delivered a speech packed full of innuendo during a Commons debate on animal welfare after she lost a bet with Royal Navy officer friends.

Ms. Mordaunt, who is also a Royal Navy reservist as well as the minister for communities and local government, used the word "c?k" six times and "lay" or "laid" five times during the speech she gave last year on the welfare of poultry.

Ostensibly the speech was delivered to highlight issues around the welfare of chickens. However, Ms Mordaunt disclosed that the real reason for making her address was a forfeit issued during a dinner in the officers' mess.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

So the RN has a better attitude than the USN now?

[Mickey Rat]

Real life cribbing a "How I Met Your Mother" episode.

[Zeb]

Why didn't they print the word "cock"?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Bill Cosby has resigned from Temple University's Board of Trustees."

Cosby: "Don't you know who I am? Do you? I'M FAT ALBERT! Hey, hey, fucking HEY!"

BOD boss: "Your resignation is accepted, Mr. Crosby."

Cosby: Hey!

[Crusty Juggler]

"put that pudding pop in your mouth...with the beezle and the bozzle...suck that pudding pop...."

[Bee Tagger]

Rand Paul is now officially running for reelection to the U.S. Senate.

They'll never see his presidential candidacy coming.

[Pro Libertate]

What about the law preventing him from being on the ballot for two different offices? Since one of the houses in Kentucky remains under Democratic control (I think), seems unlikely they'd help him with this. Not to mention, if the law has independent merit, changing it for one guy maybe is a bad idea.

I suspect he'll do both and withdraw from one, depending on how things are going.

[kinnath]

As much as I would like to see a Rand Paul presidency, I am pretty happy to have Rand Paul in the Senate.

I am still pissed at Johnson for not taking the easy win for Senator in New Mexico.

[Pro Libertate]

He'll withdraw before the election if it doesn't look like he's got a chance for the nomination. Looks like Kentucky's primaries are fairly late--bunch of states, including some big ones, go before the commonwealth.

[kinnath]

Yes. And he has hinted (strongly) that he may challenge the restriction in court.

[Lord Humungus]

Somali al Shabaab gunmen kill 36 workers at Kenyan quarry

Islamist al Shabaab militants killed 36 non-Muslim workers at a quarry in northeast Kenya on Tuesday, beheading at least two of them in revenge for Kenyan military action against the group in neighboring Somalia.

The gunmen crept up on dozens of workers sleeping in tents at about 1 a.m. (2200 GMT), a resident said, in the same area near the Somali border where they hijacked a bus and killed 28 passengers just over a week ago.

[sarcasmic]

What it looks like to be charged by a rhino: Tourist captures photos of moment her family is chased by one-and-a-half tonne animal

Holly Powers, 35, originally from Oregon, lives in Pretoria, South Africa
She encountered three white rhinos during a morning drive with her family
Rhinos approached and one began to speed up and run towards their car

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tra.....nimal.html
Wow.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Parker Brothers should have a game.

Hungry, charging Rhinos.

[Restoras]

SnoKonez hardest hit?

[Lord Humungus]

H8ers Gotta H8
In 2014, the media delivered a torrent of anti-conservative bile.

But that's okay. After all, we're killers. That's the contention of the increasingly unhinged Matthews (again), with regard to conservative support for voter-ID laws: "Believing they can't convert the African-American vote, they've decided to slaughter it. . . . This is murder in broad daylight."

But at least our economics aren't lethal ? merely bigoted. Just ask MSNBC's Ed Schultz, who on April 30 discerned our real motives: "I think not raising the minimum wage is a racist policy. . . . Not raising the wage, the minimum wage, is every bit as racist as comments made by Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling. It's just displayed in a different way."

[Rich]

"We going to die anyway. Let's die for something," [Farrakhan] told the crowd to roaring applause. "Teach your baby how to throw [Molotov cocktails] if they can. Fight," the minister advised, and then imitated throwing the explosive device.

I trust we can expect ol' Louis to be arrested soon.

[WTF]

I trust we can expect ol' Louis to be arrested soon.

Right after Al Sharpton gets arrested for cheating on his taxes.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

The downside of cheap gas.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Mitt Romney tops CNN poll of Republicans for 2016, Ben Carson in 2nd

While there is no clear frontrunner for the Republican ticket in 2016, most likely GOP voters say they would choose the former Massachusetts governor for the nomination, among 16 potential contenders.

According to the survey, 20 percent of voters say Romney would be their first choice for the nominee, with retired neurosurgeon and conservative activist Ben Carson coming in second with 10 percent of the vote.

[...]

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton unsurprisingly receives an overwhelming majority of support, with 65 percent of left-leaning Americans saying she would be their choice for the 2016 nomination. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive favorite, and Vice President Joe Biden, fall way behind to take second and third place -- with 9 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

But when Clinton is removed from the vote selection, Biden pulls more support among voters, who say they would prefer him as their 2016 Democratic nominee with 41 percent, versus 20 percent for Warren.

LOLOLOLOLOLOOOOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Idle Hands]

I would vote for Biden, the country is going to hell anyway why not laugh the whole way down.

[Drake]

Who the hell is Ben Carson?

[Pro Libertate]

The guy who owned the Ponderosa? No, wait, that was Ben Cartwright.

[Drake]

I would vote for a Cartwright - even Hoss.

[Pro Libertate]

Hoss would at least be honest.

[FUQ]

I pray (to the Great Spaghetti Monster) that this is sarcasm

[Rasilio]

A black doctor who is really popular with Tea Party groups.

Says some very smart things and some very stupid things but is probably a more realistic candicate than Herman Cain was

[Mock-star]

Stupid party is gonna be stupid.

[Lord Humungus]

Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial: Boosting costs was Obamacare plan all along

Mr. Gruber said individual Americans would feel the real impact of the tax. "We just tax the insurance companies, they pass on higher prices that offsets the tax break we get, it ends up being the same thing," he said. "It's a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter."

In yet another video, Mr. Gruber explained that the only way to remove the tax preference for employee-sponsored insurance was "by mislabeling it, calling it a tax on insurance plans rather than a tax on people, when we all know it's a tax on people who hold those insurance plans."

The kicker? While it's called a "Cadillac" tax, Mr. Gruber said that, over time, the tax will apply to more and more health insurance plans, affecting an increasing number of Americans who don't have top-flight benefits.

If Obamacare hasn't hurt your wallet yet, it soon will.

[Rasilio]

The funny thing is that removing the tax preferential treatment of employer sponsored health care is uncategorically a good thing

[Monty Crisco]

Funny how when liberals want to raise taxes on EVERYTHING they discount any effect whatsoever of taxes on people's behavior... yet when they want to make something unpalatable through the secondary effects of a "non-tax" (on CORPORATIONS THEY ARE IN BED WITH, NO LESS!!) they recognize immediately that corporations do not, in fact, pay taxes - their customers do. What a bunch of disingenuous dicks. Like Tony or that Weigel fuckhead...

[Lord Humungus]

Investigation finds 50,000 'ghost' soldiers in Iraqi army, prime minister says

A preliminary investigation into "ghost soldiers" ? whose salaries are being drawn but who are not in military service ? revealed the tens of thousands of false names on Defense Ministry rolls, Abadi told parliament Sunday. Follow-up investigations are expected to uncover "more and more," he added.

Abadi, who took power in September, is under pressure to stamp out the graft that flourished in the armed forces under his predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki. Widespread corruption has been blamed for contributing to the collapse of four of the army's 14 divisions in June in the face of an offensive by Islamic State extremists.

The best part about ghost soldiers is they can't be killed.

[UnCivilServant]

They also can't kill the enemy.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I didn't see any ghosts - just guys that had wandered off home (they don't consider you a deserter if not in action, they are just supposed to strike you from the roll, and bar further service) but their company commanders would leave their names on and continue to draw their pay (some of which was spread around to the necessary people at battalion and brigade, of course).
Kind of like the Chicago Park District or Streets and Sanitation.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Our own Reserves are chock full of ghost soldiers...

We just don't pay em.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Heck, I am in the Retired Reserve now - we are a legion of ghosts.

[Brett L]

At one of the local universities, they made everyone show up and sign for their paychecks, while presenting a valid state ID. Wouldn't you know it, there were almost 50 checks left over out of about 2000. Those 50 checks had been getting cashed every pay period for weeks, and suddenly, whoops! "How did that happen?"

[Libertarian]

Two thoughts:

1. I'm sure that, as filthy wealthy as Iraq is, American taxpayers are not the ones paying for these ghost soldiers.

2. Re: "The United States is encouraging Abadi to create a leaner, more efficient military as the Pentagon requests $1.2 billion to train and equip the Iraqi army next year. The United States spent more than $20 billion on the force from the 2003 invasion until U.S. troops withdrew at the end of 2011."

Why don't we try for a leaner Army of our own first?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Didn't I see this somewhere?

Wait. Yes.

Lord of the Rings.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Paths of the (Iraqi) Dead?

[UnCivilServant]

"We await the heir of Sargon"

[Mickey Rat]

Jim Kirk, then?

[Ted S.]

City Council wastes session discussing whether to add H to town name

Wanganui or Whanganui, it's still unpronounceable.

[The Late P Brooks]

Do we have a countdown clock on "Rams Player arrested for _______"?

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

18 hours and counting down...

[Lord Humungus]

Michael Musto missed the obvious point about the celebrity flip phone 'retro-chic phenomenon'

Musto gives some possible reasons for this "retro-chic phenomenon" ? De Blasio wants to look populist, Iggy Pop wants a phone that won't break, Musto wants to keep his $30/month wireless plan, Schumer wants to escape email ? but he misses the big point about clunky old phone-button technology: Privacy. Flip phones don't store photos in iCloud, and it's hard to hack grainy low-res photos from a clamshell handset. Rihanna and Scarlett Johansson, at least, have a good reason to use a phone that's a mostly just a phone.

[Bam!]

If they don't want to store photos in the cloud, how about they just don't take photos with their phone? Don't see why you need to eBay a flip phone.

[Drake]

Or buy an actual digital camera with a storage card. Better yet, buy an old-school film camera - I still think they take better looking pictures.

[Lord Humungus]

Bring back the Polaroid camera.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I have a talk & text phone for work. It's an LG. It's perfectly fine, I can do all I need to, if clients text me, no problem, and it's super cheap. I can also get away from it much easier than the smart phone I have (which I must admit I am addicted to).

[Coeus]

Seattle mayor pardons tofu turkey.

SEATTLE (AP) ? As Thanksgiving approaches, Tofurkys in Seattle can breathe easy, even if real turkeys can't.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray pardoned a soybean-based roast Friday, The Seattle Times reported this week.

Spokesman Jason Kelly says Murray posed with the tofu turkey at City Hall to draw attention to hunger in the community. It will be donated to Rainier Valley Food Bank.

Kelly acknowledged that Seattle's reputation in the rest of the country is "a little bit 'granola'" and that Murray was poking fun at himself.

[UnCivilServant]

Hey mayor - The soy plants are already dead before they're made into tofu, dumbass.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

*silently weeps for slaughtered legumes*

/Seattle Proggie

[Rufus J. Firefly]

VEGGIES HAVE HEARTS TOO!

[Pro Libertate]

Pardoned a vegetable corpse? Shouldn't he have pardoned the beans instead?

[Not a Libertarian]

It will be donated to Rainier Valley Food Bank.

What terrible thing have those people at the Food Bank done to deserve that?

[Lord Humungus]

flashing back to to Seinfeld when Elaine donates the bottom part of the muffins.

[Coeus]

The bar for sexism continues to lower.

An infamous Princeton eating club removed two of its undergraduate officers after they sent sexist emails that included an explicit photo, the New York Times reported Monday.

The first email, sent on Oct. 12 to a mailing list of Tiger Inn members by the club's vice president Adam Krop, included a photo of a woman engaged in a sex act with a man inside the club, according to the Times report. Krop made a crude joke about the photo in the email and referred to the woman pictured as an "Asian chick."

The club's treasurer, Andrew Hoffenberg, sent another email to the mailing list later that night encouraging Tiger Inn members to attend a lecture by Princeton alumna Sally Frank and boo her, according to the Times report.

Shocking.

[JW]

and referred to the woman pictured as an "Asian chick."

Realist!

[pogi]

Boo her? Animals, every last one of them.

[Libertarian]

U.S. considers opening new front against Islamic State to create a SAFE ZONE in Syria

WAR IS PEACE.

[UnCivilServant]

Safe zone in the way Chernobyl has become a refuge for wildlife...

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Or the DMZ in Korea...

[Gray Ghost]

I think it's the only place in Korea where you could find large predators like Siberian tigers or Amur leopards. This isn't a bad article on it.

[Bam!]

Like a game of tag. "You can't kill me, I'm in the safe zone! I'm telling!"

[Mike M.]

"The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents -- number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic."

-Barack Obama, Fargo, ND - July 3, 2008

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL. Sob. LOL. Sob. LOL. Sob.

I'm going to guzzle down some whiskey before noon today.

[Lord Humungus]

White America's ignorant bliss: Why so many "good" white people are completely oblivious
Black people have to learn everything about white people just to stay alive. White people just don't get that

To white America, in the main, police are the folks who help get our cats out of the tree, or who take us on ride-arounds to show us how gosh-darned exciting it is to be a cop. We experience police most often as helpful, as protectors of our lives and property. But that is not the black experience by and large; and black people know this, however much we don't. The history of law enforcement in America, with regard to black folks, has been one of unremitting oppression. That is neither hyperbole nor opinion, but incontrovertible fact. From slave patrols to overseers to the Black Codes to lynching, it is a fact. From dozens of white-on-black riots that marked the first half of the 20th century (in which cops participated actively) to Watts to Rodney King to Abner Louima to Amadou Diallo to the railroading of the Central Park 5, it is a fact. From the New Orleans Police Department's killings of Adolph Archie to Henry Glover to the Danziger Bridge shootings there in the wake of Katrina to stop-and-frisk in places like New York, it's a fact.

[Coeus]

Black people have to learn everything about white people just to stay alive. White people just don't get that

I hate that bullshit. It's fucking rediculous. I heard Kamu Bell talking the other day. He said (paraphrasing) if Michael Brown had been white, the cop would have just let him go.

What world do you live in to think that's true?

[Pro Libertate]

That's one of the big problems with race-baiting, that a number of problems that blacks are being told to think are uniquely theirs aren't. Government oppression isn't just aimed at some of us.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think it's correct that government oppression doesn't exclusively fall on blacks, but I think it probably falls disproportionately on blacks, and that may be largely, but not totally due to they're being more represented among the poor. One problem with government in general is that in giving its officials power over others you invite any prejudices of the day to become the basis of government action.

I think many liberals use race to highlight these issues because of its historical salience, in the hope of 'getting the discussion started.' Libertarians do this when we note how heavily the WOD falls on blacks. The idea is to recall images of Jim Crow oppression that are powerful ones from our history.

The problem though is that in a world so racially polarized by stupid government interventions like affirmative action, busing, etc., making something about race could turn off as many possible sympathetic listeners as it could turn on.

[Rasilio]

Yeah, they probably experience it on a more regular basis than the average white person, but that has more to do with the fact that the average white person is wealthier, has more to lose, and therefore is more likely to be compliant.

Go look at white ghetto's (and yeah they do exist) and they are pretty much exactly like Ferguson with pretty much the exact same problems with the police.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I don't disagree that the class aspects are important, just that they are not everything. There is still going to be some racism in the world. Some of it will be anti-white (in some urban centers where police forces are largely black I would bet you get some of this aimed at whites, especially poor whites), some of it will be anti-black. But since more cops are white by far you're going to have more of the latter.

[Rasilio]

And you're a fool if you think racism drives more than a tiny percentage of the problem with overzealous unaccountable police abuse of authority

[MiloMinderbinder]

Black diners at Denny's: "Our food was cold and over an hour late. Racism!"

White diners at Denny's: "Our food was cold and over an hour late. It's Denny's!"

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"From slave patrols to overseers"

OK, thanks for playing, don't call us, we'll call you.

[sarcasmic]

Yep. Gotta make it about race. Can't admit that there is a systematic war being waged by officers of the court against those who can't afford representation, regardless of their race.

[x4rqcks3f v2.0]

We experience police most often as helpful, as protectors of our lives and property.

Most white people experience police as traffic law enforcers who would literally execute you if you dared to ignore an order to pull over for violating traffic laws that police themselves disregard even when off duty.

[Mike M.]

You know, I could maybe believe this bullshit lefty narrative that the cops are entirely to blame for all the problems in the black underclass, if it wasn't for that video of Michael Brown in the convenience store. That poor clerk wasn't a law enforcement officer or government agent, he was just a store clerk in a privately owned store trying to do his job and get through another day.

The Michael Browns of the world don't just have contempt for law enforcement, they have contempt for most of the basic order and the social norms that people need to conform to in order to have something resembling a functioning civil society.

Aggressive and over-reactive cops are a big problem, but the Michael Browns of the world and their despicable attitudes towards general society are an even bigger problem.

[trshmnster the terrible]

^this

[Atanarjuat]

To be fair, if the first time you ever heard of police abuse was 10 seconds ago with the Michael Brown shooting, it would seem that police only target black guys.

For those of us familiar with the work of Radley Balko and Reason magazine, saying so makes you look like an idiot.

[R C Dean]

Black Normal people have to learn everything about white people authoritarians/progressives just to stay alive. White people Authoritarians/progressives just don't get that.

[Azathoth!!]

Yeah, no.

Black people are, quite often, shockingly ignorant about white people.

My adopted daughter, who was a friend of our other daughter, who played with, stayed over, and ate, watched TV and all manner of things before she was adopted was convinced that when she wasn't around, we all had dinner around the dining room or kitchen table--because that's what her community said white people do. She was actually looking forward to having that 'white' type of meal.

And that was a cute one. There are so many horrific things she believed about white people when she came to live with us that it's not funny.

And, thanks to her, I get to see how widespread a lot of this is.

[Azathoth!!]

Oh, and we did have a 'caucasian dinner' for her after she told us about it, and how we were supposed to act, as white people. It was quite funny. So much so that we now refer to any meal eaten where we all sit around the same table as a caucasian dinner.

[ColonelEngineer]

Popular libertarian news site currently asking for money. Liberals scratch their heads as they try to figure out how someone could blow through 1 billion Koch dollars that quickly.

/sarc

[UnCivilServant]

Popular libertarian news site currently asking for money. Liberals scratch their heads as they try to figure out how someone could blow through 1 billion Koch dollars that quickly. why they aren't asking for a government bailout

FTFY

[ColonelEngineer]

I needed that chuckle this morning. Thank you.

[Coeus]

An Albuquerque police officer who shot and killed a 19-year-old woman in April was fired from the police force on Monday for failing to follow an order to turn on his uniform camera during all citizen contacts, police said.

Dear's attorney, Thomas Grover, said his client was being unfairly made an example of as the first officer fired for not turning on a uniform camera in the wake of the Department of Justice findings on excessive force, released in April.

"If they fire every officer who doesn't turn on his uniform camera, they won't have anyone left on the department," Grover said.

Not seeing the problem here.

[sarcasmic]

But, but, but dunphy says all cops are good and wonderful people who want to be filmed because it shows how good and wonderful they are!

[Libertymike]

Does he still post here? Under a different name?

[sarcasmic]

Someone posts under his name, though I'm not convinced that it is him.

[R C Dean]

He says he's using dictation software, which would account for the rambling, lengthy nature of his posts.

Its an open issue to me. The character of his posts have changed, but I'm not about to study them to reach any conclusions.

Don't. Care.

[UnCivilServant]

Dunphy says a lot - none of which I end up reading.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. I skip his monologues as well.

[FUQ]

Dunphy is also a world champion surfer and weight lifter who has Morgan Fairchild for a girlfriend so his credibility may be in question

[Mad Scientist]

Between the policing and surfing and weight lifting and Morgan Fairchilding, he shouldn't have any spare time to comment here. But he makes the time because he is just that good.

[Libertymike]

If he were banging the Flamingo Road era Morgan Fairchild, that would be something.

But, to be fair, perhaps the cop who would be Coke likes older gals who still have a certain appeal.

[FUQ]

Booya voice to text

[pogi]

Now this seems like a feature, not a bug.

[R C Dean]

Thomas Grover, said his client was being unfairly made an example of as the first officer fired for not turning on a uniform camera

Since there will have to be a first one, and since you can't make someone the first one, this is an argument for never enforcing the rule at all.

[Lord Humungus]

Poll: Obama approval rating skyrockets among Latinos after immigration order

President Barack Obama's approval rating among Latinos has spiked dramatically in the wake of his announcement that he will exercise his executive authority to spare up to 5 million unauthorized immigrants from deportation.

According to the latest Gallup poll, conducted from November 24-30, 68 percent of Latinos approve of the president's job performance. That's up sharply from a Gallup poll conducted November 3-9, which found that Obama's approval among Latinos was just 49 percent.

[Not a Libertarian]

68% is probably where the President's approval rating among Latinos is at its equilibrium level.

It was curious that it was depressed to 49%.

[Idle Hands]

Fallout from the Soave rape hoax article yesterday:

Slate

Ever since journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely published her searing Rolling Stone story about "Jackie," a woman who was allegedly the victim of a gang rape at a frat party at the University of Virginia, there's been an ongoing and much-needed public conversation about the way rape and sexual assault claims are dealt with on college campuses. But Robby Soave at the libertarian magazine Reason thinks we're talking about the wrong questions entirely. Shouldn't we be asking, he wonders, if Jackie just, like, made the whole story up?

The lols and bad writing continue.

[Coeus]

Ooh, Reason and Jezebel fight. I hope that Robby's aware that any response at all will be labeled "harassment".

[Idle Hands]

Robby SoaveAnna Merlan
Yesterday 4:19pm
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What Anna leaves out is that I already wrote a story that presumed the allegations were true. Last week, I wrote that expulsion would not have been a sufficient punishment for the UVA rapists: http://reason.com/archives/2014/...

After writing that, I began hearing other journalists calling into question some of the details. (Indeed, I've received numerous emails from people alleging they know people at UVA connected to the story who say it's false, and am working to follow-up on these leads to judge their credibility). In the meantime, it seemed to me like the responsible thing was merely to note that some dispute the veracity of the Rolling Stone story. I'm not saying I don't believe it?and I repeatedly stated that I have no reason to distrust the author?I'm merely saying that people are raising questions.

Do you seriously think I should have not reported that? I personally don't believe in shielding my readers from news.

Damn!!!!

[Crusty Juggler]

Robby does not have a Columbia journalism degree, therefore everything he says is stupid. And should be mocked. And is stupid.

[FUQ]

You have to read the whole exchange and the rest of the comments. It's classic butthurt.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That she puts 'idiot' in the title says a lot about her and her professional ethics.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

403 FORBIDDEN.

Now I want in.

[Lord at War]

Slate.

[Coeus]

Anna and Robby fight in the comments.

[Injun, as in from India]

The left is basically devastated after their Great Hope Obama turned out to be a real turd in multiple areas - civil liberties, peace, spending, debt, taxation, health care, and just about everything. Hence their hyper-focus on things that are not related to actual governance of the republic.

[Restoras]

Prepare for an influx of trolls. Should be fun!

[Idle Hands]

But we have enough crazy cat people here commenting, we don't need anymore.

[Injun, as in from India]

But Robby Soave at the libertarian magazine Reason thinks we're talking about the wrong questions entirely. Shouldn't we be asking, he wonders, if Jackie just, like, made the whole story up?

So any suggestion that you dispassionately look at something before jumping to conclusions makes you: 1) worthy of being called an "idiot" in the headline 2) being categorized as an insensitive sexist who wants oppression of women across the board

[Idle Hands]

Duh that's just how the matriarchy works.

[MJGreen]

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly said Richard Bradley is retired. In fact, he is the current editor-in-chief of Worth. I regret the error. This is what a professional journalistic correction looks like, in the unlikely event that any editors at Worth or writers at Reason ever need to issue one.

Ahahahaha, what a pitiful moron.

[R C Dean]

At least she admitted its unlikely that Reason will need to issue this kind of correction.

What a moron.

[Not a Libertarian]

Rand Paul is now officially running for reelection to the U.S. Senate.

Does this mean that the Senator is now not running for President?

Does not Kentucky bar politicians from running for two offices? And the Democrats still control the Kentucky House and what reason would they have to assist Paul in changing the law?

[Auric Demonocles]

As of right now, no, but he could drop out of the Senate race.

[Not a Libertarian]

Senator Allison Grimes?

[Suthenboy]

"...he (Obama) has offered policy solutions that fall short..."

No shit.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I just saw the "Supported by" for the Webathon list Doomcock of Doom.

God Bless whichever one of you did that!

[Auric Demonocles]

On mobile while this client pays us 200/hr for me to sit here and wait for Office to install on my temporary laptop. I assume Root skipped alttext?

[Coeus]

Man gets dragged by cop car for filming.

Butler City, PA ? A video was submitted to the Free Thought Project which shows a ridiculously pompous and arrogant Butler City police officer admit to grabbing a man while reaching from his moving patrol car and dragging him.

The dragging occurred after the man filming, Dave, simply recorded three Butler City Police cars during a stop. When the stop is over, Dave realizes that he knew the person who was just stopped by police so he calls out to her and she asks him to walk home with her.

At this point Dave turns off the camera, unfortunately. That is when Dave says that the patrol car came driving down the wrong side of the road and the officer reached out of his window and grabbed Dave and tried to drag him down the street.

After the officer let go, Dave turned his camera back on. The officer then pulls over and begins arrogantly laughing and admitting to grabbing and dragging Dave!

Dave: "You grabbed me out of your car door while you were driving!"
Officer Adams: "Exactly!"
Dave: "Is it a common procedure to reach out of your car, while you're driving and grab someone?"
Officer Adams: "It's very common when somebody's not comprehending or listening to anything I'm saying."

[Mad Scientist]

If only Dave had followed orders this whole tragedy could have been avoided!

[sarcasmic]

Did anything else happen?

[Injun, as in from India]

The officer went home safely that night.

[Ted S.]

Officer Adams: "It's very common when somebody's not comprehending or listening to anything I'm saying."

OBEY OR DIE.

[Warty]

Do they mean Butler? Butler City doesn't exist. Butler's a delightfully dead steel town full of methamphetamine and hillbilly distant relatives of mine.

[Mickey Rat]

How distant can they be on a family shrub?

[The DerpRider]

Man steals ambulance to go to booby bar. Not from Florida.

[Libertarian]

Detroit really is going to hell if the media cannot even come up with a Mother Jugs and Speed headline for this story.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Well you can only use the "Mother, Jugs, and Speed" motif 3 times a week in the Detroit News...

After that it becomes hackneyed.

[The Late P Brooks]

The lesson, Grant argues, is that if left alone, the economy generates powerful recuperative forces.

But how will the Top Men demonstrate their superior expertise?

James Grant is a guy worth listening to.

[SERENITY NOW!]

Atheism is a cult:

Atheist activists are taking their campaigns to the Bible Belt this Christmas with a provocative billboard campaign that is expected to stir controversy in America's religious heartlands.

The giant advertising hoardings in the Tennessee cities of Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Fort Smith, Arkansas show a mischievous-looking young girl writing her letter to Father Christmas: "Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I'm too old for fairy tales," she writes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....South.html

[sarcasmic]

Those rabid anti-religionists give faithless atheists like myself a bad name.

[Libertarian]

These activists are going to ruin my favorite atheist aphorism: "If atheism is a religion, then bald is a hair color."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I consider my hair color to be 'peach', thank you very much.

[Coeus]

Are billboards typical cult behavior, or something? Did I miss a memo?

[SERENITY NOW!]

The memo came while you were sucking a bag of dicks, so yeah, you missed it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

What a sane and in no way crazy response there SN.

[FUQ]

Where the hell did that come from?

[Lord Humungus]

black, white, and/or cis dicks?

[Coeus]

The memo came while you were sucking a bag of dicks, so yeah, you missed it.

Hey, I don't judge your hobbies.

In my defense, it was gonna be just one, but once you pop...

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Usually restricted to political fanatics or sports weirdos (Chicago saw a campaign to get "Dump Lovie Smith" billboards back a couple of years ago).

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A group of people with common beliefs took out a billboard promoting those beliefs. That's hardly cultish behavior.

[tarran]

That's hardly cultish behavior.

Definitely not cultish. It's really old school (i.e. pre-Internet) trolling.

Very expensive trolling... Trolling where there is a huge lag between hitting submit and seeing the outraged reaction - if you see it at all.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's no more trolling than saying 'there are no atheists in foxholes.'

Atheists live in a world where they're bombarded with proselytizing aimed at them. How many emails or facebook posts of a religious nature do they get unsolicited? Quite a lot I suspect. Like anyone they'd like to see their message get out once in a while, perhaps especially in a time when the opposite message is really getting pushed a lot.

[John]

There are lots of atheists in foxholes. That is a total myth. Where you don't find atheists or few of them is in prison. War presents the possibility of the short glorious life and a sacrifice for a cause. Atheism can deal with that. What atheism cannot deal with is the pointless and miserable life like what occurs in prison. The thought of dying in a war knowing you furthered a cause you believe in provides meaning in life regardless of your views on the afterlife. Going to prison at a young age and living your life in a miserable case lamenting a horrible crime you committed and dying unloved and forgotten is something entirely different.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

My point was that the whole 'there are no atheists in foxholes' is an example of the very common attack on atheism by religious persons in this country. It goes on all the time with not much of a peep from you, but if atheists dare give back sometimes they get attacked not only by religious people, but by people who are supposedly 'cool with' atheists but think they're 'acting up' too much.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

When you start proselytizing for atheism, then you're kinda missing the concept.

[Suthenboy]

Why John, that is a remarkably sane and insightful analysis of the subject.

[Mickey Rat]

A certain type of atheist does send out unsolicited facebook posts and emails. These tend to be more confrontational and condescending than those sent by religios people.

[John]

No, not cultish, just pointless and stupid. I can't think of a cult that rents billboards. Have you ever seen a Scientology billboard? They have commercials but not billboards.

[Rasilio]

The Mormons are considered a cult by some and they purchase advertising.

Plus when I lived in the region I saw religious billboards ALL THE TIME, some just advertising a church, others Christianity in general, and a lot more religious opposition to Porn and abortion.

[John]

The churches have services and a building. The billboards are just advertising for attendance. It is no different than advertising for any other public event. People can't come if they don't know you are there. The atheists don't have that. So it is not really advertising, though maybe they have a website or a newsletter or something.

[Warty]

Some atheist groups have atheist church. I don't know why anyone would go or what they do there. Whine about George Bush and corporations maybe. But they exist.

[Rasilio]

Actually one thing that many athiests overlook is the very valuable role a church community plays in the lives of it's members.

Church makes sense, religious belief not so much

[Zeb]

I can only imagine that atheist church is pretty insufferable. But I can see the point. A church community can be a very nice thing and often does lots of nice charitable things. I'm a total non-believer, but I still associate with the church that I grew up with for some things. If you are not the obnoxious kind of atheist, you could probably find some low key protestant church that won't really care that much if you aren't there for the religion part.

[Rasilio]

Actually a lot of Unitarian Universalist churches are basically athiest churches.

Unitarians have no set dogma and accept that each persons search for truth is valid.

So for most athiests it works out quite well. The problem is they are pretty much all the worst stereotype of upper middle class white proggies

[Gray Ghost]

Oh, I don't know. Drive through the Red River Valley in N. Texas. You'll see plenty of billboards against porn, where the sponsoring church or other religious group is impossible to discern.

They're good for a chuckle, and God knows that drive can use it.

[OldMexican]

Re: Bo Cara Esq.,

A group of people with common beliefs took out a billboard promoting those beliefs. That's hardly cultish behavior.

When it comes to atheists, purportedly non-believers, that would at least count as odd behavior.

By the way, why advertise a negative? Are they sure they want to burden themselves with that?

This is the issue I have with people who call themselves 'atheist' (literally, someone with no belief) who go around asserting that there IS no God, as if they could prove a negative. The burden of proof rests ALWAYS on the shoulders of the believers, which would ipso facto turn these guys into believers. There is a big difference between a non believer and someone who BELIEVES a negative. These so-called 'atheists' are in the second camp.

[Mickey Rat]

That Venn diagram covers a large area which would include cultish behavior.

[John]

It is so sad that you have to laugh. The entire popular culture is secularized. Yet, these idiots think that Christians in the bible belt would become atheists if only they knew there were other choices available.

The analogy to the sports nuts who rent billboards and web addresses demanding coaches be fired is a pretty apt one.

[tarran]

Think of it this way; nutty people are wasting their money in non-damaging ways.

[John]

Pretty much. This is one of the reasons why free expression is so important. It allows people to blow off steam and feel like they are doing something in ways besides blowing things up.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

I wouldn't say they're wasting it. Someone is getting some subjective value from sticking their thumb in the eye of the Southern fundies. Better than the last stimulus package, anyway.

Though doing it in big cities is kind of a waste. If you want to stir things up, throw these things up in towns of 100k or less.

[John]

Is there anything less creative or brave than "sticking their thumb in the eye of Southern fundies"? What makes atheists so tiresome, beyond the fact that they are often just leftists using atheism to further their politics, is that they have won and own the culture yet refuse to quit and leave well enough alone. What the hell do they care if people believe in things they think are fantasy? What is there some kind of atheist heaven they are trying to save them for?

There is something deeply odd about a proselytizing atheist. If we are all going to end up in the void anyway, why worry about how other people deal with that fact?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's not all about proselytizing. Even in the Bible Belt there are many non-believers, these are supposed to signal 'you're not alone' and perhaps bring a smile to them at a time when religion literally inundates the society.

[John]

Bo,

That is the most ridiculous thing you have ever posted on here. If you think anyone who isn't religious in this society needs to be told "they are not alone", you are delusional and need to seek professional help.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You might want to come out of your blue state bubble sometime, John. Where I live religion, almost exclusively Christian religion, is everywhere. Like I said, it's on billboards. It's on lawn signs. It's on the radio, the tv. It's all over our email, our facebook. Prayers are said at the beginning of our high school and college football games, and at the end, people say them at work, lots of my classmates say them, holding hands, out loud at meals.

Atheist alternative to that? Well, I read about them now and again like today's story.

[Restoras]

You know Bo, there are places and societies in the world where you wouldn't have to endure so much religious inundation. Or, you could just ignore it?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Restoras, I don't 'endure' it. I'm more a part of it, a participant (I don't display my faith around here, but I don't deny it). I'm simply describing the world atheists live in and how it must seem to them.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

90% of the things people do are things I judge to be dumb or wasteful. That doesn't mean that they're not valuable to them. Someone out there was buying all those Friends dvds.

I don't expect people not to behave like boors toward one another or me; as long as they don't threaten me with violence or superior arguments, I don't care what offensive, sophomoric thing they're doing.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

So would you find NRA ads in blue cities and states to be similar?

[John]

No, because the NRA doesn't quite have the hold over popular culture atheists do. If the entire popular culture were pro gun rather than anti gun, those NRA billboards would be just as silly.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"No, because the NRA doesn't quite have the hold over popular culture atheists do."

I lol'ed so hard I think my morning coffee came out of my nose. Yeah John, atheists just have a stranglehold on our society. Hilarious.

[tarran]

It depends on the content of the ad.

Think of an advertisement or a billboard as being a vessel within which a communication is contained - just like a comment box here on this website.

The vessel can contain a genuine attempt to persuade, it can contain the product of mental mastrubation, it can voice disapproval, or it can be trolling - depending on the content stored within the vessel.

Some of my comments are substantive, some of my comments are trolling. IT doesn't mean I am a stupid person or that my ideas are wrong.

This billboard strikes me as trolling... which is not the end of the world. As I said... it's harmless.

[Rasilio]

"The entire popular culture is secularized"

I would beg to differ.

Religion is not a huge part of popular culture but to argue that it is completely secularized would be just wrong there are clear and definite threads of either soft judeo christian dogma or outright christian (protestant) belief all over the place in popular culture.

For the rest explicit athiesm is almost non existant and where it is shown it is always either something the bad guys do or something a morally grey hero (like Holmes in Elementary) follows

[John]

No. They are just dead symbols left over from a former age. Virtually no popular culture takes religion seriously.

[Warty]

Where do you live? Religion is almost vestigial in the Midwest. Some people in the countryside still take it seriously, but not that many, and even fewer in the suburbs and cities.

[Rasilio]

In the last 15 years I have lived in Atlanta Ga, Cincinnati Oh, Columbus Oh, Minneapolis Mn, Louisville Ky, Charlotte NC, and Boston Ma.

While religion was not the centerpiece of peoples lives in most of those places (at least not the people I hung out with) that isn't what I was talking about.

Turn on the television to any major network during primetime. Watch from 8 - 10, in that time you will see at least a half a dozen instances of religious belief being expressed or religious believers being presented in a positive light.

IF you see an instance of athiest belief it will be from a villian, a nutcase, or a morally questionable anti hero. It will ALWAYS be used to show either why that person is bad or why their persepective is shortsighted because they reject things they can't see.

Similarly with music, most modern music is not explicitly religious but religion in music is hardly rare or uncommon and if you turn on any station playing modern music of almost any genre you won't go more than an hour without hearing a song which invokes religion or religious belief directly.

If you're listening to country, likely the most popular genre right now you won't get more than 5 songs without hearing it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I would guess John lives in some pocket of deep blue in the nation, and then he disregards, consciously or unconsciously, the likely ample evidence contradicting this ridiculous idea that surrounds him.

Those of us in the rest of the country see religious and church billboards all the time. We see that dozens of explicitly religious radio stations are on our dials and virtually every cable package has religious stations. Nearly all our elected officials parade their faith through prayer breakfasts and Thanksgiving proclamations. Etc.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's literally not uncommon here in the deep South to see billboards with simply 'in your face' Bible verses on them. People put placards similar to political yard signs with such hellfire and damnation verses on them, they're quite common.

[John]

Those of us in the rest of the country see religious and church billboards all the time. We see that dozens of explicitly religious radio stations are on our dials and virtually every cable package has religious stations. Nearly all our elected officials parade their faith through prayer breakfasts and Thanksgiving proclamations. Etc.

All of that is segregated. Yes, if you look for it, it is there. But everything that is not explicitly religious is completely secular. The only people who are religious are the people who consciously choose to reject the mainstream and embrace the religious outlier culture. That is my entire point.

What is funny is the contempt that drips from your words as you describe that. It really seems to bother you that such things exist. That people are choosing to do their own thing and embrace a culture you don't like. If it didn't bother you, you would think you wouldn't notice or care to look. Instead, you know these things are just all over the place. You should try caring less what other people do. It makes for a much happier life.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

You're projecting here John. I go to one of those churches and listen to a religious station about a third of the time in my car. It's you that cares about what other people do, you're all upset that atheists are daring to do something that religious groups flood our society with all the time.

[John]

I am not upset at all. I just think it is pointless and stupid. And I don't attend church unless my wife drags me. And I never listen to religious radio stations.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

It's pointless and stupid? Do you think the same about the much, much more common similar marketings by Christian's poking at atheists and the non-religious? Or is it just when atheists do it, albeit rarely in comparison, that you feel the need to point out how stupid it is?

[FUQ]

Them EVIL SoConz is everywheres.

For the most part those people with religious beliefs are made fun of or shunned by popular culture. If you don't see that you are the one living in a fantasy land. And I think believing in some higher power is silly but that doesn't mean I need to make fun of those that do believe. For some atheism is becoming a religion and they are just as obnoxious as the "fundies".

[Bo Cara Esq.]

"For the most part those people with religious beliefs are made fun of or shunned by popular culture."

Where do you get these fantasies? Politicians of both stripes regularly display their religions. Are there any atheist politicians who do that? Christians are so 'shunned' that they organize mass boycotts that very successfully get most major corporations, even if they will end up offending many non-Christians, to drop generic holiday greetings for explicitly Christian ones. Explicitly Christian movies, such as Noah and now Exodus, are heavily advertised and make millions. Is there an explicitly atheist movie?

[FUQ]

You seriously see Christians winning the battle over holiday greetings? Are you really this blind or does your hate of religion make you see things in such a slanted way? I really don't see how to respond to someone this delusional. John has his moments of delusion but nothing like the hilarity that is coming forth from your keyboard.

Again, I'm an atheist and I can't stand the religious types that jam their beliefs down my throat but in no way are they winning the culture war. You are a fucking lunatic.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I guess you don't keep up with the major boycott movements. They tend to succeed. Target. Lowes. Etc.

Of course, if you get your information from Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck I can see how you would miss that.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....troversies

[Restoras]

Noah and Moses were Christians? Did not know that.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Christians have an Old and New Testament Restoras.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Christians have an Old and New Testament Restoras.

And they're both chock fulll of jews.

[Rasilio]

No, people who wear their religious beliefs on their sleeves and can't shut up about them are mocked and shunned by pop culture.

However those who lack such beliefs are more than mocked, they are portrayed as either insane, out of touch, or outright dangerous

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Atheists, Muslims See Most Bias as Presidential Candidates

http://www.gallup.com/poll/155.....dates.aspx

Because, you know, Christians are shunned or something.

[Mickey Rat]

And trollish billboards tend to change that perception, how?

When youwant some group's votes, it helps not to be an asshole to their beliefs.

[Warty]

Are you a regular with a new handle, or are you a new yokeltarian?

[Coeus]

Gotta be a regular. He's got circumcision down thread. Probably pizza next.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

The giant advertising hoardings in the Tennessee cities of Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Fort Smith, Arkansas show a mischievous-looking young girl writing her letter to Father Christmas

I knew Tennessee was growing quickly, but I had no idea we had completely subsumed not only Arkansas, but huge portions of Missourah as well.

And this is just petulance. These people need to listen to talk radio like all the other angry weirdos.

[OldMexican]

Re: Serenity Now!

Atheism is a cult

Those aren't atheists, SN. An atheist simply does not believe in God. I don't believe in Santa Claus, for instance. However, I don't need to advertise it to whoever I meet on the street.

No, those guys are little red Marxians who are trying to stir up anger in religious communities so that they can then turn around and say "Look at those crazy Christians."

[John]

^^THIS^^

Like I said above, if you think everyone is going to end up in the same void anyway, what do you care how other people deal with that?

[FUQ]

^ This

[tarran]

No, those guys are little red Marxians who are trying to stir up anger in religious communities so that they can then turn around and say "Look at those crazy Christians."

Man... that's an awfully wordy way to say the verb "trolling". 😉

[Paul.]

A wife and child of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have reportedly been arrested in Lebanon.

At the same time?

[Mickey Rat]

How many people were arrested? There is the question.

[The Late P Brooks]

Safe at home

A Cleveland policeman who fatally shot a 12-year-old thought the boy's pellet gun was a real firearm and later said he had no choice, the officer's father said.

The Nov. 22 shooting of Tamir Rice by 26-year-old police rookie Tim Loehmann outside a recreation center sparked protests in the area. Surveillance video shows Loehmann firing within two seconds of a patrol car stopping near Rice, who reached in his waistband for what turned out to be a pellet gun.

Loehmann's father, Fred Loehmann, of Parma, told the Northeast Ohio Media Group (http://bit.ly/1wiyIHu ) that the officer didn't know how young the boy was.

He recalled his son saying: "I was right there and he went for the gun. I had no choice."

That motherfucker should be hanging from a lamppost in front of the police station.

[John]

I understand that he reasonably thought it was a gun. That, however, does not and should not, relieve him of the responsibility of giving the person with the gun the opportunity to drop it. The cops' position is that if he sees anyone with a gun or that he reasonably believes has a gun, he can immediately shoot them no questions asked.

When you think about it this is more than your typical cop assholeish behavior. It is, perhaps inadvertently, part of the larger attempt to make gun ownership untenable. If this cop's position is now the standard, carrying a gun openly in public subjects you to a potential death penalty if a cop happens to be there.

[Warty]

The Journolist types are doing their best to make just that argument. There was a Sadbeard or Ezzie column just recently about how police shootings happen because Americans have guns. It had a particularly bad line about how a well-armed citizenry requires an even better-armed constabulary. Any port in a storm, I guess.

[John]

It just shows what is important to them. If advancing the collective means defending a cop who shot a 12 year old kid who had a bb gun in cold blood with no justification at all, well so be it.

You can't say enough what awful and horrible individuals people like Klein and Sad Beard are. They are evil rotten people who have been completely morally compromised by politics to the point that even murder is okay in their eyes so long as it furthers the right politics. Those people disgust me and I hate it when other journalists on the right act like they are just well meaning but mistaken because they happen to know them or share the same profession.

[Drake]

The corollary is - if you are holding a gun (for any purpose legal or not), and you see a cop - shoot him before he shoots you. Because Judge Dredd is going to kill you if he's faster on the draw.

[R C Dean]

The cops' position is that if he sees anyone with a gun or that he reasonably believes has a gun, he can immediately shoot them no questions asked.

Bingo. How can you drop a gun without taking hold of it? How can you show that something isn't a gun without taking hold of it to display it?

Sadly, though, way too many people believe that cops should have a license to kill in situations where there is no demonstrable imminent threat to anything.

[Gray Ghost]

That, however, does not and should not, relieve him of the responsibility of giving the person with the gun the opportunity to drop it.

Ultimately that's their job: to arrest rather than kill. If their job was just to kill lawbreakers, we could get any asshole to do it. Their job is to, at times, risk danger and death in order to arrest someone.

What I think happened in the Cleveland shooting is this: the driver of the cop car didn't think the kid actually had a real gun. From my own experience, watching cops arrest kids doing stupid mischief (in this case, throwing hunks of iceplant at cars zipping by on the highway), they swoop in with their car to shock the kids, and make sure the little bastards don't run away. (When we saw what my idiot neighbor was doing, all of us remembered we needed to be another fifty yards away from them, and to hell with the school bus). Which is what the cop in Cleveland did. His partner, no doubt primed by training videos like that of the death of Deputy Kyle Dinkheller, where movement with hands towards the waist or out of sight = going for a gun, sees the kid raise his sweater, and that triggers him to shoot the kid.

It's still manslaughter, of course, or at least it should be, but it's due to how these guys are trained to approach the citizenry. Not as one of Peel's policemen, but as someone expecting you to try to kill him.

[John]

Ultimately that's their job: to arrest rather than kill. If their job was just to kill lawbreakers, we could get any asshole to do it. Their job is to, at times, risk danger and death in order to arrest someone.

This is exactly true and what cops have decided to ignore. They think their job is to collect a paycheck in the safest and easiest way possible. So, their answer to any risk is to just shoot the person.

[SERENITY NOW!]

In first federal guidelines on circumcision, the benefits are said to outweigh the risks

http://www.startribune.com/lif.....54801.html

[Drake]

And who doesn't trust their genitals to a government risk / reward analysis?

[Warty]

What the fuck are you talking about? I make sure to get exactly the USDA recommended amount of heart-healthy whole grains on my 2,000 calorie daily diet.

[FUQ]

I just eat bags horse feed. Lots of healthy whole grains.

[Brett L]

My son can decide that for himself when he's old enough.

[The Late P Brooks]

There was a Sadbeard or Ezzie column just recently about how police shootings happen because Americans have guns.

The first story I saw about the kid in Cleveland ended with a giant non sequitur about "other" gun violence over the same weekend. Because cops doing a drive by execution on a twelve year old falls in the same category as armed home invasions.

[The Late P Brooks]

Pouty bitchez are pouty

The SLPOA had called for the five Rams to be disciplined, but both the NFL and the team's head coach said that won't happen.

"They are exercising their right to free speech," Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher said.

Story includes bonus tweet to cops, "You guys should be more petty."

[Gray Ghost]

Hasn't this clown police spokesman heard of the Streisand Effect? I didn't even know the players did anything like this until his butthurt statement.

[John]

http://www.bloombergview.com/a.....apists-now

Mrs Sudderman takes the Rolling Stone rape allegations at its word. I never know if she is trolling or just that stupid. She is right that UVA should have gone to the police and done everything to ensure that people involved in a gang rape didn't get away with it. The fact that they didn't do that does not likely mean that they were negligent or need to go do it now. It means UVA didn't believe the story or find the accuser credible. I don't have a lot of use for college administrators but I find it hard to believe that if they believed this happened they wouldn't have wanted those responsible in jail.

Yesterday, I was of the opinion that it was believable they would not call the police. Now, I think that is wrong. They certainly may have wanted to cover it up. But if they wanted to do that, they would have done nothing. Instead, they went after the accused on campus but didn't get the cops involved. That to me indicates that they didn't believe the story or think it was credible but wanted to use it as an excuse to collectively punish the evil Greek system, something administrators hate but can't get rid of.

[Warty]

I'll never forgive nicole for introducing me to Belt. Something something worst.

My son, nine years old, sat next to me at our dining room table a couple of weeks ago after a school field trip to Lakewood City Hall. The class, he said, wobbling on his seat, had gotten to see the shooting range. "It's fine, Mom," he explained. "The police had the guns."

How could I explain to him, then, that guns are not safe, that nearly 10,000 children are injured or die in gun-related incidents each year (Pediatrics, February, 2014)? How, then, could I communicate a number so large to a person so young? I stumbled through the story of what happened in Ferguson, MO, only to feel as though I was abusing it, objectifying it, using Ferguson as a cautionary tale. I had not followed the story as closely as my friends all had. Complacent, people could say. My son needed me to know about Ferguson the way those police officers at the shooting range had known about a gun, about all of its parts, about the way it fit together. He needed me to assure him that there is no such thing as good guy and bad guy, and he needed me to communicate the permanence of death.

[tarran]

Ah, a mother of the Pink Floyd school:

Mama's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you
Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won't let you fly but she might let you sing
Mama's gonna keep baby cosy and warm

[John]

Tarran,

I saw this article last night and thought of you. It supports your "Obama is a clinical narcissist" argument quite well.

http://townhall.com/columnists.....n-n1925007

The article says that Obama's last two years is going to be dedicated to making him a hero to the 35% of the country that is hard core racialist and prog. This is screwing Hillary. It goes on...
Hillary faces two problems that have potentially mutually exclusive solutions. One is keeping the Obama coalition behind her, and it's already making noises about fleeing to Big Chief Warren. The other is expanding the coalition to once again include normal people. An executive amnesty she could undo with a pen stroke is not going to be any help with that. Nor are media images of businesses burning because some hardworking cop refused to allow himself to be murdered to please the likes of Al Sharpton.

But as Glenn Reynolds points out, Obama doesn't care. With a Democrat in office in 16, he is a has been. With a Republican in office, Obama is Al Sharpton times ten.

[tarran]

I don't know if Obama is consciously trying to put a Republican into office or if it's just the outcome of his pandering, but that article is spot on in asserting that, Obama's antics make a "sensible" Republican winning the presidency almost inevitable.

And I think whatever happens, Obama's attempts to stay in the limelight once he loses the presidency is going to lead him to some very dark places. Narcissists inevitably overreach and self-destruct. And in Obama's case - going from sitting president to has-been that is widely viewed with derision - is going to be a pretty strong stressor.

[John]

I don't think he is consciously trying to put a Republican in office. Everything he is doing, however, is about ensuring his spot in the limelight and ensuring that he is a powerful figure with a big following after he leaves office. He knows after the 14 elections, if didn't already, he is going to leave office disliked by a majority of the country. So he is trying to do everything he can to ensure that the part of the country that does still approve of him will think as highly of him as possible.

He would no doubt prefer that him doing that will not prevent a Democrat from winning in 16. But if it doesn't, it will not be his problem or his fault.

The Democrats have an enormous problem. What are they going to do with him?

[Gray Ghost]

The Democrats have an enormous problem. What are they going to do with him?

Martyrs can't further embarrass themselves or others. And it would unite people in opposition to the group that martyred him. See 1964 Election, B. Goldwater, asskicking of. Not like his relationship with his protectors is at an all-time high right now.

I can't be the only one who's thought of this.

[tarran]

The Biden insurance policy does expire in 2015 and it *is* non-renewable.

[John]

I have been thinking that since 2010 Grey Ghost. I think Obama has done a lot less damage to the country than many on the Right think. He has, however, in my opinion gravely damaged the Democratic Party. Worse still for the Democrats is that he is such a narcissist, he is never going to go quietly into that good night the way other failed Presidents have gone. Imagine where the Republicans would be if Nixon had started his own movement with the 1/3rd of the Republican Party that still supported him? They likely would still be out of power. That is what Obama is going to do.

[John]

He needed me to assure him that there is no such thing as good guy and bad guy,

What the hell kind of monster wants to teach their kid that lesson? And just a guess, I bet this woman is a typical soccer mom liberal who thinks any gun owner is a homicidal nut, any man who stops to help her kid is a child molester grooming him, and most of the country outside of her liberal hive are evil, racist tea baggers. That woman's entire identity is likely built on the premise of there being bad guys and her being better and not one of them.

Beyond that, I hope her kid is smart enough to ignore his idiot mom. He doesn't have a chance in the world if he thinks there is no such thing as a bad guy. Yeah, son, there are people out there you don't want to meet and are best avoided.

[tarran]

.. and what happened to teaching your kids to be a good guy?!?

My son, at age 10 stopped a bicycle theft, did it heroically, and it was a massively positive moment in his development towards adulthood.

If he had believed there are no good guys, who knows what he would have done? But because he was watching Cheyenne in those days, and wanted to be just like him, the moment he saw the older kids rip the bike out of a classmates hands and one of them ride off with it, he didn't hesitate. He sprang into action, chased down the thief, knocked him down, took control of the bike, ran the thief off, and returned the bike to its rightful owner. JUST LIKE HIS HEROES WOULD DO!

[John]

I was thinking more of getting your kid to understand evil. But you make an equally good point, if there is no evil, then there is no good either. So how exactly do you teach any morality in that context?

[tarran]

You can't!

I had to have a similar talk with my son after his first exposure to the DARE officer at his middle school.

Now that I think about it, I didn't talk about there being no good guys or bad guys, but about using his judgement and not just assuming a cop was a good guy.

I didn't tell him that the ammo was bad. I asked him what he thought about the episode, and we had a lovely talk about the properties of ammo. I did mention that it was kind of tacky for him to be passing ammo around to make friends with the kids whereas if I had done that I would probably be arrested.

She isn't teaching her child to use his judgement. She is teaching him to be prejudiced against himself and to loathe himself.

Which is pretty shitty.

[trshmnster the terrible]

You don't. That's the point. In the morally relativistic world of the modern progressive, feelings are Morality, feelings are thoughts, feelings are principles. Emoting becomes a moral currency, so any moralizing by a prog parent is simply signalling the right feelings to their child.

Why does this woman care about the trip to the shooting range? Because it feels bad that the kid was exposed to guns. Now she needs to make sure that the kid feels bad too. Moral relativism now comes with an implied "I'm right and you're wrong" aspect.

[John]

A.H. Auden pegged this people in a poem called "For the Time Being." In it, King Herod muses about the future to come in the aptly named "New Age":

Reason will be replaced by Revelation. Instead of Rational Law, objective truths perceptible to any who will undergo the necessary intellectual discipline, Knowledge will degenerate into a riot of subjective visions . . . Whole cosmogonies will be created out of some forgotten personal resentment, complete epics written in private languages, the daubs of schoolchildren ranked above the greatest masterpieces. Idealism will be replaced by Materialism. Life after death will be an eternal dinner party where all the guests are 20 years old . . . Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal human virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish . . . The New Aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums and permanent invalids. The Rough Diamond, the Consumptive Whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the New Age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.

[This Machine Can Handle a Rope]

"Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker."

-C.S. Lewis

[Warty]

Do yourself a favor and don't look up her other work.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Krystal Sierra, a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College,"

Where paragraphs are not needed.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Nice dash of moral relativism she provides in that stupid sentence.

[John]

It is not just that. It is the moral relativism's contrast with her judgement of guns and gun owners. There is no such thing as a good guy or a bad guy, unless the guy owns a gun, apparently.

This woman is right out of South Park. She could work at the Museum of Tolerance with the job of making sure no one who smokes is allowed onto the property.

[Gray Ghost]

that nearly 10,000 children are injured or die in gun-related incidents each year (Pediatrics, February, 2014)?

Da fuck? How the hell did they get that figure? I mean, I know how, but holy ignoring the context, Batman.

He needed me to assure him that there is no such thing as good guy and bad guy,

And thus we see the overeducated Prog in their native environment. Because I doubt she was coming at that viewpoint from a Christian principle like (or other moral system, if you like) "Hate the sin, not the sinner."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The fact that more children are injured or killed due to things in the kitchen than due to guns makes this mom a horrible monster?

[Cdr Lytton]

This reminds me of one of my coworkers after the shooting in CT telling me that he had to reassure his high school age children because they were scared. And he was taking their fears seriously because guns are scary and stuff. It was all I could do to keep a straight face.

[Elspeth Flashman]

OK, I realize this is too late in the AM Links, and you've all gone off to gambol about greener pastures, but I thought it was interesting:

A North Carolina lawyer has been suspended for five years based on accusations that he sexted three clients with nude photos of himself and had sex with one of them at his office.

The lawyer, Christopher Rahilly, was suspended by the Disciplinary Hearing Commission of the North Carolina State Bar. The Legal Profession Blog noted the Oct. 27 order (PDF).
http://www.abajournal.com/news....._is_suspen

[John]

Fucking your clients is a big no no in the legal profession. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is and everyone knows it. Only someone who has absolutely no judgement or impulse control would do it. So, I can't really have much sympathy for this guy.

[Elspeth Flashman]

The only way I could defend him would be if he had had a relationship with the clients before they became clients. But even so, I would recommend they see someone else as their attorney. Guh.

[John]

Just wait until the case is over and bang them then. They are not your client forever. At some point your attorney client relationship ends.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Fucking your clients is something that is normally done through billing.

[Rasilio]

The real question is whether he was billing them for those hours or not

[Coeus]

An entire huge group of comments justifying the arson in Ferguson.
A sample:

Dalillama, Schmott Guy
25 November 2014 at 9:41 pm
Chas
Since you are apparently too ignorant to supply context on your own and arrogant enough to open your fool mouth anyway, look at who owns the businesses that were damaged. More specifically, look at who doesn't own the businesses. Then educate yourself a bit on concepts like capital flight and redlining. Then consider just what you mean by 'innocent bystander'. Is an agency innocent if it is actively engaged in preventing capital flow into black neighborhoods, perpetuating unemployment in same, and being backed up by the police with lethal force? Consider carefully. Get back to me if you need help with the more complex concepts, I realize that you have difficulty with the idea of context.

CaitieCat, Harridan of Social Justice
25 November 2014 at 10:39 pm
46 years and it's no fucking better. Not sure even Dr King's patience would have made it this far.

Goblinman
25 November 2014 at 11:54 pm
Shorter White People(tm) response to Ferguson: "Hitting us back would be unfair!"

[Coeus]

lakitha tolbert
26 November 2014 at 1:09 am
For every White person who has kept their mouth shut every time a Black man has been murdered by the police:
You don't get to have an opinion about the riots happening right now. Continue to keep your fucking mouth shut. After all, the murder of young Black men was not anything that affected you enough get you off your fence-sitting ass and speak to power, so surely rioting in those same neighborhoods shouldn't move you to say a damn thing, either.
If you didn't speak up against Mike Brown's death, then nobody wants to hear whatever shit you got to say right now.

[John]

Don Suber yesterday described the riots as a "pogrom against the middle class". Those comments are exactly what he is talking about.

The Schmott Guy one at the top is nothing but warmed over antisemitism with "business owner" substituted for "Jew". The owners are collectively guilty for the evils of society. They guilty because of their economic class. Their actual actions are irrelevant.

I keep saying Progs are fascists. I am not exaggerating or kidding. Those comments are nothing but fascism. The only difference between this and the German variety is that the enemy here is the middle class and business owners instead of the Jews.

[Zeb]

There are certainly lots of people who want it to be that (the pogrom thing). I think that the actual cause/reason for the riots are a combination of impotent rage and opportunists who want to break and/or steal shit. But the narrative from the sympathetic left is going to be something like what you say.

[tarran]

The only difference between this and the German variety is that the enemy here is the middle class and business owners instead of the Jews.

I think you are if anything understating the case: because much of the hatred of the jews was based on the stereotype that the jews ran businesses that were profitable (and any profit was equated with exploitation of their gentile customers).

[John]

That is exactly what underscored the hatred of Jews. The Nazis hated and capitalism and viewed Jews as the ultimate capitalists and world capitalism as a Jewish conspiracy. This is exactly the same kind of thinking only it is of the more communist variety that views all business owners as the enemy instead of just Jews.

[Brett L]

No, sorry. You're doing away with an entire cultural history where Jews were the only people who could make loans at an interest rate that made the risk tolerable to those who weren't connected directly to tax collectors through blood. So, of course, the middle class and yeoman farmers in Central and Eastern (Catholic) Europe had all borrowed money from Jewish lenders and everyone had an uncle or a cousin for generations who had lost the family farm or business through default. Further prohibitions on what jobs Jews could do drove Jews to be exclusively moneylenders in many towns. The Nazis just played up the easy target because they were a great source of capital, a group their primary constituency had been raised to be comfortable hating, and, having literally a Law unto themselves, unable to be coopted by the regime. But it was very specifically in the moneylending and not the more general "capitalism". Although they were happy to repeat Marx's slanders on the subject.

[John]

What you are describing is true, but it was true in the middle ages and Imperial Russia not in 19th and 20th Century Germany. Those restrictions on Jews had long since ended in Germany. The German Jews were the most integrated Jews in the world. That is why so many of them didn't flee when Hitler took power. They were so well integrated into German society that they didn't think it were possible for Hitler to murder them.

So the phenomena you are describing, while real, is not what happened in Nazi Germany. What happened there was different and in many ways worse. It was the extermination of the Jews as a race. One of the prime reasons why Jews were considered not just an inferior race but a malevolent race who were an existential threat to Aryan Germans was because of their connection and association with world capitalism.

[The Late P Brooks]

It's still manslaughter, of course, or at least it should be, but it's due to how these guys are trained to approach the citizenry. Not as one of Peel's policemen, but as someone expecting you to try to kill him.

Exactly. In all the idiotic blather about improved "training" has anybody (anybody at all?) suggested the cops stop whipping themselves into a frenzy of fear and suspicion of every single one of their fellow citizens? You know, the people who pay their salaries; the ones they are ostensibly sworn to serve and protect.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Scary hero-god-worship of Marion Barry.

[John]

If you talk to people who have been around Washington DC politics long enough to remember him before he was mayor, they will tell you he was going to be the first national black politician. He was a force of nature. His problem was that he was from DC and couldn't run for a State House or the Congress, which would have allowed him to just make speeches and grandstand. His only way up was to get elected mayor. And that required him to actually be an executive. That wasn't a good roll for him and ended his career, even before he got busted for crack.

[tarran]

If only he had married Bill Clinton, he could have gone straight to the Senate!

[John]

Now there is a compelling argument against gay marriage if there ever was one.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Did you read the article? His followers are a scary, scary, scary bunch.

[John]

Yeah. When the star of your funeral comes on his work release from a federal half way house... Talk about ghetto.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Eh, don't we expect the idiots to behave this way?

Jeff Tucker had a nice piece about Barry's legacy last week. If only all regulators were as easily circumvented as Barry and his crooks.

http://www.dollarvigilante.com/blog/2.....-barr.html

[chenoacorksduu]

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

[John]

Its grounds for criminal charges against the cop. Yeah, I know that almost certainly won't happen, but there is no way to justify that behavior. That is criminal assault and battery.

[pogi]

Special snowflakes are special.

I'd wager good money that the parents of these morons also let their little snowflakes run around in public places and restaurants annoying the shit out of other patrons, and would have gone Donald Sutherland pointing and screeching if you so much as dared say anything to them or their budding genius progeny.

[Gray Ghost]

I'd wager good money that the parents of these morons also let their little snowflakes run around in public places and restaurants annoying the shit out of other patrons,

Completely this. When did it be o.k. to stop parenting and to treat any place of public accommodation like an asshole dog owner treats a dog park? When your brat start trying to peek under the dressing room door at my fiancee, I am going to stop him. (By raising my voice and interceding my body---basically how I correct a dog. Not by pile driving him through the nearest wall, though the thought was appealing.) Even if that means you have to put your phone down and actually pay attention to him.

Christ, my mother would've been mortified if I'd done something like that, not go off with, "How dare you correct my child?!"

[UnCivilServant]

"How dare you correct my child?!"

"I wouldn't have to if you did your job."