Eric Garner's Killer Evades Indictment, Cops Not Actually Investigating UVA Rape Allegations Yet, 'Gangnam Style' Breaks the Youtube: P.M. Links

• 

  Gangnam Style / Youtube

  A grand jury declined to indict the NYPD officer who put single-cigarette salesman Eric Garner in a chokehold, leading to the man's death. Though a coroner had ruled the death a homicide, it's not obvious what kind of charges prosecutors asked the jury to consider.

• The University of Virginia gang rape story published by Rolling Stone is now facing all kinds of criticism. But it seems the local police aren't actually doing much about it yet.
• Denver high school students walked out of class to protest Ferguson.
• The appointment of soap opera producer Colleen Bradley Bell to be U.S. ambassador to Hungary has annoyed a lot of people, including Reason's favorite curmudgeon, John McCain.
• "Gangnam Style" just broke Youtube's view counter. Let's all do the dance in celebration.
• Will Hillary run? Politico says it's not clear, and an announcement might be a long way off.

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]

Though a coroner had ruled the death a homicide, it's not obvious what kind of charges prosecutors asked the jury to consider.

If only a ham sandwich had been the culprit.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Man, this city is nursing a massive migraine mourning the passing of Jean Beliveau.

[BigT]

Au revoir "Le Gros Bill"

I only saw him a few times later in his career. He was like a maestro on the ice, controlling the game.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You were lucky. My grandfather swore until he died the greatest pure players he ever saw were Howe and Beliveau.

Off the ice was simply a true legendary gentleman in every sense of the word.

He's often in the top five or six greatest players of all time.

[PBR Streetgang]

Somewhere Mama Cass is nodding in agreement.

[Brett L]

I bet she's thinner now.

[Rhywun]

Too soon!

[Andrew S.]

Grand Juries will indict a ham sandwich, but not a pig.

[Injun, as in from India]

+!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Denver high school students walked out of class to protest Ferguson.

Yeah, I remember walking out of classes over all kinds of social injustices. That's exactly why we did it.

[Rich]

Dammit, Fist!

Anyhoo -- Yeah, final exams had nothing to to do with it.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Senior social injustice day?

[HeteroPatriarch]

I remember walking out of classes because we had a certain number of absences that we could use and hadn't.

[Pro Libertate]

I remember walking out of classes to go to the beach.

[John]

Remember under Bush when Progs thought it was horrible for the government to give money to churches? Neither do I

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014.....al-aliens/

[Injun, as in from India]

When Team Blue does it, it is separation of church and state.

When Team Red does it, it is rolling back progress since the reformation.

[SIV]

The costs include providing "multicultural crayons" to children at Ft. Sill, along with cell phones including international calling capabilities, "laptop kits," board games, soccer balls and much more.

What the Hell are "multicultural crayons"?
Apricot, Black, Burnt Sienna,
Mahogany, Peach, Sepia and Tan. They sound like hosiery colors. No "flesh" or "Indian Red" to be found 🙁

[Libertarian]

ebony and ivory

[Rich]

"Laptop kits"?

Do they include soldering irons?

[PapayaSF]

I see the government is doing what it can to discourage illegal immigration. *rolls eyes*

[lap83]

Personally, I find it really difficult to visually match crayons to my skin color. The flourescent lighting at the store always makes your skin tone look weird and then when you take the crayons outside to get some decent natural lighting, they accuse you of trying to steal it!

[Injun, as in from India]

The appointment of soap opera producer Colleen Bradley Bell to be U.S. ambassador to Hungary has annoyed a lot of people, including Reason's favorite curmudgeon, John McCain.

Hope, change, transparency, taking back Washington lobbyists, fighting money in politics, yada yada yada.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The University of Virginia gang rape story published by Rolling Stone is now facing all kinds of criticism.

They've shot their own cause in the foot.

[trshmnster the terrible]

When you get overconfident, you get sloppy. When you get sloppy, you make mistakes. When you make mistakes, somebody takes advantage of you.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Go on...

[trshmnster the terrible]

Something, something glass shards and moving it's motherfucking leg.

[rts]

Toxic heavy metals found at Vancouver community garden

Soil at the community garden at Oak St. and 16th Ave. in Vancouver had concentrations of lead reaching 219 parts per million ? nearly four times the background levels in soil in the Lower Mainland.

The total metal contamination ? including air and soil ? at the 16 Oaks community garden was even higher than an industrial brownfield they measured, says Gladys Oka, lead author on the study published in the Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition.

Yummy.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

As someone pointed out in the comments on that article, So what?

They provide no context in what that means...

Don't eat the dirt? Vegetables won't grow there? They should have set up a community smelter, instead?

[rts]

Just pure irony.

They should have set up a community smelter, instead?

This would actually be kind of cool.

[Stormy Dragon]

Previous experiences with government subsidized community smelters suggest that it is not cool at all:

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

[rts]

Jean B?liveau has died.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The last decent Canadien.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

sorry

[Winston]

Does Celine Dion mean nothing to you?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The only time my wife ever called me a fag is when I told her I wanted to go to a Celine Dion concert.

[jesse.in.mb]

I wanted to go to a Celine Dion concert.

Thank you for making us all look a little butch-er by comparison.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Larry Robinson, Bob Gainey and Ken Dryden would like a word with you.

And Jacques Lemaire.

Guy Lafleur would make a great libertarian.

[Fist of Etiquette]

NEVER! To, uh, talking to other Canadiens.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Did a Hab fuck your wife or molest you?

[jesse.in.mb]

Did a Hab fuck your wife or molest you?

Fist is way into that stuff. He couldn't get a Hab to do it and is bitter.

[PapayaSF]

Bruce McCall is still alive.

[Coeus]

3 hours of street harassment.

The results will shock you.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

damnnnnnn

[Rich]

There ought to be a law against mocking serious studies of harassment.

[BigT]

Haha! I particularly liked the part with the two guys in fairy costumes in the subway.

[PapayaSF]

This is a funnier parody.

[Andrew S.]

In anticipation of the grand-jury announcement, the New York Police Department has started preparing for large-scale protests. As police commissioner William Bratton told the press, "We have the ability to have a level of tolerance?breathing room, if you will."

The NYPD, ladies and gentlemen.

[Binjelli]

I am willing to bet that he thought that up as it is just too brilliant of an example of dark humor to be anything else.

[John]

There is hope for shreek

Rodents smarter after brain implants

http://www.cnet.com/news/mice-.....e-smarter/

[Andrew S.]

Maybe, one day, he'll be as smart as a rodent?

[Winston]

Are You Pondering what I'm Pondering?

[Brett L]

I don't know, Brain. Does the Queen wear rubber pants?

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

+narf!

[JEP]

There's a video out there of the voice actors for Pinky and the Brain doing a bit where Brain finally loses it and starts yelling obscenities at Pinky.

I'd link to it if I wasn't at work.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Gangnam Style" just broke Youtube's view counter. Let's all do the dance in celebration.

Which I believe is an endorsement for us to pull out of South Korea.

[Zeb]

I'm a bit hesitant to admit it, but I think that the Gangnam Style video is one of the greatest things ever.

I am still not going to do the dance.

[kinnath]

I prefer "what does the fox say", but it is a brilliant piece of manufactured pop.

[Zeb]

The video is more what does it for me than the song. Though from the translations and explanations I've seen, the song is pretty funny too.

[Pro Libertate]

You're weird, Zebulon.

[Zeb]

Oh, now. I suppose I may be. But watch it again and tell me it isn't hilarious.

[Spencer]

never pull out of a south korean. just use a condom.

[Coeus]

Doesn't work if you're going "broken condom style".

[Sonoran Desert Rat]

My recent creepy favorite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzgwJ8tSE0

[Caleb Turberville]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/ph.....bertarian/

Let's see. PZ Myers supports pre-crime laws, as well as opposes protections against illegal searches and seizures and self-incrimination. On top of that, he wants to point and laugh at victims based on their political persuasion.

[John]

The irony of him calling his blog "The Free Thoughts Blog" might actually be crushing the internet.

But Bo assured us this morning that leftist are not any more angry or hateful than those on the right.

[trshmnster the terrible]

It simply makes sense that progs would be more agitative than conservatives. Generally, conservatives are interested in keeping the status quo, or returning to the policies of the past. Progs are trying to reform man into a more civilized creature, and that's a frustrating job!

[Caleb Turberville]

I'm not sure whether to conclude that he's against free speech as well.

[Brett L]

Only if he disagrees with it.

[Medical Physics Guy]

This is what slays me about the self-appointed "skeptics". I'm all for good science. But whenever I read a "skeptic" blogger, all I see are a bunch of awkward people clustering together for a five minutes hate of something, just using science as an excuse. And I can't get through even a paragraph before concluding that life is too short to waste on such pointless vitriol.

[Caleb Turberville]

I haven't bother to read the comments yet. There's no way that they could be stupider than the original post, but I don't want to chance it.

[Carl ?s the level]

Libertarian: from the latin for "I'm too lazy to think this through".

[Zeb]

I just don't get that. Maybe our premises are wrong or silly or something. But if anything libertarians think about things too much and put too much stock in the power of reason.

[Tonio]

Oh, they can be, Caleb, they can be. That's why I quit that fever swamp about a decade ago.

[Tonio]

Also, why do you hate us, Caleb? That's worse than those people who obsessively link to Jez.

[Suthenboy]

I am gonna disagree on the pre-crime laws. That is not exactly the case.

Suppose I go to the doc and he tells me I have a terrible disease and gives me a range of treatment options. I own myself, my body, so I get to chose the treatment based on my assessment of the risk/benefit of each treatment, right? If someone else forces me to undergo a treatment against my will then they are certainly violating my right of self ownership. They are forcing me to take risks I am not willing to take.

In this same way behaving irresponsibly (drunk driving) in public is forcing others to take risks that they did not consent to. You are violating their right of self ownership. They initially took the risk of being on the road with the assumption that other drivers are sober, attentive and competent. By driving drunk you upped their risk against their will.

Arresting drunk drivers who have not caused a crash is not pre-crime. Driving drunk is a crime all on its own.

[Brett L]

What about people who have an arbitrary BAC shown to cause no statistical increase in accidents or fatalities?

[Caleb Turberville]

Yeah, the arbitrary nature of the BAC is one of my major problems.

[Brett L]

To clarify, people who cannot maintain speed or lane control for whatever reason should probably be stopped and prevented from driving any further until they resolve their condition. They are dangerous. Especially at night when it can be hard to judge rates of speed and exact locations.

[Caleb Turberville]

Yes, but that's at least a somewhat defined area of Probable Cause.

To indiscriminately check every driver who goes through a checkpoint is a violation of that driver's rights and civil justice liberties.

[Suthenboy]

I agree that BACs are an area that needs to be examined. I don't think the state sets them with safety in mind.

Indiscriminately checking every driver is most definitely a rights violation.

I have no arguments there.

Kinnath I would be pleased if you would say why you disagree. I have had this argument before and it took me a while to sort it all out, so if you want to wait that is fine.

[Tommy_Grand]

"By driving drunk you upped their risk against their will."

Only if your driving increased the risk compared to a typical driver.

We should issue drunk driving licenses to those who can pass the regular driving test after 1, 2, or 3 drinks. Even 4. Whatever. As long as the driver can meet the minimum safety standard -- the same lofty one we require of 87 year old granny and physically-disabled drivers. If a driver is pulled over (for violating some traffic law) with a BAC higher than the BAC for which s/he is licensed, jail.

I would support something similar for texting while driving except applicants have to pass an algebra test via text while passing the driving test.

[Caleb Turberville]

Unlike PZ Myers, I understand that there will be differing views on this issue.

Instead of stating my case, I would suggest reading what Radley Balko has written about the subject.

[kinnath]

Driving drunk is a crime all on its own.

We're gonna have to disagree on this one.

[Juice]

I'm going to say that reckless driving can be a crime if done around other people or their property. If someone is driving recklessly then get them off the road. If someone has a buzz but is driving fine, leave them alone.

[Suthenboy]

"If someone has a buzz but is driving fine, leave them alone."

That used to be the case. I have no problem with that. I grew up in a world where it was not uncommon to see people driving with a beer in their hand.

I wanted to look up statistics but I can't find any that are not from the CDC or MADD. MADD claims that drunk driving deaths have been cut in half since 1980, but I have no idea if that is accurate and if it is then maybe the result of better cars and not less drunk driving.

[Overt]

MADD is correct. But that is largely because of the removal of drunk kids from the road by instituting the 21yr old drinking age.

[Invisible Finger]

Driving drunk is a crime all on its own.

No it isn't.

"They initially took the risk of being on the road with the assumption that other drivers are sober" is simply an asinine, Tony-esque statement. You know the risks of sharing the road with other shitty drivers before you even get behind the wheel. Just because you'd LIKE to only share the road with attentive, safe drivers doesn't mean that denial of reality is a sensible assumption.

If you had said "reckless driving" is a crime all on its own, I'd be closer to agreeing with you. Classifying one kind of reckless driving as worse than another kind is stupid for too many reasons to elaborate. But even then its only reckless when it is a threat to other drivers that actually exist. Most DUI arrests are in rural, dry counties where the number of drivers on the stretch of road within a 60-second window of the drunk driver is ZERO (beside the cop that doesn't need to be there in the first place). If there are no other cars on the road, swerving between lanes on purpose affects no one else and the mere hypothetical that it could is nothing but "thoughtcrime".

But I'd still disagree because it shouldn't be a crime, it should be a civil offense at worst. This crime-classification shit is pure taxation/robbery by the state for itself.

[Suthenboy]

I would say that drunk driving is simply a sub-class of recklessness.

I make assumptions about other people's competence and avoidance of recklessness all the time. I assume no one is going to whip out their pistol and start target practicing in the mall, that people on top of tall buildings are not going to throw bricks off to amuse themselves, that drivers will not use sidewalks to avoid congestion or annoying intersections. Expecting them to drive sober is really no different.

You want to drive around your ranch drunk? Target practice in your living room? Throw rocks off of a cliff into a river? Fine, knock yourself out, but putting other people at risk against their will is violating their self ownership rights any way you slice it.

[SERENITY NOW!]

They initially took the risk of being on the road with the assumption that other drivers are sober, attentive and competent.

That was their first mistake.

[T]

Seriously, where do people live that they can assume that? I don't ever get all three.

Of course, I live in Houston, so that may influenece my views on the driving skills of the average human.

[John]

The great saxophonist Bobby Keys died. Where the hell is Jesse Walker and why isn't he posting on this?

http://time.com/3615624/rollin.....ies-at-70/

[Andrew S.]

He's saving the tributes for whenever Lou Reed dies.

[John]

Dozens of posts on Lour Reed dying and not a single on on Keys. Fucking hipsters.

[PBR Streetgang]

Lou Reed died??

[Restoras]

Wait. Lou Reed is dead??? When the hell did this happen?

[John]

Around 1970. It just a few years for the world to notice.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

LOU REED IS NOT DEAD.

IT'S A HOAX.

[Winston]

Was Bobby Keys hipster enough for Jesse?

[John]

No. But Jesse is supposed to be the staffer who isn't a hipster.

[Zeb]

Like it or not, about 100x more people know who Lou Reed is than Bobby Keyes.

[John]

That is why we have people like Jesse Walker; to show them.

[Zeb]

Yeah, good point. People know what they need to about Lou Reed already.

I actually think that Lou Reed is probably more influential and important in a sense (if not more talented), but pretty much all of that influence came out of a few years of his career.

[SIV]

C'mon Bobby!

RIP

[BigT]

Can't you hear him knockin??

Sublime.

[BigT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fa4HUiFJ6c#t=304

[John]

People often don't give Richards enough credit for how good of a lead player he was and is. Richards, Keys and Mick Taylor just whale in that song. Mick Taylor is a monster.

[BigT]

Read Keith's "Life" to get an idea of how he and Keys hung out and got into trouble together.

I named my son after Richards.

[John]

Life is one of the best biographies I have ever read. I love that book.

[Rich]

an announcement might be a long way off.

What? Not the fist, er, the *first* of the year?

President Clinton is just preparing us for her (continuation of) lies.

[GILMORE]

Salon =

Right Wing Sympathy For Eric Garner is a Racist Lie Because Only People Who Support Higher Taxes Care About Black People

"The death of Eric Garner presented a rhetorical challenge: we've all seen the video of Garner's confrontation with the police? he clearly posed no threat and complied with the officers' requests. There is no room for conjecture regarding whether or not Garner may have been provoking the police. So, pundits found a new target, one that jived with their platform of small government and police trustworthiness: New York City's cigarette tax.

In the Washington Times, Lawrence J. McQuillan explained the conservative stance? Garner was arrested because he was selling untaxed cigarettes, a no-no in the city that attaches an extra $1.50 per pack. He was subject to police force because he "chose to participate in the booming underground cigarette market as a smuggler." Furthermore, "These events confirm that police are ultimately the enforcers of the tax code, and every vote for higher taxes gives police increased authority to exert more force on citizens in more situations."

So it's not the officer's fault for using an illegal chokehold on a nonviolent asthmatic man. It's the tax's fault for existing."

[Andrew S.]

Even for Salon, this is tone deaf.

[Mad Scientist]

The narrative must be propped up!

[John]

Salon apparently can't understand the cop can both be wrong for being there and for killing the guy.

[Binjelli]

Wouldn't that require admitting the possibility that taxes might be evul?

[SugarFree]

They defend him for just following orders.

[JEP]

Wow, there's some mental gymnastics.

It's just an attempt to decouple laws from the violence that's inherently used to enforce them.

Not to politicize people's misfortunes, but incidents like this should be used as examples of the realistic effects of social justice laws.

This is what happens when you let Lenny pet the bunny.

[Suthenboy]

"It's just an attempt to decouple laws from the violence that's inherently used to enforce them."

We have a winner.

[Trouser-Pod]

Joanna Rothkopf is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on science, health and society a fuckwit.

Well, Salon, if you won't print the truth yourself...

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's not the officer's fault for using an illegal chokehold on a nonviolent asthmatic man. It's the tax's fault for existing."

But for the cigarette tax and Garner's history of violating this preposterous law designed to skin the poor and socially undesirable of their meager wealth, what cause would these BRAVE PUBLIC HEROES have had to harass and kill Eric Garner on that fateful day?

[Juice]

he clearly posed no threat and complied with the officers' requests.

Er, not exactly.

doesn't justify the actions of the cops obviously

[Coeus]

Woman refers to Michael Brown as a thug.

People post her address, her mom's credit info and advise to burn her house down, because they don't know what the word "racist" means (and are morons).

[grrizzly]

That's why I was disappointed when SugarFree was whining about using the "thug" word last week.

[Zeb]

People may be idiots for calling someone racist for saying "thug". But the word does have racial connotations in contemporary American English.
Just as people should be prepared to defend themselves against rape, even though no one should be raping in the first place, it's not really helpful to give morons easy ways to call you racist, even if they are wrong to do so.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I prefer urchin. I have pictures of poor white boys covered in soot when I think of urchins, and it's politically correct to use white slurs.

[grrizzly]

Bullshit. In Barack Obama's America everything has a racial connotation. When the fuck will it stop? When we exhaust the supply of words in American English because a moron somewhere will declare every word racist or sexist or whatever?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Zeb is just being a thug.

[Zeb]

Thug life, mutha fucka.

[Coeus]

represent

[Coeus]

it's not really helpful to give morons easy ways to call you racist, even if they are wrong to do so.

At what point does the utility of this get overridden by the fact you're allowing morons to dictate your speech?

Remember, they've decided "riots" is racist as well.

[Binjelli]

Yeah but "moron" is ableist.

Or something.

[Rich]

Remember, they've decided "riots" is racist as well.

Wait, what?

What is the PC term now? "Protests"?

[Coeus]

"Riots" is racist

The term "riots" is racist. Yes, this is about Ferguson.

Last night, our fair-and-just judicial system decided that a White police officer shooting an unarmed Black teen in a town smothered in racism does not warrant a trial. In a community where the major perpetrator of racist violence and injustice are the police, in a community where the legal system doesn't see this as a big enough issue to even have a trial, the community has little other option than to enact public protest. That protest can get violent, surely. But calling this form of public and sometimes violent disobedience a "riot" is racist. Riot is the term we use for Black protests and the aftermath of drunken sports victories or losses. When White people protest oppressive institutions, we call it revolution. The words we use matter.

[Brett L]

So when young lads of pallor ran amok in the streets when Joe Paterno was canned that was a...?

[PapayaSF]

"Amok"?? You racist!

[Rich]

Riot is the term we use for Black protests and the aftermath of drunken sports victories or losses.

Emphasis added. So "riot" is also SPORTSIST!

[Zeb]

And it is also used to describe what the Chicago police did surrounding the 1968 Democratic convention.
The people claiming it is racist are just full of shit. It has never had a racial connotation.

And if you call stealing and destroying the property of innocent people "civil disobedience" you can get fucked.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm far past the point where people calling things "racist" that really aren't affects me in the least.

Thug, incidentally, is racist. . .if you're Indian.

[Zeb]

Depends on who "they" are. Saying that "riot" is racist is just stupid. There are plenty of documented cases of rioting by people of all races.

"Thug", on the other hand is commonly used to refer to a specific African American sub-culture. Probably a sub-culture that deserves a lot of criticism and disdain. But it does have that racial connotation. When you say "thug", people don't think of the Thugee cult, but of young black guys trying to be all hard and shit.

I don't really give a shit if you say "thug". I won't assume you are racist for doing so unless you have given me some other reason to think that. But why not say "violent person" or "criminal" or something else that more specifically describes him?

[Coeus]

Less typing.

[Coeus]

Also, pretty sure we were all calling Rahm Emanuel that a few years ago, and no one thought it weird that he wasn't black.

[PapayaSF]

Also, people in that particular subculture do not call themselves "violent people" or "criminals." They call it "thug culture." Even Al Sharpton calls it "thug culture."

[grrizzly]

I personally think that discriminating against people because of their skin color is immoral. I feel very strongly about it. For this reason I think that anyone who ever voted for a politician who supported affirmative action is a confirmed racist. And now you tell me I should care what these racists think about the usage of the word "thug."

[Zeb]

It's nothing to me if you care or not. I just suggested a reason why you might care. If you don't care still, I will stop.

[SERENITY NOW!]

"Thug", on the other hand is commonly used to refer to a specific African American sub-culture.

So Tupok was racist?

http://www.westlord.com/tupac-shakur-tattoos/

[Zeb]

No (well, maybe Tupak was, I don't know). But Tupak represents exactly the culture I am talking about. I'm not saying using the word is necessarily racist. Words can't be inherently racist. I'm just suggesting reasons why one might choose not to use it in certain contexts. If you really want to, I won't hold it against you.

[Redmanfms]

When you say "thug", people don't think of the Thugee cult, but of young black guys trying to be all hard and shit.

That's not what I think of when I hear the word thug.

I think of men who perpetrate violence just for the sake of perpetrating violence. Which is why I frequently refer to cops as thugs (you know, "jack-booted thugs"). Oddly, people seem to understand what I mean, and don't immediately think, "Ohhhhh, he means niggers."

People who hear "thug" and think, "young, inner-city black male" are prog racists, or successfully programmed by prog racists (as you appear to be).

[John Titor]

I suggest rapscallion, fiend, knave, rogue or scoundrel.

[jesse.in.mb]

Huh, I was going to suggest jackanape, but went to double check the spelling and found out that would go over very very poorly.

LUCKILY, I can still use it to describe Los Doyers, which is all that really matters.

[Antilles]

"But the word does have racial connotations in contemporary American English."

Bullshit. The term is derived from the Indian word 'Thuggee,' and referred to members of the murderous cult (the same guys we saw in 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'). I went to school with numerous 'thugs,' and not one of them was black. This is just another attempt by the left to stifle the voices of those of us who speak out.

[SugarFree]

All you had to do was ignore it, but all the right people broke out the butthurt. No one moreso than Tulpa's nom de jure.

[Rich]

Some of those comments are truly horrific. We'll see how the Supremes rule on the Anthony Elonis case.

[John]

They are nothing but fascists. And fuck them. They can come and try to burn my house down anytime. I wish them luck with that. I am a very good shot and wouldn't lose a moment of sleep over shooting them.

[Brett L]

I was reading the afternotes of that book Unbroken, about the former Olympic miler who spent most of WWII in a prison camp. One of the American doctors he was interned with went back to Atlanta and built a housing project that gave preference to POWs, then veterans, and banned the KKK. His comment when asked how he dealt with the threatening phone calls was along the lines of, "I gave them my home address and told them I still had the .45 that I used to put down water buffalo, and that they were welcome to drop by anytime to discuss the matter further in person."

[Brett L]

"The sheriff's a th..."

[Trouser-Pod]

+1 Authentic Frontier Gibberish

[Anonymous Coward]

Master P - Gangstas Need Love

though I'm a thug, you love me. If sex was a game, we'd a play rugby.

Can we finally get an official ruling on whether being a thug is a good or bad thing?

[Juice]

Only a thug can call other thugs thugs, racist.

[PapayaSF]

Woman refers to Michael Brown as a thug.

Cripes, this is why I use a handle online. Yes, he was a thug, and no, it's not "racist" to use that term to describe him.

[Coeus]

AN OPEN LETTER TO BLOOMBERG'S SHEELAH KOLHATKAR, ON THE DELICATE MATTER OF ANITA SARKEESIAN

Dear Sheelah Kolhatkar: Yesterday, my attention was drawn to your extraordinary profile of video game critic Anita Sarkeesian, which is to be a cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek. On Twitter I intemperately called it a "grotesquely shoddy work of credulous, ridiculous fangirlism." On reflection, I conclude I did not go far enough.
Since you have failed to perform a basic survey of the literature surrounding the GamerGate controversy, or, worse, purposefully elected to exclude it from your reporting, and since you have placed your critical faculties on ice in the manner the "listen and believe" feminists are always so insistent on?largely, it turns out, because their claims don't stack up?allow me to sketch out the real reasons Sarkeesian is controversial in the video games industry, and, to fill in the blanks in your writing, to explain why her ideas are so universally loathed among gamers.

[Tonio]

Nice. Not that it's going to do any good whatsoever.

FWIW, I've never been a fan of the "open letter" format. Just write the damn article.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Ditto. Maybe the author thinks they're more likely to get a reply or something.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anita Sarkeesian is loathed because 1) She's the very definition of an empty suit. She is merely a product, funded, produced, and controlled by men. Yay GRRL POWAH! 2) The content produced by men that she ejaculates into the universe is boilerplate progressive tripe; Everything is a teachable moment, everything should be propaganda, stop having fun, guys, and learn the One True Way.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Gangnam Style just broke Youtube's view counter. "

Nonsense. I heard that Kim Kardashian's ass broke the internet last week.

[jesse.in.mb]

Variants of "broke the internet" are going to be the -gate suffix.

[jesse.in.mb]

*new* -gate suffix

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Eh. It was all hype anyway. If people want to see her ass, they can download her sex tape.

Besides, the last incident to actually "break the internet" was when Michael Jackson died.

[SERENITY NOW!]

Nonsense. I heard that Kim Kardashian's ass broke the internet last week.

The only thing that Kim Kardashian's ass breaks is wind.

[Rich]

Gangnam Style just broke Youtube's view counter.

*Now* can we use hexadecimal scientific notation?

[Carl ?s the level]

This is a matter of the width of the integer holding the view count, not the human-readable representation.

[Tonio]

You mean like the one's take up less space than the fatter numerals?

[Tonio]

/joke

[Rich]

Oh, Carl -- you're such a nitpicker!

[Winston]

So the UVA Rape story. I'll be honest that I was neutral on it until the author responded to the hoax allegations with fake but accurate and "I don't know what happened" and "something happened". Pretty fishy.

Also according to the interwebs the Frat has claimed that no frat brother matches Drew's description and that no party occurred on the supposed date. However I also read that supposedly a frat brother matching his description has been found. However this wouldn't prove that he is Drew or that he is guilty.

Also some Reasonoids suspect that Jackie may be a hoax herself. Considering how campus activist have made up racist vandalism I suppose we can't rule that out. Has the UVA, along with Dean Eramo, said that "Jackie" actually exists?

[Brett L]

The point is that if gang rape is a horrible crime that deserves all of the approbation and punishment society heaps on it, then false accusations of such (even if some form of date rape took place) smearing an entire group of men is nearly as heinous. Also, it can only serve to make people skeptical of the actual horrors that do occur from time to time in society.

[LynchPin1477]

A lot of people would have to be lying for Jackie to be entirely fictional. Several people have come forward saying they are friends or that they have talked to her.

[trshmnster the terrible]

If I had to wager, I would say that Jackie is real, Drew is real, something happened, but not necessarily at a party, she was offended by what happened (whether or not it was criminal), her friends didn't find whatever it was to be worth their time, and she embellished it to make herself feel like the victim even though her friends, Drew, and the school found it not worth investigating.

[HazelMeade]

My bet is that she left out a huge gap in between "entered a darkened room" and "someone bumped into her and she fell through a glass table top".

That gap involving a lot of people getting high and wasted, including herself.

Maybe she really was gang-raped. Just much, much, later when she was drunk and stoned and too wasted to consent. And then she modified and embellished the story to make it look premeditated.

I'm willing to believe that a wasted guy bumps into a wasted girl at a raging frat party and falls on top of her and gang-rape ensues.

It's the whole "i was lured there under false pretenses and they tackled me from the get go" that sounds improbable.

[PBR Streetgang]

A guy matching Drew's three data points was ID'd on line. He was 1) UV.A '14, 2) Phi Psi brother, was definitely a high level competitive swimmer but claim that this person worked at Aquatic Center was unsourced. The guy ID'd shutdown all his social media accounts after the RS story broke.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Interesting. Do you have a link?

I'm just now starting to follow this story. I'm not sure why, but I find it interesting when people defend something that they know is a lie.

[PBR Streetgang]

Run searches on Fairfaxunderground website. No clue if this person IS who Jackie is referring to, but certain elements of the internet seem to believe so.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Our beloved Robby Soave took a lot of shit over his article yesterday.

It's pretty clear that a lot of feminists are starting to realize that this story isn't true at all, and they're circling the wagons and going into attack mode.
It's a very stupid course of action, and works against the very cause that they claim to support.

[GILMORE]

"they're circling the wagons and going into attack mode"

A lot of what i'm seeing is actually rhetorical attempts to claim that "its not about the 'event' at all -

"its about the toxic culture that surrounds women trying to come forward and report rape = which the current over-reaction to her potential lies currently PROVES: that we have an 'unwelcoming, hostile culture'..."

IOW, change the subject, pretend the point of contention is something else, maintain the morally-superior posture pretending that they care so DEEPLY that they can see the truth beyond the lies..etc.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I haven't come across that. Yet. But I've only argued about it with 2 people so far, and I was drinking both times.

[GILMORE]

On the relative merit of "Truth" verus "Utility"

""For readers, believing "Jackie" (or any woman) when she says someone did something terrible to her is not the same thing as sending "Drew" to jail. It just means following Erdely in the (still, apparently, radical) move of taking a traumatized young woman at her word.

At this point, the benefits of believing Jackie if she is telling the truth (forcing reform at UVA, encouraging other women to come forward) outweigh the risks of believing Jackie if she is lying (unnecessary wariness about Phi Kappa Psi)." "

'the risks' here of course being that ...oh, maybe we force the Federal Government to turn public universities into mini police-states, that sexual conduct be criminalized by default, that men be put in a position where they are assumed guilty unless proven otherwise, and so on. "Little things" that have no real costs. Nevermind that we also would be encouraging women to similarly falsely accuse men, knowing that the pressure to accept their account as 'true' by default would be overwhelming.

[Suthenboy]

Holy crap. Pascal's wager.

In what way is progressive feminism not a religion?

[Mickey Rat]

You are perfectly free to take someone at their word if there are no consequences to other people expected to come from it. The Rolling Stone article was taking a position that UVA must do something about what allegedly happened.

Cakes cannot be kept and eaten simultaneously.

[HazelMeade]

If this turns out to be a false accusation that would rather reinforce the validity of NOT responding to every rape accusation with immediate criminal charges and expulsions.

[Coeus]

SJWs don't care if it's true or not.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

In the interest of creating an open dialogue:

"There are no approved replies for this post. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material."

What a fucking joke.

[GILMORE]

I find it hilarious that Gawker/Jezebel will publish 'articles' saying things like "DEATH IS TOO GOOD FOR FRAT BOY SCUM!" and then pretend to be monitoring their comments for "potentially offensive" material

The simply police out comments that actually point out what fools they are. its nothing to do with 'propriety'; its about creating the appearance of a consensus.

I see it all over the place. They weed out the *articulate* disagreement. They leave in the sputtering vituperation, because it fits the image of what they expect their 'critics' to look like.

[Coeus]

Actually, that one is kosher. Someone was posting xxx gifs all over the gawker network recently, so they put that in to thwart it.

But I know of what you speak, and it is rampant.

[Suthenboy]

I got banned from Jezebel and Gawker after posting a single comment on each.

I am so proud.

[GILMORE]

I've scored a one-post ban on RawStory, Pando and Wonkette

I think that means i'm beating you by 2, (since Jezzy/Gawker is the same owners)

BURN!

[Suthenboy]

Dammit!

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor 22-year-old learns the true consequences of being falsely accused: He can't cash in on the Manhattan's booming real-estate market!

This sticks out to me because it is so thoroughly indicative of contemporary Progressives. Their concept of persuasive writing and arguing amounts to nothing but childishly taunting people who oppose them.

[Injun, as in from India]

we're backed into the corner of hoping someone was gang-raped on broken glass ? and how can that possibly constitute a happy ending? If anything, we should hope that Jackie is lying. Then exactly zero lives will have been ruined in this story.

The UVA Gang-Rape Backlash Is a Trap for Feminists

[trshmnster the terrible]

Then exactly zero lives will have been ruined in this story.

Bull! Shit! The frat, and all the guys attending the frat will have this hung over their heads like the Duke lacrosse guys do to this day. Jackie will be unemployable. UVA will take a hit. The journalist will get off with no harm, but she would deserve to be fired and blacklisted in the industry.

If Jackie lied, a lot of damage is already done. If Jackie told the truth, even more damage is done. Both scenarios deserve justice.

[LynchPin1477]

Erdely wrote the piece in such a way that she and Rolling Stone ? not Jackie and Drew ? are the ones who will be most damaged by a false report

Actually, Erdely and RS don't have the most to lose. RS is already preaching to the choir, and unless Ederly completely made things up, she'll be able to claim that she is only guilty of trusting too much. She'll work again at a like-minded magazine or website.

The people who have the most to lose *if* these accusations are false are people who actually have been violently raped but find it that much harder to convince others because someone else cried wolf.

[Coeus]

At this point, the benefits of believing Jackie if she is telling the truth (forcing reform at UVA, encouraging other women to come forward) outweigh the risks of believing Jackie if she is lying (unnecessary wariness about Phi Kappa Psi).

[Mike M.]

Man, I fear the worst for what might happen in New York City tonight.

The situation in this country just gets more depressing by the day.

[Winston]

You Know Which Other Democrats in NYC rioted over police behaviour?

[Rich]

Big Gulp drinkers?

[John]

Really? I would be surprised if anything happens. The Feguson riots were nothing but rent a mobs brought in by the Left. The left doesn't give a shit about this case. The guy was a tax evader and deserved to be killed in their eyes. So I can't see them bringing out the mob.

[Invisible Finger]

Plus they don't want to give the prog-haven of NYC a moment of world-wide embarrassment. Ferguson isn't on any proggies list of tourist towns so flame-on.

[Carl ?s the level]

Nature articles will now be kinda-sorta-free.

You can view but not print or save them if they are shared with you by someone with a subscription or at a select media organization.

[Tonio]

There's plenty of browser add-ins which can turn a page into a .pdf. Plus, if they have some sort of obnoxious DRM you can take a series of screen shots and then have Acrobat OCR the text.

[Carl ?s the level]

From my brief look at their "ReadCube" software existing save-to-PDF extensions probably won't do you much good, though I haven't given it a try.

But yes, you are correct, as a general principle, if it's on your screen, you can get it, in some form. I meant "can" in terms of what you are permitted to do, not what is technically possible to do.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My macbook has a built in save-to-PDF. If it's in my web browser, it can be PDF'ed.

[LynchPin1477]

At least in my field, everyone posts versions to arxiv.org for free anyway.

[jesse.in.mb]

ATLAH minister James Manning continues to be crazy with his sodomite semen in Starbucks lattes thing. He dryly reads a cease and desist letter until about the 5:40 mark).

They do put semen in their lattes. They do you know. Most of it is synthetic. It has a synthetic quality to it but they do. They haves tested out. And like any entrepreneur looking for an edge like Coca-Cola during the years of its early marketing of Coca-Cola put cocaine in its drinks and people loved that

If you're drinking Starbucks, watch out if you're a woman. You might just get pregnant by drinking Starbucks. Because they've got some pretty potent semen in their drinks. And you will go home and tell your husband that you're pregnant and he'll say, 'But we haven't had sexual intercourse in years! Where did you get pregnant? Is it an immaculate conception?' NO! It was one of Starbucks' lattes that impregnated you! Me? I'm James David Manning, everybody. I'm the lord's servant."

Idiot, attention whore, professional troll, all of the above?

[John]

Wow. I mean just wow. That is some real crazy. You don't see good old fashioned conspiracy theory crazy much anymore.

[trshmnster the terrible]

9/11 truthers? Some of the more fringe anti-GMO nuts? The Kochspiracists?

[John Titor]

David Icke and the whole Lizard people thing?

[jesse.in.mb]

Not that crazy, bro.

[John Titor]

That's not a Lizard person, that's clearly a Bug in a redneck suit.

[jesse.in.mb]

That works too. I'm just saying as long as Filner walks the earth, I won't tell anyone who believes in lizard people infiltrating the government that they're crazy.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I'm just glad that my escaped pet iguana has made a life for himself.

[John]

Does he talk about the Golden Girls making everyone who watched it gay? Of course that conspiracy theory is true but I still wonder if he knows about it.

[Brett L]

Anything about CATS or [EMPIRE] in there?

[Rich]

Hey, I saw HERCULE yesterday in the donation banner.

Could it ??. nah.

[Binjelli]

Goddammit I read that as "They have testes it out."

[JEP]

Geez, with those thinking skills how does the guy open doors for himself?

[Brett L]

HE doesn't, too many queer germs. He pays someone to do that for him.

[trshmnster the terrible]

He has a perpetual broken nose.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

And all this time I was busy brewing my own "lattes"?

[Aloysious]

d) all of the above

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Troll? Is anyone taking the bait? He's a prima facie retard.

[SugarFree]

Idiot, attention whore, professional troll, all of the above?

You left out "wants to be face down in a bucket of deep-fried cock, but refuses to admit it to himself."

The gay-baiters always wind up being found with a twink intern or a rentboy sprinkled with meth.

[Brett L]

Yeah, this reads like a guy who hopes the well built lad behind the coffee bar is sneaking something into his latte every day.

[jesse.in.mb]

It's powerful synthetic super semen that can impregnate you by swallowing it.

[SugarFree]

Are you surprised he has no idea how breeders work?

[jesse.in.mb]

Fair point.

[John]

Yeah, there is a lot of wish fulfillment going on there.

[Trouser-Pod]

He's...uh, claiming "Synth-jizz"? Am I reading that right?

I didn't know it had coffe applications!

[Trouser-Pod]

Dammit...coffee*

[jesse.in.mb]

Not just synth-jizz, they've synthesized *sodomite* semen which is ultra potent and will get you pregnant if swallowed.

It's like when Coca-Cola had actual cocaine in it. Consumers cannot get enough.

If anyone needs a hit, contact me, I've got plenty of the natural, fair-trade stuff.

[Zeb]

That is really something. Synthetic semen that gets you pregnant if you drink it.

[Mickey Rat]

He found Starbuck's contract with certain farm in Smallville, Kansas. It is a sinister plan to revive the Kryptonian species.

[Injun, as in from India]

When a GOP aide makes a nasty Facebook post about the Obama daughters, you get 2.54 MILLION articles about it.

https://www.google.com/#q="elizabeth+lauten"

When a Democrat aide pleads guilty to sexual assault, you get 5100 articles.

https://www.google.com/#q="donny+ray+williams"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://bit.ly/1yhEgxs

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Kinda SF'd

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Use mine. Same point as IFI.

[SugarFree]

The Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice had issues with handling guns during his brief tenure with a suburban police department.

A Nov. 29, 2012 letter contained in Tim Loehmann's personnel file from the Independence Police Department says that during firearms qualification training he was "distracted" and "weepy."

"He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal," according to the letter written by Deputy Chief Jim Polak of the Independence police.

The letter recommended that the department part ways with Loehmann, who went on to become a police officer with the Cleveland Division of Police.

"I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies," Polak said.

The bravest and the bluest boy of them all.

[Warty]

That's fucking weird. I wonder if he was a vet with some untreated PTSD or if he was just a plain old crazy fuck.

[Suthenboy]

Wow, that is...more than a little odd.

I certainly wouldn't want that guy carrying around me.

[Andrew S.]

I love living near Fort Lauderdale. Truly.

Instead of allowing people to charitably feed the homeless, the local government's way to help out the homeless seems to be to tax everybody in the county instead. Because government's going to be much better at helping people out than charities are.

[HazelMeade]

The University of Virginia gang rape story published by Rolling Stone is now facing all kinds of criticism. But it seems the local police aren't actually doing much about it yet.

Considering nobody actually knows who the accused are, it would be pretty hard to investigate, methinks.

[GILMORE]

interestingly - it appears she hasn't even made a statement to police yet.

" Captain Gary Pleasants said he could not confirm that a formal investigation was underway and reiterated a previous statement that the department was "evaluating the next steps." He added, "In most cases, a formal investigation would be launched when a victim of a crime or witness to that crime makes a report to the police.""

[GILMORE]

re: the Time piece which notes that it appears that "Jackie" has not even made a formal complaint/statement to police yet...

Scroll through those articles and see the sequence of Conclusion-Drawing Headlines that have been been generated so far by this increasingly-dubious case of 'Campus Rape' =

No Formal Police Investigation Yet in UVA Rape Case
(read = it seems 'Jackie' *still* has not bothered to contact law enforcement)

The Problem With Frats Isn't Just Rape. It's Power.
UVA President: Eliminate All Booze Except Beer
UVA President Unveils Plan To Protect Women on Campus
Report of Gang Rape at Virginia University Reignites Debate on Campus Sexual Assault
Colleges Are Breaking the Law on Sex Crimes, Report Says
Why Victims of Rape in College Don't Report to the Police
Here's the Real Reason College Sex Assault Reports are Rising
Mariska Hargitay: 'Society Continues to Misplace Blame on Survivors'
Gloria Allred: The Battle Over Sexual Assault is the 'Civil Rights Movement of Our Time'
Caitlin Flanagan: We Need Transparency on the Issue of Fraternity Rape

Should anyone be surprised by the fact that the Rolling Stone writer went actively out looking for "Frat Rape" stories?

I will reiterate for the millionth time = the "data" suggesting that there's even anything like a 'problem' of 'sexual assault on campus'? Is not just incredibly dubious - its almost created out of thin air. Why is THAT not a 'story'?

[Zeb]

Needs more quotes.

But good question.