Taliban Storm Pakistani School, John Yoo Says CIA Torturers 'At Risk Legally', Where Have All the Fact Checkers Gone?: A.M. Links

• 

  DonkeyHotey/Flickr

  Taliban gunmen attacked a Pakistani public school Tuesday morning, killing at least 126 people—mostly children and teens—at the military-run facility.

• John Yoo, a primary author of the Bush-era Justice Department memos authorizing torture, gave a 'whoa, if true' to the Senate report on CIA interrogation practices and suggested that CIA agents may be "at risk legally."
• Google says death threats don't trump copyright.
• New York magazine's tale of a boy-wonder investor worth $72 million turns out to have been completely false.
• The Senate confirmed 37-year-old Vivek Murthy—founder of the pro-Obamacare group Doctors for America and an advocate for gun control—as surgeon general on Monday night, overcoming strong opposition from the National Rifle Association and Republican leaders.
• Do workers suffer when big chain stores overtake small, indie retailers? Not as far as wages are concerned, Stanford researchers have found.
• Pregnant women addicted to opioids in Tennessee say they're avoiding prenatal care now that the state has criminalized giving birth to a baby that tests positive for drugs. One of the mothers that was arrested committed suicide in November.
• Why are China's largest state-owned property developers investing in affordable housing in Brooklyn?

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Comments

[Just a thought not a sermon]

12) So one thing I've read in a couple places lately is that the reason fraternities have so much social power on college campuses is because it is a place for those under 21 to drink; therefore, it might make sense to lower the drinking age to 18 to break the power of the fraternities. I don't think this analysis is wrong, although as a former fraternity guy myself I don't much like the tone of it. But never mind that, I wonder why we need a drinking age at all? I mean, it's not an illegal product, and as things stand now it's not difficult for a teen-ager who really wants it to get alcohol. So let's eliminate the whole charade. Bring back student-oriented bars and university-sponsored events with drinking, where students can imbibe in the company of adults. And why not allow parents to decide what goes on their own homes, including whether teen-agers under their roof can drink? It would certainly be safer than teens out drinking on their own without their parents' knowledge. And if you're out of your parents' house, whether in college or with a job, you should be able to make your own decisions about what you consume.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

What happened to fact-checking in journalism?

[UnCivilServant]

What happened to the commentariat? It's been too quiet around here.

[Lord Humungus]

very odd.

[Ted S.]

I think it has something to do with yesterday's double-posting of Mourning Lynxes?

[UnCivilServant]

They've been lost in the AEther?

[Lord Humungus]

new foil-hat theory: we're actually infested with double agents. Their internet connection went down for the first time.

[Kaptious Kristen]

new foil-hat theory: we're actually infested with double agents. Their internet connection went down for the first time.

Well, the main State Dept building lost power most of yesterday....*cue Twilight Zone music*

[Mock-star]

perhaps they are too busy working at home for 76 dollars an hour.

[seguin]

Our reality has been sundered in twain...only FoE can pass through the Gillespie-Kennedy Membrane and traverse the two universes.

That or we're all just really tired.

[TwB]

I think the pros of lowering the drinking age to 18 outweigh the current cons.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Definitely. I just don't know why we need one at all. Certainly, it should be set by the states and not the federal government, but I also don't see why the states shouldn't just leave it up to parents.

[TwB]

Because a state gov't, like any gov't, likes to have power over the populace. So they could lower the drinking age to 18, but not do away with it completely because that would require folks to be responsible for themselves, and the gov't can't have that.

[Irish]

"So one thing I've read in a couple places lately is that the reason fraternities have so much social power on college campuses is because it is a place for those under 21 to drink; therefore, it might make sense to lower the drinking age to 18 to break the power of the fraternities."

On a lot of campuses you're not allowed to drink at Sororities because of idiotic, anachronistic propriety. If you're actually worried about frats having too much power on the social scene, allowing Sororities to host their own parties would do a great deal to alleviate that issue.

[Mokers]

At my school, it was partly the drinking age, but also largely because of the limited housing options around campus. At least at smaller schools, greek houses can be 20% or more of the available on campus housing available to upperclassmen.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

12) So one thing I've read in a couple places lately is that the reason fraternities

Wait-a-minute! Reason has fraternities?

I knew they were rape supporters!

[Lord Humungus]

66 years ago, beavers parachuted into Idaho's backcountry

With Geronimo's help, Fish and Game learned that the best launch height was between 500 and 800 feet because it allowed the chute to open properly and still maintain some accuracy in placement of the bewildered beavers in the selected meadow.

In 1948, Fish and Game dropped 76 beavers in the backcountry. There was only one fatality, a beaver that "jumped or fell" from his box at about 75 feet.

A year later, observations showed that all airborne transplants were successful. "Beavers had built dams, constructed houses, stored up food, and were well on their way to producing colonies," Heter wrote.

Heter said the transplanting effort showed a marked savings over mules, claiming that the expense of moving four beavers was $30.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

76 beavers to the tune of 76 Trombones

[SweatingGin]

God as my witness, I thought beavers could fly.

[WTF]

One of the funniest sitcom moments ever.

[BigT]

It's raining beavers!

That will empty your frat.

[seguin]

Very misleading headline. I was thinking it had something to do with keeping lumberjacks happy.

[Lord Humungus]

Amanda Marcotte: 5 things women wish men knew about sex

1. We can tell when you're doing something because you saw it in a porno.

2. Endurance is overrated.

3. We actually do know what will get us to orgasm.

4. "Getting there" is more trouble than it's worth.

5. Our bodies are very sensitive when aroused, so err on the gentle side.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I thought Marcotte didn't like male dicks in her vagina.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Amanda has alluded on occasion to having a boyfriend. I suspect, and I hope for his sake, that her public persona is manufactured for maximum outrage and that in her personal life she is quite a bit different.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Anybody stupid enough to date her gets what they deserve.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That would then make her more evil than the people she's attacking.

[anon]

I refuse to believe any man could stick his dick in that and not commit suicide. I want to call it "grief-banging."

[db]

+1 cyborg Russian bride

[seguin]

6. All PIV is rape.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Meh.

But #2 is true.

[Coeus]

I was shocked at how much a long term girlfriend was pleased when I started comming fast after a surgery.

Of course, I -do- sweat a lot.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I bet the doctors and nurses were surprised too.

[The Male Gaze?]

I'm sure nobody will see this now but bravo.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I didn't think they could do it but the Taliban have sunk humanity to lower ends.

Wow.

I just don't understand why Pakistan tolerates and enables them. WIPE the fuckers out.

[DontShootMe]

Well, half the ISI (Pakistani intelligence) and probably big chunks of the Pakistani govt are composed by Taliban members, so their hands are full.

[Ted S.]

Look at the things "average" Pakistanis do to couples that marry for love instead of marrying the person selected for them, or commit "blasphemy".

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

While I generally dislike collectivizing, I generally find Pakis to be reprobates.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

generally speaking of course. dammit, where's my coffee

[Drake]

Hey, we tolerate Socialists and Marxists in our population. We would be better off too just wiping them out or putting them all in a camp somewhere - maybe Seattle.

[Irish]

Socialists and Marxists periodically stoke riots, break some windows, maybe set some fires.

I don't think they've ever massacred 100 civilians in this country, unlike what the Taliban just did.

[Drake]

They aren't generally much trouble until they actually take over - then we count the bodies by the millions.

[seguin]

I'm pretty sure that's a matter of ability, not willingness.

[BigT]

Socialists and Marxists periodically stoke riots, break some windows, maybe set some fires.

And THAT is what keeps our economy ticking.

[TwB]

I think Pakistan tolerates the Taliban because they have a dump truck full of money that they deliver from time to time to some powerful folks within the Pakistani government. Why do you think they harbored Osama Bin Laden for so long?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And now they have the souls of dead children on their conscience.

[TwB]

Indeed. They will wipe away tears w/ money. Because they are fucking sociopaths.

[WTF]

Psychopaths have no conscience.

[Tonio]

You assume that they have consciences.

[Lord Humungus]

As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up

Although fears that technology will displace jobs are at least as old as the Luddites, there are signs that this time may really be different. The technological breakthroughs of recent years ? allowing machines to mimic the human mind ? are enabling machines to do knowledge jobs and service jobs, in addition to factory and clerical work.

And over the same 15-year period that digital technology has inserted itself into nearly every aspect of life, the job market has fallen into a long malaise. Even with the economy's recent improvement, the share of working-age adults who are working is substantially lower than a decade ago ? and lower than any point in the 1990s.

Economists long argued that, just as buggy-makers gave way to car factories, technology would create as many jobs as it destroyed. Now many are not so sure.

[anon]

Although fears that technology will displace jobs are at least as old as the Luddites, there are signs that this time may really be different.

lol'd

[UnCivilServant]

The structural change in employment only exists in case where there are actually new uses for labor generated. We have passed the point of diminishing returns there, as now even the vaunted "service industry" where everyone seemed convinced that displaced productive workers could transition to is being automated out of existence.

So now that we don't make anything, and we don't do menial tasks for others, what is left? Where is the demand for labor? You have to remember the vast majority of these people do not have an entrepreneurial spirit and just want to do a job for renumeration and can't or won't do anything innovative themselves. Where do the followers, aka the vast majority of the workforce, go now?

[Irish]

These jobs aren't being automated out of existence. Unemployment was low throughout most of the decade of the 00's - consistently lower, in fact, than unemployment had been in the 70's and early-80's.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites.....014/01/LFP Participation.jpg

Here's the labor force participation rate since 1978. You will notice that it peaks in the late 90's/early 00's, but that even in 2006-2007 it was higher than it had been at any point between 1978 and 1990. The collapse in LFP only occurs after the recession.

This implies that the lack of work is the direct result of the recession, not automation.

[UnCivilServant]

Since the automation I'm most interested is just being rolled out I'm more interested in what people will be doing over the 2015-2025 time span.

I can't even name ten actually productive businesses that make something tangible in my neck of the woods. The already half-dead local economy looks like a bubble of fake dollars just waiting to pop since nothing real is getting produced.

Maybe I just lack vision, but I still can't see where people will be after we get further and further automated.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There will be a market for fixing things for a very long time to come.

[db]

Make sure you.fill out you 27b/6.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone.

[Juice]

Fixing what? We just had to replace a washing machine because fixing it would cost more than buying a brand new one. A new one that will last 5 years if we're lucky.

[Ted S.]

You mean Startup NY hasn't produced any productive businesses?

/sarcasm

[Irish]

Okay, but that's all theoretical and there's no evidence to support your worries.

Technology which could automate certain aspects of the service economy existed during the period in which we had the highest LFP in our history. Again, the entire large decline occurred right after the recession. Until we see an actual decline which is not directly attributable to a recession, it makes no sense to assume it's related to automation.

[anon]

So now that we don't make anything, and we don't do menial tasks for others, what is left?

Who knows? Man's natural state is that of seeking productivity, generally speaking. Who knew the iPod would create demand for something nobody knew existed?

Also, you'd be completely ignoring who would maintain, manage & develop automated systems.

[UnCivilServant]

Also, you'd be completely ignoring who would maintain, manage & develop automated systems.

Which strikes me as a markedly smaller set of people, as the output reaches market saturation levels.

[anon]

People develop the skills necessary for survival, whether it's hunting food or fixing robots.

[UnCivilServant]

That's not what I meant. I meant that the saturation levels of the products produced would require fewer automation maintenence and development workers than the available supply of labor would be willing to provide.

[anon]

I disagree. I wish I were at lunch/had time to go into detail, but basically as shit gets cheaper people find things to make that machines simply can't do (yet, anyways).

AI is the only thing that would have me -slightly- worried.

[John]

I agree with anon. This is why I think Tyler Cowen is an idiot. He assumes that people will just quietly go off to unemployment rather than inventing new jobs for themselves they way they have after every technological revolution in the past. Time will tell but I see no reason to believe that to be true.

People always crave status. So even though something gets so cheap to produce it is virtually cost free, people will just demand something special to make their widget special and different from the widget everyone else has.

To me the future of the economy is seen in miniature in the watch industry. The watch industry according to Cowen's logic should have died decades ago. Starting in the 1970s, you could buy a quartz watch that is more accurate than any mechanical watch every made for virtually noting. Yet, today the mechanical watch business is still here and doing better than ever. Why? Because once the high end technology got so affordable everyone could have it, people demand the old handmade technology as a way of distinguishing themselves. That is going to happen with a lot of products. The future economy will be a mix of highly mechanized super efficient companies making ultra cheap and efficient products for the masses and craftsman making old school products selling status.

[BigT]

Starting in the 1970s, you could buy a quartz watch that is more accurate than any mechanical watch every made for virtually noting. Yet, today the mechanical watch business is still here and doing better than ever. Why?

Hipsters will drive the economy! I knew it. Find ways to recycle PBR cans and you will like like a king forever.

[Restoras]

It's not hipsters driving the mechanical watch market. It has become a status symbol for successful men, especially the automatic variety.

[Lord Humungus]

There can only be so many niche upscale products - but it is true to a certain degree.

Like the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500 being upscale subcompacts. That's a new market.

Or selling tube amplifiers with measurably worse performance than a mass-market receiver.

[John]

There can only be so many niche upscale products

Why? There are six billion people in the world, every one with their own opinions and tastes. Why is there some natural limit to niche or upscale products?

You like your old school amplifiers. I like my old school watches or cars. Someone else wants a hand made dress and so forth. I don't see a limit to it at all, especially in a world where mechanization provides our basic needs.

[BigT]

People develop the skills necessary for survival, whether it's hunting food or fixing robots or living off of others.

[Fluffy]

The labor force malaise since 2008 is much more connected to the fact that the credit and asset price bubble wasn't allowed to actually deflate and we've never had the necessary balance sheet liquidations / clean-ups that would allow the economy to move forward.

Look at LFP in 2014 and trying to identify the long-term trend for employment is like looking at LFP in 1936 and trying to identify the long-term trend in employment.

The fact that you can't imagine what jobs people will do in the future is irrelevant. By definition, you are less creative than the millions of people making individual decisions in the market. In order to predict what jobs would exist in 2014 in 1974, I would have to have been smarter than everyone in the tech sector put together, and I would have had to anticipate every last thing someone in tech might do. OF COURSE I can't do that, and neither can you.

[John]

All of that and the giant cost uncertainty created by Obamacare. You should not underestimate the damage passing Obamacare did to the labor market. They passed this giant law that was going to affect the labor costs of nearly every employer in America but they put off the implementation for five years and to this day still having written all of the implementing regulations.

No employer in America has had any certainty about the marginal cost of hiring more employees since they passed that monstrosity in 2010. Without cost certainty you can't plan. If you can't plan, you can't expand. So, companies have taken their profits and sat on them rather than expanding like they would have in a normal recover.

[anon]

No employer in America has had any certainty about the marginal cost of hiring more employees since they passed that monstrosity in 2010. Without cost certainty you can't plan. If you can't plan, you can't expand.

I'm pretty sure if you go back to 2008 every single one of us commenting here was parroting this exact line.

It's a fucking shame nobody will listen to you if you aren't on their TEAM.

[John]

The really depressing thing is that it is not hard to figure that out. You don't need a PHD in economics to see how this was going to work. You just need some common sense and to put a little thought into it.

Yet, people in government in the media who pride themselves on their credentials and being the "elite" and smarter than us proles can't understand it. It is not that they are dishonest and won't admit it, though some probably are. Most of it is that they are all too clever by half and rationalize themselves into believing utter fucking nonsense because it fits what they want to believe.

[BigT]

You don't need a PHD in economics to see how this was going to work. You just need some common sense and to put a little thought into it.

That's why it took a PhD in economics - at MIT no less - to obfuscate it so all of us dopes couldn't figure it out.

[John]

We were not the dopes who couldn't figure it out. The funny thing about Gruber is that he didn't call conservatives or even the American public stupid, though he no doubt intended to do at least the latter. Conservatives and a large majority of the general public have always seen Obamacare for what it is. The only people who were fooled were liberals and journalists.

Megan McCardle tried to defend Gruber as a "smart well meaning guy". She just can't help but defend top men with credentials. What made it funny was that McCardle is exactly the kind of person Gruber is calling stupid. She wrote all kinds of "on the other hand" obfuscations and all kinds of "Obamcare will bend the cost curve and is better than the current system even though it is not perfect" soft peddling bullshit when that bill was being debated. She is exactly the kind of stupid person Gruber set out to fool. And she loves him anyway.

[Heedless]

At the risk of turning into some sort of white knight, I should point out that McArdle has been pointing out the flaws and dishonesty inherent in Obamacare since the beginning. What she has not been willing to do is to attack the motives of Obamacare's architects. Whether that is a strategic decision or a point of principle, I'm not sure, but don't mistake it for any sort of support of the law.

[Irish]

"And over the same 15-year period that digital technology has inserted itself into nearly every aspect of life, the job market has fallen into a long malaise. Even with the economy's recent improvement, the share of working-age adults who are working is substantially lower than a decade ago ? and lower than any point in the 1990s."

I like that they use the fact that the economy is in a malaise AFTER THE WORST RECESSION IN 80 YEARS as evidence that the robots turk err jerbs.

Isn't it more likely that the economy is in a slump and people aren't working because we had a bad recession and the government responded by immediately restructuring the health care market, thus introducing incredible amounts of uncertainty into the labor market and making it so that employers are hesitant to hire?

That would be impossible though, because it would imply this is partially the Democrats' fault.

[Matrix]

Well, since you don't have to pay robot workers, and since they don't have other overhead expenses related to personnel, companies can price their products at a very reduced cost, especially as fewer humans are involved from beginning to end.

[wadair]

Economists long argued that, just as buggy-makers gave way to car factories, technology would create as many jobs as it destroyed. Now many are not so sure.

It takes a while, maybe a generation. One of the main factors of the Great Depression was technological displacement from inventions that came a generation earlier: telephone, electric/gasoline motors, and the automobile, for example. There were plenty of disruptions in the nineteenth century that could've put much of the population out of work, but here we are more than a century later with those ninety-some percent who used to work in agriculture doing something in services and technologies that did not then exist.

LFP will increase, but it will take awhile.

[Lord Humungus]

100 years ago:

WW1: Survivors recall Hartlepool naval bombardment

On the morning of 16 December 1914, the shipping town of Hartlepool in north-east England was bombarded by the German Navy during its first attack on the UK's home front during World War One.

During the 40-minute attack, 1,150 shells were fired, devastating large areas of the town. It left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured.

[Coeus]

Christ on a cracker

Is there anything funnier than a truly evil person whining that he's misunderstood? I don't usually consider people truly evil very often, but people who deliberately try to confuse the public about reality?climate change denialists, rape denialists, Holocaust denialists?for their own nefarious ends definitely cross the line into truly evil. And that includes the the Koch brothers, oil billionaires who spend boggling amounts of money trying to trick people into thinking that global warming isn't real. All to protect their own interests even though, as billionaires, they could literally give up ever making another dime and wouldn't even really notice because they are so rich there is no way to spend it all, even if they wanted to. But David Koch just wants our love:

[Coeus]

Here's the thing about men like David Koch: Making money is basically just a video game to them. For the rest of us, making money is about being able to pay for things we need and want, such as rent and food and actual video games. But David Koch has made so much money that he literally cannot spend it all. There is nothing he would want to buy he cannot already afford. The only purpose at this point in making more money is for the pleasure of beating your high score. In other words, it really is just a very consuming video game. But unlike when you kill people in Call of Duty or crush candies in Candy Crush, the game David Koch is playing is very real. Millions of people will suffer and die because he wants to "win" his video game by manipulating the public to avoid taking action on global warming. That is evil and hateful and selfish on a level that puts the word "selfish" to shame.

[Drake]

You here by mistake?

[Ted S.]

Considering that Coeus used the text "Christ on a cracker" for the link, I have a feeling he doesn't believe the derp he's posting.

[Coeus]

lurk more

[Tonio]

Burn!

[anon]

Millions of people will suffer and die because he wants to "win" his video game by manipulating the public to avoid taking action on global warming.

wow. I have no words for this level of derp. And to think, just days ago I had thought peak had been reached.

Boy was I wrong.

[Coeus]

I like this one the best:

climate change denialists, rape denialists, Holocaust denialists?for their own nefarious ends definitely cross the line into truly evil.

tha fuck is a rape denialist?

[tarran]

I guess Barry the Conservative for asserting he never had anything to do with Lena Durham and asking her to stop publicly fantasizing about his dong.

[WTF]

A rape denialist is what they call people who believe accusations should be backed by some actual evidence.

[UnCivilServant]

Someone who lets facts get in the way of the rape culture narrative.

[seguin]

Those ratfucking teabaggers with their stupid due process, the shitlords.

[Ted S.]

No one can ever attain Peak Derp.

[Charles Easterly]

"No one can ever attain Peak Derp."

Ted, I am slowly arriving at this depressing realization.

I'm still struggling not to accept it, but I'm getting there regardless.

[CatoTheElder]

I don't call usually consider people truly retarded very often, but people who write such drivel definitely cross the line into truly retarded. Or, maybe demented.

Seriously, the writer understands absolutely nothing. I originally wrote that she understands nothing about the motivation of David Koch, but it is worse than that: she understands absolutely nothing, not even the imaginary world that exists in her dimwitted skull.

[Monty Crisco]

IN 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus inaugurated a grand tradition of environmentalism with his best-selling pamphlet on population. Malthus argued with impeccable logic but distinctly peccable premises that since population tended to increase geometrically (1,2,4,8 ) and food supply to increase arithmetically (1,2,3,4 ), the starvation of Great Britain was inevitable and imminent. Almost everybody thought he was right. He was wrong.
In 1865 an influential book by Stanley Jevons argued with equally good logic and equally flawed premises that Britain would run out of coal in a few short years' time. In 1914, the United States Bureau of Mines predicted that American oil reserves would last ten years. In 1939 and again in 1951, the Department of the Interior said American oil would last 13 years. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.

"Plenty of Gloom", The economist Dec 18th 1997

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else was obsessed with Millenials?

Millennials exit the federal workforce as government jobs lose their allure

The share of the federal workforce under the age of 30 dropped to 7 percent this year, the lowest figure in nearly a decade, government figures show.

With agencies starved for digital expertise and thousands of federal jobs coming open because of a wave of baby-boomer retirements, top government officials, including at the White House, are growing increasingly distressed about the dwindling role played by young workers.

"Millennials are a very important constituency and talent pool to pull from," said Lisa Danzig, associate director for personnel and performance with the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Recruiting them, she acknowledged, "is a challenge. There's a lot of competition for new talent among them."

[UnCivilServant]

Sounds like an opportunity for reduction through attrition. I smell a hiring freeze!

[Doctor Whom]

Nothing left to reduce! Something something Somalia!

[Ted S.]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!111!!!

[Drake]

I knew spitting on bureaucrats would pay off in the long run.

[Ivan Pike]

The share of the federal workforce under the age of 30 dropped to 7 percent this year, the lowest figure in nearly a decade, government figures show.

A portion of it is because you have to hire veterans first. Right now if you are not a veteran, we won't even look at you, and most of those are over 30.

[John]

^^THIS^^

[db]

I would have though most veterans would have had enough.of being fucked by the government to go and take a job at a federal agency.

[Ivan Pike]

I would have thought most veterans would have had enough. of being fucked by the government to go and take a job at a federal agency

Good pay, benefits and job security, plus they use their military time to count for retirement. Any position we advertise has hundreds of applicants, mostly veterans.

[db]

Fair enough.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Most jobs aren't open to anyone who isn't either a veteran or already in the federal service.

Not that many jobs get listed to the general public, and if they are, you still have to look at the people who are on the vet/FS list first.

[anon]

It's almost like they have no idea that actions result in consequences.

[Tonio]

UCS raises a good point. If the incoming majority party were serious about shrinking government they'd seize this opportunity.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Smitty78
9:06 AM EST
I don't blame young people for not wanting to work for the government. It's frustrating working as a fed in these current political conditions. Being used as a scape goat for The Right in this country isn't fun. Federal employees some how get the blame for everything from poor economic issues in this country, to a bloated and overpaid workforce. Last I looked federal employees neither caused the economic collapse of 08, that was D.C. enacted policies and their bed fellows Wall Street, nor do we have a bloated workforce, overall federal employment is way down from the 80's and 90's. Yet there we are, being blamed for it, by the very same people who caused the collapse in the first place. That's not irony, that' lunacy. Those on the right eat up that storyline and in turn point guns at my fellow agency employees. (see Cliven Bundy) I don't blame kids one bit for not wanting to set foot into this conservative created circus."

Conservatives are to blame. O.....kay. Idiot.

[Brian D]

We need to pit the government in charge of pretty much everything, but, golly, it's awful for the people in the government to be blamed when government fucks everything up.

[anon]

Federal employees some how get the blame for everything from poor economic issues in this country, to a bloated and overpaid workforce.

"Somehow."

Gee, I wonder how.

[Steve G]

One of the many reasons I don't want to join the ranks of the civil service like so many of my mil contemporaries after retirement. Besides the mind-numbing work, you have to do it around near-geriatrics who have zero energy or motivation. My second career is going to have to be around young(er) folks, just for my sanity. ...yes, I'm aware I may come to regret it.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Steve G the old geriatric who likes to hang out with the young kids...

Pervert? Probably.

[Steve G]

'Excuse me, I seemed to have dropped that TPS report. Could you pick it up for me?'

[Lord Humungus]

Saudi Arabia is playing chicken with its oil

Today, Saudi Arabia is once again using its "oil weapon," but instead of driving up prices and cutting supply, it's doing the reverse. In the face of a global slide in oil prices since June, the kingdom has refused to cut its production, which would help to drive prices back up. Instead, the Saudis led the charge to prevent OPEC from cutting production at the cartel's last meeting on Nov 27.

The consequences of Saudi policy are impossible to ignore. After two years of stable prices at around $105 to $110 a barrel, Brent blend, the international benchmark, fell from $112 a barrel in June to around $65 on Friday. "What is the reason for the United States and some U.S. allies wanting to drive down the price of oil?" Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro asked rhetorically in October. His answer? "To harm Russia."

That is partially true, but Saudi Arabia's gambit is more complex.

[Injun, as in from India]

It's not just Russia, you nimrod. It's to harm Iran and your socialist country Venezuela too!

[WTF]

The Saudis are actually doing it primarily to fuck Iran. Fucking Russia is just a bonus.

[Timon 19]

THIS.

The Saudis and the other Gulf States LOVE sticking it to Iran, since they've posed a semi-existential threat to the peninsula-dwellers since - oh, let's say - 1979.

That and the endless love-hate-conquest relationship Iran and its ancestor empires have had with its Arab rivals over the length of history.

[Restoras]

Yes, lots of history that hasn't been forgotten. Will be interesting to watch it play out over the next 100 years.

[seguin]

Mmmmm....Chicken Oil

[Emmerson Biggins]

I can't believe how much negative press lower oil prices have caused this go round. It's not just this angle.

/tin foil hat on
It's almost like there an agenda being pushed or something.
/tin foil hat off

[The Late P Brooks]

Do workers suffer when big chain stores overtake small, indie retailers? Not as far as wages are concerned, Stanford researchers have found.

How can this be? The Waltons are fabulously (unconscionably!) wealthy because they steal the labor of their employees.

[Injun, as in from India]

+ 1 "Subsidy to the Waltons via welfare" trope

[Mokers]

The article wasn't bad, but it had some hilarious parts too

Exactly why large firms pay more, not just in retail but also in other areas of the economy, has long been a puzzle for researchers, Shaw says. The most likely explanation is that large firms are more productive than small firms, due to investments in technology, branding, and coordination.

Nowhere does it mention the regulatory burden that makes it more expensive to hire workers. There would be likely be more small, higher-paying businesses, if it wasn't so difficult to run a business? Who wants to run a business when the IRS can fuck you over based on how much cash you are depositing?

[John]

Nowhere does it mention the regulatory burden that makes it more expensive to hire workers. There would be likely be more small, higher-paying businesses,

Not totally true. Most of the regulatory burden falls on employers with more than 50 employees. So it doesn't affect small businesses so much but murders middle sized ones. The big firms can absorb the costs via economies of scale. The small ones are generally exempt. The middle ones are fucked.

One of the best things you could do for the job market, other than the obvious solution of eliminating the regs altogether, would be to raise the threshold from 50 to say 100 or 150 employees. Thousands of firms who are sitting at 49 employees because the marginal cost of hiring a 50th would be free to hire and expand.

[Injun, as in from India]

The Senate confirmed 37-year-old Vivek Murthy?founder of the pro-Obamacare group Doctors for America and an advocate for gun control?as surgeon general on Monday night, overcoming strong opposition from the National Rifle Association and Republican leaders.

This makes me unhappy.

[Steve G]

A 37-yr-old general...what is this, the Civil War?!?!

[UnCivilServant]

How many regiments has the Surgeon General raised?

[Steve G]

I dunno, but the legions of nurses at my command would have me standing at attention!

[Misanthrope]

The moderate lefty Kevin Drum convincingly explains how the Murthy confirmation is a result of Ted Cruz's tactical "brilliance."

http://www.motherjones.com/kev.....es-victory

Fuck off, Senator Ted.

[VG Zaytsev]

Dumbfucks all across the country believe that bit of agit prop.

Cause, yeah, Hairy Reed was just going to slink off instead of sticking it to the pubes one more time.

[Drake]

It made me unhappy too. Then I tried to recall the last SG I could remember. That guy who looked like an old sea captain came to mind...

[TwB]

C. Everett Coop?

[antisocial-ist]

Wasn't there a SG during the Clinton admin who told teens to jack off instead of having sex? I was a kid at the time, so may be mis-remembering.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If only Bill had listened

[Restoras]

I'm sure he did plenty of both.

[VG Zaytsev]

Jocelyn Elders.

[VG Zaytsev]

And yeah, she said that kids should jerk off instead of foolin around. Which drove the SoCons nuts.

[seguin]

Honestly, I only remember him because of late night Life Alert commercials. For a while I thought Wilford Bromley was his successor.

Aide note, is C Everett Loop Colonel Sanders' evil twin?

[seguin]

*Brimley

And *side

Fat thumbs.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

How about Jocelyn Elders, the masturbating SG?

[TwB]

Once again, it's not what you know but who you know and bow down to.

[Injun, as in from India]

Yup.

And I'll bet you $5 he's never touched a firearm in his life.

He's coming in with his mind made up, haughtily looking down on us dirty proles with academic credentials in hand.

[wadair]

Political payoff?

[Lord Humungus]

Silent Nemo: US Navy developing 'robotuna' to spy on enemy

The US military has been developing a robotic tuna that can infiltrate enemy territory.

The spy fish, which is made to look like a bluefin tuna, weighs a hundred pounds and is 5ft long.

Dubbed Project Silent Nemo, The United States Office of Naval Research is in the process of testing the tuna.

[db]

Perhaps if we build a large wooden badger...

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Run away!!

[DontShootMe]

The Chinese Navy is building a large robotic shark to eat robotic tuna.

[db]

Junks with nets.

[WTF]

With frickin' lasers on its head.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Then the USN will need a large robotic orca to eat the shark...

[UnCivilServant]

Naw, just put a destruct charge on the tunabot to blow up the shark/fisherfolk.

[Lord Humungus]

Grand Central: How Oil's Plunge Could Become a Financial Stability Worry for Fed

Federal Reserve officials revising their economic forecasts this week are likely to see the recent plunge in oil prices as a net benefit to the U.S. outlook, as lower energy costs bolster Americans' ability to spend. But the sheer speed and magnitude of the retreat in crude oil prices, which have fallen over 40% since June to under $60 a barrel, is likely to raise eyebrows for those concerned about the central bank's unofficial but increasingly important mandate: financial stability.

The contagion has been rather rapid. Not only have stock markets retreated across the world, led by energy related shares, but the $1.3 trillion U.S. junk bond market has also taken blows, and is now on track for its worst annual performance since the financial crisis.

[DJF]

""""Why are China's largest state-owned property developers investing in affordable housing in Brooklyn?"""

Because idiots think that Chinese state owned corporations are free trade and therefore should be treated like real free trade which is trade between free people.

[Lord Humungus]

"Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams doesn't get Emma Watson's "first-world feminism"

In a recent profile in the Guardian, the actress ? who has been an outspoken advocate to end cyberbullying ? shared her thoughts on Emma Watson's powerful September speech at the U.N., which aimed to offer a clearer, more accessible definition of feminism. After the speech, Williams tweeted praise for Watson; she effectively reneged her comments, however, in favor of a critique of what she calls Watson's "first-world feminism":

Williams is a feminist, though it's not an issue high on her agenda. "There are creepy things that people say online that I shouldn't have to read," she explains, "but there are bigger things going on in other countries." We talk about actor Emma Watson's recent UN speech, in which she talked about her reasons for becoming a feminist, and the need for men to be onside; Williams says she is impatient with this kind of "first-world feminism". "A lot of what Emma Watson spoke about, I just think, 'that doesn't bother me'. I know things aren't perfect for women in the UK and in America, but there are women in the rest of the world who have it far worse."

[Coeus]

. It's a form of privilege not to be bothered by pay inequality, restricted reproductive healthcare access, rape culture and institutional sexism; it is also a form of privilege to create a hierarchy of problems that disregards some, when all of the problems need to be fixed.

If you disagree with the collective, you're privileged now. Can we all just admit that this is a catch-all term for those the SJWs don't like and call it a day?

[John]

If you don't think their problems are the most important in the world, you are just privileged. Anyone who doesn't understand how hard educated rich, western white women have it, just doesn't get it apparently. If they were not doing so much harm, the whole thing would be comical.

[Doctor Whom]

As I noted elsewhere, it's become just another thought-terminating clich

[John]

Is there a more privileged person on earth than Emma Watson? Her parents were wealthy. She lucked into being a child star in one of the biggest movie franchises in history ensuring she would never have to work again in her life if she didn't want to. She is by most definitions gorgeous. Emma Watson has never known a single real hardship in her life and probably is so sheltered she doesn't even realize that fact.

That is all well and good and no one should be resented for their good fortune. That however means that Emma needs to shut the fuck up and enjoy her good fortune and refrain from lecturing the rest of the world about hardship and misfortune. I and the rest of us living in the real world have better things to do than be lectured to by a privileged child with delusions of grandeur.

[tarran]

That however means that Emma needs to shut the fuck up and enjoy her good fortune and refrain from lecturing the rest of the world about hardship and misfortune. I and the rest of us living in the real world have better things to do than be lectured to by a privileged child with delusions of grandeur.

John, I take exception to this; your argument is not very different than an SJW demanding white men shut up. Emma should be free to say whatever she wants on any subject under the sun, and we should be free to listen or ignore her.

[John]

If Watson had been given a platform for any reason other than her fame, I would agree with you. It is not like Watson has ever done anything regarding women's rights or has any special expertise in the field. If she wasn't a movie star, she wouldn't be speaking at the UN. Since who she is is the reason why she has a platform, I think it is fair to judge who she is when evaluating what she has to say. What credibility does she bring other than "I am rich and famous"? What qualifies her to say shit?

[tarran]

What credibility does she bring other than "I am rich and famous"?

Absolutely none. Nonetheless she is entitled to her opinions and to share them as opportunities permit. And if her fame opens doors that would otherwise be closed to her, so what? The question is are her ideas good or not, not whether she deserves the stage she gets to express them. Play the ball, not the man.

[John]

She is totally entitled to her opinions. So, yes, I should not say she should shut the fuck up altogether. My objection is with the platform she has been given not with her having opinions. She need to shut the fuck up at the UN. I am tired of people who are no more interesting or smarter than the average drunk at a happy hour being given special platforms because they happen to be famous for something.

[tarran]

If it makes you feel better, the UN is, at this point, like a Moonie convention when it comes to credibility.

[Irish]

But John, if we're not lectured by rich as shit progressives who have never had to deal with actual financial difficulties, then who can we be lectured by?

I've never been stopped on the street by a homeless man to lecture me about privilege. If it weren't for people making more than 6 figures, privilege would go un-lectured. Do you really want to live in such a world.

[Coeus]

She is by most definitions gorgeous.

to each his own, I guess.

[John]

I said most. You may think she is ugly and frankly she doesn't really do a lot for me. A lot of others disagree and she clearly gets a lot of mileage from her looks. She wasn't the only child actor in Harry Potter or in any appreciable way a better actor than the rest. Yet, she is by far the most famous one now that they are adults. The reason for that is entirely people's opinion of her looks. That was my point. I said "most definitions" in hopes of avoiding a Hit and Run "all women except the ones I find attractive are ugly" debate.

[Coeus]

Hell, I'd definitely fuck her. I just find that picture hilarious. Seemed to be a perfect time to post it.

[John]

She has nice skin and eyes and she is very thin. But that square jaw is just too much. I don't think she is going to have that great of a career. The problem she has is that she is not a great actress but looks a bit too British and foreign to get parts by looking the part the way say Jennifer Lawrence (who has the pretty girl next door but not too pretty to make women jealous and hate her looks) has.

I think the former child star who might be a big deal in the next ten years is girl in Moonrise Kingdom Kara Hayward. She seems like she as some ability and has the right look to play the parts that Lawrence is playing now but will be too old to play in a few years.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4442319/?ref_=tt_cl_t7

[lap83]

"who has the pretty girl next door but not too pretty to make women jealous and hate her looks"

Oh God, don't get me started about pretty women. They're the worst. Just walking around and being all pretty and shit. Drives me up the wall.

[lap83]

That is pretty funny. Brits for the most part have very thin features. So the genders are fairly interchangeable.

[WTF]

Stop oppressing Emma with your mansplaining, and check your privilege, shitlord!

[seguin]

There are creepy things that people say online that I shouldn't have to read

I haven't checked the ToS of the Interweb lately, but I'm pretty sure you already don't have to.

[lap83]

"I know things aren't perfect for women in the UK and in America, but there are women in the rest of the world who have it far worse."

I like Maisie Williams and I know it's too much to ask that an actress isn't a feminist.
But at least a feminist with an international perspective isn't embarrassingly spoiled and elitist.

[Lord Humungus]

Fed Seen Looking Past Low Inflation to Drop 'Considerable Time'

The Federal Reserve will look past low inflation and drop a pledge to keep interest rates near zero for a "considerable time" as it seeks an exit from the loosest monetary policy in its 100-year history, economists said.

The Federal Open Market Committee, which meets today and tomorrow in Washington, will adopt a word such as "patient" to describe its approach to policy, according to 68 percent of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg late last week. Only 23 percent said the committee will keep "considerable time," and a majority expect rates won't rise at every meeting after liftoff in mid-2015.

[The Late P Brooks]

Although fears that technology will displace jobs are at least as old as the Luddites, there are signs that this time may really be different.

It's always different, this time.

[Injun, as in from India]

Why are China's largest state-owned property developers investing in affordable housing in Brooklyn?

Because they want to be the world's largest slum landlord, whose investment is underwritten by the US taxpayer via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

[Injun, as in from India]

John Yoo, a primary author of the Bush-era Justice Department memos authorizing torture, gave a 'whoa, if true' to the Senate report on CIA interrogation practices and suggested that CIA agents may be "at risk legally."

John Yoo is a well-digested piece of excrement.

[John]

At least Yoo put his name on the memo and made it public. The attorneys for the Obama administration didn't sign their legal opinions and had them classified so that they couldn't be released to the public.

[WTF]

Most transparent administration EVAR!!

[Injun, as in from India]

Where the heck is Fist of Etiquette?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Probably still crying over choosing the wrong AM links yesterday.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Or maybe, unlike the rest of you, he has a life.

[SugarFree]

Yee-Haw! Brave Texas Lawman Tases 76-year-old Man While Trying To Arrest Him For Expired Plates (and the plates weren't actually expired)

[Coeus]

According to the supreme court, it was still completely valid.

[Doctor Whom]

So, the next time I get a ticket, I get to use the "objectively reasonable" argument, too, right? Right?

[Charles Easterly]

"Larry Urich, a 62-year-old sales manager at the car lot, said watching the scuffle unfold made him sick. He said he wanted the officer fired and prosecuted for excessive use of force and causing bodily harm to an elderly person.
'I told the officer, What in the hell are you doing? This gentleman is 76 years old,' Urich said. 'The cop told me to stand back, but I didn't shut up. I told him he was a g------ Nazi Stormtrooper.'"

The Victim: "He [the police chief] didn't want me to think that all policemen are like that," Vasquez said. "I said he's got a lot to do to prove to me that."

[Lord Humungus]

The Trouble With Lena

I believe Lena Dunham when she says she was raped.

The terrifying trouble with Lena Dunham's faulty account of her sexual assault is not because it could be fictionalized, but because it could be real. Because of her rapidly changing story and staunch defense of the story told in her book, a vicious campus rapist is now protected by Random House attorneys and the entire media complex defending her story.

Dunham, through her publisher, has gone to great legal lengths to protect her attacker's identity, an attacker she claims has committed several acts of sexual assault against other girls around the same time as her, on the same campus. She not only idles on prosecuting her attacker, but has stated she has no intention of exposing his identity. According to Dunham and her defenders, there is an alleged vicious sexual predator at large and even more dangerous because he's anonymous. Dunham in her books stated her attacker had also attacked 2 other women. How many more women has he forced himself on with violent consequences while Dunham, and a multi-million dollar publishing conglomerate create a phalanx of legal protection around him?

[WTF]

Occam's Razor says.....Dunham lied!

[John]

She made it up. Her life and herself are too fucking boring to make a good memoir, so she transformed it into bad fiction. You have to be a pretty good writer to write a novel that gets published and that anyone wants to read. If you write a memoir, the standard is lower since people like true stories and don't expect as much of them. Many a bad novelist has gotten published by lying and claiming their bad semi biographical novel is a "memoir". That is what Dunham has done here.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A memoir with crime is much more salacious than "fiction".

[John]

Yes. And a memoir with a crime and a celebrity victim is even more so. It wouldn't shock me if the first draft of the book didn't have the "rape" in it and that the "rape" was only added in after her publisher told her she needed to make it more interesting.

[Irish]

Gawker released her original pitch to random house before the book was released. In the pitch, she mentions she was raped by someone who was the son of an NPR host.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....williamson

"Dunham's account is rendered somewhat more suspicious in my mind by the fact that in her book proposal (which had been published by Gawker but was taken down after threats from Dunham's lawyers), Dunham gives a slightly different account of the episode, and identifies the man as the son of a National Public Radio host."

She changed her fake rape story to be a Republican conservative because that would be more pleasing to her readers since it stroked their biases.

It's clearly fake and it's clear that she's the one who decided to make the fake claim herself.

[tarran]

I don't think she did it merely to make her book more interesting...

I really think she wants the status of being a rape victim, but one who didn't let it knock her down.

And she is spoiled and reckless enough not to give a shit if she ruins anyone else's lives as she does so. After all, Barry the Conservative, being conservative, deserves all the trouble he gets, right?

[Injun, as in from India]

If there is "rape culture" in existence that should be changed, coming out and reporting it is THE ONE THING that needs to be encouraged.

I have a suspicion that Dunham's story is made-up, and that's why she is not naming the rapist.

[Irish]

Hey, remember the time George Will got in trouble for saying that being seen as a victim has become a means of gaining social status and that, as a result, a certain sort of attention whore will make up claims of oppression, including rape, as a means of gaining status?

It sure is a good thing feminists didn't make themselves look like idiots by proving him right over the next few months.

[Coeus]

It was beautiful how the timing on that worked out.

[Irish]

I'm still amazed that what he said was controversial.

It's a basic fact of human nature. Whatever gains people social status within the group they want to belong to, they will do it. If you gain status through gaining money, you do that. If you gain status from who you sleep with, you do that.

As a result, if you can status through being a victim, you can expect people to do everything they can to claim victim status.

[Coeus]

Shit. They ripped into him for doing basic arithmetic.

[Spoonman.]

So, my daughter is 13 months old now and knows some words. "Uh-oh" and "no" are not surprising, "hot" makes sense since we have steam radiators (though she uses it whenever she is unsure about touching something), but what surprises me is "hat".

She has enjoyed putting things on her head and taking them off for months, and taking them off of other people's heads. So she'll pick up a toy, start saying "hat", and you know it's going on somebody's head.

Fascinating to watch somebody learn language.

[Lord Humungus]

Romney Was Right to Oppose Negotiating with Child-Killers

The news out of Pakistan is horrifying: More than 126 dead, mostly children, in a Taliban attack on a school.

Back in 2012, the entire foreign-policy establishment, inside and outside the Obama administration, thought Mitt Romney was a fool for opposing negotiations with the Taliban. Who's the fool now?

Who wanted the United States to sit down across a table and make concessions to a the kind of men who massacre children?

[WTF]

They also said Romney was fool for thinking Russia was a global adversary. Of course no mea culpas will ever be forthcoming from the media hacks.

[John]

I don't think Romney would make a very good President, though he would be a vast improvement over what we have. That said, I wish he would run for President with the simple slogan "I told you so". It would be funny as hell watching the media pretend it isn't true.

[BigT]

I wish he would run for President with the simple slogan "I told you so".

Great! This would be best if he were not serious about trying to win. He could just use Obama as a punching bag and help the other candidates in the debates.

[Juice]

No, he said they were the US's greatest adversary, which is debatable.

[Coeus]

The echo chamber will now be inforced by doxing.

They dox someone in the comments for politely pointing out that their facts are incorrect and that they are on a slippery slope. Zero self awareness to these people.

[Coeus]

Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls
14 December 2014 at 4:18 pm
I don't think anyone should be doing it to be honest.
This from someone with no honesty and integrity? You only deserve to be point at and laughed at, for your idiocy, and failure to understand the difference between expressing an opinion in a polite manner, and harassment by threats, which isn't expressing an opinion, but bullying and throwing temper tantrums.
It is simple. Don't want to be doxxed. Don't threaten anybody. And the arbiter of what is a threat isn't you, or the MRA/PUA fuckwits, but rather those who do understand that rape and murder are threats, not jokes.

and then they dox him a few comments down. Not a threat to be seen.

[Coeus]

PZ Myers
14 December 2014 at 7:24 pm
Goddamn motherfucking hell. Justin Little is one of the long-term harassers on twitter, a big fan of the slymepit, someone who obsessively follows and snipes at feminists. He's a wretched scumbag; all of his comments have been deleted, and he has been banned. Dishonest is too strong a word for him ? he has a history of at least a year of trash-talking us, and now he's on twitter piously declaiming how fucking polite he has been. Liar.
He's exactly the kind of slimeball I'm talking about in this post. If you're interested in talking to him, email him at [e-mail], but ignore that asshole here. The IP he used here is 71.174.11.213.

lovely

[Coeus]

He made that name and account specifically for this, but Pezus didn't know that.

[The Late P Brooks]

New York magazine's tale of a boy-wonder investor worth $72 million turns out to have been completely false.

He didn't rape his way to the top?

[Injun, as in from India]

I hear rumors that the reporter Jessica Pressler is getting courted by Rolling Stone and Jezebel.

[Injun, as in from India]

Taliban gunmen attacked a Pakistani public school Tuesday morning, killing at least 126 people?mostly children and teens?at the military-run facility.

Holy Sh1t. The very first link is a story about a carnage, and I scrolled right past it without noticing.

This is awful.

[Lord Humungus]

The Casual Classism Of "You Had One Job"

It's supposed to be hilarious that someone's honest-to-goodness job is lining up tiles properly or spelling a sign correctly; the ineptitude at the simple task is just icing. The "you" of the meme doesn't refer to a readily identifiable worker (and thank goodness), but the implied worker would probably be ? or perhaps was ? fired for the mistake. On the rare occasions when it's used to refer to a failure at a complex task, the joke falls flat, because clearly making a flu vaccine is not just "one job" in the sense the meme requires.

The question is, why this mean-spirited (if sometimes quite funny) meme, and why now? Aren't we supposed to be living in an era of hypersensitivity? Why hasn't the privilege of users of this hashtag been called out? (According to a few minutes of Googling, it has not.) Does #YouHaveOneJob tap into employment anxieties of those who are or have been un- or underemployed? Or is it just yet another example of the online quest for affirmation?

Lighten up, Francis.

[Raston Bot]

Tarly, did you send the ravens? That was your job. Your only job.

[Coeus]

hehe

[db]

A person who works at one of the FBOs at our local airport has a VW Jetta. The name badge on the car has been modified by removing the second 'T'.

[seguin]

It is Young Frankenstein's 40th Anniversary.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Parents took me to see that at the drive-in. Scared the shit out of me.

[kinnath]

1974: Blazing Saddles followed by Young Frankenstein. Fucking awesome year for Brooks and Wilder.

[Restoras]

Blazing Saddles. How did it ever get made?

[WTF]

It wouldn't get made today.

[BigT]

People had a much better sense of humor back then. Now everything is PC and microagression.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

It's pronouced Fronkensteen.

[tarran]

Regarding the Pakistan Taliban attack on the school.

These guys are pretty much done; humans care about children, and even accidentally killing kids will turn people against any militant organization.

What the Taliban did goes against Pashtunwali in a very big way. It will require vengeance, and the army will enjoy much greater support from the populace.

I think this may be a big nail in the coffin enclosing their dreams of ruling Afghanistan and Pakistan.

[db]

They don't really care what people think.of them as long as they can rule by terror. They are not following the western model of governance, but more of the north korean model.

[tarran]

I don't think one can rule the Pashtun via terror. There's a reason they call their lands the graveyard of empires.

[db]

That was actually going to be my next point, as a caveat. The Pashtun may be the most impossible people to rule ever.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

They shot Alexander the Great in the lung, with an arrow...and he had to marry one to get out of the place!

[seguin]

Except that they've done it many times before, setting fire to girls' schools with them still inside and barricading the doors.

[sarcasmic]

Neighbor is shot in his apartment by cop who accidentally fired his gun as he investigated burglary in apartment below

46-year-old Ramiro Armendariz was shot in the back as he walked towards his kitchen
The gun accidentally went off sending the bullet through the floor to the apartment downstairs
Albuquerque has placed the officer on desk duty and will not release his name
Homemowner Armendariz is expected to recover from his injuries

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-man.html
It was just an accident, and the officer (who is on paid vacation) feels really bad.

[db]

I'm sick of cops' firearms negligence being written off in the media as understandable mistakes. No gun "accidentally goes off." It takes negligence or an act of will.

[antisocial-ist]

Remember that to the media, guns are powerful totems of death that might go off at any time. These people are clueless enough to actually believe someone who tells them the gun just fired with no outside force acting on it.

[sarcasmic]

Come on! Guns make all kinds of clickity sounds when you pick them up and carry them! I mean, that's what they do in the movies! If they make sounds like that then why couldn't they go off on their own? They're practically alive!

[WTF]

Exactly, for a gun to fire, you have to pull the fucking trigger.

[Charles Easterly]

Yes, WTF, and reading the "reporter's" account doesn't really give that impression.

Instead of writing something like "An officer fired his gun without intending to do so and shot a man in another apartment." we have "The gun accidentally went off sending the bullet...."

It was the gun - not the negligence of the officer wielding it.

[sarcasmic]

I'm sure that if I shot my neighbor and claimed the gun accidentally went off, that I would see no legal consequences. I mean, it was like an accident and stuff. Right? Right?

[Charles Easterly]

Were you following your own list of procedures and did your wife investigate the matter to ascertain that you acted within your training?

[sarcasmic]

Um...

*looks around nervously*

...yeah!

Of course!

[Charles Easterly]

Case closed.
Resume your regular activities and here's a promotion, you hero, for not only stopping that gun from firing more shots, but also for preventing it from launching the one bullet into a vital organ.

[sarcasmic]

Cleveland cop drew his gun on man rushing home to pregnant wife who had gone into labor

Samuel Taylor was travelling 13 mile per hour over the speed limit in Ohio
Officer William Robinson drew his firearm and pointed it at Mr Taylor
Mr Taylor's wife Katie was suffering complications with her pregnancy
Cleveland Heights City Manager Tanisha Briley defended Officer Robinson

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

Boilerplate response:

Cleveland Heights City Manager Tanisha Briley defended Officer Taylor: She said: 'We're aware of the incident and complaint by the driver and the matter is currently under review. 'Upon initial review we are comfortable that the officer followed CHPD protocol appropriately and he conducted himself in a professional manner.'

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

"he conducted himself in a professional manner"

Your standards are ... questionable.

[sarcasmic]

Video shows 'pitbull-like' Texas police officer using Taser on 76-year-old man TWICE after pulling him over for expired inspection sticker

The clip from the dashboard camera shows officer, Nathanial Robinson, 23, pulling over Victoria resident Pete Vasquez on Thursday
Robinson saw an expired inspection sticker on the car Vasquez was driving
He arrested Vasquez and pushed him down on the hood of the car
The pensioner was then Tasered twice and handcuffed
Robinson is now on administrative leave pending an internal investigation

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....icker.html
The old guy resisted! He's fucking lucky to be alive! officer safety! Booyah!

[Steve G]

How can a 'pitbull-like' officer survive in a police force? Wouldn't he always be getting shot by his colleagues?

[sarcasmic]

'Cruel' pet tattoos and piercings banned in New York after outrage over artist inking love heart on sedated dog and bragging about it on Instagram

Support for the new law grew after image of tattoo on pet's shoulder
Dog was under anaesthetic after having surgery when tattoo was done
Tattooist Alexander Avgerakis posted image using 'Mistah Metro' moniker
American Veterinary Medical Association said it was not good for the dog
New law will see fines of up to $250 and jail time
Signing them in governor Andrew Cuomo called tattoos 'animal abuse'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....cings.html
Are they going to ban cattle branding?

[Coeus]

I can still remove my dog's foreskin, right?

[sarcasmic]

Do they make Kosher dog food?

[Coeus]

Yes, but it keeps spoiling in the store, since the shabbat compliant containers have no lids.

[Charles Easterly]

This conversation is right on time for Chanukah this year (it begins today at sunset).
Congratulations gang.

[Charles Easterly]

Wait - my mistake. I keep thinking its Wednesday for some reason.

[Marshall Gill]

My calendar indicates that today, Tuesday, at sundown, is when Chanukah begins.

[Charles Easterly]

Our office calendar is indeed incorrect.
We got that calendar from a vendor, and now we're wondering if there's more to it than an erroneous misprint.

We'll have to keep our eyes on them from now on. They might be some form of deniers....

[Coeus]

Oy! such a a schande vor de goyim!

[Charles Easterly]

Noyce, Coeus, noyce.

[UnCivilServant]

Are they going to ban cattle branding?

NY Farms use ear tags these days - which means they may have just done so under "piercings"

[UnCivilServant]

(Note, I was being sarcastic. There's probably a legal distinction between 'pet' and 'livestock' knowing the nature of NY Lawyers)

[Sevo]

Smug-killer:

"If your all-electric car gets its power from coal, new study says it is dirtier than gasoline"
[...]
"People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming.
Ethanol isn't so green, either."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....TE=DEFAULT

[John]

Battery powered cars are much dirtier than gasoline or diesel ones. Forget the CO2 cult, batteries are full of toxic materials that are going to end up in a landfill somewhere or spilled all over the street if the car is in an accident.

If you worry about the environment and think your driving to work is going to kill Johnny Polar Bear, by an efficient, small diesel or gasoline powered car like a Honda Civic or Ford Focus and dispense with the hybrid bullshit.

[kinnath]

The Prius -- 500 lbs of toxic waste where the trunk is supposed to be. What's not to like.

[John]

And it makes up for it by being the most offensively ugly car ever produced. I have to hand it to the automakers and Toyota in particular though. They managed to take an ugly, expensive, inefficient, slow, poor handling and unsafe hatchback and sell it by the millions to stupid white people. PT Barnum would be proud.

[kinnath]

There are lots of hybrids on the market. The top reason that people pick the Prius over other models is that they want people to know they are drying a hybrid. Smug pricks one and all.

[John]

For the first year or two, the Prius looked like an ordinary small car. They couldn't sell it. It was only after they made it so ugly and different looking that sales too off. The smug pricks buying the things had to have more than just a badge to show their superiority.

[sarcasmic]

I like how they mockingly call it a Pryus on Top Gear.

[BigT]

I love South Park's 'pious'

[sarcasmic]

The plane that could fly ANYWHERE in four hours gets a step closer to blast off: European Space Agency backs plans for air breathing experimental rocket

The Sabre rocket engine was created by British firm Reaction Engines
It can be fitted to planes and travel up to five times the speed of sound
The company wants to use the technology on a 'spaceplane' called Skylon
Passenger version called Lapcat A2 could hold 300 passenger for ultrafast travel
Tests suggest it could cut the cost of space launches by 95%
European Space Agency study has back the rocket plans to blast off as soon as 2020

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....nutes.html

[John]

That is awesome. You can't fly in space until you get to orbit. Right now it costs a fortune to get to orbit. Once you are in orbit, it is not that hard to get out of it and go places. The Saturn Five rocket was almost entirely to get to orbit. Only the last little stage was used to leave orbit and get to the moon.

[sarcasmic]

Getting into space is relatively easy. Achieving orbital velocity is quite another thing. And deceleration is a fiery bitch.

[John]

That too. I should say "getting to and staying in orbit". You can get to space in a balloon. You just can't stay there.

[sarcasmic]

https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/

[sarcasmic]

The tiny urban island of downtown Detroit: Aerial shots show how skyscrapers give way to deserted scrubland, abandoned homes - and then mansion-filled countryside

In 1950, with a population of almost two million, the Michigan city was the fifth largest in the United States
Almost 55 years on, 1.3 million people have left and the motor industry has crumbled, leaving homes abandoned
These aerial photos reveal how the city looks now - a tiny Downtown urban island surrounded by empty lots
There are vast open open spaces dotted with abandoned buildings until you reach the sprawling suburban estates
The gated communities are filled with enormous mansions, swimming pools, tennis courts and multi-car garages

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....yside.html
wow

[Steve G]

They need some high speed rail now to reconnect it all!

[TwB]

A lot of those old brick Victorian homes are a celebration of architecture. They are just beautiful. Pity most of them will burn to the fucking ground in a few years. What a waste.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

What I was thinking as well.

If Detroit can make some sort of deal for the legacy costs, lower taxes, allow homesteading, increase lot size and figure out how to lower crime or at the very least allow concealed carry. Then all that land could be used well and those houses could be refurbished.

[Sevo]

I see nothing in the article about why the city is crumbling, just what seems to be class-envy regarding the 'burbs.

[Emmerson Biggins]

fucking libertarians. and the Kochs. they are behind all this!

[wadair]

This is really mostly a lie. The surrounding cities are filled with small, medium, as well as large houses. I currently live in the Dallas area with the same thing happening in the urban core, just not nearly as bad. And I bet the reasons are similar (Dems abound).

Dallas is poorly managed and the school district is corrupt. Many of the sub/exurbs have learned from Dallas' mistakes and are well run. This is metropolitan creative destruction and nothing lamentable.

[The Late P Brooks]

I actually think that the future of professional football is women's teams. The increase in injuries, especially head and brain injuries, due to the sheer power that men's bodies can produce is going to limit the game, and possibly spell its end.

As Jack Lambert said, on "protecting" quarterbacks, "Put a fucking dress on 'em."

[The Late P Brooks]

Young Frankenstein's birthday?

"I was joking! Don't you people know a joke when you hear one?"

[Charles Easterly]

Poor quality but it's exactly what you quoted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBAYEK4Ftz8

Great movie, in my opinion.

[The Late P Brooks]

I was watching some game the other day, and the refs made an utterly unfathomable "roughing the passer" call, and I immediately thought, "Yeah, I'm sure 60,000 people will pay upwards of fifty bucks a head to sit in a stadium and watch the National Flag Football League on a Sunday afternoon."

[John]

They are going to keep fucking around until an alternative league will become viable. The reason why the XFL failed was because it was based on a bullshit myth that the NFL wasn't really violent. The NFL was plenty violent and the XFL had nothing to sell other than the same football played with poorer athletes. The NFL is going to keep going like they are and letting the SJWs at ESPN and the plaintiff's lawyers drive their product and someone will create a new XFL and this time give a product the NFL isn't.

[Coeus]

Colcord police chief arraigned on DUI complaint, accused of injuring council member with patrol car

City Councilor Cody Gibby told the Tulsa World that he sustained injuries to his lower spine and leg and knee ligaments after Woodruff repeatedly bumped him with a patrol car while he was trying to prevent the chief from driving home while intoxicated.
"I got a (telephone) call by a convenience store clerk near Flint saying he (Woodruff) was drunk and we needed to get him off the road," Gibby said.
When Gibby caught up with Woodruff, he said he saw the police chief holding a can of beer.
"I pulled him over and was trying to get the car keys," Gibby said.
After a heated verbal exchange between the two men, Gibby stood in front of Woodruff's patrol car, saying, "You are not driving a city car home while drunk."
Gibby said Woodruff repeatedly bumped him with his patrol car, hitting the councilor's leg.
During the exchange, Gibby said, he called the Delaware County Sheriff's Office and requested that it send an OHP trooper.

[Coeus]

"He (Woodruff) drove about two miles to his house, and I blocked him in until troopers arrived," Gibby said.
The arrest marks Woodruff's third alcohol-related brush with law enforcement.
In 2004, he pleaded guilty to charges of DUI. He was arrested for DUI again in 2008.

[The Late P Brooks]

I see nothing in the article about why the city is crumbling, just what seems to be class-envy regarding the 'burbs.

It's a mystery. You know, fifty years of bad luck.
And them damn slanty eyed Nips and their little toy cars.

[zacharybaughandes]

I looked at the paycheck which had said $7434 , I didn't believe that my mom in-law realy bringing in money in their spare time at their computer. . there brothers friend has been doing this for only 16 months and just paid for the morgage on there place and bought a top of the range Aston Martin DB5 .
You can join just easy ------- http://www.jobsfish.com

[db]

Man, if I ever have kids I'm going to have to put earplugs on them when I drive.

[sarcasmic]

My daughter started calling everyone "Pretty lady" and I figured out that it's because that's what I call my wife all the time.

[antisocial-ist]

I inadvertently taught my youngest brother the words "slow fucking bitch" and "asshat".

[db]

I actually think that the future of professional football is women's teams. The increase in injuries, especially head and brain injuries, due to the sheer power that men's bodies can produce is going to limit the game, and possibly spell its end.

The fact that women will be able to play at a level not that far off of 1980s and 1990s NFL without the gruesome injury stats will make women's football the acceptable alternative to watching grown men destroy themselves on TV for money.

[Spoonman.]

My wife doesn't like direct address, and so for some reason has taken to calling me "sir". I try to campaign against that because it makes me look like a real asshole in public. This is another good reason to avoid it.

[lap83]

That is cute and much better than something like "old bat". She probably makes a lot of older women happy.

[BigT]

You underestimate the brass balls of the Reazin commentariat

[John]

The fact that women will be able to play at a level not that far off of 1980s and 1990s

Ah, no. Players were smaller back then, but not that much smaller. Lineman were already routinely over 300lbs by the 1980s. Anthony Munoz was drafted in 1979 and was over 300 lb on draft day. Even if you go back to the 50s and 60s when the players did not weight train and really were smaller, they were still huge compared to an average person. Forrest Greg was considered an undersized offensive tackle in the 1960s and he was six feet four 250 pounds. You won't find any women that big.

[Restoras]

Gonna disagree just because the WNBA, WMLB, and WNHL have been resounding flops or never made it past vaporware.

I think the game could be improved or at least made more interesting by making the field wider and/or longer to account for greater strength and speed of the players but this won't happen.

Maybe reducing the number of players on the field from 11 to 9 would make the game better too?

In the end the product is just way to successful and popular to make any changes at all aside from tweaking around the edges.

[Coeus]

My wife doesn't like direct address, and so for some reason has taken to calling me "sir".

She's trying to tell you something.

[BigT]

spoonman, simply answer with "Yes, m'lady?" It will transform the bit into a comic routine.

[UnCivilServant]

So the question is - where did you pick up such poor vocabulary?

There are far more creative turns of phrase to use.

[db]

If you measure the performance of an athlete solely by his weight and stature, sure. I understand that football selects for large players for reasons specific to the types of strategies for the game, but you're not going to find anyone consciously limiting the size of male players hired to.play just to save a few concussions and mental problems down the road.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Lineman were already routinely over 300lbs by the 1980s.

I'd dispute this. Guys like Munoz, the Fridge, and Nate Newtown were really outliers for the time; if you look at the top draft picks for linemen through the 80s, they typically weighed about 285-295 pounds, because so many teams were still running trap-and-sweep dominant I-formation and split-back sets that required linemen who could move. Hell, the original Hogs from the early 80s averaged about 275-280, and they were considered massive.

It's really the mid-late 90s when you start seeing the man-mountains, but the best linemen, most of the time, typically don't weigh more than 310 pounds. It just becomes too hard to move easily and maintain endurance over a 16+ game season when you put on a certain amount of weight.

[Restoras]

Maybe you don't limit the size of individual players but you limit the total size of the team. That'd be interesting.

[John]

Mass has a quality all its own. Football is not basketball where the little guy always has a chance. Unless it is in the open field, the little guy has very little chance in football. It is a game of size and strength. If it wasn't, players wouldn't have gotten so big. They didn't get big for fun. They got big because it made them better players.

That said, I think football would be vastly improved if you put a weight limit of say 280 lbs on it. If you watch the films of the games when players were smaller, it was a more fluid game at the line of scrimmage. The blocking was very pretty to watch. Now it is just a Sumo match.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

She thinks he is noble!

[Coeus]

No, that he needs to find the rhythm with his hand.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

This is how I learned to to swear.

My Dad should have been arrested for driving with tourettes.

[lap83]

Not that you would call your wife old bat. But, I don't know, if you had an antique bat collection it might happen.

[BigT]

In college I tried out for the '150-pound football' team. I weighted 150 at the time and I was smaller than 90% of the guys. They only had to make weight once at the beginning of the year, so most were 180 or so and slimmed down for the weigh-in.

Oh yeah, I was also too slow and couldn't catch.

[blighted non millenial]

+1 steal the rhythm while you can