A.M. Links: Sony Cancels Movie Release Over Terror Threats, Cuba Plan Sparks Debate, Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Due in Court

• 

  Credit: F.B.I.

  In response to terrorist threats, Sony has canceled the Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogan-James Franco comedy The Interview. According to U.S. officials, North Korea was "centrally involved" in the cyberattack on the company.

• "The historic plan announced by President Obama on Wednesday to normalize relations with Cuba was met with heavy bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill, raising questions of whether Congress will even consider easing a more than 50-year trade embargo against the communist state—let alone end it."

• Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is due in court today.

• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Empire State will impose a total ban on fracking.

• Boko Haram militants have reportedly kidnapped over 100 people from a village in northeastern Nigeria.

• In the wake of the Taliban attack that killed 148 people at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan is rescinding its moratorium on the death penalty for persons convicted of terrorism.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Sony has canceled the Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogan-James Franco comedy The Interview.

Yet they let Spider-Man 3 onto an unsuspecting public.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Apparently Rogen supported SJW's during Gamergate.

Ooo, irony. How does it work?

[Root Boy]

It's the best part of these issues, seeing the cognitive dissonance at work

[some guy]

Apparently Rogan and Franco have bodyguards with them 24/7 in light of the threats. WWI started with the death of an archduke. WWIII will start with the death of a clown.

[Gene]

Narrow it down a bit, it's clowns all the way down.

[some guy]

An admitted professional clown, as opposed to an obvious incidental clown.

[BigT]

WW2 started with the death of an economy in the Weimar Republic (arguably).

WW3 may start in the same fashion.

On the streets, there were signs that Russians had lost faith in their currency after watching how their incomes and savings got decimated. Bid-ask spreads of 20 rubles began appearing at some exchange offices where they offered to sell dollars for 85 rubles but would only buy them for 65 rubles. IKEA furniture stores and other "hard asset" retailers saw a burst in activity as folks were trying to convert their rubles into whatever else they could before these rubles lost their value entirely, and before retailers could catch up with price changes.

Everyone wants out of the ruble. They consider it dead. Net capital outflows would more than double this year from last year, to $134 billion, the central bank said last week. But that was before the ruble crisis boiled over. Now capital flight is likely to soar.

[some guy]

A few weeks ago Russian was pretty open about the fact that they could only tolerate oil dropping to about $60/barrel. The price pretty much immediately went below that mark. So, what now Putin?

[Restoras]

Well, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in part as a response to our oil embargo against it. So, stay tuned?

[VG Zaytsev]

World War has been a derivative consequence of one out of dozens of economic collapses in the 20th century.

[Free Society]

WW2 started with the death of an economy in the Weimar Republic (arguably).

It started with the peace treaty of the first world war. The Weimar Republic's economy was dead on arrival.

[Mike M.]

"The home of the brave."

[WTF]

Still not as ridiculous as "The land of the free."

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

But now we get to bitterly laugh at both.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

13) Everybody talks about reading Ayn Rand in high school as the cause of their Damascene conversions to libertarianism, but a girlfriend gave me "The Fountainhead" to read in the 11th grade and I certainly didn't glean whatever libertarian message it had to offer. Mostly, I was trying to figure out the message contained in why she gave the book to me. (Does she want me to rape her like Howard Roark? Can that be right?) No, the book that caused me to re-examine, and eventually, reject the liberalism my schooling had inculcated in me was "Parliament of Whores" by P.J. O'Rourke, which I read in college, and soon after all his other books too. Unlike Rand, O'Rourke is funny and punchy and not afraid to take shots at his own side when warranted. Heck, even my middle and high school reading of Robert Heinlein's books probably did more to prepare my mind than Rand ever did. To tell the truth, I think Ayn Rand's writing turns off more potential libertarians than she converts.

[Jordan]

I've never read any of Rand's works. George W. Bush's awful presidency did more to convert me to libertarianism than anything else.

[Florida Man]

Yup. Left the R ticket 2003.

[Monty Crisco]

You hoping for a return to those comparatively halcyon days now?

[Jordan]

Feels like we never left.

[AdamJ]

Me too, about 2005-2006.

[Michael S. Langston]

Partially read some Rand, but well after getting to libertarianism.

Left with McCain-Feingold, though was more libertarian than Republican for at least a few years.

& for me, while I leaned libertarian at earlier ages, I didn't really start putting it together and expanding my reading list until I stumbled upon Reason some time ago.

And it had then and still has the most intelligent comments of any other internet site I've found.

[Restoras]

Parliament of Whores was great and should be re-released every ten years or so. I am pretty confident that this Team Red parliament will outdo all previous parliaments in terms of whoring.

The book that started me on the path toward a more libertarian perspective was Atlas Shrugged.

[Stormy Dragon]

The whores in the title weren't the politicians, they were the voters. "Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us."

[sarcasmic]

Ayn Rand is a straw man that progressives love to burn.

[Root Boy]

Yeah, I've never understood why they focus so much on her - again, must be the high schoolers at work. I've never read her but have read Hayek and others and the Constitution.

[sarcasmic]

I read Atlas. I'd pick it up, thumb forward to see how far to the next good stopping point, and then put it back down. Took most of a year to finish. I'm glad I read it, but I don't see it as anything transformative. More like a big yawn..

[some guy]

Objectivism is a pretty easy target for them because it is so counter to human nature. "It would never work because humans don't behave that way!" They can then point at a few instances where Rand failed to be perfectly Objectivist in her own life and claim victory.

[sarcasmic]

They can then point at a few instances where Rand failed to be perfectly Objectivist in her own life and claim victory.

I've never seen any arguments against her philosophy. Only personal attacks. Then again, the left considers ad hominems to be convincing arguments. They must watch too many courtroom dramas or something.

[some guy]

The only argument they need is that humans have emotions, therefore Objectivism is evil. Also, Ayn Rand wanted to be raped, so she must be a sub-human tool of the patriarchy. Yeah, it goes ad hom real quick.

[Root Boy]

Yes, must go back to lefties always focusing on some emotional angle and the personal.

[BardMetal]

Because it gives them someone to attack personally which is much easier then debating ideas.

[VG Zaytsev]

I've never understood why they focus so much on her

Because she's unabashedly anti-collectivist and completely rejects the 19th Christian moral foundation that progressivism is built upon.

[sarcasmic]

Progressivism is built upon a Christian moral foundation?

I must have missed the part where Christian morality advocated for forced charity. I thought charity was supposed to come from the heart, not the point of a gun.

[Zeb]

I think that was the idea, but it has rarely actually been the case. For most of its history the Catholic Church was mostly just another government collecting taxes. As I see it, if Christianity had stuck to its original principles, it never could have become a major world religion and would just be some weird middle eastern death cult.

American progressivism grew, in part at least, out of the anti-slavery and anti-alcohol movements of the 19th century which were quite religious in the NE protestant tradition.

I don't have a dog in this fight, so I'll just let the different kinds of Christians fight it out.

[VG Zaytsev]

Progressivism is built upon a Christian moral foundation?

Yep, as it existed in the 19th century. Keep in mind that the Christian fundamentalist movement is a 20th century phenomenon.

Suspicion of the profit motive (money is the roof of all evil).

Community over individuality.

Fetishization of the poor (even as you have done to the least of men, you have done to me).

Deference to authority.

I must have missed the part where Christian morality advocated for forced charity. I thought charity was supposed to come from the heart, not the point of a gun.

That's a modern understanding.
19th century christians wouldn't have seen any contradiction in forced charity.

Hell, a lot of SoCons still don't.

[VG Zaytsev]

Progressivism is built upon a Christian moral foundation?

Yep, as it existed in the 19th century. Keep in mind that the Christian fundamentalist movement is a 20th century phenomenon.

Suspicion of the profit motive (money is the roof of all evil).

Community over individuality.

Fetishization of the poor (even as you have done to the least of men, you have done to me).

Deference to authority.

I must have missed the part where Christian morality advocated for forced charity. I thought charity was supposed to come from the heart, not the point of a gun.

That's a modern understanding.
19th century christians wouldn't have seen any contradiction in forced charity.

Hell, a lot of SoCons still don't.

[trshmnster the terrible]

The progressives were primarily reconstructionist postmillenialists, which means that they believe that humans are tasked with establishing God's Kingdom on earth, which will trigger the second coming. They also believe, in conflict with revivalist postmillenialists, that this change must be imposed from the top down.

The funny thing is 1) how quickly atheists coopted the progressive movement away from the Christians, and 2) that a bunch of supposed premillenialists support postmillenialist reforms as proposed under the socon name.

[Juice]

Romans 13:6-7 - This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

[BigT]

Ayn Rand is the lightning rod for the progs because they misunderstand her message and because she is so influential.

[sarcasmic]

Hubbard? Is that a Scientology site?

[VG Zaytsev]

They don't misunderstand her at all.

They hate her because she rejects their premises.

[wareagle]

you are right about O'Rourke in that sacred cows are few. He goes a step further, it seems, by translating criticism into action. Most on the right will bash their own, then dutifully pull the R lever next time around.

[Libertarian]

I've read all his books and was a big fan for years. But I was sorely disappointed when he supported the Iraq war.

[wareagle]

put it in the context of the time. Most folks who saw themselves as right leaning, with Pat Buchanan as a notable exception, supported it. Yes, time has proved their reasoning to be flawed but no one knew how it would turn out.

[BigT]

Yes Auburnfan, and don't forget the 'intelligence' briefing of Colon Powell at the UN. Powell had a reputation as an unimpeachable military mind - and black for good measure.

Yes, colon not Colin, is intentional.

[Libertarian]

no one knew how it would turn out

What????
Some people predicted the outcome. But even libertarians who might not have not predicted a disastrous outcome would have still objected to the war.

I considered JP a libertarian, now I consider him a funny conservative.

[Stormy Dragon]

O'Rourke in general has lost his touch since he had kids. He's turn into a pretty much run of the mill Republican since then.

[Lord Humungus]

O'Rourke is great - I enjoyed Republican Party Reptile.

[Bones]

My reading of the Constitution informed my libertarian beliefs. I just didn't know what a "libertarian" was until I was looking for a candidate to vote for in 2004. Badnarik's platform gave a label to my existing beliefs.

[Drake]

Robert Heinlein was just as libertarian and far more entertaining for me.

[some guy]

The Second Iraq Invasion is what sent me down the path of libertarianism. At first I gave the Bush admin the benefit of the doubt (I mean they had bipartisan support!). But by the time we took Baghdad I realized what an idiot I had been and vowed to never make that mistake again.

[Fluffy]

Unlike Rand, O'Rourke is funny and punchy and not afraid to take shots at his own side when warranted.

Um...what?

Rand hated everyone and took at least one shot - one REAL shot, not like O'Rourke's friendly little witty jokes - at everyone not named Ayn Rand. (Or Aristotle.)

[Doctor Whom]

The reading that pushed me to libertarianism was the newspapers. I saw how the solutions provided by both the statist left and the statist right consistently failed.

[Juice]

The Fountainhead was not a libertarian message. It was a distinctly objectivist one. It was all about selfish will.

[Injun, as in from India]

In response to terrorist threats, Sony has canceled the Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogan-James Franco comedy The Interview. According to U.S. officials, North Korea was "centrally involved" in the cyberattack on the company.

Not only does Kim Jong Un have a short dick, he's also got thin skin.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Why do I have the feeling that North Korea obtained some incriminating info on Sony during their hack. Maybe some shady tax avoidance schemes or something like that.

[Ska]

Doesn't even need to be legally threatening - execs making some un-PC remarks about a biracial president enjoying black actors made the news. Hurting the brand would be enough to dissuade Sony.

[Florida Man]

Did you see the Un-hung hero documentary? The guy went to Korea because evidently they have the smallest penises on average.

[Injun, as in from India]

I had never heard of it, but it looks like something fun to watch!

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Missouri GOP Lawmaker Sponsors. Bill Requiring Women to Have Expected Father's Permission for Abortions

"A Missouri Republican is pushing a bill that would allow a man who gets a woman pregnant to stop her from having an abortion. The measure would force a woman who wants an abortion to obtain written permission from the father first?unless she was the victim of "legitimate rape.""

http://m.motherjones.com/polit.....picks=true

[Restoras]

I guess the question I'd ask is - does this state require paternal support of the mother and child if she elects to have the baby?

If not, then no permission needed.

If yes, then permission needed.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I think two wrongs wouldn't make a right. The father shouldn't have to support a child if they wanted abortion and the mother did not, but it would be pretty wicked for a father to make an expected mother carry to term.

[Bones]

It would be pretty wicked to murder another human being in utero, too. Alas...

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Premises not accepted, of course.

[tarran]

This is exactly right...

And, as a matter of law, pregnancy is a form of disability. I doubt this law would survive a challenge simply on the grounds that a person can't compel another person to go through a disability over their objections.

[Florida Man]

But they sure can make you pay for it if they choose the "disability".

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Note, this bill is not going to give fathers the right to compel an abortion, just forbid them, and it doesn't change laws making them support the child if carried to term. It does nothing to help men who would be pursued for support if a child they didn't want.

[Restoras]

Meh. Father's should have rights too, when it comes to their progeny, but I understand that view isn't popular in our society. Fathers are scum, not to be trusted and only good for squeezing every last bit of blood from the stone.

Someday this view will be regretted.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

They should have rights, but this is a determinative veto.

[Bones]

Her veto could have arisen prior to accepting his sperm. This is more like SCOTUS striking down a law after it has been implemented.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Should have kept her knees shut tight like she was holding an aspirin between them, amirite?

[Restoras]

Well, she did make a choice at that moment in time.

[Marshall Gill]

You say that like a woman should be held responsible for her actions?

[tarran]

Fathers are scum, not to be trusted and only good for squeezing every last bit of blood from the stone.

Someday this view will be regretted.

Someday?!? *I* regret it already!

[R C Dean]

I think he's got it backwards, myself.

Sure, nobody should be able to force someone else to go through a pregnancy. Fine.

But, if he is willing to waive all parental rights and responsibilities and pay for the abortion, then he should be able to walk. If the woman wants to go through with a pregnancy the father doesn't want, then as far as he is concerned it never happened. This strikes me as the closest we will come to parity with the fact that, if a woman doesn't want to go through with a pregnancy, then it can be made to disappear.

[Tonio]

^This.

[wareagle]

and the So-Con signal is lit. Never mind that this bill will go nowhere and the guy behind it knows that, suggesting more because he was given some form regarding spousal consent/knowledge when getting a vasectomy.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

1. Don't underestimate how far stupid bills can go
2. We criticize all kinds of fringe proposals from non-Socon statists, why so disturbed here?

[wareagle]

1)this one will go nowhere and it was touched on yesterday (I believe) as to how even the sponsor knows that. There was some talk about the vasectomy form and whether it was a law or just the docs covering themselves.
2)not disturbed at all; just noticing your fixation with the so-con types. I don't see where a bill like this is going to have the natives here rushing to support it.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

My fixation? I note a bill from a Socon with liberty implications on a libertarian site. Nothing remarkable there. What's remarkable is that you find it so. Perhaps on other sites you frequent criticisms of SoCons would be rare.

[wareagle]

the topic was here yesterday, he said once more. Bill's not going to pass, Bo, and once more, even the sponsor knows that. And no one here that I have seen is saying it should pass. Guess I don't get excited about cockeyed ideas that are going nowhere.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

I'm sure you have many posts responding thus to posts noting fringe proposals from people that let's say are not considered GOP coalition allies?

[PM]

Nothing remarkable there. What's remarkable is that you find it so.

Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.

You're a full day late to the party, btw. Don't wait to get your talking points from DU when ENB has them first 😉

[VG Zaytsev]

This bill plays to the biggest straw-man that the pro-abortion side has.

Which is the myth that men want to prevent women from having abortions and instead force them to bear their children.

That undoubtedly rarely happens, but in the overwhelming majority of cases it is the man pressuring the woman to have an abortion and the woman that is conflicted.

[Raven Nation]

Much as this sounds like a stupid law, there is some symmetry. A woman can decide to keep a child and then hit the man up for child support even if he was pushing for an abortion.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The solution then should be a bill that protects an expected father who didn't want the child from being so pursued

[Restoras]

Yeah, good luck with that.

[tarran]

For those curious about what Bo is talking about, it's called a Financial Abortion and if you ever want to really piss off a man-hating feminist (rather than the equal rights for all variant), a great subject to bring up.

[The Last American Hero]

My wallet, my choice?

[wareagle]

I think someone suggested such a measure yesterday. It makes practical sense which, in politics, = no chance of passage.

[WTF]

The measure would force a woman who wants an abortion to obtain written permission from the father first?unless she was the victim of "legitimate rape."

I'm sure that won't lead to any increase in false rape accusations.

[An Innocent Man]

Men have been made to pay support for children that weren't theirs. What goes around, comes around.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Again, two wrongs don't make a right is the tailor made response to your last sentence.

[Florida Man]

I'm not a lawyer but as I understand it, if a man signs the birth certificate and later finds out the child is not his, he still has to support the child. I'm not sure if that is an urban legend.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

There are truly some insane injustices in going after 'dead beat dads' I readily concede that. This of course does nothing to reform that.

[VG Zaytsev]

That happened to a guy that I worked with in the 90s. He paid child support for 6 years, then got married and tried to get custody of his son because the mother was a complete fuck up. She fought it on the grounds that he wasn't in fact the father, which a paternity test proved in court. So he lost the custody battle, but the real nut punch is that he was still ordered by family court to continue paying child support.

[Florida Man]

I had always heard that but didn't know for sure. And Bo, I'm just talking about the topic of men getting fucked in family court in general and not this bill specifically. As I understand the bill it's more for publicity vs an honest attempt at changing law.

[Stormy Dragon]

Again, have people considered the likely consequences of passing a law that says you can only get an abortion if you accuse the father of rape first?

[Azathoth!!]

Can't really mention this without mentioning the impetus for it--doctors wanting spousal consent to perform vasectomies.

Needs that. turns your standard whining about socons into something that might be worth having a conversation about--

well, it might have, had not this issue already been covered.

[Michael S. Langston]

Doctors wanting spousal notification and the government requiring it are not the same things.

Though I do agree with the idea on a financial abortion, I don't see how the private doctor's requirements is meaningful to the discussion.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Empire State will impose a total ban on fracking."

Phew. For a second there I thought he banned 'fucking.'

[UnCivilServant]

Once again, he shows his utter distain for upstate and picks the option that will fuck it over the hardest.

SAFE Act, Casinos, Fracking, Tolls, Taxes, DEC Regs... he really hates us.

[Restoras]

He is going to run for president and he can't do that unless he touts his bona fides.

[Injun, as in from India]

^THIS.

Good luck to him though. He lusts for power like any psychopath politician, and that's what this is all about. It's not about the environment, or freedom, or whatever. It is about scoring enough electoral votes. End of story.

[gaijin]

If he had real balls, he would have tried to ban consumption and importation of natural gas obtained from Fracking.

[Cdr Lytton]

He's just trying to preserve the market for artisan petroleum hand extracted by hipsters.

[R C Dean]

Change "by" to "from", and I could get behind this proposal.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

"E85 is made from people!"

[Ted S.]

The problem with the casinos is the government limit on them.

[UnCivilServant]

You will also note that they sited one right in the middle of the area that most strongly rejected them rather than the areas which voted for them.

[Ted S.]

Which one? On the news last night I only saw the East Greenbush folks buoyant over the fact that their town was rejected in favor of Schnectady.

Some asshole was complaining that casinos would lead to an increase in criminality such as prostitution, to which I wanted to yell through the screen that of course prostitution shouldn't be a crime.

[Root Boy]

I read two fun facts over at Hotair about this:

1. Cuomo claimed he didn't even make the decision
2. The DEQ guy first eliminated a huge area as being too sensitive then said that since such a small area was only available it would not provide much in the way of economic benefits.

[Drake]

Hey, if you wanted freedom or economic opportunity, you wouldn't live in a state that happens to include Manhattan and Long Island in one corner.

[Rich]

Me, too, Rufus. After all the other stuff they've banned in NY it wouldn't surprise me.

[Injun, as in from India]

Well, fracking is f***ing with the environment, right?

What an a-hole. Upstate NY is already suffering, and people will hopefully see the difference as compared to just across the border in PA.

[Restoras]

Honestly, everything north of I-287 should declare itself North New York and make itself its own state.

[BigT]

North New York should then declare war on SNY and bomb it into oblivion.

[wareagle]

FYTW clause at work

[straffinrun]

That still ok. Up to 16 ounces.

[sarcasmic]

No more Battlestar Galactica?

[UnCivilServant]

Frak you!

[sarcasmic]

[sarcasmic]

Dang it, I missed!

[Jordan]

After the shitty series finale, that's a good thing.

[sarcasmic]

How else was it going to end?

[Jordan]

In a mediocre, but non-shitty way that doesn't rest on the myth of the noble savage?

[sarcasmic]

For it to end they had to find Earth. Then what? Bring their technology with them? That's not going to happen. No, they had to mingle with the natives. I agree that it was shitty, but it was also inevitable.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 way out of here

[Fist of Etiquette]

The whole series was terrible.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nah, there were some bright spots in there. They just got trampled by bad plotting and hamfisted socio-political messaging.

[sarcasmic]

I liked the first third or so of it. The rest of it I watched only because the original was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I had to finish it.

[Mercutio]

Ironic in that New York is home to the town that gave its name to Marcellus Shale.

[sarcasmic]

A very narrow escape! Skateboarder inches away from colliding with coach as he flies down what he thought was deserted Spanish road

Unidentified longboarder thought the country lane was deserted
But a coach suddenly appears round a sharp bend, causing him to take evasive action and career off the narrow road to safety
Fellow daredevil boarder Alberto Alepuz from Madrid filmed the heart-stopping three-minute downhill run
The filmmaker warns: 'This guy was very lucky this time. Downhill skateboarding is not a game. Always be careful'

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

[sarcasmic]

That's a different kind of water-skiing! Incredible pictures show pair of adventurers body board their way down Europe's largest glacier

Claude-Alain Gailland and Gilles Janin seen carving their way through icy rivers of Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland
Daredevils risked being carried away by strong currents and drowning in hidden crevices to complete journey
Duo also ran risk of being overwhelmed by collapsing glacial lakes that could be released into river at any time

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

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

Scenic Switzerland - land of natural traps!

[sarcasmic]

The mystery of the magical 'Ulfberht' Viking sword - Researchers close in on the German 'supermonks' believed to have forged the superstrong weapons

Small number of 'superstrong' Viking swords have been uncovered
Made of metal so pure forged to make it hat not been thought to exist
All of the mysterious weapons are inscribed with a single word - 'Ulfberht'

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

[Florida Man]

I saw the documentary. It's persian steel sold to Viking traders.

[Root Boy]

I read something recently claiming that some European steel making had signification advanced, but as Euros went to guns the skills were lost -- whereas in Japan they kept at it due to tradition. It was trying to refute the superior knowledge of sword making in Japan.

[UnCivilServant]

Tradition is why the steel used in Japanese swords is still crap when we can make much better steel today. I won't deny that it takes a great deal of skill to turn what is effectively pig iron into something not complete shit as a sword, but the only reason they have to take such a laborious path is becuase they start with absolute crap metal. We have much better steels now, and when you start looking at other metallurgical options beyond the iron-carbon spectrum, the possibilities get grander.

[R C Dean]

Tradition is why the steel used in Japanese swords is still crap when we can make much better steel today.

I've heard different, at least as to the steel used in traditional Japanese swords being crap. The best I've seen is that the actual steel is roughly comparable to 1050, but that the differential hardening of the hamon is a pretty decent practical improvement.

[Florida Man]

I don't know why Hollywood choose the Japanese katana as the be all sword. From what I've heard the samurai had to train extensively to use the sword because it would break easily if used improperly.

[sarcasmic]

I don't know why Hollywood choose the Japanese katana as the be all sword.

That's easy. It looks cool.

[Pro Libertate]

My understanding is that samurai disdained the sword in general and favored archery and other means of killing.

[R C Dean]

The samurai code translates as "The Way of Horse and Bow" or something. Going on hazy memories, here.

Swords are very good in close melee fighting. For nearly any other setting, bows and spears are probably a better choice.

[UnCivilServant]

When they were warriors, yes. None would brag about swordsmanship because it means that they failed so badly that the enemy closed to melee.

After they became Bureaucrats in the Edo era, the sword mythos was born.

[WTF]

That is correct. The cult of the sword arose during the isolation of the Tokugawa Shogunate prior to the Meiji Restoration when the Samurai had no actual battles to fight for two centuries. The Samurai class created for themselves a mythology that had little to do with the actual way that they fought actual battles.

[Root Boy]

But, but NINJAS

[AlmightyJB]

I saw a special on these swords. They had a blacksmith basically recreate one. I think it was the same guy from Wisconsin mentioned in the article because I remember checking out his website. It was pretty awesome. Evidently these were highly prized swords and were subject to a lot of counterfeiting as well

[Pro Libertate]

That was one of the best NOVA episodes in a long while. They aren't as consistently good as they once were.

[Steve G]

I grew a full beard just reading this story

[Steve G]

You know who else was 'super' in Germany?

[antisocial-ist]

David Hasselhoff?

[Ted S.]

Frank Laufenberg?

[BigT]

Thomas M?ller?

[Pro Libertate]

The ?bermensch?

[WTF]

Uberman?

[Ted S.]

For some reason the Hitler diaries come to mind.

[sarcasmic]

Woman proudly poses for nude photos after losing 100 pounds WITHOUT actively changing her diet or exercise routine

Stephanie Athena-Marie, 29, credits her miraculous weight loss to a 'return to emotional health'
After a painful divorce, Ms Athena-Marie moved to Colorado to be 'closer to nature'
She also suffers from Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS), a debilitating disease that caused massive scarring under her arms and on her breasts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....utine.html
You chubby-chasers (you know who you are) are gonna love this!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Can't make me click that. nyah nyah

[sarcasmic]

She's naked!

[Rich]

With oh-so-colorful tats!

[Restoras]

Yeah, very...um...Ruebenesque.

[Jordan]

Fat and dreadlocked. Must be a Jezebel writer.

[AlmightyJB]

You know, another 100 pounds and some makeup she would probably be pretty attractive.

[Restoras]

Except for that gigantic blob of ink on her chest.

[Injun, as in from India]

Boko Haram militants have reportedly kidnapped over 100 people from a village in northeastern Nigeria.

Okay, so Boko Haram means "western education/culture is evil".

And these guys are just proving how much superior an islamic madrassa education is.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

And Procol Haram means "our music is an abomination unto Allah"

[gaijin]

Whiter shade of pale...racist?

[wareagle]

so, no hashtag and Michelle frowny face this time?

[Root Boy]

Don't make her angry

[Injun, as in from India]

#NotAllVictimsAreCreatedEqual

[WTF]

#GirlsLivesMatter

[Fist of Etiquette]

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Empire State will impose a total ban on fracking.

So take that, New York land owners.

[AlmightyJB]

Stupid people need pandering to too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...raising questions of whether Congress will even consider easing a more than 50-year trade embargo against the communist state?let alone end it.

Take away Florida's electoral votes or prohibit Congress members from running for president, and then maybe.

[Ted S.]

Take away the electoral votes of states that go bankrupt, first.

[Ted S.]

For the libertarian who likes living away from everybody else:

Icelandic town cut off for six days

There have been no flights to Gj?gur airport in the Westfjords municipality of ?rneshreppur since late last week?and the road is closed too.

There is a thick layer of snow on the runway, as well as on the road.

?rneshreppur has received a lot of snow and stormy weather in recent days (as has the whole country), and it continues to snow in what is Iceland's least-populated municipality. Around 50 people live in its 724 square kilometers.

.

I think that population density comes out to about 3500 acres per person.

[Lord Humungus]

finally a place for me to be free.

[Cdr Lytton]

How many people out of a community of 50 normally fly during a one week period?

[UnCivilServant]

Well, there's the run to the nearest store, which is prohibively far by car...

/jk

[Ted S.]

As the part of the article I didn't quote says, the road in is often closed for long stretches in the winter, making air cargo important.

[UnCivilServant]

What about proper planning and stockpiling when the road is open? You know, time honored traditions of mammals everywhere.

[Ivan Pike]

time honored traditions

Those old things. Bah.

[An Innocent Man]

What about proper planning and stockpiling when the road is open?

Yea, if you can't outthink squirrels...

[Bo Cara Esq.]

NOM Invokes David Koch's Support for SSM in Fund Raising Letter to Fight SSM, Heads Explode

"In the interview, he unequivocally states, "I'm basically a libertarian, and I'm a conservative on economic matters, and I'm a social liberal." It harkens back to a 2012 Politico article where he said, "I believe in gay marriage," pointing out that he openly supported legal abortion as a Libertarian party candidate in 1980.

Marriage Supporter, this is exactly the problem. Millionaires and billionaires are lining up in support of this radical social agenda... even on the right! And I need your help to stop it!"

- See more at: http://www.nomblog.com/39876/#.dpuf

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Pakistan is rescinding its moratorium on the death penalty for persons convicted of terrorism.

This will be a substantial deterrent for suicide bombers out there.

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

"You helped those attackers and are immediately sentenced to death" - BLAM!

[Root Boy]

Tim Blair has a nice collection of quotes for 2014 - Derp from Oztralia:

http://blogs.news.com.au/daily.....s_of_2014/

[Irish]

"Ah, well, ah, it, you know, it's, ah, not, not for me, ah, to, ah, you know, determine how, ah, countries and individuals determine these issues." ? Having previously promised to "call out misogyny and sexism wherever I see it", ex-PM Julia Gillard takes a different stance when asked about female representation in Middle Eastern politics.

My God! How did this woman lose her election?

[tarran]

She lost it because she lied about the Carbon Tax, and it was like Bush's lie about a "humbler foreign policy".

[Raven Nation]

There's gold in them thar quotes:

"A suspect contacted an FGM helpline to request the procedure for his two daughters after misunderstanding the purpose of the service for victims." ? The BBC reports confusion over a female genital mutilation helpline.

[SugarFree]

"If only I had boys," the caller lamented. "Then I could cut up their genitals all I wanted." The caller then broke down in tears.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Socon Leader: Torture is Okay, Because God Sanctioned Brutality in the Bible

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/f.....n-fischer/

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Assuming Fischer is correct in there being a God, he should be judged by the standards of the Old Testament upon his arrival at the Pearly Gates. Hope he hasn't eaten any shellfish.

[gaijin]

"A new command I give you: Lovekill one another. As I have loved killed you, so you must love kill one another."

Bryan Fischer, Revised Bible

[The Late P Brooks]

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Empire State will impose a total ban on fracking.

Something something party of science.

[Libertarian]

In response to terrorist threats, Sony has canceled the Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogan-James Franco comedy The Interview.

Good lord. I see the horrors that occur in other countries (mass kidnappings, entire schools of children massacred, etc) and I wonder what sort of draconian, Orwellian, police state the U.S. would become if we suffered something like that. We can't even release a movie because of a threat on the Internet??? (yes, I know the movie involves a private company, not the gov't, but I think the spines/cowardice are shared).

[Tonio]

I know, and on top of that, people can't even use simple HTML tags to distinguish text they are quoting from their own writing.

[Lord Humungus]

interesting:

Exclusive: Sony Emails Say State Department Blessed Kim Jong-Un Assassination in 'The Interview'

The Daily Beast has unearthed several emails that reveal at least two U.S. government officials screened a rough cut of the Kim Jong-Un assassination comedy The Interview in late June and gave the film?including a final scene that sees the dictator's head explode?their blessing.

The claim that the State Department played an active role in the decision to include the film's gruesome death scene is likely to cause fury in Pyongyang. Emails between the Sony Entertainment CEO and a security consultant even appear to suggest the U.S. government may support the notion that The Interview would be useful propaganda against the North Korean regime.

[Cdr Lytton]

Spoilers!

[Jordan]

Why the fuck does the State Dept need to "bless" a movie in the first place?

[Libertarian]

My question as well! Let me know when you get an answer.

[Rich]

Indeed! It *should* be Homeland Security!

[Ted S.]

Mission to Moscow

[gaijin]

Why is the State Department back to reviewing incendiary movie themes? I thought they only cared about movies depicting Mohammed?

[PM]

I thought they only cared about movies depicting Mohammed?

Well, there is a lot of overlap with "Mohammed" and "incendiary". Can't be too safe.

[Ted S.]

Aussie Senator says Aussies should have riht to self defese; Aussie political class soils its collective panties

[Bo Cara Esq.]

They want people to be utterly dependent on government in ever way.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Following in the footsteps of their UK parents I see

[Raven Nation]

Not agreeing with the attempts to further suppress weapons, but the Port Arthur Massacre had a profound impact on the collective Australian psyche.

[Rich]

raising questions of whether Congress will even consider easing a more than 50-year trade embargo against the communist state?let alone end it.

What is this "Congress" to which you refer?

[WTF]

Well if they don't, Barry will just have to do it himself with his pen and his phone.

[Lord Humungus]

Vermont's Giving Up On Single-Payer Health Care Over Ballooning Costs

"I am not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont," Shumlin said in a statement Wednesday. "In my judgment, now is not the right time to ask our legislature to take the step of passing a financing plan for Green Mountain Care."

The problem is, of course, how to pay for it. Even while plans were moving forward for a 2017 launch of the single-payer system, to be called Green Mountain Care, Shumlin had held off on releasing a plan for how to pay for the system, waiting until his announcement Wednesday.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Quick, get Bernie on the phone...

[Injun, as in from India]

But... but... CUBA MADE IT WORK!

We need #FULLCOMMUNISM

[gaijin]

"I am not going to undermine the hope...
hehe

[sarcasmic]

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

[Injun, as in from India]

This is my favorite Bastiat quote, although given today's world, I prefer to phrase it as:

"Government is the great fiction unfortunate reality through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

[wareagle]

so the problem with costs is going to resolve itself?

[Jordan]

I'm not surprised about the costs. I am extremely surprised that socialists were able to recognize them.

[Lord Humungus]

"Tax hikes required to pay for the system would include a 11.5 percent payroll tax as well as an additional income tax ranging all the way up to 9.5 percent. Shumlin admitted that in the current climate, such a precipitous hike would be disastrous for Vermont's economy."

Or good at depopulating the state.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Good at lowering the cost of my vacation home. I'll just need to do my shopping in New York though.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Vermont is hard to get a grasp on. On one end, it is a libertarian paradise for guns and low property taxes and on the other it's filled with silly little proggy notions on the environment and food.

But it's not proggy enough to push through single-payer because it's practical enough to accept it's too expensive.

Interesting.

[Ted S.]

Single-payer legal care. Because not one lawyer does anything worth more than minimum wage.

[Juice]

Aren't there already public defenders and suits filed on contingency?

[Lord Humungus]

WAPO: Obama gives the Castro regime in Cuba an undeserved bailout

IN RECENT months, the outlook for the Castro regime in Cuba was growing steadily darker. The modest reforms it adopted in recent years to improve abysmal economic conditions had stalled, due to the regime's refusal to allow Cubans greater freedoms. Worse, the accelerating economic collapse of Venezuela meant that the huge subsidies that have kept the Castros afloat for the past decade were in peril. A growing number of Cubans were demanding basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly.

On Wednesday, the Castros suddenly obtained a comprehensive bailout ? from the Obama administration. President Obama granted the regime everything on its wish list that was within his power to grant; a full lifting of the trade embargo requires congressional action. Full diplomatic relations will be established, Cuba's place on the list of terrorism sponsors reviewed and restrictions lifted on U.S. investment and most travel to Cuba. That liberalization will provide Havana with a fresh source of desperately needed hard currency and eliminate U.S. leverage for political reforms.

[Injun, as in from India]

I don't get it. China was totally communist when the US eased the relationship, and now it is much better with freedom as compared to what it was. Won't the same thing happen with Cuba?

[Libertarian]

Yes, and I predict a hell of a lot quicker, too.

[Root Boy]

I don't think China is that more free, but its better than Gang of Four free.

I doubt Cuba will change much, but the sanctions were a joke and just an excuse for Castro to blame the US for his problems.

[Restoras]

Old habits die hard. Regardless how it came about, this is by far the best thing that Obama has done and I applaud him for it.

Hopefully in ten years the golf courses will be in great shape, the cigars will be flowing freely, and maybe in 20 years I can move their to retire.

[John]

Hopefully in ten years the golf courses will be in great shape, the cigars will be flowing freely, and maybe in 20 years I can move their to retire.

Canada trades with Cuba and that hasn't happened. Canadians have money and like beaches and golf too.

Ending the embargo doesn't change Cuban policy. Why do you guys think it would? The Castros will trade just enough with the US to stay alive and nothing more. They will happily build a few walled off plantations for US tourists while opressing and starving their own people. What about the presence of US tourists in areas secured from the ordinary Cuban people is going to change anything? They will make money sure. But that moeny isn't going to go to the Cuban people. It is going to go to the Castros. The whole fucking island is enslaved. Do you really think they are going to pay the workers at those places any kind of a wage or make them better off? Fuck no. They will use slave labor and happily pocket the cash of various dumb Americans. And if there is another revolution, the Cuban people will rightly see the American people and government as being in partnership with Castro. Yeah, that will make us popular.

[BardMetal]

"Ending the embargo doesn't change Cuban policy. Why do you guys think it would?"

Because there are some Libertarians who seem to think free-trade is the panacea for all the world's problems.

The embargo accomplished nothing, and ending the embargo will likely accomplish the same.

[Libertarian]

Ending the embargo doesn't change Cuban policy.

The Cuban government won't have a choice. Increased trade will force changes for the better. I'm one of the few weirdos who don't think Reagan "won" the cold war by outspending the USSR. I think it was trade, and the resultant freedom what done it.

[John]

The Cuban government won't have a choice. Increased trade will force changes for the better.

That is utter nonsense. It is a totalitarian state. There will not be one ounce of trade with the US that doesn't occur totally within their control and subject to their approval.

Ending the embargo does not create a free market. The free market does those things you speak of. And ending the embargo doesn't create that. The Castros are fully aware of the effects of a free market, that is why they will never allow one to happen.

Do you really think the only reason Cuba doesn't have a free market is because they can't trade with the US?

[R C Dean]

The Cuban government won't have a choice. Increased trade will force changes for the better.

Why do you say the totalitarian Cuban government has no say in whatever trade occurs with the US? They have a vote, too, and they could just shut it down if they wanted.

I think that, over time, the innate corruption of the nomenklatura will undermine the Cuban attempt to control trade with the US. There's just too much money to be skimmed.

But, it will take time, maybe a long time, before trade with the US gets to a point where it threatens the totalitarians in charge. And in the process, many very bad people will get very rich.

Its the right thing to do, but don't get your hopes up.

[Pro Libertate]

I, of course, deplore the politics behind Obama's move, but I favor ending the embargo. It won't topple the government there, but one thing to keep in mind is how close Cuba is to the U.S. If things open up enough, they'll have a huge amount of influence from the north.

[Restoras]

The embargo has been a failure. Think outside the box and try something else.

Cuba is harmless (except to it's own citizens). Better to normalize and focus on other things more threatening.

[John]

Cuba is harmless (except to it's own citizens).

I have a few hundred thousand dead bodies in Africa from the Marxist wars Cuba funded there that says otherwise. Who do you think funded Chavez initially? Cuba caused all kinds of harm throughout Africa and Latin America for decades. They only stopped because they went broke after the collapse of the Soviet Union. End the embargo and give them some money to play with again. What could possibly be the downside?

[Restoras]

Ok John, allow me to clarify.

Harmless to the US.

But by all means, let's continue a failed policy just because it makes us feel good about ourselves and very self-righteous.

We'll just have to ignore that we mock those on the left that do the exact same thing.

[John]

Harmless to the US.

I consider turning our Southern neighbors into socialist hell holes or starting guerrilla wars is harmful to the US. You would agree that one of the ways the drug war is harmful to the US is because it totally fucks up the governments of central and south America thus harming US interests and trade, right? The Castros doing the same thing is just as harmful.

[Restoras]

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[Pro Libertate]

That was mostly just funneling Soviet money, but yes, the Cuban government clearly falls in the bad guy camp.

[Azathoth!!]

I have a few hundred thousand dead bodies in Africa from the Marxist wars the USSR funded there via Cuba that says otherwise. Who do you think funded Chavez initially? The USSR caused all kinds of harm throughout Africa and Latin America for decades via Cuba. That strategy only stopped because of the collapse of the Soviet Union. End the embargo and give them some money to play with again. What could possibly be the downside?

Never believe that communist Cuba was ever an independent state.

[John]

China is not Cuba. The Cuban leadership is much worse than the Deng Chinese one was. Second, China, while more capitalist, is still ruled by the same people. The Chinese regime did not fall.

Ending the embargo may be a good thing. Even if it is, however, people who think doing so is going to push the Castros out of power are delusional. All it will do is allow the Castros additional money to steal and to improve the standard of living on the Island just enough to keep it from imploding. That is it.

The Castros are not interested in free market reforms the way the Chinese were. They are interested in staying in power and stealing as much as possible. All ending the embargo is going to do is enable them to do that more effectively. It might help the standard of living of a few Cubans as a side benefit, but it won't make them free.

Think about it, Cuba trades with everyone but the US and it is still an oppressive hell hole. What is so magical about US trade that would cause it to change?

[Bo Cara Esq.]

The Chinese CP has no interest in power and stealing more money?

[John]

Sure they did. But they also were okay wiht free market reforms. The Castros are not. The Castros are much more afraid of loosing power than the Chinese were and are. They therefore will never risk the kinds of reforms that the Chinese leadership did. They want to steal sure. But stolen money does you no good when you end up on the end of a rope, and that is what the Castro regime is facing if the regime ever falls. They are in a similar situation to North Korea. The regime is so hated and so guilty of so many crimes that they are locked in. They can never let go of power because doing so means their own death.

[Restoras]

What is so magical about US trade that would cause it to change?

Size and proximity. Not saying it will happen or that it will happen exactly the way it happened in China, but clearly our embargo did nothing to change anything so why not try something else?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This. The embargo has been a failure. There is no point in continuing it.

[John]

Why has it been a "failure"? Okay, it hasn't gotten the Catros out of power. But is that the only standard of success? Suppose we end it and the Castros stay in power but are just richer and able to cause more trouble around South America. Would you consider that a success? The Castros are evil fucks who have spent 50 years funding everyone in Latin America they could find who wanted to turn the place into a giant prison. How is trading with them and giving them more money automatically such a good idea?

Why do you guys think that the Cuban government won't be able to control and manipulate trade with the US such that it only benefits them and not the Cuban people?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I have a suggestion, since the embargo hasn't achieved it's goal in any measurable sense, let's just keep doing it. Sounds like the perfect government program to me.

[John]

I have a suggestion, since the embargo hasn't achieved it's goal in any measurable sense,

That is just not true. Thanks to the embargo the Cubans are broke and have no money or ability to cause any trouble in Latin America. For years the Cubans, thanks to Soviet Support were a cancer on the entire hemisphere. After the USSR collapsed they no longer had the money to be such. End the embargo and give them money and again watch what happens. You will have a richer and much more dangerous Cuban regime.

You admit the embargo hurts them. So why do you think ending the embargo wont' help them and just enable them to go back to funding and exporting Marxist revolution again?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You think that if they gain money and power by trade with the US that they will turn right around and jeopardize that source of income? Do you doubt that if they do go back to fomenting revolution in third world hellholes that the US wouldn't take action at that point? Who will have more to lose, them or us?

[Restoras]

But is that the only standard of success?

Um, because that was the point of the embargo when it was begun?

[John]

Um, because that was the point of the embargo when it was begun?

No. It was also to deprive them of money to export revolution and cause trouble in Latin America. It has done a pretty good job of that. Thanks to the embargo, the USSR was stuck with the bill for doing that. Once that collapsed, it stopped. Had we traded with Cuba all of these years, Cuba would have had the money to do it themselves and the collapse of the USSR wouldn't have mattered. End the embargo and you can put them back in business.

[Azathoth!!]

It has?

Do you not notice the plethora of socialist states and parties that mar Central and South America?

If the embargo was meant to keep communism out of Central/South America it has failed miserably.

[John]

Size and proximity.

The size is dictated by the Cuban government. The trade that will happen will only be trade that is approved and carefully controlled by the Cuban government. It is not a free country or in anyway a free economy. So ending the embargo is not going to create some kind of unrestrained and uncontrolled growth in trade. The Cuban government won't allow that. It will create carefully controlled trade that benefits the government and nothing else.

Think about it. As evil and stupid as the Castros are, they certainly know how to stay in power. If ending the embargo was going to seal their doom like you guys think it will, why would the Castros be so gung ho to do it? Are they just stupid about how to stay in power? Fifty plus years of rule says otherwise. Or do they know that ending the embargo will benefit them and enable them to steal more money without giving up any power? I am going with option number 2.

[Restoras]

I didn't say anything about ending the embargo would spell the doom of the Castros. Of course they will get richer and use this as a means to stay in power. But who is to say what will happen in 20 years time? Clearly the embargo of the last 50 years hasn't worked, so why continue it? I doubt very much that at the time Nixon went to China people thought China would be where it is today, not that Nixon had anything directly to do with it, but what if that was the beginning?

[John]

But who is to say what will happen in 20 years time?

And how much harm will they do with all of that extra money in the meantime? Have you forgotten the harm the Castros did when they were getting Soviet money?

[Restoras]

No idea. Maybe a lot! If so we can always start teh embargo up again. But then again, maybe none and I can only conclude that since the embargo has been a failure for the last 50 years it will only be a failure for the next 50.

What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result? Seems to apply here.

[John]

Restoras,

You are assuming that the only good result is the Castros leaving power. While that is certainly the best result, it is not the only good result. I think quarantining those assholes on their prison island and leaving the outcasts of the world and broke is a good result too. Better than Cuba opening up just enough to start causing the problems they did in the 1980s.

And sure we could reimpose the embargo, but why give the Castros of all people the benefit of the doubt?

[Irish]

"And how much harm will they do with all of that extra money in the meantime? Have you forgotten the harm the Castros did when they were getting Soviet money?"

The harm they did when getting Soviet money was backed up by Soviet military power. Unless you fear a reconstituted USSR, I don't think there will be a repeat.

Plus, they're already more open today than they were in the 80's because they need the money. There's a difference between being subsidized by an autocracy and having to allow tourism and trade in order to stave off mass starvation. Cuba's already more open to the west than they were in the 80's due to modern western tourism, so you can't claim the situation is the same.

[John]

The harm they did when getting Soviet money was backed up by Soviet military power. Unless you fear a reconstituted USSR, I don't think there will be a repeat.

Okay, so they will do harm but we can just stop them by threatening war. I suppose that is true as far as it goes. But wouldn't it be easier to have them not cause trouble in the first place? I would rather embargo Cuba than go to war with them, wouldn't you?

[Irish]

That is in no way what I said. What I said was that the harm they caused was backed up by the fact that they had a guaranteed Soviet subsidy and soviet military backup that meant they could throw their weight around.

I'm not saying we'll go to war with them, I'm saying they won't make the same kind of trouble in the first place because at the moment American trade and tourism is propping up their economy. Since they no longer have a guaranteed subsidy from a super power, they can't ignore the importance of American exports and tourism.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

IT WAS ABOUT TO WORK, JUST ANOTHER 50 YEARS WAS ALL WE NEEDED

[John]

It has left the Castros broke and living in their own shit and totally unable to export revolution. That looks like success to me.

[Restoras]

So, it did work. Then why continue it?

[John]

Because ending it will put them back in business.

[Pro Libertate]

If they use more wealth to do more bad stuff, an embargo can always be reinstituted. Or some other levers could be used. That threat might help topple the regime from the bottom, too.

[Contrarian P]

And the people with an absolute god awful standard of living, but hey, as long as the embargo sticks it to Fidel and the boys, who cares, right? That's the problem I have with embargoes in general. They screw the people of the country while the leaders continue to live lives of opulence.

[John]

Fidel is their problem not ours. At some point the Cubans must like living under Fidel or they wouldn't do it.

If the Cuban people are the US responsibility, why shouldn't we be obligated to invade and free them? If we are not obligated to invade, why are we obligated to trade with them?

[kbolino]

How is that you can understand nuance when it comes to criminal justice and the drug war, but when it comes to borders and trade, you resort to simplistic tropes?

Forbidden ? Restricted ? Permitted ? Required

[paranoid android]

You mean it left *Cubans* broke and living in their own shit. I don't see any evidence that the Castros themselves suffered one bit.

[The Late P Brooks]

The problem is, of course, how to pay for it.

Make the rich pay their fair share.

duh

[SugarFree]

Have fun with your nightmares: Kim Kardashian fan Jordan James Parke spent $150,000 on more than FIFTY cosmetic procedures to transform into idol

He's the spitting image of Kim.

[Libertarian]

With those lips, he probably CAN'T spit. Seriously, don't plastic surgeons have a code of ethics?

[Root Boy]

That sounds like a scarier link than the dreadlocked fatty

[UnCivilServant]

Given that it's a surgical emulation of what is already a nightmare made flesh...

[Root Boy]

I'd bang KK, but she is the true Rise and Fall of Western Civilization.

OT - really enjoyed Shadow Boy. Great story and characters

[UnCivilServant]

Thanks.

I'm working on an anthology before going on to the third book, just to get some variety and avoid burnout.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Thanks! 😉

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

*applauds*

[Rich]

What, no pictures of his *ass*?!

What a disturbed individual.

[Mike M.]

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the Empire State will impose a total ban on fracking.

The left can't stand cheap oil.

[Injun, as in from India]

They totally would love oil, if the government took over the oil industry and we had a national flagship oil producer like Citgo of Venezuela.

[BardMetal]

A government run oil company with zero accountability? Sounds great for the environment!

[Flaming Ballsack]

yeah and those ungrateful peons complaing about toxicch emicals in thier drinking water and air sheesh its like they think theyr people or somehing.

i dont know why you guys complain about big corporate being compared to captain planet villans. since they seem to go out of theur way to act just like them/

[Restoras]

Obvious concern troll is obviously concerned.

[Flaming Ballsack]

yes i am im concerned that you stil hustle the repeatedly debunked utopian claims about fracking sold by big oil. few if any locals see any substantial economic gains the local profracking governments hand control of local water supplies to big oil who deplete and or contaminate the water. people get sick and end up with expensive short and lon term medical expenses. who gave these people the lorax to study in business school anyway?

[Restoras]

Vewy Concwerned!

[Ivan Pike]

few if any locals see any substantial economic gains

I think the Three Affiliated Tribes would disagree with you.

[Roger the Shrubber]

debunked utopian claims

I don't know about 'utopian' but if you're referring to claims of an economic revitalization of communities driven by the fracking industry, should I believe your unsubstantiated claims or my lying eyes? I'm living in the heart of it, fracking has given rise to an economic boom, and don't see any evidence of the environmental and health catastrophe that you claim.

[Jordan]

wat

[Mike M.]

You need to take your meds like your doctor says, Mary.

[Lord Humungus]

let the rage flow through you.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Why are our trolls so inarticulate and ill-educated in the English language?

[John]

Because they are Progs. That is just how progressives roll. It is one of the wages of spending your entire life being rewarded and judging things strictly on their politics and nothing else. They never had to worry about learning proper English because their English teachers were not grading on that.

[trshmnster the terrible]

All the "educated" ones stay in their fever swamps and echo Chambers. Progs aren't per se stupid, they're just hopelessly cloistered and sheltered. The only ones that leave the comfort of home cookin' are the morons and illiterates.

[Lord Humungus]

When you lose weight, where does the fat go?

Despite a worldwide obsession with diets and fitness regimes, many health professionals cannot correctly answer the question of where body fat goes when people lose weight, a UNSW Australia study shows.

The most common misconception among doctors, dieticians and personal trainers is that the missing mass has been converted into energy or heat.

"There is surprising ignorance and confusion about the metabolic process of weight loss," says Professor Andrew Brown, head of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.

"The correct answer is that most of the mass is breathed out as carbon dioxide. It goes into thin air," says the study's lead author, Ruben Meerman, a physicist and Australian TV science presenter.

I thought it was sluiced into Warty's septic system.

[tarran]

Jesus! It gets turned to CO2 and to waste products and water that you pee out.

[Auric Demonocles]

I would think if you're losing weight you're probably sweating out a decent amount of that water.

[Auric Demonocles]

The correct answer is that most of the mass is breathed out as carbon dioxide.

I figured that out myself while reading the lead-in question just knowing high school biology.

[Libertarian]

So people going on diets are adding to global warming! I'll have to tell my skinny liberal friends that I'm saving the planet by storing CO2.

[Rich]

Beautiful.

I intend to blow up a big balloon and threaten to release the CO2.

*** squee *** squee *** squee ***

[John]

You beat me too it. How long before the UN does something about binge weight loss. Someone tell Ron Baily about this. I am sure he can work up a "weight loss cap and trade" scheme that will save the planet.

[Lord Humungus]

because the world needs more regulations!

[Roger the Shrubber]

I propose a carbon capture scheme. Al Gore could claim carbon credits by stuffing his own pie hole!

[Steve G]

I'm not gaining weight, I'm trapping carbon! You're welcome!!

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

"Was she a large girl?"

"Yes."

"Big through the hips? Roomy?"

[Poppa Kilo]

The end products of combustion are largely carbon dioxide and water, whether it is you or your car.

So, you're going to breath it out and pee it out (along with perspiration and respiration fluid losses).

If we could convert mass directly to energy we wouldn't need to eat very much!

[Coeus]

My irony meter just exploded.

On Friday, I was on the train to New York to do a teach-in on Ferguson at NYU. Beats headphones on, lost in thought, peering out the window, I suddenly saw a white hand shoving my work carry-on toward me. Startled, I looked up to see the hand belonged to a white guy, who was haphazardly handling my open bag, with my laptop perched just inside to make space for himself on the seat next to me.

That he wanted the seat on the now full train was not the problem. That he assumed the prerogative to place his hands on my bag, grab it, shove it at me, all while my computer was unsecured and peaking out, infuriated me. I said to him, "Never put your hands on my property."

How can she not know who the entitled person is in this scenario?

In the reverse scenario, a black man would never get on the train, snatch up a white woman's bag, and shove it in her face. But then black women are rarely entitled to the courtesies proffered to white women, and black people never presume they are entitled to occupy interracial spaces so aggressively.

HA!

[Coeus]

As I fought back the urge to pummel this man, it occurred to me that far too many white people really don't get how short black America's collective fuse is in this moment.

The fact that our civil rights history has so firmly receded to the background that this white man had no sense of the racial irony of him being a jerk to a black woman on a train tells me that we are more vulnerable than ever to repeating our sordid racial history.

[Auric Demonocles]

So because the white guy sees her as just someone taking up two seats, and not as a black person who is undeserving of respect, it's bad for society?

[Root Boy]

Don't ride the trains much anymore but I hate people at the airport who sprawl out and take a couple seats with all their junk.

Quit hogging seats lady. And since she had her headphones on, maybe the guy did try to get her to move her own shit.

[Coeus]

yep

Buoyed by his own entitlement, his own sense of white male somebodiness, this passenger never even considered that he might simply try harder to get my attention before putting his hands on my stuff.

[R C Dean]

God forbid he actually touch her to get her out of her catatonic state.

[Auric Demonocles]

We should have actually read the whole thing. From another post of this below:

I said to him, "Never put your hands on my property."

His reply: "Well, you should listen when I talk to you." That line there, the command that when he, whoever he was, spoke, I should automatically listen encapsulates the breadth of the battle against racism we have to fight in this country.

So, apparently it was also racist that he tried to get her to move it on her own first.

[Pope Jimbo]

Huh, I've done that to white guys on the bus a bunch of times.

For some reason there is a class of assholes who think that if they put their shit on the seat next to them, that they won't have to share a seat.

I can't even fathom the level of narcissism that is necessary to rant about someone having the temerity to move your stuff on a crowded train when you admit you aren't paying any attention to your surroundings.

[Coeus]

What I envy about the prior racial era is the explicit nature of racial animus. In this moment we are saddled with the task not only of surviving widespread and deadly racial discrimination but also proving that things are "racial" to begin with

Of course she does. It's so much harder to be a victim now.

[Irish]

"I wish I lived in the era of lynch mobs, literacy tests, and violent attacks on civil rights protesters because then I wouldn't have to worry about explaining to people why I cry when they use the word 'niggardly.'"

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What the hell?

[lap83]

Racism is so romantic!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's some cunt.

Selfishly taking up space on public transportation is the real irony here.

[Coeus]

She's going off on twitter:

Brittney Cooper @ProfessorCrunk ? 3h 3 hours ago
Why do (most) white folks not understand that they don't have the moral standing or epistemic authority to claim "there is no racism here"?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Why do (most) white black folks not understand that they don't have the moral standing or epistemic authority to claim "there is no racism here"?

There may be no racism there, but by changing two words, I found some racism here!

[Auric Demonocles]

Hell, he probably did ask her to move her stuff but she was too obsessed with listening to her shitty headphones to hear him.

[Coeus]

yep

[Restoras]

If he was on Metro North, this kind of behavior happens all the time.

People routinely place their bag on the seat next to them, hoping/praying that it deters others from want to sit their.

People that do want to sit in these seats, or even an empty seat next to you, are horribly rude and impolite about requesting to sit their.

Downstate NYers are among the biggest assholes in the country.

[Andrew S.]

Downstate NYers are among the biggest assholes in the country.

Very true. But unless something's changed in the past decade or so, the Metro North trains to/from CT were worse than the ones that went to Westchester.

(and then there's the picnic that is the LIRR)

[PM]

I said to him, "Never put your hands on my property."

He should have explained to her that there is no such thing as private property. Check your privilege, bitch.

black people never presume they are entitled to occupy interracial spaces so aggressively.

Arguments that being with "X people never" or "X people always" can and should be automatically ignored.

[Auric Demonocles]

Plus, isn't the author black? Because she is presuming she is entitled to occupy the space.

[R C Dean]

Truly, Peak Projection will never be reached.

[Redmanfms]

black people never presume they are entitled to occupy interracial spaces so aggressively.

Holy shit is that ever completely divorced from reality.

[The Late P Brooks]

That liberalization will provide Havana with a fresh source of desperately needed hard currency

No shit. Where the fuck to the miasma tourism dupes think their money ends up?

[Lord Humungus]

Trigger Warning: Jezebel

Woman Catches Husband Banging Her Twin, Gives Them What They Deserve

Death and Taxes reports that when Su confronted her naked husband and sister while they were naked and in the middle of each other, the two quickly jumped out of the car to either comfort her or tell her the whole thing wasn't what it looked like. Su saw an opportunity and she took it. Hopping behind the wheel of her husband's car, she sped off (hopefully flipping the bird), leaving the cheaters naked and afraid in a public parking lot.

[Jordan]

If you're going to cheat, it seems like kind of a waste to cheat with a woman who looks exactly like your wife.

[Rich]

"You were always on my mind."

[Auric Demonocles]

"I thought it was you!"

[Fluffy]

Yeah, I don't see how you don't jump immediately to that defense.

It's basically the best defense ever. I could TOTALLY use that defense and make it stick.

[BardMetal]

Yeah but she does that thing with her tongue.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Maybe one does anal and the other doesn't?

Just throwing things out there.

[Auric Demonocles]

Were they identical?

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, except one was matter, the other antimatter.

[Auric Demonocles]

So you're saying no threesome?

[Mickey Rat]

But what of Su? What of Su?

[straffinrun]

The drove to fuck her husband's brother. Pulls the room together, no?

[Mickey Rat]

A family member posted that on Facebook. They were completely naked by the pictures in broad daylight. I would have liked to have heard their "this is not what it looks like" story.

[Lord Humungus]

Sheriff: Ore. man assaulted roommate with 6-foot spiral Christmas tree

A man hit his roommate with a 6-foot spiral Christmas tree Sunday night, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies arrested 24-year-old Sean Christopher McFadden on a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault. He remained jailed Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Carrie Carver said the 42-year-old victim suffered minor injuries and was not transported to the hospital.

[Injun, as in from India]

Who needs a 6-foot spiral tree anyway?

Common sense Christmas tree control!

[Rich]

ISIS murdered 150 women simply because they refused to marry or perform sexual acts with the terrorists.

Militants claim they adhere to a very conservative interpretation of Islam, yet they run brothels and keep sex slaves. They even allow women from the West to perform "sexual jihad" for the terrorists.

If these clowns would just masturbate they'd have more time for taking over the world.

Seriously, what is it with this type and females?

[Root Boy]

The link does not go to Jezebel??

[BardMetal]

"Seriously, what is it with this type and females?"

It's called Islam.

[Injun, as in from India]

Why are you hyperfocusing on the muslim world like an islamophobic bigot?

The real sexual assault crisis is on American college campuses. Just read Rolling Stone or Jezebel if you don't believe me.

[R C Dean]

Militants claim they adhere to a very conservative interpretation of Islam, yet which is why they run brothels and keep sex slaves.

Ah, those Noble Savages! Who can understand their ways?

[Lord Humungus]

Listen when I talk to you!: How white entitlement marred my trip to a Ferguson teach-in
A nightmarish train ride reminds me why too many white people don't get how short black America's fuse is right now

On Friday, I was on the train to New York to do a teach-in on Ferguson at NYU. Beats headphones on, lost in thought, peering out the window, I suddenly saw a white hand shoving my work carry-on toward me. Startled, I looked up to see the hand belonged to a white guy, who was haphazardly handling my open bag, with my laptop perched just inside to make space for himself on the seat next to me.

That he wanted the seat on the now full train was not the problem. That he assumed the prerogative to place his hands on my bag, grab it, shove it at me, all while my computer was unsecured and peaking out, infuriated me. I said to him, "Never put your hands on my property."

His reply: "Well, you should listen when I talk to you." That line there, the command that when he, whoever he was, spoke, I should automatically listen encapsulates the breadth of the battle against racism we have to fight in this country.

[Andrew S.]

No fair linking an article from The Onion and pretending that it's real.

[Lord Humungus]

worst of all I got beaten by Coeus.

[Coeus]

Everybody always tryin to be like Mike.

[Irish]

"I suddenly saw a white hand shoving my work carry-on toward me. Startled, I looked up to see the hand belonged to a white guy"

Well, it's a good thing that white hand belonged to a white guy. Disembodied white hands are terrifying.

[Coeus]

Well, it's a good thing that white hand belonged to a white guy. Disembodied white hands are terrifying.

Daniel agrees.

[lap83]

"too many white people don't get how short black America's fuse is right now"

Is Ferguson Black America's "time of the month"? She has no clue how sad and pathetic that sounds.

[John]

Black people are 12% of the population. Has this woman forgot what it means to be a minority? One of the things it means is that fairly or unfairly, it is a really bad idea to threaten the majority.

[lap83]

Yeah, all she accomplishes is giving fuel to racists. Whether they're white racists who take it as evidence that all black people are spoiled and entitled, or black racists who want excuses to start fights with white people over misunderstandings.
Yay, race wars! Just what this country needs

[John]

Yes exactly. And as horrible as race wars would be for the country at large, they would be even worse for black people. These people are fucking nuts.

[Mickey Rat]

Collective guilt justifies collective anger. Not. You are just a couple of nimrods on a train.

[BardMetal]

So if the guy was black he would have been cool with it?

[Fluffy]

This bitch tried to pull the old "I'll put headphones on and look out the window and pretend I don't hear the guy asking me to move my stuff."

I guarantee you that he tried to get her attention two or three times before moving her bag.

I applaud him. I only wish I had that kind of guts in similar situations.

You see, here's another "empathy makes you hate people and not like them" situation. I can absolutely and with 100% confidence identify her interior mental and emotional state right before this incident began. I know what she was thinking, and I know the emotional and psychological state that her thinking represented. And a person in that state doesn't deserve deference or respect, so I'm happy she wasn't shown either.

[Lord Humungus]

The perfect problem: New video explains the psychology of climate deniers
Stone Age brains, optimism bias and confirmation bias have something to do with it

A new video from "It's Okay to be Smart," a video series hosted by Joe Hanson, a Ph.D. biologist and science writer, looks into the discrepancy between scientific and public opinion.

Hanson argues that this mostly has to do with our "Stone Age" brains, which cause us to put the most stock into threats that are dangerous and immediate, rather than abstract and distant. Also, while some people may accept that the future climate may pose a problem for our great-grandchildren, we are reluctant to believe that we will be personally affected because of something psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls an "optimism bias."

[SugarFree]

I wonder what Hanson thinks about the massive government debt that we are burdening out great-great-grandchildren with.

I mean, he doesn't have a Stone Age brain, does he?

[UnCivilServant]

No, he lacks even that advanced instrument of logic. He has a reptile emotion center though.

[Rich]

Yeah, some of us were discussing being at the mercy of our hunter-gatherer essence yesterday.

I blame it on our "Lizard" brains.

[John]

It is scary how these people sound to the old Marxists and Fascists. The Fascists had bullshit race theory to explain why the Jews and lesser races were defective and less than human. The Marxist had bullshit "Marxist Science" to explain how anyone who questioned Marxism was defective and insane. Clowns like Hanson have bullshit psychology to explain why anyone who disagrees with them is defective and less than human. Same shit different verse.

[Raven Nation]

I remain convinced that a majority of the libertarian opposition (and a great deal of conservative opposition) is rooted in the statist solutions proposed by AGW promoters rather than being rooted in the science of AGW itself.

[sarcasmic]

Watermelons: Green on the outside, red on the inside.

[BardMetal]

That, and the very long list of failed climate predictions.

[Coeus]

If you haven't seen this yet, take a gander.

[Raven Nation]

Yeah, I think I remember seeing that. Even some of the AGW proponents are now saying that most of their proposed solutions will have minimal impact.

[Coeus]

I submit that most of the support for AGW is rooted in the policies. There are legitimate concerns about the models. But the people who believe in them don't even change their policies when the models (which they call people who question them "evil", "deniers", "anti-science") themselves show that their policies are ineffective.

[sarcasmic]

Minimal impact on what?

Their goal here is not to save the environment. That's just their stated intentions. The goal is to nationalize industry, tear down the rich, regulate every aspect of human behavior, and generally impose worldwide socialism.

[grrizzly]

Not me. My opinion that the optimal solution is to do absolutely nothing with regard to the CAGW is based on the science of CAGW. But then I know the difference between science and scientism, and Popper and Kuhn.

[Contrarian P]

My opposition is rooted in the following:

1. The "solutions" advocated will not fix climate change, but instead create far more problems, including driving up energy prices, trampling on individual freedom, and screwing the poor.

2. Climate change has not been shown to be a catastrophic disaster. Rather, it's likely we'd use technology and mobility to adapt to our environment as it slowly evolved.

3. The predictions of those convinced of anthropomorphic climate change have not been close to accurate.

[Fluffy]

Devoting more effort to addressing dangerous and immediate problems than to abstract and distant problems is 100% no-bullshit rational.

Doing the opposite is foolish, for various practical and epistemological reasons.

[SugarFree]

SUSPECT IN DEADLY GLENOLDEN SHOOTING IDENTIFIED AS POLICE OFFICER

GLENOLDEN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Authorities have identified a former police officer as the suspect who gunned down a woman in Delaware County before opening fire on her 15-year-old daughter.

Investigators tell Action News former Colwyn cop Stephen Rozniakowski was armed with a gun, police radio, and a bullet proof vest when he kicked the door in at the home on the 600 block of Glenfield Avenue.

He allegedly shot dead Valerie Morrow, then shot her 15-year-old daughter once in the arm.

Morrow's husband, a part-time Morton police officer, was awakened by the gunfire.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whalen explains, "Tom Morrow, at this point hearing the commotion, hearing the gunfire, reached into his nightstand next to the bed, pulled out a revolver and started returning fire."

When he ran out of bullets Morrow jumped out of a second floor window, breaking his ankle.

[Andrew S.]

Did the woman make a furtive movement? Good shoot, IMO.

hth

[Root Boy]

Yeah, sounds like the woman and her 15 year old were an imminent threat

[tarran]

You youed the link.

[SugarFree]

Those assholes put a br tag at the end to break linking. Really, what is the point of that shit? Do they not want page views?

Heir

[Spoonman.]

The guy was "former" in the sense that he resigned and drove immediately to the house to kill the woman.

[tarran]

The moment he resigned, the hand of God came down and removed the police spirit.

Anyone who is imbued by that spirit is incapable of murder and thus if they kill it's nor murder.

But once the spirit is removed they become capable of murder again.

[PM]

Tom Morrow

Well played, mom and dad.

[paranoid android]

We need to find a woman named Esther Day and hook those two up!

[R C Dean]

Well, one thing rings true:

The cop couldn't hit a goddam thing with his revolver.

I'm guessing the only reason the daughter is still alive is the ex-cop emptied his magazine but missed.

[The Late P Brooks]

I said to him, "Never put your hands on my property."

"Get your shit out of my way. This isn't your living room, Stupid."

[Rich]

"Never put you property on my seat. Asshole."

[The Late P Brooks]

Hanson argues that this mostly has to do with our "Stone Age" brains, which cause us to put the most stock into threats that are dangerous and immediate, rather than abstract and distant.

Great. Now my bullshit detector is blown to smithereens. It was a good one, too.

[Auric Demonocles]

Did North Korean hackers stop the release of the alt-text too?

[Lord Humungus]

Cemetery with one MILLION mummies unearthed in Egypt: 1,500-year-old desert necropolis is the largest ever found

Yet scientists are baffled about where the huge numbers of mummies came from - the remains of a nearby village is too small to warrant such a large cemetery and the nearest town, named Philadelphia after King Ptolemy II Phiadelphus, has its own burial sites.

Archaeologists have also uncovered a bizarre range of mummies, including one man who is more than seven feet (213 cm) tall.

They have also discovered that the mummies appear to be clustered together by hair colour, with those with blond hair in one area and all of those with red hair in another.

[Rich]

I see a theme park in Egypt's future.

Seriously, wow.

[BardMetal]

Throw in a copy of the Necronomicon and with have the start of a great movie.

[UnCivilServant]

Nooo!! They found my Strategic Mummy Reserve! How amy I supposed to take over the world with an army of the undead if they keep unburying them too soon!

[Lord Humungus]

Strategic Mummy Reserve

good band name.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

*standing ovation*

[The DerpRider]

Wasn't everyone just bitching about Battlestar Galactica? This is where they are buried.

[The Late P Brooks]

"Tom Morrow, at this point hearing the commotion, hearing the gunfire, reached into his nightstand next to the bed, pulled out a revolver and started returning fire."

When he ran out of bullets Morrow jumped out of a second floor window, breaking his ankle.

Wild panic fire doesn't work so well with a six-shooter.

[tarran]

Yesterday I witnessed a pretty weird incident: a fight in the checkout line at Costco.

What I witnessed was a woman running up to the conveyor belt at an adjacent checkout line. She tried to put a giant box of cereal on the belt, just in front of a man standing in line. The guy, channeling his inner Dikembe Mutombo smacked the box away. It flew into a shopping cart occupied by two toddlers and smacked one of the kids on the head, before coming to rest jammed between the other kid and the cart.

The woman quietly said something to the dude and the man shrieked "Are you serious?" The woman loudly asked for someone to get the manager. The man yelled at her to grow up. The manager came over, and only then did the woman go and dewedge the box of cereal. The manager then escorted the man out of the store while the man angrily shouted that he couldn't believe that she wasn't the one getting kicked out.

The woman left moments later with the kids.

I chatted with the clerk, and this is what I found out:

The woman was the mother of the kids. She had gotten in line with one item, a box of cheerios. For whatever reason she decided to run back to get a different box, leaving the kids in the cart.

The dude walked past the cart and started putting his stuff on the conveyor.

Mom returned, and tried to toss her box in front of the guy to keep her place in line.

4) Dude stuffed the attempt.

What say you, commentariat?

[Auric Demonocles]

They allow you to buy a single item at Costco?

[Lost_In_Translation]

If its big enough....

[sarcasmic]

I'm surprised nobody called the cops on her for leaving the kids unattended for five seconds.

[tarran]

I'm surprised nobody called the cops on her for leaving the kids unattended for five seconds.

Depressingly, one of the checkout ladies opined that someone should call the cops for just that reason.

[lap83]

I also get annoyed when people aren't finished shopping when checking out but trying to save their spot, but flinging cereal boxes around is not the way to show it.

[Lord Humungus]

no one likes cutters...

but people holding up the line are nearly as shitty.

[straffinrun]

Don't know who was in the right, but I hope the dude said, "Cheerio, Bitch" on the way out.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

*narrows gaze*

[Injun, as in from India]

It was a petty misbehavior on part of the woman. She deserved a stern talking to, but not a physically reaction.

Save your physical reactions for more serious stuff.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Huge pet peeve is people that stake a place in line, then do their shopping, coming back and forth to the line as they gather each item.

That being said, I pretty much always let shit like that roll off my back. I've made more than one person get red-faced from shame by being super-nice when they're being a total dick.

[Steve G]

Never sent a family member into a restaurant to get on the waitig list while parking the car? Never done the fastpass at DisneyLand/World?

[Kaptious Kristen]

Different scenarios, not the same as shopping while waiting in line.

And last time I was at Disney World, Epcot had just opened. So, whatever this Fast Pass is, it didn't exist.

[BigT]

Epcot opened in 1982, btw.

[Acosmist]

Wow, that's not the same at all, dude. You srs?

[John]

As I have gotten older and less hot headed, that is my attitude too. If you try and fight with them, you just give them a feeling of vindication. If you are super nice to them, they just feel small.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

What say you, commentariat?

Dude's a total asshole. Yeah, it would have been a bit more polite for her to give up her place in line, but the correct response was to show a little civility.

[R C Dean]

Sounds like both parties were being childish and self-centered.

But, you don't throw other people's property around. And yes, it was the woman's box of cereal yet, but that only mean's it was still the store's.

[The Late P Brooks]

What say you, commentariat?

Either take the cart and the kids with you back to the cereal aisle, or wait and get the other flavor next time.

The guy is an asshole.

[The Late P Brooks]

Also- was the woman's transaction still open in the register? Because that guy's going nowhere until it gets closed out.

[Lord Humungus]

A few weeks ago my old man totaled his SUV after blacking out and ending up in the ditch. Luckily no one was badly hurt. He's getting a number of medical tests done as they try to figure out what happened.

Worst case scenario - he loses his license. My parents live out in the middle of nowhere, miles away from the nearest podunk town. Convincing them to leave their dream home and come live in the city will be a difficult battle.

[straffinrun]

Hope the old man is ok.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Hope his tests come back OK and he's cleared to drive.

[Stormy Dragon]

I think in this case you want the tests to come back not OK. If they find something wrong it can be treated, allowing him to keep the license. If the tests comes back saying "this guy is fine, but randomly passes out for no apparent reason", that will cost him the license because there's no way to predict if it will happen again.

[Kaptious Kristen]

RTFP

[Kaptious Kristen]

I don't know if it's possible to embarrass oneself more than this. Maybe if she had barfed as she crossed the finish line or something.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Now that is a link I'm gonna click.

[Lord Humungus]

I could see myself doing something like that - accidentally of course.

/the kid who shot at his own basket during gym class

[tarran]

I scored an own goal in soccer once - although that wasn't confusion so much as reflexively blocking a cross attempt by the opposing forward. Unfortunately the ball ricocheted off my body into the upper right corner of the goal.

The humiliating bit was the other team's forwards jogging up to thank me.

[sarcasmic]

While tending goal I once caught the ball but then fell backwards into the net. That was embarrassing.

[Swiss Servator, Winter kommt!]

I proudly crossed the try line and slammed the ball down in a rugby match once...only to realize it was the line 5 meters out from the try zone, after the other team had taken the ball...

[John]

True story. During a freshman football game when I was in high school we were playing at another high school. So we come out of the gym where we had dressed and walk to the field at the corner of the field is this big blue banner with writing on it being held by some cheer leaders. One of the real lunkheads on the team thought they were our cheerleaders and takes off and runs right through the banner only to be greeted by an entire squad of hostile cheerleaders who had just witnessed an opponent break their banner. It was a moment of high comedy.

He didn't do it to be a dick. He honestly thought he was supposed to run through the banner.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Excellent story. I'll be chuckling to myself all day now every time I picture that scene.

[R C Dean]

I wanna hear more about how he was punished by the entire squad of cheerleaders.

[John]

They were all black and it involved a lot of yelling and a few obscenities.

[zacharybaughandes]

Valerie `s posting is shocking... on saturday I bought a great new Jaguar XJ after I been earnin $6211 this last four weeks an would you believe 10k this past month . it's by-far my favourite-work I've ever done . I started this eight months/ago and immediately startad bringin home over $71... per hour .
am impresses but join this site and earn money easily.
_________________ http://www.jobsfish.com

[antisocial-ist]

A man's gotta make a living.

Dying ain't much of a living boy.

That scenario has happened to me at least once a week since Georgia passed the "Guns Everywhere" law.

[Ted S.]

Make fun of the cultures of people trying to get to Australia on rickety boats and you're a horrible racist.

Make fun of American culture, and you're virtuous and broadminded.

[PM]

You end up with a situation where homicide deaths will sky rocket.

Yeah, look at the warzone that is New Hampshire compared to, say, Illinois or Washington D.C.

[WTF]

You end up with a situation where homicide deaths will sky rocket.

Yeah, Vermont is just a fucking murder festival every damn day. Never mind that violent crime statistics tend to show a decrease after a state loosens concealed carry laws.