A.M. Links: One Charlie Hebdo Suspect Surrenders, Two Others Still at Large, FBI Blames North Korea for Sony Hack, Tail of AirAsia 8501 Found

• 

  French Police

  One suspect in yesterday's terrorist attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12, has reportedly surrendered to French police. Two other suspects, the brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, remain at large.

• In defiance of yesterday's attack, Charlie Hebdo will publish a new issue next week with a print run of 1 million copies. "It's very hard," columnist Patrick Pelloux told Agence France-Presse. "We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win."

• The tail of downed AirAsia Flight 8501 has been spotted in the Java Sea.

• Speaking with "very high confidence," FBI Director James Comey has stated that North Korea was definitely behind the Sony hack.

• Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk is blaming the Russian secret service for a recent hack of government websites in Germany.

• Cleveland officials have released a new video with extended footage showing the November 2014 fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cleveland officials have released a new video with extended footage showing the November 2014 fatal police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Showing some kind of justification?

[Ted S.]

The correct term is "assassination" not "fatal police shooting".

[Zeb]

"Murder" works.

[Tonio]

Yeah, "assassination" is generally reserved for politicians.

[Tonio]

The term "assassination" that is.

[Mickey Rat]

No, it reserved for murders where the culprit intends to make a political or cultural statement. Often that means the victim is a government official, but not necessarily.

[This Machine Loves Koch]

Yeah, that's what I figured as well. No way they'd release a video that incriminates our heroez in blue.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Doesn't look like it. It seems they've been trying to avoid releasing it for weeks.

[hamilton]

From one of the second-level linked articles:

The video confirmed earlier claims made by Tamir's mother...that an officer cuffed her daughter as she ran to check on her brother and that officers waited several minutes before administering first aid.
...

As the girl neared her brother, Loehmann's partner, Frank Garmback confronted her and forced her to the ground. Loehmann rushed over, and the two knelt beside her as she rolled on the ground. Eventually the officers handcuffed the girl and placed her in the back of the police cruiser, less than 10 feet from her dying brother.

Officers then stood around Tamir as he lay wounded. One officer had his hands on his hips when a man, identified by police as an FBI agent who was in the neighborhood, entered the frame and administered first aid. It was the first medical care the boy received in the four minutes that followed the shooting.

Stood around with his hands on his hips watching a 12-year old die, until someone else came along to help with the first aid.

[This Machine Loves Koch]

Insane. What kind of person thinks this is the right thing to do?

[gaijin]

What kind of person thinks this is the right thing to do?

Someone so self righteous|absorebed that his first thoughts are how he will explain this as a good shoot?

[hamilton]

Someone so self righteous|absorebed that his first thoughts are how he will explain this as a good shoot?

Or someone who does not feel an incentive to make sure there is someone to testify to the contrary.

[Zeb]

Well, if he lives, it's harder to make up a story about what happened.

[R C Dean]

What kind of person thinks this is the right thing to do?

Someone who thinks anyone who isn't a cop isn't really a person.

[Charles Easterly]

Disgusting.
That's all I've got.

[Ted S.]

Stood around with his hands on his hips watching a 12-year old die,

Heroic first responder.

Could you imagine if non-cops stood over a couple of cop bodies watching them bleed out and tried to obstruct anybody who tried to provide first aid?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I just don't get apologists for cops; especially in this case. And that guy Loehmann sounds like a real prize.

'If he'd just put his hands up he'd be alive!'

FUCK THESE MOTHERFUCKERS.

[Marshall Gill]

Stood around with his hands on his hips watching a 12-year old die, until someone else came along to help with the first aid.

Killing a concentration camp guard on his way to a death camp should be considered self defense. Even if you were not personally in danger, you would know that he was on his way to commit murder. So there should have been no moral compunction against killing them on sight. Just sayin'.

[Zeb]

I'm not quite to the point where I want to say that. But I'm not going to say you are necessarily wrong either.

[Andrew S.]

Yeah, I'm getting there as well.

I can't tell if that says more about me or more about the complete fucktarded mess that is modern policing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"In defiance of yesterday's attack, Charlie Hebdo will publish a new issue next week with a print run of 1 million copies."

ABSOLUTELY.

[Marshall Gill]

In a show of unity, Reason should run a couple of Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Since I know they won't, here is a link that does.

http://www.steynonline.com/6740/the-fire-rages

The publisher was quoted as saying "I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees" He did.

[hamilton]

I would hope (but not expect) the next issue of reason to feature a Charlie Hebdo cover. Not expect, because I wouldn't make that decision for anyone else of course or put someone else at risk for my own decision.

I would, however, welcome a pixelated Charlie Hebdo cover on the front of the next reason, along with the explanation from Matt's well-written article: we're not brave enough to do what they did. That would make something of the same statement.

[BigT]

Here you go.

[Roger the Shrubber]

How are we to know that that's the prophet Mohammad without the..........LABELZ?!?!?!

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

*Bok nods head vigorously*

[Zeb]

Yes, good for them.

[Tonio]

This cartoon by Dave Pople pretty much nails it. (SFW)

http://t.co/LqIMRCHPgK

[Tonio]

"Pope".

[invisible furry hand]

Agreed - but gotta say I'm surprised. He's the political reporter on my hometown paper and he's rarely that concise. He also lacks the really vicious edge, unfortunately.

[Tonio]

I had never heard of him before now. That cartoon just kind of percolated up on the internet and I liked it and linked to it.

I really like the defiant, snotty tone.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...FBI Director James Comey has stated that North Korea was definitely behind the Sony hack.

Kim was behind all of Sony's big hits before they fired him.

[Tonio]

Somehow I trust neither the competence nor honesty of the government in this. For purposes of the narrative, though, we've always been under attack from East Asia.

[Bardas Phocas]

So it was probably the Mexicans?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

I suspect ... Canadians!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Canadians are too busy celebrating something connected to hockey and public health care.

[UnCivilServant]

The queue for surgery went from six weeks to five?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Only for hockey players!

[CE]

Or rioting when they lose.

[Entropy Void]

"I suspect ... Canadians!"

ALWAYS a good choice ...

[CE]

Either that or disgruntled Sony IT workers who wanted to make it look like North Korea did it.

[invisible furry hand]

Queensland man arrested after waving next to political campaigners in 'I'm with stupid' T-shirt

[Ted S.]

Gotta love Aussie free speech.

[Rich]

A police spokesman said a 44-year-old man had been charged with public nuisance

What?! Not the *campaigners*?!

[Zeb]

Hmm. That seems like a good idea for the next presidential primary season in NH.

[WTF]

Anyone trying it will be restricted to designated "free speech zones".

[Zeb]

It's kind of interesting in NH. High profile candidates have lots of security, of course. But you really can get out there and shake hands with all of the candidates if you can be bothered (which I can't).

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two other suspects, the brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, remain at large.

I certainly hope Parisians are sheltering in place, as we all know that's the only way you can catch terrorists.

[Injun, as in from India]

It's not like the French have not said "Hands up, don't shoot " before.

[BigT]

Probably: "Ne pas tirer les mains vers le haut"

[Auric Demonocles]

Wouldn't you normally phrase it as "Said and Cherif Kouachi"?

[Rich]

Probably erring on the side of not offending.

[Marshall Gill]

I am pretty sure that "Kouachi" is Arabic for "Koch".

[Slammer]

Someone oughta shoot the Cherif

[gaijin]

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
Cherif, he don't like it....

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

*golf clap*

[Heroic Mulatto]

PARIS MARCHE BIEN!

[Tonio]

A consistently proggie friend who has repeatedly railed against Ayn Rand on his FB today "liked" Charles Koch's editorial about overcriminalization. Bet he's going to get re-educated.

All snark aside, our ideas are popular, at least if people don't associate them with people and institutions who they've been conditioned to hate.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I agree.

Anecdotally, I've met quite a few people who were once 'progressive' but have come to understand appreciate this side better and some even read Reason.

They've grown disillusioned with the promises of big government. With obvious good reason as we all argue here all the time.

[Irish]

Well, no. Our ideas about overcriminalization, certain types of victimless crimes, low taxes, and various other social issues are very popular.

Our ideas about the elimination of the welfare state are among the least popular ideas in the United States. I could argue in favor of the legalization of pedophilia and I'd get fewer outraged responses than I get from some people when arguing against food stamps.

[Auric Demonocles]

You just need to talk to more people who work in grocery stores (but not the grocery store owners).

[Irish]

Why? Do the people who actually work the registers have bad experiences with SNAP recipients?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

I often see a look of despair cross the cashiers faces when someone whips out the EBT card and their cart has stuff that isn't "eligible" - of course, in a couple cases, I've seen the customer proceed to whip out a big roll of bills and peel off a couple of $20s or a $50 and pay for that stuff.

[kinnath]

Note that lots of "poor" people have no credit card or checking account. They routinely carry their net worth around in cash in their pockets.

[Auric Demonocles]

We would routinely cash people's paychecks every single week, for a $3 fee each time, because they couldn't "afford" to just get a bank account at the bank who shared a parking lot with us.

[UnCivilServant]

How...odd... None of my accounts charge a monthly fee, and one I opened with a $5 deposit.

Oh, wait, that's a record of income.

[Auric Demonocles]

I did recently discover that my old checking account back home by my parents has a $3 a month fee. I need to close that out and just open another account down here instead.

[Slumbrew]

I've been pretty happy withSchwab for the last few years; no fees, no minimum, unlimited refunds of other banks' ATM fees, free bill pay, deposit via smartphone, etc.

[Tonio]

IOW, they couldn't afford the overdraft fees.

[kinnath]

Bingo

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

People in that situation often can't open a bank account, because they overdrew the last one they had; the bank would snatch up any assets that entered the banking system.

The banks tend to cooperate with each other with these small type things that are too small to mess with collection.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yes.

As Swiss mentioned, they try to buy stuff that's not eligible all the time, and half the time get really upset when they can't. There is a mad rush on the first and second of the month, where you'll have a lot of people come spend their entire month of food stamps in one trip. On average they are ruder than the typical customer. And finally, while nowhere near all food stamp users smell awful, every customer who made you gag from one aisle over was using EBT.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Good point about the beginning of the month.

[Rhywun]

I had that job as well, in college. That day would be standing around for 6 to 8 hours with no break dealing with one nasty, rude customer after the next - each with four to six carts of groceries. They ate a lot better than I did, that's for sure.

[Tonio]

Don't forget that a lot of that steak, shrimp and lobster is not consumed by them but sold or traded for cash or non-eligible goods.

[KDN]

Obligatory.

[Auric Demonocles]

I think I understood 4 of those words.

[DEG]

I worked at a grocery store in the 90s, before EBT. Our registers would figure out how much someone owed in food stamps and how much in cash based on what was eligible.

Most food stamp users ate better than I did. I don't remember them being ruder than the typical customer.

Two food stamp users stand out in my memory.

One couple stood out because they were embarrassed to use them. I had a brief conversation with them about the economy of the time and problems finding work. I think they sincere about being embarrassed and trying to get off food stamps.

The other food stamp user was a bona fide thief. She came through my cash register line and didn't have the state mandated ID for food stamp users. She claimed that she didn't have it because she was "from Philadelphia". Doesn't matter, the state issues the ID. Trying to deal with her held up my line. Eventually the store manager came over with evidence of her having helped herself to some stuff from the store (she opened packages, dumped things in her purse, and left the opened package behind). He told me he wanted her out of his store, and told me to ring her up, it's not worth calling the cops over.

Interestingly enough, I never had problems with WIC users.

[Zeb]

And people waiting in line behind them. The only thing worse is people who buy lottery tickets. It is a little better with the EBT card than when you had actual stamps.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Individual liberty too.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in a discussion with someone who dismisses laws that blatantly trample on civil liberties in Quebec like Bill 101 and 22. To them, there's a bizarre calculation of 'well, no one is being killed' and 'it's needed to protect the language' nonsense. Or worse, 'it doesn't bother or effect me'.

They can't see the big picture in the abstract and if they do, they refute it.

[Zeb]

Even in the US, it is sad how many people don't realize how good and important it is to have near absolute free speech and would change the first amendment if they could. You'd think that that would be the easiest fundamental individual right to get behind.

[Tonio]

You are right, Irish. I should have said that some of our ideas are popular. However, I like to think of things like this as gateway ideas...

[Injun, as in from India]

All but one link are about bad actors. Islamic terrorists, North Korea, Russia, cops.

[Tonio]

Missing only William Shatner.

[Ted S.]

Did you watch him in The Brothers Karamazov last night on TCM? He's terribly miscast as an Orthodox priest.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Do...you...reject...the....glamour of evil?!

[Tonio]

No. Thanks for the tip.

[Fist of Etiquette]

BILL SHATNER IS THE GREATEST ACTOR OF HIS OR ANY GENERATION.

[hamilton]

I'm with you, Fist. There, I said it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Fist and Hamilton, like Montrealers!

Ahem.

[Slammer]

What's the Java Sea? Chopped liver?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

IT ATE AN AIRPLANE!

[invisible furry hand]

Does anyone have a book on how to be a mistress of ceremonies at a musical orgy?

Questions that librarians used to get before Google

[Ted S.]

I have no idea how to be a mistress or anything. 😉

[AlmightyJB]

I offer private instruction. No fee.

[Marshall Gill]

You will instruct Ted how to be a mistress? Hey, to each his own.

[Juice]

Huh? I was around before the internet (not the 40s of course) but is that what people would do? To find out the answer to some random question you'd...call the library? And they would answer you? For free?

[Zeb]

I'm sure a lot of people would go look it up themselves at a library. But I think that was part of a librarian's job.

I'm sure SugarFree could enlighten us further. Both about librarians and musical orgies from the 40s.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

And librarians in 1940s musical orgies.

I think he penned a short story on that ?

[SugarFree]

Busby Berkeley Dreams

[Roger the Shrubber]

First went to college in early '90's. Internet wan in it's infancy and no one had access outside a computer lab. There wasn't much available to make it attractive anyway.

The university had a student run service that would field calls that would attempt to answer any question you could ask. To settle a drunken argument between friends, we asked them 'Who's taller, John Wayne or Clint Eastwood.' A couple days later, after we recovered from our hangovers and forgot about it, I received a call back from them telling me that they were both 6-2 (I think) and that they called Hollywood studios to find that out.

[squibload]

Yes (at least for big city libraries). Free in the sense that it didn't cost the caller anything, it was supported either by taxes or the foundation that ran the library.

[Rhywun]

Yup, I remember people doing that.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

WTF is a 'musical orgy'?

Is it just singing, or do you have to dance as well?

[invisible furry hand]

Sanctions are beginning to bite: Russia's black-market cheese dealers

[straffinrun]

Wondered what happened to Yakoff Smirnov.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

In Putin's Russia, cheese blackmarkets you!

[straffinrun]

"Your door is a jar." What is my windsheild? A Fork?

[WTF]

Blessed are the cheese makers.

[sarcasmic]

Foie gras returns to restaurant menus in California after judge lifts two-year legal ban

California legislators enacted a law in 2004 that prohibited the sale of foie gras but didn't take effect until 2012
It was designed to stop ducks and geese being force-fed corn to enlarge their livers in order to produce the delicacy
On Wednesday a judge ruled the law interfered with an existing federal law that regulates poultry product

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-gras.html

[Zeb]

On Wednesday a judge ruled the law interfered with an existing federal law that regulates poultry product

Damn, and I was hoping that he had ruled that the law was stupid and arbitrary.

[CE]

No, that's California voters.

[sarcasmic]

Paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein hosted Nobel prizewinner Stephen Hawking on the private Caribbean island where Prince Andrew is claimed in US court proceedings to have slept with underage 'sex slave'

Sex offender hosted Stephen Hawking on his private Caribbean island
Shamed Jeffrey Epstein sponsored a science conference on St Thomas
Professor Hawking was invited to the event, which featured a number of top scientists
The event also featured trips to billionaire Epstein's private retreat
Virginia Roberts has claimed she had sex with Prince Andrew on island retreat of Little St James
Buckingham Palace has vehemently denied the allegations in a strongly-worded statement

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

[Tonio]

While Hawking isn't much of a hands-on guy, I bet he got an eyefull!

[Slammer]

"It moved!"

[Rich]

Ouch.

[invisible furry hand]

I'm just imagining his computer voice trying to sound sexy

[sarcasmic]

I... AM... GETTING... AN... ERECT... NO... IT... WAS... JUST... GAS...

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

That was terrible and you are a horrible person!

...

Ok, I admit, I laughed.

[hamilton]

Black holes have no hair, baby.

[Ted S.]

#BlackHolesMatter

[Juice]

But he's a gangsta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wkw9nvRCY8

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I heard on the radio he hosted a dinner where guests included: Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos, and Woody Allen.

Nice.

I don't want to go all 'guilt by association' but why am I not surprised?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

guilty.

[AlmightyJB]

I'm so shocked he was pals with Woody Allen.

[Auric Demonocles]

If she was actually a sex slave, there's awful stuff going on, but if she's 17 at the time can we stop acting like any kind of sexual activity, regardless of consent, is automatically immoral?

[Zeb]

Yes, I wish people would stop conflating pedophilia and sex below the age of consent. Banging a 16 year old prostitute may or may not be illegal, creepy and wrong. But it's not pedophilia.

[KDN]

In the US court papers, she alleges that between 1999 and 2002 she 'was forced to have sexual relations with this prince' in London, New York and on the private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. Under the law of Florida, where the papers were filed, a minor is defined as a person under 18 years of age.

Note: if she was over 16, this was all legal in the only place in the US where the events are alleged to have happened. Why is Florida involved at all? Seems like pure jurisdiction shopping to me.

[Auric Demonocles]

"all legal" is going too far in the other direction, because of "forced to have sexual relations".

[invisible furry hand]

She's in Florida, so there's a reason right there. That article says she's trying to join a suit already filed, but it doesn't say where that was filed. It might have been filed in Florida.

Without knowing the intricacies of each state's law or her allegations, I'm not sure you're right to say these alleged events are all legal. Apart from the fact that the age of consent =/= the age of majority (so she might be able to have sex for free, but not for money, when she's 17), she's alleging she was forced. That's not legal at any age.

[The Last American Hero]

Been listening to a lot of Winger lately?

[Auric Demonocles]

I have no idea who that is.

[Zeb]

"She's only seventeen"

[Heroic Mulatto]

That one was 17. The whole ball of wax got rolling by accusations of someone who was 14 at the time.

Jus' sayin'

[Heroic Mulatto]

*accusations by someone

[Juice]

Paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

Is he a p[a]edophile?

[squibload]

Looks like this TNG recut may have gotten too close for comfort.

[sarcasmic]

Is this the answer to doctors' prayers? Super-antibiotic that could wipe out diseases from MRSA to TB is hailed as a 'game-changer' by scientists

In tests, new medicine rapidly cured infections that should have been fatal
Called teixobactin, it killed a wide range of bacteria, including MRSA
Could be a powerful weapon in the war against antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic was found lurking in soil in a grassy field in Maine, U.S.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....tists.html

[Tonio]

And this is apparently something to which bacteria cannot develop resistance by currently-understood mechanisms.

[sarcasmic]

FTA:

They say the way teixobactin works will make it exceptionally hard for bacteria to find a way of evading it and predict it will take at least 30 years for resistance to develop.

[gaijin]

cannot develop resistance by currently-understood mechanisms.

The catalyst for the rise of Silicon-based life! Panspermia-ists rejoice

[Ted S.]

So the Horta is finally going to become reality.

[hamilton]

Dammit, Ted, I'm a libertarian not a bricklayer!

[gaijin]

+1 Janus IV Colony

[sarcasmic]

Outrage over controversial viral video that shows how to 'get away with drunk driving'

The method was designed by a Florida lawyer to protect drivers from being falsely accused of DUI at police checkpoints
Using a plastic bag handing out of the driver-side window, the driver provides all documents police ask for in a stop
The video shows the driver pulling up to a checkpoint, officers looking at the bag, and then waving him on without asking a single question
Safe-driving advocates believe the tactic is encouraging drunk driving

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

[Juice]

Wow, it actually worked? Well, that once. Still a good chance you could get your window smashed and your ass beat.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Or have the pepper spray or the Taser dart come flying in...

[Rich]

Comey said he has "very high confidence about this attribution, as does the entire intelligence community."

How about staking the continued existence of the FBI and the NSA on it?

But he added, "I want to show as much as I can to the American people about the why

What does this even mean?

[Tonio]

"Trust me, I'm from the government."

[Marshall Gill]

The scariest words in the English language are "I am from the government and I am here to help"

[CE]

And that was 30 years when Reagan said it. They're truly frightening words today.

[The Late P Brooks]

stupidity will not win.

Let's not get toooo far out over our skis.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's a good point, but saying "fuck you, we are doing it anyway" is absolutely the correct response to terrorism.

[The Late P Brooks]

According to somebody on the news this morning, Peter King is using the murder in France to call for the immediate unquestioning funding of Homeland Security. Because teh terrorists are coming to get us!

[Ted S.]

In the Snoozemax sidebar, he's calling for surveillance of mosques.

I think we shoul dhave surveillance of Irish Catholic churches because of their notorious support for terrorists.

[d3x / dt3]

When ?isn't? he calling for this?

[Rich]

And in terrorist *and* police-assassination news: Female suicide bomber hits police station in Istanbul's historic heart

Check out the CGI in the video. Why can't *our* news be that slick?

[invisible furry hand]

Her suicide vest glows green and that didn't tip the cops off?

[invisible furry hand]

Or that she was an Oompa-Loompa, for that matter

[Ted S.]

Who watches TV news anyway?

[Rich]

I like how there's so much detail in the human movements, yet the detonation is so, um, schematic.

[Libertarian]

"We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win."

So France is showing the US the correct response. I hope we're watching and learning, but I doubt it.

[Jordan]

It's France. Stupidity won a long time ago.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

BOSTON STRONG!!!!!

[Drake]

So they are going to start repealing gun control laws?

[Iucundus]

Reposting last night's brief moment of good news: Syrians offended at ISIS ban on tobacco products kidnap, torture, and behead the deputy commander of religious police in the area. The head was found with a cigarette between its lips.

Maybe ISIS's "moralizing" will backfire enough to undermine them. People love their vices.

[Ted S.]

Wish that backfire would happen in the US.

[squibload]

Uh, you can bet that ISIS is going to make sure it has the last laugh, so to speak, in that matter. In a fashion that would make an NYPD officer cringe (or drool, possibly).

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

Hard to bully a populace that will do that back at ya.

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more ? we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."

? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If people will behead over cigarettes...

[Juice]

Nicotine is a hell of a drug.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

My wife would cut off my head if I cut off her smokes.

[CE]

...an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?

Works even better with guns.

[Pope Jimbo]

What is the official ISIS stance on vaping?

[Drake]

One of those evil Koch brothers at it again trying to spread his right-wing evil.

The Overcriminalization of America

http://www.politico.com/magazi.....K6CydLF_m4

[Irish]

He's just saying that because he wants to get rid of the EPA so that he can expel limitless smog and take away our sunsets.

[Juice]

I have literally seen people arguing this very point.

[PBR Streetgang]

Is there any way to share this article without the Koch by-line, so that progs might actually read it?

[Tonio]

You could simply quote parts of it without attribution, then privately send the link to the full article to anyone who seems sympathetic.

[The Late P Brooks]

They've grown disillusioned with the promises of big government.

Worn down by having their noses ceaselessly rubbed in the difference between intentions and actual results, perhaps?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

One can only hope they draw the connection.

[Irish]

So at work I'm working on a case regarding a person who used to run a daycare. In her deposition, she mentions that she had to get a license from both the state and the city. The city came around 8 times a year to look at the daycare and make sure she was following all the regulations. State inspectors only show up once every three years when she had to renew her daycare license.

So the state inspectors literally do nothing. It's all through the city. Yet she needs to get a state license anyway, presumably because the state wants to force her to pay the licensing fee.

One of the worst things the government does is this sort of duplication, where you need licenses or inspections from a local government entity, a state government entity, and sometimes a federal government entity. It ends up being wildly inefficient, costs the business being licensed 3 times as much time and money, and wastes a great deal of tax money on unnecessary inspections.

[gaijin]

Even beyond the duplication, these often seem like little more than 'fee' generating machines. LLC owners in Illinois, for example, are required to file an annual report...which consists of returning a piece of paper they send you, signed, along with a check for $275. That's it. ANd if you send it in electronically, they charge you a $35 convenience fee.

[Ted S.]

That money belonged to the state anyway.

[Jordan]

It's also fun when you have to get permission from multiple agencies at the same level.

[antisocial-ist]

According to micro brewers and distillers I've talked to, they get fucked by several agencies at all three levels.

[robc]

Yup.

Waiting on Fed license now. Have to get it before I can apply for state and local.

[R C Dean]

they get fucked by several agencies at all three levels.

What you might call "airtight regulation"?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh, Irish. It can get worse than that.

You can subsidize daycare like Quebec thus making it political and watch the corruption and inefficient nonsense as well as the expansion of 'for the children' codes go haywire into an abyss of stupidity.

E.G. I can be cited for...paint chips. And it doesn't matter if it's in an area no designated for children. No siree.

IT'S A FUCKING DAYCARE. The walls will always be destroyed just like in any public school. I can't keep patching tiny chips in a 3300 sq. ft. space. I do it once a year and where I see it gets really bad I just do it. You know, common sense.

But to enshrine it in code?

[squibload]

If they set the bar really high they can expect that you'll at least get halfway there.

If they set the bar low you will only get halfway to that, bourgeoise capitalist scum.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I save money by not painting!

And feeding the kids...paint I save not wasting on the walls!

/wrings hands sinisterly.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

I prefer to hear that in Snidely Whiplash's voice.

[Tonio]

Jobs created or saved!

[Drake]

I've dealt with European business people who are amazed at what we go through here - particularly in the NYC area.

In Sweden they have plenty of regulations - all national and helpful people to work you through them. Here we have layers and layers of regulation and bureaucracy and nobody to help unless you pay a lawyer.

[Zeb]

Most licensing and registrations are just taxes.

[Rich]

The average college freshman reads at 7th grade level

Sheesh, what would the average level be without Asian freshmen?

[Roger the Shrubber]

More accurately, college freshmen most often read books written at a 7th grade level.

[Rich]

Good point.

"The average reading level for five of the top seven books assigned as summer reading by 341 colleges using Renaissance Learning's readability formula was rated 7.56 [meaning halfway through seventh grade]."

"Assigned as summer reading", eh?

[squibload]

Looked up Renaissance Learning:

Confirmed by Common Core as a valid, reliable text complexity tool.

Barfage.

The Wikipedia article for readability formulas doesn't mention RL's at all. It may be some proprietary Obamalearn garbage.

[The Last American Hero]

I call BS. What college assigns summer reading? The classes are discrete units.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Are you surprised? Have you seen the shit that goes on on campuses everywhere on the continent? It was pretty bad when I was in University in the early 90s and I can only imagine it has gotten worse and not better.

(Critical) reading and writing is just not seen as important.

Screaming and feeling on the other hand...

[DEG]

I'm not surprised, and for the reasons you mention.

[Zeb]

Maybe it is just me, or the school I went to. But it seemed to me, in the late 90s, that half the point of college was still to learn to read and write reasonably well.

There was plenty of screaming and feeling too, but most people seemed to be able to understand a text and write a decent essay.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

"people seemed to be able to understand a text and write a decent essay."

Any such people NEED TO BE REFERRED TO MY SWISS MASTERS. I shudder at many recent graduates writing abilities.

[invisible furry hand]

Says the man who missed an apostrophe

[R C Dean]

There was plenty of screaming and feeling too,

So they had frats there?

[Zeb]

This is purely anecdotal, but it seems like a lot of young people don't read books anymore except as necessary for school work. There is so much text in their lives already that they don't seem bothered.

When I was in 6th grade I was given a test that said I was at a post-high school reading level. I was definitely reading at a much higher level by the time I went to college. So I suspect that what passes for a 7th grade reading level is pretty pathetic.

[CE]

I doubt your anecdote. Who is reading all these teen sci-fi novels that get made into 4-part trilogies in the movies then?

[The Late P Brooks]

How can America be "overcriminalized" when right wing hatemongers like the Koch brothers yet roam free?

[Anomalous]

What's wrong with Ron Paul? He's blaming "bad" French foreign policy for the attacks on Charlie Hebdo.

http://www.mediaite.com/online.....lie-hebdo/

[gaijin]

yeah, he's getting blasted by people who might otherwise agree with the ideals of this being an attack on free speech. Liability to Rand?

[Drake]

Ron is a fucking anchor. Rand should be booking a tour of Mongolia for him that will last all of 2016.

[Pope Jimbo]

Well someone should visit Mongolia. They seem to be the one group that figured out how to deal effectively with the whole mid east problem.

[Drake]

The dealt with it for a while, then they caught the Islam bug and became part of the problem.

[CE]

Ron Paul is rarely wrong. In the few instances where he is, Rand Paul is much more likely to make a politically astute statement.

[Irish]

That's among the dumbest responses I've seen so far. They attacked a satire magazine because the satire magazine said mean things about them.

Unless Charlie Hebdo secretly runs French foreign policy, I have a difficult time seeing the connection.

[squibload]

Libertarians seem to be having a hard time understanding the first half of Voltaire's quote: "I disagree with everything you say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it."

You can stand up for free speech while saying that The Interview is an awful movie that never should have been made, and in addition is understandably upsetting to the real person who is depicted as being assassinated.

You can stand up for free speech while saying that this French magazine is stupid, trashy, and offensive and the fact that people willingly buy it is a stain on the dignity of Western civilization.

One can, without any contradiction, state that the movie and magazine shouldn't be banned or restricted coercively, AND that they shouldn't have existed in the first place.

[Irish]

'Libertarians seem to be having a hard time understanding the first half of Voltaire's quote: "I disagree with everything you say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it."'

What the fuck are you talking about? This has literally nothing to do with what Ron Paul said about French foreign policy.

I also don't disagree with what Hebdo was doing. They were brutally criticizing Islam in the same way other religions are continuously criticized.

Islam deserves no special dispensation simply because members of that cult are more likely to commit mass murder and I have nothing but respect for the fact that writers at Charlie Hebdo knowingly put themselves at risk for those ideals.

[squibload]

They shouldn't brutally criticize any religion is my point.

Islam...members of that cult are more likely to commit mass murder

In the same sense that Americans are more likely to engage in mass shootings than Europeans. i.e. the event is extremely rare among either group, but committed and prejudiced ideologues will seize on that 0.00000001% difference to push their agenda.

[Irish]

'They shouldn't brutally criticize any religion is my point.'

Why not? Idiotic beliefs are worthy of sharp criticism, and an idiotic belief does not magically gain merit because the people who believe it claim they are divinely inspired.

Idiocy is idiocy, regardless of whether you erect dogmas around it and declare that you are a religion and therefore not to be critiqued.

"In the same sense that Americans are more likely to engage in mass shootings than Europeans. i.e. the event is extremely rare among either group, but committed and prejudiced ideologues will seize on that 0.00000001% difference to push their agenda."

You know what's not extremely rare? Majority Muslim countries with brutally repressive governments. In fact, it's true of about 80% of countries where Islam is the main religion.

Point me to a country whose primary religion is Islam which is as free as the average western country. Just one. I'll wait.

[Restoras]

Why not? Idiotic beliefs are worthy of sharp criticism, and an idiotic belief does not magically gain merit because the people who believe it claim they are divinely inspired.

Witness the epic mockery and take-down of Tony in the CAGW thread yesterday. Nice work, commentariat.

[Drake]

Is it even criticism or just observation to point out that Mohammed was a rapist, adulterer, hypocrite, and murderer?

He and his followers weren't ashamed to put it all in the Koran and Haddiths.

[John]

hey shouldn't brutally criticize any religion is my point.

Yes they should. What is sancrosant about religion? Religions should be brutally criticized whenever they deserve it or when someone things they do. If a religion can't take brutal criticism, it is not a religion but a cult.

I am one of the biggest defenders of religion on here and even I think that is complete crap. If your religion can't take criticism and compete in the market place of ideas, then get a new religion.

[Zeb]

If a religion can't take brutal criticism, it is not a religion but a cult.

When I encounter people who are really thin skinned about their religion, I can't help but think that they are either trying to deny the truth about what they believe, or don't really believe that strongly. I can respect people who are confident enough in their beliefs that they don't feel a need to lash out at any criticism of their religion.

[John]

I totally agree with you Zeb. As a Christian, I have no use for Christians who can't defend their beliefs against strong criticism. In fact, one of the things that annoys me most about many current public atheists, is how sorry and tired their arguments are. People have been arguing about these things for thousands of years and some pretty smart people have taken some pretty good whacks at theism. When I see the warmed over crap someone like Dawkins writes, I just roll my eyes. Our civilization is so stupid these days we don't even produce interesting heretics.

[Zeb]

Yeah, a lot of anti-religion atheists are really boring (though Dawkins is pretty interesting on other subjects). I enjoy discussing religion with (some) religious people. If you start out just trying to tear down what they believe it isn't very interesting or fun.

[Drake]

I notice many Progs are very thin-skinned about their religion of the state and related faith in shit like global warming.

[John]

Yes they are Drake. And it just shows how weak and stupid their ideology is.

[Tonio]

What the fuck are you talking about?

I often asked myself that after reading that commenter's posts. Now I just scroll down.

[John]

AND that they shouldn't have existed in the first place.

No you can't. They should have existed for the simple reason that their creators wanted them to exist. To say they shouldn't have existed because you don't like it, is a cop out. You cannot say "I believe in free expression but wish people wouldn't do things I don't like". That is bullshit.

To say that you wish they had never been created is to say that you either wish everyone in the world agreed with you, that is a real commitment to freedom or that everyone who didn't would just shut up and never create.

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are wrong? That maybe those things are not bad and you just don't realize it? Given that possibility, who are you to say they shouldn't have been created?

[Zeb]

You have to exercise your rights sometimes to make sure they are still there.

He might as well say that gun rights are good, but no one should ever carry a gun or keep one in their home.

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

BLOWBACK!!!! A FRENCH JUDGE WARNED BACK A YEAR OR TWO AGO!!!! INTERVENE IN AFRICA AND YOU WILL GET BLOWBACK!!!!!

Or something like that?

[antisocial-ist]

He hangs out with Lew Rockwell too much.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It is weary to consistently blame 'foreign policy' when it's clear the problem is, erm, a little more complex and diverse.

[Jordan]

Speaking with "very high confidence," FBI Director James Comey has stated that North Korea was definitely behind the Sony hack.

It's a slam dunk.

[squibload]

Yeah, they're long beyond the point where adding "very high confidence" has any effect on the credibility of their statements (which is zero).

[Rich]

Speaking with "very high jocularity," Comey said, "It's a sram dunk."

[squibload]

Speaking with "very high confidence," FBI Director James Comey has stated that North Korea was definitely behind the Sony hack.

And it's not like the Obama administration has ever supplied assurances and feigned indignation while telling blatant lies before... oh wait.

[Jordan]

Maybe they'll blame it on the Khorasan Group.

[squibload]

I always assumed he was talking about the Old Republic capital from Star Wars.

[Jordan]

Texas laws on hair braiding ruled unconstitutional

Another win from the Institute for Justice.

[Ted S.]

Don't you hate how those libertarians don't care about minorities?

[squibload]

Well, they're allowing minorities to be fooled into going to unqualified (ie, unlicensed) braiders. Have you ever tried to wash your hair after it's been improperly braided?

[Slammer]

Iowa cop tries to shoot the family dog. Misses, hits and kills the mom instead. WARNING: the website is a mess.

[Rich]

Now, *that* is an appropriate trigger warning.

[Slammer]

The website design is almost as annoying as the story, but just barely.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Similar thing happened in Vermont.

At some point, something's gotta give.

[Drake]

This story has it all!

Police marksmanship, a dog that needed killin', and cop style first aid (restraining the husband and watching her die). And, just guessing, no consequences for the police but some expensive ones for the tax payers.

[John]

IN fairness to the marksmanship, it is really hard to hit a moving target. Even someone who is a good shot won't do it every time.

This story is not so much about bad shooting as the idiocy of shooting in the first place. Any cop who fires a weapon is necessarily endangering innocent people. And thus any cop who does so absent the real and imminent threat of great bodily harm or death, should be immediately fired and never allowed to carry a weapon again.

[CE]

And serve time in jail for the crime.

[straffinrun]

The dog startled him and he fell. He's blaming the snow for slipping and the dog for making it yellow.

[Drake]

Since he's a cop, he's probably never heard of the 4 Rules of Gun Safety. He broke the shit out of all of them.

[Griffin3]

Closer to source: Des Moines Register

[DEG]

CNN reports on Connecticut DCF forcing a teen into chemo treatments over her and her mother's objections.

[Tonio]

Disgusting. Just let the kid die in peace if that's what she wants. Because there is no guarantee the chemo will work. Also, she could remit, which I'll be the first to admit is unlikely but it's her life, not the state's.

[DEG]

Phylicia Rashad claims she was misquoted concerning the Cosby allegations.

Rashad says the Showbiz 411 piece didn't accurately reflect what she said -- especially the "forget these women" part.

"That was a misquote. That is not what I said," Rashad said. "What I said is, 'this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy.'"

[John]

Here is the French Muslim Council's office response to the attacks yesterday.

"In a context of international political tension fueled by bouts of delirium from terrorist groups which wrongly speak in the name of Islam, we are calling on all those who care about the Republic and democracy to avoid provocations that can only pour oil on the fire," it said in a statement.

http://www.businessweek.com/ne.....-divisions

Condemns the killings but not a single word about freedom of expression. It is in not so many words "stop expressing yourself before we kill again".

To all of those yesterday on here claiming that Muslims didn't support this as a rule, judging from the French Muslim Council's reaction, not so much. They may not support murder, but they clearly have no problem with censoring speech they don't like.

[Irish]

That's a terrible response, but the French Muslim Council does not speak for Muslims 'as a rule.'

I'd also like to point out that American Muslims are far better integrated into society than European Muslims tend to be, so using the statements of the French Muslim Council as a blanket condemnation of all Muslims is absurd.

Criticizing Islam itself is justified since Islam is a horrifying philosophy. However, a lot of people who call themselves Muslims don't actually adhere to the bad aspects of Islam and shouldn't be collectively criticized in the way you're attempting.

[Juice]

However, a lot of people who call themselves Muslims don't actually adhere to the bad aspects of Islam

Fundamentalists are the ones doing a religion most correctly. Every other adherent chooses not to follow the religion in its entirety because they know that it's barbaric. Why they don't go all the way is beyond me.

[wadair]

Not. Fundamentalists follow what they believe to the "fundamentals" of a religion. They distill these from scripture boiling away the nuances that, if understood, often lead to a different knowledge. Also, fundamentalists tend to take scripture literally. Literalism ignores the symbolism, allegory, and wordplay common in sacred writings. Fundamentalism is a fringe part of a religion--not the core.

[Tonio]

Well, at least they issued a condemnation. I don't think it's realistic to expect them to embrace free speech.

[sarcasmic]

but they clearly have no problem with censoring speech they don't like.

So? That's not a Muslim thing. There are plenty of Americans who would love to abolish talk radio because they don't like it. Or the anti-religionists who are always trying to ban Christmas. You say that like it's unique to Muslims.

[John]

Differences of degrees matter. Even if the worst most opressive Progs in America got their dictatorship, the US would still be freer than pretty much every Muslim country on earth.

More importantly, you don't like those Americans either. So, how is "well some Americans suck too", any kind of a defense?

The bottom line is, whatever our faults, it is still better to live here than any place where Muslims are a majority. And there is nothing to indicate Muslims get any less oppressive when they move to a free society.

[sarcasmic]

I wasn't making a defense. Just saying that censorship is not unique to Muslims.

[John]

You are right. Evil and oppressiveness is not unique to them.

[sarcasmic]

Yep. And that Muslim cop they killed who was there to protect the editor. That guy was an evil oppressor as well. Probably an accomplice. I mean, he must have been. He was a Muslim.

[WTF]

Even if the worst most opressive Progs in America got their dictatorship, the US would still be freer than pretty much every Muslim country on earth.

I'm not entirely sure that's the slam-dunk you think it is, based on my experience with the left.

[Restoras]

not a single word about freedom of expression

Europeans don't embrace this - the only Europeans that did were the radicals and kooks of their time and it took the creation of the Bill of Rights in another country to enshrine it.

[John]

The protestors in Paris yesterday seemed to embrace it.

[John]

Indeed, there isn't a single Muslim country on earth that can be described as free by any reasonable definition nor anywhere where Muslims have been given the vote that hasn't resulted in the enacting of barbaric laws. This is a threat to our ability to have a free society. You cannot live in a society where a good percentage of the people think that it is okay to murder you if you say something they don't like. And the police cannot protect you if the person coming for you doesn't care if they die killing you. And you can't even protect yourself because you can't kill all of them. Eventually they will get lucky.

To the extent that individual Muslims support freedom, it is only to the extent they are not Muslims and have embraced the secular. It is a shitty truth that no doubt a lot of people don't like hearing, but it is the truth none the less.

[straffinrun]

I worked with this young guy from Saudi Arabia. He was a self-described devout Muslim and/but was extremely friendly and generous. I remember asking him once what the punishment was for adultery was in S.A. "We kill you". Not "they" or even "you are killed".

Just an anecdote, but the identification with the group, and this case govt, was enough to make my skin crawl.

[John]

I have known a good number of Muslims in my life and a lot of them have been good, reasonable people. In the US especially, Muslims tend to be more American than Muslim and find shit like what goes in in Saudi Arabia appalling.

That said, as a society we should never be afraid to call out anyone who doesn't respect everyone's freedom. It is not specific to Muslims. We need to tell communists and white supremacists and feminists the same thing; if you don't believe in free expression and thing you have a right to silence anyone who says something you don't like, you have no place in our society and you need to leave or change your ways.

[sarcasmic]

I have known a good number of Muslims in my life and a lot of them have been good, reasonable people.

Wrong. Unless they were literally shouting from the rooftops about how bad other Muslims are, then they are terrible people. You said so yourself. If they are not mounting organized protests, then they are terrible people.

Every.

Single.

Muslim.

[John]

I have no doubt the Muslims I speak of are today saying they think what happened in Paris is appalling and are saying so in a way that says more than "shut up before we kill again".

So, no not wrong. They are reasonable people and thus are not standing around with their teeth in their mouths saying well that is just too bad right now.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/c.....-1.2178639

Nice cartoon.

Hope Reason pays homage to Charlie Hebdo.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Again, this isn't so much free speech v. censorship as murderers vs. those who would punish murderers.

Whether the killers' motive was disagreement with the victims' speech, or disagreement with the victims' arms deals,* or their love lives, etc., murder is murder regardless of motive.

If we're to get into the motive, it would only be to identify the murderers - eg, finding evidence that they denounced the magazine and said the editors should die for their views. That would help the courts and cops identify the culprits. But that's it - it's not a time for chin-stroking discussions of free speech.

*Not saying these people were arms dealers, it's just a hypothetical.

[John]

No its free speech. You cannot have a free society if you have a significant number of people within it who are willing to murder those who offend them no matter what the cost to themselves of doing so. If this thing becomes common place, people will no longer be free to criticize Islam. And it won't stop there. Next, any women who doesn't wear a head scraf or any restaurant that serves pork or anyone who owns a dog will do so at the risk of attack.

This is just the beginning. This is not a "murder". It is part of a coordinated and sustained attack on our entire civilization and our freedoms.

[DEG]

Portlandia growing?

I was amused by this paragraph in the story:

The Northeast, on the other hand, was a region to get out of. New Jersey and New York had the highest percentage of moves out of state. They were followed by Illinois, North Dakota and West Virginia.

[John]

It is interesting North Dakota was on top. Has the oil boom busted there? Or does that article just measure numbers of people moving out without any regard to the number of people moving in?

[DEG]

I've read articles over the last few days about the oil boom in North Dakota slowing up.

[Auric Demonocles]

I imagine North Dakota is similar to the situation in Vermont, which I left: any of the kids who grow up and get a useful degree need to leave to find a job that's not just retail.

[Auric Demonocles]

Exception for oil, as long as that lasts.

[John]

It is pretty tough to live in any place that has winters like North Dakota or Vermont if you didn't grow up there. Most people just can't handle weather that severe and decide it isn't worth it no matter how good the job. I like the cold and don't mind the winter, but I doubt I would hack it in the Dakotas or Vermont.

[Auric Demonocles]

That's got nothing to do with why I left, but the 1 engineering job I interviewed with mentioned they had trouble with out-of-state hires for that reason. Even when they did decide they would take the winters and moved, they often only lasted the first one. I moved because when we got to talking about salary they were only offering about 70% of what an intro level engineer should be making (even accounting for the lower cost of living).

[John]

They would have to pay me a hell of a premium for me to move there. Having a big house is nice and all, but there is more to life than that. To be happy in a place, you have to embrace what it has to offer. I have never been there, but I assume North Dakota offers about the same thing the other plains states offer; small liveable towns, low crime rates, good hunting and fishing, and not a lot else. If you have two or three kids and your entire life revolves around going to youth football and basketball games, or your greatest pleasure in life is goose and deer season, I could see where it would be fine. If not, living in those places will bore you to death. I don't care how much money you have or how big your house is.

[Auric Demonocles]

I actually would have been willing to take a slight discount to stay. Burlington is an awesome town to live in if you're under 30, plus I had a ton of friends in the area. As for the winters, it's actually still about 5 degrees warmer than where I grew up anyway, and I like to snowboard.

The problem is that instead of the 5-10% discount I would be willing to consider, they wanted a 30% one. Unsurprisingly, I checked back about 2 years later and they were still trying to fill that position long-term.

[John]

Burlington is not the same as the Dakotas. In Vermont you have skiing. You also are only a couple of hours from Montreal. Burlington is also a college town. I could probably live in Burlington, except that I am not sure I could put up with the Progs up there. Vermont Progs are some of the most backwards, ignorant and oppressive people in the country. It would be pretty hard having to live around that many of them.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Not for nothing, but Vermont Winters ain't got shit on ND winters.

[Juice]

They keep mentioning how nice the place is (and it is) but that's not why people move to a new place. They move when they get a job. They could have mentioned the number of jobs and what they are there.

I applied to a place up there, but it was one of those highly competitive jobs that 1000 people apply to, so I didn't get an interview.

[DEG]

They keep mentioning how nice the place is (and it is) but that's not why people move to a new place. They move when they get a job.

Yes. A job is what brought me to New England despite not liking winter. No income tax on my salary because I live in New Hampshire was an added bonus which took a little while to collect on because that job was in Massachusetts.

Until I'm wealthy enough to live off of my investments, it'll be a job that gets me out of here, hopefully to someplace without winter.

[Rhywun]

Food trucks and craft beer! Sign me up.

The Northeast, on the other hand, was a region to get out of.

It is somewhat amusing to watch the rest of America turn into everything that the rest of America has always said they hate about the Northeast.

[John]

This is a fun blast from the past that has been circulating around Facebook. It is a 2011 Time article saying that Michelle Bachman's claim that gas could be $2 a gallon again was a "fantasy".

http://science.time.com/2011/0.....a-fantasy/

More evidence that every single word the old line media writes is a lie. Whatever you think of Bachaman, she was absolutely right when she said we could have $2 a gallon gas again and anyone with any honesty or sense could see that. But the old line media of course told the world she was THE CRAZY because all they know are lies.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Christ. Claims that gas could be $2/gal was a fantasy, occurring currently with congressional investigations into claims of artificially high gasoline prices resulting from collision of oil companies.

[Juice]

It was silly of Bachmann to promise lower gas prices, making it seem like she could control them. It was also stupid of Time to say that it wouldn't happen, as if they could see the future.

[John]

As President, you damned right she could have brought them down. There is nothing silly about it. As President she could have opened up public lands to drilling, reduced the regulatory burden on building new refineries and done all kinds of things that would have increased the supply of oil and gasoline.

The fact that we are seeing $2 a gallon gas now, even though Obama hates it and has done everything in his power to stop it, shows how easily it could have been done had we had a President who wanted it to happen.

Beyond that, even if you are right, your claim doesn't make Time's claim any less stupid and disproved by events. They called it a "fantasy" that could never happen, not something that could happen but the President couldn't affect.

[CE]

Or do what Obama did, conspire with the Saudis to tank the price of oil, destabilize Russia, cut funding to ISIS, destroy the North American oil sands/shale industry and negate the need for the Keystone Pipeline.

[cavalier973]

"A trick I have learned from the Piketty affair: If I ever write a book on Keynesianism, I'm going to include this statement: 'New York Times readers were shocked to learn that Paul Krugman had a torrid affair with a farm animal.' People will flip out and call me a liar, etc. But my defenders will say, correctly, that this unusual and utterly false statement has nothing to do with the validity of my capital theory. No matter what else I say in the book, no matter how weak my arguments or dubious my data, it won't possibly be as severe as the farm animal claim, which is admittedly irrelevant."

Robert Murphy, via Facebook

[cavalier973]

But it contains more than 10 factual errors, according to one new study accepted by the Journal of Private Enterprise and conducted by economists Phillip Magness of George Mason University and Robert P. Murphy of the Institute for Energy Research. The errors they report range from relatively simple mistakes such as getting several historical dates wrong to mis-attributing a massive tax increase to President Franklin Roosevelt that was actually passed by President Herbert Hoover, to incorrectly claiming that the minimum wage never increased under either George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush, who both oversaw increases.

[cavalier973]

Asked about the above issues, Piketty told FoxNews.com that there may be some typos in the book but said he did not think they affected his central conclusion.

"I am really sorry if I attributed one specific tax decision to FDR instead of Hoover, etc.; many readers do mention typos of this sort, and of course they will be corrected in future editions; but I really do not see anything here that's affecting any conclusion," Piketty told FoxNews.com.

[Heroic Mulatto]

"I am really sorry if I attributed one specific tax decision to FDR instead of Hoover, etc.; many readers do mention typos of this sort

That is not a "typo". "Hover" [sic] is a typo. What you are talking about, my dear Piketty, is sloppy scholarship, from which your academic reputation should suffer.

[straffinrun]

I read that Murphy piece, too. Classic. The question is why all these "typos" coincidentally supported his thesis.

[John]

The whole thing shows how intellectually dead the Left is. There is no way a conservative or Libertarian writer would have made the sloppy and lazy mistakes Piketty made. Conservatives and Libertarians live in a vibrant and living intellectual environment where no claim is left unchallenged. You can't be that lazy and sloppy and get anywhere on the Right. But you can in the circles that Pinkitty runs. The American left is so intellectually dead and stilted that they don't even challenge one another anymore. And the people who inhabit the Left, even those at the very top of the food chain who are professors at big universities never learn any intellectual discipline and only know how to parrot talking points.

[sarcasmic]

The people on the Left feel that they are right. That's all that matters. Incorrect facts, fallacies, lazy mistakes... none of that matters. It feels right so it must be right.

[The Late P Brooks]

I really do not see anything here that's affecting any conclusion," Piketty told FoxNews.com.

Why would it, when he worked backward from his conclusion from the get-go?

[Swiss Servator, Winter...jetzt]

^THIS^

[Taberlario]

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