Federal Asset Forfeiture Scaled Back, GOP Presidential Debates Scaled Back, Inmate Describes Burning Pain When Being Executed: P.M. Links

• 

  NBC News

  Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a scaling back in the way the Department of Justice works with local law enforcement agencies to seize citizen' assets when they're suspected of crimes. There are still several exceptions to the drawdown, though.

• The Republican Party today announced it will cut the number of presidential primary debates for the 2016 election down to nine.
• The Supreme Court will take up four cases challenging bans on same-sex marriage recognition.
• Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.
• Is the Department of Justice's latest declaration that they had stopped a terrorism plot in Cincinnati yet another example of the FBI finding some angry loser online, creating the plan for him, and then arresting him for it?
• Five people have been charged in a thwarted apparent terrorist plot to kill police in Belgium.
• Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan insists that Muslims have never engaged in "terrorist massacres."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan insists that Muslims have never engaged in "terrorist massacres."

What's the president have to say about the Holocaust?

[Andrew S.]

Gone, gone, the form of man. Rise the demon Erdogan!

[Injun, as in from India]

Killing infidels is not a terrorist massacre. It is a sacred duty!

[Meerkatx]

We don't even need to look at that, just look at the Armenian Genocide.

[Ted S.]

Damn your nimble fingers!

[Ted S.]

Killing the Armenians was genocide, not terrorism!

[Rich]

Seems like a Recip E. for disaster.

[hamilton]

That was worse than the fake Armenian genocide.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I like James Taylor and all but if America was bad ass they would have invited Motorhead to serenade France.

Man that would have been priceless.

[SIV]

James Taylor was only good as The Driver. Everything else he did was pure shit.

[Zeb]

Well, thanks for clearing that up for everyone.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/burns James Taylor albums.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

So you've seen fire and you've seen rain more fire?

[Elspeth Flashman]

I loved the ending of that movie. It was very exciting for the movie to end that way, IMO.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Well. Has Turkey acknowledged the massacre of Armenians?

[Zeb]

What is it with Turkey and pretending stuff didn't happen?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

OPIUM ABUSE.

And Turkish Delight.

[Zeb]

With opium you mostly just don't give a crap whether things happened or not.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Isn't that kinda the same thing? Denial is not caring about whether something happened or not - especially on opium.

Heh.

[Zeb]

Denial is active. Not caring is passive.

Sorry, that was way too serious of a response.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

ROLL WITH IT, ZEB!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/offers opium.

[C. Anacreon]

Just Turkish Taffy for me, please.

[Injun, as in from India]

Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan insists that Muslims have never engaged in "terrorist massacres."

And flying pigs just broke the sound barrier.

[Meerkatx]

In other news Erdogan also said there is no such thing as an Armenian.

[Tonio]

He's just as immune to reality as Eddie!

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Are flying pigs halal?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

*smooches*

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Meant for tonio above

[Juice]

Your post is very offensive to the Oxford University Press.

[Rich]

How they can publish books about government without mentioning pork?

[C. Anacreon]

And why can't we have a Congress that is offended by pork?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...yet another example of the FBI finding some angry loser online, creating the plan for him, and then arresting him for it?

But isn't it easier that way?

[Mad Scientist]

He didn't exist, we we were forced to invent him.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Terrorists created or saved???

[rts]

Moncton RCMP shooting: Report's 64 recommendations include swift use of patrol carbines

A review exploring the RCMP response to Justin Bourque's deadly shooting spree in June in New Brunswick calls for the force to take immediate action to better arm Mounties ? one of 64 recommendations that have all been accepted by the RCMP.

The report urges the RCMP to expedite the deployment of patrol carbines across the force, including improved training.

[Ted S.]

Will regular Canadians be able to better arm themselves for self-defense?

[rts]

Our lives aren't worth as much.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

^What Rufus said

[Jerryskids]

Can't we just swap the NYPD and the RCMP? They get the swift use of excessive force they're looking for, we get cops who know how to say "sorry" once in a while.

[Trigger Warning]

Well, they say "sore-ry." Close enough.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

Poor guy.

[Juice]

How do you rape an 11 month old baby? I don't mean "how could you!" (But yeah, how could he?) I mean how is it even physically possible?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It's not, which can quite often lead directly to the murder charge.

[Juice]

I see. Yikes.

[PapayaSF]

Charles Warner suffered? Good.

There are various sexual activities that don't appeal to me, but which I "get" in the sense of understanding how someone else might, e.g. being attracted to 12-year-olds. But I cannot grasp, at all, how anyone could look at an infant and think: "Oooh, sexy!"

[AlmightyJB]

Waaaaayyyyyy to good for him. Next time they have an infant rapist they can give them the option of being handed over to me. I gaurentee they would be begging for a fire/acid lethel injection But I would grant them no such mercy.

[Trigger Warning]

That level of evil definitely warrants the Law Abiding Citizen method.

[Tonio]

While I have no sympathy for anyone who does that sort of thing, do remember that the state does falsely convict. I find it far better to err on the side of mercy. Those of you of a religious bent can comfort yourselves that the guilty will be punished in the afterlife.

Also, as a libertarian, I do not on principle trust the state with this power, knowing how easily it could be abused.

[DWC]

Yes, that is the issue. Certainly there are cases that are obvious and given my druthers I have no problem with guys who do what this guy is convicted of doing being put into a deep fryer.

If we are going to execute people, I am really confused about the state's inability to do it without making a mess. An overdose of morphine - it's done. An overdose of any of a dozen sedatives and it's done. What is the deal with these fucking cocktails - a squirt of this and a squirt of that. What the hell is the issue here? This is not rocket science.

[JeremyR]

The problem is that apparently the pharmaceutical companies won't sell states the drugs to do it.

So they have to come up with other solutions.

[Michael Ejercito]

I heard rumors that crucifixion is pretty effective.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I still think the death penalty should not be used, for the reason you mention (false convictions). I just can't muster any sympathy for this guy, unless there's some actual doubt about his guilt.

[Trigger Warning]

Also, as a libertarian, I do not on principle trust the state with this power, knowing how easily it could be abused.

Amen. But it's always cases like these that test my convictions. I mean, what the fuck else are you gonna do with the guy? Feed, shelter, and clothe him on the taxpayer's dime until he dies of natural causes? It's like killing a million people: the act is so monstrous and incomprehensible that the notion of justice becomes moot. There is no punishment that can truly pay for the crime. Killing him was the best we could do, in a just society.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Republican Party today announced it will cut the number of presidential primary debates for the 2016 election down to nine.

Making each one so precious as to be a must watch!

[Medical Physics Guy]

Seriously. Who in the world wants to watch nine primaries besides the egomaniacs on the stage.

[Injun, as in from India]

The way it will work is that Jeb will get 3:30 to answer a question, while Rand will get 0:03. And it will be called "fair and balanced".

[Pro Libertate]

I heard a conservative radio guy, who normally treats Rand as barely worth notice (not as a senator but as a presidential candidate), make an offhand remark that, yes, of course, Paul would kick ass in the general.

I really don't get the GOP.

[Injun, as in from India]

No one ever really needs to "get" the GOP. They are the stupid party, and are an insult to the intelligent mammals that elephants are.

[Rich]

Hang on long enough, and you'll get it good and hard.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 SoCon Porn

[Libertarian]

I thought that was Mencken porn.

[Trigger Warning]

Hang on long enough, and you'll get it good and hard.

You can hear Rick Santorum's thoughts!

[JEP]

They should obviously turn it into some kind of play off bracket. A sweet 16 of potential GOP nominees.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant."

No fair describing the convict's crimes - are you trying to insert some ambiguity into the death penalty debate or something?

[paranoid android]

So if the court had explicitly sentenced him to have acid pumped into his veins and then be set on fire, would you be supportive of the State meting out punishment in such a fashion?

[AlmightyJB]

For an infant rapist. Yeah no problem.

[Zeb]

Yeah, fuck the 8th Amendment.

I'm not shedding any tears for this guy, but I think that's a pretty important part of the constitution.

[BardMetal]

Cruel and unusual punishment is somewhat subjective don't you think?

[Zeb]

It is quite subjective (or perhaps context dependent), especially the "unusual" part. But I think that there is pretty general agreement that torture as a punishment is right out. I don't think that "we didn't expect it to cause such pain" is a valid excuse at this point.

Do you think that it being subjective renders it meaningless or toothless?

[Seamus]

The 8th amendment has been held to apply to the states because the Due Process Clause "incorporated" the 8th amendment. What that means, according to Gitlow v. New York (the Supreme Court case that got incorporation rolling) is that the protection of the 8th amendment is a "liberty" of which one cannot be deprived without due process of law. Well, a conviction for raping and murdering an 11-year-old sounds like pretty damn good due process to me, which means it *should* be OK to inject acid into his veins.

(Unless, of course, the judges really don't give a rat's ass about what the constitution actually says and are just looking for a colorable argument for obtaining the result that they want on other grounds. Naah, that would never happen.)

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

For people who rape 11 month old children to death?

Probably.

[Michael Ejercito]

I would not give a fuck.

[Zeb]

It's just a way of rooting out the people who let their emotions trump reason.

Torture isn't permitted as punishment in this country. No matter how much the guy deserves to suffer.

[AlmightyJB]

Friday after week of dealing with idiots (today I belive it was raining stupid) is probably not the best time to give me the "should we torture a child rapist" libertarian test.

[Jerryskids]

As a libertarian, I think people should be able to choose what belief systems they follow - with the understanding that you can't choose one for yourself and one for everybody else. If you think it acceptable to lie and cheat and steal from others, I don't have a problem with you being lied to and cheated and stolen from. If you don't have a problem raping babies to death, you have no room to complain if you get raped to death.

With that being said, do we really know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy did the crime? Even if you say "well, to believe this guy was innocent you would have to believe there was some big conspiracy to frame the guy and put an innocent man to death" - and I don't find that idea a bit preposterous. You get a horrible crime the cops are under a lot of pressure to solve, the DA wants the mob to get their pound of flesh so he can get the publicity, and you have a good recipe for finding some local halfwit scumbag and making him the fall guy. Who gives a damn if the guy was guilty of this particular crime? He was somebody the world was better off without, the justice system gets to chalk up another win, the public gets to rest easier knowing that they don't have to think too hard anymore about the fact that random shit happens randomly, that everything got tied up in a neat little package.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, that's the whole problem right. If there was a way no know for a fact the person did it then yeah have at him. Unfortunately we're talking about the government here.

[Zeb]

I think people should be able to choose what belief systems they follow - with the understanding that you can't choose one for yourself and one for everybody else.

But that also applies to the people meting out the punishments, and the people in whose name they are supposedly meted out. If inflicting pain on someone is wrong, then it's wrong.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Odd commercial: 100 Japanese maids and a pancake.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

There's a guy who would cheerfully buy the extended warranty.

[PapayaSF]

Nice.

[Libertarian]

If that's not your idea of heaven, turn in your hetero membership card.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Meh. I prefer blondes.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

That's an...odd fetish.

Not the 100 Japanese maids part, the pancake on the head part.

[rts]

RCMP officers have right to collective bargaining, Supreme Court rules

In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that specifically forbade the Mounties from unionizing, saying it violated their charter rights to freedom of association.

The RCMP has been specifically barred from forming a union since the 1960s. It's the only police force in Canada with such a restriction.

Hello dental plan!

Dental plan!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Lisa needs braces.

[Trouser-Pod]

And, Hey! Someone's managed to make that rather annoying.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Someone I know is RCMP. He took his pension at 40 and now lives the good life running a business.

[Ted S.]

If I knew anybody like that, I'd say "You're welcome" every time I saw them.

[Injun, as in from India]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

Rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant?

Sorry dude. I ran out of my daily empathy quota earlier today.

[Zeb]

What does empathy have to do with it? I don't think that very many people won't say that the guy deserved to suffer. But cruel and unusual is cruel and unusual.

How is looking at this and saying you are OK with it (maybe not an accurate description of what you are saying, I guess) any different from the people who say "I'm all for free expression, but this goes too far"?

[Injun, as in from India]

I understand the paradox of the death penalty, and am against it.

But I'm sorry to say that I just can't get myself to empathize with this a$$hole.

You can have different rational and emotional responses. And that's what this was.

[Zeb]

I don't empathize with him at all.

But various states seem to be torturing people to death. I do have a big problem with that, aside from my general opposition to the death penalty.

Which is why I brought up the parallel of free expression. Even if you hate what Charlie Hebdo does and think that they are complete assholes, you have to stand up for the principle.

Maybe I'm reading too much into people's emotional reactions.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Definitionally, this does not qualify as torture unless the willful intent is to ensure that the convict needlessly suffer severe pain prior to death as part of the punishment. Pain is incidental to the procedure, and while I have no wish to cause it I sure as fuck don't think there is a moral duty to minimize it, either. The subjective reaction of a convict should not apply overmuch in considering whether a procedure is torture or not -- for example, I am certain that to some prisoners with severe claustrophobia, an average-sized cell is a horrible experience. This does not make imprisonment in average cells torture, even in the specific case. I don't exactly support the death penalty*, but neither do I have a problem with this implementation -- though I could suggest alternatives for the more squeamish, involving rope or a firing squad.

*Unless the convict prefers it to life imprisonment.

[Zeb]

If done properly, the rope or the firing squad are more humane, it seems. I'm not squeamish.

I see your point about intent and torture. But at this point, people know that whatever they are doing now for lethal injections is causing unnecessary pain. I don't think you get a pass on intent when you should have a pretty good idea what is going to happen. The supposed purpose of lethal injection is to be painless and clean. If you know it isn't working that way and still do it, there is something wrong.

[Enough About Palin]

For all you know, this baby-raping piece of shit was also a lying piece of shit and suffered not one whit.

[Zeb]

For all I know you are all figments of my imagination.

If this were the only case like this, I'd consider that possibility more seriously. But "unexpected" pain from lethal injections is becoming a bit of a trend.

[Fist of Etiquette]

There are still several exceptions to the drawdown, though.

Waivers?

[John Thacker]

Joint task forces is one exception. Unclear how big it is yet (e.g., does it mean joint task forces that involve an actual Fed, or just any joint task force with multiple municipal and state members).

Basically it reads like it's supposed to exclude the ones where the state or local cops do everything and then just petition the feds for an end-around local or state rules, but it allows it to continue when the Feds are actually involved.

Still a good step.

[Andrew S.]

Unless "joint task forces" applies to local PDs supplied with Byrne Grants. Then it's near worthless.

[John Thacker]

Yes, that would enormously increase the size of the loophole, and is the question.

[The Late P Brooks]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected.

Why not just get it over with, and burn criminals at the stake, live on the teevee?

[SIV]

I'd much prefer that to the current system.

[Zeb]

No, no. We should shoot them out of huge canons.

[The Laconic]

canons [sic]

There's a joke to be made there, but I don't have the energy.

[Jerryskids]

I suspect it would be some low caliber humor.

[db]

Then why'd you breech the subject?

[Zeb]

Oh, right. I forgot those were spelled differently.

[d3x / dt3]

"I sentence you to ... Proust!"

"Dear God, no!"

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

If it had to happen to someone, at least it was this piece of shit. That being said, I'm still shocked it's not considered cruel and unusual to subject a person to that kind of torment and then make the process so opaque that no regulatory body can examine what kind of drugs they use.

What's the argument for keeping the names of they drugs they use secret?

[Andrew S.]

Realistically: FYTW. It's because people might say mean things to the manufacturers, and the manufacturers might decide to stop selling the state the drugs they need to kill people with.

I ain't gonna feel sorry for this guy, but describing his crimes isn't going to change my mind on the death penalty being a terrible thing either.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"What's the argument for keeping the names of they drugs they use secret?"

Probably because Europe is anti-death-penalty and will punish pharma companies which supply execution drugs to U.S. executioners.

[Andrew S.]

They're not getting the drugs from Europe any longer. Most of them nowadays are coming from local compounding pharmacies or US manufacturers.

[Stormy Dragon]

Most of them nowadays are coming from local compounding pharmacies or US manufacturers.

They're still getting them from Europe. Keeping the source a secret makes it impossible for anyone to check when they lie and claim otherwise.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

When the drugs are known, the anti-death penalty camp goes after the supplier. That is why these cocktails get odder and more likely to have unintended side effects.

Which is totally the intention.

[Zeb]

Lethal injection is just stupid. The only argument for it was that it is more humane. But that is clearly not the case at the moment.

What's wrong with a bullet in the brain stem? I'm generally against the death penalty, but if you are going to do it, cut out all of the dicking around and do it.

[Trigger Warning]

A single goddam bullet to the head is more humane than these mysterious drug-cocktail fuckups I keep reading about.

[Seamus]

Yeah, but it's messy, and that upsets the executioners and spectators. It's really *their* pain that we're worried about.

[Andrew S.]

While North Miami Beach, FL is using mugshots for target practice, their neighbors to the south in the city of Miami Beach have said that officers no longer have to be tazed as part of their TASER training. The Chief says it's because being tazed is "extremely unpleasant". No word on why that doesn't apply to the people they taze for fun.

[Ted S.]

As I said in the Mourning Lynx, the rest of us should use pictures of cops for target practice.

[Injun, as in from India]

In an alternate universe, cops will have pass a background check and mental health exam to get batons, while citizens walk around with M-16s.

[AlmightyJB]

For a while some ranges were not letting people use targets with any resemblance of a person

[The Other Kevin]

The Republican Party today announced it will cut the number of presidential primary debates for the 2016 election down to nine.

I thought there were fewer than 9 last time? Reminds me of something from 1984.

The number of primary debates has been cut from 6 to 9!

[Trigger Warning]

There have always been nine debates!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire...

If he did what he was convicted of doing, it may not have been the drugs.

[PapayaSF]

Just foreshadowing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It was the Devil claiming his soul.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

+666

[The Late P Brooks]

The report urges the RCMP to expedite the deployment of patrol carbines across the force

Winchester model 94s would be okay.

It's too bad American cops aren't issued those.

[rts]

Giddyup.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Surely they still have some SMLEs around.

[Ted S.]

Turn that FRWN upside-down!

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

"It's what they do, sweetheart. It's what they do."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Winner!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan insists that Muslims have never engaged in "terrorist massacres."

Looks like this guy is a fan of Seinfeld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ

[Mike M.]

Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan insists that Muslims have never engaged in "terrorist massacres."

What a fucking piece of work. Even Block Yomomma doesn't go that far.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

True Scotsmen...I mean Muslims!

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

True Muslim Scotsmen? A bagpipe for the call to prayer?

[Rich]

Amazing Grace five times a day.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Make that Auld Lang Syne five times a day.

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

"Bah, it takes a True Baha'i Irishman to play the pipes."

[Rich]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected.

Meh. Are you going to believe someone who raped an infant?

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

And has he ever been injected with acid before? No? Then he really doesn't have a basis for comparison.

[The Late P Brooks]

They're not getting the drugs from Europe any longer. Most of them nowadays are coming from local compounding pharmacies or US manufacturers.

It sounds like they're getting their killdrugz from some high school dropout working out of a retired schoolbus in the woods.

[Stormy Dragon]

The Republican Party today announced it will cut the number of presidential primary debates for the 2016 election down to nine.

Statistics show that it takes 10 debates for the average republican nominee to make a complete fool of themselves pandering to the base.

[Banjos]

Nice.

[Rich]

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without proving that a crime occurred.

Uh-huh. How long after the seizure do they have before they must cough up a proof?

[kinnath]

Statistics show that it takes 1 0 debates for the average republican nominee to make a complete fool of themselves pandering to the base.

[Paul.]

Bullshit. It doesn't take anywhere near that many.

[Loki]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

Forgive for not feeling a whole lot of sympathy for the SOB.

[Carl ?s the level]

Is the most Kotaku (Australia...) article ever written?

How I Realised My Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Is Gay

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Okaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy

[Irish]

"It all suddenly made sense. Just look at them ? they're perfect for one another! I usually try to avoid spoilers as much as possible for games I'm really looking forward to, so I had no idea Dorian existed until I met him in the game. It's an awesome coincidence that they look like they go to the same stylist, and it's easy to imagine them walking hand-in-hand down the street in my trendy hipster LA neighbourhood. I didn't design my character to be gay, but then it's never really a choice, and when I realised this I actually felt as if he'd come out to me, his creator. I was excited. I even tweeted about it."

This is the worst person I've heard of all day and upthread there's a man who raped an infant.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yup, he's gay, I can tell by looking at the pixels.

[Libertarian]

The picture of Dorian Gay?

[Carl ?s the level]

Imagine if this dude hooked up with the chick from yesterday.

[JEP]

This guy needs to go on some kind of camping trip or something so he can start to realize what's real and what's not.

Maybe he'll run into John, the cartoon mountain lion...

[Wasteland Wanderer]

WHAT STEVE SMITH?! CHOP LIVER?!

[Carl ?s the level]

s/is the/is this/

[Rich]

Is the most Kotaku (Australia...) article ever written?

I don't know.

[Carl ?s the level]

Sorry, you're a minute late to making fun of my typo.

[Rich]

*** hangs head in shame ***

[HeteroPatriarch]

There's no statute of limitations on typos!

[Carl ?s the level]

Quantifying the Clickbait and Linkbait in BuzzFeed Article Titles

[Pro Libertate]

I used to check out BuzzFeed on occasion back in the day, but they provide virtually no content anymore. Well, little that interests me, anyway. Not worth wading through the mounds of chaff.

[PapayaSF]

Why the heck is it so hard to kill someone painlessly? Just get any general anesthetic and give them too much of it. People can easily die from improperly-administered anesthetic. Or, put them under and stop their heart with an air injection or by some other means. No strange compounded drugs needed.

[Carl ?s the level]

But what if they develop a dependency? Ever thought of that, smarty-pants?

[ola]

Because it's the government.

[Stormy Dragon]

Because killing them painlessly isn't the only requirement. The execution will be attended by an audience that's in delusion about the emotional reality of wanting to see another person (even a bad one) die in front of them. Post mortem spasms might upset this finally balanced cognative dissonance and make them feel bad about it.

So we need a method that's both painless and has zero possibility of post mortem spasming, and THAT'S what is really hard to do.

[PapayaSF]

When people die under anesthesia, do they have post-mortem spasms? When Michael Jackson died from too much propofol (etc.), did he have spasms? I'm not being confrontational, I'm genuinely curious.

[Stormy Dragon]

Yes, most anesthetics cause muscle spasms (whether you're dead or not).

[Stormy Dragon]

Anesthetic Awareness Fact Sheet

Under general anesthesia, a patient is given medications intended to cause unconsciousness and relieve pain. If the medication to render the patient unconscious fails, awareness occurs. In other words, the patient wakes up, becomes aware of certain events occurring during the surgery, and may recall some or all of the events. Further, if the medication to relieve pain fails or is inadequate, the patient may feel pain while awake. Finally, cases involving general anesthesia often require the patient to be given medication intended to prevent movement. In very rare instances, the sleep and pain medications fail while the paralytic agent does not, making it virtually impossible for the patient to communicate this dire situation to the anesthesia providers.

[PapayaSF]

OK, so: general anesthetic + one of the many neuromuscular blocking agents. Why wouldn't that work?

[Stormy Dragon]

That's essentially what they did:

Conventional lethal injection protocol

[Stormy Dragon]

They can also do what 11 states do: just anesthetize them to death and live with the spasms.

[Mickey Rat]

Or use a sealed chamber and replace the air with pure nitrogen.

[Winston]

Public Accommodation Laws, WWI, WWII, the New Deal, the Cold War, Islamic Fundamentalism, Chavismo, Prohibition and jokes about airline food are blowback to the Civil war

[Winston]

Elizabeth Warren, Tony and Shriek are blowback too.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Surprise. Huffington Post publishes article critical of California's 'affirmative consent' law

But while the intent of Yes Means Yes is admirable -- and certainly more communication about and around sex is not a bad thing -- government seeking to regulate sex, or any other act, on such a micro level is a symptom of a culture marked by extreme over-parenting -- and it is dangerously enabling.

Rape on campus is a terrible problem. But it's not one that can be solved by making the laws more specific or by trying to strong-arm communication, the lack of which is not at the root of most sexual assault. If a student requires a law to know that a woman must be conscious--or even unambiguously interested--in order for sex with her to be consensual, there are other problems at hand. In fact, hand holding is exactly the problem. Yes Means Yes is just another way to helicopter parent -- and by the time kids get to their college dorm rooms, by the time their clothes are off, it's time for the hovering to stop.

HERETIC, STONE HER!!!!

[Injun, as in from India]

For IFH and other aussies here:

"Go F**k Yourself You Communist Turd" Senator Says To Anti-Free Speech Democrat

[Rufus J. Firefly]

WE NEED MORE RESPONSES LIKE THIS.

AND YES I'M SCREAMING.

[Irish]

The best part is the follow up email.

"It appears you have not acted on my advice. Please do so. Go fuck yourself as soon as possible. The world will be a better place"

[Raven Nation]

Mostly excellent; throwing in "communist" seems unnecessary.

Did people see this from earlier this week:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ve-TV.html

[PapayaSF]

Yes, hooray for the mayor of Rotterdam.

[Winston]

Also the real problem with Ron Paul and co. is that they are not anti-war they are Revolutionary defeatists.

[Injun, as in from India]

Just about every post I've seen from you is about Ron Paul, and negative.

Are you to Ron Paul what Mark David Chapman was to John Lennon? You're freakin obsessed.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Let's be fair. Every 34th Winston post is a snide comment about Rockwell or Raimondo.

[Marshall Gill]

That is not right. Raimondo deserves way more snide comments than 1/2 of 1:34.

[GILMORE]

"Muslims never guilty of 'terrorist massacres,' Turkey's Erdogan insists"

...the fuck?

Apparently the president of Turkey has been on a slippery slope to full-retard ever since half his cabinet got busted on corruption charges in 2013

"Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says mass arrests on Dec. 14 of journalists, screenwriters and television producers were necessary to eliminate agents of a "parallel state" bent on seizing power. But Mr. Erdogan's efforts to stifle criticism and dissent show an authoritarian leader living in a parallel universe, one where being a democracy, a NATO ally and a candidate for membership in the European Union are somehow compatible with upending the rule of law and stifling freedom of expression.
...Last February, Mr. Erdogan's government pushed through new laws severely restricting Internet freedom and curbing the independence of Turkey's judiciary..."

Turkey has also been double-dealing providing aid to ISIS against the Kurds.

I know their steez is a political balancing act between Iran, Russia, and the EU, but seriously - someone please bitch-slap this guy already.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ban Turkey!
Buy Chicken!

[Carl ?s the level]

Photo of Taipei Mayor on Subway Stuns Mainland Chinese

(Trigger warning: FWIW, The Epoch Times is a Falun Gong-founded anti-CCP paper [not that the CCP isn't horrible, of course])

[Mokers]

But if he doesn't have body guards and a convoy of armored cars taking him everywhere, how do people know he is important?

[GILMORE]

In China, Government Bureaucrats give themselves a kind of special-treatment that we'd find absurdly gaudy. Even regional technocrats travel with a cadre of bodyguards and subordinates.

Its a kind of cultural power-worship that went out of style in the West in the middle-ages. The Chinese seem to vary between being super-impressed and overjoyed when they see State Representatives actually 'carrying their own bags' or 'riding in a taxi'.... or they react with snobbish derision, suggesting that Foreigners have no self-respect or lack appropriate finances or intelligence to behave like a proper Official should.

The former Ambassador from the US to China was famous in that country for things like 'not wearing a tie' sometimes, and being seen carrying his own bag onto a plane.

I once pointed out that a great deal of Foreign Relations is actually tied to very subtle things like this that sometimes have enormous influence on how citizens of other countries perceive each other.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Even regional technocrats travel with a cadre of bodyguards and subordinates.

Yeah, that could never happen here.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ye.....1404095412

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Yeah, I was going to say...the presidential motorcade probably puts the majority of Chinese officials to shame.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I'd feel disgusted with myself if I linked it, but the Salon twitter parody retweeted an actual link to an actual Salon story about a woman who has sex with her dad.

Oh, Salon.

[Irish]

I'm reading it right now.

The best part is when the girl's like 'People keep saying if we have kids it could be bad for the kids, but my mom and her mom were bipolar and no one lectured them about having children.'

Two thoughts:

1. Hilarious.

2. Why am I not surprised that mental illness runs in this family.

[Trouser-Pod]

Presuming the interviewer was quoting verbatim, doesn't this 18-y.o. come across as rather well-spoken? Not that she can't be, but the picture painted about her life leads me to think she would be quite a bit less articulate*.

*not racist

[The Laconic]

The real Salon account really is difficult to distinguish from the parody account. I'm fooled all the time, usually by mistaking a real Salon story for a parody one, rather than the other way around.

[JEP]

I hope the parody has a good name...Saloon or something

[Enough About Palin]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

Tough shit.

[John]

THIS

Unless you can show the guy was innocent, I really don't give a fuck. He had a better death than his victim.

The guy was Charles Warner. This is what he did to end up on death row.

Shonda Waller left for the grocery store one August afternoon in 1997 and came home to find her 11-month-old infant, Adrianna, undressed, limp and lifeless.

Her dolly eyelashes wouldn't move. Adrianna was dead on arrival at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City.

Her skull, jaw and ribs were fractured. Her liver was lacerated, her spleen and lungs were bruised.

It was a sharp-eyed charge nurse who first noticed the signs of sexual abuse, as she cleaned Adrianna's tiny body so that her mother could hold her one last time. Her baby weighed the same as a sack of potatoes.

Charles Frederick Warner, the former roommate of Waller, was convicted of raping and killing Adrianna. The state plans to execute Warner and another convicted killer, Clayton Lockett, Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news.....668ee.html

[paranoid android]

I don't need to be convinced that he was a horrible human being. But I'm not comfortable saying that his constitutional protections against cruel punishments should be thrown out the window because we really really hate him, which many here are at least tacitly saying they are okay with.

[John]

I am. And if this was cruel, the anti death penalty advocates are to blame. They are the ones who first insisted on lethal injection and then made it impossible for the state to obtain the drugs to do it correctly.

Whatever pain this guy suffered is entirely at the feet of the activists who made the proper drugs impossible to get.

[paranoid android]

I am. And if this was cruel, the anti death penalty advocates are to blame. They are the ones who first insisted on lethal injection and then made it impossible for the state to obtain the drugs to do it correctly.

Whatever pain this guy suffered is entirely at the feet of the activists who made the proper drugs impossible to get.

I'm pretty sure the anti-death penalty advocates want the State to stop killing people *period*, so I don't think that's necessarily fair. I will admit I am no expert on the subject but a brief reading of Wikipedia and some other articles suggests that lethal injection was originally advocated by people who were quite fine with capital punishment as a moral matter but wanted a cheaper/more expedient method.

[Irish]

"I am. And if this was cruel, the anti death penalty advocates are to blame. They are the ones who first insisted on lethal injection and then made it impossible for the state to obtain the drugs to do it correctly."

John, do you ever argue in good faith? I'm against the death penalty because I think it should be abolished. My desire to see the death penalty abolished does not make me at fault when the state botches executions.

[John]

Do you never consider a point you have no response to to be anything but "bad faith". Do you understand that "I don't like that" doesn't mean bad faith?

You are against the death penalty. Okay. But getting rid of the drugs didn't end that. The anti death penalty people made the drugs impossible to get for the specific purpose of making a humane execution in impossible and thus bolstering their argument against the death penalty. They are to blame for this. If it is going to happen, why stop it from happening humanly just to score political points?

Can we have an argument Irish or do you just blame to scream bad faith about this point once again? Am I to consider the charge of bad faith to be you just admitting you are wrong? That is what it looks like to me.

[paranoid android]

But getting rid of the drugs didn't end that. The anti death penalty people made the drugs impossible to get for the specific purpose of making a humane execution in impossible and thus bolstering their argument against the death penalty. They are to blame for this. If it is going to happen, why stop it from happening humanly just to score political points?

By "made the drugs impossible to get" do you mean that they peacefully persuaded the manufacturers of the drugs to stop assisting governments in killing people? Because that is what happened. How can you lay this at the feet of the anti-death penalty activists when the drug companies had every option to continue doing business with the prisons if they so chose?

[John]

By "made the drugs impossible to get" do you mean that they peacefully persuaded the manufacturers of the drugs to stop assisting governments in killing people

Or politically pressured them. Regardless, the only reason the drugs are not available is due to the efforts of those activists, whatever you want to call it.

What did those efforts accomplish beyond making executions less humane? And how are they not responsible for the obvious and foreseeable effects of their efforts?

[paranoid android]

Or politically pressured them. Regardless, the only reason the drugs are not available is due to the efforts of those activists, whatever you want to call it.

Wrong. The reason those drugs are not available is because the companies that make them elected to stop selling them to prisons. I would think, under the pretzel-logic you are subjecting this issue to, the blame would lie with them.

What did those efforts accomplish beyond making executions less humane? And how are they not responsible for the obvious and foreseeable effects of their efforts?

Well, for one thing, it seems to be calling more attention to the inherent barbarity of the death penalty and causing more people to question whether this is something they should be doing in the first place. But a more relevant question is, if you're admitting that the "humane" option is no longer available to the prisons, and that thanks to these activists the only remaining options are inhumane ones, why isn't this situation the fault of the prisons and state governments that chose not to put a halt to executions entirely when they were deprived of a humane means of carrying them out?

[John]

Yes they want it stopped. And their idea to stop it was to make it so it could never be done humanely. They failed in that and now thanks to their efforts, we now have it with pain and suffering as a bonus.

They used a horribly cynical ploy and this guy suffered for it.

[PapayaSF]

John is correct. It's a standard strategy for reformers: make something they don't like difficult and expensive, and then claim it should be abolished because it's difficult and expensive. See: nuclear power, nuclear waste disposal, the death penalty, etc.

[Stormy Dragon]

So if I refuse to assist the state, and rather than just accepting that they decide to do something unconstitutional, that's actually MY fault because I have some obligation to go along with them?

[Irish]

I think it's funny that John is basically blaming the kulaks and wreckers for making the US government kill people painfully.

[John]

They knew the death penalty was not going away. So their plan was to make the drugs to do it humanly impossible to obtain so they could argue it was cruel and unusual. How is that not a bad faith strategy? And how are they not the ones to blame when the state called their bluff and did it anyway?

They failed in stopping the death penalty and only succeeded and making it worse.

Come on Stormy, you are a bit more serious and brighter than Irish, though more to the left. Surely you can see my point here.

[Irish]

"Come on Stormy, you are a bit more serious and brighter than Irish, though more to the left. Surely you can see my point here."

And there's the patented John move! Someone points out the absurdity of his logic and he takes recourse in calling them stupid.

I notice that I'm never stupid the 85% of the time you agree with me, just when I point out how ridiculous you're behaving.

[John]

Ho is it absurd Irish? What have you done other than scream bad faith? The anti-death penalty people are the ones that made these drugs impossible to get. Since the execution was going to happen anyway, how are they not responsible for the suffering?

You are the one who screamed bad faith not me. There is nothing stopping you from making an argument here other than your own intellectual limitations. If you don't want me to insult you, don't insult me.

[Calidissident]

You're arguing in bad faith because you're doing mental gymnastics to shift the blame away from the people who decide to sentence and carry out the death penalty and onto the people who oppose it. "Damn it anti-death penalty people, why do you make me kill people inhumanely!"

[John]

The state of oklahoma is respnisble for his death. They are not respnisinle for the way he died sonce if it had been up to them he wouldnt have suffered. He only suffered rather then just died because the anti death penalty people wanted him to so they could argue their case. He suffered so they could score political points.

Thatbis not bad faith that is the truth You just dont likebit and scream bad faith because you are not honest enough to admit someone on your side did a bad thing. Your lack of intellectual honesty is not bad faith on my part. I am just pointing out facts you dont want to hear.

[paranoid android]

The state of oklahoma is respnisble for his death. They are not respnisinle for the way he died sonce if it had been up to them he wouldnt have suffered.

As I stated above, that is simply not true. If they (they being the responsible officials of the state of Oklahoma) did not want him to suffer, they had an option for accomplishing that: not executing him.

[RG]

In principle, I'm against the death penalty. But in cases like this, I can't muster the empathy and ask myself if I could convict the father if he happened to catch the guy and do the same thing.

[Calidissident]

It should not be the state's job to dish out revenge. I don't feel sorry for the guy, but if you take the approach of "torture or the death penalty are bad, but I don't really care as long as it only is done to bad people" then your nominal opposition doesn't mean much.

[John]

It should not be the state's job to dish out revenge

What do you think locking the guy in a cage for his entire life is except revenge? Life without parole is nothing but revenge. What is the point of keeping someone in prison who is no longer dangerous? It won't bring their victims back.

If you don't like revenge, you need to argue for anarchy not just against the death penalty.

[The Laconic]

What do you think locking the guy in a cage for his entire life is except revenge?

Erring on the side of conservatism?

I get your point. And if you knew for sure that they were no longer dangerous, I'd say it's revenge at that point (and I would oppose it).

But I think it would be awfully hard to be sure that a person is no longer dangerous, if that person has been convicted of a crime that is heinous enough to warrant that kind of sentence in the first place.

Put another way, a person that has been convicted of that sort of crime doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

[Seamus]

I get your point. And if you knew for sure that they were no longer dangerous, I'd say it's revenge at that point (and I would oppose it).

But I think it would be awfully hard to be sure that a person is no longer dangerous, if that person has been convicted of a crime that is heinous enough to warrant that kind of sentence in the first place.

I'm pretty confident that 90-year-old former concentration camp guards are very unlikely ever to commit genocide again. In fact, I'd feel pretty safe offering to be imprisoned in their place if they ever *should* commit genocide.

[RG]

I really don't get the mental gymnastics around "cruel punishment" somehow excluding life in prison with no chance of parole.

[Calidissident]

The purpose of prison imo is to protect the public by separating those who violate rights. Deterrence through this punishment is a secondary benefit, but not its primary purpose. Life in prison is reversible if evidence comes to light that the person is innocent. Yea, they can't get those years back, but they can at least live the rest of their life free. Death is obviously permanent. I can't understand how people who supposedly think the government is inherently dangerous and incompetent can actually trust them with this unnecessary power.

[John]

If the purpose is to protect the public, nothing does that better than kiling him. More importantly, without that threat there is no way to deter someone in prison for life other than makong their living conditions more harsh. Thanks to largely ending the death penalty, we now have super max prisons. I dont see how that is not more inhumane than executions.

[Calidissident]

"If the purpose is to protect the public, nothing does that better than kiling him."

Marginally better than life in prison, and at the cost of executing innocent life (it is inevitable that an institution as flawed as the state will convict innocent people and kill them if given the power) and gives the government a very dangerous power. Somehow almost every other first world country manages to get by without the death penalty. Again, how does someone like you, who is well-aware of how corrupt, incompetent, dangerous, and even downright evil the state can be feel comfortable giving them this power? How is it worth it?

[Calidissident]

*Grammar got a bit messed up at the end, but I'm sure you get what I was trying to say.

[Michael Ejercito]

Last time I checked, courts impose the death penalty.

You have no faith in the American judiciary?

[FUQ]

And this thread is where I quit giving John the benefit of the doubt anymore.

[John Galt]

Seems like just following the last election I read somewhere about the new Republican congress was planning to reign in the out of control federal asset forfeiture monster when they took control this year. If so, looks like ole Holder performed a slick little dance number creating the illusion of himself being the good guy which couldn't be further from the truth.

[Winston]

Triangulation is what they call it.

[John]

And it is not like he hasn't had six years to do this. At this point anything good that fuck weasel does is nothing but a giant fuck you to the country. If it is the right thing to do now, why wasn't it for the six years before?

[John]

Though as much as I hate Holder, he is not the worst person in that story. Get this.

Critics of the decision say that depriving departments of the proceeds from civil asset forfeitures will hurt legitimate efforts to fight crime, drug smuggling and terrorism.

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said, "There is some grave concern about the possible loss of significant funding while local police and state police are being asked to do more and more each year."

The police response is "hey we need that money". They don't even try to defend it or pretend its fair. They just need that money.

[Jerryskids]

I linked to this once before:

Law enforcement executives must evaluate their agencies' financial situation to determine the necessity of developing new revenue streams.

"Developing new revenue streams". You think they're talking about holding a bake sale?

[Brett L]

Eh. Let's not fight about which statist is running fastest to get to the head of the angry mob coming after asset forfeiture. We'll simply hang the stupid and slow ones from the lamp posts and hope to surprise the rest next time.

[Winston]

What's the libertarian position of Separation of Church and State? Wasn't the term coined by a slave owner?

[Emmerson Biggins]

I'm confused, what does this have to do with Ron Paul or Lew Rockwell?

[Winston]

It's Bo-bait.

[Libertarian]

OOH! I can answer this one.

Libertarians want the State to be separate from EVERYTHING.

[HeteroPatriarch]

The libertarian position is that the less government there is, the less likely this is to be an issue.

[Derpetologist]

When archaeology meets fantasy:

http://youtu.be/z-nLz-2OHbI?t=18m38s

[Irish]

So the Nation has a section of their website called 'Student Nation' which is dedicated to students talking about how fucking progressive they are.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/.....roundswell

It's amazing.

"In November, 250 people joined the Young Gifted and Black Coalition, a group of women and queer black organizers in Madison, to launch the Build the People, Not the Jail campaign. Since then, we have died-in, shut down traffic and submitted letters to police, city and county elected officials. We demand a stop to any money going to a new Dane County jail, the release of people incarcerated due to crimes rooted in poverty, an end to solitary confinement and investment in the black community."

Let's not spend any money on a new jail. That way, existing jails can age and become progressively more dangerous, while also being overcrowded.

Brilliant.

[Irish]

"On Thursday, January 15, members of the AFL-CIO Young Worker Advisory Council released our first-ever economic platform as part of our effort to build a nationwide youth movement for raising wages. The platform, announced on the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address, is an agenda for action for the labor federation's nearly fifty Young Worker Groups across the country. Despite widespread frustration with a tough economy, most young voters stayed home on Election Day. To win our support, politicians need a jobs agenda focused on youth issues. The Youth Economic Platform embraces seven principles: providing free quality public higher education for all; expanding union apprenticeship programs; fighting bigotry and ending workplace discrimination; strong union rights; strengthening?not slashing?our safety net; and, above all, asking our government to invest in us."

Indeed.

[Stormy Dragon]

expanding union apprenticeship programs; fighting bigotry and ending workplace discrimination

Go look up exactly why most of the trade union apprenticeship programs originally started.

[Derpetologist]

Anita Sarkeesian: Origins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIpw3wHn9Sk

[The Late P Brooks]

I'm against the death penalty because I think it should be abolished. My desire to see the death penalty abolished does not make me at fault when the state botches executions.

If you express any revulsion over the manner of that guy's death, you obviously want him to have been set free.

WHY DO YOU WANT TO CODDLE THE BABY RAPERS?

[John]

There is that. Then of course there is the point that if you are responsible for the drugs being unavialble that caused his death to be so bad, maybe the fact that you made those drugs unavailable in hopes of ending the death penalty doesn't get you off the hook for the suffering?

Come on Brooks. I keep thinking you are capable of having a rational thought and being something besides a useless prick. Stop disappointing me. You can do it. I know you can.

[Zeb]

And that would be the fault of the people who put pressure on drug companies not to provide execution drugs. But being against the death penalty doesn't necessarily involve that. I oppose the death penalty, but I think pressuring drug companies is a stupid way to try to make it go away. There are plenty of time-tested ways to execute people. I'd rather they just shoot people anyway, if they simply must execute them.

[Stormy Dragon]

Remembering the Great Idaho Beaver Airlift of 1948:

Parachuting Beavers Into Idaho's Wilderness? Yes, It Really Happened

[HeteroPatriarch]

Well, it was kind of a sausage fest before that.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I laughed.

[C. Anacreon]

With God as my witness, I thought beavers could fly.

[The Late P Brooks]

To win our support, politicians need a jobs agenda focused on youth issues. The Youth Economic Platform embraces seven principles: providing free quality public higher education for all; expanding union apprenticeship programs; fighting bigotry and ending workplace discrimination; strong union rights; strengthening?not slashing?our safety net; and, above all, asking our government to invest in us."

Fucking marginal return- how does it work?

[HeteroPatriarch]

and, above all, asking our government to invest in us

And more meaningless prattle!

[Warty]

Newtown school panel to include proposed gun ban in report

I am Jack's tremendous amount of surprise.

[The Late P Brooks]

maybe the fact that you made those drugs unavailable in hopes of ending the death penalty doesn't get you off the hook for the suffering?

Sure I did.

[Ken Shultz]

"Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant."

I'd just like to throw in the possibility that "the drugs felt like acid" but that "it felt like his body was on fire"--because his soul was starting to burn in hell.

[Trigger Warning]

What is it with Turkey and pretending stuff didn't happen?

Centuries of bidirectional penetration followed by rapid, disgusted withdrawal?

[Ken Shultz]

"What is it with Turkey and pretending stuff didn't happen?"

I think it's centuries of being a caliphate spanning from Asia to West Africa, and then having their territory divided up among their enemies after World War II.

It's hard for an empire to come to terms with ruin.

[Trigger Warning]

It's hard for an empire to come to terms with ruin.

It usually happens after the "ruined" part.

[Winston]

having their territory divided up among their enemies after World War II.

Do Sykes and Picot have to choke a bithc?

[Ken Shultz]

"...then having their territory divided up among their enemies after World War II."

Meant World War I.

You know what I meant!

[Gleep Glop]

I'm curious as to what people think about the "cruel and unusual" punishment argument as it applies to regular prison confinement. Prison rape, which could conceivably occur throughout a prisoner's incarceration, would seem to me to be especially "cruel and unusual", and at least as cruel as what the prisoner mentioned in this edition of P.M. links experienced.

Does anyone know if there is case law on this issue? Has there been any legal precedent regarding this?

Maybe the "cruel and unusual" punishment argument could be applied to over-zealous e.g. school officials?

[paranoid android]

I think I could be persuaded that current prevailing conditions in our prisons approach or exceed the threshold of cruel and unusual punishment. It would obviously be lunacy to shut down all the prisons or something equally quixotic to correct that, but I consider the criminal justice system to be a pretty good candidate for the U.S.'s greatest national shame and certainly a black mark on our record of respect for human rights.

[Michael Ejercito]

the problem is, all other criminal justice systems in the world are worse.

[cavalier973]

A question for neo-liberal conservatives.

How will people survive when machines do all our work for us?

[Stormy Dragon]

Quite comfortably, I imagine.

[Stormy Dragon]

We may yet live to see that brief utopia where the machines are smart enough to do all the work for us, yet not smart enough to kill us all for enslaving them.

[cavalier973]

The questioner's response to my response to his Youtube video:

tetsubo5714 minutes ago

Like many folks you seem to think e next technical wave will be like all the previous ones. It won't. There will be a replacement of humanity, not a shifting of them into a new sector. They will be superfluous. What will we do with them?

[Cytotoxic]

I'll have to post this again some other time, but the Swiss Franc un-pegging is causing a shit storm out there. Brokerages are going bust all over the place.

[cavalier973]

So, does one buy or sell?

I lost $2,000 in one week in FOREX, because the currencies did the opposite of what I thought they should have every single time I made a trade.

[R C Dean]

Neither. Stay the fuck out of FOREX, unless you are trying to decide whether to go to Vegas with that money or blow it on a different kind of gambling.

FOREX markets are so massively rigged and manipulated, they're probably the crookedest game in town.

[Seamus]

Before dying, the inmate executed by Oklahoma yesterday reportedly said that it felt like his body was on fire and the drugs felt like acid when he was injected. The man, Charles Warner, was convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-month-old infant.

I'm sure we have no reason to distrust the veracity of the kind of person who would rape and murder an 11-month-old.

[cavalier973]

I wonder how the 11-month-old infant felt?

[jackieeberry]

my roomate's aunt makes $83 an hour on the computer . She has been out of a job for 7 months but last month her check was $20229 just working on the computer for a few hours. read more..........
????? http://www.netpay20.com