A.M. Links: Obama Approvals Up Ahead of SOTU, Deflated Balls Alleged in New England Patriots Win, UFO Caught on NASA Livestream

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  President Obama's approval ratings are on their way up, along with optimism about the economy, ahead of tonight's State of the Union.

• U.S. authorities reportedly knew North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony because the National Security Agency had hacked North Korea.
• Six members of Hezbollah active in Syria were killed in actions attributed to Israeli forces.
• Super Bowl XLIX will feature the returning champions Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots, which the National Football League is investigating for allegedly using deflated balls in this weekend's win.
• Clint Eastwood's American Sniper hit $90.2 million in box office receipts this weekend, a record for the Martin Luther King holiday.
• A UFO hunter says NASA shut down a live feed from the International Space Station after an unidentified object appeared on screen. The entrepreneur Elon Musk, meanwhile, wants to spend $10 billion to build an Internet in outer space.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Obama's approval ratings are on their way up, along with optimism about the economy, ahead of tonight's State of the Union.

Ad space should be at a premium for the speech, then.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Are we done MLKing holidays?

[Ted S.]

Wait until they try to make Pierre Trudeau's birthday a holiday.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Or worse...TOMMY DOUGLAS - Father of universal health care!

[Gene]

Too close to our thanksgiving.

[Slammer]

Seahawks: We Shall Overcome

[F. Stupidity, Jr.]

I realize that my self-identifying as libertarian means that I'm an uber-privileged white guy unqualified to comment on such matters, but I don't see what's wrong with that tweet.

What, you can only take inspiration from MLK if civil rights is the issue? Bullshit.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

19) I feel for this Maryland couple that's being investigated by CPS after letting their 10- and 6-year olds walk to the park alone. But notice, they were turned in by some nosy neighbor who called it in to the police. I just don't understand why people find it so hard to mind their own business. A couple years ago I was walking home from a nearby park with my son (then almost 8). It's about three blocks from our house and there are two streets you can take to get back. He wanted to race me by taking one street, and I'd go the other way. I agreed, fully expecting him to be at the house when I arrived, but when I got there he didn't show up for several minutes. I asked him what took so long and he said a lady in a mini-van had stopped and asked him where his parent was and what he was doing away from home. I could hardly believe it--he was out of my sight for no more than five minutes and somebody thinks it's a problem! Does this lady cruise around in her minivan looking for kids to pester or what? I mean, thanks for looking out for my kid, I guess. But mostly, Jesus, my son wasn't wandering around crying or anything, why do you feel the need to put your fuckin' nose in our business?

[Matrix]

You let your 7 year old out of your sight for a couple of minutes? What kind of monster are you?

[DontShootMe]

No, teach your kid to run from people like this screaming "Help, she's trying to kidnap me, No lady, I won't get in your van for candy!"

[Old Man With Candy]

This gives me a sad feeling.

[Gadianton]

+1 Stranger Danger

[Ted S.]

But notice, they were turned in by some nosy neighbor who called it in to the police.

If I were the couple, I'd use the 6A right to find out which nosy neighbor did it and publicize that neighbor.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When I was at the Patriots practice a couple of years ago my daughter was acting like a complete pill. Finally, my wife told me to take her aside and discipline her.

So I grabbed her by the arm (yes, she was being that defiant) and I plumped her under a chair and quietly scolded her waiting for her to calm down.

As I was doing so, I could see an older couple looking - nay staring at me with disapproving glares. I swear, they're lucky my kid calmed down because I was gonna walk right over to them to tell them off and to mind their own fucking, nosy business.

As if they have any right to interfere.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

make that under a tree in the shade because it was very hot. Not chair. Ugh.

[Rich]

Right, Rufus. Whatever you say. 😉

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha. If I had done that, I'm sure more than just a couple would have been staring. Probably Belichick too!

[Robert]

You were sitting in the audience. You were staring at them staring at you. Seems they could have the same complaint about you as you about them. You's in other people's view, yous takes yous chances.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Huh? They were clearly looking to interfere. My reaction was to merely keep an eye on them lest they do something that didn't concerned them. No staring on my part.

What chance am I taking in getting a child under control properly?

[Robert]

They were clearly looking to interfere.

You know that how?

What chance am I taking in getting a child under control properly?

The chance of being looked at.

[Robert]

Set in the context here, looks like a nasty busybody. However, shorn of the critical context here, it's just someone trying to help. What you're labeling "pester" could just as easily be seen as "be nice to". Sometimes people go overboard, but I can't conclude just on the basis of what you wrote here that this was one of those cases.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ah.

Now your response makes sense to me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...which the National Football League is investigating for allegedly using deflated balls in this weekend's win.

They're trying to get some of Belichick's personal camera footage of the game to investigate.

[Brian D]

It's a good thing the refs took that ball out of play at the start of the second half when the game was pretty close like that, or New England could have outscored the Colts by like 28-0 or something!

[Lord Humungus]

The Sun covers them up, ending Page 3 topless tradition

Britain's best-selling newspaper The Sun has quietly dropped photos of topless women from page 3, ending a controversial tradition that has lasted decades in a move hailed by feminist campaigners.

The Times, which like The Sun is owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News UK, reported on Tuesday that last Friday's edition of the tabloid would be the last to feature a topless model after 44 years.

"The Sun will no longer feature topless models on page 3," The Times said, adding that the change had been on the cards since billionaire Murdoch last year described the custom as "old fashioned".

[Drax the Destroyer]

End of an era folks.

[Libertarian]

Will be interesting to see what happens to their sales numbers.

[Ted S.]

"Our bodies, our choices -- unless you make a choice we don't like."

[Zeb]

"Our newspapers, our choices"?

[Steve G]

a move hailed by feminist campaigners

Wait, are these the same campaigners who are protesting instagram w/ naked topless shots?
/confused

[Elspeth Flashman]

You still haven't learned that it's OK when the ladies do it. That's empowering. But when it's done for other purposes - that's not empowering.

[Injun, as in from India]

a move hailed by feminist campaigners

...and by the Muslim Council of Britain.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Does make you wonder...

[DEG]

Will readers of The Sun continue to not care who runs the country as long as she has big tits?

[Anomalous]

Ta-ta to the ta-tas!

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

A.M. Links: Obama Approvals Up Ahead of SOTU, NSA Reportedly, Deflated Balls Alleged in New England Patriots Win, UFO Caught on NASA Livestream

The NSA was deflating footballs too?

[gaijin]

Ahead of SOTU

Everytime I see SOTU, I read it as STFU

[kinnath]

ditto

[Doctor Whom]

When what it really means is FYTW.

[Bee Tagger]

President Obama's approval ratings are on their way up, along with optimism about the economy, ahead of tonight's State of the Union..

The latter should take care of the former.

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. authorities reportedly knew North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony because the National Security Agency had hacked North Korea.

I wonder if they got any juicy emails between Kim and his publicist.

[Lord Humungus]

no shit...

Working long hours makes people drink more, according to a new study

The study looked at data from over 330,000 people in 14 different countries. It found people who work more than the average work week were 11 percent more likely to engage in heavy drinking. Heavy drinking is considered 14 drinks or more per week for women and 21 drinks or more per week for men.

Considering the study analyzed people from 14 countries, 11 percent translates to 2 million people drinking heavily because of their jobs, Cassandra Okechukwu of the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in an editorial for the study.

[Drax the Destroyer]

Between the nagging wife, moronic boss, and ungrateful children, Bim Jeam is the only thing that takes the edge off.

[Lord Humungus]

The Warty Happy Fun Hour?

Do Dancing Genitalia Belong on a Children's TV Show?

The cartoon starts with a smiley-faced penis, tap-dancing its way to the front of the screen. Soon he's joined by friends?one has a top hat, one has a moustache, pants float by in the background. Then vaginas bop their way across, all big eyes, eyelashes, and in one case, a cane and glasses?because old ladies have vaginas, too.

This is a song aimed at three- to six-year-old children in Sweden, on a show intended to teach children about the body.

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

"Warty Takes Stockholm"?

[Libertarian]

"Debbie does phallus"

[Ted S.]

It's been done, badly. (That was Bob Hope in his even more unhip than normal stage, trying to be funny and hip. It's a disaster.)

[Zeb]

Weird.

I'm all for being open with kids about anatomy, but I don't know if a singing erection is the best way.

[R C Dean]

Probably not.

But "The Singing Erections" would be an awesome band name.

[Marshall Gill]

There is a children's show already that features sex toys. They don't call them that of course but one of the characters looks like a ribbed dildo with arms and another one is shaped just like a butt plug.

[Marshall Gill]

Yo Gaba Gaba is the name of the show.

[Lord Humungus]

butt plug

So Shriek managed to escape his mom's basement and get a paying job?

[Fist of Etiquette]

The entrepreneur Elon Musk, meanwhile, wants to spend $10 billion to build an Internet in outer space.

Let the first thing the aliens see when they come to our solar system is our space selfies. (If they can get the space router password.)

[Lord Humungus]

The Fox News Obsession
It's an exercise in confirmation bias on the Left.

But the study is clearly not simply designed to discover whether certain Americans believe things that are not true, and that such beliefs correlate with partisan affiliation, ideology, media preferences, etc. That's the sort of thing you can do all day: Democrats, for example, are about twice as likely as Republicans to believe in astrology, and are significantly more likely than Republicans to believe in a great deal of other superstitious nonsense, such as ghosts and fortunetellers. It is no surprise that the signature piece of legislation produced by the united Democratic triumvirate of Obama-Pelosi-Reid produced a health-care program that will pour subsidies into such discredited claptrap as chiropractic, homeopathy, and acupuncture.

[Matrix]

My Cambridge educated girlfriend believes in ghosts, fortune tellers, astrology, and other superstitious nonsense.

-_-

[Libertarian]

I would say that Cambridge failed.

[John]

I always find it remarkable how many people who claim to be "rational atheists" will at the same time believe in all sorts of new age spiritual nonsense. The same people who are utterly convinced that organized religion is completely irrational and evil will in the very next breath talk about the value of crystals, fortune tellers, tarot cards and such.

[Zeb]

I don't think those people call themselves "atheists". It's more "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual".

My wife has some thing about astrology and crystals and that sort of thing. Occasionally I ask her why she doesn't just join a church or something if she wants something to believe in like that.

As an atheist myself, I don't see any real significant difference between believing in astrology or ghosts and believing that God sent his only son to die for our sins. But more traditional religion seems to provide some value in the community it creates and (in more reasonable sects anyway) the stability of belief unlike half-assed new agey stuff does.

[Lord Humungus]

Way back in the mists of time I lived in Boulder, CO. There was a crystal shop located on Pearl St. The outside was crowded with yuppies, their hands held out to receive the crystal power emanating from the shop window. It was a mob that I often had to push my way through if I wanted to get to the Middle Eastern restaurant down the way.

[Zeb]

My favorite is all the people who talk about "energy" from crystals or life or the earth or whatever. Whenever I ask them to elaborate, it quickly becomes quite clear that they don't even know what energy means.

Yes, your body does release energy when you die. It's called heat.

[Robert]

They just may not have a suitable specific word for it. Besides, how does the physics meaning of "energy" become the only valid one? We have lots of words that could just as well be derived from the same roots, which AFAICT mean "in", "containing", or "property" ("en-"); "act" ("erg"); and "property" or condition ("-y").

I've heard some people complain when "organic" is used in its broader meaning as confusing when it could refer to its narrower, derived meaning in chemistry. They're either ignorant or being jerks. People similarly lay claim to "libertarian" & try to deny earlier meanings.

[Zeb]

They just may not have a suitable specific word for it.

They should at least have a suitable specific description of it. I'm a materialist. Tell me how I could observe or measure a thing or you won't convince me that it is real.

The think about a lot of people who talk about "energy" like that is that they seem to use scientific sounding words so that it sounds like they are actually referring to something specific.

[Robert]

Tell me how I could observe or measure a thing or you won't convince me that it is real.

Presumably by some effect it has. Ask them what that is.

[R C Dean]

Tell me how I could observe or measure a thing or you won't convince me that it is real.

Be careful, or you will fall into pure materialism/positivism, which is a bleak and dark place, where no one has any kind of internal life.

[Mickey Rat]

Surely you have heard of midichlorian levels?

[John]

There is a huge difference Zeb; believing in a God does not mean that you believe that God tells you what is going to happen in the future. Believing in tarot cards does.

If you honestly think there is no difference, you really don't know very much beyond your own prejudices. You guys wonder why I am so hard on the atheists on here and bust your balls so much. It is because you say shit like this. I don't think you actually believe that. I think you just are so insulated in your own prejudices you allow your thinking and language to get really sloppy.

[Zeb]

Yeah, there is no prophecy involved in Christianity.

believing in a God does not mean that you believe that God tells you what is going to happen in the future

For you, perhaps. You don't speak for everyone. Obviously if you are religious you think that your religion is superior. It would be pretty ridiculous not to.

So drop the astrology part. Believing in ghosts or that crystals do whatever the fuck it is that they are supposed to do isn't so far from any other kind of religious belief.

And could you please consider what people are saying and your own prejudices before you fly off the handle. I know a fair amount about Christianity. And I just fucking defended it over silly superstitions. My point is that to a non-believer, there is not a real difference in kind between belief in Jesus and belief in crystal juju. As a believer, you obviously have some reason to believe what you believe over anything else. To me it seems just as implausible that literally conceived a son as the notion that the positions of planets when you were born say something about one's life.

[Zeb]

That God literally conceived a son. That last sentence is kind of a mess. You can figure it out.

[John]

Zeb,

Christianity considers the life of Christ to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophesies and thus other than the end of the world in Revelations, there will be no more. And that is not the same as telling me when I am going to meet my wife or if that bet of the Super Bowl is going to come through.

So drop the astrology part. Believing in ghosts or that crystals do whatever the fuck it is that they are supposed to do isn't so far from any other kind of religious belief.

Other than the thousands of years of philosophy and belief system and moral system that goes with religions, sure. No difference at all. Again, if you knew as much as you claim to, you wouldn't believe that.

[Zeb]

I never said "no difference at all". I even said I think that some traditional religions are better than trendy, new age superstition. It looks like I wasn't very explicit about why, but it is for pretty much the reason you state. The long ages of philosophical and theological debate give a lot more substance to a system of belief than random superstitions and fetishes have. And I see some value to that. I think that a lot of Christianity and other religions do help some people behave more morally and have a consistent world view.

But, the main point is that to a non-believer, they are still all things that I don't see any reason to believe are actually true. But you will find that I am interested in discussing religion with people, but if you try to seriously discuss astrology with me, I will laugh in your face.

[Robert]

Where did you think astrology comes from? Long periods of observ'n of phenomena that appear cyclic. People looked for something objectively observable that could relate to such cycles, and found some markers in the sky. It doesn't establish a causal relationship, and where some cyclic pattern is occurring, it must be due to some other recurrent cause, but until such cause is known, some people relate them to sky markings.

[Robert]

believing in a God does not mean that you believe that God tells you what is going to happen in the future. Believing in tarot cards does.

Not necessarily. In fact most practitioners of divination of any kind recognize the tools they use only as direct or indirect indicators of the past or present, which may have some value in projecting the future. That's what all forecasting of any kind is.

[Robert]

Did it occur to you that your wife doesn't want something to believe in like that, but a particular thing, namely exactly that? Besides, belief is involuntary. If it were a choice, it wouldn't be real.

[Zeb]

I'm not so sure belief is involuntary. No, you can't just up and decide that you are going to believe A or B, but you do have some control. People examine and reassess their beliefs all the time.
When I suggest that someone wants something to believe in, I mean that there is some part of people that wants to find order where there really isn't any.

[Robert]

You mean they want to find order. Presumably it's not known whether there is or isn't any in any given case, or what type of order it is if there is. If they already knew there was no order, they wouldn't be looking for it.

[Mike Laursen]

I can't think of any rational atheists I've known who fit that description.

[Matrix]

She's not an atheist. We're both Jewish. But she believes in a lot of un-Jewish things and is convinced of reincarnation and such.

[Robert]

What's remarkable about believing some things & not others? We all do it. It's just that you're bundling certain ideas as go-togethers and then are vexed that some people don't bundle them, and go along with part of what you've bundled but not another part.

Would you criticize someone for believing in some gods but not others, or some accounts of God & not others? Like, how can you follow Christ and not also Mohammed, huh? If you're a Jew, how can you not be for Jesus? Or, how can you believe in mental telepathy but not in astrology, when they're both "new age spiritual nonsense"?

[JEP]

This is a good point, actually. A few weeks ago Christians were getting a bad rap because they were "hypocrites" for only taking bits and pieces from the Bible and throwing away the rest.

But they're doing exactly what every atheist is doing. They're finding ideas that they think are true. Atheists don't seem to really have an equivalent of the Bible. Just because you don't agree with Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins about a specific point doesn't make you a hypocrite.

Religion/ideology isn't a cable package where you have to buy 240 channels to get the 3 channels you actually want to watch.

[Robert]

According to South Park, judging by the example of Richard Dawkins, to be an atheist you not only have to not believe in gods, but also have to be an asshole.

[Officer Jim Lahey]

In all fairness,in real life,to be like Richard Dawkins, you do, anyway.

[Robert]

Heh...I've got this argument with Bob Blumetti. He asked which of two people we know would be better to play Thor on stage or film, and I picked one of them but said he'd be even better to play Perun. Bob got upset and, projecting, said heathens would be upset by mixing pantheons as that purportedly would be. I said I doubted there'd be any actual mixture going on there, as Thor & Perun are a single god according to the only slightly different accounts of different traditions, much less of a distinction than between either of them & Jupiter, which he wanted to reduce the argument to.

[Robert]

Because of historic accident, Icelandic accounts are the primary reference turned to today by northern European pagans, and because of its geographic isolation, it is likely that Iceland did preserve earlier forms than most of Europe. However, taking it as the only source is still bound to be somewhat distorting, and ignores the likelihood that some local alterations took place in the lore.

[gaijin]

It's an exercise in confirmation bias on the Left.

Each workout to include three sets each of Faux News, Sarah Palin, Koch brothers and racism followed by a cool down of income inequality.

[Irish]

I didn't believe that part about Obamacare funding homeopathy, but goddammit it's true.

"Section 2706 opens the door to anyone who provides what they claim is health care ? no matter how ridiculous the claim ? to file a lawsuit claiming discrimination if an insurance company won't pay for their services. You could start offering dried bird poop for arthritis, call it "avian nature therapy," and if an insurer won't pay for it, you can sue."

[Ted S.]

Homeopathy for the win!

[Robert]

If it works as a nosode, which would be more typical of homeopathy, it'd prevent pregnancy.

[Tonio]

...more likely than Republicans to believe in a great deal of other superstitious nonsense...

LOL. In my experience, Republicans are quite likely to believe in superstitious nonsense, except they get all pissy whey you classify their superstitions as such.

[Spoonman.]

twitter.com/boredelonmusk is usually good for a laugh.

[Bee Tagger]

which the National Football League is investigating for allegedly using deflated balls in this weekend's win.

More like the New England Don't Forget to SpayAndNeuteriots your Petriots, right?

[Zeb]

That ball thing seems weird. Teams provide their own balls? I would have thought the league would do that. And the refs don't check the balls to see if they are properly inflated or have been tampered with?

[CampingInYourPark]

Send in the TSA!

[Zeb]

I don't get it.

[Robert]

Before the game, the officials are supposed to pressure-check every ball provided.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So. The question is. Is it possible to follow logical rules and defend a faulty premise or issue? For example, this logic professor disputes George Will's argument on climate change and links to ThinkProgress for a 'thorough discussion'.

http://thenonsequitur.com/?p=4810

[Raven Nation]

I have an academic friend who, every election season, posts links on his FB page demonstrating why Republicans running for office are not qualified and/or are evil and/or stupid.

Every single one of his links is to the website of the Democrat running against said Republican. Apparently this qualifies as intellectual process.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The utter arrogance that comes with it (the blog) is comical.

[Cdr Lytton]

I think many professors fall into the trap of thinking that because they can lecture successfully small groups who are beholden to them for a grade, they can scale that up to many other aspects of their lives.

And by successfully, I mean the class doesn't dispute much no matter how badly formed the professor's arguments are.

[sarcasmic]

It is quite possible to make logical arguments based upon faulty premises. There's even a word for it. It's Tony's favorite thing in the world. A fallacy.

[Carl ?s the level]

That describes many informal fallacies, but that is expressly not what a formal fallacy is.

[Zeb]

Which logical rules?

There is more than one logic.

Outside of a few academic settings, I think that very few arguments involve very rigorous use of logical rules.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama trolls, talks trash with a purpose

"The reason he is being aggressive is that he knows he can generate a response," says a well-connected Republican strategist. "When he does an executive order, what he is trying to do is generate a response so that the entire conversation is about what he did ? so that he has defined the agenda."

Likewise, when Obama, facing a newly-empowered conservative Congress, uses his State of the Union speech to propose a tax plan the liberal columnist E.J. Dionne calls "genuinely redistributive," he is trying to dictate the terms of the debate with a powerful adversary. Of course Obama knows his plan is anathema to Republicans, but if they debate the president on his terms, he makes progress.

[John]

Obama knows his plan is anathema to Republicans, but if they debate the president on his terms, he makes progress

That is why the best course is to ignore him. The Democrats who hold the real power are the ones in Congress who are willing to override his veto. Just bypass the dumb bastard and strike a deal with enough Democrats to override his veto. There are enough Democrats up for re-election in 16 who would like to accomplish a few things and get a few things done and are tired of covering for his sorry ass to make a few deals. And if not, let him veto and make the Democrats live with their votes against popular proposals.

[Injun, as in from India]

if they debate the president on his terms, he makes progress.

In other words, if you stoop down to the level of a pig, the pig wins!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"President Obama's approval ratings are on their way up, along with optimism about the economy,"

Man he's gonna milk lower gas prices for all its worth.

[Mike M.]

Which is so fucking rich when you consider that oil has tanked in spite of his best efforts, and he wishes so badly that it was going in the exact opposite direction.

[gaijin]

oil has tanked

All those US Oil Workers about to be laid off should do wonders for economic optimism.

[CatoTheElder]

The impending bloodbath in oil patch real estate markets won't help either.

But neither phenomena will be noticed because they will occur in flyover country.

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

Maybe he can throw in a rah-rah for an increase in the gas tax! That will show those damn dirty 1%'ers!!!!!

[Drax the Destroyer]

And the amusing thing is that if he had his way, gas prices would probably be north of $5 a gallon, cigarettes would be illegal, all prostitutes would be paid NOT to work, and anybody with savings would be dragged through the streets as Michelle and her "health"-nut goon squad buries the saver in heaps of bitter bitter rotting "organic" kale.

[Slammer]

Boston Mayor fires city worker after I-93 protests

Nelli Ruotsalainen, a part-time youth communication specialist for the Boston Centers for Youth and Families, was noncooperative and "pled the Fifth" at her City Hall hearing yesterday, after which a Labor Relations committee recommended she be terminated, according to city officials.

A press release they sent out claimed that while none are African-American, they were supporting Black Lives Matter, an activist group that has staged rallies in response to police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island, N.Y.

Ruotsalainen, a Finland native, could not be reached for comment yesterday. She pleaded not guilty in Quincy District Court to seven charges: trespassing, throwing glass on a public way, willfully obstructing an emergency vehicle, conspiracy, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and throwing an object on a public way.

"She was not terminated because she protested, because if you take a personal day you can do what you want on that day. She was terminated because of the risk of public safety. ... The way the events unfolded (Thursday) really bothered me," Walsh said.

Funniest part: White as the driven snow.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

...and cutish.

[John]

She would be very cute, if she didn't have that college Prog butt hurt look on her face.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Heh. Was thinking the same thing.

[Injun, as in from India]

willfully obstructing an emergency vehicle,

Ruotsalainen, a Finland native, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

If she was fighting in the Winter War, would she have laid down and blocked Soviet tanks, instead of actually fighting?

[Marshall Gill]

If she was fighting in the Winter War, would she have laid down and blocked Soviet tanks, instead of actually fighting?

Please do not compare the total bad asses who fought the Soviets to a standstill in the Winter War to this pathetic, entitled piece of shit.

[Juice]

It's a funny name because it's Finnish. But in Finnish, the name means Swedish.

[Lord Humungus]

Global Warming: The Most Dishonest Year on Record

She links to this graph which shows that observed temperatures are falling at or below the low end of the range predicted by the climate models. With every year that passes, the models predict a greater and greater increase in temperature?but the actual observations remain stubbornly flat. Curry concludes that "ranking 1998, 2005, 2010, and 2014 as the 'warmest years' seems very consistent with a plateau in surface temperatures since 1998."

So allow me to suggest a more accurate first sentence to sum up this story: "In the tiny little blip of geological time for which we have accurate surface temperature records, last year was pretty much the same as 2005 and 2010, continuing a plateau of global temperatures that has lasted nearly 20 years."

What remains of the original description of this news? Nothing but bluff, spin, and the uncritical press-release journalism that dominates mainstream reporting on the climate. It may or may not be the hottest year ever, but this is definitely in the running for the most dishonest year on record.

[WTF]

But he's not a scientist! There is CONSENSUS!! What are you going to believe, the holy consensus, or the lying facts?!
/'Tony'

[John]

I think it is pretty clear that if there is not a warming trend, one will have to be invented. I have no doubt these people will just fake the data if the real data doesn't tell them what they want.

[Steve G]

NSA reportedly,

Indeed!

[Lord Humungus]

ISIS execute 13 football fans by firing squad for watching Iraq play Jordan on TV in Islamist-controlled Mosul

ISIS militants have executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan last week.

The young football fans had been caught watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is controlled by the Islamic State.

The teenagers were rounded up and publicly executed by a firing squad using machine guns, anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reports.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not that we don't already know but still mind blowing stuff.

Recall the Hussein boys used to murder Olympic athletes who failed.

[Irish]

The Olympic athletes are just lucky the Brothers Hussein didn't take them to one of their patented rape dungeons.

That is a fucked up region of the world. What a hell hole.

[db]

Man, at least Uday only killed players.

[JEP]

"Please excuse him. He is acting like an Uday look-a-like..."

[Robert]

he declares the men are guilty of engaging in homosexual activities

I guess they think soccer is gay. Or TV is. Or both.

[Juice]

Well, soccer is pretty damned gay.

[Bee Tagger]

The entrepreneur Elon Musk, meanwhile, wants to spend $10 billion to build an Internet in outer space.

I simply can't imagine how much reason would write about aliens on this internet.

[Steve G]

Is that in the fiosphere?

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

*perks up*

/Shikha Dalmia

[Lord Humungus]

China's 2014 economic growth misses target, hits 24-year low

China's economy grew at its slowest pace in 24 years in 2014 as property prices cooled and companies and local governments struggled under heavy debt burdens, keeping pressure on Beijing to take aggressive steps to avoid a sharper downturn.

European and Asian shares in fact rose on relief that the news was not worse; the Shanghai Composite index gained 1.85 percent, Japan's Nikkei 225 index saw its biggest one-day gain in a month and European markets rallied.

[WTF]

And that's only what the Chicoms are actually admitting. Who knows how bad it really is.

[Drax the Destroyer]

It doesn't help when the cabal on top, per usual government stupidity, expropriates untold funds from the populace and builds giant yet empty modern cities none of the expropriated can afford to live in. Hilarious. Let's not mention the 50-100 million Chinese men who will have to gut their brothers just to have a chance to see/smell a vagina. Sometimes (all times?) massive sweeping mandates have horrific/hilarious consequences.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Not coming to a Tom Friedman column near you.

[Lord Humungus]

Court Sets Trial Date for Sea Lion Odor Lawsuit

Residents of the La Jolla Cove are and neighborhood business owners affected by the odor of sea lion feces filed a lawsuit last January against the city of San Diego, demanding that city officials find a solution to the smell. Norm Blumenthal, the attorney representing the La Jolla locals, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that a trial date for the lawsuit has been set for May 1.

The locals, who have issued several complaints about the stench of sea lion feces over the past few years, formed a nonprofit organization called Citizens for Odor Nuisance Abatement in late 2013. The following January, the group took legal action against the city of San Diego to urge city officials to look for a way to neutralize the odor. However, San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith is planning to file a motion to dismiss the suit this month.

[Rich]

So, endangered feces?

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL.

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

*narrows gaze*

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It was bad in the 90's, I got tired of getting seal shit up my nose every time I went surfing.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Hmmm...

Stop living next to sea lion shit?

[Marshall Gill]

I have an even better idea. Kill the fucking sea lions.

[Robert]

What about the sea lion carcass odor?

[Stilgar]

U.S. authorities reportedly knew North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony because the National Security Agency had hacked North Korea.

Yes, and as we learned from other NSA stories this weekend, they have no problems planting data to make an attack/cyber pilfering look as if it was done by another organization/company/person.

I would say at this point the NSA et al have less than zero credibility.

[db]

Link?

[Lord Humungus]

You know we're tired of you too...

I'm tired of suppressing myself to get along with white people

It was a warm evening in September, a couple of weeks after Michael Brown was shot, and somewhere in the mix I brought up Ferguson, hoping to spark a "conscious conversation." Then it happened. The nightmarish response.

"What's happening in Ferguson?" one of my white roommates asked. "I heard some kid got shot or something like that."

The words clamored in my ears. How could he not know? Weren't his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds flooded with opinions and hashtags? I'm sure he meant nothing by his statement. We're all ill-informed from time to time. But as I stood there, awkwardly not saying a word ? while hundreds of words ran through my head ? it was a reminder of how much I would have to suppress in order to get along with my white male roommates in our tiny four-bedroom apartment. This place I would call my home for a year.

[Steve G]

Yet another example where if you flipped the races, it'd be condemned as full-on racist.

[CatoTheElder]

Yeah, but as it stands it's merely retarded and mendacious.

[Ted S.]

"What's happening in Ferguson?" one of my white roommates asked. "I heard some kid got shot or something like that."

I call bullshit.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I smell someone trolling their flakey hurt-merchant room-mate.

[Rhywun]

Yep, this didn't happen. Oh, it's Salon. Of course it's a lie.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Comments:

motorcycle 41 minutes ago

the author is young and is hanging around a very limited crowd culturally, intellectually and creatively. she needs to broaden her horizons more.

2LikeReply
bigguns 22 minutes ago

@motorcycle She's doing that. Putting herself out to the Internet is a brave act. Have you ever broadened yourself to this degree and no, posting under a moniker isn't equivalent.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Brilliant stuff.

When is '1984' gonna be updated again?

[RBS]

Putting herself out to the Internet is a brave act.

Sigh...

[Marshall Gill]

Have you ever broadened yourself to this degree and no, posting under a moniker isn't equivalent.

Every time I post under my real name, I think to myself, that Felix Baumgardner, jumping from 120,000 feet is a pussy compared to me.

Too. Stupid. To. Live.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What's ironic is white people probably do the same around black people.

Everyone's lost their fucking minds.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

" I brought up Ferguson, hoping to spark a "conscious conversation."

Meaning lecture/rant

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Bingo

[WTF]

These non-indictments reiterated what I'm up against every single day: the unintentional ignorance of white people. But I was also aware of my willingness to put away my justified "black rage" in order to ensure that my interactions with white people remain comfortable. And the more I hid it, the more crazed I became.

Well, at least she's willing to admit she's crazy. It's the first step to getting help.

[RBS]

Weren't his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds flooded with opinions and hashtags?

Fuck these people. Not every asshole with a smartphone spends every waking minute on social media.

[John]

Then don't honey. I am pretty sure white people are not going to miss your company.

[Rhywun]

Holy fucking crap - how can anyone make it past the first paragraph? The self-absorbed arrogance... my god. If I had to live with her I'd toss myself off the roof if she ever called another rooftop "cross-cultural exchange".

[Juice]

Weren't his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feeds flooded with opinions and hashtags?

Yeah, asshole. Everyone has these things and is constantly watching them just like you, douche.

[Lord Humungus]

The "full-bush Brazilian": The hot new pubic hair trend has arrived

The "full-bush Brazilian" is a new term when it comes to pubic hair trends, and it's unique in the fact that, by definition, it's a complete oxymoron. Even groups of prepubescent, pimple-ridden boys can tell you about the "all bare" aesthetic Brazilian bikini waxes deliver, though it might be hard to get the details through all the giggles. But now that a new term has been added to the phrase, we've got to ask? what does that actually mean?

In sum, it means women now want their cake and to eat it too. The full-bush Brazilian involves removing all hair from the labia and butt crack while leaving the top untouched. It allows ladies to sport the "all natural" look while indulging in the grooming routines hard-core-hippies have long rejected. But that's the essence of "hipsterism," right? Looking the part without necessarily living the life?

[Steve G]

Meh, like growing a beard and continuing to shave your neck. It's almost expected.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Exactly. How is triming some hair and growing other hair having your cake and eating it too? We all do that.

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

STEVE SMITH NOT SHAVE OR TRIM ANY HAIR!!!!!

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

IF YOUR HAIR GET IN WAY, STEVE SMITH RAPE IT OFF!

[Enough About Palin]

They all want cake.

[Steve G]

Also, not a whole lot different than the latest 'trend' where men's chest hair is back in...but you know full well that back is still getting waxed.

[gaijin]

I don't quite understand...are there, um, pictures to illustrate this trend?

[db]

http://m.wikihow.com/Trim-Your-Pubic-Hair

[Anomalous]

Girl I wanna shave you down,
Get rid of all that muff you don't need.

[Matrix]

Gamer dies after 3-day gaming binge

BAN ALL THE GAMES!!!! /statist dipshit

[Medical Physics Guy]

Taiwan! I thought that only happened in Seoul.

[Rhywun]

Don't these gamers have computers in their mothers' basements like normal people?

[Slammer]

Iowa Hawk:

US military is just like Nazis because they both have snipers.

Also, @MMFlint (Michael Moore) is just like Leni Reifenstahl because the both use cameras.

[Lord Humungus]

This is a sniper:

H?yh? was credited with 505 confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers. A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was made for the Finnish snipers. All of H?yh?'s kills were accomplished in fewer than 100 days ? an average of just over five kills per day ? at a time of year with very few daylight hours.

H?yh? used a Finnish militia variant of the Russian-made Mosin?Nagant rifle, the White Guard M/28 early variant "Pystykorva" (literally Spitz, due to the front sight's resemblance to the head of a spitz-type dog) chambered in 7.62?53R, the Finnish Mosin?Nagant cartridge, because it suited his small frame (1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)). He preferred to use iron sights rather than telescopic sights to present a smaller target for the enemy (a sniper must raise his head higher when using a telescopic sight), to increase accuracy (a telescopic sight's glass can fog up easily in cold weather), and to aid in concealment (sunlight glare in telescopic sight lenses can reveal a sniper's position). As well as these tactics, he frequently packed dense mounds of snow in front of his position to conceal himself and provide padding for his rifle. He was also known to keep snow in his mouth whilst sniping, to reduce steamy breaths giving away his position in the cold air.

Simo H?yh?

[Steve G]

keep snow in his mouth

Now that's dedication to ones craft

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Finns are tough bastards. At our plant in Oulu, we had 2 guys who would jump in the river every morning during the winter, for fun.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They sound like...Canadians.

[Marshall Gill]

The dudes at Vimy Ridge and Dieppe and Normandy were no slouches. Do they even make Canadians like that anymore?

[sarcasmic]

Why are Earth's continents suddenly moving? Thick 'crusts' and minerals are behind mystery changes, claims study

Scientists have long been puzzled by Earth's sudden plate shifts
Such abrupt movement requires that slabs detach from their plates
But current models suggest the slabs are too cold and stiff to detach
Instead, thick crust from continents are causing the slab to break off
This is then accelerated when mineral grains in the slab start to shrink

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....study.html
And here I thought it was a symptom of climate change. Silly me.

[Ted S.]

Damn you! I was going to blame global warning.

Of course, the continents aren't "suddenly" moving.

[RBS]

Why are Earth's continents suddenly moving?

Because that's what they do?

[Elspeth Flashman]

Fake science!! 111!

[Medical Physics Guy]

It's almost like linear materials modelling doesn't capture all the nuances. I'm sure it does for climate though! /sarc

[Emmerson Biggins]

duh. Fracking.

[sarcasmic]

Cities on Earth grow in the same way as GALAXIES: Scientists uncover surprising parallels between man and nature

The way settlements grow are governed by something known as 'Zipf's law'
Law says rank of a city is inversely proportional to the number of residents
Scientists have used models for showing how galaxies evolve to propose a theory for scaling laws in human populations on Earth

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

[sarcasmic]

I'm not in the mood! Zookeeper forced to separate fighting koalas with a rake after a randy male makes an unwanted advance

The clip shows two Koala's embroiled in a viscous fight
The behaviour is commonplace during the animals mating season
The male made an unwanted advance on his female neighbour
Female koalas will fight off unwanted advances during mating season

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....vance.html
Ah... marriage...

[Slammer]

viscous fight

Oil Wrestling?

[Ted S.]

Koala rape culture!

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

Koala vs Dolphin in...Animal Kingdom Rape-Off!

All judging done by STEVE SMITH, SugarFree and Warty.

[sarcasmic]

Father wins $75,000 payout from New York City over chokehold arrest that left him with 'swollen eye and cuts to his wrist and head'

New York City has settled a lawsuit following chokehold arrest in 2013
Mr Dennis-Palmer was approached outside his home while parking his car
He was pepper sprayed, lifted by his neck and choked, lawsuit alleged
Charges were later dropped and he was treated for a swollen eye and cuts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....ehold.html
Policies were ignored. Nothing else happened.

[Marshall Gill]

He should count himself lucky to be alive.

[sarcasmic]

Billy Crystal says graphic gay sex on TV has gone 'too far' and that the industry mustn't 'shove it in our face'

Actor didn't say which shows offend him but said many are 'pushing it'
Crystal played one of network TV's first openly gay characters in the 1970s
Shared opinion with audience at showbiz event in Pasadena, California
Criticized the show while plugging his own new series, The Comedians

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-face.html
At least he's not doing a show about Canadians.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

There's graphic gay sex on television?

[Ken Shultz]

Billy Crystal will say anything to get in the news.

There used to be a Hollywood expression about how so and so "couldn't get arrested in Hollywood", and I think Billy Crystal might be there.

If he faked an orgasm like Meg Ryan did in that movie, in the middle of a busy restaurant in Hollywood, I doubt anyone would notice or care.

He's an ex-parrot.

[sarcasmic]

Furious Airbnb landlord accuses guests of causing $12,000 of damage to his mountain cabin during drug-fueled fights over the holidays

David Cook claims the damage was caused to his California mountain cabin after two separate pairs of Airbnb guests
He says both couples went on alcohol and drug-fueled rampages over the holidays last month
One couple caused $2,000 of damage after ripping a ceramic soap dish out of the shower and snapping the bedpost off a 100-year-old family heirloom
The second couple destroyed two nightstands and then Cook proceeded to bash holes in the walls and windows of the property

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....idays.html
Aauuugghh! Must! Ban! Free! Markets!

[Drax the Destroyer]

Dems da breaks. Sometimes it takes tales of "woe" such as this for others to learn lessons. Welcome to life.

[Juice]

You let complete strangers sleep on your "family heirloom" and then bitch about them breaking it?

[sarcasmic]

Captivating stage show sees plus-size women proudly shake their figures ? in bid to prove that dancers' bodies come in all shapes and sizes

The Australian dance production, Nothing to Lose, will premiere at the Sydney Festival on January 21
Dance company Force Majeure's artistic director Kate Champion said she wants to strip away all the judgement that people have 'around fat bodies'
The choreographer teamed up with fat activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater to create the show, which celebrates the movement of larger figures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....sizes.html
John will be in his bunk.

[Rich]

Ms Champion said she was inspired to work with a 'full cast of big-bodied dancers' after noticing that her eyes were often drawn to the movements of larger people whenever she was near a dance floor.

'I believe audiences are eager to see a broader scope of bodies on stage,' Ms Drinkwater explained

Do we have any speculation as to the body types of these pioneers themselves?

[Rich]

Ms Champion

Ms Drinkwater

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

Ms Drinkmilkshake

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

which celebrates the movement of larger figures

That's what we have astronomy for.

[John]

I don't like fat women, just women. Perhaps if you like women, rather then adolescent boys, you would understand the difference between fat women and attractive women and not think everyone who likes women likes the fat ones.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

He's just ribbing you John.

Toughen up, man!

[Lord Humungus]

It's a H&R meme that just won't die. Like Warty, it will not go away.

Just roll with it, man.

[Injun, as in from India]

The Australian dance production, Nothing to Lose

Agreed. Why work hard to lose a 100 pounds when you can keep it and be happy?

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

The choreographer teamed up with fat activist

"fat activist"...just contemplate that for a moment.

[sarcasmic]

Not active enough.

[Mr.Bourgeois]

OT: I was reading an article at CBS news about income inequality and taxes sprinkled with all the normal leftist horseshit. But, when I looked down in the comments, it was insane, these people are simply retarded. Case in point, one of more retarded comments was a post blaming consumers for outsourcing and automation.

"And how does this happen? Because we no longer have to pay fair prices for all this "stuff." If we did, we might not be able to afford it."

I was left speechless and sad.

[John]

What the hell does that even mean? I feel like it should make me angry but frankly it doesn't make enough sense to even fairly be called stupid or infuriating.

[Mr. Bourgeois]

I guess the poor soul believes if we still had high tariffs and manufactured many of the products that we immport, everyone would be making 60K a year to put screws in ipod cases... Of course the ipod would cost 5,000.00 so no one could buy one.

[Mr. Bourgeois]

*import

[Andrew S.]

If I was given the power to re-write the Constitution, anyone who posted something like that would be sentenced to a class in Remedial Economics 101, taught by a reanimated Milton Friedman.

[Injun, as in from India]

I would send them Room 101 instead of Remedial Economics 101.

[Clich? Bandit]

is that behind the green door?

[Rich]

Because we no longer have to pay fair prices for all this "stuff." If we did, we might not be able to afford it.

I was left confused and laughing.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Roughly translated - "Please beat me some more."

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

We'd all be poorer, but more equal FTW.

/utopia

[Drax the Destroyer]

The fact is that some of these armchair socialists, no doubt posting inane grammar-poor comments with their $2000 MacBooks in a Starbucks, actually desire a world with less of the stuff they don't like. Namely, guns, booze, cigarettes, cars, fun, sex, testosterone, Duck Dynasty, Heavy Metal, etc. Of course, they say that from their current position of comfort probably facilitated by Daddy is some way.

[sarcasmic]

You don't understand! By having access to cheap Chinese trinkets, we're actually poorer! All those consumer electronics that save us time and enrich our lives make us poorer! Because they're cheap Chinese crap!
If the same stuff was made in America, and cost ten times as much, then we'd be richer!
You see, the value of something is determined by the price! If it's cheap then it's no good! If it's expensive then it's good!
That's why when goods are cheaper it makes us poorer!

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, they hate metal? Now they've gone too far. Bonjour, scum--to the barricades!

[Drax the Destroyer]

I was specifically thinking of hipsters who generally prefer those limp-wristed balless sobbings that pass for "rock" these days. Old man grinding an ax warning.

[Pro Libertate]

Here, let me turn the grinder up to '11'.

[Ken Shultz]

"Elon Musk wants to spend $10 billion to build an Internet in outer space."

I'd like to hear Elon Musk explain why he is going to succeed where Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic all failed.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Better subsidies

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, promise to make it intelligent and market it as a better way to fight terrorism, and the defense department would green light Skynet.

[Pro Libertate]

Because the Grail he's searching for is cheap(er) access to space. Get that, then launching lots of satellites is less insane.

[Lord Humungus]

I recently listened to this Dan Carlin Hardcore History Podcast
http://www.dancarlin.com/produ.....s-of-doom/

On the Munster Rebellion of 1534

Simply amazing story about the Anabaptists - pre-cursors of communism, Jim Jones, and a whole bunch of crazy.

[Lord Humungus]

btw, after being caught the leaders of the rebellion were tortured for an hour before being killed. Their bodies were then displayed in iron cages hung from a church steeple in Munster.

Creepy fact - the cages are still up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....e_6428.jpg

[Drax the Destroyer]

So it's like Game of Thrones with less sex and violence?

[CatoTheElder]

No. The Munster Anabaptists were crazier in real life than any of the GoT families.

There was a whole lot of sex among the Munster Anabaptists. That was one of the main attractions.

And there was wanton violence.

Dan Carlin does a great job of telling the story, but it's rather a long podcast.

If you want to save some time, read Rothbard's account: http://mises.org/library/messi.....eformation

Early modern communists, starting with Engels, were big fans.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Still no references to The Munsters by the crew here?

[Jordan]

I just listened to that too. Good stuff.

[Coeus]

I love that guy. Just got through listening to the whole "Wrath of the Khans" series.

[Andrew S.]

The entrepreneur Elon Musk, meanwhile, wants to spend $10 billion to build an Internet in outer space.

Given his history, I'll assume he expects $9,999,999,999 of that money to come from government subsidies.

[Injun, as in from India]

Remember! It's a private-public partnership to advance the general welfare.

[Coeus]

Silicon Valley attack dog for diversity revealed as a trolling white supremacist.

'I TAUGHT SHANLEY KANE HOW TO TROLL, AND I'M SINCERELY SORRY'

"I've never made a sincere apology in my entire life,"Andrew Auernheimer told Breitbart in an explosive interview that makes outrageous claims about Kane's racist past. "The public largely despises me for my political views?I'm one of the most visible and public advocates of white nationalism?and my position as the world's most notorious Internet troll. But I've never done anything that I think I should be sorry for, with one exception: for a few short months, I dated Shanley Kane, the technology industry's feminist antagonist, and I taught her Internet trolling."

[John]

I posted that this weekend. GKC said not to believe it. It is just the word of one guy. I think that if you dated a known Nazi and said Nazi says you were one too, chances are you were a Nazi. What else were you doing dating one?

[Lord Humungus]

You know who else dated a well-known Nazi?

[Coeus]

She admitted it on twitter, but said she'd changed.

[Coeus]

He's got Zoe Quinn dead to rights lying in court and on a police report. Look for that one coming out soon. Taking down the SJW frauds one by one. Normally I wouldn't think twice about a brietbart link, but this guy does his homework.

[John]

Yeah, I am sure she has. Once she figured out being an SJW troll rather than a Nazi troll made it easier to get a pay check, I am sure she found the social justice religion real quick.

[Coeus]

I'm sure weeve is still trolling with his "sincere apology" remark, but he sure as shit turned into Dr. Frankenstein.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes. Now she is directing her Nazism at a target other than racial minorities.

[Ken Shultz]

"She admitted it on twitter, but said she'd changed."

Yeah, that's the way the world works, Sugar Tits!

ah HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

[Coeus]

But, she's been so forgiving of others in the past...

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, and I'm sure none of them are scouring the web right now looking for any of her old white nationalist comments.

[WTF]

Hey, it worked for Robert Byrd.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"GKC said not to believe it."

Specifically I said that, while it *might* be true, I'd need more than just the guy's say-so to believe it.

[Coeus]

Always a wise move when dealing with weeve, but she confirmed it and immediately went the "it's all slut shaming" route we see so often from the feminist activists when it's discovered that that they're fucking against their holier-than-thou principles.

Completely ignoring the "trained by one of the internet's most notorious trolls" aspect.

Even valleywag picked up on it.

The commenters are pissed.

[CampingInYourPark]

VANDALS SPRAY PAINT 'MURDER' ON 'AMERICAN SNIPER' BILLBOARD

"Get off my billboard!"

http://www.breitbart.com/big-h.....rd-murder/

[Injun, as in from India]

How tolerant of the Kindly Left.

[John]

I haven't seen the movie, but after reading Sudderman's review of it and also considering that Eastwood has made the three best meditations on the price of violence made in the last 40 years (Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven, and Grand Tornino), I find it difficult to believe that movie glorifies war.

What it does seem to do is give one guy's perspective on war. These people are so stupid I guess they have no idea that war actually involves killing people and not everyone involved has a problem with that. Every Hollywood war movie is filled with reluctant warriors. Sure, those exist but not everyone is like that. Some people like it. Some people hate the enemy and like killing him. Kyle seems to have been one of those guys. Making a movie showing that kind of guy's perspective is not glorifying war. It is just showing one part of its reality.

[Pro Libertate]

Those movies are in order of awesomeness, right?

Ten Bears: These things you say we will have, we already have.

Josey Wales: That's true. I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men can live together without butchering one another.

Ten Bears: It's sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. There is iron in your words of death for all Comanche to see, and so there is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carries the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life. . .or death. It shall be life.

[John]

Josey Wales is that and more. Of course Josey is an absolute bad ass killer who would if he were a real person have made Kyle blush. Yet, no one would ever claim that that movie glorifies war.

These people on the left today are just fucking retarded. They really are. Every time I think they can't get any more stupid, they prove me wrong. They are so stupid, you can't even communicate with them anymore.

[sarcasmic]

They're not stupid. They just don't think. They emote. They know what they feel and that's it. I know, because I once felt as they do. Then I learned to think. It's possible for them to change, but, as the joke goes about how many psychologists it takes to screw in a light bulb, they have to want to change.

[John]

Anything that isn't affirmative propaganda for their side is immediately considered the enemy. They are nuts.

[sarcasmic]

Well, yeah. It's an emotional reaction. They have yet to learn to think and respond, rather than emotionally react. It's all about the feelings.

[Zeb]

Seems like most of the people who get all wound up about these things don't even know what they are supposed to be mad about or give it much thought. This is the thing that all right thinking people are criticizing now, so that's what we should do.

[John]

They are nothing but a pack of hyenas at this point. They smell blood and go after it and try to tear whatever is bleeding apart. That is really all they know.

[John]

And the whole thing is making Clint Eastwood and the producers of the movie a fortune. In the same way hating the movie is a social signal, going to it is now a social signal and a way to tell the other side to fuck off. The whole thing is nuts. The movie doesn't from what I have heard glorify war and Kyle, though one hell of a soldier by all accounts is hardly some perfect American hero.

The funny thing about it is that if Hollywood doesn't like it that the public has latched onto this movie and Kyle so much, they only have themselves to blame. The reason why this movie is making so much money is that it is the only serious movie Hollywood has produced about the war that isn't a bunch of anti American propaganda.

There are a lot of people and stories in Iraq that would make good movies. If instead of making bullshit anti war propaganda movies, Hollywood had told some of those stories, the public would not have been so hungry for such and would not have latched onto this one so hard.

[Zeb]

It's a damn shame. War can make a great subject for a movie. But not when it's just heavy handed propaganda. It's a complex subject (as you know far better than I, I'm sure) and the stories of people involved can be fascinating if you make your characters real and not caricature heroes or villains.

[John]

Apparently, American Sniper does that. It is from everything I have read a very well made movie. I find it hard to believe that any movie of this sort made by Eastwood would not be well made and deal with the complexities of the situation.

People only think this movie glorifies war because they are idiots who think anything that isn't a blunt tool furthering their ideology must be evil.

[Not an Economist]

I saw it on Saturday and I recommend it. It is not a one sided propaganda piece unless you see it with that viewpoint already ingrained in you.

[Frank Frankelson]

*Sailor not Soldier.

/Military Pedant

[John]

He was a sniper. He was a sailor playing soldier. If he had been on a boat, shooting people, he would have been a marine. Since he was on land, he is a solider. I don't care what branch claimed him.

[DEG]

Citizenship for a price.

The article implies that Malta has started their program back up.

[Coeus]

Linus Torvalds claims to care more about the code than diversity. Twitter explodes.

Torvalds said in response (quoted via multiple Twitter accounts of the event). "I'm not a nice person, and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel?that's what's important to me."

Afterward, another question from the audience asked for Torvalds' thoughts on diversity in the open source community, an issue emphasized by the lack of minority keynote speakers at the Auckland event (and only one female keynote speaker, to boot). Torvalds offered a the-work-is-what-matters sort of response, stating, according to Twitter accounts, that "the most important part of open source is that people are allowed to do what they are good at" and "all that [diversity] stuff is just details and not really important."

When all you need is an email address to participate, how much more color/sex/whatever blind can you be?

[Pro Libertate]

Blind isn't the goal.

[Coeus]

Right. I keep forgetting that these people would rather diversify the titanic than keep it from sinking. You'd think I'd of all people remember that, but I've been working too much lately, getting stuff done. Hard to slip back into their mindset, even for mocking.

[Pro Libertate]

Where you went wrong is in doing things, rather than counting racially, sexually, etc. diverse angels on the head of a pin.

[Zeb]

Why are they complaining to Torvalds? Does he do anything that actively discourages diversity? Why don't they ask women and minorities why they don't want to spend more time writing open source software?

[Timon 19]

Apparently, that's not their actual aim. Their aim is to shame places they perceive as "not diverse enough" into seeking diversity as its own end.

It's bizarre. They want to participate, but they don't want to put the work in to assimilate themselves - they just want to be accepted first, with no evaluation of merit.

[Pro Libertate]

Top down. They view the world as a place where everyone should obey.

[Timon 19]

That really is what it is. But they always seem to be insistent that they actually are opposite of that. Obedience is freedom, I guess.

I just wonder how many of them truly believe that that is what their behavior leads to?

[Pro Libertate]

The Enlightenment and the classical liberal project is about everything really beginning and ending with the individual. They've strayed in not understanding that.

The moral horrors perpetrated by human beings have been so much worse when executed in the name of some collective. We go seriously wrong when we don't understand that only individuals have ethics and morals, only individuals can be happy, and only individuals can suffer.

[Zeb]

Which is just goofy. Is there any evidence to suggest that a talented black, midget, lesbian programmer wouldn't be accepted as a Linux developer just as well as anyone else with the same skills?

[Timon 19]

Not when the work is so distributed that you likely will never have occasion to be known as any of those things other than "Linux developer" to anyone other than your family and friends.

[mikeangellogy]

My friend's mother makes $61 an hour on the internet . She has been without a job for ten months but last month her pay was $15622 just working on the internet for a few hours.
over here. ???????? http://www.jobsfish.com

[Rhywun]

Does he do anything that actively discourages diversity?

I seriously doubt it. I know his type and it's meritocracy all the way down. And as a non-American, he probably doesn't even "get" what this is all about.

[Timon 19]

I think he's said as much.

He further explained himself once as not really caring about being "nice" for its own sake when people got all wrapped around the axle about his occasional epic rants.

[Clich? Bandit]

I love Linus:
"WE DON'T FUCK UP USER SPACE!"
He has some of the best rants. I, and anyone who is familiar with him and his work, could have easily predicted these exact words. He is a pure technologist. He cares ONLY for the Linux kernel. Awesome.

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

*opera applause*

[Libertarian]

But do you want aliens transmitting a video of you fapping to some future Jodie Foster?

[Swiss Servator, CHF...gah!]

AGREED!

/Sheldon Richman

[Steve G]

Hey, where's my hat tip? ..and my sandwich

/Michael Moore

[Irish]

Well, given that they're only in Mosul because of our invasion of Iraq, I think this actually is partially America's fault.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes. Imperialism.

From radical Muslim school in Montreal:

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/con.....-1.2196301

Money quote:

"Yes. Terrorism -- Christian terrorism, Jewish terrorism, Islamic terrorism -- all terrorism is bad," he said."

Yeah, whatever you say asshole. I see all kinds of Jewish and Christians acting like deranged lunatics teaching their kids crazy shit in school.

They really are testing my patience.

[Slammer]

ISIS execution frenzy

Warning: Graphic

Obviously, as an American who votes, this is all my fault.

[gaijin]

Anyone remember this?

Leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq was fictitious military says

No way ISIS and its exploits could be fictionalized, no way.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yeah, ISIS current situation has nothing to do with our involvement in that region. I mean, fighting a long war, sanctions and a mess of an invasion/occupation could never lead to destabilizing a region empowering these kinds of groups!

[Libertarian]

I see now that I could have worded that differently. Works either way, though.

[Irish]

They always engage in this ridiculous equivocating. Sometimes they'll use the word 'extremism' so that they can claim that Christians are "extremist" when they argue against gay people while Muslims are "extremist" when they blow up a synagogue.

They grade on a curve. A Muslim who thinks the same things as a Christian will be declared less extremist because extremist Muslims are so much more violent than extremist Christians.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Every religion can produce murderous followers, see the Army of God and some of the Jewish settler groups.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

No, it's obviously all Muslims regardless of connection to groups like ISIS

[Rufus J. Firefly]

TEEMU SELANNE AND SAKU KOIVU DON'T COUNT?

[Lord Humungus]

My father-in-law is a Yooper Finn. He's quiet, soft spoken, and has the strangest sense of humor. But I still expect him to bayonet me in the back at any moment - just for practice in case the Russians come.

[Irish]

...We have pictures of them crucifying people.

I'm sure the Kurdish women who committed suicide to avoid being raped are glad that you doubt the exploits of their rapists.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Bo, don't be an idiot.

Please.

[Irish]

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!

You just compared a hick organization like the Army of God which has killed like 5 people in 30 years to global fundamentalist Islam.

Thanks for proving my point about ludicrous equivocation, Bo. You want to know what ISIS would call the number of people killed in the Army of God's entire career? A slow Tuesday.

[John]

Bullshit. It is doubtful Saddam would still be alive right now had we not invaded. And once Saddam died, Iraq would have quickly turned into Syria, you know where ISIS originated. Changes are had we not invaded, they would have been in Mosul sooner.

Maybe you missed the memo but Saddam was old and not likely to live more than a few more years in 2003. Saddam Bathist regime was no more stable or long lasting that Assads.

That doesn't mean we should have necessarily invaded. But to claim this is happening because we did is just not true. Not every fact fits your narrative Mr. Richman, I mean Irish.

[R C Dean]

Well, given that they're only in Mosul because of our invasion of Iraq,

The proximate cause might be more along the lines of our withdrawal from Iraq.

Honestly, though, this is just Chapter Infinity of the centuries-long Shia/Sunni civil war. Would the particular strategic/tactical situation be different if we had never fired a shot in the Middle East? Of course.

But the civil war would still be going on. I might point out that this particular group seems to have really gotten legs in Syria, where we have been very, very hands-off.

[John]

Since ISIS started in Syria and arose as a result of the vaccum created by the civil war there, no. Had the US never invaded Iraq, eventually there would have been uprising there just like there was in Syria and we would have Isis.

Not every fact fits your narrative Bo. Sometimes things happen for their own reasons.

[gaijin]

yeah, I did not mean to post this to say none of this happens. Poor choice of placement on my part. Only point was that in someplace as screwed up as the Middle East, it's no conspiracy theory that some of what gets reported may be propaganda (e.g., Al Baghdadi).

[Irish]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jundallah_(Iran)

^ Incidentally, here's another organization called 'The Army of God.' They're a Sunni militant organization in Iran that's killed 154 people in the last decade.

If you're keeping track, that's like 30 times the death toll of the scary Christian Army of God and they did it in 1/3rd the time.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

A bit north of 5 in 30..,

http://www.theresolve.org/the-.....tatistics/

[CatoTheElder]

Wikipedia lists ten (10!) members of the Army of God.

I tremble in fear of these Christian terrorists.

[Irish]

Okay. I agree that some of the stuff is exaggerated.

Mostly I think their alleged military competence is grossly overrated. They had tanks and howitzers and couldn't take Kobani when the Kurds were out of ammunition and water.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Lots of regions give rise to murdering gangs. South American Cartels. Southeast Asian Marxists. In that region it wears a religious face.

[Irish]

Do you really think ISIS would have been able to take over wide swaths of Iraq when Saddam was still in charge of that country?

Saddam fought a decade long war with the Iranians. Who do you think is a more formidable foe, the Revolutionary Guard or the half-trained rabble of ISIS?

He would have turned ISIS into putty. ISIS' advancement into Iraq is absolutely a product of Saddam's ouster.

[Bo Cara Esq.]

Yes, our destabilization of the area couldn't have anything to do with that kind of thing. Because when governments are overthrown, failed occupations follow, millions of people are displaced, absolutely nothing like that happens in the surrounding areas usually.

Derp

[Jordan]

So you're defense is "yeah, but it might have happened anyway". Very telling.

[John Titor]

And Saddam certainly didn't have any brutal, piece-of-shit successors lined up or anything...

[Irish]

Good for you! You found the one example of an actual, no-shit Christian extremist organization.

Of course, Kony also believes in bizarre African mysticism and thinks he's possessed by a Chinese phantom (neither of which are exactly Christian beliefs) but it's close enough.

Unfortunately, one example doesn't quite equate to an entire region of the world ruled by theocratic Islam and globe spanning, decades long violence committed in its name.

Islamic extremists commit violence far in excess of that committed by fundamentalist Christians in India, in America, in Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East, and in Africa.

There is not one continent where fundamentalist Christianity has killed more people in the last century than fundamentalist Islam.

[John]

Do you really think ISIS would have been able to take over wide swaths of Iraq when Saddam was still in charge of that country?

The KUrds did. And moreover, Saddam wasn't going ot live forever or even remain in charge forever if he did. That is the point. Assad is every bit as nasty as Saddam. Yet, Isis managed to take over large parts of Syria.

Iraq was on its last legs in 2003. The country was going to fall apart. It was just a matter of time. Again, you just blame everything that happens in the world on Iraq invasion because that is your pet peeve. The world is more complex than the fairy tales you tell yourself.

[R C Dean]

Do you really think ISIS would have been able to take over wide swaths of Iraq when Saddam was still in charge of that country?

Maybe. They managed in Syria.

Of course, you might just as well ask if they could have done so if we hadn't withdrawn from Iraq.

[John]

Yes, our destabilization of the area couldn't have anything to do with that kind of thing.

Not if it was going to destabilize on its own, which it clearly was. We never invaded Syria, yet, eventually even Assad, who unlike Saddam was not subject to UN sanctions and was being propped up by the Iranians, lost control. Saddam would have too. It was just a matter of time.

[Mickey Rat]

Are we supposed to prop up or stabd against the murderous ME tyrants under blowback theory, I forget.

[Juice]

I don't know why you bother with these neocons, Bo. They've got their 4 hour warboners going. Nothing will persuade them.

[Azathoth!!]

Actually, according to you and your enablers it IS all muslims--because every time we try to stop the jihadis we create more jihadis.

Isn't that how this asinine 'blowback' thing works?

If so, our best bet is to keep going--eventually there won't be any muslims left to becaome the new jihadis.