State of the Union Address Fumbles in Fact-Checks, Boehner Invites Netanyahu for Visit, Boston Employees Must Be Nice to Olympics: P.M. Links

• 

  White House

  Fact-checkers say "not so fast" to the claims in President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address about our economic recovery and the real details of the "free community college" plan.

• House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States to speak without (gasp!) going through the White House first.
• The Department of Justice will pay $134,000 to a woman whom a Drug Enforcement Agency officer impersonated on Facebook during the investigation of a case.
• Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."
• The agreement between Boston and the United States Olympics Committee to possibly host the 2024 summer games forbids city employees from saying anything that might "reflect negatively" upon the games or the organizations behind it.
• A man in Marietta, Georgia, was cited by police for eating a cheeseburger while driving.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."

Demons.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."

Gun range?

[Tonio]

Nice.

[MJGreen]

If I were fabulously wealthy, I'd waste some of my money doing exactly that. But do you try to justify it as an effort to teach gun responsibility, or do you just keep quiet and let people rage at you?

[BigT]

Gun range

at which the targets will have kids pictures on them.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."

Real...er...rational.

[Ska]

Common sense land use.

[MJGreen]

Epi bait.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Hey, it's a perfectly sensible precaution - look what happened to Franz Ferdinand's death car:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/.....52/?no-ist

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Good to know that, after the Enlightenment, people rejected traditional theistic religion and became more rational!

[Anonymous Coward]

Burn the house of the sinner, and all his worldly possessions. Thusly do you purge the evil from among you.

This is the word of Prog.

[Tonio]

Well, there's still you, Eddie.

[jesse.in.mb]

Seriously. Emotional dumbasses in a town in CT totes invalidates the Enlightenment.

[Hey Nikki!]

And they're sure to be atheists.

[SugarFree]

Miltant atheists, Nikki. Which is just like a religion, because reasons.

[SugarFree]

Religious people never engage in magical thinking, Jesse. That's just science.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Actually, Jesse, I was mocking Michael Shermer's thesis tha since the "Enlightenment," every day, in every way, we've been getting better and better.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm sorry to hear you subjected yourself to Michael Shermer's writing.

[Zeb]

Yes. Yes it is.

More rational doesn't mean completely rational.

[Cytotoxic]

Eddie is angry that The Enlightenment took away any chance of happening that Eddie's beloved Catholic Theocracy ever had.

[trshmnster the terrible]

To be fair, they tried it for a few millenia, but some dude pinned his testes to a door or something.

[Robert]

Probably afraid of an Amityville. It won't stop novels from being written about it, though.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

A man in Marietta, Georgia, was cited by police for eating a cheeseburger while driving.

Michelle's orders.

[BigT]

May 19, 2014

President Obama made yet another trip to a burger joint Friday, taking four employees on a Washington construction project to Shake Shack.

Obama and Vice President Biden used the appearance to tout something they traveled the country discussing all week: the need to increase investment in America's often crumbling infrastructure, a move that would create [fast food] jobs, alleviate commute times and boost the economy.

But the trip underscored something else: Obama really loves cheeseburgers.

[jesse.in.mb]

Adam Lanza Memorial Garden?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A man in Marietta, Georgia, was cited by police for eating a cheeseburger while driving.

He was a driver not professionally trained to consume a round food object while operating a vehicle.

[Pro Libertate]

What's next, busting people for driving with standard transmissions?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't think they make those anymore.

[kinnath]

I still haz two vehicles with them

[Pro Libertate]

They certainly aren't as widely available. I'm looking for a new car, and the model I'm looking for has a small percentage available in standard.

[Libertarian]

What kills me is "sports cars" like the Vette, with automatic transmissions. Jeebus. Just cut your balls off and admit you are a eunich.

[Pro Libertate]

This will be noted in history books when we lost our way.

[Slammer]

Think they'll ban donuts in cop cars?...nah

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

I got yelled at by a cop (using his loudspeaker, he didn't have to go home hoarse, bless 'im) recently. I had been stuck in a traffic jam for a good half-hour before I got to the cause - an accident that blocked the intersection. Behind the balk line, waiting for the red light to change, I held up my phone to take a pic to prove that I was late for a reason and he starts going off on how I need to stop, that it's illegal for me to do that while operating a car - I guess I could have been so distracted that I could let my foot slip off the brake, my other foot slip on to the clutch, my hand slip the car into gear and then roll out into the non-traffic surrounding the accident scene, so intent on getting good composition that I would maim or kill countless invisible people. Since I didn't want to get a ticket I knocked it off.
I wish I had the training he had, since the giant laptop screen beside him would surely distract me all the time. Thank goodness the legislature can prevent the police from being distracted by exempting them from the law.

[John]

Remember when Muslims were in favor of free speech? Neither do I.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....on-people/

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's Chechnya.

C'man.

[John]

Its like most of the population.

[Cytotoxic]

Of Chechnya.

[wareagle]

were there different rallies in Tehran, Riyadh, Algiers, or any other mostly Arab city that is also predominantly Muslim?

[Cytotoxic]

I don't think they comprised a large chunk of the population.

[John]

Its like most of the population.

[Suthenboy]

Why does that article have a photo of testing grounds for neutron bombs?

[Zeb]

Most of the world seems opposed to free speech, regardless of religion. Muslims do seem to be particularly bad when it comes to things they consider blasphemous.

But who ever said that Muslims in general were great defenders of free speech? Some are, many more probably aren't.

[John]

Probably? Considering that every single country in the world that majority Muslim is authoritarian, probably is a bit of an understatement.

[Cytotoxic]

"Authoritarian" is a pretty bland and non-specific label.

[Zeb]

I'm a big fan of understatement.

Yes, the Islamic world is pretty fucked. Standard issue Islam is not a religion of peace.
But I have to allow for the possibility that individual Muslims might differ. Even in the places where you see thousands of people protesting, how many more people are just wishing they would all stop so people could get on with their lives and maybe make where they live less shitty.

[wareagle]

like hope, wishing is not a strategy. You may be correct about their existence but there is no correlating action.

They don't act out of fear - the Islamists have no issue with violence and the sane people do not embrace death. So they, in effect, choose shitty lives.

[Zeb]

No, it's not a strategy. It's just what people do.

My point is that most people in the world don't really care that much about ideology or politics and just want to live their lives and make the most of whatever situation they are in. I can't blame people like that for just keeping their heads down and doing what they can for themselves and their families. Not everyone needs to be a martyr. If fear keeps them from acting, I don't see how they choose shitty lives (perhaps I misread, who are "they"?) when the alternative is likely violence which will make their lives (and those of their children, more importantly) even more shitty.

[wareagle]

to be clear, I don't disagree that some Muslims would just as soon it all stop. But they are not willing to participate in making it stop. This came up during the AM links, too, in a slightly different way.

The silent crowd will never change things by remaining silent. Inaction is also a choice. No idea what I would do in their shoes but my belief is that far more people are okay with the jihadists than not.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Department of Justice will pay $134,000 to a woman whom a Drug Enforcement Agency officer impersonated on Facebook during the investigation of a case.

Did the agent not read Facebook's terms of service?

[Tonio]

Good one, Fist.

[Suthenboy]

I think it is a federal crime to use a computer without authorization....I don't remember the details of the law, but violating TOS is a crime I think.

Maybe someone else knows more about this?

[Zeb]

There was that woman who bullies the teenager who then killed herself. She was convicted of something involving violating the terms of service. But if I recall correctly, the conviction was overturned. I think it was a somewhat novel application of an anti-hacking sort of law.

[Zeb]

Lori Drew

I was more or less correct. So maybe not a federal crime. Yet.

[jesse.in.mb]

Tech writers seem concerned that some of the security provisions proposed in the SotU would make violating the TOS into "hacking" and that there'd be a racketeering level charge attached as well.

[Zeb]

Yikes. How many people aren't guilty of violating the terms of service of several websites every day? Not too many, I'd guess.

[Rich]

The agreement between Boston and the United States Olympics Committee to possibly host the 2024 summer games forbids city employees from saying anything that might "reflect negatively" upon the games or the organizations behind it.

"No one can deny the possibility that the USOC has among its leadership at least one sheep fucker."

[UnCivilServant]

Didn't they try to make that an event?

[Enough About Palin]

I'm certain someone who shall not be named will win the gold.

[waffles]

AAW, you shouldn't have!

[Irish]

'Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."'

In fairness, this isn't much crazier than suing the gun company for selling weapons to Nancy Lanza.

[Slammer]

They can raze the gun factory next.

[Juice]

And that open space won't also remind them of the same events that the house does now?

[Zeb]

I'd think it would remind people more than the house would. It's not as if people were super familiar with the house.

Doesn't someone own the house? Or was the crazy murder guy his mother's only heir?

[tarran]

Nope, Adam had a brother, who was immediately arrested in New Jersey as a possible co-conspirator the moment they found an expired ID of his on Adam Lanza's corpse.

[Zeb]

So how does the town figure they get to decide what happens to the house?

(yeah, I know)

[Fist of Etiquette]

...forbids city employees from saying anything that might "reflect negatively" upon the games or the organizations behind it.

So then Bostonians can't speak for the next nine years?

[BigT]

"reflect negatively"

!!skcus yllaer notsoB

[HeteroPatriarch]

I'm ok with that.

[Zeb]

Well, I like Boston. But I was there the other day and thinking about how absurd the idea of having the Olympics there would be. I just can't imagine how that would work. They can barely handle the influx of college students every fall.

The only up side might be if they put up some useful street signs.

[bassjoe]

How many articles were in Reason about the SOTU? Reason's obsession with topics is annoying. The endless stories about hipster Millennials (or were they Millennial hipsters?) was another point of infuriation.

[Tonio]

I demand a Reason article about millenials' feelings about the recent SOTU. With polling.

[bassjoe]

I am willing to bet they didn't watch it because they don't own TVs and something having to do with artisanal mac-n-cheese.

[Gbob]

Will they get a quote from Lou Reed in it? Come to think about it, I haven't heard what Lou has been up to lately.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just be glad Lou Reed is still alive. I'd hate to think of the coverage if he passes.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

Someone send this man a Reason? brand jar of SOTU Commemorative Artisnal Mayo, sold out of the back of a food truck (by gay mexican pot-smokers)!

[Rhywun]

You left out the ass sex.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

That's what the mayo's for!

[Slammer]

Teenage Girl: Ewwwww!

[Zeb]

It's a blog about the news. That's today's big news story. Just do what everyone else does and go right to the comments.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

The agreement between Boston and the United States Olympics Committee to possibly host the 2024 summer games forbids city employees from saying anything that might "reflect negatively" upon the games or the organizations behind it.

BOSTON STWRONG!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

This is called 'preemptive' action against inevitable obscene levels of corruption about to take place.

[kinnath]

I read that as BOSTON STWONG

[Cytotoxic]

ALLAHU AKHBAR. Microsoft's Window's 10 will end Internet Explorer.

http://business.financialpost......ederated=1

Apparently the new browser is called 'Project Spartan' and W10 will include a 'personal digital assistant' called...Cortana. Did I mention Microsoft is the parent company of Bungie/343 Studios?

It looks like MS really might be trying to not suck with W10. They are going to offer it as a free upgrade to owners of Windows 8 and 7.

[BigT]

'personal digital assistant' called...Cortana

Clippy reborn.

[UnCivilServant]

Now if only they named them for things from good games. Oh, they don't own the IP for those.

[Cytotoxic]

But Halo is awesome, and Cortana is awesome too.

[John Titor]

Please, do we really need a crowbar version of Clippy?

[Cytotoxic]

Make it talk in the HEV suite voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL-eWNAGzLg

[HeteroPatriarch]

What's wrong with Halo?

[Cytotoxic]

Nothing (aside from Reach), UCS is just being a hipster gaming douche.

[UnCivilServant]

What's wrong with Halo?

The cardinal sin of games - it wasn't fun.

[Cytotoxic]

Yes it was, you just suck at funning.

[Pro Libertate]

I like Windows 7. Screw that.

[Cytotoxic]

W7 is pretty damn good-the best Windows-but man Excel and Word still have so much bullshit that I am tired of. Excel can't do the things I needed it to do for my thesis. Instead it has extraneous bullshit everywhere. Word can be a nightmare unless you know exactly what's going on.

[Pro Libertate]

Bring back Lotus 1-2-3!

[Homple]

VisiCalc forever. You and your Lotus get off my lawn.

[Pro Libertate]

Restore paper spreadsheets!

Yes, children, it's true. They used to use giant sheets of grid paper and pencils. And erasers!

[jesse.in.mb]

Tell us more about the Mesozoic!

[Libertarian]

Bring back Peach calc!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

QUATTRO PRO FOREVER!

[lap83]

Just use Open Office and save in the word format.

[Cytotoxic]

OO is pretty good but there are some serious limitations.

[Overt]

OO is pretty good but there are some serious limitations.

I remember back in the early 2000's there were all these articles from people bemoaning the fact that Excel/Word were sooooo bloated because 80% of users only used 20% of the functionality. Then some writers went around saying, well why don't you use (brand-x) and the same people who complained about the bloat would say, "Well that doesn't have (feature-a)". Often the irony was lost on those commentators who would then go on to explain why it was so obvious that Excel only needed the features they specifically were interested in. Ahh, fun times.

[lap83]

I haven't come across those limitations, but then I only use it for typical word processing.

[robc]

I prefer sending people .odt files. Not my job to convert for them.

[Carl ?s the level]

FWIW, MS Office supports ODT natively as of either 2007 or 2010 (can't remember which), although I dunno how well.

[lap83]

I usually send in .doc because most people I deal with haven't even heard of Open Office. It's easier than explaining.

[Gleep Glop]

The reason universities give so much time to get dissertations in order is to get the damn formatting correct.

Use LaTeX instead and the university might have a template to boot that will compile the doc to PDF that meets the requirements.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

But Windows 8 is the Windows Me^2 of the 21st Century!

[Cytotoxic]

I thought that was Vista?

[Shirley Knott]

Vista never happened. It was never a thing. We deny there was ever any such MS OS release. Even MS couldn't screw up the already flawed OS's they deliver to the level this reputed 'Vista' release was.
The Gates has spoken. Or something.

[jesse.in.mb]

Windows 8.1 actually isn't that bad once you get used to the new UI structure.

[grrizzly]

It will take me forever to get used to it. Do you know how to quickly open the Notepad to write down something without the Start button?

[jesse.in.mb]

Since they added the run command to the start menu in Vista or 7 I've been tapping the Windows Key and typing enough of notepad so that it shows up as the top item and hitting enter.

Once I got used to the start screen being a sideways/full screen replacement for the start menu I actually started using it more. I still use Alt+F4 to bring up the shutdown menu though.

If you want to go old school you could create a shortcut for notepad.exe and assign it a key command.

[grrizzly]

Thanks. I'll try it the next time I'm using Win 8.1.

[Overt]

you can also have windows start you in the desktop mode, where everything is 90% the same as windows 7 other than the change in the start menu. I was forced to upgrade when I got a computer shortly after the downgrade option was phased out. It was about two weeks of pain until I got it.

On the other hand, my company is forcing everyone over to Macs and that was a very frustrating transition- like doing my job in bulgaria. I pretty much knew everything that the mac was doing, I just couldn't tell it to do anything different.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Launchy makes Windows much more tolerable

[lap83]

I'm going to look into this. Thanks

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Or just pay the 5 bucks for "Start8" and you can get your start button back and ignore all the annoying tablet UI crap completely.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Fuck that shit. If I'm going to have to put up with bad UI I'm going to do it in style in Linux.

Just you wait and see, 2002 will be the year of Linux on the desktop.

(I guess that joke is getting a little aged now with the prevalence of Android, but, oh well.)

[robc]

Yup. Linux is the numberr 1 OS now, thanks to Android.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I've switched back to it (Mint 16/Mate) and have been very happy for about a year.

I don't expect everybody else to do so anytime soon. But still. I'm happy with it.

[Zeb]

Yeah, 7 is pretty good.

What happened to 9?

[Cytotoxic]

Skipped it.

[jesse.in.mb]

The story going around is that they're worried about lazy windows version check coding in legacy systems. So if something did a version check and found Win9 the software might try to assume it was a 95 98 edition computer.

That could be 100% bollocks, but it's the only thing I've seen floated.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

After doing time working for large telecoms in the past that explanation seems more than plausible to me.

[Carl ?s the level]

circumstantial evidence

[Carl ?s the level]

ugh, the squirrels cut off my link; try this

Note that I got it from HN, so don't blame me for the false positives. You get the point.

[jesse.in.mb]

Cortana has been on Windows phones for a while. It's competing for the same space as Google Now and Siri. Their integration is supposed to be excellent, but I'm not sure it'll be as revolutionary as promised considering the other offerings already on the table.

What will be entertaining is when IE only webpages stick around past the death of IE.

[Overt]

The sad thing for me is that I will probably now have to have a mic permanently attached to my computer to enjoy using Cortana. I hate that. With youngins around the house clicking ok any time an administrator request pops up, I am always concerned about attaching any sort of recording device to these machines.

[Rhywun]

Remember, one of the big promises of Windows 10 is that most Windows 10 apps are supposed to be able to run on any Windows 10 device, mobile, desktop, even Xbox.

Uh, this was the big promise with Windows 8 store apps. And it was resoundingly rejected by anyone who still wants a real desktop. That is why Apple chose to separate their desktop and mobile UI's. I'm starting to think the real reason MS is attempting this is just to be different from Apple.

[jesse.in.mb]

Nah, Microsoft already has a stranglehold on desktop users. They want to make their mobile platform the obvious choice for the majority of users who are already being forced to get used to their desktop environment.

[CatoTheElder]

Their Surface Pro is a really slick product. I now use it instead of a desktop or a notebook. DisplayPort 1.2 supports multiple external monitors, so it does everything I ever did on a PC, mostly MS Office. However, I'm not a gamer. It would not stand up for gaming though.

[Carl ?s the level]

ALLAHU AKHBAR. Microsoft's Window's 10 will end Internet Explorer.

IDK why everyone is making such a big deal out of this. (a) As far as we know it will still be based on Trident and Chakra (as mentioned in the article) and (b) though I don't see any reason to use it, IE11 is decent, and it mostly stopped sucking at 10.

IE is a tarnished brand so they're ditching it... yay?

The most exciting thing to see is what they do with extensions, since right now it's "possible" to write extensions for IE, but incredibly painful.

[Rich]

Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."

"Open space"?! You mean, like where *children* might play?! YOU MONSTERS!!

[Tonio]

Yeah, that.

But the only thing I can conclude is that the demons only possess the structure itself, not the land upon which the structure was built or the space above the land.

[UnCivilServant]

Children don't play outside anymore, CPS will come for them.

[John Titor]

Cat Stevens has a sad.

[creech]

How did they acquire it? I would think the estate of Lanzas' mom would own it and the estate would be disbursed by the terms of her will. If the estate wants to sell it, then the state should bid just like anyone else. Maybe they see the land as a great respository for all those weapons they'll be confiscating!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Jesus Lord Murphy. Comments from a Raw Story article:

http://bit.ly/1GwZlO8

"We freak out over what our "liberal media" tells us to freak out over and the "liberal media" has not told us to freak out over rising sea levels, increased desertification, increasingly more violent storms and temperature extremes.

But we remain, as always, ready.

When the MSM says lose your shit over Ebola, we do that, and then it says get pissed off at Russia, we do that. You watch us - when the MSM tells us to get pissed over global warming, we're going to get as pissed as we're told to."

And

"The science literate are indeed freaking the hell out of climate change.. The rest of the world? Not so so much."

[Cytotoxic]

I thought Vice had strayed from its roots and become another hive of proggie-pandering BS. I was wrong: that may have been what it always was.

[Irish]

Whenever progs tell me they're 'science literate' I'm going to pull out that study from earlier where Democrats knew vastly less about what antibiotics cure than the rest of the country.

The fact that 8% of Democrats thought anti-biotics cure hangovers compared to 4% of independents and 1% of Republicans is hilarious.

[Pro Libertate]

Science literate. Right. Just like they're "reality-based." These are not self-aware people, certainly.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

See also: anti-vaccines, "organically grown means healthier", anti-GMO, solar power fetishism, etc., etc., etc.

[Cytotoxic]

I think anti-vaccine is mainly a religious right thing.

[jesse.in.mb]

It has strongholds with the religious right, but crunchy-left types, those prone to baseless conspiracy theories, and upper-middle class families with nothing else to worry about besides gluten and vaccines are all into it.

[Pro Libertate]

Not at all. My wife encounters quite a few anti-vax people in the homeschooling community, and most of those appear to be in the left-granola camp, not the creationist camp.

That's all been eye-opening, incidentally, as I'd originally assumed that 95% of homeschoolers did so for religious reasons. Apparently, that's not so. Not that a good chunk of them aren't doing that to teach creationist nonsense, but there are very substantial numbers of people doing it for other reasons. Like teaching crazy leftie shit.

[robc]

Religion/politics/hippies and every combination thereof.

Which makes 8, including none.

[Pro Libertate]

It's actually quite fascinating, the variety of people doing homeschool. But there are a good number of sane people doing it, too, which isn't surprising given the pit which public education has declined into.

[Libertarian]

Lew Rockwell!

[CE]

I would most likely be considered "science literate" (I have a Bachelor of Science degree, after all.) But I'm not worried about climate change at all. So far there hasn't been much climate change since the alarm was raised 30 years ago (after they dropped the "next Ice Age" alarm from 40 years ago), and mankind has prospered through much more significant climate changes in the past, with far lower levels of scientific knowledge to help adapt.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Try and give this response over there and see how it's received.

[C. Anacreon]

I saw another couple of opinionated pieces the past few days insisting we all need to "believe" global warming because "97% of scientists do".

I was wondering, before this has there ever been any 'science' that we are supposed to accept solely because of a 'vote' on whether it is true?

And why is this "97% of scientists believe" continually dragged out as the main "proof" of AGW? Can't they come up with some media-friendly, easy-for-laymen-to-understand statistics to back them up? Oh yeah, all the statistics seem to be against their argument these days. But that doesn't make any difference, because they voted!

(By the way, if you've ever looked at the '97% vote' data, it is as feeble and overly biased a determination as all their other claims.)

[Cytotoxic]

The '97%' number is derived from a review perforated with misconduct.

[tarran]

My favorite incident in the latest attempt by the cult to generate the "97% of scientists believe" 'proof' resulted in them labeling Dr Toll (a major scientific proponent of AGW) "a denier" for insisting that the way they rated papers was crap.

2. Dana Nuccitelli @dana1981

@RichardTol You might want to actually read our paper before claiming it's 'coming apart' based on ignorant and wrong claims.

3. Richard Tol @RichardTol

@dana1981 Don't worry. I did read your paper. A silly idea poorly implemented.

4. Nuccitelli @dana1981

@RichardTol Have to say I'm disappointed. Didn't have you pegged as a denier before. Fine to dislike our paper, but don't lie about it.

5. Tol @RichardTol

@dana1981 I published 4 papers that show that humans are the main cause of global warming. You missed 1, and classified another as lukewarm

6. Tol @RichardTol

@dana1981 I published 118 neutral (in your parlance) papers. You missed 111. Of the 7 you assessed, you misclassified 4.

7. Tol @RichardTol

@dana1981 Most importantly, consensus is not an argument.

My favorite bit:

24. @dana1981 I think your data are a load of crap. Why is that a lie? I really think so.

25. @dana1981 I think your sampling strategy is a load of nonsense. How is that a misrepresentation? Did I falsely describe your sample?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

No rest for the wicked.

Also, I'm fucking longing for the day when Twitter goes out of fashion. Hopefully before it brings the rest of Western civilization down with it.

[CE]

Twitter will be replaced by something shorter. 140 characters is way too many. And who needs more than two hashtags?

[MJGreen]

I got into a bizarre discussion a couple months back over that 97% stat. People were using it as proof of AGW, I pointed out the problems with the study, a bit of back and forth until I link to some of the raw data and point out how awful the methodology is. People then turn around and say that of course that study Cook is useless, duh, why are you using its faults to argue against AGW? I was told I need something better to discredit AGW, something that 97% of scientists agree is real and dangerous.

So all of that effort just to go around in a big circle.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Might as well walk into a church and start trying to convince people that their god is a lie. It's a straight-up religious belief for many and the extreme aggression that the slightest doubt is subject to would be laughable if not for the very real consequences.

[CatoTheElder]

It's worse than that that.

Most non-Muslim religious believers are far more mellow than CAGW believers. The vast majority of them would impose no burden at all upon unbelievers. In contrast, CAGW believers advocate that the state should be empowered to deprive you of your standard of living to accomplish the ends of their faith. The burden imposed would be far higher than the tithes imposed by Medieval churches or the zakat imposed in Islamic states.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...to the United States to speak without (gasp!) going through the White House first.

Seems like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. would be taking the long way around from Israel to New York City.

[John]

Interesting story about the split occurring among the cultural left. This statement caught my eye.

Most surprising of all was when my sociology tutor ? a leading egalitarian theorist ? informed our class that he thought social construction theory was "mostly wish-wash."

Those who are unfamiliar with the nature-vs-nurture debate will probably not understand why such a statement is controversial. Cognitive and genetic scientists, and evolutionary theorists, have long been viewed with suspicion by sociologists. After all, one of the chief projects of cognitive and evolutionary scientists in the past two decades has been the dismantling of the standard social science model, the theoretical framework that looks to external influences (nurture) to explain human behaviour, as opposed to genes or other innate factors (nature). If my university is anything to go by, however, even social scientists themselves are beginning to see flaws in the old model.

http://www.breitbart.com/londo.....ural-left/

I wonder how many of these reasonable academic leftist the author is talking about will be honest enough to admit the full implications of this. If the human mind come mostly pre-wired and we are not the product of our environment, then humans can't be shaped through government action and the entire Progressive ideology is revealed to be the utter nonsense it is.

[Mad Scientist]

That's where the eugenicists come in.

[NoVAHockey]

was just thinking that -- the progressives 100 years ago were fine with the "nature" argument .

[John]

And it is not like the utter and complete lack of scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of that will stop them. The science can always be tortured in order to support the narrative.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ta-dah!

And we take this race and we, erm, weed it out to maintain strength in our race and...

Ta-dah!

[NoVAHockey]

I wouldn't hold out hope for consistency. Whatever finding then need to support the ideology will be the true one. until it isn't.

[Restoras]

If the human mind come mostly pre-wired and we are not the product of our environment, then humans can't be shaped through government action and the entire Progressive ideology is revealed to be the utter nonsense it is

The answer will, of course, be to simply eliminate those that can't be brought to heel. As will all tyrannical regimes.

[John]

That has always been the solution. But they only get to that by claiming they are there to help and make people better. I know they are bold and all, but it is pretty hard to get your victims to agree to give you power when you say up front your plan is to murder them.

[Irish]

Human beings are pretty obviously a mixture of genetics, culture, and the society in which they're raised.

That's why native Swedes in the Swedish welfare state have an unemployment rate of about 4% while immigrants and the children of immigrants have an unemployment rate closer to 20%. It gets even worse when you compare labor force participation.

All the evidence suggests that government can't effectively force people to 'be better.'

[Cytotoxic]

I thought young Swedes had terrible unemployment hence the rioting?

[Irish]

"I thought young Swedes had terrible unemployment hence the rioting?"

...Who do you think was doing the rioting? It sure wasn't people with Swedish ancestry.

It was mostly the children of immigrants or recent immigrants themselves. Because their unemployment is atrocious and they really have no options other than to stay on welfare.

Sweden actually has the highest gap between native employment and immigrant employment in the OECD.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Swedes gave up rioting, like, a long time ago.

[RBS]

Cognitive and genetic scientists, and evolutionary theorists, have long been viewed with suspicion by sociologists.

Oh, is that the way it works...

[See Double You]

I don't know. I could see progressives chucking out the "nudge" approach and calling for a full on dictatorship.

[Suthenboy]

What? That was the end game all along.

[MJGreen]

Cognitive and genetic scientists, and evolutionary theorists, have long been viewed with suspicion by sociologists.

And when it comes to cognitive and genetic scientists versus sociologists, you obviously should side with the sociologist.

[John Titor]

I have the sneaking suspicion that if that does happen and genetic enhancement becomes commonplace they'll start arguing for mandatory 'enhancements' to make humans more similar to their idealized New Man.

[John]

They will be all over that. And when that doesn't work and people decide they don't want to be what they were breed to be, the Progs will go back to the old fashioned way; murdering all those who won't conform.

[John Titor]

Where's Khan Noonien Singh when you need him?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Seti alpha IV. Watch out for the ear worms.

[Pro Libertate]

He's frozen on a ship called the Botany Bay, which is just about to leave the solar system.

[Shirley Knott]

Mostly by weeding out all the things they find distasteful about the "Old Man".
Enhancement by subtraction. No self-awareness permitted.

[John]

The New York Times is figuring out that maybe using the IRS as a political weapon won't work out so well.

he slashed budget is a victory for penny-wise-and-pound-foolish politicians. It amounts to payback demanded by House Republicans to penalize the I.R.S. for daring to scrutinize Tea Party operations that tried to claim exemptions under the tax code for nonpolitical groups. Democratic groups trying the same thing were also scrutinized.

Undermining the I.R.S. was part of the overall budget deal worked out by House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House. The agency ? hardly the most popular of essential government offices ? had too few defenders in the horse-trading. It is likely to suffer even more damage under the new Republican-controlled Congress.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/tax.....y-622.html

Go right ahead and pretend this didn't happen. Deny there is a problem and do nothing to solve it. Just let a majority of the country decide the IRS is a political weapon for the other side. See how that works out for you.

[See Double You]

Wow. $2 billion in lost revenue! The horror!!!

[Irish]

Hey man, if you add up state spending, local spending, and federal spending, that $2 billion dollars is a whole .03% of government spending.

Because of this, it will be anarchy.

[See Double You]

Contrary to what NYT implies, "lost revenue" is a neutral term. Or does the government having more of other people's money = good, and less of it = bad?

[Juice]

essential government offices

[Somalian Road Corporation]

"Daring to scrutinize", haha, oh, the poor oppressed unprivileged IRS, will no one stand up to defend this powerless victim?

[John Titor]

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States to speak without (gasp!) going through the White House first.

How dare the Diet make a decision without the Emperor's permission!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

The agreement between Boston and the United States Olympics Committee to possibly host the 2024 summer games forbids city employees from saying anything that might "reflect negatively" upon the games or the organizations behind it.

Don't worry, Boston citizens would never do anything to embarrass themselves or the city.

[Cytotoxic]

I mentioned this before, and I want it to get more attention so here it is again: the first Honduran ZEDE will be revealed in March.

http://panampost.com/panam-sta.....-in-march/

[John]

http://www.theatlantic.com/edu.....re/384547/

More broke college women turn to prostitution.

[kinnath]

too bad I don't have more money

[John]

Yeah. It is a good time to be rich. A good time.

[Slammer]

Obumbles should endorse Free College Prostitutes

[See Double You]

From the comments:

hahaha yeh, who woulda thought basing our entire education system solely on profit could have undesirable effects, huh.... yes, welcome to medieval america, ladies and germs... welcome to your new oligarchy 😉

And 83 "likes." These fuckers vote.

[lap83]

Prostitutes shouldn't be profit-oriented. They should submit themselves to the Top Men for the good of the State so our dear leaders can unwind after a long weary day of having their boots licked.

[MJGreen]

Medieval times: when profit reigned.

[John]

There is apparently hope for the new Star Wars movies.

George Lucas: Disney Didn't Use My Ideas For New Movies

http://deadline.com/2015/01/ge.....201354673/

[John Titor]

He's more machine now than man.

[A Frayed Knot]

I dares say, a new hope.

[Cytotoxic]

I've been hopeful since Abrams was put in charge. He even made Star Trek good!

[jesse.in.mb]

I've been meaning to ask you: what portion of what you say is meant purely to fuck with people? I always assume it's about 1/3, just enough that whatever you say gets a reaction even when you're being reasonable, but I just don't know.

[Cytotoxic]

Nothing I say is 'purely' to fuck with people but I sometimes choose a really douchey way to say what I want just cuz.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Comment on Twitchy:

"MSM's coverage of the exact same speech, we just change the names. First coverage up......

George Bush :

With his party in shambles, a debt that has nearly tripled since his administration and a mid-term elections that could only be described as an evisceration, a seemingly unaware and smug President Bush took to the podium taunting his democrat opponents like a high school bully, reminding them arrogantly that he'd won the last two elections.....

Ahh and now we switch to MSM coverage of Barack Obama:

For a nation that has never faced the struggles, neither this leader or nation has had to face, last night was President Obama's time to shine. His demeanour and confidence, his tone soothing and healing for this great nation of ours. In the face of an hostile opposition party, eroding peace in the middle east and obstacles not of his own making, President Obama reminded the nation that confidence and faith in one self will be what leads us out of these hard times, as he reminded everyone that despite incredible odds, he had in fact fought to victory, not once, but twice.

See how that works ?"

[John]

It is just disgraceful. They don't even pretend anymore.

[John]

And the Democratic Party is by any objective measure in worse shape than the Republican party was at any time during the Bush administration. But somehow, the Chocolate Nixon avoids blame for that. It is just bad luck.

[grrizzly]

V?clav Klaus Says Crimea Did Not Belong to Ukraine.

And the original:
V?clav Klaus: "Die Krim geh?rte nicht zur Ukraine"

I'm starting to understand why Matt Welch never liked Klaus.

[jesse.in.mb]

I can't wait to see how world leaders respond to David Cameron claiming large chunks of the globe were traditionally part of the British Empire.

[John Titor]

While we're at it let's just give Poland all the rest of the Ukraine. And then have Poland be absorbed by Russia, Germany and Austria.

[John Titor]

Well if we're getting technical on the whole 'Crimea historical ownership' thing, really Muscovy conquered it from the Golden Horde while they were forming the basis for modern Russia. Before that it was an independent area usually controlled mostly by steppe peoples. So really, you should be giving it back to either the descendants of all those Tatars Stalin killed or Genoa. Or if we're really going back, the Greeks.

[Juice]

Yeah, it's debatable, but it kinda was "traditionally" Russian.

[grrizzly]

Crimea is probably more "traditionally" Russian than the Kaliningrad Oblast. Oh, wait.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

A pity the tanks didn't keep rolling right on to Moscow instead of the Western betrayal as WW2 was wrapping up.

I also note that the name didn't get de-sovietized like Leningrad/Stalingrad.

[Cytotoxic]

A pity the USG didn't use its nukes to force the Soviet Union to surrender.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Putin braucht Lebensraum.

[Derpetologist]

During the State of the Union, when Obama talked about Iran there was picture of nations in the talks. I saw the Belgian flag. I'm pretty sure some intern got it confused with Germany. Gimme a minute and I'll find it.

In the mean time, check out this crazy question from the Defense Language Aptitude Battery:

http://i.imgur.com/rRA21.png

[Derpetologist]

Hmm. Different graphics on the White House youtube than the NBC live broadcast.

I remember seeing the Belgian flag because the stripes were vertical instead horizontal.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Someone got to that person.

Belgermany!

[Cytotoxic]

WTF oh thank God my speech therapy I took when I was 5 or something was nothing like that shit.

[Derpetologist]

It's supposed to measure your ability to learn foreign languages. The last section of the test is a bunch of picture word puzzles.

[Cytotoxic]

I've learned Spanish pretty well so I don't need this bizarre test.

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

I took this test way back in the day. It included pictures, words, and even recorded sections. I think it was to see if you could make odd associations of made up languages.

I fell asleep during part of it.

[Steve G]

For a meaningless test, that was a stressful one. It was like several hours of 'beat the clock'. I did well, but just remember being mentally exhausted afterwards...

[The Late P Brooks]

Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, are considering razing the former home of mass murderer Adam Lanza and preserving it as "open space."

Via eminent domain, presumably.

Collective punishment for tainted blood.

[Marshall Gill]

Evil spirits inhibit the ground there, duh!

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

Has Reason covered this guy? Father wants Dept Family and Children Services worked charged after spending 7 months in jail.

A Gwinnett County father cleared after spending seven months in jail now wants police to charge the state worker who accused him of attacking her.
John Blue lost his interior design shop, his apartment and most of his belongings as he sat in jail for seven months. It took a jury less than 45 minutes to find Blue not guilty.
For the past several days, Blue has been living in his van. Police said it is the same van he used to ram a state welfare worker last summer during a Division of Family and Children's Services investigation at the time.
Blue left with his children, and a Levi's Call was issued hours later. As police arrested Blue that day, he insisted that the worker assaulted him.
"She crashed my car. She rammed my car," said Blue.
Blue said his girlfriend and sons told police he didn't attack the DFCS worker, but no one listened.

[John]

Holy shit. They need to set up some kind of fund for that guy. And where the hell is a pitch fork weidling mob when you need one. That CPS bitch and the DA who brought that case need to be hung.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Hanged. A horse is hung, a person is hanged.

[lap83]

It's John, don't mess with perfection

[Homple]

Some persons are hung.

Charlie: They said you was hung.
Bart: And they was right.

[OldMexican]

Jackand Ace argues that Libertarians have no business complaining about policies that purport to mitigate the effects of AGW by curbing carbon emissions.

I told him that he's full of shit. That Science has not proven that any policy will work to mitigate the effects of AGW because science has not determined what those effects will be, only that man-made global warming is real.

[Irish]

Jackand Ace is clearly Mary and you should just avoid her.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

My private conspiracy theory is that all such commentators are Weigel with an army of sockpuppets.

Hey, as conspiracy theories go, it's not that bad.

[Libertarian]

From the article on driving while eating a cheese burger: "Cobb County police spokesman Mike Bowman declined comment."

Ya know, if your job is "spokesman" and you "declined comment", I'm wondering just what the hell the taxpayers are paying you for.

[OldMexican]

Holder's Justice Department Decides Not To Press Charges Against Officer Darren Wilson On Civil Rights Violation

A broader civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open, however. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black.

I guess No Justice, No Piss?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Remember when Rosa Parks robbed a (minority-owned) store, assaulted the clerk, and then demanded to sit at the front of the bus during her getaway?

[Marshall Gill]

You got me, SRC. I was actually thinking to myself, "Rosa Parks didn't really rob a store, did she?"

Well done.

[lap83]

That's about as truthful a story as the one they tell elementary students. That she was just a little old lady who was tired one day and refused to go to the back of the bus.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I'm not around much anymore,,but I was curious if that shithead Dunphy has been here spouting that cops are treated more harshly than "civilians"'are.

Perhaps he can explain why a cop got a whole 30 months for raping a teenager in his home after the judge specifically cited his "service"'as the reason for the lenient sentence.

Oh, and for good measure, the cop blamed the criminal justice system being lenient on a person who pulled a gun on him once as the reason he decided to rape a teenage girl.

http://blog.ctnews.com/connect.....x-assault/

[Bobarian (Mr. Xtreme)]

THat is fucking horrific.

[Zeb]

Shithead Dunphy has either lost it completely or has been taken over by a performance artist as far as I can tell.

[Redmanfms]

It's not dumpster.

My educated guess is Tulpa. Tulpa has long complained about people not paying attention to him once they figure out his latest handle, so he chose a handle people absolutely knew nobody could resist.

It's not even a remotely convincing facsimile for anybody who actually spent any time posting with dumpster.

[Redmanfms]

*he knew absolutely nobody could resist.