A.M. Links: Jon Stewart Quits Daily Show, NBC Suspends Brian Williams, Obama Seeks War Powers Bill to Fight ISIS

• 

  Credit: Wikimedia Commons

  Jon Stewart is stepping down from The Daily Show.

• NBC has suspended Brian Williams.

• The Obama administration will seek a war powers bill from Congress authorizing the U.S. to fight ISIS.

• The Justice Department is expected to release its report on the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting death of Michael Brown sometime this week.

• "A man who portrayed himself as an avowed atheist on social media was in custody early Wednesday after allegedly gunning down three Muslim students in a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina hours earlier."

• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has opened an office in Iowa, making him the first GOP presidential hopeful to stake out turf in preparation for that state's "first in the nation" 2016 caucuses.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

NBC has suspended Brian Williams.

Williams wants to spend more time at home rescuing his family anyway.

[gaijin]

Plus, now that Stewart is leaving the Daily Show, maybe Williams could get a gig doing fake news on a real fake news show...

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

*opera applause*

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Jon Stewart is stepping down from The Daily Show.

NBC has suspended Brian Williams."

WE HAVE THEM ON THE RUN!

[Injun, as in from India]

Who knows? Maybe Jon Stewart will take over Brian Williams' spot in NBC. It's not like fabrication and spin are alien to both "news" programs anyway.

[PBR Streetgang]

Lyin' in bed, just like Brian Williams did

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 BNL

[db]

How in the world did it take this long for someone to make this joke here? I've been looking for an opportunity.

[Robert]

Is that Stewart or Williams in the photo? What good is it without ID? People who know what they look like (not me, obviously) don't need one, and those who don't aren't enlightened by an unlabeled one.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

26) The Washington Post had an article today " that the federal government's nutrition advisory panel is set to withdraw its recommendation against eating high-cholesterol food. "?for healthy adults, eating foods high in cholesterol may not significantly affect the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease."

Can you imagine if 20 years a scientist had walked into a nutrition conference with results showing cholesterol isn't a big deal? He would've been laughed off the stage, but now it's widely accepted. In my own lifetime, there have been many such scientific consensuses overturned?that ulcers are caused by stress, that light could travel at only one speed, that the universe someday will collapse in on itself in a "big crunch"?all once widely accepted and now discredited. But that's how science works! We get new evidence, and old ideas change. This quote from the article is key, I think: "in science, change is normal and expected."

Now compare this to the field of climate research and you see just how unscientific that field really is?where messy data are "corrected", where competing hypotheses shot down without consideration, and where there the consensus can't be challenged. As confusing as the sometimes whipsaw changes in nutrition science might be, at least that's a reflection of true scientific inquiry.

[Ted S.]

That's an interesting WaPo article.

[sarcasmic]

Nothing to be confused about. Nutrition isn't a religion, while environmentalism is.

[Ted S.]

Food is a religion for a lot of these people.

[sarcasmic]

But the religious ones haven't taken over the entire field, unlike environmentalism.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

-1 Juice Cleanse?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Too sticky

[sarcasmic]

You misspelled stinky.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Steve Jobs might have something to say about the medical efficacy of those, if he were still alive to say anything.

[BigT]

Food Telling other people what to do is a religion for a lot of these people.

[gaijin]

Agree...thus:

"in scienceclimate, change is normal and expected."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It isn't a big deal. I have bouts with cholesterol and learned there's bad and good cholesterol and more often than not it's more about genetics (in my case anyway) than diet per se.

As for the evil manufactured chemical pills naturopaths are against, it was Crestor that got my levels down and it's been normal ever since.

[Aloysious]

I keep asking myself, 'Self, what is the difference between consensus, as defined by our AGW friends, and religious dogma?'

The answer I observe is not much at all.

I like the messy aspect of science; competition amongst individuals is not only healthy, it can lead to discoveries in areas unlooked for.

/just my opinion.

[sarcasmic]

Mmmm. Having bacon, eggs, and french toast for dinner tonight. Yummy, yummy, cholesterol...

[Juice]

Sounds pretty healthy as long as you don't put any syrup on that french toast.

[Suthenboy]

Crawfish season is upon us. Yum. I am sure my doc will be panicking again when she sees my blood work. My normal cholesterol will shoot through the roof for a month or so.

[sarcasmic]

Mmmmmm. Mudbugs...

True story:
When I was in cooking school we got a flat of live crawdads to be used for some gumbo or something. Well, I took one, wrapped it in a wet paper towel, and took it home to my neighbor who had a couple piranhas in a huge fish tank. I figured it would be safe, but I had no idea how much it would thrive. At first it would eat the fishes' leftovers, but soon enough it learned to stand tall so the feeder-goldfish would go hide under it. Then *chomp* it would grab them.
By the time I moved away a year later, it had doubled in size.

[This Machine Loves Koch]

Haha, reminds me of a story I heard from one of the Army schoolhouses:

The school had a rattlesnake in a cage that would occasionally be fed live rats. One day, they placed a rat in cage and awaited his demise at the fangs of the rattler, but the doomed rodent jumped on top of the snake's head and clung to it for dear life while the snake writhed and thrashed. When the two finally separated, the snake retreated to a corner of the cage and left the rat to his own devices. So they named the rat "Ranger" and put him in a cage of his own, right next to the snake's cage.

[sarcasmic]

These days people who keep snakes will feed them frozen/thawed rodents because if the snake isn't hungry, the mouse or rat just might chew the pet in half.

[Juice]

crawdads

yankee

[Entropy Void]

"But that's how science works!"

B-b-b-b-but that's how Science! works.

FTFY

[Warty]

that light could travel at only one speed

I'm with you on the rest, but we've known for many, many years that light travels slower in a medium than in a vacuum.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jon Stewart is stepping down from The Daily Show.

Who's going to be the nightly check on power now? (Power being Fox News.)

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

FIGHT THE POWER!

[DontShootMe]

Jon Stewart had to step down before NBC would give Stewart the Brian Williams job.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I might have to shoot you.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Holy shit, nooooooooooo

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wasn't someone supposedly courting Stewart last year for a respectable news job?

[Charles Easterly]

Yes: "NBC Wanted to Hire Jon Stewart to Host Meet the Press"
http://nymag.com/daily/intelli.....-host.html

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh yeah, that's it. While I don't like Stewart's politics, he's probably no less qualified than the "real journalist" they'll get to replace Todd or whoever is doing the show now.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

But apparently we're not supposed to take him seriously because 'I'm just a comedian ma'am!'

GTFOH.

[Aloysious]

Who's going to be the nightly check on power now?

Pick any random idiot on the Big Three. Or MSNBC/CNN.

[Rich]

Melitha!

[Aloysious]

Perfect.

[Monty Crisco]

AMERICA'S FOREMOST PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL, YOU CRETIN!!!

[Entropy Void]

Thurly, you jetht.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Justice Department is expected to release its report on the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting death of Michael Brown sometime this week.

Who?

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Uh...FIGHT THE POWER!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Let me gaze into my crystal ball...they're going to say there isn't enough evidence to indict. And there won't be any serious response, although when a grand jury said the same thing last year it was the signal for a Great National Conversation complete with arson and looting.

[Gus]

Whitney Houston's ex-husband?

[Lord Humungus]

Obama Has Sharp Words for Staples CEO, Businesses Blaming Obamacare for Slashes in Employee Hours

"I haven't looked at Staples stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is, but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security and if they can't, then they should be willing to allow those workers to get the Affordable Care Act without cutting wages," the president continued.

Has peak derp been reached yet?

[Doctor Whom]

I thought that the Obamessiah (swt) had used his pen and his phone to repeal the law of cause and effect.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Way to elevate yet another detractor to par with the presidency.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I bet a printout of his Enemies List would be as thick as the old NY phone book.

[Monty Crisco]

Double down on economic ignorance, class warfare and naked populism!!!

[Injun, as in from India]

He is our own Hugo Chavez in the making. If there were no constitutional limits, he would be bloviating AND shoving his "utopian vision" down our throats.

[Ted S.]

How quickly would Obama bankrupt the company if he were CEO?

[TwB]

In 7 days. 4 of which would be at the golf course.

[expat]

I think "Peak Derp", like "Peak Oil", has been completely discredited. There are still VAST reserves of both available.

[TwB]

My god, what a prick. January 2017 cannot get here fast enough.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Huh? So does this imply that the reverse is true: in other words: only poor CEOs and small businesses treat employees well?

[NebulousFocus]

Reminded me of this.

"Michael Jordan...latter made a terrible mistake when he chided the golf-obsessive Obama as in fact a "hack" and a "sh***y" golfer. Obama quickly fired back that Jordan "was not well informed." He then went after Jordan himself as the less than successful basketball-team owner: "He might want to spend more time thinking about the Bobcats ? or the Hornets." ... "But there is no doubt that Michael is a better golfer than I am. Of course if I was playing twice a day for the last 15 years, then that might not be the case."

[R C Dean]

What a childish, petty little shit he is.

[Juice]

Both of them are. I want to see them box each other.

[Catatafish]

Ummm...only by applying Obamalogic can reducing hours worked = "cutting wages."

[Suthenboy]

Wasn't shreeky telling us just a few days ago that no one has had their hours cut over Obumblecare?

[MJGreen]

Wow, he went the Tony route. If they can't afford to give their workers health care, then maybe their business isn't really profitable.

[Juice]

You could pay the CEO nothing and still not even come close to the costs involved. Goddamn Obama is fucking stupid.

[sarcasmic]

'This pic sums up family vacation!' Jewel wears her bikini as she holidays with ex Ty Murray and their son

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....y-son.html
Looks like she finally fixed her snaggleteeth.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Orthodontia is a God send, yes?

[Restoras]

I kinda thought her snaggletooth was endearing.

[sarcasmic]

That makes one of us.

[sarcasmic]

'It was this weird other world': Dakota Johnson compares making Fifty Shades Of Grey to children's movie Harry Potter

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-Grey.html
I don't get it. Sometimes she looks really hot, and sometimes really not.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Then Harry whipped out his wand..."

[Ted S.]

Harry Potter doing BDSM with Hermione?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"You've been a naughty girl...I'm going to lay a curse on you...guess what's the one way to remove the curse?"

[sarcasmic]

I wish SugarFree was here...

[SugarFree]

I am here, but Harry Potter and the Girl with Jack Kirby Teeth isn't sparking anything. I may need to renew my filth reserves on some sort of retreat.

[Redmanfms]

She looks really fucking old to be 25.

I don't remember her mother aging that badly.

Also, she's better as a blonde.

[invisible furry hand]

Fifty Shades of Steve Buscemi is all you need

[Elspeth Flashman]

Yes!

[Stormy Dragon]

I see your Steve Buscemi and raise you the Gilbert Gottfried Audio Book version (NSFW).

[Caleb Turberville]

I know I said I wanted Norm Macdonald and Dennis Miller to replace Brian Williams, but now I want them to replace Jon Stewart.

[invisible furry hand]

a full investigation has been ordered after a public school handed out highly inappropriate sex surveys to young pupils and asked them to advertise themselves on explicit, mocked-up dating websites.

[Rich]

Woman shot by police was 'like a zombie'

Up to your old tricks again, eh, ifh?

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

She was a strange lady, she made them nervous.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Those administrators should stick to hentai to get their sexual stimulation.

[sarcasmic]

Supermarket chic: Megan Fox cuts an enviable shape in just a casual white T-shirt and figure-hugging jeans

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ylish.html
Dang. I've always been a sucker for women who rock tight jeans.

[NebulousFocus]

But those thumbs...

[sarcasmic]

I wasn't looking at her thumbs.

[Restoras]

She needs to hit the squat rack, and fast before the gluteal amnesia is irreversible.

[R C Dean]

She actually looks really . . . ordinary in those clothes.

[Lord Humungus]

Jonah Goldberg: NBC's Puffed Up Anchor
Surrounded by fans and protected from criticism, it's no wonder Brian Williams became a serial fabulist.

But it is instructive to watch Williams's fellow media Olympians rally to his defense. They have an investment in a system that rewards celebrity so handsomely ? and not just financially. They are the last beneficiaries of the Old Order, when nightly news anchors were cultivated to be "the voice of God," as insiders at CBS used to call the position.

Those days are almost gone. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, only 27 percent of respondents could correctly identify Williams from his photograph, and only 3 percent could say what he did for a living. Three percent thought he was Tom Brokaw, and 2 percent thought he was Joe Biden.

Thanks to social media ? which was Williams's undoing (and Dan Rather's) ? we are living in the twilight of the idols. But, as always, the last people to let go of the old gods are their loyal priests.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

But, as always, the last people to let go of the old gods are their loyal priests.

*roots around for Elder Sign*

[VicRattlehead]

"IA IA Cthulu Phthagan!"

[Charles Easterly]

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

Go Arkham High Ccephalopods!

[Lord Humungus]

http://miskatonic-university.org/

[Aloysious]

...and 2 percent thought he was Joe Biden.

ha ha ha. Possibly the world's biggest insult.

[Bardas Phocas]

In the future ...
we'll all be Joe Biden for five minutes.

[Zombie Jimbo]

Five minutes of chloroform.

[Lord Humungus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGaQVA8_QrY

[Fist of Etiquette]

A man who portrayed himself as an avowed atheist on social media was in custody early Wednesday after allegedly gunning down three Muslim students...

Atheists, wait as I dig out my broad brush, I have some painting to do.

[Jordan]

According to shriek, this means that modern atheism is violent.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

At least 8% of the time!

[Bee Tagger]

Broad brush? That's what I use to paint all women as bad drivers.

[Cyto]

I eagerly await the president's speech chiding us to avoid blaming all atheists and urging all parties to respect their beliefs and avoid the urge to act out violently against atheists.

[Injun, as in from India]

Who is an atheists here? I will start by saying that I am one of them.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Militant agnostic

[Lord Humungus]

Been an atheist for over thirty years now. Decidedly non-militant since I think people can believe whatever they want - as long as they don't bother me about it.

[Iucundus]

This, except I haven't been around for thirty years.

[Florida Man]

I think we are legion here. But I'm a more not interested in religion atheist vs anti-religion atheist.

[BigT]

12 years of Catholic school made me an atheist.

[Old Man With Candy]

Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothese-la.

[WTF]

"Je suis ath??"

[Tonio]

I am a legionaire!

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I am, however I seem to constantly find myself in relationships with Catholics and sometimes Mormons. I've found it's a lot easier to get along with somebody who believes in capitalism and leaving people alone than with an atheist who's substituted God for government.

Of course, coming across a unicorn would be nice too.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Much the same here.

[Steve G]

Present...until I'm dead, then..nothing

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Montana lawmaker: Yoga pants should be illegal in public

The proposal would expand indecent exposure law to include any nipple exposure, including men's, and any garment that "gives the appearance or simulates" a person's buttocks, genitals, pelvic area or female nipple.

The Republican from Missoula said tight-fitting beige clothing could be considered indecent exposure under his proposal.

"Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway," Moore said after the hearing.

Moore said he wouldn't have a problem with people being arrested for wearing provocative clothing but that he'd trust law enforcement officials to use their discretion. He couldn't be sure whether police would act on that provision or if Montana residents would challenge it.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah! Ban muffin-tops! Arrest those fatties!

Oh, he meant everyone, even attractive women? Never mind.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

"You have to take the bitter with the sweet"

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I'll take the bad with the oh so good.

Although I have never been to Montana...

[Ted S.]

Yeah! Ban muffin-tops! Arrest those fatties!

That's what corsets are for.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Burn him at the stake

[Suthenboy]

^This.

When they go out of style it will bring tears to my eyes.

Seriously, fuck this guy.

[Jordan]

Moore said he wouldn't have a problem with people being arrested for wearing provocative clothing but that he'd trust law enforcement officials to use their discretion.

What a fucking idiot.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Lady: Hey officer, sorry about that speeding back there, hope you don't mind.

Officer: Well, you have been very naughty, but I think I can let...WHAT THE FUCK, ARE YOU WEARING YOGA PANTS? OUT OF THE FUCKING CAR! NOW! *BLAM, BLAM, BLAM*

[Charles Easterly]

Discretion is only using three bullets, and being a police officer means never having to say you're sorry.

[gaijin]

Something tells me this guy has thoughts he wishes he didn't...or gets emabrassing public erections...when he sees women wearing yoga pants. Maybe next he'll ask them to wear headscarves.

[SugarFree]

Probably an atheist.

[Tonio]

[golf clap]

[TwB]

Remove him from office. Immediately.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The proposal would expand indecent exposure law to include any nipple exposure, including men's, and any garment that "gives the appearance or simulates" a person's buttocks, genitals, pelvic area or female nipple.

But these shirts are still okay, right?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Poor Batman, he gets no respect

[Catatafish]

Why not just go whole hog and mandate a full body covering in public? Say, like a large black drape or something...

...OH.

[Lord Humungus]

but I love gals wearing yoga pants.

[Cyto]

One of my biggest pet peeves. The mom jeans have been replaced with yoga pants. At the park. In the pickup line at school. Everywhere you go middle aged moms are sporting spandex.

Look, when you were twenty and in shape that would have been fun. But at fourty? You are the walking embodiment of facebook fishing. Yes, I see you bending over to pick something up behind your range rover. Congratulations on having lost most of that baby weight. Now get back in the car and pick up your kid so we can all get on with our lives.

The despiration for attention oozes off of them so thick it almost obscures the pretentious edge that let's you know that any actual attention will be met with righteous indignation.

[Lord Humungus]

Agree - I'm thinking of when I I visit the nearby university - college girls with Ugg boots.

[Don Mynack]

You are either insane or a male homosexual.

[Old Man With Candy]

Not mutually exclusive.

[Charles Easterly]

"The despiration for attention oozes off of them so thick it almost obscures the pretentious edge that let's you know that any actual attention will be met with righteous indignation."

Nice.

[Tonio]

Or maybe they've gone beyond listening to bitter people like you. Maybe society has finally come to accept that you don't have to be a twentysomething toothpick girl to be attractive.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I have no problem obliging the MILFs in yoga pants who may or may not want me to glance at their butt.

[Charles Easterly]

Some of us earn the derision of others some of the time, Tonio, including some women.

[Lord Humungus]

The women in my neighborhood all look as if they are hitting the gym. Exercise clothes have become the new housecoat.

[Mickey Rat]

Yoga pants should not be illegal, but thete are times I wonder what percentage of women are exhibitionists at heart.

Not that I mind, just wonder.

[Rich]

"The DOJ investigation is ongoing and should be completed in a few days," said Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "It will be released, and then everyone can draw everyone already having drawn their own conclusion."

FTFY

[invisible furry hand]

Russian Mafia gravestones are pretty much what you'd expect

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Those Orthodox Crosses are definitely going to help them in the afterlife

[Monty Crisco]

Understated. Somber. Introspective. Everything I expected.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Wow, that's a *lot* of dead Mafia guys.

[Monty Crisco]

IT'S THE FUCKING RUSSIAN MOB!!! "Longevity" is probably NOT in their credo...

[Rich]

That's a great site, ifh. Thanks!

Here's another sampling from it: Saddest Playgrounds Ever

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Those were...interesting.

Do they get buried with their cars, I wonder?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Maybe in their cars

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Saves on coffin expense!

[Catatafish]

I love the fact that the 1994 Toyota Celica got its own headstone.

[Illocust]

The statues are pretty cool. It's a shame most of them cheaped out and just did pictures.

[TwB]

A lot of them died with class. An S-Class Mercedes, that is.

[Elspeth Flashman]

You can't take it with you, so why don't you leave some with the guy who made your gravestone?

[Lord Humungus]

Samsung warns people not to discuss 'sensitive information' in front of their SmartTV

The company's voice-recognition software allows viewers to communicate with their television by talking to it. It is enabled when a microphone symbol appears. Basically, instead of using a traditional remote control to change the channel, people can simply ask their Samsung TV to change it for them by uttering a few words.

This is worrying people, largely because of a warning hidden deep inside its "privacy policy." The Daily Beast first spotted this sentence, which reads:

Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.

[Jordan]

Does anybody actually prefer voice controls to remote controls? I fucking hate those automated phone systems that make you talk to them.

[Illocust]

Nope, voice control would be great if it was actually good at understanding what we were saying, but it sucks so nobody likes it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You have to think in Russian

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Charles Bronson

[NebulousFocus]

+1 Firefox

[Restoras]

+1 Foxbat scare

[Entropy Void]

+1 Biting Elbows

[Fizban]

Clint will shoot your Bronson out of the sky.

[Ted S.]

All those text daughters know how awful voice recognition is.

[Matrix]

Yes, in some cases. I use my XBOne to control TV and such. I often say "XBox Pause" if I am watching something and need to run to the bathroom. Then "XBox Play" when I return. It's easier than grabbing the controller, waiting for it to turn back on, and then pause it.

Also helpful if I'm making something in the kitchen and want to change the channel or pause it for some reason (like using the blender and can't hear the TV).

voice controls come in handy, and I use them everyday.

[Pope Jimbo]

In the late 90's I was working on a flight reservation system that included voice recognition. Since I'm a natural mumbler, the developers used me as the gold standard for testing.

I never was able to get it to let make a reservation out of Dulles. It always kept trying to book out of Dallas instead.

Yeah, it is infuriating for those of us who don't enunciate.

[Lord Humungus]

*raises hand* I too am a mumbler. Big jaw doesn't help... takes too much energy to enunciate.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

And the hockey mask doesn't help either.

[Nephilium]

Tip for the automated phone systems... Most of the ones that ask you to say something will still accept digits entered by the dialpad. So if the menu says, "Please say Technical Support, Service, or Billing", those usually will map to options 1, 2, or 3 respectively.

[UnCivilServant]

I've run itno some where pushing buttons just pisses them off and they'll repeat the previous menu in a nastier tone.

[Stormy Dragon]

A lot of them will send you to a live person if you push zero or don't respond to the prompts.

[Bee Tagger]

"Samsung warns people not to discuss 'sensitive information' in front of their SmartTV"

Point the TV toward the wall, got it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So no talking about which idol I'm voting for, got it.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

WAY TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY, FISTY!!!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I actually have a Samsung SmartTV at home, but it's an early generation one that's too dumb to know when the gf and I are fighting.

[Fizban]

It's not the fighting they care about, it's the make up....

[Doghouse Riley Jr.]

+Final sequence of Kentucky Fried Movie

[Lord Humungus]

Ukraine peace summit overshadowed by some of war's worst fighting

The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine were due to attend a peace summit on Wednesday, but Ukraine's pro-Moscow separatists diminished the chance of a deal by launching some of the war's worst fighting in an assault on a government garrison.

Kiev said 19 of its soldiers were killed in a day of pro-Russian separatist assaults at a single location near the railway hub of Debaltseve, some of the worst losses it has reported in nine months of war.

Rebels who tore up a five-month-old truce in January are trying to encircle government forces in Debaltseve, a strategic location that would let them link up their main strongholds.

[Bee Tagger]

The Obama administration will seek a war powers bill from Congress authorizing the U.S. to fight ISIS.

I would have gone for a Max Powers bill.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://espn.go.com/chicago/sto.....ends-coach

Little league team stripped of title. How low-down do you have to be to strip a little league team of its title?

[gaijin]

Racism.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I grew up in a small town and my uncle coached a few of my little league teams. He came over a few months ago to help me tile a floor, and we talked about the ol' little league days.

He blew my mind with how dirty little league was even in my small town.

That said, no need to strip a fucking title.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

When my city formed its first elite soccer team in the 1980s it was the same crap. I was on the losing end of corruption. I found out that I was cut after a parent paid the coach to get his kid on the team. And since I was from a different association than the majority, they figured to let me go. The assistant coach was against it and felt the need to tell my parents. Throughout the training camp, I was among the top 5 players - and the only left-foot to boot.

The team split for France for a tournament without me and I was bitter for a very long time after that. There was some measure of satisfaction when the parents freaked out I was cut.

I was indeed one of the better players if I may say so.

Life. I paid my FAIR SHARE DAMN YOU!

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

They made an elaborate effort to poach players from surrounding team's areas. Tried to fix it up after the fact and got caught.

Not the kids fault, but the adults were dirty.

[creech]

Long time ago, etc., every LL team I played on or coached or saw had five or six kids who couldn't hit or catch. Yet today every LL team that makes it to Williamsport looks like a team of all-stars. Are what we see at Wport a selected team of district all-stars or are they the actual kids who got picked for each team when the season opening draft took place?

[Bobandy]

Not quite either. The teams you see are the selected all-stars from a specific little league. They play other all-star teams from little leagues in their district for the right to represent that district, and so on to the state and national level.

Source: I went through this about 12 years ago

[Lord Humungus]

Why it doesn't matter that the Kochs are social liberals

According to a new analysis from Think Progress, the Kochs' political machine ? encompassing such organizations as Freedom Partners Action Fund and Americans for Prosperity ? has contributed $86 million to candidates and groups who oppose abortion rights and marriage equality since 2010 ? a total 1,000 times that contributed to candidates and organizations that voice traditionally liberal views on those issues. Of 265 elected officials who benefited from Koch-linked money, the report finds, all but nine opposed abortion rights, while a scant 12 supported marriage equality.

It's enough for Think Progress to assert that the Kochs aren't really socially liberal at all. But there are two more salient takeaways from the data. First, it's a reminder of how Americans and their politicians have become increasingly ideologically consistent in their views. Tell me a politician's opinion on the Affordable Care Act, and I'll have a pretty good idea of what she thinks about abortion. So for the Kochs, supporting anti-regulation, anti-safety net, anti-tax, anti-climate science candidates and causes inevitably means supporting candidates and groups that don't adhere to their views on social issues.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It's almost as if there's a lesson there for libertarians.

[Tonio]

Bide our time until we can purge the SoCons?

[SugarFree]

No, just give them money and vote for them and shut up about it.

[Ted S.]

Principals, not principles.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

But you were a racist if you didn't support Obama before he "evolved" on gay marriage.

[Injun, as in from India]

Pick your f***ing poison.

A social liberal who will shaft you with high taxes and regulations, or a fiscal conservative who will have problems with who sticks their dick where.

[Bee Tagger]

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has opened an office in Iowa

Scott Walker's dad is going to be so upset when he finds out Scott Walker doesn't just owe, uh, Zack Morris 5 bucks.

[invisible furry hand]

Holy fuck, Australia has been given a wild card into Eurovision

[Jordan]

Is that a soccer thing?

[Ted S.]

It's a contest to find Europe's worst song.

[Bwana]

You forget that it revealed this majesty.

[Matrix]

It's some "talent" competition, from what I understand. My girlfriend is obsessed with it.

[Lord Humungus]

AP Exclusive: 20,000 foreign fighters flock to Syria, Iraq

Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate of a top terrorism concern.

Intelligence agencies now believe that as many as 150 Americans have tried and some have succeeded in reaching in the Syrian war zone, officials told the House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday. Some of those Americans were arrested en route, some died in the area and a small number are still fighting with extremists.

[Illocust]

This sounds like a good thing. Having the crazies go to a place to get themselves killed that isn't near me seems like something I'd want.

[The Other Kevin]

Just send over some SEAL snipers Adam Lanzas and call it a day.

[Injun, as in from India]

Wouldn't that be awesome?

Send all the loonies to fight the Islamic f***tards.

[Tonio]

Fight them? No, send the loonies to join them. They'll be ineffective soldiers, plus we get to airstrike them. Win-win.

[John]

Good. If they were not there, they would be other places causing problems. Better to have them all in one place. We should be encouraging foreign fighters to go there. Then when we think we have attracted all we can, we should go in and kill every single one of them.

[R C Dean]

Sure, but what side are they fighting for?

Some Americans, at least, have joined the Kurds.

[Lord Humungus]

Water Manager Caught Peeing in Reservoir That Supplies San Francisco's Drinking Water

A water manager is expected to be disciplined after the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission confirmed he urinated in a San Francisco Bay Area reservoir last month, the Associated Press reports.

Martin Sanchez was reportedly up for a promotion, but now he could face a suspension without pay, according to the AP. The reservoir, located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, had been drained for maintenance, and authorities say the incident does not pose a public health risk.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Job security?

[Lord Humungus]

America's Prince problem: How Black people ? and art ? became devalued

But under conditions of neoliberalism, which favor the unregulated, unchecked reach of huge multinational corporations into every area of our lives, art and music and the people who produce them all become merely marketable commodities. Thus, Black artists are asked to perform on stage, even though our musical output is economically undercompensated, and our artistic aesthetic is appropriated by the likes of Iggy Azalea and Macklemore, and the hot blue-eyed soul artist of the moment. To the Recording Academy's credit, Iggy received no awards this year. And this year's darling was blue-eyed soul singer Sam Smith. Though I am a fan of Smith (the boy can sang), I am not a fan of the way white people are often enamored of and quick to reward white soul, while they exploit and dismiss the genius of Black soul. In the rap categories, Kendrick Lamar, who was snubbed last year, and Eminem came away the big winners. Notably, no Black women won in any rap categories.

What does the systematic exclusion of Black women from categories other than R&B mean for our art and our politics? Has the mainstream Black Lives Matter narrative yet determined how to properly incorporate a critique of gender and sexism?

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

That is dumb enough to be a doctoral dissertation.

[Injun, as in from India]

I burst out laughing at your comment. Made my freaking morning.

[Rich]

Thus, Black artists are asked to perform on stage, even though our musical output is economically undercompensated, andIma let you finish, but ....

[invisible furry hand]

Neoliberalism is such a useful word, isn't it? Any time someone uses it seriously, I know they're an idiot.

[Irish]

Neoliberalism is particularly wonderful because it can mean contradictory things depending on what argument you're trying to make.

I saw a video on 'neoliberalism' on Youtube that I won't link to spare you your sanity. First I learned that neoliberalism is libertarian then I learned that neoliberalism is anti-gay and wants women to stay in the kitchen.

It was never explained how something can be libertarian and also oppose the individual rights of gays and women, but facts didn't seem to concern them much.

[Redmanfms]

On the plus side, at least the progressives are finally coming back around to what they originally were (speech-wise anyway, politically they never changed), a third-way socialist expressly anti-liberal political movement. It should make it easier to reclaim the liberal brand pioneered by Peel.

[NebulousFocus]

Fucking Salon. Here's a link that won't give them traffic if you really want to read this crap.

[Coeus]

While the song considers all the ways that white supremacy has turned Black people into killers, Lamar ends yet again pondering, "Why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street when gang bangin made me kill a n***a Blacker than me? Hypocrite." That Lamar cannot narratively get past the horrific crime he has witnessed in his own community and that he calls himself and others hypocrites for crying over Trayvon Martin's slain body while apparently not doing so for Black men slain by other Black men gives lie to the idea that Black people don't care about "black-on-black crime."

No it doesn't. It's specifically making that point.

[Ted S.]

You can stop at the word "neoliberal", which has no real meaning, instead being used as social signalling.

[Iucundus]

Thaddeus Russell's A Renegade History of the United States had some excellent analysis of how the profit motive promoted interracial fraternization (including sexual intercourse, even during the lynching period) and the dissemination of black culture. These activities, btw, were often arranged by organized criminals who didn't care about government or the conventional morality of the time.

[John]

My parents talk about how explosive the 1950s really were. Both of them grew up not knowing or meeting many or any actual black people. A good number of whites at that time didn't. Millions of people's first experience of black culture was through popular music. Rock and Roll was different than Jazz in that white culture wasn't able to tame it. White culture took black Jazz and turned it into big band music for the masses. Rock and Roll was not like that. Though it was white at first, it got people to accept black music and black culture in a way they hadn't before. There had been successful black artists before, but they were always people like Nat King Cole or Count Bassie, blacks doing basically white music. Rock and Roll set the table for performers like Ray Charles and Motown which were black people doing black music. It did as much to integrate the country as anything. I think that is why Progs bitch and moan so much about white musicians stealing black music rather than seeing it as what it was, white musicians turning white audiences on to black music, because they just hate the idea that people could have changed for the better without being forced to by government.

[Virginian]

how the profit motive promoted interracial fraternization

One of my favorite examples is how the private mass transit in the early parts of the 20th century in the South was integrated, because you can't run a business pissing off your customers. So the government took over, and put up the "coloreds in the rear" signs.

[Pro Libertate]

Charlie Murphy!

[SugarFree]

Do the good people at Rutgers read this shit? Because they should. I'd like to send a few of her columns to every student thinking of applying to this embarrassing joke of a university.

[Azathoth!!]

You know, I wonder if any of them understand that another black soul/r&b/rap/hiphip performer is kinda 'meh'.

White people seem willing to give all kinds of music a try. They even get good at it. But black people tend to limit themselves to categories they apparently think they own.

As I recall, on the rare occasions when a black performers takes a chance on doing something different they seem to do pretty good.......among whites.

And that's the other side of it, isn't it? It's white people that make your music a hit. It's white people that make an artist huge.

But they'll just go on thinking someone's 'excluding' them and ignoring the success of black artists who leave their self imposed plantation.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwqh4wQPoQk

Booooossshhh!

It's amazing the level of logical stupidity the left is engaging in with their lame defense of Williams. Apparently, it goes to the effect of Williams lies are nothing compared to Bush/Cheney.

Problem is, the American political establishment pretty much agreed as did pundits at the time.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh. But an easily verifiable lie like 'you can keep your plan' is ignored.

[sarcasmic]

Look. What he meant was you can keep your plan if it's good enough. If you couldn't keep your plan then he did you a favor by forcing you to get a better one. See? So it wasn't really a lie. Everyone knows this. Duh.

[VicRattlehead]

I had a good plan once,
now im buried under medical bills because i havent reached my deductible yet, oh wait its a new year, sooo back to square one of not having any real insurance benefits other than not getting hamered with the penaltax

[sarcasmic]

I got pushed into a "Silver" plan a few years ago, and it didn't cover shit. Still paying down hospital bills. So I switched back to a PPO this year. For $150 more a month.

[Pro Libertate]

Come, we are men of faction. Lies do become us.

[Cyto]

Nice. I am appropriating that for future use. It is more subtle than iocaine powder.

[Pro Libertate]

As you wish.

[hamilton]

The Obama administration will seek a war powers bill from Congress authorizing the U.S. to fight ISIS.

That is just so cute. I love retro.

[Rich]

Authorities say they've never seen an animal abuse case like the one they found in Vacaville, where 100 cats were found in filthy conditions.

What's the libertarian take on animal hoarding? I can't begin to understand how such people perceive their environments.

[Restoras]

Well if you can eat them or otherwise exploit them it's obviously ok, right?

[Illocust]

That the people involved need help. Not sure how to get it to them, but something has to be wrong if you want to keep that many animals and they are all miserable.

[sarcasmic]

While animals are property, this libertarian thinks there is a place for animal cruelty laws.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1

[R C Dean]

Same here. I don't understand why there can be one and only kind of property to so many libertarians: inert physical objects.

They try to reduce animals and intangible property to inert physical objects. Thus, there is no such thing as intangible property (even though the majority of what they own is probably intangible). And there is no difference between breaking an empty beer bottle in the fireplace and burning a puppy to death.

Sorry. Not buying it.

[Tonio]

I am consistently told here that my views on animal cruelty are anti-libertarian and anti-property. There are people here who claim that they will tolerate any amount of animal cruelty in order to maintain the libertarian purity of property rights.

[Irish]

I have a dream, that John Stewart will become a press secretary for the next Democratic president and then Stewart's idiot fans will have to justify the fact that he's still a total outsider despite being Hillary Clinton's toady.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Why would any decent person want to be an outsider in the administration of the Country's First Woman President? Are you sexist or something?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'm guessing Stewart is Hollywood-bound. While I have no doubt he believes his own bullshit political spinning, everything I've heard from him makes me think he knows he's not legit and never really pretended to be. It's his viewers that see him as a journalist.

[sarcasmic]

I have seriously seen people argue that because smart people watch his show, that watching his show means you're smart. Talk about stupid.

[Cyto]

Yes, stupid people read Plato. They just don't understand it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Cave

[Mickey Rat]

You meant limey fish, right?

[sarcasmic]

"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."

Ronald Reagan

[Restoras]

I thought that was Nietzsche?

[MJGreen]

Don't call me stupid.

[Lady Bertrum]

Stewart was becoming really boring and tired. He wanted to exit on a strong note. I don't think he's got much of a future in movies or journalism. Probably just write 'cute' books like Seinfeld and do the talk show circuit.

[John]

I think you are right Lady. In the end Stewart is a comedian. And his future if any is telling jokes. Stewart however has bought into his own hype and thinks he can be more. I don't like his chances.

[R C Dean]

You kidding? After Al Franken, I seriously see Stewart getting elected to office.

[John]

I could see that. I was speaking more of his artistic prospects. Stewart thinks he is a film maker and an artist.

[Stormy Dragon]

He's probably going to go into film directing once he leaves.

[Restoras]

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records ? on which the entire panic ultimately rested ? were systematically "adjusted" (i.e. - falsified) to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Rich]

THEY DID IT FOR THE GRANDCHILDREN!!

[Restoras]

I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth.....-ever.html

[Restoras]

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world ? one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Restoras]

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way "adjustments". First these were made by the US government's Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in "global warming".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Restoras]

Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely "disappears" Iceland's "sea ice years" around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country's economy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[sarcasmic]

Thing is, environmentalism is now an established religion. Future generations will be taught that they dodged a bullet thanks to the efforts of environmentalists, and that they must continue to cede liberty to government in order to continue to save the environment from the corporations.
I think this religion has the potential to last for a couple centuries.

[SugarFree]

I think this religion has the potential to last for a couple centuries.

Be careful. You don't want to get the rep of being one of those horrible, no-good militant atheists.

[sarcasmic]

My sarcasm detector just broke.

[Restoras]

One of the first examples of these "adjustments" was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen's original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, "Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history", Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Illocust]

Slate has started commenting on this. They dismissed the argument by saying adjustments are necessary, without justifying these specific adjustments.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The response will be that the temperatures were normalized for measurement differences from modern standards. I guarantee it.

[Restoras]

Homewood's interest in the Arctic is partly because the "vanishing" of its polar ice (and the polar bears) has become such a poster-child for those trying to persuade us that we are threatened by runaway warming. But he chose that particular stretch of the Arctic because it is where ice is affected by warmer water brought in by cyclical shifts in a major Atlantic current ? this last peaked at just the time 75 years ago when Arctic ice retreated even further than it has done recently. The ice-melt is not caused by rising global temperatures at all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Restoras]

Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation (i.e.- falsifying)of the official temperature record ? for reasons GHCN and Giss have never plausibly explained ? has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known. This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-ever.html

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Ron Bailey|2.10.15 @ 1:49PM|#

SS: Patience please. Working on it. It's a lot more complicated than Mr. Booker at the Telegraph would have you believe.

Avoid confirmation bias.

[Restoras]

Thanks, LTC.

[John]

Shorter Ron,

I am doing everything I can to believe the top men here. What is "complicated" about it? At the very least if Homewood didn't have a point, it would be easy to dismiss. Clearly it is not or Ron wouldn't find it so complicated. Homewood's work brings a lot of things into question or Ron would already be dismissing it.

[Tonio]

I think we're going to have to wait for a while for this latest revelation to get legs. Mainstream journalists are going to have to frame this very, very carefully to avoid being dismissed as deniers and excluded from all those cocktail parties.

The most practical thing for us to do now is think about the endgame, particularly the rat-hole problem:

Every student of the arts of diplomacy in the civil-service and staff colleges of the U.K. hears much about the rat-hole problem. How does one let the other side off some hook on which they have imprudently impaled themselves, while minimizing their loss of face?

If we don't give the perps an out, they will double-down. I'm willing to forego prosecutions in favor of a truth and reconciliation commission.

[Lord Humungus]

In Washington, 'Austerity' Is a 67% Budget Increase

CFTC funding has not grown as much as the agency would have liked; the agency asked for $280 million last year and wants $322 million this year. Perhaps Congress held back in response to the CFTC's questionable decisions about how to spend the money it has. Last month, CFTC Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo released an 80-page white paper in which he detailed a series of mistakes by his agency in implementing Dodd-Frank's swaps trading mandate. As Commissioner Giancarlo explains, "countless hours of Commission resources" have been wasted trying to avoid the bad effects of "loudly trumpeted agency rules that work only on paper as academic exercises"-themselves the product of many hours of CFTC time. Commissioner Giancarlo's example of misplaced resources is representative of deeper problems at the agency.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"It's become increasingly difficult to do my job for two reasons. One, I could no longer keep up with the stupidity of the Democrats. There is such a thing as too much material! And two, Bush and the extremists. Thank you."

Your friend, your pal, your funnyman but newsman when necessary,

Jon.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Rex Murphy, you DA MAN!

"When anybody listens to, or seeks medical guidance from, Jenny McCarthy, or any of her fellow neurosurgeons on the View, they have confessed to having the intellectual power of a dead tree stump. And may even be living in one."?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vCAz5CL6Cc

[Lord Humungus]

Saw this Vice article via Facebook:
The Elizabeth Warren Insurgency

The comments on FB were sickening... they think she's this pure anti-corporate crusader.

Related: She's In the Bag Too: Liberal Heroine Elizabeth Warren Opposes Fed Audit

[Injun, as in from India]

The left is constantly looking for the right TOP MAN/WOMAN - a messiah of sorts. It reminds me of a scene from one on the Monty Python movies where the masses are looking for a messiah desperately.

[NebulousFocus]

The Life of Brian.

[RightNut]

Life of Brian

[John]

I hope they run Warren. She is a much weaker candidate than Hillary. The best possible outcome for 2016 is for the Democrats to continue to go full retard and nominate Warren only to suffer a soul crushing defeat. I will take the small risk of her winning to have a chance at that result. The problem with Hillary winning the nomination is that either she will win and be a horrible President allowing these assholes to tell themselves "if only we had gone with a true Prog like Warren" or she will lose and allow these assholes to believe Warren would have won. I want to see them get what the want and get crushed so maybe some sane people might regain control in the Democratic Party.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

One of my friends from high school was a chill laidback stoner. He went to George Washington to be a lawyer and is now a DNC apparatchik who is totally insufferable and was a big fan of those moronic Slate anti-libertarianism pieces.

Directly and indirectly through Facebook observations of his posts and the people he works with commenting on them, I can tell you that if you're expecting sane people regaining control of the Democratic Party anytime soon, you're probably going to be waiting a while.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Slate anti-libertarianism pieces

[John]

Probably so. But the only thing that will bring them to their senses is losing and being out of power for a while. They care about power more than anything else.

[sarcasmic]

Thing about Warren is she's got the populism thing down pat, and she knows how to speak emotional gobbledygook that appeals to leftists with broken brains.

She could go far.

[Restoras]

I think you're right. The Dumbocrats haven't hit rock bottom yet and are going to double down.

[John]

She doesn't have the populist thing down. She mouths the words but looks ridiculous doing so to anyone but the true believers. There is no way Warren is going to make a believable populist. Hillary is a more convincing populist than Warren. You have to be able to pretend you are an average person to do populism and Warren has no ability to do that.

[sarcasmic]

You have to be able to pretend you are an average person to do populism and Warren has no ability to do that.

I don't know about that. Obama has always come off as an arrogant fuck, superior to the Average Joe, and it worked well for him.

[John]

But Obama came off as a centrist and pragmatist to a good part of the country. That is how he won. I have friends who swore up and down Obama wasn't a liberal but a centrist. And hell, if you got your information from the NYT, he was. Warren won't do that. She won't even try to pretend and that won't work.

[sarcasmic]

All candidates drift towards the center during campaigns. If she's got half a brain and a decent staff, she will as well.

[John]

All candidates drift towards the center during campaigns.

Not all. George McGovern didn't. Barry Goldwater didn't. Warren is like those two. She isn't going to drift to the center. She is going to run left and stay left.

[sarcasmic]

Like I said, if she's got half a brain and a decent staff she'll drift towards the center. I didn't say she has half a brain and a decent staff.

[Restoras]

I think the problem with Hillary is that a lot of people really despise her. Warren doesn't have that problem, and when she starts blathering on about populism it will get eaten up. Plus, it is a woman's turn now that half-white man has had a turn.

[sarcasmic]

and when she starts blathering on about populism it will get eaten up.

Nothing seems to sell a politician better than emotional platitudes, and she's got that down pat.

[Injun, as in from India]

I would not underestimate Warren. Like Obama, she talks the populist talk. Lefists and left-leaning independents will ignore her anti-average citizen actions like supporting the Ex/Im bank, and will vote for her because she keeps excoriating bankers and the wealthy.

Obama kept up the same rhetoric and won twice, even though his actions did not back up that talk. See Jon Corzine as a case in point. He is still not in jail.

[John]

Warren is incredibly dislikable. I wouldn't discount Hillary since I think she might be able to convince electing her is really electing her husband. Warren doesn't have that. She is going to play terrible in debates and on the stump. The women forever comes across as the nasty mother in law or school marm everyone loves to hate.

You can't do populism, which is all she has, unless you can believable convince people you are on of them. Warren has no chance of doing that. She is a Harvard Law professor with an unpleasant attitude. That won't play anywhere outside of the most blue states and maybe not in some of those.

Moreover, she is an unapologetic leftist. She won't even try to pretend she is a centrist. She will come out and say it. And the country doesn't vote for open leftists. They vote for leftists who pretend to be centrists and pragmatic. Warren will not be that.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Exactly. Her message and narrative is perfect.

My friend from Boston thinks she's all that and a bag of chips.

[John]

Rufus, the people in Boston will vote 90% D anyway. Those are not who she needs to win. She needs people in places like Cleveland and Richmond and Charlotte to vote for her. And those people are not going to like her.

You guys forget how Obama won. He won by convincing people he was reasonable and a centrist and was going to bring the country together. He didn't win by saying things people like your friend wanted to hear. He just let those people assume he was one of them by virtue of his background. To the rest of the country he came across as centrist and pragmatic.

Warren won't do that. She won't even try. She will get up there and be a full unapologetic retard. And that won't work.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hope you're right. Warren has many fans up here and it's ruining my life.

[BigT]

He just let those people assume he was one of them by virtue of his background race

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I agree. Plus as a bonus there would be mass weeping on MSNBC, Daily Kos, etc. that would be delightful to behold.

I know this won't likely happen, but it would be even more perfect if Warren lost to a conservative woman, so that the title of First Woman President didn't go to a prog. Ah the wailing and gnashing of teeth that would ensue!

[Ted S.]

FAKE SCANDAL!!!111!!!

[LynchPin1477]

A man who portrayed himself as an avowed atheist on social media was in custody early Wednesday after allegedly gunning down three Muslim students in a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina hours earlier.

He must have been a closet Christian or Jew, since I have been assured that religion is what makes us irrational.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Never fear - if his atheism is too blatant, he'll get the Lee Harvey Oswald treatment - either he wasn't the real shooter, or else he was a patsy for sinister anti-atheist forces.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I remember somebody else here relating a story about how when JFK was assassinated, his teacher came in to relay the news with: "They finally did it; those right-wingers shot JFK."

[Tonio]

I know you're enjoying this, Eddie. Keep on telling yourself that this squares the books for those countless acts of idiocy and cruelty perpetrated by religionists.

[This Machine Loves Koch]

I can't help but think of when Tim Lambesis (lead singer for metal band As I Lay Dying) went on the record saying he'd lost his Christian faith, and that the entire Christian metal scene was full of frauds and posers. All the athiest redditards and their ilk went into full on self-righteous gloat mode about how phony it all was and how great it was that he finally saw the Light.

Until Tim also went on the record saying that the loss of his faith made it easier to hire a hitman to kill his wife (spoiler alert: he failed). Then they couldn't distance themselves from him fast enough.

[Tonio]

I have been assured that religion is what makes us irrational.

Not by me. But people prone to irrationality seek out and hold on to belief systems which reinforce their worldviews. IOW, religion doesn't make one irrational, but the irrational surely do flock to religion.

[Virginian]

Eh, I think most atheists I've run across simply replace God with the State. I don't consider someone who truly believes in socialism to be any more or less rational than someone who truly believes in God.

[Lord Humungus]

A review of the Facebook page of the man charged in these murders, Craig Hicks, shows a consistent themes of anti-religion and progressive causes. Included in his many Facebook "likes" are the Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Bill Nye "The Science Guy," Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gay Marriage groups, and a host of anti-conservative/Tea Party pages.

Remarkably, one of the four Facebook groups he had joined included "Religious Tolerance".

Hot Air link

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Yeah, something tells me that this isn't going to get much lamestream media or leftosphere online coverage. Just a hunch.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

They brushed off the affiliations and beliefs of the Family Research Council attacker, they'll brush this off, too, and go back to accusing Tea Partiers of contributing to a Climate of Hate (TM).

If that doesn't work, they'll say "Bush! Crusades!" until they drop.

[John]

It is almost like if you run around calling everyone on the other side evil, the odd psychotic in your audience might believe you.

[Lord Humungus]

has anyone heard from Shriek since?

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Nah, he would have shot Christians. Hates them more.

[Restoras]

You think? Does that retard even own a gun much less know how to use one, or even have the balls to point it at another living being? Coupled with the fact that I bet a lot of the Christians he likes to hate are probably well armed...

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

So the SPLC will be listing itself as a hate group now?

[Suthenboy]

AGGHH! You beat me to it SS,...S

[Monty Crisco]

And yet if it HAD been a tea-partyier the outrage on the Left would be ginning up right now to a degree that would make Ferguson look like a pillowfight. Holy shit, they would be THRILLED that one of those knuckle-dragging nutjobs had finally gone postal!!!

[Suthenboy]

I have a suspicion we are missing some important info about this case.

[Stormy Dragon]

Larry Wilmore: closet Reasonoid?

[Coeus]

23 Ways Feminism Has Made the World a Better Place for Men

6. It gave men more reproductive control through abortion legalization.

Tha fuck?

7. It triggered the FBI to change the definition of rape to include men.

While specifically omitting women from being able to rape unless they use a dildo.

10. It ensured that the burden of war doesn't only fall on male shoulders.

Yet still strangely quiet about the draft.

14. It expanded the definition of hate crimes to include all identities.

Not true. And even if it did, that wouldn't be good thing.

15. It helped shatter stereotypes about HIV/AIDS patients.

Bullshit. The only link they give is Princess Diana.

20. It demanded that the media change its representation of men.

To that of the opressor. Gee, thanks.

21. It fought for men's right to become nurses and teachers.

When? The text provides no evidence of that.

[Virginian]

6. It gave men more reproductive control through abortion legalization.
Tha fuck?

Seriously. Men have absolutely zero control over reproduction. If she wants to get pregnant, she will, and if it's an unintended pregnancy, she gets to make the decision and the father has no right at all to prevent her from aborting, giving it up for adoption, or keeping the baby. Oh, and if she does keep the baby, she has total control over whether he serves as father and husband, or as a source of cash money, or anything in between.

The idea that men have reproductive rights beyond wearing a condom is ludicrous.

[Coeus]

"Being oppressed is the absence of choices."
?bell hooks

[Matrix]

Driver receives a $1,900 speeding ticket

He was going 140mph in a 62mph zone.

Okay, I have no sympathy for the guy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Pft.

Check this guy out.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/n.....tou-county

Confession: Me and my cousin took my father's Alfa-Romeo to around 230 km/h back in the early 90s. I think it's time I come clean with him.

[Restoras]

I think it's time I come clean with him.

Bad idea.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Maybe you're right.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

[Lord Humungus]

Back in '88 I out ran the police in my '68 Firebird. Oh the days when cop cars were Dodge Diplomats and muscle cars were dirt cheap.

[VicRattlehead]

What the fuck is a 62 zone?
that is the most retarded crap i've ever heard.

[Matrix]

A few years ago, I was up in Nashville and saw a speed limit sign for 24 MPH.

[Whahappan?]

Canuckistan

[BigT]

A truly great Cato podcast. It will open your eyes.

Flemming Rose, in a conversation with Jonathan Rauch, describes his newspaper's decision to publish depictions of the prophet Mohammed and the firestorm that followed

Flemming Rose published the famous cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

[Sevo]

CA to cut gasoline usage by 50%!

"Here's how California lawmakers plan to cut greenhouse gases"
[...]
""We need to move the state away from fossil fuels and free consumers from the grip of oil prices," said de Le?n, D-Los Angeles. "The fact is, an economy built on fossil fuels is an economy built on shifting sands."
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....073418.php

I just pulled that quote since it was the first in line of the many bits of stupidity contained in the article.
I have a feeling it's a full day's worth of amusement (and anger).

[Coeus]

The Paul's distaste of fiat currency is rooted in superstition and ignorance.

Now, the elder and younger Pauls know nothing of this, nor, I suspect, does Paul Ryan. But that may be the point: having no contact with the intellectual tradition of macroeconomics, they find the role of money in the economy a great mystery and possibly an outrage ? how dare banks/governments/the Illuminati pretend to create value out of nothing! Fiat money, whether created by the government or by banks, seems to them to be a violation of natural law; creating more fiat money in an attempt to relieve economic distress must surely lead to disaster.

[Stormy Dragon]

It's not the Paul's suspicious view of Fiat currency I find weird so much as their failure to recognize that gold's value is any less artificial.

[Coeus]

Not artificial, just harder to steal in undetectable ways from your populace. It's why they propose competing currencies as the alternative to fiat. Like Hong Kong has. They haven't been goldbugs for decades.

[Stormy Dragon]

Gold is not like commodities like iron or oil or wheat, where they mostly have value because people want it to do things with them. Gold mostly has value because people want to hoard it because it's valuable.

Yes, it's harder to fabricate dollars out of thin air with gold, but it's value is primarily social convention, just like fiat dollars.

I don't get why goldbugs seem to attribute almost supernatural powers to gold.

[Restoras]

Money is three things.

1. A store of value
2. A medium of exchange
3. A unit of measure

1. Gold is a better store of value than other commodities because it is rare.

2. Because it is rare, it is an easier medium for exchange than other commodities that are less rare.

3. Gold does not necessarily satisfy this quality any better than any other monetary unit of measure.

I think fiat currencies are fine in theory - the problem is that governments can, and absolutely do, use that status to do a lot of stupid things. So if you could properly manage a fiat currency without succumbing to political expediency it would probably be just as good as gold.

However, we know that's not the case.

I don't know that gold bugs attribute 'magical' qualities to it - frankly that smells like a strawman to me - but it certainly makes it harder for a government to manipulate its currency.

[Virginian]

frankly that smells like a strawman to me

That's because it is.

[MJGreen]

They don't. You're attacking a straw man. Paul's argument is that gold has historically worked as money, and that it is better than fiat money because it is not under such political control. That's the entirety of his argument.

[John]

We already have competing currencies. We don't have one world currency. And when a country debases its currency, the value drops and its economy suffers for it.

And it is just as easy to debase a gold based currency. If you don't believe me read the history of monetary policy in the 20s. The industrial nations claimed to be on a gold standard but really were devaluing their currency to inflate out of the debt they ran up fighting the first world war.

I think people like the Pauls take the simple maxim of "don't devalue your currency" and make a bunch of conclusions that don't really follow.

The problem is we have bought into the idea that the fed can flatten out the business cycle by printing money. The solution to that is to change the mandate of the fed so that their entire job is to ensure a stable currency. Right now they have two mandates, ensure a stable currency while also ensuring a stable and growing economy. You can't do both of those things at once and the fed has chosen to do the second and not the first.

[Coeus]

If you don't believe me read the history of monetary policy in the 20s.

You mean, after the establishment of the Fed?

[John]

No Coeus, I mean of countries in Europe, specifically the UK and France. And the Fed too. The gold standard didn't stop the Fed from doing what it did anymore than it stopped other countries who didn't have a fed from ignoring it.

[Coeus]

We already have competing currencies.

Tell that to the Liberty Dollars guy.

[John]

The Euro isn't a competing currency with the dollar? There is an entire industry of currency traders who are going to find that quite surprising.

And Liberty dollars are nothing but inflation hedges. That is it. There is nothing special about them. The effect that they have on the US dollar is no different than the effect of people buying bonds and getting out of cash does.

Bonds and corporate securities are effectively competing currencies. Just because you can't buy a coke at 7-11 with one doesn't make it any less of an alternative to the dollar or a hedge against its fall, which is the entire point of alternative currencies.

[Coeus]

And Liberty dollars are nothing but inflation hedges. That is it. There is nothing special about them. The effect that they have on the US dollar is no different than the effect of people buying bonds and getting out of cash does.

Then why was the law tortured in order to prosecute him?

Bonds and corporate securities are effectively competing currencies. Just because you can't buy a coke at 7-11 with one doesn't make it any less of an alternative to the dollar or a hedge against its fall, which is the entire point of alternative currencies.

I disagree.

[John]

Then why was the law tortured in order to prosecute him?

Because it would allow people to cheat on their taxes by earning money in a medium the government doesn't tax. The government hates things like that because in addition to being a hedge against inflation, they act like barter system and allow people to avoid income taxes. The prosecution had nothing to do with the dollar and everything to do with the government not wanting someone to create a shadow monetary system outside the clutches of the IRS.

As far as bonds and securities go, I don't know what to tell you other than the purpose of an alternative currency is to give people a way to dump their dollars when the value of them drops. That is nothing but a hedge against inflation.

[Coeus]

Because it would allow people to cheat on their taxes by earning money in a medium the government doesn't tax

The tax laws still require them to record their income. In whatever form it takes.

As far as bonds and securities go, I don't know what to tell you other than the purpose of an alternative currency is to give people a way to dump their dollars when the value of them drops. That is nothing but a hedge against inflation.

I don't have that much time today, so I'm gonna cut this short. Explain to me how bonds and securities are the same as the competing currencies of Hong Kong, and why they're illegal here if they're the same. Pretty sure that Hong Kong has taxes.

[John]

The value of bonds and corporate securities varies with interest rates. This makes them hedges against inflation. The more inflation, the more interest they pay.

Sure the government could tax alternative currencies, it would just be harder than making them illegal. So that is what they do.

And bonds serve the same function of alternative currencies because they allow people to dump dollars and hedge against its value. That is all an alternative currency does.

[Coeus]

And bonds serve the same function of alternative currencies because they allow people to dump dollars and hedge against its value. That is all an alternative currency does.

No, it also provides a source of legal tender which the government can't manipulate. Or have I been imagining the fed gov manipulation of the bond market?

[lesliewcole]

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[Entropy Void]

School Board Brilliance.

Sorry, Satanists.

http://touch.orlandosentinel.c.....-82775681/

[Bones]

So, the 7th grader was the only sensible person in the room. That figures.

[Coeus]

Feministing takes on fracking.

And seems to be very confused, no suprise there.

[wadair]

Boy, she's erected an army of strawmen there.

[Coeus]

Lea Thompson's PG Rated Bestiality And Incest Scenes

She's not just a fine actress and an 80s icon - she's also a pioneer of taboo sex in kid films.

[John]

She had one of the best bodies in Hollywood in her day. Four words; All The Right Moves. Damn did she have a body when she made that movie.

[sarcasmic]

Seriously? I thought you didn't consider a woman to be female unless her tits hit her knees when she took her bra off.

[Restoras]

Yup.

[Coeus]

The national center for sexual exploitation explains why porn is bad in one hand graphic.

[Stormy Dragon]

Does porn make you try to trick people into thinking you're The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children so that they think you're a legitimate organization and not a bunch frauds?

[Juice]

So if you watch porn you're two steps away from human trafficking?

[Coeus]

I think that's what it says. It's hard to tell.

[Old Man With Candy]

The narrative shifts on the UNC case. It's now attributed to a parking space argument.
http://news.yahoo.com/man-arre.....05974.html

[John]

I am sure the guy turning out to be a nut lefty atheist had nothing to do with that. The media would totally be all over the parking space angle if he were a Christian or anyone associated with the right wing.

[Marshal]

First headline this morning:

3 Young Muslims Killed

But wait, doesn't the style guide require omission of ethnicity except when overtly relevant? So why the Muslim identification?

I sense giddiness among the left as they are anxious to regain credibility after predicting 28 of the last 0 "backlashes".

[Caleb Turberville]

I thought that said "The Top 50 Sci-Fi Battles of TV & Cinema."

I was eager to see if the Battle of Wolf 359 was number 1.

[Caleb Turberville]

By the way, I recently re-watched "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2" and found it very inferior to Part 1.

After setting up that the Borg were virtually unstoppable after the failed Battle of Wolf 359, the episode ends with the Enterprise destroying the Borg Cube by putting the Borg "to sleep." Really, a weak ending.

[Colonel Slanders]

^^^This +1000

[Lord Humungus]

NERDS! /Ogre

[Restoras]

What would be more effective against the Borg - a biological virus, or a software virus?

Discuss.

[Caleb Turberville]

Both attempts by the Borg to invade the Terran system end with gimmicky solutions. When the Borg attempted a second invasion in First Contact, Picard's genius solution was to concentrate the entire firepower of the Federation fleet on a single weak spot of the Borg cube/

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What? They didn't modulate the subspace field with tachyon particles from the future?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What? They didn't modulate the subspace field with tachyon particles from the future?

[Azathoth!!]

The thing that one should notice is that Wolf 359 and the attack in First Contact was one--that's 1, singular, cube.

Why don't the Borg use ...oh, I dunno...more than one?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

squirrels

[Caleb Turberville]

I actually didn't mind the ending to "All Good Things." The tachyon beam was actually the cause of the problem. It's the reason the anomaly was getting bigger the further back in time you went.

[Rich]

"I'm a H&R commenter, and a talking frog is really cool!"

[Caleb Turberville]

I haven't seen The Imitation Game yet. Is it any good? Should I read Andrew Hodge's biography of Alan Turing?

[invisible furry hand]

She was also in the fabulous Doctor Who story "The Image of the Fendahl" and she was not only terrific in the role, but she looked great (especially for someone in her forties). It's the cheekbones.

[Swiss Servator, ... Switzy!]

Squirrelz from da FUTURE!

[Ted S.]

Squirrels could defeat the Borg.

[Monty Crisco]

Isn't that always the way with tachyon beams?

[Michael]

Holy shit, that was painful to watch.

[Charles Easterly]

One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach; all the tachyon beams.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nice

[The DerpRider]

+1 Jami Gertz.

[SugarFree]

Why not both? Snow Crash would wipe them out in a fortnight.

[Pro Libertate]

Prostitutes.

[Mickey Rat]

Why does it have to one or the other? Cylons were susceptble to a biological virus that was somehow transferrable over their "resurrection" downloads.

[Mickey Rat]

Ruthless and crazy, in other words, Janeway