Sen. Mikulski to Retire, Nebraska's Gay Marriage Ban Blocked, DOJ Sees Racist Enforcement in Ferguson: P.M. Links

• 

  U.S. Senate

  Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the longest serving woman in the history of Congress, will not be running for re-election next year.

• A federal judge has blocked Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage recognition. His ruling won't take effect until March 9. The state's attorney general's office has already announced plans to appeal.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today his speech tomorrow before Congress is not meant to show disrespect to President Barack Obama. Read more about his maneuvers over Iran here.
• Enhanced video of the fatal weekend Los Angeles police shooting of a homeless man on skid row appears to show the man reaching for an officer's belt.
• The Department of Justice may release a report this week detailing how the police of Ferguson, Missouri, systematically targeted African Americans for traffic stops and relied on fines to balance the city's budget.
• A White House task force is calling for increased oversight of law enforcement agencies, more body cameras, more transparency, and other solutions to problems of police abuse and militarization.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the longest serving woman in the history of Congress, will not be running for re-election next year.

She’s had enough.

[Doctor Whom]

Hello.

I was going to say, “Thank the IPU,” but Maryland, being Maryland, will likely elect someone even worse.

[JW]

It’s been downhill since becoming a state.

[Hyperion]

Speaking of MD and downhill. I just went to the store to grab a couple of things and when I got back I saw that some of the neighborhood kids are still sledding down the hills across the street and the one directly behind our place. The latter, I noticed that they’ve got it packed down to pure ice and they are getting some real speed going down it. The place where they are stopping is about 30 ft. shy of a good steep 200 ft drop down to the creek with lots of trees and and brush on it. Just waiting for one of them to go over that. But this has been going on all winter and I’m amazed that the nannies have not crawled out from under their rocks to ruin the fun.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I love sledding. Last year, my sister’s church had a sledding party and we took the kiddo. There’s a trail side to the sledding hill, and you can sled down that side – if you can steer. It’s fairly steep and fast once a few sleds have been down it. We did the “tame” side a few times then opted for the trail side. Parents were all “we don’t want you going on that” to their kids. I loved being one of the parents who was sledding down the trail side.

[Brett L]

I don’t understand why they stay so long. The only gig better than Senator is former Senator. Same pay, same benefits, only no campaign to run.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

Power is a helluva drug.

[AuH20]

Money is the mansion that rots and withers away.

Power is the marble palace that will last for centuries.

[Injun, as in from India]

I don’t understand why they stay so long.

A case of megalomaniacal narcissism?

[mauricegirodias]

As Senator, the world jumps through hoops to open doors for her in Baltimore. As former Senator, she’s just one more rich old biddy doing Sunday brunch at the Walters.

[Hyperion]

I’ve never seen anything that scary at the Walters.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Hyperion]

When I was a kid, we all had ponies!

[Rhywun]

Who leaves a country packed with ponies for a non-pony country?

[DesigNate]

She looks like the spitting image of Delores Umbridge.

[John]

She looks like Henrh Waxman ina wig and in drag

[fish]

Nahh….nostril insufficiency!

[Hyperion]

Someone has invoked the half pig man!

[HeteroPatriarch]

My wife has an uncle with Downs syndrome. He’s in his early 50’s, and I feel bad about saying this because it might be insulting to a very nice, child-minded man, but if you put a wig and glasses on him, he’d look exactly like Barbara Mikulski.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A White House task force is calling for increased oversight of law enforcement agencies, more body cameras, more transparency, and other solutions to problems of police abuse and militarization.

Scaling back on the federal drug war? Maybe?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I, no shit, just heard the following commercial on my local AM radio station:

Wife: What’s that noise?

Husband: Sounds like somebody breaking in.

Wife: What should we do?

Husband: Let me grab the Glock by the clock.

Wife: But Honey, we just put the baby to bed.

Husband: Don’t worry Dear, I just bought a new suppressor at Highwood Creek Outfitters. Be right back.

Ptew. Ptew. (sound of two silenced shots)

Wife: Everything under control Honey.

Husband: You bet Dear?Always remember to double tap?Always remember to double tap.

How would that go over in LA or NYC?

[expat]

HOLY S#$@, Really?!?

[Brett L]

Glock? Does his husband keep the real gun locked up?

(Kidding, but I don’t love Glocks.)

[Injun, as in from India]

I swear by my Glock G26.

[Stormy Dragon]

“Glock by the Clock” sounds like a new add-on accessory for “Elf on the Shelf”

[PBR Streetgang]

Or a book by the virulent racist Dr. Seuss

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

I will shoot you in a boat,
I will shoot you with a goat,
I will shoot you in a car,
I will shoot you near or far,
I will shoot you, Sam I am,
I will shoot you, if I can.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Not when you eat cheese,
don’t shoot when you sneeze . . .

[trshmnster the terrible]

I will not shoot you really fast,
I will not shoot you in the ass,
I will not shoot you Sam I am,
Because you’re sitting on the can!

[Elspeth Flashman]

On a side note I am eating ham & eggs for supper. Fried in butter with red wine.

[fish]

“Glock by the Clock” sounds like a new add-on accessory for “Elf on the Shelf”

Yeah it really, really, really gets those little bastards to behave!

[Stormy Dragon]

In a post 9/11 world, Elves can’t be limited to merely watching. Sometimes a more kinetic solution is called for.

[John]

No way. That is fucking awesome if true.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Swear to god.

Warty found this one online.

[John]

Wow. Great find.

[Andrew S.]

I was expecting this to go the other way and be an anti-gun commercial where he ends up shooting the kid or something.

[Jordan]

How do you know he didn’t?

[Hyperion]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Injun, as in from India]

How would that go over in LA or NYC?

There would be calls to the local government bigwigs asking for restrictions on gun ads similar to the restrictions on cigarette ads?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The response to that commercial here by progs would be epic.

[Raven Nation]

So, does the away goal they gave up come back to haunt Juve?

[CE]

In California you can’t keep the Glock by the clock. If there’s a kid in your house, it needs to be kept unloaded in an approved gun safe with a trigger lock threaded through it, so it will be totally ineffective and inaccessible when you need it.

[waffles]

It seems like California gun laws are really difficult to obey. What is the rate of noncompliance like I wonder?

[PapayaSF]

So it needs to be a Glock under lock?

[mad libertarian guy]

This is part of the ruling in Heller. That rule is completely illegal at this point.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

A White House task force is calling for increased oversight of law enforcement agencies, more body cameras, more transparency, and other solutions to problems of police abuse and militarization.

Transparency for thee, but not for me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

…and relied on fines to balance the city’s budget.

You know who else had a longstanding plan to lean on taxpayers?

[Andrew S.]

Obama?

[Doctor Whom]

Someone who misunderstood Bill Withers?

[Mike Laursen]

Well, hell. You pull off the hard task of dropping a joke referencing Bill Withers and nobody commented. Screw them all; I acknowledge your effort.

[Anomalous]

Everyone with one leg?

[Elspeth Flashman]

Aaaar! Shiver me timbers, he’s discovered me plan! /RedBeard Rum

[R C Dean]

relied on fines to balance the city’s budget

Sounds like a penaltax, to me. Perfectly legit. Just ask SCOTUS.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Enhanced video of the fatal weekend Los Angeles police shooting of a homeless man on skid row appears to show the man reaching for an officer’s belt.

Which is a capital offense.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Which is *not recommended* for someone with survival in mind.

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

The enhancements also showed that the police officers guns were actually radios, and that the suspect tried to escape on a flying bicycle.

[Crusty Juggler]

Actual LAPD footage

[John]

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the longest serving woman in the history of Congress, will not be running for re-election next year.

John for Senate baby!!

[Old Man With Candy]

Seeing her face again after all these years caused me to pray for a swift and merciful death.

[Jerry on the sea]

What has been seen cannot be unseen.

[John]

You didn’t sense the disturbance in the force and know not to look?

[Aloysious]

John for Senate baby!!

I am laughing at the mental image of you in a campaign ad talking about weed, butt sex, and Mexicans.

If you make shrike your campaign manager, I will send you all my money. Just for the laughs.

[John]

Maryland is so left wing and the Republicans such Chris Christie authoritarian assholes. It would be hysterical to run as a Republican and shame the living fuck out of the resident lefties on things like the NSA, the Drug War and economic populism. They would never vote for you but it would really annoy the shit out of them.

[Aloysious]

Precisely. The epic conniption fits captured on video and in print would provide comic fodder on HyR for years.

[The Last American Hero]

Michael Baumgartner tried that in the State of Washington. Didn’t work because the only thing Seattle hates worse than a corporate shill warmongering Senator is a Republican. Surprise.

[Doctor Whom]

They’ve had their sense of shame surgically removed. I once got a Maryland Democrat to admit that Team Blue in Maryland said exactly the opposite things to voters in different parts of the state, but he saw that as a good thing.

[PapayaSF]

Isn’t Ben Carson in Maryland? He could run for senator and give lots of people conniptions.

[Hyperion]

I think he worked at Hopkins.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I lol’d at the thought of this campaign slogan. Weed, unpasturized cheese . . .

[The Last American Hero]

The “full figured woman” voting block will tip the scales in your favor.

[Enough About Palin]

What you did…

[JW]

Enhanced video of the fatal weekend Los Angeles police shooting of a homeless man on skid row appears to show the man reaching for an officer’s belt.

Appears? Reaching? As in ‘not possessing?’

You’d think that a shooting would occur once he actually has a gun and is an actual danger.

[Andrew S.]

What, you expect our brave heroes in blue to put themselves in danger like that? They want to go home to their families! You can’t expect that they wait until somebody actually becomes dangerous before they use deadly force!

[Crusty Juggler]

When you are on your back getting the shit kicked out of you, do not reach up and grab for anything!

[waffles]

relied on fines to balance the city’s budget

I gave no doubt in my mind that this occurs just about everywhere. The truly aggressive ticketing and fines does amount to a tax on poverty though.

[Stormy Dragon]

Ann Coulter to guest star in Sharknado 3:

‘Sharknado 3’ Sets President and Vice President Roles (Exclusive)

[Brett L]

Get the skis ready. Sharknado is jumping the shark.

[waffles]

That seems impossible. The whole premise is absurdity, how can it eclipse itself? The sharknado is not a metaphor. It just is.

[Brett L]

Happy Days wasn’t a Dadaist meditation on 50s culture as mediated through the druggie 70s in LA?

[waffles]

No that’s all true of course. It’s just that to successfully jump a sharknado one would need to posses the leaping powers of a flea. And that’s just plain unreasonable.

[John Titor]

How many Sharknadoes do you really need? Shouldn’t they mix it up a bit more? A Sharknami? A Sharkano?

[Crusty Juggler]

I hope Sarah Palin runs and wins just to piss everyone off. She will not run, though, which is also probably for the best. But goodness, the amount of insanity she would cause would be worth it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I’ll just say she wouldn’t be *worse* than the last two.

[Crusty Juggler]

Oh. For some reason I thought she was from Alaska. Forget I said anything…just forget it, damnit!

[Stormy Dragon]

You’re thinking of Lisa Murkowski.

[Crusty Juggler]

Did you hear about the gay Polack?

He slept with women!

HA!

[John]

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/…..hit-piece/

Another example of how stupid journalists are. Walker said that Reagan’s decision to fire the air traffic controllers was “the biggest foreign policy decision of my life time”. If you are familiar with these things, that is actually a bit of a smart kid answer. It is not an obvious answer since it concerns a purely domestic issue. The idea, however, that it had a huge effect on foreign affairs by showing the world Reagan was a man of his word and didn’t make idle threats has been around for a long time and has been endorsed by no less than George Shultz.

The answer of course went right over the media’s heads. They had no idea that Shultz had ever said that or that it was considered a big deal in foreign affairs. So the media immediately went out and showed their ignorance by pretending Walker gave some off the wall answer when in fact the answer was anything but.

[Brett L]

Walker is the first Republican I’ve seen that is willing to slap the media around the way the Clintons did. If he survives until primary season, they’ll be publishing his press releases unretouched out of pure fear of getting hit in the mouth again. Fuck ’em. It isn’t optimal, but the media have clearly shown that they can be handled this way. They play a part in their own marginalization.

[mauricegirodias]

He’s got allies. They absolutely bitchslapped a Jazzie chick who published a fake “pro-rape” story against him that was discredited within minutes. She’s now blocking critics on twitter.

[Warty]

That’s the kind of thing you learn in college.

[Brett L]

Like the new generation of reporters know who George Schultz is. Anything before Clinton is ancient history now that Jennings, Brokaw, and whatzizname are gone.

[PapayaSF]

Walker is doing well so far, bitch-slapping the media. It’s tempting to imagine him setting up some traps: saying things that the media will jump on as “obviously wrong,” only to have to back down later.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

“The Department of Justice may release a report this week detailing how the police of Ferguson, Missouri, systematically targeted African Americans for traffic stops and relied on fines to balance the city’s budget.”

Let me guess…the DoJ has acknowledged that it has no evidence on which to prosecute the cop who shot Brown, so it’s trying to make up for this by finding other things in Ferguson to criticize (maybe criticizing rightly).

By the way, why isn’t there any fear of riots when the Obama/Holder DoJ exonerates the cop?

[Andrew S.]

Balko had a good series of articles on the subject. The criticism is definitely rightful. Whether they’re doing this to quell anger over Brown or not is another story.

[John]

No. they are just going to pretend Ferguson is run by Republicans.

[Calidissident]

Ferguson’s mayor is a white Republican, and 5 of the 6 city council members are white (could only find reference to political party for one, who is a Republican).

[Injun, as in from India]

A federal judge has blocked Nebraska’s ban on same-sex marriage recognition. His ruling won’t take effect until March 9. The state’s attorney general’s office has already announced plans to appeal.

The Great Debate on cornholing continues in the cornhusker state.

[Enough About Palin]

So if the corn going into the cornhole is husked, is that effectively the same as it being circumcised?

Also, I can’t believe that the word cornhole isn’t in the MicroSoft Word for Windows dictionary.

[Brett L]

That’s a hell if a grip you’ve got if you can husk corn with your cornhole. Some of the fellas who like fellas might like to get to know you. Its a cornhole because corncobs used to be toilet paper.

[John]

Speaking of fines, I got caught in a bit of a no man’s land before a yellow light last Saturday and went through only to get nailed by the camera. That will cost me $85. Ultimately, it was probably the right decision to make from a safety perspective.

Those cameras are so fucking evil. Every time someone makes a mistake or any kind of misjudgement they are there to fine them. It pisses me off but I have the money to pay it. If I were poor, however, it would be a big deal. These cameras make war on the poor. And yet, they are ubiquitous in places run by Progs.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

How would you be able to challenge it? Would a jury be involved?

Ha ha ha, I’m so funny!

[Brett L]

It isn’t a crime, it is an administrative penalty. As such, fuck your due process. How will you confront your accuser?

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Car n Driver covered something on these a while back, showing how in many cases, where the cameras are installed, they decreased the yellow time from 4 seconds to three seconds.

Also, the number of rear-end collisions increased to the point of more than making up for intersection accidents.

[Warty]

They voted them out here in Cleveland this past fall. It might be the first time I’ve ever seen voting do something so unambiguously good.

[JW]

For once, Bal’mer’s incompetence is working in our favor.

The speed cameras were so inaccurate, that they ended up having to void thousands of tickets. So, instead of continuing to lose money, they just turned them off.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Send them a picture of your money as payment.

[AuH20]

A few years back, when living in New Mexico, I got ticketed from a camera. The offense: “Running a yellow light.”

I shit you not, the actual printed offense was that I had gone through a yellow light… which is perfectly legal.

[Enough About Palin]

BlockquoteThe Department of Justice may release a report this week detailing how the police of Ferguson, Missouri, systematically targeted African Americans for traffic stops and relied on fines to balance the city’s budget.

Well at least they weren’t drawing derogatory cartoons of the Japanese!

[AuH20]

The only reason we can’t use two eggs to make a baby? Patriarchy!

Those scietific limitations? A lie I tells ya, a lie.

Also, I would blockquote it, but the comments has one of the worst poems I have ever read, called Blueprint by Theodosia Henney. I wish it would fit the character limit. It would make Sugarfree recoil in horror.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yeah, not clicking on something which would prompt SF to that reaction. It’s called self-preservation.

[Injun, as in from India]

Imagine what would happen if researchers figured out how to tweak in utero conditions to stop homosexual preferences from developing.

I’ll bet you that such technology would be blocked in the name of TEH FEELZ.

[SugarFree]

That’s not even a poem. It’s a too-short essay with semi-random linebreaks.

Blueprint
by Theodosia Henney

I’ve never thought
of having a child
with any man.
But someday, if science grows up,
goes to college, and moves
out of its parents’ house
you and I
could have a daughter.

They’ve done it
with two female mice
in Japan?knocked one up
with the other’s X chromosome
using a microscopic turkey-baster.

[Warty]

But someday, if science grows up,
goes to college, and moves
out of its parents’ house

You could write a PhD dissertation on the lack of knowledge embedded in those three lines.

[Andrew S.]

It’s not a lack of knowledge. It’s just a terrible metaphor.

[Warty]

The writer has no idea what science is. And conflating it with her loser self living in her parents’ basement is unintentionally hilarious.

[waffles]

But what is science?

Seriously, does anyone even know?

[Warty]

Science is a redneck who wants you to hold his beer and watch this.

[Elspeth Flashman]

OK, I lol’d.

[MJGreen]

So what are science’s parents? Mysticism and mathematics?

[Irish]

That last paragraph…I’m laughing so hard right now.

[MJGreen]

It’s a HuffPo commenter with a malfunctioning return key.

[AuH20]

Can’t give ’em just the tip, Sug. There’s more:

She’d have veins
close to the skin like you
and I’d teach her to mimic
animal calls and drive stick shift.
You’d balance her in the air, teach her to stand
on her hands and fly on a trapeze bar.
She’d have our small hands and pale skin
and probably my freckles and eyebrows.
She’d have your shoulders and my hips,
would be well-versed
in Pippi Longstockings and Lacan.
Her uniform would include
at least one bandana
and endless stripes,
she would try on
all of my dresses but
like your sweatpants best.

She will have your laugh and my flat feet,
will always be late
to class and forget her lunch;
she will grow up fearless
of large dogs and cautious
of strangers, with sharp
heels and sharper wits.
In the heat
of her teenage rebellion
she will take up coffee
drinking and insist that we buy
a grinder, to be heard whining
through the bedroom walls
at all hours of the night.

She will age
and move away and every time
we see her for holidays
we will be frightened and proud
of who she is
becoming, how unlike us except
for those moments when something slips
in the air around her and she
is not her own
woman, but our child.

Our child, who once found this poem
in a musty folder during a move,
and cried in corners
where we could not see it
for days because
she was none of these things.

[SugarFree]

They can click if they want to. They can leave their clicks behind.

[SugarFree]

Also:

Theodosia Henney is a queer circus enthusiast who enjoys standing in the spaces between raindrops. Her work has appeared in over a dozen journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Micro Award.

I rolled my eyes so hard I think I hurt myself.

[Irish]

Theodosia Henney, motherfuckers.

“In the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam
I almost cried when I came to the painting
Thunderclouds Over Wheatfield.

I almost cry at those moments
when the sagebrush becomes plump,
and the damp, electric smell of about-to-rain
renders the land dark, lush, inviting.

I promise myself that the next time
the rain is on its way
I will do more than roll down the car window;
I will pull over and stand in the air.”

This woman spends a shitload of time crying.

[SugarFree]

almost crying, because reasons

[Irish]

Sort of like the damp, electric smell of about-to-rain.

[SugarFree]

“Ozone” is a word of the patriarchy. Theodosia will not sully her tear-stained journal with it.

[Irish]

“Our child, who once found this poem
in a musty folder during a move,
and cried in corners
where we could not see it
for days because
she was none of these things.”

Whereas the beginning of this poem made me laugh, this part is so terrible that I want to murder everyone.

[Aloysious]

So I read the article, and some of the comments.

You understated how bad the poem is.

[Warty]

Is it bad SJW poetry challenge time? Good.

eight people
were killed
by a massive
landslide
in Washington State

we only notice
landslides
in politics & tragedies
(and that song by Stevie Nicks)
but we live
in valleys
the earth
watching, waiting
to take back
its usurped ground

which made me
think
some way or another
we all get buried

[SugarFree]

If any of those were sentences, they have to be mercy killed.

[Brett L]

Fucking fuck. I hate you and the person who wrote this.

[Warty]

soft serve

A man selling
expensive cars
said:
(do you know what the bestselling
ice cream flavor
is?
Vanilla)
so good that you
will want to eat
the sweet card
board-
tasting cone too,
because it
is
Vanilla
eat it,
be it
lick up with
hungry eyes
each tine of the
fork(ed)
tongue
of sweet Vanilla
soft-serve
advertising

More

[SugarFree]

I can
make
my
half-ass
stanza seem
like
a
whole poem
if I
linebreak
it
often
enough

[AuH20]

Meter?
Rhyme?
A sense
Of narrative coherence?
Fuck
That Bullshit
That’s
Just
Your Hetronormative Patriarchal Construct
Of Poetry
Trying to oppress
Me
And the words which I have
Flowing within me
Aching
To be put onto
Paper

[HeteroPatriarch]

Nice.

[John Titor]

Clearly we need to spend billions of dollar a la the Apollo missions to fulfill this woman’s political delusions. Christ, it’d be easier just to clone.

[Brett L]

On another note, I have to apologize to my wife. We met a lesbian couple whose daughter is the same age as our son. I told her I thought it was theirs, that science already did this shit.

[Heedless]

I can see how they might manage a viable fetus, but if you can’t replicate the epigenetically alterations made to the sperms DNA (both pre-packaged and added during fertilization), you are going to end up with a severely damaged person at the other end.

[Mimsy]

I have to wonder what her reaction would be if someone figured out how to do this, but the researcher turned out to be a MAN.

[Redmanfms]

I have to wonder what her reaction would be if someone figured out how to do this, but the researcher turned out to be a MAN.

Based on me experience with medical researchers (granted, device developers,) I put the probability that the person who does will be a man at about 80%.

[R C Dean]

Enhanced video of the fatal weekend Los Angeles police shooting of a homeless man on skid row appears to show the man reaching for an officer’s belt.

Ah, our old friend the “furtive movement”, dressed up for YouTube.

[AuH20]

A silent, clowning inspired one woman show about Campus Rape (that’s supposed to be funny).

Where do I sign up?

I mean, the show sounds just DELIGHTFUL:

Watching Lassar’s riveting performance ? jumping effortlessly from Russian diva and Title IX coordinator, Lena, to alleged rapist and “southern gentleman,” Bryan, to the nervous and defensive professor defending him ? the victim, Julia, is notably absent. In this world, Julia has refused to give an interview, probably for fear of her world falling apart even more than it already has. Given Lassar’s truthful and empathetic performance of Bryan the alleged rapist, one might begin to wonder just who this performance is trying to target, survivors or the community at large? “Both,” insists Lassar. “I think that both survivors and communities get different things out of it. I think that to target an audience of survivors is to emphasize the cathartic healing moments.”

These are represented in the silent clown, who is quite clearly an abstracted interpretation of Lassar herself.

[AuH20]

Two other things of note…

1- There is finally an explination of why they want campuses, rather than the justice system, to deal with rape (Hint: It’s basically campus’ as guinea pigs)

Many people think this is as it should be. Why should we care how a perpetrator or community is feeling, when the victim is the person who has to live the rest of their life with this trauma? Lassar is concerned about the reproduction of sexual violence in a system that values loose punishment over healing ? that includes healing for perpetrators. Lassar recalls the Hollow Water Indian Reservation’s solution to community trauma: a form of restorative justice that requires the perpetrator to sit down with the victim’s family, their own family, and the larger community to hear testimony on how their actions respectively hurt each group. Given that many of the people advocating for rape victims are the same folks who advocate for prison reform or abolition, it seems counterintuitive to suggest that we send rapists into prison where their behavior will likely reproduce itself in other harmful ways. Lassar thinks that because college campuses already deal with incidents of sexual assault outside the judicial system, it is the perfect testing ground for restorative justice techniques.

[Hey Nikki!]

a system that values loose punishment over healing

I said it a few weeks ago and I stand by it. The fundamental problem is these people want “victims’ rights” and not restitution (or rehabilitation).

[Raven Nation]

New Zealand’s opposition party proposed that last year:

http://tinyurl.com/k9uuhzm

Since the sitting government was re-elected in a landslide, Kiwis are probably safe for a while.

[Irish]

“Lassar recalls the Hollow Water Indian Reservation’s solution to community trauma: a form of restorative justice that requires the perpetrator to sit down with the victim’s family, their own family, and the larger community to hear testimony on how their actions respectively hurt each group.”

I like how anything Native Americans do is by its very nature something we should emulate. I wonder if these people have ever been to an Indian reservation. I have, and I really, really would not like to live in the destitute, third world wasteland that is the average reservation.

But they have a hippy-dippy ridiculous idea of restorative justice, so clearly we must adopt this policy.

Also, given the horrifying rates of sexual violence on reservations, I don’t know why we should want to replicate the way Native Americans deal with rape. It clearly isn’t working.

[John Titor]

Not to mention that their concept of ‘restorative justice’ is based purely on emotional manipulation. That’s it, that’s all. Their goal is to basically make the offender feel bad for engaging in behaviour (or, given this crowd, being accused of engaging in behaviour). It’s pure, empty appeal to feelings. Say what you want about Bentham and his Hedonistic Principle, at least it’s a philosophical rationalization of punishment rather a purely emotive response.

Also, this entire concept assumes that offenders will empathize with their victims. Which is not a likely concept in the first place. Based off of the DSM and its British equivalent, there’s something like 0.5% to 4% of the population which have clinically sociopathic personalities. In a country like the United States that’s literally millions of people who will not respond to ‘restorative justice’ in anyway whatsoever. Might as well go back to paying weregeld.

[John Titor]

a form of restorative justice that requires the perpetrator to sit down with the victim’s family, their own family, and the larger community to hear testimony on how their actions respectively hurt each group.

Having actually worked in correctional services before, I really have the urge to drop every person who pushes this empty, vapid emotional response as ‘restorative justice’ into a pen when several violent repeat offenders and see how well talking out their problems work.

[Andrew S.]

$5 says this is required viewing at a Freshman orientation at some college next year.

Also, that’s some… interesting merchandise that website sells.

[AuH20]

I can’t remember how I found it originally, but Autostraddle is like Jezebel’s more lesbian, more hardcore, more crazy feminist sister.

It’s the Gayle to Jez’ Linda, is what I’m saying.

[AuH20]

2-The level to which privilege must be atoned for is hilarious.

Lassar and Dumlao are very vocal about the privileges that enable Lassar to put up this play: she is cis, white and able bodied: “the perfect victim,” and she has never named her rapist, which allows her to talk about her rape without being accused of lying…Laughter itself may be a privilege Lassar can afford due to her status as white and able bodied, a concession the performer/director duo are adamant about making. “The movement #TheresNoPerfectVictim started trending on twitter recently,” Dumlao tells me. “It’s just the idea that there is no one narrative for the survivor and usually the narratives we hear are of white, cis, straight, able-bodied, class-privileged women.

[HeteroPatriarch]

The amount of time these people spend navel gazing is astounding.

[Enough About Palin]

“the victim, Julia, is notably absent”

She’s off getting her free shit.

BTW, Obama’s “The Life of Julia” has disappeared.

[MJGreen]

Damn, you beat me to it.

[Elspeth Flashman]

on second thought, don’t RSVP for that show.

[The Other Kevin]

Can’t figure out how that picture of Delores Umbridge goes with the PM links.

[DesigNate]

Damn, I was 7 minutes too late.

Guess I should have scrolled to the bottom first.

[Warty]

Canadians

[AuH20]

House of Cards, anyone?

I got through 8.5 episodes this weekend. Goddamnit, I love this show.

And the trailer was oddly predictive. The whole season is about “Holding it all together… WHEN THE STAKES ARE THIS HIGH!”

Although I am sad that no Meacham sandwich action seems to happen this season. Such a great moment…

I also fully predict that liberals are going to use certain things in this season to claim that Frank isn’t REALLY a Democrat- which the writers may have intended.

SPOILER WARNING

“See- he’s going after entitlements! No REAL democrat would do that!”

“But he’s going after entitlements for the same reason that states go after pension systems- they take money away from the government providing other services. For Christ sakes, he proposes a universal employment scheme. That’s Truman’s wet dream!”

“Nu-uh!”

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I like the show. Only one show into the new season.

Not sure I got the need to have Underwood piss on his father’s grave. I get he’s a shameless politicians and murderer but how much more depraved do they want him to be? I read somewhere the creator made Underwood a Democrat because he wanted Underwood to be liked.

I see nothing to like in this guy. If anything he deserves a beating and prison.

[AuH20]

Eh, in a weird way, I root for Frank. He’s the devil, but he’s so effing good at being the devil.

Although, sadly, the end of Season 2 scuttled my plans for the House of Cards spin-off sitcom I wanted them to make called “Freddie’s”

It would revolve around Freddie’s Rib joint, with Doug Stamper as his beleaguered accountant, Rachel the Prostitute as a waitress, and the Zoe as a ghost that only Fred can see or hear. Frank would come in every few episodes as a reoccuring guest stay, and have a catch phrase that everyone laughed at. It would be great!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wild!

[AuH20]

I have DVR in my new apartment. I’ve already set up Walker, Texas Ranger on a season pass.

It is such a weird, crazy, fascinating show. Like, on the one hand, Chuck Norris is evangelical Christian and there is a lot of Christianity, but then there is some vague Native American spiritualism thrown in there, and in some episodes you even get East Asian Religious ideas tossed in there.

The musical choices are just bizarre.

And, of course, the tendency of bad guys to throw away their knives/guns/chains/whatever to kung fu fight for…. reasons?

[Bam!]

Did your apartment also come with a Walker, Texas Ranger Lever?

[Crusty Juggler]

“Listen up guys. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except… the four assholes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation

[Brett L]

So Chuck Norris only wounds them and doesn’t kick their heada off. Little known fact that we all have a survival instinct to do so. Only Bruce Lee overcame it.

[GILMORE]

“I’ve already set up Walker, Texas Ranger”

W.T.F.

Do you have a lot of acid too? You and Agile Cyborg could have a hot weekend with that.

I was always a fan of “Lone Wolf McQuade” for the ‘Quintessential Chuck’ film.

It has midgets and chest hair in abundance

[SugarFree]

You’ve got to double feature it with Silent Rage.

[GILMORE]

Invasion USA*, as reviewed by the *master* of 1980s action flicks

(subtitle = “Go Ahead: Make My Beard”)

[Crusty Juggler]

+1 formerly buried Dodge

[SugarFree]

Did Mythbusters ever do that one?

[AuH20]

Acid is probably how I will celebrate next birthday

[HeteroPatriarch]

Mushrooms are more fun, if you can get them.

[Paul.]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today his speech tomorrow before Congress is not meant to show disrespect to President Barack Obama.

Jesus, everyone tip-toes around this guy like he’s Jesus or something.

[GILMORE]

This is notworthy=

Exclusive: Obama says Iran must halt nuclear work for at least a decade

“U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that Iran should commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on its nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached…

In an interview with Reuters at the White House, Obama …said there was a “substantial disagreement” between his administration and the Israeli government over how to achieve their shared goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

Well, it appears not as much ‘disagreement’ as there was a few weeks ago, considering how you just – before Netanyahu even gave his #@(*$@) speech – changed the terms of your ‘landmark negotiation’ such that they’re obviously now going to be rejected by Iran, and provide you an easy exit from your own stated objective without looking like you capitulated to domestic and Israeli pressure

so people understand = obama is now pretending that this “10 year moritorium’ has been his position all along – when just as recently as january all he was asking Iran for were things like ‘lowering the capacity for uranium enrichment’ and declaring all their existing stockpiles. Nothing about “10 years” being any kind of benchmark

They sometimes call that sort of thing a “poison pill”. Its an offer intended to be refused

[sthgrau]

Not sure what the issue w/ AS. Works fine for me in both FF and Chrome;\.
http://imgur.com/b7prpJU

[sthgrau]

Trailing space, maybe?

[sthgrau]

As mentioned in the original bug report in the other thread.. it looks like the space was it and I coded a to delete any errant spaces in front or behind.

[John]

Turns out millenials want to live in suburbs Oh noes!!

http://m.ocregister.com/articl…..ation.html

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Was there ever a time when the leftists liked the suburbs? Now with global warming and before with various peak oil scares they always seemed to have it in for suburbs and cars as far as I can remember.

[SugarFree]

It, like many leftist obsessions, is a confusion of cause and causation. Living in cities doesn’t make you a liberal; liberals move to cities because like is drawn to like. Mass transit is popular because people have to use it rather than a car, not because it is superior in any way.

[Irish]

I once read a Salon article claiming that Republican electoral victories are caused by air conditioning because without air conditioning fewer people would live in the South.

Here it is!

“The invention has also changed American politics: Love it or hate it, refrigerated cooling has been a major boon to the Republican Party. The advent of A.C. helped launch the massive Southern and Western population growth that’s transformed our electoral map in the last half century.”

See, there were no Republicans before the invention of air conditioning and they certainly never won elections.

[AuH20]

So, the South just emits mystical “turn people conservative” energy?

That sounds more like the premise for a Stephen King novel than a political article.

[JEP]

I could people being pressured to confirm to the political views of whoever is around them, but that goes for anywhere, not just the south.

Being libertarian where I live, it would definitely be easier if I just slapped an Obama sticker on my car and walked around repeating whatever was said on the Daily Show the night before.

I would

[JEP]

wow, I butchered that one.

It could just be people are pressured to conform to the political views of whoever is around them, but that goes for anywhere, not just the south.

[Derpetologist]

Noted prog and turd burglar James Howard Kunstler has an elaborate theory along these lines. From his book Too Much Magic:

“The poor agricultural peasants of the southern United States, however, resorted to religion because they led very hard lives, had low literacy rates, and and knew few other ways of understanding their predicament besides the structured superstition of primitive Protestantism, transmitted orally.”

Wow! He actually calls them superstitious, illiterate peasants.

“City people of the early 20th century, who had grown up on a high tide of scientific advancement and accepted its victories over superstition and ignorance as self-evident, were suddenly confronted by an aggressive new wave of anti-intellectualism…”

“Regular assaults on the authority of reason from a large, well-organized faction of inflamed simpletons became a chronic annoyance to the democratic polity founded on the idea that the participants could think rationally.”

This guy must sniff 2 glasses of his own farts a day.

[Derpetologist]

I wonder how this air-conditioning theory of conservatism explains the existence of a cold red state like Alaska or Wyoming.

[JEP]

I wonder how this air-conditioning theory of conservatism explains the existence of a cold red state like Alaska or Wyoming.

Obviously, that’s explained by central heating. The natural state of the human being, living in normal, temperate climates as Atheismo intended, is be a democrat.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Doesn’t temperate just mean hot as shit some times and cold as fuck other times?

[Elspeth Flashman]

Yes. as far as I can decipher, “temperate” means “it changes with the seasons.”

[Suthenboy]

I wonder if they note that before air conditioning in the south there was a lot of hardcore racism.

Air conditioning cured that.

[trshmnster the terrible]

I’ve never gotten why people like living in big cities. I swear that half of the people that this comes up with say something of the form “If I were _________, I would live in an apartment in {insert swanky area of city here}.”

Why the fuck would you give up a single family home with no shared walls to pay 20% more living in a noisy shit hole where you can walk to a bunch of overpriced food and drink establishments?

[mauricegirodias]

If you’re young (or divorced), there are increased opportunities for access to new vagina over the burbs. Only advantage I can see.

[Derpetologist]

I liked the fact that in Chicago, I could practically reach out my window and grab a 6 pack. Or getting late night Thai or Italian beef!

I also miss pissing in alleys and under overpasses. But I had to wear my special wino trench coat when I did that.

[JEP]

Being able to walk to bars and breweries is a big perk.

Also, it’s great if you’re single. Or, if you’re trying to make new connections and network with people.

I live in a tech/start-up centered small town, and living in the downtown area definitely gives you access to that atmosphere and culture.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I’d move to the downtown if I didn’t want the school district of the suburbs. I totally supported the city until the switch to middle school was nigh, then high-tailed it to the (nearby) suburbs. City school = lowest in area. So my theory is that once city dwellers with decent education & jobs procreate, they will move. And move to the area that caters to folks with decent education & jobs.

[mauricegirodias]

I grew up in a “planned community,” Columbia, MD. It was originally designed to be inclusive and eco-friendly (ish) for the ’70s. There were plenty of bike trails and a Ren fest and the Grateful Dead always played. We worshiped at “Interfaith Centers,” Muslims and Catholics and Jews all in the same facility, just different rooms. Maybe Protestants too, but screw those jello-mold-toting heretics. Town was supposed to be 10 villages, and each village had its own “center” that you could walk or bike to and do your shopping at.

Of course there was recycling, but it wasn’t mandatory in those days.

That all went to shit. The young people who could got as far the fuck out of there as they were able. Now it’s just a big, disgustingly wealthy DC suburb, lot of NSA-related jobs on network detection and intrusion. The original villages, like mine, suffer from old people who aren’t moving out to make way for the young, and everyone shops at the big box stores near the highway, leaving the centers as vacant and depressing as a Rust Belt strip mall.

The Catholics have pretty much taken over the Interfaith Centers, from what I’ve seen. Only gone back for weddings and Christenings. Churches outside of town seem to be taking care of the Protestants.

/In defense, Maryland had legalized segregation well into the ’60s. Columbia did allow mixed-race couples and Jews to move in, something they couldn’t do in certain Prince Georges or Baltimore County suburbs.

[AuH20]

Wait, you’re telling me that a media establishment rooted in big urban cities has a bias towards living in big urban cities?

Excuse me, I believe I left my shocked face in my car. It will only be a moment.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I looked at houses in the suburbs of the OC a few weeks ago. Millennials aren’t going to be able to afford it.

[trshmnster the terrible]

Turns out millenials want to live in suburbs

Some of us already do! *Menacingly wiggles fingers and makes scary ghost noises – OOOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooohhhhhhh*

Surprisingly, generation after generation of captive audience fails miserably at becoming the New Soviet Man. Progressives are flummoxed.

[Derpetologist]

The horrid SJW poetry above reminded me of this Onion article:

http://www.theonion.com/articl…..imax,4663/

[Elspeth Flashman]

Cats away department: I have the house to myself for the next hour and 1/2. The Mister is on a trip for work. So I live by my wits (ham & eggs with wine) and post here.

[Libertarian]

FREEDOM!!!!

[Elspeth Flashman]

Is so precious!

[hamilton]

as are oeufs en meurette.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Not the traditional oeufs but ham, fried in butter, with eggs. Wine on the side.

[userve32]

That makes no sense at all dude.

http://www.AnonStuff.tk