OU's Disbanded SAE Chapter Sues, Hillary Clinton's Email Scandal Worsens, A Story About Trigger Warnings: P.M. Links

What Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig gets wrong about communism and the Catholic Church.

• 

  Public Domain

  It looks like the fraternity that engaged in racist chanting at the University of Oklahoma will file some kind of lawsuit in response to the stern disciplinary actions taken against it.

• Brace yourselves, thinkpieces decrying the excesses of the First Amendment are coming. (Not that students understand it, anyway.)
• Email-gate (email-ghazi? What should we call it?) is shaping up to be quite the scandal: Hillary Clinton's team didn't read through all her emails, instead relying on a faulty keyword search.
• ISIS is far from defeated.
• The FCC chairman is wrong about Net Neutrality.
• On last night's Jeopardy episode, only one person made it to the final round.
• What Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig gets wrong about communism and the Catholic Church.
• I wrote a short fiction story satirizing trigger warnings and campus political correctness. It's titled, "One. Dash. Nine." Read it at Liberty Island.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Email-gate (email-ghazi? What should we call it?)

Non-starter-gate.

[Brian D]

Fake Scandalgate!

[Doctor Whom]

What suffix at this point does it make?

[Tonio]

Unsure whether to cheer or jeer. Sigh. Well-done, Doc.

[Jerry on the sea]

Don't forget to prefix your suffixes!

[Restoras]

It'll end up a non-troversy.

[Aloysious]

Laws aren't for me, they're for you-gate?

Piss on you-gate?

Vast right wing conspiracy-gate?

[Andrew S.]

Patriarchy bringing down a female presidential candidate-gate.

[Aloysious]

Bill jizzed on the server while boinking one of Hillary's interns and we accidentally wiped the hard drive cleaning it up-gate?

[Crusty Juggler]

I just 'bated to this. Thank you for sharing.

[kinnath]

Can we just call it treason -- communicating state secrets and ITAR data via unsecured email systems gets people thrown in prison in my industry.

[Marshall Gill]

Don't you mean "little" people?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

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[Fist of Etiquette]

...thinkpieces decrying the excesses of the First Amendment are coming.

Do people really need to express all their believes?

[Careless]

And regarding 1, huh, the Atlantic auto-censors "asshole" now.

[Careless]

Which seems relevant, because that author is a giant, gaping asshole

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Well, it's not specific enough. No one will know which contributor you're referring to.

[Careless]

oops, meant 2 anyway.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Nobody needs all those words

[Curt]

I can't wrap my head around why people like the author of that piece are so scared of people saying offensive stuff. He says, "no one with a frontal lobe would mistake this drunken anthem for part of an uninhibited and robust debate about race relations." He's free to debate my frontal lobe, but I would say that is exactly what it ended up being (unintentionally). Their stupid little chant started the conversation and the response has been overwhelmingly clear that their thoughts on race are inconsistent with the rest of the modern world.

There are probably a lot of guys in that fraternity that grew up hearing similar shit from family and friends and believing that's how the rest of the world views things. Sure, they probably realized that there were some PC weenies out there who would frown on it, but they were certain that almost everyone truly agreed with them. Now, I suspect that they've been forced to reevaluate a few things.

Instead of punishing people for stupid/offensive opinions... let's encourage them to share those opinions. Then everyone can make it abundantly clear how f'ing stupid they are. Instead, we're currently encouraging them to only say these things in the echo-chamber of their asshole friends where their ideas are constantly reaffirmed.

[MJGreen]

Christ, so his argument really is that speech needs to be valuable to warrant protection? If it's not part of a robust debate, then who cares?

[Pope Jimbo]

I think that the First Amendment to the Constitution is so important that any attack on it cannot be tolerated. Surely anyone with a functioning frontal lobe can see that calling for any limits to the 1st Amendment is not contributing to a robust debate of any kind.

I therefore demand that anyone questioning the 1st Amendment be censored and prevented from spreading the malicious lies.

Hey, cognitive dissonance is easy!

[grrizzly]

I know you all wanted to see a picture of Rep. Aaron Schock's boyfriend travel companion. You're welcome.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's an inter-facial relationship if I've ever seen one.

[C. Anacreon]

Schock looks like Doogie Howser MD

[Tonio]

My gaydar, which is notoriously hard to trigger, redlines at that. Just sayin'

[grrizzly]

The travel companion is married to a woman. Take that.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

And a "photographer" . I wonder what he took pictures of?

[grrizzly]

It depends on whether he had a selfie stick.

[Tonio]

I blame confirmation bias (mine) and the closet (his).

[C. Anacreon]

He should have just said his travel companion was nine years old, the product of his first marriage. Then there'd be reason to believe they both would be received in India.

[Cdr Lytton]

As if I didn't know my own congressman. As if I'd never notice.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Well, things seem to be going quite well today.

What's the word... pleasant?

[Fist of Etiquette]

On last night's Jeopardy episode, only one person made it to the final round.

Was is Sean Connery?

[Restoras]

Suck it, Trebeck!

[Pro Libertate]

I'll take "Therapist" for $1,000.

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Best SNL skit(s) in the past 20 yrs.

[KDN]

I'm partial to "Space: The Infinite Frontier with Harry Caray. Will Ferrell's clearly off-script for about half of it.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

What's your favorite planet? Mine's the Sun! I think of it like the King of Planets.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm just a caveman. Your world frightens and confuses me.

[MJGreen]

Watching those again, I'm surprised at how short they were. I don't think either pass 4 minutes, and a lot of that runtime is the opening credits and fake ads.

Whereas today, I've heard that some recurring skits are 7-8 minutes long.

[Pro Libertate]

On a related note, I'm watching NewsRadio on DVD now. Funny show. Sure miss Phil Hartman.

[Ted S.]

Why the fuck is this a news story, anyhow?

[Antilles]

She should have bet it all and lost just so she could go down in history as the only person to win Jeopardy with $0.

[thom]

And the only other time it's happened it was her husband who made it to the final.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Brace yourselves, thinkpieces decrying the excesses of the First Amendment are coming. (Not that students understand it, anyway.)

Amazing how people who think we need to "draw lines" on free speech assume that they'll always be the ones doing the drawing.

[Doctor Whom]

People who help build the juggernaut assume that they will never end up under it.

[thom]

I don't get it. The first amendment clearly bans public universities from forcing religion on students who would be offended, why shouldn't it also prohibit universities from allowing speech which offends those same students.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The FCC chairman is wrong about Net Neutrality.

You don't get to be a chairman by being right about things. Unless you're Sinatra.

[Raven Nation]

+1 I did it my way.

[Bee Tagger]

Hillary Clinton's team didn't read through all her emails, instead relying on a faulty keyword search.

WHERE Body LIKE 'at%does%matter'

[Bee Tagger]

This is what I get for trying to participate in PM links instead of AM links. Just pretend like I remember what HIllary's famous line about Benghazi was.

[Careless]

Well, you didn't pull it off, but the concept was good.

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Where does not contain 'Benghazi'; 'Clinton Foundation', 'Vince Foster', 'Whitewater'...

[Gilbert Martin]

and cattle futures

[Tonio]

Kaspersky corp discovers a bunch of internet domains bought by the NSA to distribute malware. Outs some of them, buys others to track number of infected computers.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The domains were chosen to look legitimate, which means the US government is effectively cyber squatting on a sizable portfolio of names like newjunk4u.com

Uhhhh

[Tonio]

That was the least legitimate-sounding of the ones I read.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sounds like a men's magazine ad

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

On last night's Jeopardy episode, only one person made it to the final round.

To be fair "Animal Genitalia Audio Clues" was a difficult category.

[C. Anacreon]

I laughed.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

EXTREME HILLARY CLOSEUP!!!

http://www.businessinsider.com.....ats-2015-3

[a better weapon]

woooOOOOOooooo *deep breath* WOOOOOooooOoo

- Wayne and Garth

[Pro Libertate]

I'm suddenly realizing that the Urkobold was right about her being a Sith Lord.

[Derpetologist]

Name that Hypocrite: DC Whores & Whoremongers

Can you determine the identities of the 5 people listed below?

1. This Deputy Secretary of State stated that U.S. funds should be denied to countries that permitted prostitution. He resigned after confirming that he had been a customer of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the DC Madam

2. This conservative journalist attended numerous White House press conferences before admitting he was a $200 an hour gay prostitute.

3. This Clinton critic was arrested for soliciting a prostitute for oral sex in his car.

4. He was charged with attempting to solicit sex from a 16-year-old male prostitute.

5. He was arrested for soliciting two police officers posing as prostitutes.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

There seems to be a theme here.

[Careless]

Hey, #1 isn't a hypocrite, he stopped accepting US funds after his prostitution scandal came out.

Ok, on re-reading, that sounded more like a defense of him than I intended, but I'm sticking with it.

[Derpetologist]

I know you're joking, but in another round of this game, someone said that the adulterers who criticized Clinton weren't hypocrites because they resigned when they got caught. I really hope that was not serious.

[Tonio]

#2: Jeff Gannon (legal name James Guckert).

[Derpetologist]

You are kicking everyone's ass at this game.

I'm so happy for you.

[Tonio]

Thanks, Derpy.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

3 was Calvert from California, I remember him. Christian Coalition leader. His political demise paved the way for Ralph Reed if I recall correctly.

[Derpetologist]

Winner!

[Wasteland Wanderer]

You are an evil person. I hope you know that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig gets wrong about communism and the Catholic Church.

This former altar boy knows if you get a pope from South America, you're going to have to accept at least a little Socialism in the mix.

[Ted S.]

Show me on the doll where Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig touched you, FOE.

[Puddin' Stick]

It's tempered with Greek Catholicism, though.

[Bee Tagger]

On last night's Jeopardy episode, only one person made it to the final round.

What is a great chance at a joke answer missed?

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Jesse Helms

1. Your tax dollars are being used to pay for grade-school classes that teach our children that CANNIBALISM, WIFE-SWAPPING and MURDER of infants and the elderly are acceptable behavior.

2. Let's take a vote: Everybody against clean air, please raise your hand.

3. I burn my shoes whenever they touch Yankee soil.

4. I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at the same time. That's the kind of customers we need!

5. The big secret to winning elections is to get more votes than your opponent.

6. It still surprises me when I find something in any North Carolina newspaper that isn't mad at me about something.

[Big Chief]

#3

[Tonio]

4? Too over-the-top?

[Ted S.]

3.

[Derpetologist]

The Not is #3. That is a paraphrase of a Yosemite Sam quote.

[Bee Tagger]

I wrote a short fiction story satirizing trigger warnings and campus political correctness.

I appreciate the trigger warning.

[Bee Tagger]

I wrote a short fiction story satirizing trigger warnings and campus political correctness.

I appreciate the trigger warning.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Strom Thurmond

1. The white people of the South are the greatest minority in this nation. They deserve consideration and understanding instead of the persecution of twisted propaganda.

2. I fully recognize and appreciate the many substantial contributions of black Americans and other minorities to the creation and preservation and development of our great nation.

3. It is a matter of common knowledge that the government of South Carolina is under domination of a small ring of cunning, conniving men.

4. Well, I have the same vision I think that the Founding Fathers of this country had.

5. Segregation in the South is honest, open and aboveboard. Of the two systems, or styles of segregation, the Northern and the Southern, there is no doubt whatever in my mind which is the better.

6. All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our places of recreation and amusement.

[Ted S.]

4.

[Derpetologist]

The Not is #4. That is from David Duke, leader of a certain ethnic pride organization.

[Derpetologist]

Ted won 2 in a row. I think he deserves a prize.

[Andrew S.]

Reason, "trigger" is my trigger word. I demand you stop using it.

[d3x / dt3]

You have now been banned for the use of your [REDACTED] word.

[Warty]

What Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig gets wrong about communism and the Catholic Church.

Do you all realize that this chick graduated from Brandeis in 2013? She's 23 or 24. I can't deal with it. That means she was fretting about not being asked to prom by any of the football players she liked in 2009. I just can't even. She truly is the worst.

KDW on ESB

Thus Bruenig scoffs at "paranoia about poor people nursing addictions and indulging themselves before spending money on necessities," which is more or less exactly how I remember things going down in my own little corner of tornado-bait government-cheese pandemonium.

Things that probably only I like: Borknagar edition.

[Tonio]

Ooooh, KDW vs ESB cage match! What's not to like?

[Warty]

He's a nut on abortion and likely a bunch of other stuff, but KDW sure is awfully good at sneering in print, isn't he?

[Pro Libertate]

It's amazing how much of a voice children are getting these days. It's like Logan's Fucking Run, without Jenny Agutter.

[Raven Nation]

Mmm, Jenny Agutter's legs...

[a better weapon]

Brace yourselves, thinkpieces decrying the excesses of the First Amendment are coming.

I have a friend, who the other week, was making a point about how the English language is oppressive to minorities because it has too many irrational rules for speech, with countless deviations from those crummy rules, and that the immense number of synonyms for one word or feeling made it difficult for immigrants or blacks of poor educational backgrounds achieve. It needs to be drastically simplified, he said. No joke.

I pretended to respond in earnest that I agreed and this amended language should be given a name, "So what do we call it? We can't call this new way to speak English. It has to be called something else." I obnoxiously inserted the word 'new' and 'speak' in order and it never once pinged for him. He's well educated and I know for a fact has referenced Orwell before. I truly couldn't believe it.

[Doctor Whom]

Your comment is in a modernized version of the Roman alphabet. The Roman Empire was known for slavery, imperialism, and patriarchy. Why do you love slavery, imperialism, and patriarchy so much?

[BardMetal]

Yeah but didn't they kind of bum their alphabet from the Greeks, who bummed theirs from the Phoenicians?

[Geoff Nathan]

Yes they did. So it's all Hannibal's fault (he was kinda descended from the Phoenicians).
But then, pretty much everybody except the Mayans and the Chinese got their alphabet from the Phoenicians.

[Careless]

The Mayans create an alphabet on their own because they never had one

[Careless]

The Mayans couldn't create an alphabet on their own because they never had one

not sure how I blew that one

[Careless]

Although, obviously I meant "couldn't have created one of their own"

[Careless]

Oh, come on, we have cell phone video cameras and youtube now, why tease us?

[Pro Libertate]

I'm totally getting imprisoned for being a libertarian some day, that's what you're telling me, isn't it?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 ebonics

[Careless]

Perhaps funnier to point out that it's a fucking communist who's the leader of the linguistics faction arguing that even doing that wouldn't prevent people from looking stupid by not being able to use language in a sufficiently complex manner

[Careless]

To explain: it is the case, according to some like Chomsky, that languages, which we speak, including all of the ones we know, although not according to some linguists, have a method of recursion, which allows us to add complexity, to a potentially infinite degree, which would be limited by the time and intelligence of the speaker or, if one is a flat-brainer, at least be limited by expertise with the language.

[Geoff Nathan]

Your recursion is a little funky, but not bad. But you can't extend it too much further. Unlike 'this is the cat that chased the rat...'
As you point out, some linguists challenge Chomsky on recursion. And other things too. Like his politics.

[BardMetal]

I'm guessing your friend has never actually attempted to learn a new language, because they all have their own little rules and quirks that frustrate the hell out of anyone trying to learn it for the first time.

I'm currently at about a 33% success rate in figuring whether to use das, der, or die before a noun in German. Seriously why is a banana considered feminine?

[BardMetal]

Plus out of all the words to use for a cellphone they decide on "Handy"?

[Pope Jimbo]

English is easy. I learned it as a baby for chrissakes!

Japanese and Korean have kicked my ass. So badly that I have changed course and decided that instead of learning two new languages, I will simply teach my in laws how to speak english.

It seems to be working pretty well so far. They have made more progress than I ever did.

[BuSab Agent]

Spoken Japanese is blindingly simple...written Japanese--- OH DEAR GOD!. Written Korean is blindingly simple...spoken Korean--- OH DEAR GOD!

[Puddin' Stick]

Words that end in -e are usually feminine and use -n to form the plural.

Older textbooks actually give rules that make German grammatical gender and plural ending comprehensible.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Well, there is Esperanto...

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wrote a short fiction story satirizing trigger warnings and campus political correctness.

So Harold became a Reaver, right? And I really don't see where Chelsea getting arrested is at all believable. She has no penetrating organs.

[Robby Soave]

Thanks for reading!

[Fist of Etiquette]

SPOILER ALERT

I did take note of this, but it still definitely took a turn I didn't expect.

"... the Chemistry and Psychology departments are also quite excited to see how this measure turns out."

[Jerry on the sea]

Hillary Clinton's team didn't read through all her emails, instead relying on a faulty keyword search.

The keyword was "unclassified?"

[Agile Cyborg]

Mr. Moron Mayor Bill Little Saves the City of Camarillo from the Evil Adult Film Industry

[Stormy Dragon]

He didn't deserve that, he was building a house!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Duck, I says.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"There was a rush to the doors (by adult filmmakers) to go into Ventura County," said Mayor Bill Little. "We (in Camarillo) certainly didn't want to be the recipients of that industry."

Flush with revenue as they are in Camarillo? Or was it that the citizens were on the verge of raping a couple angels and brimstone was in the forecast.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The mayor should have thrown his daughters to the voters

[Mad Scientist]

Camarillo is fairly well off. I say they should come film in the empty warehouse next to my shop! I promise I won't peek!

[Careless]

I know nothing about the place, but The median income for a household in the city was $62,457, and the median income for a family was $72,676 (these figures had risen to $78,677 and $92,683 respectively as of a 2007 estimate[16]) doesn't make it sound that way, with the 2007 figures being from the end of the housing bubble.

[Warty]

"Ordinances such as this, that require the use of condoms, have been very effective (in other cities)," Assistant City Manager Dave Norman said at the council meeting last month. "We think this ordinance would be very effective in being able to stop this activity because the industry doesn't want to have to deal with it."

Yes, by all means, let's give petty dipshits like this more power over our lives.

[DEG]

"Ordinances such as this, that require the use of condoms, have been very effective (in other cities),"

I guess it depends on how you define "effective".

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Rand Paul got a standing ovation and enthusiastic support after speaking at historically black college Bowie State in Maryland.

He's improved his game dramatically in reaching out to young people and minorities on economic and civil liberties issues.

[Derpetologist]

And yet I strongly suspect that somehow, Jeb Bush will get nominated at the last minute.

Or Romney. Man, that would be great!

[Pope Jimbo]

Why can't we have both of them on the ticket? That way we don't have to worry about any sort of drop off in asshattedness if the president was to be assassinated.

Doesn't really matter who is at the top of the ticket.

[Pro Libertate]

He's got a serious chance at the nomination, because people generally like him. But he's got an uphill battle against the old guard, no doubt about it.

[Warty]

The Republican machine and the true believer TEAM RED GO GO idiots hate him. He would have a better chance of winning the general than any other candidate, I suspect, but I don't see any way he gets the nomination.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Run against Hillary as a Democrat?

[Puddin' Stick]

Ron Paul came in second to Barack Obama in New Hampshire in 2012...

[John]

I don't find that at all. The only Republicans who hate him are politicians and big donors.

[Warty]

The sort of people who write about the GODDAMN DEMONCRATS on message boards are not fans of his. If you lurk at any of the big gun boards you'll see a lot of it. And the big donors and the politicians are what I meant by "the machine".

[John]

The people who post on the big gun boards are not going to vote Democrat. They would bitch and moan and vote for him. The only way he would lose is if the media came up with a shame third party candidate for stupid people to vote for allowing the Dem to win by a plurality.

[Warty]

Oh, of course they'll vote for him in the general, that goes without saying. My point is that those people loathe him and will vote against him in the primaries.

[BardMetal]

Thats funny I used to always see a bunch of Ron Paul fans on gun boards, some of which sounded just a tad paranoid.

[Warty]

They seem to have mostly been purged these days, don't they?

[BardMetal]

Don't know, I haven't posted at a gun board in awhile. I haven't bought any new parts kits that I need help with, and some the politics at those boards were getting a little too conspiratorial for my tastes.

[Jerry on the sea]

Yeah, the Giulianis of this world will just continue to bash him on Fox News.

[Pro Libertate]

He's not offensive enough to the GOP leadership that they'll try to totally derail him if he comes on strong in the primaries. If he's cleaning up, they'll end up backing him, however grudgingly. He's not the outcast his father was. But that's a big if--he might not do as well early on.

I've mentioned before hearing some conservative talking heads admitting that they thought he's the one guy in the field that could actually get a landslide win in the general, which I think is likely true. Plenty of people would cross over to vote for him, I think. He's got to get nominated to do that, however.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If he gets nominated versus Hillary I think he wins in a landslide.

Or a Randslide, if you will.

[Pro Libertate]

I hope we're talking about an a'Pauling Randslide in 2016.

[Mickey Rat]

Stop it. That sort of silliness can only cost him votes.

[Pro Libertate]

I know, I'm so offended that I may vote for the American Communist party.

[Pope Jimbo]

+1 Asian Voting Bloc

[Warty]

Fuck you, ocean! I'll kick your ass! OH FUCK THE OCEAN IS BIG

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I was expecting someone FAT AND/OR DRUNK.

DISAPPOINTED.

[lap83]

It's cute, but what I'm really interested in is what the kitty was sniffing. Just driftwood or a severed arm?

[Ted S.]

Gotta love Creflo Dollar.

He's trying to raise $60 million to purchase a jet so he can "spread the gospel" around the world.

[Derpetologist]

A preacher named Dollar. High. Larry. Us.

[Puddin' Stick]

Who preaches the Gospel of Prosperity.

[John]

The last thing I want to do is go to court," Stephen Jones, a high-profile attorney who represented convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, told a news conference.

LOL Considering that his only claim to fame is his famous client getting the death penalty, he might not be lying there, but I doubt it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Let's be fair - the love child of Clarence Darrow and Edward Marshall Hall couldn't have saved McVeigh's life.

[John]

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-em.....46664.html

Never forget what a loathsome jackass Obama is. What a no class piece of shit.

[lap83]

"Obama 'embarrassed' for Iran letter signatories"

"Allow me to prove you all right about not trusting me. Isn't that so awkward for you?"

Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.

[Paul.]

Email-gate (email-ghazi? What should we call it?) is shaping up to be quite the scandal: Hillary Clinton's team didn't read through all her emails, instead relying on a faulty keyword search.

I don't see why this is so hard.

Just subpoena the system administrator and have him provide the entire email box.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

The apparent reluctance to do this is a bit disappointing. Maybe Republicans think they get more mileage out of letting the scandal brew than they would out of seizing the server and coming up totally empty-handed, thereby closing the issue out?

[Puddin' Stick]

Or we could ask for the FSB for their copy?

[Warty]

Father, I want to kill you

The Doors were a vastly overrated 60s boy band, inferior even to the Monkees, and Jim Morrison was a clownish pseudointellectual who did his estate the best favor he ever could have done by dying while he was still pretty. That said, I watched Apocalypse Now for the first time in years recently and I remembered how much I love that guitar riff.

[John]

First, they were not a boy band. That is a great guitar riff because Robby Kreeger was a fantastic guiarist. All three of them were fantastic musicians. Ray Manzerik was a classically trained pianist, Kreeger a first rate guitarist and John Densmore a first rate jazz drummer. They were a lot more than Morrison.

Morrison was largely overrated. The Doors, however, did some very good music. You just have to get past Morrison posing and bullshit.

[Warty]

The backing band was very good, no question. Why they deigned to play with Morrison is beyond me. Maybe it would be more accurate to call them a one-man boy band, though.

[John]

The music is great. And when it is just Morrison singing to it, like on LA Woman or Roadhouse Blues, the band kicks ass.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yet, if I'm not mistaken, the Morrison estate owns all the royalties?

[EJ]

Something like that, met the lawyer of the Morrison estate last year. He drove a Bentley, and seems to being doing pretty well.

[JW]

Morrison was a chick and publicity magnet.

I suspect that Manzerik had some old-skool allegiance to him as well.

[Warty]

And the Monkees joke was well beyond the pale. But fuck Jim Morrison, I won't apologize. I REGRET NOTHING.

[John]

The Monkeys were just Neil Diamond. And everyone loves the Diamond even though they won't admit it.

[JW]

Don;'t be hatin' on Mike Nesmith.

He gave us Repo Man.

[Pro Libertate]

And, through his mother, Liquid Paper.

[Pro Libertate]

I like some of their songs. "The End" would be one of them.

Now you're making me wonder which song of the Monkees would be best for Apocalypse Now.

[Raven Nation]

Pleasant Valley Sunday?

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Including fast-forwarding the video like they did on the TV show? Brilliant.

[Warty]

OK, new get-rich quick scheme. We make an Apocalypse Now musical where the characters sing Monkees songs. This could be Kurtz's theme.

[John]

Here is LTC Kilgore's theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUzs5dlLrm0

[Pro Libertate]

Willard gets "Daydream Believer."

[Warty]

No no, that plays during the acid trip artillery bombardment scene. This is a genius idea. We'll make millions. BILLIONS.

[Pro Libertate]

In place of Hendrix? Who, interestingly enough, once spent part of a Monkees' tour opening for the band.

[Raven Nation]

We'll make millions. BILLIONS.

HEY, you stole my idea!

/patent troll

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They had some good songs. L.A. Woman. Their perverted version of 'Gloria' was good and the live version of Moonlight Drive; both from 'Alive! She Cried.'

[DEG]

I like L.A. Woman even though it is a bit monotonous. I also like Roadhouse Blues, though I think A. C. Reed did a much better version of it than The Doors.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Oh come on. Roadhouse Blues? L.A. Woman? These things mean nothing to you?

[BardMetal]

Warty, that might possibly be the dumbest thing you have ever wrote.

[Mad Scientist]

The Doors weren't great, but they had one great thing going for them: they weren't the Beatles.

[Warty]

I thought I was the only person on the earth who doesn't get the appeal of the Beatles. Maybe it's because everyone who came after them tried so hard to sound like them or something, but they just sound unremarkable to me.

[Pro Libertate]

I find that surprising, given the recent revelation that Warty Hugeman was, in fact, the Walrus.

[DEG]

You aren't. I don't like the Beatles.

[JW]

My one and only nostalgic connection to The Beatles is that Crack the Sky closes out all their concerts with I am the Walrus.

Good times.

[Pro Libertate]

I like the Beatles. I think Beatles dislike is a clear indication that hipster influence has spread too far.

[John]

Exactly Pro.

[Warty]

I don't hate them, I just don't see what the big deal is.

[Pro Libertate]

That's because you are young and foolish and a product of this horrible, horrible age. Except for the Internet part.

[JW]

I listened to The Beatles almost exclusively when I was 15 or 16. Over and over and over.

I burned out. I hit my lifetime quota in that one summer.

I can die happy never hearing them again.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm that way with some of their songs, but some I still like to hear on occasion. In any case, I get why they were a big deal.

Warty, you should commission a metal cover of their entire oeuvre when you become rich.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The Federal government spent over $42000 studying the sexting habits of college girls

Wonder how hands on that research was.

[John]

Bill Clinton wanted to contribute to public service in his retirement.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Stuff like this just pisses me off

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Unless that figure is a typo, that has to be the least amount the federal government ever spent studying anything. Presumably that's because the labor was all volunteer.

[lap83]

How noble of them! Although obviously the taxpayer was expected to foot the bill for buying the college girls drinks.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The results will be based on self-report [sic] data, daily diary entries, and "text message phone review."

Sounds legit.

[Heroic Mulatto]

The results will be based on self-report [sic] data, daily diary entries, and "text message phone review."

Sounds legit.

[John]

http://9gag.com/gag/ae0rE6W/qu.....-right-now

This is what peak cute looks like.

[DEG]

I skipped going to Rottnest Island when I was in Perth several years ago. I got sick and was running a little low on cash. Maybe on another trip to Australia I'll swing by there.

[John]

I can't believe how cute those little bastards are.

[DEG]

I had an opportunity while in Sydney last May to take a picture of a bandicoot. Not as cute as the quokka but OK. I spent too much time fumbling with my camera. A woman came around the bend and scared him off.

Oh well. I got a great view of her ass as she walked off after apologizing. Leggings.

I should finish this beer.

[John]

Should have taken a picture of that as consolation for the missed shot of the bandicoot.

[DEG]

Yep. Instead I just have the memories.

[DEG]

Damn, the booze must be kicking in. It was last September that I went to Sydney.

[Raven Nation]

Stupid Australians.

[Mad Scientist]

Squeeeeee!

[Warty]

Which one is IFH?

[lap83]

They are really cute, but their human-like facial expressions kind of freak me out.

[DEG]

Don't drink Narragansett's Lovecraft Honey Ale. I thought that since they referenced Lovecraft that this beer might be good.

May the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods smite whomever came up with this beer.

[John]

Which part of "Honey Ale" did you not understand? Flavored beers are the work of the devil.

[DEG]

I've had some very good flavored beers, including honey ales. This is not one of them.

[BardMetal]

They been brewing beer with honey since at least the ancient Egyptians. Nothing wrong with violating the Reinheitgebot every once in awhile if you know what you're doing.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I'm a big fan of Dogfish Head Midas Touch:

This sweet yet dry beer is made with ingredients found in 2,700-year-old drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between beer, wine and mead, Midas will please the chardonnay and beer drinker alike.

[Warty]

Are you counting lambics in that? Belgian fruit beers are very good.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Who Has Abortions?
.
"We must acknowledge and come to terms with the implicit cissexism in assuming that only women have abortions," wrote feminist activist Lauren Rankin in July 2013 in truthout.com. She went on to criticize as exclusionary slogans like "the War on Women" and "Stand with Texas Women."

[John]

What the fuck is wrong with these people? Seriously, is this just another result of them closing down all of the state mental hospitals?

[BardMetal]

Is there a point where these people might become so insane that they actually start sounding sane again?

[John]

No. Just like there is no peak retard, there is no peak crazy.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

It has to be just epic trolling. There's no way someone could have written that seriously.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

http://www.thenation.com/artic.....-abortions

[Warty]

I see this link

Rand Paul, Vaccinations and the (Not So) Secret History of White Supremacy

and I'm all NOPE.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Rand Paul supports vaccination testing on African Americans, RACIST!

Men have abortions too!

...It's time to drink.

[Derpetologist]

I guess their point is that a trans-man (biological female) could get pregnant if "he" had sex with another man.

But that would require the trans man to be attracted to men. So that would be a gay man trapped in a woman's body.

Some of these gay men trapped in female bodies might get pregnant when they have sex with men, who may be gay or straight, so abortion providers need to be ready.

The bottom line is we must work together to make sure that gay transgender men can have abortions. Otherwise, that would be racist. Or something.

Well, looks like that's all sorted out.

[BardMetal]

You know I don't mind if someone is delusional enough to believe that they're really a women despite the penis, but I wish these people would stop trying to get the rest of society to join in their delusions. I don't care how much makeup you wear, how much plastic surgery you get, whether you got your penis lobbed off or not, if you were born a man then you're a fucking man, and I'm not going to refer to you as anything else.

[Raven Nation]

You better not be lobbing your detached penis in my direction.

[Derpetologist]

Yes, but what about women who want to be men?

I've got it! Penises from transgender women are given to transgender men.

Perfect!

[Mad Scientist]

Abortions for some! Miniature American penises for others!

[lap83]

It's okay if men want abortions, not okay if they don't. Is that so hard to understand? /crazy cat lady

[Puddin' Stick]

"We must acknowledge and come to terms with the implicit cissexism in assuming that only women have abortions," wrote feminist activist Lauren Rankin in July 2013 in truthout.com. She went on to criticize as exclusionary slogans like "the War on Women" and "Stand with Texas Women."

What you are seeing is the hipsterization of politics, or politics as a positional good. To prove they are more equal than the run of the mill bleeding heart liberal, the hipster social justice leftist has to accept more and more out there political positions so they can claim they were "into it before it became popular" and thus establish their position in the leftist and social justice social hierarchies.

Of course, this will result in the factionalization of leftist politics and the possibility, should one of them come into power and implement their policies, of a new round of wars of religion with hundred of small leftist sects accusing each other of harboring secret conservative ideas and lacking leftist and social justice purity by not implementing their fair wages, fair taxation, and fair subsidies.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I would hypothesize that the sum-total of crazy in the world doesn't necessarily get greater or less with time, it's just the nature of the crazy that changes.

Now we laugh at our forebears for thinking they could treat disease by bleeding the patient. Now we're like, "ha ha, those idiots, trying to heal people by making them bleed out and draining the humors! Oh, and men who think they're women actually *are* women, you know."

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And I'm sure everyone is indignant that people could once be fined in England for not going to Anglican services, but think it's totally OK that businesses be fined for wanting only men to use the men's room, and only women to use the women's room.

[GILMORE]

DICKLESS OF THE WORLD, REJOICE

Penis replacement treatment finally possible.*

*unfortunately, this does not seem to apply to actual 'females' wanting to endick themselves. Only those who unfortunately misplaced their original

[Derpetologist]

The EPA guy from Ghostbusters can finally get the help he needs.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

You just know in the feminist reboot of Ghostbusters the villain will be a greedy corporate capitalist.

And the word 'dickless' will not be used because of its transphobic, phallic-centric, and heteronormative connotations.

[DEG]

Yep. I expect the reboot will be a lesser creature than the original, which is why I will skip it.

[HeteroPatriarch]

The StayPuft Marshmallow Man wasn't a greedy corporate capitalist? He's a fucking evil company's trademark! And he's got "Man" in his title! They could just do a word-for-word remake.

[Puddin' Stick]

Basement dwelling virgin will be used instead.

[GILMORE]

MSNBC Rushes to Defend People Unfairly Receiving Death Threats...

no wait, sorry...that was 'gamergate' or something.....

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, some Black men are Muslims, so really, those frat boys were insulting Islam; thus, they were playing with fire and we shouldn't be surprised that they are now receiving death threats.

[DEG]

John,

I was reading old threads today and saw you engaging one of the trolls on Nazi Germany.

I recently finished Andrew Roberts' The Storm of War. There was a bit of trivia in it that I didn't know.

One of Hitler's Iron Crosses came courtesy of a Jew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gutmann

[Warty]

Great book. I bought the book because I watched this talk he gave. I think I might even have gotten the link to it from this place.

[DEG]

It has its problems.

While reading it, there were many places where I was reminded of something my grandfather told me about being in Europe after D-Day.

My grandfather was in the 101st Airborne. He was wounded at Bastogne, badly enough to end the war for him. The medics that get him out of there stole damn near everything from him, from the Luger souvenir he took off a dead German officer to his boots.

Anyways, he told me this about the English post D-Day. "The less the English had to do with anything, the more they wanted a parade to celebrate, with them in the place of honor".

I realize a book of that size, which covers a topic as broad as the Second World War, is going to drop things. I was amused that many of the things he dropped make the British look bad. I also was amused that his view of European history started when the Kingdom of Prussia started forcibly uniting Germany and waging aggressive wars. Pay no attention to Britain's attempts to keep Continental powers down. No.. no.. no.. pay no attention to that.

[DEG]

But, despite its problems, I recommend it as a good overview of the war.

[Warty]

Sure, any book as small as that is going to leave off all sorts of things in such a big subject, and a patriotic Englishman is going to have his biases. But his main thesis, that Hitler was made fundamentally incompetent by his crackpot ideology, and that his incompetence was the main reason the Germans lost the war, is compelling and well argued. I'm inclined to agree with him.

"The less the English had to do with anything, the more they wanted a parade to celebrate, with them in the place of honor".

I remember seeing a joint talk of the brothers Hitchens, and one of them mentioned that Britain in the 50s had a state religion called We Won The War. Sounds about right.

[DEG]

But his main thesis, that Hitler was made fundamentally incompetent by his crackpot ideology, and that his incompetence was the main reason the Germans lost the war, is compelling and well argued. I'm inclined to agree with him.

No argument there. I've said for a long time that the Allies' greatest ally was Adolf Hitler.

[Pro Libertate]

That's largely true, but, on the other hand, only Hitler was crazy enough to start indiscriminately conquering large swaths of Europe in the first place.

[DEG]

Thanks for the talk link. I'll take a look at it sometime later.

[John]

You ever hear about the British sniper who could have killed Hitler but didn't? I will have to read that book. I am reading a book on the Duke of Marborough right now. A bit dull but informative. I am also reading this guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima

I am reading his Sea of Fertility series. He is a hell of a writer.

[DEG]

No, I didn't hear about that guy. First World War I guess?

I think my "to buy" book list is going to get bigger. Thanks!

[John]

First world war.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28593256

[DEG]

Interesting.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm simultaneously reading/listening to Peter Ackroyd's Tudors and Rebellion. Read his Foundation, which starts at the beginning of English monarchy. All pretty good accounts of English history.

[Raven Nation]

Not an overview, but one of the best, brutal WWII histories I've read recently is Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin, 1945 (2003).

[John]

The Rick Atkinson Liberation Trilogy on the US Army in Europe is outstanding. I can't recommend it enough.

[Raven Nation]

I've heard that - thanks for confirming.

[GILMORE]

Newsflash = CIA Is Completely Retarded: Claims Social Media 'Amplifies' Terror Threats

Yet, vast majority of terror attacks still concentrated in places like dirtfuck-Pakistan; Facebook apparently not to blame for their decades-old regional ethnic/sectarian conflicts

[Pro Libertate]

HIT THE FACEBOOK KILL SWITCH!

[BuSab Agent]

I am strangely okay with that idea.

[HeteroPatriarch]

I started reading The Color of Magic last night. Pratchett writes like Douglas Adams, but is actually funny.

[BuSab Agent]

He gets an order of magnitude funnier than Adams once he hits his stride about the fourth book or so.

[NebulousFocus]

I started Guard! Guards!
It has a Monty Python feel. Quite funny.

[BuSab Agent]

SPOILER
The bit about trying to configure a "million to one shot" and how that actually worked out nearly broke my insides from laughing so hard.

[DEG]

Time to spike the punch bowl. Cooper's Extra Stout, in a Cooper's glass.

It's Kosher too! Says so on the label.

[Rob Ives]

Fraternities do not chant. Individual human beings DO chant.

[Stormy Dragon]

*corner the mouth twitches at a sudden Pleasantville flashback*

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Yes, 3, why would Strom consider his own group 'conniving'?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes.

Plus you get a puck for mentioning Lemaire.

[antisocial-ist]

Is there any other kind of Reese Witherspoon?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If he cared more, he'd probably be in Bowman/Arbor territory as among the best coaches ever.

No one can touch Toe Blake.

So I'm told.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Arbour.

[Winston]

He could have been referring to a rival faction of Democrats. In the Jim Crow days Southern Democrats could get into pretty nasty factional spats.

[Winston]

And guess what I'm right, he said three during the 1946 Democratic Primary to refer to a rival group of Democrats.

[Winston]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnwell_Ring

[Wasteland Wanderer]

No, you had it right the first time. /useless u

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It's so sad that I knew what that link was going to be.