Both Dems and GOP Drop Below 40 Percent Favorability, Ferguson Police Shooter Arrested, Netanyahu May Lose: A.M. Links

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  The Spectator

  For the first time since Gallup began tracking it more than two decades ago, neither major political party polls at above 40 percent favorability with Americans. Democrats fared slightly better than Republicans, with 39 percent favorability compared to 37 percent. 

• A 20-year-old man has been charged with last week's shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri; he says the shots were intended for another protester he had a dispute with and not the police officers. 
• "Take Ayn Rand, some tech billionaires and Rand Paul—and the result is a scary new movement" Salon article. Those Facebook kids have been reading too much Milton Friedman and now they're building a boat, I tell you, an eeeeeevil boat! 
• "I absolutely believe in the theory of evolution—when it comes to gay marriage," President Obama joked at this weekend's Gridiron Club Dinner. Hillary Clinton's email habits were also a popular butt of jokes at the event. 
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjami Netanyahu is warning supporters that he may not win Tuesday's election. 
• Anti-capitalism protesters in the U.K. accidentally occupied the wrong building. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...he says the shots were intended for another protester he had a dispute with and not the police officers.

This is going to suck for the narrative if they were shot by accident.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Rich]

I know!

The dispute was over who gets to shoot cop the cops!

[Rich]

*** waits to coffee to kick in ***

[Tonio]

Not for the proggie, cop-sucking, gun-grabbing narrative!

[Charles Easterly]

Well, it's not like they haven't been warning us for decades. We're just too dense to understand.

And we hate the children. Of course.

[Tonio]

Of course.

[Jerryskids]

Hey, it's a war zone out there! The cops were just collateral damage.
.
Funny how the cops have been fighting a declared war for decades but somehow when the other side starts waking up to the fact that they are in fact the other side and perhaps should be fighting back it's an outrage.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I seem to recall something about transferred intent - you have criminal intent if you meant to shoot someone, even if you end up shooting someone else than than the intended target.

[Jumbie]

Assuming the shooter is telling the truth, how dumb do you have to be to shoot first when you know there are cops about who came specifically to keep an eye on you and your friends?

[Palin's Buttplug]

A West Palm Beach man is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail after he allegedly beat a woman who refused to have sex with him after he bought her breakfast at McDonald's.

Justin Jarrard Oliver is facing charges of felony battery and false imprisonment. Oliver, 26, is being held in lieu of $75,000 bail.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/c.....wom/nkWGm/

[The DerpRider]

Ah, Florida.

[Tonio]

I blame food deserts. Surely things would have worked out better had he been able to offer her real food.

[SugarFree]

"I bought you kale, bitch. Start sucking."

[Rich]

What? Not 'collard greens'?

[SugarFree]

Like she knows how to cook collard greens.

[Rich]

Bitch.

[Jerryskids]

Do I even want to know what sort of sexual favors one might expect to purchase with a McDonald's breakfast? A handy from a leper?

[Xeones]

Whatever it is, you definitely got to get tested afterwards.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...neither major political party polls at above 40 percent favorability with Americans.

That just means a lot of voter noses will be pinched shut a little tighter next election day.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

That, and they will be clenched so hard they couldn't fart a BB.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ol' Jeb vs Hil-Dog 2016. Both sides get what they deserve.

[Charles Easterly]

And we help pay for it.

[Xeones]

Unfortunately, the rest of us get what both sides deserve too.

[Zeb]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Lord Humungus]

Privatising BBC3 would be as pernicious as Isis destroying Iraq's historic sites

[Lord Humungus]

Lawyers love loopholes, and prey on a precedent. If the BBC3 frequency is, unprecedentedly, reallocated, then public broadcasting is holed below the waterline, the whole thing is up for grabs and we'll lose the very idea of public broadcasting to the free-market fundamentalists within a decade, as surely and shoddily as we lost the Post Office. Maybe BBC3's would-be buyers and the BBC Trust don't realise this. Maybe they realise this all too well. Maybe, fundamentalists of the free market, that's what they want?

And if I went to talk to someone at the BBC Trust about this, would I find myself faced with another government-friendly, west London billionaire, and end up floating face down in a ?5m sub-basement swimming pool?

[Redmanfms]

we'll lose the very idea of public broadcasting to the free-market fundamentalists within a decade

Better service that is effectively free for the consumer has that effect.

[Zeb]

No free TV in the UK. You have to pay the license fee whether you watch BBC or not.

As much of a free-market fundamentalist as I am, I can't really say that free, over the air TV provides a better service than public broadcasting. Perhaps it is just my taste. I also haven't really watched broadcast TV for several years.

[NebulousFocus]

NBC does show Hannibal...

[Catatafish]

Best show on television. I'm utterly shocked NBC hasn't cancelled it.

[Tonio]

holed below the waterline

Oh, that's delicious. A strained and turgid metaphor and he doesn't even get it right. "Hulled below the waterline" is the standard term.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Such nautical ignorance from a Briton. Sad...

[Scarecrow Repair]

Google search does not back you up, that I can find. Both expressions find results, but there were no links that compared the two expressions.

If it refers to a hole in a ship's structure which lets water in and threatens to sink the ship, "holed" makes perfect sense, regardless of what it may have been in ancient times.

[Tonio]

Hulled conveys the sense of damage to the hull (serious if anywhere near or below the waterline); holed needs more qualification, ie "below the waterline" to convey the seriousness.

As Eddie notes, Brittania was once proud of her Navy.

[Scarecrow Repair]

In that case, hulled implies "holed below the waterline" and saying so explicitly is redundant.

[MJGreen]

Can any Britons say how the post office functions now that it's been privatized? Has service changed at all, for either better or worse?

Also funny to see him use the slippery slope/ratchet effect argument, since that's what us "free market fundamentalists" say any time the state starts nationalizing something.

[Zeb]

Unless they also destroy the archives of the BBC, the comparison with ISIS seems rather ridiculous.

[tarran]

Actually, it's the BBC that destroys their own archives.

/Bitter fan of the original Doctor Who series

[Zeb]

Well, they did when video tape was more expensive and home videos and reruns weren't a thing. If Doctor Who is anything to go by, they stopped that somewhere in the early-mid 70s.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Now *that's* worse than ISIS!

[Cdr Lytton]

Thank god for the Nigerians--

"Hello. I am the wife of the former chief broadcast engineer in Jos. I have six episodes of The Enemy of the World and five episodes of The Web of Fear, but not means to play them. Please help me. As soon as you give me your bank account details, I will transfer copies of all episodes to you."

[SugarFree]

he says the shots were intended for another protester he had a dispute with and not the police officers.

Well, I believe him. There doesn't need to be any further investigation. He can take a month off while procedures are being reviewed.

[sarcasmic]

I demand that the person he was shooting at be arrested and charged with attempted murder!

[Charles Easterly]

I have it on good authority that they were advancing toward him in a threatening manner - whilst reaching for their waistband.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton's email habits were also a popular butt of jokes at the event.

If we can't laugh at our leaders' lawlessness...

[SugarFree]

Fake scandal.

[Drake]

Old News.

[Charles Easterly]

What, at this point....

[Citizen Nothing]

You know who should have been at the Gridiron Club dinner?

[Ted S.]

Roger Goodell?

[The DerpRider]

The Gipper?

[Charles Easterly]

Joan of Arc?

("Singe but never burn" = Gridiron Club motto)

[Rich]

HATE SPEECH1

[Rich]

*!*

*** gets coffee ***

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

!11!1!eleventy!!!oneoneone!

[Bee Tagger]

Take Ayn Rand, some tech billionaires and Rand Paul

, please?

[Citizen Nothing]

So Ayn Rand, some tech billionaires and Rand Paul walk into an artisanal mayo shop...

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

...and try to stop sloopy while he is berating the hipster owners...

[Ted S.]

Why would anybody want to own a hipster?

[Marshall Gill]

I don't like my orphans getting dirty so I own a few hipsters for the really dirty work. I just tell them they are "being real" when I have them scrub the inside of the septic tank.

[Citizen Nothing]

That would certainly help rid them of the stink of patchouli.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

*narrows gaze*

[hamilton]

Some day your face is gonna freeze like that.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Who says it hasn't already?

[Charles Easterly]

If it already had you should be typing *narrowed gaze* instead.

*holds mirror at ready to reflect infamous narrowed gaze back at Switzy*

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

I am just playing coy at this point.

[Rasilio]

Yeah but at this point your gaze has become so narrow that you're a walking double slit experiment

[db]

It's the all-natural, free range, locally sourced way of harvesting essential oils for artisanal soaps.

[John Titor]

They describe Bioshock as a clever criticism of Objectivism. I actually like Bioshock, but to pretend that it has any depth or actual logical criticism of Objectivism is ridiculous. I mean, the main villain's so dumb he wants to gather all the world's greatest minds, but then makes them pay for their air.

[Zeb]

Yeah, sounds more like a trite, lazy and worn out criticism of Objectivism.

[John Titor]

It's especially lazy because the villain basically abandons all Objectivist principles once the going gets tough. So it's not even that much of a criticism of Objectivism, it's a criticism of people being unable to achieve that moral standard. It's basically the dumbest 'the world doesn't work that way because the writer says so' criticism. I miss System Shock, where they didn't try to shoehorn in vapid political messages.

[Catatafish]

You could just as easily find evidence that it supports Objectivism. After all, the ultimate bad guy is not Ryan but Fontaine/Atlas who can pretty well be argued represents the cronyism and fomenting of class violence for political ends that Rand abhors.

[MJGreen]

I can't even tell if it's a criticism. Hasn't Ken Levine said it's not a criticism, it was just inspired by Rand and the story twisted for an exciting video game? Anyone who takes it as some serious criticism of anything is pretty stupid. The whole story hinges on tonics that grant superpowers, for crying out loud.

[John Titor]

If anything, Bioshock is more about player interaction with games than any kind of political message. The whole first act is basically a commentary on linearity in single player games (i.e. the only way to process is to follow the instructions given, therefore, in the world the character is being 'mind controlled' to fulfill only those actions. 'Would You Kindly' is really just about how players are required to follow the whims of developers due to game design).

[MJGreen]

Right, both of Levine's Bioshock games are more about gaming itself than any kind of political message. The "politics" is just a riff on popular ideologies, and neither is very unique or deep. They're instead about the illusion of player control and choice.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Bioshock is a criticism of Objectivism in the same manner as Der Ewige Jude is a criticism of Judaism.

Supposedly addressing Objectivism without even mentioning the concept of individual rights... ugh. More sixth-hand viewpoints on Rand's works because even the Cliff's Notes were too hard.

People just love to hate Rand without having the slightest inkling of what she actually advocated.

[DesigNate]

My god, why did I read the comments? Why!!!!!?!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjami Netanyahu is warning supporters that he may not win Tuesday's election.

Iran is such a dangerous regime that the Republican Party's biggest hero gave them weapons. #GOPWantsWar

(JRehling)

[WTF]

Welcome to Retardation: A Celebration. Now, hopefully with this book, I'm gonna dispel a few myths, a few rumors. First off, the retarded don't rule the night. They don't rule it. Nobody does. And they don't run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don't lock eyes with 'em, don't do it. Puts 'em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming "No, no, no" and all they hear is "Who wants cake?" Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

[Lord Humungus]

If Economists Were Right, You Would Have a Raise by Now
States show weakening link between their jobless rates and wage growth

Six years into the U.S. expansion, the link between falling unemployment and rising wages -- once almost as basic to economic theory as supply and demand -- seems to be coming unhinged.

The disconnect is puzzling to people like Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. With one of the best growth rates among the 50 states, a population that's younger and better educated than the nation's and a jobless level that's fallen further and faster than the national average, Colorado seems to have everything going for it.

Yet the rise in the state's median wage since the recession ended in mid-2009 has averaged just 1.1 percent a year, based on data from the federal government's Current Population Survey. That's no better than the lackluster 1-percent-to-2-percent national pace. What gives?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What gives?

You do, on April 15th

[KDN]

This if false. You do, all year long. They do on 4/15.

Refund season, bitches.

Fuck withholding.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Apparently in Florida an Egg McMuffin buys you a piece of ass. No inflation in the USA!

[The Laconic Esq]

What are non-wage benefits doing?

Maybe people don't need to be paid as much where the weed flows like wine.

[Mickey Rat]

How much has the cost of employing someone gone up in that time? Might alleviate dome of the confusion.

[Rasilio]

Ah the glories of aggregate data.

You did know that all jobs were interchangable right? I mean that is the reason why they only bother to track unemployment

[DesigNate]

six year expansion

I think I see the problem...

[Rich]

"I'm not saying I'm any funnier," Obama said as he started his routine. "I'm saying weed is now legal in D.C."

I suppose he took the red-eye to that Dinner.

[Ted S.]

Obama was never funny to begin with.

[Rich]

"Intercepted!" must have cracked 'em up all the time.

[VG Zaytsev]

Obama's funnier than his funny men and a better comic writer than this comic writers.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Although Obama skewered Donald Trump to his face. That asshole had it coming.

[Teaching Student]

He can be pretty funny. He should quit his day job.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjami Netanyahu is warning supporters that he may not win Tuesday's election.

If this warning wasn't in a mass form email asking for money he's not doing it right.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

+1 Nancy Pelosi

[Charles Easterly]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjami Netanyahu is warning supporters that he may not win Tuesday's election.

Did he use a picture of a Looney-Tunes type of bomb to drive home his point?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxtpsq3_LVE

Trigger warning: Do not watch if you are partial to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjami Netanyahu is warning supporters that he may not win Tuesday's election."

Isn't that standard practice when you're running for office - scaring your supporters so they give you more dough?

[SugarFree]

Anti-capitalism protesters in the U.K. accidentally occupied the wrong building.

"Addresses are just, like, a suggestion, man. They are like trying to tell you which building it which, man. It really harshes my welfare mellow."

[Bones]

The anti-capitalism crowd are the same people that complain about the disparity between rich and poor. They somehow think getting rid of capitalism would actually close that gap. They are dumb.

[sarcasmic]

They somehow think getting rid of capitalism would actually close that gap.

No they don't. They don't think. They feel. They see inequality and it makes them mad because it's not fair. I mean, what did those rich people do to deserve all that money? All they do is offer goods and services to voluntary customers while creating jobs. I mean, um, uh... IT'S NOT FAIR!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

von Mises addresses this:

In a society based on caste and status, the individual can
ascribe adverse fate to conditions beyond his own control.
He is a slave because the superhuman powers that determine
all becoming had assigned him this rank. It is not his doing,
and there is no reason for him to be ashamed of his humbleness.
His wife cannot find fault with his station. If she were
to tell him: "Why are you not a duke? If you were a duke,
I would be a duchess," he would reply: "If I had been born
the son of a duke, I would not have married you, a slave
girl, but the daughter of another duke; that you are not a
duchess is exclusively your own fault; why were you not
more clever in the choice of your parents?"

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

It is quite another thing under capitalism. Here everybody's
station in life depends on his own doing. Everybody
whose ambitions have not been fully gratified knows very
well that he has missed chances, that he has been tried and
found wanting by his fellow man. If his wife upbraids him:
"Why do you make only eighty dollars a week? If you were
as smart as your former pal, Paul, you would be a foreman
and I would enjoy a better life," he becomes conscious of his
own inferiority and feels humiliated.

[Raven Nation]

These are actually good quotes for this issue. Obviously a lot of wealth in the UK has been generated by capitalism and hard work. But there's still a very strong carryover from the old caste system: public schools where admission is often based on family name, landownership that goes back generations based on a form of a "caste" system, etc.

Certainly, free markets would provide more wealth. But, if you grew up in the UK, it's much easier to see capitalism as a tool used by beneficiaries of a caste system to keep themselves in power.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The Anti-Capitalist Mentality is well worth the read. Although it's from 1954, it's remarkably applicable to today's society.

[The Laconic Esq]

Check out the photo. Apparently these are anti-capitalist anarchist libertarians. From which I can only conclude that they're mad about something.

[sarcasmic]

Or confused. Very, very confused.

[VicRattlehead]

Thus why they are mad, they cant make sense of anything

[Lord Humungus]

I masturbate while my husband sleeps
My sex life is more than satisfying, but I can't seem to quit my nighttime habit -- and I'm not sure I want to

It's past two a.m. and my husband's breathing has become long and even. An opportunity presents itself. I slip my right hand down my pajama pants and move slowly, careful not to bump my elbow into his side rib, or bring my hips into it. Too much movement or sound will wake him, and to be found out for something like this is not just embarrassing but potentially destructive. He'll think he doesn't satisfy me, and men do not like feeling inadequate, especially when it comes to matters of the bedroom. Or maybe he'll feel sorry for me. And who wants to fuck someone they pity?

Even worse, maybe he'll finally say the words I've been waiting for him to say since I first told him that I am a sex addict. That he's bored with it. He's disgusted. He's had enough.

[SugarFree]

and men do not like feeling inadequate, especially when it comes to matters of the bedroom.

Do women like to be told they are terrible in bed?

[WTF]

Do women like to be told they are terrible in bed?

They like to be told they are dirty, dirty little whores.

[Rich]

"When she was good she was very very good,
and when she was bad she was *excellent*."

[Florida Man]

Is that from Pinnochio?

[Raven Nation]

"There was a little girl, and she had a little curl..."

Longfellow:

http://www.bartleby.com/360/1/120.html

[Florida Man]

Ah. One of the x-mas Pinnochio movie's had a song like that. I guess they sampled Longfellow.

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

"Lie, you motherfucker, lie!!"

[SugarFree]

"Take out your fucking retainer
and put it in your purse."

[Charles Easterly]

John, Robert, and Ted?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Husband: Let you in on a secret. I wasn't really sleeping. In fact, I too masturbated while I watched her.

[Florida Man]

Welcome to the sex life of men sweet heart. No matter how much you're getting, there always room for a little "me" time.

[sarcasmic]

And who wants to fuck someone they pity?

Pity got me laid more than once.

[Rich]

By Fawn?

[Tonio]

+1 Kiln explosion

[Charles Easterly]

And the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

[Rich]

Argh!

*Shelly*

*** gets more corffee ***

[Tonio]

Damn, that's good, Rich.

[Auric Demonocles]

I'm not married, but every time I have been asleep next to a woman I would have responded quite favorably to waking up to her masturbating.

[Xeones]

Yeah, i fail to see a problem here.

[straffinrun]

Tell me this is a SSM and that is pajama boy from the ACA commercial.

[Zeb]

People really always need to find something to get hung up on, don't they?
I can only speak for myself, I suppose, but I don't imagine this would upset me at all. Not if she was also enthusiastic about having sex. I guess some people get all jealous or something about their spouse masturbating, but I've always thought that was stupid.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Um, is this confession time?

[Zeb]

Yes it is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Welcome to "Libertarian Island": How these One Percenters are creating a dystopian nightmare

Pass.

[Drake]

Come on! Aren't you worried about those nutjobs destroying our big government paradise?

[Ted S.]

How dare they go off to some deserted island and live in a way I dislike!

[Drake]

Don't worry, Matt Damon will get them.

[Hyperion]

I swear that all of the comments there were written by Tony.

[Catatafish]

I only got through a dozen before feeling like my brain required a delousing.

[DesigNate]

I love debating these folks in the comments section on a blog. One way to make them have a tantrum is to ask, well who made the computer you are using right now? Other people! Not you. Nor did you make the gun you carry around 24/7. See, you do need other people. Sadly, they always absolutely refuse to concede that point. They are like 2 year olds. "Mine mine mine" and "i did it because I want to not because you told me too"

This made me think of so many of our trolls.

[Catatafish]

I'm beginning to think it is literally impossible for these people to see the difference between voluntary interactions and those forced at point of bayonet.

[Lord Humungus]

US intel report scrapped Iran from list of terror threats
Softened assessment, submitted in February, comes amid marathon nuclear talks, shared interests vis-a-vis the Islamic State

An annual report delivered recently to the US Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports.

The unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, dated February 26, 2015, noted Iran's efforts to combat Sunni extremists, including those of the ultra-radical Islamic State group, who were perceived to constitute the preeminent terrorist threat to American interests worldwide.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

As long as they have an unimpeachable source of truth like Jim Clapper backing this...!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The establishment of a free and democratic Iraq has done so much for us in the Middle East. Who should I be thanking for the improvements?

Oh yeah, it's the guys agitating for another war in the Middle East. What could go wrong?

[Lord Humungus]

A man and his goat try to meet presidential candidates

For years, he has brought a goat to meet presidential candidates. And Sunday, he made his first foray onto the 2016 campaign trail, hoping he and the goat would meet Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Why?

"I judge the candidate by how they react to the goat," he said. Cruz, like all the other candidates chasing supporters here this weekend, hasn't officially declared that he is running.

[Tonio]

Did Cruz get his goat or was it the other way around?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

*narrows gaze*

[Derpetologist]

The thousand-yard squint. A guy gets it after he's been in the derp for too long. It's like you've really seen...beyond.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Chris Christie like my goat a little *too* much."

[Lord Humungus]

Germans Tired of Greek Demands Want Country to Exit Euro

"They've got a lot of hubris and arrogance, being in the situation they're in and making all these demands," said Mueller, 49, waiting for fares near the Brandenburg Gate. "Maybe it's better for Greece to just leave the euro."

Mueller's sentiment is shared by a majority of Germans. A poll published March 13 by public broadcaster ZDF found 52 percent of his countrymen no longer want Greece to remain in Europe's common currency, up from 41 percent last month. The shift is due to a view held by 80 percent of Germans that Greece's government "isn't behaving seriously toward its European partners."

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Shut up and pay moar!

/Greeks

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Best Germany doesn't over play its hand either. They haven't exactly been angels over the years. It's all political jostling at this point. Nobody's gonna exit anything. Why, they may even have war before that happens.

[Ted S.]

Of course they're not going to exit. The politicians in Brussels have too much invested in the Euro for it to fail. The only solution they can conceive involves giving more power to Brussels.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Exactly.

And the principal members (the original EEC countries) just aren't gonna let it go so easily.

That being said, it wasn't just economics that brought them together. Yeah, they talk about having fulfilled Charlemage's dream of a united Europe' but people tend to forget one of the reasons why it happened was fear of American hegemony - led by (who else?) France.

[John Titor]

You know who else wanted a united Europe?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Charles V?

[John Titor]

The answer I was looking for was Napoleon but nice.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Bismark?

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

Ghengis Khan?

Numerous popes?

Caesar Agustus?

[Xeones]

The Kaiser?

[Redmanfms]

but people tend to forget one of the reasons why it happened was fear of American hegemony

Which is all the more hilarious;y ironic considering the only thing that made the EU possible in the first place is American hegemony. The EU's continued existence is also dependent on American hegemony.

Without the adults making them play nice and footing the bill for NATO Europe is a very unpleasant place.

[DesigNate]

Or it all belongs to Putin by now.

[Bones]

The other 48 percent vacation in Greece and don't want to have to convert currency on holiday.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

But if they go back to the drachma.....it will be cheaper!

/German tourist with cunning gleam in eye

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My Greek friends lament the loss of the drachma mostly because it was so cheap for them to vacation there.

[DJF]

But the imported German beer might be more expensive.

[Lord Humungus]

Huckabee Pursues Unconventional Ways to Fund a Campaign

In a wood-paneled study lined with books and framed family photos, the prospective presidential candidate looks into the camera. "I'm Mike Huckabee," he says with all the folksy charm that propelled a career as a preacher, politician and broadcaster.

But this is no campaign ad. It is an Internet infomercial for a dubious diabetes treatment, in which Mr. Huckabee, who is contemplating a run for the Republican nomination in 2016, tells viewers to ignore "Big Pharma" and instead points them to a "weird spice, kitchen-cabinet cure," consisting of dietary supplements.

"Let me tell you, diabetes can be reversed," Mr. Huckabee says. "I should know because I did it. Today you can, too."

[SugarFree]

Hucksters gonna huck.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

*opera applause*

[Palin's Buttplug]

Huck should get the Rev Creflo Dollar as a running mate and use his $65 million jet.

http://atlantadailyworld.com/2.....ivate-jet/

[Fist of Etiquette]

Anti-capitalism protesters in the U.K. accidentally occupied the wrong building.

And philosophy.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

OCCUPY FOOLISHNESS!!!!!!

[KDN]

They're eating their own!

Obama adviser behind leak of Hillary Clinton's email scandal

It's the vast left-wing conspiracy.

Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett leaked to the press details of Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail address during her time as secretary of state, sources tell me.

But she did so through people outside the ?administration, so the story couldn't be traced to her or the White House.

In addition, at Jarrett's behest, the State Department was ordered to launch a series of investigations into Hillary's conduct at Foggy Bottom, including the use of her expense account, the disbursement of funds, her contact with foreign leaders and her possible collusion with the Clinton Foundation.

Considering the source, I'm not sure if I believe it in total. But it seems plausible since the Obamas and the Clintons are known to not be on the best of terms.

[Drake]

Who to root for in a clash of Obama vs, Clinton toadies? I just want a high body-count.

[Catatafish]

Mutually Assured Derpstruction.

[WTF]

But she did so through people outside the ?administration, so the story couldn't be traced to her or the White House.

Wait, wut?!

[Stormy Dragon]

This e-mail server didn't fall... it was pushed! o/~ duhn-duhn-DUUUUHHNNNNNN o/~

[VG Zaytsev]

But she did so through people outside the ?administration, so the story couldn't be traced to her or the White House.

Good job Val.

[Rich]

Let me be the first to wish you a very Happy Nowruz!

[Bones]

Don't forget to wish Benito Juarez Feliz Cumpleanos (observed).

[Lord Humungus]

Meth lab discovered at Wal-Mart restroom in Indiana

State police say a Wal-Mart employee alerted police after seeing a man he described as suspicious enter the restroom about 11:30 p.m. Thursday with a backpack and leave without it. The Star Press reports that members of a state police meth suppression team removed the dangerous chemicals.

Delaware County Health Department inspectors closed the restroom and a nearby women's restroom until they could be "decontaminated" by a professional cleaning company.

[double ham fisted]

Chirp! Chirp!

[Warty]

Europe hates the Jews again

Israel is coming to be understood not as a small country in a difficult spot whose leaders, especially lately, have (in my opinion) been making shortsighted and potentially disastrous decisions, but as a source of cosmological evil?the Jew of nations.

That sounds about right.

I don't understand why Jews aren't the most martial people on the planet. If everyone in the world wants you dead, you'd think you might want to make staying alive a priority.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The Jews are simultaneously blamed for communism AND capitalism.

Surprised they haven't pinned climate-system change on ze jooos.

[VG Zaytsev]

"Auschwitz meant that six million Jews were killed, and thrown on the waste-heap of Europe, for what they were: money Jews. Finance capital and the banks, the hard core of the system of imperialism and capitalism, had turned the hatred of men against money and exploitation, and against the Jews ? Anti-Semitism is really a hatred of capitalism."

[Catatafish]

Rufus, technically it was zee Germans that increased their carbon footprint...

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Our trolls just started to get aroused...

[SugarFree]

All the marital ones are in Israel and all the rest of the Jews in the world get blamed for everything Israel does.

[Florida Man]

Jews outside of Israel can't get married?

[SugarFree]

If Jews can get married it just ruins it for goy.

[antisocial-ist]

Krav maga is a pretty effective discipline. Doesn't take too long to learn and doesn't have to be practiced constantly.

[Warty]

doesn't have to be practiced constantly.

Krav Maga is fine, but that's just pure marketing bullshit. Motor skills must be practiced if you want to be able to do them under stress.

[WTF]

Europe hates the Jews again

Again? Shouldn't that be "still"?

[Lord Humungus]

Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?

For half a century, memories of the Holocaust inoculated the Continent against overt anti-Semitism. That period has ended?the recent fatal attacks in Paris and Copenhagen are merely the latest in a mounting tide. Today, right-wing fascist strains of Jew-hatred are merging with a new threat from radicalized Islamists, confronting Europe with a crisis, and its Jews with an agonizing choice.

[Warty]

PWND

[Lord Humungus]

What is my punishment? 200 squats? 300? Name your number, big man!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

If the Jews leave what will Europe do with all that paella...and the Muslims.

The other day I heard a delicious story. A parent sends her girls to French school (coerced by Bill 101). The other day the Arabic teacher lectured them for having the audacity to speak English to each other. However, when the other students speak Arabic to each other, that's apparently OKAY. The parent is constantly going to the school to argue with them but she's stuck. She can't pull her kids out of that shit hole because of Quebec's insane and antiquated language laws.

I always tell Americans to think VERY HARD before ever considering moving here.

[Redmanfms]

Today, right-wing fascist strains of Jew-hatred

Uh-huh.

The most open and vociferous Jew-haters I've met in Europe were all lefties. The fact that French Jews are warming to the most right-wing party in France tells me the "herp derp right-wingers are racist Jew-haters herp derp" analysis is way fucking off.

[Zeb]

The European left certainly does have a problem with Israel and Jews, but the European right also has a pretty good history of anti-semitism.

[Warty]

Of course they were. Jew-hatred has always been tightly bound up with hatred of capitalism, because Jews are capitalists and capitalists are Jews. Now, in fairness to the writer, the right-wing parties in Europe are anti-capitalists too. Usually they're simple ethnic tribal retards, often monarchists, and never ever classical liberals.

[jay_dubya]

"because Jews are capitalists and capitalists are Jews"

Part of the training we all received once we hatched from Jew Eggs was immediate inculcation into Capitalist Fundamentalism and Social Darwinism.

[Lord Humungus]

Driver crashes through hospital emergency room lobby in Fort Lauderdale

A hospital emergency room in Broward had an emergency of its own over the weekend: A car sailed through the front entrance and came to rest near a nursing station.

No one was injured in the crash, which busted down the glass doors of the ER at Broward Health Imperial Point, 6401 N. Federal Hwy. in Fort Lauderdale.

The driver intentionally drove the car into the lobby Saturday night and has been taken into custody, according to Fort Lauderdale Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Heiser.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

NOW I WILL GET TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE!

/Broward Countyite

[Rich]

The driver intentionally drove the car into the lobby

I don't believe that for an instant -- his accelerator pedal must have gotten stuck!

[Lord Humungus]

I was the black guy in a white frat
Nothing about the racist OU chant surprises me. I spent years ignoring white prejudice just to fit in

Fraternity culture gave me a place where I could indulge the way I wanted, without loved ones or teachers or longtime friends to slow me down. During orientation, I asked which houses hazed the worst and drank the hardest. It was nothing short of a drunk's providence that landed me at 3 Frat Row.

In the house I settled on, the hazing was mental from the jump. Older guys seeking to humiliate me and 10 other strangers laughed when, after being told in a "lineup" to actually "Fuck the wall like I meant it!," I asked said wall if "she" enjoyed my black cock. It was a stupid bit of levity in an otherwise out-of-control 10-week hazing process. (My hell week ended with someone losing the top half of a finger. The chapter has since been shut down.) I took a bleak sort of pride in making the house's worst hazer laugh so hard he had to leave the room, but I couldn't see my shucking and jiving for what it was. I signed up willingly for the puking and the push-ups and the fists through panes of glass and the destruction of property and the coke-fueled misery that led to my half-assed suicide attempt and the being shitty to women and all the clich?s of being a "frat dawg."

[Drake]

And he voluntarily did this because...? And I should care?

[Florida Man]

FTA: he wanted to get drunk, even if he had to tolerate white people. Apparently you can't get drunk outside of a frat.

[WTF]

Yeah, Ima gonna call "bullshit" on this.

[The Laconic Esq]

Dude. You're the asshole.

[SugarFree]

He was probably fine until the Afro-Gender Die Cis Scum Studies program got a hold of him.

[Zeb]

Sounds like a number of assholes were involved.

[Auric Demonocles]

For the first time since Gallup began tracking it more than two decades ago, neither major political party polls at above 40 percent favorability with Americans.

Maybe they should think about including alt-text in their platforms.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Pat Robertson

1. Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.

2. I'm parodied as being some right-wing fundamentalist extremist, it just isn't true. The parody doesn't reflect reality.

3. I know one man who was impotent who gave AIDS to his wife and the only thing they did was kiss.

4. I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.

5. I thought that communism, the tyranny of communism, was an abomination and I beseeched God to bring that terrible evil down and he did. It was a great triumph, it took awhile, but it happened.

6. If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days, of this obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality?

7. I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him.

8. Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French... and they got together and swore a pact to the devil.

9. The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They've taken your Bible away from the schools. They've forbidden little children to pray.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

4

[Tonio]

Number four? Hint for everyone else - number one is an actual PR quote.

[The DerpRider]

4. That sounds like something a sane person would say.

[Rich]

4. Surely Pat would not describe one of God's creatures as a "moron".

[Derpetologist]

Here's one more I just found:

"The flooding of New Orleans is a sign that God is tired of seeing his creation mocked by the Mardi Gras and its perverted display of debauchery and exposed breasts."

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Hey Pat, why is Brazil still extant then?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Since I'm from Pat's neighborhood, I remember most of these. But 6 seemed somehow familiar from another source.

6 is the not.

[Jerryskids]

We know who's been watching Kevin Bacon.

[WTF]

4

[Derpetologist]

#4 is real. I can't find the original source, but it is requoted in this WaPo article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....story.html

#6 is the not. Those are the words of Rev. Shaw Moore from Footloose.

[Rhywun]

7

Only because I was sure (or hopeful) that Robertson was dead already by 2008.

[Derpetologist]

I feel this round of Spot the Not deserves an encore. 6 of the following are real quotes about Obama:

1. We're gonna spread happiness. We're gonna spread freedom. Obama's gonna change it, Obama's gonna lead 'em. He's gonna change it...re-arrange it....we're gonna change the world

2. I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president.

3. ...a light will shine down from somewhere. It will light upon you. You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it.

4. He is not the Word made flesh but the triumph of the word over flesh.

5. I won't have to worry about puttin' gas in my car, I won't have to worry about payin' my mortgage, you know, if I help him, he'll help me.

[Derpetologist]

6. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

7. And I also want to say this is the very first time that I have felt that God was in the White House.

[Tonio]

Oh, that's a tough round, Derpy. I'm sure lots of people have said fawning things about Obama. Too many to catalog (not really in the days of the internet, but a very large number and many of those have been quoted in publications available online).

[Derpetologist]

Yeah, but how many politicians in US history have been described as actual messiahs?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Well, #6 was shriek, right?

[Tonio]

By other pols and pundits? Very few. By your average Joe's on the street? Many.

That's the point I was trying to make, and clumsily. I mean, if you combed through every podunk newspaper I'm sure at least one has printed a random local using that word to describe him.

[The DerpRider]

Tough one. I'm going with 1 because I think it sounds like something someone would say about a boxing match.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

RERUN!!!!

#7

[Bones]

Every single one of those disgust me. Not because I'm religious at all. I'm not. But merely because someone else thinks these things.

[tarran]

4

[KDN]

4.

[Derpetologist]

#4 is a real quote from Ezra Klein. http://prospect.org/article/obamas-gift

#1 is from a bunch of California (shocker) kids singing the Yes We Can song.

#7 is the not. That is from a Bush supporter in 2004:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10......html?_r=0

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I feel a vague sense of deja vu...

[Derpetologist]

Heroes of Socialism: Vasiliy Blokhin

Hand-picked for the position by Joseph Stalin in 1926, Blokhin led a company of executioners that performed and supervised numerous mass executions during Stalin's reign, mostly during the Great Purge and World War II. He is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn massacre in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner and mass murderer in recorded world history.

Honours and awards

Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (V) ? 498
Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV) (1932)
Order of the Red Star (1936)
Order of the Badge of Honour (1937)
Order of the Red Banner, twice (1940, 1944)
Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1943)
Order of Lenin (1945)
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1945)

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

You forgot the best part.

Forced into retirement following the death of Stalin, Blokhin died in 1955, officially by suicide.

[Rich]

Porn belongs in the classroom, says Danish professor

What Graugaard wants is to make sure teens "possess the necessary skills to view porn constructively".

"No, NO, NO!! Use your *other* hand!"

[Raven Nation]

The impending show down b/w this prof and feminist profs who identify all porn as oppressing women should be epic.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

They should jack off to a map of their own country.

[Lord Humungus]

One of my cats died over the weekend.

On Friday my wife took her to the vet since this cat has been chewing the fur off of her stomach. We were given some kitty prozac and some wipes to help the skin infection. One dose of Prozac wzas given that night along with a wipe of the stomach area.

The cat seemed completely normal the rest of the evening. She slept on my wife's pillow that night. In the morning when I was done showering I saw that the cat was on the dresser in one of it's favorite places. I went downstairs and didn't see her the rest of the morning. Family went shopping. I went back upstairs about mid-afternoon and found the cat still on the dresser but sprawled on her side, not breathing. I checked for a heart beat or any other sign of life but there was nothing. She was only 6 1/2 years old.

Thoughts? Timing of the Prozac / death seems odd but it's hard to square up the lag... some eighteen hours after being given the pill.

Based on the position she died, it had to be pretty quick.

[Florida Man]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[Lord Humungus]

Thank you... tried to write the above unemotionally but when I was digging the hole in the backyard I was crying like a little kid. Good cats are rare and she was one of the good ones.

[SugarFree]

That's terrible news. Poor kitty.

No thoughts on the Prozac, but it might have been a physical ailment they were trying to treat as a mental one. One of my cats died like that. I took him to the vet for lethargy, they realized he was extremely constipated. They cleared that up, but he was constipated from a neural problem and not a blockage, had a seizure later that night and died.

[Tonio]

Compulsive licking can be a symptom of distress, and I'm guessing that's why the prozac.

[SugarFree]

I agree, but the licking of a single area like that might have also been an attempt to sooth pain from another condition. Just a thought.

[Tonio]

Agreed. If nothing else that vet made a bad decision by not doing more tests. But hindsight is always perfect.

[hamilton]

That sucks, sorry LH.

[Tonio]

Sorry, dude. If you really want to know you'd have to take her body to another vet for an autopsy and bloodwork and assume the other vet would honestly reveal any findings which would be bad for a colleague. The lag between the prozac and death seems pretty long.

Unless you really think there was wrongdoing or incompetence on the vet's part, and that pursuing that would bring you closure, I'd simply say that the kitty was sicker than previously thought and switch vets for peace of mind.

[Lord Humungus]

She's already buried and I don't want to dig her now. So yeah I'm assuming there was a heart (or other) condition that wasn't apparent during a cursory examination. I'm just surprised by the suddenness of it. I've had other cats die but my wife and I got to make the decision to let them go...

[Tonio]

Understandable, and I hadn't read the comment about burial when I made that.

My sympathies.

[db]

I'm very sorry to hear that, LH. Good cats can be great friends.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorry to hear that too.

[Warty]

Terrible. Sorry. I've lost a ton of cats over the years, but I've never had a healthy one up and die like that. The Prozac seems unlikely to have been the cause of death, for what it's worth.

[Lord Humungus]

Thank you, everyone.

[Citizen Nothing]

Sorry for your loss. I wouldn't have understood nine years ago, but we have two cats that adopted us when our twins were a year old. Each sleeps on the foot of one twin's bed. I never thought I'd be a cat person, but they're really like a part of the family now.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I'm sorry to hear this.

[Rhywun]

Aw, sorry to hear that 🙁

[MJGreen]

Dang, really sorry to hear this. I recall you mentioning the kitty prozac on Friday. Sad that it didn't work out.

Losing a pet is tough in itself, but having it just happen like that makes it so much worse.

[Catatafish]

So sorry, man. I lost one of mine just last month. In the span of three days he went from running around and roughhousing to not being able to support his own weight. Got him to the emergency vet and he was positive for feline infectious peritonitis. Only presents as a respiratory infection until it's too late and is almost always fatal. I mention this because his hair was getting patchy in spots and he was constantly cleaning himself. Only ten months old.

[DEG]

Sorry

[Raston Bot]

My neighbor opened her front door last night so anyone on the sidewalk could watch her blow her husband. I live directly across the street so the show was available in my living room.

It would be a better story if she wasn't crazy. She's attractive from far but then you get up close and notice she's a 40-year old puffy faced wine-o.

[Derpetologist]

Next time, alert the local church so they can have a prayer vigil while she sins.

[Rich]

Well, at least her husband isn't crazy.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Where do you live?

/waits with pen and paper in hand.

[Raston Bot]

There's no set routine but there have been other occasions where she's displayed her exhibitionist streak.

I need to keep a separate recording device handy to appease the masses. My friends have requested documentation of her exploits but I'm not putting that shit on my phone.

[Tonio]

I understand that there are Tumblr blogs devoted to that sort of thing...

[Free Society]

"Take Ayn Rand, some tech billionaires and Rand Paul?and the result is a scary new movement" Salon article. Those Facebook kids have been reading too much Milton Friedman and now they're building a boat, I tell you, an eeeeeevil boat!

So much derp in that article. Tread carefully readers.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

I will wait for Derpetologist to go in...

[Derpetologist]

STAND BACK! I'm a professional.

[closes lid on derp diving helmet and plunges in; Swissy works the bellows of the air pump]

rusty_apache 23 minutes ago
Those 3 ugly men in the photo should just go to Somalia for their ready made libertoonian fantasy isle.

Yagimonn 1 hour ago
Once all these Ayn Rand jerk-offs are on their BS island, we can just bomb them out of existence and sink the whole lot.

[Tonio]

Thanks, Derpy!

[John Titor]

The amount of violent fantasies these folks have about people they've never met simply because of their political philosophy is shocking. I mean, I at least get having violent fantasies about that jerk at work or whatever, something personal, but I'll never get the 'murder them because I disagree with them' attitude.

[Tonio]

That's because you're not a psycho.

[Derpetologist]

Jim C 1 hour ago
I think a floating libertarian utopia is a great idea, then all that would be necessary is one well placed torpedo .

shadowbox 1 hour ago
Oh, the folly! You have to laugh - these individuals, smart enough to become billionaires, are stupid enough to chase an adolescent fantasy.

inquiring mindlessly 38 minutes ago
Think of it as a grand experiment in whatever it is that gratifies spoiled, socially stunted young American males.

[Tonio]

Wow, the violent fantasies about bombing/torpedoeing that are pretty disturbing. But unsurprising. The few times I've called out progs on that sort of thing they claim it was justified by the many aggregate acts of "economic injustice" committed by people they don't like.

[Rhywun]

Smash the system, break a few eggs - it's all violence with them. Always.

[Lord Humungus]

Libertarianism preaches a night-watchmen government that stays out of businesses way, and allows private industries to regulate themselves. It is a utopian ideology, as was communism, that has an almost religious-like faith in the free market, and an absolute distrust of any government. It is a perfect philosophy for a large corporation, like Apple, Google or Facebook. If we lived in an ideal libertarian society, these companies would not have to avoid taxes, because they would be non-existent, and they wouldn't have to worry about annoying restrictions on privacy. In a libertarian society, these companies could regulate their own actions, and surely Google, with their famous "Don't be evil" slogan, believes in corporate altruism.

In the Valley, innovation and entrepreneurship is everything, so a blind faith in the market is hardly shocking. And last year one of the leading libertarians, Rand Paul, flew out to San Francisco to speak at the Lincoln Labs Reboot Conference, held to "create and support a community of like-minded individuals who desire to advance liberty in the public square with the use of technology." Paul said at the conference, "use your ingenuity, use your big head to think of solutions the marketplace can figure out, that the idiots and trolls in Washington will never come up with," surely earning laughs and pats on the back.

[MJGreen]

The monster!!

[Free Society]

It is the same old libertarian argument wrapped up in a new millennial cloak, that corporations will act ethically because if they don't, consumers will go elsewhere.

As usual, it leaves out important realities that don't sit well with the self-regulation myth. These realities include the irrationality and apathy of consumers, the lack of information available to consumers, and the overall secretive nature of corporations.

Did you know? It's a myth that voluntary interaction induces ethical behavior. And did you know that all those people acting in their rational self-interest, are actually irrational, no demonstration offered, it's just true because the author says so.

And my favorite gem from this article might have to be the author telling us that "consumers lack information". But if we just abolished markets and prices, they'd have sooooo much more information! Derpidy derpy der.

[Jerryskids]

The problem would be easy to solve just by mailing these capitalists a small government check - we all know that, while private individuals act self-servingly evil, a government check makes people strictly altruistic and holy. This is why we can totally trust the people in government with power over people in the private sector.

[Zeb]

Well, you don't need information if there is only one option for each kind of product. And you are freed from the tyranny of choice. Because everyone hates choice.

I think you have to admit that a lot of people do make irrational decisions about spending money. People act in what they see as their self interest, but there is no guarantee of rationality. The big mistake of the anti-capitalists (well, one of many) is thinking that TOP MEN will be immune to this. The great thing about markets is that they still generate wealth and prosperity and for the most part give people the products and services they want despite people's sometimes irrational or impulsive economic behavior.

[Free Society]

I think you have to admit that a lot of people do make irrational decisions about spending money.

Well the guy who blows his kid's college money at the casino might not be acting so irrationally. He apparently values the endorphin rush generated by gambling more than he does his children's education. Those are fucked up priorities but not irrational per se.

Irrational would be gambling until he starves, but alas he isn't presented with that option largely because of coercive "charity" that couldn't otherwise be had for gamblers with an unmitigated problem.

[Tonio]

This is the beginning of the "debate" stage of the ignore/laugh/debate/win progression. As this stage progresses they will realize that debating strawmen isn't doing them any good and they'll have to actually engage us.

[antisocial-ist]

Strawmen and ad homs are the only tools they have in a debate. I think their next tactic will be to literally shit their pants and fling it at people who disagree with them.

[Tonio]

No, I think we're going to see more sign-stomping, shoving and similar. If the police continue to ignore that, we're going to see political street brawls like in Weimar Germany.

[Derpetologist]

Given the physique of a typical prog, those brawls will be very short and one-sided.

[antisocial-ist]

Libertarians brawling with feminists and hipsters? Please. We've got Warty, and I ain't no punk either. They'd be better off shitting their pants.

[Xeones]

These people DESERVE Warty. May Gaia have mercy on their souls.

[VicRattlehead]

how will they stand before our hordes of unwashed orphans, i mean the sheer cost of fielding a progressive army would be insane considering everyone would need $15/hour minimum in contrast i dont imagine i will be paying my orphans more than 30 cents / day collectively with a bonus dollar for every feminazi scalp they bring me

[Warty]

I agree. The anger these idiots have will find its natural outlet in Molotov cocktails, etc.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I like how he cites BioShock, a video game as proof a capitalist society would fail.

It's only a matter of time before Thiel finds those magic sea slugs and gives himself superpowers!

[Derpetologist]

I see you went to do battle in the comments.

[Drake]

I was afraid to look there this early on a Monday morning.

[John Titor]

Bioshock, despite being incredibly shallow when it comes to actual political and philosophical commentary, will remain praised as 'brilliant criticism' by deadbeat leftist journalists for years. Because it confirms their pre-determined bias and its vaguely pop culture relevant.

Hey everyone, libertarianism is validated by Ghostbusters!

[SugarFree]

And they ignore that Bioshock 2 was a pointed critique of communalism and charity at gunpoint.

[Tonio]

Typical that a selfish libertarian would be against charity towards the poor. /prog mischaracterization

[Catatafish]

Well, Bioshock 3 certainly swung the pendulum in the other direction by directly associating racism and slavery with a "free market utopia." To be fair, it also was rather scathing in its depiction of the base violence of the vox populi.

[Free Society]

You need to get out of there Grand Moff. Handling derp that volatile can seriously harm your health.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

A friend of mine who has an I-shit-you-not degree in "Social Justice and Human Rights" likes to cite events that occurred on The West Wing in a particular manner in political debates like they actually happened in real life.

We get along so long as topics of conversation are limited to music and mutual loathing of Joe Arpaio. It also helps that years of association have made her realize that I am apparently the sole non-racist libertarian in existence. She still claimed in 2008 that all opposition to Obama was racist, although thankfully she slowly came to realize that he was not actually the messiah, otherwise I would have cut that shit off.

[Derpetologist]

There is a pro wrestler named Bo Dallas and another one named Sin Cara ("Without a Face").

Could this be the origin of our Bo Cara?

[Rich]

Let's see ....

Dallas plus Sin implies Debbie, implies Mary, so "Probably".

*** adjusts tinfoil hat ***

[Palin's Buttplug]

Where has Bo been? did Team Red piss him off?

The LP Purity Test is a bitch. I told him that. No one has ever scored 100%.

[Free Society]

Well you two certainly aren't going to qualify as libertarians. It's nothing personal, it's just a statement of fact that you aren't. As much as you may love the label, you simply don't understand the philosophy or the economics.,

[Palin's Buttplug]

I've never claimed to be a libertarian. That word has been sullied by nutjobs. I am a classic liberal who wants government to be as small as possible but like Hayek I still allow for a handful of regulations like not dumping toxins into our water supply and other great burdens on businesses like that. Poor guys.

Our entitlement system is out of control and our war-loving interventionists can't control themselves. Govt as 18% of our GDP is ridiculously high.

But mostly I am a radical social liberal. All drugs, guns, prostitution, abortion, euthanasia, etc are no business of the meddling government.

This is all reasonable for the LP. You need people like me. BUT NOOOOOO!!! it has to degenerate into a TEAM lovefest around here (and the LP in general).

[Free Society]

but like Hayek I still allow for a handful of regulations like not dumping toxins into our water supply and other great burdens on businesses like that.

Again, you're lack of understanding about property rights leads you to believe that empowering bureaucratic agencies to fight pollution somehow addresses the problem. The same agencies from whom a municipality, government agency or business can receive permission to pollute, permission that would not be possible if the pollution were being addressed from a position of property rights.

And I'm not sure why you keep going on about the LP, I don't think there are many Libertarian Party advocates here. At best most people on these boards view the LP as not as bad as the GOP and the assorted socialist parties out there.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Tell Hayek he didn't understand property rights. Legal redress is simply not good enough.

But you missed the point of my post - nothing is ever good enough for your TEAM.

[Bobarian (hyphenated-american)]

PB, you make these claims, yet a significant portion of your posts revolve around Obama love, completely ignoring your claimed principles.

If you actually folllowed your stated claims, we could have decent discussions about where our views varied, but you rarely seem to argue in good faith.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I only compare Obama to the last few GOP candidates. He is clearly better than them on small government.

Is Obama a small government POTUS? Even less than Bill Clinton was. But still easily better than Bush/McCain/Romney.

[AlexInCT]

You clearly have brain damage. Obama is only better at small government if by better you mean he has shit all over the country, the constitution, and the people and then lied about doing so, moron. This guy has presided over the most egregious cases of the executive expanding its power, and not to mention the largest expansion of our government ever in the form of Obamacare. But other than that...

[John Titor]

Bo's a lot of shitty things, but he's definitely a libertarian. He's clearly got massive personality flaws and loves to kowtow to sensitive vapid 'culture war' positions, but outside of his random support of things like animal rights laws he's pretty consistently supportive of libertarian positions.

Unlike Buttplug, who doesn't understand the words he uses and has the intellectual quality of a chatbot. But he's really just here because he's a broken individual and the only way he can any kind of self-esteem is by demeaning and othering a group of people he judges to be his inferiors.

[Mike M.]

Weigel is a JournoList: a person whose job is to shill for Obama and the democratic party under false cover and the guise of reporting news.

He does this because it's what he gets paid to do. When you mix that in with the fact that he's a self-admitted manic depressive you get what we have to put up with.

[Free Society]

I think social justice warfare and accepting the moral legitimacy of the welfare state precludes one from being either a consistent libertarian or a libertarian at all. FFS the guy doesn't support free association, that's a pretty glaring inconsistency with libertarian principles.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Show me a SJW here besides Tony. I find Affirmative Action repulsive.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|3.16.15 @ 9:49AM|#
"Where has Bo been? did Team Red piss him off?"

He's not quite as stupid as you, turd.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Gallup: Obama job approval 48%, disapprove 47%

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113.....roval.aspx

[wadair]

Is that supposed to impress?

[Mike M.]

JournoList scumbags like Weigel here gotta shill (it is their job after all), and you have to work with what you have, no matter how meager.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Don't post facts! The economy sucks because 300k jobs/month, $2 gas, no inflation, and 3% GDP are not real!

[wadair]

300k jobs/month is nothing to write home about. Yes, I know it's a big deal for this administration. But it you look at the historical monthly unemployment numbers you'll notice that some 500k jobs/month are needed to actually grow the workforce. And growth is desperately needed because the labor force has shrunk decidedly since your hero has been in office.

Nonetheless, don't let facts get in the way of your Obama worship.

[wadair]

$2/gallon gas happened inspite of the lightbringer, not because of.

[Mike M.]

And we don't have 3% GDP growth either. Just another typical lie from the cretin.

[wadair]

3% GDP growth is fairly tepid for a recovery.

You're grasping at straws to make Obama not look so bad. But your facts are unremarkable.

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|3.16.15 @ 10:37AM|#
"Don't post facts!"

How much is cherry picking paying these days, turd?

[Free Society]

Don't post facts! The economy sucks because 300k jobs/month, $2 gas, no inflation, and 3% GDP are not real!

If you totally obliterate the economy and then generate one new unit of wealth, you just expanded the economy by 100%, not exactly something to get excited about. And are you really going to get excited about $2? You think the green warrior president actually wants or even sought to achieve $2 gas? You think the collapse of commodity prices is his doing? You think 3% GDP, which is a phony number that includes copious amounts of government spending, is an appropriate economic indicator?

Again, you don't understand the basics.

[Free Society]

Don't post facts! The economy sucks because 300k jobs/month, $2 gas, no inflation, and 3% GDP are not real!

If you totally obliterate the economy and then generate one new unit of wealth, you just expanded the economy by 100%, not exactly something to get excited about. And are you really going to get excited about $2? You think the green warrior president actually wants or even sought to achieve $2 gas? You think the collapse of commodity prices is his doing? You think 3% GDP, which is a phony number that includes copious amounts of government spending, is an appropriate economic indicator?

Again, you don't understand the basics.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You miss the point again. The economy is clearly far better than where Bush left it.

Every measure says it is. Wealth creation has been the best ever for any POTUS. Job creation as well. Inflation is dead (Obama stocked the Fed) and exports are higher than ever.

[wadair]

The population is also higher than ever. But, oh, I missed the point. And the point is--BOOOOOSHHH!

[Restoras]

Teh Weigel is JournoList trollbot. It has no capacity to think or engage in rational thought. It is a creation of the hive-mind that is progtardopia inside the Beltway. Best to ignore.

[Sevo]

The minimum wage doesn't affect one more 'industry'!

"A restaurant can raise prices to meet the new cost of doing business, but child care operations have limited flexibility. Both the state-funded programs and their private counterparts are bound by strict state ratio requirements, which mandate that a certain number of employees be present with the children each day. "That's one of the unintended consequences" of Oakland's Measure FF, the November ballot measure that raised the city's minimum wage from $9 an hour, said Richard Winefield,"
http://inagist.com/all/577303370605580288/

The complete article is behind a Chron paywall, but they interview one of the backers who blows them off ('we didn't look at ALL the consequences when we lied!') and then a parent who 'knew it was going to affect her child care, but voted for it anyhow'! True turd-level stupidity.
BTW, it looks like some working moms will have to give up their new higher paychecks and stay home earning the true minimum wage.

[Raston Bot]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bay.....135815.php

Not paywalled.

Charlotte Guinn, whose home day care center is entering its 20th year in downtown Oakland, says she raised monthly tuition prices by $40 to $60 in January to anticipate the minimum wage hike, to about $950 a month. When the law took effect last week, she realized that the cost of payroll would require an increase closer to $80 a month.

Guinn doubts she can retain her clientele if she asks for more money.

Because of ratio requirements, she can't lay off any staff to meet her new bottom line.

Good thing the govt stepped in to make child care more affordable.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA

[Andrew S.]

It is paywalled, at least for me. Care to c+p the whole article?

[wadair]

Progressives seem to assume that businesses have loads of cash sitting around and will merely absorb these costs and buy fewer boats and luxury sports cars for themselves. Now they--the progressives--will likely want to subsidize daycare by spreading out the pain to the taxpayers, because the taxpayers too are awash in cash. Then they'll notice that minimum wage earners have too little money left to pay for daycare and the MW will need raising once again--because businesses are hoarding cash.

[Sevo]

I'm still paywalled out of the article, but:

"Now they--the progressives--will likely want to subsidize daycare by spreading out the pain to the taxpayers, because the taxpayers too are awash in cash."

This is exactly what the mayor of Oakland is proposing. And I'm sure you know the city of Oakland is awash in money (not), so they will have to raise taxes, but keep in mind, the new minimum wage law will only increase prosperity! 'Cause nobody loses! Free money!

[Ken Shultz]

The way to get past most paywalls is to open a second browser and google the article's title.

It typically needs to be in a separate browser--not just a new window in the same browser.

Nine time out of ten, you'll find that this gets you in just fine. They want people to find their newspaper articles through a search engine like Google.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Yeah, I call it the Scrooge McDuck theory of capital accumulation. Carried out to its logical conclusion you end up with bloody pogroms against the kulak wrecker-hoarders--that is to say, anyone with a dollar more than them.

[Jumbie]

Four writers from Cracked.com visit the capital of the Libertarian Wasteland. Find out it's actually kind of chill:

http://www.cracked.com/article.....lypse.html

There's a surprising lack of pearl clutching considering the often leftist slant of Cracked.com. (Or maybe they mistook the libertarians for hippies so they didn't feel the need to crucify them?)

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not sure the hippies at Slab City realize they're libertarians.

[Derpetologist]

I tried to submit articles to Cracked a few times. One was about wacky facts from US history. One fact was that FDR set the price of gold based on lucky numbers. The editor did not like this and said I had to remember that FDR had a lot of good ideas, so we shouldn't criticize him.

[Drake]

Love him or hate him, he sure locked up a lot of Japs.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, I don't think the editor thought that "FDR had a lot of good ideas, so he shouldn't be criticized" thing all the way through.

You want to talk about public works projects for the unemployed: the autobahn was built by...

You know who else had some good ideas?

[Jumbie]

You by chance have the actual text of that email to show us?

I've heard that the cracked founder is a pretty outspoken liberal. They just did an article on how Reagan set his calendar based on astrology BTW.

[Derpetologist]

No, unfortunately not.

You will find very, very little criticism of progs or other lefty ideas on Cracked. Makes you thin doesn't it?

[Derpetologist]

*think

[Redmanfms]

Plenty of pearl clutching in the comments.

I've been to Slab City. I camped there for about a week 10 years ago when I spent a year doing the scooter trash hobo thing because my friend's shack in Calipatria was a drag. There are (were) three different zones. Snowbird retirees who live in pretty nice RV/campers on the actual "slabs," some of whom stay year round as they've gotten older and just can't drive (and enjoy the proximity to Mexico and its cheap pharmaceuticals) and defend their areas pretty passionately, hippie loser/weirdo wannabe folk artists living in the area usually called "East Jesus" (so-called because it is East of Salvation Mountain) who generally friendly, and full-blown psycho meth monkeys who litter the surrounding desert and will steal the fillings out of your teeth if you let them get close enough.

Great documentary about the area.

[Stormy Dragon]

So it's basically a Fallout LARP that got out of hand?

[Andrew S.]

This line from the article about the anti-Capitalist protesters taking over the wrong building is one of my favorite things ever. Whatever this organization is, I want to send them money.

'We vacated this building six months ago, but there's a chance there are some old Hayek or Adam Smith books left behind. Who knows, perhaps they'll learn something.'

[Andrew S.]

Also, from the picture, the group that took over the wrong building called themselves "Anti-capitalist libertarians". I think I now know how PB thinks he's a libertarian.

[Warty]

City of Cleveland: pay up, chumps.

The city of Cleveland on Wednesday argued to the Ohio Supreme Court that people who paid traffic camera fines, even though they were cited improperly because they leased their vehicles, should not be able to sue for reimbursement from the city.

[wadair]

Because its revenue, not punishment. If you drive, you get randomly selected to add to the city's revenue stream. Just shut up and pay.

[Zeb]

That's weird. Did the law say that the red light tickets were the responsibility of the owner of the car or something?

[Tonio]

Wow that's seriously brazen and stupid even for a municipality. I wonder if the lawyer was able to keep a straight face while making that argument.

[Ken Shultz]

"A 20-year-old man has been charged with last week's shooting of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri; he says the shots were intended for another protester he had a dispute with and not the police officers."

Some people go their whole lives and never accidentally shoot two cops.

[Derpetologist]

Battle report from the Salon comment section:

Derpetologist
Maybe the state government could build some sort of wall around Silicon Valley to keep the greedy businessmen from running away with all the money they looted from the noble workers.

Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Che knew how to handle kulaks, hoarders, wreckers, and economic saboteurs.

Che- "My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any vencido that falls in my hands!

motherwell
You mean, the same government that pretty much BUILT Silicon Valley through generations of defense spending?

Derpetologist
"All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

-Mussolini

A man ahead of his time...

[Warty]

How are you not banned yet?

[wadair]

motherwell
You mean, the same government that pretty much BUILT Silicon Valley through generations of defense spending?

HP got a bit of defence money, but SUN, Cisco, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, these are not defense companies (maybe some for SUN).

The explosion in networking (and UNIX) happened as the technology moved out of universities and defense companies into engineering, manufacturing, and then to office automation. These were not funded by defense spending (well, a little). This yahoo doesn't know what they are talking about. But, why am I not surprised.

[Ken Shultz]

This is like the whole "government built the internet" thing.

Silicon Valley was built on the back of billions in venture capital.

The internet's switches and servers were invented by profit seekers, and all that carbon fiber was buried in the ground by profit seekers who raised the money from investors, too.

Meanwhile, it's entirely possible that entrepreneurs innovated products like AOL, Quake III, Napster, Facebook, and the iPhone--despite (rather than becasue of) defense spending.

[Zeb]

Even if it were true, it ignores the extremely likely possibility that the private sector and universities would have developed the technology anyway. Or perhaps something even better.

[Tonio]

and all that carbon fiber was buried in the ground by profit seekers

Ken, if you're talking about fiber optic cable for data, that's made of glass fiber. Glass fiber transmits light, carbon fiber not so much.

[Cdr Lytton]

Maybe he's talking about when Tesla finally crashes like a lead balloon.

[Derpetologist]

Here is my latest comment. I wonder how long til I'm banned.

We should follow Lenin's example in dealing with these class traitors:

"Comrades! The insurrection of five kulak districts should be pitilessly suppressed. The interests of the whole revolution require this because 'the last decisive battle' with the kulaks is now under way everywhere. An example must be demonstrated.
Hang (and make sure that the hanging takes place in full view of the people) no fewer than one hundred known landlords, rich men, bloodsuckers.
Publish their names.
Seize all their grain from them.
Designate hostages in accordance with yesterday's telegram.
Do it in such a fashion that for hundreds of kilometres around the people might see, tremble, know, shout: "they are strangling, and will strangle to death, the bloodsucking kulaks".
Telegraph receipt and implementation.
Yours, Lenin.
Find some truly hard people"

[Derpetologist]

Ooh! I got some nibbles!

motherwell 18 minutes ago
So you're actually comparing criticism and debunking of libertarian bullshit to Leninist persecution? What a stupid crybaby.

Derpetologist 9 minutes ago
Indeed. Behold the persuasive powers of the peaceful progs of Salon:

Jim C

3 hours ago
I think a floating libertarian utopia is a great idea, then all that would be necessary is one well placed torpedo .

Yagimonn3 hours ago
Once all these Ayn Rand jerk-offs are on their BS island, we can just bomb them out of existence and sink the whole lot.

motherwell 7 minutes ago
You libertards have been calling liberals Nazis at least since the 1970s. If you can't take it, don't dish it out.

Rocky E 11 minutes ago
I like it! Do we start with you? I'm sure you fit into one of those categories. Bloodsucker?

[wadair]

Good job.

The lack of self-awareness is striking in this motherwell. But then, progressivism is chock full of self-congratulatory bullshit that likely preempts any self-awareness that might otherwise creep in. They seem convinced that only they are compassionate, therefore all who disagree with them are malevolent.

[Tonio]

Brother Derpy is bringing the fight to some of the internet's toughest neighborhoods. Well done, Sir.

[DesigNate]

I love that the stupid cow still doesn't get the distinction between calling someone a name and saying they should be torpedoed or bombed out of existence.