Rand Wants Hillary to Return Saudi Contributions, FBI Probes Schock, No Progress in Iran Talks: P.M. Links

Michigan state senator says Uber is "out of control." Gulp.

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  Sen. Rand Paul called on ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return donations made to the Clinton Foundation by the Saudi Arabian royal family.

• The FBI will investigate Aaron Schock's sketchy financial dealings.
• The Iran negotiations are going nowhere.
• Peter Suderman on why DC Comics' cancelled Joker cover is not such a clear case of artistic censorship.
• Michigan state senator says Uber is "out of control." Gulp.
• Check out this Iowa state lawmaker reading "Sex After Sixty" on the House floor.
• Lots of media people react to my reporting on the student who demanded I write the n-word in a story about his alleged censorship for expressing non-PC views at Reed College.
• A New York high school had to apologize for holding a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in… gasp!… Arabic. (That's the language the terrorists use.)
• Jon Stewart on the conservative double standard regarding Benghazi and Ferguson.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Rand Paul called on ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return donations made to the Clinton Foundation by the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Money spends the same.

[Sudden]

Shorter Rand:

#TagYourSponsor

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Good news for private religious school:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....-1.3000724

[Ted S.]

I wonder what the PQ would do if the Catholic schools wanted to teach in Latin.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The PQ? Those hickish xenophobes?

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/story/1.3001052

It's good to expose these clowns to a wider audience beyond their borders. They're very sensitive about how they're viewed abroad. Yet, they keep acting this way.

[Obese American]

The PQ is dying, the CAC is taking over with the younger generation n'est ce pas?

They have their language rules, that's enough for most Francophones I would assume, they've driven out most of the English speakers (including 90% of my family on my father's side).

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The CAQ are not what they seem. Half of them are old world nationalists and still play the idiotic language game and have not explicitly removed independence off the table.

They've disappointed me greatly. As a businessman, they're views were refreshing and on point, then they turn around and were wishy washy with proposed laws like Bill 14 that keep Quebec exactly in the rut they wanted to fix.

[Obese American]

Yeah, I was in Montreal visiting in March last year just before the elections and it sounded like CAQ was at least marginally aware of "Economics" unlike the hillbillies of the PQ. Guess I was wrong, at least about some of them.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

According to Liberal leaderCouillard, Quebec is the best place in the world to be.

C'est des malades!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

By the way, Quebec education stinks.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"He said it was important for the province to continue teaching the course and the judgment shows that it should be mandatory for all Quebec students to gain a thorough understanding of diversity."

How can we appreciate diversity without a government program which is "mandatory for all"?!?!?

[Juice]

Will Rand Paul tell his father to return the money he got from the white supremacist?

[Vampire]

Good point. Paul should be careful with his attacks, as unfortunate as it is, they will not be looking into only his matters, but those around him as well.

[jcalonicna]

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http://www.work-mill.com

[Injun, as in from India]

I posted a link some time ago about an AP History study guide by Barron's that compared Justice Clarence Thomas with the KKK.

And now this...

Why is scholastic lying to kids about North Korea?

[Tonio]

You can say that again...

[Enough About Palin]

Well if you can't lie to children. Is that any worse than the TV Christmas classic Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, of which the working title was A True Book: North Pole?

...

[PapayaSF]

Wow. I understand that kid's books about other countries have to try to be simple and upbeat, but there are limits.

[Injun, as in from India]

I posted a link some time ago about an AP History study guide by Barron's that compared Justice Clarence Thomas with the KKK.

And now this...

Why is scholastic lying to kids about North Korea?

[Tonio]

Srsly, that's awful. The book, that is. What was scholastic thinking? I wonder how much they (NK) paid Tara Walters to write that?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I do business with Scholastic.

I may have to rethink this.

[mauricegirodias]

Scholastic is one of the most crony-capitalist, anti-competitive ventures out there. They seal off entire sales channels from smaller presses (libraries, schools, school libraries)..That wasn't my forte anyway, but I sometimes have these Asian classics in translation that a few individual faculty want to teach.

[MJGreen]

"Since the 1990s, North Korea has been involved in a high-tech industry?computer animation. North Koreans are respected for their technical skills in this field. They use the latest animation software."

I mean... what?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Isn't that actually a Simpsons joke?

[Zeb]

The Simpsons jokes about Korean animators is based on the fact that the Simpsons is animated by Koreans. But not North Koreans. Apparently Korea is the place to go to get hand drawn animation done.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Dang. I'm getting old.

I wish it were NK.

[Zeb]

I don't think I have seen a new Simpsons in over 10 years. But I still get all of the references from the first 10 seasons or so even though I'm mostly burned out on watching it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I stopped at season 13, sometime in college.

[Zeb]

Now I feel old.

[Scarecrow Repair]

I canceled my Scientific American subscription many many years ago for almost the exact same crap. They had an odd pattern to their articles: the first was usually some politically correct nonsense that was more embarrassing than anything, and the last was usually some Roman archaeological stuff that fascinated me.

Then one month that PC article broke the camel's back. It was some diatribe about the difference between communist and capitalist capita cities, and their crowning example was the two Koreas. They had pictures to back up their thesis, and the Seoul picture was any typical modern shopping district, full of color, advertising, fashionable people, etc. The Pyongyang picture was gray and devoid of people. Yet they claimed those pictures showed the superiority of North Korea's capital city.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

I used to pick one up at the airport for domestic flights. Then they went full retard on global warming and routinely gave that asshat Sachs pages to spout his communist manifesto. Haven't looked at an issue in years...

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

Same here, makes good airport reading. I've also been disappointed by the political direction they took about 5 or 6 years ago, but just last month I was pleasantly surprised by this article by Michael Shermer, which emphasizes the primacy of the individual over the collective:

The arc of the moral universe really is bending toward progress, by which I mean the improvement of the survival and flourishing of individual sentient beings. I emphasize the individual because that is who survives and flourishes, or who suffers and dies, not the group, tribe, race, gender, state or any other collective. Individual beings perceive, emote, respond, love, feel and suffer?not populations, races, genders or groups.

...

The first principle of the survival and flourishing of sentient beings is grounded in the biological fact that it is the discrete organism that is the main target of natural selection and social evolution, not the group. We are a social species, but we are first and foremost individuals within social groups and therefore ought not to be subservient to the collective.

[kilroy]

I dropped SA long ago for the same reason. Is there any general science magazine around that doesn't carry a political slant? I haven't found one.

[Scarecrow Repair]

I also have a sub to Nature (nATURE?), and while it's nowhere near as PC as Science/AAAS and does have to earn a profit, they've had stupid stuff on gun control, and I worry they will go derp sooner rather than later.

The short answer is really, if you find one, let me know.

[BigT]

I subscribed to SA from 1966 to 1991. They always had anti-nuke articles, but went further and further afield from science to social 'science.' Too bad, because 75% of their articles are fine.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A New York high school had to apologize for holding a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in... gasp!... Arabic.

Next math class will be teaching their numbers.

[Tonio]

[narrows gaze]

[MJGreen]

I think this more of a clap situation than a gaze.

[narrow clap]

[Injun, as in from India]

Those are actually Indian numerals, not Arabic numerals.

/narrows gaze, white looking to the Chinese for gunpowder.

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL. "while looking"...

[Fist of Etiquette]

That doesn't really work for the joke, does it? Use your head.

[Ted S.]

Did they do the Bellamy salute?

[Rich]

"Today, Class, we'll be reciting the Pledge of Al-Legiance."

[Jerry on the sea]

"One nation under God Allah."

[Andrew S.]

Well, given that Allah is just the Arabic word for "G-d"...

[Rich]

"with liberty and sharia for all."

[Jerry on the sea]

That's just so judeo-christic-centric. It's a given that God is the English word for Allah.

[Pro Libertate]

Not their numbers. Those are Hindu numbers. Fast for twenty days and meditate on your sins.

[JW]

Those are Yang worship numbers. You will not count them.

[Pro Libertate]

Has it been confirmed as Arabic? E Plebnista kinda sounds Arabic to the untrained ear.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That is a Yang worship word. You sure you're not the Evil One? Let's have a look at those ears.

[Pro Libertate]

No, man, not at all. I'm Yang.

[JW]

Oh Zod. Our minds are starting to converge.

I swear I hadn't seen your post yet, when I posted mine.

[Pro Libertate]

It is burned into the consciousness of all Yang. Kirk taught us the true meaning of freedom. And grammar.

[Fist of Etiquette]

No one wants to be a Comm.

[Pro Libertate]

Kohms. . .Communists? The parallel is almost too close, Fist.

[Free Society]

I pledge allegiance to the state and to the euphemisms upon which it stands. One nation, ever centralizing, with stagnation and extortion of all.

[Free Society]

or better yet... "I pledge allegiance to the state. And to the euphemisms upon which it stands, one monopoly, ever centralizing, with serfdom and stagnation for all."

ftfm

[Rhywun]

The fact that nobody thought they would get any flak for this just shows that the school needs more (and higher paid) administrators.

[Puddin' Stick]

Bism ir Abi wal ibni war rough il Qudos. Amin.

[Juice]

They're called Arabic numbers but they originated in India.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Phyllis Schafly

1. An erection is a flagpole on your grave.

2. Sex education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions.

3. Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.

4. It is long overdue for parents to realize they have the right and duty to protect our children against the intolerant evolutionists.

5. By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape.

6. The atomic bomb is a marvelous gift that was given to our country by a wise God.

[Aloysious]

I'm guessing 1.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

There is no way on Earth #1 is real.

[Derpetologist]

Are you sure?

[Rich]

Indeed. Erections have consequences.

[Enough About Palin]

"What's all this fuss about presidential erections?"

[Zeb]

I wouldn't have thought any could be real. I sort of agree on the atomic bomb one, but God should have given it directly to me.

[LynchPin1477]

5?

[Tonio]

I would guess the first one, but I don't know if I can take another one of Derpy's prizes.

[Andrew S.]

I'm guessing 1. Seems like more what a radical feminist would say. Schafly is batshit insane in different ways.

[SusanM]

1. Flagpoles fly Old Glory so she wouldn't make that association.

[MJGreen]

I don't know why people are doubting number 1. I plan to be buried with an erection that pierces the earth. It's up to the kids if they want to fly a flag from it, though.

[Zeb]

I don't think erections work that way.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

1, just because the rest sound like classic Phyllis

[SIV]

1

[Zeb]

Interesting that people are saying 1. I have no idea what that is even supposed to mean. Seriously, does anyone have a way of reading that that makes any sense at all, even in a crazy fundie Christian way? I mean, CHristians of her ilk aren't completely anti-sex; she believes that erections serve a valuable purpose in God's plan. And I think she knows that dead people don't get erections. So what could it possibly mean?

[Derpetologist]

The Not is #1. It is actually a quote from Dr. Kellogg in the film The Road to Wellville/ Your prize is this classic comment from Mary Stack:

REPELLENT SOCIOPATHS spend their lives at Reason.com, the anarchist Reason Foundation's gossip and propaganda headquarters, sharing their daily frustrations with angry, impotent and paranoid fellow crackpots, bitterly railing against a world that refuses to take them seriously, repeating the same stale memes, juvenile obscenities and violence fantasies over and over again -- creating a cynical, sarcastic and nihilistic echo chamber of emotionally stunted, misanthropic, comically ineffectual narcissists. Let us examine this toxic subculture so we may become familiar with the characteristics and symptoms and, perhaps, find a cure for the half-baked, ethically agnostic, corrosive cult of libertarianism.

[paranoid android]

creating a cynical, sarcastic and nihilistic echo chamber of emotionally stunted, misanthropic, comically ineffectual narcissists.

Hey! I resent being called "ineffectual".

[Aloysious]

Your prize is this classic comment from Mary Stack

This... isn't a prize...

[BigT]

2nd place is 2 comments.

[Zeb]

I still want to know what #1 is supposed to mean.

[PapayaSF]

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, an early health fanatic, was not a sex-positive fellow. He advocated bland foods (like corn flakes) to reduce sexual desire and activity, because too much sex was unhealthy. The quote is from the movie, but it's in line with what Kellogg actually believed.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Michigan state senator says Uber is "out of control."

The driver took him to the wrong rub and tug?

[Spartacus]

His sister's cousin's hairdresser read something bad about Uber on Facebook, so it must be not only true, but widespread enough to require a law to fix.

[Zeb]

Out of control of the Michigan state senat, I think is what he means.

Have there been any reported cases of anything bad happening to anyone (besides taxi cartels) because of Uber? I can't think of any. He just loves control for its own sake.

[PapayaSF]

A rideshare driver (not sure which company) killed a pedestrian in SF a year or so ago. A lawyer I met was adamant that it proved that they should all have insurance up the wazoo. She claimed regular insurance wasn't enough.

[Teaching Student]

I drive Lyft and they provide additional coverage.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Maxine Waters

1. Guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be about socializing ? uh, umm. ? Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies.

2. I stood on the floor of Congress begging, trying to get just one billion to fight HIV and AIDS, to be able to fund all the outreach programs. But we're at a time when very smart people have been allowing this dumb-ass President of the United States to do as he pleases.

3. We have a moral responsibility to share the resources of this country.

4. We don't need to be having something like sequestration that's going to cause these job losses ? over 170 million jobs that could be lost.

5. You question my motives and authority at your own peril!

6. "I saw pictures of Boehner and Cantor on our screens. Don't ever let me see again, in life, those Republicans in our hall, on our screens, talking about anything. These are demons.

[LynchPin1477]

I'll say 5 is not.

[Aloysious]

I just went blind. Thanks a lot.

[Tonio]

Why do you hate black women, Derpy? You racist, bro? That's two in one day.

Or maybe you're just a shill for Rep Peter King since both those congresswomen have had dustups with him?

[I kid, I kid. Love your STN's Derpy]

[Rich]

Go Gata!

[Form 27B/6]

I have to agree with #6. They are demons.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

That's like choosing a turd out of the septic tank.

5

[Derpetologist]

#5 is the Not. That is quote from Zerg Kerrigan from the video game Starcraft.

[Trigger Warning]

Dude. Nice.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The FBI will investigate Aaron Schock's sketchy financial dealings.

The Downtowns wouldn't have to suffer commoners looking through their personal business.

[Tonio]

Down-town, where all the lights are bright...

[waffles]

Peter Suderman on why DC Comics' cancelled Joker cover is not such a clear case of artistic censorship.

This is blog incest. I know gay marriage has opened the door to all kinds of relationships but the ick factor can not be legislated away.

[Tonio]

I blame Sug...

[Rich]

"I was totally engaged in what was going on on the floor."

Money shot.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jon Stewart on the conservative double standard regarding Benghazi and Ferguson.

When Stewart leaves, who will speak truth to power? Fox News will go un-spoken-to, truthwise.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

John Oliver. The Smug is strong with him.

[Andrew S.]

Oliver seems to "get it" sometimes, like when he talked about asset forfeiture. But like many progs, he whiffs when it comes to solutions.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Just the progs who can afford HBO.

[SIV]

Oliver can occasionally tell a joke. Bill Maher can frequently tell a joke. John Stewart is never remotely funny.

[Zeb]

I think to be a successful comedian you have to be smug. Or really weird.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

To be successful, work on the audience. If jokes don't work, try giving the audience drugs and repeating the jokes until they laugh.

[Zeb]

Sort of hte Bill Hicks approach. (I love Bill, but he wasn't always exactly what you would call a regular crowd pleaser.)

[Pro Libertate]

Speaking truth to power. Another bullshit meme of the left that describes the exact opposite of what they do. Like the reality-based community nonsense.

More correctly, they speak the lies provided by power.

[PapayaSF]

Jon Stewart on the conservative double standard regarding Benghazi and Ferguson.

What double standard? They see both as examples of non-whites causing trouble.

(ducks and runs)

[Cyto]

Stewart blew the comparison. The people running with the false narrative on Benghazi weren't the Fox news pundits claiming that the administration knew about the attacks beforehand and ordered that no aid be rendered.

The false narrative came immediately from the administration when it claimed that Benghazi was due to some obscure youtube video about Mohammed and promptly arrested the "artist" who posted the video.

Claiming that the "false narrative" of Benghazi is about some discredited whistleblowers who were picked up by conservative talking heads is a bit of a stretch when the White House used the police power of the FBI to enforce their cover-story lie. I'd say some idiot rotting away in jail to help you spin the story the way you want it pretty well obscures anything some partisan talking-head type might say.

[Derpetologist]

Jeremiah True defends himself:

In a statement about his own character, True says, "I believe that I am an emotionally capable, intellectually gifted, cutting wit, hell of a person. I believe I have experienced more trauma and suffering and pain in my life than many of these, well frankly, middle class white girls at Reed could ever know in their lives."

And he's so modest too!

[Ted S.]

Shouldn't his statement have begun with the word "nigger"?

[waffles]

As a skier who is now in Northern California this season was depressing. Check out these picture of half-dome that show what a 4 year drought looks like.

Half dome drought

Now Californians love to scream about climate change and Jerry Brown is about to unleash a huge spending bill for water resources. And seriously, fuck the delta smelt. I know there have been worse droughts, but damnit I want to ski!

[Fist of Etiquette]

They can have some of my snow allotment.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Mammoth looks pretty good today:

http://scontent-lax.xx.fbcdn.n.....1412_o.jpg

[waffles]

Too fat for sarcasmic. But perfect for me.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Where do you Ski?

I used to do Squaw back in the day.

[waffles]

Sierra-at-Tahoe is where I bought my season pass because it's close and by far the best bargain. The pass gave me 4 days at Squaw and Alpine so I hit those too, especially for powder days (of which I got one this year). But I've skied the majority of the Tahoe region and could talk endlessly about the pros and cons of each mountain.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

My choices:
-Mammoth
-shitty local fake snow

[waffles]

Well I spent my childhood and most of my early adult life on either side of Pennsylvania. Lots of choices for skiing within a 6 hour drive, but I'll still take a bad winter here over most of the east coast offerings.

I'm heading to Utah for Easter. There's a nonzero chance that Alta and Snowbird will have the goods. Fingers crossed.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Good choice. I learned to ski as a kid in Park City. When my kids are older, I'll definitely take them there. But for now, Easter is pool weather destinations only.

[Sudden]

You people are so fucking white.

[Sevo]

"Sen. Rand Paul called on ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return donations made to the Clinton Foundation by the Saudi Arabian royal family."

I'd also be interested in hearing what other nations or the dictators of same contributed.

[Jerry on the sea]

Clearly the Saudi King donated to the Clinton Foundation in order to promote women's rights around the world.

[wareagle]

I thought it was to make SSM acceptable among the Moozlims

[Suthenboy]

She pledged to release a list of all the other donors. It will be out any minute now.....

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Sen. Rand Paul called on ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to return donations made to the Clinton Foundation by the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Doing his part to fight the War on Women.

[Sudden]

Lots of media people react to my reporting on the student who demanded I write the n-word in a story about his alleged censorship for expressing non-PC views at Reed College.

The big reveal being that Jeremiah True appears to be black himself. Did you know this at the time Robby? Does this change anyone's views of him as an asshole (the consensus opinion in yesterday's thread)?

[paranoid android]

The big reveal being that Jeremiah True appears to be black himself. Did you know this at the time Robby? Does this change anyone's views of him as an asshole (the consensus opinion in yesterday's thread)?

He's probably still an asshole, though I'd be willing to stipulate that he's not necessarily a racist one.

[Apatheist ?_??]

He's all over reddit and he has a change.org petition about it that is hilarious too. I've changed my opinion to troll.

[Andrew S.]

Fun story: I got downvoted to shit in SubredditDrama for disagreeing with somebody about this site. There's a thread there talking about this guy, which included a link to Robby's article. There was a derptastic post about a magazine "that's okay with holocaust deniers and racists" not even approving of this guy, which I had to disagree with. People disagreed with my disagreements, because Mark Ames said Reason is racist.

[Apatheist ?_??]

That's where I saw it, but it was this morning so that drama wasn't there yet. Hilarious. It's still going on.

[Apatheist ?_??]

[?]june_oyster [score hidden] an hour ago
Judas Priest, those Reason comments are a fucking sewer. It's as though they were all lost in the desert and typing the word "nigger" provided a glass of cool, refreshing water.

I didn't know Postrel had a reddit account.

[hamilton]

Reason comments are a fucking sewer

well, she's not exactly catching us at our b.. well, actually she might have a point there.

It's as though they were all lost in the desert

You mean like the, um...

[trshmnster the terrible]

the cast of Flight of the Phoenix?

[Tonio]

These people?

[Cdr Lytton]

horse with no name?

[Sudden]

AFAIK the only people ever typing that word were doing so in that thread to highlight the absurdity and troll-quals of Mssr. True. I suppose one can argue that typing "the n-word" would be a more appropriate and less triggering way of communicating the same concept. Of course the author of this critique voluntarily used the word's full spelling, completely unaware of the irony branding itself into her pasty flesh.

[Zeb]

Triggering is a bunch of bullshit. If you are distressed by seeing a word in print, you need to be hospitalized or something. If a word is part of the story, use the fucking word. Tiptoeing around even mentioning words like "nigger" just gives them more power.

[Sudden]

I share your views regarding the bullshit concept of triggering and how feeble and soft and unprepared for reality a person is if they shriek in fear and panic at the mere transcription of a word. I only meant to point out the irony in this chap's usage of the exact word which she so forcefully derides.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I figure that was probably the case. I just needed a little rant about magic words.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I like the cut of your jib.

[Zeb]

What's a jib?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Promote that man!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"Reason comments are a fucking sewer."

But it's OUR sewer.

Meh.

Reason comments are miles and kilometers better than most placed on the web.

[Zeb]

Yeah. It's definitely one of the nicer sewers around. All comment sections are ugly in one way or another. How anyone could read a thread here and come away thinking that most or many commenters are racist or bigoted is a puzzle.

[Sudden]

Projection is like that

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Bo

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That fascinates me as well they would think this. Unless they don't understand our humour because I spell it with a 'u'.

[trshmnster the terrible]

When you don't micromanage the comments, you get a greater variation in the commenting. Some are worse and some are better than you get on heavily moderated sites.

[Zeb]

There are proper racists who show up here from time to time, but they are pretty much always called out on it and driven off, or at least mercilessly mocked by the regulars. And often deleted by the editors or whoever does that.

[Sudden]

I'm probably the most "racist" person on here insofar as I have no qualms critiquing larger cultural trends among identity groups or pointing out disparities in anti-social behaviours. But I never attribute qualities of a group to an individual that belongs to that group without first giving them a fair and impartial judgement. I generally believe that the larger a group becomes, the worse it gets. A sort of lowest common denominator aspect going on.

[Zeb]

I wouldn't call you a racist for that. Criticizing certain aspects of cultures associated with certain racial groups is something else.

I'm thinking of the real white separatist, "these people are animals" type. Which is probably mostly that one guy.

[Sudden]

Oh I didn't mean that I'm a racist. I meant that, among the commentariat's semi-regular posters who actually subscribes mostly to the broad tenets of libertarianism (with some deviations), I am as "racist" as it comes and at times even labeled a "collectivist" precisely because of my willingness to entertain such notions. Notably right after the Michael Brown shooting (and before the details of his earlier in the day strong arm robbery were even made public) I was raising some skepticism that maybe this kid actually did provoke his own shooting.

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

It's mostly just one proper racist that shows up under different handles...

[Apatheist ?_??]

Here's the petition.

This is his reddit account.

[Calidissident]

The oddity and ridiculousness of the request was what stood out to me. Even if he were white, I wouldn't assume he was racist based off that, just really weird and edgy.

[Apatheist ?_??]

He's trolling. I mean its not actually edgy, its "look at me I'm so edgy."

Apparently he also said a bunch of stupid shit about the holocaust in class as well. I don't know if he should have been kicked out of class, but I don't think he's some victim.

[Hyperion]

Jon Stewart on the conservative double standard regarding Benghazi and Ferguson.

Jon Stewart on double standards? What a hypocritical little douche.

[Pro Libertate]

Who is that picture of Schock with, his grandmother?

[Tonio]

Ima say a drag queen, but not one of the better ones. Wonder how she walks that way?

[Pro Libertate]

Dream on, dude.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

I think she fell off a stage and broke her hip, so now she just goes down in an elevator.

[Pro Libertate]

Hopefully, it will all come together.

[KDN]

Double play opportunity botched. Boooo!

[paranoid android]

He asked her her name, and in a dark brown voice she said "Lola".

[Zeb]

That was basically my thought when I saw that. How is it that that ugly ass old-woman-looking thing a sex symbol?

[Rich]

Woman shot in head during possible road rage incident

she ran into some sort of issue with another driver on the road. She beeped her horn at him and then the driver started taunting her. He eventually pulled up next to her vehicle, then fired one gunshot through her front passenger window.

Deputies are now looking for the driver who fired the gunshot. They say he was driving a white SUV and wearing a blue baseball cap.

Ah, post-racial America.

[NidhoggRocketman]

I came across this today.

Possible Atlas Shrugged Miniseries

I would argue this is the route they should have gone all along, pretty much for the same reason Game of Thrones needed to go the TV Series route - too much content for feature film treatment.

[NidhoggRocketman]

Sigh. Link:

http://www.galtsgulchonline.co.....ion-series

[LynchPin1477]

I wouldn't have high hopes for it. Maybe if HBO or AMC were to do it the quality would be good, but it would still need writers/producers/a director at least willing to be fair to Rand. They also need to change the story up without diluting the message too much.

Honestly, I think the Fountainhead would be a much better book to do. Better story, less well known, not as explicitly political. Just leave out the rape scene, please.

[Sudden]

Maybe if HBOShowtime or AMC were to do it the quality would be good, but it would still need writers/producers/a director at least willing to be fair to Rand.

HBO has proven time and time again that any subject matter touching on political thought that they air will be necessarily progressive in slant (Maher and Oliver, as well as their docs and internally produced movies). Showtime is more open to giving libertarian thought a fair hearing (Penn & Teller)

[Pro Libertate]

I could see Showtime. I mean, the book does have sex in it.

[LynchPin1477]

I haven't watched that much pay channel TV but from what I've seen of Showtime, it just isn't as well done. It's like the the FX to HBO's AMC. Not bad, but just not mindblowingly good, either.

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, they do nudity and fucking as well as HBO.

[Sudden]

They did a good job with Dexter overall. Their central contribution to GoT has been budget more than anything.

[The Last American Hero]

Why leave anything out? 50 Shades is all the rage these days.

[John Titor]

See, I used to say the same thing about Dune. Then I watched the miniseries.

[Pro Libertate]

You watched a miniseries. It doesn't mean it can't be done. It just wasn't. You know why? Because the Bene Gesserit influenced its production.

[NidhoggRocketman]

I confess I'm not as schooled in Dune as some people here. I read the books a long time ago, back when I was in high school and hardly remember anything aside from the overarching plot, and I remember thinking the miniseries was better.

I'd say I was due for a reread/rewatch if I wasn't in the middle of Wheel of Time.

[Pro Libertate]

Stop reading that and go re-read Dune.

[NidhoggRocketman]

My OCD about finishing things requires that I finish Wheel of Time first.

I have a deeply-ingrained love of epic fantasy and am young enough that I am unfamiliar with the work it is accused of being derivative of.

A re-read of Dune is on the list though. I don't think I really "got it" the first time around; especially the last two books.

[Pro Libertate]

Here, let the commentariat help. We'll post the whole book right here:

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every sister of the Bene Gesserit knows. To begin your study of the life of Muad'Dib, then, take care that you first place him in his time: born
in the 57th year of the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam IV. And take the most special care that you locate Muad'Dib in his place: the planet Arrakis. Do not be
deceived by the fact that he was born on Caladan and lived his first fifteen
years there. Arrakis, the planet known as Dune, is forever his place.

-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying
about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the
mother of the boy, Paul.

[John Titor]

TL;DR version:

THE SPICE MUST FLOW.

FEAR IS THE MIND KILLER.

FATHHHHHER, THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED!

TRY LOOKING INTO THAT PLACE WHERE YOU DARE NOT LOOK! YOU'LL FIND ME THERE, STARING OUT AT YOU!

[Pro Libertate]

Don't be lazy. The Internet is your friend.

[John Titor]

Hey, I just successfully summed up Parts 1-3 (Dune, Muad'Dib, and the Prophet) and the ending with one sentence each. Don't be hating.

Dune Messiah: There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers. Nothing. Nothing can be done.

Children of Dune: A fixed solution is, by definition, a dead solution. The trouble with peace is that it tends to punish mistakes instead of rewarding brilliance.

God Emperor of Dune: Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.

Brian Herbert's Dune series: Fuck this shit, it's garbage.

[Pro Libertate]

The last one is dead on. In fact, I'd burn all of those books and replace them with that sentence.

[NidhoggRocketman]

How about Heretics and Chapterhouse?

[Pro Libertate]

I'm actually a rare reader who likes all of the Frank Herbert Dune books. Obviously, the first one is by far the best, but I like the others, too.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

There is no fourth book in the Dune series. it magically tunnels from 3 to 5.

[Pro Libertate]

Nah, God Emperor is good, too. You just have to live like a god for a while to get it.

[NidhoggRocketman]

Kind of like this?

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0688.html

[Terc]

I liked the first book very much, but I can't even tell what's happening in the last two books. And I've been working in the "turn other people's words into stories on a stage" business all my life.

[Tonio]

Meh. I think TMIAHM is a better vehicle for libertarianism, provided Hollywood doesn't fuck it up.

[LynchPin1477]

Why would you ever think Hollywood would fuck up the message of a Heinlein novel?

[Andrew S.]

i still liked starship troopers. 🙁

[LynchPin1477]

As a campy war movie it's fun. But Voerhoeven didn't even read the book. Yes, it is very pro-military, but it's hardly fascist. But that is all he got from it after reading two chapters, because he found something he didn't like and immediately called it fascist.

[Andrew S.]

Oh, I agree. It missed the main themes of the book. But I love it on its own right.

[John Titor]

It's goofy, fun movie and Michael Ironsides is all kinds of kickass in it, but the damage it's done to the 'Starship Troopers brand' is massive. You can't bring anything up from the novel without someone saying 'wait, isn't that about fascism?'

[NidhoggRocketman]

Ironically, the guy who first recommended that book to me in my college days (I have read it and loved it) was a hardcore prog.

[PapayaSF]

I haven't read Atlas Shrugged, but I'd rather see some libertarian science fiction made into a miniseries.

[GILMORE]

"Lots of media people react to my reporting on the student who demanded I write the n-word in a story about his alleged censorship for expressing non-PC views at Reed College."

Translated into pre-internet terms =

"Other people are continuing to gab about the 'Can You Believe There's a Provocative Asshole at a Hyper-Liberal College?'-story"

[GILMORE]

"Jon Stewart on the conservative double standard regarding Benghazi and Ferguson."

OMG !?

The PRESIDENT LIED TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT FERGUSON TOO?!??!

[GILMORE]

"Michigan state senator says Uber is "out of our control."

FTFY

[John Titor]

Bo is over in the comics thread attempting to get attention. Please don't engage him. Don't continue to validate his shitty behaviour by granting the attention he wants.

[Rich]

I thought he had been, um, driven off.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Too late. 🙁

It's just too funny. He's hardly even human at this point. It's like a stream of SJW talking points bereft of humanity, personality, or coherence. He's a walking, talking Tumblr post.

[Tonio]

Well, at least there's some spankable Tumblr posts...

[John Titor]

Go on...

*Checks name*

Wait...meh. Go on.

[John Titor]

He also really doesn't seem to understand how to insult people. 'Offended White Guys Brigade' is worn with pride. The 'juvenile psychopath gamergaters' thing is completely irrelevant to most of the people here, and the only gamergate stuff that's even been here is random links in threads and Cathy Young's articles.He's just spewing pure deranged nonsense at this point.

[Pro Libertate]

To this day, I still don't understand what Gamergate is all about.

[John Titor]

Apparently Anita Sarkeesian broke into Adam Baldwin's office and bugged it. Or something.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Rundown:

1. There was some bizarre corruption involving people sleeping with game reviewers without disclosing the relationship then getting favorable reviews. Also, all the game review websites got infested by leftist writers who would inject politics into everything.

2. Gamers got upset by this, so they MASSIVELY overreacted and turned it into a vastly bigger deal than it actually was. They could have just started their own sites (which, in fairness, eventually many did), but first they had to turn this into a huge cause that blew up twitter for a month.

3. SJW's overreacted in reaction to the Gamergate overreaction, and started hysterically declaring that their lives were in danger because Gamergaters would totally murder them you guys.

4. Law and Order SVU decided that this would be a good idea.

5. Bo decided that for some reason we would totally care if he called us Gamergaters, even though none of us were involved in that.

And that's how we arrived at the present.

[Pro Libertate]

Oddly, I read that and still don't understand the whole business. Who should I hate?

[Apatheist ?_??]

All of them, but probably better to ignore the whole thing. It is death spiral of derp.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, then I'm ahead of the curve in my indifference. Cutting edge apathy.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Libertarians. Obviously.

[John Titor]

In short, this is the current state of 'Gamergate vs. Gamerghazi' twitter.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I think he meant he didn't want to understand. Lord knows I don't.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You skipped two very important steps between 1 and 2:

1a.) Leftist games media began to intellectually mau-mau indie game developers into converting their games into nothing but the digital versions of SJW Jack Chick tracts.

1b.) Any suggestions that these games were ham-fisted propaganda and not, you know, fun immediately branded you as a horrible, horrible person who was no better than a racist pedophile cannibal.

[Pro Libertate]

Well. I suppose I can predict the response to that. Gamers rushed out and procured whores in GTA, beat them up to get their money back, then posted a video of the whole thing on some social media site.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yep. Pretty much.

[Pro Libertate]

It's strange how much SJW shenanigans seem to bring back levels of sexism, racism, whathaveyouism that were heretofore mostly unseen anymore.

[PapayaSF]

1c.) Simultaneously, a number of SJW game critics began talking up "the death of gamers," meaning that the traditional/clich? view of them had to give way to the more "diverse" and PC view that everybody plays games. The "you types are now obsolete" attitude ticked off a lot of people.

[Sevo]

Not to worry. If he doesn't get attention there, he will cruise around until someone responds. That's what he does.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Bring him up in a new thread will surely help...

[John Titor]

I'm providing a service to the public here. You don't stand next to the angry rapist bear and yell loudly about how he's here, you go door to door warning people before the angry rapist bear is upon them.

[Andrew S.]

We're all very aware of STEVE SMITH and Warty. That has nothing to do with this.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Or just ignore him. Talking about him is not ignoring him.

[John Titor]

You can certainly try ignoring the angry rapist bear, but his massive raging bearcock won't ignore you.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I will say that I love that Illocust responded to him:

"Illocust|3.20.15 @ 4:50PM|#

Fuck you, you sexist cunt. Don't you dare pretend my vagina somehow magically decides how I think. Removing this cover was one more example of how dumb as shit feminist can't stand the idea of female characters being treated like male characters. Grow the fuck up, get laid, and stop prostrating yourself in front of every sexist with an xx chromosome and a megaphone."

Given how much time he spends desperately white knighting on behalf of women who could not care less about his support, how much do you think it stung to get called on his bullshit by a girl?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I'm laughing so hard at Bo right now. From the Batgirl thread:

"When I coined the phrase 'offended white guy brigade' I see the emphasis could have been on guy as much as white.

The op explains the backstory and others here note that this Batgirl is pitched as a lighter comic aimed largely at teen girls but all the guys here obtusely go into the usual routine. Sheesh"

"I mean really, let's not only ignore the decades long history of comics nearly exclusively depicting women as objects in peril and forget the specific ugly backstory of this particular storyline! It's just 'progz!!!SJWs!!!!'"

The irony here, of course, is that I explained why the prog whining was idiotic through actually pointing out this bit of backstory:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't The Killing Joke climax with Commissioner Gordon being kidnapped, stripped naked, and chained up in a freakshow so that that the Joker can psychologically torture him and try to drive him insane?

Why is Batgirl getting crippled sexist when that character's father spends part of the book naked in a cage being emotionally abused by a crazy clown?"

Bo's right though. It's just OUTRAGED WHITE MEN HERP A DERP ADERRRRR.

Bo, no matter how hard you try, the feminist girls you're pining after will never sleep with you. You should just give up.

[Tonio]

1) Blockquotes

2) Why would you even...

[Sevo]

Irish,
I hope you didn't engage the twit.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I did not. Unless you count this. In which case, yes, we can all see that I did.

[Sevo]

Thx.

[wareagle]

so if we don't go to Bo, you bring Bo to us? Why do you hate us?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I didn't understand a lick of his point.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You and me both, pal.

[GILMORE]

"The Iran negotiations are going nowhere"

INCONCEIVABLE

[Pro Libertate]

SENATE COCKBLOCK!

[GILMORE]

in my view, the 'negotiations' were on the path to being scuttled ever since Bibi spoke in front of congress.

it wasn't congressional opposition that made obama suddenly start toughening his so-called 'requirements' from Iran (*see: the late insertion of this "10 Year Moratorium" element into what was previously an open-ended loosening of sanctions in exchange for more 'process'-oriented measures like inspections, declarations of stockpiles, etc)

it was the amount of attention the Israel-PM-dispute brought to his Iran negotiations, and how unhappy Israel-centric people were with Obama's unilateral approach to negotiating with what is, in all fairness, far more "israel's problem" than it is for America.

So Obama basically turned what was 'softball' demands into far more stringent requirements... and wants to be able to walk away from this policy looking like he'd been attempting some grand reconciliation, but was cockblocked by Congress and the Evil Right Wing Jews...when in fact he will have sunk the ship all on his own, for self-interested reasons.

[Pro Libertate]

Yes. Before the open conflict over the negotiations, most people knew jack and shit about what we were offering to do/not do. Now Obama can't operate in the dark as much, which forced his hand. Good.

[Jerryskids]

Every time we get those hostages back, we send more over there.

[PapayaSF]

So the deal might not happen? The one in which we get nothing and Iran gets nukes? Sad.

[GILMORE]

Iran 'gets nukes' sooner or later either way. The question is, do we want the world to be the same as the one today when it happens, or do we want relations to be better off.

This guy makes some good points. i don't care for his "solution = natural gas" thing so much as i find his summary of the status quo pretty spot-on.

[GILMORE]

*disclaimer = i don't think "M.A.D." is a perfect preventative, i just think his point is that everything is 'manageable' and that the reality is that every nation's motivating factor is "self-preservation" above all....

...I also think he doesn't quite say it, but Pakistan is probably *more* likely to be the nation who 'uses nukes'; why people shit themselves over iran i think is overblown. They're far more 'self controlled' than some of our ostensible 'allies'.

[Agile Cyborg]

Why is it so fucking hard for honkeys to type 'nigger'?

[GILMORE]

Honkey is so 1970s

Cracker, dude.

[Warty]

Peckerwood. It's the darkies' only decent slur against us.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I like Pink-Toe and Tornado Bait

[Warty]

"Hillbilly" has a rather nasty ring when it comes out of a black man's mouth, too. It has a nice "I'm despised, but so are you, so fuck you" connotation that I like.

[Pro Libertate]

How about Neanderthal? Europeans are more likely to have Neanderthal DNA, after all. Or maybe just cave man?

[Warty]

My unibrow and heavy brow ridges are VERY OFFENDED.

[Pro Libertate]

You're just a caveman. Our world frightens and confuses you.

[Slammer]

OT Warty, but did you see this?

METAL!

[Warty]

Dammit, I'll be out of town by then. Maybe I should make a trip back.

[Andrew S.]

Because they don't have a laurel and hardy handshake to offer first?

[Rich]

To be fair, AC, it's mostly the embedded software that converts offensive letters to asterisks and hyphens.

[Agile Cyborg]

So when the internet goes fully fucking semantic all shades of the offensive can be converted into hieroglyphs so coming generations lose sight of the really great shit that made relating interesting and absurd at times.

We all get to be puffy panda bears eating jello made from fucking rainbows and kitten smiles.

[Rich]

Um, exactly.

[Warty]

UC Berkeley black students demand fixes to 'hostile' climate

Black Student Union's 10 demands
Open an African American Student Development Resource Center with event space to help improve black students' relatively low graduation rate of 77 percent.
Allocate $300,371 to hire two black admissions staff members who specialize in recruiting black students.
Allocate $113,932 for a program director to help with outreach and retention efforts done by student volunteers who say they are overburdened by the work.
Hire two black psychologists who understand "the racially hostile campus climate at this university."
Hire two black development advisers to mentor and provide academic guidance for black athletes.
Double the budget for the "Getting into Graduate School" mentorship program.
Immediately create a committee to recommend, by April 8, ways to aggressively recruit and retain black staff and faculty.
Rename Barrows Hall "Assata Shakur Hall."
Fully fund the American Cultures and Engaged Scholarship program, and hire two staff members for it.
Top administrators and black student groups will meet together at least once a semester.

Fuck, I hate losers who demand to be congratulated for being losers.

[Pro Libertate]

Why do the psychologists have to be black? I mean, they don't go find psychotic psychologists to work at insane asylums or pregnant OB/GYNs to deliver babies.

[Warty]

Papaya's quote in the other thread had the answer.

Many socio-political forces today are about the return to tribal identity. Tribes are isolated from the Other and easily coerced through emotional appeals to identity rather than universal logic. This has picked up methinks because information and people are increasingly ignoring the borders and authority defined by the state. So the thugs among us look to draw new boundaries based on race, gender, language etc. The new tribes destined to wage continuous and pointless war.

The psychologists have to be black because we're a particularly stupid ape species. This is what humans do. Scorpions sting, human-apes hate.

[Pro Libertate]

I dunno, seems like we're more sophisticated than that. . .when we feel like it.

[Warty]

With a lot of training, we can send other monkeys to the moon. But it's safe to say that's aberrant behavior, isn't it?

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus. That gives me a cunning plan I've never conceived of before. Not robots. Not colonies of humans. Colonies of monkeys! We could have robots build an underground facility on, say, the Moon, then start launching monkeys by the boatload.

[Warty]

You fool! You'll doom us all! Have you never heard of the Van Allen Belt??? Earth has no defenses against hordes of mutant space monkeys at all!

[Pro Libertate]

That's not my problem. Do you think I could train the monkeys to take pictures and dig holes in the ground?

[NotAnotherSkippy]

The Moon needs Keynesianism?

[Pro Libertate]

The Moon has a right to an economy, too. I also intend to force the monkeys to buy lots of stuff to further stimulate lunar and Terran economies

[MJGreen]

With a lot of training, we can send other monkeys to the moon.

Squats can't be that good.

[Pro Libertate]

How do you think monkeys progressed to higher-order apes like Homo sapiens in the first place? Evolution? Ha! Squats.

[Warty]

What allows man to walk upright? That's right, gluteus maximi. Q.E.D.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Does that seem right to you?

[Pro Libertate]

Which part?

[Apatheist ?_??]

I think that is a Firefly reference.

[Pro Libertate]

Uh, oh. "Man is stronger by far than woman, yet only woman can create a child. Does that seem right to you?"

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most 'Halls' or wings in Colleges built through private donations? I imagine it's the case with Barrows?

If so, how's about THEY PAY FOR THEIR OWN FUCKING HALL.

You want to be respected and treated like an big boy, PAY.

[John Titor]

Apparently it's named after David Prescott Barrows, a political science professor and president of the university in the 1920s. It's also where the majority of their identity politics programs are located. So clearly they have to change the name to that of a violent offender who engages in Cuba apologia.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I attended a hunger strike there in 1999.

And by attended, I mean I had pizzas delivered there and I ate them in front of the protesters.

[John Titor]

That there is quality trolling sir.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I got a get out of jail free card for that, which I used 2 weeks later.

[Sudden]

Roadtrip for a football game in the fall? Surely there'll be a hunger strike of note we can accomplish similar trolling at the time.

I'm overdue for pregame drinks at Henry's with the lead singer of Counting Crows.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I know a guy who was murdered there.

Counting Crows dude is bald, BTW. Dreads are fake. You'll see when he gets drunk.

[Sudden]

My college experience had me personally knowing a murderer.

I actually sat in that Saab that would be his weapon two weeks before his rampage.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ah. Thanks for that.

Well they can still pay.

It's the way of the world.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

At least they picked Barrows. That is one ugly, run down building.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This is straight out of Desouza's Illiberal Education.

They want someone else to spend money to reinforce their own stereotypes. They don't want to integrate, they want their grievance group subsidized

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"We've self-segregated, and now we feel isolated. Pay us!"

[JW]

Open an African American Student Development Resource Center with event space to help improve black students' relatively low graduation rate of 77 percent.

I'd suggest studying, but if you could, you wouldn't be there, saying these stupid, stupid things, now.

[Invisible Finger]

Tougher admissions standards would improve the graduation rate.

But apparently the desire is for grade-inflation for the "everyone gets a trophy" degree.

[bodenlosen Schweinerei]

It 's about the caish, loverly piles of squeezable sniffable caish.

Students don't want tougher admissions standards, and neither do admins. Retention is more important than graduation. Six years pays better for the schools than four anyhoo.

[Sudden]

Open an African American Student Development Resource Center with event space to help improve black students' relatively low graduation rate of 77 percent.

Allocate $300,371 to hire two black admissions staff members who specialize in recruiting black students.

Do they really not see how these two goals are contradictory?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Open an African American Student Development Resource Center with event space to help improve black students' relatively low graduation rate of 77 percent.

Say what? The national average is 55 percent.

[Sudden]

I would think their "relatively" was relative to the other students on campus.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but Cal's 4 year rate is pretty damn low.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It seems to be. Berkeley's graduation rate, overall, is 91%, which is huge. At my institution, during our opening day meeting the administration was handing out hi-5s for reaching 74%. When disaggregated by race Black students have the second lowest graduation within 6 years rate, which is still 22 percent above the national average for everyone. I don't see what they are complaining about.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Back when it was cheap ($4100/yr when I went there), people took their sweet time.

[Sudden]

Their ridiculously high graduation rate doesn't do much to help their case as one of the best public universities in the country. It almost hurts them as much as having a certain unnamed commentator here being an alumnus.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'm the best thing that ever happened to that school

[Apatheist ?_??]

I imagine the non-athlete graduation rate is higher as well.

[PapayaSF]

If there's a "hostile climate" at UCB towards blacks, it's because students are often considered easy pickings for the black criminals in nearby neighborhoods.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah, hiring a couple of dozen new administrators with six figure salaries will totally improve the graduation rate among black students.

[Col. R C Dean]

This is just priceless:

Some two-thirds of Florida's endangered manatees rely on discharge waters from power plants for winter warmth, according to federal biologists. It's a fact that congressional Republicans are seizing on to challenge the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's agenda to fight climate change, a plan to slash carbon emissions that could force large-scale closures of coal plants.

The chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources confronted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe on the issue at a budget hearing Thursday. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the Fish and Wildlife Service is required to formally consult on any plan that could pose problems for an endangered species.

A consultation process on endangered species issues could take time, slowing down the rules aimed at lowering carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants,

http://www.miamiherald.com/new.....97277.html

[Pro Libertate]

Apropos of nothing, the latest manatee census down here indicated that their numbers are increasing at a good rate.

[paranoid android]

Some two-thirds of Florida's endangered manatees rely on discharge waters from power plants for winter warmth, according to federal biologists.

Well can't they use some of that global warming we hid in the ocean?

[Pro Libertate]

We're not hiding it anywhere near Florida, because during the winter they all come up into rivers to avoid the colder water in the ocean.

[Jerryskids]

The whole thing about Schock is kinda interesting - seems like the guy wanted to be a Congresman just for the hookers and the blackjack and the blow and made no bones about the fact that he was having a blast, livin' the dream. They're all corrupt scumbags up there in DC, but at least he wasn't hiding behind any pretense of doing "The Serious Business of The Nation" when lining his own pockets whilst hunched over taking a huge dump on Madison's grave. What Schock was stealing from the Treasury was a hell of a lot less than what the fuckers steal every year when they come up with a budget Continuing Resolution, but at least Schock wasn't pretending that he was doing this as a favor to the nation. Personally, I would rather have as a Congressman someone too busy screwing hookers in Brazil to screw me right here at home.
.
So what is Schock's real sin here? Was it being a crook or was it being nothing more than a crook, failing to follow the ritual pieties of pretending not to be a crook?

[Warty]

You think he was the only one partying the way he was? He pissed someone powerful off and they exposed him.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

No - what actually happened is that Aaron Schock is a moron who was having his office redecorated to look like Downton Abbey WHILE A REPORTER WAS IN THE ROOM.

So of course the reporter started researching this guy, and the rest is history.

[Pro Libertate]

Seriously, a reporter needs that to start investigating? No wonder the Clintons get away with so much.

[Rhywun]

My congresscritter resigned because he was paying illegals under the table at his restaurant. If that's the worst thing any of the rest of them do this year in the next five minutes I'll eat my hat.

[Sudden]

Personally, I would rather have as a Congressman someone too busy screwing hookers in Brazil to screw me right here at home.

And this is why I will be writing in Sanford/Schlock on my 2016 ballot if Rand is not on there.

[VG Zaytsev]

So what is Schock's real sin here?

Being white and getting elected as a republican.

[widget]

Check out this Iowa state lawmaker reading "Sex After Sixty" on the House floor.

He buys his reading glasses from a Walgreens carousel and holds the book a full yard away from his eyes. Mrs. Widget does that too. I tell her to they have an optometrist there but she pays no attention to me.

[Some Chick from OH]

Blatantly O/T, but I just found out I DO have to show up for jury duty Monday morning. What's the current conventional wisdom and/or legal status of good ol' jury nullification?

[Warty]

When they ask if you can follow jury instructions, say no. Tell them that you can't commit to following instructions if you don't know what they are. If they press you, explain that you won't violate your personal morality at any cost. They'll throw you out. Just take care not to get a contempt of court charge.

[Warty]

Which is not what you asked. Oops.

Only mention jury nullification if you want to get thrown out of the building. It's not something that is tolerated in a courthouse.

[Some Chick from OH]

Thanks. I really just need to get out of there & get back to the day job. Wouldn't they rather know from the get-go that I won't convict based on what I believe to be an unjust law? Better (from their point of view) that I tell 'em right off than sneak onto the jury & then refuse to convict.

[thrakkorzog]

The problem is that judges aren't fond of people trying to avoid jury duty. So
simply saying jury nullification would probably be as successful as claiming to be racist to get out of jury duty. (And would probably piss off the judge.) Just explain your objection to victimless crimes during the normal course of Q&A. Argue for jury nullification, just without actually using the phrase 'jury nullification'.

[NebulousFocus]

Throw the jury summons out and don't go. They have no proof you received it.

[thrakkorzog]

That's not a good plan. Depending on where you live, you can end up with some cops serving you a jury summons, and giving you a ride to the local courthouse.

[Zeb]

I can follow instructions. That doesn't mean I will.

[Zeb]

If you want to nullify, then do it. Just don't say that's what you did in public or lie. If you got, say, a drug case, I would say you have a moral obligation not to convict whatever the law says.

[Some Chick from OH]

Exactly, and I'd apply that to most prostitution- or gambling-related cases - anything I'd consider a "victimless crime."

[VG Zaytsev]

Your chance of getting such a case is pretty much nil.

[GILMORE]

Tell them you come from a family full of lawyers and you spend a lot of time debating the finer points of jurisprudence. They'll boot you in 2 seconds. They only want people who can be swayed by rhetorical appeals. people who actually think about "the law" are their worst nightmare.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

From the PR perspective, I recommend this (check with an attorney for the legal implications):

If the defendant is charged with something you don't think should be a crime, say so, give a very brief explanation, and get dismissed.

Depending on the community, the law may be unpopular enough that *lots* of potential jurors express their opposition. Imagine such widespread opposition to, say, dope laws that they have trouble picking a jury!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Of course, they'll ask you if you can overcome your "personal opinions" about the law and do what you're told. If you say you can "set aside my personal preferences," they might let you on the jury anyway!

[Swamp Think]

It's already happened.
http://missoulian.com/news/loc.....03286.html

[thrakkorzog]

Legally speaking, jury nullification is a loophole that judges and lawyers hate. Jurors don't have to explain why they let someone go. It's one of the the few FYTW that citizens can pull on the government. And of course, the government hates it.

[ebonylpenny]

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[Pro Libertate]

That seems too simplistic. Can't I just hate people who think differently than me?

[Pro Libertate]

No, don't be silly. They mate with them.

[Pro Libertate]

Give me my fucking coffee without saying another word, or I'll rip your esophagus out.

[paranoid android]

It's a shame I haven't set foot in a Starbucks in years, this would have been a great excuse to stop going.

[GILMORE]

Starbucks even got rid of refined sugar because its too white.

[Warty]

I had a darkie and a Chinaman in my house not two weeks ago. Hooray! I'm not racist!

[JW]

Are white people allowed to have a black person serve them at Starbucks?

[Sudden]

The Coffee Bean's best marketing campaign to date.

[Pro Libertate]

I heard that they published a bunch of pictures of "baristas" writing racial stuff on coffee cups. Pretty much all of the hands apparently were white.

[GILMORE]

It doesn't count when they're illegal contract-labor.

[widget]

I see you capitalized 'Chinaman' but not 'darkie' comrade Warty. Bury your children alive as punishment.

[lap83]

Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature

[BigT]

"I had a darkie and a Chinaman in my house not two weeks ago."

Were they good? Or did they struggle too much?

[Warty]

Oh! And I had another darkie (one of the real kind, the other one is Nigerian) and some kind of lesser white deliver me a couch a few days ago. I'm set on race relations for years.

[Pro Libertate]

Jesus, what kind of racist are you? Holy shit, that's macroaggression.

[widget]

I want my coffee negro.

[Sudden]

Yes, but it is highly advised when they ask the name to put on your cup, you don't say "Massa"

[Sudden]

some kind of lesser white

Thank you. This is how I'm going to start referring to all my non-vibrant friends going forward.

[lap83]

Because that's not how white people pronounce it? (too far?)

[Sudden]

THE CHINAMAN'S NOT THE ISSUE!

[PapayaSF]

But they are hands that know oppression, because they all majored in Oppression Studies in college.

[PapayaSF]

That's because there's no country called Dark.