Cruz Officially Announces Presidential Run, Police Say No Evidence of Rape at UVA, Durst Held Without Bail: P.M. Links

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  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) officially, formally kicked off his campaign to succeed President Barack Obama in 2016. Here's a few things to know about his candidacy.

• Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened, casting the now infamous Rolling Stone story into further doubt.
• The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's voter ID law, leaving it intact.
• Murder suspect Robert Durst, subject of recent HBO documentary series The Jinx, has been denied bail.
• A new report on body camera use by the San Diego Police Department matches previous studies. They saw big declines in complaints, use of force by officers, and use of pepper spray by officers in 2014 after implementing cameras. (Hat tip to Popehat)
• An Arizona woman who spent 22 years on death row in the killing of her 4-year-old son, based on the testimony of a detective with a history of misconduct, has been fully exonerated.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened...

Rape culture, nonetheless, still exists.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened..."

NEEDS. MORE. MATTRESSES.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

COVERUP

[Catatafish]

He's talkin' mattresses, Joe. It's a "coverlet" in that context.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Interestingly enough, Anna Merlan is openly acknowledging her screw-ups over at Jezebel in the comment section.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The degree is good for something after all.

She caught up on the chapter explaining 'How do apologize on your knees'.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Better than the first time around then? Because the first round of apologies were definitely more of the "I guess I could have done slightly better but the main point is that you still suck" variety.

[Heroic Mulatto]

She caught up on the chapter explaining 'How do apologize on your knees'.

Go on....

[Tonio]

Self-criticism is the most sincere form. Very Maoist of her.

[Zeb]

And Juche.

Also, I just noticed that "Maoist" and "Moist" are almost the same.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Behave Zeb. Your job around here is to keep the comments civil and intelligent.

[BigT]

Zeb is Sysiphus?

[Injun, as in from India]

I read that as "Zeb has syphilis?"

[Zeb]

Sorry. Sometimes I get carried away.

[Tonio]

Zeb, Syphillis will cause dementia, I hear. 😛

Also, yeah, I noticed that maoist/moist thing after I posted. I had a moment of whaaaa...no I din't. LOL.

[Andrew S.]

And check out this drivel from the rape culture apologists at the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network! http://time.com/30545/its-time.....-hysteria/

[GILMORE]

ppppptt. Written by someone at American Enterprise Institute. BIG CORPORATE RIGHT WING SHILLS obviously want to deny rape-culture.

[GILMORE]

JUST BECAUSE NO "GANG RAPE" DOESN'T MEAN WE CANT STILL BE OUTRAGED

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Police Chief: The UVA findings "doesn't mean that something terrible didn't happen to Jackie in 2012.""

Well, the Charlottesville PD can't rule out the possibility that [name of person you don't like] likes to have sex with chickens. The just don't have evidence he did!

[rts]

Venezuela: How long does it take to buy 8 basic goods? [Video: 3:06]

[Fist of Etiquette]

The road to bread lines are paved with, um, good intentions?

[Heedless]

At least there are roadz, you Samollian anarchist Randroid traitor.

[Aloysious]

That's just sad. Soviet-style queues in Venezuela.

[The Last American Hero]

And yet if you fuck around with the price signals to things like health care, it's like totally different because, um, healthcare.

[C. Anacreon]

I saw a tv commercial today with SF Giants pitcher Sergio Romo saying "health care is a basic human right -- but more than one million undocumented California residents don't have access to government-provided health care."

I'm still not clear on what I am supposed to do about that.

[Heedless]

Ship them back to Venezuela, where there is universal healthcare?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

I'm still not clear on what I am supposed to do about that.

Pay.

[John Titor]

The comments are, of course, filled with tu quoque about American 'poverty'. Good job youtube commentators, you never fail to disappoint.

[Brett L]

Just because Walmart understaffs their checkouts. Seriously, why build 20 if you are only going to open four?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wal-Mart needs its own 'Godwin' title.

[Zeb]

Yeah, what the fuck is that? And then they have 2 of the self checkout registers out of order every time I go there.
I once stopped going to Walmart for over a year after I got very annoyed when there were 2 lanes open with about 30 people in each line and no self checkout, and abandoned a cart of groceries in the checkout line.

Here is my idea that I just had for the future of big box stores. Every item has an rfid tag. And so do you. You just pick up everything you want and walk out with it. If you don't have enough credit on your chip, an alarm goes off and cauldrons of boiling oil dump on your head. That should also discourage shoplifting.

[crab_apple]

Walmart has been using RFID for inventory control in the back room, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually start doing something like this. Eventually they'll want to get rid of some of their moron employees and just replace with machine automation.

[Zeb]

I think it would be great to just go into stores, stuff your pockets with whatever you need and walk out.

Security on the payment system might be tricky, but I'm sure something can be made to work.

[Whahappan?]

I already do this. Doesn't everybody?

[trshmnster the terrible]

It's in the works

[Dweebston]

I was just about to go digging for this. What was it, Superbowl of '07?

[Hyperion]

When my wife (gf back then) first moved in with me here in the USA, we were at Walmart and she wanted to asked one of the employees walking around about a product. I laughed and she didn't understand, so I said, go ahead, knowing that I couldn't dissuade her. Took about 1 minute or less of the employees dumb cow eyed deer in the headlights stare for her to understand.

The auto checkout lanes are always broken. I don't even bother trying anymore.

[SFC B]

Not only are they broken but the ones that work are filled with Walmart shoppers.

Self-checkout works great when you have a couple of items and they're all clearly labled. I hate when I go to the self-checkout and see somoene with a cart overflowing with items, including produce. They are going to be there FOREVER.

[Terc]

The Chrome "herp derp" extension solves this problem.

[JW]

Oh no, more bad luck for socialists!

Will it never end?

[Almanian!]

Kulaks and wreckers! is there NO PLACE they cannot infiltrate! YOU BASTARDS!

*shakes fist*

[Hyperion]

Capitalism has failed.

/the progs

Well shit, looks like communism doesn't work either. I guess we're fucked.

[Hyperion]

Utopia! This is why we have to overturn the 22nd amendment and give comrade Obama as long as it takes to get us there! We can do it, hope and change!

[Puddin' Stick]

Where is Joe to tell us that this isn't happening?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Murder suspect Robert Durst, subject of recent HBO documentary series The Jinx, has been denied bail.

Now if HBO can only solve dragon attacks and zombie murders.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Or the Zodiac Killer.

[Brett L]

Meh. This is like the Sony hacks. A bit too on the nose for me. Not that I think he didn't kill anyone, but it will never stand on its own.

[Tonio]

Isn't that the guy from Limp Bizkit?

[Brett L]

No, Fred Durst only murdered music.

[Aloysious]

Obligatory crappy video.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Hey, that was awesome in middle school.

[Aloysious]

Break Stuff was the only LB song I could appreciate.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Nookie is still catchy musically (I think) but the terrible lyrics are hard to look past.

[Almanian!]

Screw you guys - I LIKE Limp Bizkit.

YEAH, I SAID IT!

It's not like they're the Eagles or something...

[Zeb]

Are they the ones who had the midget?

[Almanian!]

Zeb - not sure if Durst is a midget.

*contemplates*

/RIP Joe D!

*pours a sip*

[Carl ?s the level]

Don't worry. Here, like many other places, people like to signal how refined and special they are by saying how much they hate artists, actors, TV shows, etc. that are popular to hate.

"Rollin" is fun. They're not really my cup of tea otherwise, though I like how over-the-top they are in their videos.

[Tonio]

Thank you, Alma.

[Hyperion]

Well, at least it has a few cute chickies in it.

[Tonio]

Sucker!

[Steve G]

Isn't that the guy from The Munsters?

[grrizzly]

Everyone confuses them.

"In the second item of the California 10th NewsMinute sent March 16 to users of the state broadcast wire, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Robert Durst is a member of a band. He is a real estate heir; Fred Durst is the former frontman of Limp Bizkit."?Associated Press, March 16

http://www.wsj.com/articles/co.....1426621651

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Not that anybody actually cares, but Fred Durst is still the front man for Limp Bizkit.

My brother just went to a Korn, Suicidal Tendencies, and LB concert last weekend.

[Hey Nikki!]

I had actually been wondering that when I saw the AP correction. Someone cares!

[db]

These new institutions for the mentally disabled really do a good job of getting their charges out in the world and trying to integrate them into society in a positive way. I'm glad your brother is getting the top notch treatment only Obama are can deliver.

[Brett L]

ST are still touring? I'd pay to see that. And even sit through Korn and LB.

[Tonio]

Dude, I was trolling.

[Carl ?s the level]

They were afraid he might Break Stuff on the way out of jail.

[Rhywun]

He did it all for the nookie.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened, casting the now infamous Rolling Stone story into further doubt.

But did the cops go to journalism school at Columbia and/or drive a Dodge Stratus?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new report on body camera use by the San Diego Police Department matches previous studies.

An assault on LEO free speech.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

It's nice that it's reduced problems but I wouldn't expect it to improve accountability because they won't release video unless they feel like it.

[Jerryskids]

Speaking of video, I'm assuming someone somewhere has posted this video already of 5 Austin cops arresting one white guy and one black guy. While the cops all pile on the black guy laying on the sidewalk, the white guy staggers to his feet and runs off. But I'm gonna post it again anyways.

[Hyperion]

White male privilege.

[Hyperion]

And this is what can happen when you hang out at the Pig Pub. You didn't think there would be any pigs there? Why do you think it's called the Pig Pub?

Did I see it wrong, or did one of the cops run after white boy? Because I thought I saw 4 cops, and then only 3.

[Crusty Juggler]

Other than the black guy getting piled on by fat guys, this video is hilarious (homeboy runnin)!

[Puddin' Stick]

In front of the Pig Pub no less!

[Puddin' Stick]

In front of the Pig Pub no less!

[Puddin' Stick]

In front of the Pig Pub no less!

[Bill Dalasio]

Honestly, that video would have been better with the following soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcNhDstL4-k

[Fist of Etiquette]

An Arizona woman who spent 22 years on death row in the killing of her 4-year-old son, based on the testimony of a detective with a history of misconduct, has been fully exonerated.

But did the detective and his pension go home safe?

[Andrew S.]

Saldate has said he would not testify at any retrial, citing fears of potential federal charges based on the 9th Circuit's accusations of misconduct. Both county and federal authorities have said they don't intend to seek charges against the detective based on any accusations leveled by the federal appeals court.

But you already knew the answer, didn't you?

[Brett L]

The independent paper in my old stomping grounds is called The Woodlands Monocle. Which is perfect for taking the piss out of The Woodlands.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"An Arizona woman who spent 22 years on death row in the killing of her 4-year-old son, based on the testimony of a detective with a history of misconduct, has been fully exonerated."

Jesus.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

You said it man.

[MJGreen]

You said it man. Nobody fucks with the Jesus.

And that story is massively depressing.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Now, they didn't *technically* say she was innocent, but the (a) conviction relied on the cop's testimony, (b) the conviction got vacated because the prosecution didn't tell her about the cop'sbad record, and (c) apparently if the cop had been called to testify at a retrial he'd have taken the Fifth.

Which goes far to suggest maybe she didn't actually do it.

[Michael Ejercito]

Just because she was framed does not mean she was innocent.

But in this case it does mean she can not be convicted in retrial

[Rasilio]

True, OJ Simpson was both Framed and Guilty

[JW]

There's a follow up story, "Woman Recently Freed From Prison Slowly Kills Lying Cop whose Lies Put Her Away. Body parts still being found at disclosed locations."

Right? RIGHT?

[Andrew S.]

Can we start a GoFundMe to give her some cash to be able to pull that off? Because I'd happily throw in $50.

[Almanian!]

piker - I'm in for $75

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'll match your $50.

[Almanian!]

What's the exchange on the $CN now? I think you owe a little MORE, don't you, you chisler?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Damn. Nothing gets passed you assholes.

78 cents last I checked. So I have to kick in about $65.

Free trade my ass.

[Almanian!]

FAIR trade, Rufus. FAIR trade.

Thanks for making good on it - now let's head up to Ottawa to watch the changing of the guard at Parliament*!

*Do they still do that? I was SO impressed when I saw that as a kid.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yeah. They still guard the Unknown Soldier. The same US CPL Nathan Cirillo sadly lost his life guarding.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1989971

[Hyperion]

Don't worry though, I'm sure the detective, the judge, and the prosecutor in that case are all now serving 22 year sentences, right? Nah, fuck that, let's throw in an addition 10 years for each of them because this woman lost a child and then went to prison on top of that.

[BigT]

More likely she'll get a bill for 22 years of room and board.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://tinyurl.com/q93omhh

http://tinyurl.com/pu9r3j5

New results from Game Theory have give exploitable strategies for winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors.

[Caleb Turberville]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUN4NDVIfVI

If you like that Numberphile video, in this video, Ken Ribet explains how he proved Serre's epsilon conjecture.

[Old Man With Candy]

New results from Game Theory have give exploitable strategies for winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors.

I always win at this. I opt for "gun."

[MJGreen]

The Indiana Jones gambit.

[paranoid android]

Has this made the rounds here yet? I'm shocked this isn't getting more national attention than it is:

Pregnant Colorado woman stabbed, her baby 'removed,' after answering Craigslist ad

A 26-year-old pregnant woman in Colorado, spotting a Craigslist ad for baby clothes, drove to the home of the woman who placed the ad. When the pregnant woman arrived on Wednesday, she was beaten and stabbed by the 34-year-old woman who lives there, police said. The attacker then did something nearly unimaginable: She "removed" the fetus from her victim's body, according to police in Longmont, Colo.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur identified the suspect on Thursday morning as Dynel Lane.

While the victim was left on the floor with a stab wound in her abdomen, Lane took the fetus to the hospital, claiming she had suffered a miscarriage, the Denver Post reported. The baby has since died. Lane is in police custody at Boulder County Jail, according to booking records.

Beyond how shocking, unbelievably gruesome this all is, what the fuck goes through the head of somebody like that? It sounds like the actions of a total lunatic, but how can someone so crazy be so...calculated?

[Tonio]

WTF? And why the shock quotes around the word removed? Sounds like she did, indeed, remove it.

And Dynel Lane will hopefully spend the rest of her life in the locked ward of a loony bin, which is better than she deserves.

[Brett L]

That's what crazy people do. They have no brakes on their behavior, but it doesn't mean they can't plan. And my wife and I did have a conversation about her not going to people's houses for baby clothes without me.

[SFC B]

Mrs. SFC B and I had that same conversation on Friday.

I have no idea what info the cookies from Amazon are giving to Google but I would sure appreciate it if my searches for "baby clothes" and "baby monitor" didn't result in my newsfeed being filled with stories of murdered babies and psychos cutting pregnant women open.

[Tonio]

Oh, and this will surely cause proggies to call for the complete dismantling of Craigslist, right? Just as they claim Uber should be dismantled because someone, somewhere was robbed.

[Apatheist ?_??]

On that subject, this comment over the weekend was probably the dumbest about Uber I've ever seen.

[Steve G]

The technological contortions one must go through to fake being an Uber driver would be very impressive nonetheless.

[Hey Nikki!]

Yes, CNN did at least a day of "craigslist isn't as safe as you think!" bs-ing.

[Steve G]

Clearly Craigslist NEEDS MOAR REGULASHUNS!!11

[Hey Nikki!]

It was all over CNN for at least 24 hours or so.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Prosecutor: "The issue of whether or not murder charges are appropriate involving a case involving the death of a fetus or late-term pregnancy is always a difficult issue" "Under Colorado law, there's no way murder charges can be brought if it is not established that the fetus lived as a child outside the body of the mother for some period of time. I don't know the answer yet as to whether that could be established ? what our facts are here. One of the issues that we will need to evaluate in connection with that is the medical information from the autopsy."

Colorado previously rejected proposed laws to make it murder to attack a woman and kill her unborn child. Those proposed laws didn't get enacted.

http://www.timescall.com/news/.....ase-pushed

[Zeb]

I'd do it this way. If the woman thinks it's a person and someone kills it deliberately, call it murder. If she thinks it's a parasitic clump of cells without the moral status of a human being and has an abortion, then don't.

[Hyperion]

Agree, so she should be facing multiple charges here. First degree murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon.

[Brett L]

If the baby was alive when ripped from the womb and dead because of this person's intentional actions, I think you've got manslaughter. I would say the key here is there being a second party who instigated the baby being removed without the mother's consent. (Otherwise a poorly written bill would subject every woman who has a miscarriage to a homicide investigation)

[C. Anacreon]

If this baby had remained alive when ripped from the womb, if it survived, it would have been the only person capable of defeating Macbeth.

[Bill Dalasio]

Why deliberately? It strikes me that, even if it wasn't deliberate, you'd at least potentially call it manslaughter.

More to the point, this strikes me as wildly unjust. It's either murder or it's not. It shouldn't be at the whim of the mother. Otherwise, you set up the insanity that someone who kills the baby a mother would have felt free to abort can be charged with murder.

[BigT]

If only that woman had been packing!

[Almanian!]

Not seeing the problem - they kill unborn cell masses all the time in Colorado

*runs away*

[db]

See, it only applies when the fetus is *wanted*. Unwanted = cat food.

[Zeb]

I honestly think that is the right distinction to make. The woman in this case is certainly the victim of something akin to murder, at least.

[Tonio]

SMDSCBH

[Zeb]

Well, I'm sure there was some woman in CO who wanted an abortion. So it all works out in the aggregate.

[Almanian!]

nice

[lap83]

"Not seeing the problem - they kill unborn cell masses all the time in Colorado

*runs away*"

But you see, this is why we need more abortion freedom. Because otherwise women will be forced to answer crazy craigslist ads to get their fetus removed!

[Old Man With Candy]

they kill unborn cell masses all the time in Colorado

Meh, in South Chicago, they kill born cell masses all the time.

[Hyperion]

South Chicago is pretty damn scary. I remember driving through some of the worst ghettos there when I drove up from Indiana once, an area that is near the lake as you go up 90 through Gary. Back in those days there wasn't GPS. I learned quickly though to avoid that area after that.

And I live in Baltimore, so when I say scary, it's scary.

[Old Man With Candy]

Ouch. What part of Baltimore? (I grew up near Park Circle)

[mauricegirodias]

Ex-Baltimoron. Used to drive to Chicago for genre book conventions, always got some place by O'Hare. I concur on just how scary shit is around Gary and that bridge, and I lived in Sowebo in the early '90s, when the towers came down and the folks who had been living in those wonderful facilities all took advantage of sec. 8 housing vouchers to live closer to the arts scene.

/Then, everyone moved to Hampden. .

[Old Man With Candy]

Then, everyone moved to Hampden. .

Belmont 5-0600.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I cannot find it googling, because this crime is dominating search results. But this is a copycat crime. This happened almost identically several years ago except the mother was murdered as well.

[BigT]

I think the statute of imitations has run out on the copycat aspect of the crime.

[Mongo]

I think it happened in Chicago. I, too, can't find it googling as all I get is the current incident + Chicago news sources.

[Warty]

Beyond how shocking, unbelievably gruesome this all is, what the fuck goes through the head of somebody like that? It sounds like the actions of a total lunatic, but how can someone so crazy be so...calculated?

This happens every so often. I think it usually turns out to be an advanced case of baby fever in the perp.

[Alton Knutson]

I see stories like this every year or so. When my wife was pregnant with our kids we had a crazy lady neighbor that I think would have tried to pull this off. If the wife ever disappeared and the neighbors coincidentally adopted I would have gotten a genetic test on the kid.

[Carl ?s the level]

Chinese censors allegedly require video games to abide by family planning laws

The administrative department requires that childbearing in our video games comply with family planning. That is to say that if you have second child in the game, we have to fine you a virtual social support fee.

And this is great:

My company has a game called "Dream Emperor" (????) where, as emperor, you gather renowned generals, and then you gather beautiful women to be your concubines. It didn't pass the censors because they said China practices monogamy, so the game couldn't have concubines. We said this is an emperor from antiquity, so he has to have concubines. It was no use. We changed the concubines to palace maids and finally passed the censors. This really happened to our company.

[paranoid android]

I know some people in the industry and this is a huge concern as developers who want to be able to tap into the growing Chinese market, and are forced to bend over further and further backwards to satisfy the censors, to the detriment of consumers in more liberal countries. Can't have people smoking, can't depict alcohol usage in any positive light, all sorts of weird things.

[John Titor]

I remember when Relic started exporting one of their Company of Heroes games to China they had to change the names of the German faction into a made-up nation. I have no idea why.

[Rhywun]

Something similar is happening in Hollywood - there is a reason why the theaters are filled with more mindless action crap than ever.

[John Titor]

And why we have those random Red Dawnclones that have North Korea as the antagonist instead of China.

[Carl ?s the level]

Well, that is just as much, if not more, a culture and language-barrier issue.

[Mokers]

It's funny, every single overthrow the world plot is being bankrolled by the North Koreans. They had enough resources to storm the white house twice in one year!

[Hyperion]

I think there's this black market in China. Of course that doesn't help the developers, just saying that I'm sure lots of Chinese citizens have American video games.

[Zeb]

I'm sure that's true. And that American game developers would like them to at least have the opportunity to buy them legitimately. And will probably tone down some games to make that happen.

[Enough About Palin]

"We changed the concubines to palace maids and finally passed the censors."

Win/win?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Not really any more retarded than all the censorship that Germany requires for video games. Apparently Australia too, when I started up Hotline Miami 2 there was a weird question asking if I wanted to skip scenes of sexual violence. Apparently it was just one scene and that was put in to placate the Australian censors, who ended up banning the game anyways.

[Pro Libertate]

So no Castle Wolfenstein in Germany, I take it?

[Apatheist ?_??]

The censorship is about violence in general. Usually it involves having to cut down or remove blood and gore.

[Pro Libertate]

You'd think blasting your way through Nazis to a Super-Hitler would be okay. Or are they not really sorry about that war thingee?

[hamilton]

You know who else wasn't sorry about that war thingee?

[trshmnster the terrible]

Orson Welles?

[Almanian!]

Eric Burden?

[Almanian!]

er...Burdon

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Spill the wine...spill it.

[Trouser-Pod]

Basil Fawlty (secretly)?

[John Titor]

Left4Dead 2 apparently dealt with a lot of bullshit from the Australian censors for graphic dismemberment, I believed they had to turn down the gore in order for it to pass. A couple years later they finally allowed the uncensored version on steam.

[Carl ?s the level]

Not really any more retarded

No, two things can both be retarded with one being more so. Forcing developers to require players to pay social support fees is more retarded than requiring opt-ins for violent content.

[Catatafish]

I think i read somewhere that nearly 1/3 of the content from Stick of Truth didn't make it to the Australian and/or German markets because of their censorship policies.

[Hyperion]

Funny then how some of the most non-pc video games come out of germany.

[Hyperion]

I wonder how this would go over in China?

Hangin Willy

[SFC B]

Living in Germany and I have South Park: The Stick of Truth. They had to blank out the swastikas on the Nazi Zombie Cows.

[The Last American Hero]

Why do you think Genghis Khan did so much plundering and conquering, to stroke his ego? He racked up such a large social support fee from all those bastard children that he had to go conquer most of Asia to make pay his taxes.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"they said China practices monogamy, so the game couldn't have concubines."

Instead of a Emperor, have a senior Party official. That would be realistic, wouldn't it?

[Carl ?s the level]

And then the official's wife and her friends gang up on his mistress, beating her up and stripping her naked in the street.

[Andrew S.]

Is Crusader Kings 2 available in China? Because that one's... interesting by those standards.

[John Titor]

There's been some really good 'things from Crusader Kings 2 that sound horrible out of context' threads on reddit.

"So I murdered my cousins because they were getting too uppity."

"I'm getting really sick of having to murder all these Karling children."

"You rebel against me, and are Christian? Imprisoned for life. Other religion? Execution. Foreigner? Castration or blinding, depending on my mood."

"So while I was sieging this castle I captured the lord's wife, made her my concubine, and installed our bastard son to the throne."

[Rhywun]

"So while I was sieging this castle I captured the lord's wife, made her my concubine, and installed our bastard son to the throne."

NO SPOILERS!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened, casting the now infamous Rolling Stone story into further doubt.

Are you journalistically required to put it that way Scott? Because I think we can definitively conclude now that the entire story was bullshit.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"And the corpse was dug up and burned to ashes, adding to the suspicion that it was dead."

[Almanian!]

"I'm feeling better! I'm happy!! So Happy!!!"

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Jessica Valenti's twitter feed is everything I'd hoped it would be.

A female GOP pollster said "What do women do every week? Do they get gas and groceries or do they get an abortion?" Clearly what she was saying is that the cost of things like food and groceries is more important to the average woman on the average day than abortion is, but Jessica Valenti decided this is totally an example of war on women.

Then there's this:

"When women hate men, we hurt their feelings. When men hate women, they kill us. http://gu.com/p/46t8y/stw Why fear of 'misandry' is a crock."

This is hysterically paranoid. Violence against anyone is obviously terrible, but men are actually more likely to be murdered than women are. Yet I don't go around every day howling about how I'm probably going to be killed, because the odds of being murdered are very, very low. And they're actually lower for women.

[GILMORE]

Jessica Valenti harms women every day by projecting a stereotype of "angry irrational cunt" that shuts people off to Feminism writ-large

[GILMORE]

Jessica Valenti harms women every day by projecting a stereotype of "angry irrational cunt" that shuts people off to Feminism writ-large

[Tonio]

You say that like it's a bad thing, Gilmore - the shutting-off, that is. Nothing in this is to be construed to be in favor of harming women.

[GILMORE]

I realize now that angle isn't a particularly good criticism. its too easily suggested that "extremism in defense of X is necessary....", a la having it tossed in my face that "Malcolm X helped achieve positive things" despite similar rhetorical posture....

its more that the actual substance of her commentary that's so abysmally awful. The fact that she's a shithole of a person is really immaterial.

The fact that she's now asserting the "argument from ignorance" with vigor...

(e.g. "WE STILL DONT KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, ERGO = OUTRAGE STILL JUSTIFIED")

.... is just the latest example of rank stupidity being passed off as "elevated discourse"

[John Titor]

It'd be amusing if you applied Valenti's logic to something like, say, race and asked her if she agreed with it.

"When whites hate blacks, we hurt their feelings. When blacks hate whites, they kill us."

-Jessica Valenti.

[Zeb]

Somehow I think she would be more likely to put it the other way around. Which, to be fair, was at one time true in a way.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"When men hate women, they kill us."

You should have thought of that *before* you refused to fetch my beer.

[trshmnster the terrible]

You obviously let yours be outside too much.

[Hyperion]

A female GOP pollster said "What do women do every week? Do they get gas and groceries or do they get an abortion?"

I don't think there's really a way to divide people up over how they grocery shop. I know there's been an effort, vegans, organic, the whole GMO thing. But really this is not a very effective divider. Indeed, food and alcohol are one of the few things I can talk about with proggies I know without the conversation getting uncomfortable.

No, abortion is a much more important topic to progs than grocery shopping because it's a perfect wedge issue.

[Paul.]

Murder suspect Robert Durst, subject of recent HBO documentary series The Jinx, has been denied bail.

Man, did anyone watch that doc on HBO? That was some dark shit.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

On episode 3/6. Trying to avoid the news stories. I enjoyed the first two so much that I almost skipped the Wisconsin game.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I definitely skipped the Wisconsin game.

[Lady Bertrum]

Yes. I saw all the episodes. Initially, I was open to his innocence but by the last episode - just no. It's a great example of the general incompetence of law enforcement and what money can purchase.

[Hyperion]

Nope, I think I'll check it out. I usually like stuff like that.

[Andrew S.]

News stupidity on Debra Miike, from the Arizona Republic:

Sure, it was a bad prosecution, but there was a (cute, white) kid, and I really think she was guilty anyways, so she shouldn't be compensated for 22 years on death row for something she didn't do.

[Brett L]

The State can't be wrong and spiteful, she might have to reconsider her entire worldview.

[Tonio]

^That. Filter out inconvenient info.

[Tonio]

That's some serious stupidity.

[Paul.]

Journalism, valiantly seeking the truth since 1917.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Forget it Andrew, it's Maricopa County

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Is there something in the water in Maricopa County that makes them all horrible? I didn't realize it's an entire country of Sheriff Joes.

[Winston]

What do you expect from a place where Norman Bates came from?

[Hey Nikki!]

Someone's electing him.

[Stormy Dragon]

It's full of retired seniors who don't leave home and thus don't have to worry about aggresive policing personally impacting them, but are terrified of young people, minorities, and poor people.

[Hyperion]

IOW, it's Florida without the humidity.

[Crusty Juggler]

I hear it is a dry heat.

[Agammamon]

Nah, that's just Green valley.

. . . 73.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 72 years.

[JW]

I frequently wonder how people as vile and stupid as that remember to breathe.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If the news coverage is true, the crooked cop whose testimony sent her to Death Row has said he'd take the Fifth if the case went to a retrial. So maybe this writer can direct his rage against the key witness refusing to testify against a child-killing she-demon!

Or else it's possible that the dirty cop is afraid he'd be caught lying.

[Catatafish]

I don't know the facts of the case but something tells me that a decision to retry someone based not on strength of evidence but instead "on the face of that little boy" isn't the route we want our prosecutors taking.

[Paul.]

The two men who led her child to his death were convicted of murder but refused to testify against Milke.

What kind of fucking people...

[Paul.]

when a court finally took issue with the prosecution's concealment of Saldate's massive history of misconduct and deceit that was never disclosed at trial.

See, this is my problem with this shit. I know that previous shit isn't supposed to be disclosed during a trial because facts of case narrowly defined etc. etc. It's neither here nor there.

But again, for me, it's both here and there, and pretty much everywhere.

[Catatafish]

If it goes to credibility it can be used to impeach the witness. It's a lot harder to argue something should be barred from evidence as "prejudicial" when it pertains to activity indicating a history of dishonesty in a non-defendant witness.

[Carl ?s the level]

Hmmm...

11 device makers will ship Microsoft apps with Android devices, including Samsung and Dell

BLU, a rebadger of cheap foreign smartphones, will ship a phone with Cyanogen OS [a derivative of Android] and no Google apps:

While Samuel Ohev-Zion, Blu's CEO, says all the details have not yet been worked out, he envisions a phone that will use Amazon's app store, the Opera Web browser, Nokia Here for maps, Dropbox and Microsoft's OneDrive for cloud storage and Spotify for music. It would also have Bing for search and Microsoft's Cortana as a replacement for Google's voice assistant.

[Paul.]

I uhm, ok.

[robc]

This is why open source is good, even though I would avoid this like the plague.

[AuH20]

So here's a question for the more literary H&Rers; (I'm thinking Nikki specifically). Why does current poetry suck so bad?

It seems totally divorced of any structure, and that might be forgiveable if it were good enough to back it up, but it just isn't.

Just for example, take award winning poet Theodosia Henney, who writes gems like this:

The bus terminal
in San Pedro Sula boasts
a large flat-screen television
and clean white floors;
Discovery Channel is playing
on mute.

A shrike?butcher, in Latin?
has skewered a lizard
on the red barbs of a thorn tree.
The guard's black braid, the patterned
white and gray of her uniform
could almost be mistaken,
at a distance, for the bird's feathers.

Is it the days of travel,
or does her hand move
towards the holster at her hip
as she watches the bird
on the screen overhead
eat the lizard's eyes,
then tongue, skin?

The shot changes?
colorful, genteel birds fill the screen
as a herd of passengers enters
the terminal and the guard
returns to work. I keep watch
on her hands.

Really, the whole of RHINO poetry is apparently awful.

http://rhinopoetry.org/wp-cont.....tation.pdf

[Aloysious]

A shrike?butcher, in Latin?
has skewered a lizard

Was he screeching about goldbugs and booosh?

[Enough About Palin]

DO NOT SUMMON THE UBER TROTTEL!

[Paul.]

To quote Black Adder:

"[...]doesn't mean that I'm not sick of this damn war: the blood, the noise, the endless poetry."

[Brett L]

A couple of reasons:
1) Its a largely explored genre where technical chops just aren't enough. Like sculpture or painting, there are some people doing things that are both original and well executed, but for the most part, poetry has been mapped by hugely polymathic people by now.
2) Polymaths don't write poetry for publication any more (for the most part).

So less talent and more difficulty.

[Brett L]

Also, laudanum and poorly distilled absinthe are nearly impossible to acquire.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Not all current poetry does suck that bad and Theodosia Henney is a particularly horrible specimen.

I think one problem though is something that's afflicting all American writing, which is that writers want to Say Important Things rather than bothering to say them well. So you get all these poems about rape from feminist poets, racism from African-American poets, etc. and they all care more about whatever message they're attempting to convey than they do about things like euphony, meter, or, you know, words that actually sound good when linked together.

[Almanian!]

All the great poets are bartenders.

Didn't any of you goons watch "Cocktail"?

[lap83]

the luck is gone
the brain is shot
but the liquor we still got

[Winston]

writers want to Say Important Things rather than bothering to say them well.

If you want to send a message use Western Union: Sam Goldwyn (supposedly)

[Lady Bertrum]

^ Modern poetry is incredibly self-aware and pretentious.

When Lord Byron wrote She walks in Beauty he sincerely only cared about getting drunk and laid. He cared about the language, of course, buy it was a tool to use in pursuit of his other interests.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Want to know another problem that affects all American literature? It used to be that writers would actually do things - they'd travel to Burma and serve as an imperial cop like Orwell, do shitloads of opium and have fever dreams like Coleridge, or bang everyone in sight before fighting in a war for independence like Byron.

Now they're all ensconced in these academic bubbles and very few of them go out and experience anything that's actually interesting. So enormous amounts of modern writing comes from these cloistered effete academics who are more interested in impressing their colleagues than writing something really interesting.

[John Titor]

I get your point but it's weird that you used largely English examples as criticism of American literature.

[Lady Bertrum]

He could have used Twain, Hemingway or Fitzgerald as American examples.

[Lady Bertrum]

Or Faulkner or Steinbeck.

[Almanian!]

Twain's my favorite - all his travel and so on really was the basis for some superb stories. "Roughing It" and "Innocents Abroad" I've re-read a couple times - ALWAYS funny. Always.

[Pro Libertate]

Love his travel books, along with his novels and other nonfiction like Life on the Mississippi.

[lap83]

I love Life on the Mississippi, I bought a nice copy from a cool used bookstore in New Orleans as a souvenir after my brother moved there.

Also, The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut is one of the best short stories ever written, IMO. At the very least the ending is the greatest short story ending ever written.

[Brett L]

Although Wallace Stevens' biggest adventure was picking a fight with Hemingway in Key West and getting his ass kicked, and TS Eliot was thoroughly an academic. Also, Orwell and Byron weren't American, but your point is still a good one. Not living in echo chambers is good for poets.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Coleridge obviously wasn't American either.

The point works for American writers too. Hemingway got in fights constantly and traveled the world, Mark Twain traveled incredibly far and wide for his time and basically met everyone important who lived during his era, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a wild drunkard with a crazy narcissistic wife, Cormac McCarthy lived a life of squalid poverty for decades and almost quit writing because he couldn't afford toothpaste, Flannery O'Connor suffered illnesses her entire life and had a miserable home life.

They all had very interesting views of the world caused by their actual experiences.

[Winston]

crazy narcissistic wife

Who gave us this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRDO3l1Eiuk

[Winston]

They all had very interesting views of the world caused by their actual experiences.

Life is pain!!!!!!!

[John Titor]

Hemingway tried to turn his yacht into an anti-Nazi submarine boat. Man knew how to keep busy.

[Winston]

He also supported Castro and didn't like it when he nationalized the property of Americans and foreigners. Fucking Moron.

[Lady Bertrum]

Yeah. Hemingway could party. With the exception of Twain, they were all kinda fucked up drunk assholes - but, hey, artists yada, yada, yada....

And not poets for the most part (except Faulkner).

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

How could I have forgotten those crazy fuckers, Japanese writers?

Yukio Mishima wanted to restore Imperial Japan so he took a commandant hostage, tried to convince the soldiers on the base to overthrow the government, failed, and committed suicide by stabbing himself and having a friend decapitate him.

Oh, and Mishima also was gay and had a cult of attractive, ripped man-boys who would follow him around and train in martial arts.

[Winston]

Don't forget T?yama Mitsuru

[BigT]

Never read him. Did the suicide affect his poetry?

Oh, wait...

[BigT]

e e cummings was more successful after being decapitalized

[Winston]

Except he preferred his name to be capitalized.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I may be failing in my Catholic solidarity, but I always found Flannery O'Connor's stories kind of downers.

[Winston]

Excommunication for you!

[Zeb]

Well, they are definitely that. But pretty great nonetheless.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Homer stayed put though.

[Winston]

D'oh!

[lap83]

"Now they're all ensconced in these academic bubbles and very few of them go out and experience anything that's actually interesting."

I mostly agree. The only modern exception I can think of is David Sedaris.

[mauricegirodias]

Most academic poetry is controlled by a tiny clique. Sales are nonexistent. Writers actually pay $35-500 to submit books to university presses that'll lead to, maybe, a 250-copy print run. But it can also mean steady teaching work for your MFA. They have trends and jargon like you wouldn't believe.

I actually had one collection an (erotic lit) author sent me, "Mama Always Said Never Date Bipolar Alcoholic Divorcees." By no means a masterpiece, but I liked the title, so I printed it up. This was back before Kindle/iPad had completely taken hold, and it was still worthwhile to go to book festivals like Printer's Row in Chicago, Miami, Nashville, etc.

Never got a store to carry it, don't think it ever sold as an ebook, but just from those festivals, where people were looking for something a bit different and were walking around drinking wine, I suspect it was among the bestselling books of poetry that year.

[Hey Nikki!]

Why does current poetry suck so bad?

The biggest reason is probably simple: a high percentage of current anything sucks really bad. If you look back centuries, we simply aren't reading that much of what was actually produced anymore. A lot gets weeded out. Brett also makes some good points.

I've seen way, way worse poems than that one before though. That just seems blah, not even particularly bad.

[Winston]

A lot gets weeded out.

In some cases, lost.

[John Titor]

Sturgeon's Law is remains the universal truth of all media and art.

[GILMORE]

Almost no one reads it and the people who write it these days are mostly academic assholes?

just guessing. i think most art forms rely on a robust audience more than 'talent'. People with talent go into the forms where they will find an audience.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

HM can correct me, but I think in ancient Greece poetry included songs. In that sense, we still have poetry which manages to escape the academic cloister - poetry you can sing along with, make out to, etc. And it's just as nonsensical as any pretentious blank verse.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I think some radio station used to have a "poetry corner" where they read song lyrics without the music, as if they were giving a recitation at a beatnik coffee house. Try it yourself!

Why can something be poetry if it's recited tunelessly by a scrawny guy in a beret, but stops being poetry if it's belted out, to the accompaniment of guitars and drums, by a stoned guy with big hair?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Alex Trebek recites rock and rap lyrics.

http://www.billboard.com/artic.....ong-lyrics

(and in one of the videos, a middle-aged white woman gives correct answers to most of the rap questions)

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I'm guessing she's a middle-aged white woman *with kids.*

[GILMORE]

+1 Good Googly Moogly

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Perhaps a fear of being derivitive causes poets to abandon the good in older stuff.

'A Pact', by Ezra Pound

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman -
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root -
Let there be commerce between us.

[Hey Nikki!]

He's dead now but Seamus Heaney was very good IMO, and definitely counts as a contemporary poet (not American).

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Seamus Heany was very good. I also have a soft spot for Czeslaw Milosz:

When we were fleeing the burning city
And looked back from the first field path,
I said: "Let the grass grow over our footprints,
Let the harsh prophets fall silent in the fire,
Let the dead explain to the dead what happened.
We are fated to beget a new and violent tribe
Free from the evil and the happiness that drowsed there.
Let us go"?and the earth was opened for us by a sword of flames.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I can't believe Theodosia Henney beat out Cyrus McCracken, author of the immortal, lyrical "man from Nantucket."

[Hyperion]

2 questions.

1. How much and what type of drugs do you have to consume to write that?

2. How much and what type of drugs do you have to consume to read that and think it's good?

[BigT]

Answers

1. More

2. More

[Warty]

Don Marquis had these people pegged a century ago.

xpression is the need of my soul
i was once a vers libre bard
but i died and my soul went
into the body of a cockroach
it has given me a new outlook on life

i see things from the under side now
thank you for the apple peelings in the wastepaper basket
but your paste is getting so stale i can't eat it
there is a cat here called mehitabel i wish you would have
removed she nearly ate me the other night why don't she
catch rats that is what she is supposed to be for
there is a rat here she should get without delay

most of these rats here are just rats
but this rat is like me he has a human soul in him
he used to be a poet himself
night after night i have written poetry for you
on your typewriter
and this big brute of a rat who used to be a poet
comes out of his hole when it is done
and reads it and sniffs at it
he is jealous of my poetry
he used to make fun of it when we were both human
he was a punk poet himself
and after he has read it he sneers
and then he eats it

[Old Man With Candy]

I knew I could count on you. Marquis was the best of the best.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's where Warty came from.

[Old Man With Candy]

I assumed that. We need a female poster named Mehitabel.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What's a female?

[Old Man With Candy]

The thing that there's no libertarians of.

[Rhywun]

Why does current poetry suck so bad?

"Post-modernism", "deconstructivism", and probably some other -isms. Take your pick.

[Tonio]

Because we've been doing lyric, metric poetry for thousands of years and everything has been done, and redone, already. This is the point at which an art-form either becomes static and boring or metastasizes into something radically different.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I get that everything's been done before.... I don't know poetry much at all but I have found that artistic trends tend to run in parallel across various disciplines. But I know architecture quite well and I dislike most of the modern trends - I figure the same trends are probably ruining poetry too. These trends basically boil down to "look at me and how different I am!" and "irritate your readers/viewers/customers".

[Cyto]

I kinda like this section, from "Sleep to Dream" by a 17 year old Fiona Apple:

I tell you how I feel, But you don't care
I say tell me the truth, But you don't dare
You say love is a hell You cannot bear
And I say gimme mine Back and then go there,
For all I care

Kinda has a Beat feel to it, and she's sufficiently "alternate reality" to qualify as a poet.

It seems that all of the poetry that reaches people these days is set to music.

[Puddin' Stick]

A shrike?butcher, in Latin?

This threw me? a shrike is indeed called a butcher in Latin (lanius) but they're also called "butcher birds" in English. There is no need to bring in Latin, especially when you don't use the Latin name!

[Winston]

The Green Party of England and Wales has its origins in the PEOPLE Party started in 1972 in Coventry.[12] The impetus for this group were husband and wife, Lesley and Tony Whittaker (the latter formerly a Councillor for the Conservative Party) being inspired by Paul R. Ehrlich's work on human overpopulation published by the Sierra Club, known as The Population Bomb.

Also they support unlimited immigration and more government housing. Are they libertarian? And won't more immigration and housing further destroy the environment? The obvious rebuttal is that no one will want to immigrate to England after they are done with it...

[Winston]

So Hollywood is finally making a movie showing a Republican in an heroic light with Matthew McConaughey.

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

[Almanian!]

Oh. I thought it was gonna be another "George BOOOOOOOSH gets murderdeathkilled" fantasy.

I am disappoint.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

I do think an adaptation of Nicholson Baker's Checkpoint would be pretty funny.

[GILMORE]

"A republican"

you mean 'confederate'?

Apparently that was already a movie, too

[Winston]

Well he rebelled against the Confederates and became a Republican. And Tap Roots was a fictionalization of his story.

[Almanian!]

I thought "Tap Roots" was about a chick banging black musicians.

Man, I'm just alll fucked up today...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Historians and descendants disagree over his motives and actions, with some arguing he was a noble and pious individual who refused to fight for a cause in which he did not believe, while others have portrayed him as a manipulative outlaw."

HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE: "Wait, there's a difference?"

[Almanian!]

You want poetry?
Do not engage the Botard.
Back for the weekend.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Juvenile Bo Tard
Everybody Look At Me
There's Nothing to See

[Almanian!]

Juvenile indeed.
Burn the strawman much, fine sir?
Like a boss - he does.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Botard's lonely quest
searching for an audience
alas, empty room

[Hyperion]

I'm the Botard
Not a blowhard
I wasn't at Politico
That wasn't me
This other cat
Impersonating me
Then the incident
I'm innocent

Man, I'm a terrible poet, does that mean I'm actually good and don't know it?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I'll throw you some spare change

[Warty]

Tulpa and Bo are
Trolling at the same time. Hm.
Perihelion.

[Winston]

What about Agile Cyborg's poetry? He gives Coleridge and Joyce a run for the money.

[Almanian!]

The fact that I get Agile's work for free is teh awsum. That dude comes from a different dimension. Luv. It.

[John Titor]

Cyborg doesn't make poetry, he's just a conduit for the Elder Gods.

[Hyperion]

He's channeling the ancient alien poets.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Actual lines from Agile Cyborg:

Don't make me love you C. It always ends sadly in a dark alley.

sweet surrender my lovely man... treasuring life, bro.

We don't love forever...

Does anyone understand this exchange between Hyp and Cyt? I don't. Seems spinachy.

I am imaging a deepest trip into that old pit...

A thousand ribbons of time are ripping me... time hates this escape ..is time a tyrant? i think so..
I must conquer these time squads... i am fist into the future and this ship has a deep hull made from modern expressions of [power... we don't let tet tje s[acce wait we dont let tje s[ace we dont fucking let space fuck with us humans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crusty Juggler]

In his defense that exchange was spinachy.

[Hyperion]

Hey!

[mad libertarian guy]

Happy Monday!

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy71Vvah7fM

[Aloysious]

That was different, in a good way.

[mad libertarian guy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[Crusty Juggler]

I also liked this a lot, thank you.

[pogi]

Spread the word. Steven Wilson in any musical guise is just flat out brilliant. "Hand. Cannot. Erase. " is fantastic.

[PapayaSF]

I'll admit I don't get the "abolish the IRS" thing. Reform it (and the tax code), sure, but doesn't somebody have to collect taxes?

[OldMexican]

Re: PapayaSF,

but doesn't somebody have to collect taxes?

In the old days we used to tar and feather them. So yes, someone has to collect the taxes, otherwise who is going to be there to be tarred and feathered? Just like Zangief is there to crush men's heads like sparrow's eggs, between his thighs.

[mad libertarian guy]

Just like Zangief is there to crush men's heads like sparrow's eggs, between his thighs.

*smack!*

[Winston]

The IRS was created to collect the income tax specifically. Someone else collected taxes before it was created. On the other hand before the IRS existed the US had slavery...

[Winston]

Until WWI the USG got most of its tax revenue from the tariff which wasn't collected by the IRS.

[Apatheist ?_??]

With a flat tax certainly some entity would be needed collect the taxes and I suppose with a consumption tax someone has to manage the revenue. But there's no reason we can't start with a clean slate and get rid of the IRS.

[Agammamon]

If they provided services for money that people considered worth paying for, tax collection would be simple.

Netflix doesn't have to spend a lot of money chasing down its subscribers and shaking out their pockets.

[OldMexican]

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin's voter ID law, leaving it intact.

What? Next thing you know, they'll bring back the poll tax and written tests!

(Ok, not really. Besides, Obama plans to send a voters' corps into the Fatherland to make people go to the polls by bayonet point. Avanti! Avanti, mio Duce!)

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Question to black voter, Alabama c. 1955: "How many ampules are in a bushel? Calculate to the closest irrational number."

Question to black voter, Wisconsin, today: "Do you have an ID?"

Exactly the same!

[Almanian!]

Watch what you say to kids:

"Dear brave soldier - my dad you are fighting goat fuckers. I don't know what that is, but..."

kids and Twitter

[John Titor]

I think the marines from Generation Kill would've enjoyed that one.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Reminds me of a joke I heard at school when I was 11, so the year after 9/11: a boy asks his dad how he might send a Valentine to Osama bin Laden. The surprised dad asks why and the kid says well maybe if someone were to show bin Laden some love he wouldn't be so hateful and angry.

The father looks at this son admiringly, full of pride for his son's open-mindedness. The son then adds, "And if that doesn't work, the Marines waiting outside his cave when he goes out to get his mail will blow him to Hell."

[Andrew S.]

'When I was 11"
"The year after 9/11"

Holy shit I'm ooooooooold.

[GILMORE]

Pictures of 2 stick figures shooting one other

labels = "YOU" -------"Goat Fuckers"

[OldMexican]

Police in Charlottesville, Virginia, said today they can find no evidence that the gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house ever happened, casting the now infamous Rolling Stone story into further doubt.

The story has been cast into superlative doubt, which is slightly higher than just plain doubt.

[PapayaSF]

The fraternity house story is now in double-secret doubt.

[Winston]

1892 Populist platform:

The party's platform, commonly known as the Omaha Platform, called for the abolition of national banks, a graduated income tax, direct election of Senators, civil service reform, a working day of eight hours and Government control of all railroads, telegraphs, and telephones.

Are all "populists" statist fucks?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but at least they'll let you vote for their statism before they implement it.

[Winston]

When H.L. Mencken wasn't gushing over Otto von Bismarck he was gushing over Robert Lafollette who had this platform in 1924: "The Progressive candidate also called for government ownership of water power and gradual nationalization of the railroads. He also supported the nationalization cigarette factories and other large industries, strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy, and supported the right of collective bargaining for factory workers. William Foster, a major figure within the Communist Party, considered La Follette a hopeless reactionary who wanted to break up monopolies and return to an era of small businesses.[6]"

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Do you have any citation to this frequent 'gushing?' Because I read a lot of Mencken and haven't really come across the essay you're talking about.

[Puddin' Stick]

You could cite your source, you know.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I have a slight feeling that Mencken defended La Follette against some of his more vociferous criticism and Winston is now claiming that this was a sign of unmitigated support.

[Winston]

He endorsed his 1924 campaign and called him the Best candidate as "a man" and liked him for being independent and opposed to Wall Street?

[Winston]

Check On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe on google books

[Hyperion]

It's looking like Dilma's not going to come out of this too well. She should have came to the USA to visit with comrade Barack and get some advice on how to correctly throw people under the bus and get away with anything.

Dilma could be impeached

Thing is, the person who will then become president will be from the Labor Party, so it won't really matter for the next 4 years.

[Hyperion]

If Brazil were to hold presidential elections today, opposition leader Aecio Neves would win.

This is a damn shame. Aecio is an ok guy, I would take him over Obama any day, he's pretty pro-business. Everyone I know in Brazil voted for him. But moar free shit won. Now people are paying the price. I can't even imagine him saying some stupid fucking shit like businesses don't create jobs or you didn't build that business. Shit, I can barely imagine Dilma saying that.

[Winston]

Are Brazilians "libertarians" in the same way Greeks are? They want free shit to come from everyone else?

[Winston]

I can't even imagine him saying some stupid fucking shit like businesses don't create jobs or you didn't build that business. Shit, I can barely imagine Dilma saying that.

Libertarian moment!

[Hyperion]

Hardly.

[Cytotoxic]

"Moar free shit" won the election battle but lost the war. Dilma has caved; she is slowly implementing Neve's policies. I prefer this way. TOTAL CAPITULATION

[Winston]

She should have came to the USA to visit with comrade Barack and get some advice on how to correctly throw people under the bus and get away with anything.

She could learn from Get?lio Vargas or Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco.

[Winston]

Time for some more Graniudian Derp:

SPappas

Here, in the United States, we're wondering what has happened to the Guardian. It seems like the editorial staff has bought into the expansionary austerity theories trumpeted by crazy people in our Republican Party. All these years, still stupid and getting worse. And also racist. The same people who champion reparations for African-Americans are dismissive and hostile towards Greeks.

[Hyperion]

The same people who champion reparations for African-Americans are dismissive and hostile towards Greeks.

WTF?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

You weren't aware of the rampant anti-Greek racism currently on the upswing in the United States of America?

Why, just the other day I lynched one of those Pita-eating subhumans when I caught him with my daughter. It's a sad, sad day when an Irishman must defend the chastity of his progeny from the perils of Grecian miscegenation.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If you really want to piss them off just tell them that the only real Greeks are blonde. The rest of them are just descended from Turks.

[Almanian!]

You're doing the Lord's work, Viscount.

Hope to see you at the next Greek-lynching-planning meeting!

*doffs cap - departs*

[Agammamon]

An Irishman *defending* his daughter's chastity - you must *really* hate Greeks.

[Winston]

dooloads 45m ago

Unbelievable right wing comments on here, including in the article:

"..the release of more funds, which are being held up because he has failed to produce a coherent policy package."
- Simply not true. His party's policy is very coherent, and it rejects neo-liberal 'austerity' being imposed on a sovereign state - with the added proof that it does not work.

Over 90% of the Greek 'bailout' has gone to international financial institutions, not Greece.
Greece has to pay 10+% interest on these loans, compared to NEGATIVE interest [not] paid by Germany on similar loans.

Are the banks being made to pay back the tax-payers bailout of ?trillions? No.

Do the posters on here think that financial institutions and foreign governments should be allowed to impose their policies on other countries against their democratic wishes?
And stop with the "they should pay their taxes" semi-racist crap.
We're talking about forced privatisations, vetoed minimum wage (etc etc), economic blackmail.

Neo-liberal Capitalism has failed. Not Greece.

[Hyperion]

stop with the "they should pay their taxes" semi-racist crap

Wait... what? I'm confused. I mean I know these Europeans are strange critters, but I thought that paying taxes is good? Oh, that's our liberals, right?

What is neo-liberal capitalism?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What do you want it to be?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

And stop with the "they should pay their taxes" semi-racist crap.

If you point out that tax-evasion is basically Greece's national pastime, you're just a racist. Even if you have facts to support this position.

[GILMORE]

"Unbelievable right wing comments on here, including in the article"

Honestly, its now occurring to me that the best, most unused tactic to troll liberals with? Is to pretend to be even more left-wing than they are, and accuse them of being neo-liberal capitalist puppets for supporting Obama

Liberals have been doing right-wing sockpuppets for so long its like an accepted fact that half the 'crazy racist rednecks' on the internet are just liberals in drag....

...but i've never, ever, seen the alternative = a very commie-literate troll who nags all the left-wingers about their complicity in the international banking system which allows bourgeois capitalist nations like Germany to "extort" from the working people of Greece, and impose strangling austerity measures.... etc.

Guardian is something of the ideal nesting ground for this kind of perp. as i previously noted... they have one of the most retarded commentary thought-policing systems I've ever seen, and this method would be a pretty fascinating way of testing out their own ability to judge what constitutes 'inflammatory' speech. Accusing the guardian of *not being liberal enough* is just too hilarious ...

[Winston]

ffurtado2001 4h ago
Either Athens' leftist-led government moved ahead immediately with modernising reforms that would unlock international aid, or Athens would default "within weeks," they said

"Modernizing reforms" = pay cuts, reduce pensions, increase taxes for poor, middle class and small business, sell profitable state owned companies to other countries state owned companies, increase the working day (Greek workers already work the longer hours in Europe, contrary to lots of pro-banksters propaganda). In short, "reforms" = austerity/humanitarian crisis.
Hope the Greek government stands firm and does not give in to the banksters blackmail.

Reply

Report

DarrellKavanagh ffurtado2001 4h ago

Yes, it's funny how these days, "modernising reforms" means exactly the opposite: rolling the clock back slowly to the 19th century, more like.

There was a time when "modernising reforms" meant a free health service, high quality public housing, social protection, etc. Now it means getting rid of these things.

Of course, it's all about increasing the share of national income going to profit, at the expense of individual and social wages, but they can't even be honest about it.

[Winston]

ffurtado2001 4h ago
"Reforms" = lower wages, decrease pensions, increase taxes, destroy national healthcare and education system.
Only a traitor or a servent of the banksters would d such a thing. Hope Greek government stands its ground and does not give in to the banksters blackmail.

[Winston]

http://www.theguardian.com/bus.....r-majority

The limited fall in the deficit is a result of hugely damaging cuts to government investment as well as the windfall of falling global interest rates, which are a sign of economic weakness.

Austerity policies have failed everyone but the super-rich, bankers and landlords who have benefited from the government's tax cuts, bonuses and measures to boost house prices, but not home building. We call for an end to austerity policies. We need to invest in a future for the majority of the population. That's why we'll be supporting the People's Assembly Against Austerity national demonstration and festival against austerity on Saturday 20 June.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sweet Jesus that's a pile of stupid.

Wake me when they actually cut something

[Almanian!]

BANKSTERS 1% KOCHTOPUS DERP!

[Los Doyers]

Lulz, this was filtered on my Reasonable

[Cytotoxic]

Today on Question and Comment Time with Cytotoxic: should libertarian pols* even bother mentioning entitlement reform? *Pols does not include regular libertarians and their think tanks.

I know entitlement reform is huge. I know the debt burden is crushing and will leave America broke. I also don't think that there's any point in a politician addressing it until an 'external force' ie fiscal distress makes it politically necessary, like Canada in the early/mid '90s. It just seems to be a charge of the light brigade from every angle, even if a US pol were to pitch Plan Canada ie emulate our successful reforms. There are so many other things to change ie the WoD, police power, spying, SC appointments, Fed Reserve appointments, etc.

I bolded the last one because of where it leads. When the External Force happens, it will make reform inevitable. In the short term, the likelihood of the USG doing scary things ex money printing/pension nationalization to stave off the inevitable increases a great deal and the more power it has the more that increases. That's why it makes sense for libertarian pols to focus on defanging the state now so that it is less able to steal and destroy to put off the inevitable in the future. Appointing a bunch of Volkers to the central bank might be a good start. Thoughts?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What difference at this point does it make?

[Winston]

So become Republicans who smoke pot? I mean libertarians have been deriding Republicans for not engaging in entitlement reform since the 1950s!

[Cytotoxic]

Christ you're a tiresome asshole.

[Paul.]

casting the now infamous Rolling Stone story into further doubt.

We had the story at 0% credibility. Is it now in negative credibility?

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Reason.. calling it a day at 4:30 with the p.m. links. That is insulting to us east coasters. It's downright disrespectful to the west coasters.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You might get off of work earlier, but we start drinking at the same time.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

9 a.m.?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You stay sober for 9 hours?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

9am EST

[Puddin' Stick]

You stop drinking?

[Puddin' Stick]

You stop drinking?

[Almanian!]

YOU STOP DRINKING!

Oh, sorry - I thought you were making a demand.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

A very unreasonable demand.

[Winston]

From Richman's article:

stop vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that condemn Israel for its daily violations of human rights, and stop impeding Palestinian efforts to set up an independent country (with membership in the International Criminal Court, etc.).

Who pray tell is supposed to enforce UN and ICC edicts? And aren't those UN Security Council resolutions the sort of interventionism that he derides?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Apparently it's not interventionism if the UN does it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Intervention against US or allies: Good

Intervention by US: Bad

[Heroic Mulatto]

PROTIP: Richman is Klingon for "hypocrite".

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Here's the irony: The UN resolutions aren't interventionist so long as no one enforces them. They only become interventionist when they are enforced.

As a result, I don't think Richman's article is hypocritical provided that he's just such a spineless doofus that he likes when the UN says mean things about Israel but doesn't actually do anything about it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I thought an intervention was just when you sit someone down in a room and tell them you're concerned about their self-destructive behavior.

[GILMORE]

" when the UN says mean things about Israel but doesn't actually do anything about it."

Things the UN does aren't so much by themselves interventions but depending on what it is, they provide a legal basis for a wide variety of interventionist behavior by members.

As an isolated example = a formal declaration that any state is engaged in "Genocide" actually *requires* member states to go to war with them.

And you will (not surprisingly) find the "G-word" thrown around quite frequently by UN personnel, because they'd certainly like that particular "force people to treat them as pariahs"-clause to go into effect.

and people like Bo and Richman still blithely assert that "not vetoing" acts like these aren't in any way 'intervention'

[John Titor]

I don't think anyone expects Richman to be consistent when it comes to intervention. This is the guy who started ranting about the evil Ukrainian government encouraging Russian aggression for daring to try to develop ties with the United States and the EU/pull itself out of Russia's sphere of influence.

The U.S. intervening for the sake of its political foreign policy agenda? Bad. Russia intervening for the sake of its political foreign policy agenda? Ukraine had it coming for failing to kowtow to their demands in the first place.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don't see what Reason thinks it's getting out of giving Richman a larger soapbox. If I wanted to go to antiwar.com, I'd type "antiwar.com" in the address bar of my web browser.

But I don't, so I don't.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

The biggest problem with Richman, in addition to his incredible hypocrisy, is that you never learn anything from a Richman article. I can disagree with someone's foreign policy position, but if I learn something about history or a foreign country from their writing, like I did with Christopher Hitchens and still do with Peter Hitchens, I can accept that. The problem occurs when someone just rants about their personal foreign policy belief while bringing nothing to the conversation.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's the thing. Richman doesn't write on foreign policy. He writes polemic.

Polemic in the tradition of Martin Luther, nonetheless.

[Cytotoxic]

The worst thing about Richman actually is that he lies. Like those 'daily violations of Palestinian rights' or the statement that 'Iran's nuclear program is peaceful'. Lies. If you learn anything from a Richman article, you are deceived.

[Raven Nation]

I don't see what Reason thinks it's getting out of giving Richman a larger soapbox.

Page views: did you see how many comments his last column generated.

[Heroic Mulatto]

People will soon tire of shock-jockery.

[Agammamon]

No they won't.

They'll simply tire of one shock-jockey and move onto a new one.

Look at Howard Stern's career.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I don't read the articles here for the same reason I listen to Stern.

I read the comments here for the same reason I listen to Stern.

[Raven Nation]

Maybe. But most of those comments were interactions among the commentariat. So, Richman gets things started but the exchanges were self-replicating.

[Winston]

I've noticed that non-interventionist libertarians ironically have a very amerocentric attitude to foreign policy. I mean saying that the US shouldn't support Israel might be an appropriate American foreign policy but defending the interventionist attitudes of American's enemies? What was that I was saying about revolutionary defeatism?

[Apatheist ?_??]

I have a better idea, how about kick the UN out, burn down the building, and stop participating at all.

[Los Doyers]

Do you have a michelada recipe that i can subscribe to?

[Los Doyers]

Do you have a michelada recipe that i can subscribe to?

[Los Doyers]

Fucking squirrels. Get yer own micheladas.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Can't remember if you were the one I previously gave advice to but in case not, use Tecate. Really I recommend Tecate for any situation where you are choosing a cerveza (at least on a cost to taste ration).

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Tecate? Isn't that just water with a little bit of alcohol?

[Apatheist ?_??]

Well so are most cervezas but most of the rest are way overpriced. If I'm going to drink cheap swill i'll chose tecate over the other options.

[GILMORE]

"And aren't those UN Security Council resolutions the sort of interventionism that he derides?"

According to non-interventionist Bo, no

he believes if we stopped vetoing UN resolutions that they'd never get around to the sanctions they wanted to impose in 1982.... or declaring them of being in violation of the Geneva convention.... or party to "genocide".... or dozens of other measures the UN has attempted which would open the door for member states to "legally" (individually or en masse) sanction Israel or otherwise treat them as persona non grata under International Law.

absent a US veto, why, we'd be completely absolved of any responsibility for the subsequent international interventions, apparently

I tried to get him to acknowledge his own screaming hypocrisy on the matter to at least state whether or not a non-interventionist should believe the UN should exist *at all*. i.e. that "multilateralism" is ultimately just as interventionist as any unilateral actions. crickets.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

More from the case of the Arizona woman sent to Death Row under the testimony of a crooked cop, where she got a new trial because she wasn't told of said cop's crookedness, and the retrial was called off and she was set free.

The cop wanted to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights at the abortive retrial, but an appeals court said no - he was not in any real danger of incriminating himself. The court then thought it necessary to add: "Further, a witness may not invoke the Fifth Amendment out
of a fear he will be prosecuted for perjury for what he is about to say."

http://www.azcourts.gov/Portal.....iv1/2014/1 CA-SA 14-0028-178514.pdf

Wow, this cop just radiates credibility!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Try this link:

http://ow.ly/KI6Gb

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Utah says: If we can't find the necessary drugs to do a lethal injection, we'll just spare the killer's life.

Ha ha, just kidding:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/.....index.html

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

GOOD

[Warrren]

How about this: instead of a firing squad you give the convict a pistol with five rounds in it and place him in a maze-like obstacle course. If he makes it to freedom he is free to go.

However there are people who will try to stop him. Five volunteers chosen by random draw are also placed in the maze and they have pistols with five shots each. If they kill the prisoner the survivors split 10 million dollars. If they don't, they get nothing.

Also note that it would not be illegal for the convict to kill one or more of the other volunteers. Nor would it be illegal for a volunteer to kill another volunteer.

And the guns are attached by a locked chain to each person and each gun fires different ammo so you cannot pick up a new gun or use the other ammo to reload yours.

Put it on pay-per-view and it will pay for itself.

[jesse.in.mb]

When will I be able to buy your quintilogy of young adult fiction/dystopia novels?

[Raven Nation]

+1 Running Man

[Los Doyers]

Meh, I'd rather just avail myself of the Katniss fappening pics.

[Agammamon]

Not kafka-esque enough.

Keep it illegal for these guys (including the prisoner) to kill someone else - though they can try to claim self-defense at their new trial - and only *one* person gets the money (or even gets to leave - 6 men enter, 1 man leave).

And no volunteers - pick people out of the 'excused from jury duty' list.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Attorney says: As a prosecutor in 1984 I helped send an innocent man to death row - after 30 years in prison they found out it was the wrong guy.

"I end with the hope that providence will have more mercy for me than I showed Glenn Ford. But, I am also sobered by the realization that I certainly am not deserving of it."

[Warrren]

Wow. Regret and contrition from a prosecutor, you don't see that very often.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

He says he was 33 in 1984. So he was born around 1951, thus today he'd be like 63 or 64.

Maybe not at death's door, exactly, but close enough to hear the door creaking open somewhere ahead of him.

Maybe he's in a reflective mood because of this, especially if he believes in an afterlife.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I suppose I should give a link:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com...../25049063/

[Dweebston]

It's difficult not to feel some compassion for a man giving voice to admirable contrition, but at the same time I would be pleased to learn Mr. Stroud had hung himself in the solitude of his basement.

[Dweebston]

Pleased isn't quite what I mean. I'm not suggesting a sense of pleasure, more so gratitude for righting, to the slim degree he's able, the horrendous wrong he did his victim. It's not cowardice if he's otherwise immunized against being held civilly or criminally responsible.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

This just in - Rep. Peter "Noraid" King criticizes Cruz, Rand -

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/rep.....omination/

[Winston]

What's wrong with Peter King's IRA support? They oppose US foreign policy and hate the cops too.

[Winston]

They also oppose cop fellators too.

[Whahappan?]

That just makes me like them even more.

[Michael Ejercito]

Here is what Jerry Brown said about Ted Cruz .

"What he said is absolutely false," Brown said. "Over 90% of the scientists who deal with climate are absolutely convinced that the humans' activity, industrial activity ? are building up in the atmosphere, they're heat trapping, and they're causing not just one drought in California but severe storms and cold on the East Coast."

Wow, two contradictions in the same sentence.