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Passenger Plane Crashes Over Alps, UVA Frat May Sue Rolling Stone, Cops Shoot 1 Person Per Week in Philly: A.M. Links

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 3.24.2015 9:00 AM

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(BobMical/Flickr)
  • BobMical/Flickr

    No survivors are likely in the crash of a German passenger plane over the French Alps Tuesday morning.

  • University of Virginia fraternity Phi Kappa Psi is considering a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine after police found no evidence of a reported gang rape at the fraternity house.  
  • A U.S. Justice Department review of Philadelphia policing between 2007 and 2014 found 364 officer-involved shootings, or a little more than one per week.  
  • Chicago police officers stop and frisk at a much higher rate than NYPD counterparts, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.
  • The European Union and NATO plan to engage in "informational warfare" against Russia.
  • "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.
  • Facebook will begin hosting in-site content for several big media companies, likely starting with The New York Times, Buzzfeed, and National Geographic.
  • Inside the Kafka-esque world of redacted complaints against Amtrak cafe cars.

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NEXT: Peter Suderman on Six Scenes from the Robot Revolution

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.

    This is why there are no female libertarians.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      I was going to ask if he knew what words meant.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      Hello.

      "Phi Kappa Psi is considering a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine"

      Considering?

      1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        You float that out, to see if you can get a peremptory settlement offer (cuts the lawyers out of the contingency fee take).

        1. Tonio   10 years ago

          They'd still be well-advised (SWIDT?) to retain a lawyer even if RS rolls over and offers them a settlement, particularly if that settlement comes with conditions such as a gag order.

          1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

            Oh, to be sure!

          2. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

            I have a feeling there is a team of former brothers who are now lawyers that are happy to represent Phi Kappa Psi without charge and who also wish to fuck the university good and hard.

            1. Rich   10 years ago

              "Pro boner", as it were.

              1. hamilton   10 years ago

                Paging Switzy, white courtesy phone....

              2. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

                *fiercely narrows gaze*

            2. Tonio   10 years ago

              Well-played, lads.

            3. mauricegirodias   10 years ago

              I think they lawyered up immediately with said brothers, and have just been waiting for the police investigation to finish. I hope they now sue everybody involved, taking advantage of Banzhof's theory that they can even go after university officials personally under Title IX..

    3. gaijin   10 years ago

      +1 Y Chomosome...the testes trigger

    4. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

      If by feminist one means "having equal rights as men", then he is of course correct. Alas, that isn't what feminism means to a lot of people.

      1. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

        Exactly. Feminism circa 2015 includes a great deal of deluded stupidity.

        1. Tonio   10 years ago

          It's been that way for a while, BP.

        2. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

          And outright hostility, BP. Recently one self-declared Feminist unabashedly said that although she doesn't hate men it would be perfectly fine if she (or others) did.

      2. Zeb   10 years ago

        And I think that a lot of people who casually identify as feminists do just mean that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. But of course, the people who are really into it tend to be somewhere else entirely.

      3. Elspeth Flashman   10 years ago

        This.

    5. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      But he is right. Feminism is not about statism or equality. It is about the freedom of women to shuck norms and act like the sluts they want to be. That is why conservatives hate feminists.

      1. Xeones   10 years ago

        BUUUUUUUUUUUTTPLUG

      2. Agammamon   10 years ago

        Someone's been cheated on.

        1. Xeones   10 years ago

          That's kind of a stretch, to assume that anyone would willingly enter into a relationship with Shriek in the first place.

    6. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

      Boaz probably made a bet with someone over who could get the most angry tweets.

    7. SugarFree   10 years ago

      It is more that feminism is subsumed by libertarianism. Unless, of course, the purported definition of feminism is not the same one being followed by most non-libertarian "feminists."

      1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

        If feminism isn't freedom from accountability then I don't know what it is.

        1. Steve G   10 years ago

          A union job??

      2. Dweebston   10 years ago

        Ironically, feminism as practiced tends toward a seriously illiberal agenda.

        I guess that's not so ironic, since they've learned at the knee of their lefty counterparts and modern liberals have a serious illiberal problem, too.

      3. Catatafish   10 years ago

        About six months ago I was on a date with a girl who was a self-described "libertarian." Alarm bells should have been ringing at this point that, A) she was not, in fact, a libertarian, or B) she was not, in fact, a woman. Heedless to the danger, I proceeded with the evening, which at some point turned to "feminism." I relayed that I grew up in a household with a mother who was "classical feminist." My date asked me what I meant by that term. I responded, "she believed, and taught me to believe, that 'feminism' meant equal treatment of men and women, not equal outcomes." My date then began to attempting to pull me down the rabbit-hole of "but you have to adjust for a history of society treating them differently...you need laws to do that."

        Having come to realize she was not A) a libertarian, or B) a "classical feminist," I'd like to say I ended the date then and there. But I am a weak creature. At least later in the evening I discovered she was, in fact, a woman.

        1. Zeb   10 years ago

          If it still went well after that conversation, it sounds like a pretty successful date.

        2. All-Seeing Monocle   10 years ago

          "but you have to adjust for a history of society treating them differently"

          *motioning to waitperson* "check, please"

    8. Rasilio   10 years ago

      For certain values of the word Feminist he is right.

      Unfortunately those values stopped being valid definitions for that word sometime in the 1990's

    9. Bill Dalasio   10 years ago

      "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.

      An imbecilic and pandering statement from a guy I know is smart enough to know better. A libertarian must necessarily be an individualist. For a long time, that coincided with the goals of feminism, as women were unfairly treated by collective judgements. But, there's no particular reason why libertarians should give a particular damn about the relative status of one collective versus another, which has been the central theme of feminism for at least the last thirty years.

      1. All-Seeing Monocle   10 years ago

        Eh, he says so in the very same sentence of the FA:

        "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist, in the sense of being an advocate of equality under the law for all men and women, though unfortunately many contemporary feminists are far from being libertarians."

        1. Bill Dalasio   10 years ago

          So, the defense of his argument is that he took a consequence of individualism (equality under the law) and equated it with a definition of feminism that, in contemporary parlance, is idiosyncratic at best.

          Not really much to hang one's hat on, is it.

  2. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    Inside the Kafka-esque world of redacted complaints against Amtrak cafe cars.

    Those aren't redactions. Jittery from coffee and a moving train makes the pen slip.

    1. Rhywun   10 years ago

      Kafka-esque world

      Riding Amtrak can be a bit like waiting in line at the post office. I've done it cross-country (twice!) with little to bitch about - it helps to plant yourself in the drinking car.

      1. Trials and Trippelations   10 years ago

        I took the advertised "scenic" ride along the California coast from San Fransisco to LA. It was not the worst travel I've ever done, but it was a waste and I would never recommend it.

        Highlights:
        Despite the advertisements the nice coastal views are only 20 minutes of the 8 hour ride.

        A stewardess came on the intercom all in a huff because people had the audacity to drink on the train and that is not allowed and passengers that do so will be kicked off. To drink and see the coastal views were the only reason I took the train. I had a growler of beer with me, and drank a cup before they made the announcement. I had a bad cold at the time, and couldn't even taste the beer well, so I didn't plan to drink anymore anyway.
        But what's the point of riding the train if you can't drink?

        The train did run out of food, but my wife and I brought our own.

        1. Rhywun   10 years ago

          I would recommend the scenery in the Rockies instead.

          Maybe you were in the wrong car. I played drunken cards in the bar car from Chicago to somewhere in upstate NY once. I can't imagine them taking that kind of fun away.

          1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

            Two words: Under Siege 2.

            1. Rhywun   10 years ago

              I had to look that up. I can't imagine how I managed to miss seeing that.

          2. Trials and Trippelations   10 years ago

            "Maybe you were in the wrong car"

            Yup. I was just in a regular car. Still a bummer though.

            Private stock
            You may bring aboard your own private stock of alcoholic beverages subject to the following limitations:

            You may consume private stock alcoholic beverages only in Sleeping Car accommodations for which you have a valid ticket.
            You may not consume private stock alcoholic beverages in any public areas.

  3. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    You can buy a hyper-realistic human foreskin sculpture for $1,000

    An artist has created a hyper-realistic adult human foreskin sculpture in order to raise awareness about the 'true cost' of male circumcision.

    HUFO, which stands for HUman FOreskin, has been created by Vincenzo Aiello, an Italian artist and founder of Foregen, an organisation that plans to use stem cell technology to "regrow" foreskins lost through circumcision.

    Aiello is an 'intactivist' - a person who believes that circumcision is an unnecessary mutilation that diminishes sexual pleasure later in life.

    1. jay_dubya   10 years ago

      so...weird...

      1. Mongo   10 years ago

        Out of boredom at Christmas service, I randomly opened the Bible and read the David v. Goliath saga.

        So gay. A real strange obsession with circumcision: "...the uncircumcised Philistine..." (used as a pejorative). Saul requiring David to bring him 100 foreskins of the enemy with David bringing 200 moist critters to Saul. David sneaking up behind Saul as he's taking a shit and cutting his robe. Real creepy, man.

        1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

          Real creepy, man.

          Or hot.

        2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

          That is why Jesus invented cell phones - for desperately boring situations like shopping or church.

          1. Xeones   10 years ago

            BUUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUG

        3. Rich   10 years ago

          It's somewhat amazing that people allow kids read the Old Testament. There is some really nasty stuff in that Holy Writ.

          1. Agammamon   10 years ago

            Funnily enough, they mostly *don't*.

            From my experience with it as a child, most of religious education at that level is focused on the New Testament (where God is not such a *dick*) with heavily curated selections from the Old - nothing too violent or too jewish.

            1. Rhywun   10 years ago

              If only all the world's religions ignored the nasty stuff in their tomes.

          2. Tonio   10 years ago

            Why would you not wanting them reading the scripture? Is not the revealed word of God Almighty(tm) for everyone? And since this same almighty God has been known to smite children for making fun of a prophet's beard, it would seem they would need to know about that shit so as not to set off that easily-angered, all-powerful being?

          3. SugarFree   10 years ago

            The gnostics had it right, to just chuck the Old Testament except as proof that Jesus came to save us from a despotic Demiurge.

            1. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

              Dang it SF, beat me to the Demiurge.

        4. Tonio   10 years ago

          Holy shit, Mongo's back!

          1. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

            Yes/No.

          2. Mongo   10 years ago

            Changes (for the better) at my job. Was too busy to spend hours surfin' the net like before.

          3. JW   10 years ago

            What do you expect from a pawn in life?

            1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

              Game?

              1. JW   10 years ago

                And also, 'of.'

                MOAR COFFEE STAT!

    2. Rich   10 years ago

      the 'true cost' of male circumcision.

      I suspect it's between that of deep dish pizza and abortion.

      1. EDG reppin' LBC   10 years ago

        Going to Chicago in September. Going to hit Lou Malnati's and get some decent pizza finally.

        1. Mongo   10 years ago

          Pick a fight with one of the city's psychopathic cops.

        2. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

          Malnati's is great but IT'S NOT PIZZA.

          1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

            YES IT IS! LEAVE DEEP DISH ALONE!!!

            *sobs, shuddering*

            1. WTF   10 years ago

              The Swiss influence has corrupted you. Deep dish is not pizza.

            2. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

              It is not. It's deep dish tomato pie. We eat it regularly but we don't fool ourselves into believing it's something that it's not.

              Then again, we aren't Swiss, so we actually know about food.

              1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

                I AM FROM THE CHICAGO METRO AREA! I KNOW PIZZA!!!!

                My servitude to the Swiss has not made me forget good pizza!!!

                1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

                  Clearly it has, if you call what Malnati's serves "pizza." Or maybe it was a lifetime of breathing in the atmosphere of corruption which infiltrates every cubic millimeter of the metro area.

                2. WTF   10 years ago

                  I AM FROM THE CHICAGO METRO AREA!

                  Ah, so that's why you don't know any better.

                3. Rhywun   10 years ago

                  I am from upstate NY - they can't get any variety of pizza right. I had one friend I liked to hang out with because his mom always called Dominos instead of the shitty local chains.

          2. Zeb   10 years ago

            Either it's all pizza, or the only real pizza is the style served in Naples. Pick one.

            1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

              The latter. But that's a false dichotomy and unnecessarily limiting.

        3. WTF   10 years ago

          Going to hit Lou Malnati's and get some decent pizza tomatoey, casserole thing finally.

          FTFY

          1. KDN   10 years ago

            "Open-faced calzone"

            1. Timon 19   10 years ago

              Nice.

            2. Dweebston   10 years ago

              But calzones are closed-face pizzas. QED.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    Chicago police officers stop and frisk at a much higher rate than NYPD counterparts...

    But in fairness, CPD just does that to pick pockets.

  5. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Japan opts for massive, costly sea wall to fend off tsunamis

    Four years after a towering tsunami ravaged much of Japan's northeastern coast, efforts to fend off future disasters are focusing on a nearly 400-kilometer (250-mile) chain of cement sea walls, at places nearly five stories high.

    Opponents of the 820 billion yen ($6.8 billion) plan argue that the massive concrete barriers will damage marine ecology and scenery, hinder vital fisheries and actually do little to protect residents who are mostly supposed to relocate to higher ground. Those in favor say the sea walls are a necessary evil, and one that will provide some jobs, at least for a time.

    In the northern fishing port of Osabe, Kazutoshi Musashi chafes at the 12.5-meter (41-foot)-high concrete barrier blocking his view of the sea.

    "The reality is that it looks like the wall of a jail," said Musashi, 46, who lived on the seaside before the tsunami struck Osabe and has moved inland since.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Really, it's to slow down the lesser Kaiju when they try to come ashore.

      1. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

        Category 1 kaiju, sure, but not Category 3...

        1. $park?'s head exploded   10 years ago

          +1 go go Godzilla

          1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

            Are you saying he's got to go?

            1. db   10 years ago

              Oh, no!

            2. $park?'s head exploded   10 years ago

              It would certainly stop him from stomping around Tokyo city like a big playground. Then you wouldn't need Batman and Shaq to come to the rescue.

              1. Elspeth Flashman   10 years ago

                That poor Tokyo Tower. It's always on the casualty list.

            3. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

              More cowbell!

              1. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

                It's the only prescription.

            4. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

              Helpless people in Amtrak cafes redact their screams as he looks in on them?

              1. Dweebston   10 years ago

                +1 cities on flame

                1. db   10 years ago

                  I'm just waiting for Swissy to give us a purposeful grimace (and a terrible sound).

                  1. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

                    and pull the high tension wires down?

    2. Andrew S.   10 years ago

      On the plus side, they might also keep out Titans.

      1. EDG reppin' LBC   10 years ago

        Loved that anime.

        1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

          There's a season 2 coming next year, apparently.

          1. EDG reppin' LBC   10 years ago

            Nice!

          2. MJGreen   10 years ago

            Blech, hurry up. They ended it with so little resolved.

            1. John Titor   10 years ago

              The comic wasn't finished when they ended season one. They had to wait until the guy wrote more before they could animate it.

              If you think that's bad, I'm the butthurt Black Lagoon fan who's been waiting a half decade for Rei Hiroe to write more.

    3. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

      Only the Jaegers can defeat the Kaiju.

      1. BardMetal   10 years ago

        I must have missed something. How are lightly armed German recon units supposed to stop kaiju? I mean that could probably stop the shitty 1998 American version of Godzilla, but King Ghidorah, Rodan?

        1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

          You apparently missed something awesome.

  6. Andrew S.   10 years ago

    Chicago police officers stop and frisk at a much higher rate than NYPD counterparts, according to a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

    Those damn red areas of the country, always violating peoples' rights.

    1. Trigger Hippie   10 years ago

      Cook County is a red area? I think you may need to retake the political Ishihara Test. Or is my Sarc Meter glitching out again?

      *frowns at Sarc Meter, gives it a tap and shake.

      1. Rhywun   10 years ago

        Those damn red areas of the country, always violating peoples' rights.

        FTFH

    2. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

      Appropos

  7. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Oregon man cited after trying to board plane with bear paws

    Authorities say they have issued a citation to an Oregon man who tried to board an airplane with bear paws in his luggage.

    The Transportation Security Administration agents discovered the bear paws earlier this month in plastic grocery bags in the luggage of Hong-Shiou Chiou at the Eugene Airport, the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper reported. He was cited for unlawful possession of game parts

    1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

      The Constitution gives us the right to bear arms! Paws have to be included in that, right?

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        Wrist to shoulder, Andrew.

        1. Trigger Hippie   10 years ago

          Soon to be downgraded to just bear claws. Cherry and blueberry being your only two options.

          1. alittlesense   10 years ago

            It it's not cinnamon, it's not a bear claw.

    2. gaijin   10 years ago

      This story should give us pause

      1. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

        The TSA has rules, gaijin, and in them there's a clause....

    3. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      Bear Paws? The cookie? My daughter loved those once upon a time.

      1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        Bear Claw: http://www.joepastry.com/2008/the_bear_claw/

        1. WTF   10 years ago

          Bear claws.

          1. NebulousFocus   10 years ago

            Bear claws!

    4. BardMetal   10 years ago

      Unlawful possession of game parts? If he would have had the entire bear would it have been ok? I'm really confused about what this law is attempting to accomplish.

    5. $park?'s head exploded   10 years ago

      Unlawful possession of game parts? What kind of games are these people playing?

      1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        Must have been the cannon from Monopoly.

        1. WTF   10 years ago

          Of course the TSA idiots would actually consider that a 'weapon' and confiscate it.

        2. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

          Or a box of armies from Risk.

      2. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        *narrows gaze*

      3. Steve G   10 years ago

        I hear this in a Jerry Seinfeld voice

  8. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    University of Virginia fraternity Phi Kappa Psi is considering a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine...

    Just don't let the magazine try to pay you in credibility.

  9. sthgrau   10 years ago

    new version of greasonable.. Please let me know of any issues.. can now uneventfully async reply to a single post more than once.. also, can select text and tag it.. (cite will use just about any selection on the page)

    1. Tonio   10 years ago

      Linky?

      1. sthgrau   10 years ago

        Link is the url in attached to my name. If you are using greasemonkey, it should auto-update. Manual upgrade procedure at the github page readme.
        If you are installing for the first time, you need to install greasemonkey (for firefox) or tampermonkey (for chrome).. Instructions are at the github page.

        Thanks,

      2. Enough About Palin   10 years ago

        Click the handle.

  10. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    British police hunt thieves who stole 38 pythons

    British police said on Monday they were hunting for thieves who broke into an apartment in northwest England and stole 38 Royal Python snakes.

    The non-venomous snakes, which included eight pregnant females, were taken from a house in St Helens last week, police added. Two men were spotted leaving the scene carrying two sacks.

    1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

      Pro L is on the case!

      1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

        Mountie Python's competition often has to resort to. . .unsound methods.

    2. Tonio   10 years ago

      eight pregnant females

      Um, Ima calling BS on this since Pythons lay eggs as do most reptiles.

      However, I just learned that their cousins the Boas do bear live young. But this is different than mammalian gestation and birth - there is no placenta or transfer of nutrients or oxygen to the eggs, they just sit in a cavity and eventually hatch there and slither out. [grows queasy]

      1. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

        *has Warty nightmare

      2. Agammamon   10 years ago

        When you look at it closely, the miracle of life is actually pretty horrifying.

        1. Steve G   10 years ago

          4K porn??

    3. Ted S.   10 years ago

      Snakes can be pregnant?

  11. Ted S.   10 years ago

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.

    It depends upon how you define "feminism", I suppose.

    1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

      Traditional feminism, I'd say yes. Modern day 3rd wave (or is it 4th wave?) feminism, obviously not.

      1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        It depends upon how you define "feminism", I suppose.

        Or "libertarian." (Or "necessarily." Or "must." Or "be.")

      2. BardMetal   10 years ago

        Even then I don't like the idea of group rights. I think Libertarianism loses something when it's focus moves from individual rights, and toward talking about rights for women, gays, blacks, etc. Let's not join the victim group bandwagon.

        1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

          It loses the simplicity of its proposal.

        2. Bill Dalasio   10 years ago

          Even then I don't like the idea of group rights. I think Libertarianism loses something when it's focus moves from individual rights, and toward talking about rights for women, gays, blacks, etc.

          It's exactly how classical liberalism sacrificed itself on the alter of collectivism. Sad to see so many libertarians eager to repeat that mistake.

        3. Bill Dalasio   10 years ago

          Even then I don't like the idea of group rights. I think Libertarianism loses something when it's focus moves from individual rights, and toward talking about rights for women, gays, blacks, etc.

          It's exactly how classical liberalism sacrificed itself on the alter of collectivism. Sad to see so many libertarians eager to repeat that mistake.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      Labels, labels, labels.

      I thought we were above that.

      Just do right by people and be done. I don't have to be told what 'ism' I should adhere to or not.

      1. Ted S.   10 years ago

        I want somebody who doesn't know the difference between an ism and a kangaroo.

        1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

          Kangarooist! Marsupialism running rampant!

          1. Tonio   10 years ago

            Wait, you actually know something about biology? Were you punking me all that time, bro?

            1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

              +1 seabug!

              I was a microbiology major until junior year...

              1. Tonio   10 years ago

                [degenerates into spluttering indignation]

                [coughs]

                Well done.

      2. Free Society   10 years ago

        I have miniature brain hemorrhages when people bitch about "labels". Labels are just adjectives. They are descriptive things that enable us to have conversations about abstract concepts and still understand each other. Someone who doesn't want to discuss these concepts using "labels" would apparently rather have an incomprehensible discussion about nothing at all.

        1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

          I have miniature brain hemorrhages when people bitch about "labels".

          Even when it's the Friday Funnies thread?

          1. Free Society   10 years ago

            Even then.

        2. Dweebston   10 years ago

          Someone who doesn't want to discuss these concepts using "labels" would apparently rather have an incomprehensible discussion about nothing at all.

          That's... pretty much the point of it, I think. I always assumed obfuscation was a product of muddle-headed sentimentality masquerading as high-minded concept, but I think you may be right. Obfuscation is the point, not a product.

    3. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

      At this point, trying to take back "feminism" is a lot like trying to take back "liberal." The desire is understandable, but probably not worth the time or effort, although there is value in pointing out the evolution of the terms.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

        Feminists from the get-go were nuts. Read the British version back in the early 20th century.

        Coo-coo.

        1. lap83   10 years ago

          Thank you. Feminism can't be traced back to women like Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's crazy cat ladies all the way down.

      2. Tonio   10 years ago

        I tried to take it back, once, but they wouldn't give me a refund.

        1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

          *opera applause*

    4. John   10 years ago

      If it were 1908, I suppose that would be true. In 2015, however, I don't think so. Everyone should stand for the equal dignity and rights of each individual. I think we are beyond worrying about sex and race.

      1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        I think we are beyond worrying about sex and race.

        (Looks at media for .5 seconds.) Apparently not.

      2. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

        What about mexican butt sex?

        1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

          With pot, yes?

  12. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Beijing to Shut All Major Coal Power Plants to Cut Pollution

    The facilities will be replaced by four gas-fired stations with capacity to supply 2.6 times more electricity than the coal plants.

    The closures are part of a broader trend in China, which is the world's biggest carbon emitter. Facing pressure at home and abroad, policy makers are racing to address the environmental damage seen as a byproduct of breakneck economic growth. Beijing plans to cut annual coal consumption by 13 million metric tons by 2017 from the 2012 level in a bid to slash the concentration of pollutants.

    1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      AGW CULTISTS!

      1. Xeones   10 years ago

        BUUUUUUUUTTTPLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGG

        1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

          What the fuck is wrong with China?

          Can't they see that carbon pollution is a giant UN plan cooked up by Marxists? That pollution they see is just Jesus weeping about their heathen ways!

          I read it on Bratbitch.com!

          1. Xeones   10 years ago

            BUTTPLUG

          2. some guy   10 years ago

            Again. This has nothing to do with carbon pollution and everything to do with particulates in the air. On a bad day in Beijing you can't even see far enough to cross the street safely.

            1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

              I was in Shanghai 12 years ago and it was horrible then. Everything turns black from soot.

              1. some guy   10 years ago

                Beijing is worse, from what I hear. Worse than Shanghai and worse than 12 years ago.

                1. db   10 years ago

                  I have been to both cities in the last several years several times each. It is really bad. Beijing seems to be a bit worse, probably because it is more inland. But even the central and midwestern cities I have visited (Shizuishan, Yinchuan, Taiyuan, Datong, etc.) are hazy with pollution. It really is a major concern.

                  1. Rhywun   10 years ago

                    I saw it in Xi'an in 2001 - I had never ever seen pollution like that before. And I grew up in Kodak town, where the smokestacks belched out a different color every day.

                2. mauricegirodias   10 years ago

                  Yep. Owned a condo in a Shanghai suburb with the ex. It'd rain and things would be fine, though that was a nicer, residential part of time.

                  Only went to Beijing a few times. You could see the particulates, white ash and such, floating down towards you. Was a little better by the Forbidden City, but not much. Could never imagine living there.

                  The industrial cities north of Beijing are even worse...

                  1. mauricegirodias   10 years ago

                    part of TOWN.

            2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

              Coal is filthy.

              Who knew?

              1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

                BUUUUUUTPLUUUUUUUG!

              2. some guy   10 years ago

                Coal is filthy.

                Who knew?

                Swingandamiss, strike two.

                Does your TEAM know you're throwing the game?

      2. some guy   10 years ago

        Ever seen pictures of Beijing? That city is facing real, measurable consequences of pollution right now. And it has nothing to do with carbon dioxide.

        These moves by the Chinese political class also have nothing to do with carbon dioxide. The pressure they face is from their own people, who would like to be able to see more than 10 meters when they step outside their tiny apartments.

    2. Brett L   10 years ago

      Why don't they just install the scrubbers that we were using 20 years ago? Coal plants stopped darkening the sky in the 80s. Bonus is that the byproduct of sulfate scrubbers is gypsum. With lower uranium content than what the Chinese have now. Win-win.

      1. Free Society   10 years ago

        I think Bejings problem is mainly caused by hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, of tiny cook fires going on all at once. Cars and power plants contribute sure, but it's mostly a smoke and soot thing I've heard.

      2. db   10 years ago

        Sadly there is no market for gypsum anymore. Most power plants make a lower quality of gypsum than required for good drywall. It's getting stacked out in landfills instead of used as construction material.

        1. Azathoth!!   10 years ago

          Those of us who use hydrocal, ultracal and hydrostone would beg to differ.

          1. db   10 years ago

            Scathing, those gypsum products are of very high quality. Only a few select power plants have gypsumbproducts capabilities that can meet the strict requirements for color, purity, crystal size, and moisture content they demand. I know because I used to be the chief engineer for one of those gypsum making plants. In general, limestone forced oxidation scrubbers have issues with the quality required. Lime based systems are better.

            1. db   10 years ago

              Um, "Scathing" s/b "Azathoth."

  13. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

    http://www.forwardprogressives.....nderstand/

    From comments:

    "I'd like you to name one lie Obama told. If it's keeping your old healthcare, that one doesn't count because allowing people to continue bad and worthless healthcare policies that don't cover hospital stays would be immoral. So go ahead and tell us another "lie." We are all waiting for that one."

    /presses trap door button under desk in homage to Mr. Burns.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Again we're back to the old "Who decides what's 'worthless'?"

      1. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

        Top. Men.

    2. jay_dubya   10 years ago

      excellent

    3. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

      Release the hounds!

      1. TwB   10 years ago

        "Smithers, what's wrong with Crippler?"-Mr. Burns

        "Well sir, he is getting up there in age. He's been here since the Nixon administration."-Smithers

        "Ah yes. I remember when he bagged his first hippie. That young man didn't think it was too groovy."-Mr. Burns

        1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

          We had a funny guy with us in Korea. Tail gunner. They blew his brains out over the Pacific. Nothin funny about that....

    4. Mike M.   10 years ago

      "No lobbyists will serve in my administration."
      "We will have the most transparent administration in history."
      "There are no red states or blue states; I'm a moderate who is seeking to united the country."
      "Accumulating trillions of dollars in debt is immoral and unpatriotic."
      "Ambassador Stevens was killed because of a crappy YouTube video."
      "The I.R.S. is not singling out conservatives."
      "No one making less than $250,000 will have their taxes raised."

      There are so many more, everyone jump in and add yours to the list.

      1. Rich   10 years ago

        That's good, Mike. It'd be entertaining to see a very long documented list.

        1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

          Wouldn't it be simpler just to mail you the compiled edition of all his speeches?

          1. Rich   10 years ago

            Uh ....

          2. WTF   10 years ago

            List of Obama lies.

      2. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        "All of the above energy policy"

      3. Aloysious   10 years ago

        ...this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal...

        One of the most preposterous and ludicrous sentences ever uttered.

      4. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

        "I promise to use public campaign financing if my opponent does".

      5. Tonio   10 years ago

        I'm thinking that the "most transparent administration" claim is the one that would be most difficult for proggies to elide, spin or otherwise discount. This bothers them, too, and it particularly outrages them when others talk about that.

        1. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

          To be fair, every time the administration makes a statement or speech I see right through it.

      6. Rhywun   10 years ago

        "Those don't count either!"

        *stamps feet*

    5. Rich   10 years ago

      "that one doesn't count because"

      "you just hate him for the color of his skin."

    6. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

      Damn, these people are delusional.

    7. SusanM   10 years ago

      LOL! The Onion is still better, though. At least they try to be somewhat realistic.

      1. some guy   10 years ago

        Stupidity and mendaciousness are very, very real.

    8. DEG   10 years ago

      It all depends on how you define the word "lie".

      1. WTF   10 years ago

        And what the meaning of the word "is" is.

    9. Arizona_Guy   10 years ago

      Goalposts. Moved.

  14. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    FEMA To Deny Funding To States Without Global Warming Plans

    Next year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will start denying disaster funding to states that don't incorporate global warming into their emergency preparedness plans.

    Governors looking for disaster preparedness funding will have to start reporting on how man-made global warming will impact their states such as "more intense storms, frequent heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, extreme flooding, and higher sea levels," according to FEMA.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      What would their response be if the plan said "After careful scientifici analysis of the available data, we concluded that Global Warming posed a negligable to nonesitant risk to the state of..."

      1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

        I'm sure Minnesoda would be in trouble for having a plan that involved a new state holiday celebrating the fact that we only have 5 months of winter instead of 6 months like the bad old days.

        1. Brett L   10 years ago

          An extra month of mosquitos? Can your veins survive that in the DDT ban era?

          1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

            Real Minnesodans don't worry about the mosquitoes.

            After being chowed on for years and years, I don't even get bumps from mosquito bites anymore. My wife on the other hand still gets giant bumps from bites even after 20 years here.

            She doesn't appreciate my sage advice of "don't scratch it and it will go right away" at all.

            1. Enough About Palin   10 years ago

              Also, wait until the critter is just about done feasting on your blood. That way, it will have sucked back up the anticoagulants (that cause the itching) that it initially injected into you.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3rhQc666Sg

    2. gaijin   10 years ago

      such as "more intense storms, frequent heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, extreme flooding, and higher sea levels," according to FEMA.

      So not just report on it, but use the exact words they are handed too?

      1. Brett L   10 years ago

        If global warming has continued and accelerated as the true believers say, I'd say that the Gulf States will have lower disaster expenses in the future.

      2. Libertarian   10 years ago

        So, by definition, GW causes only problems and there are no benefits? What if we were entering a new ice age (as we were told about 40 yrs ago)? Would there, again, be only problems, no benefits?

    3. Agammamon   10 years ago

      Arizona - global warming will change the average temperature during the summer from 'Damn its hot' to 'Fuck! Shit! Goddamn!", which will have no effect because no one goes outside the range of an air conditioner for more than 2 minutes if they can help it. And the winters will be even nicer than they are now.

      Can we have our money you took from us in taxes back now?

    4. Free Society   10 years ago

      I'd love to see the Feds actually follow through with this. I want to see them publicly justify withholding funds to a hurricane ravaged state because there isn't enough ideological commitment to the global warming prophecies.

  15. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    A U.S. Justice Department review of Philadelphia policing between 2007 and 2014 found 364 officer-involved shootings, or a little more than one per week.

    Which is why its police chief serves on the United States Homeland Security Advisory Council.

    1. WTF   10 years ago

      Can't keep the Homeland secure if the peasants aren't kept in line.

  16. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Kevin Williamson: Utopia's Jailers

    "Let's ban private schools," Gawker cheerily suggests. Writing in that esteemed journal, John Cook argues that "there's a simple solution to the public-schools crisis." If people make choices that complicate the Left's agenda, then ban those choices: "Make Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama's children go to public schools," Cook writes. "From a purely strategic and practical standpoint, it would be much easier to resolve the schools crisis if the futures of America's wealthiest and most powerful children were at stake."

    The Left's heart is still in East Berlin: If people want to leave your utopia and have the means to do so, then build a wall. If they climb over the wall ? as millions of low-income parents with children in private schools (very commonly Catholic schools) do ? then build a higher wall. If they keep climbing ? and they will ? then there are always alternatives.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

      "I believe we can solve the problems of urban education in our lifetimes and actualize education's power to reverse generational poverty," Rhee wrote. "But I am learning that it is a radical concept to even suggest this. Warren Buffett [the billionaire investor] framed the problem for me once in a way that clarified how basic our most stubborn obstacles are. He said it would be easy to solve today's problems in urban education. 'Make private schools illegal,' he said, 'and assign every child to a public school by random lottery.' "

      Buffett, loving grandpa authoritarian wannabe

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        Make public schools illegal and you'd have better results.

      2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

        Buffett is right. It would improve urban schools - but at the expense of other schools until suburbanites would revolt and demand something different for their little crumb-crunchers.

        Ultimately voters would reject his stifling plan. There is nothing else like mixing the races that would motivate high-income white voters to vote GOP.

        1. Xeones   10 years ago

          BBBBUTTPLUG

        2. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

          He's full of crap. Public schools in urban areas regularly spend more per pupil than suburban or private schools do. It's lack of choice and reduced options in dealing with education labor that makes those schools worse on average.

          And you're a sack of shit for bringing race into it.

          1. Xeones   10 years ago

            Oh come on, Scruffy. That's not the only reason he's a sack of shit.

          2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

            Forced busing upset white America greatly back in the 70s. Get real. Public opposition to plans like Buffett's have a large race component. There are other factors too.

            I think Buffett is not serious with this suckass suggestion myself.

            1. Free Society   10 years ago

              Let the race in question leave the political plantation your ilk have so carefully constructed for starters.

            2. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

              My, what a classical liberal you are!! Shouting "RACIST!!" as the starting point for all human motivation...

              Dipshit

            3. Xeones   10 years ago

              BUTTPLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG

        3. TwB   10 years ago

          I don't see well-to-do Democrats packing up their families and moving into the inner city to be with their fellow voters, do you? Oh, they are staying out in the suburbs, living in their McMansions and sending their kids to expensive private schools too? Funny, isn't it?

          1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

            That is what I said in essence.

            But RACIST! They don't see racism in school choice!

            1. TwB   10 years ago

              It's not racism, it's the fact that urban public schools are worthless. And they are worthless because of policies created by liberals who have held the voting rights to those neighborhoods for over 40 years and look where it got them.

              1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

                Funny, neither your comment or mine addressed the cause of shitty urban schools.

                We both did comment on how suburbanites would react to forced busing and a lottery. They would hate it.

                Learn to read please.

                1. Dweebston   10 years ago

                  And they are worthless because of policies created by liberals who have held the voting rights to those neighborhoods for over 40 years and look where it got them.

            2. Xeones   10 years ago

              Buttplug.

          2. DrZaius   10 years ago

            Well there's always one acceptable school for lefty white people to send there kids to in an otherwise unacceptable district. Grady High in Atlanta and the two elementary schools upper class whites go bat shit crazy to make sure their kids attend. Or the whole Decatur City Schools which is carefully crafted to be super affluent and left wing with a dash of colored folk so they can feel all tolerant and shit.

        4. Free Society   10 years ago

          Buffett is right. It would improve urban schools - but at the expense of other schools until suburbanites would revolt and demand something different for their little crumb-crunchers.

          Ultimately voters would reject his stifling plan. There is nothing else like mixing the races that would motivate high-income white voters to vote GOP.

          You're clearly projecting. The same racist classism you so casually accuse white voters of is on full display as you demean suburban children as "little crumb crunchers" and malign wealthy white people as inherently evil because they want their children to have an education.

          You are pathetic.

          1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

            Not "evil" - just enlightened self interest. If I am pathetic for that so be it.

            1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

              Please pint out, dipshit, WHO is NOT self-interested nor acts in such a manner...

              I'll wait.

              1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

                That is my point, idiot.

                Someone else called it "evil" just above.

                1. Free Society   10 years ago

                  You're the one who would support damn near any fascist policy proposal that disrupt the self-interest of those of whom you are envious.

                  1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

                    DING DING DING

                  2. KDN   10 years ago

                    Nonsense. He would support any fascist policy so long as it disrupted the self-interest of the GOP and its voters. Totally different.

                2. Xeones   10 years ago

                  BUTT

                  1. Xeones   10 years ago

                    PLUG

            2. Xeones   10 years ago

              Butt? Plug!

      3. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

        Make public schools illegal and assign every child a private school by parental choice.

        1. straffinrun   10 years ago

          Public schools are fine, they just have to fund them without using govt coercion.

          1. Libertarian   10 years ago

            We need to start calling "public schools" by the more proper name: "government schools." As Ed Clark wrote 35 years ago, we'd be up in arms if government published 90% of our books -- so why are we not upset that it runs 90% of our schools?

      4. Certified Public Asskicker   10 years ago

        Congratulations, you have been assigned to the school 30 miles from your house!

        1. KDN   10 years ago

          The logical conclusion of old man Buffett's musing is a national policy where students are sorted into random boarding schools and the parents are removed from the child rearing process for 10 months per year.

          It's always camps with these people.

          1. crab_apple   10 years ago

            Hillary Clinton's Fun Camps?!

        2. Tonio   10 years ago

          Surely you are a racist for objecting to that.

    2. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

      I believe that Hawaii has a single state school district, and crappy schools.

      1. crab_apple   10 years ago

        I can vouch for that. I had about 40% good teachers who cared enough to try, and 60% lazy/incompetent/gave up a long time ago teachers, and I was in all the advanced classes, which means the ratio was much worse for students in the regular classes.

    3. Ted S.   10 years ago

      Private-sector "monopolies", which really only exist because of government distortions, are evil.

      Government-sector monopolies are virtuous.

    4. some guy   10 years ago

      Eventually it is easier and safer to dig under the wall. And after that it eventually becomes easier and safer to just tear the wall down.

  17. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Greece promises list of reforms by Monday to unlock cash

    Greece's left-wing government and its euro zone creditors agreed last week that Athens would come up with a list of its own reforms, which must achieve a similar budget impact to measures agreed by the previous conservative-led administration.

    Athens is rushing to get the list ready before state coffers run empty, which is expected to happen in a few weeks without more aid.

    Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday but Sakellaridis said the two only discussed the outline of the reforms without going into depth.

    "I believe points of convergence were found," he said.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      "I believe points of convergence were found,"

      There was a little old Chinese man at the meeting shouting 'Pay me now!'

  18. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Will You Be Murdered By a Robot?

    With a bit of technical knowledge and a good imagination, any malevolent person may soon be able to eradicate the human race. This is a mildly exaggerated version of a fundamental claim in The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones?Confronting a New Age of Threat, an alarming and informative new book by Benjamin Wittes and Gabriela Blum.

    By combining the elements of the subtitle in sinister ways, Wittes and Blum conjure a number of nightmarish scenarios: a drone hovers above a packed sports stadium and sprays invisible anthrax spores into air breathed by tens of thousands, a miniature robotic drone that looks exactly like a spider assassinates a businessman as he showers, a malign molecular biology graduate student modifies the smallpox virus to enhance its lethality and overcome vaccinations.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      That still sounds like murder by humans using tools.

      1. Brett L   10 years ago

        Remember, dude, animists who think people are murdered by guns are rampant. They really don't understand the difference between willful actors and tools.

    2. gaijin   10 years ago

      As a kid, I was told that this would not be a concern until 4000 AD!

      Magnus-Robot Fighter

      1. Ted S.   10 years ago

        I thought it dated back to 1964.

      2. Tonio   10 years ago

        Thank you for that, gaijin. An old fave...

    3. some guy   10 years ago

      a drone hovers above a packed sports stadium and sprays invisible anthrax spores into air breathed by tens of thousands

      An example of something that can happen once before all stadiums are equipped with their own anti-drone lasers.

      a miniature robotic drone that looks exactly like a spider assassinates a businessman as he showers

      If this becomes a problem, you can bet there will quickly be a market for cat-bots that hunt down smaller bots with a vengeance.

      a malign molecular biology graduate student modifies the smallpox virus to enhance its lethality and overcome vaccinations

      Because that's soooooo easy for a single person to do. Sorry, but Bond-style evil geniuses don't exist.

      1. Agammamon   10 years ago

        The scary thing here is that these people think that by making this stuff *illegal* we can protect ourselves from it.

        When the truth is, if the general public can't get it, it will still exist - only no 'open-source' research on defensive measure.

        So your state will have the robotic spiders to assassinate businessmen or the flying drone to spray anthrax surreptitiously over an enemy's population but no one else.

        Security through obscurity only works as long as the obscurity lasts.

        1. some guy   10 years ago

          That's very true. "Why would a common citizen need a 50-Watt anti-drone laser, or an EMP-hardened mouser-bot?"

      2. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

        Sorry, but Bond-style evil geniuses don't exist.

        You'll rue the day you said this!

        /maniacal laughter - strange looks from next cubical over

    4. Juice   10 years ago

      Someone needs robot insurance.

    5. Warty   10 years ago

      I work with actual robots. Trust me, this hand-wringing is way premature. Today's robots fucking suck far too much to be a threat.

      1. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

        Today's robots fucking suck far too much to be a threat.

        Those sound like sexbots... Dungeon helpers?

  19. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

    Good Morning Peanuts!

    Are you all ready for a day of my pro-market secular freethinking?

    1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

      Yes.

    2. Slammer   10 years ago

      Are you all ready for a day of my pro-market secular freethinking

      Sure

    3. Contrarian P   10 years ago

      It'll certainly be a hell of a change from your usual pattern. I say go for it. Spice things up a bit.

    4. Aloysious   10 years ago

      Good morning.

      Are you taking requests? Because if you are, could you please do that BLOOP DERP thing?

    5. Xeones   10 years ago

      BUUUUUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUUUUUG

    6. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

      Good Morning Peanuts!

      Sad. He's talking to his own turds again.

      1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        Testicles.

    7. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

      Are you all ready for a day of my pro-market crony secular slavery freethinking worshiping?

      No.

      1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        Really. How in the fuck is ANYTHING he jabbers remotely "pro-market"? This is a man who would fellate Liddie Warren...

        1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

          I have mentioned the Squaw only once or twice here. Personally I think she is just a wayward populist who hates big banks (which I like) just because her fans do.

          1. Agammamon   10 years ago

            Which shows how wrong you are about her.

            She's not a 'wayward' populist - populist *is* her thing.

            She doesn't hate banks - she just pretends to because it makes her popular (see the 'populist' but above). She's shown her love for cronyism loud and clear with her support for the Ex-Im.

            1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

              I think we agree. I only said "wayward" because there is nothing constructive in her populism. Populism is neither good or bad per se. It just is a political reaction to the times.

              1. Xeones   10 years ago

                BUUUUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUUUUG

          2. Xeones   10 years ago

            BUUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUUUUUUG

  20. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    News report would like you to know rape victim was drinking
    A news story out of New Orleans shows yet again where the focus on rape reporting goes

    Instead, for writer Heather Nolan's slender 79 word report, the words "night of drinking" manage to appear three times: once in the story headline, once in its photo caption, and once in the article itself. This is what "police said" about the 30 year-old who was raped in a vehicle by persons unknown.

    Tell me, Ms. Nolan, what the most important aspect of this information is. Tell me if you've run similar stories, suggesting for example that a man was beaten and robbed after a night of drinking. Tell me, NOLA PD, if you've learned anything at all since the searing November report that revealed your special victims unit failed to investigate over a thousand sexual abuse reports over a three-year period, that you failed to follow protocol an impressive 60 percent of the time. Tell me, anybody, that you understand that even in New Orleans, when a person is unable to give consent it legally constitutes rape. Not rape with an asterisk, just rape. Or just keep telling me what you've already told me, three times. That she was drinking.

    1. Free Society   10 years ago

      It's pretty relevant. If this were a missing person story, would it be irrelevant to mention that the missing soccer mom was a known heroin dealer? If it were a murder case, would it be irrelevant to mention hat the crotchety old victim was a total dick to everyone in town? If it's a rape case, I think it's relevant whether the victim was drunk off her ass in an unfamiliar place with no friends. That doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed against her, but it's entirely relevant.

      1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        "The male victim was killed in a brawl inside a bar by another male patron who was wielding a broken bottle of Jack Daniels. Both men were apparently (redacted, because, hey, murder is murder) at the time of the fight."

    2. Ted S.   10 years ago

      They generally mention quite prominently if somebody who died in a car crash wasn't wearing a seat belt.

      Well, except for that bitch Diana Spencer, since they wanted to blame paparazzi for her death.

      They also like to mentino that people who died of lung cancer were heavy smokers. (They don't mention it when people who died of AIDS liked to engage in risky sex patterns, however.)

      1. Free Society   10 years ago

        Correctomundo. Lung cancer patients get what they deserve, to be ravaged by a terrible disease! Rape victims however, were all snatched out of their beds in the dead of night and raped by the International Patriarchy Conspiracy.

  21. Ted S.   10 years ago

    Quick update:

    We buried Mom yesterday. Those of you who saw the Napolitano thread last Thursday will recall that I announced her death there. It's been a difficult time, and I'm feeling physically lousy. I woke up yesterday morning at 3:00 AM and couldn't get back to sleep; Dad, as aways, didn't get up until I sent the dog in to wake him up around 7:30 AM. The funeral director took a family photo just before visiting hours on Sunday, and I look in even worse shape than I thought. 🙁

    Dad's 77 and in about as good health as you can expect for a 77-year-old who's been taking care of an Alzheimer's patient for six or seven years, but we all worry about him, even if for different reasons. My sisters worry about him living in the middle of nowhere even though I'm around to help out, while I worry that he too is going to get sixk at some point sooner rather than later.

    I'd like to thank all of you again for your condolences back in the Napolitano comment thread.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

      My condolences. I wish you luck in dealing with the aftermath of a family tragedy like that.

    2. DEG   10 years ago

      Good luck Ted.

    3. Aloysious   10 years ago

      Best regards and good wishes, Ted.

    4. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

      I'm so sorry, Ted. Best wishes.

    5. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

      Sorry to hear of your losses, Ted. Keep forging ahead.

    6. Rich   10 years ago

      Hang in, Ted. Try to get a little exercise. Peace.

    7. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      My sincere condolences, Ted.

      1. Ted S.   10 years ago

        Thanks everybody. I thought Rufus might get a little enojyment at the fact that after the visiting hours on Sunday, we went to a restaurant with the mildly Eye-talian name of Frank Guido's Little Italy. Slightly Italian, I guess.

        That having been said, when I ordered the side of penne to be served with garlic and olive oil, they didn't drown the pasta in sauce like almost every other restaurant out there does.

    8. Free Society   10 years ago

      Best wishes, Ted.

    9. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

      My condolences, Ted.

    10. Slammer   10 years ago

      Condolences to you and your family. Best wishes.

    11. hamilton   10 years ago

      Be well, Ted. Peace to you and your dad.

    12. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

      Strength, Ted. Strength and forebearance. And better days ahead.

    13. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

      Ted, it's great that you had a good relationship with her, and the "old" her will live on in your memory and the way you lead your life. Cherish your dad, I'd give anything to be able to have mine around for just one more conversation.

    14. mr lizard   10 years ago

      Good luck Ted

    15. db   10 years ago

      My condolences, Ted. Hang in there.

    16. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

      Sorry to hear, Ted S. Hang in there.

    17. Hey Nikki!   10 years ago

      Sorry to hear this, Ted S. My condolences.

    18. Charles Easterly   10 years ago

      Ted,

      Regarding disrupted sleep and the other the things you're experiencing, I think you need to let yourself go through this at the pace that's appropriate for you. I don't think that you can possibly know what that pace is, so don't set an artificial timeline for yourself.
      This will take time.

      Best regards,

      Charles

    19. JW   10 years ago

      Aw, shit. Sorry Ted.

  22. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    You can't ban douchebaggery: Kill the frats, sure, but you can't stop entitled white bros

    So let's ban frats, right? Let's empty their houses and pressure the national organizations to donate the space to be turned into something else. (Repurposed dorms open to all students or maybe, you know, the headquarters for a chapter of Men Can Stop Rape.) Let's push the thousands of former Greeks to join other public service groups if they really want to help their communities. Let's open the doors and let sunlight disinfect the whole mess.

    Racism and misogyny on campus won't suddenly disappear if this happens, but shuttering the Greek system could be seen as an institutional commitment to lowering the number of dead drunk kids, women assaulted or otherwise dehumanized and racist parties defended as harmless fun.

    This is the side I ultimately come down on, but here's where I get stuck: You can ban frats, but you can't ban large groups of entitled white men from living together. You also can't simply ban toxic masculinity and white supremacy. These are frat problems, of course. But they are also our problems.

    1. John   10 years ago

      If they would just lock white people up, they wouldn't be a problem. Really, isn't locking unacceptable white men up and out of society the logical implication of that article?

      1. Brian D   10 years ago

        Because prisons are places where you never find racism or sexual assaults.

        1. John   10 years ago

          We just need to have special prisons where we can re-educate these evil white men.

          1. Brett L   10 years ago

            Somewhere they could be concentrated together to make supervision and reeducation efficient?

            1. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

              You know who else... aww fuckit.

              1. Tonio   10 years ago

                Hillary Clinton?

            2. Agammamon   10 years ago

              Like a . . . 'concentrated school'?

              1. Libertarian   10 years ago

                Yep, that's the ticket. per Ed Driscoll, at pjmedia:

                Quoting doctors, friendly activists, social workers, and random real Americans ... she argues for interventions on behalf of children from literally the moment they are born. Children need "[g]entle, intimate, consistent contact" to reduce stress, which can "create feelings of helplessness that lead to later developmental problems."Even well-to-do parents need help because after all everyone feels stress, and "we know that babies sense the stress." It's fair to say that a state empowered to eliminate parental stress is a state with a Huxleyan mandate. And a state with an extreme mandate must logically go to extremes.

                Hence Clinton argues for the diffusion of parental training into every nook and cranny of public life. Here's one such suggestion: "Videos with scenes of common-sense baby care?how to burp an infant, what to do when soap gets in his eyes, how to make a baby with an earache comfortable?could be running continuously in doctors' offices, clinics, hospitals, motor vehicle offices, or any place where people gather and have to wait." Imagine if these sorts of ideas were fully implemented at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the passport office, and other places "where people gather and have to wait."Giant flat screens at the airport pumping breast-feeding advice? The JumboTron at football games? At what point would the Brave New World seem to be heading down the pike?

            3. WTF   10 years ago

              And if they work at it really hard, someday they could be free....Hey, that could even be a camp slogan! "Work Makes you Free", or something.

      2. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        Your solution would also help bring much needed racial balance to our prisons.

    2. Andrew S.   10 years ago

      Salon articles are supposed to get trigger warnings, you know.

    3. Free Society   10 years ago

      The author strikes me as a self-loathing white.

      1. BardMetal   10 years ago

        Ugh I think I would prefer if he was just a racist black guy. Racists I at least understand they're just assholes, but pathetic self-loathing just makes be nauseous. Bleh.

      2. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        He's not self-loathing. He thinks quite highly of himself.

        1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

          Exactly. He is positive that it is the other white guys who will be sent to the camps. Right thinking white guys like him will get a special pass or something and be allowed to roam free.

          Then - maybe - without any competition he could get a date with a real woman. She'd finally stop dating jackasses and go out with a sensitive guy like him.

          He will be so disappointed when he learns that most woman would volunteer for conjugal visits with the white guys in camps brigade because they naturally are attracted to men and not to beta males.

    4. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

      Can't remember but someone asked if the left had suggested banning frats and I posted the link to Gawker from November 2014. This is just the latest iteration of the left's desire to ban freedom of association. It is always from the left and it will always be from the left and it will only get more frequent.

      1. This Machine   10 years ago

        You can still freely associate with anyone you choose, just as long as they're already on the state-approved list of possible free associates. What more do you want?!

        1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

          Always the left's definition of "freedom" - you are free to do as we say!!!

    5. Agammamon   10 years ago

      And the frats actually provide a degree of external control.

      Not going to mince words here - young men (of any race) are fucking arseholes if they think they can get away with it. doubly so if they're immersed in a group of like-minded peers.

      The fraternity org offers a way to exert some control over that , somewhere between 'don't do that again' and 'you're going to jail for the rest of your life'.

      1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

        There is a reason that older men will use the phrase "young, dumb and full of cum" in an exasperated tone when dealing with groups of young males.

    6. Rhywun   10 years ago

      Pretty sure frats were banned at SUNY colleges until the 70s or 80s. They were back when I attended by the 90s - not my crowd but at least they provided easy access to beer for the underaged children among us.

  23. Form 27B/6   10 years ago

    In China, a fad among little old ladies is to go to the local park and line dance. [don't ask, they're bloody foreigners]
    Of course the "Sports bureacracy" needs to provide proper guidance to any fad.
    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0.....z3VIqyB7Z7

    "Twelve government-approved dance routines, complete with "scientifically designed gestures that will bring people positive energy", according to state media.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      "scientifically designed gestures that will bring people positive energy"

      So that's where they're taking the electrons to replace the coal plants from! They're stealing it from the little old ladies and leaving them with positive ions!

    2. BardMetal   10 years ago

      "scientifically designed gestures that will bring people positive energy"

      Ha it never ceases to amaze me just how primitive these people still are.

      1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        "Stop it, Moriarty, with the negative waves"

        1. BardMetal   10 years ago

          "Hey I've had nothing but positive thoughts about that bridge."

          1. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

            And then he went on to skipper the love boat.

  24. John   10 years ago

    George Washington University officials made a racist or religious mistake but, instead of promptly correcting it, they have blamed a Jewish student for "bigotry," banishing him from the campus, threatening him with arrest, keeping him from Passover services, and also threatening to expel him at a hearing next Monday, says John Banzhaf, a senior law professor at the University.

    Campus officials, mistaking an ancient Indian symbol representing peace, prosperity, and other virtuous qualities for a Nazi swastika symbolizing racism and hate, blamed the Jewish student who posted it on the bulletin board of his own largely-Jewish fraternity, claiming incorrectly that it was in fact a swastika which expressed "bigotry and hatred," and strongly suggesting that his act might constitute a "hate crime."

    http://www.prlog.org/12438549-.....udent.html

    1. TwB   10 years ago

      Ignorant assholes. And of course their first reaction is to banish the kid from campus and threaten to expel him. I'm so glad that I graduated college almost 10 years ago and didn't have to deal with this level of bullshit from the college administration.

      1. BardMetal   10 years ago

        In fairness this isn't in India, it's in the United States. Surly the kid must have known that the symbol might not be interpreted the way he wanted.

  25. DEG   10 years ago

    I read CNN.com's coverage of the germanwings crash. Unlike the AP, CNN.com's writers couldn't be bothered to spell D?sseldorf correctly. CNN.com spelled it "Dusseldorf" every time.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Curse this american keyboard and it's lack of an umlaut key. Quick what's the unicode for that character I can't type?

      1. DEG   10 years ago

        You can also write it "Duesseldorf", which is what the AP did.

        1. DEG   10 years ago

          "Dussel" is wrong, it means "jerk" or "fool".

      2. BardMetal   10 years ago

        Yeah I was thinking the same thing. My stupid keyboard doesn't do umlauts, or accents, or those weird Swedish symbols that looks like tiny Os or above letters.

        1. DEG   10 years ago

          Windows and Linux both have ways to show those characters with keyboards that don't have those keys. I don't know about Mac. I'm on a Mac (my work laptop, I'd never spend my own money on an Apple product). I cheated and cut-and-pasted the u with umlaut from a webpage.

          If I was on my home computer (a Linux machine), I'd type the character with my US keyboard. Compose key + u + ".

          1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

            What the Fuck is a "Compose Key"?

            1. DEG   10 years ago

              You set it under your keyboard configuration on Linux. It allows you to merge characters together to come up with all those foreign characters. I forget what the default setting for the compose key is.

              1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

                Are we going to get into one of these perennial online debates about desktop operating systems?

                I'm a UNIX admin and use Linuxes on servers both at work and at home, but I do not regard any as suitable for everyday desktop work. Both at work and at home I sit in front of a Win7 box. (at work because that's what I'm issued, at home because it's my gaming rig). I have had the argument over the issue more times than I care to.

                1. DEG   10 years ago

                  Are we going to get into one of these perennial online debates about desktop operating systems?

                  You asked a question, I answered it.

            2. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

              Ah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key that is not on my standard US keyboard either.

              1. DEG   10 years ago

                I forgot it was standard on Sun keyboards.

                If you have a Linux system, there are several keys you can turn into a compose key. Check your keyboard settings.

                1. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

                  ?

                  is alt 0252 for windows

          2. lafe.long   10 years ago

            Mac = option-u = ?

            option-o = ?
            option-n = ?

            ... etc.

    2. Grand Moff Serious Man   10 years ago

      I was born in D?sseldorf and that is why they call me Rolf!

      1. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

        My father is head of the gum works in D?sseldorf!

      2. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        Don't be stupid, be a smarty!

      3. WTF   10 years ago

        You know who else it's Springtime for?

        1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

          Spring Byington?

        2. Xeones   10 years ago

          The entire population of the Northern Hemisphere?

          1. WTF   10 years ago

            Except apparently the Northeast, temps are still in the 20s here in Jersey.

            1. Xeones   10 years ago

              Yeah, but fuck Jersey, yo. There's no reason for anyone to live north of, say, the Chesapeake Bay anyway.

        3. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

          Not Chicago?

        4. Slammer   10 years ago

          Major league baseball teams?

    3. John   10 years ago

      I told them it was a bad idea to reassign me to the copy desk. Do you think they would listen?

      1. DEG   10 years ago

        It's CNN, so, no, I didn't think they would.

    4. Homple   10 years ago

      So what's N?rnberg, Leberwurst?

      1. Bobarian (sexbot hand model)   10 years ago

        nice.

  26. Free Society   10 years ago

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.

    For what it's worth, every single instance where women attained suffrage, the electorate in question lurched to the left.

    1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      So what are you suggesting? Women should be denied voting privileges?

      1. Xeones   10 years ago

        BUUUUUUUTTTPLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGG

    2. AlmightyJB   10 years ago

      And then went broke. That's not a predictable consequence at all.

    3. Hey Nikki!   10 years ago

      What is it worth?

      1. Free Society   10 years ago

        An interesting factoid. Perhaps an indictment of democracy. Most definitely an indictment of the potency of socialism within feminism.

  27. DEG   10 years ago

    George Zimmerman accuses Obama of stirring up racial tensions.

    1. John   10 years ago

      Next u p, Zimmerman will accuse John Calipari of recruiting basketball players who really are not there to get a degree.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      NONSENSE.

      Everyone knows mulattoes can't be racist.

      Ask Heroic.

      1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        I thought it was "Mulattoes have great taste in DAT ASS"? I mean, I learned that from Heroic.

        1. DEG   10 years ago

          Yeah, so did I.

    3. BardMetal   10 years ago

      Somewhere a prog's head just exploded from shock and anger.

    4. WTF   10 years ago

      He needs to check his White Hispanic Privilege.

    5. Free Society   10 years ago

      George Zimmerman... isn't that the guy who killed Obama's son?

      1. WTF   10 years ago

        Saint Trayvon of the Purple Drank?

        1. Free Society   10 years ago

          Hollowed be thy name. Thy skittles come, thy drink be done, dat cough syrup be fun. Give us this drank, our purple drank and blast them homies as them homies blast us. For thy race baiting is the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

          1. WTF   10 years ago

            Nice

  28. John   10 years ago

    http://dailycaller.com/2015/03.....are-delay/

    A group of Democratic senators is urging the Obama administration to delay a key portion of Obamacare because the results could be "harmful and disruptive."

    In a letter exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller, Senate Democrats pleaded with Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell to delay an Obamacare rule change that puts companies with 51 to 100 employees in the costlier "small group" market instead of the "large group" market. The rule change, which will result in higher premiums for many companies, goes into effect in 2016.

    Why do these Senators hate America and want to deprive them of the gifts of Dear Leader?

  29. DEG   10 years ago

    Largest asteroid impact zone found.

    1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

      Auric?

      1. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

        The devastating event took place on our planet many millions of years ago

        This is clearly the work of Pro Lib in one of his earlier business ventures.

        1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

          Ah, OK - you are off the hook for this one...

          1. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

            I suspect it may have something to do with Australia's python population.

            1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

              Man, Pro L did have a long range plan for Mountie Python's!

    2. Rich   10 years ago

      "The two asteroids must each have been over 10 kilometers across -- it would have been curtains for many life species on the planet at the time."

      Seriously, get on the stick about strike prevention, humans.

      1. BardMetal   10 years ago

        How tragically ironic would it be if we spent billions on BS global warming prevention only to have all our efforts wiped out by an asteroid impact?

        1. Rich   10 years ago

          "Yet another species too stupid to survive."

          /Space alien anthropologist

          1. BardMetal   10 years ago

            "Perhaps the planet's crust had a high concentration of lead..."

            /Another alien anthropologist

        2. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

          Impact winter? Or extinction?

      2. Tonio   10 years ago

        The progs will never go for that because it will mean giving more money to those evil aerospace defense contractors. CAGW is as much about funneling money to Right-Thinking People(tm) as anything else.

  30. DEG   10 years ago

    Evil 1%-ers and their luxury buses in San Francisco.

    1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

      Eddie Murphy in whiteface discovered that bus existed years ago.

      1. Agammamon   10 years ago

        That was a hilarious skit.

  31. DEG   10 years ago

    A group is gathering signatures to amend Ohio's constitution to legalize marijuana.

  32. John   10 years ago

    http://www.washingtonexaminer......le/2561911

    Think Progress; the flat tax is just another example of the rape culture.

    1. DEG   10 years ago

      Is there anything rape culture can't do?

      1. John   10 years ago

        Its why Steve Smith has super powers.

  33. Rich   10 years ago

    Hitler watercolor to go under hammer in US

    You know who else had a watercolor auctioned off in Los Angeles?

    1. Xeones   10 years ago

      Georgia O'Keefe?

    2. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

      Albrecht D?rer?

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

        My favorite restaurant in Nuremberg

    3. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

      Say what you want about a dictatorial bloodthirsty maniac, he finally got the artistic notice he always wanted. 😉

    4. John   10 years ago

      Buy it and burn it. It is of no value other than ghoulish pleasure. The world will not miss a lousy painting.

      1. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

        It's too bad he was such a crappy artist. Had he been able to make a living by painting, the world might have been spared so much.

        1. JW   10 years ago

          I tried to get him into art school, but SilverFox316 kept fucking undoing it every damn time.

      2. Brett L   10 years ago

        Justified had an episode about a creepy guy who collected Hitler originals. The upshot was that the guy's dad had been a Nazi and this guy bought and burned every authentic Hitler painting he could find and kept the ashes.

      3. BardMetal   10 years ago

        I don't like the idea of destroying bit of history, even if it is just a shitty painting done by a psychopath. It would be like grinding off all the Waffen marks on a K98.

  34. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

    From the Boaz feminist article:

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist, in the sense of being an advocate of equality under the law for all men and women, though unfortunately many contemporary feminists are far from being libertarians."

    Look at it this way - if pirates seize a merchant's ship and sail the seven seas in in it, wreaking havoc for years, then when the merchant sees that ship on the horizon is he going to say, "hurrah! It belongs to our firm, it's one of ours!" Or will he say, "oh, crap, it's those pirates again!" Sure, the ship *ought* to belong to the merchant, but it *doesn't.* Do I need to elaborate on my comparison?

    "...Sarah Grimk?, also a campaigner for the rights of blacks and women, criticized the Anglo-American legal principle that a wife was not responsible for a crime committed at the direction or even in the presence of her husband in a letter to the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society: "It would be difficult to frame a law better calculated to destroy the responsibility of woman as a moral being, or a free agent." In this argument she emphasized the fundamental individualist point that every individual must, and only an individual can, take responsibility for his or her actions."

    Abolishing a legal immunity enjoyed by women, in the name of individual responsibility? Yeah, that's not exactly high on the modern feminist list of priorities.

  35. Agammamon   10 years ago

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist," writes Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz.

    Sorry Ser Boaz, but you are wrong. A libertarian must necessarily be for *equality under the law* while not buying, for one damn minute, all the other SJW crap that has attached itself to mainstream feminism.

    Women and children hardest hit, my arse.

    1. John   10 years ago

      Yes. It is about the dignity and rights of the individual.

    2. Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns   10 years ago

      I think a libertarian is necessarily a feminist in the 80% of the world where women still aren't really equal. There are places where feminism still means favoring equal rights, it's just that this is no longer the case in the west.

      1. Citizen Nothing   10 years ago

        Yes.

  36. Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns   10 years ago

    Today's example of media malfeasance.

    "A phone message threatening President Barack Obama's niece, a player on the Princeton basketball team, prompted authorities to increase security at Monday night's NCAA women's tournament game between the Ivy League school and Maryland, USA Today reported.

    An eight-minute voicemail was received at the University of Maryland athletic department offices on Monday afternoon in which a woman said a man was driving on the College Park, Maryland, campus with a Glock handgun in his possession, the newspaper reported, citing a person with knowledge of the threat.

    The caller linked the man's appearance on campus to the game and Leslie Robinson, a freshman forward at Princeton and the daughter of Michelle Obama's brother, USA Today said."

    So it wasn't actually a death threat, it was an example of an anonymous person claiming that some dude with a Glock (who did not himself threaten anyone) was totally on campus to kill Barack Obama's niece.

    I've seen this reported everywhere as a 'death threat' to Obama's niece, but when you actually read the articles, there appears to be no evidence she was ever threatened by anyone.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Has anyone who's phoned in a threat ever acted on it?

      1. Agammamon   10 years ago

        Has anyone ever actually attended a women's basketball game?

        1. Catatafish   10 years ago

          Let's stop playing fast and loose with the words "women's" and "basketball" together, huh?

  37. lap83   10 years ago

    "A libertarian must necessarily be a feminist,"

    This is like saying a libertarian must necessarily be a socialist.

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

      Of course! Socialists are for the best interests of *society,* and liberty is in society's best interest, QED.

      It's just too bad that all those statists have taken over the socialist movement.

      1. lap83   10 years ago

        Especially those guys who had to go and set world records for genocide. They really give the good socialists, like Santa Claus, a bad name.

  38. Pedantic Douchebag   10 years ago

    A U.S. Justice Department review of Philadelphia policing between 2007 and 2014 found 364 officer-involved shootings, or a little more than one per week

    2007 to 2014 is an eight year period containing 417 weeks. The rate is a little less than one per week

  39. Grand Moff Serious Man   10 years ago

    Rand Paul: Cruz is cool, but I'm Mr. Electable

    "Ted Cruz is a conservative. But it also goes to winnability," Paul said on Fox News' "The Kelly File."

    The senator said that he didn't watch much of Cruz's Monday morning announcement and declined to take any major jabs at his likely rival. But he did suggest on several occasions that the party needs to do more than throw out "red meat" to its supporters and rally the conservative base ? an apparent attempt to differentiate himself from Cruz, a darling of the conservative wing but a polarizing national figure.

    "We kind of come from the same wing of the party. And if you look at our voting records, you'll find we're very, very similar," Paul said. "I guess what makes us different is probably our approach as to how we would make the party bigger. And I'm a big believer that you should stand on principle and be true to your principles, but I also think that we should take those principles and try to bring in new people with them."

    [snip]

    "I'm the only one that beats Hillary Clinton in certain purple states. I'm the only one that also scores above all the other Republicans in whether or not I can beat her," he said.r

    Exactly. Cruz would be an awful administrator because he hasn't shown he can work with other people who disagree with him.

    1. John   10 years ago

      That is true. That being said, there is nothing to say he might change and be better about it as President. Not everyone is like Obama. Some people are capable of growing and adapting.

      1. Grand Moff Serious Man   10 years ago

        Also true. But Cruz has chiseled out an image for himself, an image that is extremely off-putting to independent voters and people who, sensibly, might actually be sick of Hillary Clinton and want an alternative.

        Cruz fits the mold of "right-wing extremist" far better than Rand Paul does, and we both know that's the drum the media will beat when they fall into save Hillary mode next year.

        1. John   10 years ago

          He can play the expectation games. The media will play him up as some right wing crazy, which will in turn make it easier to sound reasonable. That is what Reagan did. He let the media go on and on about how extreme he was only to cut their legs out from under them by appearing so reasonable during the debates and campaigning.

    2. BakedPenguin   10 years ago

      I'm surprised Paul said this. In a way, it's better for him to have Cruz out there spouting off. Fence sitters who are sick of the Dems constantly messing up the economy but scared by Cruz's impulsiveness could definitely see Paul's calm manner as a much better alternative. But why say it?

      1. Arizona_Guy   10 years ago

        They can play "good candidate, bad candidate."

  40. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    The White House head florist is gone and rumors are flying about why

    When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of "the crust master's" mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family's personal chef and pal, Sam Kass, left in December, Michelle Obama heaped praise on Kass's "extraordinary legacy of progress" in an official White House statement.

    But the recent exit of head florist Laura Dowling, who'd been in the job since 2009, has been a much quieter affair. So hush hush, in fact, that most outside of 1600 Penn knew nothing about it. There's still no official comment on why Dowling is no longer at the White House, but according to a source with close ties to current residence staffers, she was escorted from the building on Friday Feb. 13.

    1. TwB   10 years ago

      She was caught eating cheeseburgers, french fries and milkshakes for lunch every day. The trans fats did her in.

  41. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Where Are People Most Optimistic About Their Children's Future?

    Pew Research: "In general, countries that have experienced higher economic growth since 2008 are more optimistic for the next generation than publics that have had less growth. For example, in China, which has experienced an average GDP growth of 9% between 2008 and 2013, 85% of the public says young people will be better off financially than their parents. Meanwhile, Italians, who have seen their economy contract by an average of 2% per year over the course of the global recession, are much less optimistic (15%)."

  42. Grand Moff Serious Man   10 years ago

    Jesus tap-dancing Christ: Inconsistencies in Jackie's UVA story does not mean she wasn't raped

    "No evidence" of a rape does not mean that a rape didn't happen. But try telling that to any one of a number of media outlets who, when the Charlottesville Police Department released their findings on "Jackie" (the University of Virginia student whose alleged rape was at the center of a widely-disputed Rolling Stone article) essentially indicated to their readers that nothing happened to her.

    But at a press conference, even Police Chief Timothy Long refused to go that far. He told reporters that the police found inconsistencies in the story Jackie told a UVA dean and what she told to Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely and that they could not find any evidence to support the story as reported in the magazine. (Jackie declined to speak to the police for this investigation.)

    Longo echoed what anti-rape experts have been saying all along: while holes in Jackie story could mean that she lied about some things, either to the reporter or the dean to whom she originally spoke, it doesn't necessarily mean she lied about being raped.

    We also don't know if she was abducted by aliens or not. WE JUST DON'T KNOW!

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder   10 years ago

      Rape culture is officially a religion

    2. Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns   10 years ago

      I see it's the Guardian so I'm taking a wild guess - Jessica Valenti.

      1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

        I don't even have to click on it to know that she wrote it. That's about an obvious statement as "the sky is blue".

    3. John   10 years ago

      Inconsistencies alone don't make her a liar. The complete lack of any supporting evidence that she was even there when she said it happened, however, does.

      1. tarran   10 years ago

        The complete lack of any supporting evidence

        Not only is there a complete lack of supporting evidence, there is some evidence she made the whole thing up.

        Sooo, no evidence that anything happened. Some evidence that she made it up.

        We're way out of understandable inconsistencies territory here.

    4. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

      ""No evidence" of a rape does not mean that a rape didn't happen."

      Yes, there is no evidence which could persuade her that a rape didn't happen.

    5. SugarFree   10 years ago

      Jessica is very sad that this girl wasn't brutally raped by seven men for three hours. How much easier Jessica's life would be if this girl had just taken seven for the team.

      1. Catatafish   10 years ago

        That's eight when you include the bottle, SF. Remember, inanimate objects possess human agency.

        1. SugarFree   10 years ago

          I believe that was just thrown at her face some two years later.

    6. JW   10 years ago

      She could have been taken out to dinner and served a white wine with red meat.

      WHITE WINE!!!1!

  43. tarran   10 years ago

    Over at airstrip one

    FARAGE'S CHILDREN MOBBED BY DIVERSITY 'SCUM' DURING SUNDAY PUB LUNCH; FLEE IN TERROR

    Anti-Ukip Protestors have hounded Nigel Farage, his wife and his two young daughters from a pub near their home in Kent whilst the family was enjoying a Sunday lunch.

    The two girls, aged just ten and fifteen, fled in terror and were missing for some time this afternoon before returning home. Mr Farage has labelled the crowd "scum".

    The crowd of between 60 and 100 activists first turned up at the George and Dragon where Mr Farage has previously been spotted having a pint. When they heard that he was actually at the nearby Queen's Head in Downe, Kent, they relocated, mobbing the family as they were enjoying a quiet Sunday lunch.

    They chased the family from the pub, jumping on the bonnet of Mr Farage's car as he drove away. The self styled "cabaret of diversity" was said by organiser Dan Glass to comprise of migrants, HIV activists, gay people, disabled people and breastfeeding mums, all of whom claimed to have been "targetted by Ukip."

    1. tarran   10 years ago

      Incidentally, a number of the participants are being outed as people who are published by the Guardian.

      If early reports are to be believed, the mob was organised by a guy called Dan Glass, a former leader of the Student Union at the University of Sussex, but who was also involved with the green group Plane Stupid. They too had a dubious relationship with the concept of law and order.

      He is also a "Guardian Youth Climate Leader" and an occasional Guardian columnist. One can't help but wonder why so many writers at the Graun seem to be mixed up with violence and thuggery these days.

    2. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

      I'm increasingly persuaded of John's thesis that the radical left relies on mob action to rout its enemies, and the ability to mobilize mobs presupposes the victims being disarmed.

      A H&R commenter recently posted a video of "youths" attacking a synagogue without reprisal.

      If Farage and the Jews had guns, the mobs would crawl away with their tails between their legs.

      1. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

        You're predisposed to wingnuttery too?

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

          OK, you're right, those leftists didn't rely on mob action, and they didn't drive Farage out of the restaurant, and they didn't scare off his daughters. It's all made up.

          And those "youths" didn't attack the synagogue, either.

          1. tarran   10 years ago

            ? It's not sentient! ?

            1. Catatafish   10 years ago

              *clicking fingers to the beat*

            2. Restoras, OWG and RWC   10 years ago

              What tarran said.

              The response it posted is proof it isn't sentient.

          2. Mike M.   10 years ago

            Netanyahu's reelection seems to have possibly driven the cretin completely off his rocker, much like his hero.

        2. Xeones   10 years ago

          BUUUUUTTPLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUGGGGGG

    3. WTF   10 years ago

      Way to prove Farage's points about the dangers to society resulting from these idiots. Too bad people can't carry guns in the UK.

      1. Tonio   10 years ago

        This isn't even about open carry, which is too much to ask of our eurotard friends. In a sane universe the bar owner would have a weapon and could have subdued the thugs.

  44. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Gulf Stream slowdown is faster than ever: Fresh water from melting ice sheets may make European winters colder, warns study
    Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found the sea in the North Atlantic ocean is far colder than computer models predict
    They say ocean currents that drive the Gulf Stream has slowed by 15-20%
    The researchers claim fresh water from melting ice sheets may be to blame
    They say flow of melt water has accelerated recently due to climate change
    Weakened Gulf Stream may mean more severe winters in northern Europe
    Water temperatures around Florida and east coast of US could also suffer

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....older.html
    Climate change, is there anything it cannot do?

    1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

      Water temperatures around Florida and east coast of US could also suffer

      Lower water temperatures, leading to less severe hurricanes? Sounds good to me.

    2. Catatafish   10 years ago

      I'm still waiting for it to get me a beer from the fridge.

      If it had a face I'd slap it...

    3. WTF   10 years ago

      Climate change, is there anything it cannot do?

      Make the globe warmer?

  45. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Bottoms up! Huge $50 Bloody Mary features vodka, Worcester sauce, prawns, celery sticks... and a WHOLE fried chicken
    A $50 Bloody Mary offered at Sobelman's Pub and Grill in Wisconsin, US
    Comes with a 4lb fried chicken, bacon-wrapped cheese balls and celery
    10% of each sale goes to Hunger Task Force, a charity fighting hunger

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....icken.html
    I want.

  46. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Fritz, the hapless golden retriever who can't catch: Owner films dog who lacks paw-eye coordination taking hot dogs, tacos and pizzas to the face in doomed catch attempts
    The dog named Fritz initially looks composed before the camera
    He fails to catch a hot dog, taco, strawberry and slice of pizza
    He has some success by catching a single chip at the end of the video

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....items.html
    I larfed.

    1. WTF   10 years ago

      I have a bulldog like that. Toss him a piece of food and he watches it bounce off his face and then eats it off the floor.

      1. sarcasmic   10 years ago

        My pug is like that.

  47. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    He's ova the Moon Moth: Stunning African insect lays two eggs in news anchor's ear during live broadcast from zoo
    Washington Fox 5's Bob Barnard got an earful from an African Moon Moth in a live spot at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History on Monday

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....t-zoo.html

    1. SugarFree   10 years ago

      America's ear rape moth culture.

    2. straffinrun   10 years ago

      I once knew an insect from Nantucket ...

  48. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Hillary Clinton cracks a joke about her illicit email account in wake of scandal as she promises 'no more secrecy'
    Former Secretary of State made light of accusations over her emails
    Has been castigated for using personal account for government business
    Spoke tonight and hoped for 'new beginnings' - and a new account
    Appeared at journalism prize-giving ceremony in Washington, D.C.
    Promised transparency - then joked everyone had to sign a gagging order

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....crecy.html
    Shame? What does that mean?

    1. Rich   10 years ago

      I wonder what jokes she'll be making when she gets primaried in a landslide.

      1. Tonio   10 years ago

        Be careful what you ask for. The women vote could put Warren in the White House, and she will take that as a mandate for progressivism not an effect of identity voting.

  49. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Surf's pup! Adorable moment baby sea lion hops on a surfer's board and rides the waves with him for more than an HOUR
    Sea lion pup jumped onto surfer Dan Murphy's board off San Diego coast
    Then 'hugged' him from behind, before crawling into his lap 'like a puppy'
    For next hour, pair floated on board and rode waves at Cardiff-by-the-Sea
    Finally, Mr Murphy had to nudge pup away because he was going home
    'I was literally in tears... I waved to him,' said Mr Murphy, a father-of-one
    Comes as rising numbers of famished pups wash up on California shore
    Mr Murphy believes his new friend may have been treated and released

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....coast.html

    1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

      No force in the world could have kept me from taking that damned cute thing home with me after that....

      1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

        Howzabout a Canadian with a club?

        1. WTF   10 years ago

          Canadian Club? Yes please.

  50. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Perhaps they'd had purple rain? Residents of Taiwanese town wake to find local river that supplies their drinking water has turned a rather unnatural colour
    The river is located in a residential area and is the area's freshwater supply
    Locals were shocked by the unusual sight and took to social media
    A nearby factory dumped waste into river directly, causing the dye
    Officials issued a fine of ?2,580 to the factory with a possible suspension
    Netizens joked the water matched the colour of a taro-flavoured milk tea

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....olour.html
    Unfettered free markets! Capitalism! Profits before people! This is what libertarians want!

  51. sarcasmic   10 years ago

    Stretchy fabric, no underwiring or padding, and real women as models: The 'Feminist' lingerie that's NOT meant to be sexy
    Hayat Rachi, 25, founded 'unapologetic feminist' lingerie brand Neon Moon
    First collection 'Mon Dieu' offers comfortable styles without padding
    For women of all sizes and body types as well as those who like body hair
    The New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel endorsed the designs

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-sexy.html
    John approves.

    1. WTF   10 years ago

      The New Girl actress Zooey Deschanel endorsed the designs

      Because she does not at all achieve any success based on her looks.

  52. Grand Moff Serious Man   10 years ago

    Mon Dieu! KKKorporations have taken over the First Amendment!

    Screenshot because NYT doesn't allow for copy and paste

    1. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

      "Before 1976, First Amendment challenges from corporations generally involved companies in the business of free expression, like newspapers, book publishers and film producers. More recently, companies have filed free-speech challenges to laws regulating how ordinary products may be marketed or advertised."

      Corporations aren't people! Check out this corporate charter - to think that they claim First Amendment rights! (I never tire of posting this)

      http://investors.nytco.com/fil.....on2007.pdf

      "[First Amendment] lawsuits, [Coates] wrote, have pernicious consequences for both free enterprise and the rule of law. Corporations are diverting resources from research and innovation to litigation, he wrote."

      Because if there is one principle the Left stands for, it's not allowing abuse of the legal system so that corporations have to divert resources to court battles and regulatory compliance.

      Classic concern-trolling.

      1. Juice   10 years ago

        And they divert those resources to litigation because they really enjoy litigation, not because they have to fight totalitarian fuckwads trying to force them to say or not say certain things.

      2. WTF   10 years ago

        Of course the First Amendment says nothing about only being applicable to individuals and not corporations.

  53. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

    Cops also destroy one alt-text a week.

  54. Auric Demonocles   10 years ago

    I don't really understand the need from some people to attack sports. If you don't want to participate, don't, but stuff like this is really annoying. (I took part in both sports and robotics competitions in high school. Most of these difference are not valid)

    1. Rhywun   10 years ago

      Me too. Too much derp to fully rebut, but this one I just can't even:

      1. Rhywun   10 years ago

        OK let's try again:

        it's not uncommon in baseball, basketball, football, and hockey to see a fight erupt on the field.

        Oh noes! Boys fight!

  55. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

    Chicago police officers stop and frisk at a much higher rate than NYPD counterparts...

    This is why we don't have Chicago meet-ups like the ones in LA. Cops get wind of it, and BOOM, anal probes for everyone!

    1. BuSab Agent   10 years ago

      I thought we didn't have Chicago meet ups because the first one to show up would be frozen to death before the rest of us arrived?

      1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        This is why God invented alcohol.

        1. BuSab Agent   10 years ago

          You can't smoke in Chicago bars. If you can't smoke while drinking there's no point is there?

          1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

            Weed isn't legal, either, but still, an evening fueled by gin and vodka couldn't be all bad.

      2. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

        I thought it was the pizza - or lack of.

        1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

          There is great pizza here. I mean world-class great pizza. It's just that the tomato casserole-pie that Chicago is famous for dilutes the trademark by pretending to be what it isn't.

          1. Swiss Servator... Switzy!   10 years ago

            Grrrr....

  56. Slammer   10 years ago

    For anyone into the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor here's the new album full stream

    1. KDN   10 years ago

      I refuse to listen to anything by this band because of how annoyed I am by the placement of that exclamation point.

      1. Xeones   10 years ago

        The car's on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel.

      2. Slammer   10 years ago

        EDIT BUTTON, PLEASE!

      3. Somalian Road Corporation   10 years ago

        I don't mind the placement so much as the placement changing.

    2. Juice   10 years ago

      But people would normally pay money for that?

    3. lap83   10 years ago

      Cool, I didn't even know they were still together. I think it's been over 5 years since I listened to them. Good background music.

  57. Knarf Yenrab!   10 years ago

    Cops Shoot 1 Person Per Week in Philly

    He must get awfully tired of that.

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