A.M. Links: Harry Reid Won't Seek Reelection, Germanwings Co-Pilot 'Received Treatment for Depression,' Indiana Enacts Religious Freedom Restoration Law

• 

  Credit: White House / Flickr.com

  Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is retiring and will not seek reelection next year.

• According to a German newspaper, Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot believed to have purposefully crashed a Germanwings plane in the French alps, suffered from depression and anxiety and spent time receiving psychiatric treatment.

• Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has signed a controversial religious freedom bill modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

• The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is asking the White House to turn over all documents and intelligence information related to last year's prisoner exchange of five Taliban detainees for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

• The deputy police chief of Fresno, California, has been arrested on multiple charges of drug distribution by the F.B.I. "It is important that we do everything we can to maintain and enhance the trust that our citizens have in us," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer remarked afterwards.

• Can Martin O'Malley beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination?

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is retiring and will not seek reelection next year.

Reid wants to spend more time peddling influence with his family.

[UnCivilServant]

Twenty years too late, Harry.

[Mike M.]

Retaking the Senate just got a little harder for the demos. I predict that seat flips.

[Drake]

Would have flipped last time with a decent opponent.

[WTF]

And if Harry wasn't allowed to get away with cheating.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yeah, I think Reid is probably still in charge of elections there.

[Mike M.]

Yep. He barely held on by his fingernails even with all the power he had due to his seniority. The replacement is going to be running with no name, no record, and no power whatsoever.

[straffinrun]

Yes, one less obtuse Angle.

[Rich]

Nice.

[R C Dean]

Probably would have flipped last time if the Repubs hadn't stabbed their own candidate in the back.

Because if there's one thing the Repubs hate worse than a Dem, its a Tea Party candidate.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

8 reasons why children of the 70s should be dead.

http://flashbak.com/8-reasons-.....-dead-323/

The helmet part is so true.

[Rich]

Beautiful. The list goes on and on.

[WTF]

All of it is true. This is why people my age understand that we are currently raising a nation of pussies.

[Monty Crisco]

Seconded!

[Vapourwear]

You forgot "self-important". Self-important pussies.

[WTF]

Sure, you could also add "entitled" to that list.

[BardMetal]

This is going to be the sort the kind of thing me and my wife are going to argue about. She already worries about everything, I can sense a future helicopter parent. Anyone else have this problem? I would like to prepare our future kid for life, not shield him from it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

As the father of three, I recommend just locking them outside for extended periods. They harden up eventually.

[some guy]

As the father of three, I recommend just locking them outside for extended periods. They harden up eventually.

Or just give them an opposite gender name.

"I knew you'd have to get tough or die."

[UnCivilServant]

-1 piece of ear.

[gaoxiaen]

+1 Colorado Kool-Aid.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

My parents gave me a gender neutral name so they didn't have to think about it after I was born, too much effort.

[JurisCani]

Scruffy" is gender neutral? Who knew!

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Or give them a name that nobody dares fuck with.

Like Liberty Ordeth. You think anybody's gonna fuck with her when she grows up?

Well, maybe if they find out her other middle name is Cranberry, but probably not even then.

BTW, we're leaning toward Justice Forall with the next one coming in June. Banjos nixed Jemima.

[WTF]

Gonna have another naming auction?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Doubtful. I think we're pretty set on this one. Too bad there are no holidays around the due date. I kinda like adding the extra middle name like we did for Liberty.

[hamilton]

Damn, dude, you are going to be a one-man solution to the No Libertarian Women problem. Congrats.

(Actually one woman too, even more congrats to banjos).

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I do what I can.

Also, if any of you need to get a woman impregnated, I could probably sell you some sperm. Apparently mine works pretty well.

[R C Dean]

Regardless of the official name, call your kid "Spike". Regardless of gender.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Boy Named Sue

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Just the shit that went on in the car on the long drives to Florida would have been enough for my parents to lose custody of us by today's pussy standards.

Including my father smoking, the crazy arguing and my brother bringing stuffed in the area just under the back window with a pillow to make space. We were four. Someone had to be sacrificed.

[Ted S.]

My dad got a van and converted the inside. This was 1978, so he was able to get commercial plates for the empty (pre-conversion) van which was apparently an advantage during the gas crisis of '78.

Took it on camping trips, and my parents slept in the van while us kids got the tents.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Was the van a-rockin'?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I remember 1978...dad driving the Ford Fairmont from Cincy to Sanibel. Drove the whole way himself with my mom shotgun and the three of us in the back. My brother sleeping in the window transom, my sister across the bench seat and me in the floor with that goddamn hump n the middle.

Try that today and you'd likely end up in prison. But we ended up at the beach.

[Lord Humungus]

Or riding in the front with my mom 'n' dad ... no seatbelts.

Or riding in the backseat - no seatbelts. Almost get into a car accident and my old man's arm would shoot out, pinning me to the seat.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Remember waving at the state trooper as he passed you while you sat on your dad's lap and steered at 70 MPH on the highway?

[MJGreen]

As late as 1999, I'd often ride in my brother's car in the "backseat," which was on top of the speakers in his truck. Even though I was bent over for the duration and facing the back, nothing ever happened.

[Brett L]

When the first one shows up, start showing her the free range parenting stuff. My wife is naturally like yours, but she also worked as a college advisor and has no desire for our little darlings to be as helpless as some of her students. She's starting to read more books about how to raise independent children. So I think I'm getting through. Also, the first time our now 1 year old did a header off the couch and didn't suffer a brain injury, she relaxed noticeably.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I'm working from the home office today and I don't even know where my kids are. They're here somewhere...or traipsing around in the back yard. I guess.

[Bill Dalasio]

Also, the first time our now 1 year old did a header off the couch and didn't suffer a brain injury, she relaxed noticeably.

Bah, it'll never be entirely calm until the little tyke comes home with its first scar from a knife fight. Or a gunshot wound.

[Private FUQ]

I just had a vision of a bunch of 7 year olds having a gun battle on Big Wheels.

[Brett L]

What about scalp wounds from a dirt clod fight that evolved into a rock fight?

[Bill Dalasio]

Close enough.

[straffinrun]

My 6 year old starts elem school next month. She's going to be walking from home, 15 minute walk, to school with a group of other 1st and 2nd graders. It is odd to think that pooping, crying helpless little blob of just 6 years ago can do that today. Got her a safety cell phone for kids.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Starting elementary school next month? Where are you, Utah? I don't know any place else that could have that fucked up of a school year what with their track system.

[straffinrun]

Put it this way, I know the reason it's called "Godzilla": "Gorilla"/"Kujira"="Godzilla".

[AlexInCT]

Arigato!

[Rich]

I suggest you contemplate the fallouts from "But don't tell your mother, OK?"

[Raston Bot]

My wife is slowly getting away from that. One book on the benefit of roughhousing did most of the work for me.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Roug.....ughhousing

And she doesn't even make $9983 on the internet working only 28 hours each day after making nothing for six months.

But seriously, I recommend that book.

[The DerpRider]

The Dangerous Book for Boys is on my son's dresser.

[Raven Nation]

Hey: I saw your question about podcasts later in the evening. Posted a brief reply - no big deal but wanted to let you know.

[BardMetal]

Cool thanks. The podcast idea was something a friend suggested to me awhile ago I was just curious how they work.

[mad.casual]

This is going to be the sort the kind of thing me and my wife are going to argue about. She already worries about everything, I can sense a future helicopter parent. Anyone else have this problem? I would like to prepare our future kid for life, not shield him from it.

Helicopter parenting is a lot like every other ideological control scheme. You need 100% effort and buy-in from everyone or the whole thing crumbles. It's a lot of work to be a helicopter parent and, from what I've seen, it doesn't intrinsically produce some sort of wuuml;nderkind. So, not buying in a priori, you're only in real trouble if it's your wife, your in-laws, and your parents who think you're wrong.

There are plenty of helicopter things that my wife does, but I will freely tell her that she's on her own with regard to any one that I don't like (in a quid pro quo fashion). Especially with three, helicopter parenting only works in a 'zone defense' mode and that becomes a fantasy if you're the only one on your team.

She loathes ceding control, but loves taking up the more subtle/soft control methods that spring up. It's like every socialist bureaucrat who discovered they could keep VCRs out of their country for their measly pay, or accept a kickback, generate a little job security, and let some of the proletariat have a VCR or two.

[John]

Yes mad. It am constantly amazed at the amount of peer pressure parents put on each other. I swear one of the reasons I want to have kids is for the contrarian pleasure of telling other parents and various busy bodies to go fuck themselves.

[Ted S.]

Is it all one page?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Click to find out!

/smirk.

[DEG]

I was born in the 70s and don't remember them, but almost all of those apply to the 80s as well.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes it can be applied to the 80s. But the 80s was the decade where we began to transition into Retardhood. From anti-smoking campaigns to self-esteem indoctrinization to everyone gets a ribbon for participating.

[DEG]

I remember the change. For some of those it came late to where I grew up.

[DEG]

Though while they came late, they came at the right time to get my younger brother. There is a world of difference between him and me.

I was chatting with a friend of mine about my younger brother. My friend knows my younger brother and thought based on how my younger brother acts that my younger brother is much younger than he is.

I pointed out to my friend that my older brother and I are much closer to our parent's generation in terms of culture and expectations of us than our younger brother is, and technological toys have nothing to do with it.

[WTF]

Yup. By the 90s the retardation had irreversibly set in.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I remember being devastated when I went to the schoolhouse to see the roster of kids that made the 7th grade boys basketball team and not finding my name on it. It fucking mattered to every kid that made it and that didn't. Now they have fat fucks on the varsity swim team at my kids school because everybody makes the team and the fatty kids are seniors. So they'll get a varsity letter and wear the jacket when they made no contribution at all to the success of the team. It's fucking pathetic.

[WTF]

Yeah, when I was a kid second place was just the first loser. Now EVERYBODY is a fucking winner, here's your unearned trophy!

[gaoxiaen]

Or when everyone bitched about unleaded gas and Nancy Reagan's astrologer.

[Lord Humungus]

Born in 1970 - consider that rough time frame as the "last of the old school" generation. Feel like I had a Huck Finn childhood - dirt clod fights, heading off for hours without my parents knowing (or caring) where I was, BB guns, fighting, spying, fireworks, fishing, swimming, hiking, biking... all without adults around.

[Drake]

Born in the 60's - all true and much more. The summers when I was 10 or so, I would walk out the door after breakfast and come home around dinner. A mom at whatever house we were playing near would toss us PB&J's.

Teeer-totters / seesaws in every playground. It was like a game of chicken - would your partner bail while you are up in the air? Would you land on your feet or crash on your ass? When you would you get revenge?

Taught you a lot about trust but verify.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Born in the 70s. Same here - all your stories. Only with more French.

But it was awesome.

[See Double You]

The blonde bombshell in No. 5...I'll be in my bunk.

[Pro Libertate]

Just think, even with all of that, we were a pussy generation compared to our parents.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Um, no. Our parents, the baby boomers, are proving themselves to be the biggest pussy generation of all time. They are stealing from every generation after the because they were collectively too lazy and stupid to provide a retirement for themselves.

They can all eat shit and die.*

*Except for my parents.

[WTF]

Fuck you, sloop, I'm providing for my own fucking retirement. Even though I had SS forcibly ripped from my earnings so I couldn't invest it on my own.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

You go on the list with my parents then.

[WTF]

Well, thanks. I always assumed that SS would be fucked by the time I am ready to retire, so I just planned on not having it.

[AlexInCT]

Same here.

[Bill Dalasio]

Just remember, every significant accomplishment the Baby Boom tries to take credit for, from civil rights to rock and roll was actually an accomplishment of the Silent Generation (the generation between the Boomers and "the Greatest Generation"). They just watched on TV. Stealing is what they do.

[Pro Libertate]

My parents aren't quite boomers. In any case, my point is that they were raised with even fewer protections that we were, and that trend goes back a couple more generations when everyone was on a farm, slinging shit and stomping on rattlesnakes.

[CatoTheElder]

It wasn't the boomers who created social security and Medicare. It was the transition between the veterans of the Great War and the "Greatest Generation" that gave the US social security. It was the "Greatest Generation" that insisted that their social security benefits be inflation indexed, which turned it into a full-blown ponzi scheme. They also saw to it that they get their Medicare, and that the federal budget be unified so that their taxes would not go up. By the time the boomers came of age, social security was already the third rail of politics.

Public schools and media thoroughly indoctrinated boomers to trust their benevolent government was stewarding their "contributions" with a view of ensuring their retirement income in a wonderful "compact between generations".

The boomers by and large were gullible and self-indulgent, but they were not lazy and stupid. Neither did boomers start the inter-generational theft that the "Greatest Generation" euphemized as a "compact between generations". Instead, a boomer who started employment in 1970 has experienced 45 separate increases in his social social security tax, which increased the annual tax by 2417%, from $750 to $18131, to fund the coercive ponzi scheme of the Greatest Generation.

[Injun, as in from India]

Oh look! Here's how the NY Times puts it:

Harry Reid Says He Won't Seek Re-Election

Senator Harry Reid, the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Obama's ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance.

Tough Tactician? Oh right, he is a Democrat. If he was a Republican, the NY Times would call him an Obstructionist.

Push of President Obama's ambitious agenda? LOL. The voters stopped that dead its tracks in 2010.

What beautiful unbiased reporting by the NY Times!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Can Martin O'Malley beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination?

I'm pretty sure Matt Drudge is single handedly propping him up.

[gaijin]

I don;t know...perhaps he is: Polarizing, Insincere, Entitled, Calculating, Disingenous?

[straffinrun]

I stopped reading the question after the first 6 words. Yes, I'll pay.

[Xeones]

I don't know, Hillary fights dirty. And she kicks like a mule.

[straffinrun]

Dirty implies some cunning. Stonewalling is her go to move. No cunning in that.

[Xeones]

She is possessed of a certain low cunning, like a feral dog or a Welshman. She also benefits from a super low center of gravity what with the cankles.

[Pro Libertate]

I've found her politics particularly unimpressive. Bill has skills in the regard, but he's either lost the knack or just doesn't care enough to help her. Or maybe she doesn't listen.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

She'll win if there's no Dem primary debate. If there is, she'll get her lock cleaned. It really did her in with Obama and its why the email story keeps legs: when pressed for an answer, she gets a deer-in-the-headlights look and seizes up. Her effectiveness lies in her surrogates ability to get dirt on those that report on her or would challenge her on positions. She has had some electoral success and success (in the eyes of the media) because her actions are never questioned. and her ideas are never requested. She's a typical machine politician that has been put everywhere because it was "her turn" or because she rode the coattails of someone else. That won't fly if the cameras are on her and an actual opponent from the left is asking her to answer difficult questions.

[Brett L]

Here's to Hillary being the Bob Dole of her party.

[Pro Libertate]

It's a total media bullshit story that no one else is running. There are actually about as many potential candidates for the Democratic nomination as there are for the GOP. The media just likes to pretend there aren't, for some reason I can't quite fathom, because I think she has no hope in hell of winning the general.

[straffinrun]

They will cling on to that "aura of invincibility" until the bitter end. She's a sure winner in their eyes and they aren't going to let fake skandalz derail her.

[Bill Dalasio]

She has had some electoral success and success (in the eyes of the media) because her actions are never questioned. and her ideas are never requested.

Bear in mind, the only electoral success she's ever actually had was winning a Senate seat in NY that was pretty much handed to her. And that was, bluntly, on her husband's coattails.

[gaoxiaen]

And bites like crocodile.

[Mike M.]

Is O'Malley polling higher than 2% anywhere in the country? Even the people in Maryland hate his guts due to his endless slew of tax increases. That's why his successor lost in a state where it's almost impossible for a republican to win statewide office!

[some guy]

Can Martin O'Malley beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination?

Does it matter?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

At this point, I don't think it really makes a difference.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...suffered from depression and anxiety and spent time receiving psychiatric treatment.

I suspect the certifications to be an airline pilot are about to become more difficult.

[Rich]

CAN I HAS ROBOT PILOT?

[gaijin]

The inflatable kind they had in Airplane?

[straffinrun]

Roger

[The DerpRider]

Huh? Over Unger or under Dunn?

[WTF]

Surely you can't be serious.

[Marshall Gill]

Don't call me Shirley.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Just hang loose, blood.

[some guy]

Or they (the airlines) could just require that no one be left alone in the cockpit. Speaking of which.... why wasn't this a requirement in the past? What about strokes, heart attacks and seizures?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Yes.

[UnCivilServant]

It was in the US. European airlines have just now decided to take up the requitement on their own.

[Raven Nation]

Three of four of them announced this new policy yesterday.

[Ivan Pike]

Or they (the airlines) could just require that no one be left alone in the cockpit.

It's my understanding that is the law on US carriers.

[WTF]

Yes it is.

[R C Dean]

why wasn't this a requirement in the past?

Probably because the doors didn't lock.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The ones who *didn't* get treatment will now have an advantage.

[gaoxiaen]

I, for one, welcome our new robot pilot overlords. Better than the NSA.

[Lord Humungus]

Saudi man divorces wife over her love for camel

Manama: A Saudi man divorced his wife after he became convinced she loved her father's camel than she loved him.

The husband and wife were on a visit to her family's house west of the capital Riyadh when he verbally flirted with her to show how deep his love for her was.

However, the wife reportedly failed to match the emotions of his love expressions and told him that he was dear to her, but not as much as her father's camel "Al Waleef", local news site Sada reported.

[WTF]

"But darling, Al Waleef is hung like....Camel!"

[BardMetal]

Whats the Arabic name for Catherine the Great?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I read it as 'over her love for anal'.

[WTF]

Only a Canuckistani would see "camel" and translate it as "hot torrid night of wild-eyed bungholery".

[Rufus J. Firefly]

More like cold torrid night.

[Dweebston]

Cold clammy night?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sure. Why not?

[WTF]

Is that a Don McLean song? Clammy, clammy night?

[gaijin]

What does George Clooney's wife have to do with this?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm citing you. I'm communicating your micro-aggression to Matt Welch as we speak.

[Dweebston]

On a related note, behold the greatness who is Ken M. (third post in, specifically)

[Xeones]

Ken M is the best.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Those are excellent, only superseded by the idiotic responses. He's the perfect youtube troll.

[Ted S.]

There goes Rufus, engaging in projection again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has signed a controversial religious freedom bill modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Restaurants will now be free to lynch same-sex couples for the entertainment of their other patrons.

[UnCivilServant]

Late Roman Paganism?

[The Other Kevin]

From the way people are reacting here, you would think that's the case. I am hearing/seeing a lot of "Indiana passes law legalizing discrimination against LGBT people."

[some guy]

Indiana passes law legalizing discrimination against LGBT people

Well that is essentially what the law does. But who cares? You can't legislate morality. At best you can just force people to try a bit harder to hide their prejudices.

[Free Society]

It doesn't do that at all. What the law does, is prevent LGBT people from enslaving the providers of goods and services.

[creech]

Nice spin. We need to do this with more issues. Like the "payday loan" nonsense.
Headlines should read something like "Congress contemplates forcing poor folks in need of cash to turn to loan sharks and knee breakers."

[gaoxiaen]

Or drug dealing and prostitution. NTTAWWT.

[R C Dean]

"Indiana declines to engage in discrimination against religious people" is probably just as spinny as "legalizing discrimination against gay people."

See, that's the problem with positive rights. You hit the zero-sum wall real quick, so that somebody gets discriminated against.

[straffinrun]

Comments like that will get us bumped up from 32 to top ten on newsmax.

[Brian D]

Also, Gen Con is considering new cities to host the convention just as they would have because their contract with Indy is up in five years and the process to choose a potential new host city takes that long.

Not that they've had any indication that businesses are going to discriminate--they've actually received 'hundreds of messages' to the contrary--but just in case attendees are so hell-bent that the government of Indiana legislate forced labor that they'll forego attending and punish the businesses who are pledging to be nondiscriminatory.

[UnCivilServant]

I've been boycotting GenCon for a while now because of the people running it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

They may as well boycott the United States because of the federal RFRA, which is VIRTUALLY THE SAME AS THE INDIANA LAW.

Sorry to use all caps, but the retardation just got to me.

[crab_apple]

Which discrimination is worse?

-A religious man refuses serve a gay couple at his restaurant.
-A religious man refuses to patronize a gay restaurant because it is run by gays.
-A gay couple refuses to eat at a restaurant run by an extremely religious couple - their restaurant doesn't discriminate against anyone but the couple does belong to a church that is against gay marriage.

People seem to think that the first one is horrible while the other two are fine - but is there really any difference? In every case there are likely lots of alternatives to these businesses. In each case someone is being discriminated against for who they are (obviously religion is at least somewhat a choice, although the true believers would deny that).

One argument I had was that it actually costs us very little when we discriminate as consumers (it costs me nothing to choose McDonald's over Chick-fil-a), but it actually costs the business owner a lot to discriminate - he spent his time, work, and money building a business, so why shouldn't he choose who his customers are.

I have a friend who writes music for a living who expressed a lot of outrage at this law - but what if a Church came to him and asked him to write music for a video they were doing about how gay marriage is wrong. He doesn't want his name or work associated with their video, but refusing to work for them for personal beliefs, is that really any different than the baker who won't make cakes for gay weddings?

[gaoxiaen]

Equality is best. As long as they're not trying to put in MY poopchute.

[Puddin' Stick]

it costs me nothing to choose McDonald's over Chick-fil-a

You'll actually save money that way? Chick-fil-a is more expensive that McDonald's?

[Don Mynack]

Pence just killed his presidential aspirations, but he may have a future on Fox News now. The smart play wold have been a nice pocket veto on this - just let it sit on the desk unsigned until the session ends.

[mad.casual]

Pence just killed his presidential aspirations

In 2016, sure. By 2020 or 2024, gay marriage will be such a non-issue no one will care. Especially since this is redundant with the RFRA.

Not that I want the guy to win or think he has/had a real chance at this point, but if Bush didn't dowse the fire of winning a national election on gay marriage issues, Obama and SCOTUS have.

[Lord Humungus]

Willie Nelson Is Launching His Own Brand of Weed

Well, you know, Willie has spent a lifetime in support of cannabis, both the industrial hemp side and the marijuana side. He wants it to be something that's reflective of his passion. Ultimately, it's his. But it was developed by his family, and their focus on environmental and social issues, and in particular this crazy war on drugs, and trying to be a bright light amongst this trail as we're trying to extract ourselves from the goo of prohibition.

Really he wants it, at the end of the day, to envelop what his personal morals and convictions are. So from the store itself to how they'll work with suppliers and how things are operated, it's going to be very reflective of Willie's life.

[PRX]

Roll Him Up And Smoke Him

[gaoxiaen]

I'll never smoke weed with Willie Again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYwb-O27qv0

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

"it's going to be very reflective of Willie's life."

So, you get a free IRS lien with every 50 grams?

[John]

Willie is a national treasure. The day Willie finally leaves this earth will be a very very sad day for the world.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

He's like a modern day Lou Reed.

[Lord Humungus]

Jury Convicts Michigan Woman For 'Bacon Rage' Shooting At McDonald's Drive-Thru Window

A jury today found a Michigan woman guilty of firing a shot into a McDonald's drive-thru window after employees failed to put bacon on a cheeseburger she ordered.

Shaneka Monique Torres, 30, was convicted of a felony firearms charge after only an hour of deliberations by the panel. Torres, seen at right, faces a minimum of two years in state prison when she is sentenced next month.

[Monty Crisco]

Okay, that chick likes bacon more than me...

[Monty Crisco]

Looks like Amber Rose after WAYYYYYY too many bacon cheeseburgers...

[gaoxiaen]

If you won't shoot it out over bacon, is life really worth living?

[UnCivilServant]

Really? All you had to do was say "Dude, where's my bacon?" and they'd have fixed that. The gunfire is just excessive.

[Marshall Gill]

If she had gotten pickles when she asked for none, sure, the gunfire would be over the top but we are talking about bacon, here.

[expat]

Any relation to Jeremy Clarkson?

[Free Society]

Shaneka Monique Torres, 30, was convicted of a felony firearms charge after only an hour of deliberations by the panel. Torres, seen at right, faces a minimum of two years in state prison when she is sentenced next month.

I wonder if she's a natural blonde.

[See Double You]

We detect a whiff of racism in your post. Report to Sector 98573 for reeducation and processing.

[Free Society]

Smells good. I'll be off then.

[gaoxiaen]

Do they serve bacon in prison? If so, I could do it standing on my head.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is asking the White House to turn over all documents and intelligence information related to last year's prisoner exchange of five Taliban detainees for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Some are on Hillary's server, some are on Lois Lerner's hard drive.

[Rich]

Probably.

And, at this point, I trust the Committee's "asking" is more like "Give us the fucking documents NOW!"

[some guy]

"Or else what?"

[Rich]

"Or else we'll give you something of which you'll have no recollection!"

[Notorious G.K.C.]

🙂

[gaoxiaen]

Or else we'll give you a two-week suspension with pay.

[WTF]

"How many divisions does the committee have?"
- Obama

[sarcasmic]

'Racist' cupcakes banned from French pastry shop: Court orders removal of dark chocolate figures with pink lips

Patisserie banned from displaying dark chocolate cakes of naked people
Nice court ruled 'obscene' cakes were violation of 'human dignity'
Anti-racism campaigners denounced them as 'slave trade caricatures'
Baker said use of dark chocolate was 'technically necessary'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-lips.html

[BardMetal]

Can we get some slave-trade coffee too, I bet it's a lot cheaper then that fair-trade crap.

[Raven Nation]

All coffee that is not fair-trade is slave trade.

/green-prog derp

[BardMetal]

By the way what does fair-trade even mean? I know what free-trade is, but fair-trade sounds made up.

[sarcasmic]

Fair trade is an organized social movement whose stated goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability. Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as higher social and environmental standards.

http://bit.ly/Zy1vmN

[WTF]

So, it sounds like it means paying higher than market price, with some lefty bullshit thrown in.

[sarcasmic]

Yeah. You pay more so you can feel good about farmers getting paid better. Or something.

[Xeones]

Except almost all of the price increase goes to the certifying organization. A lot of small cocoa farmers in West Africa, for instance, are pulling out of Fair Trade? certification because it's a bunch of extra hassles with no real benefit for them.

[B.P.]

Higher "social" standards? That word is just sprinkled around now.

[straffinrun]

This must mean Ding Dongs are super racist.

[Restoras, CRW]

What about Devil Dogs?

[straffinrun]

What is that? Seriously.

[WTF]

Devil Dogs.

[straffinrun]

Bronze colored, elongated shafts filled with cream? I got nothin'.

[gaoxiaen]

Munchies. I'm off the local convenience store. BRB.

[Enough About Palin]

They look just like the fat people on my bus.

[Antilles]

Surprised DM didn't pixelate out the pink frosting nipples on the female figure. Why do the Brits hate children?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/Looks down on notes scribbled in his palm:

"How are you...CLEVELAND! It is important, blah, blah, that we do everything, blah, blah, we can to maintain and enhance the trust that our citizens have in us...blah."

[gaoxiaen]

Sorry about that kid with the toy gun. We'll definitely reprimand the cops that murdered him.

[sarcasmic]

Fun in the sun! Bikini-clad Jessica Alba is a doting mother as she plays with her daughters on idyllic Caribbean family holiday

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ldren.html
I'll be in my bunk.

[Free Society]

You'll need this for round two.

[sarcasmic]

Round two? I'm too old for that.

[Free Society]

Ha ha ha. I try to go twice a day just to keep everything in working order.

[Lord Humungus]

North American Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse

The slowdown that North American railroad companies had been bracing for in crude oil shipments has turned into a rout, with volumes falling faster than executives had predicted.

With energy companies scaling back drilling after prices for the commodity fell about 50 percent since July, industry executives and analysts anticipated that demand for hauling crude and extraction materials such as frac sand and pipes would slow after a four-year surge. They didn't expect it to slow this much this fast.

[WTF]

Warren Buffet haz a sad.

[Injun, as in from India]

-1 Crude oil train crash

[gaoxiaen]

In Quebec.

[Puddin' Stick]

Not too sad.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"It is important that we do everything we can to maintain and enhance the trust that our citizens have in us," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer remarked afterwards.

"...short of not beating the life out of them, of course."

[Brian D]

STOP DISTRUSTING!!! :BLAM BLAM BLAM:

[straffinrun]

Zero is pretty easy to maintain.

[gaoxiaen]

Don't worry. It's easy to maintain negative numbers.

[Monty Crisco]

OT: someone mentioned the post yesterday but it is too awesome not to bring up again:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/.....al-trauma/

F*** your trauma.

Yes, f*** your trauma. My sympathy for your suffering, whether that suffering was real or imaginary, ended when you demanded I change my life to avoid bringing up your bad memories. You don't seem to have figured this out, but there is no "I must never be reminded of a negative experience" expectation in any culture anywhere on earth.

If your psyche is so fragile you fall apart when someone inadvertently reminds you of "trauma," especially if that trauma consisted of you overreacting to a self-interpreted racial slur, you need therapy. You belong on a psychiatrist's couch, not in college dictating what the rest of society can't do, say, or think. Get your own head right before you try to run other people's lives. If you expect everyone around you to cater to your neurosis, forever, you're what I'd call a "failure at life," doomed to perpetual disappointment.

This should be, like, the reason pledge of allegiance...

[gaijin]

I... would... not... say... such.. .things... if... I... were... you.

/SJW Prince(ss)

[SusanM]

Not bad, but I nevertheless maintain that a person listing all the reasons they don't play the victim card is just playing the victim card in a meta format.

[Monty Crisco]

Damn, hadn't thought of that.

You're too smart for me...

[Illocust]

Eh, playing the victim card is bringing up your 'victim' status to give you opinions more legitimacy. Technically that is what he is doing, but I really think there is a caveat that it doesn't count as playing the victim car if the only reason you brought it up is because the other side is saying that your opinions are invalid because you aren't a 'victim'.

[SusanM]

There is that, true. I can't speak for the soul of everyone who writes an article like this. But I can't get away from the overall impression that it's less an appeal to spine up and face one's demons and more a scar counting party.

[John]

Yeah Susan. You don't write an article about that talking about your problems and struggles. That just makes it look like a scar counting party. You write pointing to other people who have over come things these idiots can't even imagine. Doing that is shaming everyone into not bitching and moaning and thus has greater effect than talking about your own struggles.

[WTF]

I disagree, I think it's more a case of "This is what actual trauma is. Hearing something ungoodthinkful is not trauma."

[Free Society]

Seems to me to just be an attempt at refuting the absurdity of microaggression theory and the the irrelevance of those people's feelings about it. But that's playing a victim card of his own?

[Bill Dalasio]

Erm. No. The entire point of the article is to dismiss the scar counting party. It's to say that there are actual real horrors out there that people endure without the perpetual whining of the SJW brigades. Horrors that make the petty prattling about their oh-so-precious feelings seem pretty damned shameful.

[crab_apple]

But the message is that he is saying he doesn't expect anyone to go out of their way to avoid "triggering" him which is exactly the opposite of what all of the SJWs are doing.

So while he is saying that yeah, he knows REAL trauma (score keeping), he is saying that he doesn't expect anyone else to do anything about it because that's his burden.

[WTF]

That's awesome.

[gaoxiaen]

OR, go watch some puppy videos.

[Pope Jimbo]

Eleanor Norton Holmes provides evidence that DC should not ever get actual representation in Congress.

https://youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=Z7Ym-kk1tRw

[Monty Crisco]

Saw that. She parks like Weigel thinks...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's a metaphor for how Democrats view things.

To some, it may be as thinking outside the box and sticking to the Republican-man, to others just a skewed, fuck you that's why attitude.

Also, who was the asshole with her? He could have offered to simple park it 'comme du mone'. Cazzo di maleducati.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'comme du monde'.

[Ted S.]

I'm sure she's parking it like some of the world does.

[Old Man With Candy]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is asking the White House to turn over all documents and intelligence information related to last year's prisoner exchange of five Taliban detainees for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

So it can be put into the same landfill as all the other Obama scandals.

[Lord Humungus]

Charles Krauthammer: Handicapping the 2016 Field

Second Tier

...snip...

7. Rand Paul. Events have conspired against him. Obama's setbacks and humiliations abroad have created a national mood less conducive to Paul's non-interventionism. His nearly 13-hour anti-drone filibuster would not fly today. Is trying to tack back, even signing the anti-Iran-deal letter of the 47 senators. Strong youth appeal, though outreach to minorities less successful thus far. Bottom line: High floor of devoted libertarians; low ceiling in today's climate. 30-1.

[Monty Crisco]

Kraut can say what he wants, but that 13-hr filibuster was one of the finest moments in the history of the Senate, ESPECIALLY if you pay attention to the substance of Paul's comments (and remember he was spelled for a bit by his buddy Ted Cruz)...

[KDN]

This reads a lot more like the guys Krauthammer wants than who will actually win.

[Lord Humungus]

My thoughts too - Rubio or Bush don't strike me as strong contenders.

[sthgrau]

Don't say stuff like that.., it is likely to make the republicans choose one of them..

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Heh.

[Injun, as in from India]

This reads a lot more like the guys Krauthammer wants than who will actually win.

In other words a neocon wet dream.

[BardMetal]

Wait is "handicapping the 2016 field" microaggression? Whats next saying the Micheal J Fox show makes you shake with laughter?

[Lord Humungus]

Photo gone viral shows kids playing on Vietnam Women's Memorial-- while veterans watched

Munson says it was almost empty when he showed up at the memorial. He was taking photos when girls showed up, and says at first he didn't think anything of it. He says he was waiting for them to move so he could take more pictures when their parents showed up and told the girls "to get on for pictures." He says the kids were treating the memorial like a jungle gym.

"The parents were laughing while trying to get their kids to pose," Munson wrote on Reddit. "There was a crowd of tourists forming around the parents just glaring at them. It was all pretty brutal to watch."

Amongst the crowd, as Munson's photo shows, were veterans.

"They looked hurt more than angry. They were quiet. That's when I noticed a big group around the parents glaring at them, the pressure was intense and the kids blissfully ignorant. That's when I snapped the picture."

[Xeones]

MICROAGGRESSION

[Brett L]

"Veterans capable of behaving like adults, not being idiots when parents with young children make unintentional slight. "

[BardMetal]

I just don't understand the parents. What kind of creatures are incapable of showing the slightest once of respect to a war memorial? These people must be very empty inside. A meaningless existence. Part of me almost feels sorry for them, almost.

[Restoras, CRW]

I wonder if they were furriners.

[Agammamon]

Oh, fuck those guys. They should be *proud* that children are playing on their memorial. When I die I would love to think that children would be playing on my grave, that people would *live* rather than be depressed and avoid the area.

[Ted S.]

I believe it's the Philippines where people on All Saints' Day picnic on their ancestors' graves.

[Restoras, CRW]

Isn't that popular in Mexico too? Day of the Dead?

[Bill Dalasio]

Actually, it was pretty popular here until the 19th century.

[thom]

It's pretty classless to publish photos of other people's children.

[Agammamon]

Oh, fuck you too.

You don't want pictures taken of your children, don't let them out of the attic.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) has signed a controversial religious freedom bill modeled on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Hysterically, progs and LGBT activists are announcing they are boycotting Indiana. As if they'd ever deign themselves to visit flyover country in the first place.

[straffinrun]

So they're boycotting a place bc some people in that place wouldn't have to serve them? Huh?

[Raven Nation]

It would make more sense to take the Chick-fil-a approach: find places that will serve you and spend a bunch of money there.

[straffinrun]

That wouldn't involve punishment by their standards. "You are being punished by not enjoying our presence." Capital punishment to progs is being exiled from the group.

[Rich]

DEA agents had 'sex parties' with prostitutes

Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly had "sex parties" with prostitutes hired by drug cartels in Colombia, according to a new inspector general report released by the Justice Department on Thursday. In addition, Colombian police officers allegedly provided "protection for the DEA agents' weapons and property during the parties," the report states.

SEE?! We're not the *only* ones!

/Secret Service

[Lord Humungus]

Jonah Goldberg: Can Jewish Americans Support Both Democrats and Israel?

...snip... Wald argues that American Jewish liberalism is derived chiefly from the fact that American Jews want a strict separation of religion and politics. He argues that Jewish support for Democrats intensified in large part because of the GOP's embrace of Protestant Evangelicals, even though Protestant Evangelicals are wildly pro-Israel and philo-Semitic (i.e., the opposite of anti-Semitic). I think that's empirically true, even if it gives short shrift to the deeper roots of Jewish liberalism.

One reason Jews are still liberal is that ideological and partisan affiliations die hard. They tend to be passed, like religion itself, from parent to child, generation after generation. But such loyalties aren't static either. And while Steve King could have phrased it better, he was absolutely right that at some point ? now or in the future ? support for the left and support for Israel must conflict. And King is right to lament it when Jews choose the former over the latter.

[Mike M.]

Jews have the luxury of being leftists in America because they're safe here, and they know it.

Not surprisingly, they're far more conservative in Israel where they're under constant siege and they can be killed at almost any moment they're in a public place.

[KDN]

Not surprisingly, they're far more conservative in Israel France where they're under constant siege and they can be killed at almost any moment they're in a public place.

/hyperbolic edit

[BardMetal]

In fairness it's not like it's the first time the French ever sold out the Jews.

[Old Man With Candy]

Not surprisingly, they're far more conservative in Israel where they're under constant siege and they can be killed at almost any moment they're in a public place.

Sort of, sort of not. There's a different demographic in Israel. Likud and other rightist parties are ethnically dominated by Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews. Labor is dominated by Ashkenazi Jews who are generally very liberal. And guess what? The vast majority of US Jews are Ashkenazi.

[John]

No they can't. But many of them like the Democrats better than Israel.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Supporting Democrats (and Liberals in Canada) is like tolerating the friend that mistreats you. You keep seeing the good despite the bad.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It's like the Jewish kid in Southpark hanging around with the anti-Semitic fat kid.

[Puddin' Stick]

When the Schechter brothers won their case before the US Supreme Court, their fellow Jews snubbed them for defeating a piece of Democratic legislation ? even though they stood up up for kashrut.

[Puddin' Stick]

When the Schechter brothers won their case before the US Supreme Court, their fellow Jews snubbed them for defeating a piece of Democratic legislation ? even though they stood up up for kashrut.

[Lord Humungus]

AP Editor Flunks Middle East 101

Those of us who write about Middle East politics sometimes joke that the mainstream press is desperately in need of an introductory course on the subject. And now, thanks to the latest effort by the Associated Press, we're forced to ask: What happens when reporters take Middle East 101?and fail? The AP's Middle East editor this week tackled the burning question: "Is Israel democratic?" If you know anything at all about the country, you know that this question requires a one-word answer: Yes. The AP, however, thought it was an essay test. And what a disaster it was.

The full headline to AP editor Dan Perry's piece is "AP Analysis: Is Israel democratic? Not so clear."

[Ted S.]

It's not just the AP. I heard a report on Radio France International from somebody calling Likud's win a threat to democracy

[lafe.long]

Scientists at Large Hadron Collider hope to make contact with PARALLEL UNIVERSE in days

[Rich]

It is even possible that gravity from our own universe may 'leak' into this parallel universe

And you thought *global warming* was bad ...

[gaijin]

our own universe may 'leak'

Our Universe has incontinence?...how embarassing for us. What will the other universe think.

[Xeones]

The other universe may be into that. Especially if it's one where the Nazis won.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Trans-universal scheiss pr0n?

[Enough About Palin]

"What will the other universe think"

Depends.

[Xeones]

I see what you did there.

[gaoxiaen]

They'll think our universe goes commando.

[Brett L]

We don't know how gravity works, really, at the quark level. How can we make leak predictions? OTOH, it would be cool if dark matter was really extrauniversal gravity.

[Agammamon]

That's one place the leak predictions come from.

[gaoxiaen]

I make predictions base on how accurate the shit/air separator has been recently.

[John]

I told you guys your SUVs were going to set the universe out of balance.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Kirk

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Can we maybe abduct bearded, libertarian Obama from this parallel universe and switch him out with our own?

[Restoras, CRW]

What episode of ST:TNG had an open rift in the time-space continuum that began to fill the universe with alternate, parallel universe Enterprises'? Should we fear a frazzled and broken Riker unwilling to go back where he came from?

[Raven Nation]

"Yesterday's Enterprise" - one of the best episodes IMHO

[Antilles]

"Yesterday's Enterprise" was a great ep, but the episode Restoras was referring to was actually called 'Parallels.' That was the one where Worf kept switching to increasingly different parallel universes until they figured out a way to return him to his own.

[BardMetal]

I knew years spent playing Doom weren't wasted.

[straffinrun]

Except your peripheral vision sucks, right?

[gaoxiaen]

Q disagrees.

[Pro Libertate]

What's great about this is that we'll soon have interuniverse trade. So I can watch all seven seasons of Firefly among other things.

[Brett L]

Patrick Rothfuss posted that he's hoping to contact the universe where he finally finished the third Kvothe book. For fuck's sake, just write it!

[Azathoth!!]

Why not just go to the 'verse?

[MJGreen]

"Days" being relative and all.

[Lord Humungus]

White supremacy's gross symbo: What the "the stars and bars" really represent ? and why
It didn't take long before the Confederate flag became a symbol of racism, expert James McPherson tells Salon

Initially, it was associated with Confederate heritage. But it's come to be associated in the last 60 or 70 years as much with white supremacy and resistance to the civil rights movement.

In the 1940s ? that Confederate flag came to represent white supremacy as a form of defense against the beginnings of the civil rights movement. It became the symbol of the Dixiecrat Party in 1948 ? which, as you know, seceded from the Democratic Party because of the civil rights plank that Humbert Humphrey got inserted in the Democratic Party's platform in 1948. I think ever since then it's become a symbol of white supremacy.

In the minds of many it continues to be associated with Confederate heritage ? but as Confederate heritage itself has become increasingly associated with slavery (which was the essential reason for the Confederacy in the first place) the Confederate flag is now symbolic of both slavery and white supremacy and of the relationship between the two of them.

[Lord Humungus]

*symobl

[Lord Humungus]

shit... symbol. *heads off to coffeemaker*

[UnCivilServant]

I will not appologise for laughing at the correction being worse than the mistake.

[Rich]

I'ts mistakes all the way down ....

[straffinrun]

He got it right the thrid time. Be civil.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

I leik it. Jsut roll with it.

[Enough About Palin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

[Lord Humungus]

*runss of sbobing*

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Notice how they always love to tell people what symbols mean and then insist that those meanings stay the same. Or at least they do for causes they hate.

Strangely, they provide the appropriate respect for Indian usage of the swastika and I hear nary a peep about the abundant usage of the fasces, from which the word "fascism" is derived, on various symbols and seals of governments throughout the United States.

[UnCivilServant]

The eagle over the door to the office where I used to work was holding a Fasces in one of it's talons. It was only the second most authoritariant eagle in the city. (It got beat by the art-deco eagle on the federal courthouse which got loaded with anti-pigeon spikes)

[Ted S.]

Doesn't everybody hate pigeons?

[R C Dean]

Running around loose, crapping on everything? Yes.

Resting comfortably next to some mashed potatoes with a nice jus? That's a different story.

[Restoras, CRW]

I find the Fasces equally abhorrent as the swastika, though I understand why many would find that view reprehensible. It is patently obvious what it means and it isn't good for anyone that loves liberty.

[Ted S.]

It's interesting how different forms of totalitarian collectivism are considered in the meta-context.

[Injun, as in from India]

Ted - I just caught up with threads from the last week.

Sorry for your loss man.

[Agammamon]

And the Hammer and Sickle and Red Star remain perennial favorites.

[SusanM]

It's a pity that they don't even know the symbol they don't like. The Stars and Bars is the original CSA flag. It actually looked very similar to the US flag (fewer stripes and stars, but the same pattern and color scheme) but, to avoid confusion on the battlefield, they adopted the Confederate Battle Flag (Blue St. Andrews cross with stars on a red background).

[John]

Outside of the Fort Pillow massacre, the Confederate Army fought in a very brave and respectable way. The bravery and discipline of the Confederate Army is the best thing you can say about the South. In reality, the battle flag is the least racist thing left over from the era.

[See Double You]

Fort Pillow massacre

Sounds like a teen slumber party gone bad.

[John]

There really was a general named General Pillow. And the better part is that his area of expertise was building fortifications. Funnier still was that he was most famous for once building a set of fortifications facing the wrong way during the Mexican War.

The fact that people actually said "General Pillow is here to assist with building our fortifications" is proof that God does have a sense of humor.

[Pro Libertate]

This is what happens when everything is collectivized and abstracted. It's a big problem with our age, not limited to politics. CEOs become symbols and personifications of large corporations, accidents of birth become more important than character, etc., etc., etc.

The Confederate battle flag was a symbol of "being Southern" not all that long ago. I mean, Dukes of Hazzard, anyone? And I knew a couple of black rednecks who had that flag on their trucks. They weren't self-hating or anything else and would beat the crap out of anyone who treated them badly because of their race, but they were part of the Southern culture. Not to suggest that was common, but it wasn't considered impossible back then, either.

So symbols can mean different things to different people. In this case, the flag is unlike, say, the Nazi swastika, which I don't think anyone waves around without having Nazi sympathies. I think the Confederate flags don't necessary represent a love of racism or hate. Not for everyone, anyway.

[John]

Exactly Pro. And even the swastika doesn't always mean murderous fascism. It is still used as a Buddhist symbol.

People like McPherson understand that the flag is a symbol of the south and not racist. They just hate the South and lie and say it is as a way of slandering the South. That is all that is going on here. If Southerners all agreed to stop waving the flag, McPherson and his ilk would just find some other symbol to argue every white person in the South is evil

[Notorious G.K.C.]

He's not saying that, anymore than someone criticizing rap music is calling all black people evil. Unless southern whiteness is defined by that flag, or blackness is defined by rap.

And the racists who appropriated the flag starting with Thurmond's people in 1948 (going by McPherson's description) should share the blame for the association of the flag with racism.

McPherson is not only an awesome Civil War scholar, the very title of his opus - *Battle Cry of Freedom* - is based on the fact that battle songs on *both* sides of the Civil War used that refrain - so he shows respect for both sides, without necessarily agreeing with the confederates.

Just because he talked to Salon, doesn't mean he's down with their agenda. Look, you have books to promote, you talk to journalists who call you.

[John]

Okay. I mean the people at Salon.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Of course, anyone who deals with the media should try to figure out the particular agenda of whoever is calling. Sometimes a reporter will go from source to source waiting until one of them says something that backs the reporter's thesis.

It may be that McPherson, who is after all from a famously naive profession (college professor), didn't get this, but I think it's more likely that, from frequent experience with the media, he just said, "eh, as long as they quote me correctly it can't harm me *that* much, and it gets my name out."

The bottom line is how many Salon readers will buy his book now.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

his books, plural

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Ooh, look, he has a new book out this year (The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters) - no, he's not going to turn down an interview even with Salon!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I notice that he traced the modern white-supremacist, anti-civil rights significance of the flag to the 1940s, and Salon's subtitle says "*It didn't take long* before the Confederate flag became a symbol of racism, expert James McPherson tells Salon" [emphasis added]

So there are of course certain risks in talking to journalists. At least they gave the interview transcript.

[CatoTheElder]

There are swastikas all over the Buddhist temples in communist China. Even commies aren't as batshit crazy about symbols as American progressives.

[Timon 19]

There's a Catholic church in Cincinnati that still does the Latin Mass. A portion of their floor near the entrance to the cathedral has many small swastikas. This is a tile mosaic floor.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

James McPherson is an honest-to-goodness expert.

People like him can probably be induced to talk to any journalist who shows minimal politeness - doesn't mean he's down with every part of Salon's agenda.

And yes, white supremacists like using the battle flag. They're not the only ones, of course - some good old boys use it as a general "FU, I don't care what you think" gesture.

[gaoxiaen]

I think you're getting Hubert Humphrey confused with Humbert Humbert. Heart of my heart, etc...

[Lord Humungus]

President Ted Cruz's dystopian America: The scorched hellscape of a climate-denying White House
Welcome to the nation of Ted Cruz's dreams ? and the planet's nightmares

About 43 percent of oil and 25 percent of natural gas reserves are located on federal land, and Cruz is furious that not all of it is open for drilling. He wants to give states the power to lease, permit and regulate all energy development on federal lands (and waters) within their borders. The 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be opened to developers too, as would Native American land ? because, he's explained, "it is only the federal government" that is keeping Native Americans in poverty.

...snip...

Fortunately for all of us, Cruz's candidacy is, at best, a long shot. But his politics serve as a useful worst-case scenario for what could happen should we fail to address and instead exacerbate our dependency on fossil fuels: more oil train explosions and pipeline leaks, heightened risks to our coasts from offshore drilling and the near-inevitability of a disaster in the Arctic and poisoned air, soil and water, not least to mention the mega-droughts, monster storms and other extreme weather events that will characterize an America hit increasingly hard by the effects of climate change.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I wonder exactly how many fainting couches they have in the salon.com emplyoee break-room safe-space.

[Dark Lord of the Cis]

Cruz's enemies seemed determined to convince me to vote for him.

[John]

No politician is going to be perfect and all of them will disappoint. So why not vote for the one who will cause the most pain and suffering to the people at Salon?

[tarran]

John, *Cthulhu* would cause the most pain and suffering for the people at Salon. Unfortunately the Great One's victory would also cause the most pain and suffering for us as well.

[John]

But Cruz isn't Cthulhu. The point is that all of them not named Jeb Bush or Christie are along a continuum ranging from "will be moderately disappointing" to "will be disappointing but still better than Hillary". In other words there isn't that much difference between the non total crap weasel GOP candidates. So, the fact that Cruz winning would bring a special brand of torment to these people is definitely an advantage for him.

[tarran]

I get what you are saying. IF he wins, I'll be enjoying the lamentation in my office amongst the proggie hordes.

BUT....

One shouldn't use schadenfreude as the determinant of who to vote for, since the monster that bedevils one's opponents could prove a monster to one as well.

[John]

Sure, if the person is actually a monster, which Cruz clearly isn't.

[CatoTheElder]

Well, Lindsey Graham is in the mix, and I don't think that he would be better than Hillary.

[Xeones]

On the other hand, why vote for the LESSER evil?

[UnCivilServant]

+1 Elder Party Victory.

[Xeones]

Elder Party USA: We Serve The Children

[VG Zaytsev]

Hillary?

[All-Seeing Monocle]

i don't care how many PR people Ted Cruz hires, they will never come up with a slogan more convincing than the one John just minted there.

[R C Dean]

"Cruz isn't Cthulhu"?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I know. If Cruz were actually the person progressives seem to believe he is, I'd vote for him happily.

Then again, the fantasy Mitt Romney that only existed in progressive heads also seemed like a pretty swell guy.

[John]

Cruz is no Romney. Cruz is a legitimate subversive. They have good reason to hate Cruz. Whereas Romney would have been their best friend had he ever taken office.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

"fantasy Mitt Romney"

*shudders*

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

"fantasy Mitt Romney"

*shudders*

[Notorious G.K.C.]

When the large hardon collider finds the alternate universe where Romney presides over Libertopia, you'll stop laughing.

[R C Dean]

When the large hardon collider

Paging Warty Hugeman.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Several people, including myself, came up with this witticism independently.

Yes, it was deliberate.

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

large hardon collider

I'm so lmao about this right now I can't even think of anything witty to say. Someone help me out on this...

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

Should've just refreshed.

[Monty Crisco]

Cruz's enemies seemed determined to convince me to vote for him."

Same reason I am breaking down and finally getting an AR-15. The libs and statists hate them so much that it is politically TOO DELICIOUS for me to resist.

That and a gas piston system means you never really have to clean it - FUCK YEAH!!

[John]

I am about where you are on the AR15. I have never been a fan of the rifle. The various idiots are, however, convincing me that it is my patriotic duty to own one.

[R C Dean]

The only drawback to the M1A is the maintenance, I'll give you that.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

"That and a gas piston system means you never really have to clean it"

The Ghosts of a million Drill Sergeants will haunt you.

[CJR]

You should get an AR15. Everyone should.

But for the love of big boobs, don't get one of those add-on gas piston conversions. All that they do is make the gun heavier and less reliable.

[CatoTheElder]

My sentiment precisely. I haven't voted GOP for a very long time, but Cruz' enemies may persuade to do so this time around.

[Emmerson Biggins]

+ This.

When I actually listen to Cruz talk, I give him a 5.1 on a 0 to 10 scale. He gets some things right, and he makes me cringe on some things. And over all, he is just barely acceptable.

But when I hear lefties and progs hating on him, they really make me wanna go out and vote for him.

[Ivan Pike]

He wants to give states the power to lease, permit and regulate all energy development on federal lands (and waters) within their borders. The 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be opened to developers too,

Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Nevada all approve. As does Alaska.

Native American land is already open to developers.

[tarran]

not least to mention the mega-droughts, monster storms and other extreme weather events that will characterize an America hit increasingly hard by the effects of climate change.

These people are fucking ignorant, and that sentence is a massive signpost as to how ignorant they are.

The primary drivers of storms are the temperature differentials between the tropics and the temperate zone. Any global warming due to CO2 will result temperatures increasing in the temperate zone to a much higher degree than in the tropics.

THUS, YOU SCIENCE DENYING MORONS, GLOBAL WARMING MEANS LESS MONSTER STORMS!

[KDN]

It also shows what a phenomenally egotistical doomsday cult it is. I highly doubt that there is any policy or group of policies that over a 4 year period are going to irrevocably accelerate or reverse climate change to such a degree.

It's like they think God will smite us all unless we show him proper respect by electing Democrats.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"The 19 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be opened to developers too, as would Native American land ? because, he's explained, "it is only the federal government" that is keeping Native Americans in poverty."

Wow. I'm impressed that Ted Cruz accurately pointed this out. There are enormous energy reserves on Native American land, but because that land is held communally by the tribe rather than individually be the people living on a plot, it's a nightmare trying to drill and the money ends up being siphoned off by the tribal council rather than going to the person whose land it actually is.

In essence, Native American reservations are effectively Communist and most of the problems on those reservations is the direct result of the Federal Government's decision to privilege the continued existence of dying tribes over the actual individuals who make up those tribes.

[Ivan Pike]

Could you expand on some of your thoughts. The problems with drilling on Indian lands and the governmental structure of the tribes, as well as the "dying tribes" idea.

[Raven Nation]

Not speaking for Irish, (oops, sorry, His Excellency Viscount Irish), but the guts of the governmental structure arguments is that, historically, there were no councils in Native American groups. Rather, the "chiefs" were spokesmen (or occasionally women) who reflected the consensus view of the people. That is, authority came from the people and the leadership was charged with carrying that out. But even then, there was no compulsion for everyone to get on board.

This happened a lot, for example, with the Iroquois Confederacy in the eighteenth century when they would decide, say, "we're not going to attack the French." But a group of warriors would go and attack the French. When the French protested, the Iroquois leadership would basically say, "hey, we don't control everyone."

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Here's a good start.

"The vast majority of land on reservations is held communally. That means residents can't get clear title to the land where their home sits, one reason for the abundance of mobile homes on reservations. This makes it hard for Native Americans to establish credit and borrow money to improve their homes because they can't use the land as collateral?and investing in something you don't own makes little sense, anyway."

""Markets haven't been allowed to operate in reserve lands," says Jules. "We've been legislated out of the economy. When you don't have individual property rights, you can't build, you can't be bonded, you can't pass on wealth. A lot of small businesses never get started because people can't leverage property [to raise funds]. This act would free our entrepreneurial spirit, but it's going to take a freeing of our imagination. We have to become part of the national and global economies.""

[Ivan Pike]

Thanks Irish, I always like to get the views on the people on the outside. More perspectives are always better.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I didn't know you were Native American. Are you living on a reservation, because based on your posts it sounds like it. What reservation are you on? I'm sure there's a difference between reservations, and the study they talk about in the Forbes piece is specifically the Crow.

[Ivan Pike]

I am Native Alaskan (Inupiaq/Yupik) and have worked on Native American issues for 35 years for the Department of the Interior, the last 10 as an Indian Advocate/ADR for BLM. I have visited many/most of the major reservations and some are definitely better than others.

The biggest problem is land title, but Forbes gets is slightly wrong, the land is held in trust not by the tribes, but by the federal government. It is known as a "beneficial trust" so anything major that happens has to be approved by the FedGov, whether tribal or individual land.

Second biggest issue is legal. The bigger tribes have their own system, and a non-indian has no chance of winning against an indian, unless they can get the issue into Federal Court.

Any group of people that wishes to be at the mercy of the FedGov for their benefits should take a long hard look at the Indians, because this is what extended dependency looks like. And it isn't pretty.

[Ivan Pike]

that first 'on' should be 'of'

[gaoxiaen]

Wait til Saudi Arabia runs out and re-calculate.

[Lord Humungus]

'Events have proven their cherished beliefs wrong': Paul Krugman demolishes GOP's economic fairy tales

The American right seems perpetually in a state of denial ? about climate change, about social change, about the U.S. ability to control world events ? and nowhere is this habit of mind more evident than in Republicans' response to the improving economy. Consider: The country added 3.3 million jobs in the first full year of implementation of health care reform, that purported job-killer; unemployment has plunged to 5.5 percent from 10 percent during the darkest days of the downturn; and the top job-creating state right now is deep-blue California, upending the Rick Perry narrative holding that only low-tax, low-regulation red states are supposed to prosper.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman presents us with this economic picture in his New York Times column today, asking why the right can't seem to "handle the good news." He identifies three principal reasons.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Why do you do this to us? Why?

[tarran]

This shit has been appearing on my facebook feed.

It's purpose is not to convince the middle or the right that they are wrong, but to convince the progressive rank and file not to desert.

[Raven Nation]

Unfortunately, that's increasingly true of much political speech. It's all designed (often unknowingly) to encourage allies rather than challenge those who disagree.

[straffinrun]

Bob Murphy does a bang up on this:

http://tomwoods.com/podcast/ep.....ss-cycles/

[gaoxiaen]

Mexican, pot, butt-sex, right?

[CatoTheElder]

Krugman neglects to tell how many of those 3.3 million jobs were full-time jobs.

The fact is that, over five years into Obama's "recovery", there are fewer full-time jobs in the US than there were in 2007.

He says "unemployment has plunged to 5.5 percent", but neglects to say that includes people working as little as an hour per week and that the workforce basis for calculating this percentage has diminished due to worker despair of ever finding a job. He also fails to explain why a 5.5% unemployment rate is cause for celebration now, but is the measure of a "jobless recovery" when a Republican is in office.

It is good that employment stats have improved, but even Krugman knows that at this stage of recovery these indicators should be much better.

[Rich]

Covert warfare coming to Texas sparks some fears of federal takeover

soldiers will try to operate undetected amongst civilian populations in some towns and cities where residents will be advised to report any suspicious activity

What could *possibly* go wrong?

[Brett L]

Considering a Bradley just fell off a transport truck in Houston yesterday, they need to work harder.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

In Texas? They better *hope* calling the cops is the only thing the inhabitants do.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I've got the Derp of the Day right here.

Still not convinced that climate change is real? Prepare yourself for polar bears and punk rock ballerinas dancing their way into your geophysical awareness.

Brought to you by none other than Paul Erhlich.

"Slowly but surely climate change is becoming an issue we take more seriously. But there are equally serious issues, like toxicity of chemicals, lack of biodiversity, the potential for nuclear wars over resources, and so on. They are important, but they're not connected for us. Two hugely important drivers of climate change are overpopulation and overconsumption, which is helped by inequities of all kinds... the treatment of women and minorities. These issues are not tied together, but they need to be."

Ehrlich and Armitage both agree that these issues can be presented together in art. "Arts understates its potential in keeping society going," he explained. He cited Uncle Tom's Cabin and the first photograph of the Earth from space as perfect examples of the power of visualizing issues in new ways. "All of us have problems visualizing huge problems, so if you can make it emotional..." he mused. "For example, during WWII, listening to that era's music gives you a sense of the patriotism then. We need a 'Marines' Hymn' for the environment."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Gotta give it to this guy. He doesn't give up.

[SugarFree]

He's the Jehovah's Witnesses of environmentalism: Wrong then, wrong now, and committed to being wrong forever.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Also. So. Resorting to performance art is part of the 'settled science' narrative?

Priceless.

[R C Dean]

As long as its peer reviewed.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

"Scientists today believe that such critical information must be disseminated and quickly acted upon to avoid catastrophe," Ehrlich writes. "But that is not happening, as indicated by the 'much talk, little action' status of climate change. The central need is clearly not for more natural science research (although in many areas it would be very helpful). Rather, the social sciences and humanities need to be reorganized and refocused -- 'rebooted' -- to provide better understanding of human behaviors and how they can be altered."

The science is settled, we just need more propaganda.

What I see is people who haven't been on the climate science grant money train saying "Hey, spread some of that dough over here!"

[sarcasmic]

Onward climate soldiers, marching as to war...

[BardMetal]

In other news the 2nd coming of Christ is right around the corner, I know we were wrong the last couple of times we predicted Christ's return, but this time were super cereal.

[Rich]

"We need a 'Marines' Hymn' for the environment."

A modest proposal.

[Lord Humungus]

Congresswoman Claims Climate Change Will Turn Women Into Prostitutes

Lee introduced House Concurrent Resolution 29, warning that women will be forced into "transactional sex" to get enough food and clean water ? all because global warming will create "conflict and instability" in the world.

"Women will disproportionately face harmful impacts from climate change," Lee's resolution reads. It continues claiming, "Food insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health."

Lee's document goes on to urge Congress to agree on the "disparate impacts of climate change on women," and goes on to demand that Congress use "gender-sensitive frameworks in developing policies to address climate change."

[Rich]

With all due respect, that woman is insane.

[John]

Some Republican councilman in Iowa says something unPC and it is national news and a symbol of how horrible all Republicans are. The Democrats have people like this in Congress and that somehow is no reflection on the party as a whole.

[sarcasmic]

Wow. There is nothing it cannot do.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sounds like she's angling to start her own prostitution ring.

"Look. We're all gonna be whores when Gaia comes so may as well get a head start."

[Crusty Juggler]

Who has two thumbs and it going to be stocking up on MRE's?

This guy.

[WTF]

Looming DISASTER blah blah blah, women, minorities hardest hit.

[WTF]

Wait, I thought womyns were just as capable of providing for themselves as men are?

[Raven Nation]

Meh, old news:

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news.....erous-work

[Injun, as in from India]

Should we be welcoming this, being Reasonoid lovers of Mexican pot illegal immigrant prostitute a$$ sex?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So...world ends, women, minorities hardest hit?

[straffinrun]

Transactional sex? What's that? BRB, I gotta do the dishes.

[Lord Humungus]

All sex is transactional - whether you want it or not 😉

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL. But... but...

Men Who Do More Housework Have Less Sex

A February paper in the American Sociological Review reported that married couples in which men take on a greater share of the dishes, laundry and other traditionally female chores had sex less often than average, which in this study was about five times a month.

[straffinrun]

Ouch. "I gotta do the dishes" is just lingo for "I gotta rebuild a carburetor."
* slyly folds apron, places it neatly next to sink*

[B.P.]

Wait.... she wrote this down? In a resolution?

[Antilles]

And this is a problem...why?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

No murder charges for woman who cut baby out of pregnant woman's womb

A Colorado woman accused of luring an expectant mother and cutting the baby from her womb will not be charged with murder.

A Boulder County District Attorney's office spokeswoman declined to say what charges 34-year old Dynel Lane will face.

26-year old Michielle Wilkins was attacked when she responded to a Craigslist ad for baby clothes on March 18.

Wilkins did survive the attack -- but her baby did not.

Colorado lawmakers rejected proposals -- two times -- to make violent deaths of fetuses a homicide, out of fear that a law would be used to restrict abortions.

I think this should certainly count as a homicide.

[tarran]

Attempted murder, aggravated assault will work, I think.

A good prosecutor can make the case that in cutting the baby out of the womb, she was planning on killing the mother (otherwise how can you claim the baby is yours).

[BardMetal]

Look I know charging her with murder might goes against the pro-abortionists and their beliefs, but can't we make an exception in cases like this? I mean if this bitch doesn't deserve to die, then who does?

[tarran]

Once one starts retroactively rewriting laws to punish a hated wrongdoer, another big brick in the structure of a stable, prosperous society get kicked out of the foundation.

It's not like the perpetrator is walking. This was a vicious, life-threatening attack on the mother as well, and there are some pretty nasty punishments spelled out for violating that set of laws.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

She'll probably get sent to the funny farm on an insanity plea anyway, but this is just one of those crimes that's so cruel and morally abhorrent it's hard to really grasp.

[Brett L]

At best you would still only get negligent homicide. The crazy lady obviously wasn't trying to kill the baby in a premeditated fashion. Its arguable whether she would wven be negligent.

[WTF]

Well, if abortion is legal I guess this is at least logically consistent.

[UnCivilServant]

I don't think this is what they meant by "when the mother's life was in jeopardy"

[Notorious G.K.C.]

The only reason this isn't murder is that the choicers fear (rightly) that classifying the killing of an unborn child as murder in *any* circumstances will start us on a slippery slope ending up with a ban on abortion.

The states which ban such killings basically write laws saying "killing an unborn child is murder unless the mother consents." The latter proviso is to accomodate the "right" to abortion. But it looks weird to phrase the law like that, and that's part of the point - to showcase the insanity of the choicer position.

[Rich]

Marijuana Edibles Blamed For Death

when Goodman consumed several and experienced no immediate effects he kept gobbling them up ... , five times the recommended dose.

"When all else fails, read the instructions."

[Xeones]

I know the edibles themselves are gonna get the blame, but come on, what are the odds a dude that dumb wouldn't autodarwinate eventually anyway?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

"autodarwinate"

Stolen.

[Xeones]

I stole it from Charles Stross. He's a socialist, so he's down with getting stole from.

[Antilles]

Not necessarily. Although most Socialists have no problem with taking other people's stuff, they're surprisingly protective of their own property.

[Agammamon]

"It was completely a reaction to the drugs," Kim Goodman said about her son Luke's Saturday night suicide.

No it was absolutely not a reaction to the drugs. Not even a '5 times the recommended dose' - which would be roughly the amount needed to make the high unpleasant, but still far from dangerous.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

There is no way five times the recommended dose of marijuana edibles would be fatal. Maureen Dowd basically ate more than 5 times the recommended dose (having never done any weed before) and all that happened is that she had a weird trip and wrote a shitty NYT column about it.

[Raven Nation]

"shitty NYT column" when referring to Dowd, is redundant.

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

"shitty NYT column" when referring to Dowd, is redundant

FIFY

[sthgrau]

Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns said @09:44:05:

all that happened is that she had a weird trip

careful there, they might attribute that outcome to the absence of guns.

[BardMetal]

So he shoots himself, and somehow it's the marijuana's fault? Well on the bright-side at least their not blaming guns or heavy metal anymore.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

In all likelihood, the guy was suicidal and took a ton of pot in order to work up the nerve to commit the deed. He could have just as easily used booze or prescription drugs - why not ban all of it?

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I like the cut of your jib, son!

/Leonhart

[Raven Nation]

And at least he didn't fly a plane into a mountain to deal with his depression.

[CatoTheElder]

I wonder what anti-depressant or mood-altering medication the pilot was on. Obviously, it should be banned also.

[SugarFree]

I'd like to use the sterilization ray on the commenters to that story.

[Pope Jimbo]

My beloved governor (Tundra's too), shows why he should be running for President. He can totally capture the Warren wing with shit like this.

http://blogs.mprnews.org/capit.....-pay-bump/

During a speech at a Muslim American Society of America event near the Capitol, Dayton said airport workers deserve to earn a higher wage.

"The airport industry can afford it," Dayton said. "One thing about raising the minimum wage at the airport is there's not going to be a threat to pick it up and move it to South Dakota or to China or to somewhere else. It's our airport. It's a public entity and public facility. It ought to better reflect our values as a citizenry."

Dayton said his proposal was inspired by economic struggles of Ibrahim Mohamed, the minimum-wage earning airport worker he appointed a MAC commissioner last month. Mohamed, of Rosemount, is married with five children.

[Rich]

"It ought to better reflect our values as a citizenry."

Well, Mark, simply use some of your salary to install a big mirror in that airport.

[Pope Jimbo]

I don't think Gov. Mumbles is allowed anywhere near his own checkbook.

His trust fund advisors know way better than to let him spend the principal.

[Injun, as in from India]

Gov Dayton - all you need are more electronic pulltab machines in bars, and you can raise more revenue to fund pay raises!

[Pope Jimbo]

Injun, you have a ways to go with e-pulltabs before they even come close to paying for the fucking Vikings stadium. Then there will be the grift needed for the new MLS soccer stadium. All that before you can pay guys out at the airport a "living" wage.

I think it would be more enjoyable if someone offered to sell bars a "smoking license" in order to raise money for all these stadiums.

The shit storm would be spectacular. I'd fucking gain 20 lb watching the fights between the anti-smoking fucks and the crony sports bastards.

[Injun, as in from India]

I was being sarcastic there man. I knew that the e-pulltabs have raised sh1t.

I think there was some serious corruption going on with the deal. Wilf is a convicted felon b4stard and Dayton and a bunch of legislators rolled out the red carpet for him. As always, taxpayers get the shaft while the moochers make it big.

[Pope Jimbo]

I gotcha. I just can't lay off any stadium comment. Like the high heat in baseball.

Yeah, the fact that the pols just can't grasp that they are getting screwed by the major league sports makes me insane.

Worse is when they come up with insulting shit like the e-pulltab proposal and expect us taxpayers to fall for it.

[Injun, as in from India]

If this had happened in India, I would have been 100% sure that the politicians got money or goodies of some sort in exchange for voting for this. I trust the US system a lot more, but when I look at sh1t like this, I can't help but wonder if the corruption I saw first-hand in India is actually happening here as well.

I'm not talking campaign contributions. I'm talking secret swiss bank accounts, assets owned by non-existent individuals, cash stuffed inside mattresses and the full schpiel that you see in India.

[CatoTheElder]

The corruption in the US is far more sophisticated than in India and the Middle East. Former politicians don't get their mid-six figure, part-time lobbyist jobs, board memberships, consulting engagements, and speaking gigs based on their depth of insight and wisdom. Same with the revolving door that senior bureaucrats have access to. They "earn" future revenue streams by using their "public service" to enrich special interests.

US politicians and bureaucrats do not have to arbitrarily shake down the little people for cash, except for the occasional asset forfeiture. Instead, it has a very sophisticated tax collection system that provides for immediate cashflow needs while securing a golden parachute upon departure from "public service" that includes not only the pension but also one or more mid-six figure, part-time jobs with a generious expense account. Few of little people have direct experience with the sort of shakedowns that one gets in India and the Middle East. Thus, they think there is little corruption.

[Injun, as in from India]

by economic struggles of Ibrahim Mohamed, the minimum-wage earning airport worker he appointed a MAC commissioner last month. Mohamed, of Rosemount, is married with five children.

So some guy lacks foresight to plan his life, and Mark Dayton wants the government to force everyone else to subsidize that guy's choices?

[Pope Jimbo]

Well the bastard did fuck up and get himself born in Somalia. Should have planned better.

Seriously, the real story would be to come back later and see if he had added more skills and worked his way up, and what the prospects for his kids are.

Really, coming from a shithole like Somalia, I'm sure a job driving the cart around the airport seems like a pretty good job. If he has a decent work ethic, I'm sure he will be making more than minimum wage in the future. That is what the real story should be. Starting at the bottom and working his way up via skills and hard work. Not because some idiot trust fund asshole raises the minimum wage via the law.

[R C Dean]

"The airport industry can afford it,"

In between bankruptcies?

Seriously, (almost?) every major except Southwest has gone bankrupt at least once.

[Pope Jimbo]

That and the fact that it isn't the airlines that will pay it. It will be us, the people who buy tickets who have to pay more so the cart driver can make more.

The airport workers are pretty lucky that there really isn't much private sector alternatives to airports because they'd be in a hurt bag for sure.

The Southwest Airport with low fees would have no carts. Also, no real security lines either. It would also have cheap beer available.

[John]

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

Lets not get ahead of ourselves but it appears the FBI might have broken up a terror plot they didn't instigate themselves. We don't for sure yet but early indications are that the FBI might have somehow managed to do some law enforcement work instead of distributing child porn and instigating bomb plots.

[Restoras, CRW]

Unfortunately, when it comes to stuff like this these days I think a healthy dose of skepticism is necessary, and at a minimum a sufficient period of time to see what was really going on.

[tarran]

Lets not get ahead of ourselves but it appears the FBI might have broken up a terror plot they didn't instigate themselves.

This seems like the real deal; interestingly, they wanted the guy who had access to the base to come to Libya and fight there. The attack in the U.S. seems to have been a contingency plan if the brother couldn't make it to Libya.

[John]

I guess he didn't look at doing a suicide attack as his first choice of duties in serving the jihad.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"You are a brave man, Ibrahim!"

"We totally support you!"

"We'll erect a monument in your honor!"

"Wait...guys...can we talk about this?"

"No, you wussy, just strap this bomb on."

[Homple]

So, a workplace violence incident averted.

[CatoTheElder]

This is essentially an FBI press release. It is foolish to take it at face value.

[Ken Shultz]

"According to a German newspaper, Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot believed to have purposefully crashed a Germanwings plane in the French alps, suffered from depression and anxiety and spent time receiving psychiatric treatment."

I don't know what the government could do to prevent this sort of tragedy, but I think we should start by banning assault weapons.

[John]

IN fairness to the airline, if they had fired him or refused to let him fly because he was suffering from depression, I bet he would have had a great law suit against them.

[Ken Shultz]

Sometimes I think Bailey touts the "advantages" of driverless cars just to be provocative. It's like a transhumanist thing. We hear about how we shouldn't be able to threaten each other's safety--but why not emphasize how there wouldn't be any need for the cops to pull people over to check for drunk driving or search our cars for drugs in the name of safety anymore?

And if there's an obvious tie in for drones, this is probably it. What if the 9/11 hijackers couldn't kill the pilot because the pilot was flying the plane from a hangar somewhere a thousand miles away? What if the co-pilot couldn't take over the plane because the plane didn't have a pilot onboard? What if a suicidal pilot couldn't kill himself in his plane--because he isn't on the plane?

Driverless planes. Google doesn't need to develop them. We already have them. They're called drones.

We can't prevent everything, but that doesn't mean the government won't try. It wouldn't surprise me to see someone try to institute a depression registry.

[John]

I think Bailey is an idiot for touting driver-less cars. I think pilot-less airplanes, however, are a much better idea. Pilot error or increasingly pilot murder suicide is the prime cause of air disasters. Robotic aircraft would make air travel nearly foolproof.

[Raven Nation]

Until someone hacks the computer system and holds the world to ransom - I've learned this from James Bond movies, "24," and lots of other such programs.

[John]

Yeah. Hacking is a real problem. of course, I am pretty sure that can happen now. If someone managed to hack and take control of the plane, could the pilot manually override? I am not sure.

[Ken Shultz]

I think the biggest barrier is whether the public wants to get onto a drone without a pilot onboard.

[Ken Shultz]

Customers are afraid of pilots, and they're afraid of not having pilots.

Sounds like a problem for entrepreneurs and their customers to work out.

If enough customers will pay a premium to fly on a pilotless flight, ...

Then Obama thinks the pilots' union and the FAA should decide. Oh, and it shows that ObamaCare is working.

[Raven Nation]

Reminds me of that line from Pushing Tin when John Cusack's character makes a comment along the lines of "If I though the pilot was flying the 'plane I'd really be worried."

[Ivan Pike]

A pilot and a dog. Pilot to feed the dog, dog to bite the pilot if he touches the controls.

[R C Dean]

I think Bailey is an idiot for touting driver-less cars.

I don't. I'd love 'em for my own use. Not for other people's safety (fuck 'em; they're on their own), but for my convenience.

I suspect the biggest technical problem will be how you mix driverless and drivered cars on the same road.

[John]

For touting mandatory driverless cars. Baily thinks the government needs to step in and ban human driving as soon as the technology is perfected. That is where he steps into idiocy. You are right, the technology itself is not bad. It is making it mandatory that is the problem

[Ken Shultz]

Bailey's position on whether people in the future should be free to drive themselves around in a world of driverless cars seems to be close to his position on whether people should be free not to vaccinate themselves or their children.

It's one of my favorite themes: our rights do not simply end where other people's rights begin. A society in which no one is free to do anything that might put other people at risk is an oppressive society--made more so by our increasing ability to detect and measure the inadvertent impact our choices have on each other.

If I start a fire, through my own negligence, and it spreads to other people's houses, I should certainly be held responsible for the damages. And if I willfully do something that burns down someone else's house, then I should be held criminally responsible.

But if I can't legally cook in my house because I might start a fire that could spread to other people's houses, then we're not living in a free society.

[Ken Shultz]

"I suspect the biggest technical problem will be how you mix driverless and drivered cars on the same road."

Bailey stops just short of the position that people in the future shouldn't be [legally or morally] allowed to drive their own cars.

Or does he really stop short of that?

http://reason.com/blog/2015/03.....nt_5162870

[John]

He doesn't Ken. He told me in so many words that I had no right to place other people at risk by driving if safer robotic cars are available.

Bailey worships at the alter of Elon Musk.

[UnCivilServant]

Who needs an aircraft capable of carrying more than seven passengers?

[Injun, as in from India]

You CAN have an aircraft that will accommodate 250 passengers.

You just can't load it with more than 7 passengers.

[Pope Jimbo]

3 Strikes and you are out? Not if you are a Minneapolis cop.

http://kstp.com/news/stories/s3747971.shtml

I'm a bit worried. As a rookie he cost the city a huge check, but the last two incidents were fairly minor payouts. Maybe he's in a slump. Or maybe there was no video in the second two.

I'm sure if there were video charging into a person's home and punching them in the head 7 times would get you a big payout.

[Ken Shultz]

"Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is retiring and will not seek reelection next year."

Prolly mixed news for people who wanted to see online gambling legalized.

Harry Reid wasn't going to let that happen so long as the big casinos weren't the primary beneficiaries, but if they were the primary beneficiaries, he would have been the impetus behind the legalization of online gambling.

Probably good news for the nuclear industry. When you're the leader in the Senate, the appropriation for things like Yucca mountain somehow dry up in the budget process.

[John]

It will be interesting to see if the Dems can manage to hold that seat. I am not sure anyone else can manage to create the vote buying machine Reid did.

[Ken Shultz]

Reid had a big advantage in being Mormon.

When you got a nice constituency that will back you up like that just for being Mormon, that really helps you out as a Democrat.

It's a swing state, but if even the Democrats they elect are Mormon, then you're not talking about an Obama/Warren style progressive.

Las Vegas was hurt by the housing crisis more than anyone, and their political response to that was to swing hard towards the Tea Party. If Harry Reid hadn't been in such a position of power, he wouldn't have survived 2010.

Sharon Angle got 45% of the vote in 2010--despite everyone thinking that only Harry Reid could save Nevada from Yucca Mountain. If I had to bet, I'd bet on her.

"Shelley" Berkley is a Democrat to watch. She has all the charisma of a Nancy Pelosi.

[John]

If Sharon Angle comes back and gets in the Senate, the prog and beltway media tears are going to be delicious.

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Second Amendment Remedy

[Ken Shultz]

"Angle: I feel that the Second Amendment is the right to keep and bear arms for our citizenry. This not for someone who's in the military. This not for law enforcement. This is for us. And in fact when you read that Constitution and the founding fathers, they intended this to stop tyranny. This is for us when our government becomes tyrannical...

Manders: If we needed it at any time in history, it might be right now.

Angle: Well it's to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems.

Yeah, I bet that sounds pretty reasonable to people who believe in the Second Amendment--and Nevada is a shall issue state.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Hey! Look! The Chicago Mafia (aka the Chicago City Government) is actively putting entrepreneurs out of business!

[John]

It is what they do. It is a tribute to how great that city once was that anyone even lives there anymore. That it could survive the abuse the socialist machine has doled out at all is really pretty amazing.

[Sevo]

Wouldn't you be insulted if you were kidnapped and the ransom was $8,500?

"Vallejo woman's attorney: 'Horrific' kidnapping was real"
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/ar.....161435.php

[John]

Is that woman Bette Midler?

[straffinrun]

The ransom was for freeing her, not keeping her.

[Injun, as in from India]

At least Walter Sobchak didn't swap out the $8500 ransom with his dirty undies.

[tarran]

The kidnapper calling a newspaper to say it wasn't a hoax prompts me to suspect it *is* a hoax.

[UnCivilServant]

Micro-kidnappings are actually fairly common in Mexico, because it's more likely the ransom will actually be paid.

[John]

http://www.nationaljournal.com.....s-20150326

Democrats facing tough primary fights over the issue of whether the party should return to being just somewhat crazy and retarded or whether it should go all out to achieve peak retard. The positions of some of these people are just amazing. There should be no compromise at all on entitlements. I guess if we wish hard enough the actuary tables will magically change and save us from bankruptcy or something.

[Injun, as in from India]

My favorite full retard position of the Democrats is removing the cap on the payroll tax so "the rich cannot avoid contributing less money" and to "preserve social security for generations". F*** them.

[John]

As if they won't just squander the money and still leave SS broke. SS ran a surplus for decades which they proceeded to steal and spend elsewhere rather than using it to pay down the debt so that borrowing to make good on the promises might not be so hard. If you raised the cap and got it to run a surplus again, the same thing would happen.

[Warty]

Many jeers to Nikki for getting this stupid magazine's articles into my Google Now feed. It's like it's scientifically designed to annoy me.

Murder equality now!

Consider also the city's maldistribution of violence. In West Garfield Park, a monolithically African-American drug marketplace on the West Side, where the city has been mordantly dubbed "Chiraq," the murder rate is 85.2 per 100,000 ? nearly twice as high as Detroit's. In Lincoln Square, the North Side neighborhood of bakeries, bookstores, used record shops, and eyewear boutiques where Rahm Emanuel lives, it's 1.7. Another study by Hertz found that in the early 1990s (when Chicago had 900 murders a year), the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago were six times more violent than the safest neighborhoods. Today, the most dangerous neighborhoods are 15 times more violent. In 2014, Chicago had its fewest murders since 1965, but most of the gains in safety are taking place in areas that are also thriving economically.

[John]

I refuse to infect my brain by clicking on that link. So I will ask, what the hell is the author's point other than evil rich people don't murder each other enough to equalize the murder rate with poor people?

[Warty]

The article is saying that Chuy Garcia won't destroy Chicago like Coleman Young did Detroit. Except he makes excuses and says that white flight destroyed Detroit. Read it, it gives insight into a certain species of vaguely well-meaning evil.

[John]

What he calls "white flight" I call "everyone who is productive and had the means to leave does". That just happens to be mostly white people who fit that description.

It always comes back to that famous Heinlein quote about bad luck with these people. Detroit was just the victim of bad luck when all of the productive people who lived there moved. It was just one of those things no one could have prevented or foreseen.

From what you are saying, that is all this guy is saying. Chuy will do better than Young because he won't have the bad luck Young had.

[Warty]

He's essentially arguing that Chuy will have to keep together a more diverse coalition than Young had to. Chicago is a third white, a third black, and a third Hispanic, so he won't be able to get votes by whitey-baiting like Coleman Young could. It's a reasonable enough hypothesis, as far as it goes. But he ignores the impeccable track record that communists have of destroying great American cities.

[John]

That is just it. White people didn't leave Detroit because Young was a racist, thought that didn't help. They left because Young destroyed government services and raised taxes through the roof and made the place unlivable. And Chuy will do exactly the same thing in Chicago. Saying nice things about white people isn't going to stop them from leaving once the crime rate goes up and the taxes get so high no one but the super rich can pay them.

[straffinrun]

That was a nightmare read.

[Warty]

Belt is exquisitely terrible. Enjoy.

[Andrew S.]

Peak derp!*

* there is no peak derp, I know. That one might last a few minutes though.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I find it hard to believe Chicago has any thriving neighborhoods, given my post just above yours.

[Andrew S.]

I got a letter from the IRS yesterday that said I owe $1,908 additional tax for 2013. I did an amended return and the forms that show it's bullshit, and I don't owe them another penny. Would it be wrong if I signed the response letter "Go fuck yourselves"?

[DEG]

It depends. Do you like your pets?

[Injun, as in from India]

^THIS

Remember, everyone from the IRS to the Department of Agriculture has paramilitary SWAT teams waiting to raid your house.

[Pro Libertate]

Morally? Absolutely. Practically? No way. You'll go on the list.

[R C Dean]

I got one of those, too.

They asked for $17K. I reran the numbers with all the data that had been fed to them by employers, brokers, etc. but that they had mysteriously misplaced, and it turns out they owe me another $300 refund.

[Private FUQ]

That would be a perfect response IF you have every receipt and a photographic memory of everything you have done for the last 7 years.

In all seriousness, hire a tax attorney now. Do NOT speak directly with the IRS. Preferably find a former IRS agent as your tax attorney. Its gonna cost you some money but will likely save you the enema you would receive otherwise.

[Andrew S.]

I have a LLM in Tax. I can take care of myself with these things.

It's actually pretty simple. My accountant screwed up and didn't do the second part of the form regarding HSAs, so the info on the form my HSA bank sent the IRS was never reported. But completing that form fully shows that it's zero income reported, since it was all used for medical expenses. It's just a pain to deal with is all.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Here is something constructive for Obama to do - give *every* citizen the chance to earn an LLM in tax law. Then at least half the citizenry will fill out their tax forms correctly.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Well, with free community college...

(be careful what you wish for, Mr. Prezznit!)

[CatoTheElder]

My experience with IRS is that you don't get to talk to anybody with an IQ about room temperature until you sue the Commissioner in Tax Court. It's pretty easy to do, though you have to pay the tax first. After I filed the suit, an IRS attorney contacted me, I explained my situation, he understood my explanation, and he agreed that I only owed about $60 instead of the $2000 they had demanded in their 30-day letter. Of course, maybe I was just lucky that I got to talk to an attorney who was not a prick. Anyway, this worked for me about 27 years ago, and I haven't had any trouble with IRS since.

I would advise to avoid visceral expressions of contempt.

Anyway, good luck.

[CatoTheElder]

Andreas Lubitz, the 27-year-old co-pilot believed to have purposefully crashed a Germanwings plane in the French alps, suffered from depression and anxiety and spent time receiving psychiatric treatment.

There are some jobs where "hire the handicapped" and "reasonable accommodations" make no sense. Lufthansa was, no doubt, aware of Lubitz' condition, and erred on the side of compassion with the employee. This reminds me of how Exxon kept Captain Joseph Hazelwood of Exxon Valdez fame. Even though they knew he was an alcoholic, they let him continue as a ship's master since he had undergone treatment. The EgyptAir crash back in the 90s also had a similar background of mental instability.

[Raven Nation]

BBC News reported this morning that Lubitz had "hidden" details of his medical reviews from Lufthansa.

[creech]

Has Lufthansa admitted they were aware? As I recall, medical privacy laws in Europe are even stricter than in U.S. so it is entirely possible the co-pilot was able to hide his condition from his employer.

[Pope Jimbo]

Amen.

Imagine if the Koch brothers had had a kid as dumb as Dayton. The left would be organizing 5 minutes of hate for them every day. Instead, since Dayton has the right ideas, he is lauded by the left.

He makes me think that maybe a 100% death tax isn't such a bad idea.

[Pope Jimbo]

In fairness to KFAN (the local sports talk station) I get where they are coming from. If the VIkes leave, it is way less for them to talk about. It is rational for them to really, really want the Vikes and the Twins to stay.

The rubes who paint their faces purple and show up at the capitol to demand that the pols give our money to NJ crooks are the ones that depress the shit out of me.

I also can at least wish we had one pol who had the stones to tell the Vikes, "go ahead and move to LA. With NFL package I can watch all the games just like before, with the internet, I can follow them on LATimes.com just like before. I actually like watching games on my big screen HD tv more than going to a game live anyhow."