School Will Report Parents Who Let Kids Play Video Games, More Countries Join China's World Bank Alternative, 'Clever' Ways to Raise Taxes: A.M. Links

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  Rob Blatt/Flickr

  An English school district informed parents that letting children play or even watch others play "inappropriate" video games such as Call of Duty would lead the school to "contact the police and children's social care as it is neglectful." The school also warned that social media leaves kids "vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation."  

• "The 'free range kids' movement speaks exactly to what I want for my children," writes Michael Brendan Dougherty. But… 
• Russia, the Netherlands, and Australia are all joining China's alternative to the World Bank, along with 30-something other countries. 
• America's largest supplement retailer, GNC, has announced that it will "institute sweeping new testing procedures" to ensure quality—without the government forcing them to. Fancy that. Progressives are obviously using this as proof we need more federal supplement oversight because … I can't even guess at the logic.
• Republicans are getting slammed over Indiana's "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" but Democrats such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer have all previously supported similar bills.
• The NSA was just about to end phone surveillance of Americans before the Edward Snowden leaks. Also, I have this bridge…
• "A clever way to get the rich to pay taxes": Okay okay okay, we're taking half your income, but look at this shitty testament to government inefficiency post office we're naming in your honor! 
• Carly Fiorina says she's almost definitely running for president.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republicans are getting slammed over Indiana's "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" but Democrats such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer have all previously supported similar bills.

We don't talk about that.

[sarcasmic]

When they did it they had good intentions, unlike the Republicans.

[Los Doyers]

Drink!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Carly Fiorina says she's almost definitely running for president.

Decisive leadership.

[UnCivilServant]

Who?

[Crusty Juggler]

She is going to make some tough choices...and keep on failing upward, just like Martin O'Malley.

[Cdr Lytton]

Why not? It's worked during her entire career so far.

[Crusty Juggler]

I know! It is commendable!

[Fist of Etiquette]

I loved her in The Last Seduction and Men in Black.

[Charles Easterly]

Dogma not so much for me but her accent in Gotcha was... interesting.

[Crusty Juggler]

I prefer her work in Jade, which IMHO was David Caruso's best work (and trust me he has done a lot of good things).

[Monty Crisco]

TROLL!!!!

[Hyperion]

O'Malley couldn't even get his hand picked gubernatorial candidate elected in deep blue MD. On the national stage, he's a loser before he even gets out of the gate.

[Rich]

And don't forget *his* FAKE SCANDALS!

[wadair]

Divisive Leadership

FTFY

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Isn't she some kind of singer or TV star?

[Lord Humungus]

Men are going nuts over Lululemon's 'anti-ball crushing' pants

The Canadian sportswear brand famous for making yoga pants the de facto uniform of women on university campuses everywhere appears to have shifted its focus from butts to balls.

That's right, Lululemon has entered the menswear business ? and it's attracting a lot of men's business with pants designed for men's business.

Below is a photo of the Vancouver-based company's new "anti-ball crushing" (or ABC) pants, which were engineered to give "the family jewels room to breathe," according to a product description.

[Rich]

Oh, just cut to the chase and bring back codpieces!

[Slammer]

+1 Blackie Lawless

[Aloysious]

Word Up!

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

[Michael]

+1 Zardoz

[Restoras, CRW]

Compression pants that don't compress the balls? This is the kind of miracle only the free market can create.

[Crusty Juggler]

As a fella with a hefty sac I am very intrigued by this. Good link!

[Pope Jimbo]

You are a monster!

http://tinyurl.com/no3mccm

Don't do this to me, Lululemon. Don't design a product that I really like in theory but ends up accidentally making a lot of points about male privilege that I don't want to deal with on a Friday. I wasn't thinking about my privilege at all today.

This dude is definitely in the running for Beta Male 2015.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Beta Male of the Decade.

[Monty Crisco]

HE is competing against Pajama Boy, remember~! (And tony and shreeky...)

[Illocust]

Wow, so someone completely doesn't understand how marketing works. It ain't the corporations fault that girls want to be sexy.
Hell if feminists really wanted to stop this all they would have to do is change their biggest criteria for dating from successful to sexy. Apparently they make up twenty percent of the female populations, so that is more than enough to change sexual mores.

[lap83]

He'd try to be even more Beta but it's a Friday and he doesn't want to work that hard.

[Mr. Anderson]

Get your invisible hand off my sack.

[Form 27B/6]

This will make Men invulnable to all attacks. How will Women fight the Patriarchy?

[gaijin]

From the rear?

[This Machine]

Or, you could, y'know, just go commando. Yet another overly technical solution for a problem already solved by freeballing.

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Kilt

[Fist of Etiquette]

Okay okay okay, we're taking half your income, but look at this shitty testament to government inefficiency post office we're naming in your honor!

So we're no longer planning to name and rename everything after our dear leader?

[UnCivilServant]

The Kim Memorial Post Office?

[Ted S.]

Rufus is pleased to hear that Kim Campbell is finally getting that post office named after her.

Or were you referring to Andy Kim? 😉

[Lord Humungus]

Indonesian police burn 3.3 tons of weed; get entire town high

The police of Palmerah?which is sub-district of West Jakarta?accidentally got their residents high as kites when they burned a 3.3-ton pile of marijuana.

A number of residents?including journalists?in the Indonesian neighborhood reported feeling dizzy, headaches and intoxicated when the plume of smoke blew into their streets.

Some of the police wore masks when they set the weed ablaze, but forgot to mention to the folks in surrounding the areas that the smoke may affect them, too. They basically gave an entire town a contact high. Oops.

If my guide to life through 80s movie is to believed, then a serious party would break out; all shyness removed the guys can finally talk to the girls.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Alice Bowie wins the Battle of the Bands?

[Frank Frankelson]

No, no, NO! The biggest hazard is that a Phish concert might break out.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The NSA was just about to end phone surveillance of Americans before the Edward Snowden leaks.

Embarrassing.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Trevor Noah to Succeed Jon Stewart on 'The Daily Show'

By DAVE ITZKOFFMARCH 30, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03......html?_r=0

[Mike M.]

For all you doubters out there, Weigel posted this same thing on Twitter about five minutes before he posted it here, exactly like when Philip Seymour Hoffman died.

[Hyperion]

Do does Trevor have his proggie talking points well rehearsed already?

[Rhywun]

He will be "offering his outsider's perspective, as a biracial South African".

What do you think?

[Xeones]

I've seen his standup. He's... not all that funny or insightful.

[Illocust]

Eh, it probably just means he's a fan of Weigel and follows him on twitter. Twitter is a really big freaking deal to lefties.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ironically, you follow Weigel on Twitter and I don't.

My source is the NY TImes. I also read Bloomberg and the WSJ.

[Mike M.]

Go die in a fire, liar.

[Xeones]

BUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTPPPPPLLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUGGG

[Private FUQ]

Of course you don't follow yourself. That would be Twitter masturbation.

[straffinrun]

You not only beat me to it, but made a better comment. FUQqit.

[straffinrun]

I'd be ironic if you did follow him. That would mean you aren't him. Didn't think that through, did you.

[Xeones]

BUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUUG

[Juice]

Terrible choice. His delivery is crap.

[Lord Humungus]

(Australian) Budget 2015: Federal Government set to introduce tax on bank deposits

The Federal Government looks set to introduce a tax on bank deposits in the May budget.

The idea of a bank deposit tax was raised by Labor in 2013 and was criticised by Tony Abbott at the time.

Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has indicated an announcement on the new tax could be made before the budget.

The Government is heading for a fight with the banking industry, which has warned it will have to pass the cost back onto customers.

[UnCivilServant]

Mattress Sales up?

[Ted S.]

The politicians seem physically addicted to other people's money.

[gaijin]

it will have to pass the cost back onto customers.

The banks will just have to use words on the bill like the phone industry..."these charges are fees that we choose to pass along and are not called taxes"

[Fist of Etiquette]

...would lead the school to "contact the police and children's social care as it is neglectful."

It takes a well-armed village.

[Ted S.]

Report the school officials for encouraging bullying.

Because they're teaching kids that it's virtuous to use the state to bully people doing things you don't like.

[gaijin]

"Because they're teaching kids that it's the virtuous state that can be used to bully people doing things you don't like."

Fixed for authoritarian consumption

[Brett L]

And I will immediately counterfile a harassment complaint. Calling the police on someone you don't like is a crime.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

It's phrased like an order from a military governor to a conquered people.

The freedom-loving Britons must have all emigrated in the last few centuries, leaving the authoritarian knob-gobblers behind.

[Slammer]

The school also warned that social media school leaves kids "vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation."

[Atanarjuat]

Finally, they've figured out who's to blame for that unfortunate Rotherham business--American video games!

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Social Media grooming fucks up the School-master's grooming.

[Restoras, CRW]

...GNC, has announced that it will "institute sweeping new testing procedures" to ensure quality...

I guess this is why I saw a 35% off sale this weekend?

[Ted S.]

Songs of Irish WWI POWs (link is to a ~4MB MP3)

Derek Scally, Berlin Correspondent with the Irish Times, discusses the discovery of a number of recordings of Irish prisoners of war in Germany in 1917

More from the Irish Times

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Without looking, I am going to guess they are mostly in the vein of "Shite, this is bloody awful" or "It beats being back in Connemara"?

[Ted S.]

Actually, it was German linguists doing the research, so it's more about the historical value than the actual quality of the songs.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.....296.x/full

"You have free access to this content
Fossils, feet and the evolution of human bipedal locomotion"

[Lord Humungus]

Medieval Parasite-Filled Poop Found in Jerusalem Latrine

The excavation of a roughly 500-year-old latrine in Jerusalem has uncovered thousands of eggs from human parasites, including some that may have come from Northern Europe, a new study finds.

The people who used the latrine may have been long-distance traders or on a pilgrimage, likely from Northern Europe, where these parasites were common, the researchers said.

Sounds like a shitty job.

[Restoras, CRW]

Too obvious for a narrow gaze?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Yeah.

[Cdr Lytton]

Narrow, huh? Like a slit trench?

[straffinrun]

Thousands of eggs from human parasites. That wasn't a latrine, it was their IRS headquarters.

[Rich]

The school also warned that social media leaves kids "vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation."

I trust the school tweeted this and posted it on Facebook.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Objective Science Bitches!!

1.5?C or 2?C: a conduit's view from the science-policy interface at COP20 in Lima, Peru
...Less well known perhaps is a critique from feminist social scientists who interrogate what may be deemed 'acceptable' and what may be 'dangerous', and for whom, and who contest the global community as a homogeneous entity. Joni Seager, for instance, demonstrates how notions of acceptability always mirror 'a prism of privilege, power, and geography' [14]. She argues that those for whom a 2?C target appears to be a relatively safe bet are the richer countries in temperate latitudes, as well as politicians and economists from the global North deeply entrenched in a masculinized rationality that nature can be controlled and that in the imminent climate race with inevitable winners and losers they will be among the former....

[Ted S.]

Less well known perhaps is a critique from feminist social scientists who interrogate what may be deemed 'acceptable' and what may be 'dangerous',

"Interrogate"?

[gaijin]

I have 1.5 degrees...do I hear 1.4 degrees....1.4, anyone, give me 1.4....1.5 going once, going twice...

[Tonio]

politicians and economists from the global North deeply entrenched in a masculinized rationality that nature can be controlled

So, they're finally admitting we can't? I love how they paint themselves into ever-smaller corners.

[Brett L]

Any time I se pomo criticism language invoked, it means I can safely ignore the subject as not important to real life.

[Xeones]

I read that as "porno criticism," and was briefly intrigued.

[Suthenboy]

That is one giant, steaming pile. Good God.

[Free Society]

analysis of the differentiated gender impacts caused by climate change.

These issues are the lack of access to drinking water and water for agriculture, impact on food sovereignty and greater dependence on the economy and the market, prolonged droughts and heavy unseasonal rain and the loss of the ability to produce natural medicines due to reduced availability of the appropriate plants.

Not only is climate change a tool of the patriarchy to suppress 'feminist economics', but "greater dependence on the economy and market" is apparently a bad thing for people trying to survive. Someone tell the 7 billion earth people who would not exist without great dependence on markets, that they're actually in danger by not leading a (matriarchal) neolithic lifestyle.

The intersectionality of where feminist derp meets climate derp may provide a glimmer of hope to those in search of the fabled 'peak derp'.

[Bill Dalasio]

...as well as politicians and economists from the global North deeply entrenched in a masculinized rationality....

You know, I know some ladies that, if I were to refer to "masculinized rationality" to, I'd be auditioning for a kick in the balls.

[Lord Humungus]

Iran Backs Away From Key Detail in Nuclear Deal

For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia, where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday Iran's deputy foreign minister made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that Iran has spent years and billions of dollars to amass.

"The export of stocks of enriched uranium is not in our program, and we do not intend sending them abroad," the official, Abbas Araqchi, told the Iranian media, according to Agence France-Presse. "There is no question of sending the stocks abroad."

[Drake]

a "surprise" comment

Only to the Obama Admin

[Juice]

Since Iran got burned so hard last time they tried this method, I don't see them ever being suckered into it again.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Google controls what we buy, the news we read ? and Obama's policies
...A former Google officer is the president's chief technology adviser. Google employees contributed more to President Obama's re-election than did employees of any other company except Microsoft. Google lobbyists met with Obama White House officials 230 times. By comparison, lobbyists from rival Comcast have been admitted to the inner sanctum a mere 20 or so times in the same period.

Oh, and on Election Night 2012, guess where Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt was? Working for the president. In the president's campaign office. On a voter-turnout system designed to help the president get re-elected....

...Still, all of this is easily forgiven compared to what's coming next: politically filtered information.

Google says that in the future, its determinations about what is true and what is untrue will play a role in how search-engine rankings are configured.
Google has the power to bump an article it doesn't like off the table and under the rug. Even moving information off the first page of search results would effectively neutralize it: According to a 2013 study, 91.5 percent of Google search users click through on a first-page result....

[gaijin]

Google controls what we buy, the news we read

We've taken care of everything, the books you read, the songs you sing...

[Cdr Lytton]

But do they control the vertical and the horizontal?

[Alton Knutson]

..,The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes
It's one for all and all for one
We work together common sons
Never need to wonder how or why

[Illocust]

Ah damn, it was fun while it lasted, but as much of a google fangirl as I am, I won't hesitate to switch services if they try to filter based on 'truth'.

I do wish I could track how many progs are going to suddenly go from hating google to loving it though. This seems targeted to their love of censorship.

[Carl ?s the level]

Google says that in the future, its determinations about what is true and what is untrue will play a role in how search-engine rankings are configured.

No, they don't say that. They released a research paper describing how to do so, and most journalists who reported on it are evidently too braindead to distinguish between that and a press release.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Russia, the Netherlands, and Australia are all joining China's alternative to the World Bank...

You know what other three powers combined to oppose a group of allied members?

[Slammer]

The executive, the legislative, and the judicial?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

The Dreikaiserbund?

[Charles Easterly]

The Kwisatz Haderach, Fremen, and Smugglers?

[The DerpRider]

The Musketeers?

[Tonio]

Mercia, Anglia and Kent?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Moe, Larry, and Shemp?

/The forgotten stooge

[Xeones]

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

[Frank Frankelson]

Peter, Paul and Mary?

[This Machine]

Geddy, Alex, and Neil

[Restoras, CRW]

FTW!

[db]

By-Tor, Snow Dog, and The Necromancer?

[gaijin]

The priests...of the temples...of Syrinx!

[Charles Easterly]

I like the way this is going.

*considers which RUSH cd to play first tonight*

[Rasilio]

Apollo, Dionysus, and Cygnus?

[Emmerson Biggins]

Damn Yankees?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Fundamental Concepts - Why the Left Hates Families
...And so on. They've been remarkably successful in all of these efforts, but the family has remained the hardest nut to crack, and any society that maintains a robust family structure will always be resistant to the siren song of a collectivist Utopia. A person who graduates high school and waits until after marriage to have children has a less that 10% chance of falling into poverty. That's a fact. A population where more than 90% of its members are living above the poverty line doesn't need a welfare state, private charity is more than capable of caring for those that fall through the cracks. A society where families can oversee their child's education on the local level resists ideological indoctrination. A society where parents can chose to work harder and expect to reap the rewards of that hard work and where effort is admired doesn't need unions to prop up the lazy and the corrupt. A society where strong families are able to accumulate resources over their lifetime doesn't need Social Security. In short, a society of strong families doesn't need much government at all, and Progressives know this, which is why the nuclear family must be destroyed as a cohesive social unit.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I could write about a zillion words here outlining how Progressive policies have attacked the family in the last 50 years, but I'm going to assume that most of you reading this are well aware of the statistics, how the welfare state has led to an explosion of single parent families, many of who are utterly dependent on government largess to survive. If not, there are voluminous works available online, just Bing them. I would close with one simple observation: The Progressive elite, the white upper and upper middle class, they don't practice what they preach. By and large, their lives are still structured around the traditional family. They raise their children together (even if divorced), and see that they finish school before marrying, and they make sure that all of the tradition benefits of familiar wealth accumulation, power and connection are bestowed upon their children. Abortion takes care of any nasty premarital "accidents", ensuring that their children aren't "cursed with a baby". They know that the family is the key to prosperity, they just want to ensure that these benefits are reserved for those of their class and breeding. Who cares if the hoi polloi are being condemned to a lifetime of toil and misery by excessive government, Progressives have to have someone to rule, don't they?...

[Drake]

With real leftists, it was never about helping people - it was about the State becoming the family.

[Idle Hands]

meh. I could see how counterintiutive it would be to some people to say the best way to help people is to not give them money. That doesn't excuse people from burying their head in the sand about the obvious results of that four decades long case study.

[Monty Crisco]

WINGO!

[Restoras, CRW]

A state can only 'progress' if all 'citizens' are pulling in the same direction. Traditional families only get in the way of that.

[sarcasmic]

Yup. We're all in this together. Best to act collectively than in splintered family groups. After all, we're all one big family, aren't we? And what better way to unite us than with government, because government is The People, right?

[Hyperion]

All your children are belong to us.

/Melissa Harris-Perry

[VG Zaytsev]

http://www.master-of-education.....ropaganda/

Check out number 6.

[Xeones]

You know who else distributed Nazi educational propaganda?

[Frank Frankelson]

Dunno, Salon?

[Charles Easterly]

Skinheads?

[Suthenboy]

What about number ten?

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

[Free Society]

We can start by equipping them with snazzy brown shirts and stylish red armbands.

[Restoras, CRW]

Well said, comrade.

[Hyperion]

The left do not want people forming tight bonds with one another and relying on each other. They want people to give up all hope and turn to the state for whatever they need. They have been tremendously successful over the past 100 years.

[Tonio]

Yes, but note how all of that is just a lead-up to an excuse for hand wringing, shock quoted anti-abortion blather. True mark of a fanatic - they always have to bring up their pet peeve.

[SusanM]

Nice try but there are plenty of third-world shit holes where families are really close.

[lap83]

This article reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a few days ago, "I homeschool because I've seen the village and I don't want it raising my children"

[straffinrun]

If you could read all that you were tailgating.

[UnCivilServant]

Or waiting for the train to pass, or in a parking lot or...

[straffinrun]

and to think I deleted, "may have been" for brevity's sake.

[Charles Easterly]

I often have similar regrets.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"I would love to articulate my political philosophy on a bumper sticker, but I don't have enough space."

[Bee Tagger]

The NSA was just about to end phone surveillance of Americans before the Edward Snowden leaks. Also, I have this bridge...

What about a middle eight break?

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's called the Elite Eight, dummy, and there's no break.

[Lord Humungus]

Jonah Goldberg: L'Affaire Bergdahl Is the Quintessential Obama Fiasco

The Obama M.O. remains remarkably consistent. He announces some initiative, policy, or presidential action. The public rationale for the move is always rhetorically grounded in some deep, universally shared principle, even if the real agenda is something far more ideological or partisan. The facts driving the decision are never as the White House presents them. Indeed, the more confident the White House appears to be about the facts, the more likely it is they're playing games with them.

Sometimes the facts are simply made up. There are millions of "shovel ready jobs" right around the corner! "You can keep your doctor!" The Benghazi attack was "about a video!" "One in five women are raped!" "The Islamic State isn't Islamic!" "These exclamation points are totally necessary!" At other times, the facts are selectively deployed. "Something something tax breaks for corporate jets mumble mumble poor Warren Buffet's secretary's tax bill blah blah Spain is winning the future with solar panels" and, course, "core al-Qaeda has been decimated" (in which "core al-Qaeda" is defined as "the bits of al-Qaeda that have been decimated").

[VG Zaytsev]

Give Obama a freaking break.

He didn't know anything about it, and only learned it had happened when he read about in the Post.

[Suthenboy]

Fiasco is exactly the right word to describe everything he has done. In fact, it is the perfect word for describing his entire administration.

[Caleb Turberville]

http://m.iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/648/2/L109

"A Direct Empirical Proof of the Existence of Dark Matter*"

[Brett L]

They say it is independent of gravitational laws, but it appears to be based on mass lensing effects on xrays. So... I'm confused. I should just admit that I don't understand dark matter.

[Caleb Turberville]

I thought it conformed to the Einstein field equations as the long since discarded cosmological constant?

Dark matter = cosmological constant

[Frank Frankelson]

That was always my thought, it always came off as the remainder to a problem that physics, as we understand it, couldn't explain.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

That's dark energy. Dark matter explains why galaxies don't fly apart.

[Homple]

Is dark matter today's Luminiferous Ether?

[Charles Easterly]

Thanks Caleb.

[Hyperion]

Dark matter is de debil!

[Hyperion]

Well, no one else can explain it, and things that can't be explained are either of gawd or de debil. And since this dark matter is dark, we can only deduce that it be de debil.

[straffinrun]

Dark matter matters!

[Xeones]

RACIST

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Race, class issues starting to split Silicon Valley alliance of tech, progressives
The rise of today's progressive-dominated Democratic Party stemmed from a brilliant melding of minorities, the poor, the intelligentsia and, quite surprising, the new ultrarich of Silicon Valley. For the past decade, this alliance has worked for both sides, giving the tech titans politically correct cover while suggesting their support for the progressives' message can work with business.

Not only did tech overwhelmingly favor President Obama with campaign contributions but Obama also overwhelming won the Silicon Valley electorate, taking the once GOP-leaning Santa Clara County with 70 percent of the vote. After the 2012 election, a host of former top Obama aides ? including former campaign manager David Plouffe (Uber) and press spokesman Jay Carney (Amazon) ? have signed up to work for tech giants. Perhaps even more revealing was the politically inspired firing last year of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for contributing to California's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...The immediate response from the oligarchs, and their swelling ranks of highly paid public-relations consultants, will likely be symbolic, mouthing the politically correct stance on climate change, even as they take off in their private jets. Also expect them to put more money into charitable activities, which could turn displaced cab drivers or factory assemblers into future wards of the tech elite. In the end, it seems little different from a glossy form of the Gilded Age ? or feudalism.

In the long run, rising inequality poses an existential threat to the tech industry, across California and the nation. Tech firms ultimately will not be able to address this merely with noblesse oblige, political cover or PR stunts. And the stakes are large: If the negative impacts of tech are not addressed, the population will seek to tax more of the oligarchs' holdings and restrict their freedom of operation....

[Rhywun]

the negative impacts of tech

A trigger warning for "extreme stupidity" would have been nice.

[Free Society]

In the end, it seems little different from a glossy form of the Gilded Age ? or feudalism.

The Gilded Age was actually a period of tremendous wealth expansion that we would be lucky to recreate today. And feudalism, which is a system of contracts for recognition and protection between property owners, is vastly superior to the present system of centralized statism. But never let historical accuracy get in the way of a good screed against freedom.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Simone de Beauvoir

1. I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.

2. No woman should be authorized to stay at home and raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.

3. Buying is a profound pleasure.

4. The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.

5. Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.

6. The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "it's a girl."

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

I am torn...3 or 6... OK...3.

[This Machine]

Hmm... Gonna say 3.

[lap83]

"The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women."

I actually think this is often true, but it doesn't bother me and I attribute it to ego more than sexism.

[lap83]

I'm going with 6.

[Derpetologist]

Winner! That is a quote from Shirley Chisolm.

Your prize awaits

[Lord Humungus]

The Blumenthal Pathology

As David Mikics explained in Tablet Magazine, "As a reporter, the best one can say about him [Blumenthal] is that he doesn't speak Hebrew or Arabic, and he doesn't have any sources?so it's hard to fault him for getting things wrong."

Blumenthal's book, subtitled Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, explicitly likens Israel to Nazi Germany. Chapter titles such as "The Concentration Camp" and "The Night of Broken Glass" flippantly invoke the memory of the Holocaust. The book is so egregious that even the left-wing writer Eric Alterman wrote in the Nation that it could have been a selection for the "Hamas book-of-the-month-club." Blumenthal, he wrote, was "a profoundly unreliable narrator." Alterman concluded that "[l]iterally nothing this fellow writes can be taken at face value. He shames all of us with his presence in our magazine."

[Bee Tagger]

Carly Fiorina says she's almost definitely running for president.

She can choose this as her favorite song when asked in a super important debate.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Richard Nixon

1. This administration has proved that it is utterly incapable of cleaning out the corruption which has completely eroded it and reestablishing the confidence and faith of the American people in the morality and honesty of their government employees.

2. You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.

3. Oh, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.

4. I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don't. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And emotional.

5. I call it the Madman Theory, Bob. I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war. We'll just slip the word to them that, for God's sake, you know Nixon is obsessed about Communism. We can't restrain him when he's angry and he has his hand on the nuclear button and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.

[Derpetologist]

6. There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.

7. I don't give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up or anything else, if it'll save it, save this plan.

8. I recognize that this additional material I am now furnishing may further damage my case.

9. I have never been a quitter.

10. You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was Socrates.

11. Your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever.

12. When information which properly belongs to the public is sytematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and?eventually?incapable of determining their own destinies.

[Charles Easterly]

Twelve.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

11 - it sounds like that quote from the Simpson's.

God help me, I recognize many of those other quotes as genuinely Nixonian.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

1

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

No fair...I commented before you laid out the next 6!

12

[Derpetologist]

It's OK. Both your guesses are wrong. Nixon really said those.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

GRRR!

[Derpetologist]

And the Not is....

#11

That is a quote from Nixon's head on Futurama.

Nixon said #1 in 1951 while complaining about corruption in the Truman administration. He said #12 in 1972 in a speech about a new law about declassifying information.

[MJGreen]

Boo, I would've called that. If only I was here earlier.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Hey, what do you know, I got it right!

I never even saw Futurama but it seems to be kind of Simpson's - like.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You have to take my word for it I guessed it before reading the answer.

[This Machine]

Tough series. Let's say 7. Too obvious to be Nixon, gotta be a bluff.

[This Machine]

Must refresh page.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

That's like not recognizing "give me liberty or give me death" as being from Patrick Henry!

[Paul.]

When I read the story about videogames, I thought that surely there would be something taken out of context. but it appears to be exactly what the headline says, the school district, stazi-like will actually be contacting the police. How did we get here?

[Drake]

"We" aren't there. It's the stupid Brits who have lost their minds and their country.

[Restoras, CRW]

While the Brits have become unhinged from their history (to be more inline with their close continental neighbors?) are things in the US that far behind?

[Monty Crisco]

My theory is that we are about 20 years behind the brits culturally. Look for this to be happening in America circa 2035. All private gun ownership banned around 2025...

[sarcasmic]

They'll never get away with banning guns. Ammunition on the other hand...

[Restoras, CRW]

I agree, MC.

[Private FUQ]

As sarc says....ammunition.

Or make people get a federal explosives permit to buy or store gunpowder. Including the powder already in a bullet.

Or tax every bullet purchased.

Or any number of things that would effectively ban or make impossible the ability to have a working firearm.

[sarcasmic]

It's already difficult to buy black powder these days. The sheer number of permits and licenses required to sell the stuff has dissuaded many small shops from carrying it anymore. I'm sure that regular ammunition will slowly disappear in the same way. It won't be banned, but the regulatory hoops required to sell it will grow and grow until you just don't see it on the shelves anymore.

[Monty Crisco]

Well, now guys, this is why I am buying a brick a week or so. Get them in 500 to 1009 round increments and stockpile. Then when the time comes, they can go ahead with the banning, but the consequences will be the same...

[Monty Crisco]

And also, just as a mantra, you can have enough guns, BUT NEVER ENOUGH AMMO AND MAGAZINES!!!!!

[This Machine]

+ 1 pallet of P-Mags

[Restoras, CRW]

It's the slow slide of feel-good progressivism, smile-faced fascism.

When the progs realized the threat of force would make people dig in their heels and fight to stay free they began an unerring appeal to emotion in order to advance their agenda.

[Hyperion]

And how will the police react to this? Are video games illegal in UK?

[Lord Humungus]

Has anyone survived a Warty goose?

Goose causes downtown outage, crash

A goose is to blame for an outage that left more than 300 customers without power Friday morning, Idaho Power officials said.

Traffic lights also malfunctioned when the large waterfowl flew into an electric line, bringing it down.

The outage stretched from Grove Street to Julia Davis Park and from Broadway Avenue to Capitol Boulevard.

[Crusty Juggler]

Ban gooses.

[Bee Tagger]

Republicans are getting slammed over Indiana's "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" but Democrats such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer have all previously supported similar bills.

Sorry, that looks like it's more than 140 characters. Your argument is invalid.

[Mongo]

lol wut?

[Lord Humungus]

French local elections: Exit polls suggest conservative win

The UMP, led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, appeared set to secure at least 65 local councils, exit polls suggested, up from 41.

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front also appeared to have made gains, while the ruling Socialists and their allies may lose about 30 departments.

These elections are seen as a test case ahead of 2017's presidential election.

[Lord Humungus]

Obama's next earthquake

President Obama's rhetorical assault on Benjamin Netanyahu last week was in part the product of pique. But it also set the stage for what could be another crockery-breaking bid by Obama for a foreign policy legacy, on a par with his opening to Cuba and would-be nuclear deal with Iran.

By declaring Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations dead and blaming Netanyahu, Obama laid the predicate for a decision to go forward with a U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution that would set the terms for a final peace settlement. Envisioned as an updating of U.N. Resolution 242, which has been part of the framework for the Mideast "peace process" since the 1960s, the idea would be to mandate the solution to the questions Israelis and Palestinians have been unable to agree upon for decades, such as the future status of Jerusalem. Not incidentally, it would provide Obama with the Mideast legacy he has craved since his first day in office.

[John]

He is going to have a legacy alright. I am not sure the world or he is going to like it very much but he will have a legacy.

It goes back to how the Obama people believe in the magic power of words. They honestly think if they go through the ritual of negotiating and sign an "agreement" the words in the agreement have the magic power of bringing peace.

[Ted S.]

Good luck trying to force it on Israel.

[VG Zaytsev]

Obama laid the predicate for a decision to go forward with a U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution that would set the terms for a final peace settlement.

So Obama's proposing a final solution to the Zionist problem.

Sounds vaguely familiar.

[Suthenboy]

He has already got a legacy. ISIS.

[Idle Hands]

Shamelessy stolen from instapundit but-
There are more museums in the U.S. than there are Starbucks and McDonalds ? combined.

There are roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, and about 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. But combined, the two chains don't come close to the number of museums in the U.S., which stands at a whopping 35,000.

[Rich]

The National Mustard Museum

[straffinrun]

If I had a Rolls Royce, I'd love to go through their drive thru. Pardon me...

[UnCivilServant]

Bah, you'd never be able to match the snobbery of Jim Hacker snubbing Death.

[Rich]

Argh! I forgot to point out the Hit & Run Mustard!

[R C Dean]

I know that guy. The Museum used to be in Mt. Horeb, a small town not far west of Middleton and Wisconsin, where I used to live.

[Heedless]

In Evanston Illinois, there is the National Toby Jug Museum. "What is a toby jug," you ask. I don't know, but there's a museum for them nonetheless.

[Homple]

I have seen an egg cup museum in Wittenberg, and a mousetrap museum at Stolburg, both in Germany.

[Rich]

New questions about emails

It is unclear what special knowledge or skills Ms. Abedin possessed that the government could not have easily obtained otherwise from regular government employees," Grassley wrote.

Heh.

[UnCivilServant]

Fanatical loyalty.

[Crusty Juggler]

She knows how to stand by her man after having been embarrassed and shamed, and as the Clinton's have shown is that is a woman's true test. She is also vaguely attractive and related to terrorists, which is a rare combination.

[Idle Hands]

It is unclear what specialcarnal knowledge or skills Ms. Abedin possessed that the government could not have easily obtained otherwise from regular government employees," Grassley wrote.

[Frank Frankelson]

Where's barfman when you need him?

[Lord Humungus]

My personal Libertarian hell
I used to be a Libertarian. Then I had the gall to criticize them in an article -- and here's what happened next

Rage defines all right-leaning movements in the Obama era. The existence of this hate, vitriol and disgust is beyond dispute. You see it on Fox News, in talk radio and permeating the internet. When they lose, they're angry and even when they win they're still pretty pissed off. Some random liberal writes a little article for Salon and libertarians release a torrent of hate articles, personal attacks, and rage filled podcasts. What a burden it must be to walk around so furious all the time. It's almost a shame, because diversity of ideas in a democracy is a good thing, but when they are poisoned with hate, they can't be taken seriously.

As I said at the outset, the easy move is to ignore libertarians, because they have no hope of winning serious office. Even the strategy of reshaping the GOP has limits. Rand Paul has to pretend that he doesn't want to reverse five decades of civil rights law just to be considered a "serious politician." In fact there is also an undercurrent of racial animus that infects many libertarians. From Ron Paul's lost racist news letters to the most current movement leaders, they just can't seem to help themselves.

[Idle Hands]

That was about the dumbest article I've read in a week. Thank you. My favorite part was when he said that criticizing Libertarians was the second dumbest thing you could do on the internet and than went on to explain how insignificant they are.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I was hoping so hard that it would be Weigel.

There's also hilarious projection from Salon declaring other people to be 'walking around furious' all the time.

[John]

Back when I was living in the darkness of reason and personal responsibility and before I saw the light of collective guilt and emotion, before I was saved by the Progressive cause.

That article reads like a faith attestation some recovering degenerate drunk would give at an AA meeting. Prog politics is religion for these people.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

That's exactly what it is. Every religious faith needs Damascene conversions to prove that theirs is the one true beliefs system.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If you don't mind I think I'll post that in the comments because I know it will piss them off.

[John]

Go for it. It will drive them crazy. Nothing hurts more than the truth.

[Suthenboy]

nah. They will just delete it. They deleted every single comment I ever posted there. All five.

I am not sure if I am still banned over there or not. I was banned from so many proggie sites I can't remember which ones I am banned from and which ones not. I am pretty sure Salon is one of them.

[VG Zaytsev]

It read more like a testimonial in a circus tent revival calling the lost to Jesus.

[Andrew S.]

HOW MANY "FORMER LIBERTARIANS" DOES SALON HAVE WRITING FOR THEM?

Cripes, they run the same damn article every week.

[Pro Libertate]

I'd say none. They're just misusing the term.

[Hyperion]

They're so convinced that libertarians are inconsequential that they are obsessed about trying to convince everyone of that. If something is totally irrelevant then why is it that they can't stop obsessing over it?

[Illocust]

'Libertarianism' tends to be a stop over when someone switches from statist republican to statist democrat. I don't really know why, but I've seen it happen enough times to know it's a trend.

[Free Society]

'Libertarianism' tends to be a stop over when someone switches from statist republican to statist democrat. I don't really know why, but I've seen it happen enough times to know it's a trend.

Because people who are stupid enough to blithely swing between those camps don't know what libertarianism actually is to begin with.

[Bam!]

Knew it was Salon before mousing over the link.

[The Laconic Esq]

As I said at the outset, the easy move is to ignore libertarians

...and I will start by writing yet another article for Salon about libertarians.

[Hyperion]

Bullshit, this person was never libertarian and does not even know what that means.

[Juice]

It's Salon. This is what they do.

[Tonio]

Oh, I like this guy. As I said at the outset, the easy move is to ignore libertarians, because they have no hope of winning serious office. He's in denial that they can continue to ignore us.

[John]

The school also warned that social media leaves kids "vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation."

You know what really leaves kids vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation? Refusing to confront a bunch of animals who rape young girls because they are Muslims and the authorities are terrified of being racist.

[Restoras, CRW]

Pish posh, John, that's all been swept under the rug by now (with the help of the Reason staff - good job everyone!) and way as well never have happened.

[John]

Brown people aren't people like you and me Restoras. They are special and different and can't be held accountable like real humans like you and I can be.

[Restoras, CRW]

Matt and Nick must be so proud.

[Monty Crisco]

Good point, Restoras. I feel reason has not really made good on it's penance for failing to cover that story.

The rest of the American media? WHAT American media?!?!

[Rich]

Bloody hell, John -- you'll be *cited* if you keep this up!

[Lord Humungus]

GOP's Obamacare mendacity: Paul Krugman explains why health reform is working ? despite the horror stories

Take jobs. Republicans from establishment tribune John Boehner to Tea Party firebrand Ted Cruz have dubbed Obamacare the number one job killer in the country. Employers don't seem to have received the memo: 2014, the first full year Obamacare was in effect, saw the most new jobs created this century. The current unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, is already half a percentage point below the six percent level 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney promised by the end of his first term in January 2017 ? and we haven't had to rob millions of Americans of health insurance to get there.

Then there's cost. It's a running joke among conservatives to tar the health care law as the Unaffordable Care Act, but Krugman points out that Congressional Budget Office figures show the law's cost coming in at 20 percent below projections. Thanks to payment reforms and other savings measures included in the law, the ACA is reducing the federal budget deficit, not sending it higher. But don't tell Texas congressman Pete Sessions, who asserted the other day that Obamacare is costing $5 million per recipient. (Try $4,000.)

[John]

He is the Baghdad Bob of the Progressive movement. There are not tanks in Baghdad and Obama care is working.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You stupid fuckers gave Krugman a layup by crying about death panels, job losses, death spirals, forced home inspections, and other easy-to-refute banalities.

[Private FUQ]

Do we really need to link al the articles proving the job losses again?

Please cite where "we" were crying about death panels, death spirals and forced home inspections. I know you and Bo are fixated on us being a bunch of TEAM RED fucktards but "we" never made the arguments that the libertarians in your head keep making.

[Palin's Buttplug]

John IS a "TEAM RED fucktard".

[John]

No shithead, you are a delusional retard who thinks anyone left of Warren is TEAM RED. Fuck off and die sock puppet. You accomplish nothing by being here other than embarrassing yourself.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Shut your piehole, Red Tony. How did your nonstop campaign for Mitt Romney turn out in 2012? You were so sure!

[Xeones]

BUUUUUUTTPLUUUUUUUUUUG

[AlexInCT]

Progtards busting on Romney should be careful, because while the guy might not be some godmaned genius, the really damning thing is that Romney's predicitons, especially about Obama, all seem to now be proven accurate.....

Team red might suck stupid balls, but team blue does it by the truckload.

[wadair]

How did your nonstop campaign for Mitt Romney turn out in 2012? You were so sure!

"Look! Your shoe's untied."

[Andrew S.]

I've decided the best way to respond to Shriek is in varying ludicrous dialects to go along with his ludicrous rantings. Today, the Swedish Chef.

Shreeek, yuoo're-a zee beeggest ideeut thees seete-a hes ifer seee. Pleese-a joost leefe-a und stup trulleeng, gu beck tu Selun oor vherefer it is yuoo belung. Bork Bork Bork!

[Tonio]

The best way to respond is to not respond.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

This.

[Hyperion]

He'll be out shilling for Hillary soon most of the time. In the meantime, ignore him.

Buttpigs gonna be lickin them cankles.

[Private FUQ]

John may indeed be a fucktard on some issues (body armor) and have some views libertarians don't agree with but is certainly not a TEAM RED fucktard. He actually argues in good faith and will occasionally admit being wrong about a position he held when shown otherwise. You on the other hand are a complete TEAM BLUE fucktard and can't make any rational argument without choking on Obama's dick.

[Hyperion]

He's almost done gobblin that Obama dong, he's movin on to lickin some cankles.

He's shillin for Hillary, he's cuckoo for Hillary.

Lick those cankles, buttpig, lick em!

[Monty Crisco]

Body armor, John. Body armor. Some of us will never forget...

[DesigNate]

I prefer to call him Demfag.

It sums up his complete and total slobbering over any Democrat cock he can find quite nicely.

[Xeones]

BUUUUUTTTPLUUUUUUUUGGGG

[Xeones]

BUUUUTTTPLUUUUUG

[Suthenboy]

Amazing. The turdpolisher gets proven spectacularly wrong/dishonest and pretends it never happens. A couple of months later he is spouting the exact same lies.

[Free Society]

My 8 months pregnant wife is being cancelled from her Obamacare policy because a sizable number of the Shineeqwas and Taneeshas over at their call center firmly believe that immigrants aren't allowed to have health insurance. Nevermind that we have supplied her green card no less than 3 times and have asked them to cite the statute they're referring to, with no success.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

If you read that Huffington Post article about the video games, one of the games they tell kids not to play is called 'Dogs of War.' I searched online for 'Dogs of War' game since I'd never heard of this, and the only game I could find appears to be some sort of tactical board game. There was also a Dogs of War game from 2000, but I doubt kids would be playing that.

So what's more likely: That the schoolmarms are so worried about their charges that they are seriously worried about them playing a board game or that they're so out of touch they're worried about a game that does not actually exist?

[Restoras, CRW]

I wonder what they would think of me teaching my son to play Avalon HIll's Panzer Leader?

[BuSab Agent]

Or my kids and I playing marathon sessions of Axis and Allies. (It's easy to win as Axis...Hitler was a putz).

[Restoras, CRW]

Interestingly, I have had similar experiences in Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

[Pro Libertate]

Industrial complex in Brazil, bitches!

[Rasilio]

Only if the guy(s) playing the allies are stupid.

Russia just spends all of it's money on Infantry, nothing else.

Germany will eventually beat that but it gives the US and UK time to build a force that the Axis can't beat.

[Pope Jimbo]

Hah! When my son was really small, we would play Wolfenstein together. He was in charge of the space bar to shoot, while I moved us around.

It was pretty fun because at times he would get so excited he would leap up and run around the room shouting about all the bad guys.

Safe to say we probably weren't the best players out there, but we sure had fun.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

You sound like a terrible father who destroyed your son's life and caused him to be prematurely sexualized with violent video games. /English school board

[Pope Jimbo]

Well he did sit in my lap....

[Crusty Juggler]

It is "hogs of war," a play on words from the Shakespeare quote "cry havoc and let slip the hogs of war."

[Elspeth Flashman]

I recently had a case where the dad playing online with the kiddo for some D&D based game was called into question, since the kiddo was 9 (or something) and the game wasn't "age appropriate." The dad told me they'd been playing it together for the last 3 years, no shouting from the mom before now.

. . . people go crazy over "violent" content in video games.

Hell, let's ban anyone under 16 from watching or reading the news, that is "realistic" and has "violent content" like, all the time.

[Juice]

I can only imagine that they mean "God of War."

[Hyperion]

An English school district informed parents that letting children play or even watch others play "inappropriate" video games such as Call of Duty would lead the school to "contact the police and children's social care as it is neglectful."

It won't be long before this group teams up with this group (progs and socons), to stop the evul libertarians:

mandatory church attendance

What will we all them after the merge.... progcons? sogressives? no wait, I've got it! Statists!

[Restoras, CRW]

National Socialists will work just fine.

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

You know who else was a National Socialist?

[Rhywun]

This is like the worst chat room ever.

[John]

If the Progs were able to control the churches the way they do the schools, we would have just that. They only claim to object to mixing church and state because they haven't completely co-opted churches into political weapons. If they ever do, they would want to require church attendance just like the require school attendance.

[Andrew S.]

Baptists and bootleggers, a partnership as old as time itself.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

She actually didn't say that. Bo posted about this very thing the other day, and she sarcastically said 'why not force everyone to go to Sunday school?' during a gun control debate.

If you read the original quote, it's obvious it wasn't a serious proposal.

[Private FUQ]

Was this one of Bo's famous rightwingwatch links he's so obsessed with?

[Hyperion]

Bo's fully come out of the closet as a raging SJW proggie. Same person I knew on Politico.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Yes. It completely took the quote out of context so that it wasn't obvious that she was sarcastically responding to someone else.

[Hyperion]

I read it, so I'm aware of the context. I was just trying to make a point. I believe that eventually, the SoCons and proglodytes will team up against us evul libertarians. Really, I'm not being sarcastic now.

[Restoras, CRW]

Well, the enemy of my enemy...

[UnCivilServant]

...could still be my enemy.

[VG Zaytsev]

Bo tard referenced that this weekend. The irony is that she was being mocked for opposing the hoplophobes agenda and blaming gun violence on individual immorality instead of evul scary guns.

And anyway, how is her (maybe sarcastic) call for mandatory moral instruction to end gun violence any different from proglodytes calls for mandatory training to end sexual harrassment and rape?

[John]

http://thehill.com/policy/inte.....ade-threat

Martin O"Malley calls a nuclear Iran the greatest man mad threat in existence. Shreek and Sheldon Richman hardest hit.

[Idle Hands]

Do people really think he can win or is Drudge the only thing propping him up? Because I honestly don't know what would be more pathetic the Democrats running Hillary because they have noone else or them dumping Hilary for someone they perceive to be more electable and that person is Martin O'malley.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I want Brian Schweitzer vs Rand Paul. That would be epic.

But we will get Jeb vs Hil instead.

[Idle Hands]

If we get Jeb vs Hillary, their may be some people on the left and right that light themselves on fire Tibetan monk style at their local precincts rather than cast a vote. Or maybe I'm a wide eye optimist.

[UnCivilServant]

Naw, I'd light other people on fire instead.

[Xeones]

BUTTPLUG

[John]

He wouldn't win the general election. He is a white guy from a deep blue state who wasn't even a popular or successful governor there. No way could he get the black turnout Obama got and he is far left and would do nothing to solve the Democrats' problem with white voters.

I think he has a shot at the nomination because he is the only alternative to Hillary. I still don't think Warren is going to run. And O'Malley is all they have. Webb can't win the nomination. He is not far enough left. So if Hillary implodes, who else is there?

[Rich]

"Joseph Biden -- He's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!"

[John]

There is always Joe. But I think he is like Web. As dumb as he is, he is probably too sane for the bulk of the party.

[Rich]

Claiming that he would "be up Shit Creek without a goddamn paddle" if he wasn't able to locate one, a frantic, out-of-breath Vice President Joe Biden reportedly arrived at a D.C. area canine rescue shelter early Monday morning in search of a look-alike for the Obama family's pet dog Bo.

[John]

Joe would be endless comic relief. If you told me a Democrat had to win in 2016 but I got to choose which one, I would take Joe. He would at least be funny and that would beat having a humorless hag like Warren or Hillary in there.

[Xeones]

The Onion's version of "Diamond Joe" Biden may not be the candidate American wants or needs, but he is almost certainly the candidate America deserves.

[Form 27B/6]

Joe

[Rich]

O'Malley cited Maryland's state sanctions on Iran's economy under his tenure as one example of how he had already slowed Iran's hunt for nukes.

"No crabs for *you*!"

[UnCivilServant]

But, but, how are nuclear physicists supposed to work without Blue Crab?

[Hyperion]

O'Malley is a disingenuous pile of dung. I can only thank him for getting a GOP gov elected in MD. Even if Hogan does nothing, that will be a huge improvement.

It's like O'Malley wailing on about no more royal families in the Whitehouse. He'd be just fine with that if the Royal family name was O'Malley.

[John]

He is a total piece of shit. That doesn't mean you shouldn't pay attention to what he says but not because he has anything of substance to say. You pay attention because he is a craven piece of shit who knows how to put his finger to the wind. If O'Malley is saying Iran is a threat, that means a good number of Democrats agree with him and Obama is facing a divided party on the issue.

[Hyperion]

I was paying attention to what he was saying before he got elected. Which is why I voted against him. He's as disingenuous as it's possible to be.

[John]

It is pretty epic to think that the Maryland Democrats are so bad they make the Maryland Republicans look good by comparison. Yet, that is exactly the way they are.

[Lord Humungus]

Booze?

The secret to shame-free sex

She was surprised to discover, after years of appearing in porn and embracing her role in it, that she had lingering issues about sex that stemmed from her Catholic upbringing. "Even though I felt it was okay to perform sexually for other people to enjoy watching as long as it was consensual, I knew that I still carried a whole bunch of shame around." Royalle strongly recommends therapy to women who share similar experiences. "We live in a culture that watches these movies in record numbers and we still condemn the women who perform in them. If women that go into porn don't really confront their deep feelings about this, I really believe a lot of us will continue to carry around a lot of shame that we're not even aware of, and it will make us suffer."

I don't intend to suggest that we are all walking around with hidden sexual shame eating away at us?I certainly hope that's not the case. But it is important that we each explore the ways shame is imposed on us by our culture, whether it comes from damaging messages of women's responsibility, about how we should "protect ourselves" from being assaulted or harassed by dressing in the "right" way (hint: not slutty) or not binge drinking, or by the more subtle social cues about number of sexual partners or "proper" sexual behavior.

[John]

That or maybe having sex for money caused it to not be any fun anymore. I am pretty sure doing any activity as your job quickly makes it routine and business like and not recreation.

[straffinrun]

Usually true. Wouldn't put pols in that group. They love the power trips.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Iran Riches Coveted by Big Oil After Decades of Conflict

"Iran is the big prize," said Oswald Clint, an oil analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. "The resource size is very attractive."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....f-conflict

Jeb, call Dick Cheney!

[Xeones]

BUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTPPPPPPPLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUGGG

[wadair]

Are you suggesting then that Obama is giving in to Iran for access to their oil?

See how easy that is?

[DEG]

Ford is bringing back the Lincoln Continental. I have a soft spot for Lincoln. I had two old Town Cars which I did OK with given the cars' age.

I wonder if they'll bring back Suicide Doors on the new Continental.

[John]

I have always thought they should do that. I have a soft spot for Lincolns too. If I had the money and the place to keep it, I would love to have an old early 60s Continental with the suicide doors. I am generally not a big fan of the old American land yachts. The Continental Mark II I think it was, is the exception. And Lincoln also inspired a great rock and roll song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R7l7nDuj1o

[DEG]

"Hot Rod Lincoln" is an awesome car.

Unfortunately I found out about this auction well after it happened. Near where I grew up, some folks held a charity auction for the same model Continental that was used in "Animal House". I heard from a guy that was there that the car was in good shape and went for a surprisingly low price.

[DEG]

awesome song. Sigh. Caffeine time.

[Lord Humungus]

I used to drive a '94 Buick Roadmaster with the tow package. And later a '01 Grand Marquis (woefully underpowered). Those "giant" cars seemed er, rather mid-sized compared to the land yachts of yore. I grew up driving a '77 Cadillac and then later a '81 - both my dad's - so I have a soft spot for the big cars.

[John]

When I was a kid my parents had a 72 Ford LTD. The LTD was the replacement for the Galaxy. It had a big block 460 engine and was made before the really harsh emissions requirements kicked in. It was a two door but the back see was enormous. And my God could that car run. That car could cruise as 120 mph and not even break a sweat. It isn't a classic or anything but it had its charms.

[DEG]

One of my grandfathers had a Galaxie. I was too young when he had it to remember the details (like what year and what engine), but I remember it was a damn fine car.

[John]

The big block Galaxies are classics now. They didn't make many of them and they are pretty lightweight cars with enormous engines.

[Private FUQ]

My dad received from his grandmother a 1968 Olds 88 when she died. She purchased it new in 1968 and he rebuilt it in 1996. It had a 455 with a 2 barrel carb and would only run on leaded gas. After the rebuild it had a 4 barrel carb, ran on unleaded and would burn the tires off with every gear shift. You could also carry a family of 10 comfortably to the lake while towing the boat. The truck would cary a months worth of food for the above family. The only issue was stopping. It still had drum brakes all around.

[BuSab Agent]

Thanks for making me feel old you bastard. My first car was a Galaxy 500 station wagon and yes she could really crank out the horses. Unfortunately, at speed she had the steereability of the Titanic.

[John]

Yeah, those old cars' handling characteristics are best described as being "theoretical". That is what I notice more than anything about a new car versus one from that era. The steering and handling is so much better today.

[DEG]

I went from the town cars to an '03 Crown Victoria followed by a '04 Crown Victoria (I paid the New England ice tax). I got the handling and performance package for both, and both did surprisingly well performance wise given the underpowered V8.

[DEG]

An addition: Even though both Crown Victorias did well given what they were, my V6 Genesis would leave either of them in the dust without even trying.

[Lord Humungus]

I always thought a 5.4 instead of the weedy 4.6 would have done wonders for that platform. I'm sure some hot-rodders have already done that, or S/Ced the 4.6.

Even with 2.73 gears and the 4.6, my old Grand Marquis could really get moving at highway speeds plus. It was the take offs that were pokey.

I was planning on getting a Crown Vic with the performance package but ended up in BMW land instead.

[DEG]

When Ford briefly brought back the Marauder, they had a soup-ed up 4.6 liter with (if I remember correctly) 300 HP. I thought about buying one, but I thought, "Where would I take advantage of that in New England? I'd be wasting money". So I bought the Crown Vic with the same engine, less horsepower, and less money.

Now the Genesis I own has better performance than the Marauder, and if the CPI is a correct measurement of inflation (hah!), I paid less money for the Genesis than I would have for the Marauder.

[Lord Humungus]

Yeah even the Marauder wasn't much of a performer:

"It huffed through the quarter-mile in 15.5 seconds at 91 mph"
http://www.caranddriver.com/re.....rod-page-2

[DEG]

Ouch.

[Lord Humungus]

Germanwings Crash Leaves Home City of Andreas Lubitz, Pilot, Bewildered and Bristling

On Saturday, as a crew shot video near the landing strip where Mr. Lubitz learned to fly gliders as a teenager, a man in a station wagon braked to a stop on the adjacent road and screamed, "Get lost!" The glider club has received death threats for its role in teaching Mr. Lubitz to fly, the club president, Klaus Radke, said Saturday.

Guilt is always a fraught issue in Germany, where memorials to Nazi crimes are everywhere. In front of the Montabaur city hall, there is a small memorial for local Jews who perished in the Holocaust. On the edge of town is a small cemetery for German war dead. Instead of headstones, the graves are marked by square stones sunk in the ground, with the names of the dead or often simply the inscription, "A German Soldier."

Many people in Montabaur resent what they feel is the implication that they somehow share blame for the crash, and that the city will be henceforth be known as the birthplace of Andreas Lubitz.

You know who else was a simple German soldier?

[UnCivilServant]

Erich Remarque?

[John]

Frederick the Great?

[Tonio]

You know who else flew gliders?

[DEG]

Robert Pearson of the Gimli Glider?

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Major Sk?rzany?

[Xeones]

Elijah Wood?

[Derpetologist]

Strom Thurmond?

He joined the army in his forties to get in on some of that WW2 action. He landed in a glider during the D-Day invasion.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Thomas Crowne?

[Rhywun]

Captain Janeway?

[Xeones]

Arminius?

[straffinrun]

No, because I know Nooooothing.

[Homple]

Gerhard Schr?der's father?

[DEG]

Volvo will open its first US factory.

[UnCivilServant]

Over/under on how long before they're threatened by the UAW?

[DEG]

If they're smart, they'll open the plant in the South.

[John]

http://donsurber.blogspot.com/.....l?spref=tw

Black Churches leave Presbyterians over gay marriage. Funny how the media portrays objection to gay marriage as something only religious evil white people do.

[Rhywun]

"By voting to redefine marriage PCUSA automatically forfeits Christ's saving grace."

Uh huh. Vast swathes of the Bible are conveniently ignored in modern times but in this one instance, the word of God is literal.

[DEG]

CNN/Money has an article, front and center on today's edition, stating "Now might be the time to buy Russian investments".

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

Dear CNN,

You first.

Sincerely,
Swiss Servator

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

CNN is now doing the 'pump-and-dump'?

[Derpetologist]

UK feminist conference bans applause for being "triggering"; asks that audience makes jazzy hands instead.

http://oxfordstudent.com/2015/.....onference/

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

*DOWNTWINKLES*

[straffinrun]

I'll be in the back making jizzy hands.

[Pope Jimbo]

*snort*

Bastard you just made me laugh in my office.

[Rich]

Oh, FFS! What do they do instead of *booing*?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Resting Bitch Face?

[Xeones]

Disapproval is forbidden.

[John]

http://moelane.com/2015/03/29/.....rats-2016/

Interesting data in that link. Even in 2012 with an historic black turnout and a good number of white conservatives and libertarians staying home, the white vote was still 72% of the electorate. And the Democrats keep tanking more and more with the white vote. They got less than 40% in 2012 and will likely get less than that in 2016. You can't start losing 70% of the white vote and still be a viable national party.

[Derpetologist]

I read a great book about historical myths the other day. Some highlights:

1. The Nazis were not ruthlessly efficient. The UK had a smaller industrial base but produced more tanks, planes, and ammo even when the Nazis had the upper hand. The whole reason blitzkrieg was invented was because the Nazis did not have the logistics to fight non-stop for months at a time.

2. Roman war galleys were not rowed by slaves chained to oars. Slaves were expensive and likely to defect or escape.

3. When Churchill's famous speeches were played on the radio, they were read by an actor. Churchill's "fight them on the beaches" speech got a chilly reception when he gave it to parliament.

4. Medieval theologians did not argue about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. They did argue about whether angels had to shit.

[BuSab Agent]

Hey Derp, if you want to know why it's a fucking miracle the Nazis could produce anything at all, read The Vampire Economy by Guenter Reimann. It's a first hand account of the day to day problems of running a manufacturing business in Nazi Germany.

[BuSab Agent]

Forget to mention, it was written in 1939, so this was before the war even started.

[Bam!]

And you forgot to mention it's free.

[Derpetologist]

I'll put that on my reading list. I found the full text on Mises:

http://mises.org/library/vampire-economy

[DEG]

Roman war galleys were not rowed by slaves chained to oars. Slaves were expensive and likely to defect or escape.

If I remember correctly, the Romans paid their rowers pretty well.

[John]

1. Is very true. The German Army did not have better equipment. That is a myth. What they had, especially at the beginning of the war, was better doctrine and understanding of how to use the new technology of aircraft and armor in tandem with artillery and infantry.

2. The "galley slave" came later and it was the Ottomans and French who were the biggest users of them.

I didn't know that about Churchill.

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Depends. The Me109 was a better aircraft than all but the spitfire and available in larger numbers. the pak88 was the best fieldgun of the war, and the mg42 was the best light mg as well. The panther is only slightly behind the t-34 in being the best tank of the war, and the me-262 might have been a gmae changer if produced and used properly. Finally they had the world's first smart bombs but only used to limited effect.

They suffered in production with many designs that were too complicated.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

The panther is only slightly behind the t-34

I'll argue this one as well. The Panther was a much better tank than the T-34, but it came way too little, way too late. It did suffer from "production with many designs that were too complicated", and when first deployed was not ready for battle.

The panther was the intellectual basis for the modern main battle tank.

[R C Dean]

The German Army did not have better equipment.

For significant individual items, they did along at least some dimensions.

No question their jet fighter was the best fighter in the air in WWII. Not even close.

For some applications, their tanks were better, although honestly the King Tiger and maybe eve the Tiger were just not good ideas, really. I read a fascinating study of tank warfare, blowing up the myth that the German tanks had a high exchange ratio with the inferior Allied tanks. Turned out the exchange ratio was about even, and what made the difference was who got to the battlefield first, could dig in, and ambush the other guy.

Their final assault rifle (the StG 44), probably the best infantry weapon of the War (sorry, Patton, probably better than the M1).

If the Germans had a fault, its one we now share: not enough attention to sustainability on the battlefield.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

The whole reason blitzkrieg was invented was because the Nazis did not have the logistics to fight non-stop for months at a time.

Imma call bushit on that one. Blitzkrieg was 'invented' at the end of WWI as a way of defeating the trench war stalemate. This is also why tanks were invented (same reason). That it also turned out to be logistically cheaper was just a bennie. The Germans invented the tactic after it was too late to make a difference, but people like Clausewitz saw how effective it was and fleshed out what would be the defining sets of tactics and operations that was basically the same thing we used to cross the berm in Desert Storm.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Sorry, brain-fart-- not Clauswitz, but Guderian (and also Liddell-Hart).

[Robert]

[blockquote]GNC, has announced that it will "institute sweeping new testing procedures" to ensure quality?without the government forcing them to. Fancy that. Progressives are obviously using this as proof we need more federal supplement oversight because ... I can't even guess at the logic.[/blockquote]
Then you have no imagination or experience. The logic is that the fact that it's being done shows it's a valuable thing to do, & if it's a valuable thing to do, it's valuable to force everyone to do it. I got that without even opening the article.

However, in the article Dr. Pieter Cohen says, "Today we finally have one first step taken by one retailer, and only after the very aggressive intervention by the New York attorney general's office." The implication is that aggressive gov't intervention leads to good things.

[Robert]

Darn, forgot it's HTML, not BBcode, here, so wrong delimiter.

[Robert]

BTW, doesn't the "shopper" photographed in the article look like a shoplifter? Like they got the photo from Walgreen security files under "Do not admit...."

[adolphowisner]

My roomate's mom makes $74 /hr on the computer . She has been out of work for 6 months but last month her income was $20654 just working on the computer for a few hours.
look at here now????????????? http://www.jobsfish.com

[Robert]

There's a lot of truth in Dougherty's article, but not much analysis of why. One obvious factor is the sheer number of children. We were children as part of a demographic hump that is now middle-to-old-aged. There are simply fewer children in proportion to the rest of the popul'n now than when he was a child, and I suspect the effects of those numbers on the phenomena he lays out are greater than linear over the range of interest. That is, when the probability of a child's finding another child when knocking on a neighbor's door (to pick one of the phenomena) drops below a certain fraction, they don't reduce "going calling" (as we called it) proportionally, they stop doing it entirely or at least reduce it greatly.

We've seen this in organized team sports where the number of players on a team is required to be fairly large & pickup play is nearly impossible (not like basketball or doubles tennis or even soccer, but rugby or American football). As the number of people of the age where they'd typically play that game (whether child, teen, or young adult) has declined, it's gotten disproportionately harder to organize teams.

The other thing is that as children become less numerous, they become more, uh, precious. That was actually a deliberate object of China's 1-child policy. Adults behave differently toward them.

[BuSab Agent]

Lot of truth there. By the time you have 3 offspring, it becomes virtually impossible to helicopter parent. You just have to trust that the 5 year old isn't going to drop dead from being ignored while you are keeping the six month old from eating cat food, and the 2 year old from flushing your cell phone down the toilet.

[Robert]

There was even a low-end (heh) disposable diaper ad on TV like that. It said that 1st babies were (heh) pampered, but after that (cut to shots of flock of children running around like maniacs) people get more "sensible" (I think the word was) about it, not being so strict & confining w them, and also moving to cheaper consumables for them, like the diapers being advertised. I hadn't even considered that bit when I wrote my previous comment, only thinking neighborhood-wide or in terms of avgs., rather than within individual families, but you're so right about this point too.

[Crusty Juggler]

And then the donger needs food?

[Charles Easterly]

+1 Long Duck (and his new pants)

[Restoras, CRW]

Lots of things, obviously, but should we care?

[Cdr Lytton]

Pedestrians hit hardest.

[Swiss Servator... Switzy!]

THIS COULD THREATEN OUR STRATEGIC SUPPLIERS OF ANIME AND SAKE!

[Catatafish]

"Sexy American Girlfriend!"

[Charles Easterly]

Nice.

[Bill Dalasio]

As does Alex DeLarge.

[Rasilio]

Having had social services called on my twice (once by a vengeful ex, and once by a Catholic neighbor who was terrified at the idea of living next to an athiest/neopagan family) this is the terror that keeps my wife and I up at night.