Hillary Clinton Hears Republicans Talking About Her, USS Theodore Roosevelt Sent to Yemen, NSA Wants You to Recycle: A.M. Links

• 

  Defense Department

  Campaigning in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton says Republicans seem to only want to talk about her. She is the Democratic frontrunner and the only announced candidate for the party's nomination.

• The U.S. has stationed the USS Theodore Roosevelt off the coast of Yemen in an effort to prevent Iranian arms shipments to rebels in the country.
• Six Americans of Somali descent living in Minnesota have been charged with allegedly attempting to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
• Prosecutors in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, are arguing for the death penalty.
• Prosecutors in Sicily ordered the arrest of the captain and a crewmember of a migrant boat that capsized in the Mediterranean. Both were charged with illegal immigration, and the captain was also faces multiple counts of reckless homicide.
• Just two months into his term, South Korea Prime Minister Lee Wan Koo has offered to resign over a bribery scandal involving a businessman who fingered Lee and others as corrupt before killing himself.
• The National Security Agency wants you to recycle. 

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...scandal involving a businessman who fingered Lee...

Phrasing.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Special thanks to DK for that link to Julian Sanchez's article about Santorum back in 2006.

It was interesting getting to know our Reason ancestors in the thread. Many of whom aren't with us anymore. Except, from what I gather, Gilmore, Pro Liberate and John (?)

Anyway.

Fat crying kids are funny.

[UnCivilServant]

I saw Hugh Akston in that thread too.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm only half way through. Still a ways to go.

[Pro Libertate]

Some tragic losses in that thread. For instance, highnumber was driven insane in his attempt to respond to each comment. Viking Moose made a home in that thread and is now trapped there, buried alive. Buried alive.

[Catatafish]

I only made it through the first 100 comments and was stunned at highnumber's ability to somehow respond to every. fucking. one.

[Xeones]

The original post predated threaded commenting. As soon as Reason implemented comment threads, highnumber completely forgot how to act, and returned to that post, with the results that you see.

[Pro Libertate]

That was intentional on his part. We were playing around with the new system and making it look like people we're responding to comments they weren't responding to, that sort of thing. Little did we know the great curse the threaded abomination was.

[Tonio]

I believe I've been here as long as Those guys you mentioned, perhaps longer than some. I followed Gillespie from suck dot com. Some other old-timers who still post here: John C Randolph, Old Mexican, RC Dean, Baked Penguin (forget what his current handle is). Sorry for anyone I've missed.

And never forget the late JsubD who gave us the rallying cry "fuck off, slaver." He was a homeless vet who posted from a public terminal at his local library.

[Rich]

*** raises monocle ***

To JsubD.

[Citizen Nothing]

Aye! To Jsub!

[Rhywun]

Aye.

[Monty Crisco]

Didn't know him, but I shall dab my monocle and doff my chapeau to him nonetheless... I am a vet too, after all...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's like getting to know the family I wished I had...

[Restoras, OWG]

Indeed.

[db]

I've been around a while too, long enough to have forgotten most of the sadder trolls.

[UnCivilServant]

I'm still wondering if Tarran has ever finally admitted I'm not a Tulpa Sock.

[tarran]

I hadn't, actually, but do now.

I'd forgotten all about it.

[Tonio]

It's rather a rite of passage to have been accused of being a Tulpa sock, or Mary.

[See Double You]

I can attest to that. John thought I was Mary.

[Citizen Nothing]

"Citizen Nothing" has been here a long time, but I'm actually the 15th CN in the line (just like The Phantom.)

[sloopyinTEXAS]

You're the Dread,Pirate Citizen Nothing?

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

Or the Dread Pirate Roberts...

[Citizen Nothing]

Shhh. I'm still building up my resistance to Iocane.

[PH2050]

The "late"?

[Tonio]

Yes, JsubD died several years back. Someone posted an obit. I signed the online guest book on behalf of H&R and explained that he was an honored and respected member of an online community.

[BuSab Agent]

He died. I forgot how HyR found out. He was an awesome poster It was a case of if any of us had known his actual circumstances, we would have bent over backwards to help him out.

[tarran]

I believe Jennifer was working at the Hartford Courant at the time, and his obituary caught her eye. IIRC it was she who connected the dead homeless vet and the online persona and alerted us to our loss.

[Tonio]

Thanks for the reminder, tarran.

[B.P.]

I think Jesse Walker (or someone) posted a blog post about the whole thing too.

[Pro Libertate]

Yeah, I miss him, too. He even commented at Urkobold, because he was a man of vision.

[Xeones]

JsubD was awesome. Sad to hear he has shuffled off this mortal coil.

[mauricegirodias]

Yeah, also followed from Suck. Have had a bunch of names, but only post now and then.

[DEG]

And never forget the late JsubD who gave us the rallying cry "fuck off, slaver." He was a homeless vet who posted from a public terminal at his local library.

I've been lurking here for so long I can't remember when I started lurking. It might have been when H&R started, though I remember Gary Gunnels, Jean Bart, and Hakluyt and I think despite the claims otherwise that they were all the same person.

I started posting after JsubD died. I thought to myself, "I've been reading these guys' writing for how long and I've never interacted with them? One of the ones I liked reading died. Time to start interacting."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And now...you're trapped.

Like the rest of us.

[DEG]

There are worse places to be trapped.

[Adans smith]

I was here then also,under another name.I changed things when I bought a new lap top. I had a few fights with Joe too.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Anybody who was on here had a fight with Joe.

I started lurking in 2007, and posting in 2008?

[Tonio]

N00b!

[Xeones]

Oh man, those were the days, before the run-up to the 2008 election drove joe completely insane.

[Emmerson Biggins]

I changed my name once we had to register.

Just felt a little less anonymous, plus I was a bigger asshole back then, so it was nice to make a clean start.

[Ted S.]

Any idea where the hell Google is hiding its search by a specific date range? (No, I don't mean their search within the past day/week/month/year, but seaching between something like 2005-01-07 and 2006-08-16 just to pick to completely arbitrary dates.) Or another search engine that makes this easy? Google used to have that feature, but it seems to have gone missing from the advanced search.

[tarran]

It's there.

In the Search Tools menu bar, the leftmost menu is the time ranges. The bottom most option in that menu is Custom Range. Select that and you are off to the races.

[Ted S.]

I don't get a search tools menu bar.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I've been here during the Thoreau/Jennifer/Joe days, lurking most of the time and with a couple of posts under a different handle.

[Tonio]

Thanks for mentioning Thoreau, I'd forgotten about him.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

A thoughtful and mostly civil gentleman, hence totally unfit to participate here.

[tarran]

A lot of those guys ended up in Grylliade which serves as Valinor to H&R's middle earth.

[db]

That's a good analogy.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

which serves as Valinor to H&R's middle earth.

Heh.

[T]

Maybe not. They let me in.

[SugarFree]

They let Mary in and didn't kick her out when I proved that it was her. So much for their judgment.

[db]

Wow, really? It's been a long time since.i've been there.

[SugarFree]

Search for "Zulu as Kono" the next time you are there.

[Stormy Dragon]

I've been commenting since March 2006, although not on that particular thread:

My first comment

[Fist of Etiquette]

The National Security Agency wants you to recycle.

My deleted files?

[UnCivilServant]

Naw, their paper processing unit is located at the recycling plant. They pick up information from what passes by.

[Fist of Etiquette]

... Hillary Clinton says Republicans seem to only want to talk about her.

"But what difference, at this point, do I make?"

[Just a thought not a sermon]

45) Continuing with the Earth Week theme. So, I own a Prius. Shut up, I don't have an Obama '08 bumper sticker. I've never been a car guy, but when I rode in a friend's Prius a few years ago, I really liked all the cool gadgetry. It's like driving a spaceship. We typically own our cars for 10-12 years, and I figured I would save about $480 a year in gas, so for a total savings of $5K, that made it financially sensible to buy. Plus, it's very quiet, and I like to listen to a lot of music on the way to work?Rachmaninoff, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, stuff with delicate passages that benefit from lower engine noise. Besides that, pumping gas is one of least favorite chores. My OCD doesn't like holding the gas pump handle that other people have been touching all day, and now I only have to pump every two weeks. I didn't buy it to help the environment, but if the low gasoline consumption does that too, great. I figure it's also a good way to stick it to the Saudis, Venezuelans, Russians, and Iranians.

[Restoras, OWG]

When do you have to change the batteries?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I put in 1000 new AAAs about once a month.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I stopped at I own a Prius...

Do you have your own grocery bags too?

/grin.

[LynchPin1477]

The wife and I use our own grocery bags and shop at Whole Foods. We donate our bag refund. Wanna make something of it?

[Rhywun]

That's sickening.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

/quietly turns away.

I mock to feel superior.

[CampingInYourPark]

And North Dakotans...thanks comrade

[Pope Jimbo]

Fuck the NoDaks!

Seriously, their horrible driving habits when they visit the tourist trap I grew up in caused me to lose precious weeks of my youth.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You grew up in Mall of America? Born at Cinnabun, raised in Crate & Barrel, currently residing in Banana Republic?

[Pope Jimbo]

Bite your tongue! Grew up in Detroit Lakes.

412 lakes within 25 miles of the town. Huge, huge tourist trap.

[Tonio]

Disposable gloves. Places that sell diesel (at least used to) have a glove dispenser next to the d-pump. Or buy your own.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Good point, thank you. Sometimes I rip the page out of a magazine and use that to wrap around the handle.

[Mike Laursen]

In what kind of candy-ass state do the gas stations have rubber gloves next to the pump? Real men slap a little diesel on their faces as aftershave.

[Xeones]

And gargle a mouthful for that fresh, tingly feeling.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

We typically own our cars for 10-12 years, and I figured I would save about $480 a year in gas, so for a total savings of $5K

You spent $30k+ on a car that will be worth less than $10k after 10 years, in order to save $5k?

[Citizen Nothing]

Step 3: Profit!

[Just a thought not a sermon]

The car was $27K. You are correct that buying a new car is a depreciating asset. But if the alternative was buying a different new car (which it was) the fuel savings become a factor.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

NEVER buy a car with thought it's an asset or it can 'save' you money. Cars the second it leaves the lot depreciate and are a losing proposition from the get-go.

A Ferrari is just about the only cars on the planet that appreciate in value - and even then a very select few.

[Citizen Nothing]

I credit my vast wealth (ok, my smallish retirement savings) to driving crappy cars and never having a car payment for the past 25 years.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I wish I can do that. My wife is now on two years without a payment but it's VERY HARD to keep a long time here in Quebec with the harsh weather conditions.

[BuSab Agent]

Anyone who gets snow has this problem. Even if you keep the engine tip top, the rust always wins.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Oh pshaw. I live in Michigan. Road salt is a real bitch and I know any car I buy is going to succumb to rust before the engine or drive train give out, but you can still go 10 years easy. The wife's Pathfinder is a 2001 and it's looking like it could easily go another 3-5 years.

And unlike Canada (at least the bits I've drive), we don't believe in road repair here.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

Unfortunately driving really crappy cars signals to the whole world that you're not a Playa, so you'll forever be on the slow mover professional track. 2 years old is the sweet spot.

[Citizen Nothing]

I prefer to think that I am to cars what Warren Buffet is to houses.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm driving a POS now, though I'm about to give in and buy a new car. I don't get dumping tens of thousands of dollars over and over again for what, status? Fuck that.

[Enough About Palin]

I drive a 1994 F-150 4x4. Has only 66,000 miles. Runs like a dream. Yes, it has rust, but so what? Why on earth would I drop $30K just to go to the store and Home Depot?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Eh, the partner in-charge at my last accounting firm drove a 1993 Toyota Camry. He made the mistake of scanning his tax return into a community office folder and forgot to delete it, so I saw it.

Dude was doing alright.

[American Letter Mail Company]

Insurance and upkeep eat up any economic benefits of buying a new/late model exotic

[PH2050]

Good advice. Cars, unless there is some type of collector value to them, usually are a form of "bad debt" compared to assets that almost always appreciate in value, which are a form of "good debt" aka a better choice to owe payments on. I refuse to buy any vehicle newer than two years.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Fair enough, and you did cite other reasons why you do enjoy the car.

[KDN]

The last time I ran the numbers, gas had to average $3.80 per gallon over 120k miles for the extra expense of the hybrid over an equivalent car (Camry:Camry-H, for example) to be worth the extra cost (not factoring the interest or other TVOM considerations). I'm glad you like the car, but a hybrid is usually not a smart purchase on a strictly financial basis.

[Juice]

Never buy a brand new car. If you must have a newish car buy one that is 2 years old with less than 40k miles on it. You'll pay half what you would for a new version of the same model and it'll last you just as long.

[UnCivilServant]

You're making a big assumption that the car will be resold at some point. Speaking as a person who drives their cars into the ground before replacement, the vehicle itself has no value beyond utility, as it is not an 'asset' for future sale. All that matters is cost of purchase, cost of maintenence, and operational lifetime.

[Ivan Pike]

All that matters is cost of purchase, cost of maintenance, and operational lifetime.

This.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I would add reliability to that list. In addition to the actual cost of repairs, the inconvenience of having a car in the shop more than once or twice a year is more than I can stand.

[Restoras, OWG]

Not too mention the batteries will wear out long before then whereas an internal combustion engine will still be going strong.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Where do you put your vagina when you're driving?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Ouch. Where I grew up in NC, my lack of interest in hunting, football, college basketball, and smoking made my masculinity pretty suspect in school. Now that I live in northern Virginia, my ability to change a tire or put up a tent make me a manly man at most social functions I go to.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Sorry, I know it was a low blow. I don't mean to other you 😉

I'm the opposite, a female who is more into cars than the average female. I love driving, trying new cars, etc. So I have a hard time understanding why someone would choose what I would think is a boring car (not just the Prius, but anything that doesn't make you interested).

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Hey, I laughed when I read it! I tend to think of cars as mainly functional. My dad had a Jaguar when I was growing up and that thing was in the shop every other week. I think that gave me the attitude that owning a really nice or expensive car is a pain in the ass.

[Ivan Pike]

So I have a hard time understanding why someone would choose what I would think is a boring car (not just the Prius, but anything that doesn't make you interested).

A vehicle is a tool. If it can do the job why spend more just to be "interested?"

[Catatafish]

"Now that I live in northern Virginia, my ability to change a tire or put up a tent make me a manly man at most social functions I go to."

I weep that this is what the place of my youth has been reduced to.

[Xeones]

South Maryland?

[crab_apple]

Northern Virginia -- now I get it. A Prius gets you HOV lane access because you are saving the planet, or something.

[Rasilio]

You hang it on the stick shift

[Monty Crisco]

LMFAO....

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

The $5K savings doesn't cover the difference between a Prius and Corolla when gas is at $4, let alone it now being $2 and change.

I have ridden and driven one, and the gadgetry is neat, but to me, that is just more shit to malfunction at 100K.

No thanks, but you go ahead and enjoy.

[Timon 19]

I'm hoping my choice to get a '12 Corolla with low miles and one owner last September is a good one. It was more than I wanted to pay off the lot, but I paid cash and it was in excellent condition.

The gas tank is fucking TINY though. That's very annoying.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

I got a buddy, has one with 350K on it, that he drives about 150 miles every day.

The inside of the car smells like stale ass, but it still runs exceptionally well.

I don't think you can go wrong, as far as dependable transportation goes.

[Timon 19]

At some point, EVERYONE'S car smells like stale ass.

[JW]

I don't think you can go wrong

Except that you're driving a Corolla.

Toyota drivers, Corolla drivers in particular, need to have extra lessons beaten into their heads, regularly and often, as to how to operate a motor vehicle. Wherever there is a line of traffic angrily queued up behind one slowly moving car, there's usually a Corolla leading the way.

[tarran]

Toyota drivers, Corolla drivers in particular, need to have extra lessons beaten into their heads, regularly and often

I respectfully request that you eat shit and die in a fire.

[JW]

I respectfully request that you eat shit and die in a fire.

You're a Bahston driver. You already have 3 strikes against you. Driving a Toyota just makes it a capital offense.

[Timon 19]

Is that why I often end up going 85 in the right lane? Because of myself?

[tarran]

It sure as hell isn't because of me, yet you seem to think it is.....

[JW]

Is that why I often end up going 85 in the right lane?

But 50 in the left lane? Sorry, but your automotive kin are idiots, even if you aren't.

I do occasionally, very rarely, see a Toyota driver bucking the trend. I recall seeing this little old lady in a Camry flying down the road at about 75 in a 40. It warmed my heart to see her rebel like that.

[Illocust]

Well if you thought it through good on you. The problem with Prius owners is they generally just buy one in order to be green, which is a pretty stupid reason to do anything. If you took into account how the car will actually make a difference in your life, then that's all anyone should really do when buying vehicles.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

That is one heaping pile of futile justification there my friend.

I did laugh at your comment about putting in 1000 new AAA's though.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I'm jumping in the Prius talk.

I bought a Prius a couple months back (used) for work. They expanded my area of responsibility and I went from driving 2000 miles or so a month to over 5000 a month. I was driving a Lincoln Navigator that averaged 14 MPG. At the federal reimbursement rate of .565/mile, I get $2825 back a month. In the Lincoln, that costs me $785 in fuel, for a net of $2040 a month. In the Prius it,costs me $262 in fuel for a net of $2565 back a month. (All at $2.20 a gallon)

So I get an additional $525 a month, which pays for itself, gives Banjos a big SUV which we need for our expanding brood and it lets me give my daughter a nice car to drive when she's here in the summer and winter.

So,buying a Prius as a moneymaker can be a good idea based on your work reimbursable mileage. It also helps to buy used after depr citation has done its job.

[JW]

Except that almost any compact car would net you the same payout, without the additional premium of a hybrid.

[Juice]

Or the looming maintenance costs.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Yep. My Versa gets nearly as good gas mileage as a small hybrid. Most Prii I see driving around DC are not maximizing their fuel economy anyways, as they're blasting by me at 75MPH on the Beltway (yes, you can get to 75 on the Beltway - on weekend mornings).

[DEG]

So, I own a Prius. Shut up, I don't have an Obama '08 bumper sticker.

The other day I saw a Prius with a NRA sticker on it. Good trolling job whoever that is!

[Azathoth!!]

But what does each charge cost?

Everyone talks about savings in gas--but it runs on electricity, too.

[Slammer]

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton says Republicans seem to only want to talk about her.

It's all about you, baby.

[Lord Humungus]

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Politicians Denying Science Is 'Beginning Of The End Of An Informed Democracy'

You recently spoke about who to blame for the state of the climate change debate in the U.S., the electorate or the politicians. Can you elaborate on that?

The issue here is not what politicians do because the electorate votes them into office. So what does it mean to complain about what politicians do? We should complain about what the electorate does. I'm an educator, so I see it as one of my duties, especially as a science educator, to alert people of what science is and how it works. About what it means for there to be an objective truth that we would then act upon.

If you want to lean in a political way because that's your politics, you should do that based on an objective truth rather than cherry-picking science before you even land at an objective truth. You can't just cherry-pick data and choose what is true about the world and what isn't.

[Slammer]

You can't just cherry-pick data and choose what is true about the world and what isn't.

YOU CAN'T?

[gaijin]

No, 'you' can't. 'He' can though cause he's all covered in PhD and stuff.

[gaoxiaen]

But no one listens to Carl Hart, PhD. I guess that's because he looks like a drug dealer.

[PH2050]

Everyone knows white people are scared of dreadlocks. Notice how they try to avoid even white "dreadheads"

[PH2050]

Oh wait, maybe those guys are just usually douchebags. Nevermind.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That guy can suck my fucking dick.

[gaijin]

Why? don't you fucking love science?

/sarc

[Rufus J. Firefly]

For the same reasons I hate children and education.

[Pro Libertate]

What's odd is that I do love science and technology. But I mean that I really like those things, not some odd political abstraction of them.

[gaoxiaen]

Don't you love skull-fucking science?

[Ted S.]

I presume he's talking about anti-vaxxers, anti-GMO, and anti-nuke people?

/sarcasm

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Think Bayern can do it? Porto are an tough, organized side but I think they can.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

a tough. And I acknowledge Bayern is not in top form.

[Ted S.]

It's more that Robben and Ribery are injured. (Not that I like either of them, of course.) And who expected Neuer to make such awful mistakes?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Robben is the bigger loss in my view.

[Monty Crisco]

Cocksucking flopper that he is... or can we say that of ALL footballers?

[Rhywun]

No. And Robben is way worse than most.

[Timon 19]

No, just Robben and Ronaldo.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

What fucking language are you hooligans speaking?

Soccer NERDS!

[Rhywun]

Yeah, not if Robery are still out. I like Bayern but my usual Schadenfreude is taking over and telling me that they need to be taken down a ped.

[Rhywun]

"peg"

[Timon 19]

No spoilers today. I actually decided to DVR an ECL game for once. This one looked the most interesting of the QFs.

[Rhywun]

Thank you. I was going to make that request.

[gaoxiaen]

Take your gay-ass fairy sport shit somewhere else.

[Rhywun]

Calm down, dearie.

[Catatafish]

Agreed.

[Juice]

I'm thinking he's on the pro-vax side, so yeah. I don't know about his position on the other two, but I assume he's not stupid enough to be anti-GMO or anti-nuke.

[WTF]

If you want to lean in a political way because that's your politics, you should do that based on an objective truth rather than cherry-picking science before you even land at an objective truth. You can't just cherry-pick data and choose what is true about the world and what isn't.

You mean like the IPCC and the rest of the AGW alarmists do?

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Melting Himalayan Glacier

[tarran]

ROFL!!!!!!!!

These assholes keep reminding me of that scene in Henry V where he confronts the traitors.

[Steve G]

G-D this is getting old. No wonder they're the stupid party, they can't even wrestle the narrative back from these self-righteous pricks. Even if you believe it's not warming, how hard is it to spin this? I forget who it was around here who suggested it, but I like how they put it. The GOP should ask 2 things: 1) how much will it cost? and 2) how much of a dent will it make? If these sciency people can't answer, boom, you've got them on the ropes... start working the body. Unless the Tyson's of the world have a gonculator completely 180-out from CATO's, they can't answer #2 no matter how they answer number 1.

[Citizen Nothing]

Yeah - no matter what one thinks about AGW, the smart play, politically, is to concede it might exist, and then immediately jump to results/cost/benefit.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

If it saves just one degree...!!!!111!!

[Catatafish]

I would couple those two things with questions about the historical geology/geography of the planet. "So, you're saying 20,000 years ago this land mass was covered in ice/water? Then what is so 'unnatural' about it happening in 20 years time? Why don't we better spend this money relocating these people or constructing levees and dikes?"

[gaoxiaen]

The Last Glacial Maximum (about 26,000 to 20,000 years ago) and Late Glacial Maximum (ended about 10,00 years ago) caused extensive drought and low sea levels. When accelerated global warming and rising sea levels began, about 10,000 years ago (this shit didn't start yesterday), the earth became more habitable for humans. My opinion is that at this point there really isn't much we can do, even if we shut down all industry and exterminate 99% of the human population. It doesn't work like adjusting the thermostat, we can only plan to deal with it. So, we lose some coastal areas and the desert blooms, but everyone here will be dead before that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.....otemps.png

[Juice]

"That's no excuse to sit back and do nothing while the ecosystem is destroyed!"

argument over, no one changes their mind

[LynchPin1477]

Nothing he said in that paragraph is objectionable on its own. But I'm still not a fan of his.

[tarran]

Yes, except he promotes climate alarmism despite two decades of repeatedly falsified predictions.

[Catatafish]

Every time I hear his voice and see his face I am instantly reminded of the "Smug" episode of South Park.

[Free Society]

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Politicians Denying Science Is 'Beginning Of The End Of An Informed Democracy'

I'm still waiting for the beginning of the beginning of an informed democracy. I don't recall that ancient and intractable flaw of democracy being overcome by the socialists Tyson would have us support.

[PH2050]

Man, he seems to long for the days when being informed about science meant you supported phrenology, or sterilization of the mentally disabled and homosexual, or eugenics through abortion. What an enlightened guy.

However, I did enjoy his program at the Hayden Planetarium in NYC regarding "dark matter"

[Mickey Rat]

Color me skeptical that what is being presented is objective truth. Science is objective in theory, but individual scientists are often servicing an agenda so in practice may.not be objective.

A supposed truth consistently advancing policy proscriptions that are foolish or dangerous cast doubts on its veracity.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Gawd, I can't stand that NDT guy. He's a third-rate scientist who had to go into administration because he couldn't hack it with the likes of Guth and Thorne. Then he becomes a media darling and spouts his emotion-based political garbage. Fuck that guy.

[Juice]

I can't fault him for making a living. He knows which side his bread is buttered on.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Prosecutors in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, are arguing for the death penalty.

He might yet turn out to be too dreamy for this world.

[Rich]

Yep. Might as well keep following his brother.

[Ted S.]

He's too dreamy for Milan, New York, and Japan.

[Bee Tagger]

The National Security Agency wants you to recycle.

Come on, I pretty much do the same thing every day. My life could probably be stored with less than 10 foreign keys.

[CampingInYourPark]

"We will support whoever the candidate is," Koch said at the Manhattan event, according to Times reporter Nick Confessore's sources. "But it should be Scott Walker."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....38653.html

[Injun, as in from India]

No soup Rand for you!

[Tonio]

That's interesting. You'd think Rand Paul's views would more closely align with those of the Koch brothers, but perhaps they are anointing Walker as the electable candidate with the best views. Alternately, they're deliberately not mentioning Paul so he doesn't have to fight uphill against the "endorsed by the Koch bros" smears.

[tarran]

I expect that the Koch's have concluded that if Rand Paul did win the presidency, he would be a weak, unpopular 1 term president, whose singlural accomplishment would be to discredit libertarian governance after being destroyed by an intransigent civil service.

The Polish horse cavalry that fought the 4th armored division were defending their country against the Russians (sort of). That 'rightness' didn't make a difference when the tanks opened up with machine guns and chewed them into pieces without breaking a sweat.

[Citizen Nothing]

They need Rand in the Senate.

[Tonio]

That's a good analysis, tarran. The statists, both D and R, would close ranks against him, and the civil service would go ballistic.

[Monty Crisco]

Thought it was the Nazi Blitzkreig that they were fighting against?

[tarran]

I don't have the autobiography that related the tale at hand, so I am going from memory.

I believe it was a horse cavalry unit composed of White Russians who had settled in Poland who ended up fighting as auxiliaries to the German Army.

The fourth armored division encountered them after the battle of the bulge, and at first the tank crews didn't want to shoot, because they thought they were German civilians mounting a last ditch defense and that it would be a slaughter.

Then over the radio they were told the cavalry was a bunch of White Russians, and that was that. A few minutes with the coaxial machine guns and they were annihilated.

The writer described the screams of dying horses as being especially heartrending and traumatic.

[Tonio]

I believe you're referring to the Charge at Krojanty, which was Polish cavalry vs German (Nazi-era) infantry with supporting fire from armored cars. So yeah, last gasp of cavalry and against fairly primitive AFVs.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

The civil service is going to have a more cozy relationship with a Walker administration?

[tarran]

Walker has better chance of breaking their back. He did it as a state governor to an aparatus that did no end of dirty tricks against him. That is no little thing.

[Tonio]

Paul is already talking about eliminating several entire agencies outright, and pruning back others severely. Walker might mess with some of the unionized employees, but hasn't talked (AFAIK) about cutting back government anywhere near the level which Paul has.

[tarran]

Paul is already talking about eliminating several entire agencies outright

Which ain't going to happen without Congress proposing it via legislation. So Paul is proposing to do what he lacks the power to do, while Walker is keeping his aims realistic.

Walker might mess with some of the unionized employees,

Getting the civil service to actually follow the law would instantly alter the U.S. government into a far less totalitarian one than it is now. And it would make the other things, like eliminating departments down the road far more possible.

[Marshall Gill]

Which ain't going to happen without Congress proposing it via legislation.

I disagree. POTUS does not have to spend a single penny appropriated by Congress. He could literally zero out any agency's expenditures. Congress can appropriate all the funds they want, he could refuse to spend them.

Which doesn't mean that he actually will or would do this.

[LynchPin1477]

Walker strikes me as more explicitly pro-business than Paul, what with his battle against unions (admittedly in the public sphere, but the reasoning would seem to carry over).

[Pan Zagloba]

Walker is a good choice because he has executive experience, union scalps and knows how to fight under relentless assault. Plus, he's probably most thoroughly vetted candidate in a long time, if there was anything to stick to him, unions would have used it during recall. He's also proven he is not going to dance to media's tune and make himself implode for their benefit.

Rand can do a ton of good in the Senate. If he does nothing but get his sentencing reform through, it will be a huge strike for liberty. And if he keeps it up, he could become a Grand Old Man of Senate by the time he's done.

[Restoras, OWG]

I just wonder with Walker, how much of the public sector union battle was of necessity or was of principle. New Jersey Fats was a darling too many (or at least a few) when he took on his own public sector union problem but it appears that was because he had no choice as since then he is nothing but big government, statist republican.

[gaoxiaen]

He's a RINO but he looks like a HIPPO.

[Lord Humungus]

The Fed Still Wants Easy Money

"This should be the slowest tightening cycle since the funds rate became the policy instrument of choice" in 1982, said Roberto Perli, a former Fed official who is now a partner at Cornerstone Macro LLC in Washington.

Policy makers have ruled out an increase at the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, April 28-29. New York Fed President William C. Dudley stressed on Monday that once they start to lift rates above zero, "we will simply be moving from an extremely accommodative monetary policy to one that is only slightly less so."

[Injun, as in from India]

It helps that they run the nation's printing presses.

Money is as easy as pushing a button.

[straffinrun]

Thelma said to Louise five feet before the cliff edge, "should I ease off the gas a little bit?"

[CampingInYourPark]

New York Fed President William C. Dudley stressed on Monday that once they start to lift rates above zero, "we will simply be moving from an extremely accommodative monetary policy to one that is only slightly less so."

That's some mind-blowing knowledge right there. Like a post-game interview with a member of a UK men's basketball team.

[Old Man With Candy]

The U.S. has stationed the USS Theodore Roosevelt off the coast of Yemen in an effort to prevent Iranian arms shipments to rebels in the country.

What a great idea.

[Restoras, OWG]

I had no idea that ship is big enough to block entry to Yemen - because short of using its aircraft to sink Iranian merchantmen that is the only way to stop the shipments.

[UnCivilServant]

They're going to wedge it in the harbor entrance

/sarc

[Old Man With Candy]

using its aircraft to sink Iranian merchantmen

What a great idea. Give that man a Peace Prize!

[Ted S.]

How about evacuating the Americans from the country? After all, you're still forcing them to pay US taxes even if they're not resident in the US.

[Injun, as in from India]

The fat cats are too fat to fit in an airplane.

- USG

[WTF]

+1 Chopper on the embassy roof

[Fist of Etiquette]

The U.S. has stationed the USS Theodore Roosevelt off the coast of Yemen ...

Ready to launch its big sticks.

[WTF]

Or likely just swing its big dick.

[Bee Tagger]

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton says Republicans seem to only want to talk about her.

So she's both Marcia and Jan?

[Slammer]

235 Years Later, Lafayette's Ship, The Hermione, Sails Again To America

Three years before, when he was just 19 years old, Lafayette offered his services to the insurgent American army. After fighting in several battles and being wounded, he returned to France in 1779 to seek aid from King Louis XVI on behalf of the American revolutionaries. He came back with a whole army.

17 years ago, a group of French restoration enthusiasts had the crazy idea to recreate a life-size replica of the ship using only eighteenth-century shipbuilding techniques.

[Restoras, OWG]

That's cool though I am glad I never had to serve on a ship like that.

I was just on the USS Constitution - unfortunately all of its rigging was down and all the guns off the ship as it is undergoing repairs/refurbishment. Still cool.

[Ivan Pike]

That is really cool.

[WTF]

That is pretty cool.

[$park? the Swifty]

That is not that cool.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Splitter!

[Kaptious Kristen]

This was on our local news and the anchor said "I don't know how to pronounce this....Her-Moin?"

I'm not even a Harry Potter fan (never read the books or saw the movies) and I know how to pronounce that. The news anchor must have been living in a neutrino detector tank for the last 15 years.

[MJGreen]

Well it's not Hermione like they say it in the movies. I work with a guy involved in the project, and he's been pronouncing it Her-me-own.

[Rich]

Scooby hits the road at 92 MPH!

Secret Service zooms Hillary to dinner through driving rain following secret afternoon house party

W.T.F? Remember what happened to Diana.

[Slammer]

She was killed by the New World Order for not breeding with a Lizard Person?

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

SHHHHH! You will give it away!

*adjusts foil hat*

[Ted S.]

Drunken bitch wasn't wearing a seat belt, but everybody wanted to blame it on the paparazzi.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Like Seinfeld said, people should be able to drive their age.

[Drake]

She still gets Secret Service protection? Why? Because of Bill?

[Rasilio]

I think declared candidates get a Secret Service Detail

[Drake]

I thought that was only after they won the nomination.

[Catatafish]

Yes, it's because of Bill. Ex-prez's and their spouses get protection. Not sure about kids.

[Pan Zagloba]

Remember what happened to Diana.

According to Mitchell and Webb, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4meFC1ee7Q

[Marshall Gill]

Fantastic!

[Lord Humungus]

The Tea Party will never understand the Constitution: What the right misses about its favorite document

Most people are taught in high school that the most important constitutional decision is Marbury v. Madison, but that's not even the most important constitutional decision of 1803. The Louisiana Purchase was far more important than Marbury v. Madison, because it doubled the landmass of America and made sure that the country would survive. When you understand that, you understand that many important constitutional decisions are made not by judges but by presidents.

The two most important constitutional decisions ever are Lincoln's decision to resist [the South's] unilateral secession, and Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which would lead to an end of slavery ? that is transformative, and Lincoln made those decisions unilaterally as president. Had these issues reached the U.S. Supreme Court, controlled as it was [during Lincoln's time] by Roger Taney, a fierce opponent of Lincoln, the Court might very well have tried to invalidate Lincoln's projects.

We live in a Constitution utterly transformed by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and we would have none of those but for Lincoln.

[Raven Nation]

Sheesh, these people operate in a realm of cognitive dissonance that is a wonder too behold. Apart from transparently supporting Obama's unilateral decision-making, does this mean that a future Republican president and Congress could repeal the ACA and they would be cheering this constitutional decision?

Idiots. And shame on Reed who's actually a very good scholar.

[Raven Nation]

Oops, should have added: this is another version of the left's intellectual intolerance. All those Tea Party people fail to properly understand the constitution because they don't interpret it the same way I do.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Ding! So the meaning of Marbury v. Madison is totally missed in the article.

[Tonio]

The stupid, it burns.

[WTF]

Why would anybody read Salon?

[Monty Crisco]

Prudie?!?

[Old Man With Candy]

She's on Slate. Easy mistake.

[John]

He is wrong about the emancipation proclamation. Lincoln had the authority. It only freed the slaves in the states that were in rebellion. Those slaves were property and were being used in the war effort. Lincoln freeing the slaves in those areas was no more illegal than Sherman destroying the railroads. Lincoln had the power as commander and chief to prosecute the war and end the rebellion.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Right, that's why an amendment as needed to free the slaves in the North.

[John]

Exactly. The slaves in the border states were still held as slaves all the way until the end of the war.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I was just thinking that it's hilarious they say Lincoln was entirely the cause of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments as if those things weren't enacted by congress and the states.

[John]

And were enacted after Lincoln's death. Lincoln was apparently one hell of a President. Any President can pass the odd Constitutional amendment. Getting them passed after you are dead, now there is an accomplishment.

The other thing is that Lincoln did not fight the war to end slavery. He fought the war to preserve the Union. The war, not Lincoln is what rendered slavery untenable. Depriving the South of its slave labor had too much military utility for the North not to do it. And once the slaves in the South were freed, the entire institution collapsed. The 13th Amendment didn't so much end it as assure that it would never come back.

[Mickey Rat]

Especially since the president has no constitutional role in passing an amendment.

[Post-Coital Rat]

Salon sure uses a lot of words to say "Top Men."

[Free Society]

What business does Salon have even trying to pronounce the word 'constitution'? The whole concept of constitutionalism is so far over their heads I find it surprising they've even heard the word at all. Let alone them talking about the unconstitutionality of secession in a country that was itself founded on the basis of secession.

[Lord Humungus]

Wall Street Has No Idea How Much Money Venezuela

Bond investors suspect the Venezuelan government is pretty low on cash. Just how low, though, is a tricky question.

After all, this is a country that has stopped releasing even the most basic economic data -- things like inflation and government spending -- on a timely basis.

Given how high the stakes are, with many investors bracing for an imminent default, Wall Street analysts are scrambling to fill the void. Firms including Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc have created their own statistical series to try to help investors understand how dire the country's cash squeeze is. It's a challenging exercise, they say.

[Illocust]

Wow, what the fuck is anyone doing investing in Venezuela right now. Seriously, pull your cash out, whatever happens in the future it won't be good.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Investors aren't betting "for" Argentina. They are betting against Argentina. They still need accurate data.

Remember everyone; there is money to be made in every market whether it is a bull or a bear. The trick is to be on the right side of the trade.

[PH2050]

True words, sir. There will always exist pockets of profit to be snatched up by clever people. regardless of the economic climate. Okay, complete global economic collapse might ruin that but if that shit happens you may as well forget about money, period, and focus on survival - in other words, humans will be knocked back several centuries.

[Injun, as in from India]

Bond investors suspect the Venezuelan government is pretty low on cash.

They must be using their currency bills to wipe their a$$es.

When a product like TP becomes scarce, people will find alternatives like currency.

[gaijin]

"Six Americans of Somali descent...have been charged with allegedly attempting to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."

What, our roads are not good enough?

[Restoras, OWG]

Where they are going they don't need roads?

[$park? the Swifty]

+1 Mr Fusion

[Charles Easterly]

"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour...."

[Pope Jimbo]

Can't get New Glarus beer on tap in a bar.

http://www.startribune.com/loc.....22681.html

Props to the local cops for using undercover agents to nab these miscreants. I'm a little worried though that they didn't come back with a SWAT team. I don't think they realize how lucky they are that the criminals didn't dispose of all the evidence because the cops didn't bust in with flash bangs and rifles.

[Pope Jimbo]

I know this was posted yesterday. I'm just bringing everything into focus for those of you who are not lucky enough to live in Sunny Minnesoda.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

That's idiotic. Why is this illegal?

[Somalian Road Corporation]

It's a felony to transport or import alcoholic beverages for resale unless it's from an alcohol wholesaler, manufacturer and/or brewer.

Forced middleman laws by bitter Prohibitionists. The sad thing is that this shit is happening all over again with the relaxation of marijuana laws--manufacturers, distributors, and retailers must be separate in many places. Was in a conversation with a "progressive" Oregon resident recently who eagerly supported this stuff, because otherwise one company might become a "monopoly" and we couldn't have that, could we?

[blighted non millenial]

Taxes and rent.

[Brett L]

"Westbound and down"

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Why men won't get married anymore: Women complain chaps today won't settle down. Sorry, ladies, but it's all your fault, argues a wickedly provocative new book
...'Ultimately, men know there's a good chance they'll lose their friends, their respect, their space, their sex life, their money and ? if it all goes wrong ? their family,' says Dr Helen Smith, author of Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood And The American Dream.

'They don't want to enter into a legal contract with someone who could effectively take half their savings, pension and property when the honeymoon period is over.

'Men aren't wimping out by staying unmarried or being commitment phobes. They're being smart.'...

[Restoras, OWG]

Cue a Nelson Muntz Ha-ha!

[Illocust]

Eh, while that would be the logical choice, I don't think most men actually are thinking along those paths. People are still getting married, and they will keep doing so no matter how bad it gets because humans are hormonal bastards who make stupid decisions.

[Citizen Nothing]

I think I should buy copies for my sons.

[Illocust]

Eh, just remind them of the word prenup. Also, have them make sure their future wives care about male issues. If you tell her about male abuse victims being turned away from shelters and her first reaction is horror you've got one unlikely to screw you over, if her first reaction is excuse making you need to reconsider having a kid with her.

[Citizen Nothing]

My eldest graduates from law school next month, so I hope he has the prenup thing down.

[Old Man With Candy]

Don't count on it. I had one and the judge threw it out as being contrary to public policy (translation: We don't want to pay welfare to the cunt, you're on the hook).

[Catatafish]

We should just move this prenup talk over to the Lochner thread. Why any contract, short of direct evidence of fraud or coercion or for the purposes of criminality, shouldn't be enforced is beyond me. The "against public policy" exception is the one that swallows the rule if the politics aren't in one party's favor.

[Free Society]

Prenuptial agreements are no silver bullet. Our system of law has been victimized by statutes, the most arbitrary body of law ever devised. We live in a society where 1 in 25 men (some estimates go higher) are raising children that are not their genetic offspring. We live under a system of law where men who have irrefutably proven to not be the father of their unfaithful wives' bastard offspring (by DNA test) are made to pay child support to the tune of half their income.

[Illocust]

Well yeah, but your still better off with a prenup than without. Just because you can't eliminate risk doesn't mean you shouldn't minimize it.

[Free Society]

The point is that you roll the dice when trying to minimize risk in the divorce court system racket, when you should be going the surer route of not being a shit judge of character when you select the person you enter into that marriage contract with.

[Pope Jimbo]

Just pull one really bone headed stunt when you are real serious about getting married. Then if she still goes through with it, you have a winner.

For me, I brought my soon to be wife from Memphis to NW Minnesota to meet my parents. When I was there my dad mentioned that the pheasant season in NDak was still open and we could get in a quick late hunt. So I left my wife for 3 days with my mother. It was a cold ride home back to Memphis.

My father borrowed a big chunk of change from my mother when they were engaged so he could buy her something special for her birthday. The special gift was a fishing boat.

My theory is if they put up with nonsense like that, then they will stick it out with you later. Way better than a prenup.

[CampingInYourPark]

the pheasant season in NDak was still open and we could get in a quick late hunt

So, you kill their fowl in retaliation for bad driving habits?

[Pope Jimbo]

I prefer to say that if they insist on coming to town and fucking up traffic, I will go to their state and shoot their cocks.

* You can only shoot roosters in ND. No hens allowed.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

My father borrowed a big chunk of change from my mother when they were engaged so he could buy her something special for her birthday. The special gift was a fishing boat.

Thanks for making me laugh out loud in my office, asshole.

[gaoxiaen]

Did he take her fishing in it?

[Pope Jimbo]

She got to go, but she is nowhere the fishing freak that my father is.

When they were dating and first married my mother did go fishing and hunting with him. Once she realized he was gut hooked with the arrival of me and my sister, she pretty much stopped going.

It might also be linked to the fact that they were doing better financially and they no longer depended upon hunting and fishing to add protein to their diet.

[Restoras, OWG]

Just remind them that no matter how much they think they know someone after an extended period time that person can become someone they no long know very well. When that happens, she can just wake up one morning and decide its over and - it's over. No recourse, no salvage effort, nothing, and then he will lose half of everything plus get saddled with alimony and child support.

Choose wisely.

[Citizen Nothing]

My best life decision (besides never buying a used car) was choosing a kind and rational ex-wife.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

I thought you said above you do buy used?

[Citizen Nothing]

That should be "Never buying a new car..."

[Monty Crisco]

Get your shit together.

[kinnath]

Better yet, pick one that doesn't become an ex-wife.

[Illocust]

Also might remind them that's its better to be the person breaking up than being broken up on. Seriously, trying to salvage a relationship that one side has decided is over just pisses the other party off and makes them feel morally superior. In the relationships I've seen, the only ones that have broken off with both parties getting a semi-good deal are the ones were the one being broken up with instantly switches into damage control mode. The ones that try to make up with the ex just get screwed.

[AlexInCT]

Seconded. I got divorced after 23 years of marriage because my ex decided she was going to show me who was boss despite knowing for 25 years that was not gonna happen. She cheated, forgot that I work in IT and that I had a security background, got caught, and only backed off taking me to the cleaners when I pointed out I would post all the fun stuff I had accumulated online and send her mom, sisters, other relatives, and friends links, she finally backed off and started acting like she was being magnanimous. But I was wise enough to get me a shark for court, and that's what saved me.

I got to keep the house, only paid her the minimum I could legally get away with which was still a big chunk of change, kept her away from my retirement savings and such, got her to share expenses for the kid, got joint custody, and in general got rid of a person that after 24 years of knowing each other woke up one day with a chip on her shoulder. But I am under no illusion that I would have gotten this had I played nice or not had the upper hand.

Buyer beware. Even the good ones can go bad.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Interesting how the author thinks it's only men who are thinking that way.

[Brett L]

Men are still more likely to pay alimony to women who earn nearly equal money than women are to pay at all. And, the chance of a woman getting a shot deal on visitation or child support is vanishingly small. I'm sure it happens and I know fathers have done much better in custody negotiations in the last decade, but unless mom has a habit of (literally) leaving small children at home overnight while using hard drugs elsewhere or sexually abusing the children, she can be the primary guardian 99 times out of 100.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I was focusing more on the overall protection of property angle. More and more women are property owners. I am a property owner. I will not get married. That's not to say I won't take on some sort of committed relationship, but there will be a very clear contractual dividing of property.

[Marshall Gill]

there will be a very clear contractual dividing of property.

Better hope it fits the State definition of "property".

My sister was recently divorced. When they were dividing up the assets, she was told that jewelry she received as gifts were not community property. Guns that he had received as gifts were community property.

[Lord Humungus]

Toni Morrison takes on American racism: "I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman"

In an interview with The Telegraph's Gaby Wood, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison revealed when she would concede that racism was truly over ? that is, when the criminal justice system eliminated glaring racial disparities.

"People keep saying, 'We need to have a conversation about race.' This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back," she said. "And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, 'Is it over?' I will say yes."

[UnCivilServant]

I'd wager it happened already.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Will any white man do, or does it have to be somebody who likely actually committed the crime?

[Free Society]

Well since 'social justice' is the antithesis of actual justice, any whitey will do. Preferably a white male, they hang out to dry a lot easier.

[Monty Crisco]

PAGING GEORGE ZIMMERMAN!!! ROUND TWO!!!

[WTF]

Another idiot blissfully unaware of reality.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

But she won the Nobel Prize, man! Just like Krugman, so her thoughts on everything should be treated as Gospel!

[UnCivilServant]

All that means is the Nobel has been debased to worthlessness.

[gaoxiaen]

Only if you consider $1.2 million worthless.

[Rhywun]

But she won the Nobel Prize, man!

OMG... really? That's... ugh.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What's with all these Nobel winners revealing how utterly morally and intellectually depraved they are outside their narrow specialty?

[Zeb]

Hmm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Jean_Owens 1959 no less.

http://www.washingtontimes.com...../?page=all

Yeah. Not in the back. But I don't see people rushing to defend the white guy here.

So, is it over?

[Free Society]

"People keep saying, 'We need to have a conversation about race.' This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back," she said. "And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, 'Is it over?' I will say yes."

Both of those things have happened probably at least a couple hundred times in the last decade, but they're not as sensational for news stories.

For all the people saying "we need to have a conversation about race", they couldn't be more superficial and childish in their pursuit of such a conversation. Bearing in mind that by conversation they mean that whitey should be proverbially strapped to a chair and lectured about how evil his race is, how evil his culture is and how superior non-whites are to him. Once whitey is on knees, they'll consider that "conversation" to be done and over with.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

""And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, 'Is it over?' I will say yes.""

Toni....I don't know how to break this to you.

Four white men were convicted of raping a black woman in 1959.

So...racism over then?

[Zeb]

I know my links aren't as fancy, but they've been there for 20 minutes.

[Rhywun]

Well, she didn't read it in the paper so I guess it never happened.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The Big Idea: California Is So Over
...But ultimately the responsibility for California's future lies with our political leadership, who need to develop the kind of typically bold approaches past generations have embraced. One step would be building new storage capacity, which Governor Jerry Brown, after opposing it for years, has begun to admit is necessary. Desalinization, widely used in the even more arid Middle East, notably Israel, has been blocked by environmental interests but could tap a virtually unlimited supply of the wet stuff, and lies close to the state's most densely populated areas. Essentially the state could build enough desalinization facilities, and the energy plants to run them, for less money than Brown wants to spend on his high-speed choo-choo to nowhere. This piece of infrastructure is so irrelevant to the state's needs that even many progressives, such as Mother Jones' Kevin Drum, consider it a "ridiculous" waste of money. ...

[Illocust]

Hmmmm, it actually might save California. Not because of the government spending aspect, but because in order to do so they would have to break the backs of the California watermelons. Nothing screams we want you back like getting rid of one of the most onerous ruling groups.

[Tonio]

Desalinization...has been blocked by environmental interests but because it could tap a virtually unlimited supply of the wet stuff...

[$park? the Swifty]

Water, the next fossil fuel.

[PH2050]

You guys just want to suck Gaia's blood dry with your dejazzination machinery!

[Rich]

Six Americans of Somali descent...have been charged with allegedly attempting to join the Islamic State

Sheesh, just drone those six and be done with it.

[Injun, as in from India]

What a shame that libertarians stand for the rights of these crooks to not be droned without due process.

/neocon

[Lord Humungus]

Greek Mayors to Protest Government Decision to Seize Their Cash

Running out of other options, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ordered local governments and central government entities to move their cash balances to the central bank for investment in short-term state debt.

The decree to confiscate reserves held in commercial banks and transfer them to the Bank of Greece could raise as much as 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion), according to two people familiar with the decision. The money is needed to pay salaries and pensions at the end of the month, the people said.

"It is a politically and institutionally unacceptable decision," Giorgos Patoulis, mayor of the city of Marousi and president of the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece, said in a statement on Monday."No government to date has dared to touch the money of municipalities."

[John]

What kind of a nut has cash in Greece that isn't buried in the back yard or under a mattress? The government is going to take every dime it can find.

[Illocust]

Or just in a foreign account. Seriously, bitcoin or a London based firm is all it would take.

[Zeb]

The kind that runs local government?

I can only imagine that most Greeks with some extra cash have it stashed somewhere so it can't be confiscated or turned in to Drachmas if they are forced to leave the Euro.

[Kaptious Kristen]

A friend of mine is vacationing there soon. I wonder if she's paying attention to the situation? Because when the bureaucrats don't get paid, the shit's gonna hit the fan.

[Catatafish]

My brother and his fiancee are talking about possibly doing their honeymoon there. I told them that they certainly will have quite a bit of buying power but I'm not sure that will be solace when they are dodging the molotovs.

[John]

Support for gun rights at all time high.

http://www.washingtonexaminer......le/2563304

But those dead kids at Sandy Hook were supposed to change everything!!

[Restoras, OWG]

Not enough pols, pundits and progs stood on those graves to make any change happen.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I presume less people are knowing less people that have been victimized by violent crime, ergo they don't view guns as increasing violence in society.

It's rather encouraging since gun control freaks don't object to guns just because they increase violence in society, but mainly because its something that exists outside of government's control and therefore their control.

[John]

I think it is the opposite. I think people see things like the mobs in Ferguson and the films of various gangs of feral teenagers and view guns as essential protection. Support for gun control goes up when crime goes down. When crime goes up, which it has been, people want guns.

[Restoras, OWG]

Hasn't violent crime been trending down?

[John]

That is what they say, but then you see stories of how the FBI and various big city police departments lie and game the statistics to make them look better. The murder rate has been going down. It is hard for the cops to lie about that. But I seriously wonder if the violent crime rate hasn't been going up and the cops are just lying about it.

[Zeb]

I suppose there is political pressure to make the stats look good. But there is also an incentive for law enforcement to make it look like crime is going up. Gotta keep that budget.

And ubiquitous video recording makes things like "gangs of feral teenagers" more apparent to the general public. But most people have still never encountered such a thing. It is hard to say if things like that are really new or on the increase, or if they are just noticed and reported in a different way.

[Free Society]

But I seriously wonder if the violent crime rate hasn't been going up and the cops are just lying about it.

Why would cops downplay a function that would increase their budget? I could see them gaming their solve rates and locking away innocents to look like they caught the bad guy, but generally they have every incentive to inflate the broader crime statistics, not downplay them.

In any case, I don't think there is an international conspiracy to make it appear as though crime is going down.

[John]

Why would cops downplay a function that would increase their budget?

Because crime going down shows that increasing their budget was successful and thus ensures that the money continues. If crime goes up, chiefs get fired and people start talking about reform and new police methods and no one wants that.

[Free Society]

Because crime going down shows that increasing their budget was successful and thus ensures that the money continues.

Right, just like how the welfare departments claim that less people need their services in times of prosperity... so that their department can get a bigger budget. And how the DEA is always downplaying rumors about the latest drug fad to make their agency a little bit less important... all so they can get a bigger a budget. I get your theory, it just doesn't logically follow. But if you have some evidence to show a cover up of increasing crime that spans the whole developed world, I'd love to see it.

[gaoxiaen]

We're winning the War on Drugs but we need more money. = We're losing the War on Drugs so we need more money.

[Marshall Gill]

I seriously wonder if the violent crime rate hasn't been going up and the cops are just lying about it.

I don't think so. Thomas Sowell points to an aging population. Young men commit a majority of crime and as we age they make up a smaller percentage of the population. I would assume that having several million people in prison probably also effects the overall rate.

[Free Society]

I would assume that having several million people in prison probably also effects the overall rate.

Yeah, it drives it up higher than it would otherwise be. There are consequences to taking hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders and tax evaders and housing them with rapists, robbers and murderers.

[Colonel Slanders]

I'm kind of with John on this, The Feds, the cops and the municipalities have so gamed the stats (Look at Chiraq for instance) that its hard to to know if crime is going down or not. I'm not saying it is going up, I just don't think anybody (who should know) really knows anymore because they've been lying for so long.

[gaoxiaen]

It just depends on how you define up and down.

[Brett L]

First, violent deaths of all types are down. The murder rate is definitely down from its peak in the 1970s and probably below the 1985-95 average. It really does look like a combination of video games giving young men something to do and a statistically interesting fall off as people who were under the age of 5 when leaded gas and paint were widely discontinued have had a real effect on the violent crime rate. Probably repeat offenders offend fewer times before the police have evidence to charge them, although I have no good numbers on that.

[UnCivilServant]

For decades. Faster in states with freer gun laws.

[Restoras, OWG]

Over the weekend nine people were shot in NYC...my first thought was, gee, this must be misreported because guns aren't allowed in NYC. It's a crime to own them so who would break the law by owning a gun?
http://nypost.com/2015/04/19/n.....ross-city/

[Rhywun]

Must be cops doing the shooting then.

[Monty Crisco]

What has changed in me - a gun owner who had never owned an AR - is the realization of how politically irresistible it is to get an AR now. I looked into it and it is possible to build a GREAT one for very little (comparatively) money. SO, I am doing it. Because those fuckers keep trying to ban 5.56 ammo, black rifles and large-capacity magazines , they have made it POLITICALLY IRRESISTIBLE for me not to get one. Sorry, libtards, but I can't ignore EVERY attempt at tyranny....

[PH2050]

No way, I heard somewhere that support for gun rights was at like 8%. Wonder who told me that...

[Rich]

vitamins can give you CANCER

Not *just* expensive urine.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

How about Artisanal Urine (I call no "great band name" jokes).

[Injun, as in from India]

How about Artisanal Urine

Watch out man. You're infringing on Budweiser's trademark.

[db]

I bet all you drink are IPAs.

[Injun, as in from India]

I'm not a beer guy.

[Injun, as in from India]

I'm not a beer guy.

Never tasted IPAs but a friend of mine swears by them. 🙂

[db]

I actually love them (not to the exclusion.of other.beers) but I was going for the obvious joke.

[db]

That's at best an indie club or recording studio name.

[Ted S.]

Hypervitaminosis A is a nasty thing.

[db]

Not Vitamin L!

[gaoxiaen]

I forgot that guy existed. Listening to that song explains why.

[gaoxiaen]

Nice tits on the blonde. Not a total waste of time.

[PH2050]

Wait, you mean free radicals shouldn't be completely eliminated? Color me surprised.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

How the IRS repeatedly rewrites Obamacare tax credit provisions
...In a series of posts at "Notice & Comment," the blog of the Yale Journal on Regulation, Professor Andy Grewal documents two additional cases in which the IRS has rewritten the PPACA's tax credit eligibility requirements so as to expand eligibility beyond what Congress authorized. Combined with other instances of the IRS and HHS disregarding the PPACA's plain text, it appears the federal government has little regard for what the PPACA actually says.

In his first two posts, Professor Grewall explains how IRS regulations disregard the statutory text so as to extend tax credit eligibility to some low-income aliens not lawfully residing in the U.S. In this way, the IRS regulation "casts a wider net than the statute" by expanding the number of people eligible for tax credits. Yet the IRS never provided any rationale for this change. Indeed, if one had just read the IRS explanation for what its regulations accomplish ? as opposed to the regulations themselves ? one would not even be aware of what the IRS did....

[Lord Humungus]

Obama Kept Iran's Short Breakout Time a Secret

The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb. But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public.

Speaking to reporters and editors at our Washington bureau on Monday, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz acknowledged that the U.S. has assessed for several years that Iran has been two to three months away from producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. When asked how long the administration has held this assessment, Moniz said: "Oh quite some time." He added: "They are now, they are right now spinning, I mean enriching with 9,400 centrifuges out of their roughly 19,000. Plus all the . . . . R&D work. If you put that together it's very, very little time to go forward. That's the 2-3 months."

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I read someone arguing that maybe this can all turn out good for both countries in that it could eventually foster economic ties as America did with Vietnam.

Not sure about that.

[UnCivilServant]

Donchaknow, The "Death to America!" Chant is just habit for local consumption

[UnCivilServant]

Donchaknow, The "Death to America!" Chant is just habit for local consumption

[Injun, as in from India]

It eventually has to. But the bigger problem is the inevitable nuclear arms race that will happen with other middle eastern countries. Everyone there hates Israel, so they will be either everyone's target or caught in the crossfire no matter what.

[Marshall Gill]

estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb.

So clearly their estimates suck.

[gaoxiaen]

I think we learned how bad they sucked when the CIA was clueless about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[Lord Humungus]

Pope Accepts Resignation of U.S. Bishop Who Failed to Report Abuse

Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected child abuser, answering calls by victims to take action against bishops who cover up for pedophile priests.

The Vatican said Tuesday that Bishop Robert Finn had offered his resignation under the code of canon law that allows bishops to resign early for illness or some "grave" reason that makes them unfit for office. It didn't provide a reason; Finn is 62, some 13 years shy of the normal retirement age of 75.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Jesus Christ is incompatible with personal integrity.

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

?

[Lord Humungus]

How Obama Abandoned Iraq
Why the rise of ISIS and the fall of Iraq weren't inevitable.

"Was it inevitable that Iraq would disintegrate?" I asked Rafi. No, it was not, he assured me. Iraq had been moving in a positive direction after the surge. This downward trajectory began in 2010 when the United States had not upheld the right of Iraqiya to have first chance at trying to form the government after it won the elections. "We might not have succeeded," he admitted, "but the process itself would have been important in building trust in Iraq's young institutions."

[WTF]

But if the United States had stayed engaged, Obama couldn't have taken credit for ending BOOOSH's war!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Auschwitz guard charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder

A former Nazi guard on trial for 300,000 counts of accessory to murder said he shares moral blame for horrors of the Holocaust.

The trial against 93-year-old Oskar Groening opened in Germany Tuesday. The former SS guard, known as the "accountant of Auschwitz," admitted that he helped collect and tally money as part of his job handling belongings taken from people arriving at the concentration camp.

"I share morally in the guilt but whether I am guilty under criminal law, you will have to decide," he told a Lueneburg judge Tuesday. Before he arrived in court, he told reporters that he expects to be acquitted.

Groening ? accused of helping to operate the death camp between May and June 1944 ? faces 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for the people killed at Auschwitz during that time. His trial comes 70 years after the liberation of the World War II concentration camps.

Prosecutors argue that anyone who was a death camp guard can be charged as an accessory to murders committed there, even without evidence of involvement in a specific death.

If convicted, the 93-year-old faces up to 15 years in prison.

What a farce.

[Illocust]

No freaking kidding. I hate these show trials. It's just one big reminder of how vicious the mob is.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shouldn't he face some kind of justice for his abhorrent actions?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

He's 93, he already got away with by living a long and happy life outside of jail. Why bother at this point?

It's disgusting that a person can be convicted of 300,000 counts of accessory to murder and only get 15 years. What kind of message does that send?

Additionally I have a major problem with Germany rounding up the nonagenarian every few years for a trial when there are hundreds of former Stasi officers alive and well that never faced any consequences for their crimes.

[Restoras, OWG]

I guess it depends - if it is a show trial then his conviction is a foregone conclusion and that isn't really facing justice. If he is tried fairly and found guilty - or acquitted - then he faces justice fairly.

As much as I think people like this are abhorrent I do believe a fair and impartial trial with a vigorous defense is necessary, otherwise those dispensing the 'justice' are arguably no better than the accused.

[SugarFree]

Fuck that. I want this fucker tried, convicted and rotting in jail until he pisses himself for the last time. We don't want any international precedents getting in the way when we are hunting down and prosecuting the last of the IRS or DEA agents when they are in their 90s.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What a rotten miserable life I hope that piece of shit lived.

[Mickey Rat]

I don't see an explanation of why this man is being brought to trial now, rather than when whatever crimes he may have committed were fresher.

[tarran]

He appeared in a documentary and talked frankly about his actions in the concentration camp.

Until a few years ago, the German law was such that a guard had to be convicted of a specific murder. Just being present wasn't considered enough to sustain a conviction.

Then the law was changed so that merely being present was enough to be a crime.

There are still a handful of surviving Nazi guards/functionaries, albeit they were younger than 25 or so at the time of the Holocaust.

They mostly keep their heads down and don't mention the war.

This guy did publicize his existence, and did talk about moral culpability, and the German govt could no longer turn a blind eye to his existence.

[gaoxiaen]

That's somewhere between a tragedy and a statistic.

[John]

The Walter Scott story is just tragic. Read this at your own risk it is a triple nut punch.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04......html?_r=0

Here is how child support often works among the poor in this country. A woman gets pregnant by a man and moves in but does not marry another man living off of his income. Since she isn't married, the state doesn't count his income so she collects welfare and also collects child support from the other man. It is one hell of a good racket. Meanwhile, the first man is left destitute and spends the rest of his life in and out of court and often jail as he is unable to pay crushing child support. But no one ever mentions these cases because the media and our law makers are bullied by upper middle class women with visions of dead beat dads and no idea how the world actually works.

[Illocust]

Well yeah, I mean the guys effected are icky poor men, and everyone knows that good men have jobs that can support a family. Seriously, middle class women hate men with low paying jobs, and I really don't know why but I've seen it in every one of them I know.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Interesting hypothesis.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Especially since the first guy is often a good guy just trying to do right by his kids and the law, while the second man is often a bad boy player who doesn't give a damn but the child.

[John]

Yes. The other issue that is never talked about is how often children are molested and abused by lovers and step parents of both sexes. We spend our time obsessing about the one in a million shot that your kid might be grabbed by a pervert at the park when the reality is nearly every kid who is abused or molested is victimized by someone they know and usually a parent's lover or new spouse. But we can't talk about that because there can never be any downside to divorce or any talk of women having any responsibility to their kids such that dragging a bunch of strange men in and out of their homes might be a bad idea.

[Rhywun]

Call me old-fashioned but I think a guy who fathers a child and doesn't stick around is a deadbeat whether he's poor or not.

[John]

What if his wife doesn't let him stick around? What about the woman who refuses to marry or have anything to do with the father of her child and just views him as an ATM machine?

You forget that there is such a thing as a deadbeat mom. We never seem to want to do anything about them.

[Rhywun]

We never seem to want to do anything about them.

Other than throw my tax dollars at them? Yeah.

You're right, my scenario is only one of many possible permutations.

[PH2050]

Spoken like someone who's never had a woman take out a restraining order against them, or call the police and claim you were "threatening her", all because you were having a disagreement. Just talking, no physical violence. But it doesn't matter, once the Heroes in Blue? arrive, you are royally fucked.

[Rhywun]

Spoken like someone who's never had a woman

You've got that right. If I were a hetersexual man these days, I think I would be terrified to go anywhere near a woman.

[PH2050]

Lol! Well played, sir 🙂

[Coeus]

Yale poll shows that more people want to regulate CO2 than believe that global warming is a problem.

I am jack's total lack of surprise.

[John]

WTF? I guess that means some people do look at regulating CO2 as kind of a religious cause.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Good intentions combined with magical thinking strikes yet again.

[Coeus]

I guess that means some people do look at regulating CO2 as kind of a religious cause.

Or as a means of wealth redistribution.

[Catatafish]

Bingo.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Rough day at the office: Reds manager Bryan Price drops at least 77 f-bombs in post-game tirade

Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price let it be known Monday that he wasn't happy that news of All-Star catcher Devin Mesoraco's absence made its way into the media.

In a pre-game rant reminiscent of Tommy Lasorda or Lee Elia, Price launched into a 5-minute, 34-second profanity-laced tirade on Monday. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans, Price used the f-word or its variants 77 times during his monologue and also included "11 uses of a vulgar term for feces (two bovine, one equine)."

The controversy began when Mesoraco was absent from Sunday's game for personal reasons, news that was reported by Rosecrans and a number of his colleagues. Price apparently felt that opponents could use such news as a tactical advantage.

Also noted was that minor-league catcher Tucker Barnhart had been called up from the minors and catcher Kyle Skipworth was being sent down. Price said he was angry he wasn't able to tell Skipworth of his demotion first before the player learned about it through the media.

Here's censored audio of Price's rant. It really heats up around the 1:30 mark:

[Slammer]

I fucking read that story last fucking night. He sounds a little fucking frustrated with the fucking media. You know what fucking bugs me every fucking time? Not be able to fucking find unfucking censored fucking audio or a fucking uncensored transcript. I fucking love baseball. My all time favorite audio is Tommy Lasorda.

And Hal Mcrae.

[Old Man With Candy]

Not quite up to the classic Earl Weaver tirades.

[Lord Humungus]

The Deep State Knows How to Protect Itself

...yes Eric O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth ? two of the targets in the John Doe investigations I wrote about today ? have filed suit against the prosecution team that made their lives so unrelentingly miserable. Unfortunately, that lawsuit ? like many lawsuits against the "deep state" ? faces multiple hurdles that are wholly unrelated to the underlying merits of the case itself. In fact, the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that O'Keefe's case was barred by the federal Anti-Injunction Act, which prohibits federal courts from enjoining some state proceedings. O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth have petitioned the Supreme Court for review, and the Court will determine whether to take the case very soon. Yet the Anti-Injunction Act is just one hurdle that litigants have to clear. Prosecutors enjoy extensive immunities, damages are notoriously difficult to obtain, and injunctions can't turn back time to undo the effects of suppressed speech or make terrified families whole.

[Tonio]

Eliminating the immunity of government employees would be perhaps the best, easiest thing that could be done to advance liberty. You'll never be able to eliminate the sovereign immunity of the state, as long as there is a state, but making the king's men accountable is doable.

[American Letter Mail Company]

Absolute and qualified immunity is useless when they're hanging from lampposts.

[John]

The thing is, they are not immune for doing something this outrageous. There is a federal law called the Klan Act, that makes it a felony for anyone to use the power of law to deprive someone of their constitutional rights. The Deep state case is a perfect example of the kind of thing that law was designed to stop. Getting rid of immunity only does any good if someone is willing to prosecute them.

I wish the problem was just the lack of immunity. But the truth is that strictly speaking government officials have less immunity than you think. There is the Klan act and there is also the fact that qualified immunity does not apply when the official violates clearly established law. The problem is no one is willing to prosecute government officials. And judges are loath to find something "clearly established law" even when it obviously is. You could end immunity tomorrow and the culture of "DAs don't go after government officials for doing their jobs or anything other than theft or bribery" would still exist.

[gaoxiaen]

And not very often for theft or bribery.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Report: ISIS leader seriously injured in air strike

The leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been seriously wounded in an air strike in western Iraq, sources have told the Guardian.

A source in Iraq with connections to the terror group revealed that Baghdadi suffered serious injuries during an attack by the US-led coalition in March. The source said Baghdadi's wounds were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow recovery. He has not, however, resumed day-to-day control of the organisation.

Baghdadi's wounding led to urgent meetings of Isis leaders, who initially believed he would die and made plans to name a new leader.

Two separate officials ? a western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser ? separately confirmed the strike took place on 18 March in the al-Baaj a district of Nineveh, close to the Syrian border. There had been two previous reports in November and December of Baghdadi being wounded, though neither was accurate.

The diplomat confirmed an air strike on a three-car convoy had taken place on that date between the village of Umm al-Rous and al-Qaraan. The attack targeted local Isis leaders and is believed to have killed three men. Officials did not know at the time that Baghdadi was in one of the cars.

Here's to hoping a slow, agonizing death on the bastard.

[Tonio]

Can't wait for some lefty public school teacher to have her class write him a get well note.

[Coeus]

Russian man to undergo a full head transplant

According to Canavero, the operation is set to last up to 36 hours, and will cost over $11 million.

During the procedure, the patient's brain will be cooled down to 10-15 degrees Celsius (50-60 Fahrenheit) to prolong the time the cells are able to survive without oxygen.

The body will be taken from a brain-dead but otherwise healthy donor.

An ultra-sharp scalpel will be used to cut through the spinal cord, and a special biological glue will be used to connect the head to the new body.

After the operation, Valery will be put into a coma for three to four weeks to prevent any movement. He will also be given immunosuppressants with the aim of preventing the body rejecting its new head.

Many medics are against carrying out the procedure, with a Californian doctor saying it is "too overwhelming a project to succeed," while others branded it "too outlandish to consider" and simply "crazy."

[db]

Will he fear any evil?

[Tonio]

+1 Johan Sebatian Bach Smith

[Rhywun]

I think this was an Outer Limits episode. As I recall, it didn't end well.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Al Sharpton is really starting to lose it: Loretta Lynch being blocked for AG post is racism

It should be interpreted and understood for what it really says to the majority of Americans: not only are some Republicans arrogantly playing politics with the President, but they chose a woman and an African American to make their point. This behavior clearly represents what many in the civil rights community have been saying all along -- the GOP plays to its base. Lynch's confirmation delay is nothing more than bells, whistles and red meat for the right-wing. It's yet another message that Blacks, women and quote "others" are expendable, and the least priority at best; they are in fact targeted by this crowd.

In the time that the U.S. Senate held Lynch hostage, they have confirmed several judges and even a new Secretary of Defense. Not only is Lynch supremely qualified (one need only look at her stellar track record), but as the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, she has already been confirmed by the Senate twice. This makes it all the more poignant that some on the right want us to know that an over-qualified woman and "uppity Blacks" will be put in their place. Even in 2015, someone like Lynch can be used as a rallying cry for the base of a Party that will have to come to terms with the changing demographics of this nation.

[PH2050]

GMSM, I can't believe you actually visit these sites and try to reason with people in the comments. They're mostly beyond redemption. Fuck 'em.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: more insane environmentalist quotes

1. To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem.

2. Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, is not as important as a wild and healthy planets?Some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.

3. They think they own whatever land they land on; that the earth is just a dead thing they can claim.

4. If there is going to be electricity, I would like it to be decentralized, small, solar-powered.

5. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, to have approached global warming as if it is real means energy conservation, so we will be doing the right thing anyway in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.

6. We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster or for a social change to come and bomb us into Stone Age, where we might live like Indians in our valley, with our localism, our appropriate technology, our gardens, our homemade religion?guilt-free at last!

[UnCivilServant]

6.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Nah, I recognize 6 from somebody quoting it elsewhere.

Of course, nothing stops these idiots from living like a "guilt-free" Stone Age savage right now. It's about forcing other people to gambol as well. I came to a similar realization about the nearly universal failure of the voluntary communes of the 1960s--that unless you have people willing to kill to stop emigration (Soviet Union, East Germany, etc.) the functional members realize they're getting screwed carrying the deadweight and get the hell out.

[gaoxiaen]

Number 4 is Hitler. Or Stalin.

[WTF]

I'm gonna say 5 - I don't think the watermelons would ever entertain the possibility that the AGW theory might be wrong.

[tarran]

No, I think I saw 5 somewhere a few months ago.

[Kaptious Kristen]

#6 has got to be he-who-shall-not-be-named. Or maybe Tony the racist genocidal eugenicist.

[gaoxiaen]

6 would be cool. Kind of like Mad Max for a while.

[This Machine]

#3.

[Derpetologist]

3 is the Not- that is a paraphrase of the lyrics of "Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocahontas.

The prize for the winners is a wolf howling to the blue corn moon.

Greenatic Stewart Brand said #6 and Timothy Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-Colorado) said #5.

[Derpetologist]

"I am something of an ecologist at heart, mainly because I am really a preacher, and we know that all ecologists are really preachers under the skin. They are great viewers with alarm. Is there any more single-minded, simple pleasure than viewing with alarm? At times it is even better than sex."

-Greenatic Kenneth Boulding

[PH2050]

For whether we are white or copper skin
You can sing with all the voices of the mountains
You can paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is earth until
You can paint
With all the colors of the wind

[Derpetologist]

Chuck Norris can kick ass with all the colors of the wind:

https://youtu.be/z2XUgE6g7XU?t=50s

[PH2050]

LMAO Walker, Texas Ranger, was always good for a laugh!

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: weird gods

1. NANGANANA, Death Goddess who punishes single men

2. AIZEN-MYOO, Deity of Lust Suppression

3. OA-ROVE, God of Gratuitous Violence

4. OYNYENA-MARIA, Assistant Goddess of Fire

5. GRAUDUSE, Goddess of Drowning

6. CHOCLATLPEC, Precious Night Turkey and God of Mystery

7. MEPHITIS, Goddess of Noxious Vapors

8. IYA, Evil God of rampaging pestilence

9. SHAKPANA, Plague God of Smallpox and Insanity

[SugarFree]

You sound like one of those smug atheists I keep hearing about.

[Derpetologist]

Those darn smug atheists!

How dare they dismiss my god the way I dismiss the gods of every other religion!

[Tonio]

[golf clap]

[SugarFree]

I pray that the fearsome Baxbakualanuchsiwae strikes both you heathens down.

[WTF]

Ima say 6 - sounds like the Aztec God of Chocolate, so likely not real.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I do believe 6 is real. I think i saw something on History Channel maybe?

[SugarFree]

Chalchiuhtotolin is the precious night turkey, you pagan boob.

[WTF]

Dammit, EDG, you're supposed to find the NOT!

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

6

[Derpetologist]

6 is the Not. I was trying to think of something Aztecy, so I took the word chocolate and stapled -atlpec on the end.

There really is a precious night turkey god.

prize for the winners: art of the peace-loving Aztecs before they were corrupted by the evil of the white man

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....Tovar.jpeg

[gaoxiaen]

6. It sounds like some type of artisanal mezcal.

[gaoxiaen]

You put up the reply too soon, but this thread might hit 500 comments before I'm done. Must continue.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Kim Jong Un "climbs" highest mountain in North Korea in honor of his father

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "climbed the top" of the nation's highest mountain on Saturday, state news agency KCNA reported.

Based on photographs showing him attired in a long topcoat and shiny shoes, and recent health problems, it's unlikely Kim hiked up the nearly 9,000-foot Mount Paektu, both The Guardian and the Telegraph noted. He more likely was dropped off at the summit, where he was joined by a crowd of North Korean fighter pilots.

Kim reportedly made the trip to the "sacred mountain of revolution associated with the soul of the Korean nation" to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of his late father Kim Jong-il being named marshal. While North Korea claims that his father was born on Mount Paektu, historians say the dictator was actually born in a refugee camp in Russia.

Look at that fat fuck. He's not going to last the rest of this decade.

[Kaptious Kristen]

I get so much entertainment from watching this joker. Then I feel bad because of all the starving and imprisoned people.

What happens when he kicks the bucket and his kid is not old enough to take the throne? I'm guessing some sort of military regency, which will be permanent.

[Derpetologist]

He really should just wear a crown and one of those stereotypical king capes.

http://www.georgianindex.net/N.....aprobe.jpg

[Pan Zagloba]

The Interview may not have been a good movie, but god damn did the guy playing him do a good job. I can totally see him at the top of the mountain, just after he got choppered in, beaming and telling Franco's character how hard it was to climb up here - and both of them believing it.

[mauricegirodias]

It's a sacred mountain in Korean culture (also Chinese, they call it Chang Bai Shan), but it has a lot of foot trails 'n stuff.

/Would like to visit one day.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: wacky NATO reporting names

1. Frogfoot

2. Blowlamp

3. Hormone

4. Midget

5. Crusty

6. Skunkspray

[Tonio]

#1 is legit, it's a soviet AA missle system.

[Timon 19]

Su-25. Fighter/bomber. A-A missile systems are 'M', I believe.

[Timon 19]

Derp. A-A missiles are 'A'

[Tonio]

Oops, yes, my bad. Vague memories of this from doing a lot of helicopter sims back in the 80's and 90's.

[Timon 19]

Hormone, probably.

Frogfoot is a MiG of some sort (all Warsaw Pact fighter aircraft had f-beginning reporting names)
Blowlamp sounds like a Warsaw Pact bomber, but I can't place it.
Midget is consistent with A-A missile reporting names.
Crusty...just sounds like it would work.
Skunkspray is consistent with a SAM, but none that I've heard of.

[Timon 19]

Crap, I'm wrong. I won't spoil it for anyone else, though.

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

I used to know all of the naming conventions... but it has been a while since I worried about Ivan pouring into the Fulda Gap.

[Timon 19]

That's what she said?

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

6

[Derpetologist]

6 is the Not. Prize for the winners is this Russian hardstyle dance remix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFUR5_xHKs8

[Timon 19]

I thought for sure there was an obscure surface-surface missile system with that name.

[Swiss Servator, faul B??gg!]

Those were all "S" names - the best was the SS-18 ... designated "Satan".

[gaoxiaen]

6. It looks like some kind of Ozium-type product.

[John]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....-iraq.html

Colorado biker known as the "Necromancer" fights ISIS. I love it that America can still produce people like this. Makes you feel better about the country after seeing the various stories of college students whining about the need for a "safe environment". How does someone sitting at Oberlein worrying about the danger of Christina Hoff Summers speaking on campus not feel guilty for breathing this guy's air.

[tarran]

A surprising number of Americans end up in the French Foreign Legion. I remember a documentary where a couple of their recruits were speaking French with a very southern drawl.

[John]

Our military sadly is so bureaucratic, PC and risk adverse, it doesn't offer the sense of adventure that is needed to attract some of the better soldiers sometimes.

[tarran]

IIRC one of the new recruits was a former U.S. Marine who had been booted from the service.

His French was atrocious, but he struggled on because he had "nowhere else to go".

[Pope Jimbo]

Was his french worse than Jean-Claude Van Damme's in Legionnaire?

[John]

I have nowhere else to go, is pretty much the motto of the Legion.

[Free Society]

it doesn't offer the sense of adventure that is needed to attract some of the better soldiers sometimes.

Join the military today, to travel the world and meet exotic and interesting people and kill them!

[John]

That is what it is about. Some people are really good at dealing in violence and really enjoy it. The whole "reluctant warrior" thing is nothing but a bunch of horse dung. There are plenty of people who are quite willing warriors. You just hope they are on your side.

[Pope Jimbo]

Check your privilege John.

White guys get to go fight ISIS without being hassled by the FBI. Black Somali's in Minnesoda get arrested for wanting to do the same thing (just fighting on the other side).

[tarran]

It's nto qutie the same thing.

ISIS has declared war on the United States. The fact that the American govt hasn't reciprocated and that there are no official hostilities in progress doesn't change the fact that the guys joining ISIS are joining an enemy organization.

The law is kind of weird.

Basically, it's against the law to enlist in the military of a foreign principality unless the United States is at peace with that principality at the time of enlistment.

[Tonio]

And, while IANAL, I believe the fact that ISIS is not a nation-state complicates things as far as the declaration of war, but also allows us to treat them as international criminals for purposes of prosecuting US volunteers absent a declaration of war.

[tarran]

The law covers "the service of any foreign prince, state, colony, district, or people"

I think ISIS is well within its scope.

[PH2050]

The guy is a total shitbag and as a military veteran I can't express support for what he's doing when he parades around with fake medals spouting lies.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Saw a Vice clip yesterday of a dude with a gigantic silicone-injected weiner. He had to wear pleat-front mom jeans to accommodate his bulk down there. Then he was at a leather festival of some kind wearing a cod piece and it was the size of a basketball.

[John]

Unless you only wanted women who were masochists, I can't see that being much of a positive.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Then he was at a leather festival

This didn't give you any clue that he might not be that much into women?

[John]

Yeah, fair enough. That is seriously fucked up.

[Zeb]

I would think that men would want that even less. Vaginas are at least meant to accommodate something that size in the normal course of things.

[Kaptious Kristen]

You would think, but a lot of the men at the leather fest were quite....intrigued.

[Tonio]

The leather community is not just gay people.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Pretty sure this particular festival was particularly gay-oriented, given the number of men wanting to discuss how they would fuck a guy with a 7-lb. dong.

Seven. Pounds.

[AlexInCT]

Is that too light weight? Mine is just a little heavier...

[Lord Humungus]

Last night I watched "Beware of Mr. Baker" - the biography of Ginger Baker, drummer of Cream and Traffic
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1931388/

The guy is pretty much a total prick - and his drumming, though technically proficient, falls too much into the - for lack of a better word - jazz trap. He bashes Keith Moon and John Bonham: "couldn't swing a sack of shit".

Anyway, I gotta give Moon the nod for being the better drummer for his controlled chaos and sweeping fills - at least for rock 'n' roll.

[John]

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/0.....r-repairs/

More proof that copyright needs to die. Whatever benefits it brings are no longer worth the cost of the abuses it produces. Automakers are now claiming that repairing or modifying your car should be illegal because it violates their copyrights on the vehicles design and computer code. Fuck them with a chainsaw.

[Zeb]

Copyrights on design accomplish exactly the opposite of what copyrights are supposed to accomplish. It's nuts.

This sort of thing is one reason why I'm not terribly excited about self driving cars. The safety arguments in that article might not fly today, but with lots of self-driving cars on the road, I'd bet a lot that people would get right behind laws that restrict what car owners can do to their cars.

[John]

I agree Zeb. I think Libertarians greatly under estimate the dangers of technology sometimes. It doesn't always make us more free. It can and often does do that but it doesn't have to.

[Zeb]

It does seem to be an article of faith for some people.

Lots of technology does allow people to bypass and avoid regulation and government interference. But many things can also be used to increase control.

I don't find it to be a good argument against any new technology. And there is no stopping it in any case. But it is something to keep in mind.

With self-driving cars you just know that you won't be allowed to be the only passenger while drunk. So what's the point?

[John]

It is not an argument against new technology, it is an argument against mandating the use of any sort of technology. The problem with self driving cars is not the cars themselves. It is the threat that they will become mandatory. It is the same here. The problem is not that cars have adopted such new technology. The problem is the automakers are using that as an excuse to prevent people from modifying their cars.

Let technology happen, but also let people be free to use the old technology if they choose. It is like getting rid of paper currency. I hardly use it the stuff anymore and debit cards are great. But, I would never want debit cards to be the only option.

[gaoxiaen]

I hope that doesn't apply to my bike. The only original part is the crankcase.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: vision/mission statements

1. Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth.

2. By creating value for our customers, we create value for our shareholders. We use our expertise to create transport-related products and services of superior quality, safety
and environmental care for demanding customers in selected segments. We work with energy, passion and respect for the individual.

3. To minimize financial exposure by totally eliminating safety risks from human-operated manual processes and enable the ability of our shareholders to win-win.

4. To be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.

[Derpetologist]

5. A multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share our success and our stockholders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment.

6. Our mission is to enhance and integrate our supplier diversity programs into all of our procurement practices and to be an advocate for minority and women-owned businesses.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

1. It's gibberish.

[WTF]

Yes, but I have seen actual mission statements that are pretty much the same thing. Most mission statements are just buzzwords and clich?s run together anyway.

[Derpetologist]

#1 is from Coca Cola.

[Peachy rex]

So... it's perfect.

Once upon a time, little peachy rex was part of his international school's SG, and was invited to the school's strategic retreat. He ended up on the "mission statement" committee... and spent four depressing hours watching a room full of intelligent, highly educated professionals trying desperately to come up with a sentence to encapsulate the mission OF A FUCKING SCHOOL.

(But seriously, seeing a school board operate up close was one of the formative experiences of my life. Holy shit.)

[gaoxiaen]

3. Who would say "totally" when dealing with humans?

[WTF]

3

[Derpetologist]

3 is the Not, although the phrases "financial exposure", "totally eliminate", "human-operated manual process", and "enable the ability" all come from an actual memo I was given by a former boss as an exampled of "good" business writing. It is a relief I no longer work for that moron.

How sad it is to consider how far you can get in life through lies and ass-kissing.

[Derpetologist]

*example

I have no regrets of calling him a buzzword-spouting stuffed shirt with as much depth as a sheet of paper.

[Enough About Palin]

"Six Americans of Somali descent living in Minnesota have been charged with allegedly attempting to join the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria"

Why shouldn't these guy be free to go fight for the Islamic State in Iraq & Syria??

[John]

They are a terrorist organization. It is like going to Italy to join the mafia. I suppose you could say "sure have fun" if you could ensure they will never return to the US. But you can't do that. Also, we have an obligation under international law to keep our people from trying to overthrow other governments. Think of it this way, if a Mexican separatist organization started a war to break off the Southwest from the rest of the country, what would the US think about Mexico if it did nothing to stop its citizens from crossing the border and joining the fight? We would rightfully look at that as an act of war. Well, in this case the government of Iraq could say the same thing about us if we did nothing to stop this.

[tarran]

It's also pretty clearly against the law. See my comment above.

[John]

I am actually a bit surprised the FBI isn't going after Americans who go and fight for the Kurds. That would be the kind of dick move Obama usually pulls.

[tarran]

The Kurdish fighters are the only thing preventing Iran and ISIS partitioning Iraq, like Germany and the Soviets partitioned Poland at the outset of WW-II.

With the Kurds holding ISIS at bay, Obama has a fig leaf to claim that his Iraq policy hasn't been an unmitigated disaster.

[Pope Jimbo]

I'm with you EAP. I'd rather let people who want to go fight somewhere else simply go there and fight.

It may be against the law, but that doesn't mean that the law is right.

I'm thinking about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain. Or people who went to Canada to enlist so they could fight Germans in both world wars before the US officially entered them.

Completely agree in this case that anyone who willingly joins ISIS is a total asshole. My hope is that they would be able to show up in Syria and get killed there.

[Coeus]

FBI admits it fudged forensic hair matches in nearly all criminal trials for decades

WASHINGTON ? The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

Of 28 examiners with the FBI Laboratory's microscopic hair comparison unit, 26 overstated forensic matches in ways that favoured prosecutors in more than 95 per cent of the 268 trials reviewed so far, according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Project, which are assisting the government with the country's largest post-conviction review of questioned forensic evidence.

[Kaptious Kristen]

This is why the Innocence Project is da bomb. What a mess we have in our legal system

I've been bingeing on The First 48 recently, and one guy who brutally beat a 79-year-old woman in her own home, who had her blood on his shoes, had a hung jury in his case because of mishandling of evidence and faulty chain of custody.

[gaoxiaen]

+1 O.J. Simpson

[Tonio]

This is huge, or should be. In a just world there would be a massive release of prisoners happening, and prosecutions for government officials. Yeah, I know, LOL.

[Andrew S.]

Supreme Court reins in cops for once. 6-3 decision in Rodriguez v. US, a cop cannot arbitrarily hold someone on a traffic stop (after the traffic stop is over) long enough to get a drug sniffing dog out there to manufacture probable cause. Thomas (unsurprising), Alito (unsurprising), Kennedy on the dissent. Ginsburg wrote the majority, surprisingly joined by Mr. New Professionalism.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Maybe Mr. New Professionalism is finding a sense of shame.

[John]

That the decision wasn't 9-0 is appalling. A "seizure" of your person means just that; you are not free to go. If you can't leave and have to wait there for Rover to come and sniff your car, you have been detained. They can't do that without probable cause.

[Krokko]

Dammit, lady, they're a special treat, not an "all the time" food.

What's wrong with Girl Scout cookies

[Krokko]

Damn links.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/21/.....index.html

[gaoxiaen]

She says that Girl Scout cookies are responsible for (some) rape, but you have to read it carefully.

[Rhywun]

"And I'm surprised that more doctors aren't speaking up about this."

Not all doctors are nagging shrews.

"Canola oil, another cookie ingredient, is also of concern: 90% of rape seed (from which canola is produced) is GMO, too. Suddenly those cookies seem less benign, don't they?"

Oh never mind, she is completely fucking stupid. Carry on.

[db]

"Suddenly, this 'expert' seems less credible, doesn't she?"

[Rasilio]

Canola Oil: The byproduct of rape culture

[Rhywun]

Eeeeew!

/teenage girl

[Zeb]

Wow. This woman is an MD and a professor of medicine?

Maybe cookies are about being sweet and tasty and not about sending a message. Does everything have to send a message?

And that has to be one of the dumbest anti-GMO thing I have read (and that is saying a lot). Even in glyphosate is a significant cancer risk (which seems very unlikely, aren't pickles also a "likely carcinogen" by the same standards?), there is no fucking glyphosate in processed canola oil or corn syrup.

[PH2050]

I like how she just mentions glyphosate like that's all that's needed. Uh, no bitch, where are the fucking data you can show me so I can see how it's linked?

[gaoxiaen]

Glyphosate. Isn't that like vitamin G or something?

[adolphowisner]

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Give a chance to your good luck.
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[gaoxiaen]

Finally hit 500 comments, but I'm not sure if I should count jobfish. Good Night. Or good afternoon to you guys back in the USSA (Eastern and Central Time).