Relative Calm in Baltimore, Rand Paul Blames 'Lack of Fathers' for Riots, GOP Viewed as 'More Extreme': A.M. Links

- Cops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd out past curfew in Baltimore Tuesday evening; around 10 people were arrested, but overall the streets were relatively calm throughout the night.
- Rand Paul blamed a "lack of fathers" and a "lack of moral code" for what he described as the "thuggery and thievery" in Baltimore.
- Senators rejected a measure Tuesday which would have required any nuclear agreement with Iran to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.
- In the first half of 2014, the D.C. government payed nearly $10,000 to lobby itself.
- Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, an opinion that's risen seven percentage points since November 2014.
- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Oklahoma's death-penalty procedure, which relies on a three-drug protocol that's been used in several botched executions.
- Florida Gov. Rick Scott filed two lawsuits Tuesday claiming the federal government tried to bully state officials into expanding low-income health care coverage for Floridians.
- A bill under consideration in Texas would hold doctors or counselors criminally liable for coercing a woman into ending a pregnancy.
- Axl Rose has some words for the Indonesian president.
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Rand Paul blamed a "lack of fathers" and a "lack of moral code" for what he described as the "thuggery and thievery" in Baltimore.
And how do you fix that by throwing money at it?
Easy. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer defended Baltimore city officials' reaction to the riots erupting in the city by asking for more federal tax dollars.
In other words, more "thievery and thuggery".
To be fair, most of these politicians are old enugh to no longer have fathers to provide moral guidance. I mean, IOW, if Obama had a son, it wouldn't be them, because he's younger than them.
Now that was totally unexpected.
Minority Whip
How is it that this term has survived PC?
Make it minority feather.
Minority Comphy Chair
Comfy
I probably shouldn't have laughed as hard as I did at this comment.
+1 "In Cold Leather"
What would they change it to? "Old White Guy Whip"?
*read in Stewie Griffin's voice*
Minority time-out
I keep hearing the residents have been "neglected". By whom, they won't say.
The damn ratfucking teabagging RethugliKKKans, of course.
Who've been running that city for decades.
District Member Party
1 James B. Kraft Democratic
2 Brandon M. Scott Democratic
3 Robert W. Curran Democratic
4 Bill Henry Democratic
5 Rochelle "Rikki" Spector Democratic
6 Sharon Green Middleton Democratic
7 Nick J. Mosby Democratic
8 Helen Holton Democratic
9 Pete Welch Democratic
10 Edward Reisinger Democratic
11 Eric Costello Democratic
12 Carl Stokes Democratic
13 Warren Branch Democratic
14 Mary Pat Clarke Democratic
At-Large Bernard "Jack" Young Democratic
EXACTLY
Damned Rethugs!!!
*shakes fist*
Sheeeeiiiiit!
dats waciss
Ain't diversity great?
Stop hiring bastards into the police force?
Why do you hate out-of-wedlock children?
Officer Snow?
Officer RAMSAY Snow.
A flayed man tells no lies.
I think there a bastard's surname is Nattyboh.
Hello.
Father? I don't need no stinking father!
The cyclical, systemic dysfunction in the American black underclass was deliberately created over the last forty years or so, and it has been so deeply entrenched across so many generations now that it will probably take another forty to fifty years to fix it, if it is even fixable at all.
It would be fixed in less than a decade if the idiotic welfare state was dismantled and every person in America was given 1/330,000,000 of it a year for that same period in the form of a check.
And while if find the money wasteful, it would be more wisely spent than the way it is now.
This. A GMT would be so much better than what we have now, if for no other reason than that it would break the back of the perverse incentive against family formation prevalent in poor communities.
The problem is that it would add on top of means tested welfare rather than replace it.
How are the politicans gonna steal and get power from doing something like this you lunatic?
It's fixable. But the fix to the problem because increasingly more painful and less tenable as time goes on. Worst case scenario, genocide. Best case scenario, free markets and personal liberty.
48) The basketball playoffs have started, and now people can start paying attention to the NBA. Is there any sport where the regular season is less meaningful? No, no there's not. Which brings me to my proposal: make the entire NBA season one big set of playoffs. Instead of a regular season of 82 games and four rounds of playoffs (28 games total), the whole thing would be one big shebang of 110 games, divided into say, eight rounds, with the two teams with the worst record in each conference's eliminated after each of the first four rounds. The final four rounds would proceed more or less as the playoffs do currently. This would serve to make every game meaningful, would encourage teams to play their best the whole season and not just fold halfway through to improve their draft picks, and cut the deadwood out of the schedule. Wins all around?
Could we also eliminate the first 44 minutes of each game and just play the last 4? That way it'd only take about a half hour of TV time and we really wouldn't miss anything important.
Is there any sport where the regular season is less meaningful?
The UEFA CL doesn't heat up until the knockout stage.
Sports are driven by gambling if people feel like the fix is in they won't bet/watch/care which is why boxing has declined and why the nba sucks.
Is there any sport where the regular season is less meaningful?
Not a hockey fan , eh?
Hey. Only half the teams get into the NHL playoffs.
The NBA and NHL are both fucking endless.
The NBA needs to start November 1 and end March 31. The finals should be taking place right now.
Oh, MLB too, but at least the playoffs are shorter.
And the regular season is actually meaningful.
The one game wild card is bullshit though.
Yeah, I don't get that but as OMWC says, it's more meaningful than NBA or NHL.
The NHL is just brutal. Then comes the playoffs which is hockey magnified. It's the best of all the playoffs from an intensity stand point - along with baseball.
If I were dictator, I would certainly get rid of any wild cards in baseball. And artificial turf. And designated hitters.
Agreed.
But it did give us the greatest baseball game ever played in last year's Royals vs. A's matchup.
The teams eliminated in the first four rounds would also be bankrupted financially. This type of system would jeopardize the existence of an NBA.
Play an 82 game regular season. At the end, take the 16 best teams (based on W/L record) and seed the playoffs. Disregard the conference affiliations for seeding the playoffs.
Agreed.
Don't NBA teams revenue share to some degree?
Or maybe we can just do what the European football clubs do and create league tiers? You suck for too long = you get kicked out of the premier league.
I wish the MLB had relegation. They're really the best candidate for it as a sport (since the infrastructure is already in place and the contention cycles are long), but it would require a complete overhaul of the farm system arrangement.
I think it could be done with the least effort in the NHL. Merge the NHL, CHL, AHL, and ECHL into one entity, organize as clubs like the European soccer teams, and go from there.
The problem with all of this is collective bargaining: the terms that the top levels have to adhere to would absolutely sink the lower leagues.
I've always liked that idea. Promote your Hersheys and Hamiltons and demote your Edmonton's and Buffaloes from time to time.
The Oilers deserve some stay in Purgatory for wasting all those #1 PICKS and now they have another. Lucky for them Chiarelli is there now.
I'm happy McDavid is headed out west, but I really wish it was somewhere else. With the way that place has been run for the past decade they deserve to be folded. Hopefully someone trades up and those fuckers ruin a lesser player.
Chiarelli's great, but the old boys network is still there. There's going to be a bit more dysfunction before he can perform his palace coup a la Shanahan in Toronto.
Chiarelli may have boned the B's on a bunch of drafts, but he certainly knows how to create roster depth. I have a feeling he's going to put a good supporting cast around all those young guns.
Will not fly. No team wants the potential for the travel expenses of a coast to coast series .in all four rounds of the playoffs. It is one of the reasons they have geographically based conferences in the first place.
It's like you people all forget that sports are a business. There is no way on God's green earth that either the owners or the players ever agree to anything that will result in less revenue, which a decline in the number of games surely will.
Yeah, this is why Goodell has been pushing more weekday games, more overseas games, and more games in general. Never mind the fact that the talent level in the NFL is so watered down that typically only 10 or so teams every year aren't scrambling for QB help. Same thing with the NHL, MLB, and NBA--can anyone honestly say with a straight face that the talent level would degrade if there were fewer games and fewer teams?
There's nothing wrong with business growth per se, but there needs to be recognition of the limits of scale, and the fact of the matter is that pro sports are crony capitalists par excellence while practicing communistic business models. If it wasn't for revenue sharing and the draft, every league would probably have half the teams they do now because the shittiest teams would go out of business. The talent level and quality of play would be a lot better, too.
The reason that most of the teams in the NFL are scrambling for QB help isn't lack of talent, it's that most GMs are idiots who don't know what qualities to look for in a pro quarterback and when they do find one, they fuck him up by throwing him into the fire too early.
pro sports are crony capitalists par excellence while practicing communistic business models
Yes indeed. I've always found it funny that, despite the respective ethos of their citizens, European pro sports are mostly free while American ones are so heavily regulated by their governing bodies.
It's also why I have to disagree with, If it wasn't for revenue sharing and the draft, every league would probably have half the teams they do now because the shittiest teams would go out of business. If teams were clubs (or some other type of independent entity) instead of franchises and free to operate independently within the league, free of the CBA provisions imposed by the leagues and PA's, then I don't think that would happen at all.
The NHL and MLB are aided by the fact they can dip into the international talent base for players thus keeping the roster depth on those teams pretty solid.
How many countries play football? Two. That's it. No wonder there's a dearth of players at certain positions.
And increasingly, we can add the NBA as it starts to look outside as well.
Senators rejected a measure Tuesday which would have required any nuclear agreement with Iran to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.
The DoJ has something on too many of them.
I think this is already covered.
Except this is just an "agreement," not a "treaty."
*sigh*
In other words, not worth the paper it may be written on.
Stored on Hillary's server?
Something tells me the writers of that certain clause you quoted would probably consider the legal formalization of an agreement with a foreign power by which we grant financial or diplomatic reprieves in exchange for a guarantee not to develop a weapon of war amounted a "treaty" as the word was then understood.
And the continued murder of language for political expediency continues...
You know who else committed murder for political expediency...?
Frank Underwood?
Lady Macbeth?
Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll...
They polled HuffPo readers?
"Extreme" in what way? Even more meaningless than usual without defining terms.
"Extreme" has been a democrat party poll-word since Reagan. At the same time Republicans were labeling everything they opposed as "liberal", the Democrats were labeling everything as "extreme".
I'm not sure how you could possibly justify "now viewed" as a description when the primary message of team (D) for 30 years has been "Those guys are EXTREME and they have EXTREME ideas!"
Extremism in defense of liberty... Whatever whatever.
That really scared the shit out of people at the time.
Kids think 'extreme' is good right? Must be some sort of youth outreach.
sponsored by Mtn. Dew
Waaah, it's not fair
Grotty public housing tenants who trash their homes at taxpayer expense to pay a rental bond like everyone else
"Housos! Housos, housos. Housos! Housos, housos."
https://youtu.be/yuo_ZuTbqP8
New Bikini Skiing World Record Set by Russians
Funny. Not one of those girls looks cold.
Most of them are hot, I'd say.
So many questions. Did they debut this sport at Sochi? Is Putin a judge? How do you get tickets?
there are a shocking amount of hot chicks in those pictures. Therefore I'm almost positive that this didn't happen.
1. This Cannot Stand. I fully expect a NATO response, ideally by Norway or Iceland.
2. Um, Rule Britannia. Wow.
Yeah, that pic is going on the hard drive.
You can ski on a bikini?
I'm willing to try.
Oh Russian girls... hello there.
This is why I am voting for Putin for President and not Hillary or Jeb.
I call bullshit. Some of those people are snowboarding.
A 'Wannabe Stuntman' Jumped Off 9-story Building to Land in a Pile of Snow
http://weirdrussia.com/2015/02.....e-of-snow/
A bill under consideration in Texas would hold doctors or counselors criminally liable for coercing a woman into ending a pregnancy.
There it is. Almost missed it.
Are you trying to imply Elizabeth Abortion Brown is a one-trick pony? Hardly!
Criminal liability for coercion? I see no clear definition of what constitutes coercion.
Sounds like another solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
So, you've looked at the allegations of forced abortions in this report and you can say that these reports are false? (see pp. 9-13)
With men willing to do these things to pregnant women, I would imagine they're also capable of telling them to go to the clinic...or else.
http://stopforcedabortions.com.....rtions.pdf
Sexy time in New Zealand
'He grabbed the screwdriver and started digging at the back of my gums': Man, 56, accused of removing women's teeth during sex because he liked 'gummy ladies'
Defence lawyer Mike Antunovic suggested Hansen was trying to help
"I'm from the Gummit and ...."
I've always considered The Marathon Man the height of erotic cinemna.
"Is it safe?"
Is that what the + is at the end of LGBTQ+?
Hermaphrodite?
That's the "I" in the full alphabet soup version. "I" standing for intersex.
I think it's just because people kept adding more letters and it became too cumbersome and hard to remember. So the + means "etc.".
There's a Florida in New Zealand...?
...the D.C. government payed nearly $10,000 to lobby itself.
Both whore and john.
*AHEM*
"Sex worker and client"!!!!!!!
*AAAHEM!*
"Sexual Trafficking Victim and Sexual Predator/Oppressor"!!!!!!!!eleventy!!
Sounds more like masturbation
"Payed"?
It's technically correct. Which is the best kind of correct.
LOL. Good one.
How does the multiplier effect work in this situation?
Does that $10,000 turn into $12,250 simply by carrying a memo across the hall?
Today's game between the Yankees and Orioles will be played in an empty stadium closed to the public
The Orioles and White Sox will play Wednesday at Camden Yards in a game that will be closed to the public.
The revised plan was announced Tuesday after widespread public unrest in Baltimore forced a postponement of a White Sox-Orioles game for the second consecutive day. The Orioles said they made the decision after consulting with Major League Baseball as well as city and local officials.
Monday's game was postponed around 40 minutes before the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start. The decision came after riots broke out following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died April 19 of spinal cord and other injuries suffered while in police custody. Tuesday's game, also scheduled for 7:05, was called off shortly after 11 a.m.
The game Wednesday will start at 2:05 p.m. ET.
"All of the decisions in Baltimore were driven first by the desire to insure the safety of fans, players, umpires and stadium workers," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Only after we were comfortable that those concerns had been addressed did we consider competitive issues and the integrity of the schedule."
The Tampa Bay Rays sympathize.
"You guys too, huh?"
The Rays get people in the seats when the Yankees are in town. Granted, they're mostly Yankee fans.
Red Sox too.
I bet MLB is champing at the bit to move the Rays and Marlins to Havana.
I doubt that. What good is 50k fans when they'll only spend $5 combined each on the ticket and concessions? The Rays and Marlins may not be great draws, but they still manage a decent average ticket price and have corporate sections / boxes / etc that would be a pipe dream in Havana.
Unless you're counting on the Castros to simply make the teams an arm of the Cuban government, which might work out well for them.
Good points, actually - I hadn't considered that. Several minor league teams maybe more likely?
This "no spectators" deal is actually typical for the White Sox.
The ChiSox's next series in in Minnesoda so yeah, they won't be seeing any fans for quite some time.
Same thing would happen at a Cubs game if they announced beforehand that they would not serve beer during the game.
Unique for North America but it's common in soccer.
Well... it's WAY more common in certain countries than others.
Today's game between the Yankees and Orioles will be played in an empty stadium closed to the public
Did you read the first sentence of what you copied and pasted? :-p
It's like a little taste of South America.
Cops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd out past curfew in Baltimore Tuesday evening...
Those will make nice pictures to put in the Charm City tourism brochure.
Baltimore where the national guard is just a phone call away.
"Come for the seafood. Stay for the curfew."
Well, due to the curfew.
You know what? The whole eating a bucket of Maryland crabs thing is overrated. The whole process takes forever, you don't get much meat out of it, and it's really expensive, at least at a restaurant in Baltimore. Give me a fresh caught Maine lobster any day over Maryland crab.
Yeah, you need to get your crab meat from Tallahassee.
I got crabs is Tiujuana.
Did you share them with others?
Nice, but Jameis was taking those giant crab legs that come from Alaska or wherever. We have blue crabs here in Tally. They're easy to catch, and tasty, but yeah, a crapload of work to pick a small amount of meat out of them. Stone crabs are much preferable.
Tourist trap.
Ask the locals where they go and how they eat for an authentic experience.
^This. I recall there's one in Fell's Point, but don't remember the name or whether it's gone touristy. Take the Water Taxi if it's a practical option.
If it takes too long then you're not doing it right. *cough* tourist *cough* Where I come from kids learn to pick crabs when they can walk, and boy can those kids go through a bushel fast when they hit their teen years. Find a crab shack well away from the tourist areas - look for places with picnic tables and rolls of newsprint as easily-clearable table covers. And it's Chesapeake Bay crabs which are available in Virginia as well, us having more actual CB coastline than Maryland.
Should have written non-chain crab shack, but yeah.
We always shucked and cleaned them before steaming. Makes for a much more enjoyable and tasty experience.
[stares wide-eyed at Scruffy, then gives Donald Sutherland shriek from "The Body Snatchers"]
Heretic.
I grew up on the bay and ran crab pots all summer. You guys are the heretics.
*puffs chest, sticks nose in air*
[Runs from room, sobbing.]
You got me on that one, Scruffy. Waterman is a hard life. Respect.
I would never call myself a waterman since I didn't do it for a living, just for extra cash and for fun. Those dudes work their asses off.
You mean Kevin McCarthy.
We always shucked and cleaned them before steaming. Makes for a much more enjoyable and tasty experience.
Yep, there's nothing quite like "shucking" a live crab.
"shucking" a live crab
Proper gloves are required.
I guess I'd look like a major tourist there. But I can still get the shells off of boiled shrimp faster than any living man.
I can't believe humans eat those things. *shudder*
I can understand the ick factor. But I'd imagine that, say, beef would be even ickier if you had to peel the cow yourself before eating it.
I would rather peel the cow. I just really, really dislike any seafood other than fish.
I'll take 5 lbs of crawfish over both of the above all day, e'erday. And oz for oz can eat 'em faster than the crabs too.
Well, yeah, because they have much thinner chitons (shells). I think someone tried to start crawfish farming somewhere on the bay, but don't know if it went anywhere. That's much more a Louisiana regional thing.
Sea bugs vs Swamp bugs?
*ducks and runs*
In Louisiana they are called "mud bugs."
And since you outed yourself as knowing better, you took all the fun out of our little "sea bugs" game.
Mud bugs are delicious... if you really like the taste of dirt, but wish it could be slimier.
GRILLED SHTRIMP OR NOTHIN
# Rand Paul blamed a "lack of fathers" and a "lack of moral code" for what he described as the "thuggery and thievery" in Baltimore.
He shouldn't talk about those noble law enforcement professionals that way.
Rand Paul blamed a "lack of fathers" and a "lack of moral code" for what he described as the "thuggery and thievery" in Baltimore.
Perfect comment for people looking for a reason to hate him Despite the fact that 1. President Obama said almost exactly the same thing about the rioters and 2. his son's DUI is a far cry from burning down a CVS but apparently in the eyes of Rand haters it's the same thing.
And what's the big deal with burning a CVS anyway? It is just an evil corporation afterall.
Huh, this is actually a great point Serious.
From the Lightbringer (PBUH):
Saving this for anticipated Facebook derpism.
It's different when one of there own says it. Because in proggie-think there is no objective truth, only the intentions of the speaker. And certain classes of people just aren't allowed to say certain things.
That's a nice summation of what I've been reading and hearing from some people.
Thanks.
Whew. The eloquence.
if we think that we're just going to send the police to do the dirty work of containing the problems that arise there without as a nation and as a society saying what can we do to change those communities... then we're not going to solve this problem
We're a well-known "nation of cowards", Sir.
I was all ready to rip into this phrase, but the rest of it pretty spot-on.
And that's not even too far off. Onerous business regulations and a culture of dependency have reduced opportunities in many urban areas.
Yeah, I guess you can read it that way.
Telling the American people they shouldn't vote for Random* Paul because being raised fatherless is A-OK is not going to convince very many voters.
*autocorrect error, but kind of John-esque so I left it.
They won't be telling the people it's not ok to vote for Rand bc of fatherlessness being ok, they'll be telling them not to vote for him bc he's rayciss for pointing the problem out.
I think people will see that as bullshit as well. Being for free association is where he will ged branded as racist.
I'm actually kind of surprised at how fairly Rand is treated by a lot of people on the left. Though it does seem to be shifting a but as campaigning kicks in.
Bumble Bee charged in gruesome worker oven death
Coworkers were unaware that he was in the oven when they loaded carts holding six tons of tuna into the oven, closed the door, and turned on the super-heated pressurized steam cooker.
"Sorry, Charlie!"
Seriously, that's horrible. 8-(
You know who else killed people with ovens?
The Hansel and Gretel Witch?
Hanzel and Gretyl?
The Gingerbread Hag?
Hansel, Gretel and the witch?
Sylvia Plath?
Ted Hughes' second wife died the same way, but she took her kids with her.
The LSD-addled babysitter?
Somebody left kids with Agile Cyborg?
Hasbro?
Winner.
The muffin man, who lives on Drury Lane?
Damn, Bam! That was a good one.
Jesus, I had an employee get closed up in a scrubber vessel once, but the lockout/tagout procedure saved his life.
One would have thought there would be safety procedures in place for something like that, and some sort of emergency signalling system inside the thing.
Also, no mention of what they did with that tuna. Cat food, maybe?
L9ckout/about should have handled it. If they had a procedure, he likely violated it by entering without a clearance. It is very very uncommon to try to install signaling devices inside industrial equipment not designed for continuous occupancy.
I knew a girl in high school whose dad was killed when he fell into a ladle of molten steel. He vaporized before he hit the surface, but they buried the entire ladle in lieu of his body.
Was she related to John Connor?
I knew a guy who worked in a brewery and he drowned after falling in a vat of beer. It wasn't quick either.
He had to get out to go to the bathroom three times before he finally died.
-1 Strange Brew
I'd kiss you, but I have puke breath
It is very very uncommon to try to install signaling devices inside industrial equipment not designed for continuous occupancy.
Yeah, I understand that, and also the technical difficulties of doing that in a vessel like that.
They didn't used to mandate inside door handles in walk-in fridges until (I think) the 1960's. You'd regularly hear about employees getting accidentally locked in at closing and found dead from hypothermia the next morning. Gruesome.
Also, bank vaults, although many of those people survived even if they were in for a whole long weekend.
I have on several occasions posted here that this would be a humane form of execution for capital crimes.
"One would have thought there would be safety procedures in place for something like that, and some sort of emergency signalling system inside the thing."
No doubt there is. It is surprising to me that the highly educated and trained individuals doing a job like that would fail to utilize it. I am sure they are ordinarily very mindful of what they are doing. Musta had an off-day.
Do you really want your cats getting a taste for human?
What makes you think...oops, nevermind.
Another census taker went missing recently....
Has Tonio been ordering Chianti and cat-nip again?
It's expensive to have it shipped from Japan, but if it eliminates even one census taker....
I love my cats, and they seem to love me, but i have no illusions about how long they'd wait to start eating me after i dropped dead (probably before the food dish was even empty). That's just our little social contract.
This is why there are lockouts on equipment. He probably didn't use it and the rest is blistery.
Careful, people have been known to poach others' jokes around here.
He didn't use it. There was some problem as he was loading the oven, so he left his pallet at the mouth of the oven and went in to fix it. A coworker saw the pallet loaded it, and shoved it in.
No lockout whatsoever.
IT'S PEOPLE! SOYLENT TUNA IS PEOPLE!
Welcome to the jungle.
That joke is so obvious.
It's so easy.
Indonesian President responds "Why is that old white woman mad at me?"
Commentary on the Iran dustup? Apparently the administration said we're under no obligation to help the Marshall Islands-flagged ship despite being responsibly by treaty for the defense of the Marshall Islands.
Entangling foreign alliance?
We're not getting into a military scuffle w/ Iran over the Marshall Islands. It's that simple.
Note that this has just about disappeared from the news. Can you guess why?
(Raises hand)
The US is obliged to protect ships flagged in the Marshall Islands (our protectorate)
This would require action as
(1) Confronting Iran through diplomacy, thereby endangering Obama's "deal"
(2) Confronting Iran militarily, thereby wrecking Obama's "deal".
or passivity, as
(3) Do nothing, thus defaulting control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, encouraging the Chinese to escalate their clampdown on the South China sea lanes, but keeping Obama's "deal" in play.
The media knows that Obama wants (3) and will keep quiet about the affair so that nobody thinks of the implications of inactivity.
I would guess because it is actually a Danish ship that is registered in the Marshall Islands.
Possible, but more probably something else. Try again?
...Hitler?
Ah, of course!
There was some discussion of this yesterday and, according to John (who seems to be a lawyer with Navy service) the Marshall Islands are a US protectorate and we legally obliged to protect ships flagged there the same way we protect our own.
This administration doesn't feel any of these contracts apply to them. For that matter, they feel the same way about laws....
Maersk is Danish no matter where their ships are registered. Except for vessels owned by their Maersk Sealand subsidiary, which are American registered (so they can get a share of government cargo).
I totally thought you were about to say that the Maersk Sealand ships were registered to the Principality of Sealand.
Damn Axl Rose for doing something admirable
I have seen The Raid 2...Axl is going to have to work on his silat skills.
How could they do a sequel of The Raid?
Yeah, I probably would have chosen my words to the esteemed president a little less carefully.
Welcome to the jungle.
hahahaha. This was so much funnier the second time.
I used to love this joke.
I'm worried there is something wrong with FOE's programming. He is just a minute behind us humans today
You know where you are?
You're down in the jungle baby, you're gonna dieee
Whatever one thinks about the death penalty and the drug war*, the outrage here is because it was only after the two prisoners had spent 10 years in jail and been fully rehabilitated, and the Indonesian president was sliding in the polls, that the decision was made to get tough and execute them.
* and the allegations that the original trial was tainted by political pressure and a solicitation for bribes.
The other thing is that the behavior of the Aussie cops was unconscionable. They new about the drugs shipment before the plane even took off. They called the Indonesians instead of dealing with it in Australia.
And that was the difference between a few years in jail and a firing squad, since Australia doesn't execute people anymore.
Absolutely right. This should be interesting watching:
Australian Federal Police officers are set to be called before a parliamentary committee within weeks to explain the organisation's role in delivering the executed Bali nine ring leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to Indonesian authorities a decade ago.
No consequences? You're all but guaranteeing it will happen again.
Wow, that's utterly disgraceful. It's too early in the morning to be this pissed off already.
One of the Bali Nine's dads tipped off the police specifically to stop them going to Indonesia and being at risk of arrest and the death penalty there. His 19 year old son, Scott Rush, was also sentenced to death, but this was later reduced to life imprisonment.
One of the Bali Nine's dads tipped off the police
Never call the police.
Like he cares.
The arrogance of Western celebrities is breathtaking.
Now go sing me a song - or make me a sammich!
"Barbaric, backward and truly disgraceful"
-Isn't that the review of G n R's album Chinese Democracy?
Russian spacecraft spinning out of control, may fall out of orbit within days
Russia's Mission Control has failed to stabilize a cargo spacecraft spinning out of control in orbit, but says it has not yet given up on saving the unmanned ship, which could hurtle into an uncontrolled descent back to Earth within days.
The Progress M-27M was launched Tuesday and was scheduled to dock at the International Space Station (ISS) six hours later to deliver 2.5 tons of supplies, including food and fuel.
But flight controllers were unable to receive data from the spacecraft, which had entered the wrong orbit.
Mission Control spokesman Sergei Talalasov told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that flight controllers were still trying to restore communication with Progress.
However, if contact cannot be made with Progress, it could be just days before the unmanned spaceship runs out of fuel and starts an uncontrolled descent back into the atmosphere.
"Russian flight controllers plan for another attempt to communicate with a cargo resupply spacecraft bound for the station. The next attempt to link with the spacecraft comes at 8:50 p.m. EDT Tuesday (0050 GMT Wednesday)," the U.S. space agency said.
Someone call Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James Garner and Clint Eastwood.
that is gonna be one hell of a long distance call.
CQ, CQ, this is W9GFO here. Come back.
I hope it lands on a NSA facility.
Lean forward, Progress...
Is raining hot borscht from sky!
Don't worry, Valerie Jarrett is in "regular contact" with the mayor of Baltimore, the White House announced late Tuesday night.
"Earlier today, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett hosted a conference call with over 50 local leaders from across the country"
"Then we're all in agreement that 'This is unacceptable'?"
50 local leaders x 60 minute conference call = 3000 wasted man-minutes of productivity.
It wasn't wasted. Just imagine what damage they could have been doing if their time wasn't occupied.
I can get a lot done with a muted conference call playing in the background.
I look at it as 3000 man-minutes of preening instead of actively damaging the freedom of their communities.
Oops. Before I get raked over the coals by the leftist language police, I hereby apologize and rephrase my comment to 3000 person-minutes of productivity.
My confidence is restored.
Great, now perhaps you can start with the soul-searching, hmm?
Somehow this will end with Jarrett a few thousand dollars wealthier and Baltimore a few thousand dollars poorer.
As long as it's "unacceptable".
This seems as helpful as Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council telling you about the posting of the planning notice on Alpha Centauri.
Telescope finds three more 'Super-Earths'
Astronomers have discovered three new "super-Earths" orbiting a star merely 54 light-years away. These planets, which are larger than Earth but smaller than our solar system's giants such as Neptune, were discovered using robotic telescopes at the Lick Observatory in California and the Fairborn Observatory in Arizona.
"The three planets are unlike anything in our solar system, with masses seven to eight times the mass of Earth and orbits very close to their host star," Lauren Weiss, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal, said in a statement.
The term super-Earth is used only to denote the mass of the planet and does not imply anything about its surface conditions. And, given that these three planets orbit their host star, HD 7924, at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the sun, chances of life on them are extremely slim.
However, this discovery assumes special significance because it marks the first time robotic telescopes have been successfully used to find such planets, offering scientists a way to speed up search for extra-solar planets.
Calling them super-Earth is dumb. Why not large, rocky, inhospitable to life planet? I'll answer my own question with no one writes a check for the latter.
Spot the Not: liberation fronts
1. Earth Liberation Front
2. Animal Liberation Front
3. Mud Liberation Front
4. Women's Liberation Front
5. Garden Gnome Liberation Front
6. Gay Liberation Front
Number 5 is definitely real, so I'll say 3
3
3
While three is tempting, Ima guess #5. But if it exists it's probably more of a joke than a threat.
No, 5 is for real.
Shh!
3. But you've surprised me before.
3
#3 is the Not.
your prize: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....tion_Front
Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, an opinion that's risen seven percentage points since November 2014.
Bernie Sanders will rectify this.
Radical, brah!
Doubtful. It is a HuffPuff poll. Sanders would probably skew it further in the same direction.
"Bernie Sanders will rectify this."
As should Barney Frank, were he to enter.
*narrows gaze*
Rectum hell, damn near killed 'em?
Spot the Not: KKK titles
1. Imperial Wizard
2. Grand Dragon
3. Exalted Cyclops
4. Majestic Griffin
5. King Kleagle
6. Grand Goblin
Majestic Griffin
All of them sound like Dungeon & Dragon terms to me.
+5 Sword of Giant Slaying (to hit and damage)
6.
Exalted Cyclops. The funny thing about the KKK is that it was started as a drinking club for Nathan Bedford Forrest and his old war buddies. That is why the titles are so ridiculous. Forrest didn't intend it to be a terrorist organization. That came later and was not something Forrest, for all of his faults, ever intended.
And whenever the subject of Nathan Bedford Forrest comes up, I am compelled to make the point that he was the greatest natural military genius of the civil war and by far its best calvary commander. Jeb Stewart may get all of the public glory but he wasn't fit to shoe Forrest' horse. As Shelby Foote described it, "Forrest took to military command the way a Mozart took to writing music."
Enlisted as a private, ended as a a major general. No military education or experience whatsoever prior to the Civil War.
One can picture the war going differently if the Confederate high command had better utilized his talents as a forward thinking, mobile infantry commander. It was perfect for the outmatched situation the Confederacy was constantly in against the massive Union armies.
This^^
Between Forrest and Stonewall Jackson, the Confederacy had some of the finest military operational tacticians this country had ever seen.
The problem was Jeff Davis knew the old army almost too well. Jeff Davis was a West Pointer and had been Secretary of War. In the beginning this was a huge advantage over Lincoln, who had no military experience. Davis understood the military situation and knew which of the officers who came from the old Army were worthy of command. Lincoln had no idea of either and initially choose bad commanders and forced the Army of the Potomac into action at 1st Manassas way before it was ready.
Over time, however, it became a liability. Davis failed to recognize and promote talent that came from outside the old army. Forrest should have been a major army commander but never was. Instead, Davis kept sending in mediocrities like Hood or outright frauds like Bragg because they were the people he knew. Lincoln meanwhile had no attachment to the old army and happily promoted people like Grant, Sherman, McPherson, Warren and others based on merit. The Union army ended up being more flexible and merit based because of Lincoln's inexperience than the Southern one.
The Union army ended up being more flexible and merit based because of Lincoln's inexperience than the Southern one.
I'm not sure about 'flexible', but definitely merit based.
Grant kinda defined the Union strategy of the latter part of the war, which was basically attrition. The North had more troops, guns, cannon, and general logistics and just used that to grind down the South.
Flexibility didn't really play into it.
Going to that strategy was being flexible. Grant and Sherman basically invented modern warfare i some ways. In the beginning the war was more or less a Napoleonic war with more deadly weapons. The armies maneuvered into set piece battles. Grant, though his goal was to force Lee into a set piece battle to settle the thing, ended up being very flexible and pursuing Lee and changing the war from Napoleonic to modern where instead of set piece battles the two armies were in constant contact for forty straight days during the Overland Campaign.
The previous union generals would have lost their heads and ran back to Washington after Wilderness. Grant didn't panic and changed his strategy.
Um....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K.....Activities
Yes, they were a terrorist organization. But Forrest didn't found them intending them to be that way.
Regardless, fuck 'im.
Oh for sure. It would be like if the Nazi party was started as a veterans club in Munich and its original founder just wanted to get together and drink beer, talk about the war and bang a few Fraulein. That is interesting and all but doesn't make the Nazi party look any better.
But he did intend the KKK to be a militia of sorts:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/.....rd_Forrest
On the other hand, he said this to his troops after the surrender:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N....._9.2C_1865
Forrest is a fascinating story. Born dirt poor, became a self-made millionaire. Enlisted in the Confederate army as a private (once again, as a millionaire) and ended the war as a major general. He made his fortune largely through slave trading and was a founder of the KKK, yet in 1875 gave a speech to a black organization where he said:
"We were born on the same soil, breathe the same air, and live in the same land. Why, then, can we not live as brothers? I will say that when the war broke out I felt it my duty to stand by my people. When the time came I did the best I could, and I don't believe I flickered. I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe that I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to bring about peace. It has always been my motto to elevate every man- to depress none. I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, that you and I are freemen."
Who knows how sincere he was, but the mere fact that he made that speech at all - at the end of Reconstruction, no less - is rather remarkable.
The biggest reason the civil war didn't continue as a partisan war and result in much more horror and bloodshed was because Lee and Forest stood up and told the Southern Soldiers to go home and stop fighting. A lot of people, including Jeff Davis, wanted the war to continue as a partisan war. Lee and Forrest to their eternal credit realized what a disaster that would have been and stepped in and stopped it. Only two men who commanded the kind of respect they did from the soldiers could have stopped it.
Uh, Custer?
6. I think the Dragon would get jealous over sharing an adjective with a Goblin.
Dragon-Goblin fight!
One night only at the Fabulous Mordor-son Square Gardens!
See the Fabulous Fire-Breathing Fiend fight the Great Gargantuan Grotesque Goblin!
One night only! Hurry, hurry, hurraaaay!
+1 crew of Uruk-hai providing "event security"
4
#4 is the Not.
prize for the winners: http://www.reddit.com/comments.....o_end_the/
Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, an opinion that's risen seven percentage points since November 2014.
Two things to note about this. First, the Republicans have largely ramped down the culture war over the last few months. Second, the Republicans most in the public eye these days are Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. And Paul and to a lesser but still great extent Cruz' messages are small government, economic freedom messages. Yet, the public has convinced themselves the Republicans are "extreme".
The lesson of that is that the media is going to do everything it can to portray Republicans as extreme anytime they do anything but agree with Democrats. It is not the culture war that causes Republicans to be viewed as extreme. It is whenever they actually stand up and make a case against the Democrats. It doesn't matter what that case is.
That doesn't mean the Republicans should go all culture war. It just means anyone who thinks the Republicans could avoid being smeared as "extremists" if they would just drop the culture war is kidding themselves. Lastly, if they are going to call you extremists and convince the public you are no matter what, then it is time to stop worrying about the charge and embrace it. I hope they are extremists because the current situation requires some extreme solutions.
Can we raise Ronald Reagan from the dead to deal with these mendacious media hacks? Now I know 'ol Ronnie wasn't the greatest President of all time (probably top 10, though), but that man could work the media like no one else.
I wish we could. Reagan never cowered to the media. He always happily confronted them. That is what the Republicans need. You can't cower but you also can't let them get under your skin and make you look angry either. Every Republican in Congress and who is running for President needs to have the phrase "oh there you go again" tattooed on their palm. That sums up how Reagan dealt with the media and the Democrats. Let them have their fainting fits about how extreme and racist and evil you are and cheerfully laugh at them and explain what you want to do in a positive way. The other thing Reagan did was he sold small government by praising America and the public at large.
The Democrats hate the public. They view the public as a bunch of racists losers who can't do anything without an enlightened Democrat there to help them. They always hide that by pretending how much they care but the assumption that the public sucks and needs their help and guidance is always there. One of the many aspects of Reagan's rhetorical genius was that instead of trying to out compassion the Democrats he attacked the very premise of their conviction. He didn't tell the public "oh but I can help you more". He told them, "this country and you are great and can do great things if only we get the government out of your way so you can do it." The Democrats had no answer to that then and have no answer to that now. The only answer is to say "the country and you are not good enough to make it without our help". And doing that makes the Democrats look angry, unpatriotic and elitist, which is of course exactly what they are.
Because the Left wants absolute power. That's it. And their followers are too drunk on the spiked Koolaide to wake up and realize it. They think they will be "taken care of" if they follow their dear leaders. And I have some news for them: you will be taken care of, but not in the way you think.
I saw a Reagan/Bush '84 bumper sticker on a car this a.m. And the car was brand new.
Some chick was wearing that ballcap at the Matt & Kim show last weekend. Not sure if she was trying for "edgy ironic" or not but I appreciated it nonetheless.
What make and model?
M1114.
Nice vehicle, but I prefer the M109 I had back in 1969.
Hell if I know. I was a typical staid four-door sedan of Asian origin. Maybe a newer Camry or Lexus.
I was a typical staid four-door sedan of Asian origin.
AC, is that you?
I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day that touched on this. He's a brilliant attorney and die-hard Democrat and he was trying to make the point that "true conservatives" are really the people who don't want radical change and therefore all this talk about reducing the size of government under the rubric of some originalist understanding was not conservative but radical. "True conservatives," by his definition, just accept how things are right now and try to keep them that way. I asked how that could possibly jive with the "true progressives'" goal (and success) of constant expansion of government power, ie his "true conservatives" would just nod their head at every expansion and merely nibble around the edges at best.
He saw nothing wrong with this.
He's correct. The left, progressives, whatever are conservative-reactionary in wanting to preserve the status quo of government power and institutions. All of their ideas are more than a century old at this point. Try suggesting that's the post office is an obsolete government institution to your friend that should be eliminated. He'll undoubtedly be horrified by the idea and come up with any number of rationalizations of why it's an absolutely essential institution.
I remember, long ago, interviewing Walter Williams for my high school newspaper, and when I suggested he was a conservative he cut me right off and corrected me - "I'm no conservative, I'm a radical! Believing in liberty makes one a radical in American today."
Here's an astonishing statistic; more than 30pc of all government debt in the eurozone ? around ?2 trillion of securities in total ? is trading on a negative interest rate.
On a country by country basis, the statistics are even more startling.
Meh.
/Janet Yellen
My grasp of negative interest rates is always elusive. I know I fully understood them when I was taking economics in college. And occasionally I still do. Yet, my understanding always seems to slip away.
I am trying to think of what that really means. If the debt is bad, the interest rate should be higher to reflect the risk. In this case though, the interest rate has gone from low to the negative. I can't figure out how that would work with a bond. I bond is usually just a promise to pay some sum at a given time. The present value of that bond is whatever the compound interest rate it is trading at makes it. So if a bond has a $1000 face value to be paid a year from now and it is trading at 10%, the present value is going to be a bit above $900. If it is trading at negative interest (say 10%) that means that its present value is going to be something like $1100. So people are paying $1100 today to have a guarantee of a thousand dollars next year. I can't really understand what sort of economic conditions would cause that to happen.
Terrible ones. Your essentially betting on things to be worse in the future. And they say libertarians are cynical.
You are betting against cash. If you don't buy the bond and just keep the money, you avoid the risk of the debt not being made good. Yet, people are still buying bonds. Why would they do that? The only risk to cash I can see, other than inflation which is going to affect the real value of the bond just as much, is the threat of restraints on capital. If I buy the bond, I can put it in a safe deposit box or bury it in my back yard and no one can get to it. If I leave my money in the bank and there is a bank run or the government steps in and freezes withdrawals for some reason, I am screwed.
Now that I think through it, the negative interest rates on bonds is saying no one has any confidence in the banks. Putting my money in a bank is nothing but an investment in that bank's future solvency. The only reason I would be willing to take a loss on a bond rather than just keep my money in the bank is if I think the bank isn't going to remain solvent.
In other words, there are no safe havens.
In all seriousness, have some cash on hand at home in a fireproof safe. A decent amount of cash, at that. There's a safety valve for you.
My understanding is this is all government to government type money? i.e. 'We're gonna prop each other up to keep the whole thing from collapsing on us.'
It will likely result in the collapse being significantly more spectacular when it finally comes.
If the value of your dollars is dropping like a stone, or is expected to, it might make sense to take a small loss over a large one.
A negative interest rate is offering people a small disaster over a large one.
At some point in the near future I fear europe will burn, yet again.
Yes, it means people are betting on deflation. That is a good point. I think it also means people are not confident in the banks. You can benefit from deflation by just holding onto your cash and not having to risk the bond not being paid.
I fear europe will burn
And the US. $18T of debt and $100T of unfunded liabilities, on a $17T economy, and a global economy that is $70-80T.
That doesn't include student debt, credit card debt, mortgages, and several states that will be looking for a bailout as well.
Never once on the all of recorded history have conditions like this worked out well for anyone.
Never once on the all of recorded history have conditions like this worked out well for anyone.
That's because they never spent enough.
/Krugabe
The entire world is like that. The only reason the US hasn't paid the piper on it is because everywhere else is so much worse. If any other developed economy were not worse, no one would buy our bonds.
The thing that makes you sick in all of this is that if the US had actually reformed entitlements back in the 1990s and were running a surplus right now, we would be fantastically more wealthy. We would be the only safe place for capital in the world. We would be swimming in investment money and growth.
US fiscal policy is roughly summed up as "Be the Best Looking Turd in the Punchbowl"
I don't know if it is because we are less worse, or simply the biggest. I tend to think it has more to do with the sheer size of our economy and as such it will be more attractive (relatively speaking) than anyone else's, and is also just more liquid.
Plus, as long as the dollar is the reserve currency of the world there will be demand for dollar assets.
But when the dollar is no longer the reserve currency of the world - wholly fucking shit it is going to be the worst financial disaster ever seen. It will make the 'Great' Depression seem like just a little, over-extended trough.
We are less worse. As bad as things are here, they are a hundred times worse in China and Europe. When our entitlements finally go tits up, it will suck but the resulting austerity will mostly affect old people. In Europe, the entire societies are dependent on government aid. It really is cradle to grave and will devastate the entire society.
It means, John, that human history is but about debt.
Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations
Woopsie.
WDATPDIM
The reason this is a politically explosive revelation is because the Clinton Foundation promised to disclose its donors as a condition of Hillary Clinton becoming secretary of state.
Ha! Now she'll have to give up delete the SoS part of her resume!
Mistakes were made. What difference does it make? Move on you sexist tea bagger.
Hillary Clinton to call for criminal justice and police reform in 'major' speech
Hillary Clinton will deliver a major speech on criminal justice reform Wednesday, calling for fundamental changes to how the United States punishes its citizens and an end to a system that disproportionately targets black men.
Clinton is scheduled to keynote the 18th Annual David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at Columbia University Wednesday morning. It will be her most significant policy address since she launched her 2016 presidential bid this month.
Clinton will lay out her vision for criminal justice reform, centering around an "end to the era of mass incarceration," according to an aide who provided a preview of her remarks. Those changes include addressing probation and drug diversion programs, increasing support for mental health and drug treatment and pursuing alternative punishments for low-level offenders.
She also will call for body cameras for every police department in order to increase transparency and accountability in a way that benefits both officers and members of the public.
In a December speech to the Massachusetts Conference for Women, Clinton said the country needed to look at "hard truths" about racial injustice in the current system.
Watch the media pretend she was for it all along and that the Republicans are the ones opposing her.
Hillary Clinton [is] calling for fundamental changes to how the United States punishes its citizens and an end to a system that disproportionately targets black men.
"Under my Presidency, two -- no, *three* -- white men will be rounded up for every black man!"
Hillary no more cares about criminal justice reform than I care about who wins the Champions league this year. That said, I think it is good news to see a sleazy opportunist like Hilary Clinton embrace criminal justice reform. I think that not because I trust her or think she would do jack shit as President unless she was forced to do so. I think it is good news because it shows there is a movement in public opinion towards reform, otherwise she wouldn't be embracing it.
I tend to agree with you John but these people are power whores and the only reforming they will embrace will be that which benefits them - so more autonomy for the unions, less accountability, all with a veneer of reform.
Spitzer did the same thing with Wall Street.
I agree. It does mean that the public is waking up to the problem. That alone will not solve the problem but it is a first step.
I briefly flipped over to MSNBC a couple of minutes ago. They were yammering excitedly abut how the mayor of Baltimore is one of the brightest young stars in the Demos' firmament. Really?
I thought Ed Schultz wasn't on till later
It's all relative.
Well, that's how things work in politics. Nobody is held accountable for the problems that occur on their watch, but there is consistent rewarding of office-holders for "solving" those problems or "displaying leadership."
If they are democats...
Don't forget that piece of information.
The local news was destroying her on Monday, but ok MSNBC.
This is the same party that has a sizable boner in their pants at the mere mention of a person that lied about their race to secure a job and is the same party that is about to nominate a person who transparently took bribes from foreign gov. while serving as secretary of state.
It's the pouty lips.
She let the city burn down, hell, even tacitly encouraged it. One of the brightest young stars in the Demos' firmament? Yeah, that is probably true.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott filed two lawsuits Tuesday claiming the federal government tried to bully state officials into expanding low-income health care coverage for Floridians.
Also posted on social media that Florida was a fat slut.
Florida is shaped like that for a reason.
Obama blames congress
Gee wiz! No "massive investments in urban communities?" And that would have fixed everything.
*barf*
Barfman hasn't been defending his trademark recently. He may want to look into doing so, lest he lose control of his IP.
Kevin Williamson seems appropriate here:
Must be the Republican's fault....
I caught just a bit of Bill Maher's stupid HBO show last night - the panel was discussing the 'fact' that Republicans want to be rich so they go to work on Wall Street while Democrats want power to they go to work in DC.
Never mind that so many Democrats have gone to Washington 'poor' (at least relatively speaking) and leave filthy rich.
Democrats go into politics for power, it is true as it is of Republicans, but that is only because they are too stupid to make anything of themselves in the private sector.
It seems that most politicians are lousy at everything else. They just know how to smile and bullshit.
Democracy is a contest to see who the best pathological liar and murderer among us really is. The winner will be determined by whomever has the greatest amount of support from the people least likely to recognize the pathology.
Stealing this
And no mention of how Wall Street and the tech oligarchs were Obama's biggest backers and are now Hillary's biggest backers. Funny how Wall Street gives the Democrats so much money even though they are just a bunch of Republicans.
Mark Benioff has benefitted greatly from his relationship with Obama. I wonder if the same will hold true if Hillary runs successfully. Usually people have their own cronies to stroke, even if they're from the same party. I can see us getting a directive in 2017 to stop all Salesforce work and start using some other service.
I brought that up with my former BiL once - his eyes glazed over as the realization swept over him, it was so incomprehensible to him he ad no response.
One of my favorite parlor games to play with the various soft liberals I know is to get my best populist ire on and talk about how the 2008 crash was the biggest swindle in history yet Holder and Obama never prosecuted a single person because Wall Street sent them so much campaign cash. Their eyes glaze over similar to your BiL. They really have no idea what to say in response and just meekly change the subject.
The unfortunate truth (to at least part of it) is that people don't necessarily like the people they buy insurance from.
Note that the Kochs are involved in creating actual products that fill particular needs. Their markets are customer driven and not created out of thin air by some regulatory agency. Wall Street makes its money moving it from place to place and skimming off the top. While at one time, Wall Street may have been a capitalistic enterprise, it's now an extension of the State that lives and breathes within a framework of governmental restrictions and guarantees. Much like the legal profession, it thrives on regulations and laws that force the customer to deal with them.
Botard will tell you that Republican-run cities are just as bad. But all the SOCONZ here can't see it.
When talking about an empty set, every statement is vacuously true, so I guess he's right.
He explained Americans should not "just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns," but rather work together to tackle poverty around the nation.
If only we would institute something like, I don't know, a "War on Poverty".
BY THE POWER OF GREY SKULL!
Greek finance minister attacked by 'anarchists' in Athens
A group of self-styled anarchists threw glass objects at Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his wife Danae at an Athens restaurant late on Tuesday, but she hugged him to shield him from the attack, the finance ministry said.
The couple had just finished having dinner with friends in the bohemian Exarchia district -- the site of frequent protests by left-wing protesters -- when the group entered the restaurant's courtyard, telling them to leave "their area."
Varoufakis said his wife, an artist, blocked the attack. They tried "for a few seconds to reach me without hitting her," he said in the ministry statement.
Then "they retreated fast continuing their curses and threats, got out of the courtyard and waited for us outside the restaurant," Varoufakis added.
The statement did not go into details on what prompted the attack. The outspoken economist has won fans in Greece for opposing austerity policies but has also garnered criticism at home for his brash style and a celebrity photo shoot in a French magazine.
The minister said he thought the group was more interested in embarrassing him than injuring him.
The couple left the courtyard and got on their motorcycle to leave.
She protected him and she is not so bad to look at.
I wish our government officials rode away on motorcycles.
Were they actually anarchists or is anarchist in this situation just a code word for 'socialists who have decided to break things?'
It's Europe, so almost certainly the latter.
Definitely the "anarchists" who love the state as long as you use a different word for it.
The guy let his wife stand between him and a mob throwing glass? Sounds like a real goddamn hero to me. The guy is a cross between Obumbles and Greg Stillson.
I am impressed.
Wut?
What we need to have in this country is a discussion about race.
Allow me to explain your true thoughts: *thug* is just what white people say instead of saying what they really want to say, which is nigger. Thug = nigger. You are so white and racist.
Stokes [said] "just call them n*ggers"
OK, Carl. What would *you* like to be called?
Who started this "thug=n*gger" thing, anyway?
I do know that this has been a Gawker obsession for a few years. You can do that research yourself...I do not have the willpower to dig through that place for hilarious quotes like some of my fellow reason commenters.
Crusty Juggler won't let you enact his labor. Why don't you just Google it?
I for one am content to just use the word nigger. It's just a word. Nigger nigger nigger. I believe everyone in the thread is alive and in one piece right?
I accept that it's impolite to use it but so is 'cunt' and the use of that word seldom rises to be a national incident nor does the use of that word give someone moral cover to physically assault whoever says it, unlike nigger.
Free Society is a thug.
"I for one am content to just use the word nigger."
Somehow, I'm not surprised.
It is far more important to let your own knee-jerk reactions to what someone says take precedence over considering what the speaker is really trying to communicate, right?
What's he trying to communicate? That he's OK with the word, because while it's 'impolite' it's really no different than calling someone a c*nt and all. Because so many people in our history were called c*nts after being hanged from trees and such...
That it's just a word. It isn't magic.
You would know, I assume you come from a long line of Democrats.
Because so many people in our history were called c*nts after being hanged from trees and such...
For a guy who claims he's had girlfriends, you certainly don't know very much about how they react to that term.
But, I guess you're inflatable ones don't make such a fuss.
Hey dipshit. I live in the fucking ghetto and I hear the word nigger at least 200 times per day. Men use it; women use it; children use it. Every fucking day. Go fuck yourself you falsely-prideful fuck..
You don't understand, Suthenboy, it's a magic word whose very nature rips apart the fabric of the universe by even its appearance or sound.
It's the killing word.
Won't someone think of the children!
Bill, you should totally freely use the word everywhere you go. Perhaps you do at your Thursday night GOP get-together's you've talked about before?
Bo wants cake.
They all want cake.
For Bo, there's free speech and then there's free speech. He likes neither.
Oh, no, I'm promoting him to speak out FS, and I hope you do the same!
I violated the SJW Code of Orthodoxy. I suppose I should report to the nearest re-education facility.
There's something telling about how 'anti-SJWs' have become the mirror image of SJW's in ridiculousness, as when they suggest that finding a rebuke over their acceptance of the 'n' word as only possibly coming from a place of PC hysteria.
I told you that I know the word is impolite. Which is the maximum level of damage that any word is capable of. Not that I expect you to acknowledge the actual argument.
Forget about it FS, it's Botown.
Again, all you can muster about the n word is 'it's impolite.'
Why are there no black libertarians again? They just hate freedom I guess.
People like you who can't fathom that they be allowed to leave the government plantation.
HAHAHA. Priceless.
They're totally going to 'leave the plantation' led by the likes of you telling them how comfortable you are with the n word.
You're just looking out for them, of course.
I'm not sure exactly how to get them to disavow the welfare state, but I know it's not going involve walking on eggshells and pretending that every claim of perpetual victimhood is valid and true.
Why are there no black libertarians again?
So I guess Walter Williams and Kmele Foster aren't really libertarians? Or do you consider them not really black?
Pathetic.
So, in other words, like the rest of the Social Justice Cadres, you don't have a substantive answer, so you relyi on "Pathetic" or "HAHAHA. Priceless." as a means to dismiss the argument, rather than address it.
Colin Noir, Thomas Sowell.
When there are so few of a group that you have to respond to a flippant comment about there being 'no members of the group' with the same three or four names, that's not a win for that side of the argument Kristen.
There's very few, proportionately, blacks among libertarians. I submit it's because we encourage yahoos like Free Society and talk like his to flourish when we congregate. I think you're aware enough to see that defenses of the n word might, just might, turn off people who might otherwise be open to hearing us out on more specific policy issues, many of which I think would greatly benefit blacks (among others).
So an adequate response to your argument would involve listing the names of thousands of rank and file black libertarians.
Proportionally there's very few women within libertarian ranks. I guess that means we need to accept claims about pay gaps, rape culture and patriarchy. It's not the fault of straight white men that they tend to be the dominant group in the advocacy of the ethical and legal principles that have built the most tolerant and prosperous societies the world has ever known.
When there are so few of a group that you have to respond to a flippant comment about there being 'no members of the group' with the same three or four names,
Except that's a listing of famous black libertarians famous for their libertarianism. Libertarians famous for their libertarianism isn't exactly a very long list.
Lenny Bruce wants you to go fuck yourself Bo.
https://youtu.be/gfNhiRGQ-js
Also, a great documentary on the etymology of nigger.
https://youtu.be/9xdHAzUKRtA
So I take it you want to take the word back?
"You can't taste racism, honey!" 🙂
You know, Bo, when you say "the n word" we all know you mean nigger. The brain fills it in automatically.
I saw an awful lot of rioters who looked like they were well past the age of 'children.'
Say - isn't calling fully adult black men 'boys' and 'children' supposed to be racist too? I think Carl Stokes should acknowledge his hatred of African Americans.
If only 'children' only meant one thing, like a minor, and not other things, like 'sons and daughters.'
You have to be fucking kidding me. No one says 'our children' when he means fully grown adults.
By your idiot logic when someone says 'think of the children' he means everyone on Earth because we're all someone's child.
Nice call pointing out Free Society being oddly racist, but your knee jerk desire to defend bizarre racial arguments from African Americans really leads you into ridiculous positions that no intelligent person could possibly adopt.
Here's the actual quote:
"These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us."
No one can read that quote and conclude he's talking about people above the age of majority. Don't embarrass yourself by pretending otherwise.
No one but the dictionary, Irish.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/children
You are so stupid I just can't even...
You do realize there's these things called 'contextual clues' correct? Where the way someone talks about a subject tells you what he means?
When someone says 'our children are hurting' they are not talking about adults. When someone says 'we need to think of the children' they are not talking about adults. When someone says 'that's my child' he may be talking about an adult child, but if he says 'our children have been marginalized' he is not talking about adults.
You have to realize this and are just trolling.
Tell me, if I said 'I was outside and a bunch of children ran past' would you think 'he means kids' or would you think 'hurr durrr, he could mean anything since we're all someone's child!'
You continuously amaze me with how dense you are about every subject imaginable.
Or how about this: Imagine I walk up to a black man and I say 'Hey child.' Then when he takes offense to me being racist, I say 'Hey! I'm not being a racist! We're all someone's child!'
Does he accept that explanation, or does he assume I'm racially patronizing him?
And he's not saying 'think of the children.' He's claiming the protestors as part of his community, his son's and daughters. Is there an element of them being the younger members of the community? Yes. But it doesn't just denote minors. It's a claim that we can't turn our backs and name call the younger members of our community. It's a common turn of phrase in places like the black church, but as I'm increasingly aware that blacks are some alien group you know through conservative media I can see why you don't get it. Context indeed, lol.
"but your knee jerk desire to defend bizarre racial arguments from African Americans"
Of course, here you are again in your endless crusade to try to find black racists. You're doing it for the poor black 'children' he's maligning, of course.
I'm oddly racist because I don't think the word 'nigger' has magical properties?
He calls you a rapist downthread because Bo's on a retarded troll rampage, so you might want to focus on that one at the moment.
And tomorrow Bo will accuse me of being a child molester...lit's Bo so you can expect that sort of thing from him. You on the other hand, just commended him on his routine use of that SJW superpower to label someone a racist.
I am baffled why you guys don't throw her in Reasonable with the spammers and other garbage.
There is no point to interacting with her.
He seems to be almost salivating when describing what 'could' happen to that woman. 'You're lucky you don't really live in a rape culture sister!'
Projection.
She is lucky yes. There is no disputing that would have gone differently if she had done this in Pakistan or Egypt.
Again, if you need it to explained to you why your contenedness with the n word might make people think you're a racist I can't take that time, but I'd like to welcome you to the US!
Still not going to address the argument? I can see that you're not a racist because you said 'n word' instead of actually writing out the word 'nigger'. Because as we all know, writing out the word will poison your soul and give you bad luck for seven years.
OK, I'll step into your bizarro world for a second. See, the n word is a word with a long history of being used to and while terrorizing and oppressing black people. Like other similar racial epithets with such histories, people of good will tend to avoid using them.
Now, I'm needed back in a non-Asperberger's world for a second.
'It's just a word. what's wrong with everyone!' Autism 101.
Ummm it's a word used in numerous European languages with none of the hypersensitivity present in American culture. The Dutch use the word as the polite way to refer to Africans and the Spanish use a variant of it themselves.
And if I call a Chinese man a 'Chinaman', I must be reminding him of all the railroads he never built. I can certainly see that be construed as rude, but that doesn't give the Chinese man moral cover to break my nose in the same way that the word 'nigger' does in American culture. The word is so magical that it literally works as a defense in court, in school yard fight etc.
I get your shallow argument, "I associate the word is associated with X, Y and Z". That argument just has nothing to do with why the word should be purged from the minds of humanity and why anyone who utters it should be destroyed.
Holy moly, you are autistic.
Only an autistic person can try such a bizarrely clumsily abstractly logical response to what is an issue requiring some modicum of social intelligence and awareness.
But don't let lil' ol' emotionally and irrationally me sway you. I urge you to start using this word everywhere you go, all the time. It's just a word, and words aren't magic, and when you use it and someone gets upset with you, you should totally, calmly, explain to them that you are in no way trying to invoke past horrible deeds and realities long associated with the word, so it's all good. Please, let me know how that works out for you.
The fact that even uttering the word, for any reason, will result in physical attacks or you pissing yourself et cetera, proves my point. It's power rests in the narrative of perpetual victimhood and the narrative of whites being perpetually oppressive. Which is a pointedly racist argument to make.
I tend to believe the intent the speaker has in using the word plays a significant role. Calling someone a nigger is disgusting for all the historical connotations mentioned. Simply saying or typing the word - like in a discussion about it or as a quote - shouldn't make people piss their pants and forget who they are for half an hour or so.
It's not like he just typed the word. He's saying he's fine with using it and then going on to obtusely argue 'why's anyone getting upset about it, the Dutch use it politely!'
I didn't say I was fine with using it. I don't call people that and I have no problem with blacks. I said I'm fine with the word itself. It's just a word. And there are lots of words I don't go around using often and openly, because that would be rude.
But for all the blacks out there using the word with one another as a greeting and personal pronoun, I dare say that they aren't trying to remind each other of Jim Crow each and every time they use it. But I suppose it's different when a black person says it than when a white person uses it, right Bo?
If the Mayor of Baltimore wants to say it, why is it so much more racist when white people say it? Is it because blacks are not racist and whites are racist? LEt him use it fine.
These are children who have been set aside, marginalized, who have not been engaged by us.
Finally a moment of truth, although I suspect that by "us" he didn't mean the city's leadership.
n*ggers
People who annoy you?
T%he "Clinton Cash" author was on Bloomberg earlier. The empty talking heads (now that he is safely removed from the set) just dismissed his research as completely irrelevant, and anointed Hillary as the next POTUS. It's nice to see balanced, dispassionate news coverage.
Why this college student is sitting naked on the steps of her campus (NSFW)
With headphones covering her ears and a blindfold on her face, 22-year-old Monika Rostvold spent 45 minutes on Monday morning sitting almost naked on the steps of the Alkek Library on the Texas State University campus.
Social media platforms like Snapchat and Twitter were soon abuzz with photos and video of Rostvold, and websites geared towards college-aged men were quick to comment on the woman's behavior.
"This is what crazy looks like," joked Total Frat Move. BroBible's headline read: "There's A Naked Girl Stoop Chillin' Outside The Library At Texas State For God Knows What Reason."
But Rostvold, a fine arts major at the university, later revealed that she did indeed have a reason, and an important one at that: She was there to raise awareness about sexual assault.
"I wanted people to view my body as beauty and power and not a sexual object. The fact that it is Sexual Assault Awareness Month I wanted to create a piece about the standards that exist in our society," Rostvold told the San Antonio Express-News. "Being a victim and having friends who are victims of sexual assault I wanted to take control of my body by eliminating my presence and exposing myself."
Ohhhhkkkkkaaaaayyyyy.
That's what this guy was trying to do too.
I clicked and laughed
HAWT!
but totally not is a sexy way, it's truly amazing.
take control of my body by eliminating my presence
If only
So all she need to do is pack on like 200 lbs and all her problems will be solved?
ButRostvold, a fine arts major at the university, later revealed that she did indeed have a reason, and an important one at that: She was there to raise awareness about sexual assault.
Emphases added. Way to take her performance seriously.
If "rape culture" were actually thing here in the US, like it is elsewhere in the world, this woman would have have been raped in at least 10 different ways right out in public and everyone would say she deserved it.
You can always dream FS.
You can always troll. And you do.
Look, when you say something like "I'm fine with the n word' you are wanting attention. You got it. And when you say something like this it's the same thing.
But how am I wrong?
^^ This ^^
She seems to be very cute. And I am sorry to tell her that it is only the fat girls whose bodies are not viewed as a sexual object. Sorry honey, you are young and cute and are a sexual object. Embrace the power of it dear.
Of course, if men and women did not view each other as sexual objects, the species would cease to exist.
The girl's a borderline personality case--"I'M NOT A SEXUAL OBJECT!" ::sits out in public naked::--but she's really emblematic of the larger problem of college campuses becoming ideologically homogenous social environments, coupled with the low-grade anxieties and rampant narcissism enabled by university administration and faculties, particularly in the humanities. You get the type of short-bus performance art displayed by this girl and Emma "Fuck Me in the Butt" Sulkowicz, the hysterical harpies of Oberlin, and the general limpouts over "racial incidents" that end up being hate-hoaxes more often than not.
Federal officer in Detroit shooting has checkered past...
in the sexual way? I mean, to each their own.
Sorry but that's a bridge too far. In NJ you can lose your Firearms ID Card for that kind of "allegation" even when there is zero proof. In other words, your ex can cost you your guns and possibly career on hearsay alone.
Hey Frank Lautenberg also loved to spend your money on Amtrak! He was a swell guy.
"New Jersey" should be renamed to "New Taint".
That is an insult to honest taints everywhere. Taints serve a purpose, unlike New Jersey.
Certainly the space between Newark and Camden would qualify.
That fella's got two ass-holes!
Another genius who thinks New Jersey is just what you see from the Turnpike.
Obligatory - Taint magazine
https://youtu.be/W-1EIdnDB9g
You don't think that applies to our law enforcement betters, do you?
Yeah, according to some of my domestic relations lawyer friends this is a favored tactic during divorces and custody disputes.
"Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, an opinion that's risen seven percentage points since November 2014."
I do wonder what poll numbers like this would look like if every random Democrat who said something ridiculously stupid got the Todd Akin treatment. The media basically treats Democrat views as if they are the mainstream, even when they're wildly different from the general public. You could see this best when the media freaked out that Walker said we should take American wages into account when considering immigration.
That's a pretty mainstream position but there were media outlets behaving like he made some extremely xenophobic argument. You can disagree with Walker on immigration, and many here do, but it's just an outright lie to pretend anything he said was extreme.
Todd Akin wasn't just a random Republican, he was, at the time, in the lead for a US Senate seat.
So, not even a Senator? Just some congressman no one outside his state had ever heard of?
Got it.
Again, who was running for and in the lead for a US Senate seat.
If you don't want your idiots in the limelight don't nominate such idiots.
Joe Biden, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Bernie Sanders and about a hundred other Democrats who routinely say insane things are not "ordinary Democrats" either.
How about the media lie about a Democrat and say he didn't pay his taxes and hates women even though he had an explemary record of hiring women as a CEO the way the did Romney? Or maybe they could have the IRS file a false tax lien on a Democrat and then violate the privacy act by leaking her tax records and portraying her as a crook even though she didn't owe the money the way the did the woman who ran for Senate in Delaware in 2010. Oh, I know she was a terrible candidate so that made smearing her okay.
Romney was criticized re: women based on his positions he took as nominee and his silly 'binders full of women' comment.
Which was all a lie. We of course understand that but you don't because you think lying is okay as long as your side does it. And no one was ever held responsible for what happened in Delaware. And Harry Reid laughs and admits he lied about Romney's taxes. He of course knew the media would print it as truth.
It is your party Bo. If you were not good with that shit, you wouldn't support them.
Dude, upthread Bo is desperately trying to convince me that calling a grown black man 'child' isn't racially patronizing because we're all someone's child.
There are no words for an argument that stupid.
So I guess Bo is fine with calling Obama "boy". He is someone's boy, right?
Wow, that's pretty dishonest or stupid even for you Irish. Am I saying that calling a black man 'child' isn't patronizing, or am I saying that the guy could have been using the word 'children' in one of its many contexts that doesn't mean exclusively 'minors?'
But don't let me get in the way of you hunting down yet another black racist. Fight the power Irish!
A lot of what Romney was criticized on regarding his policies were things I wouldn't criticize him for, but I don't know that they were 'lies' (that he didn't hold those positions).
Talk about being a tool dude.
They were lies. In fact, many have pointed out that practically everything Romney was visciously attacked by the left and their dogs in the media about, especially about Obama for, turned out to be dead on.
You are a scumbag. Period.
"Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, an opinion that's risen seven percentage points since November 2014. "
That must have been a poll of the mainstream media as they are the ones who never miss a chance to label any Republican as being "extreme". That's a label they would never apply to Lizzie Warren.
I think I'm slowly losing my edge:
Sister: So do we bring our rates down so we get more full time kids?
Rufus: You're mental.
Sister: It's just an idea.
Rufus: I have to go buy Sweet Tarts. Anything else?
Sister: You know we're running a business right?
Rufus: Damn, there's a hole in my shirt.
Try Ritalin. Do that have that in Canadia?
We have all kinds here.
Of course they have *everything* in Canadia. It's the land of free milk and free honey.
That's what my colleague tells me. He says he was a Canadian instead of American because better healthcare.
^wishes he was
THEN HE SHOULD GO TO THAT PLACE.
You know, America's Hat.
I'm left defending the US and its constitution as a brown-skinned immigrant while the native-born white citizen pines for Canada.
Immigrants are often stauncher patriots than native born. The former having generally come here from places with less freedom, the latter often lacking a frame of reference.
^This.
Irony is more than just an adjective for steel.
"Rufus J. Firefly|2015/04/29 09:34:25|#5264402
I think I'm slowly losing my edge:"
Hipster
Sigh: Feminist Social Justice Warriors Badger Another Company, and that Company of Course Buckles - NOT
Excelent
Here's a fun place to work
The engineering/manufacturing firm I used to work for was notorious for people hooking up in offices/closets/bushes. In the days when I would work till midnight the security guards would get pissed at me because they couldn't leave their post and take one of the assembly workers off for some fun unnoticed.
hey, let's put a bunch of healthy 20-somethings together, work them odd hours and see what happens. The answer: a lot of fucking. The only way to affect it is for management to not participate and fire the ones they catch doing it on company time. And that will keep it on the down low.
we need to poll the millennials.
Based on that letter I think they're already being polled.
Quack quack.
Progressive wonders why everything political is so personal, accuses conservatives of waging 'holy war' against Hillary
Today, consider the Republican campaign for the presidency in 2016, which has degenerated into an obsessive war against Hillary Clinton that borders on becoming a vindictive and venomous holy war, that is more reminiscent of political discourse in the Middle East than the contest of serious ideas that should be the hallmark of democratic nations. Tomorrow, we will consider the Democratic side of what is shaping up as a vapid and empty 2016 campaign.
For two years Clinton has been the target of the most personally hostile, lavishly financed and longest-lasting negative campaign of personal destruction and character assassination in the history of presidential politics.
One might have thought the GOP had reached rock bottom when Republicans were unable to agree at least that the current Democratic president of the United States loves our country and believes his faith.
Listening to the long list of GOP candidates for president doing their dog and pony shows, when these candidates should be offering their vision and plans for America, they appear to be going through a psychic transference of their political venom and vindictiveness from President Obama to Clinton.
Character assassination?
That's what they're calling it when you point out Hillary's own doing?
So far the main criticisms of Hillary I've read about recently involve her questionable email uses and the donations her foundation received. Neither are personal. True, there's this steady drumbeat by conservatives about her being cold, distant, a bad campaigner and such (one wonders why they're so concerned about that!), but none of that amounts to 'charges' like the former things I mentioned.
If progressives want criticism of Hillary to be restricted to policy positions, maybe she should take a few?
"I'm under no illusion that under this Congress we're going to get massive investments in urban communities," he said, adding that it was important to work to improve communities anyway.
I'm under no illusion funneling millions of dollars to people like Bruce Ratner will in any way whatsoever benefit the people he pretends to be so concerned about.
Spot the Not: North Korean Slogans
1. Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialized!
2. Let the land of the Choson people implement the Juche idea with never-ending iron will!
3. Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!
4. Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland by the joint operation of the army and people!
5. Let the wives of officers become dependable assistants to their husbands!
6. Let this socialist country resound with Song of Big Fish Haul and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafoods!
3
I guess 4. Though nothing would surprise me. I'm pretty sure I've read about 1. before.
6
I'm going to go out on a limb and say 5 because it cuts against the "equality of all" in the socialist fairyland.
4 - I think I have seen the others
2 is the Not. Maybe I should apply to work for North Korea's slogan department?
Spot the Not: Praise & Worship Songs
1. Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?
2. A Is For Allah
3. Jesus Is Alright
4. Jesus Is My Friend
5. Follow The Prophet
6. Allah Is Calling You
2
Nope, Cat Stevens wrote that. I forgot to put a Not this time.
#4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8
#5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcFks_graPQ
#1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-Em3h0GGw
They make Creed look sound like The Rolling Stones.
look
Spot the Not: Praise & Worship Songs
1. Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?
2. A Is For Allah
3. Jesus Is Alright
4. Jesus Is My Friend
5. Follow The Prophet
6. Allah Is Calling You
oopsy!
7. Worship the Squirrels
I thought it was the Lutherans who had all the good music, liturgically speaking.
+1 Bach
a city so corrupt that its public schools are organized as a criminal conspiracy against its children
Nice.
Isn't that every city?
If you vote on the design for the End Citizens United sticker, you will get a free sticker sent to you. An evil person would vote just to waste a progressive organisation's money
Yes, but then what do you do with the sticker? It's worthless as toilet paper.
Donate it to Venezuela?
Comrades! We must use the Citizens United First Amendment Protections for corporations to print stickers to END the Citizens United First Amendment Protections for corporations!
This is going to be the political sticker to end all political stickers.
It's sort of delicious how there are only two options, both of which suck mightily. It's like an election!
I want a sticker that says "Unions aren't people".
I mean, if you want to get technical about it (AND I DO) unions ARE a type of corporation. As are churches, governments of all levels, and political parties.
Rand Paul blamed a "lack of fathers" and a "lack of moral code" for what he described as the "thuggery and thievery" in Baltimore.
I'm sure the usual suspect will be up in arms about Paul's comments. Here's the thing, he's right, or at least right in part. Yes, there is obviously a need for police reform. No one with an IQ in the triple digits is going to deny that. And Paul is probably one of the leading politicians in addressing that. But, it's also the case that poor people in Baltimore are human beings capable of deciding between right and wrong and deserve, as individuals, to be held to account for their choices. And choosing to do wrong is tied to the fact that the black family structure in places like Baltimore has been badly eroded, particularly by the absence of fathers. The mother doing what we see in this video (goo.gl/8otdfw) was doing the job that fathers have done for generations. A lot of fatherless kids don't have so forceful a maternal influence.
That woman is awesome.
Yeah. I really am filled with empathy for her.
At first I thought that she was doing it because she didn't want her kid mixed up in the shit that was going down, you know doing bad things. Then it dawned on me that she was likely trying to save his life. She knows damn well that her kid could have been shot for throwing rocks and it could have easily gone that way. One cop opens up and then they all do. What she did was great and you can bet I would have done it too but her motives are likely a bit different than the media would have you believe, maybe?
At first I thought that she was doing it because she didn't want her kid mixed up in the shit that was going down, you know doing bad things. Then it dawned on me that she was likely trying to save his life. She knows damn well that her kid could have been shot for throwing rocks and it could have easily gone that way. One cop opens up and then they all do. What she did was great and you can bet I would have done it too but her motives are likely a bit different than the media would have you believe, maybe?
First double post, MADE IT
Honestly, I don't really think it matters. Rioting is one of those examples of things that people can do that are both really fucking wrong and really fucking stupid. My guess is that she almost certainly was doing it out of concern for his safety. If every one of the rioters' parents did the same, there'd simply be a peaceful protest.
It would without question be a great thing if the police would stop doing the things they are doing to people. Even if that happened, however, places like inner city Baltimore would still be horrible. Breitbart had an article which I can't seem to find on the life of the guy the Baltimore cops killed that started this. The guy grew up without a father and a heroin addict mother completely unsupervised eating lead paint chips in a run down row house. It wasn't the cops who did that to him. And it wasn't because the country doesn't spend enough to help poor people. What the hell chance did he have?
The guy grew up without a father and a heroin addict mother completely unsupervised eating lead paint chips in a run down row house.
And if you even suggest that maybe this is part of the problem (not just for this guy, but for too many poor people), you'll be told that the only problem was the rundown row house. If you're saying anything about the missing father or the heroin addict mother, you're just being judgmental and blaming the victim (the latter might be true, just in a wildly different way than is commonly implied).
California Moves Forward With Automatic Voter Registration When Getting a Drivers License
I'm sure Reason is stoked that 7 million illegal immigrants will be voting now.
Meh. Call back when they automatically gay marry you to an immigrant when you get a driver's license.
Next up, automatically voting for you to save you the hassle
+1 Obama Individual Mandate for Voting
I wonder if a default vote for the incumbent would spur nonvoters to vote.
Naw. Then you'd just have an incumbency rate that was closer to 99.8% than the current 95%.
If the default vote was "nobody," and "nobody" getting a majority would mean the seat stayed vacant, then you're onto something.
So the squeeze had two gigs in Baltimore canceled this week. I can only speculate that the trade shows/conventions that these gigs were attached to were also canceled.
Hooray for broken windows!
Hookers, children hardest hit.
All my proggie friends are creaming themselves over Bernie. All I want to say is "Politician Runs for Office: Story at 11". But they don't see him as a politician.
Meh, it's like Kasinich all over again. It will amount to nothing.
The establishment Democrats are going to laugh their asses off for the entire short run of his campaign, for sure. He's about as charismatic is Eeyore.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026583686
A taste of the fun to come:
Hillary - because we're f***ed either way.
She really is the Democrats' Romney.
You lack an awareness of how little love there is for Hillary among committed progressives.
Bernie's biggest problem isn't his political positions, its his lack of a vagina and/or sufficient melanin. That's why I forecast Lizzie a year ago. And if she runs, she wins by nailing the coalition of new deal commies and SJW box checking.
And if Lizzie wins the nomination and runs, this is what will happen:
Paul - death by Civil Rights Act comments.
Walker - death by "assault" on government employee unions.
Bush - death by sharing the same last name as his brother.
Cruz - death by Canadian/Cuban birtherism.
Carson - death by gay prison comments.
Rubio - death by capitalist sellout.
Huckabee - death by Jesus.
Santorum - death by Jesus.
Christie - death by donuts.
Perry - death by gaffes.
Warren wins!
Death by donuts sounds like the way to go.
You know Kristen, he is not Bernie. He is St. Bernie.
To us, St. is "socialist".
To them, St. is "saint".
Brace yourself for hagiographic exhortations of the collectivist idiot should he run.
I honestly don't think we are living well enough to see the Democrats nominate Bernie. Better yet, let them nominate Hillary and let Bernie and Warren run as a third party. Wouldn't that be the greatest? The progs would creme themselves over that ticket. They couldn't resist bolting Hillary and voting for it. Meanwhile the various boomer hags who love Hillary and Democratic hacks who face losing their jobs if a Republican wins would be filled with rage and bitterness that would last decades. And of course the Progs would be just as angry at the party for failing to nominate a real candidate like Bernie or Warren.
I should also mention that most of those creaming themselves are Vermonters. But that should only mean that they should be able to see him more clearly than the rest of us.
BTW, during his tenure as Mayor of Burlington (which is when I lived in VT), you couldn't go swimming at certain beaches in and around the city because of massive pollution problems and literal shit being pumped into the lake.
That's socialism by another name.
My liberal friends on Facebook love Bernie as much as they love Warren. It is not just Vermont. The crazy bastards are going to support him. And you know what, he might get the nomination. It might just be that the crazies really are the majority of the party.
BTW - when did Bernie even become an official Democrat? He was always a Independent* AFAIK. And when he was Mayor of Burlington, he was a Socialist.
*Yes, I know he always caucused with the Democrats. I don't need a lecture on our Congressional system or the history of Bernie Sanders.
Say what you want about Bernie Sanders, the man has principles. They are dead wrong and awful, but he has 'em, and he sticks to 'em.
He is sort of a less-interesting Kucinich. Maybe Kucinich plus Nader, with the worst case of Resting Bitch Face the world has ever seen.
Official 1st quarter GDP in the "Obama Recovery" growth a disastrous 0.2%.
Suck a dick, Weigel!!
Back out government spending funded by debt and its worse than that.
And that is before the inevitable adjustment down. They always lie and have to go back and quietly adjust it down later. If they are saying it is that low now, it probably was negative.
The little "ratfucker" won't show up here all day out of embarrassment. There's simply no way to put a positive spin on this kind of dismal economic performance five years into a so-called recovery.
Its the AGW-caused massive snow and rain that did this. You'll see! BTW, it was 55 this morning in Houston Fucking Texas. In the last week of April. Wherever the warming is, it doesn't seem to be on rhe North American continent.
If it's really been a warm year, it must be damn hot somewhere. It's been pretty unusually cool for the past year here.
Don't you dare complain about today. I spent the entire month of march in singapore. I missed only one of two months here that has decent weather. Today is one of the only days that isn't sweltering or raining or both since I got back.
It was so nice this morning. Of course, that just heightens my dread of the next four months when we will be on "surface of the fucking sun" setting.
500+ comments! Beer and firearms?!?!
*scrolling*
Oh, I see. I am disappointed.
"Republicans are now viewed as more "extreme" than Democrats, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll"
they're Outrageous Dudes.
REPUBLICANS ARE TOTALLY IN YOUR FACE!
And remember....Recycle, kids....to the extreme
'It's just a word. what's wrong with everyone!' Autism 101.
Uh huh. Says the animist cave man. "UGGGHH! No speak magic word! Word have mighty power. Destroy soul. Bad word KILL!"
.
Good grief. Are you the guy who called the campus police because there was a piece of paper with a swastika drawn on it on a bulletin board in your dorm?