A.M. Links: Jeb Bush 'Would Have Authorized' Iraq Invasion, Boston Marathon Bombing Trial Reaches Final Stages, Hillary Clinton's Bill Clinton Problem

• 

  Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign has a major dilemma on its hands. That dilemma is named Bill Clinton.

• According to Jeb Bush, "I would have authorized" the invasion of Iraq. "Just for the news flash to the world, if they're trying to find places where there's big space between me and my brother, this might not be one of those," Bush said.

• Defense lawyers are expected to make their final arguments today in the Boston Marathon bombing trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

• "Baltimore city jail refused to admit nearly 2,600 injured suspects, casting doubt on police tactics."

• Sweden's Supreme Court has rejected Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's attempt to revoke a detention order filed against him by prosecutors in response to allegations of sexual assault.

• Bernie Sanders, "once a democratic socialist, always a democratic socialist."

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

According to Jeb Bush, “I would have authorized” the invasion of Iraq.

In case I wasn’t unelectable enough.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Damn you. My one chance.

[Gordilocks]

Bloodlust runs in the family.

[gaijin]

Well, Saddam did try to kill their daddy…

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

Aimless and unproductive parasitical left-wingers desecrate War Memorial. Laurie Penny, naturally, justifies it with clumsy sophistry and gibberish. Notice the ‘37% of 66% is not a majority’ banner. The same exact garbage happened in Canada.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..er-10.html

[Catatafish]

“A spokesman said police awaited confirmation of the age of one suspect and whether any of those arrested were female.”

So the police need an independent examiner on whether any of these leftists are female? For once I can’t find fault with the cops…

[Ted S.]

Trannies?

I remember the early days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when PJ O’Rourke was doing an interview with Sam Donaldson. Donaldson was using the word “allegedly” so often that O’Rourke finally said, “Yes, we must only allege that there is an age difference between Clinton and Lewinsky.”

[MJGreen]

Unless they had won, in which case the winning minority is authorized to do whatever they please.

Damn democracy.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

You’ll likely never see this again.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Did we see it at all? How about I don’t post first the rest of the week’s AM Links? Would that be something people would be interested in?

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Would that be something people would be interested in?

No, I’m back on Mountain Time after tomorrow and will never be present for the posting of the AM linx again. And if I can’t be first…fuck the rest of em. It may as well be you.

[Elspeth Flashman]

If loving Fisty is wrong, you don’t want to be right?

[Ted S.]

This will never happen again.

At least, according to the trailer. Two years later, there was a sequel.

[Slammer]

That was on the tv the other night. Donald O’Connor’s Make ’em Laugh sequence was amazing. Apparently he smoked 4 packs of cigs a day and had to be ‘hospitalized’, I guess bed-ridden, for 3 days after filming.

[Slammer]

Here’s the routine

[Ted S.]

Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously.

Actually none of the songs in that movie are original; Arthur Freed reused songe he and Nacio Herb Brown had written.

Here’s an extract of the original (yes, that’s the original color).

[Mickey Rat]

You cannot beat a Fist to the punch.

Especially with a lame contentless post.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

51) Here’s the funniest thing I’ve read today: “It can be exhausting trying to bring white people up to a basic racial literacy?. Many don’t even? take responsibility for their own education or expect you to educate them. I wish there were a racial primer out there somewhere ?. [so] I don’t have to go person to person trying to convince a large population of citizenry that the world isn’t flat.” This woman has literally taken it upon herself to lecture every white person she sees on white privilege, and wonders why the white people just don’t respond the way she wants. Later in the column she equates looting with gentrification, i.e., stealing to her is the same as a buyer purchasing a property from a willing seller. Lady, the reason white people don’t listen to you isn’t because of white privilege, it’s because you’re haranguing them with moral falsehoods that wouldn’t fool a five-year old.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Um., try this: It can be exhausting trying to bring white people up to a basic racial literacy?.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Fuck, I’ve never seen a comment section as hard to link from as this one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..e&hpid=z14

[NebulousFocus]

SFed the link.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Everyone look at me! I’m a martyr for the cause! Always gotta be splainin’ shit, it’s so tiring!

She’s right, she is tiresome.

[Steve G]

It can be exhausting trying to bring white people up to a basic racial literacy

Then take a fuckin knee and drink some water while the rest of us move the fuck on.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sigh. Another ‘whitey doesn’t do enough and how dare they do well while black suffer’ article.

From comments:

“Here are five basic facts about this culture: most fathers make children they cannot pay for; most mothers help them out with that; most children do not know their fathers; most students test below all other socioeconomic classes; the young men are more likely to do prison time than college time. The author should stop apologizing for a failing culture.

The taxpayers of this country have generously subsidized inner city poverty for over fifty years now. It is time for this culture to step up, man up, and get to work. The author and the Post should be ashamed of this condescending claptrap.”

[Zeb]

Whitey is probably responsible for a lot of the cultural failings. But not from doing too little.
Centuries of institutional racism followed by decades of dependence can really fuck up a culture.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It’s the enabling state.

I reckon the very idea of the ‘white majority’ throwing so much money at the welfare state is to offset any perceive (or real) damage we may have caused. So, we do like a mother who would, rather than do the what’s necessary to ‘tough love’ their kids, just throw money at them.

And then wonder about the results.

Black or white.

[Catatafish]

“Grossman points out that educationally, “for much of the 20th century, expenditures per child for white students could be as much as eight to 10 times expenditures for black children.” That even today, you could have black and white kids begin at the same starting line, and “black kids would still be running into a headwind.””

Obviously the answer is simply “just spend more money.”

[WTF]

Since the 1970s, spending on educations has tripled, with academic achievement remaining flat. In New Jersey at least, spending in the urban “Abbott Districts” is among the highest per-pupil spending in the nation, educational outcomes remain dismal and fail to improve. The best predictor of educational achievement is not spending, or class size, or teacher benefits; it is parental engagement.

[Zeb]

I’m confused. Are rising housing prices good for black people or bad for black people? She seems to want it both ways.

[WTF]

Yes. Because racism.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

It’s the same cluelessness that marks the What’s the Matter with Kansas? crowd–“Those stupid cousin-humping SOCCCONNNN rednecks! Why won’t they get on board with our great ideas?” It’s like the don’t understand that the rubes might be listening.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Defense lawyers are expected to make their final arguments today in the Boston Marathon bombing trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Not guilty by reason of dreaminess.

[Zeb]

That ship has sailed.

[Lord Humungus]

Florida Man Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained

Dangling into the sea like America’s last-ditch lifeline, the state of Florida beckons. Hustlers and fugitives, million-dollar hucksters and harebrained thieves, Armani-wearing drug traffickers and hapless dope dealers all congregate, scheme and revel in the Sunshine State. It’s easy to get in, get out or get lost.

For decades, this cast of characters provided a diffuse, luckless counternarrative to the salt-and-sun-kissed Florida that tourists spy from their beach towels. But recently there arrived a digital-era prototype, @_FloridaMan, a composite of Florida’s nuttiness unspooled, tweet by tweet, to the world at large. With pithy headlines and links to real news stories, @_FloridaMan offers up the “real-life stories of the world’s worst super hero,” as his Twitter bio proclaims.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Meh – we have our own Flordia Man, thankee very much.

[Zeb]

I like our Florida Man. But he does seem suspiciously rational and professional.

[Zeb]

It’s America’s wang.

[Brett L]

Loose screws always roll to the corners. Look at our country and it becomes obvious.

[sarcasmic]

AP Exclusive: Self-driving cars getting dinged in California

http://apnews.myway.com/articl…..04956.html

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Now the challenge will be to iron out the wrinkles before CA bans them altogether.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

We must ban self-driving cars because human drivers hit them!

[gaijin]

And who will think of all the taxi drivers put out of work by robot cars? Like the ATMs did to bank tellers…we need someone to do something!

[sarcasmic]

Conservative Voters Give Pollsters Politically Correct Answers . . . and Then They Vote

http://www.nationalreview.com/…..-they-vote

[Tonio]

Ha! Good for them.

And then there are those of us who never, ever answer surveys. The pollsters know we’re out there, but don’t know how many of us there are and have no way of finding out. Always remember that when considering poll and survey results.

[sarcasmic]

Last time I was on the receiving end of a phone survey, the choices were Republican, Democrat, or undecided. The pollster was totally flummoxed when I said I was decided on neither.

[Ted S.]

The last time I got polled and mentioned I was voting for Gary Johnson, the obliging young lady asking me the questions said, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but you’re the second person to say that.”

She seemed to realize the questions were badly written. I didn’t blame her, since she didn’t write them.

[Charles Easterly]

I had a similar phone encounter. The questioner actually decided to research Johnson and the Libertarian Party based upon what I and another survey taker had briefly disused. It was very rewarding for me.

[Restoras, OWG]

I answered a poll once – and I gave answers that didn’t agree with each other. The pollster was audibly confused and frustrated, and I never got another call.

[Puddin' Stick]

That might explain why I’ve only been called once…

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Closet racists, the lot of them!

[Idle Hands]

But what does this mean for millenials?

[Charles Easterly]

There’s a survey or poll in the works even as I type.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

+1 Rupe

[sarcasmic]

The 9 Strangest Flying Robots from the World’s Biggest Drone Show

http://www.defenseone.com/tech…..d-topstory

[sarcasmic]

Paul Reubens exposes tape on back of his neck while filming kissing scene…as he revives Pee-wee Herman for the big screen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..creen.html

[gaijin]

Getting old seems like it would be hardest on the one trick ponys in show business.

[sarcasmic]

Reubens was great in Mystery Men, Blow and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and those are just off the top of my head.

[gaijin]

yeah, poor communication on my part…I was thinking of the one trick characters (e.g., Indiana Jones, Terminator, Harry Potter) that are difficult to reprise without making aging part of the storyline.

[sarcasmic]

Point taken.

[Monty Crisco]

Christ! Defensive much?!?

[Pro Libertate]

“I’m the Hamburger Man!”

[Fist of Etiquette]

Bernie Sanders, “once a democratic socialist, always a democratic socialist.”

“Once you’re this economically illiterate, it’s hard going back.”

[sarcasmic]

Thousands of gallons of oil leak into Hudson River after transformer explodes at nuclear power plant only 35 miles away from Midtown Manhattan
Transformer exploded into flames at Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant
Plant, situated 35 miles from midtown Manhattan, sent smoke into sky
Thousands of gallons oil have leaked into Hudson River
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said emergency crews are trying to contain and clean up transformer fluid that leaked from Indian Point 3
Transformer failure led to automatic shutdown of Indian Point 3
Officials are investigating explosion, which occurred at 6pm Saturday

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..attan.html
Was that the oil in the transformer itself, or something else? The article is not very clear. Then again, consider the source.

[Tonio]

But, look for this to be spun as a radiation hazard, and “how we came this close to a nuclear meltdown” even though the safety systems operated as designed.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

The USA Today has it this way: “The transformer contained 80,000 gallons of oil and the spewed fluid overflowed the containment tanker, Martens said. The excess oil entered the plant’s drainage system and discharged into the Hudson River.”

[sarcasmic]

That makes sense. I know that transformers are filled with oil. It just wasn’t clear if the oil was from the transformer itself, or if the explosion caused something else to leak.

[Ted S.]

80k gallons is a cube 22 feet on a side. That much oil in a transformer system?

[sarcasmic]

When it’s supplying a measurable percentage of the power for an entire state, yes.

[Tonio]

Especially when that state is NY, whose biggest city is more populous than many countries.

[db]

GSUs are quite large.

[Sarcasmancer]

There’s more than meets the eye.

[gaijin]

On the local news last night they reported the fluid as ‘a toxic fluid’. They did not call it oil, probably because that would seem too ordinary.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Depending on the age, it could be mineral oil or PCB oil.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Many transformers used to use PCBs, which were considered a hazardous spill by FEMA and EPA.

Now days, though, it appears they use primarily mineral oil which doesn’t really have much environmental impact.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

No more constipated fish?

[Terc]

Holy christ. I got home from work at 1am last night and spent 30 minutes wandering around inside and outside trying to figure out where that weird plastic burning smell was coming from. The “close indian point” signs in my neighborhood are going to proliferate. The signs should say, “I want to pay more for electricity!”

[WTF]

The signs should say, “I want to pay more for electricity!”

And also have more brownouts and rolling blackouts during peak usage periods.

[db]

Those GSU (generator step up) transformers are filled with oil for cooling purposes.

[Lord Humungus]

AP Exclusive: Self-driving cars getting dinged in California

Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars now rolling around California have gotten into accidents since September, when the state began issuing permits for companies to test them on public roads.

Two accidents happened while the cars were in control; in the other two, the person who still must be behind the wheel was driving, a person familiar with the accident reports told The Associated Press.

Three involved Lexus SUVs that Google Inc. outfitted with sensors and computing power in its aggressive effort to develop “autonomous driving,” a goal the tech giant shares with traditional automakers. The parts supplier Delphi Automotive had the other accident with one of its two test vehicles.

Google and Delphi said their cars were not at fault in any accidents, which the companies said were minor.

[sarcasmic]

‘I’ll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it’: Morgan Freeman makes impassioned plea for legalization of cannabis while discussing his habit
Morgan Freeman, 77, said in an interview that ‘pot is very useful’
He was turned on to marijuana by his first wife and uses it to treat pain from fibromyalgia in his left hand
He added that the drug has helped treat kids who suffer from seizures

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..habit.html

The Oscar-winning film legend was in a car accident seven years ago, in which he suffered injuries that still cause pain, according to the Daily Beast.
He was driving through Mississippi when his 1997 Nissan Maxima skidded off the road and flipped several times.
Emergency responders rescued Freeman from the crash using the Jaws of Life, and he was taken to the hospital with a shattered left shoulder, arm and elbow, and nerves had to be repaired with a four-hour surgery.

You’d think he could afford a better car than that.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Not for nothing, but I don’t think you get fibromyalgia in your left hand. It is an all over type of pain, diagnosed by trigger points in back, knees, neck, shoulders, elbows.

You get arthritis in you left hand, or you get carpal tunnel (from holding your roach too tight), but fibro does not collect in your left hand.

[Entropy Void]

That Black Market pot is expensive, man.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

That is straight up racist , yo.

[sarcasmic]

Thousands of Freddie Grays? 2,600 suspects have been refused entry to Baltimore jail because they were too badly hurt, shocking three-year figures reveal
Thousands of people have been brought to the Baltimore city jail in recent years with injuries too severe for them to be admitted, records show
Show Baltimore City Detention Center correctional officers refused to admit nearly 2,600 in police custody between June 2012 and April 2015
The records do not indicate how the people were injured or whether they suffered their injuries while in custody
They suggest police officers either ignored or did not notice the injuries

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-jail.html
Isolated incidents. Nothing to see here. Move along. And yeah, I see it’s one of the official links. Stick it.

[SugarFree]

Well, two cops were killed in Mississippi, so everything that happened in Baltimore doesn’t matter.

[Monty Crisco]

IT’S A WAR OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! A WAR, I TELLS YA!!!

[WTF]

Yes, it’s clearly Open Season in the WAR ON COPS, so the police are justified in any heavy-handed tactics and civil rights violations they feel the need to employ.

[Rhywun]

They also seem to feel that they are justified in horning in on every goddamn sporting event in the country lately. “Please rise and WORSHIP YOUR MASTERS!”

[Mainer2]

Yup, the evening news casts were all over that.
They even mentioned that these are the first officer’s killed in Hattiesburg in 100 years.
Hey ! Wouldn’t that mean this is a very rare event ?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

It just means one side is doing a lot better in the war than the other?

[Lord Humungus]

Moths Rub Their Genitals Together To Jam Bat Sonar

Some moth species go beyond evasive aerobatics. Tiger moths and hawkmoths actually wield sonar-jamming countermeasures against bats.

Both types of moth use genital stridulation to produce ultrasound, which means that they rub their genitals together to produce sound. The genitals of several species of tiger moths and hawkmoths have evolved to be really good at producing high-pitched sounds when rubbed together. This is best documented in male moths, but females of some species seem to have the same ability. At the right intensity and frequency, the sound can interfere with a bat’s ability to hear the echoes of its own ultrasound, effectively jamming the bat’s sonar.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Worst superhero concept ever.

[gaijin]

^That’s funny

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Ultrasonic Moth Wanker?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

New Arch Enemy for Batman.

Richard Blaster was a mild mannered school boy bitten by a radioactive moth.

Now at night, he terrorizes the street lights of Gotham, using his ultrasonic ray ‘gun’ to irritate the fuck out of Batman and harrass Bat-girl.

[Mickey Rat]

Killer Moth is already in the DC verse.

[Ska]

I hope the guys who write the Venture Bros. are reading this.

[PM]

Consider the source, but…

Police Seize 10 Children From ‘Off-Grid’ Homeschool Family

Police seized ten children from an “off grid” homeschool family in Kentucky on Wednesday after receiving an anonymous tip about the family’s traditional lifestyle.

The nightmare story began when sheriff’s officers set up a blockade around Joe and Nicole Naugler’s rural property before entering the premises. Eight of the kids were out with their father but Nicole and two of her oldest children were at home. Nicole attempted to drive away but was subsequently stopped and arrested for resisting (attempting to prevent officers from taking her two boys away).

The sheriff then demanded Joe Naugler turn over the other eight children by 10am the next day or face felony charges, an order with which he complied.

[Matrix]

I was angry at first, but then another article came out that shows the actual ‘home’ these people live in. It’s not a house. The roof is nothing more than a tarp.

Here’s another article

More

[ColonelEngineer]

Breck County, KY. Goddammit, I grew up a stone’s throw from there… I always knew it was a fucked up part of the state but I didn’t know it was that bad.

[califernian]

So it’s ok to steal the kids if the family is poor enough? I don’t understand.

[Rhywun]

The articles seem misleading and lacking in details, but… if you’re neglecting your kids, yep.

These kids don’t look neglected but who knows.

[califernian]

I believe you are neglecting your kids by not force-feeding them the Bible all day.

Can I come steal your kids now?

[Rhywun]

I believe the legal definition of neglect is more severe than that. Letting them starve, for example. If you’re going to defend something like that – well, I will have to disagree.

[sarcasmic]

Subway fires Mississippi employee who celebrated cop killings with sickening ‘GOT EM’ tweet and said area could be turned ‘into Baltimore real quick’ after backlash
Sierra ‘C-Babi’ Mccurdy posted several messages lauding the deaths of Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25, after they were killed Saturday
Messages sparked outrage and backlash on social media almost instantly
Tweets and Facebook posts demanding Subway’s response poured in
The company announced on Sunday night that she had been terminated

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..chain.html
Sorry, but you don’t do that while in your employer’s uniform.

[Rhywun]

Looks like it’s government work for C-Babi – who the hell else is going to hire her?

[sarcasmic]

‘I want to challenge society’s perception of beauty’: Plus-size pin-up Tess Holliday flaunts her size 26 frame in a black top and knickers in her first modelling agency shoot
Tess was first size 26 (US 22) woman to be signed to top modelling agency
The 29-year-old says there’s ‘no one way to be a woman or beautiful’
She has 625,000 followers on Instagram and 850,000 fans on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem…..shoot.html
I didn’t even scroll down that one. I’ll leave it for the chubby-chasers.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Plus-size stunner Tess Holliday said she wants to ‘challenge societies perception of beauty’

I’m stunned.

[Idle Hands]

more like challenge joey chestnut.

[BakedPenguin]

That’s going to be a challenge indeed. The weird thing is her face looks relatively normal.

[Charles Easterly]

I’m still not going to look.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Yeah, Imma no click.

[BakedPenguin]

Jesus, dudes. Just a fat girl, it won’t kill you.

[WTF]

The 29-year-old says there’s ‘no one way to be a woman or beautiful’

Okay, how many people actually think that rolls of lard is beautiful?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

How many accounts are there on tumblr?

[sarcasmic]

Okay, how many people actually think that rolls of lard is beautiful?

When it’s on an actual pig that is to be turned into sausage and bacon, yes, it’s a beautiful thing.

[Unreconstructed]

My daddy always said “Fat only looks good on a cow”. I suspect he’d allow the inclusion of pigs though.

[Idle Hands]

There is an ass for every seat, possibly two seats in this case.

[WTF]

Oh sure, there is a small minority for every fetish, but they are far from the norm.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Apparently this many:

She has 625,000 followers on Instagram and 850,000 fans on Facebook

If you stop scrolling at her shoulders in the pic, you’re like ‘OK, I can see that’… but from there on down, it is a frickin’ dumpster fire, full of tires and rotten garbage.

[R C Dean]

The 29-year-old says there’s ‘no one way to be a woman or beautiful’

Sure, whatev. Trivially true.

My standards for beauty are, well, mine. And they don’t include morbid obesity.

[Idle Hands]

Caps are toast 🙁

[Fist of Etiquette]

I’m not sure that’s true, but while they’re not one of the two teams I actively root against, I would be fine if a certain player made it through his entire career without hoisting a certain item.

[Idle Hands]

How can you hate this guy?

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Because he is a dirty player/cheap shot artist?

[Raston Bot]

Why? Dude plays with reckless abandon. And he’s actually forechecking this season thanks to Trotz.

And he hits!

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/20…..x-ovechkin

[Raston Bot]

likely. Ovi gave them the kiss of death guaranteeing a game 7 win.

[Lord Humungus]

The $900 Billion Influx That’s Wreaking Havoc in U.S. Bills

For all the anxiety over the global selloff in bonds, the big worry in money markets is the havoc being created by a dearth of U.S. Treasury bills.

The magnitude of the problem was on display last week, when not even the Treasury Department’s surprise announcement to boost sales could do much to lift bill rates. Over the past two weeks, some of those rates have turned negative, reaching levels last seen during the financial crisis.

With supply at multi-decade lows, investors are signaling alarm as regulations intended to shore up banks and prevent a run on money-market funds exacerbate the bill shortfall. JPMorgan Chase & Co. expects an extra $900 billion of demand for government securities during the next 18 months, putting pressure on a sizable chunk of the $1.4 trillion bill market.

[R C Dean]

the big worry in money markets is the havoc being created by a dearth of U.S. Treasury bills.

I suspect this is a result of monetizing debt by having the Fed buy (and hold) Treasuries while trying to keep inflation from taking off. If the Fed resells these T-Bills, that might set off the increase in velocity of money that is will trigger inflation. The Fed can only monetize debt and prevent inflation if it holds all the T-Bills.

Maybe. I can’t say I’m an expert on this kind of monetary policy.

[Lord Humungus]

Robots are coming for your job: Amazon, McDonald’s and the next wave of dangerous capitalist “disruption”

The industry’s low wages and nearly complete lack of benefits have drawn intensive criticism. In October 2013, McDonald’s was lambasted after an employee who called the company’s financial help line was advised to apply for food stamps and Medicaid. Indeed, an analysis by the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, found that more than half of the families of fast food workers are enrolled in some type of public assistance program and that the resulting cost to US taxpayers is nearly $7 billion per year.

When a spate of protests and ad hoc strikes at fast food restaurants broke out in New York and then spread to more than fifty US cities in the fall of 2013, the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative think tank with close ties to the restaurant and hotel industries, placed a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal warning that “Robots Could Soon Replace Fast Food Workers Demanding a Higher Minimum Wage.” While the ad was doubtless intended as a scare tactic, the reality is that?as the Momentum Machines device demonstrates?increased automation in the fast food industry is almost certainly inevitable.

[sarcasmic]

You mean that when it’s cheaper to automate than to pay the legislated wage-floor, that businesses choose to automate?

No.

Fucking.

Way.

[straffinrun]

Ricardo effect is racist.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Corporations and small businesses HAVE to be one step ahead of the takers.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

When I was in high school and college, I worked a number of low-status jobs, and I don’t think I ever earned merely minimum wage. Maybe my very first job at a Manchu Wok. I take that back–I did deliver pizzas and get paid minimum wage, though the tips pretty much doubled my pay.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

If progressives are worried about robots taking poor peoples’ jobs, then why do they favor high immigration? Isn’t the argument regarding automation identical to the argument regarding displacement by low income immigrants, so why support one and not the other?

[Idle Hands]

Most of the consistent ones do.

[sarcasmic]

You’re expecting principled consistency from progressives? They take great pride in being inconsistent and without principles. Following principles is dogmatic and ideological, and being consistent is for small minds. Their unprincipled inconsistency makes them superior to everyone else.

[Tonio]

They want their votes, Irish. They assume that immigrants, as a group, will be poor, unskilled and will vote for the party of wealth redistribution.

[Pro Libertate]

Robots, on the other hand, consistently vote Republican.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Well in Chicago corpses vote Democratic, so why not?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Sure, but poor people who have no job because of mechanization are probably going to vote Democratic too.

[Tonio]

Their key to a permanent majority is ensuring that the welfare classes are numerous and retain their ability to vote.

[Tonio]

Also, they hate them some white people, and the more brown people they import the more warm and fuzzy they feel.

[lap83]

It makes sense if you assume that everything they do is to pander to a different interest group.

[Tonio]

Always ask if the person would be eligible for Medicaid and Food Stamps if that person had a different (but same-income) job at a mom and pop operation, or more importantly if the person was unemployed. If the answer is “yes,” as it will always be, then it is clear that the benefits are subsidizing the individual not the employer.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

found that more than half of the families of fast food workers are enrolled in some type of public assistance program

Depending on the definition you use, more than half of ALL families are ‘enrolled in some type of public assistance program’.

If the only work you qualify for is McDs, you should not have a family.

If you call “the company’s financial help line” for investment advice, maybe you should consider sterilization?

[Gleep Glop]

The Labor Center at UC Berkeley is an extremely partisan shop. In addition, one of the proponents of the New Minimum Wage research argues against the idea that Wal-Mart is subsidized by the Feds:

http://arindube.com/2015/04/19…..wage-jobs/

Once again, Salon social signals instead of reports…

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Elizabeth May: ‘Omar Khadar has more ‘class’ than the entire ‘fucking Federal Cabinet.’

Yeah. A kid from a family who embraced Al-Queda and dutifully sent their 15 year-old to go off and fight for them killing an American soldier in the process while being on welfare screams ‘class.’

The Khadars are Canada’s Tsarnaevs – and they both have supporters from the left.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/…..lsignoutmd

[Gordilocks]

No love for the Khadr’s here, but the kid was 15, brainwashed, and had no fucking clue or much of a choice in where his family took him.

I have a hard time buying into the non-stop hate fest against Omar Khadr propagated by Ezra Klein and his compatriots.

[Gordilocks]

Ezra Levant.

EDIT BUTTON, GOD DAMN YOU!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That’s the only part of the story that keeps me sane.

He was a kid brainwashed by contemptible parents. Perhaps he alone deserves a second shot.

I agree that the right is being way too harsh in this matter.

[Slammer]

“Baltimore city jail refused to admit nearly 2,600 injured suspects, casting doubt on police tactics.”

That’s only $130 in nickle rides.

[Mainer2]

But two cops were killed in Mississippi, so let’s call it even.

[Lord Humungus]

Would You Be Happy To See Your Bride In A Transparent Wedding Gown?

And while a mesh, see-through dress on mega sex symbols like Bey, J.Lo and Kim may be fitting, the transparent dress trend has found its way into a less likely industry: bridal fashion.

An article in the Atlantic Monthly reported that transparency was the hot new trend at this year’s Bridal Fashion Week.

Featured among the scandalous new wedding dress styles were visible bras; cutouts at the waist, back and between the breasts; necklines that plunged to the hips; and mesh netting to give the illusion of nakedness.

[R C Dean]

I got a double standard on this one.

I wouldn’t want my bride looking like a hooker, but I’m happy to ogle yours looking like a hooker.

[Mickey Rat]

What percentage of the female population can be condidered exhibitionists?

[Steve G]

“Forget Deflategate: Here’s the real NFL scandal”

[Tonio]

…and for a second I thought you were going to link to an article about the uninvestigated allegations of domestic violence against NFL players.

[Lord Humungus]

Greece Readies for Another Week of Deadlines

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s anti-austerity government heads for another confrontation with an increasingly testy German-led bloc of creditors as warnings of an accidental default loom over his debt-swamped nation.

Greece needs at least a symbolic show of progress at Monday’s meeting of euro-area finance ministers in Brussels to persuade the European Central Bank to keep emergency funds flowing to Greek banks at the current pace. The next hurdle comes just one day later, when Greece has to pay about 750 million euros ($837 million) to the International Monetary Fund.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: R A Heinlein

1. I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

2. Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss.

3. An armed society is a polite society.

4. [Men] don’t notice other odors when they smell bacon.

5. You can get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone.

6. I believe that almost all politicians are honest.

[PM]

I’ve always seen 5 attributed to Al Capone.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I think #1 is Will Rogers?

[tarran]

6

[WTF]

4

[Tonio]

4. I believe that there’s more to quote #6 which would indicate that they are buyable but that they will stay bought.

[Charles Easterly]

Six?

[Monty Crisco]

Yah, gotta be five…

[Terc]

Number 2 sounds like something Mark Twain would say.

[Tonio]

Definitely Heinlein. But Heinlein was a huge fan of Twain.

[Derpetologist]

5 is the Not and it is from Al Capone.

Prize for the winners is the context of #6:

I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the thirteen colonies.

Excerpt from “This I believe”: http://www.heinleinprize.com/rah/thisibelieve.htm

[Medical Physics Guy]

Torn between 4 and 6. I’ll go with 4.

[Mickey Rat]

6 seems wrong, but I do not recall any Heinlein witticisms about bacon.

[Lord Humungus]

Full picture of Clinton charities’ foreign government funding remains elusive

The Clinton Foundation has acknowledged that the government funding totals omitted from their tax returns cannot be found on their website either, despite the foundation’s acting chief executive officer earlier suggesting they were available there.

The foreign government funding received by the globe-spanning charities of Hillary Clinton’s family has received particular scrutiny in recent weeks as Clinton seeks to become the Democratic nominee in the 2016 presidential election.

The foundation’s acknowledgement means precise totals for government grants to the charity for the last three years of Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary of state have still not been publicly disclosed. All U.S. charities have to separately disclose each year how much they get in government funding, both domestic and foreign.

[WTF]

All U.S. charities have to separately disclose each year how much they get in government funding, both domestic and foreign.

Rules are for the little people. And anyway, FAKE SKANDULZ!!11!!

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: P J O’Rourke

1. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.

2. These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.

3. The principal feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things ? war and hunger and date rape ? liberals testify to their own terrific goodness.

4. War is a great asshole magnet.

5. Earnestness is just stupidity sent to college.

6. Taking money out of politics is about as likely as taking the stink out of shit.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

4

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

4

[WTF]

4

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

6

[Shpip]

He wrote 4 about the Bosnian war. Imma gonna go 6.

[Monty Crisco]

“Imma gonna go…” ?!?! Are you fucking trolling us?!?!

Also, Imma gonna go 6 too…

[Derpetologist]

A guy whose handle means “Albanian” ought to know something about the Balkans.

Fun fact, the name for Albanian in Albanian means “nation of the eagle”.

[Derpetologist]

My bad, your handle is Shpip. I read it as Shqip. Damn dyslexia!

[Fabi]

3

[Derpetologist]

6 is the Not. I borrowed the phrase from that great sage Uncle Ruckus.

[Lord Humungus]

When the Catholic Church owns your doctor: The insidious new threat to affordable birth control

Angela Valavanis had already had one bad encounter with the Catholic health care system when St. Francis Hospital, the hospital in Evanston, Ill., where she delivered her second baby, refused to allow her OB/GYN to tie her tubes because of Catholic restrictions on the procedure. When she went to her doctor’s office for a check-up after the birth and asked about going back on the Pill, since she hadn’t gotten the sterilization she wanted, she got another shock: “My doctor told me that she couldn’t prescribe birth control because she had sold her practice to a Catholic health system,” said Angela. “My mouth dropped open. I was so confused to hear those words coming out of the mouth of an OB/GYN.”

An OB/GYN who can’t prescribe birth control? It’s not some bad joke. It could be a reality if your doctor’s practice is purchased by a Catholic health system that then imposes the Ethical & Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a set of rules created by the U.S. Bishop’s Conference that prohibits doctors from doing everything from prescribing the Pill to performing sterilizations or abortions.

[Idle Hands]

Okay. Make it over the counter or go to another doctor you fucktards.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

They’ll never see the connection between doctors being forced to sell their practices because of burdensome insurance and regulatory requirements and reduced choices.

[Idle Hands]

they do, they just see the rulebook is under 1 million pages long so they cry anarchy.

[Tonio]

Better phrasing: Angela, I chose to sell my practice to a Catholic health system with the full knowledge that that would contractually forbid me to offer BC services. I also chose to not notify my patients about that because I’m a coward.

[Derpetologist]

Spot the Not: Harry Browne

1. It’s important to realize that whenever you give power to politicians or bureaucrats, it will be used for what they want, not for what you want.

2. Government is good at only one thing. It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, “See if it weren’t for the government, you couldn’t walk.”

3. In government, people rise to the level of their incompetence.

4. Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats.

5. The Constitution isn’t written in Chinese, Swahili or Sanskrit. It’s in plain English.

6. A welfare state is frightened of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.

[WTF]

3

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

3 – isn’t that the Peter Principle?

[Tonio]

Nothing to keep him from having restated that.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Dammit – I have risen to the level of my comment incompetence!

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Anyone who has ever been in the military or government sector has said this, and likely benefitted from it.

[Derpetologist]

Prize for the winners: http://media.cagle.com/6/2005/06/05/16261_600.jpg

[Derpetologist]

The Not is #3 and it is the Peter Principle.

[Slammer]

My god, it’s full of stars.

Neat visualization of 100,000 stars. The zoom and rotate is very neat-o.

[sarcasmic]

They call it ‘space’ because there’s a lot of it.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Is the galaxy that flat?

[Pope Jimbo]

I can’t believe the city Tundra and I live in isn’t one of the worse, but it seems that the other suburbs in the Twin Cities are spending their taxpayers money on all sorts of goofy things. The main one mentioned in this article is a regional curling center for $20M.

My favorite quote though is from the Shakopee mayor.

Shakopee residents have three times rejected referendums to build or enlarge a community center. Yet the city is considering bypassing a vote despite a recent community survey showing there’s still plenty of opposition.

Tabke said surveys aren’t a binding vote. “When people say something’s only getting 30 or 40 percent support, I say that even 25 percent support, in a community our size, that’s still 10,000 people ? a pretty good market share to get something done.”

http://www.startribune.com/twi…..303184891/

I guess it is easy to spend $32M of your residents’ money when you want to get things done.

[Don Mynack]

Get a load of this stupidity: “Voters in Brazoria, a small town about an hour south of Houston, shot down Saturday a $1.75 million bond referendum that would have funded a Christian-themed water park.”

The town has a population of 3,000. Nobody wanted this. Yet the mayor insisted on it and got his ass handed to him.

http://www.chron.com/about/art…..254644.php

[Lord Humungus]

Saw this on an off-topic discussion of an audio forum I participate in:

12 million russians across the country (500 000 in Moscow alone) marched through the cities each holding portraits of their family members who fought or died during WW2. It was stunning, absolutely. The whole event was called “An Immortal Regiment”.

Pic 1

Pic 2

[Lord Humungus]

meh – pic one looks like it hooks to FB, so not may not work for some people.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Impressive.

[Lord Humungus]

Next: Billie Tony Beer!

Tony Rodham’s Ties Invite Scrutiny for Hillary and Bill Clinton

“If there’s anything I can ever do for any of you, let me know,” Mr. Rodham said. “I’ll be more than happy to do it.”

A promotional video of the party that the cosmetics company later released identified the speaker as “the youngest brother of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,” a relationship that has been Mr. Rodham’s calling card since the days of the Clinton White House.

On and off for two decades, the affable Mr. Rodham has tried to use his connections with his sister and his brother-in-law, former President Bill Clinton, to further a business career that has seen more failures than successes. The connections to the Clintons have given Mr. Rodham, a self-described “facilitator,” a unique appeal and a range of opportunities, like addressing Chinese investor conferences and joining an advisory board of a company seeking permission to mine for gold in Haiti.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026652856

Trade agreements lower America’s living standards to raise others. Angers me.

Whenever a new trade agreement is offered up we hear talk of how it will help developing countries and raise their standards of living…which in turn they say will make the world safer for all.

What they never say is that in order to lift other countries up to a supposedly higher level, ours takes another hit. They are equalizing the economic playing field at our expense.

There must some great incentives for a country’s leaders to be willing to do that to their own country.

[tarran]

These people are even dumber than Jugaloes

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I also love the latent xenophobia of the anti-trade left. How are they any different from immigrant haters yowling about how we need to keep Murican jobs Amurican?

“What they never say is that in order to lift other countries up to a supposedly higher level, ours takes another hit. They are equalizing the economic playing field at our expense.”

Except American standards of living have increased over the last 40 years at the same time international poverty has plummeted. Thanks for playing.

[sarcasmic]

Except American standards of living have increased over the last 40 years at the same time international poverty has plummeted.

What? No they haven’t! Incomes have stagnated since 1973, resulting in increased inequality!
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer!
So what if every house has an air conditioner and a microwave? So what if we’ve got smart phones and computers hooked up to the Internet? So what if we’re watching cable on a flat screen?
None of those things matter! Inequality is what matters! None of those things increase standards of living when the standards of living for the rich have increased more!

Wealth apologist! You’re a wealth apologist!

[Hyperion]

I had a ‘discussion’ with a prog on the WaPo last week about this very topic. I told prog guy that most poor people in America today are better off than the richest of kings a coupe thousand years ago.

So he tried to distort the debate by saying that relative to his subjects, it was no different than today because the King of those days was just as much richer than his subjects as the Koch brothers are to most of us.

Then I asked, So you’re saying that if every single person on the planet becomes a thousand times better off than they are today, that is doesn’t matter unless they are all equals on an economic basis?

He told me that yes, the situation would be just as bad as it is today or in the dark ages, because equality is the only thing that matters.

[sarcasmic]

Which just goes to show that you can’t reason someone out of a position they arrived at by emotion. In this case envy.

[Hyperion]

Exactly. But if you want to confirm that this is the way they actually think, just ask them. They’ll not hesitate to confirm it for you. That guy would rather that we just halt all progress completely if it means that even one person has more than he does.

[sarcasmic]

I wouldn’t use the word “think” because that requires using the rational part of their brain. They don’t think. They feel. They don’t respond, because again that requires using the rational part of their brain. They react. So in that regard, I don’t even consider them to be human beings. They’re more like animals, reacting to stimuli, while never using the part of their brain that separates them from the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s sad, really.

[Xeones]

In my experience, progs DO use reason, though – to justify (to others, and to themselves) the conclusion they’ve already arrived at via emotion.

The smarter or more educated the prog, the more arguments they can muster as to why their feelings are correct.

[Hyperion]

It’s bad if we trade with other countries so that their citizens can enjoy greater opportunities. We can’t keep an eye on them and they may turn into heathen capitalists or something. Instead we need to let them all immigrate here and put them on welfare. Then we can indoctrinate them to become good little socialists and we can turn all those now empty countries into nature preserves. We’re saving the world, one welfare recipient and one nature preserve at a time.

[Zeb]

Even if everything they say is true, aren’t the left supposed to be all about improving the standards of living for the less well off at the expense of the more well off?

[Hyperion]

See Irish post below…

[Hyperion]

Wait a minute… this is from someone at the DU? Aren’t they 100% liberals? You know, I mean not real liberals, but leftists who refer to themselves as liberals? Aren’t they for equality and social justice?

And what is with the comments attacking their girl Hillary? Didn’t they get the memo that she’s the one?

They had better take care before they get booted from the hive.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

You must have missed the rise of the Isolationist Foreigner Hating Left that Fauxcahontas has been pandering to with her whining about the evils of free trade.

[Hyperion]

They took our jerbz!

[Tonio]

I’d say protectionist instead of isolationist. She would be interventionist as hell in her foreign policy – lots of meddling in low-level local conflicts which would inevitably cause her to stumble into a war which she is ill-suited to fight.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Kony!

[Tonio]

…and Boko Haram, and an “humanitarian safe zone” in Syria. I suspect she views the military as blood-thirsty hooligans and would micro-manage them. Warren as Commander in Chief would be a disaster. Oh, and larger and more powerful actors than those mentioned above would deliberately mess with us knowing they’d get away with it.

[Zeb]

So, they’ve switched from international socialism to national socialism?

You know who else…

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Mr. Hilter of Minehead?

[Zeb]

I think that was National Bocialism.

[Xeones]

Tony and shriek?

[Zeb]

From what I can see, there is actually quite a lot of division and disagreement in the Democratic left. Of course they will still rally around whoever the chosen one is when it comes time. They can stay in the hive because they would never vote for a Republican no matter what.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Anybody remember the Nickelodeon game show ‘Guts’?

Most nostalgic thing I’ve read in a while.

[Idle Hands]

your really showing your age millenial.

[sarcasmic]

No. I do remember this show.

[lap83]

I remember that show, but I was more nostalgic about Paul Reubens upthread

[sarcasmic]

I will be watching the new Pee Wee movie. When it comes out on Red Box.

[VG Zaytsev]

According to Jeb Bush, “I would have authorized” the invasion of Iraq.

Jeb Bush – Every bit the establishmentarian and twice as dumb as W.

[Hyperion]

“According to Jeb Bush, “I would have authorized” the invasion of Iraq. ”

Ok, it’s official. Jeb is now Hillary. Or if Hillary now Jeb? 2 neocon progs with zero difference in their favored policies of war mongering and everything proglodyte.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

This could be the worse election ever if it’s Hillary/Jeb. There are very few differences between them that I can see, but of course we’d be treated to a partisan hate fest where Jeb was a Randian right-libertarian and Hillary was a socialist because that’s just how these things work, even if the candidates believe substantively the same things.

[Hyperion]

The only difference between those two is between their legs. I’m not sure about that and I don’t want to know, but that’s the difference people will see. Vagina and being associated with Bill Clinton instead of George dubyah, will get Hillary the win.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

The difference being Jeb has no chance of getting his party’s nomination, whilst the Donks are probably Ready For Hillary!

[lap83]

I would never vote for either, but Jeb doesn’t strike me as corrupt and evil as the Clintons. But policy-wise, there seems to be no difference (that it makes at this point)

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Pros barely beat computer in poker tournament

“We knew Claudico was the strongest computer poker program in the world, but we had no idea before this competition how it would fare against four Top 10 poker players,” said Tuomas Sandholm, the CMU professor of computer science who directed development of Claudico. “It would have been no shame for Claudico to lose to a set of such talented pros, so even pulling off a statistical tie with them is a tremendous achievement.”

…The games were played in “heads up” one-on-one format, with Claudico playing 20,000 hands against each of the four pros. All four players are ranked in the world’s top 10 for that style of play. The pros raked in a collective $732,713 – more than Claudico, but not enough to be statistically significant.

Poker is unique in that it’s an incomplete information game – in Texas Hold’em, players can only know the two cards they hold, plus the five communal cards that are eventually turned over. They must base their decisions on the probability of other players having better hands than they do. Making those kinds of semi-blind decisions is difficult for humans and computers alike, which is why the Carnegie Mellon team aimed to create a program to help.

[Lord Humungus]

And a computer won’t have any sort of tell – so that’s an advantage if you can’t try to read someone facial tics or other physical giveaways.

[Zeb]

From what I have heard, “tells” don’t come into high level poker very much. Those people all have their poker face pretty well perfected.
And unless it has some kind of amazing facial expression regcognition stuff, I imagine the computer can’t read the other players either.

[Sevo]

Zeb,
I should refresh more often…

[Sevo]

It also can’t read any tells, so I’d say that cancels.
But poker is just plain stats, so it’s no surprise a computer does well.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I’d expect a computer to always come out pretty close to even against very good human players given the right betting strategy. Which seems to be what happened.

[John]

What Zeb and SEVO said. You can only play poker so well. Once you understand the mathematics of it and know how to avoid giving any tells, you just can’t get any better than that. The rest is up to the cards.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

No charges for teacher who burned ‘I Love Mom’ into arms of students with Tesla coils

A prosecutor isn’t filing criminal charges “at this time” against an Oregon science teacher accused of using a Tesla coil to burn the phrase “I love mom” into students’ arms.

Samuel Dufner was arrested Tuesday at South Salem High School.

Salem police Lt. Steve Birr says students used the coil in an exercise last week. Dufner noted it could also be used to mark the skin and asked for volunteers.

The 37-year-old burned “I love mom” into their arms ? with a heart to symbolize the word love. Birr says the marks have since faded.

Marion County Deputy District Attorney Doug Hanson said Wednesday his office has decided not to charge Dufner now but the investigation continues.

The Salem-Keizer School District placed Dufner on leave.

The Tesla coil transmits electricity without wires at high frequency and high voltage levels.

[John]

Isn’t “burn into arm” just another way of saying “branded”? You know, like a cow? I am as get the government out of family life and schools and don’t criminalize child discipline as anyone. But she branded her students? That is called aggravated battery.

[sarcasmic]

It said the marks had already faded. I fail to see how it’s a big deal. Or even a deal. Meh.

[Tonio]

Because the scary high-voltage electicity! Those children could have been electromocuted, you monster.

[John]

High voltage is not what is harmful Tonio. Voltage is just a measure of the velocity of the electrons. IT doesn’t kill you. What kills you is the amps. That is the measure of the number of electrons. I could feed a million volts into you and not hurt you if the amps are low enough. And I could kill you dead with 120 volts and enough amps.

Indeed, that is the whole trick of those sorts of machines. They have all of these volts yet won’t harm you.

[Zeb]

Of course it has to be high frequency AC or pulsed voltage (like an electric fence). At DC or low frequencies current and voltage are proportional for a given conductor so high voltage=high current.

[AlexInCT]

A million volts at 60 Hz (or other higher multiples) will still kill you when it totally disupts your hearth’s cycle.

[Tonio]

For anyone who doesn’t get it, my comment above was meant sarcastically. Note “electroMOcuted” misspelling for comic effect.

[John]

My apologies. My sarc meter is broken as usual.

[John]

Then it wasn’t a brand. Did it even hurt? You are right, it is not a big deal and certainly not criminal.

[tarran]

Also, “asked for volunteers”.

Temporary, very minor injury… shit, it’s less harmful than the game of “kill the carrier” we used to play in recess!

[John]

And I assume it was the parents who went insane about it. Our society is fucking nuts.

[Zeb]

Even though it is clearly not doing permanent damage, I could understand parents objecting to having their minor children decorated like that. But considering charges is ridiculous. If the parents are really bothered by it, the school can tell him not to do things like that.

[AlexInCT]

I thought she asked for volunteers? Are we now saying these kids were unable to consent?

[Xeones]

Most of the kids i hung out with as a teenager would have thought getting temporarily burned by a Tesla coil was awesome as hell.

[Zeb]

I can only imagine that the kids who volunteered to have it done to them also thought the same.

[R C Dean]

Yeah, the only complaint would have been that it was temporary.

[yet another dave]

Helicopter mom won anyway, this teacher will come to work today slightly less awesome than the day he taught that class

[John]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/s…..-bin-laden

Yeah, I know it is Seymour Hersh and he is a total nut. But, I think he almost certainly gets a lot right in this piece. First, there is no way Bin Ladin was there without the Pakistanis knowing about it. Second, the raid was a put up job. Here we have an armed compound and you expect me to believe that the SEALS just landed a couple of helicopters and took the place in a few minutes with no casualties, no air cover and no heavy weapons? Bullshit. Any armed guard would have heard the helicopters and just opened up from a concealed position. And oh by the way, there would be no way to know what kind of weapons the guards had. They could have grenades, RPGs, crew serve machine guns, hell the entire place building could have been rigged to explode in case of a raid and the SEALs would have had no way of knowing it. And there was a battalion of Pakistani infantry a mile away. And SOCOM’s plan was to just fly in there, land and take a compound they believed was guarded by several, armed and probably fanatical gun men, knowing that if there is any kind of prolonged fire fight a batallion of Pakistani infantry was going to be rolling down the street. No way in hell would SOCOM have ever signed off on such a cockamamie plan. They knew that compound was going to be left unguarded and the Pakistani army was going to stand down. There is no other way they would have launched the raid.

[Fluffy]

The hole in the conspiracy theory, to me, is that I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have wanted to take him alive.

“They were afraid what he would say!” To who? They could have held him incommunicado for the next 30 years and no one would have said shit.

Or they could have done a Stalin show trial special and tortured him until he told whatever story they wanted told at trial.

[tarran]

Castro was taken alive, and used his trial to persuade more people to join his rebellion.

Hitler was taken alive, and used his trial and his time in jail to persuade more people to join his rebellion and to write Main Kampf.

History is replete with examples of great powers capturing an enemy and the show trial rebounding to the accused’s favor.

To paraphrase the Khmer Rouge; keeping him was of no benefit, destroying him was no loss.

[John]

The last thing they would want to do is take him alive. What would you do with him? Try him? The last thing anyone wants is a Bin ladin trial making him a world celebrity and giving him a platform to make his case. No. You want him dead and on a slab.

And you can’t hold him incommunicado forever. Eventually someone leaks it. Can you imagine the political fallout if it ever came out that the US had held Bin Ladin in secret? No way anyone wants that.

To me the only problem with this theory is why Pakistan didn’t just kill him and give the body to the US. Why go through the trouble of the raid?

I have no doubt he was being held by the Pakistani government. If you are Pakistan and you capture him, what do you do? You can’t turn him over to the US because he is a hero to a lot of people in Pakistan. You can’t let him go or not capture him because if it is ever revealed you let him operate from your country, you would become a rogue nation and kicked out of the international community. So, the only choice they had was to police him up and keep him in secret. Then they also could quietly tell Al Quada they had him and would kill him if they ever attacked them.

[John]

I think what probably happened is that he got sick and was close to death. What does Pakistan do then? If he dies, Al Quada can then blackmail them with the threat of revealing that they had them all of those years. And if he is dead, eventually it will get out and they no longer have any leverage. So, the solution is to quietly figure out a way for the US to kill him and solve the problem.

[Gray Ghost]

Probably too late in the day, but when I heard about Hersh’s story, I was wondering what you guys’ opinions would be on it. I find it funny that everyone in the MSM is bitching about how Hersh got the number of bullets all wrong, when his essential gist:

…that bin Laden had been a prisoner of the ISI at the Abbottabad compound since 2006; that [Pakistan] knew of the raid in advance and had made sure that the two helicopters delivering the Seals to Abbottabad could cross Pakistani airspace without triggering any alarms; that the CIA did not learn of bin Laden’s whereabouts by tracking his couriers, as the White House has claimed since May 2011, but from a former senior Pakistani intelligence officer who betrayed the secret in return for much of the $25 million reward offered by the US, and that, while Obama did order the raid and the Seal team did carry it out, many other aspects of the administration’s account were false.

sounds pretty damned on the money.

The exchange of bona fides and guarantees had to be interesting: how can Pakistan trust that the US’ll kill him? Or that the raid isn’t a cover for some chicanery with Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent? How can the US trust that the compound isn’t a SAM trap?

I like the impetus behind the raid being the poor health of Bin Laden.

[Mike M.]

Michelle Obama whines about how tough it is being the first lady, having a support staff of dozens at your beck and call 24/7, taking multi-million dollar vacations at taxpayer expense, etcetera etcetera.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

Have Teh Lightworker resign, and go into splendid isolation.

[John]

The funny thing about that is that she really does have a bitch. The bitch is how patronizing and obsequious the media is to her. Their treatment of her is a classic case of racist low expectations. Michelle Obama is the same thing Laura Bush is, a typical middle aged mom. There is nothing wrong with that but there is certainly nothing glamorous about it either. Yet, the media pretended that Michelle Obama was this glamorous figure on a par with Sardozky’s wife. It was so out of kilter with reality and so obviously the result of them social signaling about how excited they were about there being a black first lady, it was insulting and patronizing. It is literally the same as telling the slow kid how smart they are for being able to count change. And since it was only done because she is black, frankly racist.

Of Michelle is such a narcissist, she probably believes her press and has no idea how insulting it actually is.

[Rich]

Tsarnaev told a Roman Catholic nun who is a prominent death penalty opponent that “no one deserves to suffer” as the victims of the deadly 2013 attacks had, the nun testified on Monday. “He said it emphatically. He said no one deserves to suffer like they did,” the nun, Sister Helen Prejean said on Monday. “I had every reason to think that he was taking it in and that he was genuinely sorry for what he did.”

Yes, Sister, I’m sure you did.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I’m not in favor of the death penalty. But Helen Prejean is one of the world’s great dupes. Of course anyone played by Susan Sarandon, I am vastly biased towards hating in real life.

[Zeb]

Well, maybe he is sorry. Not that he doesn’t deserve whatever he gets. But it’s hardly inconceivable or unlikely.

[annagun]

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[Elspeth Flashman]

only $90? Pffft. Work harder than that, you schmuck.

[Drave Robber]

Croatian police invade Liberland, kidnap the president

[bassjoe]

Would Jeb have authorized the attack based on what GWBush knew in 2003 or what we all know now? Seems like a relevant follow up (forgetting for a moment that what was known in 2003 was, uh, truth challenged).

[adolphowisner]

My roomate’s sister makes $65 hourly on the laptop . She has been laid off for six months but last month her payment was $16050 just working on the laptop for a few hours.
check out the post right here ???????????? http://www.jobsfish.com

[Tonio]

And at least bike paths are transportation infrastructure, albeit very marginally so, and can be used by walkers, etc. Pretty much anyone can walk.

[Pope Jimbo]

What really gets me about the bike paths is that even though we have a truly wonderful network of paved bike trails, I still get held up by d-bags with their $6K road bikes who refuse to ride on them and instead ride on the main road.

Why, why, why?

[Zeb]

Bike paths could be a reasonable thing (as reasonable as roads) if there was already a lot of bike traffic. Keeping bikes and cars separate is a good idea if there is a lot of traffic.

But a lot of places seem to think that bike paths will magically make everyone ride bikes so you end up with little used infrastructure.

[Tonio]

Yes. Didn’t mean to seem like I was cheerleading for that, but as far as things go those paths are inexpensive and high-use compared to other rec facilities.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I’m okay with bike paths. Better to they have their own lanes provided they don’t act like idiots at intersections.

Here in Montreal people use them and it’s a good way to see the city so it’s one of the last things I’m gonna rail against.

[Restoras, OWG]

Bike paths are too slow for the road bikers. Just sayin’.

[Tonio]

Smugness, Jimbo, smugness. They are deliberately snarling traffic to show everyone else how holy they are, and to “encourage” others to do this.

[Fluffy]

To be fair, the bike paths usually go FROM nowhere TO nowhere.

There are bike trails all over Vermont. But there are exactly ZERO bike trails from my house to anywhere that I can buy beer.

[Pope Jimbo]

No, Restoras, these aren’t paved trails next to the road, they are roads unto themselves. They are really nice. Like Tundra said, we built them because we were sure that biking was the next big thing.

You can go plenty fast on these trails. I think it is smugness like Tonio says below. That and the trails do have lots of other bikers who these d-bags have to navigate around. Whereas if they are on the road, it is smooth sailing (because they block all the traffic up behind them).

I like biking. I love our trails, but I swear the hard core bikers are their own worse enemies.

[Tonio]

Also see my 10:30 post above.

[Zeb]

Yeah. If they are actually used, it’s the same a building roads. If they are just social engineering, it’s a big waste.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

“one of the last things I’m gonna rail against.”

*narrows gaze*

[Tonio]

Bike lanes and bike paths are different. Bike lanes run along regular roadways and can be anything from a paved shoulder with special lane markings to a special lane with some type of barrier between the bike lane and the other lanes. Bike lanes often steal or narrow lanes for regular traffic.

Bike paths are entirely separate from the roadways. Their best feature is that they keep cycle traffic off the regular roads. Their worst feature is they often require separate rights of way, eminent domain, and more government land-grabbing. As noted, smug cyclists don’t use them. These paths are often quickly invaded by stroller moms which make the paths unattractive to people who want to actually cycle on them at speeds which make bicycle transportation practical. My pet peeve – family groups who walk abreast on mixed-use trails.

[Pope Jimbo]

Fluffy,

Before you pedal off to your local liquor store to buy beer, let tell you about my experiences doing so.

I live in a mess of crazy cul de sacs and go nowhere roads. That is fine if you live there, but sucks sometimes when you want to run a quick trip to the store. In my case I can take a bike trail from my house through a big apartment complex right up to the liquor store. No more than a quarter mile and an easy ride. Or I could take my car to the store, but that means I have to weave my way through a couple of stop signs and it is more than double the distance.

Take the bike right? That is what I thought, but then I noticed all the stink eye I was getting from people when I was putting a case of beer into my bike basket and getting ready to ride home. I mean there were old biddies looking down their noses and tsk tsking me. I didn’t know what was going on, but when I was talking to a neighbor, he said they probably all thought that I was a guy who had lost his driver’s license because of a DUI and was still buying beer. He said, I looked like that kind of a person.

Maybe you look more reputable than I do and won’t get the stink eye. But be aware of the obstacles you face if you try to buy beer on your bike.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That is my pet peeve as well. Stroller moms don’t seem to realize they’re on a BIKE path and so when they stop out of nowhere in the middle of the lane to check on the baby they’re literally can cause a serious accident.

Families who take up the paths are equally as bad. In my area here there’s a bath AND a sidewalk so there’s no reason for them to not use the sidewalk. Yet, there they are…clogging and hogging the bike path. Worse, they don’t seem to grasp the concept of KEEP RIGHT.

[R C Dean]

Bike lanes often steal or narrow lanes for regular traffic.

This, plus they divert road money, meaning that if you have bike lanes, you aren’t spending as much keeping the vehicular roadway maintained. By person/mile, its a remarkably bad use of limited funds.

We have a ton of bike lanes in Tucson. Most of our roads are shit. This is not a coincidence.

[Zeb]

A pet peeve of mine is people’s failure to understand that bicycles are not pedestrians. Both in cases like you mention where pedestrians act like bikes have no business going fast on bike paths (you don’t stop your stroller in the middle of the road) and when cyclists act like pedestrians when it suits them. I hate it when cyclists ride on the wrong side of the road or on sidewalks or use cross walks.

[Tonio]

OMG, no. And when you come up behind them and signal (bell, or “rider up) they act like it’s a completely unexpected occurrence and inevitably scatter to different sides of the road, often the middle person hesitates ditheringly in the middle, trying to decide which direction to go.

[R C Dean]

I mean there were old biddies looking down their noses and tsk tsking me.

A badge of honor, my friend.

[Enough About Palin]

Oh, fuck! I was driving around NE Minneapolis and who ever it is that does those mass bike rides were zipping in and out of traffic like fucking cockroaches. Running read lights, etc. Was scared to deat that I would accidentally hit someone. And I am an avid cyclist, so it’s not like i hate byciclists. These fuckers meant to cause problems.

[Tonio]

Yes, and bicycle infrastructure advocates will not discuss helmets or traffic signal compliance. Ever.