House Looking Into FOIA Complaints, Saudis Hit Yemen Ahead of Ceasefire, Picasso Breaks World Record at Auction: A.M. Links

• 

  Picasso

  The House Oversight Committee is asking public interest groups to share their complaints about the Freedom of Information Act process to obtain information from the federal government.

• Saudi Arabia conducted an air strike against what it said were arms depots in Yemen ahead of a ceasefire by which it promised to abide. The White House denies that the withdrawal of four out of six Gulf leaders, including the Saudi king, from a Camp David summit on security issues in the region planned for next week was a snub of President Obama. Saudi Arabia has, so far, remained untouched by hostilities in which it's participating in Yemen.
• France's President Francois Hollande visited Cuba and called for an end to the U.S. embargo against the country.
• Cody Wilson and the Second Amendment Foundation are suing the State Department for shutting down his company Defense Distributed for offering files to print a 3D gun under a law aimed at international arms traffickers. Wilson's lawyers argue the department's actions constitute prior restraint of free speech.
• The National Football League suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games without pay for not "fully cooperating" with the NFL's investigation into deflated footballs the Patriots used in last season's AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots were also fined $1 million and two employees who handle footballs at Foxborough
• "Les femmes d'Alger," an original Picasso, fetched a world record $179 million at auction at Christie's.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

France's President Francois Hollande visited Cuba and called for an end to the U.S. embargo against the country.

Plus he really liked their healthcare.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

What, no mention of Hawaii (aka Magnumville) closing its Obamacare exchange?

http://twitchy.com/2015/05/12/.....5-million/

[Root Boy]

They were just pissed they didn't get the Obama Library.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They should consider themselves lucky.

What are they gonna do with all those books with empty pages and the odd stick man and squiggle?

[straffinrun]

The Obama library wouldn't fly. One visit by Buttplug and all the pages would be stuck together.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

52) If it takes a village, does that mean I can spank your misbehaving kids?
If it's acceptable for you to harass my kids when they walk to the park alone, is it okay for me to harangue your butterballs as they waddle from the bus stop to your waiting mini-van to ferry them home for an afternoon of videogames?
When your expression of concern to the parks department gets the slide and merry-go-round pulled out of the local playground, will you be okay with the contempt I show your children when they break down after skinning a knee?
If it takes a village, does that mean I can spank your misbehaving kids?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes. A village.

How I loathe such pitiful phrases. 'We're in this together' is another.

It doesn't stop at the children. As I've mentioned in the past, will my fellow villagers come pay my mortgage or rent should I ever struggle? Or cover payroll for my business?

Until then, they can respectfully fuck off with their empty, disingenuous, infantile nonsense.

[Zeb]

The thing about "it takes a village" is that it is sort of true. Or can be true in a good way, at least. It's just that Hillary's version was completely perverse. The "village" that it takes is the friends and family and neighbors of the children acting voluntarily and in ways the parents approve of to support the upbringing of the child. This sort of situation is a very good thing. The problem is that the idea of a village doesn't extend to a whole large country, especially not when the whole country is involuntarily made to participate financially.

This is a big problem that collectivists have. They can see that humans are very social creatures who naturally want to live in groups and be mutually supportive. But you just can't extend that beyond the small groups that make up people's real social networks. The entire country can never be the equivalent of a village.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Socialism can work. In small communities composed of volunteers (such communities can also fail, of course). Where it will necessarily always fail is when it is non-voluntary.

The Progressives make this mistake a lot. They looked at small experimental schools from the early 20th century, with involved parents and true-believer teachers, and assumed that the theories that prodipuced such good results under those conditions would also rduce good results with indifferent parents and teacher-drones.

What works on a small, personal scale frequently doesn't scale UP worth a damn.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Absolutely on both points. Humans are naturally 'communistic'.

I was referring to the coerced progressive variety that talks but all they do is take.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

How do I know you are not spanking for pleasure you pedobot?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

How do I know you don't have an erection when you call CPS?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

It was the wrong 800 number.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Why do you keep calling it?

[Scarecrow Repair]

It's on speed dial.

[Azathoth!!]

Not 'it takes a village.

It takes The Village.

Everyone's allways getting that wrong.

Be seeing you

[Fist of Etiquette]

The National Football League suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games without pay...

Worse than if he'd been caught slugging Gisele in an elevator!

[gaijin]

So are the Patriots making $1 million on this? Brady gets no pay ($2million) but it is not a fine. The patriots pay $1million in fine...does that not leave them $1million ahead?

[Ted S.]

No. Brady gets "paid", but that "pay" goes directly to charity.

[gaijin]

ah, that makes more sense then. thanks

[Notorious G.K.C.]

More or less obligatory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoqg15tCyiA

[Restoras, OWG]

Worse than if he'd been caught slugging Gisele in an elevator!

That's incredible.

So basically what happened is that the NFL's own rules were used against it, it made the NFL look bad and threatened the quality and integrity of its product, so instead of saying 'Hey, we effed up with that rule so we are going to change it' they say "Well, everyone hates the Patriots, Belichek and Tom Brady so let's scapegoat them'.

The NFL really does suck.

[Rasilio]

Here is the thing I do not get.

I've read the rule and it has gaps big enough to drive a Mac Truck through.

First off I do not think that the Wells Report has come anywhere close to proving that the balls were intentionally deflated to below the allowable minimum more importantly however the mechanism by which they were deflated matters because there are numerous ways it could have been accomplished in ways that do not violate any actual rule.

As I indicated before, simply using hot air to inflate the balls could very easily create a 1 - 2 psi differential between when the balls were measured and game time and it would be entirely legal according to the rules.

Basically the Wells Report says "well the balls were under the defined inflation level so therefore they MUST have been tampered with but we have no actual evidence that it was done or how it was done"

[Restoras, OWG]

That's just it. The NFL's own rule is highly flawed and as you say you can drive a truck through it. It appears that's just what the Patriots did (there is no actual proof) so the NFL is just trying to save face and, presumably, if they are smart (debatable), making a change to the rule.

The NFL is becoming too much like NASCAR and just as sucky.

[Ted S.]

The NFL's original punishment of two games, with the concomitant loss of salary, is more severe than what Rice got from the State (pre-trial diversion). And yet everybody's shrieking about what Goodell did or didn't do. It's arguably not even his place to do anything.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

^^THIS. It is not the employers job to enforce laws outside of those affecting job performance. The employer should be free to fire someone whose conduct hurts the business, but it is not their job to police conduct outside the business.

[Sudden]

The NFL only issued a punishment when the moral preening of fans threatened their business.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

The Patriots were also fined $1 million and two employees

Do those employees go into the NFL general fund, or does Roger Godell get to use them as personal 'valets'?

[Sudden]

He's going to put then out to stud and expand his orphan inventory.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

The National Football League suspended New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady for four games without pay for not "fully cooperating" with the NFL's investigation into deflated footballs the Patriots used in last season's AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots were also fined $1 million and two employees who handle footballs at Foxborough

The NFL's random punishment machine hath spoken!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Seriously. It's all arbitrary winging.

I'm pretty sure in the history of pro sports and all the shenanigans that go on behind the scenes this ranks low. Shit, when I played AAA soccer in my teen years the shit that went on. Imagine when there's money and professional pride at stake!

[Sudden]

It's not random. The patriots are a multiple repeat offender where it concerns cheating and attempting to gain a competitive advantage. If Ray Rice were starting at his third domestic incident with video evidence if his savagery, his punishment would probably be an outright ban.

[KDN]

I've been saying the whole time that the NFL is going to use this flimsy pretext to harshly punish the Pats for the general asshattery of the Belichick era. Pats fans are going to whine and be ultralegalistic about how this is unfair (see below comments), but the NFL has a brand to protect and the Pats have done a bang-up job sullying that brand over the last 15 years or so. Everybody west of the Hudson hates them, and for reasons beyond what happens on the field.

I think that Steve Serby had a good take on it today in the Post.

And the loss of that 2016 first-round draft choice (and a 2017 fourth-rounder) and a $1 million fine? Doesn't happen unless Spygate happened. Repeat offenders indeed. The NCAA calls it lack of institutional control. Brady ? Belichick's quarterback ? conspired with club employees to break the law.

Vincent to the Patriots: "It remains a fundamental principle that the club is responsible for the actions of the club employees."

At the end of the day, there are no winners here, even if this allows the commish to trumpet that he is tough on crime, even as he recognizes that Brady being forced to sit and watch Jimmy Garoppolo for any extended period of time compromises the Patriots' season.

[Auric Demonocles]

Pats lost a first round pick for Spygate, the first offense. Minnesota and Panthers got a warning for ball tampering earlier this season. This "repeat offenders" line is bullshit. No one else is a "repeat offender" because the first offense isn't being punished like this for anyone else. Hell, in the Belicheck the Broncos have 3 separate incidences of cheating (salary cap, Vaseline jerseys, Spygate 2) I can name off the top of my head, and none of them resulted in loss of a first round pick. What about their repeat offending?

The real reason this punishment is so hard is because of the public outrage, so it boils down to the Pats winning enough to make them relevant, and doing it in the age of social media.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

In fairness to the Broncos, Spygate 2 was conducted by Belicheck's Mini-Me, Josh McDaniels, when he was head coach. The league probably didn't ding the team for that because they figured he was just employing what Belicheck taught him.

[KDN]

It's not just what they get caught for, it's the general atmosphere about the manner in which they conduct their business. There's the feeling that they're doing far more than they get caught for, so when they do finally get caught for something the impulse is to throw the book at them.

A-Rod was suspended for an entire season despite never failing a drug test and the Devils had to forfeit picks for signing Kovalchuk to the same type of contract that several other big-ticket players got. A league throwing the book at an offender to make an example of them is hardly a new phenomenon and isn't proof that the league has it in for that offender.

I think that as much as anything this is just the league getting its house in order; the Pats are being made an example of because they're highly visible, have a reputation, and the league's reputation is as low as its been in recent memory. Ask Terelle Pryor what it's like to fuck up when a league is looking to make an example of someone.

[Auric Demonocles]

Random? That's preposterous. If it was random, you wouldn't see other teams getting equally punished for breaking the same rule (and with proof).

[Old Man With Candy]

After the union files a grievance, it will be reduced to one game and during the exhibition season.

[Auric Demonocles]

While one game would be less insane, it's still ridiculous. The rule book says $25k, and as I linked just barely, two teams were caught on video breaking this same rule this year... and didn't even get that fine.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It's all about perception. The Pats are the gold standard and Brady its golden child. They 'have' to make an 'example' of them. /wink.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

He got hammered for lying about it, not the deflation, as I understood it.

[Auric Demonocles]

Except they didn't find anything proving that he lied.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Exactly. Probably because he didn't want to hand over his phone.

[Auric Demonocles]

Rufus, are you really suggesting that if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to fear?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What I'm saying is Brady was in his rights to not hand over the phones.

And now must face the consequences of his actions as the NFL has deemed it.

They can go back and forth - and quite frankly there are good points from all sides - but in the end they have to take their medicine.

Not to mention giving all these shenanigans a rest now. It's becoming most, erm, unbecoming.

[Sudden]

He will be voting for Hillary.

[Caleb Turberville]

Okay, I've been wanting to read something by a libertarian author for a while. Which of these should I read first?
The Substance of Style - Postrel
Radicals for Capitalism - Doherty
United States of Paranoia - Walker

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Did you know Matt and Nick wrote a book?

[RBS]

Radicals for Capitalism. It's worth it for the footnotes alone.

[The Laconic, in Technicolor!]

I've read the second and third, and the first is on my to-read shelf.

I think Doherty's book is probably more important for a libertarian to read, but Jesse's book is more fun.

[Lord Humungus]

Professor requires students be naked in visual arts final exam or fail it.

A class at the University of California, San Diego, takes the idea of showing up to class naked to a whole new level.

Students in a visual arts class at the university are required to complete part of their final exam in the nude or they will fail the entire class.

Even the professor, Roberto Dominguez, strips down to his birthday suit as a part of the test.

Warning: Autostart video

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Oh no! An outraged mother concerned about her adult daughter who obviously has no agency.

[UnCivilServant]

I have to side with the mother on this one. The professor has clearly gone round the bend and needs to be removed.

[Los Doyers]

Meh. The professor was always clear about the requirements of his final exam, iirc. If they were all 18, I don't see the issue here.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Shouldn't you be sleeping in?

[Los Doyers]

Sometimes I get up to take a dump and grace the AM links with my presence. BE HONORED.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

We don't have to take your shit.

[Los Doyers]

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE DOYERS

[EDG reppin' LBC]

What a game lasy night, eh?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

This. It's stupid, but it was always a requirement and it's up to the supposed adult who's taking the class to decide whether or not to take it.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

^^This, not a new requirement, been doing it for a while.

[LynchPin1477]

Yeah, the professor would seem to be way in the wrong, here, unless he made it very clear on day one of the class that this was a requirement.

[Old Man With Candy]

He did, in fact.

[Lord Humungus]

and who wouldn't want to see a bunch of college girls take off their clothing? Okay... at least a few of them.

[Mickey Rat]

That would seem to quite the clever scam.

[Los Doyers]

Be that as it may, Rico already covered this story yesterday in the PM links. Do try and keep up.

*sips brandy*

[Lord Humungus]

PM what?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Something about Pre-Menstrual?

That could make for a messy final.

[UnCivilServant]

It was a mandatory pre-requisite for the course the bulk of the students were actually trying to get to. And all the evidence points to the professor feeding their own perversions by abusing their position.

[LynchPin1477]

Yeah, seems kind of sleazy. Hard to imagine how that could be relevant for the course.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

A rough equivalent is Walmart decides that in order to buy a useless piece of furniture that they will only accept sexts as payment. As the customer, you always have the choice not to do it, there's no force involved.

[LynchPin1477]

I don't think that's a good analogy. According to UnCivil up above, the class in question is required for another one that the students need to graduate. And they already presumably paid tuition that they can't get back.

Should it be illegal? Probably not, unless you can find some violation of contract angle. But I think it's totally understandable for students to have a problem with this and for the University to shut it down.

[Zeb]

If it were any department other than art, I might agree. But art gets to be as weird as it wants. I have no problem with it if the requirement was clear from the beginning.

I think people need to stop being so hung up about nudity. Nudity isn't sex.

[Mickey Rat]

If the professor got approval for that requirement from the department and legal counsel and made it abundantly vlear it was a seroius requirement then thete is little issue. However, I suspect that requiring semi public nudity as a condition for passing the course volates some sexual harassment standard.

[Zeb]

That's probably likely. But I will repeat: nudity isn't sex.

[Mickey Rat]

Sexual Harassment codes cover more than strictly "sex", so I do not think the Bill Clinton level pedantry helps the case.

[Zeb]

I like how they show the pictures that are so blurred that they don't look like anything.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

The professor is a fucking fruit loop. Yeah, he's been doing it for a while, and he had to qualify his statement with the "there are other ways to be naked other than physically" defense, but by any standard of socially normative behavior this is basically the product of a deviant mind disguised as "art." He's Lena Dunham with the university administration rather than a media machine enabling his broken, exhibitionist behavior.

[Slammer]

Trigger warning: weird looking tits and ass

[Injun, as in from India]

France's President Francois Hollande visited Cuba and called for an end to the U.S. embargo against the country.

From one socialist to his uglier brother.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Someone should ask this socialist traitor why he carries the name of another country!

[Root Boy]

I don't get it, isn't Hollande happy because the embargo makes sure the Cubans are driving Renault's and drinking Burgundy instead of Cadillac's and California Reds?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That's the rub in this whole embargo thing that always got me.

Cuba traded with the EU plus Canada. Not exactly chopped liver.

[Root Boy]

And is that why there are also lots of Tim Hortons opened in Havana?

I agree with Hollande, embargo is a joke since we trade with VNM and China, and the commies use it as an excuse to tell the people why they are poor, but the only Cadillacs that will be imported will be driven by Raul and his entourage.

[CatoTheElder]

The dollar value of Cuba's foreign trade is pathetically small.

For example, auto imports total about $50 million, which is about the same as their exports of crustaceans. If GM got 100% of Cuba's auto business, its revenue would go up 0.05%.

[UnCivilServant]

"Les femmes d'Alger," an original Picasso, fetched a world record $179 million at auction at Christie's.

I do not get why people think his work after he lost his mind is 'art', let alone worth anything.

[Restoras, OWG]

There's no accounting for taste.

Personally, I'd buy a nice collection of cars with that kind of money - but there are plenty of people that would think that is equally stupid.

[Root Boy]

US college students will require a trigger warning before looking at those tits.

Also, with a name like Alger was Picasso referring to Algeria, the former French Colony? If so I think we may get a double whammy with both feminists and Islamists pissed at the painting.

[Charles Easterly]

"Personally, I'd buy a nice collection of cars with that kind of money - but there are plenty of people that would think that is equally stupid."

... and I would not be among them.

"There's no accounting for taste."

I agree, and easily accept that there are many people who like the painting depicted in the article. Once again, I'm not among them. I suppose it's because anything which appears to me that a schizophrenic or a child painted doesn't rise to the level of high artistry.

I write this having seen some nice drawings and paintings by both schizophrenics and children.*

*But not schizophrenic children, to my knowledge.

[Mike Laursen]

I hear Picasso's old El Dorado is up for auction.

[Gray Ghost]

+1 avocado colored

[Zeb]

Oh for heaven's sake. Whether or not you like it, it is undoubtedly art. If you think that art is just pretty pictures that look like the things they look like, then you just aren't interested in art. So don't try to be a critic.

I think it is insane to pay that much for a painting. But I think it is a good painting.

Sorry, but it's a big pet peeve of mine when people try to define art according to their tastes. If you aren't very interested in art, you aren't required to have an opinion.

[Citizen Nothing]

Thomas Kinkade is the only true artist.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

+1 Master of Light

[Charles Easterly]

"Sorry, but it's a big pet peeve of mine when people try to define art according to their tastes."

Let's keep this simple then, Zeb: You like the painting. I don't.
You (and obviously many others) think the piece is good or quality artwork. I don't.

Not that I think you and I actually care deeply about this, but can we agree to disagree here?

[Zeb]

I have no problem with people disagreeing about what makes good art or not being interested in things that I am interested in. It is largely subjective and a lot of people understandably aren't interested in the high minded philosophical side of art.

The thing that really bugs me is when people declare that something they don't like or don't get is not art. If I take a dump on a mattress and someone puts it in a gallery, then it's art. I would say it is bad art. But it is art. Varying tastes or interest in art don't bother me at all.

[Gray Ghost]

I think you're thinking of Van Gogh; Picasso was in full command of his faculties (and several mistresses) throughout his life. Women of Algiers is a masterpiece of Cubism, and I see the heavy respect paid to Matisse by its vibrant, near-Fauvist color, and especially his use of bare line to delineate the figures. 190M USD is crazy, but it's not like it'll lose its value, and he sure isn't making anymore of them.

I wonder how much Les Demoiselles d'Avignon would go for if MOMA ever sold it?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Women of Algiers is a masterpiece of Cubism, and I see the heavy respect paid to Matisse by its vibrant, near-Fauvist" etc.

Also, tits.

[Lord Humungus]

Morgan Freeman admits to past marijuana use

The 77-year-old actor has pledged his support to the movement to legalise the drug in the US, and revealed he is a long-time user of marijuana.

He shared: "They used to say, 'You smoke that stuff, boy, you get hooked!'.

"My first wife got me into it many years ago. How do I take it? However it comes! I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it!"

[Slammer]

Snort it?

[UnCivilServant]

To be fair, he may have been high at the time.

[Zeb]

"Admits to" makes it sound like something he is ashamed of. Which is clearly not the case.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

That's actually a really cool Picasso, but, umm, $179 million?

[Zeb]

The price is insane.

But it's nice to see this comment section isn't completely overrun with philistines.

[Citizen Nothing]

It seems insane, but I suppose it's relative. If you're a multibillionaire, why not spend a couple of hundred million on a painting you like? I have friends who think I'm insane when I spend more than a grand on an antiquarian book or map. And maybe I am. But I've got the dough, and I want the object, so why not?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Meh. It's about finding a safe place to park cash. They're presuming it won't lose value, which it probably won't.

[Citizen Nothing]

Perhaps. But there seem to be safer and more stable commodities than fine art. Of course, I'm not a multibillionaire, so what would I know?

[Citizen Nothing]

But I do think someone should issue a currency backed by Picasso paintings.

[Charles Easterly]

At least that currency would be tied/pegged to something many people find inherently valuable.

[Citizen Nothing]

As for me, I've got most of my retirement money in Franklin Mint Collectors Plates.

[Citizen Nothing]

I'm just glad I didn't invest in mummies.

[Zeb]

Beanie Babies. Are those still a thing?

[Fabi]

They are making a big comeback. And I apologize in advance for knowing that.

[Zeb]

And they aren't making any more Picassos, so I suppose as long as a healthy market for high end art exists, it might actually be worth that.

[CatoTheElder]

One of the reasons why fine art has such absurdly high values is that museums can only sell art to acquire other art. The Museum Directors Code of Ethics is explicit on this point: "A museum director shall not dispose of accessioned works of art in order to provide funds for purposes other than acquisitions of works of art for the collection."

A museum typically has only about 5% of its collection on display. The other 95% is in climate controlled storage for preservation.

This artificial reduction in supply, of course, drives prices up.

[Zeb]

I think I heard that this was the last major Picasso painting in private hands.

[Mike Laursen]

A fellow EconTalk listener!

[Slammer]

Cops accused of busting breast implant during 'brothel' raid

A Queens woman says cops caused one of her breast implants to burst when they raided the makeshift brothel where she worked and roughly threw her to the floor.
Alyssa Lloyd claims that stitches from her cosmetic surgery, which she had because of a mastectomy, ripped out and she was denied treatment by officers and jailers at Rikers Island, according to her Manhattan federal court lawsuit.
"I had to live deformed for a year and a half, almost two years. I still can't have surgery," Lloyd told the Post.

[Injun, as in from India]

Cops were merely defining "incompetent boobs".

I feel bad for that woman.

[Charles Easterly]

In their defense, they claim Alyssa Lloyd is milking the unfortunate encounter for everything she can.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

*narrows gaze at both*

[straffinrun]

I blame the floor. And the hooker. And the cosmetic surgery. Boo Ya. Smooches.

[Lord Humungus]

House Flippers Are Back Together With Wall St. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Colony Capital Inc., Blackstone Group LP and Cerberus Capital Management are among the companies that have started making bridge loans to investors who buy homes to sell them quickly for a profit. Borrowing costs -- traditionally the highest in residential lending -- are tumbling as the firms compete for customers.

The foray represents a deepening bet on the housing market by Wall Street-backed companies, many of which have built rental-home empires during the past three years and started specialty-lending businesses to finance smaller investors. Big firms with deep pockets and access to cheap capital may have an edge over local private lenders that have dominated flipper financing.

[Injun, as in from India]

But... But... President Hope-and-Change took care of the banksters!

Oh wait. He actually took care of them.

[Root Boy]

Butt Plug will tell you that is the effin' truth!!!

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Those paying attention will be able to read the signs for their own investments. We may not be at the peak of the housing market, but it won't be far now.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It all goes south in 2017.

[Restoras, OWG]

Why 2017?

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

New date for Skynet?

Solar Eclipse?

Mayan Calendar error?

[Citizen Nothing]

Hillary's first Supreme Court appointment.

[Rasilio]

Actually it will probably be mid to late 2016 as regiem uncertainty sets in because no one will know how the election will pan out.

It is questionable however whether the official economic stats will admit the beginning of the bubble bursting until after the election.

[Restoras, OWG]

I just wonder how long we can go on piling on debt. $18T with another $100T of unfunded liabilities. It seems that reserve currency status will allow the US to continue piling it on for the near-future but I suspect that won't last forever.

[Brett L]

Selling in August/September

[Injun, as in from India]

Cody Wilson and the Second Amendment Foundation are suing the State Department for shutting down his company Defense Distributed for offering files to print a 3D gun under a law aimed at international arms traffickers. Wilson's lawyers argue the department's actions constitute prior restraint of free speech.

Freedom is what the government says it is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Wilson's lawyers argue the department's actions constitute prior restraint of free speech.

Oh, please, dear?

[Lord Humungus]

Wild boar causes havoc in Hong Kong shopping mall after falling through ceiling

As shoppers perused the shops for the latest bargains, workers in the Kingkow store were running for cover after a 55-pound boar fell through the shop's ceiling.

The animal eventually made its way into the children's clothes shop and climbed above the store's false ceiling, before falling through the ceiling and onto the floor.

About 10 police officers then arrived but were unable to prevent the boisterous boar from knocking down a number of mannequins and causing general chaos in the shop.

[UnCivilServant]

Did they say where it came from?

[Xeones]

Kowloon, probably. Damned anarcho-capitalist pig!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Saw that on the news. Told the gal it would have been amusing to see a sequence of shots showing the wild boar in one shot and then on a spit being roasted in another as everyone in the store gave a thumbs up.

Should this have come with a trigger warning?

[Gordilocks]

About 10 police officers then arrived ....

"Don't worry, he's one of ours!"

[straffinrun]

Oh to be the caption writer for that pic of 10 cops surrounding a wild boar.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

"Gently, men! He is one of us!"

[Brett L]

"Pigs get fat, hog gets slaughtered"

[Bee Tagger]

France's President Francois Hollande visited Cuba and called for an end to the U.S. embargo against the country.

They say to never trust a man with two first names. What about a man with two country names?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh my we're thinking on the same wave length this morning.

[Lord Humungus]

Wow.

Comparing the Clintons: Bill seen as a stronger leader, Hillary as more honest

Both Clintons did about the same when people were asked which was more empathetic. On the question of leadership, Bill Clinton did substantially better; on the question of trustworthiness, Hillary did. In terms of vision, Hillary had more support; on values, it was about even.

It's critical to note that Hillary Clinton suffers from being an actual candidate for office. Bill Clinton's "strong leader" marks probably stem in part from his enjoying fairly high favorability. Hillary's score in that regard liked dropped because she's now in the dicey position of being a candidate for office.

Likewise with her score on trustworthiness. More than half of respondents think neither Clinton is trustworthy, as Hillary's ratings nationally have dropped thanks to her candidacy (and her e-mail situation). Luckily, she'd have to drop pretty far to match her husband, whose willingness to misrepresent the truth can be confirmed by the nearest history book.

Numbers in the link.

[Injun, as in from India]

Hillary is seen as more honest?

Oh the times we live in.

[Xeones]

Well, honesty is relative. "What difference, at this point, does it make?" is certainly more truthful than "I did not have sex with that woman."

[Root Boy]

I keep being surprised we see more of Bill getting caught with his dick out. He's off roaming around the world with his millionaire buddies, never with Hillary. He's got to be getting pussy out the ying-yang, but only thing I hear about is the pedo island thing.

I guess that is bad enough -- of course no one will dare ask Hillary about that.

[Ted S.]

2% of people think Slickette is honest, while only 1% think that about Bill?

[tarran]

Hillary is seen as more honest?

The most brilliant thing Hillary did was to paint herself as the first feminist woman in the White House and every criticism of her as being motivated by a sexist desire to force her back to a more traditional feminine role.

To this day, the moment people hear a criticism of her, they shut down their listening because they assume that it's all bullshit.

If she becomes President, I think she will implode very spectacularly. I could see Congress actually impeaching her and the Senate removing her from office.

[Injun, as in from India]

If she becomes President, I think she will implode very spectacularly. I could see Congress actually impeaching her and the Senate removing her from office.

I'll bet you that the media will call that political rape culture.

[tarran]

The media will turn on her.

There is a double-standard towards women in society, and Hillary repeatedly transgresses the rules. So far, her handlers her managed to limit the damage and to train her not to break those rules.

BUT... notice how when she gets power, real actual power, she can't help but rub people's faces in it? My guess is that once she hits the oval office, the mask will come off. And the media, being primarily peopled by really shallow people with the social maturity of high-school freshmen will turn on her.

[Slammer]

SFed the link

[Lord Humungus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/t.....re-honest/

[Fist of Etiquette]

Relative to each other?

[Mickey Rat]

Those are both short hurdles to clear.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Les femmes d'Alger," an original Picasso, fetched a world record $179 million at auction at Christie's.

Well, you can see her tits.

[Bee Tagger]

Christie's?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Another Bangladeshi blogger and Islam critic has been murdered

A blogger was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers in Bangladesh on Tuesday, the third killing of a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in less than three months.

Ananta Bijoy Das, a blogger who advocated secularism, was attacked by four masked assailants in the northeastern district of Sylhet on Tuesday morning, senior police official Mohammad Rahamatullah told Reuters.

Rahamatullah said Das was a 33-year-old banker.

He was also editor of science magazine "Jukti", which means "logic", and on the advisory board of "Mukto Mona" (Free Mind), a website propagating rationalism and opposing fundamentalism that was founded by U.S.-based blogger Avijit Roy.

Roy himself was hacked to death in February while returning home with his wife from a Dhaka book fair.

If this situation weren't so godawful I'd make a crack about Reason suing for copyright infringement.

[Injun, as in from India]

The pen may be mightier than sword, but when dealing with Islamofascist pigs, you need both.

[Gordilocks]

This shit is infuriating.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

They shouldn't have been so provocative and incendiary and should have realized that insulting a religion is mean-spirited hate speech. /American Media

[tarran]

Well, if he didn't want to get hacked to death, perhaps he shouldn't have punched down.

[Ted S.]

Fuck WADA.

Athletes stand up to draconian WADA policies; WADA deliberately persecutes them for this

Nobody really thinks this is about getting to the truth, now, do they?

[Warty]

I can't think of a more useless organization than WADA. Every sport that has money or national pride riding on it is absolutely rife with steroids and HGH and EPO and whatnot, and everyone knows it. No one wants to get rid of drugs - athletes want to be better athletes, fans want to watch athletes do superhuman things, team owners want fans' asses in the seats, WADA flunkies want to keep their jobs. The whole charade is supremely undignified.

[Slammer]

Atmospheric black metal. Great background listening

[Warty]

I haven't listened to this one in years. Good shit. I always loved that cover.

[Lord Humungus]

The hookup generation got outdone by the boomers

When a study came out this week finding that millennials have fewer sexual partners than their parents' generation, I should have felt redeemed. For several years now, I've criticized hysteria over hookup culture. I've mocked alarmist headlines about rainbow parties and boozy one-night stands. The kids are all right ? more than all right, we're great! ? I've said. And besides, what are we doing that our parents' generation didn't do? We may be known as the "hookup generation," but we hardly invented the one-night stand.

This study suggests that not only are millennials doing what their parents already did before them, they're doing less of it. Specifically, boomers had an average of 11 sexual partners as adults, whereas those born in the '80s and '90s had eight. Gen-Xers, who came in-between, had an average of 10 lays. Prior to my parents' generation, there was the Silent Generation with an average of five and the Greatest Generation with just two (dawww). All of which is to say that the young people that have followed the free love generation have not become more promiscuous, despite what all the think pieces about Tinder and sexting would have you believe.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

But they're getting more visible tattoos.

[Citizen Nothing]

Boomers have also had more time to get laid. Why wouldn't they have more sex partners?

[Zeb]

The Silent and Greatest generations also had more time.

[Charles Easterly]

Good point.

It's my impression they remained in their marriages longer. If correct, this helps explain some of the differences in the numbers.

[Zeb]

And probably a lot less casual sex in college in a pre-birth control world.

[Zeb]

But I'm sure the millennials can catch up if they just put in a little more effort.

[Coeus]

None of those studies are valid. It's been shown, several times, that the average american woman will lie about her number of sexual partners even on an anonymous survey. Guys will lie up, but be honest on the anonymous surveys. I don't think anyone's ever figured out why so many women lie about their numbers on anonymous surveys.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...from a Camp David summit on security issues in the region planned for next week was a snub of President Obama.

In fact, the president has always said he didn't want those six there in the first place.

[Lord Humungus]

Verizon Communications to Buy AOL for $4.4 Billion

Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to buy AOL Inc. in a deal valued at $4.4 billion, getting access to automated advertising technology and digital media clips that will help it make more money from mobile video.

Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless provider, will pay $50 a share, a 17 percent premium over AOL's stock price on Monday. AOL Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong will continue to lead AOL's operations after the deal is completed, the companies said Tuesday in a statement.

[gaijin]

thank god net neutrality will ensure the continuity of 56kbs dial up!

[Root Boy]

Still getting CDs in the mail?

I hope Arianna gets another good payoff that she waves in the noses of those unpaid HuffPo contributors. Then she can pen an Op-Ed with Hillary about how bad income inequality is.

[hpearce]

Reason's current "socialist" (?) view of Open Borders seems to be based upon the concept that Public Property means the public worldwide/universe-wide

Let me suggest that public property is not nearly as public as Reason would like to think/pretend and that crossing a border on one's own does indeed involve trespassing of some kind and a violation of rights.

Should Reason insist on immigrating onto my property, I might indeed shoot it . 😀

[tarran]

To me, the guys claiming an ownership interest in other people's stuff, and demanding a say in how they use that stuff is the socialist position. But hey, whatever rationalizations let commies like you sleep at night.

[MJGreen]

What? It's totally libertarian to stop you from hiring or housing a person from some other country without first getting a license from the state.

[Warty]

Oh goody. Stick around. We don't have nearly enough TEAM RED here.

[tarran]

My money is that he's a commie, Warty. I'll bet he cried when the hammer and sickle came down that last time in Moscow in 1991, and cried tears of joy when Chavez was elected.

[Citizen Nothing]

That factory? You didn't build it. So hpearce can tell you who you can employ in it.

[Warty]

Hm. I don't think a communist would be upset about filthy Browns trespassing on private lands, but maybe. If we're "lucky" he'll continue to post and we'll see what sort of tard he is.

[BardMetal]

Even though the guy you're responding too is most like just a troll, I have to ask. Why do some many of the pro-open borders commenters on here have to resort to race baiting rhetoric? Just because it's a point of view supported by Progressives doesn't mean you have to argue like one.

[Warty]

Because it's so often plainly racist. Look at Papaya and his absurd terror of the brown hordes giving him leprosy.

[Citizen Nothing]

Yeah, Warty! He probably hates the filthy Chinks, too.

[tarran]

Why do some many of the pro-open borders commenters on here have to resort to race baiting rhetoric? Just because it's a point of view supported by Progressives doesn't mean you have to argue like one.

We don't have to. It's just tiresome waiting for the immigration restrictionists to make an argument that doesn't eventually break down to either being
a) racist/ethnicist, or
b) assign mystical moral rights to the collective.

I should say the arguments from (b) tend to be the more intelligent ones, but the arguments flowing from (a) are much more numerous in the wild.

[Citizen Nothing]

I don't think any of the words you used mean what you think they mean.

[The Laconic, in Technicolor!]

ur retarded

[Lord Humungus]

The GOP's Scientology strategy: How Charles Murray's perverse anti-government agenda has won over the American right

So now we see the conservative movement ? which, not for nothing, has historically regarded the profession of "trial lawyer" as something only slightly above "mafia hitman" in terms of social disapprobation ? considering the idea of flooding the courts with frivolous suits. But perhaps an even more remarkable feature of this plan is that it's being floated by none other than the man who brought us the racist right wing tract "The Bell Curve," Charles Murray.

Murray has a new book coming out that is poised to take the conservative and libertarian world by storm. It's called "By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission," and in it Murray proclaims, "the government cannot enforce its mountain of laws and regulations without voluntary compliance." His book proposes to create "a private-sector counterweight that pulls back the curtain and exposes the Wizard's weakness." The private sector counterweight, in this case, will be a billionaire-funded institution that will bankroll thousands of lawsuits against the government, which Murray fatuously names "The Madison Institute."

[Ted S.]

I didn't even have to hover over the link to know that was Salon.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

The headline construction gave it away.

[MJGreen]

Ridiculous Hyperbole: How This Scary Person Is Engaging in Thoughtcrime

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I like that it's "the GOPs" strategy despite the fact that the only person who has proposed it is Charles Murray and no major Republicans have said anything about it.

Never change, Salon.

[Warty]

Thought experiment. If the book was written by, say, Ta-Nehsi Coates, and floated the same strategy but emphasized crippling the racist enforcement of drug laws or something like that, how would Salon review it?

[tarran]

"This one weird trick could end the drug war!" ?

[The Laconic, in Technicolor!]

Wait, Ta-Nehisi Coates is a real person? I thought he was a Special Circumstances agent.

[MJGreen]

I heard of the book, but this excerpt has sold me on it. Thanks Salon! I'm heading to Amazon.com now.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Cause we lack citizens who speak Spanish?

Military to allow undocumented immigrants to serve
A small number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. will have an opportunity to join the military for the first time in decades under a new Department of Defense policy unveiled Thursday.

The new rules will expand an existing program allowing recruiters to target foreign nationals with high-demand skills, mostly rare foreign language expertise or specialized health care training....

[Injun, as in from India]

To fire a gun, press 1.
To toss a grenade, press 2.
Para espanol...

[BardMetal]

Lets enlist foreign nationals who happen to speak Arabic, because we need more Arabic speakers. What could possibly go wrong?

[Gray Ghost]

+1 Episode of workplace violence.

[Coeus]

Now, I have some bad news that I don't want you to think too hard about...

The simple act of thinking can accelerate the growth of many brain tumors.

That's the conclusion of a paper in Cell published Thursday that showed how activity in the cerebral cortex affected high-grade gliomas, which represent about 80 percent of all malignant brain tumors in people.

"This tumor is utilizing the core function of the brain, thinking, to promote its own growth," says Michelle Monje, a researcher and neurologist at Stanford who is the paper's senior author.

In theory, doctors could slow the growth of these tumors by using sedatives or other drugs to reduce mental activity, Monje says. But that's not a viable option because it wouldn't eliminate the tumor and "we don't want to stop people with brain tumors from thinking or learning or being active."

[Slammer]

Buttplug is safe.

[Injun, as in from India]

If he thinks hard, he will be at risk for anal cancer, not brain cancer.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I laughed

[straffinrun]

BP may have saved your life, ingrate.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

In that case, maybe I should switch back to sermons.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Great. Progressive will live longer.

[UnCivilServant]

Not everyone gets brain cancer. It only exacerbates an existing cancer, it doesn't cause brain cancer.

[Monty Crisco]

Its like when they determined that you are more likely to get AIDS by hoping you don't get AIDS...

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Don't spoil the meme, hater!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Obama Admin. Won't Let States Ask for Proof of Citizenship ? On Voter Registration Form!
Non-citizens are voting in American elections, and the federal government refuses to do anything to stop it.

Worse, the current administration seems to be doing everything they can to prevent the states from trying to stop it. First, they sued states that asked people to present ID before voting. Now, the administration will not let states even ask people to establish they are citizens when they register to vote.

That's the underlying plot in the latest major case in election law that has just been presented to the Supreme Court. Federal law says that states must accept and use a federal form for registering voters. But the federal form doesn't require any proof that the person submitting the form is a citizen.

The form just asks the registrant to check a box...

[Matrix]

You're the worst kind of racist if you don't want non-citizens to vote in American elections.... worse than HITLER!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I SMELL A WISCONSIN RAT
Reporter M.D. Kittle at WisconsinWatchdog.org asks a very interesting question: What did the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel know, and when did it know it? The question relates to the Journal-Sentinel reporters' knowledge of a pre-dawn paramilitary-style raid of the home of Cindy Archer, a fomer aide to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and one of the architects of Wisconsin's Act 10, which reformed that State's public sector unions.

The raid of Archer's home occurred in the early morning hours of Wednesday, September 14, 2011. At the time of the raid, Archer saw an individual that she believed to be a reporter, standing in her lawn. But the question became: How would a reporter even know that Archer's home was being raided? Someone had to tip the Journal-Sentinel off. But under Wisconsin law, disclosure of a search warrant's issuance, prior to its execution, is a Class I felony and could also violate the judge's secrecy order of the John Doe investigation itself....

[Root Boy]

Walker should hit back hard at that DA. Can't he appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the investigators? I don't know law so assume it may have to come from the State AG.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Niall Ferguson takes down Paul Krugman

Like his journalism on the United States, Krugman's writings about Britain are characterized by extreme partisanship, complemented by a touristic level of knowledge. In the pre-crisis era, he was an enthusiastic fan of the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, praising them as "politicians who are serious about governing, rather than devoting themselves entirely to amassing power and rewarding cronies." Rewarding cronies with peerages was of course precisely the way New Labour financed itself.

On more than one occasion during the crisis, Krugman applauded Gordon Brown for injecting capital directly into the British banks rather than relying on purchases of "troubled assets," the initial thrust of the Troubled Asset Relief Program in the United States.

TARP has of course proved far more successful than the UK's nationalization of too-big-to-fail behemoths like RBS. When Brown crashed to electoral defeat in 2010 he was "Gordon the Unlucky." "I actually admire him as a policymaker and have liked him in person," gushed Krugman. The election result elicited the comment: "UK, Yuck."

By contrast, Brown's successors in Downing Street have been the objects of repeated and often spiteful attacks by Krugman - though this has necessitated some rather remarkable, not to say unscrupulous, intellectual U-turns.

[Xeones]

Remarkable, Unscrupulous Intellectual U-Turns could easily be the title of Krug-man's biography.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Especially funny given that the Conservatives are hardly a far right party. I'm pretty sure Krugman just doesn't know anything about the Tories except that they're 'the conservatives' and bases his opinions of them by simply projecting his anti-Republican animus onto British politics.

[Lord Humungus]

Banks brace for Bernie Sanders

Wall Street is worried that Sen. Bernie Sanders's vigorous calls for banking industry reform will pull Hillary Clinton to the left, as the two presidential candidates battle for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

Sanders (I-Vt.) last week unveiled new legislation designed to break up the nation's largest banks, declaring that "if an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist."

Though it stands virtually no chance of passage in the GOP-controlled Congress, the bill has industry leaders fretting.

[Injun, as in from India]

Once Bernie nationalizes KY Jelly, banks won't be able to brace for the ensuing action.

[Rasilio]

The funny thing is Bernie is actually right on this one.

If the bank is too big to fail it SHOULDN'T exist as a single entity and as a libertarian I have no problems with the government breaking those banks up because they ONLY reason they are that large is because they are benefiting from specific government subsidies for excessively large banks

[The Laconic, in Technicolor!]

I'm coming around to Moldbug's idea that the government should just nationalize the banks and bring them onto its balance sheet, thereby recognizing the real state of things.

[Coeus]

Gee who could have predicted that affirmative consent rules would go this way? Oh, right. Everyone with a working brain.

The facts of the case differ, and in some aspects dramatically, from most other due process lawsuits, with the possible exception of the Marlboro College case. Unlike most due process suits?which seem to be based on fleeting sexual contact after a night of drinking?the Brandeis lawsuit comes out of a romantic relationship between two males, which lasted nearly two years and in which neither party consumed alcohol during the relationship. Though the couple broke up in summer 2013?at the impetus of the eventual accuser, according to the complaint?they remained friendly for a few months thereafter.

[Coeus]

In her findings, Sanghavi concluded that the first time the two students had slept together, the accuser hadn't given affirmative, verbal consent, and therefore the accused was guilty of sexual assault. As the accused's attorney, Patricia Hamill, observed, "It defies reason for the Special Examiner to have concluded that John's 'first move' leading to a 21-month consensual relationship was a sexual assault." Though the two students regularly slept together during this 21-month period, Sanghavi also found the accused guilty of nonconsensual sexual conduct because he sometimes awoke the accuser with a kiss. By this peculiar standard, virtually every long-term couple in the country consists of at least one rapist, and it seems hard to imagine that the accuser wasn't similarly guilty of such behavior.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Sanghavi seems to be a leech that thrives on overly burdensome regulations in education.

What a damn mess.

[Gordilocks]

Heard a hip-hop tune on Triple-J containing the following refrain -

All the free shit in the world ain't gonna free your mind

Obviously, it made me think of the commentariat.

I think this Mathas fellow has a rather unique message for the (ahem) Millenials amongst his audience.

https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/mathas

[TwB]

I wonder if some big firm or firms got tipped off early to a raise in interest rates:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....42740.html

[Root Boy]

Seems to happen a lot. Fed is finally getting around to do a half-assed investigation of their minutes leaks last year, but only because Congress started bitching about it. Yellen admitted talking to the analyst who published the info, but says it was months before, so no biggie, right?

[Lord Humungus]

Jeb Bush Says He Wouldn't Repeal Obama's Immigration Actions Right Away

He may be a staunch critic of President Obama's executive orders on immigration, but Jeb Bush wouldn't rush to repeal them if he's the next White House resident.

In an interview scheduled to air Monday night on Fox News, Bush suggested that he would wait until a new law was in place before overturning Obama's actions.

Noting the political difficulty of repealing the orders, host Megyn Kelly asked Bush how he would go about undoing them. "Passing meaningful reform of immigration and make it part of it," Bush answered, according to a transcript of the interview.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Boston University apologizes after Black Studies professor calls white college men a "problem population"

Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at the school, tweeted in recent weeks that "white masculinity is THE problem for america's (sic) colleges," white men are a "problem population," and that she tries to avoid shopping at white-owned businesses. On Friday, her new employer's spokesman, Colin Riley, told FoxNews.com that the tweets came from Grundy's personal Twitter account and that she was "exercising her right to free speech and we respect her right to do so."

Then, amid a deluge of angry emails from former students, the school sought to amend the comment.

"The University does not condone racism or bigotry in any form and we are deeply saddened when anyone makes such offensive statements," Riley told FoxNews.com Saturday.

The tweets were first noticed by a student at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Nick Pappas, who posted them on his website "SoCawlege.com" and questioned how Grundy could teach a diverse classroom given the racial hostility in her tweets.

"You have to teach college-aged white males eventually, no?... this seems like you are unqualified to grade their work as you clearly demonstrate some kind of special bias against them," he wrote.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

I'm just disappointed she didn't spell 'America' with three Ks.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

For comparative purposes, the same story as reported by Jezebel

[Andrew S.]

Gee, I'm stunned they posted about everything but, you know, what she actually said. Wouldn't want to spoil the narrative, would we?

[Coeus]

You wouldn't understand. You don't have a journalism degree from Columbia.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Wow.

"When it comes to campus rape, of course, white men are a "problem population," making up more than 60 percent of offenders according to the Department of Justice."

What percentage of males on college campuses are white? Willing to bet it's probably pretty close to 60%, which means whites probably commit rapes at about the same rate as their percentage of the population.

Actually just looked it up. Whites are 61% of college students. African Americans and Hispanics are way more likely to be in community college though, which means that people on actual campuses are going to be even more than 61% white. So whites commit rapes at either the same percentage or a lower percentage than their proportion of the population.

Jezebel has a rough time with statistics.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Also, you can be a 'problem population' for reasons other than rape. Jezebel apparently believes the only crime committed on college campuses is sexual assault.

[Andrew S.]

Well, 5 out of every 1 women on college campuses are sexually assaulted every day, right?

(is that where the numbers are now? They shift so often I forget.)

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I thought it was 6 out of every 5.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I for one have begin to accept - nay, embrace - my 'Darth Vader' status as a white man.

/pulls uncut (Scottish plaid) pillow case over head.

[Ted S.]

On Friday, her new employer's spokesman, Colin Riley, told FoxNews.com that the tweets came from Grundy's personal Twitter account and that she was "exercising her right to free speech and we respect her right to do so."

I wonder what they think of the Oklahoma chapter of SAE's free-speech rights.

[Coeus]

Sick burn in the comments:

Bob Benson's BurnerFieryAntidote
5/11/15 11:10pm
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But, if you (or our handy dandy "journalist") had read the initial tweets and article Saida says no RACE outside of Europeans made slavery a personhood or kidnapped or transported slaves and that slavery is YALL (white people Europeans) thing. Which is pretty clear shes talking about historically and NOT about US slavery. No one is defending US slavery here. You created that strawman.

In fact, you are the one defending rambling incorrect racist trash from a PROFESSOR who was not fired for saying these things. But really its not your fault.

It's Anne "look at me I went to Columbia" Merlan who clearly didn't read the article or the tweets when she wrote that Saida's tweets were about US slavery (which they clearly weren't). And now people are supporting this disgusting racist professor.

[UnCivilServant]

"Deal with your white sh*t, white people. slavery is a *YALL* thing," she said.

Excuse me, racist black lady, where do you suppose the white europeans bought your slave ancestors? They didn't go a viking and pillage the slave coast, they paid the locals for them out of existing slave trading networks.

Also, did you happen to notice which society was first to abolish slavery?

[Tonio]

Arabs were often the middle-men in the African slave trade. They captured people, or paid tribal chieftans for them. Arabs are generally classified as brown people by progs, but I suspect in this context they'd be conveniently reclassified as white to fit in with the narrative.

Also, nothing about brown-on-brown slavery as practiced by both ancient Egyptians and biblical-era Hebrews, since that also doesn't comport with the prog narrative.

[Suthenboy]

Also, nothing about the chattel slavery that is being practiced today in Africa and the middle east which has more chattel slaves now than at any time in history.

[sarcasmic]

SPOILER ALERT! Hayden Panettiere's 'indestructible' character may have been killed off ahead of Heroes Reborn

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....eborn.html

[Coeus]

You've seen that trainwreck of a boobjob. They didn't have a choice.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Heroes had no plot that I could discern. It was Lost with powers.

[sarcasmic]

And Ali Larter.

*drool*

[Rasilio]

The first season was good and the second ok, after that it was clear the writers had no friggin clue where to go with the show

[sarcasmic]

Rand Paul's political director bizarrely LICKS the camera of Democrat campaigner in a bid to stop him filming
David Chesley licked camera of opposition researcher from liberal group
American Bridge tracker was at Paul's event in Londonberry on Monday
Chesley was standing in way in attempt to block researcher from filming
Incident caught on camera and posted to American Bridge's YouTube account

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rcher.html

[Brett L]

its genius. It's not assault and its non destructive.

[sarcasmic]

The mystery of the 'Devil's Bible': Sinister drawing inside 'cursed' medieval manuscript that legend says was drawn by Lucifer himself
The mysterious Codex Gigas has a full-page colour image of the Devil
Legend has it that a monk made a deal with the devil to create the text
Handwriting analysis has revealed that the text was written by one scribe

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....YEARS.html

[sarcasmic]

Recording reveals 'white officer gave black homeowner less than two seconds to drop his gun before shooting him in the neck because he confused him for a burglar'
A deputy responding to a 911 report of a home break-in reportedly gave the caller less than two seconds to drop a gun before shooting him in the neck
In audio from police dashcam footage, Deputy Keith Tyner shouts, 'Show me your hands,' then fires almost immediately
The deputy can also be heard yelling,'shots fired' after shooting black homeowner Bryant Heyward who made the 911 call reporting an intruder
Thomas Zachary Brown, 22, was arrested in connection to the alleged break-in and police are searching for another man

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....p-gun.html
At least the officer went home safely.

[Root Boy]

Another kick in the nuts.

[sarcasmic]

New York City's One World Trade Center to become SECOND tallest building in the country as new luxury apartment Nordstrom Tower is set to reach 19 feet higher
Nordstrom Tower was previously was one foot short of One World Trade
Plans for the skyscraper show that the project, which will be the world's tallest residential building when it is finished, has increased in height
Tip of tower's spire will reach 1,795ft at completion scheduled for 2018

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....igher.html

[sarcasmic]

Is there a HIDDEN galaxy in the Milky Way? Millions of lost 'galactic dinosaurs' found hiding in plain sight
Early universe contained vast numbers of compact spherical galaxies
But spherical galaxies are all but extinct in the present-day universe
Scientists thought the galaxies were probably destroyed by collisions
Now they have found remnants of lost galaxies behind discs of stars

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....sight.html

[Auric Demonocles]

So... they merged with other galaxies/stars... Just like we already thought.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

It's the Daily Mail. They haven't 'thought' anything since approximately 1964.

[sarcasmic]

They have the pictures though, even if the reporters don't know what they are of.

[Root Boy]

Yeah, quit your DM shaming. DM is a fount of KK photos and crazy chick stories. Plus we get news on Michelle being a bitch that the US press never prints. Plus global warming.

[tarran]

Not quite.

According to the article, a second look at these spherical galaxies 11 bn light years away noted faint disks of material surrounding them. Basically, they are saying most of the spherical galaxies evolved into the disklike galaxies (spiral, bar-spiral etc) that dominate the nearby volume.

As usual, the journalist was handed an explanation on a platter, but was too much of an ignoramus to figure it out.

[Root Boy]

I was confused since he said "in the Milky Way" which is our galaxy and only 100K light years across.

[sarcasmic]

'I feel like a goddess in this body of mine': Plus-size blogger shares racy lingerie snaps to encourage other curvy women to 'shed their clothes' on social media
Courtney Mina 'struts around' at home most days in 'underwear and crown'
She was once shy and bullied at school, but has since embraced her size
Now the fashion blogger hopes to help others as a 'body positivity activist'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....media.html
View at your own peril.

[Swiss Servator, Switzier!]

No, the peril is too perilous!

[Catatafish]

Uh-uh. I've fallen for this too many - okay, wait.

[Catatafish]

Oh, goddammit.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Biggs Darklighter from 'Star Wars' finally gets his due

While they're still on Tatooine, Biggs tells Luke that he'll be joining the rebellion. The scene was obviously there to set up the rift between the rebellion and the empire, Luke's unwillingness to take a chance on an adventure, and to also add some boring political exposition, which would eventually become a persistent and annoying element in the prequels. There was another scene in the novel that wasn't in the finished film in which Luke and Biggs reunite right before the Battle of Yavin. This scene would later be restored for the 1997 Special Edition, but fans would have to wait another decade to see the infamous Toschi Station sequence where we were first introduced to Biggs.

It's no wonder that the scene was cut. It's too long, contains some awkward acting and on-the-nose writing, and the production design looks cheap even by "A New Hope" standards. Yet it's an essential piece for patching Luke and Biggs' relationship back together. "Star Wars" documentarian Jamie Benning must have been aware of this, since he put together a delightful short documentary about Biggs' deleted scenes from "A New Hope," entitled "Blast It Biggs, Where Are You?"

[Lord Humungus]

The Patron Saint of Mexico's Drug War Is Making Inroads in Canada

"I was in a really dark place for a while," said Cindy, a 32-year-old Toronto health-care worker who asked that her last name not be used for fear that exposure could affect her professional life. "I lost my job and couldn't find anything else. I was depressed?I didn't know what to do. I was desperate for the momentum to turn my life around."

Cindy considers herself part of a nascent community of non-Latino devotees in Canada who are drawn to Santa Muerte, otherwise known as Saint Death or Our Lady of the Holy Death. She's heard of public shrines in Montreal, although her own worshipping has been in the privacy of her own home, before votive candles purchased in Toronto's Kensington Market.

Santa Muerte, who is also worshipped by the poor and disenfranchised, has as many as 12 million devotees, and her cult is the fastest-growing in the world. When I came across my first shrine to Santa Muerte in Mexico City earlier this year, I was surprised that there were also non-Latinos there to offer prayers and light votive candles for the eerie skeleton-saint clad in a bride's dress and seated in a bed of flowers, figurines, and candles.

[Ted S.]

The original story dates to last Thursday, but I haven't seen it posted here yet:

St. Mary's woman accused of putting skin in family's milk

This is why I drink my coffee black

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Hurry told police that the suspect has dry feet because of diabetes, and that she "has trays in her room with the same kind of dead skin shavings that had come off of her feet," according to a statement of probable cause filed by the deputy.

Welp, there goes my breakfast.

[Rich]

Schrock, found at a motel room in Charlotte Hall, "denied having any involvement" in putting anything in the family's milk

She was framed!

[straffinrun]

That made me a bit ill.

[Lord Humungus]

My old man gave me a call on Saturday, telling me there was a house on my street going up for bank auction. It turned out the house is next door; the 70-something lawyer who is apparently having big tax problems. He's old money; there are buildings downtown named after his grandfather so apparently it's then end of the line for them. They've lived there since the 1970s. Kind of sad, but not too unsurprising.

The old man wanted me to try to put a bid on on the house, but I'm not interested in grabbing something with such a high assessed value. The taxes would be murder.

[Root Boy]

Progs tell me inherited wealth is forever and your neighbor lawyer will never be poor. Probably just hiding his wealth in a Swiss Bank.

[Rich]

World's oldest mummies 'turned to black slime by global warming'

And you don't want to know what global warming does to black slime!

[Injun, as in from India]

Global warming is pure magic.

[Catatafish]

There is nothing it cannot do.

[UnCivilServant]

Except that temperatures don't negatively impact mummies - it's all about the humidity.

[UnCivilServant]

The article tries to claim the 'higher humidity' is from 'global warming' but a more likely cause is that they dragged the mummies down the mountain and put them in a south american museum, not institutions known for having the best climate control systems in the world.

[Warty]

Slime to slime, dust to dust.

[Zeb]

Seems like they just lucked out for the first 90 years. If they aren't stored in a well controlled environment, this happens sooner or later.

[Injun, as in from India]

72 cents on the dollar!

Hillary Supporters Cannot Change Their Tune Any Faster When They Learn How Much She Paid Women

Though Mrs. Clinton has made pay equity a talking point in her run for president, when each contestant was told about Mrs. Clinton's actual record of paying women on her senate staff 72 cents for every dollar a man makes, they were left stunned and sputtering.

[straffinrun]

To be fair to the male staffers, those cankles put a loy of load on their shoulders.

[Derpetologist]

Are you concerned about Islamic extremism? Well, I bet you want to ban coffee and algebra then because MUSLIMS gave us those things!

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoo.....n_20150507

I rarely see a hybrid between a non sequitur and a straw man. Derp watching is fun!

[Mike M.]

The algebra myth again?

Algebra was invented by a Zoroastrian who was terrorized into converting to Islam (sound familiar?).

[The Late P Brooks]

Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at the school, tweeted in recent weeks that "white masculinity is THE problem for america's (sic) colleges," white men are a "problem population," and that she tries to avoid shopping at white-owned businesses.

Well, bully for her.
And when wealthy alumni begin saying, "I try to avoid sending my children, or giving my money, to schools staffed by crazy people," what will the Chancellor of the school do?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

About Saida Grundy:

Saida Grundy is a sociologist of race, class, and gender and received her Ph.D. (2014) in the Joint Program in Sociology & Women's Studies at the University of Michigan. Her research to date has focussed upon formations and ideologies of gender within the Black middle class--specifically men. Using ethnographic approaches and in-depth interviews, her current work examines graduates of Morehouse College, the nation's only historically Black college for men. Quite simply, this work asks how, in light of an ongoing national reality and discourse about young black men in crisis, the men of Morehouse experience gender and masculinity at an institution that attempts to groom them to solve this crisis.

Saida has a dual expertise in race and gender studies. Her research and teaching interest include Race & Ethnicity; Sociology of Gender & Sexuality; Intersectionality; Class Stratification & Inequality, Feminist Theory, Qualitative Methodology, and Urban Ethnography. Her most recent publication, "An Air of Expectancy: Class, Crisis, and the Making of Manhood at an Historically Black College for Men" is available in the July 2012 volume (642) of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, edited by Elijah Anderson.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that if a man had a degree in Men's Studies and proceeded to make all sorts of recommendations about how women should be groomed for society, there would be all sorts of outrage coming from the feminists.

[Raston Bot]

oh man that's fucking hilarious.

[Lord Humungus]

I bet she's just a barrel of monkeys...

(holy shit I'm racist)

[Catatafish]

"Saida has a dual expertise in race and gender studies."

I haven't gone around H&R bragging about this but I have a dual expertise in lamp operation and taking large dumps.

[Coeus]

Those are far more useful skills.

[straffinrun]

Advocate mandatory K-16 education?

[Coeus]

Here's What Happens When You Report Sexual Misconduct on the Subway

My car was stolen. I found the car, found the cunt who stole it and the guy who helped her, gathered addresses, found current addresses and printed out dozens of pics from their social media accounts. This woman got more police cooperation than I did from an upskirt photo
and complains about it in the most shrill tone imaginable.

some of my favorites:

I was expecting there to be a protocol or a game plan, but quickly discovered that there was no such thing. I kept waiting for a supervising officer or somebody who knew what to do to show up, but instead the three officers just kept asking each other "So what do we do now?" and made it clear that they did not know what to do next. Susan and I stood by helplessly. I was experiencing wave after wave of different emotions and feeling worried about how the photo of me was in the wrong hands, possibly on the internet, possibly circulating among other creeps.

The officers did not seem to take this incident with any remote seriousness. They told us that that the city was full of weirdos and creeps and that what "sucked" was that if they caught the guy, he would get locked up for a night and released the next day. Not really the best thing to tell two victims of sexual misconduct.

[Coeus]

At some point, the officers finally decided that we would go to the station with them and file a report. We would have to take the train uptown to Canal Street. So Susan and I?a Latina and an Asian woman?walked with three white, male officers, down back into the belly of the subway where I had just been violated.

[Slammer]

Imagine suggesting they get a designated women-only subway car as a solution.

Also.

[Coeus]

That's a lot of "sexual misconduct" by women against men on the subway. Someone should call the police. Those photos in the wrong hands, possibly on the internet, possibly circulating among other creeps. *shudder*

[Warty]

It's a real whodunit!

Which is why it was surprising that, according to the Livingston County Sheriff's Office, the three men arrested in connection with the burglary left "a steady trail of macaroni salad" on the Greenway that helped lead investigators to them.

[The Late P Brooks]

Saida has a dual expertise in race and gender studies.

"Well, the world needs ditchdiggers, too."

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Judge Smails

[Derpetologist]

Saw Jeb today on the TV talking about how the US needs to "export our values". Wah? How can you export an idea? Are "we" getting something in return? Of course not. It's just code for sanctions and attacks on countries "we" don't like.

How about this: let them do their thing and we do our thing.

[Catatafish]

The first thing to cross my mind was a JDAM with "values" written on it in paint marker.

[Root Boy]

Stay in school on a JDAM would be awesome.

[Rasilio]

Actually we do export our values.

It's called Books, Movies, and Television.

And he is right, we SHOULD be exporting our values that way. Where Jeb is a moron is in thinking that there is somehow a role for government in that process.

[lap83]

Maybe we should export our crappier values, like laziness and selfie addiction, then maybe ISIS will be content with terrorizing Facebook feeds.

[Drake]

Another Buffett cho-cho burns up. Good thing we don't have a pipeline.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/.....ta-town-ev

[Andrew S.]

Western Washington University students ask school to strip a state legislator of his degree because he questions climate change science and dared to oppose the governor's cap-and-trade proposal.

http://www.bellinghamherald.co......html?rh=1

The school, for its part, had an outstanding response to the students:

"We appreciate the good work of Senator Doug Ericksen on behalf of Western Washington University. Senator Ericksen, a Western alumnus, has proven to be a friend to Western and a strong advocate. It is a special obligation of a university community to provide a venue for civil and thoughtful discussion about the important issues that confront us and to do so in an atmosphere of respect for different viewpoints. The strength of our democracy is that all citizens, including students and leaders like Senator Ericksen, have the freedom of expression to take positions with diverse viewpoints. Consequently, any notion that we might seek to penalize a graduate for the positions they express shows a disturbing misunderstanding of the intellectual freedoms any university worthy of the name must stand for. And, protect."

[Tonio]

Procedural motion, Gentlemen: I propose that it is not necessary to include the "follow me" and "share on Facebook" (etc) text when block-quoting comments from other sites. We are only concerned with the text of the comment, date and time of posting, where it came from and the name of the commenter. Anything that comes across as a non-working control may be omitted as those are not content.

[Brett L]

Fuck off, slaver!

Kidding, its a good idea.

[Coeus]

I usually do, but sometimes I'm too busy to give a fuck and preview. Feel free to go back and correct it.

[Caleb Turberville]

Thanks.

[gaijin]

Tucille's book is seconded by me!

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Eh, not exactly, it's just every fuck up will be punished heavily after Ray Rice

[Mickey Rat]

You are complaining they punished something that actually had something to do with their purpose (staging competitve football games) rather than something that is the realm of law enforcement?

[Slammer]

N.J. Gov. Christie spent $82,000 on concessions at Jets, Giants games: report

The figures came to light as part of an overall investigation by New Jersey Watchdog into the governor's use of an expense account. Christie is paid $175,000 per year, and also has access to a $95,000 annual expense account. Over the course of his five years in office, Christie has spent $360,000 from the account, with more than 80 percent of that, $300,000, dedicated to food and drink. The account's purpose, according to the state's budget, is "an allowance of funds not otherwise appropriated and used for official receptions on behalf of the state, the operation of an official residence, for other expenses."

UNLEASH THE FAT JOKES!

[Ted S.]

How dare you try to stop people from engaging in moral preening!

[Citizen Nothing]

My view too, M. Rat.

[Auric Demonocles]

Well, once they take the stance that criminal transgressions are something they should punish (a position which I would disagree with, but they have taken it), it does become fair to judge how severely they are punishing different acts.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

I was hoping someone would post this. Looks like sone Modern Lovers for the morning jog. Thanks!

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Not like you!

I prefer this version

[Elspeth Flashman]

I loved that song.

[Slammer]

NOT GIVING IS TAKING!

[Restoras, OWG]

If you had thousands of naked Gisele pics, would you share?

Not to mention the thousands of naked pics of all the other women he has banged.

[Auric Demonocles]

And explicitly against the same bull tampering rule, which says you cannot place balls "on or inside heated benches or in front of heaters."

[Sudden]

But that doesn't mean that they have to treat transgressions of law that are appropriately handled by the legal system as severe as they treat attempts to gain a compressive advantage.

[Lord Humungus]

I'm not sure I would want to live next to the house that I once rented. I have a feeling that college kids would move in (I live near two private schools).

Property is in pretty good condition but the wood exterior needs some work. I think I'll pass.