Rick Perry Announces, Gawker Unionizes, New Snowden Snooping Revelations: P.M. Links

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  Credit: Gage Skidmore / photo on flickr

  The latest Edward Snowden revelation: The National Security Agency (NSA) had been authorized by the Obama administration in 2012 to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic in order to look for evidence of hacking. While the searches were for computer intrusions originating from abroad, they authorized domestic surveillance.

• Rick Perry formally declared his candidacy for president in Addison, Texas. He plans to play up his relationship with the military and the successes of Texas as a state.
• Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.
• A now-former FBI special agent has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $100,000 in seized drug proceeds in California and hiding it.
• Twitter has quietly killed off Politwoops, a service from the Sunlight Foundation that archived the deleted tweets of politicians. Twitter explained it's a violation of their developer agreement and the privacy of the users, even if these users are elected officials.
• Two brothers in North Carolina have been pardoned of their previous convictions for the rape and murder of a girl in 1983. Their convictions were already vacated (after one of them spent three decades on death row). The pardon makes it possible for each of the brothers to receive $750,000 in compensation for their convictions. Their confessions had been coerced by police when they were teens.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rick Perry formally declared his candidacy for president...

Cue "Too Many Cooks".

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

750k seems low to me.

[Brett L]

Ah, but it will be great when his Secret Service callsign is BARBIE.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Klaus Barbie?

[GILMORE]

Cue "Too Many Cooks".

Shazaaam!

[Brett L]

I misread that and thought you were calling down Warty Hugeman.

[jesse.in.mb]

What you did there, I saw it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Too Many Cooks!

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

[Fist of Etiquette]

A now-former FBI special agent has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $100,000 in seized drug proceeds in California and hiding it.

If he'd only shot a guy to death during an interview he'd be scot-free.

[Tonio]

So he was actually fired, not given paid vacation until after the verdict? I are surprised.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It was drugs. There's no forgiving that.

[waffles]

Seriously. If there's one behavior the federal government does not tolerate it's dealing with controlled substances.

[PBR Streetgang]

Gary Webb disagrees with you.

[waffles]

Well, publicly anyway.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

If there's one behavior the federal government does not tolerate it's dealing with controlled substances horning in on their cut of the drug money.

FTFY

[HeteroPatriarch]

He stole from the state, not just some peon. That cannot be tolerated.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.

Sweet.

[Tonio]

This is like you, Fisty, the gift that keeps on giving.

[Pro Libertate]

Wait, so you can just throw some words together and be in the WGA? If she doesn't meet your standards, lower them, I guess.

[Ted S.]

Wait until you see how much you have to pay them in dues.

[Pro Libertate]

Screw that. If I ever publish anything for money, I'm not effing joining a union.

[Brett L]

I'd guess -- very seriously -- tha being paid any amount of money for any publication qualifies you. The Screen Actors Guild also has a very, very broad membership eligibility IIRC.

[JW]

Does this mean that Gawker might have to trim down it's various tentacle entities and sub entities and sub-sub entities to fewer than 800 sites?

[Pro Libertate]

I like how they repurpose articles and plagiarize. Will those practices be protected in the collective bargaining agreement? Also, I bet a greatly disproportionate amount of that agreement will be dedicated to transgender rights.

I hope they go on strike--that would rule.

[JW]

I gleefully look forward to the snake consuming itself.

[Pro Libertate]

If they did go on strike, would they launch blogs where they air their grievances and virtually protest? Because that would be fun, too.

[Crusty Juggler]

Only one vagina article per week!

[Ted S.]

I thought we already had a dozen of them regarding Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner.

[Tonio]

That's only a stoma which thinks it's a vajayjay so it can shower with the girls.

[Libertarian]

You can call a dog's tail a "leg", but ...............

[Bam!]

Rick Perry formally declared his candidacy for president in Addison, Texas. He plans to play up his relationship with the military and the successes of Texas as a state.

He forgot the third thing.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What you did there, I see it.

[Rich]

Nice.

[Aresen]

I read that last part as "the secession of Texas as a state".

[Fist of Etiquette]

While the searches were for computer intrusions originating from abroad, they authorized domestic surveillance.

Just like the Bill of Rights says they can. (It's somewhere in the back.)

[OldMexican]

Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.

Which is kind of ironic since nobody at Gawker does any actual writing. Their musings are comparable to the thousand-chimp essay machine.

[Andrew S.]

They only have a couple of dozen writers, right? Not nearly thousands.

[Tejicano]

So you're saying more would be better?

[Brett L]

It is the nature of unionization to define the talent down. When was the last time the Longshoremen had break bulk to be offloaded by hand?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

'It was the best of times it was the blurst of times..."

[Ska]

STUPID MONKEY!

[John]

They are the most replaceable employees on earth. How easy is it to find a hipster douche bag willing to repeat the party talking points?

[HeteroPatriarch]

Hell, Tony does it for free.

[Sudden]

I'm still not sure that he isn't paid several hundred thousand by the DNC or the Clinton Foundation or previously by ACORN

[GILMORE]

Soon they'll be harassing the new people to 'write slower' and make sure that they include enough grammatical errors to keep the editors looking busy

[Brett L]

Nah. The editors are a different union. Fuck those guys. They might as well be management.

[Libertarian]

Employee: "I need to use a comma."
Manager: "Then use one."
Emp: "I can't."
Manager: "Why not?"
Emp: "That's not in my listed duties. I need to go get one from UCPA."
Manager: "Who?"
Emp: "The United Comma Providers of America. They're the only ones allowed to dole out commas."

[Agammamon]

Christ - that brings back bad memories of being stationed in CT.

I worked in a unit that was half military and half civilians from Electric Boat - all unionized.

The guys themselves were decent and were willing to do what they could to get the job done but always had to worry about crossing shop lines.

Couldn't move a pallet from the shop to the pier without calling the teamsters to do it.

Technically the civilians weren't even supposed to do cleanup in their own shop - there's a janitor shop for that. That wasn't assigned to work at our station but that's not going to make a difference to a union official looking for a reason to expand his rolls.

[fish]

Their musings are comparable to the thousand-chimp essay machine.

Indeed...it is the "burst" of times.

[fish]

Damn you Rufus....foul Canadian!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Without me you're all just...American.

[Aresen]

The secession of Cascadia is coming, Ontario Oppressor!

[Sudden]

As I was watching the Hawks successful and magic win yesterday thanks to Teuvo the Finnisher Teravainen and Hjalmarsson (my player of the game), I noticed an advert for Canadian Tire on the stadium background.

I laughed to myself that only in hockey will you find an advert for a company with no US locations on a stadium in Tampa Bay in a matchup against a team from Chicago.

[Winston]

It's also amusing that the "Nation" in the NHL was supposed to mean Canada and that the NHL is a league consisting of mostly American teams but with few American players. Until the 1970s weren't the players like 90% Canadian?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes but it's down to 55% while American is up to 25%.

http://www.quanthockey.com/TS/.....lities.php

[Andrew S.]

I thought we'd get through today without a nutpunch until that Utah article.

I'm sore.

[rts]

Policing in Libertopia (Film short)

"From the Future With Love" set in a world where people obtain police protection solely through subscription.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I liked this better the first time I saw it when it was called Robocop.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Does this include everybody walking around armed and thus not particularly needing police protection?

[rts]

It takes place in future New York so... no.

[Aresen]

Ask them if they prefer Philadelphia Police Service or no police service.

[prx]

Dallas repeals bag ordinance. Butthurt semi retarded councilman hardest hit.

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.....-fee.html/

[SIV]

In Brownsville, TX the tax is $1. You can get a free one with meat or prepared food purchases. I kept forgetting to bring any so I'd grab about 10' of the clear produce bags and double them up.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Really? Did they think people needed another reason not to live in fucking Brownsville?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"I was elected by the people, not the bag manufacturers," he said. "So we go back to being Dirty Dallas."

Da fuck?

[Agammamon]

If he's lucky, Debbie will move back.

[prx]

he's the retard who gave Michael Vick the key to the city. after the dog killing. but he was elected by the people, not the canines, so it's OK.

[Rich]

DNA carries traces of past events meaning poor lifestyle can affect future generations

'The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.'

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Well that explains a few things.

[Brett L]

Three generations of imbeciles are all great-grandpa's fault! Let the neo-eugenics commence!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

If only he were still alive so I could blame him to his face.

[JW]

[Scene: Mildred's Living Room. She pours two drinks.]

Mildred: [crying] Every little thing reminds me of Enos. [She looks at a picture of a mushroom cloud and cries some more.]

Fry: Aw, I know how you feel. My grandfather died recently. [Mildred drinks.]

Mildred: It's all so sad. At times like this, I just need someone to hold me. [She puts her arms around Fry.] Mmm. [sexfully] You like holding me, don't you?

[Fry shakes and stands up.]

Fry: Hey, you know what always cheers you up? Baking me a nice tray of sugar cookies!
Mildred: How 'bout these cookies, sugar?

[She rips her dress open. Fry jumps with shock and throws his glass across the room.]
Fry: I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't even exist. But I do exist. Which proves ... you can't really be my grandm--

[Mildred kisses him and they fall onto the couch.]

[Dweebston]

Yep, I did the nasty in the past-y.

[Aresen]

"Three generations of imbeciles"

Did you have to bring the Kennedys and Bushes into it?

[Tonio]

That is so not fair! We must erase that bad DNA so every baby is given a clean start in life.

[Riven]

Really, the best way to start would be to erase all DNA, and start fresh with perfect DNA.

[Ted S.]

So you want to clone me is what you're saying.

[HeteroPatriarch]

No one with the name "Ted" can have perfect DNA.

[Agammamon]

No DNA at all. Did you know that GMO foods are polluted with DNA? You want your kids to be GMOs?

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

You know who else wanted perfect DNA?

[Tonio]

Khan Noonien Singh, of course.

[Paul.]

PCC Natural Markets?

[OldMexican]

DNA carries traces of past events meaning poor lifestyle can affect future generations

The Lamarckian theory of acquired traits has finally been proven!

All those tailless mice ?their lives have been vindicated!

[Homple]

And Trofim Denisovich Lysenko is chopped liver?

[Tonio]

Well, Lamarck was rocking that shit back in the early 1800's, Lysenko was a 1900's type guy.

[Matrix]

Sooooo Assassin's Creed was right?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Twitter explained it's a violation of their developer agreement and the privacy of the users, even if these users are elected officials.

Because they wouldn't violate your rights.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Did you know that words like "derp," "fat," and "crazy" are offensive, and that you shouldn't use them on the Internet any more?

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....rine-timpf

[Notorious G.K.C.]

(how do you analyze a speech by Chris Christie?)

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

The original article

Written by someone who is obviously a fat crazy retard.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

""Colored" is outdated. Let's reframe."

That's one of many reasons the NAACP is outdated.

[Anomalous]

Why is "people of color" fine, but "colored people" offensive?

[Invisible Finger]

I try to use as many outdated words as I can. Like "freedom" for example.

[Crusty Juggler]

Written by someone who is obviously a fat crazy retard.

Judge for yourselves.

SU grad. Hmm.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Need proof of all the B.S. fat women go through daily? Look no further than the comments section of my newest piece:

http://bit.ly/1yClbwF

She manages to troll herself in her own twit.

[Crusty Juggler]

In her defense it is impossible for a woman who wants to be thinner to actually become thinner. There is literally no way for that to happen. So, women who are not thinner should be able to wear whatever they want, and you should not only smile and applaud them for wearing whatever they want, you must also celebrate their wearing what they want.

[Sudden]

Look man, we should thank them since they do help the rest of us remain svelte by inducing our vomit.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Fat, check. Retard, totally. Crazy...probably?

[Lord at War]

I just read some lame-ass crazy derp from a fat retarded tranny who gypped my OCD personality into a colored belief that such exotic stupidity should be illegal.

[Ted S.]

That makes me want to use them more.

[Anomalous]

I resemble that remark!

[Fist of Etiquette]

The pardon makes it possible for each of the brothers to receive $750,000 in compensation for their convictions. Their confessions had been coerced by police when they were teens.

On top of that they should be collecting those cops' pensions.

[Rhywun]

I like it.

So... "No physical evidence connects them to the crime" = death row

Sounds about right.

[Rich]

Bus Messages Called Offensive When Read Backwards

Officials say they've recently received complaints that one of its slogans, "Ziggin Zaggin," is offensive when read backwards, seeming to spell out a racial slur.

Oh, SFF! Next to be banned: anagrams.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

"? due to recent complaints about how this message appears when read backward, we have decided to remove the message from our vehicles," he said. "This will take us several days to properly remove. We apologize to anyone who may have been offended."

He says the message has appeared on Port Authority buses since 2003.

Please, stop apologizing

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why you would want buses zigging and zagging is beyond me, other than as competition for the passenger motion sickness from self-driving cars.

[Pro Libertate]

Move ZIG.

[Spoonman.]

FOR FAKE JUSTICE

[Trouser-Pod]

So, take off every zig-for great (social) justice?

[Trouser-Pod]

Fuck. No refresh.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

I want my busses figging and fagging.

[Free Society]

sreggin?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You know what happens when you play a country-music song backwards?

The singer gets his girl back, he gets his dog back, and he gets his truck back.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

And what lyrics do you hear when you play a rap song backward?

"Save yourself for marriage and turn that noise *down!*"

[Sudden]

I think you misunderstand the meaning of "turn up/down"

[Notorious G.K.C.]

You think I just fell of the turn up truck, don't you?

[Tonio]

Are you sure we haven't reached peak retard?

[Rich]

We keep ziggin' and zaggin', but we never reach it.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

We keep ziggin' and zaggin

Niggaz DNA niggiz peek! ew....

Coincidence, I think not.

[Rich]

Nice catch.

"I see offending people *everywhere*!"

[Anomalous]

Speaking of which, last Saturday FX aired Tropic Thunder and changed "retard" to "special." Most retarded thing ever.

[Crusty Juggler]

+1 lead farmer.

[Crusty Juggler]

In Pineapple Expressthey dub "j'accuse" for bullshit. That is my fave.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Really? "You never go full special?"

[EDG reppin' LBC]

The "DIO" logo for Ronnie James Dio reads the same foreward and backward. Maybe upside down, too.

[Ted S.]

Perhaps they ought to put !UOY KCUF on the buses as a message.

[Sudden]

I'm not sure the Union of Outreach to Youth for the Kansas City University at Ferrelview has the budget for such ads.

[Libertarian]

Oh, SFF! Next to be banned: anagrams.

You mean, "Naga arms" ?

[Ska]

But snakes don't have arms....

[lap83]

aggin esaelp!
/someone who is allowed to say that

[Invisible Finger]

Move over, ginger.

[Tejicano]

I believe this is the first step towards removing any written, public mention of Ronnie Reagan.

[Rich]

Selfie With Parents' Sex Toys? Alameda Teacher Accused Of Assigning Bizarre Extra Credit

"Mr. Holmes is the *coolest*! I just love him. Well, not just me! *** giggles ***"

[Brett L]

This doesn't qualify as grooming?

[Crusty Juggler]

If the school and the district doesn't protect them, I will. I will," Cobene said.

Lifetime's next film!

[Rich]

"'Detention' is too good for you, you bastard! I'm taking you to 'reform school'!"

[Crusty Juggler]

The person who went on a mission to find their mother's vibrator (the story gives no details, but I do not like facts) should be thrown in the bay and left for the sharks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They say the accused teacher is still teaching...

Doesn't sound like he ever was.

[Ted S.]

Yes, your parents have sex.

[Hamster of Doom]

Rick Perry announces...

What, again? I'll just recycle some of my old stuff then. Works for Reason.

Rick Perry ? Republican

Promises: Depends. Donate enough, and you can have whatever you want, baby.

Track Record: Texas hates him, and a common meme going around is that if we inflict him on D.C., at least he's out of our state. Perry's track record is as difficult to nail down as the breeze, which blows him hither and yon as he strives to convince all people that he is all things. The only thing one can state with absolute certainly is that he is widely detested by Texans outside of Austin, and the reasons the man has managed to maintain any relevance are idiocy and voter apathy.

Forget John Kerry. This man has 'flip-flop' engraved on his check book. He makes Hispanic-friendly and pro-immigrant speeches, points to his state's high Latino population with the assumption that they all must LOVE him, and then bashes Romney for making healthcare available to illegal immigrants (not even true). He preaches fiscal responsibility, while his administration can't figure out whether the Texas state budget is $15 or $27 billion in the red. He pats himself on the back over Texas job creation, while Texas leads the nation in McJobs and one of the largest Texas job sectors to grow in the last four years were government jobs ? unfunded government jobs.

[Hamster of Doom]

And then there's the rental mansion. In 2008, the Texas governor's mansion was damaged by arson. Since then Perry, his family and vital staff have been living in posh rented digs at taxpayer expense, billing items such as a $1000 emergency repair to an ice maker and $1500 per month in cleaning supplies. It is not wise for such a person to then take potshots about fat cats living it up at taxpayer expense. Which he did.

Score: Dunno. Is "fucking asshole" a score?

Conclusion: Everything about Governor Goodhair is facepalm-inducing. A plethora of fail. A veritable buffet of fail. It pains me that we are even discussing him. Texas doesn't want him ? why would you?

[Brett L]

Texans didn't want him, but they elected him to more terms than any other person. I hope this person's ovaries don't explode with impotent rage. SLD, he's a completely aprincipled politician, but he's no worse than Chaffee or Hillary in that regard.

[Pro Libertate]

I accidentally heard a few seconds of his announcement, when he said something about capitalism not being corporatism. Literally, that's all I heard. I liked that part okay.

[Hamster of Doom]

That would be me. I despise Governor Goodhair. My ovaries didn't explode with rage, but I did shut down my blog for a while and dub him He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named until it passed. Otherwise I might have broken my capslock key in an apopletic fit once he finally pushed me too far. TOO FAR, BY GOD.

[Pro Libertate]

Not sure who would vote for him. He's Captain Irrelevant in this race.

[Certified Public Asskicker]

When you tax something, you get...

Indoor Tanning Excise Tax Revenues are Below 2010 ACA Projections

in the initial revenue estimates, the indoor tanning tax was projected to bring in $300 million in 2014. However, according to the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government only collected $92 million from the indoor tanning tax in 2014, less than half of the initial estimate.

[Hamster of Doom]

Wait, I know this one. You get more of what you tax, because people want to pay their fair share.

Do I win a prize?

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

Yes, but you have to accompany the Scarecrow to the land of Oz to claim it.

[SusanM]

Yes, but keep in mind that monkeys chucking turds at a wall of numbers make projections that are just as accurate as government accountants.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

monkeys chucking turds

My favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor!

[Sudden]

Ever since they started supported Bernie Sanders, they've agreed to cut that flavor out of the lineup. There is only one flavor now allowed: chocolate. Bet you thought it would be vanilla, eh, oppressive cishetero straight white rapey patriarch?

[creech]

Still a lot closer than the estimates about how much a high speed choo choo will cost and how many riders it will attract, or how many permanent jobs the local sports stadium will bring to the community if only we taxpayers subsidize the fat cat owners.

[Ted S.]

$89M of that $92M was paid by Charlie Crist.

[Pro Libertate]

Look, say what you will about Charlie--and whatever negative thing you can say is likely true--he's a tanning machine. He apprenticed with George Hamilton.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

What the fuck is John Bohner to you, chopped orange peels?

[Pro Libertate]

Tan-in-a-Can does not count.

[Libertarian]

As a white person, I find this tax blatantly discriminatory. However, as a Floridian, I will hold my outrage until they pass an "Outdoor Tanning Excise Tax."

[Pro Libertate]

Why the fuck people pay to get a tan in Florida is one of the great mysteries of our civilization. Thousands of years from now, there will be whole departments at universities dedicated to answering this question.

[Libertarian]

Back when I was young and skinny, I could have given George Hamilton a run for his money. I, too, have never understood why FLA has tanning salons. Upon reflection, though, I would say it's one of the following: 1. time. You go to a salon and get it done. No drinks, no drive to the beach, etc etc. 2. (I'm guessing here): it's a heck of a lot easier to get an all-over tan in a booth than it is on a public beach. Frankly (again, if I was young and skinny) what would be the point of going to a salon if not to get an all-over tan?

[Invisible Finger]

Every time I hear consumer sales are down, I mention how sales tax rates keep going up.

[HeteroPatriarch]

They have to! Consumer sales are going down, and we can't lose revenue!

[HeteroPatriarch]

$300 million, $92 million, less than half of the initial estimate. I guess for journalist math, that's pretty good. But it would be more accurate to say it's less than a third.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.

*snort* A match made in Heaven! One group of simpering retards joins another group of simpering retards with a history of striking and destroying their own livelihoods for vapid reasons.

[Aresen]

Yeah. It's like hearing that Congress will now be flying in planes piloted by ISIS.

[Paul.]

Or riding on Amtrak!

[jesse.in.mb]

WGA, that sounds familiar, weren't they the people who ended scripted television in favor of mind-numbingly bad reality TV?

[Pro Libertate]

I thought the WGA hated reality TV.

[jesse.in.mb]

They do. But when the writers went on strike everyone just dumped a ton of reality TV on their schedule and when the writers came back networks didn't go back to pre-strike levels of scripted television. Scripted TV seems to have come back, but very slowly.

[Pro Libertate]

To be sure, professional writers are employed by reality programs, which are, for the most part, outlined and even scripted. But that kind of programming remains mostly outside of guild agreements, which means dogs and cats living together, real wrath of God stuff.

[jesse.in.mb]

Exactly. They had writers, but they didn't have to be union.

[Pro Libertate]

Which is as it should be. So there actually is a good side to reality programming.

[jesse.in.mb]

Unwilling to go that far, Mr. Libertate.

[Sudden]

Wha? Reality TV gave us the normalization of trannies! Long live reality TV.

Can't wait for the media to begin banging the pederasty drum. I'm guessing about five years.

[jesse.in.mb]

trannies

pederasty

[Sudden]

Not sure I fully understand. Is it trans that's not like the others? Because that's always how I've viewed it. You obviously know I'm A-OK with gay. Sexual preference with consenting adult partners is none of my business. But I've long maintained that if I were LGB, I'd be mightily offended at having that whole "T" lumped in with me. That;s not a sexual preference in what one is attracted to, that is a desire to be something other than what a person actually is.

[jesse.in.mb]

I was saying pederasty is unlike the others.

In all fairness I don't think trans and LGB issues make very much sense bundled together, but it's still an adult making choices that don't harm others whereas pederasty brings minors in to play.

[Aresen]

"pederasty brings minors in to play"

Whereas Lenore Skenazy wants to let minors go out to play.

[Sudden]

Oh, to be sure I wasn't lumping pederasty or pedophilia in with LGB issues, hence my insistence on using the reference to consenting adult partners. And while trans isn't the same as pederasty, I view it with something of an equal derision. I'm perfectly fine with it existing and don't think there should be any state sanctions against it nor should violence against such people be permitted, but I'm also not going to celebrate it but instead mercilessly mock it.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm also not going to celebrate it but instead mercilessly mock it.

I guess I just don't see the value in mockery here, or how anything in the broad "trans" category could be worthy of the derision child predation deserves.

[Sudden]

I realized after hitting submit that my comment erroneously sounded like I view trans as equally as bad as child predation. Obviously not. The former should merely be viewed as odd, the ladder treated through prosecution and incarceration. And the mockery I submit is mostly reserved for those who celebrate it as though it's some beautiful inherent feature of the animal kingdom to sexually mutilate oneself because you prefer pink to red and playing with barbies to playing with firetrucks.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yeah, I figured the comparison was weird. But I do think you're making a gross oversimplification of the trans experience. We're not really sure what's at play here and while I don't doubt there are plenty of people glomming onto the issue because it's politically fulfilling, I have a family member who was born with ill-defined genitalia, doctors made a call about it, did some stitching right out of the womb, and then later admitted that they'd totally made the wrong call. He's handled the information way better than I think I would, but I seriously question the "trans people are mentally ill" narrative.

Again, not saying that NO trans person is mentally ill, just that I know places where sex as a binary has completely fallen through, and have a hard time looking at someone struggling with defining their sex and thinking them ridiculous.

[Sudden]

I fully recognize that there are areas where sex is less binary or entirely not binary. Someone being born with ill formed genitalia or genuine hermaphroditic features on account of Klinefelter's or XYY etc I have a great sympathy for and such an individual has to sorta deal with issues I'll never be able to comprehend. There's even a person in my office building that I speak with on occasions that I believe falls into that area. But the vast majority of trans people I've encountered don't fall anywhere near that. Moreover, the more common direction of transitioning is illuminating (male to female accounting for a pretty significant majority from what I've read) as I think it fits in with an overall feminization of the West writ large.

I tend to not be an absolutist where it concerns the nature vs. nurture debates. I realize the en vogue position is that one's sexual orientation is entirely grounded in their genes. I think that's hogwash. And while I do think sexual orientation and attraction is mostly a function of genes, I think cultural influences have a pretty fair sway there as well for some (though certainly not all). I tend to think the inverse with the trans community, as so much of what I hear people identifying as the reasons they feel other-sexed are more gender-constructs (i.e. the aforementioned barbies vs. trucks) than actual biological sex aspects.

[jesse.in.mb]

I actually agree with you mostly wrt nature/nurture. I think a lot of this stuff is socially constructed, although I don't know that that makes the experience less real.

I would like to point out that I have zero problem with running someone like "Hex" out of town by throwing rotten produce. But that's because he's an attention-whoring twat who is using his gender non-conformity as a vehicle for twatishness.

[Invisible Finger]

But I've long maintained that if I were LGB, I'd be mightily offended at having that whole "T" lumped in with me.

Make you wonder if most of the people in LBGT are there for the sexual confusion and not for the certainty of their chosen lifestyle.

[jesse.in.mb]

Make you wonder if most of the people in LBGT are there for the sexual confusion and not for the certainty of their chosen lifestyle.

What is this? I don't even...

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Yes, they instigated a strike in 2007-2008 that wiped out a ton of scripted TV shows because they wanted a larger share of revenue gained from streaming online.

Based on what I've read it was a pretty stupid and short-sighted move that hurt a lot of people in the industry along with themselves.

[jesse.in.mb]

My roommate and I walked into a bar in Los Feliz during the strike and found it packed with an unusually high rate of homeless looking late 20s/early 30s men. My roommate immediately declared "Well, at least we know where the striking writers are."

[Sudden]

That's actually what ye rustic always looks like.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yeah, we'd gone there pretty regularly for a while at that point. The density got way higher shortly after the strike started and ebbed a bit when it ended.

[Stormy Dragon]

On the other hand, without that strike, there would be no "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog", so totally worth it.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Rick Perry formally declared his candidacy for president in Addison, Texas. He plans to play up his relationship with the military and the successes of Texas as a state.

On Twitter some smug liberals were making fun of the two bearded men standing behind Perry during his speech, unaware that they are former Navy SEAL and 'Lone Survivor' Marcus Luttrel and his twin brother. Oops.

[Tonio]

That's why screen capture was created, GMSM.

Also, does the way-back machine still archive twitter?

[Rich]

in order to look for evidence of hacking

"Hey, *there's* some! ..... Never mind, it's us again."

[Free Society]

harumph

[Libertarian]

"A now-former FBI special agent has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $100,000 in seized drug proceeds in California and hiding it."

So he stole property that had already been stolen (oops, I mean seized during drug raids). Must have been a rookie who's confused by what's allowed and what isn't.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Cities would be unable to ban the use of plastic bags under a bill passed by the Missouri Legislature on Wednesday. The bill, House Bill 722, also bans local municipalities from enacting ordinances that would require businesses to provide employee benefits that "exceed the requirements of federal or state laws, rules or regulaions.""

Democrats protest on grounds that it interferes with the ability of communities to govern themselves - thus affirming the Democratic Party's firm commitment to local control.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org.....iving-wage

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

I wonder how the democrats would feel about a local community that wanted to eliminate some federal regulations (like minimum wage) or surpass some others (like immigration standards)?

[Coeus]

The marysue continues to bitch about rape, stays mysteriously silent about flaying.

But the best shit is in the comments:

AStudyinFic J M Hall ? a day ago
I get so tired of that. People seem to forget that there have been times in history when women were treated SO MUCH BETTER than we are today.

dontmindme Magn?s Dav?? Magn?sson ? a day ago
Pre-agarian cultures and non-agrarian cultures today are pretty egalitarian. I watched a documentary on nomadic sheep herders and their society seems pretty equal between the sexes. Many Native-American cultures were (and are) egalitarian. Spartans thought childbirth was akin to battle and honored it as such.

In terms of non-egalitarian cultures, women in the Middle Ages had way more power than women in the 1950's. Women in the Middle Ages, even poor ones, could own property in their own right, especially if they were widows (fun fact: the main reason the witch trials focused on that particular group). Women ran/owned businesses and their homes. I can't stress how big of a deal running a household in this time period was (not saying it's not important now but it was life and death then).

[Coeus]

Non-noble women often had a say in who they married and weren't married until ~20. This can be traced to the fact that women needed to learn a shitton of stuff, mathematics, business acumen, herb lore, child rearing, etc, in order for the couple to be successful. Many women were midwives, aka the doctors of the day you WANTED to treat you, and the art was often passed from mother to daughter. Abortion wasn't considered a crime in the same way it was in the 50's.

The Themysciran dontmindme ? a day ago
Women also had more religious freedoms in the Middle Ages, many became respected mystics and theologians. Some groups like the Bogomils promoted women's equality as well.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What in the actual fuck? Women in the Middle Ages had it better? Is this a generation of crazy-ass retards?

[Coeus]

yes

[Brett L]

Women had more religious freedom? Getting to pick which order of nuns you were joining??? These people are crazy.

[Free Society]

The middle ages aren't as bad as story tellers would have you believe. It was the era that gave rise the uniquely decentralized political institutions of Western Europe that made so much modern prosperity possible.

[Rich]

many became respected mystics and theologians

Of course, they were schizophrenics.

[Brett L]

Joan of Arc is not "many". Well, I guess it depends on if you count voices or bodies...

[Juice]

Tell them the story about how they had to check Joan's virginity before even thinking of believing her about the voices from God.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor [theologian] of the Church:

http://www.americancatholic.or.....px?id=1368

St. Hildegard of Bingen, Doctor of the Church:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/b.....ingen.html

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Music of St. Hildegard of Bingen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9uMd1ap51A

[Aresen]

For a while, the CBC classical music program I listened to played the music of Hildegard von Bingen frequently. I honestly cannot remember a single passage of that music and I defy anyone other than a student of Medieval music to identify any of her work by listening to it.

[Brett L]

Trolls count "one, two, many". The rest of us would say many was more than a handful for a carpwnter who learns slowly.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Run that by me again?

[Catatafish]

There are not enough faces nor enough palms to deal with this properly.

[MJGreen]

Well put. This is not even stupid, it's something different altogether.

And remember, these people can vote!

[Invisible Finger]

Nice to see they gloss right over the castes. Note how women needed to learn mathematics, like the addition and subtraction you get taught when you're 7.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I weep for History as a discipline.

[OldMexican]

Pre-agarian cultures and non-agrarian cultures today are pretty egalitarian.

Yes, they're all equally poor and hungry.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"I get so tired of that. People seem to forget that there have been times in history when women were treated SO MUCH BETTER than we are today."

In fairness, women in African matriarchal societies 1000 years ago oftentimes were given first choice of what mud hut they wanted to live in.

[Ted S.]

I watched a documentary on nomadic sheep herders and their society seems pretty equal between the sexes.

"Between" implies only two sexes. This cisnormative shitlord needed to use the word "among".

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"I watched a documentary on nomadic sheep herders and their society seems pretty equal between the sexes."

Hilarious. Let's all live like nomadic sheep herders. Fuck cities and who even cares if infant mortality is 1000x what it is currently or if women die in huge numbers during child birth? At least everyone shares yak herding duty.

[Libertarian]

Life today in your average western country would be unbelievably luxurious to anyone from 100 years ago -- let alone even farther back in history. Our evil labor-saving machinery, health care, etc. One word: dentistry.

[MJGreen]

But women back then got to learn about herbs and delivering babies. Today, all a woman is allowed to learn is how to make a sandwich and the best blowjob techniques.

[Aresen]

Actually, the lack of fruits and sugars in their diet meant that they did not have many cavities.

When you did get one, however, the eventual abcess would give you a slow and very painful death.

This is assuming that that you didn't get scurvy due to lack of vitamin C.

If a woman did succeed in living past 70, she stood a reasonable chance of of being accused of witchcraft.

[Invisible Finger]

+ 2

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"Spartans thought childbirth was akin to battle and honored it as such."

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, NO WAY

The Spartans are one of the most patriarchal societies in history - women literally existed to serve as breeders and to make more soldiers. In fact, the only way Spartan women could EARN THE RIGHT to have a gravestone was if they died in childbirth. Spartan women were literally walking vaginas whose existences were only given value by giving birth to sons.

[Pro Libertate]

This ignorance of history and, really, of most world culture today is dangerous. Almost all cultures have a strong strain of male domination through their core. Women are better off in the U.S. than anywhere else on Earth, now or ever.

Yet these SJW women think the past or somewhere else would be better and are working to make the U.S. like one of those past or other places. Bad idea.

[Aresen]

Some high-caste women lived fairly well, but they were extreme exceptions.

OTOH, there was the incident in Sulla's dictatorship when he attempted to tax a business dominated by women. They marched en masse into the Forum and would stop banging their pots until Sulla repealed it.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm confused. I thought the whole purpose of feminism was to reverse the fact history was pretty much patriarchal. Now they're saying the opposite? That women had it better once upon a time?

Women did indeed play huge roles in society and were treated better than contemporary feminism accepts but no period in history have they had it better than in the West.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

Are you saying Spartans were Libertarians?

/TIWTAAFL

[Pro Libertate]

Unless you're a helot. Or a Spartan who doesn't do exactly as he's supposed to do. Or a woman. Or an alien resident.

[Pan Zagloba]

Eh, compared to Athenian women, Spartan women had it good. Men lived at the barracks while women took care of the estate and rearing of children until it was time for sons to go off to soldiering school. It was perfectly acceptable for them to speak in public and chastise their men when they act badly. There are quite a few sayings attributed to assorted Spartan mothers ('with your shield or on it', 'because we are the only women who give birth to men,' 'base slave, did I ask you about my son?' etc).

[Pro Libertate]

Yes, but you're comparing a shitty situation for women to a incredibly shitty situation for women. Women had it very bad in Athens.

[Pan Zagloba]

Well, knowing a bit of history, "shitty situation for women" is a universal, and by standards of most of Mediterranean civs that come to mind, Spartan women had it good. In the area, maybe Macedonians come close? Romans, Persians, Egyptians certainly don't, most of the Greeks were behind, I'm not up on various Gauls and Germans but with diversity there, there may have been some tribes where it was better.
So basically, just dealing with degree of shit. Like, say, Rome was freer than Sparta, and Athens freer than Rome, but difference is academic if you are a slave or foreigner (Spartans are still worst on those counts).

[MJGreen]

I got into it again yesterday with some folks about GoT. Every time I see someone say that the show is 'mishandling' rape or is problematic or whatever, I ask what the proper depiction should be. With the condition, of course, that there is no "right way" to react to rape. So what are some of the correct outcomes that the writers should be depicting, to prove that they're 'grappling with the realities of rape'?

What has been wrong with Sansa's reaction to Ramsay? Or Cersei's reaction to Jaime last year? I never get any concrete answers, and I'm left assuming that people want these women to be completely broken by their experience. What are these critics saying, if not that they want Sansa to be so traumatized that her character growth becomes all about her rape?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"Women ran/owned businesses and their homes."

And were completely passed over as their husbands heirs because everything passed right to the sons. And marital rape was not a crime.

[Pro Libertate]

I think they have no idea how bad it was for women (though some of that is exaggerated, too) in the past. And some industrialized nations treat women pretty badly by our standards. Japan has that reputation.

[HeteroPatriarch]

This is a whole new level of navel-gazing.

[DEG]

Twitter explained it's a violation of their developer agreement and the privacy of the users, even if these users are elected officials.

Violation of their developer agreement, OK. "Privacy of the users"? On Twitter?!?

[Paul.]

Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.

I have never been more happy and more excited to see an outfit unionize.

[Pro Libertate]

It's like divine justice, right there in front of you.

[Whahappan?]

And they did it to themselves!

[MJGreen]

A few minutes ago, I saw an ad on the back of an NYC bus:

LIVERY DRIVERS:
Switch to one of the Uber bases and get $1,000

I wanted to stop and applaud the bus.

[jesse.in.mb]

The next steps: determining what we want to bargain for; forming a bargaining committee; and negotiating a contract.

We are unionized.

Here at Gawker we specialize in putting the cart before the horse!

Even a proggie friend I talked to about this thinks this is awful execution of a good idea.

[Pro Libertate]

Bloggers are so irreplaceable. Their level of skill gives them complete control of the marketplace.

[Paul.]

Well, NOW they're irreplaceable.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Not irreplaceable, just irremovable

[Pro Libertate]

Fire the lot of them.

[Bobarian (sexbot hand model)]

I (don't) look forward to the new Grawker website.

[JW]

"You voted to unionize? That's nice. Have fun with that in the business you form."

Seriously, other than the batshit law that says that you *must* honor the results of a union vote, why would any business agree to this, when the staff is little more than a bunch of keyboard banging widgets?

[Pro Libertate]

I'm 100% in favor of people being able to organize how they want, whether as a union, a religion, whatever. But it's total bullshit that the government can force an employer to recognize a union or have to deal with it. Unions without government intervention can be powerful, because employees can refuse to work. But that only works when the employees are hard to replace. Which is why they just go get the government to make laws that make them special.

[Aresen]

Agreed.

Next, we can see how 'Net Neutrality' will be used so that non-unionized websites cannot undercut the unionized websites.

[Pro Libertate]

That's the kind of thing that's coming, no doubt. Such a great idea, regulation.

[jesse.in.mb]

I just can't fathom voting to unionize if I didn't have specific grievances already lined up.

Take a chunk of my paycheck so that you can get fat off of creating artificial strife between me and my employer. I don't have any complaints now, but I'm sure I will by the end of this process.

The guy who is spearheading this project was pretty straightforward about the fact that he's looking for Gawker to be the vanguard of the digital proletariat, AND that he was inspired to unionize by poor work conditions at other employers where he was a contract worker and not an employee.

There was a time when much of the media was unionized. As journalism has moved online and flourished over the past 20 years or so, union workplaces have become much more rare in our industry. Gawker Media would be the first major online media company to organize. That is something that everyone at this company?employees, management, and owners alike?could be proud of. There are plenty of companies in this industry whose workers could desperately use the help of a union. If we can show that it's possible, I hope that a positive precedent will be set.

[Paul.]

I just can't fathom voting to unionize if I didn't have specific grievances already lined up.

By reading the HuffPo linked article, there was a vague notion that there was a lot of money in digital media, and they wanted more of it.

[jesse.in.mb]

They list some decent things that are worth fighting for, but they also don't give the impression that anyone has actually said "hey we think a transparent raise structure would be neato!" and been rejected, just that unionizing would fix it.

[Pro Libertate]

If they want more and think they are worth more, why not strike out on your own? Not like starting a blog costs much.

[MJGreen]

Maybe the lot of them realize that they're not particularly talented and can be replaced at the drop of a hat, so they want to free ride off of the demand for the more talented writers?

[Pro Libertate]

Probably.

[Pro Libertate]

Fucking writers are a dime a dozen. How many Gawker writers, even leaving aside their general idiocy, are good writers?

[Paul.]

I've never visited Gawker, so, I couldn't tell you.

[Pro Libertate]

Probably for the best.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

"There was a time when much of the media was unionized. As journalism has moved online and flourished over the past 20 years or so, union workplaces have become much more rare in our industry."

At no point does it occur to him that much of the media was unionized back when barriers of entry were way higher and they had much larger profit margins and that this unionization has declined as barriers of entry have collapsed due to the internet along w/ profit margins.

That can't be it though. Too simple.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Nothing good can come out of unionized journalism.

'It's not in my job description' will soon be the motto.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

What do we want?!

WE DON'T KNOW!

When do we want it?!

AT SOME UNSPECIFIED POINT IN THE FUTURE!

[Pro Libertate]

LET'S STRIKE!

[MJGreen]

Unions accomplish good things, so if they form a union, they will accomplish good things.

What don't you understand?

[John]

Note to self, maybe I do need to go to the VA.

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-john-fund

[Warty]

I worked in the basement of the Cleveland VA while I was working on my MS. There's no more depressing place on earth. VA. Cleveland. Basement. The worst part was the crippled old men who would get lost while wandering around the basement and ask you for directions. There were so many that you had to close your office door in order to get any work done.

[Invisible Finger]

Hello Cleveland!

[califernian]

+1 armadillo in my trousers

[califernian]

+1 armadillo in my trousers

[califernian]

+2 squirrels

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So. You ignored them?

'Get a GPS old man!" /slam!

[Crusty Juggler]

I know that is going on and that is still so sad to read.

[Warty]

Hey John, do you think there's anything to the idea that soldiers suffer from PTSD more now than they did after, say, WW2? The claim I've heard is that the Army figured out how to train soldiers to actually shoot at the enemy sometime prior to Vietnam and that caused a lot more men to be fucked up in the head. I'm dubious, to say the least.

[Paul.]

The landslide 80-27 vote for collective bargaining

[...]

Gawker held public, sometimes pointed debates among its staff ahead of the contentious vote.

I dunno, doesn't look very 'contentious' to me.

[Pro Libertate]

Some wanted to actually seize control of the company--a revolution that would result in a mini dictatorship of the proletariat.

[Agammamon]

Well, for 6 months - then the cash runs out and the company tanks.

[Pro Libertate]

Perhaps I'm being too harsh on these unionizing "writers."

[Sudden]

I believe the contentiousness was the result of some several million words being deemed triggering.

[GILMORE]

EPA disappoints = Fracking Not Causing Water Problems

"Fracking has not led to widespread pollution of drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday in a long-awaited draft study, but warned that certain drilling activities could pose risks.

...overall, the EPA saw little impact to water supplies from the thousands of fracking wells across the country.
...
The study contained a compilation of more than 900 references and citations, as well as agency-conducted research that has undergone "extensive peer review," Burke told reporters. "

'Environmentalists' naturally latch onto the "Could" part, hype up 'potential risks'...because PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE!!

the article does its best to help the enviros out by basically ignoring the conclusion, and fixating on the details of the few examples where there was some small degree of contamination.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

There's no authority or power for the EPA to gain by outlawing fracking. It just keeps an industry from existing.

Expanding the Clean Water Act however....

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What do you have against tie clips?

I don't wear them but I do have a really cool one my father used to wear from the 50s I wear from time to time.

[GILMORE]

I like them by themselves. Particulary with grey suits

its that young millenial kids seem to think that over-accessorizing their suits (*hankys, lapel pins, tie clips) is de rigeur

it looks idiotic on people who don't even bother to shave. that's my problem

[Crusty Juggler]

If you are going to over-accessorize while wearing a suit, you better be this cool.

[GILMORE]

Pimp-Proviso

Kmele exploited this loophole to great effect

[Crusty Juggler]

Are you saying out-of-shape white nerds cannot pull off that look?

Black suit, dark grey shirt, dark grey tie, grey tie square, gold tie bar, large, thick stainless steel watch, square-toed shoes. THAT is style!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ah. Yeah. I agree about that.

They have no sense of balance in their styling.

[Rich]

What do you have against tie clips?

You mean, besides them being drug paraphernalia?

[Raven Nation]

FIFA corruption infographic:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/spo.....y-now.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Ha. Circle of Corruption!

Love that pic of that douche Blatter.

[Catatafish]

That is awesome. Did you guys see Warner's comments earlier? I don't know if he actually has the goods and can't wait to play ski-poles sitting between two FBI agents or if he has now officially gone off the deep end.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Omerta and FIFA are mutually exclusive. This will get interesting.

[Catatafish]

Ever time someone brings up the precautionary principle I want to command them to go back to their home, crawl under the bed, stick an IV into their arm and never set foot outside again.

BECAUSE I WANT TO PROTECT THEM.

[Ted S.]

Not fracking could cause problems, too.

[GILMORE]

Reuters details rural Indian solution to 'Water Problems' =

Marry more water-totin' wimmins

For them, there are no sammiches - there is "baby, i'm thirsty = walk 6 miles and bring a bucket"

[Catatafish]

Two girls and a bucket?

[Rich]

That explains Los Angeles.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"No, no, you stupid woman, I wanted a lemon slice in my water, now walk down to the lemon grove 10 miles away and get me one."

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

It's a good thing Gawker voted to unionize, because without that sweet, sweet union pay, Hamilton Nolan might not have enough money to buy his beloved batman masks.

[Catatafish]

Not sure if this was discussed previously but NOAA is now conveniently revising temperature readings to do away with that pesky 18-year warming pause. It's the Daily Caller so if someone here has a better source I'd be interested.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/06.....ng-hiatus/

[OldMexican]

The Moving-Of-The-Goalposts Statistical Methodology To Obtain What You Want, it is called.

[GILMORE]

Obama presides over war-free planet on Memorial Day...

..well, except for that whole town in Iraq that we bombed out of existence just yesterday. But hey. That's not like War-War-War.... its just a thing.

[John]

Remember when it was a really big deal when Sarah Palin was once in a church with some guy who claimed to do exorcisms? And how it really mattered who politicians associated with?

Neither do I.

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

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Campus activists win victory but don't get everything they want - minorities hardest hit.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/ar.....unfinished

Incidentally, they are championing the cause of Zora Neale Hurston, but we can only guess what will happen when they find out she was against Brown v. Board of Education and insinuated that that there was Communist influence in the integration movement:

(from lewrockwell.com)

http://ow.ly/NTnHl

[Knarf Yenrab!]

IIRC ZNH openly railed against desegregation because she didn't want African Americans to be turned into objects of charity and a political football. Good thing that never happened after they killed Jim Crow and left everyone free to contract as they saw fit. Not exactly libertarian, but a huge wild card like a lot of the anti-FDR crowd of her time. Doherty didn't throw her in with Paterson, Rand, and Lane because she didn't focus on ideology like they did, but she was another of the liberal furies who made that era of re-emergent liberalism so interesting.

She also concluded her life not as a legend of American letters, but as a maid working when she could. I'm sure that had nothing to do with her political views at all.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

And if I'd read the LRC link, she says exactly that before attacking communism directly (which I'm sure made her popular among her literary peers):

"For this reason, I regard the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court as insulting rather than honoring my race. Since the days of the never-to-be-sufficiently-deplored Reconstruction, there has been current the belief that there is no greater delight to Negroes than the physical association with whites. The doctrine of the white mare."

[Derpetologist]

Today in amusing war stories:

Terrorist 'moron' reveals ISIS HQ in online selfie, U.S. Air Force promptly destroys compound

http://www.washingtontimes.com.....-after-te/

[GILMORE]

I'm sure in the future they'll ensure to take selfies in front of Orphanages

[Hamster of Doom]

...assuming that would stop us. Boy, the looks on their faces when they realize they are wrong!

[jesse.in.mb]

If you like this news story, you may enjoy the British film Four Lions

[Paul.]

Four Lions left me with a bit of a 'huh' feeling.

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't think they really new how to end it. The premise was entertaining, much of the execution was entertaining and the end didn't really pull it together, but I still enjoyed it immensely.

[GILMORE]

That was written and directed by Chris Morris, of "Brass Eye" and "the Day Today" fame.

I've watched about half of it. Then I stopped to watch something else. that was 6 months ago.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm a huge fan of British short-form comedy. Unfortunately their long-form comedy tends to be short form sketches stitched together in a way that is less than the sum of its parts.

[GILMORE]

have you see Gareth Merenghi's "Darkplace"?

I think Epi turned me on to it. Ep 01 Here

[jesse.in.mb]

I haven't. I'll give it a look when I get home.

[GILMORE]

keep in mind = while its funny entirely on its own, it helps if you're conscious of the fact that the entire thing is a spoof of 1980s television motifs/production quirks.

that part makes things like the credits even funnier

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Any movie that has people randomly blowing up is, by definition, funny.

[Paul.]

Ow my balls!

[lap83]

That was a great movie and I think the ending made sense. Not "feel good", but that wasn't the point.

[jesse.in.mb]

I think it ended the way it had to with the way they'd developed the characters, but I don't think it came together well. I still think it was an enjoyable movie overall and continue to recommend it.

[Libertarian]

Number one, we're assuming that the guy with the selfie should be taken at face value (i.e. that he was not standing in front of a Jewish orphanage). Number two, why in the HELL would the military be bragging about this? If I leaked this info, I'd be arrested for espionage. Why wouldn't the military keep their damn mouths shut and hope another moron did the same thing?

[Invisible Finger]

+2 loose lips

[Paul.]

"The guys that were working down out of Hurlburt, they're combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about the command and control capabilities for Daesh, ISIL. And these guys go: 'We got an in.' So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three [Joint Direct Attack Munitions] take that entire building out," the general said, Military.com reported Wednesday.

I could stand in front of any target I want destroyed, take a selfie and call it ISIS headquarters and *boom* target destroyed?

I'm hoping there was some sort of verification process here.

[Invisible Finger]

Media? Verify? Fact check? That takes labor!

[Derpetologist]

A really devious thing for ISIS to do would be to trick the US into bombing the Kurds or something.

[Invisible Finger]

Will ISIS now only take selfies at Starbucks?

[Sudden]

I was lurking deep in the depths of instagram earlier and stumbled upon the page of a devout muslim woman who used the ISIS hashtag a number of times. She took selfies whilst fully covered head to toe with a burka without even an eye-slit (sorta like the see through mask from the movie Scream instead). I did wonder what the point of taking a selfie was there.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

On Twitter Hillary Clinton's account tweeted a "pop quiz" about voting in Texas. Apparently we should all be outraged that a concealed carry permit is valid or ID but not a college-issued student ID.

I would imagine a concealed carry permit is more thoroughly vetted than a student ID, no?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Do underaged people sneak into gun ranges with fake concealed-carry permits the way they sneak into bars with fake IDs?

[waffles]

Fun fact: I used my concealed carry ID to get student discounts at tourist attraction in Ireland.

[Paul.]

*head explodes*

[Catatafish]

Not only do you have to swear to the information being true and accurate in your CCL you have to be fingerprinted.

If that's Shrill's new standard for voting I'm somewhat torn between terrified and thinking she's stumbled ass-over-teakettle onto something I could support.

[Paul.]

This is actually an excellent example of Cersei hoisting herself on her own retard.

A carry permit (at least where I'm from) requires a background check, fingerprinting, fees and waiting periods. You're right, Hilldog, let's implement that for voting and hear the fucking SJW SQUEEEALING like stuck pigs about how racist the voting requirements are.

[Paul.]

I would imagine a concealed carry permit is more thoroughly vetted than a student ID, no?

Yes it is, which means BY DEFINITION, the demand for a permit to carry concealed is...

*ding*ding*ding*

racist.

[Free Society]

Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.

Want to join a union, but not the writers guild? Tough shit, something something worker's rights.
Want to start your own union to compete with the writers guild? Tough shit, something something worker's rights.
Want to forgo joining a union altogether? Tough shit, something something worker's rights.
Why do you hate the working class?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"That's a nice novel you're working on. Be a pity if it got accidentally deleted from your server. By the way, it seems your dues are late."

[Paul.]

it's a violation of their developer agreement and the privacy of the users, even if these users are elected officials.

I didn't know tweets were private.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Context. If someone is in a position to credibly threaten Twitter, then their tweets are private.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else wanted to join the Writer's Guild?

[HeteroPatriarch]

SugarFree?

[GILMORE]

"Dude, Where's My Humvee?" - Iraqi Army 'Losing' Equipment to ISIS at Staggering Rate"

"raqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul in June 2014, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday in an interview with Iraqiya state television. Coupled with previous losses of American weapons, the conclusion is simple: The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war the militant group cannot otherwise hope to acquire from its patrons.

In addition to the Humvees, Iraqi forces previously abandoned significant types and numbers of heavy weapons to Islamic State. For example, losses to Islamic State include at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, as well as small arms and ammunition, including 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems."

[GILMORE]

meanwhile = Obama administration pushes for new Gun Control measures

[Winston]

Libertarian Moment!

[Knarf Yenrab!]

"Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable"

The litmus test for mental instability being that you want to buy a gun, you paranoid gun nut.

[HeteroPatriarch]

I brought this up in the comments at InstaPundit, and the response I got was "well the Nazis got some of the weapons we tried to airdrop to the French Resistance, does that mean we shouldn't have fought Hitler?" Not really relevant, but just in case anyone needed a reminder that Neocons are idiots.

[GILMORE]

"the Nazis got some of the weapons we tried to airdrop to the French Resistance,"

40. M1. Battle Tanks. 58 mobile howitzers.

Not quite, "oh no, the nazis intercepted some grease guns which they promptly threw away because the MP40 was better"

[Paul.]

Is this what the BATFESQLHTMLVPN refers to as "Humvee walking"?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

You mean on top of the ones supplied to those heroic anti-Assad rebels a couple of years back? Funny how all those heroic rebels in the ME all turn out to be an even worse den of vipers than the scum already in power.

If one were cynical, he might think that anyone seeking violent authority over another tends to be an asshole.

[Winston]

So the Democrats are between a corrupt crook who wants socialized medicine and to gut the first amendment and an idiot socialist who wants socialized medicine and to gut the first amendment. The former has a very good chance of being elected and will get some good ink in Reason. The libertarian moment is upon us

[Warty]

You almost didn't whine, but then you fucked it up by whining. It's a shame. You were so close.

[Winston]

Can you send me some cheese?

[Certified Public Asskicker]

Weigel = us, a libertarisnish fellow

But the chest-beating conservative pageant took a sudden side turn into Mr. Toad's Transphobic Ride with a nudge from normally staid libertarianishish reporter (and erstwhile workin' friend of mine) Dave Weigel

[Winston]

from normally staid libertarianishish reporter

Reason staff and Raimondo still agree.

[GILMORE]

At Gawker, acknowledging people who were wounded serving the country equivalent to personally contributing to the Mai Lai massacre

Its a cultural-signalling thing. Wounded Veterans is TEAM RED puppetry! TEAM BLUE uses transgender people.

they will froth about this for hours about how the redneck rubes are being manipulated by this FAUX NEWS jigoism, unaware that they use the same things as equal-parts Pinata for their own partisan symbolism

[Libertymike]

"serving the country" is collectivist claptrap. There were those who had the stones to dodge the draft and there were those who had even bigger stones and told "the country" fuck you like the Louisville Lip did.

[GILMORE]

According to you, the nation-state is collectivist claptrap

[HeteroPatriarch]

What did Weigel say that was wrong?

[GILMORE]

He dared to suggest that Marcus Luttrell was less mock-worthy than She-Jenner

[The Late P Brooks]

There are sport handguns with a high muzzle velocity, but they are used mostly in competition. The real fear is that the government will decree some popular handguns "high powered" and seek to regulate them out of existence.

Anything more powerful than .25 acp will be deemed too "high powered" for civilian ownership.

[Paul.]

Glad I got all my artillery already.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Single-shot .25 acp. Front-loading. Because muskets.

[Winston]

Hey Cytotoxic, how's the $15 minimum wage going? I thought you said Rachel would realize she was full of shit? Is that part of the libertarian moment?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The NDP will derp-wreck Alberta. It's in their DNA to ruin things where money is concerned.

[The Late P Brooks]

Isn't there a country (Mexico?) which has some ridiculous caliber limit on civilian handguns?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Mexican election news. The NEA faps vigorously with one hand while taking notes with the other:

"On Monday, teachers protesting education reform vandalized election offices and burned ballots in Oaxaca. On Monday night, protesters invaded election offices in Guerrero and burned more than 116,000 ballots. Authorities promised to replace destroyed ballots. On Tuesday and Wednesday, unionized teachers attacked offices in Chiapas."

http://www.worldmag.com/2015/0.....politician

[Winston]

You Know Which other Mexicans vandalized election offices and burned ballots?

[Invisible Finger]

Hitler?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Adolfo de Hitlero?

[Invisible Finger]

Adolfo de Hitlero Schicklegruberez?

[HeteroPatriarch]

Was Che Mexican?

[GILMORE]

Argie

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Wealthy - white privilege! - Argie. His father was a doctor I believe.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The other day the channel was on 30 Rock; a show I never watched. The scene had Tina Fey's character whining and bitching that the store where a gay manager was funded by some right-wing conservative or something and that she was abhorred by it.

At one point she looked and spoke to a Che t-shirt in a way that gave the impression he was some kind of heroic figure.

The intent of the moment was so clear it was sick. I'm pretty sure Fey is not liberal but a progressive who buys into all the romantic garbage about the scum murderer Che.

[Paul.]

I b'leve Che was a medical student when he had his little 'transformation'.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Ok, then I'm gonna say...Santa Ana? I don't remember him doing that specifically, but he was a huge dick, so maybe.

[Invisible Finger]

The SEIU?

[adolphowisner]

My best friend's mother-in-law makes $85 hour on the internet . She has been out of work for 5 months but last month her pay was $16453 just working on the internet for a few hours.
Visit this website ????????? http://www.workweb40.com

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Derp

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Totally lame

[Paul.]

What a pussy.

Golf clap.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

This is nae ordinary cat...

[Rich]

They were advised to stay away from the cat for the rest of the night.

"Good Morning. Yes, it's me again. The cat guy, remember?"

[Ted S.]

+1 Elizabeth Slocombe

[waffles]

The joy of breaking eggs is its own omelete, comrade.

[Pro Libertate]

Free sunshine, that provides a superior-looking tan. It's almost religious in its mystery.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Shanahan can take care of himself.

[Invisible Finger]

How does one go about enforcing gun control? With uncontrolled use of guns.

Progressive: A person who insists prohibition works despite every recorded incident in history.