A.M. Links: Chinese Hackers Suspected in U.S. Government Data Breach, Family of Alleged Dennis Hastert Sex Abuse Victim Speaks Out, Jeb Bush Prepares Official Campaign Launch

• 

  Credit: C-SPAN

  U.S. officials believe Chinese hackers are behind the massive data breach that compromised the private information of more than four million current and former federal employees.

• Sen. Rand Paul: "I'd put Clapper and Snowden in the same jail cell."

• The family of an alleged sexual abuse victim of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is speaking out.

• "Two friends of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will learn on Friday how long they will spend in prison for having removed a backpack containing fireworks from the suspect's room during a massive manhunt."

• Jeb Bush will officially launch his presidential campaign on June 15 in Miami.

• Today is National Doughnut Day.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. Rand Paul: "I'd put Clapper and Snowden in the same jail cell."

Hmmmm...

[Just a thought not a sermon]

C'mon, Fisty, is this really a comment?

Also, Hello Rufus!

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

And since Clapper will never see one...

Heh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's like Paul is trying to alienate everyone in one notion.

[straffinrun]

It's getting annoying to have to assume Rand has his fingers crossed when he says pandering shit like that.

[Charles Easterly]

Yes.

I suppose it's rather necessary in order to lure in the staunch "USA! USA! USA!" types of voters.

[ant1sthenes]

"But I've sort of tongue-in-cheek said that if I had the choice, I'd put Clapper and Snowden in the same jail cell for about the same period of time."

No need to assume.

[straffinrun]

I trust that's true. Poorly put by Rand nonetheless.

[robc]

Since Clapper is going to get zero jail time, that seems to be good for Snowden.

[AlmightyJB]

He seaud it wasn't a serious comment but just that what Snowden did was was no worse than what Clapper did and Clapper is atill walking around.

[Xeones]

I'm cool with it, if he arms Snowden first and gives him a blanket pardon after.

[Raston Bot]

If he had said "Thunderdome," then I'd be cool with that.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

If you read the transcript, that headline is disingenuous.

Yeah, he said it, but...it's clickbait.

[straffinrun]

I watched it again, and yeah he is making a point using humor. I get that. How about a politician saying, "You know, it turns out Snowden was 100% correct and the NSA was/is violating the constitution. Exposing a crime of this magnitude by those in power positions in govt requires special leniency. Therefore, I would give Snowden a full pardon." Never happen.

[MJGreen]

I think it should be the middle ground between this and what Paul said. Snowden should have a transparent trial, and if the facts presented support your conclusion, then he should be pardoned. Paul should definitely leave open the idea that the facts of the case should be presented in court, and if the jury gives him a harsh sentence, his sentence should be pardoned or commuted as determined by what was presented in court.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

60) We have baby birds in our birdhouse now?some kind of little wren, I think. Yesterday I noticed I could hear at least three or four distinct birdsongs in our yard. I regularly see a pair of cardinals, a pair of blue jays, crows, and at least a couple kinds of wrens or sparrows around. It occurred to me, hearing all these songs, what a joke that book *Silent Spring* was. But then I thought, I don't really know that. Maybe these birds I see and hear are just the few hardy species that have survived recent decades. So tell me, if I went back to the 1940s, before the widespread use of DDT, before so much habitat loss to suburbs and monoculture in farming, would I be astounded at the diversity of birds in my backyard? Or maybe birds really were disappearing in the 50s and 60s, but DDT use ended and bird populations recovered and now we're back to where we were before? Or is it all nonsense, and there are the same numbers and varieties of birds now as there've ever been? Honestly, I don't know, and I'm really open to being convinced of any of these possibilities.

[Restoras, BHS]

The DDT scare was just a scare,nothing more. Maybe Silent Spring is Patient Zero for the long and glorious history that is environmental alarmism.

In the mean time, how many millions have died around the world because of the stigma DDT carries? Oh yeah, right, the watermelons don't care - getting the population down is part of their agenda.

[ant1sthenes]

It isn't "the population" that's been affected, just the parts of it that Ur-lich and his buddies at Stormfront would prefer to breed less or not at all.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

I guess an implication of my question is whether Rachel Carson was part of the whole Ehrlich--global warming conspiracy mindset. I'm not sure since she preceded them.

[Pope Jimbo]

The effects of DDT removal on Sri Lanka, for example, were devastating. After less than twenty years of DDT use, Sri Lanka had lowered malaria cases from 3 million to a mere 17. DDT killed mosquitoes and other carriers of malaria as well as lowering food prices by protecting crops from pests. In spite of these gains in food production and live expectancy, DDT was branded a danger rather than a savior and was banned. With five years after the ban, Sri Lankan malaria deaths had climbed all the way back up to 2 million per year.

http://tinyurl.com/o5kke92

[Restoras, BHS]

That's what real science denying looks like.

[Monty Crisco]

But they're brown, so it's okay. If it had been Europe - BRING BACK THE SPRAYING!!!

[Elspeth Flashman]

I don't know the answer to this either. But I have a related thought: I wonder how food used to taste in the times before now modern agribusiness? What was milk like? what was a good steak tasting like?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Apparently modern bananas--the Cavendish banana--is an inferior banana that only arrived in US grocery stores when the older, tastier type died out due to some sort of fungus in the 40s. My Indian friend says in India markets will offer half a dozen types of bananas, all of which taste better than the American ones, but aren't exported because they don't ship well.

[Aloysious]

This is true about the Cavendish. You can find different varieties of bananas if you are willing to look (by that I mean they can be hard to find). For example, there is a red variety that is quite tasty, as well as little baby fingerling bananas

[Monty Crisco]

Fuck Bananas.

[NebulousFocus]

I'm in Bangalore, the bananas that grow locally are fantastic. They do ripen quite quickly.

[SRVolunteer]

I have had bananas in India. Better than any banana I ever ate here in the US. I attributed that to:

1) Different type
2) Fresh from the tree. I assume that a banana that ripens on the tree will be better than a banana that's picked green and ripens in the boat / at the store.
3) I was eating a lot of really weird food (I was at a Hare Krishna compound for a friend's wedding and they are strictly vegetarians) The locals were Muslims but wouldn't sell me any meat because they figured I was a Hare Krishna trying to cheat and didn't want to offend the Hare Krishna community, who are a lot wealthier than they are. The familiarity of bananas plus my hunger made them taste a lot better.

[gaijin]

In times before modern agriculture, most people might have asked your questions like this:

1. What does milk taste like?
2. What does a steak taste like?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Milk isn't in sync with evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQQ13jdccc

[Charles Easterly]

I was hoping it would be that scene, sloop, and you did not disappoint.

+1 diamond eating dog

[Monty Crisco]

Well, do you want to kill him or not?

[Pope Jimbo]

My father (now 70 or so) told me that his favorite xmas gift each year was a crate of fresh oranges and bananas that a friend of the family who lived in Central America would send.

Other than that, everyone ate canned fruits and veggies all winter long.

Now I can somehow get Fiji apples in January for $1.49/lb. Life is good.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I also wonder what tobacco would be like.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

First off, a good steak then probably tastes exactly,like a good one now. They'd both be completely range grass-fed and would likely be checked only a couple times in their life by a vet before visiting the abattoir.

The grass-fed part is the key. And you corn-feed advocates can suck a pair of balls.

[Restoras, BHS]

The grass-fed part is the key

Yes.

[Charles Easterly]

I heard part of an interesting interview on NPR (yes, NPR) wherein the researcher said that the appearance, texture, and taste of range raised pig meat is far superior to the more common alternative. He recommended everyone who eats meat compare the two at least once.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

When I slaughtered Little Dunphy, it was before I started supplementing their range-mostly diet (I'd use feed occasionally) with loads of produce the local grocery was going to throw out. He tasted pretty decent compared to store-bought pork.

I slaughtered Lindy West a few months after seriously supplementing the diet for her and her piglets. The difference in the meat was incredible. Much richer in taste and texture.

[Dweebston]

Did you really name a pig Dunphy? That is hilarious.

[Tonio]

Damn, Sloop, that's hilarious. Well-done, Sir.

[NebulousFocus]

Sounds like something a researcher on NPR would say. Still, I would like to compare the two.

[Ivan Pike]

But I have a related thought: I wonder how food used to taste in the times before now modern agribusiness? What was milk like? what was a good steak tasting like?

You may soon be able to find out.

GMO Rewilding

[Dweebston]

Wilding is back in the news?

[Idle Hands]

I wouldn't know what a good steak tastes like now as I stick to milk steak.

[robc]

Orange carrots are amongst the least nutritious, but the Dutch are patriotic, so that's what we get.

[Xeones]

Wild carrots are purple with yellow insides.

[Azathoth!!]

There are interesting things to consider with this question.

Take the asinine fixation on 'grass fed' beef. If you have at least a single functioning brain cell, you'll remember these things called 'cowboys', and 'ranchers'. If you've got a few more, you know that cows graze. That they wander over vast stretches of scrubland eating what they like.

And that this is the norm--and has been for quite some time.

ALL cattle are grass fed. So what's the fixation?

Grass fed beef are finished on grass. They don't get a corn or grain finishing feed to give their meat an additional flavor--and additional flavor that is still a selling point among people who know beef. Corn was only one of the 'finishers'. The grass fed flavor was a sign of low quality beef. Now, people swear by it and pay more money for it because it's somehow more natural.

And the banana thing? Eat something besides a Cavendish--there are other types--there are even other types in supermarkets. Ours routinely has red bananas, those short yellow ones, and two types of plantain.

[SIV]

Suburbs create bird habitat.

[Charles Easterly]

There's always a song in my heart because I put a little bird house in my soul.

[SoCal Deathmarch]

Who watches over you?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Get your pellet rifle and remove the crows. Seriously.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Why? They don't bother me. Sometimes they chase my cat when she gets too close, which is fun to watch. What mischief do you they're up to? I'm not against your idea, just want to know.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

They are a disease vector. They have no natural predators. They are trying to murder and eat every songbird in your yard.

[Xeones]

Sometimes they bring news from the Wall, though.

[Dweebston]

Even worse. They only ever bring bad news.

[Monty Crisco]

I heard sum'in CRAZY goin' down up there, yo....

[Pope Jimbo]

Yeah, crows are fucking the cops of the bird world.

They kill lots of other birds, they destroy crops, and they never ever prevent crime.

About the only difference between crows and cops, is that crows are very smart. Hunting them is actually a lot of fun because they learn all your tricks pretty quickly.

We have a big roost tree behind our house. If the boys or I step out on the deck the crows take off because we have all shot a few young dumb crows and the survivors have learned. If the girl or my wife goes out there, they just sit their cawing at each other.

[Restoras, BHS]

Back when I used to go pheasant hunting the crows would see me and fly off. Except when I was just out for a walk without my shotgun.

[Rasilio]

yeah but they also remember you and actively plot your demise with their friends...

http://news.discovery.com/anim.....110628.htm

[R C Dean]

Pope, you might be able to bag a few more by cross-dressing.

Crows, that is.

I mean, you might bag a few more crows, not that the crows would be cross-dressing.

That is . . . aw, fuck it.

[Pope Jimbo]

I've tried, RC, but the combination of the recoil from my shotgun and my instability on stiletto heels make cross-crow hunting a disaster.

[Lord Humungus]

Drunk Hedgehog Removed From Street In Holland

The animal ambulance in the city of Arnhem in The Netherlands removed a drunk hedgehog from the streets. It found a smashed bottle of liquor and got intoxicated.

A local found the animal with the liquor and called the animal ambulance. The hedgehog was no longer capable of anything and couldn't even defend itself anymore.

The animal ambulance took him with them to sober up and to be medically examined. "He will need a few days off rest" explains Toon Lesterade of the shelter. "Animals aren't much different from humans, when we drink too much we also have a bad day."

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

"called the animal ambulance"

First World Luxuries.

"The hedgehog was no longer capable of anything and couldn't even defend itself anymore."

He went a bridge too far?

[Ted S.]

The bottle of liquor was found in the market garden.

Damn your nimble fingers!

[Gordilocks]

Was the hedgehog part of Operation Market Garden?

[Restoras, BHS]

I thought the hedgehog was an anti-submarine weapon?

[BardMetal]

I thought is something added to tanks to get through the hedgerow country.

[Restoras, BHS]

Could be but I was thinking of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_(weapon)

[Gordilocks]

I thought the hedgehog just appeared in a Columbia Grad's rape porn?

[BardMetal]

I'm guessing the hedgehog in that scenario would be someone that goes down on chicks that leave everything all natural?

[Ted S.]

At least I beat somebody. :-p

[Ted S.]

For the hedgehog, drinking the liquor was a bridge too far.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

explains Toon Lesterade of the shelter.

Short for Cartoon? Because that's funny.

[Slammer]

I hope Ron Jeremy is ok.

[ant1sthenes]

Is "hedgehog" a slang term for a female British tourist?

[Bee Tagger]

Sen. Rand Paul: "I'd put Clapper and Snowden in the same jail cell."

And see what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The existence of these billionaires proves Thomas Piketty is wrong about wealth
... 70 percent of those who show up on Forbes' 2014 list created their own wealth. Nearly three out of every four billionaires, then, are self-made entrepreneurs and innovators, far from being born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

What's more, this figure is actually up from 1984, when fewer than half were self-made. If Piketty's theory held any water, we would expect to see the same powerful families dominating the Forbes 400 decade after decade?the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts?with few new entrants....

[Andrew S.]

But they were born privileged anyways! Why, I'll bet that their parents read to them at night!

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Nice.

[Free Society]

But but 1950's marginal tax rates.... uhmmm.... trickle down the cash that uhhh rich get richer and you didn't build that. In conclusion, roadz and pay for my college!

Silly libertarian, you thought you could defeat such sound arguments

[Longtorso, Johnny]

INFOGRAPHIC: Women Control The Money In America
...More women are taking the reins on their finances, holding 60 percent of all personal wealth and 51 percent of all stocks in the U.S., according to Virginia Tech. ...

...At home, the majority of women (90 percent) still control the family's purse strings, from stocking up on household items to having the final say on home and car purchases and health care. ...

[Restoras, BHS]

One of the many benefits of being divorced. If I want to buy something - a new golf shirt, a new gun, Oreos (even though they suck) - I don't have to ask fucking permission first.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

We are oppressing them by forcing them to control all the money.

[Hey Nikki!]

As I said before: it's like you completely missed that the earliest kinds of 20th century feminism had to do with women's dissatisfaction at being held responsible for managing a household rather than earning and controlling their own money.

[Auric Demonocles]

That doesn't sound like a benefit of being divorced. That sounds like a benefit of not being married.

[Restoras, BHS]

Well, divorced and not remarried then.

[hamilton]

The best kind of correct!

[Auric Demonocles]

It could also be a benefit of being married to a non-controlling person.

[R C Dean]

I've read that sentence a dozen times, and it still doesn't make sense.

[BardMetal]

Just do what me and my wife did and just keep separate bank accounts. I do what I want with my money, and she does what she wants we hers. No questions no drama no bullshit.

[Restoras, BHS]

That's all well and good but if you marry a control freak...well that strategy may not be so easy.

[kinnath]

but if you marry a control freak

Hmm. I think I see your problem.

[Restoras, BHS]

Yup. Up until then I had no experience with these types of people so I had no idea what I was getting into.

[Charles Easterly]

Indeed.

I'm glad Restoras is free of that situation.

[robc]

Or just budget.

I know what we are going to spend on everything at beginning of month. Including our individual controlled categories. Mine is titled "booze".

[KDN]

Wife: "Why did you put alcohol under required expenses?"

Me: "Because I have to live with you."

[sloopyinTEXAS]

So do I. It's called being financially stable and ones domestic situation's got little to do with it.

Also, the Cis-heteronormative shitlords that did this study left out homos and dykes.

[Charles Easterly]

Lighten up, Francis.

[db]

"Next week: My thoughts on Restores, Oreo hater and shitty commenter."

[Aloysious]

I bet he doesn't even play Fallout.

[Ska]

No man, I mean no, FUCK no.

[Restoras, BHS]

Ummm....the last game I played through was Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood. Sorry to disappoint.

[db]

The reference.

[Restoras, BHS]

Nice. Looking forward to it.

[Bee Tagger]

I knew those sitcoms with bumbling husbands constantly exasperating their disproportionately hot wives would be the end of our society.

[Auric Demonocles]

Growing up, I was under the impression on how to get a super hot wife was to get fat and put minimal effort into pleasing her.

[Xeones]

Worked for me!

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Does Bruce Jenner control her own finances better now?

[Idle Hands]

Another reason women shouldn't be allowed to vote.
/Cytotoxic

[Free Society]

No one should be allowed to vote. Though there is a record of women's suffrage being immediately followed by a surge in the power of socialist parties, everywhere in the world where they gain the vote.

[Restoras, BHS]

If you own real estate, you can vote for a senator. If you do not, you can vote for a representative.

[KDN]

That's clever. I approve.

[lap83]

I'm down with that.

[ant1sthenes]

So, does this cancel out the pay gap?

[Idle Hands]

So the Jews have finally passed the torch?

[Pope Jimbo]

So they control all the pussy AND now all the money?

I'm being oppressed!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Brace yourself for Obamacare sticker shock.
...Health insurers are proposing to raise Obamacare rates more than in the past ? some by more than 70 percent ? now that they are finally equipped with all the information they need to price those plans....

...Gosh, what happened to that $2500 per year savings we were promised? Same thing that happened to the "if you like your plan/doctor, you can keep it/him." ...

[Free Society]

I'm on the verge of forgoing health insurance altogether. I got chased off my prior insurance and then knocked up my wife. So we got some bummercare and they've 'accidentally' canceled our insurance 3 times in a year. Then we try to write a letter to complain and they reject it, because they are only allowed to accept complaint letters that are handwritten on a particular size piece of paper. My next letter of complaint is going to be my shit in a regulation sized box.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...for having removed a backpack containing fireworks from the suspect's room during a massive manhunt.

That backpack was told to shelter in place.

[Bee Tagger]

But it's a mobile shelter, it's always sheltering in place.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

BOSTON STRONG!

[Mike M.]

NOAA "recalculates" temperature data, claims that the complete lack of temperature increase of the last 17 years is just a figment of your dumb hillbilly imaginations.

I guess you could say that this is a new effort to try and "hide the decline".

[Longtorso, Johnny]

@NOAA 's desperate new paper: Is there no global warming 'hiatus' after all?
...The significance level they report on their findings (.10) is hardly normative, and the use of it should prompt members of the scientific community to question the reasoning behind the use of such a lax standard.

In addition, the authors' treatment of buoy sea-surface temperature (SST) data was guaranteed to create a warming trend. The data were adjusted upward by 0.12?C to make them "homogeneous" with the longer-running temperature records taken from engine intake channels in marine vessels.

As has been acknowledged by numerous scientists, the engine intake data are clearly contaminated by heat conduction from the structure, and as such, never intended for scientific use....

[CatoTheElder]

This is pretty much the same statistical technique used to prove that second-hand tobacco smoke was dangerous.

This is worse than p-hacking. These liars -- and that is what they are -- can't get p

[CatoTheElder]

squirrels chopped off comment ... I was saying:

These liars -- and that is what they are -- couldn't get p

[CatoTheElder]

Evidently, Reason comments doesn't like the word liar ... or statistics.

[Restoras, BHS]

They had to recalculate it to make it fit the agenda....I mean, make it more accurate. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"NOAA is one of four agencies around the world that attempts to produce a complete record of global temperatures dating to 1880."

This makes me laugh and laugh. The scale of records is far, far too short for judgments about what temperature is "normal." And our satellite temperature records only go back to 1977! Even within recorded history we have Vikings farming in Greenland (implying it was warmer c. 1200 than it is now), and Swedes crossing the strait to Denmark in the 17th century (implying it was colder c. 1700 than it is now). Maybe in another 200 years we'll have something useful, if our tampering with the records hasn't invalidated the past 135 years of data.

[Restoras, BHS]

Given the long span of existence that Earth has occupied, I doubt even 200 years worth of data is meaningful.

[Azathoth!!]

Once you've got about 500 million years worth of data, then you'll have something to work with.

Of course, when you can handle that type of data, you'll have evolved far past the point where that type of data matters.

[Lord Humungus]

What We Don't Know About False Claims of Rape

The "careful analysis" option turns out to be grueling. Human sexuality is complicated, and has defied almost every society's attempt to neatly divide it into two piles labeled "right" and "wrong." Wherever one draws the line, it's going to create difficult boundary cases. I've been groped in a crowd more than once, and I'd call that "disgusting," not "sexual assault." Nor would I think of applying that name to the birthday reveler who grabbed me in a bar one night and kissed me. On the other hand, what if he'd slipped his hands up my shirt, or under my skirt? At some point it progresses to something that everyone in the country can agree was sexual assault -- but where is that point? Some activists would say that the kiss was an assault. Others will draw the line someplace very different.

Or take drinking. At exactly how many drinks, at what level of intoxication, does one become unable to consent? Does it matter who bought the drinks? If so, if one person bought drinks for the other in the hope of a spark, is that the behavior of a rapist?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Man, if groping is sexual assault, the fraternity parties I attended in college were nothing but sexual assault left and right.

[Hey Nikki!]

What the hell else would nonconsensual groping be?

[Elspeth Flashman]

This. By some reckoning I have been "assaulted" by enthusiastic clients who've kissed me after a win in court.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"But since I only got compensatory damages, not punitive, I won't slip you any tongue."

[bassjoe]

Exactly, it's complicated. I don't think anybody can deny sexual assault allegations can be messy and highly subjective. But faux feminists seeking to expand the definition of assault to otherwise harmless drunken flirtations at a bar only complicate things more.

[ant1sthenes]

More like, they water down the notion of assault to the point that people stop giving a shit about it unless they hear some details that are particularly horrible. No idea what "feminists" will do to get the sympathy and attention they feel entitled to after that. I imagine they'll run around in shorts, fall on the sidewalk and scrape their knees, and then lay on the ground and cry until society comes over to kiss their boo boos.

[Xeones]

Whoever kisses the boo boos will, of course, be accused of rape.

[bassjoe]

"If so, if one person bought drinks for the other in the hope of a spark, is that the behavior of a rapist?"

Man, this could pretty much define a multi year "relationship" I had with a girl years ago. She comes to my place; I get her wasted on champagne; a night of crazy sex ensues. I had no idea that made me a rapist.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Are you sure it wasn't her raping you?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

It actually might if she didn't respond until after she was wasted.

You're gonna have to post pics so we can better analyze the situation.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

This calls for some controlled experiments...

is what someone with a dirty mind would say.

[R C Dean]

What the hell else would nonconsensual groping be?

By showing up (if you knew what the parties were like) or staying (after you saw what the party was like), I would say you consented.

What's funny is, the author isn't really talking about "false" claims of rape at all. He's talking about what we don't know about any claim of (non-forcible) rape.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The 97% Cook Consensus ? when will Environ Res Letters retract it?
...As Tol explains, the Cook et al paper used an unrepresentative sample, can't be replicated, and leaves out many useful papers. The study was done by biased observers who disagreed with each other a third of the time, and disagree with the authors of those papers nearly two-thirds of the time. About 75% of the papers in the study were irrelevant in the first place, with nothing to say about the subject matter. Technically, we could call them "padding". Cook himself has admitted data quality is low. He refused to release all his data, and even threatened legal action to hide it. (The university claimed it would breach a confidentiality agreement. But in reality, there was no agreement to breach.) As it happens, the data ended up being public anyhow. ...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

...The hidden timestamps of raters revealed one person rated 675 abstracts in 72 hours, with much care and lots of rigor, I'm sure. It also showed that the same people collected data, analyzed results, collected more data, changed their classification system, and went on to collect even more data. This is a hopelessly unscientific process prone to subjective bias and breaches the most basic rules of experimental design. Tol found the observations changed with each round, so the changes were affecting the experiment. Normal scientists put forward a hypothesis, design an experiment, run it, and then analyze. When scientists juggle these steps, the results influence the testing. It's a process someone might use if they wanted to tweak the experiment to get a specific outcome. We can't know the motivations of researchers, but there is a reason good scientists don't use this process....

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Tony hardest hit.

[gaijin]

The hidden timestamps of raters revealed one person rated 675 abstracts in 72 hours,

But see, when the timestamps were statistically adjusted to account for the latest thinking in Internet time stamping instrumentation variability, it shows that the abstracts were in fact reviewed over the course of 72 days. So, this 'issue' is non-exisstent.

/NOAA

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

*applause*

[SugarFree]

The real timestamps are hiding in the deep ocean.

[CatoTheElder]

Well, the 'issue' is non-existent at p

[CatoTheElder]

Well, the 'issue' is non-existent only when the standard for rejection is p less than 0.10.

A standard of p less than 0.05 failed to obtain the correct answer.

[Bee Tagger]

Today is National Doughnut Day.

Who will be the first to politicize it in some way? (Not counting what I just did.)

[Andrew S.]

I'm shocked that Lady Obama hasn't said anything.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Police Off the Streets Day?

[Slammer]

Chris Christie?

[Fist of Etiquette]

This seems sexist. I don't recall ever celebrating a national eclair day. #WarOnMen

[gaijin]

Cream filled doughnuts are symbols of The Patriarchy???

[straffinrun]

Remind me to pass on your 'cream' filled donuts.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I imagine the creme is made in artisanal fashion.

[R C Dean]

Hand-made, even.

[Gordilocks]

More cops than normal at Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Hortons?

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Perfect time for the governors of Maine and Massachusetts to battle, Thuderdome-style, over the right to the monicker "Birthplace of the Donut".

My money would be on LePage: the man's got the tenacity of a weasel and the lightning-fast paws of a raccoon.

[Bam!]

I don't like ethnic food.

[Lord Humungus]

Psychiatrist warns about releasing Hinckley to live with his mother

A psychiatrist who previously treated John Hinckley Jr. and still interviews the would-be assassin has expressed reservations about a hospital proposal to allow Hinckley to live permanently with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, according to new court documents.

Hinckley was originally admitted to St. Elizabeths Hospital in southeast Washington, D.C., in June 1982, after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in his assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in March 1981. Hinckley also injured White House press secretary James Brady, D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

If only he had known back then that Jodie Foster swings the other way.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Then he would have had to shoot two presidents!

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Didn't he "murder" James Brady? I know that's what the stupid ass foundation his wife started is now saying after they shopped his corpse around until they found a ME willing to put that on his death certificate.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"They say a boy's best friend is his mother..."

[Fist of Etiquette]

U.S. officials believe Chinese hackers are behind the massive data breach that compromised the private information of more than four million current and former federal employees.

Technically doesn't China own the U.S. government?

[WTF]

If you owe the bank $1,000,000, you're in trouble, if you owe the bank $100,000,000, the bank is in trouble.

[Lord Humungus]

Is Game of Thrones an allegory for global climate change?

In a new video, Vox's Zack Beauchamp outlines a theory by political scientist Charli Carpenter that the HBO series "Game of Thrones" functions as an elaborate allegory both for the dangers of global climate change and for the unwillingness of countries like the United States and China to deal with it.

Just as the White Walkers are being ignored by the houses fighting over the Westerosi throne, so too are the major producers of carbon emissions struggling to succeed in an economy that will, in the end, render the planet uninhabitable.

[SugarFree]

Yes, the fight against implacable ice monsters is really about global warming.

Vox... you so crazy.

[Monty Crisco]

Hot Air had a great take on this: " standard dorm-room navel-gazing"

But they also made the point that a zombie allegory of GoT could be used to fit ANY agenda - 1% worker exploitation, over-consumerism, religious fanatacism - you name it.

It is brilliant in that the leftists know people love GoT, so in trying to link their pet causes to it in the minds of the audience, they hope they can subtly get the audience to at least subconsciously buy their bullshit propaganda.

Not the worst plan in the world.

[BardMetal]

Is Game of Thrones an allegory for the election?

Just as the White Walkers are being ignored by the houses fighting over the Westerosi throne, so too are the Republicans fighting amongst themselves ignoring an evil Ice bitch named Hillary who threatens to render the country unrecognizable.

[Restoras, BHS]

who threatens to render the country unrecognizable

It's too late for that. $18T or debt, $100T of unfunded liabilities...and not a soul is talking about it, left or right, Democrat or Republican. When it all comes due - and it will - it won't matter who is president, the country will be rendered unrecognizable.

[Scarecrow Repair]

The figure I use to startle people is that federal, state, and local governments spend $7T a year: $20K/year for every single person, $50K for every family.

Not a single person has believed me at first, and not a single one thinks they get their money's worth.

[lap83]

+1 pair of soulless blue eyes

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Being ignored? Um, the Knight's Watch has been there for centuries at The Wall, which was constructed to keep those fast zombies out of Westeros. How is that ignoring them?

Climateers are completely retarded.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

YOU ARE JUST SHILLING FOR A BIGGER DEFENSE BUDGET!!!11!!one!11

/Prog

[sloopyinTEXAS]

::Arsenio Hall-style applause::

[ant1sthenes]

Well, maybe if there was a religion in Westeros that went around saying that the White Walkers were a punishment visited on the world for violating their deity's rules, and only by worshiping their god, following his rules, and donating vast sums to his priests, can humanity be saved from the threat. I admit that I stopped watching in the third season and never read the books, so maybe that's a thing?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Isn't Zack Beauchamp the Vox World Correspondent clown who claimed Israel shut down the bridge between Gaza and the West Bank? How does "cold spike of fear" Ezra still let Beauchamp write for Vox?

Also, GRRM started writing ASOIAF in the early 90s. I think "global warming" was just becoming a thing then, but probably wasn't what it is today.

[Lord Humungus]

Eight out of 10 Malala suspects 'secretly acquitted'

In April, officials in Pakistan said that 10 Taliban fighters had been found guilty and received 25-year jail terms.

But sources have now confirmed to the BBC that only two of the men who stood trial were convicted.

The secrecy surrounding the trial, which was held behind closed doors, raised suspicions over its validity.

The court judgement - seen for the first time on Friday more than a month after the trial - claims that the two men convicted were those who shot Ms Yousafzai in 2012.

[Free Society]

Even members of the Taliban get less harsh sentences in Pakistan, than Ross Ulbricht got.

[kbolino]

Not sure that comparison says anything meaningful, given that wide swaths of Pakistan are essentially Taliban/Islamist territory.

[sarcasmic]

'I don't feel betrayed': Girlfriend of man with no penis says she has forgiven him after he kept his condition secret for a YEAR

Fedra Fabian, 25, from Budapest, says she doesn't feel betrayed by secret
Boyfriend Andrew Wardle, 40, from Manchester, was born with no penis
Ms Fabian says telling her the truth was 'his personal business'
Mr Wardle is currently having surgery to create a functioning set of genitals
Couple met in 2012 while working at a holiday camp in Skegness

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-YEAR.html

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Do you know who else is currently having surgery to create a functioning set of genitals?

[sarcasmic]

Hitler?

[sarcasmic]

Oh, wait. You said currently.

Palin's Buttplug?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

No, no, you're supposed to say "you know who else was missing some of his sexual equipment?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_PbI1-Qo0

[Auric Demonocles]

Varys?

[Beautiful Bean Footage]

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"I just feel like we should wait for the right time, baby."

[Auric Demonocles]

If she hasn't found out in a year, she's clearly not very interested in what is done there anyway.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

He was a beta orbiter who was just there to pay the bills. She was just glad not to have to fight him off while she cheats w/ other guys.

[Auric Demonocles]

Meant to say "down there", but this seems to work too. No need for EDIT BUTTON

[straffinrun]

Isn't there a term for men born without penises?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Weigels?

[Idle Hands]

Wo-man.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Woe-man.

[tarran]

Whoaaaa, man!

[Xeones]

Women?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Democrats.

[hamilton]

he kept his condition secret for a YEAR

Wow, what a dick.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

*golf clap*

[Idle Hands]

The Big Lebowski: What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?
The Dude: Dude.
The Big Lebowski: Huh?
The Dude: Uhh... I don't know sir.
The Big Lebowski: Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man?
The Dude: Hmmm... Sure, that and a pair of testicles.

[Charles Easterly]

+1 Gutterballs

[sloopyinTEXAS]

He should get a job working for the Environmental Protection Agency in New York City.

-Walter Peck

[gaijin]

Today is National Doughnut Day.

Law enforcement suffers outsized impacts

[Lord Humungus]

Ohio exceeds Clinton's early-voting proposal

Yes, those were Republican snickers you heard across Capitol Square this afternoon as Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidental candidate in-waiting, called for at least 20 days of early in-person voting in every state in 2016.

Ohio already exceeds her proposed standard for expanded early voting, including evening and weekend hours.

"With 28 days to vote and the ability to cast a ballot without ever leaving your home, Ohio voters enjoy some of the most generous voting options in the country. For this reason, and many others, our state is a national leader in voter access," Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said in a statement this afternoon. "I would put it up against any other state -- including Hillary Clinton's home state of New York, which only gives all voters one day to cast a ballot.

[Ted S.]

Why do we even need early voting?

[Auric Demonocles]

Because if you expect there to be any kind of effort required to vote, you hate poor people and minorities.

I expect soon they'll argue you should be able to just vote on Facebook.

[gaijin]

or text messaging...if it is good enough for Televised talent shows, why not politics!

[Auric Demonocles]

Of course, these are only steps along the path. Once these are implemented, the concern will shift to the poor who can't afford an internet connection, cell phone, or time to go to the public library.

[Andrew S.]

Well, if there were no early voting, I'd be voting absentee. And I don't like voting absentee.

[Free Society]

Why do we even need early voting?

To help Democrats get elected. The Democrats need more help, because they're brown and crippled or something.

[sarcasmic]

Groom buys his bride-to-be a new pair of breasts for their wedding day? after she was left with saggy skin due to dramatic seven stone weight loss

Meryl Clarke's overactive thyroid caused her weight to fluctuate by 12st
Her husband Luke offered to pay for surgery ahead of their wedding
Meryl went from an AA cup to a DD and plans to have more surgery

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....-loss.html

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Gah! That woman looks like a Praying Mantis stuffed into a human suit.

[sarcasmic]

+ 1 Men in Black

[The DerpRider]

That is a Florida rough 29 years old. Yeesh.

[SugarFree]

He's not doing anything about the face or the tattoo?

[The DerpRider]

Baby steps.

[SugarFree]

Ew. She has little deformed baby feet too?

[Lord Humungus]

Japan mulls emergency toilets in elevators

Japan is looking at installing toilets in elevators and providing an emergency supply of drinking water for people trapped by the nation's frequent powerful earthquakes, an official said Wednesday.

The move comes after dozens of people were left high and dry, some for over an hour, following a 7.8 magnitude quake on Saturday that stopped lifts.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Don't google "Japanese elevator toilet porn". Just sayin'.

[BardMetal]

Mein Gott! Ist das ein Dinga? Schmutzig!

[Free Society]

I suspect that a legislator shit his pants in the elevator.

[straffinrun]

Good idea. They put one on the escalators, too.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Gold futures fall after strong jobs report

http://www.marketwatch.com/sto.....atest_news

BUY YER GOLD, BOYS!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Yep, buy now so you have it after the job numbers are 'unexpectly' revised downward later.

Weigel supports a candidate, Hillary!, who takes illegal donations from nations that behead gays and rape women. It may say some snide things now, but come election time it will come around.

[Mike M.]

Imagine how depressed scumbag Weigel will be if the second quarter is negative and we officially end up back in a recession. Because it looks like it's going to be pretty close.

[Palin's Buttplug]

All I want is for gold to fall back to $700ish so I can gloat here (again).

[Monty Crisco]

SO many gold bugs and preppers on this sight. So relevant. Man, you were just SO right. You really showed us.

What a sad little fag you are...

[Palin's Buttplug]

Lots of them, you lying dipshit. They just shut up when the gold "hyperinflation"story became a lie.

And a real libertarian doesn't root for the economy to suffer because there is a Democrat in the White House. Only Team Red does that.

[Jordan]

Can you produce any evidence to support your idiotic claims? No, you can't. This is especially rich since you just called Johnny Longtorso a liar.

[Scarecrow Repair]

KRUGMAN!!!!!eleventy!

[Monty Crisco]

Speaking of lying dipshits:

And a real libertarian doesn't root for the economy to suffer because there is a Democrat in the White House

YAY! The economy is great!!

Tell that to the millions of people that have stopped looking for a job, dipshit.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Why? Don't you want it to be worth something when you confiscate it?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Quit lying. I know that is all you have but it doesn't work.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Are you butthurt, Weigel? Tell us more about your favorite candidate, who takes illegal donations from nations that rape women and behead gays.

[Mike M.]

Are you butthurt, Weigel?

I know I would be if I had a sweet-ass gig at the renowned Washington Post that I didn't deserve, and then threw it away and ended up in the desert at Bloomberg News by acting like the big-mouthed stupid fucking douchebag that he is.

[Auric Demonocles]

I bet Rand's alt-text said to throw Root in jail.

[Lord Humungus]

Video shows Florida man dancing on patrol car roof to save children from vampires

On surveillance footage released Wednesday by the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Christian Radecki, 44, can be seen driving into the rear bumper of a Sheriff's Office patrol car that was parked in the driveway of a home. The incident occurred on April 7, officials said.

The Cape Coral man climbs onto the roof of the patrol car and begins putting on a show that lasts for about six minutes.

Radecki danced to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl" and Supertramp's "Goodbye Stranger," and when he was finished, the convicted sex offender lowered himself onto the hood of the car and ripped off one of the windshield wipers.

[Bee Tagger]

Remember when Faith took Buffy out dancing and then killed what she *thought* was a vampire? Yeah, that didn't go so well, did it?

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Florida Man, don't ever change!

[R C Dean]

Don't forget to substitute "Jeb Bush" or "Marco Rubio" for "Florida Man."

Whoever thought that up has my undying admiration.

[Lord Humungus]

Paul Krugman: Texas is a failed experiment in "reverse Robin-Hood" economic policy

Following the news that former Texas Governor Rick Perry is throwing his hat into the Republican primary, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman decided to look back at the so-called "Texas miracle" that Perry used to establish his economic credentials in his failed 2012 bid for the GOP nomination.

Conservatives, Krugman argues, "have long held up Texas as a supposed demonstration that low taxes on the rich and harsh treatment of the poor are the keys to prosperity." But the real engine of Texas' economy isn't its fiscal policy ? it's oil.

Even though Texas' economy has diversified in recent years, Krugman writes, one-third is still dependent on the hydrocarbon industry, and the sustained dip in oil prices has crippled the state. Its "reverse Robin-Hood" fiscal policies were supposed to insulate the state against market vagaries, but they simply haven't.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Is the state of Texas stealing from the poor? Or just not stealing from the rich as much as they could get away with?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Robin Hood stole from an oppressive government.

Anyone ask Krugbe how CA is doing?

[Injun, as in from India]

Not stealing from the rich as much = Stealing from the poor

[Palin's Buttplug]

Texas lucked out with the shale boom no doubt. But Krugman can't bitch about tax policy when he states the obvious about their shale finds.

[Restoras, BHS]

How exactly did Texas "luck out" on shale? NY has lots of shale to exploit but seems much less "lucky" than Texas.

[Monty Crisco]

Boom goes the dynamite.
On a dipshit.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Such blatant and eloquent misunderstanding of basic economics has seldom been attempted on such a grand scale. Do you perchance have a newlist from which I may unsubscribe?

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

New York outright banned fracking. Maybe certain states would be 'luckier' if their policies weren't inimical to growth.

[Injun, as in from India]

Krugabe in short:

If Texas fails: "those bast***s failed!"
If Texas succeeds: "no, those bast***s actually failed!"

[Monty Crisco]

Plus: IF ONLY GOVERNMENT WOULD SPEND MORE MONEY!!!!

[Injun, as in from India]

Economy is bad?

Quick! Spend money! We need stimulus!

Economy is good?

Quick! Spend money! When else are you going to spend money?

[Monty Crisco]

When all you have is a government credit-card, everything looks like Amazon...

[Free Society]

Krugman sure has some gall to complain that Republicans wants to steal from the poor while he supports ENDLESS inflation which directly steals from the poor more than any other government policy.

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

Looking at Texas' unemployment rate at the beginning of this year, their unemployment rate has actually continued to fall since oil prices started dipping near the end of 2014 and their unemployment is now 4.3%.

Krugman is outright lying. I also like that having an economy with lots of oil production is never held against a country like, say, Norway, even though their economy is far more heavily dependent on oil than Texas is.

[Injun, as in from India]

But... but... he's got a Nobel Prize!

[Lord Humungus]

Our Texas plants are having a hard time keeping people - offering wages that are too low compared to the competition. So we end up with the mouth breathers and employees that will walk off the job for the smallest slight from management.

[CatoTheElder]

Nationwide, not a single net full-time job has been created since the peak of the last business cycle.

According to BLS (http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost):

Nov 2007 121.9 million full-time jobs
May 2015 121.4 million

It's a pretty dismal performance in real job creation over the past 7.5 years.

Over the same period, Texas steadily created around 1.5 million jobs (http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/ LASST480000000000003).

[Longtorso, Johnny]

EXCLUSIVE: Clinton charity took up to $10 MILLION donation from African church which called homosexuals 'devils' - despite Hillary's support for gay marriage
Hillary Clinton's charity accepted a substantial donation from an anti-gay African church which has likened homosexuals to the Devil, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

The 2016 Presidential candidate took money for her sprawling health nonprofit from the Cameroon Baptist Convention whose official policy is that being gay 'contradicts God's purpose for human sexuality'.

The devout Christian organization has in the past compared being gay to committing incest and human trafficking. Its leaders have also railed against US attempts to promote gay rights in Cameroon.

Despite this, the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board gave between $1million and $10million between 2010 and this year, according to the latest list of donors from the Clinton Health Access Initiative....

[tarran]

Bluntly, this is a bullshit attack.

Let's say this the Cameroon Baptist Health Board had given the money to the Doctors Without Borders to pay for Ebola treatments. Would that be a bad thing?

What matters is what the money is used for, not where it came from.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman."
-- Hillary! sometime in 2000

[Andrew S.]

Of course it's a bullshit attack.

However, one can imagine the reaction if such a donation was given to a charity controlled by a leading Republican candidate.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

tarran, considering the charity is nothing but a slush fund, this is absolutely valid.

Charity watchdog: Clinton Foundation a 'slush fund'
...The Clinton family's mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid.

The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends....

[tarran]

Soooo, the fact that the money was not spent on good things makes the money's source relevant how?

The point is that we should be criticising the existence of the slush fund. If the CB Health Board was buying Hillary's support to forcibly repatriate gay men seeking asylum from Cameroon so that they could be harmed, then this might be relevant.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

tarran is an idiot. Proof from this very thread:

What matters is what the money is used for, not where it came from.

Soooo, the fact that the money was not spent on good things makes the money's source relevant how?

[tarran]

No Johnny, read what I wrote very carefully.

I'll help you out.

Given: Ron Paul's campaign was donated to by White Supremacists.

Assertion: Ron Paul is evil for accepting this money and spending it to run for office as a libertarian.

Is this assertion true?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

He accountable for the decision to keep it or return it once he found out.

[tarran]

So, you are asserting that Ron Paul is evil for spending Stormfront money to run for office as a libertarian.

I am asserting that he is not. I assert that if he runs for office as a libertarian and goes NDASP once he gets his but in a chair, *THAT'S* the problem. If he runs for office as a libertarian and then executes his duties in a libertarian way, who donated towards his election, who voted for him is not relevant.

And, while shrieking about the Saudi's, Pakis et al might feel good; it's a diversion from the real problem of Hillary's corruption. I should point out it's precisely the sort of diversion that Hillary has used to evade being held accountable for her corrupt acts.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

No tarran, the sum total of Hillary's corruption is valid to bring up. That includes y'all's shared support of taking illegal donations from countries that rape women and behead gays.

[ant1sthenes]

In general, giving money to people means supporting them. A good person can't help being supported by bad people, but if he returned the money, he would be giving money to white supremacists, and thus supporting them. So, he has a moral obligation to keep the money, or at least donate it elsewhere, but I don't know if you can do that with campaign funds until the campaign is over.

But in response to your earlier point, it does recontextualize things. It's just a lot easier to believe someone is selling favors for cash they can spend on themselves than to raise money for charity, since the former is internally consistent (it suggests the person is a corrupt piece of shit) while the latter demands you find them both deeply corrupt and altruistic at the same time.

[tarran]

So here's the question....

What favor was Clinton doing for the Cameroon Baptist Health Board?

Was she defrauding them by promising to spend money on medical supplies and instead pocketing the money?

Was she actually supplying medical supplies?

Was she using medical supplies as a cover to provide them with some lucrative deals?

If it turns out that the CHAI was actually doing something legitimately charitable with the money, screaming about it is a great way to delegitimize the attempts to publicize Clinton's corruption.

On the other hand, if the CHAI was doing something rotten with the money, that should be front and center the thing being publicized; the money coming from an organization that is homomiseoic is a mere side detail.

[R C Dean]

If it turns out that the CHAI was actually doing something legitimately charitable with the money,

Which way would you bet, tarran? Do you really think they run one charity as a giant, self-serving money-laundering slush fund, and the other is clean as a whistle?

[tarran]

My bet is that it's a corrupt slush fund that does do some charitable work.

I would be pleasantly surprised if they were given money to provide say project planning to build a hospital and to train the janitorial staff on basic hygiene and they actually provided those services.

I would be surprised if they were given that money and they pocketed all of it. I don't think it wouldn't be beyond the Clintons, mind you, do do soemthing so brazen, but I don't think it's the most likely outcome.

If I were a betting man, I would put my money on the possibility that they were given money for something like that, they pocketed 30% to 70% of it, and then provided some or all what they had promised (depending on what they inflated in their original proposal).

The problem here is that Johnny is so focused on the fact that the money came from icky fag-haters, he is utterly clueless what happened to it. And that's exactly the way the Clintons want it, because they will tell their supporters "we built hospitals with that money and the evil rethuglicans are creating a fake scandal!"

Bluntly, if I wanted to make my attacks on the Clintons' corruption and influence peddling as ineffectual as possible, I'd do exactly what Johnny Longtorso is doing.

[CatoTheElder]

Either the Cameroon Baptist Convention is run by the most stupid and gullible pastors in the history of Christianity, or it was acting as a conduit for another organization ... presumably the Cameroon government, but who knows?

Seriously, who in their right mind would believe that Clinton would steward money well for a charitable purpose? I can understand Sweden kicking in a few bucks because it's a rich country and can afford to squander their taxpayers' wealth. But the Cameroon Baptist Convention? Is there any conceivable way that it could afford to squander over a million dollars of its donors money?

[Azathoth!!]

Given: Ron Paul's campaign was donated to by White Supremacists.

Assertion: Ron Paul is evil for accepting this money and spending it to run for office as a libertarian.

The thing is, the same folks who made THIS assertion are simply accepting it when one of their guys does it.

[Surly Chef]

The easiest way to understand how large charities disperse money to their causes is to imagine a large business, add some extra graft and waste then give the profit margin to said cause. I don't think that's really a bad thing, other than the extra waste and graft, but to have a large budget and reach requires a large staff and assets all of which needs to be paid for just like any other business. So it's not a completely fair characterization of their charity, but just typifies large charities in general.

[R C Dean]

Soooo, the fact that the money was not spent on good things makes the money's source relevant how?

You don't see a difference between accepting money from a bad source to spend on good things, and accepting money from a bad source to spend on yourself?

Because I do. Especially when the money was given to you to buy influence.

I really think selling influence to scumbags is worse than fighting Ebola. But that's just me, I guess.

[R C Dean]

What favor was Clinton doing for the Cameroon Baptist Health Board?

Let's check her email.

Oh, wait. . . .

[tarran]

Also the Clinton Health Access Initiative is not the Clinton Foundation. I believe the Foundation is the slush fund. No idea whether the CHAI is doing legitimate charity work or is also a slush fund.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Yea, one is a giant slush fund, while the other is a pure 100% goodness charity. Clinton corruption is carefully limited. You truly are an idiot, tarran.

[tarran]

Reading comprehension isn't your thing, is it Johnny?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

tarran clearly believes a Clinton slush fund is inherently a good thing, even if it is illegally funded by countries that rape women and behead gays.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Knock it off you two! I will pull this comments section over if I have to!!!!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

'Out-of-control family affair': Experts question Clinton Foundation's true charitable spending
...Some of the financial reporting can be messy to follow, in part because the Clintons created separate entities, such as the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Haiti relief initiative, Clinton Global Initiative, the Clinton Presidential Center and the Clinton Climate Initiative....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Yep, two totally separate entities:

Home / Our Work / Affiliated Entities / Clinton Health Access Initiative: Clinton Health Access Initiative

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Yes but Team Blue has made the environment so toxic with their social justice bullshit that two gay hoteliers associating with Ted Cruz is a major scandal.

It is useful sometimes to point out blatant double standards.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Does the left demand universities return Koch money? Yes, they do. It is totally valid to point out that Tony and Weigel support a candidate that takes enough illegal money from nations that rape women and behead gays to put her orders of magnitude past the income needed to be in the evil 1%.

[tarran]

Ah yes, the "since my enemies keep shitting all over themselves, I must shit myself too" argument. I recognize it from all the times it's used by protectionists railing against cheap imports.

[Roger the Shrubber]

I'm curious as to how the money got into the hands of the Cameroon Baptist Church to begin with. How does the Cameroon Baptist Church have $10M to give to the Clinton fund? Has the church donated similar sums of money in the past to different charities?

My suspicion is that whomever gave the money to the Cameroon Baptist Church are the ones in the quid pro quo relationship with Clinton. The Cameroon Baptist Church was just laundering the money.

[lap83]

Good catch

[BardMetal]

I heard a rumor that Tony supports a candidate that accepts money from countries that behead homosexuals....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

As does Weigel.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Lying is the last refuge of a reprobate.

That means you, if you didn't realize it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Come on Weigel, admit you'll be voting Hillary after "reluctantly" deciding the GOP nominee is just too evil.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I've already answered that and you're wrong as usual.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets. What do we want as the over/under for how long before the election PBPlug/Weigel, in either guise, comes out as 'reluctantly' voting for Hillary?

[Scarecrow Repair]

Answered it from the future, eh? Welcome, now go back to some age where you might appear smart by comparison, like, oh, say, the Triassic.

[Xeones]

That is an insult to coelophysis everywhere.

[straffinrun]

Actually, you said exactly that.

[Ted S.]

I thought it was determined that PB was Tulpa, not Weigel.

[Swiss Servator, Nierezeit!]

Bo was Tulpa, not Shriek.

[Xeones]

Who cares? It's just some shithead who keeps going off his meds.

[SugarFree]

No, it's some shithead that thinks making people angry by saying stupid shit is funny. And it would go away if people stopped playing along.

The board gets the trolls it deserves.

[tarran]

Why do you guys keep pretending it's sentient?

[Slammer]

High on Fire

They can do no wrong with me.

[Colonel Slanders]

^^^^This

[Injun, as in from India]

On Hastert, it looks like I was right!

He is a former coach. I wonder if he pulled a Sandusky with his students.

[pxfragonard]

Can't we pay the Chinese to hack Hillary's server?

[AlmightyJB]

They probably all ready did. We can ask for transcripts:) They're waiting for when they need the info for leverage.

[Andrew S.]

In honor of National Donut Day, I had little chocolate donuts for breakfast.

(Fun fact: That skit was written by a US Senator)

[tarran]

I think the cigarette makes the skit perfect! 🙂

[db]

Who else would rather that Belushi had lived to be elected the U.S. Senator?

[Ted S.]

Yay public buses!

Batteries modified after bus ticket machine explodes

Auckland Transport said the driver has hurt by flying glass, after the AT HOP electronic ticket machine blew up yesterday while he was driving.

The force of the blast was so great that the windscreen was cracked and the driver had to be taken to hospital.

Auckland Transport said yesterday's malfunction and explosion was one that has never happened before.

But it said it did know of one other unit overheating late last year, however at the time it was treated as a technical, rather than an urgent problem.

The fault has been traced to the ticket machine's internal lithium battery, and these are now being modified.

The explosion not only cracked the windscreen, but also broke the bus rear-vision mirror.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, it's not like faulty equipment explodes in automobiles or anything.

[Free Society]

U.S. officials believe Chinese hackers are behind the massive data breach that compromised the private information of more than four million current and former federal employees.

Ohhh no! Those poor brave federal employees.

I wonder if this will turn out like that time Senator McCunty Feinstein found out that her committee had been spied on by the NSA. After championing federal spy programs, all of a sudden she was outraged that her privacy was violated.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Sarah Palin, the social media equivalent of a crazy lady ranting on the street corner

In a fun n' flirty Facebook post, the former Governor of Alaska shared an article written by her daughter Bristol Palin, in which Palin Jr. pouted, "I can't believe how crazy the media is going over the Duggar family compared to the big fat yawn they gave Lena Dunham when she wrote in her book that she sexually experimented with her sister."

Palin was so proud of her daughter's twisted beliefs that she decided to rephrase them AND POST THEM REALLY LOUD LIKE THIS. If nothing else, the post shows that the woman knows how to make an entrance: "HEY LENA, WHY NOT LAUGH OFF EVERYONE'S SEXUAL 'EXPERIMENTS' AS YOU HAUGHTILY ENJOY REWARDS FOR YOUR OWN PERVERSION? YOU PEDOPHILE YOU."

She continued, "Radical liberals in media who have total control over public narratives are disgusting hypocrites." Everything you've said is clearly true, Sarah, but can you link it to a current pop culture controversy? How about the "media's hell-bent mission to go after the entire Duggar family for one member's wrongdoing, while giving a total pass to perverted actions of someone like Lena Dunham - or any other leftwinger celeb caught doing awful things?"

[Viscount Irish, Slayer of Huns]

You sound like you're just socially signalling so liberals will like you. /John

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I'm just a bigoted elitist against all those real Americans like the Palins, who think book larnin is for fags and libruls.

[Lord Humungus]

After three years of renting, I gave in and bought a house - maybe third time will be the charm and I'll actually stay there.

The housing market - at least in this area - is insane. There was a new house that popped up on the local realty site. It was sold by the next day. Crummy little one story "cottage" like houses are going for $200k - people are fighting to get their kids into this school district. We were lucky enough to look at a house before it hit the market and made an offer that same day. It was accepted so off to the races we go.

[Injun, as in from India]

Congrats. I hope you have reasonable neighbors. IMHO neighbors can turn a good house into a bad living experience, and an average house into a good living experience.

[Lord Humungus]

This suburb is the best I've lived in yet - but yeah, bad neighbors drove me out of my first house... and my second... renters ... and then a high derp factor.

[sarcasmic]

Or in my case good neighbors turn a crappy house into a tolerable living experience.

I'm out in the sticks with basically three neighbors. The guy to the south keeps to himself and likes to shoot guns. The guy to the north like to drink my homebrew and play cards. The guy across the street taught me how to do the brakes on my car. And none of us call the cops when the others make lots of noise (guns, fireworks, smoking tires, etc).

The house itself though, I think it was built by Mickey Mouse.

[Auric Demonocles]

I would buy a house with literally no roof if I could find one around me for $200k.

[Lord Humungus]

House prices in W. Michigan are generally lower than the east side of the state where 200k would buy you a single room shack near the garbage dump.

Up north at that price range will get you a mini-mansion on 10 acres of land. Of course there are no jobs in the area - so just locals and retirees.

[sarcasmic]

Lynn man's "Star Wars" stormtrooper costume triggers school lockdown

http://www.salemnews.com/news/.....cdd72.html

Cross was arrested on charges of disturbing a school and loitering within 1,000 feet of a school.

[Idle Hands]

Isn't he a little short for a storm trooper?

[Scarecrow Repair]

He's only a Category 2.

[Auric Demonocles]

"Our feelings are that he was not there to cause harm to the kids, but he used bad judgment," said Donnelly. "He did cause a disturbance and we can't tolerate that."

Remember, you're responsible for other people's reactions, even if they're ridiculous and insane.

[Injun, as in from India]

Our feelings

Not thoughts. Remember. Feelings.

Reason loses to emotion.

[R C Dean]

"He did cause a disturbance and we can't tolerate that."

I'm guessing a panicky lockdown is more disturbing.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

They're worried about getting shot by a *stormtrooper*?

[sarcasmic]

Cops were jealous that their armor doesn't look like that.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

At least cops sometimes hit the person they're trying to shoot.

[Palin's Buttplug]

US report claiming Saudi Arabia financed 9/11 attack 'redacted by Bush'

A redacted Senate report accuses Saudi Arabia of financing the September 2001 terrorist attacks, an American senator says

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....-Bush.html

Johnny Lontorso's TEAM RED hero?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Don't blame me, I voted for Kerry. I live in a red state Bush was guaranteed to carry so it was a protest vote. Fuck you, Weigel.

[Ted S.]

Land of the Quintuplets, today at 5:33 PM ET on TCM.

This is a Traveltalks short. For those who haven't seen these old MGM shorts, MGM sent former travel agent James A. FitzPatrick around the world to do a series of travelogues. FitzPatrick, trying to sell the places the same way he would sell vacations to the leisure class in his original job, imbued the shorts with relentlessly rose-colored narration and doe-eyed images of smiling natives and happy peasants dancing. So, unsurprisingly, FitzPatrick treats Ontario's exploitation of the quints as a good thing, including all the tourist kitsch that had accreted around the quints by this time (1942; the quints would have been seven years old).

Many of the Traveltalks shorts are interesting for showing things that don't exist any longer; this one is particularly interesting.

[DEG]

Bruce Schneier writes about the TSA for CNN.

[Stormy Dragon]

Jim Cooley: STOP TRYING TO HELP!

Open-carry activist carries loaded AR-15 through Atlanta airport

Jim Cooley said he carried his gun with a 100-round drum through parts of the terminal when he and his wife went to drop their daughter off for a flight Tuesday, a local ABC affiliate reported.

[CatoTheElder]

The crazy cat lady phenomenon explained:

http://washington.cbslocal.com.....illnesses/

[Free Society]

Catastrophic is all we should really need, the rest should be up to primary care with direct payments. That would do wonders to bring down the ridiculous costs.

[Pope Jimbo]

My chiropractor has gone insurance free. He simply charges a monthly fee and you can go as much as you want.

It is so nice to simply walk in, get your back cracked and walk out. No forms at all.

He claims that this is the wave of the future. He thinks that a group of families will simply band together and pay the salary of a MD. Then they can use him as much as they want.

He's a bit of a nut, but he might be right on this.

[Free Society]

that and abolishing the AMA's price fixing authority.

[Stormy Dragon]

I'd be fine if he was OCing a normal handgun. The problem is he's the 2nd amendment equivalent of a guy standing on the corner talking loudly to God and then claiming anyone who gets nervous must be opposed to free speech.

So yeah, he has the legal right to do what did, but the way he decided to exercise that right makes me wish the airport would be privatized so they could kick his creepy ass out.

[Restoras, BHS]

Well said, Tundra.

[R C Dean]

he was questioned why he felt it necessary to exercise that right.

"You're carrying a gun. Why shouldn't I?"

[sarcasmic]

Why would a guy talking loudly to God make you nervous?

[Zeus]

TUUUUNDRA! Go make me a sammich. Do it!

[Pope Jimbo]

Which would be freakier:

a) a woman's voice
b) jewish accent
c) arabic accent
d) asian accent
e) ebonics
f) hindi accent
g) german accent
h) french accent

[R C Dean]

He thinks that a group of families will simply band together and pay the salary of a MD.

That's actually a very old model. A lot of "mutual aid societies" used to do exactly that.

[MJGreen]

That is how it was done in the early 20th century, I think. Families, collectives, unions would pay the salary of a doctor, and the doctor would serve all of them whenever they needed medical attention.

[Pope Jimbo]

i) with a lisp (NTTIAWWT)

[Restoras, BHS]

Isn't this how some churches and synogogues work too?

[Restoras, BHS]

Also well said.