Bill Would Allow Marijuana-Business Banking, Libertarian Brothel Owner Eyeing Nevada Senate, First Chapter of Harper Lee's New Novel Out: A.M. Links

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  Jurassic Blueberries/Flickr

  A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to stop the federal government from punishing banks that do business with recreational-marijuana companies.

• The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today will hear arguments from the White House concerning Obama's executive actions on immigration. 
• The first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee's much-anticipated new novel, Go Set a Watchman, was published online by The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian today. 
• Dennis Hof, owner of the Nevada brothel Bunny Ranch, may be going after the state's open Senate seat with the backing of the Nevada Libertarian Party. 
• "Emergency legislation" targeting synthetic marijuana in D.C. will allow police to shut down businesses for four days and charge them $10,000 for a first offense of selling these drugs. 
• One Toledo municipal court judge will take over all of the city's weddings after her colleague refused to preside over same-sex marriages. "It would be my privilege to perform these weddings with the dignity they deserve," she said.
• Can the hacktivist network Anonymous be quantified? 
• Twitter has been "very cooperative" with the FBI in monitoring users who interact with members of the Islamic State. 

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to stop the federal government from punishing banks that do business with recreational-marijuana businesse

RINOs from both parties???

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Get back to me when they include firearms businesses.

[Certified Public Asshat]

ARE WE BOYCOTTING REASON UNTIL WE GET FRIDAY FUNNIES BACK!?

Because I may or may not stand tall with you Fist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh.

[Jerryskids]

Funny to think that once upon a time there was an argument over whether or not the federal government could establish a bank the states were not free to regulate and now it seems the states are not free to establish banks the federal government cannot regulate.

[Jerryskids]

"Funny" may or may not be the f-word that belongs at the beginning of that sentence.

[Auric Demonocles]

Hiding the author? Smart move, when you hide the alt-text.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

It is a bit disappointing - ENB had been doing well, lately.

[gaijin]

The first trick of the author is to convince you he does not exist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today will hear arguments from the White House concerning Obama's executive actions on immigration.

First argument? "I won."

[Lord Humungus]

Police Are Investigating Ariana Grande's Doughnut-Licking Video

They've teamed up with public-health officials from Riverside County to investigate the incident, which allegedly took place at Wolfee Donuts, a doughnut shop in Southern California.

In a video leaked by TMZ, Grande and a male friend appear to lick a few doughnuts sitting on a tray on the store's counter.

She later apologized for saying that she hated America in the video but didn't say anything about licking the doughnuts.

[Idle Hands]

I don't know why I think she is so darn cute.

[PBR Streetgang]

Because she is.

[Chipwooder]

She looks like she's 14

[All-Seeing Woodchipper]

Thinks, talks, and acts like it too.

[Lee G]

It's creepy. She probably has a legion of 40-something stalkers.

[Charles Easterly]

"She looks like she's 14"

That is what Judge Wiley of the Berrien County District Court said.

[ant1sthenes]

I literally thought she was. When I heard her name mentioned with the whole celebrity sex hacking thing, I was thinking WTF? (No, I didn't look. Assholes.)

[Lord Humungus]

suuuuure.

[Auric Demonocles]

This caused me to look to see who the hell she is.

Holy shit: she's only a year younger than my girlfriend, but it looks more like a decade.

[Old Man With Candy]

I don't see it. Sort of generic pop-skank.

[commodious spittoon]

Nothing wrong with that.

[The DerpRider]

Have you seen her ass pics? I think I know why.

[SugarFree]

There is a strange fetish going around of Photoshopping diapers onto Ariana Grande.

[invisible furry hand]

My horizons have been widened just that little bit more

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

You really clicked that, eh? I shan't.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Police Are Investigating Ariana Grande's Doughnut-Licking Video"

I bet they are! I bet they have a multijurisdictional task force working on it.

Don't mess with their doughnuts!

[invisible furry hand]

Testes comprise 5.5% of the volume of a male northern giant mouse lemur. In an adult male human the testes' volume is about 0.05%

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story.....uge-testes

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

What about STEVE SMITH? Or Warty?

[Jordan]

All pikers compared to Randy Marsh.

[X[redacted]s]

In STEVE SMITH, approximately 45%. In Warty, it fluctuates from .00002% to 8%.

[SugarFree]

STEVE SMITH's average ejaculate volume is 7.1 liters.

[egould310 reppin' LBC]

That's a lot of jizz.

[SugarFree]

STEVE SMITH and the One-Shot Bukkake Gang

[Elspeth Flashman]

Eww! /teenage girl

[X[redacted]s]

There is no known contraceptive or abortifacient that a hiker can use to negate STEVE SMITH's output, not even such time-honored methods as "being male."

Warty's d is only an inch and a half long, but it's almost a foot in diameter.

[SugarFree]

That is The Pie Plate?, and is but one of many.

[Crusty Juggler]

Warty's d is only an inch and a half long, but it's almost a foot in diameter.

decolletage?

[Mr Lizard]

STEVE SMITH INSPIRE INVENTOR OF SHAMWOW

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

"About a quart"

[invisible furry hand]

The mission of Christian Nymphos is to teach married women to walk in sexual freedom with their husbands, so they will be able to reach out and help free the women in their lives.

http://christiannymphos.org/

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Hmmmm.... go on....

[Illocust]

That's fairly standard. It's long held Christian doctrine that once you're married you should be humping like bunnies.

[gaijin]

Christian doctrine that once you're married you should be humping like bunnies

how else to fill the collection plate?

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

And praise the Lord for that!

[Lord Humungus]

You can make a tortilla into a 78 RPM record, play it, and then eat it

On Reddit, the person responsible -- username UpgradeTech -- explained that an uncooked tortilla works best. You can also eat the tortilla record afterward, if you want, but it tastes kind of burnt because you have to use a laser to cut the grooves into it.

Without further ado, then, the sound of a technological breakthrough we never thought possible, or thought of at all: "Mexican Hat Dance," etched into a tortilla and played on a phonograph.

racccisttt!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If he eats it, he won't just have a song in his heart, he'll have one in his stomach.

[Old Man With Candy]

What's the best stylus profile for tortilla playback? And do you use any sort of treatment like LAST?

[SugarFree]

Coconut husk needle, just like aluminum transcription discs.

[Fist of Etiquette]

One Toledo municipal court judge will take over all of the city's weddings after her colleague refused to preside over same-sex marriages.

Does the best man slip a judge a few bucks like they do officiating clergy?

[Jerryskids]

Keep in mind that Toledo is where you had the clerk of courts acting as the magistrate issuing warrants who didn't know what probable cause was or that cops wanting warrants issued had to provide probable cause statements. She seriously believed that her job was to give cops warrants when they asked for one and had no idea that she could (let alone should) ever say no. (Not that it's really all that hard for a cop to invent and a judge to wink at a flimsy excuse for probable cause, but you might at least pretend that you're following the law. Toledo doesn't even pretend.)

[Fist of Etiquette]

Holy hell.

[invisible furry hand]

Texas' greatest musical export, Lisa Gail

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

You misspelled Stevie Ray Vaughn.

[gaijin]

+1 Pride n Joy

[X[redacted]s]

Dude, Stevie Ray Vaughn's music is hella boring.

[egould310 reppin' LBC]

Agreed. Obviously the guy could play a hella' guitar. But who cares? The recorded material is boring. Never saw him live, so maybe that's his appeal?

[Old Man With Candy]

Let me guess- you guys are from Gallaudet?

[X[redacted]s]

I can't speak for egould, but i'm just a dude of hearing who has way better taste in music than anyone who actually enjoys Stevie Ray Vaughn's particular take on Comfortable White Man Blues.

[Old Man With Candy]

way better taste in music

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You're killin' me!

[X[redacted]s]

Look, i'm sorry Jimi Hendrix is too 'ethnic' for you. Isn't Bruce Willis about to release a new Bruno album that you should be camping out for?

[Old Man With Candy]

You underestimate my age by about 40 years. And Hendrix didn't come from Texas.

[Zeb]

That's about how i feel about most blues. Some good guitar playing in there, but the songs are boring.

[Chipwooder]

You mean Scratch Acid

[B.P.]

Scratch Acid! Now we're talking. Also, Ed Hall.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Only time SRV has been interesting. Plus, the hair. THE HAIR!

[Lord Humungus]

It's official: Latinos now outnumber whites in California

The official confirmation had to wait until new population figures were released by the Census Bureau this summer. The new tally, released in late June, shows that as of July 1, 2014, about 14.99 million Latinos live in California, edging out the 14.92 million whites in the state.

The shift shouldn't come as a surprise. State demographers had previously expected the change to occur sometime in 2013, but slow population growth pushed back projections. In January 2014, the state Department of Finance estimated the shift would take place at some point in March.

Either way, the moment has officially arrived.

Is this the libertarian moment or the Mexican Hat Dance moment?

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Edible Mexican Hat Dance record moment?

[Citizen Nothing]

...sold from a food truck

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Somewhere, Tulpa just felt a stabbing pain...

[Illocust]

This is the moment where the gays get thrown overboard in favor of the latinos. California is a big enough Dem base that the national party will begin bending to its opinions if they start to change.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Both, I read a Reason article awhile back saying Mexican immigrants were natural Libertarians. So we should be hearing about California closing down their EPA any week now....

[Zeb]

It wears off when the free stuff brigade shows up and tries to make them into parasites instead. And most CA latinos probably aren't themselves immigrants (though many may also be white).

[Azathoth!!]

Latino is an ethnicity.

"Latinos' can't outnumber 'whites' because some of them ARE 'whites'.

Latinos CAN outnumber Cajuns.

[invisible furry hand]

An unidentified couple have been filmed having sex in a Chinese restaurant

[Idle Hands]

Who hasn't?

[Certified Public Asshat]

He gave it to her tso, but left her wonton more.

[egould310 reppin' LBC]

I'll have the Cream of Sum Yung Gai.

[Idle Hands]

but was it sweet or sour?

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

Read the BJ Queen's blog linked below, IH. She discusses that very topic.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

*narrows gaze at the lot of ye*

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Emergency legislation" targeting synthetic marijuana in D.C. will allow police to shut down businesses for four days and charge them $10,000 for a first offense of selling these drugs.

Emergency legislation just screams well considered and crafted law.

[Lord Humungus]

Maine Proves that American Gun Politics Transcend the Red State/Blue State Divide

On the face of it, this development should be a rather surprising one. As we are often reminded, Governor LePage is a "severe" conservative in a state that does not typically elect such figures, and this is precisely the sort of "severely" conservative law that New Englanders are presumed to oppose. Certainly, the odds of passage looked slim. At present, Maine's Senate has a slim 20-15 Republican majority, while its House is run by Democrats. A majority of local police groups were against the measure, as were the lion's share of local newspapers, the state's Criminal Justice Committee, and the usual suspects from outside. For their part, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action "blanketed" the state with negative ads.

Despite all of this, the measure passed on a strong bipartisan vote ? and in both legislative chambers. What gives?

[Illocust]

So the dems get a reminder that outside the progosphere guns are popular? Good, they need to be reminded once in a while why they should try to pass gun control laws on a national level.

[commodious spittoon]

Those Canuck bastards are not to be trusted. Main knows what's up.

[The Last American Hero]

Maine does border the largest socialist country (by land mass) in the Northern Hemisphere.

[sarcasmic]

Guvnah LePage signed a Constitutional Carry bill!

In 90 days, Mainers can carry a concealed weapon without first asking permission from the police!

http://www.infowars.com/maine-.....rry-state/

(Sorry about infowars, I know many people are prejudiced against the site, but the news is legit)

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

Wow. Well done, Vacationland. Pretty sure I'll never see that day in NY.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Maine is sounding like a better place to move to everyday.

[Monty Crisco]

LOBSTER FUCKING ROLLS, BABY!!!

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I'm trying to make sense of your sentence. What is the baby doing to the lobster?

[Mr. Paulbotto]

That sounds like it might be a little painful. Please tell me you at least tied up the pincers first.

[Sevo]

Hell with the roll; eat the damn lobster.

[Injun, Wood Chipper Vindaloo]

Gov LePage just gave it to "Moms demand Action" and "Everytown for Gun Safety"....

...without first providing vaseline!

[sarcasmic]

The article on the subject in the local paper quoted some mother who said that this bill made her children less safe. I just want to ask the bitch "Hey, Stoopid. Do you think that someone who intends to do harm with a weapon is going to ask permission from the police before concealing it?"

Then again, I doubt she's got much thinking ability. She feels that this will make children less safe, and no amount of logic or reason will change what she feels.

[Zeb]

God damn it, our dumb cunt governor just vetoed a similar bill.

It is amazing how many people make the "now anyone could be carrying a gun" argument against it. Laws and pieces of paper aren't fucking magical, you dumb shits. Anyone could be carrying a gun now.

[sarcasmic]

I don't understand how people can believe that someone who plans to commit a crime with a concealed weapon will be deterred by legislation that says they must ask permission from the police before arming themselves.

The only people such laws disarm are those who have no intention of committing a crime.

Then again, these are the same people who feel that a Gun Free Zone sign has the power of the Watchers of Cirith Ungol.

[Juvenile Bluster]

FBI Head: Snowden should be arrested and have the benefit of the "freest and fairest criminal justice system in the world".

Wonder what country we'd be turning him over to in that case?

[Jordan]

If anybody knows anything about fair trials, it's the head of the FBI.

[John]

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/210355/

In 2012 tweet, head of OPM mocked Mitt Romney for having "little understanding of what's going on in the 21st century" because he raised the danger of Chinese hackers.

You can't make this shit up. And Romney needs to run for President again not to win but just to troll these assholes with the slogan "I told you so."

[Theoretical Bi Irish]

The fact that people were taken seriously in 2012 when they were arguing that the Russians were definitely not a threat and the Chinese weren't going to be hacking anyone is really astounding. Russia had invaded Georgia only like 3 years earlier and Chinese hackers have been a national security issue for years.

And these buffoons mocked Romney for saying things that any intelligent person should have known to be true.

I think the real issue is that the left has gotten so myopic and infantile, what with caring more about microaggressions than unemployment and international affairs, that they get confused when someone talks about dangers that exist outside of a college frat party.

[Theoretical Bi Irish]

Holy shit, one of the tweets called Romney a racist for saying the Chinese were hacking American computers.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

I wonder are these people actually stupid enough to think saying that is racist? Or do they just call Romney a racist because he's a Republican, and they're all racist, or is the word racist just another insult people throw out like asshole or dickhead, and has no real meaning beyond that.

I try to understand the left, but they still always manage to baffle me.

[commodious spittoon]

They're the party of content-free platitudes, screeds, and jeremiads. We always worried about Orwellian newspeak when the truth is they never needed to revamp language. They just embraced purely emotive, brainless linguistic semaphores.

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

I look forward to the day when I can no longer understand their rants because it's written in emoji.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

American hieroglyphics.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I took it as weak deflections in light of Obama having no foreign policy points. I didn't agree with Romney's policies, but it was clear that he or his staff were serious about it and knew what they were talking about. Obama's amounted to little more than "I killed Osama" and "Libya wasn't a total fuck-up, right? Outside of this riot over a youtube video."

But LOL Romney wanted more boats!!

[gaijin]

Further proof that anyone in the executive branch lecturing anyone with private sector experience should be ignored.

[John]

She is a political hack. It is proof that everything the left says is the exact opposite of the truth.

[Lord Humungus]

Greek debt crisis: Journos who criticised Syriza probed by government agencies

Greek journalists who criticised the Syriza administration and supported a 'yes' vote in the lead-up to Sunday's referendum have come under investigation by government agencies and may be prosecuted for their reporting.

The public prosecutor, the government media watchdog and the Journalists' Union of Athens Daily Paper (ESIEA) have all launched investigations into the reporting on privately-owned media channels in the lead-up to Sunday's historic vote.

It is alleged the reporters breached electoral law by not allowing fair and equal time to all sides of the debate. The public prosecutor said it was responding to "viewer complaints".

coming soon to a government near you.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Coming soon? Hasn't that been happening here for years? Greece is behind the times here.

[Medical Physics Guy]

This is exactly what happened in Scotland.

[SIV]

"Emergency legislation" targeting synthetic marijuana in D.C.

Isn't real marijuana perfectly legal in D.C. now? Smoke, eat, possess, grow, share, give away...everything but sell for profit. Why is there still a market for the fake shit?

[commodious spittoon]

Novelty.

[Zeb]

Drug testing.

[invisible furry hand]

A young woman is fellating 371 strangers and blogging about it

NSFW, probably

[Juvenile Bluster]

That's worse than SF'ing the link. In fact, I'm going to call that IFHing the link now.

Also, "in a row"?

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Try not to suck any dick on the way to the parking lot!

[invisible furry hand]

I am using the reasonable extension's link function, so don't blame me. Blame God.

http://threehundredandseventyo.....525486effb

[gaijin]

Why 371? does it equal some magical number of people...or is there a volume conversion?

[Princess Trigger]

It's the 'golden mean' of fellatio.

[All-Seeing Woodchipper]

Exchange rate. It's actually 500 in the local currency.

[R C Dean]

Why 371?

Probably metric. After you convert to American, its more like 23.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Darn you!

[Charles Easterly]

+1 Dante

(that is for the Dark Lord's movie quote)

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

+ "Hey try not to suck any dick on the way through the parking lot!"

[Chipwooder]

Hey....hey, where you going?

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Get back here!

[Charles Easterly]

Sheesh - not only did I not read down through the comments, I am half an hour late to the party.

*heads over to Chinese restaurant*

[lap83]

Is it worse than clicking the link and finding your girlfriend?

[Idle Hands]

meh.

[All-Seeing Woodchipper]

I thought anyone who clicked the link just found their new girlfriend.

[Illocust]

Who in their right mind would accept on of those? Get a hooker, you'll be less likely to catch something.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Seriously, who would ever go for a no-strings attached blow job...

[Princess Trigger]

Hitler?

[Illocust]

I think whatever blisters and festering sore pop up on your dick would count as a string.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Obligatory: http://www.theonion.com/audio/.....ated-14088

[Crusty Juggler]

Would.

[Old Man With Candy]

I was one of them. She really needs to learn about not dragging teeth on the backstroke.

[Idle Hands]

You think by 280 she would have got the hang of it.

[Old Man With Candy]

Some dudes just have no standards.

[Lord Humungus]

Some of them asked if the slaves got paid: True stories from a former plantation tour guide

Almost all the misconceptions that I encountered were ones that made white people look less culpable, whether the person meant anything by it or not. Some of them asked if the slaves got paid. That wasn't a terribly common question, but it made it sound like the slave-master relationship was transactional, that the slaves had more agency in choosing that transaction than they did. They definitely had agency in their response to it and in their own personal lives, but they did not decide they were going to be enslaved by these people. It made the master look better to talk about slaves getting paid.

I was on a house tour in Charleston - with a couple from Bangladesh - and the man asked this question.

[Lord Humungus]

oh yes - forgot to add a SALON TRIGGER WARNING for those who are faint of heart and lacking in spirit.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Hey, maybe you can spare the IQ points you lose by reading a Salon article, but I can't.

[Lord Humungus]

*sticks crayon up nose*

I'm going in...

[Ska]

DE-FENSE!

[Juvenile Bluster]

Extended warranty? How can I lose?

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

My favorite episode.

[ant1sthenes]

Didn't people in the USSR get paid?

[Free Society]

They were often paid with their continued existence. Rights come from government after all!

[Injun, Wood Chipper Vindaloo]

The USSR pretended to pay their workers, and the workers pretended to work.

[Illocust]

Didn't some slaves get paid? Before the government started cracking down on it, I was pretty certain it was possible for some slaves with skills (something beyond hard labor) to save up and pay for their freedom.

[Brochettaward]

Yes, there were slaves who made and were allowed to keep their own money. Of course, the master could take whatever cut he decided was proper. It wasn't just high skilled, either, though obviously they were the ones actually making money instead of being given some here and there.

[invisible furry hand]

I thought that was more from working on the day off for someone other than their owner, not by their owner

[Brochettaward]

That happened, as well. But there were slave owners who would pay their slaves some amount. Then you had the skill laborers who were paid and had to give the master his cut.

[SIV]

I'm not aware of the government "cracking down on it". Charleston was full of skilled slaves plying trades and engaging in commerce.

[Illocust]

When the abolishin movement started getting strong a lot of the state governments started passing laws making it illegal for slaves to become freemen. There was a really big difference between being a slave in the early years of the U.S. and being one near the time of the Civil War.

[#]

I was reading something on the Liberia effort to send free blacks to Africa, and in that was an interesting part about slavery post revolutionary war. Apparently some of the people realized that the idea of slavery wasn't consistent with the whole ideals of the revolution and had some qualms about it, so the "mancipation" movement got some steam where owners would free their slaves in their will or free them after so many years of service or give some payment for service to eventually buy your freedom.

The stat they cited was by 1790, 10-15% of blacks in VA and MD were free blacks. As an example, Baltimore had a large free black population and this included Fredrick Douglas's future wife who helped him escape by giving him a sailor's outfit and fake papers. Apparently there were a lot of free black sailors there so he blended in.

Though some people weren't liking all these free blacks fearing it might it might start something bigger, so that was part of the impetus to start the Liberia colony.

[Jordan]

They did receive housing, clothing, and food, which according to Tony makes them not actually slaves.

[gaijin]

And just yesterday teh Pope said "so elementary and undeniably necessary a right as that of the three "L's": land, lodging and labor."

So, see GOD SEZ!

[CatoTheChipper]

They were all pretty much equal as well, and equality is the gold standard of social justice.

I'm pretty sure that the Gini coefficient of those held in chattel slavery was extremely low. If they were consistent, progressives would admire Simon Legree and other slaveholders for accomplishing such a standard of equality as much as they admire Mao, Castro, and Chavez for their accomplishments.

[The Last American Hero]

and most importantly - free Health Care!!!!

[SIV]

W/o RTFL some slaves did get paid. That is how they were able to purchase themselves from their owners and become free men.

[Derpetologist]

Pearl diving slaves in the Carolinas did get paid.

[Citizen Nothing]

Must have been a white Bangladeshi.

[Free Society]

Fucking white people. Always trying to exonerate themselves for the crimes they committed before they were actually alive.

[Brochettaward]

And why do leftwing sites always have to have white dudes write about this stuff? At least from a black person, it wouldn't be quite as pompous.

[Citizen Nothing]

Because then they'd have to hire an actual black person?

[All-Seeing Woodchipper]

Zing.

[Free Society]

In SJW land, self-loathing is a pretty effective mechanism to promote your career. If you're white or Jewish that is.

[commodious spittoon]

They harp on about cultural appropriation while taking the historical background of the people they claim to represent and making it about themselves.

[Free Society]

They harp about cultural appropriation while they claim to think segregation is evil. You want a strict taboo placed on "cultural appropriation"? Fine, but that necessarily requires segregation. But even then, at some point in the past, American blacks began wearing western clothing, using western language and eating western food. If they "give" those things back, I'll give back my jazz albums .

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

I know right. Fucking white people judging folks by the content of their character rather then the color of their skin. We need more enlightened progs to tell us the error of our ways.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Grits, cornmeal mush, and free banjos...sounds like a great compensation package to me.

/totally, absolutely sarc

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Squeal like a pig

[Mr. Paulbotto]

Grits, cornmeal mush, and free banjos...

Minus the banjos and plus lots and lots of bacon= typical Sunday morning at chez Paulbotto...

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Just boil the banjo a little longer, it comes out nice and tender!

[R C Dean]

Uh, grits is cornmeal mush.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

So a system that provides you with food & shelter & all that you actually need provided by your betters, who know whats good for you, in exchange for all your money. Sounds a lot like a system Salon would want to advocate for all of us.

[Ska]

It's the counter-Somalia argument.

[CatoTheChipper]

If the slaveholders had just set up a phony democracy where slaves were entitled to vote for Simon Legree (Blue Party) or Mr. Covey (Red Party), and had centralized the system on a national basis, Salon-style progressives would be fine with it. Of course, they envision that they would be the relatively well-treated house slaves under such a system.

[Once More Into the Hopper]

Homeless old Florida Man wows tourists by playing Come Sail Away on street piano

He says it keeps him feeling DeYoung

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

*narrows gaze*

[Juvenile Bluster]

The South Park episode where Cartman sang that song was over 15 years ago at this point, and every time I hear it I still think of his version.

[PBR Streetgang]

Brilliant. Domo Arigato

[Libertarian]

He better stay the hell away from Jacksonville.

[Brochettaward]

MTV documentary publicly shaming white people for their privilege andhistory:
http://www.ew.com/article/2015.....le-trailer

[Griffin3]

Publicity whore's gotta ... publicitate?

[Rhywun]

Who on earth do they envision watching this - seriously?

"Hey Ahsley, let's make some popcorn and watch the struggle session on MTV!"

[Lord Humungus]

Bobby Jindal's obsession with colorblindness is everything wrong with the GOP's racial politics

As Jindal runs for president in the Republican primary, he is resorting to those very same regressive and divisive tactics that only a few short years ago he inveighed against ? so much so, in fact, that many observers were taken in by a satirical article that quoted Jindal as saying, "the Confederate Flag is part of my heritage." (In fact, the governor has skirted the issue of the flag altogether, telling reporters that "now's the time for mourning.") Given Jindal's penchant for refusing to identify as an Indian American, saying that he's "just American," while hanging a portrait of himself in his office looking remarkably white, and raging against the need for hyphenated identities, it wasn't a stretch to imagine Gov. Jindal actually claiming the Confederate flag.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Yeah, he's to blame for imbecilic partisans accusing him of something he never did.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

" (In fact, the governor has skirted the issue of the flag altogether, telling reporters that "now's the time for mourning.")"

Wait, he's saying that when a homicidal maniac kills 9 people, the priority is to mourn the victims, not climb on their bodies and make political hay of the tragedy?

What an insensitive jerk!

[Injun, Wood Chipper Vindaloo]

while hanging a portrait of himself in his office looking remarkably white

I heard this from a proggie, and asked them if Jindal painted his own portrait, or if an artist did so. SILENCE!

Also, I was told how Jindal is unauthentic because he goes by Bobby instead Piyush. The irony of it is that this person did not use their own name at one point in their career in order to "fit in".

Proggie hypocrisy is mind blowing.

[Rhywun]

They've taken off the mask, stomped it to bits, and tossed it in the woodchipper. They are full-blown racists and nobody will call them on it. Amazing.

[Free Society]

Well then it seems a mask is not needed.

[R C Dean]

Also, I was told how Jindal is unauthentic because he goes by Bobby instead Piyush.

So, I guess our President is inauthentic because he goes by Barack instead of Barry, AND Obama instead of Soetero?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Bolivian president Evo Morales gives Pope communist crucifix

Vatican officials appear to have been flummoxed after Pope Francis was presented with a communist crucifix depicting Jesus nailed to a hammer and sickle by Bolivia's president Evo Morales.

The gift from the leftwing leader caused an immediate stir among conservative Catholics who said the pontiff was being manipulated for ideological reasons.

The response of the pope was less clear. After being handed the wooden crucifix during a formal ceremony, he examined it for a few seconds before returning it to a Bolivian presidential aide.

His comments were largely drowned out by a flurry of camera clicks, prompting a flood of speculation. While some have claimed he expressed irritation, muttering the words "eso no est? bien" ("this is not right"), Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope was more likely to have uttered "eso no sab?a bien" ("I didn't know that") in bemusement at the origins of the present.

The Bolivian government insisted there was no political motive behind the gift. Communications minister Marianela Paco said Morales had thought the "pope of the poor" would appreciate the gesture.

"That was the intention of this gift...It was really from great affection" she told the Patria Nueva radio station.

Metaphorically, it works in several ways.

[Illocust]

It was a clever political move. No matter what the pope's response was it provided an opportunity to talk about communism in a positive light in the media, without having to specify any single communist country (they come with that nasty reality).

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"Metaphorically, it works in several ways."

Morales may not have been thinking too deeply of the implications of Christ being crucified on a hammer and sickle.

[Theoretical Bi Irish]

It's a pretty on-the-nose description of Soviet religious policy.

[Mickey Rat]

Well, communsism is one of the greatest methods in history for creating poor people.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Why won't you give Ed a hat-tip!??

[SugarFree]

NYPD sergeant suspended for tossing jizz on female co-worker

An NYPD sergeant has been suspended after throwing semen at a female co-worker he was allegedly "enamored with" ? a surefire way to earn the attractions of women everywhere. If there's one thing that drives women wild with desire, it's getting pelted with semen near a freight elevator during the middle of the workday.

While his exact method of semen flinging is unclear, Gothamist reported that Michael Iscenko was caught on video crouching behind the unidentified victim as she was exiting the restroom at One Police Plaza, when "She suddenly felt something on her leg, looked down, and said to him, 'What are you doing?'"

The victim reported the assault immediately, and lab DNA tests established that the substance was in fact semen, though whether or not it was Iscenko's has yet to be confirmed (which adds another layer of yuck to the story). A Manhattan district attorney obtained a warrant Tuesday to get a DNA sample from Iscenko.

[invisible furry hand]

- Mike, I got an idea. We should throw your expired cum at Jonah's door.
- You're kidding.
- I'm not kidding. Let's throw his cum at Jonah's door.
- Yeah! Let's throw cum! Let's throw cum! Let's throw cum! Let's throw cum!
- Amy, no, no that's my DNA!

[Idle Hands]

[Agammamon]

A Manhattan district attorney obtained a warrant Tuesday to get a DNA sample from Iscenko.

Uh, why?

Is there a different set of charges to press depending on whether or not it's the flinger's?

These guys must be taking their lead from the AUSA's office when it comes to warrants.

[SugarFree]

The jizz might have been stolen or evidence in another case.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Purloined Pearl Anklet

[thrakkorzog]

"Hey, you bought your girlfriend a pearl necklace."
"You totally missed the point of my story."

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

*Anal Venalmann scribbles furiously*

[Idle Hands]

people can't take a joke anymore.

[Crusty Juggler]

An NYPD sergeant has been suspended after throwing semen at a female co-worker he was allegedly "enamored with"

I am old enough to remember when things like this were considered a romantic gesture. Feminism, Title IX, and Billie Jean King ruined everything.

[SugarFree]

"The best part of waking up is Iscenko in your cup."

[gaijin]

^lol

[Citizen Nothing]

So the guy who is the overseer of my new corporate masters' "print and digital content strategies" is visiting the newsroom for the first time. I couldn't be more excited.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

It's as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, "Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing," and you rise, shaky, and go marching off, muttering, "Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing."

[Free Society]

Can the hacktivist network Anonymous be quantified?

Reverse hat tip for linking to an autoplay site.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I think the reverse hat tip should be called the condescending monocled glare.

[Free Society]

*narrows gaze and shatters monocle in eye socket*

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

You have to be careful about that - when I was a mere Swiss Apprentice, I had to learn to avoid that monocle shattering!

[Free Society]

*narrows dead foggy eyed stare*

[Lord Humungus]

Sanctuary Cities Represent The Worst Kind Of Liberal Lawlessness

But let's set aside immigration politics for a moment and consider a detail that's often lost in this debate: Fact is, some people in America are free to ignore laws they don't like, while others are not. Hundreds of jurisdictions nullify federal immigration law, not because they question the constitutionality of law, but because they find those laws ideologically problematic and immoral. And when I say "some" jurisdictions, I mean entirely liberal ones.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So, anyway, let's get to firing those lawless clerks and judges who refuse to assist at gay marriage.

[Rhywun]

I seem to recall the original intent of "sanctuary cities" was to stop the witch-hunting of otherwise law-abiding illegals. Not sure how that morphed into letting convicted felons roam the street to murder with impunity.

[R C Dean]

otherwise law-abiding illegals

What laws are they privileged to break, anyway?

[Rhywun]

I thought it was the one that says they need a specific piece of paper in order to be present in this country? You know, a law which is frequently cited as unjust around here.

[R C Dean]

Its pretty rare for an illegal to break just that one law, though. Nearly all of them, I believe, have fake ID, which is a whole 'nother ongoing violation of the laws. And, probably, spawns a whole raft of other violations, depending on how they use it.

[Rhywun]

I think if they're not harming anyone else, who cares? If they are, that when I say ship them home.

[Igor]

Of course, you could consider that the 'harm' that's being caused is the cost borne by US taxpayers when immigrants end up on the public teat.

I don't think it's unreasonable to consider such behavior 'theft', even if it would be an unpopular stand to take at this site.

[Rhywun]

I would rather get legals off the public teat than kick out illegals.

[Igor]

I agree, productive immigrants who aren't a drain on the state have a far stronger moral claim on being left alone.

I think that illegal immigrants who - apart from their status as illegals, are otherwise observing the law need a means whereby they can legitimize their presence here within a reasonable span of time. Being an American Citizen isn't *so* awesome that people should have to wait in line for 12 years to be eligible. I've been here 20 years myself, and there's NO benefit to me in becoming a citizen.

And I don't think that having a no-nonsense deportation process for genuine non-immigration felons is at all draconian. When the (fortunately few) incidents of some guy who's been convicted multiple times of felonies, and then commits capital murder while out on his 5th appeal of a deportation order, there's no way that guy should have been in the USA at all.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Man in Stormtrooper costume walks 665 miles to ComicCon

A man in a Stormtrooper outfit has been spotted walking along the California coast in a month-long, 645-mile journey to reach the San Diego Comic-Con. 57-year-old Kevin Doyle is doing this Star Wars-themed walk in honor of the memory of his late wife, who passed away in 2012 from pancreatic cancer.

Doyle took his first steps to Comic-Con on June 6 at Ranch Obi-Wan, the biggest Star Wars museum in Petaluma, California. Since then, Doyle has been keeping a steady pace of 20 to 45 miles a day.

Doyle said he merely doing the walk to remember his wife, Ellen. He said that losing her to cancer caused him to lose his own creative spark - something which he hopes will return after this mind-clearing walking meditation to Comic-Con.

"In the time since she died, I've struggled with how to deal with the loss. I've been self-destructive and my art suffered. Being out here, my mindset is an open book. I hope I find enough healing to be creative and work in that way again," he said in an interview.

Others have also started to walk alongside Doyle to share their own stories of battles with cancer and loved ones lost to cancer. The walk has also managed to fundraise in Ellen's name some $4,065 dollars to give blankets and toys and other items to children with cancer.

[X[redacted]s]

Man, i hope people do ridiculous things in my memory when i kick it. That's a legacy!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Well, there's this.

"The walk has also managed to fundraise in Ellen's name some $4,065 dollars to give blankets and toys and other items to children with cancer."

So you could say he attained his goal...you could almost say he hit his target.

[X[redacted]s]

You could almost say that, figuratively speaking, he found the droids he's looking for?

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

I am thinking of leaving a sum of money, and instructions that something of this nature be done after I snuff it.

[Ken Shultz]

"The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals today will hear arguments from the White House concerning Obama's executive actions on immigration."

It doesn't matter what the law says. It just depends on what Roberts has for breakfast that day.

If it doesn't make it to the Supreme Court, though, maybe somebody 'll get some justice.

[Libertarian]

"A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to stop the federal government from punishing banks that do business with recreational-marijuana companies."

A little surprised that the article did not talk about Operation Choke Point which, along with asset forfeiture, has got to be the most pernicious things going on right now in "law" enforcement.

[Lord Humungus]

Stop Treating Kids Like Sex Objects

Last week, the Facebook page for a photographer famous for capturing everyday New Yorkers, Humans of New York (HONY), posted a photo which has gone viral like few of his images have. Hillary Clinton personally commented, as have Ellen DeGeneres and hundreds of thousands of other Americans.

"I'm homosexual and I'm afraid about what my future will be and that people won't like me."

Posted by Humans of New York on Friday, July 3, 2015

The image is of a "teen" (as the Independent described him) fearfully decrying future treatment he might experience as a homosexual. He is tearful, and the image is powerful. But there's one problem. He is not a teen. He is a child of, I estimate, eight years old at most. Maybe ten, being generous.

[Illocust]

Yeah, if your interested in anyone at that age you most likely have either mental trauma or you've been introduced to some chemicals you really shouldn't have. Either way, you need an intervention and special care.

[Free Society]

Yeah, if your interested in anyone at that age you most likely have either mental trauma or you've been introduced to some chemicals you really shouldn't have. Either way, you need an intervention and special care.

I was looking at Penthouse magazine and sporting wood at age 5. Granted I wasn't sure what to with it at the time, but I was definitely interested.

[commodious spittoon]

Your parents should have presented you with material of both persuasions, you know, balance out the exposure. Instead they tainted your preferences forever. It's worse than buying blue toys for your son.

[Free Society]

I was forged in the fires of patriarchy.

[Lee G]

Third graders completely understand their sexuality, don't you get it?

[John]

How in the hell can an 8 year old know that he is gay? That is fucked up. What the hell is wrong with people? What kind of depraved fucking retards are that kids' parents? I honest to God cannot understand how anyone who wasn't just a flat out deviant who liked to fuck kids could hear their kid say something like that and not get them into therapy or at least talk them off the ledge of thinking they know they are gay.

It is really the wages of saying homosexuality inborn. There is no evidence that it is. Moreover, young people have always had homosexual experiences or thoughts even though they became completely straight as adults. All saying it is inborn does is tell every kid who ever has such thoughts they really are gay and leave them confused and self loathing.

Didn't we spend about 40 years in this country trying to get over the stigma that a single homosexual act or thought made you gay?

[Lee G]

It's the result of an ever-present victimhood culture that elevates the self-identified oppressed over the rest of the herd simply by existing instead of accomplishments. It's the same mentality that gives us Rachel Dolezal and Elizabeth Warren, just transcribed to some kid who hasn't even got hair on his balls yet.

He may like boys, but if he's truly interested in full sexual relations with them at that age, it's indicative of a problem as much as if he wanted to bang elementary school girls. My take is that either he's been abused or he feels that by "coming out", he's drawing attention to himself.

It's unfortunate and given the press coverage, it will corner him into a life decision that he will have a hard time backing away from later, regardless of his actual sexuality, gay or straight. The parents ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[John]

I think your take is exactly right. He likely hasn't been abused but has parents who view having a gay child as some kind of trophy among their fellow Prog friends and he is just doing what he think will get him approval from his parents. Think about it, if he shows any interest in girls he is likely to be branded a sexual harasser or (no kidding) predator, even at 8 years old. If he says he is gay, he immediately becomes his parents' prized pony.

Wow is that a statement of how fucked up some parts of our society have become.

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

Most likely the kid's quote is bullshit. If not, the kid's parents have completely fucked him up. Way to sacrifice the mental health of your kid to your stupid social signaling.

[John]

If I am 8 and decide that girls are not so icky and express my interest in them in a typical awkward way an 8 year old kid would do such, I can almost guarantee you that I will be branded a sexual harasser and be in big trouble in any public school in America. If in contrast, I say I am gay and start putting the moves on other boys, I can't imagine it would get me in trouble.

Given that incentive system, is it any surprise 8 year old boys start calling themselves gay?

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

Do the fantastic scenarios that you imagine ever present themselves in the real world?

[John]

Woodchipper,

I don't write the news I just read it.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/11/.....sing-girl/

Do you live in a cave?

[widget]

"How in the hell can an 8 year old know that he is gay?"

Not specifically, but it's plausible.

Some boys are effeminate, some girls are tomboys. When you're a parent you get what you get. These are not children trapped in the wrong body. It's a bit unusual, but not rare. 1 in 20 or so. Nothing is wrong with these kids that needs to be fixed. If you watch the Disney Channel you'd think it were 1 in 5 and any reluctance to a pal around a least one gay kid in your clique is sign of mental disorder.

[John]

Not specifically, but it's plausible.

No it is not. He hasn't hit puberty yet. That means he hasn't fully developed sexual attraction. He can't know what something he hasn't developed yet is going to be. It is completely fucking insane to think that someone who is 8 knows they are gay.

Some boys are effeminate, some girls are tomboys. When you're a parent you get what you get. These are not children trapped in the wrong body. It's a bit unusual, but not rare. 1 in 20 or so.

So 5% of the entire population actually think they are the opposite sex? That is complete horseshit. To get to that figure you would have to classify virtually any kid who deviated from some strict masculine or feminine standard as "transgendered".

Applying terms like gay and transgenered to children who have yet to hit puberty or develop a full self is insane and cruel.

[Auric Demonocles]

I think he was saying that 5% of the population is gay.

Unfortunately, he is also saying that an effeminate boy or a tomboyish girl must be gay. Those are completely separate issues.

[Crusty Juggler]

All girls that play sports are lesbians, right? This makes so much sense. I have hit on so many female athletes and not one, not even one, have fallen victim to my charm.

[Auric Demonocles]

This is the "tolerant" view: if a boy likes fashion or a girl like sports they're gay. I guess that means that it's also the tolerant view to assume any girl not interested in you is a lesbian (though I did have a streak of 8 girls I pursued turn out to actually be lesbians in undergrad).

[John]

I would say 5% of the population has some attraction to the opposite sex as adults. I do not think anything close to 5% are "gay" in the sense that they are only attracted to the opposite sex.

The problem is that in order to claim gay is inborn, you have to deny the fluidity of sexuality. Not everyone or even a majority of people who are at one time or another attracted to the same sex is gay. But you can't square that undeniable fact with the theory that being gay is inborn. So we just deny the fact. And denying the truth never works out well.

[Auric Demonocles]

Yes, I still think 5% is too high for being gay, but it's not insane like 5% being transgender.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

No matter what the stat is, it's only a side issue... The real point is that 8 year olds have no way of framing sexuality enough to be able to declare that they're gay or not. Once they hit puberty, let's talk. Until then, how about they focus less on things they're physically incapable of and more on being a damn 8 year old.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Soooo many people asked me "when are you going to come out?" over the years because I like sports and hunting and fishing and shit.

Then I ask them: "how many of your lesbian friends spend their Sundays watching football?" or "how many of your lesbian friends can rig their own lake trout setup?"

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Soooo many people asked me "when are you going to come out?" over the years because I like sports and hunting and fishing and shit.

I had two girlfriends tell me that they were shocked when I asked them out because they thought I was gay. When I asked why, it was because I had a really close best friend, and we hung out together too much to be "just friends."

If you don't fit into the stereotypical gender role, the idiots think that something must be wrong.

[John]

Kristen,

My wife has a cousin who is in college and does theater (yes even ancient people like us can have college age first cousins). The poor kid goes through life with everyone thinking he is gay. He is totally straight (NTTAWWT).

In many ways we are less tolerant of people who don't fit the stereotypes than we used to be.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

he poor kid goes through life with everyone thinking he is gay. He is totally straight (NTTAWWT).

I bet he gets mad pussy, though. My boss was a high school football player. Then when the gymnastics coach saw his moves, he asked him to be on the gymnastics team. He quit football for gymnastics. When all his old football buddies made fun of him and called him "fag", guess what his answer was?

Then he went on to major in ballet in college.

Dude had the right idea all along...he must have been drowning in it.

[John]

yes he does Kristen. If I had life to live over again, I would have taken up figure skating or dance rather than football and baseball. The place I went to law school at first had a huge fine arts program full of gorgeous dancers and aspiring actresses. And nearly all of their male classmates were gay. Talk about the fox guarding the chicken house.

[Rhywun]

I knew I was "different" well before then. Turned out I was right.

Agree that it's grotesque to parade a pre-teen in the media as "gay", but I think many if not most kids "know" more than you think.

[widget]

You're arguing with me a bit too vigorously. Was your coffee cold this morning? I coached a little baseball team last year. Right on time some parent brings a boy to the team who doesn't like having a ball thrown at him. He's not uncoordinated, he can catch it, but he just doesn't like the whole setting. He'd rather do something else. He's 7 years old and gay as Liberace.

[Auric Demonocles]

7 years can suck at (and dislike) sports.

That does not make them gay.

[John]

That is the most idiotic and stereotypical thing I have ever heard. I know lots of guys who sucked and hated sports when they were kids. They are called nerds or dorks. And none of them were gay.

And maybe you missed it, but there are plenty of gay men who are good at sports. Not every or even most straight guys who are not Joe Montana is gay and not every alpha male stud athlete is straight.

[Free Society]

I genuninely disliked sports as a kid. I've carried that homosexual inclination against sports with me up until this very day. My wife has no idea...

[Free Society]

genuinely*

[lap83]

"Some boys are effeminate, some girls are tomboys.When you're a parent you get what you get."

But what about gender being a social construct? You may not think that, but that seems to be the SGW consensus. Yet you hear the same argument from them that you can tell a little boy is gay because he likes dolls, or whatever. Femininity can't simultaneously be a social construct and evidence of something that's supposed to be inborn.

[lap83]

I can see everyone else in the thread already had a similar reaction

[Rhywun]

I don't think it matters. Either way, these things are "imprinted" at such an early age that the difference is meaningless.

[John]

Douglas MacArthur's mother put him in dresses and had him wear long curls until he was like 8. She apparently really wanted a girl or something. And he didn't seem to mind it.

I guess he was gay.

[ant1sthenes]

"How in the hell can an 8 year old know that he is gay?"

I think you know whether you like girls or boys, even it's sort of vague.

[John]

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/357766.php

A very good breakdown of the split on the right at Ace of Spades. He is absolutley correct about the split between the middle class and the professional class. His solution of everyone just accepting that they don't own the culture and getting along, however is dead wrong.

What the middle class conservatives need to understand is that they are the counter culture. They don't own the dominant culture. The thing about a dominant culture is that it is powerful and it is comfortable. It is always easier to go along than fight it. It is, also necessarily conformist. That is what keeps it dominant. So trying to get along inside it or change it from the inside is a fool's errand. That is just surrender.

It is striking how similar things are today to what they were in the late 1950s or early 1960s only with the conservative middle class playing the role of the counter culture. People remember that time for rock and roll and the beatniks and hippies, but that wasn't the culture. It was the counter culture. Hubert Humphrey or Earl Warren no more wanted to be associated with a bunch of beatniks dropping LSD than Mitch McConnell or John Roberts wants to be associated with some redneck from Alabama. Elvis wasn't winning any Grammys. The New York Times wasn't hiring Ken Keesey or Hunter S. Thompson or even letting them in the door. Jack Keroac didn't win any Pulitzers.

[John]

The strength of a dominant culture is also its weakness. It is powerful but it is only powerful because it is conformist. You beat it by forming a counter culture. Its only real power is ostracizing you. If you check out, it no longer has any power over you because you ostracized yourself. This is what the hippies did and they won. The people at the New York Time ranting about the shocking vulgar conservative middle class sound just like the people at the Times talking about the hippies back in the day. And the hippies won not by trying to ingratiate themselves but by being vulgar and unapologetic. You don't like it that ten people are bathing naked in the pond at the town park? Well fuck you have a half a million people doing it at Woodstock. You want to draft us? We will all burn our draft cards and what are you going to do about it?

This is what the middle class conservatives need to do. They need to embrace being outside of the dominant culture and create their own. They need an ethos. And needs to be an ethos that embraces nonconformity and fun. Stop caring what these idiots think. Make them look like the dreary conformists they are. Show our current mass culture and art to be the spent force it is.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

As someone who is middle class and somewhat conservative personally, but also a nonconformist(not anticonformist) that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm somewhat pessimistic that it will happen though.

[John]

The advantage the old beatniks and hippies had was that they were young and could really just drop out. The middle class can't do that. The middle class conservatives, however, are much larger in number than the hippies ever were. And that has its advantages.

The problem is that they lack a cohesive ethos. Creating a culture is creating an ethos. That is hard to do but the country is desperate for one. Our mass culture is so spent.

To take music as an example, pop music in the late 1950s was just like today; a few aging but legitimate geniuses of the past like Frank Sinatra or Louis Armstrong and a bunch of horrible younger copies. Today's music is exactly the same way. There has not been an interesting development in pop music since the early 1990s when Gansta Rap and Grunge came along. That was 25 years ago.

As conformist as post war culture was, they could at least drink and screw. Our mass culture is as dreary as the old Eastern Block. The situation is just screaming for someone to stand up and give it the finger and do something new and more fun and more free.

[gaijin]

There has not been an interesting development in pop music since the early 1990s when Gansta Rap and Grunge came along. That was 25 years ago.

I tend to agree with this. As someone said to me once 'the time from Elvis to Hendrix was 10 years.' That's a lot of musical innovation in a short time.

[Rhywun]

There's innovation - it's just not becoming "popular" because technology has made it so we don't need to have a pop culture any more. What does manage to become popular is the most generic and bland stuff there is.

[Rhywun]

I meant to add that fashion has also remained pretty much unchanged in the same time period. Most dudes I see style themselves exactly like they did 20 years ago - other than being slathered in tatts you can hardly tell a 2015 man from a 1995 one.

[Citizen Nothing]

Stop caring what these idiots think.

Ok, John. Props for this at least. It's pretty good advice.

[John]

The Ace of Spades article is a good one but it is a study in lack of self awareness and social signaling. The guy spends hundreds of words talking about how much he hates the professional class but at the end thinks the solution is for the middle class to stop being so vulgar and act more like the professional class. He wants to middle class to stop telling the truth and the professional class to treat the middle class the way the do fellow professional class progs, which in practice would mean everyone act like the professional class that he claims to hate.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

He stated clearly that he hates both groups sometimes, when they act in ways that deserve it, not that he hates them all the time.

[John]

He claims to hate them but if you take his solution seriously it would just mean the middle class acting more like the professional class and going along with the mainstream culture. All he demands the professional class do is quit being such assholes and goading the middle class into not going along. I think that solution is both unworkable and a recipe for failure.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

I didn't take that from the post. The way I read he would like the working class to stop acting like crass buffoons just because they can, and instead act more civilly more of the time (sometimes crass buffoonery is fine just not 24/7...), and he'd like the professional class to stop preening and posing for polite, elitist lefties - because they will never, ever be accepted by them.

As far as coming together...well Reagan pulled that off but no one since has been able to do that.

[John]

I didn't take that from the post. The way I read he would like the working class to stop acting like crass buffoons just because they can, and instead act more civilly more of the time (sometimes crass buffoonery is fine just not 24/7...),

That is where we differ. When he says "stop acting like crass buffoons", what does that mean? A crass buffoon by whose standard? The mainstream culture's standard, that is whose standard. He is just telling the middle class to start conforming more to polite society. To that I say, fuck him. You don't win by conforming.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

It isn't about conformity. He certainly ripped the professional class for being too conformist. Nobody likes an asshole, John, no matter what their socio-economic status. I think that's part of his point.

[John]

Nobody likes an asshole, John, no matter what their socio-economic status. I think that's part of his point.

I disagree. if you are going to fight the mainstream culture, you have to be willing to be an asshole, at least by their standards. What you and the Ace of Spades guy don't get is that the way the mainstream culture wins is by defining everything that stands against it as "being an asshole". You think that if you are politie enough you will get someone. It doesn't work that way. You are going to be called and considered an asshole for the single reason you are not conforming. So you are going to be an "asshole" no matter what.

To give an example. Just two months ago, there was nothing about having a Confederate Flag on your car that would be considered being an asshole. Today, doing such would be exactly the kind of thing that Ace would consider being an asshole and a crass buffoon.

Ten years ago pointing out that Mexico and Latin America have a giant crime problem and opening the border to them would let in a lot of criminals was just pointing out a reasonable fact and engaging debate. Today doing that gets you called a racist and has the entire professional class calling your comments "racist and incendiary". The very things that he kills Trump for were totally acceptable to say just a few years ago.

If you are not willing to be an asshole, just give up and give them what they want because nothing short of that will keep you from being called one.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

I don't think he is talking about being an asshole in the view of the leftists, as you are correct that they will think you are an asshole for daring to disagree with them. I think he is talking about each of those two halves (as he sees it) of the Republican Party getting over themselves and their own bullshit to work together and advance conservative causes (not necessarily what I am endorsing).

[John]

Restoras,

The issue is how do you do that? And the way he is saying is for the middle class to shut up and stop doing things that embarrass the professional class. And what he doesn't understand is that the left will ensure that anything that is actually effective for the Right is branded "offensive and crass" and thus will embarrass the professional class.

[Igor]

It's not clear to me that Restoras actually *wants* that at all.

It seems to me that Ace is ALSO castigating the Country-Club Republicans for being too willing to denounce rather than influence the 'Yahoo Wing' of the GOP.

[John]

Igor,

Influence the yahoos how? It seems to me he wants them to make them less subversive and more acceptable to leftists. That doesn't sound like a recipe for change to me.

[Igor]

I'm not sure Ace really has much in the way of advice. "Be Nice To Each Other" is pretty sophomoric.

I don't think Ace's commentary is intended to be a recipe. He's just telling us he's hungry.

The GOP has driven itself into this arroyo. It's called the stupid party for a reason. It'll become less relevant before it becomes more relevant. And that disorder presents libertarians with an opportunity to influence it.

A strong, consistent, principled effective GOP would resist that influence far more effectively. It's disheartening that libertarians have so little traction against the statists, but the disunity of the GOP is a positive, not a negative.

[John]

Igor,

It currently holds both houses of Congress, seven out of ten state legislatures and a large majority of the governorships. It is pretty relevant.

As far as being the "stupid party" some of that is self inflicted but not all of it. A lot of it is because the left is so successful at defining facts it doesn't like as "racist" or "crass" so that anyone a Republican states a fact that is damaging to t he left he gets branded as stupid and or racist.

Whether Ace likes it or not, everything Trump is saying is true. And there are examples of this going back decades. Dan Quayle was absolutely correct when he said kids being raised by single mothers were being short changed just to give one example. If a Republican stood up today and said "the Confederate flag had nothing to do with the murder and Charleston and it has become a cultural symbol for a lot of people in the South and is no longer a symbol of racism and oppression," they would be telling the absolute truth that a majority of the country would agree with. If they did that, the media would immediately brand them as out of touch insensitive racists and various professional class rightest, like those at Reason, would brand it another example of "the stupid party', even though it is the truth and would be standing up against censorship.

[Igor]

Well, there's a problem right there - you're a True Believer.

You're expecting politicians to be purveyors of truth. I won't scoff at your naiveity, because it's a common misconception, but it doesn't stand the test of a moment's reflection.

How many successful, nakedly candid and honest politicians can you name? Irrespective of their political affiliation. I predict you'll come up blank. That's not because you're ignorant, but because there aren't any.

[John]

How many successful, nakedly candid and honest politicians can you name? Irrespective of their political affiliation. I predict you'll come up blank. That's not because you're ignorant, but because there aren't any.

Sure. You lie by pretending you are centrist. I get that. The problem is that GOP politicians never stop lying. You are supposed to lie to get elected, not make those lies the truth by continuing to be that way after you are elected.

The heart of the problem Ace is pointing to is that the middle class has completely lost trust in the professional class and its politicians. So when the politicians lie and try to look centrist, the base rightly doesn't trust them to be lying. In contrast, the Democrat base trusts its politicians and knows for example when Obama says he is anti-gay marriage, he is lying and will do the exact opposite once in office.

The GOP's sorry record of appeasement and selling out once in office has robbed them of the ability to get that benefit of the doubt from its base.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

The GOP's sorry record of appeasement and selling out once in office has robbed them of the ability to get that benefit of the doubt from its base.

Indeed.

[Igor]

I do have to ask - why are you asking for policy advice on how the GOP can become politically relevant - from a bunch of libertarians that even now, are pretty much politically irrelevant?

I hear republicans talking - all the time - about how they really understand the world, that there are Bad People (TM) out there and that liberals calling themselves the "Reality Based Community" is merely projection.

And then you come here - here of all places - wringing your hands about how politicians - even (*gasp*) Republican Politicians! - lie. And how those poor rubes, the republican base, have unrealistic expectations of their chosen masters, because gaining power requires telling lies!

It's like the republican rank and file are stupid or .... oh, nevermind.

/cue Cpt. Renault

[John]

Igor,

You completely miss the point. The problem is not that they lie. It is that they tell the truth and really are centrists who are going to sell out once in office. There isn't a single person on the right in Washington other than absolutely unapologetic radicals, of which there are very few, who once in office turns out to be further right than expected. They either are as advertised or somewhere to the left. People are bitching about how Roberts was a stealth candidate and Bush should have appointed someone with a long and radical track record. I understand that but in fairness to Bush, appointing a stealth candidate who appears reasonable is how politics is supposed to be played. The problem is, unlike the Left, every "stealth candidate" from the Right turns out to be a closet leftist.

[Igor]

I don't miss your *point*. I just fail to understand why anyone should be surprised at your startling revelations.

You're railing against the fact that the GOP are inept at gaining and consolidating power and influence, aren't you?

Go read the address bar on your browser; you did realize this isn't "The Weekly Standard", didn't you?

Our purpose is to wring our hands about why libertarians are inept at gaining and consolidating power and influence. And it's a full-time job.

[John]

No Igor, I am talking about the Right in general, including Libertarians' failure to get their act together. If the fact that that means talking about the GOP offends your delicate sensibilities, tough shit. It is not my fault the Libertarian party gets 5% on a good day.

Our purpose is to wring our hands about why libertarians are inept at gaining and consolidating power and influence. And it's a full-time job.

I hardly see how it is a full time job to write because unless you count those who lean libertarian on a particular issue they are a tiny minority of voters.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

I most certainly am not advocating anything to make any non-leftist more acceptable to the the leftists. Nor do I think Ace is either. All Ace did was write a post about what he sees as the problem with the right and why it can't get anything done and that in order for it to get anything done it first has to come to terms with the two halves (or however many parts).

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

what he doesn't understand is that the left will ensure that anything that is actually effective for the Right is branded "offensive and crass" and thus will embarrass the professional class.

Right, and he think he does understand that very well and is why he castigates the Professional Class for craving the acceptance of the elitist cocktail party left. So, the Professional Class needs to ignore what the elitist cocktail party left says when they point out what the icky or uncouth or whatever part of the right is doing.

I don't know how you do that. I don't think he is saying for the middle class to shut up - except maybe tone it down a bit. Part of the issue is that with the advent of the internet and instantaneous communication with and from everywhere, people that were formerly anonymous and totally unknown (along with all their views and antics) are now right in the face of people that didn't even know they existed. Reagan was able to unite seemingly disparate factions but I don't know of anyone that can do that at the moment.

[Igor]

Chuck Norris?

[John]

That is a good point Restoras. The other problem is that since the left owns the mass culture, their idiots are never held to account. As you well know there are any number of Democrats in real positions of power who are batshit crazy and say batshit crazy things. Yet because the left controls the culture they are never held out as examples of the left and no one on the left is ever expected to answer for them. In contrast, let some volunteer city councilman in bumfuckistan say anything offensive and the media immediately makes a national story out of it and every Republican is expected to grovel and disavow them or be branded a bigot.

I don't know how you win that game. The only solution I can see is not to play and when the media holds up the guy from bumfuckistan who said gays need to not be allowed near children you just say fuck off.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

Well you are certainly right about mass media and popular culture. The only thing that may, over time, work against that is the constant fracturing of the media and the declining relevance of the former gatekeepers - they are increasingly less able to set the agenda.

I don't know how you win that game. The only solution I can see is not to play and when the media holds up the guy from bumfuckistan who said gays need to not be allowed near children you just say fuck off.

I don't know either and that seems like the best way to go for now.

[gaijin]

Middle class seems like a definition built on economic values...

The counter culture, from the sixties anyway, seems like something else. Especially given its roots in the middle class...sort of like all 911 Saudis...built from middle class angst around a need for some special purpose besides creature comforts of middle class existence. No I am not equating Woodstock attendees with jihadis 😉

[John]

You are right. I don't think the middle class should become hippies. I do, however, think they should take some lessons on how the hippies built a counter culture that eventually became the dominant culture. They did it by dropping out. Dropping out doesn't necessarily quitting your job and going to live on a commune, thought it can. It can also mean something less literal. Dropping out of the mainstream culture means no longer participating in it or caring what it thinks about you. Once you do that, it no longer has any power over you because its only power over you is that it can ostracize you.

That is what the middle class conservatives need to embrace.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

hippies built a counter culture that eventually became the dominant culture

They may have 'dropped out' but enough of them opted back in when they grew up to actually have an impact on culture.

[John]

No. They never opted in. What they did was took over with their culture. They never stopped being hippies. They just forced the culture to come to them. The hippies didn't get crew cuts and decide to embrace the old culture in the 1970s and go to wall street. No, people on wall street started growing sideburns and having key parties and the hippies put on a suit and joined in. That is a big difference.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

The hippies didn't get crew cuts and decide to embrace the old culture in the 1970s and go to wall street

No, they kept the long hair but did re-join society (opting-in) after 'dropping out' and became bankers, lawyers, teachers, professors, etc. and in so doing brought their mores and culture with them, eventually transforming it.

[John]

Employment is not culture. Just because you work for Wall Street doesn't mean you have adopted the culture there.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

Correct. But they did re-join society after growing up, or rather growing wiser, and realizing that the only way they were actually going to change anything was by doing it from the inside.

[John]

But they only did that when society was willing to accept them without then surrendering. IN 1964, no Wall Street firm was hiring a former hippie just like today no such firm would hire a evangelical. IN 1974, they would. That is because the Hippies won.

[MoriahJovan]

"Dropping out" for the middle class is prepping. The middle class is quietly prepping, buying junk silver, and (wisely) not letting anyone know what they have because people like to take things in the name of sharing.

They can maintain the veneer of middle class chuggers-alongers, but their basements are full of food and toilet paper and potential black market goods.

You see them online building the community, but they don't trust their neighbors (I sure as hell don't trust mine) and are prepping to go it alone because they think they might have to. They *can't* build a cohesive ethos IRL because someone will take their means of survival.

[John]

Unless you are living with at least a dozen or so other like minded families in a remote compound somewhere, if there ever is the kind of doomsday scenario you are talking about, someone will take your means of survival. I don't care how well armed you are, you can't go it alone in that situation.

[MoriahJovan]

I know. It's a legitimate concern folks have because we're so disconnected from each other. And those things are addressed, workarounds and such.

You have to do the best you can with what you've got, BUT this is how the middle class is dropping out.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Savage: Liberals To Use Immigrant Gangs And Internment Camps To Kill Christians And Veterans

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/.....R8SW8.dpuf

[Juvenile Bluster]

Shriek derp de derp. Derp de derpity derpy derp. Until one day, the derpa derpa derpaderp. Derp de derp da teedily dumb. From the creators of Der, and Tum Ta Tittaly Tum Ta Too, Shriek is Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb. Rated PG-13.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I guess the lesson here is that laughing at the antics and stupid beliefs of wingnuts is discouraged here.

JADE HELM 15!

THAR COMIN FER YER GUNS BOYS!

[SugarFree]

Or you're just a boring cunt who only deserves to be mocked.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Seconded.

[gaijin]

Turded

[X[redacted]s]

Fourthed. Have you considered upping your dose, shriek? Maybe trying therapy? I think it would do you good.

[DrZaius]

That or a people here take a dickbag like Savage even less seriously than a cuntrag like Buttplug. If you want a certain reaction a link from somebody the posters somewhat like or respect would make better bait.

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

You are not laughing at the antics of wingnuts. By posting that here you are trying to somehow associate Savage with the commentors here. Do you really expect anyone to come out in defense of him? Do you expect to stimulate intelligent conservation on the topic yet another of Savage's insane rants? Why don't you post on Savage's site if you want to have that discussion.

[Mike M.]

Finished your book yet, fuckface?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Dear white friends: If you like the Confederate flag you hate me

My eyes widened, my mouth dropped and my body felt paralyzed by the massive star-studded red, white and blue flag. This wasn't the type of flag you pledged allegiance to in elementary school; it was the type of flag from which any young black boy in modern day America would run and never look back.

"Oh, it's not what it seems! Our fraternity was founded in the south. We want to show our pride!"

It's not what it seems?!?! This is what it seemed like to me: It seemed to me that no one in that fraternity was black. It seemed to me that no one in the fraternity minded that they were a part of a white-only fraternity. And, it seemed to me that the Confederate flag was put there to keep it that way.

Immediately, I felt embarrassed. I felt degraded. I felt unwelcome. I felt stupid. I felt dirty. I felt unequal. I felt violated. I felt like a n*gger.

On that cold winter night, going to college was my biggest accomplishment to date. I was the first in my family to go to college, not because of my ancestors' lack of effort, but because of the burden this flag's symbolism placed upon their backs, a burden that this flag had now put upon my shoulders, a burden I had hoped I would never have to carry.

I think he wishes he were a slave, in a sick, demented way.

[Brochettaward]

I don't have a Confederate flag, and I hate him. I'm sure the people who have to deal with him do, as well.

[John]

I am pretty sure a lot of people hate that guy, but their views on the Confederate Flag have nothing to do with it.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Perhaps with the aid of some blonde haired white dominatrix he can work out his issues.

On I side note I find it funny that he said "any young black boy in modern America would run and never look back" considering that earlier today I was talking to a black guy who said he owned 3 Confederate flags. I think most of black america honestly does not give a shit about this issue.

[Theoretical Bi Irish]

I personally love the idea on the left that a symbol can only mean one thing and if you disagree with them on the meaning of that symbol you're a racist.

Most southern whites do not view the Confederate flag as a racist symbol. There are, however, racist white people who use the Confederate flag as a racist symbol. Whether or not it is racist is largely dependent upon context - it's not racist when flying from the house of a Civil War Reenactor; it is racist when flying at a Klan rally.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Yep Nordic symbols tattooed on a metalhead mean something different then Nordic symbols tattooed on an Aryan Brotherhood member.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I don't really like the national or battle flags of the Confederacy, but maybe I'd stretch a point and learn to like them, just to annoy people who need annoying.

[John Titor]

What are you talking about, symbols are never taken out of historical context and used to represent completely different things.

[John]

And these are the same people who totally embrace women and minorities taking ownership and changing the meaning of offensive words like "slut" and such.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

it was the type of flag from which any young black boy in modern day America would run and never look back.

Uhh... yeah, you must not know that many young black boys. There are plenty of them that aren't absolute pussies. Quite a few might do something aggressive in response.

[widget]

Go Set a Watchman:

She grinned when she saw her first TV antenna atop an unpainted Negro house; as they multiplied, her joy rose.

Truman Capote did not edit this.

[Citizen Nothing]

Truman Capote did not edit this.

That's probably all the review we need.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

"6 word book reviews"?

Like the 5 word movie reviews http://5wordmoviereviews.com/

[Lord Humungus]

say what now?

Paul Krugman: It's conservative economics that will turn us into Greece

There's a broader lesson from Greece that is relevant to all of us ? and it's not the usual one about mending our free-spending ways lest we become Greece, Greece I tell you. What we learn, instead, is that fiscal austerity plus hard money is a deeply toxic mix. The fiscal austerity depresses the economy, and pushes it toward deflation; if it's accompanied by hard money (in Greece's case the euro, but a fixed exchange rate, a gold standard, or any kind of obsessive fear of inflation would do the trick), the result is not just a depression and deflation, but quite likely a failure even to reduce the debt ratio.

So, how does this play into U.S. policy debates? Well, Republicans love to warn that America might turn into Greece any day now. But look at the policy mix that is now de facto GOP orthodoxy: sharp cuts in government spending (maybe offset by tax cuts for the rich, but these won't provide much stimulus), combined with a monetary policy obsessed with fears of dollar "debasement". That is, the conservative side of the US political spectrum, while holding up Greece as a cautionary tale, is actually demanding that we emulate the policy mix that turned Greek debt into a complete disaster.

[Jordan]

sharp cuts in government spending

Which Republican party is this?

[Palin's Buttplug]

"Sharp" would be the Budget Control Act of 2011 which cut just the Pentagon only about 4%.

Krugman likes to exaggerate a lot.

[sarcasmic]

By "exaggerate" I assume you mean "lie."

[Libertarian]

Hell, which COUNTRY is he talking about?

[Lee G]

It's Bizarro economics

[John]

So what is going to make us go broke is for us to stop spending money. Not to be all judgy or anything, but that is the kind of thing lunatics think.

[sarcasmic]

Think? Don't give leftists that much credit. They don't think. They feel. Government spending fuels the economy. Without it there would be no economy at all. Duh.

[Certified Public Asshat]

He makes a very convincing argument. -Robbie Soave

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

Ouch.

[Brochettaward]

Soave is never going to live that one down, is he? He's squandered whatever goodwill he had.

[X[redacted]s]

That hair tho

[Certified Public Asshat]

It does look really soft.

[Brochettaward]

It's too early for Reason to get this gay.

[X[redacted]s]

I'm not gay, i just want to burrow into Robby's hair and live there for a while.

His hair scares me, but in a way that i sort of like.

[Crusty Juggler]

His hair smells like a mixture of jasmine, campfire, and frenetic sex.

[X[redacted]s]

And Corinthian leather, and pipe tobacco, and fresh oranges.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

I larfed.

[Mike M.]

Just think of Soave as Nick Gillespie junior, and it will all make a lot more sense.

[X[redacted]s]

So he will be the next host of The Jacket once Gillespie is used up?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

So has anyone watched the Krugman debate? Pretty shitty to mock Soave without knowing what Krugman said.

[Lord Humungus]

Nepalese village where almost everyone sold their kidneys to 'organ traffickers' to buy a house... only for them to be destroyed by devastating earthquake

A mother has told how she sold a kidney to buy her family a house ? only for it to be destroyed in the Nepal earthquake.

Geeta lives in Hokse, Nepal ? nicknamed 'Kidney Village' ? because almost all of the people living there have sold their kidneys to organ traffickers.

Convinced to sell one of her vital organs for just ?1,300 by her sister-in-law, Geeta, 37, travelled to India have the kidney removed.

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

She should've sold a lung while she was there and got insurance.

[Brochettaward]

Nothing on how Germany is getting set to cave on Greece?

[Lord Humungus]

If they do - it will be interesting to see how the other members of the EU react, especially those with their own financial issues. The lesson being if you pout and stamp your feet enough, you can get the concessions you want.

Or how to kick the can down the road yet again.

[X[redacted]s]

You know what German leader DIDN'T cave to other European countries?

[3]

Bismark?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

To Kill a Mockingbird II - To Kill a Whole Shitload of Mockingbirds

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

[Princess Trigger]

Will there be rape?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Oh, they'll *wish* they'd gotten off that easy.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Tom Robinson was falsely accused of rape, then shot trying to escape from prison. They thought they'd killed him, but in fact he was only feigning death using Tibetan meditation techniques.

Now he's back, and he's coming for the people who framed him. With the help of a shotgun-toting Boo Radley and a grown-up Scout, they hunt down the false witnesses, the crooked cops, and the prosecutors.

"You know what they call grits in France?" "I don't know, I'm too busy killing people."

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

In a room full of people who worship him, Joss Whedon boldly takes shots at Paula Deen and Donald Trump

"Everything I have seen about this show [Comedy Central's 'Drunk History'] is my favorite thing," Whedon said in his opening remarks. "It makes us laugh but it makes us think and it reminds us of the universal truth: that rich white people are f?ing insane. It's obviously a fantasy and something we can all laugh at, because those days are all over ? and then Donald Trump says something. I suspect he may be a Bellacourt."

Whedon's appearance comes after Marvel ? aside from its ABC TV block ? ditched plans to present at Comic-Con this year. Whedon next will appear at Dark Horse Comics' special panel with the Avengers: Age of Ultron and Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind on Saturday afternoon in Hall H.

Whedon stayed on point throughout the panel, peppering the cast and creators with questions about how the show is made and how much of it is improvised. One awkward moment came during the audience questions when a fan jokingly asked the creators if any of the black face jokes were inspired by beleaguered cooking personality Paula Deen.

"She does act like it's last century, much in the matter of the Trump," Whedon said as he steered the conversation back on track.

Smug alert! Geek culture has become so self-important and toxic.

[Princess Trigger]

#bravery

[invisible furry hand]

What's a Nubian?

[Rhywun]

Fuck Lando Calrissian! Uncle Tom nigga!

[Illocust]

Nah, its just Whedon. He's a well known SJW. His fans at this point just understand that while he may be an amazing writer you've just got to tune him out when he starts talking politics.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Yeah, Bryan Fuller is the same way.

But all the same, there is a tremendous overlap between the kind of people really into Comic Con culture and the I Fucking Love Science mouthbreathers. Smug prog douchebags.

[John]

This is a good example of how you build a counter culture. Someone needs to start a comic book series called the "Confederate Avenger". Make him a crime fighting southerner who wears the confederate flag with pride. Then when the douche bags at comic con have a stroke, have your fans infiltrate it wearing Confederate flag themed outfits.

Back in the day when it was shocking to show a nudie movie, people made hard core porn to shock the establishment. Today that is the establishment. So you go after the establishment by embracing what is forbidden, which right now is the Confederate Flag.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I looked up "Civil War comics" and it was just a bunch of Spider Man vs. Batman stuff.*

*Yes, I know Batman isn't at Marvel, I'm just messing with you.

[X[redacted]s]

No love for Captain Confederacy?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

That's the one I was trying to find, but all that Captain America vs. Green Lantern stuff got in the way, so thank you for directing me to the right source.

[thrakkorzog]

Yeah, the civil war storyline sucked balls. The worst had to be the bit where Captain America wasn't fit to defend America because he doesn't watch nascar or American Idol.

[Rasilio]

Try this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Tank

The Haunted Tank is a comic book feature that appeared in the DC Comics anthology war title G.I. Combat from 1961 through 1987. It was created by writer and editor Robert Kanigher and artist Russ Heath in G.I. Combat #87 (May 1961).[1]

The feature centers on the ghost of 19th-century Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart, who is sent by the spirit of Alexander the Great to act as a guardian over his two namesakes, Lieutenant Jeb Stuart (named in the early stories as Jeb Stuart Smith, but eventually just shortened to Jeb Stuart) and the Light Tank M3 Stuart that Jeb commands.

"The Haunted Tank" was often the cover feature of G.I. Combat and was second only to Sgt. Rock as DC Comics' longest-running war series.

And a big name sci fi guy already wants to make it into a movie...

J Michael Straczynski told Film Buff Online that he would like to see Haunted Tank get made into a film

[Colonel Slanders]

Tried that one John, it doesn't work. Since they already control the media houses they just marginalize you and try to keep you in your own little corner of nothingness. After all, you're useful to fund raising.

[John]

That is harder to do with the internet. This is why they hate the internet so much. You don't need them, you can self publish and self promote via social media.

[cavalier973]

Check out "The Order of the Stick".

http://www.giantitp.com

An example of a self-published comic strip that is quite popular.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Super rich white man from privileged family says "rich white people are fucking insane." Well, if he ever does hit rock bottom, there will always be a job for him at Salon.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Joss Whedon being a dickhead doesn't negate the fact that Drunk History is awesome.

The DC episode is worth a look if you haven't seen it.

[Protagoronus]

No one is linking this article about squirrels destroying our stock exchanges? Is this real life?

http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....ge/398108/

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

If we publicize it, they might gnaw the lines running into Reason HQ!!!!!

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I Tried to Escape My White Privilege with Low Wage Work

Jesus Christ, just watch Five Easy Pieces.

[John]

+1 Jack Nicholson reference. And you provide yet another example of how spent current culture is. These people are so conformist, they don't even know how to rebel. They just just mimic how rebellion was once done but in a socially acceptable way.

[SugarFree]

How brave. He worked with nice people from other countries who liked him. And he ran the register because he spoke the best English.

I think I hurt myself rolling my eyes.

[invisible furry hand]

Don't worry, that nice Mr Obama will give you teensy-weensy eye-crutches

[Free Society]

That guy is sucking his own dick so hard I think it must have come right off.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

My grandpa could have used some of that there white privilege. He had the privilege of losing everything in the Depression, then laboring in the mines for the rest of his life to support himself and his family. It made him kind of depressed. If only he'd known how lucky he was to be white!

[Brochettaward]

I attended the Edmund Burke School, one of Northwest Washington's small private prep schools, where college acceptance rates were close to 100 percent, students called our teachers by their first names, and ? despite our de facto liberalism and the lip service we paid to the ideal of diversity ? we were mostly white and well-off. Most of our parents were left-leaning architects or journalists, federal employees or lawyers

The irony...it burns. Children of federal employees, journalists, lawyers...prep schools. This is where the progressive is bred. They then lecture to lower and middle class whites about their privilege and closeted racism.

[John]

And they are of course the most intolerant most inbred group of people on earth. They all go to the same schools, play the same sports, thing the same way, get the same jobs and marry someone who looks just like them.

Imagine the reaction if one of the little snowflakes at the Edmund Burke School decided they wanted to be an Army Ranger or became a born again Christian? Talk about being kicked out of the group. A kid in that environment who did that would face every bit as much social sanction as a kid who came out as gay faced 30 years ago.

[Rhywun]

I suppose it was only with regret that he went back to his privileged life after he got tired of slumming it. What a hero!

[Libertarian]

"It would be my privilege to perform these weddings with the dignity they deserve," she said.

Uh oh. That could be taken two ways.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

WTF happened to reasonable? I have to look at trolls and write HTML by hand now? BY HAND???

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Oh, whew! Just had to reload it in Chrome for some reason.

[Free Society]

A Psychologist's Explanation Of Why Racism Persists In America

Examples can be taken from looking at how home loans are given -? how race may factor into this process. We all know that owning property is an important step in upward mobility, but for people of color this step is often not easy because of racial discrimination. We also see this in employment: Employers are more likely to hire a white applicant as opposed to a qualified black applicant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....9917917855

[John]

The funny thing about that is that every single piece of evidence he gives is race neutral, meaning it is how people in general are not just how white people are. Even thought I am skeptical of his claims, I would be willing to grant them if in return Progs were willing to admit anyone can be racist not just white people. I don't think they are going to like that deal very much.

[Brochettaward]

Send a white prog to work in an predominantly black environment with black bosses. They'll learn real fast.

[Rhywun]

Or send their white kids to a mostly black school.

[Free Society]

According to them; "you need a position of power to manifest racism, that's why blacks cannot be racist." So then you might ask "Well is Oprah Winfrey capable of racism towards her white employees?". You'll get no answer.

[John]

And so after 50 years of the CRA the blacks today are in no positions of power? None? That is either one hell of an admission of failure of the CRA or one hell of a racist insult to black people.

[Theoretical Bi Irish]

I saw someone point out that by that logic if I went to Japan and called Japanese people degenerate, slant-eyed, panty-sniffing perverts I haven't been racist because I am not in a position of power in Japan.

I don't think this logic quite works.

[John]

And if I am not mistaken, the man holding the most powerful office in the world is black. His election to that position was a pretty big deal as I remember. If racism is about power, can Obama be racist? I bet you would get more than silence if you ask that question, more likely a gasp followed by a fainting spell.

[Free Society]

Was the election of Barack O'Bama an expression of racism from "white America"? Ask just about any black person and whites like TIm Cavanaugh why they voted for the guy and you'll get your answer.

[John]

It totally was. On the part of whites like Cavanaugh, it was an expression of condescension. Cavanaugh and other whites voted for Obama when they never would have had he been white. If thinking another race can't meet up to your standards and must be held to lower ones isn't racist, what is?

[ant1sthenes]

They voted for Obama because he talked a good game, had little actual record, and McCain scared the shit out of people.

[Free Society]

They voted for Obama because he talked a good game, had little actual record, and McCain scared the shit out of people.

More importantly because he's those things AND he's black. TIm Cavanaugh came right out and said it. Though to be fair, blacks tend vote like a hivemind in national elections whenever there is a Democrat on the ticket, not just specifically black candidates. But it's no small minority who will tell you they simply wanted a black president.

[Zeb]

That definition usually just seems like they are trying to say that only white people can be racist, but don't want to get called on their own racism. Powerful racists using their power to do racist things is obviously more harmful than some yokel (of whatever race) being casually racist. But it's still racism.

[invisible furry hand]

It's so deep even the NAACP gives jobs to a white applicant as opposed to a qualified black applicant.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

*applause*

[bacon-magic]

+1 Racial appropriation.

[Brochettaward]

I do like their efforts to quantify 'qualified' across thousands of people and different situations.

I suppose more black people could start their own businesses, invent their own technologies and services then hire one another. I wouldn't complain.

[SIV]

We all know that owning property is an important step in upward mobility

All of us except the patrons of Rent-A-Wheel

[Zeb]

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that that is a thing. We all know that owning property just gets in the way of more bling.

[invisible furry hand]

ATHENS, July 10 (Reuters) - Greece's main opposition conservatives said on Friday they would back the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras to secure a cash-for reforms deal with the country's international creditors that will keep the country within the euro zone.

Lawmakers are due to vote later on Friday on proposals presented to Greece's creditors which include measures to raise taxes, introduce a raft of privatisations and cut public spending in areas such as defence.

"The New Democracy party gives the prime minister not only the authorisation to reach an agreement, but also the mandate to avoid the country's exit from Europe and the euro," the party said in a statement.

[Brochettaward]

Greece keeps promising the same reforms to get cash, and Europe keeps giving it to them. What a farce. SYRiZA has no intention of reforming a damn thing.

IT's like those corporate tax loopholes that Democrats always close to pay for their welfare programs. It never actually happens and nothing gets paid for, but people eat it up every time.

[Lee G]

Pretend and Extend, Pretend and Extend....

[Sevo]

The ND party wasn't the problem. It's SYRIZA; they were elected specifically to deny 'austerity', so it Tsipras now going to turn around and point out that mob-rally last weekend was all just happy-talk?

[commodious spittoon]

Six Albuquerque teens between 14-17 years old commit robbery spree, murder bartender.

[John]

Police say the teens were all together robbing homes and cars on the night of Gerecke's murder.

It is just too bad they didn't run into a home owner who was armed. As it is, they won't get the death penalty and the 14 year old will likely not be tried as an adult and be back out robbing people when he is 21.

[commodious spittoon]

One of their victims scared them off with a rifle. But let's be honest, if he had defended himself, even if they were armed at the time, we'd have national coverage about the gun-crazed homeowner who murdered a teenager in a fit of pique.

[John]

maybe. I don't think we are that far gone yet. People defending their homes is thankfully something that nearly all of the country outside of the really oppressive Prog enclaves thinks is a good thing.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Omar Sharif died. He was in 1.5 of my favorite movies (Dr. Zhivago and the first 1/2 of Lawrence of Arabia)

[invisible furry hand]

And he was in Funny Girl, being totally dashing.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Never saw that one (not so into urban romance/romcom type stuff). I'll check it out.

[John]

He was the Arabian Sidney Poitier. They don't make actors that cool anymore.

[Mike M.]

Yep. Not to mention he was also a world class bridge player. I learned to love the game primarily through his books and columns. Not many people in life master two vastly such different disciplines to that degree.

Rest in peace Mr. Sharif, and may the cards always go your way.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

Bridge is awesome. My parents were in college in the 60's when people would play bridge waiting in line at the cafeteria. So, they taught me young. I find starting with Hearts, then progressing to Spades, is a good way to teach the basics of Bridge.

[Mike M.]

It is. It's one of the greatest game ever invented! I fear that the game is dying in America though.

[John]

Do you actually play it? I would love to play it but have never known anyone who does or a group to get involved in it. My wife and I would do it in a heartbeat, though us as partners might end in gunfire.

[Kristen?s Vermeer]

I haven't played in years. It's too much of a hardship to teach people. In fact, I've found playing Hearts with inexperienced players is boring as shit. Nobody ever taught them about counting suits and the value of a void suit. When you can shoot the moon on every hand, it hardly seems worth it.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were some kind of DC Bridge Meetup.

[Mike M.]

There are a lot of really good resources here at the ACBL official website, including links and info on clubs and events in your area.

[John]

Thanks Mike.

[John]

Kristen,

I am a very experienced and competent hearts, spades, and pinocle player. It is my understanding that pinocle is just baby bridge with a smaller deck. I grew up playing cards and both sides of my family played them for blood.

[Rhywun]

I played tons of Euchre in 80s high school. Even back then it seemed like only old people played Bridge.

[commodious spittoon]

I'd swear that was bin Laden's umpteenth second in command.

[Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!]

"You are angry English - come, I will take you to Lord Faisal."