Gawker Editors Fall on Poisoned Pens, McCain Wants Trump to Apologize to POWs, Uber Faster and Cheaper in Poor Communities: P.M. Links

• 

  Gawker

  Schadenfreude ahoy! Two Gawker editors have resigned after the company's management forced the removal of that extremely vile story outing a media executive for no actual reason and making the site essentially complicit in a blackmail effort. (Though as Popehat explains, they are likely not legally complicit.)

• Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war, not him, for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured.  
• The United States has killed at least eight Afghan soldiers in an airstrike in a friendly fire incident.
• A study in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles shows that rides ordered from Uber arrive more quickly and cost much less than taxis. Please remind those oblivious taxi cartel defenders that claim to be concerned about the poor that poor people benefit from the availability of this service. (Hat tip to CharlesWT)
• A suicide blast in a Turkish town near the Syrian border has killed at least 30.
• Grocery chain A&P has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in five years.

New at Reason.com

• What GOP Debate Moderators Should Ask Jeb Bush and Gov. Scott Walker
  For starters, why spend more federal money on space exploration? And why subsidize the Milwaukee Bucks? by Ira Stoll
• Turf War
  Americans are fighting for their right to garden. By Nick Sibilla
• Peter Schiff on the Fed, Rand Paul, and the Next Financial Crisis
  "What the voters want is snake oil. They want something that makes them feels good." by Matt Welch and Joshua Swain

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

...for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured.

Looks like the craziness of John McCain...

[dones sunglasses]

...just got trumped.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Somebody needs to take away FoE's sunglasses.

[Hamster of Doom]

He might bite.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Of course he'll bite... That's why I said "Somebody".

[BuSab Agent]

I'll do it. If he bites me he'll end up Weatherwaxed.

[Igor]

No, we said *BELL* the Cat!

[Hamster of Doom]

You can't be having with this?

[BuSab Agent]

Exactly. Don't do what you will, do what I tells you.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Why? I find they suit him:

http://bit.ly/1MDV8r4

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorry. Wrong pic:

http://bit.ly/1I8tChd

[Fist of Etiquette]

Apparently this time my sunglasses were a...

[dons sunglasses]

...done deal.

[Root Boy]

For once McCain had the much more classy response.

He also had a pretty funny answer about the crowds going to see Trump in AZ.

[R C Dean]

Naturally, the Donald is right about this: McCain isn't a hero because he got captured

He's a war hero because of what he did as a POW.

And being a war hero POW is of only incidental relevance to qualifications to hold power.

Besidese, you know who else was a war hero?

[Mr Lizard]

Joan of Arc?...

[Crusty Juggler]

James Blunt?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You're beatiful

[Libertymike]

R C, why are you so sure that he was a war hero?

Putting aside the fact that he was shot down while on a bombing mission (not an act of heroism, in and of itself, and in stark contrast to the real heroism of Muhammad Ali) and captured, why assume the MSM narrative is correct?

After all, its not as if there are no facts to support the proposition that he was given preferential treatment and that he actually participated in communist propaganda.

[Crusty Juggler]

The men he was in the prisoner of war camp say that he was. Bud Day and James Stockdale are two that have been previously discussed in this chatroom.

[Libertymike]

There are those who say otherwise, including Colonels Ted Guy and Gordon Larson.

Given McCain's overall character, I am not inclined to buy the narrative. He is one nasty, rotten human being.

[Crusty Juggler]

I am not going to defend McCain's character, and I am not sure how to determine what makes a person heroic in war, but if McCain's actions inspired some men he was with to call him a hero, then that should be sufficient.

[R C Dean]

I suspect being a nasty, rotten human being is no barrier to being a war hero.

[Libertymike]

R C, you would suspect mistakenly...especially when the alleged war hero has a demonstrated propensity to prevaricate.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Given McCain's overall character, I am not inclined to buy the narrative. He is one nasty, rotten human being."

I disagree with him politically, but he chose to stay in a POW camp where he would be tortured by the Viet Cong because he thought it was wrong to be released due to his father's influence when other men were going to be left behind.

This isn't that difficult.

[Libertymike]

If you believe that and ignore evidence to the contrary.

Do you have first hand evidence to contradict that which Colonels Guy and Larson have said?

How about McCain's reputation among fellow prisoners and his Vietnamese captors as the "POW Songbird?"

How about the account of Jack McLamb? McLamb stated, "when [McCain] came in [to the POW camp] he immediately started spilling his guts out everything because he didn't want to get tortured."

[Libertymike]

How about the recollection of one Tran Trong Duyet?

Mr. Duyet was a supervisor of guards at the Hanoi Hilton during McCain's incarceration. Mr. Duyet has denied that McCain was tortured.

But, why take the word of a jailer guarding a man who was shot down trying to murder civilians who had done no harm to him?

Don't buy the propaganda.

[Not an Economist]

Yeah, torturers never lie.

[Zaytsev]

I disagree with him politically, but he chose to stay in a POW camp where he would be tortured by the Viet Cong because he thought it was wrong to be released due to his father's influence when other men were going to be left behind.

That part of the McCain myth has always struck me as bullshit.

What propaganda victory would the commies have gotten from releasing the son of the commanding admiral that was leading the fight against them?

IIt's more likely that he would have been seen as a high value hostage to be held for maximum leverage.

And if they had decided that releasing him would benefit them, why would they allow him to veto that action. They held all the power in that situation - he none. So why would his objections enter into their decision at all?

[F. Whiny Comments, Jr.]

Some horse they made a movie about that one time?

[Hey Nikki!]

The real end for Trump:

"While there were audible groans in the crowd when Trump questioned whether McCain was a war hero," the senior Republican said via email, "it was Trump's inability to articulate any coherent relationship with God or demonstrate the role faith plays in his life that really sucked the oxygen out of the room."

The senior Republican continued: "Milling around talking to activists in the hallways/lobby after Trump's speech, THAT is what those Iowa conservatives were discussing, not the McCain comment."

That'll teach them to forget New York is full of sodomites and hippies.

[John]

He is imploding.

[Crusty Juggler]

HE IS NOT IMPLODING FAST ENOUGH. WE DEMAND FASTER IMPLOSION.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Right on cue. I don't buy into the whole "decoy for Clinton" deal, but I think that places like HuffPo and the other MSM outlets are propping him up for as long as possible to submarine the Bernie Sanders momentum.

[Sandi]

Did you know that an anagram for Donald Trump is Damn Turd Pol? BTW, I took a shit in New York once.

[Jerryskids]

You could have taken several shits in NYC, it's not like anybody would have noticed a few were missing.

[Clich? Bandit]

Sandi, it is truly a pleasure to see (not smell) you back here. Where were you when we needed you? Constipated?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...outing a media executive for no actual reason and making the site essentially complicit in a blackmail effort.

I'm hearing stories that it wasn't even true. Gawker's source is a nut job.

[Hey Nikki!]

Don't forget to take your ritual "15 minutes to school a Bernie supporter on her white privilege" today!

[Unreconstructed (Sans Flag)]

SF'd link?

[Hey Nikki!]

So I did: "15 minutes to school a Bernie supporter on her white privilege"

[Ted S.]

Poe's Law in action, I suppose.

[Root Boy]

Saw this yesterday on twitchy. Funny as shit.

Part of the eat your own, progs try to out-victim each other and then find out they are all Oberlin grads with rich lawyer moms and dads.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

The best part of the whole thing

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

This (white?) man is a real hero.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

When the Bernie fan said, "Bernie has talked more about race than Obama," I shut the conversation down, but explained why first.

What an asshole.

As an African-American man, Obama makes a statement about race every time he stands up as our president. Every time.

Sigh.

[Heroic Mulatto]

As an African-American man, Obama

Good to the last one drop...

[R C Dean]

C'mon. Obama is just as African-American as Liz Warren is Native American.

Haterz.

[perlchpr]

I dunno, given who his father and mother were, I'd say he's more actual African-American than most black people in the States.

[Ted S.]

Well, Nicole is the worst....

[John]

Doesn't my knowing the full nature of my "privilege" necessarily involve me understanding the full nature of the disadvantage of the people over whom I have the privilege? Since privilege is a relative term, my understanding my privilege necessarily means my understanding the damage done to people at whose expense I have the privilege.

So what we have here is one white person lecturing another about the hardships of being brown.

[Antilles]

Your privilege is that if you fail you can't blame someone else, so you have more incentive to not fail.

[John]

That and everyone knows I didn't get into college or get a job because some guilty white person felt sorry for me. That is no small privilege. If you don't believe me, go talk to Clearance Thomas, who attended a much more prestigious law school than I did and yet found his degree commanded little respect because the didn't have the privilege of being judged on his merits.

[Antilles]

Isn't that what this whole 'white privilege' thing is about? Just a way to diminish your accomplishments because the color of your skin? You've managed to succeed without the government's help (unlike our Affirmative Action President). The only explanation is a magical aura that you were born with. And because of that your accomplishments mean nothing.

[John]

Pretty much. But since everything these people say is a complete lie, in reality the opposite is the truth. All of this sort of talk just diminishes and dehumanizes black people.

[Homple]

"Clearance" Thomas?

Preview is your friend; spell corrector is your implacable enemy.

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

His Long Dong Silver hits the max height sign above when he drops his robes.

[Mrs. Lemuel Struthers]

I wonder how much Hillary's campaign is paying Zack Ford.

[Pan Zagloba]

Whatever they are, double it! The man is an American treasure.

[Injun, as in from India]

Schadenfreude ahoy! Two Gawker editors have resigned after the company's management forced the removal of that extremely vile story outing a media executive for no actual reason and making the site essentially complicit in a blackmail effort. (Though as Popehat explains, they are likely not legally complicit.)

Here are the a$$holes handsome young men Gawker men who are abusers posing as journalists.

[Injun, as in from India]

In case anyone forgot, I was making a play on this old Gawker headline when the bas****s published an interactive map of gun owners in some NY counties, and then rephrased their headline when people complained.

Here Is a List of All the Assholes Handsome Law-Abiding Citizens Who Own Guns Some People in New York City

[Hamster of Doom]

Are you censoring "tard" or is Reason? More importantly, why?

[Injun, as in from India]

I self-censor. I don't know why.

Maybe this?

[Crusty Juggler]

You make me want to **** your dirty ****.

[Hamster of Doom]

[Redacted] with a [redacted]ing [redacted]. Twice.

[R C Dean]

"scrub" and "dishes"?

[Hamster of Doom]

That doesn't even work. Three redacteds. LOSER = YOU.

[kbolino]

wash, hair

[Crusty Juggler]

**** me.

[Mrs. Lemuel Struthers]

Love me.

[Mrs. Lemuel Struthers]

Help me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A study in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles shows that rides ordered from Uber arrive more quickly and cost much less than taxis.

Arrive more racistly and cost much more freedom, you mean.

[Hamster of Doom]

The new American Dream is the crab pot.

[Root Boy]

What's funny is there used to be (or still are) guys in the ghetto who would run illegal car services and van services for the old ladies to get to church and the grocery stores. Cabbies would try to sick cops on them.

I hope all those entrepreneurs are now Uber drivers.

[Libertarian]

I remember that Reason, back in the dead-tree publishing world of the 70s, ran more than one article on black market "jitneys."

[Ska]

Seems to be more of an Asian market by me.

Oh, that's not what you meant...

[Injun, as in from India]

A study in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles shows that rides ordered from Uber arrive more quickly and cost much less than taxis.

Progressive Rebuttal 1: This study was funded by economists on the Uber payroll.
Progressive Rebuttal 2: Our economists who are better than Uber's economists show otherwise.
Progressive Rebuttal 3: FYTW. We will shut Uber down via regulation regardless of what you think.

[amelia]

The complaint I'm hearing from my friends in San Francisco is that Uber is responsible for the really bad traffic. It's all those yokels driving in from the hills to make a few dollars that crowd up our roads here. Which has been really bad for many decades but still doesn't suck balls like LA traffic, anyhow.

[Injun, as in from India]

Grocery chain A&P has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in five years.

If the government gives EBT cards to A&P employees, they will be able to save the company that serves the underserved!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Have they thought about switching the letters up?

[Aloysious]

It wouldn't surprise me if A&P were owned by Venezuelans.

[The Last American Hero]

I've only been a few times, but I don't recall the shelves being empty of toilet paper.

[Pro Libertate]

Here's some irony for you: At one time, many years ago, A&P was viewed as a monopoly or, at least, a potential monopoly.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Well, A&P did have a 75% market share.

[Injun, as in from India]

The United States has killed at least eight Afghan soldiers in an airstrike in a friendly fire incident.

Government competence never goes unrewarded.

[Root Boy]

Calling in a 9 line is a tough job and things in war don't always work as planned. Making jokes about some Sgt. on the ground like he's a DOJ lawyer or drivers license clerk is shitty.

[Injun, as in from India]

If the dead soldiers were your family, would you agree with your statement?

[Root Boy]

Guy makes mistake in combat that results in friendly deaths. Whether it was a pilot or a guy on the ground, I'm sure he feels like shit.

My statement still stands -- he's not some dipshit working in a comfy job in WDC with no consequences and doesn't deserve to be lumped in with incompetent government workers.

[Warty]

So friendly fire is competent then?

[Root Boy]

Yeah, that's what I said.

[Warty]

Yes. It is.

[Hamster of Doom]

I think he's arguing (we? the dead? unclear on this point, but definitely someone) should feel really bad for the poor guy, because he's trying, y'know.

[Warty]

I think it goes something like: combat is hard work, so if you fuck up and kill a bunch of guys, no one should say you're not competent, because it might hurt your feelings. Or something. Or maybe that's what an SJW would say. OH NO AM I AN SJW OH NO OH NO

[Hey Nikki!]

No, it's "some animals are more equal than others."

[Heedless]

Hoo, boy, was this the wrong forum to make trust argument.

[Tonio]

he's not some dipshit working in a comfy job in WDC

Or one of the 168 dipshits working previously comfortable jobs at the federal building in Oklahoma City in April, 1995. Those people suffered some major consequences.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

If the dead soldiers were your family, would you agree with your statement?

If I were the government, I'd classify the incident report as a "State Secret".

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Drivers license clerks see some shit, man.

[Injun, as in from India]

My comment was harsh and I acknowledge that, and wish I hadn't made it.

But I think anyone who is vested with the monopoly to initiate force ought to held responsible and must never be beyond ridicule, even harsh.

That includes police and their "procedures were followed" nonsense when their victims are domestic citizens, and the military when the victims are foreigners. Governments have killed millions of people around the world, and that is an undisputed fact.

A human being is a human being. An innocent victim is an innocent victim.

[Tonio]

This is exactly the place for harsh comments, Injun. Your comment was indeed harsh, but valid. The ultimate strength of libertarianism is that we don't avoid the hard questions and difficult topics. Unlike our opponents who have to engage in victim-ranking and navel-gazing before they can even have a discussion about having a discussion.

[See Double You]

Thank you. The frankness here is one of the reasons (!) I keep coming back.

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

It's been a while since I've done it, but a 9 line is a medevac.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war...

He can visit them in the POW camps, a la Hanoi Jane.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Guantanamo?

[Hamster of Doom]

Manzanar. I hear they're re-opening it.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Massachusetts police department gave preference to applicants who said they wouldn't arrest colleagues for DUI, marked down those who said they would

As part of the hiring process, Methuen asked candidates how they would handle a situation in which where they found a driver in a crash who appeared to be intoxicated.

They were then asked how they would handle the same scenario involving a relative or a police officer they knew from a neighboring town.

At a commission hearing, Methuen police officers said the questions were intended to help them assess the honesty and reasoning of applicants.

"I'm looking for some bearing, some honesty, and how quickly the person can think on their feet," Police Lieutenant Michael Pappalardo testified.

But Pappalardo also said he wouldn't believe anyone who claimed they would arrest their family and friends. And when candidates said they wouldn't arrest family or fellow officers, the hiring panel noted the person "knows discretion."

"Some of the interview panelists actually heaped high praise on those candidates who stated that they would arrest a stranger but not arrest a friend or family member based on the same facts, citing their understanding of 'discretion,'" Bowman wrote in his decision.

[Hamster of Doom]

This is Jack's complete lack of surprise.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They then showed candidates photos of various breeds of dog. The candidate who identified any of the breeds as something other than pit bull was dismissed.

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

Duh, I know what that is, that target practice, duh!

[Antilles]

Geez! They don't even pretend to be ethical and professional. These people should not be allowed to walk around with guns.

[Injun, as in from India]

But how else are progressives going to shove progress down our throats?

SOMEONE has to have the guns for the sake of engineering the common good into existence!

[Mr Lizard]

Relax mammal, your race needs to worry more about getting shoved on the grill. (Although we do prefer roast human, but in light of recent history Your Future Reptilian Overlords did not like the...'optics' of that method)

[Mr Lizard]

Damnit I meant entire species.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Job application:

Question A - 5 marks. You see a person in distress making incoherent sounds. They are unarmed and you determine they are not a threat. What do you do? Show your work. Don't forget to think hard before you answer!

[Injun, as in from India]

Simple.

Text your union rep first, and then shoot the person in distress.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

you determine they are not a threat

Trick question!!! Anyone can be a threat at any time, and this scenario could just be them biding their time until I commit to helping them.

/glances from side to side rapidly.

[perlchpr]

Choke them to death.

[Injun, as in from India]

From 538 - much to the consternation of government school teacher unions.

The Science Of Grading Teachers Gets High Marks

[Injun, as in from India]

SF'd the link. Here is the right one:

The Science Of Grading Teachers Gets High Marks

[Heroic Mulatto]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, my good fellow!

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ugghhh, there's Peter Schiff again on a day gold got butt-fricked again (closed below $1100 for the first time in five years).

Please Reason staff. Have you no shame? Dump Schiff please.

Uncle Buck strong as a bull too.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Considering gold is still over $700/oz above its Y2K inflation-adjusted levels, it's not exactly weak, either, your anal fixation notwithstanding.

[waffles]

It takes a strong commitment to store your precious metals rectally.

[Weigel's Cock Ring]

You know who else is strong as a bull? Matt Yglesias when he's taking us from behind.

[R C Dean]

I'm still above water on my physical gold.

Only fools speculate in gold, which is one of the, if not the, most manipulated market in the world.

Gold is insurance against government folly. I'm happy with my policy. As is the nature of insurance, I'll be even happier if I never have to use it.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

^^ This. I don't own physical gold yet, but I'll buy in if it gets below $900. I'm flirting with the idea of buying into silver now, but I'd prefer it below $12.

Like you said, it's insurance for the next time the economy goes into the shitter for a decade. I'd prefer that it all sits in the safe collecting dust, but same goes with my life insurance policy.

[Free Society]

So if gold doesn't simply acrue value constantly and into oblivion, then it's unsound money? Do you apply that same litmus test to fiat backed money?

[Heedless]

No, but gold is not liquid in the same way cash is. If I'm going to move to semi-liquid assets, I'll stick with stocks or bonds or some other earning asset. Gold is purely a hedge, and an inefficient one at that.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

No, but gold is not liquid in the same way cash is. If I'm going to move to semi-liquid assets, I'll stick with stocks or bonds or some other earning asset. Gold is purely a hedge, and an inefficient one at that.

Different tools for different applications. Stocks and bonds don't do particularly well in a depression. Gold does much better in that situation. Liquid cash isn't very useful when its value drastically decreases due to hyperinflation. Gold holds its value in such a situation.

I don't pretend that I think i'll be shaving corners off a gold bar to pay for bread, but I also don't pretend that such an economic calamity is somehow unprecedented.

[perlchpr]

I dunno. Gold is pretty damned liquid. There's 25 shops in town, easy, where I can take bullion or coin and turn it into fiat dollars.

And it's a hedge against circumstances where stocks and bonds are useless, but not quite so far gone that gold is worth less than lead and brass. :-/

[Hamster of Doom]

Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war, not him, for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured.

A Machiavellian plot to make him seem human. He's not. He's one of the reptilian overlords, and he thinks your eyeballs are delicious.

True story.

[Heedless]

At least he didn't demand that Trump apologize to his mule.

[Winston]

So how do you guys explain why Stalin was such a bastard despite having diplomatic recognition from Germany, the UK, France and (from 1933) the US? Seems there needs to be a bit more to liberalize authoritarian regimes than just trade and diplomatic recognition.

[Root Boy]

Tell it to Obama on his Cuba policy.

I'm glad he's opened the embassy, and wish they'd drop the embargo, but it's not like the Castro's will change or Obama even tried to get them to change as an incentive.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Good point.

Whatever happened to that Stalin fella's regime?

[Winston]

He died and his successors weren't as crazy and the system collapsed almost forty years later? Similar things might happen in Cuba but it will require the Castros to die and who knows if the new Cuban Commies can remain in control of the reformed regime like in China. Assuming that the new Cuban Commies aren't like Kim-Jong Il or Kim-Jong Un.

[Winston]

Also you did not rebut me in anyway.

[Winston]

Also Russia is now run by that great libertarian Vladimir Putin. So in 70 years Cuba might have another Batista?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Seems there needs to be a bit more to liberalize authoritarian regimes than just trade and diplomatic recognition.

And?

[Winston]

Care to show me a Reason writer admitting that with the Castros in charge Cuba is still going to be a shithole? And that it will take decades and might even result with a non-commie tyrant in power?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

You're able to pick up so much from what Reason writers don't say.

[Winston]

More Republicans Want to Liberate Cuba, Trigger Warnings Run Amok, American Sniper Trailer Debuts: P.M. Links

http://reason.com/blog/2014/12.....ate-cuba-t

http://reason.com/blog/2014/12.....s-and-whos
Free trade is an economic lifeline, to the people living in a country, creating new economic opportunities and new wealth, making people freer.

[Winston]

http://reason.com/blog/2014/12.....e-cuban-em

this is a vital first step in allowing market forces to eventually improve the lives of Cubans who have languished under dictatorship for more than half a century

Cuba Libre

http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/01/cuba-libre

[Winston]

http://reason.com/blog/2014/12.....5e5mk:t1VF

My 1998 experience of attempting to live in Havana convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that three of the most important and attainable things Cubans need, both for their basic human dignity and for their struggle against their totalitarian overlords, are 1) exposure to Americans; 2) increased access to non-governmental sources of money, and 3) increased access to information. Obama's moves help on all three fronts.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two Gawker editors have resigned...

In their defense, they seem to be getting from management mixed signals about what the site is about.

[Injun, as in from India]

Looks like an AWESOME book to take on the ivory tower elites in higher ed, learn a lesson in real-life leftist tolerance and get a D- or F in the process if you're an unfortunate student.

'Excuse me, professor' ? Scholar explains how to refute common leftist narratives

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

This is one of my favorite things that leftists always do.

Jesus Christ was a progressive because he advocated income redistribution to help the poor

They pull up a reference to a person that just 5 minutes before they denied to have ever even existed in the first place, and use that person (who never existed) as an example of what everyone else is supposed to do.

[Injun, as in from India]

^This.

Use religion when it suits you to, toss it out when it doesn't.

[Hamster of Doom]

Hey, if it's goof enough for the religious people...

[Hamster of Doom]

The squirrel god did that in retribution for my insolence. I distinctly remember typing "good".

[Antilles]

Besides, Jesus supported individual charity rather than government confiscation. People should help each rather than turn to a soulless bureaucracy to do it.

[R C Dean]

Jesus was no fascist.

You can't reconcile "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" with "Everything for the State . . . ".

[PBR Streetgang]

^^ This. Exactly.

[Libertymike]

There are several OT scriptures that stand for the proposition that God owns the heavens and the earth. Put another way, God owns everything.

Therefore, render unto Caesar means Caesar gets nada.

Besides, why would Jesus command his disciples and his flock to subordinate themselves to a guy like Tiberius Caesar, who, in his personal life, was a murderer, a pedophile, and a sexual deviant?

Tiberius proclaimed himself to be a god and had his image inscribed on his coins. Yeah, it makes sense that Jesus would want Christians to obey a guy like that or a guy like John "the war hero" McCain.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I find Dr. Norman Horn to be a great advocate for Christian Libertarians

[Libertymike]

Thanks. Just perused. Good stuff.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Lol, I just noticed that I linked to a guest post from Norman's website. Either way, Norman is a very smart guy theologically and politically.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

But Jesus would have Ubered.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I've found that people who say that Jesus was a progressive typically haven't read much of the Gospels. They always cite his remonstrations about rich people, and feeding and healing the sick, and ignore the fact that 1) these acts of goodwill were accomplished through divine means; and 2) Jesus preached a message completely divorced from a typical progressive's materialistic worldview. Hell, the one time he's shown paying taxes, his disciples get the money from the mouth of a fish, not from Jesus hiring himself out for day labor even though he was a carpenter by trade.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Do ye have no faith in Godvernment to feed the hungry?

[Virginian]

This is one of my favorite things that leftists always do.

Jesus Christ was a progressive because he advocated income redistribution to help the poor

I always find this funny because I'm not a Christian, but every progtard I ever argue with seems to trot out the "Jesus the socialist" drivel like that's going to persuade me. I care for Jesus flavored socialism even less than the "secular" kind.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They constantly apply contradictory logic when it comes to religion; particularly Christianity.

They have such a shallow grasp of Christianity it's frightening.

[Antilles]

So, just like their grasp of Libertarianism...

[lap83]

They have a shallow grasp of everything

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

He pointed to the Federal Reserve, which he said was pumping up the economy by driving interest rates to historic lows throughout the "Roaring Twenties" through buying government bonds and injecting the financial system with liquidity.

"But the problem with that is that stuff is never sustainable," Reed said. It is artificial.

"[The unsustainable interest rates] created a bubble which was burst in 1929."

Reed added that the stock market crash was only a symptom of the Great Depression, not the cause. He noted that the Fed started to raise its interest rates in early 1929, and that the Stock Market began to moderately decline until its crash in October of that year.

"The stock market decline was reflecting the change in the Fed policy," Reed said. "Just as the market had gone through the roof as the Fed was boosting up money supply. When the fed started to contract the money supply, the stock market reflected that change in policy."

This definitely has zero parallels to our current economic climate at all!

[Warty]

These things drive me crazy. Here's a list of talking points for you to memorize so that you can win any conversation. Because winning is what conversations are about.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I see it as useful for a high school or college kid who knows that they're being fed bullshit, but hasn't put in the requisite research to be able to confidently explain why it's bullshit and what the real answer is.

[Raven Nation]

A high school or college kid with cojones could use those points not to win an argument with the teacher but to get other kids in the class thinking.

[waffles]

I know that all my lifelong friends were won with a rhetorical slam dunk.

[Injun, as in from India]

Now if you rephrase the question as "Are TOP MEN good people?", the answer IMHO will be a resounding NO because power screws up even good people.

Are professional ethicists good people? According to our research, not especially. So what is the point of learning ethics?

Obviously some of these measures are more significant than others. They range from comparative trivialities (littering) to substantial life decisions (joining the Nazis), and from contributions to strangers (blood donation) to personal interactions (calling Mom). Some of our measures rely on self-report (we didn't ask ethicists' mothers how long it had really been).

Ethicists do not behave better. But neither, overall, do they seem to behave worse

[John]

I read that. The story of the woman eating the cheese burger is a fucking moment to rationalization. If ethicists were expected to live by the systems they advocated, ethicists might be less willing to advocate harsher and more demanding systems of ethics. So it is totally okay for me to ignore what I am demanding of other people.

I think many people go into ethics because they are smug assholes looking to tell other people how to live their lives. And such people are on the whole much worse than average.

[Antilles]

It's incomprehensible. How can you enjoy an indulgence if you truly believe it's wrong? How can someone lay rules on others that they themselves are unable (or unwilling) to follow? I'm trying to think of something I'm hypocritical about, but I can't think of anything. Does that make me weird, or is that normal?

[Free Society]

Most people don't see their logical inconsistencies, that's why they have them. But the paradox is that once you expose them to those inconsistencies, they dig in their heels and reinforce them to prevent you from getting one up on them. The trick is to lead them down a rhetorical path where they out themselves and have only their own introspection to capitulate to.

[BigT]

"I think many people go into (law enforcement, politics, clergy, teaching...) because they are smug assholes looking to tell other people how to live their lives."

Shorter:

I think many people are smug assholes looking to tell other people how to live their lives.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

I've known a lot of people who went into work as agents of control of some kind or other. Generally, they are hung up on some unpleasantness of childhood, unwilling to attribute full agency to the offending parties, and instead embrace an ideology (if they go that far) that makes it possible for individual choices to be corrected by the authorities, and further there's some vague sense that they can reverse the unpleasantness of their youth by intervening and preventing others from making the same mistakes. They believe that anyone in authority has some magical power to heal the souls of the underfucklings. The rest who pursue this kind of work just seem to be sociopaths. For what it's worth, everyone I've known before becoming a peace officer who actually ended up in law enforcement was an authoritarian brute from the first, and all that I can think of were also outrageous liars, even back in childhood; so law enforcement seems to be a special case. Curiously, I know a number of older folks who worked in law enforcement years ago who are perfectly decent folk, so something there has clearly changed, because the people I know now in law enforcement aren't the sort to just mellow out and comport themselves with breeding twenty years from now.

[Ted S.]

The job of an ethicist is to come up with rationalizations for things that normal people find morally repulsive.

[John]

+1 Peter Singer

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I was gonna say ways to kill but yours is good.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Don't forget theft!

[paranoid android]

'The kids who always talk about being fair and sharing,' I recall him saying, 'mostly just want you to be fair to them and share with them.'

Smart fuckin' kid.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The point is not to learn ethics... it's to HAVE ethics.

[Heroic Mulatto]

As I've frequently pointed out on these very fora, is there a bioethicist out there who isn't a completely horrible human being?

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

I'll make a deal with Trump.

He gets on national TV and says 'Here's your apology, you old statist geezer, go fuck yoruself!', and I'll vote for him instead of Paul.

[Pro Libertate]

That might actually happen.

[Winston]

The United States has killed at least eight Afghan soldiers in an airstrike in a friendly fire

You Know Who Else killed a bunch of Afghan soldiers?

[Ted S.]

Sean Connery and Michael Caine?

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

+1 Man Who Would Be King. Well done.

[Winston]

Poor Billy Fish.

[Mickey Rat]

Elspeth's husband?

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

Commander Daskal?

[Winston]

Which faceoff is better?

Jeb vs. Hitlery: shows off how corrupt American politics is.

Trump vs. Sanders: Shows off how idiotic American politics is.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Trump v. Sanders hands down.

Coiff off!

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Battle of the Hair - 2016.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Jeb versus Hillary would cause me to shake my head, but would be more of the same. Trump vs. Sanders would cause me to commit suicide, because there would be no reason to go on living.

[Restor-woodchipper-as]

What about the epic lulz to follow?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

^^This!

Who doesn't want to see a real-time train-wreck?

[perlchpr]

I don't really want to observe it from the perspective of one of the train cars, I have to admit.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Why couldn't we just elect them both?

[The Last American Hero]

Trick question - The Real Faceoff was Nicolas Cage vs. John Travolta. Shows how idiotic Hollywood movies are and how idiotic we are for buying their shitty product.

[Winston]

Shows how idiotic Hollywood movies are and how idiotic we are for buying their shitty product.

People have been saying since the Squaw Man.

[Pan Zagloba]

Trump vs Biden is the only correct answer. With Agile Cyborg as the moderator.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Agile: "So, when the Cosmic Penis soars across the desolate plains of this meager existence, does the unicorn of virility prick you like an erect nipple in the washing machine of the sun?"

Trump: "The Cosmic Penis isn't a war hero!"

Biden: "The unicorn of virility was to put you back in chains!"

[Hamster of Doom]

He shoots, he scores!

[Heedless]

I would watch. Possibly with a barf bag handy, but I would watch.

[AceDroman]

Cage vs Travolta

[Palin's Buttplug]

Commodity Prices Plunge to Their Lowest Since 2002

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....03685.html

PRINTING MONEY! HYPERINFLATION! ARGLE BARGLE! BENGHAZI !!!

[The Last American Hero]

When was the last time the Fed raised interest rates?

Summer of Recovery VII - This time it for REALZ!

[Jordan]

"What bubble?"

- Every central bank clown, ever

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

And that trend will continue forever! Just like the last time we went through this same fucking process.

[R C Dean]

And thank you, shriek for pointing out that a leading indicator of major contractions is strobing a bright red.

[F. Whiny Comments, Jr.]

This can't possibly fail.

But the new supercity is intended to be different in scope and conception. It would be spread over 82,000 square miles, about the size of Kansas, and hold a population larger than a third of the United States. And unlike metro areas that have grown up organically, Jing-Jin-Ji would be a very deliberate creation. Its centerpiece: a huge expansion of high-speed rail to bring the major cities within an hour's commute of each other.

Thomas Friedman will be in his bunk.

[John]

Building a new city organically just as the top men want it with no worries of any old things getting in the way worked so well in Brazillia.

These losers never learn.

[F. Whiny Comments, Jr.]

I've gotta say though, this story is a good example of why people are drawn to Top Men and their projects: in a sci-fi bleak dystopia kind of way, a city the size of Kansas sounds pretty fucking awesome. LET'S SEE YOUR SO-CALLED CAPITALISM DO THAT, BRO!!!

Never mind that it's going to be little more than a bunch of empty office buildings and half-finished rails - it's progress.

[Pan Zagloba]

Well, it's the first step into a Cyberpunk future. People are already working on functional bionic limbs. And all that will lead to the ultimate goal - SEXBOTS!

[gaoxiaen]

This damn arm always malfunctions! I didn't even know that I was jerking off.

[Raven Nation]

So, a bigger version of these?

http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/biz.....ies-arise/

[perlchpr]

I'VE GOT A SOLUTION TO THE HOMELESS PROBLEM IN AMERICA!

[Hyperion's Statist Chipper]

There's some troll on here who pretends to know something about investments and economics. It's a funny troll.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

It's a funny troll.

Only roughly 8% of the time.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

A study in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles shows that rides ordered from Uber arrive more quickly and cost much less than taxis. Please remind those oblivious taxi cartel defenders that claim to be concerned about the poor that poor people benefit from the availability of this service. (Hat tip to CharlesWT)

It's pretty clear people on the left don't actually care about making things better for poor people. They oppose every single policy/thing that allows individuals to improve their lives without dependence on the state, and they always, especially the current left, support ideas that increase the size and scope of government, even if poor people will be harmed by the policy. See, for example, the minimum wage.

[John]

They don't care about anything they claim to care about. They claim to love unions except that unions are one of the first things that are banned in countries like Cuba where the left has complete power. Fair wages? Goes right out the window once they are in charge and so forth.

And they hate poor people.

[Winston]

Look up the things Lenin said before he came to power: support for freedom of association, end the cops, the military and the bureaucracy...

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I guess what really frustrates me is they still get to claim the moral high ground- libertarians are evil and want poor people to die, etc.

Libertarians support policies that have led to the greatest poverty reductions in history, and which have occurred relatively quickly. Whenever leftists get their way, things get worse from the poor. I'm sick of them getting the moral high ground.

[Mr. Anderson]

I think you'll find that not conceding the moral ground pisses them off more than anything. Libertarians tend to play the logic card economically because logic is typically on their side. I guess the lesson is, if someone is arguing with emotion, they are telling you they like emotion. Start telling them that what they want is immoral, and they'll lose their shit faster than if you had Jesus Christ himself why their pet policy doesn't work.

[Agammamon]

Of course unions are banned - why would you need a union when the proletariat owns the means of production comrade?

And 'fair wages'? Your wage was set in committee after long review by our 'Top Men'. How cold it be anything other than fair?

[John]

http://freebeacon.com/national.....n-america/

A senior Iranian cleric delivered Friday prayers in Tehran while standing behind a podium that declared, "We Will Trample Upon America," according to photos released by Iran's state-controlled media.

Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, who was handpicked by the Islamic Republic's supreme leader to deliver the prayers, delivered a message of hostility toward the United States in the first official remarks since a final nuclear deal was signed between Iran and world powers in Vienna last week.

What could possibly go wrong releasing $150 billion in assets and allowing them to buy ballistic missiles from Russia while keeping their nuclear program? Sheldon Richman assures me only evil racists could possibly think that is a bad idea.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I really want to be a foreign-policy naif and for the U.S. to spend a *lot* less on military crap, but then I hear guys like Putin and the Iranians and I'm like, "Maybe these guys don't like us and are waiting to pounce on us." Why do they have to be such assholes?

[R C Dean]

Why do they have to be such assholes?

Its our fault, duh.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Do you then wonder how they could "pounce" on us?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I don't know much about them except what they say. Maybe they're just wanking off for the benefit of their constituents.

I'd prefer to believe they're not such mad fanatics as they want us to think they are.

[Mr. Anderson]

They might kill a few million, and wreck the countries infrastructure if there were a war, but there would clearly be many survivors.

[Jerryskids]

In other Trump news: Boston Mayor says Trump would have to apologize if he ever wants a permit in Boston.
.
It's oddly refreshing to hear the thug just casually admit to how things work in a world of graft and corruption - Trump doesn't get a permit if he follows the rules, he gets a permit if The Don likes The Donald.

[John]

Fuck them for making me take Trump's side.

[Root Boy]

Seems to happen a lot lately and line with the SJWs winning the culture war conversation in Reason this morning.

[Winston]

So Epi, how are we supposed to react to such things without "joining" the Culture War?

[Warty]

Are you seriously claiming that Episiarch is an SJW?

[Hey Nikki!]

He's always talking about how gay he is. QED.

[Hamster of Doom]

It's how they prove they're not fighting the SJW KULTUR WAR on the SJW's terms.

[Winston]

Are you seriously claiming that Episiarch is an SJW?

Are you talking to me or Root Boy?

I don't think he is an SJW but I'm not sure how one is supposed to oppose them without "joining" the Kulturkampf, especially when they start going after you.

[Root Boy]

Its a little different since in this case it's the gov joining in the culture war and you'd hope there is some legal rule that would prevent them from using bad opinions to judge who gets a permit. So different than getting bad press on the internet.

But, it does show the culture war is interested in you even if you don't want to play their game.

[Winston]

Isn't the mere act of saying you don't like the SJWs mean that you are not neutral? The SJWs certainly won't think so.

Its a little different since in this case it's the gov joining in the culture war

I find this statement amusing since the Kulturkampf referred to government policies.

[Winston]

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

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't like salami.

True story.

[Free Society]

Salami makes for a great slur against Somalis. Food for bigoted thought...

[Free Society]

Salami makes for a great slur against Somalis. Food for bigoted thought...

[Raven Nation]

Mmm, squirrel salami...

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I feel like this is at least the second time the Boston mayor has said something like this. Anyone else recall a similar incident a year or two ago? He said he would be 'reviewing' whether so-and-so could work in Boston?

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Hey this guy isn't very nice - and we just signed a deal with his country!

(autoplay)

http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0.....C4.twitter

[Agammamon]

Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war, not him, for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured.

OK, now this is idiotic grandstanding from the other side. McCain should have just kept his mouth shut. Now he looks like an arsehole.

[Crusty Juggler]

Trump is right to criticize McCain and Sanders and everyone else in Congress regarding their work regarding the veteran's hospitals.

[John]

Being an asshole is his move. If you took that away from McCain, he wouldn't have a move.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Politician to normal-people translator:

"This is not about me" = "it's totally about me and I'm going to milk the heck out of it"

[wareagle]

he'd be like Blake Griffin if the dunk was outlawed.

[bassjoe]

I dunno, I am not sure how he could have answered (or not answered) this question without coming across as grandstanding, uncaring or self-centered. I think coming across as just a political grandstander is the best he could have done.

[Injun, as in from India]

I scored a measly 2/63. (Warning: Buzzfeed. Skip it if you don't want to give them ad dollars.)

How Much Of A Hippie Are You?

[Rhywun]

"Visited Greenwich Village?"

That is a sign that you either live in NYC or have really wealthy friends. Whatever hippies there are in the region have long since decamped to the rural Catskills or something.

[lap83]

12/63

"kind of a hippie"

I still haven't totally recovered from living in a college town for most of my 20s

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

10/63

I don't think the music festival questions should count if it was country music.

[commodious spittoon]

Gawker Editors Fall on Poisoned Pens

The cap slips off for, like, no reason.

[Hey Nikki!]

A case study in how the media protect Hillary Clinton:

The reporter doesn't ask the driver if he's heard about Clinton's campaign against Uber and other sharing-economy companies. Or, if he did, he doesn't include it in his story, which doesn't even mention Hillary's recent speech.
...
It's kind of hard to showcase a policy difference with Clinton when the media cover for her and don't even bring it up with the driver who supposedly picked her side, no?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I bet if you touch her blue eyes they freeze you to death they're so cold.

[Crusty Juggler]

Mollie Hemingway's eyes are brown.

[commodious spittoon]

[John]

Yes it is. They are going to anything and everything to lie and try to pull her sorry ass over the line. You thought they were bad with Obama, they are just going to get worse with Hillary. They are more desperate now than they were then.

[Rachel Dolezal]

I'm black. It is who I am.

[bacon-magic]

You go soul sister.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I'm still laughing/shaking my head over the complete slip of the mask that I noticed as a result of this Gawker kerfluffle. The pissy statements coming from the editors are all posted at the official sub-website of their editors, the Gawker Politburo. politburo.gawker.com.

[Winston]

Gawker Politburo

I suppose all the lefty blogs will be creating an "United Anti-Fascist People's Freedom Front" next.

Though is this different from all the woodchipper and monocle remarks over here?

[Thornton Melon]

Long time lurker, rare commenter.

Was in Venezuela last week for work. Thought you would all enjoy some stories of how stupid that country is. Saw lots of the stuff we hear about all the time like 300 yard long grocery store lines. Every ATM in the country also has a 1-2 hour line. To get diapers you need to show either a sonogram or a birth certificate (too many fakers trying to get them for the black market).

For diapers and other necessities they are starting to employ a system of finger print scanners. Every backwoods grocery store will have a finger print scanner hooked up to a national database to keep track of how many necessities people buy and limit those who want to sell stuff on the black market. No doubt a huge scam for some connected party and it will be a total failure.

I also had to give a guy $10 for a bottle of rum because I ended up in the wrong grocery line. The bottle was going for $3 at the black market rate. His monthly salary was about $10, well dressed guy that spoke fairly good English. I made his month.

Minimum wage there is about 7000 bs which would buy you 4 McDonalds combo meals.

[Thornton Melon]

Annual minimum wage that is. So 7000 bs a year. Common wage is around 7000 bs a month. Current black market rate is 650 bs / $1

[R C Dean]

These dumbasses don't have enough money to buy toilet paper, but have plenty of money to create a national fingerprint database and put scanners in every store.

[John]

Yes. That surprises you? This is exactly how central planning always ends. It doesn't end with 1984 distopia. It ends with Karfka absurdity. There are millions of stories just this absurd from the old Soviet Union. We have seen this depressing movie before and the jokes are always the same.

[Pan Zagloba]

If you have a connection in Europe, look up a Polish board game called "Kolejka" (Lineup). It's a brilliant take on what it was like to live in early 80s Poland, complete with black market and underhanded tricks ("I have a friend at Party regional committee" "Well, I have a small child with me, let me to the front of the queue"). Rules are available in Engilsh, as are translations of action cards, so you can print and play. It's very atmospheric, and playing with friends, it's striking how fast we went from Polish jokes to vicious backstabbing and tripping.

[John]

I will check that out.

[Mickey Rat]

That is the result when you prioritize equality over liberty. It is more important to control the proper distribution of goods then to actually have goods for people to acquire and use.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What's your point?

/Bernie Sanders.

[Rhywun]

"Who needs 1 choice of deodorant?"

[Pan Zagloba]

God damn, that makes me sad. They are literally now in shittier position than East Europe after 50s. In what was once the richest country in Central America (and one of the richer on the continent).

I can at least recommend Small Earthquake in Chile, an awesome Alistair Horne book about South America in early 70s, if you want to make yourself feel better about the continent. At least there has been measurable progress, and Venezuela is now an exception rather than an expected stage of country's history.

[Winston]

Central America?

Also wasn't Argentina quite rich until Peron came to power?

[Pan Zagloba]

Argentina was crazy rich and basically a European country till, I think, just about right after WWI. Don't think Peron was in power yet, more that he rode in on the decline and failed to stop it. Venezuela was in the same league but not the top (hence, "one of"), and Brazil is always on and off as far as prosperity goes (seems to be in an 'on' cycle, hopefully it holds). I'll admit, I bundled it into Central America in my mind (along with Panama, Costarica and Columbia, among others). Sad part is, when Horne was writing the book, Venezuela was the rich country that basket case next door (Columbia) was smuggling in stuff from.

[Root Boy]

Except for a few countries it seems like it's mostly backsliding these days. Brazil and Argentina come to mind.

[Pan Zagloba]

It's backsliding over improvements. Argentina was a shitshow in 70s, and Brazil was on one of their 'down' swings. For all that I don't like Lula and his ilk, they took a while shitting up Brazil, so it'll take time to bring it down to where it was 40 years ago.
Bolivia has a Commie president, but, considering that in the book, Horne is woken up by a fire and his first thought is "I'm missing the 187th* Bolivian coup!" they are doing better.

*this was not an exaggeration for effect, and in fact #187 took place few months after he left.

[Rhywun]

They are literally now in shittier position than East Europe after 50s.

Sounds like it. I visited East Germany a couple times in the mid 80s and it was not as bad as this. The shelves were mostly full, if often with lots of crap a Westerner wouldn't buy.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

The Western far left is still largely in the "deny it all, everyone who claims Venezuela has problems is a bourgeois deceiver who must be dismissed with inchoate rage" stage. It'll hit the "it was never the real socialism that we used to vociferously claim it was and cheer on as an anti-American bulwark" stage soon enough at this rate.

I managed to really piss off two friends-of-a-friend who are in the "permastudents pushing 30 as liberal arts postgrads" demographic by making an offhand joke on Facebook about the toilet paper situation recently.

I find it blackly amusing just how precisely this kind of thing is paralleled over and over again in different times and places. Oh, and to top it off, the aforementioned useful idiots are absolutely gaga for Sanders.

[Pan Zagloba]

Don't forget the "it all failed because Chavez died, and his successor couldn't hold out against relentless American aggression."

AKA "Communists have the worst luck, all their democrats fail to win their revolutions, and only their psychopaths are victorious."

[Jerryskids]

Always worth mentioning one of P J O'Rourke's pieces about traveling in the USSR with a pinko tourist group oohing and ahhing over how wonderful things were over there - but he couldn't help noticing they all had thought to pack American toilet paper in their luggage.

[Mr. Anderson]

I don't really know why leftist can't comprehend their economic policies lead to this. Even if you didn't know economically why, it should at least be clear from the examples that it does.

I got into a bit of an argument recently with someone about Greece. This person insisted government spending helps the economy, and creates jobs, Greece needs more tax revenue. I pointed out Greece already had high taxes, already spent high and yet the economy continued to shrink, and unemployment soared. Not possible if government spending created jobs. But then I was thoroughly rebutted, you see Greece's high taxes weren't high enough, and some wreckers were avoiding them!

[Christophe]

I'd laugh, but I'm sincerely worried the next step after this is not fun but horrifying.

[Ken Shultz]

"Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war, not him, for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured."

John McCain isn't a hero, but Caitlyn Jenner deserves an award for being courageous.

Has the whole world gone mad?

[John]

Our media and political class and their toadies have certainly gone mad.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Wow, way to be a Trans Hater, Ken.

[Ken Shultz]

I'm not a trans hater. I just have a sense of...proportion.

[Hey Nikki!]

Aaaaaaaand the Donald is now polling even higher...

[John]

A lot of people in the GOP hate McCain's guts. Apparently they hate him so much they hate him more than they like the military. Damn, that is a bold statement.

I wonder what McCain is going to do when it dawns on him how much people actually hate him.

[Igor]

I hang with a load of people who were early-adopter TEA partiers who loathe McCain with the fire of a billion supernovae, largely over how he allegedly treated Sarah Palin.

Now, I'm sympathetic to how Palin was treated in general, but really?

[John]

McCain is hated mostly for his stance on immigration, his support of campaign finance controls, and his generally being an asshole who goes after other Republicans much more often than he does Democrats. that is my experience at least.

[wareagle]

being the media's favorite Repub does not get you in with the mainstream GOPer.

[Jerryskids]

Charles Keating.

[John]

And even though all right thinking people on Reason think Palin is the OTHER, she still is liked by a lot of people.

[wareagle]

I have always thought she was the opposite side of the same coin as Obama: not that experienced (though more than him), vain, very thin-skinned, able to whip supporters into a frenzy and opponents into a froth.

[Igor]

Maybe so, but her inclusion on the ticket seemed (from my observations) be a significant net benefit to the McCain ticket.

And that's one of the primary beefs of these conservatives I know - she *probably* brought him within striking distance of the White House.

All water under the bridge now, and in hindsight, probably not a bad thing. Change is coming to America and I'd rather it started sooner than later. Sooner we raise the black flag and start slitting throats the better.

[commodious spittoon]

Figuratively speaking.

[Igor]

Go ask Mencken what he meant when he wrote it.

[Winston]

Judging by the date, he must have been waiting for Bismarck or Ludendorff to do it.

[commodious spittoon]

You'd be surprised how curious and full of questions certain district court prosecutors are. And so indecorous in how they go about finding out.

[CatoTheChipper]

Palin is a dimwit ("Who's your favorite founding father?" If you cannot answer that without something other than "All of them", you're a historical illiterate.) Still, I cannot hate Sarah Palin. She may be a dimwit, but her heart is in the right place.

[Zaytsev]

I'd bet that not 1 percent of the country could give a coherent answer to that question.

Hillary, Obama, Biden, Sanders, Fauxcohauntus etc certainly could not.

[Mickey Rat]

I hated McCain for being willing to quash free speech as atonement for almost getting caught in a scandal early in his career as a pol.

[CatoTheChipper]

I hate McCain for being a stooge. As the senior member of the Keating Five, he is unforgivable. 2008 wouldn't have happened if it were not for stooges like John McCain.

[Mr Lizard]

Perhaps the WarBoner brand has a little tarnish...

[Winston]

Back in 2011 wasn't there a few frontrunners before the first primaries.

That said there is something to the Populist "Fuck the Establishment, I'm Telling It Like It Is!" strategy from Trump. It's not like most of those sorts of politicians aren't terrible...

[Root Boy]

I like to think it's just the protest, wishing for SMOD, but why not vote for Cruz at least if you hate the fucking establishment and are a Repub.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

"U.S. public collectively decides to troll Pew Research Center"

[Hamster of Doom]

Schadenfreude so big, I'm getting a headrush.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

^^ this - I'm as happy as a little girrrrrrl....

[Hamster of Doom]

Contrarian is never pretty. I'll get it back under control.

In five more minutes. Not done giggling spitefully yet.

[Crusty Juggler]

if the little girrrrrrrl is eighteen...pics?

[Warty]

I think I hope he wins. American politics is too stupid to deserve a serious president, and he's only a small multiplier more ridiculous than Hillary. Like, 3 times more stupid, maybe. I think I'll vote for him. I JUST WANT TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN

[Hey Nikki!]

Put your boner away. He's never going to make the financial disclosures he'd have to make.

[Warty]

Maybe, but I stand by my assertion that Trump is the president that America deserves. #WINNING

[John]

That wouldn't stop him Nikki. The Democrats think it is great that they have been able to use the media to let Obama and Hillary and Clinton before them to get away with outright criminality. That is about to come back and bite them. If not with Trump then with someone this election or next. Trump will just say FYTIW about this financials and ignore the whole thing. And his supporters and everyone but people who wouldn't vote for him anyway won't care because they know Obama and Hillary got away with shit that was just as bad or worse. Ethics no longer matter.

[Pan Zagloba]

This summer, Donald Trump IS Bullworth!

[TwB]

I need some advice from you folks (scary thought, I know). Here's the situation: my wife is getting to go to a conference in Stockholm, Sweden in September and she gets to bring along a spouse at a discounted rate for the entire trip. The problem is, I don't have enough vacation time to do the trip. My thought is, this will be the kind of travel voyage that may only happen this time and this time only. My idea is to approach my supervisor w/ this info and request that I have unpaid time off to do the trip. Any other advice for me regarding this issue?

[Crusty Juggler]

I volunteer to go in your place.

[TwB]

Not an option. Good try, though.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

You said "a" spouse. Doesn't one of her other ones have enough vacation time? Is it all about YOU?

[TwB]

I guess they want to make sure that Mormons could be represented at the conference.

[John]

Take the time unpaid. And keep Crusty away from your wife.

[Root Boy]

Good plan in my reality based world where I just did this for one of my guys. Don't know if you are in Dilbert world.

If you do computer work, maybe promise you'll do some work from Sweden while you are there?

[TwB]

I don't telework so I wouldn't be able to do any work while I was there. That being said, I can promise to bring back items from Sweden for the folks in the office. Legal items, mind you.

[R C Dean]

If you're bringing back something nice for the folks in the office, make damn sure she's over 18, is my only advice.

[Root Boy]

Just don't bring back that fermented fish in a can -- you will be arrested and fired.

[Pan Zagloba]

Ooh, threaten your wife will bring back lutefisk for everyone if they don't let you go!

[Root Boy]

Yeah, or that route may work.

[commodious spittoon]

Cans of lutefisk for everyone.

[R C Dean]

Every year, one of my minions returns to the old country for a couple-three weeks.

There's usually a chunk of unpaid time off in there. Last year, we even had to spread out the unpaid time off to make sure it didn't bollix up her benefits.

Ask for unpaid time off. If your boss doesn't give it to you, burn his car. If he still doesn't give it to you, get another job.

[TwB]

I'm giving them a lot of notice about this. I would hope they would accept unpaid time off for the trip. If not, then I know what kind of people I'm really working for. And then that's not something I should be a part of for much longer.

[R C Dean]

Well, really, its up to you whether you burn your boss's car before or after you quit working there.

[TwB]

Good point. And he may want me to burn it. It's a 10 year old Corolla with a shit load of miles on it.

[R C Dean]

Hmm. Tough call. What are your thoughts on whether he is in it or not at the time?

[Limpee Wiltstock]

I never requested days off. I just gave a written notice that I was going to take whatever date it was off. But this was generally months, at least, in advance. There was protestations, but I never gie them the option of approving or rejecting it. I recall, in fact, a time I was given a stern talking-to by one of the managers, who had no objection to the days off I had appointed, but strongly objected, on principle, to that I chose to simply notify them rather than entreat their approval. But nothing ever came of it.

[waffles]

Don't not go. I don't know what your career is but I wouldn't miss a trip like that to work a few more days at any rate.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I have a wise ass reply and a semi-serious one.

Pick.

[Sudden]

Wise ass of course.

[CatoTheChipper]

four words: Unpaid Leave of Absence

[ubik]

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....99955.html

[Antilles]

Terrorism works. Maybe we should all resort to some to get what we want...

[ubik]

I'm genuinely surprised, call it the homicidal thugs veto.

[John]

Yes it does. You can expect Christians and Buddhists and anyone else who wants to get their way to start resorting to it. Remember, incentives matter and you get more of what you reward. Terrorism pays and Muslims have been rewarded for it. So we can expect to see more terrorism and other groups to get in on the action.

Don't like gay marriage? Just check the newspaper and start shooting gay couples who get married. Don't like people making fun of your sacred cow? Just shoot anyone who does. And no one will.

[Pan Zagloba]

Maybe. But I think, second or third time it happened, camps are going up.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Why is the cow scared?

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Donald J. Trump ?@realDonaldTrump 10 Apr 2013
I hope everyone (especially the haters and losers) goes to Macy's today and buys some DJT ties, shirts and suits-and SUCCESS Fragrance-love!

Our Donald - keeping it "classy", like he always does.

/Trump Voice

[John]

The GOP needs to realize the Trump people don't give a fuck what they think and are not going to be distracted by gaffes no matter how real they are. The only way to deal with Trump is going to be address the concerns of his supporters. I though the McCain thing would kill him. But it has made him more popular.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

/Trump Voice on

John, the American people support me because they've had enough of failure. The people who oppose me are jealous of my success. It's sad, really. They'll say anything to try to bring me down. But they can't bring me down. And the American people see that. And that's why they love me. And I love them.

/Trump Voice off

[Crusty Juggler]

You forgot, "go to Macy's and buy some of my excellent neckwear."

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

/Trump Voice back on

I posted that earlier elsewhere, but thank you for the reminder, Crusty. You're a great member of my team. I appreciate your support.

/Trump Voice off

[Hamster of Doom]

*makes clicking noise*

*waves finger guns*

*winks*

[Mickey Rat]

Can someone who has declared bankruptcy really be called a success?

[Unreconstructed (Sans Flag)]

Yeah, one of my least-favorite (politically) associates ("friend" is a stretch...) on Facebook has a hard-on for Trump. Not sure why, but she does...and hates her some McCain. She's a hardcore SoCon sort too - which surprises me, given Trump's lack of cred in that area.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

I think your friend

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...knows what's Trump

[Crusty Juggler]

Limbaugh and Hannity are on Trump's side, at the very least because he is fucking with the GOP establishment. Trump also gets to constantly play the "the elites want to silent me, but I speak for the little guy" card, which is somehow turning out to be true. I do not think he is going away anytime soon.

[Winston]

You Know Who Else played the "the elites want to silence me, but I speak for the little guy" card and was an idiot with terrible ideas?

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Ron Paul

/shreek

[paranoid android]

Winston?

[CatoTheChipper]

Only because McCain is a jerk -- war hero or not.

[John]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....-wonks.php

Is there any place closer to hell on earth than being trapped on a boat with the "nation magazine cruise"?

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

We tried to keep the crazy on shore but

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...looks like that ship has sailed.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Didn't P. J. O'Rourke write about a Nation cruise in 1985?

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

OMG that would be epic. I gotta google that...

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Lengthy excerpt on Google Books:

http://ow.ly/PRyZ5

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Thanks - that's where I found it!

[Old Man With Candy]

Holidays in Hell was a great book.

[Paul.]

(Though as Popehat explains, they are likely not legally complicit.)

Technically complicit is the best kind of complicit.

[Pan Zagloba]

You sound like a young man with great acceptable future in Central Bureaucracy!

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Sounds like his future's so bright

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...he's gotta wear shades.

[Granny Weatherwax]

Yoink! Get your own damn sunglasses!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Chattanooga shooter's papers express "some pretty radicalized thoughts," says investigator.

Also, the guy may have been depressed and suicidal.

"authorities [are] struggling to piece together a motive"

"The authorities say there is a strong likelihood that Mr. Abdulazeez received some kind of assistance in planning the attack, perhaps financial aid in obtaining the weapons and ammunition he used, and that is another area being investigated, the intelligence official said. But it remains unclear whether anyone who helped Mr. Abdulazeez was aware of what he intended to do, or when."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07.....tw-nytimes

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Sounds like that young man's writing

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...is just a dead letter.

[lap83]

With all of the donning of the sunglasses and no taking them off it's like a crappy B movie in here

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I love how the media is sooo careful with the facts here.

But when a white guy commits a crime. Let hysteria reign! Facts be damned!

Pieces of shits.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Almost seems like

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...life is imitating art

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

*snatches Fist's sunglasses and steps on them*

[Libertarian]

THANK YOU!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I love how the media is sooo careful with the facts here.

To be fair, the media might be cooperating with an intelligence community that doesn't want to show yet just what it knows and how.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

You could almost say that the media are

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...in bed with the Feds

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"To be fair, the media might be cooperating with an intelligence community that doesn't want to show yet just what it knows and how."

For instance, the NY Times completely left out the part about the Liz...uh, never mind.

[Winston]

Did he take some pictures with a flag?

[Pan Zagloba]

Oh shit, it's gonna be video games next, isn't it?

[Winston]

Did they have Confederate Flags?

[Pan Zagloba]

Probably, even Apple allowed (some) back in. As you know, video games are nothing but seas of rapists with Confederate flags oppressing the women and minorities.

[CatoTheChipper]

"authorities [are] struggling to piece together a motive"

If they are struggling to piece together a motive, they are literally retarded. And I mean literally, literally.

[Palin's Buttplug]

WaPost - Trump now leads at 24%

[waffles]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain's Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported.

Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant. Still, it is difficult to predict what could happen to Trump's support in the coming days and weeks as the controversy plays out.

Even with the drop in support on the final night of the survey, Trump was the favorite of 24 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That is the highest percentage and biggest lead recorded by any GOP candidate this year in Post-ABC News polls and marks a sixfold increase in his support since late May, shortly before he formally joined the race.

Wa Post 7-20

[SusanM]

It's how we like our politicians

https://youtu.be/bu3hy4OMX38?t=244

[gaoxiaen]

Maybe they figure that he can pay for his own campaign.

[Old Man With Candy]

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

No, Buttplug is always this way.

[Palin's Buttplug]

And in 2012 bidnessman Flava Cain jumped into the lead of the GOP with something like 23-25%.

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Trolls are posting but all I hear

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...is 8% of the shrieking

[waffles]

[snatches Fist's sunglasses off Almanian's face, throws them in the WOODCHIPPER]

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

Seems like some around here

[dons own sunglasses]

...can't stand being in the shades

[Raven Nation]

Burn Notice on CSI Miami:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwP4h3qFYZE

[Krieger's Waifu]

WITNESS!

[Almanian - Trump's Woodchipper]

[dons Fist's sunglasses]

...for the prosecution

[Winston]

Is Trump pro-war? If so then he has last Raimondo, Rockwell and Richman's votes.

[Juvenile Bluster]

What about DONERDOOOOOOOOOO?

[Pan Zagloba]

Mark Steyn decided to weigh in on Trump vs McCain.

Forty years ago, John McCain was a war hero. Since then he's mostly been an asshole. The problem is you can't out-asshole Donald Trump. McCain is in the Superbowl of assholery and hopelessly outmatched.

Damn, I may not agree with him on immigration or Islam, but man can write.

[Crusty Juggler]

He does sum it up pretty well. Thanks for the link.

[Suthenboy]

I am late.

On Topic:

1. Yay Gawker. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. I hope John is right from earlier today. People are getting sick of the Proggie's shit. My grandmother told me that by the time they had run their course the last time you would be lynched on the street for calling yourself a Progressive.

2. It is stupid and insane to say that anyone captured in war isn't a hero or 'sat the war out' and doesn't deserve recognition. They put themselves in harm's way while serving their country and paid one hell of a price. Should we say that about soldiers killed in action as well? They dodged the fight by getting killed? Trump and that chump Stewart Smiley deserve a hard punch in the mouth. Motherfuckers.

3. "Please remind those oblivious taxi cartel defenders that claim to be concerned about the poor..."

They don't give a fuck about the poor, about service or about price. They are crooks entrenched and protected and intend to stay that way. Uber is threatening that.

[Old Man With Candy]

Sen. John McCain says Donald Trump should apologize to other prisoners of war, not him, for Trump's inane claim that McCain isn't a hero because he got captured.

Has Al Franken ever apologized for saying the same thing? Wait, didn't he get a pass from the press on that one?

[CatoTheChipper]

Al Franken is a progressive, so no apology is required.

[Jerryskids]

Franken was totally joking. (Seriously, that's the excuse they came up with. As if the "funny" part of the joke wasn't that it was true as far as Franken was concerned. As if it were just a silly knock-knock joke rather than pointed political satire. You don't get to say "just kidding" after you make a joke about how stupid a naked emperor looks.)

[simplybe]

I personally think Trump is a loud mouth clown but I also think there is enough evidence that McCain is a traitor that it should be truly investigated. Too much smoke not to be an ember somewhere.