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UN to Vote on Iran Deal, Congress to Start Deliberating, Charlie Hebdo Not Doing Any More Mohammed Cartoons, Ashley Madison Hacked: A.M. Links

Ed Krayewski | 7.20.2015 9:00 AM

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  • Ashley Madison

    The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on the Iran nuclear deal as early as today, irking opponents in Congress, to which the deal was submitted this weekend. The United States says the deal does not take military force off the table in the future.

  • Auhorities in Yemen say 57 civilians died when Shi'a rebels bombarded the city of Aden, where Saudi-backed pro-government forces have been pushing out Iran-backed rebels who took over earlier this year.
  • Protesters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where a gunmen killed five Marines, demanded more military action against radical Islamists abroad and a repeal of the law prohibiting recruiters from carrying firearms while on duty.
  • The editors of Charlie Hebdo, where Islamist gunmen massacred the editorial staff in January over its various cartoons of Mohammed, say they are done with Mohammed cartoons.
  • New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, is planning to impose a cap on new drivers using Uber this week.
  • A judge has ordered that Dinesh D'Souza receive psychological counseling. D'Souza's community service for breaking campaign finance laws was also extended.
  • The U.S. embassy in Cuba has re-opened as the two countries restore full diplomatic relations.
  • The adultery website Ashley Madison has been hacked. Hackers claim to have broken into the company's user database and financial records. 

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NEXT: Rick Perry on Donald Trump's 'Reprehensible' Dismissal of John McCain's War Record

Ed Krayewski is a former associate editor at Reason.

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, is planning to impose a cap on new drivers using Uber this week.

    I have a cap for the mayor.

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      A Commissar Cap?

      1. This Machine   10 years ago

        Don't turn around, uh-oh!

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      Hello.

    3. straffinrun   10 years ago

      He meant salary cap, salary cap. *Psst, FOE. Ixnay on the ap cay.

    4. Rich   10 years ago

      "Smile when you say that."

  2. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

    It's that time again - time for the shameless shilling of books.

    Lucid Blue (And Other Tales Too) is on the market. It's release date is Wednesday (the 22nd). If you still haven't bought the first two, they'll be at reduced price for a week starting on Wednesday.

    Earlier books in the series have gotten such high praise from the commentariat as "It didn't suck". The general public gave more generous marks.

    Last, but not least, Every copy sold contributes to the "get me out of this government job fund".

    1. gaijin   10 years ago

      congratulations on getting another finished. No mean feat!

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        Thanks, man, I'm working on more as we speak.

    2. Pan Zagloba   10 years ago

      Yes! Preordered and eagerly awaiting.

      1. WoodchipperPatriarch   10 years ago

        Eagerly?

        1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

          Well, he does sound enthused.

          1. Pan Zagloba   10 years ago

            Pre-coffe posts don't count! But yes, I enjoyed Shadowboy and Shadowdemon a bunch, especially characters and world building, so this sounds just right.

  3. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

    72) I've noticed during my occasional political talks with my more left-wing acquaintances that they consider themselves completely scientific and rational, and yet when I really dig into a discussion with them, I find they have almost a medieval, magical view of how the world works. Fracking causes earthquakes. Vaccines cause autism. Fleeting exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke causes cancer. Genetically-modified plants cause?something (never gotten a really clear answer on this). Guns fire themselves. Corporations are malevolent alien entities with goals wholly opposed to human flourishing. But minimum wages, high taxes, and labyrinthine regulations have no impact on economic growth whatsoever. Inevitably, they feel their trump card is a belief in evolution. If you ask them how evolution works, though, they'll give you some nonsense about millions of years of tiny changes. Blow their minds with the idea of punctuated equilibrium.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      And they get to spread their ignorance on Facebook.

      1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        Should be some kinda law against it...

        1. commodious spittoon   10 years ago

          A Fairness Doctrine for social media.

      2. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

        I fucking love science!

    2. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

      They also have a distaste for "chemicals" in their food or gardens. The hallmark of a scientific illiterate.

      I have a friend who fits the description. He's incredibly condescending to anyone with a southern accent. I think it's all way for people to feel superior when they really aren't.

      1. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

        I couldn't agree more. The elitism and condescension comes out in disgusting ways sometimes.

        And it is worse if you're a browned-skinned immigrant who is vocal about the failures of big government. There is a special place reserved in proggie hell for you.

        1. Hyperbolical (wadair)   10 years ago

          Because they consider you an apostate instead a mere heretic.

      2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

        Dude, I have a couple who don't want us to give the kids Mr. Freeze because chemicals.

        They bring in their own 'organic' crap.

      3. Suthenboy   10 years ago

        "They also have a distaste for "chemicals" in their food or gardens. The hallmark of a scientific illiterate."

        Bullseye.

    3. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      I don't know anyone who believes that shit.

      I hear some Hollywood types like Jenny McCarthy believes it though.

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Cool story, bro.

      2. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

        "Fracking causes earthquakes"

        I had quite a long argument on this one just a few weeks ago, with a person I had previously considered fairly smart.

        1. Brett L   10 years ago

          Fracking may result in measurable seismic activity. Depending on where your seismographs are, you may find that placing new seismographs near fracking uncovers activity. Note this does not necessarily mean that fracking caused this, but it could. Pressurizing rock formations until they fracture shoulf involve a release of energy.

          The part where not all seismic activity is catastrophic is where the Stasisists have problems. Same with climate change. Variation from stasis is necessary for life.

          1. Libertarian   10 years ago

            Seems to me that fracking causing earthquakes would probably be beneficial; i.e. causing lots of little harmless tremors rather than letting the pressure build.

      3. Hyperbolical (wadair)   10 years ago

        I don't know anyone who believes that shit.

        Maybe you don't. But there are people who do.

        Heare's a page from Carleton.edu that lists earthquakes as one of the dangers of fracking.

        I found one site that had a graphic explaining fracking and its dangers which had a return line, filled with oil, flowing down through groundwater to show how ground water could be contaminated. But oil wells are drilled thousands of feet below ground water and never drill through know reservoirs. It's just more unscientific bullshit--like catastrophic global warming--from the unscientific left.

        1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

          Maybe you don't.

          Of course he does. Liars lie. 8% of the time, anyway.

        2. Citizen X   10 years ago

          Come on, though, how many friends do you think shriek actually has?

    4. TwB   10 years ago

      I believe Liberals think this way because they don't want to be responsible for themselves or their actions. Life is really easy when you don't have to think about what you are doing and how it will impact others. Plus, when you use other people's money to get what you want, why do you have to be responsible with your economic choices? Oh, until the money runs out, that is. But that hasn't happened yet. And when it does, because it will, there will be a reckoning in this country. I just might not be alive to see it.

      1. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

        That's why to me it isn't austerity.

        It's more of an adjustment.

        Or a reckoning.

      2. Hyperbolical (wadair)   10 years ago

        Agreed. Leftists are afraid of responsibility and, consequently, liberty. That's why they hate individualism--they can't cope with it.

    5. Zaytsev   10 years ago

      I've noticed during my occasional political talks with my more left-wing acquaintances that they consider themselves completely scientific and rational, and yet when I really dig into a discussion with them, I find they have almost a medieval, magical view of how the world works.

      Most of them believe in the infallibility of 'scientists' in the same way that some catholics believed in the infallibility of the pope.

      it's pure deference to authority.

      1. Zeb   10 years ago

        They believe in infallibility of scientists who say things that appeal to them, anyway. If they just believed scientists, full stop, they wouldn't be going on about GMOs and some other things.

        Of course, there also are plenty of lefties who are the more technocratic and less hippy-dippy type who do like GMOs and fracking and modern farming techniques. But of course they still have the big spending other people's money and regulate everything to death problem.

      2. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

        No,the circumstances under which a papal pronouncement is considered infallible is actually quite limited. It has only been considerd to have occurred about a dozen times in church history. Not so with progs prone to scientism.

        1. Zeb   10 years ago

          As I note above, progs can be pretty selective in their deference to scientific authority.

    6. BigT   10 years ago

      FYI - punctuated equilibrium has been thoroughly debunked

      1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        Really? Where? The closest I've seen to that is a philosophical take by Dennett, but the basic concept remained in place.

        1. BigT   10 years ago

          "The Blind Watchmaker" - Richard Dawkins, (1996) ch 9 Puncturing punctuationism, pp 223-252, is probably best.

          1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

            OK, so not thoroughly debunked. This was a variation of Dennett's argument.

    7. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

      Ask them about the peer-reviewed science on herbal/Chinese/holistic medicine, too. The scientific method is A-OK when it's evolution or stem cells. The scientific method is "Western patriarchal oppression" when it comes to GMOs, herbal remedies, acupuncture, etc.

  4. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    A judge has ordered that Dinesh D'Souza receive psychological counseling.

    A little re-education will do the heretic some good.

    1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

      Have the gulags in Alaska opened?

      1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        You joke... but give it time. If a FUCKING JUDGE can claim to have the authority to order "psychological counseling" because he disagrees with your politics, what limits are left?

        1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          We need a direct rail link to those camps too because choo-choo public transit is the in thing--

          The Train to Nowhere.

        2. Zeb   10 years ago

          Judges have been able to order things like that for a long time. He was convicted of a crime. Whether it should be a crime is a good question, but it's hardly unusual for a judge to say that you don't have to go to prison if you jump through some stupid hoops. It even sort of makes sense if you think that rehabilitation is one of the main goals of the criminal justice system.

          1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

            It seems a little odd for violation of campaign finance laws, though, don't you think? I mean, it's one thing for a judge to order this for someone with a history of domestic battery or something like that, quite another for a white collar crime of this nature.

            1. Zeb   10 years ago

              Oh, it is odd, especially for a crime that endangers no one. And I'm not so sure judges should have that power. Just pointing out that it is not a new scary power, but an old one. And it is a bit of a leap to say that it is because the judge disagrees with his politics.

              1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

                I would be surprised if politics weren't a part of this to some degree, given how unusual this is for this kind of crime, but no, it's not new.

            2. Hyperbolical (wadair)   10 years ago

              Maybe the judge wants to discredit D'Souza to end his career as an anti-democrat polemicist (or whatever he was).

            3. CatoTheChipper   10 years ago

              It's especially odd since his D'Sousa's original psychiatrists gave him a clean bill of health. The judge disagreed, and ordered him to consult with other psychiatrists.

        3. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

          And the judge apparently disagreed with the counselors who had already evaluated D'Souza and found nothing to treat.

      2. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

        I'll volunteer for a gulag in Alaska right about now. It's 53 degrees in Anchorage. Fucking paradise.

        1. Ivan Pike   10 years ago

          It's 53 degrees in Anchorage. Fucking paradise.

          Absolutely!!

    2. gaijin   10 years ago

      Maybe they should throw him in a lake...see if he floats. D'Souza that is, not the judge

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Who are you, who is so wise in the ways of science?

        1. gaijin   10 years ago

          I once watched a video of Neal Tyson DeGrasse. Plus, I f-ing Love Science! So, it's almost like I am a scientist!

          1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

            Maybe you should start a podcast called "Ask A Scientist."

            1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

              Is that like "Ask Dr. Science" without the master's degree (in science!)?

    3. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      See! I always knew that Republicanism is a mental disease.

      /progderp

    4. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      He is being haunted by anti-Colonials!

      They're everywhere!

    5. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

      A judge has ordered that Dinesh D'Souza receive psychological counseling.

      Even worse than this... when I click the reason link, it sends me to an offer to subscribe to NewsWeak.

      That is fucking evil.

  5. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Ted Rall: Uber Is A Fascist Movement. Literally.

    1. MOFO.   10 years ago

      Ted Rall needs to eat my shit.

    2. Hey Nikki!   10 years ago

      If you are of a certain age, or like to watch World War II movies, there's no way to avoid the association with "Deutschland Uber Alles," the German national anthem.

      I'm convinced!

      1. gaijin   10 years ago

        "...no way to avoid the association with Deutschland Uber Alles," the German national anthem.

        hmm...I always reminds me of the Dead Kennedy's!

        1. Hey Nikki!   10 years ago

          Actually, that's the next paragraph?and, somehow, more evidence.

      2. Irish ?s ESB   10 years ago

        "Just remember: When you ride with Uber, you're riding with Hitler."

        How does someone stupid enough to write this sentence have the brain power to tie his own shoelaces?

        "For Uber, it's 1939 in Nazi years. Founded in 2009, the company has, much like Chancellor Hitler, gone from nothing to the verge of world domination. That's in six years. Fascism and Nazism viewed themselves not just as mere ideologies, but as dynamic movements that had to be constantly conquering new territory.

        Uber's goals are no less ambitious."

        Uber's goals of running a taxi service are no less ambitious than conquering all of Eastern Europe, ethnically cleansing those countries of their current inhabitants, and repopulating them with German ubermensch.

        1. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

          How does someone stupid enough to write this sentence have the brain power to tie his own shoelaces?

          Because he knows better but is being intentionally dishonest, knowing that a good chunk of his audience is dumb enough to fall for it.

        2. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

          So ambition = HITLER? Fascinating. Or should I say fascistnating?

          1. Elspeth Flashman   10 years ago

            Ok, I lol'ed. Seriously though I must be very fascistic, by this way of thinking.

          2. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   10 years ago

            Germany is ambitious and misunderstood.

            1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

              Another parallel is that the Nazis wanted to transport people somewhere else, too.

        3. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

          Uber's goal isn't to run a taxi service. It's to get independent drivers to pay them a commission on fares they find via the Uber app. It's not dramatically different than any online affiliate program.

          If I lose my job, I'm thinking of Ubering for a while.

      3. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

        Farht Uber!! Der Auto vor Ubermensch!!

      4. Zeb   10 years ago

        Right. No one has used "uber" in a different way in more recent years.

      5. See Double You   10 years ago

        Has to be trolling.

        1. Rhywun   10 years ago

          Who can even tell any more?

          "Why are people all over the world so divided and so freaked out about it that they are actually rioting? - Because Uber is fascist."

          Just random "people" rioting. Not, say, protected taxi cartel members or anything.

    3. straffinrun   10 years ago

      Slave labor: No one did it better than the fascists.

      Phascist Pharoahs!

    4. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Even the word "Uber" is German!

      Eine volk! Eine reich! Eine Uber!

      Q.E.D.

      1. Old Man With Candy   10 years ago

        Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Gender, please.

        1. IndyEleven   10 years ago

          CIS-TRANSLATING SHITLORD!

      2. Rhywun   10 years ago

        Even the word "Uber" is German!

        -1 Umlaut

    5. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

      Remind you of a certain corporal?

      You know who else reminds you of a certain corporal?

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Corporal Klinger?

      2. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        Waterloo reinactments?

      3. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

        What's wrong with corporals? That is is as high as I ever made it in the Suck.

      4. Rich   10 years ago

        Corporal Punishment?

    6. Aloysious   10 years ago

      Ted Rall: still crazy after all these years

    7. Irish ?s ESB   10 years ago

      AHHAHAHAHAHAHA

      "The trains ran on time in Germany under Hitler and in Italy under Mussolini. Any Uber user will tell you that one of the things that they love about the service is its remarkable on-time performance."

      Anything efficient is like the Nazis. In order to be truly progressive, you must be as extraordinarily inefficient as it is possible to be.

      1. Hey Nikki!   10 years ago

        Also: both Nazis and Uber broke the law.

        1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

          Nein, Fraulein! Ze Nazis made der law!

    8. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

      During their drive to power and well into the early years of their regime, the Nazis claimed to adhere to the outlines of legality, while constantly skirting the spirit of the law and trying to get away with, literally, murder.

      I like how he makes a bunch of parallels between Uber and Nazis ("they both have logos!"), then throws this out without explaining how Uber has literally committed murder.

      1. Irish ?s ESB   10 years ago

        What confuses me is that this piece is published in a part of the website that is about political comedy, but it doesn't appear to be any different from other articles Rall has written for the site.

        Do you think someone at the website itself had the self-awareness to put that in the comedy section even though Rall is clearly writing it in earnest? It's not much different than most other Rall articles, so I think Rall was being serious.

        1. Zeb   10 years ago

          Or maybe he's never serious. This does almost sound like someone trying to link two random ideas taken out of a hat.

          I've never read anything else he has written, as far as I know, so I know nothing.

          1. Irish ?s ESB   10 years ago

            No, Ted Rall is very serious. He made a cartoon back in the day about how Condoleeza Rice should be sent to 'racial re-education camp' and which referred to her as George W. Bush's 'house nigger.'

            He's a reprehensible human being, so it's very possible he was being serious in this article.

            1. Zeb   10 years ago

              The other thing sounds like a joke to me too, but it's hard to tell these days. I think I will continue to ignore Ted Rall and hopefully forget that he exists.

    9. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

      This just in:

      tUBERs are fascist food!

      tUBERculosis: fascist disease!

      Hans grUBER: fascist movie character!

      1. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

        Jonathan grUBER: fascist movie political character!

    10. Citizen X   10 years ago

      You know who else saw fascists all around him?

      1. Brett L   10 years ago

        Woodrow Wilson?

        1. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

          Mussolini in a Hall of Mirrors?

    11. Suthenboy   10 years ago

      First paragraph: "...right wing totalitarian movements..."

      Unless you like comedy, you can stop reading right there.

  6. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

    Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

    1. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

      Will make big big use of the Green Bank Telescope and Parkes (in Australia)

    2. Bee Tagger   10 years ago

      Too bad it's not: "Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Sequel ET"

      1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        *narrows gaze*

    3. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

      So even after I buy that super huge bag of Reeses Pieces at CostCo, I should still have a lot of money left over?

      1. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

        ??

        1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

          See, the trick is to buy a giant bag of candy, then launch it into space. Every couple AU's you eject a piece of candy.

          Then you wait until some ET comes along on his flying space bike following the trail of candy. At that point, you blast it with your assault weapon. Then you wrap it in a Confederate flag to preserve it and send it off to Hawking and Milner. All you have to do then is wait around your mailbox until the check arrives.

          I saw this work on a documentary some years ago.

        2. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

          Never saw ET?

      2. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        you too?!

        *narrows gaze*

      3. straffinrun   10 years ago

        ET's feces reeks of Reeses Pieces. WTH are we talking about?

    4. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

      I wonder how long civilizations use radio to communicate? ET may have moved on to something better a long time ago. Assuming of course there is ET. Personally I think intelligence is an evolutionary fluke, something that comes about only very rarely. I mean animal life has existed on Earth for about half a billion years, and it took that long for something like us to evolve.

      1. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

        This is being billed as a survey to answer more or less definitively whether or not ET can be detected using currently available methods. It will have interesting implications either way.

      2. Zeb   10 years ago

        I don't think we have much basis to speculate on the prevalence of intelligent life in the universe. There are so many stars out there, though, that it seems like there must be a bunch of it out there.

        But it is still hard to say how likely we would be to find any. Perhaps intelligent life doesn't last very long. We've been making lots of radio signals for less than 100 years. Maybe we only keep it up for a few hundred more. Who knows? Maybe intelligence is an evolutionary dead end in some way we don't yet understand.
        Another possibility is that it just isn't practically possible to do inter-stellar travel on any scale and intelligent life tends to stick close to home. In which case there still might be some signals out there, but likely pretty weak.
        I like to imagine that there will be and awesome Star Trek future, but there is no guarantee.

        1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

          There's one fairly easy explanation--we're late to the game, and the technology is way past radio.

          1. Zeb   10 years ago

            Or maybe we're early and in 10,000 years we will be the aliens reaching out to primitive worlds and anally probing them.

            If it became possible to live forever, just being able to see what happens in the distant future would make it very appealing to me. It's always a bit frustrating speculating about this sort of thing because I'll almost certainly never see it happen.

            1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

              Nah, we're late. I mean, something is abducting our rural loners and molesting our cows.

              1. Citizen X   10 years ago

                That's just STEVE SMITH, dude.

        2. LynchPin1477   10 years ago

          We have a sample size of 1, maybe a dozen if you include the planets and moons in our solar system, many of which, in principle, could support life. So yeah, the prevalence of intelligence is highly, highly uncertain. There is no reason to think that potentially habitable worlds (for ~Earth-like life) are rare, though.

        3. Rasilio   10 years ago

          Time is indeed one of the very big issues.

          It is entirely possible that the average lifespan of an intelligent species is significantly shorter than the frequency with which they arise. If a new intelligent species arises in the Milky Way once every Half Billion years and they have an average lifespan of only 5 million years then it would be incredibly unlikely that you'd have 2 of them in existence at the same time and with a 5 million year lifespan humans would still have another 4.7 million years to go

        4. BigT   10 years ago

          Intelligence is the most powerful adaptability characteristic there is. Thus it is strongly favored by evolution and should emerge frequently given enough time and variation.

          1. Azathoth!!   10 years ago

            Evolution only 'favors' one thing--breeding. The ones that breed keep existing.

            Have you seen 'Idiocracy'?

            The 'intelligent' in that film convinced themselves not to breed--just as the intelligent do in real life.

  7. Bee Tagger   10 years ago

    A judge has ordered that Dinesh D'Souza receive psychological counseling

    How do we know the judge isn't just fulfilling a lifelong dream to be a character in an upcoming book?

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      The Gulag Archipelago has already been written?

      1. gaijin   10 years ago

        +1 Solzenitsyn (however you spell that)

        1. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

          Soleshenytsiyyyn.

  8. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    The U.S. embassy in Cuba has re-opened as the two countries restore full diplomatic relations.

    Should be easier to get cigars now.

    1. straffinrun   10 years ago

      Good. That one Clinton gave me smells funny.

      1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        Gah!?

      2. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

        C'mon, you know it doesn't smell funny. I will grant you that it is hard to light because it is so damp, but it smells just like other cigars.

        1. Rich   10 years ago

          "*That's* a HUMIDOR!"

    2. thrakkorzog   10 years ago

      Well, it will make it easier to bang an under aged prostiute. Cuba doesn't export much, but it is a Mecca for sex tourism.

      1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

        Bob Mendez has his travel agent working on it now.

        1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          *Bob Menendez

  9. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Paul Krugman: "I may have overestimated the competence of the Greek government"

    "?it didn't even occur to me that they would be prepared to make a stand without having done any contingency planning ...amazingly - they thought they could simply demand better terms without having any backup plan. So certainly this is a shock. But, you know, in some sense, it's hopeless in any case. ?it's not as if the terms that they were being offered before were feasible. I mean, the new terms are even worse, but the terms they were being offered before were still not going to work. So I, you know, I may have overestimated the competence of the Greek government."

    1. Bam!   10 years ago

      Paul Krugman: "I may have overestimated the competence of the Greek government"

      Fixed it for you, Krugnuts.

    2. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

      This is a man who has been commenting in a major newspaper on economics and government for 15 years. The naivete here is astonishing.

      1. Princess Trigger   10 years ago

        He just assumed they knew what they were doing - they were TOP MEN and oh so dreamy.

        1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

          So if the Greeks are chockfull of TOP men, who are the BOTTOMS? The German taxpayers?

    3. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      Socialists have no plan other than "give me other people's money"? Shocking!

    4. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Paul Krugman: "I may have overestimated MY OWN the competence of the Greek government"

      1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

        Seriously, who equates government with competence? Even most statists I know don't go that far. The man is a loon.

        1. Citizen X   10 years ago

          Calling him a loon is an insult to nocturnal waterfowl.

          1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

            A loon's loon.

    5. Free Society   10 years ago

      And here I thought the Greek aversion to math would be solved by electing communists. How could Krugman have known?

    6. Brett L   10 years ago

      Didn't Krugman advise the Indonesian government during their currency crisis in the mid 90s? It beggars belief he would overestimate the competence of a kleptocracy.

    7. Libertarian   10 years ago

      "So I, you know, ...."

      Jesus. I cannot stand that man's writing style. It would be irritating even if I agreed with him 100%.

  10. Derpetologist   10 years ago

    Spot the Not: chicken hawk tough talk

    1. Welcome to hell, bin Laden.

    2. There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: bring 'em on.

    3. Hey, Colonel, did you ever have a hostile point an M-16 at your head from 10 yards away? That happened to me while I was covering the Falklands war.

    4. I'll tear them apart. I may not come out alive, but I'm going in there.

    5. We'll put a boot up your ass; it's the American way.

    6. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles and get to our base.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

      I specifically remember #2 and #6, and #3 and #4 sound familiar. I'll go with #5.

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        #5 is a lyric from a country music song.

        1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          I liked Toby Keith better when he was a long haired ballad singer.

          1. Citizen X   10 years ago

            Toby Keith is a lifelong registered Democrat, which is a wonderful fact to know.

            1. crab_apple   10 years ago

              I didn't know singing goats could register to vote.

              1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

                Please, leave Stevie Nicks out of this!

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGBqB_k84Ms

        2. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

          I think this is supposed to be obvious - everyone knows #5. Does that make it VALID chickenhawkerry or not?

    2. MOFO.   10 years ago

      Im going with 3. As i recall, there werent any reporters on the Falklands.

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        The person who said it was actually in the Argentine mainland at the time the alleged incident took place. The quote is real, the event is disputed.

        1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

          Bill Oreilly as I recall...

    3. Zaytsev   10 years ago

      They're all valid since 'chickenhawk' is not an actual person, but rather strawman amalgamation of political school of thought.

      1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

        I use it to mean people who

        1. were never in the military

        and

        2. talk often about how "we" need to fight so-and-so

        and

        3. lie about having been in a war

        1. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

          So the only people who can have an opinion on whether the country should use military force are combat veterans?

          Heinlien approves, trooper.

          1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

            No, people should be free to have their opinions and free to vote on such things. They're just not entitled to respect for their opinions and votes. I find it hard to respect tough talk from people who never risked anything.

            Most people who were in the military were in non-combat roles and saw little to no combat. Even so, they risked way more than the people who stayed home.

    4. Derpetologist   10 years ago

      The Not is #4. That is from the Cowardly Lion. The rest in order are: Huckabee, W Bush, Bill O'Reilly, Toby Keith, and HillDog.

      I count the Cowardly Lion as a chickenhawk because he boasts of his strength and courage, but turns out to be a wimp.

      I find that my low opinion of Bill O'Reilly is one of the few places where I can agree with progs.

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

      1. Azathoth!!   10 years ago

        W was in the TANG

  11. Shirley Knott   10 years ago

    What? No Trump news or links?
    How odd...

    1. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Here you go...

      Trigger Warning: Salon article from 2000

      As spoken by idiot extraordinaire Donald Trump Al Franken!

      I have tremendous respect for McCain but I don't buy the war hero thing. Anybody can be captured. I thought the idea was to capture them. As far as I'm concerned he sat out the war.

    2. TwB   10 years ago

      I enjoy Trump just for the fact that he has no filter, which is very refreshing in politics, especially in today's environment. I don't agree with the man, but it's fun nonetheless.

      1. Zaytsev   10 years ago

        He's right about McCain being a douchebag.

        1. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

          They are both douchebags. Is it really.required to take a side on this?

          1. Citizen X   10 years ago

            Yes. All politics is binary.

        2. Red Rocks Rockin   10 years ago

          The best analogy I've seen is that McCain took a period in his life where he exercised a great deal of personal courage, valor, and loyalty to leverage a seat at the table, and then proceeded to jump up on the table and take a giant shit all over it.

          My take is that his time as a POW doesn't justify the poor stances he's taken in his political career, and the latter doesn't diminish the hell he went through during the former. If nothing else, this all shows that McCain remains the Left's pet Republican as long as he's not running for President.

          One thing that Trump seems to be testing about the Social Media Outrage Cycle is whether a Republican can continue to remain politically relevant as long as they DON'T apologize or try to weasel out of it by saying they "misspoke"; instead of making nice, he's doubling down and betting that the public and media's limited attention span will render most immediate criticisms as irrelevant within a week or two.

        3. BigT   10 years ago

          McCain is not a hero for being a POW, but for his behavior as a POW (refusing special treatment)

  12. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Fla. man rides sea turtle, spears shark, goes to jail, police say

    One Miami man tried to do his best "ruler of the sea" impression, but it landed him in jail after he allegedly rode a sea turtle and speared a shark.

    According to KeyNews, Carlos Argen Hernandez was arrested after police said he was harassing a sea turtle and had speared an undersized nurse shark and put it in a cooler. A witness saw Hernandez and his girlfriend with the sea turtle.

    1. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

      Read too many Aquaman comics? But it does sound like he was having a good time. At least until the arrest.

    2. Free Society   10 years ago

      Sounds epic.

    3. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

      What? Arrest the man? He should be recruited into Special Forces.

    4. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

      Did he spear the shark with a trident while riding the turtle?

      Because that would be epic.

    5. Libertarian   10 years ago

      This is really going to skew the "immigrants commit more crime" statistics.

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Whatever. Show me in the code where it says a person "shall not impersonate the goddamn Aquaman."

  13. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    Hackers claim to have broken into the company's user database and financial records.

    Shaming them for not banging their nannies and secretaries like the old days.

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      We will have to see if there are any conspicuous absences in the commentariat this week...

  14. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

    73) Here's the thing I don't get about Bill Cosby. When I have intimate relations with a woman, my enjoyment is increased when she is actively involved, or at least, you know, awake. How is it fun when the woman is knocked out?

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      He's just trying to justify his actions.

      We have to wait and see if it's Whoopi approved.

    2. This Machine   10 years ago

      73 thoughts already? Damn, I disappear for a few weeks and Jatnas triples his output. Did I miss any particularly good ones?

      1. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

        Not really.

    3. Illocust   10 years ago

      Weren't the drugs given main side effect making women horny? My understanding is that the whole reason no one can prove if the women took them consensually or not is because they were a common drug sex aide for women at the time.

      1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

        I'm not old enough to talk much about 70s mating rituals, but the movies from the time often included scenes with people drinking or smoking pot to get "into the mood." Whether he was doing that or drugging women into stupefaction, I have no idea.

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

          Quaaludes were definitely good for putting someone in the mood.

          I don't know what the fuck you do with benadryl... It just makes you drowzy. If you take too much, though, it makes you adgitated. Not exactly date-rapey, unless mixed with a fifth of booze.

          1. Mindyourbusiness   10 years ago

            I wish I'd known that Benadryl had this effect on women when I was younger; Sounds like a great way to get 'em going and clear up their sinuses at the same time!

            WTF?

            1. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

              Benadryl is the exact same thing as Zzquil and the "PM" part of things like "Advil PM". It most certainly does not get anyone "going".

              1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

                But it also doesn't make you so insensate that someone can just do whatever they want to you.

    4. Notorious G.K.C.   10 years ago

      Did he secretly slip stuff into their drinks, or did he give them to the women and say, "take this and it will make sex more fun?"

      Or did he just dissolve the roofies in a pudding pop?

  15. Rich   10 years ago

    Protesters ... demanded ... a repeal of the law prohibiting recruiters from carrying firearms while on duty.

    Hmm. Think we'll ever see protesters demanding strict adherence to the 2A?

    1. CatoTheChipper   10 years ago

      I'm a 2A advocate, but this is world-class stupid. The last thing America needs is armed soldiers in the civilian space. In all likelihood, they would not be allowed ammunition, anyway. And, if they were, the lightweights (e.g., most woman soldiers) could be easily disarmed if not always at the ready. And, if they were always at the ready, somebody's going to get hurt. I remember seeing an 18-year-old girl soldier outfitted in camo and "armed" with a M16 in the airport after 911. My first thought was that I hoped she had no ammunition because otherwise she was just holding an automatic weapon for any able-bodied terrorist to take.

      1. BigT   10 years ago

        It seems to me that having MPs on base that are armed and available would make sense, rather than every soldier.

        1. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

          I don't see why they can't just hire security guards like every other business. Hell, they could even make it a point to hire discharged veterans.

  16. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

    "New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio, is planning to impose a cap on new drivers using Uber this week."

    It's very hard to get rid of lice.

  17. AlmightyJB   10 years ago

    Dear government, when I leave comnents here obviously meant to parody you, they are not suggestions.

    http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-imagined/

    1. fleshy wavefunction   10 years ago

      Right?! How has nobody here really discussed that yet? Too obsessed over Trump and whatever Dalmia's been bitching about to not notice this?! Come on.

      1. commodious spittoon   10 years ago

        Look, I get all of my news from the comments here. If you haven't posted it, I haven't seen it. So really, you have yourselves to blame.

    2. Suthenboy   10 years ago

      Hasn't everyone who dreamed about Utopia included moving people around like game-pieces on a board?

      How this fucking retard got elected president is a....wait, never mind.

    3. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

      I live in a very diverse neighborhood, and it got that way without meddling. I'd be willing to bet my entire paycheck for the next 10 years that whatever the fuck HUD and Obama are trying to do will make it 100000% less diverse.

  18. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Dine and dash: Bear breaks into shop near Estes Park, enjoys pies

    The bear broke through a window to get inside. For whatever reason, the bear stayed on the side of the room with all of the pies. The surveillance camera is pointed the opposite direction, so they never actually saw the bear in a video recording.

    The bear didn't realize the freezer nearby had more food. The animal clearly preferred warm pies over frozen ones.

    "Cherry and apple was his favorite. He passed over the strawberry rhubarb," Kristi said. "Maybe he wasn't feeling like a tart pie, I guess," Lehnert said.

    1. This Machine   10 years ago

      "Maybe he wasn't feeling like a tart pie, I guess," Lehnert said.

      Must resist... urge... to snicker...

    2. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      What sort of gun would you need to take down a bear? A 10-gauge shotgun with big size buckshot?

      1. Florida Man   10 years ago

        10mm is the common sidearm for bear defense. Also 454 if you're not into autos.

        1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

          10 mm?!?!? Now I know where you spend all your money....
          And I thought getting into a 300 Blackout would be expensive...

          1. Florida Man   10 years ago

            I also spend money on brown party liquor.

        2. Suthenboy   10 years ago

          "10mm is the common sidearm for bear defense. "

          So I have heard.

          Fuck. That.

          Hiking in bear country I want a .44 mag with hard cast bullets, minimum. I usually carry my short Winchester 94 in 450 Marlin. I will go way out of my way to keep from having to shoot a bear, but if I ever have to I want him down in one shot.

      2. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

        I doubt buckshot from anything short of an 18-pounder could take down a bear. Thinking .30-06 at a minimum, depending on the bear? As far as a handgun - .44 magnum?

      3. l0b0t   10 years ago

        Bears have a tough hide and a thick layer of fat that can be difficult to penetrate. They also have a rather sloped skull (which can cause rounds to glance off) and when charging, present a surprisingly small target. This is my camping in CO carry piece; it's light enough to wear all day but packs the punch to take down large animals in an emergency. To be quite honest, I've fired it 5 times and I hope to never do so again; it hurts... it is a painful, painful plinker. Definitely an weapon of last resort. Thankfully, I've never been attacked out there; I'm very much a leave the bears alone kind of fellow but, it is pretty wild country and I am often alone (wifey does not appreciate the same level of rusticity as I).

        http://www.taurususa.com/produ.....series=FH2

        1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          Holy shit l0b0t! Ultra light .44? You're a masochist!

          1. l0b0t   10 years ago

            It is, quite literally, the ONLY firearm to which I have ever had access that I hate to shoot. It feels very much like someone walking up and kicking you in the palm.

      4. Igor   10 years ago

        "Florida Man says 10mm or .454" ding ding ding ding. That and a set of adult diapers, if the bear gets close enough that you actually have to use the gun.

        I'm sure you could do it with shotgun slugs (all buckshot would do is piss the bear off) - but 30-06, .308/7.62x51 or 303 would do. 338 would be preferred. That and being a long way away from the bear when you pull the trigger.

        Being a long way from the bear is always a good idea.

        1. Citizen X   10 years ago

          It is a general philosophy of mine to always be a long way from bears.

      5. Ivan Pike   10 years ago

        What sort of gun would you need to take down a bear? A 10-gauge shotgun with big size buckshot?

        If you want to use a shotgun, a 12-gauge shooting slugs will do nicely.

        1. R C Dean   10 years ago

          And, in fact, I have a bear pelt that was acquired with a 12 gauge slug gun.

          Saboted, they throw .50 cal slugs that weigh over an ounce. Good bear medicine.

      6. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        Um, does no one here hang out in Alaska? Guide gun is often a 45-70 lever action.
        Good for what ails you, if what ails you is a bear or a buffalo.

    3. Citizen X   10 years ago

      For whatever reason, the bear stayed on the side of the room with all of the pies.

      Uh... the reason is that pies are delicious.

      1. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

        Yeah, I was trying to figure out if that line was intentionally tongue-in-cheek.

      2. Libertarian   10 years ago

        Apparently, pies are some of the bear necessities.

    4. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

      Hah! I note for the record the bear's rejection of strawberry rhubarb as inferior.

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Ooh, i wonder what would have happened if the pies had been pizzas? We could have solved the real 'za vs. deep dish debate once and for all!

  19. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    ...and a repeal of the law prohibiting recruiters from carrying firearms while on duty.

    What teenage boy wouldn't be more impressed if a recruiter showed his M16?

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      M16?! Why not just bring in a musket?

      M-4, with all the optics n' shit!

      1. Pan Zagloba   10 years ago

        It would make it more familiar to kids who play counterstrike.

        "Here's M14, you start with that, if you do well you get a badge and move to M16, then if you complete the training you unlock M4 or SAW, depending on how you want to spec..."

  20. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Police: Man uses flame thrower to set motel on fire

    Walter Neal Thompson,29, tried to rent a room at Overlook Inn but was turned away because he did not have proper identification. Police say, Thompson then took two of the fire extinguishers in the motel and emptied them.

    According to Guntersville Police, Thompson then went to a nearby construction site, where he found a construction truck that had a flame thrower. Thompson went back to the motel and broke out the glass of the front office. He then stuck the flame thrower in through the broken window, trying to catch the office on fire. According to police, 911 was then called.

    1. DJF   10 years ago

      "A construction truck that had a flame thrower"

      Wouldn't that be a destruction truck?

      1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        Wasn't he trying to construct a fire?

      2. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        Wasn't he trying to construct a fire?

        1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

          A little early for the squirrelz, isn't it?

    2. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Are progressives going to call for universal background checks for access to a flame thrower?

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Yes, why?

  21. Protagoronus   10 years ago

    reason, what is the deal with the pop-up ads when you click and highlight simple text? That's bush league. Ad opt-out for members who donate, who's with me?!

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Browser plugins

      1. Protagoronus   10 years ago

        Work computer, no plug-ins allowed.

    2. Bee Tagger   10 years ago

      I'm not getting pop-up ads when clicking/highlighting text. Not sure if this is why but I'm running adblock plus and disconnect extensions on chrome.

    3. DJF   10 years ago

      You might have some adware.

      I had the same thing and had to reload windows to get rid of it.

    4. Elspeth Flashman   10 years ago

      I think a lot of their tactics lately - headlines, content, etc. - have been very click-baity in general. C'mon reason we expect more from you.

  22. NoVAHockey   10 years ago

    where a gunmen killed five Marines

    Four Marines and one Sailor. U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith

  23. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

    I posted this last night but I'm sure some Mourning Lynx regulara have not yet ordered their Blue Lives Matter tactical patches. Make sure you have yours on before they make a furtive movement!

    1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

      Smurf and Ultrasmurf lives don't matter.

    2. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

      They're so incredibly full of themselves.

  24. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

    The editors of Charlie Hebdo, where Islamist gunmen massacred the editorial staff in January over its various cartoons of Mohammed...

    In unrelated news:

    ...say they are done with Mohammed cartoons.

    1. straffinrun   10 years ago

      ...and are tired of disproving the stereotype of the French coward.

    2. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

      By caving in, they are letting the terrorists, and everyone else know that terrorism works. In a way they're almost supporting them by giving in to their threats.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   10 years ago

        I'm not going to fault you for not wanting Islamists chopping off their heads, as long as you're honest about it.

        1. thrakkorzog   10 years ago

          Yeah, I can't fault someone with a price on their head to try to make peace. We all like to think that we would be super badass in that position, but we really wouldn't.

          1. straffinrun   10 years ago

            They put themselves out there as badass satirists, so it's a little different than the average Joe capitulating. Can't blame them too much, but yeah, they deserve a little scorn for this.

            1. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

              On the other hand, I'd say they've paid their dues.

          2. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

            I can. They just proved that violence, murder and terror works. That may take the heat off them personally, but it means the people looking to suppress ideas by such means will not stop the net tome they deem sometjing offensive.

            1. straffinrun   10 years ago

              The thing I don't get is does CH actually think the fanatics will now say, "OK, but just don't do it again"? If they don't wish to carry the burden anymore, that's fine, but be honest about why you won't do it: It's too dangerous. AFAICT they just said, "Meh, we're bored with it." BS.

    3. Mickey Rat   10 years ago

      I presume they are also done with cartoons featuring the Pope and other Catholic clergy as well?

  25. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    HUD's 'disparate impact' war on suburban America

    Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing is intended to shake this up. HUD Secretary Julian Castro, the former part-time mayor who is mentioned by some as a vice presidential candidate, wants to use the disparate impact doctrine to overturn local zoning laws and place low-income housing in suburbs across the nation. Such social engineering is likely to be widely unpopular.

    How did disparate impact come into the law? In a 1971 Supreme Court case, Griggs v. Duke Power Co. The court, acting when memory was still fresh of Southern resistance to desegregation, ruled that the company's aptitude test amounted to discrimination because whites passed at higher rates than blacks. But that's true of most aptitude tests ? which as a result aren't used much in hiring any more.

    1. tarran   10 years ago

      That line about Duke's aptitude tests is wrong; Duke was caught pretty red handed crafting a group of nominally non-race based criteria for promoting people to foremen that collectively had the effect of preventing any of their black workers from making foreman. IIRC they kept changing the rules whenever a black worker looked like he might get trhough the filter.

      The EEOC then manufactured the doctrine of "disparate impact" and in the same matter as Burwell, the Supreme Court decided that that unlawful arrogation of power was copacetic.

      But the problem wasn't that Duke had seen the light and introduced an aptitude test that unfortunately just prevented blacks from getting promoted. It's pretty apparent that the racists managers of the company wanted their foremen to be white.

      I wrote about it here:
      Why Do We Need Expensive College Degrees to Get A Simple Job?

      1. DJF   10 years ago

        So how did Duke come up with questions that Whites could answer but Blacks could not?

        And what were these racist questions?

        1. Illocust   10 years ago

          Eh you just ask for things that you know one of the white candidates has that the black candidate doesn't. For example you say foremen promotion requires knowing morse code because you know one of the white guys is ex-military and know it while the black candidate doesn't. It's possible. It's just stupid from a long term business perspective if you can't get the government to subsidize your stupid decisions.

          1. DJF   10 years ago

            Is there evidence that Duke was not profitable using White foremen or is more profitable now using Black foremen.

        2. tarran   10 years ago

          They weren't questions.

          They had to be married. They had to have a high school degree. They had to have logged x number of hours in particular activities etc.

          Whenever a black worker looked like he would make the cut to become a foreman, the rules would be modified with the shocking result that he no longer made the cut.

          There were also admissions by some of the other foremen that the company was actively trying to keep blacks from their ranks.

          1. DJF   10 years ago

            Was there also denial by some of the other foremen that the company was not trying to keep blacks from their ranks?

  26. Rich   10 years ago

    Exploding Muslim immigration overwhelms FBI

    "And the *gun-firing* Muslim immigration -- don't get us started!"

    1. Free Society   10 years ago

      Immigrants of peace.

  27. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Can Bill De Blasio Turn Uber Into The NRA?

    So will Bill de Blasio pry the Uber app from his constituents' cold dead hands?

    That is the experiment the New York mayor will start running on Tuesday, when he imposes a cap on the growth of what is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the world, and sets up a high-stakes confrontation that will absorb his mayoralty and define the politics of Uber and its lesser-known siblings in the flexible, insecure new economy.

    As it stands, de Blasio is about to cap the number of drivers of Ubers and other for-hire car companies, a move that will in turn place limits on a service that is popular among its users, and which has no organized opposition. He is walking into a political buzzsaw: Uber has endless cash, real panic about getting capped in its biggest market, and every incentive to make an example of the high-profile New York mayor. The campaign is being run by David Plouffe, who once pulled off the rather impressive feat of persuading Democrats to hate the Clintons, and who immediately made it personal.

    1. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Bill De Blasio seems to be an expert in making enemies. He's already pissed off the police unions big time, parents via charter school restrictions, and now Uber.

      1. Rhywun   10 years ago

        Governor Cuomo hates him too - and isn't afraid to smack him down when he gets out of hand. No wonder he spends all his time vacationing and proselytizing around the country.

    2. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   10 years ago

      Uber has endless cash
      ...
      The campaign is being run by David Plouffe, who once pulled off the rather impressive feat of persuading Democrats to hate the Clintons

      Oh boy.

  28. Derpetologist   10 years ago

    Spot the Not: epic tales of survival

    1. survived 76 days in life raft adrift in the Atlantic

    2. ate nothing for 1 year and 17 days

    3. survived being shot down and crawled through almost 50 miles of jungle to reach safety

    4. survived 24 days without food or water on a freezing mountain

    5. survived 43 days in the cold on nothing but 2 candy bars, a caterpilar, and snow

    6. left for dead after a bear attack, he crawled and limped more than 200 miles to reach safety

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      2

    2. MOFO.   10 years ago

      2. You would have to weigh like 400 pounds to be able to survive that.

    3. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

      I guess #2 doesn't really sound possible.

      Also, I think you missed that chick whose plane went down in the Amazon in the 1970s. She was the only survivor and hiked for two weeks with a broken collarbone and ribs until she found a fishing outpost.

      Oh, here she is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke

      1. tarran   10 years ago

        While she walked, she also could see parasites squirming around under her skin eating her alive.

        Horrible story that puts my hangnail in perspective.

    4. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

      #3 sounds like Dieter Dengler.

    5. Tonio   10 years ago

      #2. Impossible to survive that long without food.

    6. Just a thought not a sermon   10 years ago

      Barbara Tuchman's biography of Joseph Stillwell has a pretty harrowing account of the march he led out of Burma to British India while being pursued by the Japanese during WWII. Despite incredible heat, limited rations and water, and leading more than 100+ people, including some elderly Buddhist nuns, he lost not one single person.

    7. Derpetologist   10 years ago

      #2 is real: http://www.abc.net.au/science/.....549931.htm

      The Scotsman began at 455 pounds. Perhaps he was the inspiration for Fat Bastard.

      The Not is #3. I made it up.

      1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        Pretty sure it has probably happened though...

        1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

          That or something similar, yes.

  29. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    In Greek crisis, one big unhappy EU family

    Germans, Finns, Dutch, Balts and Slovaks no longer want taxpayers' money to go to bail out Greeks, while the French, Italians and Greeks feel the euro zone is all about austerity and punishment and lacks solidarity and economic stimulus.

    With central and east European states growing more assertive and the Dutch and Finns facing mounting domestic constraints, a compromise between euro zone leaders Germany and France, increasingly hard to find over Greece, is no longer sufficient to settle the problems.

    There are so many stakeholders with divergent views that crisis management is becoming ever more difficult. A far-reaching reform of the 19-nation currency area's flawed structure seems a remote prospect.

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      Germany - "Here, France, we hand you the burden of Greek Socialism...Tchuss!"

      *strolls off whistling The Happy Wanderer*

  30. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    France's Hollande Proposes Creation of Euro-Zone Government

    French President Francois Hollande said that the 19 countries using the euro need their own government complete with a budget and parliament to cooperate better and overcome the Greek crisis.

    "Circumstances are leading us to accelerate," Hollande said in an opinion piece published by the Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. "What threatens us is not too much Europe, but a lack of it."

    While the euro zone has a common currency, fiscal and economic policies remain mostly in the hands of each member state. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi made a plea this week for deeper cooperation between the euro members after political squabbles over Greece almost led to a rupture in the single currency.

    You know who else wanted European unification...

    1. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

      Charlemagne?

    2. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      Napoleon?

    3. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

      It's called 'ever more integration'.

      You need more integration to save the friendship.

    4. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      What a stupid man.

      Why hand off your sovereignty to an unaccountable power structure in Brussels?

      1. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

        Because it hands off the blame too? Or he imagines he'll be one of the Top.Men. leading the entire continent into the glorious future?

    5. straffinrun   10 years ago

      Pangea?

    6. Citizen X   10 years ago

      ?gedei Khagan?

    7. Free Society   10 years ago

      Moar centralization!

    8. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

      This has always been the other option--if they can't make the common currency and other things work, then unify politically. Whether that would or even could work is another question.

  31. Mike M.   10 years ago

    It looks like the liberal scum in the government-media complex have come up with their story for this Chattanooga terrorist, and their story is that drugs and depression made him target those sailors and Marines, and not radical political Islam.

    I swear, it never ends with the lies and bullshit when it comes to these fucking crazies.

    1. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

      Don't forget the gunz! Once he put his hand on the gun it threw him over the edge and made him kill some random people.

    2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      I heard someone in the "lamestream media" (as you and Sarah like to say) claim that some radical Islamo-terrorist website should have some disclaimer attached to it by the state department.

      1. Mike M.   10 years ago

        Sadly, it's never creeps like you who get killed by these lowlifes.

        1. straffinrun   10 years ago

          Now that you should've posted.

      2. Free Society   10 years ago

        That's right you Palin obsessed buttplug, defend that media which is obviously so defensible.

    3. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      How many media outlets posted a picture of the bullet-riddled glass door with a "gun-free zone" sticker on it?

      They were all talking about gun violence and radicalization. There seems to have been minimal discussion of the gun-free zone policy's contribution.

    4. Chipper Chipping Rodrigue   10 years ago

      Wow. You're right. I just googled it. The CNN story is titled "searching for a motive". Of course, he wrote that he wanted to become a martyr in his diary and sent an Islamic verse by text message before he started shooting.

  32. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    Obama pushes to extend gun background checks to Social Security

    Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.

    The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

    A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."

    1. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

      NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.

      The joke of it is it assumes the people answering the NICS questions are doing so truthfully, and that government bureaucrats responsible for updating it are actually doing any work to keep it updated.

    2. Rich   10 years ago

      people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."

      Very well. Anyone who doesn't prepare their own tax return is unqualified to own a firearm!

      1. Pope Jimbo   10 years ago

        Why stop at the second amendment?

        I think that we should also suspend the first amendment rights of people due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."

        And why not suspend voting rights for the same reason?

        1. BigT   10 years ago

          Dateline NY Jan 1,2016: The NY Times shut its doors today by order of the NICS.

      2. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

        people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to "marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease."

        Does being on welfare count as being "unable to manage their own affairs"?

        A government big enough to give you whatever you want is powerful enough to take everything you have.

        1. Rich   10 years ago

          Does being on welfare count as being "unable to manage their own affairs"?

          I'm not sure, but being on Ashley Madison certainly does.

          1. straffinrun   10 years ago

            Slipped by me at first. Well timed.

          2. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

            What you did, right there; I managed to see it

  33. NoVAHockey   10 years ago

    We should support Sanders .. .because if only people would listen.

  34. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    I gave up Ayn Rand for Bernie Sanders: How I grew up and traded libertarianism for a progressive "socialist"
    Most self-identifying "libertarians" actually subscribe to a bankrupt ideology. What if they all opened their eyes?

    The rise of Bernie Sanders feels familiar to me. When I was a libertarian-leaning Republican, I was a delegate for Ron Paul in the 2008 Nevada State Convention. Paul's supporters were passionate if a bit nutty, but change seemed, if only for a moment, possible. The problem was that the ideology behind the candidate was bankrupt. The experience was the beginning of the end of my affiliation with simplistic libertarian blather and GOP politics altogether, but Paul's rise was driven by the same frustration and anger that is now propelling Sanders.

    For too long, the anger and passion has been driven by Tea Party types and libertarians. Their solution seems to be throwing more gasoline on a trailer-park fire. Inequality? Cut taxes for the wealthy and implement a "flat tax." Poverty? Eliminate the social safety net and cut food stamps. Those not actively making problems worse are obsessed with non-stories and fictitious "scandals," featuring Benghazi, Jade Helm, e-mail servers or any of the other innumerable, invented outrages.

    etc Salon etc

    1. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

      Damn you, NoVAHockey

    2. Palin's Buttplug   10 years ago

      Benghazi, Jade Helm, e-mail servers or any of the other innumerable, invented outrages.

      There is a nugget buried in that pile of shit.

      I was hoping real issues would get discussed this cycle. But noooooo! Can't have that.

    3. Free Society   10 years ago

      A socialist, an ideologue whose ideology has a century long record of economic and social failure that is so tremendous, that it's evil is only overshadowed by the millions of murdered and enslaved it took to fail that hard, tells a libertarian that his ideology is bankrupt?

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        But but but libertarianism might let some people become richer than others, and that's way worse than 100+ megadeaths in under a century!

    4. Rebel Scum   10 years ago

      Cut taxes for the wealthy

      Person was never "libertarian" and never understood libertarianism, judging by this statement alone.

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Salon runs these 'Confessions of a Former Libertarian' pieces about once a month. They are never, ever written by anyone who has ever had a clue what 'libertarianism' means.

        1. Libertarian   10 years ago

          I'm reminded of those people who believe in ghosts or other woo woo stuff. They always start out by saying, "Listen, I'm a skeptic, BUT.........."

  35. Rich   10 years ago

    In an IS training camp, children told: Behead the doll

    Last month, a video showed 25 children unflinchingly shooting 25 captured Syrian soldiers in the head.

    Behold "The Caliphate". 8-(

    1. Bam!   10 years ago

      Who didn't behead their sisters dolls when they were a kid?

    2. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

      You know the only good thing that might come about from Iran getting the bomb is that this region of the world might finally wipe itself off the planet. Let them all nuke each other and turn the whole region into glass. Fuck them.

    3. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      Anyone remember the Kurt Russell movie "Soldier"? There are several scenes of kids getting conditioned to violence by their trainers.

  36. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

    White nationalism infuses our political ideology: Dylann Roof is just the beginning

    Dylann Roof looked beyond our native anti-black texts. His website was The Last Rhodesian. Roof allied himself with the cause of Rhodesia because, according to the racist right, the failed struggle in the 1960s to preserve African white nationalist societies, including South Africa, was a warning about the communist conspiracy to use black people to pave the way for totalitarian tyranny. This thesis was purveyed by the John Birch Society, whose historic and current conspiracy theories are today utilized by Glenn Beck. A decade before he was appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas joined the conspiracy theorists when he became affiliated with the Lincoln Institute, a right-wing think tank that embraced apartheid in South Africa as a bulwark against communism.

    Salon... of course.

    1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      That is a Shriek level of "logic".

    2. Derpetologist   10 years ago

      related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZwFS0lSbzs

    3. Free Society   10 years ago

      To be fair, cultural marxism does require engaging in minority outreach to craft a "whites=capitalism=oppression" message, and they've been doing quite well. That doesn't mean we should support apartheid policies, but it does mean we shouldn't support group rights, civil rights and "diversity" policies.

    4. Rebel Scum   10 years ago

      the racist right

      Is this even a real thing? I mean, as opposed the racist left that revels in treating people different bc of their skin pigment. (see: affirmative action, and the general notion they hold that minorities cannot do for themselves and should be treated like children their whole lives)

    5. CatoTheChipper   10 years ago

      Only a progressive could be capable of believing that a psycho like Dylann Roof is actually representative of "our political ideology" while dismissing entirely the relationship of Mohammod Abdulazeez with a particular strain of orthodox Islam.

      I think it is objectively clear that both individuals were psychos who were inspired by aberrant political ideologies. Roof's racist ideology had very little, if anything, in common with any significant strain of non-progressive thought. Though Abdulazeez, on the other hand, acted on a historically orthodox interpretation of Quran, his actions had very little, if anything, in common with the practice of Islam in America.

  37. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

    From the asshole De Blasio article:

    "Barbara Gale ? Top Commenter ? Sherman Oaks, California
    SCREW UBER - countries have outlawed them - California does not want them and has just fined them big time and is limiting them so are other cites. They think they are invincible, they are not. They have to answer to the city, state and feds."

    Stanley Hoffman ? Top Commenter ? University of Washington Huskies, Seattle. WA.
    Uber is a tax evasion plan. Uber pays no taxes, the drivers pay no taxes, you have no insurance liability insurance the list goes on and on. It is greedy people who want to scam the system. People should not use the benefits of tax paying Americans and not pay their share.
    Reply ?
    ? 11 ? 8 hours ago

    "Maxamed Nur ? Columbus, Ohio
    Ann Stanton I agree with you, regulations protect the consumers.
    Reply ?
    ? 1 ? 5 hours ago"

    Buzzfeed is a cess pool of stupidity.

    1. Irish ?s ESB   10 years ago

      "Uber is a tax evasion plan. Uber pays no taxes, the drivers pay no taxes, you have no insurance liability insurance the list goes on and on."

      Uber and their drivers pay no taxes? How does that work?

      1. UnCivilServant   10 years ago

        "Loopholes"

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

          Yeah, they're all 1%r's.

          /derp

    2. Mr Lizard   10 years ago

      It seems like some of you mammals are paying your peers to transport water for a specific reason

    3. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

      "regulations protect the consumers."

      This statement disgusts me. What kind of person thinks they need the government to protect them from the stupidity of their own decisions?

      1. Citizen X   10 years ago

        People who comment on Buzzfeed articles?

      2. Citizen X   10 years ago

        Oh wait, i know this one. Hitler?

      3. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

        Um, most of them. Unfortunately...

  38. Ra's al Gore   10 years ago

    Contemplating Catastrophe, Environmentalists Embrace Existentialism
    Giving up on climate change means giving up on being human.

    ...Walking away, Kingsnorth says, is not giving in to despair. Far from it: though he denies he's a nihilist, he has a nihilist's glee at the collapse of the phony world, the illusion that we can keep our technological society and our cars and computers and our cheap food grown half a world away, just by building more stuff and being smarter. The world, if not modern techno-civilization, will persist. We might destroy ourselves, but nature will outlive us. That's all that really matters...

    1. Ra's al Gore   10 years ago

      Satellites: Earth Is Nearly In Its 21st Year Without Global Warming
      ...Since September 1994, University of Alabama in Huntsville's satellite temperature data has shown no statistically significant global warming trend. For over 20 years there's been no warming trend apparent in the satellite records and will soon be entering into year 22 with no warming trend apparent in satellite data ? which examines the lowest few miles of the Earth's atmosphere.

      Satellite data from the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) group also shows a prolonged "hiatus" in global warming. After November of this year, RSS data will be in its 22nd year without warming. Ironically, the so-called "hiatus" in warming started when then vice President Al Gore and environmental groups touted RSS satellite data as evidence a slight warming trend since 1979....

      1. sarcasmic   10 years ago

        All that proves is that the U of A is bought off by Big Oil. Duh. All reality-based people know this.

      2. Rufus J. Firefly   10 years ago

        Do you realize how much energy (excuse the pun) and money has been poured into the climate change cult? To much is at stake for these people. They're gonna go down with the ship. Thulsa Doom style.

        1. Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker   10 years ago

          Lots of government money. Government has completely corrupted science. It's such a shame.

          1. sarcasmic   10 years ago

            What are you talking about? It's not science unless it's funded by government. Otherwise it must be funded by corporations which only care about profit. All deniers are funded by corporations, and that right there proves that all corporate science is anti-science. Besides, you didn't build that. By "that" I mean roads, internet, transistor, fire, the wheel, and everything else that would never have been invented without government grants.

    2. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

      Nice handle...

    3. Rich   10 years ago

      climate defeatism may be a salutary movement, requiring us to continue to act and struggle even as the ultimate victory, indeed the outcome, recedes beyond our view.

      Talk about your lunatic fringe ....

      1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

        You know who else continued to act and struggle even as ultimate victory slipped away?

        1. Rich   10 years ago

          Orson Welles?

        2. Citizen X   10 years ago

          Nic Cage?

        3. Zaytsev   10 years ago

          Japanese soldiers trapped on south pacific islands?

        4. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

          Everyone in Warty's Dungeon?

        5. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          Jefferson Davis?

        6. lap83   10 years ago

          Me every time I have ever played Monopoly?

  39. Ra's al Gore   10 years ago

    Obama's awesome new race database even more awesome than you imagined
    ...Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama's racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school ? all to document "inequalities" between minorities and whites.

    This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make "disparate impact" cases against: banks that don't make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don't offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds....

    1. Ra's al Gore   10 years ago

      Obama Orders Cities And Towns To Racially Integrate
      ...Communities nationwide will be given a series of questions designed to help them figure out whether racial bias is causing segregated neighborhoods, racial or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, unequal access to opportunity or disproportionate housing needs in their jurisdiction. They will be required to set goals related to that data and publicly report on their progress every three to five years.

      The Department of Housing and Urban Development rule is intended to prod communities to meet fair housing standards established in the Fair Housing Act of 1986, by making previously unavailable or unreliable data accessible to the public, which could then use the data as an impetus for change.

      The Fair Housing Act requires the government to not only eliminate racial discrimination in housing, but also to encourage racially integrated neighborhoods...

      1. Mr Lizard   10 years ago

        What happens when the suburbs just incorporate into smaller entities, and then refuse any HUD funds. Or they apportion their share from the county, then convince the residence to do a special one-time pay back assessment.

        1. tarran   10 years ago

          How do you reptilians know so much about mammal notions of public choice theory?

          1. Swiss Servator, rudert schwer!   10 years ago

            They would study, those they would rule...

            1. tarran   10 years ago

              Eats, shoots & leaves. /gazes cooly

      2. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

        "Communities nationwide will be given a series of questions designed to help them figure out whether racial bias is causing segregated neighborhoods, racial or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, unequal access to opportunity or disproportionate housing needs in their jurisdiction."

        I think it's high time that the government moved huge quantities of poor black people into the liberal, wealthy, and white enclaves of Massachusetts, California, and the state of Washington.

        Getting to live in a lily white neighborhood because you're liberal and wealthy is about the most racist privilege I can imagine.

        They should start trapping the children of wealthy white liberals in horrible schools, too. Start sending wealthy white children to jail for minor drug offenses. Only then will our country finally be free.

        1. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

          This is amazing.

          I live in an area with practically no minorities, I presume because the property taxes are so high. Almost all of the people that live in this area will FREAK. THE. FUCK. OUT. if all of a sudden they are forced to carve out enclaves within the community for "affordable housing".

          Will be fun to watch.

          1. Free Society   10 years ago

            I'm from a small town that was ravaged by a state mandated low income housing scheme. It went from a town of 6,000 people with virtually no crime to a town of about 6,500 with rampant burglaries, stabbings and heroin dealers. Turns out that our town of 6,000 didn't "need" low income housing, but the nearby Democrat run welfare dependent cities did in fact need our town to have low income housing.

            forced association is a cunt.

          2. Libertarian   10 years ago

            If they won't check my DNA, I'd like to apply for this program. I'll check "African American" on the application form, then sit back while they subsidize my housing in Chevy Chase.

          3. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

            Some very liberal retiree friends of mine (well, more like secondary parents) were bitching about the section 8 housing that was to be built right up to the border of their very quiet, upper middle class subdivision.

            I told them I was confiscating their "liberal cards".

            1. Free Society   10 years ago

              Some very liberal retiree friends of mine (well, more like secondary parents) were bitching about the section 8 housing that was to be built right up to the border of their very quiet, upper middle class subdivision.

              I told them I was confiscating their "liberal cards".

              Yeah they got what they wanted, they should stop their bitching and learn to love the welfare state.

        2. Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton   10 years ago

          They should start trapping the children of wealthy white liberals in horrible schools, too.

          Already tried with busing. People with means moved beyond the busing limits or sent their kids to private schools. Obviously there needs to be internal residency permits to prevent people from leaving their assigned homes. And no school choice, including private and homeschooling. Socialization is good for the kids.

    2. Free Society   10 years ago

      Fuckin' white people, amarite?

    3. Rich   10 years ago

      But don't stop there. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (brainchild of Liz Warren) will be providing everyone's credit card accounts sorted by race.

      My MasterCard account is Black or African American, my Visa account is Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, ....

      Seriously, FTS.

      1. Free Society   10 years ago

        More evidence that the "anti-racists" are the biggest racists of all.

    4. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

      A$$holes. Stoking racial war when you don't have one.

      1. Restor-woodchipper-as   10 years ago

        Well, when that's all you have to keep the minority vote in your pocket, that's what you do.

    5. Mike M.   10 years ago

      Yep, this is how they're going to spend the bulk of their last year and a half.

      Live inside a nice leafy gated suburban community, whitey? Get ready, because they hate your guts and they're coming for you.

    6. lap83   10 years ago

      They need a good system for figuring out whose votes can be bought and who should be robbed to pay for it, and you guys say government isn't efficient

    7. Rhywun   10 years ago

      I'm wondering how they're going to convince a lot of white people to move into all-black neighborhoods - or is that not the kind of segregation they're talking about...?

  40. Free Society   10 years ago

    The adultery website Ashley Madison has been hacked. Hackers claim to have broken into the company's user database and financial records.

    Well I hope all those people's evidence of cheating remains private and secure. I'm commenting for a friend.

    1. Idle Hands   10 years ago

      Maybe it was the Chinese too. DC is like always in 1st place for that websites usage and now they can cross reference names. /adjusts tinfoil hat.

    2. straffinrun   10 years ago

      Darn Hackers put my information and CC numbers on an adultery website. Honey, I won't rest until we catch them.

  41. Derpetologist   10 years ago

    Scalia Poetry Slam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8a-UXs6SmE

    The guy who made the video is a jackass, but it is funny.

  42. hamilton   10 years ago

    New England meet up Sunday. (Well, northern New England) (Well, we'll take mostly anybody). Artisinal mayonnaise, cocktails, grilled things.

    Also, fried chicken.

    Email me for details.

  43. Princess Trigger   10 years ago

    Sweet. Rachel Dolezal is BACK and still BLACK!
    http://www.vanityfair.com/news.....-exclusive
    You go girl.

    1. Lord Humungus   10 years ago

      Crusty Juggler fap pictures included.

    2. thrakkorzog   10 years ago

      She's way over on the wrong side of the crazy/hot matrix. I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I would have to disconnect my phone afterward.

  44. Derpetologist   10 years ago

    Man eats nothing but pizza for 25 years: http://www.vice.com/read/this-.....r-25-years

    no health problems except diabetes

    1. Monty Crisco   10 years ago

      Diabetes counts as a very serious health problem, IMHO...

      "I have driven blindfolded for the past 10 years!! No crashes except for one head-on collision where I killed a family!!"

    2. lap83   10 years ago

      What an idiot. Pizza has sugar in the sauce and dough. Yeah, eating a bunch of sugar at every meal is totally healthy!

      1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

        But he doesn't like vegetables! What is supposed to do, starve!?

        1. lap83   10 years ago

          He's like a 7 year old in an adults body. I was a picky eater too when I was a kid, but then I matured enough to realize that the point of food is not entertainment

          1. See Double You   10 years ago

            I matured enough to realize that the point of food is not entertainment.

            Umm, what? Entertainment certainly isn't the only point of food, but it is definitely an important part. What, do you only eat exactly what you need to sustain yourself, i.e., you never indulge?

      2. Elspeth Flashman   10 years ago

        I had a sample of a friend's gourmet "pizza slice" from a local brew house. The sauce was so sweet it tasted like tomato jam. Ew.

    3. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

      "except diabetes"? Diabetes is pretty fuckin' bad.

    4. Rhywun   10 years ago

      "My absolute favorite pizza is from Pontillo's in Upstate New York."

      Holy hell - I grew up on that shit. It is abominable.

  45. Injun, as in from India   10 years ago

    See - all of this happened because of Bernie Sanders-style democratic socialism!

    One of the Most Remarkable Achievements in Human History

    80 percent of the world's worst poverty has been eradicated in less than 40 years. That has never, ever happened before.

    I will state, assert and defend the statement that if you love the poor, if you are a good Samaritan, you must stand for the free enterprise system, and you must defend it, not just for ourselves but for people around the world. It is the best anti-poverty measure ever invented.

    1. DJF   10 years ago

      Congratulations Communist Party of China and Vietnam.

      1. kbolino   10 years ago

        wtf?

        1. CatoTheChipper   10 years ago

          The CCP had the good sense to realize that Marxism doesn't work. It allowed free markets outside of the "commanding heights" and somewhat free markets even in the commanding heights.

          In some respects China's economy is as free as the US. For example, its top corporate tax rate is now 25%. In US corporate tax rate is 39.1%.

  46. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

    "The psychiatrists D'Souza was first ordered to see found no signs of depression, but U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman overruled their findings and ordered D'Souza see a new psychological counselor weekly."

    So, they're going to keep shopping for psychiatrists until they find one that sees something wrong with him?

    That's really fucked up.

    The man plead guilty to campaign finance violations. Not plotting terrorism.

    Can a psychiatrist diagnose him with paranoia if he thinks the judge is out to get him?

    1. tarran   10 years ago

      I should remind people that there is a difference between psychiatrists and psychologists.

      Psychiatrists are medical doctors who focus on illnesses of the mind.

      Psychologists are not medical doctors and their beat is helping people retrain their modes of thought into more acceptable paths.

      There is a lot of overlap, obviously, but in the end the psychiatrists are the only ones who can prescribe meds; and the psychologists are better positioned to help people deal with stuff that isn't due to a structural problem in their brain or a chemical imbalance.

      1. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

        The next line in the article (which I neglected to link above):

        "I'm not singling out Mr. D'Souza to pick on him," Judge Berman said. "A requirement for psychological counseling often comes up in my hearings in cases where I find it hard to understand why someone did what they did."

        http://www.newsweek.com/judge-.....ing-353554

        The judge has already sentenced him.

        Again, we're talking about a campaign finance law violation--not an armed robbery!

        Later, the article says:

        "[The judge] continued: 'That Mr. D'Souza committed this crime involves a colossal failure of insight and introspection.'"

        Well, so what? Isn't that true of all crimes?

        1. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   10 years ago

          It's pretty easy to understand why he did what he did. He had a candidate he supported, and was barred from donating more money directly.

          It's not rocket surgery.

          1. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

            Yes, but the candidate he supported? Was a Republican.

            I repeat--a Republican!

            There must be something pathologically wrong with him if he's supporting Republicans, and if the first psychiatric professional can't figure out what's wrong with him, then the judge will just have to keep more of them looking until someone finds something.

            "This crime involves a colossal failure of insight and introspection."

            ----The judge

            You know who else used to treat political opinions with psychiatry?

            1. CatoTheChipper   10 years ago

              D'Sousa is nuts. Not only did he contribute to a Republican; he contributed to a Republican running for US Senator in New York. He must be crazy if he thought his candidate had a chance.

    2. Citizen X   10 years ago

      Sure. If he's delusional enough to think the judge is out to get him just because he keeps shopping for the "right" diagnosis, he should probably be locked up indefinitely. You know, for his own safety.

  47. Florida Man   10 years ago

    So...what did I miss in the last two weeks? Anyone indicted or arrested from our ranks?

    1. tarran   10 years ago

      Yes.

      Tulpa was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure, kidnapping, attempted indecent assault on a minor with a fire arm modifier, and resisting arrest without violence.

      He saw a person stopped illegally on a shoulder obviously getting ready to run into the tree line to relieve themselves.

      As he was effecting a citizens arrest, he made the mistake of standing on a fire ant mound. They started biting him savagely on his legs and his privates.

      He tore off his pants and underwear to try to get at the insects.

      At this point he saw a cop car pulling up with a female state trooper inside. Concerned that the sight of his privates might give her the idea that he had no respect for an officer of the law, and worried that this sudden tumescent state might give her the wrong idea (he is saving himself for a brilliant mathematician worthy of him), he tried to hurl himself into the perpetrator's car. He landed on the teenage daughter of the man he had been trying to arrest.

      How he got his Caracal model C down the back of the girl's panties and his left hand tangled in her brassiere is in dispute.

      Most outrageously, as the trooper was placing him under arrest, she kept calling him "sir" and asking him to do things "please" and when he logically pointed out that he didn't please to do those things and therefore wouldn't, rather than recognizing that she was in the presence of a first rate mind and correcting her vague language, she tazed him in the crotch.

      1. Florida Man   10 years ago

        Called it!

    2. Citizen X   10 years ago

      Apparently, Donald Trump is running for president.

      1. Florida Man   10 years ago

        Noooooooooo!

    3. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

      How was your long strange trip?

      1. Florida Man   10 years ago

        Outstanding!
        Gin joint in charleston is awesome.
        Asheville brewery tour is a must do for beer lovers.
        Dollywood was more fun than expected
        Maker's mark tour is neat
        Kentucky horse park is beautiful
        Lane auto museum in Nashville is really good
        Graceland is depressing.

        My only real disappointment was Kentucky BBQ. Why so much vinegar?!?

        1. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

          I want to go to Dollywood so bad. It's about 2 hours form my dad's house, but my dad can't ride any coaster on account of his old fart vertigo.

          1. Florida Man   10 years ago

            The rides there are legit. Much better than I thought. Also the pork rines are really good. I really liked the bird show.

            1. Kristen Bids No Trump   10 years ago

              Apparently it's also really awesome at Xmastime.

              You did not get to the Clermont Lounge, I take it?

              1. Florida Man   10 years ago

                We didn't go to Atlanta. My wife was game surprisingly.

            2. Pro Libertate   10 years ago

              I had the same reaction--it's a nice little amusement park. Much better than I expected. We went there last year for their Christmas season, which was nice.

        2. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   10 years ago

          There is no such thing as KY BBQ. I'd assume you went to someplace that serves Carolina BBQ.

          1. Florida Man   10 years ago

            I ate BBQ in every state. Tennessee and South Carolina were my favorites.

  48. Derpetologist   10 years ago

    There is an interesting book called The Denial of Death. The gist of it is most human behavior is motivated by a desire to be part of a great project that outlasts you, giving meaning to your life and thus allowing you to "live" forever. The most popular projects are nations and religions. Most war is the result of the collision of contradictory projects.

    The book suggests that perhaps the world would be better if more people realized that we are all motivated by the same goal.

    1. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

      "The most popular projects are nations and religions."

      The most popular projects are probably children.

      You send little versions of yourself into the future without you.

      Hell, patriotism and religions scratch those itches in no small part because they're about helping us raise children to be good citizens and people, even when their parents are gone.

      1. Derpetologist   10 years ago

        True. I was not thinking of the children, as usual. Somewhere, Helen Lovejoy is fainting.

      2. Free Society   10 years ago

        Not so sure the government helps us raise our children so much as it uses them as lending collateral and cannon fodder.

        1. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

          Whether you agree with other people about what makes a good citizen and whether parents raise their children to be good citizens are two separate questions.

          1. Free Society   10 years ago

            You just said that some euphemism for nationalism helps raise children to be "good citizens". I'm not answering any separate questions, I'm responding to your assertion.

            1. Ken Shultz   10 years ago

              You're conflating two different things and making a distinction that doesn't make any difference.

              You also seem to be talking about the way things should be rather than the way they are.

              "Hell, patriotism and religions scratch those itches in no small part because they're about helping us raise children to be good citizens and people, even when their parents are gone."

              Whether patriotism should scratch those itches and whether it actually does are two different questions.

              Some parents may think a good citizen is someone who denounces their own government as oppressive and would help to overthrow it--and such parents also want their children to be good citizens.

              Meanwhile, even if the government doesn't actually help parents raise good citizens, in your opinion, other parents may support the government's efforts to help them raise their children anyway--because it scratches that itch to deny death by way of their child project.

              If you don't understand any part of that, then read it again.

              1. Free Society   10 years ago

                I just post this so you can re-read it again. And then again.

                Not so sure the government helps us raise our children so much as it uses them as lending collateral and cannon fodder.

  49. Je suis Woodchipper   10 years ago

    I'm assuming that hack is a false flag by the FBI/NSA/DHS to burn up any goodwill previously acquired by the hacking community.

  50. treefroggy   10 years ago

    In Soviet Russia dissent is not allowed .

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

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