Inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the potentially classified emails Hillary Clinton stored in her private email account.
Sandra Bland's death in her Texas jail cell was declared a suicide via hanging by the county district attorney.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating an incident where officers used bean-bag rounds and a Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them.
Musician Chris Brown was allowed to leave the Phillipines this morning, after being trapped there for three days over allegations from Maligaya Development Corp that he backed out after accepting $1 million for a gig last New Year's Eve; in a video released yesterday, Brown pleaded with Obama for help.
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Doesn't matter who he is. His logic counters his own logic, he argues out both sides of his mouth simultaneously, he changes stories at the drop of a hat. When called out on various stupid claims, he either ignores the post, insults the poster, or doubles down on his refuted claims.
Weigel was part of the JournoList group back in the day, and essentially acted as a mole/provocateur here, writing faux-libertarian articles here while referring on the Journolist slagging his readers as rat-fuckers on JournoList.
Weigel used to be a writer here and was strongly suspected of not actually being a libertarian. Those suspicions proved true after he got a new job and the journolist emails leaked.
Dreams are a great thing, but you know something? They take a lot of energy. But that's OK. There's a job waiting for you down the block from your house that doesn't require a thought in your head or a hope in your heart. So come on down and work for the artificial flower factory. Why fight it? OK? Thank you.
Whether PB is actually Weigel or not, it's quite a joke that Reason once employed a reporter who ascribes to the intellectually stunted theory of white privilege and thinks Democrats are just the coolest.
He's a great example of clueless urban shitlibbery masquerading as libertarianism. So it's easy to see why PB and Weigel are frequently conflated.
He was ordered hospitalized by a judge. There is no way he would have passed a nics background check.
And lets not forget the fact that guys with guns showing up stopped it right then and there. In fact they ended it before he reached the required number of dead victims to truly be considered a mass murderer.
75) Several weeks ago I discussed the five most overrated movies. It seems negative not to balance that with the five underrated movies.
Fresh?This movie got lost in the shuffle of 90s black gang movies, but it's really different and more interesting than most of those. It's got Fresh, an inner city kid who doesn't talk much but plays a lot of chess, and how he uses lessons from his chess games to effect major changes in his life. Requires at least two viewings to completely glean everything, and has a really devastating ending.
Dark City?Science-fiction noir, a little like Blade Runner but with its own thing going on. I think this came out around the same time as the Matrix and got overshadowed, but it's far better than that movie.
Cape Fear?Okay, everybody knows the Scorcese remake, which is excellent, but how many have seen the original 1962 version with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck? Same story but different feel to it, very much worth watching.
Dark Passage?I'm a big noir fan, and this one with Bogart and Bacall is strangely forgotten. A lot of suspense, and absolutely beautiful shots of late-1940s San Francisco.
The Conversation?Gene Hackman is a surveillance expert who finds himself mixed up with a client he doesn't want to be involved with. A masterpiece of paranoia.
I fell asleep watching The Usual Suspects and woke up during the final scene. So I figured there wasn't much point in my watching the in-between stuff, and I never did.
(P.S. Gladiator is the most overrated movie I have ever sen. It was so bad that Russell Crowe in his prime wasn't enough to keep me interested. I walked out during the penultimate scene for a cig. When my friend came out after it was over, I said "Let me guess....". )
The battle scenes are fun. I usually fast forward to them. But I remember watching it in theaters and being entertained. It won best picture right? I thought that was odd at the time. It doesn't hold up under multiple viewings I guess.
(P.S. Gladiator is the most overrated movie I have ever sen.
Gladiator had a lot going for it to be Best Picture, especially for industry-insiders actually voting. The movie was incredibly difficult to make; Oliver Reed died during production for instance, and it is impressive that nobody notices when his character is CGI and not him - work all done in post-production and not in the original schedule or budget.
The script is frankly mediocre. But Russell Crowe was great. Joaquin Phoenix doing Commodus was pure Caligula as intended. Fact they did their characters so well despite not one memorable line in the script is worth noting.
And consider the Academy is full of Hollywood senior citizens. The vintage of senior when Gladiator was made were from the sword-and-sandal era of Hollywood, and they must have had some memories while screening the film, not to mention they were watching their pal Derek Jacobi pine on about the Republic again.
I can see why Gladiator won Best Picture that year.
Kevin Spacey anything is going to be overrated. The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, House of Cards, etc. I don't know why everybody loves the shitty crap that guy makes.
That movie was way to long. It could have been better if they cut about 30-45 minutes off of it especially since the main character you know didn't like talk.
Obviously it's all just opinions,but I actually think the overrated list is more objective because it's the most famous and popular movies that I think suck for easily identifiable reasons.
The underrated list is more along the lines of "some cool movies I like that most people probably haven't seen."
Your overrated list is good. Although I can tell you're probably older than me based on your choices. My list would probably consist of The Matrix and the rest would be Harry Potter
How could you possibly believe in the NAP? Don't you support a a heavy government hand in the economy? Aren't you always posing state-centric solutions to a litany of problems, real or imagined?
Fuck you. You've never seen me espouse a "heavy Big Gov hand" in the economy. I am a market liberal as described by Hayek.
With one exception - I support the modern concept of a central bank like every single country in the world does. Free banking is as archaic as alchemy.
Yes fiat money is real money Shreek, unlike the "money" the people would actually prefer to use in the absence of a gun in their ribs helping them make that decision. Nothing more nuanced than central planning and brute force. Thanks, Shreek, you proved me so wrong.
Yea, the main character is an angry narcissist that blames all his problems on everyone else and so he decides to murder people whos only crime were being unliked by him.
The worst part about it is that the whole thing is done without even a hint of self awareness. With Natural Born Killers or Falling down, the movies understand that the main characters are horrible, with this turd the vacuous, murders are offered up as heroic for standing up to... something.
I thought God Bless America was ok, but it's easily Goldthwait's worst movie and I'm a big fan of his movies. His best by far is still Shakes the Clown. Honorable mention to World's Greatest Dad and Sleeping Dogs Lie.
I never understood the love for Shawshank Redemption - there are better prison movies out there. Heck I preferred Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz.
The novella by Stephen King, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" was excellent. I like that in the book the main character actually did kill his wife and you still root for him.
"Fresh" has always been one of my favorites. Basically an inner-city version of "Fistful of Dollars" which has been told a thousand times, but this version is fantastic. I saw it when it was released just due to luck and it has always ( along with "Miller's Crossing") been my favorite version of that story. Coincidentally, they BOTH have haunting musical scores....
The Wages of Fear is a great French movie from the early 50's, set in South America. The late 70's remake with Roy Schneider, Sorcerer, also excellent and very much overlooked. I think it came out the same time as Star Wars, which obviously didn't help.
Pretty good list except for The Conversation. Terrible movie, even among the 70's paranoia genre.
I like Buffalo Soldiers as an underrated movie. Not that it's a great movie either but it captures a feeling of pre-9/11 garrison Army life, much the same way From Here to Eternity tries to.
My favs for under rated are :
Galaxy Quest - Tim Allen was excellent as well as the rest of the cast.
(this one movie with a dude in a bubble in space eating tree bark) - very cool
Goonies - Might not actually be underrated.
The Incredibles - Amazing story telling
Contact - Foster and McConaughey were outstanding
Company Business - Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov, An AWESOME Cold War Era End movie.
I may be late to the party, but how can you make a list of overrated movies and not include "Rain Man"? His card counting is the most unrealistic and/or lazy plot device I've seen since sSperman was dumb enough to open that lead box.
Yeah, I wish I had the money to run advertisements posting the salaries of various non-profit officials in various liberal orgs. Liberal because otherwise the progs would laser focus on the guys they don't like and ignore the ones they do.
And Bus Schools have gone in whole hog on that with degrees in non-profit management.
But hey, you get to the top in those fucking orgs and you will rake in buku tax free dollars for pushing paper and pretending you are improving people's lives more than a real job does.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating an incident where officers used bean-bag rounds and a Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them.
Wheelchair bound doesn't mean harmless. Physical disability either makes you a simpering weakling living off the good will of others or mean as fuck and willing to go much further than normal folks in a fight. Also, one of the main causes of homelessness is some kind of mental illness. Mentally ill may not be a huge percentage more likely to attack you than regular folk, but when they do there is a lot less logic behind it and they are a lot harder to calm down.
That being said. The cops could be making shit up, but the evidence provided has not made it any more or less likely that if you said 'officers used bean-bag rounds and a taser on a man they alleged tried to attack them'.
Dude, are you serious?!? He's in a FUCKING WHEELCHAIR. Unless he can actually, ya know, WALK, then an LEO should not feel threatened by, what I imagine, is an older person in a wheelchair unless they have a fucking crew-served weapon that they are aiming at them...
Fair. More fair than I'm willing to be to police officers at this point. Unfortunately the "bad apples" make me no longer willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Tasers were originally promoted as a non lethal alternative to pulling a gun -- but they have evolved into a way that cops can deal with people without getting there hands dirty (literally).
I have read that using a taser instead of their hands/fists/nightstick is a way to keep lawsuits down.* Of course, that just makes them lazier and less apt to learn self-defense/martial arts and to stay physically fit. As we commenters know, body cameras would keep the brutality complaints to a minimum, but that is just too easy.
How is this "cannibalism?" Starlings and seagulls are not closely related styles of bird at all. That's like saying that i'm a cannibal for eating a steak.
Inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the potentially classified emails Hillary Clinton stored in her private email account.
In her defense, she's seen how vulnerable emails on government storage are to deletion.
It's a question of adminstative discretion. Does the Justice Department have enough investigators/bully boys to investigate every transgression of the Clinton crime family?
Not if they want to protect us from terrorists and pornography.
When they are at home, they are typically more relaxed and aren't as aggressive, but all it takes is a false move," said K9 Trainer Bill Heiser to the Orlando Sentinel. "You have to remember that these dogs are tools used for policing, so it's always best to be cautious."
Yup. Idiot handler. No dog, especially a trained working/protection dog, should ever just go off at "one false move".
This is why there needs to be a movement not just against asset forfeiture but against all of the this fucking overmilitarization by the cops. K-9 units do NOTHING except assault people and allow the cops to violate the fourth amendment. They train these fucking animals to be the WORST companions to people possible, and then destroy them when they get old. Fuck the police...
Well the dog is legally a human of higher standing than the girl and her family right? I mean, if the girl's dad came out and shot the dog, would this be one of those states where they treat it as though you literally just killed a costumed human and charge the dad with murder of a LEO?
Or if not safe, then shouldn't be left unattended outside. Does the cop leave his service weapon lying on the porch? Stupid question because the answer is quite possibly yes.
There is a state trooper who brings his K9 around the main area where I jog. Every time I see that thing unleashed I get scared. This story will not help.
The two times I have seen it unleashed it just looked at me like it didn't care, but the cop eyed me like I was a John Q. Terrorist, so I am still going to be worried.
I asked this on PINAC's Facebook: WTF was a $14k police dog doing running around a yard unsupervised? If it were supervised, it would never had had the chance to jump the fence to begin with, and the handler could have warned away the little girl before she got close.
The out-of-control animal has been said to help with several drug busts since being purchased one year ago.
If you want to look up these dangerous non-violent criminal scum, we're going to have to put up with the occasional little child being mutilated by the police. It's all for a good cause.
Representatives from Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. and Xerox say they've asked Planned Parenthood to remove their names as corporate donors to the embattled organization.
The move follows a Daily Signal report revealing the names of 41 companies that Planned Parenthood listed as donors. That list, which was featured on Planned Parenthood's website, has since been removed.
What corporation would want to donate to planned parenthood? Donating to a domestic abuse shelter will get them the same brownie points from feminists and also from the public in general. I'm betting this was probably one of those employee donations things, and PP just listed them as actual corporate support.
How is that relevant to what makes business sense from a national corporation point of view? Yes, certain demographics respond favorably to PP donations, but there are also huge demographics that respond negatively to said donations. Donating to domestic violence centers on the other hand get the same favorable response those who like the PP donations and they have the added benefit of getting a favorable response from those who don't like PP donations.
Now, I could see these 'corporate' donations in reality being corporate matching to employee donations, something that a lot of big guys do. In that case, they aren't really corporate donations, in that they've been vetted by P.R., and it would make sense how the national corps ended up in such a bad position.
A corporation is still ethically on the hook even if they match contributions. If employee's were donating to the local KKK chapter, do you think the company would match that donation blindly? Of course not, they know they'd be morally culpable and certainly so in the eye of the public.
I've always found it odd that there exists socialist rich people and lefty corporations. I suppose there's some incentive to stay on the good side of the mob in order to be the last one to get shot by them.
I've know several women that had sexual relationships with other women but aren't attracted to women in general. It's like that game of "who would you go gay for" you play when you're drunk enough to be honest.
Female sexuality, in general, seems to have a stronger emotional dimension to it than male sexuality. I would expect far more women to identify as bisexual than men.
Possible. Didn't reason have an article about putting probes on people's junk and showing porn and the guys (gay or straight) got really turned on for their respective porn and women had a more midline approach for all porn.
I know I'm in the minority but this phrasing is bullshit to me. You don't have sex with people in general.
I'm not attracted to men, so I don't consider myself gay. However if I met "Mr. Right" and we had chemistry, I'm still not attracted to men in general, I'm just attracted to "mr right". It hasn't happened to me yet, but I don't find it ludicrous.
and I'm not someone who thinks gay people can be "straightened", but clearly it's retarded logic to say that certain types of gay relationships are not choices while claiming that other relationships are
it's retarded logic to say that certain types of gay relationships are not choices while claiming that other relationships are
I would say that for most actual gay people (not gay-for-kicks like this woman) there is indeed "no choice", just as there is "no choice" for most straight people. Besides, I don't think anybody is making the argument you want to refute.
There may not be a choice about who I'm attracted to, but there is absolutely a choice about whether I act on it. Marriage is a deliberate limiting of choices.
There may not be a choice about who I'm attracted to, but there is absolutely a choice about whether I act on it.
This^^. I also don't exactly buy that I don't choose (on some level) who I'm attracted to. If you show me a picture of a hot celebrity from the 80s, I really don't find them very attractive. Their hairstyles and clothing choices distract from the supposed attractiveness. People are going to have a very hard time convincing me that I was born predisposed to view 80s styles as a turn-off.
Would any of you Texas Peanuts fill us in on this Jade Helm 15 FBI takeover of Texas and institution of Obama martial law? That is if you still have internet?
You know that pro-Obama liberal media is not reporting on this.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president, said she would not be pushed by liberals in her party to advocate for a breakup of big banks or the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall law that separated commercial and investment banking.
In response to a question about Glass-Steagall, she said: "I think it's a more complicated assessment than any one piece of legislation might suggest."
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who are challenging her for the Democratic nomination, are both advocating a breakup of the banks. Mrs. Clinton suggested that was a simplistic response and promised to lay out her plan for Wall Street regulation at a future date. It isn't expecte
Is Deregulation to Blame?
......In fact, multiple exemptions to Glass-Steagall had been granted for years before Gramm-Leach-Bliley was signed into law. Most European financial markets, not normally known as more "deregulated" than the U.S., never separated commercial and investment banks in the first place. And there is no correspondence between institutions that benefited from the repeal and those that recently collapsed. Institutions that didn't take advantage of the Glass-Steagall repeal, such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, were the ones that failed most spectacularly, in part because they lacked the stability provided by commercial banking deposits.
If anything, Gramm-Leach-Bliley may have softened the blow. The George Mason economist Tyler Cowen argues that Gramm-Leach-Bliley made way for more diversity in the financial sector, and "so far in the crisis times the diversification has done considerably more good than harm." Under the Glass-Steagall rules, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase would not have been able to acquire Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. Nor would Goldman Sachs and Citibank have their current unified form, which may have helped them survive.... ...
The commerical banks acquiring flailing investment banks in 08-09 were shotgun marriages forced by the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs magically became a commercial bank on a Sunday night to gain access to the Fed's discount window.
If that set of events is the best defense of GLB, then I may have to change my mind about the benefit of it.
The left thinks that without Glass-Steigel (or insert other arbitrary statutes), the economy can't function. Taking that position to it's logical conclusion, then we can only assume that cavemen must have had similar statutes written on animal hides in order for ancient humanity to develop to where we are today. OR just maybe such laws are not so vital, or at all beneficial, to the proper functioning of an economy.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating an incident where officers used bean-bag rounds and a Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them.
THEY FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES. It was like staring down a pit bull on meth behind the wheel of a car!
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is living up to his promise to run for president as a "different kind of Republican." His campaign appears to have decided that he can win the nomination without even basic help from party bosses, and that if he comes up short his loss should not serve to strengthen their infrastructure.
Several presidential candidates are likely to sign contracts allowing them to simultaneously receive voter profiles from both the Republican National Committee and i360, a rival data warehouse managed by the political network associated with Koch Industries. Paul, however, seems to be following a different path?one that will allow him to maintain full control of any data collected by his campaign or affiliated super-PAC and set up a distinct power base beyond 2016 entirely independent of the Republican Party.
On Tuesday, a 43-year-old Mississippi woman and her six-year-old daughter were snapping a selfie in front of a wild bison when the massive animal attacked.
The woman, who had her back turned to the bison even though it was barely six yards away, tried to flee but was overtaken by the bison and tossed into the air, according to the Associated Press. The unidentified tourist was taken to a clinic nearby and treated for minor injuries.
The attack is the fifth so far this year in which a Yellowstone tourist got too close to a bison.
A friend in college worked up there in the summer. He said at least five or ten tourists a year volunteered to help the gene pool. People are really stupid
Won't click on Gawker links, but I read something about that elsewhere. Who's Gawker defending here? On the one hand, they're big on calling racism everywhere, but on the other hand, they loves them some Jon Stewart.
Welp, this is disappointing. I don't think there was anything racist with Jon Stewart's voice when mocking Herman Cain with the voice he used. I'm at a loss trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Maybe I'm missing something since I have know idea who Amos and Andy were.
No Zeb. What it shows is how white Progs actually view black people. I am a evil right winger but if a black person I worked with said "man I think this voice you are doing is racist", I wouldn't automatically agree with him but I wouldn't tell him to fuck off either, which is what Stewart did.
To white Progs black people are a prop. They are there to use as a weapon to fight for the cause and to make white progs feel superior to other whites. That is it. If some black person's sense of integrity or personal dignity gets in the way of either of those two things, then they need to sit down and know their place. That is what is going on here.
The other thing is this shows how Progressivism becomes nothing but a rationalization for awful people to be awful If you are a good leftist like Stewart, you can be a racist, misogynistic and nasty as you want to be, just so long as you aim it at the other side. It is no wonder so many public leftists turn out to be awful broken people in private.
Yes. I wouldn't get into a heated argument over it in the first place. I might actually take what he had to say seriously. And even if an argument did break out, I wouldn't get defensive about it because I know I am not a racist. Stewart seems to lack that confidence and got defensive as a result.
Moreover, if this story were about any figure on the right, it would be a national story and every Republican in America would be expected to disavow the person. Since it is Stewart, it will be a one day story on Gawker.
There is a lot of pressure in Stewart's job. It's pretty common for people in his position to have such episodes; he's running a popular show that airs 4 days a week. And while he often blows up at people, he supposedly is always contrite about it afterwards. I think Cenac is right and Stewart wrong, but the "fuck off" comment really isn't that bad. I wouldn't call him any more of a dick or thin-skinned than most people.
I'm a pretty passive, always-be-nice-to-everyone kind of guy. But I've also gotten in to these loud and crass arguments on set or in the editing room. I honestly think it's a healthy part of the process, so long as everyone remembers you're just making dumb art.
Inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the potentially classified emails Hillary Clinton stored in her private email account.
But without realizing it, or even asking for it, a better life quality came to us. And this is why, now that I'm back, I'm angry that my own country isn't providing more for its people. I will never regret living abroad. It taught me to understand another culture. And it taught me to see my own. But it also taught me something else ? to lose touch with the American version of reality.
Here are seven ways living abroad made it hard to return to American life:
1) I had work-life balance
The Swiss work hard, but they have a strong work-life balance. According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the average Swiss worker earned the equivalent of $91,574 a year in 2013, while the average American worker earned only $55,708. But the real story is that the average American had to work 219 hours more per year for this lesser salary.
That was going to be my question - what's the cost of living in a place like Switzerland? I know this is Vox, but come on, everyone knows that a dollar goes farther in Kansas City than it does in New York City. And I'm fairly certain a dollar goes even farther in America than anywhere in Western Europe.
Adjusted for cost per living, Switzerland's per capita GDP is like $2,000 higher than America's. They looked at nominal dollars without adjusting for purchasing power parity because it's Vox and they're fucking morons.
They looked at nominal dollars without adjusting for purchasing power parity because it's Vox and they're fucking morons and they're disingenuous cunts.
Switzerland is also super conservative to the extent that there are Cantons in Switzerland that didn't allow women to vote until the 1990s and they have virtually no central government to speak of since almost all decisions are decided at the local level.
They also are rich largely because of a highly secretive banking sector. Switzerland in most ways is the exact opposite of what progressives claim to want - very free markets, limited central government, highly traditional, weakly regulated banking sector. The fact that this idiot is holding up Switzerland as their ideal pretty much proves progs have no idea what they're talking about.
Well, by PPP America is 28% richer than Britain, so in the grand scheme of things, 6% is not that much. You can be considered a first world nation while being pretty damn poor by American standards.
I used the wrong phrase -- you are correct that income isn't wealth -- but the income is already adjusted for PPP so they are making more money than us on average.
I'd love to see it compared by demographics. I bet U.S. whites make more than Swiss whites, but U.S. blacks make less than (the two or three) Swiss blacks.
I was just being nitpicky, but 'adjusting for PPP' is a statistical minefield just like 'neonatal mortality rates', 'gun crime' and 'campus rape'.
Tell me how much it's going to cost for me to live in a 2200 sq ft, 3 bedroom home, and feed a wife and 2 kids, with a 30 minute commute to a job in Geneva, and compare that with the same setup where I have a similar job in Philly with a 30 minute commute. Then I can figure out my residual income along with a slew of intangibles such as 'quality of life', 'flexibility of career choices' etc.
The point I'm trying to make here is that we live our lives on an indifference curve, which is largely determined by intangibles. 6% 'more' disposable income is readily offset by the fact that I don't have to speak in German, French or Italian, for example. It's telling that the original article reduces everything to money - even the observation that the average worker works 2.5 hours a week less, is framed in primarily financial terms.
But even if money were the only factor to consider
All true. And PPP for the US is kind of pointless when you have places like San Francisco, NYC, and then low cost areas like Kansas City and Houston which have lower poverty rates when adjusted for the CoL.
The real test, of course, is how many Swiss are migrating to the US, compared with Americans migrating to Switzerland. All the information is out there for the market to work, and the beauty of it is that all relevant factors will be priced in.
LOL, he went to one of 9 countries on Earth with a higher GDP per capita than America and it ruined America for him!
This just proves how myopic progressives are. He goes to one of the very few countries that are actually richer per capita (a country which is one of the only countries with freer markets than America, I might add) and determines there's something wrong with America, rather than just acknowledging that both America and Switzerland are in the top 10 richest countries.
And 219 hours is four hours a week. Oh no! Americans have to work half an hour extra a day! It's like a fucking slave colony!
The Whitest Privilege
......The Left occasionally indulges in bouts of romantic exoticism ? its pin-ups have included Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Mao Zedong; we might even count Benito Mussolini, "that admirable Italian gentleman" who would not have been counted sufficiently white to join Franklin Roosevelt's country club ? but the welfare states that progressives dream about are the whitest ones: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc. The significance of this never quite seems to occur to progressives. When it is suggested that the central-planning, welfare-statist policies that they favor are bound to produce results familiar to the unhappy residents of, e.g., Cuba, Venezuela, or Bolivia ? privation, chaos, repression, political violence ? American progressives reliably reply: "No, no, we don't want that kind of socialism. We want socialism like they have it in Finland."
Translation: "We want white socialism, not brown socialism!"... ...
This whole article is such a brilliant piece of trolling. Not to say that they aren't making fair points, but using progressive idiocy against them? Just, A+ work, right there.
Progressives also have a very tough time understanding that America is basically a continent in and of itself. Switzerland has 8 million people - or, in other words, about the population of New York City. There are 7 times more people in Texas than in Switzerland.
America is hyper-diverse, very large, and has 45 times more people than Switzerland, but these idiots think we could impose the same policies on a diverse nation of 320 million people spread out over an entire continent and it would work in the same way as it does in Switzerland, a 95% white, homogenous country of 8 million people.
And that's why the per capita GNP difference between the countries isn't as impressive as Voxxers believe. 8 million Swiss compared to which set of 8 million Americans? I bet we could find a city in the US, or a state, whose GNP per capita is far and away higher than Switzerland's per capita. This sort of comparison is arbitrary.
My old neighbors were from Switzerland. They moved back several years ago, but we still keep in touch.
The Swiss wife still bitches about not having a car. She has a great story about having to buy a vacuum cleaner when they moved back and how hard it was to get it home (trains, stairs, etc.).
Oh god, I had to live without a car when I was in college. Never fucking again. One grocery trip in the rain with paper bags and you'll never romanticize public transportation or plastic bag bans.
Thing that stood out for me on that story is that, by her telling, they just up and decided to come back to the states.
Im suspicious. If its so great,why would you ever leave? Could it be that all those luxurious benefits of Swiss life are only possible if you make 100k a year?
I was flying to Switzerland from DC and there was a guy on the plane going back to Switzerland after being in the states for a few months. He was sad to go back. I asked why. "Switzerland is so boring. I can have much more fun in the US."
President Obama said Thursday the failure to pass new gun laws has been the most frustrating part of his presidency.
In an interview with the BBC, Obama lamented the fact Congress refused to tighten gun laws "even in the face of repeated mass killings."
"If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws," he said.
"If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws,"
Cry more, you tryhard totalitarian shithead. I need your delicious statist salty ham tears to cool my processors.
"If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun-safety laws," Obama said, "even in the face of repeated mass killings."
Here you go, Mr. president, courtesy of the NRA. Please follow these rules next time you see a gun lying around:
1) STOP!
This first step is crucial. Stopping first allows your child the time he or she needs to remember the rest of the safety instructions.
2) Don't Touch
A firearm that is not touched or disturbed is unlikely to fire and otherwise endanger your child or other people.
3) Run Away
This removes the temptation to touch the firearm as well as the danger that another person may negligently cause it to fire.
4) Tell A Grown-up
Children should seek a trustworthy adult, neighbor, relative or teacher ? if a parent or guardian is not available.
The Republican Party has wide leads for better reflecting people's views on gun control (48% to 36%) and dealing with the terrorist threat at home (44% to 34%).
...
Over the last two years, the Republican Party has opened a gap over the Democratic Party when it comes to views about which party better reflects Americans' views about gun control. In May 2013, following months of debate about gun policy, the public was divided over which party could better deal with gun control. Today, the GOP holds a 13-point edge on this issue.
"It just would have made my 24/7 armed security detail THAT MUCH more effective....as it is, I can't guarantee that I can just have them slaughter whoever I want without someone shooting back. And that makes me sad. It REALLY makes Michelle sad..."
He believes if the general who died 137 years ago can just be eliminated, that will really help things.
"If he's gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone," he said, shovel in hand. "We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up."
Others see their actions as little more than destruction of property.
"They can protest all they want. Just because they don't like it, doesn't mean they are right. Digging up the park is just pure and simple vandalism," says Lee Millar, spokesman Sons of Confederate Veterans.
It's amazing how fast people can be taught to hate something so much, they'll commit criminal acts just to get rid of it. Just a few months ago most of these people probably didn't care for the Confederate flag, but probably wouldn't have done something about it when they saw it.
And they say conservatives are 'crazy' or 'irrational'.
Remember how the media and politicians went into over drive pleading people don't take out their aggression on Muslims after 9/11 (and still do today). I have yet to see a violent act (unless I missed it) directed at them.
Yet, we DO see lefties commit crimes or behave poorly (this incident, OWS etc.).
Rwanda had been peaceful and prosperous for 20 years, but a few weeks of radio broadcasts followed by the assassination of the president was enough to set off one of history's worst genocides.
Zimbabwe and South Africa had some of the highest agricultural productivity on the African continent. Then they decided it was unjust that white people owned so many farms and businesses and they violently expropriated them. They gave the land to unskilled blacks, simply because they were black and had political connections. Now those sectors of the economy are in shambles and Robert Mugabe is looking for some whites to jump start their economy again. Fuckin' social justice, how does it work?
"It is no longer politically correct to glorify someone who was a slave trader, someone who was a racist on public property," City Council member Myron Lowery said at the time
Fucking hell, why stop with Forrest? He can't be the only racist buried in that cemetery.
Van Patten said Bergdahl was detained, but ultimately was "determined not to be connected to the operation, at least there was no evidence to suggest he was involved."
When Bergdahl encountered the law enforcement team, Van Patten said he identified himself while the sheriff's office reached out to the Department of Defense. The agency confirmed Bergdahl was on leave, and asked for their assistance in getting him back.
Sheriff's office personnel later drove Bergdahl "to a halfway point," where he met up with army representatives.
The murder of Kathryn Steinle on the Embarcadero in San Francisco by an illegal alien is the most familiar example of a crime committed by an alien. But an unreleased internal report by the Texas Department of Public Safety reveals that aliens have been involved in thousands of crimes in Texas alone, including nearly 3,000 homicides.
PJ Media obtained a never-before-released copy of a Texas DPS report on human smuggling containing the numbers of crimes committed by aliens in Texas. According to the analysis conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety, foreign aliens committed 611,234 unique crimes in Texas from 2008 to 2014, including thousands of homicides and sexual assaults.
The report describes an alien crime wave of staggering proportions exacerbated by federal officials unwilling to enforce immigration laws.
The driver told him he would have to pay another $2, and he got mad.
The driver left the bus and went inside the terminal. The passenger sat on a bench, then walked away. But about four minutes later, he returns and head-butts the glass doors on the bus, shattering the glass.
He appears to be knocked out for a few seconds, but then wakes and runs off.
The suspect is described as about 5-foot-9 with a slim build and wearing glasses. He was wearing slip-on shoes with socks, and dark green or gray shorts. His T-shirt has the graphic "Ounces 40" on the front.
Well, strictly speaking, a Scot would call it a "Gorbals Kiss" - it's a district of Glasgow filled with what an American might call "Section 8 housing".
Anecdote:
I used to go drinking with a Glaswegian company Accounts Payable manager and maybe the toughest SOB I'd ever met. Have you any idea how intimidating it is to sit down and go over a budget with a guy with calluses on his knuckles?
One day, we went out for a drink at a local bar, and some guy nudged into him. Bill (the acounts payable manager) invited the guy to "Pick a window, you're leavin'!"
The Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential contender adopted a more dispassionate, even diplomatic stance as he pecked away at the agreement during the Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Thursday. In doing so he contrasted himself not just with his more bombastic GOP colleagues but also with more hawkish rivals in the GOP presidential race, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are making their plans to undo the agreement a central plank of their foreign policy platforms.
Instead of launching into a monologue, Paul asked measured questions about why sanctions will be lifted so quickly under the agreement and whether Iran has any plans to create a nuclear bomb.
Though Paul is distinctly to the left of most 2016 GOP hopefuls on foreign policy, the Kentucky Republican was one of the first Republicans to publicly announce opposition to the deal last week, despite keeping what he called an "open mind" as the agreement came together. He dislikes the sanctions language in the pact and fears Iran can still develop a nuclear bomb.
But the libertarian-leaning senator made clear that he prefers a diplomatic settlement with Iran. The only other committee Republican who sounded that conciliatory was Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
Hillary Clinton's suburban hometown of Chappaqua, New York has just become ground zero in the Obama administration's efforts to nullify local control over America's housing. Obama's Justice Department has fired a powerful warning shot at Westchester County, New York, where the administration is conducting a dry run of its new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation.
At issue is whether Westchester's obligation to "affirmatively further fair housing" compels county officials to crush local opposition to a low-income housing development in downtown Chappaqua.
The Draconian legal settlement imposed on Westchester several years ago by the Obama administration creates a court-appointed "monitor" who has effectively usurped Westchester County's right to democratic self-governance. The monitor insists, and Obama's Department of Justice agrees, that Westchester County officials must not only obtain financing for new low-income housing developments in Chappaqua, but must suppress local opposition to the project.
That's brilliant. Either Hillary opposes it and loses the primaries or she is forced to support it and the provision gains legs. Either way Obama gets what he wants.
Where again in the Constitution does it grant the federal government power to require affordable housing in various locales? Other than the FYTW clause.
I'm afraid of the implications for my suburb - 95% white, best school in the area, also some of the highest incomes (and highest property taxes).
Don't know if the city government owns any land - they are actually kept on a tight leash and confined to two buildings. Don't know if the city receives any HUD funds.
But if low income housing was brought into the area there would be an uproar. Right now developers are buying old homes in the $150-$250k range and just tearing them down to build new houses. We were lucky to get into our house, which is nothing special, for the price that we did. I can't imagine - but I could be wrong - anyone making a profit building residents for the poor. But I won't ever underestimate the stupidity of HUD.
"I can't imagine - but I could be wrong - anyone making a profit building residents for the poor."
When it's paid in tax dollars, it's easy to make money.
I almost bought a quarter of a million dollar home a few years ago. But the neighborhood didn't have any low-income housing to milk me for local welfare dollars and the crime rate would not be nearly as high as I would've liked, so I passed.
Why isn't this initiative getting more (or any?) airplay? You would think what sounds to me like the largest executive power-grab in American history might make the MSM once in a while.
Because it is that and tons of Democrat voting suburbanites are going to go ballistic when it happens. So, the media is doing all it can to make sure they don't find out before the 2016 election after it will be too late to stop.
It's been a rough 24 hours for a dog now being called Simba. The dog was wandering on a street in Milwaukee when animal control says a person mistook him for a mountain lion, pulled out a gun and shot him, reports CBS affiliate WDJT.
"The bullet went through his leg, fractured his bone," said Karen Sparapani, executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission.
On July 9, 2015, in the case of Olive v. Commissioner, San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. tax code section 280E which states that expenditures in connection with the illegal sale of drugs don't qualify for any deductions or credits. What this means is that marijuana-based businesses aren't able to deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses, and are thus being taxed on 100% of their gross profit as opposed to net profit.
It is a good thing that it's "legal". It would be nice if it were actually legal too.
Actually, I think that what they have in DC is really the best scenario at this point. No commercial sales, but pretty much no regulation either. Obviously it would be best if it were just another product that people buy and sell, but it is going to be so heavily regulated under any legalization that is likely to happen that I think that people just being able to grow it and "give away" to friends is far preferable.
But still, 9th Circuit is the most liberal, so surprised to see them not throwing a bone to the MJ growers. But libs do not believe in federalism, right?
I don't know what's worse: the butthurt Muslim apologists demanding we treat this guy like a Muslim terrorist or the butthurt Black Lives Matter people who demand we call him a thug.
Even if they have a small point the sheer amount of whining is enough to make me hate them.
Muslim societies have long been the battleground for a conflict between classical patriarchy and the revolutionary spirit of early Islam. The pre-Islamic environment of 7th century Mecca, with its tribalism, lack of law and order and constant warfare, was strongly male-dominated. The advent of Islam challenged the status quo and sought not only to introduce a new kind of social order but to limit the excesses of Meccan society, which directly harmed women and girls -- abolishing the custom of burying baby girls at birth is one of the best examples of this spirit. Early Islam sought to elevate women and define them as independent agents possessed of free will, responsible for their own actions and imbued with certain rights over men (just as men are imbued with complementary rights and privileges over women).
Many detractors of Islam point to inheritance laws, polygamy and certain verses in the Quran that they have interpreted as condoning domestic violence, sex slavery and other travesties of justice and human rights. There are many Islamic feminists, such as Amina Wadud, Kecia Ali, Riffat Hassan and Laleh Bakhtiar, who are actively working to retranslate and reinterpret many of these verses of the Quran.
Iran and Afghanistan both had quite liberal (in a good way) treatment of women in the urban centers, until the mullahs took over. AFAIK, the rural areas were a lot more traditional, as you might expect.
There are many Islamic feminists, such as Amina Wadud, Kecia Ali, Riffat Hassan and Laleh Bakhtiar, who are actively working to retranslate and reinterpret many of these verses of the Quran.
Ok, considering the Salafi/Wahhabi consider such re-translation and reinterpretation to be the ultimate theological crimes, what's your point, lady?
"James Scott ? Cockshut Hill Technology College
Are you an expert on Islam all over the world ? I somehow doubt it. All religions tend to be practised conservatively and you have you own problems with Christian misogyny in America."
Hey man, sometimes Christians say mean things about gays or don't believe in evolution or vote for Republicans.
This is 100% the same thing as the fact that all 10 countries on Earth where they execute gay people are Muslim, the fact that apostasy is illegal in 23 out of 49 Muslim majority countries (and is not illegal in any other country on Earth), and the fact that 90+% of all terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims.
But I heard one guy set off bombs in an abortion clinic in 1987, so it's like the same thing.
I'm all for criticizing Christians or any religion for peddling misogyny, violence, intolerance or whatever negative thing. But if you are even a little bit consistent, it's pretty fucking obvious that Islam does all the bad things that conservative Christianity does, but about 10x worse.
and the fact that 90+% of all terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims.
Now before someone chimes in that only a "tiny minority" of Muslims are responsible for all that violence, it's worth noting that large minorities and even substantial majorities in some places offer moral and material support to the "tiny minority" who actually pull the trigger.
If you want to try to create a more reasonable version of Islam for the modern world, that's great. But don't pretend that is what it has been all along. It's like people who still apologize for Communism. "Communism is great, but no one ever did it right."
Amon Amarth is a fun band to see. I distinctly remember Johan Hegg drinking beer out of a cheesy plastic horn and going, "Cleve-LAND! You have the true spirit of a Viking!"
1. said in 2009 that Obama was "a strong guy who knows what he wants," a person with "the mark of a strong leader," and "totally a champion."
2. called Hillary Clinton "very talented," a "great appointment" for secretary of state, and, in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, called her "a wonderful woman who has handled pressure incredibly well."
3. said in 1994 that he is "deeply religious", prays often, reads the Bible daily, and fasts occasionally. He also goes on silent retreats a few times a year so he can better contemplate god's word in away from all distractions.
4. "Hillary's always surrounded herself with very good people," Trump said to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 2007 when asked of who would do a good job negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. "I think Hillary would do a good job."
5. "I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better," Trump said, before adding that "it's an entitlement to this country if we're going to have a great country." He said that year that as president he would fund a "comprehensive health care program" with "an increase in corporate taxes."
6. Trump said in 1999 that, though he hated "the concept of abortion," he was "strongly pro-choice." He reversed his stance in 2011. "I'm pro-life," he said then.
I've been pulling carpeting at the new house - the entire upstairs was nothing but oak hardwood until they decided to put carpet on top. Other than pulling staples and the tack strips, it hasn't been that bad. The last bedroom is a different matter - the padding was glued to the wood...
Last night I tried some orange/citric based paint stripper on the gunk and it seems to work if you put some elbow grease into the scraper.
When I'm done with this early-60s house I hope to have a retro-swinger pad - a Herman Miller Eames chair, vintage Macintosh gear, and some other mid-century junk.
At the very least for being stupid enough to devalue your home.
If you are selling and you know you have hardwood under the carpet, why aren't you pulling it up?
*I had the same nice surprise LH did when i bought my house. I was just expecting a plywood subfloor, but when I peaked under the carpet it was hardwood.
Yeah, I don't get it. I guess it was the thing to do for a while. Upgrade your home with all the modern conveniences.
When my parents bought their house in the 70s, all of the nice maple floors were covered with 1940s linoleum.
I would expect part of the issue was that refinishing floors back then was a lot harder than it is today. Power tools are so much cheaper now. Sand that shit down and spread some polyurethane finish over it.
Wall-to-wall carpet is quiet, tolerates hard treatment for a while, and for a few decades it was popular.
I remember when I moved into the first house I bought here (in the US) in the 90's, the fact that every room had cheap carpet was touted as a selling point, and really if you have one or more kids, and 0 incontinent pets,it might just possibly be seen as a selling point. A lot of New Yorkers who moved up here knew nothing other than drab studios with crappy lino floors with concrete under that. The idea of a soft floor was probably tempting.
Then everyone who had mild hay fever started blaming autism, diabetes, beri-beri, herpes, AIDS and typhoid on 'household dust', and the fad reversed. With our kids old enough to not wreck the decor, we stripped every damn inch of that shitty, ugly stuff out of the house, and taught the kids how to walk quietly and mop liquids up when they spilled them.
I still have nightmares of the carpet I had to remove when I bought my place. Unchanged for 25 years, 15 with an incontinent chihuahua. The padding was mostly disintegrated.
Jacobean stain saved me from having to rip up the floors in all of my common rooms. The flooring guys were worth every penny I paid them.
Get a tile remover from a rental store like this one.
Make sure the blade is flipped so the ground edge is down on the floor, this keeps it from biting into the wood. Also run it along the length of the planks and not across so it won't grab the joints.
That will remove the bulk of the padding and some of the glue without using stripper. If you're lucky, it will take enough that you can sand the rest of the crud off while refinishing the wood.
I'm worried about the tarry glue having asbestos... so I'm going to try the stripping method first since the glue remains are just jelly when it gets scraped up.
Probably will want all the floors refinished for the best results. Gah - money money out the door.
If that's a real worry, counterintuitively, you might consider stripping by hand, if the area isn't too huge.
Get a used scraper plane, or just get some old school scrapers. Make sure you raise a burr on the edge and get down on hands and knees - with a mask. I did it on a few of the floors here, and was surprised how fast you can get the stuff off.
Asbestos in carpet adhesive is not particularly common. It was used more often for putting down vinyl tile and linoleum as a thickening agent. Regardless, the asbestos fibers generally make up 5 to 10% of the glue by volume if it was used (usually about 5%) and the fibers are trapped in the glue itself making it non-friable by definition.
Short version, unless you grind it up into a dust and snort it, you're not at any risk whatsoever and even then it's not significant as you aren't doing it for a living. The real problematic asbestos is pipe lagging, and occasionally you'll find it in HVAC ducting.
I've had good luck finding vintage furniture on etsy of all places. that and i had a custom sputnik chandelier made from a store that uses the site. i've got a 50s MCM.
I've been pulling carpeting at the new house - the entire upstairs was nothing but oak hardwood until they decided to put carpet on top. Other than pulling staples and the tack strips, it hasn't been that bad. The last bedroom is a different matter - the padding was glued to the wood...
There was a time period between the late 60's and late 80's where things that are classy or aesthetically pleasing were utterly dismembered to make way for total shit. Mahogany trim was painted, ornate crown molding was mutilated by the anchors to put in a dropped ceiling of fiber glass tiles and hardwood floors made from trees that are exorbitantly cost prohibitive to use nowadays were slathered with glue and perforated by tack strips. It was like the dark ages for aesthetics and absolutely stomach turning whenever you see that kind of dumbfuckery perpetrated by the generation of property owners who preceded us.
People who've attend The Ohio State University and saw what they did to the grand old library know exactly what I'm talking about.
I am reminded of the many NYC subways stations where beautiful mosaics were covered with giant, bland tiles during mid-century "renovations". There really was an aesthetic of ugly that set in during that era and is only now fading away.
Have we discussed the Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj semi-feud?
I am trying to figure out how Minaj is the SJW's feminist hero fighting against patriarchy and skinny white women.
Is it obvious from such great lyrics as:
This dude named Michael used to ride motorcycles
Dick bigger than a tower, I ain't talking about Eiffel's
Real country ass nigga, let me play with his rifle
Pussy put his ass to sleep, now he calling me NyQuil
Now that bang bang bang,
I let him hit it 'cause he slang Cocaine
He toss my salad like his name Romaine
For six innings Thursday, Clayton Kershaw mowed through the New York Mets' lineup like the greenkeepers at Augusta National, the only thing resembling hard contact a grounder off the bat of Bartolo Colon. He'd thrown just 62 pitches, 47 for strikes, and punched out eight batters. Considering the Mets' cleanup hitter on this night entered batting .170 and the No. 5 hitter .179, this wasn't exactly a surprise, as far as potential perfect games go.
It didn't happen. Curtis Granderson led off the bottom of the seventh and Kershaw threw an 0-2 slider that didn't slide off the plate and Granderson hit a soft liner to right field for a base hit. With two runners on in that inning, Kershaw fanned John Mayberry Jr. -- that cleanup hitter -- on a nasty curveball and then got Eric Campbell to ground out, and that was the ballgame. Kershaw finished the 3-0 win with a three-hit shutout, the 11th of his career, and over his past three starts has recorded 38 strikeouts and no walks, just the third pitcher in 101 years to have three straight games of 10-plus K's with no walks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw has been overshadowed by teammate Zack Greinke, who has a 1.30 ERA and a streak of 43 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
"Favorable" ain't the half of it, but all the people calling Mark Geiger a crooked cheat are stupid.
There's a referee forum at bigsoccer.com that is tends toward policeone-style "defend the brotherhood at all costs" when something big like this happens, and even they are not willing to go all-in defending Geiger, especially on the first PK against Panama.
Thing is, I GUARANTEE you that if they reviewed that play, it would have taken forever. There were things that, upon continued super-slo-mo review would actually turn you AWAY from the proper call if you weren't careful to realize that super-slo-mo makes things appear to be obvious when they really aren't at full speed.
Plus, what happens when the crew on the field DOESN'T call anything leading to any stoppage whatsoever, but there's some controversy? How do you deal with adjudicating that and the various options to restart the match properly?
After-action review is about as good as it's going to get without fundamentally changing the game.
You get 30 seconds. If it's inconclusive, the original call stands. (I don't know if that's what they do in AFL but I've never seen it go longer than that and it's not like soccer is any tougher to call.)
Plus, what happens when the crew on the field DOESN'T call anything
Nothing happens. You can only review a call that one of the refs has made.
Yeah it's not perfect but anything is way better than what we have now.
I dunno, it took me a lot less than 30 seconds to decide that the call was bullshit. Then again, I happen to believe that not every little brush of a finger deserves a caution. I think the rules could stand some refinement in that area.
The suck of it is, he's actually a pretty good ref, by even global standards. He just got the first PK shockingly wrong, then dealt poorly with the disturbances (he should have ordered the teams off - he suspended play, technically, after all, and that's what you're supposed to do). Then he put himself in a position to give a questionable second penalty that he should never have even thought about calling given the 100+ previous minutes.
Of course it all kicked off with a massively harsh interpretation on the red card (that's NEVER a red for me - a floppy wrist in someone's face is not the tip of an elbow; no one was endangered by that beyond any other aerial situation in a typical game. A foul? Probably. A yellow, even. But a red? Come the fuck on!
I was just being flippant... I know how tough that job is. But with the nature of the game (low scores so each score is a huge deal) plus the gazillions of dollars hovering around these matches - something has to be done to bring some sort of accuracy to it. It's not the old days where everyone was mostly just playing for fun.
Wish I could find someone local to me that uses "Starting Strength" as their training model. Nearest I've managed to get is a Crossfit guy who will just do the strength and weights bit.
Warty! It was you that posted the Jacques Pepin videos, yes? I just wanted to say, "Thanks." I made Chicken Galantine last night. A lot of work but also a lot of fun. And it was delicious!
I'm not sure I realized Sandra Bland had been in jail for THREE DAYS before she died. Over an improper lane change and declining to put out a cigarette.
Remember the Berkeley student who got arrested for MJ possession and was forgotten about, left in jail for 5 days with no food or water? He tried to kill himself, if I remember right. Something like that could well have happened here.
Seattle, you need to ask your citizens this: How would citizens like it if they walked into a rental agency and the agent told them to register and come back in 10 years?
If you don't have a rental control type agency, you eventually end up with Episiarchs and Dagnys and other undesirables. I bet Seattle wishes it had thought ahead.
"Not that I have any special knowledge about San Francisco's housing market -- in fact, as of yesterday morning I didn't know a thing about it. But it was immediately obvious from the story what was going on. To an economist, or for that matter a freshman who has taken Economics 101, everything about that story fairly screamed those two words -- which are, of course, ''rent control.''" http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06.....ffair.html
You know, there are many issues where Krugman is actually great, they're just not the issues that he gets quoted talking about. He's always right on rent control and he's right on sweat shops in 3rd world countries, which he's argued in favor of as a necessary means of economic development.
I don't think he necessarily deserves the hate he gets, since he's hardly a doctrinaire leftist.
My problem with Krugman is that he's nasty and completely uncharitable to those he disagrees with, which makes it difficult to trust anything he writes. How do I know whether I'm getting "good" Krugman or "bad" Krugman?
""There is no relief in sight because drug companies keep challenging the market with even higher prices," the doctors wrote in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07......html?_r=0
I wonder if these are the same MDs who advised Obo on the economics of O-care?
I've said before that I work in pharma. Maybe if the company I work with didn't have to spend over $50 million to test a drug THAT WE ALREADY KNOW WORKS AND IS APPROVED EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, they could charge less for it. Maybe if costs for other major drugs from development to approval wasn't sometimes over $1 billion, and that without a guarantee of the final approval, maybe drugs wouldn't cost quite so much.
Well, I gave up on my search for a Ruger Mark II. Collectors have ruined the market. So I settled on a used Browning Buck Mark. Guy was asking $230 and accepted my offer for $200. Unless someone else gets to it first, I'll be picking it up tomorrow. Single owner, and not used much. Hopefully I'll be doing some plinking this weekend.
Actually, that's not true. I did find a used Mark III for $200, but the guy wanted to do the transfer at a gun shop. The whole point of this exercise is to get a gun without filling out any federal paperwork. Just as a matter of principle.
Those rugers (I HAD a 22/45) are damn hard to break down and clean and their actions, if you aren't careful will cut your hand to the bone. My cousin used to call it "the deli slicer". Ultimately, I couldn't justify keeping it.
Now, my conversion slide for my Glock 22 - THAT'S A KEEPER!!!
Everything I read about Rugers said that putting them back together is a bitch and a half. That's one of the main reasons I chose to get the Browning instead.
I'm hoping my CZ Kadet conversion arrives tomorrow so I too can start shooting some 22LR, but USPS tracker says probably Tuesday 🙁
The info on the 22/45 is valuable though - SWMBO was thinking of getting one, and now I can tell her to do some more homework before plonking down the money.
Ruger pros: Very accurate. Holds value. Can run tons ammo before needing to be cleaned.
cons: Costs more. A serious hassle to put back together. Ejection port is small, so while it doesn't jam often, dislodging a stovepipe can be a hassle.
Browning pros: Costs less. Easy to put back together. Easy to fix a jam.
cons: Not as accurate as a Ruger. Need tools to field strip.
The reviews I read were evenly split as to which was the better gun.
I think my favorite piston in the world to shoot is a Buckmark .22. They are fabulously accurate, have virtually no recoil and the ammunition is cheap. If you like to target shoot with a pistol, you can't beat a Buckmark.
With a mother who learned to cook during the war, 'al anglaise' - i.e. cooked for 45 minutes at a brisk boil, in salt water. The resulting food bearing a more than passing resemblance to a reprocessed phone book.
Since then, as an adult, I have learned to embrace brassicas, but the forces of nurture are strong and resistant.
par-boil, cut in half, throw in lightly oiled pan with salt, garlic, little chopped onion, cook until they are lightly browned and caramelized on outside.
I haven't tried them since I was a kid. Tastes change. Maybe I'll give them another try, though I'd have to cook them outside. The wife would freak out over the smell.
If the Left had ever been able to get real power, we would now be in the reign of terror stage where formerly loyal and trusted members of the revolution are sent to the guillotine.
This is one of the crazier parts;
WHITE GAY MEN V. ANYONE ELSE IN THE LGBTQQIAROYGBIV*? SPECTRUM
A white gay man is still a white man, which goes some way to explaining why their faces and voices are the ones that dominate all LGBT marketing and news, say an increasing number of disgruntled disabled black lesbians.
There was recently a furore over the absolute invisibility of "people of colour" at Pride events, with some even accusing the gay community of white-washing the rainbow. Gay men are the masculine oppressors of the LGBT community. They, like the straight white men before them, will eventually be ejected from polite society.
I predict a split occurring, with white gay men stripped of their LGBT status, relegated to "allies" and forced to forfeit all rights to their victim narrative. The new "LBT" community will be led by a mixed race non-binary pansexual who prefers the pronoun "xhlee."
Gay white men are still white men. And you really can't square even your average non twink gay guy's masculinity with the kind of neutered cuckold the movement demands.
She bit me once, you know. Right here. You see this? Left a mark. She was lowering a friend of mine's kid into the sewer. I run up and tried to stop her, I said "listen there you lesbian midget left-handed albino! You stop right there!" And she bit me.
Read the article. It is loaded with stuff like that.
TRANSSEXUALS V. DRAG QUEENS
Drag performers have a rich history of taking personal tragedy and social oppression and turning them into a glorious pantomime, weaving gold from their struggles and often challenging preconceptions of gender. To some, however, this is seen as transphobic, a mockery of the oppression faced by transgender individuals who can't "take off" their identity after the curtain comes down.
This has led to the banning of drag queens from performing at Scottish Pride events, to make them a "safe space." What's next? A trans man taking umbrage next time they see a woman wearing a trouser suit?
In the future, perhaps women will be prohibited from wearing so-called boyfriend blazers, sweaters or jeans, and society will comply with strictly gendered clothing rules in order to protect trans people from distress, in turn robbing us of our current increasingly liberal attitude towards the fluidity of gender.
I predicted all of this in May 2014, but it gives me no pleasure to see that I was entirely right.
I think the writer is wrong. The next ten years won't be minority wars. It will be the Progressive left completely destroying itself as every person in the movement who is not an utterly broken and or psychotic is either kicked out or runs off in horror. The media is good about covering these things up and making sure the average person doesn't really understand how insane the hard left really is. But they are getting so crazy and so public about it, it is getting impossible to hide anymore, especially with the rise of the internet.
There's more than just race and gender identity which will cause the left to implode. Environmentalism is already causing rumblings, as competing "solutions" to the "problem" clash with each other. Economics is also causing rifts, between the pure commies and the hipsters engaged in the "sharing economy" (aka capitalism).
Yes. Eventually, you are going to get the knock at the door. The whole movement is based on social signaling and fighting some kind of enemy. The problem is they are running out of enemies and are going to have to create new ones. It is just a matter of time before each one of them is next.
Eventually, you are going to get the knock at the door.
No eventually you'll get your door kicked in by a one-legged black gay woman with a speech impediment because it's rumored that you have some politically incorrect civil war memorabilia stashed away under the floor boards.
Butt Plug is employed. No, this isn't an article about Hillary.
WASHINGTON POST BRINGS BACK VENOMOUS ANTI-CONSERVATIVE TO COVER PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Post blogger Weigel likes to waggle, sweat
...Weigel told Yeas & Nays he danced alone because his girlfriend wasn't there, she lives in Canada Alaska...
Yeah, we went over this a couple weeks ago. Also, I note his new job hasn't stopped him from posting here.
Although, to be fair, I don't think any of the commenters here let their jobs stand in the way of posting.
Trolling is his job.
Trolling is his business, and business is good.
Gay butt sex may now be hip, but we still don't quite have the guts to bring our real "girlfriend" Matt Yglesias to the weddding.
Hello.
"Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them."
What the hell?
Rufus, did you expect the officers to back away or somehow outdistance the dangerous menace that this man was?
Cop apologist:
Do you know how dangerous it is to get clipped by a wheel chair? Have you not watched Murder Ball? People need to obey!
He may be a Xman
He's lucky he's not an ex-man.
Bobo's here ALL week!
He was aggressively talking smack to them, which is a clear and present threat to their authoritah.
Bastard forced them to taze him.
"My wheels, my wheels! I can't feel my wheels!"
+1 Medusa Transducer
Hey, they merely used tasers and bean-bag rounds instead of killing him. Baby steps.
Did you think "Stand Your Ground" laws were intended for civilians? You poor deluded fool!
"Stand your ground"?!?!
Typical cis able-ist!
Terrestrialist too.
Incoming ire from mermaid-americans in .... 3 ... 2 ... 1
Who gives a fuck about conservatives? They're idiots. Just a bunch of Bible-beating authoritarian greasy headed rednecks.
And progressives are stupid too.
Hey Weigel. How's the problem acne?
Do you guys actually believe this guy is Weigel? And why does everyone seem to hate him so much? I'm confused.
A vocal minority makes this claim.
Do you guys actually believe this guy is Weigel?
It's definitely him.
And why does everyone seem to hate him so much?
Because he's a vile, loathsome cretin.
Doesn't matter who he is. His logic counters his own logic, he argues out both sides of his mouth simultaneously, he changes stories at the drop of a hat. When called out on various stupid claims, he either ignores the post, insults the poster, or doubles down on his refuted claims.
"When called out on various stupid claims, he either ignores the post, insults the poster, or doubles down on his refuted claims."
Oh I know Shriek sucks, but I mean why do you all hate Weigel so much? Assume that they are not the same person.
Weigel was part of the JournoList group back in the day, and essentially acted as a mole/provocateur here, writing faux-libertarian articles here while referring on the Journolist slagging his readers as rat-fuckers on JournoList.
He's scum. Lying, stupid, dishonest, amoral scum.
Weigel used to be a writer here and was strongly suspected of not actually being a libertarian. Those suspicions proved true after he got a new job and the journolist emails leaked.
I am an independent Southern white male who has escaped the GOP plantation.
GIT HIM BEFORE HE RUNS OFT!
I believe you mean before he R-U-N-N-O-F-Ts
I hate to break this to you, but as long as you hold on to your hate, you can not consider yourself free from the plantation.
Dreams are a great thing, but you know something? They take a lot of energy. But that's OK. There's a job waiting for you down the block from your house that doesn't require a thought in your head or a hope in your heart. So come on down and work for the artificial flower factory. Why fight it? OK? Thank you.
Hey Weigel have you come out of the closet yet?
Being openly gay will probably help your career.
What's that? you're girlfriend is actuall eight years old.
Best stay in that closet then.
Must
not
insult
conservatives
on
libertarian
site.
I have to remember that.
True libertarians like Barack Obama are pretty rad, though, right?
I am the 8%!!
I scored 99.5% pure on the deep test!
*derp test
Deep test?
Something to do with pizza preferences.
Whether PB is actually Weigel or not, it's quite a joke that Reason once employed a reporter who ascribes to the intellectually stunted theory of white privilege and thinks Democrats are just the coolest.
He's a great example of clueless urban shitlibbery masquerading as libertarianism. So it's easy to see why PB and Weigel are frequently conflated.
The 'plug was already a frequent commenter with the nom de H&R 'shrike' back when Weigel was still writing for Reason.
A 58-year-old shooter at a Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater last night killed two people and injured nine others before shooting himself.
More crisitunity for the White House!
This is going to now quickly replace the Planned Parenthood videos as the TOP NEWS STORY on mainstream media outlets.
They were ignoring the PP leaks to begin with, and spinning it like crazy. Now they can start talking about something else.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015.....e-theater/
He was ordered hospitalized by a judge. There is no way he would have passed a nics background check.
And lets not forget the fact that guys with guns showing up stopped it right then and there. In fact they ended it before he reached the required number of dead victims to truly be considered a mass murderer.
What no Trump or abortion links?
Nobody aborted Trump? Hell, the man has his own link at the top of the Reason masthead.
Send him a leather jacket.
Anti-GMO vs. Global Warming....
Rice revolution? New rice could help feed world, fight climate change.
So would nuclear, but the global warming crowd doesn't support that either. The anti-gmo side will win.
Hell, natural gas is green in all but name; fat chance the warming crowd will cross anti-frackers in defense of it.
75) Several weeks ago I discussed the five most overrated movies. It seems negative not to balance that with the five underrated movies.
Fresh?This movie got lost in the shuffle of 90s black gang movies, but it's really different and more interesting than most of those. It's got Fresh, an inner city kid who doesn't talk much but plays a lot of chess, and how he uses lessons from his chess games to effect major changes in his life. Requires at least two viewings to completely glean everything, and has a really devastating ending.
Dark City?Science-fiction noir, a little like Blade Runner but with its own thing going on. I think this came out around the same time as the Matrix and got overshadowed, but it's far better than that movie.
Cape Fear?Okay, everybody knows the Scorcese remake, which is excellent, but how many have seen the original 1962 version with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck? Same story but different feel to it, very much worth watching.
Dark Passage?I'm a big noir fan, and this one with Bogart and Bacall is strangely forgotten. A lot of suspense, and absolutely beautiful shots of late-1940s San Francisco.
The Conversation?Gene Hackman is a surveillance expert who finds himself mixed up with a client he doesn't want to be involved with. A masterpiece of paranoia.
I like the original cape fear better. It's creepier because the daughter seems more vulnerable.
Yeah, I spent most of the remake hoping De Niro would kill Juliette Lewis.
I'm still hoping for that.
My reaction, exactly. And De Niro's character was silly.
How could anybody be more vulnerable than the mentally retarded girl in the remake?
Did you see the original? The girl is 12 and weights like 70 lbs.
no, I guess I should keep a look out for it on Netflix.
And Robert Mitchum is far creepier, a real sense of unpredictability.
Was Drive on your list of overrated movies?
No, but it was certainly a contender. The list was Easy Rider, The Usual Suspects, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Deep Throat, Forrest Gump.
I fell asleep watching The Usual Suspects and woke up during the final scene. So I figured there wasn't much point in my watching the in-between stuff, and I never did.
(P.S. Gladiator is the most overrated movie I have ever sen. It was so bad that Russell Crowe in his prime wasn't enough to keep me interested. I walked out during the penultimate scene for a cig. When my friend came out after it was over, I said "Let me guess....". )
It kind of is. It should be great but it really isn't that great.
As a whole, no, but it had its moments. Oliver Reed was good, as usual.
Kristen was not entertained.
Thumb down, indeed.
I just got this reference! Good job.
I just think we need another movie with people brushing their hands over a wheat field in a light breeze.
I hated the cinematography.
The battle scenes are fun. I usually fast forward to them. But I remember watching it in theaters and being entertained. It won best picture right? I thought that was odd at the time. It doesn't hold up under multiple viewings I guess.
(P.S. Gladiator is the most overrated movie I have ever sen.
Gladiator had a lot going for it to be Best Picture, especially for industry-insiders actually voting. The movie was incredibly difficult to make; Oliver Reed died during production for instance, and it is impressive that nobody notices when his character is CGI and not him - work all done in post-production and not in the original schedule or budget.
The script is frankly mediocre. But Russell Crowe was great. Joaquin Phoenix doing Commodus was pure Caligula as intended. Fact they did their characters so well despite not one memorable line in the script is worth noting.
And consider the Academy is full of Hollywood senior citizens. The vintage of senior when Gladiator was made were from the sword-and-sandal era of Hollywood, and they must have had some memories while screening the film, not to mention they were watching their pal Derek Jacobi pine on about the Republic again.
I can see why Gladiator won Best Picture that year.
Fuck you - Forrest Gump is the shizznit!
My mam always told me, TRUMP Trumps all. And that's all I have to say about that.
The Usual Suspects is fun. And I thought it held up on repeat viewings, where you can spot all the little clues, etc.
Gladiator was also fun. And rewatchable, although mostly for the fightin'.
How any list of over-rated movies can leave off Titanic, I have no idea.
Could certainly have been improved by having a kraken pluck her off the bow of the ship.
Kevin Spacey anything is going to be overrated. The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, House of Cards, etc. I don't know why everybody loves the shitty crap that guy makes.
That movie was way to long. It could have been better if they cut about 30-45 minutes off of it especially since the main character you know didn't like talk.
Every time he just stared at people like a retard, I wanted to punch the screen.
I can't watch "Face the Nation" for the same reason.
now my keyboard has coffee on it
Exactly. Whatever "cool" genre shit people praise it for, the film was 80% Gosling staring like an idiot, often with some crappy music playing.
The only worthy part of the film was Christina Hendrick's head exploding.
Often "overrated" and "underrated" just seem to be a matter of who you talk to about movies.
Obviously it's all just opinions,but I actually think the overrated list is more objective because it's the most famous and popular movies that I think suck for easily identifiable reasons.
The underrated list is more along the lines of "some cool movies I like that most people probably haven't seen."
Your overrated list is good. Although I can tell you're probably older than me based on your choices. My list would probably consist of The Matrix and the rest would be Harry Potter
I recently saw God Bless America which is described as 'Idiocracy' meets 'Natural Born Killers'.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1912398/?ref_=nv_sr_1
A terminally ill middle aged white guy takes a 16 yr old girl on a shooting spree to rid the country of celebrity idiots.
Thumbs up.
I can see why you identify with that one. Just keep in mind it's not supposed to be a blueprint for life.
Oh, I believe in the NAP. But Frank and Roxy and their ammo don't.
How could you possibly believe in the NAP? Don't you support a a heavy government hand in the economy? Aren't you always posing state-centric solutions to a litany of problems, real or imagined?
Shriek supports all manner of central planning as long as it involves either central bankers or Democrats.
Fuck you. You've never seen me espouse a "heavy Big Gov hand" in the economy. I am a market liberal as described by Hayek.
With one exception - I support the modern concept of a central bank like every single country in the world does. Free banking is as archaic as alchemy.
Appeal to consensus and an unbacked assertion as fact. Well played.
Just give him the cake and hope he calms down.
Very nice. Invoke Hayek and then, in the very next sentence, embrace central banking.
"I'm a vegetarian, with one exception - I eat veal."
Rand Paul Loves Milton Friedman, but Milton Friedman Would Have Hated Rand Paul
Rand Paul really knows nothing of Milton Friedman's work on monetary policy
http://www.theatlantic.com/bus.....ul/278589/
Ah, well, you can't second-guess the unbiased nature of "The Atlantic"...
Dipshit.
...What does that Atlantic link have to do with anything?
That shit came out of nowhere.
Veggies grown in a crate?
Veal is not 'meat meat' because baby calf.
Yeah, because if you don't want "alchemy" in your banking, fiat currencies controlled by governments are obviously the only way to go.
Yes fiat money is real money Shreek, unlike the "money" the people would actually prefer to use in the absence of a gun in their ribs helping them make that decision. Nothing more nuanced than central planning and brute force. Thanks, Shreek, you proved me so wrong.
Some people are terminally mentally ill...
Only you would like that total piece of shit. Its like if falling down was written and directed by a retard.
Yea, the main character is an angry narcissist that blames all his problems on everyone else and so he decides to murder people whos only crime were being unliked by him.
The worst part about it is that the whole thing is done without even a hint of self awareness. With Natural Born Killers or Falling down, the movies understand that the main characters are horrible, with this turd the vacuous, murders are offered up as heroic for standing up to... something.
IMDB rates it a 7.3/10.
Does it cross the absurdity line? Probably. And Bobcat Goldtwaite wrote and directed it.
I thought God Bless America was ok, but it's easily Goldthwait's worst movie and I'm a big fan of his movies. His best by far is still Shakes the Clown. Honorable mention to World's Greatest Dad and Sleeping Dogs Lie.
I never understood the love for Shawshank Redemption - there are better prison movies out there. Heck I preferred Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz.
The novella by Stephen King, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" was excellent. I like that in the book the main character actually did kill his wife and you still root for him.
"Fresh" has always been one of my favorites. Basically an inner-city version of "Fistful of Dollars" which has been told a thousand times, but this version is fantastic. I saw it when it was released just due to luck and it has always ( along with "Miller's Crossing") been my favorite version of that story. Coincidentally, they BOTH have haunting musical scores....
Yep, great one.
I think it was directed by Boaz whatisname. He's done other good films.
Fight Club
Grandmas Boy
Chef
"What do all you little crackers have against Isaac Hayes?" - Chef
Fresh was fucking awesome. That is all.
The Wages of Fear is a great French movie from the early 50's, set in South America. The late 70's remake with Roy Schneider, Sorcerer, also excellent and very much overlooked. I think it came out the same time as Star Wars, which obviously didn't help.
And Sorcerer has an excellent Tangerine Dream soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ_KXK3eNdI
True, excellent synth work. You can smell the late 70's suspense.
Will second that one as well.
Fresh is a great movie. Haven't seen in a long time. I like both the original and remake of Cape Fear. DiNero was great.
Pretty good list except for The Conversation. Terrible movie, even among the 70's paranoia genre.
I like Buffalo Soldiers as an underrated movie. Not that it's a great movie either but it captures a feeling of pre-9/11 garrison Army life, much the same way From Here to Eternity tries to.
My favs for under rated are :
Galaxy Quest - Tim Allen was excellent as well as the rest of the cast.
(this one movie with a dude in a bubble in space eating tree bark) - very cool
Goonies - Might not actually be underrated.
The Incredibles - Amazing story telling
Contact - Foster and McConaughey were outstanding
Company Business - Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov, An AWESOME Cold War Era End movie.
I may be late to the party, but how can you make a list of overrated movies and not include "Rain Man"? His card counting is the most unrealistic and/or lazy plot device I've seen since sSperman was dumb enough to open that lead box.
We could also add that perennial stinker, Ishtar.
Planned Parenthood Paid Disgraced Official More Than $200,000 On The Side
Backlash RIPS Lib Journo After She Blames Planned Parenthood Videos On 'Patriarchy,' 'White Supremacy'
Yeah, I wish I had the money to run advertisements posting the salaries of various non-profit officials in various liberal orgs. Liberal because otherwise the progs would laser focus on the guys they don't like and ignore the ones they do.
Fucking non-profits, anyone who elevates them over for-profit corporations as examples of virtuousness and selflessness are class A idiots.
Come to DC, where people when prompted to explain what they do retort that they work for a "non-profit". As if that is some kind of explanation.
It's the new prog-money industrial complex.
And Bus Schools have gone in whole hog on that with degrees in non-profit management.
But hey, you get to the top in those fucking orgs and you will rake in buku tax free dollars for pushing paper and pretending you are improving people's lives more than a real job does.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating an incident where officers used bean-bag rounds and a Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them.
They're not even trying anymore.
Have you ever had your foot run over by a wheelchair? That shit can hurt.
Especially a *motorized* wheelchair.
HE WAS COMING STRAIGHT AT THEM!!!!! WHAT ELSE WERE THE POOR GUYS TO DO????
/PoliceOne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UFQWKjy_I
Did they wet the sponge on his head first?
Wheelchair bound doesn't mean harmless. Physical disability either makes you a simpering weakling living off the good will of others or mean as fuck and willing to go much further than normal folks in a fight. Also, one of the main causes of homelessness is some kind of mental illness. Mentally ill may not be a huge percentage more likely to attack you than regular folk, but when they do there is a lot less logic behind it and they are a lot harder to calm down.
That being said. The cops could be making shit up, but the evidence provided has not made it any more or less likely that if you said 'officers used bean-bag rounds and a taser on a man they alleged tried to attack them'.
Dude, are you serious?!? He's in a FUCKING WHEELCHAIR. Unless he can actually, ya know, WALK, then an LEO should not feel threatened by, what I imagine, is an older person in a wheelchair unless they have a fucking crew-served weapon that they are aiming at them...
Fair. More fair than I'm willing to be to police officers at this point. Unfortunately the "bad apples" make me no longer willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Wheelchair bound doesn't mean harmless.
No, but unless you've got a weapon, its makes you pretty fucking unthreatening.
yeah you go tell Mad Hamish that.
Cops need this technique
https://youtu.be/RI0i_tL-8aU?t=152
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Tasers were originally promoted as a non lethal alternative to pulling a gun -- but they have evolved into a way that cops can deal with people without getting there hands dirty (literally).
I have read that using a taser instead of their hands/fists/nightstick is a way to keep lawsuits down.* Of course, that just makes them lazier and less apt to learn self-defense/martial arts and to stay physically fit. As we commenters know, body cameras would keep the brutality complaints to a minimum, but that is just too easy.
Are they going to do as bad a job of editing body cam footage as they did with Sandra Bland's dashcam footage?
We can look forward to the jump cuts where a photoshopped gun suddenly appears in an empty hand.
British couple caught having sex in phone booth open up about romp
A phone booth? Was it bigger on the inside?
Her or the booth?
"A passing motorist who was outraged snapped pictures of the couple getting it on doggie-style."
So outraged he had to stop and got some pictures! Outraged, I tell you!
"I captured almost an *hour's* worth of their disgusting antics. Even had to change memory cards!"
Oh, Crusty
Has it ever been easier to call BS?
"It's healthy"
Yeah, ok
May not be healthy, but doing it outdoors is fun.
So... dogging doggie?
At least it wasn't with a canine.
Here's a seagull killing and eating a starling
If only we could teach them to eat squirrelz....
Squirrel gets 'drunk', causes hundreds of dollars in damage
Ever Get That Feeling You're Being Watched by a Pervy Squirrel?
I can't stop laughing at that one. Good thing I have a door.
Or Possibly Both, Nutty Little Multi-taskers...
I see you found the server squirrels
How is this "cannibalism?" Starlings and seagulls are not closely related styles of bird at all. That's like saying that i'm a cannibal for eating a steak.
Inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the potentially classified emails Hillary Clinton stored in her private email account.
In her defense, she's seen how vulnerable emails on government storage are to deletion.
It's a question of adminstative discretion. Does the Justice Department have enough investigators/bully boys to investigate every transgression of the Clinton crime family?
Not if they want to protect us from terrorists and pornography.
They don't have enough neutral prosecutors to investigate the Clintons. 99% are going to be Dems and find nothing.
7 year old girl mauled by neighbor's Police K-9 after trying to pet the dog through the fence.
I'll give you one guess as to whom the police are blaming for the 7 year old girl getting mauled.
Well to be fair, you should never, ever touch a dog you don't know. Especially what I presume was a German Shepherd trained to do that to people.
You can't fault the dog for responding to however the cops trained it to respond in situations like that.
I don't fault the dog, I fault the handler.
When they are at home, they are typically more relaxed and aren't as aggressive, but all it takes is a false move," said K9 Trainer Bill Heiser to the Orlando Sentinel. "You have to remember that these dogs are tools used for policing, so it's always best to be cautious."
Yup. Idiot handler. No dog, especially a trained working/protection dog, should ever just go off at "one false move".
One False Move
Now THAT'S an underrated movie.
She was in her own yard when the dog mauled her. The dog should be destroyed and the handler sued, just like I would if my pits did that.
This. It jumped over the fence and attacked her. If it was owned by anyone other than a cop it would be put down.
well the taxpayers will probably have to pay the civil lawsuit as well.
Neuter it. I'm not talking about the dog, either.
This is why there needs to be a movement not just against asset forfeiture but against all of the this fucking overmilitarization by the cops. K-9 units do NOTHING except assault people and allow the cops to violate the fourth amendment. They train these fucking animals to be the WORST companions to people possible, and then destroy them when they get old. Fuck the police...
Well the dog is legally a human of higher standing than the girl and her family right? I mean, if the girl's dad came out and shot the dog, would this be one of those states where they treat it as though you literally just killed a costumed human and charge the dad with murder of a LEO?
K9s and other protection dogs are only supposed to attack when commanded by their handler/owner. They should otherwise be perfectly safe to be around.
Or if not safe, then shouldn't be left unattended outside. Does the cop leave his service weapon lying on the porch? Stupid question because the answer is quite possibly yes.
Hitler?
The Jews?
Rio?
The boogie?
My stepson's father is a K-9 cop. I will not get out of the car when I pick the kid up and drop him off. No fucking way.
Black people?
whom the police are blaming
The Bossa Nova?
Dammit it, Torso?!?!
The Bossa Nova?
If "all it takes is a false move" to set the dog into attack mode, maybe the dog shouldn't be loose outside without supervision.
There is a state trooper who brings his K9 around the main area where I jog. Every time I see that thing unleashed I get scared. This story will not help.
It is good to know that Travis Junior found work after Reno 911 ended.
A properly trained K9 will not chase or react to other people unless given a specific command. "Properly trained" being the key, of course.
The two times I have seen it unleashed it just looked at me like it didn't care, but the cop eyed me like I was a John Q. Terrorist, so I am still going to be worried.
I was mildly encouraged by the comments, but then I saw it was PINAC. I'm sure the comments at the local paper are sufficiently depressing.
The Patriarchy?
I asked this on PINAC's Facebook: WTF was a $14k police dog doing running around a yard unsupervised? If it were supervised, it would never had had the chance to jump the fence to begin with, and the handler could have warned away the little girl before she got close.
Well, unsupervised in a fenced yard would be fine.
If the fucking fence was tall enough to keep it in. If the dog can get over the fence, its not really fenced, and was basically running loose.
That strikes me as the negligence here.
Prediction: the Cop-Industrial Complex will call in their CPS auxiliaries to go after the family for letting their child pet the dog.
The rain?
If you want to look up these dangerous non-violent criminal scum, we're going to have to put up with the occasional little child being mutilated by the police. It's all for a good cause.
Eggs, omelets, etc.
Planned Parenthood Pulls Names of Corporate Donors After Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox Object
Rot row.
What corporation would want to donate to planned parenthood? Donating to a domestic abuse shelter will get them the same brownie points from feminists and also from the public in general. I'm betting this was probably one of those employee donations things, and PP just listed them as actual corporate support.
Nobody I know voted for Nixon.
How is that relevant to what makes business sense from a national corporation point of view? Yes, certain demographics respond favorably to PP donations, but there are also huge demographics that respond negatively to said donations. Donating to domestic violence centers on the other hand get the same favorable response those who like the PP donations and they have the added benefit of getting a favorable response from those who don't like PP donations.
Now, I could see these 'corporate' donations in reality being corporate matching to employee donations, something that a lot of big guys do. In that case, they aren't really corporate donations, in that they've been vetted by P.R., and it would make sense how the national corps ended up in such a bad position.
A corporation is still ethically on the hook even if they match contributions. If employee's were donating to the local KKK chapter, do you think the company would match that donation blindly? Of course not, they know they'd be morally culpable and certainly so in the eye of the public.
Nothing gets as many brownie points from feminists as donating to PP.
What corporation would want to donate to planned parenthood?
Coca-cola is reliably lefty, so it's not shocking that they donate to PP.
PepsiCo too. Remember their image change about 8 years ago.
I'll resist the temptation to note that they need some EBT customer loyalty too.
I've always found it odd that there exists socialist rich people and lefty corporations. I suppose there's some incentive to stay on the good side of the mob in order to be the last one to get shot by them.
Read The Anti-Capitalist Mentality by Mises. You can probably find the text for free on the itnernet.
Does it mention fascism, that's what I think of when I hear about lefties and corporations joined at the hip.
Remove their names?
What about withdrawing their support?
Thirty-five stone man who hasn't worked for nine years because he is too fat is denied NHS weight loss surgery 'because he isn't unwell enough'
more
He needs to go on the Homer Simpson diet a la "King Size Homer."
He needs to get Mr. Burns to pay for the blasted liposuction?
One Iriquois twist, two Iriquois twists...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...../30585031/
Celebrity lesbian divorces are going to be so much fun.
Brittney Griner claims Glory Johnson cheated, had 'sexual relations with man'
Now that gay marriage/divorce is legal and love wins can we stop pretending that sexuality isn't a choice?
Talk about a red flag.
They sound like idiots, but I fail to see the difference between being an lesbian and being a woman who is attracted to another woman. Sorry.
I've know several women that had sexual relationships with other women but aren't attracted to women in general. It's like that game of "who would you go gay for" you play when you're drunk enough to be honest.
This seems to be more common with women than men.
Yes, male sexuality seems to be firmly fixed by about age 11, while female sexuality tends to be much more flexible.
Female sexuality, in general, seems to have a stronger emotional dimension to it than male sexuality. I would expect far more women to identify as bisexual than men.
Maybe. Or maybe men just don't talk about it.
Maybe. Or maybe men just don't talk about it.
Possible. Didn't reason have an article about putting probes on people's junk and showing porn and the guys (gay or straight) got really turned on for their respective porn and women had a more midline approach for all porn.
STEVE SMITH PLAY "WHO YOU GO RAPE FOR?"...ANSWER - EVERYBODY!
"aren't attracted to women in general."
I know I'm in the minority but this phrasing is bullshit to me. You don't have sex with people in general.
STEVE SMITH aside
I know I'm in the minority but this phrasing is bullshit to me. You don't have sex with people in general.
I'm not attracted to men, so I don't consider myself gay. However if I met "Mr. Right" and we had chemistry, I'm still not attracted to men in general, I'm just attracted to "mr right". It hasn't happened to me yet, but I don't find it ludicrous.
and I'm not someone who thinks gay people can be "straightened", but clearly it's retarded logic to say that certain types of gay relationships are not choices while claiming that other relationships are
I would say that for most actual gay people (not gay-for-kicks like this woman) there is indeed "no choice", just as there is "no choice" for most straight people. Besides, I don't think anybody is making the argument you want to refute.
There may not be a choice about who I'm attracted to, but there is absolutely a choice about whether I act on it. Marriage is a deliberate limiting of choices.
There may not be a choice about who I'm attracted to, but there is absolutely a choice about whether I act on it.
This^^. I also don't exactly buy that I don't choose (on some level) who I'm attracted to. If you show me a picture of a hot celebrity from the 80s, I really don't find them very attractive. Their hairstyles and clothing choices distract from the supposed attractiveness. People are going to have a very hard time convincing me that I was born predisposed to view 80s styles as a turn-off.
Would any of you Texas Peanuts fill us in on this Jade Helm 15 FBI takeover of Texas and institution of Obama martial law? That is if you still have internet?
You know that pro-Obama liberal media is not reporting on this.
How's the problem acne, Weigel?
Jade Helm 15 is some serious shit, little dude.
July 15 - Sep 15 is the military/federal takeover of Texas by Obama's gestapo.
It's tough to get rid of with all the loads that get shot in our face!
Turn over like a good little pillow biter.
Hillary Clinton Rebuffs Liberals' Push to Break Up Banks
Is Deregulation to Blame?
......In fact, multiple exemptions to Glass-Steagall had been granted for years before Gramm-Leach-Bliley was signed into law. Most European financial markets, not normally known as more "deregulated" than the U.S., never separated commercial and investment banks in the first place. And there is no correspondence between institutions that benefited from the repeal and those that recently collapsed. Institutions that didn't take advantage of the Glass-Steagall repeal, such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, were the ones that failed most spectacularly, in part because they lacked the stability provided by commercial banking deposits.
If anything, Gramm-Leach-Bliley may have softened the blow. The George Mason economist Tyler Cowen argues that Gramm-Leach-Bliley made way for more diversity in the financial sector, and "so far in the crisis times the diversification has done considerably more good than harm." Under the Glass-Steagall rules, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase would not have been able to acquire Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns. Nor would Goldman Sachs and Citibank have their current unified form, which may have helped them survive.... ...
LOL
The commerical banks acquiring flailing investment banks in 08-09 were shotgun marriages forced by the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs magically became a commercial bank on a Sunday night to gain access to the Fed's discount window.
If that set of events is the best defense of GLB, then I may have to change my mind about the benefit of it.
The left thinks that without Glass-Steigel (or insert other arbitrary statutes), the economy can't function. Taking that position to it's logical conclusion, then we can only assume that cavemen must have had similar statutes written on animal hides in order for ancient humanity to develop to where we are today. OR just maybe such laws are not so vital, or at all beneficial, to the proper functioning of an economy.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating an incident where officers used bean-bag rounds and a Taser on a homeless man in a wheelchair; the officers allege that the man tried to attack them.
THEY FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES. It was like staring down a pit bull on meth behind the wheel of a car!
+1 see this scar?
Und so Klaus gets a curb party.
Why Isn't Rand Paul Making a Data Deal With the GOP?
His campaign appears to have decided that he can win the nomination without even basic help from party bosses,
That's smart, because the party bosses want him to lose to their buddy Bush III.
A fat nation about to get even fatter: Tim Tams now available at Target in the US, and soon Walmart too
Behold the Tim Tam slam (SFW, but not for waistlines)
she was pretty hot in the 90's.
GODDAMN RIGHT!!!!
I would walk one thousand miles if I could just see her...tonight.
I find nothing wrong with her now.
she's no longer lying naked on the floor?
Well that would be unfortunate, yes.
Bison selfies are a bad idea: Tourist gored in Yellowstone as another photo goes awry
A friend in college worked up there in the summer. He said at least five or ten tourists a year volunteered to help the gene pool. People are really stupid
Six year old daughter so she didn't even do the Darwinning right either.
Before you procreate! Before!
People don't realize just how fast animals can move.
People don't realize that the docility of our domestic livestock is not an innate feature of their wild counterparts.
http://gawker.com/wyatt-cenac-.....1719885751
Jon Stewart turns out to be a thin skinned prick who is a bit racist. Not surprised.
Won't click on Gawker links, but I read something about that elsewhere. Who's Gawker defending here? On the one hand, they're big on calling racism everywhere, but on the other hand, they loves them some Jon Stewart.
Was it this article?
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/0.....ist_jokes/
One of the sad Gawker commenters posted it.
From the comments:
Jesus Cripes.
Remember, this is the "reality-based, I Fucking Love Science!, educated in all the issues" crowd.
These people truly have defective brains.
TRANSLATION: A leftist can never be racist.
I do a pretty darn good Southern black man impersonation if I do say so myself.
For a Canadian anyway.
Well, you're white, ergo inherent racist, but you're Canadian, so all is forgiven.
Canadians are the junior varsity of white people.
New Zealand!
"What do y'all think of the cotton crops, eh? Are you going to the ro-day-o tonight? No? Take off hoser!... uh. i mean... Take off y'all!!!"
What counts as a Southern black man in Canada, anyway? Somebody who lives in Vancouver?
See: http://www.theonion.com/articl.....laws-19927
Now, if Stewart was using that voice to mock Obama, that would be racist. Not that he would ever mock Obama.
Jon will go. He's served his purpose, and they need some new blood that can criticize the next republican president without his baggage.
Jon is getting out before the post-Obama Dem collapse (even if Hillary gets elected). He made his $$.
On the one hand, Jon Stuart does seem to be a dick and a bit thin skinned.
On the other hand, the increasing demands that comedy be all PC and inoffensive, particularly about race, also sucks.
No Zeb. What it shows is how white Progs actually view black people. I am a evil right winger but if a black person I worked with said "man I think this voice you are doing is racist", I wouldn't automatically agree with him but I wouldn't tell him to fuck off either, which is what Stewart did.
To white Progs black people are a prop. They are there to use as a weapon to fight for the cause and to make white progs feel superior to other whites. That is it. If some black person's sense of integrity or personal dignity gets in the way of either of those two things, then they need to sit down and know their place. That is what is going on here.
The other thing is this shows how Progressivism becomes nothing but a rationalization for awful people to be awful If you are a good leftist like Stewart, you can be a racist, misogynistic and nasty as you want to be, just so long as you aim it at the other side. It is no wonder so many public leftists turn out to be awful broken people in private.
I think you may be a bit too confident in your assessment of the typical white Progressive psyche.
My assessment proves true over and over again. show me a case where it doesn't?
You can read minds?
He can read what they write, and hear what they say.
Uh-huh. You wouldn't tell someone to fuck off in the midst of a heated argument in which you're being accused of racism?
Sure.
Yes. I wouldn't get into a heated argument over it in the first place. I might actually take what he had to say seriously. And even if an argument did break out, I wouldn't get defensive about it because I know I am not a racist. Stewart seems to lack that confidence and got defensive as a result.
Moreover, if this story were about any figure on the right, it would be a national story and every Republican in America would be expected to disavow the person. Since it is Stewart, it will be a one day story on Gawker.
There is a lot of pressure in Stewart's job. It's pretty common for people in his position to have such episodes; he's running a popular show that airs 4 days a week. And while he often blows up at people, he supposedly is always contrite about it afterwards. I think Cenac is right and Stewart wrong, but the "fuck off" comment really isn't that bad. I wouldn't call him any more of a dick or thin-skinned than most people.
I'm a pretty passive, always-be-nice-to-everyone kind of guy. But I've also gotten in to these loud and crass arguments on set or in the editing room. I honestly think it's a healthy part of the process, so long as everyone remembers you're just making dumb art.
Yeah. Things got a little out of hand. It is just this war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson and...I would never hurt you. You know that.
When does he finally go away?
So doing a black voice is forbidden by the PC police now?
Fuck them.
Fuck Islam too. I hadn't said that today yet.
He's also a self loathing Jew that changed his name to fit in.
To fit in with whom? Cable TV ain't an 1890s country club.
Or the 1920s studio system.
This Cenac guy sounds like a bundle of laughs. Still, I wonder what Stewart would have done of a Republican had mocked some black Democrat.
And I *still* don't get how Herman Cain was less of a serious candidate than any of the clowns we've had recently?
here.
here.
here.
Don't forget the SimCity tax plan! Cain is basically the Biden of Republicans. So I utterly support him just for fun.
I don't see any good guy in that story - they both seem thin-skinned and a bit racist to me tho Stewart admittedly seems more of a prick.
"I represent my community," added Cenac. "I represent my people
I'm afraid I have to side with Stewart on this one.
Inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the potentially classified emails Hillary Clinton stored in her private email account.
Are they asking nice? Are they asking twice?
Vox: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
etc
I vote for Vox to leave then.
"the average Swiss worker earned the equivalent of $91,574 a year in 2013, while the average American worker earned only $55,708."
And the cost of living in Switzerland (not mention the taxes) is out of this world... so I would throw the bullshit flag on this one.
It's Vox. He just discovered a shiny pony.
That was going to be my question - what's the cost of living in a place like Switzerland? I know this is Vox, but come on, everyone knows that a dollar goes farther in Kansas City than it does in New York City. And I'm fairly certain a dollar goes even farther in America than anywhere in Western Europe.
Adjusted for cost per living, Switzerland's per capita GDP is like $2,000 higher than America's. They looked at nominal dollars without adjusting for purchasing power parity because it's Vox and they're fucking morons.
Cost me $30 Cdn for crepes (or some variation of it I forget) and a hot chocolate in 1994.
Mind you I paid $12 for an orange juice and croissant on the TGV.
I was going to guess that those salaries probably have about the same buying power. Does that seem about right?
You're almost exactly right.
Switzerland: $58,087 per capita GDP PPP
United States: $54,597 per capita GDP PPP
So Switzerland is a bit wealthier per capita but it's pretty close.
Switzerland is also super conservative to the extent that there are Cantons in Switzerland that didn't allow women to vote until the 1990s and they have virtually no central government to speak of since almost all decisions are decided at the local level.
They also are rich largely because of a highly secretive banking sector. Switzerland in most ways is the exact opposite of what progressives claim to want - very free markets, limited central government, highly traditional, weakly regulated banking sector. The fact that this idiot is holding up Switzerland as their ideal pretty much proves progs have no idea what they're talking about.
Oh absolutely. Plus, they did turn a profit during the Nazi regime.
But don't tell lefty dumbasses that.
Plus, they did turn a profit during the Nazi regime.
*glares...mops sweat from brow*
Except Uncle Sugar is now pressuring them to make that banking sector far less secretive.
Frequent regulatory nutpunches aimed at UBS are seeing to that.
Don't they also have an armed civilian population, owing to compulsory military service?
Heavily armed population.
Meh. Not like the south...
Yes, lots of nice sturmgewehrs and Sigs.
Yes, and a kind of Fortress Switzerland approach to their defense strategy.
Yep. Sure does sound like liberal progressive paradise! Guns n money!!
You know the other thing Switzerland doesn't have?
Open borders. They aren't EU members, and their immigration policies are quite restrictive.
May have something to do with their per capita GDP, is all.
I wouldn't sneeze at a 6.3% extra wealth.
Well, by PPP America is 28% richer than Britain, so in the grand scheme of things, 6% is not that much. You can be considered a first world nation while being pretty damn poor by American standards.
Fair point. We can all agree that the UK sucks.
We can all agree
Isn't that against the libertarian credo?
And - it's only 'extra wealth' if it's residual income as disposable wealth.
A 6% income differential really isn't that great if you're paying 20% more for essentials such as food, energy and housing,
I used the wrong phrase -- you are correct that income isn't wealth -- but the income is already adjusted for PPP so they are making more money than us on average.
I'd love to see it compared by demographics. I bet U.S. whites make more than Swiss whites, but U.S. blacks make less than (the two or three) Swiss blacks.
Yes, poverty is probably pretty low in Switzerland and they are pretty homogeneous (if you don't count the language differences).
I was just being nitpicky, but 'adjusting for PPP' is a statistical minefield just like 'neonatal mortality rates', 'gun crime' and 'campus rape'.
Tell me how much it's going to cost for me to live in a 2200 sq ft, 3 bedroom home, and feed a wife and 2 kids, with a 30 minute commute to a job in Geneva, and compare that with the same setup where I have a similar job in Philly with a 30 minute commute. Then I can figure out my residual income along with a slew of intangibles such as 'quality of life', 'flexibility of career choices' etc.
The point I'm trying to make here is that we live our lives on an indifference curve, which is largely determined by intangibles. 6% 'more' disposable income is readily offset by the fact that I don't have to speak in German, French or Italian, for example. It's telling that the original article reduces everything to money - even the observation that the average worker works 2.5 hours a week less, is framed in primarily financial terms.
But even if money were the only factor to consider
All true. And PPP for the US is kind of pointless when you have places like San Francisco, NYC, and then low cost areas like Kansas City and Houston which have lower poverty rates when adjusted for the CoL.
The real test, of course, is how many Swiss are migrating to the US, compared with Americans migrating to Switzerland. All the information is out there for the market to work, and the beauty of it is that all relevant factors will be priced in.
LOL, he went to one of 9 countries on Earth with a higher GDP per capita than America and it ruined America for him!
This just proves how myopic progressives are. He goes to one of the very few countries that are actually richer per capita (a country which is one of the only countries with freer markets than America, I might add) and determines there's something wrong with America, rather than just acknowledging that both America and Switzerland are in the top 10 richest countries.
And 219 hours is four hours a week. Oh no! Americans have to work half an hour extra a day! It's like a fucking slave colony!
The Whitest Privilege
......The Left occasionally indulges in bouts of romantic exoticism ? its pin-ups have included Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Mao Zedong; we might even count Benito Mussolini, "that admirable Italian gentleman" who would not have been counted sufficiently white to join Franklin Roosevelt's country club ? but the welfare states that progressives dream about are the whitest ones: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc. The significance of this never quite seems to occur to progressives. When it is suggested that the central-planning, welfare-statist policies that they favor are bound to produce results familiar to the unhappy residents of, e.g., Cuba, Venezuela, or Bolivia ? privation, chaos, repression, political violence ? American progressives reliably reply: "No, no, we don't want that kind of socialism. We want socialism like they have it in Finland."
Translation: "We want white socialism, not brown socialism!"... ...
This whole article is such a brilliant piece of trolling. Not to say that they aren't making fair points, but using progressive idiocy against them? Just, A+ work, right there.
Progressives also have a very tough time understanding that America is basically a continent in and of itself. Switzerland has 8 million people - or, in other words, about the population of New York City. There are 7 times more people in Texas than in Switzerland.
America is hyper-diverse, very large, and has 45 times more people than Switzerland, but these idiots think we could impose the same policies on a diverse nation of 320 million people spread out over an entire continent and it would work in the same way as it does in Switzerland, a 95% white, homogenous country of 8 million people.
And that's why the per capita GNP difference between the countries isn't as impressive as Voxxers believe. 8 million Swiss compared to which set of 8 million Americans? I bet we could find a city in the US, or a state, whose GNP per capita is far and away higher than Switzerland's per capita. This sort of comparison is arbitrary.
We could, but many of those counties would be around DC. 🙁
My old neighbors were from Switzerland. They moved back several years ago, but we still keep in touch.
The Swiss wife still bitches about not having a car. She has a great story about having to buy a vacuum cleaner when they moved back and how hard it was to get it home (trains, stairs, etc.).
I have an old DIY audio friend who lives in Norway. He has some epic stories of moving speakers & heavy tube amplifiers on his bicycle.
Oh god, I had to live without a car when I was in college. Never fucking again. One grocery trip in the rain with paper bags and you'll never romanticize public transportation or plastic bag bans.
Thing that stood out for me on that story is that, by her telling, they just up and decided to come back to the states.
Im suspicious. If its so great,why would you ever leave? Could it be that all those luxurious benefits of Swiss life are only possible if you make 100k a year?
You might need more than 100K...
The Swiss are notoriously picky about who they let live there longterm. Maybe he had no choice but to come back to the nasty ole' US.
Switzerland is one of the Earth's most boring countries.
Like, mind-numbingly, painfully boring.
I would give you like 6 months...
*narrows gaze*
I was flying to Switzerland from DC and there was a guy on the plane going back to Switzerland after being in the states for a few months. He was sad to go back. I asked why. "Switzerland is so boring. I can have much more fun in the US."
12 year old girl learns an important lesson after her cat dies: "adults are cruel"
🙁
Feline dies after having its pelt shorn. Hmmm, I got nothin.
Obama: Inaction on guns biggest frustration of my presidency
Ha ha. Fuck you.
"But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day."
"Obama Hopes To See Daily Gun Violence"
"If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws,"
Cry more, you tryhard totalitarian shithead. I need your delicious statist salty ham tears to cool my processors.
Ha, ha. He brought back the word 'common sense'.
I like the "sufficient" qualifier. We have plenty of "common-sense" gun laws. At what point are they determined to be "sufficient"?
They never seem to want to say full confiscation and they never will tell you this new law I want will stop x-number of deaths.
Here you go, Mr. president, courtesy of the NRA. Please follow these rules next time you see a gun lying around:
1) STOP!
This first step is crucial. Stopping first allows your child the time he or she needs to remember the rest of the safety instructions.
2) Don't Touch
A firearm that is not touched or disturbed is unlikely to fire and otherwise endanger your child or other people.
3) Run Away
This removes the temptation to touch the firearm as well as the danger that another person may negligently cause it to fire.
4) Tell A Grown-up
Children should seek a trustworthy adult, neighbor, relative or teacher ? if a parent or guardian is not available.
Every time I think of those rules, this little gem comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEBrb_wRYc
How delightfully diverse those children are.
NEW Poll from the Pew Research Center: The Republican Party has wide leads for better reflecting people's views on gun control (48% to 36%) and dealing with the terrorist threat at home (44% to 34%).
"It just would have made my 24/7 armed security detail THAT MUCH more effective....as it is, I can't guarantee that I can just have them slaughter whoever I want without someone shooting back. And that makes me sad. It REALLY makes Michelle sad..."
Last notice, New England meetup Sunday. Who will be there? Well, let me tell you:
Nick,
Matt,
Elizabeth Nolan Brown,
Rand Paul,
Libertarian Girl,
Ron Bailey,
and Lobster Girl
are all people who will not be there. But it might be fun anyway, and there will be artisanal mayonnaise.
Email me for details if you are not a troll or a US atttorney.
What town in New England?
Near Nashua, of New Hampshire fame.
A tad too far for me, I'm afraid.
It's a shame, I was in Merrimack a couple weekends ago.
I've never been to New Hampshire but I really want to make a trip up to Lebanon to go to Poverty Lane Orchards.
"Elizabeth Nolan Brown"
If she is there, she will be three minutes late.
Now, now. The timestamp is actually 9:03. Usually when they're late they leave the timestamp as 9:00 and act like nothing happened.
Can trained, licensed wood chipper operators come?
That's the sort of skilled technician we'll need after the revolution.
Impatient protesters begin digging up Confederate general's grave ? themselves!
It's amazing how fast people can be taught to hate something so much, they'll commit criminal acts just to get rid of it. Just a few months ago most of these people probably didn't care for the Confederate flag, but probably wouldn't have done something about it when they saw it.
And they say conservatives are 'crazy' or 'irrational'.
Remember how the media and politicians went into over drive pleading people don't take out their aggression on Muslims after 9/11 (and still do today). I have yet to see a violent act (unless I missed it) directed at them.
Yet, we DO see lefties commit crimes or behave poorly (this incident, OWS etc.).
Rwanda had been peaceful and prosperous for 20 years, but a few weeks of radio broadcasts followed by the assassination of the president was enough to set off one of history's worst genocides.
Zimbabwe and South Africa had some of the highest agricultural productivity on the African continent. Then they decided it was unjust that white people owned so many farms and businesses and they violently expropriated them. They gave the land to unskilled blacks, simply because they were black and had political connections. Now those sectors of the economy are in shambles and Robert Mugabe is looking for some whites to jump start their economy again. Fuckin' social justice, how does it work?
Such people need a good sound beating.
Disgusting fucks.
Now if the general was part Native American, this would be the desecration of an Indian grave site.
And Obama would have commented.
'Hey, if I had a son it would have looked like that skeleton!'
A group surrounded a shovel Wednesday and ceremoniously removed a chunk of grass and soil.
Now that is some fine writing. Are you paying attention, Pulitzer Committee?
Uh, he is gone.
Unless he was buried in a Fisk coffin:
http://strangeremains.com/2014.....c-science/
They're in denial that the Civil War ever took place, it seems.
It's like the commies in Burma who got rid of all the ancient Buddhist monuments. Or the Taliban doing the same.
Excactly. Trying to airbrush history is an old story.
Never heard about the Burmese commies, its usually jihadists these days who like to get rid of religious monuments as you say.
"It is no longer politically correct to glorify someone who was a slave trader, someone who was a racist on public property," City Council member Myron Lowery said at the time
Fucking hell, why stop with Forrest? He can't be the only racist buried in that cemetery.
Bowe Bergdahl found during California pot raid
Sheesh, should have involved the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office in the first operation.
That guy get's like all the breaks ever.
They only break he should be getting is a 15 minute rest break from hard labor at the US Correctional Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.
probably not till after Obama leaves office, because you know it may not look good politically.
Illegal Alien Crime Wave in Texas: 611,234 Crimes, 2,993 Murders
ayy lmao
Winter Haven man head-butts bus, loses
+ fo-ty!
He should leave the Glaswegian Kisses to professionals.
Though hopefully his foty helped his headache.
"Glaswegian Kisses"
I had not heard of the "Glaswegian Kiss" until I got to spend some quality time with the 1 Scots and 4 Scots... heh.
Well, strictly speaking, a Scot would call it a "Gorbals Kiss" - it's a district of Glasgow filled with what an American might call "Section 8 housing".
Anecdote:
I used to go drinking with a Glaswegian company Accounts Payable manager and maybe the toughest SOB I'd ever met. Have you any idea how intimidating it is to sit down and go over a budget with a guy with calluses on his knuckles?
One day, we went out for a drink at a local bar, and some guy nudged into him. Bill (the acounts payable manager) invited the guy to "Pick a window, you're leavin'!"
One for the pedants: Every tautology in The Wire, in chronological order.
I still don't know if I liked season 2 or not.
I like it a lot. The only part I don't like is the stupid fake serial killer plot-line.
Fist is first.
Well, except today.
It is what it is.
The game is the game.
Rand Paul grills has a polite conversation with John Kerry on Iran deal
The Kentucky senator and 2016 presidential contender adopted a more dispassionate, even diplomatic stance as he pecked away at the agreement during the Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Thursday. In doing so he contrasted himself not just with his more bombastic GOP colleagues but also with more hawkish rivals in the GOP presidential race, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who are making their plans to undo the agreement a central plank of their foreign policy platforms.
Instead of launching into a monologue, Paul asked measured questions about why sanctions will be lifted so quickly under the agreement and whether Iran has any plans to create a nuclear bomb.
Though Paul is distinctly to the left of most 2016 GOP hopefuls on foreign policy, the Kentucky Republican was one of the first Republicans to publicly announce opposition to the deal last week, despite keeping what he called an "open mind" as the agreement came together. He dislikes the sanctions language in the pact and fears Iran can still develop a nuclear bomb.
But the libertarian-leaning senator made clear that he prefers a diplomatic settlement with Iran. The only other committee Republican who sounded that conciliatory was Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).
Obama Fires AFFH Warning Shot Over Hillary's House
That's brilliant. Either Hillary opposes it and loses the primaries or she is forced to support it and the provision gains legs. Either way Obama gets what he wants.
Where again in the Constitution does it grant the federal government power to require affordable housing in various locales? Other than the FYTW clause.
I'm afraid of the implications for my suburb - 95% white, best school in the area, also some of the highest incomes (and highest property taxes).
Don't know if the city government owns any land - they are actually kept on a tight leash and confined to two buildings. Don't know if the city receives any HUD funds.
But if low income housing was brought into the area there would be an uproar. Right now developers are buying old homes in the $150-$250k range and just tearing them down to build new houses. We were lucky to get into our house, which is nothing special, for the price that we did. I can't imagine - but I could be wrong - anyone making a profit building residents for the poor. But I won't ever underestimate the stupidity of HUD.
"I can't imagine - but I could be wrong - anyone making a profit building residents for the poor."
When it's paid in tax dollars, it's easy to make money.
I almost bought a quarter of a million dollar home a few years ago. But the neighborhood didn't have any low-income housing to milk me for local welfare dollars and the crime rate would not be nearly as high as I would've liked, so I passed.
Why isn't this initiative getting more (or any?) airplay? You would think what sounds to me like the largest executive power-grab in American history might make the MSM once in a while.
Because it is that and tons of Democrat voting suburbanites are going to go ballistic when it happens. So, the media is doing all it can to make sure they don't find out before the 2016 election after it will be too late to stop.
Yeah, it will be fun to watch Westchester voters getting this shoved up their asses.
Need to move on to Potomac, MD and McLean, VA.
Westchester's obligation to "affirmatively further fair housing"
Wait, what?
I can't wait to see the Section 8's they're gonna build in Pound Ridge.
They'll look all Le Corbusier-y and the locals will love the tasteful art deco sensibility.
Man in Milwaukee shoots dog after mistaking it for lion
How Ready for Hillary* would you have to be to mistake a white pit bull for a mountain lion?
Trying to get this going as a synonym for "on the verge of passing out drunk", "acting like a blithering idiot", etc.
*applause*
Uh oh, Hulkamania runs wild no more.
No mention of the Oklahoma teen who hacked up his family?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...../30555119/
What's more fucked up - looking for link, I discover teen Familycide is like 'a thing' in Oklahoma
http://mobile.reuters.com/arti.....TR20141015
Kentucky has quite a bit as well, but it's more in the father/mother shoots son/daughter or entire-family-burned-alive-in-mobile home variety.
Well, Ava did kill Bowman and Boyd did want to kill his daddy.
Wouldn't that be more father/brother/uncle shoots son/brother/nephew in Kentucky?
Unless there's a lot more trannies in Kentucky than I thought.
Obama to take 19 Democrats and Jeff Flake to Africa
Please stay there.
Will he notify his family?
'Spark up the wood Umabal! Obama is coming for some good home style zebra testicles and fly stew!'
Hm. Was supposed to be Umbala. But whatever. It was stupid anyway.
This court ruling has the potential to crush the marijuana industry
On July 9, 2015, in the case of Olive v. Commissioner, San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. tax code section 280E which states that expenditures in connection with the illegal sale of drugs don't qualify for any deductions or credits. What this means is that marijuana-based businesses aren't able to deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses, and are thus being taxed on 100% of their gross profit as opposed to net profit.
Good thing MJ is "legal", huh?
Bo assures me that Democrats are totally cool with marijuana and its the evul GOP that makes it hard for anyone to simply toke their ganja in peace.
It is a good thing that it's "legal". It would be nice if it were actually legal too.
Actually, I think that what they have in DC is really the best scenario at this point. No commercial sales, but pretty much no regulation either. Obviously it would be best if it were just another product that people buy and sell, but it is going to be so heavily regulated under any legalization that is likely to happen that I think that people just being able to grow it and "give away" to friends is far preferable.
Despite the clumsy wording in the quote, this appears to be the US Court of Appeals located in SF. So that ruling affects all of the west coast.
But still, 9th Circuit is the most liberal, so surprised to see them not throwing a bone to the MJ growers. But libs do not believe in federalism, right?
UH OH
This should be a fun media frenzy.
Did he have a banjo on his knee?
I don't know what's worse: the butthurt Muslim apologists demanding we treat this guy like a Muslim terrorist or the butthurt Black Lives Matter people who demand we call him a thug.
Even if they have a small point the sheer amount of whining is enough to make me hate them.
How about a Thugorist? Terrug?
Teaterrothuglican
Will they have his motives nailed down before that of the Chattanooga shooter's?
If his Facebook page is as information-rich as that Tea Party profile, i think the deconstruction of his psyche may require Dr Phil-level talent
i think the deconstruction of his psyche may require Dr Phil-level talent
So it'd be pretty easy, then?
Depends on what color the people he shot were.
Amy Schumer movie
I'm going to go out on a limb and say victims were 100% Caucasian, and 50% overweight
In that case, the gun made him do it.
Mercy killings
*narrows gaze*
No, Islam is not inherently misogynistic
Muslim societies have long been the battleground for a conflict between classical patriarchy and the revolutionary spirit of early Islam. The pre-Islamic environment of 7th century Mecca, with its tribalism, lack of law and order and constant warfare, was strongly male-dominated. The advent of Islam challenged the status quo and sought not only to introduce a new kind of social order but to limit the excesses of Meccan society, which directly harmed women and girls -- abolishing the custom of burying baby girls at birth is one of the best examples of this spirit. Early Islam sought to elevate women and define them as independent agents possessed of free will, responsible for their own actions and imbued with certain rights over men (just as men are imbued with complementary rights and privileges over women).
Many detractors of Islam point to inheritance laws, polygamy and certain verses in the Quran that they have interpreted as condoning domestic violence, sex slavery and other travesties of justice and human rights. There are many Islamic feminists, such as Amina Wadud, Kecia Ali, Riffat Hassan and Laleh Bakhtiar, who are actively working to retranslate and reinterpret many of these verses of the Quran.
Sure lady.
Didn't Persian women have a lot of rights up until Islam was adopted in that area?
Iran and Afghanistan both had quite liberal (in a good way) treatment of women in the urban centers, until the mullahs took over. AFAIK, the rural areas were a lot more traditional, as you might expect.
lllocust, you should punch up, not down! That's what progressives tell everyone!
In the name of multiculturalism, please don't criticize Islam!
Ok, considering the Salafi/Wahhabi consider such re-translation and reinterpretation to be the ultimate theological crimes, what's your point, lady?
This. I thought the Quran was the literal word of God and could not be "reinterpreted".
"James Scott ? Cockshut Hill Technology College
Are you an expert on Islam all over the world ? I somehow doubt it. All religions tend to be practised conservatively and you have you own problems with Christian misogyny in America."
Again with the spooky Christianity talk.
Fuck off James you asshole.
Hey man, sometimes Christians say mean things about gays or don't believe in evolution or vote for Republicans.
This is 100% the same thing as the fact that all 10 countries on Earth where they execute gay people are Muslim, the fact that apostasy is illegal in 23 out of 49 Muslim majority countries (and is not illegal in any other country on Earth), and the fact that 90+% of all terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims.
But I heard one guy set off bombs in an abortion clinic in 1987, so it's like the same thing.
I'm all for criticizing Christians or any religion for peddling misogyny, violence, intolerance or whatever negative thing. But if you are even a little bit consistent, it's pretty fucking obvious that Islam does all the bad things that conservative Christianity does, but about 10x worse.
Well I remember being told that all cultures are equal, except western culture, which is less equal.
Even though Christianity is from the East and has a woman at almost of the top of it's revered figures.
Now before someone chimes in that only a "tiny minority" of Muslims are responsible for all that violence, it's worth noting that large minorities and even substantial majorities in some places offer moral and material support to the "tiny minority" who actually pull the trigger.
Wasn't there someone else who pulled the trigger ...?
Lee Harvey Oswald?
John Wilkes Booth?
Christina Hoff Summers?
Roy Rogers?
If you want to try to create a more reasonable version of Islam for the modern world, that's great. But don't pretend that is what it has been all along. It's like people who still apologize for Communism. "Communism is great, but no one ever did it right."
Secrets of the Viking Sword
I need to get me one of them big fancy tomato knives.
Warty, you linked to the wrong video. This is what you should have linked to.
Amon Amarth is a fun band to see. I distinctly remember Johan Hegg drinking beer out of a cheesy plastic horn and going, "Cleve-LAND! You have the true spirit of a Viking!"
"Cleve-LAND! You have the true spirit of a Viking!""
Oh, i would love to have a recording of that.
If you offer up the tomato slices to Odin, the next harvest will be good
Spot the Not: Trump flipflops
1. said in 2009 that Obama was "a strong guy who knows what he wants," a person with "the mark of a strong leader," and "totally a champion."
2. called Hillary Clinton "very talented," a "great appointment" for secretary of state, and, in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, called her "a wonderful woman who has handled pressure incredibly well."
3. said in 1994 that he is "deeply religious", prays often, reads the Bible daily, and fasts occasionally. He also goes on silent retreats a few times a year so he can better contemplate god's word in away from all distractions.
4. "Hillary's always surrounded herself with very good people," Trump said to CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 2007 when asked of who would do a good job negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran. "I think Hillary would do a good job."
5. "I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better," Trump said, before adding that "it's an entitlement to this country if we're going to have a great country." He said that year that as president he would fund a "comprehensive health care program" with "an increase in corporate taxes."
6. Trump said in 1999 that, though he hated "the concept of abortion," he was "strongly pro-choice." He reversed his stance in 2011. "I'm pro-life," he said then.
3. It's gotta be 3!
Imma say 3 as well. Not Trump-like...
3 is the Not. prize
I've been pulling carpeting at the new house - the entire upstairs was nothing but oak hardwood until they decided to put carpet on top. Other than pulling staples and the tack strips, it hasn't been that bad. The last bedroom is a different matter - the padding was glued to the wood...
Last night I tried some orange/citric based paint stripper on the gunk and it seems to work if you put some elbow grease into the scraper.
When I'm done with this early-60s house I hope to have a retro-swinger pad - a Herman Miller Eames chair, vintage Macintosh gear, and some other mid-century junk.
Anyone who covers hardwood with carpet deserves to be shot.
Careful man.
If that "anyone" turns out to be a federal judge, a US attorney from New York will subpoena your IP address and email account from Reason.
I didn't use the 'W' word, so I figure I'm all set.
At the very least for being stupid enough to devalue your home.
If you are selling and you know you have hardwood under the carpet, why aren't you pulling it up?
*I had the same nice surprise LH did when i bought my house. I was just expecting a plywood subfloor, but when I peaked under the carpet it was hardwood.
Yeah, I don't get it. I guess it was the thing to do for a while. Upgrade your home with all the modern conveniences.
When my parents bought their house in the 70s, all of the nice maple floors were covered with 1940s linoleum.
I would expect part of the issue was that refinishing floors back then was a lot harder than it is today. Power tools are so much cheaper now. Sand that shit down and spread some polyurethane finish over it.
Instead of urethane, you might consider oiling the floors. It's a more traditional look and doesn't show scratches as much.
Yeah but with oil you're going to be re-oiling relatively often. A poly finish lasts for a long time. People worry about scratches too much.
Aesthetically, I think a oil-wax finish looks the best (nice matte finish) but it really is more work to maintain.
I like the oiled look and hate the disruption that recoating poly creates. If I were to redo my floors, it's definitely the way I would go.
Wall-to-wall carpet is quiet, tolerates hard treatment for a while, and for a few decades it was popular.
I remember when I moved into the first house I bought here (in the US) in the 90's, the fact that every room had cheap carpet was touted as a selling point, and really if you have one or more kids, and 0 incontinent pets,it might just possibly be seen as a selling point. A lot of New Yorkers who moved up here knew nothing other than drab studios with crappy lino floors with concrete under that. The idea of a soft floor was probably tempting.
Then everyone who had mild hay fever started blaming autism, diabetes, beri-beri, herpes, AIDS and typhoid on 'household dust', and the fad reversed. With our kids old enough to not wreck the decor, we stripped every damn inch of that shitty, ugly stuff out of the house, and taught the kids how to walk quietly and mop liquids up when they spilled them.
And life is far better.
Carpet is really disgusting if you have any pets.
I still have nightmares of the carpet I had to remove when I bought my place. Unchanged for 25 years, 15 with an incontinent chihuahua. The padding was mostly disintegrated.
Jacobean stain saved me from having to rip up the floors in all of my common rooms. The flooring guys were worth every penny I paid them.
Get a tile remover from a rental store like this one.
Make sure the blade is flipped so the ground edge is down on the floor, this keeps it from biting into the wood. Also run it along the length of the planks and not across so it won't grab the joints.
That will remove the bulk of the padding and some of the glue without using stripper. If you're lucky, it will take enough that you can sand the rest of the crud off while refinishing the wood.
I'm worried about the tarry glue having asbestos... so I'm going to try the stripping method first since the glue remains are just jelly when it gets scraped up.
Probably will want all the floors refinished for the best results. Gah - money money out the door.
Is the glue black?
If that's a real worry, counterintuitively, you might consider stripping by hand, if the area isn't too huge.
Get a used scraper plane, or just get some old school scrapers. Make sure you raise a burr on the edge and get down on hands and knees - with a mask. I did it on a few of the floors here, and was surprised how fast you can get the stuff off.
Asbestos in carpet adhesive is not particularly common. It was used more often for putting down vinyl tile and linoleum as a thickening agent. Regardless, the asbestos fibers generally make up 5 to 10% of the glue by volume if it was used (usually about 5%) and the fibers are trapped in the glue itself making it non-friable by definition.
Short version, unless you grind it up into a dust and snort it, you're not at any risk whatsoever and even then it's not significant as you aren't doing it for a living. The real problematic asbestos is pipe lagging, and occasionally you'll find it in HVAC ducting.
Pics please! I'm a MCM maven, and would love to see what you do.
My wife and I are starting a blog about our mid-century adventure. Not much up yet, just pictures of the bi-level.
It looks like a swingin' dentist office
It's like Tudor meets rancher.
GR has some really interesting residential architecture.
We've got a Frank Lloyd Wright house
and on the lake of the suburb I live in:
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicl.....state.html
I've had good luck finding vintage furniture on etsy of all places. that and i had a custom sputnik chandelier made from a store that uses the site. i've got a 50s MCM.
I'll keep that in mind... been looking at several sites that do some modern versions
http://www.allmodern.com/
There's some MCM modern versions on http://www.joybird.com and you can customize to some degree on upholstery, etc.
Sputnik chandelier - so cool.
Seconded.
There was a time period between the late 60's and late 80's where things that are classy or aesthetically pleasing were utterly dismembered to make way for total shit. Mahogany trim was painted, ornate crown molding was mutilated by the anchors to put in a dropped ceiling of fiber glass tiles and hardwood floors made from trees that are exorbitantly cost prohibitive to use nowadays were slathered with glue and perforated by tack strips. It was like the dark ages for aesthetics and absolutely stomach turning whenever you see that kind of dumbfuckery perpetrated by the generation of property owners who preceded us.
People who've attend The Ohio State University and saw what they did to the grand old library know exactly what I'm talking about.
I like crisp white trim.
Disgusting.
Well then you are in luck.
Well, then don't buy a house with tens of thousands of dollars worth of mahogany, and paint it white.
No shit. That's a crime.
I am reminded of the many NYC subways stations where beautiful mosaics were covered with giant, bland tiles during mid-century "renovations". There really was an aesthetic of ugly that set in during that era and is only now fading away.
Someone posted a link to Mashable yesterday (was it here?) showing the old Penn Station being taken down piece by piece in the 60s.
Depressing.
Have we discussed the Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj semi-feud?
I am trying to figure out how Minaj is the SJW's feminist hero fighting against patriarchy and skinny white women.
Is it obvious from such great lyrics as:
This dude named Michael used to ride motorcycles
Dick bigger than a tower, I ain't talking about Eiffel's
Real country ass nigga, let me play with his rifle
Pussy put his ass to sleep, now he calling me NyQuil
Now that bang bang bang,
I let him hit it 'cause he slang Cocaine
He toss my salad like his name Romaine
That last line. UGH.
It's art, or something.
Lettuce tosses salad? This dumb asshole doesn't even know how to salad.
And "slung" is the past tense of "sling."
No, no, no, she means that he has all sorts of cool street terminology for cocaine and that gets her hot.
I think that is a racist correction.
Quoting her lyrics is racist.
Nicki Minaj has a weird face and an IQ of a piece of used Kleenex.
Yeah that body is wasted on her Muppet face.
She has a nice body?
Anybody who performs a song like this probably shouldn't criticize other people for their musical tastes.
That actually made me laugh out loud.
If you take note of the "133 million views", it should make you weep silently
She's not even singing, and her voice is weak & thin.
Missy Elliott she ain't.
Didn't missy elliot sing about her ability to make really good milkshakes? So good that it brought boys to the yard or something?
Kelis.
I'm happy to report I don't know who that is. But I'd love to try one of her milkshakes. I'll drink it in the yard if I must.
Wow. Kelis is actually super-talented. Don't judge.
[Warning: Auto-Play] Clayton Kershaw blanks Mets in most unfair game in baseball this year
For six innings Thursday, Clayton Kershaw mowed through the New York Mets' lineup like the greenkeepers at Augusta National, the only thing resembling hard contact a grounder off the bat of Bartolo Colon. He'd thrown just 62 pitches, 47 for strikes, and punched out eight batters. Considering the Mets' cleanup hitter on this night entered batting .170 and the No. 5 hitter .179, this wasn't exactly a surprise, as far as potential perfect games go.
It didn't happen. Curtis Granderson led off the bottom of the seventh and Kershaw threw an 0-2 slider that didn't slide off the plate and Granderson hit a soft liner to right field for a base hit. With two runners on in that inning, Kershaw fanned John Mayberry Jr. -- that cleanup hitter -- on a nasty curveball and then got Eric Campbell to ground out, and that was the ballgame. Kershaw finished the 3-0 win with a three-hit shutout, the 11th of his career, and over his past three starts has recorded 38 strikeouts and no walks, just the third pitcher in 101 years to have three straight games of 10-plus K's with no walks.
The Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw has been overshadowed by teammate Zack Greinke, who has a 1.30 ERA and a streak of 43 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.
Koufax and Drysdale.
meh. Fuck the dodgers.
OT but in sports. Anyone notice Mexico's favorable calls at the Gold Cup?
Nuts.
"Favorable" ain't the half of it, but all the people calling Mark Geiger a crooked cheat are stupid.
There's a referee forum at bigsoccer.com that is tends toward policeone-style "defend the brotherhood at all costs" when something big like this happens, and even they are not willing to go all-in defending Geiger, especially on the first PK against Panama.
There needs to be video review inside the box. Period.
It doesn't have to be American football-style endless delays, either. In Australian football the video review is like 30 seconds at most.
Thing is, I GUARANTEE you that if they reviewed that play, it would have taken forever. There were things that, upon continued super-slo-mo review would actually turn you AWAY from the proper call if you weren't careful to realize that super-slo-mo makes things appear to be obvious when they really aren't at full speed.
Plus, what happens when the crew on the field DOESN'T call anything leading to any stoppage whatsoever, but there's some controversy? How do you deal with adjudicating that and the various options to restart the match properly?
After-action review is about as good as it's going to get without fundamentally changing the game.
You get 30 seconds. If it's inconclusive, the original call stands. (I don't know if that's what they do in AFL but I've never seen it go longer than that and it's not like soccer is any tougher to call.)
Nothing happens. You can only review a call that one of the refs has made.
Yeah it's not perfect but anything is way better than what we have now.
Then the penalty would have stood, which is absurd - at least based on what a group of referees (acting like policeone posters) is saying.
It's funny that practically everyone else in the world of soccer thinks the call was bullshit.
I dunno, it took me a lot less than 30 seconds to decide that the call was bullshit. Then again, I happen to believe that not every little brush of a finger deserves a caution. I think the rules could stand some refinement in that area.
Even weirder, the ref who gifted the win to Mexico was an American.
The suck of it is, he's actually a pretty good ref, by even global standards. He just got the first PK shockingly wrong, then dealt poorly with the disturbances (he should have ordered the teams off - he suspended play, technically, after all, and that's what you're supposed to do). Then he put himself in a position to give a questionable second penalty that he should never have even thought about calling given the 100+ previous minutes.
Of course it all kicked off with a massively harsh interpretation on the red card (that's NEVER a red for me - a floppy wrist in someone's face is not the tip of an elbow; no one was endangered by that beyond any other aerial situation in a typical game. A foul? Probably. A yellow, even. But a red? Come the fuck on!
I was just being flippant... I know how tough that job is. But with the nature of the game (low scores so each score is a huge deal) plus the gazillions of dollars hovering around these matches - something has to be done to bring some sort of accuracy to it. It's not the old days where everyone was mostly just playing for fun.
Impressive duo. Kershaw has to get his act together it in the playoffs.
Nationals vs Dodgers series should be good.
Barbell basics
Come for the useful information, stay for the pleasant Texas drawl.
Wish I could find someone local to me that uses "Starting Strength" as their training model. Nearest I've managed to get is a Crossfit guy who will just do the strength and weights bit.
Then you're actually lucky. Very few Cultfit gyms will allow people to do useful things with their equipment.
Bullshit! They'll let you pay off an orthopedic surgeon's car. That's at least useful to him.
Funny. I was talking to a guy about getting into lifting. Thanks.
Warty! It was you that posted the Jacques Pepin videos, yes? I just wanted to say, "Thanks." I made Chicken Galantine last night. A lot of work but also a lot of fun. And it was delicious!
That was me. Galantines are fun, aren't they?
I'm not sure I realized Sandra Bland had been in jail for THREE DAYS before she died. Over an improper lane change and declining to put out a cigarette.
Remember the Berkeley student who got arrested for MJ possession and was forgotten about, left in jail for 5 days with no food or water? He tried to kill himself, if I remember right. Something like that could well have happened here.
Over an improper lane change and declining to put out a cigarette.
Um, no. She was jailed for failure to show sufficient respect. Had she groveled in the dirt like a good peasant, nothing else would have happened.
She was threatening his life with second-hand smoke
If she had been on antidepressant meds, and then locked up for three days without them, that could explain a lot.
Video game characters if they were as disgusting and sloppy as average American women
Fat Lara Croft is my favorite.
My favorite is Cortana since she's a fucking hologram so any body she might have is 'realistic.'
She's blue for Christ's sake.
The funny thing about these is that the women are all elite level fighters or action driven women of some sort, I expect them to not be fat.
Lara Croft spends her entire day spelunking, so clearly it's unrealistic that she doesn't weigh 200 lbs.
Fat girls spelunk too.
Well, their boyfriends do.
I know the conventional wisdom on the subject, but stuff like this makes me think sometimes that retards really do rule the night.
at a website called bulimia.com, you would think they would idolize those characters.
They could have saved themselves a lot of photoshopping by just linking to Comic-Con cosplay pics
Sadly, most female cosplayers at Comic Con are not 'average American Women'.
http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/upload.....ay_4.0.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1932.....ON-900.jpg
Yeah, I know it's Vox and HuffPo, but they won't be able to monetize your clicks.
wouldn't mind the girl for DOA5. Would look great in the kimono and glasses.
Little Girl gets first buck fever
NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE BIGHORN SHEEP
She'll make a fine wife someday.
The grim reality of Stockholm's rent control
If you don't have a rental control type agency, you eventually end up with Episiarchs and Dagnys and other undesirables. I bet Seattle wishes it had thought ahead.
Ana amazingly good article on rent control:
"Not that I have any special knowledge about San Francisco's housing market -- in fact, as of yesterday morning I didn't know a thing about it. But it was immediately obvious from the story what was going on. To an economist, or for that matter a freshman who has taken Economics 101, everything about that story fairly screamed those two words -- which are, of course, ''rent control.''"
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06.....ffair.html
You know, there are many issues where Krugman is actually great, they're just not the issues that he gets quoted talking about. He's always right on rent control and he's right on sweat shops in 3rd world countries, which he's argued in favor of as a necessary means of economic development.
I don't think he necessarily deserves the hate he gets, since he's hardly a doctrinaire leftist.
My problem with Krugman is that he's nasty and completely uncharitable to those he disagrees with, which makes it difficult to trust anything he writes. How do I know whether I'm getting "good" Krugman or "bad" Krugman?
Glass house residents gather stones:
""There is no relief in sight because drug companies keep challenging the market with even higher prices," the doctors wrote in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07......html?_r=0
I wonder if these are the same MDs who advised Obo on the economics of O-care?
I've said before that I work in pharma. Maybe if the company I work with didn't have to spend over $50 million to test a drug THAT WE ALREADY KNOW WORKS AND IS APPROVED EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD, they could charge less for it. Maybe if costs for other major drugs from development to approval wasn't sometimes over $1 billion, and that without a guarantee of the final approval, maybe drugs wouldn't cost quite so much.
Hey, I'm the choir!
Believe me, if the BS regarding pharm prices were true, I'd own a LOT of stock in the companies and be very wealthy.
Ted Cruz is on the senate floor calling Mitch McConnell a liar. Fascinating
Well, I gave up on my search for a Ruger Mark II. Collectors have ruined the market. So I settled on a used Browning Buck Mark. Guy was asking $230 and accepted my offer for $200. Unless someone else gets to it first, I'll be picking it up tomorrow. Single owner, and not used much. Hopefully I'll be doing some plinking this weekend.
Buckmarks are fine guns. I've never shot a Ruger Mark II, but the Mark III I've shot is a nice little pistol.
I don't think you'd be disappointed with either, but the entry cost for Rugers is getting a bit silly, either the Mark II's or the new 22/45s.
My partial Scots heritage balks at paying that kind of money for a rimfire pistol.
I didn't want to pay more than two bills, and I'm just not going to find a Ruger for that. Oh well.
Actually, that's not true. I did find a used Mark III for $200, but the guy wanted to do the transfer at a gun shop. The whole point of this exercise is to get a gun without filling out any federal paperwork. Just as a matter of principle.
Those rugers (I HAD a 22/45) are damn hard to break down and clean and their actions, if you aren't careful will cut your hand to the bone. My cousin used to call it "the deli slicer". Ultimately, I couldn't justify keeping it.
Now, my conversion slide for my Glock 22 - THAT'S A KEEPER!!!
Everything I read about Rugers said that putting them back together is a bitch and a half. That's one of the main reasons I chose to get the Browning instead.
I'm hoping my CZ Kadet conversion arrives tomorrow so I too can start shooting some 22LR, but USPS tracker says probably Tuesday 🙁
The info on the 22/45 is valuable though - SWMBO was thinking of getting one, and now I can tell her to do some more homework before plonking down the money.
Here's what I gathered from my research.
Ruger pros: Very accurate. Holds value. Can run tons ammo before needing to be cleaned.
cons: Costs more. A serious hassle to put back together. Ejection port is small, so while it doesn't jam often, dislodging a stovepipe can be a hassle.
Browning pros: Costs less. Easy to put back together. Easy to fix a jam.
cons: Not as accurate as a Ruger. Need tools to field strip.
The reviews I read were evenly split as to which was the better gun.
I think my favorite piston in the world to shoot is a Buckmark .22. They are fabulously accurate, have virtually no recoil and the ammunition is cheap. If you like to target shoot with a pistol, you can't beat a Buckmark.
"I think my favorite piston in the world"
I was so expecting Isiah Thomas
No. I was always more of an old school Bob Lanier guy
Are you saying they're chubby? (just kidding, I couldn't resist)
More of my homey Jacques
The brussels sprouts fricasse looks interesting.
One of the few ways to make brussels sprouts palateable.
You are an insane person. Brussels sprouts are one of the best of all vegetables.
I'd rather suck on a lump of sulfur.
What warty said.
I thought so too until I started roasting them. Mmmmm, roasted brussel sprouts ...
Roasting being one of the ways ....
Yep, roasted brussels sprouts with fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, and a little bit of lemon juice. That's good eating.
Blame it on my British upbringing.
With a mother who learned to cook during the war, 'al anglaise' - i.e. cooked for 45 minutes at a brisk boil, in salt water. The resulting food bearing a more than passing resemblance to a reprocessed phone book.
Since then, as an adult, I have learned to embrace brassicas, but the forces of nurture are strong and resistant.
par-boil, cut in half, throw in lightly oiled pan with salt, garlic, little chopped onion, cook until they are lightly browned and caramelized on outside.
I eat em all the time w/ steak or fish.
I haven't tried them since I was a kid. Tastes change. Maybe I'll give them another try, though I'd have to cook them outside. The wife would freak out over the smell.
I need to eat more brussel sprouts. I already eat a ton of cabbage.
My partner and I often make a couple gallons of kimchi so our fridge always smells like a korean fart. 😀
You sure it's only your fridge that smells like farts?
Kimchi is the gift that keeps on giving.
That's why we own a dog.
If the Left had ever been able to get real power, we would now be in the reign of terror stage where formerly loyal and trusted members of the revolution are sent to the guillotine.
This is one of the crazier parts;
WHITE GAY MEN V. ANYONE ELSE IN THE LGBTQQIAROYGBIV*? SPECTRUM
A white gay man is still a white man, which goes some way to explaining why their faces and voices are the ones that dominate all LGBT marketing and news, say an increasing number of disgruntled disabled black lesbians.
There was recently a furore over the absolute invisibility of "people of colour" at Pride events, with some even accusing the gay community of white-washing the rainbow. Gay men are the masculine oppressors of the LGBT community. They, like the straight white men before them, will eventually be ejected from polite society.
I predict a split occurring, with white gay men stripped of their LGBT status, relegated to "allies" and forced to forfeit all rights to their victim narrative. The new "LBT" community will be led by a mixed race non-binary pansexual who prefers the pronoun "xhlee."
Gay white men are still white men. And you really can't square even your average non twink gay guy's masculinity with the kind of neutered cuckold the movement demands.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-g.....-everyone/
Dammit! My google fu is failing me!
This would be the perfect time to link to the Dead Milkmen singing about the lefthanded lesbian eskimo midget!
She bit me once, you know. Right here. You see this? Left a mark. She was lowering a friend of mine's kid into the sewer. I run up and tried to stop her, I said "listen there you lesbian midget left-handed albino! You stop right there!" And she bit me.
Lesbian midget bites kan be quite nasti, you know.
Jesus Christ.
DDBLGBTQQIAROYGBIV
Read the article. It is loaded with stuff like that.
TRANSSEXUALS V. DRAG QUEENS
Drag performers have a rich history of taking personal tragedy and social oppression and turning them into a glorious pantomime, weaving gold from their struggles and often challenging preconceptions of gender. To some, however, this is seen as transphobic, a mockery of the oppression faced by transgender individuals who can't "take off" their identity after the curtain comes down.
This has led to the banning of drag queens from performing at Scottish Pride events, to make them a "safe space." What's next? A trans man taking umbrage next time they see a woman wearing a trouser suit?
In the future, perhaps women will be prohibited from wearing so-called boyfriend blazers, sweaters or jeans, and society will comply with strictly gendered clothing rules in order to protect trans people from distress, in turn robbing us of our current increasingly liberal attitude towards the fluidity of gender.
I predicted all of this in May 2014, but it gives me no pleasure to see that I was entirely right.
Quote form Modern Family: "Disabled interracial lesbians with an African kicker."
I think the writer is wrong. The next ten years won't be minority wars. It will be the Progressive left completely destroying itself as every person in the movement who is not an utterly broken and or psychotic is either kicked out or runs off in horror. The media is good about covering these things up and making sure the average person doesn't really understand how insane the hard left really is. But they are getting so crazy and so public about it, it is getting impossible to hide anymore, especially with the rise of the internet.
There's more than just race and gender identity which will cause the left to implode. Environmentalism is already causing rumblings, as competing "solutions" to the "problem" clash with each other. Economics is also causing rifts, between the pure commies and the hipsters engaged in the "sharing economy" (aka capitalism).
Yes. Eventually, you are going to get the knock at the door. The whole movement is based on social signaling and fighting some kind of enemy. The problem is they are running out of enemies and are going to have to create new ones. It is just a matter of time before each one of them is next.
Live by the identity politics, die by the identity politics.
No eventually you'll get your door kicked in by a one-legged black gay woman with a speech impediment because it's rumored that you have some politically incorrect civil war memorabilia stashed away under the floor boards.
That's got to be a parody, right?
Nope.
Self-perpetuating stereotype much ladies?
Y'all want to see stupid? Feast your orbs on this derp:
Dumb article
They had me convinced at the headline. Progressivism is the unlikely villain to housing affordability?
The problem being that SF obviously wasn't progressive enough.
You'd think that a movement that fetishizes 'progress' would rather like shiny new buildings, wouldn't you?