Debating the Debate Winners, Russia Suspected in Pentagon Email Hack, States Start Defunding Planned Parenthood: A.M. Links

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  DonkeyHotey/Flickr

  Everybody's weighing in on the winners and losers of last night's first Republican presidential-candidate debates. Some takes from The Washington Post, Real Clear Politics, National Journal, Fox News, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Federalist. 

• Is Russia behind an attack on the Pentagon's email system?
• Jon Stewart hosted his last episode of The Daily Show last night. 
• Donald Trump is accusing Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly of making up things he's said about women. 
• Alabama, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are all pulling state funding for Planned Parenthood.
• Kids are learning to swear earlier than they once did. 

New at Reason: 

• Brickbat: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime - Charles Oliver
• Movie Reviews: Fantastic Four and The Diary of a Teenage Girl: Miles Teller in a superhero flameout, Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård backing up a bright new star. - Kurt Loder
• The 3 Most and Least Libertarian Moments of The First GOP Debate: With 10 candidates crowding the stage, and a handful of others waiting in the wings, how'd the libertarian outreach go in the first GOP debate of 2015? - Zach Weissmueller and Paul Detrick

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

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump is accusing Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly of making up things he's said about women.

Twitter tells me Donald virtually tool beat Megyn right on stage!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"Kids are learning to swear earlier than they once did."

Fuck. That's no good.

[Brett L]

I blame child proofing that my engineering degree offers no help in figuring out. "How in the fuck do I open these cocksucking toys.,"

[invisible furry hand]

hey Brett, how's your selective breeding program going?

[Brett L]

Maybe 4 weeks left. Wife is very round, hot and grumpy. Her belly often looks like an Alien outtake.

[wareagle]

it will be worth it in the end. Enjoy the change that is about to happen.

[The Last American Hero]

Here comes Quatto!

[invisible furry hand]

Well, if you're looking for some quick cash you know we'll pay for naming rights. I'll start the bidding:

$20 bucks / Ruprecht

[Clich? Bandit]

$35 Donald Trump

[Crusty Juggler]

. Wife is very round, hot and grumpy. Her belly often looks like an Alien outtake

This question may be slightly inappropriate, but...pics?

[commodious spittoon]

Don't be bashful. It's "Pics or GTFO".

[Brett L]

Pics. Now GTFO.

[Private Chipperbot]

If this is a caption contents, she is asking "Why the hell are you doing this to me?"

[invisible furry hand]

She looks very neat and tidy there. I was expecting something more like this

[Crusty Juggler]

Now I have to go.

[commodious spittoon]

The baby tux onesie and the mustache pacifier are adorable.

[BigT]

" Wife is very round, hot and grumpy. Her belly often looks like an Alien outtake."

Wait until she has to get up at 3 am to feed the lil one.

[Spoonman.]

You're already on to number 2? Wow! we are working on potty training. No pee accidents for two weeks, but the poop...

[Brett L]

How can you be potty training? My kid just figured out his parents don't wear diapers two weeks ago.

[Spoonman.]

Kid's idea. She saw a potty chair and asked to sit on it. Then she said "All done poop" and there was poop in there. Our thoughts were "Holy shit, carpe diem!"

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

My Aunt and Uncle started their kids around 7 months. It started just with a general association of the kid toilet as a place that you sit without a diaper, and then it moved to a place you sit when it's about the time that you normally pee or poop, and eventually (at about 1 year) the kid gets pretty good at communicating when they need to sit on the potty.

From my understanding, it's not a perfect system (which you really can't expect it to be at such a young age), but that by 1 and a half or so the kid gets through most days without using the diaper. Nighttime training takes longer, obviously.

[DEG]

Good luck! I hope it goes well.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Or.

'Can these motherfucken Tylenol bottles be any fucken harder to open? Cocksuckingmotherfucker.'

[Zeb]

Not too surprising. Casual profanity is a lot more acceptable than it used to be.
I've also noticed that a lot of parents around my age or younger are calling their kids "dude", which is amusing.

[wareagle]

interesting you mention that. A Marketing Comm group on LinkedIn has a topic on the propriety of profanity in presentations, people dropping f bombs and the rest in front of people they have never met. I am hardly a prude but profanity serves a purpose and when every other word is some variation of fuck, the word eventually has all the gravity of 'green.'

[Zeb]

That's weird. I'm the sort of person who says "fuck" a lot, but I manage to keep it out of more formal or professional sorts of speaking. Even putting aside the question on the appropriateness of using profanity, using a lot of slang and profanity makes for lazy and imprecise speech.

I'm not sure how much I care if profane words become normal and lose their power to shock. I've always found it a bit odd that there were 2 or 3 magic words (or more to people who care about curse words) that were just not to be used in polite company.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sounds like you swear boringly.

You need to swear in front of your mother in law more.

[Zeb]

Well, she's dead. And before that wasn't averse to some swearing.

I am fortunate to have a work environment that is usually quite casual and not overly sensitive, so there is plenty of creative profanity going on.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I worked as a stock broker.

Talk about an environment with no filters.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Sorry to hear that.

[wareagle]

I don't know if presenters think it's cool or edgy, or if they're hoping for the shock effect, but seems to me that if you have to resort to profanity in a professional setting, you don't have much of value to say.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

"using a lot of slang and profanity makes for lazy and imprecise speech"

Is that a bug or a feature?

[Zeb]

Can be either depending on the situation.

[Free Society]

I have a 2 month old little dude.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And you have time to comment here?

[gaijin]

Tourette's is an epidemic! We need funding to help victims of Tourettes

[Slammer]

I read it as: Swearing to what? Loyalty? Fealty? Telling the truth?

[commodious spittoon]

Crom.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Eight year olds, dude.

[Citizen X]

What's a pederast, Walter?

[BigT]

Mama. ... ... You bitch!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Everybody's weighing in on the winners and losers of last night's first Republican presidential-candidate debates!

Spoiler alert: We all lost.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

^THIS^

[Certified Public Asshat]

Yep. And then there is my FB feed.

My derpiest acquaintance:

Will you cut the EPA, IRS and Dept of Ed?
Those departments IN TOTAL are less than 10% of the government.

No Federal mandates on education?
Fine by me.
Maryland is not chock full of Morons.
Good Luck Mississippi!!!

[Certified Public Asshat]

And then his last post before he hopefully had an aneurysm and died:

Final thought then I'm going to bed:
Based on the Republican ideals laid out tonight, they would like everyone armed, women's rights limited, education abolished, outsiders removed and adherence to a strict religious doctrine.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present ISIS.

[Doctor Whom]

There was no education before the Department of Ed. Everyone knows that.

[wareagle]

ISIS, whom the guy he voted for - twice - deemed the jayvee squad. And isn't the left constantly defending the worst of Muslim behavior? Just my opinion, but your universe has one friend too many right now.

[Certified Public Asshat]

I don't have reason to stay connected to him anymore, unless I want to keep tabs on how stupid he is.

[wareagle]

in an odd way, that is actually a good point. Sometimes, it's necessary to see actual derp just as confirmation that it really exists.

[Old Man With Candy]

ISIS, whom the guy he voted for - twice - deemed the jayvee squad.

One of the few things he was right about. And then he changed his mind.

[Free Society]

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present ISIS.

He really is too stupid to justify his being alive.

[gaijin]

Wait, ISIS? Yesterday I thought the President said the GOP was a bunch of Iranian Ayatollahs? Is the GOP a religion of Peace?

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Everyone armed? When did gun control come up in the debate?

[Lord Humungus]

It's always implied with racist gun-totin' republicans.

[WoodchipsandDerp]

Think the only time was when RP said he didn't want his marriage nor his guns registered in D.C.

[Lord Humungus]

You Can Get Semen-Injected Beer Now

"In 2011 we wanted to add something really wild to our Monteith's Wild Food Challenge dish. We came across a company that did horse semen shots at a wild food event and developed that concept as a chaser for our dish. The shot was so successful we ended up selling bucketloads of the stuff.

"One of our staff had been playing with the idea of doing something crazy with beer. The semen and beer thing just kinda came to us. We played with the idea a little more and then created the concept for Stag Semen Stout. It's been brewing in our mind for most of this year. Then we came across a brewery who was willing to contract manufacture it for us."

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

STEVE SMITH SAISSON!

[This Is My Last Post]

They are letting horses in the Navy now? I know they military isn't reaching its recruiting targets but wow ... just wow ....

[Illocust]

I can totally see this being successful. Drunk idiots looking to make stupid dares would love this stuff.

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

Nooooope

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Why? Why? Why the fuck would someone want semen in the beer?

[Crusty Juggler]

The better question is why wouldn't you want semen in beer? Think about it.

[straffinrun]

I know. That's what Zima is for.

[commodious spittoon]

Zima's not for getting semen in the beer.

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

The greatest moment in television history

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Haha thank you for this.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I see the Women's Christian Temperance Union is still working to make beer so nasty no one will drink it.

[Rasilio]

It is not like they had very much work to do on that front

[Frank Frankelson]

They will be hearing from Anheuser-Busch's legal team shortly.

[SRVolunteer]

The semen and beer thing just kinda came to us...

Well, it would, wouldn't it?

[Juice]

You go to Starbucks for semen lattes, I've heard.

[Lord at War]

The shot was so successful we ended up selling bucketloads of the stuff.

It's my fondest hope that a 23 yr old gender studies major had to do the "harvesting"...

[Fist of Etiquette]

Alabama, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are all pulling state funding for Planned Parenthood.

The road to fiscal responsibility starts with a culture war salvo.

[straffinrun]

So no more Crimson Tide.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

*narrows gaze*

[wareagle]

for some reason, I am untroubled by that. Now, where's our old poster Caleb?

[Mike M.]

If a man can't sell fetus parts, he may as well be in chains.

[gaijin]

Alabama, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are all pulling state funding for Planned Parenthood.

Well what did you expect from all those redneck southern slave states, conducting their war on women, especially women of color.

[Rasilio]

So they're gonna stop taking birth control and pull out instead?

[Bee Tagger]

Donald Trump is accusing Fox debate moderator Megyn Kelly of making up things he's said about women.

Maybe he has binders full of things he said about women and they do not include what Megyn Kelly said.

[gaijin]

he has binders full of things he said about women

He has cards. They are his Trump cards.

[invisible furry hand]

May God have mercy on your soul gaijin, for the justice of man shall not

[gaijin]

My name is gaijin. And i am a pun-o-holic.

My issues with puns started when I was in grade school at around the age of 10, after I developed an anxiety disorder. Like many people who embark on a dependent relationship with puns, I was using wordplay as a form of self-medication to ease the symptoms of a mental health problem.

[Idle Hands]

This why we're number one.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

That picture.

Weird.

[Free Society]

Mascots in general are weird.

[bluecanarybythelightswitch]

'murica. Fuck yeah. Fuck those other pussies.

[Lord Humungus]

There are no liberties left...

Taxi driver who 'asked women to wee in his cab instead of paying' stripped of his licence

Authorities stripped the cabbie of his licence after cops lodged a complaint.

They said that the man, 55, told two women they could have a free fare if they relieved themselves in the back of his taxi.

The driver, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is said to have picked them up in Glasgow city centre in the early hours of the morning in April and June.

The women said he drove them to an unknown location and asked them to urinate.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

She should have taken an Uber.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

Joe from Lowell found work?!

[Citizen X]

He's doing the Lord's work in some of the toughest backseats in Scotland.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

*opera applause*

[Bee Tagger]

Is Russia behind an attack on the Pentagon's email system?

Let's give them 30 seconds to answer and then check in with 9 other countries.

[invisible furry hand]

Thank God for cheap extortionists: Woman pays attacker $20 to not rape her

[Illocust]

Okay, that's just weird.

[Jordan]

According to Harry Reid and Tony, that transaction was voluntary.

[Mr Lizard]

STEVE SMITH NOT CHEAP DATE, JUST SHORT ON RENT

[Idle Hands]

Was he an IRS agent?

[Lord Humungus]

Yes, Carly Fiorina Was Great. But She's Still Not Electable

It's also fair to point out that Fiorina's record, as far as records go, isn't very conservative. But the most daunting political challenge Fiorina will face is answering for her own accomplishments. She broke through the glass ceiling becoming the first woman Fortune 500 CEO. The trouble with a real CEO running for political office is twofold. There's no winning. It doesn't matter if your tenure was outstanding or a dismal failure. Politics is not about merit, or 90 percent of incumbents wouldn't win elections. At some point CEOs fire people. At some point they ruin lives, no matter how good they are at their jobs. Many of those fired faces, some of them with terrible stories to tell, will be on TV. Every transaction is grist for an misleading attack ad. Ask Mitt Romney.

[Fist of Etiquette]

What with that vajj and all.

[Brett L]

So Hillary was a mediocre senator and Poe at all of her other jobs, but Fiorina is unelectable? It's almost as if some people have no morals, only feelings.

[Zeb]

"Politics is not about merit"

And didn't Fiorina do pretty poorly at HP?

I'd still take her over Hillary.

[KDN]

Someone in yesterday's thread likened her to having been promoted as Captain after the ship had hit the iceberg. I've never looked at it in depth, but she became CEO as the tech bubble was popping and the company was merging a crapload of business units into a manageable number, including integrating a separate huge company whose product's margins were turning from value-add to commodity.

A ton of lost jobs and market cap were going to happen regardless of who was in charge, but I have no idea if Fiorina's management made things better or worse than your average Fortune-100 CEO would have.

[Zeb]

I don't really know more than that the company didn't do too well during her tenure as CEO. For all I know she did as well as could be expected, but it still doesn't look great to the masses of people who also can't be bothered to find the details.

[KDN]

Agreed.

[Hyperbolical (wadair)]

But she was the one championing the merger with Compaq. It was Fiorina who wanted to sell off HP's printer division. She downsized the company for the first time in its long history. Fiorina deserves the blame that she gets--and more.

[KDN]

I thought she got in just after the merger. Yeah, that was a massive strategic blunder.

I can't criticize the downsizing without knowing more detail, but when you have 84 operating units it's usually necessary. It's possible that they were all extremely well-oiled machines, but I doubt it.

[CatoTheChipper]

As an HP investor, and customer, before and during her tenure, I followed the company pretty closely. She did fundamentally transform HP, but that was not a good thing. I sold my HP stock around the time of Compaq merger.

In my opinion, and that of the stock market and many employees, Fiorina was a failure as HP CEO. She may have been a great marketing executive at Lucent but, if so, it did not transfer well to HP. HP used to have a solid reputation for awesome product quality; I think the brand was wrecked under her leadership.

Even though I either lost my respect for HP product quality and lost money on a long-term investment in HP during Fiorina's tenure, I'd still prefer her over Hilary-!

[KDN]

She may have been a great marketing executive at Lucent

Probably good training for a job in politics. I bet she'd do well in the Cabinet.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

HP used to have a solid reputation for awesome product quality; I think the brand was wrecked under her leadership.

As an owner of an HP that I bought based on their reputation, I agree. The thing is a piece of shit now. About the same quality as the Compaq I upgraded from.

[wareagle]

let's see: Carly earned a position, Hillary is practically claiming divine right having accomplished nothing on her own, but it's Fiorina who is unelectable.

[lap83]

because the GOP has such a great track record of determining who is electable

[Illocust]

Fairly accurate. Campaigns are when anyone who ever had a grudge gets a chance to air it on national television. With how some people like my grandmother are convinced that the only reason anyone gets fired is because of greed, no one in business ever really stands a chance.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I think she proved she's solid VP material, though.

[Just say Nikki]

I hope someone does pick her for that, because she will be vicious attacking Hillary.

[Rhywun]

Good point. I would like to see that too - and none of the dudes will do what needs to be done in that area.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Big shit? I'm sure politicians fuck people over all the time before getting elected.

She seems like the most sane and sober candidate on both sides.

Strange why she's not doing better.

[Tonio]

War against wimminz. Duh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Kids are learning to swear earlier than they once did.

That's bullshit. I never would have become an adult if knew I could cuss as a child. It's the whole reason I grew up.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I'm 28, I remember swearing when I was 9. I just only did it around my friends.

[Zeb]

I think I was about 5 when I figured out that swearing was a thing.

[Zeb]

It was kind of funny. I had come across the word "fuck" and thought is was a really neat word (of course I had no idea what it meant, or that you weren't supposed to use it all the time) and started using it a lot. Until my parents explained that it wasn't something you should go around saying in most situations.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I can't remember the first time I swore, I just distinctly remember a time when I was 9 and swearing. Basically from the time I entered public school I assume I learned how to swear and that it was cool. And then I quickly learned not to do it around grown ups that had authority over me haha.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My kid is 10 and has long been exposed to swearing but it hasn't entered her lexicon yet; except when she thinks she's being funny with a joke. Which we then reprimand her for.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I think I was about 5 when I figured out that swearing was a thing.

I remember my best friend and I being disciplined by a neighbor at 5 years old for screaming "Jesus Christ!!" at the top of our lungs while we were playing in the front yard.

[PM]

I'm the same age. My friends and I started using mild and then escalating profanity around each other around 13, 14 I guess. By 16-17 we had mouths like sailors, and mild to moderate profanity around the parents became acceptable. My parents were very free with the profanity though, so it wasn't shocking to hear in our household.

[Trigger Hippie]

God! I could cuss like a sailor at the age of six. Handing my father tools as he worked on his car was an enlightening experience. My favorite line, which I can still remember nearly 30 years later, was: "You goddamn mother fucking horse cum dumpster piece of fucking diseased asshole!" Seared into my brain till the day I die.

He said that to the car, not me.

[Rhywun]

I think the big difference today is that teens don't give a shit about swearing in public. I find that kind of sad.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Swearing has lost most of its punch. When 14 year old girls use "fuck" like valley girls used "like," it's just noise.

My wife cusses on occasion, but it's rare enough that I perk up when she does it, because either that means I'm getting laid or that she's about to kill one of my cats.

[invisible furry hand]

Why can't she do both at the same time?

[Citizen X]

In my experience, "both" is possible. The cat has learned to leave the room when things start happenin', lest it be kicked/crushed.

[Warty]

Horseshit. My momma's daddy was a sailor, he taught her how to swear, she taught me how to swear. My daddy's granddad was a farmer, he knew how to swear, he taught my daddy to swear, and my daddy also taught me to swear. The chain of profanity has always joyfully united the generations, and it always will.

[Bee Tagger]

Everybody's weighing in on the winners and losers of last night's first Republican presidential-candidate debates

We can't be far away from a literal awards ceremony to give out awards for performances in debates.

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

Should Liberty Lovers Leave the United States?

Not really the most informative blog post on the subject, just kind of interesting that it showed up at all.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

But what about Canada!!! Should I leave????

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Oh come on, Joe. Canada ain't so bad!

Boring but it does offer a nice, safe, clean alternative, no?

Come to Canada: We're...Here.

[Citizen X]

After all, your national anthem is "Oh... Canada."

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

It is true. Canada pisses me off in a lot of ways, but I cannot say it is better or worse than good old USA USA.

Canada could be a great libertarian alternative if the rural people in each province had more of a say. I've never been to the Yukon but I just can't see those people not being more libertarian by nature of living in the Yukon so far away from Ottawa.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Don't under estimate the long-reach of the derp.

[Free Society]

Smaller political units in this world would yield more libertarian societies. Go ask a Northern Californian or anyone in Illinois that doesn't live in Chicago.

I'm not opposed to leaving the United States for a foreign alternative. My top three choices are Germany, Netherlands or in the vent of a nuclear holocaust and only this one country is left standing, the UK. Mainly because I'll be god damned if I have to learn yet another language.

But for right now, pretty much the only freedoms the US has that trump those other countries are lower taxes, gun rights and fewer hate speech laws. The moment gun rights and taxes stop being what they are, I'm gone.

[Suellington]

I lived for years in the NL. I loved it, but would say that overall there is still more freedom in the Uessay, with guns and taxes being of course the two big ones, along with labor law if you ever think of opening a biz there. There are some freedoms there that are nice. if drugs are your bag, they are not legal, but widely available and they don't generally enforce simple possession. Policing there is much more polite and not nearly so in your face as here.

[Free Society]

Their criminal justice is certainly less punitive because they recognize that victimless crimes aren't worth putting someone in a rape cage. Even producers, like pot growers, if caught will get their assets seized and may do some probation et cetera. But they won't necessarily lose a decade of their life and have their family destroyed, unlike the US justice system, which may be the most draconian justice system in the developed world.

[kilroy]

I just got back from Amsterdam and Prague. Amsterdam was okay but you could see and feel the weight of the EU everywhere. Prague was awesome. They have a really independent attitude and a really strong live and let live culture. I'd consider moving there if things get much worse here.

[Free Society]

In Amsterdam I saw the weight of the EU one day when a gang Morrocan yutes walking down the street, tossing their garbage on the ground, defacing property and calling every blonde woman they walked past a "slut".

[Rhywun]

I'm a city boy so I will hang on as long as I can.

I would stab a fork in my eye if I had to live in the Yukon...

[UnCivilServant]

But when will you recognize freedom of speech and the right to bear arms? If you do that I would be sorely tempted.

[Lord Humungus]

Civil Whites
Why are critics so deferential to the radicalism of Ta-Nehisi Coates?

A hallmark of Coates's style is the lurid metaphor that blurs the past and the present, the imaginary and the real, and incites ideological combat. "In America," he writes, "there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person 10 times, the bleeding stops and the healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife."

From this point, Coates orates, rather than reasons, his way to a reinterpretation of American history. The key concept is "plunder." White Americans did not, as the heroic narrative of civil rights would have it, move from enslaving blacks to excluding them, and then, starting in the 1950s, steadily break down the exclusion until we reached the more equal world of today. No?Coates's argument is one of "structural racism." To this day, society is structured so that whites can continue to rip off blacks. Indeed, they cannot do without blacks, whose exploitation is their main source of prosperity. America's entire democratic Constitution was built on goods robbed under color of law and still rests on that robbery.

[Slammer]

Sez the guy who's sold at least 200,000 copies of a 176 page book at 20$ a pop.

[Monty Crisco]

As Kevin Williamson wrote, Coates would see racism embedded in toaster-oven instructions....

[Tonio]

Because once you go past a certain limit of milquetoast criticism of the fine points or the style of the thing you get labelled as racist. Every single time.

[Tonio]

See, also: Criticism of Israel, accusations of anti-semitism.

[Irish ?s ESB]

See, also: Criticism of Israel, accusations of anti-semitism.

Yup. The Israel thing is tricky though, since there are legitimate critics of Israel, but there are tons of anti-Semites who actually do just hate Jews and project that onto Israel. So people do unfairly get accused of anti-Semitism, but you should go to one of RT or Al Jazeera's videos about Israel.

They really are brutally anti-Semitic.

[Tonio]

True that. There are also still some actual bona fide (anti-black) racists lurking around. Which sucks for the rest of us trying to have a fact-based adult discussion.

[Just say Nikki]

Even if you don't get past it. Look how they jumped all over Freddie deBoer for saying, "I really like him, but he's not James Baldwin, because almost no one is."

[Free Society]

Indeed, they cannot do without blacks, whose exploitation is their main source of prosperity.

I'm not so sure that black labor has produced the vast amount of wealth that surrounds us. Or at the very least, I think its fair to say Uncle Sam's tax policy does a lot of plundering of everyone, probably least of whom are the blacks.

America's entire democratic Constitution was built on goods robbed under color of law and still rests on that robbery.

Whats this democratic Constitution this guy is talking about? I've never heard of it.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Indeed, they cannot do without blacks, whose exploitation is their main source of prosperity.

I need to read the book because if Ta Nahesi Coates actually said this, he's even dumber than I thought.

The North was vastly more powerful than the South at the time of the Civil War because northern capitalism was superior to southern slave agriculture, so clearly 'exploitation' is not the 'source of prosperity' since the most exploitative thing ever done to black people actually retarded southern economic growth.

It's also not a coincidence that the South remained backwards until they did away with segregation and have become vastly richer and more modern since then. Exploiting a minority population actually destroys prosperity because the majority group waste time and money keeping the minority down and the minority has any skills they might possess completely wasted.

Racism actually harms both the victim of racism and the racist, which is yet another reason it's a very bad things.

[Tonio]

They need the narrative of structural racism to keep the outrage alive, and keep them employed. It's also an incredible slap in the face to those of us who have done the hard work of opposing casual racism.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The South owned slaves for economic reasons.
The North owned slaves just because.

Is this the gist of it?

[BigT]

Irish, thanks for the thoughtful post. I never considered it from that angle, but it explains a lot.

[Mike M.]

Jon Stewart hosted his last episode of The Daily Show last night.

It's Jon Leibowitz, and hopefully this will be the last time we ever have to hear his (fake) name.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I never would have guessed he was Jewish.

[Crusty Juggler]

Jon Stewart was Jewish? GTFO!

[Steve G]

He was..until he changed his name. He's transracial.

[Tonio]

Jewish is a religious, not ethnic, identity.

[bluecanarybythelightswitch]

It's ethnic, too.

[Steve G]

Hey everybody! There's a Jew over here, let's get him!!

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart Jon Stewart John Daily Jon Stewart Jon Stewart John Stewart Jon Stewart Jon Daily Jon Stewart Jon Stewart

[KDN]

He also only refers to Charlie Sheen by his given, Mexican name.

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

His favorite musical artists are Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, David Robert Jones, and Prince Roger Nelson.

[AlexInCT]

Emilio Esteves?

[Tonio]

Estevez

[WTF]

Charlie Sheen is Carlos Estevez.

[Chaucer]

Batman '89 was actually portrayed by Michael Douglas as well. True story.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Will Rogers' real name was Ezra Alperowitz. He supplemented his income by working as a mohel.

Jeff Foxworthy? His real name - Israel Dershman. A lineal descendant of Judah Benjamin. If your idea of a kosher meal is fried chicken and Jim Beam - you may be a Jewish redneck.

John Wayne was really Jacob Hirshberg. His movies are filled with covert Zionist propaganda, if you know where to look.

/sarc

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Toby Keith? Actual name, Samuel ben Maimonides.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Interestingly, Miyam Bialik isn't actually Jewish, her real name is Thelma Turnipseed.

[Citizen X]

Eddie here is actually Shlomo, from Brooklyn. He runs a business helping fellow Hasids get in touch with Gentiles who can come by and turn the lights on for them on the Sabbath.

[invisible furry hand]

Jon Stewart are 2 of his 3 birth names. If Madonna, or Cher, or you, Mr M, can drop their surnames, he can too.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

But then we won't know that he's a JOO!!!

[Crusty Juggler]

I have an idea: Jews should be required to wear a large, gold, star of david on the outside of their clothing so that they can no longer hide among us.

[WTF]

Hey, you know who else....

[Citizen X]

Yaser Arafat?

[sarcasmic]

Are YOU brave enough to wear a slashkini? Stars can't get enough of summer's hottest swimwear trend so we sent one brave volunteer to Brighton to find out if it shapes up (with help from a very eager lifeguard)

Dubbed the 'slashkini', the cut-out swimsuit is the hottest holiday trend loved by Nadia Forde and Millie Mackintosh
The daring design is filtering its way into high street stores, with Lipsy offering one for ?35
FEMAIL writer Deni Kirkova headed to Brighton beach clad in the number. But did she like it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....mwear.html
How do you explain the tan lines?

[sarcasmic]

I suppose if you want to look like a zebra...

[Brett L]

its Brighton, so you mean to say "burn pattern".

[sarcasmic]

There once was a girl from Brighton
Whose boyfriend said "My, that's a tight one"
She said "You poor soul"
"You've got the wrong hole"
"But there's plenty of room in the right one!"

[Karl Hungus]

I'm probably going to spend the rest of the morning having to stifle random fits of laughter because of this. Thanks for posting it.

[sarcasmic]

It's my favorite limerick.

[Karl Hungus]

Mine too now.

[Just say Nikki]

Yeah, I have to "explain" swimsuit tan lines a lot. No one's ever seen them before!

[sarcasmic]

For some reason I always took you to be the zebra type.

[Brett L]

I can believe that in Chicago.

[Just say Nikki]

...if only. It's mf hot. And I'm horribly tan.

[Zaytsev]

Whose the fat chick?

[sarcasmic]

[insert John joke here]

[Zeb]

I think she looks quite acceptable.

[Slammer]

ROADZ! SOMALIA!..actually Ethipoia

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

If only they were like us enlightened Westerners who would put a stoplight in so that half those people were sitting with their vehicle idling for minutes at a time.

I wonder what the rate of accidents is in an intersection like that compared to something of equivalent volume here. You definitely can't go into it without paying full attention.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I'll admit that my fear is more about crossing it as a pedestrian, not a driver. But I guess I'm also under the assumption that many American drivers will still be the impatient jerks they are now, if we removed all traffic likes. In reality, most drivers' behavior would adapt.

[Citizen X]

Traffic anarchy FTW.

[commodious spittoon]

This is how I imagine the aliens from The Mote in God's Eye drive.

That's the one thing I remember about the novel fifteen years later.

[Lord Humungus]

Video: Why Should Conservatives Like Libertarian Ideas?

Even more, however?the evidence is again simply overwhelming, I would say?that large and expansive government has a deeply morally corrupting effect, and it in fact destroys the kind of traditional moral values and principles that you, as a conservative, want to uphold. This is the great insight of Lord Acton, that all power tends to corrupt. Power does bad things to people. To the extent that power relations become widespread in human society, they're going to destroy a whole range of moral behaviors amongst the people who participate in these relationships. A society based upon free and equal exchange between individuals is one which is much more likely to promote values of self restraint, self discipline, and adherence to moral standards, than one in which the government has a large and extensive role. And so, for all of these reasons, that's why, if you are a traditionalist conservative or a conservative of any kind, you should also be a libertarian.

[Jordan]

Here's a funny economics joke, courtesy of the fine folks at Samizdata:

Krugman and Bernanke are walking down the street and see a pile of dog shit. Bernanke says "I'll give you twenty thousand dollars to eat that pile of shit." Krugman does it, gets paid, and they keep walking. After a while they see another pile of shit on the road. Seeing an opportunity for revenge, Krugman says "Tell you what, I'll give YOU twenty grand to eat that pile of shit." Bernanke does it, Krugman gives him back the money, and they keep walking. After a while Bernanke says "I'm feeling pretty sick. We both ate shit and neither of us is any richer." Krugman answers "You're missing the bigger picture. We've increased GDP by forty thousand dollars and created two jobs."

A couple of funny images in the comments too.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Thats actually pretty funny, and informative.

[straffinrun]

That's excellent. Thanks.

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

Love it. It's basically an adaptation of the one about the two winos passing the bottle back and forth, paying each other for every drink.

[Lord Humungus]

Iran deal takes hits from Chuck Schumer, GOP candidates

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer dealt a blow to President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, announcing during the Republican presidential debate Thursday night that he planned to vote against the agreement now under review in Congress.

Schumer's opposition hurts the president's efforts to woo the support of Senate Democrats, who he needs to be his bulwark against a likely Republican attempt to override a veto. But although Schumer said in a 1,600-word statement that he would side against the deal, he did not say whether he would vote to override a veto.

[KDN]

Schumer recently had it out with one of his key constituent lobbies over this. It'll be interesting to see if this ends up building to the point where Congress can override Obama's veto. The agreement's broadly unpopular and the Dem leadership is fracturing, so it's a possibility.

[Private Chipperbot]

So when will B.O. tell him he's no different than a mullah?

[Lord Humungus]

Hedge Fund Losses From Commodity Slump Sparking Investor Exodus

While hedge funds are designed to make money in both bull and bear markets, managers have a bias toward wagering on rising prices and that's left them vulnerable in this year's slump, said Donald Steinbrugge, managing partner of Agecroft Partners LLC. The Bloomberg Commodity Index tumbled 29 percent in the past year and 18 of its 22 components are in a bear market.

"No one wants to catch a falling knife, and demand for commodity-oriented hedge funds is very low," said Steinbrugge, whose company helps funds find investors.

[Number.6]

Interesting, but not really news-news.

Commodities funds (particularly) rely on an environment where the underlying investment exhibits trending behavior. Not everything needs to trend at once, but the only way a manager can make significant gains is to have a model that spots a trend up or down early on, and then rides it to an exit point, again, usually just after the direction of the trend reverses.

An old boss of mine explained it thus - of course trends exist - the fed doesn't raise rates for a few quarters, then drop them for a few, and then raise them again. They themselves have a policy that creates a trend. And when you have a fed policy creating a trend in the cost of money, you'll create trends in commodities which are in turn a proxy for money.

Any guesses why commodities haven't had strong trends for managers to exploit in the last 8-10 years?

[Lord Humungus]

Deep-sea creepy crawlies turned into crackers in Japan

Here's a novel treat: a senbei rice cracker made of giant isopods, creepy crawlies from the ocean deeps. The snacks are now on sale at a range of outlets in Japan and are quickly gaining popularity.

Giant isopods resemble pill bugs, their terrestrial counterparts. They are crustaceans, so are distant relatives of crabs. Around 10 cm long, they live at a depth of 600 meters.

They have become popular on the Internet and in aquariums for what some people consider to be their creepy-cute appearance.

The crackers were first produced this spring by a team of deep-sea fishermen led by Kazutaka Hasegawa, 40, from Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. The first batch of 3,500 boxes sold out in a month.

[Just say Nikki]

By "creepy-cute" they mean "horrific and frightening," right?

[Lord Humungus]

yes.
Pic

[Just say Nikki]

Yeah, I checked before asking. wtf

[Irish ?s ESB]

OH MY GOD, MAKE IT GO AWAY

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Those things are frightening.

[SugarFree]

The eyes are the most delicious part.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Nuke it fr-- err, sorry, that's not appropriate right now...

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Too Soon!

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

Oh Nippon, don't ever change!

[Citizen X]

I like how the Japanese response to their waters being infested with giant primeval jellyfish was to start coming up with jellyfish recipes.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

If it's gross or endangered, Japanese will eat it.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

So will Americans, but only on a bet after getting drunk.

[invisible furry hand]

Chris Christie - sashimi or tempura?

[Mr. Paulbotto]

Confit.

[Hamster of Doom]

Winner winner Christie dinner!

[Citizen X]

You gotta braise that fucker.

[BigT]

Whale. Or two.

[SRVolunteer]

THIS IS CETI ALPHA V!!!!

[Elspeth Flashman]

+1 Khhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

[sarcasmic]

'It's just something pretty girls have to put up with': Women share misery of sexual harassment at work on secret-sharing app.... and confess why they didn't report it

Whisper users revealed experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace
Anonymous women were open on secret-sharing app - some for first time
While some have reported the abuse others fear for their jobs and safety

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....isper.html
Depends on what is meant by sexual harassment. I've been accused of it for simply saying "Hello" to a bitch who assumed that anyone who spoke to her wanted to have sex with her.

[Slammer]

""Hello""??? You're a half-step away from a violent rapist. Can't you be taught to not greet other humans?

[Crusty Juggler]

Depends on what is meant by sexual harassment.

Like anyone would exaggerate over an anonymous medium.

[straffinrun]

Now that's a paradox.

[lap83]

'It's just something pretty girls have to put up with'

I say this as a woman who has been sexually harassed at work, but no one feels sorry for you..especially when you phrase it as a "pretty girl problem". Either quit your job or bide your time until you've risen high enough to fire the people you don't like. Sometimes I think people stay stagnant in crappy situations just because they love bitching.

[lap83]

'It's just something pretty girls have to put up with'

I say this as a woman who has been sexually harassed at work, but no one feels sorry for you..especially when you phrase it as a "pretty girl problem". Either quit your job or bide your time until you've risen high enough to fire the people you don't like. Sometimes I think people stay stagnant in crappy situations just because they love bitching.

[lap83]

Everyone sees the harassment I endure from the squirrels, and sure I bitch about it...but that's different.

[Slammer]

What are you wearing?

[lap83]

a hazmat suit

[Crusty Juggler]

And under the hazmat suit...?

[lap83]

long underwear made from squirrel fur

[Citizen X]

Another hazmat suit.

[lap83]

that would've been my second choice, but I wanted to send a message to the squirrels

[PM]

Another hazmat suit. You can never be too sure.

[PM]

Dammit, you have to refresh the page every 30 seconds to get an original comment in around here.

[Citizen X]

Please enjoy the crisp, delicious taste of Them Apples.

[Hamster of Doom]

*slow clap*

Well done, everyone.

[Number.6]

It's hazmat suits all the way down

[wareagle]

even the squirrelz target the pretty women.

[Illocust]

Where the fuck do these people work? Seriously, my coworkers just want to do their job, eat my candy, and then go home. Sexual harassment would be too much work.

[lap83]

That's the thing. There are plenty of workplaces out there where people are productive and decent to each other.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Don't you ever get sick of the massive amounts of sexual harassment you must endure at H&R though?

I mean, it never stops.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Here is a disgusting story that happened at another plant under control of the company I work for:

A custodian who had worked for the company for years in the engineering and support services building was driving down to the US for a holiday or something. He was stopped by the border guards and ended up rubbing them the wrong way so they searched his stuff. They were going through his cell phone and found some videos.

The videos were of him taking cream/milk containers and soup containers from the staff fridge and jerking off into them in the bathroom. He would then replace the containers and video tape the people eating/drinking the contents. Awful, awful stuff. Anyway, the custom guards found out where he worked and informed the police/the company. A few weeks after this rumour started going around, a company wide email went out not saying anything specific but specific enough that it mostly confirmed the rumour.

One of my coworkers then confirmed the story as his buddies wife at the other plant was one of the people video taped.

The nastiest shit I have ever heard. It goes without saying I never leave openable containers in the staff fridge anymore.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Jesus, who has the accuracy to do that in such tight spaces and limited time?

[SugarFree]

eat my candy

Go on...

[Illocust]

I run the candy bar in my office. I've got enough candy in my office to make a Walmart blush. It has helped my popularity just a bit.

[straffinrun]

Yet taking all the guy's shit in a divorce somehow isn't all shush, shush.

[Tonio]

And anonymous, unverifiable accusations are just so believable.

[Brett L]

Too lazy to check, is this the variety of sexual harassment where a woman believes that a man beneath her status is trying to flirt?

[Private Chipperbot]

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

[Lord Humungus]

America is a neoliberal horror movie: Why "They Live" is the perfect film for our depraved times

As I discussed with author Jonathan Lethem several months ago, They Live is a genius film that embraces the culture of disreputability?it is genre entertainment, based on an obscure short story, a professional wrestler is the main character, and the heroes of the movie are an interracial group of homeless, working-class and poor people. For all its B-movie auteur sensibilities, the film is a scathing indictment of the Reagan era, the culture of cruelty and austerity, wealth inequality, plutocrats, corporate media, classism, racism, and greed.

They Live is also an essential film for the current socio-political moment; it has much to teach the American people as they struggle to make sense of wanton police brutality against people of color and the poor in the new Gilded Age, an era of toxic white masculinity, and perverse reactionary right-wing politics.

TW: Salon

[invisible furry hand]

A Yank doing big things down under:

Fake Myer executive who tricked the department store into giving him a $400,000-a-year job used a dodgy resume to fool three other workplaces

[Raven Nation]

60?!?! Are you kidding me?

[invisible furry hand]

I ... cannot... physically .... believe it

[Raven Nation]

The first score I saw was 18-3, the next time I checked there were 5 down and I stopped looking for a couple of hours. Ridiculous.

[invisible furry hand]

It's not just the numbers. It's the knowledge that we were afraid, and the Poms spotted it. A gutless Australian cricketer is an affront against God and nature.

[Raven Nation]

Well said.

[sarcasmic]

Now that's shocking! Watch the moment a police chief gets tasered by one of his own officers after losing Facebook bet

Derek Dyson screamed and had to be restrained as he was tasered by Officer Marc Staff at a local school
Dyson had claimed his force's Facebook page could not get 1,000 new likes
The police department in Danbury already had 600 likes - and there are just 1,600 people living in the Texan town
Within 24 hours the page had reached its target, as word of the bet spread

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....k-bet.html
Pussy. Should have fallen down face-first on cement instead of a pad, like the people he has tased.

[Lord Humungus]

4 ways women are taught to hate their vaginas
Trim, fit, odorless, hairless: Even women's nether regions are subject to scrutiny

Today's beauty standards are tough to keep up with. Women are supposed to be trim, fit, hairless, odorless; the list goes on. It's hard enough to apply these standards to our outward appearance. It's worse when we're asked to apply them to our nether regions. Listed below are four ways society teaches women to worry about their vaginas.

1. The treachery of images: This is not a vagina.

2. Do you smell like fish?

3. Beware of the hairy, scary monster.

4. Keepin' it tight.

more er, details in the SALON link

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Apparently, no female should want to take care of themselves in a way that men find attractive.

[Just say Nikki]

I men find "odorless" vaginas attractive, then no, women shouldn't.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

I don't understand how anyone could think that that is even possible. Smelling hygienic is really all anyone could ask for, from both sexes.

[Crusty Juggler]

On a similar note, if any woman reading this are into men with a very strong (some say overpowering), natural body odor that not even science can defeat, let me know.

[Monty Crisco]

You are not doin yourself any favors here, Jugs...

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

STEVE SMITH? Is that you?

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

I'm not clicking on that shite, but I assume by the use of the phrase "beauty standards" the implication is it's all men's fault. So, do lesbians prefer their partners to have smelly, unkempt genetalia?

[Just say Nikki]

They don't call it "unkempt."

[Monty Crisco]

Dude, it has gone WAY beyond that:

http://www.coolhunting.com/sty.....butch-baby

"Redesigning maternity clothes for the post-gender generation"

Anyone who wants women not act like women and men to not act like men will see where this trend leads. It will not end well.

[Just say Nikki]

Nothing says "not acting like a woman" like being pregnant. Sorry you can't make all butch dykes wear dresses every day.

[Monty Crisco]

No, I am saying just the opposite. If you wish to live in a "post-gender generation", feel fucking free. But don't try to ram this agenda that seeks to convince me that a full 50% of the population "rejects conventional gender identities" down my throat.
Men don't get pregnant. Women do. Own it. Be feminine, but don't be a bitch. And don't act like I made the rules - evolution did that.

[Just say Nikki]

Evolution made rules about how pregnant people should dress?

[Monty Crisco]

Way to miss the point, Nik. And if you think this is just about how people dress, well, then you have REALLY missed the point.

[Just say Nikki]

You're the one who linked to a site about maternity wear.

[Monty Crisco]

Simply to show how their agenda permeates every facet of life for them. These are the people that invented the saying "The personal is political". But go ahead - dress and act like a man. Don't shave anywhere. Wear overalls. The boys will eat it up!

[Just say Nikki]

Why do you think they want the boys to eat it up?

Why should they wear clothes they don't like just because you don't like their agenda?

Seriously, chill the fuck out.

[Hamster of Doom]

Monty, you seem very invested in what butch dykes wear in the third trimester.

I'll just be over here, speculating.

[Warty]

Look, you stupid twats. Every time a bulldyke doesn't wear a dress, a butterfly has its wings ripped off, and that butterfly is America. You stupid cunts.

[Hamster of Doom]

You forgot to tell us that being bitches harms evolution.

Be pretty and do as I say!

[Monty Crisco]

What I am saying is: WEAR WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT but STOP TRYING TO CONVINCE ME THAT EVERYONE IN AMERICA IS FUCKING TRANS OR BI OR GENDERQUEER OR * or whatever. I am sick of the cultural war that the left is constantly waging on people that just want to be left alone. Which is me.

You guys keep this up and I'm not gonna invite you into my fantasy football league.

Sheesh...

[jesse.in.mb]

I get what you're saying, but everyone is boggled by the fact that a designer coming up with a line of clothes for a niche market and slapping some millenial friendly ad copy on it is somehow a culture war being waged on you.

It's the market at work. Some people might be interested in this, it's cool it's different, it's niche, let's see if it sticks!

But somehow you managed to make it about you, not the people being marketed to.

[Monty Crisco]

"But somehow you managed to make it about you, not the people being marketed to"

Just saw it as a symptom of something larger to come, but potato patahto...

[Warty]

It will not end well.

It will end in people...what? Having different aesthetic sensibilities than you? THE HORROR

I thought you were better than this.

[Monty Crisco]

Warty, if you want to be part of the population of pussies that this nation has become that is so pants-shittingly afraid of everything that they are even afraid to identify as a man or a woman. be my guest.
I am all for gay marriage and yada yada yada, but the liberal fascists are not going to stop there. I hate to break this to everybody, but the gay population is a small minority. The OVERWHELMING majority of people are perfectly happy with a conventional gender identity.
But that isn't good enough for the leftists, because it doesn't promote their agenda.
I ain't gonna play that game no more.

[Just say Nikki]

God forbid this tiny minority have companies make the clothes it wants to wear!

[Monty Crisco]

Again, not the point I was making.

[Hamster of Doom]

Preggo jeans will be the downfall of our society! You fail to understand the dire significance!!

[Warty]

Pants-shittingly afraid. Because people want to wear different clothes than you want them to. All right then.

[jesse.in.mb]

Warty, if you want to be part of the population of pussies that this nation has become that is so pants-shittingly afraid of everything that they are even afraid to identify as a man or a woman.

Wouldn't identifying with comfortable gender stereotypes be the path of least resistance there? If one is afraid of everything one doesn't go out and present oneself publicly in a way that causes squares such as yourself to get their nose out of joint.

You don't prefer this aesthetic and that's fine but you're creating a weird narrative about it in your head that probably needs reexamining.

[Warty]

You're just afraid to fuck women like a good godfearing American man, Jesse. That would be too hard, wouldn't it.

[jesse.in.mb]

Dude, I hear they have teeth down there.

[Monty Crisco]

No, they don't - and their gums are in terrible shape!!!!

[Monty Crisco]

I am gonna agree with you on that one, Warty. Good point and well articulated.

[Warty]

Did you just call me a black man that you'd feel comfortable taking home to your parents?

[Monty Crisco]

Yes. Yes, I did.

[Monty Crisco]

If you think the left isn't mortally invested in a "post-gender" future, then you are the one that needs to reexamine your thinking.

[Illocust]

If you've gotten to the point he can see it, he probably doesn't care as long as it doesn't look like it will give him sores on his junk or you're asking for oral.

[Citizen X]

Vaginas are awesome. That is all.

[The Last American Hero]

To be fair, there are only 2 things on Earth that smell like fish, and one of them is fish.

[straffinrun]

Is the other *this* finger?

[straffinrun]

Oops, *that* one smells like &%$#!!. Try *this* one.

[straffinrun]

Oops, *that* one smells like &%$#!!. Try *this* one.

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

Well which one is it god damn it?

[Citizen X]

They ALL smell like shit.

[straffinrun]

Hey, I don't make jokes about your sister.

[Mr Lizard]

There is a matriarchal mammal joke just waiting in the shadows to pounce

[SugarFree]

To be fair, it's really more reminiscent of fresh scallops than anything else.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

What kind of fish?

/ducks.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Red Snapper

[Lord Humungus]

+1 Led Zeppelin

[BigT]

Bearded clam

[Lord Humungus]

10 ways Bernie Sanders would make the economy work for everyone

1. Stop corporations from using offshore tax havens to avoid U.S. taxes. Each and every year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the wealthy and large corporations. The situation has become so absurd that one five-story office building in the Cayman Islands is now the "home" to more than 18,000 corporations.

2. Establish a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street speculators. Both the economic crisis and the deficit crisis are a direct result of the greed and recklessness on Wall Street. Creating a speculation fee of just 0.03 percent on the sale of credit default swaps, derivatives, options, futures, and large amounts of stock would reduce gambling on Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the job-creating productive economy, and reduce the deficit by $352 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

3. End tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas and coal companies. If we ended tax breaks and subsidies for big oil, gas, and coal companies, we could reduce the deficit by more than $113 billion over the next ten years.

etc...

[John]

I love number 1. A hundred billion dollars would totally solve our deficit problem. And there would be no issue with getting that money. The evil corporations would just hand it over and continue to operate as before.

[Frankjasper1]

They could have summed the entire article up in two words: more taxes

Not sure how that makes the economy work for everyone.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

So.

We accepted our second Muslim family at the daycare.

Well.

Isn't the kid a special case. Among other things, he complained to the educator the boys didn't want to play with him. The educator suggested he play with the girls. He responded 'no, I don't play with girls. It's the boys in the front and girls in the back.'

Niiice.

My liberal sister is on the war path.

[Mike M.]

It's America's fault the kid turned out this way. Probably Canada's too, somehow.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Among other things, he complained to the educator the boys didn't want to play with him. The educator suggested he play with the girls. He responded 'no, I don't play with girls. It's the boys in the front and girls in the back.'

Oh, Jesus. I'm glad in America that we seem to have more Muslims like Arian Foster's dad and fewer Muslims who spend their days howling about the need for gender segregation.

I assume you know about the time Muslims were having a prayer before school in a Vancouver school cafeteria and the adult leading the prayer forced all the girls who were menstruating to sit separately from everyone else.

[invisible furry hand]

They all bore the scarlet letter

[Just say Nikki]

Look, if teenage girls don't want to be embarrassed by grown adults asking if they're on their period, there's a pill for that, Irish.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes. It's interesting to observe how people react to seeing how the Muslim religion acts in real time.

It really is abhorrent.

Then again, my other Muslim kid is not like that. The father isn't nuts about his religion.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

The non-practicing Muslims (like a former employee of mine) are no different than others, really.

[PM]

I assume you know about the time Muslims were having a prayer before school in a Vancouver school cafeteria and the adult leading the prayer forced all the girls who were menstruating to sit separately from everyone else.

If they're allowed to use the school facilities for prayer, then why would that be a problem if it's in accordance with their religious practice? Unless you mean they made the non-Muslim students participate as well.

[Irish ?s ESB]

They should be allowed to do it, but I don't have to see that behavior as a good thing. I think it's repellent to shame teenage girls for being on their period and tell them they're 'unclean' due to natural biological processes.

Furthermore, I don't know that you can really say a minor has chosen her own religious practices. Most of us just adhere to our parents' religion until we get older. So I think there's something very wrong with parents indoctrinating their kids into a religion that tells them they're impure.

I also think some libertarians need to learn the difference between opposing something morally and arguing someone legally shouldn't be allowed to do it.

[SugarFree]

So I think there's something very wrong with parents indoctrinating their kids into a religion that tells them they're impure.

It there a religion that doesn't do this?

[Irish ?s ESB]

Buddhism, maybe. I'm an atheist, so you don't have to convince me there's a problem with religious belief generally, but that doesn't mean all irrational religious beliefs are equal.

A religion that says 'don't have sex until marriage because it's unclean' is objectively better than a religion that says 'in addition to not having sex until marriage, you have to stay away from men when you're menstruating because for those 3-4 days you are so dirty that no one should be near you.'

[SugarFree]

Even Buddhism is based around rejecting the material world. And early Christianity had the same fucked up menstruation taboos as Judaism.

And all three still go on about Onanism, and masterbatuion is at least as natural as menstruation.

[PM]

you have to stay away from men when you're menstruating because for those 3-4 days you are so dirty that no one should be near you.'

Pretty much all of the ritual purity laws are similarly arbitrary (you have to take the same steps, for example, after having a wet dream or sacrificing an animal, which is also a thing). Of all the things you could shit a brick about in Islam and Judaism, that's pretty far down the list of the most egregious rules.

[Just say Nikki]

What do you think rates of animal sacrifice vs. menstruation look like in modern-day Vancouver? And why do you think the guy leading the prayer didn't ask about who'd had a wet dream lately?

[PM]

What do you think rates of animal sacrifice vs. menstruation look like in modern-day Vancouver?

Couldn't tell ya, but I think the whole "kill an animal to appease our angry god" thing is arguably as weird or weirder than the "don't touch anyone while you're menstruating" thing. 3,000 year old laws written for agrarian Bedouins in general don't translate that well to a modern social context, your SJW hobbyhorse notwithstanding.

And why do you think the guy leading the prayer didn't ask about who'd had a wet dream lately?

I don't know that he (or she) didn't - I never heard of the story until Irish referenced it, and he didn't mention it.

[PM]

I also think some libertarians need to learn the difference between opposing something morally and arguing someone legally shouldn't be allowed to do it.

I understand that distinction very well - I raise it frequently around these parts myself. I assumed you brought up the fact the students did so in a public school for exactly that reason, so I guess I assumed too much.

As far as the ritual purity laws in Islam and Judaism, well, I'm not Muslim or Jewish, so I don't really care myself. FWIW, there are many such laws that apply to men in those religions as well.

[Tonio]

I'm sorry you're having to deal with that. I also realize you probably have no practical way to refuse service without falling afoul of the government, particularly if they can establish a pattern of discrimination. Assume they aren't above using fraud ("testers") as the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development did in the seventies.

Your best hope is that he makes another child, or preferably group of children, uncomfortable. Sounds like he's already a right little misogynist.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Well, it is tough but we *could* refuse. You just have to be coy about it. No different than how people refuse people an apartment.

We're professional so we'll roll with it but it's something to keep in mind.

[ant1sthenes]

You can, however, assertively push feminist (in the good sense) values that piss his parents off enough to go elsewhere. If they do make a big deal out of it, there's a bonus in that you get to roll the golden apple in between feminist progs and dhimmi progs.

[DEG]

Good luck.

[Warty]

Tell him that Islam is the worst religion in the world and that people who are weak-minded enough to obey it deserve all the scorn they get. Tell him that every day. Plant the seed of doubt.

[Illocust]

That's not a seed of doubt. That's harassing a kid for parroting their parents. Also, the kids going to end up more fundy if you make him feel like he's under attack like that.

[Lord Humungus]

I keep expecting Swiss Servator to break into a drug-induced Agile Cyborg-ish rant.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

Too beat down to swim through the whirling fibers of post surgery and find the sweet fucking zone of oxy and light where I want you all to experience my satori and peace....

Howzabout that?

[Just say Nikki]

Oxy? They didn't give you dilaudid for that?

[DEG]

It's a good start.

[Slammer]

*narrows planetary galactic orgasms assfuck shrooms*

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

Now THAT was spot on....nicely done!

[Crusty Juggler]

It's lacking very explicit sexual details.

[Mr Lizard]

Caution mammals, an Agile Cyborg sighting before dark generally means The Machine is about to attack

[Good News, Everyone!]

- Jon Stewart hosted his last episode of The Daily Show last night.

Well... bye.

[Crusty Juggler]

+1 huckleberry.

[Ken Shultz]

Where does Donald Trump stand on abortion?

P.S. Abortion.

[Lord Humungus]

You're worse than Hitler...

[Ken Shultz]

How come nobody asks Trump any really interesting questions?

Has Donald Trump ever paid for one of his many conquests to get an abortion?

Mr. Trump, if you were a woman, would you ever get an abortion?

What about abortion, Mr Trump?

P.S. Abortion!!!

[PM]

Good piece in the latest Forbes issue on NIMBYism:

Nimby Nation: The High Cost To America Of Saying No To Everything

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Houston Texans Running Back Arian Foster comes out of the closet....as an atheist

Arian Foster went to college in Tennessee and now plays for the Houston Texans. He's surrounded by the bible belt. And yet, the running back has decided to come forward and admit to the world that he doesn't believe in god, making him the first active professional athlete in the U.S. to fight for secular Americans like him.

"Everybody always says the same thing: You have to have faith," he told ESPN The Magazine. "That's my whole thing: Faith isn't enough for me. For people who are struggling with that, they're nervous about telling their families or afraid of the backlash ... man, don't be afraid to be you. I was, for years."

The running back was raised Muslim in Albuquerque, New Mexico, praying "five times a day," he said. His father, a religious "free thinker," pushed him to question everything around him, including his faith.

Foster had discussed religion in the locker room before with the Houston Chronicle.

"I used to believe in a single god and things like that," Foster said. "As I started to grow into my own being, I just kind of felt, my big thing is I don't know. Nobody does."

[Idle Hands]

He just got injured and is out for the year. Checkmate atheists.

[John]

Well it is not like God is going to help him better.

[Private Chipperbot]

His injury is listed as a groin separation...Oof.

[John]

Do you know how much that hurts? It is not you balls that hurt. It is your groin muscle. You don't realize it until you pull it or tear it, but you use your groin muscle pretty much every time you move your body. It is fucking torture to have a pulled or strained groin.

[Private Chipperbot]

Yeah. I had one that kept me out of hockey for almost nine months. I could move forward and back fine, but any lateral movement shot needles through my abdomen and inner thigh. It sucked.

[Enough About Woodchippers]

For me, it was fucking a girl while standing up in the shower. She wrapped her legs around me, I slipped a little, took the bulk of weight on my johnson and pulled my groin muscle. 40 years later and it still hurts a little.

[Enough About Woodchippers]

bulk of her weight

[Dark Lord of the wood chipper]

Are the Texans still a zone blocking team? If they are, it probably won't hurt too much. Just find an athletic guy and teach him to read a couple of keys.

[John]

I saw that. I can't figure out why anyone should care. ESPN is getting pretty desperate for victim groups I guess.

[sarcasmic]

To be fair, it is pretty taboo to be openly atheist. For the most part I tend to keep it to myself. Mostly because of idiots like you who can't understand that a lack of faith doesn't mean faith in something other than God.

[John]

Sure but he hasn't seemed to have hurt his career. Before he got hurt he was one of the most valuable and respected players on the team. To the extent he doesn't have it as good as other elite players, it is because he is a running back and running backs just are not valued very much by the league today.

It is not like any coaches or teammates have shown any inclination to not want him on the team or anything.

[ant1sthenes]

"Mostly because of idiots like you who can't understand that a lack of faith doesn't mean faith in something other than God."

Hey, it's not our fault that an accusation like that is true more often than not for "atheists". Blame all the state-worshippers and personality cultists out there.

[Irish ?s ESB]

The running back was raised Muslim in Albuquerque, New Mexico, praying "five times a day," he said. His father, a religious "free thinker," pushed him to question everything around him, including his faith.

Good for him. And his dad seems like a good guy.

Incidentally, Foster also voted for Ron Paul in 2012.

[Tonio]

"Arian..."

[R C Dean]

I know. He can't even spell it right.

[Ken Shultz]

Incidentally, there's a common belief out there that the faith spectrum goes from atheist to agnostic, on one side, and then faith on the other. And that's really annoying.

Actually, anybody that's uncertain about their beliefs is "agnostic", and believers who are cautiously optimistic about there being a God--but not 100% sure--are just as agnostic as anybody. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that faith requires a certain amount of uncertainty. If you're 100% certain about something, what you have isn't faith. It's probably arrogance.

To adapt an Orwell phrase, the real division is not between theists and atheists but between the dishonest and the uncertain.

History's most horrible people were all alike in that they were sure that they were right.

"And yet, the running back has decided to come forward and admit to the world that he doesn't believe in god, making him the first active professional athlete in the U.S. to fight for secular Americans like him."

When they say he's fighting for other people like him, what does that actually mean?

If being interviewed by the Huffianna Post is fighting for other people, then wow.

[wareagle]

my big thing is I don't know. Nobody does
----

and that's why it is called faith. By the way, that quote is not emblematic of atheism.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, I think he's a theist--he just equates uncertainty with not believing.

Since everybody (worth listening to) is uncertain to some extent, "agnostic" is practically meaningless. The only people who should call themselves agnostic are the people who, when threatened with death to say whether there's really a God, would reach into their pockets and flip a coin because they're not persuaded one way or the other.

Being uncertain about the absolute truth isn't a unique philosophical stance. Being uncertain about what you believe is a precondition for rational discourse.

If specifying that we're agnostic about something means anything, it should mean that we have no opinion one way or the other. We could go either way on the issue given what we know now--is what "agnostic" should mean--not that we're unsure.

Carpenters measure twice because they only want to cut once, but we're absolutely sure there's a God (or not)?

[Mike M.]

Wow. So basically, he just told the entire world that he's an apostate from Islam.

You've got serious balls, Arian. Good luck to you my friend, and please watch your back, because hundreds of millions of people around the world now think that you deserve to be killed.

[John]

That is a really great point. I hadn't thought about it that way. And yeah, that takes balls and I wish him luck. You have to really respect him for having that kind of courage.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

"As I started to grow into my own being, I just kind of felt, my big thing is I don't know. Nobody does."

Wouldn't this actually make him an agnostic?

[Ken Shultz]

No!

It just means he's rational.

"My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me" didn't make Jesus agnostic either.

It's just that rationality requires a certain amount of uncertainty.

Christianity is founded on the principle of uncertainty. It was a synthesis of an all powerful loving God with the excruciating crucifixion of a perfectly innocent man. How could a loving omnipotent God let that happen?

Although they don't talk about the uncertainty of their faith, Muslims deal with the same thing. It's even more complicated because they believe in predestination. When Serbian irregulars overrun a Muslim hospital and bayonet all the premature babies in their incubators, they experience uncertainty about whether everything that happens is God's will, too. And the rational among them soldier on (no pun intended) with their faith despite their uncertainty.

Show me a Muslim who is absolutely sure that they're right, and I'll show you ISIS. Show me a communist who is absolutely sure that he's right, and I'll show you Pol Pot. Show me a nationalist who is absolutely sure he's right, and I'll show you Godwin's law. Show me a progressive who is absolutely sure he's right, and I'll show you Tony.

The faithful don't scare me, but Dog save us all from people who are absolutely sure they're right.

[Enough About Woodchippers]

"My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me"

Actually, he was preaching the Psalms while hanging on the cross. It had nothing to do with a faltering of faith.

[Ken Shultz]

Read what I wrote again.

I didn't say his faith was faltering.

I said his faith prevailed despite moments of uncertainty.

I said that faith probably doesn't exist without uncertainty.

It doesn't take any faith to believe that 1 + 1 = 2.

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

Looting Sweeps Venezuela as Hunger Takes Over

joe from lowell hardest hit. Just kidding, cognitive dissonance is all in a days' work for him.

[Jordan]

Mmm, that's some fine equality there.

/american socialist

[DEG]

Yeah, they're stickin' it to the man!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

You forgot the Amsoc greeting.

[Monty Crisco]

HI, RUFUS!!

Just wondering: Why do you defend greedy fatcat 1%ers who would love to make a profit margin on AIDS-infected orphan puppies when you could feed, clothe and care for the entire population on just a 100% income tax?

/amsoc

[SugarFree]

Look, maybe democracy just makes you uncomfortable. But this is democracy. TRUST DEMOCRACY

[Ken Shultz]

"During the first half of 2015, the Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict (OVCS) registered no fewer than 132 incidents of looting or attempted looting at various stores throughout the country. In addition, Venezuelan consumers staged over 500 protests that condemned the lack of available products at state-run grocery stores, markets, and pharmacies."

Not only was this foreseeable, it was also foreseen.

[John]

http://pjmedia.com/diaryofamad.....ews-night/

Since she wasn't at the top tier debate, Fiorina instead did the world a great service by making a complete fool of Chris Matthews.

Republicans are fools if they don't take her more seriously. People talk about her record at HP but seem to forget that politicians and media people are generally stupid. Even the dimmest CEO of a major corporation is smarter than the smartest politician or media personality. There are smart people in government, but they are not the politicians running it.

Fiorina brings the most important skill a president can have; the ability to charismatically make a case for an issue to the country. The lack of this ability more than anything is why Obama and Bush were so divisive and bad for the country. Neither one of them were able to make a case to the entire country for issues and relied on appealing to the base and shoving what they wanted down the other side's throat. Good Presidents, move public opinion on issues and force the other side to compromise or pay a political price for not doing so. Fiorina could do that.

[Spoonman.]

Holy shit, that was epic.

[John]

Fiorina is great. Why can't people see that? Who gives a shit that she isn't a career politician? I was under the impression politicians suck and not being one is a good thing.

[Old Man With Candy]

Fiorina is great. Why can't people see that?

Being a great persuader is dangerous if the thing you're selling is poison.

[John]

Sure, except that she is not selling poison as far as I can tell. If you think she is, I would be curious to hear what that is and how it is any worse than what other people are selling.

[Lord Humungus]

Vulnerable Australians Are Being Tricked into Running Drugs for Syndicates

The individuals, who are largely elderly, mentally ill, or underage, are believed to have been lured via email scams into becoming mules for millions of dollars worth of drugs.

The couriers, reportedly carrying large amounts of Methamphetamine (commonly known in Australia as "ice") through China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Of these countries, China and Malaysia have the death penalty for drug trafficking.

In many cases, contact was initially made via email. Father John Wotherspoon is an Australian prison chaplain who regularly visits Australians in Hong Kong jails. Speaking to the ABC about victims' similar experiences with online scams he said: "Some of them were in contact with internet people for more than a year...and eventually tricked into coming to Hong Kong, and then tricked into carrying a bag back to Australia. Nearly all of them have the same story: that they were given the bags at the last minute before they had much of a chance to check."

[John]

I am sorry but no one who is not on the Aspy scale is dumb enough to take a bag from a stranger on an international flight without looking to see what is in it. No way no how. These people knew what they were doing. I am not buying it.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

The individuals, who are largely elderly, mentally ill, or underage

Looks like you're right, John.

[John]

Pardon me, I lost my mind for a moment and had the delusional idea that a prosecutor would never prosecute someone who was obviously not competent to understand what they were doing.

[Karl Hungus]

Years ago, I had some guy walk up to me at LAX and ask me to carry a bag through security for him. I declined. To this day, I wonder what was in that bag.

[R C Dean]

"Sure." [tosses bag to security on the way through] "Hey, you guys might wanna check this. Some guy asked me to carry it for him. I told him I would, just to keep some poor idiot from actually trying to."

[John]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....e25849312/

Atheist minister fights church efforts to fire her. This story is not about religion but about how narcissistic Western Society has become. If the woman stopped believing in the existence of God, you would think she would have enough respect for herself and her employer to leave. One would think that minister would be the last job an atheist would want. Perhaps saner times that would be the case. In today's me world she expect the Church to conform to her. The entire world is about her and her needs and desires. The idea that your beliefs and decisions have consequences and choosing to renounce the core mission of your employer necessarily means finding a new job is just not how it works in our brave new world of "I, Me, Mine". Nope, she can believe anything she wants and the entire rest of the world is expected to conform to it I guess.

[Irish ?s ESB]

What a fucking idiot. Go join the Unitarians or something.

[John]

It is just so disrespectful of pretty much everyone. She manages to insult atheists as much as believers. You claim not to believe in God but you still want to keep your job running a church? Really?

[sarcasmic]

I've spoken to a couple priests who quietly told me they were closet atheists. They believed in the morality of the Word, but not in the existence of God. Her mistake was opening her big mouth. I think it's entirely possible to accept the moral teachings of religion on the rational basis that society works better when the people behave in a moral manner, without necessarily believing that the morality must come from an invisible man who will judge you after you die.

[John]

Sure it is possible but you are living a lie. Those Priests were admitting that their entire careers were lies and that they have so little respect for people they think that lying to them is the best way. That is appalling. If you don't believe in God and still want to encourage people to practice your made up morality, fine, go preach your morality without lying about God to get people to believe you.

To me it is like becoming a pacifist but still accepting command of the 82nd Airborne. I don't see how anyone with any conscience or sense of morality would want to live their entire career based on a lie.

[sarcasmic]

His point of view was that if fear of eternal judgement was what it took to get people to behave in a moral manner, then he would encourage them to do so. He was making society a better place by giving people something to believe in that kept them from engaging in uncivil behavior towards others. From my point of view, believing in something that cannot be proven, like an invisible man in the sky who will judge you after you die, is living a lie.

[John]

I don't think you ever make society a better place by living a lie. And if he thinks the point of the religion was to get people to act better by threatening them, he never understood it to begin with.

. From my point of view, believing in something that cannot be proven, like an invisible man in the sky who will judge you after you die, is living a lie.

From my point of view pretending that the various things you think are "moral" are that way because you think so or have some unique access to the truth that those who disagree with you don't is living an even bigger lie. You can't prove God doesn't exist but you sure as hell can say that without God no one has any better claim on the truth and morality than anyone else.

[sarcasmic]

because you think so or have some unique access to the truth

Um, no. I've explained it to you a dozen times, but you're willfully obtuse on the subject. Just like another turd who frequents this forum.

[John]

Again, why are you right and the people who disagree wrong? Are they not reasonable too? Do they not mean just as well? And if their morality works for them and makes them happy, who are you or I to say it is wrong? I don't see how the Aztec who went to the temple every year to do his human sacrifice lived a less moral life than I do. Sure, I wouldn't want to do it and the idea is repulsive but he would probably say the same about me. Without appealing to a higher authority, I can't say he is wrong only that I don't like it.

[sarcasmic]

Again, why are you right and the people who disagree wrong?

I never asserted that.

[sarcasmic]

All I've said is that from my point of view, society functions better when people are nice to each other. If they're nice to each other because they fear eternal retribution, because they follow the NAP, fear of the government, or whatever their reason, then that's great. The end.

[Number.6]

These priests would,I suspect, be Anglicans.

[Irish ?s ESB]

My personal favorite part is that she doesn't understand the Bible.

What's important, she says, is that her views hearken to Christianity's beginnings, before the focus shifted from how one lived to doctrinal belief in God, Jesus and the Bible.

There was never a time when belief in God wasn't a part of Christianity, you fucking fool. Jesus started Christianity. His ministry was based on the existence of God. Hence, the very origins of Christianity are founded on God existing.

This is just unbelievable. And it's not just that she's an atheist, she's been actively engaged in disruptive behavior:

Vosper made her views clear as far back as a Sunday sermon in 2001 but her congregation stood behind her until a decision to do away with the Lord's Prayer in 2008 prompted about 100 of the 150 members to leave. The rest backed her.

So you eliminated a major aspect of church service and are surprised the church leaders are unhappy with your behavior.

[John]

It is the whole idiotic "Jesus was just a really cool teacher" bullshit. God I hate that. I have less respect for that view than I do for the people who deny Jesus ever existed. Whatever Jesus was, he was a really intense guy who mad really radical claims. He wasn't some groovy hippie preaching love in the desert.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

It is the whole idiotic "Jesus was just a really cool teacher" bullshit.

Yep.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

This was the quote I was looking for:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic ? on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg ? or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

-C.S. Lewis

[PM]

Atheist minister

Is this from The Onion?

Maybe she can tour with Clayton Bigsby.

[Monty Crisco]

OR Rachel Dolenzal!!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I never understood why people fight to keep a job their employers don't want them to have.

You're not welcomed. Move on, man.

[sarcasmic]

I agree.

[straffinrun]

I work for the govt (really) and ask myself that question often.

[Karl Hungus]

This is no different than if some top exec at Microsoft publicly stated that he hated Windows and that he only used Macs.

If you're disloyal to the brand, you've gotta go.

[Citizen X]

What about the time Yahoo couldn't get more than a quarter of its employees to use Yahoo Mail?

[Karl Hungus]

I've always wondered what would happen if a guy who worked at a Coca-Cola bottling plant was seen by a manager drinking a Pepsi on his lunch break . . .

[invisible furry hand]

Australia's disgusting racism hits a new low

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

Mmmm....long pig....

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I laughed.

What can I say?

[Brett L]

After a comment by a friend during the debate last night, I shall now refer to Mike Huckabee as "Manservant... Huckubus!"

[Private Chipperbot]

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

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Surprise: Chris Christie wrong about basic facts in exchange with Rand Paul

The real doozie here is Chris Christie's claim that he "was appointed U.S. attorney by President Bush on September 10th, 2001."

On December 7, 2001 ? three months after the attacks ? President Bush released this notice of nomination.

Christie was confirmed quickly and started as US Attorney in January 2002.

Now, maybe Bush spoke with his big New Jersey fundraiser Chris Christie and assured him the payoff ? in the form of a key appointment ? would be coming. Maybe that conversation even happened on September 10.

But it is not the case that he was nominated on September 10.

And there's a far bigger subtext here.

Christie implies he was involved in the dragnet in question. He was US Attorney from January 2002 to December 2008 ? so he in fact would have been in office during the two years when the phone dragnet worked through the Servic?um, Surveillance court, and four years of the Internet dragnet. But if, as he implies, he was involved in the dragnet for the entire span of his tenure ? and remember, there were huge cases run out of Trenton right out of 9/11 ? then he was also using the fruits of illegal wiretapping to do his job. Not Servic ? um, Surveillance court authorized dragnets and wiretaps, but also illegal wiretaps.

[John]

Paul killed him in that exchange. The problem is that as much as I like Paul he doesn't have a lot of charisma. He won that exchange but did so without really seeming like he did.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

Right now the only thing Paul has to do is distinguish himself from the crowd, and not fall into that "blame America" trap that his father did. By standing up for the 4th amendment in that exchange with Fatso he distinguished himself as the only Libertarian option in the race, and by blaming ISIS for terrorism he avoided the trap that his father fell into during his run.

I think this debate was a huge success for Paul.

[John]

I hope so. And if everyone thought like you and I do, it no doubt would be true. I am just not so sure that is the case. The people who agreed with FATSO and think that there is some magic way of stopping terrorists if only we get rid of the 4th Amendment likely think Fatso got the better of things.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

True, but Rand wasn't going to win over those people anyways, but thats ok, because the "we must defeat the terrorists at all costs, fuck the constitution" vote is divided up amongst a number of Republican candidates. Rand just had to present himself as the one alternative to that, which I think he did.

As long as the anti-4th amendment vote remains divided between a number of candidates then Rand can win on that issue.

At least thats my opinion.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I think he could have called out the "we must defeat the terrorists at all costs, fuck the constitution" crowd more directly. He should have waited until Tubby finished and simply said:

Governor, when you trample on the Constitution you are a thousand times more threatening to America than the terrorists could ever be.

[DEG]

Coast Guard seizes $181 million worth of cocaine

The U.S. Coast Guard seized 12,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $181 million when it intercepted a semi-submersible vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean last month.

I'm certain we'll win the War on Drugs at some point.

[Slammer]

The other 49 semi-submersible vessels got through. They always send a slow one to get caught on purpose.

[DEG]

North Korea is best Korea and now was best time zone too!

State news agency, KCNA, has announced that North Korea will set its clocks back by 30 minutes to "Pyongyang time" on August 15--the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan.

That will reset the time to GMT+08:30, as it was before Japanese colonization.

"The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land with 5 000 year-long history and culture and pursuing the unheard-of policy of obliterating the Korean nation," KCNA reported on Friday.

[Chipper Chipping Rodrigue]

So Reason has had a few RAND2016 banner ads, especially during the debate thread last night. One of them said "donate... and chip in". Or something like that. I was pretty buzzed. Was that specifically targeted towards the HnR crowd?

[PM]

The ads you're served are based on your browsing history or ad profile based on Google Analytics, in all likelihood.

[Citizen X]

If a woodchipper can do double duty as a dog whistle, then yes, there have been a number of dog whistles lately.

[Free Society]

'Only Rosie O'Donnell': How Trump responded when Megyn Kelly accused him of calling women 'fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals' - but now he hits back at 'unfair' questioning

Hit back: O'Donnell was at a hip-hop musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton but tweeted within minutes of Trump's insult to her

A hip-hop musical about Alexander Hamilton. Jesus titty fucking Christ. Cultural entropy is progressing quickly.

[Jordan]

His feud with Aaron Burr was dope, yo.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

The 18th century Tupac v. Biggie.

[John]

In fairness to Trump, how is calling O'Donnell what she is calling all women that? It seems to me the people who are associating O"Donnell with all women are the misogynists here.

[Just say Nikki]

Trump did not only say those things about O'Donnell, John, and Kelly called him out on that.

[John]

Who did he say them about? And what does that have to do with the debate? I can't stand Trump but I think wasting time playing gotcha on old statements is a waste of time in the debate. You should ask questions that all the candidates can have an opinion on. The point is to figure out who stands for what and who can make the most compelling case for those issues, not make everyone explain whatever gaffes or negative points they have.

Kelly unsurprisingly did a shitty job. It is funny to hear conservatives turn on her. For years I have been saying she is a total mediocrity who got where she is because of her looks and her various conservative fan boys have ran to her defense saying how smart she was. What a crock. Am very much enjoying watching all of them realize she is exactly what I said she was.

[Just say Nikki]

Who is turning on her? Other than Trump, everyone last night thought she was the star of the debate. She was excellent.

She asked whether Trump thought he was appropriate presidential material given his frequent insulting comments about women's looks. If you don't think that's a good question, considering Trump is less about policy and more about acting like a professional dbag, I don't know what to tell you.

[John]

The conservative blogshere is. The commenters on instapundit who are normally some of her biggest defenders are all over her this morning. The consensus is that she hijacked the debate to go after Trump and ended up hurting all of the other candidates. Fox News and Kelly in particular are taking it on the chin this morning. And this is not from Trump supporters. The whole thing seemed like a set up to go after Trump, which is fine and all except that it was supposed to be a debate that allowed all of the candidates to make their case and get exposure.

And I don't think that is an illegitimate question. it is just a question that needs to be asked in a one on one interview with Trump not in a debate. What the hell were the other candidates supposed to say to that?

[Just say Nikki]

With 10 candidates on stage, they didn't all respond to every question. Last night on Twitter, consensus was it was the best-moderated debate folks had ever seen. I would 100% sign on with that. And no, candidates don't always end up looking good after a well-moderated debate.

I haven't seen a substantive complaint yet. I've seen a lot of misogynistic vitriol.

[PM]

I've seen a lot of misogynistic vitriol.

You really should try and get off Tumblr once in a while.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Last night on Twitter, consensus was it was the best-moderated debate folks had ever seen.

Yeah, I've read the feed on that, and it's telling that most of those compliments seem to be coming from Beltway media figures, not from the GOP proles. For every one complimenting her performance, there's about 10 telling her to fuck off. That's hardly a "consensus."

[R C Dean]

Since when does anybody give a shit what the consensus on Twitter is?

That's like getting investment advice from YouTube comments.

[Citizen X]

Last time i took investment advice from YouTube comments, i ended up buying way too many shares of "lol u faggit" Inc. and got soaked.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Other than Trump, everyone last night thought she was the star of the debate.

Yeah, if your definition of "everyone" is the bobbleheads on the Fox News after-panel. She's been getting trip-hammered by Fox News viewers on their social media sites--and the problem is, the other candidates need these people to vote for them to even have an outside chance of winning the general.

Face it, Kelly massively fucked up by not pinning down Trump on actual policy issues instead of KULTURWAR bullshit that no GOP voter will ever care about. Instead, she unwittingly handed him a platform to do what he does best--troll the shit out of establishment figures, and piss off more of the GOP base that FOX is trying to rally behind Rubio or Jeb.

She asked whether Trump thought he was appropriate presidential material given his frequent insulting comments about women's looks.

As if GOP voters are going to consider Trump blasting Rosie O'Donnell to be a negative.

[WTF]

He also calls men shitty things, but that's okay. We don't need to talk about that.

[Crusty Juggler]

I predicted this yesterday. Megyn Kelly is America's sweetheart, and you cannot fuck with America's sweetheart.

[Ein Barde und ein Holzhacker]

The only good thing about Trump winning is that I'm pretty sure Rosie O'Donnel will end up killing herself.

It may be worth it.

[Monty Crisco]

LMFAO

[Sevo]

Moonbeam - senility?

"Jerry Brown says 'California is burning' and climate change is to blame"
[...]
""California is burning," he said. "What the hell are you going to do about it?
"This is a wakeup call. We have to start coming to our senses."
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/.....428627.php
(NO paywall!)
It's a shame that CA now has wild fires and never did in the past.

[Warty]

DONDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOO has a Twitter...um...feed? Whatever the shit is called. Enjoy.

Eric Dondero R. ?@DonderolibtR 2h2 hours ago
Looking for a violation of liberty? How bout a goddamned cop pulling me over for not wearing a seat belt in MY car that is MY PROPERTY
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Eric Dondero R. ?@DonderolibtR 1h1 hour ago
Trump made the most libertarian statement last night, opposing Political Correctness. But left-libertarians @nickgillespie @reason ignore.
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Eric Dondero R. ?@DonderolibtR 43m43 minutes ago
#ChrisChristie said nothing in #GOPDebate of horrific NJ murder of white woman by illegal alien #cuckservative
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And the punchline...

Eric Dondero R. ?@DonderolibtR 38m38 minutes ago
Pretty blonde American girl Sviatlana Dranko murdered by #Latino #DREAMERS in NJ http://www.libertarianrepublic.....legal.html ? #WaronWhites
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[Sevo]

Is this Murkin?

[SugarFree]

Many of the editors have denied that they are one and the same.

[Citizen X]

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I am now tempted to get a Twitter account just to troll that fucker.

[Warty]

I did just that.

Warty Hugeman
?@wartyhugeman
@DonderolibtR DOONNNDDERRRROOOOOOOOOOO
View translation
6:27 AM - 7 Aug 2015

[Crusty Juggler]

you are such a #cuckservative.

[Mr. Paulbotto]

I'm not sure there is a woodchipper with a low enough setting for whoever came up with the #cuckservative meme.

[Warty]

It's a neoreactionary thing. Nazi nerds, basically.

[Citizen X]

YES

I am NOW tempted to get a Twitter account just to troll Warty.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Dammit, now I have to follow you

[Warty]

Don't expect too much. I'm fairly sure that approximately 100% of my tweets will be DONDERRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOO.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Look, Sviatlana Dranko is a good all-American name, unlike the dirty spic name of whoever murdered her.

[SugarFree]

Of course Ewik likes Trump. Dondero is every clown in the car, and even the car itself.

[John]

That is really funny. I drive around talking on a cell phone all of the time. I have never once been pulled over for doing it. This is because I am a respectable looking white person and cops only pull poor people and black people over for shit like that. So the fact that Donderoo got pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt says a whole lot about what a douche bag he must be. I want to know how a middle class white person manages to get the ire of a cop enough to get them to pull them over on something like that.

[Warty]

I guarantee you he drives a late-90s econo-shitbox of some kind. Probably an Accord.

[John]

Yeah and he probably gave the cop a dirty look or did something to piss off the cop. Of course the cop sucks and it shouldn't work that way. It is just that it is funny to see it work that way against someone like him. The cop no doubt has to write so many tickets a month to meet his quota. So, one going to Donderoo means someone else is going to get off with a warning. That is a bit of karmic justice.

[Citizen X]

He's got a little Datsun where the seat folds down.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Best you knock on some wood, John.

Never say never.

[John]

True. You never know. The other thing is that if you can make sure the cop knows you are in the military, they almost always give you pass. That is horrible and wrong. And I actually got a speeding ticket a while back because I just couldn't bring myself to play that card, dumb I know. But it is true. My wife is shameless about doing it and has gotten out of a couple of tickets.

[WTF]

Hey, I'm a respectable looking middle aged white guy, and I got pulled over by a cop who claimed the reason for the stop was that I had a brake light out (he lied). You never know when some cop will just want to fuck with you.

[Just say Nikki]

That name doesn't sound Murcan to me!

[SugarFree]

The right kind of immigrant.

[Just say Nikki]

Blonde, or pretty?

[SugarFree]

White. All Eric really cares about is white. Blonde and pretty are just a bonus.

[Sevo]

Sooner or later, we all call Lucy "mom".

[*GILMORE*]

You missed my fave (in the context of his seat-belt pullover whinge)

"Eric Dondero R. ?@DonderolibtR 2h2 hours ago

The NSA spying issue has got to be the silliest issue ever raised by left-libertarians. Yeah, it's bothersome, but a violation of liberty?"

[Citizen X]

DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Elspeth Flashman]

What is a cuckservative? a conservative who appreciates the cuckold lifestyle? I am confuse.

[Crusty Juggler]

I posted this last weekend, and I am sharing it again. Trigger warning: Weigel

[Crusty Juggler]

One more trigger warning: it is stupider than the stupidest thing ever x infinity.

[Elspeth Flashman]

You are right about that.

[WTF]

I wouldn't trust Weigel to give an honest explanation of something related to conservatism. And I still don't know what "cuckservative" is supposed to mean.

[Crusty Juggler]

LOOK IN A MIRROR WHITE GUY WHO FEARS THE TRUTH

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Haha, great, Dondero is one of those guys using "cuckservative." That's perfect.

[Kristen Bids No Trump]

Last night's live Twatter was so-so. I don't think the reason staff was drunk enough.

I miss 2Chilly.

[Lord Humungus]

Great News! The Most Notorious Unreleased Film of All Time May Have Just Gotten a Release Date

Jerry Lewis, the mid-century comedic actor who supposedly used to say "Froinlaven!" and "Nice lady!" keeps the only copy of his bizarre 1972 holocaust movie, The Day the Clown Cried in a vault, and away from possible viewers, because of its reputation for being the shittiest movie of all time. But the government has reached into Lewis' vault, and pried out The Day the Clown Cried. Now, anyone who plans to stay alive for ten more years just might have a shot at actually seeing it.

The Los Angeles Times broke the news in a piece about the Library of Congress' Packard Center, which curates Congress' collection of culturally important motion pictures. The Jerry Lewis collection is apparently culturally important enough to become a new acquisition. The trouble is, there's a ten-year embargo, meaning you'll have to wait until 2025 before the safe has a shot at being unlocked.

[Lord Humungus]

Not sure if I need a spoiler warning here, but SPOILER ALERT: In the script, Lewis' character, Helmut, a clown known for his juggling routine, is tasked with pacifying children with his antics as they're being led to their deaths at Auschwitz. In the film's final moments, he's surprised to find himself locked in the gas chamber with some of the kids. He nearly panics, but then he starts juggling and laughing, and all the kids laugh too, presumably as the gas starts leaking into the chamber. The end.

[invisible furry hand]

I first heard about this train wreck of a film (made when Jerry Lewis was ripped off his tits on Percocet) in Spy magazine, which compared it to a painting of Auschwitz on black velvet. Could the real film ever live up to such expectations?

[John]

Didn't it just get remade and called "Life is Beautiful" and win an Oscar? After Life is Beautiful and Jakob the Liar, could this really be that bad or in that poor of taste?

[sarcasmic]

I'm sure it will be a hit in France. The love the guy.

[sarcasmic]

*They*

[WTF]

They will applaud its genius, which we Americans are too uncultured to really understand.

[Kristen Bids No Trump]

I once said (I was about 4 years old) "Simon and Garfuckel". Pretty sure I got at least yelled at for that, except I had no idea what I had just said.

(the best response would have been laughter - the yelling did nothing but teach me what a swear word was)

[Elspeth Flashman]

The kiddo tried to help me unlock the door once with my keys- he was 3 and barely could string sentences together. Unsurprisingly, he had a hard time with the keys and said "oh shit, oh shit." I cracked up, just because this told me I had a bigger potty mouth than I thought.

[*GILMORE*]

"Kids are learning to swear earlier than they once did. "

Wrong.

Kids learned to swear at the same age before, they just *didn't* because they'd get their ass whooped by dad.

[lap83]

You guys will get a kick out of this...
Something going on in my neighborhood next week called "coffee with a cop"
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CL0FMAUVAAA1ylp.jpg
The ad says it's a chance to "ask questions" and "voice concerns"

[Crusty Juggler]

"Officer Friendly, what's it like to not have consequences for your actions."

[sarcasmic]

"What do you do when one of your buddies assaults someone who is in restraints?"

"Did they teach you to unlawfully arrest people who assert their rights in the academy, or is that something you learn on the job?"

"Do you ever feel guilty about writing false reports and committing perjury?"

[R C Dean]

Does it bother you that most people hate and fear cops? Does it bother you that they are justified?

Do you even wonder if people who say they like cops are just doing so because they know you can ruin their lives for no reason?

[Crusty Juggler]

Is this schnauzer a pit bull?

[lap83]

I have a dachshund mix so maybe something like....

"You may have heard the saying 'my dachshund thinks it's a doberman', would you agree or is it more like a rottweiler?"

[Citizen X]

"When executing a family's harmless pet dog, do you prefer to go for the instant-kill headshot, or do you shoot it in the gut and let it bleed out on the floor?"

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

It's a monthly event at my local McDonald's.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

"Officer, when you're flashbanging cribs, do you check to see whether there is a child in there, or do you just throw it into the crib blindly?

[Citizen X]

"Do you cream your pants while beating/tazing children, or do you just go jerk off afterwards?"

[invisible furry hand]

"How many doughnuts do I have to eat each day to achieve your fabulous body?"

[Free Society]

flabulous*

[Lord Humungus]

It's already broken, but thanks for caring. *sniff*

[sarcasmic]

Do they bite?

[lap83]

cool but some are kind of scary looking

[Karl Hungus]

I can honestly say I love every single one of those.

[Just say Nikki]

He's not potentially bi anymore.

[Irish ?s ESB]

*Blushes, brushes hair from eyes and bats eyebrows*

[Tonio]

*sniff*

And there you go, smell-shaming. Lulz

[Lord Humungus]

Push the button, Frank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDfuwWjh-JM

[straffinrun]

Uma's family really should disconnect their internet service.

[Swiss Servator, ...ouch.]

*applause*

[John]

That is because he doesn't put it in a compelling way. It is not that we are fucked it is that rhetoric is an art unto its own. It is not good enough to be right. You have to be right in a charismatic and convincing way. And Paul lacks that. I think he is better off staying in the Senate. I think he can do more good there than he can as President.

[Free Society]

It's easier to stupid than it is to be smart. Thus most people are stupid. Using nothing but empty rhetoric, it's easier to convince a stupid person than it is a smart person. And since stupid people usually suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, they project that overestimation of their own abilities onto others. Which of course means that stupid people look at Chris Christie or Mike Huckabee and say "That guy won the debate."

[John]

Yes and making sure they bitch and moan about how Fiorina wasn't a good enough CEO at HP, as if even getting that job doesn't take more intelligence and know how than being governor of some hick state.

Our political class has failed us for nearly 100 years. I know anyone can have a bad century but maybe it is time we start looking for some outside help.

[John]

It is not so much stupid versus smart it is being right or being wrong. It is easier to be wrong because being wrong can be simple. I had a professor in college tell me that something can be clear or it can be right but it almost never can be both. And that is very true. The truth is always messy and complex. So trying to tell the truth in a compelling way can be very difficult. Lies in contrast don't have to worry about conforming to reality and can present a simple and compelling picture.

The 4th Amendment debate is a good example of this. The truth that it is really hard to stop a determined terrorist and these powers don't really help us do that. Without knowing who the terrorist is, you don't know who to listen to and once you know who he is, you just arrest him and your problem is solved. That is not easy to explain in a simple and compelling way. It is, however, very easy to make the intuitively obvious but erroneous case that the way to prevent terrorists is let law enforcement listen to their conversations so they can arrest them.

This is why smart and clever people are so often wrong. They over estimate their own intelligence and the complexity of the world and fall for the simple and clever answer at the expense of the complex, hard one nearly every single time, because accepting the complex hard one requires them to admit they might not be smart enough to give an easy solution.

[Just say Nikki]

Eyebrows aren't what you're supposed to bat, honey.

[Irish ?s ESB]

I have a very strangely shaped face.

I can bat all kinds of things most people have never even heard of.

[BigT]

Being There was a premonition of Obama.

[Citizen X]

True fact - Irish can hold a pencil with his philtrum, securely enough to write his name. It's pretty disturbing.

[Crackers Boy]

NTTAWWT.

CB

[R C Dean]

I think you mis-spelled "Do you care".

[Citizen X]

"I like to watch."