Attn, LA Reasonoids: Happy Hour with Nick Gillespie This Friday!

Come out to our Los Angeles HQ for drinks, snacks, and conversation from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M.

This should be fun!:

Join Reason.com Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie for happy hour and lots of conversation at Reason's Los Angeles headquarters.

In fact, we're so excited to see Nick here in the City of Angels that we'll make it TWO full hours of happy—plenty of time to discuss populism and weird hair in presidential politics, the war on freedom of speech on college campuses, the infamous subpoena fiasco of 2015, and whatever else is on your mind.

Bring a friend and stop on by Reason's LA HQ for a drink and great conversation with Gillespie and LA-based Reason staffers.

Two Hours of Happy with Reason.com's Nick Gillespie

Reason's LA HQ

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

5737 Mesmer Ave., 90230

Map: http://bit.ly/1MDvFjo

The event is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are MANDATORY!

RSVP to Mary Toledo at [e-mail] or 310-391-2245.

Comments

[Vulgar Madman]

Will there be little umbrellas in the drinks?

[SIV]

That would be cultural appropriation.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

What if they have little confederate flags?

[SIV]

We'd know they weren't cosmotarians.

[jesse.in.mb]

Hmm, the website said registration for the event was closed as of Tuesday.

Registration:

Registration for this event is closed.

Is this a mistake?

[Sudden]

Enquiring minds would like to know.

Also, given my dissent from libertarian orthodoxy on Mexicans, am I still invited to the cocktail party? If I show up stoned with Jesse does it atone for my sins?

[jesse.in.mb]

I was gonna send out an email on Tuesday to see if local commenters were interested. If they're still advertising it maybe I should now.

[Sudden]

Looks like you just have to email Mary Toledo. I'll shoot her an email tonight.

[Nick Gillespie]

As noted above, you can (and should) RSVP to the email or phone number above. It's still open.

[Warty]

What do trained seals say? KOCH KOCH KOCH KOCH KOCH

Tariq Andrea ? Greensboro, North Carolina
Wouldn't the world be better off without the Koch Brothers? Wouldn't every one be better if they were offed?
Like ? Reply ? 59 ? 2 hrs

Gerald Malley ? Cabrillo College, Santa Cruz, CA
Tariq Andrea Yes!
Like ? Reply ? 16 ? 2 hrs

Tom Lamp ? Ferris State University
Tariq Andrea Is there just ONE Hero out there? Can we just ONCE read about a Gun death that was NOT senseless? That actually Helped Humanity? That gave America a brighter future? Please come forward.
Like ? Reply ? 8 ? 2 hrs

It's nice to remember that our hysterical self-pitying retards aren't nearly the worst.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I net Tony and Shrike will be jacking it to that within the hour.

[__Warren__]

That's gross.

[SIV]

I've wasted a lot of time in a lot of ways. Never spent most of a day arguing with Tulpa over the definition of ketchup though.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

It was only a few hours. And I know I'm right.

Plus I was bored.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Catsup is a vegetable made from fruit.

[Warty]

Don Borger
Can this be looked at as a FEDERAL CRIME??? Endangering the public??

OBAMA WILL DO NOTHING as USUAL....the DOJ won't...but I BET YOU TRUMP

would...
Like ? Reply ? 2 hrs

[Sudden]

Don't dox yourself by posting that Warty*

*I keed... while liberal use of ALLCAPS has the Warty as a Trumpbot markings, there are woefully too few southern dialect idiosyncrasies

[Irish ?s ESB]

That article is immensely stupid:

"The report describes a federal class-action lawsuit claiming that Koch Pipeline Company and other major oil companies were "partly responsible for the destruction of 1 million acres of marshlands and also for millions more acres of dying marshland." The destruction of the marshlands eliminated New Orleans' "natural protection against hurricane winds and storm surges," according to the lawsuit. The case was later dismissed because a judge deemed it "ambitious.""

So the Koch brothers (and other companies - none of the other companies are mentioned by name though, because they don't get retard progressives frothing at the mouth) were allegedly 'partly responsible' for the destruction of marshland which may have 'eliminated some protection' against hurricane winds. The suit alleging this was then dismissed.

So you have a dismissed lawsuit based on a ridiculous claim that doesn't even only involve the Kochs. Progressives are really, really stupid.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

They also forget to mention that a city below sea level might, just might, become flooded if hit by a hurricane.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I wonder how much the Kochs spend a year beating off absurd lawsuits.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Less than they give to cancer research. But probably still a lot.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Kochs beating off lawsuits??

There's a show there, somewhere.

[Brochettaward]

No, they just needed some mangroves! Mother Gaia gave us the natural protection we needed against hurricanes before the Kochs stepped in and destroyed it like Captain Planet villains.

[Chip Off!]

guessing that plaintiffs didn't read that the Corps of Engineers failed to assess the hurricaine damage potenial to diverting all river waters downstream to the ocean with their man-made levees over years & the risk to natural floodlands i.e. The marshes.

[Brochettaward]

The Huffington Post has some quality reporting there. Not an ounce of skepticism used to describe the claims. They pretty much dismiss the that judge rejected the claims:

The case was later dismissed because a judge deemed it "ambitious."

Then those evil Kochs opposed government regulation of flood insurance! I mean, that's not illegal, and it doesn't allege that they make a profit off it (though the average Huffington Post reader will think that's the reason).

This is a report written by a far left group with a rather ridiculous name, and Huffington Post reports it like gospel.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

It's.. it's the Huffington Post..

[Brochettaward]

I don't frequent it, but that is a hack piece on par with modern Salon. I don't know - I thought Huffington Post at least kept up some pretense to being a legit news source.

[Heroic Mulatto]

In our post-9/11 world, one would think would be more cautious in making comments that could be construed as 'terroristic threats' over social media.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Weird...squirrels ate the phrase "an Iraqi-American"

[Warty]

Oh god, he's ancient. And some kind of halfass failed academic. No wonder he's an idiot.

[Irish ?s ESB]

http://www.soleeds.net/team.php

He's also the greatest hypocrite the world has ever known.

"Dr. Andrea has served in key management positions in Shell Oil/Shell Development, DuPont, Pharmacopeia, and TransTech."

He worked for Shell Oil and is saying the Kochs should be assassinated because their oil pipes allegedly damaged some marshland.

[Heroic Mulatto]

He worked for Shell Oil and is saying the Kochs should be assassinated because their oil pipes allegedly damaged some marshland.

He also developed pesticides for DuPont it seems.

Maybe he's senile?

[SIV]

Shell has more South Louisiana pipelines than the Koch's do. Unless they recently bought out another pipeline company that I'm unaware of.

[SIV]

He could've worked for Shell and still be clueless about their pipelines.

[SIV]

Computational chemistry sounds like he'd be more on the refinery side of things. Although I don't know shit about Shell outside of their gas stations and energy transmission bidness.

[Sudden]

Please tell me he also worked for Union Carbide's Bhopal plant as a systems safety engineer in the mid-80s, just to really put the tahini on the shwarma.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"After completing an exchange program that had Dr. Andrea working on Soviet irrigation projects around the Aral Sea, he served a short stint as visiting liaison to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant." /Tariq Andrea's CV

[Sudden]

Is this just snark? Cuz I was joking about Bhopal. If this is true and hadn't even thought about aiming for such glorious heights as Chernobyl.

[Irish ?s ESB]

That's obviously snark. I was not serious.

[Sevo]

"After completing an exchange program that had Dr. Andrea working on Soviet irrigation projects around the Aral Sea, he served a short stint as visiting liaison to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant." /Tariq Andrea's CV

If that were my CV, that comment would have hit the same trash barrel as the time I got busted for an ounce of dope.

[SIV]

lol

Yup

[__Warren__]

Wasn't Bhopal, in large measure, the fault of the Indian government?

[Dances-with-Trolls]

UNCG is pretty derpy. One of my buddies is a prof there. I've had to do a couple interventions w/ him to keep him from becoming infected with proggism.

[SIV]

Greensboro is where the KKK massacred a bunch of commies back when I was in H.S.

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

[Dances-with-Trolls]

The Woolworth sit-in was there. Some interesting civil rights history.

[Paul.]

Federal subpoena inbound!

Oh wait... they're on the same team as the feds. NVM!

[Crusty Juggler]

but RSVPs are MANDATORY!

That just means they are checking isp addresses to match with reason handles. They want to keep the riff raff out...

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Help! I filtered everybody.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Whew, forget it, All fixed.

[Crusty Juggler]

Welcome back, sailor.

[jesse.in.mb]

Fixing it may have been a mistake. Think of the peace you gave up.

[Sudden]

Go back to NPR hippie!

[Crusty Juggler]

Don't listen to the hippie, DwT. You are where you belong. Where you are appreciated. Stay.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Aw, shucks.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

You may have a point. I was just trying to unblock KOCH and when I saved on reasonable everything went white. Very Zen, actually.

[Sudden]

The moral of the story: Don't KOCHblock

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Ugh! Are you proud of that?

[Sudden]

Not until I get a narrow gaze from a certain inhabitant of European Alps.

[__Warren__]

For you maybe but I've still got carbon granules jammed in my ass crack.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Today in governmental brilliance:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Thursday handed down one of its biggest decisions of President Obama's tenure, ruling that companies can be held responsible for labor violations committed by their contractors.

[__Warren__]

Awesome worker's lives just got 56.89% better thanks to the government!

[Crusty Juggler]

As someone who is currently working exclusively with subcontractors, this is not going to make my life fun.

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy is anyone hiring?

[Hyperion]

Look, government is not here to make your life fun. Now shut up and pay your fair share!

[Rich]

"Simply put, labor laws in America have failed to keep pace as the workplace has continued to evolve," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement

, apparently referring to the many robots he is attempting to unionize.

[Hyperion]

WTF? That troglodyte Trumka trying to tell anyone about keeping pace and evolving? Evolving towards what, a new stone age?

[SIV]

Is the government responsible for labor violations by their contractors? Seems only fair.

[*GILMORE*]

The only result here is that liability expenses will mean less money spent on contracting - more on lawyers, and fewer jobs for 'workers', and fewer expansion projects outside the corporate entity.

I suppose what the AFL/CIO people want is to try and cut off money that might be going to people who hire non-union labor (and/or immigrants)... even if that money isn't going to them necessarily - "if we can't have it, neither can you", sort of stuff.

[Sevo]

*GILMORE*|8.27.15 @ 11:22PM|#
"The only result here is that liability expenses will mean less money spent on contracting - more on lawyers, and fewer jobs for 'workers', and fewer expansion projects outside the corporate entity."

'Rent Control' has a similar dynamic; rents rise dramatically as units go off market, so why should the landlord gripe?
'Cause the money goes to the fixers.

[Sevo]

OT, but........
Next time someone suggests trade is only possible under government control, have them read "The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe" ( http://www.amazon.com/Edge-Wor.....+the+world )
The author writes for the NYT and at times slips into 'writing-by-slogan': "Money rules" at the end of a chapter which shows that self interest rules.
Regardless, he intends to show the importance of the advances in NW Europe during the 'dark ages' as a balance to the supposed focus on southern Europe; most of what he writes isn't going to surprise anyone who has read Euro history.
But surprisingly, he focuses on trade, begining with the Frisians on the coast of the Low Countries at about the beginning of the CE; they traded about the shores of the North Sea and introduced money to the north. And he then follows the importance of trade, only rarely pestered by government agencies, until the 17th century in Amsterdam.
What's more, he, like Weatherford in "The History of Money", mentions how the habit of counting (money) lead to the regularizing of humanity's view of the universe into that systematic approach we now call "science".

[Sevo]

(hit the limit)
I wish he were a better writer; he needs an editor to convince him that passing information to the reader is more important than showing his skill as a word-smith, but for all that, it's worth a read.

[Hyperion]

Looks like an interesting read, I need to check it out.

But you know, it really doesn't matter because the white man has too much cargo.

[Sevo]

"...the white man has too much cargo..."
As did many of the cultures he writes about, including some Slavs (are Slavs 'white'/ Damned if I know)

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Slavs come in every color from brown to pasty white.

[Sevo]

Of course the guy can't cover everything, but he writes about the Vikings using Russian rivers to get to the Caspian and mentioning the 'red-haired' corpses found in the area.
Speculation: "The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies
That's the Silk Road's western terminus.

[SIV]

Caucasians get around.

[__Warren__]

Wow, I was just looking at a book that's in the same era and area.

This guy might be a crank but I love stuff like this. Ancient America theories are just straight fun.

[Hyperion]

Did you know that the Mayans actually had wireless technology?

[SIV]

Portuguese fishermen, and their employers, were most definitely aware of the New World well before Columbus.It would have been hard for them not to be.

[Hyperion]

So, you think they could see Murika from the Azores? They must have had some Palin vision.

They were scoping out Brazil while the Spanish were distracted by Mexican gold.

[SIV]

They were a hell of a lot closer than the Azores fishing the Grand Banks. They also had a pretty good idea of how far East Brazil extended when they signed the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portuguees got around.

[Hyperion]

I was just fucking with you.

Ok, so what time period are we talking about?

[SIV]

Early/mid 15th Century. I suspect Basques made it at least twice to the New World before Columbus, albeit about 20k years apart.

[Hyperion]

Well, that's easy.

I visited a couple of Portuguese churches in Olinda and Recife Antigo that are from the early 1500s.

The first European to colonize Brazil was Pedro Alvares Cabral, in the year 1500.

I thought we were talking about a much earlier period.

[Hyperion]

Also, when Cabral landed in Brazil, he though it was an Island. No one knew South America existed before then, as far as I know according to conventional history.

[SIV]

15th century = 1400s
Columbus: 1492

Portugees: Before that. Columbus knew there was land to the West before he left the first time.

[Hyperion]

I understand perfectly well what 15th century means. When I said I thought we might be talking about a much ealier time period, I didn't mean 50 years earlier.

But never mind.

they also had a pretty good idea of how far East Brazil extended when they signed the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portuguees got around.

I don't think so. The treaty was signed in 1494. When Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500, he though it was an island. Check it yourself.

[*GILMORE*]

Sorry, bro = the vikings beat your portugeezee by a few hundred

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Anse_aux_Meadows

[Corning]

"vikings beat your portugeezee by a few hundred"

How many years did the Indians beat him by?

[*GILMORE*]

the question was "who was first to make cross-atlantic 'contact' with New World".

The 'American indians', as noted, are believed to have been 2-3 waves of originally central-asian nomadic tribes that migrated through siberia and across alaska during ice age about 16,000 years ago.

the first populated canada and north america, the latter waves are thought to have gone to south america, but have been generally part of the same original populations.... which interestingly, have closer relations to 'indo-european' gene structures (basically European & central asian) than they do the east-asian populations that became chinese, south asan, etc.

[Hyperion]

And I know how far east Brazil extends. If you look at the map, that point that is the farthest east on the NE coast is where my place is down there. It might be the point farthest east in the Americas. It's still one hell of a long ways from Portugal. Closer to Central Africa I'm sure.

[SIV]

Portugees were familiar with Central Africa since? Early/mid 14th Century.

They got around.

[Hyperion]

Yes, but they were NOT aware of South America as a continent until 1500.

[Sevo]

I'd have to see some evidence for Portuguese travel that far west; haven't seen any yet.

[SIV]

No hard evidence but it's more than just plausible.

[Sevo]

Sorry, guessing ain't evidence.

[Hyperion]

No, but speculation on these things is a lot of fun. I've always been a big fan of history and although most of the time any alternate theories are debunked, a few have actually been proven correct.

[Sevo]

Hyperion|8.27.15 @ 11:59PM|#
"No, but speculation on these things is a lot of fun"
Agreed; see the comment about the clearly stated speculation regarding the Tamir mummies.
Stating a claim as fact needs evidence.

[Hyperion]

Sevo, I may not be the worlds biggest skeptic, but make no mistake, I'm a skeptic. You can't follow this type of stuff with an unbiased mind and not become a skeptic.

It's like this:

Amateur adventure seeker: Look at that ancient pyramid over there!

Amateur skeptic: That looks like a hill to me.

Amateur adventure seeker: But don't you see those megalithic building stones!

Amateur skeptic: No, it's a hill.

[Sevo]

Missing your point.

[Hyperion]

New example exhibit below

[Hyperion]

Better Example:

Ancient Fucking Aliens!

[Sevo]

Hyperion|8.28.15 @ 12:12AM|#
"Better Example:
Ancient Fucking Aliens!"
Yep, I'm sure SIV will have a memorial column to aliens somewhere, since there's no proof it 'doesn't exist'.

[SIV]

Space aliens have had no impact on human history or cultural development. If Top.Scientists. said they did I wouldn't believe them. Unlike a boot-licking authority-worshiper like yourself I totally dismiss bullshit and am quite skeptical of consensus and "proven fact".

[SIV]

Amateur skeptic: That looks like a hill to me.

No less an authority than the state geologist of Georgia said that about the big mound at Etowah in the first decade of the 20th century. Needless to say, he was totally fucking wrong.

[Hyperion]

Amateur skeptic: That looks like a hill to me.

No less an authority than the state geologist of Georgia said that about the big mound at Etowah in the first decade of the 20th century. Needless to say, he was totally fucking wrong.

Well, after it was excavated and still proven to be a hill and people still insist that it's an ancient pyramid built by Aliens, I would become even more skeptical.

[SIV]

It's a mound. The late state geologist would be a laughing stock if anyone still read the literature (which I own a rare copy of). Actually some the tiny handful of people who know anything about the history of investigations into GA prehistory are aware of this. (note the history of GA archaeology is a subset of those who know the current accepted consensus of GA prehistory)

[SIV]

Look at how long it took American scholars to accept Folsom and Clovis, much less the earlier shit that's now accepted. Catalina Island natives had the only sewn plank boats in the new world and their name for them is phonetically the same as a Polynesian word for a generic boat. That still isn't accepted. The Ancient America stuff is full of psuedo-archaeology and pure BS but the overwhelming bulk or prehistory is unknown.

I'll add:

Cultural diffusion independent invention
We're not really any different than our ancestors 10s of thousand of years ago
People like to move, especially when they have to.
We're good with boats and navigation. Only takes a bunch of generations of trying to figure it out. Luck never hurts.

It takes a lot of people a long time using easily preserved materials on preserved landforms that are subsequently found by other modern people to leave an archaeological record so the lack of one means nothing.

I could go on. The short version is there is a vast difference between BS pseudo-archaeological claims and what we don't know for certain but have reason to suspect.

[SIV]

"cultural diffusion is greater than independent invention"

[Hyperion]

If you're going to talk about ancient America, most of it has already been found. 2 major cultures, the Inca and the Mexicans. Few other minor cultures here and there, but nothing nearly as advanced as the aforementioned 2. Wish there is more to discover, we'll see. But most was a vast unexplored land of primitive tribes, much to the dismay of the Spanish, nothing left to loot.

[SIV]

You don't know what you're talking about here. Go to any decent Museum and you'll find many sophisticated cultures with little relationship to Inca and Maya.

[SIV]

It's not guessing, it's just not hard proof. Archaeological evidence and surviving maps do not exclude voyages, discoveries and contact that does not lead to surviving maps and preserved and discovered archaeological evidence. They only confirm it, and even then with vocal dissenters. I could give a bunch of examples of human travel achievement denial. Such as ow New World Potatoes got to the South Pacific islands. They didn't float there on their own. People are resourceful, ambitious and very good with boats when they have several generations of experience building, sailing and navigating with them. Australian Aborigines didn't walk there and that was like 30k years ago (if not earlier, and like the New World they didn't all get there at the same time).

[Sevo]

SIV|8.28.15 @ 12:18AM|#
" Archaeological evidence and surviving maps do not exclude voyages, discoveries and contact that does not lead to surviving maps and preserved and discovered archaeological evidence."

Sorry, you've jumped the shark; BULLSHIT!
Nothing "excludes" unicorns, you idiot!
No wonder you're an ignorant bleever.

[SIV]

Human achievement isn't a unicorn. You're arguing if something isn't proven and accepted by Top.Men. It didn't happen. Note that I'm making no firm claims or basing them on questionable hard evidence. I'm saying what we have indications of things which aren't "proven" beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[Hyperion]

I'm saying what we have indications of things which aren't "proven" beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Agreed. There's still a lot of history to be discovered. Things will be proven wrong, and new things will be discovered.

I'm a huge history buff, and I love to find out new and exciting stuff.

Stay skeptical my friend.

[Sevo]

SIV|8.28.15 @ 12:40AM|#
"Human achievement isn't a unicorn. You're arguing if something isn't proven and accepted by Top.Men."

Nice straw man, asshole. I know ignoramuses would love to claim others are fools for not accepting their bullshit, but you're full of shit.
Tell us about the unicorns that aren't disproven, the junior god that hasn't been shown to never exist, the danger of GMOs that hasn't been shown to be wrong, etc.
You are a fucking imbecile. Get lost.

[SIV]

iNice straw man, asshole.

Well fuck you too. sometimes they go back to curation facilities, drag out the artifacts that have been firmly pigeon-holed into the acceptable, recognized categories and associations of the time and, lo and behold, they reassess them and find something completely different. Science isn't static and archaeology isn't science but they sure as hell are studying something and have a body of evidence to support some of it.

[Hyperion]

Well, I'm not arguing with you. I already said that a lot of things that were once mere speculation have now been proven true and other things discovered. There's a hell of a lot of history that is still undiscovered.

But most alternate theories get debunked. And I'm still saying that as far as we know today, no Europeans knew South America existed until the year 1500. Now if you can send me a link than even has some speculation about it, we can discuss it.

[*GILMORE*]

repeating in case it got missed

"Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. It is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978."

Vikings FTW

[Hyperion]

You got any links for Vikings in South America, bro? (:

[*GILMORE*]

No fuck that, yo, my man Leif was solely kicking it in Newfoundland

But the key point there re: evidence was

"the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. "

The prevailing theory re: South America is that it was populated by (west) coastal migration south during an ice age by the same basic population of indo-asian nomads that became American Indians

There's no evidence of pre-columbian contact in south america, at least as far as the archaeological record.

[Hyperion]

No, the first contact was in the year 1500. If anyone has any dissenting information, I'd like to see it for discussion.

[*GILMORE*]

""the first contact was in the year 1500""

You're confusing 2 different points made.

1, that the first trans-atlantic contact happened ~1000AD by vikings in NA

2 that SA was populated by the same migrant population that became american indians, and yes, they never had any pre-columbian contact with the West.

Why do you care about south americans so particularly? something to do with pyramids and aliens?

[SIV]

His wife is Brazillion. Pay attentionz

[*GILMORE*]

Sorry, i can't follow thread.

[SIV]

Outside thread. Info he's volunteered repeatedly. I tend to remember detail and recall when relevant.

[SIV]

Jomon pottery in Ecuador. See diffusion is always likelier than independent invention. You can dispute that, but:

"There's been many kinds of evidence ? linguistic and archaeological ? for contact between these two people," Caroline Rouiller, an evolutionary biologist at the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in France who led the study, tells The Salt. "But the sweet potato is the most compelling."

"Most compelling" = any other explanation is fucking absurd.

[Sevo]

SIV|8.28.15 @ 1:04AM|#
"Jomon pottery in Ecuador. See diffusion is always likelier than independent invention. You can dispute that, but:"
Yeah, 'look over there' is always a good argument. If your audience is as stupid as you are.

[SIV]

Sevo would have called bullshit on that until the evidence came i, was thoroughly vetted and approved by a consensus of Top. Men.

I didn't even argue the Solutrean Hypothesis was fact. I merely alluded to it as a possibility of "early Basque contact with the New World" 😉

[Hyperion]

What about the Mayans with wireless technology? They excavated an entire site and didn't find any wires! Wireless technology! I never get tired of that one.

[Sevo]

SIV|8.28.15 @ 12:44AM|#
'Sevo would have called bullshit on that until the evidence came i, was thoroughly vetted and approved by a consensus of Top. Men."
You're full of shit; cite please or STFU.

"I didn't even argue the Solutrean Hypothesis was fact. I merely alluded to it as a possibility of "early Basque contact with the New World" ;-)"
So you didn't bullshit even more than you bullshitted? Oh, the wonder!
Do you have any concept of what "evidence" means?

[Sevo]

*GILMORE*|8.28.15 @ 12:37AM|#
repeating in case it got missed
"Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only site widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. It is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas. It was named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1978."

G,
Yep, and Pye covers it well in the book I mentioned, including analysis and interpretation of the remains, proposing why and when they left. Good stuff!

[Sevo]

Pye covers the colonization of Iceland and the brief tries at Greenland and Vinland (Eastern Canukistan). And mentions, with no comment, the world temperature changes.

[Hyperion]

Medieval warm period?

DENIER! HERETIC! BURN THE WITCH!

[Corning]

That's nothing. Welsh tin ended up in Canaan 4000 years ago and was used to make Bronze.

Senator Warren did not build that.

[Hyperion]

Yo, fellow rat fucking teahadists.

Good read:

Death of rule of law

Another good read, if you can throw out the Donald fanboyism. I liked this because I think it makes some sense and might actually explain the constant racism from the left, like we experienced here from the trolls last night. Some may see it differently.

Jorge Ramos meets the Donald

[Sevo]

The cartoon is WONDERFUL!

[Hyperion]

Haha, yeah that was good.

[Paul.]

The Obama administration hasn't even attempted to dress this up as a matter of principle, with Secretary of State John Kerry telling the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month that the deal wasn't a treaty simply "because you can't pass a treaty anymore."

Sums it up nicely.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Regarding the second article, yeah, racism is alive and well in Mexican-American families.

In my experience, it is really encouraged among Mexican-Americans to marry white Anglos or light skinned Latinos. Marrying a dark-skin Latino or, horror of horrors, a black man places you at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

[Hyperion]

I just folded space from WaPo. Another Hillary story. Something about Huma. There are Hillary sycophants there still defending Hillary's makeshift State Department server with the exact same cut and paste stuff from 5 weeks ago. Most of them sound like Tony at his very drunkest blubberings.

I think most of the Dem sycphants with even the least bit of intellect have jumped ship or headed for the life boats. I've never seen it look this bad for Democrats in my life. They've done jumped the shark.

[Crusty Juggler]

Except the other party (there is only one other party) is somehow even worse, so if the Dems jumped the shark, they will land in the same spot they currently are. They are the party that "cares" and that is all that matters.

[Hyperion]

The good part though, might be that most of them are too stupid to figure out how to vote, even if they care, which they probably don't because they aren't smart enough to care. I mean it really is a thing of wonder when you can watch a websites comments for hours, hundreds, even thousands of posts and there is not even one single post by a person on the left that does not sound like the unhinged and unintelligible ramblings of a stark raving mad lunatic. Either that or someone who is eating crayons and mattress foam while posting.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Meanwhile, in Australia..

Australian Border Force (ABF) officers will check people's visas on the streets of Melbourne this weekend as part of a massive police operation in the city's CBD, the Federal Government has revealed.

"Tonight and tomorrow evening (Friday and Saturday) Metro Trains, Yarra Trams, the Sheriff's Office, Taxi Services Commission and the ABF will join Victoria Police as part of the inter-agency operation," the statement said.

"With a particular focus on people travelling to, from and around the CBD, the group of agencies will work together to support the best interests of Melburnians, targeting everything from anti-social behaviour to outstanding warrants."

[Sevo]

'Hey, mates! Come visit us in OZ!
We'll put another shrimp on the barbie for you, but you better have your papers in order!
Danke'

[Hyperion]

targeting everything from anti-social behaviour to outstanding warrants

Whoaaaa, fuck. I was reading and thought this was about terrorism. How foolish of me.

Papers Please, Ozzfuckistanians! You got any of those violent video games in your shorts?

[SIV]

Thankfully, I didn't restart the discussion of why craniofacial morphology is superior to genetics for understanding who people are, who they're related to and where they actually came from. Fleemur was the only commenter who acknowledged knowing what ancient heresy I was talking about and why it is still relevant in our age of psuedo-scientific genetic determinism.

Goodnight

[John C. Randolph]

Hey anyone else hear a story about Mexico decriminalizing pot, cocaine and heroin in the last couple of days?

-jcr

[Gene]

The only thing I could find was from the NYT, August 21 2009:

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge.

[brady949]

I still only have a couple toes in the libertarian pool. Am I even allowed?