McDonald's Introduces All-Day Breakfast, 6,000 Inmates Going Free, Gun Statistics Debunked: P.M. Links

• 

  Dreamstime

  No correlation between homicide and stricter gun laws, writes The Washington Post's Eugene Volokh.

• It's Always Breakfast in McDonald's.
• Youtube star Caleb Logan Bratayley died of natural causes.
• "When trying to reduce sexual assault, labeling all forms of sexual misconduct, including unwanted touches and sloppy kisses, as rape is alarmist and unhelpful," writes social psychologist Carol Tavris. "We need to draw distinctions between behavior that is criminal, behavior that is stupid and behavior that results from the dance of ambiguity."
• Wesleyan Black Lives Matter got an op-ed in The Argus. It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies…"
• U.S. will free 6,000 inmates thanks to sentencing reform.
• You will never be free of Donald Trump.

New at Reason.com:

• Dilbert Creator Scott Adams on Donald Trump's "Linguistic Kill Shots"
  Is Trump using powerful hypnosis and hidden persuasion techniques to manipulate us all?
  By Zach Weissmueller

• Dilbert's Scott Adams on Politics, Philosophy, Hypnosis, and "Failing Towards Success"
  By Zach Weissmueller

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]

It's Always Breakfast in McDonald's.

So no more viral videos of people freaking out at 11:01AM?

[Slammer]

Close enough

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Hello.

"It's Always Breakfast in McDonald's."

Am I gonna luv it?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

If you order the right thing. The deluxe breakfast.

[Tonio]

Not all breakfast menu items will be available outside of breakfast hours. The NPR report indicated that most restaurants would have either Egg McMuffins or breakfast biscuits, but not both. Forget about pancakes.

[DaveSs]

Egg McMuffins...bleh

I want a steak bagel at dinner time.

[C. Anacreon]

what about the steak bagel? that's pretty damn good and makes sense outside of breakfast hours.
Sausage McMuffins are pretty worthy as well

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Hey! KY is biscuit country. If I want fast-food biscuits, Hardee's is the ONLY answer.

Caveat: DQ does good Biscuits and Gravy.

[But Enough About Me]

Sausage & Egg McMuffin is about the only thing on McD's menu that I'll actually eat willingly. (Their coffee's gotten better over the years, too, but it still has a ways to go.)

Oh, and their fries are quite acceptable in their European locations. Had some in the Netherlands a while ago that were downright tasty.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Did you cover em in mayo?

[WoodchipperPatriarch]

That's not even funny.

[Ted S.]

Do they still use beef tallow in European McDonald's locations?

[But Enough About Me]

Unknown. But in Belgium and The Netherlands, I wouldn't be surprised if they still have some horse fat in the fryer. That's how classic Vlaamse frites are made, anyways, and it's a flavour that would be hard to fool a good Dutchie or Belgie about.

[Lord at War]

Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit- or GTFO...

[Jerryskids]

The whole point of fast food is that you have a limited menu so you can crank out the same few items fast and cheap and in a standardized manner. The bigger you make the menu the more things there are to screw up and you stop being fast and cheap and standardized - and then what's the point of a fast food restaurant? "McDonald's for breakfast" and "McDonald's for lunch" are two different restaurants doing two different menus and combining the two is a really bad idea. All the best bars serve alcohol for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between-meal snacks, you don't see them changing up their menus based on the time of day, do you? And where would you rather be, McDonald's or a bar?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

We'll still have the viral videos of late night at the drive thru window.

[SIV]

I always freaked out at 10:31 AM

[Fist of Etiquette]

What am I, the king of time?

[Zeb]

I'm still pissed off from the last time that happened to me. Who the fuck wants lunch at 10:30 on a Saturday?

[Agammamon]

So they finally catch up to Jack in the Box -

#onlyadecadelate.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You will never be free of Donald Trump.

Not as long as Roberto Soave is doing PM Links.

[rts]

Big U.S. firms hold $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes -study

Hoarders!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Citizens for Tax Justice"

That does not mean what they think it means.

[Mickey Rat]

I would love to hear their explanation of why the U.S. government has a just claim on profits earned in foreign countries. Especially when about no other advanced industrialized nation makes such a claim.

[DEG]

FYTW

[NotAnotherSkippy]

What do Europeans know about anything?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Justice means giving each party its due. And the government deserves that money!!

[Palin's Buttplug]

They should be able to buy back their own stock overseas.

But that is illegal for some stupid reason.

[Eric L]

Are corporations allowed to borrow money in the US from a bank that that is international and then pay back that debt at one of that bank's foreign locations in foreign currency? I know they will not get the interest deduction on its US tax return. That way they can get the money in the US to use for operations and pay dividends but not have to repatriate money to the US to pay back the debt.

[Tejicano]

No such loan would ever be offered due to the currency exchange risk.

[Sevo]

"Big U.S. firms hold $2.1 trillion overseas to avoid taxes"

Hey, it's a good start! Can I move some over there?

[Jerry on the sea]

That's a lot of banknotes!

[Juice]

When the Ex-Im Bank wasn't re-chartered, GE moved jobs to Canada. I saw a bunch of people blaming Republicans.

When taxes and regulations move jobs and money overseas, it's the corporations fault for being so greedy.

When corporations react to a government policy enacted by Democrats, it's the corporations' fault.
When corporations react to a government policy enacted by Republicans, it's the Republicans' fault.

[Trump-o-Matic 5000]

You're starting to catch on

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Libertarian moment. Don't worry, 3D printers and I bet will fix this.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies..."

Me = convinced

[Robby Soave]

Dunno about you, but my takeaway was "helping people not drown" = white supremacy

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It was an odd analogy, given the stereotype about black people and swimming.

Racist?????

[BiMonSciFiCon]

"I write this piece at this time not because I want remorse"

Something tells me the editor took a light pen out of fear of being called a racist.

[Just say Nikki]

My takeaway was "Jesus fucking Christ get a copy editor."

[LynchPin1477]

It's a college newspaper. Most of the people who work there are destined for internet blogs. Take Rico, for example 😉

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Anytime a Berntard talks about universal college, I'm pointing to this.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

This is why the paper resisted giving them space. They were trying to help you out, guys!

[Cyto]

That was truly stunning. I didn't manage to slog through the whole thing, but what I gleaned from it was a rich sense of irony. The title "Reflections on Implicit Racism in Campus Publications and Beyond" was fun, since we got to see some explicit racism on display. Well, at least I think so. The writing was so convoluted that it would even stand out on HnR. Which is saying a lot!

[Ted S.]

It seems very dehumanizing to me to refer to people as "bodies" instead of as people.

[Just say Nikki]

That's the point.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

This is why Warty keeps 'bodies' in his basement and not people.

Anyone who spends time there is not human anymore, therefore 'dehumanized'.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

To be fair, with all his time travel sexual antics, it's hard to call somebody who simultaneously exists and doesn't exist a "person"

[Slumbrew]

No, Cyril! When they're dead they're just 'hookers'!

[Anomalous]

I think the author is female. Is it sexist to call the article a manifesto?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Vagifesto?

[LynchPin1477]

That's what happens at the sororities...or so I've been led to believe.

[Sapient Mulch]

Scrolling through quickly, I had to stop when I read "vegipesto".

Sounded quite good actually.

[Tonio]

Bodies indigenous to where, exactly?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I understand that it is not easy for a person not of color to fully grasp how white supremacy affects people of color on every level. I also acknowledge that there are white people who get it and people of color who don't. It is about who is conscious of the systems of oppression that function throughout the globe. Still, this gap of understanding must be bridged if we ever hope to live in a society that is truly equitable for all.

I see there is no room for someone who understands it but thinks it's bunk or disagrees with it.

Also, I shall call myself a "person not of color" from now on.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Hate to break it to you, but Green is a color.

[Juice]

Ha ha! You can't see me!

[Trump-o-Matic 5000]

If you think he's wrong, then you're just not able to understand him.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Is that why everybody thinks he's wrong?

[Cyto]

If you think he's wrong, then you're just not able to understand him.

Well, in his defense, I very much doubt anyone does understand him.

[Jerryskids]

Back when I was in school a popular slogan was "It's a Black thing; you wouldn't understand" which annoyed me because what I think they were saying was "Just shut up and accept that we're right and you're wrong because if you think you're right it only proves how racist you are and how incapable of seeing things from our point of view you are." As if someone were saying that 2 + 2 = 5 if you look at it correctly and if you want to argue that 2 + 2 does not equal 5 it's only because you're not capable of looking at it correctly. It's the same way the radical feminists shut down debate - if you want to argue with their assertion that they are 1000% correct you're "mansplaining" and trying to shoehorn patriarchal rationality into their felt truths. "Truth" is just whatever you feel it is and trying to say that it isn't is the worst form of oppression. Odd that straight white middle-class males are totally incapable of understanding women or minorities or gays or the poors simply because of the fact that they're not part of those groups, but all of those groups are perfectly capable of understanding straight white middle-class males despite their not being part of that group.

[Gilbert Martin]

"Also, I shall call myself a "person not of color" from now on."

That would make you a person of invisibility.

[d3x / dt3]

#TranslucentLivesMatter

[LynchPin1477]

It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies..."

What was the skin color of the first homo sapiens to encounter Neanderthals, I wonder?

[AlmightyJB]

I hope they like being poor

[Corning]

anyone else see the season 2 opener of "The leftovers"?

So the cave people were Native Americans right? In Texas? With a weird looking rattle snake?

So that whole episode happened between one and ten thousand years ago....

Why the flying fuck did they choose to make the Native Americans look so dirty and grime smeared?

They literally lived right next to a lake!!!!

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I'm sure it was a bit of a cheat (though Lindelof is not the brightest bulb, so maybe he thought cavemen existed in Texas). She looked way too primitive to be a native American, but it needed to be in Texas to establish that there was a fault-line there. Though checking google now, it appears there is evidence of Aboriginie-like people in California 60,000 years ago, so maybe it could check out.

Fine point about the dirt and grime, but this is the Leftovers. The whole point is the aesthetic and emotion of the scene, not the logic. The dirt conveys she's primitive and having a hard time. It's a snake because of the serpent in Genesis. Etc.

[Corning]

"It's a snake because of the serpent in Genesis."

Rattle snake...it rattled. Which are native to the Americas....point being that the snake like the cut away scene places her in pre-columbian America....and the people then and there were technologically primitive (literally stone age) but were not grubby.

Stone age people are not dirty damn it!!!

[Zeb]

As an Alumni of Wesleyan, I feel like I should write in and tell these people what a bunch of fucking dickheads they are. I think they have to publish alumni letters or something.

It was pretty nutty-left-wing when I was there, but was a pretty good school academically. I'm starting to wonder if that's still the case. Oh well, I determined never to give them another cent of my money pretty soon after graduation, so fuck 'em.

[phenryinohio]

What does that mean? Its short of a thought or seven.

[Mazakon]

You will never be free of Donald Trump.

*Looks up* Yep, it's Robby.

[See Double You]

Those bastards didn't include the McGriddle in their "all-day breakfast" line up. Grrr....

[Medical Physics Guy]

AM and PM links on McDonald's breakfast? You are triggering the purebred cosmotarians among you.

*pours another appletini with hand shaking, adjusts cape*

[grrizzly]

Indeed. What's the point of eating at McDonald's if I cannot have my Kir Royal there?

[C. Anacreon]

Anyone else find it eery that McDonalds introduced all-day breakfast in the same news cycle that California enacted physician-assisted suicide?

[Sevo]

Hmm. Now that you mention it, why.............
No, I didn't.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I like the Kir Royal with cheese.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

What???? Then what is the point?

[See Double You]

I know, right? I could live off those things if only I could floss the plaque out of my arteries like I do out of my teeth.

[LynchPin1477]

WTF???? No McGriddles? Are you serious? That was the only reason I was excited!!!!

[Slammer]

Hillary Clinton Calls Obama's Deportation Policies Too Harsh

[Cytotoxic]

I said it before and am saying it again: her call for amnesty was a deft political maneuver. You can't appease the hateful minority supporting Trump, so just bomb the bridge and take votes from real people. This is Hillary's One Good Plank. Maybe.

[Crusty Juggler]

You white people are the worst.

[waffles]

I have no concrete evidence that Nikki is, in fact, white.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

She's part Italian, which is the Mexico of Europe.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I think there was something about this in the movie True Romance

[Anomalous]

That monologue by Dennis Hopper makes Sicilians very uncomfortable.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And inaccurate.

Of course.

[Medical Physics Guy]

I dunno, Tarantino is a real stickler for historical accuracy

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Not on that he ain't. 'Hundred and hundreds of years ago...Moors...blah, blah. It's true later on but it's not their origins. Siclians go way beyond the Moors. Italian tribes/races were present well before then. The Moors impacted Spain much more.

And he didn't seem to do well with Django either.

[Crusty Juggler]

There was a man named King, and he had a horse, Rufus.

[Corning]

"And he didn't seem to do well with Django either."

LIES!!!

A troop of special forces American Jews did end WW2 by shooting Hitler to death in a theater!!

It happened!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I think that's Spain.

[C. Anacreon]

No, that's Spain, over there.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Waayyy over yonder.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I'm half Irish, half Italian (and Sicilian, at that). I'm basically a European negro, right?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

My God. Just how many of us carry Italian heritage here?

Too many it seems.

Meh.

From Wiki:

"The original inhabitants of Sicily were three defined groups of the Ancient peoples of Italy. The most prominent and by far the earliest of these was the Sicani, who were claimed by Thucydides to have arrived from the Iberian Peninsula (perhaps Catalonia).[16][17] Important historical evidence has been discovered in the form of cave drawings by the Sicani, dated from the end of the Pleistocene epoch, around 8000 BC.[18] The arrival of the first humans is correlated with extinction of dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants. The Elymians, thought to be from the Aegean Sea, were the next tribe to migrate to join the Sicanians on Sicily.[19]"

[OneOut]

"The arrival of the first humans is correlated with extinction of dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants."

See !

Even then humans were destroying Mother Gaia.

[Crusty Juggler]

The fact that she is the worst proves that she is white. They go hand-in-hand.

[See Double You]

I think she's behind the McGriddles scandal at my McDonald's franchise I mentioned upthread.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I have no concrete evidence that Nikki is, in fact, white actually human. She may in fact be a sock of Epi, like everyone else.

[Sevo]

Yes, I am!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Are you in fact white?

[C. Anacreon]

Are you not white?
We are Sevo.

[Sevo]

Nice!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

He said something about a woo brother in law, and I have no idea what that means.

[Sevo]

Woo BIL = member of the Church of What's Happenin' Now.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

But we made the McDonalds breakfast menu!

[rts]

Fifty killed in a knife attack at a Chinese colliery

After overtaking security guards, the attackers killed the workers while they were asleep in bunkhouses at the Sogan colliery in Aksu. Another 50 workers were injured. The suspects are believed to be hiding in a nearby mountain ravine where a manhunt operation is underway.

That's pretty cold-blooded. Also, I've added "colliery" to my vocabulary.

[Juvenile Bluster]

We need common sense knife control.

[Antilles]

Damn you people who think just like me as I'm typing!

[OneOut]

They families of the dead should sue the manufacturers of those knives.

And the cars they drove to the crime scene, or train. And they should check to see if the murderers were wearing shoes and note the brand as a fall back plan.

[Antilles]

We need comprehensive knife reform to ensure this never happens again. That's just common sense...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Knife killings strike me as more personal in its creepiness.

[Antilles]

At least they weren't killed by guns. That would have been much worse.

[Cytotoxic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csa7IHZcaDA

[Sapient Mulch]

more personal in its creepiness.

Why do you equate personal with creepy? I would think gazing into someone's eyes that truly deserved it, as the lights went out would be rather intimate. For instance, catching your rapist? At least you'd know.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The TPP is finished and it has all the right enemies. The Sierra Club, Donald Trump (because Obama is a Kenyan), Bernie Sanders, and various other crazies:

http://www.marketplace.org/top.....-about-tpp

This is big. Like killing bin Laden and pulling the country out of 2008-09 financial crisis big.

BIG, you Peanuts!

[Juvenile Bluster]

Shriek derp de derp. Derp de derpity derpy derp. Until one day, the derpa derpa derpaderp. Derp de derp da teedily dumb. From the creators of Der, and Tum Ta Tittaly Tum Ta Too, Shriek is Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb. Rated PG-13.

[See Double You]

You're a credible guy, Shriek, so it must be UGE!!

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Cramming our shitty IP laws down Asia's throat. How libertarian.

You aren't good at trolling at all.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I believe in property rights.

Try it some time.

[Juice]

Even arbitrary property "rights" like IP? Let me ask you how long the government should grant a monopoly for a song or a book. Or software? 20 years? 100? Eternity for all descendants?

[Palin's Buttplug]

A personal asset like a book/song?

I'll go with the life of the creator. Maybe I'm wrong though. I've never been asked that.

Software? Perpetual.

I hate thieves.

(I worked in the software business as a career)

[Juice]

Well, that's the time period YOU would go with. Others would disagree. It doesn't work like that with actual property. Ideas and thoughts are not actual property.

[Cytotoxic]

Ideas are absolutely property. All private property is IP; all IP is private property.

[The Last American Hero]

Clerking at Gamestop is not working in the software business.

[Palin's Buttplug]

And pharma/biologics?

12 years.

I had to listen to sissy progs complain "drugs should be free!" for the last six months.

I agree with Obama - 12 years.

(Rumor has it the TPP reduced the patent period to five years and my biotechs got hammered today)

[Juice]

12 years. Nothing arbitrary about that.

Biotechs getting hammered is mainly market dynamics. The biotech market got pretty bubbly there for a couple of years and now the air is leaking out. Any good news will be mostly ignored and bad news will be amplified.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Hillary opened her bitch mouth in re: drug prices and fucked things up.

I had some calls on VHT that were going to be a huge windfall until she opened her mouth.

[Juice]

Nah, biotech stocks were going down regardless. Some of the valuations for clinical stage biotechs were getting pretty ridiculous. Not all of them, just some of them. But in the age of ETFs, one stock sneezes and the whole sector gets cancer. Luckily all the new treatments coming out will fix it. Unless they're not allowed to by law.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The Martin Shkreli fiasco didn't help. There was a several percent drop in the immediate aftermath of that.

[Antilles]

Unfortunately, there are no property rights in the US since you have to pay Property Tax forever. If you refuse to pay then they seize your property. So, you can rent land from the government but you never actually own it.

[SIV]

Cato will come out in favor of it. Just like they'll take e-verify and a doubling of armed ICE agents to get path-to-citizenship amnesty.

Nick Gillespie has already endorsed TPP.

[Juice]

pulling the country out of 2008-09 financial crisis

Dude. We are still in the economic shithouse and it's about to get way worse. So, ok, the banks got bailed out in 2009. Good for them.

[Free Society]

That's not true. So many people have given up the search for work that unemployment has been solved. And so much money has been corralled into the stock market by gubmint policy that it cured the mal-investment woes. Recovery Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring Summer Fall, baby!

[Corning]

I know pretty much nothing about TPP....

But now I oppose it cuz you support it.

[Cytotoxic]

Actually, the TPP does not change a whole lot.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/je.....t-nothing/

[Cytotoxic]

"pulling the country out of 2008-09 financial crisis big."

Call us when that happens.

[OneOut]

"BIG, you Peanuts!"

Big doesn't mean good Buttplug.

[Mazakon]

"When trying to reduce sexual assault, labeling all forms of sexual misconduct, including unwanted touches and sloppy kisses, as rape is alarmist and unhelpful," writes social psychologist Carol Tavris.

Tar and feather her!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oh yeah, she's gonna get the treatment.

[Crusty Juggler]

She is an old, white person, so those are two strikes against her.

[Anomalous]

Why does she hate women?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

You better believe that's a paddlin'.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Gawker: People should harass gun shops like pro-lifers harass abortion clinics

Used DoNotLink for the URL, because fuck Gawker's clicks. Also, I'm no Gawker shill like ENB is! (/s)

Relevant snip:

This doesn't just mean marches and protests. It means constant marches and protests, and open and blatant harassment of your political opponents. It means protesting at the homes of gun manufacturing company executives and trying to shut down gun stores. It means very publicly making a scene at as many gun shops as possible, and personally attacking?verbally, but bordering on physically?people trying to enter those stores to legally purchase guns.

After all, the point of screaming at women outside a clinic isn't to erect a legal barrier to abortion access, it's to prevent that woman from getting an abortion, and to dissuade others from even considering it. It's to prevent abortion from being considered a legitimate option. Aren't there a couple thousand gun control activists out there passionate enough to want to stand outside gun shops and provoke confrontations with open-carry wingnuts?

[Juvenile Bluster]

It also means going all-in on gore. It means waving gruesome photos of dead children in the faces of Republican legislators, gun store owners, and gun manufacturers. This is where the conservatives shine. Good liberals are too squeamish to look past the police tape. They worry that if they focus, up close and without flinching, on the goriest details of the carnage, it'll glorify violence, or worse, inspire future killers. Maybe, but it'll also scare the shit out of future killers' mothers before they fill their houses with guns, to feel safe.

Anti-abortion activists revel in gore. They want to get their cameras in the room to capture the most stomach-churning images possible and broadcast them to the world. Gun control advocates hoist signs with pictures of smiling cherubic kids, taken before their lives were cut short. Anti-abortion activists put up billboards with graphic photos of blood and fetal tissue. There will need to be graphic photographs of bullet-riddled corpses. There will need to be more of this:

[Tonio]

You know who else was all-in for Gore?

[Juvenile Bluster]

The residents of the Moon, when he was installed as Emperor?

[Corning]

His ex-wife?

[Ted S.]

Hasn't worked with ciggies. Didn't work when Carolyn McCarthy waved the bloody shirts of dead kids.

[Warty]

How many gun stores are there? How many abortion clinics? And how many people do they think there are who really care about gun control as much as the fetusers care about fetuses?

[Restoras]

So, they're going to try to shout at and shame people going into gun stores...to buy guns. Do you get the feeling they haven't really thought this through?

[Tonio]

Lots of them if you include Wal*Mart and other large retailers. Sears still sell guns?

[SIV]

Every independent pawn shop.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Sears still sell guns?

Haven't for a long time, AFAIK.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

What's a Sears?

[Corning]

A mythical place where men are men and craftsmen tools are sold.

[The Last American Hero]

An Amazon.com that you can visit in person.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

I was gonna make a KMart joke, but they're on probation for doing Christmas commercials in early October.

[Corning]

"Lots of them"

I think that is Warty's point...ie too many for the anti-gun crowd to cover.

[kinnath]

The 1st amendment applies equally to assholes on both ends of the political spectrum.

However, women seeking abortion don't routinely carry concealed, whereas gun store customers . . . . . .

[Illocust]

That works out in their favor. Campuses have already shown that bad thought is worse than assault or destruction of property. If one of these guys attacks a customer and gets shot for their trouble it'll just be proof of how we need to ban guns.

[kinnath]

True, but it is still one less social justice warrior to support with my tax dollars.

[Restoras]

Well, if a gun owner is attacked, then he/she is simply defending themselves, and doing so against a potentially dangerous mob. Seems to me it's proof that more people need to carry.

[Tonio]

We need FAGS - Federal Access to Gun Stores act. Kind of like FACES, the abortion clinic access act. /joke

[Juice]

Wow, good going, FAG. You really made the world a better place, didn't ya, FAG?

[SIV]

Used DoNotLink for the URL, because fuck Gawker's clicks.

ENB is laughing at you

[Corning]

SOON

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/i.....4293-0.jpg

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Yes...Cloon.

[See Double You]

Harassing gun shops just seems like a plain ol' bad idea.

[Palin's Buttplug]

At least they didn't advocate shooting/killing gun shop owners like some crazed wingnuts have done to abortion docs.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

How are you going to shoot somebody if you're anti-gun?

Pack your shit up and go home for the day. Troll again tomorrow.

[Anomalous]

There are anti-gun hypocrites out there who believe in guns for me but not for thee.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

You're boring

[C. Anacreon]

At least they didn't advocate shooting/killing gun shop owners like some crazed wingnuts have done to abortion docs.

You know, you often call people you don't like 'wingnuts' for some reason.

Personally, I find wing nuts some of the most useful pieces of hardware, especially when doing home improvement tasks. And whether stainless steel, zinc-plated steel or brass, they are all quite durable and easy to use.

Instead of defaming these, why not call disagreeable people "Weigels" ?

[CJR]

I hear people advocating this around once a month on Facebook.

[SIV]

and personally attacking?verbally, but bordering on physically?people trying to enter those stores to legally purchase guns.

This might succeed in raising the "gun deaths" stat.

[Rhywun]

Aren't there a couple thousand gun control activists out there passionate enough to want to stand outside gun shops and provoke confrontations with open-carry wingnuts?

There may be a few useful idiots willing to do the Democrat's dirty work of disarming the public for them, but a "couple thousand"? In their dreams.

[Tonio]

I suspect most of them lack the stones to confront gun owners. Because according to their own propaganda we're all murderous nutjobs.

[Unreconstructed (Sans Flag)]

personally attacking?verbally, but bordering on physically?people trying to enter those stores

You know, I'd love to see this, especially when one of those being so attacked pulls out a handgun in self-defense and points it at the attacker.

[Tonio]

^This, this, a thousand times this. I'd love to see the youtube video of the attacker pissing/shitting himself on camera.

[Anomalous]

They won't even need to do that. Just administer a good old-fashioned ass-kicking.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

open and blatant harassment of your political opponents.

Civilized! Civilized and tolerant.

[CJR]

Please, please, please start doing this. I beg you. Start with the NRA Headquarters, ideally Wednesday or Thursday, so I can be there with my camcorder.

[Rebel Scum]

People should harass gun shops like pro-lifers harass abortion clinics

They are really advocates of harassing (threatening?) people who have guns at their disposal? Well, in all fairness, I have never of anyone who would self-describe as an sjw/progressive as being particularly intelligent.

[Rebel Scum]

never **thought** of...

*sighs*

[Millard Fillmore]

I'll take the under on 5 days until one of these morons gets shot.

[Lord at War]

It means very publicly making a scene at as many gun shops as possible, and personally attacking?verbally, but bordering on physically?people trying to enter those stores to legally purchase guns.

Please do. Please. Please. Please.

I will start a blog showing all the bloodstains that result from this.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Youtube star Caleb Logan Bratayley died of natural causes.

I can't take someone with that name seriously.

[Sevo]

I have no idea who in hell it is/was, and no desire to find out.

[Rhywun]

Yeah I don't want to be a jerk and I know I'm not exactly clued in to what's hip these days but... who the hell is this?

[Slammer]

Someone might have to take one for the team and find out, but it's not gonna be me.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Not it.

*touches nose*

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I do feel like a jerk, so I want to make clear that I'm making a reference to that asshole commenter blackblood (who may have been a Tulpa, I'm not sure).

I also don't know who this person was, and his name is terrible, but it's unfortunate that he has passed. RIP, Caleb! You were great at... that stuff! Why couldn't it be PewDiePie?

[Sevo]

"RIP, Caleb! You were great at... that stuff!"
Let me add my heart-felt sympathies for all the people who will now grieve at the loss of what's-his-name!

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Apparently he was a kid. I don't know what he could regularly produce that people would like, but that is sad.

[Sevo]

"...It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies..."

That'll attract a certain audience.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

No correlation between homicide and stricter gun laws, writes The Washington Post's Eugene Volokh.

That's why you're supposed to use "gun deaths" and not homicide. Get's a better result. /ThinkProgress

[Illocust]

Is there an actual justification for looking at gun deaths as opposed to homicides. Like has someone argued that being killed by being beaten to death or stabbed is better than being shot?

[Juvenile Bluster]

The justification is whether or not it fits the narrative, I'll assume.

[Medical Physics Guy]

My facebook is exploding with statistical illiterates linking to articles claiming to "prove" that gun laws reduce violence. Hide, hide, hide...

[Microaggressor]

Figures don't lie, etc...

[The Hyperbole]

Archie Bunker?

[Mickey Rat]

Because suicide must cinfonrd if done with pills, a horrible tragedy if done with a gun.

[Tonio]

cinfonrd?

[The Hyperbole]

it's a perfectly cromuent word.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

"Cromuent"?

Why, two perfectly cromulent words in one thread! Our spirits are truly embiggened this day!

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Gets. Not Get's. Edit button.

[waffles]

White supremacy is the force that has worked

So why fix what isn't broken?

[Warty]

Moscow TV Forecasts Great Weather For Bombing Syria

The demure slutty dress is the best part.

[Sevo]

Am I correct that the page is actually "F-g A"?

[waffles]

I LOVE this. I was thinking of this video of the Mexican weather. And I was just like umm...yeah you can bomb Syria all you want. It's fine.

[Anomalous]

Is the dress slutty just because it's red?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Is she the power behind the throne? Are these messages to Putin authorizing airstrikes for the entirety of October?

[Mazakon]

Washington Post: Make Your Own Trump Hat

[PapayaSF]

Always check your links....

[Illocust]

"Wesleyan Black Lives Matter got an op-ed in The Argus. It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies...""

He better be careful. His population size is way to small, concentrated in areas where their votes don't matter, and not going to vote for the other side. If he gets to serious about calling white people evil without providing the progs a way to be the good kind of white people and he'll find himself suddenly irrelevant. There are other black voices that can be promoted that will give the libs the tingles.

[GILMORE?]

"Youtube star Caleb Logan Bratayley died "

1) In my mind i see a Venn Diagram with one circle called, "Robby-trolling the commenters", and another labeled, "Genuine Interest In Tabloid News"... with this item sitting in the center of their overlap

2) who? why? ....

Disregard #2

[Tonio]

H&R CONTEST!

In the Reason LA Happy Hour thread, esteemed commenter Almanian referenced a fictional drink called a Rusty Woodchipper. Let's make that a thing. Post your recipes as replies below.

[Juvenile Bluster]

1. Bourbon

2. Ice

The end!

[Medical Physics Guy]

Scots whisky
Drambuie
Pine tar

[Crusty Juggler]

Undercover squirrel.

[IndyEleven]

It's a woodchipper, so Beam's Devils Cut would seem to fit the bill on the wood flavor. Maybe some ice made from orange koolaid to give it a rusty sheen...

[GILMORE?]

- (3 oz) Woodford Reserve Four Wood Bourbon
- Shaved Ice (*or chipped)
- 3 marischino cherries, crushed, chopped, tossed on top of ice
- stir with Federal prosecutor's business card

[Crusty Juggler]

We need a photo of Welch with one of these.

[GILMORE?]

Perhaps a splash of bloody mary mix would give it extra visual effect, spice

[lap83]

I'm down with bourbon and ice

I'd also add

1. lemon juice
2. maple syrup
3. garnish with smoked paprika and a cinnamon stick

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The smoked paprika made me thing of something. There should be meat and bone in the drink.

At the least Reason meetup that we had, my whiskey came garnished with a baby back rib.

[lap83]

That would be perfect

[Slammer]

Undercover Squirrel

[Ted S.]

Midnight fantasy?

[Slammer]

Undercover Squirrel

[Slammer]

Undercover Squirrel

[lap83]

"Pear Vodka"

Shouldn't this be a man's drink?

[Slammer]

I was going to link the Mayonnaise cocktails at first.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The water MUST come from an upper toilet tank.

[Anomalous]

+1 Upper Decker

[Unreconstructed (Sans Flag)]

Woodford Reserve Bourbon
Drambuie

Served over chipped ice

[Thymirus]

Russian Standard in 500-milileter doses. /Russian-born.

[Ted S.]

Has to be something aged in wooden casks, with ice shavings.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Comon, guys, this is a libertarian drink.

Three parts raw, unfiltered, untaxed moonshine to one part Campari, for color. Serve with shaved ice.

[The Late P Brooks]

Wesleyan Black Lives Matter got an op-ed in The Argus. It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies..."

Now we're getting somewhere.

[Sevo]

Oh, and:
"Former UN president facing bribery, tax fraud charges"
[...]
"Prosecutors said John Ashe 'converted the United Nations into a platform for profit' when bribery opportunities were dangled before him by Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng and others."
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2.....ud-charges

Corruption at the UN?! Well, I never!

[Thymirus]

The United Nations is a monument to functional retardation and corrupt ineptitude, even by the average political standard of the modern world.

[Thymirus]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/ne.....e6f8b.html

Chicago Tribune: Fire this cop

The trial of a Chicago cop who fired into a crowd in a dark alley, killing an innocent woman, ended on a disturbing note in April.

A Cook County judge ruled Detective Dante Servin couldn't be convicted of involuntary manslaughter because he should have been charged with the more serious crime of first-degree murder. Prosecutors aimed too low, so ? not guilty.

Even more baffling than Judge Dennis Porter's decision was Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy's response. He said Servin should not have been charged with a crime at all.

McCarthy wouldn't explain what he meant by that. We expect he will soon, now that a panel that reviews police misconduct cases has recommended that Servin be fired. The panel found that Servin violated department policy for shooting into a crowd, that he had failed to show he was qualified to use the gun in question and that his statements to the review board were inconsistent.

[Antilles]

Rules are different for the King's Men. Odd that those who enforce the law are not held to the same standards as us peons.

[Thymirus]

It's little wonder that this sort of insulation from justice attracts degenerates and goons to law enforcement.

[Juice]

Prosecutors aimed too low, so ? not guilty.

No jury? WTF? So obviously there will be a trial for murder? Right?

[Thymirus]

Chicago's judiciary and its machinations make Detroit look like a first-rate, republican bulwark of justice, and that's not hyperbole.

Fuck Chicago. It's Satan's asshole.

[Just say Nikki]

That would be double jeopardy.

[Juice]

Not the same charge, so no.

[But Enough About Me]

I'd always understood "double jeopardy" to mean "tried twice for the same crime." Technically, if the PO's subsequently charged with first-degree murder, that's a different crime (though both are homicides).

[Just say Nikki]

Fortunately, that panel is entering a reeducation process. Also they like to fire people from it who recommend cops should be fired.

[The Late P Brooks]

This is big. Like killing bin Laden and pulling the country out of 2008-09 financial crisis big.

*throws rope over beam, climbs onto chair, puts head through noose*

[Tonio]

Stop that, Brooksie. You do step one, then help 'Plug onto the chair...

[Palin's Buttplug]

BIG!

"Fucking big" Old Joe said? Or something like that.

I've been proud to be an American TWICE in my life.

When the US hockey team beat the Russians in 1980 and when Obama/Rangers killed bin Laden.

Twice.

Not a flag waver here.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Obama and the Rangers killed Bin Laden. I'm bookmarking that.

[The Last American Hero]

Would that be the Texas Rangers or New York Rangers?

Did Obama bring his Secret Service detail to Pakistan or leave them behind?

[GILMORE?]

ex-UN President Charged in Bribery Investigation

[Slammer]

Never gets old.

[GILMORE?]

Proof = Corporations Hate America

[Antilles]

They're just starving the beast--as all good Americans should.

[Thymirus]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015.....cmp=hplnws

Los Angeles police issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for a suspect in connection to a viral video that shows a police officer, then pans to a handgun.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the video, which runs 15 seconds, is recorded from inside a vehicle following behind a police car. After filming the police officer in the squad car, the camera films what appears to be a handgun. In describing the video, The Times reported, "The person briefly angles the gun for the camera before hiding it under some sort of sweatshirt or blanket."

Police said they became aware of the silent video last week and determined it was filmed by a 1990s rap group looking to make a comeback, according to the paper. Authorities told the paper that it is unclear who is responsible for the video, filmed in downtown Los Angeles, but said it appeared to be someone "stalking" the officer seen in the footage.

[Thymirus]

Pants = soiled.

[Medical Physics Guy]

a 1990s rap group looking to make a comeback

Kriss Kross? Maybe they hid it in their backwards overalls.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Or maybe Kid n Play went gansta?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

One of them is dead. Can't remember which.

[Not an Economist]

The one wearing his pants backwards... and yes it is sad that I remember this.

[Crusty Juggler]

The mac dad will make you jump, jump
The daddy mac will make you jump, jump
uh huh, uh huh.

How high? Real high!

[Antilles]

Great. Now the cops are going to be even more jumpy and trigger-happy.

[Slammer]

The cops have handguns and shotguns in the patrol car and follow or "stalk" citizens all day long.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I think it's fair to say that if you're driving in LA for the new few days, your life is in graver danger than normal. If you have a blue pickup truck, take the bus for a while.

[Free Society]

No one is safe. Remember that APB put out during the Dorner manhunt? They were looking for a tall black man in something like a blue truck and they fired on a white pickup with two small Asian women inside delivering newspapers. And that same morning a different squad of pigs negligently shot some other people who also weren't Dorner.

I mean fuck, if you're going to have roving death squads, at least get some halfway competent sociopaths in the ranks.

[Tonio]

A ray of hope! I've been carping all week about the gun grabber BS on derpbook. Today a friend posted a picture with the following caption: That awkward moment when the dude who bombed a hospital comes on TV to lecture us about gun violence.

[PapayaSF]

+1

[Juvenile Bluster]

I love the question I've seen on Facebook/Twitter: Is Obama the first Nobel Peace Price recipient to bomb a different Nobel Peace Prize recipient?

[Juice]

The sad thing is he's not.

[Thymirus]

I usually pull out a poignant picture of an excerpt from the Dred Scott decision written next to the image of a black woman with a rifle on her shoulder. The progressive retards then usuallt skulk away for a few days.

[Cytotoxic]

I humbly request a link.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Sounds like one of Oleg Volk's images.

*searches*

Found it.

Can't find it on Oleg's page, but it looks like one of his, and the link in the bottom-left corner is to one of his websites.

[PapayaSF]

"But a President Obama Sanders would stop the lawless killing conducted by President Bush Obama!"

[PapayaSF]

The rhetoric of the left often amuses me. "White supremacy," yeah, right. It's Alabama 1920, everywhere.

I guess what black people need is black supremacy. Like having a black president. That should help blacks, shouldn't it? Or complete political control of cities, like Detroit, Baltimore, Gary, and countless more. Blacks do noticeably better in those places, right? What with racial pride and all. Or maybe they need to be in control of entire countries, like Zimbabwe.

Or, just maybe, the problem is not race but stupid political ideas. Naw, that can't be, because then it would be hard to blame other people!

[Thymirus]

Another titanic problem is the characterization and definition of individuals primarily upon the basis of their ethnicity, or their broader racial background.

We've got a big American city, and we've got this mayoral candidate to consider, but we'll just forget thinking about his positions and credentials, because that shit's irrelevant -- instead, we'll just point out repeatedly and loudly that he's black, and that that's all that matter. Vote for him, because if you don't, you're racist.

Fuck progressivism.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Another titanic problem is the characterization and definition of individuals primarily upon the basis of their ethnicity, or their broader racial background.

IOW, racism.

That is a bit of a problem for an 'anti-racist' movement.

[GILMORE?]

File Under = "Cost of Doing Business"

Nevada Admits Bussing, Dumping Mentally-Ill Homeless People in San Francisco

(my made-up quote - feel free to add your own)

- "Yes, L.A. was closer, but crazy blends-in better in San Fran"

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's what you're dealing with when you take public transportation in CA.

[Rhywun]

My most vivid memory of living in SF for a year was the ungodly funk coming off the reeking bum living on every other bus.

[PapayaSF]

Oh great, we get $400,000 for this. The city spends about $200 million a year on the homeless.

[C. Anacreon]

Hey, in Oakland we got nuthin' in this deal. But I can tell you from experience in the ER, that a lot of these people got off the bus before making it all the way into San Francisco, far too many hopping off at the Greyhound station in downtown Oakland.

But it's not just from Nevada. Mentally ill people from all over the USA get 'sent' to California -- the local mental health agency actually buys them a bus ticket, and gives them a couple of bag lunches for the ride, saying 'you'll really like it there, you'll fit right in."

They call it 'Greyhound Therapy'.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

There must be a bus station in Santa Monica.

[PapayaSF]

Why doesn't California do that? Doesn't Detroit have a bunch of empty houses?

[GILMORE?]

"Oh great, we get $400,000 for this. '

Yeah, that's sort of what i meant by "cost of doing business". Why stop? Just keep sending them and paying the fee.

[Juice]

Cal-i-fornia...is good to the homeless.

[Antilles]

California already has 28% of the nation's welfare recipients. Why not bring in more people who take and give nothing in return?

[american socialist]

Shitty infrastructure in a country with one of the lowest rates of taxation in the industrialized world proves socialism doesn't work.

I'd rather do time in a pound-me-in-the-ass American prison than one in Denmark any day.

[Antilles]

one of the lowest rates of taxation in the industrialized world

My cumulative tax rate (on a 5-figure income) is 51%. And you believe that's the lowest in the industrialized world? Seriously?

[american socialist]

If you are paying 51% tax on your 5-figure salary you either need to a.) get an accountant or b.) fire your accountant. My wife and I make well into the 6 figures and we pay, at the most, 30%... In California.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

If you make well into the 6 figures, why don't you make your fucking house payments?

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

american socialist

My wife and I make well into the 6 figures

Uh-huh. That explains....something, I'm sure.

we pay, at the most, 30%... In California.

So, are you happy in that statement, or upset? 'Cause, I know a cure for you if you're upset by the fact.

[Antilles]

I live in California too. But I'm not married, I don't have any dependents, and I have no write-offs since my ex made me sell my house and give her half. The government takes 30% of my earnings before I even get paid, and then I pay even more at tax time. When you add in sales tax, gas tax, and all the other 'hidden' taxes, it's well over 50%. In other words, my tax burden is more than all my other expenses combined. This is why it infuriates me when people like you complain we don't pay enough in taxes.

[american socialist]

If you make 99999/yr (worst case) you pay ~ 19433, 1450, 12500, 5000, 2475, 2000, 6232, and 540 dollars for federal, Medicare, social security, property, sales, other, state, and gas taxes; respectively. That means a tax rate of 49.6% under ludicrously pessimistic conditions. Again, if you feel like you are paying over half of your money in taxes you need to either consult a tax attorney or-- possibly-- a psychologist.

[Antilles]

You left out the 2% Obamacare tax (my employer wisely chose to pay the fine rather than offer coverage), 8+% sales tax on nearly every purchase, the highest gasoline taxes in the nation, vehicle registration tax, utility taxes, etc. I have a professional CPA do my taxes, but I literally have no write-offs or loopholes to take advantage of so I have to pay the maximum, and I don't make anywhere near your example above.

[american socialist]

No, I put 2% of your income in for other and basically assumed you drove a Hummer for 20,000 miles a year. So I included that. If you make less than 99999 your tax rate will be lower than the very pessimistic example I laid out above.

[Antilles]

In other words, I should just be quiet, pay more than my share so others can pay less, and be grateful the government doesn't take even more. Got it.

[Hyperbolical (wadair)]

Yeah, cause 49.6% is far less than half.

[Rhywun]

He's cutting and pasting his earlier talking points now. Classy.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

I'd rather do time in a pound-me-in-the-ass American prison

Yeah, something about your style suggests you are telling the truth with this one.

[Cytotoxic]

"Shitty infrastructure in a country with one of the lowest rates of taxation in the industrialized world proves socialism doesn't work."

Considering that the government is in charge of that infrastructure, yes it does.

[Corning]

"one of the lowest rates of taxation in the industrialized world"

We have the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world.

Also when local and state taxes are added with Income taxes we equal or exceed most of the industrial world in personal taxes.

[Pan Zagloba]

I'd like to see citation on that. Because "most of the industrial world" also pays said taxes. And on top of it, sales tax on everything between 5% and 20% (depending on how ravenous government is).

[Pan Zagloba]

Sweet Omniscience, I underrated it, 25% is very, very popular in Europe.

Gaze upon multiple-column sortable table, if you're wired in a wrong way and multiple ways to look at stats excite you

Wiki tax page

So yes US tax rate is horrible, except for most of the rest of the world. What the fuck is wrong with the Netherlands, I thought they were sensible people?!
Swiss are, of course, sane. Does not include cantonal tax rates, but there are enough of them for competition to work.

[Antilles]

You left out all the 'hidden' taxes we pay every day: sales tax, gasoline tax, taxes on utilities and phones and to register our cars each year. European taxes seem far more straight-forward whereas the US is sneakier and steals a little here and there and hoping we don't notice. Plus, corporations don't pay taxes--they collect them.

[Pan Zagloba]

No, 25% ON EVERY SALE is standard in Europe.

Understand that. 25%. On anything you buy, pretty much. Want pizza? 25% sales tax. Video game? 25%. Car? 25%. Almost everything (there is sometimes exceptions of few staples, to the point of, 6 bread rolls no tax, one bread roll, tax).
Gasoline tax? Fuck yes, their taxes are enormous. And once you are ready to roll? 25% VAT!
Government fees? Christ, you think not?
Utilities? Phones? Car registration? VAT, baby. Ca-Ching, Ca-Ching, 25%.
It's straighforward in this manner - brackets are much lower, and there are fewer exceptions. So they pay through their nose.
My favorite (Canadian) example - if I buy stuff in States, I sometimes pay import tax. On that, I pay Goods and Service Tax - because customs performed a service, charging me import tax.

[Antilles]

Ok. Just because someplace else might be worse, I should ignore someplace that should be better? Most people (aka the Middle Class) don't benefit from all the services WE pay for. Yet, if we don't pay for them our lives will be destroyed by armed government thugs. Ok, we know whose side you're on...

[Pan Zagloba]

No, you can complain. Just don't claim you're worse off than "most of industrial world". You're not. Complain you're not Switzerland. But don't tell people who pay for more than you do, for services they won't be using either, and who will likewise be destroyed by armed government thugs if they don't pay, that they have it easier.

[GILMORE?]

"The United States has the third highest general top marginal corporate income tax rate in the world at 39.1 percent, exceeded only by Chad and the United Arab Emirates. The worldwide average top corporate income tax rate is 22.6 percent (30.6 percent weighted by GDP)."

People who want to claim the US has very low rates tend to use dishonest measures, such as "taxation as % of GDP"

The US has below-average personal income-tax rates, (31% vs average of 35%)

I think that difference is mostly offset by Sales taxes & VAT, which even them out.

[Pan Zagloba]

Yes, your corporate tax rates are out of whack. I should have clarified that I meant that it would be shocking if you exceeded "other industrial" in personal taxes, and hello no, you don't.

Philosophical question - is it a tax if you have to pay for mandatory govt. health insurance to govt? Usually such things are not counted, but exist. If you count them, should paying for private health insurance count in US, now that having some kind of health insurance is mandatory?

If people bitch about "tax as % of GDP", ask them about Switzerland - apprently, their federal expenditure is all of 10% of the GDP. Mostly financed by taxes, because, says Wiki, from 2005 to 2010, their public debt went from 130 billion franks to 110 billion. Yet somehow they have roads.

[brady949]

It makes sense. SF is precisely 50% tech douches and 50% hobos now.

[PapayaSF]

Hey!

[JMC1607]

Reasonoids,

I am working on a finance assignment and, as this is my first finance course, have been struggling to find data I can use. I am going to leave it here in hopes anyone knows any good sources, financial/economic journals, etc. Any push in the right direction would be much appreciated. Thanks.

The Federal Reserve has set its discount rate at 0 to 25 basis points since January 2009. During this period. who have been the economic and financial winners and losers? U.S. Government? Financial institutions? Stock Market Investors? Real Estate Investors? Conservative Investors? What order of magnitude of real gains and losses have they experienced?

[Warty]

School is for fags. Drop out and do drugs.

[waffles]

Or just keep going to school and do drugs. School is mostly better on drugs. Just be smart and cool and do the right drugs and you'll be fine.

[Warty]

That's an acceptable option too. The key point is, drugs are cool, cheat off the smart kids, and apply to med school in Grenada.

[waffles]

The med school is respectable now! Just be sure to transfer to an American school before graduation.

[Juice]

I know someone who graduated from med school in Grenada. Now she's making bank working in...South Dakota. The only reason she took the job (like last month) was because of a $40k signing bonus + other upfront bonuses totaling over $70k and she'll be paid over $200k/yr. She gets all kinds of perks too. I think she'll get a month off every three or something like that. I can't remember. It was all pretty damned posh. But it's South Dakota. But you know what? For that kind of money I'd "live" there and with all the time off I'd have (she will have shitloads of time off) I'd travel to exotic places the whole time. She told her fiance she doesn't want him to work so that when they travel he'll be available. Lucky fuck.

[JMC1607]

I work for the school and they are paying for the vast majority of my tuition as an employee. Normally I would agree with you but this is a no brainer while I am working there.

[waffles]

Grenada is beautiful.

[Warty]

That's always a fairly good deal, as long as you're ok with taking 8 years to finish the bachelor's.

As for your question, the Fed's policy has benefited debtors and penalized savers. If you want more technical details, this is probably not the best place to ask.

[JMC1607]

I am in B-school so luckily, mercilessly, it will only take 3 years for a small fraction of the cost. More than halfway done now and I can't wait, though I've had the opportunity to meet some pretty smart/experienced people from different industries which has been the biggest upshot so far.

[PapayaSF]

I wish I could help, but surely your instructors can point to good sources?

[Medical Physics Guy]

Ask a commenter named Palin's Buttplug, you're sure to get an A on your assignment.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I write a finance newsletter, The Buttplug Letter, if you're interested.

[Trshmnstr doesn't recycle]

Just don't touch it. You know where it's been.

[Palin's Buttplug]

We mail it rolled-up in a cylinder.

Our marketing people are genius.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The paper is designed to disintegrate after only an hour in the septic system. It's amazing!

[Juice]

U.S. Government? Financial institutions? Stock Market Investors? Real Estate Investors?

All of the above, but that's coming to an end. The biggest winners were stocks and bonds. Believe it or not some financial institutions, mainly hedge funds, did rather poorly during the bubble bull market.

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Federal Reserve has set its discount rate at 0 to 25 basis points since January 2009.

The discount rate was .075% last I looked.

You mean the Fed funds rate.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Yeah, the discount rate is still .75% but no one is using it.

The real story is the huge excess reserves banks have that pay .25%

[Palin's Buttplug]

Winners? Anyone borrowing money at low rates.

Losers? DDA (bank deposit accounts), savers.

Nothing much else.

[Corning]

"Losers? DDA (bank deposit accounts), savers"

So basically the middle class and any future middle class....

Yup nothin much here.

[Palin's Buttplug]

No one is entitled to high interest rates.

It is like a "participation trophy" for weaklings.

[Cytotoxic]

HAHAHAHNAHAHHAHAHA

FREE MARKETS ARE FOR ENTITLED PEOPLE

[Palin's Buttplug]

The free market can pay anything it wants in interest.

Right now banks are paying less than 1% because inflation is dead.

Gold is down about 40% and goldbugs are idiots who have been right twice since 1972.

[Corning]

"Gold is down about 40% and goldbugs are idiots who have been right twice since 1972."

Gold is up 1700% from 1972....

[Corning]

Inflation is manufactured by the central bank and wages always lag inflation.

Also free markets can and have produced low interest rates.

It is in the doing of making low interest rates that destroys not the low interest rates in and of themselves.

[GILMORE?]

"Any push in the right direction would be much appreciated. "

Go read a Series 7 study guide (searching for interest rates), and/or find Series 86 study materials, and plumb them for basic details on how interest-rate directional moves tend to affect different asset classes over different periods of time

You can find a lot of these materials online. The Investopedia example linked above is not the only source = try torrents as well because they are expensive and people do tend to swap old ones ...particularly CFA1 study materials and 86 guides...

If you email me jfgilmore (g mail), i can send you some examples. Citing them isn't probably helpful, but they will help you make a sensible argument.

(more)

[GILMORE?]

Keep in mind that there are distinction between rate levels, and rate directions.

Low rates are "low" relative to inflation and GDP growth rates. When the latter two are low as well, you don't see the same effects over time.

The direction they are moving in tends to be more important than the absolute levels.

""During this period. who have been the economic and financial winners and losers?""

Low rates make borrowing money "cheaper", and make investment in risk-free/low-risk assets like treasuries less attractive.

Low rates "prime the pump" by increasing the level of total investment capital, as well as forcing that capital into higher-risk asset classes.

This should in theory have a stimulative economic effect, as capital floods into asset classes that provide better returns. Loans get cheaper, people borrow more, businesses expand, etc.

However, during recessionary periods & the long delay between cheap money pump-priming and ''real economic activity"...you find that the immediate effect is mostly concentrated on investments

In the interim, what you see is that Equity benefits more than debt classes

but higher-risk debt classes, & alternative assets like preferred shares and real estate/REITs also see better risk-return profiles

[GILMORE?]

The main impact on low borrowing rates we've seen by corporations in 2009-2014 has been a combination of 1) deleveraging and 2) Share Repurchases, both of which have increased equity values. Both are basically forms of capital-restructuring.

in the former, companies borrow money to pay down older, more expensive debt, which greatly reduces their interest expenses and improves long term profits.

in the latter, companies borrow money and buy equity back on the open market; if they pay a dividend higher than the rate they are borrowing, it has the same effect as the above - it reduces expenses. By reducing their float, it also increases the per-share value (though the effect is often delayed for a year)

In order of benefit, i'd argue the main beneficiaries of low rates that you list have been Equity markets and participants = investors, corporations, financial institutions

Conservative investors have missed out on much of the benefit, though it depends on how they structured their exposure. if they were trying to be inflation-averse, they lose.

Government benefits via tax-receipts from financial activity, and perhaps by being able to claim falsely that market-recovery equates to Sound Economic Policy.

hedge funds have probably done the worst, since most of their styles of investment rely on higher volatility and less one-directional market performance. They also have a hard time keeping capital while cheap investments like ETFs are outperforming them.

[GILMORE?]

re: sources

I would go to Fidelity, Vanguard, JP Morgan, Blackrock, etc. and check each of their "market outlook" reports every year between 2009-2014

Usually they come out Nov-Dec of each year. If you google the institution name, year, and filetype:pdf you can find them. Example

Each of these will provide both data on policy, asset class historical performance, and their expectations for the following year. Reading them in order would be an enlightening experience in seeing how these guys gradually modify their attitudes as reality often fails to conform to their prognostications.

Part of what they do to differentiate themselves is make "one interesting argument" per year. You may find that one of them is more-correct than the others; or at least they communicate their arguments in ways that you find compelling.

Another good source for journals etc. would be Advisor-oriented websites, which link to a wide variety of free resources

[Corning]

"I am going to leave it here in hopes anyone knows any good sources,"

http://www.zerohedge.com/

Note: You will likely get an "F" for using the data and analysis you find on this site....but you will be right.

[Cytotoxic]

Probably not. ZH's specialty is doom-saying. They almost never get it right.

[Corning]

"They almost never get it right."

Until they do.

[GILMORE?]

In my comment above, i had planned to add

""....be wary of Seeking Alpha, Zerohedge, etc., anything that allows-self-publishing, or is populated by market ideologues. There is much kookiness in them thar hills. a partner recently sent me an argument made by someone who believes the financial markets have a strong correlation to The Sun....or something. """

But then i didn't think it was necessary. I guess it was.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Agreed!

Also Denninger is an idiot. Don't read him.

Read The Buttplug Letter instead.

[Warty]

Why Americans shouldn't despair about gun control

It's not a coincidence that America is just about always the very last developed nation to pass reasonable social protections that have been around in peer nations for decades, if not centuries. Our constitutional structure is ludicrously outdated. We make it all but impossible to pass legislation, so hair-on-fire problems tend to fester for decade after decade. Aside from health care, it took 90 years to get an anti-lynching bill. Almost alone in the world, we still have no paid leave policy and preposterously low family benefits.

Tedious, or most tedious?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

We need to be more like europe.

Everyone should be as poor as Alabama.

[kinnath]

Our constitutional structure is ludicrously outdated

Someone needs a one-way ticket to Gitmo courtesy of the Obama Justice Dept.

[GILMORE?]

""Our constitutional structure is ludicrously outdated.'"

Despite it being the newest, most advanced form of self-government on earth. right

[Thymirus]

Budding autocrat yearns for the evisceration of constitutional republicanism predicated upon the sanctity of individual liberty, demands statist dystopia.

Weather at 11.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Our constitutional structure is ludicrously outdated.

Know who else thought a constitutional structure was ludicrously outdated?

[Thymirus]

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic.

[Corning]

Vox Media's Ezra "constitution 100 years old" Klein?

[GILMORE?]

File Under = "I was expecting Florida"

Pet Store Owner Attacked, Nearly Killed by Giant Python

"'The snake was unharmed.""

[kinnath]

"'The snake was unharmed.""

You magnificent bastard

[Juice]

*rimshot*

[lap83]

for a second I thought that said "the snake was unarmed"

[kinnath]

That was what triggered my post, only later did I see I had misread the comment.

[Antilles]

Technically, aren't all snakes 'unarmed?'

[AlmightyJB]

Not in DC

[GILMORE?]

I sort of missed that one.

[Ted S.]

Cops didn't shoot it?

[GILMORE?]

Forget Syria = Russia, US, Plan for Arctic War

Like the Polar Bears need something new to worry about!

[Raven Nation]

Been there, done that.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Chicago investigates corrupt police officer, finds confessions were made up or coerced and that incarcerated individuals are "likely innocent". Anita Alvarez: Meh, we won't be reopening the cases, they're probably still guilty.

[Pan Zagloba]

You will never be free of Donald Trump.

Other things to keep in mind:

Black names vs White Supremacy.

Whoever found a picture of for the article deserves a medal in Unintended Trolling.

Remember, citizens:

Because when the final role is taken of all America's racists and bigots, do you really want your name to be on it?

(I assume he wanted to write "final roll" but English spelling is more fucked up than American race relations)

Or, would you rather have Sean Bean in uniform, with a song:

O'er the hills and far away.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"But I don't have to go far down my rosters to find white kids with names like Braelyn, Declyn, Jaydon, Jaxon, Gunner, or Hunter. I've never heard white folks yucking it up over those names."

She doesn't know any white people, apparently.

[Pan Zagloba]

If I started quoting "WTF?" moments from that article, I'd have reposted the whole thing.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

That's as far as I got.

I know a bunch of little fuckers with names like Skylar and Jackson, and I make fun of it all the time.

[AlmightyJB]

Action Jackson?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

It's mostly nanny and Montessori jokes. Some of the kids around here are props and fashion accessories.

[B.P.]

Yeah, absurd white names are ripe for abuse.

[lap83]

She doesn't know any white people, apparently.

Seriously, I worked at a toy store years ago and we never tired of mocking the pseudo-yuppie names. Why do you want your kid to sound like the villain on a cheesy soap opera?

[The Late P Brooks]

The 500 largest American companies hold more than $2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released on Tuesday.

All I see is a group of bank robbers planning a heist.

[Free Society]

Wesleyan Black Lives Matter got an op-ed in The Argus. It begins, "White supremacy is the force that has worked since the genocide of indigenous bodies..."

I read their little op-ed and ...ouch. I can't possibly roll my eyes any harder without going blind.

[Matrix]

Swedish Bishop wants crosses removed from Church because Muslims might be offended

They're done.

[Antilles]

How about the big 'cross' on the Swedish flag? That must be as offensive to Muslims as the Confederate flag is to Progressives. Remember, tolerance only goes one direction...

[Free Society]

Blonde hair also offends Muslims. So many of the Muslim males in Europe regard that hair color as the Mark of the Slut, who is totally just asking for it. Fuck it, white people just kill yourselves, your existence is sure to offend millions upon millions of non-European entitled pricks.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Hmmm, without clicking that link, the URL indicates that somehow lesbianism is involved.

I don't think I want to know any more.

[Pan Zagloba]

Would you prefer Ezra Levant's take?

[The Late P Brooks]

The Federal Reserve has set its discount rate at 0 to 25 basis points since January 2009. During this period. who have been the economic and financial winners and losers? U.S. Government?

Our government has been borrowing relentlessly at ultra low rates. When interest rates rise to something approximating historical "normal" debt service will consume the budget.

Guess who loses.

[bacon-magic]

"If you like your guns, you can keep your guns. Period." /the mad hospital bomber(If it isn't covered under Obamacare, it's not a real hospital)

[american socialist]

"6,000 to go free"

Fucking Obama. He is the worst.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I wish I had a crayon so I could write this in a way that you could understand.

This was done by the United States Sentencing Commission. Not Obama.

Obama has the power to pardon for any and all federal crimes. He didn't.

Nod if you understand.

[american socialist]

Der... I don'tz noze thiz stuff like youze.

Who appointz theze guyz? Santa Clauz?

[The Late P Brooks]

Fucking Obama. He is the worst.

Let me help you with that.

The first inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

One might easily surmise political expediency plays a greater role in his decisions than compassion.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Hey man, those people just have to sit in jail until it is politically feasible for Obama to use that executive power he loves to flaunt, OK? It's not like he can just thumb his nose at his critics and say, "I won, remember?" He's doing his best!

[Jerry Smith]

Really enjoying Snowden's tweets.

[Antilles]

Really enjoying Snowden's tweets.

The NSA already knows that...

[lafe.long]

Glendale, Ohio: Court Upholds Suspension of 12-Year-Old Boy for Staring at Girl

A 12-year-old black boy was suspended from school after he allegedly "stared" at a white girl in Glendale, Ohio. "My son stared at a girl who was engaged in a staring game," explained Candice Tolbert, the boy's mother. "She giggled the entire time." The Tolberts filed suit in Hamilton County Common Pleas and charged that the school did not give their son due process. However, a judge denied their claim, and their son's suspension remains standing.

[lafe.long]

Whopper: Halloween Version of Burger King Sandwich Turns People's Feces Green, Reports Say

Burger King's Halloween Whopper Is Turning People's Poop Green
Burger King has been selling a Whopper with a BLACK BUN for years in other countries, and people asked them to bring it to America. So they finally caved and introduced it as a special Halloween burger this year.
Well . . . maybe we should've left it in Asia....

[Antilles]

Haven't been to Burger King in years, but this might encourage me to go and check it out. I'll post the results on my Facebook page...

[Juice]

http://www.startribune.com/sup.....330529851/

Elementary schools are starting to hire "recess consultants." TIL there are such things as recess consultants.

Some parents have welcomed the arrival of the firm Playworks, which says recess can be more inclusive and beneficial to children if it's more structured and if phrases like, "Hey, you're out!" are replaced with "good job" or "nice try."

[Palin's Buttplug]

The Lamestream Media is pushing 'Lil' Taco' on the viewers hard!

[jamesnolette]

I make up to $90 an hour working from my home. My story is that I quit working at Walmart to work online and with a little effort I easily bring in around $40h to $86h? Someone was good to me by sharing this link with me, so now i am hoping i could help someone else out there by sharing this link... Try it, you won't regret it!......

http://www.OnlineJobs100.Com