Obama Says We're Hitting ISIS Hard, Trump Is So Totally Healthy, It's Amazing, First Freddie Gray Trial Concludes: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: Gage Skidmore / photo on flickr

  President Barack Obama today said the United States and its allies are hitting ISIS "harder than ever" and moving forward with their strategies.

• Donald Trump has a letter from his doctor declaring that he'd be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."
• The trial of the first (of six) police officers charged for a role in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore concluded today.
• It's the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which means more calls for gun control.
• The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 today that federal arbitration regulations trump California's laws, meaning lawyers can't file a class-action lawsuit over DirecTV termination fees.
• Also, the Supreme Court blocked an Alabama court from denying the parental rights of a lesbian woman who was granted adoption in Georgia of her ex-partner's children.
• A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from … um … itself.

New at Reason.com:

• Dear GOP: Dump Trump
  Donald Trump is the closest thing to a fascist in America in generations.
  By A. Barton Hinkle
• Why the Paris Climate Change Agreement Will Fail
  World leaders are looking in all the wrong places for a solution.
  By Shikha Dalmia

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Barack Obama today said the United States and its allies are hitting ISIS "harder than ever" and moving forward with their strategies.

Take that, junior varsity.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Sooner or later, everyone resorts to Trumpisms.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama is going to look bad if he runs up the score.

[OneOut]

"Obama is going to look bad if he runs up the score."

Are you saying he looks good right now ?

See F.O.E. you're not the boss of me.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Check your contract.

[ant1sthenes]

Obama will make ISIS pay for our airstrikes.

[GILMORE?]

"Our strategies are being enacted strategically! Stuff is being re-examined! Seriously! It might look like we're just throwing spaghetti against the wall until someone else takes office, but we swear there's a lot of thought going into this "randomly escalating a fight and changing our objectives every 6 months"-thing"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump has a letter from his doctor declaring that he'd be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

His Jew doctor is a real good guy, real classy.

[josh]

which shows that the jews love working for trump. they didn't like working for hitler, so obviously that comparison is way, way off.

[Juvenile Bluster]

A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from ? um ? itself.

I was planning to post this in the lynx if it wasn't official. This is peak Vox if there ever was peak vox.

[BigT]

Paris was really a great show for saving Mother Earth.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

And I came in here to say, "Leave the Vox links for the commentariat."

[Lee G]

Some might argue that we shouldn't intervene in nature because it could cause harmful ripple effects elsewhere in the ecosystem, like through extinction or overpopulation of some species. Some might say humans have a woeful track record of intervention in the wild, so we shouldn't keep trying. But our track record is largely trying to change nature for human gain rather than this new sort of thoughtful, compassionate intervention, which could bring about more promising results. Nonetheless, these ripple effects are a serious concern, which means we have to proceed with the utmost care.

Indeed, many of the great achievements of humanity came from a willingness to act in a complex system with potentially disastrous consequences. Again, to use human disease as an example, our bodies are extremely complex, but fortunately we were willing to research ways to reduce the illnesses that plague us. That's led to huge advances in human medicine such as the elimination smallpox. In this example, we were the victims and understood that human disease demanded our attention, despite the complexity of our biology.

This has got to be satire. Poorly written satire at that.

[Microaggressor]

The natural suffering of wild animals is real and breathtaking in its enormity, but incredibly little is being done to reduce it. Although many organizations work to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity, few focus on the well-being of individual animals. And despite more people taking notice of the torment wild animals endure at the hands of humans who hunt and poach them, little thought has gone into the question of how to help wild animals avoid natural agonies.

At this point I was convinced I was reading the Onion. But I just couldn't stop reading; I was in awe at the breathtaking stupidity on display.

[Ms. Eleanor Lavish]

We should help animals avoid natural agony by not allowing them to eat each other? Because they do a lot of that. I better start in my own backyard. I just need to persuade my dogs that tormenting rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks and deer is inhuman (hehehe). Too bad those animals will starve to death - enjoying another type of agony.

[Mickey Rat]

So we are going to prevent shrewd from eating the prey alive? Even assuming that were possible. What were the shrewd going to eat.

(I thought that this could not be anything other than humor given the sheer impossibility of it all, but I do not see anything telling me that it is.

[Pope Jimbo]

They will nationalize Purina and provide each house a monthly allotment of Shrew Chow. Of course all shrews will be so happy to have free Shrew Chow that they will give up eating live prey (they only did that because the ass face GOP failed to provide a safety net for them in the first place).

[OneOut]

S.N.A..P. cards for wild animals

[CZmacure]

If we want to keep wild animals from suffering harm, probably we're going to have to kill an awful lot of "outdoor cats" ... aren't they the single most active predator species in North America?

Don't know how, but I recently came across this guy who is apparently on a one man crusade against feral or otherwise outdoor cats. I guess the Reason comments are the sort of place where people might appreciate the... unique perspectives... one can find on the internet? Soooo... here ya go.

Warning : don't click if you don't want to read a bunch of tirades about killing cats.

https://www.reddit.com/user/Woodsman1

[Tejicano]

Makes me wonder how many writers at the Onion have the suicide prevention hotline on speeddial. The future for their talent seems pretty bleak.

[Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper]

I'm surprised The Onion is still around. Real life defies parody at this point.

[LynchPin1477]

Think of all the agony we forced on smallpox!

[gaoxiaen]

I take very good care of my pet tapeworm.

[TheZeitgeist]

I'm sure clown thinks GMO's are bad, for exact same reasons that he dismisses for Critter Welfare.

[Clich? Bandit]

uhh...wow

I am stunned into silence.

[Crusty Juggler]

Hey, I have not seen you post around here before, so I wanted to be the first person to say welcome to hit and run. Happy commenting!

[greasonable]

CJ, this is how it is done:
Wow, stunned into silence, you must be new here.. As honorary chairman of the welcoming committee, it's my privilege to present a laurel and hearty handshake ...

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

These are the first people to die when SHTF. "Aww the poor animals who are dying of perfectly natural causes"

[Krabappel]

We taught a lion to eat tofu.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Obligatory pic

[Krabappel]

*coughs*

[perlchpr]

Now that is some serious cruelty to animals.

[Juice]

Concerns about potential harm shouldn't stop us

Uh. Ok.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

You can't fool me...that's from the Onion.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Sometime back, Angel Island in the SF Bay Area was overrun with protected deer who were probably going to starve over the winter, so the powers that be signed up a bunch of hunters who would pay top dollar to hunt the deer, keeping the rack for a trophy and donating the meat to homeless shelters.

Naturally the PETA crowd got up on their hind legs to protest the cruelty of a quick rifle death. There was a counter proposal, maybe involving bow hunters, and a new protest, and a new counter proposal, maybe to bring in wolves, and eventually they brought in food over the winter.

It's been a while and I forget the details. Maybe time has exaggerated some of them. But it was a right royal cluster fuck of epic PETA dimensions, one of their finest hours.

[GILMORE?]

"Sometime Back" = 1981

I confess, even my southern-family-side, which uses the expression, "The other day" to mean anything from '5 minutes ago' to '15 years ago', would think that was a little bit of a stretch.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Dang, remembered that better than I thought. Seems parts of it go back to 1976!

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Bless your heart.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, fuck you too. I speak both NY and Southern.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The trial of the first (of six) police officers charged for a role in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore concluded today.

A successful conclusion means that prosecutor raises her profile to "mayoral".

[Unauthorized Journalist]

So first not guilty?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from ? um ? itself.

Herself, Shackford, you misogynist.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[colorblindkid]

Is that Vox article real?!?! Are you effing kidding me?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Have you never seen a Vox article before?

[colorblindkid]

This is just so far beyond any I've seen.

[GILMORE?]

That's totally not fair to how amazingly retarded all their other material is.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It's the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which means more calls for gun control.

I forget, was Adam Lanza Sunni or Shiite?

[Tonio]

Yeah, it's almost as if they forgot about that. SH stuff didn't start showing up on my derpbook feed until after 4:00.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

Was he on the "no fly" list?

[Apatheist ?_??]

A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from ? um ? itself.

Just read the whole thing. This is the best satire since A Modest Proposal.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

What the jungle really needs is extensive human intervention. That should steer it towards a peaceful equilibrium.

[Tonio]

You know who else thought the jungle needed extensive human intervention?

[paranoid android]

Upton Sinclair?

[AlmightyJB]

Morris Day

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Morris Day and the Time?

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

....dammit....

[Ms. Eleanor Lavish]

Jane?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Guns n Roses?

[Doctor Whom]

Ian Anderson?

[PBR Streetgang]

Guns n Roses?

[PBR Streetgang]

Dammit. Refresh frequently I guess

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

You and me, both.

[CZmacure]

If only some sort of technology existed to make comments update without a page load. Another failure of the "free market!"

[Crusty Juggler]

The CIA?

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Dow Chemical?

[The Hyperbole]

Glenn Ford?

[Curt]

Spike Lee?

[Restoras]

Your mom?

[Trigger Warning]

Edgar Rice Burroughs?

[OneOut]

King Leopold

[Jimbo]

Max?

[Tonio]

While you guys gave me some damn fine answers, the correct answer was Leopold II of Belgium.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Ahh... Shit.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Congrats to OneOut!

[GILMORE?]

Would Joseph Conrad have been acceptable? i think its the same thing via a different reference.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

A dentist?

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

A brazilian waxer?

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Crabs on the beetch?

[gaoxiaen]

Colonel Kurtz?

[Mad Scientist]

Banksy?

[DenverJ]

Hitler?

[Yusef Adama]

The African Queen? NTTIAWWT

[Zeb]

There are actually some decent points mixed in with the crazy. Like "natural doesn't necessarily equal good" and some arguments against using the precautionary principal too much.

[TheZeitgeist]

There are actually some decent points mixed in with the crazy. Like "natural doesn't necessarily equal good" and some arguments against using the precautionary principal too much.

I find it telling that a rational thought such as nature-does-not-univeraally-equivocate-good only occur to prog-mind to further the derp.

[AlmightyJB]

I actually agree. I think everyone should hunt more. We just got some mouse visitors when the cold hit. We're doing our part to make sure they don't get obese.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Nah, that would be inhumane. He just wants to pump the ecosystem full of birth control, because there's no way that could cause problems.

[AlmightyJB]

Crusty will volunteer to put their little animal condoms on.

[Tonio]

Back in the eighties they wanted to put BC in dog and cat food. That's when America learned that many senior citizens ate pet food.

[AlmightyJB]

Not like it's gonna matter to them

[RBS]

I stayed the night with my grandfather a few weeks ago. He had to work that night but he left me a can of Vienna sausages, some oysters and a can of fancy feast for me to eat when I finished my CLE.

[AlmightyJB]

Nice of him to share

[Trigger Warning]

Dude.

[In League with the Dark Ones]

That's when America learned that many senior citizens ate pet food.

That sounds like a business opportunity ? "Better than Alpo Senior Food".

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

We have 3 cats to handle the mouse visitors. The cats aren't particularly nice to them, either. In fact, they pretty much torture them to death. I'm gonna file a complaint with the ACLU or something.

[AlmightyJB]

Years ago we had this chicken shit cat who wouldn't go in the kitchen because a mouse got in under the stove and it was scared. worthless.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

My cats loooooove mice. One tries to bring them in the house so that he can toss them 3-4 feet in the air and catch them as they fall. My wife is not a fan.

[AlmightyJB]

Nice. My wife would definitely not be a fan either.

[TheZeitgeist]

I have Great Dane that saved mouse from cats once; dog comes walking up with a flitting rodent tail sticking out of its mouth. Open dog's jaws, and low-behold a mouse in frozen terror waiting to be swallowed. Little shit died of shock about two minutes after.

[Zeb]

That's very funny.

low-behold

"Lo and behold" would be the more conventional usage.

[Mickey Rat]

Your life is a Tom & Jerry cartoon with a really dark ending.

[Trigger Warning]

The cartoons were dark enough.

[Zeb]

I've had a cat bring in chipmunks a few times that were still alive enough to run and hide in some dark corner. That was fun.

[Pope Jimbo]

For about 3 years we had an evolutionary no-go of a rabbit who kept having babies in the roots of a tree in our back yard. I say she was an evolutionary mistake because she never seemed to figure out that my dog (lab/goldie mix) would find her nest every year and take them out one at a time and throw them around the back yard for a while before eating them.

One time the wife ran in and told me to get out there and stop him. She wasn't so much horrified by the idea of the bunnies meeting their end, as she was because our neighbors were having a b-day party for their small kid at the time.

[Tejicano]

Sounds like your back-yard rabbit and the above mentioned Vox writer have a lot in common.

[Brett L]

I had one who liked to do that with birds. Little fucker. I miss him.

[gaoxiaen]

They love peanut butter. Just don't accidentally get any on a mousetrap.

[Tonio]

A progressive is a person who insists that evolution through natural selection be taught in public schools, then does everything possible to prevent natural selection from occurring in humans.

[AlmightyJB]

They also shout about overpopulation destroying the planet but want to outlaw everything if it saves just one life.

[Zeb]

And now in wild animals too, apparently.

To be fair, most people spend a lot of time trying to prevent natural selection occurring in humans. It's really what makes us decent and civilized human beings. Every time we cure a childhood cancer or save a pre-mature baby, we are letting weak specimens of our species enter the breeding pool. And those are just the most obvious ones.

[Sevo]

Headline
"Whole Foods, Wal-Mart selling shrimp peeled by slaves"

Then:
"U.S. customs records show the shrimp made its way into the supply chains of major U.S. food stores and retailers such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Whole Foods, Dollar General and Petco, along with restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden.
[?]
AP reporters went to supermarkets in all 50 states and found shrimp products from supply chains tainted with forced labor."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/cri.....696578.php

"Made it way into the supply chains"? "Supply trains tainted with forced labor"?
Yellow f'ing journalism; these people can't be trusted with ink or access to a word processor.

[Tonio]

Yes, because Walmart is supposed to have a human rights compliance officer on every ship that supplies their stores. Wait, shrimp are a commodity and the shrimpers have no idea who will buy their product. Even once their product is bought it's probably some conglomerate which then sells to Walmart. Typical proggie Walmart bashing.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Some of us have a more refined palate. I know I can taste the hint of forced labor.

[Caput Lupinum]

Indeed; it adds that certain je ne sais quoi necessary for the perfect shrimp cocktail.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

All my shrimp taste that way, as I force my orphans to serve them to me on the thighs of my virgin* slave girls.

*They're not really virgins, but I like to pretend.

[Leigh]

* Well, they used to be virgins

[Jimbo]

Do they smell like the dumpster of a Long John Silvers?

[Tonio]

Also, Whole Foods - that will cause some proggie howling.

[Galactic Chipper Cdr Lytton]

Well it is run by a obamacare hating libertarian, so what else would you expect?

[Trigger Warning]

Whole Foods got kicked off the proggie plantation when it turned out its founder is not really one of them. He doesn't think the intellectual class should run the economy.

[RBS]

You can buy shrimp at Dollar General?

[perlchpr]

And PetCo!

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Big Pharma needs to stop wasting time figuring out how to heal humans and devote its resources to healing unhealthy animals.

GOOD CALL! /Ace Ventura

[Pan Zagloba]

Ontario government is basically bankrupt, so no wonder they eye alternative revenue streams.

LCBO well suited to sell marijuana when legal, Kathleen Wynne says

Yes, they want the (currently purely theoretical) legal pot sold only in government-owned stores. Comments are surprisingly evenly divided.

[Cytotoxic]

Good luck enforcing that.

[Heedless]

Well they already have the apparatus in place to crack down on pot sellers. Only change will be that now they'll be selling any seized pot to the public, rather than taking it home to smoke themselves

[Cytotoxic]

It's not that hard to grow for yourself and I imagine that will be pretty common after legalization. It's not like hard prohibition is winning I doubt soft prohibition will work either.

[Juice]

So weed, like gambling, is totally dangerous and the people can't be trusted with it (unless it's sold to them by a state monopoly).

[PapayaSF]

The administration's new version of the Homeland Security Advisory System.

[josh]

do you think trump makes his doctor and other employees sign a contract stating that in all forms of communication, they will use grandiose phrasing and over-the-top adverbs at all times?

[bacon-magic]

They, like Trump, do whatever President Hillary tells them to do.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

My guess is that he's as much of a sycophant as Michael Jackson's doc was.

[BigT]

Merry Christmas!

This will really brighten up your party.

[BigT]

Here is the recent lineup of songs:

Death to the World
Fuck off you Drunken Gentlemen
Christmas Diablo
It's Christmas Day
Santa is an Atheist
Gay Pride Together with You
Christmas, Bloody Christmas

Perfect for this commentariat.

[gaoxiaen]

Surfing Safari in Thailand.

[AlmightyJB]

I was just going to invite these girls. NSFW.

http://girls.gunaxin.com/sexy-.....tures/4766

[AlmightyJB]

And these girls. NSFW

http://curiousphotos.blogspot......tumes.html

[gaoxiaen]

You'd think Betty Page would have some kind of Christmas ornament in her mouth or be harnessed to Santa's sleigh.

[Zeb]

I thought no nipples meant SFW.

[AlmightyJB]

I like to error on the side of caution. Depends on your boss I'm sure.

[Zeb]

I guess that's the decent thing to do. I have my own office and no one monitors or filters anything here, so I don't really care, though there is technically a policy against sexually explicit material.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

How's the public school job?

[Zeb]

Are you suggesting I am a public school administrator? That's going too far.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

I think that's just about the only job I know of where you can get away with surfing porn in the office.

[gaoxiaen]

It's more rewarding than waiting for crotch shots on the surveillance cameras.

[Zeb]

Well, I wouldn't think surfing porn would fly, but I don't shy away from people's possibly NSFW links while at work.

[Crusty Juggler]

Breitbart Santa like

[AlmightyJB]

You are the worst. Seriously.

[AlmightyJB]

For anyone else who was subjected to that, here is some eye bleach.

http://eyebleach.com/

[gaoxiaen]

Favorite Santa.

http://static.comicvine.com/up.....page_1.jpg

[Bill Dalasio]

Donald Trump has a letter from his doctor declaring that he'd be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

Obviously not a doctor of psychiatry.

[Tonio]

[golf clap]

[Zunalter]

With a round of approving harrumphing thrown in for good measure.

[Sevo]

A healthy "President Trump"? Not my idea of 'good'.

[gaoxiaen]

He should challenge Obama to one-on-one hoops.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Suicidally Stupid Shitlibs
...Now that Trump has opened the Overton Window wider than a cuckservative's anus by promising to close the borders to Muslim immigration until further notice (never), the shitlib circus has rolled into town and pulled out the stops....

[Apatheist ?_??]

Shitlib is almost as clever as cuckservative!

[Zeb]

Sounds like the sort of thing a dickassertarian would say.

[perlchpr]

"It's the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which means more calls for gun control."

I'll stay off facebook today.

[Juice]

You should try doing it tomorrow too. And then the day after. And the day after that too. See where this is going?

[Juice]

The justices by a 6-3 vote overturned a state ruling and threw out a class-action lawsuit against DirecTV over its termination fees for customers who canceled its service.

It's not like you actually ever have to pay the termination fees. No really. Just tell them to eat shit. They can't do a damned thing about it except send the "debt" to a collection agency who is also easy to ignore. They won't sue you and it won't affect your credit rating one bit. In fact, in a year or two they'll be sending you solicitations to sign up again.

[Pope Jimbo]

Next you will tell me tales about how gyms will waive initiation fees when you want to join up.

[Cytotoxic]

Isn't this an NAP violation?

[Brett L]

They don't actually sell you continuous service like their contract says. Technically, they violated the contract first.

[Old.Mexican]

Donald Trump has a letter from his doctor declaring that he'd be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

... besides William Henry Harrison.

President Barack Obama today said the United States and its allies are hitting ISIS "harder than ever"

... which sounds kind of erotic.

[Suthenboy]

"A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from ? um ? itself."

It was inevitable that the nut cases that want to change human nature to be more suited to a system that is incompatible with it would want to change the very nature of the universe as well. This doesnt even fall into the realm of stupid, it is insanity.

[AlmightyJB]

Charlize Theron ? Mad Max: Fury Road Yes

http://variety.com/2015/film/a.....201660217/

[AlmightyJB]

I've really enjoyed this season of Fargo as well

[Burt Macklin (FBI)]

Oh, yeah?

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Two solid choices. I do hope Mad Max gets a lot of love this awards season; it really deserves it.

[AlmightyJB]

Yeah, it totally exceeded my expectations. I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was over.

[GILMORE?]

Cinematography - shoo in
Best Supporting Actress - shoo in
Stunts, effects, same deal.
...

as for best pic/director... i don't know. When is the last time a proper 'action' film won either? Or was even nominated?

This seems to indicate that would be highly unlikely

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Since they allow up to 10 best picture nominations, it would be great to see it get one of those spots. But it probably won't. They need to 'honor' Spotlight and The Big Short and other unremarkable movies. (Spotlight is good, just not particularly special)

[BigT]

I was disappointed. Sorry, I had very high expectations.

[AlmightyJB]

I really didn't, so as chase scenes go it was a fun ride. Better than Bullit's chase scene which I just watched again yesterday. Bullit's still pretty cool though. I mean, it is Mad Max not The Godfather.

[GILMORE?]

I was going to argue that surely the Vox persona was along the lines of the Thought-Catalogue, "All Free-Speech is Hate Crime" writer, Tanya Cohen (who turned out to be that Troll who was arrested for impersonating ISIS, Joshua Goldberg)

.... and was meant to parody the excesses of certain kinds of rhetoric....

but no

He has that same creepy-vapid smile a certain cartoonist used to emulate... i can't remember who.... but its basically the caricature of, "Well-Meaning Psychosis"

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Just leaving this here:

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights establishes that all people have the right to freedom of expression before stating:

Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

[AlmightyJB]

Prohibitions by Law? Yeah, ok. Whose law?

[GILMORE?]

Please remember = that article was high-level trolling.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

And, yet, the guy's not competent to stand trial. Is he that good at fooling people? Or, can he not tell the difference between reality and his trolling?

[GILMORE?]

"" the guy's not competent to stand trial. ""

Really? I never followed the story following his arrest.

I read excerpts of other pieces by him where he aped being a hyper-conservative and an ISIS-supporter. My impression was that he was an extremely motivated troll with just enough brains to perfectly-mimic the people he wanted to mock.

that said, i never had much sympathy for him; his trolling never actually succeeded as satire. (*charles cooke and i may disagree) That thought-catalog piece is hardly different from the same arguments made sincerely in a number of college papers.

Glancing at the wiki entry on him... i'm guessing the "insanity plea" is a desperate legal attempt to avoid the shit the feds are throwing at him, which apparently adds up to 20+ years. which is freaking insane; i'm not sure he actually 'distributed' any information about Bombs that he didn't just find somewhere else on the internet. basically, 'the crime of linking', or something. Though i don't know the details.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Well, his defense found a shrink that convinced the judge he was incompetent. And, that just happened today, from the news I read (I wasn't following his story; just did a quick search).

No that I should be surprised, but something...big seems amiss with this trial.

[Notorious UGCC]

There is such a treaty, and the language quoted is in Article 20.

But when the U.S. ratified the treaty, one of the reservations (scroll down) was:

"...article 20 does not authorize or require legislation or other action by the United States that would restrict the right of free speech and association protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

A Vox contributor wants to know why humans don't do more to protect mother nature from ? um ? itself.

This is quite possibly the strangest do-something appeal I've ever read.

[bassjoe]

Donald Trump has a letter from his doctor declaring that he'd be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

You would think that the quotes words would come from Trump (or one of this underlings) paraphrasing the doctor's letter. And... you'd be wrong. The doctor actually wrote that.

Also, Trump has never had a drink of alcohol or a cigarette in his life? WHAT?

[Notorious UGCC]

He seems to be more of a cocaine man.

[Notorious UGCC]

Note to Trump's lawyers - I was 'ugely joking.

[TheZeitgeist]

Donald Trump is his own drug, kinda like Charlie Sheen.

[AlmightyJB]

Yes. He has said before that he believes that not drinking was the key to why he was so successful. I think it might also have contributed to him being such a giant dick.

[Notorious UGCC]

"The trial of the first (of six) police officers charged for a role in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore concluded today."

Here is what they're doing just in case the verdict doesn't come out right:

"State and city law enforcement braces for verdict in Baltimore...

"The governor's office, the state's Office of Homeland Security, the Maryland State Police and the Maryland National Guard have been discussing an action plan since charges were filed against the officers....

"In addition to the internal coordination, the state Office of Homeland Security has been in routine contact with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office."

I hope their action plan includes protecting convenience stores, etc. - or will this by like Missouri where the cops and National Guard stood around pulling their puds while businesses were looted and burned to the ground?

[TheZeitgeist]

I hope their action plan includes protecting convenience stores, etc. - or will this by like Missouri where the cops and National Guard stood around pulling their puds while businesses were looted and burned to the ground?

I don't think it is politically acceptable (vs. irrelevant "laws") for black people to burn down convenience stores over what a cop might have done to a black person if said cop is also black person. The identity-group score is too low for that threshold, so I suspect if there be Baltimore rioting there will be state-thump'in going on.

[Notorious UGCC]

Are you saying that burning down stores won't happen because it's not linked to the underlying grievance?

History would suggest otherwise.

[Cytotoxic]

If sleaze were infectious, Chipotle would be causing a pandemic.

Chipotle's misguided activism, shoddy quality control and deficient employee training?not modern agricultural technology?are a danger to the company's customers and to the public at large. I suspect that only stockholders' expulsion of the current management team will get the company on course. That is, if there is still a company left after the trial lawyers get through with it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/he.....hing-well/

[GILMORE?]

I like to think the God of Science is punishing Chipotle with a plague for their anti-scientific Hubris.

[gaoxiaen]

Are you one of those fanatics that believes the Germ Theory of Disease?

[GILMORE?]

Oh no, i've still got at least one foot firmly planted in the "Evil Spirits" and/or "Fetid Vapors"-schools

And if i had a third foot (and who says i don't!) it would probably be in the "drinking a lot of alcohol is why i never get sick"-school.

[Hyperion]

The trial of the first (of six) police officers charged for a role in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore concluded today.

I hope they don't read the verdict finding them all not guilty until after New Years. I'm already taking vacation until after the first of the year in a few days. Then after that, I can use the riots as an excuse to not visit my clients for a few more days.

[Notorious UGCC]

Let's all drink some egg nog and sing a song honoring some earlier Baltimore rioters.

[Notorious UGCC]

Some people are trying to change the lyrics.

But they're not trying to change the tune, which is the same as "O Tannenbaum."

Don't take my word for it, here's Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Have a Maryland Christmas, you "northern scum!"

[Hyperion]

If you really want to start a shit storm, just start a thread about whether MD is part of the south or part of the north. That will do it.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

I had to come back over here after a foray into Derpbookland. Mike Rowe made a comment about Bernie, and the Sanders drones went full retard. Evidently free college is going to save us money.

[Sevo]

"Evidently free college is going to save us money."

Multiplier?

[GILMORE?]

Oh, man

You mean this?

That? (Jen B.) is my buddy's wife.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

No, but that one's pretty bad, too. I meant this.

[GILMORE?]

There is a common feature to any 'debate' with highly-motivated progs =

You first have to spend about 30 minutes explaining *basic facts about how the world actually works*. Which it has apparently never even occurred to them to go out of their way to learn.

And that's before you even get to point 1 about any actual argument about 'policy' or matters of opinion.

[C. Anacreon]

How about this gem of a reply to Mike Rowe:

Jon Stokes Look Mike, it's simple. Divest in weaponry, invest in livingry. We will have a surplus once we turn off the war machine and prison industrial complex.

[widget]

Wikipedia says Mike Rowe attended a community college and then Towson University which charges about $10k/year (in-state) tuition. It was probably much less when he attended. Rowe did not know how to invest in a proper education and ended up wandering around sewage treatment plants and morgues. Let that be a lesson to the frugal.

[JoWaDat889]

Oh yeah man lets roll ith it good now.

http://www.GoneAnon.tk