LAUSD Says Threats Were Electronic, GOP Debate Tonight, More Harry Potter: P.M. Links

• 

  Youtube

  Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District are still investigating the threats, which were made via email to members of the school board. NYC received similar threats, but judged them to be a hoax and did not cancel classes.

• Tonight's GOP debate will likely revolve around fearmongering, warmongering.
• Donald Trump is still doing pretty well.
• Andy Serkis does a great Jar Jar Binks impression.
• The trailer is out for the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

New at Reason.com:

• Star Wars Trigger Warnings
  These are the microaggressions you are looking for.
  By Austin Bragg, Zach Weissmueller, Justin Monticello

• Are Pro-Palestinian Students the Biggest Losers in the Campus Free Speech Wars?
  George Washington University demanded student take down his Palestinian flag.
  By Amanda Winkler and Robby Soave

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tonight's GOP debate will likely revolve around fearmongering...

About crooked slot machines.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

/awkward silence.

[DEG]

Hello.

[BigT]

Is this your get rich quick scheme?

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/15.....china.html

I'm impressed!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

You laugh but I joked about this years ago.

[greasonable]

You're Mel Brooks?!?!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Andy Serkis does a great Jar Jar Binks impression.

DON'T PUT THAT WORD IN FRONT OF THAT NAME.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Darth Jar Jar, Lord of the Sith?

[Pro Libertate]

Darth Meesa, Lord of Gan'Ja.

[Burt Macklin (FBI)]

Meesa precious?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Also, this link appears to be incorrect.

[Los Doyers]

DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT GOLLUM

[Juvenile Bluster]

It's going to be warmer up at my in-laws' house (North Carolina) over Christmas than it's going to be here in South Florida this weekend. WTF, Mother Nature?

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

It's the New Mother Nature takin' over/
It's the New Splendid Lady come to call/

[C. Anacreon]

No sugar tonight in my coffee?

[Ted S.]

Proof of climate change.

[RBS]

Yeah, it's been warm and really humid here (SC) all week.

[Crusty Juggler]

Grande El Nino strikes again!

[Pro Libertate]

Miami has flooding; therefore, the end is nigh.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

GLOBUL WOARMINGZ!!!!

[Francisco d'Anconia]

FINALLY!

New Design Unveiled for Autonomous Flying Car

The TF-X takes things to another level, however, by adding vertical take-off and landing capabilities, plus a fully autonomous piloting system. The idea is to jump into the TF-X, state your designated landing zone, and then let the vehicle itself handle the rest, on the roads and in the air.

The TF-X flies by way of twin electric-powered motors built into the vehicle's fold-out wings. The 300-hp engines power two tilting rotors that shift from vertical to horizontal to accommodate take off, cruising and landing. Cruising speed is around 200 mph, with a 500-mph flight range.

The rotors and wings fold into the body of the vehicle when driving on roads. The TF-X can seat four people and is designed to fit into a standard single-car garage space. For take off and landing, the vehicle requires a level clearing 10 feet diameter.

More...

I'm getting one!

[TheZeitgeist]

This gadget has been vaporware for a few years now.

[Raven Nation]

I'm waiting for Moeller to come through so I can retire.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Moeller got beaten to the punch years ago.

Moeller's been designing a complex (albeit very cool) car that flies.

Another company designed a plane that drives, and went to market. Boom. No FAA rule changes required. Just takeoff/land at your local muni, and drive out.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Moeller was/is? a crackpot. He's been dicking with that Skycar for decades.

I don't want no stinkin runways and I want it to fly and drive itself.

[Raven Nation]

I was (mostly) joking. I bought 200 shares at $0.30 per about 5 years ago.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I looked into it back in the 90s as well.

[DesigNate]

It's only worth it if there is an optional machine gun mount.

Road Rage Dogfights FTW!

[Lord at War]

I SO want this...

[Not okay]

The FAA will ban it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

NYC received similar threats, but judged them to be a hoax and did not cancel classes.

Guess the threats didn't say anything about jumbo sodas or salt.

[Restoras]

Don't forget the transfats - has to be the Trifecta of Death to get the City up in...uh...arms, or whatever.

[bacon-magic]

Loosies?

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

The emails are coming from INSIDE the school district!!

Or from Nigeria.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Dear Mr. Superintendant of Schools:

I am Prince ISIS of Nigeria...

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Oh, yeah, everyone's criticizing him now but what would they say if he passed on that once in a lifetime opportunity to make many of millions of American currencies.

[Jerry on the rocks]

Or from the Homeland writers.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Trump to meet with GOP Pimp-Daddy and Iran War Monger Sheldon Adelson prior to Vegas debate today.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....-las-vegas

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Isn't Harry Reid totally gay for that guy?

[The Last American Hero]

Hopefully Sheldon's got a manila folder with incriminating pics and is going to tell him it's time to hang it up.

[DEG]

Freddie Gray jury deadlocked

Jurors deliberating in the first trial related to the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray said Tuesday afternoon that they were deadlocked.

The judge sent the jury back to continue deliberating in the case of William Porter, the first of six police officers to be tried in Gray's death from a neck injury sustained while in police custody.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

The judge sent the jury back to continue deliberating

Any lawyers out there that can answer this? At some point, isn't the judge basically telling the jurors to coerce the holdouts? Seems like government only ever has one solution for anything. Shove the juror into a Reid Interrogation until they give a false confession/indictment.

Also, should a juror assume that their deliberations aren't being recorded? If it's on government property, I assume I have no privacy.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

I also assume They are always listening on Their property, since They listen everywhere else.

I figure if I ever get on a jury, I will almost certainly vote for acquittal for anything that doesn't involve theft or aggression. But then I wonder, if the prosecutor has lied his ass off, done stupid shit like demand ridiculous bail, etc, while I might want to convict a real criminal, I'd be loathe to reinforce the prosecutor's shenanigans with a win.

Anyway, the real problem would be voting for acquittal without saying why for the microphones to hear or the other jurors to go blabbing. "The prosecution case just smells fishy. I don't believe half their witnesses. It's too pat and clean, something is being hidden from us."

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

"Reasonable Doubt"

[BigT]

"I will almost certainly vote for acquittal for anything that doesn't involve theft or aggression"

...or a cop defendant.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

Ha! What cop would be brought up on charges that didn't involve both theft and violence?

[paranoid android]

IANAL but my understanding is that judges have pretty broad authority to allow deliberations to continue as long as they believe there is a chance they will ultimately reach a verdict. I'm not sure what you mean by "coerce the holdouts".

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Simple: 10 jurors just want to go home and 2 jurors disagree. You think the 10 aren't going to try to coerce the 2? Guilt trips, threats, sob stories, insults, bargaining, etc. All the same verbal tools the police use to get false confessions. Both jurors and police are rewarded on quotas. For the police, if they make quota they get rewards (furloughs, transfers, etc.) For jurors, they get to go back to their regular lives.

How do you think the deadlock is going in the Gray case? 10 want to convict the officers, or 10 want to let them off? If it was 10 in favor of conviction, the judge would likely be quick to declare mistrial.

If you think I don't trust any government employees in the justice system, you are correct.

[BigT]

12 Angry Men showed that more time was useful.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Lumet specialized in fantasy films.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

I would be anti-immune to that kind of threat from fellow jurors.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District are still investigating the threats, which were made via email to members of the school board.

"Cancel classes and transfer $1,000 to this bank account or you won't get all this unclaimed royal Nigerian money."

[Ted S.]

I'll be listening to a hockey game on the radio.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Bayern v. Juve.

Should be awesome. Look forward to that tie.

[Ted S.]

Somehow Wolfsburg and Gent were drawn together.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I know. Nuts.

Bayern beats down their opponents and are rewarded with Juventus. Not exactly Gent.

[Los Doyers]

I will NOT be watchin man utd shit around in the Europa League. Lazy fucks.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Why is everyone down on Europa? I like Europa League.

[Los Doyers]

Well, it's not *the* league, to start. But me not watching has to do much more with man utd playing like absolute garbage in what should have been a very easy group, and i refuse to watch anymore of them playing in europe.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

SUPPORT YOUR TEAM!

[Los Doyers]

JUSTIFIED BOYCOTT

[Rhywun]

Me too - I like seeing teams I don't normally see and Champions League is pretty predictable in the group stages, hell until the semis.

[Zeb]

I'll be hitting myself in the head with a hammer because it's more rewarding.

[LynchPin1477]

The trailer is out for the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

Saw that last night. Harry Potter meets disaster porn? Meh.

Also saw the new Star Trek: Beyond trailer. Looks horribly stupid.

[Juvenile Bluster]

You mean The Trek and the Furious?

[Ted S.]

Starch Wreck.

[LynchPin1477]

I'm sure Cytotoxic will be along shortly to explain how it will all be awesome.

[Cytotoxic]

When I see the trailer I'll get to it.

[TheZeitgeist]

Also saw the new Star Trek: Beyond trailer. Looks horribly stupid.

I saw that mess as well. That piece of shit is going up against ID4.2 this summer? They're fucked if the respective trailers are any indication.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The *only* hope I have for the new Star Trek movie is that Idris Elba is playing the villain, and he's about the best actor in the world right now.

[LynchPin1477]

I think reboots are way overdone and usually just lazy, but can you imagine him as Ben Sisko in a DS9 reboot?

Actually, on second thought, Avery Brooks did just fine in that role. Never mind.

[jesse.in.mb]

Idris Elba

Obligatory: *swoon!*

[Los Doyers]

I prefer Mike Colter as Luke Cage.

/proud american

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Idris Elba is about as good an actor as Larry Linville.

[Mad Scientist]

It's nice to be nice to the nice!

[LynchPin1477]

Early trailers can be misleading, but yeah. The only thing about ID4.2 is that the current youngins won't remember the awesomeness of the original. And no Will Smith. Oh well.

Also, X-Men: Apocalypse. The trailer looks promising but I really don't trust Singer with X-Men. While his previous movies were good as far they went, he has never really capture the X-Men je ne sais quoi.

[Fist of Etiquette]

WELCOME TO EARF

[Overt]

Awesomeness...you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you thinks it means.

Seriously, ID4 was a great special effects vehicle, but the plot and characters were just mediocre. It had so many plot holes and inconsistency that it could fill pages. The dialogue was inconsistent, with the final speech being the only real powerful moment. But too many of the one liners were horribly inconsistent.

My understanding is that the end of that movie was reshot. In the original, the drunk dad actually flies his crop duster into the enemy ship (kind of explaining how slow that final scene is). Also in the original, Smith and Goldblum die.

[LynchPin1477]

It was awesome in the sense that it was fun. It was a feel-good movie during a feel-good time, and unabashedly so (yeah, I know tons of people die, but in the end America kicks ass). It was well paced, adequately acted and written, visually great, good soundtrack...everything you want in a great popcorn flick. I'm not sure which plot holes you refer to. Doesn't seem worse than usual to me.

[Overt]

Actually, a lot of it was not fun to me. 90% of the film was superfluous fluff. Only two peoples' actions made any real difference- Goldblum providing the virus and Quaid starting the reactor- flying into the alien weapon. The rest was just an opportunity to show lots of explosions.

I guess I should have said "Plot Contrivances" instead of plot holes. The idea a nation would bomb Dallas instead of wait to shoot the ship on its way to another city. The fact that Smith ends up in exactly the same place as the president and a band of RVs roving through the desert. That he also knows how to pilot a helicopter, and that it magically has the fuel to go find his girlfriend (a 1500mile round trip), etc. That a couple pilots can suddenly fight an aerial battle hours after being drafted.

I don't normally nit pick movies, but every single plot device to bring the two people who mattered in that movie to the climax was so contrived and every other scene was so meaningless to the movie that it failed wholly to meet even my lowered expectations.

[robc]

It was good for one watch. Doesnt hold up to rewatching but fun the first time around.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Meh. Singer has been the best of the lot, in my opinion. Ratner and whoever directed Wolverine: Origins were awful

[LynchPin1477]

Yeah, he is better than the rest, but that isn't saying much on its own.

He just never seemed to really embrace the characters and their abilities. These are Mutants we are talking about! I never leave those movies feeling like I really got to see them show off what they are capable of. The action always feels like a let down.

[Cytotoxic]

Independence Day just wasn't as good as you remember sorry. All the parts without Smith or the Data actor were bad. Goldbloom was awful, which is all he has been since JP.

[Los Doyers]

Independence, uh, finds a way.

[LynchPin1477]

ID4 set out to be and succeeded in being what the new Star Trek movies devolve into while desperately trying to pretend they are something more.

[Pan Zagloba]

Still looks better than Into the Darkness, because it's better to be pointless, then miss the point as badly as that movie did.

[Pro Libertate]

Think it's time to stop or do a non-reboot series. About an Orion Slave Girl trader and his adventures.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

So, bring the Gor series to film...

[Pro Libertate]

Well, with green.

[LynchPin1477]

Wasn't there some Si-Fi channel show called Lexx which was basically that premise?

[Rhywun]

That show wasn't half bad.

[LynchPin1477]

I sort of think all the new Trek movies miss the point.

Trek doesn't have to be completely actionless by any means, but they also had something else - that nerd factor, a little bit of camp, a general sense of optimism, and definitely, definitely, a forward-looking approach to the future, not one where Kirk is riding around on a freaking motorcycle.

I'm fine with doing something different, but if you are going to get rid of all the things that make Star Trek, Star Trek, but still call it that just so you can leverage fanboy interest and guarantee a big opening weekend, then fuck you.

[Pan Zagloba]

Right, I don't mind if it's understood that this interpretation of Trek is more action-oriented, just, you know, optimism, sense of wonder, new worlds, etc. I was fine with the first one, even if it was more of an action flick than a science-fiction one.

However, Wrath of Khan is about a clash of two people who are more similar than Kirk would like to admit (yet less similar than Khan thinks), one of whom has a (misplaced) vendetta against the other that cannot be resolved until one dies, while also looking at how both of them deal with old age and sense of mortality.
If you don't set up the connection between protagonist and villain, don't take entire scenes from the movie that did, and plop them into your movie. That's outside MST3K advice from Overdrawn at Memory Bank episode: never remind people of a better movie in your own crappy movie.

[LynchPin1477]

They think they're paying homage to the original and dropping in little nods to fanboys that will give them a nerdgasm. In reality they are just lazy and trying to piggyback off past success. That describes a lot of Hollywood, since basically forever.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

You hit the nail on the head. Star Trek has always had enough layers that you could understand it on some level at age 6, but at completely different levels at age 15 and adulthood. These new movies are really mediocre. I think the first one set up what could have been a good new series of movies, but they shat the bed with Into the Darkness. Then JJ got what he really wanted (Star Wars) and bolted.

I don't hold out much hope for the new movie, but maybe the new series will be better.

[Cytotoxic]

"I sort of think all the new Trek movies miss the point."

Which would be what? Impossibly stuffy leaden dialogue? Ham-handed moral lessons? Terrible acting?

[LynchPin1477]

I knew you'd be along.

Star Trek was an rooted in optimism about humanity. Technological progress brings about an end to scarcity, all the -isms fade away, and people are free to flourish in whatever way they find best. It was forward-thinking when it came to technology - hell, they're flashlights were so advanced that they couldn't even figure out how to turn on one from the 20th century!

Terrible acting? Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Johnathan Franks, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton. Yes, those were all from TNG, but Dorn went to DS9 which had strong talent as well. There were definite weak spots but it was more than made up for by some truly stellar actors.

I can understand not loving the dialog. For me it was part of the charm.

And what you call "ham-handed moral lessons", mature people call "plot" and "relevance".

Look, if you just want shiny shit and explosions, that is fine. That stuff has its place. Just don't call it Star Trek when the only reason you are doing so is to dupe fanboys into buying lots of tickets.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I love how silly the new Trek movie looks, like Justin Lin doesn't give a fuck and is purposively transforming it into a F&F movie. And if that's the case, I commend him.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

About the bad guy:

It's about building him and having a philosophy and a point of view. I really like his character because he's challenging the Federation's philosophy, and it's something growing up I wanted to see. He's a character that has a distinct philosophy. Sometimes I watch Trek and I see utopia in San Francisco, and you think "They don't have money, so how do they live, how do they compete?" Those are things that his character, in a way, has a very distinct and valid point of view about.

When someone is really challenging a way of life, how the Federation should act, I can see - right or wrong - that this is a valid point of view, and that's a point of entry.

source

[LynchPin1477]

So the main villain is a Ferengi?

It's a concept which has been done (or attempted) before. It can be interesting if pulled off. But pulling it off is the hard part.

[Overt]

Given that the Ferengi are basically Star Trek's way of caricaturing capitalism in the worst way possible, I don't see this going well.

[LynchPin1477]

Actually read the article and my spirits are perhaps lifted. We'll see.

[Citizen X]

The trailer is out for the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

Featuring Dr. Dre as Professor Mix-a-lot?

[Ted S.]

Harry Potter likes big butts and he cannot lie.

[Lee G]

aka Muggles 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Straight Outta Slytherin?

[TheZeitgeist]

Lame. Not one magic cock wand joke.

[gaoxiaen]

There used to be a whole generation of them.

[DEG]

Philip Chism found guilty in math teacher murder

A Massachusetts teenager was found guilty Tuesday of killing his high school math teacher after school in 2013.

Jurors didn't believe Philip Chism's claims of hearing commanding voices that told him to stab 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer to death two years ago in a Danvers High School bathroom. Chism's defense attorneys had presented an insanity defense, describing him as a severely mentally ill 14-year-old who was in the throes of psychosis when he killed Ritzer.

Chism, 16, was convicted of one count of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Because he's a juvenile, the judge will have to set parole after 15 or 25 years.

[Tonio]

See what happens when you let boys into the girls' bathroom?

[straffinrun]

"Boys, I found Chism in the bathroom. Go clean it."

[Heroic Mulatto]

Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

Goddammit, Robby! My hopes for a dubstep Harry Potter musical were raised and then promptly dashed!

[jesse.in.mb]

Fantastic Beats

So no dubstep.

[Citizen X]

-1 bass drop

[Ted S.]

I think it was a tuna, not a bass.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yeah, yeah...tell us more about how you don glitter and flail around to Melbourne Bounce, as opposed to taking care of your lawn.

[Just say Nikki]

Glitter? That is too far, HM. Too far.

[Clich? Bandit]

If $20s are yuppie food stamps then $1s are stripper kibble

[Heroic Mulatto]

I mean seriusly, bruv. u are 1 fucking cheeky kunt m8. denying that Knife Party is fuckin brutal, bruv. i swear i am goin 2 wreck u i swear on my mums life and i no u are scared lil bitch gettin your m8 to send me messages saying dont meet up coz ur m8, los doyers, is sum big bastard with muscles lol fuckin sad mate really sad jus shows what a scared lil gay boy u are and whats all this crap ur m8s sendin me about sum bodybuildin website that 1 of your faverite places to look at men u lil fuckin gay boy fone me if u got da balls cheeky prick see if u can step up lil queer .im the sickest bloke ull ever meet. im trained in street fitin' & im the strongest foker in tha entire golds gym. yer nothin to me but a cheeky lil bellend w/ a fit mum & fakebling. ill waste u and smash a fokin bottle oer yer head bruv, i swer 2 christ. ya think u can fokin run ya gabber at me whilst sittin on yer arse behind a lil screen? think again wanka. im callin me homeboys rite now preparin for a proper rumble. A rumble thatll make ur nan sore jus hearin about it. yer a waste bruv. me crew be all over tha place & ill beat ya to a proper fokin pulp with me fists wanka. if ye had seen this bloody fokin mess commin ye might a' kept ya gabber from runnin. but it seems yea stupid lil twat, innit? ima shite fury & ull drown in it m8. ur ina proper mess knobhead.

[jesse.in.mb]

Quit trying to get me aroused, HM.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Sorry.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm having flashbacks to the night I was trapped on a bus in a snowed in mountain pass between Kosovo and Montenegro and someone had DVDs of Albanian music videos to keep us "entertained".

[Pan Zagloba]

God damn, that must have been beyond amazing - which year was this? Because before 1992 I don't think there was such a thing as "music video" in Albania.

Unless you got the Kosovo Albanian version of a "music video" which, ouch, but at least I can conceive it.

[jesse.in.mb]

November 2007 (maybe 2008, I'm bad at my own timeline). I had been instructed to spend as little time in Podgorica as possible, but the bus driver was running behind and I was the only one going there so he dropped me off outside the city and made me walk to the depot. I'd never seen so many swastikas in one place in my life.

[gaoxiaen]

Me too. Once I was stuck on a bus next to a 300-pound monk for 12 hours listening to the Doors, Eric Clapton, and the Grease soundtrack with the singing dubbed over in Burmese.

[gaoxiaen]

I have to admit that White Room was pretty cool.

[Pan Zagloba]

Holy shit, thanks for the flashbacks to "Why We Moved" section of my life!

Although I'm 80% sure this is a satire (it's a song about how true gangsters roll in a Dacia brand car), it's a well done satire of a real thing.

[Los Doyers]

As long as he specified that I am of proud *Irish* stock, and not some brit cockney trash.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

Just like regular Countdown, except we play it on the street!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I'm with you Jesse.

[jesse.in.mb]

Dubstep Cat

[GILMORE?]

The idea behind Dubstep eludes me completely from a DJ point of view.

At least from the idea that "club choons" should develop a groove, *then bring you a breakdown*... and then give you some transitional bit that allows you to mix out of the thing. I mean, 'house music' is basically produced with lazy-DJ convenience in mind. its more than half "mix-in, mix out", with basically a 32 bars of 'almost interesting' shit in between

(and i hate house music)

but Dubsteb just goes from "Start" to "Spastic" in 2 seconds. There's absolutely zero 'buildup, climax, denouement'. And the climax bits are basically unlistenable, undanceable, and barely interesting even from a technical point of view.

[Lee G]

True story. I was physically threatened by a patron when I was DJ'ing a party because he wanted to hear some "beats". This was 1991.

I tried everything: funk, house, new wave, even some 80's electronic. All of it was met with threats of drunken violence.

He finally was happy when I played the Blues Brothers.

White people are weird.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

He confused "beats" with "jams".

[Heroic Mulatto]

That's hilarious. Not the part about you being in peril. Nevertheless, hilarious.

[Brett L]

"Stand By Your Man"?

[Tak Kak]

I read there was a Gunman at Indiana University.

How did the police let this happen? It's "gunperson" or "gunner".

[Ted S.]

Is IU a gun-free zone?

[Restoras]

+1 Chuck Connors

[IndyEleven]

IUPUI--a subtle distinction of about 50 miles. IUPUI is close to some reasonably rough neighborhoods; it looks like a robbery suspect passing through.

[Tak Kak]

We should put it on the list of school shootings just to be safe.

[IndyEleven]

Oh absolutely, and probably cancel exams for the week and also convene some Top Men to address the Growing Menace of Guns on Campus.

[Tak Kak]

Of course, but we'll never get anywhere unless we change the sexist language to a neutral alternative. Can't think of a single reason why the media is lagging on this particular.

Here in Washington we've changed the name of fisherman to "fisher" which can get confusing because there some tree otter here also called a fisher, but, you know, progress.

[DEG]

Plumber sues over truck which ended up in militant hands

All Mark Oberholtzer wanted to do was upgrade his ride. What he got instead was a world of trouble from half a world away.

The Texas City, Texas, plumbing company owner is suing a Ford dealership for more than $1 million in financial losses and damages to his company's reputation after a pickup truck he once owned ended up with Islamic militants fighting in Syria's civil war.

A photo of the truck, with his Mark-1 Plumbing decals still attached, went viral, leading to thousands of harassing phone calls.

"By the end of the day, Mark-1's office, Mark-1's business phone, and Mark's personal cell had received over 1,000 phone calls from around the nation," Oberholzer's lawyer wrote in the lawsuit, filed December 9 in Harris County, Texas. "These phone calls were in large part harassing and contained countless threats of violence, property harm, injury and even death."

[TheZeitgeist]

Actually it is pretty good advertising; that part of world is in dire need of more plumbing I can assure you.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Free advertising is something you just can't buy.

[Tonio]

Pro-tip - remove decals before selling vehicle.

[Just say Nikki]

Part of the story is that he was going to, and the dealership told him not to because they could do it without damaging the paint.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

GREAT SUCCESS!

[Los Doyers]

Gettin real tired of you reading the fucking articles, Nikki.

[Illocust]

Aren't they required to remove company decals as part of reselling? I would think failing to do so might count as impersonation or false advertising. I know you are required to do so for old police cars.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Well... the part of the story that I'm curious about but too lazy to read is, technicalities of decals aside, that truck was sold in the states and someone was willing to pay to have it shipped... literally shipped to the middle east.

I thought most of those "technicals" were sold in the foreign (to us) markets.

so someone is buying vehicles here and literally shipping them there.

[TheZeitgeist]

I'd wager that truck winding up in Iraq was somehow US tax dollars at work.

[The Last American Hero]

Nobody goes around impersonating plumbers.

[Rod Flash]

I'm positive I read this story like 2 years ago. They're presenting it like it just happened?

[DEG]

The news about militants using a truck is old, the lawsuit news is, as far as I know, brand new.

[gaoxiaen]

Okay, I'm sorry that I did regular maintenance on that truck.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

You can buy Beats at pretty much any electronics store, but I definitely wouldn't call them fantastic. Now my Bose QC25s? Awesome. But Beats aren't worth the cost.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I'm amazed at how much people are willing to pay for shitty headphones to show off. I understand paying $200 for a set of cans for your hifi system, but for beats? Christ.

[R C Dean]

On the suppression of pro-Pali speech:

We were wondering how prevalent this suppression is. Most of what I have seen in the news is the rabidly anti-Israel/Jew and pro-Pali BDS campaign, which has very widespread support amongst faculty.

Which makes me wonder: how much suppression is of student speech that is strongly favored by faculty?

The National Women's Studies Association has voted by a huge majority to join the worldwide Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Their annual conference passed the measure by a 653-86 vote, and their full membership of 12,000 will vote on it in the next two months.

That means the NWSA is on the verge of becoming the fifth American academic association to boycott Israel since April 2013. It began then with the Association for Asian American Studies, and since that time the American Studies Association, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the American Anthropological Association, and now the NWSA have joined in.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/femini.....l-movement

[Pan Zagloba]

Something something Apartheid Weekd.

Somehow, Arabs booting all the Jews from West Bank in 1949, and being on the record as saying that will happen when Palestine becomes independent, doesn't qualify...

[Juvenile Bluster]

There is an incredible amount of self-delusion in a "Women's Studies" group joining the BDS movement, given the educational opportunities given to women in Israel versus those given to them elsewhere in the Middle East.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Originally, "justice for Palestine" really meant "Silk Sheets for Yassir Arafat". Palestine as an independent, self-governing state would never be Democratic or progressive in any meaningful way.

[TheZeitgeist]

It began then with the Association for Asian American Studies, and since that time the American Studies Association, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the American Anthropological Association, and now the NWSA have joined in.

I guess on college campuses the Zionist entity, via their insidious diaspora, are now reduced to dominating hard sciences, finance, law, and media. Those poor bastards.

[kbolino]

Don't be surprised if some STEM and professional-track academic organizations wind up on that list. Their most vocal members tend to be the same sort as other academic organizations. However, their most monied members are a different group. In the end, they won't stay on that list (or else will be replaced by organizations that focus on the field and not unrelated politicking).

[Mookman]

Have seen much pants shitting over this on social media. Personally, I think they're giving the basically defunct NY Daily News more attention than anyone else does or should, but that doesn't progs from declaring how sacred they are of these people.

[Mookman]

How about with the link this time?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mo.....onal_pop_b

[Ted S.]

Gotta love auto-correct.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I'm sacred as hell.

[Juvenile Bluster]

OT (can you be OT in the Lynx?):

Holy s***, this goal by Xabi Alonso today

[jesse.in.mb]

Xabi Alonso

Would. With prejudice.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I'm feeling othered about now.

[jesse.in.mb]

We can't all look like Xabi, Paul..

[Juvenile Bluster]

I would, and I'm not gay. But I have the biggest man-crush on Xabi, which I've had since he played for Liverpool.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm not gay. But I have the biggest man-crush on Xabi,

Ha! GAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!

[Los Doyers]

He is probably one of Spain's greatest and most complete midfielders.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

is everyone speaking in metaphors?

[Los Doyers]

NO. I AM NOT GAY. WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT???!?!

/kicks butt plug under the bed discreetly

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

kicks butt plug under the bed discreetly

A phrase that could be oh so useful around here.

[Mad Scientist]

We wouldn't be particularly discreet in his case.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Agreed!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

As I mentioned up top. Bayern v. Juve is going to be some kind of soccer. Too bad it's in the R16.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The trailer is out for the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.

In Soviet Hogwarts, beats find you.

[GILMORE?]

"Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them."

Duh. On Cold Chillin'

[GILMORE?]

Jar-Jar Binks, Harry Potter, Trump...

i sense a theme.

[Crusty Juggler]

Is the theme "things Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd looks like he has pleasured himself to?"

[Pan Zagloba]

Bobbing for clicks?

[bacon-magic]

Who are people that screw up?
I'll take Your Mom for $200, Alex.

[GILMORE?]

Science = Everyone has a fag-brain

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

That's going to be tough news on the trans community.

[AlmightyJB]

Good, now I don't have to feel self-conscious about liking musicals.

[Pan Zagloba]

So, at the beginning of Star Wars clip, Melissa Harris(?) Perry(?) (yes, I'm a horrible racist who doesn't know the name of America's Foremost Intellectual) just did a scene from Chasing Amy? Appropriation!
Also, she didn't say "Nubian", which was the best part.

[Crusty Juggler]

"What's a nubian?"

[GILMORE?]

Yall just bein ignint

[bacon-magic]

Nubian = online gaming term for a new player that doesn't know much.../urban dictionary

[bacon-magic]

You can call her Darth Tampon, if you're nasty.

[Pan Zagloba]

And I guess the movie is over 15 years old, so perhaps a link for all the Milenials.

[GILMORE?]

That film is all kinds of problematic now and is worse than American Sniper, which is worse than Adam Lanza

[GILMORE?]

Totally Not Newsworthy = Iran Violating UN Arms-Limitation Agreements...Again.... Which White House Says May Prompt New Sanctions...

[GILMORE?]

BUT! Which of course has absolutely zero significance in relation to the signing of New Deals Demanding New Promises... because John Kerry has assured congress that Iran will totally fer sures be completely likely to comply with those.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

It ain't legally binding, so bully to Iran.

[GILMORE?]

What exactly do you mean by "Legally binding" in international law? There is no Law other than your 'word' and what pieces of paper you claim to be agreeing to.

and they apparently agreed to this, which was the pretext to the current deal with the US

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

What exactly do you mean by "Legally binding" in international law?

You receive a strongly worded letter if you violate the Treaty agreement made by a couple of dudes you've never heard of.

[GILMORE?]

Or Israel just bombs you, because, you know = agreement no longer valid? Ok.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Of course, if you're The Prophet Muhammed and some peeps violate the Contract of Medina, you start a'killin' folks.

[TheZeitgeist]

The plan all along was the atom bomb before Barry's gone.

[bacon-magic]

Don't worry, Lurch will bring in James Taylor to sing to us... "You've got a friend, that wants you dead"

[NotAnotherSkippy]

CIA from 1953 made them do it.

Why do you want war with Iran?

It can't hit the US (yet).

What other talking points did I miss.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Obama is always favor of gun control.

[Wizard with a Woodchipper]

FAKE SCANDAL (sarc) ALERT!

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....lenge.html

"The sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News that while the emails were indeed "top secret" when they hit Clinton's server, one of them remains "top secret" to this day ? and must be handled at the highest security level. The second email is still considered classified but at the lower "secret" level because more information is publicly available about the event."

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

PHAIK SKANDUL

[Fist of Etiquette]

The War on Men continues: Man Caves Declared Illegal.

[gaoxiaen]

Location, location, and location.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

So I watched the first part of Childhood's End last night. It was pretty good, but left me with one big question: Why do people in futuristic utopias always have to wear white robes?

[GILMORE?]

If you know anything about the future, its that people lose any interest in clothing for self-expression, and all end up wearing identical Bags/drapes/jumpsuits... and yet they will retain current-period haircuts in perpetuity. Forever. Star Trek was the first to note that late-60s beehive hairdos would be the preferred female hairstyle of the future. Men will gravitate towards "Bowl" and/or shaved heads.

[Zeb]

You have to be a more fully evolved spiritual being to understand.

[Mad Scientist]

Because they're all enlightened philosophers now, and far, far beyond your petty world where people have to work and pay bills and stress about things. They have reached the pinnacle of the human condition, and conformity is the best part of that.

Or the costume people are just lazy.

[bacon-magic]

They have figured out how to make stainless white material...duh.

[Old Man With Candy]

The dialog bothered me a lot. Along with the sort of Overlords-As-Bernie vibe.

"It's not about you and me. It's about the WHOLE HUMAN RACE." No, Clarke wouldn't write that. And Karellen should have been black, not red.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

I've never read the book, just summaries here and there. The only thing I ever saw was that the Overlords looked like demons, so I didn't see anything wrong with his look. Also, when I saw "Based on the novel..." at the beginning, I was almost expecting a wild space action movie.

[Old Man With Candy]

The book was astonishingly good. Rikki Stormgren was not a farmer with a dead wife.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

I gotta say, I think they made the Overlord look too "on the nose".

I've always been kinda partial to Barlowe's design, myself.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Because Brahmins.

[GILMORE?]

2 headed cows have nothing to do with this.

[Pan Zagloba]

Or, do they? Isn't it awful convenient how they are always around key events in the Wasteland, pretending to mind their own busines...?

[pan fried wylie]

Why do people in futuristic utopias always have to wear white robes?

anthropogenic albedo turns out to be the solution to climate change.

[Suell]

"Lettuce Three Times Worse for the Environment than Bacon"

Take that you polluting vegans! Why do you hate Mother Earth so much?

http://m.sfgate.com/science/ar.....699787.php

[GILMORE?]

Shit.Is.On.

I always knew vegans were a bunch of planet-killers.

[Zeb]

Careful now. We still might all end up eating algae and bugs.

[Zeb]

So does this mean that all of the people who were telling us that raising meat is so much more intensive than plants and uses more energy were just making shit up?

Makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Especially when so many vegetables are grown in places where irrigation is necessary. Just the relative calorie density gives meat quite the edge.

[Cytotoxic]

AP interview with guy who dissapears people for the Sinaloa cartel. As creepy as you imagine. May need to shower after.

http://news.nationalpost.com/n.....no-regrets

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

No thanks.

[Pan Zagloba]

God damn, I guess I know where my hot/crazy line is calibrated. Because it'd be totaly worth it

Woman stabs another woman, unprovoked.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Here's another hot/crazy stabby woman.

Get a load of the nude mugshot.

[Pan Zagloba]

I...just...

Look, there's no polite way to say this. Was she always a woman?

I mean, points for implied nudity of mugshot, that certainly is what you need when you aim for the top.

[Crusty Juggler]

She is 40 and looks like that? She must be crazy. Nice.

[TheZeitgeist]

Yeah, I'd try stabbing her back in a way.

[GILMORE?]

Offhand thought that just occurred to me -

Most modern military movies are only about "Horrible Fuck-ups"

and that's all they'll be about in the future. We're never going to see another "Sands of Iwo Jima" or "Longest Day".

We WILL however, see lots of things like "Blackhawk Down", "Bravo-Two-Zero" ... or this "13 Hours" thing.

All of which are basically things where "we royally fucked up and made a huge mess" and now we have to cry and moan and make a story about it so that we can be proud and be all like "NEVER FORGET" even though they were mostly just retarded mistakes/bad decisions where some people got killed.

The alternative 'war film' that people find acceptable is the "Hurt Locker" / "American Sniper", which is really not about 'war' so much as its about "isn't it sad when people get over-stressed"? they're basically "men cry too" movies.

possibly what we'll also likely see are things like "Three Kings" ..which is just an update of "Kelly's Heroes" - a heist film *set* in a war.... or other genre films which use war as a convenient backdrop.

Vietnam was kind of great for the movie business, since it allowed for like a huge range of potential dramatic storytelling. The fucking boomers just loved it.

Everything since then, basically no dice. Can't say shit about it. Suderman! write a piece about this. Or I will.

[Pan Zagloba]

I'd expect maybe some "Where Eagles Dare"/"Dirty Dozen" type movies about a small group of special forces, weasels back at HQ, suspect loyalties and big explosive boomy behind-the-lines mission. I guess "zero dark thirty" would be an example? ISIS or a stand-in can provide a suitable enemy.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah.

those happen to be my favorite (ensemble-cast movies), and i think its something of a subgenre of 'war movies' that are actually closer to 'heist' or 'spy thrillers'. Guns of Navaronne and Where Eagles Dare i think were both written by the same guy. Basically, 'break into impenetrable enemy fortress' suicide-mission, lose 80% of your cast-members, escape with the girl.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

Zero Dark Thirty was about a fuck up?

[GILMORE?]

I dont think that was a "war movie" at all.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Well, it was total fiction And the fucks up were Bush and Obama

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

I for one am happy without Pentagon-fallating war movies.

Of course, instead we get government-fellating spy movies and police dramas. And those goddamned awful superhero movies.

[Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper]

I'd also add that we went into WWII reluctantly. Since then, the US has been far too willing to go to war. The latter is likely to produce more fuckups in real life.

[Pan Zagloba]

Dunno, US was on the way to war (once you start escorting ships, and getting torpedoed by the subs, are you not?) and was quite eager to crush both Japan and Germany after Pearl Harbor.

As for before then, Spanish-American War, many invasions of Haiti, Banana Wars in Central America, and Phillipine Rebellion weren't exactly different from what US did in Iraq or Afghanistan. Certainly not more justified, or less popular. And that sets aside the whole series of wars with various Indian tribes/nations. Acquiring Florida wasn't exactly through a popular referendum to join the US...

[GILMORE?]

""Pentagon-fallating war movies.""

I'd be thrilled to hear you name one.

The genre isn't known for its celebration of Pentagon-leadership, so much as platoon-seargents making tough choices and inspiring men to fight to help their buddies despite the desire to curl into a ball and cry. also, lots of green first lieutenants getting shot in the first few seconds, and said sergeants going "damned fool!"

[Pan Zagloba]

Longest Day is about the only movie that comes to mind where the HQ brass are not total idiots, and officers over the rank of, say, Lt. Colonel show any concern for their men. Bridge Too Far is halfway there, the four Generals (Sosabowski, Taylor, Gavin and Urqhart) are well presented, but even Horrocks looks like a prat (even though Edward Fox tried to make him likable), and Browning comes off as a goat for the whole operation. The idiot behind the scenes, of course, being Monty.

[GILMORE?]

"Longest Day is about the only movie that comes to mind where the HQ brass are not total idiots"

Yep. Both the US and the Germans. Never was a film made that was quite so fair to its enemy. It was basically like "Rommel probably could have stopped it" were it not for Hitler over-sleeping and the fear of the Wehrmacht to move without his orders.

and i think the SOP for other movies was more along the lines of the Bridge Too Far model, which tended to show senior leadership as being aloof and naive and incompetent. Patton doesn't really count as its a bio-pic, but even he's not presented as a one-dimensional good-guy - particularly his behavior in Sicily.

[Pan Zagloba]

It was basically like "Rommel probably could have stopped it" were it not for Hitler over-sleeping and the fear of the Wehrmacht to move without his orders.

Yes, that certainly was what German Generals were telling Allies at the time...
One of my favorite characters in A Bridge Too Far is the panicky, arrogant General Model. Because when I read up on Eastern Front, he was the man (not Hitler) who stopped the retreat in December '41, and basically saved the war for Germany (you know what I mean), then continued to give good service all the way through the war. According to Michael K Jones, he did what all the suriviving generals claimed was impossible - went into a shouting match with Hitler over tactics (no retreat vs. give ground in order to counterattack), stood his ground, won, and was praised as a fighting general by Hitler.
But, because he was both a Nazi and a man who took his oath seriously, he shot himself rather than surrender, and was thus a convenient scapegoat for other generals...

I liked that Vietnamese commander in We Were Soldiers was presented as a capable, intelligent officer who cares about his men, even though he knows he's sending them into a meatgrinder. Bits where he and Moore essentially read each other's moves and react accordingly were really good.

[Zeb]

Maybe "pro-military propaganda" more than Pentagon-fellating.

[Zeb]

I wonder if the difference in how wars are fought is part of it. Another WWII or even Korea doesn't seem too likely (though you never know, there are still some wild cards). Can you make an old-school straight war movie about the Iraq invasion, or years of fighting guerrillas and petty warlords?

[Pan Zagloba]

Reading about Battle of Faluja, I think you probably could do one based on it. It'd look a lot like Blackhawk Down but longer and with fewer fuckups.

[GILMORE?]

"I wonder if the difference in how wars are fought is part of it. "

Certainly.

But the traditional "war movie" genre is hardly ever about the 'big picture' of the war (even Longest Day, the most epic of war epics of all was just about a *single day of a single battle*)...

...they're mainly about small units, and the relationships between foot-soldiers dealing with the unpleasantness of armed conflict. How the conflict actually 'resolves' (or not) hardly matters for the purposes of the story-telling.

The only movie i can think of that's been made so far about Afghanistan, for instance, was another "fuckup" movie = Lone Survivor. You'd think that after 10 years someone would have thought that there are other good stories to come out of that. Restropo (documentary) is a example of something that would have presented a great setting for the kind of 'old school' war movie of the past. Its just that they don't make them anymore. Its always either a "big fuckup", or "poor guy has PTSD now"

[Tejicano]

Late to the party as usual but "Fury" anybody?

The ending could have been fixed by having the tank show up at the one remaining bridge crossing an otherwise un-fordable river - which could explain why the Nazis would send hundreds of men into the teeth of a tank rather than simply go around it.