Hillary Clinton More Admired Than the Pope, U.K. Criminalizes 'Controlling' Behavior, Rogue Elephant-Seal Terrorizes Wine Country: A.M. Links

California Highway Patrol

• Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people, according to a new Gallup poll—beating out Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama. 
• The Chicago police officer charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald will appear in court this morning; he's expected to enter a plea. 
• "Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K. 
• Airbnb is "making a noticeable dent in the hotel business" in major metropolitan areas. 
• States that don't comply with the Department of Homeland Security's "Real ID" requirements may soon see residents unable to clear airport security with just their driver's licenses. 
• Why did the elephant-seal repeatedly cross the road? No, really, why? Marine wildlife experts are puzzled. 
• ISIS documents seized during a raid show "how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old literature to justify sexual slavery." 

New at Reason: 

Congress Snuck a Massive Surveillance Expansion Into the Omnibus Budget: At the heart of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) is expansion of the feds' ability to access data without a warrant. By Andrea Castillo

With Every Call for Encryption Restrictions, Officials Make the Technology's Case: Of course secure communications frustrate governments. That's the whole idea. By J.D. Tucille 

America's Decaying Institutions: United States slipping in some very important measures of institutional quality. By Marian Tupy 

Doxxing in the New Year. By Charles Oliver

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]

Why did the elephant-seal repeatedly cross the road?

To find out where its country gone.

[Swiss Servator]

TO MAKE THE SEA COAST GREAT AGAIN!

[Citizen X]

They're not sending their best seals.

[CharlesWT]

So they don't get your seal of approval...

[Citizen X]

Some if them, i assume, are good seals.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[Adans smith]

Easy,to meet Kaley Cuoco.

[AlmightyJB]

To rape the baby seal. Seriously, these are horrible creatures.

[Citizen X]

Who, this adorable little guy?

[AlmightyJB]

Crusty would

[Citizen X]

Fun fact: a full-grown male Southern elephant seal bears a striking resemblance to the Doomcock, although with far fewer teeth.

[Crusty Juggler]

No, this angry guy

[Pat (PM)]

R.I.P. Lemmy Kilmister, Mot?rhead frontman dead at 70

In a statement posted to Facebook, Mot?rhead wrote, "There is no easy way to say this? our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer. He had learnt of the disease on December 26th, and was at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game from the Rainbow which had recently made it's way down the street, with his family. We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness, there aren't words. We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please? play Mot?rhead loud."

[Jordan]

Is Lemmy going to be the new Lou Reed around here?

[Just say Nikki]

Except pushed by commenters, rather than editors.

[Certified Public Asshat]

So Lemmy was not a great libertarian?

[Zeb]

He was an OK libertarian. He didn't like guns much.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Lou Reed is dead!?!?!??!?

[Certified Public Asshat]

Killed by death, I am afraid to say.

[Tonio]

[squints, then wanders away muttering]

[invisible furry hand]

Am I the only one impressed Lemmy made it to 70?

[gaijin]

No

[d3x / dt3]

He didn't look a day over 86.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

He lived to 175, if you take his lifestyle into consideration.

[Citizen X]

+nothing but steak and bourbon erry meal

[BearOdinson]

If he stuck with single malt scotch, he could have made it to 135!

[Zeb]

That's sad. I thought he had a couple more left in him. Though it is pretty amazing that he survived this long. I'd heard that he had switched from Jack Daniels to vodka, so maybe that was a sign.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton and President Baracak Obama are Americans' most admired people...

Co-presidents. Like TV's Hart to Hart!

[Rhywun]

"What a super lady. She's gorgeous!"

*choke*

[Mickey Rat]

How can someone whose go-to excuse for their criminal actions is "I am incompetent" be admired in any fashion?

[Fist of Etiquette]

America loves a winner.

[some guy]

So what happens if a two-term president becomes vice president and then the new president steps down prior to impeachment hearings? Does the he become a three-term president, or does he get skipped? Constitutional law professors, help!

[R C Dean]

Nope. Not eligible to be VP, per the 12th Amendment.

[Elspeth Flashman]

thank you for that.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I'm not a con law professor, but I can pretend to be one in a pinch. Um, check the articles of the C. Article II doesn't discuss this, and I don't think the 25th Amendment does either.

From Wiki article on the 25th Amendment: It [the 25th Amendment] supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which does not expressly state whether the Vice President becomes the President or Acting President if the President dies, resigns, is removed from office or is otherwise unable to discharge the powers of the presidency.[1] The Twenty-fifth Amendment was adopted on February 10, 1967.[2]

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"I'm not a con law professor, but I can pretend to be one in a pinch. "

You know who else.....

[Mickey Rat]

I think it is in the 12th, but a person not eligible to he elected for President is not eligible to he elected VP. A two term President is no longer eligible to be elected President, therefore cannot run for VP.

[josh]

12th...

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

22nd...

"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

"elected" being the key word. i don't think it's cut and dry.

[Pat (PM)]

Cow dung patties selling like hot cakes online in India

NEW DELHI (AP) ? Like consumers around the globe, Indians are flocking to the online marketplace in droves these days. But there's one unusual item flying off the virtual shelves: Online retailers say cow dung patties are selling like hot cakes.

The patties ? cow poop mixed with hay and dried in the sun, made mainly by women in rural areas and used to fuel fires ? have long been available in India's villages. But online retailers including Amazon and eBay are now reaching out to the country's ever-increasing urban population, feeding into the desire of older city folks to harken back to their childhood in the village.

[Swiss Servator]

WTF?

"You kids and your fancy electricity and gas - let me tell you, we burned dung, and appreciated it!"

*orders dung wheel online*

"Now I will show you what real village life is like!"

[gaoxiaen]

It's a fuel and building material.

[Swiss Servator]

Its a floor wax and desert topping!

[GILMORE?]

It slices! it dices! it fumigates your garage!

[Sapient Mulch]

+1 Sheen

[Lee G]

By Vishnu, I miss the bronchial infections of my youth.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Leftist-enviro-nutjobs rejoice and wonder why we can't do that here.

[Swiss Servator]

I invite them to try....

[Zeb]

We can. We just choose not to.

But s it really terribly different from people in cities having a fire place? We have a romantic notion of crackling logs on the fire. Apparently Indians have a similar thing for smoldering dung lumps.

[d3x / dt3]

I'll have to go with: Yes, it's different.

[Zeb]

But is it terribly different? They're burning the stuff, not eating it.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

They're kind of smoking it too. Kind of.

[BearOdinson]

Mesquite, cow shit. All smells the same!

[Zeb]

Yes, like a romanticized view of the past.

[Rhywun]

They show a Dung Log on TV for Diwali.

[CatoTheChipper]

When leftist-enviro-nutjobs speak of "green jobs", that is exactly what they are talking about.

Imagine all the new green jobs that can be created in dung collection, dung processing, and dung distribution.

Add to that to all the new green jobs in "recycling" (i.e., sifting through garbage to find something of marginal value), and the US is on its way to the nirvana of impoverished sustainability.

[OneOut]

Rufus cows are bad because they fart on Mother Gaia.

eemmkay ?

[B.P.]

So this is India's version of buying vinyl and an expensive turntable?

[Fist of Etiquette]

States that don't comply with the Department of Homeland Security's "Real ID" requirements may soon see residents unable to clear airport security with just their driver's licenses.

Or vote?

[Princess Trigger]

No, no. Voting is a sacred right - almost as sacred as the right to remove troublesome clumps of cells from your uterus - but not as sacred as self defense or self ownership.

[Tonio]

Your sympathy for sufferers of uterine cancer is truly commendable.

[Just say Nikki]

Because DHS is a bastion of the Democratic Party and its platform.

[Monty Crisco]

ALL government agencies - especially the most useless ones, like DHS, HUD, DoE (take your pick) - are bastions of the Democratic Party. Who do you think government employees vote for, by and large?

[Just say Nikki]

People who will give them more work?which includes both major parties. Were you born seven years ago?

[Monty Crisco]

Yes. In dog years.

[Mickey Rat]

Tom Daschle was rather insistent on making Homeland Security its own cabinet level department and making airport security a federal function over Bush's reluctance to do both at the time. Bush did cave quite easily, but the Dems had their fingerprints all over it.

[d3x / dt3]

Silly Princess, you know there's no right to self-defense. That's just a horrible myth perpetuated by the right-wing nutjobs at the NRA. You are supposed to die while awaiting the police, like a good citizen.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Oh, of course not. Just saying a name, any name whatsoever, is sufficient to vote. Anything else would be TEH RACEIST. Voting is totally different from buying alcohol, opening a bank account, boarding a plane, driving a car, buying cigarettes, cashing a check, getting into R-rated movies, entering most government buildings, making returns to certain retail establishments, or buying a gun. VOTING IS SACROSANCT!!!!

[Zeb]

Only 2 or 3 of those things should really require ID at all.

[some guy]

Voter registration is handled at the state level. Airport security is handled at the idiot level.

[Private Chipperbot]

I like the way you think.

[Gilbert Martin]

There are multiple idiot levels.

Think of it as a cooperative government oligopoly.

[Citizen X]

Idiots all the way down, eh?

[Pat (PM)]

Man dies while trying to blow up condom machine with homemade bomb

A young man died on Christmas Eve after a condom machine he was trying to break into blew up in his face.

The 29-year-old had rigged the contraception dispenser in the German town of M?nster with a homemade bomb so he could blast it open and steal the change inside.

But as it exploded, a steal shard hit him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

His two accomplices, aged aged 27 and 29, took him to hospital but he died of his wounds shortly afterwards.

[CharlesWT]

Bursting condoms usually have the opposite affect...

[Tonio]

Has anyone seen Eddie recently?

[Lee G]

I think he got stuck in an endless loop of replying to his own comments.

[Swiss Servator]

I stopped engaging him after he flipped out when I corrected him on a minor terminology error re: legal proceedings in Cook County. I think he posted 11 comments in 5 minutes, all of paragraph or more length.

[Lee G]

Someone should take his Wikipedia access away.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Yeah. Like yesterday.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This viral condom challenge thing has gone too far.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

The condom dispenser was clearly denying him access to birth control.

[gaoxiaen]

That must be one profitable location.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The foolish 'theism' of government enthusiasts
"Secular theists" ? economist Don Boudreaux's term ? produce governments gripped by the fatal conceit that they are wiser than society's spontaneous experimental order. Such governments imposed order suffocates improvisation and innovation. Like religious creationists gazing upon biological complexity, secular theists assume that social complexity requires an intentional design imposed from on high by wise designers, a.k.a. them.

In his book "The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge," Matt Ridley refutes the secular creationists' fallacious idea that because social complexity is the result of human actions, it must, or should, be the result of human design. In fact, Ridley says, "Far more than we like to admit, the world is to a remarkable extent a self-organizing, self-changing place."...

...Morality evolves: Religious and other moral instructors base their moral codes on the way people who are considered moral behave ? people who are deemed moral because they exemplify rules conducive to human flourishing. Legal systems evolve: The common-law basis of the system under which Americans live had no inspired lawgiver; it emerged from centuries of the Anglosphere's trial and error....

[Tonio]

Top men fallacy in book-length treatment.

[some guy]

Unfortunately only people who don't need to read it will read it.

[Akira]

Sounds like a good read; I may have to check that out.

Whenever I'm accused of being a "social Darwinist", I like to ask, "isn't that better than being a social creationist?"

I always take it as a compliment. Darwin was a great scientist.

[Pat (PM)]

God used Adam's penis to make Eve, says shock theory from Bible scholar

Christians have reacted with fury after a religious academic suggested that Eve was not made from Adam's rib - but his PENIS.

The theory suggests that God made Eve from Adam's baculum - or penis bone. This could mean the Bible story is an attempt to explain why man, unlike most mammals , lacks a penis bone.

Ziony Zevit says the Hebrew word 'tsela', in the Old Testament, does not translate as 'rib', as has been the accepted meaning for millennia.

Instead, he claims the word refers to limbs sticking out sideways from an upright human body - the hands or feet, and - for men - the penis.

[Lee G]

That argument is totally limp.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Patriarchy!!!

[Burt Macklin (FBI)]

Women are literally dicks.

[Idle Hands]

Gives a new and expansive meaning to the insult "dick head".

[Fist of Etiquette]

This could mean the Bible story is an attempt to explain why man, unlike most mammals , lacks a penis bone.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Nobody wants to hear about your collection... You weirdo.

[Citizen X]

That's not a new theory. Supposedly it also explains the scarlike ridge on the underside of the dongular shaft.

It doesn't explain why spider monkeys (alone among fellow primates) also lack a baculum, though.

[Tonio]

Not just that, the scar extends through the scrotum and perineum (taint) as well. Early stage fetuses don't have differentiated genitalia, they all start with a uro-genital fissure which later closes and wraps around itself (normally developed males), or semi-closes leaving a well-defined cavity (females).

[Zeb]

So are you trying to tell us that the Bible doesn't adequately explain human development and anatomy?

[Tonio]

Well, it doesn't. But then again it isn't represented as being a comprehensive medical text; it's more about morality and genealogy.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"This could mean the Bible story is an attempt to explain why man, unlike most mammals , lacks a penis bone."

Bend over. I'll show you bone.

[Tonio]

Heh. This is going to give endless LULZ.

[Swiss Servator]

NEEDZ MOAR DOOMCOCK!

[Citizen X]

The Doomcock has not one but six baculi, all of which can be moved independently and are plated with adamantium.

[Suthenboy]

What is this, the middle ages?

Did they ever figure out how many angels could dance on the head of a pin?

[Pat (PM)]

42, of course.

[KerryW]

OTOH, women don't have a baubellum, so maybe God made Adam from Eve's baubellum....

[robc]

Removing a bone doesnt cause offspring to not have that bone. I know everyone here understands that.

My wife was conceived basically because her father lost a leg in Vietnam. And she has two legs.

[Pat (PM)]

Denver charity gives free marijuana to the homeless for Christmas

DENVER, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Volunteers with a Denver nonprofit took to the streets Christmas Eve to give the homeless some unusual gifts -- free marijuana cigarettes.

Nick Dicenzo, founder of the Cannabis Can nonprofit, said he and his volunteers handed out thousands of pre-rolled joints Christmas Eve to homeless adults and other bystanders interested in a toking token as part of their ongoing efforts to raise awareness of homelessness in the city.

[Gene]

They were then promptly arrested for smoking them in public, the end.

[Rhywun]

Can you imagine the outrage if someone tried to give them cigarettes?

[Ivan Pike]

Can you imagine the outrage if someone tried to give them cigarettes?

Or food.

[Rhywun]

Or booze.

[OneOut]

Yup. In Houston people have literally been arrested for feeding the homeless.

It was put into law by our ex lesbian proggie mayor who also tried to sue soe of the cities churches and subpeona their sermons and intra communications over a men in the womens bathroom issue.

She only cares for the homeless if they are Trannys.

[Slammer]

"Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K.

"Fine. Now go fix me a Bacon Butty, luv."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Flo Capp is rolling over in her grave.

[gaijin]

"Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K."

Fine. Now go buy healthcare, luv.

#NotIllegalWhenGovDoesIt

[Private Chipperbot]

Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K.*

*child rape by asian groups excluded

[Zeb]

THey really wanted to do something about that, they were just too embarrassed to say anything.

[Monty Crisco]

JESUS, enough with ROTHERHAM references already!! Reason did TWO articles on it, alright?!?!? NOTHING EVER SATISFIES YOU PEOPLE!!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

ISIS documents seized during a raid show "how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old literature to justify sexual slavery."

It's nice to know they don't believe in FYTW.

[Tonio]

No surprise there. The religious are all about the inerrancy of their stone age goat scrolls, until they find something in there that's inconvenient to them. Shame that they don't have the "changed in translation" dodge that is so convenient a dodge for a certain adherents of another abrahamic religion.

[Citizen X]

The Stone Age Goat Scrolls is totally going to be the name of my M?t?rhead tribute band.

[Tonio]

And you shall then be entitled to wear a hubcap daimler star halo. Get it on...

[WTF]

I initially read that as "The Stone Age Goat Scrotes".

[Citizen X]

Even better.

[some guy]

"Dude, did you catch that show by SAGS last week? It was awesome!"

Works for me.

[gaijin]

^yep. Just another group trying to realize their heavenly desires here on earth.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze, that's why*

[Just say Nikki]

Come on, FYTW always comes with tortured readings of centuries-old documents written in Olde Englishe.

[WTF]

Written like a hundred years ago and hard to understand.

[Tonio]

Really, Nikki? I'm disappointed. Old English, aka Anglo Saxon, was the language spoken in England before 1066. The King James version wasn't in OE, or even Middle English (the language of Chaucer's era), but in early Modern English - what Shakespeare spoke.

[Just say Nikki]

LOL, I was referring to the US Constitution. You are correct of course; I personally have given up correcting people who say Chaucer was in Old English though.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

What's Canadian? Low-Low English?

[Free Society]

Hoser English

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Canadian English is to English as Quebecois is to French.

/Old SAT

[d3x / dt3]

Well, what *do* you call that stuff you speak up there in America's Hat?

[egould310]

Canadian is Middle French. Jeez, Rufus. You even live there.

[Citizen X]

Canadian isn't really a language; it's just the sound of wind passing through the facial openings of maple-suckers' floppy heads, which coincidentally SOUNDS kind of like English.

[R C Dean]

Without having read it, I'd be mildly surprised if there wasn't already plenty of (quasi?) scriptural support for sexual slavery. Probably not a lot of reinterpretation necessary, at least not SCOTUS-level "reinterpretation".

[Suthenboy]

As far as I know they have been practicing sexual slavery since the beginning of time and it has only been recently that they did not do so in an open, unapologetic fashion. ISIS really is just the Islamic world from a couple of centuries ago.

[Free Society]

It's not even quasi endorsement, it's plain as day. I don't know why people (not saying you) are so keen to pretend that the despicable actions of the jihadists are somehow just perversions of "true Islam". Hilary is an expert on what is true about Islam so someone will have to ask her, but as for non-primary sources we'll just have to settle for what the Koran says about the issue until Hildog makes her ruling.

Koran (33:50) - "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee"

The Muslims who find the jihadist's actions to be reprehensible are just cherry pickers, and they're also the best Muslims. All else being equal, a Muslim's moral integrity is proportional to how much that Muslim deviates from Islam.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

That's pretty tame to what Paul said about slavery, and Paul's passage is easier to interpret as endorsement.

[robc]

"If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me."

It is pretty radical, I give you that.

[Sapient Mulch]

All else being equal, a Muslim's moral integrity is proportional to how much that Muslim deviates from Islam.

The same could be said for many other religions too. Fanatics of any stripe suck.

[Pat (PM)]

Database of 191 million U.S. voters exposed on Internet: researcher

An independent computer security researcher uncovered a database of information on 191 million voters that is exposed on the open Internet due to an incorrectly configured database, he said on Monday.

The database includes names, addresses, birth dates, party affiliations, phone numbers and emails of voters in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, researcher Chris Vickery said in a phone interview.

Vickery, a tech support specialist from Austin, Texas, said he found the information while looking for information exposed on the Web in a bid to raise awareness of data leaks.

Vickery said he could not tell whether others had accessed the voter database, which took about a day to download.

While voter data is typically considered public information, it would be time-consuming and expensive to gather a database of all American voters. A trove of all U.S. voter data could be valuable to criminals looking for lists of large numbers of targets for a variety of fraud schemes.

[Just say Nikki]

Rahm aide assaulted at vigil for people killed by other Rahm aides.

[Swiss Servator]

Registration/Paywall....you are the WORST!

[Just say Nikki]

A deputy chief of staff to Mayor Rahm Emanuel was physically assaulted while attending a vigil in the block where Chicago police shot and killed two people over the weekend, according to a Chicago police report.

A spokesman for police confirmed that a 50-year-old man was punched, tackled and kicked at Sunday's vigil. Sgt. Bob Kane said no one was in custody for the assault.

According to a report of the incident, the victim was Vance Henry, 50, who was walking with Ald. Jason Ervin at the vigil when they were accosted by a man who cursed Emanuel and the police and said, "What are you doing here, you should be downtown doing something about this." The man also said that "the police are killing us," according to the report.

The man and a second person left the area briefly but returned, repeating the complaints, according to the report.

Henry then told the assailant to "get out of his face," and the man swung at Henry, striking him in the face, the report said. A second person tackled Henry and shoved him to the ground, the report said.

According to the report, the two assailants attempted to kick Henry, grazing him in the back of the head. One of the assailants made an anti-Semitic remark. That remark may have been directed at Emanuel, who is Jewish.

Ervin intervened and broke up the melee, the report said.

Henry suffered minor injuries and drove himself to the hospital, the report said.

[Tonio]

Why does this give me a feeling of satisfaction?

[Swiss Servator]

I feel guilty about mine....but I hope it puts a little fear into the TOP MEN.

[gaoxiaen]

I thought he said "Clout my face".

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

And thus it begins.

No seriously. This sort of shit is gonna increase if cops keep pulling the crap they do and getting away with it in courts.

The profiles of some of the cops who commit these crimes (ie murder) should be nowhere near a gun (how is that for irony for gun-control advocates?) or wearing a uniform.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

court.

[Jordan]

I really am surprised we haven't seen much more of this sort of thing.

[WTF]

The Top Men usually don't expose themselves to the mob without a contingent of security.

[R C Dean]

They suits will just bunker up and not go out in public nearly as much.

The cops will just see this as justification for even more hair-trigger violence.

This kind of petty shit isn't going to change anything for the better, sadly.

It does make me wonder, though: I thought Chicagoans were supposed to be some tough SOBs. What kind of weakass beatdown was that, anyway, that the guy could drive himself to the hospital?

[Swiss Servator]

The Alderman got in the way. People tend to spare Aldermen, as they can dole out patronage and favors.

[Crusty Juggler]

Don't forget that they can also carry guns legally.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

See! Chicago supports the 2nd Amendment!

[ant1sthenes]

Bob Kane? Maybe if they promote this detective Gordon I've heard so much about, the police can get cleaned up.

[Pat (PM)]

Gonorrhea may soon be untreatable, Britain's chief medical officer warns

Dame Sally Davies, Britain's chief medical officer, has reportedly written to doctors and pharmacies in Britain sounding the alarm on antibiotic resistant gonorrhea.

The sexually transmitted infection is increasingly caused by strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae that resist antibiotic treatment. "Gonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease due to the continuing emergence of antimicrobial resistance," Davies wrote. The Guardian reports that a recent outbreak of a superbug strain of the disease ? one that doesn't respond to the antibiotic azithromycin ? has put Britain on high alert.

Davies urged doctors to use proper treatment protocols. A recent study found that many doctors in Britain still prescribe ciprofloxacin, which hasn't been recommended for a decade now.

[Lee G]

NHS, blazing forward with outdated meds.

[Akira]

"But it's FREEEEEE!! That overrides any concerns whatsoever about the quality of treatment!"

/prog

[gaijin]

What does that dame know about STDs?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"The sexually transmitted infection is increasingly caused by strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae"

I thought you got it from a tractor.

[invisible furry hand]

And somewhere, someone is thinking Neisseria is the perfect name for their baby girl

[Pat (PM)]

I lol'd

[Zeb]

Chlamydia would be a nice name too.

[R C Dean]

True story:

Years ago, there was a birth announcement in the paper. Twin girls. Chianti and Chablis.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Do they pronounce them 'Kee-anti' and 'Chab-liss'?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Damn. ONE THING I'm charged ONE and I mess it up.

Let's start over.

Do they pronounce them 'CHEE-YANTI' and 'CHAB-LISS'?

[R C Dean]

No idea.

A teacher friend of mine told me that one of her students was named "Pajama". Pronounced Paja-MAY.

[Zeb]

Classy.

[sarcasmic]

I'm glad I'm in a monogamous relationship.

[Idle Hands]

but is your girlfriend/boyfriend/genderfluidfriend.

[sarcasmic]

Wouldn't have married her if I didn't trust her.

[Monty Crisco]

And note: Gonorrhea is fatal. Left untreated, it kills you.

"Gonorrhea Superbug" is the name of my Motorhead tribute band...

[d3x / dt3]

"Lord loves a workin' man. Don't trust Whitey. See a doctor and get rid of it."

[Illocust]

""Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K. "

So nagging wives, women who lie about using birth control, girlfriends who guilt trip their boyfriend about hanging out with his friends instead of her, and those who go through phones and emails seeking out cheating behavior are going to be charged with a crime? Somehow I doubt it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

It isn't a "safe space" unless I have total power.
-- progderp, wifederp, etc.

[Just say Nikki]

What does it take to make a space safe for you though, Johnny?

[Monty Crisco]

I'll tell you what it takes for me, sugar tits: NO NIKKI!!

[Hamster of Doom]

Fun fact: Nikki's tits are not merely abundant and perky, they really are made of sugar-laced cocaine. The codes to unlock the nuclear football are sewn into her bras, and her nipples can shoot fricking laser beams.

Foreplay is both deadly and delicious. Few men have the fortitude.

[DenverJ]

Mmmm, sugar-laced cocaine titties..

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I'm not safe, that's part of my bad boy PUA charm, which is why you can't get enough of me.

[Private Chipperbot]

Would you say you are dangerous?

[invisible furry hand]

That's not fair, he has OT powers

[BearOdinson]

No, no, no.

Danger is my MIDDLE name.

[Adans smith]

Silly rabbit,this is just for men.

[Tonio]

^This. But it will be interesting the first time a man tries to charge a woman under those laws. Also, in England you can have private prosecutions!

[gaijin]

What is a private prosecution?

[Tonio]

OK, IANAL, and most particularly not a UK one, but it's exactly what it sounds like. If you can't interest the police in prosecuting a crime, and you have the money or can get funding, you can mount a private prosecution in the courts. Private courts and prosecutions are something of a wet dream for certain people here.

[robc]

Thief takers!

[robc]

Iirc, it used to be the only prosecutions other than the crown. Whicj is just the king doing a private prosecution.

[Zeb]

As with most criminal laws, it will be very selectively used against those who have it coming (according to some state agent) and the randomly unlucky.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

A group of asylum-seekers and refugees staying at Hope Farm in South Africa threatened owners Andrew and Rae Wartnaby.
...In July, the headline read "Meet the angels who opened their hearts and home to 143 lost strangers," and the left was drooling over the couple who followed their socialist values to the letter. Andrew and Rae Wartnaby opened up their 50-acre farmland to over 100 Muslim refugees who were reportedly displaced during "xenophobic attacks," according to News 24.

After escaping Islamic brutality in the Central African Republic, the Muslim migrants traveled to South Africa, where they were again set upon by South African natives in black-on-black attacks. So, the good-natured yet naive white couple welcomed the refugee families to their land, which included Obama's favored "widows and orphans."

However, after only a few months of graciously allowing the Muslim migrants to live for free on their property, the loving couple soon found that they would actually be the refugees. The Wartnabys were threatened with slaughter by the same people they were helping escape brutality....

[Pat (PM)]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[gaijin]

naivete for the loss!

[Illocust]

Yeah, no kidding. That large of group from that part of the world is going to have some really really nasty folks in it.

[Tonio]

But, hey, at least they weren't Syrian Refugees(tm). Amirite?

[Free Society]

They're just like you and me. All cultures are equal and stuff or something like totally.

[Je suis Woodchipper]

WTF is that?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pYr9......55.35.jpg

[Suthenboy]

No shit.

[Pat (PM)]

Ancient DNA sheds light on Irish origins

Scientists have sequenced the first ancient human genomes from Ireland, shedding light on the genesis of Celtic populations.

The work shows that early Irish farmers were similar to southern Europeans.

Genetic patterns then changed dramatically in the Bronze Age - as newcomers from the eastern periphery of Europe settled in the Atlantic region.

Team members sequenced the genomes of a 5,200-year-old female farmer from the Neolithic period and three 4,000-year-old males from the Bronze Age.

DNA analysis of the Neolithic woman from Ballynahatty, near Belfast, reveals that she was most similar to modern people from Spain and Sardinia. But her ancestors ultimately came to Europe from the Middle East, where agriculture was invented.

The males from Rathlin Island, who lived not long after metallurgy was introduced, showed a different pattern to the Neolithic woman. A third of their ancestry came from ancient sources in the Pontic Steppe - a region now spread across Russia and Ukraine.

[Lee G]

Researchers were astounded to find the genes of cereal grains in the average Irishman's liver.

[Swiss Servator]

We have found the usquebaugh sequence...

[Rhywun]

early Irish farmers were similar to southern Europeans.

There is a tasteless joke about late 19th century immigration to America in there somewhere.

[Mickey Rat]

Which I niece confirms linguistics that the Celts came to Ireland from Spain and that they were related to the ancient Greeks.

[Lee G]

Is that why I can't understand them?

[Rhywun]

I dunno if they came "from" Spain but the Celts were spread throughout Europe at one time.

[Caput Lupinum]

Not Ireland, but it was a Roman belief that the Silures tribe of Celts in Wales had their origins in Spain:

"... the swarthy faces of the Silures, the curly quality, in general, of their hair, and the position of Spain opposite their shores, attest to the passage of Iberians in old days and the occupation by them of these districts; ..." (Tacitus Annales Xi.ii, translated by M. Hutton)

The Celtiberians were Celtic speaking people that lived in the Iberian peninsula, so it is possible that there was a migration from there to other Celtic lands. The Celtic languages and culture, however, originated in Halstatt, located in modern day Austria.

[Mickey Rat]

Yes, but I had read that the earliest Irish had specifically migrated from settlements in the Iberian Pennisula.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

So... they're using a sample of 1 to talk about 'early irish farmers'? With only 1, how do they have any idea that this was actually a representative part of the population and not an outlier or at least part of a minority?

Or is the reporter the one fucking up the analysis? tl;dr.

[OneOut]

I have a garden genome.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...he's expected to enter a plea.

I plead blue, Your Honor."

[Adans smith]

Case dismissed.

[Pat (PM)]

This Day in History

1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by four knights acting under the orders of Henry II.

1845 - Texas became the 28th state in the United States.

1851 - The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston.

1890 - The last major battle of the Indian Wars, at Wounded Knee Creek, took place with hundreds of Indian men, women, and children massacred.

1937 - The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.

1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1989 - Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1996 - A peace agreement was signed, ending 36 years of conflict in Guatemala.

[Adans smith]

Who will rid me of this troublesome Crusty?

[Tonio]

Be careful what you ask for, AS. Henry apparently regretted that.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

The not is #8 - We have always been at war with Guatemala.

[Tonio]

"1851 - The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston."

Young man, there's a place you can go...

[Lee G]

I actually saw them in concert

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Boston?

[Swiss Servator]

*snorts*

Nice.

[Lee G]

God no. I hate Boston.

[Citizen X]

No, he actually saw Them in concert. Lee says what he means and means what he says.

[Jordan]

Airbnb is "making a noticeable dent in the hotel business" in major metropolitan areas.

Uh oh. The hotel lobby will not take this lying down, nor will the government parasites who depend on hotel taxes.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Expect an increase in horror stories about AirBnB in 2016.

[Swiss Servator]

"Raped in an Uber car, left for dead in an AirBnB house...."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Chinese zookeeper who 'kept protected animals so he could eat them' is caught out after bragging on social media that endangered birds were 'too delicious'

[Monty Crisco]

That is such a fucking Chinese thing to do....

[Adans smith]

No,there's a guy in Logan Ohio,up by my parents that killed a rattle snake.They are protected in Ohio.He posted pics and was even on the radio bragging about it..ODNR arrested him for killing a endangered animal. Funny thig is,there are no shortage of these snake in the U.S. Hell,they hunt them in WV

[Jordan]

WTF. Might as well make pigeons a protected species.

[R C Dean]

For a lot of people in the Southwest, the only good rattler is a dead rattler. I've got the fuckers around my house, although since I spotted a real moose (five-footer, nearly as big around as your forearm) in the wash behind the house, I haven't seen any more. I've decided to kill him last, since he seems to be keeping the punk rattlers away.

My tool of choice:

http://bondarms.com/bond-arms-.....slayer-iv/

[Je suis Woodchipper]

.410?

[Rhywun]

Let me guess... he did this for a certain, imagined "medicinal" benefit.

OTOH, they will eat absolutely anything so maybe he was just bored with his usual diet.

[Monty Crisco]

THAT'S why its such a Chinese thing to do. A rattlesnake is actually good eating - exotic birds? No idea...
And, yes, he was probably doing it to enhance his status...
"You never had Quetzl?!? OOOOOooooh, so delicious...."

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people, according to a new Gallup poll?beating out Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama."

Americans are stupid.

[invisible furry hand]

"beating out"? That would make a weirdly compelling UFC event

[DJF]

Not much competition

Malala Yousafzai, A Pakistani flash in the pan Nobel prize winner

Oprah Winfrey. She has been out of sight for years

Pope Francis He does not seem to be very popular with traditional Catholics but is sort of popular with liberals so that does not add up to very large numbers

Dalai Lama. Is he still alive?

[Jordan]

Any competition is better than a politician. I admire the dead possum I passed in the road more than those 2.

[Tonio]

The Dalai Lama is never not alive. Duh.

[Swiss Servator]

*opera applause*

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I don't get the love hurled at the Dalai Lama.

In fact, I'm not that big into human hero worshiping. I'm generally skeptical of people who are revered by the media and public.

False idols and all that. Francis Bacon spoke of 'idols of the market place' in his discourse for reason.

[Tonio]

Rufus, westerners have long been fascinated by eastern mysticism. There was a craze for buddhism and other things eastern in the twenties and thirties (brought to an abrupt end by Pearl Harbor). Then again in the sixties. I forget the quote, but there are always people who believe in the wisdom of any time or culture except the one in which you were born.

[Swiss Servator]

"The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this and every country but his own."

W.S. Gilbert in The Mikado

[Tonio]

Thank you, Switzy.

[Rhywun]

Meh, there are certainly some things to admire about "eastern" wisdom but I'll take the good parts minus all the mysticism kthxbai. And I'll combine it with the good parts of "western" wisdom.

[gaoxiaen]

The Dalai Lama is pretty good as far as religious leaders go. Plus, he got a watch from FDR, and not some Timex.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

So 'pretty good' justifies the fawning?

There's but one TRUE guru and that's the KWIK-E-MART GURU.

[WTF]

Unlike Canadians, who just elected.....Justin Trudeau.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

HEY! WE GOT OUR CANADA BACK.

Or some shit.

[Slammer]

Pam Geller sued by Muslims for wearing a bikini.

This whole thing seems made up.

[Lee G]

Sounds like a publicity stunt by Geller.

[Pat (PM)]

No kidding, a woman her age in a skimpy bikini like that...

[Tonio]

Not really that skimpy, from the illo. And she looks pretty good for her age. Pet peeve FTFA - it's "polka dot" not "poke a dot."

[greasonable]

I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but you just stepped in a pun.

[R C Dean]

For 57, she looks really good.

And if its a publicity stunt, its a good one.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Mutual concerns about China, anyone?

South Korean 'Comfort women' blast Japan apology for keeping them as sex slaves during World War Two amid anger British POWs have STILL not been offered one

[Pat (PM)]

Anybody still waiting on an apology for anything that happened during WWII can officially take the noon train to Fuckoffityville, as far as I'm concerned.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

If it happened to them, personally, I'd give them a pass on the "fuck you".

[gaijin]

Anybody still waiting on an apology for anything that happened during WWII...

But grievance mongering can be a lifelong career doncha know?

[Tonio]

I think this is rather the gold standard for legitimate grievance.

[Lee G]

Yes

[R C Dean]

Yeah, that's what a real rape culture looks like.

There's others, currently in operation. None of them in the US, which makes feminists sad, for some reason.

[gaijin]

Yes, on further consideration this is a rather flip and unthinking comment.

[gaijin]

*my comment was

[Swiss Servator]

Stupid slaves, they should just shut up and go away...eh?

[Pat (PM)]

See comment below. If they're pushing for prosecutions of the actual perpetrators, then power to them. An apology from a completely different government the better part of a century later is pointless.

[Tonio]

Well, it's not like they can get an apology from the then-government. I realize that many libertarians find this distasteful on the grounds that it's a slippery slope from here to apology (and reparations) for slavery in the US South, but as long as an actual victim or perpetrator is still alive, then the issue remains in play.

[Pat (PM)]

as long as an actual victim or perpetrator is still alive, then the issue remains in play.

No, not "or". If a victim *and* perpetrator are still alive, then the issue remains in play. Like the old shitbag Nazi concentration camp guard in his late 80's that they prosecuted a few years ago. Shinzo Abe isn't a perpetrator of war crimes against conscripted sex slaves from WWII, and neither is anybody else in Japan, save for the government officials and soldiers who actually participated at the time (most if not all of whom, I would imagine, are dead).

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

There are 46 of these comfort women left, so there is no way in hell there isn't some Japanese who were participants still left.

[Pat (PM)]

Well, there were substantially more 'comfort women' than that as well. Most of them have died too. To the extent any of the perpetrators are still alive and can be tracked down, hang them by their entrails I say (see the aforementioned Nazi shitbags). The state and people of Japan collectively are not responsible.

[JW]

completely different government

Wut?

"I shaved my beard off after I robbed the bank and shot all those people! I'm totally not that guy!"

I'll hand to the dimmer yokels. This is a new low even for them. "Too bad you were stolen, imprisoned and raped repeatedly by govt agents for years. Get over it."

[Pat (PM)]

"I shaved my beard off after I robbed the bank and shot all those people! I'm totally not that guy!"

Right, I mean, that's a perfect analogy for the government of Japan in 2015 as compared to the government of Japan in 1942.

Go fuck yourself with the "yokel" shit you historically illiterate collectivizing fucking moron. Swing by wikipedia so you can at least sit at the kids table while the adults are talking.

[JW]

Swing by wikipedia so you can at least sit at the kids table while the adults are talking.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!! You actually think you're being clever, don't you? You really think you have a point worth discussing? This is so precious.

Fuck off to Stormfront already, you dim little cunt. They like to dance your dance.

[Swiss Servator]

"Yokel" has lost its meaning, just like its cousin "cosmo".

Its a lazy epithet now.

[JW]

It's shorthand for "inbred sister fucker" or the jingoist/nationalist proxy. They think they're nothing like their SJW cousins, but are really the flip side of the same coin of "All for the state" to enforce their moral code.

"Cosmo" never really had any real meaning that I could discern, other than a weak slur, like "cuck."

[Pat (PM)]

Lol. Yes, throw some more spaghetti at the wall you intellectually impotent little twat. When you can't construct an analogy that isn't a non-sequitur, let alone an argument for it to represent, and you're too fucking stupid to even comprehend the conversation, there's always RACIST!!!!!! Fuck off to Salon. You'll still be the dumbest the person in the room, but at least it's a safe space.

[Illocust]

Only 46 of the women are even still alive. I'm sorry this shit is well past the date were responsibility can be taken. The Italians don't need to give out apologies for the Roman empire and countries don't need to give out apologies for World War II actions.

[Just say Nikki]

Only 46 of the women are even still alive. I'm sorry this shit is well past the date were responsibility can be taken.

If a single perpetrator is still alive, it is not past the date where responsibility can be taken.

[Pat (PM)]

Drag the perps to the Hague then, the government 25 iterations later doesn't owe you an apology.

[Hamster of Doom]

There's a reason history rhymes.

[Just say Nikki]

I don't know what you're counting as "iterations" considering Japan has had a continuous government since shortly after the end of the war, and that government covered up many of the country's wartime crimes?and continued to not just not apologize for but to deny atrocities. The current prime minister claimed less than ten years ago that the Japanese military had never coerced these women. Fuck that guy.

[BakedPenguin]

Yes - Germany went through a massive guilt phase / de-Nazification, which many of the adults there deserved. Japan never did. The US occupiers didn't want to force it on them after 2 atomic bombs. The viciousness their government & troops displayed in their occupied territories has been glossed over.

Italy didn't need one, since the Italians proved in 1943 that they didn't care for Mussolini or the war.

[Pat (PM)]

Germany went through a massive guilt phase / de-Nazification, which many of the adults there deserved.

Which was well and good at the time. Angela Merkel in 2015 doesn't owe any Jews an apology for Hitler's Germany.

[Old Man With Candy]

Angela Merkel in 2015 doesn't owe any Jews an apology for Hitler's Germany.

I don't remember that we ever asked her for one. Germany has been forthright in admitting guilt, apologizing, and offering reparations and restitution.

[Pat (PM)]

Germany has been forthright in admitting guilt, apologizing, and offering reparations and restitution.

Well, kinda, if you don't count all the war booty that was lost or withheld. The point is, the (West) German government took responsibility and agreed to pay reparations at the time. If the post-war government had rejected reparations in the '50s instead of agreeing, I wouldn't hold the Merkel government responsible for that in 2015. Some of you would, I guess.

[Tonio]

Also, there was the tricky issue of the emporer and the imperial household. De-japanification would have meant, at some level, disowning the god-emporer. Then there would be the question of how to morally cleanse the emporer (etc). Now, had the emporer only existed for a few years before WW2 that might have been possible; but the emporer was a centuries-old institution, unlike Nazism.

[Crusty Juggler]

The viciousness their government & troops displayed in their occupied territories has been glossed over.

The rape of Don King?

[Swiss Servator]

I should NOT have laughed at this...

[Pat (PM)]

I just don't really understand what an apology from a functionary of a reconstituted government (as in, not the one under which the atrocity occurred) 7 decades after the fact is actually worth. It's as useless as Ahmet Davutoglu apologizing for (or acknowledging) the Armenian genocide. It doesn't mean the current government is just swell, but they're not the party responsible.

[Hamster of Doom]

Now convincingly explain why your definition of the apology's value is or should be more important than that of the people actually involved.

[Pat (PM)]

The whole fucking point is that the current government of Japan is, in point of fact, *not* one of "the people actually involved". Unless you're prepared to take responsibility for the actions of your great-grandfathers, it should be self-evident why this line of thinking is faulty.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The actions of the post war government in continuing to deny or cover-up these types of atrocities puts them at least partially on the hook for playing a part in these women's long term anguish.

[Pat (PM)]

The actions of the post war government in continuing to deny or cover-up these types of atrocities puts them at least partially on the hook for playing a part in these women's long term anguish.

Perhaps to an extent, and any apology owed would be for that refusal to acknowledge the wrongdoing, not the wrongdoing itself. Same as the aforementioned situation with Turkey and the Armenian genocide.

[OneOut]

Another point of view is that if an apology to those old women might ease some of the lingering pain and shame ( don't forget thta face is a big issue in Japanese culture) for them in their later years why not give it to them even if it is a different government.

Someone should look up to see if any of the ones responsible for the policy is still alive and make them face it.

I don't know if there is a time limit on war crimes.

[Tonio]

I think the value of the apology is determined by the victims, not by random internet posters.

[Pat (PM)]

I think the value of the apology is determined by the victims, not by random internet posters.

Okay, great, they can assign whatever value to it they feel like, but they aren't entitled to an apology from someone who didn't commit any offense. Want in one hand, shit in the other, and all that.

[gaoxiaen]

Just kill Hirohito's descendants and be done with it.

[Monty Crisco]

Now, THAT would be doing something!!! (Who gets the land that the imperial palace sits on? )

[CatoTheChipper]

"The current prime minister claimed less than ten years ago that the Japanese military had never coerced these women."

Japanese politicians also make official, or at least semi-official, visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates the despicable human beings who perpetrated these crimes, including a number of Class A war criminals.

There's no need for the current generation of politicians to be contrite for the crimes of their grandparents. Japanese politicians should quit commemorating war criminals and acknowledge unambiguously that the crimes were both real and evil. But they have not.

[gaijin]

Though I agree with the 'accountability of the perpetrators' statement, the article seems to imply this is mostly about money.

While most see the accord as a great step forward, many of the 46 surviving women - now in their 80s and 90s - criticised the agreement. Some are unhappy that Japan appears to have avoided offering formal compensation to the women, insisting that the money will be to set up a support fund rather being viewed as a financial apology. Former 'comfort woman' Lee Yong-su, 88, said she would ignore the agreement because Tokyo didn't consider the money to be formal compensation. 'Isn't it natural to make legal compensation if they commit a crime?' she said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

[Hamster of Doom]

They were kept as sex slaves for the government. Compensation for duties performed seems to be in order, at the very minimum. Do you have a serious argument as to why people forced to perform work for an entity should go without compensation?

[gaijin]

Do you have a serious argument as to why people forced to perform work for an entity should go without compensation?

Were they fed? Clothed? I am not discounting the argument about compensation, just suggesting that among all with grievances worth airing for wartime atrocities, those who lived to tell their story have subordinated claims on compensation from all but the individuals who forced them to perform services. 'Entities' being held accountable usually means individual tax payers who had nothing to do with the original crime.

[Hamster of Doom]

Were they fed? Clothed?

You know, I didn't get any further.

Whatever is wrong with you, it is serious. That is fucking disgusting.

[gaijin]

Sorry you feel that way. You brought up compensation. You seem to think there is only one form. There were a great many who died of starvation and exposure brought about by the war. As horrible as their circumstances were, it was not as bad as death.

[Just say Nikki]

As horrible as their circumstances were, it was not as bad as death.

This is just disgusting.

[gaijin]

Sorry you feel that way.

[Tonio]

This is the only reply which your post merits, or will receive. Get help now.

[OneOut]

Yeah they were just asking for it probably, right gaijn

They were probably wearing short skirts and swishing while they walked and stuff.

You know they really wanted it, didn't they gaijin ?

[Just say Nikki]

among all with grievances worth airing for wartime atrocities, those who lived to tell their story have subordinated claims on compensation from all but the individuals who forced them to perform services

What grievances worth airing are not the grievances of people who lived to tell their story? Are there other claims that are not so subordinated?

Awfully convenient that if a government just denies involvement for long enough, poof, it no longer has to compensate you for enslavement. Just hide behind some taxpayers, who are totally not responsible ever for what their government does!

[gaijin]

Just hide behind some taxpayers, who are totally not responsible ever for what their government does!

Yes, totally disgusting. Children trying to avoid responsibility for shit their parents did before they were even born.

[Just say Nikki]

Children who protected their parents from justice for decades trying to avoid responsibility for shit their parents did before they were even born and might have paid for if those children had had any morals.

FTFY

Shinzo Abe's maternal grandfather was prime minister of Japan and a member of Tojo's cabinet during the war. His paternal grandfather was in Japan's House of Representatives before and during WWII. His father was in the postwar government and later served as foreign minister. Instead of publicly repudiating these people for their role in Japan's crimes and later coverups, he continued the coverup himself, for decades. Again: fuck that guy.

[gaijin]

I can see your point. I also want to apologize to those I have offended with my comments in this thread. I thought I was exploring the question of collective versus individual responsibility in my comments and replies. I see now on re-reading that my comments certainly could lead a reasonable person to conclude that I am without empathy, compassion or concern for people who have suffered injustice.

[Just say Nikki]

Got it, gaijin. I get where you were coming from but in this case I believe there are plenty of people still around with very dirty hands.

[JW]

This thread has been very helpful as to identify certain posters here who are beyond contemptible and not worth a second of my time beyond mocking their sloped and furrowed brows.

Look, guys, we get it. You aren't very bright. In fact, you might actually be sociopaths. You don't understand why people who were stolen, imprisoned and raped should be owed anything. It shows that you don't understand very much of anything of any value and think you're being clever by waving your hands about insignificant facts.

Have a nice life. Preferably one far, far away from civilization.

[Pat (PM)]

You don't understand why people who were stolen, imprisoned and raped should be owed anything.

And you don't understand why people who didn't steal, imprison or rape anyone are not responsible for those who did. You want to punish innocent people for crimes committed by entirely different people before they were born. I'm not sure if that's sociopathic, but it sure is fucked up.

[JW]

You and your crippled morality lobe aren't worth my time, pissboy.

Off to the filter with you. Buh-bye.

[Pat (PM)]

Great strategy when you have no argument and can't even explain your own twisted morality where culpability for war crimes is generational. You should have employed it before you started.

It would be hilarious as fuck if a mobster shows up on your doorstep and beats you with a baseball bat for your grandfather's gambling debts from the 40's. I wonder if you'd be sharp enough to notice the irony.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

This all sounds like a great argument against the state's existence, not against the state compensating those it harmed. Yes, the state is funded by tax money. When the state commits a gross injustice, it must pay its victims, just as a private citizen should. That means taxpayers are on the hook. The problem with this situation is with the state, not the little girls who were abducted and raped. For fuck's sake.

[Pat (PM)]

This all sounds like a great argument against the state's existence, not against the state compensating those it harmed.

The state that caused the harm no longer exists. The United States of America (which, I guess it must be noted henceforth, is not to be confused with the Confederate States of America) blew it to smithereens, occupied it, replaced it, and set the terms for its existence going forward. Unfortunately, addressing this particular atrocity (among the myriad others that occurred in the same time frame) was not part of those terms. If any of the perpetrators can be found and proved guilty, they should be punished to the fullest extent possible. But the collective people of Japan in 2015, as represented by their government, should not bear responsibility for that.

FWIW, most states have a statute of limitation on rape, the longest of which is 30 years. Perhaps we as Americans are more barbaric than the people of Japan.

[Warty]

Yeah, dude. You're scum. Fuck off.

[Just say Nikki]

I'm supposed to think she is wrong for wanting actual restitution?

[gaijin]

No. But are the children of war criminals supposed to pay for crimes their parents committed before they were born?

[Swiss Servator]

So the key for any claim against any government is to simply run the clock out?

[gaijin]

It does present a bit of a moral conundrum doesn't it? I am not pretending to have 'the' answer.

[Illocust]

Yes it is. If my father raped you then died in the escape you aren't allowed to make me serve the prison sentence in his place. Children are not guilty for the sins of their fathers.

[Just say Nikki]

What if your father raped me and you spend 40 years hiding him from the cops until he was dead?

[Pat (PM)]

What if your father raped me and you spend 40 years hiding him from the cops until he was dead?

Refusing to acknowledge the crimes of your dead ancestors is not the same as abetting them. Analogies are hard.

[Just say Nikki]

Refusing to acknowledge the crimes of your dead ancestors is not the same as abetting them. Analogies are hard.

If you are part of the state, it's exactly the same as abetting them.

[Pat (PM)]

If you are part of the state, it's exactly the same as abetting them.

Right, I forgot the generational guilt exclusion for government workers.

[Illocust]

You can punish me for hiding a fugitive, but you still can't make me serve his prison sentence for rape. Also my crimes would be against the state and the police trying to capture him not you.

[Just say Nikki]

Also my crimes would be against the state and the police trying to capture him not you.

Your moral crime would be against me, as far as I am concerned. What do I care for the state? I wanted your father dead, and you protected him. Fair game.

[JW]

Children are not guilty for the sins of their fathers.

Gubmints can reproduce?

I know I cant be the only one here who feels like he's taking crazy pills.

What. The. Fuck. is wrong with you people?

[Pat (PM)]

Gubmints can reproduce?

Corporations aren't people, amirite?

You realize that the modern government of Japan is descended from the occupation and reconstruction under MacArthur, right?

[Illocust]

When all members of the government have been replaced (and in Japan's case a whole restructuring went down), it's silly to say its the same government. Obama isn't responsible for the invasion of Iraq even though he would have probably done the same thing in Bush's shoes.

[Just say Nikki]

When all members of the government have been replaced (and in Japan's case a whole restructuring went down), it's silly to say its the same government.

Read more history.

[JW]

it's silly to say its the same government.

Governments aren't people. They don't have rights. They don't have the same limitations as people. The people running the government, aren't the government. It's an entity. Do you grok?

Stalling with denials over established facts, until every guilty person is dead, doesn't rewrite history and doesn't absolve the state from it's culpability.

[Pat (PM)]

Governments aren't people. They don't have rights. They don't have the same limitations as people. The people running the government, aren't the government. It's an entity. Do you grok?

Even if we ascribe your supernatural qualities to governments, they are not perpetual and it's still not the same state. The Confederate States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are not the United States of American and the Russian Federation either.

[Monty Crisco]

Swiss, you have to admit, that for many problems in life, running out the clock DOES work...

[Swiss Servator]

There are certain financial institutions in the CH that have tried this too...

[Old Man With Candy]

Estates owe debts.

[Illocust]

Estates owe debts, but they do not owe prison sentences.

[Old Man With Candy]

Non-sequitur much?

[Pat (PM)]

Estates owe debts.

Only for the debts incurred by the owner of the estate.

[Old Man With Candy]

Wow, that is remarkably stupid. If you inherit the assets of an estate, you inherit its debts- and in this case, specifically the debts incurred by the predecessors.

[Pat (PM)]

If you inherit the assets of an estate, you inherit its debts

No, not really. You just don't understand how estate law works. The estate owns the debt and assets. You might not inherit anything from the estate because the creditors have a pre-existing claim on its assets, but the debt does not become yours. For example, if your parents die with a 2 million dollar outstanding loan out against assets of 500,000 dollars, the bank can't come lien *your* house to make up the difference - they can only collect against assets of the estate. That's not your debt.

[Pat (PM)]

Also, a 3 second trip to Google to make sure you're not cramming your foot in your mouth would be well worth your time before you call somebody else "remarkably stupid", asshole.

[GamerFromJump]

Did you just invoke the "you benefited, so you're culpable" argument?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"The Chicago police officer charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald will appear in court this morning; he's expected to enter a plea."

Why bother?

[sarcasmic]

Got to put on a show for the peasants before he speaks the magical incantation "I feared for my life" and is then rehired with back pay, given a promotion, and awarded several medals.

[WTF]

I don't know, there is a lot of unrest in Chicago right now, so tiny dancer might feel compelled to throw someone to the mob.

[Just say Nikki]

Another someone.

[sarcasmic]

After the cops who murdered that twelve year old kid got off, any hope of murderous police officers seeing justice evaporated.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Look, who are you going to believe: A hero police officer, or your lying eyes? Cop hater.

[Hyperbolical (wadair)]

Gallup's poll seems more of a name recognition survey.

[gaijin]

this completely...Clinton got a total of '13% mentioned'

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Rational Male: Snakes & Ladders

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

If the author is not going to divulge the '48 Laws of Power' then there's really no point in reading this trash.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"48 Laws of Power" is a book Robert Greene (a different author) wrote. Buy it on Amazon.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

No, I will not.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Yes, you will. I command it.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Yes, you will. I command it.

[Lee G]

Third time's the charm

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

You probably should have read the book harder.

[OneOut]

I am loling out loud.

[Citizen X]

Come on, you should know from your PUA studies that no one is ever gonna succumb to your commands unless you're wearing a stupid hat.

[gaoxiaen]

Furry top hats are not stupid.

[Citizen X]

"It's called 'peacockin'.'"

[greasonable]

A list of the rules at least

[Monty Crisco]

The sum of it seems to be: Be a selfish, manipulative little weasel. Great rules to live by...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Dalrock: She only acted crazy to get her own way.
...Finally I inquired, "When I first came out here I thought you were having an emotional meltdown. How did you get control of yourself so fast?"

With a grin she answered, "It was no meltdown. Do you see these three broken saucers I smashed?" I nodded. "I have no cups for them. The cups have broken over the years. I had three saucers to spare. I'm glad you sat down before I had to break any more!"...

[Warty]

How's Suki doing, loser?

[Swiss Servator]

I thought Suki was dead? Or shitting on some city or building or another such...no, wait, that was Sandi.

[Citizen X]

Thanks for bringing up Suki, dick. I'd forgotten about that obnoxious bit of shitassery and life was going pretty well.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

What this country needs is common sense police control.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

I saw the new Star Wars movie yesterday, it was great.

[Lee G]

Darth Emo was so dreamy.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

It's the new world. The man has to be a goofy emo so the woman can be the one with the real power.

[Lee G]

I have no problem with a woman being more powerful. It's the overdone Mary Sue plot device that's annoying.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

It is as the force wills it. As it has always been, so shall it always be.

*shrug*

[Mickey Rat]

I had a problem with two newbies being competent with a lightsaber against a trained dark sider without even being shown much more than how to turn it on, if that.

Luke at least had some training before facing Vader, and even then his mentors did not think it was adequate.

[BearOdinson]

You have hit upon my single greatest complaint about TFA. I am willing to give Abrams some slack for the unoriginality, based on what Lucas did with the prequels. Of course it depends on what they do with VIII and IX. But, Ren couldn't exactly be that strong with the force if a stormtrooper, with no sensitivity to the force (as far as we know) could fight him for awhile, and Rey could beat him.

And all of that AFTER Ren showed he could stop a blaster bolt in midair (which was kind of stupid).

[Juvenile Bluster]

Darth Emo is exactly what Anakin should have been in the prequel movies (that didn't actually exist).

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

I saw it yesterday too. JJ Abrams will never take my money again. I should have learned my lesson after Star Trek: Into Darkness, but I was a fool.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

You liked it that much, eh?

[Rhywun]

You didn't learn your lesson after Star Trek 2009?!

[BearOdinson]

I kind of liked his first Star Trek. Other than he needs to take a basic fucking astronomy course. But, i was kind of disappointed with STID. I mean, the Klingon empire (not to mention the Romulan empire a century before) are a formidable military force. Shouldn't the Federation have a force capable of defending itself?

[OneOut]

Has anyone seen Interstellar yet ?

Other than me I mean.

While not a nerdy type scifi it was to me an amazing movie.

[Lord Humungus]

Sikh man is hit by a truck and beaten by two men in Fresno hate crime

The 68-year-old man, who has a long gray and white beard and was wearing a turban, was attacked as he crossed the street before 7 a.m. Saturday while waiting for a ride to work, police say.

According to police, the incident began while the man was waiting on the sidewalk for a ride to work. As he waited, two white men pulled up in a truck and began hurling curse words at him, authorities said.

Fearing for his safety, the man began to cross the street when the truck began to pull away, police said. But once the man entered the road, the truck went into reverse and ran him down, its rear bumper hitting him, officials said. The truck's two occupants then jumped out and punched the Sikh man in the face and body, police said. One of the men said to the man, "Why are you here," according to police. The pair then jumped back into the truck and sped off, police said.

[Illocust]

I want to believe it because old guys are less likely to make stories like this up than the young, but two white men in a pick up truck just happening to do this in California, seems way to good to be true.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I was Some Puerto Rican Guy

[mikey]

Fresno.

[Lord Humungus]

Great Hillary jacket pic:

Somewhere in Juarez, a taxi is missing its seat covers

[Slammer]

Based in San Francisco, Kashmir Company's mission is to preserve the traditional craftsmanship of the Kashmir region of India through their unique shawls and scarves.

Cultural appropriation!!11!!!!

[gaoxiaen]

Needs a few skulls or something.

[Lee G]

"Why are you here,"

Existentialist assault

[Swiss Servator]

Nice.

[Lord Humungus]

A year of Taliban gains shows that 'we haven't delivered,' top Afghan official says

As the Afghan convoy entered the battered village, Taliban fighters opened fire. U.S.-trained Afghan policemen poured out of their Humvees and began wildly shooting their AK-47 rifles in every direction.

"The enemy is firing one bullet, and you are responding with dozens!" their commander, Col. Khalil Jawad, screamed into his radio in frustration. "Aim, then fire!"

A minute later, the militants melted away. On this day in early December in the southern province of Helmand, they had delivered their message: The Taliban is back, its fighters showing a battle discipline and initiative far superior to the Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the United States.

[Pat (PM)]

There's no sugarcoating it, our strategy in Afghanistan may not be completely effective.

[WTF]

Our strategy should have been a punitive expedition.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The Bush strategy was basically that. The light-bringer decided we needed a surge there to...

Waste a lot of american lives?

Seemed to be the only conceivable outcome of that decision.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Why have we been sending American police officers to Afghanistan to work as police officers there?

[Free Society]

I think they've proven themselves to be combat ready and highly skilled as an occupation force, with a willingness to kill potentially innocent people, far surpassing regular military units in this regard.

[AlmightyJB]

Maybe they have a dog problem

[gaoxiaen]

I don't know why, but I wish that they'd stay there until they retire.

[Swiss Servator]

Oh fer fuq's sake....Some Talib fail in an ambush - the cops mag empty and the Talib have scooted - this is a show of power by the Talib? Cripes - if they are all that mighty, they would have whacked the cops and taken the place. Nice reporting.

[Lord Humungus]

#NotMyAbuela: Hillary Clinton offends some with 'grandma' pitch to Latinos

The pitch was not nuanced.

"It's no secret that Hillary is loving her role as grandma," the page said, noting recent news that daughter Chelsea Clinton is expecting another child. "And she was thrilled to learn that next summer, her granddaughter Charlotte will have a sibling to play with. She's always happy to talk about her 'beautiful, perfect' granddaughter, she's an eager volunteer for babysitting duty, and whenever she travels around the country, she makes sure to bring back a gift for Charlotte ? sound familiar?"

The page then went on to list seven ways Clinton was like "your abuela." Among them: "She isn't afraid to talk about the importance of el respeto [respect] (especially when it comes to women)"; "She reads to you before bedtime"; and, in a response to her main rival's anti-immigrant rhetoric, "She had one word for Donald Trump ? Basta! Enough!"

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Not so offended that they won't vote for her, however.

[OneOut]

"Free Market Socialist $park?|12.29.15 @ 9:26AM|#

Not so offended that they won't vote for her, however."

Maybe some but not all it looks like. .

http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/min.....ald-trump/

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

The campaign advisors need to recalibrate the authenticity and relatability programs on Hill-bot.

[Rhywun]

#barf

[CatoTheChipper]

Serious question: Do the Clintons use a focus group to select the names for their grandchildren?

[Lord Humungus]

Man trying to time travel plows car into Florida businesses, police say

Three businesses are moving to new offices after a car attempting to time travel drove through two of them, police said.

A Dodge Challenger plowed through Advanced Tax Services, taking out a wall connecting to Pensacola Caskets. Both offices have been closed since the crash.

"It looked like a bomb went off," said general manager Emanuel Mores.

Mores said office chairs and debris were scattered everywhere.

On Monday, contractors boarded up the businesses. Mores told WEAR the tax and casket offices were empty when the car smashed through the building.

Police said the driver told them he was trying to "travel through time."

off to kill baby Hitler... again

[Lee G]

A Dodge Challenger plowed through Advanced Tax Services, taking out a wall connecting to Pensacola Caskets. Both offices have been closed since the crash.

Sounds like he was trying to time travel so he could avoid the inevitable death and taxes.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

He forgot to install the Oscillation Overthruster. Or the Flux Capacitor. One of those.

[Swiss Servator]

Out of dilithium crystals, was he?

[BearOdinson]

He needs to use alot more melange.

Or bath salts. It is Florida after all.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

bath salts

Florida Spice.

[Pat (PM)]

Let's see if you bastards can do 90!

[Free Society]

off to kill baby Hitler... again

I've never understood the urge to kill baby Hitler. Why not kill teenage Hitler? Why not kill twenty something Hitler? Or wartime Hitler? Or how about anytime pre-Beer Hall Putsch Hitler? Everyone wants to kill him as a baby, which is kind of fucked up.

[LoneWaco]

he was a man. he had a mustache.

[Monty Crisco]

Well, now that you mentioned it, someone could've killed one of those iterations:

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

Though he opted for simple human decency...

[CatoTheChipper]

You don't have to kill Baby Hitler. You just need to keep Papa Hitler away from Mama Hitler for eight to nine months before the monster was born.

Better yet, keep Papa Wilson away from Mama Wilson for eight to nine months before Baby Woodrow was born.

[Rhywun]

Is it possible that all Florida Men are just misunderstood time travelers?

[Free Society]

Harnessing the power of meth, Florida Men transcend the bounds of space and time.

[Old Man With Candy]

off to kill baby Hitler... again

The FNGs always try to do that. You can't tell them anything, they have to find out for themselves.

[Swiss Servator]

Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/1063/

[GamerFromJump]

Truth be told, "kill Hitler" is an example of the Top Man theory of history. It basically ignores all the factors that made Hitler able to rally Germans behind him, and the centuries of bred-in-the-bone European antisemitism that made a mass extermination attempt easily predictable.

Not to mention, Hitler was parallel to Italy and Japan, not causative OF them.

If it hadn't been Hitler, it would've been someone else.

[Lord Humungus]

The World's Richest People Got Poorer This Year

The richest people on Earth became a bit poorer this year.

The world's 400 wealthiest individuals shed $19 billion in 2015, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Falling commodities prices and signs of a slower-growing China spooked investors around the world leading to the first annual decline for the daily wealth index since its 2012 debut.

"After three great years, 2015 stock markets worry-wiggled sideways," said billionaire Ken Fisher, the founder of Fisher Investments that manages more than $65 billion. "Fears over an oil glut, soft consumer spending and China breaking like a plate and taking commodities with it saw investors take fright."

[Jordan]

All those bubbles are groaning under their own weight. Central bankers remain clueless, of course.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Something something INCOME INEQUALITY HERPADERP something something....

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Yet to Grandpa Gulag Sanders and his ilk their rhetoric about eroding income and wealth doesn't apply here believing instead it's way of making things 'equal' - and that they deserve it because rigged and exploitation or something.

[Lord Humungus]

Islamic State ruling aims to settle who can have sex with female slaves

The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.

[Tonio]

Western feminists are demanding boots on the ground for this, right?

[R C Dean]

They are still working through the intersectionality scores of brown Muslim men v. Christian women. Its a tough one.

[BearOdinson]

Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

What the hell? I paid my fair share!

And I am confused, can a father and son have sex with the same slave? Asking for a friend.

[OneOut]

It' a recrutiment tool

Young Muslim males might just be so sexually repressed that they would consider traveling to ISIS for a little nookie with a real human.

[Lord Humungus]

ISIS Influence on Web Prompts Second Thoughts on First Amendment

Appeals for a tougher response to the Islamic State's online recruiting efforts have, not surprisingly, emerged from the political realm. Donald J. Trump said the government should call on Bill Gates and others to somehow close off dangerous Internet sites, and called First Amendment concerns foolish.

Hillary Clinton said the government should work with host companies to shut jihadist websites and chat rooms. That would be constitutional if voluntary, legal experts say, but not if the government exerted pressure on private firms to cooperate in censorship.

Some security experts called on YouTube to ban videos of lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki, which helped radicalize the attackers in San Bernardino, Calif., and many others.

Recently, though, a few legal scholars, too, have engaged in what others call First Amendment heresy. What does clear and present danger mean when terrorists are provoking violence over the Internet? Should not the government have a way, they ask, to block messages that facilitate terrorist acts?

[AlmightyJB]

Like we're not hacking them already

[Monty Crisco]

Terrorists have no rights to make an argument on the merits!!

[GamerFromJump]

They're providing the valuable service of pointing out who to shoot.

[Lord Humungus]

Pistol Pulled During Penis Pump Beef

According to a police report, the suspect approached a clerk at Viva Video (seen below) last Wednesday night and "attempted to return a sexual device" he had previously purchased at the St. Paul business.

The customer claimed the item--which police identified as a penis pump--did not work as advertised. However, the store clerk declined the return request "because [the pump] had been used," cops noted.

After being rebuffed by the employee, "the suspect pulled out a black handgun and threatened the clerk" before fleeing from the business (without a new penis pump).

[Lee G]

It just wasn't his bag

[sarcasmic]

Oh, behave!

[AlmightyJB]

Did the the clerk say "I bet that gun doesn't work either"?

[Citizen X]

I can't tell if Penis Pump Beef would be a good band name, or not.

[Zeb]

Motorhead tribute band.

[Free Society]

Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people, according to a new Gallup poll?beating out Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama.

Charlatans, human props, race baiters, class warriors, pathological liars and pieces of shit have high standing in these United States.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Let's face it, when those other names were mentioned the vast majority of people said 'Who?'.

[Pat (PM)]

Not to mention the other 5...

[Rhywun]

"Sorry, sir, the water is turned off from 11 to 11."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the epic signalling.

[Akira]

"If some of New York's most iconic hotels can significantly reduce their carbon footprint, anyone can," the mayor said in a statement.

If multi-million dollar businesses can piss away a few hundred thousand on social signaling, anyone can, even poor people! Come on poor people, follow the lead of the Waldorf-Astoria and buy a Prius or something!

[Rhywun]

I suppose wasting his time on nonsense like this is better than his boot stamping on my face again but OMFG he cannot leave office soon enough. He is not well-liked outside his bubble of Chavistas so there's hope.

[Zeb]

And a multi-million dollar business based almost entirely on luxury and conspicuous consumption. I think that luxury hotels might have a bit more wiggle room than poorer New Yorkers.

[R C Dean]

Given their clientele, skimping on anything is probably a very bad idea. The number of rich, spoiled people who will actually personally sacrifice anything at all, even for social signaling, is not great.

[Zeb]

I doubt they will skimp on any service. Probably buy carbon indulgences or plant a tree on the roof or something. Or is that credits?

[Tonio]

"We actually went outside and started commanding the winds, because God had given us authority over the winds, the airways," Lowe said. "And we just began to command this storm not to hit our area. We spoke to the storm and said, 'Go to unpopulated places.' It did exactly what we said to do, because God gave us the authority to do that."

So, practicing Christians, nutjob or true believer? And why?

[Lee G]

I encourage her to stand in the middle of I-10 and try the same thing on 18 wheelers.

[Zeb]

I think the Bible remains silent on the subject of authority over 18 wheelers.

[IndyEleven]

Why can't it be all three?

[Tonio]

Sorry, badly punctuated. It was a question addressed to practicing christians - do you think this woman is a nutjob? If not, then does god regularly bestow this sort of power on people?

[Lee G]

The funny thing about God's Will is that it's rather unpredictable. I am always assured that he has a reason for his decisions though, whether I like them or not.

[Lee G]

But I'm not a practicing Christian, so I guess my answer doesn't count.

[Tonio]

I'm happy to listen to that, but I suspect that the actual practitioners will discount your answer.

[Monty Crisco]

Are there any REAL, practicing Christians besides Eddie commenting here?

[Crusty Juggler]

Are there any REAL, practicing Christians besides Eddie commenting here?

I believe there are plenty. However, unlike Eddie they do not feel the need to inject their religion into everything.

[Crusty Juggler]

And anything.

[Crusty Juggler]

Constantly.

[Crusty Juggler]

In the most annoying way possible.

[OneOut]

You got it Crusty.

And just because someone ask me something on the internet I don't feel obligated to respond and risk a long argument.

I think that Lee G. answered it well enough for me . God answers prayer but it's obligated to give you the answer you want.

[Lee G]

ace_m82, robc (I think)

[Zeb]

Definitely on those two. I think there are plenty of other church on Sunday sort of people of varying levels of devotion too.

[robc]

Im going with "all 3".

CS Lewis had a good piece on this wrt whether prayer can actually affect things. God allows our actions to matter, so why not our prayers too?

That was the Readers Digest version.

[Zeb]

The Lord works in mysterious ways to confound the wise.

[Elspeth Flashman]

this is what seems to be the thing. We don't get what he's doing, we ask for intervention/ relief, but we will take what we get anyway, because we don't understand Him.

on an unrelated note: a friend from HS who I've kept in touch with a bit, and used to live around the corner from me, had her mom pass away. She died of an aggressive throat cancer, which (when diagnosed) had already relocated to her brain. But she decided against treatment and died in about a month. . . . which lead me to go to the funeral home service, (Catholic family) which lead me to ask the question: didn't she sort of "decide" on what god's will was when she opted out of treating this? So it was sort of "yeah, thy will be done" sort of thing, but more "thy will be done, but I don't want to go to the hospital anymore." I'm not trying to be unsympathetic toward the family, but just wonder where that fell in with the Plan.

[Lee G]

She sounds like a Pentecostal. Praying the tornado away isn't far off from snake handling.

[robc]

My current church falls slightly into the pentecostal regime. I could see our pastor praying for the wind to move...from the safety of a shelter.

[Pat (PM)]

I don't think I count as "practicing" since I haven't been in a church in over a decade, but at the church I grew up in, the general consensus would probably be "nutjob". At the church a mile away, probably "true believer". There's a wide array of beliefs within the various Christian denominations on miracles and the power of the holy spirit.

[Lord at War]

A question for practicing homosexuals...

Why do MSM (men sexing males- 2-3% of the population) still comprise more than 30% of all new HIV infections?

We've known how HIV is transmitted for 30 years- are you addicts, or just stupid?

[gaoxiaen]

It was like when I bowled a 220 doing PCP.

[R C Dean]

Were you bowling overhand?

[Citizen X]

Then he ripped the door off of a cop car, ate half of a mattress, and passed out for eleven days.

[Zeb]

My question would be that if God had given people this power, why do tornadoes ever hit populated areas? Are these particular people the only ones with such authority? If so, I'd think they would have a moral duty to travel the world, thwarting as many dangerous wind storms as they can.

[Florida Man]

I remember from my childhood a bible story that anyone can perform miracles if they have even a "mustard seed" worth of faith. I forget which apostle walked on water with Jesus, but even his faith faltered and need to be saved by Jesus. So according to the bible, Christians people can command storms to leave, but having enough faith to do it is extraordinarily rare.

[Zeb]

Well that makes sense. If you want to keep people believing in miracles, you need good reasons why they are so rare and difficult to observe.

[robc]

Peter, which means the rock, so of course he sank.

[IndyEleven]

Because populated areas is where them sodomites live. God's just visiting his judgement on 'em.

[Lee G]

When Pentecostal snake handlers get bit, it was just their time to die.

[BearOdinson]

The Old and New Testaments are filled with teachings and laws about what people should and shouldn't do to be moral. But, even Moses was kept from the Holy Land because he took credit for drawing water from a rock. So I guess this broad has a direct line to a pillar of smoke and a column of fire, and is better than Moses.

BTW: controlling the wind is Thor's job!

[Robert]

Njord begs to differ! (Near the coast, at least.)

[Rhywun]

I would say a little of both but I am not a believer. But I have noticed that when things go their way they are quick to credit you-know-who and when things don't they're kind of silent on the matter.

[Swiss Servator]

That would not be a proper Christian, in my limited, Methodist view. If you think you have God's will and intent figured out - probably best to rethink that. Some simple instructions have been given (love your neighbor as yourself, love God, love your enemies) - it is hard enough to follow those.

If one thinks they can go out and order storms around - go for it. I shan't be surprised at their death.

[Free Society]

ISIS documents seized during a raid show "how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old literature to justify sexual slavery."

Jeebus the multicultists are working overtime to show that Islam is gum-drops and lollypops. By "centuries old literature" do they mean a regular copy of the Koran and maybe some Hadiths? By "reinterpret" do they mean "read exactly what it says"?

Qur'an (33:50) - "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee"

[Tonio]

At least Christians have some wiggle room in the multiple translations. The Koran was written in Arabic, so the only dodge they have is changing meaning of words over time, or that something was meant allegorically. Of course, once you pull the "meant allegorically" dodge it basically means that the document means anything you want it to mean.

[R C Dean]

Once you pull the "meant allegorically" dodge, you are just asking for ululating lunatics to throw molotov cocktails through your windows, in some precincts at least.

[R C Dean]

Forgot the illustrative link:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29915602

[Free Society]

Which also sucks all of the claims of infallibility right out of the room. Reading much of the Koran, or the Bible for that matter, I don't know how some of the very basic proscriptions and commandments about killing children and raping their mothers, could possibly be meant allegorically.

[Ivan Pike]

How to name an animal in German.

[Free Society]

Jawohl.

[AlmightyJB]

Wow, you guys aren't fucking around today are you?

[Sevo]

"Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people, according to a new Gallup poll?beating out Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama."

Fortunately, the field is thin, but still, a criminal who runs an extortion racket and a would-be tin-pot dictator?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Was Trump included on the list?

[Troy muy grande boner]

Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people,

Damn, no wonder this country is so fucked up: an authoritarian and an incompetent empty suit. Hey America, you deserve Donald Trump.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I'm sure, if they did a 'most admired hated people' list, the results would be identical.

[Sevo]

"Laurene Powell Jobs donates $50 million to redesign high school"
[...]
""Communities have the answer," she said."
(but)
" Applicants will have to grapple with how to integrate their redesigned high schools into existing governance structures and legal requirements."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/; squirrels don't like the link

Well, Khan's got a pretty good start already, but it doesn't employ enough (union) teachers, so it seems it's a non-starter; those 'structures and legal requirements'.
And then one of the local 'teams' is promoting hip-hop dance troupes as an alternative...

[Tonio]

Hopefully-working linky.

[Sevo]

Danke, Gracias, Origato, etc.

[Swiss Servator]

What do you think - Zuckerwaste, like Camden?

[Ken Shultz]

"Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama are Americans' most admired people, according to a new Gallup poll"

13% of the American people saying Hillary Clinton is their most admired woman is properly interpreted as her being unpopular.

When asked who the most admired woman is, 87% of the American people picked someone other than Hillary Clinton? Hell, registered Democrats or people who lean Democrat make up more than three times 13% of the American people, and so it's fair to say that an overwhelming majority of Democrats don't even think of Hillary Clinton as the most admirable woman.

You can say the same thing about Obama. When Americans are asked to name the man they admire most, 83% of them choose someone other than Barack Obama? If anything, that makes him seem like the most snubbed man in America.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Do we know how the poll was conducted? I'm wondering whether the participants were provided a list and asked "Who on here do you most admire?" or if they were simply asked, "Who is the person you most admire?" If the latter, I imagine many respondents named a parent, spouse, or fictional character.

[Ken Shultz]

Regardless, the results don't support the headlines.

13% support may be more than anyone else on the list, but since when is 13% of the people in any way indicative of popularity or support.

If 87% of the American people picked someone else, then she didn't win any kind of polling brownie points. She lost miserably--even registered Democrats slighted her.

And that's what the poll said--she "won" because exactly 13% of the American people picked her. That's a joke of a headline--however the poll was conducted.

[Bill Dalasio]

Coercive or controlling" domestic behavior is now a crime in the U.K.

Does that mean the whole British government should consider itself under arrest?

[Swiss Servator]

Right! Shall we nip 'round and arrest ourselves then?

[Notorious UGCC]

"The Chicago police officer charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald will appear in court this morning; he's expected to enter a plea."

It seems that a grand jury indicted him; originally the prosecution filed a Complaint for Preliminary Hearing to bypass the grand jury and have probable cause decided by a judge. Now, as is their right, they shifted to the grand jury procedure.

Any particular reason why this is?

[Rockabilly]

Ah, a socialist vagina war monger and a socialist person of color war monger most admirable war is peace freedom is slavery big bro and sis are watching.

[GamerFromJump]

"how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old literature to justify sexual slavery."

No "reinterpretation" needed. It's right there in plain language (well, "plain", aside from shit about right hand possession and crap).

[Fun at Parties]

Twitter is banning/restricting free speech. Where is the article on that Reason?

http://www.reuters.com/article.....PR20151230

[Fun at Parties]

Twitter is banning/restricting free speech. Where is the article on that Reason?

http://www.reuters.com/article.....PR20151230