Trump Calls Bill Clinton a 'Great Abuser,' Jeb Bush Canceling Ad Buys in Iowa, S.C., Brussels Cancels New Year's Eve Celebrations: A.M. Links

• 

  vainsang/flickr

  Donald Trump called Bill Clinton "one of the great abusers of the world."

• Jeb Bush is canceling ad buys in South Carolina as well as Iowa, and redeploying staff to those and other early states instead.
• A friend of the San Bernardino shooters, Enrique Marquez, has been indicted on charges of allegedly conspiring terrorist attacks with the couple in 2011 and 2012.
• The mayor of Brussels has canceled the city's New Year's Eve celebrations amid fear of a terrorist attack. Other cities across the West are taking extra security precautions.
• Residents of Taiwan prepare for elections as China worries about a presidential candidate with a more skeptical view of Beijing winning.
• A class action lawsuit filed in New York seeks $5 million from Apple for foisting iOS 9 on users of the iPhone 4s.

New at Reason.com:

• Brickbat: A Man's Home By Charles Oliver
• Political Predictions for 2016 Take Judge Andrew Napolitano's quiz about the year ahead. By Judge Andrew Napolitano
• The Season of Peace Requires Action, Not Songs Singing about peace and goodwill while cheering America's warrior state is a repulsive spectacle. By Sheldon Richman
• Movie Reviews: The Big Short and Joy Capitalism and its discontents. By Kurt Loder

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump called Bill Clinton "one of the great abusers of the world."

And went on to heap verbal abuse on him.

[Swiss Servator]

OK, I did laugh.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Finally.

[Swiss Servator]

Don't get cocky, kid.

[Pat (PM)]

Confucius say, man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day.

[Tonio]

I, for one, admire Switzy's stoicism.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

That's not stoicism, that's just his old manness.

[Swiss Servator]

I am only 49!

I just happen to have the disposition of a crotchety, 73 year old, retired drill sergeant.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Sure thing, Old Man River.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

We also know you have a thing for twinks...

twinks = skinny homos = narrow gayz.

[Tonio]

Wow, Bob, that was good...

[Citizen X]

The best part is that Swiss's only applicable response would be completely inappropriate here.

[Crusty Juggler]

It was very good. Now can spend an entire year watching as Swiss desperately tries to keep his catchphrase alive.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I've been sitting on that one for a while; looking for the right opening.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gheys?*

[Tonio]

It's OK, Switzy, I've got your back.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

"...looking for the right opening."

Are we not doing phrasing anymore?

[BigT]

Bill C is a sexual predator.

C = Cosby or Clinton

How could any self respecting feminist vote for the enabler of a sexual predator?

[Tonio]

Because Hillary is a victim, and we have to get a woman in office because...something.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Because it's time.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Seriously the moral question of the century. Plus she made a rape victim cry on the stand.

It's sickening to hear a woman say she 'admires' her.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Never heard about that story until now.

Now having researched it, it's pretty disgusting.

Clinton, as a lawyer, did the right thing in defending the rapist as best she could... but the interview she gave afterward... where she LAUGHS about getting a rapist she knew was guilty off the hook... that is disgusting and vile.

A lawyer should defend those he or she knows are guilty of heinous crimes, but they shouldn't take any joy in it.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

PRECISELY the reason why she's an awful person inside.

[Bill Dalasio]

Oh, no, no, no. Trump meant it as a compliment. As in "Bill Clinton? Oh, he's a great abuser! The greatest abuser in the world. He's making abusing great again. And I'm going to do for America what he's done for abusing!"

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[Monty Crisco]

Hey, Playa ? hope you don' t have any lousy neighbors or frenemies out there in Cali?check it:

http://dailycaller.com/2015/12.....d-weapons/

They can legally take your guns without any due process at all. They just need someone to inform on you!!

I feel like this was MENTIONED previously, but no one has really caught on that it is being implemented?

Also, EXCELLENT article by Charles C.W. Cooke on the concept of self-defense in the west and its fundamental relation to the second amendment. READ AND LEARN, PEOPLE!!!

http://www.nationalreview.com/.....-amendment

[Longtorso, Johnny]

"stereotypical African American first and last names"? Check your own racism MJ:
Mother Jones: Racists Hate the Idea of Paying College Athletes
....To check our findings' validity, we also conducted an experiment. Before we asked white respondents whether college athletes should be paid, we showed one group pictures of young black men with stereotypical African American first and last names....

[Illocust]

Why don't they ever do these stereotypical black ghetto name experiments in comparison to stereotypical red neck names instead of stereotypical all races middle class names? Seriously the black middle class parent is probably going to name their daughter Sarah just like the white and Asian middle class parent. It's only the ghetto and trailer trash parents that name their children Shaniqua and Tiffani.

[Just say Nikki]

There are no "stereotypical all races middle class names" involved in the experiment.

[Bill Dalasio]

Actually, there do tend to be. There was a chapter in Freakanomics that went into it. What you find is that there does tend to be a naming correlation with socioeconomic status. And at the middle-to-upper class level, there really isn't huge differences in racial naming choices. As Illcust suggests, it's at the lower classes you get big discrepancies in naming conventions.

[Lee G]

Sure Tad, whatever you say.

[Just say Nikki]

That's not what I said. I said it wasn't part of the experiment. Try clicking through.

[BearOdinson]

But Illicust asked why don't they do experiments with middle class names. He didn't say this experiment did.
So maybe you should try reading the post you are disputing.

[Just say Nikki]

No, she didn't, Bill. She asked the opposite:

Why don't they ever do these stereotypical black ghetto name experiments in comparison to stereotypical red neck names instead of stereotypical all races middle class names?

[Bill Dalasio]

Emm...speaking of reading, you might want to try reading who replied to you. 😉

[Certified Public Asshat]

A CPA pet peeve: people who butcher the spelling of their kid's name because "it's unique."

Similar pet peeve: people with misspelled names who act offended when normal people can't remember how to awkwardly arrange letters.

[Illocust]

I hate when parents I know give their kids unique names. I wanted to shake my older sister when she gave her daughter a bastardized version of Natalia. Names are the first things interviewers see. Don't start your child on the footing of everyone knowing they aren't from around here.

[Tonio]

Actually, we should be thankful because it allows one to easily screen out the children of hippies, ghetto dwellers and trailer park denizens.

[Lee G]

It makes running a background check a little easier though.

[Monty Crisco]

+1 Barkevious Mingo!!!

[Suell]

+1 Shitavious Cooke

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Natalia is already pretty in itself!

The only adjustment I could see that may work would be Annatalia.

Or Judy.

[ant1sthenes]

Looking into girl's names right now. The ones I really hate are half-assed repurposing of boy's names. You just have to imagine that someone in the pre-ultrasound past picked the name hoping for a boy, then when they saw it was a girl, they shrugged and said "eh, screw it, add an 'a' at the end".

[SRVolunteer]

Stevia?

[Tonio]

Those names are not misspelled, they are spelled exactly as the parents intended. The next step down that road is registries of acceptable names as was recently implemented by one of the scandanavian countries. That's hugely anti-freedom.

I agree that non-normative names are annoying, but I'm not willing to stomp on the freedom of others, including the freedom to be ignorant, just for my own convenience.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

OK, Anferknee.

[Illocust]

Being annoyed at people isn't the same as telling them they can't do something. My sister named her child what she wanted with no care for my opinion on the name.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Seriously. Why do people continue to think that calling someone stupid is the same as saying someone should be banned from doing something? Anybody? Anybody?

[Lee G]

Perhaps it's because the SJWs have beaten into our heads that passing judgement is violence and force.

[Illocust]

In certain crowds it does mean that, but with this crowd, if no government is mentioned, then it doesn't.

[Pat (PM)]

To be fair, you didn't say SLD. It's like "no homo". Even if you think it's superfluous, you still have to put it out there.

[JW]

My sister named her child what she wanted with no care for my opinion on the name.

That selfish bitch.

[ant1sthenes]

I think the intended point was that her having a negative opinion in no way restricted her sister's freedom to make a bad choice.

[Tonio]

Ok, already. "Uncle."

[Pro Libertate]

I suggest a new naming convention: Anagrams.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I used to have a hard time with Anfernee Hardaway. Always made me feel like I was too retarded to pronounce Anthony.

[Citizen X]

Whatever, Roophiss.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Rupiss!

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Just look at the roster of any NFL team.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

I suppose I should stay out of this conversation. Reason, Liberty and Justice are ready for breakfast anyway.

[Certified Public Asshat]

The next step down that road is registries of acceptable names as was recently implemented by one of the scandanavian countries. That's hugely anti-freedom.

How did you know I support this?

And I guess, because I need to: /sarc

[Copernicus would chip]

I named my son Equality 7-2521

[Yusef Adama]

Aren't you retired Neil?

[Bill Dalasio]

As others have noted, no one here is demanding the government get involved. They're saying it's foolish to give your kid a "unique" name. It's been established that such names do tend to disadvantage the kids with those names. Or are you calling for the government to intervene against people who engage in "names discrimination"?

[Tonio]

See above.

[The Last American Hero]

Relax dude, as long as the spelling is materially correct, you should be able to live with it.

[Swiss Servator]

"Oh, really?"

/IRS

[Rich]

materially correct

You mean, like "we cotton to your kind"?

[Bill Dalasio]

Why don't they ever do these stereotypical black ghetto name experiments in comparison to stereotypical red neck names instead of stereotypical all races middle class names?

Actually, it has been done. It was featured in Freakanomics. And your implied hypothesis is absolutely right. You get the exact same results for redneck name.

[Free Society]

CONSENSUS

[Crusty Juggler]

At least there is one agreed upon way to spell Katherine. Or Kathryn. Or Catherine. Or Katheryn. Or Katherin. Or Cathryn. Or Katheryne. Or Katharine.

[Tonio]

Those are all ethnic variants of the same name. Catherine is the normative English spelling. Katerina is normative in other languages. Also, Katrina, etc.

But you raise a good point.

[Lee G]

Wrong. There's only one correct way.

Katarina, followed by Witt

[lafe.long]

Wrong. There's only one correct way.

Karina, followed by Hart

[Krokko]

SHE'S MINE!!!!!!

[Crusty Juggler]

I did know who Karina Hart was, so I looked her up. She calls herself "Big Tit Karina Hart." It is an appropriate nickname.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I've seen 'Katelin' spelled as 'Bruce'.

[IndyEleven]

Something something Raymond Luxury Yacht

[Mindyourbusiness]

Well, you can call me Ray...

[thrakkorzog]

Oh man, that got old after about ten minutes.

[Pat (PM)]

Attack owl returns in Oregon, targeting government workers

An owl that achieved notoriety last winter for attacking joggers in an Oregon park has returned and is now turning its talons on government workers, state officials said on Wednesday.

The barred owl has clawed at least three people outside the state Capitol in Salem in a series of attacks since late November, city parks department spokeswoman Tibby Larson said.

"It's silent. You're just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind," Larson said.

Libertarian Moment?

[Swiss Servator]

"It's silent. You're just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind," Larson said.

Better than STEVE SMITH!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

STEVE SMITH NEVER comes silently BUT ALWAYS at you from behind

[Slammer]

Parliamentarian moment!

[Juvenile Bluster]

That's the solution! We train a squadron of attack owls!

[Swiss Servator]

LIBERTARIAN AIR FORCE!!!!

[Citizen X]

It would appear somebody's already on it.

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

WE HAVE A MASCOT!

Seriously, we need to add this owl to our board's in jokes, pronto.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

More likely to end up a new meme.

Libertarian Owl strikes for great justice!

[Copernicus would chip]

"It's silent. You're just walking along, minding your own business, and an owl comes silently at you from behind," Larson said.

It's a metaphor, Tibby
(Tibby?, This thread needs to be merged with the fucked up names thread above).

[Fist of Etiquette]

A class action lawsuit filed in New York seeks $5 million from Apple for foisting iOS 9 on users of the iPhone 4s.

I hadn't heard the issue. Is it dogging them down?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Guidance to unarmed aviation police: Run and hide
CHICAGO (CNN) ? Hundreds of police officers at one of the country's busiest airports say in the case of an active shooter, they are instructed to run and hide.

That's because these officers are unique among the nation's major airports: They don't carry guns.

Their badges, uniforms and vehicles all say "police." And they are certified police officers in the state of Illinois.

But these nearly 300 aviation police officers, also known as aviation security officers, are not allowed to carry guns at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports....

[The Last American Hero]

Good. If they were armed, consider the chances of one of these A-Holes shooting an innocent person because they brought 3 oz of cough syrup in their carry on vs. the chances that they need to put down a terrorist or crazed gunman.

[Copernicus would chip]

They don't need to carry guns, the airport is a gun-free zone.

[Akira]

And let's not forget Chicago's common-sense gun control laws that have virtually eliminated violence of any kind!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Ohio mother, 32, is sentenced to life in prison for raping her 12-year-old daughter with her live-in boyfriend
Jeannie Mae Carpenter was sentenced to life in prison after she pleaded guilty earlier this month for her involvement in the rape of her daughter
She helped her live-in boyfriend, James John Kirksey, 32, rape her 12-year-old daughter by helping to hold her down
Carpenter will be eligible for parole in 20 years and have to register as a Tier 3 sex offender every 90 days for the rest of her life
Her boyfriend, who was already a registered sex offender prior to the case, was sentenced in November to two life terms in prison

[Monty Crisco]

Well, she definitely DOESN'T get the "Mom of the Year" coffee mug for Christmas!!!

[Lee G]

People suck

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

In-fucking-deed

[Just say Nikki]

Sounds like her boyfriend knew what was best for the two women he lived with, Johnny.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Hey, he got what he wanted. He is an asshole, but you can't say his methods don't work.

[Mickey Rat]

What was the boyfriend's orginal offense? Something small and stupid or something heinous?
Because "sex offender" by itself could mean just about anything.

[Citizen X]

Considering he's a dude who would rape a 12-year-old, heinous wouldn't be a surprise.

[Mickey Rat]

Of course not, but it does make one wonder if he should have been out of prison based on the original offense.

[Citizen X]

True.

[Illocust]

Give her five years off her sentence if she agrees to be sterilized.

[Citizen X]

...with a shotgun.

[Monty Crisco]

No slippery slope there!!!

[ant1sthenes]

I'm pretty sure any prison sentence of a couple of decades counts as de facto sterilization, as long as she's denied conjugal visits.

[Pat (PM)]

Man hypnotized during comedy show breaks a leg, sues Funny Bone

Call it the Funny (broken) Bone.

An Omaha man is suing the Omaha comedy club after he says he broke a leg while under hypnosis during a show put on by comedian-hypnotist Doug Thompson.

William M. Bendorf, 38, filed a lawsuit this month over the March 21, 2014, accident at the Funny Bone Comedy Club, 168th Street and West Dodge Road.[...]

Bendorf's injury came toward the end of Thompson's show at the Funny Bone.

Thompson told Bendorf and others who were hypnotized to exit the stage via stairs on the side.

Still in a trance, according to the lawsuit, Bendorf spotted his empty seat, walked straight toward it and fell off the stage.

He snapped out of his trance when his lower leg snapped near the knee ? an injury that required surgery.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

He snapped out of his trance when his lower leg snapped near the knee

My slaves stay under. Piker.

[Illocust]

He failed to comply with the order given. Thompson told him to use the stairs and he didn't. Therefore not liable.

[Rich]

Indeed. Perhaps he was faking "being under"? Perhaps he was drunk?

[Copernicus would chip]

It will be pretty cool if the comedian's defense is that his act is all bullshit.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jeb Bush is canceling ad buys in South Carolina as well as Iowa...

They weren't shouting his name loud enough.

[Swiss Servator]

Another phenomenal Shriek prediction shrivels up.

[Tejicano]

I suppose that's what she said too.

[Citizen X]

Nah, shreek has never been with a woman.

[Princess Trigger]

His appeal is becoming more selective.

[The Last American Hero]

Maybe he's going with the Guilani strategy.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

OK, you win. I'm embracing The Trump.
Trump: 'I Know Words, I Have The Best Words' ? Obama Is 'Stupid' [VIDEO]
..."It is the level of stupidity that is incredible. I'm telling you, I used to use the word incompetent," Trump explained. "Now I just call them stupid. I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words. I have the best, but there is no better word than stupid. Right? There is none, there is none. There's no, there's no, there's no word like that."

[Irish ?s ESB]

His words are vastly superior to my words, that is for damn sure

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

He's 'very highly' educated as opposed to just highly educated.

They're all morons.

[Rich]

Verily, "very" I say unto thee ?.

[Pat (PM)]

Florida mother shoots daughter she thought was intruder

(CNN)A woman in St. Cloud, Florida, woke up just before midnight Tuesday and fired a shot at a person she thought had broken into her home.

But the person wasn't an intruder; it was her 27-year-old daughter.

The woman fired one round, but police didn't say where the bullet hit the daughter. She died at a hospital.

The shooting appears to be accidental, police said. An investigation is ongoing.

[Monty Crisco]

Training, people. Get it. And now the anti-gunners will make hay...

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Training, people. Get it.

One round kill shot. Sounds well trained to me.

[Monty Crisco]

Oh, you SCAMP!!!

[Florida Man]

woman's husband is a former undercover narcotics officer with the St. Cloud Police Department.

I found the problem. If you think you are protected from prosecution why check your target?

[Mr Lizard]

It's about time you showed up, here's another

http://www.tbo.com/news/florid.....-20151228/

[Florida Man]

I heard about that.

[Citizen X]

...while paying her bail and picking her up from the police station?

[Florida Man]

The upfront cost (bail and legal fees) of starting a Florida woman harem are high, but the maintence cost (meth and vodka) are cheap.

[Citizen X]

It seems to me that bail and legal fees would be an ongoing expenditure.

[Chip the Chipper]

Millions are trained to drive, but no one is trying to take away cars every time someone gets killed behind the wheel.

[Copernicus would chip]

"The shooting appears to be accidental"

Actually, it appears to be the definition of intentional.

[Pat (PM)]

911 dispatcher demoted for holding calls to play video games

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Authorities in Florida said a 911 dispatcher was demoted for playing video games when he should have been dispatching calls.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Communication Officer Charles Morris, 52, was reprimanded and demoted, losing his title of communications training officer and the related duties, after an internal affairs investigation found he played handheld video games when he should have been dispatching 911 calls in October.

The investigation found Morris left a hit-and-run caller on hold for 40 minutes in one incident and he delayed a call to report a shooting for nine minutes on another occasion. He was playing handheld video games during both delays, investigators said.

[Drake]

I fucking hate it when the phone rings while I'm halfway through a big battle.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Especially those ones that go on for 20 minutes and if you make one small mistake you die and have to start aaalllllll over again.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Wait you're talking about the game and not the phone call, right?

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Of course.

[coloraDOOM]

What you did there, we all saw it.

[Copernicus would chip]

Demoted? He still has a job with the Sheriff's Office? He's not in prison?

[amelia]

Inspires a lot of confidence about the ethical standards of the guardians of our safety, right?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

The public thinks the average company makes a 36% profit margin, which is about 5X too high
I find this totally fascinating, though not completely unexpected. When a random sample of American adults were asked the question "Just a rough guess, what percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average company makes after taxes?" for the Reason-Rupe poll in May 2013, the average response was 36%! That response was very close to historical results from the polling organization ORC's polls for a slightly different, but related question: What percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average manufacturer makes after taxes? Responses to that question in 9 different polls between 1971 and 1987 ranged from 28% to 37% and averaged 31.6%.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

How do the public's estimates of corporate profit margins compare to reality? Not surprisingly they are off by a huge margin. According to this Yahoo!Finance database for 212 different industries, the average profit margin for the most recent quarter was 7.5% and the median profit margin was 6.5% (see chart above). Interestingly, there wasn't a single industry out of 212 that had a profit margin as high as 36% in the most recent quarter. The industry "REIT-Diversified" had the highest profit margin at 33.5% followed by just one other industry ? Wireless Communications at 30.9% ? with a profit margin higher than 30%.

"Big Oil" companies (Major Integrated Oil and Gas) make a lot of profits, right? Well, that industry had a below-average profit margin of 5.1% in the most recent quarter. And evil Walmart only made a 3.1% profit margin in the most recent quarter (as I reported recently), which is less than half of the almost 7% average government take on retails sales in the form of state and local sales taxes. Think about it ? for every $100 in sales for Walmart, the state/local governments get an average of $6.88 in sales taxes (and as much $9.44 in Tennessee and $9.16 in Arizona, see data here), while Walmart gets only $3.10 in profits!...

[Pat (PM)]

These are the same people who think 28% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid and 23% of the population is gay, so color me shocked.

[Illocust]

At least the gay thing makes sense. With the way homosexuals tend to cluster if you know one gay person you probably know a lot, which gives the illusion it's more common than it is. Same reason people who were raped actually believe that one in four women are raped. Everyone in their support group was raped so it has to be common right?

[Tonio]

Depends on where you live, Illy. Those clusters of gays have historically tended to occur in larger towns and cities. Rural homos tend to be closeted or to move to places where there are support networks and anonymity.

[Citizen X]

The Rural Homos would be a good name for a band.

[Swiss Servator]

Death Metal-Bluegrass fusion band??

[Crusty Juggler]

Is this another Cosmokeltarian inside joke?

[Pat (PM)]

Rural homos are no joke, man.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

You know those guys with both overalls straps buttoned who actually wear shirts that are tucked in? Rural homos.

[DenverJ]

If you are wearing overalls, how the hell can your shirt. not be tucked in?

[thrakkorzog]

Next you're going to tell me that there are some chaps out there that aren't assless.

[Copernicus would chip]

We already have the Dixie Chicks

[Monty Crisco]

10% of our JERBS are TUCK by ILLEGAL ALIENS!!!!

[Illocust]

Big Oil spends its money compensating its people so they won't fuck up the million dollar an hour well, so people see employee profit and assume it must translate to company wide profit.

[Tejicano]

I once took a job with a niche manufacturing company which showed before tax profits on most of its products of between 25% and 40%. I figured that, as they had a solid chunk of the global market - and held no debt - that was a crazy level of profit for an industrial company. I guess the average duffus wouldn't know the difference between this and most other companies.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

There are some companies that can do that. I run on 10-12% because of debt loads but I can increase it to 20% down once debt clears and prices increase.

Not surprised about the findings though. I think SME's get pushed around a lot precisely because people think we're a cash cow. You'd be surprised how many bureaucrats think this too with the added feature of 'someone will replace' a business that closed thanks to their meddling. Never mind the unseen losses when something like that happens. And then there's the shameless faux-populist politician who knows this to be false but still exploits the ignorance of people by claiming they will crack down on 'rich enterprises'.

But, it's nice that organizations like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Canadians Federation of Independent Business exist because they fight battles we can't possibly fight on our own - and making inroads.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Think about it ? for every $100 in sales for Walmart, the state/local governments get an average of $6.88 in sales taxes

What most people don't comprehend as well is that everytime money exchanges hands in a legal transaction, the government is getting their vig. When you earned that $100 to spend at Wal-mart, the government took something around $25 from your employer just to be able to give it to you.

[Lee G]

People are generally stupid. An acquaintance who works at a bank figured out that overdraft charges pay for the top three executives' salaries. And they had a customer who would overdraft her checking every 2 weeks to buy a $4.75 coffee on her debit card mere hours before her paycheck deposited, making it a $32.75 coffee. Every.... two.... weeks....

[Akira]

I knew a guy who deliberately overdrafted his account (usually buying Taco Bell when he had food at home) all the time under the belief that the overdraft charge was "not that bad".

Seeing things like this is just one of many reasons that I detest this fixation on "income inequality". It doesn't take into account the fact that some people are just going to be shit-stupid with their money no matter how much of it is given to them. Some people just have no concept of spending their money in ways that will pay off (going to college, buying an AFFORDABLE house) so taxing "the rich" to compensate these people for some made-up injustice is nothing more than pitching money off a bridge.

[Tonio]

"the government is getting their vig"

Oh, a new word. Thanks, Bob.

[Swiss Servator]

Now I know Tonio does not illegally gamble on sports 🙂

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

They don't see that bashing corporations like Wal-Mart (setting aside the argument of whether they pay their 'fair share' or not) provide nice cash flow for government to pay for their 'free-shit'.

[GILMORE?]

REITs arent taxed at the company level

http://www.investopedia.com/ar.....it-tax.asp

[CatoTheChipper]

They also tend to own a lot of real estate that has a very small book value compared to its market value.

If the real estate were sold, the purchaser's financing cost and depreciation expense would gobble up much of the larger-than-normal margin.

[Suthenboy]

What the public doesnt commonly know is that if companies did make those kinds of profits we wouldn't have eleventy thousand trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities.

[Lee G]

I'm not surprised by this at all. Most people believe there are vast stores of money out there that is just being denied to them. Everybody else has got it great and they're getting the shaft.

[Certified Public Asshat]

The Koch brothers literally have stacks of cash just laying around that they walk past on a daily basis.

[Pat (PM)]

They don't keep it all in gold coins and swim in it like Scrooge McDuck? Can't even get good evil tycoons anymore...

[Citizen X]

They tried that once and it did not go well. Turns out diving headfirst into a pile of gold is a good way to break your neck. There used to be three Koch brothers, you know.

[Lee G]

The third one is permanently buried at the bottom of the pile, or so I heard.

[Citizen X]

RIP, Fernando Koch.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Fernando? I thought it was Seamus.

[Citizen X]

Seamus is their cousin. He owns a dealership.

[Swiss Servator]

Can you hear the coins Fernando?
I remember long ago another starry night like this
In the firelight Fernando
You were humming to yourself and softly counting your lucre
I could hear the distant IRS
And sounds of audit calls were coming from afar

They were closer now Fernando
Every hour every minute seemed to last eternally
I was so afraid Fernando
We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die
And I'm not ashamed to say
The roar of gold and silver almost made me cry

[LoneWaco]

it was Frank Koch. all less talented brothers are named Frank. Frank James, Frank Capone, Frank Stallone...

[BearOdinson]

There is no fucking way Frank Stallone is less talented than Sly. At least Frank can sing!

[Citizen X]

And their mom can tell fortunes by looking at buttcracks. They are a talented family.

[Copernicus would chip]

Lots of people who work in retail are aware that a typical markup is around 100%, ie., The Gap buys a shirt for $15 and lists it for $30. They are far less aware that there are other expenses involved in running a business.

[Pat (PM)]

Asylum-seekers in Sweden fear refugee shelter is haunted

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Thirty-five asylum-seekers have asked to be relocated from a refugee housing facility in southern Sweden because they believe it's haunted by ghosts, officials said Wednesday.

The asylum-seekers were spooked by flickering lights and noise in the plumbing system at the facility in Grannaforsa, a small village in Smaland province, said Magnus Petersson, a local manager at the Swedish Migration Agency.

Petersson said 35 of the 58 people living in the shelter came to the agency's office in the nearby town of Alvesta on Tuesday, demanding to be relocated. They reluctantly returned to the shelter at the end of the day after being told there were no ghosts - and no alternative housing available - Petersson said.

"I know that in their faith there is a different view on spirituality," he said. "We were responsive to them but somewhere you have to use your common sense and believe in science."

[Swiss Servator]

The asylum-seekers were spooked by flickering lights and noise in the plumbing system

They sure it just wasn't because of a bad batch of gravad lax?

[Suthenboy]

"...somewhere you have to use your common sense and believe in science."

If they were capable of rational thought they wouldn't have this problem in the first place, and by 'they' I mean the Swedes.

[Tonio]

But you do raise a good point. Perhaps rather than public protests, anti-immigrant folks should start gaslighting the immigrants and spreading rumors about ghosts, hyperborean monsters, unlabelled pork in foods, etc.

[Just say Nikki]

a small village in Smaland province

They're lodging them at IKEA daycare?

[Citizen X]

+1 order of meatballs with extra lingonberry jam

[Swiss Servator]

WAIT A MINUTE!!!! I think you have solved the whole problem - asylum seekers to IKEA!

Stay in the daycare, eat in the cafeteria, plenty of furniture and furnishings too!

[Pro Libertate]

I agree with this plan. And you can fit thousands more into an IKEA without noticing.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

More tales about the refugees in Europe last night. One person asked 'are you guys absolutely sure there are 25 000 refugees?' and he gave a look of skepticism. Then he answered, 'they're not.'

Then came the heartening part. Nothing but admiration for Jews and their brilliance. They see now the productivity and contribution of the Jews. My cousins in France always told me they admired them and when they moved to Paris modeled their approach to business like the Jews. The Muslims, on the other hand, do not come to work. They come - and even demand - for free services. In this manner, they are not Jews and are being enabled by the European welfare state. In Italy, they do not give out free income anymore which is why so many push on North.

So I was told.

[Reactionary Moment]

He is right. But people in Europe are waking up to the Islamist invasion and will rise up against the elites selling them out

[kbolino]

But people in Europe are waking up to the Islamist invasion and will rise up against the elites selling them out will elect new elites to sell them out in new ways

They didn't get where they are by chance...

[Reactionary Moment]

Most of the elities in Europe are not elected. The EU has grown and expanded its powers without any democratic decision by the people. Anti EU is growing, UKIP, Front National and other Euroskeptic anti Islam parties are growing.

[Reactionary Moment]

Most of the elites in Europe are not elected. The EU has grown and expanded its powers without any democratic decision by the people. Anti EU is growing, UKIP, Front National and other Euroskeptic anti Islam parties are growing.

[kbolino]

Most of the elites in Europe are not elected.

This is where people like you go off the rails. There may certainly be a big turnaround in European politics coming. But to say that the situation as it exists isn't the result of democratic elections is absurd. There are no sovereign absolute monarchs left in Europe, and haven't been for quite some time. The last fascist dictator died in the 1970s. The EU was formed by the elected governments of its member states. All of the treaties that give it authority had to be ratified by the national governments.

The idea that there is this suppressed voice of the majority of people just hoping to break through smacks of "third way" bullshit.

[Free Society]

But to say that the situation as it exists isn't the result of democratic elections is absurd.

It's like saying pre-17th amendment Senators had no link to democratic elections or that the POTUS election is not the result of a democratic election because technically it's delegates that elect the POTUS. Not that "democracy" makes for a better decision making process anyways. There's very good reason to think that it's worse than most of the alternatives including (small) absolute monarchies.

[kbolino]

Indeed, the EU is the product of democracy, even if it is not a particularly democratic institution itself (which is itself a proposition that I question--I know it has a parliament). Now maybe the point is it has calcified into a de facto undemocratic international (which doesn't mean global) government. I don't see that being the case. It has quite a bit of power, to be sure, but the biggest developments have all happened within this generation, and to my knowledge the national governments can throw out the treaties that give it such power any time they want (albeit not without some side effects).

As I said, maybe the attitudes of the majority of Europeans (or at least the majority in some countries) will change drastically. But I doubt it; I stand by my original point that "they didn't get where they are by chance".

[Reactionary Moment]

"Not that "democracy" makes for a better decision making process anyways. There's very good reason to think that it's worse than most of the alternatives including (small) absolute monarchies."

I agree with you on this

[ant1sthenes]

What, did they see mysterious figures in white sheets hanging around?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...China worries about a presidential candidate with a more skeptical view of Beijing winning.

Yeah, he's right, Beijing won't even make the playoffs this year.

[Copernicus would chip]

There's a chink in his grammar

/preemptive narrowing of my own gaze

[Pat (PM)]

LCD Soundsystem Will Headline Coachella 2016

This is happening: LCD Soundsystem have been confirmed to headline next year's Coachella Music Festival in California according to the New York Times. Rumors have been swirling about the quintessential New York electronic pop stalwarts putting the old band back together for about a year or so ? it's been five years since their last album and full tour ? but things hit a fever pitch when LCD Soundsystem released a melancholically beautiful holiday song, "Christmas Will Break Your Heart," a week ago.

According to the Times, LCD Soundsystem are confirmed for Coachella, though the band's reps declined to comment. They'll be joined by the similarly reunited act Guns N' Roses at the festival.

[Citizen X]

Daft Punk is playing at my house, at my house.

[BearOdinson]

I don't get any of this type of "music". Though I did like Daft Punk's TRON:Legacy soundtrack.

[Citizen X]

I'll just be getting off your lawn, then?

[BearOdinson]

Damn kids with all their new-fangled gadgets! Why back in my day........

Seriously though I love new music (metal, even soundtracks). Just don't get all the synth pop, electronica, hip hop shit.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Paper: Scientists Still Can't Explain The 'Grand Hiatus' In Global Warming
Scientists are not only having trouble explaining why global surface temperatures did not warm for 15 years in the 21st century, they still have not adequately explained why there was an even longer 30-year "grand hiatus" in global warming during the mid-20th century.

"The climate models making dire predictions of warming in the 21st century are the same models that predicted too much warming in the early 21st century, and can't explain the warming from 1910-1945 or the mid-century grand hiatus," Dr. Judith Curry writes in a Wednesday op-ed published in The Financial Post.

The so-called "grand hiatus" was a period from 1945 to 1975 where the world stopped warming, and even cooled slightly, despite carbon dioxide emissions rapidly rising. Scientists have thus far been unable to explain why there was no warming even though global warming theory predicts there would have been warming....

[Longtorso, Johnny]

New peer reviewed paper shows only 36% of geoscientists and engineers believe in AGW
Don't look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.

The survey results show geoscientists and engineers hold similar views as meteorologists. Two recent surveys of meteorologists (summarized here and here) revealed similar skepticism of alarmist global warming claims.

According to the newly published survey of geoscientists and engineers, merely 36 percent of respondents fit the "Comply with Kyoto" model. The scientists in this group "express the strong belief that climate change is happening, that it is not a normal cycle of nature, and humans are the main or central cause."...

[Illocust]

No duh on engineers. Spend some time working with a complex system and realize that we can't even solve the most complex version of flow dynamics equations and the idea that we can model the entire planet predictably starts to look a little silly.

[Tejicano]

As any real engineer can tell you: the more complex a model is, the less precise the result is. So if you have a large number of inputs, each with their own range of tolerances (the difference between measured data and actual) those differences snowball through the calculation. The result has to be much bigger than the tolerance buildup to have any relevance.

Most AGW results are so small that I cannot see how the input measurements could be precise enough.

[Lee G]

They can't be precise enough. Particularly since most of the data is decades old and suspect.

[SFC B]

And the stuff that is decades old is the most accurately measured and recorded. A ton of the data used in the models is derived from tree rings world wide and ice cores from the poles.

[The Last American Hero]

You don't need an engineering degree to know that. Anybody with a bit of critical thinking skills should be able to figure that out.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"the more complex a model is, the less precise the result is."

A variation of Occam' Razor, no?

[Anomalous]

To quote the late statistician G.E.P. Box, "all models are wrong, but some are useful."

[amelia]

I think most people just don't understand the vast differences between scientific predictions based on mathematical models of events that are in the future versus actual findings based on permanent products like, say, the fossil record. It's why someone can in all honesty ask why a person who is skeptical of catastrophic AGW believes in evolution. It's all the same to them.

[Tonio]

"Those 'engineers' aren't scientists, and they're all in the pocket of big oil." /green

[amelia]

Is it too much to hope that the paradigm of catastrophic AGW will be dismantled in the next 10 years? 20 years? How long before the average person who currently accepts the paradigm will start to notice that the predictions consistently fail?

Or, will people just start to make up stories about how the 2015 Paris agreement (or maybe some subsequent agreement) was actually effective and that's why the world hasn't come to an end?

[Pat (PM)]

They don't have to explain it, they "adjusted" it away.

[Tonio]

^This.

[BearOdinson]

I stayed at the Grand Hiatus once. Fabulous decor, but the thermostat kept getting stuck.

[Copernicus would chip]

Was anyone there able to explain why?

[Suthenboy]

The balance of the evidence convinces me that the theory of AGW is nonsense.

[Pat (PM)]

George Lucas Says He Sold 'Star Wars' to 'White Slavers'

While Disney has to be pleased with the way its $4 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm is turning out, thanks to the galactic success of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the man who created the "Star Wars" universe doesn't feel the same way.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, George Lucas spoke about everything from his and Disney's branching vision to the deal itself. Lucas, who has always been protective of his series and even refers to them as his "kids," hasn't been looking back well on the deal with Disney (via Collider).

"I sold them to the white slavers that takes these things, and?," Lucas said before laughing and deciding it better not to finish.

[Steve G]

Fuck off, ..Mickey ?

[Lee G]

Lucas is a twat

[Crusty Juggler]

He looks like something, and I have not yet determined what it is that he looks like, but whatever it is what he looks like already makes me laugh.

Shouldn't he be swimming in his pool of gold doubloons and saying things like "I think JJ did a great job!"

[Free Society]

He looks like a frog or a pelican or some kind of animal that can store a month's worth of food in it's gullet.

Shouldn't he be swimming in his pool of gold doubloons and saying things like "I think JJ did a great job!"

He should be, but he's got an inflated sense of his own talent and is upset that JJ didn't fuck up the movie like he would have fucked it up.

[BearOdinson]

I realize he was sort of joking. But 4 fucking BILLION dollars. And that is in addition to all the profits he made leading up to that.
Of course, if he truly had any movie making skills, he could turn some of that cash into a new project. Imagine what a competent, never mind great, director could do with that kind of cash.

[The Last American Hero]

They would make a clusterfuck of a project, like the Star Wars Prequels.

[GILMORE?]

I think if film #1 nets Disney 2bn at the top line he'll be right to suspect he sold low.

Problem with the deal was lack of comparable franchise multiples.

[Free Society]

Lucas would have fucked up his kids beyond all recognition if allowed to carry them further. There's good reason to believe that the original trilogy was only as good as it was because there was another parent on set doing great work. That other parent by the way, was not around for Return of the Jedi so the whole Ewok Super Soldier thing can't be blamed on him, only George Lucas. It's for the best that he put his kids up for adoption. George Lucas ran out of talent long long ago.

[BearOdinson]

This. If he truly was a good "story teller" he would realize what a fuck up the prequels were and should be happy that the crew in charge now are doing a much better job (albeit with several notable weaknesses). And like I wrote above, imagine what a truly gifted film maker could do with that kind of cash. He wouldn't be beholden to big studios, get whatever actors he wanted (or go out and find new talent), invest in new tech and fx, try a new distribution scheme. I mean the sky's the limit.
Of course, Lucas brought us Jar Jar, and wrote an entire 2 hour sci fi movie based primarily on a trade dispute between the peace loving socialists (good guys) and the capitalists trade federation(bad guys).

[Free Society]

Lest we forget that "deregulating the banks" is what ushered in a period of Galactic Sith Tyranny. As though any society could become a Type II civilization with an understanding of economics that shallow.

[Mickey Rat]

It cost Disney a few billion to get those kids away from their abusive father. What he did to I, II & III was unconscionable.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I love how these assholes who make a killing making a lousy fucken movie suddenly get moralistic about money.

Jesus can they be anymore shallow intellectually?

Charlie Rose serves a good function in that we usually find out just how derpy his guests can be.

[Akira]

I came to realize that George Lucas was a moron when I saw what they did to the original trilogy.

I watched the original Star Wars (1977) the other day, and they had made a bunch of stupid CGI edits. For example, at the scene where Luke and Obi-Wan enter the cantina, there is a stormtrooper dismounting from some kind of transport animal. It's obviously edited in. What does that add? What was the purpose? If anything, it just looks wonky and out of place because the entire movie was produced with 1977's technology.

You have to be an idiot to fiddle around with a movie that is (or was) already considered to be one of the greatest of all time. So I don't want to hear George Lucas whimpering about what some other company did to his "children".

[Steve G]

Taiwan having erections?

[Pat (PM)]

Ian Murdock, father of Debian, dead at 42

Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution project, has died at the age of 42. His death, announced in a blog post by Docker CEO Ben Golub, came after an apparent encounter with police and a statement posted on Murdock's Twitter feed that he was going to commit suicide, though no cause of his death has been given.[...]

On Monday at 2:13 PM Eastern Time, Murdock apparently posted that he was going to kill himself:

I'm committing suicide tonight?do not intervene as I have many stories to tell and do not want them to die with me #debian #runnerkrysty67

Also on Monday, Murdock wrote a string of posts that indicate he had a confrontation with police. Inquiries to the San Francisco Police Department by Ars went unanswered. Update: Public records indicate Murdock was arrested on December 27, and released on bail by the San Francisco County Sheriff's Department, but no details were available on the charges.

[BearOdinson]

So let him commit suicide so his stories DON'T die?

I don't think he understands how that works.

[Pat (PM)]

I'm not entirely clear on that one either. Obviously something wasn't quite right upstairs. Very sad.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

He's a Linux programmer so that's kind of a given.

[Pat (PM)]

This Day in History

1879 - Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.

1938 - The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.

1946 - President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1961 - The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1963 - Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved.

1964 - The al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their first terrorist raid on Israel.

1987 - Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.

[BearOdinson]

1964 when the PLO started the effort to liberate the West Bank and Gaza from the illegal occupiers.

Who of course, at this point were JORDAN and EGYPT.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...allegedly conspiring terrorist attacks with the couple in 2011 and 2012.

They pulled off attacks back then? It wasn't Benghazi, was it?

[Steve G]

WDATPDOIM

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

What is the O?

WDATPDIM

[Steve G]

FIIK

[Fist of Etiquette]

The mayor of Brussels has canceled the city's New Year's Eve celebrations amid fear of a terrorist attack.

Should old acquaintance shelter in place?

[Swiss Servator]

*polite applause*

[Swiss Servator]

Should auld acquaintance duck and cover,
And never brought in range?
Should auld acquaintance be sheltered in place,
And days o' lang hide!

For auld lang hide, my dear
For auld lang hide,
We'll tak a cup o' cowering yet
For auld lang hide!

[Slammer]

*new years gaze*

[Swiss Servator]

Thanks, Slammer!

*whistles, walks off with spring in step*

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

I've heard of Irish Spring, but never Swiss Spring.

[Citizen X]

It smells like chocolate and efficiency.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I get credit for inspiring this.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

New Year's Surprise: Obama Regulation To Give Work-Permits To Foreign College-Graduates

Up to 34 MILLION blank 'green cards' and work permits to be ordered ahead of Obama illegal immigrant 'amnesty'

[Mazakon]

Iceland to built first temple to the Norse Gods in 1000 years

Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction starting this month on the island's first major temple to the Norse gods since the Viking age.

Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christianity around 1,000 years ago but a modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in Iceland.

"I don't believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet," said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of 'Asatruarfelagid', an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods.

"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology."

[Swiss Servator]

"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology."

= we see a fantastic opportunity to separate tourists from some of their money.

[BearOdinson]

We are back baby!!

[Tonio]

"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology."

If only the clergy of other religions could be so honest.

[Mickey Rat]

Are they bringing back the animal and human sacrifices too?

[ant1sthenes]

Maybe they'll drink wine and eat wafers as a poetic metaphor for human sacrifice instead. And eat BBQ ribs as a poetic metaphor for animal sacrifice.

[Just say Nikki]

A "certain kind of Democrat" loves Trump:

He is strongest among Republicans who are less affluent, less educated and less likely to turn out to vote. His very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registered as Democrats. It's a coalition that's concentrated in the South, Appalachia and the industrial North, according to data provided to The Upshot by Civis Analytics, a Democratic data firm.

[Warty]

So people who are insecure, ignorant, and hostile love him. But we already knew that from his supporters here, didn't we?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Not a supporter (I'm merely hostile), but sneering dismissal of a wide chunk of the public just feeds the Trumps of the world. Not sure if the feeling of smug superiority is worth it.

[Citizen X]

Not sure if the feeling of smug superiority is worth it.

Maybe not, but it does keep me warm at night.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

+1 Wolverine

[JW]

sneering dismissal

You'd think they'd be used to that, by now.

[Warty]

I love this whine from you Trumpites. "I'm voting for Trump because you meanies are mean!" Sure you are, big guy. Sure you are.

[JW]

They'll show you, you fucking smug booge! They'll destroy what's left of the country!

[Pro Libertate]

Trump is a celebrity clown with absolutely no interest in limited government. He serves the dual purpose of selling media impressions, due to his fame and willingness to play shock candidate, and of providing the media with the scary GOP bogeyman they search for each election. The latter is as much the reason for the media frenzy as the former.

I am appalled that conservatives, let alone libertarians, would even consider voting for him. In fact, I highly suspect that he's going to get clobbered once voting starts. Still, I find it highly concerning that his poll numbers seem to be driving a number of GOP supporters to actively defend the idiot, because, rah, rah, team.

[Reactionary Moment]

put your money where your mouth is then. Conventional wisdom has had Trump fading away for months, but he keep getting stronger and stronger. he is picking up more and more support from all parts of the political spectrum. I have some cash on him on Betfair and other UK betting sites and current odds still offer value.

[Pro Libertate]

Thanks, but the government costs me enough money without adding gambling to the mix.

[Tonio]

I'm not seeing the sneering part, at least not in the quote above. And I know all about sneering from all the socons here.

[Citizen X]

It's sneering all the way down.

[Swiss Servator]

"insecure, ignorant, and hostile" is a bit sneer-y, ne?

I try (and sometimes fail) not to sneer at entire groups of people who have never been exposed to information to understand liberty and its threats from people like the TEAMS, 99.9999% of politicians and such.

The anger and frustration is aimed at the wrong targets most of the time - ie, they hate the Messican that took their jerb - but don't see how the statists have distorted and corrupted the labor market to where getting Jose from the Home Depot parking lot is worth it, rather than hire on Joe from Stickney.

I wish there was a way to reach folks like this - God knows, we could use numbers on the side of Team "Fuck off, slaver". Reagan managed a bit, through optimism and touching on everyone's experience with the G....but now we get Trump or Sanders.

Shit...now I want to start drinking....

[GILMORE?]

"".I wish there was a way to reach folks like this""

Beyond spitting-distance?

[Warty]

Oh yes, it's a sneer. You say people who have never been exposed to information, I say people who are stupid on purpose. Nothing's stopping them from reading something. Anything.

[Citizen X]

CEPT THAT BOOKS ARE 4 FAGS

[Warty]

YOU'RE A FAG XEONES

[Citizen X]

UR MOMS A FAG

WAT NOW COLIG BOY [peels out in truck]

[BearOdinson]

Never had much use for none of that fancy book learnin

[Free Society]

- but don't see how the statists have distorted and corrupted the labor market to where getting Jose from the Home Depot parking lot is worth it,

On the other side of the coin, people (often here) don't see how the statists have distorted and corrupted the labor market to where Jose is able to underbid domestic labor because he is only able migrate 2,000 miles in the first place for a minimum wage job in place with high living costs because his household takes in about 250k per year in welfare benefits.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

because his household takes in about 250k per year in welfare benefits.

citation required

[Pat (PM)]

Depends on the state, but the total value of welfare benefits can be as high as $40k, and that doesn't include things like education and incarceration that are sometimes included in "total cost" analyses for immigration.

And, yes Virginia, immigrant households do use welfare.

[kbolino]

because his household takes in about 250k per year in welfare benefits.

Taking the oft-quoted figure of 11,000,000 illegals, assuming that is only adults and halving to get from individuals to households, if each household collected $250,000 per year, that would be almost $1.4 trillion for all of them. Now, granted, that is possible, but not very likely.

I'm going to guess that this figure was obtained by extrapolating from "worst-case" situations and being loose with definitions: household has more than 2 adult members; household members, so defined, are engaged in fraudulent collection of benefits, as well as delinquent on payments; etc. Which may accurately reflect a certain subset of the illegal population, but I'd like to see the numbers and how they were collected.

[Free Society]

Sorry I got two figures mixed up. It costs over 250k per household per year to resettle ME refugees in the US and that cost continues at that pace for the first 5 years. (over 60 times more expensive than to afford that same refugee a similar quality of life somewhere else in the Middle East)

The average non-refugee immigrant household hits the 250k mark after about 8 years, even if we aren't including many local welfare programs or Medicaid or the welfare usage of "children" after they move out of mom and dad's home. Subsidized housing is probably the biggest federal welfare benefit to immigrants.

[Free Society]

http://www.heritage.org/resear.....-taxpayers

[kbolino]

The average non-refugee immigrant household hits the 250k mark after about 8 years

The closest I can find to a substantiation of this claim, which is in the Heritage reference and not the CIS one, is:

In FY 2004, the average low skill immigrant household received $30,160 in direct benefits, means-tested benefits, education, and population-based services from all levels of government.

I do not see any substantiation of $250,000 per annum. If you are saying ~$250,000 total over 8 years because 30 ? 8 = 240, then you are applying a mathematical transformation to the number based upon certain unproven assumptions about the underlying distribution and how it changes (or, rather, doesn't).

Multiplying the annual average rate by the number of years does not produce the average cumulative amount over that time period except in very narrow circumstances. That number is like my back-of-the-envelope calculation above, a potentially illustrative but ultimately unsubstantiated number. If you are making a claim about facts, stick to what you can prove.

[kbolino]

It is also worth noting that the Heritage study has the "low-skilled" qualifier while you used "non-refugee". While the former is a subset of the latter (at least, as far as I can tell; I'm sure there are low-skilled refugees), they are not the same population. Moreover, I would like to see how the composition of both groups changes over time.

[Free Society]

I do not see any substantiation of $250,000 per annum. If you are saying ~$250,000 total over 8 years because 30 ? 8 = 240, then you are applying a mathematical transformation to the number based upon certain unproven assumptions about the underlying distribution and how it changes (or, rather, doesn't).

It's actually 8.2XXX years that I multiplied by. That 30k per year figure pertains to low-skilled immigrants, that are generally not Europeans, Japanese, Koreans or Chinese. That did indeed come from the Heritage study, I hyperlinked the wrong link in that particular case.

As to how long that welfare usage persists, that's to be found in this link comparing native vs immigrant households which shows that; yes it's higher among newly arrived immigrants, but low skilled immigrants particularly persist in their usage even after a decade or more in the country. Even immigrants that have been in country longer than 21 years and have no children, use welfare at much higher rates than the native born. http://cis.org/Welfare-Use-Imm.....Households (see figure 6)

This video here, is easy to digest and it just lays out various statistics from the CIS studies with info-graphics and better context than I can provide. Sources in the description. I already combed through these pdfs and published studies a whole bunch today and just don't have it in me to spend the rest of the day on this. Cheers.

[kbolino]

Don't insult me, FS. I read the studies. $250k/annum and $250k over 8 years are both unsubstantiated.

[Free Society]

Don't insult me, FS. I read the studies. $250k/annum and $250k over 8 years are both unsubstantiated.

It's actually 8.2XXX years that I multiplied by. That 30k per year figure pertains to low-skilled immigrants, that are generally not Europeans, Japanese, Koreans or Chinese. That did indeed come from the Heritage study, I hyperlinked the wrong link in that particular case.

[Free Society]

Don't insult me, FS. I read the studies. $250k/annum and $250k over 8 years are both unsubstantiated.

First off, I already admitted and apologized that I had originally confused the per annum cost of regular migrants and that of per annum cost of settling ME refugees. (That's where I got the 250k figure, actually closer to about 254 but I rounded down to an even 250)

Then I added as a corollary, that for regular migrants it takes them about 8 times longer to reach that 250k amount. And I told you that figure came from the Heritage link. It's actually about 247.7k, but I rounded up to an even 250k.

As for the the validity of the saying that $30,000ish per year would persist onward for 8 years, I cited Figure 6 in the CIS link-(Native v Immigrant welfare) which shows that even after two decades, when presumably the immigrant's children have grown up and they're no longer being counted in that household, their welfare usage hardly drops off at all. In fact, in the bracket showing immigrants in the country for between 5 and 10 years, they actually use slightly more welfare than the ones who have been here less than 5 years, presumably because they now qualify for more programs and have more children than they did in the first few years here. Thus it did not seem at all unreasonable to extrapolate a roughly 250k average for 8 years (actually something like 8.2-8.3 years but I rounded down to an even 8).

[Francisco d'Anconia]

So, and this is to all of you, assuming your numbers are correct, immigrants are coming here to collect welfare (root cause)...

...why is the solution to spend even more money to build a wall (both literally and figuratively) to keep out the undesirable coloreds, rather than spending less money by reforming welfare and allowing labor to enter and exit the country based on the demand?

[Free Society]

So, and this is to all of you, assuming your numbers are correct, immigrants are coming here to collect welfare (root cause)...

No they're coming for a better life. The welfare just lowers the bar on who is actually able to make the cut and gives them certain unnatural advantages at the direct expense of the k-selected native inhabitants.

...why is the solution to spend even more money to build a wall (both literally and figuratively) to keep out the undesirable coloreds, rather than spending less money by reforming welfare and allowing labor to enter and exit the country based on the demand?

I've never proposed building a wall. And I'm all for reforming the welfare state and allowing labor to enter and exit based on demand. But so long as the welfare state is what it currently is, labor will not simply enter and exit based on demand.

The entire concept of supply and demand is grossly distorted here because of the aforementioned welfare state. Having a welfare state like we have gives a person some good reasons to support immigration restrictions. Absent the welfare state and absent the public accommodation laws, there is no good argument for immigration restrictions to grow out of public policy as opposed to naturally occurring social forces.

There should always be immigration restrictions but ideally it should not be up to public policy, it should be left up to undistorted (by the state) human interaction.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Yes, why don't people here ever complain about welfare and its distortionary effects? DAMN COSMOS!

[Free Society]

Well if you act like we're in some vacuum where all immigration is a net benefit to the economy without considering the distortions and incentive structures created by government policy, then yes, people might think you're wearing ideological blinders.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

"People" meaning you, FS? You're the one claiming that posters here "don't see" how welfare distorts the labor market.

That's fucking bonkers.

[Free Society]

I didn't say posters here, I wasn't that general. I have always said it's the ones advocating open borders even in the presence of hugely distorting welfare programs and government policies. I even made that distinction clear in the very post you are responding to.

[Monty Crisco]

Well, he's a widely-despised loudmouth narcissistic blowhard that likes nothing better than the sound of his own voice and despite what he says he believes politically the truth is that he doesn't believe in anything but himself. He flies around in his big jet with his logo prominently on the side hobnobbing with his rich, fatcat New York donors and - let's just come out and say it- despite his obvious gift for self-promotion he's just not very bright or intellectually curious. And the thought of that ego-maniac sitting behind the desk of the President of the United States of America just fills people with shame.

But enough about Barack Obama, let's talk about Donald Trump!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RW4R3N8Ju8

[Rhywun]

Don't you go dragging me into this.

/New York

[Free Society]

Check out those Bill Whittle interviews on the Stefan Molyneux show. Good stuff.

[GILMORE?]

YOU TELL EM WARTY

[SIV]

"Republicans registered as Democrats" is a thing in closed primary states where all the local races are on the D-ballot.

[Just say Nikki]

That's not the kind of people they're talking about here. They're talking about folks in, e.g., West Virginia, who used to be D and never bothered formally changing their registration.

[Tonio]

Remember that WV is coal country and that the democrats have long been the champions of unions. However, those folks are also avid hunters and the gun-grabbing tendencies of the democrats are a major turn-off. So these folks remain registered as D for social/union reasons.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Also, like here in KY, a lot of Ds at the local level are nothing like the Ds on the national level.

Brett Guthrie is our local guy, in a district that probably voted 70% repub for president.

[Copernicus would chip]

Remember that D's are also recent champions of destroying the coal industry.

[Swiss Servator]

In my county it is the reverse - if you ain't registered TEAM RED, do not even bother showing up on primary day.

At least I will get to vote for Rand Paul.

[Tonio]

You must live in MD. VA is an open primary state; you don't register party affiliation and any registered voter can vote in any primary election. The R's always have a primary, but the D's have caucuses here.

[Swiss Servator]

IL - I am west, just out of range, of Nikki.

[Tonio]

Crap, I thought you were in the DC area. Having a drink with you is on my bucket list.

[Swiss Servator]

If you make it to Chicago - shout out.

[Tonio]

Will. Seriously.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

What is the maximum effective range of 'the worst'?

I don't believe you (or any of us) are outside her range.

[Florida Man]

Where I graduated high school they passed out voter registration forms in government class and walked us through filling it out. Then they told us all to mark democrat because all the local elections where D bs D. I marked republican just because FYTW. I didn't know what a libertarian was at the time.

[Free Society]

Never in my life did someone try to register me to vote that wasn't a Democrat activist in some form. They target the apathetic and politically unconscious because that road to hell isn't going to pave itself.

[Crusty Juggler]

A lot of people have disenfranchised, or feel like they have been disenfranchised, so it is natural that they would support an outsider who they perceive as speaking for them. Unfortunately that person is Donald Trump, who is going to garner a decent amount of votes just for saying mean things to Hillary Clinton.

[Tonio]

^This.

[Free Society]

Donald Trump's greatest asset is that he is not any of the Democrat candidates nor any of the sellout Republicans. Only Rand Paul and Ted Cruise seem to have any redeeming qualities and I have my doubts that either one of them would live up the unspoken promise not to bend over and pull their cheeks apart every time a Democrat demands compromise even when the Democrat is in the minority of both houses.

[Francisco d'Anconia]

DT's greatest asset (for DT) is that he's an ignorant, loudmouthed, bigoted moron, running for office in a party full of ignorant, loudmouthed, bigoted morons.

[kbolino]

But enough about Barack Obama.

[kbolino]

Ah, I see Monty Crisco beat me to the joke upthread. Seriously, Trump may well be all of those things, but that's the political climate we live in. This is the predictable (and lamentable!) result of the Obama years. We libertarians (at least, those who didn't jump on Obama or Trump's bandwagons) are bystanders in other people's fights.

[Free Society]

We're bystanders, all the way down. It's become clear, given the roster of candidates, that I won't be voting in the general election. That said, I hope Hilary doesn't win. Trump isn't a good candidate, but he's less awful than Hilary or Bernie.

[Lord Rollingpin]

' just for saying mean things to Hillary Clinton.'
just telling the truth about dear Hillary will garner a decent amount of votes.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Societal Stockholm Syndrome
...Whistleblower Merit Wager revealed on her blog that administrators at the Immigration Service had all been ordered to "accept the claim that an applicant is a child, if he does not look as if he is over 40."...

...The Syrian reportedly also spit her in face and said, "I'm going to f--k you, little Swedish girl." The men, who lived at the same asylum house, denied knowing each other when questioned by the police....

[Illocust]

"accept the claim that an applicant is a child, if he does not look as if he is over 40."

I both do and don't see the logic of this. My little brother has been passing for over 21 since he grew a beard at 16. My college friends thought he was 18 when he was 14 and sans beard. So yes, folks can look way older than they are. I on the other hand am 25 and get carded regularly. So the opposite is also true.

It seems like they need to set up a way to determine age.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

It seems like they need to set up a way to determine age.

Pubes.

[Illocust]

Child here is apparently everyone under 18.

[Tonio]

"Pubes."

Apparently they shave those in the ME, both sexes.

[Pat (PM)]

This is the kind of barbarism we're up against, people!

[Copernicus would chip]

Cut a cross section, count the rings?

[Lord Rollingpin]

Treebeard has a sad.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Bro, I'm in my 40s and still get carded. Mostly in the USA though. No one bothers me here or when I'm in Europe. They see the aging. The somber, macabre aging. The slow whither of a once dynamic-ish individual...aging...

Bah.

[Rhywun]

Some retailers here get hit by undercover agents looking to entrap, so they just card everyone because who wants to lose their job or go to jail. I'm 46 and I still get carded at big chain stores.

[Free Society]

Some retailers here get hit by undercover agents looking to entrap, so they just card everyone because who wants to lose their job or go to jail. I'm 46 and I still get carded at big chain stores.

And they specifically recruit young officers that look substantially older than they really are to facilitate these entrapments. That's not exactly the spirit of the law, but cops care not for the purpose of the law, just the letter of the law and then only insofar as it allows them to take power over people's lives.

[Rhywun]

And they specifically recruit young officers that look substantially older than they really are to facilitate these entrapments.

Of course. I got busted once working for a large supermarket, by an in-house enforcer. Luckily I just got a "talking to".

[Idle Hands]

my brothers friend used to do this in high-school for the local gov. he would go and report who and who didn't card him for alcohol and cigarettes.

[SFC B]

I would have beaten the ever-living shit out of an acquaintence who did that. It would have been worth the assault charge (because if he'll do that I know he's pressing charges for getting a well-deserved beating).

[kbolino]

Fuck yes. I carded a 70-year-old woman while I was working at CVS (before they stopped selling tobacco products). She gave me lip. I was polite and apologetic but fuck you, I'm not getting fired and/or going to jail because you're in a hurry. Call your damn legislator.

[Free Society]

In Europe I wasn't getting carded at age 14. At that same age I would walk down the street drinking a beer and not get fucked with by cops. There is stark difference between the US and European alcohol laws, namely that Europe let's drinkers wear their big boy pants.

[Rhywun]

Yep. When I was 16 in Germany it was perfectly normal to grab a couple beers after school.

[Free Society]

My college German teacher told us that after her (equivalent of) middle school graduation, the school itself set up a beer garden on the playground so these 13 and 14 year olds could celebrate the end of the school year with a few brews.

[Lord Rollingpin]

'I on the other hand am 25 and get carded regularly.'
Well grow a beard, I mean how hard is that.

[Tonio]

A friend of the San Bernardino shooters, Enrique Marquez, has been indicted on charges of allegedly conspiring terrorist attacks with the couple in 2011 and 2012.

Well, they found someone to charge and he's sorta white* . I have a tough time believing that the grandmother wasn't in on that but she'd be a far more sympathetic defendant, particularly since she (presumably) has custody of the shooters' child.

(*)I'm not invested in labelling him, or in delving into what separates a white latino from any other sort, but for purposes of the narrative they seem to have what they wanted.

[Just say Nikki]

FWIW, the thing that separates a "white latino" from any other sort is that he's not a "black latino" or an "asian latino." That's all "white hispanic" ever meant.

I haven't heard anything definitive about the custody of the baby but I would be shocked if it will be raised by anyone in that family. The state is going to take it for good.

[Drake]

"White" Latino just means he's one we shouldn't like. Owning guns or not registering Democrat, for instance, can make a Latino white.

[Just say Nikki]

One of us is talking about reality.

[BearOdinson]

Bullshit. Until George Zimmerman, the news media never referred to someone as a "white Hispanic". I don't care what idiotic categories the Census bureau or some Marxist professor tries to create. That term was never in general use until the left wanted to push a narrative.

[Warty]

You had never heard the phrase until you had heard the phrase?

[Monty Crisco]

IS he wrong, Wartster? Had YOU heard that classification before the Z case?

[Warty]

Sure. Hadn't you?

[Monty Crisco]

well..... no.

[Just say Nikki]

It was in general use among market and demographic researchers long before the country ever heard of George Zimmerman. Go read a Pew survey.

[BearOdinson]

Are you intentionally being obtuse? The news media didn't refer to suspects as white Hispanics prior to Zimmerman. What market researchers do to aggregate different parts of the population has absolutely nothing to do with this.

[Free Society]

general use among market and demographic researchers

He says "not in general use" and you respond with "yeah huh, it was in general use for this one professional group", which sort of means that it's not "general use".

[Just say Nikki]

How do you think mainstream journalists report on those findings? Or how do you think mainstream journalists report on FBI crime statistics? He's absolutely wrong that "the news media never referred" to people that way.

[Free Society]

How do you think mainstream journalists report on those findings? Or how do you think mainstream journalists report on FBI crime statistics? He's absolutely wrong that "the news media never referred" to people that way.

I'm sure there's nothing that the news media hasn't said when we consider the fact that they directly quote people. But no, when it comes to editorializing or crafting a narrative it has not been a common term nor is it in general use in the public at large, which is why the media hadn't used it to any notable extent until they wanted the Trayvon abortion to fit a narrative.

[Just say Nikki]

Go search some news archives from before 2012. It is well-attested in crime reporting.

[Tonio]

That is not common discourse, Nikki, that was part of a specific technical vocabulary.

[Free Society]

Yeah I'd never heard of the term "white hispanic" being used outside of a government document or college application until George Zimmerman shot a baby.

[Tonio]

I agree with Drake, at least in the limited sense of the use of the word by the english-language US media. The term "white hispanic" was clearly code for "technically a minority, but not eligible for victim status."

[Pat (PM)]

Unless you're a census worker, the term "Hispanic" is almost never used with a racial qualifier. The term "white Hispanic" entered into popular public parlance when the media had to play CYA with the Zimmerman shooting because their initial reporting that he was white turned out to be incorrect. Even at the census bureau, the term "white Hispanic" is hard to come by. It's primarily used to differentiate "real" white people (i.e., "non-Hispanic whites") from the swarthier (i.e., Latin-American) white people.

[BearOdinson]

Dammit!

[Just say Nikki]

Unless you're a census worker, the term "Hispanic" is almost never used with a racial qualifier.

Census workers aren't the only ones who deal with demographic research and statistics, and "Hispanics can be of any race" is standard in Demographic research. Look at any Pew survey.

The term "white Hispanic" entered into popular public parlance when the media had to play CYA with the Zimmerman shooting because their initial reporting that he was white turned out to be incorrect.

It entered into popular parlance because a lot of people latched onto that because they were unfamiliar with normal crime reporting as well as market research and demographic reporting.

Even at the census bureau, the term "white Hispanic" is hard to come by. It's primarily used to differentiate "real" white people (i.e., "non-Hispanic whites") from the swarthier (i.e., Latin-American) white people.

Of course that's one of it's main uses. Why would that be surprising OR make it "hard to come by"? This is 100% normal in demo research.

[Pat (PM)]

It entered into popular parlance because a lot of people latched onto that because they were unfamiliar with normal crime reporting as well as market research and demographic reporting.

Not really, no. Specifying race along with Hispanic origin in crime reporting is not common. Note that crime reporting and crime statistics are not the same thing. Crime reporting is what CNN does. Crime statistics is what the FBI does. People latched onto it because it was a rather hilarious bit of back peddling.

Racial distinction among Hispanic origin is also not all that common in market research, or at least it wasn't when I was sifting through databases for my case studies during my undergrad. Excepting a couple of Caribbean islands, Hispaniola is mostly on the lighter side, and only Asian by marriage.

[Pat (PM)]

*Hispania (thanks autocorrect)

[Just say Nikki]

There is plenty of crime reporting in the media from before 2012 that uses the phrase. I just did a search of NYT archives and it is well-attested.

Racial distinction among Hispanic origin is also not all that common in market research, or at least it wasn't when I was sifting through databases for my case studies during my undergrad. Excepting a couple of Caribbean islands, Hispaniola is mostly on the lighter side, and only Asian by marriage.

I don't know when that was, but it absolutely is now (and I work on it). And I don't know what your second sentence here has to do with anything. There are plenty of black people in the US with Hispanic heritage.

[Pat (PM)]

There is plenty of crime reporting in the media from before 2012 that uses the phrase. I just did a search of NYT archives and it is well-attested.

Google's results from 2000 to 2012 are mostly demographic reporting. YMMV, I guess. I suspect that comparing media reports that use the term "white Hispanic" versus reports that use the term "Hispanic" with no qualifier would yield a very lopsided ratio, but I don't have the ability to do that.

I don't know when that was, but it absolutely is now (and I work on it).

2006-2008-ish. But in my studies, the only time it was really relevant was in estimating market segment growth, so "Hispanic of any race" was the most relevant statistic.

And I don't know what your second sentence here has to do with anything. There are plenty of black people in the US with Hispanic heritage.

The vast majority of Hispanics in America are considered white for purposes of demography, and as I said before, the only time anyone really seems to care is when they're trying to differentiate European and non-European ancestry. "Non-Hispanic black" is a less frequently used metric than "non-Hispanic white".

Also, "Hispanic" is about the dumbest fucking ethno-demographic category ever conceived by man. The breadth of the former Spanish empire is such that the term is goddamn near meaningless.

[greasonable]

Google trends

[Number.6]

I guess it's the equivalent of being a dual-classed character in Dungeons and Dragons - you get two categorizations for potential victimhood status, but you only advance at half the rate

[Just say Nikki]

Here's some crime reporting:

Boston Globe, 2011:

The suspect is described as a white Hispanic male, with gel-slicked black hair, about 5-foot-6, 150 pounds, with a slim build, according to police. He was wearing a blue pinstriped shirt and khaki pants at the time of the alleged assault.

The Telegraph, 2011:

Mr Ortega is described as a 5'11, white Hispanic male of medium build, with several distinguishing tattoos ? including three dots on his right hand, his name across his back and the word Israel tattooed on his neck.

[Just say Nikki]

Wicked Local:

At 10:30 p.m., police received another call of an assault and battery at the CVS Pharmacy at 427 Washington St. with the suspects in the crime described in the same manner ? a white non-Hispanic male, about 5 feet 8 inches, and a white Hispanic male about 6 feet tall.

[Just say Nikki]

Salem News, 2008:

Karla Casanova a white hispanic 7 year old female, who is 4foot 1 inches,and weighs 75 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Fernando Casanova is a white hispanic 11 year old boy, who is 5foot and weighs 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

The suspect is Benito O Casanova, white hispanic 32-year old male, 6 foot 1 inches, 230 pounds, with brown hair and brown eye.

Lehigh Valley Live, 2011:

The suspect is described as a white Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old, police said. He is between 5 feet, 8 inches and 6 feet tall and weighs between 150 and 200 pounds, police said.

[Pat (PM)]

See, this is kind of a good example though. You've cited 5 stories, only 1 of which is a national American news outlet. 3 are local news outlets, 1 is a foreign news outlet. Nearly every major television news network and national newspaper initially identified Zimmerman as "white" with no qualifier, and then backtracked to "white Hispanic" when he turned out to look more like Horatio Sanz than Woody Allen. Within those news networks' national reporting, the term "white Hispanic" was not very commonly used prior to that story, and had the facts of the case been more clear from the outset, it seems likely they would not have offered the same racial qualifier along with the ethnic classification.

[Just say Nikki]

None of that has anything to do with the fact that it's been a totally standard way of doing crime reporting that anyone who followed crime reporting would know. Look at the claims BearOdinson and Monty Crisco are trying to make, that it was "never used" by mainstream reporters before. It's how crime reporters relate what the cops tell them (because it's what the cops tell them). But all of a sudden when it's national news it's a whole different thing that no one has ever heard of and is totally unfamiliar with as a phrase?I mean a huge issue here is that everyone thinks the phrase sounds "funny" because omg "white hispanic" is obviously nonsense! No. Either these folks never read any crime reporting before, or they're full of it.

[Pat (PM)]

None of that has anything to do with the fact that it's been a totally standard way of doing crime reporting that anyone who followed crime reporting would know.

I still contend that it's a less frequently used term in crime reporting (if by "reporting" we mean "media reporting") than you are suggesting, and this is particularly true of the larger news outlets where the vast majority of people are likely to get their news. That made its use by those larger news outlets more conspicuous in the Zimmerman case, particularly since the media reporting was focused immediately on racial controversies surrounding the case.

FWIW, btw, this whole thread started out with a throwaway reference to "white Latino", not "white Hispanic", which is not the same thing, and in the Zimmerman case actually would have been marginally more accurate since his ancestry is Peruvian, where Aymara and Quechua are officially spoken alongside Spanish.

[Free Society]

You've cited 5 stories, only 1 of which is a national American news outlet. 3 are local news outlets, 1 is a foreign news outlet.

And all of them anecdotal. What would be a better source is using Google Trends to pick out the frequency of the term being published.

Here is a chart where you can see a huge spike in use of the term around the time Saint Trayvon of the Purple Drank got shot.

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=white hispanic&cmpt=q&tz=Etc/GMT+5

[Free Society]

well the link wont copy and paste correctly. Go to google trends and search the term "white hispanic"

[Tonio]

Dammit.

[Just say Nikki]

It's okay, Tonio, I'm just arguing in bad faith.

[Monty Crisco]

Soooo.... you are being intentionally obtuse, then, Nikki. And arguing for the sake of arguing. Got it.

[Free Society]

Soooo.... you are being intentionally obtuse, then, Nikki. And arguing for the sake of arguing. Got it.

It's rare to see her not being obtuse. Very few people on these boards are more frustrating to talk to and to my mind only Tony, Amsoc, Shreek and Tulpa debate in bad faith to a higher degree than she does.

[Tonio]

^LULZ

[Tonio]

Thanks, Nikki. I do actually know what is generally meant by those terms and about afro-cubans (etc), but have no interest in delving into the finer points of victim-status-ranking.

[Steve G]

-1 progreessive stack

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

It's kinda funny to see all the little spats and infighting that goes on in the AM Links that doesn't come out in later articles. The battle lines are very interesting.

[Pat (PM)]

And just what is that supposed to mean!

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

I wasn't talking to you, jerk.

[Citizen X]

Your mom has interesting lines.

[GILMORE?]

Are you kidding? The Cosmo/yokel pissing match is 24/7.

[Swiss Servator]

ARGH!

Take a New Year's Resolution, everyone - let us never use the terms "Yokel" or "Cosmo" (yes, that includes references to COCKTAIL PARTIEZ!!!!) again.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Spoken like a true Yosmo.

[Crusty Juggler]

Shut the fuck up, you fucking Cosmokeltarian hack.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

You forgot 'cunt', I know it goes in there somewhere.

[Crusty Juggler]

Cosmokeltarians do not deserve the respect of being referred to as cunts.

[Pat (PM)]

Lacking the depth and the warmth.

[Tonio]

You say pissing match, Gilly. I see it as the struggle for the soul of the movement.

[GILMORE?]

Bo Cara Wuz Right!!

[kbolino]

The bickering will be extra fun in the camps.

/I do it too

[thrakkorzog]

Spoken like a true cucktarianel.

[Pat (PM)]

Slow AM links today. Are you all pre-gaming already?

[Certified Public Asshat]

At work with about 5 other people (usually around 100 here)

[Pat (PM)]

So that's a yes?

[Certified Public Asshat]

Yes

[Swiss Servator]

2pm, the taproom near my house is going to open a keg of Avery's Mephistopheles.

*drools in anticipation*

[Tonio]

Dammit, Switzy, it's not nice to tease.

[straffinrun]

11 minutes to midnight here. Do I take a shot a mom in law? Been getting the eye all night.

[Crusty Juggler]

Do I take a shot a mom in law?

Yes, of course. There is no reason why you shouldn't. You got this.

[Swiss Servator]

Shocking advice, coming from CJ....

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

When you say shot, are you talking about the kind of shot we think you're talking about? When you say 'the eye', are you talking about 'the eye' we think you're talking about?

If yes, drag her into a closet and rail her til she can't walk straight.

[Florida Man]

Do it! It'll be funny.

[Notorious UGCC]

Consult an attorney first.

[Drake]

We'll be checking for affirmative consent forms in the morning.

[Mickey Rat]

He will probably need to consult a divorce attorney later.

[Mickey Rat]

...If I understood the word salad correctly.

[Tonio]

Inquiring minds want to know how this turned out.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

If he's doing it right, there should be an update in the PM Links.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Duh.

And report back.

[straffinrun]

Well that was embarrassing. Not the first time I've misread a woman.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

So you only got a BJ?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Heh.

We've all been there.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Hang on a second. By 'we' you mean Canadians, right?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

We're all part of a greater Brotherhood, FMSS.

[straffinrun]

Wait. She's coming back. Don't fuck this up for me.

[Notorious UGCC]

So, Happy New Year, I guess?

[Notorious UGCC]

I'm not going to say "better luck next year."

Pervert.

[Tonio]

Sorry, bro. Probably for the best, anyway. Hope the fallout isn't too bad.

[lafe.long]

Google Chrome: Extension Created to Remove Donald Trump References From Web Browser

Rob Spectre, creator of the Trump Filter extension, said it searches web pages for references to the GOP presidential candidate and "makes those references disappear with three adjustable levels."

[Reactionary Moment]

The Safe Space concept comes to the internet. Rob Spectre and other liberals will need to crawl into theor safe spaces permentally when President Trump is inaugurated.

[Notorious UGCC]

Check out the latest Broadway hit:

"...the production sweeping everything before it is Hamilton, an unlikely sounding hip-hop musical, by 35-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, about one of the lesser-known founding fathers of America....

"It's already sold out until September 2016; the album, which reached number three in the rap charts, is the highest selling cast recording for 50 years; and tickets are reportedly changing hands on the black market for over $4,000...."

[Notorious UGCC]

So what would you guys want to see? Lysander Spooner, the opera?

[Citizen X]

God DAMMIT Eddy, quit spoiling my magnum opus!

[Tonio]

I'm actually working about a musical about one of the more loathsome figures of twentieth century US politics.

[Tonio]

working ON a musical...

[Swiss Servator]

FDR and the disabled ramp to Hell?

[Crusty Juggler]

The Kennedy's and Their Women

The part of the chorus will be played by post-lobotomy Rosemary Kennedy.

[Princess Trigger]

Rent Seekers!

[Lee G]

The Best Little Whorehouse on K Street?

[Lee G]

The Phantom of the Rotunda?

[Tonio]

Awwww, thanks guys, but you're going to have to keep speculating until I get it to copywritable phase, or retire, or something.

[Tonio]

CopyRIGHTable. [hangs head in shame]

But a hint - one of his inventions, and not related to his infamy, is featured in a popular TV show set in the early twentieth century.

[Notorious UGCC]

Wait...Marie Curie?

Star of the hit HBO series "Your Love is Radioactive."

[Notorious UGCC]

OK, let's see...Alexander Fleming, who figures in the hit HBO show "It's OK, I hear they'll invent penicillin any day now."

[Notorious UGCC]

"Crick and Watson...before they became scientists they were porn stars."

[Notorious UGCC]

"'Watson, come here - I need you!' Alexander Graham Bell like you've never seen him before."

[Notorious UGCC]

Otto Frederick Rohwedder - if he doesn't have an opera about him already he sure needs one. Check this out, it's a story of American know-how and triumph over adversity -

"His first venture ended in tragedy in November 1917 when fire destroyed a Monmouth, Ill., factory that was to have produced the first slicing machine. Rohwedder's blueprints and prototype were also destroyed. It took Rohwedder several years to recoup his losses and assemble investors and financing for another go-at-it. In the meantime, he worked as an investment and security agent during the 1920s.

"In 1927 he designed a machine that not only sliced the bread but also wrapped it. His new and improved commercial bread slicer, was completed in 1928. Rohwedder' filed his application for a patent on November 26, 1928 and formed a company Mac-Roh Sales & Manufacturing to build and sell the bread slicer machine. There were objections from skeptic bakers that pre-sliced bread would quickly dry out."

[Notorious UGCC]

(slice, slice, baby)

Yo, check it out, my name is Rohwedder
I'm the mofo who invented the sliced-breader
I'm the greatest thing since me, and I'm always getting better

[greasonable]

Thomas Edison.. TV shows are all about showing off those new fangled phonographs.

[Tonio]

Dammit, people, I give you a NY present and does anyone do anything with it? No.

I mean, what could be more stereo-fucking-typical than a homo working on a musical. Sheesh.

[Notorious UGCC]

Leander Perez?

[Pat (PM)]

Hitler?

[GILMORE?]

I wouldn't call Jim Trafficant "loathsome"

[Crusty Juggler]

Trafficant is one of of my favorite public figures. This is a great story on him, which includes this fantastic line:

In 1983, when Traficant was sheriff of Ohio's Mahoning County, he was tried for receiving mob bribes. He represented himself at trial and was acquitted after convincing a jury that he was conducting a one-man sting operation.

[Crusty Juggler]

And this one:

Constantly accusing other public officials of corruption, he enjoyed such a contentious relationship with the local FBI that they reportedly considered shutting down their branch office, as they feared a shoot-out with the sheriff.

Fantastic.

[Tonio]

Damn, but that still doesn't raise to the level of loathsome which I'm talking about.

[GILMORE?]

Lern English you yokel

[thrakkorzog]

He also had a great head of hair on him. Whn asked to comment on Trafficant's hair, Trump said it was the best, greatest hair he had ever seen.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Joe the Plumber.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Interesting they settled on the most centralized of the Founding Fathers.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

It is a great musical, though the first act is heavy with this idea that Hamilton won the war and built America.

[lafe.long]

Microsoft: Company Says It Will Inform Its Email Users of Government Hacking Into Their Accounts

Microsoft announced the change on Wednesday after Reuters reported that the company did not tell thousands of Hotmail users that the Chinese government hacked their email accounts in 2011.

NSA exempt I'm guessing.

[GILMORE?]

"The Greatest Threat To Free Speech is Conformism"
http://www.spiked-online.com/n.....onformism/

Nick interviews B ONeil. Was it already on H+R? I never saw it

[Warty]

I think so, but I don't remember seeing that unfortunate hat. Maybe it was a different interview?

[GILMORE?]

What with the last half dozen posts being "clip reels", I'm surprised they didn't re-run it

[Crusty Juggler]

Yes. Brendan wears a wears a fedora and drinks a beer (that should be the video's title).

[SusanM]

Since when did being a hipster douchebag become "non-conformist"?

[Tonio]

Would (Brendan).

[Rhywun]

Might. Need to see what's under the hat first.

[Tonio]

Nothing, as in probably bald. Not my favorite thing but when you date men you learn to deal. That's why they like the hats, really. But I can overlook bald as long as it's shaved or trimmed; combovers are an automatic DQ.

[Rhywun]

I can overlook bald as long as it's shaved or trimmed; combovers are an automatic DQ

Agreed. I went gray in my thirties so I'm not going to throw stones. But at least I have all my hair....

[Citizen X]

Another fedora.

[Rhywun]

It's fedoras all the way down.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why is AM Links still the top post? Why have there been no more entries today? What's going on here? Every day should be like a webathon day. Or, at the very least, like shark week.

[Free Society]

I still have no idea what "shark week" actually is.

[Notorious UGCC]

You made me look it up.

Caution: Autoplay.

[Notorious UGCC]

oops

[Free Society]

Not going to click on that link, because then I might actually learn what it is. Some things you just can't unlearn.

[Tonio]

The title of that show is a play on a popular euphemism for the period of time during which a woman is menstruating.

[Free Society]

Menstruation attracts sharks. The sharks can smell the menstruation.

[Citizen X]

Also, bears.

[Free Society]

Well that's just great. You hear that Discovery Channel? Bears. Now you're putting the whole 18-25 demographic in jeopardy.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

The GOP is just keeping its powder dry on the Clinton-is-a-rapist front, but I would expect a barrage of this stuff during the summer and fall. Kind of hard to play the war-on-women card when the First Dude in Waiting is a lifelong womanizer and accused rapist.

OTOH, watching a bunch of unknown GOP legislators beating up on the legendarily shameless Clintons again will allow me to pine for the good old days before W and BHO entered the scene.

[Tonio]

My prediction is that Team Red won't touch this; the attacks will come from PACs.

[Illocust]

Slate has started to post articles on it. They started with a few trying to claim it was just about affairs. When that failed to sail even with their own base, they made an article on how the real problem was the rape charges. The comments section tried to hash out a narrative that didn't make it look like Hillary smeared rape accusers, but the best they could come up with is that Wikipedia is not a reliable source and they don't believe she ever said that.

This could be the thing that sinks Clinton. All the arguments they used to protect her husband back in the 90's are the exact arguments the modern college crowd despises. My generation doesn't remember anything but Monica about the Clinton scandals. Once all the SJW's hear about the women accusing Bill of rape they are going to be pissed. It's all new to them.

[GILMORE?]

No. Bill polls better than Hillary. Beating on him is stupid. It doesn't bother women the way GOP men might think. Comfortable hypocrisy is a state of mind

[Illocust]

Older feminists are comfortable. The mattress girl brigade is a whole different animal. Half the problems on campus right now are caused by the latest generation taking the talking points seriously.

[Drake]

Didn't Hillary coin the phrase "Bimbo eruptions" and "Nuts or Sluts"?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Google tells me that was Betsey Wright, who I'm sure Clinton schlonged once or twice when they were hammered. Or when Betsey was, anyway.

Politics is much more interesting and safer when it's all about special prosecutors leaking seedy details about Clinton's twisted little putz and poofy haired bimbos who were tailgating Bear Bryant games. Much less stimulating when it's about ground wars in Africa and Asia and the ZLB.

It'll be good to get some nasty personal scandals back into the Oval Office rather than having an empty suit who once read some nice things about Woodrow Wilson cluttering things up.

[ant1sthenes]

They can do broader damage by pointing out the Cos's support for Dems along with that CA politician that finally got busted as a serial predator. One bastard is just a bastard, but three is a pattern. Paint the DNC as being, for people who rape women, what the RCC is for people who rape kids.

[Lord at War]

"Older feminists are comfortable."

I saw this at Christmas.

(Me)"She went on the Today Show and blamed a "vast rightwing conspiracy" that was lying about Monica"

"It was a just a blowjob..."

[GILMORE?]

No. Bill polls better than Hillary. Beating on him is stupid. It doesn't bother women the way GOP men might think. Comfortable hypocrisy is a state of mind

[Swiss Servator]

Happy New Year all of you! I am off to become a one-man, slow motion, alcohol sponge.

[Tonio]

Fare well, Switzy, be safe. Happy NY. I'll be joining you in spirit (!) in a couple of hours.

[Notorious UGCC]

Have fun, but stay away from your mother in law.

[DEG]

Happy New Year! Enjoy the Mephistopheles!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Even to Canadians like me?

/holds back tears.

[Slumbrew]

No, not you, Rufus.

[CarolGuzman]

Im making over $9k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do,,,,,,,,,,,,

---------- http://www.onlinejobs100.com

[Swiss Servator]

So it is in the Squirrelz Constitution too?!

[Swiss Servator]

No, no! Leave them be for now. Attacking government workers is a step above ridding us of some server squirrelz.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Buon anno a bello!

Buon anno a tutti!

Translation: Bend over I'll show you happy new year.

[Crusty Juggler]

Pics?

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Seriously, she's old.

[Crusty Juggler]

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum dismissed every one of the Hartes's claims. Lungstrum found that sending a SWAT team into a home first thing in the morning based on no more than a positive field test and spotting a suspect at a gardening store was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. He found that the police had probable cause for the search, and that the way the search was conducted did not constitute excessive force. He found that the Hartes had not been defamed by the raid or by the publicity surrounding it. He also ruled that the police were under no obligation to know that drug testing field kits are inaccurate, nor were they obligated to wait for the more accurate lab tests before conducting the SWAT raid. The only way they'd have a claim would be if they could show that the police lied about the results, deliberately manipulated the tests or showed a reckless disregard for the truth ? and he ruled that the Hartes had failed to do so.

[greasonable]

Previously on Hit&Run

[Citizen X]

Just trying to spread the earworm around.

[Notorious UGCC]

I wonder if this works with circumcision, deep-dish pizza, and the Civil War?

[Certified Public Asshat]

*Raises monocle to Tundra*

[Swiss Servator]

*stands to applaud and throw garlands*

[Notorious UGCC]

[Notorious UGCC]

[Notorious UGCC]

[Crusty Juggler]

Seriously, stop turning me on.

[Citizen X]

Crusty's request stands.

[Pat (PM)]

Or watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Get outta here with that guido talk.

[Crusty Juggler]

Let me translate that for you: "I'm going to put down my cell phone to ask my mustachioed sister for a cigarette. Spaghetti.''

[Free Society]

I don't know what else we can expect when the institution that commits the injustice is the same institution to whom we are forced turn to for justice.

[Notorious UGCC]

Don't be misled by Radley's propaganda...Orin Kerr explained that the cops acted in good faith, and it wasn't their fault they didn't know their field test was unreliable.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

There you go. American justice has come full circle. The courts protect the police in their unholy alliance against citizens.

Your tyranny has arrived.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

When we were kids we'd see +40 porn mags and we'd laugh. Now I see it and raise an eyebrow of interest. Crusty goes straight to +60...

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I prefer bucatini.

[Crusty Juggler]

"Look at me, I'm Rufus, I drink milk out of a bag and I do not appreciate the allure of a mature woman."

[Pope Jimbo]

Rufus, please don't tell me you are denigrating Granny Gash?

If you were, I'd have to point out that the Canadian version of Barely Legal totally sucks. It is page after page of boring articles all written in English and then one small one paragraph article in French at the very back to keep the Quebecois off your asses.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I'M LACTOSE INTOLERANT.

And always hated milk.

Gross.

[Pat (PM)]

You say toe-may-toe, Crusty says "fuck you".

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

And the cookie is my favorite! Along with sfogliatelle (with no custard).

[Citizen X]

No no no. You say to MAY to, Crusty says "I'd fuck that."