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P.M. Links: El Chapo Captured, Belgian Bomb-Making Site Linked to Paris Attacks, American Sniper Widow Taya Kyle Rejects Obama's Gun Control Push

Damon Root | 1.8.2016 4:30 PM

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  • Credit: White House / Flickr.com

    Belgian investigators say they have identified an apartment in Brussels where explosives used in the November Paris attacks were made.

  • Taya Kyle, the widow of American Sniper author Chris Kyle, is speaking out against President Barack Obama's new gun control push.
  • Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has been captured.
  • A 30-year-old man who shot a Philadelphia police officer on Thursday says he carried out the shooting in the name of ISIS.
  • The Dow is off to its worst start ever this year.
  • "At least 18 asylum seekers are among 31 people who have been identified so far by the federal police as having played a role in a violent assault on young women in the German city of Cologne on New Year's Eve, the Interior Ministry said on Friday."

New at Reason

  • Alabama Cops, Confederate Flags, Racism, and an Over-Eager Media Despite unsubstantiated claims that police planted evidence on black men, credible accusations of systemic racism and police malfeasance remain. By Anthony L. Fisher  
  • Alien Invasion Series Colony Focuses on Human Intrigue Collaborate or resist? There are no easy answers. By Glenn Garvin  
  • Greek Bronzes and the Rise of Artistic Realism: Power and Pathos Exhibition What rare Hellenistic statues tell us about the ancient world and 21st-century America. By Meredith Bragg

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Damon Root is a senior editor at Reason and the author of A Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Antislavery Constitution (Potomac Books).

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  1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    A 30-year-old man who shot a Philadelphia police officer on Thursday says he carried out the shooting in the name of ISIS.

    Philly officer safety is just… babytown frolics.

    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      Hello.

      The Romans were the original Jerry Seinfeld neat freaks:

      “…He rounded up literature from the past few decades that had analyzed remains at Roman sites for parasites and disease. The researchers had looked at samples like mummies, fossilized human poop, the contents of ancient latrines, cesspits, trash piles, combs and the soil around where skeletons’ intestines would have been.

      Mitchell then mapped the presence of those Roman-era scourges against the geographic presence at earlier sites dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages.

      “I thought we’d see a drop in the intestinal parasites that are spread by feces and poor sanitation compared with the Iron Age, when there weren’t any toilets. But, in fact, I didn’t see a drop at all,” says Mitchell.”

      http://n.pr/1PTHkND

      1. Lee G   9 years ago

        Interesting. Thanks Rufus.

    2. Los Doyers   9 years ago

      Shit, I’m late. What I miss?

      1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

        Fashionably late might be a thing over in cosmo land but here in the heartland you’re just rude.

      2. C. Anacreon   9 years ago

        Doyers, language!

    3. CZmacure   9 years ago

      A 30-year-old man who shot a Philadelphia police officer on Thursday says he carried out the shooting in the name of ISIS.

      FREE MUMIA!

      (too soon?)

  2. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    The Dow is off to its worst start ever this year.

    How does it know when elections are coming up?

    1. Shirley Knott   9 years ago

      That’s so cute — you think it’s reacting to the upcoming election.
      It is almost certainly being manipulated by both of the ‘crony capitalism’ parties, each trying to push and pull the market into a condition they think will benefit them.
      The stock market only just barely qualifies as a market any more.

      1. Mad Scientist   9 years ago

        Shirley, you’re not being serious.

        1. Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper   9 years ago

          Yes I’m serious, and don’t…wait…

    2. R C Dean   9 years ago

      I got a decent short in on this market in good time, for once. Makin’ some coin here. Yay me!

      1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

        Election years are generally positive, FYI. Not that it means anything

      2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        How does one short America?

        1. Res ipsa loquitur   9 years ago

          Vote Hillary.

          1. Sevo   9 years ago

            Or Bernie. Definitely Bernie.

      3. TheZeitgeist   9 years ago

        I had a dead 401(k) rolled over to IRA four (five?) years ago that I use for gambling money. I bought cheese Chinese jewelry make FUQI and rode it 30%. Then I let just cash lay there for a year (FUQI went broke/indictments in that time) and bought TSLA at $29. Sold at $150 eight-or-so months later. Let money sit there for two years as cash again, then bought a bunch of gold and silver ETF’s this past October, and those are breaking even through that point now.

        I’d be totally loaded up on BTC if one could get it on actual markets in tax-advantaged vehicles (its value will explode once real tax-advantaged capital can legally reach it).

        Have no idea what to call such investment strategery (Booze-algol Black Box) but so far it works.

        1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

          Can I easily make enough to buy a Ford Fiesta in two weeks?

    3. Juice   9 years ago

      Who gives a shit about the Dow anyway? It’s only 30 stocks. Why don’t people talk about the other HUGE indexes? S&P 500, Nasdaq, Russell 2000? Or the Wilshire 5000, which is probably the most representative of the whole market.

  3. rts   9 years ago

    15-year armed standoff quietly ends outside of Dallas

    John Joe Gray was arrested in 1999 for assaulting a state trooper during a traffic stop. Gray said it was his God-given right to carry the pistol he had that day, without a concealed handgun license. When the trooper tried to arrest him, Gray admits getting into a scuffle and biting him.

    Gray was eventually charged with assaulting a public servant. But he refused to return to court, and instead, armed himself at home.

    The felony charge of assaulting a peace officer was actually dismissed in December 2014, when the district attorney left office. But for some reason, no one notified the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office or even the Gray family, until now.

    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      Wow.

      Talk about holding out for the victory.

    2. RBS   9 years ago

      “Yeah. It takes pressure off people. And it may take pressure off them,” the sheriff said. “There’s always been the potential for something bad happening.”

      Nutt said he didn’t go get Gray because deputies could have died.

      “It wasn’t worth it,” the sheriff said. “Joe Gray has been in prison out there himself, in my opinion, for 14 years.”

      Someone isn’t getting invited to the surplus military equipment ball/auction this year.

      1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

        He shoulda gone Waco on his ass.

    3. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

      Wait, the local police didn’t immediately burst in guns blazing?!

      1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

        They thought about dropping an incendiary device.

    4. GILMORE?   9 years ago

      IF YOU GIVE THESE PEOPLE AN INCH THEY’LL ALL START DEFYING AUTHORITY

    5. Microaggressor   9 years ago

      A true patriot.
      *Waves miniature American flag*
      *Statue of Liberty sheds a tear of joy*

    6. Suthenboy   9 years ago

      I remember reading about that case.

      Kudos to the sheriff.

    7. Tak Kak   9 years ago

      Has there ever been a greater example of white privilege?!

      That’s pretty great that he’s gotten away with biting a cop.

  4. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

    Who knows how to cook pork belly? I have 3, one is going to be made into tacos.

    1. Ted S.   9 years ago

      Do you have a cast-iron skillet? 😉

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Yep. Assume I have everything that a restaurant does.

        1. Florida Man   9 years ago

          Then have your chef prepare it.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I’m the chef. (and my wife is the dishwasher)

            1. Florida Man   9 years ago

              Well then, when you want to cook a leg of lamb let me know. I did one Tuesday that turned out really well. I’m eating a stew I made with the left over lamb now. Pretty tasty.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                Go on…. Greek?

                1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                  Check these for your pleasure:

                  http://www.jamieoliver.com/vid…..ie-oliver/

                  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/rec…..lian-beans

                  1. RAHeinlein   9 years ago

                    Yellow card for Jamie Oliver link…

                    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                      Yeh but his travels cooking in Italy were wonderful. I loved how even he marveled at what he was seeing.

                2. Florida Man   9 years ago

                  Bedouin leg of lamb.

                  Dry rub: 1 1/2 TBS coarse ground black pepper
                  1 TBS caraway seed (fennel for substitute)
                  1 tsp ground cardamom
                  1/2 tsp saffron threads
                  1 tsp ground turmeric
                  2 tsp kosher salt
                  1 tsp sugar

                  Coat 1 bone in 5-6 lb leg lamb with rub. Rest at room temp 1-2 hours.

                  Split bed of charcoal approx 350 degrees

                  Rotisserie continuously or turn every 20 minutes on grill for 1-1.5 hours. Brush with olive oil every 30 minutes. Cook temp 125 to 135. Rest 10-15 minutes. I had couscous and green beans with mine.

                  1. DenverJ   9 years ago

                    “Bedouin leg of lamb.” What, are you one of those mooslims?

        2. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

          Do you have a coke-dealing bartender?

      2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Whoops, that went right over my head. My memory isn’t very good when I’m sober.

        1. Tonio   9 years ago

          There’s an easy cure for that. It’s 5:00 somewhere.

          1. Suthenboy   9 years ago

            I have three clocks on my walls. None of them have batteries. All of them are set at 5:00.

            1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

              Good idea. *resets stopped clock*

    2. Tman   9 years ago

      We tried this one, it came out amazing. I skipped the sage though -I hate sage- and added some garlic and smoked paprika to the rub.

      Roasted Pork Belly

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Thx, reading now.

        1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          450 for 1.5-2 hours???? This could get interesting.

          1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

            Everything’s better with smoked paprika. Especially Bloody Maries.

        2. Tman   9 years ago

          They are correct that the more holes you poke the better. The fat drips in to the meat this way during cooking. We did two and the one we poked the most tasted the best.

      2. Tonio   9 years ago

        So, a belly rub?

        1. Florida Man   9 years ago

          Yes thank you.
          *exposes belly*

          1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

            Who is a good Florida Man? WHO IS A GOOD FLORIDA MAN??? Awww, good Florida Man!

            /belly rub

    3. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Who knows how to cook pork belly?

      I’ve had good luck slicing it medium thin, and putting it in a skillet. The skillet shouldn’t be too hot. Turn occasionally until cooked to taste.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        R C Dean’s recipe book:

        “Cook it in a pan”

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   9 years ago

          Better than:

          “1. Burn off hair.”

          “2. Eat.”

    4. Sexbot   9 years ago

      Make a pork belly porchetta. Does it have the skin on?

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        I already removed it.

        1. RAHeinlein   9 years ago

          Heretic.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            It’s not something I work with often. I have to go to the “ethnic” market.

            1. RAHeinlein   9 years ago

              I’m with Sexbot – porchetta rocks. Finding a good pork belly is the hardest part.

    5. OneOut   9 years ago

      Cracklins.

      cut into 1.5 inch cubes

      put into a big pot with water

      the level will depend on the slope of the pot’s sides. you can do a small batch to feel you’re way through it

      the water will render the fat and when the water evaporates the pork belly will fry in it’s own oil

      season to choice and enjoy

  5. rts   9 years ago

    Today is the incept date for Roy Batty.

    Still no hovercars.

    1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      In honor thereof, here’s one of the greatest scenes in movie history: the “Tears In Rain” monologue.

      1. rts   9 years ago

        Chew, if only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes!

        1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

          It’s for pain, asshole!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpLoDADYF5g

      2. Rhywun   9 years ago

        (Un)related.

    2. kinnath   9 years ago

      Still no hovercars.

      As XKCD says: They’re called helicopters.

    3. Tonio   9 years ago

      Thanks for that, rts.

  6. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    At least 18 asylum seekers are among 31 people who have been identified so far by the federal police as having played a role in a violent assault on young women in the German city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve…

    It’s like they don’t value women at all where they come from.

    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      Or they value them too much? I don’t know, that’s for the experts to decide.

      1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

        They would pay a good price for the right woman, how can you say they don’t value them?

    2. Jerry on the rocks   9 years ago

      ‘Respect us even when we are naked’: Nude woman protests at scene of Cologne sex attacks. (warning, The Sun).

      1. Tonio   9 years ago

        I can understand a trigger warning for Uranus, but for the Sun??/? Sunscreen alert, maybe?

      2. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

        Eh, the shoes ruin it.

        1. lap83   9 years ago

          Um, even naked women wearing neon shoes deserve respect. OMG

          1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   9 years ago

            Crusty’s got a thing for the feet.

            1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

              Crusty’s got a thing for the feet.

              Duh. Bob, guys like us are the reason wikifeet exists.

          2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I’m as turned on as you are, lap.

            1. lap83   9 years ago

              I’m only turned on by the message, just like all of the guys lurking in the background taking pictures with their smartphones

              1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

                I’m only turned on by the message

                Let me help you with that…

        2. Juice   9 years ago

          Her tits are confusing me.

      3. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        She’s German and naked, so I just assumed that she’d be taking a dump too.

        1. Bobarian (Would Chip Her)   9 years ago

          I think you can guess what Playa’s got a thing for.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I want the opposite of that. Which is why I don’t watch German porn. They hit you with the dookie scenes when you least expect it. Scheisse!

      4. Trials and Trippelations   9 years ago

        Visible Boobies!!

      5. MSimon   9 years ago

        Looks like implants to me.

        1. Gray Ghost   9 years ago

          Looks like implants to me.

          The nipples pointing in different directions seems to be a big clue. Pretty lady all of the same.

      6. Suthenboy   9 years ago

        Ugh. She is trying to explain calculus to fish.

        The people she is talking to are not civilized.

      7. GILMORE?   9 years ago

        Yeah, that’ll teach those Arabs not to rape German women

    3. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Fake scandal?

      I mean, this seems like it has pretty serious implications for all sorts of issues that are of interest to libertarians. Reason has dipped a toe into the “refugee” migration issue; perhaps another article on how these fellows are assimilating Europe would be of interest.*

      *I know, I know, get your own damn blog blah blah,

      1. John   9 years ago

        Reason is all about reporting on government failure, unless it involves the failure to protect people from immigrants. Then they don’t see any issues.

        1. FreeToFear   9 years ago

          “Failure to protect” implies a positive duty of government – which libertarians in general feel is bullshit… but by now nobody expects you to understand nuance

          1. Free Society   9 years ago

            An outfit that has monopolized some economic good or service, like basic security and law, does have a minimal duty to deliver the goods so to speak.

            1. Suthenboy   9 years ago

              I think the SC has ruled the opposite. State agents have no duty to protect citizens. If Obumbles has his way citizens will have no means to do so themselves.

              I looked into the situation in Sweden and read lots of people there complaining that the state is not upholding their end of the ‘social contract’. I asked a number of them to send me a copy of that contract so that I could read the details. It has been over a month and I have received nothing.

              1. Atanarjuat   9 years ago

                I chuckled. I’m going to start asking people for that.

    4. AlmightyJB   9 years ago

      I had read something originally where the end goal of the assaults were robbery.

      1. R C Dean   9 years ago

        The latest seems to be that the robberies were just opportunistic.

  7. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

    Somehow I have a funny feeling that lowlife slimebag Dave Weigel won’t be bragging about the stock market too much here tonight after this week.

    1. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Yeah, its funny how trading whiz shriek hasn’t been boasting about his double-reverse naked short option on Dow futures. Its a little late now to claim to have seen this coming, and bet accordingly.

      1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        What’s even funnier is that the dollar has actually fallen a little lately with commodities while gold rose.

  8. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

    “Mexican drug kingpin Joaqu?n “El Chapo” Guzm?n has been captured.”

    What are the chances he gets turned over to the US this time?

    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      Isn’t he the guy who wants to kill ISIS?

      Maybe he can work out a *deal* with the U.S.?

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        That turned out to be a hoax, as did the Donald Trump thing.

        1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

          Ah.

        2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          So Trump’s not actually running for president?

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I’m still not quite sure.

        3. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

          Aw… I was hoping Saving Private Perez would soon come to real life…

          1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

            More like the Dirty Dozen.

    2. DaveSs   9 years ago

      This guy is rich and ruthless enough that I suspect his people might actually attempt to get him out of Florence.

    3. Aresen   9 years ago

      So, how long before he escapes again?

  9. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

    Don’t mess with the Mexican Navy?

    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      L. Ron Hubbard did.

  10. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

    It’s racist to blame Arab culture for sexual violence problems because sometimes Germans rape too.

    “Nobody’s denying that people with immigrant backgrounds or of the Muslim faith are also guilty of committing sex crimes. But to act as if their cultural background has “programmed” them to do so, while making all sorts of excuses and downplaying the crimes of white Germans, will always be racist rabble-rousing.

    The clearest thing to come out of the debate around what happened in Cologne as of yet is that Germany has a sexism issue and a racism issue. Both are deep-rooted and were not “imported.” It’s our responsibility as a society to move towards a culture that celebrates mutual consent and respects boundaries. And that applies to all people, because one sexual assault is one too many?no matter where it took place and who it involved.”

    Yeah, let’s not bother looking at the relative positions of German women versus women in the Arab world – because rape also happens in Germany sometimes, we must be relativists and pretend everyone is equally guilty and there are no cultural differences anywhere on Earth.

    Progress!

    1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      I just got a concussion from my brain banging against the side of my skull while trying to escape after reading that.

    2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      The comments are spitting that shit back in their face though.

    3. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

      All men are responsible for rape but culture has no impact on propensity to assault and you’re a bigot if you say otherwise.

      “The anti-migrant lobby won’t compel their rightful disgust at Cologne’s events into combating the swinging cuts to domestic and sexual violence charities throughout the UK. They won’t support the actions of Sisters Uncut and other women’s groups fighting to put violence against women back on the agenda. They aren’t even likely to push for the most reliable solution to events like Cologne: a robust program of sexual and emotional education that comprehensively deals with rape, sexual assault and gender imbalance.”

      Since most sexual assaults are committed by men, we should behave as if all men are equally likely to commit such assaults and there is no difference between different groups.

      1. Ted S.   9 years ago

        If they’re getting money from the government, they’re not charities.

      2. Jerry on the rocks   9 years ago

        Maybe she could visit Saudi Arabia one time?

      3. Tonio   9 years ago

        combating the swinging cuts to domestic and sexual violence charities

        I have a feeling that these “charities” are government funded, so not proper charities. You can still be against rape gangs and take no position whatsoever on women’s groups.

      4. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

        “Condemnation is an act of distancing, or signalling one’s own moral values in relation to an event, or in this case, a people. The North African and Arab perpetrators are not like us: they are symbols of misogynistic cultures in which the routine sexual assault and rape of women is normalised. Ultimately, they are different. ”

        lololololololololololololol

      5. Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper   9 years ago

        No, of course a religion that requires women to cover their heads because men can’t be expected to not rape them at the glimpse of their hair couldn’t possibly create a culture where raping women is the moral equivalent of running a red light.

        1. MSimon   9 years ago

          But courts can declare the raped women guilty of a death penalty offense (at least in the countries of origin). So there is that.

        2. OneOut   9 years ago

          I am currently rereading The Pirate Coast by Richard Zacks..

          It’s a narrative non fiction of The US and Jefferson’s first war with the Barbary Coast Muslim Pirates.

          The guy who led the overland expedition who attacked Tripoli makes note of the Arab women working in the fields wore a covering that covered their head and eyes but was slit along the sides to allow free movvement to work the plow behind the donkey.

          He wrote in his papers that the women’s breasts were frequently seen hanging out of this slit and no one paid them any attention.

          He also wrote that at times the women would be surprised by the expedition and would raise their skirts over their heads to hide themselves from the men. The Arab men didn’t mind their women ding that as long as the women’s hair and face were covered.

          But they aren’t any different from us, not really.

          1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

            That solves the bag problem.

      6. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

        So, shouldn’t they call it “rape gender” instead of “rape culture”?

      7. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

        “They aren’t even likely to push for the most reliable solution to events like Cologne: a robust program of sexual and emotional education that comprehensively deals with rape, sexual assault and gender imbalance.”

        You know who else promoted a “solution” to a “problem” Germans were allegedly facing?

        1. Demonsong   9 years ago

          Alex Trebek?

        2. DenverJ   9 years ago

          Nina?

    4. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

      I… I thought we were programmed to rape and ogle and harass and microagress. I don’t know what to believe any more.

    5. John   9 years ago

      So Nikki writes for Vice?

      1. grrizzly   9 years ago

        This is exactly what I thought.

    6. RBS   9 years ago

      while making all sorts of excuses and downplaying the crimes of white Germans, will always be racist rabble-rousing

      Umm…

    7. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Here they have evidence of a no-kidding rape culture, right in front of their eyes, and they have their fingers stuck in their ears while they chant “la la la la la”.

      1. Tonio   9 years ago

        Yep, I hope this causes them to lose credibility in the eyes of the general public.

      2. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

        they have their fingers stuck in their ears while they chant “la la la la la”

        Just be glad those fingers aren’t stuff up one of your orifices.

        #AccessToOrificesMatter

    8. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

      But to act as if their cultural background has “programmed” them to do so

      Well, it hasn’t. Individual human beings still have moral agency. Those men chose to reenact Tahir Square a few days ago; their cultural values just happen to validate their choices.

    9. Krabappel   9 years ago

      Sometimes women rape so it’s sexist to point out that men are programmed to rape because of their gender.

    10. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

      “Yeah, let’s not bother looking at the relative positions of German women versus women in the Arab world”

      Shouldn’t we be instead looking at the relative positions of rape in German and Arab society?? I don’t get how people say that we shouldn’t judge them for raping people because its a different culture: since their culture has some rather strict penalties for having sex with a woman outside of marriage, consensual or not!! Or do they selectively ignore that part of sharia??

      1. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

        No – their culture doesn’t have strict penalties, the leaders of those countries do. The Saudis will whip you if you commit rape, but that doesn’t stop rich Saudis from raping their maids with effective impunity. Egypt has a serious problem with sexual violence too, and Sisi has tried to seriously clamp down on that issue.

      2. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

        The Koran also does allow for sex slavery, which is rape. You’re not supposed to have sex with MUSLIM WOMEN outside of marriage, but go look at what the Koran says about ‘possessing’ sex slaves and it becomes pretty obvious it isn’t against rape.

    11. Suthenboy   9 years ago

      Stephanie and/or Anne are going to run into one of those guys in a dark parking lot one night and what do you want to bet that if they survive they make excuses for them?

      There is no peak derp.

    12. GILMORE?   9 years ago

      I reject this entire piece because I haven’t seen any conclusive evidence anything actually happened.

      1. OneOut   9 years ago

        Exactly.

        We weren’t actually there to witness it.

        So it’s probably just a bunch of anti immigrant nonsense.

    13. Migrant Log Chipper   9 years ago

      At least it wasn’t ESB…has a small sadz.

    14. Juice   9 years ago

      According to German law, in order to get a conviction for sexual assault, the victim must prove that they resisted the violence.

      But that’s pretty fucked up though.

  11. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    Taya Kyle, the widow of American Sniper author Chris Kyle, is speaking out against President Barack Obama’s new gun control push.

    It’s like she doesn’t even know that Obama’s plans would have saved her husband.

    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      He also told CNN that it’s “easier and cheaper for teenagers to buy guns than books”.

      I await Politifact’s evaluation of that statement.

      1. colorblindkid   9 years ago

        Did he really say that?

        1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          http://www.dailywire.com/news/…..t-kraychik

          1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

            “And then there’s a reality that there are neighborhoods around the country where it is easier for a 12 or 13-year-old to purchase a gun, and cheaper, than it is for them to get a book,” said Obama, in pushing his proposals for “expanded background checks” via executive orders.

            In “certain neighborhoods”. This sounds racist to me.

            1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              What do you mean, “YOU PEOPLE”?!?

            2. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

              Yeah, imagine if Trump said that. Nonstop outrage.

          2. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

            What the hell?? Is it even worth spending the time to google library and book store densities and black market arms prices in different locations??

            The only case where I can think that might be true is a child in a family of frontiersmen somewhere in Alaska, who probably have guns readily available and book stores miles away.

            1. grrizzly   9 years ago

              Amazon Prime delivers anything, including books, to Barrow, AK in two days at no extra charge.

      2. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

        WaPo’s Fact Checker actually fisked that the last time he said it.

        1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

          And the relevant part of that:

          “It’s easier for you to buy a handgun and clips than it is for you to buy a fresh vegetable’

          This is just a very strange comment that appears to have no statistical basis. Perhaps one can just shrug it off as hyperbole, but is this really something the president of the United States should say to college students? As far as we know, there are no areas in the United States where background checks are needed to buy vegetables.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            They’re being far too deferential, IMHO.

            1. Zeb   9 years ago

              Yeah. He’s lying and he knows it.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                There could be areas in the United States where background checks are needed to buy vegetables. We just can’t know for sure.

                1. Mad Scientist   9 years ago

                  To be fair, when Obama needs a gun, he can ask any of his Secret Service detail to hand one over. When he needs a vegetable, he has to call all the way to the white house kitchen.

          2. Zeb   9 years ago

            Bizarre exaggerations about both guns and “food deserts”.

            1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

              What about Food Desserts?

            2. Pathogen   9 years ago

              Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story..

          3. Mad Scientist   9 years ago

            This is totally true this time of year. My squash plants have all died, but my Glock tree is fruiting quite nicely.

            1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              I got my Glocks at the used Glock store. 10 for $1.

              1. Pathogen   9 years ago

                Address?

                1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  1600 Unicorn Lane.

            2. OneOut   9 years ago

              Our greens are flourishing and I even get a couple of tomatos each week.

          4. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

            He was talking about Fallout 4, CLEARLY. Weapon vendors everywhere, but ya gotta trek all the way to Vault 81 just to get some fresh tatos!!

          5. JeremyR   9 years ago

            That’s part of the whole “food desert” crap the left is pushing.

            Urban poor are fat because they only have fast food, not vegies

        2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          “odd” series of gun claims. Odd… odd way to describe lies.

          1. Zeb   9 years ago

            Well, the lies were pretty odd. No one not in complete fantasy land could believe most of it. Maybe “odd series of lies and false claims about guns” would be better.

        3. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          Also interesting that the WaPo took on this task “after a reader” asked them to. I guess Reporters don’t question the president on their own?

          1. Pathogen   9 years ago

            Unemployment doesn’t pay nearly as well…

      3. Rich   9 years ago

        According to Chicago’s Fr. Michael Pfleger: “It’s easier to get a gun in my neighborhood than it is a computer”

        I suppose once one gets a gun, though, it’s relatively easy to get a computer too.

        1. R C Dean   9 years ago

          Market failure?

        2. BearOdinson   9 years ago

          And yet it is still essentially illegal to own a gun in Chicago.
          But he’s right. In Chicago there are probably way more fun stores than Best Buys.

          1. BearOdinson   9 years ago

            *gun stores*

            Fuck me

            1. Ted S.   9 years ago

              It’s not as if Best Buy is very fun.

            2. Akira   9 years ago

              No, you had it right the first time. A store that sells firearms is loads of fun.

          2. R C Dean   9 years ago

            Turns out there are zero (0) gun stores in Chicago.

            http://www.hopesandfears.com/h…..-in-cities

            Same as Beijng, as it happens.

        3. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

          “I suppose once one gets a gun, though, it’s relatively easy to get a computer too.”

          “This is a robbery, gimme one of your computers. And make sure it doesn’t have Windows 10 installed, or I’ll put a cap in your ass.”

      4. Zeb   9 years ago

        What the fuck? Really?

        I have no direct experience, but I imagine that a black market gun costs quite a lot. And it harder to find than a bag of weed or something. And teenagers aren’t buying them legally.

        1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          Depends. Most cops will quickly tell you that the most common guns found used in crimes and found in evidence lockers are “saturday night specials” with duct tape on the grips, High Points, and other various and sundry cheap-o firearms which have been cut on, ground on, duct-taped and screwed down in hasty repairs.

          This notion that it’s all sophisticated high-power assault rifles is, as we know, utter bullshit.

          1. Zeb   9 years ago

            I wouldn’t have thought that lots of high quality pistols were being used in street crime. But I’d expect that people who aren’t likely to be passing any background checks pay a pretty good premium for a used, cheapo pistol.

            1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              Yeah. Several hundred dollars cash on the black market.

              You can get a new Hi Point for a fraction of that.

              1. Florida Man   9 years ago

                So I should be flipping hi-points in our new economy?

                1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  You’re a CRNA, right?

                  I’d stick to that. Much less chance of federal prison, and you probably make more money.

                  1. Florida Man   9 years ago

                    Good memory.

                    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                      And I’ve only had 3 sips of beer.

          2. Hyperbolical (wadair)   9 years ago

            The better specimens never make it to the evidence locket?

            1. This Machine Chips Fascists   9 years ago

              True story.

              A guy I went to HS with winds up a deputy sheriff. One day he picks up a nice revolver at a crime scene, sits on it a bit, then sells it to the Sheriff of a neighboring county. To the buyer’s credit, he runs the SN. Stolen. Former classmate now former cop and currently incarcerated. Idiot.

          3. This Machine Chips Fascists   9 years ago

            http://www.hi-pointfirearms.co…..fault.html
            “The Hi-Point of Service
            Damage, age, and plain old wear and tear – these things happen. When they do, Hi-Point customers enjoy a lifetime, no questions asked warranty. And lifetime means just that – free repairs for the life of the gun, whether you are the first owner, or the third.”

            Or 33rd?

        2. Ceci n'est pas un woodchipper   9 years ago

          I mean, a nickle used to run about $5, and you can get a used paperback for $1 or less. And I’m talking about in Baltimore. So yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit.

          And hell, if I’m wrong, I’m in the market for a Sig P226 and I’ve got a shelf of hardcovers I’m willing to trade.

      5. Pope Jimbo   9 years ago

        First they have to weigh in on all the “imaginary fiction” being spouted by the NRA

        FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama mocked conspiracy theorists and tore into the National Rifle Association for pushing “imaginary fiction,” as he described his plans to tighten gun control rules as modest first steps toward tackling gun violence in America.

        http://www.fox5ny.com/news/71008786-story

        It is funny that he condescendingly calls out the NRA for making things up while trotting that “fact” out.

        1. OneOut   9 years ago

          I saw in obama’s first term when he says such obvious bullshit as that he isn’t addressing the country as a whole.

          He is speaking directly to his base of belivers and they take his eery word as true.

      6. Rhywun   9 years ago

        WORD DESERT!11!!

    2. bacon-magic   9 years ago

      She’s a WILF for sure…

      1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

        Wolf?

        1. MSimon   9 years ago

          An uncommon way of saying MILF.

  12. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

    Did we ever figure out what Waffles’ new handle is? I thought we had to guess. Why aren’t we guessing? Who do I blame?

    1. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

      We get it, we get it: you’re waffles.

      And, yes, would.

      1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

        I’m Kurt Russell. Gosh.

    2. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      Palin’s Buttplug.

      Waffles has been playing the long troll.

    3. Florida Man   9 years ago

      I don’t know Stank Taint.

    4. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      I think Waffles is just busy enjoying the slopes. We’ve gotten over 3 feet in the last 2 weeks. It’s an epic skiing year in CA.

  13. Rich   9 years ago

    The latest batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department early Friday contain what may be the smoking gun that forces the Justice Department to charge the former secretary of state with a crime, according to former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova. This is gigantic,” said diGenova. “She caused to be removed a classified marking and then had it transmitted in an unencrypted manner. That is a felony.”

    Feel the Bern!

    1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      Why that’s a felony! What do we do? What do we do?

      1. R C Dean   9 years ago

        Elect her President?

        1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          Two times.

      2. Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper   9 years ago

        Immunity, duh!

    2. Warty   9 years ago

      How many obvious felonies have the Clintons committed over the years? Nothing will happen. You know this.

      1. Rich   9 years ago

        But, … but isn’t *Trey Gowdey* on the case?

      2. Gray Ghost   9 years ago

        The most that will possibly happen is that Obama pardons her. And while we’d all like to think that’d torpedo her Presidency chances, I think we know it won’t do shit. 43 percent of the American public is inclined to vote for her no matter what she does, or what we find out.

        The only reason Obama pardons her is that he can’t stay out of jail himself if she lets fly with the dirt she has on him.

    3. Ted S.   9 years ago

      Not like they charged Sandy Berger.

    4. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Meh. If it ain’t Trump bloviating, nobody cares, amirite?

  14. bendover   9 years ago

    Let me see if I’ve got this right:

    Hilary Clinton appears to have invited her aide to violate the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, and possibly, federal law by telling the aide to remove markings identifying the information as sensitive and to send it via unsecured fax.

    http://dailycaller.com/2016/01…..z3wgmwzxpy

    So this friend of Bill Clinton and large donor to Hilary Clinton committed statutory rape on multiple victims (some as young as 13) and his punishment was 13 months of having to sleep at the jailhouse ? but could live at his Palm Beach mansion for 16 hours a day, and that’s it? – (Mr. Epstein also pals around with Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos)

    http://www.americanthinker.com…..z3wgnvtoqJ

    Clinton Foundation fraud ?

    Hilary’s unsecured servers ?

    Etc? etc? etc?

    I mean, how is this not leading the six o’clock news every night ?

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      I mean, how is this not leading the six o’clock news every night ?

      Two words: El Ni?o!

      Seriously, read Sharyl Attkisson’s book “Stonewalled”.

    2. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Oh, there’s no “possibly” about it. Its a violation of federal law to strip, or induce another to strip, security headings from documents.

      1. Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper   9 years ago

        Pfft. That law was written by racist white men years ago in Olde English (or possibly Hi Karate).

        1. Rt. Hon. Judge Woodrow Chipper   9 years ago

          I’m putting myself down for fucking that up.

    3. Tonio   9 years ago

      Because the legacy media are all-in for Hillary.

    4. Gilbert Martin   9 years ago

      “I mean, how is this not leading the six o’clock news every night ?”

      Because she’s not a Republican of course.

  15. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    Belgian investigators say they have identified an apartment in Brussels where explosives used in the November Paris attacks were made.

    And promptly held an orgy there.

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      [golf clap]

      1. MSimon   9 years ago

        actually [vagina clap]

        1. juris imprudent   9 years ago

          Orgies and clap really shouldn’t be mentioned that close together.

    2. Medical Physics Guy   9 years ago

      I have to say, Belgium never previously had a reputation as an orgy capital. This may help their international reputation.

  16. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

    Greek Bronzes and the Rise of Artistic Realism: Power and Pathos Exhibition What rare Hellenistic statues tell us about the ancient world and 21st-century America. By Meredith Bragg

    If you’re in DC (eww, I know), go see this. It is truly extraordinary.

    1. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

      I would love to go. They look so familiar; it’s amazing they’re more than 2 thousand years old.

    2. Juice   9 years ago

      Huh. Thanks! I’ll go tomorrow!

  17. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

    Taya Kyle, the widow of American Sniper author Chris Kyle, is speaking out against President Barack Obama’s new gun control push.

    What would you expect Adam Lanza’s widow to say?

  18. Jerryskids   9 years ago

    CNN finally got around to reporting that the gun used by the Philly shooter was a stolen 9 mm, still no mention of where the gun was stolen from or whether it was reported stolen before or after the shooting. Between the provenance of the gun and the “emptying the gun at point-blank range and hitting the target 3 times in the arm” if this ISIS-inspired Muslim terrorist assassin ain’t a Philly cop he’s doing a damn fine impersonation.

    1. Ted S.   9 years ago

      The cop wouldn’t have hit the target more than once, even at point-blank range.

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        Why are they such good shots when the person is unarmed, innocent, prone and 40′ away?

    2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      It was a stolen police gun.

      1. PapayaSF   9 years ago

        Which amusingly undercuts the “only the police should have guns” argument.

  19. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

    Clinton ‘Surprised’ by Staffer Using Private Email, New Docs Show

  20. Rich   9 years ago

    Exclusive: Birth Certificate for Ted Cruz’s Mother

    Turns out she’s Kenyan.

    1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      Breitbart has become so fucking awful since Andrew Breitbart died.

      1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        Was it ever really good? Andrew hired some of the psychos running it today.

      2. PapayaSF   9 years ago

        Sorry, I’m not seeing how “awful” this piece is. Seems like legit reporting to me.

        1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

          That’s just you and your odd number of chromosomes.

          1. PapayaSF   9 years ago

            So, Cytotoxic, explain to us how Germany must have recently “redefined” sexual assault and robbery, because it couldn’t possibly be that immigration is ever a bad thing.

            1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

              Would you care to connect this babble to a salient interesting data point?

    2. lap83   9 years ago

      See?!? The birthers weren’t racist….just stupid

  21. EdWuncler   9 years ago

    I think the reason why the political left is going down the gun control road is because for one they are stupid but also because they want to rile up the base before the elections. Think about it, they no longer have gay marriage as a wedge issue and no one gives two shits about the manufactured, “War on Women”. So since they no longer have those tools to beat their opponents over their heads with, they are fighting for increased gun regulation. That’s why they try to frame this as a fight between those who are evil and want our children dead and the good who will do everything to protect them.

    1. AlmightyJB   9 years ago

      I would call that a gross miscalculation on their part

    2. GILMORE?   9 years ago

      “” they want to rile up the base before the elections. “”

      Duh. All the gun control hoo-ha is nothing to do with any desire for “policy”. Its pure theatrics to avoid having to debate actual issues like “Why is Obamacare so Fucked Up?”

      1. Gilbert Martin   9 years ago

        “actual issues like “Why is Obamacare so Fucked Up?”

        Is there ANYTHING he’s done that wasn’t fucked up?

    3. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

      ” and no one gives two shits about the manufactured, “War on Women”

      Given their plans to increase the importation of rape culture and put a rapist (possibly a minor-sex-slave-rapist) into the White House, they had best hope not.

  22. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    What rare Hellenistic statues tell us about the ancient world…

    That the pervs liked to show their wieners.

    1. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

      Which is brave, as they didn’t have much to show.

      1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

        Size doesn’t matter!!!!

        *sobs*

      2. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

        IT WAS COLD!

    2. Gilbert Martin   9 years ago

      “What rare Hellenistic statues tell us about the ancient world…”

      That most of them had their arms chopped off.

      1. gaoxiaen   9 years ago

        They needed a good eye doctor.

  23. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

    When Veterans Declared War on the Police

    The men demanded the officials turn the building over to them.

    The officials refused and gunfire lit up the night. Shotgun blasts pockmarked the red brick building. Rifle and handgun bullets ricocheted off the pavement. Homemade molotov cocktails arced through the air. But the fighters mixed them wrong. The fires didn’t catch. But it didn’t matter.

    Dynamite was on the way.

    1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

      At 3:00 p.m., a deputy fired the first shot of the day. An old black farmer named Tom Gillespie stepped into the 11th precinct building to cast his ballot. Deputy Windy Wise turned the man away and beat him with brass knuckles. When Gillespie fled, Wise shot him in the back.

      The gunshot started a chain reaction.

      After seeing the concentration camps and/or how the Japanese treated POWs, much less the Chinese, I figure they lost their taste for ol’ Jim Crow.

      1. R C Dean   9 years ago

        Great stuff. Shame more of the deserving weren’t killed.

    2. Juice   9 years ago

      “The sheriff and his deputies received a fee for every person they booked, incarcerated, and released; the more human transactions, the more money they got,”

      The more things change…

  24. Warty   9 years ago

    I read this a few days ago. It’s worth the time. I love what he claims the CIA asked him in his job interview.

    I had spent the days prior to the interview reading about Lenin’s train and Stalin’s prisons, the width of the Fulda Gap, the depth of the Black Sea. None of the study was called for. Instead of being asked about the treaties of Brest-Litovsk or the October Revolution, I was asked three questions bearing on my social qualifications for admission into what the young men at the far end of the table clearly regarded as the best fraternity on the campus of the free world:

    1. When standing on the thirteenth tee at the National Golf Links in Southampton, which club does one take from the bag?

    2. On final approach under sail into Hay Harbor on Fishers Island, what is the direction (at dusk in late August) of the prevailing wind?

    3. Does Muffy Hamilton wear a slip?

    1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

      Will read to find out if Muffy Hamilton wore a slip.

    2. John   9 years ago

      Read Legacy of Ashes sometime. It tells the actual truth about the CIA. It was from the beginning an organization filled with Ivy League twits who could fuck up tying their shoes.

      1. Warty   9 years ago

        I think that’s hanging out on my sister’s bookshelf at my parents’ house. I should grab it next time I’m visiting.

        1. John   9 years ago

          You should. It is a good book. Some of the stupid shit they did was so bad it is funny. In the early 70s they bugged the bed room of the US Ambassador to some Latin American country. I forget with one. They were hoping to get blackmail material and thought they had hit pay dirt as they got all this tape of her sweet talking someone with a female name. They thought for sure she was a lesbian. The problem was when they went to try and blackmail her, she told them to stick up their ass. Her alleged “girlfriend”, Joanie, I think it was, was actually her beloved Yorkshire terrier. No shit. It was an organization of the worst idiot sons imaginable. The kind of inbred retards that end up working in journalism or in Congress today.

          1. Jerry on the rocks   9 years ago

            I imagine it’s nothing like the movie The Good Shepherd.

            1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

              Won’t ask, won’t look up.

      2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Yeah, it was all rich kids who didn’t even need to work.

        1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

          You leave William F. Buckley, Jr. out of this! What did Skull and Bones ever do to you?

        2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          “You know my father”

          “Hired!”

          1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

            Worked for Justin Trudeau.

            1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

              If Justin Trudeau had his same intellect but been lightspeed ugly, he’d have been laughed off as Trudeau’s dimwitted backroom sprog.

              1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                Yup.

          2. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

            “You *are* my father.”

            “Hired!”

    3. R C Dean   9 years ago

      1. When standing on the thirteenth tee at the National Golf Links in Southampton, which club does one take from the bag?

      One doesn’t take one’s own club from the bag. One accepts a club from one’s caddy. If it does not result in a good drive, one beats one’s caddy with it.

      2. On final approach under sail into Hay Harbor on Fishers Island, what is the direction (at dusk in late August) of the prevailing wind?

      Horizontal.

      1. Rich   9 years ago

        And … AND?!

        1. R C Dean   9 years ago

          Oh, alright:

          3. Does Muffy Hamilton wear a slip?

          Not when she is wearing her clam diggers, you cad.

          1. Rich   9 years ago

            Thanks, R C. 😎

    4. Gray Ghost   9 years ago

      “Blowing My Cover: My Life As A CIA Spy” is also damning, and chock-full of unintentional comedy. The first time I read it, I thought it had to be disinformation.

      I’d read it first in one of Tom Clancy’s books, and who knows who he stole it from, but I thought the idea of staffing the CIA with street cops/detectives had some merit. Get people who are at least used to talking to people who lie to them.

      Lapham’s Quarterly looks like they’re trying to bring back the old Harpers, when it was good.

      1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

        I just watch Mike Baker stammer nothings on Fox News to learn all I need to know about the CIA.

      2. John   9 years ago

        YEah, they fucking hired a stupid sorority girl to be a spy. How the hell did that woman get hired?

      3. The Master McMonocle   9 years ago

        The Navy would sometimes let Tom Clancy on board submarines for a short voyage and give him access to the unclassified parts of the boat, since his books were good publicity for the military. The sailors would give him all sorts of misinformation about how stuff worked and what things were, to see if it would end up in his book. Not that it has anything to do with the CIA, I just thought it was funny.

        1. Gray Ghost   9 years ago

          He had some howlers in his books after Red October and probably Red Storm Rising. The one that first comes to mind was a bit in Clear and Present Danger about how cell phones were popular with drug dealers because the police couldn’t overhear conversations on them. Even as a fifteen year old, snot nosed kid, I knew that was bullshit. Oh, and how moral and clean living the guys in the 7th Light Infantry Division were, when we’d see them trying to pick up high school chicks, while they were drunk off their asses, cruising on S. Main in Salinas, Friday and Saturday nights.

          Not surprising if some of the multitude of military guys he listened to, were leading him down the primrose path. I’d never thought of the similarities between a cop’s running CIs and a case officer’s running of foreign nationals before I’d read that in one of his books though.

    5. GILMORE?   9 years ago

      I stopped reading Lewis Lapham a few years ago when he claimed Patton had crossed the Bridge at Remagen. He can’t even keep his historical facts straight in his grandiose analogies. He’s the more-literate version of same dumbfuckery that James Howard Kunstler appeals to.

      1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

        e.g. see bottom of 7th paragraph

    6. Lee G   9 years ago

      Amusing. Confirms everything I’ve heard anecdotally. I live pretty close to the Farm.

      Thanks.

  25. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

    This is the story of how Ancel Keys and the AMA and AHA and whole bunch of other sheisters cooked up the fat/cholesterol scare in the ’50s and NEVER STOPPED EVER. This is required reading. One of the best write-ups about the proliferation of bad science with the help of government and non-profits you’ll ever read.

    http://business.financialpost……ience-diet

    1. Warty   9 years ago

      N=1 is worthless and everything, but it’s worth noting that I eat at least half a dozen eggs a day and have for years, and when I got my cholesterol taken for a life insurance policy a few months ago, my total cholesterol was 152. I forget what the breakdown of that was, and I know the total number is almost worthless, but there you go. Eat more eggs to save on your premiums, children.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        I eat like shit. Worse than anyone I know. After my life insurance physical, I got the triple platinum rate, which only 2% of applicants qualify for. My wife’s rate is 3x mine, in spite of being younger, female, and a healthy eater.

        Eat whatever you want. You can’t fight genetics.

        1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          You can’t fight genetics.

          That’s what SHE said!

        2. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

          Eat whatever you want.

          The “don’t be sedentary” is implied.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            Of course. Calories in, calories out.

            There’s no room for fatties on the beach.

            1. Warty   9 years ago

              You know better than to pretend complex systems are linear. Restating the laws of thermodynamics tells you precisely nothing about how to eat.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                That’s fag talk.

      2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

        Warty is the Chicken Lady!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1hJ6ea0Aik

      3. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        Why do you eat so many eggs? That must cost a lot. They aren’t bad for you: dietary cholesterol just doesn’t seem to matter.

        1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          Eggs are one of the cheapest sources of nutrition.

          1. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

            Eggs are the worlds most perfect food and they come in their own packaging.

            1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              2 of my favorites (and I’m not just talking about breakfast):
              -Julia Child’s slow scrambled eggs
              -Huevos Rancheros with tomatillo and jack cheese

        2. Warty   9 years ago

          What? No. Eggs are incredibly cheap.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            Maybe not in America Junior.

            1. Warty   9 years ago

              Don’t they all work on collective farms? No wonder food is expensive.

            2. OneOut   9 years ago

              2.25 a dozen ?

              That’s pretty cheap.

              Or you can pay for labels such as “cage free” which means the chickens have an extra 6 inches of room.

              my favorite is ‘vegitarian fed”.

              vegitarian eggs are bland as can be.

              I buy local yard bird eggs for $2.50 and the yolks are orange and stand tall.

              I eat a couple of dozen a week.

              1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                $4.49 a dozen here and for the reasons Cytotoxic cites below.

                It’s a controlled racket.

                Then again, Canada is but a controlled racket.

            3. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

              No, not in Canada. We have this horrible POS policy called ‘supply management’ that enforces a quota on production of eggs and milk and chicken and few other minor things. I am hoping synthetic biology will give us the weapons we need to break the system. Look up ‘Muufri’ for an example.

          2. PapayaSF   9 years ago

            Not in CA any more, since the pussies passed a law about being extra-nice to chickens. At my local Safeway they’ve been $4/dozen or more for months.

            1. Juice   9 years ago

              That’s what I pay for the large free range eggs with the bright orange yolks. Well, the cheap kind. At Whole Foods they’re $6 and up.

    2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      “Cholesterol: How a now discredited diet theory became a national mania”

      It’s amazing how much power a discredited study with obvious flaws has. Think the vaccine-autism link thing. The author admitted it was flawed and yet people still believe it.

      Another example is from 2005 in the LA Times when an interesting article appeared titled, ‘Roe Ruling: More Than Its Author Intended’.

      http://articles.latimes.com/20…..abortion14

    3. Raven Nation   9 years ago

      Whew, I checked the article and am relieved AHA did not refer to the American Historical Association.

    4. Lee G   9 years ago

      The AHA is a bunch of whores? I’m shocked.

      Interesting article. Thanks.

  26. John   9 years ago

    Legal Insurrection looks back at the 08 Washington Post endorsement of Obama. Trigger warning, it will induce nausea.

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2…..greatness/

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      Mr. Obama, as anyone who reads his books can tell, also has a sophisticated understanding of the world and America’s place in it.

      Good Lord.

      1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

        “You mendacious bastard – I read your book!”

        1. Mad Scientist   9 years ago

          Magnificent, Crusty!

        2. Rich   9 years ago

          Audacious, but beautiful.

        3. This Machine Chips Fascists   9 years ago

          Nearly choked on my vape pen.

      2. Suthenboy   9 years ago

        “Mr. Obama, as anyone who reads his books can tell, also has a sophisticated understanding of the world and America’s place in it.”

        Holy goddamned fuckin’ shit. Of all the sentences ever composed in the history of mankind that is the single worst one with regards to its relation to truth. President Peace Prize has certainly ushered in post racial america.

        As per my suggestion yesterday, if you voted for this guy run a piece of rusty barbed wire up your ass. Do it now.

        1. OneOut   9 years ago

          He’s playing 7 dimensional chess.

          You guys just don’t get it.

    2. SIV   9 years ago

      The Ron Bailey and Tim Cavanaugh endorsements were bad enough. I’m not going to read that.

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        Cavanaugh was drunk at the time.

    3. AlmightyJB   9 years ago

      Worst president in 30 years. Worse than Carter even.

      1. MSimon   9 years ago

        Yep. Worse than Carter.

    4. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

      The perceived U.S. tilt toward Iran has inflamed Sunni jihadis, contributed to the meltdown in Syria, and has made regional sectarian conflict hotter and more dangerous than ever. What’s more, the U.S. has lost leverage over Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel?without gaining leverage over Iran. As a result, the U.S. is both less able to persuade the Sunni powers to refrain from steps that could inflame regional conflict and is completely unable to persuade the Iranians to moderate their behavior in the interest of regional peace.

      The President has a nuanced understanding of America’s place in the world. He’s an analytical guy. And he gives me a thrill up my leg I don’t feel very often.

  27. Gojira   9 years ago

    Rationalwiki really hates libertarianism. The whole page is just about how stupid and unworkable the idea is.

    http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Libertarianism

    1. Warty   9 years ago

      Goddammit, JJ, this is stupid and you smell. Post a link to the old Critiques of Libertarian page next, you stupid asshole.

    2. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

      Rationalwiki isn’t.

      1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

        And don’t start on the name of this very magazine…

    3. Tonio   9 years ago

      Isn’t that part of the Pharyngula and friends crowd?

      1. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

        Yes. PZ Myers is amazing because he’s now roundly despised by almost everyone since most atheists hate how he race baits over Islam.

    4. Irish ?s ESB   9 years ago

      My favorite is their page on Alan Greenspan where they claim the Fed controls Fiscal policy and is responsible for banking regulations.

      They are so fucking smug but can’t tell the difference between fiscal and monetary policy and also don’t know that banking regs are enforced/written by bureaucracies outside the federal reserve. They blamed Greenspan for the repeal of Glass-Steagles, which he had no power to do.

      1. R C Dean   9 years ago

        also don’t know that banking regs are enforced/written by bureaucracies outside the federal reserve.

        Looks to me like the Fed has quite a few regulations:

        http://www.federalreserve.gov/…..isting.htm

    5. Zeb   9 years ago

      It starts off OK:

      Libertarianism is, at its simplest, the antonym of authoritarianism.

      1. Gojira   9 years ago

        Yes, but the rest is a bunch of derp about how heartless and terrible we all are.

        OT: a coterie of smug young people from Connecticut and one from Nepal just knocked on my door asking me to donate money to their environmental scam, and tried to scare me with how everybody is going to die from global warming.

        I politely listened to their spiel and declined to offer my financial support.

        Couldn’t even find any native Texans to do this work. One of the chicks wasn’t even sure which city she was in. FUCK YOU Connecticut, keep your goddamned communists in the north, where they belong.

        1. Frankjasper1   9 years ago

          We really are terrible and heartless…since you know we dont solicit a 3rd party to rob peter to pay paul. Only if we did this we would be enlightened!

          1. Zeb   9 years ago

            I find the whole notion that if you don’t want to force everyone to do what you think is right you are heartless rather offensive and insulting. But I suppose that’s not necessarily unintended.

        2. Zeb   9 years ago

          Yeah, I couldn’t even make it through the introduction.

    6. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

      It’s pretty funny to see a place dedicated to rationalism so extremely against libertarianism. Like us or not, we’re part of the rationalist tradition, buttholes.

      Hence Reason.

      1. Zeb   9 years ago

        All the “reality based” stuff makes me think they are saying “rationalism” when they mean “empiricism”. But even then they aren’t doing a very good job.

      2. Suthenboy   9 years ago

        Spend one minute reading there and you will realize that their definition of ‘rational’ is not the same as yours.

    7. Akira   9 years ago

      “the reality-based community tends to realize that one cannot just yank economic theories out of the air and magically expect them to work.”

      You can’t just yank the theory of gravity out of the air and expect it to work!

      You can’t just yank the laws of thermodynamics out of the air and expect them to work!

      1. Zeb   9 years ago

        Yeah, what have free markets and capitalism ever done for anyone?

      2. Frankjasper1   9 years ago

        Their lack of self awareness is amusing

    8. Juice   9 years ago

      The contrast to their article on socialism tells you all you need to know about their biases.

  28. Medical Physics Guy   9 years ago

    The next metal superstars are the Children Medieval Band

  29. Always a Carl, Never a Clyde   9 years ago

    I watched (most of) Chuck Norris vs Communism the other night. Recommended.

    1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

      I had not heard of that before. I love stories like that.

  30. John   9 years ago

    The five best liberal excuses for the German NYE rape fest.
    1. It was a false flag operation designed to discredit innocent lovely immigrants
    2. You can’t talk about these things because it encourages the ‘Far Right’
    3. Rape is only a ‘thing’ when white people do it
    4. Ooh look some cute kids! And they’re Syrian refugees!!!
    5. Nothing to do with Islam. It’s because all men are rapists, obviously

    http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/223439/

    Further proof there is no such thing as peak retard.

    1. Gray Ghost   9 years ago

      At least the “Sign this NDA or we won’t treat you for rape” rumor is looking to be false.

      Whatever happened to the fearsome Polizei I was warned about when I visited in 2000? Those guys that, from hearing second hand stories from Army guys, loved nothing more than to crack heads first and arrest GI’s second?

      1. John   9 years ago

        They did. But the German government is so PC that apparently they are not allowed to do anything if the perp is a sacred Muslim. I am reading where vigilante groups are forming. That is completely to be expected and is not going to end well. I suspect the refugees will wish the police had done something.

        1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

          Problem is native Europeans who engage in such activities will get in trouble.

          1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

            With who? The police can’t even handle outsiders, they’re going to stop a native mass movement that, deep down, they probably sympathize with?

            1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

              Wait, I’m feeling some deja vu here…

              1. GamerFromJump   9 years ago

                Is the mass movement against people who not only did no harm, but actually improved the areas they were in, and were still the recipients of centuries of concerted hatred, libel and pogroms, followed by a paroxysm of direct attempts at extermination?

                Otherwise, I’m not seeing it.

                1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

                  It doesn’t exist yet (it’s a movement, but not mass). It will. I can’t see away for the authorities to keep order in places like Germany and Sweden, and the consequences of that failure are going to feel an awful lot like losing a war — rape and pillage and fear. That’s going to create the mass movement.

                  Islam, on account of having violent supremacist attitudes hard-coded in, just doesn’t do a very good job living in equitable peace with others unless there is a non-Islamic superpower there to force everyone to play nice. Do that for generations and you can develop a large enough class of MINOs that the pious ones are on the defensive rather than the liberal ones, but there’s still always a risk of recurrence once things get hard and people start turning to their faith for answers. And since that’s always going to be in the cards, probably best to have as few people as possible following the faith that says the answer is “you’re the master faith and everyone else is subhuman filth, so feel free to rape them to death, eat their flesh, and sew their skins into your clothing — if they’re generous to your people, repay that kindness by making sure to do it that order.”

        2. GamerFromJump   9 years ago

          “That is completely to be expected and is not going to end well.”

          Depends on what you consider “ending well”.

    2. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      It’s unclear that this has anything to do with Islam. It’s probably more of an Arab thing.

      1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

        Is that supposed to be better? Hey, why criticize a vicious ideology of hate when we could just be racist?

        1. Zeb   9 years ago

          Culture-ist, not racist. Arabs aren’t a racial group.

          I tend to think that it probably didn’t have much to do with Islam beyond the general pervasive influence on culture and the low regard Islam has for women’s rights. Which isn’t nothing. But most Muslims manage at least not to rape or grope strangers. And if the rumors of the mob being drunken are true, then they aren’t terribly by-the-book Muslims.

          1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

            This. Sexual repression is just a spoke on the wheel of Arab cultural backwardness that I think contributes more to the ME’s problems than Islam itself.

            1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

              Seems hard to disentangle it — Arabs invented Islam, so it would have reflected their cultural values at the time, and their culture today is influenced by 1400 years of Islam.

        2. american socialist   9 years ago

          This is racist. Just wait till my transvestite mother, Brian, gets here. He’ll tell you how you’re microaggresing.

    3. Suthenboy   9 years ago

      This morning I turned on the news. Two refugees had been arrested, one in california and one in texas, for being isis supporters/combatants. A guy shot a cop in philly in the name of allah. Cops discovered a bomb making operation in belgium linked to the paris attacks.

      I can’t wait for all the widows and orphan refugees to arrive.

      Now, someone tell me what a racist yokel I am.

      1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        Charged =/= convicted

  31. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

    Song of the day.

    1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

      The movie was good at least.

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        Sorry, it wasn’t like the last one where if you didn’t like the music, you could bate to the picture.

  32. Pope Jimbo   9 years ago

    The Vikings stadium is the that keeps on giving.

    US Bank gave the Vikes a ton of money for naming rights. Unfortunately Wells Fargo built two new office buildings near by and are “photo bombing” them because the signs on the roofs of the Wells Fargo buildings will mar the view of the Vikes stadium.

    The Vikings claim the signs would permanently “photo-bomb” the image of “iconic” U.S. Bank Stadium, which they emphasize is a public investment to be protected.

    I await judgement on this until I see how it affects my cut of the profits from the new stadium. Yeah right, like I’m ever going to see a cent of that “public investment”.

    I can’t believe how fucking tone deaf Wilf (the owner) is. Even the local sports radio bobo’s are making fun of him lately.

    1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

      I hope he gets sick from being in the cold this weekend.

  33. Pope Jimbo   9 years ago

    We are #1.

    Suck it Portland! You may edge Minneapolis out in the vaunted bike friendly city surveys, but we have the first vegan butcher shop!!!!!

    1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

      Are the hipsters that live in Minneapolis there because they have to live there?

    2. Trials and Trippelations   9 years ago

      Owner Kale Walch

      Given name or changed his name?

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        His?

        1. Zeb   9 years ago

          Apparently. I think I see a weird little mustache in the photo.

    3. Zeb   9 years ago

      Vegan butcher? That’s not a thing.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Vegetables scream too.

  34. american socialist   9 years ago

    New Years Resolution #22: Become more social and less abrasive and confrontational. In that vein, I will not mention anything about the sincerity of Barack Obama, won’t talk about how right-wingers use gun politics and social issues to distract poor people from engaging in a socialist revolution, won’t talk about how right-wing politicians use victimization rhetoric to advance their careers, won’t talk about collusion between politicians and special interests, definitely won’t talk about my mortgage or my stellar credit ratings, and most definitely won’t make any jokes about Asian stereotypes in any way, shape or form. Nono!

    Can I still talk about what cunts every one of these Republican candidates are. I was talking with my good buddy, Gilmore, last night and he said it was ok. Let me know if I’m microaggressing,ok? It’s a brand new year and I want to do better.

    1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      “won’t talk about how right-wingers use gun politics and social issues to distract poor people from engaging in a socialist revolution, won’t talk about how right-wing politicians use victimization rhetoric to advance their careers, won’t talk about collusion between politicians and special interests, ”

      Project some more bitch.

    2. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

      It’s a brand new year and I want to do better.

      I’m pretty sure you’re too stupid to do better. There’s only so much you can do with a sub-90 IQ.

      1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

        OK, that almost cost me a mouthful of apple cider.

      2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        He probably thought is was pretty clever to say something and then do the exact opposite. Kind of like my 4 year old.

        1. OneOut   9 years ago

          “definitely won’t talk about my mortgage or my stellar credit ratings”

          Are you gonna bad mouth Trump for his business reorganizations ? No ? Not now huh ?

          Well anyway we now know that good credit dosen’t always equate to good character.

    3. Old.Mexican   9 years ago

      Re: American Stultified,

      New Years Resolution #22: Become more social and less abrasive and confrontational.

      I guess becoming more rational, less envious of others’ fortunes and less childish is simply beyond your capabilities. Marxian to the bitter end.

    4. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

      …poor people from engaging in a socialist revolution,

      “Fucking poor! Why are they so stoopid! Why can’t they just realize their inherent socialism?!? Self defense is bupkis! They have no business caring about their society!”

      Preach it, AmSoc!!

      1. american socialist   9 years ago

        If I’m 62 years old and have 20k in the bank for my retirement (a not-so-unheard-of predicament) you’re saying its intelligent for me to vote for a Republican who says he’ll slash my Social Security benefit because he gets beet-red in the face about obummer?

        1. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

          No, but thanks for playing!

          What I was saying is that your shitty belief that poor people are going to lead us all into some kind of government-run utopia (via revolution), is as bad as your claim that these same “poor” are somehow easily distracted from that goal by other issues.

          Sounds to me like you were just plain stupid with your finances, with an underlying belief that someone owed you something and would…”mother” you when you felt it was time to stop working.

          If you had only decided that your finances were your responsibility, and behaved as such, you would probably be better prepared for retirement. Hell, you might have even voted for people who would have stopped the government from confiscating your money, and had more to invest/save.

          But, shoulda-woulda-coulda. You chose the behavior, you chose the consequences.

          P.S.- I like how you made the idea of cutting government theft all about someone’s emotion meltdown. No wonder you think I was telling you to “vote Republican”.

          1. Red Rocks Rockin   9 years ago

            Jesus. The 13th Amendment is supposed to prevent people from getting owned like that.

        2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

          I’ve been working hard to plan for my retirement so I don’t have only $20k. Why do the progressives keep taking away (and demanding to take away more) of that shrinking sum that I have saved?

          Or is that the goal. To eviscerate everyone’s savings forcing them into SSN as their only option?

          1. american socialist   9 years ago

            “Or is that the goal. To eviscerate everyone’s savings forcing them into SSN as their only option?”

            I guess it would depend on the current status of my 401k. If I had 3 million dollars in my IRA I might argue as you do. Since I know something about spreadsheets and retirement planning and 529 plans, I know that I live better if I elect people who keep Social Security around instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires. I never bought that Atlas Shrugged horseshit like you did.

            1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

              “Since I know something about spreadsheets and retirement planning and 529 plans, I know that I live better if I elect people who keep Social Security around instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires.”

              You’d be better off still if you had 1) been allowed to invest your own money instead of having it stolen for SS and 2) weren’t a retard at financial planning.

              Your need is not a moral claim to what others have.

              1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                This.

            2. Sevo   9 years ago

              american socialist|1.8.16 @ 8:01PM|#

              “Or is that the goal. To eviscerate everyone’s savings forcing them into SSN as their only option?”

              I guess it would depend on the current status of my 401k. If I had 3 million dollars in my IRA I might argue as you do. Since I know something about spreadsheets and retirement planning and 529 plans, I know that I live better if I elect people WHO STEAL FROM OTHERS SO I DON’T HAVE TO LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS.

        3. Sevo   9 years ago

          american socialist|1.8.16 @ 7:21PM|#
          “If I’m 62 years old and have 20k in the bank for my retirement (a not-so-unheard-of predicament) you’re saying its intelligent for me to vote for a Republican who says he’ll slash my Social Security benefit because he gets beet-red in the face about obummer?”

          No, you should voter for someone who will slash your social security because you’re not a lefty thief like commie kid.
          BTW, did you pay your mortgage yet, or are you still free-riding on honest people?

          1. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

            I’d like to explain american socialist’s philosophy for you:

            “Gimme Gimme Gimme Mine Mine Mine Gimme Gimme Gimme.”

            Understand?

            1. american socialist   9 years ago

              “Gimme Gimme Gimme Mine Mine Mine Gimme Gimme Gimme.”

              You mean like I vote for people who promote my middle-class economic interests and don’t vote for politicians who say they’ll keep the gay away. Guilty as charged.

              1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

                I vote for people who promote my middle-class economic interests

                american producerist

              2. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

                people who promote my middle-class economic interests

                Why are others having to deal with your interests?

                Oh, I get it-just farming out the violence to others so you can finance your life.

                Classy.

              3. Sevo   9 years ago

                american socialist|1.8.16 @ 8:05PM|#
                ‘You mean like I vote for people who STEAL FROM OTHERS SO I DON’T HAVE TO LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS? Guilty as charged.

          2. american socialist   9 years ago

            Hi sevo,

            God, I’m no good at resolutions I guess. I was going to mention my mortgage to the commenter above who said I should take responsibility for my financial decision– assuring him/her that I did in discharging a debt. I didn’t respond to the plaintive wailing of right-wingers who laid the blame on poor Black people and said that people in underwater mortgages should bootstrap themselves to crooked contracts made with crooks at BofA– among many.

            1. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

              I didn’t respond to the plaintive wailing of right-wingers who said that people shouldn’t finance things they can’t afford in their current financial state, and that if something is too good to be true, it usually is, regardless of other parties involved.

              FIFY.

              Oh, and this gem:

              I should take responsibility for my financial decision– assuring him/her that I did in discharging a debt

              Not paying what you agreed to… Moral high ground, there.

            2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              TULPA

            3. Sevo   9 years ago

              american socialist|1.8.16 @ 7:55PM|#
              “Hi sevo,
              God, I’m no good at resolutions I guess.”

              AFAICT, you’re not worth shit at most anything, other than repeating whiny left-wing tropes.

          3. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

            Honestly, it’s not that hard to save 20k. My grand mother collected a tiny pension for 25 years and managed to save 48k.

            Saving your money and proper management can be learned and achieved. If you choose not to, it’s by choice. Blaming circumstances can only go so far.

            1. american socialist   9 years ago

              “Proper management”

              Rufus,

              Do you think it’s better to pay money on an underwater mortgage or contribute money to a 529 account to pay for your kids’ education. I cry everyday about the fate of BofA CEOs and stockholders, but somehow I make it through the day. One at a time.

              1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

                Not sure I follow.

                Stop looking at them and do your job as Belichick says. Lefties obsess over the dumbest things and obsessing over CEO’s as if it actually impacts your pay is lunacy.

                1. american socialist   9 years ago

                  I know all that about how CEOs are the greatest, but my main question was whether or not its a better financial decision to put $30,000 into a 529 account or pay $30,000 on a home loan where the house is worth $150k, but the loan is $230k

                  1. Francisco d'Anconia   9 years ago

                    Which did you sign a contract for?

                    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                      Tulpa doesn’t know how much houses cost in CA.

                    2. Juice   9 years ago

                      pwn3d

        4. Frankjasper1   9 years ago

          Work longer? Why were you stupid with your money and now expect others to pick up the tab?

        5. See Double You   9 years ago

          If I’m 62 years old and have 20k in the bank for my retirement (a not-so-unheard-of predicament) [….].

          If you seek investment advice, ask shrike.

          1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

            It’s pretty unheard of for responsible non-idiot adults.

        6. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          american socialist|1.8.16 @ 7:21PM|#

          If I’m 62 years old and have 20k in the bank for my retirement

          HAHAHAHA.
          YOU DONE FUCKED UP, SON!

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            No, I fucked up. Tulpa.

        7. Juice   9 years ago

          TIL expecting a SS check after paying into the system for 40 years is a “socialist revolution.”

    5. Warty   9 years ago

      Maybe you should build some kind of camp this year. And then, if you don’t like someone, you can invite him to spend some time in your camp. And while he’s in your camp, he can learn all sorts of new things and unlearn some things that he’s mistaken about. That sounds nice.

      1. Pan Zagloba   9 years ago

        Pfft, now you are stealing Hilary Clinton’s “fun camp for adults” idea! He’s a Bernie man!

    6. MJGreen - Docile Citizen   9 years ago

      right-wingers use gun politics and social issues to distract poor people from engaging in a socialist revolution

      LOL, that’s it. Socialists couldn’t get anything done back in the early 20th century, but it would happen now, if only Republicans would stop talking about guns and gays!

      I don’t get it, though… if that’s what’s tripping up your glorious revolution, why don’t you embrace it? Or are you admitting that socialism cannot allow the proles to be armed, or tolerate a pluralistic society?

    7. Sevo   9 years ago

      american socialist|1.8.16 @ 6:40PM|#
      “…Can I still talk about what cunts every one of these Republican candidates are.”

      Knock yourself out, slimeball. I’ll be happy to read the same about the D candidates; the criminal and the brain-dead socialist.

      1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

        Speaking of the brain-dead socialist, apparently he’s up big in NH.

    8. Suthenboy   9 years ago

      Holy shit AmSoc. That is some epic projection or trolling there.

      1. american socialist   9 years ago

        I’m trolling? Where? I’m talking about right-wing Republicans. You know… Douchebag corporatists, warmongers. And Jeebus freaks. This was mainline libertarianism some 30 years ago before being a libertarian meant inhabiting some low rent ideological position to the Right of the RP. You guys have been had going from Murray rothbard to rand Paul. What a joke.

        1. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

          As opposed to your party of….douchebag corporatists, warmongers, and government freaks?

          Spare us. The only joke is that you think you have some sort of moral high ground here.

          1. Sevo   9 years ago

            darn your fast fingers, T-P!

        2. Sevo   9 years ago

          american socialist|1.8.16 @ 8:51PM|#

          I’m trolling? Where? I’m talking about right-wing Republicans. You know… Douchebag corporatists, warmongers. And Jeebus freaks

          Yes, projection, slimebag:
          Lefty douchebag corporatists, warmongers. And mud-mama/gov’t freaks. Opposing both is still pretty libertarian, unlike slimebag Ds who only oppose the R statists.

        3. GILMORE?   9 years ago

          “I’m trolling? Where?”

          Well, if you’re not….

          ….then you’re confessing that you are so unbelievably stupid that you’d try argue that the Golden Gate Bridge was *actually* a great example of Federal Infrastructure Spending… and that Obama’s greatest accomplishment as President was “bringing troops home from Iraq”

          Either you’re sincere, and a combination of bone-stupid and ignorant….

          …or you’re just a douchebag troll.

          No one really cares which, if you hadn’t noticed. You’ll be treated the same regardless.

          1. american socialist   9 years ago

            “Golden Gate Bridge”

            Hey Gilmore buddy, can you show me where I said that the GG Bridge was built using federal funds? It has, since, received plenty of money from the Department of Transportation, you know, right?

            “Iraq”

            It would have been better that we elected John McCain. Withdrawing from Iraq was a settled issue in 2008. Just listen to what the RP was saying about it in 2008.

            1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

              You make a good point = its entirely possible for you to be BOTH a complete fucking moron, AND a mendacious little puke of a troll. Thank you for clarifying the obvious 3rd option.

              1. american socialist   9 years ago

                Uh huh… It’s coming back to me… I think I said the GG Bridge was built by Howard Roark or Steve jobs. I forget which.

                Gil, buddy, I thought it was ok with you if I criticized Republicans, but gee whiz, man, when I do you get downright unpleasant. I can’t win with you and then I start to feel blue and sad.

            2. GILMORE?   9 years ago

              As a reminder of how unbelievably dumb you are, you here pretend that you can’t remember actually making the claim… AND you try and modify the claim you know you already made, inadvertently conceding you remember exactly what i’m referring to.

              Has no one ever pointed out to you how unbelievably incompetent you are at basic-argument? You obviously persist at it only because you have such an undeservedly high-opinion of yourself… but you’re a complete disaster. You can’t score a single point on matters of fact, and your capability for wit is even worse.

              You’re not smart, and you’re not funny… but you possess a psychotic desperation for attention? The only possible conclusion is you desire to be abused. Because anyone else, after the years of repeated decimation of their idiotic attempts at argument, would have grasped that maybe they need to either improve, or choose another game. But you persist. Which means you enjoy the abuse. Which only inspires revulsion and disgust from people.

              Maybe now you better understand why no one likes you at all? Its not the politics at all. You could be (like the Bo Cara incarnation) an ‘actual’ libertarian….and people would still reject you. Its who you *are* that’s so repulsive.

        4. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          TULPA

        5. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

          Keep using that dance to detract from the fact a 62 year-old should have much more than 20k saved.

          When I started my business I carried a lot of debt and didn’t pay myself a salary. Then, slowly, I began to prioritize and pay it down, pay myself and start saving.

          You should be able to amass 20k EASILY.

          Jesus. What is wrong with people? It’s not that hard. No matter how much you earn. Then again, there’s probably a ‘savers’ gene because some people seem to be better at it than others. There are people who are able to say ‘hey man, I’d like that Land Rover but I can afford a Honda…for now’ and adjust their finances and expectations accordingly.

          The people with 20k at 62 years-old usually didn’t want to defer luxuries choosing to take them up front – likely on credit- when they probably shouldn’t have.

    9. Dariush   9 years ago

      Shut the fuck up you racist.

  35. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

    Jonathon Kay is the former editor of the National Post, a formerly interesting paper that he turned into a bland piece of crap. He is now editor of The Walrus (no really). Angry milqetoast douche.

    Challenge: find anything in this anti-NRA screed that is grounded or well-thought out. Anything at all.

    1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      http://news.nationalpost.com/f…..ss-shooter

    2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

      Kay went derp?

      Robert Fulford is a fine writer I enjoy.

      1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        He always sucked.

  36. Old.Mexican   9 years ago

    “At least 18 asylum seekers are among 31 people who have been identified so far by the federal police as having played a role in a violent assault on young women in the German city of Cologne on New Year’s Eve, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.”

    Tell me more about how we shouldn’t fear refugees, Usul.

    1. Pan Zagloba   9 years ago

      There were a Serb* and a United Statsian among those 18, Old Mexican! Respectively the foreman/bruiser and the leader of the operation, no doubt (we know the brains are safely across the sea, in Tel Aviv). The rest were just told that women are possessed by jinn and were trying to help chase the spirits away – heroes, really!

      *back in the news, bitches! Though I’m willing to bet 50-50 that the guy was not actually a member of the ethnicity that comprieses 83% of Serbia’s population. Violence, robbery and misoginy are all in character, but I’d be surpised by lack of racism that would have him team up with Arabs to grope white women.

    2. Zeb   9 years ago

      At least in the US we (mostly) have the advantage of being legally permitted to defend ourselves. I think that makes such an event much less likely.

      1. paranoid android   9 years ago

        -1 Puerto Rican Day Parade

      2. Dilligaf   9 years ago

        But the Lightbringer is hard at work as we speak trying to bring us equality with the enlightened citizens of Europe. We just need to check our Constitutional Privilege.

    3. OneOut   9 years ago

      No more OM..

      That problem is settled.

      Obama just authorized an official and acknowledged 1,800 troops into Syria to fight the JVs.

      The Middle East will soon be a paradise.

      http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/…..ns-forces/

    4. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

      Tell me more about how we shouldn’t fear refugees

      Well, we shouldn’t. I haven’t heard of any rape gangs of Hmong men terrorizing the streets of Minneapolis. I’ve never seen in the news a story of a Rwandan shooting a Philadelphian police officer in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.

      There seems to be a hidden variable.

      1. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

        Are you suggesting human beings aren’t interchangeable widgets? That they may carry or believe some cultural norms or values that are less than..ideal?

        That must be racist or somethingist. YOU ARE A FUCKING COLLECTIVIST.

        1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

          Yeah? Well, at least I ain’t basic.

          1. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

            Yeah? Well, at least I ain’t basic.

            Ooohhh…I was so sure you were going to link this.

            1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

              That’s one comfortable with his sexuality dude.

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                What dude?

              2. OneOut   9 years ago

                I’m not sure that one has a sexuality.

              3. OneOut   9 years ago

                I’m not sure that one has a sexuality.

                1. Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)   9 years ago

                  Well, he’s said he wants to bugger ol’ Bieber, so ……I can’t think of a way to finish that sentence.

          2. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

            Goddamn you, HM!

            *collapses to the floor weeping*

            1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

              Don’t feel that bad! There is hope if you follow the correct rehabilitative regime!

              1. Ms. Eleanor Lavish   9 years ago

                Sure, sure. Next you’ll be telling me my pole dancing class is totally basic too.

                1. Heroic Mulatto   9 years ago

                  Af

                2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  You left him speechless. He was asking for pics.

      2. OneOut   9 years ago

        We should not fear them.

        We should keep them out of our society but if they are going to be here i say don’t fear them

        Treat them they way the way the terrorists at the draw Mohammed contest in Dallas were treated.

        1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

          “We should keep them out of our society”

          Why? Because you’re afraid? Tough shit. It’s not ‘our’ society or yours. You don’t own it.

    5. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      I’m still not fearing them. To be afraid over a few incidents is silly. Refugee crises aren’t pretty in the short term.

  37. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

    NY Times keeps stumping for HillDog.

    On a humid summer day in 1972, Hillary Rodham walked into this town’s new private academy, a couple of cinder-block classrooms erected hurriedly amid fields of farmland, and pretended to be someone else.

    Playing down her flat Chicago accent, she told the school’s guidance counselor that her husband had just taken a job in Dothan, that they were a churchgoing family and that they were looking for a school for their son.

    […]

    “It was dangerous, being outsiders in these rural areas, talking about segregation academies,” said Cynthia Brown, a longtime education advocate who did work similar to Clinton’s.

    She added, “We thought we were part of the civil-rights struggle, definitely.”

    http://www.seattletimes.com/na…..-in-south/

    1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

      “The local real-estate agents, the bankers, the Baptist pastors and even the elected officials encouraged new families ? if they were white and Christian ? to consider Houston Academy, the new private academy just outside town that was *able to operate* because the IRS *gave* the school tax-exempt status, according to former students.”

      So it’s a scandal because the IRS “gave” the school the same tax break as other nonprofits, and thus the school was “able to operate,” when presumably if justice had been done it *wouldn’t* have been able to operate.

      But wait –

      “…Houston Academy, now an elite college preparatory school.”

      So it’s a tragedy that the IRS “gave” this school the right to operate.

      Oh, I found this, which I guess shows Houston Academy *is* dangerous:

      No Common Core for Houston Academy says headmaster…

      “”It’s a one-size-fits-all approach to education,” he said.”

      1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

        Remember how in the 1990s, Hillary and Bill sent their daughter to the predominately black public schools in the District of Columbia rather than to some religiously affiliated, majority-white private school?

        1. Notorious UGCC   9 years ago

          Google is so awesome – I just found this from 1993:

          “Chelsea’s just one of the gang at Sidwell Friends

          “…Chelsea Clinton’s classmates giggled as they told how the presidential daughter portrayed a fortune-teller at a school carnival.

          “She was reading palms,” recalled Sarah Sommerkamp. “She said I had a long life line. Then she said I would marry early and my husband would have affairs.””

          1. Red Rocks Rockin   9 years ago

            “She was reading palms,” recalled Sarah Sommerkamp. “She said I had a long life line. Then she said I would marry early and my husband would have affairs.””

            Art imitates life, huh?

    2. OneOut   9 years ago

      “Playing down her flat Chicago accent,”

      Ooh ooh which of her many accents did she use ?

      The black civil rights one ?

      “I ain’t no ways tired” ?

      That one never gets old.

  38. Jerryskids   9 years ago

    “In the same way that we don’t eliminate all the traffic accidents but, over the course of 20 years traffic accidents get lower … over time, [gun] violence gets reduced, and so families are spared,” he said.

    Does anybody have any context for this statement? Does Obama have any context for this statement? He wants new “common-sense gun safety” laws to incrementally reduce gun violence the same way we have incrementally reduced traffic accidents by…….. by what, exactly? Have we only recently required car drivers to be a certain age, to be licensed, to pass a driving test, to register their vehicles, to carry liability insurance, to be penalized for careless or reckless use of their cars? Have we outlawed high-capacity vehicles, automatic transmissions, cars with fold-down rear seats or the thing in the front that goes up? Somebody help me out here – what is Obama referring to with regards to the new common-sense car safety laws we’ve passed in the last 20 years that account for the reduced number of traffic accidents?

    1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

      If gun deaths were 99% “accidents” then there’d be some point to the word salad. Unfortunately, he’s comparing accidents and oranges. Cars kill people generally unintentionally. Guns rarely do.

      No matter what you think of gun violence, comparing it or attempting to address it the same way we addressed car accidents is not only silly, it’s disingenuous.

      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   9 years ago

        accidents and oranges.

        Boom, I’m keeping that.

    2. Zeb   9 years ago

      We have fewer traffic accidents because we have safer, better cars, better roads and drunk driving has become much less socially acceptable. The only thing there you can really give the government any credit for is drunk driving, but I think that changing social attitudes have done more than cracking down on DUI in that case.

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Do we have fewer traffic collisions? I don’t know, and I’m too lazy to look it up.
        Survivability is way up, and injuries are way down, but are there actually fewer collisions?

        1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

          See this traffic accidents chart

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I like two of those things.

  39. JoWaDat889   9 years ago

    I wish the US would mind its own effin business for a change.

    http://www.Full-VPN.tk

  40. DEG   9 years ago

    Sweet Baby Jesus! is the beer for tonight.

    Any threads from today I should skip? It was a busy day at work.

    1. straffinrun   9 years ago

      Tulpa was back under “Ugh”.

      1. DEG   9 years ago

        Yuck.

        1. Pan Zagloba   9 years ago

          No, “Ugh.”

          1. DEG   9 years ago

            Who’s on first?

            1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              Yes.

    2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      Yesterday, Tulpa asks where I take my dumps. But I’m obsessed.

      1. DEG   9 years ago

        Could Tulpa be Mary?

        1. DEG   9 years ago

          I ask because I haven’t kept up with the latest troll theories.

        2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          I really don’t know. The rage isn’t there, but the crazy is.

  41. JeremyR   9 years ago

    Over on NeoGaf there is an interesting report about at teacher threatening to call child services over a kid playing Halo 5

    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/sh…..?t=1168119

    1. SusanM   9 years ago

      Afraid he could be bored to death?

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Did I see that you live in Torrance, or is that a different SusanM?
        (one of Lenore’s contests)

        1. SusanM   9 years ago

          I’m from sunny Philadelphia.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            There’s an imposter!!!
            From the most recent Lenore contest:
            “Shampoo (originally from the Hindi), now called follicle edulcorate. — Susan M., Torrance, CA”

            1. SusanM   9 years ago

              At least she’s kinda funny.

              1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

                And informational! I had no idea Hindus washed.

                1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  Apparently, there’s a river.

                  1. GILMORE?   9 years ago

                    oh, I knew about that, but that’s the dirtiest river on earth. I thought that was like their version of “Freaknik” or something. or like a dare.

    2. straffinrun   9 years ago

      In that teacher’s head is a little voice praising her for not turning a blind eye to poor parenting. I’m trying to plant a little voice in my 7 year old’s head that says, “Do not trust this teacher, school or any government employee”. Pissing off my wife, but it’s worth it.

  42. Judge Forrest's Clitdong   9 years ago

    Where’s agile? I’m a good way through a battle of lagavulin and looking for more laughs

    1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

      Mmm, Lagavulin.

    2. Sevo   9 years ago

      AC does come and go; I think he requires a drying out now and then. I sure as hell would.

    3. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      Good way through a battle? Yes you are.

  43. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

    OK. American Socialist is Tulpa. 100%. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

    Thanks for “adding to the discussion”. I’d rather you talk about my dumps, though.

    1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      Well, that was a long con. Sorry bro.

    2. DEG   9 years ago

      Fuck.

    3. Sevo   9 years ago

      Not sure, unless tulpa is really a ‘flexible’ personality. The insulting stupidity is there, but it’s missing the self-righteous pomposity.

      1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

        He does.

    4. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      Link?

      1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

        Link to what?

        1. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

          The moment where he slips.

    5. Pompey   9 years ago

      Tulsa or not, it’s still a genuine racist pile of shit.

      1. Pompey   9 years ago

        I love you, mobile autocorrect.

  44. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

    Question: Do ranchers who claim to own their lands – like the Hammonds – actually have a right to them? I was reading a comment on NPR where someone claims no legal rights to claim ownership in places like Utah and Oregon.

    1. DEG   9 years ago

      I think it depends. The Federal government owns a huge amount of land in the west which some ranchers lease, but there are ranchers that own their land.

    2. Sevo   9 years ago

      Some of the land is owned outright by the ranchers (or their banker). But quite a bit is leased from the fed gov as grazing land.
      So, it depends, but lefties tend to conflate the two in discussions in the hopes the audience doesn’t know that.

    3. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

      Ownership and land rights are different things, so it depends on the particular circumstances.

      I own my house. I own the land underneath. But I do not own the mineral rights. Those were forfeited as part of the CC&Rs; of the HOA. They don’t want somebody erecting an oil derrick in the neighborhood.

      Grazing rights and water rights are similar.

      1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

        “residents in states like Oregon and Utah have zero legal rights to the land they are trying to claim. The act declaring Utah’s statehood, for example just like legislation granting statehood to other territories in the 19th and 20th centuries stipulates that its Legislature “forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands.” In fact, the land that these ranchers call their own belongs to the entire country to school teachers in New York and shipbuilders in Virginia as much as to ranchers in Oregon.”

        That’s the comment.

        1. Francisco d'Anconia   9 years ago

          The writer sounds confused. There is private land which people actually own and there is State and Federal lands that people may lease for specific purposes, such as grazing. It is true that the State and Federal lands are open to the public for the purposes of (most) recreation without the permission of the leasee.

          1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

            In this case, do the Hammonds own or lease their land?

            1. Sevo   9 years ago

              My understanding is both; they own some, lease the rest.

            2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

              The Hammonds own their land straight up (or their lien holder).

              1. Sevo   9 years ago

                Yes, but they were busted for burning brush on land they leased.

                1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  That’s not my understanding, but I won’t stand by that. Lemme look into it.

                  1. Sevo   9 years ago

                    I been wrong before….

            3. Francisco d'Anconia   9 years ago

              From what I’ve read, and like most ranchers in the west, they do both.

              Read this, if you haven’t.

              It says both fires were started on private land. One spread to public land and burned 127 acres (i.e. next to nothing).

              1. Francisco d'Anconia   9 years ago

                (i) In the early fall of 2001, Steven Hammond (Son) called the fire department, informing them that he was going to be performing a routine prescribed burn on their ranch. Later that day he started a prescribed fire on their private property. The fire went onto public land and burned 127 acres of grass. The Hammonds put the fire out themselves. There was no communication about the burn from the federal government to the Hammonds at that time. Prescribed fires are a common method that Native Americans and ranchers have used in the area to increase the health & productivity of the land for many centuries.

                (j) In 2006 a massive lightning storm started multiple fires that joined together inflaming the countryside. To prevent the fire from destroying their winter range and possibly their home, Steven Hammond (Son) started a backfire on their private property. The backfire was successful in putting out the lightning fires that had covered thousands of acres within a short period of time. The backfire saved much of the range and vegetation needed to feed the cattle through the winter. Steven’s mother, Susan Hammond said: “The backfire worked perfectly, it put out the fire, saved the range and possibly our home”.

                1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                  That’s what I was headed to look up, but then it was story time.

              2. Sevo   9 years ago

                “burned 127 acres”

                Proggies in NYC are AGHAST!

        2. Sevo   9 years ago

          “That’s the comment.”

          Arm-waving, misdirection, flat-out lying. The left’s equivalent to the so-con claim ‘you don’t really have to pay taxes; it says so right here!’

        3. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

          I know very little about the statehood of Utah. I’ll fix that tomorrow.

          In re: Oregon, my understanding is that the feds reneged on their end.

          And that doesn’t take into account that the federal government shouldn’t own any land at all, out side of critical constitutional functions.

          1. Cdr Lytton   9 years ago

            Re: Oregon. Partly. A certain amount of land (“O&C” land, mostly in the southern Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon) were to given/sold as an incentive to build a north/south railroad. There was (unsurprisingly) a lot of fraud associated with it, mainly it was supposed to be sold to individuals (presumably for small farms) but it was more valuable for the timber on it so several connected people managed to acquire large tracts. The federal government retook the land under the claim that railroad failed to meet the deadline. The Supreme Court ruled that the railroad (now controlled at that point by Southern Pacific) did meet the deadline but that the federal government could still take back the land as long as they paid SP for it.

            Those now federally owned lands (supposed to be private tax paying lands that would support local schools and governments) were treated differently than continuous owned federal lands and under the theory that they should have been private, Congress passed a far more generous revenue sharing split from timber harvest revenue in the 1930’s. Those revenues peaked as federal harvests went batshit crazy in the 1970’s and then plummeted in the 80’s and 90’s. Environmental restrictions were the proximate cause, but the harvest levels were just not sustainable and the overall wood market was changing too. So congress agreed to pay cash in lieu of those lost timber revenues to those counties with O&C lands.

        4. Sevo   9 years ago

          More:
          Any landowner in the western states (AFAIK; maybe eastern) has to pay for a ‘title search’ at the time of deed transfer to make sure there is no former claim on the land, and this for the safety of both the buyer and the mortgage lender. If there was no clear title, there would be a ton of banks in the west hoping no one EVER figured it out.
          If you want to see some of the historic ownership squabbles in CA, try “The Age of Gold” (Brands). The Spaniards and Indians got screwed left and right, but the resulting ownership is legally recognized. Mine, too.

          1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

            I had to do that for a timeshare resale in Palm Desert. It’s ridiculous. You’d think I could take the word of the other 49 owners.

            1. Sevo   9 years ago

              You didn’t have to pay for it in the Village?

              1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                Not sure what the Village is.

                1. Sevo   9 years ago

                  Oops.
                  I thought your place was in what Bing Maps calls Manhattan Village.

                  1. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                    Oh, yeah. That’s where I live. Most people don’t know the local lingo. I’m happy to do a title search on my primary residence, as there’s a lot of money at stake. That’s how I found out that I couldn’t drill for oil.

                    I was confused, because there’s also a resort in Palm Desert called “The Villages”. I find it ridiculous that title searches are standard for timeshares. If you can’t guarantee title, you shouldn’t build the resort.

                    1. Sevo   9 years ago

                      If there is a mortgage involved, I’m pretty sure any deed in CA needs a title search. Wife, in a former life, bought Sierra foothill acreage for cheap, but the lender made it a condition.
                      Every place I’ve bought, paga.
                      But the point remains: If lefty talking head claims the feds own all the land in the west and there is no fee-simple, said talking head is talking out of his/her ass.

                    2. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                      Lender? Fine, I have no problem with that, it’s a sound business practice. I had to do that back when I had a mortgage.

                      Timeshare? ridiculous.

                      For the record, I bought my timeshare on Ebay for a $1k. Retail was about $39k at the time, but I bought it resale from some asshole who actually took out a loan to buy it.

                      So $1k quit claim, and $300 for a title search, as if BP or Exxon had a lease to drill in my villa during the week I was there.

                    3. Sevo   9 years ago

                      Playa, if you think I’m defending the practice, you’ve got it wrong. I’m just reporting what I’ve found.

                    4. Pl?ya Manhattan.   9 years ago

                      This just makes me more suspicious. You’re in on it, aren’t you?

                    5. Sevo   9 years ago

                      I been busted!

        5. Jerryskids   9 years ago

          This statement by itself is weird and wrong and possibly stupid . The statehood rules for the western states basically said as a condition of joining the union all unclaimed land became federal government property to dole out as homesteads or Indian reservations or railroad right-of-way or whatever. This is why the federal government owns half the land in half the western states. The federal government does not own the land that was claimed and settled at the time the relevant state was admitted to the union. So to say that “residents in states like Oregon and Utah have zero legal rights to the land they are trying to claim”, well that depends on what land it is they’re trying to “claim”. If the land in question was settled prior to statehood and they’ve come to legally own it then it is their land, there’s no “claim” to their claim any more than I “claim” I own my own house.

          If you want to be charitable and assume the poster is speaking of the actual federal lands, well, I don’t know that any of the ranchers are actually claiming that’s their land, they’re just claiming they have grazing rights to the land. The poster seems to not know what the hell they’re talking about – the federal government does not own the entire state of Utah or Oregon and the parts the federal government owns nobody’s disputing they own it, they’re just disputing whether or not there’s a contract of some sort that allows the use of that land.

  45. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

    Cool guys. So…

    The U.S. government (under the Bureau of Land Management agency) used a terrorist law (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act 1996) – enacted to fight terrorism to reneg on a deal and charge ranchers (who admitted guilt and accepted a lawful plea thanks to a sensible judge who sought fairness and a sentence proportional to the actual crime and resulting damages) and imprisoned them for five years for setting a ‘burn’ (to kill parasites to protect grazing not to mention increase land value) only yo accidentally spread onto 139 acres (and later in 2006 ONE ACRE) in 2001 on a land area with perhaps tens of thousands of acres causing less than $100 in damages.

    Sound about right?

    1. Sevo   9 years ago

      “Sound about right?”
      It saddens me to say: Yes.

      1. Sevo   9 years ago

        You are welcome to make jokes about Ameristan; there is nothing in that narrative that should do other than embarrass those who hold US citizenship.

        1. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

          I would love to (and probably will to tease) but my rational senses remind me Canada would be the same if we had a similar population. You wouldn’t believe how many times I have to repeat the simple fact the U.S. is 10x times the size with 10x the occurrences which expands, distorts, scrutinizes, exaggerates things 10x.

          But Environment Canada is no EPA and we don’t have a war on drugs and the ATF, DEA and BLM and all sorts of armed agencies banging down doors and killing people in the night.

    2. Lee G   9 years ago

      yup

    3. Cytotoxic   9 years ago

      The ‘damages’ are highly questionable given the ecological benefits of burning.

  46. SIV   9 years ago

    The all white party

    1. Rhywun   9 years ago

      Oh, that kind of all-white. “Genius”!

  47. Sevo   9 years ago

    Oh, right, the min/wage has no effect on employement:

    “Black Oak Books in Berkeley to close its doors”
    […]
    “Cornell added that turning a profit would be even tougher with Berkeley’s recent minimum wage increase to $11 an hour. Black Oak Books has four full-time-equivalent employees.
    “It means my expenses would go up 50 percent over the next five years, and to be honest, that just wasn’t in the cards,” he said.
    “Don’t get me wrong,” Cornell added. “I’m not against the increase in the minimum wage, but people have to be aware that it’ll probably change the mix of stores that you’re going to get. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
    http://www.sfgate.com/books/ar…..746185.php

    It’s only a bad thing for the 4 full-timers and how ever many PT folks worked there.

    1. Rhywun   9 years ago

      it’ll probably change the mix of stores that you’re going to get. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing

      So… banks and drugstores? Yes, nobody ever complains about too many of those.

    2. Pompey   9 years ago

      I love how the proposed circumstances basically deep-dick this guy’s business, and he sort of only fleetingly disappointed, like he didn’t win the lottery or something.

      1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

        Yep. And Comrade Stalin, if he only knew what was going on, would release me from the Gulag.

        1. Pompey   9 years ago

          People like this are a cancer on the business community. “Sure the minimum wage is the single straw that will break the camel’s back, and I’ll have to close this brick & mortar location. Meh, worse case, I’ll just fall back on my generous professor’s pension and university health bennies even if the online part goes away.”

          1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

            I will say that he’s one of the few who do actually see the connection. I get tired of progs who demand that the US should have employment laws similar to France. When you point out the long-term double-digit youth unemployment that look at you like you’re insane to suggest there is any connection.

            1. sarcasmic   9 years ago

              When you point out the long-term double-digit youth unemployment that look at you like you’re insane to suggest there is any connection.

              How could there be a connection? Employment laws are not intended to create unemployment, so how could that possibly be the result? Why do you oppose their good intentions? You must have bad intentions! You must be evil!

            2. Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer   9 years ago

              France’s (and Italy’s) highly restrictive labor laws are PRECISELY the reason we’re seeing them flee/escape those countries.

              It’s almost as if I’m witnessing a new wave immigration from those parts. I see more and more at my place.

            3. Sevo   9 years ago

              Raven Nation|1.9.16 @ 10:33AM|#
              “I will say that he’s one of the few who do actually see the connection.”

              But he sure soft-pedaled it, I guess to keep his Berkeley cred. He neglected to mention the stores that can afford that BS are the big-box outfits that give Berkeley commies heat attacks

            4. Knarf Yenrab!   9 years ago

              Moral preening is cheap and easy; giving thought to economic reality is hard.

              Libertarians have to really work for our preening material, and we don’t get to lord it over nearly as many people as the progs, as they rarely understand what we’re saying when we bring up the damage caused by price fixing.

    3. Slammer   9 years ago

      He sounds greedy. He was probably intending to buy a yacht, and he’s furious he has to be fair to people, and now he’s taking his ball and going home.

      1. sarcasmic   9 years ago

        If he is unwilling to pay a living wage, then he deserves to go out of business! People before profits!

  48. Jerryskids   9 years ago

    Where’s the a.m. lynx? Probably over in Syria not being boots on the ground. THANKS, OBAMA!

    And why are there two AFC games today and two NFC tomorrow? Shouldn’t there be one each on each day? So who benefits or who gets screwed by having a Saturday game instead of a Sunday game or vice versa? I’ll bet it helps the Pats by somehow screwing whoever it is they gotta play. Belichik’s rigging the goddamn play-offs.

    1. Raven Nation   9 years ago

      Where’s the a.m. lynx?

      You asked for it, you got it.

  49. lilliesing   9 years ago

    My first job out of High School was at St Paul and over the next 5 years Iearned so very much. Seeing the hospital torn down tears a small piece of my heart out. The Daughters of Charity and the doctors and staff of St Paul Hospital will always be with me.
    http://www.HomeSalary10.com

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