RIP Abe Vigoda, Rand Paul Gets a Challenger, Zika Virus Is a Thing: P.M. Links

• 

  Fox

  Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather, has died. He was 94.

• Cleveland finally got around to firing the cops who killed two unarmed suspects by shooting 100 bullets at their car.
• Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, a Democrat, has decided to run against Rand Paul for his U.S. Senate seat.
• Red State is calling on all true conservatives in Iowa to join together and support Ted Cruz as an anything-but-Trump compromise.
• Fox News is not backing down: Roger Ailes said Megyn Kelly will host the debate, with or without Donald Trump's participation.
• Educate yourself about the Zika virus.

New at Reason.com:

Last Night's Democratic Town Hall in 90 Seconds

The top Donkeys compare the size of their promises.

By Justin Monticello and Paul Detrick

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Abe? Finally? Noooooooooooo.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

"Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather, has died. He was 94."

Arggghhhhhhhh!!!

THERE IS NO GOD.

[GOD]

Watch your mouth or Betty White dies, too.

[SimonJester]

Shut your mouth. Don't even talk about that.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

"Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for being name-dropped in Beastie Boys Lyrics, has died. He was 94."

FTFY

[Animal]

I thought Abe Vigoda was God.

[adifferentken]

He's arm wrestling Lemmy for it as we speak.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

That was George Burns.

[The Last American Hero]

I see the Grim Reaper has moved on from his recent yen for 69 year old British entertainers.

[Domestic Dissident]

"Can you get me off the hook, Tom? For old time's sake?"
"Can't do it Sally."

[BearOdinson]

Dammit. Next thing you know they will tell us that Lemmy died.

Oh fuck!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Robert Urich died, too. And before Bowie and Frey, I'm told.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

"Alan Rickman still lives." - Abe Vigoda's last words

[Sandi]

Lou Reed is penning a song about Abe at this very moment.

[Jerryskids]

Let's hope it's a song about Fish. Best known for his role in The Godfather? Fish had his own show!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Fish Tessio.

[C. Anacreon]

Did Fish's wife Bernice survive him?

[Rasilio]

This was probably the most shocking news I have heard all day.

Shocking because I was 99% sure he died a long time ago.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Cleveland finally got around to firing the cops who killed two unarmed suspects by shooting 100 bullets at their car.

Finally crunched the numbers on the cost of ammunition?

[Juvenile Bluster]

More like "political cost of keeping them on versus actual cost of paying them back wages when the courts force us to rehire them, so we can shrug our shoulders and pretend we don't like the outcome"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Educate yourself about the Zika virus.

We're all thinking it. Cover story for a zombie outbreak.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Jesus fucking Christ! Are we going to have to put up with approximately 33 percent of Hit 'n Runners absolutely fucking losing their shit for approximately 6 weeks?

[Cytotoxic]

?

[Florida Man]

If by loosing my shit you mean giddy with excitement at the prospect of a zombie apocalypse, call me a 33 percenter!

[jesse.in.mb]

Florida got some practice with that back in the Bath Saltz days.

[Florida Man]

But I never got to do any looting or burning!
/sulks

[jesse.in.mb]

Sounds like it's time to bring back PCP.

[Florida Man]

You know it brother!

[C. Anacreon]

When did it leave? We still see cases of PCP delirium in the ER all the time. Nasty drug.

[jesse.in.mb]

What!? But the news doesn't obsessively talk about it anymore. I just assumed it wasn't a thing!

I think I just blew my sarcasm allotment for the whole day.

[db]

Jesse, if this truly is the End Times, I have a favor to ask...

[jesse.in.mb]

Uh oh...

[db]

It's a matter of curiosity...

[jesse.in.mb]

Are you propositioning me? I'll need dick pics first, but probably yes.

[db]

I'll have to work out a bit before I feel comfortable with pics.

[jesse.in.mb]

Don't wait too long. End Times and all that.

[Slumbrew]

he said "dick pics" - working out isn't gonna help that much.

[Rhywun]

no femmes no fatties

[Ted S.]

But that Ebola epidemic really did come to America!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Well, one man sort of single handedly brought it to America... or tried at least.

[Pat (PM)]

Are we going to have to put up with approximately 33 percent of Hit 'n Runners absolutely fucking losing their shit for approximately 6 weeks?

So it'll be like any other 6 weeks on H'n'R?

[Heroic Mulatto]

So it'll be like any other 6 weeks on H'n'R?

Fair enough.

[Cytotoxic]

Oh now I understand what you're talking about.

Yes we will and no matter how fucking wrong these people are we'll be painted as top-men loving fools while they link to studies and papers they don't even understand.

[Heroic Mulatto]

while they link to studies and papers they don't even understand.

California Fruit just linked to homeopathy articles from Natural News.

[Episiarch]

Of course. I'm still wondering where the Ebola outbreak went. Can anyone tell me about that? All those people who shit their pants daily over Ebola? Any of you want to tell us what happened?

[Florida Man]

I believe the earth was destroyed. I'm not certain though.

[LynchPin1477]

Trump made them realize they didn't need to disguise their xenophobia with appeals to public health.

[Cytotoxic]

Trumpy did us all a favor by ripping the mask off of conservatives.

[Episiarch]

DING DING DING

[Heroic Mulatto]

A most correct observation.

[Pat (PM)]

So true. Cross-border public health concerns are racism, straight up.

[Heroic Mulatto]

What does that have to do with those who used Nina Pham's suffering as a bloody flag to wave for their pet policies?

[Pat (PM)]

It doesn't. It has to do with saying that anyone who was concerned about ebola as a public health issue (correct or not) was/is a racist.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Who said that? I didn't say that, LynchPin didn't say that, Episiarch didn't say that. Cytotoxic may have said that, but he's Cytotoxic.

[Pat (PM)]

LynchPin didn't say that, Episiarch didn't say that.

That's precisely what they both said. LynchPin just clarified himself below in case there was any ambiguity.

I was talking about threads like this one in which some were using the overblown threat of ebola (which was never much of a threat to begin with) to argue for travel bans from infected countries.

I know what you were talking about. I don't think that calling for a travel ban because of public health concerns, even if the concerns are overhyped and you turn out to be completely wrong, makes you a racist by definition.

[LynchPin1477]

I don't think *anyone* concerned about ebola as a public health issue is a racist. But I do think there were people who used concern about ebola as thin cover for their xenophobia.

[Pat (PM)]

IOW, you can be wrong without being evil. Certainly some people are both, but to say that everyone who argued for a travel ban is a racist (which Epi absolutely did -- All those people is very unambiguous) is very probably not correct.

Epi's logic is also atrocious, even if it incidentally comports with reality in this particular case. "Nothing bad happened then so nothing bad will ever happen" is the precise definition of normalcy bias. There were good reasons to oppose a travel ban then and good reasons not to panic about the Zika outbreak now, but that's not one of them.

[Pat (PM)]

Oops, didn't see your updated post when replied to myself. I guess we're probably saying basically the same thing then.

[LynchPin1477]

I was talking about threads like this one in which some were using the overblown threat of ebola (which was never much of a threat to begin with) to argue for travel bans from infected countries. I don't even think the one I linked to was the worst of them.

[Cytotoxic]

Ebola did fester in Liberia for a while and only a month or two ago was the pandemic really finished.

It was never a threat to America.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Millions died but there was a cover up.

[Not a Libertarian]

But given that the Zika virus is being locally transmitted throughout Latin America including Mexico and that the Aedes albopictus and the Aedes aegypti mosquitos are virus vectors and present in most of the United States; is there any doubt that the virus will be locally transmitted in the US within months?

[Limpee Wiltstock]

It was he new strain killed everyone who didn't get special treatment right away, so both the disease burnt itself out. It's why infectious diseases with high mortality rates aren't that common in nature. They are selected against.

[LynchPin1477]

I'm in a great area to ride out the zombie apocalypse. You can all join me...if you can find me....

And if you bring tactical bacon

[gaoxiaen]

I used to buy that a long time ago for a buck a can. It came from Poland and was great for camping.

[bacon-magic]

Mmmmmhm bacon...I'm pretty sure I'd not be welcome with my love for bacon.

[Suthenboy]

I hear the virus causes small brains.

They aren't fooling me, that shit has been around for at least two generations.

[Gojira]

Cop accidentally shoots motorcyclist after a chase, blames "muscle memory". At least the cop seemed somewhat contrite about it.

[Brett L]

I've got a radical idea! Let's just let cops be held personally liable and see if they still have muscle memory.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I suspect there'd be a lot of muscle amnesia.

[Rich]

"Perhaps *this* will refresh your memor"BLAMBLAMBLAM!

[Florida Man]

I liked that it was considered "surreally humorous" that the biker got shot accidentally. Pretty sure if during a no knock raid a cop got shot in the arm it would be serious.

[Jerryskids]

"Muscle memory" sounds more science-y than the "the muscles in my leg had already fired" excuse the other cop used as an excuse for why he kung-fu'ed the motorcyclist after he knocked over the bike by hitting it with his car. "Spontaneous Neurological Response" would be even better.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Of course, muscle memory assumes this cop does this all the time.

[Heroic Mulatto]

As Soppeland begins dressing the wound, Hovland-Knase observes: "Ah, man. C'mon. Ya actually shot me, didn't ya?"

"Yah," Soppeland mutters. "You know, it was not intentional."

"I know it wasn't, man," Hovland-Knase replies.

[Gojira]

He's more understanding than I would have been.

Where's Papaya to tell us all how this wouldn't have happened if the guy hadn't (briefly) ran, and therefore, it's entirely his fault?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I believe he's undergoing his daily colloidal silver treatment. It takes around 2 hours a day.

[Gray Ghost]

What I love is that, per the article, Officer Soppeland's punishment for shooting someone inadvertently consisted solely of administrative leave. No firing, no indictment for assault, not even a suspension or transfer to a position where he won't have to use a gun: no punishment at all. I get that the officer didn't mean to fire his weapon, and didn't have the requisite criminal intent for attempted murder or manslaughter. But you've got to punish negligent handling of firearms.

Think any of us would skate if we accidentally put a hole in someone with a pistol? Even if we had a reason to point a pistol near the other person in the first place? Hell no, we'd get rung up for aggravated assault with a firearm sentence enhancement so fast it'd make your head spin.

[OneOut]

Now we know why Sheriff Andy Taylor only let Deputy Barney Fife have only one bullet and made him keep it in his pocket.

[Bubba Jones]

Fck. They didn't even drop the charges? Wtf.

Didn't his tactical training teach him not to have his finger on the trigger?

[Pat (PM)]

Flock of sheep helps police end 90-minute car chase in New Zealand

A policeman's flock of sheep have come to the aid of authorities in Queenstown, New Zealand, after stopping a car that had been on the run for over 90 minutes.

Police began the pursuit of a Honda Integra after it had been spotted speeding without number plates on Friday morning.

A subsequent chase ranged far and wide over the Central Otago region, and eventually led police to the back roads of the district.

But a 150-plus flock of sheep, being herded along a road by a local farm worker, entirely blocked the runaway car's escape route, forcing it to make an abrupt stop.

Pursuing police were then able to arrest a number of men.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Was one of the sheep named Dunphy, by any chance?

[Just say Nikki]

Adolph Reed on race and class:

AR: What the race discourse does is it forces a racial interpretation onto any manifestation of inequality or injustice to be associated with black people on the receiving end. So in that sense, the demands aren't even that important. The discussion of the program isn't even that important. The real objective is to maintain the dominance of the racialist interpretive frame of reference and that goes back to my contention that this is a class program because part of the material foundation of the class has been, since the class began to take shape at the end of the 19th century, a claim to be representatives of the aspirations of and of the voice of black people writ large.

...And they all gave the same line: all white people are racist. It's foolish to try to make distinctions among them based on principle and on politics, we have to be pragmatic and align ourselves with whichever ones of them are going to do something for black people and that formulation of course is an instantiation of the famous slippage between first person singular and plural that's a characteristic of nationalist ideologies no matter where you find them.

Lots more interesting stuff at the link. Hard to choose what to quote.

[LynchPin1477]

Well yeah, of course a guy with the first name Adolph would say that.

[Ted S.]

What is Adolphe Menjou? Chopped liver?

[Animal]

Chopped liver with the most awesome mustache in silent film history.

[Ted S.]

He had a pretty good run in talkies, too.

[Restoras]

You know who else had "Adolph" as a first name?

[Rich]

This guy?

[Pan Zagloba]

Gustavus Adolphus?

...Dammit!

[BigT]

Adolph Busch?
Adolphus Busch?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Lots more interesting stuff at the link. Hard to choose what to quote.

Each sentence runs about a paragraph, so choose wisely.

[kbolino]

I think there's some trenchant critique in there, but it's basically summed up by the last sentence:

There's a sense in which these people are the black shock troops for neoliberalism.

[Just say Nikki]

Yep.

[GILMORE?]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[rts]

Danish teen fought off her attacker - now she'll face fine

A 17-year-old girl who was physically and sexually attacked in S?nderborg will herself face charges for using pepper spray to fend off her assailant.

"It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely be charged for that," local police spokesman Knud Kirsten told TV Syd.

Self-defense is so American, amirite?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Double-whammy if assailant was a refugee!

No whammies, no whammies, no whammies....NO!

[Pan Zagloba]

English-speaking man in dark clothing

Has anyone seen Warty?

[Lee G]

You are a ward of the state, you must allow it to defend you.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Jesus. What are Europeans to do to protect themselves? Sounds like they just have to sit there and take it.

And if that's pretty much their game then they're a ridiculous bunch.

[rts]

You know she'd be facing jail, and not just a fine, in Canada, right?

[Pan Zagloba]

Well, maybe - I think pepper spray is legal for self-defence, and it sounds like she can make a case she had no option to run or deescalate the situation, which I believe is check for valid self-defence.

[rts]

No.

Is it legal to carry a weapon, gun, mace or pepper spray?

...The Code was amended so that the definition of a prohibited weapon could be much broader than trying to list all of them individually. The Code specifically states that a prohibited weapon is:

Any device designed to be used for the purpose of injuring, immobilizing or otherwise incapacitating any person by the discharge therefrom of

- tear gas, mace or other gas, or
- any liquid, spray, powder or other substance that is capable of injuring, immobilizing or otherwise incapacitating any person.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Shit, I had the same impression as Pan.

Amazing how hard they make it to defend ourselves.

[Brett L]

Do they have GoFundMe in Denamrk? Let's just raise the money to pay her fine and give any additional monies as an honorarium.

[LynchPin1477]

It's illegal to use...peppery spray? Jesus, what is wrong with the world?

[sarcasmic]

It's illegal in Massachusetts as well.

[LynchPin1477]

Birthplace of the minutemen. Dammit.

[SFC B]

I've heard about another settlement that needs our help.

[tarran]

Yep. I had a fun time pointing out to my proggie friends on derpbook when they condescendinfgly suggested I carry a taser instead of a firearm.

The fact that they, fellow residents of the Commonwealth, had no clue what was legal and what wasn't in no way dented their faith that the laws enabled dangerous nutjobs because massachusetts democrats were in fear of the NRA.

[rts]

Lefties that I talk to all assert that yes, we all have the right to (reasonable! ... ugh...) self-defense, but not the means thereof (except maybe your fists?).

Which basically means if you're an enfeebled senior, too fucking bad... no self-defense for you.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Proggies have a distorted, anti-human view of self-defense.

They will usually blame the victim no matter how justified.

[The Last American Hero]

Enfeebled senior?

Are we all supposed to be martial arts masters?

How about a 40 year old getting jumped by a 25 year old that's in better shape and has the advantage of surprise?

[Restoras]

Or how about somebody that weighs 120 lbs. getting jumped by somebody that weighs 200 lbs.?

[sarcasmic]

My wife delivers newspapers, so I bought her some pepper spray to take in the car with her in case some creep gives her shit.

That means we always take my car when we visit her family in Mass. Don't want some asshole cop to search the car and find the stuff. They'll put you away for a year for that.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

And they're getting closer to banning guns as well - Lowell MA now requires an essay to get a carry permit.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016.....cants.html

[Ra's al Gore]

Thanks, Joe.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yes...that requirement has nothing, nothing to do with Lowell's large Hispanic and Southeast Asian immigrant population. Nope, nothing at all.

[db]

Something something fundamental right to vote something no poll tax something no literacy requirements!

[The Last American Hero]

Can the essay cover how 14A guarantees 2A in all 50 states?

[Medical Physics Guy]

My colleague from Greece said her pepper spray was illegal in the UK so she couldn't bring it with her.

[AlmightyJB]

Knud Kirsten is a retarded little bitch.

[tarran]

The state's monopoly on defensive violence must be preserved at all costs comrades!

[Cytotoxic]

No, but it's monopoly on retaliatory use of force is vital to civilization.

[Suthenboy]

What cytotoxic? Aren't you going to tell us she should have let the guy rape her so he would feel welcome and have a shot at the good life? Or is this another one of those weird sex things that happened one time?

[sarcasmic]

Please tell me that is sarcasm. You are always such a humorless douche that it is hard to tell.

[tarran]

Don't pay him any mind. Collectivists get really upset when agents of the state get mocked. A few minutes of whining and a juice box will get it out of his system.

[sarcasmic]

Don't pay him any mind.

I never do.

[Gray Ghost]

but it's monopoly on retaliatory use of force is vital to civilization.

He has a point, and it's related to the distinction you make below, sarcasmic. We rely on the State having a monopoly on the initiation of violence, in order to alleviate things like Hatfield/McCoy revenge cycles, and weregeld. Further, the idea is to (theoretically) attempt to impartially determine: whether a wrong occurred, if so, who was wronged, who was responsible, and what compensation will be needed to make the victim whole. None of which you get if the wronged party feels its appropriate to call up their male relatives, go over to the wrongdoer's house, and kick the shit out of him or kill him.

I don't see how the desire to eliminate the initiation of violence has anything to do with defending oneself from an imminent threat of serious bodily harm, and using proportional violence to stop that threat.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

You mean Next Of Kin isn't an instructional video?

Shit.

[Gray Ghost]

Hey, I figure you if anyone around here would know this: did the collective already do a post on the Harris County Grand Jury not indicting anyone at Planned Parenthood for trying to sell fetal body parts, but instead issuing a felony indictment against the guy who ran the video sting?

Seems newsworthy, (and cynically, the sort of thing to drive a 1000-post discussion thread), yet nothing that I can see about it at H&R.

[Ted S.]

See here.

[Gray Ghost]

Thanks Ted. It was a story that I couldn't believe Reason hadn't covered, but my scrolling back through old posts didn't show that they had. Guess I didn't go back far enough.

[sarcasmic]

That's about it. It really grates me when people say government has the monopoly on force. No, government has the monopoly on the initiation of force. Problem is, most leftists fail to grasp the distinction between initiating force and reacting to force with force (defensive violence). So to them self defense is vigilante justice. Only government agents may defend themselves because only government may use force. These are people who would rather die with a phone in their hand than live with a gun in their hand. Though if you confront them with that logical conclusion, they will of course protest.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Self-defense is so American, amirite?

It actually is. We don't have a long history of Kings.

[sarcasmic]

Self defense is vigilante justice. Fighting someone off in the act is exactly the same as hunting someone down afterwards and hanging them from a tree. Duh.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The money shot in the article:

In related news, a nightclub in S?nderborg is now barring guests from entering if they cannot speak Danish, English or German. Other Danish nightclubs are also reportedly considering similar moves.

[Rich]

"Repeat after me, Muhmed -- 'Discount double check'."

[Medical Physics Guy]

Tomorrow's Guardian headline: "Rising right-wing intolerance in Danish hick town of S?nderborg." Then faced with "international pressure" the authorities will tell them to back down. Or so it went with all those German pool stories.

[Pan Zagloba]

Sexists/racists - I bet they pick on men but are fine with women who speak only Russian or Polish!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Well, to be fair I would too.

Doorman: She's inappropriately dressed but is speaking Gibberish!

Me: Let her in!

[Pan Zagloba]

Paul Johnson is right!

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

I set out to make a "lie back and think of __" joke, and resorted to searching for historical Danish figures. I went to the official, state-sponsored site of Denmark, and it lists... two Danes.

[PBR Streetgang]

Scooby Doo was Great Dane.

[Pan Zagloba]

It's...egh...

Hans Christian Andersen? Tycho Brahe? Bohr?

Seriously, you give me an 18th century Chancellor of Exchequer and a Marxist PM? It's like a government site a libertarian would design!

[BearOdinson]

Harald Bluetooth (Not that I am a big fan, Christianizing the Danes and all that), Cnut the Great? Gorm the old?

[Pan Zagloba]

I assume today Danes are kinda embarrassed about the whole "wolves on the shore" and "terror of the Continent" bit...

[BearOdinson]

While I am not necessarily of Scandinavian descent (Primarily German and Scottish, for as far back as I can trace), they were the ones from whom we know most about the Germanic gods (the Aesir and Vanir) through the survival of the Poetic and Prose Eddas (and Icelandic sagas as well). And it actually saddens me to see what these proud people have become.

[BearOdinson]

I didn't mean Danes specifically in terms of the Eddas. I meant Scandinavians in general.

[But Enough About Me]

Same thing would've happened to her in Canada, actually.

[But Enough About Me]

Man, I *really* have to read further down the threads before replying - 'specially when there's 300+ comments already. Sorry.

[ant1sthenes]

If you let slaves take up arms (even minor ones like pepper spray) in defense of their own lives, they might start to get ideas above their station.

[jesse.in.mb]

Fox News is not backing down: Roger Ailes said Megyn Kelly will host the debate, with or without Donald Trump's participation.

Aren't they like besties now over the NY values thing?

[Jerryskids]

If Ailes had a sack, he'd have added "Oh look at me! I'm Donald Trump! I run away crying like a baby when little girls are mean to me! Waah, waah, waah! What a whiny little sissy, amirite? Hahahaha! This little baby wants to be the leader of the free world? Can you imagine the first time Putin says something mean about Donald Trump and Trump runs away crying like that?"

[Medical Physics Guy]

had a sack

Will this become a common expression now that John Rocker has brought it back?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I actually hope so. We could use classier expressions around here.

[Sevo]

"Fox News is not backing down: Roger Ailes said Megyn Kelly will host the debate, with or without Donald Trump's participation."

If there is a reason to watch, it would be her. And disposing of the loud-mouth only helps.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Roger Ailes said Megyn Kelly will host the debate, with or without Donald Trump's participation.

Trump will back down. There are cameras involved, after all.

[Sevo]

"Trump will back down. There are cameras involved, after all."
And zog protect anyone who gets between a camera and Trump; dangerous place to be.

[kbolino]

Missed a golden opportunity there, Robbie.

Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for not being dead, has died. He was 94.

[Fist of Etiquette]

For being bad, that's actually not bad.

[GILMORE?]

UGH MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

[Sandi]

Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather

No. Fish

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I was just gonna say that...just as big as Fish.

Fish is dead.

[BigT]

Fish sleeps with the fishes.

[BearOdinson]

THIS. Fish is the first (and pretty much only) role that comes to mind.

[Rasilio]

I don't know I think of him as Chief Toby from Joe vs the Volcano as much as I think of him as Fish

[Rich]

Sandi?!

No shit?

[Clich? Bandit]

I took a shit in...wait...nevermind.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

If you're not first on Hit & Run, you're last.

[AlmightyJB]

No. Old Lisa in Weird Science.

[Horatio]

I'm embarrassed to say I saw his pic and thought, "oh, the guy from Look Who's Talking died"

[Pat (PM)]

Police helicopter discovers distressed cries came from goat

BRISTOL, England, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- British police said a helicopter crew investigating a report of a person calling for help discovered the sounds had actually been made by a goat.

The National Police Air Service said a helicopter was dispatched Sunday to the Avon Gorge in Bristol, England, after someone called the 999 emergency number and reported hearing a person making "repeated" wailing sounds.

The NPAS tweeted the crew's photo of the suspected "culprit" -- a goat.

A police spokesman told the BBC that goat calls "can be mistaken for humans in distress."

[Sandi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlYlNF30bVg

[GILMORE?]

The part where the italian guy argues with the goat is funny

[dschwar]

I think Wait Wait Don't Tell Me had this story almost a year ago. Someone needs to control that goat population better.

[Rich]

Fox screams are something, too.

[Illocust]

Slate commenters are having fits trying to mesh the gender is a social construct narrative with four year old transgender kids are a thing. So far we've got mass suggestions just not to think on it too hard. Guess we've gotten to the point that a good Progressive has to explicitly hold two contradicting thoughts in their head at one time to in the in group. Freaking hell.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/out.....child.html

[Brett L]

I don't have a problem with transgendered people, nor 4 year olds who pretend to be what they aren't, damn social norms. They are not the same and I think it does both transgendered people and 4 year olds who don't need to be gender confused a bad turn to conflate them.

[Illocust]

I've got no problem with transgender folks either. One of my oldest friends is one. No sweat off my back how you dress or what pronouns you use.

I've got issues with people that believe simultaneously that gender is a construct and that gender is hard wired. Either it is built in or it's not. Can't be both.

[LynchPin1477]

Well, not necessarily. You could have an innate predisposition that is influenced by experience. In some people that innate predisposition could be really strong, in others maybe not so much. In other words, nature and nurture.

[Illocust]

Which means that it is hardwired. Which means much like we push the tall eight year olds towards basketball we should push girls and boys towards the things their gender tends to be best at. Somehow I don't think this would fly.

[LynchPin1477]

No, that would not make it hardwired. "Softwired", if you will, with a possibility for external stimuli to influence how things develop.

And the whole "push girls and boys towards things their gender tends to be best at" is inherently collectivist. It doesn't matter what the average boy or girl is like, it matters what an individual child is like.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Stop talking sense, LynchPin; we don't cotton to that in these parts.

[lap83]

4 year old girls like pretty girls too. Disney makes bank on that tendency.

[lap83]

Blah this was supposed to go below (throws phone across room)

[Sevens]

@lap: below what?

[GILMORE?]

"No, that would not make it hardwired. "Softwired", if you will, with a possibility for external stimuli to influence how things develop.'

This is how most people* believe Schizophrenia is transferred genetically. "predisposition", caused by a trigger event.

that said, Illocust is still 100% right about the retarded way people approach the "pre-pubescent transgender" issue.

they think you can be "trans" before you even show any biological signs of gender development? Bullshit. It has nothing to do with gender theory. Its imposing ideas that come from fully-developed humans an imposing them on undeveloped ones.

[Heroic Mulatto]

they think you can be "trans" before you even show any biological signs of gender development? Bullshit

I knew I was a boy and that I thought girls were pretty by the time I was 4, didn't you?

Perhaps that just my precocious swarthiness talking.

[GILMORE?]

4? i was in... kindergarten? maybe - or one of the nursery schools i attended.

No, not really. yes i think you're conscious of the difference between boys and girls, but the difference seems pretty arbitrary at that age. certainly not sexually significant. My point was that pretending a child has developed a full-awareness of its own gender and sexuality at that age is pure insanity, and projection of the parent's own neuroses.

[Sevens]

RE Lynch

It's called "prepared learning". That being said, given the heritability of personality traits and physical sexual selection, sex-specific heritability of personality traits is most likely. That'd be something fairly large and more essential than (albeit presumably joined by) sex-specific prepared learning. Of course there's still the question of norms of reaction and epigenetics.

As with stereotypes generally, it matters what the average X is. Failing better information, it's what you go by.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

There's a supposition being made that certain behaviors are inherently "male" or "female".

I'm gonna let the trans community figure all that out.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

certain behaviors are inherently "male"

Like playing with your peter?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I'll say!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Like playing with your peter?

You never had a female play with yours?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Sharing is caring. Playing with YOUR peter is selfish and male.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Selfish? You can't run a marathon without sacrifice!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Marathon? You're doing something wrong.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Am I?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Sprinting FTW!

[Heroic Mulatto]

I agree.

[LynchPin1477]

I'll go with javelin throwing.

[Brett L]

That's what I'm also saying.

[jesse.in.mb]

Either it is built in or it's not. Can't be both.

That's quite a statement to make. Did researchers from the future with perfect knowledge come back and futuresplain that to you or is that just your off the cuff judgement about how the world works? Because from early 2016 it seems like we're still sorting out the interplay of cultural and biological phenomena and frankly there are more questions about what's going on than hard answers.

[Illocust]

This is a yes/no question. I don't need to know how it all works to know that the statements "Gender is a social construct" (All A is B) "Social constructs are not hard wired" (No B is C) and "Gender is hard wired" (A is C) are contradicting statements. The middle statement is definitely true, so either the first statement or the second statement must be false. Feminists started with the premise that gender is a social construct. Accepting transgender as a real thing means that that premise has been proven false. Time for a new hypothesis.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Feminists started with the premise that gender is a social construct.

They did? I thought feminists had a pretty vested interest in keeping gender hard-as-nails wired.

[jesse.in.mb]

I don't think most feminists were denying some level of sexual dimoprhism, but just emphasizing that society starts pushing a particular vision of masculinity and femininity from the day parents get a sonogram and start paining the nursery blue or pink...Believing that feminine and masculine behavior aren't rigid across time and space (is culturally constructed) does not necessarily exclude that being pumped full of testosterone or estrogen can affect behavior.

[BearOdinson]

On average, over the whole of human civilization, there are trends that are consistent with the physical characteristics inherent in sexual dimorphism.
It doesn't mean all societies, and it certainly doesn't imply that all individual males or females HAVE to do or act in any specific way.
But, it would probably be FAR more confusing to a 4 year old to talk about developing their own sexual identity, then simply saying that you are a boy. Many boys like X or Y, but you can play with Z if you want.
If as they are growing up, they continually see themselves differently, talk to them and cross that bridge after puberty hits.

Every individual certainly has the right to make their own decisions, but until proven otherwise, a 4 yo with a penis is a boy. A 4 yo with a vagina is a girl.
Basically, all I am saying is don't make a fucking issue out of something, until there is an issue to be made.

[mad.casual]

Basically, all I am saying is don't make a fucking issue out of something, until there is an issue to be made.

In Progressive America problem finds you!

[jesse.in.mb]

So, make a big deal about gendering four year olds, just make sure it's the right gender?

I probably am only disagreeing with you by fractions here. I don't think the whole transgender kid thing is grounded in reality and out of the parents I know who've been dealing with the breakdown of gender-norms the ones who've dealt with it along the lines of "look I know you want to wear that tiara to school, but tiaras are usually a girl thing and other kids might make fun of you" have been the ones who I think have handled it best, but THOSE parents have generally found that the other kids are much less hung up on it than their peers were at that age and the need to explain "this is a boy toy, that is a girl toy" has been unwarranted.

[Suthenboy]

Geeez Illocust. The sooner you understand that sound reasoning means starting at a predetermined conclusion and working backwards to construct justification for it the sooner you will understand that cognitive dissonance is a good and powerful tool for right-thinking people.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

cognitive dissonance just means your thinking about it too hard.

[db]

Maybe it is built in but not necessarily correlated with sex.

[BearOdinson]

Fucking 4 yo "transgender".

Here is a simple starting point:
Boys have a penis. Girls have a vagina. Unless there are ambiguous genitalia, or the kid is a hermaphrodite, it is real simple.

If a boy wants to play dolls or a girl wants trucks, fine. Doesn't make them transgender.

[jesse.in.mb]

Everyone get off Bear's lawn. NOW!

[BearOdinson]

Damn kids!!

[mad.casual]

The New Sexual World Order Is So Confusing

I would like to get on the right side of history regarding sex and gender, but I can't figure out where it is.
...
I am sure in time I will come to understand, but until then I still wonder about things?many things, really. I wonder how is it possible that to be gendered is a social construction, but to be transgendered is a biological necessity.

I find myself confused about how it is possible that high-heeled shoes, dresses, and lipstick are all tools of the patriarchy to oppress women and transform them into mere objects of male desire, yet it is considered necessary that men who transition to become women must wear high heels, dresses, and lipstick in order to "express themselves as women," which would suggest that there is something innately feminine about these objects.

The Hysteriarchy. May its reign never end.

[Just say Nikki]

Quotes? The comments I see seem to indicate anyone who thinks they have a transgender 4-year-old is simply projecting their own neuroses onto their child.

[GILMORE?]

*I borrowed this line. thank you.

[gaoxiaen]

"Tommy, if you play with dolls again, I'm going to cut your peepee off!"

[GILMORE?]

:"we've got mass suggestions just not to think on it too hard."

That's sort of the 'one-size-fits-all' prescription for Progressivism

[Pat (PM)]

Condom machine activated by a breathalyser introduced in bid to stop Brits having drunken sex

A condom machine activated by a breathlyser has been introduced in a bid to stop people having drunken sex.

The 'Johnny Be Good' vending machine has been installed in a London pub and will only dispense condoms to those who can prove they're sober.

Users will need to blow into the device and anyone under the legal driving limit will receive a free condom.

The initiative is being trialled at The Brass Monkey pub in Victoria by dating firm Match but has the possibility of a nationwide rollout.

[jesse.in.mb]

Shit, guess we don't have a condom...you're on the pill....right?

[Florida Man]

Also you're not that drunk if you remember to use a condom.

[Brett L]

Headlines from 2018: STD explosion blamed on condom machine breathylyzes.

[Lee G]

Their logic seems a bit strained.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

A bit?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

"Here, blow on this to see if I wear a condom."

[dschwar]

And no one is going to go to the machine first and then start drinking?

[Suthenboy]

It isnt going to stop them from having drunken sex. It will just stop them from using condoms when they have drunken sex.

Must be something in the water over there.

[gaoxiaen]

It should give free condoms if you're over the limit.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Blow into machine before drinking and fucking. Problem averted?

[Animal]

"Condom machine activated by a breathalyser introduced in bid to stop Brits having drunken sex using condoms."

FTFY

[mad.casual]

Seems like getting blown by a machine upon inebriation would better prevent drunken sex.

[db]

Someone clearly thought this idea through quite thoroughly.

[ant1sthenes]

Statist logic at its finest.

[Pat (PM)]

Sumo Militia Man Dares Chris Christie To Match We'd Pay To See

The political season doesn't really begin until a sumo wrestler occupying federal land challenges a presidential candidate.

So consider it started. Kelly Gneiting, now encamped with the Bundy militia at Malheur National Wildlife Preserve in Oregon, issued one bizarre proposition to Republican hopeful and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: Win just one of 10 sumo matches against him, and the group will disperse. But if Christie loses all 10, well, ya gotta listen above.

Gneiting, a multiple-time U.S. sumo champ who reportedly weighs 400 pounds, says in the vid he's ticked that Christie recently called for the government to enforce the law to deal with the armed takeover.

Gneiting launches into an amusing bit about being Christie's big brother and invites Christie to a mano a mano "wearing diapers and slapping bellies just like when we were toddlers."

[Jerry on the rocks]

Colin Vearncombe, the voice of Black, dies, aged 53.

[Ted S.]

That's racist!

[Pat (PM)]

Rouhani in Europe: Italy covers nudes for Iran president

Italian hospitality for the visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stretched to covering up nude statues.

Mr Rouhani and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi spoke at Rome's Capitoline Museum after Italian firms signed business deals with Iran.

But several nudes there were hidden to avoid offending the Iranian president.

Italy also chose not to serve wine at official meals, a gesture France, where Mr Rouhani travels next, has refused to copy.

An Islamic republic, Iran has strict laws governing the consumption of alcohol.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I'm sure they'd return the favor.

Other than that...Maude Flanders approves!

[Ted S.]

I was thinking "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge", but that's just me.

[Pan Zagloba]

Absolutely. You bet when Prime Minister of Italy (wait, doesn't Italy use a king?) comes to Iran, they'll hide nude statues and not serve wine at dinner, too!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Italy does monarchs like Canada does soccer.

[RBS]

So this asshole comes to supper and everyone else has to obey his silly rules?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Like when the cunt Queen didn't want to eat past while in Italy.

Stay home then.

[Raven Nation]

Football question (off base so you may have no idea): I was reading a story about Bolton Wanderers the other day (almost certainly going into administration and may actually go defunct) and it included the info that at the one stadium and two training grounds they own, they employ 300 admin staff. I assume that doesn't include training staff, groundkeepers, etc. Is that a lot of admin people for a second division club?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Good question. Depends on the size I reckon. But it sounds like a lot to me.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Cunt? Christ Rufus, ain't that bitch on your $20?

You don't hear none of us talking aboot Jackson like th...

Hmmm.

Never mind.

[IndyEleven]

Something something John Aschroft

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

If our president travels to Iran, to they break out the nude statues and dust off the bottles of liquor?

[Horatio]

For the Secret Service?

[The Last American Hero]

No, but they put a nice rug on the ground for him to grovel on.

[BigT]

No, ham hocks, grits, and watermelon.

Or deep dish pizza.

[Domestic Dissident]

Educate yourself about the Zika virus.

Because when I need accurate scientific information about new viruses and such, CNN is always the first place that immediately comes to mind.

[Pat (PM)]

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri will spend the next few days on a St. Louis County jury, hearing the case of a man suing QuikTrip over his slip-and-fall outside a convenience store.

McCaskill, a Democrat and former prosecutor, repeatedly posted on Twitter on Monday as she waited to find out if she would be selected.

McCaskill said she didn't expect to be picked. But after a day of tweeting about the television shows the jury pool was watching, what she wore and what was for lunch, the senator tweeted: "HOLY X@#(asterisk)! I am on the jury" then stopped using social media.

Each member makes $18 a day, plus mileage.

Leotis Tate claims he sustained injuries during an August 2014 tumble at a suburban St. Louis QuikTrip.

[RBS]

If only she was forced to sit on a jury for a week long construction defect trial.

[Cytotoxic]

Wow, even Red State thinks Trump is awful.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Not sure if it's been posted here yet, but three years after it happened, the Medical Examiner has finally weighed in on the mentally ill man locked in a hot jail shower for so long that his skin sloughed off. Of course, they find it to be "accidental", which makes no sense at all.

The death of Darren Rainey, a mentally ill inmate thrown into a steaming shower at Dade Correctional Institution in a case that sparked scrutiny on conditions inside Florida's prison system, has been ruled accidental, the Herald has learned.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's autopsy report, completed this week, concluded that Rainey died from complications of schizophrenia, heart disease and "confinement" in the shower back in June 2012, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Rainey, 50, did not suffer any burns anywhere on his body, and investigators could not conclude that the specially rigged shower was "excessively" hot the day he collapsed, the report said. Sources said the autopsy concluded that corrections officers had "no intent" to harm Rainey when they kept him in the shower for up to two hours.

The medical examiner's office ? more than three years after Rainey's death, an unusually long time for a death investigation to last ? gave its final autopsy report to Miami-Dade police and prosecutors this week.

[Lee G]

The old delay and hope they forget about it tactic.

[dschwar]

Well that

***dons sunglasses***

is no skin off his nose.

***runs for cover***

[robc]

Best known as Fish.

What the hell is wrong with you Robby?

[kinnath]

He's too young to have ever watched Fish.

[Rhywun]

To be fair, nobody watched Fish. That other show he was on, however....

[Pat (PM)]

This Day in History

1788 - The first European settlers landed in Sydney, Australia.

1802 - Congress passed an act calling for establishment of a library within the US Capitol.

1837 - Michigan became the 26th state in the United States.

1950 - India, three years after gaining its independence from the United Kingdom, formally became a republic.

1979 - Former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller died in New York at age 70.

1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway. It would go on to become the longest-running Broadway show.

1993 - Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.

2001 - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked the Indian state of Gujarat, killing more than 20,000 people.

2004 - President Hamid Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan.

[DEATFBIRSECIA]

2016 - Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather, has died. He was 94.

[robc]

Fish, dammit, Fish.

[Raven Nation]

One of those events is clearly more important than all the others.

[grrizzly]

Only if you're talking about the history of criminal justice reforms.

[Raven Nation]

Time to commemorate Australia Invasion Day.

[BearOdinson]

2004 - President Hamid Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan:

Thus ushering in a new era of liberty and justice for all of the peace loving and enlightened Afghanis.

[Rich]

http://nypost.com/2016/01/26/t.....ttes a day

If only she had quit, she'd be 142.

[Rich]

112-year-old woman smokes 30 cigarettes a day

Fucking tags, how do they work?

[Brett L]

If I knew I had less to fear from cancer than obesity, I'd do the same. Genetics is weird.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

But I thought smoking causes cancer in 100% of people 100% of the time.

The science is settled.

[The Last American Hero]

Not only that, but it causes cancer in 50% of the people that know her personally, and 25% of the people that know those people.

[Lee G]

Where can I buy her genes?

[Cytotoxic]

Some say we'll never repeal Obamacare, but they're wrong. We already have. It's not the law that was passed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gr.....e204973d4b

http://www.forbes.com/sites/th.....2078d530d2

Others said it would be like the fight against forced busing-the law would get repealed bit by bit. They look increasingly prescient.

[Pat (PM)]

It's not the law that was passed.

Well, yes, John Roberts saw to that.

[Cytotoxic]

There's more to it than that.

[Pat (PM)]

It was just a joke.

But it's mildly retarded to say that Obamacare has been effectively repealed because of selective implementation. Social Security isn't the program that was passed in 1935, but it sure as shit is still with us 70 years later. The government ratchet only goes one way.

[Cytotoxic]

The ACA has been deeply altered though. So maybe I was overreaching a little but not by much. Read the articles they are good.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The lightbringer keeps adjusting the really shitty parts of the law to the left, so that the next guy can be blamed when the frog finally notices the bubbles forming in the water.

[robc]

It will finally go away when black families sue?

[Ted S.]

It wasn't passed; it was deemed.

[CatoTheChipper]

But all of its worst features are intact.

Like the astronomical marginal tax rates at 400% of poverty line. When I say astronomical, I mean literally around a half-a-million percent.

But it gets worse: if a person makes less than 100% of poverty line, he doesn't qualify for the ACA subsidy. In many states that same person does not qualify for Medicaid, so many of the poorest Americans get nothing in subsidies while somewhat higher income people get a nearly free ride on ObamaCare. This is a very big deal for older, handicapped adults who have limited earning potential.

[Brett L]

Saw a friend of mine on FB bitching about her $1300 penaltax this year. She's knnejerk liberal but not political so I refrained from replying: "If only Comrade Obama knew!"

[Irish ?s ESB]

New owner of the Onion: "You want to be free and dead? I'd rather be not free and alive."

He supports listening to the conversations of "everyone who looks suspicious."

[Cytotoxic]

I'd rather he and the Onion were dead, or at least consistently funny.

[Rasilio]

Cracked is better these days

[ant1sthenes]

That's a stretch.

[Rich]

No signs of a shooting at San Diego medical center

Serious question: What happens to the person (assuming known) who reports such disruptive false alarms?

[Ken Shultz]

They get their own talk show?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

They carry around a mattress on their back and get invited to the white house?

[gaoxiaen]

They get free beer at the local bar for a week?

[Ken Shultz]

Trump could be worse than Obama in his own way. Imagine a world where our only hope is that the progressives in Congress will oppose him on spending, our Constitutional rights, etc.

That's an ugly world, isn't it? Like having to depend on the kindness of strangers--only the strangers are authoritarian socialists.

Never thought I'd agree with NRO and Red State so thoroughly. Trump? Do not want.

[Cytotoxic]

And those proggies end up massively empowered by the collapse of Trumpmania that takes conservatism with it. Imagine a world where the DNC and liberalism are it for centers of political and intellectual power, respectively.

Trump = Vishnu

[Rich]

No much. Vishnu with you?

[Swiss Servator]

*strongly narrows gaze*

[Not a Libertarian]

And those proggies end up massively empowered by the collapse of Trumpmania that takes conservatism with it.

Is this not what you'd call for anyway as necessary and proper for the advancement of society

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Like having to depend on the kindness of strangers--only the strangers are authoritarian socialists the two guys who find Ned Beatty and Jon Voigt in the woods in Deliverance.

[GILMORE?]

"Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather, has died. He was 94."

This is the newsiest thing Robby's ever PM linked to.

To be fair... today is pretty dry

ISIS Mass Graves Uncovered in Ramadi

Sloth Increasingly Popular

[Ken Shultz]

And Abe Vigoda is not best known for his role in The Godfather. That's just completely false. That's like saying Carroll O'Connor was best known for his role in Kelly's Heroes.

Abe Vigoda was best known for his roll as Fish on Barney Miller.

If you think otherwise, you're wrong.

[Ken Shultz]

How can somebody be a culture critic and get something so basic so wrong?!

Hey, did you guys know that Jimmy Page is best known as the lead guitarist in The Firm?

And David Bowie is best known for singing a duet with Bing Crosby!

[GILMORE?]

"If you think otherwise, you're wroyoung.

[Ken Shultz]

Like I said below, he didn't even know who Abe Vigoda was--and he doesn't understand why it's being so widely reported that Abe Vigoda died.

After being FIsh on Barney Miller the second best thing Abe Vigoda was known for--was being mistaken as dead. Everybody thought he was dead for years and years. And then every once in a while, someone would spot him at a Friar's Club roast or something, and it was a standing joke for 20 years. Everybody thought he was already dead!

That's why it's being reported so widely now.

It would make a great comedy act, actually, to have popular culture from prior to 2008 filtered back to us through the eyes of a clueless millenial

[Ted S.]

Anybody got a hot tub?

[Ken Shultz]

There were three ways to spin the report of Abe Vigoda's death.

1) The standing joke about his having been rumored dead for years.

2) The Barney Miller angle.

3) His association with The Godfather.

One of those is completely insignificant compared to the others. There was a two in three chance not to get it wrong!!!

If he misses the significance of this, what else is he missing?

And this from the culture critic!

[GILMORE?]

"culture critic""

Oh, come on. that doesn't mean anything.

[Ken Shultz]

Yes it does, and it comes with clearly defined responsibilities!

[Rich]

Warty! Check out the sloth!

[Brett L]

Sloth Increasingly Popular

The Seven Deadly Sins after marriage

[BearOdinson]

Well Lust is obviously out the window. Once your wife beats you down, there goes Pride. And Gluttony since her cooking probably sucks. Wrath? Who has the fucking energy. Greed, maybe. Because of the all the overtime to keep the hell away from the house. Pretty much leaves you with Envy (oh god why can't I be like my single friends) and Sloth (shut up woman, my show is on).

[Ken Shultz]

"Actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in The Godfather, has died. He was 94."

$20 says he didn't even know who Abe Vigoda was, so he looked up his credits on Wikipedia and The Godfather was the only title he recognized.

[GILMORE?]

As NYC Digs Out of Snow, Ancient Remains of Past City Emerge

[Irish ?s ESB]

Prostitutes are victims but also we're going to keep throwing them in jail.

"When prostitutes are arrested, many do not immediately see themselves as victims."

So they're victims.

But:

"In July, a woman selling sex out of a Stroudsburg hotel was arrested when one of her customers turned out to be an undercover detective."

Apparently it is standard operating procedure to arrest people you think are victims of sexual slavery. Also, strange that her 'sex trafficker' wasn't also arrested given that she was his slave...

[AlmightyJB]

How can they "help" them if they don't kidnap them first?

[Pan Zagloba]

"When prostitutes are arrested, many do not immediately see themselves as victims."

Oh they do, of a retarded and selectively enforced law.

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

Pull the other one, it's got bells on it:

DOJ CAMPUS SURVEY: AT ONE SCHOOL, 1 IN 2 WOMEN HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

1 in 2 women! The only way you could have worse odds is if the Mongols were laying seige to your city!

Now, it's apparently Burnt Toast Tuesday and my ability to do math is shot, but this one doesn't pass the smell test.

By comparison, the highest rate of rape per 100,000 in the US? Alaska, with around 80 per 100k. And, thanks to people who CAN do math, even if only 10% of rapes are reported, Alaska rate jumps up to 800 per 100k

It's still bad, and I get sexual assault =/= rape, but holy shit. If the DOJ's survey is to be believed, women would be better off being dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness to survive than going to college.

Think of it this way: No college campus has over a 100,000 students enrolled. Most of the raping happening in these states MUST be happening at college. States should be shutting down college campuses- the level of social dysfunction that they cause is apparently worse than a fucking meth lab!

[Irish ?s ESB]

You arrive at these numbers by counting some dude touching your ass while drunk on a dance floor as a sexual assault. Which technically it is, but activists act like every one of those incidents represents a rape.

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

And touching someone's ass on the dance floor is what...an incredibly minor misdemeanor at worse? And there is the obvious mens rea component- maybe you only accidentally touched their ass?

Social context matters: You go on a packed subway car, someone else is going to be in your personal space, and a certain level of touching may occur that, even if unwanted, doesn't constitute assault ie you can brush a boob or a butt or the car can be so packed that people are pressed together, and none of that should count as an assault in any way.

You go to a drunken frat party, your ass may be grabbed. Look, there's still a line of what is and isn't acceptable, but it blurs depending on the social context. So, I think to label ANY unwanted touching of certain bits as assault... that's just way to removed from context to be useful. Someone may put an arm around my back without asking me first, but if I don't like it, I wasn't just assaulted.

[Medical Physics Guy]

if the Mongols were laying seige to your city!

History buffs here: Which conquerors were the rapiest?

[Pan Zagloba]

You mean in general, or biggest..er...spike in numbers (can't think of a better phrasing)? Because rape was pretty much standard part of benefits package for signing up throughout history, plus it lets you humiliate a defeated opponent even more, driving the point home that he isn't a real man (no one gave a crap about what women thought of the whole exercise). Mongols were damn efficient about most things, as were Romans, so probably Mongols overall - they operated in high-population areas and some of their reported atrocities are nearly unbelievable in how quickly they could do them.

For real nasty shit, you need something like bits of Thirty Years War or initial Soviet invasion of East Prussia, when your troops go so far off their minds that the cruelty becomes self-feeding. Any hypothetical NK invasion of SK would probably look like that if they get into Seoul.

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

I mean, the spread of Genghis Khan's Y chromosome does seem to put it solidly in the Mongols' camp. It's hard to argue when 16 million men, .5 % of the human population, can trace their ancestry back to you.

Hmm, other than them... it's a bit of a tough thing. When the Spanairds took native wives in the New World... like, people married what we would see as their rapists, but it does sound like that in some of those relationships there was legitimate love and affection and the sexual morality then was much different.

But, I would probably go with some order of Mongols, Goths, and Spaniards in the New World, as those are all things where you can see an effect on modern genetics and ethnic populations.

[Medical Physics Guy]

it does sound like that in some of those relationships there was legitimate love and affection

*Grievance studies major head explodes*

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

Believe me, I have no idea how, if I ever get put on the spot, I would teach Sally Hemmings and TJ in a public school class.

Because by modern standards, ever slaveholder who had a slave mistress was a rapist. And that is just very clearly not the case from actual examples- some of them have an air of really tragic romance. But try explaining that to modern SJWs...

[Heroic Mulatto]

+1 La Malinche

[Suthenboy]

I think y'all need to read more history.

Nearly every culture, at some point in their history, was the worst. Humans are pretty nasty creatures.

You can't really point to any one group unless you pick some specific point in time.

Also Goldwater, the Khan's gene thing is misleading. The same can be said of many people from 1000 years ago. Hell, you and I probably have ancestral genes in common.

[The Last American Hero]

I would go with Goths from your list, because, hello, they were white.

[Ted S.]

It's an all-male school, so half of the 0 women there have been assaulted, and the other half of the 0 women there haven't been assaulted.

[Cytotoxic]

Ocean-floor mining is awesome and could give us more metals than we know what to do with.

http://www.techinsider.io/naut.....ts-2015-12

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Is someone going after "Manganese Nodules" again?

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

[BearOdinson]

I prefer the silicon nodules.

Until they hatch.

[sarcasmic]

Cost-benefit analysis pending....

[bacon-magic]

I'm surprised this has been done sooner. Of course this will wreak havoc on yet another ecosystem and PETA/Greenpeace/ecohippies will be tying anchors to their feet to protest it...wait a minute...win win!

[bacon-magic]

*hasn't

[sarcasmic]

Oh, and Emily on Bering Sea Gold is a total lust muffin.

*drool*

[Suthenboy]

I had to google that.

Hmmm.

Yep.

[Pan Zagloba]

Today in Smart Dedicated Publicly Paid Journalists Explains Savages to the South (aka CBC US correspondent), we have Can Bloomberg Win? Alas, probably not.

Bloomberg could then make the following points:

During his time as mayor of New York City, he oversaw a precipitous drop in crime.

He became one of the richest men in America because he's brilliant and lucky and worked hard. And unlike Trump, he intends to give most of his money away before he dies, rather than spend it on gaudy edifices dedicated to the eternal glory of Michael Bloomberg.

He's a fiscal conservative, although he has used the power of office to try to limit some of the toxic, sugary garbage sold to New Yorkers in fast-food joints (prompting red-meat righties like Sarah Palin to appear at podiums with gallon-size tankards of soda as an act of rugged individualist defiance).

And, like most Americans, Bloomberg wants some limits on the profusion of firearms in the U.S.

Why do you barbarians even bother holding elections when such a paragon walks among you?

[Irish ?s ESB]

Oh my God, it's Neil MacDonald. I love that guy. He hates America but it's like all he ever writes about. It must suck to be so completely obsessed with an object of your hatred.*

*I realize this may be hypocritical given my name is Irish ?s ESB. I regret nothing.

[Pan Zagloba]

Well he hates America and that's why he is now writing FROM America. Keep in mind, his job is to be there, soak in the experience and the explain America to Canadians.

And if you think that's bad, he used to send reports from Israel. Try and imagine what those were like.

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

What is ESB up to? Have you been slacking, or has she?

[AlmightyJB]

She's not in his trunk. Really. She's not. Why are you asking so many questions?

[Irish ?s ESB]

She's having a kid so I decided to give her a break because I'm gentlemanly.

[Ken Shultz]

Isn't she a feminist?

Pregnancy is so degrading to women.

Let's hope it's a girl. . . . for the child's sake.

[Irish ?s ESB]

She's a Catholic. I think the Catholic zest for reproduction might outweigh any feminist considerations.

[Pat (PM)]

he intends to give most of his money away before he dies, rather than spend it on gaudy edifices dedicated to the eternal glory of Michael Bloomberg.

Like a $2 billion+ presidential run?

[Lee G]

Meh, Bloomberg donates $50M to a university and they name a $200M building after him. He's no stranger to self-glorification.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

NANNY BLOOMBERG WING.

[Ted S.]

Or the vanity project that is Everytown.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Transgender athletes allowed to compete at Rio Olympics without reassignment surgery

So now, a guy who is willing to declare himself a woman and undergo two years of hormone therapy can compete in the Olympic's women's events. What could go wrong?

Once again, the xx population finds itself at the bottom of the political correctness totem pole.

[Lee G]

Shades of East Germany

[Ted S.]

We came here to swim, not sing opera.

[Pan Zagloba]

I initially read that as "we came here to swing"...

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

Oh boy, I'm waiting for the shit storm when some journalist inevitably makes an "East German Women's Team" crack...

Seriously, the trans righs movement kind of needs to accept that society may be convinced to leave trans people alone and not actively fuck with them, but is unlikely to be built or changed to accommodate them.

As in, instead of focusing on forcing businesses to have gender neutral bathrooms, how about you focus on changing the culture so that when someone sees a gender-variant looking person in the "wrong" bathroom, they keep their goddamn mouth shut unless the person is obviously masturbating- because it doesn't effect you. Because that seems to be a more achievable goal than what they are doing. Then again, the point of the goal is that it's unanchievable- I think some people want this to keep around so that the Ts keeps pulling the rest of the LGBs to the left.

[GILMORE?]

"I think some people want this to keep around so that the Ts keeps pulling the rest of the LGBs to the left."

Which was the point i was going to make in response to your first half of your comment.

I don't think a lot of the "Trans movement" is really about trans-people at all. its just a tool being used by the much-broader SJW-army to beat people over the head with. its a very-obscure and unicorn-y victim-group with layers upon layers of gender/race/class oppression built-in, and therefore a perfect vehicle from which to attack the patriarchy for its culpability in myriad horrors. THEREFORE = Give our departments more money, give our people more jobs, give our bullshit complaints more airtime, and until there is an all-transvestite philippino NHL team carrying the Stanley cup...we shall never be satisfied.

[Suthenboy]

"I don't think a lot of the "Trans movement" is really about trans-people at all. its just a tool being used by the much-broader SJW-army to beat people over the head with."

You Sir, are spot on, but it isnt just the Trans movement. Every facet of social justice warriorism is the same. They different fronts of attack on our society. Feminists don't give a shit about women. After two terms of Obumbles has income inequality grown or shrunk? Gun grabbers don't care about crime and many of them openly admit so. The warmistas that cooked up and push global warming don't believe that horseshit anymore than I do. These are all cynical fabrications being used to destroy any aspect of our culture that promotes individualism, self reliance and liberty generally.

I know that much of this is organic and feeds on itself but you said something once that made me think you underestimate how much a lot of this is deliberate. When Obama openly mocks 'the american spirit', you don't it is calculated?

[ant1sthenes]

Yeah, the only thing progressivism actually stands for is accumulating power for the progressive elites. Since they don't believe in justice (which can get in between the prog elite and power), they instead invent social justice, which is a complicated euphemism for "the prog elite getting power".

Instead of SJWs, they should be called Power Rangers.

[mad.casual]

Transgender athletes allowed to compete at Rio Olympics without reassignment surgery

Oh, good, with all the disease, poverty, and corruption I was worried the Rio Olympics would turn out to be a farce.

[Raven Nation]

Yahoo News rides to Bernie Sanders' rescue. Well, sort of. After explaining how Bernie will really save us money, they conclude that Sanders' bald admission he would increase taxes across the board rather than just for the rich sets him apart.

Comments encouraging.

[The Hyperbole]

Has anyone yet mentioned that Abe Vigoda was best known as Fish?

[AlmightyJB]

Everyone,settled on his role on Weird Science as old Lisa.

[Ken Shultz]

John Travolta is best known for appearing on American Bandstand!

[Ken Shultz]

Ronald Reagan is best known as the president of the Screen Actors' Guild.

Jimmy Carter is best known as the brother of the guy that started Billy Beer!

[AlmightyJB]

This pistol stoll rolling at 98.

"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house." Zsa Zsa

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

This is the only Red State link you need. It is the first time I have found something of worth from that site. It is a barely intelligible email from Donald Trump's ace spokesperson, who is no doubt so smart and great and people really love her.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Now, I had not realized that Red State had endorsed in the presidential race, co could you confrim this endorsment for me? There are several Conservaitvies who have looked to RedState and the projection of honesty, as well as for integrity in the midst of main stream media bias."

LOL. It's Katrina Pierson. She's a moron.

[Ken Shultz]

You know what it's like?

It's like being taught art history by somebody that doesn't know who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

[Ken Shultz]

It's like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

. . . except, it's not supposed to be funny.

[AlmightyJB]

Is it like rain on your wedding day or a free ride when already paid?

[Ken Shultz]

She's best known for being on You Can't Do That on Television.

[Ken Shultz]

She's best known for being on You Can't Do That on Television.

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

Always too hot
Never too cold

[MJGreen - Docile Citizen]

Jesus. I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Vigoda.

[Kristen Bids No Trump]

I told y'all, despite his youthful indiscretion (not that indiscretion - the one where he supported Dukakis), Rob Lowe is indeed a fiscal conservative.

[Notorious UGCC]

The world according to NPR.

*Even* in Brazil with its national health care, there isn't proper treatment for microcephalic infants.

You can also guess what else NPR is saying about the latest mosquito-born disease and the advice to women to postpone pregnancy.

[db]

Here are five important things to know:

1. What is Zika and why is it so serious?

The Zika virus is a flavivirus,

In other news, clock and gold chain sales have inexplicably spiked in Brazil.

[Slumbrew]

well done

[Slumbrew]

What, no alt-text? Nobody's gonna blackball you for a simple "would", Robby.

[Sevens]

Any news on the Shikha virus?

[Ammy350]

My last pay check was $9500 working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out. This is what I do..

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[eddiejordan7894]

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