A.M. Links: Hillary vs. Bernie, Cruz Says Trump Is 'Losing It,' U.N. Panel Rules on Julian Assange

• Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight at a Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

• Donald Trump is now claiming that Ted Cruz "stole" the Iowa caucus. Cruz says that Trump is "losing it."

• Paul Ryan to conservatives: "The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default."

• January 2016 gun sales set a new national record.

• "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's three-and-a-half-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounts to 'unlawful detention', a United Nations panel examining his appeal will rule on Friday."

• Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson is running for mayor of Baltimore.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight at a Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

O'Malley hits the links.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[CatoTheChipper]

O'Malley hits the links ...

while Black Lives Matter campaign for his old job.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Talk about your slaps in the face.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

144) One of the reasons Rome slipped so easily from a Republic to an Empire was because the first emperor, Augustus, was careful to continue observing all the little courtesies and ritual forms in the Senate. As long as he remained properly deferential in public, he could feel free to act as an emperor out of sight. But by the time of the second emperor, Tiberius, the need for such niceties was over and Tiberius treated the Senate with contempt.

I wonder if we've entered a sort of transition like Rome underwent. In this scheme, we're passing from a Republic to the Imperial Presidency, but until now presidents have felt constrained by tradition to act as if the old system is still in place. Obama, though, is like Tiberius, regarding Congress with exasperation and impatience and using his pen and his phone and his executive orders to pass whatever laws he pleases.

Unfortunately, in Rome, the emperor after Tiberius was Caligula, who used the powers and privileges of his office solely to satisfy his own appetites. Not that my little analogy here should be taken too far, but, well, considering the current crop of presidential candidates?.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

There's no question America is experiencing this. Rome lasted longer as an empire than a Republic Cicero attempted to restore. My Classics professor proclaimed Augustus to be one of the 'greatest figures in human history' largely because of his astuteness.

[Free Society]

He was certainly "great" in the sense of being adept and influential. But I'm not sure we could even pin the blame for the Republic turning into the Principate on him. Sulla, the forgotten dictator for life that ruled about half a century before the Caesars, established virtually all of the precedents that Julius Caesar and eventually Augustus would follow to establish their unofficial throne. The Republic had been slipping long before Augustus came to town, indeed if the political culture hadn't become increasingly favorable towards strongmen imposing order as opposed to Senatorial rivals brawling with armies in the streets, there would have been no such path to power for Caesar.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Yes, this is true but boy did he masterfully consolidate power into his hands. It's worth noting 'Pax Romana' was established by Auggie.

[Free Society]

Yeah it's hard to imagine Marc Antony being able to establish a dynasty or the Principate like Augustus did. Antony basically shacked up with the ancient equivalent of Yoko Ono and he went full demigod in his approach to power, and in the western part of the Roman Empire, you never go full demigod (at that point in history).

[Heroic Mulatto]

Antony basically shacked up with the ancient equivalent of Yoko Ono

Bravo!

[Overt]

The Gracchi brothers IMHO were the tipping point. They gave a voice to the mob, with promises of free bread and pent up rage. For years, the Roman Republic had been oppressing the vast majority of the populace to the benefit of a handfull of rich families sitting on the Senate. By riling up the mob, the Gracchi brothers nearly took the entire republic for themselves. Sulla was a reaction to that. For all he did to string along the republic for just a bit longer, Sulla perceived plebians (not the oppression of them) as the problem, and did his best to strengthen the power of the senate.

The Gracchi brothers taught leaders the power of the mob, and Julius Caesar and following emperors would learn from their tricks. It is my opinion that if there are any parallels, it is to the Gracchi period. We have a massive populace of disenfranchised public agitating for change and people like Sanders and Trump are doing their best to harness this power. While there may be a Sulla like backlash that attempts to put the populace in its place while the politicians are "freed" to do their good work, the end result is a tyrant sweeping into office with a cheering public at his/her back.

[Free Society]

The Gracchi brothers IMHO were the tipping point. They gave a voice to the mob, with promises of free bread and pent up rage.

The ancient Koch brothers!!!! OMG

By riling up the mob, the Gracchi brothers nearly took the entire republic for themselves.

But seriously you do make a good point. Populism eroded the law in the Republic more than any other factor, the Gracchi, Sulla, Caesar(s), they all played that card.

[CatoTheChipper]

The American founders were very well aware of the history of republics, particularly the Roman Republic. For that reason, they were averse to democracy. E.g., Madison in Federalist #10: "democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths".

[Heedless]

This is precisely backwards. The Grachi were Tribunes, exercising the power allowed to them by the laws of Rome. They were notable because the Tribunes before them had been a series of aristocratic rubber stamps, and because they were assassinated by a gang of senators in the middle of the street.

Assassination was hardly unknown in the Republic, but this was the first time that the entire legal representation of a major political movement was killed in public. That was the body blow to the rule of law. The Grachi's populism was merely a threat to the rule of the aristocracy (and possibly to property rights, but in a semi-feudal society like Rome, those are pretty tenuous to begin with).

[KDN]

Our era is definitely analogous to the late Republic, but we've yet to see Sulla, never mind Augustus.

I give it 50 years.

[Private Chipperbot]

Listening to Hardcore History on the fall of Rome and it covers this nicely.

[robc]

Is that in the pre-free era?

[Private Chipperbot]

Yeah. But worth the $10. Really enjoying it.

[KDN]

I should note that there's a good argument to be made that Obama is Sulla's analog, and that his rise to power and style of governing will be mimicked by steadily more dictatorial presidents of both parties until the veneer of republic is no longer deemed necessary.

[VG Zaytsev]

We're at the Grachii point.

[Overt]

+1 I agree with you above.

[Illocust]

It will be stopped because the options are currently people who the media won't allow to get away with it or folks that have been in Congress long enough that they can get things through without need for executive orders. Imperialism of the Roman type requires a certain amount of elite power that is not currently possible in America. With the advent of the internet, the elites lost a ridiculous amount of ability to influence the masses. They can't always get the people they want elected anymore.

So no, not yet. Maybe someday, but not this election.

[Restoras]

I agree with Illocust. Also, the citizens are heavily armed with weapons that anyone can use. I see the country fracturing into several smaller states.

[Free Society]

I'm hopeful that will happen.

[Teaching Student]

Peacefully......

[CatoTheChipper]

The 2016 election should conclusively demonstrate at least one thing to anybody paying attention: no mortal human being is competent to be president of the US as it is currently constituted. Nobody who has spent their career in developing the requisite talents to get nominated and elected, particularly deception and money-grubbing, has the requisite integrity, intelligence, and wisdom to govern when inaugurated.

[Free Society]

Nobody who has spent their career in developing the requisite talents to get nominated and elected, particularly deception and money-grubbing, has the requisite integrity, intelligence, and wisdom to govern when inaugurated.

Popular elections are contests between politicians to see who is the best demagogic pathological liar, the winner is awarded the prize of being the chief caretaker of the expropriation monopoly.

[VG Zaytsev]

Elections are becoming irrelevant.

How much of the tea party agenda has been enacted?

Close to zero by my account and that was from the largest grass roots movement in about a century. Previous ones got real changes enacted, as often for the worse as the better but in any case the movement mattered.

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

Okay, you're being hyperbolic.

The tea party movement is 6 years old. That is super young. It took longer to get women the vote.

At year 6, the labor movement had just had the Haymarket riot and looked dead. So bitching about not having enacted the agenda yet shows lack of perspective. This shit takes time

[Rasilio]

Um, the Tea Party movement is dead, killed from the inside when the evangelicals co-opted it as a social conservative movement rather than one based almost entirely on fiscal conservatism.

Look at the main stars of the Tea Party election...

Paul - makes a good show in the Senate but he's the redheaded stepchild of the movement because he doesn't have a warboner and doesn't want to make Homosexuality illegal.

Rubio - For all intents and purposes he has become an establishment Republican

Cruz - Amazingly still holds some of his tea party views and does really seem to take a somewhat principled stand opposing Government spending but is running for President as a evangelical Social Conservative with a warboner and not a small government fiscal conservative

So basically the Tea Party has either been absorbed into the Republican establishmemt, abandoned fiscal conservatism for social conservatism, or been marginalized

[Je Suis Reason (Fmr. AuH20)]

Well, Samuel Gompers, didn't expect to see you here. Rasillio, I am being a bit salty, but I think you're going a bit Cassandra here.

By another measure, the tea party has been wildly successful. They have run and won senate and congress races. The took a governorship in Kansas. They scalped a speaker of the house.

And all this in a 6-8 year period, depending on when you want to date the start. William Jennings Bryant was never elected president, yknow?

And I don't even have an emotional attachment to the tea party. I just feel duty bound to point out history.

[CatoTheChipper]

Early on, I participated in tea party demonstrations and events. Very early in the history of the tea party movement, establishment types -- both neo-con and progressives -- began for the first time in my life to criticize libertarianism. The neo-con criticism focused on what libertarianism would do to American exceptionalism and all that entails while the progressive criticism focused on how the Ayn Rand heartlessness of libertarians would wantonly default on Social Security promises, leave families to educate their children without free schooling, gleefully despoil the environment, and happily consign unfortunates to misery. I suspect they did so because there was a libertarian wing of the tea party that might actually have prevailed, and they wanted to marginalize it among the movement's somewhat larger conservative wing. They succeeded, and the tea party evolved into so-con movement that largely endorses the neo-con agenda.

[Tonio]

But Rasilio's point about being coopted into a social conservative movement still stands, sorta. For every non-socon they lost by that they gained or retained a socon.

[Clich? Bandit]

The Tea Party started with Barry Goldwater. It is well and truly on life support. Opinions wax and wane with time on fiscal issues but like a pendulum the momentum gets sapped each cycle. We are now basically vibrating imperceptibly at the center of gravity.

[Azathoth!!]

I have to say, anyone who says 'The Tea Party' clearly has no understanding of what the tea parties are.

There is no one 'Tea Party', there never has been. There are tea parties that are very so-con, there are tea parties that are very libertarian(small 'l'). Most have a fiscal responsibility thread at their core--not 'fiscal conservative' because that term is as co-opted as 'socially liberal'.

And they've won more than 'a' governorship. They've gotten quite a few governors, quite a few statehouses, and are even starting to chip away at the deep blue city councils.

But you can't see that when your eyes are focused on big names and big parties.

[Overt]

The trick isn't getting stuff "past" the public. It is getting the public at your back. Julius Caesar was a man of the people and they loved him for kicking the senate in the nuts.

People like Trump and Sanders see this and are exploiting it for their gain. I don't think Sanders or Trump are the end tyrants- as I note above they are paving the way for a tyrant in the same mold as the Gracchi brothers. But there are young captains and freshmen senators watching how those two are doing this. In 15 to 30 years, we will see how much they have learned.

When we see a massive adventure into Mexico, we will know that the final resting point of that adventure will be DC.

[DenverJ]

Roman generals paid their troops. The armies were private. The troops had personal loyalty to men like Caesar and Pompey. I can't see US troops crossing the Rio to install their general as Consul.

[expat]

Thanks for that image ... Hilliary as Caligula. Bill will enjoy the orgies I am sure.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

You could have some fun by speculating on what the equivalent of installing her horse in the Senate will be.

[KDN]

David Brock in a gimp suit.

[Free Society]

Elizabeth Warren in the Senate?

[The Last American Hero]

Huma.

[SimonJester]

Huma as speaker. No vote, no debate. No conversation.

[Private Chipperbot]

Well. Crusty will...

[Click here, Palin's Buttplug!]

He already is.

[Juice]

You're saying Dubya was like Augustus? *boggle*

[Stormy Dragon]

A lot of the bad things we commonly believe about Caligula were likely made up after his assassination by supporters of Emperor Claudius to justify the way he came into power. There's no contemporary accounts from before the assassination that verify them.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump is now claiming that Ted Cruz "stole" the Iowa caucus. Cruz says that Trump is "losing it."

Ouch. The L word.

[robc]

I think this is Trump's equivalent to Dean's scream.

[Rhywun]

Maybe - except now everyone who didn't already know how nasty he is, knows that Cruz plays dirty.

[cavalier973]

And that's...bad, right?

[Rhywun]

Bad for Cruz. Red meat for Trumpalos.

[Catatafish & Woodchips]

I sometimes wonder if that is the case. You can make the argument that a sizable portion of Trump's supporter are "we just need to win and Trump is the guy who can do it." If that's the case, Cruz showing he has the tools, acumen and, yes, sharp elbows to get the votes MIGHT get some of them thinking, "well, this Ted guy might actually could do it."

I'm not entirely sure people had this vision of Cruz as being a paragon of gentlemanly virtue to begin with anyway.

[Jerryskids]

Trump's already saying he's going to sue Cruz, the GOP, the state of Iowa, possibly all the news sources falsely and maliciously claiming Cruz "won" Iowa - now he can just slap a trademark infringement claim in there on Cruz for using that word.

[Tonio]

Well, we all knew this moment would come. Whether it's part of a planned act, or just a colossal ego collapsing upon itself doesn't matter.

[Clich? Bandit]

My latest fashion in tin foil head wear says that Trump really truly may be a plant. He was asked to run by Bill, he goes out to distract and disrupt, he succeeds better than expected, billary loses control of him, he starts to think he can win this thing, we all end up in hell.

[DenverJ]

That's not tin foil hat stuff, that's basically what happened.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Black and White Americans can now agree: OJ was guilty

Most pleased: Irish.

[Private Chipperbot]

Aren't you a little early to be a Stormtrooper?

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

I assume JJ is still asleep. Lazy bastard.

[SugarFree]

That's why he can't hold down a job.

[Lord Humungus]

NYT: Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio Made History. Didn't You Hear?

With Senator Ted Cruz taking nearly 28 percent of the vote and Senator Marco Rubio getting 23 percent, each vastly surpassed the results for any other Latino candidate in any previous United States presidential contest.

How is that not being celebrated as historic or at least worth a headline for a day or two?

The answer is not that complicated: Neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Rubio meets conventional expectations of how Latino politicians are supposed to behave.

Neither of these candidates claims to speak for the Hispanic population or derive a crucial portion of their support from Hispanics, and neither bases much of his political identity on being a Latino. To varying degrees they oppose legalization for unauthorized immigrants, a policy that is central to most organized Latino political interests and that is supported by a great majority of Latino elected officials and Latino voters.

Maybe they should wear sombreros.

[Rich]

Like Justice Sotomayor?

[Swiss Servator]

+1 Mexican Hat Dance?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

For you Blackhawks fans:

http://bleacherreport.com/arti.....-young-fan

[Swiss Servator]

Can I haz Mac n' Cheese too?

[Bee Tagger]

The answer is not that complicated: Neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Rubio meets conventional expectations of how Latino politicians are supposed to behave.

Yikes.

[Rich]

Don't you mean "?Ay, caramba!"?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

conventional expectations == NYT expected racist stereotypes

[Rhywun]

Well, to be fair, that is exactly how every Latino politician behaves in NYC.

[Krabappel]

Both Cruz and Rubio are SO WELL SPOKEN. That's what Democrats said about Obama back in 2007.

[Old Man With Candy]

Clean, too.

[Krabappel]

Neither Cruz no Rubio smell like your standard El Salvadoran janitor with too much cheap cologne on.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Are there any actual Latinos who think that all Latinos should be considered as one big bloc, or is it all just commenters?

[Jerryskids]

Jes?s Jackson and Alejandro Sharpton. Those chicos know how the jugadors rodar.

[Doctor Whom]

They're not true Scotsmen Christians socialists Klein bottles Latinos. Also, they're standing at the point at which the Latino community stops being monolithic. That's the way it's been explained to me.

[Drake]

"White Hispanic" sums it up.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Oh great, now we're going to get a Salon or ThinkProgress article comparing Cruz/Rubio to George Zimmerman.

[Tonio]

Of course we will, Juvie, of course we will. This is going to be a season of delicious butt-hurt and the tears will flow like wine.

[Swiss Servator]

We haven't already?!

[John]

The top four GOP candidates in Iowa were two Cubans, black guy and a single white guy. That just proves how racist the GOP is. If they were not so racist, they wouldn't feel the need to try and over compensate by having all these Cuban and Black candidates.

[robc]

And the white guy was a yankee, so doesnt really count as white.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Yeh but one of the Cubans is of Canadian (Irish-Italian extract to boot) origin. Doesn't count!

[cavalier973]

I was trying to figure out which white wasn't married...

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

You dirty, dirty Sanchez.

[Rational Exuberance]

The answer is not that complicated: Neither Mr. Cruz nor Mr. Rubio meets conventional expectations of how Latino politicians are supposed to behave.

Hate to break it to American progressives, but people of Spanish descent are usually Catholic and frequently very conservative, in particular on social issues.

[lap83]

Yeah, but they're not SUPPOSED to be like that

[Click here, Palin's Buttplug!]

And believe in lighter-skin-is-better.

[R C Dean]

IOW, if you don't act like a proggy Hispanic community organizer, you aren't a real Hispanic.

[Bee Tagger]

"The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default."

Is there someone in the middle?

[Fist of Etiquette]

He wouldn't be conservative if he was in the middle so who cares.

[Swiss Servator]

Paul Ryan to conservatives: "The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default."

I thought the Left would love nothing more than Ryan carrying on as Teh Lightworker's dogsbody in the House?

[UnCivilServant]

He's still trying to pretend he's not their gimp.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Well, the last guy in the middle was orange, so Paul Ryan does have a vested interest.

[Mickey Rat]

Maybe if Ryan would not run into the field of fire.

[Fist of Etiquette]

January 2016 gun sales set a new national record.

They're going to be sorry to see Obama go.

[Tejicano]

No shyte. I've lost count of the number of gun stores I've been in with Obama's picture on the wall with the message "Salesman of the Year".

[straffinrun]

You might have been down at the range, Tex.

[invisible furry hand]

The Kochtopus has spread its tentacles downunder and brave clever progressives are fighting it

Sunrise host David Koch mistaken on Twitter for US billionaire David Koch

[The Last American Hero]

He's lucky he wasn't assaulted.

[Bee Tagger]

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off tonight at a Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

I have to follow the link to find out which channels I should avoid tonight? C'mon Root!

[invisible furry hand]

University worker asked white students to leave a computer lab because they weren't Indigenous... and now she's launched a $250,000 racism claim

more

[straffinrun]

She sounds disindigenous.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Rich]

Lecturer Dr Hayes is accused of saying that kicking a non-Indigenous person out of an Indigenous computer lab 'seems a bit silly'.

FTFY

[VG Zaytsev]

It's a table with a collection of pebbles and seashells.

[Rhywun]

Damn you for making me laugh at that

[JWatts]

I'm guessing the Dr wouldn't have used the phrase 'seems a bit silly' if a white university worker had kicked out a group of black students. Indeed, I bet the hypothetical white university worker would have already been fired.

[ant1sthenes]

Indigenous people in a computer lab? Sounds like cultural appropriation to me.

[WTF]

So, diversity is to be avoided, now? Because what other purpose could segregation have?

[Rhywun]

Every time I think the Left is ruining race relations in America, I look elsewhere and see that they're doing it even harder.

[Click here, Palin's Buttplug!]

Australia has embraced Separate-but-Equal?

[Rich]

scores of sheriffs and police chiefs have encouraged citizens to arm themselves.

"We need common-sense sheriff and police chief control!"

[Bee Tagger]

Donald Trump is now claiming that Ted Cruz "stole" the Iowa caucus. Cruz says that Trump is "losing it."

I'll admit to losing some confidence in all the "stop it, Trump has no chance of winning" proclamations I made to friends/family over the past couple of months. But that confidence is returning.

[R C Dean]

See what happens in New Hampshire. If Donald wins, as the polls indicate he will, then Iowa will be a fast-fading memory.

I expect the talking heads to continue to carry water for Establishment Tool Rubio, by nattering endlessly about how he beat expectations and the Donald didn't, so who knows what the accepted narrative will be.

[Lord Humungus]

Gay Republicans Care More About Democrats Losing Than LGBT Equality

The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), a group that says it aims to make the Republican Party more LGBT-inclusive, released its first ad of the 2016 election this weekend. It had nothing to do with Republicans, however.

Instead, the ad suggests that Hillary Clinton was "wrong on gay rights when it mattered." After citing clips of Clinton from over ten years ago opposing same-sex marriage, the ad jumps to Bernie Sanders talking in 2015 about how "leadership counts."

needs more flamin' hand flips...

[John]

Gay Democrats care more about leftism than gay lives much less gay rights.

[UnCivilServant]

Duh, why would gay lefts care about gay rights?

[straffinrun]

Yeah, that'd make them straight.

[commodious spittoon]

*sustained applause*

[Notorious UGCC]

Gay Democrats would give up their right to defend themselves against murderous homophobic assault, so long as Republicans get defeated.

[Lord Humungus]

Makers of 'mindblowing' sex robot with virtual vagina swamped with orders

The manufacturers of a pioneering video game controller that doubles as a virtual reality male sex toy have pulled it off the market after being swamped by demand.

VirtuaDolls is a system which allows hi-tech heavy breathers to strap on a VR helmet, sleep with simulated women and be pleasured by a device which responds to on-screen eroticism.

This could, for instance, allow gamers to watch a cyber-siren twerking whilst the silicon sex toy pulsates in time with her every gyration.

So many men rushed to pre-order this device on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo that its designers were forced to "put the project on hold".

[Rich]

virtual vagina

Nice band name.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Seems more like an album title to me. Perhaps the sophomore effort by the Raging Boners.

[Rich]

Let's compromise.

"Their eponymous first album, followed by 'Sloppy Seconds'."

[Swiss Servator]

*scowls....scratches chin and wanders off*

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why would I want my mind blown?

[Rich]

Because it's all in the mind?

[straffinrun]

at least in the hair.

[Swiss Servator]

*resumes narrowed gaze*

[straffinrun]

Don't just stand there gazing. Get me some Head and Shoulders.

[Trials and Trippelations]

Makers of 'mindblowing' sex robot with virtual vagina swamped with orders

I initially read that as swamped with odors

[Illocust]

Slate is discussing the Bernie Bro today. Along with the Canadian ruling that defending yourself on Twitter is not harassment, I wonder if this is a sign that playing the victim on social media is beginning to lose its power. Nearly everyone has experienced guilt by association attacks where a random troll's tweet gets held up as the core of their movement, and the attacks are being used interparty now. A lot of the power of this tactic came from the belief that a tweet was an accurate portrayal of the other side, but now it seems to be entering the public consciousness that that is simply not true.

It's an interesting development, and I hope it continues.

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....worse.html

[ant1sthenes]

Progressives aren't liberal; they can easily believe that someone doing a thing to them is Very Bad, and them doing that same thing to someone else (or that someone else doing it to The Enemy) is Very Good.

[GILMORE?]

"My own Bro research has revealed that both viewpoints are correct"

This is what happens when Progressives fight!

[Mr. Flanders]

Holy sh*t. A well balanced and level-headed article on Slate.

[Lord Humungus]

Florida House passes sweeping immigration measure

Saying Florida cities and counties must "follow the rule of law," the Florida House passed a sweeping immigration measure Wednesday that would penalize those who don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Florida is one of several states considering a crackdown on so-called "sanctuary cities." The House voted 80-38 for the bill that could lead to fines and even removal from office for officials who fail to follow the proposed law.

Rep. Larry Metz said that while many immigrants are "good people" he argued that the state needed to ensure local authorities follow the law. The Pew Research Center in 2012 estimated there are 925,000 unauthorized immigrants in the state and that the number had been rising.

"There's too many good people like that in the world for us to say if they are good they can come here," said Metz, a Republican from Yalaha. "We would be overrun."

[Hamster of Doom]

No worries. Once we've finished squandering the inheritance of freedom that we didn't bleed for and have no interest in sacrificing to maintain, they'll not want to immigrate here anymore. Self-correcting problem for the win!

[Old Man With Candy]

Too many negatives. It confuses my addled old brain.

[Lord Humungus]

North Korea bombards South with used toilet paper

North Korea has escalated its propaganda war with a new wave of balloon launches aimed at South Korea, and is now loading balloons with used toilet paper, tissues and cigarette butts.

The South Korean authorities were so concerned at the contents of balloons wafting over the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that they initially feared a biochemical attack, the JoongAng Daily reported.

South Korea resumed launches of balloons carrying propaganda into the North in the days after Pyongyang carried out its fourth underground nuclear test on January 6. Seoul also approved the resumption of broadcasts of pop music and propaganda via loudspeakers into the North.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Maybe they should send it to their comrades in Venezuela, who might appreciate the gesture.

[Krabappel]

South Korea should drop Hyundais and Samsung TVs.

[JWatts]

Yeah, except the average North Korean probably doesn't have access to gas.

[Horatio]

Lucky South Koreans.

/Venezuela

[Lord Humungus]

There Never Was a 'Libertarian Moment'

Some people are now arguing that Paul squandered the libertarian moment. Others say that the rise of the Islamic State put an end to that moment. The truth is, though, there never really was such a moment. Young people are not especially libertarian?just look at the polls on how they feel about socialism. They did not vote for Rand Paul at especially high rates. The public's shift on same-sex marriage was not a turn toward limited government as a political philosophy, which is why the movement for same-sex marriage did not have to pause for a moment to turn into a campaign to coerce bakers and florists. And anyway, rising support for same-sex marriage was always an odd argument to make for the political attractiveness of Rand Paul, since he opposes it.

Because he bought the hype about the "libertarian moment," Paul thought he could win the Republican nomination, and so he tried to offer a presentable version of his father's purist, cranky libertarianism. Because there was no such moment, he didn't win the new supporters he had expected, and his compromises alienated his father's supporters. This campaign was never going to go the distance, Islamic State or no Islamic State.

[Hamster of Doom]

"Let me explain my narrative, and why I think current events support it."

That's all these articles boil down to.

[Private Chipperbot]

It's no worse than Reason saying millennials are super libertarian even though they think Sanders is peachy.

[SugarFree]

Except one is hoping for a change and the other is gloating that the same shitty system gets to continue unchallenged.

[Private Chipperbot]

True. And depressing.

[Hamster of Doom]

It isn't. I'm not sure why you would conclude that they're no different but I must not have meant them too. It is a puzzle.

[Private Chipperbot]

Yeah. Worse was probably the wrong word.

[straffinrun]

Ron Paul was that one time when we almost got Andie in bed before she slapped us in Groundhog day.

[ant1sthenes]

Ha, an article from NR designed specifically to tell Nick to suck it.

[Roger the Shrubber]

Beware of Cytotoxic's scathing ad hominem attack.

[Citizen X]

I'm sure everyone at National Review cried themselves to sleep last night over that one.

[Lord Humungus]

Germany arrests jihadists planning 'serious act,' hunts 2 more

German police Thursday arrested two Algerians suspected of links to the Islamic State group and hunted two others after raids targeting several sites including refugee shelters where some of the suspects lived.

The four "from the jihadist scene are under investigation over suspicions that they are planning a serious act threatening the security of the state," Berlin police said.

The alleged involvement of Algerian nationals in any IS plot as well as a link to refugee shelters is expected to add fuel to a raging debate over the 1.1 million asylum seekers that Germany took in last year.

North African migrants were already in the spotlight after they were blamed for a rash of sexual assaults during New Year Eve's festivities in the western German city of Cologne.

[Restoras]

If only the borders were more open I'm sure this wouldn't happen.

[WTF]

Unpossible, the refugees are all well-vetted and benign. They are just seeking to make a better life for their families.

[GILMORE?]

ISLAMOPHOBIA UGH

[Lord Humungus]

Indian girl has had ONE THOUSAND giant ants removed from her ears after the insects got inside and began breeding... with ten emerging EVERY DAY

This is the 12-year-old girl who has had more than 1,000 giant ants removed from her ears after doctors find them nesting in her drum canal.

Shreya Darji, from Deesa, in Gujarat, western India, has around ten live ants crawl out of her ears daily, her parents say.

Shreya's problem first started as an irritation in her ear in August last year, and when she visited her local hospital, doctors found the ants inside her ear canal.

[Rich]

Other children in her school and community are teasing her and it's already making her feel bad.

As bad as the *ants*? Good Lord.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

Good Lord, I know kids can be cruel but who would feel right making fun of the girl who had giant ants in her ears?

[Old Man With Candy]

who would feel right making fun of the girl who had giant ants in her ears?

/raises hand

[lap83]

I don't think negging works on little girls...

[Drake]

Ahhh! I would be spraying Raid directly into my ear canal.

[This Machine]

"I'M ANTS IN MY EYES EARS JOHNSON, HERE AT ANTS IN MY EYES EARS JOHNSON'S ELECTRONICS!!"

[Krabappel]

That scene made me want to claw at my eyes.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Change the channel, Mortie.

[Suthenboy]

"No cure: Her desperate parents say they have tried everything, from traditional medical aids to witch doctors, but the ants keep emerging from her ears"

They should consult Dr. Munchhausen. I sure he could clear this up in a jiffy.

[Illocust]

Why not fill her ear with water for an hour and drown them? It would seem to be the simplest solution. Hell when my mom had a junebug in her ear her mother used kerosene to drown it before heading to the doctor to get it removed.

[JWatts]

I'm surprised that alcohol and/or Hydrogen Peroxide wouldn't kill the eggs.

[SugarFree]

I'm surprised she wasn't raped at the hospital.

[Suthenboy]

Y'all missed my point.

If her parents will stop putting the ants in her ears the problem will disappear.

I will spell it out: This is a case of Munchhausen syndrome. Parents using their child to get sympathy and attention. They made the news, didn't they?

[Horatio]

Lloyd and Harry could not be reached for comment

[Rich]

In case you missed it:

DC bill would pay people stipends not to commit crimes

In Richmond, 79 percent of "fellows" participating in the program have not been suspected of involvement in any gun crimes since joining the program, and 84 percent have not been injured by gunfire

*** facepalm ***

[JWatts]

I can see where this is headed.
News Report: The crime rate among stipend earners has spiked!
Democratic Politician: Clearly, we need to increase the amount of the stipend.

[CatoTheChipper]

Meanwhile, the control group that received no treatment reported that 100% have not been suspected of any gun crime. The control group is, of course, my neighborhood.

[Lord Humungus]

Naomi Klein: "There are no non-radical options left before us"

Naomi Klein: So the 'this' in This Changes Everything is climate change. And the argument that I make in the book is that we find ourselves in this moment where there are no non-radical options left before us. Change or be changed, right? And what we mean by that is that climate change, if we don't change course, if we don't change our political and economic system, is going to change everything about our physical world. And that is what climate scientists are telling us when they say business as usual leads to three to four degrees Celsius of warming. That's the road we are on. We can get off that road, but we're now so far along it, we've put off the crucial policies for so long, that now we can't do it gradually. We have to swerve, right? And swerving requires such a radical departure from the kind of political and economic system we have right now that we pretty much have to change everything.

We have to change the kind of free trade deals we sign. We would have to change the absolutely central role of frenetic consumption in our culture. We would have to change the role of money in politics and our political system. We would have to change our attitude towards regulating corporations. We would have to change our guiding ideology.

[Lee G]

Klein can't write worth a damn. The fact that she and her thinly veiled eco-communism have become so popular is a damning indictment of the modern left.

[Just a thought not a sermon]

"That's the road we are on. We can get off that road, but we're now so far along it, we've put off the crucial policies for so long, that now we can't do it gradually. We have to swerve, right? And swerving requires such a radical departure"

I've stretched out a metaphor before, but she's putting this metaphor on the rack until it screams.

[Lee G]

And it turns out he really was sick and he was sick because ? and he explained this ? he'd gone swimming in a lake in Oklahoma and it was in the middle of a heatwave and there was an outbreak of blue-green algae, which is linked to climate change. He basically had a climate change illness. [laughter] And this is why he could not speak at the climate denial conference.

Climate change, there's nothing it cannot do.

[Suthenboy]

They keep taking historically common occurrences and painting them as new anomalies associated with climate change.

Blue green algae is associated with high phosphorus levels, not heat. Also, it doesnt make you sick unless you swallow it.

I am calling bullshit on that.

[WTF]

Hell, climate change is historically common occurance. The climate changes over time, it always has and always will. Except now it used as an excuse for greater government control over the economy by Top Men.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Where is Klein on Hillary vs. Bernie? I'd love to know.

[Lee G]

I'd put her in the Bernie camp

[straffinrun]

I think a lot of us will be in the Bernie camp.

[Citizen X]

Arbeit Macht Sp?ren Sie die Bern

[Krabappel]

*narrows gaze* *applauds*

[Private Chipperbot]

With our free tattoos.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

So what's this commie-tart suggesting? Beat the brats with baseball bats? Line up people and shoot in the back now? What they want I don't know but we're all revved up and ready to go!

From comments:

"alpinist
2 hours ago

The Civil War in America resulted in capitalists being liberated of about $3 trillion in slave assets (using constant dollars).

To solve global warming, we need to seize about the same amount of wealth from the oil and coal companies."

Seize this. Seize that. Deny freedom of expression this. Deny freedom of expression that. Tax this. Tax that. This all these people know. Coercion enforced by the state.

[SugarFree]

It's almost like they already knew what the solution was and are gleefully rubbing their hands for finding a problem.

[Citizen X]

When you have a gulag, every problem looks like a kulak.

[WTF]

Nice, consider that stolen.

[Citizen X]

What are you, a socialist?

[ant1sthenes]

I strongly suspect that once they nationalize the coal and oil industries, they ramp up production and loosen environmental regs, a lot of true-believing warmist scientists will have unfortunate accidents, and we never hear about CO2-based global warming again.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

No accident, they'll be in the camp right next to us.

[Suthenboy]

"It's almost like they already knew what the solution was and are gleefully rubbing their hands for finding a problem."

Yep, almost.

[Free Society]

The Civil War in America resulted in capitalists being liberated of about $3 trillion in slave assets (using constant dollars).

So in a war between the northern industrialist society where slavery was mostly outlawed, and a southern agrarian society where slavery was not just completely legal but subsidized by the state, "the capitalists" were the agrarian slave holders?

[rudehost]

"We would have to change our guiding ideology."

So less totalitarian then?

[Suthenboy]

"We would have to change our guiding ideology."

Never mind that there is no measurable climate change. We have to change everything. Let me guess, the change in 'we have to change everything' is communism.

When are these lying liars going to finally lose credibility? How many times does the sun have to come up after the end of the world before chicken little shuts the fuck up?

[tarran]

My guess is between another five and ten years.

[Citizen X]

Nah. You just wait, the upcoming sunspot minimum and its corresponding decrease in global temperatures are gonna be the result of climate change, too.

[straffinrun]

Oh, yeah? I'll bet you a Pascal's wager you're wrong.

[Free Society]

Nah. You just wait, the upcoming sunspot minimum and its corresponding decrease in global temperatures are gonna be the result of climate change, too.

I can't wait. Being that I don't live on the east coast, I completely missed winter this year. This lack of cold, ice and snow really bums me out.

[Rhywun]

There's also the 'change' as in 'population change' - i.e. piles of corpses.

[invisible furry hand]

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's three-and-a-half-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounts to 'unlawful detention', a United Nations panel examining his appeal will rule on Friday."

So, guy voluntarily enters embassy to avoid extradition to face charges, and this is unlawful detention? Can't wait to see how they came to that conclusion

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Penumbra.

or Penaltax.

The answers to everything.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Commerce clause would like a word.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

You have Trumped me, Sir!

[Hamster of Doom]

Three possibilities.

1) Failure to read sufficiently, and having little-to-no idea what's going on.

2) Lacking imagination.

3) A mindset which deliberately excludes opposing ideas

There might be others, but those are the most obvious reasons why you fail to comprehend this.

It's one thing to disagree with the ruling. But to not understand, even hypothetically, why this conclusion is reachable by anyone says more about you, et cetera.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

you

=?

[Hamster of Doom]

That was way bitchier than intended. I'm not actually in a mood, just seem to be stuck in a cynic font. Feel free to back out a lot of that tone.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Thank you for the clarification, I did not want to presume and answer for perceived IFH transgressions ...

As weak as the attempt was, I was intending to poke some fun at the silliness of the situation where one ends up with a convoluted court ruling with no basis in law, only the Courts predetermination.

I am well aware of Assange's self-imposed exile and think to blame it on Ecuadorian "unlawful detention" is ridiculous.

But I also think he should eventually face the music at the scene of his alleged crimes.

[Swiss Servator]

Charging the Ecuadorans?!

[Lord Humungus]

Kevin Williamson: The Buchanan Boys

Donald Trump's performance in this year's Iowa caucuses was identical to Pat Buchanan's in 1996: second place, enjoying the support of approximately one in four Republican caucus-goers. Trump's campaign, like Buchanan's, is powered by the resentment and anxiety of the white working class.

Trump is this year's celebrity mascot for the Buchanan boys.

The Buchanan boys are economically and socially frustrated white men who wish to be economically supported by the federal government without enduring the stigma of welfare dependency. So they construct for themselves a story in which they have been victimized by elites and a political system based on interest-group politics that serves everyone except them. Trump is supported by so-called white nationalists, as Buchanan was before him, but the swastika set is merely an extreme example of the sort of thinking commonly found among those to whom Trump appeals.

[Drake]

They are the white guys who used to be Democrats before that party went completely insane.

[Lee G]

Too bad Trump doesn't have Buchanan's foreign policy tendencies

[John]

I like Williamson but that is nearly Slate level DERP. Last I looked Trump appealed to women and minorities at levels most Republicans can only dream of. And maybe Williamson missed it but there was this little thing we like to call TARP where the bipartisan fusion party looted the country to save the banks.

National Review has lost its mind. Its like they are doing everything they can to make people want Trump to win if for no other reason than to see justice served against assholes like them.

[VG Zaytsev]

Williamson has gone bat shit crazy with Trump derangement syndrome.

[Calidissident]

Does he?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....d=35497575
http://www.gallup.com/opinion/.....aign=tiles

[Just say Nikki]

It is an odd line of thinking: If the government levies a tax on your neighbors in order to fund an earned-income tax credit for your family, then you're a welfare queen; if the government levies a tax on businesses that is passed on to your neighbors in order to subsidize your earned income through higher prices, then that's economic nationalism.

Trumpkins are welfare kings, natch.

[Citizen X]

+1 Return of Kings

[Old Man With Candy]

The Buchanan boys are economically and socially frustrated white men who wish to be economically supported by the federal government without enduring the stigma of welfare dependency.

That's a better description for the Bernie Bros.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The Buchananernie boys are economically and socially frustrated white men who wish to be economically supported by the federal government without enduring while proudly embracing the stigma of welfare dependency.

[Drake]

An enterprising young Muslim immigrant in Canada convicted on 24 charges of sexual assault and extortion. Apparently he thought Rotherham was a business model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGUqf2ddnpU

Finland has the whole migrant-rape thing well under control with this helpful video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WIp2mae6Zo

[Lee G]

Finland has the whole migrant-rape thing well under control with this helpful video.

I missed the part where she shot him with her Sako.

[Drake]

Simo Hayha should have put out his hand and yelled "no" at the Russian Army.

[Lee G]

If he had only had a purse to smack them with

[Free Society]

The top comment was informative at least: "ridiculous. I got an idea; deport all the scumbags and stop paying them to rape your women.?"

[Rich]

"Hey, you're *cute* when you're angry!"

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

What the fuck did I just watch?

A Finnish ABC after school special?

Jesus Murphy.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Wow. The Montreal rape case was NOT covered by local news.

Something is truly rotten.

[ant1sthenes]

Not exactly a surprise.

[JWatts]

"On Jan. 7, 2015, two French-born brothers killed 11 people inside the building where Charlie Hebdo operated, as well as a Muslim policeman outside. Over the next two days, an accomplice shot a policewoman to death and then stormed a kosher supermarket, killing four hostages."

Wow, the Canadian Press journalist should get the George Orwell 1984 Freedom Award!

[Free Society]

Wow. The Montreal rape case was NOT covered by local news.

Something is truly rotten.

Because whites are duty bound to curl up and die in service to the notion that all cultures are equal (except western ones).

[Suthenboy]

The government has to put out videos on how to avoid rape...because there is no rape epidemic? Rape was nearly unheard of in Sweden before 1970, now the govt has to put out public service announcements on how to avoid it while walking down the street in broad daylight.

Where is Cytotoxic to weigh in on this? We need his wisdom here.

*Whoever made that video should be stripped and forced to stand in the Stockholm town square for an hour in January.I will demonstrate for them how to rub your palms together to stay warm.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It helps when your definition of "rape" starts at "wolf whistle".

[Juice]

They'll get that rapist, Julian Assange, if it's the last thing they do.

[lafe.long]

*Whoever made that video should be stripped and forced to stand in the Stockholm town square

Helsinki.

[Trials and Trippelations]

The Finnish know how to use the Force?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Speeding police officer runs over 6 year old. No lights or sirens.

MIAMI - A 6-year-old boy was struck by a Miami police car Wednesday afternoon.

Miami police said the boy, identified as Antoine Lawson, was riding a scooter on Northwest Fifth Avenue, just west of Northwest 58th Street, when he suddenly appeared from between two parked trucks, making it impossible for the officer to see the boy before striking him.

"Obviously, a child is shorter than those trucks, so it's difficult to see him if he darts out into the street," Maj. Delrish Moss said.

Lawson was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

Police said he suffered a few broken bones and other injuries, but a family friend said he is expected to survive.

Lawson's mother and family said the officer was speeding.

"At this point, it doesn't appear that speed was a factor," Moss said.

[Drake]

I'm no physicist or engineer but I do remember velocity being a key ingredient in the momentum equation.

[tarran]

The car ways thousands of pounds. The kid weighs no more than 75. A collision at 10 miles an hour will send the kid flying simply because the car's momentum is being divided by a tiny mass.

The cop could be speeding. Or he could be not. The fact the kid didn't get killed puts a very hard upper limit to how fast the car was going

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Don't forget that cop cars have a front cage welded to the frame. The kid did NOT get hit by a bumper.

[SugarFree]

I'd like to see how long you so-called anarchists would last in a world where law enforcement heroes couldn't run over children whenever they felt like it.

[tarran]

According to Noam Chomsky only a second! Then all of society implodes in a matter anti-matter collision killing all the children.

[Gene]

This is Dr Carson's take on it too.

And pretty much everyone else.

Ugh

[Free Society]

According to Noam Chomsky, the key to a successful anarchist society is to create an institution to do things that only a state can do, without calling it a state.

[Citizen X]

According to Noam Chomsky, the key to a successful anarchist society is to create an institution to do things that only a state can do, without calling it a state.

Apparently, one of the perks of being a renowned linguist is getting to make up new definitions for words like "anarchy."

[tarran]

Sooo, if we called it a "thing" would that work?

A "public thing" perhaps? 😉

[invisible furry hand]

At great personal risk to themselves, I might add.

[robc]

The momentum is still going to proportional to the velocity.

40 mph will transfer 4x the momentum of 10 mph.

Although actually, the car wont lose all itsmomentum, so, ugh, have to remember how that works.

Kids are squishy, so probably shouldnt asdume billiard ball.

[UnCivilServant]

Having been in a car (as a passenger) going 5-10 MPH when a kid ran in front of it, I seem to recall the kid bouncing off the corner of the car like a rubber ball. (They were completely unhurt when checked out by the doctors)

[Brett L]

Momentum is conserved. Mass of car x change in velocity plus mass of child x change in velocity.

[robc]

Yes, but whether the kid sticks or bounces determines the amount of delta v.

[tarran]

Today we calculate the elasticity of a collision between a child and a police car....

I love unnerving test questions.

[Brett L]

You're thinking of force, not momentum. His rate of acceleration is important for determining injury.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"At this point, it doesn't appear that speed was a factor," Moss said."

Just overall inattentive FYTW retardation?

[SugarFree]

Antoine?

Irish is fine with this.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The officer was speeding. He must be black too.

[SugarFree]

Well, they do commit all the crime.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Antoine can be a white person name, like NBC News' Antoine Sanfuentes.

I'll hold off judgment until I am presented with a picture.

[Suthenboy]

Sanfuentes? A white Irish name?

We are already onto you Irish, give it up. Just go ahead and admit it, you will feel so much better.

*starting to feel guilty about giving Irish too much grief*

[Mickey Rat]

The first president of the Irish Republic was a guy named Eamonn De Valera.

[WTF]

Irish knows the darker they are, the more guilty they are.

[Irish ?s ESB]

It's a spectrum, like autism.

[straffinrun]

Car accelerator was pushed.

[SugarFree]

If the kid has just complied with the officer's orders, he'd be fine right now.

[straffinrun]

Was the bumper alright?

[SugarFree]

It made it home. The medal ceremony is next week.

[Citizen X]

Another survivor of the #WarOnCops!

[Private Chipperbot]

Why are they waiting to charge the kid with assault? Just because he's in the hospital?

[Citizen X]

He had a scooter, too, so that's at least a reckless driving charge, and probably malicious endangerment as well.

[Trials and Trippelations]

The union smear campaign will state that the kid was actually on a hoverboard, thus we deserved it because they are dangerous. They catch on fire and throw kid in the way of a heroic officer on his way to protect the public

[R C Dean]

I actually find the cop story quite plausible, and I doubt he was speeding or they'd be rinsing that kid down the storm drans.

I specifically route around schools when I drive whenever I can, to avoid exactly this scenario. Kids are quick and unpredictable, and I don't want to spend the night digging a shallow grave and steam-cleaning my front bumper.

[Tonio]

IRS Computer Crash to Delay Processing of Refunds

The current administration just handed the opposition a great new plank, even though we all know this is the legacy of the Taft administration.

[Rich]

The agency on Wednesday experienced what it is calling a "hardware failure."

Well, at least they didn't call it a "success" as might have been expected.

[UnCivilServant]

That computer was running for a century?

No wonder they always processed so slowly.

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Lois Lerner: Back in Action!

[straffinrun]

ENB visit that booth at Porn fest?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

I would suggest asking Irish if he is not too busy being racist.

[Illocust]

Slate article on data ethics starts good

"The question of which inputs to use in a model is actually incredible complicated, and important, given how much we can glean about someone by their Facebook likes. Yet it's rarely discussed. For one, people have too much trust in data to be intrinsically objective, even though it is in fact only as good as the human processes that collected it."

Then veers off into social justice.

"The ethical data scientist would strive to improve the world, not repeat it. That would mean deploying tools to explicitly construct fair processes. As long as our world is not perfect, and as long as data is being collected on that world, we will not be building models that are improvements on our past unless we specifically set out to do so."

Sigh, I had such high hopes too.

http://www.slate.com/articles/.....ience.html

[Lee G]

The ethical data scientist would strive to improve the world, not repeat it.

uhhhhh, you and I have different definitions of scientist

[Illocust]

It's really sad. He started with good points. If your data set includes a time period with drastically different situations than the modern era you should modify your inputs accordingly. Then he completely jumps the rails and starts talking about manipulating the data to get the results you want. It's frustrating.

[tarran]

This rot infects data science.

I'm taking online classes from John Hopkins, and the rot is really frustrating. For example we had a homework assignment to analyze a data set from the EPA on .25mm particulate airborne pollution accross the continental U.S. There are these little collectors where air flows through filters. The filters are weighed before they are installed, and after they are removed. And the difference in weight tells you how much gunk they sieved out of the air.

So the professor is demonstrating how to precondition the data, an a bunch of values from a county in NY came back negative! OK. No problem, we just throw out the negative values, but keep other measurements from the same detectors without even looking at them. He made no attempt to find out how this impossible thing happened. He didn't try to see whether we weren't getting artificially low positive values. Nope, he pulled out the obvious bones, and the rest of the mystery meat went into the statistical grinder.

Later, we were analyzing data taken by a single detector of some measurement. Sometimes the detector was left off. He told us to basically take an average of the other measurements the detector and fill in the missing values. Nobody batted an eye. Sure it made some statistical analyses possible that require complete data. When I pointed out that what we were doing was making up plausible numbers and sticking them in there, it was as if I was saying "Bork, bork, bork!"

[Citizen X]

Did you hear about the statistician who drowned crossing a river? He'd determined that the water was two feet deep, on average.

[Lee G]

That's infuriating. Unfortunately it's representative of disciplines where the results effectively serve the same function as marketing. There's no real cost to publishing bad data because you're trying to sell something and as long as your data supports that sale, it doesn't matter.

[Homple]

You've just seen why every year is the hottest year on record.

[Click here, Palin's Buttplug!]

So the professor is demonstrating how to precondition the data, an a bunch of values from a county in NY came back negative! OK. No problem, we just throw out the negative values, but keep other measurements from the same detectors without even looking at them. He made no attempt to find out how this impossible thing happened. He didn't try to see whether we weren't getting artificially low positive values.

This just reminds me of this passage from Appendix F in the Rogers Commission Report:

In spite of these variations from case to case, officials behaved as if they understood it, giving apparently logical arguments to each other often depending on the "success" of previous flights. For example. in determining if flight 51-L was safe to fly in the face of ring erosion in flight 51-C, it was noted that the erosion depth was only one-third of the radius. It had been noted in an experiment cutting the ring that cutting it as deep as one radius was necessary before the ring failed. Instead of being very concerned that variations of poorly understood conditions might reasonably create a deeper erosion this time, it was asserted, there was "a safety factor of three." [?] The O-rings of the Solid Rocket Boosters were not designed to erode. Erosion was a clue that something was wrong. Erosion was not something from which safety can be inferred.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"As long as our world is not perfect, and as long as data is being collected on that world, we will not be building models that are improvements on our past unless we specifically set out to do so.""

I don't think this guy knows how data collection works.

[Suthenboy]

I stopped as soon as I read the 'make the world a better place' naivety. Is this person a child? A beauty contestant?

"My one wish is world peace"

Fuck off.

[Fist of Etiquette]

As a new feature here at reason.com, I will periodically revisit some of the official abuse cases that have been covered initially and then forgotten.

Here is an update from a few weeks ago about the Alabama policeman who took down and partially paralyzed an elderly Indian man who could not understand his commands. Yes, he has been on paid leave for the last year.

[Old Man With Candy]

Does Irish hate Indians too?

[Entropy Drehmaschine Void]

Dot AND Feather.

[Citizen X]

Indians of Dravidian descent, yes. Those northern Indo-Aryans are alright, maybe.

[Free Society]

The paper bag test shall be administered.

[Drake]

I thought the Celts hated the Aryan / Teutonic types?

[Irish ?s ESB]

I've told them repeatedly that I think Germans are inferior but they don't seem to be comprehending how strongly I feel about the issue.

[Drake]

Your forefathers probably really hurt some Angle, Saxon, and Jute feelings as they were invading Briton.

[straffinrun]

You are going to embrace this meme. Respect.

[Rational Exuberance]

Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson is running for mayor of Baltimore

The thing that bothers me about cities electing unqualified and incompetent mayors is that when they run their cities into the ground, they blame it on others and demand support and bailouts from the state and federal governments.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"The thing that bothers me about cities electing unqualified and incompetent mayors is that when they run their cities into the ground, they blame it on others and demand support and bailouts from the state and federal governments."

How is this different from qualified mayors who have a strange tendency to do the exact same thing?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Yes the correct statement :

The thing that bothers me about cities electing unqualified and incompetent mayors is that when they run their cities into the ground, they blame it on others and demand support and bailouts from the state and federal governments.

Except for the mayors who demand support and bailouts from the state and federal governments and then run their cities into the ground.

[kbolino]

The Million* Man March was about building "self-sufficient communities" which was somehow made impossible by "cuts" to Head Start and other federal programs. Apparently self-sufficiency and dependency are the same thing.

* = Not according to the National Park Service

[Matrix]

Court rules Apple must pay $625 million to a patent troll over Facetime.

[Free Society]

But hey, I read somewhere that you can't have innovation without government granting monopolies on abstract concepts or ideas.

[Rhywun]

"The jury saw what we have been saying all along: Apple has been infringing VirnetX's patented technology for years," the legal firm that represents VirnetX said in a statement.

I would love to see the big brains on that jury pool.

"Well you can send some text back and forth - yep looks like infringement to me!"

[Jerryskids]

Paul Ryan to conservatives: "The Left would love nothing more, they would love nothing more than for a fragmented conservative movement to stand in a circular firing squad and fire so that progressives can win by default."

The problem is the "fragmented conservative movement" consists mostly of various flavors of big-government conservatives, and you're appealing for a reasonable common-sense compromise to those who are sick and tired of reasonable common-sense compromises. Conserving the Wilson-FDR-LBJ legacy by being a little bit less left than the left doesn't actually count as conservatism, Mr. Ryan.Threatening conservatives by saying if they don't stick together we're going to wind up with somebody like Hillary Clinton is hardly a threat when they already know if they do stick together they'll wind up with somebody like Paul Ryan - who will have no problem making reasonable common-sense compromises with Hillary.

[ant1sthenes]

My feeling exactly. If the GOP establishment doesn't ever deliver on its promises, then they have no leverage. Meanwhile, their constituents can deliberately throw elections and cut them off from power (whether it means replacing them with radicals or Democrats) without really losing anything, so they do have leverage. The difference is that now that notion is starting to seep through to the rank and file.

That said, I think the GOP base is underestimating the impact of GOP politicians. Yes, they're simply holding down the pace at which we get enslaved, but the alternative is probably that the process goes much faster (e.g. Obamacare). Until you're prepared (morally and materially) to use whatever means are necessary to stop it, slowing the enemy might be your best option.

[R C Dean]

The indictment over the PP videos just got uglier (warning: Breitbart, but I don't see anybody else covering this as well):

http://www.breitbart.com/big-g.....rts-sales/

They released a new video, which should pretty well sew up any argument that PP broke the law. PP is not allowed to charge more than their cost of producing parts. The video is all about how they make, and hide, a profit, from parts.

Also, some background on the conflicts of interest that led to the indictment.

[tarran]

RC, I am struggling to understand this, and perhaps you can explain it to me. This is what I think is happening. Where am I wrong?

The PP rep thinks she is lining up a company to purchase tissue from the aborted fetus. The law states that they are not allowed to procure tissue, but are allowed to collect it if the pregnant woman requesting the abortion consents to it.

The company wants to pay for tissue, but PP says it can only pay women a set fee for consenting. So she is telling the company, they will bill the company for each woman who consents, but will make up some bullshit rebate for abortions from women consenting to the tissue donation. As a result, even though the guys getting the tissue are, on paper, paying women a fee in exchange for them consenting to donate their tissue, the result of the scheme will be that the amount they pay will be based on the amount and type of tissue changing hands and not on the number of women who have consented.

Am I getting it right?

[R C Dean]

Pretty much, yeah, as near as I can figure.

If this wasn't a politically protected organization, they would be looking at a cartload of RICO indictments right now. They broke the law knowingly and repeatedly for profit, and engaged in schemes to cover it up and launder the money.

[W. Chipper Dove]

Apologies if this has already been linked:

Ayn Rand-loving CEO Destroys His Empire

Money quote: "Crazy Eddie has been one of America's most vocal advocates of discredited free-market economics, so obsessed with Ayn Rand he could rattle off memorized passages of her novels." (emphasis moi's)

[R C Dean]

Salon, which makes whatever revenue it takes in by selling ad space to businesses, thinks free market economics is discredited?

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

They're doing poorly doing it, so obviously it's discredited.

[[e-mail]]

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[Ammy5432]

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? ? ? ? http://www.Workpost30.Com

[Andy542]

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Clik This Link inYour Browser??....

? http://www.Workpost30.com ?

[Overt]

I was just about to say that. Fuck the Blackhawks. But that was damn classy, and I will begrudgingly acknowledge their classiness even as they beat down my Avs.

[SugarFree]

That's not our Playa. That's KK sockpuppeting as him, which it has done for a year or so now.

Every time someone doubts that mental illness exists, they should be locked in a room with that psycho for an hour.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

The Montreal Canadiens were/are a gold standard fro stuff like this. I mean, the shit they do is amazing but I gotta say this Blackhawks revival is just about as good as it gets. Top notch and it shows.

I'll add one more thing Tundra. NHL players are humble. Look at Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby etc. Not an arrogant bone in their bodies. The other day a sports anchor asked Conor McDavid about his amazing goal the other day and he said 'I have no idea where that came from' in such a humble fashion it was typical of hockey players.

[Rhywun]

Not an arrogant bone in their bodies.

Yeah, it's refreshing after watching the grotesque egos that infest every corner of my other favorite sport.

[Rasilio]

Well most people probably wouldn't know who they were but they'd probably be able to identify them as Hockey players by the accents and lack of teeth

[spqr2008]

Now I have to ask, which football is it?

[Rhywun]

Now I have to ask, which football is it?

Pick one.

Actually only American football and soccer are full of raging narcissists. Other codes are like hockey.

[Crusty Juggler]

Playa is not funny, which should've been your first giveaway.