Bernie Sanders Says He's an 'Honorary Woman,' Court Takes Case on Cruz's Presidential Eligibility, Oregon Raises Minimum Wage: A.M. Links

free pictures of money/Flickr

• In the first major U.S. airstrike in Libya since November, Americans bombed a suspected ISIS training camp there Friday, killing more than 40 people. 
• The Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois has agreed to hear a case concerning Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's eligibility to serve as U.S. President. 
• Oregon lawmakers approved a plan to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to between $12.50-$14.75, depending on location, over the next six years. 
• The South Carolinans go for Donald Trump?
• At a Democratic town hall in Las Vegas, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he was "a strong feminist" who was made "an honorary woman many, many years ago" by Gloria Steinem. 
• Sanders also, in an interview with BET, accused Hillary Clinton of acting buddy-buddy with President Obama all of a sudden "to win support from the African-American community."  
• Thousands of activists marched in Madison, Wisconsin, Thursday to protest immigration legislation headed to Gov. Scott Walker. 
• A Kentucky bill that just cleared the state senate creates a separate marriage-license form for same-sex couples. 
• A new exhibition at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum explores prostitution in late-19th and early 20th-century Paris through the period's paintings.
• "Knife-wielding monkey terrorizes Brazilian bar after guzzling some rum." 

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

The South Carolinans go for Donald Trump?

Why should they be different than the other rednecks?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he was "a strong feminist" who was made "an honorary woman many, many years ago" by Gloria Steinem.

Now there's a bootleg film you don't want to see.

[Slammer]

Granny panties or thong?

[Sevens]

Sanders: granny panties. Steinem: thong.

[Juvenile Bluster]

You're worse than Hitler. Hell, you're worse than SF.

[Swiss Servator]

Not until he writes that out in a few hundred words of horrifying detail.

[Sevens]

I'd bet on that set up.

By the way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCi8StIixI4 -- longer, and recommended: https://youtu.be/d1f3-W8DjmA

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

False, Steinem wears boxers.

[Sevens]

No.

[Hamster of Doom]

First time she had worn a bra or played with a Barbie in years. She wore the bra on her head, and the entire experience inspired Revolution from Within, so that's okay.

[Illocust]

What do people have against bras? My boobs aren't even that big and heavy activity is more comfortable with one on than without.

[Florida Man]

Go on...

[Crusty Juggler]

I have been trying to ban bras for years, especially sports bras, which I consider to be a large battle in the ongoing war against perverts.

[Certified Public Asshat]

But bras have to be fighting the war against gravity, right?

[Crusty Juggler]

The War Against Perverts is far more important to me.

[commodious spittoon]

Go on...

[Illocust]

They are.

[Private Chipperbot]

As long as they aren't beige I'm good with them. I keep hiding the one my wife has.

[Fist of Etiquette]

This is even weirder than SugarFree's abomination downthread.

[Crusty Juggler]

At least he did not tell you where he was hiding the bra.

[Illocust]

Hey now. Don't hide a woman's colored bra. Those are to go under different colored shirts without showing through.

[lap83]

I worked at a catering place once with a retarded dress code that mandated the color of bras to be worn under the white shirts: white. None of us were albinos and there were even some darker skinned ladies. Obviously a guy had written it and didn't take any feedback about it from anyone who wore a bra

[Crusty Juggler]

Pics? Also, if bras were banned you would not have had that issue.

[lap83]

True and we probably would have received more tips

[Sevens]

What's the right answer, black?

[Illocust]

The right answer is whatever your skin color is. White can work, but often you'll see a outline of the bra even if the shirt is white.

[lap83]

Yeah and the shirts in question were thin material, so it didn't really work for anyone

[Sevens]

If your white shirt is tight enough to make a white bra visible, it will make any bra visible, in form. And in terms of color, it's easier to match a white bra to a white shirt than it is to match your bra's color to your skin's color. Disagree?

[Illocust]

Tightness isn't the issues. It's thinness of material. A lot of shirts are partially see through, and if the bra isn't picked appropriately you'll be able to see it's outlines. Woman have also already done the work of getting a skin colored bra the majority of time. In my family the rule is you need a minimum of three bras one white, one black, and one skin color. If you have those you can basically find something to work under any shirt.

[Sevens]

So this narrowly applies to see-through (white) shirts that show the girl's skin color.

[lap83]

Most white shirts don't seem see through until someone wears the wrong colored bra underneath

[Illocust]

I've had pink shirts do the same thing. Pastel colors in general are at high risk of see through. Black thin material shirts will also often look wrong without a black bra underneath them. There aren't really hard and fast rules for this Sevens. It's really a trial and error thing that you pick up over time.

[Sevens]

I'm in favor of the error part. That aside, in the case of see-through shirts, I don't see that having a bra which isn't noticeable is clearly "better" than having a noticeable one. -- These bra-games are they fun, or annoying?

[Hamster of Doom]

Many menstruations ago, women realized that the bra was really a patriarchy sling which limited our powers. Like kryptonite, really. It was before your time - before my time, too - and those Titaness women who caught on to the ploy burned the evil devices and declared our freedom to bounce painfully if we damned well felt like it.

[Bill Dalasio]

You learn something new every day. I always thought the whole bra burning thing was a ploy of small breasted women against large breasted women.

[BearOdinson]

Maybe not for women, but there are a couple of guys at work absolutely need the "Bro".

[Rhywun]

"Bro's too ethnic."

[sloopyinTEXAS]

You,mean a manziere?

[BearOdinson]

I knew I could count on you guys!

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Did you just mansplain the manziere?

[Sevens]

"What do people have against bras? My boobs aren't even that big and heavy activity is more comfortable with one on than without."

Hehe, Jesus. Have you ever tried writing a romance novel/"erotica"?

[Illocust]

Omg, not that kind of heavy activity you pervs. Rock climbing, horse back riding, and hiking kind of heavy activity.

[Slammer]

I thought you were in a wheelchair? Now people are gonna REALLY think you're Tulpa!

[Illocust]

Where did you get the idea I'm in a wheelchair? I can't run, but the left leg is only partially paralyzed some of the muscles still work. I actually tend to get nasty looks when I use a wheelchair (have to do so occasionally for stamina reasons). People don't like it when you get out of the wheelchair to reach the thing on the top shelf.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

I use a wheelchair (have to do so occasionally for stamina reasons)

You're a veritable sugarfree of unintended eroticism.

[Sevens]

"Omg, not that kind of heavy activity you pervs. Rock climbing, horse back riding, and hiking kind of heavy activity."

I haven't had breakfast. But, read this, you're still doing it. "Rock climbing", "horse back riding",...

If this unintentional, you are gifted. Just write a guide on good housekeeping and send it to Harlequin.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Rock climbing, horse back riding, and hiking kind of heavy activity.

Now it's starting to sound like a tampon commercial.

[Sevens]

Bo, you might have had a point. But you need to read this together. "What do people have against bras? My boobs aren't even that big and heavy activity is more comfortable with one on than without. Omg, not that kind of heavy activity you pervs. Rock climbing, horse back riding, and hiking kind of heavy activity."

T-mon gets it right. More right. SF is blunt, this is different.

[Mustang]

"T-mon gets it right. More right. SF is blunt, this is different"

Or you are just desperate.

[Sevens]

Perceptive. Sophisticated.

What's the matter with Bo, Bob?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Don't call me Bo.

WTF did I ever do to you?

Bob works, but Bo has some shitty connotations around here.

[Lord Rollingpin]

Post some pics and we'll make up our own minds.

[Hamster of Doom]

First time she had worn a bra or played with a Barbie in years. She wore the bra on her head, and the entire experience inspired Revolution from Within, so that's okay.

[Elspeth Flashman]

How does one go about that? Can I be an honorary man? I mean - I put air in the tires once in a while.

[DenverJ]

I think you have to be able to write your name in the snow.

[Sevens]

"I put air in the tires once in a while." That's what he said.

[Granny Weatherwax]

Oh I'm definitely an honorary man then. I've changed tires, rebuilt carburetors, changed out alternators and transmissions, was in the military, AND I can write my name in the snow (fortunately my first name is very short because I can't maintain the pressure required for that for very long-- and I will get my feet slightly wet---still a good drunken party trick).

[hound]

Please stop right there; if I get any more turned on, it'll get uncomfortable around here.

[Crackers Boy]

Self identify as a man... isn't that all you have to do now?

CB

[EMD]

Pandering ... how does it work?

[Fist of Etiquette]

A Kentucky bill that just cleared the state senate creates a separate marriage-license form for same-sex couples.

You have to go around to the backdoor of the courthouse to pick those up.

[Zeb]

Even lesbians?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Not everything has a sexual subtext.

[Swiss Servator]

Where? You certainly cannot mean that about H&R?!

[UnCivilServant]

Well, oftentimes it's not a subtext, but the text proper.

[straffinrun]

No, theirs are digital.

[Swiss Servator]

*strongly narrows gaze*

[PBR Streetgang]

Bravo.

[Florida Man]

Is this a fingering joke? If so, bravo.

[straffinrun]

What else would it be? A Hillary joke?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Shouldn't they issue liquor licenses to the lesbians?

[Zeb]

I was going to declare straffinrun the winner. But this merits consideration.

[robc]

Fist fails to read article.

Which is the right way to comment.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fails isn't the correct word there. Willfully neglects.

[EMD]

But you have to reacharound to the front to sign it?

[Rich]

Sanders said he was "a strong feminist" who was made "an honorary woman many, many years ago"

Hear him roar.

[Florida Man]

Bernie Sanders said he was "a strong feminist" who was made "an honorary woman

His 65k in credit card debt confirms this.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

How does he intend to pay that exactly? Does he have insurance against it? Will he declare personal bankruptcy? Will he pay it off on his own? First order of business, you should have a line of credit. That way you can pay the credit card off at a substantially lower interest rate.

[Florida Man]

I think his plan is to socialize it. He shares his debt, you share your wealth. What's not to love... from his vantage.

[lap83]

Is it too much to ask for a woman candidate who isn't an embarrassment to the gender?

[Florida Man]

*Looks at candidates*

Yes?

[Sevens]

"Is it too much to ask for a woman candidate who isn't an embarrassment to the gender?"

Interesting question. I'd be very inclined to vote for a feminine and attractive woman who's not trying to imitate men. Embarassment aside, what's your ideal? And to put things in perspective, I'm not aware of any manly and attractive candidate. The last one, with style worth mentioning, was Romney.

[lap83]

Maybe an American Margaret Thatcher?

Of course in order for her to have a decent shot, voters would have to care about substance over flash and free shit

[Sevens]

I respect her. But I prefer a woman that has substance and is "confidently", naturally, uninhibitedly feminine. That'd also be seductive, meaning she'd attract people who don't understand the substance, or what's happening.

[EMD]

"Maybe an American Margaret Thatcher?"

You know damn well the media would never let that happen.

[Elspeth Flashman]

He has to put his teeth in first.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Oregon lawmakers approved a plan to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to between $12.50-$14.75, depending on location, over the next six years.

If the location is a business whose owner is a doner, no go on the increase.

[JWatts]

"Oregon lawmakers approved a plan to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to between $12.50-$14.75, depending on location, over the next six years. "

Meh, woosies. If they had any cojones, they'd raise the rate all the way to the new limit effective immediately.

[SugarFree]

"Donald, do you really want to start a fight with the Pope?" the hair asked.

"Yes. Fuck him. Commie Pope. Filthy Brown Pope. Fuck him," Donald said. He stretched in the blood-warm water of the Infinitus Pool and farted like a dying manatee.

"I don't know, Donald. There are a lot of Catholic voters," the hat said. The hat was perched on a shelf along with the hair, both far above the caustic waters of the Infinitus Pool.

"Leave me alone," Donald grumbled. "I hate condoms just like I hate Filthy Browns. If Commie Pope wants to fuck with me, he's going to find out what it's like to get fucked right back. You mess with The Donald, you get the Donald right in your chocolate starfish!"

"The serum might have been a mistake," the hair whispered to the hat.

"Yeah, yeah. He'll be fine. The Infinitus Pool will restore him."

[SugarFree]

"It's just a hot tub."

"Donald doesn't know that."

"When was the last time the damn thing was even cleaned?"

"I told him the green slime was a luminous ?ther harvested from an organ only Muslim lesbians can grow."

"What?" the hair exclaimed.

"And that it would make his whole body into an erection."

"You're mad. Simply mad."

"He bought it, didn't he? Look, you want to ride this moron all the way to the White House or not?"

Donald scraped a handful of mucosal algae from the side of the foul hot tub and began to rub it on his genitals.

"Look at him," the hat said. "He's an idiot that says whatever dumb shit we tell him to say. The only people dumber than him are the ones that want to vote for him. We've reached a critical mass of stupidity in this country. Now is our time! Donald is our way!" The hat began to cackle hysterically.

"What have I done?" the hair sobbed.

"Fuck the Pope!" Donald screamed, masturbating furiously, globs of algae flying into the air.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I forget, can he hear and talk with the hat and the hair?

[SugarFree]

I don't know... can you?

[Fist of Etiquette]

I JUST DON'T THINK IT'S CANON.

[Slammer]

"The serum might have been a mistake,"

[AlmightyJB]

You should start a blog and get paid for your efforts.

[commodious spittoon]

In the coming Trump regime, SF will be our Man in the High Castle*.

(*I haven't finished the series yet. No spoilers!)

[SugarFree]

"We have to keep this etched dildo out of the hands of the Trumpshirts."

[Crusty Juggler]

The Man in the High Castle is Tulpa.

[commodious spittoon]

SPOILERS

[Swiss Servator]

"and farted like a dying manatee"

I almost cried a tear of joy, reading that.

[Tonio]

Sug, that was beautiful.

[Rich]

In the first major U.S. airstrike in Libya since November, Americans bombed a suspected ISIS training camp there Friday, killing more than 40 people.

*Please*, not another Doctors Without Borders incident.

[BearOdinson]

Provided this wasn't a hospital or elementary school, I am ok with this, but I just think it is a waste of time and resources. I think if you have intelligence on training camps for smaller outfits like in the good old days it might set them back a bit. But ISIS is almost like a multinational corporation. If you take out one small camp in location, it isn't going to do anything positive, but could have negative consequences if we miss, or the intelligence was wrong.

[mad.casual]

But ISIS is almost like a multinational corporation.

McJihadis? Wal-aikum Salam? Krispy Kreme?

[Swiss Servator]

"Wal-aikum Salam"

*thunderous applause*

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Jihadtle'

[gaoxiaen]

Inshallah-n-Out Burgers

[Sevens]

1) They should prioritize training not to get hit by bombs.
2) Someone should bomb the monkey terrorist camp before they have trained not to get hit by bombs.

[Illocust]

Author on Slate has been writing a series of articles about his experience working concessions at the Super Bowl. With his latest article in turns out its all been a ploy to gain sympathy for his suit of "wage theft" against his past employer.

Does anyone else find the term 'wage theft' problematic in this usage? It seems to me that wage theft should only be used as a term for when a certain wage was promised then not paid. Accepting a wage and then finding out the job isn't what you were told seems like a type of fraud but not theft of wages.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/mon.....wl_50.html

[Zeb]

If they actually didn't pay them for hours worked, then it would not be a terribly inappropriate term. I only skimmed the article, but I didn't see a clear description of the supposed wage theft.

[Illocust]

He's claiming that time waiting for the employer provided shuttle to arrive to take them from the parking lot to the stadium should be paid time. My understanding is he could have done whatever he wanted in that time, including fucking off and getting breakfast, so it's hard to claim that it was time that he was working for them.

[Brett L]

It depends. If the time clocks are at the destination and he's not paid for his bussing, that's wage theft. If he showed up early, and got paid for the ride it probably isn't. I know this because we pay a 15 minute each way bussing at wage for our site. And I know several large projects paid back wages for not doing so. But all the company has to pay for is time on the bus. If the bus runs 30 minutes late one day on the way in, no pay. You're not on the clock until you're on the bus.

[Illocust]

That seems reasonable.

[robc]

When I worked inventory, the first hour of van time to store was unpaid, you had option to just meet at store. For longer trips, everything after first hour was paid.

A long walk from parking lot to job isnt paid time.

[Rhywun]

I didn't know paying for travel time to any job was a thing. Man, I'm getting ripped off.

[robc]

Best was when we had more people than van space and needed drivers to load their personal car. Drivers got paid for first hour plus mileage. Sweet bonus!

[UnCivilServant]

Every job I've ever worked - you were responsible for how you got there and weren't on the clock until you were in the building. (sometimes even at your workstation).

[Yusef Adama]

Sweet Self employment,
I'm on the clock as soon as I get in my Van in front of my house, til i park it at the end of the day,

[JWatts]

That's going to vary according to the work. I work on-site a lot, and time spent driving to a customers site and mileage that exceed my normal commute are billable/expensable. (The delta).

Also, if you log in at the security checkpoint and then park and go in. Time starts when you logged in and doesn't stop till you log out.

[mad.casual]

I didn't know paying for travel time to any job was a thing. Man, I'm getting ripped off.

"Really?" and "Yup."

Shit, I even pass on telecommuting costs when I can, why wouldn't you?

[Rhywun]

I even pass on telecommuting costs when I can

Pass on where? Itemizing at tax time? I don't itemize.

[Brett L]

In this case, the only access to the plant is by bus. So there's no other option to commute. In some cases the parking lot may be a half an hour bus ride from the time clocks. Or there may be lots of parking lots. I think that's the key difference is that you can't get to the clock without getting on the bus.

[Rhywun]

To be fair, I only have ever lived and worked in cities. The notion of riding a company bus to some "campus" is alien to me.

[commodious spittoon]

Was he promised pay for the time he spent on the bus? If not, he's welcome to go piss up a rope. The arrangement was made known to him and he proceeded to show up for work, so it can't have been intolerable.

[Sevens]

1) I'm surprised he didn't get trafficked away during Super Bowl, which would have solved the wage problem.

2) I'd only speak of wage theft if something got "deducted". Meaning that the worker in some form had - be it theoretical - received pay. For example, an employer transfer of funds to some government pension plan. Withholding is not theft. Let's say the worker manufactured something, which the employer keeps without paying him his full wage. That could be considered theft, too. But it'd be about the manufactured thing, not theft of money.

[Sevens]

*RE Keeping the manufactured thing not being mere withholding: that's because the worker is/was in possession of it, while working on it.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"Among the allegations in the complaint is that Centerplate did not pay employees for all hours worked"

That sounds like wage theft to me, assuming this can be proven.

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

He has a special definition of "work."

And on the day of the Super Bowl, Centerplate failed to pay employees for the time they spent waiting in line for?and traveling on?employee shuttles to and from the stadium. Those hours added up: Of my 17-hour shift, five of them were spent waiting or in transit. According to California law, these hours should have been on the clock.

[Zeb]

Unless it was made clear to the employees that they would have to spend as much time as they did waiting or in transit and that they wouldn't be paid for that time, I'd be inclined to say that they ought to be paid for that time.

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

I agree. If they were required to be at Place X at Y-o'clock, they should certainly be paid for that time.

If, however, this was voluntary "hey we've got a shuttle if you want, but we don't care if you take it as long as you're at your post at Y-o'clock" type situation, then it's rather silly to expect them to get paid to commute.

[Hamster of Doom]

The writer is vague about the reasons he expects to be paid while waiting for a shuttle. But if the employer did require him to be at the shuttle by a certain time, and then chose not to pay him for a job requirement, he is owed wages. Also, I'm not certain why failing to get state-mandated breaks during a twelve-hour shift is "finding out the job isn't what you were told". You could clarify that bit.

[Illocust]

They can be state mandated, but if the contract he signed didn't provide for them, then he wasn't promised them as part of his job offer.

[Hamster of Doom]

I am not finding a thing to indicate that "state-mandated" means anything less than mandatory. Citation required.

[Illocust]

If I pay a babysitter under minimum wage (we're assuming I could actually find one willing to accept it), I would be paying less than the state-mandated minimum wage. I'm violating the state laws, but I am not engaged in theft.

[Sevens]

"If I pay a babysitter under minimum wage (we're assuming I could actually find one willing to accept it)..."

You are a sex trafficker, Lotus.

[Hamster of Doom]

This is not a cite. That the babysitter does not sue you is not an indicator that they cannot.

Citation still required.

[Illocust]

Hamster, what are you arguing about exactly? All I've been saying is that I don't think 'theft' is an appropriate term for consensual adult contracts that the state just happens to disapprove of.

[Hamster of Doom]

All I've been saying is that I don't think 'theft' is an appropriate term for consensual adult contracts that the state just happens to disapprove of.

Huh. Thanks for explaining that, actually. I didn't get that from your original post at all. I quite agree with it.

I was discussing whether the man appeared to have legitimate grounds for a suit. Under the laws and facts stated in the article, it may be that he does. Now, we both trust that this has no actual bearing on the legitimacy of California laws, or their relation to liberty, justice or reality itself.

As for "arguing"... I suspect that was just the HoD in your head. I haven't even used naughty language.

[Illocust]

No he's got a case under the California laws. I just don't like the term 'wage theft' being used in situations like this.

[Tonio]

"Wage theft" is more sympathy-generating. I believe there is also a biblical (NT?) prohibition against cheating the workman of his wages, so the phrase has the ring of moral authority to it. And, it avoids the whole "I was too stupid to properly think this through" thing, which is of course the point.

[CatoTheChipper]

Does anyone else find the term 'wage theft' problematic in this usage?

The only wage thefts that I've ever experienced were the deductions for income tax, FICA, and unemployment tax.

[Princess Trigger]

...made "an honorary woman many, many years ago" by Gloria Steinem.
ewww, phrasing

or is this like a "Made Man", wiseguy thing?
The 21st century is confusing and get off my lawn.

[Private Chipperbot]

She kissed him on each cheek and then pegged him. So, yeah.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Can't he just become a woman by saying he's a woman? I'm not sure how this gender-fluidity thing works.

[Suthenboy]

I was thinking he meant Gloria strapped one on.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois has agreed to hear a case concerning Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's eligibility to serve as U.S. President.

Chicago judge vetting a candidate's birth certificate? Now I've seen everything.

[Juvenile Bluster]

No, that would be if anyone in Chicago vetted a voter's death certificate.

[Notorious UGCC]

giggle

[AlmightyJB]

He can vote as many times as he wants, he just can't run without a kickback.

[Jerryskids]

It's a Vox link so I ain't gonna click it, but I'm assuming they're all over the fact that the guy filing the suit is some kind of truther/birther/sovereign citizen/state's rights nutjob?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Read the insane ramblings of a progressive that blames any economic woes in California on the voters themselves and the inability of the state to take even more money from her residents.

It's almost as if there's never enough money for them to steal.

[UnCivilServant]

From a certain point of view, the voters are to blame - look at who they've been voting for.

[JW]

This.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

True, but why do I suspect the author's preferred solution is to strip them of that right and allow TOP. MEN. to make all of the decisions?

[Lee G]

Now, as Kansas and other tax-cutting states are starving education and social services, California's tax increases are generating an additional $6 billion to $7 billion a year...

It's like magic. The money just appears.

[UnCivilServant]

*grumbles*

I just filed my taxes last night. I finally found a legitimate business expense that prevented me from having to write a check to the feds.

It's not the $76 I'd previously calculated that mattered, it's the insult after they've already stolen $15,000 from me.

[Lee G]

My taxes are so complicated I have to pay thru the nose to get them done. That bill is always a pleasant surprise after I get raped by the feds.

[some guy]

My taxes are pretty complicated, but I "do them myself" with tax software. I highly recommend it. The first time you do it is pretty hard, but after that you get the hand of it and feel more comfortable with it. Also, personally grinding through all the different ways you're being screwed provides an excellent opportunity to vent.

[Lee G]

I own a business with a fairly involved tax return. To some extent, the CPA is there to provide some distance between me and the IRS auditors.

[CatoTheChipper]

A major benefit of doing my own taxes with tax software is that I can run proforma cases that fully take into account the perverse details of the the tax code. This is a highly educational exercise that often exposes some opportunities for tax planning in the current year.

[Elspeth Flashman]

I can pay for someone else to do my taxes and pay only $350. Not bad. Otherwise I'd be screaming and crying about it. Plus tax prep is a business expense.

[Illocust]

I though California wasn't supposed to be having any budget woes anymore, which disproved that Prog rule is bad.

[Sevens]

Yeah, that's mostly because they don't have a budget anymore. Also, people get distracted by fires.

[John]

And because they have stopped doing even basic maintenance to the public roads. Nearly all of the most unsafe roads and bridges in this country are in California.

[KDN]

Is that why LA routinely has three times more reported accidents than any other metro region whenever I pull up on Google Maps? I just assumed they were constantly dealing with blizzards.

[John]

part of it. the other is the enormous population of Latin Americans. Latin America is a terrifying place to drive because the people there just have a different attitude about safety and precaution than we do.

[KDN]

I was going to make a joke blaming it on all the Asians. I thought better of it, but it's nice to see there's nothing you can't blame on the Mexicans.

Personal experience: there is no group of people more dangerous on the roads than Hasidim. Barring them from getting licenses is one 1A violation I could get behind. These are pretty common in Ocean Country for a reason. Bonus: Lakewood is also chockablock with Central Americans, so they would work for you as well.

[KDN]

*Ocean County

[Sevens]

"And because they have stopped doing even basic maintenance to the public roads. Nearly all of the most unsafe roads and bridges in this country are in California."

It's to prevent fires from moving. Save your petulant insolence.

[JW]

Nearly all of the most unsafe roads and bridges in this country are in California.

Come to Bal'mer, John. It's like Sarajevo during the bombing.

[John]

I have been there and it isn't good but it is not California bad. And crackmore at least has the excuse of it being in a cold climate.

[JW]

It suffers for the same reason: taking the money from gas taxes from the transportation fund and spending it all on Rainbow Puppy light rail and mass transit.

I'm sure the criminal neglect of maintaining the existing roads is only a massive coincidence.

[Swiss Servator]

I was in Sarajevo in 1997. Parts of East Saint Louis, Brooklyn and Venice, IL had lesser infrastructure when I used to go through them 5 years later...

[Griffin3]

Fire is bright and fire is clean.

[Lee G]

Merely a function of the ballooning stock market which hid their pension disaster. That will change shortly.

[Lee G]

But let's not overdo it. California's tax system?indeed its whole fiscal structure?is still a dysfunctional mess, nearly as illogical, inequitable, and inefficient as it has been for the previous 40 years. The tax limits and the restrictions on government imposed by Proposition 13, the sweeping property-tax reduction and limitation initiative passed by voters during the great tax revolt that began in 1978, are still on the books, and, according to the polls, as beloved by voters as ever.

And there it is. They want to murderize Prop 13 with a vengeance. The rest of the article is just fluff.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Pretty much. They blame the people for wanting to keep more of their own money rather than give it,to the pensions of cops and teachers that gamed the system to bloat their annual payouts to more than their actual salaries.

Never mind the fact that that Devils bargain is what has kept them in sole control of the state budged for three decades. Three decades of unemployment outpacing the national average, a ballooning bond crisis and an out of control pension system that simply cannot be fixed without raising taxes to unrealistic levels or bankruptcy.

Good luck, golden state. You're gonna need it.

[Florida Man]

Federal bailout out in 3...2...

[some guy]

California is more than 10% of the nation's economy. They'll take the whole country with them if the Fed's try to bail them out. Feature, not a bug?

[Lee G]

If they ever remove Prop 13, it will force an innumerable number of people and businesses out of the state. It would be a death blow to their economy.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Or cause property values to actually adjust back down to reality. Which would also murder that stink-hole.

[Irish ?s ESB]

In fairness, California's unemployment rate was slightly lower than the national average for about a month in 1990.

So it's only been higher than the national average for about 26 years! Thumbs up California, you haven't hit three decades yet!

[Swiss Servator]

Oh, until that last line, I thought you were talking about Illinois...

*silently weeps over IL tax return*

[KDN]

I think that post would apply to half the states in this great land.

[Illocust]

A freeze on property taxes raises between when somebody buys a property until the original purchaser dies seems reasonable. It will cause market distortions in people not wanting to move, but I don't like being able to force people off their land or property by raising the cost to own it artificially.

[DJF]

Isn't the higher taxes the market distortion?

[Overt]

And because California makes it so difficult to build new housing- specifically in places with good schools- housing costs tend to increase faster than wages. So a family that buys a house today could see property taxes increase by 10 - 20% per year depending on where they live.

[Trshmnstr, terror of the trash]

Fuck property taxes. I'd rather pay a 50% sales tax up front than have to pay those fuckers rent.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

CA would take both, and add additional handling fees coming and going.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Note his list of "casualties" from Prop 13: roads pension funds. But the biggest one of all is the localities that can't have ""enthusiasm" for public schools.

Wait, don't these same assholes bitch all time that rich, white school districts shouldn't get more money per pupil than poor black ones do? That I some kind of Jim Crow bullshit to let rich districts have better facilities and materials and higher wages or their staff.

Which is it, asshole?

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Note his list of "casualties" from Prop 13: roads pension funds. But the biggest one of all is the localities that can't have ""enthusiasm" for public schools.

Wait, don't these same assholes bitch all time that rich, white school districts shouldn't get more money per pupil than poor black ones do? That I some kind of Jim Crow bullshit to let rich districts have better facilities and materials and higher wages or their staff.

Which is it, asshole?

[Frankjasper1]

Isn't california's budget surplus really smoke and mirrors?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

There is no where near that much substance to it.

[EMD]

No.

[Slammer]

Texas A&M rife with tension after another incident of campus racism

The headline reads another incident!

The subheadline says: After students allegedly

For an alleged incident it is magically true...sound familiar?

[DJF]

The fact that the Texas A&M administration has not already burnt at the stake the alledged witches, oops I mean racists proves how bad racism is at the campus.

[Heroic Mulatto]

On 9 February, a white woman allegedly approached several teens visiting the college and asked if they liked her Confederate flag earrings

Even if the alleged incident is true, the correct response isn't to cry, it's to respond "Yes, they will give me something interesting to hold on to when you're sucking my cock."

[EMD]

BANG. Fight stupidity with awesomeness.

[Free Society]

OMG someone said mean things to a protected person! Everyone shit the bed, quick!

[EMD]

"But its location inevitably promotes an insular streak. The nearest big cities, Austin and Houston, are about 100 miles away."

Holy shit is this rich.

[Mr Lizard]

"In the first major U.S. airstrike in Libya since November, Americans bombed a suspected ISIS training camp there Friday, killing more than 40 people."

Terrorist 2nd-in-charges most affected

[Rich]

Astronauts unload 1.5 tons of trash into space

The spacecraft should re-enter the atmosphere and burn up harmlessly over the Pacific on Saturday.

"HARMLESSLY"?! Those fuckers are polluting Gaia's atmosphere!

[straffinrun]

So Christie is out of the race then?

[BearOdinson]

Reminds me of when I was an engineering officer on merchant ships.We would get shortwave broadcasts and the weather reporters would tell their listeners that the hurricane (or tropical storm or whatever) has moved safely out to sea. Fuck you!

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Just out of curiosity, since weight is resistance to gravity, how do they determine the tonnage in space? Was it 1.5 tons of material when it was constructed here? Was,it,1.5 tons at the point in space where it was released (since it was still apparently within the gravitational pull of earth)? Should they have released it farther from earth so it would have been 1.0 tons? Or maybe on the moon where it would have been .25 tons?

[Lee G]

The correct measurement should be in kilograms, since that is units of mass.

I'm assuming they mean 1.5 tons at ground level.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

What the fuck is a kilogram?

[Heroic Mulatto]

A 1,000 grams?

[Sapient Mulch]

About $25k, or 20-25 years depending where you live.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

It's when someone comes to your front door and murders you.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Yikes. This is why I oppose the metric system.

[Swiss Servator]

*golf clap*

[Hyperbolical]

Kilograms can measure weight/force as well. It's just usually called a Newton. In the same way there are Pounds force and Pounds mass. They should have specified which they were referring to.

[Mickey Rat]

A pound can be a unit of force or a unit of mass, depending on the circumstance. I believe that spplies to tons as well.

[UnCivilServant]

If they're metric tons, they're measures of mass instead of wieght.

[BearOdinson]

I am going to assume it was approx 3000 pounds, since it was an American story. And I am also pretty sure it would have been 3000 pounds as measured at the surface.
Pedant alert:
Weight isn't resistance to gravity. Weight is the magnitude of the force of gravity on an object. However, we generally measure weight by the reaction force of a scale acting to oppose the weight of the object. In orbit, objects at not truly weightless. It is just that the object in question, as well as the scale, th floor of the space station that the scale would rest on, etc is all falling together. So the scale would read zero. Not because there is no gravity, by because the scale has nothing to support it, so it can't "push back".
The gravitational pull at that orbit is probably only about 10% (haven't looked at the specific distance so order of magnitude here) less than at the surface.

[UnCivilServant]

From what I understand, gravity at orbit is pretty much on par with gravity at the surface, but because of the latteral motion, orbiting objects just keep missing the ground.

[BearOdinson]

More or less that is true. Gravity works as an inverse square law. IOW double the distance away, the force goes down by a factor of four. Assume the radius of the Earth is about 4000 miles. If the ISS orbits at 200 miles (it is actually between 254-258) then the distance from the center has increased by 5%. 1.05 squared equals approx 1.10. The inverse of that equals about .9 therefore the strength of Earths gravitational field at that distance is about 90% of that at the surface.
But you are correct about the motion. An object in orbit is in free fall. But it also has a tangential velocity (sideways to he surface of the Earth). So by the time it would hit from falling it has moved so far sideways, that it misses. Orbit is just a continuous process of falling while moving sideways.

[Brett L]

It is 93 slugs of trash, technically. They are just lazy and approximate 1 lbf when they weighed it on the Earth's surface to 1lbm

[BearOdinson]

Fucking slugs vs lbm. Ugh! When I was feeling particularly nasty, I would occasionally have my AP physics students work in those units.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...acting buddy-buddy with President Obama all of a sudden "to win support from the African-American community."

That would do it?

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

Oregon lawmakers approved a plan to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to between $12.50-$14.75, depending on location, over the next six years.

"Fuck you, local government."

[Sevens]

Any good Sorbo movies over the last couple of years?

[Private Chipperbot]

He was in one episode of Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 a few years back...

[Sevens]

I actually saw that one; partially. I believe they included RD Anderson, too. They have a type.

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

Alas, I think his glory days are long past (read: HERCULES).

He had a debilitating spine/neck type injury at the height of Hercules' popularity, so he was barely able to 'finish' the series, much less leverage it into anything more successful.

I think he makes the occasional circuit on poli talk shows these days, but the limelight is long gone.

[Sevens]

I didn't know of the injury. That's a shame.

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

Yeah I was completely unaware. My sister bought me his biography a few years ago which goes into the details. I don't remember the specifics of the injury, but they used various effects and plot widgets to keep him out of significant action for the last 2 seasons.

[Overt]

I was in Tahoe last weekend with friends from Oregon. The rural parts of this state are apoplectic about this. Oregon has a lot of small towns where there isn't much money and this is basically going to make it impossible for small business to stay in the black. In 20 years when rural Oregon is basically a bunch of small towns where residents have to drive to the nearest burg to get groceries from a national big-box store whose economies of scale allow them to afford the minimum wage, I'm sure everyone will look back on this whole episode and learn their lesson...right?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Knife-wielding monkey terrorizes Brazilian bar after guzzling some rum.

Well, at least the baby and puppy thirds are still cute.

[straffinrun]

Not again.

[Spartacus]

Capuchin monkeys weigh like, what, 10 pounds? How much rum do you have to guzzle when you weigh 10 pounds? I would think half a shot = blackout territory. They are lucky it didn't die of alcohol poisoning, or PETA would be all over their asses. And they probably didn't even card the monkey.

[Stilgar]

In a new CBS poll, a Capuchin monkey from Brazil garned 56% support from likely Republican voters in SuperTuesday contests. Rounding out the field were Trump at 18%, Cruz at 12% and Rubio, Kasic and Bush below 10%. Mr. Capuchin is convinced he passes the 'natural born' test.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

When I contemplate the worst estimates of global warming, one bright spot has always been that Maine might be warm enough to support a monkey population.

I never imagined the little bastards could wreak so much havoc.

[Brett L]

Floridian monkeys are strangely not havoc causing. It's possible that Florida Man and monkeys do not share a common ancestor.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Florida Monkey realizes that Florida Man will eat anything.

Florida Monkey does not want to draw attention to itself.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

HuffPo completely (deliberately?) misses the mark about what a Koch-backed group wants to accomplish. Ignores $19B debt because it wants electric cars and doesn't understand that the market will provide them without pissing away billions in subsidies every single year.

The comments are worse than, and more misleading than, the article itself.

[John]

it wants electric cars and doesn't understand that the market will provide them without pissing away billions in subsidies every single year

Maybe or maybe they understand how dreadfully inefficient battery operated cars are and thus realize they will never exist in large numbers if it is left up to the market.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

They continue to get better, so there will be a market for them if the price of gas ever rises to the point electrics are more efficient/dollar. But we're very far from that point even with the subsidies. Without them, we're not even in the same ballpark.

But this is about feelz, and unicorns, and free ponies and sticking it to "two greedy billionaires that shouldn't be allowed to have so much influence".

Bonus,points for the commenters saying these are the reason we should not allow people to transfer wealth upon their death. As if that wouldn't completely destroy every non-corporate ownership structure if an American company.

[John]

It is a problem of fundamental physics. People always say petroleum is "inefficient" and that is completely untrue. The amount of potential energy contained in a gallon of as is just astounding. A single gallon of gas propel a one ton automobile thirty miles or more at over sixty miles and hour. That is an astounding amount of energy. I am very skeptical batteries will ever approach that kind of efficiency.

And since we are swimming in oil, it almost certainly never make economic sense to switch to batteries any time in my lifetime at least.

[Brett L]

Gas/diesel engines are something like 45% efficient in converting the stored energy into motion. I think their theoretical max in ICE is maybe 52% due to so much of the energy going into heat. So in order to be competitve, total loss from the power-plant to the wheels in electric cars have to beat that. They also need to have a range of 300 miles and be able to go from 10% range to 100% range in less than 10 minutes. All of those are doable, probably. But not today.

[John]

When you think about the energy it takes to ignite it and the problems of heat and friction, 45% is pretty damned good.

[Brett L]

Sorry, maximum efficiency appears to be 46% and most engines get about 40%. I saw some arguments that diesel should be as efficient as 50%, but I didn't bother investigating. I assume because diesel is more energy dense and the loss is the same. At any rate, we get about 85% of the theoretical maximum, which is damn good.

[Medical Physics Guy]

Others here are more expert but I think the conversion for electrical is more like 7%.

[Brett L]

7% from the methane to the wheels is probably too low. But 45% would probably be too high. The turbine in the power plant is probably 90% or better efficiency, and the motor is probably 90% efficient. The transmission losses are the killer.

[BearOdinson]

As an example at the nuc plant at which I work, the reactor produces on the order of 3600 MW thermal. The electricity produced at the generator is about 1200 MW. So the neighborhood of about 33 percent efficiency. But transmission losses on the grid can be large. That is one reason why Tesla and Westinghouse's AC won over Edison's DC.
To the non physics/engineers: the higher the current the more power losses. (Current squared, so double the current in the wire, 4 times the power lost to heating). Transformers can take high current and convert to high voltage for transmission and distribution and then then back again for usage. But transformers don't work with DC power.

[Ch?d Whipper]

You cannot escape the 2nd law of thermodynamics, (Th - Tc) / Th is a bitch.

[Lee G]

Grid losses typically run around 6% in the US

[BearOdinson]

It isn't only thermodynamic efficiency to consider, but the cost and efficiency involved in turning petroleum into gasoline and compare that to the cost of getting coal or natural gas out of the ground to the plant, or the regulatory costs associated with nuclear (since the fuel is dirt cheap compared to maintenance costs and regulatory compliance).
Also, the cost of production of the energy storage units (i.e. Batteries) and electric motors vs cost of production of gasoline engines as well as projected maintenance costs.
There is also the aesthetics involved. People don't just buy cars for fuel economy.

[Brett L]

I agree. My take as a chemical engineer is that if gasoline and diesel didn't exist naturally, we would make them. High energy density, liquid at most atmospheric temperatures, high energy required to start them reacting. It's a perfect way of storing and transporting energy. There may be a reason that plants and animals basically adds a glycerin backbone to three molecules of diesel to store energy.

[BearOdinson]

You are a Chem E? Then you are just in the pocket of Big Oil so anything you say is suspect. Why do you hate Earth??

[Brett L]

Because its mostly made of boring stuff like nickel, iron, and silica.

[Zeb]

If you can't refuel a car in less than 15 minutes or so, it will never replace the internal combustion engine. Electric cars will be the thing some day, I'm sure, but not running on batteries.

[Certified Public Asshat]

What we need are really long extension cords.

[Zeb]

Electrified roads. Like bumper cars.

[IndyEleven]

An overhead mesh grid as far as the eye can see!

[Lee G]

Such a robust solution to energy distribution....

[Terc]

Jobs!

[Overt]

If you can't refuel a car in less than 15 minutes or so, it will never replace the internal combustion engine.

This is something that really bugs me about the electric car fanatics. They get all hyped up about the efficiency of their car, but don't care that a world of electric cars would be a world of people idling for hours each week, huddling around a charging station. Very few people will do more than check facebook during this idle time. And as a result, other people need to work more in order to sustain the same level of production that people were doing with ICEs.

Cars and fossil fuels are tools that enable humans to create wealth. In as much as you can increase the productivity of the car so that it improves human productivity, it is a boon to everything we as humans do. When your next version of car actually makes humans less productive, you are impacting everything in the world that humans have done to make our eternal travel to the grave more efficient.

[John]

hey get all hyped up about the efficiency of their car, but don't care that a world of electric cars would be a world of people idling for hours each week, huddling around a charging station.

And yet, these often are the very same people who think we must have public transit because the time people spend sitting in traffic is a threat to our way of life.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

It's a feature, not,a,bug, to them. They want people standing around idly so that more people can be employed to,fill those hours.

It also helps them achieve their goal of a more urban populus with empty spaces in between.

[Zeb]

So, do people actually believe that electric cars are going to shut down the petroleum industry or something?

That is indeed a terrible article. I still don't know what the group wants to accomplish. But being against subsidies for anything is completely consistent for the Kochs and I'm not sure why spending money to promote the product you produce is now some kind of nefarious scheme.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

BECUZ TEH KKKOCHTOPUS!!!111!!!!!111!!

[JW]

You know that these dirty, ruthless billionaires have never looked at investing in technology that will make them even more stinking rich. They leave that money on the table all the time, because billionaires.

What? Stop laughing!

[CatoTheChipper]

It's right out of the Saul Alinsky playbook, Rules for Radicals:

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

This is precisely what progressives are doing with the Kochs.

[0x90]

The comments are worse than, and more misleading than, the article itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znNiN0lYAQ

[Gray Ghost]

Two comments on the electric car issue.

First, can't the recharging problem be addressed by standardizing battery packs, and swapping out charged ones at the filling station for the empty one in your car? A la how welding supply shops handle gas bottles?

Second, and what I don't usually see addressed when we talk about electric cars' viability, is what are you going to do about the woeful inadequacy of the electric grid, when faced with the gigantic increased load that'll come from everyone switching to electric cars? Some back of the envelope numbers for CA:

CA produces, ballpark, about 200,000 GWh of electricity every year, using everything from natural gas to Diablo Canyon, to unicorn farts. It's actually gone down a tad from the mid-'00s. CA also has, depending on who you talk to, about 20 million registered passenger vehicles on its roads. Those cars go over 300 billion miles annually. [cont]

[Gray Ghost]

Let's swap 1/2 of those for Tesla Roadsters, and see what it takes to charge those batteries. The Tesla Roadster, per wiki, has a 53 kWh battery pack. For each charge, you get about 244 miles, per the EPA. 3x10^11 miles, divided by 2, (since we're only looking at half of all cars) divided by 244 miles per charge, times 53 kWh for each charge, yields a total energy usage of 32,580 or so GWh.

So, you're looking at 1/6 of all electricity generated in CA for the year, just to power 1/2 of the passenger cars out there, assuming they all went to Tesla Roadsters, and not some heavier application like SUVs or heavy trucks.

I seriously doubt CA has an extra 1/6th generating capacity just lying around.

[Gray Ghost]

Oh, and I don't know how much electricity needs to be generated, in order for the end user to get 53kWh in their Tesla battery, but I'm positive it's more than what I've calculated.

Jeez, the grid'd roll over and cry even with only 10% of users switching over to all electric.

[Rich]

Rare Dolphin Dies for Mob Selfie

Two Franciscana dolphins were ripped from the waves near an Argentinan resort last week, then manhandled to shore, where they were passed around a clutching mob seeking cute selfie moments. In the process, at least one of the intelligent, playful cetaceans died from the experience.

NOW can we ban selfies?

[Slammer]

If they're so fucking smart why are they swimming around a resort where everyone has a camera, huh?

[Rich]

Good catch point.

[Illocust]

Because the tourists feed them. Dolphins near resorts essentially have specialized as entertainers instead of hunters.

[Sevens]

Oh, so that's why sharks do the hunting. The market of the sea. Kinda ruins the beauty of it, though.

[lap83]

Dolphins are assholes but selfie-takers are possibly worse

[Sevens]

Whow, someone got a dolphin instead of the pony she wanted.

[John]

Milo Yianopolous is one of the best writers out there. He dares tell the sorry truth about feminism

It's as much a class war as it is a gender war" stated Yiannopoulos. "Much of it is perpetrated by white middle-class women who are the most privileged group in the history of our civilisation, of our species. They are the most privileged people ever to have lived[?] sort of waging war on working-class men. Now most of my readers fall into that second category, and I see the sort of injustice perpetrated on them and the sort of language used about them."

"And I see parallels in the way that the Republican establishment talks about their own voters, about its own base," he elaborated. "You've got Rick Wilson, this GOP strategist, going on Fox News and saying that these are all anime-watching weirdoes, and I just think to myself, you know what Rick Wilson, fuck you."

He also nails why both political parties are so loathsome. The whole thing is a bunch of privileged retarded elitist running the civilization into the ground.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/.....class-men/

[UnCivilServant]

The quality of his writing is actually pretty poor, it's just that he has few compeditors for the content.

[John]

I disagree. The quality of writing depends on the quality of the content. Idiocy is not good writing no matter how clever the language.

The biggest thing he has is balls. It is funny, a flaming limey queer has more balls and is a bigger truth teller than the entire reason staff.

[Sevens]

This wouldn't be nowhere near as entertaining if he wasn't homosexual. A very interesting incarnation of it, with many manly aspects.

[John]

That is true but only because of how thoroughly identity politics has invaded modern culture. If he were a straight guy, he would be ignored and written off as a crank. But being part of a privileged class makes it impossible to do that.

[Sevens]

That's part of it. But notice that he's interesting himself; he's unusual, and an unusual homosexual man. "Nero" is not a bad choice.

[John]

Totally. And that is allowing him to say things that are true and need to be said but can't be said because our culture is so fucked up.

[Slammer]

He's much better to watch or listen to on podcasts then he is to read. He's funnier.

[Zeb]

Idiocy is not good writing no matter how clever the language.

True, but there is a difference between idiocy and stuff I don't agree with.

[John]

Sure. But the line gets harder and harder to find these days.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"I disagree. The quality of writing depends on the quality of the content."

No it doesn't. Gore Vidal was a talented writer who often wrote stupid bullshit. The quality of how you express an idea and the quality of the idea itself aren't related

[John]

Gore Vidal wrote some good things. Those things were not idiotic. The idiotic stuff he wrote was bad writing.

[Irish ?s ESB]

Are you really trying to tell me that if I criticized something you dislike, no matter how terrible my prose was, it's still good writing?

And no matter how good my prose is, if I right something you think is dumb it's somehow bad writing?

There are very talented Marxist writers. Their writing quality doesn't make Marxism less dumb.

[John]

No I am telling you the quality of your writing is a function of both the cleverness of the prose and the quality of your thoughts.

No, there are not talented Marxist writers. You can't be a talented writer if you are an appalling thinker.

[Zeb]

If you assume that people who are wrong are necessarily stupid, you will never get anywhere. There are lots of very wrong and very smart people in the world. It takes at least as much intelligence to express a bad idea well as it does to express a good idea well.

[Irish ?s ESB]

John is basically arguing in favor of confirmation bias. Whether something is good writing depends on whether I agree with it.

He's also assuming that he is unquestionably right so if he thinks someone else is wrong, that person must be a moron, even though it's possible that person is right and John isn't.

[John]

Whether something is good writing depends on whether I agree with it.

The first step to judging writing is to be able to understand its content. You seem to lack that ability. That is not my argument at all. I said it was a FUNCTION OF BOTH. Function is a mathematical term. It is a fancy word for an equation. A synonym in this context would be a "product of both". So I am not saying that just because you agree with something makes it good writing. I am saying that the objective quality of the thinking involved, and yes there is such a thing as objective truth and no just because I disagree with an opinion doesn't make it bad thinking, contributes to its quality. You have to have both; good thinking and good prose.

I don't know how to make it any more clear. And as a side note; what you did there is a perfect example of a strawman fallacy. It is textbook. That is quite ironic coming from someone who yells STRAWMAN at least twice a week and almost never applies the term properly.

[Sevens]

Zeb's right.

John has a point in that "appaling thinkers" can't be talented writers, though it's an exaggeration. If you want to play around with this, consider Cicero's De Oratore. Rhetorics is more of a matter charisma, implicit understanding of human nature (honor, disgust, purity, religion, beauty... etc.), the ability to appeal, than it is a matter of being right - or necessarily well-informed - about the subject at hand.

[Irish ?s ESB]

"John has a point in that "appaling thinkers" can't be talented writers"

Celine was one of the best writers of the 20th century and was a crazed Nazi supporter who constantly ranted about Jews.

The number of people with really stupid ideas who are nonetheless capable stylists is very high. Norman Mailer is an annoying blow hard who was also a good writer. The ability to come to reasonable conclusions and the ability to write good English might be connected to some extent, but they aren't guaranteed.

In the other direction, people who are RIGHT can be atrocious writers. There are smart people I know who cannot write at all.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

John, are you basically saying that the Christian Bible can't be beautiful writing to an atheist? Or that parts of the Koran can't be well-written? Or that Twilight wasn't fantastic even though aspires aren't real?

They're not real, are they?

[Sevens]

Irish, I'm not criticizing the interpretation of "appaling" as referring to morality. But what I mean is intellect not sense of morality. I think it's rare that profoundly stupid people write brilliantly. -- Save the relation of intelligence and morality for another moment.

[gaoxiaen]

I'll never feel the same again when I hear the Titanic theme.

[JW]

Read Twain.

http://www.paulgraham.com/cornpone.html

[Medical Physics Guy]

When they speak of the New Victorianism it's not like they are speaking about the working class. They mean the privileged Victorians. All these SJWs getting the vapors are this generation's idle privileged class who lose touch with reality and spend all their time virtue-signalling each other.

Maybe they'll follow the Edwardian nobility and die of genteel starvation rather than compromise by working a real job.

[John]

And whatever you think about the old Victorians, they more or less built modern civilization as we know it. They may have been boring and sometimes eccentric, but things did work, not just commerce but also art and literature as well. The modern SJWs can make no such claims. They have produced nothing of value and likely never will.

[Juvenile Bluster]

I have mixed feelings about Milo, but he has his good points.

And Rutgers students had to have an entire workshop to recover after he spoke there, so that's also a positive.

[John]

What is not to like about him? I have yet to find him on the wrong side of anything.

What, does a gay man with strong opinions bother you? 😉 (just kidding).

[Medical Physics Guy]

Oxford Labour club infiltrated by Marxists and anti-semites.

This is my shocked face.

[Brett L]

Headlines from 1915.

[Crusty Juggler]

In the first major U.S. airstrike in Libya since November, Americans bombed a suspected ISIS training camp there Friday, killing more than 40 people.

"With respect to Libya," he told reporters at the end of a summit with Southeast Asian leaders in California, "I have been clear from the outset that we will go after ISIS wherever it appears, the same way that we went after al Qaida wherever they appeared."

[John]

killing more than 40 people

Reason forgot to mention they were wedding goers. Or does it just go without saying now that in reason land everyone in the middle east is always attending a wedding?

[Rich]

Wedding, funeral, or combination.

[straffinrun]

Combination being a family reunion.

[UnCivilServant]

"We are gathered here to bury Mo and marry his widow and daughter to his cousin, Mo."

*boom*

"Or rather, to bury Mo and his cousin Mo and marry..."

[Rich]

You are *bad*, UCS.

Funny, but bad.

[Florida Man]

Marry Mo? Is she a vegetarian?

[Crusty Juggler]

Is it any worse than Mary Mac?

[Rich]

"we will go after ISIS wherever we suspect it appears"

FTFY

[DJF]

Is Obama still using the UN resolution authorizing bombing to protect civilians? If so how long do those last, will Presidents a hundred years from now still be bombing Libya?

[Slammer]

NAP aside, this face is punchable. Make HERSTORY...*barf*

[Rich]

Is that a tumor?

[straffinrun]

It's not a tooomah.

[Zeb]

I think it's mostly the shirt. And the hair.

[SugarFree]

He wears it better than Dumpy McNosestud.

[DJF]

Wouldn't voting against Hillary also be HERSTORY?

[SugarFree]

Vote Blinding Headache 2016

[Zeb]

Does it come with 3D goggles?

[SugarFree]

Yes, and homeopathic morphine.

[Zeb]

What's that? A blow to the head?

[EMD]

No. Fresnel lenses.

[Rhywun]

Why do you hate equality?

[Ken Shultz]

Hipster doofus has been seriously overplayed.

The shelf life on some of those trends expired years ago.

If Leisure Suit Larry had been created today, they'd make him look like the prototypical hipster circa 2011.

. . . just like the "guy" in that picture.

[Crusty Juggler]

It's beefcake central over at HillaryClinton.com

[Free Society]

Oregon lawmakers approved a plan to increase the minimum wage from $9.25 to between $12.50-$14.75, depending on location, over the next six years.

Fuckin' central planning, how does it work?

[Lee G]

First you've got to get a really cool room

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

Random tidbits like this are why I like Reason.

[Zeb]

Badly?

I'm a little amazed at how many people think that such a huge jump in minimum wage will just "work" and everything will be great. Maybe they ar ecounting on a lot of inflation over the next 6 years.

[Hamster of Doom]

Innumeracy is common. Exhibit A: Facebook. Exhibit B: Powerball.

[Sapient Mulch]

Never tell me the odds...

[Free Society]

Especially considering the recent collapse of restaurant hiring in Seattle. (at least I think it was Seattle that did the $15 minimum for restaurants, maybe it was some other pacific city like Portland)

[Zeb]

SeaTac, I think?

[Crusty Juggler]

Bernie Sanders wins backing of African American group in Nevada's largest county

[Sevens]

How many black Jews are there?

[UnCivilServant]

More than you might think.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Again, it's Vegas...99.99% of them can directly trace their ancestry back to Sammy Davis Jr.

[Sevens]

"More than you might think."

Alright, 5.

[Crusty Juggler]

Yvette Williams, chairwoman of the caucus, said that Sanders's agenda most closely aligned with that of her nonpartisan group, saying the endorsement of Sanders "wasn't a very difficult decision."

"His message really resonates when he talks about income inequality, racial justice and prison reform," Williams said.

[Free Society]

I guess not having a spine when some BLM bimbo shouted him off his own stage has really paid off for the Bern.

[Rich]

Billionaire Griffin Pays $500 Million for Two Paintings

This is *outrageous*! The top 1% own almost all the Abstract Expressionist works!

[DJF]

"""The top 1% own almost all the Abstract Expressionist works""'

Showing that a fool and his money are soon parted

[Florida Man]

That's more money than I'll see in 10 lifetimes spent on two pictures. 2 pics...
*suppresses jealous rage*

[Free Society]

Easy now Florida Man, take your meth.

[Florida Man]

*shakily lights pipe*

[EMD]

Bad artwork equality for all!!

[Crusty Juggler]

Pope suggests contraception can be condoned in Zika crisis

IMPEACH THE POPE

[Slammer]

Pope suggests contraception can be condoned condomed in Zika crisis

[UnCivilServant]

Better contraception than abortion. Better still, DDT.

[Ken Shultz]

But only because of Zika?

Does the Pope give a shit about people suffering because of the AIDS virus?

Is it because so many of them are gay that he doesn't give shit?

Hey, you big progressive Pope, you, when are we going to start seeing gay marriages performed by Catholic priests?

What's that, your Marxism doesn't extend to gays?! And yet the media treats you as their little progressive darling?

Hey Mr. Progressive Pope, tell us, do you think spousal abuse is sufficient cause for divorce?

Why does anybody care what this shithead Pope says about anything?

He doesn't speak for Jesus. He doesn't speak for Christianity. He's a shithead in a dress. Fuck him.

[Free Society]

Pretty much. He gets way too much credit for every little stupid argument he makes when sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.

[Ken Shultz]

He could buy everyone he protested with at the border a home in Mexico and send their kids to college--by selling just one painting from the Vatican's art collection.

[Free Society]

The important thing is that he gives the impression of being a people's pope, that people look to his selflessness for inspiration, not that he actually be selfless.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

He's been more selfless than many others before him. But that's not the big issue I have with him.

The issue I have is that he stopped telling people it was good for them to give in the name of fairness and started telling them it was good for the governments to take in the name of fairness.

[Free Society]

He takes the Marxist approach to that whole "render unto Caesar" thing where it's some kind of moral prerogative, where more properly understood it meant pay Caesar so he doesn't exterminate you.

[Zeb]

I always thought it meant more that stuff like paying your taxes is irrelevant to your spiritual development and so Christians shouldn't worry about that sort of worldly thing. Of course, once Christians got hold of some power, that went right out the window.

It's pretty clear that it doesn't mean that paying your taxes is a moral prerogative.

[Tonio]

Dammit.

[SugarFree]

"Do you want me to make you a woman, Bernie?" Gloria purred.

"Will it hurt? No. I don't care. I'm tough I'm from The Bronx. Go on. Do it. Feminism. Women. Yeah!" Bernie said rapidly. He strained against the stirrups to spread his legs even wider.

Gloria slapped the enormous dildo she had strapped around her waist, making it flail wildly. She reached forward and cranked the speculum in Bernie's anus to its widest setting.

"This is the only thing, the ONLY thing, that makes sense in the dialectical of historical oppression of the working class, Gloria. I had humble beginnings. Humble. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth or in my ass. I'm from The Bronx, Gloria. I'm tough. I'm like withered meat on a gnawed skeleton. Tough, Gloria."

"Goddammit, Bernie. Do you ever shut up? I'm losing my artificial boner here."

"I'll be quiet, Gloria. This is your time. I understand that. I don't need to talk."

[SugarFree]

"Just shut up."

"Oh, I'll shut up all right. Not a peep out of me, all right. Not a word. Enact your labor on my patriarchal ringpiece, Gloria. Make me valuable. MAKE ME!"

"I don't think I want to do this anymore." Gloria covered her breasts with her hands and looked around the squalid false consciousness removal room, the glass-doored cabinets of blood- and shit-covered dildos watched her like silent soldiers of regret.

"What am I doing with my life?" she whispered.

"Gloria! Bronx! Marx! Rent control!" Bernie screamed, thrashing at his bonds. "Gloria!"

Gloria ran from the room and began to vomit loudly in the hallway.

[Rich]

Beautiful! More, please!

[Crusty Juggler]

"Gloria! Bronx! Marx! Rent control!" Bernie screamed, thrashing at his bonds. "Gloria!"

Still laughing at this.

[straffinrun]

Spectaculum.

[Tonio]

Brilliant.

[Crusty Juggler]

Sanders also, in an interview with BET

Apparently I need to start watching 106 and Park again.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

Ok, which one of you is trolling Dear Prudence? Because that just can't be real.

[Free Society]

Human beings are evolutionarily hardwired to furtively cheat on their partners three to four times a year on business trips. It's part of our brain chemistry.

Prudence is a smart cookie. She consulted with some evolutionary biologist and found that in other primates, they cheat on their spouse 3 or 4 times a year on business trips. Cheating on business trips is hardwired into our brain chemistry. Did not know that.

[Illocust]

I'm pretty sure that whole paragraph was her being sarcastic.

[Free Society]

Fair point

[Zeb]

Well, fucking at any opportunity is probably hardwired into people. But the whole thing about being human is that you can choose not to act on it. Of course, she was being sarcastic there.

Interestingly, based on what I've read on the subject, I think that humans are among the most naturally monogamous animals there are. Even among a lot of birds and things that supposedly pair up for life, there is a lot going on on the side.

[Free Society]

Yeah I don't think it's a coincidence that humans are monogamous in a wide variety of societies and cultures. I think it comes down to the fact that our higher intelligence and social tendencies (being highly determined by genes) has made us "economic creatures". And the best economic model for passing on wealth to one's own kind seems to be monogamy, I don't think we're hardwired to be monogamous, but it seems to have some validity in natural law since societies and cultures have repeatedly discovered and rediscovered it as a beneficial social structure independently of each other.

[Sevens]

Two reasons for a relatively greater tendency toward monogamy: 1) Human children require a massive investment until they can survive on their own. 2) Cooperation is useful, and it only works among conditions of peace and stability. So we're dealing with a tension between competition and cooperation, between hierarchies and egalitarianism, between polygamy and monogamy. (Withholding women/sex from is not a prime recipe for peace.) Women's sexual fluidity is interesting to note, especially in contrast to a male lack thereof. This points to a kind of harem condition, with female same-sex attraction and exchange of sexual favors. -- Not yet sure what to make of all this.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Cool just-so story, bro!

[Sevens]

Just as well, fro.

[Notorious UGCC]

Well, studies show that on business trips, Brazilian monkeys tend to drink lots of rum and run around wielding knives.

[Sevens]

Nice.

[Ken Shultz]

"Thousands of activists marched in Madison, Wisconsin, Thursday to protest immigration legislation headed to Gov. Scott Walker."

Every time I start dismissing Scott Walker as just another empty Republican, thousands of shitheads flood into the capital to protest something he's doing.

I don't know what's going on, but, if all those shitheads hate him, he must be doing right.

[Free Society]

I don't think Walker is a notable Republican beyond the fact that he was somehow elected governor of a state that has a vociferous cabal of some of the dumbest socialist weasels you'll find anywhere in the US.

[Frankjasper1]

What is it about wisconsin that makes them so socialist...mean liberal

[Raven Nation]

Historical heritage? It was one of the central places of early Progressivism.

Which, of course, is not a definitive answer to your question - it just moves it back a century.

[Free Society]

Going out on a limb here, I suspect it has something to do with the fact that it was mostly settled by Northern Yankees after it came under American control. Yankees were kind of proto-progressives from the New York state area.

[Frankjasper1]

I am wondering where progressives get their delusions of grandeur. It amazes me they aren't anything like they claim to be.

[Frankjasper1]

I am wondering where progressives get their delusions of grandeur. It amazes me they aren't anything like they claim to be.

[Zeb]

Yankees were kind of proto-progressives from the New York state area.

Everyone seems to have a different definition of Yankee. People from New England know it means New Englanders. People from the general Northern US think it means the North East generally. People from the South think it means people from the North generally and people from outside the US think it means all Americans.
My preferred definition is limited to people from New England only and has connotations of hard work and self-sufficiency and wanting to be left alone. Boston and the middle part of Connecticut may have been early hotbeds of Progressivism, but rural New England was something else.

[Free Society]

And the Brits use the term to describe basically anyone from the United States. But the Yankees as a cultural demographic particularly in the 1800s, rather than as a geographic group, is written about quite a bit when discussing cultural movements like abolitionism, temperance and some assorted progressive and non-progressive causes that have come and gone in the late 19th century and early 20th.

[Ken Shultz]

Scandinavian heritage, you mean?

[Free Society]

There's lots of Scandis there yes, but that's more so in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Wisconsin has had a lot more English (Yankee) and French immigration in it's early history.

[Swiss Servator]

*ahem*

http://swisstown.com/

[Free Society]

Yes yes, those filthy Swiss have a colony there too. *regular gaze*

[Rich]

New study says Paleo diet 'unhealthy and fattening' angering ardent devotees

"This time it is a study done on mice ? yep you heard that right ... mice!"

The horror!

[Lee G]

Because mice chase their prey down on the savannah...

[Juvenile Bluster]

Brown University student activists whine about how all their activism is affecting their grades.

Not exactly sure what they want here.

[Lee G]

Credit for bitching is what they want.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Accidentally hit submit before quoting the "best" part.

Justice Gaines '16, who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr, said student activism efforts on campus are necessary. "I don't feel okay with seeing students go through hardships without helping and organizing to make things better."

In the wake of The Herald's opinion pieces, Gaines felt overwhelmed by emotions flooding across campus. Students were called out of class into organizing meetings, and xe felt pressure to help xyr peers cope with what was going on, xe said. Gaines "had a panic attack and couldn't go to class for several days."

[John]

And remember these ass clowns think of themselves as being on the same moral plane as actual civil rights protesters. Because risking getting your head blown off, lynched or beaten within an inch of your life by knight stick wielding cops for the crime of sitting at a Woolworth's Counter is totally the same thing as the horrors of having to miss class.

These people really are retarded. We have raised a generation that is profoundly and perhaps irreparably intellectually and morally stunted. They seem to have never learned how to reason or think above an animal level.

[UnCivilServant]

Letting them flunk out and have to deal with the real world would be the best thing for them.

[John]

Yes and even that might not help. These people think the world owes them something and that they are special geniuses worthy of recognition. When of course it turns out the world doesn't owe them anything and no one recognizes their genius because there is nothing special about it, they might wake up to reality. Sadly, they likely will just become embittered and spend their life seeking revenge on their perceived enemies.

These are the kind of people who volunteer to run the ovens.

[Hyperbolical]

Sadly, they likely will just become embittered and spend their life seeking revenge on their perceived enemies.

They'll become like Bernie Sanders?

[straffinrun]

Knight stick. Your typos are legendary.

[John]

Knight is the more martial term and really how the word should be spelled.

[Slammer]

Old school NYC cops call knight sticks "the wood shampoo"

[straffinrun]

I see. Knights were supposed to have some sense of honor though.

[Notorious UGCC]

"Ooh, Sir Lancelot!"

[Zeb]

Gaines "had a panic attack and couldn't go to class for several days."

There's a pill you can take for that.

If activism is more important to you than actually going to class and doing your work, then maybe you shouldn't be at college. But then they might have to take some actual risks, so that's no good. College activism involves absolutely no personal risk.

[EMD]

"There's a pill you can take for that."

Is it lead?

[DJF]

An excuse to whine about something?

[Raven Nation]

Deans' notes helped Gaines to complete academic work while staying involved in student activism.

This is part of it. I assume eventually they will demand - and be awarded - course credit for their activism.

[SugarFree]

I think one group demanded exactly that. Can't recall which ridiculous set of demands that one was in.

[Kevin Sorbos Manful Locks]

Not exactly sure what they want here.

Self proclaimed victimhood bonafides to enhance moral preening?

[Raven Nation]

Part of their protests are about two "racist" and "offensive" columns published in the paper back in October. As part of the modern approach to journalism, the paper has, itself, removed the articles from its website and replaced them with statements. From one of the statements:

After initially deciding the column was suitable for publication, a couple of editors read the column late last night and decided not to publish it...The article was also online for about an hour before we took it down...Because we never intended for the column to be published, we do not think it necessary for the text to remain online.

Full statement here:

http://www.browndailyherald.co.....hange-day/

[SugarFree]

As students rallied to protest two racist columns published by The Herald and the alleged assault of a Latinx student from Dartmouth by a Department of Public Safety officer,

Latinx? Genderless Hispanic?

[Lee G]

I like how the columns are presumed racist.

[UnCivilServant]

No, a Latinx is a cat distantly related to the lynx.

[SugarFree]

Ugh. I hate when I'm right.

Latinx, pronounced "La-teen-ex," includes the numerous people of Latin American descent whose gender identities fluctuate along different points of the spectrum, from agender or nonbinary to gender non-conforming, genderqueer and genderfluid.

[Lee G]

If their gender is fluid along a spectrum, then why isn't their racial identity fluid as well? Particularly since race is genetically a much less defined trait.

[Medical Physics Guy]

$.

[BearOdinson]

So to all those who have criticized in the past that transgender just means thinking one should change from their biological gender to the other, I give you this article. If it truly was just about Bruce wanting t be Caitlyn, then what an adult does with their own body is none of my business. But this is about someone feels at any given moment in time, despite science.

[Free Society]

I think it could certainly qualify as a mental disorder of some kind. I mean if you need surgery or hormone treatments to feel like you belong in your own skin, I think it's fair to characterize it as a disorder. But yes, your body, do what you want with it as long as it doesn't involve forcing me to use stupid fucking pronouns or pay for your special bathroom needs preferences.

[Zeb]

Well, I think there is disagreement on the subject. It's one of those fascinating cases where putting everything into identity politics leads to really weird divisions within small groups of people that most people sort of assume would be mostly in agreement about these things. The transgender people who think that they have the wrong body don't quite see eye to eye with the gender-fluidity people.

[Mindyourbusiness]

Thanks for straightening that out. I thought it was a new product from Kimberly-Clark...

[gaoxiaen]

I got a different impression. I didn't think there was much of a market for bean-caused constipation.

[Free Society]

Not exactly sure what they want here.

To be dragged up a mountain and left to die from the inherent weakness that pervades every aspect of them as human beings.

[sloopyinTEXAS]

"What is best in life?"

Conan: "To crusssssssssssssh yxr enemies, to see zem dragged before yxu , and to hear the Lamentations of zer self-identified as female, but not in a strictly paternalistic way, partners."

Fuck. Conan would suck if it was done by an Ivy League school's liberal arts department.

[Free Society]

The real good part of the saga is when Conan reaches xis(?) old age and decides to undergo a sex change and hormone therapy to better rule xis subjects.

[John]

Roger Simon makes a brilliant proposal.

If we elect Donald, he must also agree to be our national talk show host, making a firm campaign pledge that he will appear five nights a week at eleven for an hour or so with guests of his choice (Putin, Beyonc?, etc.). It shouldn't be that hard for him. He said he's a workaholic and only sleeps three or four hours a night -- something easy to believe. And CBS is probably already looking for a replacement for Colbert, despite their protestations.

Now some -- including my friends over at National Review -- are probably thinking this is a fundamentally unserious approach to politics and the crucial issues of our time. But I say -- lighten up. Besides, we have just lived through seven years of the shiftiest, most prevaricating administration in decades, simultaneously claiming it was the most transparent. This would be real transparency -- the president on television every night. We could even have the White House press corps in the studio audience. And if we want to make it really exciting, we could add a co-host (okay, a sub-host, Donald being Donald) to keep him on his toes and ask the usual Facebook questions. My suggestion: Megyn Kelly.

[TGGeko]

I like this idea!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I think the sub-host would have to be a rotating line-up of his children, in the style of The Apprentice.

[John]

Probably. But you know Kelly would lay on her back if he asked her. She would never resist that kind of opportunity for fame and access to power.

[robc]

Headline is wrong. KY now has two separate forms, both straight and gay couples can choose which form to use. Both forms work for both groups.

[Tonio]

Catholic head priest Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis) contemplates allowing condom use to prevent Zika. But surely it is their god's will that those babies be born with microencephaly, otherwise the god wouldn't have allowed/created the Zika virus. Still, I applaud any embrace of rationality by those people, however small, transparently hypocritical or self-serving.

[Wizard with a Woodchipper]

Wasn't BJ Clinton once called the First Black President (that is, until the first half black candidate became the first black president)?

So, if elected, Bernie will be the first woman president?

[Irish ?s ESB]

I think Toni Morrison said that.

Speaking of talented writers with dumb ideas...

[Crusty Juggler]

"If you want to fly, you've got to give up the shit that weighs you down."

Give up that shit, Irish.

[IndyEleven]

"Talented writers" I think assumes facts not in evidence. Beloved was 8 kinds of tedious and overrated.

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, it was extremely racist, too.

It was for treating Hillary like his baby mama.

Like calling him black somehow made it okay?

So fuckin' racist.

[John]

If you consider "black" to be a culture rather than just a skin color, Bill Clinton is much more black than Obama. There isn't a hell of a lot of difference in the cultures of the poor white and black people in places like Hope, Arkansas. Obama in contrast is culturally much closer to someone like George HW Bush; well off family, educated at the best private schools, had his way greased into politics as a result.

Whatever you think of Bill, he was a self made man

[Ken Shultz]

"Whatever you think of Bill, he was a self made man"

You must be shroomin'.

He's a fuckin' politician. He's never accomplished anything.

He's an especially corrupt politician. He's still getting paid by foreign governments because of his wife's political career.

[John]

No Ken, I just think rather than emote against classes of people I don't like. Bill Clinton was a white trash hillbilly from a broken home managed to become a Rhodes Scholar, go to Yale Law School and become AG, Governor and eventually President. That is a self made man. To say otherwise is to let your prejudices and emotions cloud your perception of reality. I don't like politicians or Bill Clinton. But those emotions don't give me an excuse to deny the facts as they are.

[Ken Shultz]

Rising through the ranks of politicians to enrich youself through corruption isn't what I mean when I say someone is a "self-made man".

Was Breznev a self-made man, too?

My brother left home at 16, worked his way up to became the youngest vice-president ever at a major bank, left the bank with the bank's president, and started a wildly successful family of mutual funds. Since then, he's started and sold a number of businesses, bought a bunch of land in Utah, and built himself a cabin from the ground up (He had someone help him pour concrete for the foundation).

My brother is a self-made man. Bill Clinton isn't fit to carry my brother's tools.

[Ken Shultz]

Oh, and shitheads sleeping around on their wives and children with at least, what, eight different women? That doesn't reflect the culture of the poor, white, religious people that went to my church growing up. And I wouldn't use the term "white trash" to refer to any of those people.

For your information, poor, churchgoing blacks don't generally act like that either.

[Sevens]

You're making honor a part of the definition. That's not bad, but also ground for disagreement. You're right in how you (don't) use "white trash". Have you read Murray's Coming Apart? He shares that.

[Ken Shultz]

"Self made" cannot include leveraging the threat of force for self-aggrandizement, to steal money from taxpayers, and to procure donations from foreign governments in the hope of favorable treatment. That's is not "self-made".

Bill Clinton may not have inherited wealth or political power, but Bill Clinton is not "self-made". His money was taken from the people who earned it, and his power was used to facilitate corruption.

All the wealth my brother created was given to him willingly enthusiastically by the people who earned it.

Conversely, as pissed off as I am that Hillary Clinton took money from foreign governments while she was the Secretary of State, how much more pissed off would I be if I were a taxpayer in some country and that government gave my money to the Clinton Foundation?

[Sevens]

One may include criminals who build empires under self-made men, those who overcome challenges without help. Take it to measure accomplishment, not pro-social behavior. Clinton excelled at what he did, and it required considerable work, which many were not only unwilling, but unable, to do.

Personally, I'm inclined to share your understanding. It's certainly uncommon to include criminals.

[Sevo]

"He's an especially corrupt politician. He's still getting paid by foreign governments because of his wife's political career."

Yep, just checked Wiki. Not even a hint that pig has ever earned a dollar in his life that wasn't slopped from the public trough.
Not so much as 'delivered newspapers as a kid'
I want my money back, bubba!

[Ken Shultz]

Every penny.

I'll never forget that tax hike. He justified it by saying it was for the working poor. I was working poor back then, and his tax increase meant that instead of running out of food on Thursday night, I ran out of food on Wednesday night.

Waiting to get paid so I could get something to eat, I hated him so much. The hungrier I got Friday before I could eat, the more I hated Bill Clinton.

[Agile Cyborg]

Pink caverns stretching from sea to reflective sea drip with Bill's stalacumtites. However one wishes to nail letters on that gangly bird his level of deep-thigh spelunking clearly plumbs legendary depths.

[Bob Meyer]

Sanders doesn't understand the being called a "pussy" does not make him an honorary woman.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Well played, sir.

[TGGeko]

I'm so glad there's this heated debate about the nature of the constitution. Think we'll have such discussions about the Commerce Clause next? Or the other Enumerated powers? Or the 10th ammendment? No? Okay.

[Elspeth Flashman]

Maybe but no one will pay attention, only to the parts of the Constitution or BOR that they don't like.

[Agile Cyborg]

Neurotransmitter rodeos give free rides to monkeys, sis.

[KerryW]

"But who would nominate a walking court case?"

This is from the article on Cruz, but it might also apply to a certain Dem candidate in the near future (I'm not holding my breath).

[Free Society]

The South Carolinans go for Donald Trump?

I love this. When NYT or WaPo or whichever lefty mouthpiece offers advice to their adversaries as if they're just trying to help. "South Carolina Republicans, you wonderful tolerant and progressive friends of democracy, if you elect Trump it'll be like saying you hate blacks and Indians! We wouldn't want you to lose to those Democrats that we're like totally not in the bag for."

[Irish ?s ESB]

"The fear among Republican leaders here is that a smashing victory for Mr. Trump would say more about the party, and about the state, potentially undermining South Carolina's image as a more welcoming place that is no longer defined by figures like Strom Thurmond, the former segregationist presidential candidate who served in the Senate until 2003."

Really tremendous concern trolling. The same people think the entire state is nothing but inbred hicks the rest of the time, but now they're seriously worried that those noble, cosmopolitian South Carolinians will have to deal with the horror of a Trump victory.

It also ignores that Trump actually has the most support among black voters of all Republicans. The minority group that really despises him are Hispanics, so a Trump victory wouldn't say anything about anti-black animus or segregation.

[Frankjasper1]

Liberals to me come off as very elitist, condescending, look down at others types. Their concern for the common person is more disgust and contempt. And by wanting to give free stuff, it helps liberals pat themselves on the back.

I think liberals would love an aristocracy or caste system type where they are in charge.

[Notorious UGCC]

They are partway there already.

[Frankjasper1]

I think there are different types of progs...

- the bernie sanders progs (who want free stuff, complain about corporations and other stupid things)...i dont think these people

- the elitist progs (i am superior to you and know what is best for you, they dont care about "inequality" at least when it comes to them vs someone with less)

- the SJW progs (people with low self esteem who need to enhance their importance)

Group 1 even if i dont agree with at least seem like nice folks. Group 2 and 3 are horrible people

[Frankjasper1]

meant to say for group 1....dont think these people hate everyone else (except rich) and have contempt for flyover country, they just are envious and jealous of folks more than them. entitled if you will.

[EMD]

The believe they've been genuinely screwed out of something in life by nebulous powers and that there is only a finite amount of pie in the pan.

[EMD]

The believe they've been genuinely screwed out of something in life by nebulous powers and that there is only a finite amount of pie in the pan.

[Notorious UGCC]

A state with an Indian-American governor and a black Senator - elected no thanks to the Times - needs no instruction from New Yorkers on racial progress.

How many Asian-American governors has New York had? How many black Senators?

[Frankjasper1]

Lol. The sad part is the journalists think they are more important than they really are.

[Notorious UGCC]

I think NY had a black governor, but his white predecessor had to resign in disgrace first.

[Notorious UGCC]

Yeah, David Paterson, he took over after Spitzer.

[Rhywun]

I liked Paterson. He was low-key, didn't really do anything. Naturally, that meant the machine rolled all over him.

[Heroic Mulatto]

And as the 2nd blind governor, NY got a twofor!

[Notorious UGCC]

I was thinking of saying something like, "and they haven't even told him he's black yet!"...but that would be too offensive even for me.

[Rhywun]

"White power!"

[Domestic Dissident]

Too bad it's all over for the Weigelian scum in the JournoList. Their days of picking the republican party's candidate are over, permanently.

[Frankjasper1]

Isn't california's budget surplus really smoke and mirrors?

[UnCivilServant]

And illegal accounting practices.

[Frankjasper1]

Didn't they account borrowing as "income"?

[Elspeth Flashman]

totally OT but in the go geek department: I'm the next chair of the State Bar Committee on Libraries, Legal Research and Legal Publications. Bow down to me!

[Crusty Juggler]

You're like the mother of dragons, if dragons are old, dusty law journals.

[Sevens]

Stop calling her ancient.

[Domestic Dissident]

Author Harper Lee dead at 89.

[Private Chipperbot]

What's Lou Reed's take?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Hunh. I thought she had died years ago.

[Sevens]

"What the hell is happening right now?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOzOfMMuYQ

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

At a Democratic town hall in Las Vegas, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he was "a strong feminist" who was made "an honorary woman many, many years ago" by Gloria Steinem.

Next milestone: Become an honorary man.

[Domestic Dissident]

It's hardball, bent-nosed politics in the Garden State, as the Borgata tells Atlantic City "Give us our refund, or we're not paying you any more taxes.", which could bankrupt the city and put it under state stewardship.

[chutestasi]

I've made $66,000 so far this year working online and I'm a full time student. I'm using an online business opportunity I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it.

Heres what I've been doing.. http://www.alpha-careers.com

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Bernie Sanders says he's an "honorary woman."

That would explain why he doesn't have any balls.

But what explains why he doesn't have any brains?

[sofiyathomas0225]

my friend's sister-in-law makes $85 hourly on the internet . She has been without a job for ten months but last month her paycheck was $21785 just working on the internet for a few hours. look at this web-site....
Clik this link in Your Browser

??????????? http://www.Wage90.com

[anndytaylor]

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..

Click This Link inYour Browser....

? ? ? ? http://www.WorkPost30.com

[sofiyathomas0225]

my friend's sister-in-law makes $85 hourly on the internet . She has been without a job for ten months but last month her paycheck was $21785 just working on the internet for a few hours. look at this web-site....
Clik this link in Your Browser

??????????? http://www.Wage90.com

[lukashik]

The technology is so developed that we can watch videos, live streaming, TV serials and any of our missed programs within our mobiles and PCs. Showbox
All we need is a mobile or PC with a very good internet connection. There are many applications by which we can enjoy videos, our missed programs, live streaming etc.