A.M. Links: Indiana Primary, Teacher Strike Closes Detroit Public Schools, World Press Freedom Day

• 

  CNN

  Voters in Indiana head to the polls today for that state's presidential primary.

• "Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever—except for Donald Trump."

• Most public schools in Detroit are closed due a teachers' strike that's now entering its second day.

• A U.S. service member was killed fighting ISIS today in northern Iraq.

• "The search for missing art stolen more than two decades ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has taken FBI agents to six continents around the world. But the most active lead seems to be in the backyard of an aging mobster in a small town in Connecticut."

• Today is World Press Freedom Day.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Voters in Indiana head to the polls today for that state's presidential primary.

Trump is about to remove his first Canadian foreigner.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Good morning.

Canada's going to build a wall to keep us out. Don't blame them, really.

[UnCivilServant]

It would take every Canukistani in that country to watch that wall.

or, as Trudy puts it - JOBS!

[Restoras]

Well, they may want to since all the hockey is played South of Their Border...

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

First guy that recommends letting the Maple-Suckers on this side of the wall gets stabbed by the rest of us.

No resurrections.

[yet another dave]

We won't build a wall, we'll just refrain from dismantling the 700 ft one that naturally grows on the 49 parallel very winter.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Would Pittsburgh protect and defend its adopted native son Sidney Crosby?

For the duration of the playoffs anyway.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In his heart he's American. You can tell because he doesn't hit people in the head like Canadian thugs.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

You mean like...Brooks Orpik?

[Chipwooder]

No, like Kris Letang.

God I despise the Penguins. Most loathsome franchise in professional sports.

[Fist of Etiquette]

WRONG. It's the greatest.

[Chipwooder]

No, like Kris Letang.

God I despise the Penguins. Most loathsome franchise in professional sports.

[Anomalous]

It bears repeating.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

So we are all in agreement that the Penguins suck? That's a first for the commentariat. I guess there are no libertarians in Shitsburg.

[Fist of Etiquette]

In his heart Orpik is a Canadian thug.

[Hyperion]

Good start.

[Bee Tagger]

"Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever?except for Donald Trump."

Shouldn't this make the american voter the most disliked person? They should put a mirror on the back of Time magazine this year.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

That Vox article is amazing -- most of the comparisons have the most disliked candidate winning the election. They even recognize this, but then make up a new disclaimer, that Trump is different because he's over 50% disliked. What they refuse to notice is that Hillary, while less disliked than Trump, still has a more disliked rating than every previous candidate.

Per their charter, Trump is more likely to win.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever?except for Donald Trump."

It's always an exercise in voting against the other guy.

[commodious spittoon]

May the best woman win.

[Anomalous]

It's always a giant douche or a turd sandwich.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Most public schools in Detroit are closed due a teachers' strike that's now entering its second day.

ON TEACHER DAY?

[Princess Trigger]

No apple for them - and their pension fund is broke. [they bought those sweet Puerto Rican bonds]

[commodious spittoon]

The fools thought Puerto Rican sugar cane would overcome American subsidies.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

A U.S. service member was killed fighting ISIS today in northern Iraq.

If a soldier dies in Iraq and the government doesn't call it war, does he make a sound in the media cycle?

[UnCivilServant]

"Workplace Violence"

[Free Society]

Technically he was working at a place at the time of his death so...

[WTF]

Odd how the "anti-war" left stopped publicly marking the deaths of US troops as soon as Obama took office. I wonder why they did that?

[Tonio]

They effectively disappeared once the administration changed.

[Feminist Killjoy]

Obama's administration is so transparent it doesn't need watch dogs!

[Swiss Servator]

Since there are no boots on the ground - no.

*seethes with rage*

[Tonio]

Sorry, bro.

[LynchPin1477]

Carter highlighted the combat risks the roughly 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still face even though they are officially in a training, advise and assist mission. "It shows you it's a serious fight that we have to wage in Iraq," he said.

Seethes with rage, indeed. It's such. Fucking. Bull shit. We are so obviously at war yet no one has the balls to call the administration on it. Remember when MSNBC showed pictures and names of everyone killed in Iraq up to a certain point? We could actually use more of that kind of scrutiny. But no one in the mainstream will do it because the left-leaning outlets are in the bag for Obama and Fox News won't do anything that has even a chance of seeming anti-military.

Anyone else read World War Z? Brooks made a point of America being spread thin and worn out by "brush fire wars" in the ME. At the time I thought that was stupid...there was no way voters were going to tolerate getting into yet *another* pointless war in the Middle East. God damn it, I was naive.

I really wonder what the troops that are over there think of all this. They obviously know the "training" mission is complete BS. If it were me, I don't think I'd like my leadership lying through their teeth about what I was doing thousands of miles away from home, especially after my friend just got killed. Maybe there is a different attitude among the rank and file. I'd like to know.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I am waiting for the day when a President orders in barefoot soldiers, so he /she can say there are no boots on the ground.

[The Last American Hero]

Remember when the paper published casualty counts on the front page every time a soldier died? I mean, that was like seven years ago and all, but still.

Our paper hasn't had one front page article on the rising troop levels in Iraq/Syria or a story about whatever is going on in Afghanistan in months, perhaps all year. Funny that.

[LynchPin1477]

The degree of casual disengagement is disturbing. But I guess 15 years of continuous low-level war has a way of desensitizing people.

[AlexInCT]

I don't buy that this is the reason we are not hearing about it. In fact, I am certain that there is an orchestrated campaign to hide this from the public. Change the letter next to the name of the guy squatting in the WH, and I bet we will suddenly discover not only this is going on, but that that the economy sucks, people need jobs, the rich are getting richer while the middle class is imploding because of goverment policy, and that in general the country is falling apart.

[BigT]

Remember when the paper published casualty counts on the front page every time a soldier died? I mean, that was like seven years ago and

George Bush was President. Now we have a great man of Peace as President, so deaths do not occur.

[WTF]

Probably due for another Nobel Peace Prize, actually.

[Hamster of Doom]

"Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever?except for Donald Trump."

And David Duke?

[Rich]

And Lucifer?

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Lucifer was charming, he knew how to get the women's vote.

[Soave the Last Dance for Me]

He was fucking hot.

Unless we're talking about Ted Cruz. Then nevermind.

[WTF]

H..Hitler?

[Swiss Servator]

H. Hitler? Is he any better than that A. Hitler guy?

[WTF]

Did I say "Hitler"?! I meant Mr. HILTER, Dickie old chum!!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Today is World Press Freedom Day.

ON TEACHER DAY?

[Monty Crisco]

Today is World Press Freedom Day.

Let all the liberal MSM institutions call for the jailing of those who doubt climate change and use offensive speech!!

[WTF]

You can't have freedom unless you stop the hate and the climate denial!

[Anomalous]

Climate denial? Does anyone deny the existence of climate?

[Monty Crisco]

You trying to tell me you haven't seen anyone referred to as a "climate denier" by the left?

[Crusty Juggler]

Wake me when it is world whistleblower freedom day.

[Hamster of Doom]

Tomorrow's May the Fourth. It's not freedom, but I know you won't want to miss that.

[Juvenile Bluster]

"Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever?except for Donald Trump."

And yet it'll still be a miracle if Gary Johnson and Jill Stein combine for 2% of the vote, because the American people hate themselves apparently.

[Swiss Servator]

I would slightly change that .... from "apparently" to "self-evidently".

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I know I hate 'em.

But they're gonna get what they asked for, good and hard.

Either way.

[Soave the Last Dance for Me]

No, no, they hate everyone else.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

Death by Taser, in a padded cell, caught on camera

In March 2011, Brandon Bethea died in the Harnett County jail after being shot three times with a Taser by detention officer John Clark. A state medical examiner ruled Bethea's death a homicide, but no one has been punished. This edited version, derived from more than an hour of videos from two county surveillance cameras, shows Bethea, still in leg shackles, backing into the corner of a padded cell when Clark fired.

Later that day, Sheriff Larry Rollins assured reporters and the people of Harnett County that Bethea's death could not have been avoided. Clark had to deploy his Taser during an altercation with Bethea, Rollins said.

Within one minute, Bethea endured 13 seconds of electric shock. The first came as he backed away from guards. The next two came as he lay on his stomach, failing to heed the officers' commands to roll over, according to a state investigative report.

Bethea was virtually still as detention officers removed the Taser prongs and released the shackles from his ankles. They turned him on his back.

Then they left him.

It would be 20 minutes before Byrd summoned the nurse and another officer to join him in the cell to check on Bethea.

[Juvenile Bluster]

If you were a correctional officer who had a problem with an inmate, why wouldn't you kill the inmate? I mean, no matter what happens, you're not going to be punished, so there's no incentive not to do it. If you're a CO you already have no soul, so that doesn't come into play.

[SugarFree]

The video is a nut-punchy watch. They had him in the cell and had his cuffs off. All they had to do was close the door. Instead, Fat Albert backs him up by holding a Taser on him and then shocks him. All they wanted was to give him a little electrotorture and the scumbag prep had to go and die on them.

[bacon-magic]

scumbag prep

Is this a new type of college?

[SugarFree]

Patrick Bateman graduated from there.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"Arcadian Duran ? Prez at Self Employed and Loving It!
No, House cleaning, 10 years in prison would have cost millions for him, 350,000 is chub change plus they wouldnt see a dime of it. Most of it would goto weed, that man was trouble, I wish the police would kill most people for doing a crime with a gun or assualt, just shoot them right there, Judge Dredd style."

It's people like this that keep police incompetence alive and kicking.

[commodious spittoon]

Prez at Self Employed and Loving It!

In other words, unemployed.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Only one thing that the Judge Dredd universe has that we could benefit from: the Judges have no bias towards other Judges. A Judge who breaks the law gets a harsher sentence than a normal perp, and Judges don't let other Judges off the hook for crimes, they actually have to follow the Law like everyone else. That kind of mentality would be great to implement in the real world!!

The SJS, the Judge equivalent of Internal Affairs, even abducts Judges during scheduled random intervals, and tortures them for hours, demanding they "confess" just to make sure that the Judge did not commit a crime.

Mega City One is a hellhole police state, but at least the cops aren't above the law, which is more than we can say about our system.

[Lee G]

Mike Nifong got one day for fabrication of evidence.

The system protects its own.

[Bee Tagger]

The search for missing art stolen more than two decades ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

That Neal Caffrey is such a cad.

[DenverJ]

You know who else stole art?

[Doctor Whom]

The Romans?

[Rich]

ISIS?

[lap83]

Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole?

[Florida Hipster]

Incorrect. The statue was a fake.

[This Machine]

SPOILERS, MAN!

[Florida Hipster]

It's not a spoiler. You know the statue is fake from the beginning.

[This Machine]

Was that ever made explicit? I haven't read it in ages, so I could be wrong.

[Crusty Juggler]

The cast of Ocean's Twelve?

[Swiss Servator]

*sweats profusely*

I HAVE NO IDEAS. NONE.

[bacon-magic]

*squints at Swissy

[Tonio]

Every conquering army everywhere?

[BigT]

Robert Koldewey?

[IndyEleven]

The Flying/Fighting Hellfish?

[B.P.]

Carlos Mencia?

[Kings County Exile]

This is for Cytotoxic:

Google map of violent attacks by immigrants in Germany since the beginning of 2016:

https://goo.gl/nL1cXr

Sources are police reports; only those mentioning ethnicity outright are taken into account (so 'perp has black hair and black beard' doesn't get you on the map).
Regulars may appreciate the name of the undertaking. It is called Project Isolated Incident (Projekt Einzelfall).
Whee!

[Citizen X]

Cytotoxic hasn't been around much lately. I think he got grounded again.

[lap83]

He shows up ever so often to stump for Hillary

[Swiss Servator]

"Hillary - the Cytotoxic and Shriek backed savior!"

[Kings County Exile]

I have him blocked anyway. Just had the misfortune to encounter him on a mobile device the other day.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Quick, somebody start dating cytotoxic's mom, so we can once again hear his innocent wisdom.

[Drake]

So, basically a map of Germany.

[Kings County Exile]

Refugees welcome!

[Kings County Exile]

I should probably clarify that I do not have a problem with actual refugees. Talked to some recently in Athens and. man, your heart goes out to them.

What I do have a problem with is the dishonest conflation of refugees and immigrants and the pretension that all immigrants are the same. They are not.

[ant1sthenes]

The problem isn't the refugees, it's that the people they're seeking refuge from came too. It's like opening a shelter for battered women, but also letting their abusers seek shelter there too.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Project Isolated Incident (Projekt Einzelfall).

Sounds a lot better in ze mutter tongue!

[Kings County Exile]

It always does, bob, it always does.

*kicks pebble, wanders off in search of vodka*

[Anomalous]

You know who else was an immigrant in Germany?

[SugarFree]

Most public schools in Detroit are closed due a teachers' strike that's now entering its second day.

$16,000 per student is simply not enough.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I needed at least $16 100. At the minimum.

[Rich]

15$/student-classhour

[Zeb]

By my calculation that works out to $16,200 per student.

[Rich]

Ah, HA!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Students of a progressive mindset need at least $17 340 to get by phonics alone!

[Doctor Whom]

The right-thinking people used to say that funding equalization would solve the problems of big-city public schools. When [SPOILER] it didn't, [/SPOILER] they moved the goalpost clear to the other side of the field and said that some students are more expensive to educate than others. By the most amazing coincidence, students in politically powerful jurisdictions are the most expensive to educate of all.

[Rasilio]

I love the fact that people who say the problem with education is funding don't realize that when they say that they are basically calling the teachers incompetent.

The only more funding would improve education is by raising salaries such that you attracted a higher quality of teacher. Therefore if the problem is not enough money then the problem is incompetent teachers

[Rhywun]

Who knows what the teacher is seeing? Most of that $16K per pupil is probably going into admin and pensions and then the union gets to wet its beak too.

[Rasilio]

That is not the point.

They say the problem with education is lack of funding.

What could you do with more money that you aren't doing today that will actually improve education?

New buildings? New tech? New Textbooks? None of those are going to make a significant difference to educational outcomes. The only things that might help are hiring more teachers for smaller class sizes or paying teachers more to attract a higher quality of teacher.

Well the problem with the first one is that class sizes are roughly in line with historical norms.

I'm not blaming the situation on the teachers or claiming they are overpaid, I am pointing out that blaming the problems in the educational system on lack of money IS blaming it on the teachers.

[Rhywun]

Just speculating that maybe the teachers in these broken districts aren't as well-paid as we think, because so much of the funding is going to non-teaching things.

[AlmightyJB]

Kids might actually learn something while they're not stuck in brainwashing camp.

[Bee Tagger]

Voters in Indiana head to the polls today for that state's presidential primary.

Cruz supporters will have to dodge chairs being whipped at them by Bobby Knight.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

You've Gotta Love Millennials

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Ha. Well done.

I love that song.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Excited villagers thought they had been blessed by an 'angel from heaven' after doll washes up on a beach in Indonesia ? only to discover it was an inflatable SEX TOY
Doll was found by fisherman off the remote Banggai islands off Sulawesi
Came a day after solar eclipse ? a deeply spiritual event in the country
Doll given fresh clothes and a Muslim headscarf and taken on boat trips
Excitement sparked fears of social unrest prompting police to investigate

[Citizen X]

What you're saying is, you're on your way to Banggai to get your doll back?

[Heroic Mulatto]

SUKI IS A MUSLIM!

[Swiss Servator]

I thought suki was dead?!

[Citizen X]

Didn't you read the article? She's in Indonesia!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed, a true shahida enjoying her eternal reward in Jannah. A victim of the Bad Times.

[AlmightyJB]

It's my turn to honor the doll!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Make sure the last worshipper cleans it first.

[Rich]

"Hillary Clinton will be the most disliked nominee ever?except for Donald Trump."

How about if negative perception polls over 50% the candidate is disqualified?

Less, um, riggedly, add the "dislike" question to the official ballot.

[Citizen X]

I would love to see "None Of The Above" on the ballot, with the provision that if NOTA gets a majority of votes, the office sits empty.

Also, not voting if you're registered to do so counts as a vote for NOTA.

[Rich]

So much this.

[Zeb]

And if NOTA wins, all the candidates go to the woodchipper.

Or maybe give people on positive and one negative vote. Then people can vote for the candidate they really like and still vote against the one they hate.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

And then all was well, as no position was ever filled. Huzzah!!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

More testosterone makes men more honest

[DJF]

When they say "Yes I want sex" they really mean it

[AlmightyJB]

Honey Badger don't need to lie!

[Crusty Juggler]

In today's depressing news: 'He thought he could help': Concealed carry gun-wielder intervenes in domestic dispute and is shot dead

Warning: do not read the comments.

[Tonio]

Pro-Tip: NEVER intervene. That's why cops hate DV calls. That's why EMS personnel are told to not enter a scene until the cops have secured it.

[Monty Crisco]

But what are you a "pro" AT, Tonio?

[Monty Crisco]

All you need to know about the Washington Post is this line from the "article":

"As the number of states allowing people to carry guns has increased, reports of injuries and deaths have also risen."

JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY!!!

[Florida Hipster]

2007, the number of Americans holding concealed carry permits has nearly tripled, rising from 4.6 million to 12.8 million in 2015.

That damn NRA and handful of gun nuts keep us from passing common sense gun bans.

[Monty Crisco]

PET OWNERS DESERVE FAMILY LEAVE TOO!!!
http://nypost.com/2016/05/02/p.....leave-too/

Gotta be trolling, right?

[lap83]

One of the worst managers I ever had would take off when her cat was sick and leave the employees to cover her ass

[Rhywun]

If the vet is only open during the day what are they supposed to do? I have had to take time off for that. Or do you mean they would take days off at a time?

[lap83]

Not counting vet visits, she just wanted to be home with it

[Zeb]

The phenomenon of people acting like their pets are their kids makes me want to barf. It's a fucking cat. It will be there, quite content, when you get home from work. If it's a puppy it requires a lot more attention. But how about this: if you don't have time for a dog, don't get one.
I think pets are great, but they aren't children or people and they are a luxury in most cases.

[Monty Crisco]

"But how about this: if you don't have time for a dog, don't get one."

YOU. FUCKING. MONSTER.

[SFC B]

I've got three cats, they are wonderful animals and my wife and I very much enjoy having them in our house. They have a lifetime budget of $1500 (not including annual check-ups) for healthcare. Once that's exhausted the next treatment will be the last. I cannot fathom how people willingly sink thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into continuing the life of a creature that cannot understand the misery you're putting them through.

[Zeb]

I just can't fathom that either. If the cat needs expensive surgery, it's time for a new cat. I could maybe see spending that kind of money on a dog that is young and you paid a lot of money for and has a good chance of a long, healthy life. But part of pet ownership is that they are going to die. You should really come to terms with that before you get a pet.

[LynchPin1477]

We recently spent a lot of money on our cat. Most of it was diagnostic because we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, but she was mostly healthy and young, so we didn't want to just give up. In the end, we found a foreign body in her intestine, it was removed, and she is now fine. It was more than $1500 in bills.

We are emotionally attached, and cats and dogs aren't just rocks that sit there. They have personalities (animalalities?), they experience things that seem an awful lot like fear, contentment, suffering, happiness.

I wouldn't break the bank on an older cat with an obviously terminal illness, and for younger, otherwise healthy animals it's definitely a luxury. But it's a luxury I'm willing to indulge in because I get a lot of happiness myself from my pets. I do think some people lose perspective, but I understand why/how it happens.

[R C Dean]

Pretty much this. We're currently spending an indefensible amount on a dog. Don't care. He's a pack member, so I have obligations as the alpha.

[Enough About Palin]

^^THIS^^

[Zeb]

And I'm not going to call you an idiot for that. I understand the attachment and emotional connection. I think my wife may have used up a lot of my sympathy when she got a little carried away with the cat thing for a while.

People can do what they want. But I think they should understand that it is a luxury mostly for the benefit of the owner.

[LynchPin1477]

I'm not going to call you an idiot for that

Come on, give in. For once in your life, Zeb, be the voice of judgmental self-righteousness. All the cool kids are doing it...

[Soave the Last Dance for Me]

Unfortunately, the converse ain't true: judgmental self-righteousness itself doesn't make you cool. And I've tried so hard!

[Rhywun]

We recently spent a lot of money on our cat. Most of it was diagnostic because we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, ... It was more than $1500 in bills.

Went through almost exactly this with one of mine. She was only about 2 years old. And the vet had no clue what was wrong - just put her on a cocktail of eight different meds. She's been fine for the last 7 years now.

But yeah when the time comes, I won't sink a lot of money in at the end either.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

There's about 2 too many zeroes in that figure, but otherwise, spot on.

[Rasilio]

What's worse than that is the nutjobs who act like their kids pets are their grandkids

[SugarFree]

I love the look on that cat's face. "Bitch, Imma claw your eyes out."

[Citizen X]

"Go to work, dumbass, i don't need you to be hanging around while i'm barfing in your closet and licking my empty sack. Thanks for THAT, by the way."

[SugarFree]

"Where are my testicles, Summer?"

[This Machine]

"Snuffles was my slave name! You will now call me Snowball, because my fur is pretty, and white."

[Glide]

She links the "me-ternity" article so I honestly do think it's a troll on that article.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

ESPN fires Curt Schilling, then goes 1984 on him

Prior to Sunday night's Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN, the network replayed its "Four Days in October" documentary ? looking back at Boston's unprecedented comeback ? but omitted Schilling's performance and the entire Game 6.

ESPN: "When a live event runs long, it's standard procedure to shorten a taped program that follows," the statement said. "In this case, we needed to edit out one of the film's four segments to account for the extra length of the softball game."

[Restoras]

I can't watch Sunday Night Baseball anymore. Jessica Mendoza is a joke and Aaron Boone is boring. ESPN sucks.

[Ship of Theseus]

You hate womyn!

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

I love that Mendoza is supposedly a capable analyst because she played softball, despite the fact that softball and Major League Baseball are two completely different games.

They share some rules in common, but the way you play is not the same. Pitching, for example, is completely different and as a result how you hit is different. That's why female softball players actually have a lot of success striking out MLB players - the MLB players have never seen a ball move that way so they don't know how to hit it at first.

Why would being a great softball player make you an effective baseball analyst?

[WTF]

The old Merve Griffin show had an episode once with Johnny Bench on, and also a female softball pitcher. And of course they had an indoor mound set up with a batting cage so she could pitch against Bench. The first pitch Bench missed, because he wasn't used to seeing it from that angle with that movement. The second one he fouled back. By the third one he crushed it right back through the box and almost hit the woman pitcher. At this point he walks out of the box and Merve is like, "don't you want to go some more?" and Bench was like, "no that's probably not a good idea". It was obvious he didn't want the woman to get hurt, because at that point he knew he had seen enough to hit it at will.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

A softball pitcher did allegedly strike out Babe Ruth though.

[BigT]

That was Eddie Feigner of "The King and His Court" fame.

Feigner's meticulous records claim 9,743 victories, 141,517 strikeouts, 930 no-hitters and 238 perfect games. The Washington Post described him as "the greatest softball pitcher who ever lived."

On February 18, 1967, Feigner appeared in a celebrity charity softball game against many Major League players. In the game Feigner struck out Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Maury Wills, and Harmon Killebrew all in a row

One advantage the softball pitcher has is that the mound is closer than 60'6".

[Idle Hands]

Curt Schilling was always entertaining in the booth for me.

[Restoras]

And John Kruk. Those telecasts were great. Now they just suck ass. Listening to Mendoza talk about hitting and pitching is just stupid - and she doesn't have any hilarious anecdotes about her playing career to throw in with it. It's insufferable.

[Drake]

Saw this yesterday and removed ESPN from my favorite channels. Enough already. If I wanted liberal nonsense, I would watch MSNBC.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I did that last year when they fired Cowherd (even though he was leaving). Still, they're jumping the shark with this crap.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I bet.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Missouri State Students Warned: Police Only Exist To Protect White Male Privilege
A poster campaign at Missouri State University sought to privilege-shame students for being straight, white, male, Christian or able-bodied (among other characteristics) and informed students that the police only exist to protect white men.

The posters were sponsored by the university's student government and Residence Hall Association (RHA) and reportedly went up inside a dorm Saturday morning before being removed on Sunday night in the face of backlash from students on Twitter. The Daily Caller obtained pictures of six of the posters from an MSU student before they were taken down....

[WTF]

The police don't exist to protect anybody, dumbasses; the courts have even ruled that the police have no legal obligation to protect anyone. The police exist to respond to crimes that have already been committed, and to generally act as government enforcers. Morons.

[DJF]

Hey, hey, they do more then that, they put up that yellow crime scene tape and then stand around and drink coffee and gossip

[Monty Crisco]

See DC vs Warren for the horrific example that led to that SCOTUS decision. And Castle Rock Vs Gonzalez for the equally horrific circumstances that led to the follow-up.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

My favorite is "If you can expect time off from work to celebrate your religious holidays, you have Christian privilege."

Oh shit, I guess I have Christian privilege. Comes as quite a surprise considering that I'm not Christian...

[WTF]

My wife is Christian, and works in a hospital, and rarely gets holidays off.

[bacon-magic]

I almost just went past this article because you are always posting bullshit. Quality not quantity Johnny.

[Rhywun]

Wow... they really want to tamp down those enrollment figures, don't they.

[Thymirus]

http://www.examiner.com/articl.....o-far-2016

More than 25K new CPLs added in Washington state so far in 2016

Washington state has added more than 25,000 new concealed pistol licenses during the first four months of this year, according to new data this morning from the state Department of Licensing (DOL), and a story in yesterday's Kitsap Sun, said a growing number of those armed citizens are women.

The DOL advised Examiner this morning that there are now 534,978 active CPL's in the state, although the Kitsap story put the number even higher, at 535,596. Either way, it amounts to a significant number of new armed citizens in a state traditionally thought of as "blue" politically, primarily because of the voting trends of those people in Seattle and along the I-5 corridor from Vancouver on the south to Bellingham on the north.

It amounts to more than 6,300 new CPLs per month so far this year, and if the trend continues, as noted today by The Gun Mag, a publication owned by the Second Amendment Foundation, there could be as many as 75,000 new licenses by the end of the year. It should be noted, however, thaqt these numbers can fluctuate. Last year, the number of CPLs jumped more than 31,000 for the entire year.

[Thymirus]

I wonder how this affects the progressive narrative.

NYT: "KKK gains 25,000 members in Washington, black transsexuals hardest hit."

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Across The Country, Universities Look To Mainstream Polyamory
...Just this March, Portland State University hosted an event on polyamory as part of "Sex Week," sponsored by the university's Queer Resource Center. Students were invited to attend a discussion titled "Exploring Non-Monogamy." The event was hosted in partnership with PSU's "Polyamory Alliance," a pro-polyamory student group.

According to the group's description, the Polyamory Alliance "advocates, educates, and provides support and community to those who are polyamorous or those who identify as monogamous but would like to show support to the polyamorous person in their life." ...

[Tonio]

Brigham Young University is a leader in this, right?

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Zeb]

I would imagine that actually polyamorous people are some of the people least needing support that you will meet. You'd have to be quite confident and comfortable with yourself to make that work.

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

Can confirm. It's one of the few areas of my life where I am confident.

- token poly Reasonoid

[Heroic Mulatto]

- token poly Reasonoid

What's Agile Cyborg? Chopped liver?

[Swiss Servator]

Mmmm...more like dried mushrooms, amirite?

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

I prefer interacting with humans, fwiw

[commodious spittoon]

A polyamorous libertarian? So you have multiple body pillows?

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

Yeah, doesn't everybody?

[Rasilio]

You're not the only one

[Azathoth!!]

token poly Reasonoid

nah, I suspect there are quite a few.

hoping they don't screw us like they screwed up with that bullshit SSM

[EMD]

Et tu, rape culture?

[Rich]

Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

This is incredible bullshit. And just wait 'til the "agents" get armed.

[Thymirus]

I'd love for a state as powerful and wealthy as, say, Texas to openly and completely expel all federal agents, including the TSA's personnel, from Texan soil.

[Rich]

It's just a matter of time.

[Tonio]

But not the military.

[Thymirus]

I assumed that was self-evident.

[Swiss Servator]

Don't get the Texas National Guard started on that.... "No worries, man....we can take Mexico AND Oklahoma on, both at the same time!"

[Restoras]

Isn't there a maxim about NOT fighting a two-front war?

[Citizen X]

I don't know, i only read it for the pictures.

[Restoras]

Didn't read the article but when I head to the airport I budget 90 minutes for the drive and parking, 15 minutes to get to the terminal (LGA) or 30 minutes (JFK), then an hour to check in and get through security - and you have to target 30 minutes prior to departure as your hard stop.

I'm going to Pittsburgh in June for the US Open - and I'm going to drive. It will be easier and more comfortable, cheaper, the food will be better, and I can buy some fireworks on the way.

[Thymirus]

+1. Europeans always gasp in disbelief when I say I'll be driving hours and hours somewhere, because it's such a catastrophically massive distance to them.

Me and my fiancee drove for ten hours to see some friends. Every acquaintance we told about it told us we should have flown. They don't seem to get that I enjoy driving immensely in itself, and don't mind long journeys anyway.

[Heroic Mulatto]

They don't seem to get that I enjoy driving immensely in itself, and don't mind long journeys anyway.

*Shakes head in bemusement with a wry smile*

"[in old-school Maine-Yankee accent] Takes all kinds. It takes all kinds."

[Rasilio]

Anything under 10 hours drive and it just isn't worth flying, it literally won't save you more than a few minutes and could easily take longer

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

8 hours is my personal cut-off, but only because I 'm getting older and more than that in the driver's seat causes cramping.

[Slocum]

Nah. Europeans drive all over the continent. We're oddball Americans who always grab a rental and wander around Europe by car when we go. We found that little country inns in Italy, for example, were full of northern Europeans who'd driven there from home (Frankfort to Florence is ~ 9 1/2 hrs). Spend some time on the autoroutes and you'll quickly give up the idea that Euros mostly travel by mass transit.

[Rich]

But, but ? then your risk of dying is much greater!

[Crusty Juggler]

I'm going to Pittsburgh in June for the US Open - and I'm going to drive. It will be easier and more comfortable, cheaper, the food will be better, and I can buy some fireworks on the way.

But you will be driving through Central Pennsylvania. *shudders*

[WTF]

Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.

[LynchPin1477]

North of the Turnpike this is mostly correct.

[spqr2008]

Hey now, at least Alabamans tend to be nice people......

[LynchPin1477]

Hey, I'm a fucking nice person and you'd best not forget it!

[Restoras]

Is that bad?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

He said ' Philadelphia and Pittsburgh', so YES.

[Citizen X]

Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.

With the caveat that the second person plural is "y'inz" instead of "y'all," and there are unnecessary Rs added to certain words (e.g. "warsh").

[EMD]

Fuck off, provincialist

[Night Elf Mohawk]

As long as y'all don't do something to mess up the Pre-Check line, that's fine.

[LynchPin1477]

I've thought of doing that. I don't want to be fingerprinted.

[Drake]

After Brussels, I would have thought minimizing those lines would be a priority. Those big crowds are spectacular soft targets - completely outside of security and everyone has at least one bag.

[Restoras]

Typical of government response - Brussels will serve to make the lines longer.

[WTF]

The government solution to a problem is almost always worse than the problem.
- Ronald Reagan

[Longtorso, Johnny]

ACADEMIC ABSURDITY OF THE WEEK: HOBOSEXUALITY?
...The following article introduces the hobosexual as a concept in queer materialism. Mapped at the intersection of not-for-profit hobo sex and labor practices historically, the hobosexual collapses the apparent impasse between the material and the symbolic so prevalent in queer studies. The concept represents the redeployment of queer as anti-capitalist practice; highlighted are the non-normative hobo practices of nonproductive expenditure, but also the recognition that these abnormalities are organized by capitalist systems of normalization designed to engender profit. The article also considers the degree to which industrial capitalism affected both hobo mobility and hobo anti-capitalist practice in the 19th century. Generated out of hobo history and queer as anti-capitalist practice, the hobosexual represents resistance to capitalist systems of normalization and enables connections, not necessarily between identities, but between anti-capitalist practices generated out of difference....

[Citizen X]

Ok, "not-for-profit hobo sex" is probably the best phrase i have ever read.

Also, Hobosexual would be an awesome name for a band.

[SugarFree]

Shit like this makes it hard for me to continue my work.

[Citizen X]

That and wildly fluctuating blood sugar levels, huh? My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[Swiss Servator]

How about coughing up a little insulin with those thoughts, eh?!

[Swiss Servator]

Hoax...plz let it be a hoax....

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

She's a real women's studies professor who's been writing about hobosexuality for several years.

Schulman's Urban Lesbian: A HoboSexual Pedestrian Rhetoric

The following article reads the protagonist in Sarah Schulman's Girls, Visions and Everything as not only lesbian, but as hobosexual?a concept representative of anti-capitalist practices in both sex and labor. The hobosexual is developed as an extension of the lesbian fl?neur, as a concept that requires reading Schulman's urban lesbian at the intersection of class and sexuality. Lila Futuransky's sexual identity is suspended and complicated through an emphasis on her desire for queer mobility; her urban movements connect her to hobo history, but also expose the effects of capitalism that thwart her urban movement.

[LynchPin1477]

I'm not reading that, but from what I can gather a hobosexual is just a homeless person that has sex. How that is some grand representation of anti-capitalist sentiment is beyond me. But I guess that's why this professor is smart and I am dumb.

[LynchPin1477]

Let me also just say that shit like this makes me reluctant to stay in academia. This stuff can't go on indefinitely, especially with the impending student loan crisis, and when shit starts to crumble I'm not confident that a distinction will be made between hobosexual studies and more rigorous fields.

[Citizen X]

a hobosexual is just a homeless person that has sex

"Bunch a' Ds goin' in and out of As..."

[Rhywun]

Well... just spit-balling here - but an anti-capitalist stance does tend to lead to homelessness if you're doing it right.

[CatoTheChipper]

This professor has to be pretty smart to pull off the scam where she gets paid to write this drivel.

Seriously. That takes talent ... or some really good connections. Probably connections.

[Tonio]

Actual proper hobos depended on the railway for transport and sometimes housing (sleeping in boxcars whether moving or not). Their camps were often on or near RR property. Without the RR there would have been no hobo culture as we know it; they would have been just like any other unemployed, homeless folks.

[Lee G]

Traaaaiiiiiiiins

[Tonio]

Correction: Apparently hobos prided themselves on their willingness to work.

[SugarFree]

For someone who supposedly isn't a hobosexual, you seem oddly defensive.

[Tonio]

STFU, pancreas boy!

[Swiss Servator]

Correct - hobo = itinerant laborer, bum = lay about.

[Rhywun]

Yes, when I was little I read some books about "codes" and apparently hobos have a code too - among other things, to inform each other about the friendliness/usefulness of potential employers.

[Lee G]

Shark jumped

[Monty Crisco]

Pretty sure that was a "Portlandia" sketch. Along with "homo-textual"....

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

Aren't these all generated by an AI at this point?

[Zeb]

You mean H&R comments?

[Citizen X]

Tulpa is an AI?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Well, an A, anyway.

[jarflax]

I'm going with AS. Stupidity this extreme must be man made.

[Old Man With Candy]

Dude knows where it's at, man.

[Crusty Juggler]

Resettling the First American 'Climate Refugees'

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and drainage systems.

One of those grants, $48 million for Isle de Jean Charles, is something new: the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the impacts of climate change. The divisions the effort has exposed and the logistical and moral dilemmas it has presented point up in microcosm the massive problems the world could face in the coming decades as it confronts a new category of displaced people who have become known as climate refugees.

Which one of you is going to clear out the guest room for Suthenboy?

[Heroic Mulatto]

NO REFUGEES!

[Swiss Servator]

WALLIST!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Some Cajuns, I assume, are good people.

[Swiss Servator]

*polite applause*

[Citizen X]

AH GARUUUNTEE

[Florida Hipster]

You assume wrong.

[Old Man With Candy]

A Saturday at Fred's Cafe will prove that point.

[Citizen X]

Not me, man. He'll insist on using my front porch for jug band practice, and i do not need any more trouble with the neighbors.

[lap83]

So people will be moving back to California from Texas?

[Zeb]

Because I'm sure no low lying barrier island communities have ever had to move before because of erosion and changing water levels. That's a completely new thing.

[Drake]

I must be mis-remembering my visit to Cape May decades ago and seeing the remnants of a sunken fort the sea took back.

[Zeb]

Nope. Impossible. Before the last 20 years, nothing ever changed in climate or geography.

[spqr2008]

The beauty of the left is that they can believe that ice ages have happened, and that Pangea was once a thing, and that the Hawaiian islands grew up out of the sea, but only climate change can be responsible for any necessary migration away from eroding areas. Yes, because Krakatoa is still a magnificent mountainous island.

[Citizen X]

Biological Darwinism and economic creationism, coexisting in one febrile mind. It's a fucking miracle of psychopathology.

[Enough About Palin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izK2X4ks1y4

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

Transgender University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student alleges trans discrimination in locker room

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student says she's been discriminated against by her school.

The transgender student said it happened at the school's fitness center, when she tried to use the women's locker room.

Justine Kramer identifies as a woman, but was born a man.

Kramer still went by Justin when she filed a complaint against the Klotsche Center. Since then, Kramer has legally changed her name, and soon her drivers license will reflect her female gender identity.

"A lot of people view me as a threat to their safety when I'm not," explained Kramer.

That's how Kramer said she felt she was viewed in the sauna at the Klotsche Center in January.

"She asked me 'Are you supposed to be in here?' I said yes. She said 'Are you sure?' I said yes, because I was well aware this was a women's locker room," explained Kramer.

"At this point I don't look very female," said Kramer. She said she often hears comments about not looking female.

But it's something she's working to change, as she works with a physician to get started on hormone therapy. In the meantime, she's working to change the policies at her school.

[Thymirus]

You're a man identifying as a woman. Your psychological determination to be female doesn't alter your sex genetically, and it doesn't mitigate the discomfort you cause the women you encounter in private places like locker rooms, Justin(e).

If I'm a gal who's just gotten naked to change out of my sports gear, and I've got my vagina, ass, and breasts out in full view as several other women are changing around me also, having a person who's obviously genetically and (still) physically male waltz around doing whatever is going to make me feel pretty uncomfortable, to say the least.

There's really no reason to be such a self-righteous cunt about this. Alright, you want to be a woman, great. Good luck to you. But try to understand the people you're accusing of discriminatory practices beforehand.

[Restoras]

There's really no reason to be such a self-righteous cunt prick about this.

More accurate?

[Swiss Servator]

*slow clap*

[Thymirus]

Prunt?

[Restoras]

Let's adopt that widely and force Websters to recognize it as a word.

[Rich]

Excellent.

[Demoted Comment (Slammer)]

7 years of Obama and we can't figure out which bathroom to use? smh

Say what you will about Boooshh at least we all knew which shitter to use.

[lap83]

'Are you supposed to be in here?'

Like a few people have mentioned, this is supposedly the civil rights movement all over again. But this is the best abuse they can come up with? By my count we've had two hoaxes and a question.

[Thymirus]

I walked into a women's changing room at a pool once when I was about 12, purely because I was busy talking shit at my cousin, who'd walked with me to the entrance and was going elsewhere afterwards, and I didn't even think about which door I was taking once I'd passed the big overhead sign reading 'SWIMMING POOL'. There was a lady walking around topless who saw me as I walked in and realized my mistake, so she told me to piss off and threw one of her flip-flop at me pretty effectively. It took a good few moments, so I got a good look, and she had a very nice pair.

Apparently, I should have sued the shit out of somebody, or started a civil rights campaign about something or other for personal gain, because if Justin(e) up there gets to play victim for being asked some questions about his obvious birth sex, I'd bet I could have gotten a hell of a payday.

WE'RE ALL WOMEN NOW!

[commodious spittoon]

JE SUIS... uh, French word for women.

[Old Man With Candy]

I hope you have pix.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I'm sure that one went into the slide show.

[WTF]

"I can't believe they objected to my girl-penis! Which is totally different from a boy-penis!"

[SugarFree]

"At this point I don't look very female," said Kramer.

Now, why would you say that? It is because you have a penis, testicles, haven't started hormone therapy and are dressed like a guy with a haircut most lesbians would find too butch?

[Crusty Juggler]

These stories are so fucking stupid.

[Drake]

Why the fuck is s/he using a locker room? Not on a sports team? Not far from home. I never used a locker room when working out in college.

Just an excuse to bug people and play a victim card.

[Citizen X]

A new twist on an old classic.

[R C Dean]

Why the fuck is s/he using a locker room?

To punish xer enemies, of course.

[BigT]

My one concern about having open bathrooms is that it will encourage male predators to pretend to be 'female-identifying' to get access to unchaperoned girls in the loo. As it is now, these guys will be chased out by any women in there, but if they are 'welcome' then they can simply wait until the adults leave.

Paranoia - sometimes they really are watching you.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

""She asked me 'Are you supposed to be in here?' I said yes. She said 'Are you sure?' I said yes, because I was well aware this was a women's locker room," explained Kramer.

"At this point I don't look very female," said Kramer."

You look like a man and people thought you were a man hanging out in a women's locker room. That's not discrimination.

[Free Society]

Well it's discrimination but not all discrimination is necessarily bad.

[Citizen X]

not all discrimination is necessarily bad

You're preaching to the choir, by which i mean Ol' Racist Irish.

[EMD]

The university is transgender?

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Target stock plummets as "transgender" bathroom boycott swells to over one million

[Restoras]

Meh. What did other retail stocks do that day?

[Swiss Servator]

"That's a drop of 5.8 percent in 10 days."

The rest of my stocks seem to be doing much better than that over that (small) time frame. Nuts.

[Restoras]

Are they all retail stocks?

[Swiss Servator]

Gawd no! I try to stay diversified. That, or just do the opposite of what Shriek says.

[Swiss Servator]

Dammit. I own some Target stock.

[Tonio]

I suspect this will be temporary.

[Zeb]

So are you saying this is the time to buy Target stock?

[Citizen X]

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[Swiss Servator]

WHY DO I STILL LAUGH AT THIS???

Wait, maybe because I am a moron!?

[Crusty Juggler]

Wait until you laugh when you are around normal people and you hear that phrase.

[Citizen X]

I have to consciously remind myself not to use that phrase incessantly in conversations with family, coworkers, etc. The struggle is real.

[Restoras]

WMT was down the same day and AMZN has been up - after AMZN reported earnings. Not sure it has anything to do with the boycott

[Longtorso, Johnny]

I mail Amazon my urine from the privacy of my own bathroom. No issues that way.

[AlmightyJB]

You should sell. Not because of this but because of issues with cyber security, billing, and shipping. Target is not run well.

[Juvenile Bluster]

A stock that goes from $84 to $80 over a few days is not "plummeting".

[Juvenile Bluster]

Also:

TGT-US's change in share price of 0.80% for the last 12 months as well as its more recent 30-day share price performance of -4.18% are both in line with their respective peer medians. Thus, the company's share performance over the last month and the last year has been firmly in the middle of the pack.

[Restoras]

Hot Air can be an insufferable bastion of stupidity and knee jerk reactionaries.

[Swiss Servator]

The comments section is...pungent.

[BigT]

They've been...

[dons sun spectacles]

....Targeted!

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

This is the dumbest culture war shit out of all the dumb culture war shit I've seen.

[Pat (PM)]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein opposes legalizing Internet poker in California

Just as a bill to legalize internet poker in California appears to be moving forward, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein says she opposes the measure because she fears it would hurt California's youth.

The proposal, which was approved last week by the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, would allow Native American tribes and card clubs to partner on state-sanctioned Internet sites in exchange for California getting a cut of the take.

Feinstein, in a letter to state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Le?n and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, said Internet gambling sites in other parts of the world have been involved in money laundering and other crimes.

"I urge you to consider the potential widespread harmful implications of online gambling, particularly for young people in California," the Democratic lawmaker wrote. "It is my strong belief that the bill should not be enacted and that Internet poker should be prohibited in California, beacause of its potential harmful effects."

[Domestic Dissident]

I can't stand these right wing Christian rednecks like Dianne Feinstein.

[spqr2008]

They're just the lefty Puritans... which is actually what the Puritans were in a way. There's a reason Rhode Island exists, and it's because the Puritans couldn't accept any differing points of doctrine, much like the left.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

My cure for the Venezuelan beer crisis

[Hamster of Doom]

I endorse this message.

*adjusts feed store ballcap*

*spits*

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Jerry Reed, RIP.

[Crusty Juggler]

10-4.

[EMD]

Good Buddy.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Jerry Reed, RIP.

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Just making sure he's still dead.

[Raven Nation]

Want more Modern Monetary Theory? Of course you do (from 2012).

Myth: the government is running out of money.

MMT Answer: The Government cannot voluntarily run out of money...The US government has the Constitutional Authority to create an unlimited amount of money...Having said that, [even with political] constraints that are now in place...the Executive can still ensure that the government doesn't run out of money...by using the option of the Proof Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PPCS)...

For getting around the debt ceiling, coins with face-values up to $5 Trillion will certainly remove the need to issue further debt subject to the limit and break the debt ceiling. However, minting a platinum coin with a face value of say, $60 Trillion is also a political game-changer, because it results in filling the Treasury General Account with enough in credits to make it obvious...the Government has the capacity to pay all the debt subject ti the limit...

[Lee G]

It's a coin! That makes it totally legit!

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

They should make one gigantic $19 trillion coin. Slam it on a counter and demand some whiskey right before the debt is paid off pay off.

[Lee G]

Why stop there? Mint a $100 quadrillion coin!

*holds pinky to corner of mouth*

[Lee G]

I thought I was joking but from the comments:

Thanks Robert, one blogger friend of ours at DailyKos, Seneca Doane, has suggested a $1 Quadrillion coin to fill the public purse. I didn't do that because eventually, I want Congress to take the next step and just re-organize the Fed under Treasury, making the whole coin trick obsolete. A $60 T coin gives us 15 ? 20 years or so to change politics to accomplish that, but a 1 Q coin might remove all incentive to make this change.

How can we attract the attention of people to support the coin? Well, first, I just want to get it widely recognized that it is an option and that the President can do it. And, I think that if I and others keep blogging about it, and we have another debt ceiling crisis, then this option will come to the fore.

[Raven Nation]

Unrelated: apparently the city of Leicester is going nuts today.

[Swiss Servator]

Successful cheese harvest?

[Certified Public Asshat]

Happy for Leicester, sad I chose the Spurs a long time ago.

[Old Man With Candy]

Bright city woman?

[Restoras]

I just can't fathom the stupidity.

[Monty Crisco]

Only a child or a tenured college professor (or a journalist) could believe something that stupid. Which is why Paulie Krugnuts backs the plan.

I can just hear a 5 year old saying "And then, if you got that coin, YOU' D BE RICH!!!!!"

[Swiss Servator]

"Got change for a $50,000,000,000,000?"

[Lee G]

It's the economic equivalent of "This one goes to eleven"

[BigT]

A few years ago I was talking to my wife about not having the money to buy a new car one day. From the back seat my 7-yr old daughter said: "Dad, just go to the cash machine and get it."

[Swiss Servator]

And now she is an adviser to Obama, yes?

[BigT]

Thieving lawyer. But I repeat myself.

[WTF]

Sooo...if Somalia mints a $100 trillion coin, they will be the richest nation on earth! BRILLIANT!!

[commodious spittoon]

Someone explain to me how this is substantially different from Zimbabwean hyperinflation, other than minting coins rather than printing bills.

[jarflax]

Well the US used to be rich and productive... oh wait so did... damned if I know.

[WTF]

It's not different, really.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Math is fun!! So currently the total sum of US currency in the world is $1.45 Trillion, according to sources I can find.

So we inject another $60 Trillion into that as per this idiot's coin trick suggestion.

And due to inflation, every single person in the country has just lost 97.64% of all money that they had previously held.

HUZZAH MASS THEFT!!

[CatoTheChipper]

Congress has the authority "to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and foreign Coin, and fix Standard Weights and Measures."

Sure, Congress can mint a $5 trillion coin, and demonstrate that it has infinite power of seigniorage. Just like Zimbabwe printed $1 trillion notes.

Problem is that such an act demonstrates for all to see the true value of the state's fiat currency.

[Rich]

President Obama isn't taking exception to comedian Larry Wilmore's use of the N-word during his speech at the White House Correspondents' dinner.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said he had talked to Obama about Wilmore's use of the word and said the president told him "he appreciated the spirit of Mr. Wilmore's expression Saturday night."

"You lie!"

[Raven Nation]

More (also from 2012):

the REAL solution to the REAL fiscal responsibility problem is for our leaders in Congress and the Executive Branch, to remove fiscal constraints and use the fiscal powers of the Federal Government to find solutions to the many national problems we face, starting with creating full employment, and a real universal health care system in which no one is shut out...and then all the other serious problems we face.

Other solutions/declarations include: Japan's economic problems are caused by austerity; running national surpluses leads to economic depressions; side-step the debt ceiling by issuing T-bonds with no maturity date; the Washington elites (in 2012) were all preaching austerity; economics departments in colleges across the US support the gold standard.

http://neweconomicperspectives.....rsons.html

[Lee G]

We can't keep adding debt to the national credit card.

MMT answer: We can if we want to. There's no limit on the credit card except the one imposed arbitrarily by Congress.

Or the one imposed by bond buyers.

[Monty Crisco]

Jesus, that is so economically illiterate that I'm afraid I'll get cancer if I click on the link...

[Lee G]

It gets better

Claim: If we continue to issue more debt, then our main creditors may refuse to buy it, an event that would lead us to insolvency and severe austerity

MMT answer: They'll most probably buy it for the foreseeable future; but if they don't we won't be forced into solvency because we can always create the money we need to meet our obligations

[Monty Crisco]

IT'S A CIRCLE!!!! YAY!!

[Night Elf Mohawk]

What's the next prefix for inflation after "hyper"?

[Juvenile Bluster]

No no, printing money doesn't cause inflation, according to them. I'm not quite sure how that works, and they don't explain it, but...

[Night Elf Mohawk]

There is probably a good reason why they don't try to explain why an increase in the money supply -- let alone a gargantuan one -- wouldn't lead to inflation.

[Swiss Servator]

"above measure"?

[John]

We can create full employment. The sad fact is we could. In other times and places it was known as national enslavement. Say what you want about slavery, but at least you have a job.

[Monty Crisco]

"Now, take my case. They hung me up here five years ago. Every night, they take me down for twenty minutes, then they hang me up again, which I regard as very fair, in view of what I done, and, if nothing else, it's taught me to respect the Romans, and it's taught me... that you'll never get anywhere in this life, unless you're prepared to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay! "

[Rich]

A 19-year-old Felton woman was arrested after Milford police say she called a man's cell phone more than 300 times in one day.

Furber then called him at work, harassing him at work until he finally hung up, according to court documents. At one point, the man told police that Furber said "If you can't be with me, you can't be with your kids," according to court documents. He also reported that Furber tried to run him off the road and threatened to bust his car windows.

NSIIC

[Crusty Juggler]

Note to self: become Kourtney Furber's pen pal.

[Swiss Servator]

DANGER! DANGER!

*swings arms in Robby the Robot style*

[Free Society]

Robby the Social Justice Robot?

[R C Dean]

No, that would be downtwinkles.

[Mr Lizard]

The coitus had got to be good with that one...maybe not worth it but definitely good

[BigT]

FISC never saw a request they didn't like.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The secretive U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court did not deny a single government request in 2015 for electronic surveillance orders granted for foreign intelligence purposes, continuing a longstanding trend, a Justice Department document showed.

The court received 1,457 requests last year on behalf of the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for authority to intercept communications, including email and phone calls, according to a Justice Department memo sent to leaders of relevant congressional committees on Friday and seen by Reuters. The court did not reject any of the applications in whole or in part, the memo showed.

The total represented a slight uptick from 2014, when the court received 1,379 applications and rejected none.

[BigT]

Hurricanes fight global warming!

Hurricanes key to carbon uptake by forests: Increases in carbon uptake by southeast US forests in response to tropical cyclone activity alone exceed carbon emissions by American vehicles each year

While hurricanes are a constant source of worry for residents of the southeastern United States, new research suggests that they have a major upside -- counteracting global warming.

Previous research from Duke environmental engineer Ana Barros demonstrated that the regular landfall of tropical cyclones is vital to the region's water supply and can help mitigate droughts.

Now, a new study from Barros reveals that the increase in forest photosynthesis and growth made possible by tropical cyclones in the southeastern United States captures hundreds of times more carbon than is released by all vehicles in the U.S. in a given year.

The study was published online on April 20, 2016, in the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Biogeosciences.

[Rich]

Gotta take the good with the bad.

[SugarFree]

You take them both and there you have the facts of life.

[SugarFree]

The facts of life.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Facts of Life FanFiction Archive | FanFiction

[Crusty Juggler]

Oh you.

[Restoras]

DAMMIT!!!

[Florida Hipster]

Charles in Charge!
*jump freeze*

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Do you want Charles in charge of your days, and your nights?

[Florida Hipster]

Yes...is this one of those euphuisms I've been hearing about?

[EMD]

No, just my wrongs and my rights.

[bacon-magic]

You'd do Trudy and Natalie in a 4-some with Warty.

[John]

You would almost think the earth had built in feedback mechanisms that keep its climate inhabitable or something. That is of course crazy talk. Its not like there has only been life on the planet for a billion years or anything.

[BigT]

Water appears to be the means of buffering the climate. When it is cold there is little water vapor in the air and it acts to warm the planet by absorbing infrared. But when it gets warm and the water vapor pressure is higher clouds form and act to block the sun, increasing Earth's albedo and cooling the planet.

Venus has less than 0.1% water in its atmosphere and is pretty damned hot. It likely had water when it formed and lost the water by photochemical decomposition to H2 and O2 due to the higher solar irradiance on Venus than on Earth. With slightly lower gravity than Earth as well, the H2 was lost into space more rapidly, leaving behind a very oxidizing atmosphere - CO2, SO3, NO2, etc.

[John]

The earth's surface has a ton of water, which necessarily means it has a high specific heat. The entirety of climate science is just the quest for some mechanism to overcome that fact.

[BigT]

Most planets are thought to have condensed from the same mixture of stuff. So they all had plenty of water at one time. But some lost their water - Mercury, Venus, Mars, moon - for various reasons. It's a combination of Earth's size and distance from the sun - the so-called "Goldilocks zone" (not too hot, not too cold) that makes it habitable.

If Earth's water were merely a heat sink it would be inexorably heating up over time, which is not what is observed. It's unique behavior as both warming and cooling material is what provides the thermal buffering.

[John]

Its an amazing system. The bottom line is that if it were so easy to knock the earth's climate out of whack that increasing the C02 in it by even an order of magnitude would have the kind of effects the AGW people are claiming, it is highly doubtful the earth would have remained inhabitable for as long as it has.

[Thymirus]

Gas tax, gun, murder and beer bills advance in the statehouse

http://www.news-leader.com/sto...../83651710/

JEFFERSON CITY ? While the defeat of the controversial SJR 39 stole much of the attention at Capitol last week, several other important measures made significant headway in the General Assembly, including a proposal to allow Missourians to carry concealed guns without a permit.

The House passed the concealed carry bill and sent it to the Senate. The Senate, meanwhile, passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, that would reform the state's criminal penalties for juveniles convicted of first-degree murder.

[Thymirus]

Constitutional carry expanding yet again. Awesome. Shit your pants, hoplophobes.

[bacon-magic]

The dickhead Governor will veto it. May he be figuratively woodchipped.

[John]

Guns, taxes and murder. Is that something like Mexicans, pot and ass sex?

[Thymirus]

Guns, beer, and murder -- what all gun owners are about! /Progressive fucktard.

Grab your .45, John, and a case of Heineken -- we're going out to shoot some disadvantaged ethnic-minority teenagers.

[John]

And just think, in most of the flyover states you don't even need a license for that.

[Lee G]

The USA only has one fiscal problem: Lack of political will to tax those who have all the money.

It isn't that they lack the will.

They have the will not to tax themselves or their sugar daddies so some poor kid can get a free lunch at school. That's the kind of people they are.

[John]

We have the most progressive tax system in the developed world and the feds collect more taxes today than at any time in history. Clearly our problem is we just don't tax enough.

[sarcasmic]

Everyone knows that the rich don't pay their fair share. After all, they're rich. If they had paid their fair share they wouldn't be rich.

[sarcasmic]

Yep. Damn greedy people who want to keep what belongs to them. Fucking evil. At least there are good altruists in this world who aren't afraid to point a government gun at those greed-heads' heads and threaten to kill them if they don't hand over some of their ill-gotten loot. After all, not giving is taking. So every dollar that those evil rich keep for themselves is actually stolen from a poor person who has nothing to steal.

[Thymirus]

Give me your stuff and shut up, bitch. You ought to appreciate all the good your money will do in the hands of our great leaders.

/BERN!

[Thymirus]

Communists are a particularly despicable sort of animalistic filth. May the Democratic Underground's proponents burn in Hell.

[Zeb]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure poor kids do get free lunch at school.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Free breakfast too. Even over the summer.

[commodious spittoon]

And no doubt with higher overhead and inferior quality than any charity would stomach.

A couple I know put their first son in a bilingual-focused charter school. The school, despite being funded by the state, somehow manages to contract out its lunch service to a super granola-y all-organic small business. I've tried it at a farmer's market, and it's pretty goddamn good. Certainly not ham and American cheese on white bread.

[Florida Hipster]

If the solution is just stealing other people's stuff, why don't they advocate total world war and let the US army steal everything not nailed down around the world? No down side according to them.

[commodious spittoon]

It only works when people are unwilling and unable to fight back.

[Warty]

Today's reading assignment, not surprisingly, is from Mark Twain.

TThe coat of arms of the human race ought to consist of a man with an axe on his shoulder proceeding toward a grindstone. Or, it ought to represent the several members of the human race holding out the hat to each other. For we are all beggars. Each in his own way. One beggar is too proud to beg for pennies but will beg a loan of dollars, knowing he can't repay; another will not beg a loan but will beg for a postmastership; another will not do that but will beg for an introduction to "society"; one, being rich, will not beg a hod of coal of the railway company but will beg a pass; his neighbor will not beg coal, nor pass, but in social converse with a lawyer will place before him a supposititious case in the hope of getting an opinion out of him for nothing; one who would disdain to beg for any of these things will beg frankly for the presidency. None of the lot is ashamed of himself, but he despises the rest of the mendicants. Each admires his own dignity, and carefully guards it, but in his opinion the others haven't any.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

I love Twain's articles. I actually prefer them to his fiction, especially the part in Roughing It where he talks shit about the Mormons for like 5 pages.

[Warty]

Have you read his autobiography? He excoriates Teddy Roosevelt in an extremely satisfying way.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

The book is a curiosity to me. It is such a pretentious affair and yet so slow, so sleepy, such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print.

If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle. Keeping awake while he did it, was at any rate. If he, according to tradtion, merely translated it from certain ancient and myteriously engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out of the way locality, the work of translating it was equally a miracle for the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plegiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibbness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc. and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass," was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.

[hodahoda22]

Best company that provides the best services at the lowest prices in Mecca and all the cities of the Kingdom of our leading companies of all services in Mecca, where he achieved???? ????? ???? ????
a difficult equation, excellent service and low price

[Zeb]

Now who is this one targeted at? Do we have a lot of Saudi readers?

[Juvenile Bluster]

You're just trolling John, aren't you Mr. Bot.

[Swiss Servator]

Big demand for Saudi cleaning outfits, here on H&R?!

[Ska]

Hoda.

[Monty Crisco]

Whachutalkinabout Willis?

[Citizen X]

Isn't "Saudi cleaning company" just another way of saying "Filipino indentured servants"?

[hodahoda22]

Best company that provides the best services at the lowest prices in Mecca and all the cities of the Kingdom of our leading companies of all services in Mecca, where he achieved a???? ????? ??????? ????
difficult equation, excellent service and low price

[Tonio]

Socon Group known for pants-shitting hysteria over men in women's restrooms deliberately sends cisnormative, (presumably) straight men into women's restroom in chain store they don't like.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

I reiterate: This is the most retarded culture war issue I have ever seen

[Thymirus]

You just wait until they start sending fat, unshaven, unshowered men into elementary schools to purposely chat up prepubescent girls in an effort to test, I don't know, how "safe our precious ones REALLY are in their schools."

[Private Chipperbot]

They already have cops in schools.

[Tonio]

[golf clap]

[commodious spittoon]

They teach gym.

[Tonio]

[honorable mention]

[Warty]

Why is this the issue for the double-digit IQ culture war crowd? Why now? Fucking shit where the fuck you want. Jesus Christ.

[Swiss Servator]

In the lawn products aisle?! Well, if you say its OK...

*strolls over, drops trou*

[tarran]

Nooooooo!

Switzy!!!!! The Swiss are more uptight than we Americans!!!!!

[Private Chipperbot]

Clean up, aisle 9.

[John]

Because this is what cultural leftists do. They start fights with their enemies in order to further drive them from the public sphere.

Yeah, why now? If you are a convincing tranny no one will notice. Its not like they check your DNA at the door. But, shutting up and not making a big deal about it doesn't start the culture war or accomplish what leftists want to accomplish.

I don't think you can blame the SOCONs for being the aggressors here. They never even thought of the issue until leftist started pushing for laws making this mandatory.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

"I don't think you can blame the SOCONs for being the aggressors here. They never even thought of the issue until leftist started pushing for laws making this mandatory."

Except in this particular issue, they're freaking out because Target chose their own bathroom policy.

Don't like their bathroom policy? Don't go there. In this case, it's absolutely the Socons' fault.

[John]

They don't like the terms of service Target is providing. Dressing rooms and bathrooms are part of the services Target provides. They don't like how Target is providing them and are choosing not to do business there.

This is not a political boycott. This is a rational economic decision. Why should they patronize a store if they don't like the service the store gives them?

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

It's still stupid culture war shit. I am not saying they shouldn't be allowed to do it - I'm saying it's petty and stupid and if they don't like it they just shouldn't go to Target instead of behaving like attention whores.

[John]

You think their preferences are stupid. They think the same about yours. Neither you nor them are irrational for acting on it. And they most certainly should make a big deal. They liked the services Target provided before this. If they are not going to shop there anymore, they owe it to Target to tell them why. Ideally, they would like Target to go back to what it was. That was the store they preferred. They have every right to tell Target that and let Target decide if it wants their business.

This really is a case of the free market working. Maybe Target doesn't need their business? If so, then Target will go on and do better as a result of this. If it does need them, then Target will make the rational decision to serve the broadest base of customers it can and change its policy.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

I think it's perfectly reasonable to blame them for aggressively responding in exactly the way the SocJus crowd wanted them to. You don't NOT assign at least partial blame to the general who blindly leads his troops into an obvious enemy trap just because the ultimate fault of the battle lies in the enemy who set up the obvious trap.

[John]

Other than surrender and give the SJWs exactly what they wanted, how were they supposed to respond?

Every time the SJWs demand something, their Libertarian sympathizers throw up their hands and say "can't you stupid SOCONs just give them what they want so the culture war will go away?" Inevitably, the SJWs get what they want and then move onto something new.

The entire point of the SJW movement is the struggle against some perceived evil. That is what they do. There is no negotiating and satisfying them. The whole point is to pick some new cause and declare anyone who objects to it intolerant. So, it is not a question of if but when you are going to end up having to fight them. You just choose over what issue.

I think men using the women's showers and restrooms is about as good of a issue as any. I would also point out that if five years ago i had said on here that after the SJWs won on gay marriage, they would move on to transgendered using whatever public bathroom or shower they wanted, the same people who are today saying how right and just this is would have called me a paranoid nut who hated gays for even suggesting that the SJWs would take up such a ridiculous cause.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"Sympathizers". Heh. That's rich. So I get that you're a SoCon sympathizer, but I am not. My NOT being a SoCon sympathizer does not make me a SocJus sympathizer. I dislike both sides.

You act as if everyone has to take a side, either be SoCon or SocJus. I don't like the SoCons or the SocJuses for mainly the same reason. They're both people who insist on everyone adhering to the morals of their chosen religion while at the same time I find they often hypocritically do not follow their own religious teachings. I will not associate with one side just because it is less reprehensible than the other side.

You also act like the SoCons had only two options: Shit their pants and surrender. If SoCons STUCK to defending their position on the grounds of free association: They'd be in a good position to win. But they CHOSE not to make it about free association, but panicking and pants-shitting over EXTREMELY RARE CHILD ABDUCTION CASES that will not be prevented by their proposed law anyways. Or them sending in creepy looking dudes to Target bathrooms to try to reinforce their fearmongering. If they played to the tune of reason, that'd be great, but they play to irrational fear instead. They could have done this in a way that would make it harder for the SocJus people to play the victim card, but SoCons are APPARENTLY to stupid to do this!!

[Eternal Blue Sky]

If the SoCons were REALLY clever about this, they would fire up some sock-puppet accounts and pretend to be RadFems, oppose it on RadFem grounds, and make it look like the SocJus was being opposed by SocJus. If you attack the SocJus people with their own language, rhetoric, and ideology, they can't extract the victim cred they require. That would have been a smart tactical and psychological move, but the SoCons weren't smart enough to attain that level of coordination.

Back to the general analogy: You would defend the general who blindly rushed into an obvious trap, because in your mind the general had two choices: walk blindly into the trap, or surrender the war. Thus you think the general made a noble decision. In reality, the general had many SMART options at his disposal. He could have adjusted his strategy in anticipation of the trap, he could have made a tactical retreat to move the next battle to a more strategically sound location, or he could go around the enemy encampments, ignoring the trap completely and go on a counteroffensive, striking the enemy and forcing them to adopt a defensive strategy and abandon their offense. He didn't have to die wandering into an obvious trap.

See, the thing is that surrender leads to defeat, sure. But walking BLINDLY into the enemy trap ALSO LEADS TO DEFEAT. You're just choosing to "die fighting" which is a really STUPID thing to do. You should not resort to dying in battle when you could use some intelligence and not die at all.

[John]

EVeryone does have to take a side. If you don't want to take a side on this one, don't worry, you will be taking a side eventually. The SJWs are going to come for you at some point, unless you just plan to let them enslave you.

I understand you hate the SOCONs and are happy to see them lose. I am not that big of a fan of them either to be honest. That said, however, the problem isn't so much the SOCONs losing it is the SJWs winning. This really is a case of you today me tomorrow. If you don't want to stand up for the SOCONs now, then who is going to stand up for you when its your turn?

You really think that it is a good idea to let the SJWs overturn gender distinctions in this society? If the SJWs can force society to believe than some men are really women and force them to act accordingly, what cant' they force society to do?

I get it. SOCONs suck and it is all great fun to laugh at their misfortune. But sometimes bad people get treated unfairly too.

[jarflax]

. If SoCons STUCK to defending their position on the grounds of free association: They'd be in a good position to win. But they CHOSE not to make it about free association,

This! So much this! Conservatives in general have been losing the "culture war" because they are so intimidated by accusations of bigotry, and simultaneously so worried that people will associate in ways the Socons don't like, that they always want to find a proxy way to fight the latest nonsense from the left.

The problem is that the real issue in all of these cases is freedom of association. If Klaus Klansman wants to live, shop and work with only whites or Nat Islam with only black muslims, that should not only be their right, there is nothing wrong with it! When Klaus wants to tell ME or YOU that we also can't live, shop or work with people of color he crosses the line into evil. Why that distinction is so hard to get across in the modern world baffles me.

[Emmerson Biggins]

Sticking to "freedom of association" grounds isn't a winning position, or at least it hasn't been up til now. That's been shat on for quite a while. I don't see why that's going to change anytime soon.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"You just choose over what issue."

Yep. And this was a poor choice.

[John]

Really? So what is a good one? You think "I don't want to have to shower at teh gym next to a man who thinks he is a woman" is a bad choice. I honestly can't imagine what you would think a good choice would be.

[Tonio]

They are being hypocrites here. They claim that the presence of bepenised persons in womens restrooms poses an inherent danger. They are then, by their own rules, endangering those women and girls. Clearly they are engaging in economic warfare against Target. Not just boycotting (as is their right), but actively trying to scare off customers.

[John]

That is asburd. They didn't endanger them. They knew the person wasn't a danger. Just because letting anyone in creates the risk of someone dangerous getting in doesn't mean letting anyone in automatically creates a risk.

[Rhywun]

They knew the person wasn't a danger.

How did they know that?

[Notorious UGCC]

I'm inclined to agree, on the specific subject of Target - a private company with its own policies of what can or cannot be done on its own premises.

It's one thing not to shop there, it's wrong to go in their own private bathrooms in violation of store policy.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Unless, I suppose, "where a woman wants" is "where there aren't biological men."

Socon Group known for pants-shitting hysteria over men in women's restrooms deliberately sends cisnormative, (presumably) straight men into women's restroom in chain store they don't like.

And? If the socon group is wrong about how people will react, it just shows that they're wrong about how people will react.

[Warty]

Well then those prudish cunts should shit somewhere else, shouldn't they?

[R C Dean]

Fucking shit where the fuck you want.

OK, I just watched Ep. 7 of Season 1 of Oz, where Beecher (the wimpy lawyer) loses it and truly does decide to shit where he wants.*

I doubt it will end well for him, though.

*SPOILER ALERT: It turned out where he really wanted to shit was in the mouth of the skinhead boss.

[BigT]

Speaking on "Breitbart News Daily," Rios said the group's concerned that women and children could be victimized by men who enter female restrooms while falsely claiming to be transgender.

Male child abusers could take advantage of the cover of 'transgender' to do this, particularly if most guys respect the ladies room. It will make me feel less secure sending my 5-yr-old granddaughter into the ladies room where I can't keep an eye on her.

[Warty]

You know that children are basically almost never kidnapped by strangers, right? If you must worry, it's more productive to worry about real risks.

[Irish ?s Lauren Southern]

Plus, what little girl is going to be in a public bathroom alone?

[BigT]

Yes, this is avoided as much as possible. It has happened on occasion, however.

[CatoTheChipper]

One who goes to the mall, or a restaurant, or a sporting event, or something like that with her dad.

It's like the SJW sympathizers here can't understand why the father of a daughter would object to allowing profoundly disturbed men access to a female-only space.

[Rasilio]

Oh my god what a fucking moron you are.

No, no they cannot, at least not anymore so than they currently do.

Do you have any fucking idea how bad of a place a public restroom is to commit a major crime? People are in and out of it ALL THE TIME and that little kid, yeah even if they are in the restroom alone their parent/guardian is 99% likely just outside the door.

That is why you don't have massive claims of little BOYS being molested by strangers in mens rooms.

Further if that male pedophile actually thought getting access to the womens room would improve his chances of molesting little girls all he has to do today is to make the slightest pretense of dressing up like a woman and no one would have questioned his using the womans room in the first place

[John]

I know this is one example, but it did happen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2.....53970.html

I get it. Transgendered are wonderful people who would never do anything wrong. You can accept that premise and also acknowledge the reality that not everyone is as wonderful as the transgendered are and it is at least possible they would take advantage of these rules.

[Rasilio]

Actually I don't give a fuck about the transgendered either way I am responding to the pants shitting fear of child molesters that causes peoples brains to shut down.

Yes, given enough time in a country of 300 million+ people any given low probability event will happen eventually and I am sure that somewhere in the low double digits of kids are molested/assaulted by perverts in public restrooms in the US every year, I'll even admit that legalizing transgender use of restrooms will probably increase that number by a couple handfuls to a slightly higher low single digit number but with a population of roughly 50 million children at any given time it is such a trivial problem on a national (or even state or local) level that focusing on it is evidence of mental illness.

[John]

So then why are you cheering the SJWs on as they force people who object to this to conform? These people don't like this and are making their opinions heard. Isn't that how it is supposed to work?

Yet, you and a lot of other people on here are ridiculing them for it. Why? Who are you to say they can't hold that opinion and act on it? And if you think they can and you don't care about the issue, why are going out of the way to criticize the people who do?

You guys constantly talk about free association and the free market. But then when SOCONs assert their rights under such, you call them pants shitters and act like their concerns are illegitimate.

Jesus Christ would it kill you to stand up and say these people have a right to object to men using the women's restroom and have every right not o shop somewhere that does? Is that so fucking hard? Is saying I don't buy into the insanity that a man is suddenly a woman because he decided he was now beyond the pale and a position that no one can hold without being considered a nut?

I don't think you like SJWS but I can't figure out why you keep adopting their views so much.

[Rasilio]

Because I DO care about your REASONS for objecting.

Your reasons for objecting are feeding directly into the fear of a child molester around every corner that is feeding so much SJW paranoia not to mention driving the belief that all men are rapists and child molesters.

Trannies are a ridiculously tiny segment of the population but you know what an even smaller portion is? Perverts looking to commit a sex crime. You know what is even smaller than that? Perverts looking to commit a sex crime who think public restrooms are a good place to commit their crimes. You know what is even a smaller group than that? Perverts looking to commit a sex crime who think public restrooms are a good place to commit their crimes and are currently held at bay by solely by the questionable legality of their using the opposite gender bathroom.

Now here is my question to you, given that trannies are already using the "wrong" bathroom all the time why do you feel the need to drive the SJW rape culture rhetoric by using the fear of sexual predators to oppose something which LITERALLY has no impact on you or anyone else?

[John]

So what you are telling me is that you don't think these people have a right to object to trannies using the wrong bathroom. I disagree. I don't think they owe Trannies acceptance of their contention and are free to demand that the business they frequent don't either.

Your position strikes me as just one big rationalization for supporting the SJW enforcing their views on people. It all comes back to the fact that you hate SOCONs and are always happy to see them lose. I don't think that attitude is going to work out very well in the long run.

[Rasilio]

No I am telling you that I reserve the right to call out anyone when they spout fearmongering bullshit.

They have the right to oppose trannies all they want.

When they abuse that right by making disingenuious arguments that they have in essense debunked in other contexts (rape culture anyone) and arguments that are so obviously wrong misguided and actively harmful to freedom is where I get pissed off.

See here is an acceptable reason to oppose laws banning transgender use of bathrooms. Transgenderism is a mental illness and the research on the subject is split at best on whether it is best to play along with that mental illness and help the sick individual cope as best as they can or whether we should be making them come to realize the nature of their illness and learn to accept the reality of the way they are born. So if you opposed it becasue you believed indulging the delusion was harmful you'd at least have a point.

The fear of "perverts" is just bullshit fearmongering with absolutely no basis in fact or logic and directly feeds into SJW demonization of men and claims of a rape culture.

[BigT]

"Do you have any fucking idea how bad of a place a public restroom is to commit a major crime?"

No, I don't. Please enlighten us.

Adult Women are sometimes harassed/assaulted/raped right out in the open. Why would anyone think a restroom would be safer? Esp for kids.

http://insider.foxnews.com/201.....iral-video

[Eternal Blue Sky]

And lesbians child abusers can snatch up little girls with impunity under the current model. And gay child abusers can snatch up unattended little boys as well. And straight child abusers willing to put on a wig or who are simply sneaky enough to get into a bathroom without the Bathroom Security Force noticing can snatch up little girls and boys in this current model of bathrooms.

[BigT]

All terrible. But why add to the stats by enabling further pervs?

[Notorious UGCC]

Look, if you're on Target's premises you have to respect Target's rules. If you don't like Target's rules, don't go in - have a boycott.

As to the general question, this is an example of SJW tactics.

1) Attack some institution or practice which had previously been noncontroversial

2) Declare that the institution or practice must be abolished IMMEDIATELY because it is EVIL and OPPRESSIVE.

3) Proclaim their new cause to be The Most Important Thing in the World.

4) Compare themselves to Martin Luther King and Jesus for their courage in fighting this URGENTLY IMPORTANT BATTLE.

5) Wait for protests and objections to arise.

6) Get useful idiots in the media to bemoan SoCon obsession with this minor issue.

7) Rinse and repeat.

[hodahoda22]

Best company that provides the best services at the lowest prices in Mecca and all the cities of the Kingdom of our leading companies of all services in Mecca, where he achieved a???? ????? ?????? ????
difficult equation, excellent service and low price

[Juvenile Bluster]

This bot infiltration is proof that Reason has a pro-Muslim bias!

[c1524235]

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[DenverJ]

5 SS officers, I mean Denver police officers, just got on the train car ahead of mine. I wonder what kind of bullshit they're to to. Is this "citizen harassment day?"

[jarflax]

Don't be silly "Citizen Harassment Day?" It's Citizen Harassment Aeon.

[Notorious UGCC]

Citizen? You mean "civilian."

[R C Dean]

Civilian? You mean "serf".

[bacon-magic]

Serf? You mean "slave".

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Teacher Strike Closes Detroit Public Schools

Oh no!
Not that!
Just think of the children of Detroit.
Who will make them illiterate or semi-literate if not for the teachers of Detroit?