Ted Cruz Bows Out, Libertarian Searches Spike, Occupational License to Shampoo Hair Challenged: A.M. Links

Rona Kobell

• Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were the big winners in Indiana yesterday. 
• Ted Cruz is out of the Republican presidential race. (Hide your wayward teenage drifters!) 
• John Kasich never says die. 
• Meanwhile, Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night. 
• Here's what Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) had to say about the evening: 

Soon.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 4, 2016

• An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."
• A new national poll released Wednesday shows that in a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump contest, she comes away with 54 percent of respondents' support and Trump with 41 percent. 
• A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair. 

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

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ted Cruz is out of the Republican presidential race.

Who would Jesus endorse?

[sarcasmic]

Your mom.

[Hamster of Doom]

She's a lovely lady, I'm sure.

[Fist of Etiquette]

My mother's been dead for years so Jesus is probably rolling over in His grave at your these crass jokes!

[Certified Public Asshat]

She's the perfect candidate then.

[Fist of Etiquette]

She's going to have to work a little harder to earn my vote. I haven't had my laundry done for me in years.

[Long Woodchippers]

Uh, Jesus' grave is empty.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

"Meanwhile, Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night."

LIBERTARIAN MOMENT!

[UnCivilServant]

Why are you shouting?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I'm not....sure.

[Private Chipperbot]

Sure. Two searches to 10 searches is technically skyrocketing.

[Private Chipperbot]

Okay. Okay. How about we look at the number of other searches over the same time-frame for perspective. What % did the Trump go up? Bern? Asian massage? Things we need to know.

[pan fried wylie]

"Asian massage" as a search term has experienced a consistent 4.2% annual growth for the previous 15 years.

[EMD]

I think I should package securities based on search terms. Hmmmm ...

[Injun, as in from India]

The only thing I will miss about having a GOP president is Secretary of Labor Scott Walker.

[Injun, as in from India]

Trump is going to affect down ballot races. He's going to lose, and hand the Senate and the House to Hillary. You will end up with a worse anti-2A SCOTUS nominee than Merrick Garland.

Enjoy the ride.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

The only thing I will miss about having a GOP president is Secretary of Labor Scott Walker.

What I miss about having a GOP president is that the Democrats at least pretended to care about civil liberties. When TEAM BLUE is in office, those concerns quickly fall by the wayside, while TEAM RED mostly criticizes the president for not violating the Constitution hard enough.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Soon.

OMG HE'S GOING TO BE TRUMP'S RUNNING MATE.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Interesting theory. I interpreted it to mean that he was going to personally stalk and kill Trump with a machete.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Maybe it's both.

[TheZeitgeist]

Should be Preet-legal so long as woodchippers are not involved. Actually, anything up to and including antimatter-spewing Uzis would be Preet-legal so long as target remains Donald Trump.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

My statement was not a true threat or even juvenile political hyperbole, merely a satirical speculation as to the intentions of another, specifically, Representative Amash.

[Swiss Servator]

*narrows gaze*

[Fist of Etiquette]

Typo. Amash left out a w.

[pan fried wylie]

"Ducking autocannon"

Sent from my iPhone

[Trigger Hippie]

So, pray for a Trump inauguration to be swiftly followed by a successful assassination attempt?

That's what we're reduced to, it seems.

*hyperbole

[Bee Tagger]

Meanwhile, Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night.

We're a "liberaltarian" away from the trifecta.

[UnCivilServant]

It also fell back to the average promptly thereafter.

[Anarcho-Woodchipper]

...libertarian moment?

[PBR Streetgang]

Literally a single moment

[Injun, as in from India]

The moment is going to be shorter than the time it takes for sub-atomic particles to vanish in a cyclotron.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night.

Let's see what that translates to in November.

[robc]

1.01% instead of .99%

If McAfee wins the nomination, Trump will be the only candidate not accused of. murder (except the USFL).

[robc]

Ed Clark got 1.06% in 1980. So I guess that is the bar to beat.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

And Hospers holds the record for 1 electoral vote, in 1972.

[UnCivilServant]

Could have been a confused elector who couldn't understand the ballot.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Rogue elector in Virginia went for Hospers/Nathan. Incidentally, LP vice-presidential candidate Tonie Nathan was the first woman in US history to receive a vote in the electoral college.

[TheZeitgeist]

You know those milestones don't count unless Democrats.

[Tom Bombadil]

His name was Chad, IIRC.

[Moe19]

^He was found hanging after the vote.

[robc]

He was "rewarded" with the 1976 nomination.

[commodious spittoon]

Ed Clark got 1.06% in 1980. So I guess that is the bar to beat.

Bob Barr has a sad.

[robc]

Only getting .4% caused that. Badnarik got .32%, Barr should have been able to crush that.

[Libertarian]

Every four years we are told that the race between the Rep and the Dem is just too darn close, and the race is just too darn important to waste our votes on the Libertarian candidate. When Hillary and Donald are basically tied in the October polls, I fully believe we'll hear the same thing this go round.

[SugarFree]

Every four years we are told that the race between the Rep and the Dem is just too darn close, and the race is just too darn important to waste our votes on the Libertarian candidate.

I've been called a liar for suggesting this, so I guess it must never, ever happen.

[Long Woodchippers]

We're still friends on Facebook

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

We all already know the answer to that

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"skyrocketed"

Less than a thousand extra people searched that term last night. So sure, from a LP perspective, maybe that's a "skyrocketed" number.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair.

ENB STOP LYING TO US THERE IS NO LIBERTARIAN MOVEMENT IN AMERICA!!!!

[Bee Tagger]

A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair.

Pretty suave move.

[sarcasmic]

Head and shoulders above the rest.

[Hamster of Doom]

Y'all and your pert comments.

[Swiss Servator]

Et tu?

[UnCivilServant]

+ +

[Notorious UGCC]

I wonder what Johnson thinks about this.

For that matter, I wonder what Johnson & Johnson thinks about this.

[Rich]

Baby shampoo steps.

[Lee G]

It takes finesse to shampoo hair.

[Swiss Servator]

*blankly stares at both*

[Fist of Etiquette]

This terrible punning is working Swiss into a lather. Repeat, lather!

[sarcasmic]

- 1 rinse

[EMD]

or Pretty Soave move?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

I applaud your timely linx, ENB.

Rico, take note!

[Juvenile Bluster]

But points off for no alt text.

[straffinrun]

Timely and not that one line stuff we sometimes get.

[Elizabeth Nolan Brown]

sometimes we have to drag him away from the hairspray & bathroom mirror just to finish the pm links... it's getting to be a real problem

[SugarFree]

+1 Dammit, I got some in my eyes

[Robby's Hair]

I'm worth it.

[Citizen X]

Daaaamn!

[This Machine]

And it's ENB from the top ropes! With a folding chair!

[bacon-magic]

I love it when even the co-workers get involved in the hair jokes.

[Fist of Etiquette]

A new national poll released Wednesday shows that in a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump contest, she comes away with 54 percent of respondents' support and Trump with 41 percent.

I don't believe in polls and haven't read anything about this specific one, but that's one hundred percent correct.

[PBR Streetgang]

You know who else disdained Polls?

[Ska]

Elementary school comedians?

[IndyEleven]

Lavrentiy Beria?

[Tonio]

The Kalmar Union?

[Restoras]

Hitler?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Stripper Hitler?

[EMD]

Thank you.

[Los Doyers]

Tongues on a snowy day?

[IndyEleven]

+3 Dog Dare

[Crusty Juggler]

Ellen DeGeneres?

[commodious spittoon]

And Portia De Rossi, sadly.

[Citizen X]

The Lithuanian Commonwealth?

[thrakkorzog]

Celeste Star?

[CatoTheChipper]

I rather doubt the usefulness of polls this time around because of the Bradley effect. I know very few people who would want to admit that they prefer Trump, even when he's running against Hillary.

The only people in public who support Trump fall in one of the following categories:

- crass vulgarians who hate immigrants and free trade
- nihilists who relish the destruction of the GOP elite
- idiot militaristic jingoists
- potential cronies
- mentally disturbed and/or retarded.

Who wants to be associated with people like that?

[Long Woodchippers]

You mean those don't already make up a majority?

[EMD]

nihilists who relish the destruction of the GOP elite

You needn't be a nihilist to wish for this.

[Mazakon]

A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair.

How they were able to take something like learning to shampoo hair to take over 300 hours is incredible.

[straffinrun]

The class on how to shampoo a rug let me down.

[Los Doyers]

Ouch, that's farsh.

[Juvenile Bluster]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

Javert is displeased.

[robc]

Italy doesnt have a welfare system?

[Tonio]

Why, yes, it does.

[robc]

I was being sarcastic.

It least I thoufht I was.

[Tonio]

I know you were, Rob, but I just wanted to put that out there.

[Rich]

thoufht

I like it!

[WTF]

Of course they do, but I guess sometimes you need to steal food because you spent your dole money on booze.

[Swiss Servator]

I would take a bus load of bums to the judges house and say "dig in boys, it is all legal!"

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Judge: "No, no. I meant if they steal from someone else."

[Tonio]

What Switzy said.

I'm sure that the expectation is that the thefts will all be from larger markets which are better able to absorb the losses. Of course those markets will locate themselves the fuck away from large concentrations of poor people. That leaves the owners of small stores in poor or marginal neighborhoods holding the sack. Next step: designate acceptable targets for legal theft.

[Princess Trigger]

Property owners?

[Feminist Killjoy]

Yeah, sounds like they're trying to officially be reasonable about seriously pretty crime, but my mind immediately Lewis to ordering a tiny, pricey dish with gold leaf and truffles and whatever and walking out, because it's a small quantity! And I was hungry!

I used to go to a waffle house where folks could wait outside and people going in would offer to pay for their meals. People like to help other people. But people don't like to be stolen from or scammed.

[Cdr Lytton]

Everyone pays for their own meals after eating at a Waffle House.

[Citizen X]

-2 feet of intestine

[B.P.]

Food deserts!

[Lord at War]

Next step: designate acceptable targets for legal theft.

Next step: declare "food deserts" that the Gov't must remedy...

[Robert]

Actually the ruling is one common to most criminal law AFAIK: a successful defense by necessity. The ruling is not that the food belonged to the attempted thief, just that the attempt should not be penalized criminally because he did something he had to do. The store got its food back.

It's like what's been pursued in some medical marijuana cases, that the person had to violate a criminal law to prevent injury.

So this doesn't make stealing legal, it just decriminalizes it under certain conditions. Any criminal act you can think of can be similarly excused in such cases. The store doesn't have to give up its food, and is still allowed to take the usual methods to prevent its theft. Don't make a bigger case out of this than it really is.

[Rhywun]

Broken broken windows policing.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Beaking Windows policies.

[Free Society]

Broken Beaker Fallacies

[Rhywun]

Muppets on Ice

[Limpee Wiltstock]

People should not be punished if forced by need they enslave some to work the earth and produce food and others to preserve and prepare it for them. This seems like the ultimate preversity of justifications for serfdom.

[Bee Tagger]

A new national poll released Wednesday shows that in a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump contest, she comes away with 54 percent of respondents' support and Trump with 41 percent.

What were the percentage of people who first asked "and you're saying it has to be those two?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

...Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night.

That's a proactive Right to be Forgotten if I ever saw one.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Meanwhile, Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night.

Sounds like a lot of disappointed potential Cruz supporters.

[Injun, as in from India]

#FeelTheJohnson

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

This never happened under Augustus. #MakeRomeGreatAgain

[Tonio]

Are they also allowed to use small amounts of force to achieve those ends? Like break your back door glass so they can reach in and open the door?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

#MakePaxRomanaGreatAgain

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were the big winners in Indiana yesterday.

The only winners.

[Krabappel]

You wouldn't know it looking at any of the major news sites. It's all TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP in giant letters and then a little side note *oh year Bernie also won.

[Tonio]

Somebody asked recently about the libertarian solution to people who do not pay fines to the government, since we are generally against imprisoning people for unpaid fines. My solution - you withold non-essential government services from those people. Those who commit crimes against you will still be prosecuted, but the courts would refuse to record your contracts or issue you marriage licenses. You'd still be allowed to drive on the roads and keep your drivers license, but no license plate renewal. Etc.

This is not a perfect solution, and SLDs about how there shouldn't be things like license plates apply. But we're not going to achieve libertopia overnight. Also, as the state shrinks the state will have fewer and fewer opportunities to fine people and the problem will go away.

[kbolino]

Garnish welfare benefits and SS contributions.

[Tonio]

If the person isn't on welfare, that's a non-starter. Most fines (on a per capita basis) are owed to state and municipal governments who have no power to steal money from the feds.

[chipper me timbers]

The libertarian solution to all "fines to the government" is quiet simple. Give government no power to fine.

I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that a libertarian government would be able to fine someone for. You're not thinking of vehicle fees and property tax and such are you? Because those are right out anyway.

The three or four serious crimes that a libertarian government would still be around to enforce all require guns and force and jail to deal with .

[chipper me timbers]

On a side note, I'm pretty sure the progs hate Uber so much because it means the end of the bloated municipal budgets fed by parking tickets.

I can't wait to see the zombie meter maid fleet patrolling empty streets but still getting paid...

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Here's a solution: The state doesn't get to collect fines but only to adjudicate claims of restitution which are collected by the victims. As for government services--anybody who wants one pays for it directly.

[Doctor Whom]

A license to shampoo hair costs just $50 a year. But before obtaining it, Memphis resident Tammy Pritchard would have to spend 300 hours in school, plus take two exams for $140.

You can't let just anyone shampoo your hair unless you want us to become Somalia. Shampooing is so complicated that you can't even let anyone have a license with just one exam. And no, this isn't regulatory capture; the really smart people never acknowledge that such a thing happens, so it doesn't.

[Tonio]

I shampoo my own hair every morning. Why, it's a miracle I haven't killed or injured myself, or contracted some sort of disease!

[UnCivilServant]

Have you been fined for shampooing without a licence?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I cut all my hair off just so I could avoid all those risks.

[IndyEleven]

My dad washed his own hair and now he's nearly completely bald! See what happens when you're not properly trained?

[Brochettaward]

We need common sense shampoo controls. How can we people wash their own hair unregulated? Madness.

[creech]

What about the children? How many crying kids will it take before we stop unlicensed parents from getting shampoo in their eyes??

[LynchPin1477]

What's up with the Amash Tweet?

[Rich]

I figured it's just his little way of sticking it to Eric Holder.

[LynchPin1477]

I choose to believe we'll be getting a Johnson/Amash ticket. On the road to 10% baby!

[Rich]

*** pumps fist gives thumbs up ***

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Yeah, don't pump him, he already has a big head with all these first posts.

[Tonio]

My guess is that he's predicting the implosion of the GOP as we know it, and is waiting to swoop in and reform it in a more libertarian image.

[Injun, as in from India]

There's been rumblings of an independent conservative ticket. So maybe that? Something like a Ben Sasse / Justin Amash ticket.

[EMD]

They really want to get their 1.7 of the vote.

[EMD]

They really want to get their 1.7 of the vote.

[lap83]

Someone had just asked what his favorite My Bloody Valentine song was

[Citizen X]

I hope that's true, although Amash strikes me as more of a Ride fan.

[lap83]

Nice

[B.P.]

Swervedriver or GTFO.

[AceDroman]

Skrewdriver?

[Spoonman.]

My dream is that he and some other HFC members are planning on switching to the LP. Maybe they'll try to bring a Senator or two along too, who knows.

[Hamster of Doom]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

Are there no parks to weed and prune? No DMV going unstaffed?

[Rich]

California chef brings cannabis to fine dining

Chef Chris Sayegh is leading the way by taking haute cuisine to a higher place with his cannabis-infused menus in private homes for as much as $500 a head

He ought to get his own joint.

[sarcasmic]

Am I the only one who initially read "cannibals"?

[straffinrun]

Young cannibals at fine dining drive me crazy.

[PBR Streetgang]

Ohhh, its a Good Thing you posted a FYC reference first.

[straffinrun]

I can't help myself.

[Rich]

"You're too late. Everyone's eaten."

[Swiss Servator]

+1 Long pig?

[PBR Streetgang]

Only fine, young ones.

[Juice]

I'd think $500 a head is too expensive for most cannibals.

[Hamster of Doom]

I really want to do this. Edibles have always been shoehorned into sweets, presumably because enough sugar and chocolate will mask the flavor. (They don't.) Weed really works better with a savory flavor profile. I made a cheesy, creamy wild rice dish that'll knock your socks off once, and the flavor worked.

[lap83]

I don't know about cheese with wild rice, but I'd try it

[Crusty Juggler]

Can a brother get a recipe up in this piece?

[Krabappel]

One time I put cannabis butter on waffles with maple syrup and it was the worst thing I'd ever eaten. I hope this chef has better ideas. -_-

[bacon-magic]

Rotisserie chicken with the usual poultry seasonings & sensi seeds coarse ground. Tasty.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

why mask it? It's fucking delicious and reminiscent of some herbal blends already used for the purpose of flavouring edible substances. But then, kale and mustard are two of my favorite vegetables and I am incapable of cultivating enough of most spices to satisfy my need, so my tastes is already a bit beyond the pale. I like hop so much, I've burnt my throat scarfing hop cones while I'm harvesting. I've done the same with the extremely powerful mustard I like to grow as well. Wormwood's another of my favorite herbs. I grow gallons of that every year and still sometimes run low.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

I just stumbled on a patch of hemlock recently, and I'm seriously considering using it in soups or something, since it smell so fucking delicious.

[Krabappel]

*claps*

[Notorious UGCC]

"John Kasich never says die."

KASICH: "Come back, you coward, I'll chew your legs off!"

[Rich]

"But, but ? It was supposed to be *contested*!"

[Injun, as in from India]

Kasich is going to be like this Japanese solider who lived in the Phillipines jungles for decades refusing to believe WW2 was over

[Trigger Hippie]

A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair.

An occupational license requiring hundreds of hours of schooling to perform a task done safely by millions of people in their own homes everyday? Sure, fuck it, why not?

[commodious spittoon]

A friend of the family is in the process of adopting her grandson from her deadbeat daughter. The friend is a mother of three and has several grandkids, and has helped take care of the grandson for most of his life, but before she's allowed to adopt she's required to take four eight hour courses on childcare.

Then again, her daughter's enough of a shithead that she lost custody of her kid, so maybe classes aren't a bad idea.

[Trigger Hippie]

This begs the question of how well adjusted are the children of the people running the class. Anecdotal case and point: some of the most unhinged, emotionally wrecked people I've ever met have degrees in psychology.

[Limpee Wiltstock]

Most of the people I went to school with for psychology were that way, and it got even worse in the clinical domain, which almost no one seemed to voluntarily pursue except as a result of neurosis regularly stumbling into delusion or other psychopathies. Which kind of makes sense. After studying psychology for years, a person has to be nuts not to come to the conclusion it's all bull shit.

[Fist of Etiquette]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

Looks like someone was moved by Les Mis?rables.

[UnCivilServant]

If they're less miserable, why do they keep complaining?

[Swiss Servator]

*strongly narrows gaze*

[Fist of Etiquette]

I'd like to lay that Ms., if you know what I mean.

[thrakkorzog]

Oh, you play a virgin the light, but need no urging in the night.

[Juvenile Bluster]

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men,
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!

[Swiss Servator]

Oh sure its easy to swat them like flies...
But the National Guard will be harder to catch.

[Jordan]

John Kasich never says die.

The real idiots are the ones still bankrolling this guy's campaign. Probably the same people who are still investing in Chicago bonds.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

I imagine they are the same old people who buy gold and jewelry through late night infomercials.

[Crusty Juggler]

Would eat.

[Rich]

Does penis size really matter? New survey of men and women reveals the truth and the ideal 'length'

The bottom line:

"As we've found, most men continue to show satisfaction with their size, and most women don't consider size to be a crucial issue."

[Brochettaward]

Asking about penis size is sexist. It's probably not small - your vagina is probably just abnormally large.

[Anomalous]

GYNormous.

[Grand Moff Serious Man]

It's not length, it's girth.

[Rich]

What is "the motion", chopped liver?

[straffinrun]

He was talking about her's.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

?Por qu? no los dos?

[bacon-magic]

I always quote that length/girth, then say my nickname is "Tuna can".

[Crusty Juggler]

So I should stop jelqing?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

If it makes you feel good?

[Notorious UGCC]

"Most women also said, 'no, honey, you don't have to give me anything for Mother's Day."

[Zeb]

Seems like there is almost certainly such a thing as too small. And probably such a thing as too big. But most of the in between is just fine if you make a reasonable effort.

[straffinrun]

I agree. I've heard 1 in 4 women on college campuses don't even notice until the next day.

[WTF]

Sometimes not even until the next month, or next year.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Like Crusty, I have seen some adult videos in my lifetime.

I am curious, the really enormous elephant penises, aren't they actually painful? I imagine the poor lady is experiencing stomach pain from those things.

[UnCivilServant]

Look, CPA, by the time an acress is doing zoophilia videos she's dead inside. I doubt she feels anything.

[Zeb]

Hey, porn stars aren't just paid to look good.

[Crusty Juggler]

I am curious, the really enormous elephant penises, aren't they actually painful?

There is only one way to find out the answer to that question, CPA.

[Certified Public Asshat]

Giggles, oh Crusty, I am not THAT big.

Oh you mean, nevermind.

[Crusty Juggler]

Just to make sure there is no confusion here, I am offering to put my large penis inside of you so you can further empathize with those women you watch in those movies you love.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

"An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

What's this Alberto? White truffles, eh? You're gonna put it on that freshly made ravioli? You don't say. Really? You're going to wash it down with a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino? Bravissimo fratello! Dimme, ma, dove hai trovato questa roba?

[Tonio]

Perfetto! Grazi.

[Thymirus]

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....tcmp=hpbt2

AG targets 90 conservative groups in controversial climate change probe

The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents.

In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations "and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies."

The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups to use the legal system against companies and organizations that disagree with and advocate against Democratic policies to address global climate change.

[Thymirus]

Government is the things we do together.

[WTF]

Government is the opponents we silence together.

[Injun, as in from India]

Replace silence with sodomize and it makes more sense.

[Brochettaward]

By the time this gets into court, the left will probably have a majority on the Supreme Court.

[Lee G]

I can only hope that this gets crushed so hard in court that they'll never consider doing it again. But that's probably a pipe dream...

[WTF]

There are an awful lot of leftist idiots on the bench.

[Injun, as in from India]

^THIS.

Citizens United was decided on a razor-thin margin. Four out of the five justices were a-okay with government chilling speech. Even the ACLU submitted an amicus brief on the side of free speech, but the justices were hacks.

Same thing with Heller v. DC and MacDonald v. Chicago.

[Tom Bombadil]

Considering how many lies and coverups the climate change religion produces, this could produce a delicious two-edged sword.

[Crusty Juggler]

Orange County DA Announces First Arrest Under New Social Host Law

Shortly after the social host law went into effect, Orange County officials say the first violation was written.

"They have one of our first cases that they believe is going to be charged that fit the criteria," said Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus.

It happened in the town of Monroe. Officials say a girl was taken to the hospital after getting sick at a party April 1.

"It's just staggering just how open a parent was about allowing their children, or the young adults, to drink," Neuhaus said.

"If we want to bring out the hammer to enforce this law, we will do it. There is no question," added Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois. Between the state police, between the sheriffs office the local police agencies. If the hammer has to drop, it will."

and that is how underage drinking was eradicated.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, fuck medical privacy!

[Rhywun]

Get caught again, and you could face up to a $1,000 fine and jail time of up to a year.

I see no unintended consequences to this whatsoever.

[Rhywun]

Time after time after time, there are tragedies.

Yes, shipping your kids off to college without learning how to handle alcohol responsibly does occasionally lead to tragedy. Oh, that's not what he meant?

[Cdr Lytton]

or the young adults, to drink

Paging cognitive dissonance.....

[Crusty Juggler]

Legally drive, vote, smoke a cigarette, fuck anyone over the age of 17, go to war, but damnit they are not allowed to have a few drinks at your house.

[EMD]

smoke a cigarette,

Not anymore, Kimosabe.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

You know, I would never ever never ever move to California.

Ever.

[Rhywun]

The Orange County in question is in New York. You know, your neighbor.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Another place to never ever move to, and to top it off the weather isn't near as nice and no fucking Disneyland.

[Thymirus]

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....cmp=hplnws

Carter sends message to Moscow: US ready to 'defend our allies'

STUTTGART, Germany ? Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in Germany to usher in a new U.S. military commander for Europe, used the opportunity Tuesday to send a blunt warning to Moscow not to provoke the NATO alliance ? after recent encounters in the air and on the high seas.

"We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake ? we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us," Carter said at the U.S. military's European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

Carter expressed a desire not to start a new Cold War with Russia ? or a "hot" one.

But he said Russia seeks to "erode" the peaceful order Europe and the rest of the West have enjoyed since the end of the Cold War.

Carter, in vowing the U.S. would defend its allies, warned Russia is increasing its submarine patrols to the North Atlantic. He did not specifically mention the recent "barrel rolls" by Russian jets over U.S. military aircraft in the past few weeks but accused Russia's leaders of "nuclear saber-rattling" and putting the world at risk in the process.

[Thymirus]

With a Reagan-esque administration, perhaps our foes would tremble in terror. With Obama's administration, all that those foes can muster is derisory laughter.

[Injun, as in from India]

With Obama's administration, all that those foes can muster is derisory laughter.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Rich]

Carter expressed a desire not to start a new Cold War with Russia ? or a "hot" one.

So, a lukewarm one, then?

[Private Chipperbot]

There was a time when the press would freak the fuck out if an administration was saber rattling like that. That time was when anyone with a -R after their name was president.

[Cdr Lytton]

Every time I see the DOD secretary's name in the headlines, I fill in with the first name of Jimmy. And the story sounds exactly what I'd expect from the peanut president.

[Domestic Dissident]

Old Slick Willie chippy Sally Miller spills the beans.

"Bill could sometimes be a clown in the bedroom and? I soon guessed why. As long as our relationship stayed playful, I might not take a "second look" at the size of his penis. Yes, it performed well but, it was a little-boy penis that just never quite?grew-up."

I think we may have a bit of insight into why he has to resort to flying on the "Lolita Express" to child rape island in his dotage. His little boy penis was barely adequate for adult women even in his prime.

[Notorious UGCC]

Why don't we just have all the candidates, and their spouses, whip out the measuring tape and show us how long their dicks are?

[Domestic Dissident]

To keep it fair, Huma can use her longest strap-on.

[Rhywun]

*recoils in revulsion*

[Tonio]

Spent some time thinking about that, eh, Eddie?

[Notorious UGCC]

No, it's just that the people I associated with online have corrupted me.

[Citizen X]

My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[Brochettaward]

Bill has also resorted to literally serving black people fried chicken for their vote.

[Notorious UGCC]

Lots of people like fried chicken. I do. I'm not black.

But some of the people who like it *do* happen to be black.

What are you gonna do?

I also eat watermelon.

To be sure, it's watermelon cut into those cute little cubes, so I don't eat it right off the rind like a man.

[EMD]

Seed spitting is fun.

* Not a euphemism. Maybe. *

[kinnath]

President Trump

Get used to it.

[Rich]

The Tan House -- paid for by Mexico, by the way -- will be 'UUUGE!

[kinnath]

President Donald Mountain Dew Trump

[Swiss Servator]

But...but...I don't have any whisky to Irish up my coffee this morninng!

[Citizen X]

Irish doesn't like coffee.

Because it is black.

[bacon-magic]

Dead horse beating is not a crime on the webz! /snark-town

[Juvenile Bluster]

Sweet Meteor O'Death ?@smod2016 8h8 hours ago
1: Is there a way Trump and Hillary can both lose?
2: Yes, but it involves the mass extinction of?
1: You had me at "yes."

[LynchPin1477]

Warty's on the ballot?

[Swiss Servator]

No, no! That would be "DOOMCOCK 2016".

[Warty]

WARTY 2016

STILL THE GREATER EVIL

[Citizen X]

You've got my vote. Can i be your Secretary of Pillage?

[Warty]

Depends. Did you go to Yale?

[Citizen X]

Yes. Once. I was not invited back.

[lap83]

"I yust got out last week"

[thrakkorzog]

Cthulu 20166. For once, vote for the greater evil.

[Loki]

So, for some reason the last 2 mornings I've been unable to post links, either using the html tags or just copy/pasting the link into the comment without getting an error: An error occurred. Code 877.

Anyone know what the fuck's about?

Anyway, some guy is suing his former employer because his job was too boring. If the courts rule in his favor, than at least 95% of us should have a case. if anyone wants to read about it, google "man sues former employer over boring job" since the fucking skwirrelz aren't letting me post links. Fuck you, skwirrlz

[Notorious UGCC]

I couldn't get the link to the Daily Mail, but here's the headline:

"Frenchman sues former employers for ?280,000 because his job was so BORING it made him depressed and forced him to quit

"French man sues former bosses for making his job so boring he quit

"Frederic Desnard claims four years of menial tasks made him depressed

"He blames his bosses for him leaving, suing them for ?280,000"

[WTF]

That's why it's called "work", asshole, instead of "super terrific happy time". Otherwise they wouldn't have to pay you to do it.

[Notorious UGCC]

If you look hard enough, you can find someone who enjoys his/her job, at least most of the time.

But to get that kind of job, you generally have to do an apprenticeship in the kind of stuff you don't like doing.

[Rhywun]

Forget it, it's France-town.

[UnCivilServant]

Hell, that's standard procedure to get rid of a State Employee.

[Tonio]

I haven't had any trouble posting links, but the website is very slow and kludgy of late. I suspect it's the advertising. Yes, I know about NoScript and AdBlock.

[Swiss Servator]

Is there a SquirrelzBlock yet?

[Loki]

No.

[Loki]

Dammit, I was trying to double click the submit button to see if I could get a deliberate double post, just for lulz. The skwirrlz won't let me have any fun.

[Thymirus]

Georgia governor vetoes 'campus-carry' concealed gun bill

http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....cmp=hplnws

ATLANTA ? Georgia's Republican governor vetoed a bill Tuesday allowing concealed handguns on college campuses, rejecting the proposal that a legislature controlled by his own party had easily approved in an election year.

The bill would have allowed anyone 21 and over to carry a concealed handgun with the proper permit on a public college or university campus. The veto decision came weeks after Gov. Nathan Deal, who is in his second and final term, rejected a bill shielding opponents of gay marriage. That measure was backed by conservative groups but blasted by more than 500 Georgia companies as discriminatory.

Deal's decision to kill the gun bill isn't a complete surprise. After it passed the legislature, he asked members to pass follow-up bills addressing concerns about access to on-campus daycare centers, spaces where high schools students can take college-level courses and where disciplinary hearings are held. They declined, saying the original bill was carefully considered.

[Thymirus]

Shitbag politician playing shitbag games. Surprise, surprise.

[Jordan]

Whew. Now only people intent only committing murder will be armed, just like it should be.

[commodious spittoon]

But... they'd be breaking the law!

[WTF]

Well, that should deter them!

[Cdr Lytton]

Only because they don't have access to day care at college.

WTF is creating spaces where HS students can take college classes? They're already called AP classes. If they want to take real college courses, meet whatever existing requirements and take them with other college students. Or finish the HS requirements and graduate early. Creating special HS only college classes is just creating a pseudo experience.

[Aloysious]

2016 Sanders/Trump fusion ticket. The worst of all worlds.

[Rich]

The "Fuck All Party".

[Fist of Etiquette]

We'd be in a trade war with ourselves.

[commodious spittoon]

On the plus side, mass secession.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The proper spelling is 'extinction'.

[Crusty Juggler]

Top NY court upholds conviction for illegal folding knife

New York's highest court on Tuesday upheld a driver's conviction for illegal possession for a gravity knife, rejecting arguments that he didn't know the folding knife he used for work could open with a flick of the wrist.

Elliott Parrilla was pulled over for traffic and equipment violations in upper Manhattan in 2011. He told authorities the knife in his pocket was bought at a big Bronx retail store two years earlier to cut sheet rock, that he opened it only with two hands and had used it that morning to cut tile on a renovation project.

The Court of Appeals, ruling unanimously, concluded that not knowing about its illegal features doesn't invalidate the conviction.

[Rich]

The Court of Appeals, ruling unanimously, concluded that not knowing about its illegal features doesn't invalidate the conviction.

*** glares at Hillary ***

[Zeb]

Knife laws are so ridiculous.

Here's what most people use to cut sheetrock: http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-.....lity+knife

Guess what, it opens with one hand. But apparently folding is a deadly, offensive characteristic.

[SugarFree]

And they are just a hold over from moral panic about dusky types having them. Any blade over three inches is a concealed deadly weapon in KY. It's ridiculous.

[Swiss Servator]

*pssst...I hear the Messicans carry knives!*

[Zeb]

One libertarianish thing that has actually happened in NH over the past several years was complete repeal of restrictions on knives and other blades. And there hasn't been a rash of switchblade stabbings and sword-cane attacks. And I get to carry a 3 1/4" fully automatic opening knife, which is really a very useful thing.

[UnCivilServant]

Crap... I should go look up what absurd rules NY has...

[UnCivilServant]

The verbiage in the law for new york is good for some lulz until you remember that this is actual law.

A person is guilty of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree when:

(1)?He or she possesses any firearm, electronic dart gun, electronic stun gun, gravity knife, switchblade knife, pilum ballistic knife, metal knuckle knife, cane sword, billy, blackjack, bludgeon, plastic knuckles, metal knuckles, chuka stick, sand bag, sandclub, wrist-brace type slingshot or slungshot, shirken or "Kung Fu star"; ?or

(2)?He possesses any dagger, dangerous knife, dirk, razor, stiletto, imitation pistol, or any other dangerous or deadly instrument or weapon with intent to use the same unlawfully against another; ?or

(3)?; [FN1] ?or

(4)?He possesses a rifle, shotgun, antique firearm, black powder rifle, black powder shotgun, or any muzzle-loading firearm, and has been convicted of a felony or serious offense; ?or

(5)?He possesses any dangerous or deadly weapon and is not a citizen of the United States; ?or

(6)?[FYTW]*

(7)?He knowingly possesses a bullet containing an explosive substance designed to detonate upon impact.

(8)?He possesses any armor piercing ammunition with intent to use the same unlawfully against another.

Criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree is a class A misdemeanor.

* I Abbreviated a much longer clause.

[SugarFree]

Had to look up "pilium ballistic knife" and found this gem of polished bullshit:

After hearing uncorroborated testimony from a congressional witness that ballistic knives could be used to defeat body armor typically worn by police officers, and witnessing a staged demonstration against a wood-backed target,[11] Senator Alphonse D'Amato of New York introduced the Ballistic Knife Prohibition Act, a bill to ban sale or possession of ballistic knives. The bill eventually failed. However, after gaining the support of Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, and Dennis DeConcini of Arizona,[12] congressional support for a ban on import or possession of ballistic knives quickly gained traction. In September 1986 senators supporting the ballistic knife ban attached their bill to popular legislation designed to eradicate drug crops in foreign countries and halt international drug trafficking operations. The bill was subsequently enacted into law. The new federal statute prohibited future importation or possession of such knives in interstate commerce. Some individual states following the example set by the federal law and passed even tighter restrictions, sometimes banning ownership of the knives outright within their state.[13]

[Crusty Juggler]

Commonly carried by Negro drug dealing pimps.

[Loki]

I think the whole thing could be shortened to FYTW.

Also, "Kung-Fu star"? Really?! Who the fuck wrote that shit? Also, WTF is a "shirken"? Did they perhaps mean shuriken? Christ, what a bunch of fucktards.

[UnCivilServant]

Christ, what a bunch of fucktards.

Well, it is the New York State Legislature, so you'll get no argument there.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Well, because incompetence, it looks like there's a loophole for shuriken possession.

[Crusty Juggler]

New York City's law is even worse, which I am sure is surprising. Business Insider, of all places, wrote something about it.

Short version: it is an excuse for the NYPD to harass people, mostly minorities (like a janitor with a knife clipped to his belt) and garner them an easy arrest. The State doesn't care because it is New York City's stupid issue. Woo!

[SugarFree]

How dare you suggest the police might have a bias against minorities!

[commodious spittoon]

Ixnay on the isparateday impactay.

[WTF]

Maybe the dusky people are the ones who are actually doing all the law-breaking, you ever consider that?
/Irish

[Rhywun]

Also maddening: reform at the state level is being blocked by Republicans, apparently out of spite against the city.

The broadness of the gravity-knife law is mostly only taken advantage of by New York City law enforcement. Republicans have argued in the past against reforming it because it generally isn't applied in other parts of the state

[Thymirus]

Florida school ends nation's last tackle powder-puff football game

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016.....cmp=hplnws

UPITER, Fla. ? What boosters describe as the nation's last tackle powder-puff football game is no more, at least for now.

After 50 years of spirited competition between seniors and juniors, Jupiter High's principal has canceled the annual event, saying he doesn't believe helmets and shoulder pads borrowed from boys' teams adequately protect the girls who get crunched in the game.

The cancellation blindsided Jupiter, a middle-class suburb on the Palm Beach coast. The game packs the stands ? something the Jupiter boys' team rarely does ? and raised $7,000 last year, parents say. While boys dress like female cheerleaders in tight shorts, crop tops and wigs, the girls get to experience the thrill of competing before a roaring crowd instead of playing softball or soccer in front of a few dozen parents and friends.

[Thymirus]

Kids should be treated like delicate, retarded invalids, and risk is unacceptable. Straitjackets and permanent sedation for all!

[Rhywun]

boys dress like female cheerleaders in tight shorts, crop tops and wigs

"I'm comfortable with my masculinity, girlfriend."

[Notorious UGCC]

Truth in advertising: Cat videos

[Palin's Buttplug]

A new national poll released Wednesday shows that in a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump contest, she comes away with 54 percent of respondents' support and Trump with 41 percent.

100% name recognition for both of these bitches too. That # won't move much.

And Peanuts still think the GOP is "small Government" - hilarious. And delusional.

[Crusty Juggler]

What do you have against Snoopy and Woodstock?

[John]

Other polls have Trump up by three or Hillary ahead by the same. You can find a poll to fit whatever narrative you want.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Trump's only chance is to run as a high tax protectionist and pick off Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Obama is looking like FA Hayek in comparison.

[Citizen X]

How's Jeb doing, shreek?

[Palin's Buttplug]

Jeb was my pick to upend Trump.

Turns out everyone's pick to upend Trump was wrong. Florida Man was betting on Rubio.

I underestimated the stupidity of the GOP voter.

Imagine that, after disparaging the slick-haired idiots on TEAM RED! for years I actually held them in higher regard than I should have.

[WTF]

Pay your bet, fucktard.

[Domestic Dissident]

First president in American history without even one single year of 3% economic growth, despite more than doubling the public debt.

Choke on that one, biyatch.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Steady 2% is vastly better than the -8.9% he inherited from the Bushpigs.

And he did that chopping the deficit in half.

[WTF]

Pay your bet fuckstain.

[Domestic Dissident]

Total federal public debt as a percentage of GDP:

January 2009: 77%
Q4 2015: 104%

My source is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, because I know how much you worship the Top Men of the Fed.

Worst "economic recovery" since the Great Depression, bar none. No other recovery has been even close. Your Obamessiah one of the all-time great spenders of world history, with precious little to show for it.

Choke on the facts, biyatch.

[Palin's Buttplug]

This is the first Financial Crash since the Great Depression, you idiot. A garden variety recession it was not.

$15 trillion in actual wealth was erased in 2008 - just in the USA. Asset values were decimated.

In the puny little recession of 1980-81 net wealth increased.

[Domestic Dissident]

Hey fuckface, the financial crash was almost eight years ago, and the economic performance still sucks ass.

And everyone here knows that the biggest reason why is because your most venerated Obamessiah can't get enough of regulating the ever-living shit out of us. Obamacare is pretty much a disaster, with drastically overestimed numbers of enrollees, dropped coverage, fewer work hours, increased deficit projections, etc. etc.

And we won't even get into his War on Coal and his endless targeting of small business that won't tie the line on his agenda.

[Juice]

$15 trillion in actual wealth was erased in 2008

Actual? Might want to look up the definition.

[WTF]

Claim all of 2009 as Bush's and compare the single worst year of Bush's presidency to average of Obama's - what a dishonest fuckstick. But we already knew that about you. Pay your bet, asshole.

[R C Dean]

And he did that chopping the deficit in half.

Yet somehow, we added more to the national debt than we did to GDP. That means the economy actually shrunk, ex-debt, because debt = government spending = GDP, dollar for dollar.

A huge fucking success.

[John]

Libertarians of a paleocon bent should allow themselves to enjoy the conservative butt hurt over Trump winning the nomination, no matter what they think of Trump. In the early 2000s, conservatives read non interventionists out of the movement. If you didn't support the Iraq war, you were no longer welcome. I supported the Iraq war so that didn't bother me, though it should have. Now they have done the same thing to the white working class or anyone who doesn't support free trade without reservation. In 2003 anyone who didn't support the Iraq war was a secret terrorist sympathizer. In 2016, anyone who doesn't support free trade under all circumstances is a welfare queen wanting a hand out.

Low and behold kicking people out of your movement and attacking anyone deemed unpure has turned out to be a pretty sorry political strategy. How could all of those constitutional conservative geniuses have seen that coming?

And Trump's nomination should secure Kevin D. Williamson as the new holder of the David Frum Chair for self defeating jackasserdry. We should congratulate Mr. Williamson, he earned it.

[Zeb]

You are right from a practical politics point of view. They really shot themselves in the foot there.

But I find it pretty disappointing as trade was one of the few things I thought Republicans were pretty OK on. Better to see things as they really are, I guess.

[John]

They still are good even with Trump. Its not like Trump rejects international trade. Even if you do believe in total open markets to imports with no expectation of return treatment from other nations, the current round of trade agreements are so corporatist and so awful, I don't see how anyone who supports freedom no matter what their particular politics could support them. The TPP is nothing but a giant corporatist give away and is on balance an enormous restriction on freedom. I love my subsidized crap from China as much as the next guy, but when the price of getting that becomes giving away US sovereignty to supra national bureaucrats and weaponizing copyright law against free speech and innovation, I think I will pass.

[Zeb]

They are probably still better. And yeah, the TPP and most of the other supposed "free trade" agreements suck. I just had imagined that more of the rank and file republicans were a bit more principled about trade. Silly me.

[Palin's Buttplug]

You're completely full of shit - you progressive TEAM RED! suckup.

The TPP eliminates tariffs on 18,000 US made products. It is the US that has been open to tariff free imports for decades. The TPP corrects that along the Pacific Rim.

[John]

So did the EU you fucking half wit. How did that work out for freedom?

[Palin's Buttplug]

You've always been a xenophobic isolationist protectionist, John. I can't believed you fooled the rubes on this board that you possess an ounce of libertarian blood.

[Citizen X]

Say what you want about confirmed chubby-chaser John, he has never claimed to be a libertarian, shreek. Also, news flash: you haven't fooled anyone into thinking you're a libertarian, either. Ever.

[John]

I don't understand how Libertarians can support restraints on freedom and supra national organizations. Just because it uses the word "free" doesn't mean it will make you more free.

[R C Dean]

I continue to be puzzled by how a multi-thousand page regulation that spawns bureaucracies is a net increase for liberty, myself.

[WTF]

Pay your bet fuckstick.

[Stormy Dragon]

The TPP is nothing but a giant corporatist give away and is on balance an enormous restriction on freedom.

John: failure to tax is a handout, if you're one of those yellow devils.

[John]

So you are down with the US government making copyright law criminal? That is what the TPP does stormy. And you are totally okay with a layer of supra national bureacrats setting rules and regulations on American products as opposed to the American government?

If you can defend the TPP, do it. But the fact that TPP is corporaitst bullshit has nothing to do with taxes and you know it. You generally are more honest than shreek.

[Palin's Buttplug]

"Corporatist"? You sound like a whiny little Bernie Bagger.

[John]

its called regulatory capture you fascist half wit.

[Irish, Target-Bathroom Rapist]

"Libertarians of a paleocon bent should allow themselves to enjoy the conservative butt hurt over Trump winning the nomination, no matter what they think of Trump"

I like how Trump fans think pointing out Trump's complete incompetence and unfitness to be president means you're butt hurt.

Especially tremendous given that any criticism of white trash sends Trumpistas into conniption fits. Kevin Williamson said destitute white *communities* should die so that the people in them can move to where actual jobs are, for example, and Trump supporters then spent a month and a half drooling all over themselves while hysterically claiming he said poor white *people* should die.

And it's Trump's *opponents* who are butthurt? Trump's entire campaign consists of tapping into his supporters' eternal ass pain and Trump supporters claim it's other people being unreasonable. Please.

[SugarFree]

Encouraging projection is Trump's greatest skill.

[John]

Nothing says Libertarian like saying drug users deserve unemployment. That is what Williamson said. And you guys think he is great because saying so allows you to social signal.

[SugarFree]

Your mind-reading skills are unparalleled.

[John]

Do you not like Williamson? If you don't, say so. If I am mischaracterizing your opinion, tell me how I am. Its not hard, just say what you actually think.

Maybe it is just me but when someone says that I believe something I don't, I correct them and tell them is in fact my opinion. I don't say "you just think you are a mind reader". I honstly don't see what the point of saying that is. It doesn't debase someone of their erroneous opinion of my thoughts. I honestly can't see why anyone would say that. So why do you? Why can't you just say "no, I don't like Kevin Williamson" or "no, Williamson isn't saying that..."?

[SugarFree]

What I said had nothing to do with Williamson whatsoever.

He's just another socon with his hand up his own ass that you would be defending if he hadn't gone after your precious Trump.

[John]

You said that the Trump supporters were just projecting in response to Irish's defense of Williamson. Wasn't the point of that to say that they were projecting in this case, meaning Williamson wasn't wrong? That is how I read it. Again, if you meant something different, just say so. You own your point. If I misunderstand it, point it out.

Also, I did imply you like Williamson. If you don't or have no opinion about him, just say that. That would push the conversation a long much more than some off the wall comment about mind reading.

[Zeb]

Williamson was right about poor communities with nothing going on needing to die (the alternative basically being propped up with welfare). I, at least, have no further opinion on Williamson. I'm pretty sure Irish and SF weren't trying to say much more than that, if even that.

[commodious spittoon]

I thought personal responsibility is a plank of conservatism.

Who am I kidding, conservatism is dead. Viva la Trump! It's going to be a fun six months.

[John]

So people who lose their jobs because of the regulatory state are responsible for it? Are the coal miners who are getting fucked by the EPA just not accepting personal responsibility? That is an interesting view of personal responsibility I must say.

[Lee G]

You can oppose the EPA's actions and at the same time think that those areas need to move ahead. Natural gas is putting the hurt on coal even without the EPA's help.

[John]

How about we take the EPA's foot off their throat and let the market decide that Lee? Its nice that you and other top men think the "country needs to move ahead" and all but I would rather let the market decide that if that is okay.

[cavalier973]

Trump's solution is to massively raise taxes. I have heard no discussion from him about rolling back regulations.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I thought personal responsibility is a plank of conservatism

Yeah, for about five minutes into the Reagan era before deficit spending went through the roof.

[John]

Kevin D. Williamson said those communities deserved to die as if they are dying as the result of some ultimate justice delivered by the free market and the drug warrior gods. He is such an asshat and so smug, he couldn't even make the right case. The case he should have made was that those communities are dying because the regulatory state is killing them. That Trump is pointing to the wrong culprit. Doing that would have prevented him from being smug and sayind these people got what they deserved.

I would also point out that Williamson engaged in the worst sort of drug warrior bullshit. The entire article was based on the assumption that anyone who uses drugs is going to destroy their lives and any misfortune that occurs is the fault of them using drugs. Even if you believe those communities should die, what the fuck does the fact that people who live there take drugs have to do with it? Nothing, unless you are jackass drug warrior who thinks drugs are the evil poison, which Williamson apparently is.

Lastly of course none of the shit he said about drugs is even true. Poor people don't use drugs or abuse drugs anymore than rich people. Study after study has shown that. They just get caught more often. Five minutes of google searching would have revealed that. But Williamson is too stupid, lazy and smug to do that.

Unless you want to become a drug warrior, I would advise you against being a Williamson fan boy.

[Lee G]

Even if you believe those communities should die, what the fuck does the fact that people who live there take drugs have to do with it?

It has a lot to do with their ability to get a job. Low-skill labor almost always requires drug testing because you are quite often working in physically dangerous conditions. I oppose the drug war wholeheartedly, however drug use is an impediment to improving your financial condition. If they want out of poverty, they need to take the steps necessary to do so.

[John]

First, the people there don't use drugs at any higher level than anywhere else. The data shows that. Second, that is drug warrior bullshit. Millions of people all over this country use drugs and do so while working and functioning. To believe otherwise is to believe that drugs are this magical substance that turns hard working people into bums. Sorry, I don't buy that bullshit and neither should you.

[Lee G]

I didn't say it turns them into bums.

If you are a roofing contractor, you have to drug test. If you employ heavy machinery operators, you have to drug test. If you have delivery trucks, you have to drug test. The insurers require it and the liability is just too damn high to not do it.

Moral judgments aside, drug use is a hindrance to getting a job. If you need work, your best option is to be clean.

[Lee G]

Secondly, the jobs aren't in Appalachia anymore. Like Sam Kinison said, move.

[John]

If I were those things I would make sure my workers showed up to work sober and ready to work and if they didn't I would fire them. What they did outside of work is their own business. Again, do you really think that because someone smokes pot one weekend that they are then going to show up to work stoned? If not, then what is the point of testing them?

[Lee G]

The point of testing them is because if there is an accident, they're going to be tested then. If they test positive and you do not have a testing regime in place to weed them out of the employee pool, you can be held liable or your insurer will refuse to cover it.

That's just the way it is.

And if you are working on a government contract, you are required to have drug testing anyway. Given that government construction is a huge portion of the overall industry, you would be foolish to not have a employee pool that was already compliant per the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988.

[commodious spittoon]

And that aside, it's not as if drug testing is the only indicator of drug use. I have worked in construction on and off for over a decade. I've heard stories from my family, who's in the business, for longer still. Meth, crack, heroin, and alcoholism can be debilitating and personally endangering, but they can also sap initiative and make otherwise competent laborers essentially unemployable. You just cannot keep a guy on payroll who's sneaking off to the portajohn to light up.

Yes, drug testing is pretty much bullshit for many occupations and for many recreational drugs, but hard drug use is detrimental even without weeding out users by testing.

[UnCivilServant]

If you are a roofing contractor, you have to drug test. If you employ heavy machinery operators, you have to drug test. If you have delivery trucks, you have to drug test.

If you work on a helpdesk you have to drug test.

Yes, it was a term of employment. The job paid $12.32/hr and got outsourced to India, despite the fact the Indian agents were less than 1/3rd as efficient at handling calls (with fewer resolutions without escalation). I don't know if they could pay $4.08 for the Mumbai agents. (I know the ticket statistics because I had a secondary duty of supporting the ticketing system despite only being there a year. I saw the data. And then there were all of the callers in the transitional peiod whose first reaction to hearing my voice was to exclaim their joy at having gotten an American agent.)

I'm not actually bitter (anymore) I make much more than that now.

[Rhywun]

Every low-skill job I had growing up had no testing. These were non-physical jobs, though. Hotels, grocery stores, that sort of thing. Service jobs - the kind that tend to dominate after industry has left your town. The only testers were big corporations that were doing some moral preening (e.g. Blockbuster).

[EMD]

Restaurants and hotels can't test because they'd have a near-zero pool of applicants to hire from.

[Rhywun]

outsourced to India

Hell, most of industry (IT) has been outsourced. With mixed results I would have to say.

[Rhywun]

(*my* industry)

[Aloysious]

Anecdote:
From personal experience, working with alcoholics is just impossible. Working with people who smoke weed is much less problematic. Working with people who take speed is a trip; those sweaty, twitchy bastards.

[Hamster of Doom]

Moral judgments aside, drug use is a hindrance to getting a job. If you need work, your best option is to be clean.

All drug testing does is keep you from hiring stupid druggies.

Never seen a restaurant yet that didn't have a "guy who knew a guy." And yet drug tests are so common in the restaurant industry. It's almost like banning something just means people innovate their way around your ban, enabled by people who don't know anything about drugs fancying that no mere druggie could pull the wool over their eyes, nossir. *taps nose slyly*

[Free Society]

Kevin Williamson said destitute white *communities* should die so that the people in them can move to where actual jobs are, for example, and Trump supporters then spent a month and a half drooling all over themselves while hysterically claiming he said poor white *people* should die.

I don't disagree with him necessarily. There are so many shithole towns and cities that are only standing because welfare exists, the working middle class have all moved away while society's lowest common denominators stick around because the cost of living is low and the welfare checks are as high as they would be anywhere else.

However, you and I both know that this logic applies equally to basically every inner-city neighborhood in every large city in the US, but if someone applied that same argument by saying "black communities should die", people would be shitting their beds all across this great land. Including many people that post here at Reason who agree that these "white communities should die".

[John]

I would disagree with you about the inner cities. Those communities occupy what were once some of the most productive places on earth. They only are not now because the governments in those places have waged war on the productive and driven them elsewhere. The same is true of the industrial communities in the midwest. Those communities don't deserve to die. They deserve to have the government take its boot off of their throats. That is the case Williamson should have made but is too much of a smug douche bag to have made it.

[Free Society]

I live in a rustbelt region. There are cities all around my area whose economy depends solely on welfare benefits pouring in from more productive areas of the state and the country. Yes the government needs to get their boot off people's neck, yes the existence of the rustbelt itself is largely hugely the fault of government policies, but the fact remains that there are municipalities that have no business to continue existing when the only reason their population doesn't either starve or get their shit together is the extortion of successful individuals and communities. Cut off their welfare, cut off everyone's welfare, and those municipalities will wither away and die. As it should be.

I don't particularly care for how Kevin framed it, in terms of "white communities" as if it were a question of racial hygene, instead of a purely economic situation. But the fact remains, there are cities and municipalities all over the country that have no right to exist, owing to their economic activity consisting almost entirely of government extortion.

[John]

Those communities don't deserve to die. They deserve to be revitalized by the government getting out of the way. I don't think there is any other proper way to frame it. To say they deserve to die is to really just accept it that the government can never be stopped or the damage it does undone and that is just not true.

A community that deserves to die is one that is no longer inhabitable for whatever reason or has lost all economic usefulness (like a gold rush town or something). These communities are not those. They could come back if only the government would allow it.

[Free Society]

Those communities don't deserve to die. They deserve to be revitalized by the government getting out of the way.

Assuming they have the wherewithal to revitalize themselves, sure. But the people in those towns aren't in those towns because they have so much wherewithal to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Blaming the government for your woes will only take you so far. People bear a personal responsibility for their own lives and that of their family. Take for evidence that most cities and towns are not rundown parasite colonies and they're dealing with a very similar, if not identical, government boot on their neck.

These towns, like Fostoria Ohio being my favorite local example, have populations that have unproductive parasites being grossly over-represented among them. If the government boot were suddenly off their neck, it's not these people that would form the basis of a productive community. Those people have a place in a post-welfare world to be sure, we need people to dig ditches and clean up feces after all. But they need to be thinned and spread out across the larger society like a fart in the wind because a fart concentrated in one location is a nasty thing to behold and of no use to anyone.

[John]

If the government stopped killing those places, the people there would have a reason to be productive and productive people would move there. If you think the entire country is full of bums who will never be anything but parasites, then I am not sure what to tell you. Maybe Williamson is right and we should just kill those people and bulldoze their homes. I am a bit more optimistic than that.

[Free Society]

If you think the entire country is full of bums who will never be anything but parasites, then I am not sure what to tell you.

You'd know I don't think that if you bothered to read what I wrote

Take for evidence that most cities and towns are not rundown parasite colonies and they're dealing with a very similar, if not identical, government boot on their neck.

Maybe Williamson is right and we should just kill those people and bulldoze their homes. I am a bit more optimistic than that.

I never said that. I said cut the subsidies that keep them in existence.

[commodious spittoon]

Neither did Williamson, but that doesn't stop John on a tear.

[John]

If they are just parasites and their communities deserve to die, isn't killing them and bulldozing their homes a rational answer to that?

I don't you don't think that but both you and Williamson engage in the kinds of ugly generalizations that lead to such conclusions.

[Free Society]

If they are just parasites and their communities deserve to die, isn't killing them and bulldozing their homes a rational answer to that?

No. Explain to me how it would be rational to conduct a genocide and obliterate property rights because some communities don't deserve to exist on welfare subsidies. That's a monumental leap that you know I'm not arguing for.

I don't you don't think that but both you and Williamson engage in the kinds of ugly generalizations that lead to such conclusions.

Which generalization did I make? That communities whose sole economic activity is parasitism don't deserve to be communities? I don't see that as an unfair generalization.

[commodious spittoon]

The generalization that he made up and stuffed in your mouth.

[Free Society]

The generalization that he made up and stuffed in your mouth.

Sometimes I'm amazed by how hard he works to not read the argument he's opposing. I say cut their welfare lifeline, he hears "yay genocide!".

[Zeb]

Sometimes cities die. I think you are right that more would have a chance without the regulatory burden. But some would disappear without welfare propping them up.

[Loki]

if someone applied that same argument by saying "black communities should die", people would be shitting their beds all across this great land

Hating on poor white trash is the last socially acceptable form of intolerance and bigotry. Because "white privilege." I'd love to see some smug limousine liberal academic go try and explain to some poor trailer dwelling Appalachian white dude that he's privileged. See how long it takes for the hillbilly to bust him in the mouth.

[commodious spittoon]

You know, just because "you're not allowed to say that about blacks" doesn't mean it should be said about whites. As Sowell points out, political patronage is not the key to economic success. Blacks have patronage up to here and not a lot to show for it: anyone who suggests anything untoward about blacks is subject to public censure, but by the same coin that applies to critiques of welfarism and black attitudes toward education. So Democrat-run political machines in big cities confer power to blacks in the power structure while rolling right over blacks outside the power structure.

Insulating poor whites from critiques about poor white communities is not going to make them any less poor.

[commodious spittoon]

doesn't mean it shouldn't be said about whites.

[Azathoth!!]

Fly that double standard--fly it high and proud!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Hating on poor white trash is the last socially acceptable form of intolerance and bigotry

We'll always have fatties...

[commodious spittoon]

Until you get lunatics like Trigglypuff, and suddenly the fatties really are rubber and you are in fact glue.

[EMD]

The "we need so-and-so to bring jobs back" mindset is so entrenched in many rust belt societies.

It's depressing.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Both parties have been kicking the white working class around for a good while now. This was most evident following the 2012 election when the raw number of white voters dropped to 2004 levels. Trump realized this, seized it, and ran with it.

[John]

And conservatives were too stupid and arrogant to do it. They didn't even have to make much of a big deal about trade. Just shut up about it and instead killed the Democrats for the regulatory state. The regulatory state is killing this country. Conservatives still understand that but they have become too stupid to communicate that to people. They stopped talking about how their policies would benefit people and instead just spoke in buzz words as if everyone agreed with them or even gave a shit.

You tell me what Ted Cruz actually stands for? He is a "conservative". He believes in the constitution. He believes in liberty (unless it involves using drugs other than pot). What does any of that actually mean and why should anyone who doesn't already support him care? That question was never answered and explains why he lost so badly.

[commodious spittoon]

In favor of a snakeoil candidate who sold them on an impossible dream: kick out all those messicans and bring back all those jobs. These chumps fell for it, and are going to get kicked in the teeth come November along with anyone who isn't Team Hill. Remind me why I shouldn't hold poor whites in a bit of contempt for going along with a contemptible candidate?

[John]

And conservatives are so stupid and sorry they lost to said candidate. Every bad thing you say about Trump just makes the conservative movement look that much worse for having lost to him. They couldn't even convince Republican voters.

You can rationalize that all you want about the evil stupid voters just not understanding. But if conservatives want to be anything but losers they might want to accept some responsibility for their fate. Funny how a movement that claims to be about personal responsibility blames everyone else for the movement's failures.

[commodious spittoon]

I'm not defending the GOP. I'm defending the righteous critiques of Trump's voters.

[John]

That is right. Those people have no grievance and deserve absolutely no say in the national government. That seems to be the opinion of all right thinking people. The idea that maybe they are being fucked or maybe there are downsides to open borders and the people who suffer those downsides at least have a point is not something that any right thinking person could ever admit.

Why don't we just drop the mask and admit the truth. Kevin Williamson and Jeb Bush have. Those people suck and are parasites on society and Mexicans are just a superior race. We can't kill them, but we can kick them out of every aspect of society we can and hope they die.

[commodious spittoon]

Well, the GOP is getting their righteous comeuppance, John.

Doesn't mean po' white hicks are any better company.

[John]

I know spittoon. They just need to die.

[commodious spittoon]

Here's one example of Williamson suggesting letting the wilderness retake those poor white towns:

"The draw," the monthly welfare checks that supplement dependents' earnings in the black-market Pepsi economy, is poison. It's a potent enough poison to catch the attention even of such people as those who write for the New York Times. Nicholas Kristof, visiting nearby Jackson, Ky., last year, was shocked by parents who were taking their children out of literacy classes because the possibility of improved academic performance would threaten $700-a-month Social Security disability benefits, which increasingly are paid out for nebulous afflictions such as loosely defined learning disorders. "This is painful for a liberal to admit," Kristof wrote, "but conservatives have a point when they suggest that America's safety net can sometimes entangle people in a soul-crushing dependency."

Wait, that sounds more like he's applying Walter Williams' and Jason Riley's critiques of black communities to whites.

Must be a dogwhistle for STEAMROLLIN'.

[commodious spittoon]

In effect, welfare has made Appalachia into a big and sparsely populated housing project ? too backward to thrive, but just comfortable enough to keep the underclass in place. There is no cure for poverty, because there is no cause of poverty ? poverty is the natural condition of the human animal. It is not as though labor and enterprise are unknown here: Digging coal is hard work, farming is hard work, timbering is hard work ? so hard that the best and brightest long ago packed up for Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or Memphis or Houston. There is to this day an Appalachian bar in Detroit and ex-Appalachian enclaves around the country. The lesson of the Big White Ghetto is the same as the lessons we learned about the urban housing projects in the late 20th century: The best public-policy treatment we have for poverty is dilution. But like the old project towers, the Appalachian draw culture produces concentration, a socio?economic Salton Sea that becomes more toxic every year.

[commodious spittoon]

What a hack! He doesn't mention anything about the EPA in this paragraph. Of course, what is the likelihood that capital would return to these little pisspot communities even if the EPA disappeared overnight? Why wouldn't it go wherever the skilled labor has gone? Why would the skilled labor return home even if the capital reconcentrated in these areas, rather than sticking around wherever they're already profitable? And if capital accumulation serves only to attract skilled labor rather than reskill laborers already there, in the process raising the cost of living, what good has it done the hicks already living there?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

They'll be a lot better off once Trump kicks out all the dirty Mexicans and then personally goes to China and puts Xi in a headlock until he returns all of the jobs. After that, he'll take away all of Iran's nukes and give them to Seoul to use against the Norks and everyone will be in awe of Amurka's return to greatness, amirite, John? It'll be terrific, or so I have been promised.

[EMD]

My mother favors Trump. I don't believe the woman is stupid nor evil.

Her simple explanation is "We need someone from outside politics."

It's an outsider election.

[commodious spittoon]

In favor of a snakeoil candidate who sold them on an impossible dream: kick out all those messicans and bring back all those jobs. These chumps fell for it, and are going to get kicked in the teeth come November along with anyone who isn't Team Hill. Remind me why I shouldn't hold poor whites in a bit of contempt for going along with a contemptible candidate?

[Citizen X]

#NotAllPoorWhiteTrash

[robc]

I blame Trump for the death of the USFL. Between that and his support of the Kelo decision, I dont need to discuss anything else about him.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"is a welfare queen wanting a hand out."

Just 'cause you're socialist scum doesn't mean they're wrong for pointing it out.

That being said, I am quite enjoying Trump's rise. He's less likely than the mainstream Republicans or Democrats to fuck shit up, because he lacks support on the legislative level, he's the only one with skepticism on waste in the foreign policy department, and was the only non-mainstream Republican with a chance of winning. So huzzah for Trump!! Long may he torment the Republican elites.

[Irish, Target-Bathroom Rapist]

I made the mistake of reading Ann Coulter's book on immigration.

Did you know Mexicans are uniquely bad at littering and Ann Coulter's proof of this is random blog comments on the internet?

Did you know Asians don't help the US tech industry because most of the people who start the companies are white people? Sure over 50% of the actual programmers in Silicon Valley are Asians, but Ann Coulter doesn't want to talk about that.

Also, we should all be terrified of Central American voodoo religions because a very, very small percentage of Central Americans belong to this religion and a very, very small percentage of people belonging to that religion have historically practiced human sacrifice. Therefore, the fact that 0.001% of all immigrants might theoretically belong to a death cult means we should halt all immigration.

It's really amazing fear mongering nonsense.

[John]

Have you ever spent much time in Mexico? Let's just say its not Switzerland. I don't think you have to read blog comments to realize Mexicans don't have the same view of littering most Americans do, or used to.

[Irish, Target-Bathroom Rapist]

Have you ever spent time in Appalachia? Let's just say Appalachians don't have much qualms about littering either, and neither do a lot of poor whites. This is a common issue with lower classes worldwide. I'll pay you $500,000 the day Ann Coulter says something similar about white poor people though.

And quoting blog comments in a book is ridiculous. I'm sorry, but if you can't find better information than anonymous internet commenters, you probably need to do better research.

[Warty]

Places with a lot of Trump signs have a lot of piles of old tires and old cars up on cinder blocks. Maybe we shouldn't let those people into the country.

[Idle Hands]

Tomaron nuestros trabajos.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

?Nos quitaron nuestros empleos!

(Translation: THEM TAKUM ER JEBZ!)

[John]

I have been all over it. And it is like the old West Germany compared to Mexico. It just is. It is not that Mexicans are bad people. They just don't have the same view of what a city should look like that we do.

The people in Appalachia are of course bad people and drastically inferior to Mexican. We all know that and would never think you don't as well.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Re: John,

. It just is. It is not that Mexicans are bad people. They just don't have the same view of what a city should look like that we do.

Indeed? I have to question then the purpose of ALL those signs threatening people all over the US with a $1,000 fine for littering. What does THAT tell you?

The point is that littering is not a uniquely Mexican thing. Or a Latin American thing. It is a HUMAN thing. Ann Coulter is simply peddling scary stories about foreigners, that's all. Next thing you know, she's going to go after those pesky Gypsies...

[UnCivilServant]

The point is that littering is not a uniquely Mexican thing. Or a Latin American thing. It is a HUMAN thing.

My office used to be located in a building that overlooked the capital lawn. I called it "Protest Park" because it's where all the people would gather to protest this that or the other thing. There was a funny thing that was plainly visible from seven floors up - after the protest was over, the people who left the most trash on the lawn were those demanding more free shit.

[John]

ndeed? I have to question then the purpose of ALL those signs threatening people all over the US with a $1,000 fine for littering. What does THAT tell you?

It tells me that we have an insane government that preys on its citizens with fines and thinks laws and fines are the solution to every problem. It tells me nothing about people's actual propensity to litter and everything about the government.

And last I looked, there are millions of central Americans and Mexicans in this country. I fully understand as a plane native born American that I have to bow to you and other members of the superior races but it is just possible that some of the superior race brought their littering habits with them when they came here.

[Loki]

Next thing you know, she's going to go after those pesky Gypsies...

I have it on good authority that they're tramps and thieves.

[John]

Have you ever been where there are Gypsies? That is what they are. They are an entire culture and society based on begging and theft. They are truly incorrigible and the type of culture Libertarianism can't account for or understand.

[Loki]

I was quoting the famous song by Sonny and Cher for lulz, dude, Jesus titty-fucking Christ.

[Citizen X]

Forget it, Loki, he's rolling.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"The people in Appalachia are of course bad people and drastically inferior to Mexican."

Then let's trade 'em for Mexicans. I see no reason why, if we're going to be picky about who can come IN to the country, we shouldn't be equally picky about who can STAY in the country. Let's deport the Appalachians, entitled college students majoring in useless careers, and people on welfare somewhere else and trade 'em for the best immigrants we can find in other countries.

All I know is if we're going to try to control the cultural demographics of America we shouldn't do it half-assed and let stupid American subcultures exist within our borders just because they were born in the right place.

[Lee G]

Actually, in a littering contest, I think Philadelphia and Baltimore take the prize.

[WTF]

I've never been to Baltimore, but Philadelphia? Definitely.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Re: John,

Have you ever spent much time in Mexico? Let's just say its not Switzerland.

Have you been to Detroit?

Please.

[kbolino]

We should start a betting pool on how long before what you said gets misrepresented.

[Zeb]

Heh.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Irish just said hates Mexicans because they all litter

[Swiss Servator]

*nods in agreement*

[Tonio]

I made the mistake of reading Ann Coulter's book on immigration.

Oh, Irish, no...

[WTF]

Seriously, why would anyone do that?

[creech]

You ever see old photos of the slums of New York City? Damn Italian and Irish immigrants left trash and crap everywhere. Oh wait, those are 2016 photos I'm looking at.

[Lee G]

If not for Mexicans, the construction industry would come to a screeching halt. They work, they work hard, and they pass drug tests. None of which I can say about native whites or blacks. I've got customers who consider it worthwhile to pay attorneys to handle immigration issues just because the Mexican workers are so much more productive.

[sarcasmic]

Anyone who uses the phrase "Lazy Mexican" has never worked with any Mexicans.

[Crusty Juggler]

It's Mex-I-Can, not Mex-I-Can't!

[Citizen X]

I knew a contractor who hired his Mexican son-in-law as his assistant. When the daughter filed for divorce, the contractor did the math: he kept the former son-in-law on, and stopped talking to his daughter.

[R C Dean]

Anyone who uses the phrase "Lazy Mexican" has never worked with any Mexicans.

That's been my experience, at least with manual laborers.

[EMD]

That's Manuel Laborer.

[Hamster of Doom]

If not for Mexicans, the construction and restaurant industry would come to a screeching halt.

Also accurate. Most sous chefs and above these days speak some Spanish. Few employers require it that I've seen, but if you can't speak a lick of Spanish, you're in trouble.

They show up on time and cause less fuss, too.

[John]

So we didn't have restaurants before waves of Central American immigrants? I am pretty sure we did and those jobs were filled somehow.

[Lee G]

Sure we did. The point is that the welfare state has corrupted native-born US labor. It's financially better for them to not work than to take low-pay jobs. I see and hear about it all the time in the construction industry.

[sarcasmic]

Restaurants have been predominantly staffed by brown immigrants since at least the 80s. This isn't new.

[John]

I wouldn't say since the 60s. There were hardly any brown immigrants in this country before 1966. And the real explosion didn't even start until the 1980s.

[Zeb]

Good thing he didn't say "since the 60s".

Are you denying that since the 60s, the native low skilled workforce has been to some extent corrupted and ruined by welfare and other entitlements?

[sarcasmic]

John blames brown people who talk funny, not welfare. They be stealin' are jerbs. He just won't say it in so many words.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Re: John,

So we didn't have restaurants before waves of Central American immigrants?

FICA, FUTA, SS, Medicare and minimum wages were a lot LOWER before the Great Central American Migration from the South.

[John]

So what?

[sarcasmic]

Oh, I see. This is the part where you become deliberately obtuse. Got it.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I thought we hit that part at about 9:15 when John mentioned Trump the first time.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

And now they're filled with Hispanic people more qualified than their Welfare-dependent natural-born American counterparts. Free market motherfucker.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Well, not totally free market. Welfare culture has made most Americans lazy, and now their being replaced with better laborers. The cause of the decline of American unskilled labor was not free market, but the solution certainly is.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

The best Greek restaurant in my town has exclusively Spanish-speaking Hispanic cooks...

[Azathoth!!]

It's cheaper to hire illegals.

The fact that labor regulation has priced American workers out of jobs is not a good thing. And that's why Mexicans are on construction sites and in kitchens--because the regulations that go with hiring an American means you only hire Americans for upper level positions.

And all the Americans who could have got those 'foot-in-the-door' jobs are now not even it the running.

Not because of any innate laziness--but because government has made it so only highly skilled Americans are worth the hassle of hiring.

[EMD]

BANG!

[Notorious UGCC]

Constitution Party nominee Darrell Castle has a day job as head of a national law firm.

In the latter capacity, he advertises his willingness to file wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of the families of those killed by cops.

"I'm incredibly grateful for the men and women who serve in the Memphis police force and risk their own lives every day. I want to see them well-protected, both financially and under the law. At the same time, there are real problems happening out there, from the shooting of unarmed suspects to militarized raids on the wrong homes. I've seen both happen in our own city.

"In general, I believe wrongful death suits can be an effective way for victims to pursue justice. Many people are uncomfortable with prosecuting police for misconduct, especially if the act in question appeared to be a horrible mistake. I understand that, but I also understand the desire for justice when you lose a loved one in a way that seems, far too often, preventable."

If he ever gets mainstream media attention, this little gem will get mentioned.

[Notorious UGCC]

"our own city" = Memphis, Tenn

[Tonio]

Well, the lamestream media do this little dance every presidential election where they actually talk about third parties when it's a really slow news day. I suspect that coverage may prove surprisingly popular this year, ultimately leading to more ballot access.

[Free Society]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

I wonder if this, latest, infringement of property rights will create any moral hazards or have any ripple effects on the prevalence of petty theft...

[Tonio]

Foreseeable consequences are not unintended.

[R C Dean]

*tips top hat*

[Warty]

Kevin D. Williamson ?@KevinNR 11h11 hours ago
"A shotgun and a pillowcase full of Krugerrands is a viable Plan B."

That sounds about right.

[Swiss Servator]

YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST THE GLORIOUS GOLDEN MAPLE LEAF MADE FROM FINE NORTH 'MURICAN GOLD?!?!?!

[Warty]

Doesn't sound nearly Nazi enough.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Re: Swiss Servator,

YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST THE GLORIOUS GOLDEN MAPLE LEAF MADE FROM FINE NORTH 'MURICAN GOLD?!?!?!

Krugerrands have a litte bit of copper, making the coins less susceptible to scratching and thus more durable if used as currency. Gold Maple Leafs are made of 99.9999% pure gold, thus... they are susceptible to scratching.

[But Enough About Me]

Actually, standard Maple are 99.99% pure ("four nines fine"), NOT 99.9999% pure. Six nines is unheard-of in bullion. You can get special Maples that are five nines, though....

[But Enough About Me]

The other good thing about the gold Maple Leaf is that it's a coin with a stated face value of $50.00 CDN. Since "face value" of currency (including coins) is what matters for moving currency across borders with currency ceilings, you can move 200 1-oz Maple Leafs into the States from Canada and still be in compliance with export regs. The melt value of 200 oz of gold is around $335,000 CDN right now...

[Crusty Juggler]

Someone just watched Lethal Weapon 2.

[Citizen X]

Hitler?

[Warty]

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were the big winners in Indiana yesterday.

There's no question who the big losers were: US!

John Kasich never says die.

"So, where's the exit door? Can't find it! Nope. Can't!"

Meanwhile, Google searches for "Libertarian Party" and "Gary Johnson" skyrocketed last night.

Take the money and run! PLEASE!

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

Which means: "Say arrivederci to free samples!"

A new national poll released Wednesday shows that in a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump contest, she comes away with 54 percent of respondents' support and Trump with 41 percent.

Her win is hyuuuuge!

A libertarian think tank, The Beacon Center, is suing over a Tennessee law requiring an occupational license to shampoo hair.

ANARCHISTS! They want the streets filled with children with split ends!

[WTF]

Polls also show that voter participation in the Republican primaries is up by around 60%, over 2012, while voter participation in the Democratic promaries is down about 13%. I don't see how that translates into a Hillary blowout.

[OldMexican Trained Philosopher]

Re: WTF,

Polls also show that voter participation in the Republican primaries is up by around 60%, over 2012, while voter participation in the Democratic promaries is down about 13%. I don't see how that translates into a Hillary blowout.

Voter fraud.

What else? It's the American tradition.

[WTF]

Voter fraud.

To this point, I must concede.

[Stormy Dragon]

Well, I see now that Trump has the nomination tied up, John has gone full REDtard.

[ant1sthenes]

That ship sailed a while back.

[Stormy Dragon]

Mo, he's hit an entirely new level today. I mean up thread he's actually ranting about gypsies.

[paranoid android]

I don't think he can top his "all women are whores and any successful woman must have slept her way to the top" rants from a few months back.

[Citizen X]

That one was a joy to behold.

[Zeb]

To be fair, Gypsies living their "traditional" lifestyle do seem to live up to the stereotypes.

[Stormy Dragon]

Killer bees live up to the stereotypes too. But they're so uncommon that only crackpots rant about them.

[R C Dean]

Killer bees:

http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/s.....-east-side

http://www.kgun9.com/news/loca.....rita-ranch

And that's just in Tucson in the last several months.

[Citizen X]

The NY Post's readership has known that for a couple of months now.

[Juice]

An Italian court ruled that "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirement of feeding themselves."

But they should be punished if they don't see an earthquake coming.

[Free Society]

Magical thinking is the cornerstone of Italian jurisprudence.

[Idle Hands]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but behold I have seen the future and it is retarded:

Bringing my adopted cat, Jameson, home with me in 2014 was one of the happiest days of my life.

Having to go back to work two days later was one of the worst.

While the rest of the country is hung up on the necessity of maternity leave ? or even the newly coined "meternity" ? one group continues to be overlooked when it comes to paid time off from work: new pet owners.

"Paw-ternity" leave is already a reality in the UK ? the US pet-insurance provider Petplan found that nearly 5 percent of new pet owners in the UK were offered time off to care for their four-legged kids. (Not surprisingly, the UK is also light-years ahead of the US when it comes to maternity leave, offering up to 39 weeks of paid leave for new mothers.)

[Idle Hands]

smdh.

[Vampire]

Stop shaking your dickhead.

[Idle Hands]

I just went pee.

[lap83]

If companies want to offer that, great. But if people who take time off for a newborn already get grief from coworkers and managers, imagine how much worse it will be for someone taking time off for a cat. Then we'll get to hear bitching about how people who treat their animals like humans dont get enough emotional support from coworkers who have to pick up the slack

[Citizen X]

Somebody did post this yesterday, but it deserves to be mocked some more.

[R C Dean]

I'm thinking satire/troll.

[american socialist]

"Soon"

Justin Amash as VP? Why would a pro-life, anti-immigration, and anti-gay marriage bigot be interesting to libertarians?

[Injun, as in from India]

AmSoc's motto:

Troll hard or die tryin'

[Citizen X]

He's barely even trying.

[bacon-magic]

Why would anyone want to name himself after Socialism, which has killed millions of people, and then come to a libertarian website?

[dharti]

good somebody who recognizes every solitary element of your existence isnapchatemojis Potentially they have got something interesting to display nice.

[hannah44]

good the common Television set programs from all over youtvplayer apk Entertainment choice can be the vacation spot for nice.

[Romero]

good motion pictures and a lot a lot more on Terrarium TV APK. Download Terrarium TV for Blackberry the installation you will certainly discover the Terrarium TV App nice.

[Peggy582]

also make it available in this app. Most current imobdro.com application store in a practical means. While downloading.

[Paul77]

music videos in front of howling crowds of teen girls. https://musicallylogin.co that everybody understands and also enjoys, or otherwise.

[Swiss Servator]

The Chilly War?

[Notorious UGCC]

"Ha ha, now you're dead and it serves you right, you evildoer!"

Wait, I prolonged the joke too long didn't I?

[Aloysious]

Thank you. Love Satchmo.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Good stuff. Satchmo fucking rocked.

[EMD]

The Room Temperature War.