Ron Paul Might Vote Libertarian, Game of Thrones and Climate Change: P.M. Links

• 

  Screenshot via HBO

  Ron Paul said he was "more inclined to vote for the Libertarian candidate."

• Republicans could change the primary process for the 2020 election.
• Donald Trump is doing everything he can to woo the skeptics.
• How the Obama administration's executive order on transgender bathrooms plays right into Trump's small hands.
• Polls reveal rising national support for Gary Johnson.
• Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

NO SPOILERS

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Hello.

[Restoras]

I'll hold the door for you.

[waffles]

HOldtheDOoR?

[Juvenile Bluster]

Hey, can somebody hold the door for me?

::breaks down sobbing::

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I totally cried during that scene. All my sperm died.

[bane]

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

This is what I do?????? http://www.realcash44.com

[Fist of Etiquette]

Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox.

What do they know? They're Children.

[TheZeitgeist]

Yeah, winter sucks.

[The Last American Hero]

I thought it was about White Walker privilege.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

I think the Kochs are the Children.

[Juvenile Bluster]

The Kochs are the Andals, who caused the Children (nature) to create the White Walkers (climate change).

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

The First Men, then, not the Andals. Duh!

[Juvenile Bluster]

I know that. Why the hell did I say Andals?

[Gilbert Martin]

Who is supposed to be Tom Steyer and when does his head get chopped off?

[Mad Scientist]

This makes perfect sense. They already have magic and dragons, so why not climate change?

[pan fried wylie]

Why not? No unicorns. Next question.

[Lee G]

I thought it was all about dragons, zombies and boobs with the occasional penis.

[Nick W B]

Occasional?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Polls reveal rising national support for Gary Johnson.

The country is like that frog in a pot of boiling water.

[Anomalous]

Johnson rising.

[TheZeitgeist]

Johnson rising.

October Headline:

Hillary campaign losing young women to Johnson.

[Mad Scientist]

The one thing we know for sure about polls is that they're almost completely useless.

[jesse.in.mb]

That didn't work out so well for Glenn Beck

Totally worth watching just for his face.

[Nick W B]

It was a fake frog

[Slammer]

Polls reveal rising national support for Gary Johnson.

You know who else had rising polls?

[Shirley Knott]

If your polls stay up for more than 4 hours, consult a Dr.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The clinical term is your johnson.

[Jerry on the rocks]

+1 libertarian moment.

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

When the libertarian moment is right...will YOU be ready?

[Mr Drew]

I saw a Kevin Smith Q&A over the weekend and in response to someone's question about "how do I achieve success" he had a long speech about not letting others tell you No and he said "if you want to go all Ayn Rand for 6 months or so..."
Libertarian moment?

[Crusty Juggler]

Pope John Paul 2?

[Mickey Rat]

If this continues at this rate he should have a comfortable majority of the electorate by 2024.

[SimonD]

Since the R's and the D's will likely have Phil Robertson v. Kanye West in 2024, you may be right.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

The Sioux and the Apache?

[Injun, as in from India]

Polls reveal rising national support for Gary Johnson.

Come Election Day, it won't materialize into actual votes.

No erecting the Johnson. Sorry, folks.

[gaoxiaen]

Getting into the debates is important right now. I'll probably never see a Libertarian President in my lifetime, but... maybe. I have an aunt who's 99 and another one who's 97.

[Injun, as in from India]

Profound political action of the day. (CC: Tundra, Pope Jimbo)

Gov. Dayton declares 'Beyonc? Day' in Minnesota

More days like this please! Not just in Minnesota, but all around the world!

It comes just hours after the legislative session collapsed in dramatic fashion without a deal on transportation funding or a public-works bill.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Prince Day. Beyonce Day. Bob Dylan Day. Craig Hartsburg Day. Blue Eyes and Blonde Day. Murder my Vagina Day. Minnesota has it all!

[Pope Jimbo]

The shit really hits the fan when he declares The Suburbs day.

The urban smart growth jerks go crazy.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Yes, but he named May 25th as 'Becky with the Good Hair Day'.

[Hayeksplosives]

Outstanding!

[Jerry on the rocks]

Talk about your cultural appropriation.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Ron Paul said he was "more inclined to vote for the Libertarian candidate."

Thus handing his vote to Hillary.

[Rich]

That's *really* "throwing your vote away".

[gaoxiaen]

Well, maybe a good dose of statism and bitchiness is what the people need to wake up. If Trump wins we get buffoonery. Both are good for the Libertarians. For the American people as a whole, not so much, but it's their/our own fault.

[Anomalous]

How the Obama administration's executive order on transgender bathrooms plays right into Trump's small hands.

Didn't Trump say that Caitlyn Jenner could use any bathroom in Trump Tower?

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Does that include Trump's private bathroom?

[TheZeitgeist]

Caitlyn opens the made-for-her bathroom door, but even trannies can't fly so down it is from 47th floor.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

According to the article, the people incensed about the issue of trans people in bathrooms will vote for the Republican who is pro trans people in bathrooms because the alternative is a Democrat who is more pro trans people in bathrooms.

[PapayaSF]

That makes sense, and I am not being sarcastic.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Republicans could change the primary process for the 2020 election.

Back to the process that some fucking how gave the world a McCain candidacy?

[some guy]

No. Back to the process that gave the world a Romney candidacy.

[Injun, as in from India]

The article is too slow to load, but I hope they have Ranked Choice Voting in the mix.

Trump would not have happened IMHO if there was RCV.

[some guy]

Trump would not have happened IMHO if there was RCV.

I don't know. He has been surprisingly good at scooping up other candidates' voters as they drop out.

I just wonder what would have happened if Trump had decided to run as an independent a la Perot...

[Injun, as in from India]

The article finally loaded, and no RCV.

If either major party does RCV internally for its primaries, the people will demand RCV for the general election, and that means bye-bye duopoly.

[some guy]

Which is why they'll never allow RCV in the primaries. They like having a 50-50 chance of being in power each time around. It's better than they are likely to get under any other system save autocracy, which isn't feasible in the US.

[Nick W B]

The national parties don't control how the primaries are done. That's done by the state parties where the people have much more control.

State parties sometimes do what the national party wants, other times they just say fuck it.

[TheZeitgeist]

Don't forget this process also wisely brought Sarah Palin into national spotlight as brand of GOP. One who (deservedly for establishment) is now a Trump endorsee.

Just like Iraq, neocons are confused by unintended consequences resulting from their management.

[Robby Soave]

There you go, people. Links, plenty of links, on time and everything.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

/flips Scooby snack.

[This Machine]

*rising intonation*

But where's the alt-text??

Eh, well, baby steps, I guess.

[Slammer]

What about the 5/17 links? What happened to them?

[Fist of Etiquette]

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT WAS EVEN SOAVE'S SHIFT?

[Slammer]

You know and I know it. Obviously he didn't know it. You should remind him when he's out farting around.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

They went the way of the Roman Legions forever soaked in Teutoburg's soil.

[Juvenile Bluster]

But no alt text!

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who else made a show of punctuality?

[Mad Scientist]

Italian trains?

[Rich]

Vlad the Impaler?

[Chip Woodier]

Good point.

[Suthenboy]

Whiskers the groundhog?

[thrakkorzog]

William Tockman?

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

Paul Masson?

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Are we supposed to thank you for doing your job? HUH!?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

If Robby were black, he would say "I take care of maaaaaah kids."

[Steve G]

Look pal, links ain't water and you ain't Immortan Joe.

[AlmightyJB]

You don't need to suck up to these losers Robby. You post the damn links if and when you feel like it.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Enabler.

[gaoxiaen]

Who gives a fuck about a stupid TV show? You'll never make us happy so just suck it up.

[DOOMco]

Way to go, Robby.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

It's interesting how shows reveal their 'philosophical bents'. I was watching Silicon Valley and there was a part where Laurie referenced Mencken as a racist but he went hard after evangelicals. Out of all the stuff that guy wrote, those are the two points the writers of the show chose.

Like I said. Intrasting.

[The Last American Hero]

Go watch the final season of Torchwood. The government is literally rounding up sick people, putting them in concentration camps, and burning them in ovens and the British characters are still wisecracking about leaving healthcare in the hands of the private sector.

[Rhywun]

They sure love them some CCTV, too.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

The biggest problem with the final season of Torchwood was setting it in the United States instead of the UK.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Never heard of this show. Is it worthwhile?

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I think it is, except for the final season. The season before it (Children of Earth) was great, and shows the bureaucracy of government and abuse of power in a truly dark light.

BTW, this is a spinoff series (Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who). It should also be noted that the only member of Torchwood who's willing to make the tough decisions is an American, not a Brit.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

1. Lighting the Winston signal.

2. NO SPOILERS

[Stormy Dragon]

Just because a character in a show says something doesn't mean it reflects the views of the writers. The whole point of that scene was to show how socially awkward the character saying it is, so I imagine the writers would agree that it's a strange way to summarize Mencken; that was kind of the point of the line.

[Rich]

Kids aren't allowed to drink alcohol, drive, vote, work, or volunteer to fight in the military, but they should be permitted to change their birth gender?

AND their species!

[Injun, as in from India]

Can one self-identify as a basket case?

[Rich]

Sure. People do it all the time.

[some guy]

Yes, but only by accident.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Winston's mom self-identifies as a basket. A cum basket.

[waffles]

This guy gets it!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Donald Trump is doing everything he can to woo the skeptics.

He's learned the art of the pander?

[This Machine]

More like he's riding the Pander Express.

[gaoxiaen]

Or a lesser (red) panda is riding his head.

[gaoxiaen]

It works better with a British English accent.

[Slammer]

Have LEGO Products Become More Violent?

Our results show that the violence of the depicted products has increased significantly over time. The LEGO Company's products are not as innocent as they used to be.

Violence has become an everyday occurrence in television, games and toys, and this is of particular concern when it comes to media aimed at children. Such violence has increased over time; for instance, [1] demonstrates that television programmes aimed at children contain more violence that other forms of programming, and [2] found a statistically significant increase in the duration of violence in G-rated English language childrens' films released between 1937 and 1999.

This study is based on a supposition that media violence might influence the development of non-digital toys as well as digital toys like video games, resulting in greater amounts of violence in toys as a whole.

.

[Injun, as in from India]

As long as Ken and Barbie aren't involved in sadomasochistic violent sex, I'm not buying the whole "toys are becoming more violent" story.

[MetalBard]

Um Rule 34. It's out there already.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Um, sadomasochistic sex is usually not violent. A friend told me that.

[Juvenile Bluster]

When I was 8, at least half of what I built out of lego were guns and other weapons.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

And now you just build ideal libertarian societies?

[Slammer]

I get real violent when I step on the fucking things.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Damn. Just when I sent Lego my idea for a Serial Killers edition.

My timing sucks.

[Rich]

Obligatory.

[Wally]

i had one of those!!

[some guy]

So toys, movies and games are getting more violent as real life is getting less violent (Singer, et. al.) I know correlation isn't causation, but I think we might be onto something here...

[Eternal Blue Sky]

When I was a youngun my lego adventures consisted of almost constant battle over various lego castles betwixt various lego factions: the Pirates, the Knights, and that one faction that always won in the end controlled by a dragon-riding skeleton king wielding a gleaming silver sword, bisecting minifigs by the hundreds.

[Heroic Mulatto]

A.) The study unironically uses the term "weapon brick".
B.) "Although the BrickLink.com database only gives a single identification number to a part, we consider a brick in different colors to be a different weapon brick. A brown tube possibly represents a stick while a grey tube of the exact same design could represent a metal rod. While an attack with both would be painful, a metal rod could certainly be interpreted as more dangerous."
C.)"A generalized linear model (GLM) from a Poisson family was fitted to analyze the possible temporal trend in the count of weapons (M1), and a linear model was fitted to analyse the possible temporal trend in the proportion of weapon bricks (M2) and the proportion of weapon sets (M3) released in each respective year."
D.) "We were unable to identify a suitable measurement for assessing the violence in still images. We therefore adapted the violence coding scheme from the study conducted by [21]. As the coding scheme was originally designed to rate television violence, we simplified it to fit our study by removing aspects of the coding scheme that were irrelevant to the rating of still images. For example, the mode of verbal aggression and the duration of the act were impossible to code for still images. The section for coding attractiveness of violence was also removed as it was irrelevant to our study."

[Heroic Mulatto]

E.)"We used the Crowdflower platform to recruit and execute our study. Results acquired from crowdsourcing platforms such as Crowdflower and Amazon Mechanical Turk are similar in quality to results that are obtained from traditional methods.

We conducted a pilot study in which we asked twenty images to be rated by 20 participants. We then performed a power analysis to estimate how many participants would be required to detect an increase in violence perception with the probability of at least 80%. We have estimated that at least 15 images per decade with at least three raters per image would be sufficient, and thus we set up the experiment so that each image was rated by at least three participants.

Participants could rate as many images as they desired but they had to spend at least 20 seconds rating each image. Participants that answered more quickly than this were banned from further providing any answers. This procedure ensured the quality of the responses obtained."

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

[Heroic Mulatto]

F.) "Limitations and future studies

The definition of "weapon brick" does not necessarily include all possible weapons as it does not cover neutral bricks that could be built into weapons. As LEGO toys are bricks, and the nature of the toy is for smaller bricks to be built into something larger, studies on LEGO violence becomes more complex. In most cases of LEGO play, especially in larger weapons like cannons, slingshots, and Death Stars, many neutral bricks must be assembled into a weapon before it can be played with"

As I read through this cargo cult science "study", I am becoming "significantly more violent".

[Warty]

Cargo cult? What are you talking about? If you do statistics, you're doing science. Dumbass.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Suck my Cohen's d.

[This Machine]

I got your significant p-value right here!

[Mad Scientist]

"This procedure ensured the quality of the responses obtained."

Who would have guess that low quality was so hard to ensure.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Fig 7. Mode of nonverbal psychological aggression (Question 2 of the Survey).

The options were as follows: 1 = forcing, subjection, pressuring 2 = threatening, intimidation 3 = violating one's human rights 4 = irony, scorning gestures 5 = other.

Irony.

[gaoxiaen]

See Slammer's comment above. They're all land mines.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Anyone who has stepped on a lego while barefoot knows they're most inherently violent and evil thing in the universe.

Also: found a statistically significant increase in the duration of violence in G-rated English language childrens' films released between 1937 and 1999.

Someone has never seen unedited versions of old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Between the racism, sexism, and violence, they'd be R rated today.

[PapayaSF]

Heck, there would be protests.

[Notorious UGCC]

If they're like other social "scientists," their definition of violence is worthless, making no distinction between heroic violence - defending one's country, saving the planet from aliens, capturing the murderer - and mere nihilistic violence - shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Once they see a gun, these researchers just faint onto their fainting couches.

If they want to do a study worth anything, they should compare young boys (girls measured separately) who are exposed to heroic violence like the sort of stories young boys have been taught in just about every culture in the world up until yesterday, and expose some other boys to Natural Born Killers or Grand Theft Auto, and see if the nihilistic violence does any harm.

[LarryA]

Violence on TV? As opposed to the westerns I watched growing up? Back when Disney was doing Davy Crockett, The Scarecrow, Johnny Tremaine, 20,000 leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Zorro, etc? And Combat!, The Untouchables, Dragnet, etc?

And I never made guns out of Lincoln Logs or Tinker Toys because I had realistic cap guns to play with.

[Rich]

Polls reveal rising national support for Gary Johnson.

Weiner is rising, too -- and on his own!

"Johnson/Weiner 2016"

*** breaks down sobbing ***

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Carlos Danger

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Obligatory: https://youtu.be/GjiSm4ZPVKM

[Ken Shultz]

"Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox."

Hold the door! Hold the door!

[Ken Shultz]

Yeah, climate change is a big, fat retarded guy, and no one understood why he keeps yelling nonsense--until halfway through the sixth season!

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I thought that he represented Vox in this parable?

[Chipper Morning Wood]

OMG, Game of Thrones is secretly about Trump. He even said we are gonna have a nice big door in the wall.

[Rich]

Hawaii could be first to put gun owners in federal database

The cost to enter names in the database will be covered by a fee paid by gun owners

Oh. Alrighty, then.

[Juvenile Bluster]

We're going to build a wall! And we're going to make the gun owners pay for it!

[Injun, as in from India]

I can't wait for global warming to submerge their island, metaphorically speaking, lest Niketh Velamoor or Kamala Harris get any threatening language or RICO prosecution ideas.

[Rich]

As long as they're registering people for exercising a Constitutional right, I trust Hawaii will also have a database of people who tell politically-incorrect jokes.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Look up Canada's gun registry.

That's your future.

[LarryA]

Hawaii could be first to put gun owners in federal database

Because what police really need to fight crime is a list of people who have been through extensive background checks and are statistically less likely to break laws than non-gun owners.

[Mazakon]

Love in the time of climate change: Grizzlies and polar bears are now mating

Most Alaskans and Canadians have a bear story ? tales of fearsome grizzlies, even polar bears. But a mix of the two?

They're known as pizzlies or grolars, and they're a fusion of the Arctic white bear and their brown cousins. It's a blend that's been turning up more and more in parts of Alaska and Western Canada.

Last week, a strange-looking bear was shot by a hunter in Nunavut, a remote territory that curves around Canada's Hudson Bay. Its head was large, like a grizzly's, but its fur was white. The bear's genetics were not tested, but Arctic researchers seem unified in their analysis: It's a polar-grizzly mix. A hybrid.

[Slammer]

Grizzlar? Polzzly?

[jesse.in.mb]

Complaining about grizzly on polar bear sex is deeply ageist and I will not tolerate it!

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I've heard them referred to as Grolar Bears for years.

[Stormy Dragon]

Pizzly.

[Injun, as in from India]

This is Ph.D. dissertation fodder for some grad student working on the cis-hetero-sexual component of climate justice.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

A sad state of affairs. One of the most deadly combination of bear types... but both names for it are just so... stupid

[Jerry on the rocks]

Its head was large, like a grizzly's, but its fur was white. The bear's genetics were not tested, but Arctic researchers seem unified in their analysis: It's a polar-grizzly mix. A hybrid.

And the only thing it eats is poutine.

[Anomalous]

This was illegal in some states before Loving v. Virginia.

[PBR Streetgang]

Ice Bear is intrigued.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

Are they still doing the thing where they confiscate the remains of pizzlies and fining the hunters because they are 1/2 endangered and therefore protected??

[Knarf Yenrab!]

It's dead. How endangered could it be at this point?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

IT'S A SAMSQUATCH!

[DOOMco]

+1 caveman Sam

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Do you mean sheepsquatch?

[pan fried wylie]

SamsaquaNtch.

[Suthenboy]

PBs and GBs are essentially the same animal. This is nothing new. The evolutionary split so recent as to be insignificant. Raised in warmer climes many PBs will grow up as Grizzlies. Looking around for recent studies I see that the old info that they are genetically the same is now changed.

Warmistas are such fucking slimy lying con artists.

[MetalBard]

"How the Obama administration's executive order on transgender bathrooms plays right into Trump's small hands."

I think this is more likely a trap for the Republicans. It's a typical Dem strategy, Step 1 create a bunch of controversy about nothing. Step 2 wait for a Republican politician to oppose it, Step 3 simplify the Republican opposition to point that it becomes a strawman argument about Republicans just hating some identity group. Step 4 Repeat the strawman argument over and over on every media format until it becomes truth.

[Rich]

Good observation.

[WhatAboutBob]

Except that Trump already said it's not big deal.

[LarryA]

You skipped Step 3-A, Sweep the issues Republicans should be hitting the opposition with under the rug.

[LarryA]

You skipped Step 3-A, Sweep the issues Republicans should be hitting the opposition with under the rug.

[LarryA]

You skipped Step 3-A, Sweep the issues Republicans should be hitting the opposition with under the rug.

[LarryA]

You skipped Step 3-A, Sweep the issues Republicans should be hitting the opposition with under the rug.

[LarryA]

[sigh] Squirrels.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

"Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox."

Except in Game of Thrones the insane cycles of winter and summer are naturally caused, not influenced by mankind at all, and force mankind to adapt to it or freeze to death.

[Ken Shultz]

Hold the door!

[MetalBard]

I can't wait until the next episode when they invent the combustion engine, and use it to stop both winter, and the white walkers.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

I'm pretty sure it's due to magic, which is even more damning for the comparison.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

It's probably natural.

Martin has stated that "It's magic, don't think about it", but Martin tends to lie about things for the lols.

And Martin wrote another series of science fiction books taking place on a planet with irregular seasons given the scientific explanation of wobbling planetary tilt, so... he's given us a scientific, natural explanation and simultaneously denied it.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

And it wouldn't be the first time Martin blatantly recycled his own ideas for ASoIaF

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Personal off topic: I just opened a fortune cookie that essentially told me to give up on my dreams.

"Keep your expectations Reasonable".

[Slammer]

You can get new dreams 2 hours later.

[Mad Scientist]

These wise words are merely imploring you to install the Chrome plugin.

[jesse.in.mb]

Hmph.

[Mad Scientist]

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

[jesse.in.mb]

Maybe it was just secret libertarian code telling you to go back to Chrome when viewing H&R.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Which of you is the REAL Jesse.in.mb?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

The one that seems to be an expert about grolar bear sex?

[LarryA]

That's less bothering than opening a fortune cookie that doesn't have a fortune.

[Greater Questions of Carl]

Church's pizza giveaway irks school cafeteria workers

"Last week we got a call from a union," said Steinloski. "They said we were taking away a job, hours from employees at school in the kitchen because kids weren't buying lunch."

Feeling pressure, the church will change its routine to serving free pizza after school instead of during lunch so there's no competition with lunchtime sales.

"We do care about the workers, we care about the immigrant workers and those working here at the school," said Steinloski.

Westberg [the union boss] says he hopes the church will adhere to its promise.

"We are presuming honesty on pastor Nick's part that they will stop serving during lunch," said Westberg. "If they don't stop we will be picketing."

Emphasis mine. Unions, classy as ever/

[Pan Zagloba]

So, how about excommunication? Damnation? Fight back, dammit! You are part of the tradition that made Holy Roman Emperors go down on their knees and apologize.

[Ted S.]

I brought a bag lunch most days until senior year of high school, when they had good bran muffins with peanut butter chips, and coffee. It's where I learned to drink coffee (black, no sugar, thank you very much).

[Mad Scientist]

Did the unions come and picket your mom?

[AlmightyJB]

One did, while 10 stood around and watched. The one who did slept most of the time and never finished the job.

[Greater Questions of Carl]

The firefighters' union picketed Winston's mom after one of their brethren was crushed to death trying to lift her out of bed.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Picket?

That's a new euphemism.

[Ted S.]

By that time I was making .y sandwiches myself.

Mom didn't like liverwurst.

[AlmightyJB]

Bran muffins, peanut butter, and coffee. That's a helluva combination.

[RBS]

It's the most Ted combo I can imagine. Especially the bran muffin.

[jesse.in.mb]

I learned to drink coffee (black, no sugar, thank you very much)

You don't say...

How you drink your coffee 'could point to psychopathic tendencies'

The study found 'bitter taste preferences were a robust predictor for Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism and everyday sadism'

[AlmightyJB]

Explains all those IPA lovers

[Notorious UGCC]

Starbucks should maintain a registry of its customers and show it to the FBI whenever they demand it.

/sarc

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Ha! I like bitter stuff and I'm none of those things.

[jesse.in.mb]

You live around French Canadians...how would you even know if they're your point of comparison.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

You're not fooling any of us.

Spoiler: Do not get in Rufus' van.

[Mad Scientist]

But he's wearing that cast and he can barely move that furniture!

[AlmightyJB]

Dammit! I was wondering why there were no door handles on the inside.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

I think I need to reinvent myself around here.

[jesse.in.mb]

"Rufus (totally not that poutine-eating Canuck one, jeeze why would you even think that!?)" can be your new handle.

[Broswater]

Yeah, stop appropriating my culture !

[Eric L]

That seems to contradict a study I read a couple of years ago (sorry cannot remember the name of it or where I read it right now) that stated that those diagnosed with a personality disorder (which includes such disorders as psychopathy and narcissism) had a much higher level of cravings for and consumption of sugar. The study stressed there was correlation not causation. My spouse and I commented how this was anecdotally confirmed by two family members; one diagnosed as a covetous sociopath and the other as a narcissist and one friend diagnosed as bipolar. All were sugar fiends and were sensitive to bitter or sour flavours. All of them drink their sugar and cream with some coffee added.

[Injun, as in from India]

The bastards came close to getting a knockout blow with Friedrichs vs. CTA.

If not for Scalia's death, the legal Berlin Wall keeping non-members paying "protection" money would have gone down.

Shame on the "liberal" justices.

[waffles]

Ban Free Pizza! That will surely win the harts and minds of the peasantry!

[Mad Scientist]

Pizza clingers.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

We asked students what they would eat if there wasn't free pizza.

"If they didn't have free pizza, I'd go home for lunch," said one Nathan Hale High School student.

That student's parents should be getting a call from the union any day now.

[Ken Shultz]

I haven't read any of the books--and I never will.

But if the show ends with anything other than John Snow and the smokin' towhead getting married, taking the iron throne--and none of it making any difference--then it'll all be for nothing.

. . . except tits and monsters, which means I give it two out of three stars.

[some guy]

The ending of the show will be different from the ending of the books. I guarantee it. So you've got at least two chances to be right.

My guess is that the Westerosi never unite effectively and the White Walkers kill everyone and conquer the world, ushering in a permanent winter.

[Ken Shultz]

We did see a brief view of the big dragon swooping over the big city through the eyes of the Stark warg.

I think John Snow takes the crown, and the smokin' towhead comes knocking with her army of conans just as the white walkers break loose. They unite to fight back the white walkers, and then John Snow and the smokin' towhead have little towhead babies.

But they'll be betrayed in the end. It won't make any difference. Even when the right guy is on the throne, the government is shit.

[Random Axe Of Kindness]

George RR Martin is such a flaming government-loving authoritarian progressive- the final story will be some sort of iron-fisted benevolent dictator taking the crown for a millenia and ushering in a utopian socialist society of peace and harmony.

[Ken Shultz]

I heard he was supposed to be some sort of anarchist.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I heard he was supposed to be some sort of anarchist a fat doughnut eater who is never gonna finish the books.

[Ken Shultz]

I don't care about the books anyway.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

At this point, I agree with you. The show has overtaken the books in both plot and artistic merit.

[Ken Shultz]

I should say, too, . . .

There's never been a proper black metal movie.

Some of the scences from the Hobbit movie, where Gandalf, Elrond, Saruman, Galladril, et. al. battle the evil in that castle, which is really Sauron the whole time? That sequence came closest I've ever seen to being proper black metal.

However, that episode a couple episodes back, in GoT, when the Wilding encampment is overrun by the army of the dead? That was black metal. When Snow is sailing away, and the death army general and his lieutenants are standing on the shore staring back at him? Pure fucking black metal.

Black metal is ridiculous. It's fans are mostly ridiculous. But there should be a black metal movie. I'm hoping for more of the same from GoT. It's an amazing aesthetic. It's so over the top, when people have tried something like a black metal movie in the past, it usually has comic elements--like Army of Darkness.

[Lee G]

Shop smart

[gaoxiaen]

Geeks.

[Ken Shultz]

Just the aesthetics.

I've seen rivethead movies.

I've seen steam punk--which is the geekiest movement ever.

Hell, I've even seen what could pass as cybergoth movies.

The black metal aesthetic is amaze--nobody does it.

Maybe somebody should do like the Wicked take on The Wizard of Oz, where it's all from the perspective of the wicked witch? Only do LOTR all from Sauron's perspective.

Better yet, do the Simarillion--do Feanor and his sons. Have Melkor lurking in the background. Feanor and his sons driven to murderous fanaticism. All of them dying in rage.

If nobody believes in heroes anymore, give us darkness. Don't give us Star Trek; give us Klingon Wars from the ancient past before they came to the federation.

Nobody cares about Batman anymore. We care about The Joker and Harley Quinn.

Especially Harley Quinn.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

There is a Russian band called Mental Home that did a great black metal album on the Simarillion. I can't find it anywhere on the Internet, though. It had the most amazing Sauron song on it. I'll try to find it.

[Yusef Adama]

A Russian guy wrote a story called the Last Wring wraith that was from the "Dark" side, not bad, an Orc's perspective.

[Slammer]

Fvck you, you are a FALSE. NO ENTRY FOR YOU

[Chipper Morning Wood]

I always though a Dissection song would be the perfect song for the White Walker invasion (and album cover nails it):

https://youtu.be/GjiSm4ZPVKM

Or how about Throes of Dawn's The Last Rainbow Warrior is Dead:

https://youtu.be/sktk0ToG0u0

[Ken Shultz]

Your first link does not go to a Dissection song. I think you were going for this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BE0QxfBT2Q

I don't generally like black metal although--I dig some of the ambient stuff.

I was interested in terms of aesthetic, subject matter, etc.

When I think of scoring the White Walker invasion, it should be doom/stoner.

It should sound like Sleep meets Electric Wizard. Slow and heavy like Sabbath but more Sabbath than Sabbath.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

John Snow and the smokin' towhead getting married

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

[Ken Shultz]

We never found out who Snow's mother was, but it could have been the smokin' towhead's mom.

They wouldn't be the first house where brotherly and sisterly love . . .

Although in House Towhead, when brother and sister get together, they might have some kind of weird ass dragon baby.

I guess the only way to know for sure is to light John Snow on fire.

[Stormy Dragon]

My current theory is that Daenerys never gets back to Westeros and that her destiny is actually to reclaim Valyria, giving the surviving people of Westeros a place to escape to when the White Walkers overrun all of Westeros.

So you get a circular story that started with the Targaryens, the last nobles of Valyria coming to Westeros and ends with them leaving Westeros for Valyria.

Plus we get a cool last stand in Dorne as a reverse of Nymeria's ten thousand ships goes on.

And the book ends with the settling in on Valyria to wait out the long night...

...dreaming of Spring.

[Greater Questions of Carl]

Play Nintendo's Hated Virtual Boy Games on Gear VR and Google Cardboard

Ah, the poor Nintendo Virtual Boy. Over two decades ago its stereoscopic imagery presaged the virtual reality headsets of today, although it was limited to monochromatic graphics and your neck inevitably ached while leaning down to play it on the awkward tripod of sorts the device sat on. It bombed horribly, lasting a mere six months on the market. By 2010 TIME was (a little hyperbolically, perhaps) calling it one of the worst inventions ever.

Today, though, its games are finding a bit of redemption from a Reddit user calling himself "The King of Spain" in the form of a modified emulator for the Samsung Gear virtual reality headset or Google Cardboard.

[Eternal Blue Sky]

WHY?!

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

That was the day the Obama administration announced that all public schools in the country would have to provide transgendered students access to the bathroom of their choice or face a loss of federal funds (and possible Justice Department lawsuits under Title IX).

By the way, this entire description, both by the media and the administration is 100% bullshit. Obama did NOT announce that public schools have to provide transgendered students access to the bathroom of their choice, he declared all public school bathrooms unisex. Full stop.

I would really appreciate it if it would start being characterized correctly.

[gaoxiaen]

Kids should be eighteen before they can legally cut off their dicks or add one.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Kids should be 26 and have their own insurance before they can legally cut off their dicks or add one.

[Mad Scientist]

It's elective surgery. I don't see why insurance companies should pay for it at all.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Because you're racist cisgender shitlord, that's why!

[Juvenile Bluster]

The Venezuelan bottler of Coca-Cola has ceased production due to a lack of sugar.

http://www.reuters.com/article.....SKCN0YE2Q6

I blame wreckers. And kulaks.

[This Machine]

Don't forget the hoarders.

[TheZeitgeist]

And the gringos.

[Ken Shultz]

I blame 400 years of slavery.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

+1 conditioned conditioning.

[Ted S.]

They can just use HFCS.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

Well, were it not for the fructose, corn, and syrup shortages.

[HeteroPatriarch]

Don't worry, President Maduro can still get all the coke he wants. So he can continue his important work properly refreshed.

[tarran]

If you folks remember the 20 'scientists' who signed a letter calling for RICO investigations of people whose lack of faith in their sad little religion disturbed them.

Their life is getting pretty hard.

The CEI is winning a court battle to get access to their communications with each other, and they are panicking.

Here, the nexus between the records at issue and Professor Maibach' public business could hardly be clearer. According to the respondent's website, "Dr. Edward Maibach is a University Professor and Director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication." Further, "His re.search currently focuses exclusively on how to mobilize populations to adopt behaviors and support public policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help communities adapt to the unavoidable consequences of climate change.'' ...

[tarran]

Maibach testified on Friday, February 5, 2016 about what he does at the George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication. "[T]he center does engage in designing programs and evaluating programs intended to inform the public about what the scientific - what the science base says." Maibach Transcript 58:9. That was also the focus of his RICO campaign at issue here. ...
In his testimony, Maibach admitted that he planned to discuss RICO specifically in his course the following
Monday. ...

Maibach agreed to an interview in his capacity as Director of the Center for Climate Change Communication. Maibach Transcript 29: 17. He also admits the accuracy of a quote in that interview in which he speculated that a RICO settlement would generate substantial funding for "a national campaign to educate people on the risks of climate change", apparently from "financial penalties" that this RICO campaign seeks (ln Camera Documents, Bates stamp 17). Not coincidentally, this sort of education is exactly the mission of George Mason's Center for
Climate Change Communication. Maibach also testified that one of his chief responsibilities at
the Center for Climate Change Communication is fundraising.

Shukla, their ringleader has effectively lost a major source of income. His foundation's dodgy finances and practice of paying out huge salaries to his relations out of NSF grants has been submitted to the Inspector General who has purview over the NSF.

[tarran]

On the criminal front, the Attorney Generals for Clean Power, a group of AG's who have decided to whore themselves out to help Al Gore make money are discovering that conspiracy to oppress people under the color of law is hard. Again the CEI is doing God's work:

In this instance, the bad faith and improper purpose of Attorney General Walker and his counsel in obtaining the subpoena are manifest. As described above, the Attorney General announced that he would use the powers of his office to harass those who disagree with his policy agenda and then, almost immediately thereafter, did so by targeting CEI with an absurdly overbroad subpoena calculated to interfere with its exercise of its First Amendment rights, nominally in furtherance of a pretextual, retaliatory investigation with no possibility of success. (cont)

[tarran]

Moreover, Attorney General Walker and his counsel obtained the subpoena and served it on CEI in violation of UIDDA and, even upon notification of that fact, declined to withdraw it. Only upon being notified that they could face sanctions did they grudgingly agree to terminate this proceeding and yet still refused to withdraw the original subpoena issued by Attorney General Walker, despite that it cannot be lawfully domesticated under UIDDA and therefore cannot be enforced against CEI. The only possible explanation for these unusual actions is the one conceded by Attorney General Walker himself at the press conference: the point of his investigation and the subpoena is to intimidate and harass those who disagree with his policy views.

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Fucking asshole that Walker.

[tarran]

I wouldn't piss on that asshole even if he were on fire.

[This Machine]

Good. Fuck 'em, Ethan. Fuck this whooole thing.

[Lee G]

Finally some good news

[PapayaSF]

Couldn't happen to nicer people.

[prolefeed]

Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox.

Because nothing sends the message "we need to combat the perceived growing threat of runaway global warming" more than a show where the biggest danger is an oncoming brutally cold mini ice age.

[This Machine]

Did you see the award-winning documentary The Day After Tomorrow?? Global warming is what causes the next ice age, silly!

[commodious spittoon]

Game of Thrones: Secretly about climate change, obviously, says Vox.

That, or climate change catastrophism shares a lot in common with fantasy writing.

[tarran]

It's comical how angrily hostile the cultists get when one points out all the evidence that rather than upholding a hypothesis backed by empirical evidence they are promoting a fairly unimaginative and pedestrian religious doctrine that is contradicted by evidence.

[commodious spittoon]

And for no reason other than pigheaded partisanship. I very much doubt your average climate change outreach venue does nearly as much reporting on and analysis of climate science as Anthony Watt's skeptical blog, and yet he and people like Mark Steyn or Judith Curry (names off the top of someone's head who is in no way especially vetted on this subject) are smeared as science deniers for raising objective and credible complaints about the state of that science. Why? Because they dare to bring the profession into disrepute by suggesting that maybe, maybe, conflicts of interest are not solely the province of industry lobbyists.

[gaoxiaen]

Twitterers are saying Ron Paul is a Rino. In this case it seems like a compliment.

[HeteroPatriarch]

He's going against Trump, I'll be shocked if there isn't a cross burning on his lawn in the next week.

[Juvenile Bluster]

DoJ has announced that Dylan Storm Roof, facing the death penalty nine times over in South Carolina, will also face the federal death penalty.

I'd ask why, but...aw, fuck it. I'm racist for asking why, aren't I.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Just in case SC fucks it up 9 times?

[KDN]

Michael Wilbon goes on a mission to find black people who aren't pro analysts that care about analytics in sports, fails to find any, and reveals that he doesn't grok the first thing about the whole exercise.

Mission Impossible: African-Americans & analytics
Why blacks are not feeling the sports metrics movement

"Sports is emotional. And analytics represent the absence of emotion, the antithesis. Nobody gets into sports to be dispassionate. And it just seems to me we are the feel it, smell it, touch it people," he said. "WHIP and WAR [wins above replacement] and win shares are completely antiseptic. I mean, the coach may use analytics to confirm, but you mean to tell me Knute Rockne couldn't tell whether the boy could play without some advanced analytics expert telling him?"

[KDN]

I was initially unsure if he's trying to create more ammo for racists or simply unable to get over his own biases:

One stat, according to ESPN Stats & Information, assigned Curry some number in excess of 100 for his 3-point sniping from the corners. This tells you just how bogus the exercise is if the "percentage" reports to be greater than 100.

It's like calculating points per 100 possessions, a very popular go-to stat in NBA circles. Why is that more important than points per 48 minutes, which is the actual time in which an NBA game is played?

I mean, um, wat? I barely know where to start to correct this ignorance. Normalizing analysis to an easily digestible and comparable number is pretty standard procedure in my line of work.

[KDN]

Fortunately, he reveals his real problem: front offices and corporate America in general are just using the move towards data-driven methods as an excuse to keep black people down. Thanks, Mike. You're one of America's treasures.

For more than a few moments I felt guilty as hell for hating the intrusion of advanced analytics as much as I generally do. Because even though the reliance on this stuff seems to be a new safe haven for a new "Old Boy Network" of Ivy Leaguers who can hire each other and justify passing on people not given to their analytic philosophies, an entire group of people can't simply refuse to participate in something as important as this phenomenon. The cynical me can easily make the argument this is a new path to exclusion, intentional or not. Or is it creating an entirely new way of approaching sports that's reserved for the few?

[Rufus The Monocled Derp Slayer]

Oh God. Wilbon and Kornheiser are tediously ridiculous when it comes to statistics.

They'd rather just blather on relying on their own perceptions and bias than actually think about what the stats are telling them.

Just 'get off my lawn' rubbish.

[The Real Woodchipper]

Got a permit for that casket?

..the city won't reclaim the body. So she wanted to re-bury Miranda, but then the city told her she couldn't get a burial permit without a death certificate..."And we couldn't get one..."

[Mad Scientist]

You SugarFree'd the link.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Sounds like the makings of a rough trash day.

[The Real Woodchipper]

argh

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.c.....-discover/

[HeteroPatriarch]

Kafka's got nothing on modern liberal government.

[BigT]

Can't bury Miranda? Does Miranda

...dons dark glasses...

...have no rights?

[Suthenboy]

Vox left out one small detail: there is no actual climate change. All of the weather and the overall climate is statistically normal.

[widget]

I drive along Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles on my way to work a couple a day a week. This is where Eddie Murphy cruised. I will see somewhere between 0 and 2 transexual prositutes there. Not all transexualds are prostitutes, but this is a huge metropolitan area with a populate of about 9 million. I am just taking some casual metric here. A high school with a 1000 students would, on average, have some integer in the set 0 and 1 students that includes transexual adolscents. If you live in North Carolina do not read this post. WORLD WAR T, as Steve Sailer has noticed.

[JeremyR]

Trump agrees with Obama about trannies. So how is it playing into his hands? Unless you are making a joke about his small penis?

[bane]

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

This is what I do?????? http://www.realcash44.com

[lukashik]

The only thing to enjoy this application is to download showbox apk and select the movies and programs you like to have fun watching all day long. You can watch unlimited movies, TV Programs, Serials, Cartoons and programs from online, live streaming of Cricket matches etc.

[Injun, as in from India]

Are you sure it's an entire month and not a certain time window in a given month?

[Injun, as in from India]

Wait! If it's Hawaii, it's got to be Mc Lovin.

[Rich]

Shouldn't that be "McLoving"?!

Where's his birth certificate?

[Greater Questions of Carl]

One name? Who are you, Seal?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

That time is called "Murder BY Vagina Day"

[Injun, as in from India]

LOL.

For the uninitiated, that was from the movie Superbad. I recommend it.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

I like the label though.

Goth Fonzie.

*snicker*

[RBS]

Yeah, I have friends who are always complaining about dumb shit like this. I always ask them if they would rather the government turned its attention to them instead.

[Pope Jimbo]

I actually think that the collapse of all the "deals" they were putting together is a huge win.

[PapayaSF]

That got a LOL from me.

[jesse.in.mb]

Wait! There's more, and it's in German because why not.

Psychopathen und Sadisten trinken gern Gin Tonic

[Greater Questions of Carl]

No, Superbad is homophobic, shitlord.*

The comments keep it in perspective:

I didn't even notice there were homophobic words in those movies, but I'm desensitized and not examining every shred of word that someone says in a movie to see if it's personally or morally offensive to me. Love Seth!

You would have been useless at Stonewall.

*no, it is a good movie, I recommend it as well.

[Greater Questions of Carl]

(For clarity, the second blockquote is a reply to the first)

[Trouser-Pod (The blowhard)]

You would have been useless at Stonewall.

Matthew Rettenmund must be so much fun at social gatherings. I'm kinda glad he was offended-Superbad is hilarious.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'M NOT A PSYCHOPATH!

So then you're clearly a narcissistic sadist.

*smokes pipe thoughtfully and strokes beard*

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Vagina dentata?

[Ted S.]

I prefer vodka. Or wine.