The Problem with Rationalia, Income Inequality Studies Is a Lucrative Field, Hating on Trump: P.M. Links

• 

  Everett Collection / Newscom

  Who should be Donald Trump's vice president? Bernie Sanders, says Fareed Zakaria.

• "As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. And, sometimes, demonic possession."
• Aspen Ideas Festival tackles campus free speech: views from Greg Lukianoff, Stephen Carter, and Michael Roth.
• Neil deGrasse Tyson's idea for a country called "Rationalia" is pretty flawed.
• Why Republicans who endorsed Trump should publicly admit their mistake.
• Income inequality experts at the University of Berkeley make more than $300,000 a year.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Who should be Donald Trump's vice president? Bernie Sanders, says Fareed Zakaria.

Heads would explode.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Hahahahaha, I've thought it should be Trump-Sanders for months now.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Trump's for one.

How insane would you have to be to give crackpot lefties the greatest possible incentive to murder you?

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

But de Grasse makes science POPULAR!

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Neil deGrasse Tyson's idea for a country called "Rationalia" is pretty flawed.

Reasonia is pretty bad, too.

[bacon-magic]

Neil should go to Somalia and make his sales pitch.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Civil wars every week.

[BigT]

NGT's country is "Egomania"

[Trigger Warning]

"I have a PhD and am therefore qualified to proffer expert opinion on all subjects regardless of how far removed from my field of study they are-istan."

"Insufferable douche-tana."

"FUCKING SCIENCE BITCH-achusetts."

[pan fried wylie]

#3 has the best mouthfeel

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Rationalia - where all your food is scientifically rationed

[pan fried wylie]

"Rationalia: We're The Future"

/credit to Obama

[Intraveneous Woodchipper]

Of course, Obama already tried to take us there but the stupid obstructionist Rethuglikkklans blocked him from it out of a combination of spite/racist prejudice.

= Some people actually think this!

[The Last American Hero]

So Tyson envisions and ideal world as being one ruled by...Tyson?

Surprise, surprise, surprise, to quote the great Gomer Pyle, USMC.

[Fist of Etiquette]

"As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. And, sometimes, demonic possession."

Coming primetime this Fall on CBS!

[Ted S.]

Where's Linda Blair when you need her?

[The Fusionist]

That depends...do you need a pet-corcist?

After years of lending her name and time to countless causes and organizations, Blair is finally fulfilling her dream and working with animals. In 2004 The Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation officially became a 501c3 California nonprofit organization. Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation rescues abandoned and abused companion animals. At the LBWF Animal Wellness Center every animal is provided with needed medical care, proper nutrition, socialization, physical and emotional rehabilitation, and obedience training before heading to their forever homes. Blair also educates the public about important human and animal issues such as Hunger, Breed Specific Legislation, Animal Abuse, Dogfighting, Pit Bulls and Pet Overpopulation.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Fuck this novel-length anchor text.

[The Fusionist]

Let me make up for that by showing you a picture of some coeds.

[lafe.long]

dunno.. but she had an excellent spread in Oui magazine back in the day

[Knarf Yenrab!]

It's like jello on springs!

[Trigger Warning]

Boner activated?

[Agent Cooper]

SMEDIUM!

He's gay. He's fit. And he's got actual skeletons in his closet.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why Republicans who endorsed Trump should publicly admit their mistake.

Shame... Shame... Shame...

[BigT]

They apologize for being Republicans.

[Ted S.]

Shame on you!

[Rhywun]

It would be helpful if he either showed us on the doll where Trump touched him or else came up with a couple actual reasons beyond his say so why Trump is "morally, intellectually, and politically unfit for office".

[buybuydandavis]

Hitler! Racist! Authoritarian!

The #AlwaysCucks have adopted Progressive tactics as well as Progressive positions. Their arguments are unsubstantiated smears.

Reason and evidence are hard to bring to bear when they're not on your side, but particularly when you're having an hysterical pants shitting fit.

[Mendelism]

Drink?

[Cyto]

For completeness sake, shouldn't we also be calling for Democrats who endorsed Clinton to admit their mistake?

[buybuydandavis]

Why Republicans who endorsed Trump should publicly admit their mistake.

Why Republicans against cucks should cuck themselves.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Income inequality experts at the University of Berkeley make more than $300,000 a year.

THAT'S WHAT MAKES THEM EXPERTS.

[waffles]

For a time, executions by guillotine were a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. Vendors sold programs listing the names of those scheduled to die. Many people came day after day and vied for the best locations from which to observe the proceedings; knitting women (tricoteuses) formed a cadre of hardcore regulars, inciting the crowd. Parents often brought their children. By the end of the Terror, the crowds had thinned drastically. Repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored.

I don't want to live in society where beheading becomes boring.

[Juice]

If I were getting my head chopped off then the last thing I'd want the crowd to feel is boredom.

[Charles Easterly]

Guillotine.

Interesting name for a gruesome "card game.

[Charles Easterly]

Try this.

[JWatts]

I own it, it's a decent filler game. And of course it has the "Piss Boy" card. That may be unique.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/626897/guillotine

[buybuydandavis]

I bet if you mix it up with woodchippers, it'll stay fresh and exciting much longer.

[Agent Cooper]

Depressed insurgent wants to rediscover joy in blowing things up."

[GILMORE?]

Gunmen take hostages at cafe in Bangladesh

DHAKA - Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a restaurant popular with expatriates in the diplomatic quarter of the Bangladeshi capital. The militants took hostages, including several foreigners, police said.

Terrorism in non-NATO countries doesn't matter because reporters are racist.

[Ted S.]

Damn those Mormon kidnappers!

[buybuydandavis]

Da Jooos put the Amish up to it!

#NoIslamToSeeHere

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

Income inequality experts at the University of Berkeley make more than $300,000 a year.

Generating the income inequality you're researching is pretty expensive.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

They consider it part of their research

[Libertarian]

I hear they're going to give themselves 20% pay raises so that they can study the effects.

[Microaggressor]

I just watched this documentary Poverty, Inc. Judging by the title I was expecting lefty emotional appeals and denial of reality, but apparently I got it backwards. It talked about how foreign aid demolishes domestic production in the third world, lack of property rights destroys the incentive to create wealth, and no rule of law.

But it also went into detail about how a massive industry popped up fueled by taxpayer money funneled into NGOs. Their existence and gravy train depends on keeping the third world where it's at, and that's exactly what they're doing.

These university researchers most likely are a part of that industry.

Anyway, I recommend it.

[GILMORE?]

thanks

Judging by the title I was expecting lefty emotional appeals and denial of reality, but apparently I got it backwards.

I find this happening to me all the time. I am always prepared for the worst, that i'm shocked and surprised when someone else actually "gets it".

[Microaggressor]

It was this vortex of derp in a one-star comment that convinced me it's worth watching.

In a world where greed is good and charity is bad, poverty is inevitable. This documentary interviews global capitalist entrepreneurs who advocate neoliberal capitalism as the exclusive means of economic distribution and the solution to all of the world's problems. It's mostly profit seekers complaining that charity is interfering with their ability to make money. It tempts people to feel sorry for the entrepreneurs more so than those forced to live in poverty by the very system advocated in this film. It's upside-down moral reasoning in an upside-down immoral world, so it actually seems logical. A very manipulative shady political documentary. Critical thinking is advised.

Yes, yes it is.

[Rufus The Monocled]

My GOD.

[kbolino]

charity

You keep using that word...

[Free Society]

It's mostly profit seekers complaining that charity is interfering with their ability to make money.

I wonder if their definition of charity is so broad as to include money donated at gun point.

[kbolino]

I wonder if their definition of charity is so broad as to include money donated at gun point.

I daresay it's not broad at all. That is the extent of their definition of the word. Money freely given is corrupt by its very nature. Only the cleansing hands of government can truly engage in charitable giving.

[EdWuncler]

I used to love deGrasse Tyson until he started to talk about politics. Now he's as insufferable as a 19 year old in a sociology class.

Granted he did lay the smackdown on anti-GMO activists. but otherwise he is drunk on the progressive kool-aid.

[Tonio]

That whole "rational" (most good for the greatest number) mindset is incompatible with any concept of individual liberty and inalienable rights.

[LynchPin1477]

He's a good example of treating science not as a process for uncovering knowledge, but as a social fad.

[Jon Lester]

For all his qualifications, he really does seem a little short on imagination. How does he know what's impossible in the "Star Wars" galaxy, where interstellar travel has been reality for 25,000 years, and a unified field theory has been commonly understood for about as long?

[Jon Lester]

Maybe because Rey is home-schooled/self-taught?

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's hard to think when you nutted but she is still sucking.

[Peace Be Upon [REDACTED], Jr.]

HM, I believe you pancake-assed the link.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It works for me.

Unless you're complaining about the lack of this.

[Swiss Servator]

You, sir, are a treasure.

[Brian]

At a certain point, even scientists start playing the public relations game, and they play it to their own self-interest.

[Lee G]

+1 exorcism

[Tonio]

Wishing everyone a happy and safe July 4th weekend.

[bacon-magic]

You too, sir.

[Ted S.]

Even Rufus?

[Tonio]

Even the furriners. Happiness and safety are universal goods.

[UnCivilServant]

Just because he's Canukistani doesn't mean we wish him any particularly special harm this weekend.

[waffles]

While I don't wish him harm, I'm just saying that Canada was founded by loyalist scum.

[UnCivilServant]

That's my I added the term "particularly special" We still have the usual anti-monarchist harm on the roster.

[Rufus The Monocled]

It was?

[Tonio]

Wedgies don't count as actual harm, right? Asking for a friend...

[UnCivilServant]

*checks documentation*

Not as long as there are no secondary injuries caused.

[waffles]

No, no queensuckling Canucks.

[But Enough About Me]

Well, as a fellow Canuck, IT'S OUR WEEKEND TOO!

We and youse Yanks basically bookend it this year. There's some kinda moral in their somewhere...

[Fist of Etiquette]

GET OUT OF HERE TRYING TO HORN IN ON AMERICA'S HOLIDAY

[Episteme]

English-speaking North America is going to be SO drunk this weekend!

Another million Mexicans mosey across the border while we're passed out, some wandering straight through the country and over the Canadian border too

[bacon-magic]

I consider Rufus a lover of freedom, so yes.

[BigT]

Canada puts the Norf in Norf America.

[Rufus The Monocled]

My work is done.

IT'S NICE TO FEEL APPRECIATED.

/looks at Fist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

AMERICA FIRST ON THE AMERICAN INTERNET

[RBS]

My office is like a block from a fire/police station. From the sound of it they are off to an early start around here.

[Florida Hipster]

I'm celebrating in the spirt of the holiday. Leaving the country! If I die in Peru I want you all to know, I REGRET NOTHING!!!

[Crusty Juggler]

Don't take any selfies: Tourist dies in Machu Picchu taking photo

Oliver Park, 51, ignored safety signs and warnings from wardens and went into a restricted area close to the edge of a cliff on Wednesday, officials say.

They say he tried to pose for a photograph of himself leaping as if in flight but lost his footing.

[Clich? Bandit]

I hiked the trail to Machu Picchu. Fucking awesome 3 days. Just be sure to not eat too much your first few days in Peru...trust me here.
Cusqena is ok however, it aint great but it is better than the water.

[jesse.in.mb]

"Don't take any selfies"

That's dumb. You need a dick pic with the terraces of Machu Picchu in the background, and maybe an alpaca.

[Florida Hipster]

Done and done.

[jesse.in.mb]

Great. Email is linked in my handle if you need someone to review the finished product.

[pan fried wylie]

They say he tried to pose for a photograph of himself leaping as if in flight but lost his footing.

"as if in flight" is alright, but "in flight" seems even more baller IMO. did the photo come out bad or something?

[Episteme]

Wardens quickly covered their asses by telling the news that Park had signed up for "the Qhapaq hucha experience."

[Riven]

Don't tell me how to live my life. /tableflip

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Flipping tables is strictly reserved for Messiahs.

[UnCivilServant]

No, no, it's a perfectly leagl fortfeit motion in certain games.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Are you accusing Jesus of rage quitting?

[UnCivilServant]

Currency exchange is not a game.

[Riven]

Well, now, that really depends on a variety of factors.

That said, I prefer the most dangerous game.

[UnCivilServant]

Freight train chicken?

[UnCivilServant]

Oh, wait no, it's Bridge.

Sorry.

[pan fried wylie]

Correct, that is how one plays FTC, coming from opposite sides of a bridge.

[Chipper Morning Wood]

Thanks, Tonio. I hope everyone feels lots of love and joy this weekend.

[Trigger Warning]

I'm only a little extremely drunk.

Wifey got me a deep fryer and I am making poutine. I have actual cheese curds.

*raises glass of Duvel to all Canuck Reasonoids*

Your country is big and beautiful and full of outstanding people and hockey is surpassed in suckitude only by Euroball.

[Trigger Warning]

Also Zap Rowsdower for President.a

[GILMORE?]

"He Deserved To Die"

Tesla "non-driver" was watching Harry Potter movie when his self-driving car hit a tractor-trailer

[Fist of Etiquette]

I can't judge until I know which Potter film he was watching.

[BigT]

He was watching himself:

"Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, known after his death as Nearly Headless Nick"

[pan fried wylie]

that doesn't answer the question of which film though.

[Clich? Bandit]

wasnt this already debunked.

[GILMORE?]

Weekley said his investigators spoke with a witness who said that the DVD player was still playing a "Harry Potter" movie after the crash.

I CARE LITTLE FOR BUNKING

That one quote is all i need

[darius404]

I can't find anything claiming it's a hoax.

[lafe.long]

Pink Pistols are asking for your help in the comments on an Advocate post

"Telling LGBT people to carry guns so they don't get "bashed" ? as the Pink Pistols group has done recently ? is like telling a woman to stop wearing short skirts to avoid rape. It's out of touch and deflects blame from those who should truly be held accountable."

The Advocate magazine has equated the desire for self-defense with victim-blaming. As a proud Outright Libertarian and Pink Pistol, I support all of us in our right to self-defense. I ask that you all go over there and let them know that as members of the GSM community won't let go of our right to defend ourselves!

[Ted S.]

The Pink Pistols aren't real gays.

[Doctor Whom]

(plays the self-loathing card)

[Clich? Bandit]

I am going to design a Dominion like game with SJW cards...
Strawman Card, deflect one argument for the next turn;
Race bait, draw in two opponents to lose a turn while you advance one.

[Tonio]

Do it, dude. Srsly. Parody, particularly if not vicious, is much more effective than hectoring. See "Blazing Saddles."

It's never been easier to design and distribute games that only require basic stuff like cards and dice. Laser perf cards are cheap and cost-effective for prototyping, and online print services like [cow noise] now offer business cards where every card is unique (they don't care what you use the cards for) which is good for initial production runs if you're self-funding.

I'm working on a somewhat similar project so don't say too much here, please.

[Tonio]

I didn't know about the Outright Libertarians. Thanks.

The gays of DC are gearing up for two different "gun control" marches - one in August, the other in October. The organizers of the October march seem more organized and open. The August march people are said to be disorganized (no evidence of engaging the permitting process) and aren't talking to the organizers of the other march.

[lafe.long]

I follow them on derpbook to share stuff they post to splode heads amongst idiots on both sides.

[Fist of Etiquette]

The Pink Pistols members are just going through a phase.

[The Fusionist]

The Advocate literally wants gay people disarmed and helpless...and *I'm* the homophobe!

[Tonio]

Always about you, eh, Eddie?

[The Fusionist]

It's also about yo mama.

[Heroic Mulatto]

*gets popcorn*

[Ted S.]

Block Insane Yo Mama?

[Juice]

Um, wouldn't it be like telling a woman to carry a gun so she doesn't get raped?

[kbolino]

No, you don't understand. Crime rates are not just proportions, they're also probabilities. If the crime rate is X% then the likelihood that any person is going to commit a crime is X%. There are no other factors (unless required by the narrative, e.g. being male in the context of sexual assault). Thus, we have to engage each person equally and teach them all with the same vigor not to commit crimes, regardless of their actual propensity to do so. Unless they're part of a "marginalized" group, in which case we only have to teach the people "oppressing" them. As we all know, people primarily commit crimes because of being disenfranchised, which is why there's such a problem of heterosexual white males committing sexual on college campuses.

This makes total sense if you lobotomize yourself.

[buybuydandavis]

"Telling LGBT people to carry guns so they don't get "bashed" ? as the Pink Pistols group has done recently ? is like telling a woman to stop wearing short skirts to avoid rape.

No, it would be like telling a woman to *carry guns* so they don't get raped.

The universe isn't fair.

It's evil to criminally prey on other people.
It's also evil to encourage people to be helpless before that criminality.

[buybuydandavis]

I posted my comment, a little edited, at The Advocate.

[buybuydandavis]

A number of gun rights activists are kicking booty in the comments.

[Crusty Juggler]

The Watch Thieves Who Picked L.A. Clean
In less than 10 months, a fledgling robbery ring smashed and grabbed its way to $6 million in stolen goods. But the leaders got greedy, plans got sloppy, and the police got smart.

The group operated for less than 10 months, yet it allegedly brought in nearly $6 million worth of stolen jewelry and luxury watches. One of their attempted heists took precisely 61 minutes, from planning to execution, according to federal prosecutors, and we know this because they were already under ATF surveillance. They were turning heads. They had the authorities worried.

It all came down to time. Between a phone call and a robbery, an hour might pass or just a short car ride from one neighborhood to the next, or maybe a few days might slide by, but the clock was always ticking. There would be a donning of ski masks or more elaborate disguises?dressing up like construction workers seemed to work for them?and then a final check of a handgun or rifle. Then, of course, there were the heists. They were quick, explosive; one in February 2016, prosecutors claim, took less than a minute.

[Crusty Juggler]

The group consisted of at least 18 men, prosecutors say; however, at the time of this writing, two of them are still at large. Their ostensible leaders, the men who allegedly picked the targets, recruited the others, and assigned them all specific roles, were known as "D," "Green Eyes," and "Bald Head." The nicknames for the rest of the crew are a cinematic grab bag of the humorous and the absurd. There was "Macc Attack" and "Tiny Bogart." There was "Poncho" and "Bully Bad Ass," "Hang Out" and "Snoop." "J-Bone" and "Brownie" joined "Pitbull" for good measure.

Beyond that nicknamed core, things quickly splintered into a labyrinth of unindicted co-conspirators?or UCCs?anonymous figures who populate the indictment, from UCC-1 all the way to UCC-23. These were the lowest-level recruits, brought on as muscle, which meant that, increasingly, as the spree went on and the robberies occurred closer and closer together in time, as if everyone knew a clock somewhere was ticking, they were the ones taking on most of the risk.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Is this a mashup of Heat and The Usual Suspects? And at what point in the investigation did everyone realize that nobody wears a watch anymore?

[Ted S.]

Or maybe "The Asphalt Jungle" and "A Fish Called Wanda".

[buybuydandavis]

I thought Reservoir Dogs from the nicknames.

[pan fried wylie]

Without knowing the list price of a typical engagement ring, I'll guess 5k....6mil is only 1.2k rings. 120 rings a month, that's how many stores you think, say, 2-3? so 40-60 rings in a heist, yeah, should be able to smash the case and toss them in a bag in around a minute.

Not Impressed.

[GILMORE?]

More News Unfit to Mention

Al Qaeda = Really, We're Serious This Time. Do What We Say, Or Else

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States of the "gravest consequences" if Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any other Muslim prisoner is executed.

Its the international-terrorist version of a guy who just got his ass kicked in a bar-fight, but while lying bleeding on the floor in a puddle of beer and pee, yells, "You bitches want some more? come on, i'll take all yall"

[Tonio]

I might be willing to relax my hardcore stance against capital punishment just this once...

[BigT]

Required

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

[buybuydandavis]

Is it the HTTP*S* that keeps the video from displaying in screen?

Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

[lafe.long]

no... I think it's the m.youtube.com (indicates posting from mobile version of youtube instead of www)

[lap83]

Maybe we could make it into a fun game involving arrows and Tsaernev attempting to run across an open field into al-Zawahri's brotherly arms

[Agent Cooper]

Even he's not as dumb as Rickard, is he?

#zigzag

[Libertarian]

I'm not worried. John Kerry says they're attacking airports only because they're desperate.

[buybuydandavis]

What happened to wanting to be martyred? What happened to "we love death more than you love life"?

Pansy terrorists. Next they'll be complaining about microaggressions, and asking for safe spaces.

[End Child Unemployment]

I'm getting pretty tired of the cult of tyson. A lot of the stuff he says reminds me of the blind test where people turned out to have great difficulty determining if a quote was from deepak chopra or just some made up psuedo-profound bullshit.

[BigT]

I don't understand all the Tyson worship. Tyson said he was a "semi-good husband"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hu57oIv8SLM

[Col. Chestbridge]

deepak chopra or just some made up psuedo-profound bullshit

But you repeat yourself.

[Crusty Juggler]

Is This Why Hillary Clinton Is Trusted By So Few Americans?
Maybe the Clintons really feel that their purity is beyond reproach, their motives beyond question. Maybe that's why they end up in so many circumstances that seem questionable to the rest of us.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

...or it could be, you know, that they're really corrupt people.

[GILMORE?]

Hillary Clinton Is (By Far) the Most Trusted Candidate in 2016

Because David Brock bought a website to say so.

[Not an Economist]

Maybe the public is just jealous of the Clintons? After decades of selfless public service, don't they deserve to make a few bucks? And if one of them, is luck enough to be President, we can be sure they will do what is best for them the country. We are blessed to be ruled by people so selfless.

[buybuydandavis]

The Clintons, like most Progressive apparatchiks, believe they are better than the peasants and have a divine right to rule.

They are not to be questioned by the peasants, they are to be obeyed.

[DOOMco]

foreseeable consequences are not unintended silly vermonters.

[UnCivilServant]

FOOD DESERTS!

[DOOMco]

I also posted to facebook, where one of my friends from vermont said she is proud of this. 3000 items not being sold is somehow good.

[UnCivilServant]

Do we have that list, so I can buy their products and not those who knuckled under to the stupid?

[DOOMco]

Working on finding a full one. Looks like companies are splitting the difference. 1/2 of coke and pepsi products. Some kraft.

[DOOMco]

pdf list here

[UnCivilServant]

*pedant on*
That's a spreadsheet, not a PDF
*/pedant off*

Thanks.

[DOOMco]

TIL.
dick.

[UnCivilServant]

If I knew what that acronym stood for I'd probably be making a self-depricating comment here.

[DOOMco]

Today I learned.

[UnCivilServant]

With this commentariat, it could have been anything from the inoccuous to the horrifically obscene.

[DOOMco]

I'm afraid to Google a lot from all of you.

[CatoTheChipper]

I'm pretty sure that everybody here knows that Vermont is the state that elected a senator who thinks that having 23 brands of deodorant causes children to go hungry. So the idiots should be ecstatic about losing the opportunity to purchase 3000 items.

[buybuydandavis]

3000 items not being sold is somehow good.

As a Popular Vermonter once said:

You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.

Vermonters like socialism so much, they thought they'd emulate Venezuela.

[Doctor Whom]

"Why move to Venezuela when we can create our own?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meanwhile, St. Michael's College business professor Robert Letovsky says losing 3,000 products is likely to lead to higher prices.

"You now have less choice for consumers. Less choice means less competition, inevitably prices are going to rise," said Letovsky. "I'm concerned about the impact of this on working families, retirees, pensioners, young people who are already facing an affordability crisis here in Vermont."

Professor Letovsky is anti-science, which is why Montpelier didn't consult him on their grand scheme.

[UnCivilServant]

Having browsed the list my response is "I am so glad I am west of that line", as There are items I normally buy anyway on there and for which I'd be seriously miffed if I had to suddenly find a lower-quality substitute for.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Those are choices you shouldn't have.

[DOOMco]

No green mountain dew for the green mountain state.

[Cdr Lytton]

No Lousiana Fish Fry?!? Screw Vermont.

[Ted S.]

Holy shit.

No spoilers.

[Doctor Whom]

Madame de R?nal dies three days after Julien does.

[DOOMco]

Ricky, Bubbles, and Julien all go to jail.

[UnCivilServant]

Rand Paul was replaced by three large trout in a modified diving suit just before the debates.

[Ted S.]

It's not that difficult to avoid picking up two yellow cards in five games.

[GILMORE?]

"Omelettes, Eggs"

President Barack Obama's government accepted responsibility on Friday for inadvertently killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war, a major disclosure likely to inflame debate about targeted killings and use of drones.
...
But the figures, which covered strikes from the day Obama took office in January 2009 through Dec. 31, 2015, were below even the most conservative estimates by non-governmental organizations that spent years tallying U.S. strikes in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

posh!? like anyone believes a single one of the 150 or so people we kill in any given single shot MIGHT be innocent! IMPOSSERBAL

[Ted S.]

I guess we know whi doesn't read the articles.

[GILMORE?]

You want meaty links? I don't have time to get pedantic.

[Ted S.]

Neither does Soave.

[UnCivilServant]

He knows that the commentariat will be pedantic for him.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, because he's so busy copy-pasting from "The College Fix".

[BigT]

Victor David Hanson

"press conference, lecturing that "Somebody who labels us versus them or engages in rhetoric about how we're going to look after ourselves and take it to the other guy . . . that's not the definition of populism."

I think it was Obama, however, who introduced into the 2008 campaign's discourse the disparagement of the "clingers" of Pennsylvania, the stereotyping of his own grandmother as a "typical white person" and the police as typical racial profilers, and who urged his supporters to bring a gun to a knife fight and get in the "faces" of his opponents, and then later urged Latinos to punish "our enemies" at the polls ? as well as other "take it to the other guy" rhetoric about Christians and their "high horse" morality and businessmen who deluded themselves into thinking that they built their own businesses."

http://tinyurl.com/hnvubbo

[BigT]

"And it was Obama who equated expectations that existing federal immigration laws should be enforced (as on over 20 pre-reelection occasions he himself lamented they had to be) with nativism and xenophobia. Those who opposed the sidestepping of congressional ratification of treaties and the Iran nuclear deal were written variously off by Obama as "armchair nuclear scientists" and promoting "the drumbeat of war," while Iran's fanatical theocratic hardliners were compared by the president to the Republican caucus. In short, what worries Obama is that he is the creator of Trump, that "Hope and Change" begat "Make America Great Again," and that others wish to follow his own cue to bring their own guns to his vision of a knife fight and likewise to "get in their faces." He fears faux-Greek columns and vero possumus will be trumped in Cleveland."

[GILMORE?]

What?

[BigT]

Shorter: Obama said the same stuff he is complaining about now.

[GILMORE?]

Yeah, but why is it in response to the thing about drone-killings?

[BigT]

It was meant to be a new thread.

[Crusty Juggler]

Midnighter & Apollo, Gay Superheroes of Comics, to Reunite This Fall

The characters, who made their debut in 1998, were gay analogues of Batman (Midnighter) and Superman (Apollo). They dated, eventually married, adopted a child and, thanks to comics, had their history rebooted. Midnighter most recently headlined his own series, which ended in March. The comic, written by Mr. Orlando, was lauded for its portrayal, which balanced the hero's volatile global adventures ? and a friendly flirtation with Dick Grayson, the former Robin ? with a domestic life that included using dating apps and being sexually active.

[GILMORE?]

I thought the famous "most gay Superhero" was the Canadian in marvel's "Alpha Flight"... which was first outed in the 1980s?

was it the indian? or the japanese fireball thing? can't recall. Ok, it was this guy

the character first appeared in X-Men #120 (April 1979)

*of course* the gay was canadian. because its 'this guy we know', but he's not like from around here or anything. Awkward!

I don't recall how much they emphasized the gay in the early years of that character, but i do recall some man-kissing in the mid-80s in the X-men crossover books w/ them.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I guess it depends on the nature of the fame and to whom it is considered famous. Northstar may have been first, but he's also one of, what, 1 metric fuckton of X-Men? On the other hand, Midnighter and Apollo were created by Warren Ellis, a writer with a huge fan-following, and were eventually spun off into a decade-long series in which they served as major characters.

[UnCivilServant]

Fame also varies by subculture.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Indeed. What truly matters is that one lives forever.

[GILMORE?]

he's also one of, what, 1 metric fuckton of X-Men?

Technically, he's 1/8 of Alpha Flight, which was its own series for about a decade (1983-1994)

They had a few crossover-series w/ X-Men, but then so did everyone. It in no way diminishes his profile.

[Ted S.]

Batman and Robin aren't gay lovers?

[UnCivilServant]

No. Not in this iteration. (DC reboots every half decade now)

We'll see what happens after the world ends this time.

[Ted S.]

So now they're just back in the closet.

[UnCivilServant]

The current Robin is a blood relative...

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well, considering that with DC Rebirth, if I'm not mistaken, Robin is back to being his son, that seems like a good idea.

[jesse.in.mb]

Well, considering that with DC Rebirth, if I'm not mistaken, Robin is back to being his son, that seems like a good idea.

Wouldn't want them having big-eared, tiny-handed children, now would we?

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm not sure that's how it works, even with a Lazarus Pit.

[UnCivilServant]

I was about to make a comment about biology, but then I remembered this is a universe that tends to run on the rule of stupid, and stranger things have happened in it's past.

[jesse.in.mb]

The recent Midnighter run was solid. The bit with Dick Grayson was possibly the best part.

Apollo, like Superman is overpowered and the run did well to sideline him for much of it.

[meta]

What about the ambiguously gay duo? Maybe that wasn't a comic, been awhile.

[GILMORE?]

Finally, Something That Will *Work*

California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday signed a sweeping package of gun control bills, banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and expanding the definition of prohibited assault weapons in the wake of mass shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando.
...
The bills signed by Brown ban so-called bullet buttons, which allow quick changes in the magazine of a military-style weapon, and require background checks for purchasers of ammunition.

Those criminals will never find a way around *these* controls.

[Greater Questions of Carl]

Neil deGrasse Tyson's idea for a country called "Rationalia" is pretty flawed.

Because it will be a condescending, unbearable sausage fest like the "Skeptic & Rationalist" community?

[BigT]

Sure, that. But, more importantly, bossy, statist, scolding, and irrational. And of course wrong about most things.

[ant1sthenes]

Is a man not entitled to fucking love science?

[BigT]

Yes, but deGrasse loves fucking up science.

[MetalBard]

How come the president thinks stopping immigration, from certain regions, to prevent terrorism is wrong because you stop a lot of innocent people too, but doesn't apply the same standard when it comes to bombing people?

[MetalBard]

Ok this was meant to a response to the comment about drone strikes further up, but somehow ended up here.

[Rich]

Neil deGrasse Tyson's idea for a country called "Rationalia" is pretty flawed.

tl;dr.

Would someone *kindly* summarize the article?

[UnCivilServant]

Some celebrity without actual scientific credentials is blathering on. Someone who gives a damn gives counter arguments saying he's wrong.

/did not read the article

[Rich]

Hey, you're bucking for Reason Intern, aren't you?

[UnCivilServant]

Doesn't pay nearly enough to get me anywhere near DC.

[BigT]

Intern? Editor at large!

[Mickey Rat]

Tyson makes vapid, simplistic, virtue-signaling tweet (that is redundant, isn't it?), Kevin D. Williamson debunks tweet with an essay on the Knowledge Problem.

[GILMORE?]

Owner of greatest pizzeria in NYC, shot & killed

NEW YORK (AP) ? A gunman, lying in wait and dressed in black, shot and killed the owner of the famed L&B Spumoni Gardens pizza restaurant in Brooklyn after the victim arrived home from work carrying a large amount of cash, a police official said Friday.

Investigators suspect Louis Barbati was killed Thursday night in the backyard of his house in Dyker Heights by a bandit who knew about the money, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters following a police academy graduation ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

they note that the place has long had notable mafia connections. I feel currently great pain, sorrow, and hunger.

[Ted S.]

Spumoni is horrible.

[Crusty Juggler]

Oh my.

[GILMORE?]

Firstly - the name of the place has nothing to do with the core product

Secondly - you've never eaten their desserts. which are also @#()&$@ awesome. so shut the fuck up or vinnie and rocco are going to burn your house down.

[Ted S.]

It's like a cross between ice cream and fruitcake.

[UnCivilServant]

That sounds awesome!

Of course, I'm that guy who actually likes fruitcake.

[Juice]

Looks like ass.

[GILMORE?]

DAT AZZ

[Heroic Mulatto]

Thicc.

[Red Rocks Okey-Dokein]

Mmmmmmm, guuuuuurrlll...

[Rufus The Monocled]

I've always wanted to hit that place.

[GILMORE?]

you have to do it. bring kids. pizza and ice cream.

[pan fried wylie]

Canadians bring their kids on heists? Too cheap for a babysitter?

[Rufus The Monocled]

SPUMONI IS AWESOME.

[Jerry on the rocks]

The gunman was apparently named Tino Crostino.

[GILMORE?]

Say whatever you want about the appearance of their quasi-sicilian pies, it is one of the greatest things ever.

[GILMORE?]

Former seminary student sentenced for seeking infant sex

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? A former seminarian has been sentenced in San Diego to nearly 16 years in prison for trying to adopt or purchase infants from Mexico to sexually molest them.

I mean, it could have been worse. He could have been *eating them*?

[Ted S.]

Or circumcising them.

[Fist of Etiquette]

At least he was a former seminarian. Chalk up a win for the Church!

[Libertarian]

They're infallible!

[GILMORE?]

One priest tells the story to another
"That's horrible!"
"I know! and they weren't even baptized"

[Rich]

Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet Saturday with the FBI

Quite the topic for the taking heads if it turned out like this.

[Rich]

talking or taking, WDATPDIM?

[jesse.in.mb]

Has this hit the news yet?

Clinton sought secret info on EU bailout plans as son-in-law's doomed hedge fund gambled on Greece

Hedge fund manager Marc Mezvinsky had friends in high places when he bet big on a Greek economic recovery, but even the keen interest of his mother-in-law, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wasn't enough to spare him and his investors from financial tragedy.

[...]

Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013 to run for president. But newly released emails from 2012 show that she and Clinton Foundation consultant, Sidney Blumenthal, shared classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout. Clinton also shared "protected" State Department information about Greek bonds with her husband at the same time that her son-in-law aimed his hedge fund at Greece.

I like that Hillary Clinton can still surprise me.

[Rich]

Has this hit the news yet?

Hat tip: jesse.

[UnCivilServant]

I like that Hillary Clinton can still surprise me.

I find it more shocking that you're surprised than that she did this.

[jesse.in.mb]

I just thought her blending of incompetence and corruption was mediocre. I didn't realize she was a maestro. Geeze.

[Crusty Juggler]

Clinton ordered an aide, "Pls print two copies" of the Greek bond report. The report was blacked out as a "protected" document when the emails were made public.

[The Fusionist]

He thought it said Greek blond report.

[Ted S.]

That's not a link to Milo?

[UnCivilServant]

He's not a real blond.

[Rich]

From the comments: hillary is like the bank robber who takes a selfie, then emails it to the fib

[GILMORE?]

(FBI Agents arrive at Clinton offices with new charges)

"Just throw it on the pile over there!"

[lafe.long]

American Civil Liberties Union: Civil Rights Group Sues to Allow Secret Recording of Police

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Massachusetts, argues the state should make an exception to its wiretapping laws to allow people to secretly record encounters with police. Open recording is allowed.

[BigT]

If they've done nothing wrong they have nothing to hide.

More importantly, we're paying their salaries.

[Ted S.]

Since nobody's seemed to have commented on the Aspen story:

Apparently Loretta Lynch was there, and the interviewer asked her a non-serious question about her meeting with Bill Clinton, allowing her to crack a "joke" about it that everybody loved.

/retching

[BigT]

Press: "Did you wear your blue dress?"

LL: "Silly, that shows stains."

[The Fusionist]

Here's the transcript of Loretta's conversation with Bill

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Neil deGrasse Tyson's idea for a country called "Rationalia" is pretty flawed.

Sagan had so much more class.

R.I.P.

[BigT]

Gone 20 years.

[Cyto]

Eh, he's committing the sin of hubris. It's pretty common. He gets lots of attention for his science communication, and people confuse "telling us about science" with "being a great scientist". So he gets credit for something he is not in their minds.

15 years of that kind of attention, and he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room.

In his defense, he seems closer to the ground than The Science Guy. That guy came loose from his moorings a long time ago.

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Who should be Donald Trump's vice president? Bernie Sanders, says Fareed Zakaria.

Great idea!
A fascist and a committed socialist slaver in power to rule over the collective.
Compromise is always a good idea in politics.

[Jerryskids]

A North Georgia newspaper publisher was indicted on a felony charge and jailed overnight last week ? for filing an open-records request.

Given that it's the AJC, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on here but Alison Sosebee, district attorney in the three counties in the Appalachian Judicial Circuit, and Judge Weaver say the charges are justified. Weaver said she resented Thomason's attacks on her character in his weekly newspaper and in conversations with her constituents. "I don't react well when my honesty is questioned," Weaver said sure sounds suspiciously like the judge is throwing her weight around after a local investigative reporter wanted records of what all got paid out of a court account the judge controlled and wouldn't take "not that it's any of your business, but nothing questionable" as an answer.

[ant1sthenes]

So, tack on conspiracy to deprive civil rights in addition to the corruption charges.

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Why Republicans who endorsed Trump should publicly admit their mistake.

The fascists who endorsed Trump will not publicly admit their mistake any more than the socialists who endorsed Comrade Bernie or Heil Hitlary will publicly admit to their mistakes in endorsing these two.
That would mean they (gasp!) made a mistake.
Their vanity would never tolerate that.

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Income inequality experts at the University of Berkeley make more than $300,000 a year.

The taxpayers should be more than happy to give their hard earned money to these researchers.
As long as these social scientists do not give up their sources or allow their conclusions to be public, all will be well.
Challenging the data, methodology, etc of those who are in academia is never a good idea.
Look what happened to the scientists who said there would be a famine decades ago, or those scientists who said there would be global cooling in the '70's, the global warming scare in the '90's, etc.
No one wants a repeat of that.

[The Late P Brooks]

Who should be Donald Trump's vice president? Bernie Sanders, says Fareed Zakaria.

Just as long as Robert Reich is Labor Secretary.

[Troy Woodchipper]

I think he is on the short list.

[Rich]

Microaggression!

[DenverJ]

*shortens gaze*

[The Late P Brooks]

WHEEEEEEEEEE!

As incendiary and dangerous as he is ? and he is very dangerous ? and as much of a main event as he has been in this election season, Donald Trump is largely a distraction from what really ails our political discourse. Long after he is gone from the scene, the Republican Party that engendered him, facilitated him, and now supports him ? despite a severe case of buyer's remorse ? will no doubt still thrive, booting up for a future candidacy of Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan. And the media will still act as if Trump were an aberration, a departure from so-called "sensible" conservatism. If so, it will be yet another act of media dereliction.

In fact, worse than dereliction, because the Republican Party, with its history of dog-whistle racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, and gun addiction, salted now by incipient fascism, has been legitimized by the mainstream media for years. One could say that the GOP and MSM have operated in collusion to the great detriment of this country. One could say that and not even be a liberal, just a commonsensical American.

Party of Rational Discourse is how they see themselves, I've been told.

[Intraveneous Woodchipper]

Wow. Just wow. The article is like a parody of a progressive wetdream come to life written in the style of a facebook comment. Exquisitely asinine.

[The Late P Brooks]

This isn't about whom we elect as president. It goes much deeper. This is about who we want to be as a people. For three decades, the MSM have been collaborators with the GOP, pretending the cult is a normal party with values just to the right of center. The result is the proto-fascist Donald Trump and an institution that continues to legitimize what is worst in us.

"I'm not paranoid. Who told you that?"

[mamasan]

These fucking assholes are going to make me vote for Trump just to piss them off.

[Lee G]

Bill Moyers, creator of the Daisy ad. Shithead extraordinaire.

[Troy muy grande boner]

http://dailycaller.com/2016/07.....-saturday/

I would to be a fly on the wall in this room

[Troy muy grande boner]

shit comment fail.... Hillary is supposed to be intervied by the FBI.

C'mon Rule of law.

[buybuydandavis]

Only two links to the National Review white hating cuck Kevin Williamson?

You forgot the best article one!
Chaos in the Family, Chaos in the State: The White Working Class's Dysfunction

The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die.

[VG Zaytsev]

The Cosmos here love Williamson and fully agree with his final solution to the redneck problem.

[Cdr Lytton]

killing up to 116 civilians in strikes in countries where America is not at war

There's a word for that starting with m..

You know who else denied there were any more than a few civilians murdered?

[Cdr Lytton]

Crap, didn't close the italics.

[bnr55298]

my best friend's mom makes $74 an hour on the computer . She has been without work for five months but last month her payment was $19746 just working on the computer for a few hours. find more information ...
?????????? http://www.factoryofincome.com

[Eman]

I wonder what kinds of faces n.d.t. makes in bed. I'm thinking about it right now...