Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Policing in Baltimore 'Explicitly Discriminatory,' Soylent Goes Caffeinated, Shots in Ferguson After Protester Hit by Car: A.M. Links

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 8.10.2016 9:00 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
Large image on homepages | Soylent.com
(Soylent.com)
  • Soylent.com

    A U.S. Justice Department probe of policing in Baltimore finds black residents are more likely to be subject to unlawful stops and searches and more likely to be victims of excessive police force than white residents are. It also found that Baltimore police "supervisors have issued explicitly discriminatory orders, such as directing a shift to arrest 'all the black hoodies' in a neighborhood."

  • A protester in Ferguson, Missouri, was hit by a car Tuesday night, leading to gunfire from fellow protesters trying to stop the car from fleeing. Ferguson police spokesman Jeff Small said the driver's actions did not appear to have been intentional, and no one was hurt by the gunfire.
  • The folks behind everyone's favorite creepy-survivalist-Slimfast, Soylent, are now offering the beverage in caffeinated form; the new drink also contains the nootropic L-theanine.
  • How the U.S. Navy and Marines are preparing to accept transgender recruits.
  • CRISPR isn't the only way to edit a genome.
  • Oklahoma state Sen. Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma County) is pushing the state to conduct a study on the "monetary and nonmonetary ramifications of filing unconstitutional legislation."
  • "Why those headlines about Ivanka Trump's maternity leave policies are bullshit."
  • For a Harvard Medical School graduate, why is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein so opposed to science?

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

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Ruling Allows Online Sex Solicitors to Argue 'She Said She Was 16'

Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason.

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (397)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    CRISPR isn't the only way to edit a genome.,/i>

    Microwave oven with the door open?

    1. Bee Tagger   9 years ago

      HOW EMBARRASSING FOR YOU

      1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

        REAL LIFE.

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          WE HEARD YOU.

          1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

            But did you listen?

    2. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

      Hello.

      1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

        D00d.

      2. Tonio   9 years ago

        Buon Giorno, Rufus.

    3. Tonio   9 years ago

      Fisty, what is it with you and html tags, recently?

      1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

        I'm trying to start a thing, like when the kids purposely mistype the as "teh" as a way of showing they don't give a fuck.

        1. Tonio   9 years ago

          Edgy. I like it.

        2. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

          kek

      2. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

        Haste is the mother of error.

        1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

          LIKE YOU COMMENTING BEFORE KNOWING ALL THE FACTS.

          1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

            You say bug, I say feature.

  2. Bee Tagger   9 years ago

    CRISPR isn't the only way to edit a genome.

    Can I 3D-print a gene, yet?

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      I think they've had that technology for a while.

    2. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      You wouldn't download a gene!

      1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

        You wouldn't?

        *quietly stops trying to shove USB cable into arm*

      2. Brett L   9 years ago

        I'm pretty sure this morning's download contained genetic material.

  3. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    Ferguson police spokesman Jeff Small said the driver's actions did not appear to have been intentional, and no one was hurt by the gunfire.

    How lame Ferguson has become!

    1. (((Renegade)))   9 years ago

      How lame Ferguson has become!

      Al Bundy strongly disagrees.

      1. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

        From the Deep Cuts comment collection.

  4. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

    I guess you can add poor Seth Rich to the democratic party's endlessly growing list of assassination victims!

    1. Idle Hands   9 years ago

      You can call me naive but I honestly just think Assange is trolling at this point. Also at this point it doesn't appear that there was anything in the DNC emails worth killing anybody over. But it is an interesting claim none the less and will get less coverage than the actual content of the emails did.

      1. Free Society   9 years ago

        If this guy is the DNC leak and if he is mysteriously shot in the street a couple weeks after the leak, that is interesting to say the least.

        1. Drake   9 years ago

          Not to the media. Not even worth mentioning.

          1. TheZeitgeist   9 years ago

            TRUMP'S HAIR IS LOCKED AND LOADED.

            -MSM

            1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

              TRUMP'S HAIR IS LOCKED AND LOADED

              YUUUGE CALIBER ASSAULT WEAPON

      2. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

        Even seen a gangster movie? Organized criminals have never needed a great reason to bump someone off.

        They do it largely to intimidate, to send a message, and because they can.

      3. R C Dean   9 years ago

        Also at this point it doesn't appear that there was anything in the DNC emails worth killing anybody over.

        We haven't seen them all yet. Somebody playing this game well would be holding back the worst ones.

    2. Rich   9 years ago

      *Alleged* assassination victims, thank you very much!

  5. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    Animal rights activists are lobbying to change the name of a bay named after Bacon and Eggs to a more vegan-friendly alternative.

    PETA Australia have written to Tasmania's Huon Valley Council calling for the Eggs and Bacon Bay to be renamed as Apple and Cherry Bay because it encourages poor dietary choices.

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      Come to think of it, the name "PETA" encourages people to eat pets.

      1. RBS   9 years ago

        There is a pet boarding/grooming place near my office called Pet Galley.

        1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

          "You exist to serve this ship Therefore, row well...and live."

          *Woof*

          1. TheZeitgeist   9 years ago

            "RAMMING SPEED!"

            '...meow'

    2. Jerryskids   9 years ago

      I'm assuming "eggs and bacon" is a euphemism.

      1. SugarFree   9 years ago

        Or Cockney rhyming slang.

      2. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

        Want to come up for coffee and breakfast?

      3. lafe.long   9 years ago

        Right. I think they should rename it Twig and Berries Bay. Everybody wins!

        1. R C Dean   9 years ago

          Oh, well played. I hope they do this.

          Or, perhaps, "Bay McBayface".

      4. TheZeitgeist   9 years ago

        Should reflect indigenous cuisine.

        Dirt Dingo Bay.

  6. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    The folks behind everyone's favorite creepy-survivalist-Slimfast, Soylent, are now offering the beverage in caffeinated form...

    Soylent green is jittery, gassy people!

  7. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

    For a Harvard Medical School graduate, why is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein so opposed to science?

    Why is a Harvard Law School graduate and Constitutional Law professor is so opposed to the Constitution?

    1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

      Because Obama knows his enemy?

    2. BigT   9 years ago

      Why is a businessman so opposed to business?

      Why is a lawyer so opposed to following the law?

      Why is the Judge asking so many questions?

  8. Bee Tagger   9 years ago

    Oklahoma state Sen. Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma County) is pushing the state to conduct a study on the "monetary and nonmonetary ramifications of filing unconstitutional legislation."

    Cheapest alternative would seem to be to never rule anything unconstitutional. Try to argue with that, budget hawks!

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      You have to pass it before the courts decide what's in it!

      1. straffinrun   9 years ago

        You know what else you have to pass to find out what's in it?

        1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

          I'm still waiting for the morning's "blessed event," thanks.

          1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

            *narrows gaze*

          2. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

            Are you having a brown baby?

            *reports self to racist re-education camp*

            1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

              I prefer "bend a fresh biscuit."

              1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

                "Dropping the kids off at the pool"

                1. straffinrun   9 years ago

                  Giving birth to a Hillary supporter.

                  1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

                    God, that's why there are so many of them.

                    1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

                      "Here I sit with butt cheeks flexin', givin' birth to another Texan"

                      /Oklahoman graffiti

            2. Cdr Lytton   9 years ago

              "Making a lieutenant."

        2. Rich   9 years ago

          That minivan up ahead?

          1. RBS   9 years ago

            Old people, Mexicans (Old Mexican?), stay at home mom...

          2. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

            *stands to applaud*

          3. Tonio   9 years ago

            Ha. Good one, Rich.

          4. straffinrun   9 years ago

            Not supposed to judge this, but kudos for not loafing your answer.

  9. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    A U.S. Justice Department probe of policing in Baltimore finds black residents are more likely to be subject to unlawful stops...

    Does the report say anything about how the law breakers perpetrating those stops should be dealt with?

    1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      Placed into a large sack with a civet cat, and then thrown into a river?

      1. Entropy Drehmaschine Void   9 years ago

        Good waste of a civet.

        I like my coffee exotic.

  10. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    There are serious privacy concerns about this year's census in Australia because it will be connecting census answers with other information via a linkage key. So what happens this year? DDoS attacks which crashed the servers on census night. Coincidence?

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      The Bureau's chief, David Kalisch, said people were more likely to tell the truth if they had to provide their names.

      *And* the names of their loved ones, right? RIGHT?!

  11. colorblindkid   9 years ago

    Here's the thing about Baltimore, though. It has a majority black police force, black police chief, black mayor, and majority black city council. It has for a long time. I don't deny the blatant discrimination, but what the hell are evil white Republican racists supposed to do about it?

    1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      It's all due to internalized racism caused by white supremacist libertarians?

    2. Tonio   9 years ago

      Accept responsibility. Duh.

      1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

        ^THIS^

    3. Doctor Whom   9 years ago

      Baltimore is at the mercy of those evil white Republican racists. Someone on Facederp said so and got several likes, so it must be true.

    4. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

      An argument I've read is that "well, there must be a white man somewhere up there, so ... racism."

      Which is part of why I say white privilege is un-falsifiable.

      I read an article saying so, and the commentators pointed out that it was BS. The authors response was argument by assertion and "Na-Na-Na I can't hear you".

      I can't find the article, sorry.

    5. thom   9 years ago

      No, here's the thing about Baltimore. Baltimore has good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods. The good neighborhoods pay high taxes and subsidize the bad neighborhoods, and city council and police leadership know it. Therefore, because the police are people who are responding to incentives. the difference in policing is stark, so when somebody get's mugged and their cell phone stolen in the affluent white neighborhood of Roland Park, the police department goes absolutely ape-shit to respond to the community concerns, whereas they basically yawn when somebody get's murdered in West Baltimore. Because of all this, the police end up treating people in the good neighborhoods like customers while they treat people in the bad neighborhoods like cattle, who need to be contained and kept out of the good neighborhoods, and there ends up being a big division in treatment by the police that falls largely (but not entirely!) along racial lines.

      That's a really long winded way of saying it's not so much about race as it is about class. Class divisions and racial divisions are similar but not exact. Baltimore city government lives in absolute fear of middle and upper class flight to the suburbs. Anyways, they need to just merge the city and the county and be done with it.

    6. R C Dean   9 years ago

      what the hell are evil white Republican racists supposed to do about it?

      Win a few elections so they can be properly blamed?

  12. Rich   9 years ago

    "The gender identity of an otherwise qualified individual will not bar them from joining the Navy or Marine Corps"

    "Xi, yes, Xi!"

    1. All-Seeing Monocle   9 years ago

      ::golf clap::

    2. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      *drops and begins push ups*

      1. BigT   9 years ago

        The anti-von Trapps?

        More refugees are now making their way to Germany from Italy via Switzerland, instead of the traditional route from Greece through the Balkans and Austria which have now become almost impenetrable thanks to borders being fenced off.

        1. DJF   9 years ago

          But fences don't work?

          1. The Last American Hero   9 years ago

            They do in a pass in the Alps. They don't covering a thousands mile long border.

            Penn and Teller have covered this extensively.

        2. Cdr Lytton   9 years ago

          The hills are alive with the sound of muslims?

          1. R C Dean   9 years ago

            +1 ululation

    3. Atlas Slugged   9 years ago

      Military will still have binary genders, just a process from to go from one to the other now.

  13. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    Midwife given suspended jail sentence after nearly starving her baby to death

    1. Florida Hipster   9 years ago

      It was later discovered the mother, 33, who is also a maternity ward nurse, was practising a raw food diet and fasting which almost caused her breastfeeding baby to starve to death.

      But she had only decided to go on the strict diet allegedly on the advice of Leppington naturopath Marilyn Bodnar, 60.

      Lol

    2. Tonio   9 years ago

      Did she at least lose her licence? SLDs about licences, but since they exist...

    3. Brett L   9 years ago

      I'm glad they suspended the sentence. Starving your child because of your insane dietary beliefs is crazy, but locking her in a cage isn't going to make any of that better.

      1. Tonio   9 years ago

        It would ensure that she couldn't do that again, and it sends a message to the other whackos that abuse is indeed a crime.

        1. Illocust   9 years ago

          It sounds like the completely accidental and hard to detect abuse, though. She was feeding her baby. She was unaware that her diet meant her baby wasn't getting enough nutrition from her breastmilk.

          1. Tonio   9 years ago

            If she were some random hippie chick, perhaps she wouldn't know. But this woman was a nurse, specifically an OB/GYN nurse with additional midwife training. One expects that sort of person to know about the proper care of infants.

            Her baby boy had been vomiting for up to a week, had sunken eyes and was hardly moving when a mother finally decided to take him to a Sydney hospital.

            Doesn't take long for them to become dehydrated and malnourished at that age (8 months). This woman was clearly negligent even by the standards of laypeople, grossly negligent by the standard of a practicing medical professional. Hell, most moms would be camped out in the ER after the first day of vomiting.

          2. R C Dean   9 years ago

            It sounds like the completely accidental

            No, pretty sure that diet wasn't accidental. And, given her profession, its not unreasonable to say she should have known it would be bad for her baby.

            Plus, of course, starving babies generally let you know they are starving, so there's that.

  14. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

    I use L-Theanine to help stop "gerbil brain" when I'm trying to get to sleep. What the Hell, Soylent?

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      stop "gerbil brain"

      These euphemisms are getting out of hand too much ....

      1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

        +1 Richard Gere or whoever that was who supposedly something something

    2. Zeb   9 years ago

      It's probably in there to offset the caffeine induced "gerbil brain".

      1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

        I'd think L-Tyrosine would be better for that. Whatevs.

        1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

          Whisky.

  15. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    Oklahoma state Sen. Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma County) is pushing the state to conduct a study on the "monetary and nonmonetary ramifications of filing unconstitutional legislation."

    How can you put a price on oath-violating good intentions?

  16. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    Octogenarian accused of drugging and robbing pensioners she met through lonely hearts ads

    1. Elspeth Flashman   9 years ago

      Clever. Probably sold the jewelry that was allegedly stolen too.

    2. Tonio   9 years ago

      Paging Oscar Wilde...please call your agent.

    3. straffinrun   9 years ago

      Better reopen Jack's case. Not Rose's first theft.

    4. Libertarian   9 years ago

      +1 Arsenic and Old Lace

  17. Fist of Etiquette   9 years ago

    How the U.S. Navy and Marines are preparing to accept transgender recruits.

    "We responded in true Marine Corps fashion. We salute, do an about face, double time back to the boom-boom garbage dump where we get the clap, and the drip, and the crabs and a generally poor attitude towards the female of the species."

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      Nice.

    2. DJF   9 years ago

      Looks like the taxpayer will get the bill for "transition"

      (2) The Military Health System will be required to provide transgender Sailors and Marines all medically necessary care related to gender transition, based on the guidance that is issued.

      http://cdrsalamander.blogspot......ecnav.html

      1. Tonio   9 years ago

        So, that's a lot of downtime for surgery, recovery and counseling and even more time on restricted duties. That's a significant chunk of time out of a two-year hitch. Basically if you can pass the initial physical you get a free pass and lots of surgery, and earn the resentment of your fellow servicepeople who are there to learn a useful skill or save for college. This just turned the US military into a social justice policy fulfillment org.

        1. DJF   9 years ago

          Plus their fellow service people are having to do the job that the trans is not doing. Yeah, extra hours and days of work without pay or other compensation.

          1. R C Dean   9 years ago

            +1 fragged tranny

    3. Atlas Slugged   9 years ago

      I can only hope Clint becomes the first human to live for a thousand years...

  18. lafe.long   9 years ago

    Florida Cop Kills Woman In Training Exercise to Show Police Restraint

    Mary Knowlton, 73, was at a citizen police academy at the Punta Gorda, Fla. police station when she was shot during a two-hour long course, according to the Washington Post.

    Officers chose Knowlton to role-play a lethal force scenario, intended to demonstrate police judgement in pulling the trigger, when she was shot with an officer's loaded gun. Knowlton was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

    1. sarcasmic   9 years ago

      Dammit. I was about to post this.

      Can you say Negligent Homicide?

      Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha!

      Yeah right.

    2. Tonio   9 years ago

      And nothing else happened.

    3. Rich   9 years ago

      Officers chose Knowlton to role-play a lethal force scenario

      "We strive for the utmost realism in our training."

      1. BigT   9 years ago

        I nominate that woman named for the famous mountain climber to role-play.

    4. Shirley Knott   9 years ago

      That'll teach her to cooperate with the cops.

    5. All-Seeing Monocle   9 years ago

      Police judgement was in fact demonstrated.

      1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

        Exactly.

    6. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

      intended to demonstrate police judgement in pulling the trigger

      Well, I don't think you can make an argument that they weren't completely successful in doing that.

    7. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

      Ho do we know this wasn't a justified shooting? She might have barked and put the officer in fear of his life

    8. WTF   9 years ago

      Why the fuck was there even a loaded weapon during a training exercise?

      1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

        Because the average cop is a drooling fuckwit?

      2. tarran   9 years ago

        Oh, it's easy to sit there playing armchair quarterback while they are putting their lives on the line!

        How dare you second guess their split-hour decisions!!!

        1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

          "split-hour decisions"

          *prepares trophy and garlands for tarran*

          1. tarran   9 years ago

            /Instructs his orphan slaves to follow him around the room repeating, "Remember. You are mortal."

        2. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

          That hero went home safe. That's all that matters.

      3. sarcasmic   9 years ago

        They were supposed to be loaded with blanks according to the article.

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....rcise.html

        The officer was supposed to fire blanks at Knowlton, but live rounds were loaded in the gun, according to WINK News.

        I figure the only punishment the guy will face will be for failure to follow policy. And that is only if there is something in the union contract that says they must use blanks for these exercises. Otherwise nothing else will happen.

        1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

          Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to load the gun with ANYTHING? Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to use a real gun in the first place?

          Aren't those against, like, the most basic rules of using a gun? Always assume the gun is loaded and never point the gun at anything you don't want to destroy?

          1. Drake   9 years ago

            In the military, we used blank firing adaptors on the barrels. If tried to fire live ammo, you would blow your own stupid hand and face off.

            1. R C Dean   9 years ago

              Well, that would mean the officer didn't go home safe, wouldn't it?

              Once again, we say that a dead serf is preferable to a wounded cop.

        2. Free Society   9 years ago

          Radio newscasts characterized the cop as "devastated" and the police chief is "saddened". Don't forget the real victims in all of this, not the furtively moving librarian, not her family, but our heroes in blue.

          1. sarcasmic   9 years ago

            They are the only ones that matter. After all, they serve the public. And the public is everyone except any individual. So she doesn't matter. She's just an individual.

      4. Tonio   9 years ago

        A lot of LEO orgs require the use of a "red gun" in these scenarios - a red plastic model of a gun with no moving parts.

        1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

          Correct. In training for the Canadian RPAL, only simguns were used during the lectures. I find the use of a real sidearm in this situation to be totally unfathomable.

          1. Tonio   9 years ago

            Had to look that up. That's the training for a pistol license in Canada and appears to be conducted by the Mounties.

            1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

              To be pedantic, sidearm and/or other restricted weapon. And anyone can do the training ? it's offered under the auspices of the RCMP, but my trainer was a CBSA agent, and one of the most libertarian guys I've ever met in this country.

    9. SusanM   9 years ago

      It just had to be Florida, didn't it?

    10. Roger the Shrubber   9 years ago

      shot during a two-hour long course

      More training is needed, obviously.

  19. lafe.long   9 years ago

    Hendersonville, Tennessee: Father Told Police He Fatally Shot Daughter, 11, After She Scared Him, Records Say

    Timothy Batts, 29, was charged with the murder of his 11-year-old daughter, Timea. He told police he shot her when she "yelled and scared him," The Tennessean said, citing court documents.

    1. All-Seeing Monocle   9 years ago

      If only he'd thought to declare it a training scenario.

    2. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      "Sir, that defense is only available to our heroes in blue*

      1. Entropy Drehmaschine Void   9 years ago

        "Well, Officer, I was wearing my blue Three Wolves Moon T-shirt, is that not enough?"

    3. Jerryskids   9 years ago

      He told police he shot her when she "yelled and scared him,"

      Dumbass should have said he was engaged in a training scenario demonstrating the proper use of lethal force when he shot her.

      1. Jerryskids   9 years ago

        Dumbass should refresh before posting his "witticisms".

      2. Free Society   9 years ago

        Should have put his cop costume on first.

    4. Brett L   9 years ago

      The totality of the circs.

    5. Libertarian   9 years ago

      Let the record show that this did NOT happen in Florida.

  20. lafe.long   9 years ago

    Why Lots of Millennials Will Never Be Homeowners

    According to research from Trulia.com, millennials who grew up in a home their parents owned are about three times likelier to own a home of their own compared to millennials who grew up in a home their parents rented.

    1. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

      It's kind of tough to buy your own home when you don't have a job!

      It's not quite like it was ten years ago when they were signing off on a mortgage for any schmuck with two nickels to rub together.

      1. KDN   9 years ago

        Don't worry, they're working on it.

    2. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

      They don't seem to want to get a driver's permit let alone own a home!

      1. Free Society   9 years ago

        A driver's permit? Go back to CANADA.

        1. But Enough About Me   9 years ago

          Already there. Beauty of the Internet, and all that...

    3. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      Don't worry, they can inherit a house or, like my millennial co-worker, buy the house that he grew up from his parents.

      Of course he was suckered into getting a house with a shot foundation - thanks, dad!

  21. Certified Public Asshat   9 years ago

    Please Stop Shaming Bernie Sanders for Buying a House

    It is true that Bernie Sanders, a former presidential candidate, is a public figure. However, he is also a 74 year old man whose real estate decisions need not be evaluated on the basis of his campaign platform.

    "To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country," Sanders said at a fall debate.

    Sanders' campaign platform focused on income inequality via regulating big banks, reforming campaign finance, and making healthcare and college more affordable. These jabs use a misapplied pop-cultural caricature of socialism to portray Sanders as hypocritical, but miss the point that his democratic socialism never called for "taking people's stuff," or preventing people from doing well enough to buy houses.

    Sanders wanted to change the system that leaves regular people mired in debt when financial institutions crash the economy, and he hoped to eradicate the burden of student loans that prevents many young people from buying homes.

    We all misunderstood his message it seems.

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      "Stop expecting us to live by the rules we expect others to follow."

      1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

        ^THIS. 🙂

        I don't know what's worse: Bernie's hypocrisy or his followers' gullibility.

    2. Shirley Knott   9 years ago

      There are much better things to shame Bernie for than his expensive vacation home.
      Like his economically ignorant and destructive positions.
      Like his ignorant and socially destructive political positions.
      Like his support for dictators and dictatorships.
      The house is just icing on the cake. Clearly this self-absorbed twat defending him can't see the cake for the icing.

      1. Tonio   9 years ago

        While that may be true, Shirl, this is a hugely tangible issue.

    3. Rich   9 years ago

      However, he is also a 74 year old man whose real estate decisions need not be evaluated on the basis of his campaign platform.

      "However, he is also a sac of compounds whose chemical interactions need not be evaluated on the basis of his campaign platform."

    4. John   9 years ago

      If we would get rid of the home mortgage deduction and stopped suppressing the interest rates to screw anyone who saved money, it wouldn't matter. But we can't have that.

    5. Tonio   9 years ago

      his democratic socialism never called for "taking people's stuff"

      Bullshit.

      1. Rich   9 years ago

        Ahem. I daresay he never used that exact expression.

        1. Certified Public Asshat   9 years ago

          At the very least, he didn't want people taking his cool stuff.

    6. Chip Woodier   9 years ago

      As a life-long public employee, wasn't he "taking people's stuff" in the form of taxes to pay for his houses?
      That is, if the money didn't come from the Clinton Global Initiative.

      1. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

        Taxes are totally voluntary. If you don't like them, you can move.

        /arguments I've actually been told.

    7. Jerryskids   9 years ago

      Bernie knows progressive policies lead to lots more people buying $600k homes. Just look at San Francisco where the average home-owner lives in a house worth twice that. And when they're done, we'll all be so rich we'll be buying thousand-dollar loaves of bread. Don't ask what meat's gonna cost. (Hint: "An arm and a leg" won't be just a figure of speech.)

    8. R C Dean   9 years ago

      Isn't this his third house, as well?

      1. DOOMco   9 years ago

        Yes.

  22. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

    Regarding the Harvard article taking Stein down. I didn't realize just how much of a quack she is.

    Anyway, allow me to single out a sentence in the article:

    "...Liberals deserve better than Jill Stein."

    No, they don't.

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      Well, actual classical liberals do; progs and watermelons not so much.

  23. lafe.long   9 years ago

    As migrants pile up at Swiss-Italian border, Amnesty warns children at risk

    Switzerland said the buildup was due to an influx of African migrants seeking passage to north European countries such as Germany. Any individual requesting asylum would be granted the opportunity.

    "We're concerned about reports from minors who by their own accounts were sent back to Italy at the Swiss border and were prevented from joining family members in Switzerland," Amnesty International Switzerland said in a statement on Tuesday.

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      They were just being protected from Roman Polanski.

      1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

        ZING!

    2. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      I am sure the Swiss are trembling at AI's "concern about reports".

    3. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

      Ah...the children.

    4. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

      And these children who were not with family. Were they by any chance thirty year old males claiming to be seventeen year old males?

  24. Rich   9 years ago

    The conditions of John Hinckley Jr.'s full-time release from a psychiatric hospital after a three-decade long commitment are a laundry list of dos and don'ts meant to help him assimilate into society ? he can't own a gun, he must work or volunteer three days a week, and he can't have any overnight guests while staying alone at his mother's home in Williamsburg, Virginia. But one privilege that won't be curtailed any longer is his right to vote ? meaning that come November, the only living man to have shot a U.S. president could register to be among the millions of Americans eligible to cast a ballot in the presidential election.

    Why, he could even write in Seddique Mir Mateen!

    1. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

      Not as long as Jodie Foster is eligible for the job

      1. Rich   9 years ago

        I'm impressed!

      2. John   9 years ago

        I feel bad for Jodi. You get famous playing a teenage hooker and then some creepy guy falls in love with you and shoots the President to impress you, all before you were 20 years old. No wonder she went gay. After that, I can understand why she didn't find men very appealing.

        1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

          You get famous playing a teenage hooker and then some creepy guy falls in love with you

          Maybe he didn't understand why a movie called "Freaky Friday" wasn't playing at the downtown whack-off theater.

        2. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

          I believe he was stalking her and slipping love notes under her door at Yale. He would have been the subject of like three Soave articles if he tried that shit now.

          1. John   9 years ago

            If it happened today, maybe he would have shot the diversity officer sent to investigate her complaints rather than the President.

  25. lafe.long   9 years ago

    Vietnam moves new rocket launchers into disputed South China Sea - sources

    Vietnam has discreetly fortified several of its islands in the disputed South China Sea with new mobile rocket launchers capable of striking China's runways and military installations across the vital trade route, according to Western officials.

  26. SIV   9 years ago

    For a Harvard Medical School graduate, why is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein so opposed to science?

    The linked HuffPo column attacks Stein for not saying that all vaccines are totally safe. The writer is "anti-science".

  27. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

    The other day I was drinking gin 'n' tonics at my favorite dive watering hole - also one of the nation's top dispenser of Pabst Blue Ribbon - and saw that the tv show Inside Edition had a segment on the *Trump kicking the baby out of hall.

    That, and the current huzzah about the "assassination" calls makes me realize that the media is 97% in the tank for Hillary. Almost coordinated to the point of tinfoil hat territory.

    Were past elections - say 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 - like this? I know W seemed to have changed the balance the other way, turning journalists into a wild pack of shit-slinging monkeys.

    Back then, the Repubs would paint their opponent as tax-raising liberals, nay near communists - and have a good chance of getting their candidate elected. But now, with the age of Obama, it seems that the media doesn't even bother to be evenhanded, or even pretend to be.

    I know the MSM respectability / confidence is in the shitter - what 20% approval? - but they still manage to drive the narrative. Why?

    * note: not a Trump voter, I'm opting out this year; just commenting on what I'm seeing as flagrant bias.

    1. tarran   9 years ago

      The vast majority of people don't vet their news sources.

    2. Idle Hands   9 years ago

      I thought the Obama's primary run, presidential elections and subsequent presidencies and was a watermark in dishonest reporting. I was wrong. Trump is getting the Palin treatment x5 and I wouldn't have a problem with that because all politicians deserve to have the Palin treatment x5, I just wish all politicians got the Palin treatment x5 instead of just the ones on the red team. I honestly don't think it would matter who the Republican candidate would have been the coverage would have been just this bad, from the usual suspects, simply because Clinton is the least charismatic presidential candidate probably ever. It's just a testament to how far the press is willing to go to get a D elected. the real difference between now and the Romney, McCain and Bush elections is that the establishment Republicans hate Trump as much as the Democrats, so it's open season as noone in the establishment press is even willing to run interference for Trump which wasn't always the case previously.

      1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

        the establishment Republicans hate Trump as much as the Democrats, so it's open season as noone in the establishment press is even willing to run interference for Trump which wasn't always the case previously.

        Ah - good point. Reading the NRO Team twitter feed certainly adds weights to that argument.

        1. R C Dean   9 years ago

          The #NeverTrumpers may get what they want - President Hillary Clinton. I wish them the joy of it.

    3. Domestic Dissident   9 years ago

      The so-called "mainstream media", or the scum in the JournoList, have been dishonest shit-flinging leftard monkeys for as long as I can remember in my lifetime.

      They desperately tried to portray Ronald Reagan as a dangerous lunatic who would bring about World War III and the nuclear armageddon. I think some of them even seriously believed this bullcrap. Then the debates happened, and most normal people went "Are you fucking kidding me? He's nothing like what you're saying."

      The bad news though is that decades of a deliberately dumbed-down public education system and America being turned into a dumping ground are finally having the desired effect that the Alinsky left have been seeking for almost a century. We're getting dumber by the day, and it's showing in the results.

      1. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

        Cloward-Piven for the win!

      2. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

        I was - oh, blissful days - not into politics at all in the 80s and early 90s.

      3. Colonel Slanders   9 years ago

        ^^^^This

      4. Jerryskids   9 years ago

        I'm assuming the average voter doesn't really pay much attention to the campaign news, only occasionally catches bits and pieces of the media stories second- or third-hand from neighbors or friends or co-workers. They know "Benghazi" means something, but couldn't give you a coherent explanation beyond "scandal" or "fake scandal" depending on their pre-dispositions.

        It's always been this way, but with the internet now you've got dozens of information sources and different angles on any given story rather than just the one all the major sources have agreed is the narrative and the alternative-press one you have to dig to find so it's only now obvious that the major-source narrative you've always been told is "the truth" is only one point of view. We all trusted Walter Cronkite not because he was the most believable of sources but because he was the only source. And only about ten percent of us actually watched or listened to the news or read a newspaper.

    4. Michael   9 years ago

      My wife leaves the car radio tuned to NPR constantly to the point that I don't ever bother changing it anymore. Yesterday they had Trump's "2nd Amendment people" comments on heavy rotation. Naturally everyone was completely aghast and were flailing and sputtering on about how horrifying it is and how quickly Clinton's campaign was to denounce him. This led me to realize Trump's genius. He seems to be completely aware of everything you've described about the contemporary media, but instead of trying to mind his Ps and Qs like every other failed Republican candidate he's playing ball and exploiting the fuck out of it to his advantage. When Donald Trump opens his mouth, he talks about Donald Trump. When Hillary open's her mouth, she talks about...Donald Trump. I believe that the advertising buzzword for this is "mindshare", and Clinton and her media lapdogs are delivering it to Trump by the truckload.

      1. Adam330   9 years ago

        And yet his brilliant jujitsu-like approach has him....trailing in the polls by huge margins. Hmmm...maybe it's not so brilliant after all.

    5. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

      It's a death spiral.

      Because of the internet, the media doesn't have a monopoly on the "objective truth". They cannot sway voters like they used to.

      Because Trump is an expert troll, most of what the media threw at him ended up bolstering his campaign.

      The media is becoming aware that they aren't as much of an influence on people's opinions, and they are locked into a panic-mode trying desperately to show that they have ~influence~ by not even putting forth the illusion of objectivity.

      It's a tantrum as they fall from their position of power, in a desperate bid to cling to whatever power they can hold on to.

      1. Jerryskids   9 years ago

        I only recently realized I only know a couple of people who vote or have any interest in politics. Back during the primary debates, my niece asked me who all these people were running for President and I had to explain the primary system to her, that they weren't actually running for President but just the party nomination to run for President. Whereupon she asked me if Obama was a Democrat or a Republican and if he was running for re-election again.

        Now, my niece is 40 years old and she's a nurse, she's not a retarded 8-year old, and that's what I think of as the average American. You think all this stuff you and I pay attention to are the same things the average American is paying attention to? Think again.

        (My niece also would draw a blank on a word-association test if you gave her "NFC", "Robert Heinlein", "Vichy French", "atomic number", "Marbury v. Madison", "Yellowstone caldera", and a whole host of things we all take for granted everybody has at least heard of. I suspect about half of all people know less than the average person thinks the average person knows.)

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          That's a comforting thought, really. More people should be divested from politics as a passion, let alone a profession. Maybe the lunatics aren't running the asylum after all.

    6. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

      Were past elections - say 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 - like this?

      My $0.02

      note: My first vote was 1992.

      Reagan: portrayed as an idiot actor, and he hates poor people.
      HW bush, Dole. I don't recall.

      GWB: portrayed as an idiot.

      McCain was the "Senate Maverick" until he ran for POTUS. Then he was an out of touch rich guy, a racist, and right wing extremist.

      Romney was the respected "Massachusetts Moderate" until he ran for POTUS. Then he was an out of touch rich guy who wanted to put black people in chains and rape binders full of women.

      1. Chipwooder   9 years ago

        Dole was portraying like McCain was, an out of touch, cranky old man. To be fair, that's pretty much what he was.

        The way Mitt Romney morphed overnight in the media from a milquetoast northeastern moderate Republican to the Massachusetts version of David Duke was ludicrous. It's even more ludicrous when you now read columnists lamenting that the GOP is now full of crazies instead of sane, sober statesmen like.....Romney. It's the same technique when they go on and on about how Reagan would be an outcast in the GOP now. That would be the same Ronald Reagan who was accused of being a dangerous, warmongering simpleton who had the CIA distributing crack in the ghetto to destroy black communities.

        1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

          Eisenhower was also portrayed as an out-of-touch, clueless old man once he came out as a Republican. Now liberal historians are revising the conventional wisdom that their predecessors established and admitting that he was a lot more cagey and a better President than people realized, never acknowledging that their fellow Democrats were the ones who set that narrative in the first place out of sheer sour grapes.

          And what happens if the GOP base nominates someone in 2020 even more off the reservation than Trump? These same pearl-clutchers lamenting how extreme Trump is now are going to write the same chin-stroking "think" pieces saying that as bad as Trump was, he was a lot saner than this guy!

          Perhaps if the MSM wasn't so obviously in the tank for the Democrats this wouldn't be as obnoxious, but they've been playing this same song and dance since at least 1952, if not longer.

        2. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

          It's the same with Goldwater.

          I see prog memes quoting him once in a while. Of course in 1964, he was a "racist who'll start WWIII"

    7. mojoe   9 years ago

      The libs and the MSM (sorry for the redundancy) are getting desperate. So the narrative gets scarier and scarier.

      Same thing they're doing with climate change.

    8. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

      I'll elaborate.

      1996. I don't recall Dole getting attacked. It may have been that no one saw him as a serious threat to Clinton's re-election.

      2000. GWB was not only portrayed as an idiot. He was portrayed as an anti-intellectual, draft dodging, christian fundie who hated mother earth. Gore was a super cereal,earnest defender of Gaia and was 20x times smarter than Bush. (even though they both got C's in college)

      But yes, I think it's gotten worse since 2008

      1. R C Dean   9 years ago

        Much of the media sold out so completely to get Obama elected and re-elected that they can't go back now. They have to believe their own lies, so they do. I don't see any going back.

        The Repubs and their donors have played it stupidly, as well. They've blown tens of millions or more fighting the last war, when they should have been buying up media outlets. Fox News gave them the template to break the DemOp oligopoly, and they ignored it. They're just reaping what they have sown.

  28. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

    CRISPR isn't the only way to edit a genome.

    It's a bit of a crapshoot but you can try fucking.

  29. straffinrun   9 years ago

    What's the libertarian position on B.O.? The air on this train is a tragedy of the commons.

    1. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

      It is an aggression and can be met with deadly force

  30. Rich   9 years ago

    Almost All Lice Are Now Treatment-Resistant

    But enough about the election.

    1. Tonio   9 years ago

      Time to bring back kerosene. They can't really develop resistance to that as it coats their bodies and makes it impossible for them to absorb oxygen from the atmosphere which they do through their skin (no lungs). An equivalent vegetable-derived oil would probably work.

      1. Brett L   9 years ago

        kerosene is very thin, though. I mean, you can make kerosene out of bio-oil, sure. But its cheap. And probably not a significant risk to increase later cancer except in the state of California.

  31. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

    LA cops get into shootout with carjacking suspect, suspect escapes, cops find unarmed, mentally ill man, kill him instead.

    bert Alexander had a lengthy criminal record and no fixed address.

    Donnell Thompson was a fan of Michael Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers and attended classes for the mentally disabled at El Camino College.

    Early on a July morning, the two strangers' lives intersected in tragic fashion.

    Alexander stole a Honda Civic at gunpoint and opened fire on sheriff's deputies in Compton before disappearing into the neighborhood, authorities said.

    As Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies searched for Alexander, they found Thompson and mistook him for the carjacking suspect, shooting him dead.

    The Sheriff's Department initially characterized Thompson, 27, as a second suspect in the carjacking. But on Tuesday, sheriff's officials corrected themselves, saying he had nothing to do with the crime and the assault on the deputies.

    Homicide detectives described a chaotic chain of events on July 28, when Alexander was taken into custody just before a Compton resident reported that a man, who turned out to be Thompson, was lying motionless in his frontyard.

    "Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadn't happened? It speaks for itself," said Capt. Steven Katz, head of the sheriff's homicide bureau.

    1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      Needs moar training!

    2. Rich   9 years ago

      "Knowing what we know now, do we wish it hadn't happened? It speaks for itself," said Capt. Steven Katz

      Hillary-worthy statement, Steve.

      1. Juvenile Bluster   9 years ago

        It is kind of curious that he never actually answers the question.

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          It spoke for itself.

    3. WTF   9 years ago

      The incident is one of three in which deputies have shot unarmed men in the last two weeks.

      War. On. Cops.

    4. Horatio   9 years ago

      Shit must be hard out there if people are getting into shootouts over HONDA CIVICS

  32. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

    For a Harvard Medical School graduate, why is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein so opposed to science?

    That's the wrong question. She's the Green Party nominee, so you should know that she "fucking loves science".

    Like other environmentalists, she only opposes the development of commercial technologies by capitalists. Capitalists abuse science to develop such technologies to exploit the working class and children. Green Party members understand that such technologies alienate working class men and women and children not only from their work but also from their natural environment. The Green Party exists to restore full autonomy to the working class and harmony with the environment.

    The relevant question should be regarding why Huffington Post is bashing a Green Party fellow traveller. Obviously, they're concerned that Jill Stein might draw away too many Bernistas from Clinton.

    1. John   9 years ago

      You have to understand there are those who like and support science and believe in things like risk trade offs and cost benefit analysis and understand that scientists can be guilty of confirmation bias just like the rest of us and that good science is hard to do. Then there are people WHO FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE. They are kind of like the drunken guys who grope unsuspecting women on club dance floors only they grope science, because THEY FUCKING LOVE IT SO MUCH.

      1. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

        The Green Party "fucking loves science" because it can be twisted to bash capitalism and advocate Marxism.

        The 20th Century is replete with examples of Marxism's failure to deliver material benefits to the working class. So the argument for Marxism had to change. Marxists used to argue that "scientific history" demonstrated that the working class would establish communism in the interest of its material well being. The watermelons now argue that Marxism is "scientifically" necessary to save the planet. The universal poverty that results when Marxism is applied (e.g., Venezuela) is not a bug; it's a feature.

        1. John   9 years ago

          Yes. The best thing Ayn Rand ever wrote were her essays explains the left's shift from materialism to what can best be called irrational romanticism after World War II. When it became apparent that communist economies could never provide the material well being that capitalist ones could, Marxism decided that if the only way for everyone to have shoes was through capitalism, then history must dictate that no one have shoes and having shoes is bad.

    2. Tonio   9 years ago

      That's a really good parody of green thought, Cato.

  33. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

    Poll shows Trump gaining on Clinton

    Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump is shrinking, with a new poll released Wednesday showing her margin down to 4 points.

    Clinton notched 44 percent to Trump's 40 percent in the Bloomberg Politics poll, which had Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson at 9 percent, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein tallied 4 percent.

    The same poll last month had Clinton with a much larger lead, with the Democrat at 49 percent, Trump at 37 and Johnson at 9 percent.

    *gallic shrug*

    1. straffinrun   9 years ago

      Trump is trying to bash her head through that glass ceiling.

      1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

        LOL.

    2. tarran   9 years ago

      I think most Jill Stein voters are going to panic when they get in the booth and vote for Clinton. So I would expect the actual lead is more 49% to 44%, with the remainder going 6% to Johnson and 1% to Stein.

      1. John   9 years ago

        I don't think so. Some will but probably just as many Republicans who support Johnson will panic over the prospect of Hillary and vote Trump. I think it is likely a wash. You can't under estimate how much the real left hates Hillary. And a lot of them secretly agree with Trump on trade and immigration. Remember, the left hates the trade deals as much as the Trump right does. And though the party line is "open borders" a lot of them don't agree, because they are either hard core greens who want to shrink the population or they are union hacks or activists for the black community. So I don't think that many of them are going to panic and vote for Hillary. They are not going to vote for Trump, but they will vote for Stien.

    3. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

      Is there really any point in worrying about what the polls say until after the first couple of debates? Short of a game-changing October surprise or a Perot-like meltdown, most people are going to have their minds made up by then and the polls actually become more predictive.

      There's plenty of time still for Trump to close whatever gap actually exists, and if I'm him, I'd be demanding at least five or more debates singularly devoted to very specific policy questions--healthcare, trade, defense, etc.--simply because the more Hillary talks, the more people despise her.

      1. Calidissident   9 years ago

        Historically, a month after the convention ends, the polls predict who will win the vast majority of the time.

        If I recall correctly, they begin to have some predictive power around March or April, but the increase isn't continuous (the conventions, particularly in between them, are not a very good time to make predictions based on polls).

        1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

          I should have clarified that, after the first couple of debates, everything is pretty much set in stone as far as the winner/loser. Ford made a good comeback, for example, but it wasn't enough to overcome the huge gap that was already in place.

    4. Calidissident   9 years ago

      That article is misleading. Trump gained on Clinton in this one poll compared to the previous one taken in early June. However, since the DNC Clinton's lead over Trump in polling averages has clearly been expanding.

      http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....-5491.html

      1. John   9 years ago

        No. That article shows the last poll taken show Clinton ahead by just four points, which is closer than the polls that were taken last week. It is not misleading at all.

        I understand Cali, Trump is going to lose all 50 states to Hillary and get 25% of the vote tops. That metaphysical reality does not mean every single thing must support it. Reality varies sometimes. Outliers you know.

  34. widget   9 years ago

    A U.S. Justice Department probe of policing in Baltimore finds black residents are more likely to be subject to unlawful stops and searches and more likely to be victims of excessive police force than white residents are

    White folk live in Balimore these days?

    1. Rich   9 years ago

      Well, the Koreans are *relatively* white.

  35. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    Sea World dolphin steals Ipad from tourist

    1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      "Now that I got it, how do I @#$% TYPE ON THIS?!"

      1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

        +1 The sound of a wet flipper slapping on glass

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          Sexy.

          1. Horatio   9 years ago

            What possible porpoise could an iPad serve?!

      2. straffinrun   9 years ago

        Evolve?

    2. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      How goes the life in Uncle Sam's Big Green Machine?

      1. Derpetologist   9 years ago

        I didn't have to run this morning because of the ash in the air from the fire in Big Sur. Which is why I'm posting now.

        Classes are going well, my GPA is good. The only hiccup is I flunked a tape test last week, so it's been lots of running lately. I started lifting weights again a few months ago and gained a few pounds from that. It's annoying that I can score higher on an APFT with a failing tape test than 4 months ago when I was below my max allowable weight.

        No biggie. I had to lose 50 pounds to get this far and I'll be damned if I get kicked out for 8.

        1. Tonio   9 years ago

          Glad things are going relatively well for you, Derpy. Cheers.

        2. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          Always hated running. How do they feel about cycling?

          1. Derpetologist   9 years ago

            Never liked it that much. I was big on the elliptical for a while.

            1. Riven   9 years ago

              What about a rowing machine or Jacob's Ladder?

              1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

                Jacob's Ladder

                Isn't that a piercing?

                1. Riven   9 years ago

                  I *think* so, but it's also the name of a very effective cardio machine. It's basically a ladder angled at ~60? that you can climb forever. ... Or as long as your lungs hold out, anyway

                  1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

                    So that's what those are. The gym I go to has like six of those alongside a couple high kicking machines, which is fine except there's only ever two people using them while the stationary bikes are full up. Maybe it's time to change my workout.

        3. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

          I am sure you can do it. Just lose the carbs and you will be fine.

          1. Riven   9 years ago

            Sounds like a great way to burn muscle during long cardio sessions.

            1. IndyEleven   9 years ago

              +1 and smell like a litterbox afterward

        4. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

          flunked a tape test

          Not long enough?

    3. Brett L   9 years ago

      Its true, even our dolphins are assholes.

      1. Libertarian   9 years ago

        I think cetaceans use the term "blowholes."

    4. widget   9 years ago

      The wife has an iPhone. I notice it only has one button. I just tell her to push it when she asks me what to do with it.

    5. Derpetologist   9 years ago

      From when The Onion was funny: Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs
      http://www.theonion.com/articl.....thumbs-284

  36. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    College student in trouble for posting videos of gun-firing, flame-throwing drones

    1. Brett L   9 years ago

      Serious question, do remote operated weapons platforms fall under the general prohibition against booby-trapping your property? I understand I can't rig my front door with a flashbang that counter detonates if the door in knocked open with the lock engaged, but can I have a drone turret in the front hallway if I am operating it remotely?

      1. Derpetologist   9 years ago

        Not sure, but flamethrowers are legal in 48 states, or at least a certain model is.

  37. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

    Oh, oh:

    "On July 8, 2016, 27 year-old Democratic staffer Seth Conrad Rich was murdered in Washington DC. The killer or killers took nothing from their victim, leaving behind his wallet, watch and phone.

    Shortly after the killing, Redditors and social media users were pursuing a "lead" saying that Rich was en route to the FBI the morning of his murder, apparently intending to speak to special agents about an "ongoing court case" possibly involving the Clinton family.

    Seth Rich's father Joel told reporters, "If it was a robbery ? it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money ? he still has his credit cards, still had his phone so it was a wasted effort except we lost a life."

    "...Julian Assange suggested on Tuesday that Seth Rich was a Wikileaks informant."

    Oh, oh.

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.co.....t-dead-dc/

    1. Brett L   9 years ago

      That serial killer just happens to target Washington victims who are all in the Clinton's way. I think we call those people hitmen.

      1. Rufus The Monocled   9 years ago

        No one is being offed around Trump...but the media acts like that's happening!

    2. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      Don't worry, this story will be swept under the rug...

      speaking of - the killing of those Dallas police officers and the Nice truck attack seemed to have gone down the media memory hole.

      1. Free Society   9 years ago

        Yeah didn't you hear? Baltimore with it's black police chief, black mayor, black city council and largely black population is a South Africa style apartheid state. Oh and Trump said something icky. THAT IS NEWS PEASANT.

    3. Rich   9 years ago

      Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information on the murder of DNC staffer Seth [Rich]

      , the money to be delivered on a pallet via an unmarked airplane.

      1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

        *applause*

    4. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

      Let's just be clear: the murder took place after a scuffle. It doesn't strike me as unbelievable that his would-be mugger would flee from the scene without taking time to rifle through the poor sod's pockets.

    5. 2ndClassProle   9 years ago

      Yeah, but Trump kicked a baby, and had 2nd Amenders shoot it in mid flight.

      1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

        It was bad enough when he insulted the Pulse nightclub shooter's dad for speaking at the Democratic Convention.

    6. Mickey Rat   9 years ago

      Was there a deadbeat in the deceased's mouth?

      1. Mickey Rat   9 years ago

        * dead rat
        Stupid auto correct .

  38. lafe.long   9 years ago

    #1 Ivanka Inflatable
    It's 5 AM, the birds are still snoozing in the trees, and all the A.M. Links narcissists have gotten up early to compile their valuable links that no one will click. Who will win today's contest? Is there a prize? Or is seeing his pseudonym on the internet reward enough? Rock on you broken souls!

    You win!!!

    1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      +1 Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party

      1. mojoe   9 years ago

        We're for the compulsory serving of asparagus at breakfast, free corsets for the under-5s and the abolition of slavery.

    2. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

      Mary Stack found a new playground!

  39. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    Teenager invents super-absorbent polymer to help combat water shortages

    1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

      That's pretty awesome.

      What a nice thing to read in the midst of this electoral sh1t show.

  40. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    Spot the Not: Wesley Clark

    1. I like Hilary Clinton. I think she's - she's a fantastic leader.

    2. I think that President Obama has the strongest record with veterans among any president in my lifetime.

    3. Five-year-olds have an uncanny way of getting into your psyche, your self-esteem.

    4. When Bill Clinton ran in '92, and I listened to him, and I had of course known of his record from Arkansas, I found him extraordinarily inspirational, and I voted Democratic.

    5. Sometimes it's more important to consider others before yourself. It's what I'm expected to do.

    6. Everybody in the military has a reputation, and usually it doesn't come out to the public.

    1. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      #2...?

      1. Derpetologist   9 years ago

        You will groan in agony and possibly narrow your gaze when you learn the truth.

    2. widget   9 years ago

      Only 3 and 6. don't the word "I" in it. Not an answer, just noticing.

    3. tarran   9 years ago

      #4 is a much more complex statement than the others. It stands out. It's also not mindbogglingly stupid.

      I can't believe anyone who uttered it would recklessly order an attack that could be the spark that ignited World War III.

      Thus #4 is likely the not.

    4. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

      #6. The rest display the political toadying and lack of self-awareness that made Clark famous.

    5. WTF   9 years ago

      Ima say #6

  41. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    Totally not disgraced former journalist Dan Rather takes Trump to task

    1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

      No need to append the "former," journalism is disgraceful enough.

    2. Je suis Woodchipper   9 years ago

      fight hyperbole with hyperbole!

  42. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

    OT: Enjoy

    http://www.checkmyprivilege.com/

    1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

      Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 135

    2. Free Society   9 years ago

      I'm a level 150 Shitlord. Suck it.

      1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

        The same responses as an affluent black man rather than a poor white man gets a Privileged level of 55.

        Sounds about right.

    3. Libertarian   9 years ago

      I always suspected I was a shitlord, but it's good to have documentation.

    4. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

      Damn!

      "Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 210"

      1. Libertarian   9 years ago

        I scored 110 BECAUSE I WAS HONEST ABOUT MY LOOKS.

        1. KDN   9 years ago

          I selected ugly face and still got 155. I'm so privileged that I don't even need to be attractive.

      2. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

        I'm hanging around Swiss Servator so I look oppressed by comparison

    5. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

      NOT FAIR. I need redistribution from you overprivileged mofos.

      "Your privilege level is Advantaged with a score of 30"

      1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

        Okay, I took it again and unchecked India and marked my country as only the USA.

        Here's the updated score: I still need redistribution!

        "Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 130"

    6. 2ndClassProle   9 years ago

      -40 Do I get a prize

      1. Libertarian   9 years ago

        No actual prize, but rest assured that you'll never have to pitch in if all the Hit and Runners go out for pizza.

    7. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      Your privilege level is SHITLORD with a score of 170.

    8. WTF   9 years ago

      Fuck that, I scored 180!

      I am a Shitlord God!

    9. 0x90   9 years ago

      Poor: < 30K/y Rich: > 1,000,000/y
      Middle: 45-65K/y
      Affluent: 100-250K/y

      Huh?

      What if you're between 30-45K/y, 65-100K/y, or 250-1000K/y?

      And why is a million written 1,000,000/y and not 1000K/y?

      1. Dallas H.   9 years ago

        Also, what about all of us between 250 and a million? I want to know my actual privilege so I know how many Hail Marys to say as a penance.

  43. Derpetologist   9 years ago

    From when The Onion was funny: Marxist Apartment Microcosm of Why Marxism Doesn't Work

    http://www.theonion.com/articl.....-does-1382

  44. Libertarian   9 years ago

    "How the U.S. Navy and Marines are preparing to accept transgender recruits."

    I'm guessing it's not "with open arms."

    1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      or open legs.

    2. Derpetologist   9 years ago

      Based on the sailors and marines I know: drinking heavily, sighing, and making jokes after making sure no one easily offended is in earshot.

    3. Brett L   9 years ago

      Life on the submarine is about to get a lot more interesting.

  45. John   9 years ago

    I was thinking about the Wikileaks thing. It never made any sense for the Russians to have been the source. Obtaining information is only half of what intel agencies do. The other half is making sure that the people you got it from don't know you have it. They must have come from an insider. They could have been hacked but why would a hacker have known to hack the DNC server?

    If it came from a staffer, that staffer was willing to risk his entire career to leak those emails. Murder theories aside, if you are the guy who leaked the DNC emails, you are done in politics and a lot of other places. So, what would be bad enough to cause a life time Democrat activist of the type who works at the DNC to risk his career and turn on the party he has spent his entire life and career supporting?

    Remember, Assange says there is more to come. So whatever the answer is, it isn't the DNC cheating for Hillary to beat Bernie. It is something worse.

    1. tarran   9 years ago

      I never bought it either.

      The notion that the Russians would prefer an erratic and manipulable Trump to the steel resolve of Clinton is laughable. She sold them control of a significant chunk of the U.S. Uranium industry. And, as bribes go, it was a rounding error in the budgets of the guys doing the bribing!

      If I were Putin, and I had scandalous blackmail-fodder, I'd want Hillary to win.

      1. John   9 years ago

        Everything the left media says is nearly always the opposite of the truth. The Russians want Hillary for the reasons you give. And don't forget they almost certainly have those 33.000 deleted emails and all of the blackmail material contained them. Hillary would be the most compromised and easily manipulated President in American history and perhaps in all of modern history. The idea that the Russians would prefer a loose cannon like Trump over Hillary is absurd. Trump would be impossible to bully or blackmail. The guy is immune from press criticism and doesn't care what the various "talking heads" think of him. No way do the Russians want that.

        So, the question is what is going to be the October surprise in those emails. Assange never bluffs. And he is a master in the art of parceling out leaks to ensure each one has a maximum effect. So if he says more and worse is coming, you can bank on that being true. Whatever it is, it was bad enough to make a DNC staffer have pangs of conscience and risk his entire professional life and being a complete pariah to release. It must be very interesting whatever it is.

        1. tarran   9 years ago

          I don't *want* Trump to win. But, the prospect of Hillary humiliated by losing in a landslide does bring a sort of feral smile to my lips. My wife having to buy me a sundae is just the icing on that sweet, sweet cake.

          1. John   9 years ago

            Here is the Libertarian case for Trump. The biggest obstacle Libertarians face is the power of the mainstream media. The media ensures that Libertarian ideas are never taken seriously and can be dismissed out of hand. Libertarians never get to make their case because the media makes their ideas out of bounds for serious discourse. If Trump were to win, the power of the mainstream media would be finished. He would prove once and for all that the media can't stop you unless you let them. Once that happened, other politicians of all persuasions would follow his model and just stop caring or apologizing over the latest "gaffe" or whatever. That would kick the door down and finally allow Libertarians the opportunity to have their ideas heard. All it would take would be someone with the flair and courage to do it.

            Libertarians can hate Trump all they like. But they are foolish if they don't understand the opportunity he is creating for them.

            1. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

              I don't share your optimism John.

              If Trump wins, the MSM will just double down. Every bad thing that happens will be blamed on him, and Team Red by association. Then Team Blue takes congress in 2018 and Trump gets impeached.

            2. Horatio   9 years ago

              I think that argument is weaker than the potential deadlock a Trump+Dem congress would create. Also a Much better chance to stay out of wars since the anti war left will rise from the grave.

              1. Arizona_Guy   9 years ago

                Good points Horatio. Short term, it's good.

                The problem as I see it is that many people will not look at it as "The POTUS has too much power."

                They will see it as "The wrong people were in charge."

                The MSM will use it as "Trump and Team Red were wrong, so Team Blue is right by default."

                A Trump-congress deadlock won't help long term, because most people will learn the wrong lesson.

          2. Griffin3   9 years ago

            The uproar and wailing in the mainstream media if Trump wins, the shedding of huge, oily slicks of salty ham tears, would be such an euphoric pleasure as to pretty much make me immune to what happens after.

            1. If-by-whiskey   9 years ago

              ^THIS^

    2. widget   9 years ago

      George F. Will is obsessed with Donald Trump's tax returns and their potential ties to hidden funding by Vladimir Putin or his cronies. I am pretty darned sure the Koch brothers are involved too. And the Jooos, they're waste-deep in everything. I am not done. Kuwait was horizontally drilling into Iraq's oil fields. Some of these statements are true.

      1. John   9 years ago

        I don't know about any of that. I do know that Assange says he has emails and they are more damaging. There is no reason to think he is lying. What those emails say, is anyone's guess.

        1. WTF   9 years ago

          It doesn't matter a damn what those emails say. It will all be dismissed as a fake scandal and what difference at this point does it make?

      2. OneOut   9 years ago

        One of the Koch brothers is #neverTrump

  46. ypq82322   9 years ago

    Ella . you think Victoria `s storry is astonishing... on saturday I bought themselves a Car after bringing in $7899 this - 5 weeks past and-more than, 10-k last munth . it's by-far the best-job I have ever had . I began this 8-months ago and almost straight away started to earn minimum $77
    ?????????? http://www.factoryofincome.com

    1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

      storry? munth?

      Your Englimush is so badder then mhine.

  47. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

    Kuck Williamson makes a good case for voting Trump: he doesn't mean a single thing he says.

    1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

      How many cucks would a cuck cuck if a cuck could cuck his wife...

      1. Lord Humungus   9 years ago

        Cuck Orgy!

    2. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

      This bit:

      And if you want to know how serious he is about vows, ask the NRA, or Mrs. Trump, or Mrs. Trump, or Mrs. Trump.

      1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

        "Just ignore all the times that Republicans flaked out on cutting the size of government over the last 60 years and you'll see how badly Trump looks when it comes to keeping his promises!"

    3. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

      Christ. Trump's renting so much space in his head that a conservative Republican, in 2016, actually typed this out:

      Want tax cuts? He'll promise you enormous, huge, fiscally irresponsible tax cuts.

      It only took Trump one primary season to get National Review to abandon a core plank of the party since the Goldwater days.

      1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

        That "fiscally" ain't sitting there as decoration.

      2. John   9 years ago

        I think they have been totally corrupted and taken over by the Washington establishment. NRO in particular freak out over Trump shows that they were always ling about their support for immigration controls and they care more about doing the bidding of their big money donors on trade than they do about anything else. I understand why liberals are freaking over Trump. That is what they do. Every Republican is the next "Hitler" according to them. But the freakout by the beltway conservatives has been very revealing. Basically, all National Review gives a shit about is international trade and all places like the WSJ and Weekly Standard care about is endless US intervention and enforcement of some Wilsonian international order. It has been as revealing as it as been pathetic.

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          It hurts my feelings that you don't bother reading my links. Half the article is a critique of entitlements and unfunded liabilities, and lamenting the electoral reality that touching these third rails is political suicide. If you want to blame someone, blame geriatrics who are terrified of losing their privileges. In absence of that, what the fuck can we do to rectify our spending issue? Starve the beast is a great ideal if conservatives plan on never holding office again. I get that you'd be fine with that, but let's not pretend Trump is serious about addressing it.

          1. KDN   9 years ago

            So, it's your standard Williamson article.

          2. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

            Half the article is a critique of entitlements and unfunded liabilities, and lamenting the electoral reality that touching these third rails is political suicide.

            Granted, but it's a bit rich for these types to be going on and on about "MUH PRINCIPLES" if they aren't going to have the stones to back someone who will put their ass on the line to radically reform the system already in place. This half-assed approach is why their base got so frustrated with them to begin with.

          3. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

            Put it this way--Goldwater got his ass handed to him in 1964, but he established a political philosophy on conservatism that lasted for 50 years and resulted in his party winning most of the Presidential elections for the next 40 years. Because his philosophy was shared by most of the party's base and it gained wider appeal as the Great Depression/WW2 generation struggled to deal with the ramifications and consequences of the US becoming a world superpower.

            If there's still a place for the kind of limited-government conservatism that Goldwater preached, then it will probably require someone taking the bullet first so that others can carry that agenda forward. But if that isn't possible anymore, then the folks at NR and other GOP establishment media organs need to be honest and fully admit it to their base, even if it means getting their clocks cleaned.

      3. KDN   9 years ago

        Williamson has never been a fan of income tax cuts. One of his go-to lines when discussing our $80t+ in unfunded liabilities mocks supply-siders for relying on the growth fairy to make their math work.

        1. John   9 years ago

          That doesn't surprise me. The thing about Williamson is that he is kind of the Ezra Klein of the right. He has no qualifications to talk about any subject. He has no advanced degree in economics or any experience working in government or the private sector. He is one of those millenials who went to college, got a liberal arts degree and managed to make his entire career getting paid to talk out of his ass about subjects he knows just enough to be dangerous about. The fact that someone whose entire life experience and education consists of getting a literature and linguistics degree at UT and then being the director of the media program at GMU is listened to as some kind of authority on anything and is given a platform with the readership and influence of National Review says everything you need to know about how broken our political and media culture is.

          He is just an appalling half wit. But he makes up for it by being a craven hack.

          1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

            He is just an appalling half wit.

            One whose actual text you refuse to actually engage. You have a mythos built up in your head about these people because you cannot square reality with your confounding love for Trump or whatever you think Trump represents.

            1. John   9 years ago

              I don't have a mythos at all. I know a mediocre mind when i see one. I don't claim to be the smartest person in every room but I am smart enough to know smart when i see it. And these people, not Williamson, Goldberg, or any of them are that.

              Starting in the 1990s, it became virtually impossible to make a living in journalism. The big papers stopped hiring. That meant two things. First, journalism became one of the worst paying degrees. People who get teaching degrees have better job and income prospects. Just like the quality of law school applicants has gone through the floor now that the bottom has dropped out of the law market, the quality of journalists in the 90s and 00s dropped like a rock. Smart people don't go into journalism. There is no money it. The people who go into journalism are the ones who are not bright enough to get an education degree.

              Second, since the big papers died, the ones who do never get any real training. They just start out on their own and make their name by talking out of their asses in clever ways. Someone like Williamson in the 80s would have started out writing obits in some big city paper and likely been weeded out of the profession. Today he goes straight to the top, without ever learning how to write, report or hving any real knowledge of the subjects he covers. Everything he says is half right. He always knows just enough to make whatever hack argument he is constructing.

              1. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

                Second, since the big papers died, the ones who do never get any real training.

                That's what makes him a great journalist. Unlike your Vox snowflakes with journalism degrees, KDW has a econ degree and real world reporting experience.

                And remember Anna Merlan, who bragged about having a Master's in journalism from Columbia University? What good did her degree serve?

                Kevin Williamson is the antithesis of the credentialism culture in the media, and that's a good thing.

                1. John   9 years ago

                  KDW doesn't have an economics degree. He has a degree in linguistics and literature. And his real world reporting experience consists of a few years working in India and running a rag in Philadelphia. After that he went to GMU ad then to NR. He is not a great reporter

                  You are right. He is not a credentialist. He has no credentials. Sadly, he doesn't have much of anything else. That is the problem.

              2. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

                John, you are a fantasist. The Williamson you're describing, the one who spent years writing for a paper in Mumbai and who ran a paper in Philly before working for NRO, is much older than the Williamson you've invented. Either tell me where in text he's said the things you're attributing, to the extent you've bothered to critique him at all, or quit making shit up.

                1. KDN   9 years ago

                  He writes long articles pointing out the white working class is in a hell largely of its own making. And for that crime he must be crucified.

                  1. John   9 years ago

                    KDN,

                    That article confirmed every single drug warrior fantasy. Libertarians have let their cultrual snobbery and TDS cause them to embrace a writer who says that anyone who uses drugs is a bum who deserves what they get. Go reread that article and come back and explain to me how you can square the bullshit generalizations KDW makes without buying into every part of the Drug war propaganda? According to Williamson, only poor people use drugs and the primary reason they are poor is because they use drugs. Let's forget the reality that only about 6% of the population use drugs regularly and that 6% is spread almost uniformly across the income classes. And lets forget that anyone doing a five minute google search can figure that out. And lets also forget the reality that being a drug user doesn't make you unproductive or somehow make any economic misfortune you suffer a moral judgement from God and just pretend KDW is anything but loathsome or in any way friendly to freedom or the truth.

                    1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

                      So what? KW is only being judged as "good for a conservative". That's really it.

                      He doesn't like Trump, which Trumps all good aspects a person might have in your book. Just understand that there are lots of reasons for people who still believe in the system to dislike Trump. If we lived in the sort of America I was taught to believe in growing up, I would probably see Trump as horrible too. Some conservatives still live there in their minds.

          2. KDN   9 years ago

            Erm, Williamson's like 45. Is the definition of millenial now "anyone that ever used a computer before college"?

            1. KDN   9 years ago

              Also, he did publish his own paper in Philadelphia for a while (don't remember if weekly or daily). How is that not private sector experience?

              Commodius is right, you're fighting the monster in your head.

            2. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

              He's worked for the Indian Express group in New Delhi and has serious insight into how democracies are f***ed by false promises of free sh1t.

              And he wrote a really nice book: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism

        2. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          Another is that taxes on the middle class probably do need to rise if the middle class is going to continue insisting on ruinously expensive entitlements.

          1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

            But that hasn't been the standard line at NR for decades. The pundits lionize Reagan, but actually talk about abandoning the core plank of his economic platform now that Trump has their party's nomination? Are they actually arguing that "when in doubt, cut taxes" might not have the consistent healing powers they've claimed it did for some many years now?

            1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

              It's a point Williamson has made with regard to emulating those Nordic socialist paradises. "Are you sure you want to pay the bulk of your income to support a living income for x and y?" and so forth.

              And yes, that is exactly what Williamson has claimed. We're no longer living in the Eisenhower world of global reconstruction and endless growth potential. We have a seriously hampered economy encumbered with extraordinary debts. Cutting taxes on corporations is a very good idea, one of Trump's only solid points (sullied in Trump's inevitable fashion by his carried interest increase). But nearly half the country already on net pays no federal taxes. Exactly how much more cutting can we expect when we're already facing fatal shortfalls? And how does that speak to electoral realities for a country averse to either tax hikes or spending cuts? How does Trump expect to pay for all of his promises? He doesn't mean a word of it, of course, but it's not Williamson's fault for pointing it out.

              1. Red Rocks Okey-Dokein   9 years ago

                Exactly how much more cutting can we expect when we're already facing fatal shortfalls?

                That was the whole point of "starve the beast"--cut taxes enough to the point that people would focus more on consumer spending while government programs would be forced to rein in superfluous programs. Instead, the opposite happened--we have relatively low marginal tax rates but a massively larger government (I've long said I'd accept Eisenhower-era tax rates if it meant Eisenhower-era budgets, which were smaller on a per-capita basis even at inflation-adjusted levels and were bereft of the LBJ/Nixon programs that came afterwards).

                Williamson is basically arguing here that tax cuts, which was basically holy writ in the Republican party for decades, is no longer the panacea that his colleagues and predecessors said it was. That's a radical departure from the Republican conventional wisdom.

    4. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

      Strangely, this is the best you can really say of Trump: Thank goodness he's a compulsive liar, because otherwise he'd just be nuts.

      That is not the best thing you can really say about Trump. The best thing is that he could be impeached and convicted if he were to win. Plenty of Republicans would be happy to join Democrats if he stepped too far out of line. Impeachment would hang over Trump like Damocles' Sword.

      1. John   9 years ago

        Yes. There are two enormous and undeniable positives to a President Trump; he would actually be subject to Congressional oversight and his winning would do grave and hopefully fatal damage to the power of the mainstream media. Williamson doesn't care about that because he is a journalist and cares more about the guild than he does about the country.

        1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

          Williamson is a conservative who worries about the fate of conservatism. Trump, despite being a flaming lefty, is an albatross tied around the neck of the conservative movement.

          1. John   9 years ago

            Williamson is a third rate hack who has been reduced to writing outrageous crap in hopes of trolling people into page views. There isn't anything "conservative" about him. He writes what the people at NR tell him to write, because he has nowhere else to go.

            1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

              Not going to read the link, then?

              1. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

                He's rolling, dude.

              2. Injun, as in from India   9 years ago

                Williamson is no third rate hack.

                And oh, I loved his "Deport Melania Trump" article btw. Great read.

                Being married to Donald Trump is, as it turns out, another temporary job Americans just won't do.

                1. John   9 years ago

                  Okay, he is a third rate humorist.

  48. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

    If it came from a staffer, that staffer was willing to risk his entire career life to leak those emails.

    1. Haybob   9 years ago

      This has clich? hollywood corrupt government written all over it. Where is Will Smith and Gene Hackman when you need them?

    2. John   9 years ago

      He might have. But I am not going there. Regardless, I am very open to suggestions about what those emails contain that was so bad it would cause a Dem staffer to upload them to Wikileaks. Democrats never turn. They are like pod people. I am dumbfounded by what could have caused that.

      1. ant1sthenes   9 years ago

        Don't forget that DWS's predecessor and a friend of Kaine also died recently, and is considered suspicious by the conspiracy watchers. I guess you can't rule out a personal vendetta to screw a rival that was met with disproportionate force as a response and a message.

  49. Griffin3   9 years ago

    That ain't no nutpunch. Now this is what a real nutpunch looks like:
    Baltimore Police Shoot 13-year-old Boy Holding "Replica" Gun

    Witnesses told WBAL-TV reporter Jayne Miller that the [undercover] cops did not look like cops and that the boy eventually stopped after realizing they were cops and held the gun up and said, "it's not real."
    And that was when one of the cops opened fire.

    One of the cops said the gun looked absolutely 100% real. I don't see how this matters. Next they'll tell the people who win lawsuits against the cops, for killing their kids, that they should spend their money on "How not to get shot by cops" classes for the community.

    1. Free Society   9 years ago

      I have kids. There's probably a dozen times per year that I go to someone's house and see their kids playing cops and robbers, or kids shooting bb guns, or kids just running around the neighborhood with toy guns. And I somehow managed to never shoot a single one of them.

      Cops on the other hand are ostensibly required to put their lives on the line more than the average non-cop citizen and yet it is they who shoot kids with anything resembling a gun out of fear for their lives. "I thought it was a real gun" is no god damn motherfucking excuse for shooting a kid.

      Setting aside the fact that cops, unlike regular people, face a greatly reduced incentive to not wrongfully shoot children, I don't understand how anyone can be such a pantshitting coward to decide that a kid's life is less important than the minuscule chance that the kid's gun is real and the even more minuscule chance that the kid will try to shoot someone. There is no fucking excuse for shooting a kid like this. Fuck the police.

  50. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

    Would-be arsonists bungles arson attempt.

    1. tarran   9 years ago

      He forgot his shoe!!!!

    2. Brett L   9 years ago

      Stop Drop and Roll!!

      1. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

        He forgot the first part, proceeded to the second and third.

    3. The Fusionist   9 years ago

      Hot Legs

    4. Libertarian   9 years ago

      Would-be exterminator bungles extermination. Succeeds at arson.

      http://www.oregonlive.com/tren.....or_go.html

  51. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    "Ah," said Arthur, "so I'm a masochist on a diet am I?"

  52. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

    yo

  53. invisible furry hand   9 years ago

    ciao

  54. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

    *applause*

  55. SusanM   9 years ago

    +42

  56. straffinrun   9 years ago

    Daphne and I will get off before the tunnel.

  57. Eternal Blue Sky   9 years ago

    Tracks made of Rearden Steel??

  58. Swiss Servator   9 years ago

    They gave China a good kick in the nuts last time they tangled.

  59. CatoTheChipper   9 years ago

    The Vietnamese have been fighting the Chinese off-and-on for about a thousand years.

    Some things never change.

  60. Libertarian   9 years ago

    Really, a train euphemism? Isn't that a bit of a cliche?

  61. Riven   9 years ago

    Ugh. You know, not everyone wants to breed, you dumb cunt. What benefit would I get working for a company with a breeder policy? Sounds like more work for me while someone else goes off to celebrate winning their very own fuck trophy.

    Now, if a company wants to offer days off for fur - baby owners, sign me up.

  62. The Fusionist   9 years ago

    "Move to Europe, shithead."

    You can't just "move" to Europe, you have to go through a rigorous...oh, right, never mind...

  63. R C Dean   9 years ago

    The apparel company only follows the Family and Medical Leave Act,

    Those monsters, obeying the law.

  64. straffinrun   9 years ago

    More like Atlas Chugged.

  65. tarran   9 years ago

    Have you ever witnessed Vietnamese when they decide to go to battle. Of all the nationalities/ethnic groups from that part of Asia, they scare me the most. There's this "first guy to bleed to death, loses!" fuck-you attitude to their tactics.

  66. Riven   9 years ago

    Oh, it's absolutely ludicrous.

    I'm constantly irritated at employment policies that provide incentives for having kids because it sucks to be a no-child household as a result. I know it's tough raising kids and working, but it was a choice that the parents made.

    And what sort of benefits do I get from an employer as someone with a dog and no kids? I can't call in sick because Brizby's daycare closed for the day with no notice, but someone with a kid can. Then everyone else at work has to shuck and jive extra hard to make up for that person being gone--and to think of having to do that for 6 to 12 weeks? Because, of course, an employer isn't going to hire someone to pick up the slack of the maternity/paternity leave employee, considering they still have to pay them that entire time.

    All I want is the odd afternoon off to take my pup to the park.

  67. KDN   9 years ago

    True enough, and most people understand that. The real push is to get the Feds to start paying for maternity leave as happens in several states. Which, truth be told, wouldn't be the end of the world: in NJ everyone pays $30 per year in income tax and those on maternity / provider care leave can draw up to $3,600 per year. That covers six weeks in line with federal requirements at $600 per week in line with state unemployment benefits. Bump up the requirements to six months and you're looking at $130.00 per year in tax increases - not exactly world destroying.

    It's off putting from a philosophical perspective, but as far as bullshit socialism is concerned this is pretty far down the list of things to fight about. I'd be perfectly willing to to concede it for gains elsewhere.

  68. commodious warned u bucko   9 years ago

    And risk running into some gormless, peripherally blind Pokemon Go player?

  69. Riven   9 years ago

    Blech. Running is the worst, just...the worst. I'd rather do interval training on a rower or ladder--like two minutes all out, one minute leisurely, repeat until you wish you were dead.
    The only outdoor work I do is gardening and walking my dog. Emphasis on the walking as we both have short legs.

  70. KDN   9 years ago

    Because, of course, an employer isn't going to hire someone to pick up the slack of the maternity/paternity leave employee, considering they still have to pay them that entire time.

    This paragraph is why this will end up happening as a Fed program, not a Fed mandate.

  71. Brett L   9 years ago

    My company has unlimited PTO. Daycare is closed? Take PTO. We don't give a shit. Take too many PTO days without documentation and you may get a negative review, but if you're handling your shit, my company doesn't care.

  72. Riven   9 years ago

    Turnoffs: new taxes, kids, and new taxes related to kids

  73. Griffin3   9 years ago

    Bump up the requirements to six months and you're looking at $130.00 per year in tax increases

    ... plus another $1-200, in direct pay, plus a wad of WIC, medicaid, all the infant programs blossoming like petals of slow wildfire, because as soon as you start subsidizing something you get more of it.

  74. Crusty Juggler   9 years ago

    Tundra is right, hill sprints - or "repeats" if you can find a big enough hill to run on - are an awesome, short workout.

  75. Brett L   9 years ago

    I would put the Nepalese above the Viets, but that's because they pride themselves on think ninjas are pussies.

  76. Riven   9 years ago

    I am a fan of blanket PTO replacing sick time, vacation time, etc

  77. Brett L   9 years ago

    Its really nice to be treated like a responsible adult at work. Want to take a vacation? Great. Clear it with your boss and make sure you give enough notice that people can make plans around it. Need a day because life is happening to you? Great. Take it. Separately, if your attendance problems get in the way of you being a productive employee, those will be addressed individually. Given that most of us are either consultants with a significant billability bonus, or management/sales with other incentivized bonuses, there is ample reason to show up to work most days. But we were specifically told that "unlimited PTO" was to be read as not more than 12 weeks of maternity/paternity leave. I would lose my fucking mind if I took a quarter of a year off for a new kid. But I only had like 8 days of vacation when the last one came, and I knew we wanted to go somewhere for Xmas, so I only took five days. That sucked for my wife.

  78. If-by-whiskey   9 years ago

    sah dude?

  79. KDN   9 years ago

    The increased cost of those programs would likely be negligible. Look around you, the people that aren't having kids because they can't afford to is really quite low. I'm surrounded by married people of child bearing age; it's not even a concern when the subject comes up.

  80. Azathoth!!   9 years ago

    'fur-baby'?

    daycare?

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

A Car Hit and Killed Their 7-Year-Old Son. Now They're Being Charged for Letting Him Walk to the Store.

Lenore Skenazy | 6.4.2025 1:30 PM

Everything Got Worse During COVID

Christian Britschgi | 6.4.2025 1:15 PM

Mountainhead Is a Shallow Satire of Tech Billionaires

Peter Suderman | 6.4.2025 1:05 PM

New Ruling Moves Oregon Closer to Legal In-Home Psilocybin Use

Autumn Billings | 6.4.2025 11:40 AM

A First Amendment Right To Preach Orgasm?

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 6.4.2025 11:25 AM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!